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important cases to announce his attention beforehand. Hence the general 
effect of the Mosaic account is to represent God as being as truly the 
originator and framer of all things, as if He had conceived and expressed His 
purposes after this human fashion. A correct philosophical account of these 
things would have been in the early ages of the world unintelligible, if not 
incongruous and contradictory, and therefore it would not have conveyed a 
true picture. Let us imagine a patriarch of the olden time, told that this 
earth, instead of being, as it seemed, one vast immovable plane, is a globular 
body of comparatively insignificant size, whirling through space round the sun, 
and completing that revolution in the course of a year, while it goes daily round 
on its own axis. Before the discoveries had been made which enabled men to 
understand, in some degree, the solar system, such a description would only have 
created confusion ; it would have conveyed no useful information, and would 
not have been believed ; but when science is sufficiently advanced to com- 
prehend the facts, men are able to appreciate the motive which dictated the 
earlier and simpler account. It was wise, therefore, to accommodate the 
teaching given to the imperfect knowledge of the infancy of our race. In 
future ages the Mosaic account may come to be taken less and less literally 
as physical science advances ; * but had revelation anticipated modern dis- 
coveries, it would only have unsettled man’s belief in higher things. The 
sphere of our duties and our hopes lies beyond all this. Still, as we imagine, 
we have in this account facts, not myths ; a central mass of reality, although 
invested with poetic drapery, — reality such as God only could have made 
known. This account guided thought and imagination, when knowledge was 
in its infancy, and it is not surprising if, in regard to its physical aspects, 
modern science compels some change in the interpretation of its terms. That 
a cosmogony, dating some 3,300 years ago, should be deemed in this day 
worthy of any attention might seem sufficiently wonderful, but that in its 
substance it should have successfully borne every class of scrutiny is more sur- 
prising still, and we may safely allow it to make its natural impression on the 
mind as conveying moral and spiritual lessons which will never be obsolete. 
A Mem her of the Institute. — May I ask one question of the 
speaker who has just addressed us in so interesting a manner. Does 
he consider that there was a pre-Adamite man, or some one before 
Adam in human shape ? I do not ask this question for the purpose of 
carping ; but only to ascertain what is his ground for the suggestion. 
Mr. McAlu. — I simply say that if it were proved that there were 10,000 
such men, I should not give up the Bible. 
A Member of the Institute. — I understand you to say that there may 
have been such a thing ? 
Mr. McAll. — I think it is possible. 
Mr. T. W. Masterman. — I think that all the speakers hitherto 
* So far from any necessity existing for such anticipation, my own belief 
is, that the more physical science advances, the more will the literal sense 
and accuracy of the Mosaic account be indicated. — A. I. M G. 
