So far as I can see, there is only one resource left for those
modern representatives of Sisyphus, the reconcilers of Genesis
with science; and it has the advantage of being founded on a
perfectly legitimate appeal to our ignorance. It has been seen
that, on any interpretation of the terms water-population and
land-population, it must be admitted that invertebrate
representatives of these populations existed during the lower
Palaeozoic epoch. No evolutionist can hesitate to admit that
other land animals (and possibly vertebrates among them) may
have existed during that time, of the history of which we know
so little; and, further, that scorpions are animals of such high
organisation that it is highly probable their existence
indicates that of a long antecedent land-population of a
similar character.

Then, since the land-population is said not to have been created
until the sixth day, it necessarily follows that the evidence of
the order in which animals appeared must be sought in the record
of those older Palaeozoic times in which only traces of the
water-population have as yet been discovered.

Therefore, if any one chooses to say that the creative work took
place in the Cambrian or Laurentian epoch, in exactly that
manner which Mr. Gladstone does, and natural science does not,
affirm, natural science is not in a position to disprove the
accuracy of the statement. Only one cannot have one's cake and
eat it too, and such safety from the contradiction of science
means the forfeiture of her support.