A similar criticism applies to Mr. Gladstone's assumption that, as the fourth act of that "orderly succession of times" enunciated in Genesis, "the land-population consummated in man."
If this means simply that man is the final term in the evolutional series of which he forms a part, I do not suppose that any objection will be raised to that statement on the part of students of natural science. But if the pentateuchal author goes further than this, and intends to say that which is ascribed to him by { 88} Mr. Gladstone, I think natural science will have to enter a _caveat_. It is by not any means certain that man--I mean the species _Homo sapiens_ of zoological terminology--has "consummated" the land-population in the sense of appearing at a later period of time than any other. Let me make my meaning clear by an example. From a morphological point of view, our beautiful and useful contemporary--I might almost call him colleague--the horse (_Equus caballus_), is the last term of the evolutional series to which he belongs, just as _Homo sapiens_ is the last term of the series of which he is a member. If I want to know whether the species _Equus caballus_ made its appearance on the surface of the globe before or after _Homo sapiens_, deduction from known laws does not help me. There is no reason, that I know of, why one should have appeared sooner or later than the other. If I turn to observation, I find abundant remains of _Equus caballus_ in Quaternary strata, perhaps a little earlier. The existence of _Homo sapiens_ in the Quaternary epoch is also certain. Evidence has been adduced in favour of man's existence in the Pliocene, or even in the Miocene epoch. It does not satisfy me; but I have no reason to doubt that the fact may be so, nevertheless. Indeed, I think it is quite possible that further research will show that _Homo sapiens_ existed, not only before _Equus caballus_, but before many other of the existing forms of animal life; so that, if all the species of animals have been separately created, man, in this case, would by no means be the "consummation" of the land-population. { 89}
I am raising no objection to the position of the fourth term in Mr. Gladstone's "order"--on the facts, as they stand, it is quite open to any one to hold, as a pious opinion, that the fabrication of man was the acme and final achievement of the process of peopling the globe. But it must not be said that natural science counts this opinion among her "demonstrated conclusions and established facts," for there would be just as much, or as little, reason for ranging the contrary opinion among them.