yi PBEFACE. 



wise, though man be born a wild ass's colt " 

 (ch. xi. 12). The Authorized Version in- 

 troduces the word " like," but it is not 

 in the original; and therefore we must 

 accept the teaching of the Hebrew, which 

 shows that man is born " a wild ass," and 

 therefore supports the Darwinian theory ; 

 though many will confidently assert that 

 another explanation or interpretation is 

 possible and more probable. 



Thus the illustrious author of Hamlet, by 

 whatever name he is called, writing between 

 three and four thousand years after Job, 

 puts into the mouth of Ophelia this wise 

 sentiment " We know what we are; but 

 know not what we may be." But this seems 

 to be contradicted by another eminent man 

 of our own time, as Thomas Carlyle 

 relates how John Sterling taught as 

 follows "I affirm we do know whence 

 we come, and whither we go." Which 

 idea has been capped by another notabi- 

 lity of the 19th century, the late Lord 

 Beaconsfield, who in the best of his 

 novels, entitled Tancred (Anthony Trollope 



