,transcribed from the #ahgj ,macmillan and ,co4 edition by ,david ,price4 ,,darwinism4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,the ,,noachian ,,flood4 ,a ,,lecture ,,delivered ,,before ,,the ,,torquay ,,natural ,,history ,,society1 ,,jan4 #ca,,st1 #ahgj1 99 99 99 99 99 ,,by ,,thomas ,r4 ,r4 ,,stebbing1 ,m4,a41 ,late ,fellow and ,tutor of ,worcester ,college1 ,oxford4 99 99 99 99 99 ,london ,,macmillan ,,and ,,co4 #ahgj4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,oxford3 ,,by ,t4 ,,combe1 ,m4,a41 ,e4 ,b4 ,,gardner1 ,e4 ,p4 ,,hall1 ,,and ,h4 ,,latham1 ,m4,a41 ,,printers ,,to ,,the ,,university4 ,,the ,,noachian ,,flood4 ,,darwinism implies almost throughout that no universal ,deluge has drowned our globe1 either within the last ten thousand years1 or even within a period indefinitely longer4 ,let us speak with due respect of the contrary belief4 ,it seems to rest upon the testimony of a ,volume the most precious in the world4 ,it was taken for granted till a few years back as much in science as in religion4 ,for a while1 the arguments that began to be raised against it were met by counter-arguments so plausible1 and the objectors differed so widely among themselves1 that unscientific opinion had a kind of right and prudence in adhering to that which had been taught for centuries1 and was still taught without deviation in nursery1 and school1 and pulpit4 ,we should have asserted a better right and shown a higher prudence1 had we waited1 in a matter which concerned science full as much as it concerned religion1 till1 by learning facts and weighing arguments1 we had become able to form an opinion no longer unscientific1 or1 at the very least1 to appreciate the difficulties involved in the ancient belief4 ,we are forced to take a controversy of this kind as it stands2 otherwise1 there is a simple principle which ought to make all controversy on the subject needless4 ,all authors endowed with common sense1 let alone divine inspiration1 use language which their intended readers may be expected to understand1 and language appropriate to the scope and design of their writings4 ,unless1 therefore1 we suppose that the ,old ,testament writers proposed to teach natural science to the ,hebrew nation1 we ought to expect from them what we actually find3 as to natural phenomena1 past and present1 they use the language not of far-advanced knowledge and minute particular research1 but simply the language current in their own day and nation4 ,but1 setting aside the general principle1 in the present instance there is a second possibility of quashing the controversy1 if it can be shown or made probable that the author1 whose narrative is in question1 never meant to imply that which for thousands of years has been held to be his meaning4 ,the whole point at issue is the universality of the ,noachian ,deluge1 and the narrative has been thought to be uncompromising in its declarations that all the earth1 to the very mountain-tops1 was indeed enveloped in water1 and1 excepting the handful rescued in the ark1 that all men and cattle and creeping things and fowls of the air were inexorably destroyed4 ,but to this view of the narrative there is more than one objection upon the very surface of the narrative itself4 ,and1 by way of preface1 let it be remarked how vague and indefinite is the use in ordinary language of such terms as #8all' and #8every' and #8universal4' ,for instance1 if a popular lady gives a kettledrum1 we say1 #8all the world was at it1' although #ejj persons could not have been squeezed into the rooms without being suffocated2 or we say1 #8so and so is a thing which every school-boy knows1' when we only mean that a good many lads of a particular age1 in a particular rank of life1 and belonging to one particular country1 have most probably been taught it4 ,and again we say1 #8smoking is universal with the ,dutch1' without implying that every baby in ,holland has a pipe instead of a rattle4 ,you are not to suppose that this is a view of language invented for the occasion1 frivolously explaining grave and sacred composition by the trivialities of common speech4 ,on the contrary1 it is precisely to the unquestioned prevalence of such phraseology1 in all but the most exact scientific writing1 that the late ,dr4 ,m#8,caul appealed1 and appealed successfully1 against more than one of the objections to the authority of the ,pentateuch1 which were raised some time ago by the well-known and ingenious arithmetician who presides over the see of ,natal4 ,when we read that #8there went out a decree from ,csar ,augustus that all the world should be taxed3 and all went to be taxed1 every one into his own city1' are we to infer either that the clever practical ,roman decreed the taxation of barbarians over whom he had not the faintest shadow of control1 or that every ,israelite1 without exception1 found and visited his ancestral home in ,palestine--merchants from ,gades and ,ophir and ,tarshish1 slaves and prisoners1 sucking children1 bed-ridden old men1 dying sufferers8 ,we shall not1 if we are wise1 shut up either ,csar ,augustus or the ,evangelist ,st4 ,luke to so preposterous a meaning4 ,in this and ten thousand other instances1 our general knowledge of the attendant circumstances1 or what we call #8the nature of the case1' supplies the necessary exceptions4 ,to have them all drawn out in detail would be tedious and troublesome4 ,suppose a glorious comet is about to make its appearance1 and some astronomer publicly advises every one to be on the look-out for it on a certain night1 how ridiculous would he appear if he made express exception of persons on the other side of the globe1 of persons immured in dungeons1 of persons not yet born1 of persons who were blind1 of persons who were dead6 ,yet an author1 writing some three or four thousand years back1 and borrowing perhaps from picture-records1 certainly from the traditions1 however delivered1 of an age long anterior to his own1 when language was far less ample and precise than it has since become1 is treated as though every word must bear the full and exact force which it would have in a carefully-written treatise upon logic in the present day4 ,we may assume that the author either had sound and accurate information in the ordinary course of human tradition1 or else that he was endowed with a superhuman knowledge of the historical events in question4 ,but1 on either assumption1 what conceivable warrant have we for imagining that he was deprived of common sense8 ,either he knew the contradictions which natural science offers to the belief in a recent universal deluge1 or he did not know them4 ,if he knew them1 we may infer from his silence that his narrative was not open to those contradictions2 in other words1 that the deluge of which he speaks was not universal4 ,if he did not know them1 his ignorance points to the same conclusion3 otherwise1 we shall have a divine miracle1 intended for the warning and the benefit of the human race1 yet so contrived that all its most surprising circumstances should be absolutely unknown to one half of mankind1 and as absolutely incredible to the other half4 ,the historical account informs us that #8the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth2 and all the high hills that were under the whole heaven were covered4 ,fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail2 and the mountains were covered4' ,but ,europe possesses mountains rising to a height of more than #aj1jjj cubits or #ae1jjj feet--one peak in ,asia is #bi1jjj feet above the level of the sea--so that1 on the common interpretation1 the waters of the flood must have risen to a thickness above the ordinary sea-level of nearly #cj1jjj feet over the whole of the globe4 ,but1 on this supposition1 the narrative is not only bewildering and morally impossible1 but positively untruthful1 for it declares the physical means employed in the production of the flood to be the fountains of the great deep and the rain from heaven--means entirely sufficient to produce a partial flood over a limited area1 but utterly and ludicrously inadequate to produce a total deluge enveloping #8all the high hills under the whole heaven4' ,the notion is self-contradictory that the ocean can be employed to raise its own level1 or that its general height can be increased by the rain which it is its own part to supply4 ,nor is there any indication afforded that a supernatural supply of water was added to our planet1 to the extent of several hundred millions of cubic miles of liquid1 which would have been required for the purpose of drowning the ,caucasus and the ,alps and ,teneriffe and ,popocatapetl and ,chimilari4 ,we must consider also the difficulty of breathing1 and the intense cold that would have been experienced at that stupendous altitude4 ,there is the old question of space in the ark2 there is the old question of the food-supply1 sufficient and appropriate1 to be stored and sorted for its various occupants1 carnivorous and herbivorous1 beasts of prey1 carrion-birds1 and amphibious monsters4 ,but what are these compared with the question how life could be sustained in the bitter freezing atmosphere1 thousands of feet above the line of perpetual snow1 by creatures accustomed to the lowlands of the tropics8 ,supposing1 however1 the atmosphere to have been completely warmed by the rise of the ocean1 or even if the air within the ark was kept warm by its enormous crowd of denizens1 we are confronted by a new difficulty1 one that might seem laughable and improper to mention but for its vast and pressing importance in our own days1 thwarting the physician1 perplexing the statesman1 baffling the chemist and the engineer4 ,to this supposed epitome of the world's inhabitants1 shut up for months within the ark1 who were the scavengers8 ,but suppose every one of these problems to be solved by a miracle1 although of such miracles not a hint is given1 there still remains the statement to be dealt with1 that #8,god made a wind to pass over the earth1 and the waters assuaged4' ,surely this1 if nothing else1 is conclusive that the writer had all along been describing a local and partial deluge upon which a wind could have some sensible effect1 not an universal flood wrapping all the mountains of the globe in water1 in which case the mightiest wind that ever was1 or could be dreamed of1 could only have laid bare the surface of the land by piling up great hills and precipices of water upon the ocean4 ,when we wish to expose the miracles of a false religion or of a superstitious aberrant creed1 we point out1 as the case may be1 that they are frivolous1 useless1 unmeaning1 devoid of adequate motive1 the end achieved and the means employed bearing no reasonable proportion2 or we show that the testimony in their favour is inconsistent with itself1 or that the consequences which should have flowed from the miracle1 had it been genuine1 are certainly wanting1 unless1 to bolster up one extreme improbability1 a hundred others are invented and swallowed4 ,to every one of these imputations the common theory of the ,noachian ,deluge lies open4 ,but concede a few grains of common sense to the narrator2 read his narrative in the spirit in which such a person must have written it2 remember that he is not writing a scientific treatise1 nor using the phraseology of modern ,europe2 bear in mind that he is speaking in an idiom no longer or now but seldom used1 yet a just and noble idiom1 which ascribes to ,god all that is done upon earth1 whether good or evil1 the works of man and the common processes of nature1 as well as things superhuman and miraculous2 and1 with these considerations before us1 we shall save the venerable record from every imputation1 either of folly or of falsehood4 ,that which we have described to us is a vast penal catastrophe sweeping away some great centre of civilization by means of a terrible inundation4 ,along some ocean-border the far-stretching plains were dotted thickly with towns and villages4 ,there were fields waving with corn2 the vine and the olive1 the orange and the palm abounded2 there were cattle feeding in green pastures beside the still waters2 there were populous tribes and nations carrying on all the business and revelry of life2 they bought1 they sold1 they builded1 they planted1 they were marrying and giving in marriage1 when suddenly the fountains of the great deep were broken up1 and the earthquake wave rolled in upon them1 and swept all the beauty and the glory and the sin remorselessly away4 ,at the same time1 the angry heavens were overcast1 and the floodgates of the clouds poured down their volumes of ceaselessly-descending rain4 ,the distant mountains were torn from the sight2 nay1 every high hill under the whole heaven was itself covered and enfolded in a liquid veil1 for every rill was now a torrent1 every tiny silver thread of a cascade now a dark unbroken avalanche of waters4 ,one family alone1 alone obedient to the warning which all had received1 were saved amidst this universal ruin1 and took with them into the ark of their refuge specimens of every bird and beast and creeping thing that their own country produced1 and that was in any way serviceable to man4 ,when cloud and mist had rolled away from the mountain-tops1 when the face of the ground was once more dry--with these creatures they stocked their new settlement4 ,the well-watered plain was speedily replenished2 the vine flourished2 the cattle brought forth abundantly2 the children of the patriarch multiplied rapidly and spread far and wide over their rich and undisputed inheritance4 ,such is the narrative as it glimmers through the haze of forty centuries1 only told in the original with unrivalled simplicity and force1 grander than any description by forbearing to describe1 told as one would tell it1 who in that convulsion of nature had lost kindred1 friends and countrymen1 as one who had seen the whole world1 so far as he knew it or cared for it1 foundering in the waves1 and yet had lived on through all the unutterable calamity to see himself once more surrounded by fruitful fields and smiling homesteads1 and all that might make what was to him emphatically a new world the counterpart of the old4 ,some may permit themselves for a moment to set aside the limitation we have suggested to the number of animals in the ark as fanciful and unwarranted4 ,it will be proper therefore to draw out the consequences attaching to the old opinion4 ,we find from the words of the narrative1 that the patriarch ,noah was intrusted with the task of collection4 ,to achieve it1 then1 he must have gone in person1 or sent expeditions1 to ,australia for the kangaroo and the wombat1 to the frozen ,north for the ,polar bear1 to ,africa for the gorilla and the chimpanzee2 the hippopotamus of the ,nile1 the elk1 the bison1 the dodo1 the apteryx1 the emeu and the cassowary must have been brought together by vast efforts from distant quarters4 ,the patriarch or his agents must have been endowed with a supernatural knowledge of natural history far surpassing ,solomon's or that of our own times1 that they might properly distinguish varieties and species1 so that no species might be omitted and none represented by more than one variety4 ,to accomplish this with the minutest insects1 they must have been provided with powerful microscopes4 ,every portion of the dry land of the globe must have been accessible to them2 every jungle1 cavern1 and ravine4 ,the little islands that lose themselves in mid-ocean must all have been ransacked2 the search1 too1 that might not neglect any acre of ground in all the continents of the world1 would be distracted with the most varied and incongruous pursuits4 ,sheep1 game1 caterpillars1 beasts of prey1 snails1 eagles1 fleas and titmice1 must all have their share of attention4 ,unusual pains must be employed to secure them uninjured4 ,they must be fed and cared for during a journey1 perhaps1 of thousands of miles1 till they reach the ark2 they must be hindered from devouring one another while the search is continued for rats and bats and vipers and toads and scorpions1 and other animals which a patriarch1 specially singled out as just and upright and a lover of peace1 would naturally wish and naturally be selected to transmit as a boon to his favoured descendants4 ,it might be asked how1 with the supernatural knowledge requisite for collecting all the terrestrial animals of the globe1 and the unique opportunity for observation afforded by a residence of some months with them in the ark1 no more scientific classification was arrived at than that into birds and beasts and creeping things8 ,but letting this pass1 or scattering it and other objections to the winds by inventing a miracle to explain the gathering together of the animals1 we shall then have to give some account of their re-distribution4 ,instead of worrying ourselves with the problem1 shall we at once solve it by asserting that they were miraculously re-transferred to the habitations from which they came8 ,this will be a highly satisfactory plan1 if only it will stop the mouths of those inquisitive persons who never know when they are beaten in an argument4 ,but one cavil may easily be foreseen1 requiring a new miracle to satisfy it2 for many of the animals must either have been miraculously supplied with provisions1 or miraculously enabled to do without them2 or else1 to take a single instance1 two spiders would have been limited to a couple of flies1 and when the flies had become extinct1 because devoured by the spiders1 the spiders also would have become extinct through having no more flies to devour2 and thus their preservation in the ark1 at the expense of a great many unrecorded and highly improbable miracles1 would have been utterly useless4 ,suppose1 however1 that they were spread over the earth again by the slow process of natural distribution4 ,certain perplexities1 indeed1 may have arisen when they first issued from the ark1 when the cobra and the rattlesnake1 the hungry wolf and the relentless tiger were let loose upon the impoverished world and its defenceless inhabitants4 ,for at that conjuncture to have destroyed even one cruel and venomous beast might have blotted out a whole species4 ,it is surely a little remarkable that ravenous beasts and birds of prey should have been limited1 even while in the ark1 to feeding upon animals in a ceremonial or ecclesiastical sense clean2 but if1 after they had left the ark1 and had once more to provide for themselves1 the wily panther and the treacherous hyena must be imagined debating before every meal whether their victim belonged to the sevens of the clean or the couples of the unclean animals1 shall we not turn in pity and vexation from any view that involves and admits so monstrous a supposition8 ,but we will concede that every creature bore a charmed life1 that it might not perish by famine or violence till it had propagated its kind4 ,we should then expect to observe that species had distributed themselves over the globe in lines either tortuous or direct1 single or branching1 broad or narrow1 but all diverging from a common centre4 ,yet nothing of the kind is found4 ,on the contrary1 the species of the new world differ from those of the old1 the species of one continent from those of another4 #af ,the marsupials of ,australia and ,polynesia are generically distinct from all other animals on the globe except the opossum4 ,the elephant of ,africa is not the same species as the elephant of ,india3 so with the lion1 so with the rhinoceros4 ,the apes and baboons of the old world are nowhere to be found in ,america1 nor the ,american monkeys anywhere in the old world4 ,in ,madagascar1 separated from ,africa by less than the breadth of ,england1 all the species except one1 and nearly all the genera1 are peculiar4 #ag ,everywhere species are found limited in their range by natural barriers1 such as climate1 rivers1 mountains1 oceans4 ,are we to suppose that the prisoners could scramble into their prisons1 and then suddenly became incapable of scrambling out again8 ,everywhere1 as a rule1 this range is consistent with the hypothesis of an origin central to the range1 inconsistent with that of an origin distant from it4 ,where1 as on mountain ranges1 we find1 contrary to the general rule1 the same species in different localities1 the migration from the door of the ark loses all semblance of probability1 unless we are pleased to imagine that creatures1 now without the instinct of migration1 for a long time possessed it1 and roamed about the world through many a sultry plain to pick out a hill-side here and there with a temperature suited to their constitutions4 ,but the exceptional phenomenon1 otherwise so hard to account for1 ,darwin has admirably explained1 by pointing out that species adapted to a low temperature would naturally have occupied lowlands in the ,glacial ,period1 from which1 as the cold gradually grew less and less intense1 they would as naturally have retired1 some of them northwards1 others to the cool heights of various mountains4 ,that there was a ,glacial ,period1 when great icebergs travelled over ,england1 a period geologically as but of yesterday1 though enormously more remote than any historical dates1 is now beyond all question4 ,equally beyond question is it that countless ages and generations of living beings on the earth preceded that ,glacial ,period4 ,and1 added to this1 we find that there are forms of life just where they would have been left by the effect of that period1 had there been an unbroken succession from that time to this1 and just where it is most unlikely they should be found1 had they been forced to travel to those habitations from the door of the ark within the practically insignificant period of #dcjj years4 ,but still further1 we may compare the world of life before the ,flood with the world of life since4 ,and here surely it needs not the genius of ,darwin or ,lyell or ,owen to perceive the conclusiveness of the argument which their genius has pointed out and enforced4 ,for instance1 where the marsupials now live1 there lived marsupials in ages long before ,noah1 as the fossil remains testify4 ,the fossils are fossil marsupials1 but marsupials of species now extinct4 ,so that the #8door of the ark' theory requires us to believe that the marsupials found their way to ,australia1 leaving no traces of their route on land1 crossing seas which they never subsequently re-crossed1 and planting themselves precisely in that region which other marsupials1 generically the same but specifically different1 had occupied before them4 ,we are to believe this of countless other species in all parts of the world4 ,we are to believe that they slowly and in many generations worked their way back to these quasi-ancestral homes1 and yet neglected to occupy vast tracts equally or even better adapted to their wants4 ,we must believe also that some of the fleetest1 strongest1 and most sagacious animals1 as the horse and the elephant1 failed to trace out the abodes of their ancient representatives1 since ,america1 when discovered a few years ago1 possessed these quadrupeds only in fossil and in no living species4 #ai ,there is indeed one animal1 whose powers of contrivance would account for its distribution over the globe1 even supposing it to have begun with a single family1 not more than #dcjj years ago1 and to have ranged from a single centre4 ,man is that animal4 ,yet1 if all the other facts that bear on the universality of the ,noachian ,deluge were in an agreement with it as entire as their irreconcileability is utter and complete1 still the circumstances of the human race alone would disable us from believing that the ,flood of ,noah's epoch extended over all the globe4 ,with other animals it might be advanced that the different species and main varieties had been represented in the ark and were thence disseminated2 but in the case of man we are precluded from such an explanatory device by the express terms of the diluvian record4 ,if the ,noachian ,flood was universal1 then from ,noah alone must be descended all the races of man now upon the earth3 all the great and curious variations they display must have been evolved1 not in countless generations as ,darwinism supposes1 but in some two or three hundred or less4 ,from ,noah alone must have sprung within a mere handful of centuries races so widely unlike one another as ,greeks and ,negroes1 ,jews and ,egyptians1 ,saxons and ,ojibbeways1 ,caffirs and ,hottentots1 ,fuegians and ,patagonians1 ,californians and ,chinese1 ,arabs and ,esquimaux4 ,in the same archipelago we have the ,malay1 the ,papuan1 and the dwarf snub-nosed ,negrito4 #bj ,to give the contrast between the two former in the words of ,mr4 ,wallace3--#8,the ,malay is of short stature1 brown-skinned1 straight-haired1 beardless1 and smooth-bodied4 ,the ,papuan is taller1 is black-skinned1 frizzly-haired1 bearded1 and hairy-bodied4 ,the former is broad-faced1 has a small nose and flat eyebrows2 the latter is long-faced1 has a large and prominent nose1 and projecting eyebrows4 ,the ,malay is bashful1 cold1 undemonstrative and quiet2 the ,papuan is bold1 impetuous1 excitable and noisy4 ,the former is grave and seldom laughs2 the latter is joyous and laughter-loving1--the one conceals his emotions1 the other displays them4' ,such is the description and contrast of two types of mankind geographically separated from one another by an interval of not more than #cjj miles2 yet the line which separates these two races of the human family is almost exactly coincident with that deep-sea line which forms the boundary between two great zoological provinces4 ,either1 then1 in these two distinct but neighbouring localities1 the whole multitude of species1 man included1 must have been undergoing variation simultaneously for tens of thousands of years1 or else the differences in the whole multitude1 man included1 must have been already established1 or nearly so1 when first they stepped forth in singular procession from the door of the ark4 ,but the former alternative1 which is the ,darwinian1 is consistent with the record of the ,noachian ,flood in implying that the inundation was only partial2 while the latter alternative contradicts the record in an essential point on which it is perfectly explicit1 by necessitating the presence in the ark of more than one human family4 ,as long as we are content to speak of #djjj years or so1 some one might be tempted to fancy1 however erroneously1 that such a period would be adequate to produce the existing varieties of mankind1 because there is some evidence of comparatively rapid changes of colour having taken place under the influence of climate1 and because new types of features appears to be forming with a noticeable progress under the absolutely unique circumstances which have governed the recent colonization of ,north ,america4 ,unique those circumstances are1 because never before has there been so much mingling of the blood of different nations and races in a new and unoccupied field1 with much to stimulate and nothing to curb or repress variation4 ,never before have men's minds and bodies in every faculty been so taxed and strained to activity by the very superabundance of their resources1 the virgin soil of a new country1 an inherited civilization1 enormous and ever-enlarging facilities for doing1 for living1 moving1 and learning--facilities sometimes that cannot be declined or escaped from1 though they #8fret the pigmy body to decay1 and o'er-inform the tenement of clay4' ,but1 in truth1 there is no question of #djjj years in the matter2 for there were black people in the time of ,herodotus and in the time of ,solomon4 ,already in the time of ,moses there existed a race in ,palestine so different from the ,israelites1 that the first ,hebrew explorers were daunted by the sight of them1 although1 in fact1 they were looking on a race no longer in its prime1 but one that was dying out4 ,egyptian monuments1 dating back to the same period and earlier1 give representations of ,africans1 ,asiatics and ,europeans1 with their physical characteristics then as now unmistakeably distinct2 they portray the ,negro as the ,negro still is both in colour and in features4 #bc ,if it took only #hjj years1 then1 which is the interval between the ,flood and the birth of ,moses1 to originate and establish types so distinct as ,jews1 ,egyptians1 ,negroes1 and ,anakim1 all gathered together in a little corner of the world1 might not ,nature1 having done so much in so short a time for the highest animal1 do a little more in a longer time for lower animals1 and so supply that origin of species by variation for which ,mr4 ,darwin contends8 ,would not the obvious inference be that ,nature had done so1 if it were not fancied that such an origin of species was still more repugnant to the ,book of ,genesis than even a limitation of the area covered by the ,flood8 ,but the ,darwinian theory1 happily for itself1 is not dependent upon any supposition so incredible as one which would warrant us in expecting among the descendants1 for example1 of ,william the ,conqueror1 people as little like one another as ,john ,bull and ,john ,chinaman1 ,uncle ,sambo and the last of the ,mohicans4 ,there are circumstances of immense weight to convince us that certain marked divisions of mankind originated in the regions which they are now occupying4 ,there are other circumstances preponderating for the common origin of mankind4 ,darwinism has at length shown how these phenomena can be reconciled1 by simply connecting the history of man with that vast duration of life upon the globe which geological science has unveiled4 ,the likenesses among races of men demand a common parentage for all those races2 the unlikenesses can only be accounted for on the view of an isolation immensely protracted of one race from another4 ,thus the primary origin is common to all2 the secondary origin is peculiar to each3 but now that the primary origin has been proved to be so vastly more remote than was once supposed1 the secondary origin recedes of itself into a far distant past1 to give time for differences to arise and develope1 since1 if the actually existing unlikenesses were only skin deep1 instead of affecting1 as they do1 the bones of the skeleton and the whole fibre of the mind1 they would still be too great to admit a common derivation of the whole human family from the patriarch ,noah4 ,what ,geology teaches to demonstration is1 that all parts of the dry land have been not once only but many times under the waters of the ocean2 but it teaches likewise to demonstration that at least for many and many an age1 almost beyond our powers of conceiving duration of time1 there has been no total submergence of the land4 ,that interchange of lake and sea with isle and continent which is now going on under our eyes1 has been going on for ages innumerable4 ,by this and kindred means human beings1 like all kinds of animals and all kinds of plants1 have at intervals experienced severance into groups and isolation4 ,thus has mankind been broken up into distinct families1 at first with no line of demarcation except the geographical1 but gradually in successive generations becoming more and more unlike in manners1 morals1 language1 features1 intelligence1 and civilization4 ,but since the era of the ,noachian ,deluge neither has there been time for ,nature1 with her slow though certain processes1 to effect so great a reconstruction of barriers as to break up the human family1 if till then continuous and united2 nor1 if there had been time for the geographical severance1 would there have been time for the constitutional changes4 ,among the ancients some believed that the sun1 moon1 and stars were in reality about the size which they appear to the unassisted eyesight2 others supposed the vault of the sky to be a revolving dome of solid crystal pierced with little holes through which men saw in starry shapes the fire of the ethereal region beyond it4 ,persons with such ideas of space and physical science might not readily have accepted on the moment the ,copernican system of astronomy4 ,in the same way persons with a narrow and limited view of the duration of time may find a difficulty in receiving arguments based on or implying the enormous extent of it1 which all sciences are now combining to demonstrate4 ,but this mental incapacity1 the result of false education and early prejudice1 may be defied to resist any real investigation of the facts or study of what has been written upon them4 ,let any man of mature mind and average intellect read through ,sir ,john ,lubbock's #8,prehistoric ,times1' ,mr4 ,darwin's #8,origin of ,species1' and ,sir ,charles ,lyell's #8,principles of ,geology1' and retain if he can the opinion that our globe was first peopled about #fjjj years ago1 and subsequently all but depopulated by an universal ,flood4 ,let him see1 indeed1 whether he can read ,sir ,charles ,lyell's account of the progress of opinion and controversy on these subjects and refrain from blushing4 ,he will recognize in that account a turmoil and clamour of fools and philosophers1 of laymen and divines4 ,he will have to set to the credit of intelligent humanity and enlightened ,christendom a long tissue of pious frauds1 ,jesuitical defences1 arguments based on imaginary facts1 and facts perverted by imagination1 till he comes down to the present time and finds a great multitude of all classes at length agreed in affirming that life has endured on the globe with unbroken continuity through a past as yet unfathomable4 ,his own mind1 he will perceive1 has actually reached maturity without having admitted the voice of this multitude1 although to apply almost literally the words of his great ,master1 #8,if these should hold their peace1 the stones would cry out4' #bf;a ,the world and its wonders are of no mushroom growth1 although even the mushroom1 which is commonly supposed to spring up in a single night1 requires a much longer period1 often many weeks1 for its production4 #bf;b ,the ,book of ,genesis itself most clearly warns any careful reader against attempting to build a chronology upon the brief memoranda of names and dates which for other reasons are inserted in it4 ,for1 taking them simply as they stand1 ,shem1 the son of ,noah1 is represented as long surviving the birth of ,isaac1 while ,abraham1 the father of ,isaac1 appears as the contemporary of a vast number of different and strange tribes and nations1 ,egyptians1 ,philistines1 ,canaanites1 ,syrians1 and many more1 besides the ,chaldeans1 from among whom he came4 ,to find a parallel to all this1 we should imagine our own ,edward ,,iii1 instead of dying in #acgg as he did1 living on and on to the present day1 a forgotten old man1 not noticed in the page of history throughout #ejj eventful years1 during which the whole of ,europe was becoming peopled with descendants of himself and his father1 men speaking languages mutually unintelligible1 holding creeds mutually abhorrent1 with strange diversities in dress1 manners and government1 and some prevented by national custom from even eating at the same table with guests of another neighbouring and kindred tribe4 ,in vain should we search through history for any actual parallel1 for any instance of developments so extraordinary1 and estrangements so complete1 occurring within a space of only #ejj years4 ,if all the nations spoken of as contemporary with ,abraham were only #ejj years distant from the ,flood1 as the ,book of ,genesis shows them to have been1 we may be certain that they could trace back their lineage1 independently of ,noah and his family1 far beyond the era of the ,deluge4 ,the monumental evidence of ,egyptian chronology carries us back to a ,pharaoh reigning some three or four hundred years before that date4 #bg;a ,the ,book of ,genesis introduces us to another ,pharaoh reigning some #djj years after it4 ,are we to set aside the monumental evidence1 and make this later ,pharaoh a descendant of ,noah1 reigning as a powerful monarch1 while ,abraham1 the rightful heir of a patriarchal monarchy over all the earth1 was nothing but a wandering shepherd8 ,religion1 morals1 civilization1 as far as we know anything about them in those ages1 whether we regard their advancement in some quarters or their decay in others1 all protest against having their progress cramped into those four or five hundred years4 ,they protest against being ascribed with all their conspicuous diversities to the offspring of one man1 whose son1 grandson1 great-grandson and great-great-grandson1 ,shem1 ,arphaxad1 ,salah1 and ,eber1 were actually still living during all these supposed revolutions4 #bg;b ,indeed1 if we go back from our #djj to our #djjj years1 the protests on these points are almost equally forcible4 ,in the matter of language1 estimate how many generations must have passed away before the children of a common parent came to vary in speech as much as ,chinese1 ,russians1 ,englishmen1 and clucking ,hottentots4 ,form some estimate of the time required for the rise and growth of civilization1 not only in the old-world centres of ,nineveh and ,babylon and ,egyptian ,thebes1 but in the separate and independent centres of ,mexico and ,peru4 ,explain1 moreover1 what1 on the hypothesis of a common ,noachian descent1 must be called the rise and growth of barbarism4 ,show1 if it be possible1 how1 amidst the rapid strides of civilization1 side by side with the advancement of taste1 literature and science1 the descendants of ,noah in some cases degenerated from all culture1 sank away from all morality1 lost all religion1 forgot all useful arts1 even those most essential to the lowest degree of comfort1 the kindling of fire1 the use of metals1 the construction of dwellings1 while they learned the habits1 and acquired something more than the innocent shamelessness of brutes--learned to prefer the flesh of their own species to any other1 learned to make a duty in some regions of putting their parents to death1 in others1 of eating their dead bodies4 #bh ,such customs we have on record four centuries before ,christ1 such customs on record as existing nineteen centuries after4 ,will any one attempt to persuade us that the savages of ,andaman and the ,feejee ,islands are cousins1 through an ancestor no more remote than ,noah1 of ,chatham and ,wilberforce1 and ,lesseps and ,brunel8 ,traditions of a ,deluge1 it is true1 are found almost everywhere4 ,the reason doubtless is that almost everywhere some tremendous calamity of this description has at one time or another occurred4 ,inundations on a small scale are common and frequent1 but on a scale great enough to surprise the imagination and become traditional in the memories of a people1 they would naturally be rare and infrequent in the extreme1 so that the fact of such an experience belonging to the history of so many different races1 is but another proof1 or at least another indication1 of the antiquity of man4 ,if stress is to be laid on the points of similarity between the traditions1 as proving that every land has been ravaged by the waters of a flood1 equal stress may in fairness be laid on the points of difference1 as proving that not one common universal ,deluge is spoken of1 but many separate and partial floods1 distinct in time1 in place1 and in results4 ,if stress again is to be laid on the tradition because it is common to so many tribes1 let equal importance be granted to the traditions of time among the ,chaldeans and the ,egyptians1 the ,chinese and the ,hindus1 who reckon the years of their uninterrupted histories by tens of thousands4 #bi ,finally1 we may ask1 where are the traces of so tremendous and unparalleled a convulsion as one that could wrap the whole globe in water1 and hold all its ddal beauty for many months in that drowned condition1 till a tempest still more furious and unparalleled drave heaven and earth1 the clouds and ocean1 once more asunder8 ,we know how the little trilobite in the ,devonian seas behaved in its hour of peril millions of years back2 we know what food men ate long ages before the ,flood1 what weapons they used1 what houses they built1 what animals they tamed2 but what became of man and beast and bird and forest in the supposed universal ,deluge no one knows4 ,the signs and natural monuments of the catastrophe1 which should have been visible or discoverable on every side1 can nowhere be ascertained1--things that the waters should have swept away or torn down they have left undisturbed1 shell-mounds and glacier moraines and boulderstones on the mountainside2 while the great museum of the dead which they should have formed1 one would think1 over all the earth1 to constitute one striking and indisputable geological date1 as well as a world-wide monument of religion1 is nowhere to be found4 ,what became of flower and herb1 of creatures that live between the zones of high and low water1 of mollusk and coral and fish that require an appropriate depth and a fitting temperature in their liquid homes1 it will be useless to speculate1 if1 after all that has been urged upon other points1 there are some who still think that the description in ,genesis is the description of a ,flood that prevailed over all the world1 and intend still to believe in such a ,flood1 and to teach it as a part of religious doctrine1 notwithstanding any argument or scientific proof to the contrary4 ,for them we can do no more than commend to their daily reflection a few lines from the lives of two famous men3--#8,in spite1' says ,dr4 ,wilson1' alike of the science and the devout religious spirit of ,columbus1 the ,salamanca divines pronounced the idea of the earth's spherical form heterodox1 and a belief in antipodes incompatible with the historical traditions of our faith3 since to assert that there were inhabited lands on the opposite side of the globe1 would be to maintain that there were nations not descended from ,adam1 it being impossible for them to have passed the intervening ocean4 ,this would therefore be to discredit the ,bible1 which expressly declares that all men are descended from one common parent4' #ca;a ,and thus another author describes a well-known incident in the life of ,galileo3--#8,clad in a penitent's sackcloth1 the mighty1 self-relying philosopher and genius fell upon his knees1 and1 with his hands laid on the ,holy ,evangelists1 declared that he abjured1 detested1 and would never again teach the doctrine of the sun's stability and the earth's motion4 ,having confirmed his oath in writing1 and promised to perform the enjoined penance1 he rose from his knees a pardoned man2 and turning about to one of his friends1 stamped on the ground and pronounced in an emphatic whisper1 8,eppure si muove10 #ca;b--but still it does move4' ,as the antipodes exist1 as the earth goes round the sun1 and as the ,bible continues to be true1 in spite of the theologians and inquisitors at ,salamanca and at ,rome1 so will it continue to be true and full of truth1 when at length it shall be acknowledged1 as it will be1 that there is nothing universal about the ,noachian ,deluge except the disbelief in its universality4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,by ,,the ,,rev4 ,t4 ,r4 ,r4 ,,stebbing4 ,,darwinism3 ,a ,lecture delivered before the ,torquay ,natural ,history ,society1 ,feb4 #ast1 #ahfi4 ,london3 ,simpkin1 ,marshall and ,co4 ,oxford3 ,t4 and ,g4 ,shrimpton4 ,torquay3 ,e4 ,cockrem1 #aj1 ,strand4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,longinus ,,on ,,the ,,sublime4 ,a ,translation4 ,with ,illustrative ,passages from ,english ,authors4 ,oxford3 ,t and ,g4 ,shrimpton4 ,london3 ,whittaker and ,co4 ,cambridge3 ,hall and ,son4 ,price #es4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,eventide3 ,a ,book of ,prayer for the ,schoolroom4 ,london3 ,bell and ,daldy4 ,,footnotes4 #af ,lyell1 ,principles of ,geology1 ii4 #ccb4 #ag ,lyell1 ii #cdd4 #ai ,lyell1 ii4 #ccf4 #bj #8,the ,malay ,archipelago1' vol4 ii4 p4 #ddh4 #bc #8,genesis of the ,earth and of ,man1' p4 #aag2 quoted in ,sir ,j4 ,lubbock's #8,prehistoric ,times1' p4 #cad4 #bf;a ,a religious and supremely orthodox poet of the last century enquires1 #8,where is the dust that has not been alive8'--,young1 #8,night ,thoughts1' ,night ,,ix4 l4 #hg4 #bf;b #8,mushrooms and ,toadstools4'--,worthington ,e4 ,smith1 p4 #ag4 #bg;a #8,genesis of the ,earth and of ,man1' pp4 #aac1 #aad4 #bg;b ,genesis1 chap4 xi4 #bh ,sir ,john ,lubbock1 #8,prehistoric ,times1' pp4 #cch1 #cdf1 #deb2 ,herodotus1 iv4 #bf4 #bi ,see ,mill's #8,history of ,british ,india1' book ii4 ch4 i4 and notes4 #ca;a #8,prehistoric ,man1' ,dr4 ,daniel ,wilson1 p4 #aja4 #ca;b #8,the ,daughter of ,galileo1' by the author of #8,mary ,powell1' p4 #bhc4