The New York herald., 1876-01-31

pvuoSsss' ,no, 49,, .Agish lord might not understand
grain heap the As. 5ushol gives % greater r. depth than
sne o centre OF the pile, the annual
uoMn ~ winter torrent is not the In
,ne up ~ in the lower stratum. Practical
tnn have followed up tho logic OF such calcula
tons and have felt that the ''imag gnation" is not
aN az ,ays the test Of 'actual and proved knowledge
ne same suggestion as 10 the Kent comes at
cDce TO the thought OF one accustomed 10 thread
American as well as European caves, and to observe
the law OF accumulation stalactite and salagmite
The lower part OF the staagme is OF course the place
where the dripping water and its limestone solution
rest and form deposit; and there the arrow heads,
Of course, are found buried The inscription the
other hand upon the side Of the staactte is cut whero
the accumulation Is always slowest and is finally
almost arrested by the enlargng surface over which
the dripping Is ditfused.
Mr. C0nways scientific method Is secondly applied to
the chronology OF the Old Testament. the history OF
which he does not trace Shortly after the issue of
King James version of the Old and New Testaments
Archbishop Usher carefully collated the mention OF
years running through the Old Testament history; In
1904 he published his "Chronologa Sacra and soon its
deductions inserted in the received version. Sub
sequeDtly the suggestion at later day elaborated by
Hales that the dates as changed by the Greek trans
lators under the Ptolemies, and in part adopted by
Josephus under the Caesars into competition
with "Usher's Chronology drawn from the Hebrew
originals. About century after Usher when he had
completed his 'PrncIpa,n Sir Isaac Newton devoted
thirty years to the study of chronology regarding this
because OF its moral Importance the great work OF his
life With patience greater than his years OF math
ematical calculations for the principal had required
he went over all known history Of eclpses and other
In European histories fixing specially upon
the eclipse calculated by Thales during the
Persian war on the Greek coonists in
OF Hebrew manuscripts kept separate since Christs
day among Christians and Jews the demonstrated fact
that tho chronology OF the Hebrew original as distinct
from the Greek translation, must be accepted as his
toric, and thus he sustained Usher's chronology OF
the Mosaic history and confirmed and modified in the
less distinct statements OF later Hebrew historians
His work. dedicated in a spirit that marks the good
and great just before his DEATH appeared in IT'S
laf nnhA fhn xyiGin nfI md
as his mathematical calcuators the brothers OF an
tire convent OF Benedictine monks, with Clement as
their head, calculated for the great astronomer all the
ecpses Of the sun and moon that must have occurred
back to b. G. 1000 After completing their work for
science they applied 1t to Bible chronology, and in
thirty-three octave volumes their work, entitled
"LArt pour Veriher des Dates des Fats Hstoriques"
was published in Paris in 1919 They 'verihed,
as their title indicated, Newtons latter work,
as did their scientific master, La Place,
his former work. At this same era Egyptian expora-
tion begun under Napoleon and conducted by Cham
polhon and Roselini, was exciting attention. One of
the abes coaters well as explorers Sir Gardner
Wilkinson, whose five large volumes appeared in lS47,
one point of which labor was careful and logical verl
hcation of 'Newtons Chronology In l846 and 1S47
Lepslus explorer and Bunsen a historian be-
gan the study of chronology revealed by the monu-
ments Of Egypt In ls4S before his data dgested
Bunsen published the first of series of volumes the
last OF which did not appear till 1861 The hasty pos
tulates OF his hrst volumebegnning with The express
sion, 1.-The scientific assumptions and views with
which set out-Bunsen regretted before his labor OF
twenty years completed; for he was led TO these
conclusons First, all the dates of Hebrew
chronology back TO Solomon, as verified by Clement
were indisputaby confirmed Second Noses was
reliable and the only reliable historian of the early
date at which he wrote for he says History was born
In that night when Moses moral and spiritual IN his
heart went out of Egypt;n and, he adds, There Is
nothing certain than the historical character Of
the sketch which has been preserved in the Bible taken
in its general leading features Third the period Of
historic is ust that fixed by Moses about L. 900
years before Christ; for he says, 1.-THE conventional
epoch OF 600 years before Christ as the begnnng of
human existence happens to be with approximate
curacy, the starting point of chronological history
Thus, by direct argument Bunsen confirms the Bible
chronology In two points he maintains by indirect
reasoning Independent views. First he contends that
there may have been prehistoric men, which
question: question ma has to DO with ira,o the point
in which poetic rather than scientific imagination
has play. Second Bunsens reading OF The Tablets of
Egyptian with Hebrew history from Abraham to Moses
differing from that of Wilkinson; difference which
led Wilkinson to return to Egypt and to reanirm with
new proofs his former confirmation of the Hebrew
chronology, his work appearing in 1857.
Mr.. Conway's third application oil this principle is an
allusion to the theory Of evolution as deveopedby
Darwin and Huxley. Here Mr.. Conway's candor and
care as religious teacher must secure for him the
esteem of those who differ from him most widely
the second point noted. He is emphatic in his ap
proval OF Mr.. Huxley for his caution IN committing
himself to the theory Of Spontaneous genera
ton" Had Mr.. Darwin been equally cautious
the logical convictions of class OF reasoners
from Menu, the Brahmin, Socrates, the Greek
Clccro, the Roman, down to Agassz, would not have
been called out in direct dsproof of this theory The
admirable classification OF Darwin coupled with the
OF Dis reasoning. as met oy tne
whole line of just named, does not come Ihere-
fore, into the field OF this review.
Ii must be matter of congratulaton to all earnest
religious teachers that the fundamental truth OF natu
raj religion, the existence OF personal Creator to
whom men are morally responsible is left untouched
by Mr Huxley as the exponent OF English science in
its relation TO religion presented by Mr.. Conway. Per-
haps the day is near when the fundamental truth in
revealed religion for whose verihcaton Newton spent
his last days will be also admitted TO DO scientific.
NEW YORK, January, 1876 G. W. SAMSON.