at present at our
disposal. [3]

If, stepping beyond that which may be learned from the facts of the
successive appearance of the forms of animal life upon the surface
of the globe, in so far as they are yet made known to us by natural
science, we apply our reasoning faculties to the task of finding
out what those observed facts mean, the present conclusions of the
interpreters of nature appear to be no less directly in conflict with
those of the latest interpreter of Genesis.

Mr. Gladstone appears to admit that there is some truth in the doctrine
of evolution, and indeed places it under very high patronage.

I contend that evolution in its highest form has not been a
thing heretofore unknown to history, to philosophy, or to
theology. I contend that it was before the mind of Saint Paul
when he taught that in the fulness of time God sent forth His
Son, and of Eusebius when he wrote the "Preparation for the
Gospel," and of Augustine when he composed the "City of God"
(p. 706).

Has any one ever disputed the contention, thus solemnly enunciated, that
the doctrine of evolution was not invented the day before yesterday? Has
any one ever dreamed of claiming it as a modern innovation? Is there any
one so ignorant of the history of philosophy as to be unaware that it
is one of the forms in which speculation embodied itself long before the
time either of the Bishop of Hippo or of the Apostle to the Gentiles?
Is Mr. Gladstone, of all people in the world, disposed to ignore the
founders of Greek philosophy, to say nothing of Indian sages to whom
evolution was a familiar notion ages before Paul of Tarsus was born?
But it is ungrateful to cavil at even the most oblique admission of the
possible value of one of those affirmations of natural science which
really may be said to be "a demonstrated conclusion and established
fact." I note it with pleasure, if only for the purpose of introducing
the observation that, if there is any truth whatever in the doctrine of
evolution as applied to animals, Mr. Gladstone's gloss on Genesis in the
following passage is hardly happy:--

God created
(a) The water-population;
(b) The air-population.

And they receive His benediction (v. 20-23).

6. Pursuing this regular progression from the lower to the
higher, from the simple to the complex, the text now gives us
the work of the sixth "day," which supplies the land-population,
air