libraries, readers and writers; that schools existed in which all
the arts and sciences of the day were taught, and that even a
postal service had been organized from one end of Western Asia to
the other. The world into which the Hebrew patriarchs were born,
and of which the book of Genesis tells us, was permeated with a
literary culture whose roots went back to an antiquity of which,
but a short time ago, we could not have dreamed. There were books
in Egypt and Babylonia long before the Pentateuch was written;
the Mosaic age was in fact an age of a widely extended literary
activity, and the Pentateuch was one of the latest fruits of long
centuries of literary growth."

There is no doubt that these discoveries of modern times have
been a distinct gain to Christianity, as well as to the older
Hebrew literature, for it confirms (if confirmation is needed),
the history of the creation, to find it was believed by the
ancient peoples, whom we have seen were a learned and cultivated
race.

In the present day the great College of St. Etienne in Jerusalem,
founded by the Dominicans expressly for the study of the
Scriptures, carries on a never ending and widely extended perusal
of the subject. Parties of students are taken over the Holy
Places to study the inscriptions and evidences of Christianity,
and the most learned and brilliant members of the Order are
engaged in research and study that fits them to combat the errors
of the Higher Criticism. Their work, which is of a very superior
order, has attracted attention among scholars of every country in
Europe.