ries.]

Thus we are in complete uncertainty as to the date of the palaeolithic
man, or as to the time necessary to effect the changes in the surface of
the earth which intervened between it and the later stone ages. But
there is nothing which conflicts with the possibility that the whole may
have occurred within some 8,000 years.

For the supposition of Mons. Gabriel Mortillet that man has existed for
230,000 years, there is neither evidence nor probability. His theory is
derived from an assumption that the geologic changes alluded to occupied
an immense time; and the further assumption (if possible still more
unwarranted) that the old race which used the chipped stone tools
remained stationary for a very long period, and very gradually improved
its tools and ultimately passed into the neolithic stage when the art of
pottery became known, however rudely.

But, in point of fact, we are not required by our belief in Scripture to
find any date for the origin of man, at least not within any moderate
limits (not extending to scores of thousands of years). The Bible was
not intended to enable us to construct a complete science of geology or
anthropology, and the utmost that can be got out of the text is that a
date can be _suggested_ (not proved) for one particular family (that of
Adam) by counting up the generations alluded to in Holy Writ before the
time of Abraham. But these are manifestly recorded in a brief and
epitomized form; nor do all the versions agree. We may well believe that
a watchful Providence has taken care of the record of inspiration, but
we know it has been done by human and ordinary agency. The Bible is
God's gift to his Church, and the Church has been made in all ages the
keeper of it. Now in the matter of early dates and numbers, an unanimous
version has not been kept. According to the construction adopted in the
Septuagint, the creation of Adam would go back 7,517 years, while the
Vulgate gives 6,067 years. Dr. Hale's computation makes 7,294 years,
and the Ussherian 5,967;[1] the Samaritan version is, I believe, further
different from either.

As it is, the facts show nothing inconsistent with an approximation to
these several periods.

As to any absolute date for the appearance of man as a species, no
calculation is possible, because of a certain doubt, which no one can
pretend to resolve, as to whether the Scriptures do assert the creation
of _all_ mankind at any one period. If, owing to more po