Any hostile criticisms which have been offered
on statements contained in these pages are fully
answered by other portions of the book itself.
And my apology for all "sins of omission" will
be found in the opening sentence of Chapter
XIX. Moreover, a detailed reply to certain
favourite theories of the critics, which I am
said to have left unnoticed, would have no weight
with the critics themselves, and is not needed
by those for whom the book is intended.

Take ex. gr. the theory as to the late date
of the Books of Moses. Even if the case made
out by the critics were as strong as it is weak,
it would be refuted by the single fact that the
Pentateuch was emphatically the Bible of the
Samaritans. That the Samaritans would have
accorded such peculiar and unbounded reverence
to purely Jewish Books, and to Jewish Books of
a period long after the captivity of the ten tribes
of the house of Israel, is a figment unworthy of
serious discussion. Its acceptance by the Higher
Critics gives proof that they are incapable of
dealing with evidence.

R.A.

-xii-