2 2 The Australasian Scientific Magazine. [August i, 1885, 
would now be regarded as so exorbitant that the most zealous shipping clerk 
would be ashamed to ask. Now the tables are turned. Some forty-five years 
ago the growth of sheep and cattle in proportion to the consuming population 
was so great that flocks of sheep and herds of cattle were destroyed, as 
their owners could not pay the transit dues to market and were quite 
uncertain as to the market they could obtain. 
Then came the grand discovery of “boiling down,” which enabled our 
pioneers to live on the tallow they obtained from the stock they slaughtered, 
while the rest of the carcase was left to rot. 
Then wool began to be a great industry. It was shipped home probably 
in half-a-dozen ships of modest tonnage in a year. And so the squatter of 
the time, now much maligned by those who have not “ borne the burthen 
and heat ot the day,” improved their position from insolvency to compara- 
tive affluence. I do not say that many of the men of that generation were 
able to see any further beyond their noses than most of us can now do. 
These men were (probably some of them) not actuated by pure philanthropy; 
but as long as they succeeded in developing the resources of their adopted 
land from hundreds of pounds to millions sterling, are they not entitled to 
their small share in what they have themselves created ? However, as I 
am debarred politics in this Journal, I will only say that, in my opinion, Mr. 
Hornyhand has much less to complain of in respect of his treatment in 
the Sunny South than has Mr. Enterprise or Mr. Foresight. 
But the reader will naturally ask what has all this to do with the subject 
matter of this article? I, therefore, now propose in all humility to express 
in as few words as possible, my own ideas. First, then, I say that the 
truths of modern science do in no way undermine the foundations of the faith 
of those who believe in these “ wells of pure English undefiled,” contained 
in the authorised translation of the Testaments, Old and New. 
The Book of Genesis or of The Beginning, was not written as a treatise on 
astronomy, geology, geography, or metaphysics. It was -written for the 
intelligent understanding of an unlettered race, and made so clear that the 
simplest reader or listener could understand its purport If I go to speak 
to a popular audience, I have to use very different language, have to use 
similes, have to express in very general terms the facts which I might be able 
to express exactly with a few symbols (utterly unintelligible to the popular 
audience), to a meeting of my professional friends. I do not mean to say 
that Moses was a Copernicus, or a Galileo, or a Lyell, or a Darwin. I have 
never thought it a desirable research as to what Moses and the Prophets 
did know or not know, nor as to the extent to which prophecy has been 
fulfilled. Such researches I leave to the Cummings and other fanatics 
whose too much learning has made them mad. “Science, falsely so called,” 
I beware of. The “ profane and vain babbling” of those who wrest scripture 
to their own shallow philosophy, of whom the poet writes — 
“ A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.” 
are not for me. I should like either to 
“ Drink deep or taste not the Pyerian spring.” 
The heaviest hammer of the greatest geologist does not affect the 
Mosaic records of creation. In fact every discovery of both science and 
archaeology tends to prove Mosaic records — “ With God, one day is as 
a thousand years, and one thousand years as one day.” Metaphor and 
allegory prevail amongst all Oriental races. A right undertanding of the style 
of diction is essential to a right understanding of the truths of Scripture and 
