299 
grooves. Whatever may be imagined or desired by some, we 
must not be guided by imaginations and desires. The facts do 
not inform us of a genealogical tree of physical life throughout ; 
they rather suggest to us parallels of very distinct vitalities, 
sometimes influencing, but not passing into, each other, much 
less forming a chain. The spaces between are such as the discern- 
ment of real science feels to forbid at present any such specula- 
tion. — But of this also we shall speak further as we advance. 
There are other exceptions, doubtless, to the common 
Christian belief as to the first ordering of our world ; but they 
ought not here to detain us, because they are not on points of 
principle, and are open to fair debate among us all. As, for 
instance, questions concerning “ the separation of the light 
from the darkness,” and the elemental arrangements, as shown 
to the seer on Horeb, “ evening and morning,” day after 
day. But we must pause a moment on one topic, viz., 
the alleged “ Antiquity of man,” because it bears on Christian 
doctrine very usually received. The inquiry which here con- 
cerns us simply is, what is the doctrine which the Christian 
Philosophy has to defend in this respect ? 
XVI. Supposing — so it is put — the induction of facts led men 
of science hereafter not merely to the guess, but to Excep ion ag 
the reasonable conviction, that improvable human to the anti- 
nature of a- lower type than any now known nad. 
existed at a very far remoter date than could be reconcilable 
with any version of the Bible chronology, what is our position 
as Christians accepting the Sacred Book as true ? 
Our answer is a very direct one. There are, as every one 
knows, two representations in the Bible of the Creation of man ; 
one in the first chapter of Genesis (vv. 26 — 30), and one in the 
second (vv. 7, 8, 15 — 25). Every one, too, is aware that these . 
two passages had been found of difficult interpretation long 
before people had any idea of scientific speculation as to the 
(( antiquity of man.” What we have to say, then, is not con- 
sequent on any pressure of opponents ; nor do we say at all 
for ourselves. But every one ought to know that in inter- 
preting these two passages (which, it has been thought, may 
afford elucidation of the position of this difficult subject), much 
latitude has always been allowed, both among Jews and Chris- 
tians. We are precluded in this place from exegesis; but 
historical facts are not forbidden, we trust, anywhere. 
XVII. Three different opinions are mentioned in the Ordinary 
Gloss, as held among the Babbins; and there are Differences 
certainly several more. “Both Jews and Christians,” of °P mionhere * 
says Warburton,* concur in this, “ that Eve was not created 
* Div. Leg., B. ix. p. 51. 
