DAEWINISM, 



THE NOACHIAN FLOOD. 



SIR, A friendly correspondent has done me the 

 honour of noticing* my lecture on the Noachian Flood 

 in more than one contribution to your columns. The 

 easy way in which he admits the possibility of a partial 

 deluge and of pre- Adamite races, together with other 

 symptoms of liberal thought and a trust in the conclu- 

 sions of science, makes me tremble to think what would 

 have befallen him had he lived ' in happier ages of the 

 Church. 5 At the same time these dangerous and lament- 

 able tendencies towards free-thinking make it needless 

 for me to urge upon him those other and further con- 

 clusions towards which he is evidently of his own accord 

 rapidly finding his way. But there are numerous per- 

 sons who may read his pleasantly-written letters without 

 perceiving how very far gone he himself is from the 

 original simplicity of an unquestioning faith, and may, 

 therefore, fancy that he is a champion of orthodoxy 

 putting down an anti- Scriptural disputant, or showing 

 at least, if he shows nothing more, that the questions in 

 dispute are still too unsettled and vague for plain folks 

 to meddle with or understand. Such a result is directly 



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