220 THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY 



Two other contributions to critical theology, " Hasi- 

 dadra's Adventure," and "Possibilities and Impossi- 

 bilities," naturally connect here. The former (Nineteenth 

 Century, June 1891. Coll. Essays, iv, p. 239) analyzes 

 the evidence for a universal deluge. The Babylonian 

 version of the flood myth is taken as the basis for dis- 

 cussion, and after a full consideration of the geological, 

 geographical, and other data, the following conclusion is 

 reached : — 



" Thus it would seem that the Euphrates valley, the centre of 

 the fabled Noachian deluge, is also the centre of a region cover- 

 ing some millions of square miles of the present continents of 

 Europe, Asia, and Africa, in which all the facts, relevant to the 

 argument, at present known, converge to the conclusion that, since 

 the miocene epoch, the essential features of its physical geography 

 have remained unchanged ; that it has neither been depressed 

 below the sea, nor swept by diluvial waters since that time ; and 

 that the Chaldean version of the legend of a flood in the 

 Euphrates valley is, of all those which are extant, the only one 

 which is even consistent with probability, since it depicts a local 

 inundation, not more severe than one which might be brought 

 about by a concurrence of favourable conditions at the present 

 day ; and which might probably have been more easily effected 

 when the Persian Gulf extended farther north." 



A " Postscript " to this article contains an interesting 

 paragraph : — 



" My best thanks are due to Mr. Gladstone for his courteous 

 withdrawal of one of the statements to which I have thought it 

 needful to take exception. The familiarity with controversy, to 

 which Mr. Gladstone alludes, will have accustomed him to the 

 misadventures which arise when, as sometimes will happen in the 

 heat of fence, the buttons come off the foils. I trust that any 

 scratch which he may have received will heal as quickly as my 

 own flesh wounds have done." 



The second article, on " Possibilities and Impossi- 



