36 PRIMEVAL MAN. 



write that my words should include the widest 

 range of meaning, and should not be confined 

 to one sense alone, exclusive of all others, even 

 of some which should be inconsistent with my 

 own. Far from me, O God, be the temerity 

 to suppose that so great a Prophet did not 

 receive from Thy Grace even such a favour ! 

 Yes ; he had in view and in his spirit, when 

 he traced these words, all that we can ever 

 discover of the truth — even every truth which 

 "has escaped us hitherto, or which escapes us 

 ■still, but which nevertheless may yet be dis- 

 covered in them." Certain it is, that whatever 

 new views may now be taken of the origin and 

 authorship of the first chapter of Genesis, it 

 stands alone among the traditions of mankind 

 in the wonderful simplicity and grandeur of 



