308 John Bachman. 



11 viewed as a narrative, inspired by the Most High, 

 its conceits would be pitiful and its revelations false, 

 because telescopic Astronomy has ruined its celestial 

 structure ; Physics has negatived its cosmic organ- 

 ism, and Geology has stultified the fabulous terres- 

 trial mechanism upon which its assumptions are 

 based. How then are its crude and puerile hypo- 

 theses about human creation to be received ?"* Were 

 this true, then according to the same author, " The 

 developments of science would have rendered any 

 new translations (of the Scriptures) altogether superer- 

 ogatory among the educated who are creating new 

 religions for themselves." 



The question then naturally arises, how are these 

 bold assertions to be met, and to what sources must 

 the human mind apply in order to arrive at truth, 

 and thus solve its doubts and strengthen its re- 

 ligious faith with confidence and hope ? Certainly 

 there is no other mode accessible to man than by 

 studying the book of Nature with an unprejudiced 

 mind, and with all that preparatory knowledge, 

 that careful analysis, that patient research and un- 

 clouded judgment, which is essential in the investi- 

 gation of so grave a subject. By pursuing this plan 

 of study, we will be enabled to solve the mystery 

 why men, writing on the same subject, have ad- 

 vanced such opposite opinions and pronounced such 

 contradictory decisions. The authors of the " Types 

 of Mankind " have, with a positiveness which is 

 seldom found among the humble students of nature, 

 pronounced one set of opinions, whilst the greatest 

 naturalists in the world, Linnaeus, Blumenbach, 

 Cuvier, the two Humboldts, Owen, Pritchard, Bun- 

 sen, Lepsius, and many others, have arrived at con- 

 clusions directly the reverse. In searching more 



*Nott and Gliddon's Types of Mankind, p. 165. 



