MESSRS. MACMILLAN AND CO.'S PUBLICATIONS.

Printed byR. & R. CLARK,Edinburgh.

BY THE SAME AUTHOR.

LAY SERMONS, ADDRESSES, AND REVIEWS. 9th Edition. 8vo. 7s. 6d.

CRITIQUES AND ADDRESSES. 8vo. 10s. 6d.

STANDARD—"The whole book is well worthy of the reputation of a writer whom all, whether they agree or not with his views upon education and Darwinism, will admit is one of our foremost thinkers."SCOTSMAN—"There is so much that is suggestive in the volume, so much that is valuable in the way of scientific information, and so much that is good in point of literary style, that the volume should be widely and generally read."

STANDARD—"The whole book is well worthy of the reputation of a writer whom all, whether they agree or not with his views upon education and Darwinism, will admit is one of our foremost thinkers."

SCOTSMAN—"There is so much that is suggestive in the volume, so much that is valuable in the way of scientific information, and so much that is good in point of literary style, that the volume should be widely and generally read."

SCIENCE AND CULTURE, and other Essays.8vo. 10s. 6d.

ACADEMY—"Some of these essays are among the most interesting of Professor Huxley's contributions to the literature of science."WESTMINSTER REVIEW—"A most valuable contribution to literature, and at the same time an excellent enunciation of the relation of learning to science in general."

ACADEMY—"Some of these essays are among the most interesting of Professor Huxley's contributions to the literature of science."

WESTMINSTER REVIEW—"A most valuable contribution to literature, and at the same time an excellent enunciation of the relation of learning to science in general."

SOCIAL DISEASES AND WORSE REMEDIES:Letters to the "Times" on Mr. Booth's Schemes.With a Preface and Introductory Essay. 2d Edition. Crown 8vo. sewed. 1s. net.

MACMILLAN AND CO., LONDON.

BY THE SAME AUTHOR.

LESSONS IN ELEMENTARY PHYSIOLOGY. With Numerous Illustrations. New Edition. Foolscap 8vo. 4s. 6d.

SPECTATOR—"A very useful little manual which should be received with acclamation."MEDICAL PRESS—"It is an admirable illustration of how the greatest masters of a science may teach its elements in the most simple manner."LANCET—"To intending medical students this work will prove of great value.... We welcome this book then as a valuable addition to elementary education."

SPECTATOR—"A very useful little manual which should be received with acclamation."

MEDICAL PRESS—"It is an admirable illustration of how the greatest masters of a science may teach its elements in the most simple manner."

LANCET—"To intending medical students this work will prove of great value.... We welcome this book then as a valuable addition to elementary education."

PHYSIOGRAPHY.An Introduction to the Study of Nature.13th Edition. Crown 8vo. 6s.

SATURDAY REVIEW—"Written in that attractive style which is characteristic of a great natural history demonstrator, a style in which clearness and precision of language are combined with a vivid survey of the various objects touched upon."ACADEMY—"It would hardly be possible to place a more useful or suggestive book in the hands of learners and teachers, or one that is better calculated to make physiography a favourite subject in the science schools."

ACADEMY—"It would hardly be possible to place a more useful or suggestive book in the hands of learners and teachers, or one that is better calculated to make physiography a favourite subject in the science schools."

AMERICAN ADDRESSES.With a Lecture on the Study of Biology.8vo. 6s. 6d.

BRITISH QUARTERLY REVIEW—"This interesting and instructive volume has all the clearness and the earnestness of honest conviction that characterise the writings of its eminent author."SCOTSMAN—"These lectures are models of calm and dispassionate treatment of the subject regarded as a question of history, and contain the clearest exposition, as well as the best justification that has yet appeared of the doctrine of evolution."

BRITISH QUARTERLY REVIEW—"This interesting and instructive volume has all the clearness and the earnestness of honest conviction that characterise the writings of its eminent author."

SCOTSMAN—"These lectures are models of calm and dispassionate treatment of the subject regarded as a question of history, and contain the clearest exposition, as well as the best justification that has yet appeared of the doctrine of evolution."

SCIENCE PRIMER.Introductory.18mo. cloth. 1s.

GUARDIAN—"It is distinguished by the perfect lucidity and excellent literary style of which he is so great a master. The elementary conception of nature and science of material and immaterial objects, of mineral and living bodies are explained in the fewest and clearest words."

MACMILLAN AND CO., LONDON.

By the BISHOP OF LONDON.

THE RELATIONS BETWEEN RELIGION AND SCIENCE. Bampton Lectures, 1884. 7th and Cheaper Edition. Crown 8vo. 6s.

ByRev. Professor SALMON.

NON-MIRACULOUS CHRISTIANITY, and other Sermons. 2nd Edition. Crown 8vo. 6s.

GNOSTICISM AND AGNOSTICISM, and other Sermons. Crown 8vo. 7s. 6d.

By the AUTHOR OF "ECCE HOMO."

NATURAL RELIGION. By the author of "Ecce Homo." 3rd Edition. Globe 8vo. 6s.

ByProfessorsTAIT and BALFOUR STEWART.

PARADOXICAL PHILOSOPHY: A Sequel to "The Unseen Universe." Crown 8vo. 7s. 6d.

By R. H. HUTTON.

ESSAYS ON SOME OF THE MODERN GUIDES OF ENGLISH THOUGHT IN MATTERS OF FAITH. Globe 8vo. 6s.

THEOLOGICAL ESSAYS. Globe 8vo. 6s.

ByRev. T. W. FOWLE.

A NEW ANALOGY BETWEEN REVEALED RELIGION AND THE COURSE AND CONSTITUTION OF NATURE. Crown 8vo. 6s.

ByCanon CURTEIS.

THE SCIENTIFIC OBSTACLES TO CHRISTIAN BELIEF. The Boyle Lectures, 1884. Crown 8vo. 6s.

ByProf. CALDERWOOD.

THE RELATIONS OF SCIENCE AND RELIGION. Crown 8vo. 5s.

By the lateProfessor BIRKS.

THE DIFFICULTIES OF BELIEF IN CONNECTION WITH THE CREATION AND THE FALL, REDEMPTION, AND JUDGMENT. 2nd Edition. Crown 8vo. 5s.

SUPERNATURAL REVELATION: or, First Principles of Moral Theology. 8vo. 8s.

MACMILLAN AND CO., LONDON.

WORKS BYDr.A. R. WALLACE.

New and Cheaper Edition. Extra Crown 8vo. 6s.

THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO: THE LAND OF THE ORANG UTAN AND THE BIRD OF PARADISE. A Narrative of Travel. With Studies of Man and Nature. ByAlfred Russell Wallace, LL.D., F.L.S., Author of "Darwinism," etc. With Maps and Illustrations.

GLASGOW HERALD—"There is probably no more interesting book of travel in the language.... For one-and-twenty years it has held its place as a monograph in a region of the East which is full of fascination, not only for the naturalist and ethnographer, but for the ordinary reader of travels."

New Edition. In one vol. Extra crown 8vo. 6s.

CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE THEORY OF NATURAL SELECTION: AND TROPICAL NATURE AND OTHER ESSAYS. By the same Author.

New and Cheaper Edition. Crown 8vo. 6s.

ISLAND LIFE: OR, THE PHENOMENA AND CAUSES OF INSULAR FAUNAS AND FLORAS. Including a Revision and attempted solution of the problem of Geological Climates. By the same Author. With Illustrations and Maps.

Third Edition. Crown 8vo. 9s.

DARWINISM. An Exposition of the Theory of Natural Selection, with some of its Applications. By the same Author. Illustrated.

SATURDAY REVIEW—"... Mr. Wallace's volume may be taken as a faithful exposition of what Darwin meant. It is written with perfect clearness, with a simple beauty and attractiveness of style not common to scientific works, with a dignity and freedom from anything like personal bitterness worthy of Darwin himself, and with an orderliness and completeness that must render misconception impossible."ATHENÆUM—"Mr. Wallace adds so much that is new, and he writes in so charming and simple a style, that his readers more than he are to be congratulated on the latest service he has rendered to the science he has served so well...."SCOTSMAN—"... There can be only one opinion of the great mental grasp and ingenuity, the lucidity of view, and the brilliancy of exposition displayed by him in going over this immense and profound field of inquiry."MANCHESTER EXAMINER—"A singularly useful and timely contribution to the higher literature of popular science.... It has the weight and interest which are given by unwearying research, patient investigation, and shrewd vigorous thought."CAMBRIDGE REVIEW—"It is a work of the most admirable lucidity, and it may be recommended as a charming one to the general reader. So many new facts and arguments have been discovered since the publication of theOrigin of Species, that the work should also be studied by the scientific specialist.... The final chapters on man are deeply interesting."

ATHENÆUM—"Mr. Wallace adds so much that is new, and he writes in so charming and simple a style, that his readers more than he are to be congratulated on the latest service he has rendered to the science he has served so well...."

SCOTSMAN—"... There can be only one opinion of the great mental grasp and ingenuity, the lucidity of view, and the brilliancy of exposition displayed by him in going over this immense and profound field of inquiry."

MANCHESTER EXAMINER—"A singularly useful and timely contribution to the higher literature of popular science.... It has the weight and interest which are given by unwearying research, patient investigation, and shrewd vigorous thought."

CAMBRIDGE REVIEW—"It is a work of the most admirable lucidity, and it may be recommended as a charming one to the general reader. So many new facts and arguments have been discovered since the publication of theOrigin of Species, that the work should also be studied by the scientific specialist.... The final chapters on man are deeply interesting."

WORKS BY SIR JOHN LUBBOCK.

Crown 8vo. 3s. 6d.

THE ORIGIN AND METAMORPHOSES OF INSECTS. With Illustrations.

Crown 8vo. 4s. 6d.

ON BRITISH WILD FLOWERS CONSIDERED IN THEIR RELATION TO INSECTS. With Illustrations.

Crown 8vo. 4s. 6d.

FLOWERS, FRUITS, AND LEAVES. With Illustrations.

Second Edition, revised. 8vo. 8s. 6d.

SCIENTIFIC LECTURES. With Illustrations.

8vo. 8s. 6d.

POLITICAL AND EDUCATIONAL ADDRESSES.

Gl. 8vo.

THE PLEASURES OF LIFE. New Edition. 1s. 6d.; sewed, 1s. 60th Thousand.Library Edition.Globe 8vo. 3s. 6d.

Part II. Globe 8vo. 1s. 6d.; sewed, 1s.Library Edition.Globe 3s. 6d.

Two Parts in one vol. Gl. 8vo. 2s. 6d.

Crown 8vo. 2s. 6d.

FIFTY YEARS OF SCIENCE: Address to the British Association, 1881. 5th Edition.

MACMILLAN AND CO., LONDON.

Crown 8vo. Cloth.

SEEING AND THINKING.

By Prof.W. K. Clifford, F.R.S. Diagrams. 3s. 6d.

CHARLES DARWIN.

Memorial Notices reprinted from "Nature." ByThomas H. Huxley, F.R.S.;G. J. Romanes, F.R.S.;Archibald Geikie, F.R.S.; andW. T. Dyer, F.R.S. 2s. 6d.

ON THE COLOURS OF FLOWERS.

ByGrant Allen. Illustrated. 3s. 6d.

THE SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCES OF ORGANIC EVOLUTION.

ByGeorge J. Romanes, M.A., LL.D. 2s. 6d.

POPULAR LECTURES AND ADDRESSES.

By LordKelvin, P.R.S. In 3 vols. Vol. I. Constitution of Matter. Illustrated. 7s. 6d. Vol. III. Navigation. 7s. 6d.

ARE THE EFFECTS OF USE AND DISUSE INHERITED? An Examination of the View held by Spencer and Darwin.

ByW. Platt Ball. 3s. 6d.

THE RIGHT HAND: LEFT-HANDEDNESS.

By SirD. Wilson. Illustrated. 4s. 6d.

THE APODIDÆ: A MORPHOLOGICAL STUDY.

ByHenry Meyners Bernard, M.A., Cantab. With 71 Illustrations. 7s. 6d.

SCOTSMAN.—"A book which zoologists will very greatly prize. The writer has worked out the task he set before him with the greatest care and in the most elaborate manner, and has presented the fruits of his labour in a volume which every lover of scientific investigation will thoroughly appreciate.... A valuable contribution to zoological investigation."

MACMILLAN AND CO., LONDON.

ELEMENTARY BIOLOGY. ByT. H. Huxley, F.R.S., andH. N. Martin, F.R.S. New Edition. Revised and extended byG. B. HowesandD. H. Scott. Cr. 8vo. 10s. 6d.

AN ATLAS OF PRACTICAL ELEMENTARY BIOLOGY. ByG. B. Howes. With a Preface byT. H. Huxley, F.R.S. 4to. 14s.

COMPARATIVE EMBRYOLOGY (A Treatise on). ByF. M. Balfour, M.A., F.R.S. Illustrated. In 2 Vols. Vol. I., 18s.; Vol. II., 21s.

THE ELEMENTS OF EMBRYOLOGY. By ProfessorM. Foster, M.D., F.R.S., and the lateFrancis M. Balfour, F.R.S. Third Edition, Revised. Edited byAdam Sedgwick, M.A., andWalter Heape. 10s. 6d.

A TEXT-BOOK OF COMPARATIVE ANATOMY. By Dr.Arnold Lang, Professor of Zoology in the University of Zurich, formerly Ritter Professor of Phylogeny in the University of Jena. With Preface to the English Translation by Prof. Dr.Ernst Haeckel, Director of the Zoological Institute in Jena. Translated into English byHenry M. Bernard, M.A., Cantab., andMatilda Bernard. Part I. 8vo. 17s. net.

TEXT-BOOK OF PHYSIOLOGY. By ProfessorMichael Foster, M.D., F.R.S. With Illustrations. Sixth Edition, largely revised. In Four Parts. 8vo. Parts I. and II., 10s. 6d. each. Part III., 7s. 6d. Part IV., 10s. 6d.

PRACTICAL PHYSIOLOGY AND HISTOLOGY: An Elementary Course. By ProfessorM. Foster, F.R.S., andJ. N. Langley, F.R.S., Cr. 8vo. 7s. 6d.

ZOOTOMY (Vertebrata): A Course of Instruction in. By ProfessorT. J. Parker. Illustrated. Crown 8vo. 8s. 6d.

ELEMENTARY LESSONS IN ANATOMY. BySt. George Mivart, F.R.S. With 400 Illustrations. 18mo. 6s. 6d.

ELEMENTS OF COMPARATIVE ANATOMY OF VERTEBRATES. Adapted from the German ofRobert Wiedersheim. By ProfessorW. N. Parker. With 270 Illustrations. 8vo. 12s. 6d.

THE OSTEOLOGY OF THE MAMMALIA (An Introduction to). ByWilliam Henry Fowler, LL.D., F.R.S. Third Edition. Revised with the assistance ofHans Gadow, Ph.D., M.A. 10s. 6d.

THE MYOLOGY OF THE RAVEN (Corvus corax sinuatus). A Guide to the Study of the Muscular System in Birds. ByR. W. Shufeldt. Illustrated. 8vo. 13s. net.

ELEMENTARY PRACTICAL HISTOLOGY. ByWilliam Fearnley. With Illustrations. Crown 8vo. 7s. 6d.

LESSONS IN ELEMENTARY BIOLOGY. By ProfessorT. Jeffrey Parker, B.Sc., F.R.S. Illustrated. Crown 8vo. 10s. 6d.

DISEASES OF FIELD AND GARDEN CROPS, chiefly such as are caused by Fungi. ByWorthington G. Smith, F.L.S. Fcap. 8vo. 4s. 6d.

TIMBER AND SOME OF ITS DISEASES. ByH. Marshall Ward, F.R.S., Professor of Botany, Royal Indian Engineering College, Cooper's Hill. Crown 8vo. 6s.

MACMILLAN AND CO., LONDON.

[1]With a few exceptions, which are duly noted when they amount to more than verbal corrections.[2]Declaration on the Truth of Holy Scripture. TheTimes, 18th December 1891.[3]Declaration, Article 10.[4]Ego vero evangelio non crederem, nisi ecclesiæ Catholicæ me commoveret auctoritas.—Contra Epistolam Manichæi, cap. v.[5]I employ the words "Supernature" and "Supernatural" in their popular senses. For myself, I am bound to say that the term "Nature" covers the totality of that which is. The world of psychical phenomena appears to me to be as much part of "Nature" as the world of physical phenomena; and I am unable to perceive any justification for cutting the Universe into two halves, one natural and one supernatural.[6]The general reader will find an admirably clear and concise statement of the evidence in this case, in Professor Flower's recently published workThe Horse: a Study in Natural History.[7]"The School Boards: What they can do and what they may do," 1870.Critiques and Addresses, p. 51.[8]De Solido intra Solidum, p. 5.—"Dato corpore certâ figurâ prædito et juxta leges naturæ producto, in ipso corpore argumenta invenire locum et modum productionis detegentia."[9]"Corpora sibi invicem omnino similia simili etiam modo producta sunt."[10][Sir J. D. Hooker.][11]The Nineteenth Century.[12]Earlier, if more recent announcements are correct.[13]It may be objected that I have not put the case fairly, inasmuch as the solitary insect's wing which was discovered twelve months ago in Silurian rocks, and which is, at present, the sole evidence of insects older than the Devonian epoch, came from strata of Middle Silurian age, and is therefore older than the scorpions which, within the last two years, have been found in Upper Silurian strata in Sweden, Britain, and the United States. But no one who comprehends the nature of the evidence afforded by fossil remains would venture to say that the non-discovery of scorpions in the Middle Silurian strata, up to this time, affords any more ground for supposing that they did not exist, than the non-discovery of flying insects in the Upper Silurian strata, up to this time, throws any doubt on the certainty that they existed, which is derived from the occurrence of the wing in the Middle Silurian. In fact, I have stretched a point in admitting that these fossils afford a colourable pretext for the assumption that the land and air-population were of contemporaneous origin.[14]The Nineteenth Century, 1886.[15]Both dolphins and dugongs occur in the Red Sea, porpoises and dolphins in the Mediterranean; so that the "Mosaic writer" may well have been acquainted with them.[16]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."[17]See Heinze,Die Lehre vom Logos, p. 9et seq.[18]Reprinted inLay Sermons, Addresses, and Reviews, 1870.[19]"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.[20]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.[21]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" (The Story of the Heavens, 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?[22]Lectures on Evolution delivered in New York (American Addresses).[23]Reuss,L'Histoire Sainte et la Loi, vol. i. p. 275.[24]For the sense of the term "Elohim," see p.141.[25]Perhaps even hippopotamuses and otters![26]Even the most sturdy believers in the popular theory that the proper or titular names attached to the books of the Bible are those of their authors will hardly be prepared to maintain that Jephthah, Gideon, and their colleagues wrote the book of Judges. Nor is it easily admissible that Samuel wrote the two books which pass under his name, one of which deals entirely with events which took place after his death. In fact, no one knows who wrote either Judges or Samuel, nor when, within the range of 100 years, their present form was given to these books.[27]My citations are taken from the Revised Version, but forLordandGodI have substituted Jahveh and Elohim.[28]I need hardly say that I depend upon authoritative Biblical critics, whenever a question of interpretation of the text arises. As Reuss appears to me to be one of the most learned, acute, and fair-minded of those whose works I have studied, I have made most use of the commentary and dissertations in his splendid French edition of the Bible. But I have also had recourse to the works of Dillman, Kalisch, Kuenen, Thenius, Tuch, and others, in cases in which another opinion seemed desirable.[29]See "Divination," by Hazoral,Journal of Anthropology, Bombay, vol. i. No. 1.[30]See, for example, the message of Jephthah to the King of the Ammonites: "So now Jahveh, the Elohim of Israel, hath dispossessed the Amorites from before his people Israel, and shouldest thou possess them? Wilt not thou possess that which Chemosh, thy Elohim, giveth thee to possess?" (Jud. xi. 23, 24). For Jephthah, Chemosh is obviously as real a personage as Jahveh.[31]For example: "My oblation, my food for my offerings made by fire, of a sweet savour to me, shall ye observe to offer unto me in their due season" (Num. xxviii. 2).[32]In 2 Samuel xv. 27 David says to Zadok the priest, "Art thou not a seer?" and Gad is called David's seer.[33]This would at first appear to be inconsistent with the use of the word "prophetess" for Deborah. But it does not follow because the writer of Judges applies the name to Deborah that it was used in her day.[34]Samuel tells the cook, "Bring the portion which I gave thee, of which I said to thee, Set it by thee." It was therefore Samuel's to give. "And the cook took up the thigh (or shoulder) and that which was upon it and set it before Saul." But, in the Levitical regulations, it is the thigh (or shoulder) which becomes the priest's own property. "And the right thigh (or shoulder) shall ye give unto the priest for an heave-offering," which is given along with the wave breast "unto Aaron the priest and unto his sons as a due for ever from the children of Israel" (Lev. vii. 31-34). Reuss writes on this passage: "La cuisse n'est point agitée, mais simplementprelevéesur ce que les convives mangeront."[35]See, for example, Elkanah's sacrifice, 1 Sam. i. 3-9.[36]The ghost was not supposed to be capable of devouring the gross material substance of the offering; but his vaporous body appropriated the smoke of the burnt sacrifice, the visible and odorous exhalations of other offerings. The blood of the victim was particularly useful because it was thought to be the special seat of its soul or life. A West African negro replied to an European sceptic: "Of course, the spirit cannot eat corporeal food, but he extracts its spiritual part, and, as we see, leaves the material part behind" (Lippert,Seelencult, p. 16).[37]It is further well worth consideration whether indications of former ancestor-worship are not to be found in the singular weight attached to the veneration of parents in the fourth commandment. It is the only positive commandment, in addition to those respecting the Deity and that concerning the Sabbath, and the penalties for infringing it were of the same character. In China, a corresponding reverence for parents is part and parcel of ancestor-worship; so in ancient Rome and in Greece (where parents were even calledδεύτεροι καὶ ἐπίγεοι θεοί). The fifth commandment, as it stands, would be an excellent compromise between ancestor-worship and monotheism. The larger hereditary share allotted by Israelitic law to the eldest son reminds one of the privileges attached to primogeniture in ancient Rome, which were closely connected with ancestor-worship. There is a good deal to be said in favour of the speculation that the ark of the covenant may have been a relic of ancestor-worship; but that topic is too large to be dealt with incidentally in this place.[38]"The Scientific Aspects of Positivism,"Fortnightly Review, 1869, republished inLay Sermons.[39]Œuvres de Bossuet, ed. 1808, t. xxxv. p. 282.[40]I should like further to add the expression of my indebtedness to two works by Herr Julius Lippert,Der Seelencult in seinen Beziehungen zur alt-hebraischen Religion, andDie Religionen der europäischen Culturvölker, both published in 1881. I have found them full of valuable suggestions.[41]See among others the remarkable work of Fustel de Coulanges,La cité antique, in which the social importance of the old Roman ancestor-worship is brought out with great clearness.[42]Supposed to be "the finer or more aeriform part of the body," standing in "the same relation to the body as the perfume and the more essential qualities of a flower do to the more solid substances" (Mariner, vol. ii. p. 127).[43]A kind of "clients" in the Roman sense.[44]It is worthy of remark thatδαίμωνamong the Greeks, andDeusamong the Romans, had the same wide signification. Thedii maneswere ghosts of ancestors = Atuas of the family.[45]Voyages aux îles du Grand Ocean, t. i. p. 482.[46]Te Ika a Maui: New Zealand and its Inhabitants, p. 72.[47]Compare: "And Samuel said unto Saul, Why hast thou disquieted me?" (1 Sam. xxviii. 15).[48]Turner,Nineteen Years in Polynesia, p. 238.[49]See Lippert's excellent remarks on this subject,Der Seelencult, p. 89.[50]Sciographyhas the authority of Cudworth,Intellectual System, vol. ii. p. 836. Sciomancy (σκιομαντεία), which, in the sense of divination by ghosts, may be found in Bailey'sDictionary(1751), also furnishes a precedent for my coinage.[51]"Kami" is used in the sense of Elohim; and is also, like our word "Lord," employed as a title of respect among men, as indeed Elohim was.[52][The Assyrians thus raised Assur to a position of pre-eminence.][53]I refer those who wish to know the reasons which lead me to take up this position to the works of Reuss and Wellhausen, [and especially to Stade'sGeschichte des Volkes Israel.][54]Bunsen,Egypt's Place, vol. v. p. 129, note.[55]See Birch, inEgypt's Place, vol. v.; and Brugsch,History of Egypt.[56]Even by Graetz, who, though a fair enough historian, cannot be accused of any desire to over-estimate the importance of Egyptian influence upon his people.[57]Graetz,Geschichte der Juden, Bd. i. p. 370.[58]See the careful analysis of the work of the Alexandrian philosopher and theologian (who, it should be remembered, was a most devout Jew, held in the highest esteem by his countrymen) in Siegfried'sPhilo von Alexandrien, 1875. [Also Dr. J. Drummond'sPhilo Judæus, 1888.][59]I am not unaware of the existence of many and widely divergent sects and schools among the Jews at all periods of their history, since the dispersion. But I imagine that orthodox Judaism is now pretty much what it was in Philo's time; while Peter and Paul, if they could return to life, would certainly have to learn the catechism of either the Roman, Greek, or Anglican Churches, if they desired to be considered orthodox Christians.[60]Dante's description of Lucifer engaged in the eternal mastication of Brutus, Cassius, and Judas Iscariot—"Da ogni bocca dirompea co' dentiUn peccatore, a guisa di maciulla,Si che tre ne facea così dolenti.A quel dinanzi il mordere era nulla,Verso 'l graffiar, chè tal volta la schienaRimanea della pelle tutta brulla"—is quite in harmony with the Pisan picture and perfectly Polynesian in conception.[61]See the famousCollection of Papers, published by Clarke in 1717. Leibnitz says: "'Tis also a supernatural thing that bodies shouldattractone another at a distance without any intermediate means." And Clarke, on behalf of Newton, caps this as follows: "That one body should attract another without any intermediatemeansis, indeed, not amiracle, but a contradiction; for 'tis supposing something to act where it is not."[62]I may cite in support of this obvious conclusion of sound reasoning, two authorities who will certainly not be regarded lightly by Mr. Lilly. These are Augustine and Thomas Aquinas. The former declares that "Fate" is only an ill-chosen name for Providence."Prorsus divina providentia regna constituuntur humana. Quæ si propterea quisquam fato tribuit, quia ipsam Dei voluntatem vel potestatem fati nomine appellat,sententiam teneat, linguam corrigat" (AugustinusDe Civitate Dei, V. c. i.)The other great doctor of the Catholic Church, "Divus Thomas," as Suarez calls him, whose marvellous grasp and subtlety of intellect seem to me to be almost without a parallel, puts the whole case into a nutshell, when he says that the ground for doing a thing in the mind of the doer is as it were the pre-existence of the thing done:"Ratio autem alicujus fiendi in mente actoris existens est quædam præ-existentia rei fiendæ in eo" (Summa, Qu. xxiii. Art. i.)If this is not enough, I may further ask what "Materialist" has ever given a better statement of the case for determinism, on theistic grounds, than is to be found in the following passage of theSumma, Qu. xiv. Art. xiii."Omnia quæ sunt in tempore, sunt Deo ab æterno præsentia, non solum ea ex ratione quâ habet rationes rerum apud se presentes, ut quidam dicunt, sed quia ejus intuitus fertur ab æterno supra omnia, prout sunt in sua præsentialitate.Unde manifestum est quod contingentia infallibiliter a Deo cognoscuntur, in quantum subduntur divino conspectui secundum suam præsentialitatem; et tamen sunt futura contingentia, suis causis proximis comparata."[As I have not said that Thomas Aquinas is professedly a determinist, I do not see the bearing of citations from him which may be more or less inconsistent with the foregoing.][63]There is no exaggeration in this brief and summary view of the Catholic cosmos. But it would be unfair to leave it to be supposed that the Reformation made any essential alteration, except perhaps for the worse, in that cosmology which called itself "Christian." The protagonist of the Reformation, from whom the whole of the Evangelical sects are lineally descended, states the case with that plainness of speech, not to say brutality, which characterised him. Luther says that man is a beast of burden who only moves as his rider orders; sometimes God rides him, and sometimes Satan. "Sic voluntas humana in medio posita est, ceu jumentum; si insederit Deus, vult et vadit, quo vult Deus.... Si insederit Satan, vult et vadit, quo vult Satan; nec est in ejus arbitrio ad utrum sessorem currere, aut eum quærere, sed ipsi sessores certant ob ipsum obtinendum et possidendum" (De Servo Arbitrio, M. Lutheri Opera, ed. 1546, t. ii. p. 468). One may hear substantially the same doctrine preached in the parks and at street-corners by zealous volunteer missionaries of Evangelicism, any Sunday, in modern London. Why these doctrines, which are conspicuous by their absence in the four Gospels, should arrogate to themselves the title of Evangelical, in contradistinction to Catholic, Christianity, may well perplex the impartial inquirer, who, if he were obliged to choose between the two, might naturally prefer that which leaves the poor beast of burden a little freedom of choice.[64]I say "so-called" not by way of offence, but as a protest against the monstrous assumption that Catholic Christianity is explicitly or implicitly contained in any trustworthy record of the teaching of Jesus of Nazareth.[65]It may be desirable to observe that, in modern times, the term "Realism" has acquired a signification wholly different from that which attached to it in the middle ages. We commonly use it as the contrary of Idealism. The Idealist holds that the phenomenal world has only a subjective existence, the Realist that it has an objective existence. I am not aware that any mediæval philosopher was an Idealist in the sense in which we apply the term to Berkeley. In fact, the cardinal defect of their speculations lies in their oversight of the considerations which lead to Idealism. If many of them regarded the material world as a negation, it was an active negation; not zero, but a minus quantity.[66]At any rate a catastrophe greater than the flood, which, as I observe with interest, is as calmly assumed by the preacher to be an historical event as if science had never had a word to say on that subject![67]"Les formes des anciens ou Entéléchies ne sont autre chose que les forces" (Leibnitz,Lettre au Père Bouvet, 1697).[68]Nineteenth Century, March 1887.[69]The Duke of Argyll speaks of the recent date of the demonstration of the fallacy of the doctrine in question. "Recent" is a relative term, but I may mention that the question is fully discussed in my book on "Hume"; which, if I may believe my publishers, has been read by a good many people since it appeared in 1879. Moreover, I observe, from a note at page 89 ofThe Reign of Law, a work to which I shall have occasion to advert by and by, that the Duke of Argyll draws attention to the circumstance that, so long ago as 1866, the views which I hold on this subject were well known. The Duke, in fact, writing about this time, says, after quoting a phrase of mine: "The question of miracles seems now to be admitted on all hands to be simply a question of evidence." In science we think that a teacher who ignores views which have been discussedcoram populofor twenty years, is hardly up to the mark.[70]See also vol. i. p. 460. In the ninth edition (1853), published twenty-three years after the first, Lyell deprives even the most careless reader of any excuse for misunderstanding him: "So in regard to subterranean movements, the theory of the perpetual uniformity of the force which they exert on the earth-crust is quite consistent with the admission of their alternate development and suspension for indefinite periods within limited geographical areas" (p. 187).[71]A great many years ago (Presidential Address to the Geological Society, 1869) I ventured to indicate that which seemed to me to be the weak point, not in the fundamental principles of uniformitarianism, but in uniformitarianism as taught by Lyell. It lay, to my mind, in the refusal by Hutton, and in a less degree by Lyell, to look beyond the limits of the time recorded by the stratified rocks. I said: "This attempt to limit, at a particular point, the progress of inductive and deductive reasoning from the things which are to the things which were—this faithlessness to its own logic, seems to me to have cost uniformitarianism the place as the permanent form of geological speculation which it might otherwise have held" (Lay Sermons, p. 260). The context shows that "uniformitarianism" here means that doctrine, as limited in application by Hutton and Lyell, and that what I mean by "evolutionism" is consistent and thoroughgoing uniformitarianism.[72]Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences, vol. i. p. 670. New edition, 1847.[73]At Glasgow in 1856.[74]Optics, query 31.[75]The author recognises this in hisExplanations.[76]"The Advance of Science." Three sermons preached in Manchester Cathedral on Sunday, September 4, 1887, during the meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, by the Bishop of Carlisle, the Bishop of Bedford, and the Bishop of Manchester.[77]American Journal of Science, 1885, p. 190.[78]Professor Geikie, however, though a strong, is a fair and candid advocate. He says of Darwin's theory, "That it may be possibly true, in some instances, may be readily granted." For Professor Geikie, then, it is not yet overthrown—still less a dream.[79]I find, moreover, that I specially warned my readers against hasty judgment. After stating the facts of observation, I add, "I have, hitherto, said nothing about their meaning, as, in an inquiry so difficult and fraught with interest as this, it seems to me to be in the highest degree important to keep the questions of fact and the questions of interpretation well apart" (p. 210).[80]See theOfficial Report of the Church Congress held at Manchester, October 1888, pp. 253, 254.[81][In this place and in the eleventh essay, there are references to the late Archbishop of York which are of no importance to my main argument, and which I have expunged because I desire to obliterate the traces of a temporary misunderstanding with a man of rare ability, candour, and wit, for whom I entertained a great liking and no less respect. I rejoice to think now of the (then) Bishop's cordial hail the first time we met after our little skirmish, "Well, is it to be peace or war?" I replied, "A little of both." But there was only peace when we parted, and ever after.][82]Dr. Wace tells us, "It may be asked how far we can rely on the accounts we possess of our Lord's teaching on these subjects." And he seems to think the question appropriately answered by the assertion that it "ought to be regarded as settled by M. Renan's practical surrender of the adverse case." I thought I knew M. Renan's works pretty well, but I have contrived to miss this "practical" (I wish Dr. Wace had defined the scope of that useful adjective) surrender. However, as Dr. Wace can find no difficulty in pointing out the passage of M. Renan's writings, by which he feels justified in making his statement, I shall wait for further enlightenment, contenting myself, for the present, with remarking that if M. Renan were to retract and do penance in Notre-Dame to-morrow for any contributions to Biblical criticism that may be specially his property, the main results of that criticism, as they are set forth in the works of Strauss, Baur, Reuss, and Volkmar, for example, would not be sensibly affected.[83][See De Gobineau,Les Religions et les Philosophies dans l'Asie Centrale; and the recently published work of Mr. E. G. Browne,The Episode of the Bab.][84]Here, as always, the revised version is cited.[85]Does any one really mean to say that there is any internal or external criterion by which the reader of a biblical statement, in which scientific matter is contained, is enabled to judge whether it is to be takenau sérieuxor not? Is the account of the Deluge, accepted as true in the New Testament, less precise and specific than that of the call of Abraham, also accepted as true therein? By what mark does the story of the feeding with manna in the wilderness, which involves some very curious scientific problems, show that it is meant merely for edification, while the story of the inscription of the Law on stone by the hand of Jahveh is literally true? If the story of the Fall is not the true record of an historical occurrence, what becomes of Pauline theology? Yet the story of the Fall as directly conflicts with probability, and is as devoid of trustworthy evidence, as that of the Creation or that of the Deluge, with which it forms an harmoniously legendary series.[86]See, for an admirable discussion of the whole subject, Dr. Abbott's article on the Gospels in theEncyclopædia Britannica; and the remarkable monograph by Professor Volkmar,Jesus Nazarenus und die erste christliche Zeit(1882). Whether we agree with the conclusions of these writers or not, the method of critical investigation which they adopt is unimpeachable.[87]Notwithstanding the hard words shot at me from behind the hedge of anonymity by a writer in a recent number of theQuarterly Review, I repeat, without the slightest fear of refutation, that the four Gospels, as they have come to us, are the work of unknown writers.[88]Their arguments, in the long run, are always reducible to one form. Otherwise trustworthy witnesses affirm that such and such events took place. These events are inexplicable, except the agency of "spirits" is admitted. Therefore "spirits" were the cause of the phenomena.And the heads of the reply are always the same. Remember Goethe's aphorism: "Alles factische ist schon Theorie." Trustworthy witnesses are constantly deceived, or deceive themselves, in their interpretation of sensible phenomena. No one can prove that the sensible phenomena, in these cases, could be caused only by the agency of spirits: and there is abundant ground for believing that they may be produced in other ways. Therefore, the utmost that can be reasonably asked for, on the evidence as it stands, is suspension of judgment. And, on the necessity for even that suspension, reasonable men may differ, according to their views of probability.[89]Yet I must somehow have laid hold of the pith of the matter, for, many years afterwards, when Dean Mansell's Bampton lectures were published, it seemed to me I already knew all that this eminently agnostic thinker had to tell me.[90]Kritik der reinen Vernunft. Edit. Hartenstein, p. 256.[91]Report of the Church Congress, Manchester, 1888, p. 252.[92]Fortnightly Review, Jan. 1889.[93]My citations are made from Teulet'sEinhardi omnia quæ extant opera, Paris, 1840-1843, which contains a biography of the author, a history of the text, with translations into French, and many valuable annotations.[94]At present included in the Duchies of Hesse-Darmstadt and Baden.[95]This took place in the year 826A.D.The relics were brought from Rome and deposited in the Church of St. Medardus at Soissons.[96]Now included in Western Switzerland.[97]Probably, according to Teulet, the present Sandhofer-fahrt, a little below the embouchure of the Neckar.[98]The present Michilstadt, thirty miles N.E. of Heidelberg.[99]In the Middle Ages one of the most favourite accusations against witches was that they committed just these enormities.[100]It is pretty clear that Eginhard had his doubts about the deacon, whose pledges he qualifies assponsiones incertæ. But, to be sure, he wrote after events which fully justified scepticism.[101]The words arescrinia sine clave, which seems to mean "having no key." But the circumstances forbid the idea of breaking open.[102]Eginhard speaks with lofty contempt of the "vana ac superstitiosa præsumptio" of the poor woman's companions in trying to alleviate her sufferings with "herbs and frivolous incantations." Vain enough, no doubt, but the "mulierculæ" might have returned the epithet "superstitious" with interest.[103]Of course there is nothing new in this argument; but it does not grow weaker by age. And the case of Eginhard is far more instructive than that of Augustine, because the former has so very frankly, though incidentally, revealed to us not only his own mental and moral habits, but those of the people about him.[104]See 1 Cor. xii. 10-28; 2 Cor. vi. 12; Rom. xv. 19.[105]A Journal or Historical Account of the Life, Travels, Sufferings, and Christian Experiences, &c., of George Fox. Ed. 1694, pp. 27, 28.[106]I may perhaps return to the question of the authorship of the Gospels. For the present I must content myself with warning my readers against any reliance upon Dr. Wace's statements as to the results arrived at by modern criticism. They are as gravely as surprisingly erroneous.[107]The United States ought, perhaps, to be added, but I am not sure.[108]Imagine that all our chairs of Astronomy had been founded in the fourteenth century, and that their incumbents were bound to sign Ptolemaic articles. In that case, with every respect for the efforts of persons thus hampered to attain and expound the truth, I think men of common sense would go elsewhere to learn astronomy. Zeller'sVorträge und Abhandlungenwere published and came into my hands a quarter of a century ago. The writer's rank, as a theologian to begin with, and subsequently as a historian of Greek philosophy, is of the highest. Among these essays are two—Das UrchristenthumandDie Tübinger historische Schule—which are likely to be of more use to those who wish to know the real state of the case than all that the official "apologists," with their one eye on truth and the other on the tenets of their sect, have written. For the opinion of a scientific theologian about theologians of this stamp see pp. 225 and 227 of theVorträge.[109]I suppose this is what Dr. Wace is thinking about when he says that I allege that there "is no visible escape" from the supposition of anUr-Marcus(p. 367). That a "theologian of repute" should confound an indisputable fact with one of the modes of explaining that fact is not so singular as those who are unaccustomed to the ways of theologians might imagine.[110]Any examiner whose duty it has been to examine into a case of "copying" will be particularly well prepared to appreciate the force of the case stated in that most excellent little book,The Common Tradition of the Synoptic Gospels, by Dr. Abbott and Mr. Rushbrooke (Macmillan, 1884). To those who have not passed through such painful experiences I may recommend the brief discussion of the genuineness of the "Casket Letters" in my friend Mr. Skelton's interesting book,Maitland of Lethington. The second edition of Holtzmann'sLehrbuch, published in 1886, gives a remarkably fair and full account of the present results of criticism. At p. 366 he writes that the present burning question is whether the "relatively primitive narrative and the root of the other synoptic texts is contained in Matthew or in Mark. It is only on this point that properly-informed (sachkundige) critics differ," and he decides in favour of Mark.[111]Holtzmann (Die synoptischen Evangelien, 1863, p. 75), following Ewald, argues that the "Source A" ( = the threefold tradition, more or less) contained something that answered to the "Sermon on the Plain" immediately after the words of our present Mark, "And he cometh into a house" (iii. 19). But what conceivable motive could "Mark" have for omitting it? Holtzmann has no doubt, however, that the "Sermon on the Mount" is a compilation, or, as he calls it in his recently-publishedLehrbuch(p. 372), "an artificial mosaic work."[112]See Schürer,Geschichte des jüdischen Volkes, Zweiter Theil, p. 384.[113]Spacious, because a young man could sit in it "on the right side" (xv. 5), and therefore with plenty of room to spare.[114]King Herod had not the least difficulty in supposing the resurrection of John the Baptist—"John, whom I beheaded, he is risen" (Mark vi. 16).[115]I am very sorry for the interpolated "in," because citation ought to be accurate in small things as in great. But what difference it makes whether one "believes Jesus" or "believes in Jesus" much thought has not enabled me to discover. If you "believe him" you must believe him to be what he professed to be—that is, "believe in him;" and if you "believe in him" you must necessarily "believe him."[116]True for Justin: but there is a school of theological critics, who more or less question the historical reality of Paul and the genuineness of even the four cardinal epistles.[117]SeeDial. cum Tryphone, § 47 and § 35. It is to be understood that Justin does not arrange these categories in order, as I have done.[118]I guard myself against being supposed to affirm that even the four cardinal epistles of Paul may not have been seriously tampered with. See note116, p. 429 above.[119][Paul, in fact, is required to commit in Jerusalem, an act of the same character as that which he brands as "dissimulation" on the part of Peter in Antioch.][120]All this was quite clearly pointed out by Ritschl nearly forty years ago. SeeDie Entstehung der alt-katholischen Kirche(1850), p. 108.[121]"If every one was baptized as soon as he acknowledged Jesus to be the Messiah, the first Christians can have been aware of no other essential differences from the Jews."—Zeller,Vorträge(1865), p. 26.[122]Dr. Harnack, in the lately-published second edition of hisDogmengeschichte, says (p. 39), "Jesus Christ brought forward no new doctrine;" and again (p. 65), "It is not difficult to set against every portion of the utterances of Jesus an observation which deprives him of originality." See also Zusatz 4, on the same page.[123]The substance of a paragraph which precedes this has been transferred to the Prologue.[124]"Let us maintain, before we have proved. This seeming paradox is the secret of happiness" (Dr. Newman: Tract 85, p. 85).[125]Dr. Newman,Essay on Development, p. 357.[126]It is by no means to be assumed that "spiritual" and "corporeal" are exact equivalents of "immaterial" and "material" in the minds of ancient speculators on these topics. The "spiritual body" of the risen dead (1 Cor. xv.) is not the "natural" "flesh and blood" body. Paul does not teach the resurrection of the body in the ordinary sense of the word "body"; a fact, often overlooked, but pregnant with many consequences.[127]Tertullian (Apolog. adv. Gentes, cap. xxiii.) thus challenges the Roman authorities: let them bring a possessed person into the presence of a Christian before their tribunal; and, if the demon does not confess himself to be such, on the order of the Christian, let the Christian be executed out of hand.[128]See the expression of orthodox opinion upon the "accommodation" subterfuge already cited above, p.336.[129]I quote the first edition (1843). A second edition appeared in 1870. Tract 85 of theTracts for the Timesshould be read with thisEssay. If I were called upon to compile a Primer of "Infidelity," I think I should save myself trouble by making a selection from these works, and from theEssay on Developmentby the same author.[130]Yet, when it suits his purpose, as in the Introduction to theEssay on Development, Dr. Newman can demand strict evidence in religious questions as sharply as any "infidel author"; and he can even profess to yield to its force (Essay on Miracles, 1870, note, p. 391).[131]Compare Tract 85, p. 110: "I am persuaded that were men but consistent who oppose the Church doctrines as being unscriptural, they would vindicate the Jews for rejecting the Gospel."[132]According to Dr. Newman, "This prayer [that of Bishop Alexander, who begged God to 'take Arius away'] is said to have been offered about 3P.M.on the Saturday; that same evening Arius was in the great square of Constantine, when he was suddenly seized with indisposition" (p. clxx). The "infidel" Gibbon seems to have dared to suggest that "an option between poison and miracle" is presented by this case; and, it must be admitted, that, if the Bishop had been within the reach of a modern police magistrate, things might have gone hardly with him. Modern "Infidels," possessed of a slight knowledge of chemistry, are not unlikely, with no less audacity, to suggest an "option between fire-damp and miracle" in seeking for the cause of the fiery outburst at Jerusalem.[133]A writer in a spiritualist journal takes me roundly to task for venturing to doubt the historical and literal truth of the Gadarene story. The following passage in his letter is worth quotation: "Now to the materialistic and scientific mind, to the uninitiated in spiritual verities, certainly this story of the Gadarene or Gergesene swine presents insurmountable difficulties; it seems grotesque and nonsensical. To the experienced, trained, and cultivated Spiritualist this miracle is, as I am prepared to show, one of the most instructive, the most profoundly useful, and the most beneficent which Jesus ever wrought in the whole course of His pilgrimage of redemption on earth." Just so. And the first page of this same journal presents the following advertisement, among others of the same kidney:—"To Wealthy Spiritualists.—A Lady Medium of tried power wishes to meet with an elderly gentleman who would be willing to give her a comfortable home and maintenance in Exchange for her Spiritualistic services, as her guides consider her health is too delicate for public sittings: London preferred.—Address "Mary," Office ofLight."Are we going back to the days of the Judges, when wealthy Micah set up his private ephod, teraphim, and Levite?[134]Consider Tertullian's "sister" ("hodie apud nos"), who conversed with angels, saw and heard mysteries, knew men's thoughts, and prescribed medicine for their bodies (De Anima, cap. 9). Tertullian tells us that this woman saw the soul as corporeal, and described its colour and shape. The "infidel" will probably be unable to refrain from insulting the memory of the ecstatic saint by the remark, that Tertullian's known views about the corporeality of the soul may have had something to do with the remarkable perceptive powers of the Montanist medium, in whose revelations of the spiritual world he took such profound interest.[135]See the New YorkWorldfor Sunday, 21st October 1888; and theReport of the Seybert Commission, Philadelphia, 1887.[136]Dr. Newman's observation that the miraculous multiplication of the pieces of the true cross (with which "the whole world is filled," according to Cyril of Jerusalem; and of which some say there are enough extant to build a man-of-war) is no more wonderful than that of the loaves and fishes is one that I do not see my way to contradict. SeeEssay on Miracles, 2d ed. p. 163.[137]An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine, by J. H. Newman, D.D., pp. 7 and 8. (1878.)[138]Dr. Newman faces this question with his customary ability. "Now, I own, I am not at all solicitous to deny that this doctrine of an apostate Angel and his hosts was gained from Babylon: it might still be Divine nevertheless. God who made the prophet's ass speak, and thereby instructed the prophet, might instruct His Church by means of heathen Babylon" (Tract 85, p. 83). There seems to be no end to the apologetic burden that Balaam's ass can carry.[139]Nineteenth Century, May 1889 (p. 701).[140]I trust it may not be supposed that I undervalue M. Renan's labours, or intended to speak slightingly of them.[141]To-day'sTimescontains a report of a remarkable speech by Prince Bismarck, in which he tells the Reichstag that he has long given up investing in foreign stock, lest so doing should mislead his judgment in his transactions with foreign states. Does this declaration prove that the Chancellor accuses himself of being "sordid" and "selfish," or does it not rather show that, even in dealing with himself, he remains the man of realities?[142]Bampton Lectures(1859), on "The Historical Evidences of the Truth of the Scripture Records stated anew, with Special Reference to the Doubts and Discoveries of Modern Times," by the Rev. G. Rawlinson, M.A., pp. 5-6.[143]The Worth of the Old Testament, a Sermon preached in St. Paul's Cathedral on the Second Sunday in Advent, 8th Dec. 1889, by H. P. Liddon, D.D., D.C.L., Canon and Chancellor of St. Paul's. Second edition, revised and with a new preface, 1890.[144]St. Luke xvii. 32.[145]Ibid.27.[146]St. Matt. xii. 40.[147]Bampton Lectures, 1859, pp. 50-51.[148]Commentary on Genesis, by the Bishop of Ely, p. 77.[149]Die Sintflut, 1876.[150]Theologie und Naturwissenschaft, ii. 784-791 (1877).[151]It is very doubtful if this means the region of the Armenian Ararat. More probably it designates some part either of the Kurdish range or of its south-eastern continuation.[152]So Reclus (Nouvelle Géographie Universelle, ix. 386), but I find the statement doubted by an authority of the first rank.[153]So far as I know, the narrative of the Creation is not now held to be true, in the sense in which I have defined historical truth, by any of the reconcilers. As for the attempts to stretch the Pentateuchal days into periods of thousands or millions of years, the verdict of the eminent biblical scholar, Dr. Riehm (Der biblische Schöpfungsbericht, 1881, pp. 15, 16), on such pranks of "Auslegungskunst" should be final. Why do the reconcilers take Goethe's advice seriously?—"Im Auslegen seyd frisch und munter!Legt ihr's nicht aus, so legt was unter."[154]Thus Josephus (lib. ix.) says that his rival, Justus, persuaded the citizens of Tiberias to "set the villages that belonged to Gadara and Hippos on fire; which villages were situated on the borders of Tiberias and of the region of Scythopolis."[155]It is said to have been destroyed by its captors.[156]"But as to the Grecian cities Gaza and Gadara and Hippos, he cut them off from the kingdom and added them to Syria."—Josephus,Wars, II. vi. 3. See alsoAntiquities, XVII. xi. 4.[157]Geschichte des jüdischen Volkes im Zeitalter Christi, 1886-90.[158]If William the Conqueror, after fighting the battle of Hastings had marched to capture Chichester and then returned to assault Rye, being all the while anxious to reach London, his proceedings would not have been more eccentric than Mr. Gladstone must imagine those of Vespasian were.[159]See Reland,Palestina(1714), t. ii. p. 771. Also Robinson,Later Biblical Researches(1856), p. 87note.[160]Nineteenth Century, February 1891, pp. 339-40.[161]Neither is it of any consequence whether the locality of the supposed miracle was Gadara, or Gerasa, or Gergesa. But I may say that I was well acquainted with Origen's opinion respecting Gergesa. It is fully discussed and rejected in Riehm'sHandwörterbuch. In Kitto'sBiblical Cyclopædia(ii. p. 51) Professor Porter remarks that Origen merely "conjectures" that Gergesa was indicated; and he adds, "Now, in a question of this kind, conjectures cannot be admitted. We must implicitly follow the most ancient and creditable testimony, which clearly pronounces in favour ofΓαδαρηνῶν. This reading is adopted by Tischendorf, Alford, and Tregelles."[162]I may call attention, in passing, to the fact that this authority, at any rate, has no sort of doubt of the fact that Jewish Law did not rule in Gadara (indeed, under the head of "Gadara," in the same work, it is expressly stated that the population of the place consisted "predominantly of heathens"), and that he scouts the notion that the Gadarene swineherds were Jews.[163]The evidence adduced, so far as post-exile times are concerned, appears to me insufficient to prove this assertion.[164]Even Leviticus xi. 26, cited without reference to the context, will not serve the purpose; because the swineis"cloven footed" (Lev. xi. 7).[165]1st Gospel: "And the devilsbesought him, saying, If Thou cast us out send us awayintothe herd of swine." 2d Gospel: "Theybesought him, saying, Send usintothe swine." 3d Gospel: "Theyintreated himthat he would give them leave to enterintothem."[166]See Marquardt,Römische Staatsverwaltung, Bd. III. p. 408.[167]Nineteenth Century, March 1889 (p. 362).[168]"The Value of Witness to the Miraculous."Nineteenth Century, March 1889.[169]I cannot ask the Editor of this Review to reprint pages of an old article,—but the following passages sufficiently illustrate the extent and the character of the discrepancy between the facts of the case and Mr. Gladstone's account of them:—"Now, in the Gadarene affair, I do not think I am unreasonably sceptical if I say that the existence of demons who can be transferred from a man to a pig does thus contravene probability. Let me be perfectly candid. I admit I have noà prioriobjection to offer.... I declare, as plainly as I can, that I am unable to show cause why these transferable devils should not exist."... ("Agnosticism,"Nineteenth Century, 1889, p. 177)."What then do we know about the originator, or originators, of this groundwork—of that threefold tradition which all three witnesses (in Paley's phrase) agree upon—that we should allow their mere statements to outweigh the counter arguments of humanity, of common sense, of exact science, and to imperil the respect which all would be glad to be able to render to their Master?" (ibid.p. 175).I then go on through a couple of pages to discuss the value of the evidence of the synoptics on critical and historical grounds. Mr. Gladstone cites the essay from which these passages are taken, whence I suppose he has read it; though it may be that he shares the impatience of Cardinal Manning where my writings are concerned. Such impatience will account for, though it will not excuse, his sixth proposition.[170]The wicked, before being annihilated, returned to the world to disturb men; they entered into the body of unclean animals, "often that of a pig, as on the Sarcophagus of Seti I. in the Soane Museum."—Lenormant,Chaldean Magic, p. 88, Editorial Note.[171]In May 1849 the Tigris at Bagdad rose 22½ feet—5 feet above its usual rise—and nearly swept away the town. In 1831 a similarly exceptional flood did immense damage, destroying 7000 houses. See Loftus,Chaldea and Susiana, p. 7.[172]See the instructive chapter on Hasisadra's flood in Suess,Das Antlitz der Erde, Abth. I. Only fifteen years ago a cyclone in the Bay of Bengal gave rise to a flood which covered 3000 square miles of the delta of the Ganges, 3 to 45 feet deep, destroying 100,000 people, innumerable cattle, houses, and trees. It broke inland, on the rising ground of Tipperah, and may have swept a vessel from the sea that far, though I do not know that it did.[173]See Cernik's maps inPetermanns Mittheilungen, Ergänzungshefte 44 and 45, 1875-76.[174]I have not cited the dimensions given to the ship in most translations of the story, because there appears to be a doubt about them. Haupt (Keilinschriftliche Sindfluth-Bericht, p. 13) says that the figures are illegible.[175]It is probable that a slow movement of elevation of the land at one time contributed to the result—perhaps does so still.[176]At a comparatively recent period, the littoral margin of the Persian Gulf extended certainly 250 miles farther to the north-west than the present embouchure of the Shatt-el Arab. (Loftus,Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society, 1853, p. 251.) The actual extent of the marine deposit inland cannot be defined, as it is covered by later fluviatile deposits.[177]Tiele (Babylonisch-Assyrische Geschichte, pp. 572-3) has some very just remarks on this aspect of the epos.[178]In the second volume of theHistory of the Euphrates Expedition, p. 637, Col. Chesney gives a very interesting account of the simple and rapid manner in which the people about Tekrit and in the marshes of Lemlum construct large barges, and make them watertight with bitumen. Doubtless the practice is extremely ancient; and as Colonel Chesney suggests, may possibly have furnished the conception of Noah's ark. But it is one thing to build a barge 44 ft. long by 11 ft. wide and 4 ft. deep in the way described; and another to get a vessel of ten times the dimensions, so constructed, to hold together.[179]"Es ist nichts schrecklicher als eine thätige Unwissenheit."Maximen und Reflexionen, iii.[180]The well-known difficulties connected with this case have recently been carefully discussed by Mr. Bell in theTransactionsof the Geological Society of Glasgow.[181]An instructive parallel is exhibited by the "Great Basin" of North America. See the remarkable memoir on "Lake Bonneville" by Mr. G. K. Gilbert, of the United States Geological Survey, just published.[182]It is true that earthquakes are common enough, but they are incompetent to produce such changes as those which have taken place.[183]See Teller,Geologische Beschreibung des sud-östlichen Thessalien: Denkschriften d. Akademie der Wissenschaften, Wien, Bd. xl. p. 199.[184]Dr. Langenbeck,Die Theorien über die Entstehung der Korallen-Inseln und Korallen-Riffe(p. 13), 1890.

[1]With a few exceptions, which are duly noted when they amount to more than verbal corrections.

[2]Declaration on the Truth of Holy Scripture. TheTimes, 18th December 1891.

[3]Declaration, Article 10.

[4]Ego vero evangelio non crederem, nisi ecclesiæ Catholicæ me commoveret auctoritas.—Contra Epistolam Manichæi, cap. v.

[5]I employ the words "Supernature" and "Supernatural" in their popular senses. For myself, I am bound to say that the term "Nature" covers the totality of that which is. The world of psychical phenomena appears to me to be as much part of "Nature" as the world of physical phenomena; and I am unable to perceive any justification for cutting the Universe into two halves, one natural and one supernatural.

[6]The general reader will find an admirably clear and concise statement of the evidence in this case, in Professor Flower's recently published workThe Horse: a Study in Natural History.

[7]"The School Boards: What they can do and what they may do," 1870.Critiques and Addresses, p. 51.

[8]De Solido intra Solidum, p. 5.—"Dato corpore certâ figurâ prædito et juxta leges naturæ producto, in ipso corpore argumenta invenire locum et modum productionis detegentia."

[9]"Corpora sibi invicem omnino similia simili etiam modo producta sunt."

[10][Sir J. D. Hooker.]

[11]The Nineteenth Century.

[12]Earlier, if more recent announcements are correct.

[13]It may be objected that I have not put the case fairly, inasmuch as the solitary insect's wing which was discovered twelve months ago in Silurian rocks, and which is, at present, the sole evidence of insects older than the Devonian epoch, came from strata of Middle Silurian age, and is therefore older than the scorpions which, within the last two years, have been found in Upper Silurian strata in Sweden, Britain, and the United States. But no one who comprehends the nature of the evidence afforded by fossil remains would venture to say that the non-discovery of scorpions in the Middle Silurian strata, up to this time, affords any more ground for supposing that they did not exist, than the non-discovery of flying insects in the Upper Silurian strata, up to this time, throws any doubt on the certainty that they existed, which is derived from the occurrence of the wing in the Middle Silurian. In fact, I have stretched a point in admitting that these fossils afford a colourable pretext for the assumption that the land and air-population were of contemporaneous origin.

[14]The Nineteenth Century, 1886.

[15]Both dolphins and dugongs occur in the Red Sea, porpoises and dolphins in the Mediterranean; so that the "Mosaic writer" may well have been acquainted with them.

[16]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."

[17]See Heinze,Die Lehre vom Logos, p. 9et seq.

[18]Reprinted inLay Sermons, Addresses, and Reviews, 1870.

[19]"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.

[20]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.

[21]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" (The Story of the Heavens, 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?

[22]Lectures on Evolution delivered in New York (American Addresses).

[23]Reuss,L'Histoire Sainte et la Loi, vol. i. p. 275.

[24]For the sense of the term "Elohim," see p.141.

[25]Perhaps even hippopotamuses and otters!

[26]Even the most sturdy believers in the popular theory that the proper or titular names attached to the books of the Bible are those of their authors will hardly be prepared to maintain that Jephthah, Gideon, and their colleagues wrote the book of Judges. Nor is it easily admissible that Samuel wrote the two books which pass under his name, one of which deals entirely with events which took place after his death. In fact, no one knows who wrote either Judges or Samuel, nor when, within the range of 100 years, their present form was given to these books.

[27]My citations are taken from the Revised Version, but forLordandGodI have substituted Jahveh and Elohim.

[28]I need hardly say that I depend upon authoritative Biblical critics, whenever a question of interpretation of the text arises. As Reuss appears to me to be one of the most learned, acute, and fair-minded of those whose works I have studied, I have made most use of the commentary and dissertations in his splendid French edition of the Bible. But I have also had recourse to the works of Dillman, Kalisch, Kuenen, Thenius, Tuch, and others, in cases in which another opinion seemed desirable.

[29]See "Divination," by Hazoral,Journal of Anthropology, Bombay, vol. i. No. 1.

[30]See, for example, the message of Jephthah to the King of the Ammonites: "So now Jahveh, the Elohim of Israel, hath dispossessed the Amorites from before his people Israel, and shouldest thou possess them? Wilt not thou possess that which Chemosh, thy Elohim, giveth thee to possess?" (Jud. xi. 23, 24). For Jephthah, Chemosh is obviously as real a personage as Jahveh.

[31]For example: "My oblation, my food for my offerings made by fire, of a sweet savour to me, shall ye observe to offer unto me in their due season" (Num. xxviii. 2).

[32]In 2 Samuel xv. 27 David says to Zadok the priest, "Art thou not a seer?" and Gad is called David's seer.

[33]This would at first appear to be inconsistent with the use of the word "prophetess" for Deborah. But it does not follow because the writer of Judges applies the name to Deborah that it was used in her day.

[34]Samuel tells the cook, "Bring the portion which I gave thee, of which I said to thee, Set it by thee." It was therefore Samuel's to give. "And the cook took up the thigh (or shoulder) and that which was upon it and set it before Saul." But, in the Levitical regulations, it is the thigh (or shoulder) which becomes the priest's own property. "And the right thigh (or shoulder) shall ye give unto the priest for an heave-offering," which is given along with the wave breast "unto Aaron the priest and unto his sons as a due for ever from the children of Israel" (Lev. vii. 31-34). Reuss writes on this passage: "La cuisse n'est point agitée, mais simplementprelevéesur ce que les convives mangeront."

[35]See, for example, Elkanah's sacrifice, 1 Sam. i. 3-9.

[36]The ghost was not supposed to be capable of devouring the gross material substance of the offering; but his vaporous body appropriated the smoke of the burnt sacrifice, the visible and odorous exhalations of other offerings. The blood of the victim was particularly useful because it was thought to be the special seat of its soul or life. A West African negro replied to an European sceptic: "Of course, the spirit cannot eat corporeal food, but he extracts its spiritual part, and, as we see, leaves the material part behind" (Lippert,Seelencult, p. 16).

[37]It is further well worth consideration whether indications of former ancestor-worship are not to be found in the singular weight attached to the veneration of parents in the fourth commandment. It is the only positive commandment, in addition to those respecting the Deity and that concerning the Sabbath, and the penalties for infringing it were of the same character. In China, a corresponding reverence for parents is part and parcel of ancestor-worship; so in ancient Rome and in Greece (where parents were even calledδεύτεροι καὶ ἐπίγεοι θεοί). The fifth commandment, as it stands, would be an excellent compromise between ancestor-worship and monotheism. The larger hereditary share allotted by Israelitic law to the eldest son reminds one of the privileges attached to primogeniture in ancient Rome, which were closely connected with ancestor-worship. There is a good deal to be said in favour of the speculation that the ark of the covenant may have been a relic of ancestor-worship; but that topic is too large to be dealt with incidentally in this place.

[38]"The Scientific Aspects of Positivism,"Fortnightly Review, 1869, republished inLay Sermons.

[39]Œuvres de Bossuet, ed. 1808, t. xxxv. p. 282.

[40]I should like further to add the expression of my indebtedness to two works by Herr Julius Lippert,Der Seelencult in seinen Beziehungen zur alt-hebraischen Religion, andDie Religionen der europäischen Culturvölker, both published in 1881. I have found them full of valuable suggestions.

[41]See among others the remarkable work of Fustel de Coulanges,La cité antique, in which the social importance of the old Roman ancestor-worship is brought out with great clearness.

[42]Supposed to be "the finer or more aeriform part of the body," standing in "the same relation to the body as the perfume and the more essential qualities of a flower do to the more solid substances" (Mariner, vol. ii. p. 127).

[43]A kind of "clients" in the Roman sense.

[44]It is worthy of remark thatδαίμωνamong the Greeks, andDeusamong the Romans, had the same wide signification. Thedii maneswere ghosts of ancestors = Atuas of the family.

[45]Voyages aux îles du Grand Ocean, t. i. p. 482.

[46]Te Ika a Maui: New Zealand and its Inhabitants, p. 72.

[47]Compare: "And Samuel said unto Saul, Why hast thou disquieted me?" (1 Sam. xxviii. 15).

[48]Turner,Nineteen Years in Polynesia, p. 238.

[49]See Lippert's excellent remarks on this subject,Der Seelencult, p. 89.

[50]Sciographyhas the authority of Cudworth,Intellectual System, vol. ii. p. 836. Sciomancy (σκιομαντεία), which, in the sense of divination by ghosts, may be found in Bailey'sDictionary(1751), also furnishes a precedent for my coinage.

[51]"Kami" is used in the sense of Elohim; and is also, like our word "Lord," employed as a title of respect among men, as indeed Elohim was.

[52][The Assyrians thus raised Assur to a position of pre-eminence.]

[53]I refer those who wish to know the reasons which lead me to take up this position to the works of Reuss and Wellhausen, [and especially to Stade'sGeschichte des Volkes Israel.]

[54]Bunsen,Egypt's Place, vol. v. p. 129, note.

[55]See Birch, inEgypt's Place, vol. v.; and Brugsch,History of Egypt.

[56]Even by Graetz, who, though a fair enough historian, cannot be accused of any desire to over-estimate the importance of Egyptian influence upon his people.

[57]Graetz,Geschichte der Juden, Bd. i. p. 370.

[58]See the careful analysis of the work of the Alexandrian philosopher and theologian (who, it should be remembered, was a most devout Jew, held in the highest esteem by his countrymen) in Siegfried'sPhilo von Alexandrien, 1875. [Also Dr. J. Drummond'sPhilo Judæus, 1888.]

[59]I am not unaware of the existence of many and widely divergent sects and schools among the Jews at all periods of their history, since the dispersion. But I imagine that orthodox Judaism is now pretty much what it was in Philo's time; while Peter and Paul, if they could return to life, would certainly have to learn the catechism of either the Roman, Greek, or Anglican Churches, if they desired to be considered orthodox Christians.

[60]Dante's description of Lucifer engaged in the eternal mastication of Brutus, Cassius, and Judas Iscariot—

"Da ogni bocca dirompea co' dentiUn peccatore, a guisa di maciulla,Si che tre ne facea così dolenti.A quel dinanzi il mordere era nulla,Verso 'l graffiar, chè tal volta la schienaRimanea della pelle tutta brulla"—

"Da ogni bocca dirompea co' denti

Un peccatore, a guisa di maciulla,

Si che tre ne facea così dolenti.

A quel dinanzi il mordere era nulla,

Verso 'l graffiar, chè tal volta la schiena

Rimanea della pelle tutta brulla"—

is quite in harmony with the Pisan picture and perfectly Polynesian in conception.

[61]See the famousCollection of Papers, published by Clarke in 1717. Leibnitz says: "'Tis also a supernatural thing that bodies shouldattractone another at a distance without any intermediate means." And Clarke, on behalf of Newton, caps this as follows: "That one body should attract another without any intermediatemeansis, indeed, not amiracle, but a contradiction; for 'tis supposing something to act where it is not."

[62]I may cite in support of this obvious conclusion of sound reasoning, two authorities who will certainly not be regarded lightly by Mr. Lilly. These are Augustine and Thomas Aquinas. The former declares that "Fate" is only an ill-chosen name for Providence.

"Prorsus divina providentia regna constituuntur humana. Quæ si propterea quisquam fato tribuit, quia ipsam Dei voluntatem vel potestatem fati nomine appellat,sententiam teneat, linguam corrigat" (AugustinusDe Civitate Dei, V. c. i.)

The other great doctor of the Catholic Church, "Divus Thomas," as Suarez calls him, whose marvellous grasp and subtlety of intellect seem to me to be almost without a parallel, puts the whole case into a nutshell, when he says that the ground for doing a thing in the mind of the doer is as it were the pre-existence of the thing done:

"Ratio autem alicujus fiendi in mente actoris existens est quædam præ-existentia rei fiendæ in eo" (Summa, Qu. xxiii. Art. i.)

If this is not enough, I may further ask what "Materialist" has ever given a better statement of the case for determinism, on theistic grounds, than is to be found in the following passage of theSumma, Qu. xiv. Art. xiii.

"Omnia quæ sunt in tempore, sunt Deo ab æterno præsentia, non solum ea ex ratione quâ habet rationes rerum apud se presentes, ut quidam dicunt, sed quia ejus intuitus fertur ab æterno supra omnia, prout sunt in sua præsentialitate.Unde manifestum est quod contingentia infallibiliter a Deo cognoscuntur, in quantum subduntur divino conspectui secundum suam præsentialitatem; et tamen sunt futura contingentia, suis causis proximis comparata."

[As I have not said that Thomas Aquinas is professedly a determinist, I do not see the bearing of citations from him which may be more or less inconsistent with the foregoing.]

[63]There is no exaggeration in this brief and summary view of the Catholic cosmos. But it would be unfair to leave it to be supposed that the Reformation made any essential alteration, except perhaps for the worse, in that cosmology which called itself "Christian." The protagonist of the Reformation, from whom the whole of the Evangelical sects are lineally descended, states the case with that plainness of speech, not to say brutality, which characterised him. Luther says that man is a beast of burden who only moves as his rider orders; sometimes God rides him, and sometimes Satan. "Sic voluntas humana in medio posita est, ceu jumentum; si insederit Deus, vult et vadit, quo vult Deus.... Si insederit Satan, vult et vadit, quo vult Satan; nec est in ejus arbitrio ad utrum sessorem currere, aut eum quærere, sed ipsi sessores certant ob ipsum obtinendum et possidendum" (De Servo Arbitrio, M. Lutheri Opera, ed. 1546, t. ii. p. 468). One may hear substantially the same doctrine preached in the parks and at street-corners by zealous volunteer missionaries of Evangelicism, any Sunday, in modern London. Why these doctrines, which are conspicuous by their absence in the four Gospels, should arrogate to themselves the title of Evangelical, in contradistinction to Catholic, Christianity, may well perplex the impartial inquirer, who, if he were obliged to choose between the two, might naturally prefer that which leaves the poor beast of burden a little freedom of choice.

[64]I say "so-called" not by way of offence, but as a protest against the monstrous assumption that Catholic Christianity is explicitly or implicitly contained in any trustworthy record of the teaching of Jesus of Nazareth.

[65]It may be desirable to observe that, in modern times, the term "Realism" has acquired a signification wholly different from that which attached to it in the middle ages. We commonly use it as the contrary of Idealism. The Idealist holds that the phenomenal world has only a subjective existence, the Realist that it has an objective existence. I am not aware that any mediæval philosopher was an Idealist in the sense in which we apply the term to Berkeley. In fact, the cardinal defect of their speculations lies in their oversight of the considerations which lead to Idealism. If many of them regarded the material world as a negation, it was an active negation; not zero, but a minus quantity.

[66]At any rate a catastrophe greater than the flood, which, as I observe with interest, is as calmly assumed by the preacher to be an historical event as if science had never had a word to say on that subject!

[67]"Les formes des anciens ou Entéléchies ne sont autre chose que les forces" (Leibnitz,Lettre au Père Bouvet, 1697).

[68]Nineteenth Century, March 1887.

[69]The Duke of Argyll speaks of the recent date of the demonstration of the fallacy of the doctrine in question. "Recent" is a relative term, but I may mention that the question is fully discussed in my book on "Hume"; which, if I may believe my publishers, has been read by a good many people since it appeared in 1879. Moreover, I observe, from a note at page 89 ofThe Reign of Law, a work to which I shall have occasion to advert by and by, that the Duke of Argyll draws attention to the circumstance that, so long ago as 1866, the views which I hold on this subject were well known. The Duke, in fact, writing about this time, says, after quoting a phrase of mine: "The question of miracles seems now to be admitted on all hands to be simply a question of evidence." In science we think that a teacher who ignores views which have been discussedcoram populofor twenty years, is hardly up to the mark.

[70]See also vol. i. p. 460. In the ninth edition (1853), published twenty-three years after the first, Lyell deprives even the most careless reader of any excuse for misunderstanding him: "So in regard to subterranean movements, the theory of the perpetual uniformity of the force which they exert on the earth-crust is quite consistent with the admission of their alternate development and suspension for indefinite periods within limited geographical areas" (p. 187).

[71]A great many years ago (Presidential Address to the Geological Society, 1869) I ventured to indicate that which seemed to me to be the weak point, not in the fundamental principles of uniformitarianism, but in uniformitarianism as taught by Lyell. It lay, to my mind, in the refusal by Hutton, and in a less degree by Lyell, to look beyond the limits of the time recorded by the stratified rocks. I said: "This attempt to limit, at a particular point, the progress of inductive and deductive reasoning from the things which are to the things which were—this faithlessness to its own logic, seems to me to have cost uniformitarianism the place as the permanent form of geological speculation which it might otherwise have held" (Lay Sermons, p. 260). The context shows that "uniformitarianism" here means that doctrine, as limited in application by Hutton and Lyell, and that what I mean by "evolutionism" is consistent and thoroughgoing uniformitarianism.

[72]Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences, vol. i. p. 670. New edition, 1847.

[73]At Glasgow in 1856.

[74]Optics, query 31.

[75]The author recognises this in hisExplanations.

[76]"The Advance of Science." Three sermons preached in Manchester Cathedral on Sunday, September 4, 1887, during the meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, by the Bishop of Carlisle, the Bishop of Bedford, and the Bishop of Manchester.

[77]American Journal of Science, 1885, p. 190.

[78]Professor Geikie, however, though a strong, is a fair and candid advocate. He says of Darwin's theory, "That it may be possibly true, in some instances, may be readily granted." For Professor Geikie, then, it is not yet overthrown—still less a dream.

[79]I find, moreover, that I specially warned my readers against hasty judgment. After stating the facts of observation, I add, "I have, hitherto, said nothing about their meaning, as, in an inquiry so difficult and fraught with interest as this, it seems to me to be in the highest degree important to keep the questions of fact and the questions of interpretation well apart" (p. 210).

[80]See theOfficial Report of the Church Congress held at Manchester, October 1888, pp. 253, 254.

[81][In this place and in the eleventh essay, there are references to the late Archbishop of York which are of no importance to my main argument, and which I have expunged because I desire to obliterate the traces of a temporary misunderstanding with a man of rare ability, candour, and wit, for whom I entertained a great liking and no less respect. I rejoice to think now of the (then) Bishop's cordial hail the first time we met after our little skirmish, "Well, is it to be peace or war?" I replied, "A little of both." But there was only peace when we parted, and ever after.]

[82]Dr. Wace tells us, "It may be asked how far we can rely on the accounts we possess of our Lord's teaching on these subjects." And he seems to think the question appropriately answered by the assertion that it "ought to be regarded as settled by M. Renan's practical surrender of the adverse case." I thought I knew M. Renan's works pretty well, but I have contrived to miss this "practical" (I wish Dr. Wace had defined the scope of that useful adjective) surrender. However, as Dr. Wace can find no difficulty in pointing out the passage of M. Renan's writings, by which he feels justified in making his statement, I shall wait for further enlightenment, contenting myself, for the present, with remarking that if M. Renan were to retract and do penance in Notre-Dame to-morrow for any contributions to Biblical criticism that may be specially his property, the main results of that criticism, as they are set forth in the works of Strauss, Baur, Reuss, and Volkmar, for example, would not be sensibly affected.

[83][See De Gobineau,Les Religions et les Philosophies dans l'Asie Centrale; and the recently published work of Mr. E. G. Browne,The Episode of the Bab.]

[84]Here, as always, the revised version is cited.

[85]Does any one really mean to say that there is any internal or external criterion by which the reader of a biblical statement, in which scientific matter is contained, is enabled to judge whether it is to be takenau sérieuxor not? Is the account of the Deluge, accepted as true in the New Testament, less precise and specific than that of the call of Abraham, also accepted as true therein? By what mark does the story of the feeding with manna in the wilderness, which involves some very curious scientific problems, show that it is meant merely for edification, while the story of the inscription of the Law on stone by the hand of Jahveh is literally true? If the story of the Fall is not the true record of an historical occurrence, what becomes of Pauline theology? Yet the story of the Fall as directly conflicts with probability, and is as devoid of trustworthy evidence, as that of the Creation or that of the Deluge, with which it forms an harmoniously legendary series.

[86]See, for an admirable discussion of the whole subject, Dr. Abbott's article on the Gospels in theEncyclopædia Britannica; and the remarkable monograph by Professor Volkmar,Jesus Nazarenus und die erste christliche Zeit(1882). Whether we agree with the conclusions of these writers or not, the method of critical investigation which they adopt is unimpeachable.

[87]Notwithstanding the hard words shot at me from behind the hedge of anonymity by a writer in a recent number of theQuarterly Review, I repeat, without the slightest fear of refutation, that the four Gospels, as they have come to us, are the work of unknown writers.

[88]Their arguments, in the long run, are always reducible to one form. Otherwise trustworthy witnesses affirm that such and such events took place. These events are inexplicable, except the agency of "spirits" is admitted. Therefore "spirits" were the cause of the phenomena.

And the heads of the reply are always the same. Remember Goethe's aphorism: "Alles factische ist schon Theorie." Trustworthy witnesses are constantly deceived, or deceive themselves, in their interpretation of sensible phenomena. No one can prove that the sensible phenomena, in these cases, could be caused only by the agency of spirits: and there is abundant ground for believing that they may be produced in other ways. Therefore, the utmost that can be reasonably asked for, on the evidence as it stands, is suspension of judgment. And, on the necessity for even that suspension, reasonable men may differ, according to their views of probability.

[89]Yet I must somehow have laid hold of the pith of the matter, for, many years afterwards, when Dean Mansell's Bampton lectures were published, it seemed to me I already knew all that this eminently agnostic thinker had to tell me.

[90]Kritik der reinen Vernunft. Edit. Hartenstein, p. 256.

[91]Report of the Church Congress, Manchester, 1888, p. 252.

[92]Fortnightly Review, Jan. 1889.

[93]My citations are made from Teulet'sEinhardi omnia quæ extant opera, Paris, 1840-1843, which contains a biography of the author, a history of the text, with translations into French, and many valuable annotations.

[94]At present included in the Duchies of Hesse-Darmstadt and Baden.

[95]This took place in the year 826A.D.The relics were brought from Rome and deposited in the Church of St. Medardus at Soissons.

[96]Now included in Western Switzerland.

[97]Probably, according to Teulet, the present Sandhofer-fahrt, a little below the embouchure of the Neckar.

[98]The present Michilstadt, thirty miles N.E. of Heidelberg.

[99]In the Middle Ages one of the most favourite accusations against witches was that they committed just these enormities.

[100]It is pretty clear that Eginhard had his doubts about the deacon, whose pledges he qualifies assponsiones incertæ. But, to be sure, he wrote after events which fully justified scepticism.

[101]The words arescrinia sine clave, which seems to mean "having no key." But the circumstances forbid the idea of breaking open.

[102]Eginhard speaks with lofty contempt of the "vana ac superstitiosa præsumptio" of the poor woman's companions in trying to alleviate her sufferings with "herbs and frivolous incantations." Vain enough, no doubt, but the "mulierculæ" might have returned the epithet "superstitious" with interest.

[103]Of course there is nothing new in this argument; but it does not grow weaker by age. And the case of Eginhard is far more instructive than that of Augustine, because the former has so very frankly, though incidentally, revealed to us not only his own mental and moral habits, but those of the people about him.

[104]See 1 Cor. xii. 10-28; 2 Cor. vi. 12; Rom. xv. 19.

[105]A Journal or Historical Account of the Life, Travels, Sufferings, and Christian Experiences, &c., of George Fox. Ed. 1694, pp. 27, 28.

[106]I may perhaps return to the question of the authorship of the Gospels. For the present I must content myself with warning my readers against any reliance upon Dr. Wace's statements as to the results arrived at by modern criticism. They are as gravely as surprisingly erroneous.

[107]The United States ought, perhaps, to be added, but I am not sure.

[108]Imagine that all our chairs of Astronomy had been founded in the fourteenth century, and that their incumbents were bound to sign Ptolemaic articles. In that case, with every respect for the efforts of persons thus hampered to attain and expound the truth, I think men of common sense would go elsewhere to learn astronomy. Zeller'sVorträge und Abhandlungenwere published and came into my hands a quarter of a century ago. The writer's rank, as a theologian to begin with, and subsequently as a historian of Greek philosophy, is of the highest. Among these essays are two—Das UrchristenthumandDie Tübinger historische Schule—which are likely to be of more use to those who wish to know the real state of the case than all that the official "apologists," with their one eye on truth and the other on the tenets of their sect, have written. For the opinion of a scientific theologian about theologians of this stamp see pp. 225 and 227 of theVorträge.

[109]I suppose this is what Dr. Wace is thinking about when he says that I allege that there "is no visible escape" from the supposition of anUr-Marcus(p. 367). That a "theologian of repute" should confound an indisputable fact with one of the modes of explaining that fact is not so singular as those who are unaccustomed to the ways of theologians might imagine.

[110]Any examiner whose duty it has been to examine into a case of "copying" will be particularly well prepared to appreciate the force of the case stated in that most excellent little book,The Common Tradition of the Synoptic Gospels, by Dr. Abbott and Mr. Rushbrooke (Macmillan, 1884). To those who have not passed through such painful experiences I may recommend the brief discussion of the genuineness of the "Casket Letters" in my friend Mr. Skelton's interesting book,Maitland of Lethington. The second edition of Holtzmann'sLehrbuch, published in 1886, gives a remarkably fair and full account of the present results of criticism. At p. 366 he writes that the present burning question is whether the "relatively primitive narrative and the root of the other synoptic texts is contained in Matthew or in Mark. It is only on this point that properly-informed (sachkundige) critics differ," and he decides in favour of Mark.

[111]Holtzmann (Die synoptischen Evangelien, 1863, p. 75), following Ewald, argues that the "Source A" ( = the threefold tradition, more or less) contained something that answered to the "Sermon on the Plain" immediately after the words of our present Mark, "And he cometh into a house" (iii. 19). But what conceivable motive could "Mark" have for omitting it? Holtzmann has no doubt, however, that the "Sermon on the Mount" is a compilation, or, as he calls it in his recently-publishedLehrbuch(p. 372), "an artificial mosaic work."

[112]See Schürer,Geschichte des jüdischen Volkes, Zweiter Theil, p. 384.

[113]Spacious, because a young man could sit in it "on the right side" (xv. 5), and therefore with plenty of room to spare.

[114]King Herod had not the least difficulty in supposing the resurrection of John the Baptist—"John, whom I beheaded, he is risen" (Mark vi. 16).

[115]I am very sorry for the interpolated "in," because citation ought to be accurate in small things as in great. But what difference it makes whether one "believes Jesus" or "believes in Jesus" much thought has not enabled me to discover. If you "believe him" you must believe him to be what he professed to be—that is, "believe in him;" and if you "believe in him" you must necessarily "believe him."

[116]True for Justin: but there is a school of theological critics, who more or less question the historical reality of Paul and the genuineness of even the four cardinal epistles.

[117]SeeDial. cum Tryphone, § 47 and § 35. It is to be understood that Justin does not arrange these categories in order, as I have done.

[118]I guard myself against being supposed to affirm that even the four cardinal epistles of Paul may not have been seriously tampered with. See note116, p. 429 above.

[119][Paul, in fact, is required to commit in Jerusalem, an act of the same character as that which he brands as "dissimulation" on the part of Peter in Antioch.]

[120]All this was quite clearly pointed out by Ritschl nearly forty years ago. SeeDie Entstehung der alt-katholischen Kirche(1850), p. 108.

[121]"If every one was baptized as soon as he acknowledged Jesus to be the Messiah, the first Christians can have been aware of no other essential differences from the Jews."—Zeller,Vorträge(1865), p. 26.

[122]Dr. Harnack, in the lately-published second edition of hisDogmengeschichte, says (p. 39), "Jesus Christ brought forward no new doctrine;" and again (p. 65), "It is not difficult to set against every portion of the utterances of Jesus an observation which deprives him of originality." See also Zusatz 4, on the same page.

[123]The substance of a paragraph which precedes this has been transferred to the Prologue.

[124]"Let us maintain, before we have proved. This seeming paradox is the secret of happiness" (Dr. Newman: Tract 85, p. 85).

[125]Dr. Newman,Essay on Development, p. 357.

[126]It is by no means to be assumed that "spiritual" and "corporeal" are exact equivalents of "immaterial" and "material" in the minds of ancient speculators on these topics. The "spiritual body" of the risen dead (1 Cor. xv.) is not the "natural" "flesh and blood" body. Paul does not teach the resurrection of the body in the ordinary sense of the word "body"; a fact, often overlooked, but pregnant with many consequences.

[127]Tertullian (Apolog. adv. Gentes, cap. xxiii.) thus challenges the Roman authorities: let them bring a possessed person into the presence of a Christian before their tribunal; and, if the demon does not confess himself to be such, on the order of the Christian, let the Christian be executed out of hand.

[128]See the expression of orthodox opinion upon the "accommodation" subterfuge already cited above, p.336.

[129]I quote the first edition (1843). A second edition appeared in 1870. Tract 85 of theTracts for the Timesshould be read with thisEssay. If I were called upon to compile a Primer of "Infidelity," I think I should save myself trouble by making a selection from these works, and from theEssay on Developmentby the same author.

[130]Yet, when it suits his purpose, as in the Introduction to theEssay on Development, Dr. Newman can demand strict evidence in religious questions as sharply as any "infidel author"; and he can even profess to yield to its force (Essay on Miracles, 1870, note, p. 391).

[131]Compare Tract 85, p. 110: "I am persuaded that were men but consistent who oppose the Church doctrines as being unscriptural, they would vindicate the Jews for rejecting the Gospel."

[132]According to Dr. Newman, "This prayer [that of Bishop Alexander, who begged God to 'take Arius away'] is said to have been offered about 3P.M.on the Saturday; that same evening Arius was in the great square of Constantine, when he was suddenly seized with indisposition" (p. clxx). The "infidel" Gibbon seems to have dared to suggest that "an option between poison and miracle" is presented by this case; and, it must be admitted, that, if the Bishop had been within the reach of a modern police magistrate, things might have gone hardly with him. Modern "Infidels," possessed of a slight knowledge of chemistry, are not unlikely, with no less audacity, to suggest an "option between fire-damp and miracle" in seeking for the cause of the fiery outburst at Jerusalem.

[133]A writer in a spiritualist journal takes me roundly to task for venturing to doubt the historical and literal truth of the Gadarene story. The following passage in his letter is worth quotation: "Now to the materialistic and scientific mind, to the uninitiated in spiritual verities, certainly this story of the Gadarene or Gergesene swine presents insurmountable difficulties; it seems grotesque and nonsensical. To the experienced, trained, and cultivated Spiritualist this miracle is, as I am prepared to show, one of the most instructive, the most profoundly useful, and the most beneficent which Jesus ever wrought in the whole course of His pilgrimage of redemption on earth." Just so. And the first page of this same journal presents the following advertisement, among others of the same kidney:—

"To Wealthy Spiritualists.—A Lady Medium of tried power wishes to meet with an elderly gentleman who would be willing to give her a comfortable home and maintenance in Exchange for her Spiritualistic services, as her guides consider her health is too delicate for public sittings: London preferred.—Address "Mary," Office ofLight."

Are we going back to the days of the Judges, when wealthy Micah set up his private ephod, teraphim, and Levite?

[134]Consider Tertullian's "sister" ("hodie apud nos"), who conversed with angels, saw and heard mysteries, knew men's thoughts, and prescribed medicine for their bodies (De Anima, cap. 9). Tertullian tells us that this woman saw the soul as corporeal, and described its colour and shape. The "infidel" will probably be unable to refrain from insulting the memory of the ecstatic saint by the remark, that Tertullian's known views about the corporeality of the soul may have had something to do with the remarkable perceptive powers of the Montanist medium, in whose revelations of the spiritual world he took such profound interest.

[135]See the New YorkWorldfor Sunday, 21st October 1888; and theReport of the Seybert Commission, Philadelphia, 1887.

[136]Dr. Newman's observation that the miraculous multiplication of the pieces of the true cross (with which "the whole world is filled," according to Cyril of Jerusalem; and of which some say there are enough extant to build a man-of-war) is no more wonderful than that of the loaves and fishes is one that I do not see my way to contradict. SeeEssay on Miracles, 2d ed. p. 163.

[137]An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine, by J. H. Newman, D.D., pp. 7 and 8. (1878.)

[138]Dr. Newman faces this question with his customary ability. "Now, I own, I am not at all solicitous to deny that this doctrine of an apostate Angel and his hosts was gained from Babylon: it might still be Divine nevertheless. God who made the prophet's ass speak, and thereby instructed the prophet, might instruct His Church by means of heathen Babylon" (Tract 85, p. 83). There seems to be no end to the apologetic burden that Balaam's ass can carry.

[139]Nineteenth Century, May 1889 (p. 701).

[140]I trust it may not be supposed that I undervalue M. Renan's labours, or intended to speak slightingly of them.

[141]To-day'sTimescontains a report of a remarkable speech by Prince Bismarck, in which he tells the Reichstag that he has long given up investing in foreign stock, lest so doing should mislead his judgment in his transactions with foreign states. Does this declaration prove that the Chancellor accuses himself of being "sordid" and "selfish," or does it not rather show that, even in dealing with himself, he remains the man of realities?

[142]Bampton Lectures(1859), on "The Historical Evidences of the Truth of the Scripture Records stated anew, with Special Reference to the Doubts and Discoveries of Modern Times," by the Rev. G. Rawlinson, M.A., pp. 5-6.

[143]The Worth of the Old Testament, a Sermon preached in St. Paul's Cathedral on the Second Sunday in Advent, 8th Dec. 1889, by H. P. Liddon, D.D., D.C.L., Canon and Chancellor of St. Paul's. Second edition, revised and with a new preface, 1890.

[144]St. Luke xvii. 32.

[145]Ibid.27.

[146]St. Matt. xii. 40.

[147]Bampton Lectures, 1859, pp. 50-51.

[148]Commentary on Genesis, by the Bishop of Ely, p. 77.

[149]Die Sintflut, 1876.

[150]Theologie und Naturwissenschaft, ii. 784-791 (1877).

[151]It is very doubtful if this means the region of the Armenian Ararat. More probably it designates some part either of the Kurdish range or of its south-eastern continuation.

[152]So Reclus (Nouvelle Géographie Universelle, ix. 386), but I find the statement doubted by an authority of the first rank.

[153]So far as I know, the narrative of the Creation is not now held to be true, in the sense in which I have defined historical truth, by any of the reconcilers. As for the attempts to stretch the Pentateuchal days into periods of thousands or millions of years, the verdict of the eminent biblical scholar, Dr. Riehm (Der biblische Schöpfungsbericht, 1881, pp. 15, 16), on such pranks of "Auslegungskunst" should be final. Why do the reconcilers take Goethe's advice seriously?—

"Im Auslegen seyd frisch und munter!Legt ihr's nicht aus, so legt was unter."

"Im Auslegen seyd frisch und munter!

Legt ihr's nicht aus, so legt was unter."

[154]Thus Josephus (lib. ix.) says that his rival, Justus, persuaded the citizens of Tiberias to "set the villages that belonged to Gadara and Hippos on fire; which villages were situated on the borders of Tiberias and of the region of Scythopolis."

[155]It is said to have been destroyed by its captors.

[156]"But as to the Grecian cities Gaza and Gadara and Hippos, he cut them off from the kingdom and added them to Syria."—Josephus,Wars, II. vi. 3. See alsoAntiquities, XVII. xi. 4.

[157]Geschichte des jüdischen Volkes im Zeitalter Christi, 1886-90.

[158]If William the Conqueror, after fighting the battle of Hastings had marched to capture Chichester and then returned to assault Rye, being all the while anxious to reach London, his proceedings would not have been more eccentric than Mr. Gladstone must imagine those of Vespasian were.

[159]See Reland,Palestina(1714), t. ii. p. 771. Also Robinson,Later Biblical Researches(1856), p. 87note.

[160]Nineteenth Century, February 1891, pp. 339-40.

[161]Neither is it of any consequence whether the locality of the supposed miracle was Gadara, or Gerasa, or Gergesa. But I may say that I was well acquainted with Origen's opinion respecting Gergesa. It is fully discussed and rejected in Riehm'sHandwörterbuch. In Kitto'sBiblical Cyclopædia(ii. p. 51) Professor Porter remarks that Origen merely "conjectures" that Gergesa was indicated; and he adds, "Now, in a question of this kind, conjectures cannot be admitted. We must implicitly follow the most ancient and creditable testimony, which clearly pronounces in favour ofΓαδαρηνῶν. This reading is adopted by Tischendorf, Alford, and Tregelles."

[162]I may call attention, in passing, to the fact that this authority, at any rate, has no sort of doubt of the fact that Jewish Law did not rule in Gadara (indeed, under the head of "Gadara," in the same work, it is expressly stated that the population of the place consisted "predominantly of heathens"), and that he scouts the notion that the Gadarene swineherds were Jews.

[163]The evidence adduced, so far as post-exile times are concerned, appears to me insufficient to prove this assertion.

[164]Even Leviticus xi. 26, cited without reference to the context, will not serve the purpose; because the swineis"cloven footed" (Lev. xi. 7).

[165]1st Gospel: "And the devilsbesought him, saying, If Thou cast us out send us awayintothe herd of swine." 2d Gospel: "Theybesought him, saying, Send usintothe swine." 3d Gospel: "Theyintreated himthat he would give them leave to enterintothem."

[166]See Marquardt,Römische Staatsverwaltung, Bd. III. p. 408.

[167]Nineteenth Century, March 1889 (p. 362).

[168]"The Value of Witness to the Miraculous."Nineteenth Century, March 1889.

[169]I cannot ask the Editor of this Review to reprint pages of an old article,—but the following passages sufficiently illustrate the extent and the character of the discrepancy between the facts of the case and Mr. Gladstone's account of them:—

"Now, in the Gadarene affair, I do not think I am unreasonably sceptical if I say that the existence of demons who can be transferred from a man to a pig does thus contravene probability. Let me be perfectly candid. I admit I have noà prioriobjection to offer.... I declare, as plainly as I can, that I am unable to show cause why these transferable devils should not exist."... ("Agnosticism,"Nineteenth Century, 1889, p. 177).

"What then do we know about the originator, or originators, of this groundwork—of that threefold tradition which all three witnesses (in Paley's phrase) agree upon—that we should allow their mere statements to outweigh the counter arguments of humanity, of common sense, of exact science, and to imperil the respect which all would be glad to be able to render to their Master?" (ibid.p. 175).

I then go on through a couple of pages to discuss the value of the evidence of the synoptics on critical and historical grounds. Mr. Gladstone cites the essay from which these passages are taken, whence I suppose he has read it; though it may be that he shares the impatience of Cardinal Manning where my writings are concerned. Such impatience will account for, though it will not excuse, his sixth proposition.

[170]The wicked, before being annihilated, returned to the world to disturb men; they entered into the body of unclean animals, "often that of a pig, as on the Sarcophagus of Seti I. in the Soane Museum."—Lenormant,Chaldean Magic, p. 88, Editorial Note.

[171]In May 1849 the Tigris at Bagdad rose 22½ feet—5 feet above its usual rise—and nearly swept away the town. In 1831 a similarly exceptional flood did immense damage, destroying 7000 houses. See Loftus,Chaldea and Susiana, p. 7.

[172]See the instructive chapter on Hasisadra's flood in Suess,Das Antlitz der Erde, Abth. I. Only fifteen years ago a cyclone in the Bay of Bengal gave rise to a flood which covered 3000 square miles of the delta of the Ganges, 3 to 45 feet deep, destroying 100,000 people, innumerable cattle, houses, and trees. It broke inland, on the rising ground of Tipperah, and may have swept a vessel from the sea that far, though I do not know that it did.

[173]See Cernik's maps inPetermanns Mittheilungen, Ergänzungshefte 44 and 45, 1875-76.

[174]I have not cited the dimensions given to the ship in most translations of the story, because there appears to be a doubt about them. Haupt (Keilinschriftliche Sindfluth-Bericht, p. 13) says that the figures are illegible.

[175]It is probable that a slow movement of elevation of the land at one time contributed to the result—perhaps does so still.

[176]At a comparatively recent period, the littoral margin of the Persian Gulf extended certainly 250 miles farther to the north-west than the present embouchure of the Shatt-el Arab. (Loftus,Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society, 1853, p. 251.) The actual extent of the marine deposit inland cannot be defined, as it is covered by later fluviatile deposits.

[177]Tiele (Babylonisch-Assyrische Geschichte, pp. 572-3) has some very just remarks on this aspect of the epos.

[178]In the second volume of theHistory of the Euphrates Expedition, p. 637, Col. Chesney gives a very interesting account of the simple and rapid manner in which the people about Tekrit and in the marshes of Lemlum construct large barges, and make them watertight with bitumen. Doubtless the practice is extremely ancient; and as Colonel Chesney suggests, may possibly have furnished the conception of Noah's ark. But it is one thing to build a barge 44 ft. long by 11 ft. wide and 4 ft. deep in the way described; and another to get a vessel of ten times the dimensions, so constructed, to hold together.

[179]"Es ist nichts schrecklicher als eine thätige Unwissenheit."Maximen und Reflexionen, iii.

[180]The well-known difficulties connected with this case have recently been carefully discussed by Mr. Bell in theTransactionsof the Geological Society of Glasgow.

[181]An instructive parallel is exhibited by the "Great Basin" of North America. See the remarkable memoir on "Lake Bonneville" by Mr. G. K. Gilbert, of the United States Geological Survey, just published.

[182]It is true that earthquakes are common enough, but they are incompetent to produce such changes as those which have taken place.

[183]See Teller,Geologische Beschreibung des sud-östlichen Thessalien: Denkschriften d. Akademie der Wissenschaften, Wien, Bd. xl. p. 199.

[184]Dr. Langenbeck,Die Theorien über die Entstehung der Korallen-Inseln und Korallen-Riffe(p. 13), 1890.

Back to Index Next