430 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY CHAP, xvil 



I ' see Mr. Gladstone has been trying to wrest your 

 scripture to his own purposes, but it is no good. Neither 

 the fourfold nor the fivefold nor the sixfold order will 

 wash. Ever yours very faithfully, T. H. HUXLEY. 



To PROFESSOR PouLTON 1 



4 MARLBOROUGH PLACE, 

 Feb. 19, 1886. 



DEAR MR. POULTON I return herewith the number 

 of the Expositor with many thanks. Canon Driver's 

 article contains as clear and candid a statement as I 

 could wish of the position of the Pentateuchal cosmogony 

 from his point of view. If he more thoroughly under- 

 stood the actual nature of paleontological succession I 

 mean the species by species replacement of old forms by 

 new, and if he more fully appreciated the great gulf 

 fixed between the ideas of " creation " and of " evolution," 

 I think he would see (1) that the Pentateuch and science 

 are more hopelessly at variance than even he imagines, 

 and (2) that the Pentateuchal cosmogony does not come 

 so near the facts of the ease as some other ancient cos- 

 mogonies, notably those of the old Greek philosophers. 



Practically, Canon Driver, as a theologian and Hebrew 

 scholar, gives up the physical truth of the Pentateuchal 

 cosmogony altogether. All the more wonderful to me, 

 therefore, is the way in which he holds on to it as 

 embodying theological truth. So far as this question is con- 

 cerned, on all points which can be tested, the Pentateuchal 

 writer states that which is not true. What, therefore, 

 is his authority on the matter creation by a Deity 

 which cannot be tested ? What sort of " inspiration " 

 is that which leads to the promulgation of a fable as 

 divine truth, which forces those who believe in that 

 inspiration to hold on, like grim death, to the literal 



1 Hope Professor of Zoology at Oxford. 



