32 THE REV. CANON R. B, GIRDLESTONE, M.A., ON 



and civilisation until it is almost within sight of the era of 

 primaeval man. 



It would, be strange if, after all, the earliest evidences of 

 the existence of man should point to a time when the traces 

 of his mental powers were particularly conspicuous. And 

 yet such a conclusion is within the bounds of possibility. It 

 is, to say the least, conceivable that the special force which 

 caused the first real man to be — whether that force worked 

 through slow gradations, or in the twinkling of an eye — 

 may have prepared him for his unique position as a master 

 upon earth, by making him inventive and adaptive, long- 

 lived and strong, to a degree which we cannot now easily 

 comprehend. 



The materials in the hand of the anthropologist are not as 

 yet sufficient for the solution of this problem, but it is an 

 intensely interesting one, and must be kept steadily to the 

 front in the coming century. 



Nor must it be forgotten that we are in the midst of 

 geographical discussions as to the position of Paradise ; whilst 

 the last word has not yet been said on the original language 

 of man, and on the dissemination of primitive Avritten 

 characters in their simplest forms, east and west. 



(5) The scientific criticism of the books which culminate 

 in the mission of Christ has yet to be perfected. I am not 

 speaking of the so-called " higher criticism," but of something 

 quite different. The criticism which I desiderate has its 

 archasological side and its linguistic. Nor is this all, for 

 the Bible presents a large field of inquiry ; its records 

 include matters which touch the domains of physics, 

 astronomy, and natural history. 



The exploration of ancient cities is being rapidly reduced 

 to a science, thanks in a large degree to the unwearied 

 enthusiasm and patient skill of Prof. Flinders Petrie. He 

 has shown that what geological strata are to the pre-human 

 period, that layers of pottery are to the human, and to read 

 their message rightly is as much a branch of science in its 

 true wide sense as is the interpretation of the fossil remains 

 beneath our feet. 



As the scientific student sees a great deal more in nature 

 than the casual observer, so does the student of archasology 

 find increasingly that the Bible is a living book. Its vivid 

 historical and local colouring makes it what no other collec- 

 tion of sacred books even professes to be. 



On the linguistic side of biblical study I desire to call 



