I2 6 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY chap, vii 



origin of the myths in Genesis. But my sole point is to get the 

 people who persist in regarding them as statements of fact to 

 understand that they are fools. 



The process is laborious, and not yet very fruitful of the 

 desired conviction. 



To Sir Joseph Prestwich 



4 Marlborough Place, N.W., January 16, 1886. 



My dear Prestwich — Accept my best thanks for the volume 

 of your Geology, which has just reached me. 



I envy the vigour which has led you to tackle such a task, 

 and I have no doubt that when I turn to your book for informa- 

 tion I shall find reason for more envy in the thoroughness with 

 which the task is done. 



I see Mr. Gladstone has been trying to wrest your scripture 

 to his own purposes, but it is no good. Neither the fourfold 

 nor the fivefold nor the sixfold order will wash. — Ever yours 

 very faithfully, T. H. Huxley. 



To Professor Poulton * 



4 Marlborough Place, Feb. 19, 1886. 



Dear Mr. Poulton — I return herewith the number of the 

 Expositor with many thanks. Canon Driver's article contains as 

 clear and candid a statement as I could wish of the position of 

 the Pentateuchal cosmogony from his point of view. If he more 

 thoroughly understood the actual nature of paleontological suc- 

 cession — I mean the species by species replacement of old forms 

 by new, — and if he more fully appreciated the great gulf fixed 

 between the ideas of " creation " and of " evolution," I think 

 he would see (1) that the Pentateuch and science are more 

 hopelessly at variance than even he imagines, and (2) that the 

 Pentateuchal cosmogony does not come so near the facts of the 

 case as some other ancient cosmogonies, notably those of the 

 old Greek philosophers. 



Practically, Canon Driver, as a theologian and Hebrew 

 scholar, gives up the physical truth of the Pentateuchal cos- 

 mogony altogether. All the more wonderful to me, therefore, 

 is the way in which he holds on to it as embodying theological 

 truth. So far as this question is concerned, on all points which 



* Hope Professor of Zoology at Oxford. 



