86 REV. A. IRVING, D.SC, ON EVOLUTIONARY LAW 



an inverse proportion to his strength as a geologist. In Canon 

 Driver's paper in TJic Expositor (J aimsiYj, 1886) on the "Cosmo- 

 gony of Genesis," the best thing seems to me to be his 

 quotation (p., 44) of Dr. Eausch's view of " the six days " as 

 " six Divine thoughts or ideas realised in Creation " ; and that is 

 substantially wliat I have contended for in my paper. With 

 the general aim and drift of Mr. Berry's paper I am in full 

 sympathy, though he wants the scientific " touch " of a real 

 worker in science. — A. I. 



Supplementary Note C. 



Of all our leading scientists it may be said that not one 

 surpasses Sir Oliver Lodge, Principal of Birmingham University, 

 in power of insight into the "philosophical" aspect of great 

 physicnl truths. Among his more important utterances in 

 the last two or three years the following may be 

 mentioned : — 



Romanes Lecture, at Oxf(>rd, 1904. 



On Mind and Matter : Morning Fast, Oct. 13th, 1904 (a 



telling criticism of Haeckel). 

 On Miracles: Ibid., Oct. 25th, 1904. 

 The Reality of the Unseen: Ibid., March 13th, 1905. 

 On Psychical Research: The Times, Nov. 14th, 1905. 



Discussion. 



Dr. W. Woods Smyth, F.Med.S. — Mr. Chairman, I am thankful 

 to the Society for bringing this paper before us, and also to 

 Dr. Irving for having introduced it and for the clearness with 

 which he has presented several points. 



In a general sense Dr. Irving considers the first chapter of 

 Genesis to be a poem or poetical. I dislike to disagree with 

 anyone, but still I must hold that is not the case. The poetic 

 diction of the Hebrew is everywhere distinguished from prose. 

 And the first chapter of Genesis is absolutely without indications 

 of the poetic. It is strong on the contrary. 



Again, Dr. Irving has an idea numing through that the fact of 

 its being in the form of a poem may atone for what we may call its 

 shortcomings in some way. What I want to say is, the cha})tcr has 



