sts in translating any
word of a dead language into anything that suits their purpose, he says
that the word in the nineteenth chapter of Genesis which is translated
"statue" or "pillar," may be translated "eternal monument"; he is
especially severe on poor Monsieur De Saulcy for thinking that Lot's
wife was killed by the falling of a piece of salt rock; and he actually
boasts that it was he who caused De Saulcy, a member of the French
Institute, to suppress the obnoxious passage in a later edition.

Between 1870 and 1880 came two killing blows at the older theories, and
they were dealt by two American scholars of the highest character.
First of these may be mentioned Dr. Philip Schaff, a professor in the
Presbyterian Theological Seminary at New York, who published his travels
in 1877. In a high degree he united the scientific with the religious
spirit, but the trait which made him especially fit for dealing with
this subject was his straightforward German honesty. He tells the simple
truth regarding the pillar of salt, so far as its physical origin and
characteristics are concerned, and leaves his reader to draw the natural
inference as to its relation to the myth. With the fate of Dr. Robertson
Smith in Scotland and Dr. Woodrow in South Carolina before him--both
recently driven from their professorships for truth-telling--Dr. Schaff
deserves honour for telling as much as he does.

Similar in effect, and even more bold in statement, were the travels of
the Rev. Henry Osborn, published in 1878. In a truly scientific spirit
he calls attention to the similarity of the Dead Sea, with the river
Jordan, to sundry other lake and river systems; points out the endless
variations between writers describing the salt formations at Usdum;
accounts rationally for these variations, and quotes from Dr. Anderson's
report, saying, "From the soluble nature of the salt and the crumbling
looseness of the marl, it may well be imagined that, while some of these
needles are in the process of formation, others are being washed away."

Thus came out, little by little, the truth regarding the Dead Sea myths,
and especially the salt pillar at Usdum; but the final truth remained to
be told in the Church, and now one of the purest men and truest divines
of this century told it. Arthur Stanley, Dean of Westminster, visiting
the country and thoroughly exploring it, allowed that the physical
features of the Dead Sea and its shores suggested the myths