PREFACE. V 



pulling its own nose. A disinterested advocate will perhaps 

 be allowed to deprecate these burlesque and ignorant repre- 

 sentations, and to strip from what is merely vulgar prejudice 

 the guise of magnanimity and fine feeling. The range of topics 

 embraced in the present volume, however feebly handled, 

 and however inaccurate that handling may in some points 

 prove to be, should at least teach those who are willing 

 to learn, that the whole subject is a great one, and worthy of 

 attention, claiming earnest thought and varied learning to 

 decide upon it in all its bearings ; it cannot be disposed of 

 by caricaturing ; it cannot be settled in deference to any 

 religious prepossession ; it must be examined with open eyes, 

 and with the full candour of mind which great subjects 

 demand, and which great subjects nobly repay. 



Some of the following papers treat of matters on which no 

 man of scientific education can be supposed at the present 

 day to retain even a vestige of doubt. But thousands of per- 

 sons, whom in ordinary courtesy we must call well-educated, 

 although they know nothing of science, hold opinions on 

 the Flood and the age of the world as irreconcileable with 

 the best-approved scientific conclusions as they are with the 

 Darwinian Theory. In appealing to the judgment of such 

 persons, as well as in considering the measure of his own 

 powers, the present writer has thought it expedient to confine 

 himself, for the most part, to the clearest and simplest argu- 

 ments, leaving on one side the subtle and intricate. 



The letters collected at the end of the volume may be 

 looked on as short essays of a somewhat informal character. 

 The apology for reprinting them is this, that whereas in a 

 regular essay the writer assumes his own standpoint, and 

 may be suspected of ignoring the vantage-ground of his 

 opponents, in replying to a correspondent he must, at least 

 to some extent, follow the lead of an antagonist, and fight, 

 if he fights at all, on the field which another has chosen. 



