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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Origin of the World According to
+Revelation and Science, by John William Dawson
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Origin of the World According to Revelation and Science
+
+Author: John William Dawson
+
+Release Date: July 2, 2010 [EBook #33049]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ORIGIN OF THE WORLD ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Bryan Ness, ismail user and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
+file was produced from scans of public domain works at the
+University of Michigan's Making of America collection.)
+
+
+
+
+
+[Transcriber's note: All footnotes are renumbered and moved to the end of
+the text before the index.]
+
+
+
+
+ THE
+ ORIGIN OF THE WORLD,
+ ACCORDING TO
+ REVELATION AND SCIENCE.
+
+ BY J. W. DAWSON, LL.D., F.R.S., F.G.S.,
+
+ PRINCIPAL AND VICE-CHANCELLOR OF M'GILL UNIVERSITY, MONTREAL; AUTHOR OF
+ "ACADIAN GEOLOGY," "THE STORY OF THE EARTH AND MAN,"
+ "LIFE'S DAWN ON EARTH," ETC.
+
+"Speak to the Earth, and it shall teach thee."
+ --_Job._
+
+[Illustration]
+
+ NEW YORK:
+ HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS,
+ FRANKLIN SQUARE.
+ 1877.
+
+ TO HIS EXCELLENCY
+
+ THE RIGHT HON. THE EARL OF DUFFERIN,
+ K.P., K.C.B., ETC.,
+
+ GOVERNOR-GENERAL OF CANADA,
+
+ _This Work is Respectfully Dedicated_,
+
+ AS A SLIGHT TRIBUTE OF ESTEEM TO ONE WHO GRACES THE
+ HIGHEST POSITION IN THE DOMINION OF CANADA BY HIS
+ EMINENT PERSONAL QUALITIES, HIS REPUTATION AS
+ A STATESMAN AND AN AUTHOR, AND HIS KIND
+ AND ENLIGHTENED PATRONAGE OF EDUCATION,
+ LITERATURE, AND SCIENCE.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+The scope of this work is in the main identical with that of
+"Archaia," published in 1860; but in attempting to prepare a new
+edition brought up to the present condition of the subject, it was
+found that so much required to be rewritten as to make it essentially
+a new book, and it was therefore decided to give it a new name, more
+clearly indicating its character and purpose.
+
+The intention of this new publication is to throw as much light as
+possible on the present condition of the much-agitated questions
+respecting the origin of the world and its inhabitants. To students of
+the Bible it will afford the means of determining the precise import
+of the biblical references to creation, and of their relation to what
+is known from other sources. To geologists and biologists it is
+intended to give some intelligible explanation of the connection of
+the doctrines of revealed religion with the results of their
+respective sciences.
+
+A still higher end to which the author would gladly contribute is that
+of aiding thoughtful men perplexed with the apparent antagonisms of
+science and religion, and of indicating how they may best harmonize
+our great and growing knowledge of nature with our old and cherished
+beliefs as to the origin and destiny of man.
+
+In aiming at these results, it has not been thought necessary to
+assume a controversial attitude or to stand on the defensive, either
+with regard to religion or science, but rather to attempt to arrive at
+broad and comprehensive views which may exhibit those higher harmonies
+of the spiritual and the natural which they derive from their common
+Author, and which reach beyond the petty difficulties arising from
+narrow or imperfect views of either or both. Such an aim is too high
+to be fully attained, but in so far as it can be reached we may hope
+to rescue science from a dry and barren infidelity, and religion from
+mere fruitless sentiment or enfeebling superstition.
+
+Since the publication of "Archaia," the subject of which it treats has
+passed through several phases, but the author has seen no reason to
+abandon in the least degree the principles of interpretation on which
+he then insisted, and he takes a hopeful view as to their ultimate
+prevalence. It is true that the wide acceptance of hypotheses of
+"evolution" has led to a more decided antagonism than heretofore
+between some of the utterances of scientific men and the religious
+ideas of mankind, and to a contemptuous disregard of revealed religion
+in the more shallow literature of the time; but, on the other hand, a
+barrier of scientific fact and induction has been slowly rising to
+stem this current of crude and rash hypothesis. Of this nature are the
+great discoveries as to the physical constitution and probable origin
+of the universe, the doctrine of the correlation and conservation of
+forces, the new estimates of the age of the earth, the overthrow of
+the doctrine of spontaneous generation, the high bodily and mental
+type of the earliest known men, the light which philology has thrown
+on the unity of language, our growing knowledge of the uniformity of
+the constructive and other habits of primitive men, and of the
+condition of man in the earlier historic time, the greater
+completeness of our conceptions as to the phenomena of life and their
+relation to organizable matters--all these and many other aspects of
+the later progress of science must tend to bring it back into greater
+harmony with revealed religion.
+
+On the other side, there has been a growing disposition on the part of
+theologians to inquire as to the actual views of nature presented in
+the Bible, and to separate these from those accretions of obsolete
+philosophy which have been too often confounded with them. With
+respect to the first chapter of Genesis more especially, there has
+been a decided growth in the acceptance of those principles for which
+I contended in 1860. In illustration of this I may refer to the fact
+that in 1862 it was precisely on these principles that Dr. McCaul
+conducted his able defence of the Mosaic record of creation in the
+"Aids to Faith," which may almost be regarded as an authoritative
+expression of the views of orthodox Christians in opposition to those
+of the once notorious "Essays and Reviews." Equally significant is the
+adoption of this method of interpretation by Dr. Tayler Lewis in his
+masterly "Special Introduction" to the first chapter of Genesis, in
+the American edition of Lange's Commentary, edited by Dr. Philip
+Schaff; and the manifest approval with which the lucid statement of
+the relations of Geology and the Bible by Dr. Arnold Guyot, was
+received by the great gathering of divines at the Convention of the
+Evangelical Alliance in New York, in 1873, bears testimony to the same
+fact. The author has also had the honor of being invited to
+illustrate this mode of reconciliation to the students of two of the
+most important theological colleges in America, in lectures afterwards
+published and widely circulated.
+
+The time is perhaps nearer than we anticipate when Natural Science and
+Theology will unite in the conviction that the first chapter of
+Genesis "stands alone among the traditions of mankind in the wonderful
+simplicity and grandeur of its words," and that "the meaning of these
+words is always a meaning ahead of science--not because it anticipates
+the results of science, but because it is independent of them, and
+runs as it were round the outer margin of all possible discovery."[1]
+
+In the Appendix the reader will find several short essays on special
+points collateral to the general subject, and important in the
+solution of some of its difficulties, but which could not be
+conveniently included in the text. More especially I would refer to
+the summaries given in the Appendix of the present state of our
+knowledge as to the origin of life, of species, and of man--topics not
+discussed in much detail in the body of the work, both because of the
+wide fields of controversy to which they lead, and because I have
+treated of them somewhat fully in a previous work, "The Story of the
+Earth and Man," in which the detailed history of life as disclosed by
+science was the main subject in hand.
+
+ J. W. D.
+
+_May, 1877._
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+ CHAPTER I.
+
+ THE MYSTERY OF ORIGINS AND ITS SOLUTIONS.
+
+ Reality of the Unseen.--Personality of God.--Possibility of a
+ Revelation of Origins.--Turanian, Aryan, and Semitic Solutions
+ of the Mystery.--The Abrahamic Genesis.--The Mosaic Genesis Page 9
+
+
+ CHAPTER II.
+
+ OBJECTS AND NATURE OF A REVELATION OF ORIGINS.
+
+ Objects to be Attained by a Revelation of Origins.--Its Method and
+ Structure.--Vision of Creation.--Translation of the First Chapter of
+ Genesis 35
+
+
+ CHAPTER III.
+
+ OBJECTS AND NATURE OF A REVELATION OF ORIGINS
+ (_continued_).
+
+ Character of the Revelation and its Views of Nature.--Natural Law.--
+ Progress and Development.--Purpose and Use.--Type or Pattern 70
+
+
+ CHAPTER IV.
+
+ THE BEGINNING.
+
+ The Universe not eternal.--Its Creation.--The Heavens.--The Earth.--
+ The Creator, Elohim.--The Beginning very Remote in Time 87
+
+
+ CHAPTER V.
+
+ THE DESOLATE VOID.
+
+ Characteristics of Biblical Chaos.--The Primitive Deep.--The Divine
+ Spirit.--The Breath of God.--Chaos in other Cosmogonies.--Chemical
+ and Physical Conditions of the Primitive Chaos 100
+
+
+ CHAPTER VI.
+
+ LIGHT AND CREATIVE DAYS.
+
+ What is Implied in Cosmic Light.--Its Gradual Condensation.--Day and
+ Night.--Days of Creation.--Their Nature and Length.--They are
+ Olams, AEons or Time-worlds.--Objections to this View
+ Answered.--Confirmations from Extraneous Sources. 115
+
+
+ CHAPTER VII.
+
+ THE ATMOSPHERE.
+
+ Its Present Constitution.--Waters Above and Below.--The "Expanse"
+ of Genesis not a Solid Arch.--Mythology of the Atmosphere.--
+ Superstitions connected with it Opposed by the Bible. 157
+
+
+ CHAPTER VIII.
+
+ THE DRY LAND AND THE FIRST PLANTS.
+
+ The Earth of the Bible is the Dry Land.--Its Elevation and Support
+ above the Waters.--Structure of the Continents arranged from the
+ first.--The First Vegetation.--Its Nature.--Introduction of Life.--
+ Organization and Reproduction.--Objections considered.--Geological
+ Indications. 174
+
+
+ CHAPTER IX.
+
+ LUMINARIES.
+
+ How Introduced.--What Implied in this.--Dominion of Existing Causes.
+ --Astronomy of the Hebrews.--Not Connected with Astrology 199
+
+
+ CHAPTER X.
+
+ THE LOWER ANIMALS.
+
+ The Sheretzim, or Swarmers.--Their Origin from the Waters.--The
+ Great Reptiles.--Their Creation.--Coincidences with Geology.
+ --Hypotheses of Evolution 211
+
+
+ CHAPTER XI.
+
+ THE HIGHER ANIMALS AND MAN.
+
+ The Placental Mammals.--The Principal Groups of these.--Man, how
+ Introduced.--His Early Condition.--His Relations to Nature 230
+
+
+ CHAPTER XII.
+
+ THE REST OF THE CREATOR.
+
+ The Sabbath of Creation.--The Modern Period.--Its Early History.
+ --The Fall and Antediluvian Man.--Postdiluvian Extension of Men 249
+
+
+ CHAPTER XIII.
+
+ UNITY AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN.
+
+ Biblical Account of his Introduction and Early History.--Historical
+ Testimony with respect to his Unity and Antiquity.--Testimony of
+ Language 263
+
+
+ CHAPTER XIV.
+
+ UNITY AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN (_continued_).
+
+ Geological Evidence of Antiquity of Man.--General Conditions of
+ Post-glacial and Modern Periods.--Remains of Man in Caverns, in
+ River-gravels, etc.--Palaeocosmic and Neocosmic Men 294
+
+
+ CHAPTER XV.
+
+ COMPARISONS AND CONCLUSIONS.
+
+ Geological Chronology.--Table of Succession of Life.--Points of
+ Agreement of the Two Records.--Parallelism of Genesis and Physical
+ Science with Reference to the Origin and Early History of the World.
+ --Conclusion 322
+
+
+ APPENDICES.
+
+ A.--True and False Evolution. 363
+
+ B.--Evolution and Creation by Law. 373
+
+ C.--Modes of Creation. 377
+
+ D.--Theories of Life. 383
+
+ E.--Recent Facts as to the Antiquity of Man. 386
+
+ F.--Glacial Periods in Connection with Genesis. 395
+
+ G.--Chemistry of the Primeval Earth. 400
+
+ H.--Tannin and Bhemah. 405
+
+ I.--Ancient Mythologies. 408
+
+ K.--Assyrian and Egyptian Texts. 412
+
+ L.--Species and Varieties in Connection with Evolution and the
+ Unity of Man. 414
+
+
+THE ORIGIN OF THE WORLD.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+THE MYSTERY OF ORIGINS AND ITS SOLUTIONS.
+
+ "The things that are seen are temporal."--PAUL.
+
+
+Have we or can we have any certain solution of those two great
+questions--Whence are all things? and Whither do all things tend? No
+thinking man is content to live merely in a transitory present, ever
+emerging out of darkness and ever returning thither again, without
+knowing any thing of the origin and issue of the world and its
+inhabitants. Yet it would seem that to-day men are as much in
+uncertainty on these subjects as at any previous time. It even appears
+as if all our added knowledge would only, for a time at least, deprive
+us of the solutions to which we trusted, and give no others in their
+room. Christians have been accustomed to rest on the cosmogony and
+prophecy of the Bible; but we are now frankly told on all hands that
+these are valueless, and that even ministers of religion more or less
+"sacrifice their sincerity" in making them the basis of their
+teachings. On the other hand, we are informed that nothing can be
+discerned in the universe beyond matter and force, and that it is by a
+purely material and spontaneous evolution that all things exist. But
+when we ask as to the origin of matter and force, and the laws which
+regulate them--as to the end to which their movement is tending, as to
+the manner in which they have evolved the myriad forms of life and the
+human intelligence itself--the only answer is that these are
+"insoluble mysteries."
+
+Are we, then, to fall back on the real or imagined revelations and
+traditions of the past, and to endeavor to find in them some foothold
+of assurance; or are we to wait till further progress in science may
+have cleared up some of the present mysteries? Whatever may be said of
+the former alternative, all honest students of science will unite with
+me in the admission that the latter is hopeless. We need not seek to
+belittle the magnificent triumphs of modern science. They have been
+real and stupendous. But it is of their very nature to conduct us to
+ultimate facts and laws of which science can give no explanation; and
+the further we push our inquiries the more insuperably does the wall
+of mystery rise before us. It is true we can furnish the materials for
+philosophical speculations which may be built on scientific facts and
+principles; but these are in their nature uncertain, and must
+constantly change as knowledge advances. They can not solve for us the
+great practical problems of our origin and destiny.
+
+In these circumstances no apology is needed for a thorough and careful
+inquiry into those foundations of religious belief which rest on the
+idea of a revelation of origins and destinies made to man from
+without, and on which we may build the superstructure of a rational
+religion, giving guidance for the present and hope for the future. In
+the following pages I propose to enter upon so much of this subject as
+relates to the origin and earliest history of the world, in so far as
+these are treated of in the Bible and in the traditions of the more
+ancient nations; and this with reference to the present standpoint of
+science in relation to these questions.
+
+To discuss such questions at all, certain preliminary admissions are
+necessary. These are: (1) The reality of an unseen universe, spiritual
+rather than material in its nature. (2) The existence of a personal
+God, or of a great Universal Will. (3) The possibility of
+communication taking place between God and man. I do not propose to
+attempt any proof of these positions, but it may be well to explain
+what they mean.
+
+(1) That the great machine for the dissipation of energy, in which we
+exist, and which we call the universe, must have a correlative and
+complement in the unseen, is a conclusion now forced upon physicists
+by the necessities of the doctrine of the conservation of force. In
+short, it seems that, unless we admit this conclusion, we can not
+believe in the possible existence of the material universe itself, and
+must sink into absolute nihilism. This doctrine is expressed by the
+apostle Paul in the statement, "The things that are seen are temporal,
+but the things that are not seen are eternal," and it has been ably
+discussed by the authors of the remarkable work, "The Unseen
+Universe." That this unseen world is spiritual--that is, not subject
+to the same material laws with the visible universe--is also a fair
+deduction from physical science, as well as a doctrine of Scripture. I
+prefer the term spiritual to supernatural, because the first is the
+term used in the Bible, and because the latter has had associated with
+it ideas of the miraculous and abnormal, not implied at all in the
+idea of the spiritual, which in some important senses may be more
+natural than the material.
+
+(2) The idea of a personal God implies not merely the existence of an
+unknown absolute power, as Herbert Spencer seems to hold, or of "an
+Eternal, not ourselves, that makes for righteousness," as Matthew
+Arnold puts it, but of a Being of whom we can affirm will,
+intelligence, feeling, self-consciousness, not certainly precisely as
+they occur in us, but in a higher and more perfect form, of which our
+own consciousness furnishes the type, or "image and shadow," as Moses
+long ago phrased it. On the one hand, it is true that we can not fully
+comprehend such a personal God, because not limited by the conditions
+which limit us. On the other hand, it is clear that our intellect, as
+constituted, can furnish us with no ultimate explanation of the
+universe except in the action of such a primary personal will. In the
+Bible the absolute personality of God is expressed by the title "I
+am." His intimate relation to us is indicated by the expression, "In
+him we live, and move, and have our being." His all-pervading essence
+is stated as "the fullness of him that filleth all in all." His
+relative personality is shadowed forth by the attribution to him of
+love, anger, and other human feelings and sentiments, and by
+presenting him in the endearing relation of the universal Father.
+
+(3) With reference to the possibility of communication between God and
+man, it may truly be said that such communication is not only
+possible, but infinitely probable. God is not only near to us, but we
+are in him, and, independently of the testimony of revelation, it has
+been felt by all classes of men, from the rudest and most primitive
+savages up to our great English philosopher, John Stuart Mill, that if
+there is a God, he can not be excluded from communion with his
+intelligent creatures, either directly or through the medium of
+ministering spirits.[2] Farther, placed as man is in the midst of
+complex and to him inexplicable phenomena, involved in a conflict of
+good and evil, happiness and misery, to which the wisest and the
+greatest minds have found no issue, subject to be degraded by low
+passions and tempted to great extremes of evil, and himself weak,
+impulsive, and vacillating, there seems the most urgent need for
+divine communication. It may be said that these are conflicts and
+problems which God has left man to decide and solve for himself by his
+own reason. But when we consider how slow this process is, and how
+imperfect even now, after the experience of ages, we seem to need some
+intervention that shall stimulate the human mind, and impel it forward
+with greater rapidity. Farther, it would appear only right that an
+intelligent and accountable being, placed in a world like this, should
+have some explanation of his origin and destiny given him at first,
+and that, if he should perchance go astray, a helping hand should be
+extended to him.
+
+Practically it is an historical fact that all the great impulses given
+to humanity have been by men claiming divine guidance or inspiration,
+and professing to bring light and truth from the unseen world. It
+would be too much to say that all these prophets and reformers have
+been inspired of heaven; but scarcely too much to say that they have
+either received a message of God, or have been permitted to transmit
+to our world messages for weal or woe from powers without in
+subordination to him. Farther, we shall have reason in the sequel to
+see that in far back prehistoric times there must have been impulses
+given to mankind, and revelations made to them, as potent as those
+which have acted in later historic periods. In Holy Scripture the Word
+of God is represented as "enlightening every man;[3]" and with
+reference to our present subject we are told that "by faith we
+understand that the ages of the world were constituted by the Word of
+God, so that the visible things were not made of those which
+appear."[4] In other words, that the will of God has been active and
+operative as the sole cause throughout all ages of the world's
+creation and history, and that the visible universe is not a mere
+product of its own phenomena. We may call this faith, if we please, an
+intuition or instinct, a God-given gift, or a product of our own
+thought acting on evidence afforded by the outer world; but in any
+case it seems to be the sole possible solution of the mystery of
+origins.
+
+These points being premised, we are in a position to inquire as to the
+teaching of our own Holy Scriptures, and in this inquiry we can easily
+take along with them all other revelations, pretended or true, that
+deal with our subject.
+
+Max Mueller, in his lectures on the Science of Religion, rejects the
+ordinary division into natural and revealed, and adopts a threefold
+grouping, corresponding to the great division of languages into
+Turanian, Aryan, and Semitic. With some modification and explanation,
+this classification will serve well our present purpose. As to natural
+and revealed religions, if we regard our own as revealed, we must
+admit an element of revelation in all others as well. According to the
+Hebrew Scriptures revelation began in Eden, and was continued more or
+less in all successive ages up to the apostolic times. Consequently
+the earlier revelations of the antediluvian and postdiluvian times
+must have been the common property of all races, and must have been
+associated with whatever elements of natural religion they had. When,
+therefore, we call our religion distinctively a revealed one, we must
+admit that traces of the same revelation may be found in all others.
+On the other hand, when we characterize our religion as Hebrew or
+Semitic, we must bear in mind that in its earlier stages it was not so
+limited; but that, if as old as it professes to be, it must include a
+substratum common to it with the old religions of the Turanians and
+Aryans. Neglect of these very simple considerations often leads to
+great confusion in the minds both of Christians and unbelievers, as to
+the relation of Christianity to heathenism, and especially to the
+older and more primitive forms of heathenism.
+
+The Turanian stock, of which the Mongolian peoples of Northern Asia
+may be taken as the type, includes also the American races, and the
+oldest historical populations of Western Asia and of Europe; and they
+are the peoples who, in their physical features and their art
+tendencies, most nearly resemble the prehistoric men of the caves and
+gravels. They largely consist of the populations which the Bible
+affiliates with Ham. They are remarkable for their permanent and
+stationary forms of civilization or barbarism, and for the languages
+least developed in grammatical structure. These people had and still
+have traditions of the creation and early history of man similar to
+those in the earlier Biblical books; but the connection of their
+religions with that of the Bible breaks off from the time of Abraham;
+and the earlier portions of revelation which they possessed became
+disintegrated into a polytheism which takes very largely the form of
+animism, or of attributing some special spiritual indwelling to all
+natural objects, and also that of worship of ancestors and heroes. The
+portion of primitive theological belief to which they have clung most
+persistently is the doctrine of the immortality of the soul, which in
+all their religious beliefs occupies a prominent place, and has always
+been connected with special attention to rites of sepulture and
+monuments to the dead. Their version of the revelation of creation
+appears most distinctly in the sacred book of the Quiches of Central
+America, and in the creation myths of the Mexicans, Iroquois,
+Algonquins, and other North American tribes; and it has been handed
+down to us through the Semitic Assyrians from the ancient
+Chaldaeo-turanian population of the valley of the Euphrates.
+
+The Aryan races have been remarkable for their changeable and
+versatile character. Their religious ideas in the most primitive times
+appear to have been not dissimilar from those of the Turanians; and
+the Indians, Persians, Greeks, Scandinavians, and Celts have all gone
+some length in developing and modifying these, apparently by purely
+human imaginative and intellectual materials. But all these
+developments were defective in a moral point of view, and had lost the
+stability and rational basis which proceed from monotheism. Hence they
+have given way before other and higher faiths; and at this day the
+more advanced nations of the Aryan, or in Scriptural language the
+Japhetic stock, have adopted the Semitic faith; and, as Noah long ago
+predicted, "dwell in the tents of Shem." No indigenous account of the
+genesis of things remains among the Aryan races, with the exception of
+that in the Avesta, and in some ancient Hindoo hymns, and these are
+merely variations of the Turanian or Semitic cosmogony. God has given
+to the Aryans no special revelations of his will, and they would have
+been left to grope for themselves along the paths of science and
+philosophy, but for the advent among them of the prophets of "Jehovah
+the God of Shem."
+
+It is to the Semitic race that God has been most liberal in his gift
+of inspiration. Gathering up and treasuring the old common
+inheritance of religion, and eliminating from it the accretions of
+superstition, the children of Abraham at one time stood alone, or
+almost alone, as adherents of a belief in one God the Creator. Their
+theology was added to from age to age by a succession of prophets, all
+working in one line of development, till it culminated in the
+appearance of Jesus Christ, and then proceeded to expand itself over
+the other races. Among them it has undergone two remarkable phases of
+retrograde development--the one in Mohammedanism, which carries it
+back to a resemblance to its own earlier patriarchal stage, the other
+in Roman and Greek ecclesiasticism, which have taken it back to the
+Levitical system, along with a strong color of paganism. Still its
+original documents survive, and retain their hold on large portions of
+the more enlightened Aryan nations, while through their means these
+documents have entered on a new career of conquest among the Semites
+and Turanians. They are, however, it must be admitted, among the Aryan
+races of Europe, growing in a somewhat uncongenial soil; partly
+because of the materialistic organization of these races, and partly
+because of the abundant remains of heathenism which still linger among
+them; and it is possible that they may not realize their full triumphs
+over humanity till the Semitic races return to the position of
+Abraham, and erect again in the world the standard of monotheistic
+faith, under the auspices of a purified Christianity.
+
+It follows from this hasty survey that it is the Semitic solution of
+the question of origins, as contained in the Hebrew Scriptures, that
+mainly concerns us; and in the first place we must consider the
+foundation and historical development of this solution, as many
+misconceptions prevail on these points. We may discuss these subjects
+under the heads of the Abrahamic Genesis and the Mosaic Genesis, and
+may in a subsequent chapter consider the results of these in the
+Genesis of the later Scripture writers.
+
+
+THE ABRAHAMIC GENESIS.
+
+It has been a favorite theory with some learned men that the earlier
+parts of the book of Genesis existed as ancient documents even in the
+time of Moses, and were incorporated by him in his work, and attempts
+have been made to separate, on various grounds, the older from the
+newer portions. Until lately, however, these attempts have been
+altogether conjectural and destitute of any positive basis of
+archaeological fact. A new and interesting aspect has been given to
+them by the recent readings of the inscriptions on clay tablets found
+at Nineveh, and to which especial attention has been given by the late
+Mr. G. Smith, of the Archaeological Department of the British Museum.
+
+Assurbanipal, king of Assyria, one of the kings known to the Greeks by
+the name of Sardanapalus, reigned at Nineveh about B.C. 673. He was a
+grandson of the Biblical Sennacherib, and son of Esarhaddon, and it
+seems that he had inherited from his fathers a library of Chaldean and
+Assyrian literature, written not on perishable paper or parchment, but
+on tablets of clay, and containing much ancient lore of the nations
+inhabiting the valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates. Assurbanipal,
+living when the Assyrian empire had attained to the acme of its
+greatness, had leisure to become a greater patron of learning than any
+preceding king. His scribes ransacked the record chambers of the
+oldest temples in the world; and Babel, Erech, Accad, and Ur had to
+yield up their treasures of history and theology to diligent copyists,
+who transcribed them in beautiful arrow-head characters on new clay
+tablets, and deposited them in the library of the great king. It
+would appear that, at the same time, these documents were edited,
+archaic forms of expression translated, and lacunae caused by decay or
+fracture repaired. They were also inscribed with legends stating the
+sources whence they had been derived.
+
+The empire of Assyria went down in blood, and its palaces were
+destroyed with fire, but the imperishable clay tablets which had
+formed the treasure of their libraries remained, more or less broken
+it is true, among the ruins. Exhumed by Layard and Smith, they are now
+among the collections of the British Museum, and their decipherment is
+throwing a new and strange light on the cosmogony and religions of the
+early East. Though the date of the writing of these tablets is
+comparatively modern, being about the time of the later kings of
+Judah, the original records from which they were transcribed profess
+to have been very ancient--some of them about 1600 years before the
+time of Assurbanipal, so that they go back to a time anterior to that
+of the early Hebrew patriarchs. Their genuineness has been endorsed,
+in one case, by the discovery by Mr. Loftus, in the city of Senkereh,
+of an apparent original, bearing date about 1600 years before Christ,
+and other inscriptions of equal or greater antiquity have been found
+in the ruins of Ur, on the Euphrates. Nor does there seem any reason
+to doubt that the scribes of Assurbanipal faithfully transcribed the
+oldest records extant in their time. Their care and diligence are also
+shown by the fact that where different versions of these records
+existed in different cities, they have made copies of these variant
+manuscripts, instead of attempting to reduce them to one text. The
+subjects treated of in the Nineveh tablets are very various, but those
+that concern our present purpose are the documents relating to the
+creation, the fall of man, and the deluge, of which considerable
+portions have been recovered, and have been translated by Mr. Smith.
+
+These documents carry us back to a time when the Turanian religions
+had not yet been separated from the Semitic. The early Chaldeans,
+termed Cushites in the Bible, and who under Nimrod seem to have
+established the first empire in that region, are now known to have
+been Turanian; and among them apparently arose at a very early period
+a literature and a mythology. The Chaldeans were politically
+subjugated by the Semitic Assyrians, but they retained their religious
+predominance; and until a comparatively late period existed as a
+learned and priestly caste. To these primitive _Chasdim_ were
+undoubtedly due the creation legends collected by the scribes of
+Assurbanipal. They were obtained in the old Chaldean cities, in the
+temples under the guardianship of Chaldean priests; and their date
+carries them back to a time anterior to the Assyrian conquest, and in
+which Chaldean kings still reigned. Here, then, we have an important
+connecting link between the cosmogonies of the Turanian and Semitic
+races; and leaving out of sight for the present the legends of the
+deluge and other matters allied to it, we may inquire as to the nature
+and contents of the Assyrian and Chaldean record of creation.
+
+The Assyrian Genesis is similar in order and arrangement to that in
+our own Bible, and gives the same general order of the creative work.
+Its days, however, of creation, as indeed there is good internal
+evidence to prove those of Moses also are, seem to be periods or ages.
+It treats of the creation of gods, as well as of the universe, and
+thus introduces a polytheistic system; and it seems to recognize, like
+the Avesta, a primitive principle of evil, presiding over chaos, and
+subsequently introducing evil among men. These points may be
+illustrated by an extract from Mr. Smith's translation. It relates to
+the earlier part of the work:
+
+ "When above were not raised the heavens,
+ And below on the earth a plant had not grown up
+ The deep also had not broken up its boundaries
+ Chaos (or water) Tiamat (the sea or abyss) was the producing mother
+ of them all
+ These waters at the beginning were ordained
+ But a tree had not grown a flower had not unfolded
+ When the gods had not sprung up any one of them
+ A plant had not grown and order did not exist
+ Were made also the great gods
+ The gods Lahma and Lahamu they caused to come * * *
+ And they grew * * *
+ The gods Sar and Kisar were made
+ A course of days and a long time passed
+ The god Anu * * *
+ The gods Sar and * * *"
+
+Here the first existences are Chaos (Mummu, or confusion) and Tiamat,
+which is the Thalatth of Berosus, representing the sea or primitive
+abyss, but also recognized as a female deity or first mother. Then we
+have Lahma and Lahamu, which represent power or motion in nature, and
+are the equivalents of the Divine Spirit moving on the face of the
+waters in our Genesis. Next we have the production of Sar or Iloar and
+Kisar, representing the expanse or firmament. Sar is supposed to be
+the god Assur of the Assyrians, a great weather god, and after whom
+their nation and its founder were named. The next process is the
+creation of the heaven and the earth, represented by Anu and Anatu.
+Anu was always one of the greater gods, and was identified with the
+higher or starry heavens. In succeeding tablets to this we find Bel or
+Belus introduced, as the agent in the creation of animals and of men;
+and he is the true Demiurgus or Mediator of the Assyrian system. Next
+we have the introduction of Hea or Saturn, who is the equivalent of
+the Biblical Adam, and of Ishtar, mother of men, who is the Isba or
+Eve of Genesis. The rest of this legend evidently relates to deified
+men, among whom are Merodach, Nebo, and other heroes.
+
+The first remark that we may make on this Assyrian Genesis is that,
+while it resembles generally the Mosaic account of creation, it also
+strongly resembles the old cosmogonies of the Egyptians and Persians,
+and those of the widely scattered Turanians of Northern Asia and of
+America. As an extreme illustration of this, and to obviate the
+necessity of digression at this point of our inquiry, I introduce here
+some extracts from the Popul Vuh, or sacred book of the Quiche Indians
+of Central America, an undoubted product of prehistoric religion in
+the western continent.[5]
+
+ "And the heaven was formed, and all the signs thereof set in
+ their angle and alignment, and its boundaries fixed toward
+ the four winds by the Creator and Former, and Mother and
+ Father of life and existence--he by whom all move and
+ breathe, the Father and Cherisher of the peace of nations
+ and of the civilization of his people--he whose wisdom has
+ projected the excellence of all that is on the earth or in
+ the lakes or in the sea."
+
+ "Behold the first word and the first discourse. There was
+ yet no man nor any animal, * * * nothing was but the
+ firmament. The face of the earth had not yet appeared over
+ the peaceful sea, and all the space of heaven * * * nothing
+ but immobility and silence in the night."
+
+ "Alone also the Creator, the Former, the Dominator, the
+ Feathered Serpent--those that engender, those that give
+ being--they are upon the water like a growing light. They
+ are enveloped in green and blue, and therefore their name is
+ Gucumatz."[6]
+
+ "Lo now how the heavens exist, how exists also the Heart of
+ Heaven; such is the name of God. It is thus that he is
+ called. And they spake, they consulted together and
+ meditated; they mingled their words and their opinions."
+
+ "And the creation [of the earth] was verily after this wise.
+ Earth, they said, and on the instant it was formed; like a
+ cloud or a fog was its beginning. Then the mountains rose
+ over the water like great fishes; in an instant the
+ mountains and the plains were visible, and the cypress and
+ the pine appeared. Then was the Gucumatz filled with joy,
+ crying out: Blessed be thy coming, O Heart of Heaven,
+ Hurakan, Thunderbolt. Our work and our labor has
+ accomplished its end."
+
+This corresponds to the work of the first four creative days; and next
+details are given as to the introduction of animals, with which,
+however, the Creator is represented as dissatisfied, because they
+could not know or invoke the Creator. They are therefore condemned to
+be subject to be devoured one of another. Again there is a council in
+heaven, and the gods determine to make man. But he also is imperfect,
+for he has speech without intelligence: so he is condemned to be
+destroyed by water. A new council is held, and a second race of men
+produced; but this fails in the capacity for religious worship--"they
+forgot the Heart of Heaven." These were partly destroyed by fire and
+partly converted into apes. Lastly another council is held, and
+perfect men created. Then follows a remarkable series of stories
+relating to the early history and migrations of men.
+
+It is known that similar creation myths existed among the Mexicans
+and other early civilized nations of America, and in ruder and more
+grotesque forms even among the semi-barbarous and hunter tribes. Their
+connection with the ancient Semitic and Turanian revelations of Asia
+is unquestionable.
+
+We have thus in the Assyrian Genesis a relic of early religious belief
+belonging to a period when such widely separated stocks as the
+Assyrian and American were still one: to a period, therefore,
+presumably long anterior to that of Moses. Yet at this very early
+period the central portions at least of the Turanian race had already
+devised some means of recording their traditions in writing--probably
+the arrow-head writing, afterwards used by the Assyrians, had already
+been invented. Again, at this early period a complex polytheism had
+already sprung up, and this was connected with cosmological ideas,
+inasmuch as the primitive abyss, the firmament, the starry heavens,
+the principle of life, were all subordinate gods; and so were also
+some of the earliest of the patriarchs of the human race. It is
+possible, however, that this was among the early Chaldeans an exoteric
+representation for the vulgar, and that the priestly caste may have
+understood it in a monotheistic sense. In any case, the idea of a
+Supreme Creator remains behind the whole. Farther, in the early
+Chaldean record we have a more detailed and expanded document than
+that of the Hebrew Genesis, probably intended for the popular ear, and
+to include as much as possible of the current mythology. As an
+example, I quote the following in relation to the creation of the
+moon, being apparently a part of the narrative of that creative period
+corresponding with the fourth day of Genesis:
+
+ "In its mass [that is, of the lower chaos] he made a boiling,
+ The God Uru [the moon] he caused to rise out, the night he
+ overshadowed.
+ To fix it also for the light of the night until the shining of
+ the day,
+ That the month might not be broken and in its amount be regular.
+ At the beginning of the month at the rising of the night,
+ His horns are breaking through to shine in the heavens.
+ On the seventh day to a circle he begins to swell,
+ And stretches toward the dawn farther."
+
+We now come to the historical connection of all this with Abraham and
+with the Hebrew Scriptures. The early life of the "Father of the
+Faithful" belongs to the time when Turanian and Semitic elements were
+mingled in the Euphratean valley. Himself of the stock of Shem, he
+dwelt in Ur of the Chaldees, a city in whose ruins, now known by the
+name of Mugheir, Chaldean inscriptions have been found of a date
+anterior to that of the patriarch. In the time of Abraham a
+polytheistic religion already existed in Ur, for we are told that his
+father "served other gods." Further, the legends of the creation and
+the deluge, and the antediluvian age, with the history of Nimrod and
+other postdiluvian heroes, existed in a written form; and, strange
+though this may seem, there can be little doubt that Abraham, before
+he left Ur of the Chaldees, had read the same creation legends that
+have so recently been translated and published by Mr. Smith. But
+Abraham's relation to these was of a peculiar kind. With a spiritual
+enlightenment beyond that of his age, he dissented from the Turanian
+animism and polytheism, and maintained that pure and spiritual
+monotheism which, according to the Bible, had been the original faith
+of the sons of Noah. But he was overborne by the tendencies of his
+time, and probably by the royal and priestly influence then dominant
+in Chaldea, and he went forth from his native land in search of a
+country where he might have freedom to worship God. It is thus that
+Abraham appears as the earliest reformer, the first of those martyrs
+of conscience who fear not to differ from the majority, the father and
+prototype of the faithful of every age, and the earliest apostle of
+the monotheistic faith which still reigns among all the higher races
+of men.
+
+Did Abraham take with him in his pilgrimage the records of his people?
+It is scarcely possible to doubt that he did, and this probably in a
+written form, but purified from the polytheism and inane imaginations
+accreted upon them; or perhaps he had access to still older and more
+primitive records anterior to the rise of the Turanian superstitions.
+In any case we may safely infer that Abraham and his tribe carried
+with them the substance of all that part of Genesis which contains the
+history of the world up to his time, and that this would be a precious
+heir-loom of his family, until it was edited and incorporated in the
+Pentateuch by his great descendant Moses. It seems plain, therefore,
+that the original prophet or seer to whom the narrative of creation
+was revealed lived before Abraham, but we need not doubt that the
+latter had the benefit of divine guidance in his noble stand against
+the idolatry of his age, and in his selection of the documents on
+which his own theology was based. These considerations help us to
+understand the persistence of Hebrew monotheism in the presence of the
+idolatries of Canaan and Egypt, since these were closely allied to the
+Chaldean system against which Abraham had protested. They also explain
+the recognition by Abraham, as co-religionists, of such monotheistic
+personages as Melchisedec, king of Salem. They further illustrate the
+nature of the religious basis in his people's beliefs on which Moses
+had to work, and on which he founded his theocratic system.
+
+Before leaving this part of the subject, I would observe that the view
+above given; while it explains the agreement between the Hebrew
+Genesis and other ancient religious beliefs, is in strict accordance
+with the teachings of Genesis itself. The history given there implies
+monotheism and knowledge of God as the Creator and Redeemer, in
+antediluvian and early postdiluvian times, a decadence from this into
+a systematic polytheism at a very early date, the protest and dissent
+of Abraham, his call of God to be the upholder of a purer faith, and
+the maintenance of that faith by his descendants. Besides this, any
+careful reader of Genesis and of the book of Job, which, whatever its
+origin, must be more ancient than the Mosaic law, will readily
+discover indications that Abraham and the patriarchs were in the
+possession of documents and traditions of the same purport with those
+in the early chapters of Genesis, and that these were to them their
+only sacred literature. The reader of the Pentateuch must carry this
+idea with him, if he would have any clear conception of the unity and
+symmetry of these remarkable books.
+
+
+THE MOSAIC GENESIS.
+
+In the period of 400 years intervening between Abraham's departure
+from Ur and the exodus of Israel from Egypt, no great prophetic mind,
+like that of the Father of the Faithful, appeared among the Hebrews.
+But then arose Moses, the greatest figure in all antiquity before the
+advent of Christ, and who was destined to give permanence and
+world-wide prevalence to the faith for which Abraham had sacrificed so
+much. Under the leadership of Moses, the Abrahamidae, now reduced to
+the condition of a serf population, emancipated themselves from
+Egyptian bondage, and, after forty years of wandering desert life,
+settled themselves permanently on the hills and in the valleys of
+Palestine. The voice of the ruling race, indistinctly conveyed to us
+from that distant antiquity, maintains that the fugitive slaves were
+an abject and contemptible herd; but the leader of the exodus informs
+us that, though cruelly trodden down by a haughty despot, they were of
+noble parentage, the heirs of high hopes and promises. Their migration
+is certainly the most remarkable national movement in the world's
+history--remarkable, not merely in its events and immediate
+circumstances, but in its remote political, literary, and moral
+results. The rulers of Egypt, polished, enlightened, and practical
+men, were yet the devotees of a complicated system of hero and animal
+worship, like that from which Abraham dissented, and derived in great
+part from the "animism" which caused some of the oldest nations of the
+world to associate a spiritual indwelling with the natural objects
+surrounding them; or, if they had ceased to believe in this, they had
+sunk into a materialistic devotion to the good things of the present
+world, combined with a superstitious belief in the efficacy of
+priestly absolution.
+
+The slaves, leaving all this behind them, rose in their religious
+opinions to the pure and spiritual monotheism of the great father of
+their race; and their leader presented to them a law unequalled up to
+our time in its union of justice, patriotism, and benevolence, and
+established among them, for the first time in the world's history, a
+free constitutional republic. Nor is this all; unexampled though such
+results are elsewhere in the case of serfs suddenly emancipated. The
+Hebrew lawgiver has interwoven his institutions in a great historical
+composition, including the grand and simple cosmogony of the
+patriarchs, a detailed account of the affiliation and ethnological
+relations of the races of men, and a narrative of the fortunes of his
+own people; intimating not only that they were a favored and chosen
+race, but that of them was to arise a great Deliverer, who would bless
+all nations with pardon and with peace,[7] and would solve once for
+all those great problems of the relations of man to God and the unseen
+world, which in the time of Moses as in our own were the most
+momentous of all, and gave to questions of origins all their practical
+value.
+
+The lawgiver passed to his rest. His laws and literature, surviving
+through many vicissitudes, have produced in each succeeding age a new
+harvest of poetry and history, leavened with their own spirit. In the
+mean time the learning and the superstition of Egypt faded from the
+eyes of men. The splendid political and military organizations of
+Assyria, Babylon, Persia, and Macedon arose and crumbled into dust.
+The wonderful literature of Greece blazed forth and expired. That of
+Rome, a reflex and copy of the former, had reached its culminating
+point; and no prophet had arisen among any of these Gentile nations to
+teach them the truth of God. The world, with all its national
+liberties crushed out, its religion and its philosophy corrupted and
+enfeebled to the last degree by an endless succession of borrowings
+and intermixtures, lay prostrate under the iron heel of Rome. Then
+appeared among the now obscure remnant of Israel, one who announced
+himself as the Prophet like unto Moses, promised of old; but a prophet
+whose mission it was to redeem not Israel only, but the whole world,
+and to make all who will believe, children of faithful Abraham.
+Adopting the whole of the sacred literature of the Hebrews, and
+proving his mission by its words, he sent forth a few plain men to
+write its closing books, and to plant it on the ruins of all the
+time-honored beliefs of the nations--beliefs supported by a splendid
+and highly organized priestly system and by despotic power, and gilded
+by all the highest efforts of poetry and art.
+
+The story is a very familiar one; but it is marvellous beyond all
+others. Nor is the modern history of the Bible less wonderful. Exhumed
+from the rubbish of the Middle Ages, it has entered on a new career of
+victory. It has stimulated the mind of modern Europe to all its
+highest efforts, and has been the charter of its civil and religious
+liberties. Its wondrous revelation of all that man most desires to
+know, in the past, in the present, and in his future destinies, has
+gone home to the hearts of men in all ranks of society and in all
+countries. In many great nations it is the only rule of religious
+faith. In every civilized country it is the basis of all that is most
+valuable in religion. Where it has been withheld from the people,
+civilization in its highest aspects has languished, and superstition,
+priestcraft, and tyranny have held their ground or have perished under
+the assaults of a heartless and inhuman infidelity. Where it has been
+a household book, education has necessarily flourished, liberty has
+taken root, and the higher nature of man has been developed to the
+full. Driven from many other countries by tyrannical interference with
+liberty of thought and discussion, or by a short-sighted
+ecclesiasticism, it has taken up its special abode with the greatest
+commercial nations of our time; and, scattered by their agency
+broadcast over the world, it is read by every nation under heaven in
+its own tongue, and is slowly but surely preparing the way for wider
+and greater changes than any that have heretofore resulted from its
+influence. Explain it as we may, the Bible is a great literary
+miracle; and no amount of inspiration or authority that can be
+claimed for it is more strange or incredible than the actual history
+of the book. Yet no book has ever thrown itself into so decided
+antagonism with all the great forces of evil in the world. Tyranny
+hates it, because the Bible so strongly maintains the individual value
+and rights of man as man. The spirit of caste dislikes it for the same
+reason. Anarchical license, on the other hand, finds nothing but
+discouragement in it. Priestcraft gnashes its teeth at it, as the very
+embodiment of private judgment in religion, and because it so
+scornfully ignores human authority in matters of conscience, and human
+intervention between man and his Maker. Skepticism sneers at it,
+because it requires faith and humility, and threatens ruin to the
+unbeliever. It launches its thunders against every form of violence or
+fraud or allurement that seeks to profit by wrong or to pander to the
+vices of mankind; all these consequently are its foes. On the other
+hand, by its uncompromising stand with reference to certain scientific
+and historical facts, it has appeared to oppose the progress of
+thought and speculation; though, as we shall see, it has been unfairly
+accused in this last respect.
+
+With its antagonism to the evil that is in the world we have at
+present nothing to do, except to caution the student of this venerable
+literature against the prejudices which interested and unscrupulous
+foes seek to cultivate. Its doctrine of the origin of man and of the
+world, and the relation of this to modern scientific and historical
+results, is that which now claims our attention; and this more
+especially in the relation which the Mosaic cosmogony, considered as
+an early revelation from God, may be found to bear to the facts which
+modern scientific research has elicited from the universe itself. The
+aspects in which apparent conflicts present themselves are threefold.
+At one time it was not unusual to impugn the historical accuracy of
+the Pentateuch on the evidence of the Greek historians; and on many
+points scarcely any corroborative evidence could be cited in favor of
+the Hebrew writers. In our own time much of this difficulty has been
+removed, and an immense amount of learned research has been reduced to
+waste paper, by the circumstance that the monuments of Egypt and
+Assyria have risen up to bear testimony in favor of the Bible; and
+scarcely any sane man now doubts the value of the Hebrew history. The
+battle-ground has in consequence been shifted farther back, to points
+concerning the affiliation of the races of men, the absolute antiquity
+of man's residence on the earth, and the condition of prehistoric men;
+questions on which we can scarcely expect to find, at least for a long
+time, any decisive monumental or scientific evidence. Secondly, the
+Bible commits itself to certain cosmological doctrines and statements
+respecting the system of nature, and details of that system, more or
+less approaching to the domain which geology occupies in its
+investigations of the past history of the earth; and at every stage in
+the progress of modern science, independently of the mischief done by
+smatterers and skeptics, earnest bigotry on the one hand, and earnest
+scientific enthusiasm on the other, have come into collision. One
+stumbling-block after another has, it is true, been removed by mutual
+concession and farther enlightenment, and by the removal of false
+traditional interpretations of the sacred records, as well as by
+farther discoveries in relation to nature. But the field of conflict
+has thereby apparently only changed; and we still have some Christians
+in consequence regarding the revelations of natural science with
+suspicion, and some scientific men cherishing a sullen resentment
+against what they regard as an intolerant intermeddling of theology
+with the domain of legitimate investigation. Lastly, the great growth
+of physical science, and the tendency to take partial views of the
+universe as if it were comprehended in mere matter and force, with
+similarly partial views of the doctrines of continuity and the
+conservation of forces, along with the growth of a belief in
+spontaneous evolution as a philosophical dogma, have placed many
+scientific minds in a position which makes them treat the whole
+question of the origin and destiny of man and of the world with
+absolute indifference.
+
+There can nevertheless be no question that the whole subject is at the
+present moment in a more satisfactory state than ever previously; that
+much has been done for the solution of difficulties; that many
+theologians admit the great service which in many cases science has
+rendered to the interpretation of the Bible, and that most naturalists
+feel themselves free from undue trammels. Above all, there is a very
+general disposition to admit the distinctness and independence of the
+fields of revelation and natural science, the possibility of their
+arriving at some of the same truths, though in very different ways,
+and the folly of expecting them fully and manifestly to agree in the
+present state of our information. The literature of this kind of
+natural history has also become very extensive, and there are few
+persons who do not at least know that there are methods of reconciling
+the cosmogony of Moses with that obtained from the study of nature.
+For this very reason the time is favorable for an unprejudiced
+discussion of the questions involved; and for presenting on the one
+hand to naturalists a summary of what the Bible does actually teach
+respecting the early history of the earth and man, and on the other to
+those whose studies lie in the book which they regard as the Word of
+God, rather than in the material universe which they regard as his
+work, a view of the points in which the teaching of the Bible comes
+into contact with natural science at its present stage of progress.
+These are the ends which I propose to myself in the following pages,
+and which I shall endeavor to pursue in a spirit of fair and truthful
+investigation; having regard on the one hand to the claims and
+influence of the venerable Book of God, and on the other to the rights
+and legitimate results of modern scientific inquiry.
+
+The plan which I have proposed to myself in this part of my subject
+is to take the statements of Genesis in their order, and consider what
+they import, and how they appear to harmonize with what we know from
+other sources. This will occupy some space, but it will save time in
+dealing with the remaining parts of the subject. Before entering upon
+it, I propose to devote one chapter to the answers to three questions
+which concern the whole doctrine of revealed religion, whether
+Semitic, Turanian, or Aryan. These are: (1) _Why_ the origin of things
+should be revealed; (2) _How_ it could be revealed; and (3) _What_
+would require to be revealed in order to form the basis of a rational
+theism.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+OBJECTS AND NATURE OF A REVELATION OF ORIGINS.
+
+
+ "There are two books from which I collect my divinity;
+ besides that written one of God, another of his servant
+ nature--that universal and public manuscript that lies
+ expansed unto the eyes of all."--SIR T. BROWNE.
+
+
+There are some questions, simple enough in themselves, respecting the
+general character and object of the references to nature and creation
+in the Scriptures, which yet are so variously and vaguely answered
+that they deserve some consideration before entering on the detailed
+study of the subject. These are: (1) The object of the introduction of
+such subjects into the Hebrew sacred books--the _why_ of the
+revelation of origins. (2) The origin, character, and structure of the
+narrative of creation and other cosmological statements in those
+books--the _how_ of the revelation. (3) The character of the Biblical
+cosmogony, and general views of nature to which it leads--the _what_
+of the revelation.
+
+(1) _The Object of the Introduction of a Cosmogony in the
+Bible._--Man, even in his rudest and most uncivilized state, does not
+limit his mental vision to his daily wants. He desires to live not
+merely in the present, but in the future also and the past. This is a
+psychological peculiarity which, as much as any other, marks his
+separation from the lower animals, and which in his utmost degradation
+he never wholly loses. Whatever may be fancied as to imagined
+prehistoric nations, it is certain that no people now existing, or
+historically known to us, is so rude as to be destitute of some hopes
+or fears in reference to the future, some traditions as to the distant
+past. Every religious system that has had any influence over the human
+mind has included such ideas. Nor are we to regard this as an
+accident. It depends on fixed principles in our constitution, which
+crave as their proper aliment such information; and if it can not be
+obtained, the mind, rather than want it, invents for itself. We might
+infer from this very circumstance that a true religion, emanating from
+the Creator, would supply this craving; and might content ourselves
+with affirming that, on this ground alone, it behooved revelation to
+have a cosmogony.
+
+But the religion of the Hebrews especially required to be explicit as
+to the origin of the earth and all things therein. Its peculiar dogma
+is that of one only God, the Creator, requiring the sole homage of his
+creatures. The heathen for the most part acknowledged in some form a
+supreme god, but they also gave divine honors to subordinate gods, to
+deceased ancestors and heroes, and to natural phenomena, in such a
+manner as practically to obscure their ideas of the Creator, or
+altogether to set aside his worship. The influence of such idolatry
+was the chief antagonism which the Hebrew monotheism had to encounter;
+and we learn from the history of the nation how often the worshippers
+of Jehovah were led astray by its allurements. To guard against this
+danger, it was absolutely necessary that no place should be left for
+the introduction of polytheism, by placing the whole work of creation
+and providence under the sole jurisdiction of the One God. Moses
+consequently takes strong ground on these points. He first insists on
+the creation of all things by the fiat of the Supreme. Next he
+specifies the elaboration and arrangement of all the powers of
+inanimate nature, and the introduction of every form of organic
+existence, as the work of the same First Cause. Lastly, he insists on
+the creation of a primal human pair, and on the descent from them of
+all the branches of the human race, including of course those
+ancestors and magnates who up to his time had been honored with
+apotheosis; and on the same principle he explains the golden age of
+Eden, the fall, the cherubic emblems, the deluge, and other facts in
+human history interwoven by the heathen with their idolatries. He thus
+grasps the whole material of ancient idolatry, reduces it within the
+compass of monotheism, and shows its relation to the one true
+primitive religion, which was that not only of the Hebrews, but of
+right that of the whole world, whose prevailing polytheism consisted
+in perversions of its truth or unity. For such reasons the early
+chapters of Genesis are so far from being of the character of
+digressions from the scope and intention of the book, that they form a
+substratum of doctrine absolutely essential to the Hebrew faith, and
+equally so to its development in Christianity.
+
+The references to nature in the Bible, however, and especially in its
+poetical books, far exceed the absolute requirements of the reasons
+above stated; and this leads to another and very interesting view,
+namely, the tendency of monotheism to the development of truthful and
+exalted ideas of nature. The Hebrew theology allowed no attempt at
+visible representations of the Creator or of his works for purposes of
+worship. It thus to a great extent prevented that connection of
+imitative art with religion which flourished in heathen antiquity, and
+has been introduced into certain forms of Christianity. But it
+cultivated the higher arts of poetry and song, and taught them to draw
+their inspiration from nature as the only visible revelation of Deity.
+Hence the growth of a healthy "physico-theology," excluding all
+idolatry of natural phenomena, and all superstitious dread of them as
+independent powers, but inviting to their examination as
+manifestations of God, and leading to conceptions of the unity of plan
+in the cosmos, of which polytheism, even in its highest literary
+efforts, was quite incapable. In the same manner the Bible has always
+proved itself an active stimulant of natural science, connecting such
+studies, as it does, with our higher religious sentiments; while
+polytheism and materialism have acted as repressive influences, the
+one because it obscures the unity of nature, the other because, in
+robbing it of its presiding Divinity, it gives a cold and repulsive,
+corpse-like aspect, chilling to the imagination, and incapable of
+attracting the general mind.
+
+Naturalists should not forget their obligations to the Bible in this
+respect, and should on this very ground prefer its teachings to those
+of modern pantheism and positivism, and still more to those of mere
+priestly authority. Very few minds are content with simple
+materialism, and those who must have a God, if they do not recognize
+the Jehovah of the Hebrew Scriptures as the Creator and Supreme Ruler
+of the universe, are too likely to seek for him in the dimness of
+human authority and tradition, or of pantheistic philosophy; both of
+them more akin to ancient heathenism than to modern civilization, and
+in their ultimate tendencies, if not in their immediate consequences,
+quite as hostile to progress in science as to evangelical
+Christianity.
+
+Every student of human nature is aware of the influence in favor of
+the appreciation of natural beauty and sublimity which the Bible
+impresses on those who are deeply imbued with its teaching; even where
+that same teaching has induced what may be regarded as a puritanical
+dislike of imitative art, at least in its religious aspects. On the
+other hand, naturalists can not refuse to acknowledge the surpassing
+majesty of the views of nature presented in the Bible. No one has
+expressed this better than Humboldt: "It is characteristic of the
+poetry of the Hebrews that, as a reflex of monotheism, it always
+embraces the universe in its unity, comprising both terrestrial life
+and the luminous realms of space; it dwells but rarely on the
+individuality of phenomena, preferring the contemplation of great
+masses. The Hebrew poet does not depict nature as a self-dependent
+object, glorious in its individual beauty, but always as in relation
+or subjection to a higher spiritual power. Nature is to him a work of
+creation and order--the living expression of the omnipresence of the
+Divinity in the visible world." In reference to the 104th Psalm, which
+may be viewed as a poetical version of the narrative of creation in
+Genesis, the same great writer remarks: "We are astonished to find in
+a lyrical poem of such a limited compass, the whole universe--the
+heavens and the earth--sketched with a few bold touches. The calm and
+toilsome life of man, from the rising of the sun to the setting of the
+same, when his daily work is done, is here contrasted with the moving
+life of the elements of nature. This contrast and generalization in
+the conception of the mutual action of natural phenomena, and the
+retrospection of an omnipresent invisible Power, which can renew the
+earth or crumble it to dust, constitute a solemn and exalted rather
+than a gentle form of poetic creation."[8]
+
+If we admit the source of inspiration claimed by the Hebrew poets, we
+shall not be surprised that they should thus write of nature. We shall
+only lament that so many pious and learned interpreters of Scripture
+have been too little acquainted with nature to appreciate the natural
+history of the Book of God, or adequately to illustrate it to those
+who depend on their teaching; and that so many naturalists have
+contented themselves with wondering at the large general views of the
+Hebrew poets, without considering that they are based on a revelation
+of the nature and order of the creative work which supplied to the
+Hebrew mind the place of those geological wonders which have
+astonished and enlarged the minds of modern nations. A modern divine,
+himself well read in nature, truly says: "If men of piety were also
+men of science, and if men of science were to read the Scriptures,
+there would be more faith on the earth and also more philosophy."[9]
+In a similar strain the patient botanist of the marine algae thus
+pleads for the joint claims of the Bible and nature: "Unfortunately it
+happens that in the educational course prescribed to our divines
+natural history has no place, for which reason many are ignorant of
+the important bearings which the book of nature has on the book of
+revelation. They do not consider, apparently, that both are from
+God--both are his faithful witnesses to mankind. And if this be so, is
+it reasonable to suppose that either, without the other, can be fully
+understood? It is only necessary to glance at the absurd commentaries
+in reference to natural objects which are to be found in too many
+annotations of the Holy Scriptures to be convinced of the benefit
+which the clergy would themselves derive from a more extended study of
+the works of creation. And to missionaries especially, a minute
+familiarity with natural objects must be a powerful assistance in
+awakening the attention of the savage, who, after his manner, is a
+close observer, and likely to detect a fallacy in his teacher, should
+the latter attempt a practical illustration of his discourse without
+sufficient knowledge. These are not days in which persons who ought to
+be our guides in matters of doctrine can afford to be behind the rest
+of the world in knowledge; nor can they safely sneer at the knowledge
+which puffeth up, until, like the apostle, they have sounded its
+depths and proved its shallowness."[10] It is truly much to be desired
+that divines and commentators, instead of trying to distort the
+representations of nature in the Bible into the supposed requirements
+of a barbarous age, or of setting aside modern discoveries as if they
+could have no connection with Scripture truth, would study natural
+objects and laws sufficiently to bring themselves in this respect to
+the level of the Hebrew writers. Such knowledge would be cheaply
+purchased even by the sacrifice of a part of their verbal and literary
+training. It is well that this point is now attracting the attention
+of the Christian world, and it is but just to admit that some of our
+more eminent religious writers have produced noble examples of
+accurate illustrations of Scripture derived from nature. In any case,
+the Bible itself can not be charged with any neglect of the claims of
+nature or with any narrow tendency to place material and spiritual
+things in antagonism to one another.
+
+Another reason why a revelation from God must deal with the origins of
+things, is that such revelation is, like creation, in its own nature
+progressive. It is given little by little to successive generations of
+men, and must proceed from the first rudiments of religious truth
+onward to its higher developments with the growth of humanity from age
+to age. Hence the teachings in the early chapters of Genesis are of
+the simplest and most child-like character, and the first of these
+early teachings is necessarily that of God the Creator, just as our
+elementary catechisms for children have been wont to begin with the
+question, "Who made you?" In this way man is led in the most direct
+and simple way to the feet of the Universal Father, and a foundation
+is laid whereon further religious teaching adapted to the growth of
+the individual mind and to the growing complications of human society
+can be built. But again, alike in the earliest and simplest as in the
+more advanced states of the human mind, if spiritual things are to be
+taught, it must be through the medium of material things. We have no
+language to express in any direct way spiritual truths; they must be
+given to us in terms of the natural. We have not yet learned the
+tongue of the immortals, and probably can not learn it in this world.
+The word "spirit" itself, which we borrow from the Latin, the Greek
+_Pneuma_, the Hebrew _Ruah_, primarily all agree in signifying breath
+or wind. We have to speak of our own breath when we mean our spiritual
+nature, of God's breath when we mean his spiritual nature, and so of
+all other things not obvious to our senses. There is constant danger
+in this that the material shall be taken for the spiritual of which it
+is the symbol, the figure for the reality, the creature for the
+Creator, and this danger is best counteracted by a decided testimony
+in relation to the origin of all material things in the will of the
+spiritual and eternal God. Thus the Bible writers are enabled to use a
+free and bold manner of speech respecting divine things. Their
+expressions at one time appear pantheistic and at another
+anthropomorphic; they see God in every thing, and use with the utmost
+freedom natural emblems to indicate his perfections and procedure, and
+our relations to him. In this way there is life and action in their
+teaching, and it is removed as far as possible from a dry, abstract
+theology, while equally remote from any tinge of idolatry or
+superstition.
+
+It may, however, be objected that by the introduction of a cosmogony
+the Bible exposes itself to a conflict with science, and that thereby
+injury results both to science and to religion. This is a grave
+charge, and one that has evidently had much weight with many minds,
+since it has been the subject of entire treatises designed to
+illustrate the history of the conflict or to explain its nature. The
+revelation of God's will to man for his moral guidance, if necessary
+at all, was necessary before the rise of natural science. Men could
+not do without the knowledge of the unity of nature and of the unity
+of God, until these great truths could be worked out by scientific
+induction. Perhaps they might never have been so worked out. Therefore
+a revealed book of origins has a right to precedence in this matter.
+Nor need it in any way come into conflict with the science
+subsequently to grow up. Science does not deal so much with the origin
+of nature as with its method and laws, and all that is necessary on
+the part of a revelation, to avoid conflict with it, is to confine
+itself to statements of phenomena and to avoid hypotheses. This is
+eminently the course of the Bible. In its cosmogony it shuns all
+embellishments and details, and contents itself with the fact of
+creation and a slight sketch of its order; and in their subsequent
+references to nature the sacred writers are strictly phenomenal in
+their statements, and refer every thing directly to the will of God,
+without any theory as to secondary causes and relations. They are thus
+decided and positive on the points with reference to which it behooves
+revelation to testify, and absolutely non-committal on the points
+which belong to the exclusive domain of science.
+
+What, then, are we to say of the imaginary "conflict of science with
+religion," of which so much has been made? Simply that it results
+largely from misapprehension and from misuse of terms. True religion,
+which consists in practical love to God and to our fellow-men, can
+have no conflict with science. True science is its fast ally. The
+Bible, considered as a revelation of spiritual truth to man for his
+salvation and enlightenment, can have no conflict with science. It
+promotes the study of nature, rendering it honorable by giving it the
+dignity of an inquiry into the ways of God, and rendering it safe by
+separating it from all ideas of magic and necromancy. It gives a
+theological basis to the ideas of the unity of nature and of natural
+law. The conflict of science, when historically analyzed, is found to
+have been fourfold--with the Church, with theology, with superstition,
+and with false or imperfect science and philosophy. Religious men may
+have identified themselves from time to time with these opponents, but
+that is all; and much more frequently the opposition has been by bad
+men more or less professing religious objects. Organizations calling
+themselves "the Church," and whose warrant from the Bible is often of
+the slenderest, have denounced and opposed and persecuted new
+scientific truths; but they have just as often denounced the Bible
+itself, and religious doctrines founded on it. Theology claims to be
+itself one of the sciences, and as such it is necessarily imperfect
+and progressive, and may at any time be more or less in conflict with
+other sciences; but theology is not religion, and may often have very
+little in common either with true religion or the Bible. When
+discussions arise between theology and other sciences, it is only a
+pity that either side should indulge in what has been called the
+_odium theologicum_, but which is unfortunately not confined to
+divines. Superstition, considered as the unreasonable fear of natural
+agencies, is a passive rather than an active opponent of science. But
+revelation, which affirms unity, law, and a Father's hand in nature,
+is the deadly foe of superstition, and no people who have been readers
+of the Bible and imbued with its spirit have ever been found ready to
+molest or persecute science. Work of this sort has been done only by
+the ignorant, superstitious, and priest-ridden votaries of systems
+which withhold the Bible from the people, and detest it as much as
+they dislike science. Perhaps the most troublesome opposition to
+science, or rather to the progress of science, has sprung from the
+tenacity with which men hold to old ideas. These, which may have been
+at one time the best science attainable, root themselves in popular
+literature, and even in learned bodies and in educational books and
+institutions. They become identified with men's conceptions both of
+nature and religion, and modify their interpretations of the Bible
+itself. It thus becomes a most difficult matter to wrench them from
+men's minds, and their advocates are too apt to invoke in their
+defense political, social, and ecclesiastical powers, and to seek to
+support them by the authority of revelation, when this may perhaps be
+quite as favorable to the newer views opposed to them. All these
+conflicts are, however, necessary incidents in human progress, which
+comes only by conflict; and there is reason to believe that they would
+be as severe in the absence of revealed religion as in its presence,
+were it not that the absence of revelation seems often to produce a
+fixity and stagnation of thought unfavorable to any new views, and
+consequently to some extent to any intellectual conflict. It has been,
+indeed, to the disinterment of the Bible in the Reformation of the
+fifteenth century that the world owes, more than to any other cause,
+the immense growth of modern science, and the freedom of discussion
+which now prevails. The Protestant idea of individual judgment in
+matters of religion is thoroughly Biblical, for the Bible everywhere
+appeals to men in this way; and this idea is the strongest guarantee
+that the world possesses for intellectual liberty in other matters.
+
+We conclude, therefore, on all these grounds, that it was necessary
+that a revelation from God should take strong and positive ground on
+the question of the origin of the universe.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+(2) _The Origin, Method, and Structure of the Scriptural
+Cosmogony._--A respectable physicist, but somewhat shallow naturalist
+and theologian, whose works at one time attracted much attention, has
+said of the first chapter of Genesis: "It can not be history--it may
+be poetry." Its claims to be history we shall investigate under
+another head, but it is pertinent to our present inquiry to ask
+whether it can be poetry. That its substance or matter is poetical no
+one who has read it once can believe; but it can not be denied that in
+its form it approaches somewhat to that kind of thought-rhythm or
+parallelism which gives so peculiar a character to Hebrew poetry. We
+learn from many Scripture passages, especially in the Proverbs, that
+this poetical parallelism need not necessarily be connected with
+poetical thought; that in truth it might be used, as rhyme is
+sometimes with us, to aid the memory. The oldest acknowledged verse in
+Scripture is a case in point. Lamech, who lived before the flood,
+appears to have slain a man in self-defense, or at least in an
+encounter in which he himself was wounded; and he attempts to define
+the nature of the crime in the following words:
+
+ "Adah and Zillah, hear my voice;
+ Ye wives of Lamech, hearken to my speech:--
+ I have slain a man to my wounding,
+ And a young man to my hurt;
+ If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold,
+ Truly Lamech seventy and seven fold."
+
+All this is prosaic enough in matter, but the form into which it is
+thrown gives it a certain dignity, and impresses it on the memory;
+which last object was probably what the author of this sole fragment
+of antediluvian literature had in view. He succeeded too--for the
+sentiment was handed down, probably orally; and Moses incorporates it
+in his narration, perhaps on account of its interest as the first
+record of the distinction between willful murder like that of Cain,
+and justifiable homicide. It is interesting also to observe the same
+parallelism of style, no doubt with the same objects, in many old
+Egyptian monumental inscriptions, which, however grandiloquent, are
+scarcely poetical.[11] It also appears in that ancient record of
+creation and the deluge recently rescued from the clay tablets of
+Nineveh.
+
+Now in the first chapter of Genesis, and the first three verses of
+chapter second, being the formal general narrative of creation, on
+which, as we shall see, every other statement on the subject in the
+Bible is based, we have this peculiar parallelism of style. If we ask
+why, the answer must, I think, be--to give dignity and symmetry to
+what would otherwise be a dry abstract, and still more to aid memory.
+This last consideration, perhaps indicating that this chapter, like
+the apology of Lamech, had been handed down orally for a long period,
+connects itself with the theory of the pre-Abrahamic origin of these
+documents to which reference has already been made.
+
+The form of the narrative, however, in no way impairs its precision
+or accuracy of statement. On this Eichhorn well says: "There lies at
+the foundation of the first chapter a carefully designed plan, all
+whose parts are carried out with much art, whereby its appropriate
+place is assigned to every idea;" and we may add, whereby every idea
+is expressed in the simplest and fewest words, yet with marvellous
+accuracy, amounting to an almost scientific precision of diction, for
+which both the form into which it is thrown and the homogeneous and
+simple character of the Hebrew language are very well adapted. Much of
+this indeed remains in the English version, though our language is
+less perfectly suited than the Hebrew for the concise announcement of
+general truths of this description. Our translators have, however,
+deviated greatly from the true sense of many important words,
+especially where they have taken the Septuagint translation for their
+guide, as in the words "firmament," "whales," "creeping things," etc.
+These errors will be noticed in subsequent pages. In the mean time I
+may merely add that the labors of the ablest Biblical critics give us
+every reason to conclude that the received text of Genesis preserves,
+almost without an iota of change, the beautiful simplicity of its
+first chapter; and that we now have it in a more perfect state than
+that in which it was presented to the translators of most of the early
+versions. It must also be admitted that the object in view was best
+served by that direct reference to the creative fiat, and ignoring of
+all secondary causes, which are conspicuous in this narrative. This is
+indeed the general tone of the Bible in speaking of natural phenomena;
+and this mode of proceeding is in perfect harmony with its claims to
+divine authority. Had not this course been chosen, no other could have
+been adopted, in strict consistency with truth, short of a full
+revelation of the whole system of nature, in the details of all its
+laws and processes. This we now know would have been impossible, and,
+if possible, useless or even mischievous.
+
+Regarded from this point of view--the plenary inspiration of the
+book--the Scriptural references to creation profess to furnish a very
+general outline, for theological purposes, of the principal features
+of a vast region unexplored when they were written, and into which
+human research has yet penetrated along only a few lines. Natural
+science, in following out these lines of observation, has reached some
+of the objects delineated in the Scriptural sketch; of others it has
+obtained distant glimpses; many are probably unknown, and we can
+appreciate the true value and dimensions relatively to the whole of
+very few. So vast indeed are the subjects of the bold sketch of the
+Hebrew prophet, that natural science can not pretend as yet so to fill
+in the outline as quite to measure the accuracy of its proportions.
+Yet the lines, though few, are so boldly drawn, and with so much
+apparent unity and symmetry, that we almost involuntarily admit that
+they are accurate and complete. This may appear to be underrating the
+actual progress of science relatively to this great foreshadowing
+outline; but I know that those most deeply versed in the knowledge of
+nature will be the least disposed to quarrel with it, whatever
+skepticism they may entertain as to the greater general completeness
+of the inspired record.
+
+Another point which deserves a passing notice here is the theory of
+Dr. Kurtz and others, that the Mosaic narrative represents a vision of
+creation, analogous to those prophetic visions which appear in the
+later books of Scripture. This is beyond all question the most simple
+and probable solution of the origin of the document, when viewed as
+inspired, but we shall have to recur to it on a future page.
+
+But with respect to the precise origin of this cosmogony, the question
+now arises, Is it really in substance a revelation from God to man? We
+must not disguise from ourselves that this deliberate statement of an
+order of creation in so far challenges comparison with the results of
+science, and this in a very different way from that which applies to
+the incidental references to nature in the Bible. Further, inasmuch as
+it relates to events which transpired before the creation of man, it
+is of the nature of prophecy rather than of history. It is, in short,
+either an inspired revelation of the divine procedure in creation, or
+it is a product of human imagination or research, or a deliberate
+fraud.
+
+To no part of the Bible do these alternatives more strictly apply than
+to its first chapter. This "can not be history" in the strict
+acceptation of the term. It relates to events which no human eye
+witnessed, respecting which no human testimony could give any
+information. It represents the creation of man as the last of a long
+series of events, of which it professes to inform us. The knowledge of
+these events can not have been a matter of human experience. If at all
+entitled to confidence, the narrative must, therefore, be received as
+an inspired document, not handed down by any doubtful tradition, but
+existing as originally transfused into human language from the mind of
+the Author of nature himself. This view is in no way affected by the
+hypothesis, already mentioned, that the first chapters of Genesis were
+compiled by Moses from more ancient documents. This merely throws back
+the revelation to a higher antiquity, and requires us to suppose the
+agency of two inspired men instead of one.
+
+It would be out of place here to enter into any argument for the
+inspiration of Scripture, or to attempt to define the nature of that
+inspiration. I merely wish to impress on the mind of the reader that
+without the admission of its reality, or at least its possibility, our
+present inquiry becomes merely a matter of curious antiquarian
+research. We must also on this ground distinguish between the claims
+of the Scriptures and those of tradition or secular history, when they
+refer to the same facts. The traditions and cosmogonies of some
+ancient nations have many features in common with the Bible narrative;
+and, on the supposition that Moses compiled from older documents, they
+may be portions of this more ancient sacred truth, but clothed in the
+varied garments of the fanciful mythological creeds which have sprung
+up in later and more degenerate times. Such fragments may safely be
+received as secondary aids to the understanding of the authentic
+record, but it would be folly to seek in them for the whole truth.
+They are but the scattered masses of ore, by tracing which we may
+sometimes open up new and rich portions of the vein of primitive lore
+from which they have been derived. It is, however, quite necessary
+here formally to inquire if there are any hypotheses short of that of
+plenary inspiration which may allow us to attach any value whatever to
+this most ancient document. I know but two views of this kind that are
+worthy of any attention.
+
+1. The Mosaic account of creation may be a result of ancient
+scientific inquiries, analogous to those of modern geology.
+
+2. It may be an allegorical or poetical mythus, not intended to be
+historical, but either devised for some extraneous purpose, or
+consisting of the conjectures of some gifted intellect.
+
+These alternatives we may shortly consider, though the materials for
+their full discussion can be furnished only by facts to be
+subsequently stated. I am not aware that the first of these views has
+been maintained by any modern writer. Some eminent scientific men are,
+however, disposed to adopt such an explanation of the ancient Hindoo
+hymns, as well as of the cosmogony of Pythagoras, which bears evidence
+of this origin; and it may be an easy step to infer that the Hebrew
+cosmogony was derived from some similar source. Not many years ago
+such a supposition would have been regarded as almost insane. Then the
+science of antiquity was only another name for the philosophy of
+Greece and Rome. But in recent times we have seen Egypt disclose the
+ruins of a mighty civilization, more grand and massive though less
+elegant than that of Greece, and which had reached its acme ere Greece
+had received its alphabet--a civilization which, according to the
+Scripture history, is derived from that of the primeval Cushite
+empire, which extended from the plains of Shinar over all Southeastern
+Asia, but was crushed at its centre before the dawn of secular
+history. We have now little reason to doubt that Moses, when he
+studied the learning of Egypt, held converse with men who saw more
+clearly and deeply into nature's mysteries than did Thales or
+Pythagoras, or even Aristotle.[12] Still later the remnants of old
+Nineveh have been exhumed from their long sepulture, and antiquaries
+have been astonished by the discovery that knowledge and arts,
+supposed to belong exclusively to far more recent times, were in the
+days of the early Hebrew kings, and probably very long previously,
+firmly established on the banks of the Tigris. Such discoveries, when
+compared with hints furnished by the Scriptures, tend greatly to exalt
+our ideas of the state of civilization at the time when they were
+written; and we shall perceive, in the course of our inquiry, many
+additional reasons for believing that the ancient Israelites were much
+farther advanced in natural science than is commonly supposed.
+
+We have, however, no positive proof of such a theory, and it is
+subject to many grave objections. The narrative itself makes no
+pretension to a scientific origin, it quotes no authority, and it is
+connected with no philosophical speculations or deductions. It bears
+no internal evidence of having been the result of inductive inquiry,
+but appeals at once to faith in the truth of the great ultimate
+doctrine of absolute creation, and then proceeds to detail the steps
+of the process, in the manner of history as recorded by a witness, and
+not in the manner of science tracing back effects to their causes.
+Farther, it refers to conditions of our planet respecting which
+science has even now attained to no conclusions supported by evidence,
+and is not in a position to make dogmatic assertions. The tone of all
+the ancient cosmogonies has in these respects a resemblance to that
+of the Scriptures, and bears testimony to a general impression
+pervading the mind of antiquity that there was a divine and
+authoritative testimony to the facts of creation, distinct from
+history, philosophical speculation, or induction.
+
+One of the boldest and simplest methods of this kind is that followed
+by the authors of the "Types of Mankind," in the attempt to assign a
+purely human origin to Genesis 1st. These writers admit the greater
+antiquity of the first chapter, though assigning the whole of the book
+to a comparatively modern date. They say:
+
+"The 'document Jehovah'[13] does not especially concern our present
+subject; and it is incomparable with the grander conception of the
+more ancient and unknown writer of Genesis 1st. With extreme felicity
+of diction and conciseness of plan, the latter has defined the most
+philosophical views of antiquity upon _cosmogony_; in fact so well
+that it has required the palaeontological discoveries of the nineteenth
+century--at least 2500 years after his death--to overthrow his
+_septenary_ arrangement of 'Creation;' which, after all, would still
+be correct enough in great principles, were it not for one individual
+oversight and one unlucky blunder; not exposed, however, until long
+after his era, by post-Copernican astronomy. The oversight is where he
+wrote (Gen. i. 6-8), 'Let there be _raquie_,' _i. e._, a _firmament_;
+which proves that his notions of 'sky' (solid like the concavity of a
+copper basin, with _stars_ set as brilliants in the metal) were the
+same as those of adjacent people of his time--indeed, of all men
+before the publication of Newton's 'Principia' and of Laplace's
+'Mecanique Celeste.' The blunder is where he conceives that _aur_,
+'light,' and _iom_, 'day' (Gen. i. 14-18), could have been physically
+possible _three whole days_ before the 'two great luminaries,' _Sun_
+and _Moon_, were created. These venial errors deducted, his majestic
+song beautifully illustrates the simple process of ratiocination
+through which--often without the slightest historical proof of
+intercourse--different 'Types of Mankind,' at distinct epochas, and in
+countries widely apart, had arrived, naturally, at cosmogonic
+conclusions similar to the doctrines of that Hebraical school of which
+his harmonic and melodious numbers remain a magnificent memento.
+
+"That process seems to have been the following: The ancients knew, as
+we do, that man _is_ upon the earth; and they were persuaded, as we
+are, that his appearance was preceded by unfathomable depths of time.
+Unable (as we are still) to measure periods antecedent to man by any
+_chronological_ standard, the ancients rationally reached the
+tabulation of some events anterior to man through _induction_--a
+method not original with Lord Bacon, because known to St. Paul; 'for
+his unseen things from the creation of the world, his power and
+Godhead, are clearly seen, _being understood by the things that are
+made_' (Rom. i., 20). Man, they felt, could not have lived upon earth
+without _animal_ food; ergo, 'cattle' preceded him, together with
+birds, reptiles, fishes, etc. Nothing living, they knew, could have
+existed without light and heat; ergo, the _solar system_ antedated
+animal life, no less than the _vegetation_ indispensable for animal
+support. But terrestrial plants can not grow without _earth_; ergo,
+that dry land had to be separated from pre-existent 'waters.' Their
+geological speculations inclining rather to the _Neptunian_ than to
+the _Plutonian_ theory--for Werner ever preceded Hutton--the ancients
+found it difficult to 'divide the waters from the waters' without
+interposing a metallic substance that 'divided the waters which were
+_under_ the firmament from the waters that were _above_ the
+firmament;' so they inferred, logically, that a _firmament_ must have
+been actually created for this object. [_E.g._, 'The _windows_ of the
+skies' (Gen. vii., 11); 'the waters _above_ the skies' (Psa. cxlviii.,
+4).] Before the 'waters' (and here is the peculiar error of the
+genesiacal bard) some of the ancients claimed the pre-existence of
+_light_ (a view adopted by the writer of Genesis 1st); while others
+asserted that 'chaos' prevailed. Both schools united, however, in the
+conviction that DARKNESS--_Erebus_--anteceded all other _created
+things_. What, said these ancients, can have existed before the
+'darkness?' _Ens entium_, the CREATOR, was the humbled reply. _Elohim_
+is the Hebrew vocal expression of that climax; to define whose
+attributes, save through the phenomena of creation, is an attempt we
+leave to others more presumptuous than ourselves."
+
+The problem here set to the "unknown" author of Genesis is a hard
+one--given the one fact that "man is" to find in detail how the world
+was formed in a series of preceding ages of vast duration. Is it
+possible that such a problem could have been so worked out as to have
+endured the test of three thousand years, and the scrutiny of modern
+science? But there is an "oversight" in one detail, and a "blunder" in
+another. By reference farther on, the reader will find under the
+chapters on "Light" and the "Atmosphere" that the oversight and
+blunder are those not of the writer of Genesis, but of the learned
+American ethnologists in the nineteenth century; a circumstance which
+cuts in two ways in defense of the ancient author so unhappily unknown
+to his modern critics.
+
+The second of the alternatives above referred to, the mythical
+hypothesis, has been advanced and ably supported, especially on the
+continent of Europe, and by such English writers as are disposed to
+apply the methods of modern rationalistic criticism to the Bible. In
+one of its least objectionable forms it is thus stated by Professor
+Powell:
+
+"The narrative, then, of six periods of creation, followed by a
+seventh similar period of rest and blessing, was clearly designed by
+adaptation to their conceptions to enforce upon the Israelites the
+institution of the Sabbath; and in whatever way its details may be
+interpreted, it can not be regarded as an _historical_ statement of
+the _primeval_ institution of a Sabbath; a supposition which is indeed
+on other grounds sufficiently improbable, though often adopted. * * *
+If, then, we would avoid the alternative of being compelled to admit
+what must amount to impugning the truth of those portions at least of
+the Old Testament, we surely are bound to give fair consideration to
+the only suggestion which can set us entirely free from all the
+difficulties arising from the geological contradiction which does and
+must exist against any conceivable interpretation which retains the
+assertion of the historical character of the details of the narrative,
+as referring to the distinct transactions of each of the seven
+periods. * * * The one great fact couched in the general assertion
+that all things were created by the sole power of one Supreme Being is
+the whole of the representation to which an historical character can
+be assigned. As to the particular form in which the descriptive
+narrative is conveyed, we merely affirm that it can not be history--it
+may be poetry."[14]
+
+The general ground on which this view is entertained is the supposed
+irreconcilable contradiction between the literal interpretation of the
+Mosaic record and the facts of geology. The real amount of this
+difficulty we are not, in the present stage of our inquiry, prepared
+to estimate. We can, however, readily understand that the hypothesis
+depends on the supposition that the narrative of creation is posterior
+in date to the Mosaic ritual, and that this plain and circumstantial
+series of statements is a fable designed to support the Sabbatical
+institution, instead of the rite being, as represented in the Bible
+itself, a commemoration of the previously recorded fact. This is,
+fortunately, a gratuitous assumption, contrary to the probable date of
+the documents, as deduced from internal evidence and from comparison
+with the Assyrian and other cosmogonies; and it also completely
+ignores the other manifest uses mentioned under our first head. If
+proved, it would give to the whole the character of a pious fraud, and
+would obviously render any comparison with the geological history of
+the earth altogether unnecessary. While, therefore, it must be freely
+admitted that the Mosaic narrative can not be history, in so far at
+least as history is a product of human experience, we can not admit
+that it is a poetical mythus, or, in other words, that it is destitute
+of substantial truth, unless proved by good evidence to be so; and,
+when this is proved, we must also admit that it is quite undeserving
+of the credit which it claims as a revelation from God.
+
+Since, therefore, the events recorded in the first chapter of Genesis
+were not witnessed by man; since there is no reason to believe that
+they were discovered by scientific inquiry; and since, if true, they
+can not be a poetical myth, we must, in the mean time, return to our
+former supposition that the Mosaic cosmogony is a direct revelation
+from the Creator. In this respect, the position of this part of the
+earth's Biblical history resembles that of prophecy. Writers _may_
+accurately relate contemporary events, or those which belong to the
+human period, without inspiration; but the moment that they profess
+accurately to foretell the history of the future, or to inform us of
+events which preceded the human period, we must either believe them to
+be inspired, or reject them as impostors or fanatics. Many attempts
+have been made to find intermediate standing-ground, but it is so
+precarious that the nicest of our modern critical balancers have been
+unable to maintain themselves upon it.
+
+Having thus determined that the Mosaic cosmogony, in its grand general
+features, must either be inspired or worthless, we have further to
+inquire to what extent it is necessary to suppose that the particular
+details and mode of expression of the narrative, and the subsequent
+allusions to nature in the Bible, must be regarded as entitled to this
+position. We may conceive them to have been left to the discretion of
+the writers; and, in that case, they will merely represent the
+knowledge of nature actually existing at the time. On the other hand,
+their accuracy may have been secured by the divine afflatus. Few
+modern writers have been disposed to insist on the latter alternative,
+and have rather assumed that these references and details are
+accommodated to the state of knowledge at the time. I must observe
+here, however, that a careful consideration of the facts gives to a
+naturalist a much higher estimate of the real value of the
+observations of nature embodied in the Scriptures than that which
+divines have ordinarily entertained; and, consequently, that if we
+suppose them of human origin, we must be prepared to modify the views
+generally entertained of early Oriental simplicity and ignorance. The
+truth is, that a large proportion of the difficulties in Scriptural
+natural history appear to have arisen from want of such accommodation
+to the low state of the knowledge of nature among translators and
+expositors; and this is precisely what we should expect in a
+veritable revelation. Its moral and religious doctrines were slowly
+developed, each new light illuminating previous obscurities. Its human
+history comes out as evidence of its truth, when compared with
+monumental inscriptions; and why should not the All-wise have
+constructed as skilfully its teachings respecting his own works? There
+can be no doubt whatever that the Scripture writers intended to
+address themselves to the common mind, which now as then requires
+simple and popular teaching, but they were under obligation to give
+truthful statements; and we need not hesitate to say, with Dr.
+Chalmers, in reference to a book making such claims as those of the
+Bible: "There is no argument, saving that grounded on the usages of
+popular language, which would tempt us to meddle with the literalities
+of that ancient and, as appears to us, authoritative document, any
+farther than may be required by those conventionalities of speech
+which spring from 'optical' impressions of nature."[15]
+
+Attempt as we may to disguise it, any other view is totally unworthy
+of the great Ruler of the universe, especially in a document
+characterized as emphatically _the truth_, and in a moral revelation,
+in which statements respecting natural objects need not be inserted,
+unless they could be rendered at once truthful and illustrative of the
+higher objects of the revelation. The statement often so flippantly
+made that the Bible was not intended to teach natural history has no
+application here. _Spiritual_ truths are no doubt shadowed forth in
+the Bible by material emblems, often but rudely resembling them,
+because the nature of human thought and language render this
+necessary, not only to the unlearned, but in some degree to all; but
+this principle of adaptation can not be applied to plain material
+facts. Yet a confusion of these two very distinct cases appears to
+prevail almost unaccountably in the minds of many expositors. They
+tell us that the Scriptures ascribe bodily members to the immaterial
+God, and typify his spiritual procedure by outward emblems; and this
+they think analogous to such doctrines as a solid firmament, a plane
+earth, and others of a like nature, which they ascribe to the sacred
+writers. We shall find that the writers of the Scriptures had
+themselves much clearer views, and that, even in poetical language,
+they take no such liberties with truth.
+
+As an illustration of the extent to which this doctrine of
+"accommodation" carries us beyond the limits of fair interpretation, I
+cite the following passage from one of the ablest and most judicious
+writers on the subject:[16] "It was the opinion of the ancients that
+the earth, at a certain height, was surrounded by a transparent hollow
+sphere of solid matter, which they called the firmament. When rain
+descended, they supposed that it was through windows or holes made in
+the crystalline curtain suspended in mid-heavens. To these notions
+the language of the Bible is frequently conformed. * * * But the most
+decisive example I have to give on this subject is derived from
+astronomy. Until the time of Copernicus no opinion respecting natural
+phenomena was thought better established than that the earth is fixed
+immovably in the centre of the universe, and that the heavenly bodies
+move diurnally round it. To sustain this view the most decisive
+language of Scripture might be quoted. God is there said to have
+'_established the foundations of the earth, so that they could not be
+removed forever_;' and the sacred writers expressly declare that the
+heavenly bodies _arise and set_, and nowhere allude to any proper
+motion of the earth."
+
+Will it be believed that, with the exception of the poetical
+expression, "windows of heaven," and the common forms of speech
+relating to sunrise and sunset, the above "decisive" instances of
+accommodation have no foundation whatever in the language of
+Scripture. The doctrine of the rotation of solid celestial spheres
+around the earth belongs to a Greek philosophy which arose after the
+Hebrew cosmogony was complete; and though it occurs in the Septuagint
+and other ancient versions, it is not based on the Hebrew original. In
+truth, we know that those Grecian philosophers--of the Ionic and
+Pythagorean schools--who lived nearest the times of the Hebrew
+writers, and who derived the elements of their science from Egypt and
+Western Asia, taught very different doctrines. How absurd, then, is it
+thus to fasten upon the sacred writers, contrary to their own words,
+the views of a school of astronomy which probably arose long after
+their time, when we know that more accurate ideas prevailed nearer
+their epoch. Secondly, though there is some reason for stating that
+the "ancients," though certainly not those of Israel, believed in
+celestial spheres supporting the heavenly bodies, I suspect that the
+doctrine of a solid vault _supporting the clouds_, except as a mere
+poetical or mythological fancy, is a product of the imagination of the
+theologians and closet philosophers of a more modern time. The
+testimony of men's senses appears to be in favor of the whole universe
+revolving around a plane earth, though the oldest astronomical school
+with which we are acquainted suspected that this is an illusion; but
+the every-day observation of the most unlettered man who treads the
+fields and is wet with the mists and rains must convince him that
+there is no _sub-nubilar_ solid sphere. If, therefore, the Bible had
+taught such a doctrine, it would have shocked the common-sense even of
+the plain husbandmen to whom it was addressed, and could have found no
+fit audience except among a portion of the literati of comparatively
+modern times. Thirdly, with respect to the foundations of the earth, I
+may remark that in the tenth verse of Genesis there occurs a
+definition as precise as that of any lexicon--"and God called the _dry
+land_ earth;" consequently it is but fair to assume that the earth
+afterwards spoken of as supported above the waters is the dry land or
+continental masses of the earth, and no geologist can object to the
+statement that the dry land is supported above the waters by
+foundations or pillars.
+
+We shall find in our examination of the document itself that all the
+instances of such accommodation which have been cited by writers on
+this subject are as baseless as those above referred to. It is much to
+be regretted that so many otherwise useful expositors have either
+wanted that familiarity with the aspects of external nature by which
+all the Hebrew writers are characterized, or have taken too little
+pains to ascertain the actual meaning of the references to creation
+which they find in the Bible. I may further remark that if such
+instances of accommodation could be found in the later poetical books,
+it would be extremely unfair to apply them as aids in the
+interpretation of the plain, precise, and unadorned statements of the
+first chapters of Genesis. There is, however, throughout even the
+higher poetry of the Bible, a truthful representation and high
+appreciation of nature for which we seek in vain in any other poetry,
+and we may fairly trace this in part to the influence of the cosmogony
+which appears in its first chapter. The Hebrew was thus taught to
+recognize the unity of nature as the work of an Almighty Intelligence,
+to regard all its operations as regulated by his unchanging law or
+"decree," and to venerate it as a revelation of his supreme wisdom and
+goodness. On this account he was likely to regard careful observation
+and representation with as scrupulous attention as the modern
+naturalist. Nor must we forget that the Old Testament literature has
+descended to us through two dark ages--that of Greek and Roman
+polytheism and of Middle Age barbarism--and that we must not confound
+its tenets with those of either. The religious ideas of both these
+ages were favorable to certain forms of literature and art, but
+eminently unfavorable to the successful prosecution of the study of
+nature. Hence we have a right to expect in the literature of the
+golden age of primeval monotheism more affinity with the ideas of
+modern science than in any intermediate time; and the truthful
+delineation which the claims of the Bible to inspiration require might
+have been, as already hinted, to a certain extent secured merely by
+the reflex influence of its earlier statements, without the necessity
+of our supposing that illustrations of this kind in the later books
+came directly from the Spirit of God.
+
+Our discussion of this part of the subject has necessarily been rather
+desultory, and the arguments adduced must depend for their full
+confirmation on the results of our future inquiries. The conclusions
+arrived at may be summed up as follows: 1. That the Mosaic cosmogony
+must be considered, like the prophecies of the Bible, to claim the
+rank of inspired teaching, and must depend for its authority on the
+maintenance of that claim. 2. That the incidental references to nature
+in other parts of Scripture indicate, at least, the influence of these
+earlier teachings, and of a pure monotheistic faith, in creating a
+high and just appreciation of nature among the Hebrew people.
+
+It is now necessary to inquire in what precise form this remarkable
+revelation of the origin of the world has been given. I have already
+referred to the hypothesis that it represents a vision of creation
+presented to the mind of a seer, as if in a series of pictures which
+he represents to us in words. This is perhaps the most intelligible
+conception of the manner of communication of a revelation from God;
+and inasmuch as it is that referred to in other parts of the Bible as
+the mode of presentation of the future to inspired prophets, there can
+be no impropriety in supposing it to have been the means of
+communicating the knowledge of the unknown past. We may imagine the
+seer--perhaps some aboriginal patriarch, long before the time of
+Moses--perhaps the first man himself--wrapt in ecstatic vision, having
+his senses closed to all the impressions of the present time, and
+looking as at a moving procession of the events of the earth's past
+history, presented to him in a series of apparent days and nights. In
+the first chapter of Genesis he rehearses this divine vision to us,
+not in poetry, but in a series of regularly arranged parts or
+strophes, thrown into a sort of rhythmical order fitted to impress
+them on the memory, and to allow them to be handed down from mouth to
+mouth, perhaps through successive generations of men, before they
+could be fixed in a written form of words. Though the style can
+scarcely be called poetical, since its expressions are obviously
+literal and unadorned by figures of speech, the production may not
+unfairly be called the Song or Ballad of Creation, and it presents an
+Archaic simplicity reminding us of the compositions of the oldest and
+rudest times, while it has also an artificial and orderly arrangement,
+much obscured by its division into verses and chapters in our Bibles.
+It is undoubtedly also characterized by a clearness and grandeur of
+expression very striking and majestic, and which shows that it was
+written by and intended for men of no mean and contracted minds, but
+who could grasp the great problems of the origin of things, and
+comprehend and express them in a bold and vigorous manner. It may be
+well, before proceeding farther, to present to the reader this ancient
+document in a form more literal and intelligible, and probably nearer
+to its original dress, than that in which we are most familiar with it
+in our English Bibles:
+
+
+THE ABORIGINAL SONG OF CREATION.
+
+
+_Beginning._
+
+ In the Beginning God created the Heavens and the Earth,
+ And the Earth was formless and empty,
+ And darkness on the surface of the deep,
+ And the Breath of God moved on the Surface of the Waters.
+
+
+_Day One._
+
+ _And God said_--"Let Light be,"
+ And Light was.
+ And God saw the Light that it was good.
+ And God called the Light Day,
+ And the darkness he called Night.
+ And Evening was and Morning was--Day one.
+
+
+_Day Second._
+
+ _And God said_--"Let there be an Expanse
+ in the midst of the waters,
+ And let it divide the waters from the waters."
+ And God made the Expanse,
+ And divided the waters below the Expanse
+ from the waters above the Expanse.
+ And it was so.
+ And God called the Expanse Heavens.
+ And Evening was and Morning was, a Second Day.
+
+_Day Third._
+
+ _And God said_--"Let the waters under the
+ Heavens be gathered into one place,
+ And let the Dry Land appear."
+ And it was so,
+ And God called the Dry Land Earth,
+ And the gathering of waters called he Seas.
+ And God saw that it was good.
+ _And God said_--"Let the earth shoot forth herbage,
+ The Herb yielding seed and the fruit-tree yielding fruit
+ containing seed after its kind, on the earth."
+ And it was so.
+ And the earth brought forth herbage,
+ The Herb yielding seed and the Tree yielding fruit whose
+ seed is in it after its kind,
+ And God saw that it was good.
+ And Evening was and Morning was, a Third Day.
+
+
+_Day Fourth._
+
+ _And God said_--"Let there be Luminaries
+ in the Expanse of Heaven,
+ To divide the day from the night,
+ And let them be for Signs and for Seasons,
+ And for Days and for Years.
+ And let them be Luminaries in the Expanse of Heaven
+ To give light on the earth."
+ And it was so.
+ And God made two great Luminaries,
+ The greater Luminary to rule the day,
+ The lesser Luminary to rule the night,
+ The Stars also.
+ And God placed them in the Expanse of Heaven
+ To give light upon the earth,
+ And to rule over the day and over the night,
+ And to divide the light from the darkness.
+ And God saw that it was good.
+ And Evening was and Morning was, a Fourth Day.
+
+
+_Day Fifth._
+
+ _And God said_--"Let the waters swarm
+ with swarmers, having life,
+ And let winged animals fly over the earth on the
+ surface of the expanse of heaven."
+ And God created great Reptiles,
+ And every living thing that moveth,
+ With which the waters swarmed after their kind,
+ And every winged bird after its kind.
+ And God saw that it was good.
+ And God blessed them, saying--
+ "Be fruitful and multiply,
+ And fill the waters of the sea;
+ And let birds multiply in the land."
+ And Evening was and Morning was, a Fifth Day.
+
+_Day Sixth._
+
+ _And God said_--"Let the Land bring forth
+ living things after their kind,
+ Herbivores and smaller mammals and Carnivores after their kind."
+ And it was so.
+ And God made all Carnivores after their kind,
+ And all Herbivores after their kind,
+ And all minor mammals after their kind.
+ And God saw that it was good.
+ _And God said_--"Let us make man in our image,
+ after our likeness,
+ And let him have dominion over the fish in the sea
+ And over the birds of the heavens,
+ And over the Herbivora,
+ And over the Earth,
+ And over all the minor animals that creep upon the earth."
+ And God created man in his own image,
+ In the image of God created he him,
+ Male and female created he them.
+ And God blessed them.
+ And God said unto them--
+ "Be fruitful and multiply,
+ And replenish the earth and subdue it,
+ And have dominion over the fishes of the sea
+ And over the birds of the air,
+ And over all the animals that move upon the earth."
+ _And God said_--"Behold, I have given you all herbs
+ yielding seed,
+ Which are on the surface of the whole earth,
+ And every tree with fruit having seed,
+ They shall be unto you for food.
+ And to all the animals of the land
+ And to all the birds of the heavens,
+ And to all things moving on the land having the breath of life,
+ I have given every green herb for food."
+ And it was so.
+ And God saw every thing that he had made,
+ and behold it was very good.
+ And Evening was and Morning was, a Sixth Day.
+
+
+_Day Seventh._
+
+ Thus the Heavens and the Earth were finished,
+ And all the hosts of them.
+ And on the seventh day God ended the work which he had made,
+ And he rested on the seventh day from all his work
+ which he had made.
+ And God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it,
+ Because that in it he rested from all his work that he had
+ created and made.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+OBJECTS AND NATURE OF A REVELATION OF ORIGINS--_Continued._
+
+
+ "What if earth
+ Be but a shadow of heaven, and things therein
+ Each to the other like; more than on earth is thought."
+ MILTON.
+
+
+
+(3) _Character of the Biblical Cosmogony, and general Views of Nature
+which it Contains or to which it Leads._--Much of what appertains to the
+character of the revelation of origins has been anticipated under
+previous heads. We have only to read the Song of Creation, as given in
+the last chapter, to understand its power and influence as a beginning
+of religious doctrine. The revelation was written for plain men in the
+infancy of the world. Imagine Chaldean or Hebrew shepherd listening to
+these majestic lines from the lips of some ancient patriarch, and
+receiving them as truly the words of God. What a grand opening to him of
+both the seen and unseen worlds! Henceforth he has no superstitious
+dread of the stars above, or of the lightning and thunder, or of the
+dark woods and flowing waters beneath. They are all the works of the one
+Creator, the same Creator who is his own Maker, in whose image and
+shadow he is made. He can look up now to the heavens or around upon the
+earth, and see in all the handiwork of God, and can worship God through
+all. He can see that the power that cares for the birds and the flowers
+of the field cares for him. He is no longer the slave and sport of
+unknown and dreadful powers; they are God's workmanship and under his
+control--nay, God has given him a mission to subdue and rule over them.
+So these noble words raise him to a new manhood, and emancipate him from
+the torture of endless fears, and open to him vast new fields of thought
+and inquiry, which may enrich him with boundless treasures of new
+religious and intellectual wealth. Imagine still farther that he wanders
+into those great cities which are the seats of the idolatries of his
+time. He enters magnificent temples, sees elaborately decorated altars,
+huge images, gorgeous ceremonials, priests gay in vestments and imposing
+in numbers. He is invited to bow down before the bull Apis, to worship
+the statue of Belus or of Ishtar, of Osiris or of Isis. But this is not
+in his book of origins. All these things are contrivances of man, not
+works of God, and their aim is to invite him to adore that which is
+merely his fellow-creature, that which he has the divine commission to
+subdue and rule. So our primitive Puritan turns away. He will rather
+raise an altar of rough stones in the desert, and worship the unseen yet
+real Creator, the God that has no local habitation in temples made with
+hands, yet is everywhere present. Such is the moral elevation to which
+this revelation of origins raises humanity; and when there was added to
+it the farther history of primeval innocence, of the fall, and of the
+promise of a Redeemer, and of the fate of the godless antediluvians,
+there was a whole system of religion, pure and elevating, and placing
+the Abrahamidae, who for ages seem alone to have held to it, on a plane
+of spiritual vantage immeasurably above that of other nations. Farther,
+every succeeding prophet whose works are included in the sacred canon,
+following up these doctrines in the same spirit, and added new
+treasures of divine knowledge from age to age.
+
+But admitting all this, it may be asked, Are these ancient records of
+any value to us? May we not now dispense with them, and trust to the
+light of science? The infinitely varied and discordant notions of our
+modern literature on these great questions of origin, the incapacity
+of any philosophical system to reach the common mind for practical
+purposes, and the baseless character of any religious system which
+does not build on these great primitive truths, give a sufficient
+answer. Farther, we may affirm that the greatest and widest
+generalizations of our modern science have, in so far as they are of
+practical importance, been anticipated in the revelations of the
+Bible, and that in the cosmogony of Genesis and its continuation in
+the other sacred books we have general views of the universe as broad
+as those of any philosophies, ancient or modern. This is a hard test
+for our revelation, but it can be endured, and we may shortly inquire
+what we find in the Bible of such great general truths.
+
+Many may be disposed to admit the accurate delineation of natural
+facts open to human observation in the sacred Scriptures, who may not
+be prepared to find in these ancient books any general views akin to
+those of the ancient philosophers, or to those obtained by inductive
+processes in modern times. Yet views of this kind are scattered
+through the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures, and are a natural
+outgrowth and development of the great facts and principles asserted
+in the first chapter of Genesis. They resolve themselves, almost as a
+matter of course, into the two leading ideas of order and adaptation.
+I have already quoted the eloquent admission by Baron Humboldt of the
+presence of these ideas of the cosmos in Psalm civ. They are both
+conspicuous in the narrative of creation, and equally so in a great
+number of other passages. "Order is heaven's first law; and the second
+is like unto it--that every thing serves an end. This is the sum of
+all science. These are the two mites, even all that she hath, which
+she throws into the treasury of the Lord; and, as she does so in
+faith, Eternal Wisdom looks on and approves the deed."[17] These two
+mites, lawfully acquired by science, by her independent exertions, she
+may, however, recognize as of the same coinage with the treasure
+already laid up in the rich storehouse of the Hebrew literature; but
+in a peculiar and complex form, which may be illustrated under the
+following general statements:
+
+1. The Scriptures assert invariable natural law, and constantly
+recurring cycles in nature. Natural law is expressed as the ordinance
+or decree of Jehovah. From the oldest of the Hebrew books I select the
+following examples:[18]
+
+ "When he made a decree for the rain,
+ And a way for the thunder-flash."
+
+ --Job xxviii., 26.
+
+ "Knowest thou the ordinances of the heavens?
+ Canst thou establish a dominion even over the earth?"
+
+ --Job xxxviii., 33.
+
+The later books give us such views as the following:
+
+ "He hath established them [the heavens] for ever and ever;
+ He hath made a decree which shall not pass."
+
+ --Psa. cxlviii., 6.
+
+ "Thou art forever, O Jehovah, thy word is established
+ in the heavens;
+ Thou hast established the earth, and it abideth;
+ They continue this day according to thine ordinances,
+ for all are thy servants."
+
+ --Psa. cxix., 90.
+
+ "When he established the clouds above;
+ When he strengthened the fountains of the deep;
+ When he gave to the sea his decree,
+ That the waters should not pass his commandment;
+ When he appointed the foundations of the earth."
+
+ --Prov. viii., 28.
+
+Many similar instances will be found in succeeding pages; and in the
+mean time we may turn to the idea of recurring cycles, which forms the
+starting-point of the reasonings of Solomon on the current of human
+affairs, in the book of Ecclesiastes: "One generation passeth away,
+and another generation cometh; but the earth abideth for the ages. The
+sun ariseth, and the sun goeth down, and hasteneth to its place whence
+it arose. The wind goeth toward the south, and turneth unto the north.
+It whirleth about continually, and returneth again according to its
+circuits. All the rivers run into the sea, yet the sea doth not
+overflow; unto the place whence the rivers came, thither they return
+again." I might fill pages with quotations more or less illustrative
+of the statement in proof of which the above texts are cited; but
+enough has been given to show that the doctrine of the Bible is not
+that of fortuitous occurrence, or of materialism, or of pantheism, or
+of arbitrary supernaturalism, but of invariable natural law
+representing the decree of a wise and unchanging Creator. It is a
+common but groundless and shallow charge against the Bible that it
+teaches an "arbitrary supernaturalism." What it does teach is that
+all nature is regulated by the laws of God, which like himself are
+unchanging, but which are so complex in their relations and
+adjustments that they allow of infinite variety, and do not exclude
+even miraculous intervention, or what appears to our limited
+intelligence as such. In opposition to this, it is true, some
+physicists have held that natural law is a fatal necessity.[19] If
+they mean by this a merely hypothetical necessity that certain effects
+must follow if certain laws act, this is in accordance with the
+Biblical view, for nothing can resist the will of God. But if they
+mean an absolute necessity that these laws can not be suspended or
+counteracted by higher laws, or by the will of the Creator, they
+assert what is not only contrary to Scripture, but absurd, for "blind
+metaphysical necessity, which is the same always and everywhere, could
+produce no variety of things."[20] It could lead merely to a dead and
+inert equilibrium. On the hypothesis of mere physical necessity, the
+universe either never could have existed, or must have come to an end
+infinite ages ago, which is the same thing. Only on the hypothesis of
+law proceeding from an intelligent will can we logically account for
+nature.
+
+2. The Bible recognizes progress and development in nature. At the
+very outset we have this idea embodied in the gradual elaboration of
+all things in the six creative periods, rising from the formless void
+of the beginning, through successive stages of inorganic and organic
+being, up to Eden and to man. Beyond this point the work of creation
+stops; but there is to be an occupation and improvement of the whole
+earth by man spreading from Eden. This process is arrested or impeded
+by sin and the fall. Here commences the special province of the
+Bible, in explaining the means of recovery from the fall, and of the
+establishment of a new spiritual and moral kingdom, and finally of the
+restoration of Eden in a new heaven and earth. All this is moral, and
+relates to man, in so far as the present state of things is concerned;
+but we have the commentary of Jesus: "My Father worketh hitherto, and
+I work;" the remarkable statement of Paul, that the whole creation is
+involved in the results of man's moral fall and restoration, and the
+equally remarkable one that the Redeemer is also the maker of the
+"worlds" or ages of the earth's physical progress, as well as of the
+future "new heaven and new earth." Peter also rebukes indignantly
+those scoffers who maintained that all things had remained as they are
+since the beginning; and refers to the creation week and to the deluge
+as earnests of the great changes yet in store for the earth.[21]
+
+It is indeed curious to observe how in our version of the Bible this
+idea of progress in the universe, or of "time-worlds," as it has been
+called, has been variously replaced by the words "world" and
+"eternity," owing to the defective ideas prevalent at the time when
+the translation was made. In the Hebrew Scriptures the term _Olam_,
+"age," and in the New Testament the equivalent term _Ai[=o]n_ have
+been thus treated, and their real significance much obscured. Thus
+when it is said, "by faith we understand that the _worlds_ were
+framed," or "by him God made the _worlds_,"[22] or that certain of
+God's plans have been hid "from the beginning of the _world_,"[23] the
+reference is not to worlds in space, but to worlds in time, or ages of
+God's working in the universe. So also these ages of God's working
+are given to us as our only intelligible type of eternity, of which
+absolutely we can have no conception. Thus God's "eternal purpose" is
+his purpose of the ages. So when he is the "King eternal,"[24] and in
+that capacity gives to his people "life everlasting," he is the King
+of the ages, and gives life of the ages. So in the noble hymn
+attributed to Moses (Psalm xc.), where our version has, "from
+everlasting to everlasting thou art God,"[25] the original is, "from
+age to age thou art, O God." It has perhaps been a defect of our
+modern science that it has familiarized us merely with the existence
+of worlds in space, and not with their existence in time. It is only
+in comparatively modern times that the developments of chronological
+geology and of physical astronomy have brought before us, not only the
+long ages in which the earth was passing through its formative stages,
+but also the fact that still longer aeons are embraced in the history
+of the other bodies of our solar system, and of the starry orbs and
+nebulae. These grand conceptions were already embodied in the Hebrew
+revelation, and were used there as the means of giving some faint
+approach to a conception of the unlimited existence of God himself, of
+the ages in which his creative work has been going on, and of the
+future life he has prepared for his redeemed people.
+
+Such views of development and progress are not unknown to many ancient
+cosmogonies and philosophical systems, but they had no stable
+foundation in observed fact until the rise of modern geology and
+physical astronomy; which enable us to affirm that, in addition to
+those changeless physical laws which cause the bodies of the universe
+to wheel in unvarying cycles, and all natural powers to reproduce
+themselves, and, in addition to those organic laws which produce
+unceasing successions of living individuals, there is a higher law of
+progress. We can now trace back man, the animals and plants his
+contemporaries, and others which preceded them, our continents and
+mountain ranges, and the solid rocks of which they are composed--nay,
+the very fabric of the solar system itself--to their several origins
+at distinct points of time; and can maintain that since the earth
+began to wheel around the sun, no succeeding year has seen it
+precisely as it was in the year before. The old Hebrew record affirms,
+and I presume scarcely any sane man really doubts, that this law of
+progress emanates from the mind and power of one creative Being. When
+men see in natural law only recurring cycles, they may be pardoned for
+falling even into the absurdity of believing in eternal succession;
+but when they see change and progress, and this in a uniform
+direction, overmastering recurring cycles, and introducing new objects
+and powers not accounted for by previous objects or powers, they are
+brought very near to the presence of the Spiritual Creator. And hence,
+although no science can reach back to the act of creation, this
+doctrine is much more strongly held in our day by geologists than by
+physicists. It is quite true that the idea of creative acts has been
+superseded to a great extent by that of "creation by law," or by that
+of "evolution." Still behind all there lies a primary creative power;
+and the validity of these ideas and their bearing on theism and
+creation we shall have to discuss in the sequel. In one thing only
+does the Bible here part company with natural science. The Bible goes
+on into the future, and predicts a final condition of our planet, of
+which science can from its investigations learn nothing.
+
+3. The Bible recognizes purpose, use, and special adaptation in
+nature. It is, in short, full of natural theology, akin in some
+respects to that which has been so elaborately worked out by so many
+modern writers. Numerous passages in support of this will occur to
+every one who has read the Scriptures. It is necessary here, however,
+to direct attention to a distinction very obvious in Scripture, but
+not always attended to by writers on this subject. The Bible maintains
+the true "final cause" of all nature to be, not its material and
+special adaptations or its value to man, but the pleasure or
+satisfaction of the Creator himself. In the earlier periods of
+Creation, before man was upon the earth, God contemplates his work and
+pronounces it good. The heavenly hosts praise him, saying, "Thou hast
+created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created."
+Further, the Bible represents intelligences higher than man as sharing
+in the delight which may be derived from the contemplation of God's
+works. When the earth first rose from the waters to greet the light,
+"the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for
+joy." There are many things in nature that strongly impress the
+naturalist with this same view, that the Creator takes pleasure in his
+works; and, like human genius in its highest efforts, rejoices in
+production, even if no sentient being should be ready to sympathize.
+The elaborate structures of fossils, of which we have only fragmentary
+remains, the profusion of natural objects of surpassing beauty that
+grow and perish unseen by us, the delicate microscopic mechanism of
+nearly all organic structures, point to other reasons for beauty and
+order than those that concern man, or the mere utilities of human
+beings; and though there are now naturalists who deny absolutely that
+beauty is an object in nature, and assign even the colors of flowers
+and insects to utility alone, and this of a very low order, this
+doctrine is so repulsive to our higher sentiments that there is
+little danger of its general acceptance; while the slightest
+consideration shows that the utilities referred to could have been
+secured without any of this consummate beauty associated with them,
+and our perception of and delight in which mark in a way beyond the
+ability of skepticism to cavil at our own spiritual kinship with the
+Author of all this profusion of beauty. Yet man is represented as the
+chief created being for whom this earth has been prepared and
+designed. He obtains dominion over it. A chosen spot is prepared for
+him, in which not only his wants but his tastes are consulted; and,
+being made in the image of his Maker, his aesthetic sentiments
+correspond with the beauties of the Maker's work, and he finds there
+also food for his reason and imagination. This view of the subject, as
+well as others already referred to, is finely represented in the
+address of the Almighty to Job.[26]
+
+The Bible also very often refers to the special adaptations of natural
+objects and laws to each other, and to the promotion of the happiness
+of sentient creatures lower than man. The 104th Psalm is replete with
+notices of such adaptations, and so is the address to Job; and indeed
+this view seems hardly ever absent from the minds of the Hebrew
+writers, but has its highest applications in the lilies of the field,
+that toil not neither do they spin, and the sparrows that are sold for
+a farthing, yet the heavenly Father has clothed the one with
+surpassing beauty, and provides food for the other, nor allows it to
+fail without his knowledge. I may, by way of farther illustration,
+merely name a few of the adaptations referred to in Job xxxviii. and
+the following chapters. The winds and the clouds are so arranged as to
+afford the required supplies of moisture to the wilderness where no
+man is, to "cause the bud of the tender herb to spring forth." For
+similar objects the tempest is ordered, and the clouds arranged "by
+wisdom." The adaptations of the wild ass, the wild goat, the ostrich,
+the migratory birds, the horse, the hippopotamus, the crocodile, to
+their several habitats, modes of life, and uses in nature, are most
+vividly sketched and applied as illustrations of the consummate wisdom
+of the Creator, which descends to the minutest details of organization
+and habit.
+
+It is to be observed here that in holding this doctrine of use and
+adaptation in nature, the Bible is only consistent with its own theory
+of rational theism. The Monotheist can not refer nature to a conflict
+of antagonistic powers and forces. He must recognize in it a unity of
+plan; and even those things which appear aberrant, irregular, or
+noxious must have their place in this plan. Hence in the Bible God is
+maker not only of the day but of the night, not only of the peaceful
+cattle but of the voracious crocodile, not only of the sunshine and
+shower but of the tornado and the earthquake. Further, in all these
+things God is manifested, so that we may learn "his eternal power and
+divinity[27] from the things which he has made," and in all these also
+there are emblems of his relations to us. This argument from design is
+in truth the only proof the Bible condescends to urge for the
+existence of God; and it is the only one in which in his later days
+our great English philosopher Mill could see any validity.[28]
+
+If the reader happens to be familiar with the objections to the
+doctrine of final causes, or teleology, in nature, urged in our day
+by Spencer, Haeckel, and others, he will have seen from the foregoing
+statements that these objections are in themselves baseless, or
+inapplicable to this doctrine as maintained in the Bible. There is no
+consistency in the position of men who, when they dig a rudely chipped
+flint out of a bed of gravel, immediately infer an intelligent
+workman, and who refuse to see any indication of a higher intelligence
+in the creation of the workman himself. It is a blind philosophy which
+professes to see in primal atoms the "promise and potency of mind,"
+and which fails to perceive that such potency is more inconceivable
+than the evidence of primary and supreme mind. The men who maintain
+that wings were not planned for flight, but that flight has produced
+wings, and thousands of like propositions, are simply amusing
+themselves with paradoxes to which may very properly be applied the
+strange word devised by Haeckel to express his theory of
+nature--_Dysteleology_, or purposelessness. It is to be borne in mind,
+however, that the teleology of the Bible is not of that narrow kind
+which would make man the sole object of nature, and the supreme judge
+of its adaptations. Inasmuch as God's plan goes over all the ages past
+and future, and relates to the welfare of all sentient beings known or
+unknown to us, and also to his own sovereign pleasure as the supreme
+object, we may not be in a position either to understand or profit by
+all its parts, and hence may expect to find many mysteries, and many
+things that we can not at present reconcile with God's wisdom and
+goodness. We know but "parts of his ways," the "fullness of his power
+who can understand." "His judgments are unsearchable," "his ways are
+past finding out."
+
+4. The law of type or pattern in nature is distinctly indicated in the
+Bible. This is a principle only recently understood by naturalists,
+but it has more or less dimly dawned on the minds of many great
+thinkers in all ages. Nor is this wonderful, for the idea of type is
+scarcely ever absent from our own conceptions of any work that we may
+undertake. In any such work we anticipate recurring daily toil, like
+the returning cycles of nature. We look for progress, like that of the
+growth of the universe. We study adaptation both of the several parts
+to subordinate uses, and of the whole to some general design. But we
+also keep in view some pattern, style, or order, according to which
+the whole is arranged, and the mutual relations of the parts are
+adjusted. The architect must adhere to some order of architecture, and
+to some style within that order. The potter, the calico-printer, and
+the silversmith must equally study uniformity of pattern in their
+several manufactures. The Almighty Worker has exhibited the same idea
+in his works. In the animal kingdom, for instance, we have four or
+more leading types of structure. Taking any one of these--the
+vertebrate, for example--we have a uniform general plan, embracing the
+vertebral column constructed of the same elements; the members,
+whether the arm of man, the limb of the quadruped, or the wing of the
+bat or the bird, or the swimming-paddle of the whale, built of the
+same bones. In like manner all the parts of the vertebral column
+itself in the same animal, whether in the skull, the neck, or the
+trunk, are composed of the same elementary structures. These types are
+farther found to be sketched out--first in their more general, and
+then in their special features--in proceeding from the lower species
+of the same type to the higher, in proceeding from the earlier to the
+later stages of embryonic development, and in proceeding from the more
+ancient to the more recent creatures that have succeeded each other in
+geological time. Man, the highest of the vertebrates, is thus the
+archetype, representing and including all the lower and earlier
+members of the vertebrate type. The above are but trite and familiar
+examples of a doctrine which may furbish and has furnished the
+material of volumes. There can be no question that the Hebrew Bible is
+the oldest book in which this principle is stated. In the first
+chapter of Genesis we have specific type in the creation of plants and
+animals after their kinds or species, and in the formation of man in
+the image and likeness of the Creator; and, as we shall find in the
+sequel, there are some curious ideas of higher and more general types
+in the grouping of the creatures referred to. The same idea is
+indicated in the closing chapters of Job, where the three higher
+classes of the vertebrates are represented by a number of examples,
+and the typical likeness of one of these--the hippopotamus--to man,
+seems to be recognized. Dr. McCosh has quoted, as an illustration of
+the doctrine of types, a very remarkable passage from Psalm cxxxix.:
+
+ "I will praise Thee, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
+ Marvellous are thy works,
+ And that my soul knoweth right well.
+ My substance was not hid from Thee,
+ When I was made in secret,
+ And curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth:
+ Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being imperfect;
+ And in thy book all my members were written,
+ Which in continuance were fashioned when as yet there
+ was none of them."
+
+It would too much tax the faith of many to ask them to believe that
+the writer of the above passage, or the Spirit that inspired him,
+actually meant to teach--what we now know so well from geology--that
+the prototypes of all the parts of the archetypal human structure may
+be found in those fossil remains of extinct animals which may, in
+nearly every country, be dug up from the rocks of the earth. No
+objection need, however, be taken to our reading in it the doctrine of
+embryonic development according to a systematic type.
+
+Science, it is true, or rather I should perhaps say philosophical
+speculation, has sometimes pushed this idea of plan into that of a
+spontaneous genetic evolution of things in time, without any creative
+superintendence or definite purpose. This way of viewing the matter
+is, however, as we shall have occasion to see, both bald and
+irrational, and wants the symmetry and completeness of that style of
+thought which grasps at once progress and plan and adaptation, as
+emanating from a Supreme Will. The question of how the plan has been
+worked out will come up for detailed consideration farther on. In the
+mean time we have before us the fact that the Bible represents the
+cosmos as not the product of a blind conflict of self-existent forces,
+but as the result of the production and guidance of these forces by
+infinite wisdom.
+
+It is more than curious that this idea of type, so long existing in an
+isolated and often depised form, as a theological thought in the
+imagery of Scripture, should now be a leading idea of natural science;
+and that while comparative anatomy teaches us that the structures of
+all past and present lower animals point to man, who, as Professor
+Owen expresses it, has had all his parts and organs "sketched out in
+anticipation in the inferior animals," the Bible points still farther
+forward to an exaltation of the human type itself into what even the
+comparative anatomist might perhaps regard as among the "possible
+modifications of it beyond those realized in this little orb of ours,"
+could he but learn its real nature.
+
+Under the foregoing heads, of the object, the structure, the
+authority, and the general cosmical views of the Scripture, I have
+endeavored to group certain leading thoughts important as preliminary
+to the study of the subject; and, in now entering on the details of
+the Old Testament cosmogony, I trust the reader will pardon me for
+assuming, as a working hypothesis, that we are studying an inspired
+book, revealing the origin of nature, and presenting accurate pictures
+of natural facts and broad general views of the cosmos, at least until
+in the progress of our inquiry we find reason to adopt lower views;
+and that he will, in the mean time, be content to follow me in that
+careful and systematic analysis which a work claiming such a character
+surely demands.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+THE BEGINNING.
+
+
+ "In the beginning Elohim created the heavens and the
+ earth."--Genesis i., 1.
+
+
+It is a remarkable and instructive fact that the first verse of the
+Hebrew sacred writings speaks of the material universe--speaks of it
+as a whole, and as originating in a power outside of itself. The
+universe, then, in the conception of this ancient writer, is not
+eternal. It had a beginning, but that beginning in the indefinite and
+by us unmeasured past. It did not originate fortuitously, or by any
+merely accidental conflict of self-existent material atoms, but by an
+act--an act of will on the part of a Being designated by that name
+which among all the Semitic peoples represented the ultimate, eternal,
+inscrutable source of power and object of awe and veneration. With the
+simplicity and child-like faith of an archaic age, the writer makes no
+attempt to combat any objections or difficulties with which this great
+fundamental truth may be assailed. He feels its axiomatic force as the
+basis of all true religion and sound philosophy, and the ultimate fact
+which must ever bar our further progress in the investigation of the
+origin of things--the production from non-existence of the material
+universe by the eternal self-existent God.
+
+It did not concern him to know what might be the nature of that
+unconditioned self-existence; for though, like our ideas of space and
+time, incomprehensible, it must be assumed. It did not concern him to
+know how matter and force subsist, or what may be the difference
+between a material universe cognizable by our senses and the absolute
+want of all the phenomena of such a universe or of whatever may be
+their basis and essence. Such questions can never be answered, yet the
+succession of these phenomena must have had a commencement somewhere
+in time. How simple and how grand is his statement! How plain and yet
+how profound its teachings!
+
+It is evident that the writer grasps firmly the essence of the
+question as to the beginning of things, and covers the whole ground
+which advanced scientific or philosophical speculation can yet
+traverse. That the universe must have had a beginning no one now needs
+to be told. If any philosophical speculator ever truly held that there
+has been an endless succession of phenomena, science has now
+completely negatived the idea by showing us the beginning of all
+things that we know in the present universe, and by establishing the
+strongest probabilities that even its ultimate atoms could not have
+been eternal. But the question remains--If there was a beginning, what
+existed in that beginning? To this question many partial and imperfect
+answers have been given, but our ancient record includes them all.
+
+If any one should say, "In the beginning was nothing." Yes, says
+Genesis, there was, it is true, nothing of the present matter and
+arrangements of nature. Yet all was present potentially in the will of
+the Creator.
+
+"In the beginning were atoms," says another. Yes, says Genesis, but
+they were created; and so says modern science, and must say of
+ultimate particles determined by weight and measure, and incapable of
+modification in their essential properties--"They have the properties
+of a manufactured article."[29]
+
+"In the beginning were forces," says yet another. True, says Genesis;
+but all forces are one in origin--they represent merely the fiat of
+the eternal and self-existent. So says science, that force must in the
+ultimate resort be an "expression of Will."[30]
+
+"In the beginning was Elohim," adds our old Semitic authority, and in
+him are the absolute and eternal thought and will, the Creator from
+whom and by whom and in whom are all things.
+
+Thus the simple familiar words, "In the beginning God created the
+heaven and the earth," answer all possible questions as to the origin
+of things, and include all under the conception of theism. Let us now
+look at these pregnant words more particularly as to their precise
+import and significance.
+
+The divine personality expressed by the Hebrew Elohim may be fairly
+said to include all that can be claimed for the pantheistic conception
+of "dynamis," or universal material power. Lange gives this as
+included in the term Elohim, in his discussion of this term in his
+book on Genesis. It has been aptly said that if, physically speaking,
+the fall of a sparrow produces a gravitative effect that extends
+throughout the universe, there can be no reason why it should be
+unknown to God. God is thus everywhere, and always. Yet he is
+everywhere and always present as a personality knowing and willing.
+From his thought and will in the beginning proceeded the universe. By
+him it was created.
+
+What, then, is creation in the sense of the Hebrew writer. The act is
+expressed by the verb _bara_, a word of comparatively rare occurrence
+in the Scriptures, and employed to denote absolute creation, though
+its primary sense is to cut or carve, and it is indeed a near relative
+of our own English word "pare." If, says Professor Stuart, of Andover,
+this word "does not mean to create in the highest sense, then the
+Hebrews had no word by which they could designate this idea." Yet,
+like our English "create," the word is used in secondary and
+figurative senses, which in no degree detract from its force when
+strictly and literally used. Since, however, these secondary senses
+may often appear to obscure the primitive meaning, we must examine
+them in detail.
+
+In the first chapter of Genesis, after the general statement in verse
+1, other verbs signifying to _form_ or _make_ are used to denote the
+elaboration of the separate parts of the universe, and the word
+"create" is found in only two places, when it refers to the
+introduction of "great whales" (reptiles) and of man. These uses of
+the word have been cited to disprove its sense of absolute creation.
+It must be observed, however, that in the first of these cases we have
+the earliest appearance of animal life, and in the second the
+introduction of a rational and spiritual nature. Nothing but pure
+materialism can suppose that the elements of vital and spiritual being
+were included in the matter of the heavens and the earth as produced
+in the beginning; and as the Scripture writers were not materialists,
+we may infer that they recognized, in the introduction of life and
+reason, acts of absolute creation, just as in the origin of matter
+itself. In Genesis ii. and iii. we have a form of expression which
+well marks the distinction between creation and making. God is there
+said to have rested from all his works which he "created and
+made"--literally, created "for or in reference to making," the word
+for making being one of those already referred to.[31] The force of
+this expression consists in its intimating that God had not only
+finished the work of _creation_, properly so called, but also the
+elaboration of the various details of the universe, as formed or
+fashioned out of the original materials. Of a similar character is the
+expression in Isaiah xlii., 5, "Jehovah, he that _created_ the heavens
+and spread them out;" and that in Psalm cxlviii., 5, "He commanded and
+they were _created_, he hath also established them for ever and ever."
+
+In as far as I am aware, the word _bara_ in all the remaining
+instances of its occurrence in the Pentateuch refers to the creation
+of man, with the following exceptions: Exodus xxxiv., 10, "I will do
+(create) marvels, such as have not been seen in all the earth;"
+Numbers xvi., 30, "If the Lord make a new thing (create a creation),
+and the earth open her mouth and swallow them up." These verses are
+types of a class of expressions in which the proper term for creation
+is applied to the production of something new, strange, and
+marvellous; for instance, "Create in me a clean heart, O Lord;"
+"Behold, I create new heavens and a new earth." It is, however,
+evidently an inversion of sound exposition to say that these secondary
+or figurative meanings should determine the primary and literal sense
+in Genesis i. On the contrary, we should rather infer that the sacred
+writers in these cases selected the proper word for creation, to
+express in the most forcible manner the novel and thorough character
+of the changes to which they refer, and their direct dependence on the
+Divine will. By such expressions we are in effect referred back to the
+original use of the word, as denoting the actual creation of matter
+by the command of God, in contradistinction from those arrangements
+which have been effected by the gradual operation of secondary agents,
+or of laws attached to matter at its creation. It has been farther
+observed[32] that in the Hebrew Scriptures this word _bara_ is applied
+to God only as an agent, not to any human artificer; a fact which is
+very important with reference to its true significance. Viewing
+creation in this light, we need not perplex ourselves with the
+question whether we should consider Genesis i., 1, to refer to the
+essence of matter as distinguished from its qualities. We may content
+ourselves with the explanation given by Paul in the eleventh of
+Hebrews: "By faith we are certain that the worlds[33] were created by
+the decree of God, so that that which _is seen_ was made of that which
+_appears not_." Or, with reference to the other uses of the word, if
+the first introduction of animal life was a creation, and if the
+introduction of the rational nature of man was a creation, we may
+suppose that the original creation was in like manner the introduction
+or first production of those entities which we call matter and force,
+and which to science now are as much ultimate facts as they were to
+Moses.
+
+The _nature_ of the act of creation being thus settled, its _extent_
+may be ascertained by an examination of the terms heaven and earth.
+
+The word "heavens" (_shamayim_) has in Hebrew as in English a variety
+of significations. Of material heavens there are, in the quaint
+language of Poole, "_tres regiones, ubi aves, ubi nubes, ubi sidera_;"
+or (1) the atmosphere or firmament;[34] (2) the region of clouds in
+the upper part of the atmosphere;[35] (3) the depths of space
+comprehending the starry orbs.[36] Besides these we have the "heaven
+of heavens," the abode of God and spiritual beings.[37] The
+application of the term "heaven" to the atmosphere will be considered
+when we reach the 6th and 7th verses. In the mean time we may accept
+the word in this place as including the material heavens in the widest
+sense: (1.) Because it is not here, as in verse 8th, restricted to the
+atmosphere by the terms of the narrative; this restriction in verse
+8th in fact implying the wider sense of the word in preceding verses.
+(2.) Because the atmospheric firmament, elsewhere called heaven,
+divides the waters above from those below, whereas it is evident that
+all these waters, and of consequence the materials of the atmosphere
+itself, are included in the earth of the following verse. (3.) Because
+in verse 14th the sidereal heavens are spoken of as arranged from
+pre-existing materials, which refers their actual creation back to
+this passage.
+
+In the words now under consideration we therefore regard the heavens
+as including the whole material universe beyond the limits of our
+earth. That this sense of the word is not unknown to the writers of
+Scripture, and that they had enlarged and rational views of the
+star-spangled abysses of space, will appear from the terms employed by
+Moses in his solemn warning against the Sabaean idolatry, in
+Deuteronomy iv.: "And lest thou lift up thine eyes to the heavens, and
+when thou seest the sun and the moon and the stars, even all the host
+of the heavens, shouldest be incited to worship them and serve them
+which Jehovah thy God hath appointed to all nations under the whole
+heavens." To the same effect is the expression of the awe and wonder
+of the poet king of Israel in Psalm viii.:
+
+ "When I consider the heavens, the work of thy fingers,
+ The moon and the stars which thou hast ordained;
+ What is man that thou art mindful of him?"
+
+I may observe, however, that throughout the Scriptures the word in
+question is much more frequently applied to the atmospheric than to
+the sidereal heavens. The reason of this appears in the terms of verse
+8th.
+
+If we have correctly referred the term "heavens" to the whole of
+extramundane space, then the word "earth" must denote our globe as a
+distinct world, with all the liquid and aeriform substances on its
+surface. The arrangement of the whole universe under the heads
+"heaven" and "earth" has been derided as a division into "infinity and
+an atom;" but when we consider the relative importance of the earth to
+us, and that it constitutes the principal object of the whole
+revelation to which this is introductory, the absurdity disappears,
+and we recognize the classification as in the circumstances natural
+and rational. The word "earth" (_aretz_) is, however, generally used
+to denote the dry land, or even a region or district of country. It is
+indeed expressly restricted to the dry land in verse 10th; but as in
+the case of the parallel limitation of the word "heaven," we may
+consider this as a hint that its previous meaning is more extended.
+That it is really so, appears from the following considerations: (1.)
+It includes the deep, or the material from which the sea and
+atmosphere were afterwards formed. (2.) The subsequent verses show
+that at the period in question no dry land existed. If instances of a
+similar meaning from other parts of Scripture are required, I give
+the following: Genesis ii., 1 to 4, "Thus the heavens and the earth
+were finished, and all the host of them;" "these are the generations
+of the heavens and the earth." In this general summary of the creative
+work, the earth evidently includes the seas and all that is in them,
+as well as the dry land; and the whole expression denotes the
+universe. The well-known and striking remark of Job, "Who hangeth the
+earth upon nothing," is also a case in point, and must refer to the
+whole world, since in other parts of the same book the dry land or
+continental masses of the earth are said, and with great truth and
+propriety, to be supported above the waters on pillars or foundations.
+The following passages may also be cited as instances of the
+occurrence of the idea of the whole world expressed by the word
+"earth:" Exodus x., 29, "And Moses said unto him, As soon as I am gone
+out of the city, I will spread abroad my hands unto the Lord, and the
+thunder shall cease, neither shall there be any more hail; that thou
+mayest know the earth is the Lord's;" Deuteronomy x., 14, "Behold, the
+heaven and the heaven of heavens is the Lord's, the earth also, and
+all that therein is."
+
+The material universe was brought into existence in the "beginning"--a
+term evidently indefinite as far as regards any known epoch, and
+implying merely priority to all other recorded events. It can not be
+the first day, for there is no expressed connection, and the work of
+the first day is distinct from that of the beginning. It can not be a
+general term for the whole six days, since these are separated from it
+by that chaotic or formless state to which we are next introduced. The
+beginning, therefore, is the threshold of creation--the line that
+separates the old tenantless condition of space from the world-crowded
+galaxies of the existing universe. The only other information
+respecting it that we have in Scripture is in that fine descriptive
+poem in Proverbs viii., in which the Wisdom of God personified--who
+may be held to represent the Almighty Word, or Logos, introduced in
+the formula "God said," and afterward referred to in Scripture as the
+manifested or conditioned Deity, the Mediator between man and the
+otherwise inaccessible Divinity, the agent in the work of creation as
+well as in that of redemption--narrates the origin of all created
+things:
+
+ "Jehovah possessed[38] me, the beginning of his way,
+ Before his work of old.
+ I was set up from everlasting,
+ From the beginning, before the earth was;
+ When there were no deeps I was brought forth,
+ When there were no fountains abounding in water."
+
+The beginning here precedes the creation of the earth, as well as of
+the deep which encompassed its surface in its earliest condition. The
+beginning, in this point of view, stretches back from the origin of
+the world into the depths of eternity. It is to us emphatically _the_
+beginning, because it witnessed the birth of our material system; but
+to the eternal Jehovah it was but the beginning of a great series of
+his operations, and we have no information of its absolute duration.
+From the time when God began to create the celestial orbs, until that
+time when it could be said that he had created the heavens and the
+earth, countless ages may have rolled along, and myriads of worlds may
+have passed through various stages of existence, and the creation of
+our planetary system may have been one of the last acts of that long
+beginning.
+
+The author of creation is Elohim, or God in his general aspect to
+nature and man, and not in that special aspect in reference to the
+Hebrew commonwealth and to the work of redemption indicated by the
+name Jehovah (_Iaveh_). We need not enter into the doubtful etymology
+of the word; but may content ourselves with that supported by many,
+perhaps the majority of authorities, which gives it the meaning of
+"Object of dread or adoration," or with that preferred by Gesenius,
+which makes it mean the "Strong or mighty one." Its plural form has
+also greatly tried the ingenuity of the commentators. After carefully
+considering the various hypotheses, such as that of the plural of
+majesty of the Rabbins, and the primitive polytheism supposed by
+certain Rationalists, I can see no better reason than an attempt to
+give a grammatical expression to that plurality in unity indicated by
+the appearance of the Spirit or breath of God and his Word, or
+manifested will and power, as distinct agents in the succeeding
+verses. This was probably always held by the Hebrews in a general
+form; and was by our Saviour and his apostles specialized in that
+trinitarian doctrine which enables both John and Paul explicitly to
+assert the agency of the second person of the Trinity in the creative
+work.
+
+This elementary trinitarian idea of the first chapter of Genesis may
+be further stated thus: The name Elohim expresses the absolute
+unconditioned will and reason--the Godhead. The manifestation of God
+in creative power, and in the framing and ordering of the cosmos, is
+represented by the formula "God said"--the equivalent of the Divine
+Word. The further manifestation of God in love of and sympathy with
+his work is represented by the Breath of God, and by the expression,
+"God saw that it was good"--operations these of the Divine Spirit.
+
+The aboriginal root of the word Elohim probably lies far back of the
+Semitic literature, and comes from the natural exclamations "al,"
+"lo," "la," which arise from the spontaneous action of the human vocal
+organs in the presence of any object of awe or wonder. The plural form
+may in like manner be simply equivalent to our terms Godhead or
+Divinity, implying all that is essentially God without specification
+or distinction of personalities. As Dr. Tayler Lewis well remarks in
+his "Introduction to Genesis," we should not dismiss such plurals as
+mere _usus loquendi_. The plural form of the name of God, of the
+heavens (literally, the "heights"), of the _olamim_, or time-worlds,
+of the word for life in Genesis (lives), indicates an idea of vastness
+and diversity not measurable by speech, which must have been impressed
+on the minds of early men, otherwise these forms would not have
+arisen. God, heaven, time, life, were to them existences stretching
+outward to infinity, and not to be denoted by the bare singular form
+suitable to ordinary objects.
+
+Fairly regarding, then, this ancient form of words, we may hold it as
+a clear, concise, and accurate enunciation of an ultimate doctrine of
+the origin of things, which with all our increased knowledge of the
+history of the earth we are not in a position to replace with any
+thing better or more probable. On the other hand, this sublime dogma
+of creation leaves us perfectly free to interrogate nature for
+ourselves, as to all that it can reveal of the duration and progress
+of the creative work. But the positive gain which comes from this
+ancient formula goes far beyond these negative qualities. If received,
+this one word of the Old Testament is sufficient to deliver us forever
+from the superstitious dread of nature, and to present it to us as
+neither self-existent nor omnipotent, but as the mere handiwork of a
+spiritual Creator to whom we are kin; as not a product of chance or
+caprice, but as the result of a definite plan of the All-wise; as not
+a congeries of unconnected facts and processes, but as a cosmos, a
+well-ordered though complex machine, designed by Him who is the
+Almighty and the supreme object of reverence. Had this verse alone
+constituted the whole Bible, this one utterance would, wherever known
+and received, have been an inestimable boon to mankind; proclaiming
+deliverance to the captives of every form of nature-worship and
+idolatry, and fixing that idea of unity of plan in the universe which
+is the fruitful and stable root of all true progress in science. We
+owe profound thanks to the old Hebrew prophet for these words--words
+which have broken from the necks of once superstitious Aryan races
+chains more galling than those of Egyptian bondage.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+THE DESOLATE VOID.
+
+
+ "And the earth was desolate and empty, and darkness was upon
+ the surface of the deep; and the Spirit of God moved on the
+ surface of the waters."--Genesis i., 2.
+
+
+We have here a few bold outlines of a dark and mysterious scene--a
+condition of the earth of which we have no certain intimation from any
+other source, except the speculations based on modern discoveries in
+physical science. It was "unshaped and empty," formless and
+uninhabited. The words thus translated are sufficiently plain in their
+meaning. The first is used by Isaiah to denote the desolation of a
+ruined city, and in Job and the Psalms as characteristic of the
+wilderness or desert. Both in connection are employed by Isaiah to
+express the destruction of Idumea, and by Jeremiah in a powerful
+description of the ruin of nations by God's judgments. When thus
+united, they form the strongest expression which the Hebrew could
+supply for solitary, uninhabited desolation, like that of a city
+reduced to heaps of rubbish, and to the silence and loneliness of
+utter decay.
+
+In the present connection these words inform us that the earth was in
+a chaotic state, and unfit for the residence of organized beings. The
+words themselves suggest the important question: Are they intended to
+represent this as the original condition of the earth? Was it a scene
+of desolation and confusion when it sprang from the hand of its
+Creator? or was this state of ruin consequent on convulsions which
+may have been preceded by a very different condition, not mentioned by
+the inspired historian? That it may have been so is rendered possible
+by the circumstance that the words employed are generally used to
+denote the ruin of places formerly inhabited, and by the want of any
+necessary connection in time between the first and second verses. It
+has even been proposed, though this does violence to the construction,
+to read "and the earth became" desolate and empty. Farther, it seems,
+_a priori_, improbable that the first act of creative power should
+have resulted in the production of a mere chaos. The crust of the
+earth also shows, in its alternations of strata and organic remains,
+evidence of a great series of changes extending over vast periods, and
+which might, in a revelation intended for moral purposes, with great
+propriety be omitted.
+
+For such reasons some eminent expositors of these words are disposed
+to consider the first verse as a title or introduction, and to refer
+to this period the whole series of geological changes; and this view
+has formed one of the most popular solutions of the apparent
+discrepancies between the geological and Scriptural histories of the
+world. It is evident, however, that if we continue to view the term
+"earth" as including the whole globe, this hypothesis becomes
+altogether untenable. The subsequent verses inform us that at the
+period in question the earth was covered by a universal ocean,
+possessed no atmosphere and received no light, and had not entered
+into its present relations with the other bodies of our system. No
+conceivable convulsions could have effected such changes on an earth
+previously possessing these arrangements; and geology assures us that
+the existing laws and dispositions in these respects have prevailed
+from the earliest periods to which it can lead us back, and that the
+modern state of things was not separated from those which preceded it
+by any such general chaos. To avoid this difficulty, which has been
+much more strongly felt as these facts have been more and more clearly
+developed by modern science, it has been held that the word earth may
+denote only a particular region, temporarily obscured and reduced to
+ruin, and about to be fitted up, by the operations of the six days,
+for the residence of man; and that consequently the narrative of the
+six days refers not to the original arrangement of the surface,
+relations, and inhabitants of our planet, but to the retrieval from
+ruin and repeopling of a limited territory, supposed to have been in
+Central Asia, and which had been submerged and its atmosphere obscured
+by aqueous or volcanic vapors. The chief support of this view is the
+fact, previously noticed, that the word earth is very frequently used
+in the signification of region, district, country; to which may be
+added the supposed necessity for harmonizing the Scriptures with
+geological discovery, and at the same time viewing the days of
+creation as literal solar days.
+
+Can we, however, after finding that in verse 1st the term earth must
+mean the whole world, suddenly restrict it in verse 2d to a limited
+region. Is it possible that the writer who in verse 10th for the first
+time intimates a limitation of the meaning of this word, by the solemn
+announcement, "And God called the _dry land_ earth," should in a
+previous place use it in a much more limited sense without any hint of
+such restriction. The case stands thus: A writer uses the word earth
+in the most general sense; in the next sentence he is supposed,
+without any intimation of his intention, to use the same word to
+denote a region or country, and by so doing entirely to change the
+meaning of his whole discourse from that which would otherwise have
+attached to it. Yet the same writer when, a few sentences farther on,
+it becomes necessary for him to use the word earth to denote the dry
+land as distinguished from the seas, formally and with an assertion of
+divine authority, intimates the change of meaning. Is not this
+supposition contrary not only to sound principles of interpretation,
+but also to common-sense; and would it not tend to render worthless
+the testimony of a writer to whose diction such inaccuracy must be
+ascribed. It is in truth to me surprising beyond measure that such a
+view could ever have obtained currency; and I fear it is to be
+attributed to a determination, at all hazards and with any amount of
+violence to the written record, to make geology and religion coincide.
+Must we then throw aside this simple and convenient method of
+reconciliation, sanctioned by Chalmers, Smith, Harris, King,
+Hitchcock, and many other great or respectable names, and on which so
+many good men complacently rest. Truth obliges us to do so, and to
+confess that both geology and Scripture refuse to be reconciled on
+this basis. We may still admit that the lapse of time between the
+beginning and the first day may have been great; but we must
+emphatically deny that this interval corresponds with the time
+indicated by the series of fossiliferous rocks.
+
+Before leaving this part of the subject, I may remark that the
+desolate and empty condition of the earth was not necessarily a
+chaotic mass of confusion--_rudis indigestaque moles_; but in reality,
+when physically considered, may have been a more symmetrical and
+homogeneous condition than any that it subsequently assumed. If the
+earth were first a vast globe of vapor, then a liquid spheroid, and
+then acquired a crust not yet seamed by fissures or broken by
+corrugations, and eventually covered with a universal ocean, then in
+each of these early conditions it would, in regard to its form, be a
+more perfect globe than at any succeeding time. That something of this
+kind is the intention of our historian is implied in his subsequent
+statements as to the absence of land and the prevalence of a universal
+ocean in the immediately succeeding period, which imply that the crust
+had not yet been ruptured or disturbed, but presented an even and
+uniform surface, no part of which could project above the
+comparatively thin fluid envelope.
+
+The second clause introduces a new object--"_the deep_." Whatever its
+precise nature, this is evidently something included in the earth of
+verse 1st, and created with it. The word occurs in other parts of the
+Hebrew Scriptures in various senses. It often denotes the sea,
+especially when in an agitated state (Psa. xlii., 8; Job xxxviii.,
+10). In Psalm cxxxv., however, it is distinguished from the sea:
+"Whatsoever the Lord pleased, that did he in heaven, in the earth, in
+the seas, and _in all deeps_." In other cases it has been supposed to
+refer to interior recesses of the earth, as when at the deluge "the
+fountains of the great deep" are said to have been broken up. It is
+probable, however, that this refers to the ocean. In some places it
+would appear to mean the atmosphere or its waters; as Prov. viii.,
+27-29, "When he prepared the heavens, I was there; when he described a
+circle on the face of the deep, when he established the clouds above,
+when he strengthened the fountains of the deep." The Septuagint in
+this passage reads "throne on the winds" and "fountains under the
+heaven."[39] Though we can not attach much value to these readings,
+there seems little reason to doubt that the author of this passage
+understands by the deep the atmospheric waters, and not the sea,
+which he mentions separately. The same meaning must be attached to the
+word in another passage of the Book of Proverbs: "The Lord in wisdom
+hath founded the earth, by understanding hath he established the
+heavens; by his knowledge the depths are broken up, and the clouds
+drop down the small rain."
+
+In the passage now under consideration, it would seem that we have
+both the deep and the waters mentioned, and this not in a way which
+would lead us to infer their identity. The darkness on the surface of
+the deep and the Spirit of God on the face of the waters seem to refer
+to the condition of two distinct objects at the same time. Neither can
+the word here refer to subterranean cavities, for the ascription of a
+surface to these, and the statement that they were enveloped in
+darkness, would in this case have neither meaning nor use. For these
+reasons I am induced to believe that the locality of the deep or abyss
+is to be sought, not in the universal ocean or the interior of the
+earth, but in the vaporous or aeriform mass mantling the surface of
+our nascent planet, and containing the materials out of which the
+atmosphere was afterward elaborated. This is a view leading to
+important consequences: one of which is that the darkness on the
+surface of the deep can not have been, as believed by the advocates of
+a local chaos, a mere atmospheric obscuration; since even at the
+_surface_ of what then represented the atmosphere darkness prevailed.
+"God covered the earth with the deep as with a garment, and the waters
+stood above the hills," and without this outer garment was the
+darkness of space destitute of luminaries, at least of those greater
+ones which are of primary importance to us. We learn from the
+following verses that there was no layer of clear atmosphere in this
+misty deep, separating the clouds from the ocean waters.
+
+The last clause of the verse has always been obscure, and perhaps it
+is still impossible to form a clear idea of the operation intended to
+be described. We are not even certain whether it is intended to
+represent any thing within the compass of ordinary natural laws, or to
+denote a direct intervention of the Creator, miraculous in its nature
+and confined to one period. It is possible that the general intention
+of the statement may be to the effect that the agency of the divine
+power in separating the waters from the incumbent vapors had already
+commenced--that the Spirit which would afterward evoke so many wonders
+out of the chaotic mass was already acting upon it in an unseen and
+mysterious way, preparing it for its future destiny.
+
+Some commentators, both Jewish and Christian, are, however, disposed
+to view the _Ruach Elohim_, Spirit, or breath of God, as meaning a
+wind of God, or mighty wind, according to a well-known Hebrew idiom.
+The word in its primary sense means wind or breath, and there are
+undoubted instances of the expression "wind of God" for a great or
+strong wind. For example, Isaiah xl., 7: "The grass withereth because
+the wind of the Lord bloweth upon it;" see also 2 Kings ii., 16. Such
+examples, however, are very rare, and by no means sufficient of
+themselves to establish this interpretation. Those who hold this view
+do so mainly in consideration of the advantage which it affords in
+attaching a definite meaning to the expression. Many of them are not,
+however, aware of its precise import in a cosmical point of view. A
+violent wind, before the formation of the atmosphere, and the
+establishment of the laws which regulate the suspension and motions of
+aqueous vapors and clouds, must have been merely an agitation of the
+confused misty and vaporous mass of the deep; since, as
+Ainsworth--more careful than modern interpreters--long ago observed,
+"winde (which is the moving of the aier) was not created till the
+second day, that the firmament was spred, and the aier made." Such an
+agitation is by no means improbable. It would be a very likely
+accompaniment of a boiling ocean, resting on a heated surface, and of
+excessive condensation of moisture in the upper regions of the
+atmosphere; and might act as an influential means of preparing the
+earth for the operations of the second day. It is curious also that
+the Phoenician cosmogony is said to have contained the idea of a
+mighty wind in connection with this part of creation, and the idea of
+seething or commotion in the primitive chaos also occurs in the
+Assyrian tablets of creation, while the Quiche legend represents
+Hurakon, the storm-god, as specially concerned in the creative
+work.[40] On the other hand, the verb used in the text rather
+expresses hovering or brooding than violent motion, and this better
+corresponds with the old fable of the mundane egg, which seems to have
+been derived from the event recorded in this verse. The more
+evangelical view, which supposes the Holy Spirit to be intended, is
+also more in accordance with the general scope of the Scripture
+teachings on this subject; and the opposite idea is, as Calvin well
+says, "too frigid" to meet with much favor from evangelical
+theologians.
+
+Chaos, the equivalent of the Hebrew "desolation and emptiness,"
+figures largely in all ancient cosmogonies. That of the Egyptians is
+interesting, not only from its resemblance to the Hebrew doctrine, but
+also from its probable connection with the cosmogony of the Greeks.
+Taking the version of Diodorus Siculus, which though comparatively
+modern, yet corresponds with the hints derived from older sources, we
+find the original chaos to have been an intermingled condition of
+elements constituting heaven and earth. This is the Hebrew "deep." The
+first step of progress is the separation of these; the fiery particles
+ascending above, and not only producing light, but the revolution of
+the heavenly bodies--a curious foreshadowing of the nebular hypothesis
+of modern astronomy. After these, in the terms of the lines quoted by
+Diodorus from Euripides, plants, birds, mammals, and finally man are
+produced, not however by a direct creative fiat, but by the
+spontaneous fecundity of the teeming earth. The Phoenician cosmogony
+attributed to Sancuniathon has the void, the deep, and the brooding
+Spirit; and one of the terms employed, "baau," is the same with the
+Hebrew "bohu," void, if read without the points. The Babylonians,
+according to Berosus, believed in a chaos--which, however, like the
+literal-day theory of some moderns, produced many monsters before
+Belus intervened to separate heaven and earth. But the Assyrian legend
+found in the Nineveh tablets is very precise in its intimation of the
+Chaos or _Tiamat_, the mother of all things; and, farther, it
+recognizes this personified chaos as the principle of evil, whose
+"dragon" becomes the tempter of the progenitors of mankind, exactly
+like the Biblical serpent. This "dragon of the abyss" is thus
+identical in name and function with the evil principle even of the
+last book of the New Testament, and we have in this also probably the
+origin of the Ahriman of the Avesta. Thus in these Eastern theologies
+the primeval chaos becomes the type of evil as opposed to the order,
+beauty, and goodness of the creation of God--a very natural
+association; but one kept in the background by the Hebrew Scriptures,
+as tending to a dualistic belief subversive of monotheism. The Greek
+myth of Chaos, and its children Erebus and Night, who give birth to
+Aether and Day, is the same tradition, personified after the fanciful
+manner of a people who, in the primitive period of their civilization,
+had no profound appreciation of nature, but were full of human
+sympathies.[41] Lastly, in a hymn translated by Dr. Max Mueller from
+the Rig-Veda, a work probably far older than the Institutes of Menu,
+we have such utterances as the following:
+
+ "Nor aught nor nought existed: yon bright sky
+ Was not, nor heaven's broad woof outstretched above.
+ What covered all? what sheltered? what concealed?
+ Was it the water's fathomless abyss? * * *
+ Darkness there was, and all at first was veiled
+ In gloom profound--an ocean without light;
+ The germ that still lay covered in the husk
+ Burst forth, one nature, from the fervent heat."
+
+It is evident that the state of our planet which we have just been
+considering is one of which we can scarcely form any adequate
+conception, and science can in no way aid us, except by suggesting
+hypotheses or conjectures. It is remarkable, however, that nearly all
+the cosmological theories which have been devised contain some of the
+elements of the inspired narrative. The words of Moses appear to
+suggest a heated and cooling globe, its crust as yet unbroken by
+internal forces, covered by a universal ocean, on which rested a mass
+of confused vaporous substances; and it is of such materials, thus
+combined by the sacred historian, that cosmologists have built up
+their several theories, aqueous or igneous, of the early state of the
+earth. Geology, as a science of observation and induction, does not
+carry us back to this period. It must still and always say, with
+Hutton, that it can find "no trace of a beginning, no prospect of an
+end"--not because there has been no beginning or will be no end, but
+because the facts which it collects extend neither to the one nor the
+other. Geology, like every other department of natural history, can
+but investigate the facts which are open to observation, and reason on
+these in accordance with the known laws and arrangements of existing
+nature. It finds these laws to hold for the oldest period to which the
+rocky archives of the earth extend. Respecting the origin of these
+general laws and arrangements, or the condition of the earth before
+they originated, it knows nothing. In like manner a botanist may
+determine the age of a forest by counting the growth rings of the
+oldest trees, but he can tell nothing of the forests that may have
+preceded it, or of the condition of the surface before it supported a
+forest. So the archaeologist may on Egyptian monuments read the names
+and history of successive dynasties of kings, but he can tell nothing
+of the state of the country and its native tribes before those
+dynasties began or their monuments were built. Yet geology at least
+establishes a probability that a time was when organized beings did
+not exist, and when many of the arrangements of the surface of our
+earth had not been perfected; and the few facts which have given birth
+to the theories promulgated on this subject tend to show that this
+pre-geological condition of the earth may have been such as that
+described in the words now under consideration. I may remark, in
+addition, that if the words of Moses imply the cooling of the globe
+from a molten or intensely heated state down to a temperature at which
+water could exist on its surface, the known rate of cooling of bodies
+of the dimensions and materials of the earth shows that the time
+included in these two verses of Genesis must have been enormous,
+amounting it may be to many millions of years.
+
+There are two other sciences besides geology which have in modern
+times attempted to penetrate into the mysteries of the primitive
+abyss, at least by hypothetical explanations--astronomy and chemistry.
+The magnificent nebular hypothesis of La Place, which explains the
+formation of the whole solar system by the condensation of a revolving
+mass of gaseous matter, would manifestly bring our earth to the
+condition of a fluid body, with or without a solid crust, and
+surrounded by a huge atmosphere of its more volatile materials,
+gradually condensing itself around the central nucleus. Chemistry
+informs us that this vaporous mass would contain not only the
+atmospheric air and water, but all the carbon, sulphur, phosphorus,
+chlorine, and other elements, volatile in themselves, or forming
+volatile compounds with oxygen or hydrogen, that are now imprisoned in
+various states of combination in the solid crust of the earth. Such an
+atmosphere--vast, dark, pestilential, and capable in its condensation
+of producing the most intense chemical action--is a necessity of an
+earth condensing from a vaporous and incandescent state. Thus, in so
+far as scientific speculation ventures to penetrate into the genesis
+of the earth, its conclusions are at one with the Mosaic cosmogony and
+with the traditions of most ancient nations as to the primitive
+existence of a chaos--formless and void, in which "nor aught nor
+nought existed."
+
+Some of the details of the Mosaic vision of the primeval chaos may be
+supplied by the probabilities established by physics and chemistry.
+Our first idea of the earth would be a vast vaporous ball, recently
+spun out from the general mass of vapors forming the nebula which once
+represented the solar system. This huge cloud, whirling its annual
+round about the still vaporous centre of the system, would consist of
+all the materials now constituting the solid rocks as well as those of
+the seas and atmosphere, their atoms kept asunder by the force of
+heat, preventing not only their mechanical union, but even their
+chemical combination. But heat is being radiated on all sides into
+space, and the opposing force of gravitation is little by little
+gathering the particles toward the centre. At length a liquid nucleus
+is formed, while upon this are being precipitated showers of
+condensing matter from the still vast atmosphere to add to its volume.
+As this process advances, a new brilliancy is given to the feebly
+shining vapors by the incandescence of solid particles in the upper
+layers of the atmosphere, and in this stage our earth would be a
+little sun, a miniature of that which now forms the centre of our
+system, and which still, by virtue of its greater mass, continues in
+this state. But at length, by further cooling, this brilliancy is
+lost, and the still fluid globe is surrounded by a vast cloudy pall,
+in which condensing vapors gather in huge dark masses, and amid
+terrible electrical explosions, pour, in constantly increasing, acid,
+corrosive rains, upon the heated nucleus, combining with its
+materials, or again flashing into vapors. Thus darkness dense and
+gross would settle upon the vaporous deep, and would continue for long
+ages, until the atmosphere could be finally cleared of its superfluous
+vapors. In the mean time a crust of slag or cinder has been forming
+upon the molten nucleus. Broken again and again by the heaving of the
+seething mass, it at length sets permanently, and finally allows some
+portion of the liquid rain condensed upon it to remain as a boiling
+ocean. Then began the reign of the waters, under which the first
+stratified rocks were laid down by the deposit of earthy and saline
+matter suspended or dissolved in the heated sea. Such is the picture
+which science presents to us of the genesis of the earth, and so far
+as we can judge from his words, such must have been the picture
+presented to the mental vision of the ancient seer of creation; but he
+could discern also that mysterious influence, the "breath of Elohim,"
+which moved on the face of the waters, and prepared for the evolution
+of land and of life from their bosom. He saw--
+
+ "An earth--formless and void;
+ A vaporous abyss--dark at its very surface;
+ A universal ocean--the breath of God hovering over it."
+
+How could such a scene be represented in words? since it presented
+none of the familiar features of the actual world. Had he attempted to
+dilate upon it, he would, in the absence of the facts furnished by
+modern science, have been obliged, like the writers of some of the
+less simple and primitive cosmogonies already quoted,[42] to adopt the
+feeble expedient of enumerating the things not present. He wisely
+contents himself with a few well-chosen words, which boldly sketch the
+crude materials of a world hopeless and chaotic but for the animating
+breath of the Almighty, who has created even that old chaos out of
+which is to be worked in the course of the six creative days all the
+variety and beauty of a finished world.
+
+In conclusion, the reader will perceive how this reticence of the
+author of Genesis strengthens the argument for the primitive age of
+the document, and for the vision-theory as to its origin; and will
+also observe that, in the conception of this ancient writer, the
+"promise and potency" of order and life reside not alone in the atoms
+of a vaporous world, but also in the will of its Creator.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+LIGHT AND CREATIVE DAYS.
+
+
+ "And God said, Let light be, and light was; and God saw the
+ light that it was good, and separated the light from the
+ darkness; and God called the light Day; and the darkness he
+ called Night. And Evening was and Morning was--Day
+ one."--Genesis i., 3-5.
+
+
+Light is the first element of order and perfection introduced upon our
+planet--the first innovation on the old regime of darkness and
+desolation. There is a beautiful propriety in this, for the Hebrew
+_Aur_ (light) should be viewed as including heat and electricity as
+well as light; and these three forces--if they are really distinct,
+and not merely various movements of one and the same ether--are in
+themselves, or the proximate causes of their manifestation, the prime
+movers of the machinery of nature, the vivifying forces without which
+the primeval desolation would have been eternal. The statement
+presented here is, however, a bold one. Light without luminaries,
+which were afterward formed--independent light, so to speak, shining
+all around the earth--is an idea not likely to have occurred in the
+days of Moses to the framer of a fictitious cosmogony, and yet it
+corresponds in a remarkable manner with some of the theories which
+have grown out of modern induction.
+
+I have said that the Hebrew word translated "light" includes the
+vibratory movements which we call heat and electricity as well. I make
+this statement, not intending to assert that the Hebrews experimented
+on these forces in the manner of modern science, and would therefore
+be prepared to understand their laws or correlations as fully as we
+can. I give the word this general sense simply because throughout the
+Bible it is used to denote the solar light and heat, and also the
+electric light of the thunder-cloud: "the light of His cloud," "the
+bright light which is in the clouds." The absence of "_aur_,"
+therefore, in the primeval earth, is the absence of solar radiation,
+of the lightning's flash, and of volcanic fires. We shall in the
+succeeding verses find additional reasons for excluding all these
+phenomena from the darkness of the primeval night.
+
+The light of the first day can not reasonably be supposed to have been
+in any other than a visible and active state. Whether light be, as
+supposed by the older physicists, luminous matter radiated with
+immense velocity, or, as now appears more probable, merely the
+undulations of a universally diffused ether, its motion had already
+commenced. The idea of the matter of light as distinct from its power
+of affecting the senses does not appear in the Scriptures any farther
+than that the Hebrew name is probably radically identical with the
+word ether now used to express the undulating medium by which light is
+propagated; and if it did, the general creation of matter being stated
+in verse 1, and the notice of the separation of light and darkness
+being distinctly given in the present verse, there is no place left
+for such a view here. For this reason, that explanation of these words
+which supposes that on the first day the _matter_ of light, or the
+ether whose motions produce light, was created, and that on the fourth
+day, when luminaries were appointed, it became visible by beginning to
+undulate, must be abandoned; and the connection between these two
+statements must be sought in some other group of facts than that
+connected with the existence of the matter of light as distinct from
+its undulations.
+
+What, then, was the nature of the light which on the first day shone
+without the presence of any local luminary? It must have proceeded
+from luminous matter diffused through the whole space of the solar
+system, or surrounding our globe as with a mantle. It was "clothed
+with light as with a garment,"
+
+ "Sphered in a radiant cloud, for yet the sun was not."
+
+We have already rejected the hypothesis that the primeval night
+proceeded from a temporary obscuration of the atmosphere; and the
+expression, "God said, Let light be," affords an additional reason,
+since, in accordance with the strict precision of language which
+everywhere prevails in this ancient document, a mere restoration of
+light would not be stated in such terms. If we wish to find a natural
+explanation of the mode of illumination referred to, we must recur to
+one or other of the suppositions mentioned above, that the luminous
+matter formed a nebulous atmosphere, slowly concentrating itself
+toward the centre of the solar system, or that it formed a special
+envelope of our earth, which subsequently disappeared.
+
+We may suppose this light-giving matter to be the same with that which
+now surrounds the sun, and constitutes the stratum of luminous
+substance which, by its wondrous and unceasing power of emitting
+light, gives him all his glory. To explain the division of the light
+from the darkness, we need only suppose that the luminous matter, in
+the progress of its concentration, was at length all gathered within
+the earth's orbit, and then, as one hemisphere only would be
+illuminated at a time, the separation of light from darkness, or of
+day from night, would be established. This hypothesis, suggested by
+the words themselves, affords a simple and natural explanation of a
+statement otherwise obscure.
+
+It is an instructive circumstance that the probabilities respecting
+the early state of our planet, thus deduced from the Scriptural
+narrative, correspond very closely with the most ingenious and truly
+philosophical speculation ever hazarded respecting the origin of our
+solar system. I refer to the cosmical hypothesis of La Place, which
+was certainly formed without any reference to the Bible; and by
+persons whose views of the Mosaic narrative are of that shallow
+character which is too prevalent, has been suspected as of infidel
+tendency. La Place's theory is based on the following properties of
+the solar system, which will be found referred to in this connection
+in many popular works on astronomy: 1. The orbits of the planets are
+nearly circular. 2. They revolve nearly in the plane of the sun's
+equator.[43] 3. They all revolve round the sun in one direction, which
+is also the direction of the sun's rotation. 4. They rotate on their
+axes also, as far as is known, in the same direction. 5. Their
+satellites, with the exception of those of Uranus and Neptune, revolve
+in the same direction. Now all these coincidences can scarcely have
+been fortuitous, and yet they might have been otherwise without
+affecting the working of the system; and, farther, if not fortuitous,
+they correspond precisely with the results which would flow from the
+condensation of a revolving mass of nebulous matter. La Place,
+therefore, conceived that in the beginning the matter of our system
+existed in the condition of a mass of vaporous material, having a
+central nucleus more or less dense, and the whole rotating in a
+uniform direction. Such a mass must, "in condensing by cold, leave in
+the plane of its equator zones of vapor composed of substances which
+required an intense degree of cold to return to a liquid or solid
+state. These zones must have begun by circulating round the sun in the
+form of concentric rings, the most volatile molecules of which must
+have formed the superior part, and the most condensed the inferior
+part. If all the nebulous molecules of which these rings are composed
+had continued to cool without disuniting, they would have ended by
+forming a liquid or solid ring. But the regular constitution which all
+parts of the ring would require for this, and which they would have
+needed to preserve when cooling, would make this phenomenon extremely
+rare. Accordingly the solar system presents only one instance of
+it--that of the rings of Saturn. Generally the ring must have broken
+into several parts which have continued to circulate round the sun,
+and with almost equal velocity, while at the same time, in consequence
+of their separation, they would acquire a rotatory motion round their
+respective centres of gravity; and as the molecules of the superior
+part of the ring--that is to say, those farthest from the centre of
+the sun--had necessarily an absolute velocity greater than the
+molecules of the inferior part which is nearest it, the rotatory
+motion common to all the fragments must always have been in the same
+direction with the orbitual motion. However, if after their division
+one of these fragments has been sufficiently superior to the others to
+unite them to it by its attraction, they will have formed only a mass
+of vapor, which, by the continual friction of all its parts, must have
+assumed the form of a spheroid, flattened at the poles and expanded in
+the direction of its equator."[44] Here, then, are rings of vapor left
+by the successive retreats of the atmosphere of the sun, changed into
+so many planets in the condition of vapor, circulating round the
+central orb, and possessing a rotatory motion in the direction of
+their revolution, while the solar mass was gradually contracting
+itself round its centre and assuming its present organized form. Such
+is a general view of the hypothesis of La Place, which may also be
+followed out into all the known details of the solar system, and will
+be found to account for them all. Into these details, however, we can
+not now enter. Let us now compare this ingenious speculation with the
+Scripture narrative. In both we have the raw material of the heavens
+and the earth created before it assumed its distinct forms. In both we
+have that state of the planets characterized as without form and void,
+the condensing nebulous mass of La Place's theory being in perfect
+correspondence with the Scriptural "deep." In both it is implied that
+the permanent mutual relations of the several bodies of the system
+must have been perfected long after their origin. Lastly, supposing
+the luminous atmosphere of our sun to have been of such a character as
+to concentrate itself wholly around the centre of the system, and that
+as it became concentrated it acquired its intense luminosity, we have
+in both the production of light from the same cause; and in both it
+would follow that the concentration of this matter within the orbit of
+the earth would effect the separation of day from night, by
+illuminating alternately the opposite sides of the earth. It is true
+that the theory of La Place does not provide for any such special
+condensation of luminous matter, nor for any precise stage of the
+process as that in which the arrangements of light and darkness should
+be completed; but under his hypothesis it seems necessary to account
+in some such way for the sole luminosity of the sun; and the point of
+separation of day and night must have been a marked epoch in the
+history of the process for each planet. The theory of accretion of
+matter which has in modern times been associated with that of La Place
+would equally well accord with the indications in our Mosaic
+record.[45]
+
+It is further to be observed that so long as the material of the earth
+constituted a part of the great vaporous mass, it would be encompassed
+with its diffused light, and that after it had been left outside the
+contracting solar envelope, it might still retain some independent
+luminosity in its atmosphere, a trace of which may still exist in the
+auroral displays of the upper strata of the air. The earth might thus
+at first be in total darkness. It might then be dimly lighted by the
+surrounding nebulosity, or by a luminous envelope in its own
+atmosphere. Then it might, as before explained, relapse into the
+darkness of its misty mantle, and as this cleared away and the light
+of the sun increased and became condensed, the latter would gradually
+be installed into his office as the sole orb of day. It is quite
+evident that we thus have a sufficient hypothetical explanation of the
+light of the first of the creative aeons; and this is all that in the
+present state of science we can expect. "Where is the way where light
+dwelleth? and as for darkness, where is the place thereof, that thou
+shouldest take it to the bound thereof, and know the way to the house
+thereof?"
+
+For the reasons above given, we must regard the hypothesis of the
+great French astronomer as a wonderful approximation to the grand and
+simple plan of the construction of our system as revealed in
+Scripture. Nor must we omit to notice that the telescope and the
+spectroscope reveal to us in the heavens gaseous nebular bodies which
+may well be new systems in progress of formation, and in which the
+Creator is even now dividing the light from the darkness. Still
+another thought in connection with this subject is that the theory of
+a condensing system affords a measure of the aggregate time occupied
+in the work of creation. Sir William Thomson's well-known calculations
+give us one hundred millions of years as the possible age of the earth
+as a planetary globe; but calculations of the sun's heat as produced
+by gravitation alone would give a much less time. We have, however, a
+right to assume an original heated condition of the vaporous mass from
+which the sun was formed. Still the date above given would seem to be
+a maximum rather than a minimum age for the solar system.
+
+"God saw the light that it was good," though it illuminated but a
+waste of lifeless waters. It was good because beautiful in itself, and
+because God saw it in its relations to long trains of processes and
+wonderful organic structures on which it was to act as a vivifying
+agency. Throughout the Scriptures light is not only good, but an
+emblem of higher good. In Psalm civ. God is represented as "clothing
+himself with light as with a garment;" and in many other parts of
+these exquisite lyrics we have similar figures. "The Lord is my light
+and salvation;" "Lift up the light of thy countenance upon me;" "The
+entrance of thy law giveth light;" "The path of the just is as a
+shining light." And the great spiritual Light of the world, the "only
+begotten of the Father," the mediator alike in creation and
+redemption, is himself the "Sun of Righteousness." Perhaps the noblest
+Scripture passage relating to the blessing of light is one in the
+address of Jehovah to Job, which is unfortunately so imperfectly
+translated in the English version as to be almost unintelligible:
+
+ "Hast thou in thy lifetime given law to the morning,
+ Or caused the dawn to know its place,
+ That it may enclose the horizon in its grasp,
+ And chase the robbers before it:
+ It rolls along as the seal over the clay,
+ Causing all things to stand forth in gorgeous apparel."[46]
+
+ Job xxxviii., 12.
+
+
+The concluding words, "Day one," bring us to the consideration of one
+of the most difficult problems in this history, and one on which its
+significance in a great measure depends--the meaning of the word
+_day_, and the length of the days of creation.
+
+In pursuing this investigation, I shall refrain from noticing in
+detail the views of the many able modern writers who, from Cuvier, De
+Luc, and Jameson, down to Hugh Miller, Donald McDonald, and Tayler
+Lewis, have maintained the period theory, or those equally numerous
+and able writers who have supported the opposite view. I acknowledge
+obligations to them all, but prefer to direct my attention immediately
+to the record itself.
+
+The first important fact that strikes us is one which has not
+received the attention it deserves, viz., that the word _day_ is
+evidently used in three senses in the record itself. We are told
+(verse 5th) that God called the _light_, that is, the diurnal
+continuance of light, day. We are also informed that the _evening_ and
+the _morning_ were the first day. Day, therefore, in one of these
+clauses is the light as separated from the darkness, which we may call
+the _natural day_; in the other it is the whole time occupied in the
+creation of light and its separation from the darkness, whether that
+was a _civil or astronomical day_ of twenty-four hours or some longer
+period. In other words, the daylight, to which God is represented as
+restricting the use of the term day, is only a part of a day of
+creation, which included both light and darkness, and which might be
+either a civil day or a longer period, but could not be the natural
+day intervening between sunrise and sunset, which is the _ordinary_
+day of Scripture phraseology. Again, in the 4th verse of chapter ii.,
+which begins the second part of the history, the whole creative week
+is called one day--"In the day that Jehovah Elohim made the earth and
+the heavens." Such an expression must surely in such a place imply
+more than a mere inadvertence on the part of the writer or writers.
+
+To pave the way for a right understanding of the day of creation, it
+may be well to consider, in the first place, the manner in which the
+_shorter day_ is introduced. In the expression, "God _called_ the
+light day," we find for the first time the Creator naming his works,
+and we may infer that some important purpose was to be served by this.
+The nature of this purpose we ascertain by comparison with other
+instances of the same kind occurring in the chapter. God called the
+darkness night, the firmament heaven, the dry land earth, the gathered
+waters seas. In all these cases the purpose seems to have been one of
+verbal definition, perhaps along with an assertion of sovereignty. It
+was necessary to distinguish the diurnal darkness from that unvaried
+darkness which had been of old, and to discriminate between the
+limited waters of an earth having dry land on its surface and those of
+the ancient universal ocean. This is effected by introducing two new
+terms, night and seas. In like manner it was necessary to mark the new
+application of the term earth to the dry land, and that of heaven to
+the atmosphere, more especially as these were the senses in which the
+words were to be popularly used. The intention, therefore, in all
+these cases was to affix to certain things names different from those
+which they had previously borne in the narrative, and to certain terms
+new senses differing from those in which they had been previously
+used. Applying this explanation here, it results that the probable
+reason for calling the light day is to point out that the word occurs
+in two senses, and that while it was to be the popular and proper term
+for the natural day, this sense must be distinguished from its other
+meaning as a day of creation. In short, we may take this as a plain
+and authoritative declaration _that the day of creation is not the day
+of popular speech_. We see in this a striking instance of the general
+truth that in the simplicity of the structure of this record we find
+not carelessness, but studied and severe precision, and are warned
+against the neglect of the smallest peculiarities in its diction.
+
+What, then, is the day of creation, as distinguished by Moses himself
+from the natural day. The general opinion, and that which at first
+sight appears most probable, is that it is merely the ordinary civil
+day of twenty-four hours. Those who adopt this view insist on the
+impropriety of diverting the word from its usual sense. Unfortunately,
+however, for this argument, the word is not very frequently used in
+the Scriptures for the whole twenty-four hours of the earth's
+revolution. Its etymology gives it the sense of the time of glowing or
+warmth, and in accordance with this the divine authority here limits
+its meaning to the daylight. Accordingly throughout the Hebrew
+Scriptures _yom_ is generally the natural and not the civil day; and
+where the latter is intended, the compound terms "day and night" and
+"evening and morning" are frequently used. Any one who glances over
+the word "day" in a good English concordance can satisfy himself of
+this fact. But the sense of natural day from sunrise to sunset is
+expressly excluded here by the context, as already shown; and all that
+we can say in favor of the interpretation that limits the day of
+creation to twenty-four hours, is that next to the use of the word for
+the natural day, which is its true popular meaning, its use for the
+civil day is perhaps the most frequent. It is therefore by no means a
+statement of the whole truth to affirm, as many writers have done,
+that the civil day is _the ordinary_ meaning of the term. At the same
+time we may admit that this is _one_ of its ordinary meanings, and
+therefore may be its meaning here. Another argument frequently urged
+is that the day of creation is said to have had an evening and
+morning. We shall consider this more fully in the sequel, and in the
+mean time may observe that it appears rather hazardous to attribute an
+ordinary evening and morning to a day which, on the face of the
+record, preceded the formation and arrangement of the luminaries which
+are "for days and for years."[47]
+
+But it may be affirmed that in the Bible long and undefined periods
+are indicated by the word "day." In many of these cases the word is in
+the plural: as Genesis iv., 3, "And after days it came to pass,"
+rendered in our version "in process of time;" Genesis xl., 4, "days in
+ward," rendered "a season." Such instances as these are not applicable
+to the present question, since the plural may have the sense of
+indefinite time, merely by denoting an undetermined number of natural
+days. Passages in which the singular occurs in this sense are those
+which strictly apply to the case in hand, and such are by no means
+rare. A very remarkable example is that in Genesis ii., 4, already
+mentioned, where we find, "In the day when Jehovah Elohim made the
+earth and the heavens." This day must either mean the beginning, or
+must include the whole six days; most probably the latter, since the
+word "made" refers not to the act of creation, properly so called, but
+to the elaborating processes of the creative week; and occurring as
+this does immediately after the narrative of creation, it seems almost
+like an intentional intimation of the wide import of the creative
+days. It has been objected, however, that the expression "in the day"
+is properly a compound adverb, having the force of "when" or "at the
+time." But the learned and ingenious authors who urge this objection
+have omitted to consider the relative probabilities as to whether the
+adverbial use had arisen while the word _yom_ meant simply a day, or
+whether the use of the noun for long periods was the reason of the
+introduction of such an adverbial expression. The probabilities are in
+favor of the latter, for it is not likely that men would construct an
+adverb referring to indefinite time from a word denoting one of the
+most precisely limited portions of time, unless that word had also a
+second and more unlimited sense. Admitting, therefore, that the phrase
+is an adverb of time, its use so early as the date of the composition
+of Genesis, to denote a period longer than a literal day, seems to
+imply that this indefinite use of the word was of high antiquity, and
+probably preceded the invention of any term by which long periods
+could be denoted.
+
+This use of the word "day" is, however, not limited to cases of the
+occurrence of the formula "in the day." The following are a few out of
+many instances that might be quoted: Job xviii., 20, "They that come
+after him shall be astonished at his day;" Job xv., 32, "It shall be
+accomplished before his _time_;" Judges xviii., 30, "Until the day of
+the captivity of the land;" Deut. i., 39, "And your children which in
+that day had no knowledge of good and evil;" Gen. xxxix., 10, "And it
+came to pass about that time" (on that day). We find also abundance of
+such expressions as "day of calamity," "day of distress," "day of
+wrath," "day of God's power," "day of prosperity." In such passages
+the word is evidently used in the sense of era or period of time, and
+this in prose as well as poetry.
+
+There is a remarkable passage in the Psalms, which conveys the idea of
+a day of God as distinct from human or terrestrial days:
+
+ "Before the mountains were brought forth,
+ Or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world,
+ Even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.
+ Thou turnest man to destruction,
+ And sayest, Return, ye children of men;
+ For a thousand years are in thy sight as yesterday when it is past,
+ And as a watch in the night."[48]
+
+It is a singular coincidence that the authorship of this Psalm is
+attributed to Moses, and that its style and language correspond with
+the songs credited to him in Deuteronomy. It is farther to be observed
+that the reference is to the long periods employed in creation as
+contrasted with the limited space of years allotted to man. Its
+meaning, too, is somewhat obscured by the inaccurate translation of
+the third line. In the original it is, "From _olam_ to _olam_ thou
+art, O El"--that is, "from age to age." These long ages of creation,
+constituting a duration to us relatively eternal, were so protracted
+that even a thousand years are but as a watch in the night. If this
+Psalm is rightly attributed to the author of the first chapter of
+Genesis, it seems absolutely certain that he understood his own
+creative days as being _Olamim_ or aeons. The same thought occurs in
+the Second Epistle of Peter: "One day is with the Lord as a thousand
+years, and a thousand years as one day."
+
+That the other writers of the Old Testament understood the creative
+days in this sense, might be inferred from the entire absence of any
+reference to the work of creation as short, since it occupied only six
+days. Such reference we may find in modern writers, but never in the
+Scriptures. On the contrary, we receive the impression of the creative
+work as long continued. Thus the divine Wisdom says in Prov. viii.,
+The Lord possessed me "from the beginning of his way before his works
+of old, from everlasting, before the antiquities of the earth." So in
+Psalm cxlv., God's kingdom relatively to nature and providence is a
+kingdom "of all ages." In Psalm civ., which is a poetical version of
+the creative work, and the oldest extant commentary on Genesis i., it
+is evident that there was no idea in the mind of the writer of a short
+time, but rather of long consecutive processes; and I may remark here
+that the course of the narrative itself in Genesis i., implies time
+for the replenishing of the earth with various forms of being in
+preparation for others, exactly as in Psalm civ.
+
+Perhaps one of the most conclusive arguments in favor of the length of
+the creative days is that furnished by the seventh day and the
+institution of the Sabbath. In Genesis the seventh day is not said to
+have had any evening or morning, nor is God said to have resumed his
+work on any eighth day. Consequently the seventh day of creation must
+be still current. Now in the fourth commandment the Israelites are
+enjoined to "remember the Sabbath-day," because "in six days God
+created the heavens and the earth." Observe here that the Sabbath is
+to be remembered as an institution already known. Observe farther that
+the commandment is placed in the middle of the Decalogue, a solitary
+piece of apparently arbitrary ritual amid the plainest and most
+obvious moral duties. Observe also that the reason given--namely,
+God's six days' work and seventh day's rest--seems at first sight both
+far-fetched and trivial, as an argument for abstaining from work in a
+seventh part of our time. How is all this to be explained? Simply, I
+think, on the supposition that the Lawgiver, and those for whom he
+legislated, knew beforehand the history of creation and the fall, as
+we have them recorded in Genesis, and knew that God's days are aeons.
+The argument is not, "God worked on six natural days, and rested on
+the seventh; do you therefore the same." Such an argument could have
+no moral or religious force, more especially as it could not be
+affirmed that God habitually works and rests in this way. The argument
+reaches far deeper and higher. It is this. God created the world in
+six of his days, and on the seventh rested, and invited man in Eden to
+enter on his rest as a perpetual Sabbath of happiness. But man fell,
+and lost God's Sabbath. Therefore a weekly Sabbath was prescribed to
+him as a memorial of what he had lost, and a pledge of what God has
+promised in the renewal of life and happiness through our Saviour.
+Thus the Sabbath is the central point of the moral law--the Gospel in
+the Decalogue--the connection between God and man through the promise
+of redemption. It is this and this alone that gives it its true
+religious significance, but is lost on the natural-day theory. It
+would farther seem that this view of the law was that of our Lord
+himself, and was known to the Jews of his time, for, when blamed for
+healing a man on the Sabbath, he says, "My Father worketh hitherto,
+and I work"--an argument whose force depended on the fact that God
+continues to work in his providence throughout his long Sabbath, which
+has never been broken except by man. Farther, the writer of the
+Epistle to the Hebrews takes this view in arguing as to the rest or
+Sabbatism that remains to the people of God. His argument (chap. iv.,
+4) may be stated thus: God finished his work and entered into his
+rest. Man, in consequence of the fall, failed to do so. He has made
+several attempts since, but unsuccessfully. Now Christ has finished
+his work, and has entered into his Sabbath, and through him we may
+enter into that rest of God which otherwise we can not attain to. This
+does not, it is true, refer to the keeping of a Sabbath-day; but it
+implies an understanding of the reference to God's olamic Sabbath,
+and also implies that Christ, having entered into his Sabbatism in
+heaven, gives us a warrant for the Christian Sabbath or Lord's day,
+which has the same relation to Christ's present Sabbatism in heaven
+that the old Sabbath had to God's rest from his work of creation.[49]
+
+We may add to these considerations the use of the Greek term _Ai[=o]n_
+in the New Testament, for what may be called time-worlds as
+distinguished from space-worlds. For example, take the expression in
+Heb. i., 2: "His Son, by whom he made the worlds," or, literally,
+"constituted the aeons"--the long time-worlds of the creation. For
+God's worlds must exist in time as well as in space, and both may to
+our minds alike appear as infinities. If, then, we find that Moses
+himself seems to have understood his creative days as aeons, that the
+succeeding Old Testament writers favor the same view, that this view
+is essential to the true significance of the Sabbath and the Lord's
+day, and that it is sustained by Christ and his apostles, there is
+surely no need for our clinging to a mediaeval notion which has no
+theological value, and is in opposition to the facts of nature. On the
+contrary, should not even children be taught these grand truths, and
+led to contemplate the great work of Him who is from aeon to aeon, and
+to think of that Sabbatism which he prepared for us, and which he
+still offers to us in the future, in connection with the succession of
+worlds in time revealed by geology, and which rivals in grandeur and
+perhaps exceeds in interest the extension of worlds in space revealed
+by astronomy. In truth, we should bear in mind that the great
+revelations of astronomy have too much habituated us to think of
+space-worlds rather than time-worlds, while the latter idea was
+evidently dominant with the Biblical writers as it is also with modern
+geologists. Viewed as aeons--divine days, or time-worlds--the days of
+creation are thus a reality for all ages; and connect themselves with
+the highest moral teachings of the Bible in relation to the fall of
+man and God's plan for his restoration, begun in this seventh aeon of
+the world's long history, and to be completed in that second divine
+Sabbatism, secured by the work of redemption, the final "rest" of the
+"new heavens and new earth," which remains for the people of God.
+
+But supposing that the inspired writer intended to say that the world
+was formed in six long periods of time, could not he have used some
+other word than _yom_ that would have been liable to fewer doubts.
+There are words which might have been used, as, for instance, _eth_,
+time, season, or _olam_, age, ancient time, eternity. The former,
+however, has about it a want of precision as to its beginning and end
+which unfits it for this use; the latter we have already seen is used
+as equivalent to the creative _yom_. On the whole, I am unable to
+find any instance which would justify me in affirming that, on the
+supposition that Moses intended long periods, he could have better
+expressed the idea than by the use of the word _yom_, more especially
+if he and those to whom he wrote were familiar with the thought,
+preserved to us in the mythology of the Hindoos and Persians, and
+probably widely diffused in ancient Asia, that a working day of the
+Creator immeasurably transcends a working day of man.[50]
+
+Many objections to the view which I have thus endeavored to support
+from internal evidence will at once occur to every intelligent reader
+familiar with the literature of this subject. I shall now attempt to
+give the principal of these objections a candid consideration.
+
+(1.) It is objected that the time occupied in the work of creation is
+given as a reason for the observance of the seventh day as a Sabbath;
+and that this requires us to view the days of creation as literal
+days. "For in six days Jehovah made the heaven and the earth, the sea
+and all that in them is, and rested on the seventh day; therefore
+Jehovah blessed the Sabbath-day and sanctified it." The argument used
+here is, however, as we have already seen, one of analogy. Because God
+rested on his seventh day, he blessed and sanctified it, and required
+men in like manner to sanctify their seventh day.[51] Now, if it
+should appear that the working day of God is not the same with the
+working day of man, and that the Sabbath of God is of proportionate
+length to his working day, the analogy is not weakened; more
+especially as we find the same analogy extended to the seventh year.
+If it should be said, God worked in the creation of the world in six
+long ages, and rested on the seventh, therefore man, in commemoration
+of this fact, and of his own loss of an interest in God's rest by the
+fall, shall sanctify the seventh of his working days, the argument is
+stronger, the example more intelligible, than on the common
+supposition. This objection is, in fact, a piece of pedantic
+hyperorthodoxy which has too long been handed about without
+investigation. I may add to what has been already said in reference to
+it, the following vigorous thrust by Hugh Miller:[52]
+
+"I can not avoid thinking that many of our theologians attach a too
+narrow meaning to the remarkable reason attached to the fourth
+commandment by the divine Lawgiver. "God rested on the seventh day,"
+says the text, "from all his work which he had created and made; and
+God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it." And such is the reason
+given in the Decalogue why man should rest on the Sabbath-day. God
+rested on the Sabbath-day and sanctified it; and therefore man ought
+also to rest on the Sabbath and keep it holy. But I know not where we
+shall find grounds for the belief that the Sabbath-day during which
+God rested was merely commensurate with one of the Sabbaths of
+short-lived man--a brief period measured by a single revolution of the
+earth on its axis. We have not, as has been shown, a shadow of
+evidence that he resumed his work of creation on the morrow; the
+geologist finds no trace of post-Adamic creation; the theologian can
+tell us of none. God's Sabbath of rest may still exist; the work of
+redemption may be the work of his Sabbath-day. That elevatory process
+through successive acts of creation, which engaged him during myriads
+of ages, was of an ordinary week-day character; but when the term of
+his moral government began, the elevatory process peculiar to it
+assumed the divine character of the Sabbath. This special view appears
+to lend peculiar emphasis to the reason embodied in the commandment.
+The collation of the passage with the geologic record seems, as if by
+a species of retranslation, to make it enunciate as its injunction,
+"Keep this day, not merely as a day of memorial related to a past
+fact, but also as a day of co-operation with God in the work of
+elevation, in relation both to a present fact and a future purpose."
+"God keeps his Sabbath," it says, "in order that he may save; keep
+yours also that ye may be saved." It serves besides to throw light on
+the prominence of the Sabbatical command, in a digest of law of which
+no jot or tittle can pass away until the fulfillment of all things.
+During the present dynasty of probation and trial, that special work
+of both God and man on which the character of the future dynasty
+depends is the Sabbath-day work of saving and being saved.
+
+"The common objection to that special view which regards the days of
+creation as immensely protracted periods of time, furnishes a
+specimen, if not of reasoning in a circle, at least of reasoning from
+a mere assumption. It first takes for granted that the Sabbath-day
+during which God rested was a day of but twenty-four hours, and then
+argues from the supposition that, in order to keep up the proportion
+between the six previous working days and the seventh day of rest,
+which the reason annexed to the fourth commandment demands, these
+previous days must also have been twenty-four hours each. It would, I
+have begun to suspect, square better with the ascertained facts, and
+be at least equally in accordance with Scripture, to reverse the
+process, and argue that because God's working days were immensely
+protracted periods, his Sabbath also must be an immensely protracted
+period. The reason attached to the law of the Sabbath seems to be
+simply a reason of proportion: the objection to which I refer is an
+objection palpably founded on considerations of proportion, and
+certainly were the reason to be divested of proportion, it would be
+divested also of its distinctive character as a reason. Were it as
+follows, it could not be at all understood: "Six days shalt thou
+labor, etc.; but on the seventh day shalt thou do no labor, etc.; for
+in six immensely protracted periods of several thousand years each did
+the Lord make the heavens and the earth, etc.; and then rested during
+a brief day of twenty-four hours; therefore the Lord blessed the brief
+day of twenty-four hours and hallowed it." This, I repeat, would not
+be reason. All, however, that seems necessary to the integrity of the
+reason, in its character as such, is that the proportion of six parts
+to seven should be maintained. God's periods may be periods expressed
+algebraically by letters symbolical of unknown quantities, and man's
+periods by letters symbolical of quantities well known; but if God's
+Sabbath be equal to one of his six working days, and man's Sabbath
+equal to one of his six working days, the integrity of proportion is
+maintained."
+
+Not only does this view of the case entirely remove the objection,
+but, as we have already seen, it throws a new light on the nature and
+reason of the Sabbath. No good reason, except that of setting an
+example, can be assigned for God's resting for a literal day. But if
+God's Sabbath of rest from natural creation is still in progress, and
+if our short Sabbaths are symbolical of the work of that great Sabbath
+in its present gray morning and in its coming glorious noon, then may
+the Christian thank this question, incidentally raised by geology and
+its long periods, for a ray of light which shines along the whole
+course of Scripture history, from the first Sabbath up to that final
+"rest which remaineth for the people of God."[53]
+
+(2.) It is objected that evening and morning are ascribed to the first
+day. This has been already noticed; it may here be considered more
+fully. The word evening in the original is literally the darkening,
+the sunset, the dusk. Morning is the _opening_ or _breaking forth_ of
+light--the daybreak. It must not be denied that the explanation of
+these terms is attended with some difficulty, but this is not at all
+lessened by narrowing the day to twenty-four hours. The first
+operation of the first day was the creation of light; next we have the
+Creator contemplating his work and pronouncing it to be good; then we
+have the separation of the light and darkness, previously, it is to be
+presumed, intermixed; and all this without the presence of a sun or
+other luminary. Which of these operations occupied the evening, and
+which the morning, if the day consisted of but twenty-four hours,
+beginning, according to Hebrew custom, in the evening? Was the old
+primeval darkness the evening or night, and the first breaking forth
+of light morning? This is almost the only view compatible with the
+Hebrew civil day beginning at evening, but it would at once lengthen
+the day beyond twenty-four hours, and contradict the terms of the
+record. Again, were the separated light and darkness the morning and
+evening? If so, why is the evening mentioned first, contrary to the
+supposed facts of the case? why, indeed, are the evening and morning
+mentioned at all, since on that supposition this is merely a
+repetition? Lastly, shall we adopt the ingenious expedient of dividing
+the evening and morning between two days, and maintaining that the
+evening belongs to the first and the morning to the second day, which
+would deprive the first day of a morning, and render the creative
+days, whatever their length, altogether different from Hebrew natural
+or civil days? It is unnecessary to pursue such inquiries farther,
+since it is evident that the terms of the record will not agree with
+the supposition of natural evening and morning. This is of itself a
+strong presumption against the hypothesis of civil days, since the
+writer was under no necessity so to word these verses that they would
+not give any rational or connected sense on the supposition of natural
+evening and morning, unless he wished to be otherwise understood.
+
+But what is the meaning of evening and morning, if these days were
+long periods? Here fewer difficulties meet us. First: It is readily
+conceivable that the beginning and end of a period named a day should
+be called evening and morning. But what made the use of these
+divisions necessary or appropriate? I answer that nature and
+revelation both give grounds at least to suspect that the evening, or
+earlier part of each period, was a time of comparative inaction,
+sometimes even of retrogression, and that the latter part of each
+period was that of its greatest activity and perfection. Thus, on the
+views stated in a former chapter, in the first day there was a time
+when luminous matter, either gradually concentrating itself toward the
+sun, or surrounding the earth itself, shed a dim but slowly increasing
+light; then there were day and night, the light increasing in
+intensity as, toward the end of the period, the luminous matter became
+more and more concentrated around the sun. So in our own seventh day,
+the earlier part was a time of deplorable retrogression, and though
+the Sun of Righteousness has arisen, we have seen as yet only a dim
+and cloudy morning. On the theory of days of vision, as expounded by
+Hugh Miller, in the "Testimony of the Rocks," in one of his noblest
+passages, the evening and night fall on each picture presented to the
+seer like the curtain of a stage. Secondly: Though the explanation
+stated above is the most probable, the hypothesis of long periods
+admits of another, namely, that the writer means to inform us that
+evening and morning, once established by the separation of light from
+darkness, continued without cessation throughout the remainder of the
+period--rolling from this time uninterruptedly around our planet, like
+the seal cylinder over the clay.[54] This explanation is, however,
+less applicable to the following days than to the first. Nor does this
+accord with the curious fact that the seventh day, which, on the
+hypothesis of long periods, is still in progress, is not said to have
+had an evening or morning.
+
+(3.) It is objected that the first chapter of Genesis "is not a poem
+nor a piece of oratorical diction," but a simple prosaic narrative,
+and consequently that its terms must be taken in a literal sense. In
+answer to this, I urge that the most truly literal sense of the word,
+namely, the _natural_ day, is excluded by the terms of the narrative;
+and that the word may be received as a literal day of the Creator, in
+the sense of one of his working periods, without involving the use of
+poetical diction, and in harmony with the wording of plain prosaic
+passages in other parts of the Bible. Examples of this have already
+been given. It is, however, true that, though the first chapter of
+Genesis is not strictly poetical, it is thrown into a metrical form
+which admits of some approach to a figurative expression in the case
+of a term of this kind.
+
+(4.) It has been urged that in cases where day is used to denote
+period, as in the expressions "day of calamity," etc., the adjuncts
+plainly show that it can not mean an ordinary day. In answer to this,
+I merely refer to the internal evidence already adduced, and to the
+deliberate character of the statements, in the manner rather of the
+description of processes than of acts. The difficulties attending the
+explanation of the evening and the morning, and the successive
+creation of herbivorous and carnivorous animals, are also strong
+indications which should serve here to mark the sense, just as the
+context does in the cases above referred to.
+
+(5.) In Professor Hitchcock's valuable and popular "Religion of
+Geology," I find some additional objections, which deserve notice as
+specimens of the learned trifles which pass current among writers on
+this subject, much to the detriment of sound Scriptural literature. I
+give them in the words of the author. 1. "From Genesis ii., 5 compared
+with Genesis i., 11 and 12, it seems that it had not rained on the
+earth till the third day; a fact altogether probable if the days were
+of twenty-four hours, but absurd if they were long periods." It
+strikes us that the absurdity here is all on the side of the short
+days. Why should any prominence be given to a fact so common as the
+lapse of two ordinary days without rain, more especially if a region
+of the earth and not the whole is referred to, and in a document
+prepared for a people residing in climates such as those of Egypt and
+Palestine. But what could be more instructive and confirmatory of the
+truth of the narrative than the fact that in the two long periods
+which preceded the formation and clearing up of the atmosphere or
+firmament, on which rain depends, and the elevation of the dry land,
+which so greatly modifies its distribution, there had been no rain
+such as now occurs. This is a most important fact, and one of the
+marked coincidences of the record with scientific truth. The
+objection, therefore, merely shows that the ordinary day hypothesis
+tends to convert one of the finest internal harmonies of this
+wonderful history into an empty and, in some respects, absurd
+commonplace. 2. "This hypothesis (that days are long periods) assumes
+that Moses describes the creation of all the animals and plants that
+have ever lived on our globe. But geology decides that the species now
+living, since they are not found in the rocks any lower than man
+is,[55] could not have been contemporaneous with those in the rocks,
+but must have been created when man was--that is, in the sixth day. Of
+such a creation no mention is made in Genesis; the inference is that
+Moses does not describe the creation of the existing races, but only
+of those that lived thousands of years earlier, and whose existence
+was scarcely suspected till modern times. Who will admit such an
+absurdity?" In answer to this objection, I remark that it is based on
+a false assumption. The hypothesis of long periods does not require us
+to assume that Moses notices all the animals and plants that have ever
+lived, but on the contrary that he informs us only of the _first
+appearance_ of each great natural type in the animal and vegetable
+kingdoms; just as he informs us of the first appearance of dry land on
+the third day, but says nothing of the changes which it underwent on
+subsequent days. Thus plants were created on the third day, and though
+they may have been several times destroyed and renewed as to genera
+and species, we infer that they continued to exist in all the
+succeeding days, though the inspired historian does not inform us of
+the fact. So also many tribes of animals were created in the early
+part of the fifth day, and it is quite unnecessary for us to be
+informed that these tribes continued to exist through the sixth day.
+If the days were long periods, the inspired writer could not have
+adopted any other course, unless he had been instructed to write a
+treatise on Palaeontology, and to describe the fauna and flora of each
+successive period with their characteristic differences. 3. "Though
+there is a general resemblance between the order of creation as
+described in Genesis and by geology, yet when we look at the details
+of the creation of the organic world, as required by this hypothesis,
+we find manifest discrepancy. Thus the Bible represents plants only to
+have been created on the third day, and animals not till the fifth;
+and hence at least the lower half of the fossiliferous rocks ought to
+contain nothing but vegetables. Whereas in fact the lower half of
+these rocks, all below the carboniferous, although abounding in
+animals, contain scarcely any plants, and these in the lowest strata
+fucoids or sea-weeds. But the Mosaic account evidently describes
+flowering and seed-bearing plants, not flowerless and seedless algae.
+Again, reptiles are described in Genesis as created on the fifth day;
+but reptilia and batrachians existed as early as the time when the
+lower carboniferous and even old red sandstone were in course of
+deposition, as their tracks on those rocks in Nova Scotia and
+Pennsylvania evince.[56] In short, if we maintain that Moses describes
+fossils as well as living species, we find discrepancy instead of
+correspondence between his order of creation and that of geology." In
+this objection it is assumed that the geological history of the earth
+goes back to the third day of creation, or, in other words, to the
+dawn of organic life. None of the greater authorities in geology
+would, however, now venture to make such an assertion, and the
+progress of geology is rapidly making the contrary more and more
+probable. The fact is that, on the supposition that the days of
+creation are long periods, the whole series of the fossiliferous rocks
+belongs to the fifth and sixth days; and that for the early plant
+creation of the third day, and the great physical changes of the
+fourth, geology has nothing as yet to show, except a mass of
+metamorphosed eozoic rocks which have hitherto yielded no fossils
+except a few Protozoa; but which contain vast quantities of carbon in
+the form of graphite, which may be the remains of plants.
+
+I have much pleasure in quoting, as a further answer to these
+objections, the following from Professor Dana:[57]
+
+"Accepting the account in Genesis as true, the seeming discrepancy
+between it and geology rests mainly here: Geology holds, and has held
+from the first, that the progress of creation was mainly through
+secondary causes; for the existence of the science presupposes this.
+Moses, on the contrary, was thought to sustain the idea of a simple
+fiat for each step. Grant this first point to science, and what
+farther conflict is there? _The question of the length of time_, it is
+replied. But not so; for if we may take the record as allowing more
+than six days of twenty-four hours, the Bible then places no limit to
+time. _The question of the days and periods_, it is replied again. But
+this is of little moment in comparison with the first principle
+granted. Those who admit the length of time and stand upon days of
+twenty-four hours have to place geological time _before_ the six days,
+and then assume a chaos and reordering of creation, on the six-day and
+fiat principle, after a previous creation that had operated for a long
+period through secondary causes. Others take days as periods, and thus
+allow the required time, admitting that creation was one in progress,
+a grand whole, instead of a _first_ creation excepting man by one
+method, and a _second_ with man by the other. This is now the
+remaining question between the theologians and geologists; for all the
+minor points, as to the exact interpretation of each day, do not
+affect the general concordance or discordance of the Bible and
+science.
+
+"On this point geology is now explicit in its decision, and indeed has
+long been so. It proves that there was no return to chaos, no great
+revolution, that creation was beyond doubt one in its progress. We
+know that some geologists have taken the other view. But it is only in
+the capacity of theologians, and not as geologists. The Rev. Dr.
+Buckland, in placing the great events of geology between the first and
+second verses of the Mosaic account, did not pretend that there was a
+geological basis for such an hypothesis; and no writer since has ever
+brought forward the first fact in geology to support the idea of a
+rearrangement just before man; not one solitary fact has ever been
+appealed to. The conclusion was on Biblical grounds, and not in any
+sense on geological. The best that Buckland could say, when he wrote
+twenty-five years since, was that geology did not absolutely disprove
+such an hypothesis; and that can not be said now.
+
+"It is often asserted, in order to unsettle confidence in these
+particular teachings of geology, that geology is a changing science.
+In this connection the remark conveys an erroneous impression. Geology
+is a progressive science; and all its progress tends to establish more
+firmly these two principles: (1) The slow progress of creation through
+secondary causes, as explained; and (2) the progress by periods
+analogous to the days of Genesis."
+
+I have, I trust, shown that the principal objections to the
+lengthening of the Mosaic days into great cosmical periods are of a
+character too light and superficial to deserve any regard. I shall now
+endeavor to add to the internal evidence previously given some
+considerations of an external character which support this view.
+
+1. The fact that the creation was progressive, that it proceeded from
+the formation of the raw material of the universe, through successive
+stages, to the perfection of living organisms, if we regard the
+analogy of God's operations as disclosed in the geological history of
+the earth and in the present course of nature, must impress us with a
+suspicion that long periods were employed in the work. God might have
+prepared the earth for man in an instant. He did not choose to do so,
+but on the contrary proceeded step by step; and the record he has
+given us does not receive its full significance nor attain its full
+harmony with the course of geological history, unless we can
+understand each day of the creative week as including a long
+succession of ages.
+
+2. We have, as already explained, reason to believe that the seventh
+day at least has been of long duration. At the close of the sixth, God
+rested from all his work of material creation, and we have as yet no
+evidence that he has resumed it. Neither theologians nor evolutionists
+will, I presume, desire to maintain that any strictly creative acts
+have occurred in the modern period of geology. We know that the
+present day, if it is the seventh, has lasted already for at least six
+thousand years, and, if we may judge from the testimony of prophecy,
+has yet a long space to run, before it merges in that "new heaven and
+new earth" for which all believers look, and which will constitute the
+first day of an endless sabbatism.
+
+3. The philosophical and religious systems of many ancient nations
+afford intimations of the somewhat extensive prevalence in ancient
+times of the notion of long creative periods, corresponding to the
+Mosaic days. These notions, in so far as they are based on truth, are
+probably derived from the Mosaic narrative itself, or from the
+primitive patriarchal documents which may have formed the basis of
+that narrative. They are, no doubt, all more or less garbled versions,
+and can not be regarded as of any authority, but they serve to show
+what was the interpretation of the document in a very remote
+antiquity. I have collected from a variety of sources the following
+examples:
+
+The ancient mythology of Persia appears to have had six creative
+periods, each apparently of a thousand years, and corresponding very
+nearly with the Mosaic days.[58] The Chaldeans had a similar system,
+to which in a previous chapter we have already referred. The Etruscans
+possessed a history of the creation, somewhat resembling that of the
+Bible, and representing the creation as occupying six periods of a
+thousand years each.[59]
+
+The Egyptians believed that the world had been subject to a series of
+destructions and renewals, the intervals between which amounted to
+120,000 years, or, according to other authorities, to 300,000 or
+360,000 years. This system of destruction and renewal the Egyptian
+priests appear to have wrought out into considerable detail, but
+though important truths may be concealed under their mysterious
+dogmas, it will not repay us to dwell on the fragments that remain of
+them. There can be no doubt, however, that at least the basis of the
+Egyptian cosmogony must have been the common property of all the
+Hamite nations, of which Egypt was the greatest and most permanent;
+and therefore in all probability derived from the ideas of creation
+which were current not long after the Deluge. The Egyptians appear
+also, as already stated, to have had a physical cosmogony, beginning
+with a chaos in which heaven and earth were mingled, and from which
+were evolved fiery matters which ascended into the heavens, and moist
+earthy matters which formed the earth and the sea; and from these were
+produced, by the agency of solar heat, the various animals. The terms
+of this cosmogony, as it is given by Diodorus Siculus, indicate the
+belief of long formative periods.[60]
+
+The Hindoos have a somewhat extended, though, according to the
+translations, a not very intelligible cosmogony. It plainly, however,
+asserts long periods of creative work, and is interesting as an
+ancient cosmogony preserved entire and without transmission through
+secondary channels. The following is a summary, in so far as I have
+been able to gather it, from the translation of the Institutes of Menu
+by Sir W. Jones.[61]
+
+The introduction to the Institutes represents Menu as questioned by
+the "divine sages" respecting the laws that should regulate all
+classes or castes. He proceeds to detail the course of creation,
+stating that the "Self-existing Power,[62] undiscovered, but making
+this world discernible, He whom the mind alone can perceive, whose
+essence eludes the external senses, who has no visible parts, who
+exists from eternity, even the soul of all being, whom no being can
+comprehend, shone forth in person."
+
+After giving this exalted view of the Creator, the writer proceeds to
+state that the Self-existent created the waters, and then an egg, from
+which he himself comes forth as Brahma the forefather of spirits. "The
+waters are called Nara because they are the production of _Nara_, the
+spirit of God, and since they were his first _Ayana_, or place of
+motion, he thence is named _Narayana_, or moving on the waters. In the
+egg Brahma remained a year, and caused the egg to divide, forming the
+heaven above and the earth beneath, and the subtile ether, the eight
+regions, and the receptacle of waters between. He then drew forth from
+the supreme soul mind with all its powers and properties." The rest of
+the account appears to be very confused, and I confess to a great
+extent unintelligible to me. There follows, however, a continuation
+of the narrative, stating that there is a succession of seven Menus,
+each of whom produces and supports the earth during his reign. It is
+in the account of these successive Menus that the following statement
+respecting the days and years of Brahma occurs:
+
+"A day of the Gods is equal to a year. Four thousand years of the Gods
+are called a Critya or Satya age. Four ages are an age of the Gods.
+_One thousand divine ages (equal to more than four millions of human
+years) are a day of Brahma the Creator._ Seventy-two divine ages are
+one manwantara. * * * The aggregate of four ages they call a divine
+age, and believe that in every thousand such ages, or in every day of
+Brahma, fourteen Menus are successively invested with the sovereignty
+of the earth. Each Menu they suppose transmits his authority to his
+sons and grandsons during a period of seventy-two divine ages, and
+such a period they call a manwantara. Thirty such days (of the
+Creator), or calpas, constitute a month of Brahma; twelve such months
+one of his years, and 100 such years his age, of which they assert
+that fifty years have elapsed. We are thus, according to the Hindoos,
+in the first day or calpa of the fifty-first year of Brahma's life,
+and in the twenty-eighth divine age of the _seventh manwantara_ of
+that day. In the present day of Brahma the first Menu was named the
+Son of the Self-existent, and by him the institutes of religion and
+civil duties are said to have been delivered. In his time occurred a
+new creation called the _Lotos_ creation." Of five Menus who succeeded
+him, Sir William could find little but the names, but the accounts of
+the seventh are very full, and it appears that in his reign the earth
+was destroyed by a flood. Sir William suggests that the first Menu may
+represent the creation, and that the seventh may be Noah. The name
+Menu or Manu is equivalent to "man," and signifies "the
+intelligent."[63]
+
+In this Hindoo cosmogony we have many points of correspondence with
+the Scripture narrative: for instance, the Self-existent Creator; the
+agency of the Son of God and the Holy Spirit; the absolute creation of
+matter; the hovering of the Spirit over the primeval waters; the
+sevenfold division of the creative process; and the idea of days of
+the Creator of immense duration. If we suppose the day of Brahma in
+the Hindoo cosmogony to represent the Mosaic day, then it amounts to
+no less than 4,320,000 years; or if, with Sir W. Jones, we suppose the
+manwantara to represent the Mosaic day, its duration will be 308,571
+years; and the total antiquity of the earth, without counting the
+undefined "beginning," will be either more than twenty-five or than
+two millions of years. It would be folly, however, to suppose that
+these Hindoo numbers, which are probably purely conjectural, or based
+on astronomical cycles, make any near approximation to the facts of
+the case. The Institutes of Menu are probably in their present form
+not of great antiquity, but there are other Hindoo documents of
+greater age which maintain similar views, and it is probable that the
+account of the creation in the Institutes is at least an imperfect
+version of the original narrative as it existed among the earliest
+colonists of India.[64] It corresponds in many points with the oldest
+notions on these subjects that remain to us in the wrecks of the
+mythology of Egypt and other ancient nations, and it aids in proving
+that the fabulous ages of gods and demigods in the ancient mythologies
+_are really pre-Adamite_; and belong not to human history, but to the
+work of creation. It also shows that the idea of long creative periods
+as equivalents of the Mosaic days must, in the infancy of the
+postdiluvian world, have been very widely diffused. Such evidence is,
+no doubt, of small authority in the interpretation of Scripture; but
+it must be admitted that serious consideration is due to a method of
+interpretation which thus tends to bring the Mosaic account into
+harmony with the facts of modern science, and with the belief of
+almost universal antiquity, and at the same time gives it its fullest
+significance and most perfect internal symmetry of parts. It is also
+very interesting to note the wide diffusion among the most ancient
+nations of cosmological views identical in their main features with
+those of the Bible, proving, almost beyond doubt, that these views had
+some common and very ancient source, and commanded universal belief
+among the primitive tribes of men.
+
+I have hitherto in this part of the discussion avoided detailed
+reference to what may be regarded as the "prophetic day" view of the
+narrative of creation. This may be shortly stated as follows: In the
+prophetical parts of Scripture the prophet sees in vision, as in a
+picture or acted scene, the events that are to come to pass, and in
+consequence represents years or longer periods by days of vision. Now
+the revelation of the pre-Adamite past is in its nature akin to that
+of the unknown future; and Moses may have seen these wondrous events
+in vision--in visions of successive days--under the guise of which he
+presents geological time. Some things in the form of the narrative
+favor this view, and it certainly affords the most clearly
+intelligible theory as to the mode in which such a revelation may have
+been made to man. It is advocated by Kurtz, by the author of an
+excellent little work, the "Harmony of the Mosaic and Geological
+Records," by Hugh Miller, and more recently by Tayler Lewis. To these
+writers I must refer for its more full illustration, and for the grand
+pictorial view which it gives of the vision of the creative week.
+
+In reviewing the somewhat lengthy train of reasoning into which the
+term "day" has led us, it appears that from internal evidence alone it
+can be rendered probable that the day of creation is neither the
+natural nor the civil day. It also appears that the objections urged
+against the doctrine of day-periods are of no weight when properly
+scrutinized, and that it harmonizes with the progressive nature of the
+work, the evidence of geology, and the cosmological notions of ancient
+nations. I do not suppose that this position has been incontrovertibly
+established; but I believe that every serious difficulty has been
+removed from its acceptance; and with this, for the present, I remain
+satisfied. Every step of our subsequent progress will afford new
+criteria of its truth or fallacy.
+
+One further question of some interest is--What, according to the
+theory of long creative days and the testimony of geology, would be
+the length and precise cosmical nature of these days? With regard to
+the first part of the question, we do not know the actual value of our
+geological ages in time; but it is probable that each great creative
+aeon may have extended through millions of years. As to the nature of
+the days, this may have been determined by direct volitions of the
+Creator, or indirectly by some of those great astronomical cycles
+which arise from the varying eccentricity of the earth's orbit, or the
+diminution of the velocity of its rotation, or by its gradual cooling.
+
+With reference to these points, science has as yet little information
+to give. Sir William Thomson has, indeed, indicated for the time since
+the earth's crust first began to form a period of between one and two
+hundred millions of years; but Professor Guthrie Tait, on the other
+hand, argues that ten or fifteen millions of years are probably
+sufficient,[65] and Lockyer has suggested an hypothesis of successive
+rekindlings of the solar heat which might give a more protracted time
+than that of Thomson. Some of the hypotheses of derivation current,
+but which are based rather on philosophical speculation than on
+scientific fact, would also require a longer time than that allowed by
+Thomson; and it is to be regretted that some geologists, by giving
+credence to such hypotheses of derivation, and by loose reasoning on
+the time required for the denudation and deposition of rocks, have
+been induced to commit themselves to very extravagant estimates as to
+geological time. On the whole, it is evident that only the most vague
+guesses can at present be based on the facts in our possession, though
+the whole time required has unquestionably been very great, the
+deposition of the series of stratified rocks probably requiring at
+least the greater part of the minimum time allowed by Thomson.[66]
+
+As to the cosmical nature of the periods, while some geologists appear
+to regard the whole of geological time as a continuous evolution
+without any breaks, it is evidently more in accordance with facts to
+hold that there have been cycles of repose and activity succeeding
+each other, and that these have been of different grades. In the
+succession of deposits it is plain that periods of depression and
+upheaval common to all the continental masses have succeeded each
+other at somewhat regular intervals, and that within these periods
+there have been alternations of colder and warmer climates. These,
+however, are not equal to the creative days of our record, for they
+are greatly more numerous. They are but the vastly protracted hours of
+these almost endless days. Beyond and above these there is another
+grade of geological period, marked not by mere gradual elevation and
+depression of the continental areas, but by vast crumplings of the
+earth's crust and enormous changes of level. Such a great movement
+unquestionably closed the Eozoic period of geology. Another of less
+magnitude occurred in what is termed the Permian age at the end of the
+Palaeozoic. A third terminated the Mesozoic age, and introduced the
+Tertiary or Kainozoic. Perhaps we should reckon the glacial age,
+though characterized by far less physical change than the others, as a
+fourth. The possible physical causes which have been suggested for
+such greater disturbances are the collapses of the crust in equatorial
+regions, which may be supposed to have resulted at long intervals of
+time, from the gradual retardation of the earth's rotation caused by
+the tides, or the similar collapses and other changes due to the
+shrinkages of the earth's interior caused by its gradual cooling, and
+to the unequal deposition of material by water on different parts of
+its surface.[67] The more full discussion of these points belongs,
+however, to a future chapter.
+
+These greater movements of the crust, would, as already stated,
+coincide to some extent with the later creative days in the manner
+indicated below:
+
+ ==================================================================
+ Collapse of crust at close of | Close of Fourth AEon,
+ Eozoic Time, | and beginning of Fifth.
+ ------------------------------------------------------------------
+ Collapse in Permian Period and | Middle of Fifth AEon.
+ end of Palaeozoic Time, |
+ ------------------------------------------------------------------
+ Great subsidence and collapse | Close of Fifth AEon, and beginning
+ at close of Mesozoic Age, | of Sixth.
+ ------------------------------------------------------------------
+ Great subsidence of the | End of Sixth AEon.
+ Pleistocene or Glacial Age, |
+ ==================================================================
+
+The question recurs--Why are God's days so long? He is not like us, a
+being of yesterday. He is "from Olam to Olam," and even in human
+history one day is with him as a thousand years; and we who live in
+these later days of the world know full well how slow the march of his
+plan has been even in human history. We shall know in the endless ages
+of a future eternity that even to us these long creative days may at
+last become but as watches in the night.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+THE ATMOSPHERE.
+
+
+ "And God said, Let there be an expanse between the waters;
+ and let it separate the waters from the waters. And God made
+ the expanse, and separated the waters which are under the
+ expanse from the waters which are over the expanse: and it
+ was so. And God called the expanse Heaven. And the evening
+ and the morning were the second day."--Genesis i. 6-8.
+
+
+At the opening of the period to which we are now introduced the earth
+was covered by the waters, and these were in such a condition that
+there was no distinction between the seas and the clouds. No
+atmosphere separated them, or, in other words, dense fogs and mists
+everywhere rested on the surface of the primeval ocean. To understand
+as far as possible the precise condition of the earth's surface at
+this period, it will be necessary to notice the present constitution
+of the atmosphere, especially in its relations to aqueous vapor.
+
+The regular and constant constituents of the atmosphere are the
+elements oxygen and nitrogen, which, at the temperature and pressure
+existing on the surface of our globe, are permanently aeriform or
+gaseous. Beside these gases, the air always contains a quantity of the
+vapor of water in a perfectly aeriform and transparent condition. This
+vapor is not, however, permanently gaseous. At all temperatures below
+212 degrees it tends to the liquid state; and its elastic force, which
+preserves its particles in the separated state of vapor, increases or
+diminishes at a more rapid rate than the increase or diminution of
+temperature. Hence the quantity of vapor that can be suspended in
+clear air depends on the temperature of the air itself. As the
+temperature of the air rises, its power of sustaining vapor increases
+more rapidly than its temperature; and as the temperature of the air
+falls, the elastic force of its contained vapor diminishes in a
+greater ratio, until it can exist as an invisible vapor no longer, but
+becomes condensed into minute bubbles or globules, forming cloud,
+mist, or rain. Two other circumstances operate along with these
+properties of air and vapor. The heat radiated from the earth's
+surface causes the lower strata of air to be, in ordinary
+circumstances, warmer than the higher; and, on the other hand, warm
+air, being lighter than that which is colder, the warm layer of air at
+the surface continually tends to rise through and above the colder
+currents immediately over it. Let us consider the operation of the
+causes thus roughly sketched in a column of calm air. The lower
+portion becomes warmed, and if in contact with water takes up a
+quantity of its vapor proportioned to the temperature, or in ordinary
+circumstances somewhat less than this proportion. It then tends to
+ascend, and as it rises and becomes mixed with colder air it gradually
+loses its power of sustaining moisture, and at a height proportioned
+to the diminution of temperature and the quantity of vapor originally
+contained in the air, it begins to part with water, which becomes
+condensed in the form of mist or cloud; and the surface at which this
+precipitation takes place is often still more distinctly marked when
+two masses or layers of air at different temperatures become
+intermixed; in which case, on the principle already stated, the mean
+temperature produced is unable to sustain the vapor proper to the two
+extremes, and moisture is precipitated. It thus happens that layers
+of cloud accumulate in the atmosphere, while between them and the
+surface there is a stratum of clear air. Fogs and mists are in the
+present state of nature exceptional appearances, depending generally
+on local causes, and showing what the world might be but for that
+balancing of temperature and the elastic force of vapor which
+constitutes the atmospheric firmament.[68]
+
+The quantity of water thus suspended over the earth is enormous. "When
+we see a cloud resolve itself into rain, and pour out thousands of
+gallons of water, we can not comprehend how it can float in the
+atmosphere."[69] The explanation is--1st, the extreme levity of the
+minute globules, which causes them to fall very slowly; 2d, they are
+supported by currents of air, especially by the ascending currents
+developed both in still air and in storms; 3dly, clouds are often
+dissolving on one side and forming on another. A cloud gradually
+descending may be dissolving away by evaporation at the base as fast
+as new matter is being added above. On the other hand, an ascending
+warm current of air may be constantly depositing moisture at the base
+of the cloud, and this may be evaporating under the solar rays above.
+In this case a cloud is "merely the visible form of an aerial space,
+in which certain processes are at the moment in equilibrium, and all
+the particles in a state of upward movement."[70] But so soon as
+condensation markedly exceeds evaporation, rain falls, and the
+atmosphere discharges its vast load of water--how vast we may gather
+from the fact that the waters of all the rivers are but a part of the
+overflowings of the great atmospheric reservoir. "God binds up the
+waters in his thick cloud, and the cloud is not rent under them." It
+is thus that the terrestrial waters are divided into those above and
+those below that expanse of clear air in which we live and move,
+exempt from the dense, dark mists of the earth's earlier state, yet
+enjoying the benefits of the cloudy curtain that veils the burning
+sun, and of the cloudy reservoirs that drop down rain to nourish every
+green thing.
+
+We have no reason to suppose that the laws which regulate mixtures of
+gases and vapors did not prevail in the period in question. It is
+probable that these laws are as old as the creation of matter; but the
+condition of our earth up to the second day must have been such as
+prevented them from operating as at present. Such a condition might
+possibly be the result of an excessive evaporation occasioned by
+internal heat. The interior of the earth still remains in a heated
+state, and includes large subterranean reservoirs of melted rock, as
+is proved by the increase of temperature in deep mines and borings,
+and by the widely extended phenomena of hot springs and volcanic
+action. At the period in question the internal temperature of the
+earth was probably vastly greater than at present, and perhaps the
+whole interior of the globe may have been in a state of igneous
+fluidity. At the same time the external solid crust may have been
+thin, and it was not fractured and thickened in places by the upheaval
+of mountain chains or the deposition of great and unequal sheets of
+sediment; for, as I may again remind the reader, the primitive chaos
+did not consist of a confused accumulation of rocky masses, but the
+earth's crust must then have been more smooth and unbroken than at any
+subsequent period. This being the internal condition of the earth, it
+is quite conceivable, without any violation of the existing laws of
+nature, that the waters of the ocean, warmed by internal heat, may
+have sent up a sufficient quantity of vapor to keep the lower strata
+of air in a constant state of saturation, and to occasion an equally
+constant precipitation of moisture from the colder strata above. This
+would merely be the universal operation of a cause similar to that
+which now produces fogs at the northern limit of the Atlantic Gulf
+Stream, and in other localities where currents of warm water flow
+under or near to cooler air. Such a state of things is more
+conceivable in a globe covered with water, and consequently destitute
+of the dry and powerfully radiating surfaces which land presents, and
+receiving from without the rays, not of a solar orb, but of a
+comparatively feeble and diffused luminous ether. The continued action
+of these causes would gradually cool the earth's crust and its
+incumbent waters, until the heat from without preponderated over that
+from within, when the result stated in the text would be effected.
+
+The statements of our primitive authority for this condition of the
+earth might also be accounted for on the supposition that the
+permanently gaseous part of the atmosphere did not at the period in
+question exist in its present state, but that it was on the second day
+actually elaborated and caused to take its place in separating the
+atmospheric from the oceanic waters. The first is by far the more
+probable view; but we may still apply to such speculations the words
+of Elihu, the friend of Job:
+
+ "Stand still and consider the wonderful works of God.
+ Dost thou know when God disposes them,
+ And the lightning of his cloud shines forth?
+ Dost thou know the poising of the dark clouds,
+ The wonderful works of the Perfect in knowledge?"
+
+We may now consider the words in which this great improvement in the
+condition of the earth is recorded. The Hebrew term for the atmosphere
+is _Rakiah_, literally, something expanded or beaten out--an expanse.
+It is rendered in our version "firmament," a word conveying the notion
+of support and fixity, and in the Septuagint "_Stereoma_," a word
+having a similar meaning. The idea conveyed by the Hebrew word is not,
+however, that of _strength_, but of _extent_; or as Milton--the most
+accurate of expositors of these words--has it:
+
+ "The firmament, expanse of liquid, pure,
+ Transparent, elemental air, diffused
+ In circuit to the uttermost convex
+ Of this great round."
+
+That this was really the way in which this word was understood by the
+Hebrews appears from several passages of the Bible. Job says of God,
+"Who alone _spreadeth_ out the heavens."[71] David, in the 104th
+Psalm, which is a poetical paraphrase of the history of creation,
+speaks of the Creator as "_stretching_ out the heavens as a curtain."
+In later writers, as Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, similar expressions
+occur. The notion of a solid or arched firmament was probably
+altogether remote from the minds of these writers. Such beliefs may
+have prevailed at the time when the Septuagint translation was made,
+but I have no hesitation in affirming that no trace of them can be
+found in the Old Testament. In proof of this, I may refer to some of
+the passages which have been cited as affording the strongest
+instances of this kind of "accommodation." In Exodus xxiv., 10, we
+are told, "And they saw the God of Israel, and under his feet as it
+were a paved work of sapphire, and as it were the heaven itself in its
+clearness." This is evidently a comparison of the pavement seen under
+the feet of Jehovah to a sapphire in its color, and to the heavens in
+its transparency. The intention of the writer is not to give
+information respecting the heavens, or to liken them either to a
+pavement or a sapphire; all that we can infer is that he believed the
+heavens to be clear or transparent. Job mentions the "pillars of
+heaven," but the connection shows that this is merely a poetical
+expression for lofty mountains. The earthquake causes these pillars of
+heaven to "tremble." We are informed in the book of Job that God "ties
+up his waters in his thick cloud, and the cloud is not rent under
+them." We are also told of the "treasures of snow and the treasures of
+hail," and rain is called the "bottles of heaven," and is said to be
+poured out of the "lattices of heaven." I recognize in all these mere
+poetical figures, not intended to be literally understood. Some
+learned writers wish us to believe that the intention of the Bible in
+these places is actually to teach that the clouds are contained in
+skin bottles, or something similar, and that they are emptied through
+hatches in a solid firmament. To found such a belief, however, on a
+few figurative statements, seems ridiculous, especially when we
+consider that the writers of the Scriptures show themselves to be well
+acquainted with nature, and would not be likely on any account to
+deviate so far from the ordinary testimony of the senses; more
+especially as by doing so they would enable every unlettered man who
+has seen a cloud gather on a mountain's brow or dissolve away before
+increasing heat to oppose the evidence of his senses to their
+statements, and perhaps to reject them with scorn as a barefaced
+imposture. But, lastly, we are triumphantly directed to the question
+of Elihu in his address to Job:
+
+ "Hast thou with him stretched out the sky,
+ Which is firm and like a molten mirror?"
+
+But the word translated sky here is not "_rakiah_," or "_shamayim_,"
+but another signifying the _clouds_, so that we should regard Elihu as
+speaking of the apparent firmness or stability, and the beautiful
+reflected tints of the clouds. His words may be paraphrased thus:
+"Hast thou aided Him in spreading out those clouds, which appear so
+stable and self-sustaining, and so beautifully reflect the
+sunlight?"[72] The above passages form the only authority which I can
+find in the Scriptures for the doctrine of a solid firmament, which
+may therefore be characterized as a modern figment of men more learned
+in books but less acquainted with nature than the Scripture writers.
+As a contrast to all such doctrines I may quote the sublime opening of
+the poetical account of creation in Psalm civ., which we may also take
+here as elsewhere as the oldest and most authoritative commentary on
+the first chapter of Genesis:
+
+ "Bless the Lord, O my soul!
+ O Lord, my God, thou art very great:
+ Thou art clothed with honor and majesty,
+ Who coverest thyself with light as with a garment,
+ Who stretchest out the heavens like a curtain (of a tent),
+ _Who layest the beams of thy chambers in the waters,
+ Who makest the clouds thy chariots,
+ Who walkest upon the wings of the wind_."
+
+The waters here are those above the firmament, the whole of this part
+of the Psalm being occupied with the heavens; and there is no place
+left for the solid firmament, of which the writer evidently knew
+nothing. He represents God as laying his chambers on the waters,
+instead of on the supposed firmament, and as careering in cloudy
+chariots on the wings of the wind, instead of over a solid arch. For
+all the above reasons, we conclude that the "expanse" of the verses
+under consideration was understood by the writers of the book of God
+to be _aerial_, not _solid_; and the "establishment of the clouds
+above," as it is finely called in Proverbs, is the effect of those
+meteorological laws to which I have already referred, and which were
+now for the first time brought into operation by the divine
+Legislator. The Hebrew theology was not of a kind to require such
+expedients as that of solid heavenly arches; it recurred at once to
+the will--the decree--of Jehovah; and was content to believe that
+through this efficient cause the "rivers run into the sea, yet the sea
+is not full," for "to the place whence the rivers came, thither they
+return again," through the agency of those floating clouds, "the
+waters above the heavens," which "pour down rain according to the
+vapor thereof."
+
+God called the expanse "Heaven." In former chapters we have noticed
+that heaven in the popular speech of the Hebrews, as in our own, had
+different meanings, applying alike to the cloudy, the astral, and the
+spiritual heavens. The Creator here sanctions its application to the
+aerial expanse; and accordingly throughout the Scriptures it is used
+in this way; _rakiah_ occurs very rarely, as if it had become nearly
+obsolete, or was perhaps regarded as a merely technical or descriptive
+term. The divine sanction for the use of the term heaven for the
+atmosphere is, as already explained, to indicate that this popular
+use is not to interfere with its application to the whole universe
+beyond our earth in verse 1st.
+
+The poetical parts of the Bible, and especially the book of Job, which
+is probably the most ancient of the whole, abound in references to the
+atmosphere and its phenomena. I may quote a few of these passages, to
+enable us to understand the views of these subjects given in the
+Bible, and the meaning attached to the creation of the atmosphere, in
+very ancient periods. In Job, 38th chapter, we have the following:
+
+ "In what way is the lightning distributed,
+ And how is the east wind spread abroad over the earth?
+ Who hath opened a channel for the pouring rain,
+ Or a way for the thunder-flash?
+ To cause it to rain on the land where no man is,
+ In the desert where no one dwells;
+ To saturate the desolate and waste ground,
+ And to cause the bud of the tender herb to spring forth."
+
+Here we have the unequal and unforeseen distribution of
+thunder-storms, beyond the knowledge and power of man, but under the
+absolute control of God, and designed by him for beneficent purposes.
+Equally fine are some of the following lines:
+
+ "Dost thou lift up thy voice to the clouds,
+ That abundance of waters may cover thee?
+ Dost thou send forth the lightnings, and they go,
+ And say unto thee, Here are we?
+ Who can number the clouds by wisdom,
+ Or cause the bottles of heaven to empty themselves?
+ When the dust groweth into mire,
+ And the clods cleave fast together?"
+
+In the 36th and 37th chapters of the same book we have a grand
+description of atmospheric changes in their relation to man and his
+works. The speaker is Elihu, who in this ancient book most favorably
+represents the knowledge of nature that existed at a time probably
+anterior to the age of Moses--a knowledge far superior to that which
+we find in the works of many modern poets and expositors, and
+accompanied by an intense appreciation of the grandeur and beauty of
+natural objects:
+
+ "For he draweth up the drops of water,
+ Rain is condensed[73] from his vapor,
+ Which the clouds do drop,
+ And distill upon man abundantly.
+ Yea, can any understand the distribution of the clouds
+ Or the thundering of his tabernacle.[74]
+ Behold he spreadeth his lightning upon it,
+ He covereth it as with the depths of the sea.[75]
+ By these he executes judgment on the people,
+ By these also he giveth food in abundance;
+ His hands he covers with the lightning,
+ And commands it (against the enemy) in its striking;
+ He uttereth to it his decree,[76]
+ Concerning the herd as well as proud man.
+ At this also my heart trembles,
+ And bounds out of its place;
+ Hear attentively the thunder of his voice,
+ And the loud sound that goes from his mouth.
+ He directs it under the whole heavens,
+ And his lightning to the ends of the earth.
+ After it his voice roareth,
+ He thundereth with the voice of his majesty;
+ And delays not (the tempest) when his voice is heard.
+ God thundereth marvellously with his voice,
+ He doeth wonders which we can not comprehend;
+ For he saith to the snow, Be thou on the earth.
+ Also to the pouring rain, even the great rain of his might.
+ He sealeth up the hand of every man,
+ That all men may know his work.
+ Then the beasts go to their dens,
+ And remain in their caverns.
+ Out of the south cometh the whirlwind
+ And cold out of the north,
+ By the breath of God the frost is produced
+ And the breadth of waters becomes bound;
+ With moisture he loads the thick cloud,
+ He spreads the cloud of his lightning,
+ And it is turned about by his direction,
+ To execute his pleasure on the face of the world;
+ Whether for correction, for his land, or for mercy,
+ He causeth it to come.
+ Hearken unto this, O Job,
+ Stand still and consider the wonderful works of God.
+ Dost thou know when God disposes these things,
+ And the lightning of his cloud flashes forth?
+ Dost thou know the poising of the clouds,
+ The wonderful work of the Perfect in knowledge?
+ When thy garments become warm
+ When he quieteth the earth by the south wind;
+ Hast thou with him spread out the clouds
+ Firm and like a molten mirror?"[77]
+
+It would not be easy to find, in the poetry of any nation or time, a
+description of so many natural phenomena, so fine in feeling or
+truthful in delineation. It should go far to dispel the too prevalent
+ideas of early Oriental ignorance, and should lead to a more full
+appreciation of these noble pictures of nature, unsurpassed in the
+literature of any people or time. I trust that the previous
+illustrations are sufficient to show, not only that the _stereoma_, or
+solid firmament of the Septuagint, is not to be found in Scripture,
+but that the positive doctrine of the Bible on the subject is of a
+very different character. For instance, in the above extract from the
+book of Job, Elihu speaks of the poising or suspension of the clouds
+as inscrutable, and tells us that God draws up water into the clouds,
+and pours down rain according to the vapor thereof; he also speaks of
+the clouds as being scattered before the brightness of the sun; and
+notices, in truthful as well as exalted language, the nature and
+succession of the lightning's flash, the thunder, and the
+precipitation of rain that follows. Solomon also informs us that the
+"establishment of the clouds above" is due to the law or will of
+Jehovah. Finally, in this connection, the divine sanction given to the
+use of the term heaven for the atmosphere may in itself be regarded as
+an intimation that no definite barrier separates our film of
+atmosphere from the boundless abyss of heaven without.
+
+Of this period natural science gives us no intimation. In the earliest
+geological epochs organic life, dry land, and an atmosphere already
+existed. At the period now under consideration the two former had not
+been called into existence, and the latter was in process of
+elaboration from the materials of the primeval deep. If the formation
+of the atmosphere in its existing conditions was, as already hinted, a
+result of the gradual cooling of the earth, then this period must have
+been of great length, and the action of the heated waters on the crust
+of the globe may have produced thick layers of detrital matter
+destined to form the first soils of the succeeding aeon. We know
+nothing, however, of these primitive strata, and most of them must
+have been removed by denuding agencies in succeeding periods, or
+restored by subterranean heat to the crystalline state. The events and
+results of this day may be summed up as follows:
+
+"At the commencement of the period the earth was enveloped by a misty
+or vaporous mantle. In its progress those relations of air and vapor
+which cause the separation of the clouds from the earth by a layer of
+clear air, and the varied alternations of sunshine and rain, were
+established. At the close of the period the newly formed atmosphere
+covered a universal ocean; and there was probably a very regular and
+uniform condition of the atmospheric currents, and of the processes of
+evaporation and condensation."
+
+But while we must affirm that no idea of a solid atmospheric vault can
+be detected in the Bible, and while we may also affirm that such an idea
+would have been altogether foreign to its tone, which invariably refers
+all things not to secondary machinery, but to the will and fiat of the
+Supreme, we must not forget that a most important moral purpose was to
+be served by the assertion of the establishment of the atmospheric
+expanse. Among all nations the phenomena of the atmosphere have had
+important theological and mythological relations. The ever-changing and
+apparently capricious aspects of the atmosphere and its clouds, the
+terrible effects of storms, and the balmy influence of sunshine and
+calm, deeply impress the minds of simple and superstitious men, and
+this all the more that in their daily life and expeditions they are
+constantly subjected to the effects of atmospheric vicissitudes. Hence
+the greatest gods of all the ancient nations are weather-gods--rulers of
+the atmospheric heavens--displaying their anger in the thunder-storm and
+tornado. It is likely that in most cases, as in many barbarous tribes of
+modern times, these weather-gods were malevolent beings contending
+against the genial influences of the heavenly Sun-god; but in nearly
+every case their supposed practical importance has elevated them, as in
+the case of the Olympian Zeus, the Scandinavian Thor, and the American
+Hurakon, to the place of supreme divinity. This was one of the
+superstitions which the Hebrew monotheism had to overcome. Hence the
+atmosphere is affirmed to be under Jehovah's law, and all its phenomena
+are attributed to his power. The value of this as cutting at the root of
+the most widespread superstitions it is easy to understand, and it has a
+farther value in teaching that even the apparently unstable and
+capricious air is a thing established from the first and amenable to the
+ordinance of God. How difficult it has been to eradicate superstitious
+views of the atmosphere may be learned from the fact that St. Paul, in
+writing to the enlightened citizens of Ephesus, could speak of the power
+which the heathen worshipped as the "Prince of the powers of the air,"
+and it is also evidenced by the abundant notions of this kind which have
+survived from the Middle Ages among the more ignorant part of the people
+even in lands called Christian.
+
+While, however, the Bible affirms the atmosphere to be subject to law,
+it does not carry this into the domain of physical necessity, and
+affirm with some modern materialistic philosophers that it is useless
+to pray for rain. It is God who gives rain from heaven and fruitful
+seasons, and what he gives he can withhold. Perhaps no part of our
+subject can better than this illustrate the rational distinction
+between a mere physical fatalism, or a mere superstitious fear of
+capricious nature, and that belief in a divine Lawgiver which lies
+between these extremes. Modern science may smile at the poor Indian,
+who in his fear invokes Hurakon or Tlaloc or the terrible
+Thunder-bird, and may even despise that nobler worship of the great
+Phoenician Sun-god, the source and fountain of all light and life;
+against which, though it was the grandest of all the old idolatries,
+Elijah waged war to the death. But may it not equally deride the faith
+of Elijah himself, when, after three years of drought, he prayed in
+the sight of assembled Israel for rain? It may do so if physical law
+amounts to an invariable necessity, and if there is no supreme Will
+behind it. But if natural laws are the expression of the divine will,
+if these laws are multiform and complicated in their relations, and
+regulate vastly varied causes interacting with each other, and if the
+action and welfare of man come within the scope of these laws, then
+there is nothing irrational in the supposition that God, without any
+capricious or miraculous intervention, may have so correlated the
+myriad adjustments of his creation as that, while it is his usual rule
+that rain falls alike on the evil and on the good, he may make its
+descent at particular times and places to depend on the needs and
+requests of his own children. In truth the belief in law is essential
+to the philosophical conception of prayer. If the universe were a mere
+chaos of chances, or if it were a result of absolute necessity, there
+would be no place for intelligent prayer; but if it is under the
+control of a Lawgiver, wise and merciful, not a mere manager of
+material machinery, but a true Father of all, then we can go to such
+a being with our requests, not in the belief that we can change his
+great plans, or that any advantage could result from this if it were
+possible, but that these plans may be made in his boundless wisdom and
+love to meet our necessities. There is also in the Bible the farther
+promise that, if we are truly the children of God, regulating our
+conduct by his will and enlightened by his spirit, we shall know how
+to pray for what is in accordance with his divine purpose, and how to
+receive with gladness whatever he sees fit to give. While, therefore,
+the Biblical doctrine as to natural law emancipates us from fears of
+angry storm-demons, it draws us near to a heavenly Father, whose power
+is above all the tempests of earth, and who, while ruling by law, has
+regulated all things in conformity with the higher law of love. When
+God had made the atmosphere, he saw that it was good, and the highest
+significance is given to this by the consideration that God is love.
+The position of the Bible is thus the true mean between superstitions
+at once unhappy and debasing, and a materialistic infidelity that
+would reduce the universe to a dead, remorseless machine, in which we
+must struggle for a precarious existence till we are crushed between
+its wheels.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+THE DRY LAND AND THE FIRST PLANTS.
+
+
+ "And God said, Let the waters under the heavens be gathered
+ into one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.
+ And God called the dry land earth, and the gathering of
+ waters called he seas; and God saw that it was good.
+
+ "And God said, Let the earth bring forth the springing herb,
+ the herb bearing seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit,
+ after its kind, whose seed is in it on the earth: and it was
+ so. And the earth brought forth the tender herb, the herb
+ yielding seed, and the tree bearing fruit whose seed is in
+ it, after its kind; and God saw that it was good."--Genesis
+ i., 10, 11.
+
+These are events sufficiently simple and intelligible in their general
+character. Geology shows us that the emergence of the dry land must
+have resulted from the elevation of parts of the bed of the ancient
+universal ocean, and that the agent employed in such changes is the
+bending and crumpling of the outer crust of the earth, caused by
+lateral pressure, and operating either in a slow and regular manner or
+by sudden paroxysms. It farther informs us that the existing
+continents consist of stratified or bedded masses, more or less
+inclined, fissured and irregularly elevated, and usually supported by
+crystalline rocks which have been produced among them, or forced up
+beneath or through them by internal agencies, and which truly
+constitute the pillars and foundations of the earth. These elevations,
+it is true, were successive, and belong to different periods; but the
+appearance of the first dry land is that intended here.
+
+The elevation of the dry land is more frequently referred to in
+Scripture than any other cosmological fact; and while all have been
+misapprehended, the statements on this subject have been even more
+unjustly dealt with than others. In the text, the word "earth"
+(_aretz_[78]) is, by divine sanction, narrowed in meaning to the dry
+land; but while some expositors are quite willing to restrict it to
+this, or even a more limited sense, in the first and second verses of
+this chapter, almost the only verses in the Bible where the terms of
+the narrative make such a restriction inadmissible, they are equally
+ready to understand it as meaning the whole globe in places where the
+explanatory clause in the verse now under consideration teaches us
+that we should understand the land only, as distinguished from the
+sea. I may quote some of these passages, and note the views they give;
+always bearing in mind that, after the intimation here given, we must
+understand the term "earth" as applying _only to the continents_ or
+_dry land_, unless where the context otherwise fixes the meaning. We
+may first turn to Psalm civ.:
+
+ "Thou laidst the foundations of the earth,
+ That it should never be removed;
+ Thou coveredst it with the deep as with a garment;
+ The waters stood above the mountains;
+ At thy rebuke they fled;
+ At the sound of thy thunder they hasted away;
+ Mountains ascended, valleys descended
+ To the place thou hast appointed for them:
+ Thou hast appointed them bounds that they may not pass,
+ That they return not again to cover the earth."
+
+The position of these verses in this "the hymn of creation" leaves no
+doubt that they refer to the events we are now considering. I have
+given above the literal reading of the line that refers to the
+elevation of mountains and subsidence of valleys; admitting, however,
+that the grammatical construction gives an air of probability to the
+rendering in our version, "they go up by the mountains, they go down
+by the valleys," which, on the other hand, is rendered very improbable
+by the sense. In whichever sense we understand this line, the picture
+presented to us by the Psalmist includes the elevation of the
+mountains and continents, the subsidence of the waters into their
+depressed basins, and the firm establishment of the dry land on its
+rocky foundations, the whole accompanied by a feature not noticed in
+Genesis--the voice of God's thunder--or, in other words, electrical
+and volcanic explosions. The following quotations refer to the same
+subject:
+
+ "Before the mountains were settled,
+ Before the hills was I (the Wisdom of God) brought forth;
+ While as yet he had not made the earth,
+ Nor the plains, nor the higher parts of the habitable world.
+ When he gave the sea his decree
+ That the waters should not pass his limits,
+ When he determined the foundations of the earth."
+
+ --Proverbs viii., 25.
+
+ "Thou hast established the earth, and it endureth,
+ According to thy decrees they continue this day,
+ For all are thy servants."
+
+ --Psalm cxix., 90.
+
+ "Who shaketh the earth out of its place,
+ And its pillars tremble."
+
+ --Job ix., 6.
+
+ "Where wast thou when I founded the earth?
+ Declare, if thou hast knowledge.
+ Who hath fixed the proportion thereof, if thou knowest?
+ Who stretched the line upon it?
+ Upon what are its foundations settled?
+ Or who laid its corner-stone,
+ When the morning stars sang together,
+ And all the sons of God shouted for joy?
+ Who shut up the sea with doors
+ In its bursting forth as from the womb?
+ When I made the cloud its garment,
+ And swathed it in thick darkness,
+ I measured out for it my limit,
+ And fixed its bars and doors;
+ And said, Thus far shalt thou come, but no farther,
+ And here shall thy proud waves be stayed."
+
+ --Job xxxviii., 4.
+
+In these passages the foundation of the earth at first, as well as the
+shaking of its pillars by the earthquake, are connected with what we
+usually call natural law--the decree of the Almighty--the unchanging
+arrangements of an unchangeable Creator, whose "hands formed the dry
+land."[79] This is the ultimate cause not only of the elevation of the
+land, but of all other natural things and processes. The naturalist
+does not require to be informed that the details, in so far as they
+are referred to in the above passages, are perfectly in accordance
+with what we know of the nature and support of continental masses.
+Geological observation and mathematical calculation have in our day
+combined their powers to give clear views of the manner in which the
+fractured strata of the earth are wedged and arched together, and
+supported by internal igneous masses upheaved from beneath, and
+subsequently cooled and hardened. A general view of these facts which
+we have learned from scientific inquiry, the Hebrews gleaned with
+nearly as much precision from the short account of the elevation of
+the land in Genesis, and from the later comments of their inspired
+poets. From the same source our own great poet, Milton, learned these
+cosmical facts, before the rise of geology, and expressed them in
+unexceptionable terms:
+
+ "The mountains huge appear
+ Emergent, and their broad bare backs upheave
+ Into the clouds, their tops ascend the sky.
+ So high as heaved the tumid hills, so low
+ Down sunk a hollow bottom, broad and deep,
+ Capacious bed of waters."
+
+In further illustration of the opinions of the Scripture writers
+respecting the nature of the earth, and the disturbances to which it
+is liable, I quote the following passages. The first is from the
+magnificent description of Jehovah descending to succor his people
+amid the terrors of the earthquake, the volcano, and the
+thunder-storm, in Psalm xviii.:
+
+ "Then shook and trembled the earth,
+ The foundations of the hills moved and were shaken,
+ Because he was angry.
+ Smoke went up from his nostrils,
+ Fire from his mouth devoured,
+ Coals were kindled by it.
+ Then were seen the channels of the waters,
+ And the foundations of the world were discovered,
+ At thy rebuke--O Jehovah--
+ At the blast of the breath of thy nostrils."
+
+In another place in the Psalms we find volcanic action thus tersely
+sketched:
+
+ "He looketh on the earth and it trembleth,
+ He toucheth the hills and they smoke."
+
+ --Psalm civ., 32.
+
+Perhaps the most remarkable discourse on this subject in the whole
+Bible is that in Job xxviii., in which mining operations are
+introduced as an illustration of the difficulty of obtaining true
+wisdom. This passage is interesting both from its extreme antiquity,
+and the advancement in knowledge and practical skill which it
+indicates. It presents, however, many difficulties; and its details
+have almost entirely lost their true significance in our common
+English version:
+
+ "Surely there is a vein for silver,
+ And a place for the gold which men refine;
+ Iron is taken from the earth,
+ And copper is molten from the ore.
+ To the end of darkness and to all extremes man searcheth,
+ For the stones of darkness and the shadow of death.
+ He opens a passage [shaft] from where men dwell,
+ Unsupported by the foot, they hang down and swing to and fro.[80]
+ The earth--out of it cometh bread;
+ And beneath, it is overturned as by fire.[81]
+ Its stones are the place of sapphires,
+ And it hath lumps[82] of gold.
+ The path (thereto) the bird of prey hath not known,
+ The vulture's eye hath not seen it.[83]
+ The wild beasts' whelps have not trodden it,
+ The lion hath not passed over it.
+ Man layeth his hand on the hard rock,
+ He turneth up the mountains from their roots,
+ He cutteth channels [_adits_] in the rocks,
+ His eye seeth every precious thing.
+ He restraineth the streams from trickling,
+ And bringeth the hidden thing to light.
+ But where shall wisdom be found,
+ And where is the place of understanding?"
+
+This passage, incidentally introduced, gives us a glimpse of the
+knowledge of the interior of the earth and its products, as it existed
+in an age probably anterior to that of Moses. It brings before us the
+repositories of the valuable metals and gems--the mining operations,
+apparently of some magnitude and difficulty, undertaken in extracting
+them--and the wonderful structure of the earth itself, green and
+productive at the surface, rich in precious metals beneath, and deeper
+still the abode of intense subterranean fires. The only thing wanting
+to give completeness to the picture is some mention of the fossil
+remains buried in the earth; and, as the main thought is the eager and
+successful search for useful minerals, this can hardly be regarded as
+a defect. The application of all this is finer than almost any thing
+else in didactic poetry. Man can explore depths of the earth
+inaccessible to all other creatures, and extract thence treasures of
+inestimable value; yet, after thus exhausting all the natural riches
+of the earth, he too often lacks that highest wisdom which alone can
+fit him for the true ends of his spiritual being. How true is all
+this, even in our own wonder-working days! A poet of to-day could
+scarcely say more of subterranean wonders, or say it more truthfully
+and beautifully; nor could he arrive at a conclusion more pregnant
+with the highest philosophy than the closing words:
+
+ "The fear of the Lord, that is wisdom;
+ And to depart from evil is understanding."
+
+The emergence of the dry land is followed by a repetition of the
+approval of the Creator. "God saw that it was good." To our view that
+primeval dry land would scarcely have seemed good. It was a world of
+bare, rocky peaks, and verdureless valleys--here active volcanoes,
+with their heaps of scoriae and scarcely cooled lava currents--there
+vast mudflats, recently upheaved from the bottom of the
+waters--nowhere even a blade of grass or a clinging lichen. Yet it was
+good in the view of its Maker, who could see it in relation to the
+uses for which he had made it, and as a fit preparatory step to the
+new wonders he was soon to introduce. Then too, as we are informed in
+Job xxxviii., "The morning stars sang together, and all the sons of
+God shouted for joy." We also, when we think of the beautiful variety
+of the terrestrial surface, the character and composition of its
+soils, the variety of climate and exposure resulting from its degrees
+of elevation, the arrangements for the continuance of springs and
+streams, and many other beneficial provisions connected with the
+merely mechanical arrangements of the dry land, may well join in the
+tribute of praise to the All-wise Creator. There is, however, a
+farther thought suggested by the approval of the great Artificer. In
+this wondrous progress of creation, it seems as if every thing at
+first was in its best estate. No succeeding state could parallel the
+unbroken symmetry of the earth in the fluid and vaporous condition of
+the "deep." Before the elevation of the land, the atmospheric currents
+and the deposition of moisture must have been surpassingly regular.
+The first dry land may have presented crags and peaks and ravines and
+volcanic cones in a more marvellous and perfect manner than any
+succeeding continents--even as the dry and barren moon now, in this
+respect, far surpasses the earths. In the progress of organic life,
+geology gives similar indications, in the variety and magnitude of
+many animal types on their first introduction; so that this may very
+possibly be a law of creation.
+
+During the emergence of the first dry land, large quantities of
+detrital matter must have been deposited in the waters, and in part
+elevated into land. All of these beds would, probably, be destitute of
+organic remains; but if such beds were formed and still remain, they
+are probably unknown to us, for the oldest formations that we
+know--those of the Eozoic age--contain traces of such remains. It has,
+indeed, been suggested that these most ancient organisms are, as it
+were, overlooked in the history of creation, or regarded as equivalent
+to those shapeless monsters and animals of the darkness that are
+referred to in the older Turanian versions of this story of creation.
+I doubt very much, however, if this is a fair interpretation of our
+ancient record; but we shall be in a better position to discuss it
+when we come to the actual introduction of animals.
+
+Modern analogy would induce us to believe that the land was not
+elevated suddenly; but either by a series of small paroxysms, as in
+the case of Chili, or by a gradual and imperceptible movement, as in
+the case of Sweden--two of the most remarkable modern instances of
+elevation of land--accompanied, however, in the case of the last by
+local subsidence.[84] In either of these ways the seas and rivers
+would have time to smooth the more rugged inequalities, to widen the
+ravines into valleys, and to spread out sediment in the lower grounds;
+thus fitting the surface for the habitation of plants and animals. We
+must not suppose, however, that the dry land had any close resemblance
+to that now existing in its form or distribution. Geology amply
+proves that since the first appearance of dry land, its contour has
+frequently been changed, and probably also its position. Hence nearly
+all our present land consists of rocks which have been formed under
+the waters, long after the period now under consideration, and have
+been subsequently hardened and elevated; and since all the existing
+high mountain ranges are of a comparatively late age, it is probable
+that this primeval dry land was low, as well as, in the earlier part
+of the period at least, of comparatively small extent. It is, however,
+by no means certain that there may not have been a greater expanse of
+land toward the close of this period than that which afterwards
+existed in those older periods of animal life to which the earliest
+fossiliferous rocks of the geologist carry us back; since, as already
+hinted, it seems to be a rule in creation that each new object shall
+be highly developed of its kind at its first appearance, and since
+there have been in geological time many great subsidences as well as
+elevations. Neither must we forget that the oldest land has been
+subjected throughout geological time to wearing and degrading
+agencies, and that from its waste the later formations have been
+mainly derived.
+
+It would be wrong, however, to omit to state that, though we may know
+at present no remains of the first dry land, we are not ignorant of
+its general distribution; for the present continents show, in the
+arrangement of their formations and mountain chains, evidence that
+they are parts of a plan sketched out from the beginning. It has often
+been remarked by physical geographers that the great lines of coast
+and mountain ranges are generally in directions approaching to
+northeast and southwest, or northwest and southeast, and that where
+they run in other directions, as in the case of the south of Europe
+and Asia, they are much broken by salient and re-entering angles,
+formed by lines having these directions. Professor R. Owen, of
+Tennessee, and Professor Pierce, of Harvard College, were, I believe,
+the first to point out that these lines are in reality parts of great
+circles tangent to the polar circles, and the latter to suggest a
+theory of their origin, based on the action of solar heat and the
+seasons on a cooling earth. This has been more fully stated by Mr. W.
+Lowthian Green in his curious book, "Vestiges of the Molten
+Globe."[85] It would appear that the great circles in question are in
+reality at right angles to the line of direction of the attraction of
+the sun and moon at the period of either solstice, and when they
+happen to be in conjunction or opposition at these periods; and that
+such circles would be the lines on which the thin crust of a cooling
+globe would be most likely to be ruptured by its internal tidal-wave.
+Whatever the cause of the phenomenon, it is evident that in the
+formation of its surface inequalities the earth has cracked--so to
+speak--along two series of great circles tangent to the polar circles;
+and that these, with certain subordinate lines of fracture running
+north and south and east and west, have determined the forms of the
+continents from their origin.
+
+M. Elie de Beaumont, and after him most other geologists, have
+attributed the elevation of the continents and the upheaval and
+plication of mountain chains to the secular refrigeration of the
+earth, causing its outer shell to become too capacious for its
+contracting interior mass, and thus to break or bend, and to settle
+toward the centre. This view would well accord with the terms in which
+the elevation of the land is mentioned throughout the Bible, and
+especially with the general progress of the work as we have gleaned
+it from the Mosaic narrative; since from the period of the desolate
+void and aeriform deep to that now before us secular refrigeration
+must have been steadily in progress. Let us also observe here that the
+earliest fractures of the crust would determine the first coast lines,
+and the first slopes along which sedimentary matter would descend from
+the land and be deposited in the sea. They would also modify the
+direction of the ocean currents. Thus the deposition of new formations
+would be directed by these old lines, as would also to some extent the
+course of all subsequent fractures and plications. Thus it happens
+that the lines of outcrop of the oldest rocks first raised out of the
+waters already marked out the forms of the continents, and that the
+later formations appear rather as fillings-up and extensions of the
+skeleton established by the first dry land. Farther, the lines of
+plication first established along the borders of the continents formed
+resisting walls along which, in the continued contraction of the
+earth, pressure was exerted from the ocean bed, widening and elevating
+these lines of upheaval, and still farther fixing the general forms of
+the continents, and giving variety to their surfaces. In the progress
+of geological time there have also been successive depressions and
+re-elevations of the continental plateaus, subjecting them alternately
+to the wearing and disintegrating action of the atmosphere and its
+waters, and to the influence of waves and ocean currents, and
+especially to that of the deep-seated polar currents which have
+throughout geological ages been loading the submerged areas of the
+earth's surface with the products of the waste caused by frost and ice
+in the polar regions. These causes again have been progressively
+increasing the oblateness of the earth's figure, and, along with the
+slackening of its rotation, preparing the way for those periodical
+collapses in the equatorial and temperate regions which form the
+boundaries of some of our most important geological periods.[86]
+Throughout all these changes the great general plan of the continents,
+first sketched out when the "foundations of the earth" were laid,
+before Eozoic time, was being elaborated.
+
+The same creative period that witnessed the first appearance of dry
+land saw it also clothed with vegetation; and it is quite likely that
+this is intended to teach that no time was lost in clothing the earth
+with plants--that the first emerging portions received their vegetable
+tenants as they became fitted for them--and that each additional
+region, as it rose above the surface of the waters, in like manner
+received the species of plants for which it was adapted. What was the
+nature of this earliest vegetation? The sacred writer specifies three
+descriptions of plants as included in it; and, by considering the
+terms which he uses, some information on this subject may be gained.
+
+_Deshe_, translated "grass" in our version, is derived from a verb
+signifying to spring up or bud forth; the same verb, indeed, used in
+this verse to denote "bringing forth," literally causing to spring up.
+Its radical meaning is, therefore, vegetation in the act of sprouting
+or springing forth; or, as connected with this, young and delicate
+herbage. Thus, in Job xxxviii., "To satisfy the desolate and waste
+ground, and to cause the bud of the _young herbage_ to spring forth."
+Here the reference is, no doubt, to the bulbous and tuberous rooted
+plants of the desert plains, which, fading away in the summer drought,
+burst forth with magical rapidity on the setting-in of rain. The
+following passages are similar: Psalm xxiii., "He maketh me to lie
+down in green pastures" (literally, young or _tender herbage_);
+Deuteronomy xxiii., "Small rain upon the _tender herb_;" Isaiah
+xxxvii., "_Grass_ on the house-tops." The word is also used for
+herbage such as can be eaten by cattle or cut down for fodder, though
+even in these cases the idea of young and tender herbage is evidently
+included; "Fat as a heifer at _grass_" (Jer. xiv.)--that is, feeding
+on young succulent grass, not that which is dry and parched. "Cut down
+as the grass, or wither as the green herb," like the soft, tender
+grass, soon cut down and quickly withering. With respect to the use of
+the word in this place, I may remark: 1. It is not here correctly
+translated by the word "grass;" for grass bears seed, and is,
+consequently, a member of the second class of plants mentioned. Even
+if we set aside all idea of inspiration, it is obviously impossible
+that any one living among a pastoral or agricultural people could have
+been ignorant of this fact. 2. It can scarcely be a general term,
+including all plants when in a young or tender state. The idea of
+their springing up is included in the verb, and this was but a very
+temporary condition. Besides, this word does not appear to be employed
+for the young state of shrubs or trees. 3. We thus appear to be shut
+up to the conclusion that _deshe_ here means those plants, mostly
+small and herbaceous, which bear no proper seeds;[87] in other words,
+the Cryptogamia--as fungi, mosses, lichens, ferns, etc. The remaining
+words are translated with sufficient accuracy in our version. They
+denote seed-bearing or phoenogamous herbs and trees. The special
+mention of the fructification of plants is probably intended not only
+for distinction, but also to indicate the new power of organic
+reproduction now first introduced on the surface of our planet, and to
+mark its difference from the creative act itself. That this new and
+wondrous phenomenon should be so stated is thus in strict scientific
+propriety, and it is precisely the point that would be seized by an
+intelligent spectator of the visions of creation, who had previously
+witnessed only the accretion and disintegration of mineral substances,
+and to whom this marvellous power of organic reproduction would be in
+every respect a new creation.
+
+The arrangement of plants in the three great classes of cryptogams,
+seed-bearing herbs, and fruit-bearing trees differs in one important
+point--viz., the separation of herbaceous plants from trees--from
+modern botanical classification. It is, however, sufficiently natural
+for the purposes of a general description like this, and perhaps gives
+more precise ideas of the meaning intended than any other arrangement
+equally concise and popular. It is also probable that the object of
+the writer was not so much a natural-history classification as an
+account of the _order_ of creation, and that he wishes to affirm that
+the introduction of these three classes of plants on the earth
+corresponded with the order here stated. This view renders it
+unnecessary to vindicate the accuracy of the arrangement on botanical
+grounds, since the historical order was evidently better suited to the
+purpose in view, and in so far as the earlier appearance of
+cryptogamous plants is concerned, it is in strict accordance with
+geological fact.
+
+A very important truth is contained in the expression "after its
+kind"--that is, after its _species_; for the Hebrew "_min_," used
+here, has strictly this sense, and, like the Greek _idea_ and the
+Latin _species_, conveys the notion of form as well as that of kind.
+It is used to denote species of animals, in Leviticus i., 14, and in
+Deuteronomy xiv., 15. We are taught by this statement that plants were
+created each kind by itself; and that creation was not a sort of
+slump-work to be perfected by the operation of a law of development,
+as fancied by some modern speculators. In this assertion of the
+distinctness of species, and the production of each as a distinct part
+of the creative plan, revelation tallies perfectly with the
+conclusions of natural science, which lead us to believe that each
+species, as observed by us, is permanently reproductive, variable
+within narrow limits, and incapable of permanent intermixture with
+other species; and though hypotheses of modification by descent, and
+of the production of new species by such modification, may be formed,
+they are not in accordance with experience, and are still among the
+unproved speculations which haunt the outskirts of true science. We
+shall be better prepared, however, to weigh the relations of such
+hypotheses to our revelation of origins when we shall have reached the
+period of the introduction of animal life.
+
+Some additional facts contained in the recapitulation of the creative
+work in Chapter II. may very properly be considered here, as they seem
+to refer to the climatal conditions of the earth during the growth of
+the most ancient vegetation, and before the final adjustment of the
+astronomical relations of the earth on the fourth day. "And every
+shrub of the land before it was on the earth, and every herb of the
+land before it sprung up. For the Lord God had not caused it to rain
+on the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground; but a mist
+ascended from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground."
+This has been supposed to be a description of the state of the earth
+during the whole period anterior to the fall of man. There is,
+however, no Scripture evidence of this; and geology informs us that
+rain fell as at present far back in the Palaeozoic period, countless
+ages before the creation of man or the existing animals. Although,
+however, such a condition of the earth as that stated in these verses
+has not been known in any geological period, yet it is not
+inconceivable, but in reality corresponds with the other conditions of
+nature likely to have prevailed on the third day, as described in
+Genesis. The land of this period, we may suppose, was not very
+extensive nor very elevated. Hence the temperature would be uniform
+and the air moist. The luminous and calorific matter connected with
+the sun still occupied a large space, and therefore diffused heat and
+light more uniformly than at present. The internal heat of the earth
+may still have produced an effect in warming the oceanic waters. The
+combined operation of these causes, of which we, perhaps, have some
+traces as late as the Carboniferous period, might well produce a state
+of things in which the earth was watered, not by showers of rain, but
+by the gentle and continued precipitation of finely divided moisture,
+in the manner now observed in those climates in which vegetation is
+nourished for a considerable part of the year by nocturnal mists and
+copious dews. The atmosphere, in short, as yet partook in some slight
+degree of the same moist and misty character which prevailed before
+the "establishment of the clouds above"--the airy firmament of the
+second day. The introduction of these explanatory particulars by the
+sacred historian furnishes an additional argument for the theory of
+long periods. That vegetation should exist for two or three natural
+days without rain or the irrigation which is given in culture, was, as
+already stated, a circumstance altogether unworthy of notice; but the
+growth during a long period of a varied and highly organized flora,
+without this advantage, and by the aid of a special natural provision
+afterward discontinued, was in all respects so remarkable and so
+highly illustrative of the expedients of the divine wisdom that it
+deserved a prominent place.
+
+It is evident that the words of the inspired writer include plants
+belonging to all the great subdivisions of the vegetable kingdom. This
+earliest vegetation was not rude or incomplete, or restricted to the
+lower forms of life. It was not even, like that of the coal period,
+solely or mainly cryptogamous or gymnospermous. It included trees
+bearing fruit, as well as lichens and mosses, and it received the same
+stamp of approbation bestowed on other portions of the work--"it was
+good." We have a good right to assume that its excellence had
+reference not only to its own period, but to subsequent conditions of
+the earth. Vegetation is the great assimilating power, the converter
+of inorganic into organic matter suitable for the sustenance of
+animals. In like manner the lower tribes of plants prepare the way for
+the higher. We should therefore have expected _a priori_ that
+vegetation would have clothed the earth before the creation of
+animals, and a sufficient time before it to allow soils to be
+accumulated, and surplus stores of organic matter to be prepared in
+advance: this consideration alone would also induce us to assign a
+considerable duration to the third day. After the elevation of land,
+and the draining off from it of the saline matter with which it would
+be saturated, a process often very tedious, especially in low tracts
+of ground, the soil would still consist only of mineral matter, and
+must have been for a long period occupied by plants suited to this
+condition of things, in order that sufficient organic matter might be
+accumulated for the growth of a more varied vegetation; a
+consideration which perhaps illustrates the order of the plants in the
+narrative.
+
+It may be objected to the above views that, however accordant with
+chemical and physiological probabilities, they do not harmonize with
+the facts of geology; since the earliest fossiliferous formations
+contain almost exclusively the remains of animals, which must
+therefore have preceded, or at least been coeval with, the earliest
+forms of terrestrial vegetation. This objection is founded on
+well-ascertained facts, but facts which may have no connection with
+the third day of creation when regarded as a long period. The oldest
+geological formations are of marine origin, and contain remains of
+marine animals, with those of plants supposed to be allied to the
+existing algae or sea-weeds. Geology can not, however, assure us either
+that no land plants existed contemporaneously with these earliest
+animals, or that no land flora preceded them. These oldest
+fossiliferous rocks may mark the commencement of animal life, but they
+testify nothing as to the existence or non-existence of a previous
+period of vegetation alone. Farther, the rocks which contain the
+oldest remains of life exist as far as yet known in a condition so
+highly metamorphic as almost to preclude the possibility of their
+containing any distinguishable vegetable fossils; yet they contain
+vast deposits of carbon in the form of graphite, and if this, like
+more modern coaly matter, was accumulated by vegetable growth, it must
+indicate an exuberance of plants in these earliest geological periods,
+but of plants as yet altogether unknown to us. It is possible,
+therefore, that in these Eozoic rocks we may have remnants of the
+formations of the third Mosaic day; and if we should ever be so
+fortunate as to find any portion of them containing vegetable fossils,
+and these of species differing from any hitherto known, either in a
+fossil state or recent, and rising higher, in elevation and complexity
+of type, than the flora of the succeeding Silurian and Carboniferous
+eras, we may then suppose that we have penetrated to the monuments of
+this third creative aeon. The only other alternative by which these
+verses can be reconciled with geology is that adopted by the late Hugh
+Miller, who supposes that the plants of the third day are those of the
+Carboniferous period; but, besides the apparent anachronism involved
+in this, we now know that the coal flora consisted mainly of
+cryptogams allied to ferns and club-mosses, and of gymnosperms allied
+to the pines and cycads, the higher orders of plants being almost
+entirely wanting. For these reasons we are shut up to the conclusion
+that this flora of the third day must have its place before the
+Palaeozoic period of geology.
+
+To those who are familiar with the vast lapse of time required by the
+geological history of the earth, it may be startling to ascribe the
+whole of it to three or four of the creative days. If, however, it be
+admitted that these days were periods of unknown duration, no reason
+remains for limiting their length any farther than the facts of the
+case require. If in the strata of the earth which are accessible to us
+we can detect the evidence of its existence for myriads of years, why
+may not its Creator be able to carry our view back for myriads more.
+It may be humbling to our pride of knowledge, but it is not on any
+scientific ground improbable, that the oldest animal remains known to
+geology belong to the middle period of the earth's history, and were
+preceded by an enormous lapse of ages in which the earth was being
+prepared for animal existence, but of which no records remain, except
+those contained in the inspired history.
+
+It would be quite unphilosophical for geology to affirm either that
+animal life must always have existed, or that its earliest animals are
+necessarily the earliest organic beings. To use, with a slight
+modification, the words of an able thinker on these subjects,[88]
+"For ages the prejudice prevailed that the historical period, or that
+which is coeval with the life of man, exhausted the whole history of
+the globe. Geologists removed that prejudice," but must not substitute
+"another in its place, viz., that geological time is coeval with the
+globe itself, or that organic life always existed on its surface."
+
+A second doubt as to the existence of this primitive flora may be
+based on the statement that it included the highest forms of plants.
+Had it consisted only of low and imperfect vegetables, there might
+have been much less difficulty in admitting its probability. Farther,
+we find that even in the Carboniferous period scarcely any plants of
+the higher orders flourished, and there was a preponderance of the
+lower forms of the vegetable kingdom. We have, however, in geological
+chronology, many illustrations of the fact that the progress of
+improvement has not been continuous or uninterrupted, and that the
+preservation of the flora and fauna of many geological periods has
+been very imperfect. Hence the occurrence in one particular stratum or
+group of strata of few or low representatives of animal and vegetable
+life affords no proof that a better state of things may not have
+existed previously. We also find, in the case of animals, that each
+tribe attained to its highest development at the time when, in the
+progress of creation, it occupied the summit of the scale of life.
+Analogy would thus lead us to believe that when plants alone existed,
+they may have assumed nobler forms than any now existing, or that
+tribes now represented by few and humble species may at that time have
+been so great in numbers and development as to fill all the offices of
+our present complicated flora, as well as, perhaps, some of those now
+occupied by animals. We have this principle exemplified in the
+Carboniferous flora, by the magnitude of its arborescent club-mosses,
+and the vast variety of its gymnosperms. For this reason we may
+anticipate that if any remains of this early plant-creation should be
+disinterred, they will prove to be among the most wonderful and
+interesting geological relics ever discovered, and will enlarge our
+views of the compass and capabilities of the vegetable kingdom, and
+especially of its lower forms.
+
+A farther objection is the uselessness of the existence of plants for
+a long period, without any animals to subsist on or enjoy them, and
+even without forming any accumulation of fossil fuel or other products
+useful to man. The only direct answer to this has already been given.
+The previous existence of plants may have been, and probably was,
+essential to the comfort and subsistence of the animals afterwards
+introduced. Independently of this, however, we have an analogous case
+in the geological history of animals, which prevents this fact from
+standing alone. Why was the earth tenanted so long by the inferior
+races of animals, and why were so much skill and contrivance expended
+on their structures, and even on their external ornament, when there
+was no intelligent mind on earth to appreciate their beauties. Even in
+the present world we may as well ask why the uninhabited islands of
+the ocean are found to be replete with luxuriant vegetable life, why
+God causes it to rain in the desert where human foot never treads, or
+why he clothes with a marvellous exuberance of beautiful animal and
+plant forms the depths of the sea. We can but say that these things
+seemed and seem good to the Creator, and may serve uses unknown to us;
+and this is precisely what we must be content to say respecting the
+plant-creation of the Eozoic period.
+
+Some writers[89] on this subject have suggested that the cosmical use
+of this plant-creation was the abstraction from the atmosphere of an
+excess of carbonic acid unfavorable to the animal life subsequently to
+be introduced. This use it may have served, and when its effects had
+been gradually lost through metamorphism and decay, that second great
+withdrawal of carbon which took place in the Carboniferous period may
+have been rendered necessary. The reasons afforded by natural history
+for supposing that plants preceded animals are thus stated by
+Professor Dana:
+
+"The proof from science of the existence of plants before animals is
+inferential, and still may be deemed satisfactory. Distinct fossils
+have not been found, all that ever existed in the azoic[90] rocks
+having been obliterated. The arguments in the affirmative are as
+follows:
+
+"1. The existence of limestone rocks among the other beds, similar
+limestones in later ages having been of organic origin; also the
+occurrence of carbon in the shape of graphite, graphite being, in
+known cases in rocks, a result of the alteration of the carbon of
+plants.
+
+"2. The fact that the cooling earth would have been fitted for
+vegetable life for a long age before animals could have existed; the
+principle being exemplified everywhere that the earth was occupied at
+each period with the highest kinds of life the conditions allowed.
+
+"3. The fact that vegetation subserved an important purpose in the
+coal-period in ridding the atmosphere of carbonic acid for the
+subsequent introduction of land animals, suggests a valid reason for
+believing that the same great purpose, the true purpose of vegetation,
+was effected through the ocean before the _waters_ were fitted for
+animal life.
+
+"4. Vegetation being directly or mediately the food of animals, it
+must have had a previous existence. The latter part of the azoic age
+in geology we therefore regard as the age when the plant kingdom was
+instituted, the latter half of the third day in Genesis. However short
+or long the epoch, it was one of the great steps of progress."
+
+In concluding the examination of the work of the third day, I must
+again remind the reader that, on the theory of long creative periods,
+the words under consideration must refer to the first introduction of
+vegetation, in forms that have long since ceased to exist. Geology
+informs us that in the period of which it is cognizant the vegetation
+of the earth has been several times renewed, and that no plants of the
+older and middle geological periods now exist. We may therefore rest
+assured that the vegetable species, and probably also many of the
+generic and family forms of the vegetation of the third day, have long
+since perished, and been replaced by others suited to the changed
+condition of the earth. It is indeed probable that during the third
+and fourth days themselves there might be many removals and renewals
+of the terrestrial flora, so that perhaps every species created at the
+commencement of the introduction of plants may have been extinct
+before the close of the period. Nevertheless it was marked by the
+introduction of vegetation, which in one or another set of forms has
+ever since clothed the earth.
+
+At the commencement of the third day the earth was still covered by
+the waters. As time advanced islands and mountain-peaks arose from
+the ocean, vomiting forth the molten and igneous materials of the
+interior of the earth's crust. Plains and valleys were then spread
+around, rivers traced out their beds, and the ocean was limited by
+coasts and divided by far-stretching continents. At the command of the
+Creator plants sprung from the soil--the earliest of organized
+structures--at first probably few and small, and fitted to contend
+against the disadvantages of soils impregnated with saline particles
+and destitute of organic matter; but as the day advanced increasing in
+number, magnitude, and elevation, until at length the earth was
+clothed with a luxuriant and varied vegetation, worthy the approval of
+the Creator, and the admiring song of the angelic "sons of God."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+LUMINARIES.
+
+
+ "And God said, Let there be luminaries in the expanse of
+ heaven, to divide the day from the night; and let them be
+ for signs and for seasons, and for days and for years. And
+ let them be for luminaries in the expanse of heaven, to give
+ light on the earth: and it was so.
+
+ "And God made two great luminaries, the greater luminary to
+ preside over the day, the lesser luminary to preside over
+ the night. He made the stars also. And God placed them in
+ the expanse of heaven to give light on the earth, and to
+ preside over the day and over the night, and to separate the
+ light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good. And
+ the evening and the morning were the fourth day."--Genesis
+ i., 14-19.
+
+
+After so long a sojourn on the earth, we are in these verses again
+carried to the heavens. Every scientific reader is struck with the
+position of this remarkable statement, interrupting as it does the
+progress of the organic creation, and constituting a break in the
+midst of the terrestrial history which is the immediate subject of the
+narrative; thus, in effect, as has often been remarked, dividing the
+creative week into two portions. Why was the completion of the
+heavenly bodies so long delayed? Why were light and vegetation
+introduced previously? If we can not fully answer these questions, we
+may at least suppose that the position of these verses is not
+accidental, though certainly not that which would have been chosen for
+its own sake by any fabricator of systems ancient or modern. Let us
+inquire, however, what are the precise terms of the record.
+
+1. The word here used to denote the objects produced clearly
+distinguishes them from the product of the first day's creation. Then
+God said, "Let _light_ be;" he now says, "Let _luminaries_ or
+light-bearers be." We have already seen that the light of the first
+day may have emanated from an extended luminous mass, at first
+occupying the whole extent of the solar system, and more or less
+attached to the several planetary bodies, and afterwards concentrated
+within the earth's orbit. The verses now under consideration inform us
+that the process of concentration was now complete, that our great
+central luminary had attained to its perfect state. This process of
+concentration may have been proceeding during the whole of the
+intervening time, or it may have been completed at once by some more
+rapid process of the nature of a direct interposition of creative
+power.
+
+2. The division of light from darkness is expressed by the same terms,
+and is of the same nature with that on the first day. This separation
+was now produced in its full extent by the perfect condensation of the
+luminiferous matters around the sun.
+
+3. The heavenly bodies are said to be intended for _signs_--that is,
+for marks or indications--either of the seasons, days, and years
+afterwards mentioned, or of the majesty and power of the true God, as
+the Creator of objects so grand and elevated as to become to the
+ignorant heathen objects of idolatrous worship; or perhaps of the
+earthly events they are supposed to influence. The arrangements now
+perfected for the first time enabled natural days, seasons, and years
+to have their limits accurately marked. Previously to this period
+there had been no distinctly marked seasons, and consequently no
+natural separation of years, nor were the limits of days at all
+accurately defined.
+
+4. The terms _expanse_ and _heaven_, previously applied to the
+atmosphere, are here combined to denote the more distant starry and
+planetary heavens. There is no ambiguity involved in this, since the
+writer must have well known that no one could so far mistake as to
+suppose that the heavenly bodies are placed in that atmospheric
+expanse which supports the clouds.
+
+5. The luminaries were _made_ or appointed to their office on the
+fourth day. They are not said to have been created, being included in
+the creation of the beginning. They were now completed, and fully
+fitted for their work. An important part of this fitting seems to have
+been the setting or placing them in the heavens, conveying to us the
+impression that the mutual relations and regular motions of the
+heavenly bodies were now for the first time perfected.
+
+6. The stars are introduced in a parenthetical manner, which leaves it
+doubtful whether we are merely informed in general terms that they are
+works of God, as well as those heavenly bodies which are of more
+importance to us, or that they were arranged as heavenly luminaries
+useful to our earth on the fourth day. The term includes the fixed
+stars, and it is by no means probable that these were in any way
+affected by the work referred to the fourth day, any farther than
+their appearance from our earth is concerned. This view is confirmed
+by the language of the 104th Psalm, which in this part of the work
+mentions the sun and moon alone, without the fixed stars or planets.
+
+It is evident that the changes referred to this period related to the
+whole solar system, and resulted in the completion of that system in
+the form which it now bears, or at least in the final adjustment of
+the motions and relations of the earth; and we have reason to believe
+that the condensation of the luminous envelope around the sun was one
+of the most important of these changes. On the hypothesis of La Place,
+already referred to as most in accordance with the earlier stages of
+the work, there seems to be no especial reason why the completion of
+the process of elaboration of the sun and planets should be
+accelerated at this particular stage. We can easily understand,
+however, that those closing steps which brought the solar system into
+a state of permanent and final equilibrium would form a marked epoch
+in the work; and we can also understand that now, on the eve of the
+introduction of animal life, there is a certain propriety in the
+representation of the Creator interfering to close up the merely
+inorganic part of his great work, and bring this department at least
+to its final perfection. The fourth day, then, in geological language,
+marks _the complete introduction of "existing causes" in inorganic
+nature_, and we henceforth find no more creative interference, except
+in the domain of organization. This accords admirably with the
+deductions of modern geology, and especially with that great principle
+so well expounded by Sir Charles Lyell, and which forms the true basis
+of modern geological reasonings--that we should seek in existing
+causes of change for the explanation of the appearances of the rocks
+of the earth's crust. Geology probably carries us back to the
+introduction of animal life; and shows us that since that time land,
+sea, and atmosphere, summer and winter, day and night--all the great
+inorganic conditions affecting animal life--have existed as at
+present, and have been subject to modifications the same in kind with
+those which they now experience, though perhaps different in degree.
+In this ancient record we find in like manner that the period
+immediately preceding the creation of animals witnessed the completion
+of all the great general arrangements on which these phenomena
+depend. The Bible, therefore, and science agree in the truth that
+existing causes have been in full force since the creation of animals;
+and that since that period the exercise of creative power has been
+limited to the organic world. This has a curious bearing, not often
+thought of, on modern theories of evolution as compared with the
+teaching of the Bible. In one important sense, absolute creation, in
+so far as the inorganic universe is concerned, is in our Mosaic
+narrative limited to the production of matter and force at first. All
+else is called making, forming, or appointing. Thus the production of
+all the arrangements of the waters, the atmosphere, the earth, and the
+heavens, in the work of the first four days, and even the introduction
+of plants, may be correctly termed an evolution or development from
+preformed materials, with the single exception that the reproductive
+power and specific diversities of plants are recognized as entirely
+new facts. Creation is properly resumed when animal life is
+introduced. Hence, in so far as a comparison with the terms of Genesis
+is concerned, hypotheses as to the evolution of animal life from
+inorganic matter are in a different position from hypotheses as to the
+previous evolution of the parts of inorganic nature; and still more so
+from statements as to the progress of inorganic nature subsequent to
+the introduction of animals; since within that period, which really
+includes the whole of geological time, absolutely no creation whatever
+in the domain of inanimate nature is affirmed in the Biblical record
+to have taken place. On the contrary, all the arrangements of
+inorganic nature are represented as finally completed before the
+creation of animals.
+
+The obliquity of the earth's axis, which gives us the changes of the
+seasons, is apparently included in the arrangements of the fourth
+creative day. The cause of this obliquity, and the time when it may
+have attained to its present amount, have been fertile themes of
+discussion. It is clear, however, that if this obliquity was
+established, as appears to be stated here, before the introduction of
+animal life, it can have no bearing on the changes of climate of which
+we have evidence in geological time since the dawn of animal life,
+unless, indeed, it is capable of greater variation than astronomers
+admit; and the same remark applies to supposed changes in the position
+of the poles themselves. There is, however, nothing in this record to
+oppose the idea of any secular changes in these arrangements under the
+laws appointed in the fourth creative period.
+
+The record relating to the fourth day is silent respecting the mundane
+history of the period; and geology gives no very certain information
+concerning it. If, however, we assume that any of the Eozoic or
+pre-eozoic rocks are deposits of this or the preceding period, we may
+infer from the disturbances and alteration which these have suffered,
+prior to the deposition of the Cambrian and Silurian, that during or
+toward the close of this day the crust of the earth was affected by
+great movements. There is another consideration also leading to
+important conclusions in relation to this period. In the earliest
+fossiliferous rocks there seems to be good evidence that the dry land
+contemporary with the seas in which they were formed was of very small
+extent. Now, since on the third day a very plentiful and highly
+developed vegetation was produced, we may infer that during that
+period the extent of dry land was considerable, and was probably
+gradually increasing. If, then, the Cambrian and Silurian systems, so
+rich in marine organic remains, belong to the commencement of the
+fifth day, we must conclude that during the fourth much of the land
+previously existing had been again submerged. In other words, during
+the third day the extent of terrestrial surface was increasing, on the
+fourth day it diminished, and on the fifth it again increased, and
+probably has on the whole continued to increase up to the present
+time. One most important geological consequence of this is that the
+marine animals of the fifth day probably commenced their existence on
+sea bottoms which were the old soil surfaces of submerged continents
+previously clothed with vegetation, and which consequently contained
+much organic matter fitted to form a basis of support for the newly
+created animals.
+
+I shall close my remarks on the fourth day by a few quotations from
+those passages of Scripture which refer to the objects of this day's
+work. I have already referred to that beautiful passage in Deuteronomy
+where the Israelites are warned against the crime of worshipping those
+heavenly bodies which the Lord God hath "divided to every nation under
+the whole heaven." In the book of Job also we find that the heavenly
+bodies were in his day regarded as signal manifestations of the power
+of God, and that several of the principal constellations had received
+names:
+
+ "He commandeth the sun, and it shineth not;
+ He sealeth up the stars;[91]
+ He alone spreadeth out the heavens,
+ And walketh on the high waves of the sea;[92]
+ He maketh Arcturus, Orion,
+ The Pleiades, and the hidden chambers of the south;
+ Who doeth great things past finding out;
+ Yea, marvellous things beyond number."
+
+ --Job ix., 9.
+
+ "Canst thou tighten the bonds of the Pleiades,[93]
+ Or loose the bands of Orion?
+ Canst thou bring forth the Mazzaroth in their season,
+ Or lead forth Arcturus and its sons?
+ Knowest thou the laws of the heavens,
+ Or hast thou appointed their dominion over the earth?"
+
+ --Job xxxviii., 31.
+
+I may merely remark on these passages that the chambers of the south
+are supposed to be those parts of the southern heavens invisible in
+the latitude in which Job resided. The bonds of Pleiades and of Orion
+probably refer to the apparently close union of the stars of the
+former group, and the wide separation of those of the latter; a
+difference which, to the thoughtful observer of the heavens, is more
+striking than most instances of that irregular grouping of the stars
+which still forms a question in astronomy, from the uncertainty
+whether it is real, or only an optical deception arising from stars at
+different distances coming nearly into a line with each other. I have
+seen in some recent astronomical work this very instance of the
+Pleiades and Orion taken as a marked illustration of this
+problematical fact in astronomy. _Mazzaroth_ are supposed by modern
+expositors to be the signs of the Zodiac.
+
+On the whole, the Hebrew books give us little information as to the
+astronomical theories of the time when they were written. They are
+entirely non-committal as to the nature of the connections and
+revolutions of the heavenly bodies; and indeed regard these as matters
+in their time beyond the grasp of the human mind, though well known to
+the Creator and regulated by his laws. From other sources we have
+facts leading to the belief that even in the time of Moses, and
+certainly in that of the later Biblical writers, there was not a
+little practical astronomy in the East, and some good theory. The
+Hindoo astronomy professes to have observations from 3000 B.C., and
+the arguments of Baily and others, founded on internal evidence, give
+some color of truth to the claim. The Chaldeans at a very early period
+had ascertained the principal circles of the sphere, the position of
+the poles, and the nature of the apparent motions of the heavens as
+the results of revolution on an inclined axis. The Egyptian astronomy
+we know mainly from what the Greeks borrowed from it. Thales, 640
+B.C., taught that the moon is lighted by the sun, and that the earth
+is spherical, and the position of its five zones. Pythagoras, 580
+B.C., knew, in addition to the sphericity of the earth, the obliquity
+of the ecliptic, the identity of the evening and morning star, and
+that the earth revolves round the sun. This Greek astronomy appears
+immediately after the opening of Egypt to the Greeks; and both these
+philosophers studied in that country. Such knowledge, and more of the
+same character, may therefore have existed in Egypt at a much earlier
+period.
+
+The Psalms abound in beautiful references to the creation of the
+fourth day:
+
+ "When I consider the heavens, the work of thy fingers,
+ The moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained;
+ What is man, that thou art mindful of him?
+ Or the son of man, that thou visitest him?"
+ --Psalm viii.
+
+
+ "Who telleth the number of the stars,
+ Who calleth them all by their names.
+ Great is our Lord, and of great praise;
+ His understanding is infinite.
+ The Lord lifteth up the meek;
+ He casteth the wicked to the ground."
+ --Psalm cxlvii.
+
+
+ "The heavens declare the glory of God,
+ The firmament showeth his handiwork;
+ Day unto day uttereth speech,
+ Night unto night showeth knowledge.
+ They have no speech nor language,
+ Their voice is not heard;
+ Yet their line is gone out to all the earth,
+ And their words to the end of the world.
+ In them hath he set a pavilion for the sun,
+ Which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber,
+ And rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race.
+ Its going forth is from the end of the heavens,
+ And its circuit unto the end of them.
+ And there is nothing hid from the heat thereof."
+ --Psalm xix.
+
+These are excellent illustrations of the truth of the Scripture mode
+of treating natural objects, in connection with their Maker. It is but
+a barren and fruitless philosophy which sees the work and not its
+author--a narrow piety which loves God but despises his works. The
+Bible holds forth the golden mean between these extremes, in a strain
+of lofty poetry and acute perception of the great and beautiful,
+whether seen in the Creator or reflected from his works.
+
+The work of this day opens up a wide field for astronomical
+illustration, more especially in relation to the wisdom and
+benevolence of the Creator as displayed in the heavens; but it would
+be foreign to our present purpose to enter into these.
+
+It may be well, however, to think for a moment of the importance of
+the facts suggested by the writer of Genesis in mentioning the use of
+the heavenly bodies as signs of time. To what extent civilization or
+even the continued existence of man as an intelligent being would have
+been possible without the marks of subdivision of time given by the
+great astronomical clock of the universe, it is almost impossible for
+us to imagine. Without such marks of time, in any case, the whole
+fabric of human culture must have been different from what it is.
+Farther, in connection with this, it is a grand thought of our early
+revelation that all these heavenly bodies, however magnificent, and
+however they might seem to the heathen to be objects of worship, are
+but marks on God's clock, parts of a mere machine which keeps time for
+us, and is therefore our servant, as the children of the great
+Artificer, and not our ruler. The idea has been termed an astrological
+one; but astrology as a means of divination has no place in the
+record. The heavenly bodies are under the law of the Creator, and
+their function relatively to us is to give light and to give time.
+Astrological divination is an outgrowth of the Sabaean idolatry, and
+held in abomination by the monotheistic author of Genesis. His object
+may be summed up in the following general statements:
+
+1. The heavenly hosts and their arrangements are the work of Jehovah,
+and are regulated wholly by his laws or ordinances; a striking
+illustration of the recognition by the Hebrew writer both of creative
+interference, and that stable, natural law which too often withdraws
+the mind of the philosopher from the ideas of creation and of
+providence.
+
+2. The heavenly bodies have a relation to the earth--are parts of the
+same plan, and, whatever other uses they were made to serve, were made
+for the benefit of man.
+
+3. The general physical arrangements of the solar system were
+perfected before the introduction of animals on our planet.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+THE LOWER ANIMALS.
+
+
+ "And God said, Let the waters swarm with swarming living
+ creatures, and let birds fly on the surface of the expanse
+ of heaven. And God created great reptiles, and every living
+ moving thing, which the waters brought forth abundantly,
+ after their kind, and every bird after its kind; and God saw
+ that it was good.
+
+ "And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful and multiply, and
+ fill the waters of the seas, and let the flying creatures
+ multiply in the earth. And the evening and the morning were
+ the fifth day."--Genesis i., 20-23.
+
+
+In these words, so full of busy, active, thronging life, we now enter
+on that part of the earth's history which has been most fully
+elucidated by geology, and we have thus an additional reason for
+carefully weighing the terms of the narrative, which here, as in other
+places, contain large and important truths couched in language of the
+simplest character.
+
+1. In accordance with the views now entertained by the best
+lexicographers, the word translated in our version "creeping things"
+has been rendered "prolific or swarming creatures." The Hebrew is
+_Sheretz_, a noun derived from the verb used in this verse to denote
+bringing forth abundantly. It is loosely translated in the Septuagint
+_Erpeta_, reptiles; and this view our English translators appear to
+have adopted, without, perhaps, any very clear notions of the
+creatures intended. The manner in which it is used in other passages
+places its true meaning beyond doubt. I select as illustrations of
+the most apposite character those verses in Leviticus in which clean
+and unclean animals are specified, and in which we have a right to
+expect the most precise zoological nomenclature that the Hebrew can
+afford. In Leviticus xi., 20-23, _insects_ are defined to be _flying
+sheretzim_, and in verse 29, etc., under the designation "_sheretzim
+of the land_," we have animals named in our version the weasel, mouse,
+tortoise, ferret, chameleon, lizard, snail, and mole. The first of
+these animals is believed to have been a burrowing creature, perhaps a
+mole; the second, from the meaning of its name, "ravager of fields,"
+is thought to have been a mouse. Some doubt, however, attends both of
+these identifications, but it appears certain that the remaining six
+species are small reptiles, principally lizards. We learn, therefore,
+that the smaller reptiles, and _perhaps_ also a few small mammals, are
+_sheretzim_. In verses 41 and 42 we are introduced to other tribes.
+"And every _sheretz_ that swarmeth on the earth shall be an
+abomination unto you; it shall not be eaten; whatsoever goeth upon the
+belly (serpents, worms, snails, etc.), and whatsoever hath more feet
+(than four) (insects, arachnidans, myriapods)." In verses 9 and 10 of
+the same chapter we have an enumeration of the _sheretzim_ of the
+waters: "Whatsoever hath fins and scales in the waters, in the seas
+and in the rivers, them shall ye eat. And all that have not fins and
+scales in the seas and the rivers, of all that swarm in the waters
+(all the _sheretzim_ of the waters), they shall be an abomination unto
+you." Here the general term _sheretz_ includes all the fishes and the
+invertebrate animals of the waters. From the whole of the above
+passages we learn that this is a general term for all the invertebrate
+animals and the two lower classes of vertebrates, or, in other words,
+for the whole animal kingdom except the mammalia and birds. To all
+these creatures the name is particularly appropriate, all of them
+being oviparous or ovoviviparous, and consequently producing great
+numbers of young and multiplying very rapidly. The only other
+creatures which can be included under the term are the two doubtful
+species of small mammals already mentioned. Nothing can be more fair
+and obvious than this explanation of the term, based both on etymology
+and on the precise nomenclature of the ceremonial law. We conclude,
+therefore, that the prolific animals of the fifth day's creation
+belonged to the three Cuvierian sub-kingdoms of the Radiata,
+Articulata, and Mollusca, and to the classes of Fish and Reptiles
+among the vertebrata.
+
+2. One peculiar group of _sheretzim_ is especially distinguished by
+name--the _tanninim_, or "great whales" of our version. It would be
+amusing, had we time, to notice the variety of conjectures to which
+this word has given rise, and the perplexities of commentators in
+reference to it. In our version and the Septuagint it is usually
+rendered dragon; but in this place the seventy have thought proper to
+put _Ketos_ (whale), and our translators have followed them.
+Subsequent translators and commentators have laid under contribution
+all sorts of marine monsters, including the sea-serpent, in their
+endeavors to attach a precise meaning to the word; while others have
+been content to admit that it may signify any kind or all kinds of
+large aquatic animals. The greater part of the difficulty appears to
+have arisen from confounding two distinct words, _tannin_ and _tan_,
+both names of animals; and the confusion has been increased by the
+circumstance that in two places the words have been interchanged,
+probably by errors of transcribers. _Tan_ occurs in twelve places, and
+from these we can gather that it inhabits ruined cities, deserts, and
+places to which ostriches resort, that it suckles its young, is of
+predaceous and shy habits, utters a wailing cry, and is not of large
+size, nor formidable to man. The most probable conjecture as to the
+animal intended is that of Gesenius, who supposes it to be the jackal.
+The other word (_tannin_), which is that used in the text, is applied
+as an emblem of Egypt and its kings, and also of the conquering kings
+of Babylon. It is spoken of as furious when enraged, and formidable to
+man, and is said to be an inhabitant of rivers and of the sea, but
+more especially of the Nile. In short, it is the crocodile of the
+Nile. We can easily understand the perplexity of those writers who
+suppose these two words to be identical, and endeavor to combine all
+the characters above mentioned in one animal or tribe of animals. As a
+farther illustration of the marked difference in the meanings of the
+two words, we may compare the 34th and 37th verses of the fifty-first
+chapter of Jeremiah. In the first of these verses the King of Babylon
+is represented as a "dragon" (_tannin_), which had swallowed up
+Israel. In the second it is predicted that Babylon itself shall become
+heaps, a dwelling-place for "dragons" (_tanim_). There can be no doubt
+that the animals intended here are quite different. The devouring
+_tannin_ is a huge predaceous river reptile, a fit emblem of the
+Babylonian monarch; the _tan_ is the jackal that will soon howl in his
+ruined palaces. It is interesting to know that philologists trace a
+connection between _tannin_ and the Greek _teino_, Latin _tendo_, and
+similar words, signifying to stretch or extend, in the Sanscrit,
+Gothic, and other languages, leading to the inference that the Hebrew
+word primarily denotes a lengthened or extended creature, which
+corresponds well with its application to the crocodile. Taking all the
+above facts in connection, we are quite safe in concluding that the
+creatures referred to by the word under consideration are literally
+large reptilian animals; and, from the special mention made of them,
+we may infer that, in their day, they were the lords of creation.[94]
+
+3. In verse 21 the remainder of the _sheretzim_, besides the larger
+reptiles, are included in the general expression, "Living creature
+that moveth." The term "living creature" is, literally, "creature
+having the breath of life;" the power of respiration being apparently
+in Hebrew the distinctive character of the animal. The word moveth
+(_ramash_), in its more general sense, expresses the power of
+voluntary motion, as exhibited in animals in general. In a few places,
+however, it has a more precise meaning, as in 1 Kings iv., 33, where
+the vertebrated animals are included in the four classes of "beasts,
+fowl, _creeping things_ (or reptiles, _remes_), and fishes." In the
+present connection it probably has its most general sense; unless,
+indeed, the apparent repetition in this verse relates to the
+amphibious or semi-terrestrial creatures associated with the great
+reptiles; and, in that case, the humbler reptilian animals alone may
+be meant.
+
+4. We may again note that the introduction of animal life is marked by
+the use of the word "create," for the first time since the general
+creation of the heavens and the earth. We may also note that the
+animal, as well as the plant, was created "after its kind," or
+"species by species." The animals are grouped under three great
+classes--the Remes, the Tanninim, and the Birds; but, lest any
+misconception should arise as to the relations of species to these
+groups, we are expressly informed that the species is here the true
+unit of the creative work. It is worth while, therefore, to note that
+this most ancient authority on this much controverted topic connects
+species on the one hand with the creative fiat, and on the other with
+the power of continuous reproduction.
+
+5. In addition to the great mass of _sheretzim_, so accurately
+characterized by Milton as
+
+ "----Reptile with spawn abundant,"
+
+the creation of the fifth day included a higher tribe of oviparous
+animals--the birds, the fowl or winged creature of the text. Birds
+alone, we think, must be meant here, as we have already seen that
+insects are included under the general term _sheretzim_.
+
+6. It is farther to be observed that _the waters_ give origin to the
+first animals--an interesting point when we consider the contrast here
+with the creation of plants and of the higher animals, both of which
+proceed from the earth.
+
+7. It can not fail to be observed that we have in these verses two
+different arrangements of the animals created, neither corresponding
+exactly with what modern science teaches us to regard as the true
+grouping of the animal kingdom, according to its affinities. The order
+in the first enumeration should, from the analogy of the chapter,
+indicate that of successive creation. The order of the second list
+may, perhaps, be that of the relative importance of the animals, as it
+appeared to the writer. Or there may have been a twofold division of
+the period--the earlier commencing with the creation of the humbler
+invertebrates, the later characterized by the great reptiles--which is
+the actual state of the case as disclosed by geology.
+
+8. The Creator recognizes the introduction of sentient existence and
+volition by _blessing_ this new work of his hands, and inviting the
+swarms of the newly peopled world to enjoy that happiness for which
+they were fitted, and to increase and fill the earth, inaugurating
+thus a new power destined to still higher developments.
+
+When we inquire what information geology affords respecting the period
+under consideration, the answer may be full and explicit. Geological
+discovery has carried us back to an epoch corresponding with the
+beginning of this day, and has disclosed a long and varied series of
+living beings, extending from this early period up to the introduction
+of the higher races of animals. To enter on the geological details of
+these changes, and on descriptions of the creatures which succeeded
+each other on the earth, would swell this volume into a treatise on
+palaeontology, and would be quite unnecessary, as so many excellent
+popular works on this subject already exist. I shall, therefore,
+confine myself to a few general statements, and to marking the points
+in which Scripture and geology coincide in their respective histories
+of this long period, which appears to include the whole of the
+Palaeozoic and Mesozoic epochs of geology, with their grand and varied
+succession of rock formations and living beings.
+
+In the Primordial or oldest fossiliferous rocks next in succession to
+those great Eozoic formations in which protozoa alone have been
+discovered, we find the remains of crustaceans, mollusks, and
+radiates--such as shrimps, shell-fish, and starfishes--which appear to
+have inhabited the bottom of a shallow ocean. Among these were some
+genera belonging to the higher forms of invertebrate life, but
+apparently as yet no vertebrated animals. Fishes were then introduced,
+and have left their remains in the upper Silurian rocks, and very
+abundantly in the Devonian and Carboniferous, in the latter of which
+also the first reptiles occur, but are principally members of that
+lower group to which the frogs and newts and their allies belong. The
+animal kingdom appears to have reached no higher than the reptiles in
+the Palaeozoic or primary period of geology, and its reptiles are
+comparatively small and few; though fishes had attained to a point of
+perfection which they have not since exceeded. There was also,
+especially in the Carboniferous age, an abundant and luxuriant
+vegetation. The Mesozoic period is, however, emphatically the age of
+reptiles. This class then reached its climax, in the number,
+perfection, and magnitude of its species, which filled all those
+stations in the economy of nature now assigned to the mammalia. Birds
+also belong to this era, though apparently much less numerous and
+important than at present. Only a few species of small mammals, of the
+lowest or marsupial type, appear as a presage of the mammalian
+creation of the succeeding tertiary era. In these two geological
+periods, then--the Palaeozoic and Mesozoic--we find, first, the lower
+_sheretzim_ represented by the invertebrata and the fishes, then the
+great reptiles and the birds; and it can not be denied that, if we
+admit that the Mosaic day under consideration corresponds with these
+geological periods, it would be impossible better to characterize
+their creations in so few words adapted to popular comprehension. I
+may add that all the species whose remains are found in the Palaeozoic
+and Mesozoic rocks are extinct, and known to us only as fossils; and
+their connection with the present system of nature consists only in
+their forming with it a more perfect series than our present fauna
+alone could afford, unless, indeed, we should find reason to believe
+that any modern animals are their modified descendants. They belong to
+the same system of types, but are parts of it which have served their
+purpose and have been laid aside. The coincidences above noted between
+geology and Scripture may be summed up as follows:
+
+1. According to both records, the causes which at present regulate the
+distribution of light, heat, and moisture, and of land and water,
+were, during the whole of this period, much the same as at present.
+The eyes of the trilobite of the old Silurian rocks are fitted for the
+same conditions with respect to light with those of existing animals
+of the same class. The coniferous trees of the coal measures show
+annual rings of growth. Impressions of rain-marks have been found in
+the shales of the coal measures and Devonian system. Hills and
+valleys, swamps and lagoons, rivers, bays, seas, coral reefs and shell
+beds, have all left indubitable evidence of their existence in the
+geological record. On the other hand, the Bible affirms that all the
+earth's physical features were perfected on the fourth day, and
+immediately before the creation of animals. The land and the water
+have undergone during this long lapse of ages many minor changes.
+Whole tribes of animals and plants have been swept away and replaced
+by others, but the general aspect of inorganic nature has remained the
+same.
+
+2. Both records show the existence of vegetation during this period;
+though the geologic record, if taken alone, would, from its want of
+information respecting the third day, lead us to infer that plants are
+no older than animals, while the Bible does not speak of the nature of
+the vegetation that may have existed on the fifth day.
+
+3. Both records inform us that reptiles and birds were the higher and
+leading forms of animals, and that all the lower forms of animals
+co-existed with them. In both we have especial notice of the gigantic
+Saurian reptiles of the latter part of the period; and if we have the
+remains of a few small species of mammals in the Mesozoic rocks,
+these, like a few similar creatures apparently included under the word
+_sheretz_ in Leviticus, are not sufficiently important to negative
+the general fact of the reign of reptiles.[95]
+
+4. It accords with both records that the work of creation in this
+period was gradually progressive. Species after species was locally
+introduced, extended itself, and, after having served its purpose,
+gradually became extinct. And thus each successive rock formation
+presents new groups of species, each rising in numbers and perfection
+above the last, and marking a gradual assimilation of the general
+conditions of our planet to their present state, yet without any
+convulsions or general catastrophes affecting the whole earth at once.
+
+5. In both records the time between the creation of the first animals
+and the introduction of the mammalia as a dominant class forms a
+well-marked period. I would not too positively assert that the close
+of the fifth day accords precisely with that of the Mesozoic or
+secondary period. The well-marked line of separation, however, in many
+parts of the world, between this and the earlier tertiary rocks
+succeeding to it, points to this as extremely probable.
+
+It thus appears that Scripture and geology so far concur respecting
+the events of this period as to establish, even without any other
+evidence, a probability that the fifth day corresponds with the
+geological ages with which I have endeavored to identify it. Geology,
+however, gives us no means of measuring precisely the length of this
+day; but it gives us the impression that it occupied an enormous
+length of time, compared with which the whole human period is quite
+insignificant; and rivalling those mythical "days of the Creator"
+which we have noticed as forming a part of the Hindoo mythology.
+
+Why was the earth thus occupied for countless ages by an animal
+population whose highest members were reptiles and birds? The fact can
+not be doubted, since geology and Scripture, the research of man and
+the Word of God, concur in affirming it. We know that the lowest of
+these creatures was, in its own place, no less worthy of the Creator
+than those which we regard as the highest in the scale of
+organization, and that the animals of the ancient, equally with those
+of the modern world, abounded in proofs of the wisdom, power, and
+goodness of their Maker. Comparative anatomy has shown that these
+extinct animals, though often varying much from their modern
+representatives, are in no respect rude or imperfect; that they have
+the same appearance of careful planning and elaborate execution, the
+same combination of ornament and utility, the same nice adaptation to
+the conditions of their existence, which we observe in modern
+creatures. In addition to this, the many new and wonderful
+contrivances and combinations which they present, and their relations
+to existing objects, have greatly enlarged our views of the variety
+and harmony of the whole system of nature. They are, therefore, in
+these respects, not without their use as manifestations of the
+Creator, in this our later age.
+
+There is another reason, hinted at by Buckland, Miller, and other
+writers on this subject, which weighs much with my mind. All animals
+and plants are constructed on a few leading types or patterns, which
+are again divided into subordinate types, just as in architecture we
+have certain leading styles, and these again may admit of several
+orders, and these of farther modifications. Types are farther modified
+to suit a great variety of minor adaptations. Now we know that the
+earth is, at any one time, inadequate to display all the modifications
+of all the types. Hence our existing system of organic nature, though
+probably more complete than any that preceded it, is still only
+fragmentary. It is like what architecture would be, if all memorials
+of all buildings more than a century old were swept away. But, from
+the beginning to the end of the creative work, there has been, or will
+be, room for the whole plan. Hence fossils are little by little
+completing our system of nature; and, if all were known, would perhaps
+wholly do so. The great plan must be progressive, and all its parts
+must be perishable, except its last culminating-point and archetype,
+man. Tennyson expresses this truth in the following lines:
+
+ "The wish that of the living whole
+ No life may fail beyond the grave;
+ Derives it not from what we have
+ The likest God within the soul?
+
+ Are God and Nature then at strife,
+ That Nature lends such evil dreams?
+ So careful of the type she seems,
+ So careless of the single life.
+
+ 'So careful of the type?' but no.
+ From scarped cliff and quarried stone
+ She cries, 'a thousand types are gone;
+ I care for nothing, all shall go.
+
+ 'Thou makest thine appeal to me:
+ I bring to life, I bring to death:
+ The spirit does but mean the breath:
+ I know no more.' And he, shall he,
+
+ Man, her last work, who seem'd so fair,
+ Such splendid purpose in his eyes,
+ Who roll'd the psalm to wintry skies,
+ Who built him fanes of fruitless prayer,
+
+ Who trusted God was love indeed,
+ And love Creation's final law--
+ Tho' Nature, red in tooth and claw,
+ With ravine, shriek'd against his creed--
+
+ Who loved, who suffer'd countless ills,
+ Who battled for the True, the Just,
+ Be blown about the desert dust,
+ Or seal'd within the iron hills?
+
+ No more? A monster, then, a dream,
+ A discord. Dragons of the prime,
+ That tare each other in their slime,
+ Were mellow music match'd with him.
+
+ O life as futile, then, as frail!
+ O for thy voice to soothe and bless!
+ What hope of answer, or redress?
+ Behind the veil, behind the veil."
+
+The farther explanation given by evolutionists that those ancient
+forms of life may be the actual ancestors of the present animals, and
+that through all the ages the Creator was gradually perfecting his
+work by a series of descents with modification, was probably not
+before the mind of our ancient Hebrew authority, nor need we attach
+much value to it till some proof of the process has been obtained from
+Nature. A farther reason, however, which was intelligible to the
+author of Genesis, and which is fondly dwelt on in succeeding books of
+the Bible, depends on the idea that the Creator himself is not
+indifferent to the marvellous structures, instincts, and powers which
+he has bestowed upon the lower races of animals. Witness the answer
+of the Almighty to Job, when he spake out of the whirlwind to
+vindicate his own plans in creation and providence; and brought before
+the patriarch a long train of animals, explaining and dwelling on the
+structure and powers of each, in contrast with the puny efforts and
+rude artificial contrivances of man. Witness also the preservation, in
+the rocks, of the fossil remains of extinct creatures, as if he who
+made them was unwilling that the evidence of their existence should
+perish, and purposely treasured them through all the revolutions of
+the earth, that through them men might magnify his name. The Psalmist
+would almost appear to have had all these thoughts before his mind
+when he poured out his wonder in the 104th Psalm:
+
+ "O Lord, how manifold are thy works!
+ In wisdom hast thou made them all.
+ The earth is full of thy riches;
+ So is this wide and great sea,
+ Wherein are moving things innumerable,
+ Creatures both small and great.
+ There go the ships [or "floating animals"];
+ There is leviathan, which thou hast formed to sport therein:
+ That thou givest them they gather.
+ Thou openest thy hand, they are filled with good;
+ Thou hidest thy face, they are troubled;
+ Thou takest away their breath, they return to their dust.
+ Thou sendest forth thy spirit, they are created,
+ And thou renewest the face of the earth."
+
+There are, however, good reasons to believe that, in the plans of
+divine wisdom, the long periods in which the earth was occupied by the
+inferior races were necessary to its subsequent adaptation to the
+residence of man. To these periods our present continents gradually
+grew up in all their variety and beauty. The materials of old rocks
+were comminuted and mixed to form fertile soils,[96] and stores of
+mineral products were accumulated to enable man to earn his
+subsistence and the blessings of civilization by the sweat of his
+brow. If it pleased the Almighty during these preparatory stages to
+replenish the land and sea with living things full of life and beauty
+and happiness, who shall venture to criticise his procedure, or to say
+to Him, "What doest thou?"
+
+It would be decidedly wrong, in the present state of that which is
+popularly called science, to omit to inquire here what relation to the
+work of the fifth creative day those theories of development and
+evolution which have obtained so great currency may bear. The long
+time employed in the introduction of the lower animals, the use of the
+terms "make" and "form," instead of "create," and the expression "let
+the waters bring forth," may well be understood as countenancing some
+form of mediate creation, or of "creation by law," or "theistic
+evolution," as it has been termed; but they give no countenance to the
+idea either of the spontaneous evolution of living beings under the
+influence of merely physical causes and without creative intervention,
+or of the transmutation of one kind of animal into another. Still,
+with reference to this last idea, it is plain that revelation gives us
+no definition of species as distinguished from varieties or races, so
+that there is nothing to prevent the supposition that, within certain
+limits indicated by the expression "after its kind," animals or plants
+may have been so constituted as to vary greatly in the progress of
+geological time.
+
+If we ask whether any thing is known to science which can give even a
+decided probability to the notion that living beings are parts of an
+undirected evolution proceeding under merely dead insentient forces,
+and without intention, the answer must be emphatically no.
+
+I have elsewhere fully discussed these questions, and may here make
+some general statements as to certain scientific facts which at
+present bar the way against the hypothesis of evolution as applied to
+life, and especially against that form of it to which Darwin and his
+disciples have given so great prominence.
+
+1. The albuminous or protoplasmic material, which seems to be
+necessary to the existence of every living being, is known to us as a
+product only of the action of previously living protoplasm. Though it
+is often stated that the production of albumen from its elements is a
+process not differing from the formation of water or any other
+inorganic material from its elements, this statement is false in fact,
+since, though many so-called organic substances have been produced by
+chemical processes, no particle of either living or non-living
+organizable matter of the nature of protoplasm has ever been so
+produced. The origin, therefore, of this albuminous matter is as much
+a mystery to us at present as that of any of the chemical elements.
+
+2. Though some animals and plants are very simple in their visible
+structure, they all present vital properties not to be found in dead
+albuminous matter, and no mode is known whereby the properties of life
+can be communicated to dead matter. All the experiments hitherto made,
+and very eminently those recently performed by Pasteur, Tyndall, and
+Dallinger, lead to the conclusion that even the simplest living beings
+can be produced only from germs originating in previously living
+organisms of similar structure. The simplest living organisms are
+thus to science ultimate facts, for which it can not account except
+conjecturally.
+
+3. No case is certainly known in human experience where any species of
+animal or plant has been so changed as to assume all the characters of
+a new species. Species are thus practically to science unchangeable
+units, the origin of which we have as yet no means of tracing.
+
+4. Though the general history of animal life in time bears a certain
+resemblance to the development of the individual animal from the
+embryo, there is no reason whatever to believe that this is more than
+a mere relation of analogy, arising from the fact that in both cases
+the law of procedure is to pass from the simpler forms to the more
+complex, and from the more generalized to the more specialized. The
+external conditions and details of the two kinds of series are
+altogether different, and become more so the more they are
+investigated. This shows that the causes can not have been similar.
+
+5. In tracing back animals and groups of animals in geological time,
+we find that they always end without any link of connection with
+previous beings, and in circumstances which render any such
+connections improbable. In the work of our next creative day, the
+series of animals preceding the modern horse has been cited as a good
+instance of probable evolution; but not only are the members of the
+series so widely separated in space and time that no connection can be
+traced, but the earliest of them, the _Orohippus_, would require, on
+the theory, to have been preceded by a previous series extending so
+far back that it is impossible, under any supposition of the
+imperfection of our present knowledge, to consider such extension
+probable. The same difficulty applies to every case of tracing back
+any specific form either of animal or plant. This general result
+proves, as I have elsewhere attempted to show,[97] that the
+introduction of the various animal types must have been abrupt, and
+under some influence quite different from that of evolution.
+
+These are what I would term the five fatal objections to evolution as
+at present held, as a means of accounting for the introduction and
+succession of animals. To what extent they may be weakened or
+strengthened by the future progress of science it is impossible to
+say, but so long as they exist it is mere folly and presumption to
+affirm that modern science supports the doctrine of evolution. There
+can be no doubt, however, that the Bible leaves us perfectly free to
+inquire as to the plan and method of the Creator, and that, whatever
+discoveries we may make, we shall find that his plans are orderly,
+methodical, and continuous, and not of the nature of an arbitrary
+patchwork.
+
+Though science as yet gives us no certain laws for the introduction of
+new specific types, it indicates certain possible modes of the
+origination of varieties, races, and sub-species of previously
+existing types. One of these is that struggle for existence against
+adverse external conditions, which, however, has been harped upon too
+exclusively by the Darwinian school, and which will give chiefly
+depauperated and degraded forms. Another is that expansion under
+exceptionally favorable conditions which arises where species are
+admitted to wider new areas of geographical range and more abundant
+and varied means of sustenance. Land animals and plants must have
+experienced this in times of continental elevation; marine animals and
+plants in times of continental depression. Another is the tendency to
+what has been called reproductive retardation and acceleration which
+species undergo under conditions exceptionally unfavorable or
+favorable, and which in some modern aquatic animals produces
+differences so great that members of the same species have sometimes
+been placed in different genera. Lastly, it is conceivable that
+species may have been so constructed that after a certain number of
+generations they may spontaneously undergo either abrupt or gradual
+changes, similar to those which the individual undergoes at certain
+stages of growth. This last furnishes the only true analogy possible
+between embryology and geological succession.
+
+While, however, science is silent as to the production of new specific
+types, and only gives us indications as to the origin of varieties and
+races, it is curious that the Bible suggests three methods in which
+new organisms may be, and according to it have been introduced by the
+Creator. The first is that of immediate and direct creation, as when
+God created the great Tanninim. The second is that of mediate
+creation, through the materials previously existing, as when he said,
+"Let the land bring forth plants," or "Let the waters bring forth
+animals." The third is that of production from a previous organism by
+power other than that of ordinary reproduction, as in the origination
+of Eve from Adam, and the miraculous conception of Jesus. These are
+the only points in which its teachings approach the limits of
+speculations as to evolution, and they certainly leave scope enough
+for the legitimate inquiries of science.[98]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+THE HIGHER ANIMALS AND MAN.
+
+
+ "And God said, Let the land bring forth animals after their
+ kinds; the herbivora, the reptiles, and the carnivora, after
+ their kinds; and it was so. And God made carnivorous mammals
+ after their kinds, and herbivorous mammals after their
+ kinds, and every reptile of the land after its kind; and God
+ saw that it was good.
+
+ "And God said, Let us make man in our own image, after our
+ likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the
+ birds of the air, and over the herbivora and over all the
+ land. So God created man in his own image, in the image of
+ God created he him; male and female created he them. And God
+ blessed them; and God said, Be fruitful and multiply, and
+ replenish the earth, and subdue it; and have dominion over
+ the fish of the sea and over the fowl of the air, and over
+ every living thing that moveth upon the earth.
+
+ "And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing
+ seed which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree
+ in which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it
+ shall be for food, and to every beast of the earth and to
+ every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon
+ the earth wherein there is life, I have given every green
+ herb for meat; and it was so. And God saw every thing that
+ he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And evening and
+ morning were the sixth day."--Genesis i., 24-31.
+
+
+The creation of animals, unlike that of plants, occupies two days.
+Here our attention is restricted to the inhabitants of the _land_, and
+chiefly to their higher forms. Several new names are introduced to our
+notice, which I have endeavored to translate as literally as possible
+by introducing zoological terms where those in common use were
+deficient.
+
+1. The first tribe of animals noticed here is named _Bhemah_, "cattle"
+in our version; and in the Septuagint "quadrupeds" in one of the
+verses, and "cattle" in the other. Both of these senses are of common
+occurrence in the Scriptures, cattle or domesticated animals being
+usually designated by this word; while in other passages, as in 1
+Kings iv., 33, where Solomon is said to have written a treatise on
+"_beasts_, fowls, creeping things, and fishes," it appears to include
+all the mammalia. Notwithstanding this wide range of meaning, however,
+there are passages, and these of the greatest authority in reference
+to our present subject, in which it strictly means the herbivorous
+mammals, and which show that when it was necessary to distinguish
+these from the predaceous or carnivorous tribes this term was
+specially employed. In Leviticus xi., 22-27, we have a specification
+of all the Bhemoth that might and might not be used for food. It
+includes all the true ruminants, with the coney, the hare, and the
+hog, animals of the rodent and pachydermatous orders. The carnivorous
+quadrupeds are designated by a different generic term. In this chapter
+of Leviticus, therefore, which contains the only approach to a system
+in natural history to be found in the Bible, _bhemah_ is strictly a
+synonym of _herbivora_, including especially ungulates and rodents.
+That this is its proper meaning here is confirmed by the
+considerations that in this place it can denote but a part of the land
+quadrupeds, and that the idea of cattle or domesticated animals would
+be an anachronism. At the same time there need be no objection to the
+view that the especial capacity of ruminants and other herbivora for
+domestication is connected with the use of the word in this place.
+
+2. The word _remes_, "creeping things" in our version, as we have
+already shown, is a very general term, referring to the power of
+motion possessed by animals, especially on the surface of the ground.
+It here in all probability refers to the additional types of
+terrestrial reptiles, and other creatures lower than the mammals,
+introduced in this period.
+
+3. The compound term (_hay'th-eretz_) which I have ventured to render
+"carnivora," is literally animal of the land; but though thus general
+in its meaning, it is here evidently intended to denote a particular
+tribe of animals inhabiting the land, and not included in the scope of
+the two words already noticed. In other parts of Scripture this term
+is used in the sense of a "wild beast." In a few places, like the
+other terms already noticed, it is used of all kinds of animals, but
+that above stated is its general meaning, and perfectly accords with
+the requirements of the passage.
+
+The creation of the sixth day therefore includes--1st, the herbivorous
+mammalia; 2d, a variety of terrestrial reptilia, and other lower forms
+not included in the work of the previous day; 3d, the carnivorous
+mammalia. It will be observed that the order in the two verses is
+different. In verse 24th it is herbivora, "creeping things," and
+carnivora. In verse 25th it is carnivora, herbivora, and "creeping
+things." One of these may, as in the account of the fifth day,
+indicate the order of _time_ in the creation, and the other the order
+of _rank_ in the animals made, or there may have been two divisions of
+the work, in the earlier of which herbivorous animals took the lead,
+and in the later those that are carnivorous. In either case we may
+infer that the herbivora predominated in the earlier creations of the
+period.
+
+It is almost unnecessary to say this period corresponds with the
+Tertiary or Cainozoic era of geologists. The coincidences are very
+marked and striking. As already stated, though in the later secondary
+period there were great facilities for the preservation of mammals in
+the strata then being deposited, only a few small species of the
+humblest order have been found; and the occurrence of the higher
+orders of this class is to some extent precluded by the fact that the
+place in nature now occupied by the mammals was then provided for by
+the vast development of the reptile tribes. At the very beginning of
+the tertiary period all this was changed; most of the gigantic
+reptiles had disappeared, and terrestrial mammals of large size and
+high organization had taken their place. Perhaps no geological change
+is more striking and remarkable than the sudden disappearance of the
+reptilian fauna at the close of the mesozoic, and the equally abrupt
+appearance of numerous species of large mammals, and this not in one
+region only, but over both the great continents, and not only where a
+sudden break occurs in the series of formations, but also where, as in
+Western America, they pass gradually into each other. During the whole
+tertiary period this predominance of the mammalia continued; and as
+the mesozoic was the period of giant reptiles, so the tertiary was
+that of great mammals. It is a singular and perhaps not accidental
+coincidence that so many of the early tertiary mammals known to us are
+large herbivora, such as would be included in the Hebrew word
+_bhemah_; and that in the book of Job the hippopotamus is called
+_behemoth_, the plural form being apparently used to denote that this
+animal is the chief of the creatures known under the general term
+_bhemah_, while geology informs us that the prevailing order of
+mammals in the older tertiary period was that of the ungulates, and
+that many of the extinct creatures of this group are very closely
+allied to the hippopotamus. Behemoth thus figures in the book of Job,
+not only as at the time a marked illustration of creative power, but
+to our farther knowledge also as a singular remnant of an extinct
+gigantic race. It is at least curious that while in the fifth day
+great reptiles like those of the secondary rocks form the burden of
+the work, in the sixth we have a term which so directly reminds us of
+those gigantic pachyderms which figure so largely in the tertiary
+period. Large carnivora also occur in the tertiary formations, and
+there are some forms of reptile life, as, for example, the serpents,
+which first appear in the tertiary.
+
+I may refer to any popular text-book of geology in evidence of the
+exact conformity of this to the progress of mammalian life, as we now
+know it in detail from the study of the successive tertiary deposits.
+The following short summary from Dana, though written several years
+ago, still expresses the main features of the case:
+
+"The quadrupeds did not all come forth together. Large and powerful
+herbivorous species first take possession of the earth, with only a
+few small carnivora. These pass away. Other herbivora with a larger
+proportion of carnivora next appear. These also are exterminated; and
+so with others. Then the carnivora appear in vast numbers and power,
+and the herbivora also abound. Moreover these races attain a magnitude
+and number far surpassing all that now exist, as much so indeed, on
+all the continents, North and South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, and
+Australia, as the old mastodon, twenty feet long and nine feet high,
+exceeds the modern buffalo. Such, according to geology, was the age of
+mammals, when the brute species existed in their greatest
+magnificence, and brutal ferocity had free play; when the dens of
+bears and hyenas, prowling tigers and lions far larger than any now
+existing, covered Britain and Europe. Mammoths and mastodons wandered
+over the plains of North America, huge sloth-like Megatheria passed
+their sluggish lives on the pampas of South America, and elephantine
+marsupials strolled about Australia.
+
+"As the mammalian age draws to a close, the ancient carnivora and
+herbivora of that era all pass away, excepting, it is believed, a few
+that are useful to man. New creations of smaller size peopled the
+groves; the vegetation received accessions to its foliage, fruit-trees
+and flowers, and the seas brighter forms of water life. This we know
+from comparisons with the fossils of the preceding mammalian age.
+There was at this time no chaotic upturning, but only the opening of
+creation to its fullest expansion; and so in Genesis no new day is
+begun, it is still the _sixth day_."
+
+The creation of man is prefaced by expressions implying deliberation
+and care. It is not said, "Let the earth bring forth" man, but let us
+form or fashion man. This marks the relative importance of the human
+species, and the heavenly origin of its nobler immaterial part. Man is
+also said to have been "created," implying that in his constitution
+there was something new and not included in previous parts of the
+work, even in its material. Man was created, as the Hebrew literally
+reads, the shadow and similitude of God--the greatest of the visible
+manifestations of Deity in the lower world--the reflected image of his
+Maker, and, under the Supreme Lawgiver, the delegated ruler of the
+earth. Now for the first time was the earth tenanted by a being
+capable of comprehending the purposes and plans of Jehovah, of
+regarding his works with intelligent admiration, and of shadowing
+forth the excellences of his moral nature. For countless ages the
+earth had been inhabited by creatures wonderful in their structures
+and instincts, and mutely testifying, as their buried remains still
+do, to the Creator's glory; but limited within a narrow range of
+animal propensities, and having no power of raising a thought or
+aspiration toward the Being who made them. Now, however, man enters on
+the scene, and the sons of God, who had shouted for joy when the first
+land emerged from the bosom of the deep, saw the wondrous spectacle of
+a spiritual nature analogous to their own, united to a corporeal frame
+constructed on the same general type with the higher of those
+irrational creatures whose presence on earth they had so long
+witnessed.
+
+Man was to rule over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and
+the _bhemah_ or herbivorous animals. The carnivorous creatures are not
+mentioned, and possibly were not included in man's dominion. We shall
+find an explanation of this farther on. The nature of man's dominion
+we are left to infer. In his state of innocence it must have been a
+mild and gentle sway, interfering in no respect wilts the free
+exercise of the powers of enjoyment bestowed on animals by the
+Creator, a rule akin to that which a merciful man exercises over a
+domesticated animal, and which some animals are capable of repaying
+with a warm and devoted affection. Now, however, man's rule has become
+a tyranny. "The whole creation groans" because of it. He desolates the
+face of nature wherever he appears, unsettling the nice balance of
+natural agencies, and introducing remediless confusion and suffering
+among the lower creatures, even when in the might of his boasted
+civilization he professes to renovate and improve the face of nature.
+He retains enough of the image of his Maker to enable him to a great
+extent to assert his dominion, and to aspire after a restoration of
+his original paradise, but he has lost so much that the power which he
+retains is necessarily abused to selfish ends.
+
+Man, like the other creatures, was destined to be fruitful and
+multiply and replenish the earth. We are also informed in chapter
+second that he was placed in a "garden," a chosen spot in the alluvial
+plains of Western Asia, belonging to the later geological formations,
+and thus prepared by the whole series of prior geological changes,
+replenished with all things useful to him, and containing nothing
+hurtful, at least in so far as the animal creation was concerned.
+These facts, taken in connection, lead to grave questions. How is the
+happy and innocent state of man consistent with the contemporaneous
+existence of carnivorous and predaceous animals, which, as both
+Scripture and geology state, were created in abundance in the sixth
+day? How, when confined to a limited region, could he increase and
+multiply and replenish the earth? These questions, which have caused
+no little perplexity, are easily solved when brought into the light of
+our modern knowledge of nature. 1. Every large region of the earth is
+inhabited by a group of animals differing in the proportions of
+identical species, and in the presence of distinct species, from the
+groups inhabiting other districts. There is also sufficient reason to
+conclude that all animals and plants have spread from certain local
+centres of creation, in which certain groups of species have been
+produced and allowed to extend themselves, until they met and became
+intermingled with species extending from other centres. Now the
+district of Asia, in the vicinity of the Euphrates and Tigris, to
+which the Scripture assigns the origin of the human race, is the
+centre to which we can with the greatest probability trace several of
+the species of animals and plants most useful to man, and it lies near
+the confines of warmer and colder regions of distribution in the Old
+World, and also near the boundary of the Asiatic and European regions.
+At the period under consideration it may have been peopled with a
+group of animals specially suited to association with the progenitors
+of mankind. 2. To remove all zoological difficulties from the position
+of primeval man in his state of innocence, we have but to suppose, in
+accordance with all the probabilities of the case, that man was
+created along with a group of creatures adapted to contribute to his
+happiness, and having no tendency to injure or annoy; and that it is
+the formation of these creatures--the group of his own centre of
+creation--that is especially noticed in Genesis ii., 19, _et seq._,
+where God is represented as forming them out of the ground and
+exhibiting them to Adam; a passage otherwise superfluous, and indeed
+tending to confuse the meaning of the document. 3. The difficulty
+attending the early extension of the human race is at once obviated by
+the geological doctrine of the extinction of species. We know that in
+past geological periods large and important groups of species have
+become extinct, and have been replaced by new groups extending from
+new centres; and we know that this process has removed, in early
+geological periods, many creatures that would have been highly
+injurious to human interests had they remained. Now the group of
+species created with man being the latest introduced, we may infer, on
+geological grounds, that it would have extended itself within the
+spheres of older zoological and botanical districts, and would have
+replaced their species, which, in the ordinary operation of natural
+laws, may have been verging toward extinction. Thus not only man, but
+the Eden in which he dwelt, with all its animals and plants, would
+have gradually encroached on the surrounding wilderness, until man's
+happy and peaceful reign had replaced that of the ferocious beasts
+that preceded him in dominion, and had extended at least over all the
+temperate region of the earth. 4. The cursing of the ground for man's
+sake, on his fall from innocence, would thus consist in the
+permission given to the predaceous animals and the thorns and the
+briers of other centres of creation to invade his Eden; or, in his own
+expulsion, to contend with the animals and plants which were intended
+to have given way and become extinct before him. Thus the fall of man
+would produce an arrestment in the progress of the earth in that last
+great revolution which would have converted it into an Eden; and the
+anomalies of its present state consist, according to Scripture, in a
+mixture of the conditions of the tertiary with those of the human
+period. 5. Though there is good ground for believing that man was to
+have been exempted from the general law of mortality, we can not infer
+that any such exemption would have been enjoyed by his companion
+animals; we only know that he himself would have been free from all
+annoyance and injury and decay from external causes. We may also
+conclude that, while Eden was sufficient for his habitation, the
+remainder of the earth would continue, just as in the earlier tertiary
+periods, under the dominion of the predaceous mammals, reptiles, and
+birds. 6. The above views enable us on the one hand to avoid the
+difficulties that attend the admission of predaceous animals into
+Eden, and on the other the still more formidable difficulties that
+attend the attempt to exclude them altogether from the Adamic world.
+They also illustrate the geological fact that many animals,
+contemporaneous with man, extend far back into the Tertiary period.
+These are creatures not belonging to the Edenic centre of creation,
+but introduced in an earlier part of the sixth day, and now permitted
+to exist along with man in his fallen state. I have stated these
+supposed conditions of the Adamic creation briefly, and with as little
+illustration as possible, that they may connectedly strike the mind of
+the reader. Each of these statements is in harmony with the
+Scriptural narrative on the one hand, and with geology on the other;
+and, taken together, they afford an intelligible history of the
+introduction of man. If a geologist were to state, _a priori_, the
+conditions proper to the creation of any important species, he could
+only say--the preparation or selection of some region of the earth for
+it, and its production along with a group of plants and animals suited
+to it. These are precisely the conditions implied in the Scriptural
+account of the creation of Adam.[99] The difficulties of the subject
+have arisen from supposing, contrary to the narrative itself, that the
+conditions necessary for Eden must in the first instance have extended
+over the whole earth, and that the creatures with which man is in his
+present dispersion brought into contact must necessarily have been his
+companions there. One would think that many persons derive their idea
+of the first man in Eden from nursery picture-books; for the Bible
+gives no countenance to the idea that all the animals in the world
+were in Eden. On the contrary, it asserts that a selection was made
+both in the case of animals and plants, and that this Edenic
+assemblage of creatures constituted man's associates in his state of
+primeval innocence.
+
+The food of animals is specified at the close of the work of this day.
+The grant to man is every herb bearing seed, and every fruit-tree.
+That to the lower animals is more extensive--every green herb. This
+can not mean that every animal in the earth was herbivorous. It may
+refer to the group of animals associated with man in Eden, and this is
+most likely the intention of the writer; but if it includes the
+animals of the whole earth, we may be certain, from the express
+mention of carnivorous creatures in the work of the fifth and sixth
+days, that it indicates merely the general fact that the support of
+the whole animal kingdom is based on vegetation.
+
+A most important circumstance in connection with the work of the sixth
+day is that it witnessed the creation both of man and the mammalia. A
+fictitious writer would probably have exalted man by assigning to him
+a separate day, and by placing the whole animal kingdom together in
+respect to time. He would be all the more likely to do this, if
+unacquainted, as most ignorant persons as well as literary men are,
+with the importance and teeming multitudes of the lower tribes of
+animals, and with the typical identity of the human frame with that of
+the higher animals. Moses has not done so, we are at liberty to
+suppose, because the vision of creation had it otherwise; and modern
+geology has amply vindicated him in this by its disclosure of the
+intimate connection of the human with the tertiary period; and has
+shown in this as in other instances that truth and not "accommodation"
+was the object of the sacred writer. While, as already stated, many
+existing species extend far back into the tertiary period, showing
+that the earth has been visited by no universal catastrophe since the
+first creation of mammals; on the other hand, we can not with
+certainty trace any existing species back beyond the commencement of
+the tertiary era. Geology and revelation, therefore, coincide in
+referring the creation of man to the close of the period in which
+mammals were introduced and became predominant, and in establishing a
+marked separation between that period and the preceding one in which
+the lower animals held undisputed sway. This coincidence, while it
+strengthens the probability that the creative days were long periods,
+opposes an almost insurmountable obstacle to every other hypothesis
+of reconciliation with geological science.
+
+At the close of this day the Creator again reviews his work, and
+pronounces it good. Step by step the world had been evolved from a
+primeval chaos, through many successive physical changes and long
+series of organized beings. It had now reached its acme of perfection,
+and had received its most illustrious tenant, possessing an organism
+excelling all others in majesty and beauty, and an immaterial soul the
+shadow of the glorious Creator himself. Well might the angels sing,
+when the long-protracted work was thus grandly completed:
+
+ "Thrice happy man,
+ And sons of men, whom God hath thus advanced,
+ Created in his image, there to dwell
+ And worship him, and in reward to rule
+ Over his works in earth, or sea, or air,
+ And multiply a race of worshippers
+ Holy and just; thrice happy, if they know
+ Their happiness and persevere upright."
+
+The Hebrew idea of the golden age of Eden is pure and exalted. It
+consists in the enjoyment of the favor of God, and of all that is
+beautiful and excellent in his works. God and nature are the whole.
+Nor is it merely a rude, unintelligent, sensuous enjoyment. Man
+primeval is not a lazy savage gathering acorns. He is made in the
+image of the Creator; he is to keep and dress his garden, and it is
+furnished with every plant good for food and pleasant to the sight. In
+the midst of our material civilization we need to disabuse ourselves
+of some prejudices before we can realize the fact that man, without
+the arts of life or any need of them, is not necessarily a barbarian
+or a savage. Yet even Adam must have been an agriculturist with strong
+and willing hands, and must have had some need of agricultural
+implements such as those with which the least civilized of his
+descendants have been wont to till the soil. Still, without art or
+with very little of it, he could enjoy all that is beautiful and grand
+in nature, and could rise from the observation of nature to communion
+with God. We need the more to realize this, inasmuch as there seems so
+strong a tendency to confound material civilization with higher
+culture, and to hold that man primeval must have been low and debased
+simply because he may have had no temples and no machinery. We must
+remember that he had nature, which is higher than fine art, and that
+when in harmony with his surroundings he may have had no need either
+of exhausting labor or of mechanical contrivances. Farther, in the
+contemplation of nature and in seeking after God, he had higher
+teachers than our boasted civilization can claim.
+
+Alas for fallen man, with his poor civilization gathered little by
+little from the dust of earth, and his paltry art that halts
+immeasurably behind nature. How little is he able even to appreciate
+the high estate of his great ancestor. The world of fallen men has
+worshipped art too much, reverenced and studied God and nature too
+little. The savage displays the lowest taste when he admires the rude
+figures which he paints on his face or his garments more than the
+glorious painting that adorns nature; yet even he acknowledges the
+pre-eminent excellence of nature by imitating her forms and colors,
+and by adapting her painted plumes and flowers to his own use. There
+is a wide interval, including many gradations, between this low
+position and that of the cultivated amateur or artist. The art of the
+latter makes a nearer approach to the truly beautiful, inasmuch as it
+more accurately represents the geometric and organic forms and the
+coloring of nature; and inasmuch as it devises ideal combinations not
+found in the actual world; which ideal combinations, however, are
+beautiful or monstrous just as they realize or violate the harmonies
+of nature. It is only the highest culture that brings man back to his
+primitive refinement.
+
+Art takes her true place when she sits at the feet of nature, and
+brings her students to drink in its beauties, that they may endeavor,
+however imperfectly, to reproduce them. On the other hand, the student
+of nature must not content himself with "writing Latin names on white
+paper," wherewith to label nature's productions, but must rise to the
+contemplation of the order and beauty of the Cosmos as a revelation of
+Divinity. Both will thus rise to that highest taste which will enable
+them to appreciate not only the elegance of individual forms, but
+their structure, their harmonies, their grouping and their relations,
+their special adaptation, and their places as parts of a great system.
+Thus art will attain that highest point in which it displays original
+genius, without violating natural truth and unity, and nature will be
+regarded as the highest art.
+
+Much is said and done in our time with reference to the cultivation of
+popular taste for fine art as a means of civilization; and this, so
+far as it goes, is well; but the only sure path to the highest
+taste-education is the cultivation of the study of nature. This is
+also an easier branch of education, provided the instructors have
+sufficient knowledge. Good works of art are rare and costly; but good
+works of nature are everywhere around us, waiting to be examined. Such
+education, popularly diffused, would react on the efforts of art. It
+would enable a widely extended public to appreciate real excellence,
+and would cause works of art to be valued just in proportion to the
+extent to which they realize or deviate from natural truth and unity.
+I do not profess to speak authoritatively on such subjects, but I
+confess that the strong impression on my mind is that neither the
+revered antique models, nor the practice and principles of the
+generality of modern art reformers, would endure such criticism; and
+that if we could combine popular enthusiasm for art with scientific
+appreciation of nature, a new and better art might arise from the
+union.
+
+I may appear to dwell too long upon this topic; but my excuse must be
+that it leads to a true estimate both of natural history and of the
+sacred Scriptures. The study of nature guides to those large views of
+the unity and order of creation which alone are worthy of a being of
+the rank of man, and which lead him to adequate conceptions of the
+Creator; but the truly wise recognize three grades of beauty. First,
+that of art, which, in its higher efforts, can raise ordinary minds
+far above themselves. Secondly, that of nature, which, in its most
+common objects, must transcend the former, since its artist is that
+God of whose infinite mind the genius of the artist is only a faint
+reflection. Thirdly, that pre-eminent beauty of moral goodness
+revealed only in the spiritual nature of the Supreme. The first is one
+of the natural resources of fallen man in his search for happiness.
+The second was man's joy in his primeval innocence. The third is the
+inheritance of man redeemed. It is folly to place these on the same
+level. It is greater folly to worship either or both of the first
+without regard to the last. It is true wisdom to aspire to the last,
+and to regard nature as the handmaid of piety, art as but the handmaid
+of nature.
+
+Nature to the unobservant is merely a mass of things more or less
+beautiful or interesting, but without any definite order or
+significance. An observer soon arrives at the conclusion that it is a
+series of circling changes, ever returning to the same points, ever
+renewing their courses, under the action of invariable laws. But if he
+rests here, he falls infinitely short of the idea of the Cosmos, and
+stands on the brink of the profound error of eternal succession. A
+little further progress conducts him to the inviting field of special
+adaptation and mutual relation of things. He finds that nothing is
+without its use; that every structure is most nicely adjusted to
+special ends; that the supposed ceaseless circling of nature is merely
+the continuous action of great powers, by which an infinity of
+utilities are worked out--the great fly-wheel which, in its unceasing
+and at first sight apparently aimless round, is giving motion to
+thousands of reels and spindles and shuttles, that are spinning and
+weaving, in all its varied patterns, the great web of life.
+
+But the observer, as he looks on this web, is surprised to find that
+it has in its whole extent a wondrous pattern. He rises to the
+contemplation of type in nature, a great truth to which science has
+only lately opened its eyes. He begins dimly to perceive that the
+Creator has from the beginning had a plan before his mind, that this
+plan embraced various types or patterns of existence; that on these
+patterns he has been working out the whole system of nature, adapting
+each to all the variety of uses by an infinity of minor modifications.
+That, in short, whether he study the eye of a gnat or the structure of
+a mountain chain, he sees not only objects of beauty and utility, but
+parts of far-reaching plans of infinite wisdom, by which all objects,
+however separated in time or space, are linked together.
+
+How much of positive pleasure does that man lose who passes through
+life absorbed with its wants and its artificialities, and regarding
+with a "brute, unconscious gaze" the grand revelation of a higher
+intelligence in the outer world. It is only in an approximation
+through our Divine Redeemer to the moral likeness of God that we can
+be truly happy; but of the subsidiary pleasures which we are here
+permitted to enjoy, the contemplation of nature is one of the best and
+purest. It was the pleasure, the show, the spectacle prepared for man
+in Eden, and how much true philosophy and taste shine in the simple
+words that in paradise God planted trees "pleasant to the sight," as
+well as "good for food." Other things being equal, the nearer we can
+return to this primitive taste, the greater will be our sensuous
+enjoyment, the better the influence of our pleasures on our moral
+nature, because they will then depend on the cultivation of tastes at
+once natural and harmless, and will not lead us to communion with and
+reverence for merely human genius, but will conduct us into the
+presence of the infinite perfection of the Creator.
+
+The Bible knows but one species of man. It is not said that men were
+created after their species, as we read of the groups of animals. Man
+was made, "male and female;" and in the fuller details afterwards
+given in the second chapter--where the writer, having finished his
+general narrative, commences his special history of man--but one
+primitive pair is introduced to our notice. We scarcely need the
+detailed tables of affiliation afterward given, or the declaration of
+the apostle who preached to the supposed autochthones of Athens, that
+"God has made of one blood all nations," to assure us of the
+Scriptural unity of man. If, therefore, there were any good reason to
+believe that man is not of one but several origins, we must admit
+Moses to have been very imperfectly informed. Nor, on the other hand,
+does the Bible any more than geology allow us to assign a very high
+antiquity to the origin of man relatively to that of the earth on
+which he dwells. The genealogical tables of the Bible may admit of
+some limits of difference of opinion as to the age of the human world
+or aeon, and also of that of the deluge, from which man took his second
+point of departure; but they do not allow us to put the origin of man
+farther back than that of the present or modern condition of our
+continents and the present races of animals. They therefore limit us
+to the modern or quaternary period of geology. The question of man's
+antiquity, so much agitated now, demands, however, a separate and
+careful consideration; but we must first devote a few pages to the
+simple statements of the Bible respecting the Sabbath of creation and
+its relation to human history.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+THE REST OF THE CREATOR.
+
+
+ "And the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the
+ host of them. And on the seventh day God ended his work
+ which he had made, and he rested on the seventh day from all
+ his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day
+ and sanctified it, because that in it God rested from all
+ his work which he had created to make."--Genesis ii., 1-3.
+
+
+The end of the sixth day closed the work of creation properly so
+called, as well as that of forming and arranging the things created.
+The beginning of the seventh introduced a period which, according to
+the views already stated, was to be occupied by the continued increase
+and diffusion of man and the creatures under his dominion, and by the
+gradual disappearance of tribes of creatures unconnected with his
+well-being.
+
+Science in this well accords with Scripture. No proof exists of the
+production of a new species since the creation of man; and all
+geological and archaeological evidence points to him and a few of the
+higher mammals as the newest of the creatures. There is, on the other
+hand, good evidence that several species have become extinct since his
+creation. Those who believe in the continuous evolution of animals and
+men, it is true, can see no actual termination of the process with the
+introduction of man; but even they see that the appearance of a
+rational and moral being at least changes the nature and order of the
+development. Nor can they doubt that man is the last born of nature,
+and that the whole animal creation is crowned by him as its capital or
+topmost pinnacle. The later speculators on this subject have never
+reached any truth beyond that long ago stated by the lamented Edward
+Forbes--a most careful observer and accurate reasoner on the more
+recent changes of the earth's surface. He infers, from the
+distribution of species from their centres of creation, that man is
+the latest product of creative power; or, in other words, that none of
+those species or groups of species which he had been able to trace to
+their centres, or the spots at which they probably originated, appear
+to be of later or as late origin as man. "This consideration," he
+says, "induces me to believe that the last province in time was
+completed by the coming of man, and to maintain an hypothesis that man
+stands unique in space and time, himself equal to the sum of any
+pre-existing centre of creation or of all--an hypothesis consistent
+with man's moral and social position in the world."
+
+The seventh day, then, was to have been that in which all the
+happiness, beauty, and perfection of the others were to have been
+concentrated. But an element of instability was present in the being
+who occupied the summit of the animal scale. Not regulated by blind
+and unerring instincts, but a free agent, with a high intellectual and
+moral nature, and liable to be acted on by temptation from without;
+under such influence he lost his moral balance in stretching out his
+hand to grasp the peculiar powers of Deity, and fell beyond the hope
+of self-redemption--perpetuating, by one of those laws which regulate
+the transmission of mixed corporeal and spiritual natures, his
+degradation to every generation of his species. And so God's great
+work was marred, and all his plans seemed to be foiled, when they had
+just reached their completion. Thus far science might carry us
+unaided; for there is not a true naturalist, however skeptical as to
+revealed religion, who does not feel in his inmost heart the
+disjointed state of the present relations of man to nature; the
+natural wreck that results from his artificial modes of life, the long
+trains of violations of the symmetry of nature that follow in the wake
+of his most boasted achievements. But here natural science stops; and
+just as we have found that, in tracing back the world's history, the
+Bible carries us much farther than geology, so science, having led us
+to suspect the fallen state of man, leaves us henceforth to the
+teaching of revelation. And how glorious that teaching! God did not
+find himself baffled--his resources are infinite--he had foreseen and
+prepared for all this apparent evil; and out of the moral wreck he
+proceeds to work out the grand process of _redemption_, which is the
+especial object of the seventh day, and which will result in the
+production of a new heaven and a new earth wherein dwelleth
+righteousness. In the seventh, as in the former days, the evening
+precedes the morning. For four thousand years the world groped in its
+darkness--a darkness tenanted by moral monsters as powerful and
+destructive as the old pre-Adamite reptiles. The Sun of Righteousness
+at length arose, and the darkness began to pass away; but eighteen
+centuries have elapsed, and we still see but the gray dawn of morning,
+which we yet firmly believe will brighten into a glorious day that
+shall know no succeeding night.[100]
+
+The seventh day is the modern or human era in geology; and, though it
+can not yet boast of any physical changes so great as those of past
+periods, it is still of much interest, as affording the facts on which
+we must depend for explanations of past changes; and as immediately
+connected in time with those later tertiary periods which afford so
+many curious problems to the geological student. The actual connection
+of the human with preceding periods is still involved in some
+obscurity; and, as we shall see, there has recently been a strong
+tendency to throw back the origin of man into prehistoric ages of
+enormous length, on grounds which are, however, much less certain than
+is commonly imagined. This question we have to examine; but before
+entering upon it may shortly sketch the actual import of the
+statements of the Hebrew Scriptures respecting what may be called the
+prehistoric duration of the human species. This is the more necessary,
+as the most crude notions seem very widely to prevail on the subject.
+I shall, therefore, in this place notice some general facts deducible
+from the Bible, and which may be useful in appreciating the true
+relation of the human era to those which preceded it. It will be
+understood that I shall endeavor merely to present a picture of what
+the Bible actually teaches, and which any one can verify by reading
+the book of Genesis.
+
+1. The local centre of creation of the human species, and probably of
+a group of creatures coeval with it, was Eden; a country of which the
+Scriptures give a somewhat minute geographical description. It was
+evidently a district of Western Asia; and, from its possession of
+several important rivers, rather a region or large territory than a
+limited spot, such as many, who have discussed the question of the
+site of Eden, seem to suppose. In this view it is a matter of no
+moment to fix its site more nearly than the indication of the Bible
+that it included the sources and probably large portions of the
+valleys of the Tigris, the Euphrates, and perhaps the Oxus and
+Jaxartes. Into the minor difficulties respecting the site of Eden it
+would be unprofitable to enter, and it will matter little if we accept
+that view, which, however, I think less probable, that it was placed
+in the lower part of the valley of the Euphrates. I may merely mention
+one particular of the Biblical description, because it throws light on
+the great antiquity of this geographical delineation, and has been
+strangely misconceived by expositors--the relation of those rivers to
+Cush or Ethiopia and Havilah, a tribal name derived from that of a
+grandson of Cush. On consulting the tenth chapter of Genesis, it will
+be found that the Cushites under Nimrod, very soon after the deluge,
+are stated to have pushed their migrations and conquests along the
+Tigris to the northward, and established there the first empire. It is
+probably this primitive Cushite empire, called Ethiopia in our
+translation, which in the epoch of the description of Eden occupied
+the Euphratean valley, and being bounded on one side by the river
+called Gihon, was thus believed to extend over the old site of Eden.
+Thus the Cush or Ethiopia of the description has no direct connection
+with the African Ethiopia, and speculations based on such a supposed
+connection are groundless. On the other hand this feature furnishes an
+interesting coincidence with other parts of Genesis, and throws light
+on many obscure points in the early history of man; and since this
+Cushite empire had perished even before the time of Moses, it
+indicates a still more ancient tradition respecting the primeval abode
+of our species.
+
+2. Before the deluge this region must have been the seat of a dense
+population, which, according to the Biblical account, must have made
+considerable advances in the arts, and at the same time sunk very low
+in moral debasement.[101] Whether any remains of the central portions
+of this ancient population or its works exist will probably not be
+determined with absolute certainty till we have accurate geological
+investigations of the whole country in the neighborhood of the Caspian
+Sea and along the great rivers of Western Asia, though there is
+nothing unreasonable in the belief that some of the old prehistoric
+men whose remains are discovered in caves and river gravels in Europe
+may belong to the antediluvian race. Should such remains be found, we
+might infer, from the extreme longevity and other characteristics
+assigned to the antediluvians, that their skeletons would present
+peculiarities entitling them to be considered a well-marked variety of
+the human species, and this not of a low type of physical
+organization. We may also infer that the family of man very early
+divided into two races--one retaining in greater purity the moral
+endowments of the species, the other excelling in the mechanical and
+fine arts; and that there were rude and savage outlying communities of
+men then as at present. If the so-called palaeolithic men of Europe are
+antediluvian, they were probably of such outlying tribes, and possibly
+of the mixed race which sprung up in the later antediluvian age, and
+who are described as mighty men physically, and men of violence. It
+would be quite natural that this intermixture of the Sethite and
+Cainite races should produce a race excelling both in energy and
+physical endowments--the "giants" that were in those days.[102] If any
+remains of the two central nations of the antediluvian period are ever
+discovered, we may confidently anticipate that the distinctive
+characteristics of these races may be detected in their osseous
+structures as well as in their works of art. Farther, it is to be
+inferred from notices in the fourth chapter of Genesis, that before
+the deluge there was both a nomadic and a settled population, and that
+the principal seat of the Cainite, or more debased yet energetic
+branch of the human family, was to the eastward of the site of Eden.
+No intimations are given by which the works of art of antediluvian
+times could be distinguished from those of later periods; but that
+curious summary of the treasures of antediluvian man contained in the
+notice that the land of Havilah produced gold and agate and pearl
+(Gen. ii., 12) would lead us to believe that the early antediluvian
+age was on the whole an age of stone, in which flint for weapons, and
+gold and shell wampum for ornaments, were the leading kinds of wealth.
+On the other hand, the notices of antediluvian metallurgy, and the
+building and construction of the ark, would lead us to infer that the
+later antediluvians had attained to much perfection in some
+constructive arts--a conclusion which harmonizes with the otherwise
+inexplicable perfection of such art soon after the deluge, as
+evidenced not only by the story of Babel, but also by the early works
+of the Assyrians and Egyptians.
+
+3. When the antediluvian population had fully proved itself unfit to
+enter into the divine scheme of moral renovation, it was swept away by
+a fearful physical catastrophe. The deluge might, in all its
+relations, furnish material for an entire treatise. I may remark here,
+as its most important geological peculiarity, that it was evidently a
+_local_ convulsion. The object, that of destroying the human race and
+the animal population of its peculiar centre of creation, the
+preservation of specimens of these creatures in the ark, and the
+physical requirements of the case, necessitate this conclusion, which
+is now accepted by the best Biblical expositors,[103] and which
+inflicts no violence on the terms of the record. Viewed in this light,
+the phenomena recorded in the Bible, in connection with geological
+probabilities, lead us to infer that the physical agencies evoked by
+the divine power to destroy this ungodly race were a subsidence of the
+region they inhabited, so as to admit the oceanic waters, and
+extensive atmospherical disturbances connected with that subsidence,
+and perhaps with the elevation of neighboring regions. In this case it
+is possible that the Caspian Sea, which is now more than eighty feet
+below the level of the ocean,[104] and which was probably much more
+extensive then than at present, received much of the drainage of the
+flood, and that the mud and sand deposits of this sea and the
+adjoining desert plains, once manifestly a part of its bottom, conceal
+any remains that exist of the antediluvian population. In connection
+with this, it may be remarked that, in the book of Job, Eliphaz speaks
+as if the locality of those wicked nations which existed before the
+deluge was known and accessible in his time:
+
+ "Hast thou marked the ancient way
+ Which wicked men have trodden,
+ Who were seized [by the waters] in a moment,
+ And whose foundations a flood swept away?"
+
+ --Job xxii., 15.
+
+On comparing this statement with the answer of Job in the 26th
+chapter, verse 5th, it would seem that the ungodly antediluvians were
+supposed to be still under the waters; a belief quite intelligible if
+the Caspian, which, on the latest and most probable views of the
+locality of the events of this book, was not very remote from the
+residence of Job,[105] was supposed to mark the position of the
+pre-Noachic population, as the Dead Sea afterward did that of the
+cities of the plain. Some of the dates assigned to the book of Job
+would, however, render it possible that this last catastrophe is that
+to which _he_ refers:
+
+ "The _Rephaim_ tremble from beneath
+ The waters and their inhabitants.
+ Sheol is naked before him,
+ And destruction hath no covering."
+
+The word _Rephaim_ here has been variously rendered "shades of the
+dead" and "giants." It is properly the family or national name of
+certain tribes of gigantic Hamite men (the Anakim, Emim, etc.)
+inhabiting Western Asia at a very remote period; and it must here
+refer either to them or to the still earlier antediluvian
+giants.[106]
+
+It is also an important point to be noticed here that the narrative of
+the deluge in Genesis is given as the testimony or record of an
+eye-witness, and is to be so understood; and that the terms of the
+record imply, not as usually held that all sorts of animals were taken
+into Noah's ark, but only a selection, the character of which is
+clearly indicated by a comparison of the five lists of animals given
+in the narrative. Bearing this in mind, and noticing that the writer
+tells of his own experience as to the rise of the water, the drifting
+of the ark, the disappearance of all visible shore, and the sounding
+fifteen cubits where a hill had before been, all the difficulties of
+the narrative of the deluge will at once disappear. These difficulties
+have in fact arisen from regarding the story as the composition of a
+historian, not as what it manifestly is, the log or journal of a
+contemporary, introduced with probably little change by the compiler
+of the book.
+
+After the deluge, we find the human race settled in the plains of the
+Euphrates and Tigris, attracted thither by the fertility of their
+alluvial soils. There we find them engaging in a great political
+scheme, no doubt founded on recollections of the old antediluvian
+nationalities, and on a dread of the evils which able and aspiring men
+would anticipate from that wide dispersion of the human race that
+appears to have been intended by the Creator in the new circumstances
+of the earth. They commenced accordingly the erection of a city or
+tower at Babel, in the plain of Shinar, to form a common bond of
+union, a great public work that should be a rallying-point for the
+race, and around which its patriotism might concentrate itself. The
+attempt was counteracted by an interposition of divine Providence; and
+thenceforth the diffusion of the human race proceeded unchecked,
+carrying with it everywhere the memory of the celebrated tower, which
+perpetuated itself not only in the mounds of Assyria and Babylon and
+the pyramids of Egypt, but in the teocallis and temple mounds of the
+New World. The Babel enterprise is in fact the first recorded
+development of that mound-building instinct which the earlier races
+everywhere evince, and which has been a distinguishing characteristic
+more especially of the Cushite or Turanian race, and has apparently
+made them the teachers of constructive arts to all other peoples.
+Perhaps a dread of the total decay and loss of the surviving
+antediluvian arts in construction and other matters may have been one
+impelling motive to the building of Babel. Perhaps it was connected
+with the communistic ideas of the Turanian race, and their conflict
+with the patriarchal habits of the Semites. Out of the enterprise at
+Babel, however, arose a new type of evil, which, in the forms of
+military despotism, the spirit of conquest, hero-worship, and the
+alliance of these influences with literature and the arts, has been
+handed down through every succeeding age to our own time. The name of
+Nimrod, the son of Cush, has been preserved to us in the Bible, and
+also apparently in the tablets and inscriptions of Assyria, as the
+founder of the first despotism. This bold and ambitious man,
+subsequently deified under different names, established a Hamite or
+Turanian empire, which appears to have extended its sway over the
+tribes occupying Southwestern Asia and Northeastern Africa, everywhere
+supporting its power by force of arms, and introducing a debasing
+polytheistic hero-worship, and certain forms of art probably derived
+from antediluvian times. The centre of this Cushite empire, however,
+gave way to the rising power of Assyria or the Ashurite branch of the
+sons of Shem, at a period antecedent to the dawn of profane history,
+except in its mythical form; and when the light of secular history
+first breaks upon us, we find Egypt standing forth as the only stable
+representative of the arts, the systems, and the superstitions of the
+old Cushite empire, of which it had been the southern branch; while
+other remnants of the Hamite races, included in the empire of Nimrod,
+were scattered over Western Asia, and, migrating into Europe, with or
+after the ruder but less demoralized sons of Japheth, carried with
+them their characteristic civilization and mythology, to take root in
+new forms in Greece and Italy.[107] Meanwhile the Assyrian and Persian
+(Elamite) races were growing in Middle Asia, and probably driving the
+more eastern remnants of the Nimrodic empire into India, borrowing at
+the same time their superstitions and their claims to universal
+dominion. These views, which I believe to correspond with the few
+notices in the Bible and in ancient history, and to be daily receiving
+new confirmations from the investigations of the ancient Assyrian
+monuments, enable us to understand many mysterious problems in the
+early history of man. They give us reason to suspect that the
+_principle_ of the first empire was an imitation of the antediluvian
+world, and that its arts and customs were mainly derived from that
+source. They show how it happens that Egypt, a country so far removed
+from the starting-point of man after the deluge, should appear to be
+the cradle of the arts, and they account for the Hamite and perhaps
+antediluvian elements, mixed with primeval Biblical ideas, as the
+cherubim, etc., in the old heathenism of India, Assyria, and Southern
+Europe, and which they share with Egypt, having derived them from the
+same source. They also show how it is that in the most remote
+antiquity we find two well-developed and opposite religious systems;
+the pure theism of Noah, and those who retained his faith, and the
+idolatry of those tribes which regarded with adoring veneration the
+objects and stages of the creative work, the grander powers and
+objects of nature, the mighty Cainites of the world before the flood,
+and the postdiluvian leaders who followed them in their violence,
+their cultivation of the arts, and their rebellion against God. These
+heroes were identified with imaginative conceptions of the heavenly
+bodies, animals, and other natural objects, associated with the
+fortunes of cities and nations, with particular territories, and with
+war and the useful arts, transmitted under different names to one
+country after another, and localized in each; and it is only in
+comparatively modern times that we have been able to recognize the
+full certainty of the view held long since by many ingenious writers,
+that among the greater gods of Egypt and Assyria, and of consequence
+among those also of Greece and Rome, were Nimrod, Ham, Ashur, Noah,
+Mizraim, and other worthies and tyrants of the old world; and to
+suspect that Tubalcain and Naamah, and other antediluvian names, were
+similarly honored, though subsequently overshadowed by more recent
+divinities. The later Assyrian readings of Rawlinson, Hincks, and the
+lamented George Smith, and the more recent works on Egyptian
+antiquities, are full of pregnant hints on these subjects. It would,
+however, lead us too far from our immediate subject to enter more
+fully into these questions. I have referred to them merely to point
+out connecting-links between the secular and sacred history of the
+earlier part of the human period, as a useful sequel to our comparison
+of the latter with the conclusions of science, and as furnishing hints
+which may guide the geologist in connecting the human with the
+tertiary period, and in distinguishing between the antediluvian and
+postdiluvian portions of the former.
+
+It may be said, however, that all this Biblical history, however it
+may accord with the little that remains to us of the written annals of
+early Oriental nations, is entirely at variance with those modern
+archaeological discussions which point to an immense antiquity of the
+human race, and to a primitive barbarism out of which all human
+culture was little by little evolved; and which results of
+archaeological investigation, while contradictory to the Hebrew
+Scriptures, are entirely in accord with the evolutionist philosophy.
+The prominence now given to such views as these renders it necessary
+that we should denote a special chapter to their discussion.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+UNITY AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN.
+
+
+ "These are the families of the sons of Noah, after their
+ generations, in their nations: and by these were the nations
+ divided in the earth after the flood."--Genesis x., 32.
+
+
+The theologians and evangelical Christians of our time, and with them
+the credibility of the Holy Scriptures, are supposed by many to have
+been impaled on a zoological and archaeological dilemma, in a manner
+which renders nugatory all attempts to reconcile the Mosaic cosmogony
+with science. The Bible, as we have seen, knows but one Adam, and that
+Adam not a myth or an ethnic name, but a veritable man; but some
+naturalists and ethnologists think that they have found decisive
+evidence that man is not of one but of several origins. The religious
+tendency of this doctrine no Christian can fail to perceive. In
+whatever way put, or under whatever disguise, it renders the Bible
+history worthless, reduces us to that isolation of race from race
+cultivated in ancient times by the various local idolatries, and
+destroys the brotherhood of man and the universality of that Christian
+atonement which proclaims that "as in Adam all die, so in Christ shall
+all be made alive."
+
+Fortunately, however, the greater weight of biological and
+archaeological evidence is here on the side of the Bible, and philology
+comes in with strong corroborative proof. But just as the orthodox
+theologian is beginning to congratulate himself on the aid he has
+thus received, some of his new friends gravely tell him that, in order
+to maintain their view, it is necessary to believe that man has
+resided on earth for countless ages, and that it is quite a mistake to
+suppose that his starting-point is so recent as the Mosaic deluge.
+Nay, some very rampant theorists of some ethnological schools try to
+pierce Moses and his abettors with both horns of the dilemma at once,
+maintaining that men may be of different species, and yet may have
+existed for an enormous length of time as well. The recent prevalence
+of theories of evolution has, however, thrown quite into the
+background the discussions formerly active respecting the unity of
+man, but has, along with geological and archaeological discovery, given
+increased prominence to those relating to the date of the origin of
+our species and the manner of its introduction.
+
+The Bible gives us a definite epoch, that of the deluge, about 2000 to
+3000 B.C., for all existing races of men; but this, according to it,
+was only the second starting-point of humanity, and though no family
+but that of Noah survived the terrible catastrophe, it would be a
+great error to suppose that nothing antediluvian appears in the
+subsequent history of man. Before the deluge there were arts and an
+old civilization, extending over at least two thousand years, and
+after the deluge men carried with them these heirlooms of the old
+world to commence with them new nations. This has been tacitly ignored
+by many of the writers who underrate the value of the Hebrew history.
+It may be as well for this reason to place, in a series of
+propositions, the principal points in Genesis which relate to the
+questions now before us.
+
+1. Adam and Isha, the woman, afterward called Eve (Life-giver), in
+consequence of the promise of a Redeemer, commenced a life of
+husbandry on their expulsion from Eden, which, on the ordinary views
+of the Bible chronology, may be supposed to have occurred from 4000 to
+5000 years before the Christian era; and during the lifetime of the
+primal pair, the sheep, at least, was domesticated. The Bible, of
+course, knows nothing of the imaginary continent of Lemuria, in which,
+according to some hypotheses, men are supposed to have had their birth
+from apes. A few generations after, in the time of Lamech, cattle were
+domesticated; and the metals copper and iron were applied to use--the
+latter probably meteoric iron; and hence, it may be, the Hindoo and
+Hellenic myths of Twachtrei and Hephaestos in connection with the
+thunderbolt. We learn, however, incidentally, as already mentioned, in
+the description of Eden in Genesis, chapter 2d, that there was a
+previous stone age, in which "flint, pearls or shell beads, and
+stream-gold" were the chief treasures of man, for this is implied in
+the "gold, bedolach, and onyx" of the land of Havilah. It is certain
+also, from the discoveries made in Assyria, on the site of Troy, and
+elsewhere, that the use of stone implements continued in Western Asia
+long after the deluge. In the time of Noah the distinction of clean
+and unclean beasts, and the taking of seven pairs of certain beasts
+and birds into the ark, imply that certain mammals and birds were
+domesticated.[108]
+
+2. Before the flood, as already remarked, there was a division of man
+into two nationalities or races; and there was a citizen, an
+agricultural, a pastoral, and a nomadic population. Farther, the
+remarkable progress in the arts implied in the building of such
+structures as the Tower of Babel, and other temple and palace mounds
+in Assyria, and of the pyramids of Egypt, within a few generations
+after the deluge, proves that a very advanced material civilization
+and great skill in constructive arts had been reached in antediluvian
+times.[109]
+
+3. After the deluge, the arts of the antediluvians and their citizen
+life were almost immediately revived in the plain of Shinar; but the
+plans of the Babel leaders, like those of many others who have
+attempted to force distinct tribes into one nationality, failed. The
+guilt attributed to them probably relates to the attempt to break up
+the patriarchal and tribal organization, which in these early times
+was the outward form of true religion, in favor of some sort of
+national organization, not compatible with the extension of man
+immediately over the world, and tending to consolidation into dense
+communities. It may be a question here whether the tribal communism
+which has prevailed among the American Indians and other rude races
+was the primitive form of society which the Babel-builders essayed to
+change, or whether the Semitic patriarchal system had at first
+prevailed, and the Babel difficulties were connected with a conflict
+between this and communism or despotism, both new Turanian or Aryan
+introductions. In any case, Babel, and Babylon its successor, remain
+in the subsequent Biblical literature as types of the God-defying and
+antichristian systems that have succeeded each other from the time of
+Nimrod to this day.
+
+4. The human race was scattered over the earth in family groups or
+tribes, each headed by a leading patriarch, who gave it its name.
+First, the three sons of Noah formed three main stems, and from these
+diverged several family branches. The ethnological chart in the 10th
+chapter of Genesis gives the principal branches under patriarchal and
+ethnic names; but these, of course, continued to subdivide beyond the
+space and time referred to by the sacred writer. It is simply absurd
+to object, as some writers have done, to the universality of the
+statements in Genesis, that they do not mention in detail the whole
+earth. They refer to a few generations only, and beyond this restrict
+themselves to the one branch of the human family to which the Bible
+principally relates. We should be thankful for so much of the leading
+lines of ethnological divergence, without complaining that it is not
+followed out into its minute ramifications and into all history.
+
+5. The tripartite division in Genesis x. indicates a somewhat strict
+geographical separation of the three main trunks. The regions marked
+out for Japheth include Europe and Northwestern Asia. The name
+Japheth, as well as the statements in the table, indicate a versatile,
+nomadic, and colonizing disposition as characteristic of these
+tribes.[110] The Median population, the same with a portion of that
+now often called Aryan,[111] was the only branch remaining near the
+original seats of the species, and in a settled condition. The
+outlying portions of the posterity of Japheth, on account of their
+wide dispersion, must at a very early period have fallen into
+comparative barbarism, such as we find in historic periods all over
+Western and Northern Europe and Northern Asia. Owing to their habitat,
+the Japhetites of the Bible include none of the black races, unless
+certain Indian and Australian nations are outlying portions of this
+family. The Shemite nations showed little tendency to migrate, being
+grouped about the Euphrates and Tigris valleys and neighboring
+regions. For this reason, with the exception of certain Arab tribes,
+they present no instances of barbarism, and generally retained a high
+cerebral organization, and respectable though stationary civilization,
+and they possess the oldest alphabet and literature. The posterity of
+Ham differs remarkably from the others. It spread itself over
+Southern, Central, and Eastern Asia, Southern Europe, and Northern
+Africa, and constitutes the stock alike of the Turanian and African
+races, as well as probably of the American tribes. It has all along
+displayed a great capacity for certain forms of art and
+semi-civilization, but has rarely risen to the level of the Shemite
+and Japhetite races. It established the earliest military and
+monarchical institutions, and presents at the dawn of history--in
+Assyria, in Egypt, and India--settled and arbitrary forms in politics
+and religion, of a character so much resembling that of an old and
+corrupt civilization that we can scarcely avoid supposing that Ham and
+his family had preserved more than any of the other Noachian races the
+arts and institutions of the old world before the flood. It certainly
+presents itself in early postdiluvian times as the first
+representative and teacher of art and material civilization. The
+Hamite race is remarkable for the early development of pantheism and
+hero-worship, and for the artificial character of its culture. It
+presents us with the darkest colors, and in the vast solitudes of
+Africa and Central Asia its outlying tribes must have fallen into
+comparative barbarism a few centuries after the deluge. It is farther
+to be observed that, according to the Bible, the Canaanites and other
+Hamite nations spoke languages not essentially different from those of
+the Shemites, while the Japhetite nations were to them barbarians--"a
+nation whose tongue thou shalt not understand." There was, too, at the
+date of the dispersion of Babel, already a distinction of tongues
+within each of the great races of men.
+
+6. All the divisions of the family of Noah had from the first the
+domesticated animals and the principal arts of life, and enjoyed these
+in a national capacity so soon as sufficiently numerous. The more
+scattered tribes, wandering into fresh regions, and adopting the life
+of hunters, lost the characteristics of civilization, and diverged
+widely from the primitive languages. We should thus have, according to
+the Hebrew ethnology, a central area presenting the principal stems of
+all the three races in a permanently civilized state. All around this
+area should lie aberrant and often barbarous tribes, differing most
+widely from the original type in the more distant regions, and in
+those least favorable to human health and subsistence. In these
+outlying regions, secondary centres of civilization might grow up,
+differing from that of the primitive centre, except in so far as the
+common principles of human nature and intercommunication might prevent
+this. All these conclusions, fairly deducible at once from the Mosaic
+ethnology and the theory of dispersion from a centre, are perfectly in
+accordance with observed facts, though in absolute contradiction to
+prevalent ethnological conclusions, based on these facts in connection
+with theories of development.
+
+A multitude of Bible notices might easily be quoted illustrative of
+these points, and also of the consistency of the Mosaic narrative with
+itself. One of them may suffice here. Abraham, who is said by the
+Jews to have been contemporary with Shem, as Menes by the Egyptians
+with Ham, at least lived sufficiently near to the time of the rise of
+the earliest nations to be taken as an illustration of this primitive
+condition of society. He was not a patriarch of the first or second
+rank, like Ham or Mizraim or Canaan, but a subordinate family leader
+several removes from the survivors of the deluge. Yet his tribe
+increases in comparatively few years to a considerable number. He is
+treated as an equal by the monarchs of Egypt and Philistia. He
+defeats, with a band of three or four hundred retainers, a confederacy
+of four Euphratean kings representing the embryo state of the Persian
+and Assyrian empires, and already relatively so strong that they have
+overrun much of Western Asia. All this bespeaks in a most consistent
+manner the rapid rise of many small nationalities, scattered over the
+better parts of wide regions, and still in a feeble condition, though
+inheriting from their ancestors an old civilization, and laying the
+foundations of powerful states. If we attach any historical value
+whatever to the narrative, it obviously implies that at a date of
+about two thousand years before Christ the regions afterward occupied
+by the oldest historic empires were still thinly peopled, and their
+dominant races little more than feeble tribes. This farther
+corresponds with the authentic history of all the ancient nations,
+however these may have been extended by previous mythical periods.
+About or shortly before the time of Abraham, Menes was draining for
+the first time the swamps of Egypt, Ninus or Nimrod was founding the
+Assyrian empire, the Phoenicians were founding Sidon, agriculture was
+being introduced into China, the Vedas were being written in India,
+the Persian monarchy was being founded; and, in short, all the
+historical nations of the East were originating, and this apparently
+by springing into being with an already formed civilization.
+
+Such being the Hebrew account of the date and early history of man, it
+may be proper here to compare it with such deductions from
+archaeological and geological investigation as may seem to conflict
+with it, and at the same time to make some comparisons with the
+Turanian and Aryan traditions and speculations as to human origins.
+The special lines of investigation important here are: 1. Early
+historical records other than the Bible; 2. The diversity of human
+languages; 3. The geological evidence afforded by remains of
+prehistoric men found in caverns and other repositories. The last of
+these is at present that which has attained the greatest development.
+
+1. _Early Human History._--Had the human race everywhere preserved
+historical records, we should have had some certain evidence as to the
+places and times of origination of its tribes and peoples.
+Unfortunately this has not been the case. All savage and barbarous
+races, and many of those now civilized, have lost all records of their
+early history. Most of the so-called ancient nations are comparatively
+modern, and their history after a very short course loses itself in
+uncertain tradition and mythical fancies. The only really ancient
+nations that have given us in detail their own written history are the
+Hebrews, the Assyrians, the Egyptians, the Hindoos, and the Chinese.
+The last people, though professedly very ancient, trace their history
+from a period of barbarism--a view confirmed by their physical
+characters and the nature of their civilization; and on this account,
+if no other, their history can not be considered as of much
+archaeological value. According to their own records, their earliest
+authentic history goes back to about 2800 B.C., and was preceded by a
+prehistoric period of uncertain duration. The astronomical deductions
+of Schlegel, which would extend their history to 17,000 years, are
+evidently altogether unreliable.[112] The early Hindoo history is
+palpably fabulous or distorted, and has been variously modified and
+changed in comparatively modern times. There is one great and very
+ancient people--the Egyptian--evidently civilized from the beginning
+of all history, that have succeeded in transmitting to us, though only
+in fragments, their primeval history; and of late years constant
+additions have been made from inscribed tablets and monuments to our
+knowledge of the ancient history of the Assyrians and Chaldeans.
+
+The Egyptian history has been gathered first from sketches by Greek
+travellers, and from fragments of the chronicles of Manetho, one of
+the later Egyptian priests; and, secondly, from the inscriptions
+deciphered on Egyptian monuments and papyri. It is still in a very
+fragmentary and uncertain state, but has been used with considerable
+effect to prove both the diversity of races of men and the pre-Noachic
+antiquity of the species. The Egyptian, in features and physical
+conformation, tended to the European form, just as the modern Fellahs
+and Berbers do; but he had a dark complexion, a somewhat elongated
+head and flattened lips, and certain negroid peculiarities in his
+limbs. His language combined many of the peculiarities of the Semitic,
+Aryan, and African tongues, indicating thereby great antiquity or else
+great intermixture, but not, as some ethnographers demand, both; most
+probably the former--the Egyptians being really the oldest civilized
+people that we certainly know, and therefore, if languages have one
+origin, likely to be near its root-stock.
+
+The actual history of Egypt begins from Menes, the first human king, a
+monarch, or rather tribal chief, who took up his abode in the flats
+and fens of Lower Egypt, certainly not very long after the deluge. His
+name has been translated "one who walks with Khem," or Ham; one,
+therefore, who was contemporary with this great patriarch and god of
+the Egyptians, which will place his time within a few centuries of the
+Biblical flood. The date of Menes has been variously placed. In
+correction of the ordinary Hebrew chronology, we have the following
+attempts:
+
+ Josephus places his reign 2350 B.C.
+ Dr. Hales' calculation 2412
+ Manetho and the Monuments, as corrected by Syncellus {2712
+ and calculated by various archaeologists {to
+ {2782
+ Herodotus, astronomical reduction by Rennell 2890
+ Estimate by Gliddon in "Ancient Egypt" 2750
+ Bunsen, "Egypt's Place," etc. 4000
+
+The truth may be somewhere near the mean of the shorter chronologies
+given in the list.[113] That of Bunsen is liable to very grave
+objections; more especially as he adds to it other views, altogether
+unsupported by historical evidence, which would carry back the deluge
+to 10,000 years B.C. It rests wholly on the chronology of Manetho, who
+lived 300 years B.C.; and who, even if the Egyptians then possessed
+authentic documents extending 3700 years before his time, may have
+erred in his rendering of them; and is farther liable to grave
+suspicions of having merely grouped the names on the monuments of his
+country arbitrarily in Sothic cycles. Farther, they rest on an
+interpretation of Manetho, which supposes his early dynasties to have
+been successive, while good reasons have been found to prove that many
+of them consist of contemporaneous petty sovereigns of parts of Egypt.
+The early parts of Manetho's lists are purely mythical, and it is
+impossible to fix the point where his authentic history commences. He
+copied from monuments which have no consecutive dates, the precise age
+of which could only be vaguely known even in his time, and which are
+different in their statements in different localities. It is only by
+making due allowance for these uncertainties that any historical value
+can be attached to these earlier dynasties of Manetho. Yet Bunsen has
+built on an uncertain interpretation of this writer, as handed down in
+a very fragmentary and evidently garbled condition, and on the equally
+or more uncertain chronology of Eratosthenes, a system differing from
+all previous belief on the subject, from the Hebrew history, and from
+all former interpretations of the monuments and Manetho.[114]
+Discarding, therefore, in the mean time, this date, and the still
+older one claimed by Mariette,[115] we may roughly estimate the date
+of Menes as 2000 to 2500 years B.C.,[116] and proceed to state some of
+the facts developed by Egyptologists.
+
+One of the most striking of these is the proof that Egypt was a new
+country in the days of Menes and several generations of his
+successors. The monuments of this period show little of the
+complicated idolatry, ritual, and caste system of later times, and are
+deficient in evidence of the refinement and variety of art afterward
+attained. They also show that these early monarchs were principally
+engaged in dyking, and otherwise reclaiming the alluvial flats; an
+evidence precisely of the same character with that which every
+traveller sees in the more recently settled districts of Canada, where
+the forest is giving way to the exertions of the farmer. Farther, in
+this primitive period, known as the "old monarchy," few domestic
+animals appear, and experiments seem to have been in progress to tame
+others, natives of the country, as the hyena, the antelope, the stork.
+Even the dog in the older dynasties is represented by one or at most
+two varieties, and the prevalent one is a wolfish-looking animal akin
+to the present wild or half-tamed dogs of the East.[117] The
+Egyptians, too, of the earlier dynasties, are more homogeneous in
+their appearance than those of the later, after conquest and migration
+had introduced new races; and the earliest monumental notice referring
+to Negro tribes does not appear until the 12th dynasty, about half-way
+between the epoch of Menes and the Christian era, nor does any
+representation of the Negro features occur until, at the earliest, the
+17th dynasty. This allows ample time--one thousand years at the
+least--for the development, under abnormal circumstances and
+isolation, of all the most strongly marked varieties of man. Still
+Egypt, even under the old monarchy, presents evidence of the
+continuation of antediluvian culture.[118]
+
+It is obvious, in short, that the whole aspect of early Egyptian
+history presents to us a people already civilized taking possession of
+that country at a period corresponding with that of the subsidence of
+the Noachian deluge, and not finding there any remains of older
+populations. Nor have any remains of such populations been found by
+modern investigation.[119]
+
+In Assyria the results of the recent discoveries, so well known
+through many learned and popular works, strikingly confirm the Hebrew
+chronology. They indicate no slow emergence from barbarism, but show
+that in Assyria as in Egypt implements of stone and metal were used
+together by a primitive people, already far advanced in civilization;
+and the oldest historical names only carry us back to cities and
+sovereigns of the Abrahamic age, while the story of the primitive
+empire of Nimrod and the traditions of the deluge seem to have
+survived in more or less mythical legends. The earliest Assyrian
+monuments would seem to belong to a Turanian race, of which
+comparatively little is known, but which may correspond with the
+primitive Cushites of Biblical story. To these, it is true, Berosus
+attaches a fabulous antiquity; but this is not confirmed by the
+monuments. These, according to the latest facts disclosed by Smith,
+Rawlinson, and others, appear to fix a date of about 1800 B.C. for the
+foundation of the Assyrian monarchy proper, and the oldest previous
+date given by Assurbampal, who reigned about B.C. 668 to 626, gives
+1635 years before his time, or say 2280 B.C., as the date of an
+Elamite king Kudarnankundi, who seems to be the leader of a primitive
+tribe, one of the oldest in the region, and who has been conjectured
+to have been the Chedorlaomer of Genesis, but was probably one of his
+predecessors.
+
+We gather from the Assyrian annals that the early Turanian kings,
+while mound-builders like their kindred elsewhere, and acquainted with
+metals and with the cuneiform writing, yet constituted comparatively
+small nations, and were much occupied with hunting and other rude
+sports, and with predatory expeditions, so as to answer very nearly to
+the Biblical conception of the early Cushite kingdom of the valley of
+the Euphrates, which was probably in the same stage of culture with
+the nations that in a later period inhabited the valley of the
+Mississippi, and are known as the Alleghans.
+
+In connection with the early history of man, much importance has been
+attached to the division of the early historic and prehistoric ages
+into the periods of Stone, Bronze, and Iron, and of the former into a
+Palaeolithic or ancient stone age, and a more modern or Neolithic stone
+age. It is plain, however, that too great importance has been attached
+to these distinctions, and that they express rather differences of
+circumstances and of culture than of age, so that they have really no
+bearing on the Biblical chronology.
+
+If palaeolithic or rudely chipped implements are the oldest known, as
+they not improbably were the first tools used by man, yet their use
+has extended in the case of rude nations all the way up to the present
+time; and in America and Northern Asia we know that their antiquity is
+but of yesterday, and that they were used with highly finished
+implements of bone, and of those softer stones that admit of being
+polished. No certain line can therefore be drawn even locally between
+a Neolithic and a Palaeolithic period, especially since in localities
+where flint implements were extensively quarried and made, as on the
+banks of rivers in Northern France and Southern England, and in such
+places as "Grimes' Graves" and Cissbury in the latter country, where
+mines were sunk in the chalk for the extraction of flints, it
+necessarily happened that vast multitudes of unfinished or spoiled
+implements and weapons were left on the ground, while the
+better-formed specimens were for the most part taken away. This
+conclusion is amply supported by similar localities in America, where
+people well acquainted with many of the arts of life have left
+quantities of strictly palaeolithic material. Wilson, Southall, and
+other writers have accumulated so many examples of this that I think
+the distinction of Palaeolithic and Neolithic ages must now be given up
+by all investigators who possess ordinary judgment. A remarkable
+instauce is the celebrated "Flint ridge" of Ohio, which was a great
+quarry of flint for implements used by the ancient mound-builders, a
+highly civilized race, as well as by the modern Indians. Here are
+found countless multitudes of palaeolithic flint implements of all the
+ordinary types, but which are merely the unfinished material of
+workers capable of producing the most exquisite implements. There can
+be scarcely a doubt that the palaeolithic implements of the European
+gravels, in so far as they are the workmanship of man, are in like
+manner merely the relics of old flint quarries.[120]
+
+Possibly a more accurate measurement of time for particular regions of
+the world might be deduced from the introduction of bronze and iron.
+If the former was, as many antiquarians suppose, a local discovery in
+Europe, and not introduced from abroad, it can give no measurement of
+time whatever. In America, as the facts detailed by Dr. Wilson show,
+while a bronze age existed in Peru, it was the copper age in the
+Mississippi Valley, and the stone age elsewhere; and these conditions
+might have co-existed for any length of time, and could give no
+indication of relative dates. On the other hand, the iron introduced
+by European commerce spread at once over the continent, and came into
+use in the most remote tribes, and its introduction into America
+clearly marks an historical epoch. With regard to bronze in Europe, we
+must bear in mind that tin was to be procured only in England and
+Spain, and in the latter in very small quantity; the mines of Saxony
+do not seem to have been known till the Middle Ages. We must further
+consider that tin ore is a substance not metallic in appearance, and
+little likely to attract the attention of savages; and that, as we
+gather from a hint of Pliny, it was probably first observed, in the
+West at least, as stream tin, in the Spanish gold washings. Lastly,
+when we place in connection with these considerations the fact that in
+the earliest times of which we have certain knowledge, the tin trade
+of Spain and England was monopolized by the Phoenicians, there seems
+to be a strong probability that the extension of the trade of this
+nation to the western Mediterranean really inaugurated the bronze
+period. The only valid argument against this is the fact that moulds
+and other indications of native bronze casting have been found in
+Switzerland, Denmark, and elsewhere; but these show nothing more than
+that the natives could recast bronze articles, just as the American
+Indians can forge fish-hooks and knives out of nails and iron hoops.
+Other considerations might be adduced in proof of this view, but our
+limits will not permit us to refer to them. The important questions
+still remain: When was this trade commenced, and how rapidly did it
+extend itself from the sea-coast across Europe? The British tin trade
+must have been in existence in the time of Herodotus, though his
+notion of the locality was not more definite than that it was in the
+extremity of the earth. The Phoenician settlements in the western
+Mediterranean must have existed as early as the time of Solomon, when
+"ships of Tarshish" was the general designation of seagoing ships for
+long voyages. How long previously these colonies existed we do not
+know; but considering the great scarcity and value of tin in those
+very ancient times, we may infer that perhaps only the Spanish, and
+not the British deposits were known thus early; or that the
+Phoenicians had only indirect access to the latter. Perhaps we may fix
+the time when these traders were able to supply the nations of Europe
+with abundance of bronze in exchange for their products, at, say 1000
+to 1200 B.C., as the earliest probable period; and possibly from one
+to two centuries would be a sufficient allowance for the complete
+penetration of the trade throughout Europe. But of course wars or
+migrations might retard or accelerate the process; and there may have
+been isolated spots in which a partial stone period extended up to
+those comparatively recent times in which first the Greek trade, and
+afterward the entire overthrow of the Carthaginian power by the
+Romans, terminated forever the age of bronze and substituted the age
+of iron. This would leave, according to our ordinary chronologies, at
+least ten or fifteen centuries for the postdiluvian stone period in
+Europe and Western Asia, a time quite sufficient in our view for all
+that part of it represented by such monuments as the Danish
+shell-heaps or the platform habitations of the Swiss lakes; leaving
+the remains of the prehistoric caverns and river gravels for the
+antediluvian period. A few facts in illustration of these points, and
+also of the Biblical history, may be mentioned here.
+
+We know perfectly that the early Chaldeans of the Euphratean valley
+were acquainted with the use of metals--bronze certainly, and at a
+very early date iron; yet flint knives and other implements of stone
+are found under circumstances which show that they were used in the
+palmy days of the Assyrian empire. The inhabitants of Egypt were
+acquainted with bronze and iron long before the date of the Exodus,
+yet the Egyptians used stone knives for some purposes up to a
+comparatively modern time. Joshua used stone knives for the purpose of
+circumcision; and according to Herodotus there were Ethiopians in the
+army of Xerxes who used stone-tipped arrows. If any antiquarian were
+to stumble on the "hill of the foreskins"--a mound under which were
+buried in all probability the multitudinous flint flakes used in the
+circumcision of the thousands of Israel--or the grave in which some of
+the Ethiopian auxiliaries of Xerxes were buried with their flint
+arrow-heads and javelins of antelopes' horn, how absurd would be the
+inference that these repositories were of the palaeolithic age. Nay, so
+late as 1870 a traveller was informed that the Bagos, a people of
+Abyssinia, still made and used stone hatchets and flint knives.[121]
+
+In Europe we find reason to believe that the Ligurians of Northwestern
+Italy were flint-folk of very rude type until they were conquered by
+the Gauls about 400 B.C.[122] Though the Gauls, Britons, and Germans
+of the age of Julius Caesar had iron weapons, yet it is evident that
+the metal was very scarce, and that bronze was more common; and in
+confirmation of this it is found that in the trenches before Alize,
+the Alesia of Caesar, where the final struggle of the Roman general
+with Vercingetorix took place, weapons of stone, bronze, and iron are
+intermixed. All over the more northern parts of Europe there is the
+best reason to believe that the use of stone and bronze continued to a
+much later period, and locally until long after the Christian era. It
+is clear that such facts as these must greatly modify our ideas of the
+probable age of the Swiss lake villages, and should induce the
+greatest caution in claiming any special antiquity for particular
+classes of implements.
+
+One of the most remarkable discoveries of modern times is that of the
+site of ancient Troy by Dr. Schliemann, and it affords clear and
+decisive evidence as to the historic value of the ages to which we
+have referred.
+
+Troy was destroyed by the Greeks perhaps about 1300 B.C., and we know
+from Homer that this was in what for the Greeks and Trojans may
+properly be termed the copper age, weapons and armor of that metal
+being in common use, and also the mode of burial by cremation. We may
+well suppose that at that early date the stone age was still in full
+force in Northern Europe and Asia, and in the mountains of
+Switzerland; and as the tin mines of England had not yet been reached,
+bronze was scarce and dear even in Eastern Europe and Asia. Now
+Schliemann has disinterred the undoubted Trojan Ilium on the hill of
+Hissarlik; but he finds it to be only one of several buried cities,
+and the succession of strata will be most clearly seen in the section
+on the following page, compiled from his clear and circumstantial
+descriptions. It is needless to say that this presents a succession of
+the stone age to one of comparatively high civilization. It also forms
+an epitome of that of the whole East, and of primitive man in general,
+in some very important respects. We have first, at a date probably
+coeval with that of the earliest monarchies of Assyria and Egypt, a
+primitive people whose arts and mode of life remind us strongly of the
+American Toltecans and Peruvians.[123] Schliemann supposes them to
+have been Aryan, but they were more probably of Turanian race. They
+must have occupied the site for a very long time. They were succeeded
+by a more cultivated people of fine physical organization, yet
+possibly still Turanians or primitive Aryans, who by trade or plunder
+had accumulated large stores of metallic wealth, and had made advances
+in the arts of life placing them on a level with the early Phoenicians
+and Egyptians, with whom they probably had intercourse. These
+
+ =====================================================================
+ |Surface. |
+ | |
+ |Fifth stratum to 6-1/2 feet. |The Greek Ilium, with buildings
+ | |and objects of art characteristic
+ | |of the Hellenic civilization of
+ | |historic periods.
+ ---------------------------------------------------------------------
+ |Fourth stratum to 13 feet. |A second barbarous people, but
+ | |probably allied to the first.
+ | |Very coarse pottery. Implements
+ | |and weapons of copper or bronze--
+ | |stone knives and saws.
+ ---------------------------------------------------------------------
+ |Third stratum to 23 feet. |Barbarous people occupying the
+ | |site of Troy. Rude stone
+ | |implements and rude pottery.
+ | |Buildings of small stones and clay.
+ | |Some objects of pottery found here
+ | |would on American sites be regarded
+ | |as probably tobacco-pipes.
+ ---------------------------------------------------------------------
+ |Second stratum to 33 feet. |Homeric Troy. Implements and
+ | |weapons of copper, bronze, and
+ | |stone. Pottery, some of it of
+ | |Peruvian and ancient Cypriot types.
+ | |Fine gold jewelry, and gold and
+ | |silver vessels. Armor similar to
+ | |that described by Homer. Stone
+ | |buildings and walls. This city had
+ | |been sacked and burned.
+ ---------------------------------------------------------------------
+ | First stratum to 46 or 53 feet.|Primitive or prehistoric Troy.
+ | |Stone implements, polished and
+ | |chipped. Millstones, copper nails,
+ | |pottery--some with patterns
+ | |curiously resembling those of
+ | |America--bone implements,
+ | Rock. |terra-cotta disks. Stone buildings.
+ =====================================================================
+
+were the Trojans of the Homeric poems, and the destruction of their
+city was probably in the first instance celebrated in their own native
+songs, which Homer at a date but little later[124] wove into his
+magnificent poem, and idealized and exaggerated. The Trojans
+worshipped an owl-headed goddess--the Athena of the Homeric poems;
+and from symbols found are believed also to have had the worship of a
+sacred tree, and of fire or of the Sun. All of these are widespread
+superstitions over both the Old and New World. But while Troy
+flourished there were barbarous nations not far off still in the stone
+age; and when the city had fallen, these, possibly in successive
+hordes, took possession of the fertile plain and used the old city as
+their stronghold, perhaps till the foundation of the Greek city about
+650 B.C. I have sketched in some detail these interesting discoveries,
+as they so clearly illustrate an actual succession of ages, and so
+conclusively show the uncertainty of the classification into ages of
+stone and metal, except when taken in connection with the precise
+circumstances of each locality.
+
+I have referred above only to the question of historic or postdiluvian
+man. We have still to consider what remains exist of antediluvian man.
+These may be studied in connection with our third head of geological
+evidences of man's antiquity; for if the Mosaic narrative be true, the
+diluvial catastrophe must have constituted a physical separation
+between historic man and prehistoric; since, in so far as antediluvian
+ages are concerned, all are prehistoric or mythical everywhere except
+in the sacred history itself. Antediluvian men may thus in geology be
+Pleistocene as distinguished from modern, or Palaeocosmic as
+distinguished from Neocosmic.[125]
+
+2. _Language in Relation to the Antiquity of Man._--In many animals
+the voice has a distinctive character; but in man it has an importance
+altogether peculiar. The gift of speech is one of his sole
+prerogatives, and identity in its mode of exercise is not only the
+strongest proof of similarity of psychical constitution, but more than
+any other character marks identity of origin. The tongues of men are
+many and various; and at first sight this diversity may, as indeed it
+often does, convey the impression of radical diversity of race. But
+modern philological investigations have shown many and unexpected
+links of connection in vocabulary or grammatical structure, or both,
+between languages apparently the most dissimilar. I do not here refer
+to the vague and fanciful parallels with which our ancestors were
+often amused, but to the results of sober and scientific inquiry.
+"Nothing," says Professor Max Mueller, "necessitates the admission of
+different independent beginnings for the material elements of the
+Turanian, Semitic, and Aryan branches of speech; nay, it is possible
+even now to point out radicals which, under various changes and
+disguises, have been current in these three branches ever since their
+first separation." Of the truth of this I have convinced myself by
+some original investigation, and also of the farther truth that of
+this radical unity of all human tongues there is more full evidence
+than many philologists are disposed to admit, and that the results of
+future study must be to connect more and more with each other the
+several main stems of language. Whether this results merely from the
+psychical unity of the human race, or from the historical derivation
+of languages from one root, is not so material as the fact of unity;
+but that the latter is implied it would not be difficult to show.[126]
+Let us examine for a little these results as they are presented to us
+by Latham, Mueller, Bunsen, and other modern philologists.
+
+A convenient starting-point is afforded by the great group of
+languages known as the Indo-European, Japhetic, or Aryan. From the
+Ganges to the west coast of Ireland, through Indian, Persian, Greek,
+Italian, German, Celt, runs one great language--the Sanscrit and the
+dark Hindoo at one extreme, the Erse and the xanthous Celt at the
+other. No one now doubts the affinity of this great belt of languages.
+No one can pretend that any one of these nations learned its language
+from another. They are all decided branches of a common stock. Lying
+in and near this area are other nations--as the Arabs, the Syrians,
+the Jews--speaking languages differing in words and structure--the
+Semitic tongues. Do these mark a different origin? The philologists
+answer in the negative, pointing to the features of resemblance which
+still remain, and above all to certain intermediate tongues of so high
+antiquity that they are rather to be regarded as root-stocks from
+which other languages diverged than as mixtures. The principal of
+these is the ancient Egyptian, represented by the inscriptions on the
+monuments of that wonderful people, and by the more modern Coptic,
+which, according to Bunsen and Latham, presents decided affinities to
+both the great classes previously mentioned, and may be regarded as
+strictly intermediate in its character. It has accordingly been
+designated by the term Sub-Semitic.[127] But it shares this character
+with all or nearly all the other African languages, which bear strong
+marks of affinity to the Egyptian and Semitic tongues. On this
+subject Dr. Latham says, "That the uniformity of languages throughout
+Africa is greater than it is either in Asia or in Europe, is a
+statement to which I have not the least hesitation in committing
+myself."[128] To the north the Indo-European area is bounded by a
+great group of semi-barbarous populations, mostly with Mongolian
+features, and speaking languages which have been grouped as Turanian.
+These Turanian languages, on the one hand, graduate without any break
+into those of the Esquimaux and American Indians; on the other,
+according to Mueller and Latham, they are united, though less
+distinctly, with the Semitic and Japhetic tongues. They not improbably
+represent in more or less altered forms the most primitive stock of
+language from which both the Semitic and Japhetic groups have
+branched. Another great area on the coasts and in the islands of the
+Pacific is overspread by the Malay, which, through the populations of
+Transgangetic India, connects itself with the great Indo-European
+line. Mr. Edkins, in his remarkable book on "China's Place in
+Philology," has collected a large amount of fact tending to show that
+the early Chinese in its monosyllabic radicals presents root-forms
+traceable into all the stocks of human speech in the Old World; and
+the American languages would have furnished him with similar lines of
+affinity. If we regard physical characters, manners, and customs, and
+mythologies, as well as mere language, it is much easier thus to link
+together nearly all the populations of the globe. In investigations of
+this kind, it is true, the links of connection are often delicate and
+evanescent; yet they have conveyed to the ablest investigators the
+strong impression that the phenomena are rather those of division of a
+radical language than of union of several radically distinct.
+
+This impression is farther strengthened when we regard several results
+incidental to these researches. Latham has shown that the languages of
+men may be regarded as arranged in lines of divergence, the extreme
+points of which are Fuego, Tasmania, Easter Island; and that from all
+these points they converge to a common centre in Western Asia, where
+we find a cluster of the most ancient and perfect languages; and even
+Haeckel is obliged to adopt in his map of the affiliation of races of
+men a similar scheme, though he, without any good historical or
+scientific evidence, extends it back into the imaginary lost continent
+of Lemuria. Farther, the languages of the various populations differ
+in proceeding from these centres in a manner pointing to degeneracy
+such as is likely to occur in small and rude tribes separating from a
+parent stock. These lines of radiation follow the most easy and
+probable lines of migration of the human race spreading from one
+centre. It must also be observed that in the primary migration of men,
+there must of necessity have been at its extreme limits outlying and
+isolated tribes, placed in circumstances in which language would very
+rapidly change; especially as these tribes, migrating or driven
+forward, would be continually arriving at new regions presenting new
+circumstances and objects. When at length the utmost limit in any
+direction was reached, the inroads of new races of population would
+press into close contact these various tribes with their different
+dialects. Where the distance was greatest before reaching this limit,
+we might expect, as in America, to find the greatest mutual variety
+and amount of difference from the original stock. After the primary
+migration had terminated, the displacements arising from secondary
+migrations and conquests, would necessarily complicate the matter by
+breaking up the original gradations of difference, and thereby
+rendering lines of migration difficult to trace.
+
+Taking all these points into the account, along with the known
+tendencies of languages in all circumstances to vary, it is really
+wonderful that philology is still able to give so decided indications
+of unity.
+
+There is, in the usual manner of speaking of these subjects, a source
+of misapprehension, which deserves special mention in this place. The
+Hebrew Scriptures derive all the nations of the ancient world from
+three patriarchs, and the names of these have often been attached to
+particular races of men and their languages; but it should never be
+supposed that these classifications are likely to agree with the Bible
+affiliation. They may to a certain extent do so, but not necessarily
+or even probably. In the nature of the case, those portions of these
+families which remained near the original centre, and in a civilized
+state, would retain the original language and features comparatively
+unchanged. Those which wandered far, fell into barbarism, or became
+subjected to extreme climatic influences, would vary more in all
+respects. Hence any general classification, whether on physical or
+philological characters, will be likely to unite, as in the Caucasian
+group of Cuvier, men of all the three primitive families, while it
+will separate the outlying and aberrant portions from their main stems
+of affiliation. Want of attention to this point has led to much
+misconception; and perhaps it would be well to abandon altogether
+terms founded on the names of the sons of Noah, except where
+historical affiliation is the point in question. It would be well if
+it were understood that when the terms Semitic, Japhetic,[129] and
+Hametic are used, direct reference is made to the Hebrew ethnology;
+and that, where other arrangements are adopted, other terms should be
+used. It is obviously unfair to apply the terms of Moses in a
+different way from that in which he uses them. A very prevalent error
+of this kind has been to apply the term Japhetic to a number of
+nations not of such origin according to the Bible; and another of more
+modern date is to extend the term Semitic to all the races descended
+from Ham, because of resemblance of language. It should be borne in
+mind that, assuming the truth of the Scriptural affiliation, there
+should be a "central" group of races and languages where the whole of
+the three families meet, and "sporadic"[130] groups representing the
+changes of the outlying and barbarous tribes.
+
+While, however, all the more eminent philologists adhere to the
+original unity of language, they are by no means agreed as to the
+antiquity of man; and some, as for instance Latham and Dr. Max Mueller,
+are disposed to claim an antiquity for our species far beyond that
+usually admitted. In so far as this affects the Bible history, it is
+important, inasmuch as this would appear to limit the possible
+antiquity of all languages to the time of the deluge. The date of this
+event has been variously estimated, on Biblical grounds, at from 1650
+B.C. (Usher) to 3155 B.C. (Josephus and Hales); but the longest of
+these dates does not appear to satisfy the demands of philology. The
+reason of this demand is the supposed length of time required to
+effect the necessary changes. The subject is one on which definite
+data can scarcely be obtained. Languages change now, even when reduced
+to a comparatively stable form by writing. They change more rapidly
+when men migrate into new climates, and are placed in contact with new
+objects. The English, the Dutch, and the German were perhaps all at
+the dawn of the mediaeval era Maeso-Gothic. At the same rate of change,
+allowing for greater barbarism and greater migrations, they may very
+well have been something not far from Egyptian or Sanscrit 2000 years
+before Christ. The truth is that present rates of variation afford no
+criterion for the changes that must occur in the languages of small
+and isolated tribes lapsing into or rising from barbarism, possessing
+few words, and constantly requiring to name new objects and until some
+ratio shall have been established between these conditions and those
+of modern languages, fixed by literature and by a comparatively
+stationary state of society, it is useless to make any demands for
+longer time on this ground.[131]
+
+Even in the present day, Moffat informs us that in South Africa the
+separation of parts of a tribe, for even a few months, may produce a
+notable difference of dialect. If we take the existing languages of
+civilized men whose history is known, we shall find that it is
+impossible to trace many of them back as far as the Christian era, and
+when we have passed over even half that interval, they become so
+different as to be unintelligible to those who now speak them. Where
+there are exceptions to this, they arise entirely from the effects of
+literature and artificial culture. While, therefore, there is good
+ground in philology for the belief in one primitive language, there
+seems no absolute necessity to have recourse even to the confusion of
+tongues at Babel to explain the diversities of language.[132] Farther,
+the Bible carries back the Semitic group of languages at least to the
+time of the Deluge, but it does not seem necessary on the mere ground
+of antediluvian names, to carry it any farther back, and the Assyrian
+inscriptions show the coexistence of Turanian and Semitic tongues at
+the dawn of history in the region of the Euphrates and Tigris. One or
+other of these--or a monosyllabic language underlying it--was probably
+an antediluvian tongue, and the other a very early derivative; and
+both history and philology would assign the precedence to the Turanian
+language, which was probably most akin to that which had descended
+from antediluvian times, and which at that early period of dispersion
+indicated in the Bible story of Babel, had begun to throw off its two
+great branches of the Aryan and Semitic languages. These, proceeding
+in two dissimilar lines of development, continue to exist to this day
+along with the surviving portions of the uncultivated Turanian speech.
+To this point, however, we may return under another head.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+UNITY AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN--(_Continued._)
+
+
+ "By the word of God the heavens were from of old, and the
+ earth, formed out of water, and by means of water, by which
+ waters the world that then was, being overflowed with water,
+ perished."--2 Peter iii., 5, 6.
+
+
+3. _Geological Evidence as to the Antiquity of Man._--No geological
+fact can now be more firmly established than the ascending progression
+of animal life, whereby from the early invertebrates of the Eozoic and
+Primordial series we pass upward through the dynasties of fishes and
+reptiles and brute mammals to the reign of man. In this great series
+man is obviously the last term; and when we inquire at what point he
+was introduced, the answer must be in the later part of the great
+Cainozoic or Tertiary period, which is the latest of the whole. Not
+only have we the negative fact of the absence of his remains from all
+the earlier Tertiary formations, but the positive fact that all the
+mammalia of these earlier ages are now extinct, and that man could not
+have survived the changes of condition which destroyed them and
+introduced the species now our contemporaries. This fact is altogether
+independent of any question as to the introduction of species by
+derivation or by creation. The oldest geological period in which any
+animals nearly related in structure to man occur is that named the
+Miocene, and no traces of man have as yet been found in any deposits
+of this age. All human remains known belong either to the Pleistocene
+or Modern. Now the Pleistocene was characterized by one of those
+periods of glacial cold which have swept over the earth--by one of
+those great winters which have so chilled the continents that few
+forms of life could survive them--and man comes in at the close of
+this cold period, in what is called the Post-glacial age. Some
+geologists, it is true, hold to an interglacial warm period, in which
+man is supposed to have existed, but the evidence of this is extremely
+slender and doubtful, and it carries back in any case human antiquity
+but a very little way. I have, in my "Story of the Earth and Man,"
+shown reason for the belief, in which I find Professor Hughes, of
+Cambridge, coincides with me,[133] that the interglacial periods are
+merely an ingenious expedient to get rid of the difficulties attending
+the hypothesis of the universal glaciation of the northern hemisphere.
+
+But, though man is thus geologically modern, it is held that
+historically his existence on earth may have been very ancient,
+extending perhaps ten or twenty, or even a hundred times longer than
+the period of six or seven thousand years supposed to be proved by
+sacred history. Let us first, as plainly and simply as possible,
+present the facts supposed thus to extend the antiquity of man, and
+then inquire as to their validity and force as arguments in this
+direction.
+
+The arguments from geology in favor of a great antiquity for man may
+be summarized thus: (1) Human remains are found in caverns under very
+thick stalagmitic crusts, and in deposits of earth which must have
+accumulated before these stalagmites began to form, and when the
+caverns were differently situated with reference to the local
+drainages. (2) Remains of man are found under peat-bogs which have
+grown so little in modern times that their antiquity on the whole
+must be very great. (3) Implements, presumably made by men, are found
+in river-gravels so high above existing riverbeds that great physical
+changes must have occurred since they were accumulated. (4) One case
+is on record where a human bone is believed to have been found under a
+deposit of glacial age. (5) Human remains have been found under
+circumstances which indicate that very important changes of level have
+taken place since their accumulation. (6) Human remains have been
+found under circumstances which indicate great changes of climate as
+intervening between their date and that of the modern period. (7) Man
+is known to have existed, in Europe at least, at the same time with
+some quadrupeds formerly supposed to have been extinct before his
+introduction. (8) The implements, weapons, etc., found in the oldest
+of these repositories are different from those known to have been used
+in historic times.
+
+These several heads include, I think, all the really material evidence
+of a geological character. It is evidence of a kind not easily
+reducible into definite dates, but there can be no doubt that its
+nature, and the rapid accumulation of facts within a small number of
+years, have created a deep and widespread conviction among geologists
+and archaeologists that we must relegate the origin of man to a much
+more remote antiquity than that sanctioned by history or by the
+Biblical chronology. I shall first review the character of this
+evidence, and then state a number of geological facts which bear in
+the other direction, and have been somewhat lost sight of in recent
+discussions. Of the facts above referred to, the most important are
+those which relate to caverns, peat-bogs, and river-gravels. We may,
+therefore, first consider the nature and amount of this evidence.
+
+That the reader may more distinctly understand the geological history
+of these more recent periods of the earth's history which are supposed
+to have witnessed the advent of man, in Western Europe at least, I
+quote the following summary from Sir Charles Lyell of the more modern
+changes in that portion of the world. These are:
+
+"First, a continental period, toward the close of which the forest of
+Cromer flourished; when the land was at least 500 feet above its
+present level, perhaps much higher. * * * The remains of _Hippopotamus
+major_ and _Rhinoceros etruscus_, found in beds of this period, seem
+to indicate a climate somewhat milder than that now prevailing in
+Great Britain. [This was a _Preglacial_ era, and may be regarded as
+belonging to the close of the Pliocene tertiary.]
+
+"Secondly, a period of submergence, by which the land north of the
+Thames and Bristol Channel, and that of Ireland, was generally reduced
+to * * * an archipelago. * * * This was the period of great
+submergence and of floating ice, when the Scandinavian flora, which
+occupied the lower grounds during the first continental period, may
+have obtained exclusive possession of the only lands not covered with
+perpetual snow. [This represents the Glacial period; but according to
+the more extreme glacialists only a portion of that period.]
+
+"Thirdly, a second continental period, when the bed of the glacial
+sea, with its marine shells and erratic blocks, was laid dry, and when
+the quantity of land equalled that of the first period. * * * During
+this period there were glaciers in the higher mountains of Scotland
+and Wales, and the Welsh glaciers * * * pushed before them and cleared
+out the marine drift with which some valleys had been filled during
+the period of submergence. * * * During this last period the passage
+of the Germanic flora into the British area took place, and the
+Scandinavian plants, together with northern insects, birds, and
+quadrupeds, retreated into the higher grounds. * * *
+
+"Fourthly, the next and last change comprised the breaking up of the
+land of the British area once more into numerous islands, ending in
+the present geographical condition of things. There were probably many
+oscillations of level during this last conversion of continuous land
+into islands, and such movements in opposite directions would account
+for the occurrence of marine shells at moderate heights above the
+level of the sea, notwithstanding a general lowering of the land. * * *
+During this period a gradual amelioration of temperature took place,
+from the cold of the glacial period to the climate of historical
+times."[134]
+
+The second continental period above referred to is that which appears
+on the best evidence to have been the time of the introduction of man;
+but such facts as that of the Settle Cave, and the implements of the
+breccia in Kent's Cave, if rightly interpreted, would make man
+preglacial or "interglacial."
+
+The deposits found in caverns in France, Switzerland, Germany,
+Belgium, and England have afforded a large proportion of the remains
+from which we derive our notions of the most ancient prehistoric men
+of Europe. From the Belgian caves, as explored by M. Dupont, we learn
+that there were two successive prehistoric races, both rude or
+comparatively uncivilized. The first were men of Turanian type, but of
+great bodily stature and high cerebral organization, and showing
+remarkable skill in the manufacture of implements and ornaments of
+bone and ivory. These men are believed to have been contemporary with
+the earlier postglacial mammals, as the mammoth and hairy rhinoceros,
+and to have lived at a time when the European land was more extensive
+than at present, stretching far to the west of Ireland, and connecting
+Great Britain with the Continent. The skeletons found at Cro-Magnon,
+Mentone, and elsewhere in France fully confirm the deductions of
+Dupont as to this earliest race of Palaeocosmic, Palaeolithic, or
+antediluvian man. This grand race seems to have perished or been
+driven from Europe by the great depression of the level of the land
+which inaugurated the modern era, and which was probably accompanied
+by many oscillations of level as well as by considerable changes of
+climate. They were succeeded by a second race, equally Turanian in
+type, but of small stature, and resembling the modern Lapps. These
+were the "allophylian" peoples displaced by the historical Celts, and
+up to their time the reindeer seems to have existed abundantly in
+France and Germany. These two successive prehistoric populations have
+been termed respectively men of the "mammoth" age and men of the
+"reindeer" age. The Bible record would lead us to regard the earlier
+and gigantic men as antediluvian, and the smaller or Lappish race as
+postdiluvian. We may therefore, having already at some length
+considered the postdiluvian age, take up the mode of occurrence of the
+remains of the earlier of the two races--that of the mammoth age.
+
+The caverns themselves may be divided into those of residence, of
+sepulture, and of driftage, though one cavern has often successively
+assumed two at least of these characters. In the caverns of residence
+large accumulations have been formed of ashes, charcoal, bones, and
+other debris of cookery, among which are found flint and bone
+implements, the general character of which, as well as that of the
+needles, stone hammers, mortars for paint, and other domestic
+appliances, are not more dissimilar from those of the Red Indian and
+Esquimau races in North America than these are from one another, and
+in many things, as in the bone harpoons, the resemblance is very
+striking indeed. In tendency to imitative art, and in the skill of
+their delineations of animals, the prehistoric men seem to have
+surpassed all the American races except the semi-civilized
+mound-builders and the more cultivated Mexican and Peruvian nations.
+With regard to the residence of these men of the mammoth age in
+caverns, several things are indicated by American analogies to which
+some attention should be paid.
+
+It is not likely that caverns were the usual places of residence of
+the whole population. They may have been winter houses for small
+tribes and detached families of fugitives or outlaws, or they may have
+been places of resort for hunting parties at certain seasons of the
+year. The large quantities of broken and uncooked bones of particular
+species, as of the horse and reindeer, in some of the caverns, would
+farther indicate a habit of making great battues, like those of the
+American hunting tribes, at certain seasons, and of preparing
+quantities of pemmican or dried meat preserved with marrow and fat for
+future use. The number of bone needles found in some of the caves
+would seem to hint that, like the Americans, they sewed up their
+pemmican in skin bags. The multitude of flint flakes and of rude stone
+implements applicable to breaking bones certainly indicates a
+wholesale cutting of flesh and preparation of marrow. In the "Story of
+the Earth," I have suggested in connection with this that there may
+have been towns or villages of these people unknown to us, and which
+would afford higher conceptions of their progress in the arts. This
+anticipation appears recently to have been realized in the discovery
+of such a town or fortified village of the mammoth age at Soloutre, in
+France, and which seems to afford evidence that these ancient people
+had already domesticated the horse, using it as food as well as a
+beast of burden, in the manner of the Khirgis and certain other Tartar
+tribes of Central Asia.[135] This, with the undoubtedly high cerebral
+organization indicated by the skulls of the mammoth age, notably
+raises our estimate of the position of man at this early date.
+
+With regard to caves of sepulture, the same remark may be made as with
+regard to the caves of residence. They do not seem to have been the
+burial-places of large populations, but only occasional places of
+interment, few bodies being found in them, and these often interred in
+the midst of culinary debris, evidencing previous or contemporary
+residence. With regard to the latter, it seems to have been no
+uncommon practice with some North American tribes to bury the dead
+either in the floors of their huts or in their immediate proximity. It
+is probable, however, that the few examples known of caves of
+sepulture of this period indicate not tribal or national places of
+burial, but occasional and accidental cases, happening to hunting or
+war parties, perhaps remote from their ordinary places of residence.
+In so far as method of burial is concerned, the men of the Palaeocosmic
+or Mammoth age seem to have buried the dead extended at full length,
+and not in the crouching posture usual with some later races. Like the
+Americans, they painted the dead man, and buried him with his robes
+and ornaments, and probably with his weapons, thus intimating their
+belief in happy hunting-grounds beyond the grave.[136] I may remark
+here that all the known interments of the mammoth age indicate a race
+of men of great cerebral capacity, with long heads and coarsely marked
+features, of large stature and muscular vigor, surpassing indeed much
+in all these respects the average man of modern Europe. These
+characteristics befit men who had to contend with the mammoth and his
+contemporaries, and to subdue the then vast wildernesses of the
+eastern continent, and they correspond with the Biblical
+characteristics of antediluvian man.
+
+Among caves of driftage may be classed some of those near Liege, in
+Belgium, and, partially at least, those of Kent's Hole and Brixham, in
+England. In these only disarticulated remnants of human skeletons, or
+more frequently only flint implements, some of them of doubtful
+character, have been found. In my "Story of the Earth," I have taken
+the carefully explored Kent's Cavern of Torquay as a typical example,
+and have condensed its phenomena as described by Mr. Pengelly. I now
+repeat this description, with some important emendations suggested by
+that gentleman in more recent reports and in private correspondence.
+
+The somewhat extensive and ramifying cavern of Kent's Hole is an
+irregular excavation, evidently due partly to fissures or joints in
+limestone rock, and partly to the erosive action of water enlarging
+such fissures into chambers and galleries. At what time it was
+originally cut we do not know, but it must have existed as a cavern at
+the close of the Pliocene or beginning of the Post-pliocene period,
+since which time it has been receiving a series of deposits which have
+quite filled up some of its smaller branches.
+
+First and lowest, according to Mr. Pengelly, of the deposits as yet
+known, is a "breccia," or mass of broken and rounded stones, with
+hardened red clay filling the interstices. Some of the stones are of
+the rock which forms the roof and walls of the cave, but the greater
+number, especially the rounded ones, are from more distant parts of
+the surrounding country. Many are fragments of grit from the Devonian
+beds of adjacent hills. There are also fragments of stalagmite from an
+old crust broken up when the breccia was deposited, and possibly
+belonging to Pliocene times. In this mass, the depth of which is
+unknown, are numerous bones, nearly all of one kind of animal, the
+cave bear or bears, for there may be more than one species--creatures
+which seem to have lived in Western Europe from the close of the
+Pliocene down to the modern period. They must have been among the
+earliest and most permanent tenants of Kent's Hole at a time when its
+lower chambers were still filled with water. Teeth of a lion and of
+the common fox also occur in this deposit, but rarely. Next above the
+breccia is a floor of "stalagmite," or stony carbonate of lime,
+deposited from the drippings of the roof, and in some places more than
+twelve feet thick. This also contains bones of the cave bear,
+deposited when there was less access of water to the cavern. Mr.
+Pengelly infers the existence of man at this time from the occurrence
+of chipped flints supposed to be artificial; but which, in so far as I
+can judge from the specimens described and figured, must still be
+regarded as of doubtful origin.
+
+After the old stalagmite floor above mentioned was formed, the cave
+again received deposits of muddy water and stones; but now a change
+occurs in the remains embedded. This stony clay, or "cave earth," has
+yielded an immense quantity of teeth and bones, including those of the
+elephant, rhinoceros, horse, hyena, cave bear, reindeer, and Irish
+elk. With these were found weapons of chipped flint, and harpoons,
+needles, and bodkins of bone, precisely similar to those of the North
+American Indians and other rude races. The "cave earth" is four feet
+or more in thickness. It is not stratified, and contains many fallen
+fragments of rock, rounded stones, and broken pieces of stalagmite. It
+also has patches of the excrement of hyenas, which the explorers
+suppose to indicate the temporary residence of these animals; and
+besides fragments of charcoal scattered in the mass, there is in one
+spot, near the top, a limited layer of burned wood, with remains which
+indicate the cooking and eating of repasts of animal food by man. It
+is clear that when this bed was formed the cavern was liable to be
+inundated with muddy water, carrying stones and perhaps some of the
+bones and implements, and breaking up in places the old stalagmite
+floor.[137] One of the most puzzling features, especially to those who
+take an exclusively uniformitarian view, is that the entrance of
+water-borne mud and stones implies a level of the bottom of the water
+in the neighboring valleys of nearly one hundred feet above its
+present height. The cave earth is covered by a second crust of
+stalagmite, less dense and thick than that below, and containing only
+a few bones, which are of the same general character with those
+beneath, but include a fragment of a human jaw with teeth. Evidently
+when this stalagmite was formed the influx of water-borne materials
+had ceased, or nearly so; and Mr. Pengelly appears to affirm, though
+without assigning any reason, that none of these bones could, like
+the masses of stalagmite, have been lifted from lower beds, or washed
+into the cave from without.
+
+The next bed marks a new change. It is a layer of black mould from
+three to ten inches thick. Its microscopic structure does not seem to
+have been examined; but it is probably a forest soil, introduced by
+growth, by water, by wind, and by ingress of animals, all of them
+modern, and contains works of art from the old British times before
+the Roman invasion up to the porter bottles and dropped half-pence of
+modern visitors. Lastly, in and upon the black mould are many fallen
+blocks from the roof of the cave.
+
+There can be no doubt that this cave and the neighboring one of
+Brixham have done very much to impress the minds of British geologists
+with ideas of the great antiquity of man; and they have, more than any
+other postglacial monuments, shown the existence of some animals now
+extinct up to the human age. Of precise data for determining time,
+they have, however, given nothing. The only measures which seem to
+have been applied, namely, the rate of growth of stalagmite and the
+rate of erosion of neighboring valleys, are, from the very sequence of
+the deposits, obviously worthless; and the only apparently constant
+measure, namely, the fall of blocks from the roof, seems not to have
+been applied, and Mr. Pengelly declares that it can not be practically
+used. We are therefore quite uncertain as to the number of centuries
+involved in the filling of this cave, and must remain so until some
+surer system of calculation can be devised. We may, however, attempt
+to sketch the series of events which it indicates.
+
+The animals found in Kent's Hole are all "postglacial," some of them
+of course survivors from "preglacial" times, and some of them still
+surviving. They therefore inhabited the country after it rose from the
+great glacial submergence. Perhaps the first colonists of the coast of
+Devonshire in this period were the cave bears, migrating on floating
+ice, and subsisting like the arctic bear and the black bear of
+Anti-costi, on fish, and on the garbage cast up by the sea. They may
+have found Kent's Hole a sea-side cavern, with perhaps some of its
+galleries still full of water and filling with breccia, with which the
+bones of dead bears became mixed. In the case of such a deposit as
+this breccia, however, the precise time when its materials were
+finally laid down in their present form, or the length of time
+necessary for its accumulation, can not be definitely settled. It may
+be a result of continued torrential action or of some sudden
+cataclysm. As the land rose, these creatures for the most part betook
+themselves to lower levels, and in process of time the cavern stood
+upon a hill-side, perhaps several hundreds of feet above the sea; and
+the mountain streams, their beds not yet emptied of glacial detritus,
+washed into it stones and mud, and probably bones also, while it
+appears that hyenas occupied the cave at intervals, and dragged in
+remains of mammals of many species which had now swarmed across the
+plains elevated out of the sea, and multiplied in the land. This was
+the time of the cave earth; and before its deposit was completed,
+though how long before an unstratified and therefore probably
+often-disturbed bed of this kind can not tell, man himself seems to
+have been added to the inhabitants of the British land. In pursuit of
+game he sometimes ascended the valleys beyond the cavern, or even
+penetrated into its outer chambers; or perhaps there were even in
+those days rude and savage hill-men, inhabiting the forests and
+warring with the more cultivated denizens of plains below, which are
+now deep under the waters. Their weapons, and other implements dropped
+in the cavern or lost in hunting, or buried in the flesh of wounded
+animals which crept to the streams to assuage their thirst, are those
+found in the cave earth. The absence of the human bones may merely
+show that the mighty hunters of those days were too hardy, athletic,
+and intelligent often to perish from accidental causes, and that they
+did not use this cavern for a place of burial. The fragments of
+charcoal show that they were acquainted with fire, and possibly that
+they sometimes took shelter in the cave. But the land again subsided.
+The valley of that now nameless river, of which the Rhine and the
+Thames may have alike been tributaries, disappeared under the sea; and
+perhaps some tribe, driven from the lower lands, took up its abode in
+this cave, now again near the encroaching waves, and left there the
+remains of their last repasts ere they were driven farther inland or
+engulfed in the waters. For a time the cavern may have been wholly
+submerged, and the charcoal of the extinguished fires became covered
+with its thin coating of clay. But ere long it re-emerged to form part
+of an island, long barren and desolate; and the valleys having been
+cut deeper by the receding waters, it no longer received muddy
+deposits, and the crust formed by drippings from its roof contained
+only bones and pebbles washed by rains and occasional land floods from
+its own clay deposits. Finally, the modern forests overspread the
+land, and were tenanted by the modern animals. Man returned to use the
+cavern again as a place of refuge or habitation, and to leave there
+the relics contained in the black earth. This seems at present the
+only intelligible history of this curious cave and others resembling
+it; though, when we consider the imperfection of the results obtained
+even by a large amount of labor, and the difficult and confused
+character of the deposits in this and similar caves, too much value
+should not be attached to such histories, which may at any time be
+contradicted or modified by new facts or different explanations of
+those already known. The time involved depends very much on the answer
+to the question whether we should regard the postglacial subsidence
+and re-elevation as somewhat sudden, or as occupying long ages at the
+slow rate at which some parts of our continents are now rising or
+sinking.
+
+Mr. Pengelly thinks it possible, but not proved, that the lower
+breccia of Kent's Cavern may be interglacial or preglacial in age. One
+case only is known where a human bone has been found in a cavern under
+deposits supposed to be of the nature of the glacial drift. It is that
+of the Victoria Cave, at Settle, in Yorkshire. At this place a human
+fibula was found under a layer of boulder clay. But there are too many
+chances of this bone having come into this position by some purely
+local accident to allow us to attach much importance to it until
+future discoveries shall have supplied other instances of the
+kind.[138]
+
+I may close this survey of the cave deposits with a summary of the
+results of M. Dupont, as obtained from two of the caves explored by
+him, that of Margite and that of Frontal. In the first of these
+caverns, resting on rolled pebbles which covered the floor, were four
+distinct layers of river mud deposited by inundations, and amounting
+to two yards and a half in thickness. In all of these layers were
+bones. The lowest contained rude flint implements, and bones of the
+mammoth, rhinoceros, bear, horse, chamois, reindeer, stag, and hyena.
+In the overlying deposits are some flint implements of more artistic
+form and a greater prevalence of the bones of the reindeer. In the
+second cave, that of Frontal, over a similar deposit of alluvial mud
+of the mammoth age, was found a sepulchre containing the remains of
+sixteen individuals, of the second or diminutive Lappish race before
+referred to. The door of the cave had been closed by these people with
+a slab of stone, and in front was a hearth for funeral feasts, built
+on the deposits of the mammoth age, and containing bones of animals
+all recent or now living in Belgium, and without any traces of the
+bones of the extinct quadrupeds. This burial-place belonged to the
+Neocosmic yet prehistoric race which replaced the Palaeocosmic men of
+the mammoth age.
+
+What is the absolute antiquity of the Palaeocosmic age in Europe? We
+have no monumental or historical chronology to answer this question,
+but only the measures of time furnished by the accumulation of
+deposits, by the deposition of stalagmite, by the gradual extinction
+of animals, and by the erosion of valleys and other physical changes.
+These somewhat loose measures have been applied in various ways, but
+the tendency of geologists, from the prevalence of uniformitarian
+views, and the prejudice created by familiarity with the long times of
+previous geologic periods, has been to assign to them too great rather
+than too little value, both as measures of time and as indicating a
+remote antiquity.
+
+With reference to the accumulation of deposits, whether derived from
+disintegration of the roof and walls of the cave, introduced by land
+floods or river inundations or by the residence of man, their rate is
+of very difficult estimation. Loose stones fallen from the roof, as in
+the case of Kent's Cave, would give a fair measure of time if we could
+be sure that the climate had continued uniform, and that there had
+been no violent earthquakes. Mr. Pengelly has, however, hopelessly
+given up this kind of evidence. Where, as in the case of many of these
+caves, land floods and river inundations have entered, these may have
+been frequent or separated by long intervals of time, and they may
+have been of great or small amount. Where, for instance, as in one of
+the Belgian caves, there are six beds of ossiferous mud, but for the
+fact that five layers of stalagmite separate them we might not have
+known whether they represent six annual inundations, or floods
+separated by many centuries from each other.
+
+In the case of the Victoria Cave at Settle, Dawkins, reasoning from
+the accumulation of two feet of detritus over British remains that may
+be supposed to be 1200 years old, gives a basis which would at the
+same rate of deposit allow about 5000 years for the date of
+palaeolithic men; but Prestwich and others, on the basis of stalagmite
+deposits, claim a vastly higher antiquity for the men who made the
+implements found in Kent's Hole and Brixham.
+
+If we now turn to these stalagmite floors, when we consider that they
+have been formed by the slow solution of limestone by rain-water
+charged with carbonic acid, and the dropping of this water on the
+floor, and when we are told that in Kent's Cavern a marked date shows
+that the stalagmite has grown at the rate of only one twentieth of an
+inch since 1688, and that there are two beds of stalagmite, one of
+which is in some places twelve feet thick, we are impressed with the
+conviction of a vast antiquity. But when we are told by Dawkins that
+the rate of deposit in Ingleborough Cave may be estimated at a quarter
+of an inch per annum, and when we consider that the present rate of
+deposit in Kent's Hole is probably very different from what it was in
+the former condition of the country, stalagmite becomes a very unsafe
+measure of time. With respect again to the accumulation of
+kitchen-midden stuff in the course of the occupancy of caverns, this
+proceeds with great rapidity, when caves are steadily occupied and it
+is not the practice to cleanse out the debris of fires, food, and
+bedding. Even when the occupation is temporary, a tribe of savages
+engaged with the preparation of dried meat and pemmican in a very
+short time produce a considerable heap of bones and other
+rejectamenta.
+
+Looking next to the extinction of animals, we find that the species
+found in the oldest deposits containing human remains are in part
+still extant. Others which are locally extinct we know existed in
+Europe until historical times, that is, within the last two thousand
+years. How long previously to this the others became extinct we have
+no certain means of knowing, though it seems probable that they
+disappeared gradually and successively. We have, however, farther to
+bear in mind the possibility of cataclysms or climatal changes which
+may have proved speedily fatal to many species over large areas. In
+any case we have this certain fact that, though the time elapsed has
+been sufficient for the extinction of many species, it does not seem
+to have sufficed to effect any noteworthy change on those that
+survived. Farther, we may consider that time is only one factor in
+this matter, and not the one which is the efficient cause of change,
+since we know no reason why one species of animal should not continue
+to be reproduced as long as another, but for the occurrence of
+physical changes of a prejudicial character.
+
+We have still remaining the changes which have taken place in the
+erosion of valleys since the caverns were occupied. Dupont informs us
+that the openings of some of the caverns once flooded by rivers are
+now in limestone cliffs two hundred feet above the water, while no
+appreciable lowering of the bottoms of the ravines is taking place
+now. This would in some contingencies put back the period of filling
+of the caves to an indefinite antiquity. But then the questions
+occur--Was there once more water in the rivers or more obstruction at
+their outlets, or was the erosive power greater at one time than now,
+or were the river valleys excavated in still more ancient time, and
+partly filled with mud when the water entered the caves, and may this
+mud have been since swept away? So, in like manner, the waters flowing
+in the channels near Brixham Cave and Kent's Hole were apparently
+about seventy feet higher in times of flood than at present, but the
+time involved is subject to the same doubts as in the case of the
+Belgian caves. Hughes has well remarked that elevations of the land,
+by causing rivers to form waterfalls and cascades, which they cut
+back, may greatly accelerate the rate of erosion. Farther, there is
+the best reason to believe that in the glacial period many old valleys
+were filled with clay, and that the modern cutting consisted merely in
+the removal of this clay. Belt has shown in a recent paper[139] good
+reason to believe that this is the case with the Falls of Niagara, and
+that the cutting actually effected through rock within the later
+Pleistocene and modern period has been that only of the new gorge from
+the whirlpool to Queenstown, the main part of the ravine being of
+older date and merely re-excavated. This would greatly reduce the
+ordinary estimate of time based on the cutting of the Niagara gorge.
+
+This leads us next to consider the occurrence of human remains and
+objects of art in the river-gravels themselves, and the amount of
+excavation and deposit involved in the deposition of these gravels.
+In the river-gravels of the Somme, and of many other rivers in France
+and Southern England, chipped flints and rude flint implements are
+found in so great quantity as to imply that the beds and banks of
+these streams were resorted to for flint material, and that the
+unfinished and rejected implements left in the holes and trenches, or
+on the heaps where the work was carried on, were afterward sorted by
+running water, perhaps in abnormal floods and debacles, such as occur
+in all river valleys occasionally, perhaps in that great diluvial
+catastrophe which seems to have terminated the residence of
+Palaeocosmic man in Europe. Wilson has well shown how the heaps left by
+American tribes in and near their flint quarries would furnish the
+material for such accumulations. The time required for the erosion of
+the valleys and the deposit of the gravels has been very variously
+estimated. In the case of the Somme, which river is not appreciably
+deepening its bed, if we suppose it to have cut its wide valley to the
+depth of one hundred and fifty feet out of solid chalk since the
+so-called "high level" gravels of France and the South of England were
+deposited, the time required shades off into infinity. So Evans, in
+his work on "The Ancient Stone Implements of Great Britain," looking
+upon the amount of excavation of wide and deep valleys since the stone
+implements of Bournemouth are supposed to have been deposited in
+gravel, says, "Who can fully comprehend how immensely remote was the
+epoch when that vast bay was high and dry land?" and he becomes
+poetical in delineating the view that must have met the eyes of
+"palaeolithic" man. And undoubtedly, if one is to be limited to the
+precise nature and amount of causes now at work in the district, the
+time must not only be "immensely remote," but illimitably so. The
+difficulty lies with the exaggerated uniformitarianism of the
+supposition that such causes could have produced the results. But,
+for reasons to be immediately stated, the time required is liable to
+numerous deductions; and recently Tylor, Pattison, Collard, and others
+have insisted ably on these deductions, as has also Professor Hughes,
+of Cambridge. I have myself urged them strongly in the work already
+referred to.
+
+In the first place, when we see a deep river valley in which the
+present stream is doing an almost infinitesimal amount of deepening,
+we are not to infer that this represents all its work past and
+present. In times of unusual flood it may do in one week more than in
+many previous years. Farther, if there have been elevations or
+depressions of the land, when the land has been raised the cutting
+power has at once been enormously increased, and when depressed it has
+been diminished, or filling has taken the place of cutting. Again, if
+the climate in time past has been more extreme, or the amount of
+rainfall greater, the cutting action has then been proportionally
+rapid. Perhaps no influence is greater in this respect than that which
+is known to the colonists in Northeastern America as "ice-freshets,"
+when in spring, before the ice has had time to disappear from the
+rivers, sudden thaws and rains produce great floods, which rushing
+down over the icy crust, or breaking and hurling its masses before
+them, work terrible havoc on the banks and alluvial flats, depositing
+great beds of gravel, and sweeping away immense masses that had lain
+undisturbed for centuries. Now we know that in Europe the human period
+was preceded by what has been termed the glacial age, and as it was
+passing away there must have been unexampled floods and ice-freshets,
+and a temporary "pluvial period," as it has been called, in which the
+volume of the rivers was immensely increased. Farther, it is an
+established fact that the period of the appearance of man was a time
+when the continents in the northern hemisphere were more elevated
+than at present, and when consequently the cutting action of rivers
+was at a maximum. This was again followed by a period of depression,
+accompanied probably by many local cataclysms, if not by a general
+deluge; and there are strong geological reasons to believe that this
+convulsion was connected with the disappearance from Europe of
+Palaeocosmic man, and many of the animals his contemporaries. This view
+I advocated some time ago in my "Story of the Earth;" and more
+recently Mr. Pattison, in an able paper read before the Victoria
+Institute, has developed it in greater detail, and supported it by a
+great mass of geological authority. If the Palaeocosmic period was one
+of continental elevation, when the greater seats of population were in
+the valleys of great rivers now covered by the German Ocean and the
+English Channel, and when the valleys of the Thames and the Somme were
+those of upland streams frequented by straggling parties and small
+tribes, and the seats of extensive flint factories for the supply of
+the plains below, and if this state of things was terminated by a
+diluvial debacle, we can account for all the phenomena of the drift
+implements without any extravagant estimate of time.
+
+I quote with much pleasure on this subject the following from the
+report of a lecture on "Geological Measures of Time," by Professor
+Hughes, before the Royal Institution of London. Hughes was, like
+myself, a companion of Sir Charles Lyell in some of his journeys,
+though belonging to a younger generation of geologists, and is an
+accurate observer and reasoner.
+
+"Another method of estimating the lapse of time is founded upon the
+supposed rate at which rivers scoop out their channels. Although no
+very exact estimates have been attempted, still the immense quantity
+of work that has been done, as compared with the slow rate at which a
+river is now excavating that same part of the valley, is often
+appealed to as a proof of a great lapse of time.
+
+"The fact of such an enormous lapse of time is not questioned, but
+this part of the evidence is challenged.
+
+"The previous considerations of the rate of accumulation of silt on
+the low lands prepares us to inquire whether there is any waste at all
+along the alluvial plains. Several examples were given to show that
+the lowering of valleys was brought about by receding rapids and
+waterfalls; for instance, following up the Rhine, its terraces could
+often be traced back to where the waterfall was seen to produce at
+once almost all the difference of level between the river reaches
+above and below it. At Schaffhausen the river terrace below the hotel
+could be traced back and found to be continuous with the river margin
+above the fall. The wide plains occurring here and there, such as the
+Mayence basin, were due to the river being arrested by the hard rocks
+of the gorges below Bingen so long that it had time to wind from side
+to side through the soft rocks above the gorges. When waterfalls cut
+back to such basins or to lakes they would recede rapidly, tapping the
+waters of the lake, eating back the soft beds of the alluvial plains,
+and probably in both cases leaving terraces as evidence, not of
+upheavals or of convulsions, but of the arrival of a waterfall which
+had been gradually travelling up the valley. So when the Rhone cuts
+back from the falls at Belgarde we shall have terraces where now is
+the shore of Geneva; so also when the Falls of Schaffhausen, and ages
+afterward when the Falls of Laufenburg have tapped the Lake of
+Constance, there will be terraces marking its previous levels. And so
+we may explain the former greater extent of the Lake of Zurich, which
+stood higher and spread wider by Utznach and Wetzikon before it was
+tapped by the arrival of waterfalls, which cut back into it and let
+its waters run off until they fell to their present level.
+
+"A small upheaval near the mouth of a river would have a similar
+effect. The Thames below London and the Somme below St. Acheul can now
+only just hand on the mud brought down from higher ground; but suppose
+an elevation of a hundred feet over those parts of England and France
+(quite imperceptible if extended over 10,000, 1000, or even 100
+years), and the rivers would tumble over soft mud and clay and chalk,
+and soon eat their way back from Sheppey to London, and from St.
+Valery to Amiens.
+
+"So when we want to estimate the age of the gravels on the top of the
+cliff at the Reculvers, or on the edge of the plateau of St. Acheul,
+we have to ask, not how long would it take the rivers to cut down to
+their present level from the height of those gravels at the rate at
+which that part of their channel is being lowered now, but how long
+would it take the Somme or Thames, which once ran at the level of
+those gravels, to cut back from where its mouth or next waterfall was
+then to where it runs over rapids now. We ought to know what movements
+of upheaval and depression there have been; what long alluvial flats
+or lakes which may have checked floods, but also arrested the
+rock-protecting gravel; how much the wash of the estuarine waves has
+helped. In fact, it is clear that observations made on the action of
+the rivers at those points now have nothing to do with the calculation
+of the age of the terraces above, and that the circumstances upon
+which the rate of recession of the waterfalls and rapids depends are
+so numerous and changeable that it is at present unsafe to attempt any
+estimate of the time required to produce the results observed."
+
+I may close this discussion by quoting from the paper of my friend Mr.
+Pattison, already referred to, the following summing up of his
+conclusions, in which I fully concur:
+
+ "We may assume it as established that there was a time when
+ England was connected with the Continent, when big animals
+ roamed in summer up the watercourses and across the uplands,
+ and man, armed only with rude stones, followed them into the
+ marshes and woods, hunted them for sustenance, and consumed
+ them in shelter of caves, then accessible from the river
+ levels. This state of things was continued until disturbed
+ by oscillations of surface, accompanied by excessive
+ rainfalls and rushes of water from the water-sheds of the
+ rivers, until the great animals were driven out or
+ destroyed, and man ceased to visit these parts. The
+ disturbances continued, the Strait of Dover was formed, the
+ configuration of the soft parts of the islands and
+ continents was fixed, action subsided, and the present state
+ of things obtained. Man resumed his residence, but with loss
+ of the mammoth and its companions. The reindeer now
+ constituted the type of a state of things which lasted down
+ to the historic period, without any other from that time to
+ this. * * *
+
+ "Chronologists are agreed that about 2000 years B.C. Abraham
+ migrated from Mesopotamia to Canaan, and that at this time
+ Egypt at least was old in civilization. Beyond this we have
+ no positive scale of time in Scripture; for it is evident,
+ from the narrative itself, that the latter does not cover
+ the whole time. * * *
+
+ "Ussher estimates from Scripture the creation of man as
+ about 2000 years before this. During the latter portion of
+ this time civilization was proceeding under settled
+ governments in the East, interrupted, says the record and
+ tradition, by a flood. * * *
+
+ "So Lucretius:
+
+ 'Thus, too, the insurgent waters once o'erpowered,
+ As fables tell, and deluged many a state;
+ Till, in its turn, the congregated waves
+ By cause more potent conquered, heaven restrain'd
+ Its ceaseless torrents, and the flood decreased.'
+
+ Barbarism covered the whole Western world; neither in the
+ 2000 years before Abraham, nor in the 2000 years afterward,
+ have we any light reflected from these regions to the East.
+ In this 4000 years, or in the somewhat longer period which
+ probably will be ultimately settled as warranted by the
+ record, we place hypothetically all the phenomena of the
+ later mammalian age, including the introduction of man as a
+ hunter, the first occupation of the caves by him also, the
+ diluvial phenomena of the wide valleys, the oscillations and
+ disturbances of the earth's crust, alterations in the
+ coast-line, and physical settlement of the country; after
+ this comes the second occupation of the caves. In short, if
+ we say that, hypothetically, the whole first known human age
+ occurred within 4000 years of the Christian era, no one can
+ say that it is geologically impossible. Who can say that
+ 1643 years is insufficient to comprise all the phenomena
+ that occurred during a period confessedly characterized by
+ more rapid and extensive action than at present--a period
+ during which ruptures in the earth's crust, oscillations,
+ and permanent uprising took place, and the intermittent
+ action of violent floods caused the deposit and disturbance
+ and resettlement of the gravels and brick-earth? There is
+ nothing to interfere with the prevalent opinion that man was
+ introduced here while the glacial period was dying out, and
+ while it was still furnishing flood-waters sufficient to
+ scour and re-sort the gravels of the valleys down which they
+ flowed. This supposition may be extended to both the great
+ continents."
+
+To conclude: Our mode of reconciling the Mosaic history of
+antediluvian man with the disclosures of the gravels and caves would
+be to identify Palaeocosmic man, or man of the mammoth age, with
+antediluvian man; to suppose that the changes which closed his
+existence in Europe as well as Western Asia were those recorded in the
+Noachian deluge; and that the second colonization of the diminished
+and shrunken Europe of the modern period was effected by the
+descendants of Noah. It may be asked--Must we suppose that the Adam of
+the Bible was of the type of the coarsely featured and gigantic men of
+the European caverns? I would answer--Not precisely so; but it is
+quite possible that Adam may have been Turanian in feature. We should
+certainly suppose him to have been a man well developed in brain and
+muscle. Such men as those found in the caves would rather represent
+the ruder "Nephelim," the "giants that were in those days," than Adam
+in Eden. Farther, the new colonists of Europe after the deluge would
+no doubt be a very rude and somewhat degenerate branch of Noachidae,
+probably driven before more powerful tribes in the course of the
+dispersion. The higher races of both periods are probably to be looked
+for in Western Asia; but even there we must expect to find cave men
+like those whose remains were found by Tristram in the caves near
+Tyre, and like the Horim of Moses; and we must also expect to find the
+antediluvian age in the main an age of stone everywhere, and its arts,
+except in certain great centres of population, perhaps not more
+advanced than those of the Polynesians, or those of the agricultural
+American tribes before the discovery of America by Columbus.
+
+As a geologist, and as one who has been in the main of the school of
+Lyell, and after having observed with much care the deposits of the
+more modern periods on both sides of the Atlantic, I have from the
+first dissented from those of my scientific brethren who have
+unhesitatingly given their adhesion to the long periods claimed for
+human history, and have maintained that their hasty conclusions on
+this subject must bring geological reasoning into disrepute, and react
+injuriously on our noble science. We require to make great demands on
+time for the prehuman periods of the earth's history, but not more
+than sacred history is willing to allow for the modern or human age.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+COMPARISONS AND CONCLUSIONS.
+
+
+ "Lo, these are but the outlines of his ways, and how faint
+ the whisper which we hear of him--the thunder of his power
+ who could understand?"--Job xxvi., 14.
+
+
+In the preceding pages I have, as far as possible, avoided that mode
+of treating my subject which was wont to be expressed as the
+"reconciliation" of Scripture and Natural Science, and have followed
+the direct guidance of the Mosaic record, only turning aside where
+some apt illustration or coincidence could be perceived. In the
+present chapter I propose to inquire what the science of the earth
+teaches on these same subjects, and to point out certain manifest and
+remarkable correspondences between these teachings and those of
+revelation. Here I know that I enter on dangerous ground, and that if
+I have been so fortunate as to carry the intelligent reader with me
+thus far, I may chance to lose him now. The Hebrew Scriptures are
+common property; no one can fairly deny me the right to study them,
+even though I do so in no clerical or theological capacity; and even
+if I should appear extreme in some of my views, or venture to be
+almost as enthusiastic as the commentators of Homer, Shakespeare, or
+Dante, I can not be very severely blamed. But the direct comparison of
+these ancient records with results of modern science is obnoxious to
+many minds on different grounds; and all the more so that so few men
+are at once students both of nature and revelation. There are, as
+yet, but few even of educated men whose range of study has included
+any thing that is practical or useful either in Hebrew literature or
+geological science. That slipshod Christianity which contents itself
+with supposing that conclusions which are false in nature may be true
+in theology is mere superstition or professional priestcraft, and has
+nothing in common with the Bible; but there are still multitudes of
+good men, trained in the verbal and abstract learning which at one
+time constituted nearly the whole of education, who regard geology as
+a mass of crude hypotheses destitute of coherence, a perpetual
+battle-ground of conflicting opinions, all destined in time to be
+swept away. It must be admitted, too, that from the nature of
+geological evidence, and from the liability to error in details, the
+solidity of its conclusions is not likely soon to be appreciated as
+fully as is desirable by the common mind; while it is unfortunately
+true that the outskirts of science are infested with hosts of
+half-informed and superficial writers, who state these conclusions
+incorrectly, or apply them in an unreasonable manner to matters on
+which they have no bearing. On the other hand, the geologist, fully
+aware of the substantial nature of the foundations of the science of
+the earth, regards it as little less than absurd to find parallels to
+its principles in an ancient theological work. Still there are
+possible meeting-points of things so dissimilar as Bible lore and
+geological exploration. If man is a being connected on the one hand
+with material nature, and on the other with the spiritual essence of
+the Creator; if that Creator has given to man powers of exploring and
+comprehending his plans in the universe, and at the same time has
+condescended to reveal to him directly his will on certain points,
+there is nothing unphilosophical or improbable in the supposition that
+the same truths may be struck out on the one hand by the action of
+the human mind on nature, and on the other by the action of the Divine
+mind on that of man. The highest and most nobly constituted minds have
+ever been striving to scale heaven above and dive into the earth
+below, that they may extort from them the secret of their origin, and
+may find what are the privileges and destinies of man himself. They
+have learned much; and if through other gifted minds, and through his
+heaven-descended Word and Spirit, God has condescended to reveal
+himself, there must surely be much in common in that which God's works
+teach to earnest inquirers and that which he directly makes known. But
+few of our greatest thinkers, whether on nature or theology, have
+reached the firm ground of this higher probability; or if they have
+reached it, have dreaded the scorn of the half-learned too much to
+utter their convictions. Still this is a position which the
+enlightened Christian and student of nature must be prepared to
+occupy, humbly and with admission of much ignorance and incapacity,
+but with bold assertion of the truth that there are meeting-points of
+nature and revelation which afford legitimate subjects of study.
+
+In entering on these subjects, we may receive certain great truths in
+reference to the history of the earth as established by geological
+evidence. In the present rapidly progressive state of the science,
+however, it is by no means easy to separate its assured and settled
+results from those that have been founded on too hasty generalization,
+or are yet immature; and at the same time to avoid overlooking new and
+important truths, sufficiently established, yet not known in all their
+dimensions. In the following summary I shall endeavor to present to
+the reader only well-ascertained general truths, without indulging in
+those deviations from accuracy for effect too often met with in
+popular books. On the other hand, we have already found that the
+Scriptures enunciate distinct doctrines on many points relating to the
+earth's early history, to which it will here be necessary merely to
+refer in general terms. Let us in the first place shortly consider the
+conclusions of geology as to the origin and progress of creation.
+
+1. The widest and most important generalization of modern geology is
+that all the materials of the earth's crust, to the greatest depth
+that man can reach, either by actual excavation or inference from
+superficial arrangements, are of such a nature as to prove that they
+are not, in their present state, original portions of the earth's
+structure; but that they are the results of the operation, during long
+periods, of the causes of change--whether mechanical, chemical, or
+vital--now in operation, on the land, in the seas, and in the interior
+of the earth. For example, the most common rocks of our continents are
+conglomerates, sandstones, shales, and slates; all of which are made
+up of the debris of older rocks broken down into gravel, sand, or mud,
+and then re-cemented. To these we may add limestones, which have been
+made up by the accumulation of corals and shells, or by deposits from
+calcareous springs; coal, composed of vegetable matter; and granite,
+syenite, greenstone, and trap, which are molten rocks formed in the
+manner of modern lavas. So general has been this sorting, altering,
+and disturbance of the substance of the earth's crust, that, though we
+know its structure over large portions of our continents to the depth
+of several miles, the geologist can point to no instance of a truly
+primitive rock which can be affirmed to have remained unchanged and
+_in situ_ since the beginning.
+
+"All are aware that the solid parts of the earth consist of distinct
+substances, such as clay, chalk, sand, limestone, coal, slate,
+granite, and the like; but, previously to observation, it is commonly
+imagined that all had remained from the first in the state in which we
+now see them--that they were created in their present forms and in
+their present position. The geologist now comes to a different
+conclusion; discovering proofs that the external parts of the earth
+were not all produced in the beginning of things in the state in which
+we now behold them, nor in an instant of time. On the contrary, he can
+show that they have acquired their actual condition and configuration
+gradually and at successive periods, during each of which distinct
+races of living beings have flourished on the land and in the waters;
+the remains of these creatures lying buried in the crust of the
+earth."[140]
+
+2. Having ascertained that the rocks of the earth have thus been
+produced by secondary causes, we next affirm, on the evidence of
+geology, that a distinct order of succession of these deposits can be
+ascertained; and though there are innumerable local variations in the
+nature of the rocks formed at the same period, yet there is, on the
+great scale, a regular sequence of formations over the whole earth.
+This succession is of the greatest importance in the case of aqueous
+rocks, or those formed in water; and it is evident that in the case of
+beds of sand, clay, etc., deposited in this way, the upper must be the
+more recent of any two layers. This simple principle, complicated in
+various ways by the fractures and disturbances to which the beds have
+been subjected, forms the basis of the succession of "formations" in
+geology as deduced from stratigraphical evidence.
+
+3. This regular series of formations would be of little value as a
+history of the earth were it not that nearly all the aqueous rocks
+contain remains of the contemporary animals and plants. Ever since
+the earth began to be tenanted by organized beings, the various
+accumulations formed in the bottoms of seas and at the mouths of
+rivers have entombed remains of marine animals, more especially their
+harder parts, as shells, corals, and bones, and also fragments or
+entire specimens of land animals and plants. Hence, in any rock of
+aqueous formation, we may find fossil remains of the living creatures
+that existed in the waters in which that rock was accumulated or on
+the neighboring land. If in the process of building up the continents,
+the same locality constituted in succession a part of the bottom of
+the ocean, of an inland sea, of an estuary, and a lake, we should find
+in the fossil remains entombed in the deposits of that place evidences
+of these various conditions; and thus a somewhat curious history of
+local changes might be obtained. Geology affords more extensive
+disclosures of this nature. It shows that as we descend into the older
+formations we gradually lose sight of the existing animals and plants,
+and find the remains of others not now existing; and these, in turn,
+themselves disappear, and were preceded by others; so that the whole
+living population of the earth appears to have been several times
+renewed prior to the beginning of the present order of things. This
+seems farther to have occurred in a slow and gradual manner, not by
+successive great cataclysms or clearances of the surface of the earth,
+followed by wholesale renewal. This doctrine of geological uniformity
+is, however, to be understood as limited by the equally certain fact
+that there has been progress and advance, both in the inorganic
+arrangements of the earth's surface and in its organized inhabitants,
+and that there have, in geological as in historical times, been local
+cataclysms and convulsions, as those of earthquakes and volcanoes,
+often on a very extensive scale. Farther, there are good reasons to
+believe that there have been alternations of cold or glacial periods
+and of warm periods, of periods of subsidence and re-elevation, and of
+periods of greater and less activity of certain of the leading agents
+of geological change. But as to the extent of these differences and
+their bearing on the geological history, there is still much
+uncertainty and difference of opinion.[141]
+
+In the sediment _now_ accumulating in the bottom of the waters are
+being buried remains of the existing animals and plants. A geological
+formation is being produced, and it contains the skeletons and other
+solid parts of a vast variety of creatures belonging to all climates,
+and which have lived on land as well as in fresh and salt water. Let
+us now suppose that by a series of changes, sudden or gradual, all the
+present organized beings were swept away, and that, when the earth was
+renewed by the power of the Creator, a new race of intelligent beings
+could explore those parts of the former sea basins that had been
+elevated into land. They would find the remains of multitudes of
+creatures not existing in their time; and by the presence of these
+they could distinguish the deposits of the former period from those
+that belonged to their own. They could also compare these remains with
+the corresponding parts of creatures which were their own
+contemporaries, and could thus infer the circumstances in which they
+had lived, the modes of subsistence for which they had been adapted,
+and the changes in the distribution of land and water and other
+physical conditions which had occurred. This, then, is precisely the
+place which fossil organic remains occupy in modern geology, except
+that our present system of nature rests on the ruins, not of one
+previous system, but of several.
+
+4. By the aid of the superposition of deposits and their organic
+remains, geology can divide the history of the earth into distinct
+periods. These periods are not separated by merely arbitrary
+boundaries, but to some extent mark important eras in the progress of
+our earth; though they usually pass into each other at their confines,
+and the nature of the evidence prevents us from ascertaining the
+precise length of the periods themselves, or the intervals in time
+which may separate the several monuments by which they are
+distinguished. The following table will serve to give an idea of the
+arrangement at present generally received, with some of the more
+important facts in the succession of animal and vegetable life, as
+connected with our present subject. It commences with the oldest
+periods known to geology, and gives in the animal and vegetable
+kingdoms the _first appearance_ of each class, with a few notes of the
+subsequent history of the principal forms. It must, however, be borne
+in mind that farther discoveries may extend some classes farther back
+than we at present know them, and that a more detailed table,
+descending to orders and families, would give a more precise view of
+the succession of life. Farther, the several geological formations
+would admit of much subdivision, and are represented locally by
+various kinds and different thicknesses of sediment.[142]
+
+TABULAR VIEW OF THE SUCCESSION OF GEOLOGICAL FORMATIONS AND
+ORGANIC REMAINS.
+
+ ====================================================================
+ PERIODS. | SYSTEMS OF | CLASSES OF ANIMALS. | PLANTS.
+ | FORMATIONS. | |
+ --------------------------------------------------------------------
+ I. |Ancient Metamorphic |Eozoon and probably other|Graphite and
+ EOZOIC |rocks of | Protozoa. |Iron Ores
+ PERIOD. |Scandinavia, | |representing
+ |Canada, etc. | |Vegetable
+ | | |Matter.
+ --------------------------------------------------------------------
+ II. |Cambrian. |_Radiata_--Hydrozoa, |Algae.
+ PRIMARY | | Echinodermata |
+ OR | | (Cystideans). |
+ PALAEOZOIC| |_Mollusca_--Brachiopoda, |
+ PERIOD. | | Lamellibranchiata, |
+ | | Gasteropoda, Cephalopoda|
+ | | (Bivalve and Univalve |
+ | | Shell-fishes). |
+ | |_Articulata_--Annelida, |
+ | | Crustacea (Worms and |
+ | | Soft Shell-fishes of the|
+ | | lower grades). |
+ | | |
+ |Lower Silurian. |_Radiata_--Anthozoa |Algae.
+ | | (coral animals), |
+ | | Echinodermata |
+ | | (sea stars, etc.). |
+ | |_Mollusca_--Polyzoa, |
+ | | Tunicata. |
+ | |Other Mollusks and |
+ | | Articulates as before. |
+ | | |
+ |Upper Silurian. |Radiates, Mollusks, and |Acrogenous
+ | | Articulates as before. |Land plants.
+ | |_Vertebrata_--First |
+ | | Ganoid and Placoid |
+ | | Fishes. |
+ | | |
+ |Erian or Devonian. |_Articulata_--Insects |Acrogens
+ | | and higher Crustaceans. |and
+ | |_Vertebrata_--Fishes, |Gymnosperms.
+ | | Ganoid and Placoid. |
+ | | |
+ |Carboniferous. |_Mollusca_--Pulmonata |Acrogens,
+ | | (Land Snails). |Gymnosperms,
+ | |_Articulata_--Myriapods, |Endogens?
+ | | Arachnidans (Gallyworms,|
+ | | Spiders and Scorpions). |
+ | |_Vertebrata_--Batrachians|
+ | | or Amphibians prevalent.|
+ | | |
+ |Permian. |_Vertebrata_--Lacertian |
+ | | or Lizard-like |
+ | | Reptiles. |
+ --------------------------------------------------------------------
+ III. |Triassic. |_Vertebrata_--Higher |
+ SECONDARY| | Reptiles prevalent; |
+ OR | | Marsupial Mammals. |
+ MESOZOIC | | |
+ PERIOD. |Jurassic. |_Vertebrata_--Great |Endogenous
+ | | prevalence of higher |trees.
+ | | Reptiles; Fishes, |
+ | | homocerque; Earliest |
+ | | Birds. |
+ | | |
+ |Cretaceous. |_Vertebrata_--Decadence |Angiospermous
+ | | of reign of Reptiles; |Exogens.
+ | | Ordinary Bony Fishes. |
+ --------------------------------------------------------------------
+ IV. |Eocene. |_Vertebrata_--Mammals |Exogens
+ TERTIARY | | prevalent, especially |prevalent.
+ OR | | Pachyderms; Cycloid |
+ CAINOZOIC| | and Ctenoid Fishes |
+ PERIOD. | | prevalent. |
+ | |First _living_ |Some Modern
+ | | Invertebrates. |Species
+ | | |appear.
+ |Miocene. |Living Invertebrates more|
+ | | numerous. |
+ | | |
+ |Pliocene. |Living Invertebrates |
+ | | still more numerous. |
+ --------------------------------------------------------------------
+ V. |Post-Pliocene. |First living Mammals. |Existing
+ POST- | |Living Invertebrates |vegetation.
+ TERTIARY | | prevalent. |
+ OR | | |
+ MODERN |Post-Glacial |Man and living Mammals. |
+ PERIOD. |and Recent. | |
+ ====================================================================
+
+
+The oldest fossil remains known are the Protozoa of the Laurentian
+rocks. In the succeeding Cambrian or Primordial rocks we find many
+extinct species of zoophytes, shell-fish, and crustaceans, and the
+algae or sea-weeds. In the Palaeozoic period as a whole, though numerous
+Batrachian or Amphibian reptiles existed toward its close, the higher
+orders of fishes seem to have been the dominant tribe of animals; and
+vegetation was nearly limited to cryptogams and gymnosperms. In the
+Mesozoic period, though small mammalia had been created, large
+terrestrial and marine reptiles were the ruling race, and fishes
+occupied a subordinate position; while, at the close, the higher
+orders of plants took a prominent place. In the Tertiary and Modern
+eras, the mammalia, with man, have assumed the highest or dominant
+position in nature.
+
+On this series of groups, and the succession of living beings, Sir. C.
+Lyell remarks "It is not pretended that the principal sections called
+Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary are of equivalent importance, or that
+the subordinate groups comprise monuments relating to equal portions
+of time or of the earth's history. But we can assert that they each
+relate to successive periods, during which certain animals and plants,
+for the most part peculiar to their respective eras, flourished, and
+during which different kinds of sediment were deposited."
+
+We have already, in previous chapters, noticed the parallelism of the
+succession of life in the earth as revealed in Genesis with that
+disclosed by geology; but this subject must be farther referred to in
+the sequel, and in the mean time the reader may compare for himself
+the succession of life in the table with that in the later creative
+days.
+
+5. The lapse of time embraced in the geological history of the earth
+is enormous. Fully to appreciate this it is necessary to study the
+science in detail, and to explore its phenomena as disclosed in actual
+nature. A few facts, however, out of hundreds which might have been
+selected, will suffice to indicate the state of the case. The delta
+and alluvial plain of the Mississippi have an area of more than 12,000
+square miles, and must have an average depth of about 800 feet. At the
+present rate of conveyance of sediment by the river, it has been
+calculated that a period of about 33,000 years is implied in the
+deposition of this comparatively modern formation.[143] To be quite
+safe, let us take 30,000 years, and add 50,000 more for the remainder
+of the Post-pliocene or Quaternary. We may then safely multiply this
+number by forty, for the length of the Tertiary period. We may add
+three times as much for the Mesozoic period, and this will be far
+under the truth. It will then be quite safe to assume that the
+Palaeozoic period was three times as long as the Mesozoic and Tertiary
+together. This would give altogether, say, 51,280,000 years for the
+whole of geological time from the beginning of the Palaeozoic, leaving
+the duration of the Eozoic and previous periods undetermined, but
+requiring perhaps nearly as much time. Great though these demands may
+seem, they would be probably far below the rigid requirements of the
+case were it not for the probability that the present rate of
+transference of material by the great river is less than it was in
+Post-pliocene and early modern times. This might enable us to reduce
+our estimate considerably within the scope of a hundred millions of
+years.[144] Take another illustration from an older formation. An
+excellent coast section at the Joggins, in Nova Scotia, exhibits in
+the coal formation proper a series of beds with erect trunks and roots
+of trees _in situ_, amounting to nearly 100. About 100 forests have
+successively grown, partially decayed, and been entombed in muddy and
+sandy sediment. In the same section, including in all about 14,000
+feet of beds, there are 76 seams of coal, each of which can be proved
+to have taken more time for its accumulation than that required for
+the growth of a forest. Supposing all these separate fossil soils and
+coals to have been formed with the greatest possible rapidity, forty
+thousand years would be a very moderate calculation for this portion
+of the Carboniferous system; and for aught that we know thousands of
+years may be represented by a single fossil soil. But this is the age
+of only one member of the Carboniferous system, itself only a member
+of the great Palaeozoic group, and we have made no allowance for the
+abrasion from previous rocks and deposition of the immense mass of
+sandy and muddy sediment in which the coals and forests are imbedded,
+and which is vastly greater than the deltas of the largest modern
+rivers.
+
+Considerations of a physical rather than of a geological nature also
+give us long periods for the probable existence of the earth, though
+they serve to correct somewhat the extravagant estimates of some
+theorists. Croll has based an interesting calculation on the amount of
+erosion of the land by rivers. That of the Mississippi amounts to one
+foot in 6000 years. That of the Ganges gives one foot in 2358 years,
+the average being, say, one foot in 4179 years. Some smaller rivers
+give a much shorter time; but the average of two great rivers, one
+draining a very large area of the western and another of the eastern
+hemisphere, and in very different climates and geographical
+conditions, will probably be the most reliable datum. Croll, however,
+prefers the Mississippi rate.[145] If we estimate the proportion of
+land to water as 576 to 1390, this will give for the entire area of
+the ocean a rate of deposition of one foot in 14,400 years. Now the
+entire thickness of all the stratified rocks is estimated at 72,000
+feet; and at this rate the enormous time of 1,036,800,000 years would
+be necessary. But we have no right to assume that deposition has been
+going on uniformly over the entire sea-bottom. On the contrary, the
+greater part of it takes place within a belt of about one hundred
+miles from the coasts, and the deposit of calcareous and other matters
+over the remainder will scarcely make up for the portions of this belt
+on which no deposit is taking place. This will give an area of deposit
+of about 11,650,000 square miles, consequently only one twelfth of the
+above time, or about 86,400,000 years, would be required. This can be
+but a very rough calculation; but it has the merit of squaring very
+nearly with the calculations derived from physical considerations,
+more especially by Sir William Thomson, which limit the possible
+existence of the earth's solid crust to one hundred millions of years.
+Similar conclusions have also been deduced from what is known of the
+physical constitution of the sun. Croll's own ingenious theory of
+glacial periods produced by the varying eccentricity of the earth's
+orbit, along with the precession of the equinoxes, would give,
+according to him, about 80,000 years ago for the date of the Glacial
+period, and for the beginning of the Tertiary period about 3,000,000
+years ago.
+
+It would thus appear that physical and geological science conspire in
+assigning a great antiquity to the earth, but not an unlimited
+antiquity. They agree in restricting the ages that have elapsed since
+the introduction of life within one hundred millions of years. I
+confess, however, that a consideration of the fact that all our
+geological measures of erosion and deposition seem to be based on
+cases which refer to what may be termed minimum action leads me to
+believe that the actual time will fall very far within this limit. For
+example, if we were to suppose an elevation of the land drained by the
+Mississippi even to a small amount, its cutting power would be vastly
+increased for a long time. The same effect would result from a
+subsidence and re-elevation, or from any cause increasing the amount
+of rainfall or deposition of snows in winter. Now we know that such
+things have occurred in the past, while we have no reason to believe
+that the amount of action was ever much less than at present. Similar
+considerations apply to nearly all our geological measures of time;
+and there has been a tendency to exaggerate these, as if geologists
+were entitled to demand unlimited time, and to stretch the doctrine of
+uniformity to the utmost.
+
+6. During the whole time referred to by geology, the great laws both
+of inorganic and organic nature have been the same as at present. The
+evidence of light and darkness, of sunshine and shower, of summer and
+winter, and of all the known igneous and aqueous causes of change,
+extends back almost, and in some of these cases altogether, to the
+beginning of the Palaeozoic period. In like manner the animals and
+plants of the oldest rocks are constructed on the same physiological
+and anatomical principles with existing tribes, and they can be
+arranged in the same genera, orders, or classes, though specifically
+distinct. The revolutions of the globe have involved no change of the
+general laws of matter; and though it is possible that geology has
+carried us back to the time when the laws that regulate life began to
+operate, it does not show that they were less perfect than now, and it
+indicates no trace of the beginning of the inorganic laws. Geological
+changes have resulted not from the institution of new laws, but from
+new _dispositions_, under existing laws and general arrangements.
+There is every reason to believe that in the inorganic world these
+dispositions have required no new creative interpositions during the
+time to which geology refers, but merely the continued action of the
+properties bestowed on matter when first produced. In the organic
+world the case is different.
+
+7. In the succession of animal and vegetable life we find a constant
+improvement and advance by the introduction of new types of being. We
+have already given a general outline of this advancement of organized
+nature. It has consisted in the introduction, from time to time, of
+new and more highly organized beings, so as at once to increase the
+variety of nature, and to provide for the elevation of the summit of
+the graduated scale of life to higher and higher points. At the same
+time, in each successive period, it has been the law of creation that
+the forms of life then dominant should attain their highest
+development, and should then be succeeded by more advanced types. For
+instance, in the earlier Palaeozoic period we have molluscous animals
+and fishes, then apparently the highest forms of life, appearing with
+a very advanced organization, not surpassed, if even equalled, in
+modern times. In the latter part of the same period, some lower forms
+of vegetable life, now restricted to a comparatively humble place,
+were employed to constitute magnificent forests. In the Mesozoic
+period, again, reptiles attained to their highest point in
+organization and variety of form and employment, while mammalia had as
+yet scarcely appeared.[146]
+
+8. If now we ask in what manner the succession of life on the earth
+has been produced, two apparently opposite hypotheses rise before us.
+The one is that of introduction of new species by creative acts, the
+other that of development of new species by changes of those
+previously existing. In one respect the difference of these views is
+little more than one of expression, for the meaning of the statements
+depends on what we understand by a species and what by a mere varietal
+form, and also on what we understand by creation and what we mean by
+development. Twenty years ago nearly all geologists were believers in
+creation, though it must be admitted without precisely understanding
+what they meant by the term. Now, the great impression produced by
+Darwin's speculations and the prevalence of the evolutionist
+philosophy have produced a leaning in the other direction. More
+recently, however, the absurdities into which the extreme
+evolutionists find themselves driven have produced a reaction; and we
+hope that views consistent with revelation, or at least with Theism,
+will again be in the ascendant, and that present controversies will
+serve to give more precise and definite views than heretofore of the
+relation of nature to God. As illustrations of the opinions prevalent
+before the rise of the development theory, I may quote from Pictet and
+Bronn, two of the most eminent palaeontologists.
+
+Pictet says, in the introduction to his "Traite de Paleontologie:" "It
+seems to me impossible that we should admit, as an explanation of the
+phenomena of successive faunas, the passage of species into one
+another; the limits of such transitions of species, even supposing
+that the lapse of a vast period of time may have given them a
+character of reality much greater than that which the study of
+existing nature leads us to suppose, are still infinitely within those
+differences which distinguish two successive faunas. Lastly, we can
+least of all account by this theory for the appearance of new _types_,
+to explain the introduction of which we must necessarily, in the
+present state of science, recur to the idea of distinct creations
+posterior to the first."
+
+The following are the general conclusions of Bronn, in his elaborate
+and most valuable essay, presented to the French Academy in 1856, as
+summarized in a notice of the work in the Journal of the Geological
+Society:
+
+"1. The first productions of this power in the oldest Neptunian strata
+of the earth consisted of Plants, Zoophytes, Mollusks, Crustaceans,
+and perhaps even Fish; the simultaneous appearance of which,
+therefore, contradicts the assumption that the more perfect organic
+forms arose out of the gradual transformation in time of the more
+imperfect forms.
+
+"2. The same power which produced the first organic forms has
+continued to operate in intensively as well as extensively increasing
+activity during the whole subsequent geological period, up to the
+final appearance of man; but here also can no traces be found of a
+gradual transformation of old species and genera into new; but the new
+have everywhere appeared as new without the co-operation of the
+former.
+
+"3. In the succession of the different forms of plants and animals, a
+certain regular course and plan is perceptible, which is quite
+independent of chance. While all species possess only a limited
+duration, and must sooner or later disappear, they make way for
+subsequent new ones, which not only almost always offer an equivalent,
+in number, organization, and duties to be performed, for those which
+have disappeared, but which are also generally more varied, and
+therefore more perfect, and always maintain an equilibrium with each
+other in their stage of organization, their mode of life, and
+functions. There always exists, therefore, a certain fixed relation
+between the newly arising and the disappearing forms of organic life.
+
+"4. A similar relation necessarily exists between the newly arising
+organic forms and the outward conditions of life which prevailed at
+their first appearance on the earth's surface, or at the place of
+their appearance.
+
+"5. A fixed plan appears to be the basis of the whole series of
+development of organic forms, in so far as man makes his first
+appearance at its close, when he finds every thing prepared that is
+necessary to his own existence and to his progressive development and
+improvement--which would not have been possible had he appeared at a
+former period.
+
+"6. Such a regular progress in carrying out the same plan from the
+beginning to the end of a period of millions of years can only be
+accounted for in one of two ways. Either this course of successive
+development during millions of years has been the regular immediate
+result of the systematic action of a conscious Creator, who on every
+occasion settled and carried out not only the order of appearance,
+formation, organization, and terrestrial object of each of the
+countless numbers of species of plants and animals, but also the
+number of the first individuals, the place of their settlement in
+every instance, although it was in his power to create every thing at
+once--or there existed some natural power hitherto entirely unknown to
+us, which by means of its own laws formed the species of plants and
+animals, and arranged and regulated all those countless individual
+conditions; which power, however, must in this case have stood in the
+most immediate connection with, and in perfect subordination to, those
+powers which caused the gradually progressing perfection of the crust
+of the earth, and the gradual development of the outward conditions of
+life for the constantly increasing numbers and higher classes of
+organic forms in consequence of this perfection. Only in this way can
+we explain how the development of the organic world could have
+regularly kept pace with that of the inorganic. Such a power, although
+we know it not, would not only be in perfect accordance with all the
+other functions of nature, but the Creator, who regulated the
+development of organic nature by means of such a force so implanted in
+it, as he guides that of the inorganic world by the mere co-operation
+of attraction and affinity, must appear to us more exalted and
+imposing than if we assumed that he must always be giving the same
+care to the introduction and change of the vegetable and animal world
+on the surface of the earth as a gardener daily bestows on each
+individual plant in the arrangement of his garden.
+
+"7. We therefore believe that all species of plants and animals were
+originally produced by some natural power unknown to us, and not by
+transformation from a few original forms, and that that power was in
+the closest and most necessary connection with those powers and
+circumstances which effected the perfection of the earth's surface."
+
+Barrande also, probably the greatest living palaeontologist of Europe,
+adheres substantially to these views; as Agassiz did, and I believe
+Hall and Dana still do, in America.
+
+I have, for my own part, seen no reason to dissent from these views,
+though in the sequel I shall endeavor to present some considerations
+which may tend to reconcile with them some of the hypotheses of a
+contrary nature now held. It must be admitted, however, that the
+majority of geologists and biologists have abandoned these views of
+Pictet and Bronn, and have gone over to the evolutionist philosophy,
+with how little reason I have endeavored to show elsewhere,[147] and
+shall farther illustrate in the Appendix. Let it be observed, however,
+that even evolution does not affect the grand idea of the unity of
+nature, or the fact that the plan of the Creator in the organic world
+was so vast that it required the whole duration of our planet, in all
+its stages of physical existence, to embrace the whole. There is but
+one system of organic nature; but, to exhibit the whole of it, not
+only all the climates and conditions now existing are required, but
+those also of all past geological periods. Further, the progress of
+nature being mainly in the direction of differentiation of functions
+once combined, it has a limit backward in the most general forms and
+conditions, and forward in the most specialized. This is the history
+of the individual and probably also of the type, of the world itself
+and of the universe; and for this reason material nature necessarily
+lacks the eternity of its author.
+
+It appears, from the above facts and reasonings, that geology informs
+us--1. That the materials of our existing continents are of secondary
+origin, as distinguished from primitive or coeval with the beginning.
+2. That a chronological order of formation of these rocks can be made
+out. 3. That the fossil remains contained in the rocks constitute a
+chronology of animal and vegetable existence. 4. That the history of
+the earth may be divided in this way into distinct periods, all
+pre-Adamite. 5. That the pre-Adamite periods were of enormous
+duration. 6. That during these periods the existing general laws of
+nature were in force, though the dispositions of inorganic nature were
+different in different periods, and the animals and plants of
+successive periods were also different from each other. 7. The
+introduction of new species of animals and of plants, while indicating
+advance in the perfection of nature, does not prove spontaneous
+development, but rather a definite plan and law of creation.
+
+The parallelism of these conclusions of careful inductive inquiry into
+the structure of the earth's crust, with the results which we have
+already obtained from revelation, may be summed up under the following
+heads:
+
+1. Scripture and Science both testify to the great fact that there was
+a beginning--a time when none of all the parts of the fabric of the
+universe existed; when the Self-Existent was the sole occupant of
+space. The Scriptures announce in plain terms this great truth, and
+thereby rise at once high above atheism, pantheism, and materialism,
+and lay a broad and sure foundation for a pure and spiritual theology.
+Had the pen of inspiration written but the words, "In the beginning
+God created the heavens and the earth," and added no more, these words
+alone would have borne the impress of their heavenly birth, and would,
+if received in faith, have done much for the progress of the human
+mind. These words contain a negation of hero-worship, star-worship,
+animal-worship, and every other form of idolatry. They still more
+emphatically deny atheism and materialism, and point upward from
+nature to its spiritual Creator--the One, the Triune, the Eternal, the
+Self-Existent, the All-Pervading, the Almighty. They call upon us, as
+with a voice of thunder, to bow down before that Awful Being of whom
+it can be said that he created the heavens and the earth. They thus
+embody the whole essence of natural theology, and most appropriately
+stand at the entrance of Holy Scripture, referring us to the works
+which men behold, as the visible manifestation of the attributes of
+the Being whose spiritual nature is unveiled in revelation. Scripture
+thus begins with the announcement of a great ultimate fact, to which
+science conducts us with but slow and timid steps. Yet science, and
+especially geological science, can bear witness to this great truth.
+The materialist, reasoning on the fancied stability of natural things,
+and their inscription within invariable laws, concludes that matter
+must be eternal. No, replies the geologist, certainly not in its
+present form. This is but of recent origin, and was preceded by other
+arrangements. Every existing species can be traced back to a time when
+it was not; so can the existing continents, mountains, and seas. Under
+our processes of investigation the present melts away like a dream,
+and we are landed on the shores of past and unknown worlds. But I
+read, says the objector, that you can see "no evidence of a beginning,
+no prospect of an end." It is true, answers geology; but, in so
+saying, it is not intended that the present state of things had not an
+ascertained beginning, but that there has been a great and, so far as
+we know, unlimited series of changes carried on under the guidance of
+intelligence. These changes we have traced back very far, without
+being able to say that we have reached the first. We can trace back
+man and his contemporaries to their origin, and we can reach the
+points at which still older dynasties of life began to exist. Knowing,
+then, that all these had a beginning, we infer that if others preceded
+them they also had a beginning. But, says another objector, is not the
+present the child of the past? Are not all the creatures that inhabit
+the earth the lineal descendants of creatures of past periods, or may
+not the whole be parts of one continual succession, under the
+operation of an eternal law of development? No, answers geology,
+species are immutable, except within narrow limits, and do not pass
+into each other, in tracing them toward their origin. On the contrary,
+they appear at once in their most perfect state, and continue
+unchanged till they are forced off the stage of existence to give
+place to other creatures. The origin of species is a mystery, and
+belongs to no natural law that has yet been established. Thus, then,
+stands the case at present. Scripture asserts a beginning and a
+creation. Science admits these, as far as the objects with which it is
+conversant extend, and the notions of eternal succession and
+spontaneous development, discountenanced both by theology and science,
+are obliged to take refuge in those misty regions where modern
+philosophical skepticism consorts with the shades of departed
+heathenism.[148]
+
+2. Both records exhibit the progressive character of creation, and in
+much the same aspect. The Almighty might have called into existence,
+by one single momentary act, a world complete in all its parts. From
+both Scripture and geology we know that he has not done so--why we
+need not inquire, though we can see that the process employed was
+that best adapted to show forth the variety of his resources and the
+infinitely varied elements that enter into the perfect whole.
+
+The Scripture history may be viewed as dividing the progress of the
+creation into two great periods, the later of which only is embraced
+in the geological record. The first commences with the original chaos,
+and reaches to the completion of inorganic nature on the fourth day.
+Had we any geological records of the first of these periods, we should
+perceive the evidences of slow mutations, tending to the sorting and
+arrangement of the materials of the earth, and to produce distinct
+light and darkness, sea and land, atmosphere and cloud, out of what
+was originally a mixture of the whole. We should also, according to
+the Scriptural record, find this period interlocking with the next, by
+the intervention of a great vegetable creation, before the final
+adjustment of the earth's relations to the other bodies of our system.
+The second period is that of the creative development of animal life.
+From both records we learn that various ranks or gradations existed
+from the first introduction of animals; but that on the earlier stages
+only certain of the lower forms of animals were present; that these
+soon attained their highest point, and then gradually, on each
+succeeding platform, the variety of nature in its higher--the
+vertebrate--form increased, and the upper margin of animal life
+attained a more and more elevated point, culminating at length in man;
+while certain of the older forms were dropped, as no longer required.
+
+In the oldest fossiliferous rocks next to the Eozoic, which so far
+have afforded only Protozoa--e. g., the Cambrian and Lower
+Silurian--we find the mollusca represented mainly by their highest
+and lowest classes, by allies of the cuttle-fish and nautilus, and by
+the lowest bivalve shell-fishes. The Articulata are represented by the
+highest marine class--the crustaceans--and by the lowest--the worms,
+which have left their marks on some of the lowest fossiliferous beds.
+The Radiata, in like manner, are represented by species of their
+highest class--the starfishes, etc.--and by some of their simpler
+polyp forms. At the very beginning, then, of the fossiliferous series,
+the three lower sub-kingdoms exhibit species of their most elevated
+aquatic classes, though not of the very highest orders in those
+classes. The vertebrated sub-kingdom has, as far as yet known, no
+representative in these lowest beds. In the Upper Silurian series,
+however, we find remains of fishes; and in the succeeding Devonian and
+carboniferous rocks the fishes rise to the highest structures of their
+class; and we find several species of reptiles, representing the next
+of the vertebrated classes in ascending order. Here a very remarkable
+fact meets us. Before the close of the Palaeozoic period the three
+lower sub-kingdoms and the fishes had already attained the highest
+perfection of which their types are capable. Multitudes of new species
+and genera were added subsequently, but none of them rising higher in
+the scale of organization than those which occur in the Palaeozoic
+rocks. Thenceforth the progressive improvement of the animal kingdom
+consisted in the addition, first of the reptile, which attained its
+highest perfection and importance in the Mesozoic period, and then of
+the bird and mammal, which did not attain their highest forms till the
+Modern period. This geological order of animal life, it is scarcely
+necessary to add, agrees perfectly with that sketched by Moses, in
+which the lower types are completed at once, and the progress is
+wholly in the higher.
+
+In the inspired narrative we have already noticed some peculiarities,
+as, for instance, the early appearance of a highly developed flora,
+and the special mention of great reptiles in the work of the fifth
+day, which correspond with the significant fact that high types of
+structure appeared at the very introduction of each new group of
+organized beings--a fact which, more than any other in geology, shows
+that, in the organic department, elevation has always been a strictly
+_creative_ work, and that there is in the constitution of animal
+species no innate tendency to elevation, but that on the contrary we
+should rather suspect a tendency to degeneracy and ultimate
+disappearance, requiring that the fiat of the Creator should after a
+time go out again to "renew the face of the earth." In the natural as
+in the moral world, the only law of progress is the will and the power
+of God. In one sense, however, progress in the organic world has been
+dependent on, though not caused by, progress in the inorganic. We see
+in geology many grounds for believing that each new tribe of animals
+or plants was introduced just as the earth became fitted for it; and
+even in the present world we see that regions composed of the more
+ancient rocks, and not modified by subsequent disturbances, present
+few of the means of support for man and the higher animals; while
+those districts in which various revolutions of the earth have
+accumulated fertile soils or deposited useful minerals are the chief
+seats of civilization and population. In like manner we know that
+those regions which the Bible informs us were the cradle of the human
+race and the seats of the oldest nations are geologically among the
+most recent parts of the existing continents, and were no doubt
+selected by the Creator partly on that account for the birthplace of
+man. We thus find that the Bible and the geologists are agreed not
+only as to the fact and order of progress, but also as to its manner
+and use.
+
+3. Both records agree in affirming that since the beginning there has
+been but one great system of nature. We can imagine it to have been
+otherwise. Our existing nature might have been preceded by a state of
+things having no connection with it. The arrangements of the earth's
+surface might have been altogether different; races of creatures might
+have existed having no affinity with or resemblance to those of the
+present world, and we might have been able to trace no present
+beneficial consequences as flowing from these past states of our
+planet. Had geology made such revelations as these, the consequences
+in relation to natural theology and the credibility of Scripture would
+have been momentous. The Mosaic narrative could scarcely, in that
+case, have been interpreted in such a manner as to accord with
+geological conclusions. The questions would have arisen--Are there
+more creative Powers than one? If one, is He an imperfect or
+capricious being who changes his plans of operation? The divine
+authority of the Scriptures, as well as the unity and perfections of
+God, might thus have been involved in serious doubts. Happily for us,
+there is nothing of this kind in the geological history of the earth;
+as there is manifestly nothing of it in that which is revealed in
+Scripture.
+
+In the Scripture narrative each act of creation prepares for the
+others, and in its consequences extends to them all. The inspired
+writer announces the introduction of each new part of creation, and
+then leaves it without any reference to the various phases which it
+assumed as the work advanced. In the grand general view which he
+takes, the land and seas first made represent those of all the
+following periods. So do the first plants, the first invertebrate
+animals, the first fishes, reptiles, birds, and mammals. He thus
+assures us that, however long the periods represented by days of
+creation, the system of nature was one from the beginning. In like
+manner in the geological record each of the successive conditions of
+the earth is related to those which precede and those which follow, as
+part of a series. So also a uniform plan of construction pervades
+organic nature, and uniform laws the inorganic world in all periods.
+We can thus include in one system of natural history all animals and
+plants, fossil as well as recent, and can resolve all inorganic
+changes into the operation of existing laws. The former of these facts
+is in its nature so remarkable as almost to warrant the belief of
+special design. Naturalists had arranged the existing animals and
+plants, without any reference to fossil species, in kingdoms,
+sub-kingdoms, classes, orders, families, and genera. Geological
+research has added a vast number of species not now existing in a
+living state; yet all these fossils can be inserted within the limits
+of recognized groups. We do not require to add a new kingdom,
+sub-kingdom, or class; but, on the contrary, all the fossil genera and
+species go into the existing divisions, in such a manner as to fill
+them up precisely where they are most deficient, thus occupying what
+would otherwise be gaps in the existing system of nature. The
+principal difficulty which they occasion to the zoologist and botanist
+is that, by filling the intervals between genera previously widely
+separated, they give to the whole a degree of continuity which renders
+it more difficult to decide where the boundaries separating the groups
+should be placed.
+
+We also find that the animals and plants of the earlier periods often
+combined in one form powers and properties afterward separated in
+distinct groups; thus in the earlier formations the sauroid fishes
+unite peculiarities afterward divided between the fish and reptiles,
+constituting what Agassiz has called a synthetic type. Again, the
+series of creatures in time accords with the ranks which a study of
+their types of structure induces the naturalist to assign them in his
+system; and also within each of the great sub-kingdoms presents many
+points of accordance with the progress of the embryonic development of
+the individual animal. Nor is this contradictory to the statement that
+the earlier representatives of types are often of high and perfect
+organization, for the progress both in geological time and in the life
+of the individual is so much one of specialization that an immature
+animal often presents points of affinity to higher forms that
+disappear in the adult. In connection with this, earlier organic forms
+often appear to foreshadow and predict others that are to succeed them
+in time, as the winged and marine reptiles of the Mesozoic foreshadow
+the birds and cetaceans. Agassiz has admirably illustrated these links
+of connection between the past and the present in the essay on
+classification prefixed to his "Contributions to the Natural History
+of America." In reference to "prophetic" types, he says: "They appear
+now like a prophecy in those earlier times of an order of things not
+possible with the earlier combinations then prevailing in the animal
+kingdom, but exhibiting in a later period in a striking manner the
+antecedent consideration of every step in the gradation of animals."
+
+4. The periods into which geology divides the history of the earth are
+different from those of Scripture, yet when properly understood there
+is a marked correspondence. Geology refers only to the fifth and sixth
+days of creation, or, at most, to these with parts of the fourth and
+seventh, and it divides this portion of the work into several eras,
+founded on alternations of rock formations and changes in organic
+remains. The nature of geological evidence renders it probable that
+many apparently well-marked breaks in the chain may result merely from
+deficiency in the preserved remains; and consequently that what appear
+to the geologist to be very distinct periods may in reality run
+together. The only natural divisions that Scripture teaches us to look
+for are those between the fifth and sixth days, and those which within
+these days mark the introduction of new animal forms, as, for
+instance, the great reptiles of the fifth day. We have already seen
+that the beginning of the fifth day can be referred almost with
+certainty to the Palaeozoic period. The beginning of the sixth day may
+with nearly equal certainty be referred to that of the Tertiary era.
+The introduction of great reptiles and birds in the fifth day
+synchronizes and corresponds with the beginning of the Mesozoic
+period; and that of man at the close of the sixth day with the
+commencement of the Modern era in geology. These four great
+coincidences are so much more than we could have expected, in records
+so very different in their nature and origin, that we need not pause
+to search for others of a more obscure character. It may be well to
+introduce here a tabular view of this correspondence between the
+geological and Biblical periods, extending it as far as either record
+can carry us, and thus giving a complete general view of the origin
+and history of the world as deduced from revelation and science. In
+comparing this table with that on page 330, it will be observed that
+the latter refers to the last half of the creative week only, the
+earlier half being occupied with physical changes which, however
+probable inferentially, are not within the scope of geological
+observation.
+
+PARALLELISM OF THE SCRIPTURAL COSMOGONY WITH THE ASTRONOMICAL AND
+GEOLOGICAL HISTORY OF THE EARTH.
+
+ ====================================================================
+ |
+ BIBLICAL AEONS. | PERIODS DEDUCED FROM SCIENTIFIC
+ | CONSIDERATIONS.
+ --------------------------------------------------------------------
+ The Beginning. |Creation of Matter.
+ |
+ _First Day._--Earth mantled by |Condensation of Planetary Bodies
+ the Vaporous Deep--Production | from a nebulous mass--Hypothesis
+ of Light. | of original incandescence.
+ |
+ _Second Day._--Earth covered by |Primitive Universal Ocean, and
+ the Waters--Formation of the | establishment of Atmospheric
+ Atmosphere. | equilibrium.
+ |
+ _Third Day._--Emergence of Dry |Elevation of the land which
+ Land--Introduction of | furnished the materials of the
+ Vegetation. | oldest rocks--Eozoic Period of
+ | Geology?
+ |
+ _Fourth Day._--Completion of the |Metamorphism of Eozoic rocks and
+ arrangements of the Solar System.| disturbances preceding the
+ | Cambrian epoch--Present
+ | arrangement of Seasons--Dominion
+ | of "Existing Causes" begins.
+ |
+ _Fifth Day._--Invertebrates and |Palaeozoic Period--Reign of
+ Fishes, and afterward great | Invertebrates and Fishes.
+ Reptiles and Birds created. |Mesozoic Period--Reign of
+ | Reptiles.
+ |
+ _Sixth Day._--Introduction of |Tertiary Period--Reign of Mammals.
+ Mammals--Creation of Man and |Post-Tertiary--Existing Mammals
+ Edenic Group of Animals. | and Man.
+ |
+ _Seventh Day._--Cessation of Work |Period of Human History.
+ of Creation--Fall and Redemption |
+ of Man. |
+ |
+ _Eighth Day._--New Heavens and |
+ Earth to succeed the Human Epoch |
+ --"The Rest (Sabbath) that |
+ remains to the People of God." |
+ [149] |
+======================================================================
+
+_Note._--The above table is identical with that published in "Archaia"
+in 1860, and which the author sees no reason now to change.
+
+
+5. In both records the ocean gives birth to the first dry land, and it
+is the sea that is first inhabited, yet both lead at least to the
+suspicion that a state of igneous fluidity preceded the primitive
+universal ocean. In Scripture the original prevalence of the ocean is
+distinctly stated, and all geologists are agreed that in the early
+fossiliferous periods the sea must have prevailed much more
+extensively than at present. Scripture also expressly states that the
+waters were the birthplace of the earliest animals, and geology has as
+yet discovered in the whole Silurian series no terrestrial animal,
+though marine creatures are extremely abundant; and though
+air-breathing creatures are found in the later Palaeozoic, they are,
+with the exception of insects, of that semi-amphibious character which
+is proper to alluvial flats and the deltas of rivers. It is true that
+the negative evidence collected by geology does not render it
+altogether impossible that terrestrial animals, even mammals, may have
+existed in the earliest periods; yet there are, as already pointed
+out, some positive indications opposed to this. The Scripture,
+however, commits itself to the statement that the higher land animals
+did not exist so early, though it must be observed that there is
+nothing in the Mosaic narrative adverse to the existence of birds,
+insects, and reptiles in the earlier Palaeozoic periods. I have said
+that the Bible, which informs us of a universal ocean preceding the
+existence of land, also gives indications of a still earlier period of
+igneous fluidity or gaseous expansion. Geology also and astronomy have
+their reasonings and speculations as to the prevalence of such
+conditions. Here, however, both records become dim and obscure, though
+it is evident that both point in the same direction, and combine those
+aqueous and igneous origins which in the last century afforded so
+fertile ground of one-sided dispute.
+
+6. Both records concur in maintaining what is usually termed the
+doctrine of existing causes in geology. Scripture and geology alike
+show that since the beginning of the fifth day, or Palaeozoic period,
+the inorganic world has continued under the dominion of the same
+causes that now regulate its changes and processes. The sacred
+narrative gives no hint of any creative interposition in this
+department after the fourth day; and geology assures us that all the
+rocks with which it is acquainted have been produced by the same
+causes that are now throwing down detritus in the bottom of the
+waters, or bringing up volcanic products from the interior of the
+earth. This grand generalization, therefore, first worked out in
+modern times by Sir Charles Lyell, from a laborious collection of the
+changes occurring in the present state of the world, was, as a
+doctrine of divine revelation, announced more than three thousand
+years ago by the Hebrew lawgiver; not for scientific purposes, but as
+a part of the theology of the Hebrew monotheism.
+
+7. Both records agree in assuring us that death prevailed in the world
+ever since animals were introduced. The punishment threatened to Adam,
+and considerations connected with man's state of innocence, have led
+to the belief that the Bible teaches that the lower animals, as well
+as man, were exempt from death before the fall. When, however, we find
+the great _tanninim_, or crocodilian reptiles, created in the fifth
+day, and beasts of prey on the sixth, we need entertain no doubt on
+the subject, in so far as Scripture is concerned. The geological
+record is equally explicit. Carnivorous creatures, with the most
+formidable powers of destruction, have left their remains in all parts
+of the geological series; and indeed, up to the introduction of man,
+the carnivorous fishes, reptiles, and quadrupeds were the lords and
+tyrants of the earth. There can be little doubt, however, that the
+introduction of man was the beginning of a change in this respect. A
+creature destitute of offensive weapons, and subsisting on fruits, was
+to rule by the power of intellect. As already hinted, it is probable
+that in Eden he was surrounded by a group of inoffensive animals, and
+that those creatures which he had cause to dread would have
+disappeared as he extended his dominion. In this way the law of
+violent death and destruction which prevailed under the dynasties of
+the fish, the reptile, and the carnivorous mammifer would ultimately
+have been abrogated; and under the milder sway of man life and peace
+would have reigned in a manner to which our knowledge of pre-Adamite
+and present nature may afford no adequate key. Be this as it may, on
+the important point of the original prevalence of death among the
+lower animals both records are at one.
+
+8. In the department of "final causes," as they have been termed,
+Scripture and geology unite in affording large and interesting views.
+They illustrate the procedure of the All-wise Creator during a long
+succession of ages, and thus enable us to see the effects of any of
+his laws, not only at one time, but in far distant periods. To reject
+the consideration of this peculiarity of geological science would be
+the extremest folly, and would involve at once a misinterpretation of
+the geologic record and a denial of the agency of an intelligent
+Designer as revealed in Scripture, and indicated by the succession of
+beings. Many of the past changes of the earth acquire their full
+significance only when taken in connection with the present wants of
+the earth's inhabitants; and along the whole course of the geological
+history the creatures that we meet with are equally rich in the
+evidences of nice adaptation to circumstances and wonderful
+contrivances for special ends, with their modern representatives. As
+an example of the former, how wonderful is the connection of the
+great vegetable accumulations of the ancient coal swamps, and the
+bands and nodules of iron-stone which were separated from the
+ferruginous sands or clays in their vicinity by the action of this
+very vegetable matter, with the whole fabric of modern civilization,
+and especially with the prosperity of that race which, in our time,
+stands in the front of the world's progress. In a very ancient period,
+wide swamps and deltas, teeming with vegetable life, and which, if
+they now existed, would be but pestilent breeders of miasmata, spread
+over large tracts of the northern hemisphere, on which marine animals
+had previously accumulated thick sheets of limestone. Vast beds of
+vegetable matter were collected by growth in these swamps, and the
+waste particles that passed off in the form of organic acids were
+employed in concentrating the oxide of iron in underlying clays and
+sands. In the lapse of ages the whole of these accumulations were
+buried deep in the crust of the earth; and long periods succeeded,
+when the earth was tenanted by reptilian and other creatures,
+unconscious of the treasures beneath them. The modern period arrived.
+The equable climate of the coal era had passed away. Continents were
+prepared for the residence of man, and the edges of the old
+carboniferous beds were exposed by subterranean movements, and laid
+bare by denudation. Man was introduced, fell from his state of
+innocence, and was condemned to earn his subsistence by the sweat of
+his brow; and now for the first time appears the use of these buried
+coal swamps. They now afford at once the materials of improvement in
+the arts and of comfortable subsistence in extreme climates, and
+subjects of surpassing interest to the naturalist. Similar instances
+may be gleaned by the natural theologian from nearly every part of the
+geological history.
+
+Lastly. Both records represent man as the last of God's works, and the
+culminating-point of the whole creation. We have already had occasion
+to refer to this as a result of zoology, geology, and Scriptural
+exegesis, and may here confine ourselves to the moral consequences of
+this great truth. Man is the capital of the column; and, if marred and
+defaced by moral evil, the symmetry of the whole is to be restored,
+not by rejecting him altogether, like the extinct species of the
+ancient world, and replacing him by another, but by re-casting him in
+the image of his Divine Redeemer. Man, though recently introduced, is
+to exist eternally. He is, in one or another state of being, to be
+witness of all future changes of the earth. He has before him the
+option of being one with his Maker, and sharing in a future glorious
+and finally renovated condition of our planet, or of sinking into
+endless degradation. Such is the great spiritual drama of man's fate
+to be acted out on the theatre of the world. Every human being must
+play his part in it, and the present must decide what that part shall
+be. The Bible bases these great foreshadowings of the future on its
+own peculiar evidence; yet I may venture humbly to maintain that its
+harmony with natural science, as far as the latter can ascend, gives
+to the Word of God a pre-eminent claim on the attention of the
+naturalist. The Bible, unlike every other system of religious
+doctrine, fears no investigation or discussion. It courts these.
+"While science," says a modern divine,[150] "is fatal to superstition,
+it is fortification to a Scriptural faith. The Bible is the bravest of
+books. Coming from God, and conscious of nothing but God's truth, it
+awaits the progress of knowledge with calm security. It watches the
+antiquary ransacking among classic ruins, and rejoices in every medal
+he discovers and every inscription he deciphers; for from that rusty
+coin or corroded marble it expects nothing but confirmations of its
+own veracity. In the unlocking of an Egyptian hieroglyphic or the
+unearthing of some implement it hails the resurrection of so many
+witnesses; and with sparkling elation it follows the botanist as he
+scales Mount Lebanon, or the zoologist as he makes acquaintance with
+the beasts of the Syrian desert; or the traveller as he stumbles on a
+long-lost Petra or Nineveh or Babylon. And from the march of time it
+fears no evil, but calmly abides the fulfilment of those prophecies
+and the forthcoming of those events with whose predicted story
+inspiration has already inscribed its page. It is not light but
+darkness which the Bible deprecates; and if men of piety were also men
+of science, and if men of science were to search the Scriptures, there
+would be more faith in the earth, and also more philosophy."
+
+The reader has, I trust, found in the preceding pages sufficient
+evidence that the Bible has nothing to dread from the revelations of
+geology, but much to hope in the way of elucidation of its meaning and
+confirmation of its truth. If convinced of this, I trust that he will
+allow me now to ask for the warnings, promises, and predictions of the
+Book of God his entire confidence; and, in conclusion, to direct his
+attention to the glorious prospects which it holds forth to the human
+race, and to every individual of it who, in humility and
+self-renunciation, casts himself in faith on that Divine Redeemer who
+is at once the creator of the heavens and the earth, and the brother
+and the friend of the penitent and the contrite. That same old book,
+which carries back our view to those ancient conditions of our planet
+which preceded not only the creation of man, but the earliest periods
+of which science has cognizance, likewise carries our minds forward
+into the farthest depths of futurity, and shows that all present
+things must pass away. It reveals to us a new heaven and a new earth,
+which are to replace those now existing; when the Eternal Son of God,
+the manifestation of the Father equally in creation and redemption,
+shall come forth conquering and to conquer, and shall sweep away into
+utter extinction all the blood-stained tyrannies of the present earth,
+even as he has swept away the brute dynasties of the pre-Adamite
+world, and shall establish a reign of peace, of love, and of holiness
+that shall never pass away: when the purified sons of Adam, rejoicing
+in immortal youth and happiness, shall be able to look back with
+enlarged understandings and grateful hearts on the whole history of
+creation and redemption, and shall join their angelic brethren in the
+final and more ecstatic repetition of that hymn of praise with which
+the heavenly hosts greeted the birth of our planet. May God in his
+mercy grant that he who writes and they who read may "stand in their
+lot at the end of the days" and enjoy the full fruition of these
+glorious prospects.
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX.
+
+
+A.--TRUE AND FALSE EVOLUTION.
+
+The term "evolution" need not in itself be a bugbear on theological
+grounds. The Bible writers would, I presume, have no objection to it
+if understood to mean the development of the plans of the Creator in
+nature. That kind of evolution to which they would object, and to
+which enlightened reason also objects, is the spontaneous evolution of
+nothing into atoms and force, and of these into all the wonderful and
+complicated plan of nature, without any guiding mind. Farther,
+biological and palaeontological science, as well as the Bible, object
+to the derivation of living things from dead matter by merely natural
+means, because this can not be proved to be possible, and to the
+production of the series of organic forms found as fossils in the
+rocks of the earth by the process of struggle for existence and
+survival of the fittest, because this does not suffice to account for
+the complex phenomena presented by this succession. With reference to
+the testimony of palaeontology, I have in other publications developed
+this very fully; and would here merely quote the summing up of the
+argument, as given in my Address of 1875 before the American
+Association for the Advancement of Science:
+
+"I have thus far said nothing of the bearing of the prevalent ideas of
+descent with modification on this wonderful procession of life. None
+of these of course can be expected to take us back to the origin of
+living beings; but they also fail to explain why so vast numbers of
+highly organized species struggle into existence simultaneously in one
+age and disappear in another; why no continuous chain of succession in
+time can be found gradually blending species into each other; and why
+in the natural succession of things degradation under the influence of
+external conditions and final extinction seem to be laws of organic
+existence. It is useless here to appeal to the imperfection of the
+record or to the movements or migrations of species. The record is now
+in many important parts too complete, and the simultaneousness of the
+entrance of the faunas and floras too certainly established, and
+moving species from place to place only evades the difficulty. The
+truth is that such hypotheses are at present premature, and that we
+require to have larger collections of facts. Independently of this,
+however, it appears to me that from a philosophical point of view it
+is extremely probable that all theories of evolution as at present
+applied to life are fundamentally defective in being too partial in
+their character; and perhaps I can not better group the remainder of
+the facts to which I wish to refer than by using them to illustrate
+this feature of most of the later attempts at generalization on this
+subject.
+
+"First, then, these hypotheses are too partial in their tendency to
+refer numerous and complex phenomena to one cause, or to a few causes
+only, when all trustworthy analogy would indicate that they must
+result from many concurrent forces and determinations of force. We
+have all no doubt read those ingenious, not to say amusing,
+speculations in which some entomologists and botanists have indulged
+with reference to the mutual relations of flowers and haustellate
+insects. Geologically the facts oblige us to begin with cryptogamous
+plants and mandibulate insects, and out of the desire of insects for
+non-existent honey, and the adaptations of plants to the requirements
+of non-existent suctorial apparatus, we have to evolve the marvellous
+complexity of floral form and coloring, and the exquisitely delicate
+apparatus of the mouths of haustellate insects. Now when it is borne
+in mind that this theory implies a mental confusion on our part
+precisely similar to that which in the department of mechanics
+actuates the seekers for perpetual motion, that we have not the
+smallest tittle of evidence that the changes required have actually
+occurred in any one case, and that the thousands of other structures
+and relations of the plant and the insect have to be worked out by a
+series of concurrent evolutions so complex and absolutely incalculable
+in the aggregate that the cycles and epicycles of the Ptolemaic
+astronomy were child's play in comparison, we need not wonder that the
+common-sense of mankind revolts against such fancies, and that we are
+accused of attempting to construct the universe by methods that would
+baffle Omnipotence itself, because they are simply absurd. In this
+aspect of them indeed such speculations are necessarily futile,
+because no mind can grasp all the complexities of even any one case,
+and it is useless to follow out an imaginary line of development which
+unexplained facts must contradict at every step. This is also no doubt
+the reason why all recent attempts at constructing 'Phylogenies' are
+so changeable, and why no two experts can agree about the details of
+any of them.
+
+"A second aspect in which such speculations are too partial is in the
+unwarranted use which they make of analogy. It is not unusual to find
+such analogies as that between the embryonic development of the
+individual animal and the succession of animals in geological time
+placed on a level with that reasoning from analogy by which geologists
+apply modern causes to explain geological formations. No claim could
+be more unfounded. When the geologist studies ancient limestones built
+up of the remains of corals, and then applies the phenomena of modern
+coral reefs to explain their origin, he brings the latter to bear on
+the former by an analogy which includes not merely the apparent
+results, but the causes at work, and the conditions of their action,
+and it is on this that the validity of his comparison depends, in so
+far as it relates to similarity of mode of formation. But when we
+compare the development of an animal from an embryo cell with the
+progress of animals in time, though we have a curious analogy as to
+the steps of the process, the conditions and causes at work are known
+to be altogether dissimilar, and therefore we have no evidence
+whatever as to identity of cause, and our reasoning becomes at once
+the most transparent of fallacies. Farther, we have no right here to
+overlook the fact that the conditions of the embryo are determined by
+those of a previous adult, and that no sooner does this hereditary
+potentiality produce a new adult animal than the terrible external
+agencies of the physical world, in presence of which all life exists,
+begin to tell on the organism, and after a struggle of longer or
+shorter duration it succumbs to death, and its substance returns into
+inorganic nature--a law from which even the longer life of the species
+does not seem to exempt it. All this is so plain and manifest that it
+is extraordinary that evolutionists will continue to use such partial
+and imperfect arguments. Another example may be taken from that
+application of the doctrine of natural selection to explain the
+introduction of species in geological time, which is so elaborately
+discussed by Sir C. Lyell in the last edition of his 'Principles of
+Geology.' The great geologist evidently leans strongly to the theory,
+and claims for it the 'highest degree of probability;' yet he
+perceives that there is a serious gap in it, since no modern fact has
+ever proved the origin of a new species by modification. Such a gap,
+if it existed in those grand analogies by which we explain geological
+formations through modern causes, would be admitted to be fatal.
+
+"A third illustration of the partial character of these hypotheses may
+be taken from the use made of the theory deduced from modern physical
+discoveries, that life must be merely a product of the continuous
+operation of physical laws. The assumption, for it is nothing more,
+that the phenomena of life are produced merely by some arrangement of
+physical forces, even if it be admitted to be true, gives only a
+partial explanation of the possible origin of life. It does not
+account for the fact that life as a force or combination of forces is
+set in antagonism to all other forces. It does not account for the
+marvellous connection of life with organization. It does not account
+for the determination and arrangement of forces implied in life. A
+very simple illustration may make this plain. If the problem to be
+solved were the origin of the mariner's compass, one might assert that
+it is wholly a physical arrangement both as to matter and force.
+Another might assert that it involves mind and intelligence in
+addition. In some sense both would be right. The properties of
+magnetic force and of iron or steel are purely physical, and it might
+even be within the bounds of possibility that somewhere in the
+universe a mass of natural loadstone may have been so balanced as to
+swing in harmony with the earth's magnetism. Yet we would surely be
+regarded as very credulous if we could be induced to believe that the
+mariner's compass has originated in that way. This argument applies
+with a thousandfold greater force to the origin of life, which
+involves even in its simplest forms so many more adjustments of force
+and so much more complex machinery.
+
+"Fourthly, these hypotheses are partial, inasmuch as they fail to
+account for the vastly varied and correlated interdependencies of
+natural things and forces, and for the unity of plan which pervades
+the whole. These can be explained only by taking into the account
+another element from without. Even when it professes to admit the
+existence of a God, the evolutionist reasoning of our day contents
+itself altogether with the physical or visible universe, and leaves
+entirely out of sight the power of the unseen and spiritual, as if
+this were something with which science has nothing to do, but which
+belongs only to imagination or sentiment. So much has this been the
+case, that when recently a few physicists and naturalists have turned
+to this aspect of the case, they have seemed to be teaching new and
+startling truths, though only reviving some of the oldest and most
+permanent ideas of our race. From the dawn of human thought it has
+been the conclusion alike of philosophers, theologians, and the
+common-sense of mankind that the seen can be explained only by
+reference to the unseen, and that any merely physical theory of the
+world is necessarily partial. This, too, is the position of our sacred
+Scriptures, and is broadly stated in their opening verse; and indeed
+it lies alike at the basis of all true religion and all sound
+philosophy, for it must necessarily be that 'the things that are seen
+are temporal, the things that are unseen eternal.' With reference to
+the primal aggregation of energy in the visible universe, with
+reference to the introduction of life, with reference to the soul of
+man, with reference to the heavenly gifts of genius and prophecy, with
+reference to the introduction of the Saviour himself into the world,
+and with reference to the spiritual gifts and graces of God's
+people--all these spring not from sporadic acts of intervention, but
+from the continuous action of God and the unseen world, and this we
+must never forget is the true ideal of creation in Scripture and in
+sound theology. Only in such exceptional and little influential
+philosophies as that of Democritus, and in the speculations of a few
+men carried off their balance by the brilliant physical discoveries of
+our age, has this necessarily partial and imperfect view been adopted.
+Never, indeed, was its imperfection more clear than in the light of
+modern science.
+
+"Geology, by tracing back all present things to their origin, was the
+first science to establish on a basis of observed facts the necessity
+of a beginning and end of the world. But even physical science now
+teaches us that the visible world is a vast machine for the
+dissipation of energy; that the processes going on in it must have had
+a beginning in time, and that all things tend to a final and helpless
+equilibrium. This necessity implies an unseen power, an invisible
+universe, in which the visible universe must have originated, and to
+which its energy is ever returning. The hiatus between the seen and
+the unseen may be bridged over by the conceptions of atomic vortices
+of force, and by the universal and continuous ether; but whether or
+not, it has become clear that the conception of the unseen as existing
+has become necessary to our belief in the possible existence of the
+physical universe itself, even without taking life into the account.
+
+"It is in the domain of life, however, that this necessity becomes
+most apparent; and it is in the plant that we first clearly perceive a
+visible testimony to that unseen which is the counterpart of the seen.
+Life in the plant opposes the outward rush of force in our system,
+arrests a part of it on its way, fixes it as potential energy, and
+thus, forming a mere eddy, so to speak, in the process of dissipation
+of energy, it accumulates that on which animal life and man himself
+may subsist, and asserts for a time supremacy over the seen and
+temporal on behalf of the unseen and eternal. I say for a time,
+because life is, in the visible universe, as at present constituted,
+but a temporary exception, introduced from that unseen world where it
+is no longer the exception, but the eternal rule. In a still higher
+sense, then, than that in which matter and force testify to a Creator,
+organization and life, whether in the plant, the animal, or man, bear
+the same testimony, and exist as outposts put forth in the succession
+of ages from that higher heaven that surrounds the visible universe.
+In them, too, Almighty power is no doubt conditioned or limited by
+law, yet they bear more distinctly upon them the impress of their
+Maker; and, while all explanations of the physical universe which
+refuse to recognize its spiritual and unseen origin must necessarily
+be partial and in the end incomprehensible, this destiny falls more
+quickly and surely on the attempt to account for life and its
+succession on merely materialistic principles.
+
+"Here again, however, I must remind you that creation, as maintained
+against such materialistic evolution, whether by theology, philosophy,
+or Holy Scripture, is necessarily a continuous, nay, an eternal
+influence, not an intervention of disconnected acts. It is the true
+continuity, which includes and binds together all other continuity.
+
+"It is here that natural science meets with theology, not as an
+antagonist, but as a friend and ally in its time of greatest need; and
+I must here record my belief that neither men of science nor
+theologians have a right to separate what God in Holy Scripture has
+joined together, or to build up a wall between nature and religion,
+and write upon it 'no thoroughfare.' The science that does this must
+be impotent to explain nature, and without hold on the higher
+sentiments of man. The theology that does this must sink into mere
+superstition.
+
+"In conclusion, can we formulate a few of the general laws, or perhaps
+I had better call them general conclusions, respecting life, in which
+all palaeontologists may agree? Perhaps it is not possible to do this
+at present satisfactorily, but the attempt may do no harm. We may,
+then, I think, make the following affirmations:
+
+"1. The existence of life and organization on the earth is not
+eternal, nor even coeval with the beginning of the physical universe,
+but may possibly date from Laurentian or immediately pre-Laurentian
+times.
+
+"2. The introduction of new species of animals and plants has been a
+continuous process, not necessarily in the sense of derivation of one
+species from another, but in the higher sense of the continued
+operation of the cause or causes which introduced life at first. This,
+as already stated, I take to be the true theological or Scriptural as
+well as scientific idea of what we ordinarily and somewhat loosely
+term creation.
+
+"3. Though thus continuous, the process has not been uniform; but
+periods of rapid production of species have alternated with others in
+which many disappeared and few were introduced. This may have been an
+effect of physical cycles reacting on the progress of life.
+
+"4. Species, like individuals, have greater energy and vitality in
+their younger stages, and rapidly assume all their varietal forms, and
+extend themselves as widely as external circumstances will permit.
+Like individuals also, they have their periods of old age and decay,
+though the life of some species has been of enormous duration in
+comparison with that of others; the difference appearing to be
+connected with degrees of adaptation to different conditions of life.
+
+"5. Many allied species, constituting groups of animals and plants,
+have made their appearance at once in various parts of the earth, and
+these groups have obeyed the same laws with the individual and the
+species in culminating rapidly, and then slowly diminishing, though a
+large group once introduced has rarely disappeared altogether.
+
+"6. Groups of species, as genera and orders, do not usually begin with
+their highest or lowest forms, but with intermediate and generalized
+types, and they show a capacity for both elevation and degradation in
+their subsequent history.
+
+"7. The history of life presents a progress from the lower to the
+higher, and from the simpler to the more complex, and from the more
+generalized to the more specialized. In this progress new types are
+introduced and take the place of the older ones, which sink to a
+relatively subordinate place and become thus degraded. But the
+physical and organic changes have been so correlated and adjusted that
+life has not only always maintained its existence, but has been
+enabled to assume more complex forms, and that older forms have been
+made to prepare the way for newer, so that there has been on the whole
+a steady elevation culminating in man himself. Elevation and
+specialization have, however, been secured at the expense of vital
+energy and range of adaptation, until the new element of a rational
+and inventive nature was introduced in the case of man.
+
+"8. In regard to the larger and more distinct types, we can not find
+evidence that they have, in their introduction, been preceded by
+similar forms connecting them with previous groups; but there is
+reason to believe that many supposed representative species in
+successive formations are really only races or varieties.
+
+"9. In so far as we can trace their history, specific types are
+permanent in their characters from their introduction to their
+extinction, and their earlier varietal forms are similar to their
+later ones.
+
+"10. Palaeontology furnishes no direct evidence, perhaps never can
+furnish any, as to the actual transformation of one species into
+another, or as to the actual circumstances of creation of a species,
+but the drift of its testimony is to show that species come in _per
+saltum_, rather than by any slow and gradual process.
+
+"11. The origin and history of life can not, any more than the origin
+and determination of matter and force, be explained on purely material
+grounds, but involve the consideration of power referable to the
+unseen and spiritual world.
+
+"Different minds may state these principles in different ways, but I
+believe that, in so far as palaeontology is concerned, in substance
+they must hold good, at least as steps to higher truths."
+
+
+B.--EVOLUTION AND CREATION BY LAW.
+
+Evolutionist writers have a great horror of what they term
+"intervention." But they should be informed that the idea of a
+planning Creator does not involve intervention in an extraordinary or
+miraculous sense, any more than what we call the ordinary operations
+of nature. It is a common but childish prejudice that every discovery
+of a secondary cause diminishes so much of what is to be referred to
+the agency of God. On the contrary, such discoveries merely aid us in
+comprehending the manner of his action. But when evolutionists, in
+their zeal to get rid of creative intervention, trace all things to
+the interaction of insensate causes, they fall into the absurdity of
+believing in absolute unmitigated chance as the cause of perfect
+order. Evidences of this may be found by the score in Darwin's works
+on the origin of species. I quote, however, from another and usually
+clear thinker, Wallace, in a review of the Duke of Argyll's "Reign of
+Law," which appeared some years ago, but represents very well this
+phase of thought:
+
+"'It is curious,' says the Duke of Argyll, 'to observe the language
+which this most advanced disciple of pure naturalism [Mr. Darwin]
+instinctively uses, when he has to describe the complicated structure
+of this curious order of plants [the Orchids]. Caution in ascribing
+intentions to nature does not seem to occur to him as possible.
+Intention is the one thing which he does see, and which, when he does
+not see, he seeks for diligently until he finds it. He exhausts every
+form of words and of illustration by which intention or mental purpose
+can be described. 'Contrivance'--'curious contrivance'--'beautiful
+contrivance'--these are expressions which occur over and over again.
+Here is one sentence describing the parts of a particular species:
+'the labellum is developed into a long nectary, _in order_ to attract
+lepidoptera, and we shall presently give reason for suspecting that
+the nectar is _purposely_ so lodged that it can be sucked only slowly,
+_in order_ to give time for the curious chemical quality of this
+viscid matter setting hard and dry.'" Many other examples of similar
+expressions are quoted by the duke, who maintains that no explanation
+of these "contrivances" has been or can be given, except on the
+supposition of a personal contriver, specially arranging the details
+of each case, although causing them to be produced by the ordinary
+processes of growth and reproduction.
+
+"Now there is a difficulty in this view of the origin of the structure
+of orchids which the duke does not allude to. The majority of
+flowering plants are fertilized, either without the agency of insects,
+or, when insects are required, without any very important modification
+of the structure of the flower. It is evident, therefore, that flowers
+might have been formed as varied, fantastic, and beautiful as the
+orchids, and yet have been fertilized by insects in the same manner as
+violets or clover or primroses, or a thousand other flowers. The
+strange springs and traps and pitfalls found in the flowers of orchids
+can not be necessary _per se_, since exactly the same end is gained in
+ten thousand other flowers which do not possess them. Is it not, then,
+an extraordinary idea to imagine the Creator of the universe
+_contriving_ the various complicated parts of these flowers as a
+mechanic might contrive an ingenious toy or a difficult puzzle? Is it
+not a more worthy conception that they are some of the results of
+those general laws which were so co-ordinated at the first
+introduction of life upon the earth as to result necessarily in the
+utmost possible development of varied forms?"
+
+A moment's thought is sufficient to show that there is no essential
+difference between the Creator contriving every detail of the
+structure of an orchid and his producing it through some intermediate
+cause, or his commanding it into existence by his almighty word. The
+same mental process, so to speak, of the contriver is implied in
+either case. But there is an immeasurable difference between any of
+those ideas and that of the orchid producing its parts spontaneously
+under the operation of insensate physical law, whatever that may be,
+alone. Again, in the same review, Wallace writes:
+
+"The uncertainty of opinion among naturalists as to which are species
+and which varieties is one of Mr. Darwin's very strong arguments that
+these two names can not belong to things quite distinct in nature and
+origin. The reviewer says that this argument is of no weight, because
+the works of man present exactly the same phenomena, and he instances
+patent inventions, and the excessive difficulty of determining whether
+they are new or old. I accept the analogy, and maintain that it is all
+in favor of Mr. Darwin's views; for are not all inventions of the same
+kind directly affiliated to a common ancestor. Are not improved
+steam-engines or clocks the lineal descendants of some existing
+steam-engine or clock? Is there ever a new creation in art or science
+any more than in nature? Did ever patentee absolutely originate any
+complete and entire invention no portion of which was derived from any
+thing that had been made or described before? It is, therefore, clear
+that the difficulty of distinguishing the various classes of
+inventions which claim to be new is of the same nature as the
+difficulty of distinguishing varieties and species, because neither
+are absolute new creations, but both are alike descendants of
+pre-existing forms, from which and from each other they differ by
+varying and often imperceptible degrees. It appears, then, that
+however plausible this writer's objections may seem, whenever he
+descends from generalities to any specific statement his supposed
+difficulties turn out to be in reality strongly confirmatory of Mr.
+Darwin's view."
+
+Now that improved steam-engines are lineal descendants of other
+steam-engines is absolute nonsense, in any other aspect than that the
+structure of one suggested the structure of another to a contriving
+mind. We need not affirm this of God; but we may affirm that the plans
+of the creative mind constitute the true link of connection between
+the different states and developments of inorganic and organic
+objects. This is the real meaning of creation by law, as distinguished
+from mere chance on the one hand, and arbitrary and capricious
+intervention on the other. Both of these extremes are equally
+illogical; and it can not be too frequently repeated that divine
+revelation avoids both by maintaining with equal firmness the agency
+of the Creator, and that agency not capricious, but according to plan
+and purpose; embracing not merely the action of the divine mind
+itself, but under it of all the forces and material things created.
+
+
+C.--MODES OF CREATION.
+
+A question often asked, but not easily answered, with reference to the
+creation of animals and plants, is--What was its precise method, and
+to what extent is such intervention conceivable. This is, it is true,
+not a properly scientific question, since science can not inform us of
+the act of creation. Nor is it properly a theological one, since
+revelation appeals to our faith in the facts, without giving us much
+information as to the mode. It can, therefore, be answered only
+conjecturally, except in so far as the law or plan of creation can be
+inferred from what is known, either from science or revelation, as to
+the history of life.
+
+We may, in the first place, assume that law or plan must characterize
+creation. The Scriptural idea of it is not reconcilable with the
+supposition of a series of arbitrary acts any more than the scientific
+idea. The nature of these laws, as disclosed by Palaeontology, has been
+already considered in a preceding part of this Appendix. What we may
+conjecture as to the nature of the creative act itself, from a
+comparison of nature and revelation, may be summed up as follows:
+
+1. If we reduce organized beings to their ultimate organisms--cells or
+plastids--and with Spencer and Haeckel suppose these to be farther
+divisible into still smaller particles or plastidules, each composed
+of several complex particles of albumen or protoplasm, we may suppose
+the primary act of creation to consist in the aggregation of molecules
+of albuminous matter into such plastidules bearing the same relations,
+as "manufactured articles," to the future cell that inorganic
+molecules bear to crystals, and possessing within themselves the
+potencies of organic forms. This is the nearest approach that we can
+make to the primary creative act, and its scientific basis is merely
+hypothetical, while revelation gives us no intimation as to any such
+constitution of organized matter.
+
+2. The formulae in Genesis, "Let the land produce," and "Let the waters
+produce," imply some sort of mediate creation through the agency of
+the land and the waters, but of what sort we have no means of knowing.
+They include, however, the idea of the origin of the lower and humbler
+forms of life from material pre-existing in inorganic nature, and also
+the idea of the previous preparation of the land and the waters for
+the sustenance of the creatures produced.
+
+3. The expression in the case of man--"out of the dust"--would seem to
+intimate that the human body was constituted of merely elementary
+matter, without any previous preparation in organic forms. It may,
+however, be intended merely to inform us that, while the spirit is in
+the image of God, the bodily frame is "of the earth earthy," and in no
+respect different in general nature from that of the inferior animals.
+
+4. The Bible indicates some ways in which creatures may be modified or
+changed into new species, or may give rise to new forms of life. The
+human body is, we are told, capable of transformation into a new or
+spiritual body, different in many important respects, and the future
+general prevalence of this change is an article of religious faith.
+The Bible represents the woman as produced from the man by a species
+of fission, not known to us as a natural possibility, except in some
+of the lower forms of life. The birth of the Saviour is represented as
+having been by parthenogenesis, and if it had pleased God that Jesus
+was to remain on earth as the progenitor of a new and higher type of
+man to replace that now existing, this might be regarded as the
+introduction of a new species. To what extent the Creator may have so
+acted on the constitution of organized beings as to produce changes of
+this kind we have no means of knowing; but if he have done so, we may
+be sure that it has been in accordance with some definite plan or law.
+
+5. We have a right to infer from Scripture that there must be some
+creative law which provides for the introduction of species, _de
+novo_, from unorganized matter, and which has been or is called into
+action by conditions as yet altogether unknown to us, and as yet
+inimitable, and therefore in some sense miraculous. Whether we shall
+ever by scientific investigation discover the law of this kind of
+divine intervention it is impossible to say. That all the theories of
+spontaneous generation and derivation hitherto promulgated are but
+wild guesses at it is but too evident.
+
+6. Since in inorganic nature we meet with such ultimate facts as atoms
+of different kinds and with different properties; and ether of
+non-atomic constitution, all of which seem to be necessary to the
+existence of the world as it is, we may expect in like manner to find
+at the basis of organic structures and phenomena varied kinds of
+ultimate organisms and forces, probably much more complicated than
+those of inorganic nature. The broad simplicity of existing theories
+of derivation and evolution is thus in itself a presumption against
+their truth, except as very partial explanations.
+
+7. We have no right to consider the species "after their kinds" of
+revelation as coincident with the species recognized by science. Many
+of these may be merely races, the production of which in the course of
+time and in special circumstances may fall within the powers of
+created species, and which may merely be the phases of such species in
+time and place. Only the accumulation of vast additional stores of
+facts can enable us to have any certain opinion on this point, and
+till it is settled the doctrine of derivation must remain purely
+hypothetical.
+
+8. The inference of evolutionists that because certain forms of life
+succeed each other in geological time, they must have been derived
+from each other, has an aspect of truth and simplicity; but the idea
+of law or plan in creation suggests that the link of connection may be
+of a less direct nature than mere descent with modification. This has
+been referred to under a previous head.
+
+9. In the scheme of revelation all the successions and changes of
+organized beings, just as much as their introduction at first, belong
+to the will and plan of God. Revelation opposes no obstacle to any
+scientific investigation of the nature and method of this plan, nor
+does it contemplate the idea that any discoveries of this kind in any
+way isolate the Creator from his works. Farther, inasmuch as God is
+always present in all his works, one part of his procedure can
+scarcely be considered an "intervention" any more than another.
+
+10. As an illustration of the hypothetical condition of this subject,
+and of the views which may be taken as to its details, I quote from a
+memoir of my own certain conclusions with reference to the origin of
+the species of land plants which are found in the older geological
+formations. The conclusions stated are at the end of a detailed
+consideration of these plants and the circumstances of their
+occurrence:
+
+"(1.) Some of the forms reckoned as specific in the Devonian and
+Carboniferous formations may be really derivative races. There are
+indications that such races may have originated in one or more of the
+following ways: (_a_) By a natural tendency in synthetic types to
+become specialized in the direction of one or other of their
+constituent elements. In this way such plants as _Arthrostigma_ and
+_Psilophyton_ may have assumed new varietal forms. (_b_) By embryonic
+retardation or acceleration,[151] whereby certain species may have had
+their maturity advanced or postponed, thus giving them various grades
+of perfection in reproduction and complexity of structure. The fact
+that so many Erian and Carboniferous plants seem to be on the confines
+of the groups of Acrogens and Gymnosperms may be supposed favorable
+to such exchanges. (_c_) The contraction and breaking up of floras
+which occurred in the Middle Erian and Lower Carboniferous may have
+been eminently favorable to the production of such varietal forms as
+would result from what has been called the 'struggle for existence.'
+(_d_) The elevation of a great expanse of new land at the close of the
+Middle Erian and the beginning of the Coal period would, by permitting
+the extension of series over wide areas and fertile soils, and by
+removing the pressure previously existing, be eminently favorable to
+the production of new, and especially of improved, varieties.
+
+"(2.) Whatever importance we may attach to the above supposed causes
+of change, we still require to account for the origin of our specific
+types. This may forever elude our observation, but we may at least
+hope to ascertain the external conditions favorable to their
+production. In order to attain even to this it will be necessary to
+inquire critically, with reference to every acknowledged species, what
+its claims to distinctness are, so that we may be enabled to
+distinguish specific types from mere varieties. Having attained to
+some certainty in this, we may be prepared to inquire whether the
+conditions favorable to the appearance of new varieties were also
+those favorable to the creation of new types, or the reverse--whether
+these conditions were those of compression or expansion, or to what
+extent the appearance of new types may be independent of any external
+conditions, other than those absolutely necessary for their existence.
+I am not without hope that the further study of fossil plants may
+enable us thus to approach to a comprehension of the laws of the
+creation, as distinguished from those of the continued existence of
+species.
+
+"In the present state of our knowledge we have no good ground either
+to limit the number of specific types beyond what a fair study of our
+material may warrant, or to infer that such primitive types must
+necessarily have been of low grade, or that progress in varietal forms
+has always been upward. The occurrence of such an advanced and
+specialized type as that of _Syringoxylon_ in the Middle Devonian
+should guard us against these errors. The creative process may have
+been applicable to the highest as well as to the lowest forms, and
+subsequent deviations must have included degradation as well as
+elevation. I can conceive nothing more unreasonable than the statement
+sometimes made that it is illogical or even absurd to suppose that
+highly organized beings could have been produced except by derivation
+from previously existing organisms. This is begging the whole question
+at issue, depriving science of a noble department of inquiry on which
+it has as yet barely entered, and anticipating by unwarranted
+assertions conclusions which may perhaps suddenly dawn upon us through
+the inspiration of some great intellect, or may for generations to
+come baffle the united exertions of all the earnest promoters of
+natural science. Our present attitude should not be that of
+dogmatists, but that of patient workers content to labor for a harvest
+of grand generalizations which may not come till we have passed away,
+but which, if we are earnest and true to nature and its Creator, may
+reward even some of us."[152]
+
+
+D.--PRESENT CONDITION OF THEORIES OF LIFE.
+
+One of the most learned and ingenious essays on this subject recently
+published[153] states on its first page that all the varieties of
+opinion may be summed up under two heads:
+
+"1. Those which require the addition to ordinary matter of an
+immaterial or spiritual essence, substance, or power, general or
+local, whose presence is the efficient cause of life; and,
+
+"2. Those which attribute the phenomena of life solely to the mode of
+combination of the ordinary material elements of which the organism is
+composed, without the addition of any such immaterial essence, power,
+or force."
+
+It is quite true that physiologists have up to this time argued out
+these two alternatives, and that at present the second is probably the
+more prevalent. It is however also true that neither includes or can
+possibly include the whole truth, and that enlightened theism may
+enable us to hold both, or all that is true in either. Undoubtedly we
+must hold that a higher spiritual power or Creator is necessary to the
+existence of life; but then this is necessary also to the existence of
+dead matter and force. So that if physiologists think proper to trace
+the whole phenomena of life to material causes, they do not on that
+account in any way invalidate the evidence for a spiritual Creator,
+nor for a spiritual element in the higher nature of man. Yet so
+inconceivably shallow is much of the biological reasoning of the day,
+that it is quite common to find physiologists referring all life to
+spontaneous and uncaused material agencies, because they have
+concluded that the arrangements of matter and force are sufficient to
+explain it; and, on the other hand, to find theistic writers accusing
+physiology of materialism, if it finds the causes of vital phenomena
+in material forces, as if God could be present only in those processes
+which we can not understand.
+
+What we really know as to the material basis of life may be summed up
+in a few words. Chemically, life is based on compounds of the
+albuminous group. These are highly complex in a molecular point of
+view, and seem to be formed in nature only where certain structures,
+those of the vegetable cell, exist under certain conditions. These
+albuminous substances do not necessarily possess vital properties.
+They may exist in a dead state just as other substances. Under certain
+conditions, however, those of forming part of a so-called living
+organism, they present phenomena of mechanical movement and molecular
+change, and of transformation or transmission of force, which enable
+them to transform themselves into various kinds of tissues, to nourish
+these when formed, and to establish a consensus of action between
+different parts of the organism; and these properties are vastly
+varied in detail according to the kind of organism in which they take
+place, and the conditions under which the organism exists. The
+actually living matter presents no distinct structure recognizable by
+the microscope, and can not be distinguished chemically from ordinary
+albumen or protoplasm; but when living it must either exist in some
+peculiar and complex molecular arrangement unknown as yet to chemistry
+and physics, or must be actuated by some force or form of force called
+vital, and not as yet isolated or reduced to known laws or
+correlation. It does not concern theism or theology which of these may
+eventually prove to be the true view, or if it should be found, which
+is quite possible, that there is no real difference between them. In
+any case it is certain that in the lower animals, and in the merely
+physiological properties of man himself, living matter may act
+independently of any higher spiritual nature in the individual, though
+of course not independently of the higher power of God, which gave
+matter its properties and sustains them in their action. It is farther
+certain that in man the spiritual nature dominates and controls the
+vital, except when under abnormal conditions the latter unduly gains
+the mastery, and quenches altogether the spirit. In the language of
+the Bible, the merely vital endowments of the man belong to the flesh
+([Greek: sarx]), and to the rational mind or soul ([Greek: psyche]).
+The higher nature which man derives directly from God is the spirit
+([Greek: pneuma]). Either of these parts of the complex humanity is
+capable of life ([Greek: zoe]) and of immortality. Either of them is
+capable of being in a state of death, though the import of this
+differs in its application to each. In Genesis, the body is composed
+of the ordinary earth-materials--the "dust of the ground." The higher
+nature is seen in the "shadow and likeness of God," and in the
+inbreathing of the Divine Spirit whereby man became a "living soul" in
+a higher sense than that in which the animals possess the ordinary
+"breath of life." With these views agree the later doctrines of the
+Bible as to the "trichotomy" of "body, soul, and spirit" in man, and
+of the added influence of the Spirit of God as acting on humanity.
+
+
+E.--RECENT FACTS AS TO THE ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN.
+
+Several recent statements as to new facts supposed to prove a
+preglacial antiquity for our species have been promulgated in
+scientific journals; but so great doubt rests upon them that they do
+not invalidate the statement that the earliest human remains belong to
+the postglacial age. I may refer to the following:
+
+A very remarkable discovery was made in 1875 by Professor Rutimeyer,
+of Basle. In a brown coal deposit of Tertiary, or at least of
+"interglacial" age--whatever that may mean in Switzerland--he found
+some fragments of wood so interlaced as to resemble wattle or
+basket-work. Steenstrup has, however, re-examined the evidence, and
+adduces strong reasons for the conclusion that the alleged human
+workmanship is really that of beavers.
+
+The Swedish geologists have shown that there is no properly
+Palaeolithic age in Scandinavia, and that even the reindeer had
+probably disappeared from Denmark and Sweden before their occupation
+by man. Some facts, however, seemed to indicate a residence of man in
+Sweden before the great post-pliocene subsidence. One of the most
+important of these is the celebrated hut of Sodertelge, referred to in
+this connection by Lyell. Recent observations have, however, shown
+that this hut was really covered by a landslip, and that its age may
+not be greater than eight centuries. Torel has recently explained this
+in the Proceedings of the Archaeological Congress of Stockholm.
+
+The human bone found in the Victoria Cave at Settle, apparently under
+a patch of boulder-clay, has been regarded as a good evidence of the
+preglacial origin of man. It has, however, always appeared to readers
+of the description as a very doubtful case; and Professor Hughes, of
+Cambridge, has recently expressed the opinion that the drift covering
+the bone may be merely a "pocket" of that material disengaged from a
+cavity in the limestone by the wearing of the cliff.
+
+The same geologist has also shown reason to believe that the supposed
+case of the occurrence of palaeolithic implements under boulder-clay
+near Brandon, discovered by Mr. Skertchley, and paraded by Geikie as a
+demonstration of the "interglacial" antiquity of man, in accordance
+with his system of successive glacial periods, is really an error, and
+has no foundation in the facts of the case.
+
+Mr. Pengelly has endeavored to maintain the value of the deposit of
+stalagmite as a means of establishing dates, in his "Notes of Recent
+Notices of the Geology of Devonshire," Part I., 1874; but, I confess,
+with little success. He urges, in opposition to the Ingleborough Cave,
+that at Cheddar, where, according to him, no appreciable deposit
+whatever is taking place on the existing stalagmite. But this, of
+course, is evidence not applicable to the case in hand, as in the
+Cheddar case no stalagmite crust whatever would be produced. There
+are, no doubt, crevices and caves in which old stalagmite is even
+being removed or diminished in thickness. He farther asserts that in
+Kent's Cave teeth of the cave bear and other extinct animals are found
+covered by not more than an inch and a half of stalagmite, and
+consequently that if this were deposited at the rate of a quarter of
+an inch per annum--the supposed rate on the "Jockey Cap" at
+Ingleborough--these animals must have lived in Devonshire only six
+years ago, which is, of course, absurd. But he fails to perceive that
+this mode of occurrence is quite intelligible on the supposition of a
+rapid decrease in the amount of deposition in the later part of the
+stalagmite period. He farther refers to the fact that the thicker
+masses of stalagmite, which correspond to the places of more active
+drip of water, are in the same position in both crusts of stalagmite.
+This shows that the sources of water containing bicarbonate of lime
+have been the same from the first; but it proves nothing as to the
+rate of deposit.
+
+Mr. Pengelly's own estimate of the rate of deposit gives, however, a
+length of time which is sufficient to show that there must be error
+somewhere in his calculations. He states the aggregate thickness of
+the two crusts at twelve feet, and then, assuming a rate of deposit of
+0.05 inch in 250 years, or one inch in 5000 years, he arrives at the
+conclusion that the whole deposit required 720,000 years for its
+formation. He is "willing to suppose" the mechanical deposits to have
+accumulated more rapidly; but allowing one fourth of the time for
+them, we have nearly a million of years claimed for the residence of
+man in Devonshire, which, independently of other considerations, would
+push back the Palaeozoic trilobites and corals of that county into the
+primitive reign of fire, and which in point of fact amounts to a
+_reductio ad absurdum_ of the whole argument.
+
+Professor Hughes[154] refers, as a case of rapid deposition of matter
+akin to stalagmite, to the deposit of travertine in the old Roman
+aqueduct of the Pont du Gard, near Avignon, where a thickness of
+fourteen inches seems to have accumulated in about 800 years. Mr. J.
+Carey has given in _Nature_, December 18, 1873, another instance where
+a deposit 0.75 inch thick was formed in fifteen years in a lead mine
+in Durham. Mr. W. B. Clarke in the same journal gives a case where in
+a cave at Brixton, known as Poole's Hole, a deposit one eighth of an
+inch in thickness was formed in six months. Such examples show how
+unsafe it is to reason as to the rate of deposit in by-gone times, and
+when climatal and local conditions may have been very different from
+those at present subsisting.
+
+In an able address before the biological section of the British
+Association in 1876, Wallace adduces the following considerations as
+bearing on these questions; and these are well worthy of attention as
+showing that it is the necessities of evolution rather than of
+geological facts that demand the assumption of a great antiquity for
+man, and induce so many writers to accept any evidence for this,
+however doubtful: (1) The great cerebral development of the so-called
+Palaeolithic men, which shows no indications of graduating into
+inferior races. (2) The great variety of the implements of these
+ancient men, and the excellence of their carvings on bone and ivory,
+point to a similar conclusion. (3) Man is not related to any existing
+species of ape, but in various ways to several different species. (4)
+There is an accumulation of evidence to show that the earliest
+historical races excelled in many processes in the arts and in many
+kinds of culture. He instances the wonderful mechanical and
+engineering skill evidenced in the pyramids of Egypt in proof of this.
+His conclusion is either that the origin of man by development from
+apes must be pushed much farther back than any geologists at present
+hold, and I may add far beyond any probable date, or that he must have
+originated by some "distinct and higher agency"--which last is no
+doubt the true conclusion.
+
+Haeckel, in his recent work, the "History of Creation," sketches the
+development of man from a monad, in twenty-two stages; but he has to
+admit that stage twenty-first, or that of the "Ape-like man," nowhere
+exists, either recent or fossil. He has to assume that this missing
+link has perished in the submergence of an imaginary continent of
+Lemuria, in the Indian Ocean; and it is instructive to observe that,
+after deducting this, his affiliation of the races of men, as
+indicated in a map of the distribution of the species, is in the main
+very similar to that with which we are familiar in ordinary
+collections of maps illustrative of the Bible.
+
+The Post-glacial, Palaeocosmic, or Palaeolithic men of Europe are not
+improbably antediluvian; and as to their precise date we know little.
+As to postdiluvian man, Canon Rawlinson has recently pointed out[155]
+the remarkable convergence of all historic dates toward a time between
+2000 to 3000 years B.C., or about the date of the Biblical deluge,
+which may reasonably be inferred to have occurred about 3200 B.C. He
+gives the following summary of historical origins as ascertained from
+the best data, and which accord with the representation of the Bible
+that in the time of Abraham the great monarchies of Egypt and the East
+were scarcely more powerful than the nomad tribe led by that
+patriarch:
+
+ Oldest date of Babylon 2300 B.C.
+ " " Assyria 1500
+ " " Iran 1500
+ " " India 1200
+ " " China 1154
+ " " Phoenicia 1700
+ " " Troad 2000
+ " " Egypt 2760
+ Sept. date of Deluge 3200
+
+He rejects, of course, the fabulous chronologies of Egypt, China, and
+India as mythical, or referring to prehuman and antediluvian periods.
+It is to be observed that while these dates place the origins of the
+oldest civilized nations at periods considerably subsequent to the
+deluge, they do not prevent us from supposing that these nations
+commenced their existence wills an advanced civilization borrowed from
+antediluvian times, which is indeed a fair conclusion from the
+Biblical history, independently of the monumental evidence referred to
+by Wallace in a previous paragraph.
+
+The Duke of Argyll, in his excellent little work "Primeval Man," in
+which he discusses the arguments in favor of primitive savagery
+advanced by Sir J. Lubbock in opposition to the views of Archbishop
+Whately in his lecture on the "Origin of Civilization," shows that
+there is no necessity to suppose a slow progress of mankind in the
+arts extending over indefinite ages; and his argument in this respect
+connects itself with the facts as to the high cerebral organization of
+Palaeocosmic men referred to above by Wallace. In summing up one
+division of his argument, he truly remarks: "If we assume with the
+supporters of the savage-theory that man has himself invented all that
+he now knows, then the very earliest inventions of our race must have
+been the most wonderful of all, and the richest in the fruits they
+bore. The man who first discovered the use of fire, and the use of
+those grasses which we now know under the name of corn, were
+discoverers compared with whom, as regards the value of their ideas to
+the world, Faraday and Wheatstone are but the inventors of ingenious
+toys. It may possibly be true, as Whately argues, that man never could
+have discovered these things without divine instruction. If so, it is
+fatal to the savage theory. But it is equally fatal to that theory if
+we assume the opposite position, and suppose that the noblest
+discoveries ever made by man were made by him in primeval times."
+
+I may add that this is true, however far into antiquity we may stretch
+back these primeval times.
+
+Professor E. S. Morse, in his address to the American Association, in
+1876, as vice-president, takes as a theme the contributions of
+American zoologists to theories of evolution, and closes with those
+which refer to what he modestly terms "man's lowly origin." These
+contributions he sums up under three heads, as bearing on the
+following points: "1. That in his earlier stages he reveals certain
+persistent characters of the ape; 2. That the more ancient men reveal
+more ape-like features than the present existing men; and, 3. That
+certain characteristics pertaining to early men still persist in the
+inferior races of men." Under the first head he gives contributions to
+the well-known fact that embryonic stages of the human being, like
+those of other high types, approximate to forms permanent in lower
+types. This is a fact inseparable from the law of reproduction; and as
+has been already shown in the text, absolutely without logical
+significance as even an analogical argument in favor of evolution.
+Under the second and third heads, he refers to cases of exceptional
+skulls and bones belonging to idiots and degraded races of men, as
+showing tendencies to lower forms, which as a matter of course they
+do, though with essential differences still marking them as human; and
+he assumes without any proof that these were relatively more common in
+primitive times, and that they are cases of reversion to a previous
+simian stage, instead of being results of abnormal conditions in the
+individual or variety. He sums up these arguments in the following
+paragraph:
+
+"If we take into account the rapidly accumulating data of European
+naturalists concerning primitive man, with the mass of evidence
+presented in these notes, we find an array of facts which irresistibly
+point to a common origin with animals directly below us, and these
+evidences are found in the massive skulls with coarse ridges for
+muscular attachments, the rounding of the base of the nostrils, the
+early ossification of the nasal bones, the small cranial capacity in
+certain forms, the prominence of the frontal crest, the posterior
+position of the _foramen magnum_, the approximation of the temporal
+ridges, the lateral flattening of the tibia, the perforation of the
+humerus, the tendency of the pelvis to depart from its usual
+proportions; and, associated with all these, a rudeness of culture and
+the evidence of the manifestation of the coarsest instincts. He must
+be blind, indeed, who can not recognize the bearing of such grave and
+suggestive modifications."
+
+Yet Professor Morse knows that there is no true specific or even
+generic kinship between man and any species of ape; that the phenomena
+of idiocy and degeneracy have no real resemblance to those of distinct
+specific types; that the resemblances of man to apes, such as they
+are, point not in a direct manner to any stock of apes, but in a
+desultory way to several; and consequently that, if derived from any
+such animals, it must be from some stock altogether unknown to us as
+yet, either among recent or fossil animals. Farther, as Cope, himself
+an evolutionist, admits, while we can trace the skeletons of Eocene
+mammals through several directions of specialization in succeeding
+Tertiary times, man presents the phenomenon of an unspecialized
+skeleton which can not fairly be connected with any of these lines.
+Lastly, his quotation from Fiske, with reference to the supposed
+effect of a protracted infancy to develop the moral characteristics of
+man, though accompanied with the usual unfair and unreasonable sneer
+(which a naturalist like Morse should have been ashamed to quote)
+against men "still capable of believing that the human race was
+created by miracle in a single day," is the feeblest possible attempt
+to bridge over the gap between the spiritual nature of man and the
+merely psychical nature of brutes.
+
+It is plain that if American naturalists have done nothing more in
+favor of the lowly origin of man than that which Professor Morse has
+been able, evidently with much industry and pains, to gather, we need
+not for the present abandon our claims to a higher origin. It is
+farther significant in connection with this that Professor Huxley, in
+his lectures in New York, while resting his case as to the lower
+animals mainly on the supposed genealogy of the horse, which has often
+been shown to amount to no certain evidence,[156] avoided altogether
+the discussion of the origin of man from apes, now obviously
+complicated with so many difficulties that both Wallace and Mivart
+are staggered by them. Professor Thomas, in his recent lectures,[157]
+admits that there is no lower man known than the Australian, and that
+there is no known link of connection with the monkeys; and
+Haeckel[158] has to admit that the penultimate link in his phylogeny,
+the ape-like man, is absolutely unknown.
+
+In Chapter XIII. I have not touched on the question of the absolute
+origin of language--this not being necessary to my argument. On this
+interesting subject, however, we have, in the naming of the animals by
+the first man, recorded in the second chapter of Genesis, not only the
+primary truth of his superiority to them, but a farther indication
+that the roots of human speech, other than interjectional, lie in
+onomatopoeia, and especially in the voices of animals, and that the
+gift of speech was not the slow growth of ages, but an endowment of
+man from the first, just as much as any of his other powers or
+properties. An interesting discussion of this subject will be found in
+the concluding chapters of Wilson's "Prehistoric Man," second edition.
+Farther, the so-called "tallies" found with the bones of Palaeocosmic
+men in European caves, and illustrated in the admirable work of
+Christy and Lartet, show that the rudiments even of writing were
+already in possession of the oldest race of men known to archaeology or
+geology. (See Wilson, _op. cit._, vol. ii., p. 54.)
+
+I have not noticed, except incidentally, the alleged discoveries of
+very ancient human remains in America, as they all appear very
+problematical. There is, however, some evidence of the coexistence of
+man with the mastodon and other postglacial animals in Illinois and
+elsewhere.
+
+
+F.--BEARING OF GLACIAL PERIODS UPON THE INTERPRETATION OF
+GENESIS.
+
+Whatever views may be taken as to that period of cold which occurs at
+the close of the Tertiary and beginning of the Modern period, it can
+not be held to have constituted any such break as to be considered, as
+it was at one time, an equivalent for the Biblical chaos. This is
+proved by the survival through this period of a very large proportion
+of the animals and plants still existing in the northern hemisphere.
+The chronological system of animals and plants has been continuous, as
+the Bible represents it, since their first appearance on earth.
+
+It is further remarkable that while there is geological evidence of
+climates colder than the present in the temperate regions, there is
+equally good proof of warmer climates even within the arctic circle
+than those of the cold temperate regions at present. It is difficult
+to account for these vicissitudes of climate, and much controversy
+exists on the subject; but it seems certain that in the earlier
+Tertiary and Cretaceous periods, for example, the supplies of heat and
+light were so diffused over the earth as to permit the growth of a
+temperate vegetation in Greenland, and even in Spitzbergen.
+Geologists, however unwillingly, have been obliged to admit this as
+one of those great possibilities, altogether unexpected beforehand,
+which have been developed in the history of our planet. Various modes
+of explaining this succession of cold and warm periods have been
+adopted, all more or less hypothetical. Lyell has argued that it may
+be explained by a different distribution of land and water and of the
+ocean currents. Croll accounts for it by the varying eccentricity of
+the earth's orbit, in connection with the precession of the equinoxes.
+Evans by a shifting of the axis of rotation of the earth. Drayson,
+Bell, Warring, and others, by a change in the inclination of the
+earth's axis. Others by the secular diminution of the internal heat of
+the earth, and of that of the sun. Others by the supposed recurrence
+of periods in which the sun gives more or less heat, or in which the
+earth is passing through colder or warmer regions of space. As the
+subject is of interest with reference to possible correspondences of
+these great summers and winters of the earth with the stages of the
+creative work, it may be well to notice shortly the relative merits of
+these theories.
+
+(1.) The hypothesis of Croll is one of the most ingenious and
+elaborate of the whole; but it has two great defects. One is that the
+causes alleged are so uncertain and so complicated that it is
+difficult to estimate their real value. Another is that it proves too
+much, namely, a regular succession of cold and warm periods throughout
+geological time, of which we have no good evidence, and which is on
+many grounds improbable.
+
+(2.) That the earth's axis of rotation has continued unchanged
+throughout the whole of the geological ages seems proved by the fact
+that the principal lines of crumpling and upheaval from the Laurentian
+period downward are arranged in great circles of the earth tangent to
+the polar circle; and that the lines of deposit of sediment in the
+Palaeozoic age are coincident with the present direction of the arctic
+currents.
+
+(3.) Astronomers consider it improbable that the obliquity of the
+ecliptic has materially changed, and serious differences of opinion
+exist as to the effects which a greater or less obliquity would
+produce on climate. It seems certain, however, that a less obliquity
+would occasion a more uniform distribution of heat and light
+throughout the year; and this, co-operating with other causes leading
+to a warm climate, might enable a temperate vegetation to approach the
+pole more closely than at present.
+
+(4.) That the energy of the sun's radiation and the internal heat of
+the earth have been slowly decreasing seems certain; but it is now
+generally admitted that these changes are so gradual that little
+effect can have been produced by them, except in the older geological
+periods, and that they can have no connection with the great glacial
+period of the Post-pliocene.
+
+(5.) It is otherwise with the hypothesis that the sun's heat may, like
+that of some variable stars, have increased and diminished. There is,
+of course, no direct evidence of this, except the small differences
+observed in cycles of eleven and fifty-five years from the greater or
+less development of sunspots, and the analogy of observed variable
+stars. Still it is a possible cause of variations of climate. It might
+also aid in accounting for the extraordinary evidences of desert
+conditions and desiccation presented by the salt deposits of different
+geological periods in temperate latitudes.
+
+(6.) The theory of the passage of the earth through zones of space of
+variable temperature is now generally abandoned, as there seems no
+reason to believe that such differences exist.
+
+(7.) The theory of Lyell that changes in the distribution of land and
+water may, with the possible co-operation of other causes, have
+produced the observed diversities of climate, is that which seems best
+to meet the conditions presented. It is based on the known properties
+of land and water as to the absorption, radiation, and convection of
+heat, and on the remarkable diversities of climate in similar
+latitudes arising from this cause at present. Farther, it accords with
+the known fact that very great changes of level have occurred in
+connection with the glacial period. This theory undoubtedly embraces a
+true cause, admitted by all geologists, and it dispenses with the
+necessity of believing in the recurrence of glacial periods at regular
+intervals. It farther accords best with the evidence afforded by
+fossils, and especially by fossil plants. It has also the merit of
+directing due attention to the diversities of geographical conditions
+at different periods, and of dealing with causes of change operating
+within the earth itself. The only doubt with respect to it is its
+sufficiency to explain the changes which have occurred, and the view
+entertained of this will depend very much on the interpretation of the
+facts as to the intensity of the last glacial period. If moderate
+views can be taken of this, and if means can be found, by a less
+obliquity of the ecliptic or otherwise, to furnish a continuous supply
+of light in the arctic regions, the difficulties which have been
+alleged against it would disappear.
+
+(8.) In connection with former periods of cold and warmth, and with
+the existence of temperate and tropical vegetation in polar latitudes,
+we should not forget that view which takes into account the probable
+effects of different conditions of the atmosphere, and the greater
+quantity of carbonic acid present in it, in early geological periods.
+This would, of course, best apply to the palaeozoic floras, in so far
+as our present knowledge extends; but there may have been similar
+conditions in later periods. Dr. Sterry Hunt thus states this
+hypothesis:
+
+"The agency of plants in purifying the primitive atmosphere was long
+since pointed out by Brongniart, and our great stores of fossil fuel
+have been derived from the decomposition, by the ancient vegetation,
+of the excess of carbonic acid of the early atmosphere, which through
+this agency was exchanged for oxygen gas. In this connection the
+vegetation of former periods presents the curious phenomenon of plants
+allied to those now growing beneath the tropics flourishing within the
+polar circles. Many ingenious hypotheses have been proposed to account
+for the warmer climate of earlier times, but are at best
+unsatisfactory, and it appears to me that the true solution of the
+problem may be found in the constitution of the early atmosphere, when
+considered in the light of Dr. Tyndall's beautiful researches on
+radiant heat. He has found that the presence of a few hundredths of
+carbonic-acid gas in the atmosphere, while offering almost no obstacle
+to the passage of the solar rays, would suffice to prevent almost
+entirely the loss by radiation of obscure heat, so that the surface of
+the land beneath such an atmosphere would become like a vast
+orchard-house, in which the conditions of climate necessary to a
+luxuriant vegetation would be extended even to the polar regions."
+
+It is obvious that, in the production of complex effects of this kind,
+various causes, whether astronomical or connected with the mutations
+of the earth's crust, may have co-operated, and probably in all
+extreme cases did co-operate.
+
+In any case it is evident that the vicissitudes of climate and the
+great pulsations of the crust, which have raised and depressed
+portions of the surface and changed the position of its covering of
+waters, have been potent agents in the hands of the Creator in
+effecting the changes and succession of living beings, which are thus,
+as Genesis intimates, children of the waters and of the land, and of
+the influences of the heavens. It is also interesting in this
+connection to observe that the occurrence of such periods of general
+warm climate as that in the Miocene shows that it would have been
+possible for man, under certain conditions, to have extended himself
+far more widely in his Edenic state than we can conceive of in the
+present condition of the earth. The modern world is perhaps even in
+this way "cursed" for man's sake.
+
+
+G.--DR. STERRY HUNT ON THE CHEMISTRY OF THE PRIMEVAL EARTH.
+
+On looking back to the reference to this subject in Chapter V., I
+think it may be desirable to present to the reader in some more
+definite manner the conditions of a forming world; and I can not do
+this in any other way so well as by quoting the words of Dr. Sterry
+Hunt, as given in the abstract of his lecture on this subject
+delivered before the Royal Institution of London in 1867:
+
+"This hypothesis of the nature of the sun and of the luminous process
+going on at its surface is the one lately put forward by Faye, and,
+although it has met with opposition, appears to be that which accords
+best with our present knowledge of the chemical and physical
+conditions of matter, such as we must suppose it to exist in the
+condensing gaseous mass which, according to the nebular hypothesis,
+should form the centre of our solar system. Taking this, as we have
+already done, for granted, it matters little whether we imagine the
+different planets to have been successively detached as rings during
+the rotation of the primal mass, as is generally conceived, or whether
+we admit with Chacornac a process of aggregation or concretion,
+operating within the primal nebular mass, resulting in the production
+of sun and planets. In either case we come to the conclusion that our
+earth must at one time have been in an intensely heated gaseous
+condition, such as the sun now presents, self-luminous, and with a
+process of condensation going on at first at the surface only, until
+by cooling it must have reached the point where the gaseous centre
+was exchanged for one of combined and liquefied matter.
+
+"Here commences the chemistry of the earth, to the discussion of which
+the foregoing considerations have been only preliminary. So long as
+the gaseous condition of the earth lasted, we may suppose the whole
+mass to have been homogeneous; but when the temperature became so
+reduced that the existence of chemical compounds at the centre became
+possible, those which were most stable at the elevated temperature
+then prevailing would be first formed. Thus, for example, while
+compounds of oxygen with mercury or even with hydrogen could not
+exist, oxides of silicon, aluminium, calcium, magnesium, and iron
+might be formed and condense in a liquid form at the centre of the
+globe. By progressive cooling, still other elements would be removed
+from the gaseous mass, which would form the atmosphere of the
+non-gaseous nucleus. We may suppose an arrangement of the condensed
+matters at the centre according to their respective specific
+gravities, and thus the fact that the density of the earth as a whole
+is about twice the mean density of the matters which form its solid
+surface may be explained. Metallic or metalloidal compounds of
+elements, grouped differently from any compounds known to us, and far
+more dense, may exist in the centre of the earth.
+
+"The process of combination and cooling having gone on until those
+elements which are not volatile in the heat of our ordinary furnaces
+were condensed into a liquid form, we may here inquire what would be
+the result, upon the mass, of a further reduction of temperature. It
+is generally assumed that in the cooling of a liquid globe of mineral
+matter, congelation would commence at the surface, as in the case of
+water; but water offers an exception to most other liquids, inasmuch
+as it is denser in the liquid than in the solid form. Hence ice floats
+on water, and freezing water becomes covered with a layer of ice,
+which protects the liquid below. With most other matters, however,
+and notably with the various mineral and earthy compounds analogous to
+those which may be supposed to have formed the fiery-fluid earth,
+numerous and careful experiments show that the products of
+solidification are much denser than the liquid mass; so that
+solidification would have commenced at the centre, whose temperature
+would thus be the congealing point of these liquid compounds. The
+important researches of Hopkins and Fairbairn on the influence of
+pressure in augmenting the melting-point of such compounds as contract
+in solidifying are to be considered in this connection.
+
+"It is with the superficial portions of the fused mineral mass of the
+globe that we have now to do; since there is no good reason for
+supposing that the deeply seated portions have intervened in any
+direct manner in the production of the rocks which form the
+superficial crust. This, at the time of its first solidification,
+presented probably an irregular, diversified surface from the result
+of contraction of the congealing mass, which at last formed a liquid
+bath of no great depth surrounding the solid nucleus. It is to the
+composition of this crust that we must direct our attention, since
+therein would be found all the elements (with the exception of such as
+were still in the gaseous form) now met with in the known rocks of the
+earth. This crust is now everywhere buried beneath its own ruins, and
+we can only from chemical considerations attempt to reconstruct it. If
+we consider the conditions through which it has passed, and the
+chemical affinities which must have come into play, we shall see that
+these are just what would now result if the solid land, sea, and air
+were made to react upon each other under the influence of intense
+heat. To the chemist it is at once evident that from this would result
+the conversion of all carbonates, chlorides, and sulphates into
+silicates, and the separation of the carbon, chlorine, and sulphur in
+the form of acid gases, which, with nitrogen, watery vapor, and a
+probable excess of oxygen, would form the dense primeval atmosphere.
+The resulting fused mass would contain all the bases as silicates, and
+must have much resembled in composition certain furnace-slags or
+volcanic glasses. The atmosphere, charged with acid gases, which
+surrounded this primitive rock must have been of immense density.
+Under the pressure of such a high barometric column, condensation
+would take place at a temperature much above the present boiling-point
+of water, and the depressed portions of the half-cooled crust would be
+flooded with a highly heated solution of hydrochloric acid, whose
+action in decomposing the silicates is easily intelligible to the
+chemist. The formation of chlorides of the various bases, and the
+separation of silica, would go on until the affinities of the acid
+were satisfied, and there would be a separation of silica, taking the
+form of quartz, and the production of a sea-water holding in solution,
+besides the chlorides of sodium, calcium, and magnesium, salts of
+aluminium and other metallic bases. The atmosphere, being thus
+deprived of its volatile chlorine and sulphur compounds, would
+approximate to that of our own time, but differ in its greater amount
+of carbonic acid.
+
+"We next enter into the second phase in the action of the atmosphere
+upon the earth's crust. This, unlike the first, which was subaqueous,
+or operative only on the portion covered with the precipitated water,
+is sub-aerial, and consists in the decomposition of the exposed parts
+of the primitive crust under the influence of the carbonic acid and
+moisture of the air, which convert the complex silicates of the crust
+into a silicate of alumina, or clay, while the separated lime,
+magnesia, and alkalies, being converted into carbonates, are carried
+down into the sea in a state of solution.
+
+"The first effect of these dissolved carbonates would be to
+precipitate the dissolved alumina and the heavy metals, after which
+would result a decomposition of the chloride of calcium of the
+sea-water, resulting in the production of carbonate of lime or
+limestone, and chloride of sodium or common salt. This process is one
+still going on at the earth's surface, slowly breaking down and
+destroying the hardest rocks, and, aided by mechanical processes,
+transforming them into clays; although the action, from the
+comparative rarity of carbonic acid in the atmosphere, is less
+energetic than in earlier times, when the abundance of this gas, and a
+higher temperature, favored the chemical decomposition of the rocks.
+But now, as then, every clod of clay formed from the decay of a
+crystalline rock corresponded to an equivalent of carbonic acid
+abstracted from the atmosphere, and equivalents of carbonate of lime
+and common salt formed from the chloride of calcium of the
+sea-water."[159]
+
+
+H.--TANNIN AND BHEMAH.
+
+The following synopsis of the instances of the occurrence of the words
+_tannin_ and _tan_ will serve to show the propriety of the meaning,
+"great reptiles," assigned in the text to the former, as well as to
+illustrate the utility in such cases of "comparing Scripture with
+Scripture:"
+
+ 1. TANNIN.
+
+ Exod. vii., 9.--Take thy rod and Probably a serpent, though perhaps
+ cast it before Pharaoh, and it a crocodile.
+ shall become a _serpent_. (Septuagint, "[Greek: drakon].")
+
+ Deut. xxxii., 33.--Their vine is Probably a species of serpent.
+ the poison of _dragons_. (Septuagint, "[Greek: drakon].")
+
+ Job vii., 12.--Am I a sea, or a Michaelis and others think,
+ _whale_, that thou settest a probably correctly, that the Nile
+ watch over me. and the crocodile, both objects of
+ vigilance to the Egyptians, are
+ intended.
+ (Septuagint, "[Greek: drakon].")
+
+ Psa. lxxiv., 14.--Thou didst Evidently refers to the destruction
+ divide the sea by thy strength. of the Egyptians in the Red
+ Thou breakest the heads of the Sea, under emblem of the crocodile.
+ _dragons_ in the waters. (Septuagint, "[Greek: drakon].")
+
+ Psa. xci., 13.--The young lion The association shows that a
+ and the _dragon_ thou shalt powerful carnivorous animal is
+ trample under foot. meant.
+ (Septuagint, "[Greek: drakon].")
+
+ Psa. cxlviii., 7.--Praise the Evidently an aquatic creature.
+ Lord, ye _dragons_ and all deeps. (Septuagint, "[Greek: drakon].")
+
+ Isa. xxvii., 1.--He shall slay A large predaceous aquatic animal
+ the _dragon_ in the midst of the (the crocodile), used here as
+ sea [river]. an emblem of Egypt.
+ (Septuagint, "[Greek: drakon].")
+
+ Isa. li., 9.--Hath cut Rahab and Same as above.
+ wounded the _dragon_.
+
+ Jer. li., 34.--[Nebuchadnezzar] A large predaceous animal.
+ hath swallowed me up as a (Septuagint, [Greek: "drakon."])
+ _dragon_.
+
+ Ezek. xxix., 3.--Pharaoh, king In the Hebrew _tanim_ appears by
+ of Egypt, the great _dragon_ mistake for _tannin_. This is
+ that lieth in the rivers. clearly the crocodile of the Nile.
+ Verses 4 and 5 show that it is a
+ large aquatic animal with _scales_.
+ (Septuagint, [Greek: "drakon."])
+
+ 2. TAN.
+
+ Psa. xliv., 19.--Thou hast sore Some understand this of shipwreck;
+ broken us in the place of but, more probably, the
+ _dragons_. place of dragons is the desert.
+ (Septuagint, [Greek: "kakosis."])
+
+ Isa. xxxiv., 13.--[Bozrah in An animal inhabiting ruins, and
+ Idumea] shall be a habitation of associated with the ostrich.
+ _dragons_ and a court of owls [or (Septuagint, [Greek: "seiren."])
+ ostriches].
+
+ Isa. xliii., 20.--The wild Evidently an animal of the dry
+ beasts shall honor me, deserts.
+ the _dragons_ and the ostriches, (Septuagint, [Greek: "seiren."])
+ because I give water in the
+ wilderness.
+
+ Isa. xiii., 22.--Dragons in Represented as inhabiting the
+ their pleasant palaces. ruins of Babylon, and associated
+ with wild beasts of the desert.
+ (Septuagint, [Greek: "xchinos."])
+
+ Isa. xxxv., 7.--And the parched An animal making its lair or nest
+ ground shall become a pool, and in dry, parched places.
+ the thirsty land springs of (Septuagint, [Greek: "hornis."])
+ water; in the habitation of
+ _dragons_, where each lay, shall
+ be grass with reeds and rushes.
+
+ Job xxx., 29.--I am a brother of The association indicates an animal
+ _dragons_ and a companion of of the desert, and the context
+ ostriches. that its cry is mournful.
+ (Septuagint, [Greek: "seiren."])
+
+ Jer. ix., 11; x., 22.--I will Same as above. See also Jeremiah
+ make Jerusalem heaps, a den of xlix., 33; li., 37; and Mal. i., 3,
+ _dragons_. where the word is in the female
+ form (_tanoth_).
+ (Septuagint, [Greek: "drakon"] and
+ [Greek: "strouthos."])
+
+ Lam. iv., 3.--Even the In the Hebrew text the word is
+ _sea-monsters_ draw out the _tannin_, evidently an error for
+ breast, they give suck to their _tanim_. The suckling of young, and
+ young ones. The daughter of my association of ostriches, agree with
+ people is become cruel, like this. (Septuagint, "[Greek: drakon].")
+ the ostriches in the wilderness.
+
+ Micah i., 8.--I will make a The wailing cry accords with the
+ wailing like the _dragons_, and view of Gesenius that the jackal is
+ mourning like the owls meant.
+ [ostriches]. (Septuagint, "[Greek: drakon].")
+
+We learn from the above comparative view that the _tannin_ is an
+aquatic animal of large size, and predaceous, clothed with scales, and
+a fit emblem of the monarchies of Egypt and Assyria. In two places it
+is possible that some species of serpent is denoted by it. We must
+suppose, therefore, that in Genesis i. it denotes large crocodilian
+and perhaps serpentiform reptiles. The _tan_ is evidently a small
+mammal of the desert.
+
+I omitted to notice in the text a criticism of my explanation of the
+word _bhemah_ in "Archaia," made in Archdeacon Pratt's "Scripture and
+Science not at Variance" (edition of 1872). He opposes to the meaning
+of "herbivorous animals" which I have sought to establish, two
+exceptional passages. In one of these, Deut. xxviii., 26, the word is
+used in its most general sense for all beasts, which the context shows
+can not be its meaning in Gen. i. In the other, Prov. xxx., 30, he
+says it is applied to the lion. The actual expression used, however,
+merely implies that the lion is "mighty among _bhemah_," the
+comparison being probably between the strength of the lion and that of
+oxen, antelopes, and other strong and active creatures. It does not
+affirm that the lion is one of the _bhemah_. While I have every
+respect for the erudition of Archdeacon Pratt, and highly value his
+book, I must regard this objection as an example of a style of
+biblical exposition much to be deprecated, though too often employed.
+
+
+I.--ANCIENT MYTHOLOGIES.
+
+The current views respecting the relations of ancient mythologies with
+each other and with the Bible have been continually shifting and
+oscillating between extremes. The latest and at present most popular
+of these extreme views is that so well expounded by Dr. Max Mueller in
+his various essays on these subjects, and which traces at least the
+Indo-European theogony to a mere personification of natural objects.
+The views given in the text are those which to the author appear alone
+compatible with the Bible, and with the relations of Semitic and Aryan
+theology; but, as the subject is generally regarded from a quite
+different point of view, a little further explanation may be
+necessary.
+
+1. According to the Bible, spiritual monotheism is the primitive faith
+of man, and with this it ranks the doctrine of a malignant spirit or
+being opposed to God, and of a primitive state of perfection and
+happiness. It is scarcely necessary to say that these doctrines may be
+found as sub-strata in all the ancient theologies.
+
+2. In the Hebrew theology the fall introduces the new doctrine of a
+mediator or deliverer, human and divine, and an external symbolism,
+that of the cherubic forms, composite figures made up of parts of the
+man, the lion, the ox, and the eagle. These forms are referred back to
+Eden, where they are manifestly the emblems of the perfections of the
+Deity, lost to man by the fall, and now opposed to his entrance into
+Eden and access to the tree of life, the symbol of his immortal
+happiness. Subsequently the cherubim are the visible indications of
+the presence of God in the tabernacle and temple; and in the
+Apocalypse they reappear as emblems of the Divine perfections, as
+reflected in the character of man redeemed. The cherubim, as guardians
+of the sacred tree, and of sacred places in general, appear in the
+worship of the Assyrians and Egyptians, as the winged lions and bulls
+of the former, and the sphinx of the latter. They can also be
+recognized in the sepulchral monuments of Greek Asia and of Etruria.
+Farther, it was evidently an easy step to proceed from these cherubic
+figures to the adoration of sacred animals. But the cherubic emblems
+were connected with the idea of a coming Redeemer, and this was with
+equal ease perverted into hero-worship. Every great conqueror,
+inventor, or reformer was thus recognized as in some sense the "coming
+man," just as Eve supposed she saw him in her first-born. In addition
+to this, the sacredness of the first mother as the mother of the
+promised seed of the woman, led to the introduction of female deities.
+
+3. The earliest ecclesiastical system was the patriarchal, and this
+also admitted of corruption into idolatry. The great patriarch,
+venerable by age and wisdom, when he left this earth for the spirit
+world, was supposed there, in the presence of God, to be the special
+guardian of his children on earth. Some of the gods of Egypt and of
+Greece were obviously of this character, and in China and Polynesia we
+see at this day this kind of idolatry in a condition of active
+vitality.
+
+4. As stated in the text, the mythology of Egypt and Greece bears
+evident marks of having personified certain cosmological facts akin to
+those of the Hebrew narrative of creation. In this way ancient
+idolators disposed of the prehistoric and pre-Adamite world, changing
+it into a period of gods and demigods. This is very apparent in the
+remarkable Assyrian Genesis recovered by the late George Smith from
+the clay tablets found in the ruined palace of Assurbanipal.
+
+5. In all rude and imaginative nations, which have lost the distinct
+idea of the one God, the Creator, nature becomes more or less a
+source of superstitions. Its grand and more rare phenomena of
+volcanoes, earthquakes, thunder-storms, eclipses, become supernatural
+portents; and as the idea of power associates itself with them, they
+are personified as actual agents and become gods. In like manner, the
+more constant and useful objects and processes of nature become
+personified as beneficent deities. This may be, to a great extent, the
+character of the Aryan theology; but, except where all ideas of
+primitive religion and traditions of early history have been lost, it
+can not be the whole of the religion of any people. The Bible
+negatively recognizes this source of idolatry, in so constantly
+referring all natural phenomena to the divine decree. In connection
+with this, it is worthy of remark that rude man tends to venerate the
+new animal forms of strange lands. Something of this kind has probably
+led some of the American Indians to give a sort of divine honor to the
+bear. It was in Egypt that man first became familiar with the strange
+and gigantic fauna of Africa, whose effect on his mind in primitive
+times we may gather from the book of Job. In Egypt, consequently,
+there must have been a strong natural tendency to the adoration of
+animals.
+
+The above origins of idolatry and mythology, as stated or implied in
+the Bible, of course assume that the Semitic monotheistic religion is
+the primitive one. The first deviations from it probably originated in
+the family of Ham. A city of the Rephaim of Bashan was in the days of
+Abraham named after Ashtoreth Karnaim--the two-horned Astarte, a
+female divinity and prototype of Diana, and perhaps an historic
+personage, in whom both the moon and the domestic ox were rendered
+objects of worship. This is the earliest Bible notice of
+idolatry.[160] In Egypt a mythology of complex diversity existed at
+least as far back. We must remember, however, that Egypt is Cush as
+well as Mizraim, and its idolatry is probably to be traced, in the
+first instance, to the Nimrodic empire, from which, as from a common
+centre, certain new and irreligious ideas seem to have been propagated
+among all the branches of the human family. It is quite probable that
+the correspondences between Egyptian, Greek, and Hindoo myths go back
+as far as to the time when the first despotism was erected on the
+plain of Shinar, and when able but ungodly men set themselves to erect
+new political and social institutions on the ruins of all that their
+fathers had held sacred. In addition to this, the mythology and
+language of the Aryans alike bear the impress of the innovating and
+restless spirit of the sons of Japhet.
+
+I have stated the above propositions to show that the Bible affords a
+rational and connected theory of the origin of the false religions of
+antiquity; and to suggest as inquiries in relation to every form of
+mythology--how much of it is primitive monotheism, how much
+cherub-worship, how much hero-worship, how much ancestor-worship, how
+much distorted cosmogony, how much pure idealism and superstition,
+since all these are usually present. I may be allowed further to
+remind the reader how much evidence we have, even in modern times, of
+the strong tendency of the human mind to fall into one or another of
+these forms of idolatry; and to ask him to reflect that really the
+only effectual conservative element is that of revelation. How strong
+an argument is this for the necessity to man of an inspired rule of
+religious faith.
+
+[The above note was in substance contained in the Appendix to
+"Archaia" in 1860, and its correctness has, I think, been confirmed by
+subsequent discoveries.]
+
+
+K.--ASSYRIAN AND EGYPTIAN TEXTS.
+
+Progress is continually being made in the decipherment and publication
+of these, and new facts are coming to light in consequence as to the
+religions of the early postdiluvian period.
+
+According to the late George Smith and to Mr. Sayce, in their
+contributions to Bagster's "Records of the Past," the earliest
+monumental history of Babylonia reveals two races, the Akkadian or
+Urdu, a Turanian race, with an agglutinate language of the Finnish or
+Tartar type, and the Sumir or Keen-gi, believed to be Shemitic. The
+race of Akkad seems to have invented the cuneiform writing at a very
+early period, and it no doubt represents the primitive Cushites of the
+Bible, to whom is attributed the empire of Nimrod, whose first cities
+were Babel and Erech and Akkad and Calneh. Very ancient inscriptions
+of this early Chaldean or Cushite race exist, probably earlier than
+the time of Abraham. That of king Urukh, who is called "a very ancient
+king," on an inscription of Nabonadius, 555 B.C., represents himself
+as building temples to several gods and goddesses, so that in his time
+there was already a developed polytheism, unless, indeed, he was
+himself the inventor or introducer of much of it. Yet one can gather
+from the probably contemporary Creation and Deluge tablets translated
+by Mr. Smith, that a Supreme God was still recognized, and that the
+subordinate deities, though their worship was probably gaining in
+importance, were still only local and created beings. Yet it was
+undoubtedly from this embryo idolatry that Abraham dissented, and was
+thus led to leave his native land.
+
+In like manner, in the early Egyptian Hymn to Amen Ra, translated by
+Mr. Goodwin, though we have the gods mentioned, they are inferior
+beings, and not higher in position than the angels of the Old
+Testament, while Ra himself is "Lord of Eternity, Maker Everlasting,"
+and is praised as
+
+ "Chief creator of the whole earth,
+ Supporter of affairs above every god,
+ In whose goodness the gods rejoice."
+
+Thus, although there can be little doubt that Ra was a sun-god, there
+can be as little that he is the Il or El of the Shemitic peoples, and
+that his worship represents that of the one God, the Creator. It seems
+probable also that there was an esoteric doctrine of this kind among
+the priests and the educated, however gross the polytheism of the
+vulgar. In short, the state of things in Assyria and Egypt was not
+dissimilar from that prevailing at this day in India, where learned
+men may fall back upon the ancient Vedas, and maintain that their
+religion is monotheistic, while the common people worship innumerable
+gods. All this points to a primitive monotheism, just as the peculiar
+forms of adoration given to saints and the Virgin Mary in the Greek
+and Roman churches historically imply a primitive Christianity on
+which these newer beliefs and rites have been engrafted.
+
+
+L.--SPECIES AND VARIETAL FORMS WITH REFERENCE TO THE UNITY OF
+MAN.
+
+In the concluding chapters of "Archaia" the nature of species, as
+distinguished from varieties, was discussed, and specially applied to
+the varieties and races of man. This discussion has been omitted from
+the text of the present work; but, in an abridged form, is introduced
+here, with especial reference to those more recent views of this
+subject now prevalent in consequence of the growth of the philosophy
+of evolution; but which I feel convinced must, with the progress of
+science, return nearer to the opinions held by me in 1860, and
+summarized below.
+
+We can determine species only by the comparison of individuals. If all
+these agree in all their characters except those appertaining to sex,
+age, and other conditions of the individual merely, we say that they
+belong to the same species. If all species were invariable to this
+extent, there could be no practical difficulty, except that of
+obtaining specimens for comparison. But in the case of very many
+species there are minor differences, not sufficient to establish
+specific diversity, but to suggest its possibility; and in such cases
+there is often great liability to error. In cases of this kind we have
+principally two criteria: first, the nature and amount of the
+differences; secondly, their shading gradually into each other, or the
+contrary. Under the first of these we inquire--Are they no greater in
+amount than those which may be observed in individuals of the same
+parentage? Are they no greater than those which occur in other species
+of similar structure or habits? Do they occur in points known in
+other species to be readily variable, or in points that usually remain
+unchanged? Are none of them constant in the one supposed species, and
+constantly absent in the other? Under the second we ask--Are the
+individuals presenting these differences connected together by others
+showing a series of gradations uniting the extremes by minute degrees
+of difference? If we can answer these questions--or such of them as we
+have the means of answering--in the affirmative, we have no hesitation
+in referring all to the same species. If obliged to answer all or many
+in the negative, we must at least hesitate in the identification; and
+if the material is abundant, and the distinguishing characters clear
+and well defined, we conclude that there is a specific difference.
+
+Species determined in this way must possess certain general properties
+in common:
+
+1. Their individuals must fall within a certain range of uniform
+characters, wider or narrower in the case of different species.
+
+2. The intervals between species must be distinctly marked, and not
+slurred over by intermediate gradations.
+
+3. The specific characters must be invariably transmitted from
+generation to generation, so that they remain equally distinct in
+their limits if traced backward or forward in time, in so far as our
+observation may extend.
+
+4. Within the limits of the species there is more or less liability to
+variation; and this, though perhaps developed by external
+circumstances, is really inherent in the species, and must necessarily
+form a part of its proper description.
+
+5. There is also a physiological distinction between species, namely,
+that the individuals are sterile with one another, whereas this does
+not apply to varieties; and though Darwin has labored to break down
+this distinction by insisting on rare exceptional cases, and
+suggesting many supposed ways by which varieties of the same species
+might possibly attain to this kind of distinctness, the difference
+still remains as a fact in nature; though one not readily available in
+practically distinguishing species.
+
+These general properties of species will, I think, be admitted by all
+naturalists as based on nature, and absolutely necessary to the
+existence of natural history as a science, independently of any
+hypotheses as to the possible changes of specific forms in the lapse
+of time. I now proceed to give a similar summary of the laws of the
+varieties which may exist--always be it observed, within the limits of
+the species.
+
+1. The limits of variation are very different in different species.
+There are many in which no well-marked variations have been observed.
+There are others in which the variations are so marked that they have
+been divided, even by skilful naturalists, into distinct species or
+even genera. I do not here refer to differences of age and sex. These
+in many animals are so great that nothing but actual knowledge of the
+relation that subsists would prevent the individuals from being
+entirely separated from one another. I refer merely to the varieties
+that exist in adults of the same sex, including, however, those that
+depend on arrest of development, and thus make the adult of one
+variety resemble in some respects the young of another; as, for
+instance, in the hornless oxen, and beardless individuals among men.
+If we inquire as to the causes on which the greater or less
+disposition to vary depends, we must, in the first place, confess our
+ignorance, by saying that it appears to be in a great measure
+constitutional, or dependent on minute and as yet not distinctly
+appreciable structural, physiological, and psychical characters.
+Darwin states that Pallas long ago suggested, from the known facts
+that the seeds of hybrid plants and grafted trees are very variable,
+the theory that mixture of breeds tends to produce variability; but
+Darwin does not seem to attach much importance to this, and admits our
+inability to explain the origin of these differences.[161] We know,
+however, certain properties of species that are always or usually
+connected with great liability to variation. The principal of these
+are the following: 1. The liability to vary is, in many cases, not
+merely a specific peculiarity; it is often general in the members of a
+genus or family. Thus the cats, as a family, are little prone to vary;
+the wolves and foxes very much so. 2. Species that are very widely
+distributed over the earth's surface are usually very variable. In
+this case the capacity to vary probably adapts the creature to a great
+variety of circumstances, and so enables it to be widely distributed.
+It must be observed here that hardiness and variability of
+constitution are more important to extensive distribution than mere
+locomotive powers, for matters have evidently been so arranged in
+nature that, where the habitat is suitable, colonists will find their
+way to it, even in the face of difficulties almost insurmountable. 3.
+Constitutional liability to vary is sometimes connected with or
+dependent on extreme simplicity of structure, in other cases on a high
+degree of intelligence and consequent adaptation to various modes of
+subsistence. Those minute, simply organized, and very variable
+creatures, the Foraminifera, exemplify the first of these apparent
+causes; the crafty wolves furnish examples of the second. 4.
+Susceptibility to variation is farther modified by the greater or less
+adaptability of the digestive and locomotive organs to varied kinds of
+food and habitat. The monkeys, intelligent, imitative, and active, are
+nevertheless very limited in range and variability, because they can
+comfortably subsist only in forests, and in the warmer regions of the
+earth. The hog, more sluggish and less intelligent, has an omnivorous
+appetite, and no very special requirements of habitat, and so can vary
+greatly and extend over a large portion of the earth. Farther, in
+connection with this subject it may be observed that the conditions
+favorable to variation are also in the case of the higher animals
+favorable to domestication, while it may also be affirmed that, other
+things being equal, animals in a domesticated state are much more
+liable to vary than those in a wild state, and this independent of
+intentional selection. Darwin admits this, and gives many examples of
+it.
+
+2. Varieties may originate in two different ways. In the case of wild
+animals it is generally supposed that they are gradually induced by
+the slow operation of external influences; but it is certain that in
+domesticated animals they often appear suddenly and unexpectedly, and
+are not on that account at all less permanent. A large proportion of
+our breeds of domestic animals appear to originate in this way. A very
+remarkable instance is that of the "Niata" cattle of the Banda
+Orientale, described by Darwin in his "Voyage of a Naturalist." These
+cattle are believed to have originated about a century ago among the
+Indians to the south of the La Plata, and the breed propagates itself
+with great constancy. "They appear," says Darwin, "externally to hold
+nearly the same relation to other cattle which bull-dogs hold to other
+dogs. Their forehead is very short and broad, with the nasal end
+turned up, and the upper lip much drawn back; their lower jaws project
+outward; when walking they carry their heads low on a short neck, and
+their hinder legs are rather longer compared with the front legs than
+is usual." It is farther remarkable in respect to this breed that it
+is, from its conformation of head, less adapted to the severe droughts
+of those regions than the ordinary cattle, and can not, therefore, be
+regarded as an adaptation to circumstances. In his later work on
+animals under domestication, Darwin gives many other instances of the
+origination of breeds of cattle and other animals in this abrupt and
+mysterious manner, and without any selection, though he strongly leans
+to the conclusion that slow and gradual changes are the most frequent
+causes of variation. It is to be observed, however, that very slow
+changes are in more danger of being accidentally diverted or
+obliterated by crossing, and that the first stages of an incipient
+change may be too unimportant to be permanent.
+
+Many writers on the subject of the Unity of Man assume that any marked
+variety must require a long time for its production. Our experience in
+the case of the domestic animals teaches the reverse of this view; a
+very important point too often overlooked.
+
+3. The duration or permanence of varieties is very different. Some
+return at once to the normal type when the causes of change are
+removed. Others perpetuate themselves nearly as invariably as species,
+and are named races. It is these races only that we are likely to
+mistake for true species, since here we have that permanent
+reproduction which is one of the characteristics of the species. The
+race, however, wants the other characteristics of species as above
+stated; and it differs essentially in having branched from a primitive
+species, and in not having an independent origin. It is quite evident
+that in the absence of historical evidence we must be very likely to
+err by supposing races to have really originated in distinct
+"primordial forms." Such error is especially likely to arise if we
+overlook the fact of the sudden origination of such races, and their
+great permanency if kept distinct. There are two facts which deserve
+especial notice, as removing some of the difficulty in such cases. One
+is that well-marked races usually originate only in domesticated
+animals, or in wild animals which, owing to accidental circumstances,
+are placed in abnormal circumstances. Another is, that there always
+remains a tendency to return, in favorable circumstances, to the
+original type. This tendency to reversion is much underrated by Darwin
+and his followers; yet they constantly recur to it as a means of
+proving possible derivation, and their writings abound in examples of
+it. Perhaps the most remarkable of these reversions are those which
+occur when varieties destitute of all the markings of the original
+stock are crossed and reproduce those markings, which Darwin shows to
+occur in pigeons and domestic fowls. The domesticated races usually
+require a certain amount of care to preserve them in a state of
+purity, both on this account and on account of the readiness with
+which they intermix with other varieties of the same species. Many
+very interesting facts in illustration of these points might be
+adduced. The domesticated hog differs in many important characters
+from the wild boar. In South America and the West Indies it has
+returned, in three centuries or less, to its original form.[162] The
+horse is probably not known in a state originally wild, but it has run
+wild in America and in Siberia. In the prairies of North America,
+according to Catlin[163] they still show great varieties of color. The
+same is the case in Sable Island, off the coast of Nova Scotia[164]
+where herds of wild horses have existed since an early period in the
+settlement of America. In South America and Siberia they have assumed
+a uniform chestnut or bay color. In the plains of Western America they
+retain the dimensions and vigor of the better breeds of domesticated
+horses. In Sable Island they have already degenerated to the level of
+Highland ponies; but in all countries where they have run wild, the
+elongated and arched head, high shoulders, straight back, and other
+structural characters probably of the original wild horse, have
+appeared. We also learn from such instances that, while races among
+domesticated animals may appear suddenly, they revert to the original
+type, when unmixed, comparatively slowly; and this especially when the
+variation is in the nature of degeneracy.
+
+4. Some characters are more subject to variation than others. In the
+higher animals variation takes place very readily in the color and
+texture of the skin and its appendages. This, from its direct relation
+to the external world, and ready sympathy with the condition of the
+digestive organs, might be expected to take the lead. In those
+domesticated animals which are little liable to vary in other
+respects, as the cat and duck, the color very readily changes. Next
+may be placed the stature and external proportions, and the form of
+such appendages as the external ear and tail. All these characters are
+very variable in domestic animals. Next we may place the form of the
+skull, which, though little variable in the wild state, is nearly
+always changed by domestication. Psychological functions, as the
+so-called instincts of animals, are also very liable to change, and to
+have these changes perpetuated in races. Very remarkable instances of
+this have been collected by Sir C. Lyell[165] and Dr. Prichard.
+Lastly, important physiological characters, as the period of
+gestation, etc., and the structure of the internal organs connected
+with the functions of nutrition, respiration, etc., are little liable
+to change, and remain unaffected by the most extreme variations in
+other points; and it is, no doubt, in these more essential and
+internal parts that the tendency survives to return under favorable
+circumstances to the original type.
+
+5. Varieties or races of the same species are fully reproductive with
+each other, which is not the case with true species. Mutual sterility
+of varieties of the same species is an exceptional peculiarity, if it
+ever truly exist; and, on the other hand, the cross-fertilization of
+varieties of the same species, whether in animals or plants, tends to
+vigorous life, and also to return to the primitive or average type. On
+the other hand, intermixture of distinct species rarely, if ever,
+occurs freely in nature. It is generally a result of artificial
+contrivance. Again, hybrids produced from species known to be distinct
+are either wholly barren, or barren _inter se_, reproducing only with
+one of the original stocks, and rapidly returning to it; or if ever
+fertile _inter se_, which is somewhat doubtful, rapidly run out. It
+has been maintained by Pallas and others, and Darwin leans to this
+idea, that there is still another possibility, namely, that of the
+perfect and continued fertility of such mixed races, especially after
+long domestication; but their proofs are derived principally from the
+intermixture of the races of dogs and of poultry, which are cases
+actually in dispute at present, as to the original unity or diversity
+of the so-called species.
+
+If we apply these considerations to man, our conclusion must be that,
+even in his bodily frame, he is not merely specifically but ordinally
+distinct from other animals, and that the differences between races of
+men are varietal rather than specific. This view is confirmed by the
+following facts:
+
+1. The case of man is not that of a wild animal; and it presents many
+points of difference even from the case of the domesticated lower
+animals. According to the Bible history, man was originally fitted to
+subsist on fruits, to inhabit a temperate climate, and to be exempt
+from the necessity of destroying or contending with other animals.
+This view unquestionably accords very well with his organization. He
+still subsists principally on vegetable food, is most numerous in the
+warmer regions of the earth; and, when so subsisting in these regions,
+is naturally peaceful and timid. On the whole, however, his habits of
+life are artificial--more so than those of any domesticated animal. He
+is, therefore, in the conditions most favorable to variation. Again,
+man possesses more than merely animal instincts. His mental powers
+permit him to devise means of locomotion, of protection, of
+subsistence, far superior to those of any mere animal; and his
+dominant will, insatiable in its desires, bends the bodily frame to
+uses and exposes it to external influences more various than any
+inferior animal can dream of. Man is also more educable and plastic in
+his constitution than other animals, owing both to his being less
+hemmed in by unchanging instincts, and to his physical frame being
+less restricted in its adaptations. If a single species, he is also
+more widely distributed than any other; and there are even single
+races which exceed in their extent of distribution nearly all the
+inferior animals. Nor is there anything in his structure specially to
+limit him to plains, or hills, or forests, or coasts, or inland
+regions. All the causes which we can suppose likely to produce
+variation thus meet in man, who is himself the producer of most of the
+distinct races that we observe in the lower animals. If, therefore, we
+condescend to compare man with these creatures, it must be under
+protest that what we learn from them must be understood with reference
+to his greater capabilities.
+
+2. The races of men are deficient in some of the essential characters
+of species. It is true that they are reproduced with considerable
+permanency; though a great many cases of spontaneous change, of
+atavism, or return to the character of progenitors, and of slow
+variation under changed conditions, have been recorded. But the most
+manifest deficiency in true specific characters is in the invariable
+shading-off of one race into another, and in the entire failure of
+those who maintain the distinction of species in the attempt
+accurately to define their number and limits. The characters run into
+each other in such a manner that no natural arrangement based on the
+whole can apparently be arrived at; and when one particular ground is
+taken, as color, or shape of skull, the so-called species have still
+no distinct limits; and all the arrangements formed differ from each
+other, and from the deductions of philology and history. Thus, from
+the division of Virey into two species, on the entirely arbitrary
+ground of facial angle, to that of Bory de St. Vincent into fifteen,
+we have a great number and variety of distinctions, all incapable of
+zoological definition; or, if capable of definition, eminently
+unnatural. There are, in short, no missing links between the varieties
+of men corresponding to that which obtains between man and lower
+animals.
+
+3. The races of men differ in those points in which the higher animals
+usually vary with the greatest facility. The physical characters
+chiefly relied on have been color, character of hair, and form of
+skull, together with diversities in stature and general proportion.
+These are precisely the points in which our domestic races are most
+prone to vary. The manner in which these characters differ in the
+races of men may be aptly illustrated by a few examples of the
+arrangements to which they lead.
+
+Dr. Pickering, of the U. S. Exploring Expedition[166]--who does not,
+however, commit himself to any specific distinctions--has arranged the
+various races of men on the very simple and obvious ground of color.
+He obtains in this way four races--the White, the Brown, the
+Blackish-brown, the Black. The distinction is easy; but it divides
+races historically, philologically, and structurally alike; and unites
+those which, on other grounds, would be separated. The white race
+includes the Hamite Abyssinian, the Semitic Arabian, the Japhetic
+Greek. The Ethiopian or Berber is separated from the cognate
+Abyssinian, and the dark Hindoo from the paler races speaking like him
+tongues allied to the Sanscrit. The Papuan, on the other hand, takes
+his place with the Hindoo; while the allied Australian must be content
+to rank with the Negro; and the Hottentot is promoted to a place
+beside the Malay. It is unnecessary to pursue any farther the
+arrangement of this painstaking and conscientious inquirer. It
+conclusively demonstrates that the color of the varieties of the human
+race must be arbitrary and accidental, and altogether independent of
+unity or diversity of origin.
+
+Some use has been made, by the advocates of diversity of species, of
+the quality of the hair in the different races. That of the Negro is
+said to be flat in its cross section--in this respect approaching to
+wool; that of the European is oval; and that of the Mongolian and
+American round.[167] The subject has as yet been very imperfectly
+investigated; but its indications point to no greater variety than
+that which occurs in many domesticated animals--as, for instance, the
+hog and sheep. Nay, Dr. Carpenter states[168]--and the writer has
+satisfied himself of the fact by his own observation--that it does not
+exceed the differences in the hair from different parts of the body of
+the same individual. The human hair, like that of mammals in general,
+consists of three tissues: an outer cortical layer, marked by
+transverse striae, having in man the aspect of delicate lines, but in
+many other animals assuming the character of distinct joints or
+prominent serrations; a layer of elongated, fibrous cells, to which
+the hair owes most of its tenacity; and an inner cylinder of rounded
+cells. In the proportionate development of these several parts, in the
+quantity of coloring matter present, and in the transverse section,
+the human hair differs very considerably in different parts of the
+body. It also differs very markedly in individuals of different
+complexions. Similar but not greater differences obtain in the hair of
+the scalp in different races; but the flatness of the Negro's hair
+connects itself inseparably with the oval of the hair of the ordinary
+European, and this with the round observed in some other races. It
+generally holds that curled and frizzled hair is flatter than that
+which is lank and straight; but this is not constant, for I have found
+that the waved or frizzled hair of the New Hebrideans, intermediate
+apparently between the Polynesians and Papuans, is nearly circular in
+outline, and differs from European hair mainly in the greater
+development of the fibrous structure and the intensity of the color.
+Large series of comparisons are required; but those already made point
+to variation rather than specific difference. Some facts also appear
+to indicate very marked differences as occurring in the same race from
+constant exposure or habitual covering; and also the occasional
+appearance of the most abnormal forms, without apparent cause, in
+individuals. The differences depending on greater or less abundance or
+vigor of growth of the hair are obviously altogether trivial, when
+compared with such examples as the hairless dogs of Chili and hairless
+cattle of Brazil, or even with the differences in this respect
+observed in individuals of the same race of men.
+
+Confessedly the most important differences of the races of men are
+those of the skeleton, in all parts of which variations of proportion
+occur, and are of course more or less communicated to the muscular
+investments. Of these, as they exist in the pelvis, limbs, etc., I
+need say nothing; for, manifest though they are, they all fall far
+within the limits of variation in familiar domestic animals, and also
+of hereditary malformation or defect of development occurring in the
+European nations, and only requiring isolation for its perpetuation as
+a race. The differences in the skull merit more attention, for it is
+in this and in its enclosed brain that man most markedly differs from
+the lower animals, as well as race from race. It is in the form rather
+than in the mere dimensions of the skull that we should look for
+specific differences; and here, adopting the vertical method of
+Blumenbach as the most characteristic and valuable, we find a greater
+or less antero-posterior diameter--a greater or less development of
+the jaws and bones of the face. The skull of the normal European, or
+Caucasian of Cuvier, is round oval; and the jaws and cheek-bones
+project little beyond its anterior margin, when viewed from above. The
+skull of the Mongolian of Cuvier is nearly round, and the cheek-bones
+and jaws project much more strongly in front and at the sides. The
+Negro skull is lengthened from back to front; the jaws project
+strongly, or are prognathous; but the cheek-bones are little
+prominent. For the extremes of these varieties, Retzius proposed the
+names of brachy-kephalic or short-headed, and dolicho-kephalic or
+long-headed, which have come into general use. The differences
+indicated by these terms are of great interest, as distinctive marks
+of many of the unmixed races of men; but, when pushed to extremes,
+lead to very incorrect generalizations--as Professor D. Wilson has
+well shown in his paper on the supposed uniformity of type in the
+American races--a doctrine which he fully refutes by showing that
+within a very narrow geographical range this primitive and unmixed
+race presents very great differences of cranial form.[169] Exclusive
+of idiots, artificially compressed heads, and deformities, the
+differences between the brachy-kephalic and dolicho-kephalic heads
+range from equality in the parietal and longitudinal diameter to the
+proportion of about 14 to 24. As stated by some ethnologists, these
+differences appear quite characteristic and distinct; but, so soon as
+we attempt any minute discrimination, all confidence in them as
+specific characters disappears. In our ordinary European races similar
+differences, and nearly as extensive, occur. The dolicho-kephalic head
+is really only an immature form perpetuated; and appears not only in
+the Negro, but in the Esquimau, and in certain ancient and modern
+Celtic races. The brachy-kephalic head, in like manner, is
+characteristic of certain tribes and portions of tribes of Americans,
+but not of all; of many northern Asiatic nations; of certain Celtic
+and Scandinavian tribes; and often appears in the modern European
+races as an occasional character. Farther, as Retzius has well shown,
+the long heads and prominent jaws are not always associated with each
+other; and his classification is really the testimony of an able
+observer against the value of these characters. He shows that the
+Celtic and Germanic races (in part) have long heads and straight jaws;
+while the Negroes, Australians, Oceanians, Caribs, Greenlanders, etc.,
+have long heads and prominent jaws. The Laplanders, Finns, Turks,
+Sclaves, Persians, etc., have short heads and straight jaws; while the
+Tartars, Mongolians, Incas, Malays, Papuans, etc., have short heads
+and prominent jaws.
+
+Another defect in the argument often based on the diverse forms of
+heads is its want of acknowledgment of the ascertained and popularly
+known fact that these forms in different tribes or individuals of the
+same race are markedly influenced by culture and habits of life. In
+all races ignorance and debasement tend to induce a prognathous form,
+while culture tends to the elevation of the nasal bones, to an
+orthognathous condition of the jaws, and to an elevation and expansion
+of the cranium.[170]
+
+Again, no adequate allowance has been made in the case of these forms
+of skull for the influence of modes of nurture in infancy. Dr. Morton,
+observing that the brachy-kephalic American skull was often unequal
+sided, and the occiput much flattened, suggests that this is "an
+exaggeration of the natural form produced by the pressure of the
+cradle-board in common use among the American natives." Dr. Wilson has
+noticed the same unsymmetrical character in brachy-kephalic skulls in
+British barrows, and has suspected some artificial agency in infancy;
+and says, in reference to the American instances, "I think it
+extremely probable that further investigation will tend to the
+conclusion that the vertical or flattened occiput, instead of being a
+typical characteristic, pertains entirely to the class of artificial
+modifications of the natural cranium familiar to the American
+ethnologist."
+
+While the points in which the races of men vary are those in which
+lower animals are most liable to undergo change, the several races
+display a remarkable constancy in those which are usually less
+variable. Prichard and Carpenter have well shown this in relation to
+physiological points, as, for instance, the age of arriving at
+maturity, the average and extreme duration of life, and the several
+periods connected with reproduction. The coincidence in these points
+alone is by many eminent physiologists justly regarded as sufficient
+evidence of the unity of the species.
+
+4. It may also be affirmed, in relation to the varieties of man, that
+they do not exceed in amount or extent those observed in the lower
+animals. If with Frederick Cuvier, Dr. Carpenter, and many other
+naturalists, we regard the dog as a single species, descended in all
+probability from the wolf, we can have no hesitation in concluding
+that this animal far exceeds man in variability.[171] But this is
+denied by many, not without some show of reason; and we may,
+therefore, select some animal respecting which little doubt can be
+entertained. Perhaps the best example is the common hog (_Sus
+scrofa_), an undoubted descendant of the wild boar, and a creature
+especially suitable for comparison with man, inasmuch as its possible
+range of food is very much the same with his, which is not the case
+with any other of our domesticated animals; and as its headquarters as
+a species are in the same regions which have supported the greatest
+and oldest known communities of men. We may exclude from our
+comparison the Chinese hog, by some regarded as a distinct species
+(_Sus Indicus_), though no wild original is known, and it breeds
+freely with the common hog. The color of the domestic hog varies, like
+that of man, from white to black; and in the black hog the skin as
+well as the hair partakes of the dark color. The abundance and
+quality of the hair vary extremely; the stature and form are equally
+variable, much more so than in man. Blumenbach long ago remarked that
+the difference between the skull of the ordinary domestic hog and that
+of the wild boar is quite equal to that observed between the Negro and
+European skulls. Darwin shows that it is much greater, and illustrates
+this by an amusing pair of portraits. The breeds of swine even differ
+in directions altogether unparalleled in man. For instance, both in
+America and Europe solid-hoofed swine have originated and become a
+permanent variety; and there is said to be another variety with five
+toes.[172] These are the more remarkable, because, in the American
+instances, there can be no doubt that it is the common hog which has
+assumed these abnormal forms.
+
+5. All varieties or races of men intermix freely, in a manner which
+strongly indicates specific unity. We hold here, as already stated,
+that no good case of a permanent race arising from intermixture of
+distinct species of the lower animals has been adduced; but there is
+another fact in relation to this subject which the advocates of
+specific diversity would do well to study. Even in varieties of those
+domestic animals which are certainly specifically identical, as the
+hog, the sheep, the ox--although crosses between the varieties may
+easily be produced--they are not readily maintained, and sometimes
+tend to die out. What are called good crosses lead to improved energy,
+and continual breeding in and in of the same variety leads to
+degeneracy and decay; but, on the other hand, crosses of certain
+varieties are proved by experience to be of weakly and unproductive
+quality; and every practical book on cattle contains remarks on the
+difficulty of keeping up crosses without intermixture with one of the
+pure breeds. It would thus appear that very unlike varieties of the
+same species display in this respect, in an imperfect manner, the
+peculiarities of distinct species. It is on this principle that I
+would in part account for some of the exceptional facts which occur in
+mixed races of men.
+
+What, then, are the facts in the case of man? In producing crosses of
+distinct species, as in the case of the horse and ass, breeders are
+obliged to resort to expedients to overcome the natural repugnance to
+such intermixture. In the case of even the most extreme varieties of
+man, if such repugnance exists, it is voluntarily overcome, as the
+slave population of America testifies abundantly. By far the greater
+part of the intermixtures of races of men tend to increase of vital
+energy and vigor, as in the case of judicious crosses of some domestic
+animals. Where a different result occurs, we usually find sufficient
+secondary causes to account for it. I shall refer to but one such
+case--that of the half-breed American Indian. In so far as I have had
+opportunities of observation or inquiry, these people are prolific,
+much more so than the unmixed Indian. They are also energetic, and
+often highly intellectual; but they are of delicate constitution,
+especially liable to scrofulous diseases, and therefore not
+long-lived. Now this is precisely the result which often occurs in
+domestic animals, where a highly cultivated race is bred with one that
+is of ruder character and training; and it very probably results from
+the circumstance that the progeny may inherit too much of the delicacy
+of the one parent to endure the hardships congenial to the other; or,
+on the other hand, too much of the wild nature of the ruder parent to
+subsist under the more delicate nurture of the more cultivated. This
+difficulty does not apply to the intermixture of the Negro and the
+European, though between the pure races this is a cross too abrupt to
+be likely to be in the first instance successful.
+
+6. The races of man may have originated in the same manner with the
+breeds of our domesticated animals. There are many facts which render
+it probable that they did originate in this way. Take color, for
+instance. The fair varieties of man occur only in the northern
+temperate zone, and chiefly in the equable climates of that zone. In
+extreme climates, even when cold, dusky and yellow colors appear. The
+black and blackish-brown colors are confined to the inter-tropical
+regions, and appear in such portions of all the great races of mankind
+as have been long domiciled there. Diet and degree of exposure have
+also evidently very much to do with form, stature, and color. The
+deer-eating Chippewayan of certain districts of North America is a
+better developed man than his compatriots who subsist principally on
+rabbits and such meaner fare; and excess of carbonaceous food, and
+deficiency of perspiration or of combustion in the lungs, appear
+everywhere to darken the skin.[173] The Negro type in its extreme form
+is peculiar to low and humid river valleys of tropical Africa. In
+Australasia similar characters appear in men of a very different race
+in similar circumstances. The Mongolian type reappears in South
+Africa. The Esquimau is like the Fuegian. The American Indian, both of
+South and North America, resembles the Mongol; but in several of the
+middle regions of the American continent men appear who approximate to
+the Malay. Everywhere and in all races coarse features and deviations
+from the oval form of skull are observed in rude populations. Where
+men have sunk into a child-like simplicity, the elongated forms
+prevail. Where they have become carnivorous, aggressive, and actively
+barbarous, the brachy-kephalic forms abound. These and many other
+considerations tend to the conclusion that these varieties are
+inseparably connected with external conditions. It may still be
+asked--Were not the races created as they are, with especial reference
+to these conditions? I answer no--because the differences are of a
+character in every respect like those that appear in other true
+species as the results of influences from without.
+
+Farther, not only have we varieties of man resulting from the slow
+operation of climatal and other conditions, but we have the sudden
+development of races. One remarkable instance may illustrate my
+meaning. It is the hairy family of Siam, described by Mr. Crawford and
+Mr. Yule.[174] The peculiarities here consisted of a fine silky coat
+of hair covering the face and less thickly the whole body, with at the
+same time the entire absence of the canine and molar teeth. The person
+in whom these characters originated was sent to Ava as a curiosity
+when five years old. He married at twenty-two, his wife being an
+ordinary Burmese woman. One of two children who survived infancy had
+all the characters of the father. This was a girl; and on her marriage
+the same characters reappeared in one of two boys constituting her
+family when seen by Mr. Yule. Here was a variety of a most extreme
+character, originating without apparent cause, and capable of
+propagation for three generations, even when crossed with the ordinary
+type. Had it originated in circumstances favorable to the preservation
+of its purity, it might have produced a tribe or nation of hairy men,
+with no teeth except incisors. Such a tribe would, with some
+ethnologists, have constituted a new and very distinct species; and
+any one who had suggested the possibility of its having originated
+within a few generations as a variety would have been laughed at for
+his credulity. It is unnecessary to cite any further instances. I
+merely wish to insist on the necessity of a rigid comparison of the
+variations which appear in man, either suddenly or in a slow or
+secular manner, with the characters of the so-called races or species.
+
+7. If we turn from the merely physical constitution of man, and
+inquire as to his psychical and spiritual endowments, it would be easy
+to show, as Dr. Carpenter and others have done, in opposition to
+Darwin, that on the one hand an impassable barrier separates man from
+the lower animals, and that on the other there is an essential unity
+among the races of men. But this subject I have discussed fully in the
+concluding chapters of my "Story of the Earth."
+
+If man is thus so very variable, and if many of his leading varieties
+have existed for a very long time, does not the fact that we have but
+one species afford very strong evidence that species change only
+within fixed limits, and do not pass over into new specific types.
+Viewed in this way, variability within the specific limits becomes in
+itself one of the strongest arguments against the doctrine of descent
+with modification as a mode of origination of new species.
+
+Let us now add to all this the farther consideration, so well
+illustrated in the "Reliquiae Aquitanicae" of Christy and Lartet, that
+the oldest-known men of the caves and gravels may be placed in one of
+the varieties, and this the most widely distributed, of modern man,
+and we have a further argument which tells most strongly against the
+assumption either of the extreme antiquity or of the unlimited
+variability of the human species.
+
+
+
+
+FOOTNOTES
+
+
+[Footnote 1: Argyll's "Primeval Man."]
+
+[Footnote 2: Essays on Theism, 1875.]
+
+[Footnote 3: John i., 9.]
+
+[Footnote 4: Hebrews xi., 3.]
+
+[Footnote 5: I avail myself of the condensed translation in Bancroft's
+"Native Races," vol. iii. The original French translation of Brasseur du
+Bourbourg is more full.]
+
+[Footnote 6: The Feathered Serpent is perhaps the representative of the
+Dragon and Serpent in the Semitic version; but has not the same evil
+import, and his color gave sacredness to blue and green stones, as the
+turquois and emerald, both in North and South America, and perhaps also
+in Asia and Africa.]
+
+[Footnote 7: I do not think it necessary to attach any value to the
+doubts of certain schools of criticism as to the Mosaic authorship of
+the Pentateuch. Whatever quibbles may be raised on isolated texts, no
+rational student can doubt that we have in these books a collection of
+authentic documents of the Exodus. They are absolutely inexplicable on
+any other supposition.]
+
+[Footnote 8: "Cosmos," Otte's translation.]
+
+[Footnote 9: Hamilton, "Royal Preacher."]
+
+[Footnote 10: Harvey, "Nereis Boreali Americana."]
+
+[Footnote 11: Osburn, "Monumental History of Egypt."]
+
+[Footnote 12: On this subject I may refer naturalists to the intimate
+acquaintance with animals and their habits, indicated by manner of their
+use as sacred emblems, and as symbols in hieroglyphic writing. Another
+illustration is afforded by the Mosaic narrative of the miracles and
+plagues connected with the exodus. The Egyptian king, on this occasion,
+consulted the _philosophers_ and _augurs_. These learned men evidently
+regarded the serpent-rod miracle as but a more skilful form of one of
+the tricks of serpent-charmers. They showed Pharaoh the possibility of
+reddening the Nile water by artificial means, or perhaps by the
+development of red algae in it. They explained the inroad of frogs on
+natural principles, probably referring to the immense abundance
+ordinarily of the ova and tadpoles of these creatures compared with that
+of the adults. But when the dust of the land became gnats ("lice" in our
+version), this was a phenomenon beyond their experience. Either the
+species was unknown to them, or its production out of the dry ground was
+an anomaly, or they knew that no larvae adequate to explain it had
+previously existed. In the case of this plague, therefore, comparatively
+insignificant and easily simulated, they honestly confessed--"This is
+the finger of God." No better evidence could be desired that the savans
+here opposed to Moses were men of high character and extensive
+observation. Many other facts of similar tendency might be cited both
+from Moses and the Egyptian monuments.]
+
+[Footnote 13: That in Genesis, chap. ii.]
+
+[Footnote 14: Kitto's Cyclopaedia, art. "Creation."]
+
+[Footnote 15: Much that is very silly has been written as to the extent
+of the supposed "optical view" taken by the Hebrew writers; many worthy
+literary men appearing to suppose that _scientific_ views of nature must
+necessarily be different from those which we obtain by the evidence of
+our senses. The very contrary is the fact; and so long as any writers
+state correctly what they observe, without insisting on any fanciful
+hypotheses, science has no fault to find with them. What science most
+detests is the ignorant speculations of those who have not observed at
+all, or have observed imperfectly. It is a leading excellence of the
+Hebrew Scriptures that they state facts without giving any theories to
+account for them. It is, on the contrary, the circumstance that
+unscientific writers will not be content to be "optical," but must
+theorize, that spoils much of our modern literature, especially in its
+descriptions of nature.]
+
+[Footnote 16: Prof. Hitchcock.]
+
+[Footnote 17: McCosh, "Typical Forms and Special Ends."]
+
+[Footnote 18: I adopt that view of the date of Job which makes it
+precede the Exodus, because the religious ideas of the book are
+patriarchal, and it contains no allusions to the Hebrew history or
+institutions. Were I to suggest an hypothesis as to its origin, it would
+be that it was written or found by Moses when in exile, and published
+among his countrymen in Egypt, to revive their monotheistic religion,
+and cheer them under the apparent desertion of their God and the evils
+of their bondage.]
+
+[Footnote 19: Tyndall seems to hold this.]
+
+[Footnote 20: Newton.]
+
+[Footnote 21: John v., 17; Rom. viii., 22; Heb. i., 2; 2 Peter iii.]
+
+[Footnote 22: Heb. i., 2.]
+
+[Footnote 23: Eph. iii., 9.]
+
+[Footnote 24: 1 Tim. i., 17.]
+
+[Footnote 25: Eph. iv., 11.]
+
+[Footnote 26: Job xxxviii. and xxxix.]
+
+[Footnote 27: Romans i., 20.]
+
+[Footnote 28: Essays on Theism.]
+
+[Footnote 29: Herschel, Dissertation on the Study of Natural Philosophy;
+Maxwell, Lecture before the British Association.]
+
+[Footnote 30: Carpenter, "Human Physiology."]
+
+[Footnote 31: Asah.]
+
+[Footnote 32: McDonald, "Creation and the Fall."]
+
+[Footnote 33: Literally, "ages" or "time-worlds," as they have been
+called.]
+
+[Footnote 34: Genesis i., 8, 26-28.]
+
+[Footnote 35: Job xxxviii., 37.]
+
+[Footnote 36: Gen. i., 14; Deut. xvii., 3.]
+
+[Footnote 37: Gen. xxviii., 17; Job xv., 15; Psa. ii., 4.]
+
+[Footnote 38: Not "created," as some read. The verb is _kana_, not
+_bara_.]
+
+[Footnote 39: The usual Septuagint rendering is _Abyssus_.]
+
+[Footnote 40: Smith, "Assyrian Genesis." Brasseur de Bourbourg's
+translation of the "Popol Vuh" of the ancient Central American Indians.]
+
+[Footnote 41: It is impossible to avoid recognizing in the Greek
+Theogony, as it appears in Hesiod and the Orphic poems, an inextricable
+intermingling of a cosmogony akin to that of Moses with legendary
+stories of deceased ancestors; and this has, I must confess, always
+appeared to me to be a more rational way of accounting for it than its
+reference to mere nature-myths. Chaos, or space, for the chaos of Hesiod
+differs from that of Ovid, came first, then Gaea, the earth, and
+Tartarus, or the lower world. Chaos gave birth to Erebos (identical with
+the Hebrew Ereb or Erev, evening) and Nyx, or night. These again give
+birth to Aether, the equivalent of the Hebrew expanse or firmament, and
+to Hemera, the day, and then the heavenly bodies were perfected. So far
+the legend is apparently based on some primitive history of creation,
+not essentially different from that of the Bible. But the Greek Theogony
+here skips suddenly to the human period; and under the fables of the
+marriage of Gaea and Uranos, and the Titans, appears to present to us
+the antediluvian world, with its intermarriages of the sons of God and
+men, and its Nephelim or Giants, with their mechanic arts and their
+crimes. Beyond this, in Kronos and his three sons, and in the strange
+history of Zeus, the chief of these, we have a coarse and fanciful
+version of the story of the family of Noah, the insult offered by Ham to
+his father, and the subsequent quarrels and dispersion of mankind. The
+Zeus of Homer appears to be the elder of the three, or Japheth, the real
+father of the Greeks, according to the Bible; but in the time of Hesiod
+Zeus was the youngest, perhaps indicating that the worship of the
+Egyptian Zeus, Ammon or Ham, had already supplanted among the Greeks
+that of their own ancestor. But it is curious that even in the Bible,
+though Japhet is said to be the greater, he is placed last in the lists.
+After the introduction of Greek savans and literati to Egypt, about B.C.
+660, they began to regard their own mythology from this point of view,
+though obliged to be reserved on the subject. The cosmology of Thales,
+the astronomy of Anaxagoras, and the history of Herodotus afford early
+evidence of this, and it abounds in later writers. I may refer the
+reader to Grote (History of Greece, vol. i.) for an able and agreeable
+summary of this subject; and may add that even the few coincidences
+above pointed out between Greek mythology and the Bible, independently
+of the multitudes of more doubtful character to be found in the older
+writers on this subject, appear very wonderful, when we consider that
+among the Greeks these vestiges of primitive religion, whether brought
+with them from the East or received from abroad, must have been handed
+down for a long time by oral tradition among the people; but obscure
+though they may be, the circumstance that some old writers have ridden
+the resemblances to death affords no excuse for the prevailing neglect
+of them in more modern times.]
+
+[Footnote 42: Pages 21, 22, and 109, _supra_.]
+
+[Footnote 43: The minor planets discovered in more recent times between
+Mars and Jupiter form an exception to this; but they are of little
+importance, and exceptional in other respects as well. To give their
+arrangement and the motions of the satellites of Uranus, would require
+the further assumption of some unknown disturbing cause.]
+
+[Footnote 44: Nichol's "Planetary System."]
+
+[Footnote 45: Proctor's Lectures, etc.]
+
+[Footnote 46: This translation is as literal as is consistent with the
+bold abruptness of the original. The last idea is that of a cylindrical
+seal rolling over clay, and leaving behind a beautiful impression where
+all before was a blank.]
+
+[Footnote 47: Professor Dana thus sums up the various meanings of the
+word _day_ in Genesis: "_First_, in verse 5, the _light_ in general is
+called day, the darkness night. _Second_, in the same verse, _evening
+and morning_ make the first day, before the sun appears. _Third_, in
+verse 14, day stands for _twelve hours_, or the period of daylight, as
+dependent on the sun. _Fourth_, same verse, in the phrase "days and
+seasons," day stands for a period of _twenty-four hours_. _Fifth_, at
+the close of the account, in verse 4 of the second chapter, day means
+the _whole period of creation_. These uses are the same that we have in
+our own language."
+
+Warring, in his book "The Miracle of To-day," has suggested that the
+Mosaic days are _epochal_ days, each considered as the close and
+culmination of a period. This is an ingenious suggestion, and very well
+coincides with the day-period theory as defended in the text.]
+
+[Footnote 48: Psalm xc.]
+
+[Footnote 49: It may be desirable to give here, in a slightly
+paraphrased version, but strictly in accordance with the views of the
+best expositors, the essential part of the passage in Hebrews, chap.
+iv.:
+
+"For God hath spoken in a certain place" (Gen. ii., 2) of the seventh
+day in this wise--'And God did rest on the seventh day from all his
+works;' and in this place again--'They shall not enter into my rest'
+(Psa. xcv., 11). Seeing, therefore, it still remaineth that some enter
+therein, and they to whom it (God's Sabbatism) was first proclaimed
+entered not in, because of disobedience (in the fall, and afterward in
+the sin of the Israelites in the desert), again he fixes a certain day,
+saying in David's writings, long after the time of Joshua--'To-day, if
+ye hear his voice, harden not your hearts.' For if Joshua had given them
+rest in Canaan, he would not afterward have spoken of another day. There
+is therefore yet reserved a keeping of a Sabbath for the people of God.
+For he that is entered into his rest (that is, Jesus Christ, who has
+finished his work and entered into his rest in heaven), he himself also
+rested from his own works, as God did from his own. Let us therefore
+earnestly strive to enter into that rest."
+
+It is evident that in this passage God's Sabbatism, the rest intended
+for man in Eden and for Israel in Canaan, Christ's rest in heaven after
+finishing his work, and the final heavenly rest of Christ's people, are
+all indefinite periods mutually related, and can not possibly be natural
+days.]
+
+[Footnote 50: For the benefit of those who may value ancient authorities
+in such matters, and to show that such views may rationally be
+entertained independently of geology, I quote the following passage from
+Origen: "Cuinam quaeso sensum habenti convenienter videbitur dictum, quod
+dies prima et secunda et tertia, in quibus et vespera nominatur, et
+mane, fuerint sine sole, et sine luna et sine stellis: prima autern dies
+sine coelo." So St. Augustine expressly states his belief that the
+creative days could not be of the ordinary kind: "Qui dies, cujusmodi
+sint, aut perdifficile nobis, aut etiam impossibile est cogitare, quanto
+magis discere." Bede also remarks, "Fortassis hic diei nomen, totius
+temporis nomen est, et omnia volumina seculorum hoc vocabulo includit."
+Many similar opinions of old commentators might be quoted. It is also
+not unworthy of note that the cardinal number is used here, "one day"
+for first day; and though the Hebrew grammarians have sought to found on
+this, and a few similar passages, a rule that the cardinal may be
+substituted for the ordinal, many learned Hebraists insist that this use
+of the cardinal number implies singularity and peculiarity as well as
+mere priority.]
+
+[Footnote 51: It is to be observed, however, that on the so-called
+literal day hypothesis the first Sabbath was not man's seventh day, but
+rather his first, since he must have been created toward the close of
+the sixth day.]
+
+[Footnote 52: "Footprints of the Creator."]
+
+[Footnote 53: This idea occurs in Lord Bacon's "Confession of Faith,"
+and De Luc also maintains that the Creator's Sabbath must have been of
+long continuance.]
+
+[Footnote 54: See the quotation from Job, _supra_.]
+
+[Footnote 55: This is not strictly correct, as many animals, especially
+of the lower tribes, extend back to the early tertiary periods, long
+before the creation of man; a fact which of itself is irreconcilable
+with the Mosaic narrative on the theory of literal or ordinary days.]
+
+[Footnote 56: Since this was written, the bones of many Batrachian
+reptiles have been found in the Carboniferous, both in Europe and
+America. No reptilian remains have yet been found in the Devonian
+rocks.]
+
+[Footnote 57: _Biblical Repository_, 1856. See also an excellent paper
+by Prof. C. H. Hitchcock, _Bibliotheca Sacra_, 1867.]
+
+[Footnote 58: Rhode, quoted by McDonald, "Creation and the Fall," p. 62;
+Eusebius, Chron. Arm.]
+
+[Footnote 59: Suidas, Lexicon--"Tyrrenia."]
+
+[Footnote 60: Diodorus Siculus, bk. i. Prichard, Egyptian Mythology.]
+
+[Footnote 61: "Asiatic Researches."]
+
+[Footnote 62: This name is exactly identical in meaning with the Hebrew
+Jehovah Elohim.]
+
+[Footnote 63: Mueller, Sanscrit Literature.]
+
+[Footnote 64: The theology of the Institutes is clearly primitive
+Semitic in its character; and therefore, if the Bible is true, must be
+older than the Aryan theogony of the Rig-Veda, as expounded by Mueller,
+whatever the relative age of the documents.]
+
+[Footnote 65: "Recent Advances in Physical Science."]
+
+[Footnote 66: Croll's "Climate and Time" contains some interesting facts
+as to this.]
+
+[Footnote 67: See the discussion of this in the author's "Story of the
+Earth," and in Sir William Thomson's British Association Address, 1876.]
+
+[Footnote 68: Daniell's Meteorological Essays; Prout's Bridgewater
+Treatise; art. "Meteorology," Encyc. Brit.; "Maury's Physical Geography
+of the Sea."]
+
+[Footnote 69: Kaemtz, "Course of Meteorology."]
+
+[Footnote 70: Encyc. Brit., art. "Meteorology."]
+
+[Footnote 71: It is not meant that the word _rakiah_ occurs in these
+passages, but to show how by other words the idea of stretching out or
+extension rather than solidity is implied. The verb in the first two
+passages is _nata_, to spread out.]
+
+[Footnote 72: See also Humboldt, "Cosmos," vol. ii., pt. 1.]
+
+[Footnote 73: Heb., "they refine."]
+
+[Footnote 74: "His pavilion round about him was dark waters and thick
+clouds of the skies," Psa. xviii. This expression explains that in the
+text.]
+
+[Footnote 75: Or "He darkens the depths of the sea."]
+
+[Footnote 76: Translation of these lines much disputed and very
+difficult. Gesenius and Conant render it, "His thunder tells of him; to
+the herds even of him who is on high."]
+
+[Footnote 77: I take advantage of this long quotation to state that in
+the case of this and other passages quoted from the Old Testament I have
+carefully consulted the original; but have availed myself freely of the
+renderings of such of the numerous versions and commentaries as I have
+been able to obtain, whenever they appeared accurate and expressive, and
+have not scrupled occasionally to give a free translation where this
+seemed necessary to perspicuity. In the book of Job, I have consulted
+principally the translation appended to Barnes's Commentary, Conant's
+translation, 1857, and those of Tayler Lewis and Evans in Schaff's
+edition of Lange, 1874.]
+
+[Footnote 78: The word is one of those that pervade both Semitic and
+Indo-European tongues: Sanscrit, _ahara_; Pehlevi, _arta_; Latin,
+_terra_; German, _Erde_; Gothic, _airtha_; Scottish, _yird_; English,
+_earth_.--Gesenius.]
+
+[Footnote 79: Psalm xcv.]
+
+[Footnote 80: Gesenius.]
+
+[Footnote 81: Perhaps "changed," metamorphosed, as by fire. Conant has
+"destroyed."]
+
+[Footnote 82: "Dust" in our version, literally lumps or "nuggets."]
+
+[Footnote 83: The vulgar and incorrect idea that the vulture "scents the
+carrion from afar," so often reproduced by later poets, has no place in
+the Bible poetry. It is the bird's keen eye that enables him to find his
+prey.]
+
+[Footnote 84: Lyell's "Principles of Geology."]
+
+[Footnote 85: Stanford, London, 1875.]
+
+[Footnote 86: In further explanation of these general geological
+changes, see "The Story of the Earth and Man," by the author.]
+
+[Footnote 87: "Tenera herba, sine semine saltem
+conspicuo."--Rosenmueller, "Scholia."]
+
+[Footnote 88: Haughton, Address to the Geological Society, Dublin.]
+
+[Footnote 89: See McDonald, "Creation and the Fall." Professor Guyot, I
+believe, deserves the credit of having first mentioned, on the American
+side of the Atlantic, the doctrine respecting the introduction of plants
+advocated in this chapter.]
+
+[Footnote 90: "Eozoic" of this work. Professor Dana in the latest
+edition of his Manual uses the name "Archaean."]
+
+[Footnote 91: This may refer to an eclipse, but from the character of
+the preceding verses more probably to the obscurity of a tempest. It is
+remarkable that eclipses, which so much strike the minds of men and
+affect them with superstitious awe, are not distinctly mentioned in the
+Old Testament, though referred to in the prophetical parts of the New
+Testament.]
+
+[Footnote 92: Perhaps rather the high places of the waters, referring to
+the atmospheric waters.]
+
+[Footnote 93: The rendering "sweet influences" in our version may be
+correct, but the weight of argument appears to favor the view of
+Gesenius that the close bond of union between the stars of this group is
+referred to. I think it is Herder who well unites both views, the
+Pleiades being bound together in a sisterly union, and also ushering in
+the spring by their appearance above the horizon. Conant applies the
+whole to the seasons, the bands of Orion being in this view those of
+winter.]
+
+[Footnote 94: It would be unfair to suppress the farther probability
+that the writer intends specially to indicate that the sacred crocodile
+of the Nile was itself a creature of Jehovah, and among the humbler of
+those creatures.]
+
+[Footnote 95: The interesting discovery, by Mr. Beale and others, of
+several species of mammalia in the Purbeck, and that of Professor Emmons
+of a mammal in rocks of similar age in the Southern States of America,
+do not invalidate this statement; for all these, like the _Microlestes_
+of the German trias and the _Amphitherium_ of the Stonesfeld slate, are
+small marsupials belonging to the least perfect type of mammals. The
+discovery of so many species of these humbler creatures, goes far to
+increase the improbability of the existence of the higher mammals.]
+
+[Footnote 96: It is very interesting, in connection with this, to note
+that nearly all the earliest and greatest seats of population and
+civilization have been placed on the more modern geological deposits, or
+on those in which stores of fuel have been accumulated by the growth of
+extinct plants.]
+
+[Footnote 97: See Appendix.]
+
+[Footnote 98: See Appendix for farther discussion of this subject.]
+
+[Footnote 99: See Lyell, Principles of Geology, "Introduction of
+Species."]
+
+[Footnote 100: For the exposition of the details of the fall, I beg to
+refer the reader to McDonald's "Creation and the Fall," to Kitto's
+"Antediluvians and Patriarchs," and to Kurtz's "History of the Old
+Covenant."]
+
+[Footnote 101: The Bible specifies, perhaps only as the principal of
+these arts, music and musical instruments by Jubal, metallurgy by
+Tubalcain, the domestication of cattle and the nomade life by Jabal. It
+is highly probable that these inventors are introduced into the Mosaic
+record for a theological reason, to point out the folly of the worship
+rendered to Phtha, Hephaestos, Vulcan, Horus, Phoebus, and other
+inventors, either traditionary representatives of the family of Lamech,
+or other heroes wrongly identified with them. Very possibly their sister
+Naamah, "the beautiful," is introduced for the same reason, as the true
+original of some of the female deities of the heathen.]
+
+[Footnote 102: I can not for a moment entertain the monstrous
+supposition of many expositors that the "sons of God" of these passages
+are angels, and the "Nephelim" hybrids between angels and men.]
+
+[Footnote 103: See Lange's "Commentary on Genesis."]
+
+[Footnote 104: The Russian surveys of 1836 made it one hundred and eight
+English feet; but later authorities reduce it to eighty-three feet six
+inches below the Black Sea.]
+
+[Footnote 105: Kitto's "Bible Illustrations"--Book of Job.]
+
+[Footnote 106: See article "Rephaim" in Kitto's "Journal of Sacred
+Literature." But Gesenius and others regard it, not as an ethnic name,
+but as a term for the "shades" or spirits of the dead. See Conant on
+Job.]
+
+[Footnote 107: On the Biblical view of this subject, the so-called
+Aryan mythology, common to India and Greece, is either a derivative from
+the Cushite civilization, or a spontaneous growth of the Japetic stock
+scattered by the Cushite empire. The Semitic and Hamitic mythologies are
+derived from the primeval cherubic worship of Eden, corrupted and mixed
+with deification of natural objects and stages of the creative work, and
+with adoration of deified ancestors and heroes.]
+
+[Footnote 108: Genesis 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th chapters. See also our
+previous remarks on the deluge.]
+
+[Footnote 109: Genesis iv.]
+
+[Footnote 110: Japheth is "enlargement," his sons are Scythians and
+inhabitants of the isles, varying in language and nationality; and Noah
+predicts, "God shall enlarge Japheth, he shall dwell in the tents of
+Shem, Ham shall be his servant." These are surely characteristic
+ethnological traits for a period so early. On the rationalist view, it
+may be supposed that this prediction was not written until the
+characters in question had developed themselves; but since the greatest
+enlargement of Japheth has occurred since the discovery of America,
+there would be quite as good ground for maintaining that Noah's prophecy
+was interpolated after the time of Columbus.]
+
+[Footnote 111: The language of this people, the stem of the
+Indo-European languages, is, though in a later form, probably that of
+the Aryan or Persepolitan part of the trilingual inscriptions at
+Behistun and elsewhere in Persia.]
+
+[Footnote 112: Edkins, "China's Place in Philology."]
+
+[Footnote 113: Reginald S. Poole has adduced very ingenious arguments,
+monumental, astronomical, and mythological, for the date B.C. 2717.]
+
+[Footnote 114: It is curious that almost simultaneously with the
+appearance of Bunsen's scheme a similiar view was attempted to be
+maintained on geological grounds. In a series of borings in the delta of
+the Nile, undertaken by Mr. Horner, there was found a piece of pottery
+at a depth which appeared to indicate an antiquity of 13,371 years. But
+the basis of the calculation is the rate of deposit (3-1/2 inches per
+century) calculated for the ground around the statue of Rameses II. at
+Memphis, dated at 1361 B.C.; and Mr. Sharpe has objected that no mud
+could have been deposited around that statue from its erection until the
+destruction of Memphis, perhaps 800 years B.C. Farther, we have to take
+into account the natural or artificial changes of the river's bed, which
+in this very place is said to have been diverted from its course by
+Menes, and which near Cairo is now nearly a mile from its former site.
+The liability to error and fraud in boring operations is also very well
+known. It has farther been suggested that the deep cracks which form in
+the soil of Egypt, and the sinking of wells in ancient times, are other
+probable causes of error; and it is stated that pieces of burnt brick,
+which was not in use in Egypt until the Roman times, have been found at
+even greater depths than the pottery referred to by Mr. Horner. This
+discovery, at first sight so startling, and vouched for by a geologist
+of unquestioned honor and ability, is thus open to the same doubts with
+the Guadaloupe skeletons, the human bones in ossiferous caverns, and
+that found in the mud of the Mississippi; all of which have, on
+examination, proved of no value as proofs of the geological antiquity of
+man.]
+
+[Footnote 115: 5004 B.C.]
+
+[Footnote 116: Perhaps the earliest certain date in Egyptian history is
+that of Thothmes III. of the eighteenth dynasty, ascertained by Birch on
+astronomical evidence as about 1445 B.C. (about 1600, Manetho); and it
+seems nearly certain that before the eighteenth dynasty, of which this
+king was the fifth sovereign, there was no settled general government
+over all Egypt.]
+
+[Footnote 117: The Egyptians seem, like our modern cattle-breeders, to
+have taken pride in the initiation and preservation of varieties. Their
+sacred bull, Apis, was required to represent one of the varieties of the
+ox; and one can scarcely avoid believing that some of their deified
+ancestors must have earned their celebrity as tamers or breeders of
+animals. At a later period, the experiments of Jacob with Laban's flock
+furnish a curious instance of attempts to induce variation.]
+
+[Footnote 118: See for evidence of these views early notices in Genesis,
+and Lenormant and Osburne on Egyptian Monuments and History.]
+
+[Footnote 119: There is no good reason to believe the flint implements
+mentioned by Delanouee and others, as found on the banks of the Nile, to
+be older than the historic period.]
+
+[Footnote 120: Wilson, "Prehistoric Man," 2d edition, p. 68.]
+
+[Footnote 121: Southall has accumulated a great number of these facts in
+his book on the antiquity of man.]
+
+[Footnote 122: Professor Issel, quoted in _Popular Science Monthly_.]
+
+[Footnote 123: Wilson has remarked the striking similarity of the
+pottery of these people to American fictile wares. This similarity
+applies also to the early Cyprian art.]
+
+[Footnote 124: I agree with Gladstone's conclusions as to the date and
+country of Homer.]
+
+[Footnote 125: I suggested these terms in my lectures published under
+the title "Nature and the Bible," 1875.]
+
+[Footnote 126: Since these words were written I have read the remarkable
+book of Edkins on the Chinese language, which supplies much additional
+information.]
+
+[Footnote 127: Donaldson has pointed out (British Association
+Proceedings, 1851) links of connection between the Slavonian or
+Sarmatian tongues and the Semitic languages, which in like manner
+indicate the primitive union of the two great branches of languages.]
+
+[Footnote 128: "Man and his Migrations." See also "Descriptive
+Ethnology," where the Semitic affinities are very strongly brought out.]
+
+[Footnote 129: I can scarcely except such terms as "Japetic" and
+"Japetidae," for Iapetus can hardly be any thing else than a traditional
+name borrowed from Semitic ethnology, or handed down from the Japhetic
+progenitors of the Greeks.]
+
+[Footnote 130: See art. "Philology," Encyc. Brit.]
+
+[Footnote 131: Grammatical structure is no doubt more permanent than
+vocabulary, yet we find great changes in the latter, both in tracing
+cognate languages from one region to another, and from period to period.
+The Indo-Germanic languages in Europe furnish enough of familiar
+instances.]
+
+[Footnote 132: It is fair, however, to observe that the Bible refers the
+first great divergence of language to a divine intervention at the Tower
+of Babel. The precise nature of this we do not know; but it would tend
+to diminish the time required.]
+
+[Footnote 133: Lecture in the Royal Institution, March 24, 1876.]
+
+[Footnote 134: "Antiquity of Man," 4th ed.]
+
+[Footnote 135: Southall, _Op. cit._]
+
+[Footnote 136: The Mentone skeleton described by Dr. Riviere gives
+evidence of these facts.]
+
+[Footnote 137: Mr. Pengelly declines to admit this; but assigns no cause
+for the breaking up of portions of the old floor, which he merely refers
+in general terms to "natural causes."]
+
+[Footnote 138: This whole subject of supposed preglacial or interglacial
+men is still in great confusion and uncertainty, and is complicated with
+questions, still debated, as to the ages of the supposed glacial and
+postglacial deposits.]
+
+[Footnote 139: _Quarterly Journal of Science_, April, 1875.]
+
+[Footnote 140: Lyell's "Manual of Elementary Geology."]
+
+[Footnote 141: For a full discussion of this subject, see the "Story of
+the Earth and Man."]
+
+[Footnote 142: Such a table, with an admirable exposition of the entire
+succession, as at present known, is given in the Appendix to Lyell's
+"Students' Manual of Geology."]
+
+[Footnote 143: Lyell, basing his calculations on the surveys of Messrs.
+Humphreys and Abbott, but others give very different estimates.]
+
+[Footnote 144: A perfectly parallel example is that of the growth of the
+peninsula of Florida in the modern period, by the same processes now
+adding to its shores; and this has afforded to Professor Agassiz a still
+more extended measure of the Post-tertiary period.]
+
+[Footnote 145: Reade, of Liverpool, has recently given a much slower
+rate--one foot in 13,000 years--as a result of recent English surveys;
+but I have not seen his precise data, and the result certainly differs
+from those of all other observations.]
+
+[Footnote 146: I am quite aware that it may be objected to all this that
+it is based on merely negative evidence; but this is not strictly the
+case. There are positive indications of these truths. For example, in
+the Mesozoic epoch the lacertian reptiles presented huge elephantine
+carnivorous and herbivorous species--the Megalosaurus, Iguanodon, etc.;
+flying species, with hollow bones and ample wings--the Pterodactyles;
+and aquatic whale-like species--Pliosaurus, Ichthyosaurus, etc. These
+creatures actually filled the offices now occupied by the mammals; and,
+though lacertian in their affinities, they must have had circulatory,
+respiratory, and nervous systems far in advance of any modern reptiles
+even of the order of Loricates.]
+
+[Footnote 147: "Story of the Earth"--concluding chapters.]
+
+[Footnote 148: This was written in 1860 for the first edition of
+"Archaia." I see no reason to change it now, and its vindication will
+be, found in the Appendix.]
+
+[Footnote 149: Heb. iv., 9; 2 Peter iii., 13.]
+
+[Footnote 150: Hamilton.]
+
+[Footnote 151: In the manner illustrated by Hyatt and Cope.]
+
+[Footnote 152: Report on Fossil Plants of the Upper Silurian and
+Devonian, 1871.]
+
+[Footnote 153: Drysdale's "Protoplasmic Theories of Life."]
+
+[Footnote 154: Lecture before the Royal Institution of London.]
+
+[Footnote 155: _Leisure Hour_, 1876.]
+
+[Footnote 156: See critique in _International Review_, January, 1877.]
+
+[Footnote 157: Reported in _Nature_, 1876.]
+
+[Footnote 158: "History of Creation."]
+
+[Footnote 159: See also Hunt, "Chemical and Geological Essays," p. 35.]
+
+[Footnote 160: Except, perhaps, Job xxxi., 27.]
+
+[Footnote 161: "Animals and Plants under Domestication," p. 406.]
+
+[Footnote 162: Prichard. This is admitted by Darwin, who gives other
+examples, though he insists much on the climatal variations which still
+remain in feral pigs.]
+
+[Footnote 163: "North American Indians."]
+
+[Footnote 164: Haliburton's "Nova Scotia;" Gilpin's Lecture on Sable
+Island.]
+
+[Footnote 165: "Principles of Geology;" "Natural History of Man." See
+also a very able article on the "Varieties of Man," by Dr. Carpenter, in
+Todd's Cyclopaedia.]
+
+[Footnote 166: "The Races of Men," etc. Boston, 1848.]
+
+[Footnote 167: Browne, of Philadelphia, quoted by Kneeland and others.]
+
+[Footnote 168: Todd's Cyclopaedia, art. "Varieties of Man."]
+
+[Footnote 169: "Prehistoric Man."]
+
+[Footnote 170: Carpenter in Todd's Cyclopaedia.]
+
+[Footnote 171: For an interesting inquiry into the origin of the dog,
+see the article in Todd's Cyclopaedia already referred to; and the
+subject is fully discussed by Darwin, who leans to the theory of the
+diversity of origin in dogs.]
+
+[Footnote 172: Prichard, Bachman, Cabell.]
+
+[Footnote 173: A curious note, by Dr. John Rae, on the change of
+complexion in the Sandwich Islanders, consequent on the introduction of
+clothing, may be found in the "Montreal Medical Chronicle," 1856, and
+the "Canadian Journal" for the same year.]
+
+[Footnote 174: Latham's "Descriptive Ethnology."]
+
+
+
+
+INDEX.
+
+
+Abraham, 25, 270.
+
+Abrahamic Genesis, 18.
+
+Abyss, 104.
+
+"Accommodation," theory of, 61.
+
+Adaptation in nature, 78.
+
+AEons of creation, 132.
+
+Agassiz on prophetic types, 350.
+ on species, 342.
+
+Animals, higher, creation of the, 230.
+ lower, creation of the, 211.
+
+Antediluvians, 253.
+
+Antiquity of man, 263, 386.
+ of man, geological evidence of the, 294.
+ of man, history in relation to the, 271.
+ of man, language in relation to the, 285.
+ of the earth, 154, 331.
+
+_Aretz_ (earth), 94, 175.
+
+Argyll, Duke of, on creation by law, 373.
+ Duke of, on the origin of civilization, 391.
+
+Aryan race, 16, 267.
+
+Assyrian Genesis, 19, 108.
+ Texts, 412.
+
+Astronomy of the Bible, 207.
+
+Atmosphere, constitution of the, 157.
+ creation of the, 160.
+
+Augustine on creative days, 134.
+
+_Aur_ (light), 115.
+
+
+Babel, 258, 266.
+
+_Bara_ (create), 90.
+
+Beaumont, De, on continents, 184.
+
+Bede on creative days, 133.
+
+Beginning, the, 87, 95.
+
+_Behemoth_, 233.
+
+_Bhemah_ (herbivores), 231, 406.
+
+Birds, creation of, 216, 219.
+
+Bronn on the origin of species, 339.
+
+Bronze, age of, 279.
+
+Bunsen's chronology, 273.
+
+
+Cainozoic period, 331.
+
+Carnivora, creation of, 232.
+
+Caverns, human remains in, 298.
+
+Centres of creation, 238.
+
+Chaos, 100, 107.
+ chemistry of, 112.
+
+Chinese language, 288.
+
+Comparisons and conclusions, 322.
+
+"Conflict of the Bible with science," 44.
+
+Continents, their origin, 182.
+
+Cosmogony, Assyrian, 108.
+ Egyptian, 106, 198.
+ Greek, 109.
+ Hebrew, its character, 70.
+ Hebrew, its objects, 35.
+ Hebrew, its origin, 46.
+ Indian, 110, 148.
+ Persian, 147.
+ Phoenician, 107.
+
+Cranial characters of primitive men, 298.
+
+Creation, 90.
+ by law, 373.
+ centres of, 238.
+ days of, 115.
+ modes of, 375, 377.
+ of birds, 216, 219.
+ of carnivora, 232.
+ of great reptiles, 213.
+ of herbivora, 231.
+ of higher animals, 230.
+ of lower animals, 211.
+ of man, 235.
+ of plants, 186.
+
+Croll, calculations of erosion, 334.
+ glacial theory of, 396.
+
+
+Dana on creation of plants, 196.
+ on creative days, 144.
+ on tertiary fauna, 234.
+
+Darwin on species, 338.
+
+Day of creation, first, 115.
+ of creation, second, 157.
+ of creation, third, 174.
+ of creation, fourth, 199.
+ of creation, fifth, 211.
+ of creation, sixth, 230.
+ of creation, seventh, 249.
+
+Days of creation, 115.
+ of creation compared with geological periods, 155.
+ prophetic, 65.
+
+Death before the fall, 355.
+
+"Deep," the, 104.
+
+Deluge, the, 256.
+
+_Deshe_ (herbage), 186.
+
+Design in nature, 78.
+
+Desolate void, 100.
+
+Drysdale on theories of life, 383.
+
+Dupont on Belgian caves, 308.
+
+
+Earth, the, 94, 102, 175.
+ its foundations, 177.
+
+Ecclesiastes, chap. i., 74.
+
+Eden, conditions of, 237, 252.
+ site of, 237-252.
+
+Edkins on the Chinese language, 286, 288.
+
+Egypt, early history of, 272.
+
+Egyptian Cosmogony, 106, 198.
+ Texts, 412.
+
+_Elohim_, 89, 97.
+
+Evans on the erosion of valleys, 313.
+
+Evening of creative days, 138.
+
+Evolution as applied to animals, 226, 363.
+
+Excavation of valleys, 315.
+
+Exodus xxiv., 10, 163.
+
+
+Fall of man, 250.
+
+Final causes, 355.
+
+Firmament, the, 162.
+
+Fluidity, original, of the earth, 110.
+
+Forbes on creation of man, 250.
+
+Foundations of the earth, 177.
+
+Frontal, cave of, 308.
+
+
+Genesis, chap. i., translated, 66.
+ chap. i., 1, 87.
+ chap. i., 2, 100.
+ chap. i., 3 to 5, 115.
+ chap. i., 6 to 8, 157.
+ chap. i., 10 to 11, 174.
+ chap. i., 14 to 19, 199.
+ chap. i., 20 to 23, 211.
+ chap. i., 24 to 31, 230.
+ chap. ii., 1 to 3, 299.
+ chap. iv., 23, 46.
+ chap. x., 22, 263.
+ the Abrahamic, 18.
+ the Assyrian, 20.
+ the Mosaic, 27.
+ the Quiche, 22.
+
+Geology, principles of, 325.
+
+Glacial periods, theories of, 395.
+
+God, personality of, 11.
+
+"Grass" in Genesis i., 186.
+
+Greek myths, 109.
+
+Green on the forms of continents, 184.
+
+
+Haeckel on the affiliation of races, 289.
+ on man and apes, 389.
+
+Hamite races, 268.
+
+Harmony of revelation and science, 342.
+
+Havilah, productions of, 255.
+
+_Hay'th-eretz_ (wild beast), 232.
+
+Heavens, the, 92, 165.
+
+Herbivora, creation of, 231.
+
+Hindoos, cosmogony of the, 149.
+
+Hitchcock on creative days, 141.
+
+Horner on the alluvium of the Nile, 274.
+
+Hughes on the excavation of valleys, 315.
+ on interglacial periods, 295.
+ on stalagmite, 388.
+ on the Victoria Cave, 387.
+
+Humboldt on Hebrew poetry, 39.
+
+Hunt on the chemistry of the primeval earth, 400.
+
+Hurakon, 107.
+
+Hut of Sodertelge, 386.
+
+
+Ice-freshets in America, 314
+
+Incandescence of the earth, 110, 119.
+
+India, cosmogony of, 149.
+
+
+Japhetic races, 267, 268.
+
+Jehovah, 96.
+
+Job ix., 5, 176.
+ ix., 9, 206.
+ xxii., 15, 257.
+ xxviii., 179.
+ xxviii., 26, 73.
+ xxxvi., 166.
+ xxxvii., 14, 161.
+ xxxviii., 166, 177, 206.
+
+Jones, Sir W., on Indian cosmogony, 149.
+
+
+Kent's Cavern, 302.
+
+Kurtz on days of vision, 49.
+
+
+Lamech, his poem, 46.
+
+Land, its creation, 174.
+ geological history of, 182.
+
+Languages, unity of, 285, 291.
+
+La Place, nebular hypothesis of, 119.
+
+Latham on African languages, 288.
+ on the radiation of languages, 289.
+
+Laws of nature, in the Bible, 73.
+
+Lemuria, 289.
+
+Leviticus xi., 212.
+
+Life, succession of, 331, 337.
+ theories of, 383.
+
+Light, 115, 121.
+
+Logos, 96.
+
+Luminaries, 199.
+
+Lyell on the cause of the glacial period, 397.
+ on the delta of the Mississippi, 333.
+ on the pleistocene period, 297.
+
+
+Mammals, creation of, 231.
+
+Mammoth age, 299.
+
+Man, antiquity of, 386.
+ creation of, 235.
+ neocosmic, 285.
+ palaeocosmic, 285, 319.
+
+Man, unity of, 263, 414.
+
+Manetho, chronology of, 273.
+
+Margite, cave of, 308.
+
+Menes, his epoch, 273.
+
+Mesozoic period, 218, 331.
+
+Miller on creative days, 135.
+
+Mining noticed in the Bible, 179.
+
+Mississippi, delta of the, 333.
+
+Mist watering the ground, 189.
+
+Modern period of geology, 251.
+
+Modes of creation, 377.
+
+Moffatt on African languages, 292.
+
+Morse on the evolution of man, 391.
+
+Mosaic Genesis, 27.
+
+Mueller's classification of religions, 14.
+
+Mythology, ancient, its origin, 408.
+ of the atmosphere, 171.
+ as related to the Bible, 109, 261.
+
+
+Nature, study of, 244.
+
+Neocosmic man, 285.
+
+"Neolithic" men, 278.
+
+Niagara, excavation of, 312.
+
+Nimrod, 259.
+
+Noah, sons of, 266.
+
+
+Palaeocosmic men, 285, 319.
+
+"Palaeolithic" men, 278.
+
+Palaeozoic animals, 217.
+ period, 231.
+
+Parallelism of Scripture and geology, 343.
+
+Pattison on the antiquity of man, 318.
+
+Pengelly on Kent's Cavern, 302.
+ on stalagmite, 387.
+
+Periods, creative, 126.
+ geological, 330.
+
+Persians, cosmogony of the, 147.
+
+Philological evidence of the antiquity of man, 285.
+
+Pictet on the origin of species, 339.
+
+Pierce on the forms of continents, 184.
+
+Pillars of the earth, 177.
+
+Plants, creation of, 186.
+
+Plastids and plastidules, 377.
+
+Pratt, Archdeacon, on _bhemah_, 406.
+
+Prayer and law, 171.
+
+Progress in nature, 75, 337.
+
+Proverbs, viii., 74, 96, 176.
+
+Psalm viii., 208.
+ viii., 1, 94.
+ xviii., 178.
+ xix., 208.
+ xc., 108.
+ civ., 164, 175, 178, 224.
+ cxix., 90, 74.
+ cxix., 20, 176.
+ cxxxix., 84.
+ cxlvii., 208.
+ cxlviii., 6, 73.
+
+Purpose in nature, 78.
+
+
+Quiche Genesis, 22, 107.
+
+
+_Rakiah_ (the expanse), 162.
+
+Rawlinson on historical dates, 390.
+
+Reconciliation of the Bible and geology, 342.
+
+Reindeer age, 299.
+
+Religion, Aryan, 16.
+ Turanian, 15.
+ Semitic, 16.
+
+_Remes_ (creeping things), 215.
+
+_Rephaim_, 257.
+
+Reptiles, 213, 215.
+
+Revelation, idea of, 12.
+
+River valleys, excavation of, 314.
+
+Ruach Elohim, 106.
+
+Rutimeyer on interglacial men, 386.
+
+
+Sabbath, the, as related to ages of creation, 130.
+ of the Creator, 249.
+
+Schliemann on Troy, 282.
+
+_Shamayim_ (heavens), 92.
+
+Shemite races, 16.
+
+_Sheretz_ (swarming creature), 211.
+
+Somme, gravels of the, 313.
+
+Song of creation, 66.
+
+Species, Agassiz on, 61.
+ Bronn on, 339.
+ distinct from varieties, 414.
+ in Genesis i., 215.
+ origin of, 368, 378.
+
+Spirit of God in creation, 106.
+
+Stalagmite, deposition of, 310, 385.
+
+_Stereoma_, 162.
+
+Stone, ages of, 281.
+
+
+Table of Biblical periods, 352.
+ of geological periods, 330.
+
+Tait, Prof., on the age of the earth, 154.
+
+_Tannin_ (great reptile), 213, 405.
+
+Tennyson on types in nature, 222.
+
+Theories of the origin of genesis, 51.
+
+Thomson, Sir Wm., on the age of the earth, 154.
+
+Time, geological, 321, 332.
+
+Torel on the Sodertelge hut, 386.
+
+Troy, as described by Schliemann, 282.
+
+Type in nature, 82, 222.
+
+
+Unity of man, 263, 414.
+ of nature, 36.
+
+Universe, the unseen, 11.
+
+
+Variation, laws of, 414.
+
+Veda, its cosmogony, 110.
+
+Vegetation, its creation, 186.
+ of Eozoic period, 192.
+
+Victoria Cave, 386.
+
+Vision of creation, 65.
+
+Void, the, 100.
+
+
+Wallace on evolution, 373.
+ on primitive man, 389.
+
+Waters above the heavens, 159.
+
+"Whales, great," 213.
+
+Wilson on American skulls, 427.
+ on ancient pottery, 283.
+
+
+THE END.
+
+By PRINCIPAL DAWSON.
+
+
+EARTH AND MAN. The Story of the Earth and Man. By J. W. DAWSON,
+LL.D., F.R.S., F.G.S., Principal and Vice-Chancellor of McGill
+University, Montreal. With Twenty Illustrations. 12mo, Cloth, $1
+50.
+
+ An admirable book. It is a clear and interesting _resume_ of
+ the results of geological investigation, told in simple
+ language, devoid of technicalities. The unscientific reader
+ will obtain more knowledge of geology in one hour's reading
+ of this book than he will in a week's study of more
+ elaborate and professional books upon the same subject. It
+ is vigorously written, and with a certain picturesqueness
+ that is exceedingly attractive. The chapters upon primitive
+ man are peculiarly interesting.--_Saturday Evening Gazette_,
+ Boston.
+
+ The pleasantly written volume before us tells the story of
+ the paleontology and physical geography of the earth in
+ prehuman ages, and closes with a discussion of the theories
+ of the appearance, late in geological time, of man upon the
+ earth. Dr. Dawson's sketch of paleontology will, we feel
+ sure, be found interesting by all readers.--_Athenaeum_,
+ London.
+
+ Since Hugh Miller's time no scientific geologist has done
+ more than Principal Dawson to extend popular interest in
+ this branch of study, to secure attention to its educational
+ value, or to remove misapprehensions which exist in some
+ quarters as to the relations of science and Scripture on
+ geological questions.--_Leisure Hour_, London.
+
+ We have read his book with profound interest. It is
+ intelligible, candid, modest.--_Boston Transcript._
+
+
+ORIGIN OF THE WORLD. The Origin of the World, according to
+Revelation and Science. By J. W. DAWSON, LL.D., F.R.S., F.G.S.,
+&c. 12mo, Cloth.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+PUBLISHED BY HARPER & BROTHERS, NEW YORK.
+
+HARPER & BROTHERS _will send either of the above works by mail,
+postage prepaid, to any part of the United Slates, on receipt of
+the price._
+
+By ALEXANDER WINCHELL,
+
+
+SKETCHES OF CREATION: a Popular View of some of the Grand
+Conclusions of the Sciences in Reference to the History of Matter
+and of Life. Together with a Statement of the Intimations of
+Science respecting the Primordial Condition and the Ultimate
+Destiny of the Earth and the Solar System. By ALEXANDER WINCHELL,
+LL.D. With Illustrations. 12mo, Cloth, $2 00.
+
+
+A GEOLOGICAL CHART: exhibiting the Classification and Relative Positions
+of the Rocks, and the Various Phenomena of Stratigraphical Geology;
+together with an Indication of Geological Equivalents, the most
+important American and Foreign Synonyms, the Economical Products of the
+Rocks, and numerous Typical Localities; with an Actual Section from the
+Atlantic to the Rocky Mountains, near the Parallel of Thirty-nine
+Degrees. By ALEXANDER WINCHELL, LL.D. Mounted on roller, $10 00.
+
+_With a Key._ 8vo, Paper, 25 cents.
+
+
+THE DOCTRINE OF EVOLUTION; its Data, its Principles, its
+Speculations, and its Theistic Bearings. By ALEXANDER WINCHELL,
+LL.D. 12mo, Cloth, $1 00.
+
+
+RECONCILIATION OF SCIENCE AND RELIGION. By ALEXANDER WINCHELL,
+LL.D. 12mo, Cloth, $2 00.
+
+
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+
+HARPER & BROTHERS _will send any of the above works by mail,
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+
+
+
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