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+Project Gutenberg Etext of Mr. Gladstone and Genesis, by Huxley
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+#8 in our series by Thomas Henry Huxley
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+This is Essay #5 from "Science and Hebrew Tradition"
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+Title:  Mr. Gladstone and Genesis
+
+Title:  This is Essay #5 from "Science and Hebrew Tradition"
+
+
+
+Author:  Thomas Henry Huxley
+
+
+
+May, 2001  [Etext #2631]
+
+
+
+
+
+Project Gutenberg Etext of Mr. Gladstone and Genesis, by Huxley
+
+*****This file should be named 1saht10.txt or 1saht10.zip******
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+Mr. Gladstone and Genesis
+
+by Thomas Henry Huxley
+
+This is Essay #5 from "Science and Hebrew Tradition"
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+In controversy, as in courtship, the good old rule to be off
+
+with the old before one is on with the new, greatly commends
+
+itself to my sense of expediency. And, therefore, it appears to
+
+me desirable that I should preface such observations as I may
+
+have to offer upon the cloud of arguments (the relevancy of
+
+which to the issue which I had ventured to raise is not always
+
+obvious) put forth by Mr. Gladstone in the January number of
+
+this review,<1> by an endeavour to make clear to such of our
+
+readers as have not had the advantage of a forensic education
+
+the present net result of the discussion.
+
+
+
+I am quite aware that, in undertaking this task, I run all the
+
+risks to which the man who presumes to deal judicially with his
+
+own cause is liable. But it is exactly because I do not shun
+
+that risk, but, rather, earnestly desire to be judged by him who
+
+cometh after me, provided that he has the knowledge and
+
+impartiality appropriate to a judge, that I adopt my
+
+present course.
+
+
+
+In the article on "The Dawn of Creation and Worship," it will be
+
+remembered that Mr. Gladstone unreservedly commits himself to
+
+three propositions. The first is that, according to the writer
+
+of the Pentateuch, the "water-population," the "air-population,"
+
+and the "land-population" of the globe were created
+
+successively, in the order named. In the second place, Mr.
+
+Gladstone authoritatively asserts that this (as part of his
+
+"fourfold order") has been "so affirmed in our time by natural
+
+science, that it may be taken as a demonstrated conclusion and
+
+established fact." In the third place, Mr. Gladstone argues that
+
+the fact of this coincidence of the pentateuchal story with the
+
+results of modern investigation makes it "impossible to avoid
+
+the conclusion, first, that either this writer was gifted with
+
+faculties passing all human experience, or else his knowledge
+
+was divine." And having settled to his own satisfaction that the
+
+first "branch of the alternative is truly nominal and unreal,"
+
+Mr. Gladstone continues, "So stands the plea for a revelation of
+
+truth from God, a plea only to be met by questioning its
+
+possibility" (p. 697).
+
+
+
+I am a simple-minded person, wholly devoid of subtlety of
+
+intellect, so that I willingly admit that there may be depths of
+
+alternative meaning in these propositions out of all soundings
+
+attainable by my poor plummet. Still there are a good many
+
+people who suffer under a like intellectual limitation; and, for
+
+once in my life, I feel that I have the chance of attaining that
+
+position of a representative of average opinion which appears to
+
+be the modern ideal of a leader of men, when I make free
+
+confession that, after turning the matter over in my mind, with
+
+all the aid derived from a careful consideration of Mr.
+
+Gladstone's reply, I cannot get away from my original conviction
+
+that, if Mr. Gladstone's second proposition can be shown to be
+
+not merely inaccurate, but directly contradictory of facts known
+
+to every one who is acquainted with the elements of natural
+
+science, the third proposition collapses of itself.
+
+
+
+And it was this conviction which led me to enter upon the
+
+present discussion. I fancied that if my respected clients, the
+
+people of average opinion and capacity, could once be got
+
+distinctly to conceive that Mr. Gladstone's views as to the
+
+proper method of dealing with grave and difficult scientific and
+
+religious problems had permitted him to base a solemn "plea for
+
+a revelation of truth from God" upon an error as to a matter of
+
+fact, from which the intelligent perusal of a manual of
+
+palaeontology would have saved him, I need not trouble myself to
+
+occupy their time and attention [167] with further comments upon
+
+his contribution to apologetic literature. It is for others to
+
+judge whether I have efficiently carried out my project or not.
+
+It certainly does not count for much that I should be unable to
+
+find any flaw in my own case, but I think it counts for a good
+
+deal that Mr. Gladstone appears to have been equally unable to
+
+do so. He does, indeed, make a great parade of authorities, and
+
+I have the greatest respect for those authorities whom
+
+Mr. Gladstone mentions. If he will get them to sign a joint
+
+memorial to the effect that our present palaeontological
+
+evidence proves that birds appeared before the "land-population"
+
+of terrestrial reptiles, I shall think it my duty to reconsider
+
+my position--but not till then.
+
+
+
+It will be observed that I have cautiously used the word
+
+"appears" in referring to what seems to me to be absence of any
+
+real answer to my criticisms in Mr. Gladstone's reply. For I
+
+must honestly confess that, notwithstanding long and painful
+
+strivings after clear insight, I am still uncertain whether Mr.
+
+Gladstone's "Defence" means that the great "plea for a
+
+revelation from God" is to be left to perish in the dialectic
+
+desert; or whether it is to be withdrawn under the protection of
+
+such skirmishers as are available for covering retreat.
+
+
+
+In particular, the remarkable disquisition which covers pages 11
+
+to 14 of Mr. Gladstone's last contribution has greatly exercised
+
+my mind. Socrates is reported to have said of the works of
+
+Heraclitus that he who attempted to comprehend them should be a
+
+"Delian swimmer," but that, for his part, what he could
+
+understand was so good that he was disposed to believe in the
+
+excellence of that which he found unintelligible.
+
+In endeavouring to make myself master of Mr. Gladstone's meaning
+
+in these pages, I have often been overcome by a feeling
+
+analogous to that of Socrates, but not quite the same.
+
+That which I do understand has appeared to me so very much the
+
+reverse of good, that I have sometimes permitted myself to doubt
+
+the value of that which I do not understand.
+
+
+
+In this part of Mr. Gladstone's reply, in fact, I find nothing
+
+of which the bearing upon my arguments is clear to me, except
+
+that which relates to the question whether reptiles, so far as
+
+they are represented by tortoises and the great majority of
+
+lizards and snakes, which are land animals, are creeping things
+
+in the sense of the pentateuchal writer or not.
+
+
+
+I have every respect for the singer of the Song of the Three
+
+Children (whoever he may have been); I desire to cast no shadow
+
+of doubt upon, but, on the contrary, marvel at, the exactness of
+
+Mr. Gladstone's information as to the considerations which
+
+"affected the method of the Mosaic writer"; nor do I venture to
+
+doubt that the inconvenient intrusion of these contemptible
+
+reptiles--"a family fallen from greatness" (p. 14), a miserable
+
+decayed aristocracy reduced to mere "skulkers about the earth"
+
+(<i>ibid.</i>)--in consequence, apparently, of difficulties
+
+about the occupation of land arising out of the earth-hunger of
+
+their former serfs, the mammals--into an apologetic argument,
+
+which otherwise would run quite smoothly, is in every way to be
+
+deprecated. Still, the wretched creatures stand there,
+
+importunately demanding notice; and, however different may be
+
+the practice in that contentious atmosphere with which Mr.
+
+Gladstone expresses and laments his familiarity, in the
+
+atmosphere of science it really is of no avail whatever to shut
+
+one's eyes to facts, or to try to bury them out of sight under a
+
+tumulus of rhetoric. That is my experience of the "Elysian
+
+regions of Science," wherein it is a pleasure to me to think
+
+that a man of Mr. Gladstone's intimate knowledge of English
+
+life, during the last quarter of a century, believes my
+
+philosophic existence to have been rounded off in
+
+unbroken equanimity.
+
+
+
+However reprehensible, and indeed contemptible, terrestrial
+
+reptiles may be, the only question which appears to me to be
+
+relevant to my argument is whether these creatures are or are
+
+not comprised under the denomination of "everything that
+
+creepeth upon the ground."
+
+
+
+Mr. Gladstone speaks of the author of the first chapter of
+
+Genesis as "the Mosaic writer"; I suppose, therefore, that he
+
+will admit that it is equally proper to speak of the author of
+
+Leviticus as the "Mosaic writer." Whether such a phrase would be
+
+used by any one who had an adequate conception of the assured
+
+results of modern Biblical criticism is another matter; but, at
+
+any rate, it cannot be denied that Leviticus has as much claim
+
+to Mosaic authorship as Genesis. Therefore, if one wants to know
+
+the sense of a phrase used in Genesis, it will be well to see
+
+what Leviticus has to say on the matter. Hence, I commend the
+
+following extract from the eleventh chapter of Leviticus to Mr.
+
+Gladstone's serious attention:--
+
+
+
+<quote>
+
+And these are they which are unclean unto you among the creeping
+
+things that creep upon the earth: the weasel, and the mouse, and
+
+the great lizard after its kind, and the gecko, and the land
+
+crocodile, and the sand-lizard, and the chameleon. These are
+
+they which are unclean to you among all that creep (v. 29-3l).
+
+<end quote>
+
+
+
+The merest Sunday-school exegesis therefore suffices to prove
+
+that when the "Mosaic writer" in Genesis i. 24 speaks of
+
+"creeping things," he means to include lizards among them.
+
+
+
+This being so, it is agreed, on all hands, that terrestrial
+
+lizards, and other reptiles allied to lizards, occur in the
+
+Permian strata. It is further agreed that the Triassic strata
+
+were deposited after these. Moreover, it is well known that,
+
+even if certain footprints are to be taken as unquestionable
+
+evidence of the existence of birds, they are not known to occur
+
+in rocks earlier than the Trias, while indubitable remains of
+
+birds are to be met with only much later. Hence it follows that
+
+natural science does not "affirm" the statement that birds were
+
+made on the fifth day, and "everything that creepeth on the
+
+ground" on the sixth, on which Mr. Gladstone rests his order;
+
+for, as is shown by Leviticus, the "Mosaic writer" includes
+
+lizards among his "creeping things."
+
+
+
+Perhaps I have given myself superfluous trouble in the preceding
+
+argument, for I find that Mr. Gladstone is willing to assume (he
+
+does not say to admit) that the statement in the text of Genesis
+
+as to reptiles cannot "in all points be sustained" (p. 16). But
+
+my position is that it cannot be sustained in any point, so
+
+that, after all, it has perhaps been as well to go over the
+
+evidence again. And then Mr. Gladstone proceeds as if nothing
+
+had happened to tell us that--
+
+
+
+<quote>
+
+There remain great unshaken facts to be weighed. First, the fact
+
+that such a record should have been made at all.
+
+<end quote>
+
+
+
+As most peoples have their cosmogonies, this "fact" does not
+
+strike me as having much value.
+
+
+
+<quote>
+
+Secondly, the fact that, instead of dwelling in generalities, it
+
+has placed itself under the severe conditions of a chronological
+
+order reaching from the first <i>nisus</i> of chaotic matter to
+
+the consummated production of a fair and goodly, a furnished and
+
+a peopled world.
+
+<end quote>
+
+
+
+This "fact" can be regarded as of value only by ignoring the
+
+fact demonstrated in my previous paper, that natural science
+
+does not confirm the order asserted so far as living things are
+
+concerned; and by upsetting a fact to be brought to light
+
+presently, to wit, that, in regard to the rest of the
+
+pentateuchal cosmogony, prudent science has very little to say
+
+one way or the other.
+
+
+
+<quote>
+
+Thirdly, the fact that its cosmogony seems, in the light of the
+
+nineteenth century, to draw more and more of countenance from
+
+the best natural philosophy.
+
+<end quote>
+
+
+
+I have already questioned the accuracy of this statement, and I
+
+do not observe that mere repetition adds to its value.
+
+
+
+<quote>
+
+And, fourthly, that it has described the successive origins of
+
+the five great categories of present life with which human
+
+experience was and is conversant, in that order which geological
+
+authority confirms.
+
+<end quote>
+
+
+
+By comparison with a sentence on page 14, in which a fivefold
+
+order is substituted for the "fourfold order," on which the
+
+"plea for revelation" was originally founded, it appears that
+
+these five categories are "plants, fishes, birds, mammals, and
+
+man," which, Mr. Gladstone affirms, "are given to us in Genesis
+
+in the order of succession in which they are also given by the
+
+latest geological authorities."
+
+
+
+I must venture to demur to this statement. I showed, in my
+
+previous paper, that there is no reason to doubt that the term
+
+"great sea monster" (used in Gen. i. 21) includes the most
+
+conspicuous of great sea animals--namely, whales, dolphins,
+
+porpoises, manatees, and dugongs;<2> and, as these are
+
+indubitable mammals, it is impossible to affirm that mammals
+
+come after birds, which are said to have been created on the
+
+same day. Moreover, I pointed out that as these Cetacea and
+
+Sirenia are certainly modified land animals, their existence
+
+implies the antecedent existence of land mammals.
+
+
+
+Furthermore, I have to remark that the term "fishes," as used,
+
+technically, in zoology, by no means covers all the moving
+
+creatures that have life, which are bidden to "fill the waters
+
+in the seas" (Gen. i. 20-22.) Marine mollusks and crustacea,
+
+echinoderms, corals, and foraminifera are not technically
+
+fishes. But they are abundant in the palaeozoic rocks, ages upon
+
+ages older than those in which the first evidences of true
+
+fishes appear. And if, in a geological book, Mr. Gladstone finds
+
+the quite true statement that plants appeared before fishes, it
+
+is only by a complete misunderstanding that he can be led to
+
+imagine it serves his purpose. As a matter of fact, at the
+
+present moment, it is a question whether, on the bare evidence
+
+afforded by fossils, the marine creeping thing or the marine
+
+plant has the seniority. No cautious palaeontologist would
+
+express a decided opinion on the matter. But, if we are to read
+
+the pentateuchal statement as a scientific document (and, in
+
+spite of all protests to the contrary, those who bring it into
+
+comparison with science do seek to make a scientific document of
+
+it), then, as it is quite clear that only terrestrial plants of
+
+high organisation are spoken of in verses 11 and 12, no
+
+palaeontologist would hesitate to say that, at present, the
+
+records of sea animal life are vastly older than those of any
+
+land plant describable as "grass, herb yielding seed or
+
+fruit tree."
+
+
+
+Thus, although, in Mr. Gladstone's "Defence," the "old order
+
+passeth into new," his case is not improved. The fivefold order
+
+is no more "affirmed in our time by natural science" to be "a
+
+demonstrated conclusion and established fact" than the fourfold
+
+order was. Natural science appears to me to decline to have
+
+anything to do with either; they are as wrong in detail as they
+
+are mistaken in principle.
+
+
+
+There is another change of position, the value of which is not
+
+so apparent to me, as it may well seem to be to those who are
+
+unfamiliar with the subject under discussion. Mr. Gladstone
+
+discards his three groups of "water-population," "air-
+
+population," and "land-population," and substitutes for them
+
+(1) fishes, (2) birds, (3) mammals, (4) man. Moreover, it is
+
+assumed, in a note, that "the higher or ordinary mammals" alone
+
+were known to the "Mosaic writer" (p. 6). No doubt it looks, at
+
+first, as if something were gained by this alteration; for, as I
+
+have just pointed out, the word "fishes" can be used in two
+
+senses, one of which has a deceptive appearance of adjustability
+
+to the "Mosaic" account. Then the inconvenient reptiles are
+
+banished out of sight; and, finally, the question of the exact
+
+meaning of "higher" and "ordinary" in the case of mammals opens
+
+up the prospect of a hopeful logomachy. But what is the good of
+
+it all in the face of Leviticus on the one hand and of
+
+palaeontology on the other?
+
+
+
+As, in my apprehension, there is not a shadow of justification
+
+for the suggestion that when the pentateuchal writer says "fowl"
+
+he excludes bats (which, as we shall see directly, are expressly
+
+included under "fowl" in Leviticus), and as I have already shown
+
+that he demonstrably includes reptiles, as well as mammals,
+
+among the creeping things of the land, I may be permitted to
+
+spare my readers further discussion of the "fivefold order."
+
+On the whole, it is seen to be rather more inconsistent with
+
+Genesis than its fourfold predecessor.
+
+
+
+But I have yet a fresh order to face. Mr. Gladstone (p. 11)
+
+understands "the main statements of Genesis in successive order
+
+of time, but without any measurement of its divisions, to be as
+
+follows:--
+
+
+
+1. A period of land, anterior to all life (v. 9, 10).
+
+2. A period of vegetable life, anterior to animal life
+
+(v. 11, 12).
+
+3. A period of animal life, in the order of fishes (v. 20).
+
+4. Another stage of animal life, in the order of birds.
+
+5. Another in the order of beasts (v. 24, 25).
+
+6. Last of all, man (v. 26, 27).
+
+
+
+Mr. Gladstone then tries to find the proof of the occurrence of
+
+a similar succession in sundry excellent works on geology.
+
+
+
+I am really grieved to be obliged to say that this third (or is
+
+it fourth?) modification of the foundation of the "plea for
+
+revelation" originally set forth, satisfies me as little as any
+
+of its predecessors.
+
+
+
+For, in the first place, I cannot accept the assertion that this
+
+order is to be found in Genesis. With respect to No. 5, for
+
+example, I hold, as I have already said, that "great sea
+
+monsters" includes the Cetacea, in which case mammals (which is
+
+what, I suppose, Mr. Gladstone means by "beasts") come in under
+
+head No. 3, and not under No. 5. Again, "fowl" are said in
+
+Genesis to be created on the same day as fishes; therefore I
+
+cannot accept an order which makes birds succeed fishes.
+
+Once more, as it is quite certain that the term "fowl" includes
+
+the bats,--for in Leviticus xi. 13-19 we read, "And these shall
+
+ye have in abomination among the fowls ... the heron after its
+
+kind, and the hoopoe, and the bat,"--it is obvious that bats are
+
+also said to have been created at stage No. 3. And as bats are
+
+mammals, and their existence obviously presupposes that of
+
+terrestrial "beasts," it is quite clear that the latter could
+
+not have first appeared as No. 5. I need not repeat my reasons
+
+for doubting whether man came "last of all."
+
+
+
+As the latter half of Mr. Gladstone's sixfold order thus shows
+
+itself to be wholly unauthorised by, and inconsistent with, the
+
+plain language of the Pentateuch, I might decline to discuss the
+
+admissibility of its former half.
+
+
+
+But I will add one or two remarks on this point also. Does Mr.
+
+Gladstone mean to say that in any of the works he has cited, or
+
+indeed anywhere else, he can find scientific warranty for the
+
+assertion that there was a period of land--by which I suppose he
+
+means dry land (for submerged land must needs be as old as the
+
+separate existence of the sea)--"anterior to all life?"
+
+
+
+It may be so, or it may not be so; but where is the evidence
+
+which would justify any one in making a positive assertion on
+
+the subject? What competent palaeontologist will affirm, at this
+
+present moment, that he knows anything about the period at which
+
+life originated, or will assert more than the extreme
+
+probability that such origin was a long way antecedent to any
+
+traces of life at present known? What physical geologist will
+
+affirm that he knows when dry land began to exist, or will say
+
+more than that it was probably very much earlier than any extant
+
+direct evidence of terrestrial conditions indicates?
+
+
+
+I think I know pretty well the answers which the authorities
+
+quoted by Mr. Gladstone would give to these questions; but I
+
+leave it to them to give them if they think fit.
+
+
+
+If I ventured to speculate on the matter at all, I should say it
+
+is by no means certain that sea is older than dry land, inasmuch
+
+as a solid terrestrial surface may very well have existed before
+
+the earth was cool enough to allow of the existence of fluid
+
+water. And, in this case, dry land may have existed before the
+
+sea. As to the first appearance of life, the whole argument of
+
+analogy, whatever it may be worth in such a case, is in favour
+
+of the absence of living beings until long after the hot water
+
+seas had constituted themselves; and of the subsequent
+
+appearance of aquatic before terrestrial forms of life.
+
+But whether these "protoplasts" would, if we could examine them,
+
+be reckoned among the lowest microscopic algae, or fungi; or
+
+among those doubtful organisms which lie in the debatable land
+
+between animals and plants, is, in my judgment, a question on
+
+which a prudent biologist will reserve his opinion.
+
+
+
+I think that I have now disposed of those parts of Mr.
+
+Gladstone's defence in which I seem to discover a design to
+
+rescue his solemn "plea for revelation." But a great deal of the
+
+"Proem to Genesis" remains which I would gladly pass over in
+
+silence, were such a course consistent with the respect due to
+
+so distinguished a champion of the "reconcilers."
+
+
+
+I hope that my clients--the people of average opinions--have by
+
+this time some confidence in me; for when I tell them that,
+
+after all, Mr. Gladstone is of opinion that the "Mosaic record"
+
+was meant to give moral, and not scientific, instruction to
+
+those for whom it was written, they may be disposed to think
+
+that I must be misleading them. But let them listen further to
+
+what Mr. Gladstone says in a compendious but not exactly correct
+
+statement respecting my opinions:--
+
+
+
+<quote>
+
+He holds the writer responsible for scientific precision: I look
+
+for nothing of the kind, but assign to him a statement general,
+
+which admits exceptions; popular, which aims mainly at producing
+
+moral impression; summary, which cannot but be open to more or
+
+less of criticism of detail. He thinks it is a lecture. I think
+
+it is a sermon" (p. 5).
+
+<end quote>
+
+
+
+I note, incidentally, that Mr. Gladstone appears to consider
+
+that the <i>differentia</i> between a lecture and a sermon is,
+
+that the former, so far as it deals with matters of fact, may be
+
+taken seriously, as meaning exactly what it says, while a sermon
+
+may not. I have quite enough on my hands without taking up the
+
+cudgels for the clergy, who will probably find Mr. Gladstone's
+
+definition unflattering.
+
+
+
+But I am diverging from my proper business, which is to say that
+
+I have given no ground for the ascription of these opinions; and
+
+that, as a matter of fact, I do not hold them and never have
+
+held them. It is Mr. Gladstone, and not I, who will have it that
+
+the pentateuchal cosmogony is to be taken as science.
+
+
+
+My belief, on the contrary, is, and long has been, that the
+
+pentateuchal story of the creation is simply a myth. I suppose
+
+it to be an hypothesis respecting the origin of the universe
+
+which some ancient thinker found himself able to reconcile with
+
+his knowledge, or what he thought was knowledge, of the nature
+
+of things, and therefore assumed to be true. As such, I hold it
+
+to be not merely an interesting, but a venerable, monument of a
+
+stage in the mental progress of mankind; and I find it difficult
+
+to suppose that any one who is acquainted with the cosmogonies
+
+of other nations--and especially with those of the Egyptians and
+
+the Babylonians, with whom the Israelites were in such frequent
+
+and intimate communication--should consider it to possess either
+
+more, or less, scientific importance than may be allotted
+
+to these.
+
+
+
+Mr. Gladstone's definition of a sermon permits me to suspect
+
+that he may not see much difference between that form of
+
+discourse and what I call a myth; and I hope it may be something
+
+more than the slowness of apprehension, to which I have
+
+confessed, which leads me to imagine that a statement which is
+
+"general" but "admits exceptions," which is "popular" and "aims
+
+mainly at producing moral impression," "summary" and therefore
+
+open to "criticism of detail," amounts to a myth, or perhaps
+
+less than a myth. Put algebraically, it comes to this,
+
+<i>x=a+b+c</i>; always remembering that there is nothing to show
+
+the exact value of either <i>a,</i> or <i>b,</i> or <i>c.</i>
+
+It is true that <i>a</i> is commonly supposed to equal 10, but
+
+there are exceptions, and these may reduce it to 8, or 3, or 0;
+
+<i>b</i> also popularly means 10, but being chiefly used by the
+
+algebraist as a "moral" value, you cannot do much with it in the
+
+addition or subtraction of mathematical values; <i>c</i> also is
+
+quite "summary," and if you go into the details of which it is
+
+made up, many of them may be wrong, and their sum total equal to
+
+0, or even to a minus quantity.
+
+
+
+Mr. Gladstone appears to wish that I should (1) enter upon a
+
+sort of essay competition with the author of the pentateuchal
+
+cosmogony; (2) that I should make a further statement about some
+
+elementary facts in the history of Indian and Greek philosophy;
+
+and (3) that I should show cause for my hesitation in accepting
+
+the assertion that Genesis is supported, at any rate to the
+
+extent of the first two verses, by the nebular hypothesis.
+
+
+
+A certain sense of humour prevents me from accepting the first
+
+invitation. I would as soon attempt to put Hamlet's soliloquy
+
+into a more scientific shape. But if I supposed the "Mosaic
+
+writer" to be inspired, as Mr. Gladstone does, it would not be
+
+consistent with my notions of respect for the Supreme Being to
+
+imagine Him unable to frame a form of words which should
+
+accurately, or, at least, not inaccurately, express His own
+
+meaning. It is sometimes said that, had the statements contained
+
+in the first chapter of Genesis been scientifically true, they
+
+would have been unintelligible to ignorant people; but how is
+
+the matter mended if, being scientifically untrue, they must
+
+needs be rejected by instructed people?
+
+
+
+With respect to the second suggestion, it would be presumptuous
+
+in me to pretend to instruct Mr. Gladstone in matters which lie
+
+as much within the province of Literature and History as in that
+
+of Science; but if any one desirous of further knowledge will be
+
+so good as to turn to that most excellent and by no means
+
+recondite source of information, the "Encyclopaedia Britannica,"
+
+he will find, under the letter E, the word "Evolution," and a
+
+long article on that subject. Now, I do not recommend him to
+
+read the first half of the article; but the second half, by my
+
+friend Mr. Sully, is really very good. He will there find it
+
+said that in some of the philosophies of ancient India, the idea
+
+of evolution is clearly expressed: "Brahma is conceived as the
+
+eternal self-existent being, which, on its material side,
+
+unfolds itself to the world by gradually condensing itself to
+
+material objects through the gradations of ether, fire, water,
+
+earth, and other elements." And again: "In the later system of
+
+emanation of Sankhya there is a more marked approach to a
+
+materialistic doctrine of evolution." What little knowledge I
+
+have of the matter--chiefly derived from that very instructive
+
+book, "Die Religion des Buddha," by C. F. Koeppen, supplemented
+
+by Hardy's interesting works--leads me to think that Mr. Sully
+
+might have spoken much more strongly as to the evolutionary
+
+character of Indian philosophy, and especially of that of the
+
+Buddhists. But the question is too large to be dealt
+
+with incidentally.
+
+
+
+And, with respect to early Greek philosophy,<3> the seeker after
+
+additional enlightenment need go no further than the same
+
+excellent storehouse of information:--
+
+
+
+<quote>The early Ionian physicists, including Thales,
+
+Anaximander, and Anaximenes, seek to explain the world as
+
+generated out of a primordial matter which is at the same time
+
+the universal support of things. This substance is endowed with
+
+a generative or transmutative force by virtue of which it passes
+
+into a succession of forms. They thus resemble modern
+
+evolutionists since they regard the world, with its infinite
+
+variety of forms, as issuing from a simple mode of matter.
+
+<end quote>
+
+
+
+Further on, Mr. Sully remarks that "Heraclitus deserves a
+
+prominent place in the history of the idea of evolution," and he
+
+states, with perfect justice, that Heraclitus has foreshadowed
+
+some of the special peculiarities of Mr. Darwin's views. It is
+
+indeed a very strange circumstance that the philosophy of the
+
+great Ephesian more than adumbrates the two doctrines which have
+
+played leading parts, the one in the development of Christian
+
+dogma, the other in that of natural science. The former is the
+
+conception of the Word <Greek text>[logos] which took its Jewish
+
+shape in Alexandria, and its Christian form<4> in that Gospel
+
+which is usually referred to an Ephesian source of some five
+
+centuries later date; and the latter is that of the struggle for
+
+existence. The saying that "strife is father and king of all"
+
+<Greek text>[...], ascribed to Heraclitus, would be a not
+
+inappropriate motto for the "Origin of Species."
+
+
+
+I have referred only to Mr. Sully's article, because his
+
+authority is quite sufficient for my purpose. But the
+
+consultation of any of the more elaborate histories of Greek
+
+philosophy, such as the great work of Zeller, for example, will
+
+only bring out the same fact into still more striking
+
+prominence. I have professed no "minute acquaintance" with
+
+either Indian or Greek philosophy, but I have taken a great deal
+
+of pains to secure that such knowledge as I do possess shall be
+
+accurate and trustworthy.
+
+
+
+In the third place, Mr. Gladstone appears to wish that I should
+
+discuss with him the question whether the nebular hypothesis is,
+
+or is not, confirmatory of the pentateuchal account of the
+
+origin of things. Mr. Gladstone appears to be prepared to enter
+
+upon this campaign with a light heart. I confess I am not, and
+
+my reason for this backwardness will doubtless surprise Mr.
+
+Gladstone. It is that, rather more than a quarter of a century
+
+ago (namely, in February 1859), when it was my duty, as
+
+President of the Geological Society, to deliver the Anniversary
+
+Address,<5> I chose a topic which involved a very careful study
+
+of the remarkable cosmogonical speculation, originally
+
+promulgated by Immanuel Kant and, subsequently, by Laplace,
+
+which is now known as the nebular hypothesis. With the help of
+
+such little acquaintance with the principles of physics and
+
+astronomy as I had gained, I endeavoured to obtain a clear
+
+understanding of this speculation in all its bearings. I am not
+
+sure that I succeeded; but of this I am certain, that the
+
+problems involved are very difficult, even for those who possess
+
+the intellectual discipline requisite for dealing with them.
+
+And it was this conviction that led me to express my desire to
+
+leave the discussion of the question of the asserted harmony
+
+between Genesis and the nebular hypothesis to experts in the
+
+appropriate branches of knowledge. And I think my course was a
+
+wise one; but as Mr. Gladstone evidently does not understand how
+
+there can be any hesitation on my part, unless it arises from a
+
+conviction that he is in the right, I may go so far as to set
+
+out my difficulties.
+
+
+
+They are of two kinds--exegetical and scientific. It appears to
+
+me that it is vain to discuss a supposed coincidence between
+
+Genesis and science unless we have first settled, on the one
+
+hand, what Genesis says, and, on the other hand, what
+
+science says.
+
+
+
+In the first place, I cannot find any consensus among Biblical
+
+scholars as to the meaning of the words, "In the beginning God
+
+created the heaven and the earth." Some say that the Hebrew word
+
+<i>bara,</i> which is translated "create," means "made out of
+
+nothing." I venture to object to that rendering, not on the
+
+ground of scholarship, but of common sense. Omnipotence itself
+
+can surely no more make something "out of" nothing than it can
+
+make a triangular circle. What is intended by "made out of
+
+nothing" appears to be "caused to come into existence," with the
+
+implication that nothing of the same kind previously existed.
+
+It is further usually assumed that "the heaven and the earth"
+
+means the material substance of the universe. Hence the "Mosaic
+
+writer" is taken to imply that where nothing of a material
+
+nature previously existed, this substance appeared. That is
+
+perfectly conceivable, and therefore no one can deny that it may
+
+have happened. But there are other very authoritative critics
+
+who say that the ancient Israelite<6> who wrote the passage was
+
+not likely to have been capable of such abstract thinking; and
+
+that, as a matter of philology, <i>bara</i> is commonly used to
+
+signify the "fashioning," or "forming," of that which already
+
+exists. Now it appears to me that the scientific investigator is
+
+wholly incompetent to say anything at all about the first origin
+
+of the material universe. The whole power of his organon
+
+vanishes when he has to step beyond the chain of natural causes
+
+and effects. No form of the nebular hypothesis, that I know of,
+
+is necessarily connected with any view of the origination of the
+
+nebular substance. Kant's form of it expressly supposes that the
+
+nebular material from which one stellar system starts may be
+
+nothing but the disintegrated substance of a stellar and
+
+planetary system which has just come to an end. Therefore, so
+
+far as I can see, one who believes that matter has existed from
+
+all eternity has just as much right to hold the nebular
+
+hypothesis as one who believes that matter came into existence
+
+at a specified epoch. In other words, the nebular hypothesis and
+
+the creation hypothesis, up to this point, neither confirm nor
+
+oppose one another.
+
+
+
+Next, we read in the revisers' version, in which I suppose the
+
+ultimate results of critical scholarship to be embodied: "And
+
+the earth was waste ['without form,' in the Authorised Version]
+
+and void." Most people seem to think that this phraseology
+
+intends to imply that the matter out of which the world was to
+
+be formed was a veritable "chaos," devoid of law and order.
+
+If this interpretation is correct, the nebular hypothesis can
+
+have nothing to say to it. The scientific thinker cannot admit
+
+the absence of law and order; anywhere or anywhen, in nature.
+
+Sometimes law and order are patent and visible to our limited
+
+vision; sometimes they are hidden. But every particle of the
+
+matter of the most fantastic-looking nebula in the heavens is a
+
+realm of law and order in itself; and, that it is so, is the
+
+essential condition of the possibility of solar and planetary
+
+evolution from the apparent chaos.<7>
+
+
+
+"Waste" is too vague a term to be worth consideration. "Without
+
+form," intelligible enough as a metaphor, if taken literally is
+
+absurd; for a material thing existing in space must have a
+
+superficies, and if it has a superficies it has a form.
+
+The wildest streaks of marestail clouds in the sky, or the most
+
+irregular heavenly nebulae, have surely just as much form as a
+
+geometrical tetrahedron; and as for "void," how can that be void
+
+which is full of matter? As poetry, these lines are vivid and
+
+admirable; as a scientific statement, which they must be taken
+
+to be if any one is justified in comparing them with another
+
+scientific statement, they fail to convey any intelligible
+
+conception to my mind.
+
+
+
+The account proceeds: "And darkness was upon the face of the
+
+deep." So be it; but where, then, is the likeness to the
+
+celestial nebulae, of the existence of which we should know
+
+nothing unless they shone with a light of their own? "And the
+
+spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." I have met
+
+with no form of the nebular hypothesis which involves anything
+
+analogous to this process.
+
+
+
+I have said enough to explain some of the difficulties which
+
+arise in my mind, when I try to ascertain whether there is any
+
+foundation for the contention that the statements contained in
+
+the first two verses of Genesis are supported by the nebular
+
+hypothesis. The result does not appear to me to be exactly
+
+favourable to that contention. The nebular hypothesis assumes
+
+the existence of matter, having definite properties, as its
+
+foundation. Whether such matter was created a few thousand years
+
+ago, or whether it has existed through an eternal series of
+
+metamorphoses of which our present universe is only the last
+
+stage, are alternatives, neither of which is scientifically
+
+untenable, and neither scientifically demonstrable. But science
+
+knows nothing of any stage in which the universe could be said,
+
+in other than a metaphorical and popular sense, to be formless
+
+or empty; or in any respect less the seat of law and order than
+
+it is now. One might as well talk of a fresh-laid hen's egg
+
+being "without form and void," because the chick therein is
+
+potential and not actual, as apply such terms to the nebulous
+
+mass which contains a potential solar system.
+
+
+
+Until some further enlightenment comes to me, then, I confess
+
+myself wholly unable to understand the way in which the nebular
+
+hypothesis is to be converted into an ally of the
+
+"Mosaic writer."<8>
+
+
+
+But Mr. Gladstone informs us that Professor Dana and Professor
+
+Guyot are prepared to prove that the "first or cosmogonical
+
+portion of the Proem not only accords with, but teaches, the
+
+nebular hypothesis." There is no one to whose authority on
+
+geological questions I am more readily disposed to bow than that
+
+of my eminent friend Professor Dana. But I am familiar with what
+
+he has previously said on this topic in his well-known and
+
+standard work, into which, strangely enough, it does not seem to
+
+have occurred to Mr. Gladstone to look before he set out upon
+
+his present undertaking; and unless Professor Dana's latest
+
+contribution (which I have not yet met with) takes up altogether
+
+new ground, I am afraid I shall not be able to extricate myself,
+
+by its help, from my present difficulties.
+
+
+
+It is a very long time since I began to think about the
+
+relations between modern scientifically ascertained truths and
+
+the cosmogonical speculations of the writer of Genesis; and, as
+
+I think that Mr. Gladstone might have been able to put his case
+
+with a good deal more force, if he had thought it worth while to
+
+consult the last chapter of Professor Dana's admirable "Manual
+
+of Geology," so I think he might have been made aware that he
+
+was undertaking an enterprise of which he had not counted the
+
+cost, if he had chanced upon a discussion of the subject which I
+
+published in 1877.<9>
+
+
+
+Finally, I should like to draw the attention of those who take
+
+interest in these topics to the weighty words of one of the most
+
+learned and moderate of Biblical critics:--
+
+
+
+<quote>
+
+"A propos de cette premiere page de la Bible, on a coutume de
+
+nos jours de disserter, a perte de vue, sur l'accord du recit
+
+mosaique avec les sciences naturelles; et comme celles-ci tout
+
+eloignees qu'elles sont encore de la perfection absolue, ont
+
+rendu populaires et en quelque sorte irrefragables un certain
+
+nombre de faits generaux ou de theses fondamentales de la
+
+cosmologie et de la geologie, c'est le texte sacre qu'on
+
+s'evertue a torturer pour le faire concorder avec
+
+ces donnees."<10>
+
+<end quote>
+
+
+
+In my paper on the "Interpreters of Nature and the Interpreters
+
+of Genesis," while freely availing myself of the rights of a
+
+scientific critic, I endeavoured to keep the expression of my
+
+views well within those bounds of courtesy which are set by
+
+self-respect and consideration for others. I am therefore glad
+
+to be favoured with Mr. Gladstone's acknowledgment of the
+
+success of my efforts. I only wish that I could accept all the
+
+products of Mr. Gladstone's gracious appreciation, but there is
+
+one about which, as a matter of honesty, I hesitate. In fact, if
+
+I had expressed my meaning better than I seem to have done, I
+
+doubt if the particular proffer of Mr. Gladstone's thanks would
+
+have been made.
+
+
+
+To my mind, whatever doctrine professes to be the result of the
+
+application of the accepted rules of inductive and deductive
+
+logic to its subject-matter; and which accepts, within the
+
+limits which it sets to itself, the supremacy of reason, is
+
+Science. Whether the subject-matter consists of realities or
+
+unrealities, truths or falsehoods, is quite another question. I
+
+conceive that ordinary geometry is science, by reason of its
+
+method, and I also believe that its axioms, definitions, and
+
+conclusions are all true. However, there is a geometry of four
+
+dimensions, which I also believe to be science, because its
+
+method professes to be strictly scientific. It is true that I
+
+cannot conceive four dimensions in space, and therefore, for me,
+
+the whole affair is unreal. But I have known men of great
+
+intellectual powers who seemed to have no difficulty either in
+
+conceiving them, or, at any rate, in imagining how they could
+
+conceive them; and, therefore, four-dimensioned geometry comes
+
+under my notion of science. So I think astrology is a science,
+
+in so far as it professes to reason logically from principles
+
+established by just inductive methods. To prevent
+
+misunderstanding, perhaps I had better add that I do not believe
+
+one whit in astrology; but no more do I believe in Ptolemaic
+
+astronomy, or in the catastrophic geology of my youth, although
+
+these, in their day, claimed--and, to my mind, rightly claimed--
+
+the name of science. If nothing is to be called science but that
+
+which is exactly true from beginning to end, I am afraid there
+
+is very little science in the world outside mathematics.
+
+Among the physical sciences, I do not know that any could claim
+
+more than that it is true within certain limits, so narrow that,
+
+for the present at any rate, they may be neglected. If such is
+
+the case, I do not see where the line is to be drawn between
+
+exactly true, partially true, and mainly untrue forms of
+
+science. And what I have said about the current theology at the
+
+end of my paper [<i>supra</i> pp. 160-163] leaves, I think, no
+
+doubt as to the category in which I rank it. For all that, I
+
+think it would be not only unjust, but almost impertinent, to
+
+refuse the name of science to the "Summa" of St. Thomas or to
+
+the "Institutes" of Calvin.
+
+
+
+In conclusion, I confess that my supposed "unjaded appetite" for
+
+the sort of controversy in which it needed not Mr. Gladstone's
+
+express declaration to tell us he is far better practised than I
+
+am (though probably, without another express declaration, no one
+
+would have suspected that his controversial fires are burning
+
+low) is already satiated.
+
+
+
+In "Elysium" we conduct scientific discussions in a different
+
+medium, and we are liable to threatenings of asphyxia in that
+
+"atmosphere of contention" in which Mr. Gladstone has been able
+
+to live, alert and vigorous beyond the common race of men, as if
+
+it were purest mountain air. I trust that he may long continue
+
+to seek truth, under the difficult conditions he has chosen for
+
+the search, with unabated energy--I had almost said fire--
+
+
+
+<quote>
+
+May age not wither him, nor custom stale
+
+His infinite variety.
+
+<end quote>
+
+
+
+But Elysium suits my less robust constitution better, and I beg
+
+leave to retire thither, not sorry for my experience of the
+
+other region--no one should regret experience--but determined
+
+not to repeat it, at any rate in reference to the "plea
+
+for revelation."
+
+
+
+<quote>
+
+
+
+NOTE ON THE PROPER SENSE OF THE "MOSAIC" NARRATIVE
+
+OF THE CREATION.
+
+
+
+It has been objected to my argument from Leviticus (<i>suprà</i>
+
+p. 170) that the Hebrew words translated by "creeping things" in
+
+Genesis i. 24 and Leviticus xi. 29, are different; namely,
+
+"reh-mes" in the former, "sheh-retz" in the latter. The obvious
+
+reply to this objection is that the question is not one of words
+
+but of the meaning of words. To borrow an illustration from our
+
+own language, if "crawling things" had been used by the
+
+translators in Genesis and "creeping things" in Leviticus, it
+
+would not have been necessarily implied that they intended to
+
+denote different groups of animals. "Sheh-retz" is employed in a
+
+wider sense than "reh-mes." There are "sheh-retz" of the waters
+
+of the earth, of the air, and of the land. Leviticus speaks of
+
+land reptiles, among other animals, as "sheh-retz";
+
+Genesis speaks of all creeping land animals, among which land
+
+reptiles are necessarily included, as "reh-mes."
+
+Our translators, therefore, have given the true sense when they
+
+render both "sheh-retz" and "reh-mes" by "creeping things."
+
+
+
+Having taken a good deal of trouble to show what Genesis i.-ii.
+
+4 does not mean, in the preceding pages, perhaps it may be well
+
+that I should briefly give my opinion as to what it does mean.
+
+I conceive that the unknown author of this part of the
+
+Hexateuchal compilation believed, and meant his readers to
+
+believe, that his words, as they understood them--that is to
+
+say, in their ordinary natural sense--conveyed the "actual
+
+historical truth." When he says that such and such things
+
+happened, I believe him to mean that they actually occurred and
+
+not that he imagined or dreamed them; when he says "day," I
+
+believe he uses the word in the popular sense; when he says
+
+"made" or "created," I believe he means that they came into
+
+being by a process analogous to that which the people whom he
+
+addressed called "making" or "creating"; and I think that,
+
+unless we forget our present knowledge of nature, and, putting
+
+ourselves back into the position of a Phoenician or a Chaldaean
+
+philosopher, start from his conception of the world, we shall
+
+fail to grasp the meaning of the Hebrew writer. We must conceive
+
+the earth to be an immovable, more or less flattened, body, with
+
+the vault of heaven above, the watery abyss below and around.
+
+We must imagine sun, moon, and stars to be "set" in a
+
+"firmament" with, or in, which they move; and above which is yet
+
+another watery mass. We must consider "light" and "darkness" to
+
+be things, the alternation of which constitutes day and night,
+
+independently of the existence of sun, moon, and stars. We must
+
+further suppose that, as in the case of the story of the deluge,
+
+the Hebrew writer was acquainted with a Gentile (probably
+
+Chaldaean or Accadian) account of the origin of things, in which
+
+he substantially believed, but which he stripped of all its
+
+idolatrous associations by substituting "Elohim" for Ea, Anu,
+
+Bel, and the like.
+
+
+
+From this point of view the first verse strikes the keynote of
+
+the whole. In the beginning "Elohim<11> created the heaven and
+
+the earth." Heaven and earth were not primitive existences from
+
+which the gods proceeded, as the Gentiles taught; on the
+
+contrary, the "Powers" preceded and created heaven and earth.
+
+Whether by "creation" is meant "causing to be where nothing was
+
+before" or "shaping of something which pre-existed," seems to me
+
+to be an insoluble question.
+
+
+
+As I have pointed out, the second verse has an interesting
+
+parallel in Jeremiah iv. 23: "I beheld the earth, and, lo, it
+
+was waste and void; and the heavens, and they had no light."
+
+I conceive that there is no more allusion to chaos in the one
+
+than in the other. The earth-disk lay in its watery envelope,
+
+like the yolk of an egg in the <i>glaire,</i> and the spirit, or
+
+breath, of Elohim stirred the mass. Light was created as a thing
+
+by itself; and its antithesis "darkness" as another thing.
+
+It was supposed to be the nature of these two to alternate, and
+
+a pair of alternations constituted a "day" in the sense of an
+
+unit of time.
+
+
+
+The next step was, necessarily, the formation of that
+
+"firmament," or dome over the earth-disk, which was supposed to
+
+support the celestial waters; and in which sun, moon, and stars
+
+were conceived to be set, as in a sort of orrery. The earth was
+
+still surrounded and covered by the lower waters, but the upper
+
+were separated from it by the "firmament," beneath which what we
+
+call the air lay. A second alternation of darkness and light
+
+marks the lapse of time.
+
+
+
+After this, the waters which covered the earth-disk, under the
+
+firmament, were drawn away into certain regions, which became
+
+seas, while the part laid bare became dry land. In accordance
+
+with the notion, universally accepted in antiquity, that moist
+
+earth possesses the potentiality of giving rise to living
+
+beings, the land, at the command of Elohim, "put forth" all
+
+sorts of plants. They are made to appear thus early, not, I
+
+apprehend, from any notion that plants are lower in the scale of
+
+being than animals (which would seem to be inconsistent with the
+
+prevalence of tree worship among ancient people), but rather
+
+because animals obviously depend on plants; and because, without
+
+crops and harvests, there seemed to be no particular need of
+
+heavenly signs for the seasons.
+
+
+
+These were provided by the fourth day's work. Light existed
+
+already; but now vehicles for the distribution of light, in a
+
+special manner and with varying degrees of intensity, were
+
+provided. I conceive that the previous alternations of light and
+
+darkness were supposed to go on; but that the "light" was
+
+strengthened during the daytime by the sun, which, as a source
+
+of heat as well as of light, glided up the firmament from the
+
+east, and slid down in the west, each day. Very probably each
+
+day's sun was supposed to be a new one. And as the light of the
+
+day was strengthened by the sun, so the darkness of the night
+
+was weakened by the moon, which regularly waxed and waned every
+
+month. The stars are, as it were, thrown in. And nothing can
+
+more sharply mark the doctrinal purpose of the author, than the
+
+manner in which he deals with the heavenly bodies, which the
+
+Gentiles identified so closely with their gods, as if they were
+
+mere accessories to the almanac.
+
+
+
+Animals come next in order of creation, and the general notion
+
+of the writer seems to be that they were produced by the medium
+
+in which they live; that is to say, the aquatic animals by the
+
+waters, and the terrestrial animals by the land. But there was a
+
+difficulty about flying things, such as bats, birds, and
+
+insects. The cosmogonist seems to have had no conception of
+
+"air" as an elemental body. His "elements" are earth and water,
+
+and he ignores air as much as he does fire. Birds "fly above the
+
+earth in the open firmament" or "on the face of the expanse" of
+
+heaven. They are not said to fly through the air. The choice of
+
+a generative medium for flying things, therefore, seemed to lie
+
+between water and earth; and, if we take into account the
+
+conspicuousness of the great flocks of water-birds and the
+
+swarms of winged insects, which appear to arise from water, I
+
+think the preference of water becomes intelligible. However, I
+
+do not put this forward as more than a probable hypothesis.
+
+As to the creation of aquatic animals on the fifth, that of land
+
+animals on the sixth day, and that of man last of all, I presume
+
+the order was determined by the fact that man could hardly
+
+receive dominion over the living world before it existed;
+
+and that the "cattle" were not wanted until he was about to make
+
+his appearance. The other terrestrial animals would naturally be
+
+associated with the cattle.
+
+
+
+The absurdity of imagining that any conception, analogous to
+
+that of a zoological classification, was in the mind of the
+
+writer will be apparent, when we consider that the fifth day's
+
+work must include the zoologist's <i>Cetacea, Sirenia,</i> and
+
+seals,<12> all of which are <i>Mammalia;</i> all birds, turtles,
+
+sea-snakes and, presumably, the fresh water <i>Reptilia</i> and
+
+<i>Amphibia;</i> with the great majority of <i>Invertebrata.</i>
+
+
+
+The creation of man is announced as a separate act, resulting
+
+from a particular resolution of Elohim to "make man in our
+
+image, after our likeness." To learn what this remarkable phrase
+
+means we must turn to the fifth chapter of Genesis, the work of
+
+the same writer. "In the day that Elohim created man, in the
+
+likeness of Elohim made he him; male and female created he them;
+
+and blessed them and called their name Adam in the day when they
+
+were created. And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years and
+
+begat <i>a son</i> in his own likeness, after his image;
+
+and called his name Seth." I find it impossible to read this
+
+passage without being convinced that, when the writer says Adam
+
+was made in the likeness of Elohim, he means the same sort of
+
+likeness as when he says that Seth was begotten in the likeness
+
+of Adam. Whence it follows that his conception of Elohim was
+
+completely anthropomorphic.
+
+
+
+In all this narrative I can discover nothing which
+
+differentiates it, in principle, from other ancient cosmogonies,
+
+except the rejection of all gods, save the vague, yet
+
+anthropomorphic, Elohim, and the assigning to them anteriority
+
+and superiority to the world. It is as utterly irreconcilable
+
+with the assured truths of modern science, as it is with the
+
+account of the origin of man, plants, and animals given by the
+
+writer of the second chief constituent of the Hexateuch in the
+
+second chapter of Genesis. This extraordinary story starts with
+
+the assumption of the existence of a rainless earth, devoid of
+
+plants and herbs of the field. The creation of living beings
+
+begins with that of a solitary man; the next thing that happens
+
+is the laying out of the Garden of Eden, and the causing the
+
+growth from its soil of every tree "that is pleasant to the
+
+sight and good for food"; the third act is the formation out of
+
+the ground of "every beast of the field, and every fowl of the
+
+air"; the fourth and last, the manufacture of the first woman
+
+from a rib, extracted from Adam, while in a state
+
+of anaesthesia.
+
+
+
+Yet there are people who not only profess to take this monstrous
+
+legend seriously, but who declare it to be reconcilable with the
+
+Elohistic account of the creation!
+
+<end quote>
+
+
+
+
+
+FOOTNOTES
+
+
+
+
+
+(1) <i>The Nineteenth Century,</i> 1886.
+
+
+
+(2) Both dolphins and dugongs occur in the Red Sea, porpoises
+
+and dolphins in the Mediterranean; so that the "Mosaic writer"
+
+may have been acquainted with them.
+
+
+
+(3) I said nothing about "the greater number of schools of Greek
+
+philosophy," as Mr. Gladstone implies that I did, but expressly
+
+spoke of the "founders of Greek philosophy."
+
+
+
+(4) See Heinze, <i>Die Lehre vom Logos,</i> p. 9 <i>et seq.</i>
+
+
+
+(5) Reprinted in <i>Lay Sermons, Addresses, and Reviews,</i>
+
+1870.
+
+
+
+(6) "Ancient," doubtless, but his antiquity must not be
+
+exaggerated. For example, there is no proof that the "Mosaic"
+
+cosmogony was known to the Israelites of Solomon's time.
+
+
+
+(7) When Jeremiah (iv. 23) says, "I beheld the earth, and, lo,
+
+it was waste and void," he certainly does not mean to imply that
+
+the form of the earth was less definite, or its substance less
+
+solid, than before.
+
+
+
+(8) In looking through the delightful volume recently published
+
+by the Astronomer-Royal for Ireland, a day or two ago, I find
+
+the following remarks on the nebular hypothesis, which I should
+
+have been glad to quote in my text if I had known them sooner:--
+
+
+
+"Nor can it be ever more than a speculation; it cannot be
+
+established by observation, nor can it be proved by calculation.
+
+It is merely a conjecture, more or less plausible, but perhaps
+
+in some degree, necessarily true, if our present laws of heat,
+
+as we understand them, admit of the extreme application here
+
+required, and if the present order of things has reigned for
+
+sufficient time without the intervention of any influence at
+
+present known to us" (<i>The Story of the Heavens,</i> p. 506).
+
+
+
+Would any prudent advocate base a plea, either for or against
+
+revelation, upon the coincidence, or want of coincidence, of the
+
+declarations of the latter with the requirements of an
+
+hypothesis thus guardedly dealt with by an astronomical expert?
+
+
+
+(9) Lectures on Evolution delivered in New York (American
+
+Addresses).
+
+
+
+(10) Reuss, <i>L'Histoire Sainte et la Loi,</i> vol. i, p. 275.
+
+
+
+(11) For the sense of the term "Elohim," see the essay entitled
+
+"The Evolution of Theology" at the end of this volume.
+
+
+
+(12) Perhaps even hippopotamuses and otters!
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg Etext of Mr. Gladstone and Genesis, by Huxley
+
+This is Essay #5 from "Science and Hebrew Tradition"
+
+
+
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