He proceeds to set aside, _one by one_, as not demonstrative, the indications that it is of later origin: and when other means fail, he says that the particular verses remarked on were added by a later hand! I considered that if we were debating the antiquity of an Irish book, and in one page of it were found an allusion to the Parliamentary Union with England, we should at once regard the whole book, _until the contrary should be proved_, as the work of this century; and not endure the reasoner, who, in order to uphold a theory that it is five centuries old, pronounced that sentence "evidently to be from a later hand." Yet in this arbitrary way Dean Graves and all his coadjutors set aside, one by one, the texts which point at the date of the Pentateuch.

I was possessed with indignation.

Oh sham science! Oh false-named Theology! O mihi tam longae maneat pars ultima vitae, Spiritus et, quantum sat erit tua dicere facta! Yet I waited some eight years longer, lest I should on so grave a subject write anything premature.

Especially I felt that it was necessary to learn more of what the erudition of Germany had done on these subjects.

Michaelis on the New Testament had fallen into my hands several years before, and I had found the greatest advantage from his learning and candour.