CHAPTER VI.

THE MOSAIC RECORD OF THE CREATION.

THE reader, in entering upon this question, should prepare his mind for the reception of truth, and dismiss from his thoughts altogether all crude and hastily adopted notions. He should resolve to admit all conclusions which shall appear to be supported by careful observations and logical arguments, even should they be of a nature adverse to the ideas he may have previously formed for himself, or have adopted, without examination and reflection, on the credit of others.

If we patiently examine and study nature, as we find her in her grand operations over the entire face of the earth, taking the changes,—as I had the privilege of doing, from actual observations, for many years, in every zone of the world (and not from mere booklearning),—we need not attempt to alter the accepted meaning of the simple and sublime description given in the first chapter of Genesis, assuming that our globe is a wreck of former worlds; on the contrary, we find that the Record accords with our observations, and is in perfect harmony with all geological and astronomical phenomena.

Before we commence with the chapter, verse by verse, it would not be irrelevant to consider, first, the relative position of the earth, the sun, and the moon. According to the Copernican system, which is our established astronomical theory, the sun is the centre of the system, and supports the earth in its sphere, in the same manner as the terrestrial sphere supports, and forms the orbit of the moon. The earth floats like a balloon, as it were, on the attenuated atmosphere of the sun; and the moon, again, floats on the terrestrial aërial sphere, as the clouds do on the denser atmosphere below them. The rolling of the earth from west to east, in its orbit, makes the seas to remain behind, to a certain degree, in the torrid zone, and, consequently, causes an apparent movement of both the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans backwards towards the west. This effect combined with the northerly action of the currents, produces a motion towards the north-west, until it is disturbed by the lands. The same effect, from the rolling of the earth in its orbit, is produced also on the moon: her position on the terrestrial aerial sphere appears to move backwards, like the ocean, nearly three-quarters of an hour daily, that is to say, the globe is rolling faster, equal to that amount, than its external sphere at the orbit of the moon. Again, as already explained, the very earth, i. e., the external crystalline film, on which we are placed, is affected in the same manner. Its circum

ference is left behind 50"-10 per annum; this, combined with the action of polarity of matter, equal to about 20′′ per annum, carries the surface in the diagonal of the parallelogram in the direction of the compound of the two movements, i. e., towards the north-west, and thus causes the phenomenon of the precession of the equinoxes, and all terrestrial changes described in the preceding chapters. The earth, with its satellite, rolls from west to east on the great solar orbit which is its great foundation, as well as its light : both objects are effected in one. "He made the light and the sun." Two distinct creations. "He laid the foundation of the earth that it should not be removed for ever. . . He covered it with the deep,

as with a garment."-Psalm civ.

Genesis i. verses 1 and 2.-" In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." This opening passage, or the introduction to the description which was to follow, is distinct and clear. We must bear in mind that the grand object of Holy Writ was to serve as a guide to religious belief and moral conduct. It was never intended to impart intellectual, but moral knowledge. To enter into astronomical and geological phenomena, with their details, would have been at variance with the design of the Almighty. It was sufficient for our

moral guidance to state, that God created this earth, with all its productions, for the use of man, in six days; and that man was made out of the dust of the ground.

We are most distinctly told that at "the beginning” "the earth was without form and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep." And the Spirit of God moved on the face of the waters. The "waters" and the surrounding element appear to mean one and the same thing; at least, they are so mixed as to render them intimately connected, or synonymous terms; and, according to Josephus, the deep "was covered with thick darkness, and a wind (spirit) moved upon its surface." This description evidently indicates that all was void and dark, but that the Spirit of Good, as a wind, was present, and "moved upon the face of the waters" upon the great deep.

There is nothing here to justify the assumption that there existed at that time wrecks of former worlds, much less light, and the remains of animated nature. Neither is there anything whatever here spoken which is found contrary to what we know of the solar system; consequently it would be an act of presumption on our part to doubt this first announcement of the inspired historian regarding the creation, which he gave in detail, day by day, until the conclusion of the great work on the eve of the seventh day.

Third verse.- -"And God said, Let there be light: and there was light."

Let us now consider what this act means, according to our knowledge of the system. It means the creation of that great sphere of light which radiates from the centre of the solar system, and which, to the orbit of the earth, alone is 190,000,000 miles in diameter. This was the first act of creation, as far as our system is concerned, and it fulfilled two great fundamental objects, viz., "foundation for the earth, that it should not be removed for ever" from its orbit, and "light." We, therefore, find that everything was made in due order; and after this act, verse 4, "God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness."

The division of light from the darkness we know is produced by the earth intercepting the light: half of its surface is thus placed in its own shadow, and is further exposed to the less illuminated space beyond our system. Our earth, in that stage of the creation, was, clearly, but a mere terraqueous globe, void of all organic productions, floating in the great atmosphere of the sun, as a nebulæ, like a bubble, or a shell of semi-liquid matter, sufficiently opaque to divide the light from the darkness. This globe is 8,000 miles in diameter.

Fifth verse." And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day."

Before proceeding further, it may be well to give a