the order of birds. 5. Another in the order of beasts (v. 24,
25). 6. Last of all, man (v. 26, 27).

Mr. Gladstone then tries to find the proof of the occurrence of a
similar succession in sundry excellent works on geology.

I am really grieved to be obliged to say that this third (or is it
fourth?) modification of the foundation of the "plea for revelation"
originally set forth, satisfies me as little as any of its predecessors.

For, in the first place, I cannot accept the assertion that this order
is to be found in Genesis. With respect to No. 5, for example, I hold,
as I have already said, that "great sea monsters" includes the Cetacea,
in which case mammals (which is what, I suppose, Mr. Gladstone means by
"beasts") come in under head No. 3, and not under No. 5. Again, "fowl"
are said in Genesis to be created on the same day as fishes; therefore
I cannot accept an order which makes birds succeed fishes. Once more,
as it is quite certain that the term "fowl" includes the bats,--for in
Leviticus xi. 13-19 we read, "And these shall ye have in abomination
among the fowls... the heron after its kind, and the hoopoe, and the
bat,"--it is obvious that bats are also said to have been created at
stage No. 3. And as bats are mammals, and their existence obviously
presupposes that of terrestrial "beasts," it is quite clear that the
latter could not have first appeared as No. 5. I need not repeat my
reasons for doubting whether man came "last of all."

As the latter half of Mr. Gladstone's sixfold order thus shows itself to
be wholly unauthorised by, and inconsistent with, the plain language
of the Pentateuch, I might decline to discuss the admissibility of its
former half.

But I will add one or two remarks on this point also. Does Mr. Gladstone
mean to say that in any of the works he has cited, or indeed anywhere
else, he can find scientific warranty for the assertion that there was a
period of land--by which I suppose he means dry land (for submerged land
must needs be as old as the separate existence of the sea)--"anterior to
all life?"

It may be so, or it may not be so; but where is the evidence which would
justify any one in making a positive assertion on the subject? What
competent palaeontologist will affirm, at this present moment, that he
knows anything about the period at which life originated, or will
assert more than the extreme probability that such origin was a long
way antecedent to any traces of life at