192 HUXLEY 



respond to those of Hercules. But such speculations 

 are of slight importance, since the major fact of the 

 unhistorical foundation of the early Hebrew narra- 

 tives is admitted. Canon Driver represents the views 

 accepted by every modern scholar having claim to 

 authority. They are adopted by the contributors to 

 the Encyclopedia Biblica ; ] a work in which Huxley 

 would have found the justification of all for which he 

 contended : they are in course of adoption in text- 

 books, and will, at no long interval, be quietly ad- 

 mitted into " Bible helps " and such like manuals 

 issued by the orthodox publishing societies. In the 

 preface to the most recent History of the Hebrews, its 

 author, the Rev. R. L. Ottley, says : " It is well to 

 recognise the fact that the patriarchal period is de- 

 scribed to us in narratives which were compiled in 

 their present form about a thousand years later than 

 the events they describe, and of which, therefore, as 

 Professor G. A. Smith truly observes, ' it is simply 

 impossible for us at this time of day to establish the 

 accuracy.' " 



When the source of the cosmogonic and other 

 legends was discovered, it was assumed that their 

 presence in the Old Testament was due to the con- 



1 Edited by Canon Cheyne, Oriel Professor of the Interpretation 

 of Holy Scripture in the University of Oxford, and J. Sutherland 

 Black, LL. D. 



