e, then, I confess myself
wholly unable to understand the way in which the nebular hypothesis is
to be converted into an ally of the "Mosaic writer." [8]

But Mr. Gladstone informs us that Professor Dana and Professor Guyot are
prepared to prove that the "first or cosmogonical portion of the Proem
not only accords with, but teaches, the nebular hypothesis." There is
no one to whose authority on geological questions I am more readily
disposed to bow than that of my eminent friend Professor Dana. But I
am familiar with what he has previously said on this topic in his
well-known and standard work, into which, strangely enough, it does not
seem to have occurred to Mr. Gladstone to look before he set out upon
his present undertaking; and unless Professor Dana's latest contribution
(which I have not yet met with) takes up altogether new ground, I am
afraid I shall not be able to extricate myself, by its help, from my
present difficulties.

It is a very long time since I began to think about the relations
between modern scientifically ascertained truths and the cosmogonical
speculations of the writer of Genesis; and, as I think that Mr.
Gladstone might have been able to put his case with a good deal more
force, if he had thought it worth while to consult the last chapter of
Professor Dana's admirable "Manual of Geology," so I think he might have
been made aware that he was undertaking an enterprise of which he had
not counted the cost, if he had chanced upon a discussion of the subject
which I published in 1877. [9]

Finally, I should like to draw the attention of those who take interest
in these topics to the weighty words of one of the most learned and
moderate of Biblical critics: [10]--

"A propos de cette premiere page de la Bible, on a coutume de
nos jours de disserter, a perte de vue, sur l'accord du recit
mosaique avec les sciences naturelles; et comme celles-ci tout
eloignees qu'elles sont encore de la perfection absolue, ont
rendu populaires et en quelque sorte irrefragables un certain
nombre de faits generaux ou de theses fondamentales de la
cosmologie et de la geologie, c'est le texte sacre qu'on
s'evertue a torturer pour le faire concorder avec
ces donnees."

In my paper on the "Interpreters of Nature and the Interpreters of
Genesis," while freely availing myself of the rights of a scientific
critic, I endeavoured to keep the expression of my views well within
those bounds of cour