66 66 and firm foundation for his reasonings. We believe it will be found that the most right-minded of the geologists themselves have no such confidence as this. Professor Kidd, for instance, has very recently protested against "the principle of supporting "the credibility of the sacred Scriptures on any unascertained in"terpretation of physical phenomena. Such a support," he says, appears to be imprudent as well as unnecessary; unnecessary, "because the moral evidence of the credibility of the Scriptures "is of itself fully sufficient; imprudent, because we have the strong ground of antecedent analogy, not only in another, but "in this very branch of knowledge, for anticipating a period in "the progress of science, when particular phenomena may be interpreted in a manner very different from that in which they are 64 interpreted at present. *** We accordingly reiterate-let there be no precipitation, no impatience. Let there be no hostile manifestos between theology and physical science; neither let there be any haste to patch up a hollow and perilous alliance between them. Let each of them pursue their own designs by their own independent paths; and let us wait the time when their respective courses, however divergent they may seem at the present moment, shall bring them to an amicable meeting upon common ground. If, however, in the interval, philosophy should chance to forget herself, and to wax wanton, and to lift up the heel against the majesty of Revelation,-it must not be endured for a moment. Let her instantly be held in with bit and bridle, and chastised with stripes, and driven back among her caverns and her rocks; lest she should rush in, like the boar out of the wilderness, to tread down and waste the vineyard of the Lord. We shall produce here, for the benefit both of the philosophers and the divines, the wise and charitable counsels of no less a personage than Aurelius Augustinus, Bishop of Hippo. He too, as we learn from his own Confessions, was grievously beset by a variety of discordant interpretations of the first chapter of Genesis. The debate then, indeed, related more particularly to the two opening verses of that chapter, and involved questions entirely distinct from those which are agitated at present. But the reflections of the illustrious Father on this conflict of opinions, are nevertheless capable of a very salutary application to the controversy (if such it may be called) which is now carried on between science and theology relative to the whole Mosaic history of the Creation." After a patient examination of these things," says Augustine, “I confess to the Omniscient God, that I perceive "that two sorts of dissension may arise, when anything is declared * Kidd's Bridgwater Treatise, pp. 181, 182. G 66 66 66 to us by witnesses of veracity: the one is, when the disagree"ment relates to the truth of the things themselves; the other, "when it relates to the design and meaning of him who declares "them. It is one thing to inquire what is the truth touching the "condition of created things, and another to inquire what it was "the intention of that illustrious servant of God to convey to the "mind of the reader.... Respecting the unchangeable truth of "God we can have no contention; but we cannot look into the "mind of another man, and peruse it with a certainty and a con"fidence equal to that with which we rely on God's unchangeable "truth. If Moses himself were present among us, and were to 66 say, such and such was my meaning,' we might, indeed, be"lieve him; but still we should not be able to discern, and as it were to read, his thoughts. Let no man, therefore, be inflated, "for one, against another, beyond what is written.... Various sig"nifications may possibly be extracted from the words of Moses, "and of these we may be unable to pronounce that any one is in opposition to the truth. How absurd then is it, rashly to pronounce which of those senses was in the mind of the writer, and "thus to violate the law of charity by pernicious disputations!... "The language of Scripture is graciously accommodated to the ignorance and infirmity of man. It is framed as a sort of nest, "in which his feebleness may be sheltered, and his infant faith may be cherished. And if he who has not yet reached his full growth and strength, should, with proud imbecility (superbá "imbecillitate), rashly venture beyond that soft cradle, must he 'not fall? But do thou, O God, have pity on him, lest those who pass by the way should crush the unfledged creature. Send thy angel to place him once more in the nest, that he may live "until he shall be able to take wing!... When one man, then, "affirms that Moses meant this, and another that he meant that, "I reply that we may more religiously and reverently affirm, that " he meant to convey whatever various truths may be elicited from "his words. For myself, I protest that if I were desirous of writing anything with the most commanding authority, I would not be satisfied with so framing my statements that they should convey some one single truth, to the exclusion of other meanings, which, even should they be erroneous, would give me no "offence. Rather would I so order my words that they might "embrace every possible truth that could fairly and reasonably "be collected from them. I will not, therefore, my God, be so 66 66 66 66 hasty as to question that the privilege of doing this was vouch "safed unto thy servant when speaking of the wonders of thy "creation. Doubtless his intention was to convey to us whatever "truth we may be able to find in his words; yea, many truths "which as yet we may have been unable to find there, but which "those words may nevertheless be at last found to contain."* Such were the sentiments of the great and venerable Augustine; of one who will scarcely be suspected of a disposition to handle the revelations of God with irreverent and unbecoming laxity. What acceptance his words may find with the men of criticism, or the men of science, we cannot undertake to say. We nevertheless presume to recommend his sayings to all, in such measure as men may be able to bear them. And of one thing we are quite certain, that the candid and humble spirit which dictated his words, might be allowed, with most signal advantage, to preside over the labours of the philosopher, and the meditations of the Christian. We have been allured by the statements and reasonings of Lord Rosse into much more copious remark upon these topics, than we had originally contemplated. And we must confess that the subject itself, in spite of its manifold perplexities, is exceedingly seductive. We know not how it may be with others; but to us there is something strangely and inexpressibly interesting in the spectacle which the labours of geology have conjured up, from the depths of sea and land, and placed before our mental vision. Only think of the days (if ever such days were) when the whole of this terraqueous globe, or far the greater part of it, was one vast menagerie! Let us imagine ourselves in the midst of such a scene as the noble exhibitor has here presented to our thoughts. "We should then see crawling about, lizards twenty feet in length, with conical teeth, and monstrous eyes. Others still more monstrous crawling about also on four limbs, and with slender necks, as long as their bodies, and their necks rising from their bodies, like serpents, but with heads on them, like the heads of lizards. Also, moving on four legs, others, even seventy feet in length, and in size equal to a whale, In the air, too, might be seen flying lizards, armed with sharp teeth, with short tails, long backs, and high legs, and with wings attached to their claws," (like those of bats.) "Around the shores of these northern countries we should see the turtles swimming, and two or three kinds of crocodiles resembling the gavial of the Ganges. We should see also, lamentins, like those in the seas of the torrid zone. In the woody districts of these countries, along the banks of rivers, the great elephants, or mammoths as some call them, from fifteen to eighteen feet high, covered with coarse red wool, and long black bristly hairs, which formed a mane along their back, and with enormous tusks, longer than those of the elephants of our time, might be found feeding, as they were wont, under the shade of lofty palms and gigantic ferns, and amidst thickets of bamboos and other huge aquatic reeds, resembling those which only grow in the hottest regions. Here also we should see * August. Confess. lib. xii. c. 33. 35. 37. 42. grazing the mastodon, as large as the elephant, with enormous tusks, and a body of great solidity. Also, the hippopotamus and the tapir, as large as the others. Here, too, the great double-horned rhinoceros, and stags superior in size even to the ancient elk of Ireland. And here, the voracious byena. All these animals were of a different species from any resembling them at the present day, and their races appear to have been extinct from the time of the deluge, which destroyed all of them that were then in existence. Such is the account which Cuvier and the other modern geologists give of these animals. Such, too, is the account which they give of their catastrophe."-pp. 68, 69. Well may we exclaim, there were giants in those days! And what a fortune might Mr. Wombwell make, if he could but provide himself with one specimen of each of these monsters! How would the metropolis disgorge its multitudes into the Zoological Gardens, if these stupendous forms could be seen living and moving within its enclosure! And how can we wonder that the minds of inquisitive and sagacious men should be irresistibly impelled to explore the tombs of these ante-diluvian, or perhaps pre-Adamite, tenants of the waters and the land. And, when we contemplate the wonderful perseverance and penetration of Cuvier, how can we forbear to exclaim, with his admirers, "His tibi me rebus, quædam divina voluptas Percipit, atque horror; quod sic Natura, tuâ vi, We can do no justice whatever, by any art of abridgment, to the miraculous march of Divine Providence, as it has been traced by Lord Rosse throughout the whole period of the elder dispensation. Neither can we attempt to follow him through his detail of the mighty works by which the Saviour of the World was pleased to authenticate his divine and gracious mission. The publication, by its very nature, is itself a compendium of those proofs, which are, or ought to be, familiar to all intelligent Christians, who would be prepared to give a reason for the hope that is in them. Thus much, however, we can honestly say ;-that this compendium is such as never can be superfluous to the best informed professor of Christianity; for it may serve to bring before him, in comprehensive review, the legionary strength of evidence, arrayed in the cause of Divine Truth. And we may likewise add, that the whole argument is put forth by him in a tone of so much unaffected sobriety, and masculine good sense, that it can scarcely fail, as we imagine, to silence, if not entirely to correct, the merest wantonness of scepticism. If we were called upon to make selections, we should especially invite the atten tion of the reader to his lordship's representation of the several cures of blindness, and of the raising of Lazarus from the dead. Lord Rosse has reserved for his Appendix a very sensible dissertation on the date of St. Matthew's Gospel. He conceives that this Gospel must have been composed not long after the Ascension; adopting, in this respect, the view of Bishop Tomline, who was one of the latest writers on the subject, and therefore had the advantage of examining the reasonings and researches of many preceding critics. The question is of no inconsiderable importance. For, the earlier was the publication of this Gospel, the greater would be the number of living witnesses to the transactions which it relates; and, consequently, the greater the authority of the uncontradicted document itself. Before entering on this question, however, his lordship, offers some valuable remarks on the composition of the other Gospels; a subject which has been so much perplexed by the officious ingenuity and perverse industry of the German critics, that one is apt to rise from the investigation with the impression that the Gospels never could, by any possibility, have been compiled at all! The explanation of the noble author has at least simplicity to recommend it and we shall give it in his own words,-premising only, that, to us, it appears at least as satisfactory as any other which has been propounded: "The language spoken by Jesus was the language of the country. We have no reason for supposing that he ever spoke a sentence of Greek. All the sayings by him, as we have them in the Greek Gospels, must be translations. In the last three Gospels the translations of those sayings were made or adopted by the persons whose names they bear. We do not know who was the translator of St. Matthew's Gospel. We only know, by the quotations from it by the early Christian writers, that the translation of it was made very early, in the time of the Apostles. All the doctrinal parts of the Gospels, as we have them, are consequently translations. But their accurate agreement with each other, and the authority of the early Christian writers, and of their adversaries, proves that they are correct. The many passages that are word for word the same in the first three Gospels, have made many persons suppose that they copied from one another; or, that they were copied from one early original. But as this sameness of expression is almost entirely confined to the sayings of Jesus, it seems to me that they accurately treasured up these sayings in their memories at the time they were spoken; and by often repeating them to each other, as they would naturally do, and also to others, and, perhaps sometimes by writing them down, they had them so fixed in their minds, as generally to remember the identical words which he spoke. Indeed it would be surprising if they did not do so; for as it is evident that they believed him, from the beginning of his ministry, to be a teacher sent from God, in consequence of which they |