The Censor of Presumption. 309 



closely into the qualifications of the men who have 

 pronounced these opposite opinions, we are not left 

 in doubt as to the causes why they could not arrive 

 at the same conclusions in professing to unfold the 

 leaves of the same book of nature. 



Mr. Gliddon candidly informs his readers of the 

 amount of knowledge in the sciences, which enabled 

 him to pronounce so positive and startling a de- 

 cision, that the sciences had so utterly demolished 

 the " fabulous terrestrial mechanism " of revelation, 

 that a " new translation was supererogatory." He 

 tells his readers " My former pursuits in Moslem 

 lands were remote from natural science, and dis- 

 qualify me from sharing the labors of its votaries," 

 etc. Thus then we have the admission from his 

 own pen and in print, that he is unqualified, from a 

 want of knowledge on the subject, to express an 

 opinion in matters of science, and yet the very 

 sciences about which he professes to know nothing, 

 have (in his opinion) utterly demolished the whole 

 structure on which Christianity is founded. On the 

 other hand Professor Owen, who has for a whole 

 life studied the sciences, of which Gliddon had not 

 yet read the alphabet, expresses his matured convic- 

 tions in these words : " Thus in reference both to 

 the unity of the human species, and to the fact of 

 man being the latest, as he is the highest of all 

 animal forms upon our planet, the interpretations of 

 God's works coincide with what has been revealed 

 to us, as to our origin and zoological relations in the 

 world. Man is the sole species of his genus, the sole 

 representative of his order." In investigating those 

 preparatory studies, by which these gentlemen con- 

 sidered themselves qualified to pronounce such 

 opposite opinions, we are forcibly reminded of the 

 caution of the poet : 



