146 "SPECIAL CREATION' 1 



rising out of and extricating themselves from the 

 soil. 



" The grassy clods now calved, now half appeared 

 The tawny lion, pawing to get free 

 His hinder parts, then springs as broke from bonds, 

 And rampant shakes his brindled mane ; the ounce, 

 The libbard, and the tiger, as the mole 

 Rising, the crumbled earth above them threw 

 In hillocks : the swift stag from underground 

 Bore up his branching head : scarce from his mould 

 Behemoth, biggest born of earth, up heaved 

 His vastness." 



In this description Milton probably represented 

 the ideas of his day a day penetrated with literal 

 interpretation of the Scripture, though it is well 

 to recall to our minds the fact that not one word 

 or idea of the above is contained in the Bible. 

 The only suggestion is that the body of Adam 

 was fashioned from the " slime of the earth," the 

 precise meaning of which phrase has never been 

 defined by the Church. 



Again, we have to say that the Miltonic scheme 

 is not impossible, any more than any other 

 scheme is impossible, but we may further say that 

 it is more than improbable, and with every 

 reverence we may add that to us it does not seem 

 to be specially consonant with the greatness and 

 wisdom of God. There remains the derivative 

 form of creation, compendiously styled evolution. 

 That this also is a possible method of creation 

 no one will deny, and it has been discussed as 

 such by many of the greatest thinkers in the 

 history of the Church. We can consider it, 



