204 REV. A. IRVING, D.Sc., B.A., ON 
fierce sunshine would have rendered the era of warmth, moisture 
and dim light, of which Dr. Irving speaks, an impossibility. Again 
the “directivity ” in which the doctor believes, is rejected by every 
accredited authority on the doctrine of evolution. The idea of 
interference in man’s evolution is not Dr. Irving’s, but is A. R. 
Wallace’s, who considered that some ultra-natural interference was 
necessary to complete the creation of man. Among our highest 
authorities on man’s genesis, Wallace here stands alone. I regret 
exceedingly in this nexus, that Dr. Irving has greatly misrepresented 
my views, and in a form of words which I hope he regrets. I have 
clearly taught that Evolution (a Ministry of God), was all-sufficient 
for man’s creation, and to a degree of perfection not possessed by 
any man living on the earth to-day (vide Victoria Institute 
Transactions, vol. xxxvili, p. 214). But that evolution possessed 
no means of satisfying man’s aspirations for endless life, and that 
these aspirations were met by the revelation of God recorded in 
Genesis. I was first enabled to perceive this important truth, and 
to publish it 37 years ago, while yet a young man. 
Rev. JoHN TuckKWELL, M.R.A.S.—Mr. Chairman, may I be 
allowed to express my great appreciation of the paper to which we 
have just listened. But with reference to the suggestion made by 
yourself, sir, that the first verse of Genesis may be regarded as 
separated by a wide interval of time from the second, J do not 
think that can be sustained. The first verse is a general statement 
of the whole creative work of God. The second verse takes up the 
creative history of the earth from its gaseous or nebulous condition 
just as one might say “Sir Christopher Wren built St. Paul’s 
Cathedral,” and then proceed to give a separate account of the 
building of the nave. The Hebrew verb hayah—‘ the earth was 
without form and void”—is the substantive verb and cannot 
correctly be translated “the earth became.” The LXX accordingly 
translates it not by yivopa:, “to become,” but by «iui, “to be.” 
Besides, if this story is only a superficial story of something which 
took place in six solar days, then it is not the actual story of the 
creation of our world at all, and scientific research has never found 
any trace or shadow of any such creation. Moreover there are 
certain forms of mammalian life indicated by the Hebrew word 
translated ‘ cattle” which are found hundreds of feet below the 
earliest trace of man in the geological strata which cannot possibly 
