because it is naturally suggested first in of slavery, have influenced all their repoint of order, and because several pursuits searches. which, in recent times, have been assigned a place among the sciences, and to which views is, that professing Christian men

The danger to be dreaded from these

we may have occasion to refer, are greatly men with at least a traditional respect for influenced by the ethnological views of their the Bible-may be gained over to them, and votaries. the invariable result would be, that by farEthnological discussions, in connection fetched analogies-novel modes of interprewith Scripture history, have generally as- tation-and modifications of the doctrine of sumed two forms-one having reference to plenary verbal inspiration-they will seek physical characteristics, and another to lan- to harmonise them with the statements of guage to grammar. These have been va- Scripture. The work, which stands first on riously treated. Many are found boldly the list at the head of this article, is devoted averring that the application of historic to the exposition and enforcement of views criticism to the teaching of Genesis, on the whose leading features are the acknowquestions of race and language, has shown it ledgment of the Bible as the Word of Godto be wholly a myth. The Word repre- the reception of the theories now referred to sents all men as descended from a single as fully warranted by facts-and, as a corolpair; but we are now told that there are lary, the assertion that the doctrine of a many races whose varieties are so broadly plurality of races is taught in the Bible. marked, that physiology is constrained to Such attempts must be judged of by their reckon them generic-that there are lin- tendencies. If we once give up the firmly guistic peculiarities which point certainly to established position of the unity of the more than one primeval language, and, conse- human race and its origin in one pair, no quently, that there must have been more than amount of scholarship, talent, and ingenuity one original pair of parents for the human will be able to stand by the broadly stated race. This is now a favourite assertion of New Testament views of sin and atonement. many American and British ethnologists.* The revelation of God will be held as having These assume to themselves much import an eye to only one favoured family, and the ance, as the original promulgators of the vicarious work of Christ will have reference doctrine of a "Plurality of Races." Yet they simply to one great tribe. shine in borrowed plumage, as the very mode Our readers will remember that when of stating the question illustrates. It has been the enemies of the Saviour found it imposwell discussed both in Britain and on the sible, from their own point of view, to find Continent in former days. Some modern a joint in that armour of truth in which He French physiologists have taken Voltaire's was clad, they thought to wound His testiprejudice point of view as their starting point, mony, by assuming that as He loved the and have carried their speculations much fur- truth so did they. "They watched Him, ther while they have drawn their illustrations and sent forth spies which should feign from details of a peculiarly disgusting and themselves just men, that they might take blasphemous kind. They have found apt hold of His words." We would not take scholars in Britain and in America. We up the ground of uncharity, and aver that think it capable of something very like the authors of works like the "Genesis of proof, that the boasted exact science of the Earth and Man," are merely feigned Agazzis on this question, has taken its tone friends of the Scriptures, but only that, and hue from the prejudice point of view referred to, just as the foregone conclusions of the American ethnologists, on the subject

looking at the way in which the text of the Sacred Record is dealt with by many who say they receive it as the Word of God, their whole attitude looks very like that of the spies sent to Jesus. The Editor's Pre*The alleged number of independent families of face opens with the sentence-“I desire the human race varies from three to twenty. Most, however, receive Blumerbach's classification (De most prominently to put before the reader Generis Humani Varietate Nativa), which is based the facts that it propounds no new religious upon the form of the skull, and on the colour of the doctrine-that it manifests a profound reskin, the iris of the eye, and the hair. This classifi- spect for the Scriptures-and that it even cation gives three leading types, and two subordinate favours a belief in verbal inspiration. On ones,-I. THE CAUCASIAN; 1st, The Malayan. II. THE MONGUL; 2d, The American Indian. III. THE this point I may quote a passage from a reNEGRO. Agazzis pleads for eight distinct origins! cent work by Professor Baden Powell." (!) +"Men before Adam." London: 1656. It was The author likewise claims for his efforts one of Voltaire's favourite theories. See the open- the constant method of comparing Scriping chapter of "Histoire de L'Empire de Russie, sous Pierre-le-Grand," and the remarks in the "Pre-ture with Scripture as to words and also as face Historique et Critique." to topics," and he submits his work to

"readers of superior knowledge, who will this is clearly indicated in the context. But concede that the Bible is not rightly under- this passage must be read in the light of stood when it is made to be at variance Gen. ii. 8, 18. He is even less happy in with facts and science."-(P. xxi.) ' comparing Matt. xix. 4, 5 with Mark x. 6. It is worthy of notice, as showing how in which our Lord tells us, "God made man much modern speculation runs in the same male and female." "This does not neces channel, that this volume opens with a state- sarily imply the non-existence of pre-Adamment of "The Vision Theory" of revela-ites it only means that God has ever pro tion to the mind of Moses. This is given portioned the females to the males." Acts with much clearness and ability, while it xvii. 26—“ Made of one blood all nations reveals to us the sources from which certain" mainly conveys a figurative meaning," geologists have drawn, at second hand, ma- as is suggested by the construction which terial for their theories. "There is a close we must put on 1 Cor. xv. 39. "The one analogy between natural days and the great flesh of beasts cannot mean that beasts, geological periods: each of the latter was a whatever be their genera and species, oriperiod of life followed by a period of death, ginated from a single pair."-(P. 15.) But. or at least of death on a very extraordinary if our author had looked at the context in scale and the period of human life is called both cases, he might have been set right. in Scripture' day,' and that of death, night,' The term "one blood" is used in Acts to as in St. John's Gospel, ix. 4. For this cover the equality of the human race as to reason, therefore, more particularly, the the offer of the Gospel. This is all that is passage in Exodus xx. 9-11 may mean, implied in it. And in 1 Cor. the term Six of thy days (natural days) shalt thou labour, but the seventh of these days is the Sabbath; for in six of His days (figurative days) the Lord made heaven and earth, and rested the seventh of these days." "-(P. 9.) It is not of very much moment how God revealed the order of creation to the mind of Moses, but when the mode of revelation is used to open the door to far-fetched notions on the nature of that which is revealed, the sooner we offer to prove that a verbal revelation, as opposed to a pictured one, is adequate, the better. This rendering of the passage from Exodus, apart altogether from the exegetical absurdity involved in it, proceeds on the assumption that the Bible was not given to man, but only to highly instructed men. They alone could be expected equal to such a reading of it. But to the poor the Gospel is preached," and "not many wise men after the flesh are called."

66

"flesh" is used first in a general sense, and then to indicate that all who believe the Gospel shall be distinguished from those who do not believe, as one kind of flesh is from another. All were in the first Adam (ver. 45), while some only have attained to eternal life in Him who, as the "second Adam, is made a quickening spirit"-life and resurrection.

The specimens already given of our author's exegetical skill, will not lead us to expect much when he tries to grapple with passages like Rom. v. 12 and 1 Cor. xv. 21. 22, in which the universal prevalence of death has been held to be associated with Adam's sin. These passages, we are told. teach nothing more than the fact that the descendants of Adam inherited death from him. They say nothing on the question of its universality because of his sin. "This fact is by no means inconsistent with the existence of multitudes of other men of We may now notice some of the strong whom every one died for his own transpoints in this book. Adam (or as our gression against the law written in his author loves to call him, "the Adam") is heart"-" he did not (like Adam) sin regarded as the first of a new race. Having against a divine revelation."-(P. 18, 19.) quoted Genesis ii. 18-"It is not good that The logical result then is, and it is hinted at the man be alone," he shirks the difficulty more than once in this book, that as Christ in it-he feels it more than a match for him died for those only who had sinned against --and then proceeds, as if he had made it a "divine revelation" given to the head of fit into his views, to tell us that Genesis iii. one, in the midst of many existing families 20-" Adam called his wife Eve; because of the human race, His death was not for she was the mother of all living "-means mankind. The offer of grace to all can only "that Eve was the mother of many have no meaning, and the divine command children."-(P. 13.) He has reached this of grace-" preach the Gospel to every reading, which, however, is not new, after creature"-is a mockery. He tries to much study, by the easy way of cheating himself into the belief that "all" must only mean many, or a variety. The simple answer to this is, that whenever it does so,

strengthen this position by making a distinction between sin against a revealed law and sin against natural law. But he forgets that the whole drift of the apostle's teaching

on this question in Romans, is to show that this point. "Death," he says, "is a unithe natural law is as much a "divine reve-versal law, from the operation of which, in lation" in and to the heart of man, as the the present constitution of things, no organwritten or spoken law itself can be, and ized being is exempt."-(P. 386.) Then that, because of this, Jew and Gentile are we are told that the Bible "references will all alike guilty before God.-(Rom. ii.) be proved to be exclusively to death as reThis part of the work demands more notice lated to the human race." But the difficulty because of the use which he makes of geo- lies deeper down, and must be looked at in logical facts in illustrating his views of sin connection with matters not embraced in and death. Geology reveals death before the "present constitution of things." The Adam's sin; it may then have existed Bible plainly states that all death to man is among a race outside of Eden before Adam's the result of man's sin. The Materialist introduction as the head of a new one. The says there is no need of such a declaration, conclusion suggested evidently is, that as because naturally, and apart from so called the views prevalent till recently, of the moral or spiritual characteristics, death is a connection between sin and death, have had law of the human as of every other organto be modified, so we should modify preva- ism. But if you admit, as Mr. Macdonald lent ones on the question of races-acknow- virtually does, that from the beginning the ledge generic differences, and give up the human organism was under the same law plain teaching of the Bible. Our readers of death as the lower animals had been, must have observed how much use scepti- what ground have you to stand upon as to cism is beginning to make of the fact now the Bible-statement that all death to man is referred to. The statements of Scripture the result of man's sin? Such a mode of are held to be pledged to teaching that no dealing with this as is followed in "Creation death existed before the sin of our first pa- and the Fall" (p. 386–393) can never meet rents, and the facts of geology are pointed the difficulties of the case. Some, of greater to as in direct antagonism to this. We ac- power and larger view, have sought for the cept the testimony of geology, but we find solution in the allegation that the death asno necessity to admit the contradiction. sociated with sin is wholly spiritual. That The geological facts are thus graphically it has no reference to the body at all, but stated by Mr. Miller:-"This early exhi- only to the soul. The danger of this view bition of tooth, and spine, and sting of will at once appear, when we remember weapons constructed alike to cut and to that the atonement of Christ was made in pierce to unite two of the most indispen- the body, which had never suffered pollution sable requirements of the modern armourer from sin, but now suffered as the body of -a keen edge to a strong back-nay, Him who died to rescue body and soul ulstranger still, the examples furnished in timately from the power of sin. This is in this primeval time, of weapons formed not part realized in our coming under the power only to kill, but also to torture-must be of an higher life; and the resurrection of altogether at variance with the preconceived the just shall be the full triumph of it, opinions of those who hold that, until man while the resurrection of the unjust will be appeared in creation, and darkened its sym- the separation of the raised body to the pathetic face with the stain of moral guilt, eternal consequences of sin. To limit the the reign of violence and outrage did not effects of sin to what is purely spiritual is, begin, and that there was no death among we repeat, perilous in the extreme. This the inferior creatures, and no suffering." might be largely illustrated, but we cannot Theories of the most arbitrary kind have now turn aside. Is there, then, a ground of been formed to make the facts of geology harmony which will both grant all that the fit into the statements of the Scriptures. Scripture demands, and turn aside every Some have tried to find a retrospective weapon formed against it. We think so. bearing in man's sin, and have reasoned There may have been a law of change of that, in the sovereignty of God, the lower some kind associated with the unfallen man. animals were made subject to death, be- We are not told what it was; but the cause man was to sin;-a view of the Di- strong statements of Scripture, on the acvine procedure directly opposed to all that cursed character of all death to man, leads we know of it, and one which gives a pecu- us to believe that it could not have been liarly harsh bearing to absolute sovereign- that of the death which the lower animals ty. Others have fancifully found the ex- died. But the Spirit of God recognizes istence of death traceable to the sins of the death as a law under which the lower aniangels. But such fancies can never satisfy mals were. "They are the beasts that peeven the demands of common sense. Mr. rish." We find man made in the image of Macdonald's book is not satisfactory on God-man knowing not death as the beasts

did-man with a body set aside to a higher destiny-degraded to the level of the beasts that perish, because of his sin. Here we have the degradation of the body of man because of man's sin, and this, we are confident, is all that is required in order to turn away the shafts of unbelief from the Bible narrative.

The acknowledgment of a separate race existing before Adam is believed necessary for the vindication of the sacred record. The author of the "Genesis of the Earth" makes much of this. It is held to be new ground, and he seems to think, in his simplicity, that if his theory were received, there would be an end to controversy about the authenticity of the Scriptures.

Much stress is evidently laid on the "Philological Observations;" but they may safely be dismissed with the single remark, that however much scope there may be in the diversities of language for the exercise of critical acumen, and even for historic research, up to a certain period in the world's history, they must be held useless when alleged to establish the theory of a preAdamic people.

Philologists have claimed for their favourite pursuit a place among the sciences, that, lifted into this position, men might bow down before it as a kind of infallible guide in the mazes of historical researches, and as an unfailing test of historical accuracy. In the hands of Christian men it has been made The most formidable antagonists to the to do good service to the truth. But, in the Bible narrative are found in the Egyptian hands of very many, it has been used with archæologists. The received chronology, more or less success against the integrity of they say, must be false, because we find on the Bible as a revelation from God. It has Egyptian monuments of the 13th and 14th been made the channel through which the century B.C., representations of numerous alleged unerring "intuitions" of the soul types of men, differing very widely in physi- have found expression. We all know what cal characteristics. Two questions may havoc it has, as thus used, done among the suggest a possible solution of this difficulty thoughtful youth on the continent, in Ame-Have we any correct and infallible sys-rica, and in Britain. Through it the tem of Egyptian chronology ?* and if we "higher criticism" has accomplished most have (accepting the Scripture account of of its work, in throwing discredit on Scripthe dispersion of Babel), Are not climatal ture history, and in questioning Scripture influences sufficient to account for the diver. doctrine. Many of its most accomplished sities? The latter query is met by our masters have gone to their work, in dealing author alleging," that peculiar physical con- with Genesis, wholly under the power of formation is not needed in order to live in Diderot's well-known utterance, Le prepeculiar regions." But the question is as to mier pas vers la philosophie c'est l'incredulié." the modifying influences of climate on the And the results are debates and discussions colour of the skin and on certain physical innumerable on the historic or semi-historic, features, time being given to permit these to the mythical or semi-mythical character of take effect. Again, it is urged, that Egyp- Genesis; on the Elohim and Jehovahistic tian archeology has made us acquainted documents of the Pentateuch; on naturalwith Art in a state of advancement, to ism and spiritualism; and on inspiration, which it could not have reached in the time plenary-verbal-plenary, but not verbal—usually allotted to it. But were not the sons of Noah in the highest sense representative men, and would not the antediluvian knowledge of art be preserved by them in the ark? See how soon a colony, in modern times, rises up to compete with the mother country in all the products of a high state of civilization.t

* Egyptian chronology constantly reminds us of the fabulous dates of Chinese annalists. Manetho's chronology, preserved by Syncellas, gives the first, or Thinite dynasty, as beginning B.C. 5867. Champollion believes that the astronomical tables found in the tombs of the kings at Thebes, clearly demonstrate that the Egyptians kept a correct national calendar in 3285 B.C., that is 837 years before the date usually assigned to the period of the flood.

This demand for a lengthened period for the development of Art, has been strongly urged in Germany for natural development in Religion. Vatke

66

doctrinal, but not historical. But, if any of our readers wish to know more of what has been urged for and against, we can refer them to Mr. Macdonald's book for the resumé. We cannot promise them anything new, for if Bacon could speak in his day of "the exhaustion of all that can be invented or said" on such topics, it is specially true of our time. "The doctrines, opinions, here

cannot give "Moses credit for the prohibition of image-worship." This must have been the offspring of a later age-an age in which the thought of the abstract ideality of God was a living one." The command, "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself," could not be given till centuries after Moses. For "the moral sentiments of man must have passed through many stages before that great commandment could be expressed in this simple universality."

-Hengstenberg's Introduction to Vol. II., Contributions for the Introduction to the Old Testament."

6

sies," now revived "by heat and warmth, common matter were operative in the proand passed off on the crowd," are old ones, duction of the first organised beings of this which have once and again been exposed planet. "The earth brought forth grass, and set aside in the history of religious con- etc. The waters brought forth abundantly,' troversy. This, we shall see, is also true of etc. But of our own species it is written, some of the physical theories of the present God created man."" But what is true of day. man, is equally so of the living things on the In this review of the state of the question earth and in the water. The Professor fortouching the points of alleged antagonism gets the creative act in the other verses, between Genesis and Science, the natural "Let the earth bring forth;" "Let the sciences, especially Geology, and, though waters bring forth." Reference in this way less so, Zoology, claim a place of special is to be regretted, both because there seems prominence. The well-known "develop- to be no occasion for it in the subject matter ment theory," that, as we see in nature an of his discussions, and because the rest of existing gradation of organised beings, there the book is written in a spirit very far remust have been a successive development, moved from that which some might think whereby animals of one class might rise is indicated in the quotation. The investi into another," may be summarily dismissed. gations now referred to, prove that there The mode in which Brewster, and Lyell, are classes of animals which produce a brood and Miller, have dealt with it, makes it little unlike the parent, but which itself brings likely that we will hear much of it for a forth a progeny that returns after two, long time. Meanwhile, we may leave "The three, or four generations, to the resemVestiges," doing the only work for which it blance of the parent. Thus a medusa proseems specially fitted-attempting to unsoul duces a hydra-tuba; this, again, a strobila ; man, and cast him into the heart of sensu- and the progeny of the strobila is a meousness; and we may safely warn its read- dusa. "A trematode entozoon necessarily ers, that to admire it must now be held a assumes the form of a gregarina, a radia, and mark of wilful and deliberate ignorance. a dietoma." But the most remarkable pheBut, as one old phase of error is disposed nomena refer to the reproduction of certain of, another, as if it had been waiting for the insects, without sexual connection. This, occasion, in the progress of science, walks for example, is the case with the aphis, forth into the light. We were laughing at or plant-louse. In spring, a wingless sixthe notions of the old physicists on the mat- footed larva is developed from the impregter of "spontaneous generation," when we nated eggs, which will produce a succession found that it was no subject to be laughed of broods without any connection with the at after all; for, have not the researches of male, and if the virgin progeny be kept modern naturalists, among the lower forms apart, the succession will go on to even the of life, brought to light modes of reproduc- eleventh generation. The answer to any tion, which give occasion for the revival of sceptical theories of the origin of the lower the old notions? Some continental savants forms of life based on these discoveries is have got hold of it, and we may count upon simple. There is nothing fortuitous in the its getting a footing ere long on this side of result. It does not spring up at random, the channel. The researches on which it is as was once supposed, but it occupies a well based are beginning to get much attention defined place in nature. On the continent, devoted to them. Prominence will be given the explanation has been found in another to any subject on which have been united way-" by the individualisation of a previthe strong common sense of Steenstrup, *ously organised tissue," (par individualisathe massive intellect of Owen,f and the de- tion d'un tissue précédemment organisé).* scriptive power of Von Siebold. The "This phrase," The "This phrase," as Owen ably remarks, British naturalist has, perhaps unintention-" does little more than express the old fact ally, given it a direct reference to Genesis. in a new way. No one has ever seen a porHe says, "the brief record of the creation tion of mucous membrane detached and in the sacred volume, leaves us to infer that transform itself into an entozoon; such a certain plastic and spermatic qualities of process is as gratuitously assumed, and as little in accordance with observed phenomena,

*The Alternation of Generations. By JOH. JAP. as spontaneous generation in the abstract" SM. STEENSTRUP, Lecturer in the Academy of Soro.-(P. 31). Should, then, the hypothesis of Ray Society, 1845. spontaneous generation obtain any notoriety by being brought out under a new terminology, we believe it would soon be forced

On Parthenogenesis. By Prof. OWEN, London.

Van Voorst.

1849.

On True Parthenogenesis in Moths and Bees.

By CARL T. ERNST VON SIEBOLD. Von Voorst. 1857.

* Prof. Morren, quoted by Owen.