The Historical Deluge in Relation To Scientific Discovery - 1888

The historical deluge in its relation to scientific discovery and to
present questions by Sir J. William Dawson.

Dawson, J. W. Sir, (John William), 1820-1899
[London] : Religious Tract Society, [1888?]
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No. 76'
s
I"'
THE
HISTORICAL DELUGE
In its Relation to Scientific Discovery
AND TO Present Questions
BY
SIR J. WILLIAM DAWSON, C.M.G, LL.D,,

F.R.S., Etc.
A itihor of >
'The Chain of Life in Geological Time;' 'The Story of the Earth

AND Man ; ' The Origin of the "World ; * Modern Science
' '
IN Bible Lands ; ' ' The Meeting-Place of Geoloot /

and History,* etc. /
THE RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY:

56 Paternoster Row, and 65 St. Paul's Churchyard.
QLSOT.PL
I
llrgument of the Tract.
-••
The narrativeof the Deluge in Genesis has recently been

a subject of much discussion, in consequence of the bearing
on it of early Assyrian and Chaldean literature, and of its
apparent relation to some questions much agitated among
Geologists and Archaeologists. The terms of the record
itself have also been subjected to the most severe and
searching criticism; and it is scarcely too much to say
that it has often been unfairly dealt with. In the midst
of these controversies the value of the history of the deluge
in a religious point of view, and its connection with the *
present and the future, as stated in the New Testament, v3
seem to be in danger The time

of being overlooked.
seems, therefore, fitting to prepare for the use of general
readers a concise statement of the actual import of the
Biblical narrative, and of its relation to scientific discovery
and to the present and future religious interests of the
world. This will be attempted in the following pages by
a short statement of the present position of certain
questions relating to the Noachian deluge, and by a
discussion of— (i) The account of the flood given in
Genesis; (2) The information afforded by secular history
and tradition ; (3) The testimony of geology and archae-
ology; (4) The use made of the deluge in the New i
Testament. f
a.
< , .'.'rviii
THE HISTORICAL DELUGE.
[he Deluge of Noah is to tlie student of M

the Bible the great dividing line in
human history and in God's programme
of the world's progress. It was the
closeof one term in God*s dealings ° with fallen General
aspects of
man, and the beginning of another of very different *^® ^^^^^^
character. Perhaps its importance in this respect

is scarcely sufficiently appreciated even by devout
readers of the Bible, either in its relation to the
physical and spiritual history of early man, or to
the character and prospects of the present age.
Inits spiritual aspect, we are told by Jesus
Christ that * as it was in the days of Noe, so shall
it be also in the days of the Son of Man,* or, as
elsewhere stated,
*
at the coming of the Son of
Man,*^ and Peter places the former destruction
i of the cosmos by water in comparison with an

approaching destruction by fire.^
* Matt. xxiv. 37; Luke xviL 26.

^
2 Peter lii. 5, et seq.
258991
The Historical Deluge,
In its physical aspect it has close connectioDs

with results of modem inquiries as to the later
geological periods and the early history of man.
The spade of the excavator has disinterred the
remains of men who, without reasonable doubt,
correspond to the antediluvians of the Bible —^men
who lived under different geographical and climatal
conditions from those now prevailing, and at a
time when many of the animal inhabitants of our
continents were different from those with which we
are now familiar — ^men who disappeared in the fi
great physical changes which closed the period in
which they lived, and inaugurated that of the
present day.
Farther, we now know that the deluge of Noah
is not a mere myth or fancy of primitive men, or
solely a doctrine of the Hebrew Scriptures. The
record of the catastrophe is preserved in some of
the oldest historical documents of several distinct
races of men, and is indirectly corroborated by the
whole tenor of the early history of most of the
civilised races.
Historical As to the actual occurrence of the deluge as a
and other
evidence of
the deluge. wide-spread catastrophe affecting, with a few stated
exceptions, the whole human race, we have thus a
concurrence of the testimony of ancient history
and tradition, and of geological and archaeological
evidence, as well as of the inspired records of the
Jlebrew and Christian revelations. Thus no hi^s-
Introductory.
torical event, ancient or modern, can be more firmly

established as matter of fact than this.
In these circumstances it is evident that this
event has the most profound bearing on human
history, on our views as to the relations and
development of the races of men, as to the origin
and antiquity of arts and of religions, and as to
the connection of the ancient history of the world
with its future destiny, down to that time when
the Christian expects a
*
restitution of all things.*
At the same time it must be confessed that the
subject is one at present encompassed with diffi-
'
i culties and misapprehensions. These arise largely
from the circumstance that so many students of
the Bible are uninformed as to the natural causes
involved in a catastrophe of this kind, and are
influenced by old opinions held, it may be, by
eminent men in times of comparative ignorance.
On the other hand, students of nature are often
destitute of accurate knowledge as to the state-
ments of the Bible, and are thus unable to compare
what they know from other sources with the
written history. It is to be feared that in some
cases exaggerated ideas of uniformitarianism, and
even a certain animus against religion and revela*
^
tion, tend to bias the minds of modem students of
nature, and the influence of these causes is
intensified by the intolerant dogmatism of the
prevalent hypotheses of organic evolution. Hence
G The Historical Deluge,
of this of
ill
many cases the treatment part
Scripture history, whether by scientific men or
by
theologians, believers or unbelievers, betrays
a
lamentable incompleteness and inaccuracy. To
afford some remedy, however imperfect, and to
make the leading facts of the case accessible to the
ordinary reader the object of this tract. With
it is
this end in view will be proper to consider the
following topics —
:
General
arrange- (1) The actual narrative as given in Genesis,
ment of the
Bubjeot. and illustrated bv later Biblical writers.
(2) The parallel statements of secular history

and tradition.
(3) The recent discoveries of antediluvian re-

mains, and the information which they afford.
(4) The spiritual teaching of the deluge for

ourselves and our time.
The Biblical Narrative.

I.
'■
In
of
Character
S
of the reading those chapters Genesis which

narrative
in Qenesis.
contain the record of the deluge, we cannot fail to
be impressed with the archaic simplicity of the
narrative, its attention to details, and its absence
It
I
of any mythical or imaginative complexion.

is
M.
obviously document intended for simple and

a
primitive people conversant with nature rather than

with artificial modes of life, and its author
is
impressed with the conviction of the existence of

is a
just and careful Ruler of the universe, and

The Deluge in Genesis,
earnestly on the side of truth and righteousness.

Other than this, he has nothing to connect him with
the philosophy or special religious ideas of later
times. Such a document demands respectful con-
sideration, and that its genuineness and truthfulness
should he accepted till we can obtain evidence to i
the contrary.
But we may ask how the memory of an event so Manner of
, preservation
remote in past could have been transmitted in ^^JJ*
1;he
so clear and accurate a manner, even to the time

of Moses, to which we have a right to refer the
compilation of Genesis. The most likely way
would evidentl;^ oe that tlie testimony of survivors
should be handed down orally for a time, perhaps
in some set form of words committed to memory,
and afterwards permanently preserved by being
inscribed on tablets of baked clay. We might also
suppose that even if the knowledge of writing did
not exist as early as the time of the deluge, there
may have been such means of preservation of records
as those in use among most rude nations of modern
times, by means of pictographs, wampum belts, or
knotted cords. In regard to the early Bible history,
however, there is no need to suppose such con-
trivances, since we know that in Chaldea writing
existed nearly, if not altogether, as early as the
time to '^.vhich the Hebrew chronology refers the
deluge. It
is interesting in this connection to
observe that the old Chaldean deluge tablets, to
-^^^^^T^
8 The Historical Deluge.
which we shall refer in the sequel, purport to give

the testimony of Hasisadra, the Chaldean Noali,
himself, and that the form of tha narrative in
Genesis is also that which might be expected from
witnesses of the events which they record. If,
therefore, we are to attach any historical value to
the narrative of the flood, we must be prepared to
accept it as the testimony of those who took part in
Testimony
of eye-
the events related, and this very little if at all
wituesses.
modified by any subsequent editorial work. Here,
as in the later historical books and in the Gospels,
we must hold that our narrative is an original
document based on human testimony, and that the
inspiration of the writer is only that which enables
him to make a true and faithful statement of the
facts in his possession.
The validity of this view of the case will be
tested by our subsequent inquiry, and wo shall find
Siraplicity
and
that this old story, however simple and childlike,
profundity
of the goes, like the statements and questions of children,
treatment.
to the very bottom of the matter in hand. In this
it resembles all the other parts of early Bible history,
which, while in some respects * milk for babes,' are
in others strong meat for the adult, and sometimes
not quite digestible even by the stoutest intellects,
when not quickened by the Spirit of the Author
of the book.
Causes of
the deluge— What were the causes of the deluge ? Morally
Moral
oausei. it came of the fall of man, and we must not be too
Causes of the Deluge, 9
ready in the pride of our modern material wisdom

to decide that moral causes may not lead to physical
effects. They do soin human affairs, and why not
in the Divine plan? The Book of Genesis,
in absolute accord with geological and biological
science, traces man back to an Eden which, like
the Assyrian Genesis and the maps of modern
anthropologists,it places in the finest valley of
South-western Asia.^ From this Eden, according
to Genesis, man was expelled as a penalty for moral
aberration. This was a very real physical evil,
involving a change from happy abundance and
freedom from exhausting toil, which all histories
and hypotheses as to the origin of man must assign
JonTfTh*
environ-
to him in his earliest estate, to privation, exposure, ment.
labour, and struggle for existence in a wilderness-
world. "We shall find hereafter that it was also
a very real deterioration of his environment, a curse
of uncongenial climate and uncongenial animals
and plants.
Such new conditions must have reacted on man,
and practically placed him in that position of
struggle for existence which some modern theories
assign to the whole animal creation. Viewed as
a punitive or reformatory agency, such influences
may have operated either for good or evil. Rightly
^
Even Haeckel, the apostle of ' monistic ' evolution, has
to trace the affiliation of the laces of men back to this region.
See his History of Creation and Evolution of Man*
10 The Historical Deluge*
used, they may have prevented farther moral

Effects of aberration, and may have promoted mental activity
punitive
visitations. and sagacity, useful invention and energy of cha-
racter. Taken in a bad spirit, they may have
had a directly opposite tendency, and may have
degraded the man both physically and spiritually.
The latter efPect seems to have been that pre-
dominant in antediluvian times, and races of men
arose, rude, bloodthirsty, hunters of animals and
slayers of their fellow-men, by whom the world
was filled with violence, and who became so lost to
Oondition all but merely material interests that they ceased
of ante-
diluvian to fill the proper place of reasoning responsible man,
society.
and became fixed in a low and brutal condition
without any prospect of improvement. We shall
find, in the sequel, that even the geological and
archaeological evidence respecting the earliest
prehistoric men leads to this conclusion.
It would seem that, if there were central and
civilised communities, these had ceased to exert
any influence for good, and that those who wan-
dered far from these centres became and remained
barbarous and unprogressive. Finally these rude
and wandering tribes, and especially those mixed
races who had more energy than their fellows,
began to react on the more cultivated centres, and
to invade them with lawless violence; and the
prospect was one of progressive degradation, and
contests in which only the worst and most godless
Physical Causes, 11
elements of humanity would survive. Such a

condition of the world furnishes the occasion for
the wholesale destruction of man hy the deluge,
and the selection of a few of the hest men of the
time to renew the world in a new and better age.
The catastrophe which swept these men away has
thus its distinctly spiritual aspect, though, phy-
sically considered, it was of a kind which had
occurred over and over again, more or less, in the
it,
history of the world before man came upon and
which had more than once removed one fauna from
the land and substituted another in its place.
This leads us to inquire as to the physical
causes assigned to the deluge in Genesis. We Physical
, causes —
7
must bear m mind, however, that these causes are P® s'êat
not presented to us as the results of any scientific of^theK.

investigation, but merely as the phenomena obvious
to an intelligent observer, regarding them not so
much in connection with secondary causes as in
relation to the fiat of the Almighty. Translating
the words as literally as possible, we are told that
all the cisterns or wells of the great deep were
*
broken up, the chimneys or hatches of the sky were

opened, and there was great rain upon the earth.'
a
Now in the Bible, from Genesis onward, the

primarily that ancient universal
*
is
great deep
*
ocean from which the dry land was raised, and

whose waters were gathered together by the
by
Creator, and are restrained His decree. Ac-

cording to the Bible, it is the dry land that is the

uncertain element on the earth's surface, liable to
submergence at any time when the bounds placed
on the sea by its Maker shall be loosened. For it
is God who *gave to the sea His decree that it
should not pass His limits/ who ' shut up the sea
with doors/ who * appointed to the waters bounds
that they may not pass, that they return not again
to cover the earth.' ^ Iô doubt the original state-
ment in Genesis, that the land is a product of
the deep, and the occurrence of the deluge, have
impressed this great geological fact on the minds
of the Hebrew writers. Yet it is nevertheless
certain that they recognized the truth that the
*
element of mutability is in the solid earth ' rather
than in the sea, and hence that deluges are always
possible, provided that the cisterns of the great
deep can be broken up, and that it can return to
cover the earth. We have here, therefore, a
definite statement — that the first and most potent
cause of the deluge of Noah was an irruption of
the ocean over the land, which must have been
caused either by subsidence of the land or
elevation of some large portion of the ocean bed.
In so far as the narrator is concerned, it was a
great irruption of the waters of the Persian Gulf
and Indian Ocean, rising upward even to those
mountains of Armenia to which it drifted the ark.
^
Prov. viii. ; Job xxxviii. ; Psa. civ.
Physical Causes. 18
This at once removes Noah's flood from the cate-

gory of river inundations, even if supplemented
by the high tides sometimes caused by cyclones.
The second cause assigned is less easy of The hatches
of h 6ft von
explanation. The word translated 'window* in waterspouts
and
the English version means rather an opening in *°™»*»"-
a roof, which might be either a chimney or a

hatch ; as applied to the sky, it has usually been
regarded as equivalent to the downpour of heavy
rain, making it the same with the third cause
is,
assigned.^ There however, reason to doubt this.

In passage in Isaiah the term 'windows of
^
a
heaven applied to volcanic orifices, and

is
'
must
it
be borne in mind that the region towards which
the ark said to have drifted one of modern
is
is
volcanic action. The expression may also refer to

waterspouts or cloudbursts,' as they are termed in
'
"Western America, which often accompany great

storms and tornados. The Chaldean narrative
refers to such great disturbances as accompanying
the deluge and adding to its terrors.
Lastly, the heavy and continued rains, in them- JJ®
k"***
selves not unlikely accompaniments of rapid sub- «°^*"^ê'^

rain.
mergence, would alone cause much inundation of
lower grounds and torrential action, and would be
feature very apparent to spectator.
a
The Septuagint translators

^
eeem to have adopted the

meaning flood-gates.'
*
Isa. xziy. 18.

'
14 The Historical Deluge,
Not a river This threefold causation was what presented

inundation,
but a great itself to the narrator ; but that one which relates
continental
Bub- to the inflowing of the oceanic waters must haye
mergenoe.
been the most important, and also that which
would most powerfully impress the mind of an
onlooker familiar with ordinary river inundations,
but having no experience of this portentous influx
of oceanic waters, which appears to have drifted
the ark far inland, and against the levels of the
country. In this connection Prestwich well
remarks : —
'
It is not easy to believe that any local river or land-flood
could have given rise to so sustained a tradition as that of
the deluge, whereas a submergence of this vast extent, and
of so exceptional a character, would be in accordance with
the magnitude of the recorded catastrophe, and of the deep
aud lasting impression produced on those contemporary
peoples who were sufficiently near to be cognisant of its
results. Nor would it accord less well with the remoteness
of the event, and the dimness of- the tradition.'^
In SO far as Genesis is concerned, of course,

we should read 'survivors' for 'contemporary
peoples* and the dimness of tradition does not
apply to our record.
The ark as In the Hebrew, as in the Chaldean deluge
a means of
safety. narrative, the survivors are saved by an ark, not
by taking refuge on some eminence out of reach
of the waters; and this seems to be a feature
common to most of the histories of the event.
This part of the tradition, and the amount of
^
TroAMoctiona Victoria Institute^ 1894.
The Ark. 15
progress in the arts of life which it implies, has

been a fertile source of objection, and even of
ridicule. It is to be observed, however, that in
this Genesis is consistent with itself, and with
what we know of early post-diluvian history.
In Genesis we read of antediluvian agriculture,
stock-raising, cities, metallurgic and other arts.
Even more advancement in art is implied in the
Chaldean deluge poem, and the inscriptions of
Tel-lob, a very ancient Chaldean city, show great
advancement in the arts of life, and the existence
of shipping and maritime expeditions, within a
short time of the deluge of Noah. It is true that
the remains of antediluvian man hitherto unearthed
show but a low degree of civilisation ; but then, as
we shall see, the more important centres of civi-
lised life before the flood are probably still under
water, or very deeply buried in alluvial deposits.
It is interesting, that though the Hebrews, long JJ^^thâA"
before the time of Moses, must bave been familiar

i'!l
with Phoenician shipping, and while Jacob is
represented as speaking o£ ships,^ the vessel built
by Noah is called an ark, or chest. This may
indicate either the very primitive date of the
document, or the fact that the ark was not
actually a ship intended for locomotion, but
rather a great rectangular box adapted to mere
driftage.
*
Gen. xlix. 13.
As in the Chaldean version, the Biblical history

begins with the specification of the structure of the
ark. On this it is only necessary to say that the
dimensions of the ark are large, and well- adapted
to stowage rather than to speed, and that within
it was strengthened by three decks, and by a
number of bulkheads, or partitions, separating the
rooms, or berths, into which it was divided.
Without and within it was protected and rendered
tight by coats of resinous or asphaltic varnish, and
it was built of the lightest and most durable kind
of wood (gopher or cypress). Only two openings
are mentioned —p hatch or window above, and a
port or door in the side. There is no mention of
any masts, rigging, or other means of propulsion
or steerage. The Chaldean history diflPers in
introducing a steersman, or pilot, and even a sort
of trial-trip — indications these of a later date, and
less natural than the Hebrew idea of building the
ark on elevated ground, and probably in the
vicinity of suitable timber, and simply waiting
till it should float.
Notes of The mention of the floating of the ark, and of
voyagers in
the ark.
its going or drifting away, and that of the depth
of water covering the hill-tops, convincingly prove
that the narrator was an inmate of the vessel.
We can imagine him watching the gradual rise of
the water for forty days. He then becomes aware
that the ark floats, and immediately after, watching
The Voyagers, 17
some neighbouring hill, he finds that it is *

going/
or moving in a definite direction, and probably-
rising and falling on the waves. He next thinks
of the possibility of the unwieldy vessel being
stranded on some rock or hill, and going to
pieces, and knowing that its draft of water is
about fifteen cubits, or say twenty-four feet, he
gratefully records that in the direction of its
driftage every elevation is covered to a greater
depth.
I have referred to a single narrator ; but it is is the
narrative a
true that certain critics profess to have discovered double one?
that the narrative, as it now stands, is made up of

two distinct, and not always quite consistent,
accounts. If so divided, it will be found that
both narratives are of a kind implying the
testimony of eye-witnesses, and that their separa-
tion depends largely on different ways of referring
to time, and on an iteration of certain particulars,
which is not uncommon in very ancient documents,
and applies to the Chaldean narrative quite as
.much as to that in the Bible. In one sense it
would be satisfactory to have thus the collated
testimony of two independent witnesses; but I
fear that a careful consideration of the evidence
would lead any unbiassed person accustomed to
human testimony, to regard the dual character
of the history as possibly imaginary rather than
real.
c
18 The Histoncal Deiuge,
Duration of The whole time of the deluge, from its be-

the deluge.
ginning to its close, in the region of the narrators,
which must have been that of the Euphrates
valley, is stated as extending from the 600th
year of Noah, on the seventeenth day of the
second month, to the 60 1st year of the patriarch,
on the twenty-seventh day of the second month, or
rather more than a year. These dates in them-
selves dispose of the theory that the deluge was
merely a river inundation. No men conversant
with the floods of rivers, whether of the Euphrates,
the Nile, or the Jordan, could have imagined such
a duration. But if the sea waters were pouring
from the Indian Ocean into interior Asia, and from
the Atlantic over Europe, such movements would
imply a quite difPerent lapse of time. Even these,
however, would have time to retire without the
destructive dibaeles imagined by some writers on
the subject,^ though locally there would, of
\
necessity, be strong currents.
Becession of In connection with the recession of the waters,
the waters.
there are, however, some interesting notes of
time and circumstance. One of these relates to
the slow subsidence of the water, and its inter-
mittent character — 'ebbing and flowing.' Two
months after the grounding of the ark, the tops
of neighbouring hills began to be seen, and even
this apparently intermittingly, as by tidal or
^
In the Chaldean version the time allowed is shorter.
Noah*8 Birds, 19
earthquake waves. All this is very natural, and

it accounts for that anxiety which caused the
patriarch to wait for forty days before opening the
hatch in the roof of the ark. Even then he trusts
to winged messengers rather than to his own
eyesight, for possibly the air was still obscured
by mists.
The birds selected by Noah were very appro- Birds sent
•
mi_ • ■, ^ from the
pnate.
X
ihe -1
raven is a wanderer, remarkable for '^'•J*-
power of flight and keenness of vision. So long

as it made the ark its head-quarters, *
going and
'
returning in search of food, it might be inferred
that no habitable land was accessible. The dove
sent out afterward is of different habit, and was
probably already domesticated. It is no scavenger
of the waters, but would leave only when it found
land clothed with vegetation, and could obtain
seeds for food. The Chaldean narrative adds the
swallow. This is evidently a later interpolation,
purely childish and trivial, and probably due to
the familiar habits of the swallow, which in the
circumstances might be supposed to cause it to
haunt the ark as a place of safety, and to its
being in some sense a sacred bird. The swallow,
if in the ark at all, would be incapable, from
its habits of life, of affording any information.
Nothing could more illustrate the modern divorce
of knowledge of nature from certain forms of
learning, than the fact that Schrader and others
20 The Historical Deltuge,
actually prefer, on this ground, the Chaldean

version as the more complete of the two. The
veracity of the Bible is often to be learned as
much from what it leaves unsaid as from what it
says. Even after the departure of the dove, and
the apparent drying of the ground, Noah seems to
\*
have waited for a distinct intimation of the Divine
will before leaving his shelter, so timid had he
become under the strange and terrible ordeal to
which he had been subjected.
Eegarding the narrative of the flood as the
production of an eye-witness, we have a right to
regard him as vouching merely for what came f
under his own observation, or could be known to
him by investigation or inquiry after the event.
Selected
animals in
It is in this sense that we are to understand the
the ark
terms of universality, in which he speaks of
the destruction of men and animals, and, indeed,
as we shall see in the sequel, geological facts
prove that the destruction of life extended far
more widely than he could have known. He also
takes pains to inform us respecting the animals
preserved in the ark, which are in any case to be
taken as those of the region or country of the 4

narrator, covering a district extending from the
Persian Gulf to the mountains of Armenia, and
containing one of the most rich and varied faunas
of the world, and that of all others most suited to
the requirements of civilised man. Out of this
Animals in the Ark, 21
fauna a selection is made, including cattle, or

domesticated quadrupeds, birds, presumably those
most under the control of man, and creeping
things, probably the smaller quadrupeds —not
reptiles as such. This list is repeated several
%>
times, as if to obviate all mistake, and to prevent
the absurd supposition that the ark contained all
the animals in the world. On the other hand,
the destruction of the animals not in the ark is
represented as total for the district of the narrator,
including every air-breathing animal.^ The ark
I is in reality represented as a place of safe-keeping
for those animals especially which man would
require to sustain him in a state of civilisation,
after the flood had passed away. It was not a
menagerie, like the toy 'Noah's arks' prepared
for children.
We are now in a position to inquire as to the Universaiitv
f ^
. of the
meaning of the questions regarding the so-called êiuge.
'
*
Universality of the deluge, respecting which so
much that is loose and inaccurate has recently been
written. Here, in the first place, we may note that
if the deluge was caused by a subsidence of the
land bringing the waters of the ocean over
it,
there
can be no question of the piling up of water pre-
'
*
ternaturally over limited area, on the one hand

of a
or, on the other, water sufficient to

of
supply
a
Every liying substance on the surface of the land,' Qen.

^
'
vii. 23.
22 2%e Historical Deluge.
raise the ocean over the tops of all the mountains

in the whole world without any change of level
of land and water. Either of these miraculous
and even preternatural supposilions would be
is perfectly gratuitous, and, as we shall find, quite .
incompatible with the known geological facts.
Rejecting then as altogether outside both of the
Biblical narrative and the natural facts the idea of
a stratum of water added to the ocean sufficient to
cover the whole globe, land and sea, to a depth
equal to the height of the mountains, we find that
there are the following senses in which the deluge
of Noah might be affirmed or denied to have been
universal.
In what (1) The deluge may have been universal in the
senses
universal. sense of being a submergence of the whole of the
land, either by subsidence of the land or by
elevation of the ocean bed. Such a state of
things may have existed in primitive geological
ages before our continents were elevated ; but we
have no scientific evidence of its recurrence at any
later time, though large portions of the continents
have been again and again submerged. The
writers of Genesis i. and of Psalm civ. seem to
have known of no such total submergence since
the elevation of the first dry land, and nothing
of this kind is expressed or certainly implied in
the deluge story.
(2) The deluge may have been universal in so
Univerecdity of the Deluge. 28
far as man, its chief object, and certain animals

useful or necessary to him, are concerned. This
kind of universality would seem to have been before
the mind of the writer when he says that *
Noah
only,' and they who were with him in the ark,
.
remained alive.^
(3) The deluge may have been universal in so
far as the area of observation and information of
the narrator extended. The story is told in the
form of a narrative derived from eye-witnesses, a
form which seems to have been chosen or retained
purposely to avoid any question of universality of
the extreme kinds referred to above. The same
form of narrative is preserved in the Chaldean
legend. This fact is not affected by the theory
already mentioned, that the narrative is divisible
into two documents, respectively * Jahvistic' and
*
Elohistic' I have elsewhere ^
shown that there is
a very different reason for the use of these two
names of God.
It is thus evident that the whole question of un-
'universality' is little more than a mere useless ciiaraoter
of the
logomachy, having no direct relation to the facts "*"»**^''
or to the credibility of the narrative. On the other

hand, this, and the other considerations above
referred to, show that we have in the sixth, seventh,
^
Gten. vii. 23.
Modem Science in Bible Lands. See also as to details of
^
the deluge, The Origin of the World.
■Rl
and eighth chapters of Genesis, a narrative of a

cataclysm which must have occurred about 3000
f
years before the Christian era, and contained in a
II-
document most simple and primitive in its style,
which is yet so constructed that it provides before-
hand against every objection urged against it by
1
the most scientific and critical minds of the nine-
teenth century. This is surely a marvellous
quality from the negative point of view. Its
positive merits and present uses we shall have to
consider in subsequent pages.
II. Parallel Statements in History and

Tradition.
Widespread
traditions of
It haslong been known that traditions of a deluge
the deluge.
exist among most of the old civilised nations of
Europe and Asia/ and similar traditions have even
been found in America, more especially among the
more civilised peoples of the south. Every tribe
naturally refers the cataclysm to its own locality,
but this is merely an evidence of the antiquity and
originality of the story. Even unwritten traditions
of this kind, though perhaps mixed with much
that is childish and fabulous, must not be despised,
for oral tradition, if fixed in a definite form of
words, or connected with known natural objects or
with any recurring festival or ceremony, becomes,
like fossil footprints, imperishable.
^
See Lenormant, Beginnings of History.
The Chaldean Record. 25
The greatest amount of attention has, however,

been fixed on the deluge narratives of Chaldea, as
*^ being the oldest, and those pertaining to the

IM' earliest abodes of civilised man. They were at
first known through the fragments preserved to us
of the Chaldean history of Berosus ; but the dis-
coveries made by Layard and others of records
inscribed in clay tablets in the ruins of the library
or archive-chamber of Assur-bani-pal, king of As-
syria, have not only shown that Berosus foimded
his history of the event on ancient documents, but
have given us many details not otherwise accessible.
The tablets of Assur-bani-pal are of comparatively
late date, as he was a contemporary of the kings
of Judah, but they purport to have been copies
from ancient records preserved in Chaldean temples,
and representing the earliest history of a people
who possessed letters before the age of Abraham.
These records, the now celebrated Chaldean The
,'
tablets, are in European museums, and have been ^®1"k«
tablets.
translated by the late George Smith and others,^ so
that they now constitute one of the oldest known
portions of primeval literature. The Chaldean
account is apparently connected with the history of
an ancient hero-hunter whose name has been read oisdubar
Giadubar, and who is known to be identical in date,
Jeiu*ê^""
character, and actions with the Biblical Nimrod.
This post-diluvial hero is reported to have sought
»
See Translation, by Mr. T. G. Pinches, in Appendix.
an interview with Hasisadra, the Chaldean Noah,

who was helieved, as an immortal and deified man,
to have his abode at the mouth of the Euphrates
; I
t I
and its confluent streams, as if set to watch that
the waters of the great deep should not return to
overflow the land. The translated and glorified
patriarch is made to relate in poetical and imagin-
ative guise his own experiences in the great flood.
Character of
the We thus have a poetical version of the deluge
Chaldean
rpio. narrative prepared by a very ancient author, who
probably had access to original documents now lost
to us. He weaves this into a complex mytholo-
gical form, containing the different gods of the
Chaldean pantheon as actors in the drama, just as
Homer brings in the gods of Olympus in the Iliad,
Of course the comparison of such a production with
the plain prosaic statements of Genesis cannot yield
any very certain result. There are, however, such
coincidences as compel us to believe that the authors
of Genesis and of the Chaldean poem have had
access to the same facts. On the other hand, the
differences are sufficient to show that the one cannot
be copied from the other, and the balance of pro-
bability is altogether in favour of the Biblical
account being the older and more accurate of the
is,
two. The account in Genesis as we have already

seen, plain narrative of the nature of contemporary
a
annals, while the Chaldean story introduces many

imaginary deities, and expands the story by
a
-
The Chaldean Record. 27
number of accessory matters, having the aspect of

*
additions to increase the attractiveness and sen-
sational' character of the story, or to adapt it for
liturgical use in temple services. The agreements
Differences
r. resem-
blances, as
relate to matters of fact, capable of being ascertained compared
with
by observation. The differences consist in fanciful Oenesis.
and mythological additions to the Chaldean version.

In both records the moral element is the same,
Divine wrath against the sins of men. In both,
the means of deliverance for the godly family is an
ark or ship, built under Divine direction, and coated
with bitumen ; in both, animals are preserved as
well as men; in both, the physical agencies ap-
pear the same ; in both, the patriarch uses birds as
his messengers. These features cannot be acci-
dental resemblances but the accessories of pilot and
;
mariners, the addition of the swallow to the birds,

and the complex machinery of gods and goddesses
in the Chaldean version, must be attributed to the
The
imagination of the poet, whose work we have a Ohaldean
more
right to assume is founded on facts derived from a complex,
imaginative
document similar to that which we have in Genesis. and later.
Another line of historical parallelism, in my Post-

diluyian
history
judgment quite as important, is that which relates corroborates
the deluge
to the state of civilisation of the antediluvians and nairatiye.
the survivors of the deluge. I have already shown

that in this Genesis is consistent with itself. But
its testimony is borne out by the external evidence.
The Chaldean narrator sees no anachronism in the
construction of the great box or ark, nay, gives to

it more of the character of a ship. He concurs in
the existence of the mechanical, agricultural, and
pastoral resources necessary to the building of the
ark and the supplying it with provisions. He goes
even further, and implies the knowledge of metallic
tools, and of some form of writing before the flood.
Civilipiition Of course neither he nor the author of Genesis
before the
Hood— its affirms that such civilisation existed everywhere,
limits.
for example, over the wide plains and forests of
antediluvian Europe. Even in post-diluvian times
it would be absurd to infer from a description of
the arts of ancient Chaldea and Egypt that a
similar advancement of social life must have existed
in Northern and Western Europe. The evidence
now before us that Europe was at the time inhabited
by barbarous tribes does not invalidate either the
Early
Chiildcan
Chaldean statements or those of Genesis. But the
ciyili^!ation.
evidence of old Chaldean monuments, extending
almost as far back as the deluge, gives' us positive
confirmation of these statements, since it shows that
at a period much too early to allow of the rise of
civilisation from barbarism, the Akkadians and
their confreres in Chaldea were erecting magnificent
temples and temple towers, were practising the arts
of metallurgy, pottery, sculpture, agriculture, and
navigation, in a manner scarcely if at all inferior
to that of their successors in later historic periods.
In point of fact, the early civilisations of Chaldea,
■
Prehistoric Men, 29
the
Egypt, and Phoenicia are inexplicable, except on
sumvow of
supposition that the survivors of the great deluge ££^

were civilised men ; and if so, there must, in cer-
tain localities, however limited, have been civilised
communities for ages before the flood. It follows
therefore that, if we discredit the Biblical history
of the waters of Noah, we must with it give up
the earliest history and traditions of the most i
cultivated races of mankind, and must be content

to regard the early civilisation of the East, and
that which spread from it into Europe in the
earliest historic times, as absolutely miraculous,
or else altogether unaccountable.
III. Parallelism with the Eemains of

Palanthropic and Neanthropic Races.
In all parts of the world as we trace human Prehistoric
history backward in time, written documents
gradually fail us, and at length we arrive at what

may be called prehistoric time. In "Western Asia
we may now be said to have written inscriptions
even as far back as the deluge. In Western
and NorthernEurope we have nothing of this
kind earlier than the time of the Roman republic. vl
In America we have nothing earlier than the
voyages of Columbus, or at most than the scanty
:■'
narratives of those of the Northmen in the tenth
century. In
Polynesia and Australia our written
■
history extends no farther back than the voyages
of Cook and his contemporaries. But though the

*
term prehistoric may thus refer locally to very
*
different dates, in all these countries, even the

oldest historically, we find under the soil remains
of man and of his works, in regard to which we
have no historic Let us take, in
testimony.
illustration of this, Great Britain itself, and the
neighbouring parts of Western Europe.
Prehistoric When the Romans invaded Britain they found
Britain as , • i j i •
an example, there tribos of two races, which had made their
way in prehistoric times over the narrow seas.
One of these, and presumably the oldest, inhabited
chiefly the western parts. These people were
small in stature, dark in complexion, delicate in
their features, with moderately long or dolicho-
cephalic skulls. They were not altogether bar-
barous, but practised agriculture, and possessed
domestic animals. They were in, or just emerging
from, the period of the use of stone implements
and weapons. They buried their dead in long
It
chambered mounds, which have been called long
barrows. They are the ancestors, in part at least,
of the Welsh, the Milesian Irish, and the Scottish
Picts, and were allied to the original Bretons and
Auvergnats of France and the Basques of the
Pyrenees ; collectively they may be designated the
fterian Ibcriau race. They^ originally
o ^
spoke
i. languages
u «->
of
race in ^
Britain Turauiau type, and would seem to have been the
first wave of human population which passed into
Primitive Europe, 31
Europe in post-diluvian times. Associated with Pf^^^^^J^®
these people, sometimes intermixed, sometimes

hostile, were other tribes of larger stature, with
shorter heads and lighter complexions, speaking
languages of the Aryan class, and allied to the
Gaelic. They were in about the same stage of
civilisation with the Iberians, perhaps a little more
advanced. They were certainly more vigorous and
warlike. They buried their dead in round barrows,
are supposed to have been later immigrants, and to
have introduced the use of metals instead of stone
for weapons. They were known to the Romans as
Celtse. Both of these peoples must have migrated
by water to the British islands, and the earlier
probably supposed themselves to have been the
first inhabitants.
If, however, they had been geologists, and had what the
proceeded to dig in the alluvial clays, river gravels, ^^^^

*°'*''^
and the floors of caverns, they would have found
human bones, flint implements and debris of food,
indicating that they had been preceded by other
men who had ceased to exist before their arrival.
If they had critically examined the bones of these

predecessors, they would have
found that they had
been men of great stature and strength, and that ^g^men
they used stone weapons and implements of more Jâis,
rude and massive make than their own. The
study of the broken bones found in the kitchen-

middens of these extinct people would further
82 The HiatoHcal Deluge.
have shown that they had heen mighty hunters of

great and formidahle heasts, for among the d^bfns
of their feasts they would have found the hones
of a species of elephant, the mammoth, not known
in modern times, of a rhinoceros, of the wild
horse, of the reindeer, and of such carnivora as
the great cave hear, a relative of the grizzly bear
of Western America, and of the cave lion, an
ally if not a variety of the lion of Western Asia.
These animals, like the men who hunted them,
had perished from the land.
Oeo- Had our early Iberian colonists been familiar
graphioal
changes. also with the problems of palaeo-geography, they
would have found evidence that at the time when
these extinct people inhabited England, that
country was not an island, but connected with the
mainland of Europe; that in their time wide
steppes and wooded plains had existed in the
German Ocean, the Irish Sea, and far out into the
Atlantic ; that, in short, they and their islands had
been preceded by a greater people and by greater
continental lands. These things were probably
unknown to our Iberian and Celtic ancestors,
though if they had chanced to find any bones of
if,
these perished men and animals, and not

is
as
unlikely, they brought with them the tradition of
the flood, they might have said with awe- stricken
hearts These are the bones of the wicked giants
*
:
of old whom God destroyed in the waters of No9,h.*

Primitive Europe, B8
Modern geological investigation has demon- specimens
strated all these facts, and our museums now EJl™^**^"

man.
contain abundance of specimens of human bones,
weapons, and implements of flint and bone,
ornaments made of pierced shells, even carvings
in bone and ivory, showing the forms of animals
now wholly or locally extinct. We thus know
much of the physique, the brain development, and
the habits of life of these perished people, and of
the animals their contemporaries. We may name
them the men of the Mammoth age^ or of the
Palanthropic human period, as dis-
or ancient
tinguished from the Neanthropic or modern time
in which we live ; and the question arises to what
extent these ancient people correspond or are
identical with the antediluvians of history. This
question may be asked (1) with reference to their
age, mode of occurrence and relations to modern
men; and (2) with reference to their history and
(
the manner of their disappearance.
V
Under the first head we have the fact that the oeoiogicni
relations
close of the existence of these early people in J^^^n
?3
"Western Europe is in immediate contact with pl"an~
thropic.
the dawn of post- diluvial history. The precise
chronology of the early post-diluvian nations is
no doubt in some uncertainty, but we may fairly
assume that the history of such peoples as the
Chaldeans and Egyptians goes back to 3000 years
before the Christian era. Some assume a still
1)
longer period, but we need not discuss this

question. In any case, the remains of Falan-
thropio men are in the layers immediately below
those of the modern time, or only separated from
them by a layer of rubble drift, or inundation
mud. Yet no passage has been shown from the
one to the other. In like manner, the bones of
the older race show that it was not a distinct
species of man, but merely a variety of the
existing species, yet a race or variety so well
marked as to be readily distinguished. The ■
separating layer, however, when it can be

distinctly recognized, serves to show that the
dividing line between the two periods is caused
by the deposits of an inundation. In other words,
the wide continents of the Palanthropic age were
submerged, and when they rose again they did
h
not attain to their former dimensions. We have
thus three points of separation of these otherwise
so closely united ages: (1) The occurrence
between their deposits of a bed indicating the
temporary action of wide-spread currents of
water ;^ (2)
l;he disappearance of the mam-
malian fauna of the older period; (3) the
permanently diminished size of the continents,
I '! and consequent change of physical geography in
the modern age. These changes, along with those
more immediately referring to man, are amply
'
Bubble chips of Prestwich and contemporaneous beds,
■
Extent and DaU of Subsidence, 86
sufficient to divide the human or Anthropio SaooeMion

without
period into two distinct ages. As to the amount mixtur*.
of the submergence involved, I

think it can be
proved that in Western Europe it extended to DMtraetion
of old
about 2000 feet, and to at least an equal amount world hj
sub-
inwgMiM.
in Western Asia. Elsewhere we have scarcely
as yet the means of measuring it. In regard
to horizontal extent, it must have affected all
the land of the northern hemisphere, though
perhaps not everywhere to an equal amount.
As to date, it intervenes between the close of Date of
glacial and
post-glacial
the glacial age, say 8000 years ago, minus a periooa.
sufficient time for the introduction and extension

of antediluvian man, say 2000 years, and the
earliest post-diluvian history, say 6000 years
ago. These are round numbers based on very
uncertain estimates, both of human and geological
chronology ; but they cannot be very far wrong.^
If then such a submergence can be proved by
physical evidence to have intervened between the
earlier and later human periods, dividing the
whole Anthropic age into two parts, can we be
wrong in supposing that it is this wide- spread
cataclysm which has impressed its memory on
^
Upham in America, and Hansen in Norway, have
gammed up all the available facts as to the date of the
glacial period, with the result that its close must be placed
on geological evidence at from 7000 to 10,000 years ago,
Nature^ June 28, 1894. See also the Canadian Ice Age, by
the author.
86 The Historical Dduge.
nearly the whole human race as the great

historical deluge? It need scarcely be said to
any one conversant with geological facts, that
submergences of this kind have occurred at
various periods of geological time, antecedent to I
the introduction of man, and that they have been
a means of selection, whereby some groups of
animals have been removed, and room has been
V ►!
made for the introduction and increase of others.
"We now have evidence that man has been a
witness of the last, and one of the greatest of
these submergences. Having arrived at this
conclusion, there are certain special points which
must now shortly engage our attention, and some
of which may reflect light on the Biblical history
summarised in the first section.
Question of The first question which occurs here relates to
barbarism v.
civilisation.
the apparent contradiction between the barbarous
condition of the men of the caves and gravels, and
the civilisation attributed to the antediluvians. I
have already referred incidentally to this, but it
deserves more deliberate attention. It is evident
that we cannot expect to find remains of the
antediluvian living on those low
populations
grounds still submerged, as, for instance, on the
land then fringing the eastern Mediterranean, or
the west coast of Europe, or the great plain now
under the German Ocean. 'Not could we expect,
at least without excavations not heretofore possible,^
Questions as to Civilisation. 87
tofind their remains under the alluvial deposits

which must have buried the bones of the people
then living in the Euphratean plain, or at the
head of the Persian Gulf. Yet these are the
localities in which the greater seats of civilised
population are likely to have been placed. It
would be fair also to infer that the seats of
civilisation would be few in comparison with tho
great area occupied by rude and wandering tribes,
that the metals and good works of art would be
scarce, and little likely to find their way to such
tribes. Among them we might find some faint
reflection of the arts of more cultivated com-
i munities, but not their full perfection. This ia
precisely what we do find, for the objects of art

found with the men of the Palanthropic period
convey the impression that they have been
outlying bands connected with more cultivated

races elsewhere. Their great cranial development,
and the effective carving of their bone imple-
mtiita and tablets, equally lead to this conclusion.

We may well imagine, therefore, that the west
of Europe was still ic the stone age, while metals
may have been ^^\^ known to more civilised
peoples in Western Asia. We have already seen
how strongly this possibility is confirmed by the

early development of the arts in post-diluvian
times.
jûcthe/ question relates to the races indicated
Varieties of bv
*'
the skulls in the cavern deposits.
^ It would
Palan-
thropio seem from these that men of a coarse and brutal
men.
type, the so-called Canstadt race, comparable in
their form of skull with some of the lowest modem
races, existed in Europe in the Palanthropio age.
But there also occur, especially in the later de-
posits of this age, remains of gigantic men with
large skulls of great cranial capacity, ihough with
somewhat coarse facial forms. These are the so-
called Cro-magnon people. Lastly, a few remains
indicate a race, that of Truch^re, of finer type,
and closely approaching to the Ib'^riai race of the
early post-diluvian period. These labt seem to
have been rare and possibly only accidental visitors
to Europe. Their principal sites must have been
elsewhere. Iôw this threefold division of Palan-
thropio men approaches very closely to that of the
antediluvians in Genesis. We have only to
suppose that the Truch^re race, whose head-
quarters may have been in the East, represent xh i
aboriginal men of the Sethite race, the Cariâdt
men, the ruder members of the Cainite peopk*?,
and the Cro-magnon race, the mixed progeny of
gigantic and forceful mould produced in the later
antediluvian time by the union of the two, and we
have a sufficiently exact parallel with the ante-
diluvian ethnology of Genesis. Farther, we find
that we are here in the presence of a selective
process, effected by natural means, whereby two
Some Compa/risons. 39
races of men unfit for the higher progress of

humanity are destroyed, and the best individuals
of a third permitted to survive to repeople the
' ' Delude a
earth. If not a process of natural selection, this selective
prooefls.
would at least be a Divine selection by natural
means.
Oursing of
An interesting light is thrown by geological the ground
because of
facts on that deterioration of the environment of man.
primitive man indicated by the cursing of

*
the
ground* on his account, to which we have already

referred in general terms. Something of this kind
presents itself to us in several aspects
in connection
with the geological history of primitive man.
It is a law of palaeontology that every new type
placed on the earth shall enter on existence
under
favouring conditions, and that as it expands and
Arrest of
extends itself to the limit of its range, way shall develop-
ment,
be made for it by the removal of hindrances and deteriora-
tion of
the extinction of older and rival forms. In the climate.
case of man, as a naked, unarmed, and frugivorous

creature, he must have been produced in an Eden
of plenty, safety, and uniform temperature; and
if he was to extend his range widely over the
world, these favouring conditions must be extended
in preparation for him over wider and wider areas.
Otherwise he would be a failure, because deprived
of the advantages accorded to aU other new forms
of life in the development of the cosmos. Iôw it
seems that, for some reason not known to geology,
man was deprived of these ordinary advantages.

We find him in the palanthropic age in a climate
becoming more rigorous as the age went on, living
amidst the great and dangerous animals surviving
from the Pleistocene age, obliged to use artificial
clothing, to become a carnivorous creature, and as a
hunter to invent and use instruments of destruction
not needed in his pristine state, and finally, as a
natural consequence, to turn upon and destroy his
^wn kind, in a manner unexampled among other
b; *'"'•". Man thus appears to the geologist as a
failti êing, out of harmony with his environment;
and this is the case even if we were to adopt the
theory of evolution, for how else could a harmless
«
descendant of frugivorous apes become a ferocious
and bloodthirsty savage ? ^
Besides this, man not
only came into contact with a more ancient and
formidable fauna, which under ordinary circum-
stances would have been removed out of his way,
but his attempts to cultivate the soil to obtain
vegetable food and to cherish domestic animals
were assailed by the irruption of that composite
Invasion of flora of thistles and other weeds, whose recent
new weeds.
origin and still more recent geographical distribu-
tion are well known, and which still dogs his steps
even in the distant lands of Australasia.^ In
^
I insisted on ibis in my work ArchoMit published in 1860,
and later in Ihc Origin of the World, and The Story of the
târth and Man.
'
Hooker, Antarctic Floras^ Flora of Australia, etc.
rii
Curamg of the Ground. 41
connection with all this, the relations of man to the

other members of the animal kingdom have become
a cruel tyranny, whereby in every land where he
establishes himself, whether as a savage or a
oiviHsed man, the nice balance of nature is overset,
and untold misery inflicted on the lower animals.
This is the testimony of nature, but the Bible has ^^^'^^yfof
some singular echoes of it. One of these is the Son/"'^*"
prediction of the Sethite Lamech,^ who expresses

the hope that his son Noah would be the means of
comforting them because of the ground which the
*
Lord hath cursed.' It was given to him to foresee

that this dire evil under which the men of his time
were groaning was remediable ; but perhaps not to
see that the remedy involved the destruction of the
greater part of them. His prophecy is fulfilled in
the fact that a new world has arisen, and that physi-
cally the new world is better, in that the continents
are more limited, and the climate improved, while
the giant beasts of the quaternary have passed away.
Still, as we too well know, the whole effects of
the curse are not yet gone ; and Paul can speak in
the New Testament of the whole creation groaning
because of man, and rejoicing in his final renovation.^
It is probable that Paul's reference is mainly to ;
that portion of the curse inflicted through the
1
Gen. V. 29.
8
Rom. viii. 19-22. Ktisis here probably refers specially to
tbe nnimal crentirtn.
tyrannical and lawless agency of man himself, and

which still continues to the full, and will continue
till *
the revelation of the sons of God.'
Want of ap«
prehension
It is singular that so many Christian writers
of facts as
to diteriora- ^âvofailed to appreciate this physical cursing of
vkonment. the grouud. The following is an example :
'
Modern science,* says Gaudet, ' seems to prove that the
present condition of the earth is a natural result of the
whole previous development, ar d that the miseries belonging
to it are rather remains of the primitive imperfection of
matter than the effects of a fall which intervened at a given
moment.*
I Science, rightly understood, teaches the direct

contrary of this, as I endeavoured to show as far
back as 1860 ; but it seems as if even Christian ,
students would rather take their views of nature

from the uncertain theories of current forms of
philosophy than from science properly so-called.
I
may close this part of our subject with a
summ^y of the parallelism detailed in this and
A remark-
able deliver-
ance as to
deluge. the previous sections. But before doing so I wish
to notice here, as one phase of modern thought, a
sapng of an eminent writer of our time on this sub-

ject, which, if I am
not mistaken, will appear very
strange to the scientific men of the near future.
At the present time it is difficult to persuade serious

scientific inquirers to occupy themselves in any way with
the Noachian deluge. They look at you with a smile and
a shrug, and say they have more important matters to
attend to.'
Tabular Views. 48
This may have been true of a certain clio': 3 in

London in 1890, when it was written, but the
facts now known should stamp such an attitude
as neither wise nor philosophical.
The following short table from a recent paper
by Prof. Prestwich,^ who stands at the head of
English students of the later tertiary, may show
the present attitude of the more conservative and
cautious geologists:
remains of the existing

0, A1.LUVIAL Beds I ^°^**"^
Fauna
*^®
and of Neolithic Mam,.
Tabular
\ view of
post-glaoial
succession.
Contains the scattered remains of a post-
B. BuBBIiE-DBIFT... glacial land surface and fauna, with
scanty traces of Palasolithio Man.
i
, '/■■'
/With abundant remainsof the late
Quaternary Fauna^ including the great
A, Vallbt Qbavels extinct mammalia (mammoth, woolly
and Caves of rhinoceros, various deer, horse,
Post- glacial bovidsB, etc.), together with a large
Age. number of rude stone implements of
PalceolUhio Man. This fauna, marks
the close of the glacial period.
In this table the period— ^

A icpresents that of antediluvian man.
£ represents the deposits of the subsequent sub-
mergence. ill
represents the recent deposits holding remains of il
modem races of men and modem animals
only.
The following more detailed table gives the '

I
whole sequence, with its relations to history :
' Tram. Victoria Institute^ 1894.

l5'l
General View of the later Geological Periods as
connected with the Deluge.
General Agks. Conditions and Events.

view of later
geological
periods. Neanthropic, Extent of continents as at present. Mo-
Modern, dern animals and Neocosmic men of
or existing races, climate as at present.
Post-diluvian. So-callfd ages of polished stone,
{Neolithic), bronze and iron. Modern
alluvial deposits.
Submergence Deposits of rubble- drift, loess, argile k

or blocaiiz, plateau gravels, fissure de-
Deluge. posits, utc. Kemains of man and ani-
mals of the previous period.
Palanthropic, Qreat extension of continents, rich land

Post glacial, fauna, including species now extinct,
or Palseocosmic men of extinct races,
Antediluvian. mammoth, woolly rhinocero!!, etc., in
Europe, Asia, and America, climate
mild in earlier part, becoming cold
toward close. So-called Palceolithio
men. Men of older cave and river
deposits.
Pleistocene Pai tial submergence of land, cold climate,

or great extension of glaciers and floating
Qlacial. ice, deposits of boulder clay and of
marine clays and gravels. No certain
evidence of man, Arctic and boreal
animals and plants.
Pliocene. A continental period, with mild climate,

much aqueous erosion and volcanic
action, a rich mammalian fauna of I
so ithem aspect. No certain evidence
of man.
The whole of the above belong to tbe later

tertiary or kainozoic, The beds of the middle and
1
General Table and Summary. 45
lower tertiary contain remains of land animals

now extinct, and indicating genial climates in
the
no
northern hemisphere; hut as yet we have
certain evidence that man was introduced so early.
the
The alleged discoveries of chipped flints in
middle tertiary of France and India await con-
firmation, and their reference to human agency is
uncertain. This question, however, though of
of our present
great interest, is heyond the scope
inquiry.
We may now sum up the whole of the subject
state-
of this section under the following general
ments:— (1) Man and the land animals, his
contemporaries, are the latest tenants
of the earth, ^Z^îvl
the latest terms in the long succession of

animal ^«^^"''-
forms which has extended throughout geological

races of men known to
time. (2) The earliest
the modern world of
geology are separated from
ordinary history by a great physical cataclysm,
involving the permanent diminution of the area
of
our continents and the destruction of the majority

life.
of men, and of many forms of animal
"We have every reason to believe that the
(3)
modern races of men are descended from survivors
^ of these physical changes. (4) While traces of
these changes remain in superficial deposits, the
history of the great submergence exists in our
sacred records, and in the traditions of most ancient
nations. (6)The deluge thus becomes one of
the most important events both in human history

and in the study of the later geological periods,
and must ever enter into the fabric of rational
anthropology and geology, so that any attempt to
discuss human origins, or the history of primitive
man or his arts or his religion, without reference
to this important factor, must necessarily be falla-
cious. (6) There is thus good groundfor the
prominence given to this great catastrophe in the
"Word of God, and for the use made of it by the
writers of the Bible, and which we shall find in
our closing section is not exhausted even in our
own time. ^ (7) We may, I
think, fairly add that
the confirmation of the accuracy of this ancient
record by independent discovery in modern times,
has a great evidential value in favour of the truth
of the early Bible history, and, in connection with
this, in support of its moral and spiritual teaching.
(8) If, finally, the question — ^Was the

we ask
deluge a miracle or a natural event? the answer
will be that it was both, since it was an inter-
V vention of Divine power and justice, but carried
out by natural agencies. In this it resembles the
destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, the plagues
of Egypt, and the destruction of Pharaoh's host
1
For more full details on the Anthropic period reference
may be made to a work recently published by the Beligious
IVact Society,' entitled, The Meeting-place of Q^dogy cmd
History.
New Testament References, 47
in the Red Sea. The Creator has infinite re-

sources of miracle within His own natural energies
and laws.
IV. The Deluge in the New Testament,

There are two important references to the
deluge in the New Testament, on which we may
base some notice of its religious significance in
the present and the future. The first is in the Christ's
. _- • • n/r j^j_ • reference
teaching of Christ Himself, as given in Matt. xxiv. to
uie^
87, et seq., and in the parallel passage in Luke xvii.

26, et seq. The occasion, as stated in Matthew, is
a question on the part of the disciples as to the
destruction of the Temple, and the end of the
world, or of the age, respecting which He had
previously been warning the people of Jerusalem.
As given by Luke, it comes in a similar con-
nection, first in answer to the Pharisees, and then
as a teaching to the disciples. In both places it
is in connection with the end of the age, that
of the Christian and with the
is,
dispensation,
Christ again in the character of the
of
coming
is,
Son of Man,' predicted by Daniel that as

a
;
heaven-descended human personage coming to
replace the dominant wild beasts by which the

prophet represents the anti-Christian political
The idea that when the Messiah
is
powers.
shall come to establish His kingdom, the state
48 The, Historical Deluge.
of affairs on earth will be similar to that in the

time The majority of men will be
of Noah.
wholly occupied with material interests, and
careless or ignorant of their approaching doom;
only a few like the family of Noah, be

will,
willing to enter the ark of safety: ' *« it came
Ilesom- to pass in the days of Noe, so shuix it be also
blaiice to
clone of
present dis-
in the days of (or at the coming of) the Son
(lensation.
of Man. They ate, they drank, they married,
and were given in marriage, till the day that
Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came
and destroyed them all.' The antediluvians
and the latter-day sinners are here accused of
having no interest in spiritual things. They
are men to whom nothing but m? ial things
has any reality. Their morals ^ y not be
worse than those of others, but their religion
is religion of negation.
a The teaching is that
men are lost by not accepting the offer of
salvation, that Christ comes as the vindicator of
Divine justice as well as the Saviour, and that
He will regard entire devotion to the things of
this life, though in themselves harmless, as a
sufficient ground of condemnation.
Peter's
reference to
The second New Testament notice of the
the deluge.
deluge we owe to Peter, who evidently has
before his mind the warning of Christ, but enters
somewhat more into details. In this Peter speaks
as the Noah of the new dispensation, the preacher
Prediction of Peter, 40
of coining judgment to tho scoffing unbelievers

)e of the last days. The passage, when literally
translated, is a very remarkable one : —
id
'For this
they wilfully forget, that there wore heavens*
from of old, and laud'-' established out of water aad by means
of water, by the Word of God, by N\hich same means the
world ^ that then was, being overflowed with water, perished,
but tho heavens that now are and the laud, by the same
word, have been stored with tire, being reserved against the
day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.*
He had previously stated that he refers to scoflepsof

. thelMt
scoffers who principle of uniform-
carried the "ây"-
itarianism so far as to affirm that the present

order of nature cannot be disturbed, ' and that "^^^^
dootnne of
all things continue as they were from the ^^ôrmity.
beginning, while there seems to be no fulfilment

of the promise of the coming Judge and Avenger.
He accuses these sceptics of wilful ignorance,
because they have not only the Old Testament
and the New, and the testimony of universal
history, but the evidence of the land itself as
having been produced by water, and rising out
of water, or, as we may now say, the physical
evidence of the rubble drift and the bone caves.
Wilfulalso because they neglect to think of the SfiJeto
Almighty Word which raised the earth out of the Senj^!'
^
Atmospheric heavens, because here in relation to land
and waters.
Qe — not the earth but the land as distinguished
^
as a whole,
from the waters.
3
The word here is Kosmos — ^the order of things, not the
material earth.
E
waters, and could depress it again, and make the

very means of its birth the cause of its destruction.
Future He now warns them that the earth and atmo-
destruction
by fire.
sphere are stored with potential heat, and are
reserved for a very different fate in the end.
He invokes the aqueous cause of the deluge in
evidence of the reasonableness of the plutonic
cause of the final conflagration.
It would, however, be unjust to the apostle
to regard him as a prophet of woe alone. He
God's proceeds to say that God delays this just
forbearance
and man's vengeance Not wishing that
from age to age, *
duty.
any should perish, but that all should come to
repentance/ and should, as children of God, not
dread, but earnestly desire the coming of the
Lord, and joyfully look forward to *
new heavens
and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness.
Seeing then that we look for these things, give
diligence that we may be found without spot,
and blameless in His sight.' Noah is said to
have warned the antediluvians for 120 years.
But Peter's preaching comes down to us through
the whole of the eighteen Christian centuries,
with many other inspired notes of warning that
we live in the last times, and are nearing the
final catastrophe of the present Cosmos.
,
APPENDIX.
-•o»-
THE BABYLONIAN STORY OF THE FLOOD.

FROM THE '
INTERNATIONAL TEACHERS' BIBLE.'
(Reprinted by permission of Messrs. W. Collins & Co., Limtd.)
The Babylonian story of the flood is inscribed on the

eleventh tablet of the series recounting the exploits of the
Babylonian hero Gilgames (pr. Gil-gah-rness, with hard g). The
hero had become smitten with some disease (for which, in his
own land, there was no remedy), and with the desire for immor-
tality. He therefore set out with a companion named Ur-
Sanabi, 'the boatman,' to seek Um-napistim, the Babylonian
Noah, who dwelt 'in a remote place at the mouths of the
rivers,' 1 which was reached by water, and which is supposed
to be the island of Bahrein. Whilst yet afar off, they saw the
patriarch, and a conversation took place, in which Gilgames
mentions wonderingly Um-napistim's unchanged appearance,
and asks him how he has attained immortality. In answer, the
deathless sage tells the story of the flood. The gods, who
dwelt within the city Suripak, or Surippak, on the Euphrates,
decided to make a flood, and Ea or Ae (Cannes), god of
the sea, repeated their decision to the earth, saying : Land,
*
land ; field, field— O land, hear ; and field, understand ! Surip-

pakite, son of Umbara-Tutu,^ destroy thy house, build a ship
it,
!
seed of life, all of to go up
(cf. Gen. vi. 14) . . . cause the
into the ship (cf. Gen. vi. 19-21). The god Ea then goes on to
'
tell him the dimensions of the ship, and Um-napistim asks the
The Tigris and the Euphrates.
*
Regarded as the Greek Otiartes, incorrectly written for Opiartes.

•
52 The Historical Deluae,
god concerning it.* After a mutilated portion and a break, the

building of the ship is described, how it was caulked, within and
without, with bitumen (cf. Gen. vi. 14), and how it was provi-
sioned. Um-napistim then collected all his property, including
his silver and gold, and made all the seed of life to go up into
the ship, together with his family, his female slaves, and all the
beasts and cattle of the field (cf. Gen. vii. 7-9, 13-15). Samas
(the sun-god) appointed the time, and gave directions to Um-
napistim to enter the ship, for he was about to cause a heavy
storm to come. Um-napistim then says : ' Four days I watched
his (the sun-god's) image —the time to be observed. I wao
afraid ; I entered into the midst of the ship, and shut the door.
To close the ship, I gave to Buzu ûrgal, the boatman, the
great house with its goods.'
At dawn, there arose from the horizon of heaven a dark cloud,
in the midst of which Hadad thundered. In front of it went
Nebo and Sarru (=Merodach), and the bearers of their thrones ^
carried them over mountains and plains. The weapon of
Uragal (Nergal) cast down, Ninip went, causing the storm to
descend ; the spirits of the earth (Anunnaki) raised their torches,
lighting up the land with their brightness (cf. Gen. vii. 11-20);
then Hadad's raging waters sought even the heavens, and
everything that was bright turned to darkness. In the next
column the text runs as follows : —
Like a battle against the people, it sought [to destroy] .
They saw not each other —the people in heaven recognised
not each other.
The gods feared the tempest, and
Drew back, they ascended to the heaven of Ann —
The gods like kennelled dogs lay down in the dwellings.
I star cried out as one travailing (variant : filled with anger).
' In one part the
patriarch seems to ask what he was to say to the people
In case they should inquire why he was building the ship. He was told to
answer, " Because Bel hates me, even me, I will not dwell in [you]r [cityj,
and upon Bel's earth I will not place my head (literally :
face). I am going
down, therefore, to the abyss; with Ea, my lord, shall I constantly dwell,"
etc. See Jensen, Kosmologie, p. 371.
'These were in the form of animals.

Appendix, 53
The Supreme One (variant: the lady of the gods) made

known her goodness:
'
The past! hath turned to clay
Because I spoke evil in the presence (variant : assembly) of
the gods.
When I spoke evil in the presence (variant : assembly) of
the gods,
For the destruction of my people I spoke of battle.^
Have I begotten mankind ? Where is he ? —
'
Like the sons of the fishes he fiUeth the sea !
The gods above the Anunnaki (spirits of earth) were
weeping with her.
The gods sat bowed down in lamentation,
Pressed together were their lips [in all ?] the assemblies.
Six days and nights
The wind blew, the flood and hurricane destioyed.
The seventh day, when it came, that hurricane, and the
advancing flood.
Which had stricken down like a whirlwind.
Ceased, the sea became calm, and the Scorm and flood
stopped (cf. Gen. viii. i, 2),
Giving a shout, I looked upon the surges.
But the whole of mankind had turned to clay,
Like beams the billows advanced.
I opened the window, and the light fell upon my face,
I sank back dazzled and sat down — I wept—
Over my face went my tears.
I perceived the regions of the brink of the deep,
For 12 (measures) the district arose —
The ship had reached the land of Nisir.
The mountain of Nisir held the ship, and would not let it
move (cf. Gen. viii. 4).
The first day and the second day the mountain of Nisir
held the ship, and would not let it move.
The third day and the fourth day the mountain of Nisir, etc.
The fifth and sixth the mountain of Nisir, etc.
' Lit. :
" That day," apparently meaning " the generation which has just
ceased :o exist."
*
Istar was goddess of battle, as well as of lov« and reproduction.
The seventh day, when it came,

I sent forth a dove, and it left. The dove went, it turned
about.
It found not a resting-place, and it returned (cf. Gen. viii. 8).
I sent forth a swallow, and it left. The swallow went, it
turned about,
It found not a resting-place, and it returned.
I sent forth a raven, and it left.
The raven went, and the rushing of the waters it saw —
It eateth, it gorgeth, it flieth away, it returneth not ! (cf.
Gen. viii. 7).
I let (them) go forth also to the four winds, I sacrificed a
victim,
I made a libation upon the peak of the mountain,
I placed the libation-vases by sevens,
Beneath them I strewed cane, cedar, and sweet-brier (cf.
Gen. viii. 20).
The gods smelled a savour, the gods smelled a sweet
savour (cf. Gen. viii. 21).
The gods collected like flies around the sacrificer.
Then the Supreme One (=* the lady of the gods*'), when
she came,
Raised the great rings which Anu had made according to
her wish :
*
These gods — by the lapis-stones of my neck I — will I not
forget —
These days will I remember, nor forget them for ever.
Let the gods come to the libation,
(But) let not Bel come to the libation.
For he hath not considered, and hath made a flood,
And hath consigned my people to (their) doom.'
Then Bel, when he came.
Saw the ship —then was Bel enraged (and)
Filled with anger on account of the gods and Igigi (spirits
of heaven) :
'
What soul has come forth ?— let not a man escape the
doom.'
Ninip opened his mouth and spoke, he saith to the warrior
Bel:
*
See the preceding page, line i.
Appendix. 55
•
Who but He (Cannes) arrangeth the matter ?
ed For He knoweth everything.*
He opened his mouth and spoke, he saith to the warrior Bel:
8). ♦
Thou wise one of the gods, warrior,
it hast not considered, and hast made a flood
—
Indeed thou
The sinner has done his sin, the evildoer has done his
misdeed —
Be considerate— let him not be cut off; stop— let him not
be [bound ?] .
Why hast thou made a flood ? Let a lion come and let
him reduce the people.
a Why hast thou made a flood ? Let a leopard come and let
him reduce the people.
Why hast thou made a flood ? Let a famine happen, and
let the land be laid waste.
Why hast thou made a flood ? Let Ura (pestilence) come,
and let him destroy the people (cf. Gen. viii. 21).
et I have not revealed the counsel of the great gods.
I caused Atra-khasis (=Um-napistim) to see a dream, and
he heard the counsel of the gods.'
;n Then he (Bel) decided (what he would do). Bel ascended
to the midst of the ship.
to He took my hand and brought me up, even me ;
He brought up (and) caused my wife to come to my side.
Dt
He turned us to each other and stood between us and was
gracious to us:
*
Formerly Um-napistim was a human being,
Henceforth let Um-napistim and his wife be regarded as we
gods ourselves, and
Let Um-napistim dwell afar at the mouths of the rivers.'
They took me and caused me to dwell afar at the mouths oi
the rivers.
Now, as to thyself whom the gods have chosen, and
The life which thou seekest and hast asked for, even thou—
] Go to, inhabit not an enclosed place 6 days and 7 nights ;

As (one who) dwelleth in the midst of his tent,
Something like a breeze bloweth upon him.
Um-napistim said to his wife :
' See, the man who desireth life.
Something like a breeze bloweth upon him.*

56 The Hisforical Deluge,
His wife said to him, to the remote Um-napistim :

'
Invest him, and let the man be transformed.
He hath performed the journey, let him return in peace ;
He hath come forth from the great gate, let him return to
his country.'
The text after this is mutilated and difficult, but it is easy to
see that the ceremonies by which Gilgames became transformed
are given, after which he was cured of the disease from which
he was suffering, and returned, with his companion Ur-Sanabi,
to Erech-Suburi, his city in Babylonia.
Besides the account already given, there was another story of
the Flood, told in the third person, in which the principal
personage is called Atra-khasis (as in line 23 of the reverse
translated), the Xisithrus of the Greeks. Fragments only of this
version exist.
{Translated by
Theg. G. Pinches, M.R.A.S., and specially
revised by him for this Tract.)
Note. — ^This account of the Deluge is given to enable readers

to judge for themselves as to its character in comparison
with the record in Genesis.
-<^'i Present Day Tracts. No. 76. V»-

SPECIAL VOLUME OF PRESENT DAY TRACTS.
(it|-Cl|mtk« lltiIo4<»pliJ4$ «f tli^ "m

Containing Eight Numbers of the Series as under:—"
to No. 7. Christianity and Secularism compared in tfieir influence and Effects,

By the Rev. Professor Blaikie, D.D.
No. 8. Agnosticism: A Doctrine of Despair. By the Rev. Noah Porter.
D.D., LL.D.
No. 17. Modern Materialism. By the late W. F. Wilkinson, M.A.
No. 29, The Philosopiiy of Herbert Spencer Examined. By the Rev. Professoi
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No. 34. Modern Pessimism. By Rev. Professor J. Radford Thomson, M.A.
No. 40. Utilitarianism: An Illogical and Irreligious System of Morals. By
the Rev. Professor J. Radford Thomson, M.A.
No. 47. Augusta Comte and the " Religion of Humanity." By the Rev. Pro-
fessor J. Radford Thomson, M.A.
No. 48. The Ethics of Evolution Examined. By the Rev. Professor James
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*'
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'
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No. 55. Th3 Authenticity of the Four Principal Epistles of 8t. Paul. By F.
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the false theories of rationalistic critics." — Congregational Review,
*'
One of the most timely volumes of this scholarly yet popular series. Each
writer's name is a guarantee for the excellence of these tracts. They discuss the
authorship, authenticity, and credibility of the principal books of the Bible which
. I are assailed by the so-called * Higher Criticism.' . . . Every preacher and Bible
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" This is a selection from the Present Day Tracts series, and a very useful and
'
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SPECIAL VOLUME OF PRESENT DAT TRACTS.
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No. 14. The Rise and Decline of Islam. By Sir William Muir, K.C.S.T.
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I Whoie Duty of Man. By Professor Legge, LL.D.
No. 25. The Zend-Avesta and the Religion of the Parsis. By J. Murray
Mitchell, M.A., LL.D.
No. 33. The Hindu Religion —a Sicetoh and a Contrast. By J. Murray
Mitchell, M.A., LL.D.
No. 46. Buddhism: A Comparison and a Contrast between Buddhism and
Christianity. By Henry Robert Reynolds, D.D.
No. 51. Christianity and Ancient Paganism. By J. M. Mitchell, M.A., LL.D.
PRICE 2/6- THE SEPARATE TRACTS, 4d. EACH.
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]igion.-4,
various essays on the subject which have from time to time appeared in their
series of Present Day Tracts. Students of Christian Evidences should certainly
purchase this invaluable volume." — English Churchman.
" Six of the best of this excellent series of tractates are here collected, giving a
fairly complete treatment of both ancient and modern non-Christian religions.
We cordially commend this excellent little volume to all interested in • com-
parative religion.'" — Educational limes.
" Those who are drawn to this fascinating subject will here find the best results
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the gloiious truths which are so strangely mixed with their errors — we must not
'
forget that Christ has taught us to apply the true touchstone : By their fruits
ye shall know them.'"— London Quarterly Review.
**
A highly valuable compendium of information on the non-Christian religions
of the world, which will be invaluable to students and exceedingly useful to
teachers of Christian Evidence classes. The subject of comparative religion is at
the present moment assuming an importance never attained before. In this
volume the subject is presented to the reader in a popular form, and is brought
within the comprehension of ordinary intellectual capacity. We are amazed at
the amount of information which is crowded into the six tracts which make up
the volume before us. The Tracts are all written by competent men, who, by
the special character of their studies, have become authorities on the subjects on
which they wTiie.'"—,\,ethodist Times.
•*
It will be found very useful to the Christian student of Comparative Religion.
While the various writers concede the modictim of good that may be found in
each religion, they have no difficulty in showing how morally defective and in-
tellectually unsatisfyiuj^ all of them are, and how immeasurably inferior to the
(Christian Mth."— Christian World.
FOURTH SPECIAL TOLUHB OF PBE8ENT DAT TRACTS
Containing Eight Numbers of the Series as under i —
No 13. The Age and Origin of Man Geologically Considered. By S. R.

Pattison, Esq., F.G.S., and Dr. Friedrich Pfapf.
No. 9. The Antiquity of Man Historically Considered. By the Rev. Canon
Rawlinson, M.A.
m No. 39. Man Physiologically Considered.
M.D., F.R.S.
By A. Macalister, Esq., M.A..
No. 30. Man not a Machine but a Responsible Free Agent. By the Rev.
Prebendary Row, M.A.
No. 12. The Witness of Man's Moral Nature to Christianity. By the Rev. J.
Radford Thomson, M.A.
No. 31. The Adaptation of the Bible to the Needs and Nature of Man.
By the Rev. W. G. Blaikie, D.D., LL.D.
No. 42. Points of Contact between Revelation and Natural Science. By Sir
J. William Dawson, F.R.S.
No. 52. Christ and Creation: A Two-Sided Quest. By the Rev. W. S.
Lewis, M.A.
Price 38. 6d., Grown Svo., cloth boards.
"In the study of these Tracts the reader will find fresh assurance that
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at the variety of lines of evidence that converge in one conclusion."
Evangelical Magazine.
"1'Many of the so-called scientific questionings of to-day are here well and
briefly
answered. "—Christian.
*'
Itis a volume which cannot be too widely known, and is likely to prove an
important barrier to the inroads of false doctrine, heresy, and infidelity."
English Churchman.
"Nothing could be better than this collection of Tracts vindicating the
statements of Revelation on the subject of man, and offering reliable arguments
wherewith to meet prevalent objections. This distinctly valuable volume is
calculated to prove of the greatest service to earnest inquirers, and to those who
wish to have the Christian side put before them succinctly, and yet with
sufficient fulness to afford a firm grasp of the arguments in support of reveeded
truth."— '//»6 Rock.
'*
r
The issue, in view of the negative aspects of modem thought, is altogether
wise and timely."— flapf/sf Magazine.
*'The R.T.S. have gathered up eight of their always valuable Present Day
Tracts on Man, his age, origin, moral nature, and needs, and published them
under the common title of Man in Rdation to the Bible and Christianitv. Hie
ti<le is a happy one, and the volume should be extremely useful just now.
Record,
London: The Religious Tract Society, 66, Paternoster Row.

PRESENT DAY TRACTS.
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Day. By the Rev. Principal CAirns, in their Influence and Effects. By W.
t;.D., LL.D. G. Blaikie, d.d.
2 the Historical Evidence of the Resur- 8 Agnosticism: a Doctrine of Despair.
rection of yesus ChriitJrotH the Dead. By the Rev. Noah Porter, d.d.
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ModemExpianaiions of It. By the Rev. to Christianity. By the Rev. J. Radford
Principal Cairns, d.d., lud. Thomson, m.a.
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Consideted. By S. R. Pattison, Rev. Henry Wage, b.d., d.d.
Esq., F.G.S., and Dr. Frieorich Pfapp.
17 Modern Materialism. By the late
14 Rise and Decline of Islam. By Sir Rev. W. F. Wilkinson, m.a.
William Muir, k.c.s.i., d.c.l.
IS Christianity and Confucianism Com-
16 Mosaic Authorship and Credibility of pared in their Teaching of the Whole
the Pentateuch. By Dean of Canterbury. Duty of Man. By Jambs Lbggb, ll.i>.
PRESENT DAY TRACTS,
VOLUMB 4 oontAlnt:
19 Ohrlstlanlty ! as History, Doctrine, 22 Unity of the Character of the Christ

and Lift. By Rev. NoahPortbr, d.d. of iht Goipeli, a proof of tit Historical
Rtality. By Rev. Prebendary Row, m.a
20 Tho Religious Teaohlngs of the Sub- 23 The vitality of the Bible.
Um* and Btauiiful in Nature. By Rev.
By Rev.
W. G. BlAIKIB, D.D., LL.D.
Canon Rawmnson, m.a.
24 Evidential Conclusions from the
21 Ernest Renan and His Criticism of Four Grtater Epistles of St, Paul. By
CMtt. By Rev. W. G. Elmslib, m.A. the Dean of Chester.
VOZiUMB 5 oontalni: VOIiUMX 6 oontalni!

26 Ihe Zend-Avesta and the Religion 31 The Adaptation of the Bible to the
o/theParsis. By J. Murray Mitchblli Needs and Nature of Man. By the
M.A., LUD. Rev. W. G. Blaikib, d.d., ll.i>.
26 The Authorship of the Fourth Gospel. 32 The witness of Ancient Monuments
By F. GoDBT, D.D., Neufchatel. to the Old Testament Scriptures. By
A. H. SAvcb, M.A.. Oxford.
27 Present State of the Christian Argu-
ment from Prophecy. By the Rev. 33 The Hindu Religion. By J. M.
Principal Cairns, d.d., ll.d. Mitchell, m.a., ll.d.
28 Origin of the Hebrew Religion. By 34 Modern Pessimism. By the Rev. J.
EusTACB R. Condbr, m.a., d.d. Radford Thomson, m.a.
29 The Philosophy of Mr. Herbert 35 The Divinity of our Lord in Relation
spencer Examined. By the Rev. Jambs to His IVoth of Atonement. By Rbv.
IVBRACH, M.A. William Arthur.
30 Man not a Machine, but a Respon- 36 The Lord's Supper an Abiding Wit-
sible Free Agent. By the Rev. Pre- ness to the Death of Christ. By Sir
bendary Row, M.A. W. MuiR, K.C.S.I., etc.
SECOND SERIES.
VOIiUMB 7 oontalns: VOIiUMl] 8 contain n:
37 The Christ of the Gospels. A Re- 48 The Claim of Christ on the Conscience*
ligious study. By Dr. Henri Meyer. By Rev. William Stevenson, m.a.
38 Ferdinand Christian Baur, and his 44 The Doctrine of the Atonement
Theory of the Origin of Christianity Historically and Scripturally Ex'
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Rev. A. B. Bruce, d.d.
45 The Resurrection of Jesus Christ in
39 Man, Physiologically Considered' its Historical, Doctrinal, Morale and
By A. Macalister, m.a., m.d., f.r.s> spiritual Aspects. By the Rev. R,
Professor of Anatomy, Cambridge. McCheyn^-: li,u M.A.
40 Utilitarianism: An illogical and 46 Buddi^ftem: A Comparison and a

Irreligious Theory of Morals. By Rev. i between Bn *dhism and Chris- V
%
J. Radford Thomson, m.a. I .y. By the R Henry Robert
E. VNOLDS, D.D.
41 Historical Illustrations of the New
Testament Scriptures. By the Rev. G. 47 Augusle C ^mte and the "Religion
F. Maclear, d.d. ^ Humanity.^* By the Rev. Rad- J.
ford Thomson, m.a.
42 Points of Contact between Revelation
and Natural Science. By Sir J. Wil- 48 The Ethics of Evolution Examined.
liam Dawson, ll.d., F.R.a. By Rev. J. Ivbrach, m.a.
\
•\
V
PRESENT DAY TRACTS.
VOLUME contains:
9
49 /» ih% Evolution of Christianity from 52 Christ and Creation: Two-sided
a
Mere Natural Sources Credibiei Ly Quest. By Rev. W. S. Lewis, m.a.
the Rev. John Cairns, d.d.
53 The Present Conflict with Unbelief.
60 The Day of Rest In Relation to the Survey ntui a Forecast. Bjr Rev.
J.
IVoridthnt how it and that which is to Kelly, Editor of /'fVMM/ Day Trasts.
cotne. By Sir J. Wm. Dawson, p.k.s.
The Evidential Value the Obser-
of
54
61 Christianity and Ancient Paganism vance 0/ the Lord's Day. By the Rev,
By MunnAV Mitchell, m.a., ll.d. G. I'". Macleak, u.u.
J'.
VOLUME 10 contains:
65 The Authenticity the Four Prin- Family: Its Scriptural Ideal
of
58 The
cipal Epistlis of St. Paul. By Rev. and its Modem Assailants. By Prof.
F. GODET, D.D. W. G. BlaIKIB, D.D., LL.D.
By
56 Moral DIfflcuItU ofthe Old Testa- 59 Socialism and Christianity. the
.
ment Scriptures. By Rev. Eustac Rev. M. Kaupmann, m.a., Author of

**
R. COMDBR, D.U. Socialism its Nature, tts Dangers,
:
and its Remedies considered," etc.
Faith. A Proof of
of
67 Unity the
Divine Origin and Preservation c/ 60 The Age and Trustworthiness of the
Christianity. By the Rev. John Old Testament Scriptutes. By R,
Stoughton, d.d. B. GiRni.KsroNE, m.a.
VOLUME 11 contains:
61 Argument for Christianity from the 64 The Psalms compared with the
Experience of Christians. By the Rev. Hymns of Different Religions an Evi-
Principal Caikns, d.d. dence of Inspiration. By Rev. Dr
Altruism,
Blaikie.
62 Egoism^ and Christian
By Rev. M. Kaup- 65 The Origin Life and Consciousness.
of
hudaimonism.
mann, M.A. By Rev. Chas. ChApman, m.a., ll.d.
63 The Two Geologies Contrast and 66 The Influence the Christian Re-
of
a
:
a Ccmparison. Bv Rev. W. S. Lewis, ligion in Nistory. By T. E. Slater,

London Missionary Society.
VOLUME 12 contains:
67 Testimonies of Gre.at to the 70 The Problem Human Suffering

In
Men
of
Bible and Christianity. By John the Light of Christianiti. By Rev.

Murdoch, ll.d. T. tekling Berry, d.d.
S
68 Theology an Inductive and Pro- The 'Psalms David' and Modern

of
71
a
gressive Science. By Rev. Joseph Criticism. By Rev. Samuel G.

Angus, m.a d.d. Green, d.d.
,
69 Modern Scepticism compared with 72 Christ's Doctrine Prayer. By

of
Christian Faith. I'.y Uev. M. lLAU«r. Rev. R. McChevnh Edgar, m.a..

MANN, M.A.
■r
■■
ifefC.^
■»
4
»
i
ii
m -
PRESS NOTICES
OF THE
"
MOST RECENT NUMBERS OF THE PRESENT DAY TRACTS.'
No. 72. Christ's Doctrine of Prayer, By the Rev. R. McCheyne
Edgar, M.A., D.D. 4d.
"The great feature of Dr. Edgar's little work is the admirable method
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suggestive." — Record.
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Cornwall Gazette.
" Chrises Doctrine
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of the day, it is necessarily argumentative and philosophical. . . . We
cordially commend its study.'' — \Nord and Work.
No. 73. Li/e and Dnmortaiity brought to Light by Christ. By the

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"A most able and comprehensive little tieatise, clear and lucid in its
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bulky works. It is instructive and evidential in substance, plain and un-
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No. 74. Heredity and Personal Responsibility. By the Rev. M.

Kaufmann, M.A. 4d.
**The Tract is both valuable and timely."— -lo/Jflfow Quarterly Review.
*'
Mr. Kaufmann does not appear for the first time in this very useful and
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work. That he knows the literature of his subject goes without saying. , . .
The pamphlet is distinctly helpful." — Record.
"One of the ablest and most notable of an able and notable series of
tracts. . . . Mr. Kaufmann has compressed into the very narrow space
.1
at his disposal a lucid and closely- reasoned case, and he supports his
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Herbert Spencer, Martineau, Zola, and other writers." — Birmingham Gazette.
" It is an able essay, and the aim is thus summarised by the author :
'Granted heredity, responsibility is not destroyed, because in the interior
forces which regulate a man's life there is enough to counteract inborn
' "
tendencies, and the grace of God is svifficient to conquer them. — Christian.
London : The Religious Tract Society, 56 Paternoster Row.

\
PRESS NOTICES
OF THE
"
MOST RECENT NUMBERS OF THE PRESENT DAY TRACTS."
No. 69. Modern Scepticism Compared with Christian Faith, By

the Rev. M. Kaufmann, M.A. 4d.
" One
of the most interesting of the series of Present Day Tracts ....
In general ability, and in the skill with which it presses modern literature
into the service of the aiûment, the present Tract is certainly inferior to
none of its predecessors, so far as they have come beneath our notice.'*
Record.
"Aforcible appeal to sceptics. The charm of this little book is the
sweetness of its spirit. Instead of denouncing the doubter it pleads with him
on the ground that a ' convinced doubter makes the best believer.' Let it be
scattered broadcast among young men.' — Baptist.
"The Tract is ...
up to date, and skilful in dealing with the data
furnished by the modem infidelity which saturates popular literature. It
cannot fail to command respect, even from opponents." — Rook,
No. 70. The Problem of Human Suffering in the Light of Chris-

tianity, By the Rev. T. Sterling Berry, D.D. 4d.
" To
say that it is quite worthy of the series is to give it the highest com*
mendation ; for former issues have been of priceless value. We wish that
every minister, teacher, and church member would read these sterling pam-
phlets. They would utterly nullify the fashionable infidelity that thinks itself
to have the monopoly of brains to-day. Worth many times its nominal cost ;
indeed, cannot be valued in silver and gold." — Ylord and Work.
'*This Tract is at once a splendid apologetic for the doubter and a healing
balm for the sorrowing. It is as clear in stating the difficulty as in ex-
plaining it. Its reasoning is sound, and its philosophy is Christian and
jfiumanitarian." — The Rock.
'*
Dr. Berry shows, in his lucid manner, that neither in the teaching of
Buddha or of Zeno of old, nor yet in the teaching of the modern Pessimist is
found any satisfactory solution of this difficult problem, but that a solution
can be found in the light of Christianity only." — Sheffield Independent.
No. 71. The *'
Psalms of David" and Modern Criticism, By the
Rev. Samuel G. Green, D.D. 4d.
**We commend this little work to our young friends. All our ministers
ought to read it. It is time some check was put to the fashionable guarded
eulogies on the higher criticism uttered in ignorance of what it really is.
Most heartily do we thank Dr. Green, not only for the work, but because he
has so condensed the instruction that it could be published in a cheap form."
Freeman,
" This
Tract, short as it
is,
very complete and exhaustive argument in

is
a
favour of the Davidic authorship of the Psalms. The argument slated in

is
.
.
clear and telling manner. The references to authorities are many. It

a a
is
fine apologetic." — Rock.

PRESENT DAY TRACTS.
No. 72. Christ's Doctrine of Prayer. By the Rev. R. McCheyne

Edgar, M.A., D.D. 4d.
" The great feature of Dr. Edgar's little work is the admirable method
which he has adopted. . , . The whole argument is thoughtful and
suggestive." — Record. ..,
" The book is done so well, the argument is so cogent, an^*rofcv^yle so
clear, that it can hardly fail to be one of the most useful of the seritB."
Cornwall Gazette.
" Christ's Doctrine
of Prayer is a fine contribution to the study of this
weighty topic. Written with a view to meet and refute the cultured scepticism
of the day, it is necessarily argumentative and philosophical. . • . We
cordially commend its study.'' — Word and Work.
No. 73. Life and Immortality brought to Light by Christ. By the

Rev. W. Wright, D.D. 4d.
"A most able and comprehensive little treatise, clear and lucid in its
reasoning upon the question of the resurrection. Every doubter should have
a copy placed in his hands." — Baptist.
**
Succinct and pointed, this essay illustrates doctrine by history, and sets
forth in brief the sure warrant of the Christian faith. This little book of
sixty-four pages is calculated to do much more effective service against
agnosticism and other forms of unbelief than are many more pretentious and
bulky works. It is instructive and evidential in substance, plain and un-
technical in style, and eminently loyal to Holy Writ." — Christian,
" Dr. Wright's Tract is a worthy addition to the Present Day Tracts. His
account of the admissions of modern science, as represented by its most
authoritative expounders, and of the ideas regarding the future prevalent in
the ancient heathen world is clear and valuable." — Presbyterian.
No. 74. Heredity and Personal Responsibility. By the Rev. M.

Kaufmann, M.A. 4d.
**The Tract is both valuable and timely."— ionflfo/7 Quarterly Review.
" Mr. Kaufmann does not appear for the first time in this very useful and
practical series, and his present effort is true to the character of his previous
work. That he knows the literature of his subject goes without saying. , . .
The pamphlet is distinctly helpful." — Record.
"One of the ablest and most notable of an able and notable series of
tracts. . . . Mr. "Kaufmann has compressed into the very narrow space
at his disposal a lucid and closely-reasoned case, and he supports his
argument by a critical examination of the works of Darwin, Weismann,
Herbert Spencer, Martineau, Zola, and other wrhers."— Birmingham Gazette.
" It is an able essay, and the aim is thus summarised by the author :
'Granted heredity, responsibility is not destroyed, because in the interior
forces which regulate a man's life there is enough to counteract inborn
tendencies, and the grace of God is sufficient to conquer them.'" — Christian.
London : The Religious Tract Society, 56 Paternoster Row.
KinVARD KNIGHT, IKINTBR,] (;tlILDLE S'lhEET, LONDON, li.C

^cCheyne
■«
>
able method
)ughtful and
•î^yle so
eri«B.':
// Gazette.
study of this
...
ed scepticism
We
7J/. By the
d lucid in its
;r should have
itory, and sets

little book of
lervice against
Dretentious and
plain and un-
an.
lyTracts. His
ed by its most
re prevalent in
n.
r the Rev. M.
Vy Review.
i very useful and
of his previous
5Ut saying. . . •
lotable series of
ry narrow space
he supports his
win, Weismann,
lingham Gazette.
[ by the author
:
e in the interior
;ounteract inborn
n.'''— Christian.
LNOSTER Row.
S'lhEET, LONUON, lit^'

The Historical Deluge in Relation To Scientific Discovery - 1888

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The historical deluge in its relation to scientific discovery and to

present questions by Sir J. William Dawson.

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AND TO Present Questions

SIR J. WILLIAM DAWSON, C.M.G, LL.D,,

'The Chain of Life in Geological Time;' 'The Story of the Earth

IN Bible Lands ; ' ' The Meeting-Place of Geoloot /

THE RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY:

The narrativeof the Deluge in Genesis has recently been

present and the future, as stated in the New Testament, v3

seem to be in danger The time

THE HISTORICAL DELUGE.

[he Deluge of Noah is to tlie student of M

character. Perhaps its importance in this respect

i of the cosmos by water in comparison with an

* Matt. xxiv. 37; Luke xviL 26.

In its physical aspect it has close connectioDs

torical event, ancient or modern, can be more firmly

even a certain animus against religion and revela*

(2) The parallel statements of secular history

(3) The recent discoveries of antediluvian re-

(4) The spiritual teaching of the deluge for

The Biblical Narrative.

of the reading those chapters Genesis which

of any mythical or imaginative complexion.

obviously document intended for simple and

primitive people conversant with nature rather than

impressed with the conviction of the existence of

just and careful Ruler of the universe, and

earnestly on the side of truth and righteousness.

so clear and accurate a manner, even to the time

which we shall refer in the sequel, purport to give

ready in the pride of our modern material wisdom

used, they may have prevented farther moral

elements of humanity would survive. Such a

must bear m mind, however, that these causes are P® s'^eat

not presented to us as the results of any scientific of^theK.

broken up, the chimneys or hatches of the sky were

Now in the Bible, from Genesis onward, the

ocean from which the dry land was raised, and

Creator, and are restrained His decree. Ac-

cording to the Bible, it is the dry land that is the

This at once removes Noah's flood from the cate-

a roof, which might be either a chimney or a

assigned.^ There however, reason to doubt this.

heaven applied to volcanic orifices, and

volcanic action. The expression may also refer to

"Western America, which often accompany great

selves not unlikely accompaniments of rapid sub- «°^*"^^e'^