V MR. GLADSTONE AND GENESIS 100 



could hardly receive dominion over the living world before it 

 existed ; and that the " cattle" were not wanted until he was 

 about to make his appearance. The other terrestrial animals 

 would naturally be associated with the cattle. 



The absurdity of imagining that any conception, analogous 

 to that of a zoological classification, was in the mind of the 

 writer will be apparent, when we consider that the fifth day's 

 work must include the zoologist's Cetacca. Sirenia, and seals, 1 

 all of which are Mammalia ; all birds, turtles, sea-snakes and, 

 presumably, the fresh water Rcptilia and Amphibia ; with the 

 great majority of Invertcbrata. 



The creation of man is announced as a separate act, resulting 

 from a particular resolution of Elohim to "make man in our 

 image, after our likeness." To learn what this remarkable 

 phrase means we must turn to the fifth chapter of Genesis, 

 the work of the same writer. " In the day that Elohim created 

 man, in the likeness of Elohim made he him ; male and female 

 created he them ; and blessed them and called their name Adam 

 in the day when they were created. And Adam lived an hundred 

 and thirty years and begat a son in his own likeness, after his 

 image ; and called his name Seth." I find it impossible to read 

 this passage without being convinced that, when the writer says 

 Adam was made in the likeness of Elohim, he means the same 

 sort of likeness as when he says that Seth was begotten in the 

 likeness of Adam. Whence it follows that his conception of 

 Elohim was completely anthropomorphic. 



In all this narrative I can discover nothing which differen- 

 tiates it, in principle, from other ancient cosmogonies, except 

 the rejection of all gods, save the vague, yet anthropomorphic, 

 Elohim, and the assigning to them anteriority and superiority 

 to the world. It is as utterly irreconcilable with the assured 

 truths of modern science, as it is with the account of the origin 

 of man, plants, and animals given by the writer of the second 

 chief constituent of the Hexateuch in the second chapter of 

 Genesis. This extraordinary story starts with the assumption 

 of the existence of a rainless earth, devoid of plants and herbs 



1 Perhaps even hippopotamuses and otters 1 



