334 



NATURE 



{Atigtist II, 1 88 1 



water," &c. We therefore question whether the theory 

 which led, as Dr. Brunton tells us, to the "puzzles" of 

 his " childhood's days," was really more beset with " diffi- 

 culty" than the one whereby he now endeavours to make 

 his " Bible " square with his " Science." Better swallow 

 miracles in the lump, and so obtain at least con- 

 sistency, than try to save the historical accuracy of the 

 Pentateuch by playing hide-and-seek with scientific 

 principles, with the result of always losing the game. 



The closing chapters of the book are occupied with an 

 endeavour to make evolution acceptable to the orthodox 

 mind. Here we wonder that no mention is made of the 

 circumstance that the order in which the flora and fauna 

 are said by the Mosaic account to have appeared upon 

 the earth corresponds with that which the theory of evo- 

 lution requires and the evidence of geology proves. On 

 the other hand there are some original ideas which may 

 be found of use among Churchmen of Broad Church pro- 

 clivities. Thus, after quoting Milton's account of Adam 

 and Eve in Paradise, Dr. Brunton says : — 



" This is a very beautiful picture, but it is not at all the 

 one given in Genesis, for there we find that man, after 

 the fall, was a being in the condition of savages of the 

 Stone Age of Europe, clad in skins, and tilling the ground 

 with implements of wood or stone, the use of metals being 

 unknown till generations afterwards. And yet this being, 

 low in the scale as we would term him, is represented as 

 being so much higher in wisdom than Adam before the 

 fall, that he was reckoned almost as a God in comparison, 

 for in Genesis iii. 22, we read that 'The Lord said 

 Behold ! the man is become as one of us, to know good 

 and evil.' So that while the Miltonic account of primitive 

 man is an absolute contradiction of the notions of evolution, 

 the Mosaic account is in conformity with them." 



Obviously, enough allowance is not here made for 

 what Mr. Darwin would call the "changed conditions of 

 life" which befell Adam and Eve on being turned out of 

 Paradise ; the curse so materially altered their " environ- 

 ment" that, as our other apostle of evolution would say, 

 they were no longer " in harmony " with it. Surely, then, 

 Milton was right in representing Adam and Eve in 

 Paradise, not as worse than " savages of the Stone Age of 

 Europe," but rather as a happy and innocent pair living 

 in the midst of plenty, and having access to certain 

 trees which presented physiological properties of so 

 remarkable a character that we greatly wish Dr. Brunton, 

 with his well-known ability in this line of inquiry, could 

 find an opportunity of making them the subject of his 

 next experimental research. 



Less open to criticism is the following : — 



"Now it is very remarkable that the doctrine of 

 evolution, be it true or no, exactly agrees with the Mosaic 

 account in reference to the place where man was created, 

 whether this creation took place by special act or by 

 evolutionary process. It took place in a paradise, where 

 the air was balmy, where fruit-trees were plentiful, and 

 where there were no carnivorous animals to prey upon 

 and attack man. For man differs from the lower animals 

 in the absence of a fuiTy or hairy coat (although, curiously 

 enough, such a coat is possessed by unborn children). 

 Now, if for a moment we suppose ourselves driven to 

 conclude that, in respect of his physical nature, man was 

 evolved from a lower type of life, he could not have lost 

 his hairy coat unless the air had been soft and balmy ; 

 for the essence of the doctrine is that the fittest only 

 survive, and the fittest to survive exposure to heat or cold 



would not have been the naked, but the hairy individuals. 

 Had not food been abundant and easily masticated, like 

 the fruit of trees, man would not have lost the projecting 

 muzzle and larger jaws of the apes, as a small jaw would 

 be less fitted for the mastication of hard and innutritious 

 food. Had man been liable to the attacks of wild beasts 

 in this paradise, he could not have lost the large canines 

 which form such powerful implements of defence in the 

 gorilla. Nor would he have remained so long helpless, 

 and unable to take care of himself, unless in such a 

 paradise as we have supposed, where all the conditions of 

 life were favourable. The children, which were long in 

 developing, would have been at a disadvantage in the 

 struggle for existence ; they would have died off ; and the 

 progenitors of the human race could never have deve- 

 loped into men. 



"The site, too, of the paradise, according to the evolu- 

 tion theorj', agrees exactly with that indicated in the Book 

 of Genesis, and, indeed, until I saw a map by Haeckel, 

 the most prominent defender of the evolution theory in 

 Germany, I was puzzled to imderstand the Mosaic account. 

 It reads thus [see Genesis]. The site thus indicated with 

 the utmost precision by Moses is perhaps the only one 

 upon the surface of the whole earth which fulfils the 

 demands of the doctrine of evolution. For, as we have 

 already seen, according to this doctrine man must have 

 been developed in a genial climate, in a spot where abun- 

 dance of food existed. Now such a place might perhaps 

 be found in a similar latitude in America, but it is agreed 

 by all evolutionists that man could not possibly have been 

 developed in the new world, because his affinities are 

 altogether with the monkeys of the old world, and not 

 with those of the new. This is the only point, too, from 

 which man could have spread in such a way as would 

 agree with the distribution of races which we now find. 



" But man did not always continue to live in this para- 

 dise. He was driven out ; according to the theory of 

 evolution, he was probably forced to migrate from this 

 sacred spot for the same reason that races have been 

 forced to migrate ever since, namely, want of food due 

 to increasing numbers. These increasing numbers would, 

 first of all, consume the natural fruits of the trees ; they 

 would then be forced to till the ground, and, finally, some 

 of them would be obliged to leave altogether. We read 

 in Genesis that the woman was cursed in her conception 

 being multiplied, and that the man was cursed by having 

 to till the ground by the sweat of his brow. While in 

 paradise he was naked, but after he left it he wore 

 coats of skin. He had not yet learnt the use of metals, 

 and his tools and implements must have been those of 

 wood and stone. For, according to Genesis, it was not 

 until several generations afterwards that Tubal-Cain 

 taught men the use of brass and iron. 



" However man was formed, then, the Mosaic account 

 corresponds with what we find in the progress of civilisa- 

 tion—the Stone Age precedes that of Bronze and Iron. 

 The paradise whose locality was indicated by Moses has 

 now disappeared beneath the waters of the Indian Ocean. 

 Whether its disappearance was preceded by some great 

 volcanic eruption or not, and whether such an eruption 

 is referred to in the mention of the flaming sword which 

 turned every way, we cannot tell ; but we have no indica- 

 tion in Genesis of the submergence of paradise until the 

 time of the Flood,which," in accordance with Hugh Miller's 

 idea, is supposed by our author to have been due to a 

 subsidence of the land. 



We have quoted this passage at length, because it serves 

 to suggest that " the grand old legend" may contain in 

 its beautiful allegory more of traditional history than the 

 present age is always inclined to suppose. Enough has 

 now been said to indicate the general nature of '' The Bible 

 and Science," although it may be added that it is fur- 



