260 THE PRIDE OF IGNORANCE. 



tion of the letter of Scripture, and he is astonished 

 that you should have the boldness, the audacity, the 

 unparalleled arrogance to set yourself up against 

 the precise words of inspiration. You venture to 

 reply with all humility that, in the opinion of 

 many among the most eminent Hebrew scholars 

 and Biblical students, the words in question do 

 not necessarily bear the meaning he chooses to 

 assign to them, while the positive evidence of 

 geology on the point of antiquity is clear, certain, 

 and incontrovertible. Pride of ignorance can 

 hardly contain its indignation. Your interlocutor 

 assures you, with an air of immense superiority, 

 tlrat for his part he does not pretend to under- 

 stand Greek and Hebrew, and that he thanks 

 Heaven he knows nothing at all about geology ; 

 but he can see the plain meaning of Scripture as 

 well as an}^ man, and he is astonished that you, 

 who set yourself up to be some great one, should 

 dare to differ from inspiration upon the subject. 

 You reply humbly that in these, as in other mat- 

 ters, opinions vary ; that you differ not from inspi- 

 ration, but from him; that, after all, his interpre- 

 tation is only his interpretation ; that a complete 

 ignorance of Greek and Hebrew is not indeed a 

 special qualification for deciding the question at 

 issue ; and that some little knowedge of geology 

 may not, perhaps, be wholly useless in arriving 

 at a conclusion upon tin essentially geological 



