34 PRIMEVAL MAN. 



SO far as science can find a firm foundation 

 for any conclusions in regard to it. 



Having already quoted St. Augustine upon 

 the general subject of the desire of knowledge, 

 I cannot close even this cursory reference to 

 the relation in which the Mosaic narrative 

 stands to scientific research, without dwelling 

 for a moment on the very striking passage in 

 which that great man deals with the only 

 account which the world possesses of the 

 history of Creation. St. Augustine was not 

 the man to be dead to all those curious 

 speculations and inquiries which that account 

 excites, and which it does not profess to 

 satisfy. His Confessions, he says, would not 

 be the humble confessions he desires them to 

 be, were he not to confess that as regards 



