for taking the course which I
have pursued. In the first place, I have discarded the title of the
"doctrine of creation," because my present business is not with the
question why the objects which constitute nature came into existence, but
when they came into existence, and in what order. This is as strictly a
historical question as the question when the Angles and the Jutes invaded
England, and whether they preceded or followed the Romans. But the
question about creation is a philosophical problem, and one which cannot
be solved, or even approached, by the historical method. What we want to
learn is, whether the facts, so far as they are known, afford evidence
that things arose in the way described by Milton, or whether they do not;
and, when that question is settled, it will be time enough to inquire into
the causes of their origination.

In the second place, I have not spoken of this doctrine as the Biblical
doctrine. It is quite true that persons as diverse in their general views
as Milton the Protestant and the celebrated Jesuit Father Suarez, each put
upon the first chapter of Genesis the interpretation embodied in Milton's
poem. It is quite true that this interpretation is that which has been
instilled into every one of us in our childhood; but I do not for one
moment venture to say that it can properly be called the Biblical
doctrine. It is not my business, and does not lie within my competency, to
say what the Hebrew text does, and what it does not signify; moreover,
were I to affirm that this is the Biblical doctrine, I should be met by
the authority of many eminent scholars, to say nothing of men of science,
who, at various times, have absolutely denied that any such doctrine is to
be found in Genesis. If we are to listen to many expositors of no mean
authority, we must believe that what seems so clearly defined in
Genesis--as if very great pains had been taken that there should be no
possibility of mistake--is not the meaning of the text at all. The account
is divided into periods, which we may make just as long or as short as
convenience requires. We are also to understand that it is consistent with
the original text to believe that the most complex plants and animals may
have been evolved by natural processes, lasting for millions of years, out
of structureless rudiments. A person who is not a Hebrew scholar can only
stand aside and admire the marvelous flexibility of a language which
admits of such diverse