imperceptible gradations; and geological researches show that
while the existing species of animals are the representatives of
those which lived and died at a period in which we can find no
traces of man, they are not identical with them, but that either
the old species must have died out, and been replaced by a fresh
creation, or a considerable change must have taken place in the
course of ages. These facts are held to be incompatible with the
account of creation given by Moses, and hence it is inferred that
a record, which appears to be so widely at variance with admitted
facts, cannot be entitled to the authority which is claimed for
it, as a fundamental portion of a Revelation made by the Creator
Himself.

This difficulty is sometimes met by the assertion that the Bible
was not given to us to teach us Science, but to convey to us
certain information which was essential to our moral welfare, and
which we could not obtain by any other means; that these
discrepancies do not in any way interfere with that portion of
those truths which is involved in the History of Creation, but
that, however the narrative may be viewed as far as regards its
details, the facts that God is the Creator of all things visible
and invisible, that He is a Being of infinite Wisdom, Power, and
Love, and that He has placed man in a peculiar relation to
Himself, remain unaffected. On this ground it is often urged that
we may pass over scientific inaccuracies as matters of no great
importance.

Theologians are by no means agreed as to the nature and limits of
that inspiration by which Holy Scripture was written. There are
many who think that in matters purely incidental to its main