Narrative by Plato. 253 this universe may be truly universal, do ye, according to your natures, betake yourselves to the formation of animals, imitating the power which I showed in creating you.1 . . . They imitating Him, received from Him the immortal principle of the soul; and around this they fashioned a mortal body, and made the whole body to be a vehicle of the soul, and constructed within a soul of another nature which was mortal, subject to terrible and irresistible affections.2. . . A brief mention may be made of the generation of other animals, but there is no need to dwell upon them at length. . . . Of the men who came into the world, those who are cowards or have led unjust lives, may be fairly supposed to change into the nature of women in the second generation. . . . Thus were created women and the female sex in general. But the race of birds was created out of innocent, light-minded men, who, although their thoughts were directed towards heaven, imagined, in their simplicity, that the clearest demonstration of the things above was to be obtained by sight; these were turned into birds, and they grew feathers instead of hair. The race of wild pedestrian animals again came from those who had no philosophy in all their thoughts, and never considered at all about the nature of the heavens. In consequence of these habits of theirs they had their fore legs and heads trailing upon the earth to which they were akin; and they had also the crown of their heads oblong, and in all sorts of curious shapes, in which the courses of the soul were com. pressed by reason of disuse. And this was the reason why quadrupeds and polypods were created. . . . And the most foolish of them who trailed their bodies entirely upon the ground and have no longer any need of feet, He made without feet to crawl upon the earth. The fourth class were the inhabitants of the water: these were made out of the most entirely ignorant and senseless of beings, whom the transformers did not think any longer worthy of pure respiration, because they possessed a soul which was made impure by all sorts of transgression, . . . hence arose the race of fishes and oysters, and other aquatic animals, which have received the "Timæus," pp. 534, 535, sect. 42. 2 Ibid. p. 563, sect. 70. most remote habitations as a punishment of their extreme ignorance." 1 We have not taken that which Mr. Jowett rightly calls "obscure and repulsive," but the simplest and best. If any man can find in Plato or Aristotle, amongst Greeks or Romans, in old Egyptian or Sanscrit literature, any account of creation worthy to be compared with the Scriptural narrative; brief, yet comprehensive; accurate, yet general; simple, yet growing in meaning and power with the development of science; there may be a show of argument that Moses was wholly taught of other men: but, until that is done, Christians rightly maintain that Moses wrote the Sacred Narrative of creation by Inspiration of God. In any case, a true science existed, which could not have been acquired by any of the modern accurate experimental processes; the existence of this science renders possible the knowledge of many other things, the source of which we cannot trace. Faith not merely begins where science ends, but must accompany science every day in the conduct of life. The death-watch may say of the clock he lives in, "Tick, tick, tick, it is all tick: that is its final cause and purpose; but we are not content with beetle philosophy; nor do we count the screws, levers, pulleys of the world, equivalents of existence. There is a "line between that which is physical and that which is utterly beyond physics. . . . Man has been left to the resources of his intellect for the discovery not merely of physical laws, but of how far he is capable of comprehending them. . . . A revelation of anything which we can discover for ourselves, by studying the ordinary course of Nature, would be an absurdity."2 Truly so, but a revelation of that which, otherwise, would remain for ever unknown, is a benefit indeed; and when we find that the philosophical systems of Germany, apart from Scripture, though wonderful efforts of human reason, have not added one tittle to our positive religious knowledge; no, not even by saying "There is a God;" we thank God for the Bible. Men who purpose henceforth to do without God tell us― 1 46 Timæus," pp. 584, 585, sect. 90, 91, 92, Jowett's translation. "Those who can read the signs of the times read in them that the kingdom of man is at hand."1 We have a parable for these readers-An ancient king, like-minded, said—“I saw a tree in the midst of the earth . . . the tree grew, and was strong, and the height thereof reached unto heaven, and the sight thereof to the end of all the earth: the leaves thereof were fair, and the fruit thereof much, and in it was meat for all the beasts of the field had shadow under it, and the fowls of the heaven dwelt in the boughs thereof, and all flesh was fed of it." The tree was a symbol of the king. He thought, like some modern men, that a human throne, a kingdom of man, would be established; and said to himself "My greatness is grown, it reacheth unto heaven, and my dominion to the end of the earth." What happened? A holy one came down from heaven, and cried aloud-" Hew down the tree, and cut off his branches, shake off his leaves, and scatter his fruit let the beasts get away from under it, and the fowls from his branches." What is the interpretation? At the end of twelve months that king lost his reason, went from among men, and dwelt with the beasts of the field, till his hair grew like eagles' feathers, and his nails like birds' claws (Dan. iv. 10-34). The mystery has further interpretation: when men, to fill up the chasm between civilised and savage man, cast in their religion; and, endeavouring to bridge the abyss separating savage from brute, sink human emotion and intellect to the appetite and instinct-their language and conduct to the howling and herding of beasts; the holy watcher comes among them with the decree of heaven that high intellectual power, the greeting of the spirit, depart from them; and that they be as the beast of the field, until they know that the Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men. A true kingdom of man is coming, long foreseen, long prepared for dominion and glory, the union of all nations under one everlasting sway (Dan. vii. 13, 14). We have evidence of it in the spirit which knits our mind and body into personal identity; in the spirit running, like a thread of continuity, through all our chequered life; and in the song of the herald angels-" Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men of good will." 1 Prof. W. K. Clifford, Nineteenth Century, October, 1877. We are not hindered in our faith by those who say-" Does the song of the herald angels . . . express the exaltation and yearning of a human soul, or does it describe an optical and acoustical fact-a visible host and audible song? If the former, the exaltation and the yearning are man's imperishable possession—a ferment long confined to individuals, but which may by-and-by become the leaven of the earth. If the latter, then belief in the entire transaction is wrecked by nonfulfilment. Look at the East at the present moment as a comment on the promise of peace on earth and good will toward men." The objector does not understand the real meaning of the passage, nor see that the binding up and embalming of all the struggles and searchings of human life, so that "Our deeds still travel with us from afar, And what we have been makes us what we are," afford more marvellous and mysterious indications of life above and beyond that of fishes, reptiles, birds, than do the angel host and heavenly song: that they give the ground of possibility, and furnish evidence as to reality of the angels and their melody. If the exaltation and the yearning are indeed man's imperishable possession, are actions arising out of our inner core, and are real as the life-grouping of particles in creatures of water, earth, sky; then, why doubt concerning those revelations which are as the convex to the concave of human experience, and yield glimpses of that splendid existence, and that peaceful state, which will be a renewal of the earth and an establishment of a Divinely Human dominion? "There are buds that fold within them, Fain to see their shrouded faces, Sun and dew are long at strife, What it shows and what it teaches Are not things wherewith to part." Jean Ingelow. 1 Prof. Tyndall, Address as President of the Midland Institute, Birmingham. Reported in the Times, 2nd October, 1877. STUDY XIV. DAY VI.—CREEPING THING, BEAST, CATTLE. "A little philosophy inclineth men's minds to atheism; but depth in philosophy bringeth men's minds about to religion."-LORD BACON. "Revelation is no theory. Its truth or certainty, as a fact, can only be estimated historically in the same way as other matters of fact."-Introduction to the Science of Religion: PROFESSOR MAX MÜLLER. WE are required by opponents of Scripture to reconcile the erroneous interpretations of friends and the assertions of enemies with the sacred text, to justify unscientific theories of instantaneous creation, and to prove that everything was done without use of means, or of natural laws. We replyThe Divine account reveals an orderly plan and a continuous operation. Physical laws are not an invariable necessity, Supreme Will is behind them. Laws are the expression of that Will: not a capricious intervention, but a wise multiform adjustment of all things in due relation. No reasonable person, unless prepossessed by a theory, after carefully reading the first chapter of Genesis with the light of modern science, can think that elemental atoms were brought into existence by mere command; and, so soon as commanded, flashed into living tissues. No well-informed believer imagines that every plant and animal was separately formed, as by hand-fashioning, out of the dust, or out of nothing, as by magical power. We stand by the statement-" God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature." When Mr. Herbert Spencer1 states-"No one ever saw a special creation: no one ever found proof of an indirect kind that a special creation had taken place"-he ought to know that creation need not be instantaneous, but may be 1 "Principles of Biology," vol. i. p. 336. S |