90 
or symbolical representation of the reality, couched in the lan- 
guage of appearances, and so in some respects partial and 
inadequate, but still, so far as it goes, in perfect accordance 
with Science. Others, unsatisfied with this, seek by new ren- 
derings of the Hebrew text to make the narrative do still 
more, and not only agree with Science, but anticipate Science, 
speak in scientific terms, and reveal their own peculiar cos- 
mogonic theories without flaw or difference. Others, pro- 
ceeding on the same track, but still more daring, reject 
altogether the received manner ot even reading Hebrew, 
regard the sacred language as a sealed casket of which the key 
has long been lost, discover the key in their own knowledge 
of the analogies of language, and of course unlock a hidden 
treasure of cosmogonic lore which had hitherto lain concealed 
within. The second subdivision of this group consists of 
those who hold that the days of Genesis are literal days, and 
assign the ages of Geology to a period between the original 
creation of the heavens and the earth spoken of in the fiist 
verse, and the state of darkness and desolation described in 
the second. Even these, however, are not by any means 
agreed among themselves, some regarding the chaos, and 
subsequent development of order and life, as referring to 
one particular part only of the earth's surface, a part, as it 
happens, of which geologists at present know very little ; 
others regarding them as coextensive with the entire globe. 
Then, as the third subdivision, there are yet others who adopt 
a sort of middle course, agreeing with the first in regarding 
the six-days' work as descriptive of the whole history of 
creation, yet refusing with the second to view these days as 
intended to be looked upon as representatives of six gigantic 
periods. According to these, the cosmogony of Genesis is a 
poetical sketch of the order and method of creation, cast into 
the parabolic form of a week's work for the religious instruction 
of the unscientific p^Dple for whom it was primarily intended ; 
accordant, therefore, with Science in its essential principles and 
broader outlines, but involving of necessity more or less dis- 
crepance in detail and outward form, and in particular being 
altogether inadequate to convey a scientific view in regard to 
time, which was regarded as of little importance for the par- 
ticular purposes in view. 
The third main group of replicants — those who concede the 
contradiction alleged to exist between Scripture and Science 
but deny its importance — adopt a line not altogether unlike 
that last described, differing, however, in this : that they ignore 
or deny the fundamental scientific accuracy which the former 
lay special stress upon, and ascribe the peculiarities of the nar- 
