and water having been already supplied (pp. 695, 696).

The gloss to which I refer is the assumption that the "air-population"
forms a term in the order of progression from lower to higher, from
simple to complex--the place of which lies between the water-population
below and the land-population above--and I speak of it as a "gloss,"
because the pentateuchal writer is nowise responsible for it.

But it is not true that the air-population, as a whole, is "lower" or
less "complex" than the land-population. On the contrary, every beginner
in the study of animal morphology is aware that the organisation of a
bat, of a bird, or of a pterodactyle presupposes that of a terrestrial
quadruped; and that it is intelligible only as an extreme modification
of the organisation of a terrestrial mammal or reptile. In the same way
winged insects (if they are to be counted among the "air-population")
presuppose insects which were wingless, and, therefore, as "creeping
things," were part of the land-population. Thus theory is as much
opposed as observation to the admission that natural science endorses
the succession of animal life which Mr. Gladstone finds in Genesis. On
the contrary, a good many representatives of natural science would be
prepared to say, on theoretical grounds alone, that it is
incredible that the "air-population" should have appeared before
the "land-population"--and that, if this assertion is to be found in
Genesis, it merely demonstrates the scientific worthlessness of the
story of which it forms a part.

Indeed, we may go further. It is not even admissible to say that
the water-population, as a whole, appeared before the air and the
land-populations. According to the Authorised Version, Genesis
especially mentions, among the animals created on the fifth day,
"great whales," in place of which the Revised Version reads "great
sea monsters." Far be it from me to give an opinion which rendering is
right, or whether either is right. All I desire to remark is, that
if whales and porpoises, dugongs and manatees, are to be regarded as
members of the water-population (and if they are not, what animals can
claim the designation?), then that much of the water-population has, as
certainly, originated later than the land-population as bats and birds
have. For I am not aware that any competent judge would hesitate to
admit that the organisation of these animals shows the most obvious
signs of their descent from terrestrial qu