Volume - The Clarence Darrow Collection

SUMMARY. 205
ers who appear now and then upon the horizon, making at-
"
the
tempts to defend some subtle method of " reconciling-
Babel myth with modern science.
Just after the middle of the nineteenth century the last
stage of theological defence was evidently reached the same
which is seen in the history of almost every science after it
has successfully fought its way through the theological period
the declaration which we have already seen foreshadowed
by Wiseman, that the scientific discoveries in question
are nothing new, but have really always been known and
'held by the Church, and that they simply substantiate the
position taken by the Church. This new contention, which
always betokens the last gasp of theological resistance to
science, was now echoed from land to land. In 1856 it was
given forth by a divine of the Anglican Church, Archdeacon
Pratt, of Calcutta. He gives a long list of eminent philolo-
gists who had done most to destroy the old supernatural
view of language, reads into their utterances his own wishes,
'md then exclaims, " So singularly do their labours confirm
he literal truth of Scripture."
Two years later this contention was echoed from the
\merican Presbyterian Church, and Dr. B. W. D wight, hav-
ng stigmatized as " infidels " those who had not incorpoated
into their science the literal acceptance of Hebrew
sgend, declared that "chronology, ethnography, and etylology
have all been tortured in vain to make them conradict
the Mosaic account of the early history of man."
'welve years later this was re-echoed from England. The
Lev. Dr. Baylee, Principal of the College of St. Aidan's, de-
tared, "With regard to the varieties of human language,
le account of the confusion of is tongues receiving daily
Dnfirmation by all the recent discoveries in comparative
hilology." So, too, in the same year (1870), in the United
resbyterian Church of Scotland, Dr. John Eadie, Professor
Biblical Literature and Exegesis, declared, " Comparative
has established the miracle of Babel."
.jiilology
skill in theology and casuistry so exquisite as to con-
{ A
ive such assertions, and a faith so robust as to accept them,
;rtainly leave nothing to be desired. But how baseless
ese contentions are is shown, first, by the simple history of