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solutions of those objections which commend themselves to 
reason as well as faith. Let it not be said that we fear a 
thorough-going investigation. We invite if, confident as we 
are that the more searching it is, the more will it confirm the 
declaration that “ the Word of the Lord endureth for ever.” 
The difficulties in the way of a universal Flood, therefore, 
which we have now to consider, must not be underrated 
because they have not unfrequently been stated by infidels. 
It is for us to determine — putting all a priori considerations 
aside — if they rest upon a basis of truth. And supposing this 
to be determined in the affirmative, it will be for us manfully 
to address ourselves to the discovery of the reconciliation 
which must always exist between what is true in nature and 
the immutable truths of the Divine Word. 
The first difficulty which we encounter, supposing the 
Deluge to have been universal, is in the accommodation which 
the Ark afforded. To our older writers this presented no 
obstacle. Referring to the number of species, one of them 
says: — cc Bishop Wilkins has brought their number, which at 
first view may seem almost infinite, within very moderate 
bounds. He reckons that they do not amount to one hundred 
of quadrupeds and two hundred of birds, and of these must 
be excepted such as live in the water, such as proceed from a 
mixture of different species, and such as change their colour, 
size, and shape by changing their climate, and thence in 
different countries seem to be of different species when they 
are not.” So Dr. Hales. “ Can we doubt,” he says, referring 
to the Ark, “ of its being sufficient to contain eight persons, 
and about two hundred or two hundred and fifty pair of four- 
footed animals ; a number to which, according to Buffon, all 
the various distinct species may be reduced, together with all 
the subsistence necessary for a twelvemonth?” Since the 
days of Buffon and Hales, however, and earlier writers, whose 
remarks, prose and poetical, on this question, if we had room 
to transcribe them, would be most amusing, science, in every 
department, has progressed with gigantic strides, and in no 
department more rapidly than that of zoology. Sir Walter 
Raleigh put down the mammals at 89, and Buffon at 200 or 
250 species. But our latest authorities give the known 
species of mammalia at 1,658, and the result of scientific 
inquiry is not to decrease, but to increase, the number. 
Johnstone, in his Physical Atlas, gives the following esti- 
mate : — • 
Mammalia . . 1,658 I Reptiles . . 642 
Birds . . . 6,266 [ Insects, about . 500,000 
