134 THE ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 



They had, locally at least, domesticated animals ; they had dis- 

 covered the use of the metals, and invented many useful arts, 

 though there must have been a vast, scattered, barbarous, popula- 

 tion. They had split into two distinct races ; some portions of 

 which at least, had sunk to a state presumably lower than that of 

 any modern tribe, since these latter are all amenable to the influ- 

 ences of civilization and Christianity, while the former seem to have 

 been hopelessly depraved and degenerate. At the same time they 

 had much energy for aggression and violence ; and it would seem 

 that these giants of the olden time were in process of extinguish- 

 ing all of the civilization of the period when they were over- 

 whelmed with the deluge. This is described in terms which may 

 indicate a great subsidence, of which the Noachian deluge was the 

 culminating point, in so far as western Asia was concerned. The 

 subsidence, unless wholly miraculous, may have commenced at 

 least at the beginning of the 120 years of Noah's public life, and 

 possibly much earlier, and the re-elevation may have occupied 

 many centuries, and may not have left the distribution of land 

 and water, and consequently climate, in the same state as before. 

 At a very early period of this subsidence, if there were men in 

 Europe, they would be perfectly isolated from the original seats 

 of population in Asia, and so would the land animals, their con- 

 temporaries. There is farther, nothing in the Mosaic account to 

 prevent us from supposing that the existence of many species was 

 terminated by this great catastrophe.* These are some of the con- 

 ditions of the biblical deluge, which we might much further illus- 

 trate, were this a proper place for doing so, but those stated will 

 suffice to show precisely in what points the new doctrines of geo- 

 logists in regard to the antiquity of man, appear to conflict with 

 this old narrative. 



When we carefully consider the geological facts, in so far 

 as they have been ascertained, it seems to us that the discrepancy 

 may be stated thus. Reasoning on the geological doctrine that 

 all things are to be explained by modern causes, and insisting 

 on a rigid application of that doctrine, we must infer that the date 

 of the introduction of man was " many ten thousands of years " 

 ago. Adopting the biblical theory, so to speak, that a great sub- 

 sidence, of which modern history affords no example, has occurred 

 within the human period, we might adopt a very much shorter 



* See Archaia, pp. 216 et seq. and pp. 238 et seq. King's Geology 

 and Religion, " Deluge." 



