442 LECTUKE XV. 



" I am of opinion that during a period^ probably of several 

 centuries, after God had multiplied the languages, separated 

 the various tribes which spoke different languages, and distri- 

 buted these peoples over the surface of the globe. He endowed 

 in the course of generations each race, as it became a nation, 

 with a peculiar external character. In appointing to each 

 stock a dwelling place, God also endowed it with a capacity to 

 live either in the arctic, temperate, or torrid zone ; He also 

 taught them, or assisted them, in their invention of means to 

 satisfy their wants, and finally presented them with useful 

 plants proper to the climate, and which do not grow wild." 



This is the explanation of Doctor Sagot, who in this manner 

 reconciles the diversity of mankind with Bibhcal unity. If 

 God really fed the animals in the ark of Noah with food from 

 heaven, aU difficulties are at an end. If aU natural conditions 

 and facts which oppose a myth are to be removed by a direct 

 divine interfei'ence, natural science is useless. We have not 

 arrived yet at this point in the civilised world^ although some 

 eyes are tui'ned in that direction. 



