Reason and Instinct. 5453 



question, much less ignore, the existence of certain passages in the 

 Bible which at least seem to bear on our subject, and which therefore 

 certainly (it may be alleged) challenge inquiry and demand con- 

 sideration. Still, however willing to consent to this course, I desire 

 at once to state my impression that no information or instruction of 

 the kind anticipated will be found in the Bible. 



The object with which the Bible was given was to teach men their 

 relations with their Maker, and in such a way that nothing might be 

 more plainly seen than that man's best interests coincided with entire 

 and uncomprising observance of the Almighty's requirements. In 

 order to this, it might be and was necessary that a brief introductory 

 sketch of man's origin and that of the Creation at large should be 

 given, but only so far that man, thoroughly understanding into what 

 an abyss he had "by transgression" plunged himself, might the more 

 willingly, as well as the more readily, comprehend the nature of the 

 means of extrication which it was the business of the Bible, in all its 

 several stages towards completion, to set forth and explain. Room 

 for scientific disquisition or philosophical explanation there was none, 

 in the scope of the volume itself, any more than in the mental culture or 

 intellectual adaptability of those to whom it was progressively delivered, 

 whether it were the Children of Israel under Moses, the Jewish nation 

 in the time of the Prophets, or the " foolish things" and " weak things 

 of the world" in the time of our Saviour and his Apostles. Conse- 

 quently, when things which are properly the subject matters of scientific 

 and philosophical inquiry and research are mentioned in the Scriptures, 

 whether directly or in the way of allusion, they are spoken of in what 

 we may term a popular manner, with no attempt at, or thought of 

 scientific accuracy or even precision of expression : just as, in fact, we 

 ourselves still speak of the sun as "setting," as "rising," as "journeying 

 towards the west;" or of the dew "falling," or of the " thunder-#<?/£" 

 striking the tree or the building. No doubt Moses was " learned in 

 all the wisdom of the Egyptians," but to how many, or rather how few, 

 of the Egyptians themselves was this learning common. And much 

 more does this negation apply to Moses' countrymen, oppressed and 

 ill-treated as we well know they were. His miracles might convince 

 them that he was sent to them with a special mission by the great 

 " I am," of whom doubtless they had retained a much more than 

 merely traditional recollection ; but not all his miracles could have 

 convinced them that the world was a globe and not a plane surface 

 with only enough inequalities to diversify what otherwise would have 

 a dead level ; that the earth was in motion and not the sun ; that 



