V MR. GLADSTONE AND GENESIS 195 



enings of asphyxia in that " atmosphere of conten- 

 tion" in which Mr. Gladstone has been able to 

 live, alert and vigorous beyond the common race 

 of men, as if it were purest mountain air. I trust 

 that he may long continue to seek truth, under 

 the difficult conditions he has chosen for the 

 search, with unabated energy I had almost said 



fire 



t 



May age not wither him, nor custom stale 

 His infinite variety. 



But Elysium suits my less robust constitution 

 better, and I beg leave to retire thither, not sorry 

 for my experience of the other region no one 

 should regret experience but determined not to 

 repeat it, at any rate in reference to the " plea for 

 revelation." 



ON THE PROPER SENSE OF THE "MOSAIC" NARRATIVE 

 OF THE CREATION. 



It has been objected to my argument from Leviticus (suprd, p. 

 170) that the Hebrew words translated by " creeping things " in 

 Genesis i. 24 and Leviticus xi. 29, are different ; namely, 

 " reh-mes " in the former, " sh eh -re tz " in the latter. The obvious 

 reply to this objection is that the question is not one of words - 

 but of the meaning of words. To borrow an illustration from 

 our own language, if '* crawling things" had been used by the 

 translators in Genesis and "creeping things "in Leviticus, it 

 would not have been .necessarily implied that they intended to 

 denote different groups of animals. " Sheh-retz " is employed in 

 a wider sense than "reh-mes." There are " sheh-retz " of the 



