Archaia; or, Studies of the cosmogony and natural history of the Hebrew Scriptures

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AECHAIA.

AECHAIA

OE,

STUDIES OF THE COSMOaONY AND
NATURAL HISTORY

OF THE

HEBREW SOEIPTURES

BY J. W. DAWSON, LL.D., F.G.S.,

PRINCIPAL OF M^GILL COLLEGE, AUTHOR OP "ACADIAN GEOLOGY," AC.

"The two sciences (Theology aad Geology) may conspire,
not by having any part in common, but becanse, though
widely diverse in their lines, both point to a mysterious
and invisible origiaof the world."— Whbwbil.

ilSontrral :
B. DAWSON & SON

2Lont(on :

SAMPSON LOW, SON & CO.
1860.

Entered, according to the Act of the Provincial Parliament, in
the year one thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine, by
B. Dawson & Son, in the oflfice of the Registrar of the Pro-
vince of Canada.

JOHN LOVELL, PRINTER, ST. NICHOLAS STREET.

TO

l^is fExccIImcg tfje iaigfjt f^on, &ix mmmx'a miMcx l^eatf, Bart.,

GOVEENOE GENEEAL OP BEITISH NOBTH AMEEICA, ETC.

As A PATEON OF CANADIAN SCIENCE AND LiTEEATUEE, WHO GEACES
THE HIGHEST POSITION IN BEITISH AmEEICA BY HIS PEESONAL
QUALITIES AS A STATESMAN, A SCHOLAE, AND A MAN OF SCIENCE,

STfjis foorft is Itetitcatelf,

In TESTIMONY OP THE MOST SINCEEE EESPECT, AND OP GEATITUDB
POE PEESONAL KINDNESS,

532 ^¥ ^utijar.

PEEFACE

This work is not intended as a treatise on elementary
Geology, with Theological applications, nor as an attempt
to establish a scheme of reconciliation between Geology and
the Bible. It is the result of a series of exegetical studies
of the first chapter of Genesis, in connection with the
numerous incidental references to nature and creation in
other parts of the Holy Scriptures. These studies were
undertaken primarily for the private information of the
author; and are now published as affording the best
answer which he can give to the numerous questions on this
subject addressed to him in his capacity of a teacher of
Geology. A farther use to be served by such a work, even
after all the numerous treatises already published, is that
of affording to geologists and the readers of geological
works, a digest of the cosmical doctrines to be found in
the Hebrew Scriptures, when treated strictly according to
the methods of interpretation proper to such documents^

PREFACE.

but with the actual state of geological science full in view.
On the other hand, biblical students and christians gene-
rally, may be interested in noting the aspects in which
the scriptural cosmogony presents itself to a working
naturalist, regarding it from the stand-point afforded by
the mass of facts and principles accumulated by modern
science.

The author has availed himself of all the critical and
expository helps within his reach ; but has carefully avoided
that parade of contradictory authorities, which, by an easy
but useless show of erudition, often swells such works to
unnecessary dimensions. He has trusted principally to a
careful comparison, in the original, of all the scriptural
references to every fact and term in question. This pro-
cess, though tedious, has proved capable of yielding answers
to many doubtful questions, more positive and satisfactory
than those which could be obtained in any other way.
He does not, however, pretend to have exhausted the sub-
ject ; and is quite aware that, in an investigation connected
with so many widely different branches of knowledge, he
may have to crave the indulgence of the reader for many
errors and omissions.

The author must further express his conviction, that a
fitting audience for such topics can be found only among
those who are imbued with a knowledge of natural science,

PRErACE.

acquired by its own peculiar methods of investigation, and
who also entertain, on its special and very different evi-
dence, a firm faith in the inestimable spiritual revelations
of the Word of God. However highly he may respect
and love naturalists who have given no attention to the
claims of scriptural Christianity, or theologians who know
nothing of nature, he does not expect from either a full
appreciation of his views. Still less can he hope for the
approval of that shallow school which decries " Bible phi-
losophy" as a thing of a by-gone time, and attempts to
raise an insurmountable barrier between the domains of
faith and reason, by excluding from nature the idea of
creative power, or from religion the noble cosmogony of
the Bible. His utmost hopes will be realized, if he can
secure the approbation of those higher minds in which the
love of Grod is united with the study of his works ; and aid
in some small degree in redeeming the subject from the
narrow views which are, unhappily, too prevalent.

The work is issued in Canada, because the writer desires
to contribute his mite to the growing literature of British
America, and has found in Montreal a house sufficiently
enterprising to undertake the risk of publication.

J. W. D.

McGiLL College,

Montreal, November, 1859.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.— Introductory, 9

II. — Objects, Character and Authority of

THE Hebrew Cosmogony, 17

III. — General Views of Nature contained in

THE Hebrew Scriptures, 49

IV. — The Beginning, 61

V. — The Desolate Void, 71

VL— Light, 86

VII. — Days of Creation, 98

VIII. — The Atmosphere, 130

IZ.— The Dry Land, 147

X. — The First Vegetation, 160

XL — Luminaries, 175

XII. — The Lower Animals, 187

XIIL— The Higher Animals, 206

XIV.— Man, 214

XV. — The Rest of the Creator, 232

XVI. — Unity and Antiquity of Man, 246

XVII. — Comparisons and Conclusions, 316

CONTENTS.

APPENDIX A. — Authenticity and Genuineness op the

Mosaic Books, 361

B. — Relation of the Human and Tertiary

Periods, 363

C. — Original Fluidity of the Earth, 365

D. — Azoic Eocks, 367

E. — Ancient Floras, 369

F. — Development of Specific Forms by Natu-
ral Law, 370

G.—The Tanninim, 388

H. — Recent Elevation of "Western and Cen-
tral Asia, and Specific Centres of

Creation, 390

I. — Primitive Unity of Language, 391

K. — Ancient Mythologies, 394

L. — Supposed Tertiary Races op Men, 397

ARC H AIA.

CHAPTER I.

INTRODTJCT OR Y .

More than thirty centuries ago, a numerous serf-popu-
lation emancipated itself from Egyptian bondage, and, after
forty years of wandering desert life, settled itself perma-
nently 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, lite-
rary, and moral results. The rulers of Egypt, polished,
enlightened, and practical men, were yet the devotees of a
complicated system of hero and relic worship, vitiating and

B

10 ARCHAIA.

degrading all their higher aims. The slaves, leaving all
this behind them, rose in their religious opinions to a pure
and spiritual monotheism ; and their leader presented to
them a law unequalled up to our time in its union of jus-
tice, patriotism, and benevolence, and established among
them, for the first time in the world's history, a free con-
stitutional republic. Nor is this all ; unexampled though
such results are elsewhere, in the case of serfs suddenly
emancipated. The Hebrew law-giver has interwoven his
institutions in a grand historical composition, including a
cosmogony, a detailed account of the affiliation and ethno-
logical relations of the races of men, and a narrative of the
fortunes of his own people ; intimating not only that they
were a favoured and chosen race, but that of them was to
arise a great deliverer who would bless all nations with
pardon and with peace.

The lawgiver passed to his rest. His laws and litera-
ture, surviving through many vicissitudes, produced in each
succeeding age a new harvest of poetry and history, leavened
with their own spirit. In the meantime the learning and
the superstition of Egypt faded from the eyes of men. The
splendid political and miHtary organisations 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. The world, with all
its national liberties crushed out, its religion and its philo-
sophy corrupted and enfeebled to the last degree by an

INTRODUCTORY. H

endless succession of borrowings and intermixtures, lay
prostrate under tlie iron heel of Rome. Then appeared
among the now obscure remnant of Israel, one who an-
nounced himself as the Prophet like unto Moses, promised
of old ; but a prophet whose mission it was to redeem not
Israel only, but the world. 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-
honoured beliefs of the nations, — beliefs supported by a
splendid and highly organised priestly system and by des-
potic 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 reli-
gion. Where it has been withheld from the people, civili-
zation in its higher aspects has languished, and superstition,
infidelity, and tyranny have held their ground. Where it

12 ARCHAIA.

has been a household book, liberty has taken root, and the
higher nature of man has been developed to the full.
Driven from many other countries by tyrannical interfer-
ence with liberty of thought and discussion, or by a short-
sighted ecclesiasticism, it has taken up its special abode with
the greatest commercial nation of our time ; and scattered
by its 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 there are in the world many influences directly
antagonistic to the Bible, and many others that tend to its
neglect, or to an under-estimate of its value. Tyranny
hates it, because the Bible so strongly maintains the indi-
vidual 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. Priest-
craft 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. Scep-
ticism sneers at it, because it requires faith and humility,
and threatens ruin to the unbeliever. It launches its thun-
ders against every form of violence, or fraud, or allurement,

INTRODUCTORY. 13

that seeks to profit by wrong or to pander to the vices of
mankind ; all these consequently are its foes. These are
terrible opponents; but their hostility was to have been
anticipated, and the book has often met and conquered
them in the time past. Another class of influences of much
more respectable character, are sometimes in our day brought
into opposition to the Bible, or perhaps I should rather say
into competition with it. The immense mass of modern
literature has some effect in casting the Bible into the shade,
and in making it less the book of the people. It is true
that this literature in all its higher forms derives in great
part its tone from the Holy Scriptures, yet it buries the
book itself. Again, the Bible commits itself to certain
facts in history, and there has been much earnest battling
on its truth and authority in this respect. At one time it
was not unusual to impugn its historical accuracy on the
evidence of the Greek historians ; and on many points
scarcely any corroborative evidence could be cited in favour
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 stones of Memphis and Nineveh have
literally risen up to bear testimony in favour 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, and the absolute antiquity of man's
residence on the earth ; questions on which we can scarcely

14 ARCHAIA.

expect to find mucli monumental or scientific evidence.
Lastly, 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 sceptics, 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 to the satisfaction of all par-
ties ; 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 inter-meddling of
theology with the domain of legitimate investigation.

There can 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 theologians admit the great service which
in many cases science has rendered to the interpretation of
the Bible, and that naturalists feel themselves free from
undue trammels. Above all, there is a very general dis-
position 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

INTRODUCTORY. 15

and manifestly to agree, in the present state of our in-
formation. 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 recon-
ciling the cosmogony of Moses with that obtained from
the study of nature. For this very reason the time is
favourable 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 Grod, 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 endeavour to pursue in a spirit of fair and truthful
investigation ; paying 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 scien-
tific inquiry.

The plan which I have sketched out for the treatment of
the subject, corresponds with the title of the work, and
befits the present state of our knowledge, whether of nature
or revelation. I have adopted the method not of a teacher
but an enquirer, endeavouring in the outset to settle certain
preliminary points essential to the right understanding of
the subject, and then to sift carefully the scriptural cosmo-

16 ARCHAIA.

gony, as it appears not only in Genesis but in every other
book of the Bible, with reference to its true cosmical import,
and apparent agreement or discordance with modern inter-
pretations of nature arrived at by the very different methods
of inductive science. If in pursuing this investigation I
have proceeded more boldly and unreservedly than has been
customary, I plead the desire to discover truth rather than
to follow in old paths ; and if the results reached should
appear strange or startling to the reader, whether scientific,
theological, or neither of these, he is asked to bear in mind
that there may be truths which have not fallen within the
range of his previous studies, and to weigh carefully the
evidence, even though this also should be foreign to his
usual methods of inquiry.

CHAPTER 11.

OBJECTS, CHARACTER AND AUTHORITY OF THE SCRIP-
TURAL VIEWS OF THE COSMOS.

" 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 con-
sideration, 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. (2). The
character and structure of the narrative of creation and
other cosmological statements, in a literary point of view
(3). The degree of authority to be attached to such state-
ments, on the supposition that the Bible is theologically
truthful.

(1). The object of the introduction of cosmogony and
references to nature in the Bible. Man as a "religious
animal " 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 sepa-
ration from the lower animals, and which in his utmost

18 ARCHAIA.

degradation he never wholly loses. No people 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 reli-
gious 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 the human
constitution, which crave as their proper aliment such infor-
mation ; and if it cannot 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 be-
hoved 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 thingg
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 honours to subordi-
nate 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 worship-
pers 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,

OBJECTS, ETC., OF THE COSMOGONY. 19

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 bran-
ches of the human race, including of course those ancestors
and magnates who up to his time had been honoured 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 mono-
theism, 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 abso-
lutely 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

20 ARCHAIA.

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 flou-
rished 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, 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 eflPorts, was
quite incapable. In the same manner the Bible has always
proved itself an active stimulant of natural science, connect-
ing such studies, as it does, with our higher religious sen-
timents ; 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 positiv-
ism, and still more to those of mere priestly authority.

OBJECTS, ETC., OF THE COSMOGONY. 21

Very few minds are content with simple materialism, and
those who must have a God, if they do not recognise the
Jehovah of the Hebrew scriptures as the Creator and Su-
preme Kuler 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 ulti-
mate 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 favour of the appreciation of natural beauty and sub-
limity, 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 cannot 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 lumi-
nous realms of space ; it dwells but rarely on the indivi-
duality 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 —

22 ARCHAIA.

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 crea-
tion in Genesis, the same great writer remarks : — " We are
astonished to find in a lyrical poem of such a limited com-
pass, 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 omni-
present 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."*

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 his-
tory of the book of Grod, 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 con-
sidering 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

* Cosmos, " Otte's translation."

OBJECTS, ETC., OF THE COSMOGONY. 23

astonished and enlarged in the minds of modern nations. A
living 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."* In a similar
strain, the patient botanist of the marine* algae thus pleads
for the joint claims of the Bible and nature : — " Unfortu-
nately 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 Scrip-
tures, 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 fami-
liarity 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 afibrd to be behind the rest of the

* Hamilton, " Royal Preacher."

24 ARCHAIA.

world in knowledge ; nor can they safely sneer at the know-
ledge which puffeth up, until, like the Apostle, they have
sounded its depths and proved its shallowness.'"^ 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 — as, for example, Hamilton and Guthrie —
have produced noble examples of accurate illustrations of
scripture derived from nature. Such examples redeem the
church from the charge so eloquently urged by Prof. Peirce,
of Harvard, in the following paragraph f : — " Is religion
then, so false to God as to avert its face from science ? Is
the church willing to declare a divorce of this holy marriage
tie ? Can she afford to renounce the external proofs of a
God having sympathy with man ? Dare she excommuni-
cate science, and answer, at the judgment, for the souls
which are thus reluctantly compelled to infidelity ? We
reject the authority of the blind scribes and pharisees who

* Harvey, " Nereis Boreali Americana."
t Proceedings American Association, 1854.

OBJECTS, ETC., OF THE COSMOGONY. 25

have hidden themselves from the light of Heaven under
such a darkness of bigotry. We claim our just rights and
our share in the church. The man of science is a man,
and knows sin as much as other men, and equally with
other men he needs the salvation of the gospel. We ac-
knowledge that the revelations of the physical world are
addressed to the head, and do not minister to the wants of
the heart ; we acknowledge that science has no authority
to interfere with the Scriptures and perplex the holy writ
with forced and impossible constructions of language. This
admission does not derogate from the dignity of science ;
and we claim that the sanctity of the Bible is equally un-
disturbed by the denial that it was endowed with authority
over the truths of physical science. But we, nevertheless,
as sons of men, claim our share in its messages of forgive-
ness, and will not be hindered of our inheritance by the
unintelligible technicalities of sectarianism ; as children,
we kneel to the church and implore its sustenance, and
entreat the constant aid and countenance of those great and
good men who are its faithful servants and its surest sup-
port, whose presence and cheering sympathies are a perpe-
tual benediction, and among whom shine the brightest
lights of science as well as of religion. Moreover, as
scientific men, we need the Bible to strengthen and confirm
our faith in a supreme intellectual Power, to assure us that
we are not imposing our forms of thought upon a fortuitous
oombination of dislocated atoms, but that we may study
His works humbly, hopefully, and trusting that the trea-

G

26 ARCHAIA,

sury is not yet exhausted, but that there is still left ais
infinite vein of spiritual ore to be worked by American
intellect." It cannot be denied that the Bible, in its re-
ferences to nature, fully recognizes the claims thus strongly
set forth ; and which may be urged by the unlettered pea-
sant who merely looks on nature, as well as by the savant
who penetrates into its laws.

(2). Character of the Scriptural Cosmogony in a
literary point of view. A respectable physicist, but some-
what shallow naturalist and theologian of our day, has said
of the first chapter of Genesis : *' It cannot be history — it
may be poetry." Its claims to be history we shall investi-
gate 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 cannot be denied that in its form it ap-
proaches somewhat to that kind of thought-rhythm or paral-
lelism 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 ne-
cessarily 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-defence, 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 : —

OBJECTS, ETC., OF THE COSMOGONY. 27

" 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 wilful 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 inscrip-
tions, which, however grandiloquent, are scarcely poetical.*
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

* Oaburn, Monumental History of Egypt.

28 ARCHAIA.

for a long period, is the strongest of all the arguments for
the so-called " document hypothesis," which supposes the
earlier chapters of Genesis to have been merely compiled by
Moses from earlier literary fragments. I by no means wish
to maintain this hypothesis, now much less in favour than
formerly ; but on the other hand I cannot believe that it
would in any way, if established, invalidate the inspiration
of these chapters ; since there were prophets and holy men
inspired of God before Moses, and if anything revealed to
them remained extant in his time, it had a right to appear
in its proper place in the sacred literature.

The form of the narrative, however, in no way impairs
its precision or accuracy of statement. On this Eichorn 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 accu-
racy, 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/'

OBJECTS, ETC., OF THE COSMOGONY. 29

'' whales," "creeping things," &c. These errors will be
noticed in subsequent pages. In the mean time I may
merely add, that the labours 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. Had this alterna-
tive been adopted, who could have read or comprehended
the vast encyclopedia which would have been produced.
The moral ends of a revelation would have been sacrificed,
and we would have been excluded from the fresh and ex-
citing exploration of actual nature.

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

* Davidson, "Biblical Criticism," p. 410. See also Appendix A.

30 ARCHAIA.

were written, and into which human research has yet pene-
trated 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 rela-
tively to the whole of very few. So vast indeed are the
subjects of the bold sketch of the Hebrew prophet, that
natural science cannot pretend as yet so to fill in the out-
line as quite to measure the accuracy of its proportions.
Yet the lines, though few, are so boldly c rawn, 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, what
ever 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 nar-
rative represents a vision of creation, analogous to those
prophetic visions which appear in the later books of scrip-
ture. 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.

(3). What is the precise degree of authority to he at-

OBJECTS, ETC., OP THE COSMOGONY. 31

tacked to the Mosaic cosmogony ? It is 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 " cannot 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 cannot 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
mj 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 aff"ected by the
hypothesis already mentioned, that the first chapters of
Genesis were compiled by Moses from more ancient docu
mcLts. This merely throws back the revelation to a higher
anti(iuity, 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, it will be useless to pro-
ceed acy farther with our inquiry, except as a matter of

32 ARCHAIA.

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 nar-
rative ; 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
false and fanciful mythological creeds which have sprung
up in later and more degenerate times. Such fragments
may safely be received as secondary aids to the understand-
ing 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 front
which they have been derived. It is, however, quite neces-
sary 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 extra.-
neous purpose, or consisting of the conjectures of some
gifted intellect.

OBJECTS, ETC., OF THE COSMOGONY. 33

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, dis^
posed 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 philo
sophy of Greece and Kome. But in recent times we have
seen Egypt disclose the ruins of a mighty civilisation, more
grand and massive though less elegant than that of Greece,
and which had reached its acme ere Greece had received
its alphabet — a civilisation which, according to the scrip-
ture history, is derived from that of the primeval Cushite
empire, which extended from the plains of Shinar over all
south-eastern 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.* Still later, the remnants of old Nineveh

* On this subject I may refer naturalists to the intimate
acquaintance with animals and their habits, indicated by the
manner of their use as sacred emblems, and as symbols in hiero-

34 ARCHAIA.

have been exhumed from their long sepulture, and anti-
quaries have been astonished by the discovery that know-
ledge 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 civilisation at the time when they
were written ; and we shall perceive, in the course of our

glyphic 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 develop-
ment 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.

OBJECTS, ETC., OF THE COSMOGONY. 35

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. Further, 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 induc-
tion.

Under this head, though perhaps belonging rather to
the domain of absolute infidelity than to that of scripture
exegesis, it may be proper to mention the bold attempt of
the authors of the " Types of Mankind,^' to assign a human
origin to Genesis 1st These writers admit the antiquity

36 ARCHAIA.

of the first chapter, though assigning the rest of the book
to a comparatively modern date. They say : —

" The ' document Jehovah ' ^ 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 concise-
ness 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 nine-
teenth century — at least 2500 years after his death — to
overthrow his septenary arrangement of ' Creation ' ; which,
after all, would still be correct enough in general 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 raquU ' ; i. e., a
firmament ; which proves that his notions of ' sky ' (solid
like the concavity of a copper basin with stars set as bril-
liants in the metal), were the same as those of adjacent
people of his time : indeed, of all men before the publica-
tion of Newton's Prlncipia 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 johysi-
cally possible three whole days before the ' two great lumi-
naries,' Sun and Moon, were created. These venial errors
deducted, his majestic song beautifully illustrates the sim-
ple process of ratiocination through which — often without

* See Appendix A.

OBJECTS, ETC., OF THE COSMOGONY. 37

the slightest historical proof of intercourse — different
' Types of Mankind,' at distinct epochas, and in countries
widely apart, had arrived, naturally, at cosmogonic conclu-
sions similar to the doctrines of that Hebraical school of
which his harmonic and melodious numbers remain a mag-
nificent 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 induc-
tion— a method not original with Lord Bacon, because
known to St. Paul ; ' for his unseen things from the crea-
tion 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, &c. 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
cannot 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

38 ARCHAIA.

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 infer-
red, logically, that a firmament must have been actually
created for this object. \^E. g.^ ' The loindows of the skies '
(Gen. vii. 11); ' the waters above the skies ' (Ps. cxlviii. 4).]
Before the ' waters ' (and here is the peculiar error of the
genesiacal bard), some of the ancients claimed the pre-
existence of Ucfht (a view adopted by the writer of Genesis
1st) ; whilst 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. EloJiim
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 3000 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

OBJECTS, ETC., OF THE COSMOGONY. 39

of Genesis, but of the learned American ethnologists in the
nineteenth century ; a circumstance which cuts in two waygs
in defence of the ancient author so unhappily unknown to
his modern critics.

The second of the alternatives above referred to, the
mythical hypothesis, has been advsnced 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 ob-
jectionable forms, it is thus stated by Prof 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 what-
ever way its details may be interpreted, it clearly cannot
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.
% % j£ |.]^gj^ yfQ 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 sug-
gestion 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

40 ARCHAIA.

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 descrip-
tive narrative is conveyed, we merely affirm that it cannot
be history — it may be poetry." *

The general ground on which this view is entertained,
is the supposed irreconcileable 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, howeser, 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 it also
completely ignores the other manifest uses mentioned un-
der 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 cannot be history, in
80 far at least as history is a product of human experience

* Kitto's Cyclopedia, art. " Creation."

OBJECTS, ETC., OP THE COSMOGONY, 41

we cannot 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 cannot be a poetical myth,
we must, in the meantime, return to our former supposi-
tion 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 pre-
ceded 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
<3ritical 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 worth-
less, we have further to inquire to what extent it is necessary
to suppose that the particular details and mode of expres-
sion of the narrative, and the subsequent allusions to

42 ARCHAIA.

nature in the Bible, must be regarded as entitled to this
position. We may conceive tbem 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 and expositors have
ordinarily entertained ; and consequently, that if 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 what-
ever that the scripture writers intended to address them-

OBJECTS, ETC., OF THE COSMOGONY. 43

selves to the common mind, which now as then requires
simple and popular teaching, but they were under obliga-
tion 10 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."^'

Attempt as we may to disguise it, any other view is
totally unworthy of the great Ruler of the universe, espe-
cially in a document characterised as emphatically the truth,

* 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 tbey
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 cir-
cumstance that unscientific writers will not be content to be
"optical," but must theorise, that spoils much of our modern
literature, especially in its descriptions of nature.

44 ARCHAIA.

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 cannot be applied to plain material
facts. Yet a confusion of these two very distinct cases
appears to prevail most 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 ana-
logous 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 scripture
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
latest and ablest writers on the subject * : — " It was the
opinion of the ancients that the earth, at a certain height,
was surrounded by a transparent hollow sphere of solid

* Prof. Hitchcock.

OBJECTS, ETC., OF THE COSMOGONY. 45

matter, which they called the firmament. When rain des-
cended, 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 phe-
nomena 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 ' estahlisJied the foun-
dations of the earth, so that they could not he removed for
ever;' and the sacred writers expressly declare that the
heavenly bodies arise and set, and no where allude to any
proper motion of the earth."

Will it be believed, that, with the exception of the poeti-
cal 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 Gre-
cian philosophers — of the Ionic and Pythagorean schools
— who lived nearest the times of the Hebrew writers, and

46 ARCHAIA.

wlio 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 sus-
pect that the doctrine of a solid vault supporting the clouds,
except as a mere poetical or mythological fancy, is a pro-
duct of the imagination of the theologians and closet
philosophers of a more modern time. The testimony of
men's senses appears to be in favour of the whole uni-
verse revolving around a plane earth, though the oldest
astronomical school with which we are acquainted, sus-
pected that this is an illusion ; but the every-day observa-
tion of the most unlettered man who treads the fields and
is wet with the mists and rains, must convince him that
there is no suh-nuhilar solid sphere. If, therefore, the
Bible had taught such a doctrine, it would have shocked
the common sense even of the plain husbandme.-) 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
Grenesis there occurs a definition as precise as that of any
lexicon, — ^"and Grod called the dry land earth"; conse-

OBJECTS, ETC., OF THE COSMOGONY. 47

quently 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 characterised, or have taken too
little pains to ascertain the actual meaning of the references
to creation which they find in the Bible. I may farther
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 chap-
ters 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 recognise 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

48 ARCHATA.

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 favourable to certain
forms of literature and art, but eminently unfavourable 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 inspi-
ration 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 head 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 sum-
med 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 >

CHAPTER III.

GENERAL VIEWS OF NATURE CONTAINED IN THE HOLY
SCRIPTURES.

" What if earth
Be but the shadow of Heaven, and things therein,
Each to other like ; more than on earth is thought."

Milton.

Many persons may be disposed to concede the accurate
delineation of natural facts open to human observation,
claimed under the last head, 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 induc-
tive processes in modern times. Yet views of this kind
are scattered through the Hebrew and Christian scriptures,
and it may be well to add to this preliminary inquiry a
statement of them. They resolve themselves, almost as a
matter of course, into the two leading ideas of order and
adaptation. I have already quoted the eloquent admis-
sion by Baron Humboldt of the presence of these ideas of
the cosmos in Psalm 104. 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 everything 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

50 ARCHAIA.

looks on and approves the deed." ^ These two mites, law-
fully acquired by science, by her independent exertions,
she may, however, recognise 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 state-
ments : —

1. The scriptures assert invariable natural law, and con-
stantly 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 : f
" 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."

Ps. cxlviii. 6.

* McCosh, " Typical Forms and Special Ends,"
f I adopt that view of the date of Job which makes it precede
the exodus, because the religious ideas of the book are patri-
archal, 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 deser-
tion of their God, and the evils of their bondage.

GENERAL VIEWS OF NATURE. 51

*' Thou art forever, 0 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."

Ps. 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 ever. The
sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down and hasteneth
to its place whence it arose. It goeth toward the south
and turneth unto the north. The wind whirleth about
continually, and returneth again according to its circuits.
All the rivers run into the sea, yet the sea doth not over-
flow ; 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 occur-
rence, or of materialism, or of pantheism, or of arbitrary

52 ARCHAIA.

supernituralism, but of invariable natural law representing
the decree of a wise and unchanging Creator.

2. The Bible recognises 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 im-
prove :nent 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 ex-
plaining 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 Bedeemer 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 indig-
nantly 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.*

* John v. 17; Rom. viii. 22; Heb. i. 2 j 2 Peter iii.

GENERAL VIEWS OF NATURE. 53

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 ; which enables us to affirm, that, in addi-
tion 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 contem-
poraries, and others which preceded them, our continents
and mountain ranges, and the solid rocks of which they
are composed, 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 pre-
cisely as it was in the year before. Nor does any geologist
worthy of the name, doubt that this law of progress ema-
nates 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, over-master-
ing 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

54 ARCHAIA.

held in our day by geologists than by physicists."^ 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 recognises purpose, use, and special adap.
tation in nature. It is, in short, full of natural theology
of the same kind with that which has been so elaborately
worked out by so many modern writers. Numerous pas-
sages 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 pro-
nounces 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

* See Agassiz contributions to the Natural History of America,
and Appendix F.

GENERAL VIEWS OF NATURE. 55

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 present to
sympathise. 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. Yet man is repre-
sented 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 corres-
pond 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 presented in the 'address of the Almighty to Job.*
Lastly, the Bible very often refers to the special adapta-
tions 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

* Job 38th and 39th chaps.

ARCHAIA.

lilies of the field tliat 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 fall without
his knowledge. I may, by way of farther illustration,
merely name a few of the adaptations referred to in Job
38th and the following chapters. The winds and the
clouds are so arranged as to afibrd 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 hip-
popotamus, 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 organi-
zation and habit,

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

GENERAL VIEWS OP NATURE. 57

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 silver-smith,
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 leading types of structure. Taking
any one of these — the vertebrate, for example — we have a
uniform general plan, embracing the vertebral column con-
structed 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 mem-
bers of the vertebrate type. The above are but trite and

£

ARCHAIA.

familiar examples of a doctrine which may furnish 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 ver-
tebrates are represented by a number of examples, and the
typical likeness of one of these — the hippopotamus — to man,
seems to be recognised. A late able writer 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 exegists to ask them
to believe that Ihe writer of the above passage, or the spirit

GENERAL VIEWS OP NATURE, 59

that inspired him, actually meant to teach — what we now
know so well from geology, that the prototypes of all th«
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 read-
ing in it the doctrine of embryonic development according
to a systematic type.

In that spiritual department which is the special field of
scripture, the doctrine of type has been so extensively
recognised by expositors, that I need only refer to its
typical numbers, its typical personages, its typical rites and
ceremonies, and lastly, to its recognition of the Divine
Redeemer as the great archetype of the spiritual world, as
man himself is of the natural. In this last respect the
New Testament clearly teaches that, in the resurrection, the
human body formed after Adam as its type, is to be subli-
mated and reformed after the heavenly body of the Son of
God, rising to some point of perfection higher than that
of the present earthly archetype.

It is more than curious that this idea of type, so long
existing in an isolated and often despised form, as a theo-
logical thought in the imagery of scripture, should now be
a leading idea of natural science ; and that while compara-
tive anatomy teaches us that the structures of all past and
present lower animals point to man, who, as Prof. Owen
expresses it, has had all his parts and organs " sketched
out in anticipation in the inferior animals," the Bible

60 ARCHAIA.

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 realised 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 scrip-
ture, I have endeavoured to group certain leading thoughts
important as preliminary to the study of the subject ; and,
in now entering on the details of the scriptural cosmogony,
I trust the reader will pardon me for assuming 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 meantime, be
content to follow me in that careful and systematic analysis
which a work claiming such a character surely demands.

CHAPTER IV.

THE BEGINNING.

Oen. i. 1 : "In the beginning Elohim created the heavens
and the earth."

In this opening of the history of creation, we find in a
strongly marked manner some of the most prominent
characteristics of the books of Moses, — the simplicity and
vigour of an early age, the firm faith of the writer in the
truths which he promulgates, and the hold and naked
assertion of the most grand and comprehensive doctrines.
Characteristics these, whi-ch well become the earliest com-
munication of the Divine will, and impress us with the
feeling that we are listening to words of truth and au-
thority— to the voice not of man but of God. No studied
introduction precedes the sacred narrative. No attempt
is made to prove the existence of God, or to disprove the
eternal existence of matter. The history opens at once
with the assertion of a great fundamental truth, which
must ever form the basis of true religion and sound phi-
losophy— the production from non-existence of the material
universe by the eternal self-existent God.

But what is creation in the sense of the Hebrew writer.
The act is expressed by the verb Bara, a word of compara-
tively rare occurrence in the scriptures, and employed to
denote absolute creation. If, says Prof. Stuart of Andover,

62 ARCHAIA.

this word " does not mean to create in the highest sense^
then the Hebrews had no word by which they could de-
signate 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 have been
employed by some writers to obscure the primitive mean-
ing, we must examine them in detail.

In the first chapter of Genesis, after the general state-
ment in verse 1st, other verbs signifying io 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 Gcenesis 2nd and 3rd we have a form of
expression which well marks the distinction between crea-
tion and making. God is there said to have rested from
all his works which he "created and made "—literally

THE BEGINNING. 63

created " for or in reference to making," the word for
making being one of those already referred to.* 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 hara 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 pro-
per term for creation is applied to the production of some-
thing new, strange and marvellous ; for instance, "Create
in me a clean heart 0 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 1st. On the contrary, we should
rather infer that the inspired writers in these cases selected

* Asah,

64 ARCHAIA.

the proper word for creation, to express in the most for-
cible 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
contra-distinction from those arrangements which have been
effected by the gradual operation of secondary agents, or of
laws attached to matter at its creation.* Viewing creation
in this light, we need not perplex ourselves with the ques-
tion 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 cer-
tain that the worlds were created by the decree of God, so
that things which are seen, were made of that which ap-
pears noty

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 (^Shamayirri) 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, uhi nuhes, uhi sidera " ; or (1) the atmosphere

* I am indebted, since writing the above, to McDonald's able
treatise on " Creation and the Fall," for the additional idea in
reference to the word bara, that it is applied only to God as the
agent, and not to any human work.

THE BEGINNING. 65

or firmament;* (2.) The region of clouds in the upper
part of the atmosphere ;f (3.) The depths of space com-
prehending the starry orbs.J Beside these we have the
"heaven of heavens," the abode of God and Spiritual
beings.§ The application of the term heaven to the atmos-
phere will be considered when we reach the 6th and 7th verses.
In the meantime we may accept the word in this verse, 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 fir-
mament, 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.) Be-
cause in verse 14, the sidereal heavens are spoken of as
arranged from pre-existing materials, which refers their
actual creation back to this verse.

In the verse now under consideration we therefore re-
gard 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

* Gen. i., 8, 26, 27, 28. t Gen. L, 14 ; Judges v., 20 ;

t Gen.ix., 11 ; Job xxxviii, 37. Deuteronomy xvii., 3.

§ Gen. xxviii,, 17 ; Job xv., 15 ; Psalms ii., 4.

66 ARCHAIA.

abysses of space, will appear from the terms employed by
Moses in his solemn warning against the Sabaean idolatry,
in Deuteronomy 4th. " 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 8th : —

" 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 atmosphere 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
starry and planetary bodies, then the word earth must de-
note our globe as a planetary body, 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 verse introduces us, this
absurdity disappears, and we recognise the classification
as in the circumstances natural and rational. The word

THE BEGINNING. 67

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 i1 really is
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 sub-
sequent 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 : Gen.
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 strik-
ing 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 con-
tinental 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 ix., 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

68 ARCHAIA.

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 cannot 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 cannot be
a general term for the whole six days, since these are sepa-
rated 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 infor-
mation respecting it, that we have in scripture, is in that
fine descriptive poem in Proverbs viii., in which the Wis-
dom of God personified — by many believed to represent
the second person of the Trinity, who, as we are informed
in the New Testament, was the manifested Deity in the
work of creation as well as in that of redemption — narrates
the origin of all created things : —

* Jehovah possessed me in the beginning of his way,
Before his work of old.
I was set up (anointed) from everlasting, .
From the beginning or ever the earth was ;
When there were no deeps I was brought forth,
When there were no fountains abounding in water."

THE BEGINNING. 69

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, count-
less 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 (^laveh)*
We need not enter into the doubtful etymology of the
word ; but may content ourselves with that supported by
many, perhaps the majority, of critics, 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 consider-

Appendix A.

70 ARCHAIA.

ing the various hypotheses, such as that of the plural of
majesty of the Rabbins, and the primitive polytheism sup-
posed 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
as a distinct actor in the next verse, and probably always
held by the Hebrews in a general form ; and which our
Saviour and his apostles specialised 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. I rather wonder at the squeamishness
which induced even Calvin to make light of this manifest
correspondence between Moses and the Apostles.

CHAPTER V.

THE DESOLATE VOID.

Genesis i. 2 : " And the earth was desolate and empty, and
darkness was upon the surface of the deep ; and the Spirit of
God brooded over the surface of the Waters."

We have here a few bold outlines of a dark and myste-
rious scene— a condition of the earth of which we have no
certain intimation from any other source. It was "empti-
ness and vacuity," 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 em-
ployed by Isaiah to express the desolation 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 ruin.

In the present connection, these words inform us that
the earth was then destitute of life, and unfit for the resi-
dence of organised beings. The words themselves suggest
the important question : — Was this the original condition of
the earth ? Was it a scene of desolation and confusion

72 ARCHAIA.

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 con-
nection in time between the first and second verses. It
has even been proposed, though this does violence to the con-
struction, 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 pro-
duction 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 indeed forms at pre-
sent 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 view the
term " earth " in verse second as including the whole globe,
this hypothesis becomes altogether untenable. The sub-
sequent verses inform us that at the period in question the
earth was covered by a universal ocean, possessed no

THE DESOLATE VOID, 73

atmospliere 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 5
and geology assures us that the existing laws and arrange-
ments 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 difl&culty,
which has been much more strongly felt, as these facts have
been more and more clearly developed by geological science,
Dr. J. P, Smith has endeavoured to show that the earth
in verse second may mean only a particular region, tempo-
rarily 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, rela»
tions, and inhabitants of our planet, but to the retrieval
from ruin and re-peopling of a limited territory, supposed
to have been in Central Asia, and which had been sub-
merged and its atmosphere obscured by aqueous or volcanic
vapours. The chief support of this view is the fact, pre-
viously 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 harmonising the
scriptures with geological discovery, and at the same time
viewing the days of creation as literal solar days,

♦Appendix B,

74: ■ AKCHAIA,

Can we, however, after finding that in verse 1st the term
earth must mean the whole world^ suddenly restrict it in
verse second to a limited region. Is it possible that the
writer who in verse tenth for the first time intimates a
limitation of the meaning of this word, by the solemn an-
nouncement " And God called the drp land earth," should
in a previous verse 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 inaccura-
cy must be ascribed. It is in truth to me beyond
measure surprising that such a view could ever have ob-
tained currency ; and I fear it is to be attributed to a
determination, at all hazards and with any amount of vio-
lence to the written record, to make geology and religion
coincide. Must we then throw aside this simple and con-

THE DESOLATE VOID. 75

venient method of reconciliation, sanctioned by Chalmers,
Smith, Harris, King, Hitchcock, and many other great or
respectable names, and on which so many good men com-
placently 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 fossi-
liferous rocks.

Before leaving this part of the subject, I may remark
that the desolate and empty condition of the earth was not
a chaotic mass of confusion, " rudis indigestaque moles " ;
but in reality, when physically considered, a more sym-
metrical and homogeneous condition than any that it
subsequently assumed. The absence of land, and
the prevalence of a universal ocean in the immediately
succeeding period, imply that its crust had not yet been
ruptured or disturbed, but presented an even and uniform
surface, no part of which could project above the compara-
tively thin fluid envelope.

The second clause introduces a new object — ^Hhe 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 (Ps. xlii., 8; Job xxxviii., 10). In
Psalm exxxv. however, it is distinguished from the sea :

76 ARCHAIA.

" Whatever the Lord pleased that did he in heaven, in the
earth, in the sea 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., 7,
" When he prepared the heavens I was there, when he de-
scribed 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."* Though
we cannot attach much value to these readings, there seems
little reason to doubt that the author of this passage under-
stands by the deep the atmospheric waters, and not the
sea, which he mentions separately. The same meaning
must be attached to the word in the 19th and 20th verses
of the same chapter : "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 iden-
tity. The darkness on the surface of the deep and the
spirit of God on the face of the waters, seem to refer to the

* The usual septuagint rendering is Myssus.

THE DESOLATE VOID. 77

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 afterwards elaborated.
This is a view leading to important consequences : one of
which is that the darkness on the surface of the deep
cannot 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, dark-
ness 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 des-
titute 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 anything within
the compass of ordinary natural laws, or to denote a direct in-
tervention of the Creator, miraculous in its nature and con-

78 ARCHAIA.

fined 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 in-
cumbent vapours, had already commenced — that the spirit
which would afterwards 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 destinies.

Some commentators, both Jewish and Christian, are^
however, disposed to view the RuacJi Elohim, or Spirit of
God, as meaning a wind of God, or mighty wind,
according to a well-known Hebrew idiom. The word un-
questionably often 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. and 16. Such examples, how-
ever, 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
vapour 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

THE DESOLATE VOIB. 79

aier) was not created till the second day, that the firma-
ment 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 sur-
face, 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
<iay. It is curious also that the Phenician cosmogony
is said to have contained the idea of a mighty wind in
•connection with this part of creation. 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 whi-ch 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 favour 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 modem, yet corresponds with the hints de-
rived from older sources, we find the original chaos to have
been an intermingled condition of the elements constituting

80 AKCHAIA,

heaven and earth. This is the Hebrew " deep." The first
step of progress is the separation of these ; the fiery par-
ticles 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 Biodorus 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 Phenician 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 with-
out 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.
The Greek myth of Chaos and its children Erebus and
Night, who gave 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.* Lastly, in a hymn translated by Dr.

* It is impossible to avoid recognizing in the Greek Tlieogony,
as it appears in Hesiod and the Orphic poems, an inextricable
intermingling of a cosmogony akin to that of Moses, with le-
gendary stories of deceased ancestors. 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

THE DESOLATE VOID. 81

Max Muller 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."

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 The-
ogony here skips suddenly to the human period ; and under the
fables of the marriage of Gaea and Uranos, and the Titans, ap-
pears to present to us the antediluvian world with its intermar-
riages 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 Japhet,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

82 ARCHAIA.

It is evident that tlie 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 re-
markable 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 un-
broken by internal forces, covered by a universal ocean, on
which rested a mass of confused vaporous substances ; and

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.1) for an able and agree-
able 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, aflFords
no excuse for the prevailing neglect of them in more modern
times. (See Appendix K.)

THE DESOLATE VOID. 83'

it is of such materials, thus combined by the sacred histo-
rian, 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 ex-
tend 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 arrange-
ments, or the condition of the earth before they originated,
it knows nothing. In like manner a botanist may deter-
mine 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 be-
fore it supported a forest. So the archaeologist may on
Egyptian monuments read the names and history of suc-
cessive 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

84 ARCHAIA.

perfected ; and the few facts whicli 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 verses now under consideration.
I may remark in conclusion, 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.*

There are two other sciences beside geology, which have in
modern times attempted to penetrate into the mysteries
of the primitive abyss, at least by hypothetical explana-
tions— 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 ma-
terials, gradually condensing itself around the central nu-
cleus. 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 ele-
ments, volatile in themselves, or forming volatile compounds
with oxygen or hydrogen, that are now imprisoned in vari-
ous states of condensation in the solid crust of the earth.

Appendix 0.

THE DESOLATE VOID. 85

Such an atmosphere, vast, dark, pestilential, and capable in
its condensation of producing the most intense chemical
action, is a necessity of an incandescent globe, or of an earth
condensing from a nebulous state, not often referred to by
writers on these subjects ; and affords no inapt represen-
tation of the deep or abyss of Moses, and the chaos of
Hesiod, and of the Egyptian priests.

In accordance with the views above stated and explained,
verses first and second may be paraphrased as follows : — ■

" At a far-distant time, Elohim, the triune God, created
the materials of the heavens and the earth."

"After its creation, the earth was still without
organised inhabitants. It was covered with a dense and
heterogeneous mantle of vapours, and it was entirely desti-
tute of solar light and heat ; but processes preparatory to
its being perfected and inhabited, were in progress."

CHAPTER VI.

LIGHT.

Genesis i. 3 : *' 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."

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 Or (light) should be viewed as
including heat and electricity as well as light ; and these
three elements — if they are really distinct and not merely
various movements of one ether — imponderable and in
some states scarcely appreciable, 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 afterwards 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 theo-
ries which have grown out of modern induction.

I have said that th^ Hebrew word translated light, in-
cludes all the imponderables. I make this statement, not

LIGHT. 87

intending to assert that the Hebrews experimented on
these substances in the manner of modern science, and
would therefore be prepared to understand their distinc-
tions 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
brio;ht lis-ht which is in the clouds." The absence of " or,^^
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 cannot 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 uni-
versally diflfused 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 j
and if it did, the general creation of matter being stated
in verse 1st, 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 this verse 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,

ARCHAIA.

when luminaries were appointed, it became visible by
beginning to undulate, must be abandoned ; and the con=
nection 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 undu-
lations.

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 surround-
ing 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 prime-
val 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 illumi-
nation 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 disap-
peared.

LIGHT, 89

We may suppose, in the first place, this luminous 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, for a statement of
which and of the views founded on them, I am indebted
to Nichols' ^'System of the World." 1. The orbits of
the planets are nearly circular, 2. They revolve nearly

90 ARCHAIA.

in the plane of the sun's equator.* 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 satel-
lites, with the exception of those of Uranus, revolve in the
same direction. Now all these coincidences can scarcely
have been fortuitous, and yet they might have been other-
wise 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.f 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 vapour 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

* The group of minor planets discovered in more recent times
between Mars and Jupiter, form an exception to this j 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 farther assumption of some unknown
disturbing cause.

t For a very clear statement of this, see Nichola' " Planetary
System."^

LIGHT. 91

which must have formed the superior part, and the most con-
densed 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 this, 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, whilst 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 suffi-
ciently superior to the others to unite them to it by its
attraction, they will have formed only a mass of vapour,
which, by the continual friction of all its parts, must have
assumed the form of a spheroid, flattened at the poles and
elongated in the direction of its equator." Here, then
are rings of vapour left by the successive retreats of the
atmosphere of the sun, changed into so many planets in

92 ARCHAIA.

the condition of vapour, 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 organised
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 cannot 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
characterised as without form and void, the condensing
nebulous mass of La Place's theory being in perfect cor-
respondence 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 concen-
trate itself wholly around the centre of the system, and
that as it became concentrated it acquired its intense lumi-
nosity, we have in both the production of light from the
same cause ; and in both it would follow that the concen-
tration 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 spe-
cial condensation of luminous matter, nor for any precise

LIGHT. 93

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 separa-
tion of day and night must have been a marked epoch in
the history of the process for each planet.

But the Mosaic record and the hypothesis of La Place
alike admit of another and somewhat different explanation
of the primitive light. For this also I am indebted to
Nichol.* After describing the sun's luminous atmos-
phere with its bright "faculae," its dimmer spaces, and the
huge dark spots or cavities that seem to be caused by
gigantic whirlwinds similar to our terrestrial hurricanes,
but of vastly greater dimensions, he goes on to inquire why
the sun possesses the monopoly of light, which on La
Place's theory might be shared among the planets, and
whether anything similar to the sun's luminous cloud is
connected with the planets ; and adduces the following
facts as evidence of such luminosity in an inferior degree.
" Our first thought leads us to the Auroras. Whatever
their origin, they show the existence of causes in virtue of
whose energy the upper strata of our atmosphere become
self-luminous sometimes in a high degree ; for in northern
regions our travellers have read by their brilliance. But
the Aurora is not the only phenomenon which indicates
the existence of a power in the matter of our globe to emit

• " Planetary System " ; also Humboldt, Cosmos, " Northern
Lights " ; and Wagner and Schubert, quoted by Kurtz.

94 ARCHAIA.

light. One fact that must have been often noticed, forcibly
impresses me with the conviction that here, through what
seems common, truths of much import will yet be reached.
In the dead of night, when the sky is clear and one is
admiring the brilliancy of the stars, hanging over a per-
fectly obscured earth, a cloud, well known to observing
astronomers, will at times begin to form, and it then
spreads with astonishing rapidity over the whole heavens.
The light of the stars being thus utterly shut out, one
might suppose that surrounding objects would, if possible
become more indistinct : but no ! what was formerly
invisible can now be clearly seen ; not because of lights
from the earth being reflected back from the cloud — for
very often there are none — ^but in virtue of the light of the
cloud itself, which, however faint, is yet a similitude of
the dazzling shell of the sun. The existence of this illu-
minating power, though apparently in its debilitude, we
discover also in appearances among the other orbs. Flashes
like our auroras are said to have been observed over the
dark hemisphere of Yenus ; and the obscure part of the
moon is believed to have been visited by similar pheno-
mena ; but the circumstance most remarkably corroborative
of the mysterious truth to which these indications point,
is the appearance of our midnight luminary during a total
eclipse. By theory she ought to disappear entirely from
the heavens. She should vanish, and the sky seem as if
no moon were in being; but on the contrary, and even

LIGHT. 95

when she passes tlie very centre of the earth's shadow, she
seems a huge disc of bronze, in which the chief spots can
easily be descried by the telescope. It has been put forth
in explanation that a portion of the rays of the sun must
be reflected by our atmosphere and bent toward the eclipsed
disk, from which again they are reflected to the earth —
thus giving the moon that bronze colour ; but the instant
tiie hypothesis is tested by calculation, we discover its utter
insufficiency. Nor is there any tenable conclusion save this :
—That the matter both of sun and planets is capable, in
certain circumstances, whose exact conditions are not
known, of evolving the energy which we term light ; and
that the atmosphere of the sun is at present under influ-
ences favorable to the high manifestation of a power which
fi-om the other orbs has net yet entirely departed. And
thus for ever is broken down that supposed distinction
which seemed to place our central luminary apart in species^
to an immeasurable extent from the humbler worlds that
roll around him." Let us suppose, in accordance with this
hypothesis, that our earth was in its earlier state surrounded
by a self-luminous atmosphere. This, if sufficiently bril-
liant, would exclude the light of the sun and of the
heavenly bodies ; and, as its light became exhausted and
that of the sun increased, the latter would gradually be
installed into his office as the sole orb of day. It is quite
evident that either this last view, or that above explained,
would give a sufficient hypothetical explanation of the light
of the first of the creative aeons ; and this is all that in

96 ARCHAIA.

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 shouldst take it to the bound
thereof, and know the way to the house thereof? "

For the reasons above given, we must regard the hypo-
thesis of the great French astrononier, as a wonderful
approximation to the grand and simple plan of the con-
struction of our system as revealed in scripture. It is true^
however, that since recent improvements in telescopes have
resolved into stars those nebulae which were supposed to
be instances of world-formation actually in progress, astro-
nomers have very generally abandoned the nebular hypo-
thesis which was one of the foundations of the theory of
La Place. But this circumstance does not affect the theory
as an illustration of scripture, since whether or not such
processes are now in progress, many astronomical facts and
the scripture narrative, concur in suggesting that it was in
some such method that it pleased the Creator to construct
our system.

" God saw the light that it was good," though it illu-
minated but a waste of lifeless waters. It was good because
beautiful in itself, and because Grod 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. Grod is represented as " cloth-
ing himself with light as with a garment" ,* and in many
other parts of these exquisite lyrics we have similar fierures.

LIGHT. 97

" 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 Righteous-
ness." 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."*

Job xxzviii. 12.

* This translation is as literal as is consistent with the bold
abruptness of the original. The last idea is that of a cylindri-
cal seal rolling over clay and leaving behind a beautiful impres-
sion where all before was a blank. See Barnes, in loc, for a
summary of the views of exegists on this passage, the difficulty
of which, as in many similar cases, is not so much in the words
themselves, as in the want of familiarity of expositors with the
images employed.

CSAI>TER VIL

DAYS OP CREATION.

Genesis i. 5 : " And God trailed the light Day ; and the dark-
aess he called Xight. And the evening and the morning were
the first day."

These words bring us to the consideration of one of the
most difficult problems in this chapter, 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.
I am aware that we have the authority of many great names
for determining that the days of the creative week must
have been literal days ; and that the belief that these days
were long periods, was in consequence at one time almost
entirely abandoned. But after a careful examination of
the considerations that have been advanced on both sides
of the question, I confess that I must agree with those
who think that the point is far from being settled, and that
the arguments bearing on it, and more especially those de-
rived from the internal evidences, deserve a farther and
very attentive consideration.

In pursuing this investigation, I shall refrain from no-
ticing in detail the views of the many able modern writers
who, from Cuvier, De Luc and Jameson, down to Hugh
Miller, have maintained the period theory, or those equally
numerous and able writers who have supported the opposite

DAYS OF CREATION. 99

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 two senses in the verse itself. We
are told that Grod called the light, that is the diurnal con-
tinuance of light, day. We are also informed that the
evening and the morning were the first day. Day there-
fore 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 dag 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 inter-
vening between sunrise and sunset, which is the ordinary
day of scripture phraseology.

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.

100 ARCHAIA.

Grod 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 un-
varied 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 applica-
tion 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 terms were to be popularly used. The in-
tention 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
chapter, we find not carelessness but studied and severe
precision, and a warning against the neglect of the smallest
peculiarities in its diction.

DAYS OP CREATION. IQl

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 di-
verting 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 day-
light. 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 favour 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 po-
pular 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

102 ARCHAIA.

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 meantime may observe that
it appears rather hazardous to attribute an ordinary even-
ing 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."*

Admitting then that the civil day may be meant, we
may now proceed to consider another meaning of the word,
very common in scripture, and perhaps occurring as fre-
quently as the instances in which the word can be with
certainty maintained to denote the civil day. 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 Gen.
iv. 3, " And after days it came to pass," rendered in our
version "in process of time," Gen. xl. 4, " days in ward,"
rendered " a season." Such instances as these are not ap-
plicable to the present question, since the plural may have

* Prof. 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. Thirds
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."

DATS OF CREATION. 103

the sense of indefinite time, merely by denoting an un-
determined 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 Genesis ii. 4, 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, pro-
perly so called, but to the elaborating processes of the cre-
ative 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 rela-
tive 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 in-
troduction of such an adverbial expression. The proba-
bilities are in favour 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 compo-
sition of G-enesis, to denote a period longer than a literal
day, seems to imply that this indefinite use of the word

104 ARCHAIA,

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 fol-
lowing 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 ac-
complished before his ime." 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" Gem 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 con-
veys 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."*

* It is worthy of note that this psalm is attributed to Moses,
and that it probably refers to the creation and the deluge.

DAYS OF CREATION, 105

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." These remarkable statements
are not expressly intended to give information as to the
days of creation. They teach us, however, that in the sight
of the Eternal, our measurements of time are as nothing ;
and that the scripture writers had the idea that God's
smallest measures of time might he very long.

But supposing that the inspired writer intended to say
that the world was formed in sis 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. These words,
however, have about them a want of precision as to their
beginning and end, which unfits them for this use ; and
after some search, I have been unable to find any instance
which would justify me in affirming that on the supposi-
tion that Moses intended long periods, he «ould have bet-
ter 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 probably widely diflfused in ancient
Asia, that a working day of the Creator immeasurably
transcends a working day of man,*

* For the benefit of those who ma<y value ancient authorities
in such matters, and to show that such views may rationally be
■eHtertained iadepeadently of geology^ I quote the following pas-

lOG ARCH AM.

Many objections to the view which I have thus endea-
voured 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

sage from Origen : " Cuinam quaeso sensum habenti conTenienteF
videbitur dictum, quod dies prima et seeunda et tertia, in quibua
et vespera nominatur, et mane, fuerint sine sole,^ et sine luna
et sine stellis : prima autem dies sine eoelo." So St. Augus-
tine expressly states his belief that the creative days could not
be of the ordinary kind. "Qui dies, cujusmodi sint, aut per-
difi&cile nobis, aut etiam impossibile est cogitare, quanto magis
discere." Bede also remarks " fortassis hie diei nomen, totius
temporis noinen 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 num-
ber 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 car-
dinal number implies singularity and peculiarity as well as mere
priority.

DAYS OF CREATION. 107

argument used here is, however, 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.* 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
shall sanctify the seventh of his working days, the argu-
ment is as strong, the example as intelligible, as on the
common supposition. This objection is, in fact, a piece of
pedantic hyperorthodoxy which has too long been handed
about without investigation. It is refreshing to find it
thus crushed in the strong grasp of Hugh Miller : — f

" I cannot avoid thinking that many of our theologians
attach a too narrow meaning to the remarkable reason at-
tached 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

* 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.

t Footprints of the Creator.

108 ARCHAIA.

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 re-
sumed 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 or-
dinary 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 embo-
died in the commandment. The collation of the passage
with the geologic record, seems, as if by a species of re-
translation, 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

DAYS OF CREATION. l09

sabbatical command, in a digest of law of which no jot or
tittle can pass away until the fulfilment 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 re-
gards 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 propor-
tion : — the objection to which I refer is an objection palpa-
bly founded on considerations of proportion, and certainly
were the reason to b?- 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

110 ARCHAIA.

days Shalt thou labour, &c. ; but on the seventh day shalt
thou do no labour, &c. ; for in six immensely protracted
periods of several thousand years each, did the Lord make
the heavens and the earth, &c. ; 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 cha-
racter as such, is that the proportion of six parts to seven
should be maintained. God's periods may be periods ex-
pressed 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 it throws a new light on the nature and
reason of the sabbath. No good reason, except that of set-
ting 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
grey 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

DAYS OF CREATION. Ill

io that final "rest which remaineth for the people of
Ood." *

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
-day-break. It must not be denied that the explanation of
these terms is attended with some difficulty, but this is not
at all lessoned 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 pro-
nouncing it to be good ; then we have the separation of the
light and darkness, previously it is to be presumed inter-
mixed ; 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 eompatible 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?

* This idea occurs in Lord Bacon's confession of Faith, and
De Luc also maintains tliat the Creator^s sab'bath must have been
of long continuance.

112 ARCHAIA.

If SO, why is tlie evening mentioned first, contrary to the
supposed facts of the case ; why indeed are the evening
and morning mentioned at all, sinee 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 difierent from He-
brew 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 presump-
tion 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 conneeted sense on the sup-
position 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 begin-
ning 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

DATS OF CREATION. 113

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
towards 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 ether 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 Tes-
timony 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 hypo-
thesis 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, con-
tinued without cessation throughout the remainder of the
period — rolling from this time uninterruptedly around our
planet, like the seal cylinder over the clay."^ This expla-
nation 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.

* See the quotation from Job at the close of last chapter.

114 ARCHAIA.

3. It is objected that the first chapter of Genesis " is not
a ipoem 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 involv-
ing 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.

4. It has been urged that in cases where day is used to
denote period, as in the expressions " day of calamity," &c.,
the adjuncts plainly show that it cannot 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 succes-
sive 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 refer-
red to.

5. In Prof. 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

DAYS OF CREATION. 115

the words of the author. 1. "From Genesis ii. 5 com-
pared 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 docu-
ment 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 firma-
ment, 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 impor-
tant 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 his-
tory, into an empty, and in some respects absurd common-
place. 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 rocls^ any lower than man is,* could not have

* This is not strictly correct, as many animals, especially of
the lower tribes, extend back to the early tertiary periods, long

116 ARCHAIA.

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 Hved 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 api^earance 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 under-
went 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,

before the creation of man ; a fact which of itself is irreconcile-
able with the Mosaic narrative on the theory of literal or ordi-
nary days.

DAYS OF CREATION. 117

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 dijBferences.
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 mani-
fest 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 lowerhalf of the fossiliferous
rocks ought to contain nothing but vegetables. Whereas
in fact the lower half of these rocks, all below the carboni-
ferous, although abounding in animals, contain scarcely
any plants, and these iij the lowest strata fucoids or sea-
weeds. But the Mosaic account evidently describes flow-
ering 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.* In short, if we maintain that Moses describes

* Beside these footprints, bones of a reptile (Archegosaurus)
have been found in the coal measures of Bavaria. Other rep-
tilian animals (Dendrerpeton Acadianum and Baphetes planiceps)
have been found in the coal formation of Nova Scotia ; Batra-
chian remains have been observed in British coal shales, and
in those of Ohio ; and the skeleton of a reptile (Telerpeton) has
been found in the old Red Sandstone of Morayshire.

118 ARCHAIA.

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 geo-
logical 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 Azoic
rocks which have hitherto yielded no fossils.

I have much pleasure in quoting, as a farther answer to
these objections, the following from Prof. Dana* : —

" Accepting the account in GJ-enesis as true, the seeming-
discrepancy between it and geology rests mainly here : ge-
ology 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
further conflict is there ? The question of the length of
time, it is replied. But not so ; for if we may take the

Biblical Repository, 1856.

DAYS OF CREATION. 119

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 hefore
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 secon-
dary causes. Others take days as periods^ and thus allow
the required time, admitting that creation was one in pro-
gress, 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 afi'ect the general con-
cordance 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 choas, no great revolution, that creation was be-
yond 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 for-
ward the first fact in geology to support the idea of a re-

120 ARCHAIA.

arrangement 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 Buck-
land could say, when he wrote twenty-five years since, was,
that geology did not absolutely disprove such an hypothesis ;
and that cannot 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 progressing 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 endeavour to add to the internal evi-
dence 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

♦Appendix B.

DAYS OF CREATION. 121

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 succes-
sion 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 ma-
terial creation, and we have as yet no evidence that he has
resumed it. With the exception of the author of the
"Vestiges of Creation" and a few similar speculators, no one
pretends that he has done so. We know that the present
day, if it is the seventh, has lasted already for about 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 be-
lievers look, and which will constitute the first day of an
endless sabbatism.

3. The philosophical and religious systems of many an-
cient 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 patri-
archal documents which perhaps formed the basis of that

I

122 ARCHAIA.

narrative. They are, no doubt, all more or less garbled
versions, and cannot be recorded as of any antliority, but
they serve to show what was the interpretation of the docu-
ment 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. The
Chaldeans had a similar but apparently less coherent sys-
tem.* 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.f

The Egyptians believed that the world had been subject
to a series of destructions and renewals, the intervals between
which amounted tol20,000years,oraccordingto other autho-
rities, to 300,000 or 360,000 years. This system of destruc-
tion 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 pro-
perty of all the Hamite nations of which Egypt was the

* Rhode, quoted by McDonald, " Creation and Fall " p. 62 ;
Eusebius, Chron. Arm.
t Suidas, Lexicon, — " Tyrrenia."

DAYS OP CREATION. 123

greatest and most permanent; and therefore in all proba-
bility derived from the id«as of creation which were <?urrent
not long after the deluge. The Egyptians appear also, as
already stated, to have had a physical cosmogony, begin-
ning 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, in-
dicate the belief of long formative periods.*

The Hindoos have a somewhat extended, though, accord-
ing 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, t

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,! undiscovered, but making this world discernible,

* Diodorus Siculus, B. 1. Prichard, Egypt. Mythol.
t Asiatic Researches.

t This name is exactly identical in meaning with the Hebrew
Jehovah Elohim.

124 ARCHAIA.

He whom tlie 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 this really 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 Ay ana 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 subtil 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 re-
specting 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

DAYS OF CREATION. 125

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 hi«
years, and 100 such years his age, of which they assert
that fifty years have elapsed. We are thus, accord-
ing 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 is derived from a root signi-
fying to understand.

In this Hindoo cosmogony we have many points of cor-
respondence with the scripture narrative: for instance,
the Self-Existent Creator j the agency of the Son of God

126 AECHAIA.

and the Holy Spirit ; the absolute creation of matter ; the
hovering of the Spirit over the primeval waters ; the seven-
fold division of the creative process j 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 Man-
wantara to represent the Mosaic day, as seems more pro-
bable,, its duration will be 308,571 years; and the total
antiquity of the earth, without counting the undefined
" beginning,"" will be more than two millions of years. It
would be folly, however, to suppose that these Hindoa
numbers, which are probably purely conjectural, or based
on astronomical cycles, make any near approximation to
the facts of the case. The Institutes o^f Menu are pro-
bably 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.* 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

* The theology of the Institutes is clearly primitive Semitie
in its character ; and therefore, if the Bible is true, must be
older than the Arian theogony of the Rig Veda, as expounded
by Muller, whatever the relative age of the documents. See
Appendix K.

DAYS OF CREATION 127

nations, and it aids in proving that the fabulous ages of
gods and demi-gods 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 post-diluvian 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 inter-
esting 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 avoided all detailed reference to what
may be regarded as the " prophetic day " view of the nar-
rative 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

128 ' ARCHAIA.

future ; and Moses may have seen these wondrous events
in vision — in visions of successive days — under the guisa
of which he presents geological time. Some things in the
form of the narrative favour this view, but I do not regard
it as necessary to the interpretation maintained above, nor
do I regard the reasons advanced by Kurtz,* and by the
author of the excellent little work, the " Harmony of the
Mosaic and Geological Records," as at all conclusive. f Yet
this theory is conformable to scriptural analogy, and affords
a. useful aid to many minds in apprehending the nature of
the Mosaic narrative. It cannot be put more vigorously
than by Miller in his Testimony of the Rocks, to which I
beg to refer the reader.

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 doc-
trine of day-periods are of no weight when properly scru-
tinised, and that it harmonises 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 satis-

* " The Bible and Astronomy," a work full of valuable and
suggestive thought.

t Constable, Edinburgh.

DAYS OP CREATION. 129

fied. Every step of our subsequent progress in interpret-
ing the chapter, will afford new criteria of its truth or
fallacy.

The events of the first day may be summed up as fol-
lows : — " At the beginning of the period, the earth, covered
with a universal ocean and misty atmospheric mantle, was
involved in perfect darkness. A luminous ether was called
into existence, which spread a diffused light throughout
the whole solar system. This luminous matter being gra-
dually concentrated toward the centre of the system, at
length produced, in connection with the earth's rotation,
the alternation of day and night. These changes were the
work of a long period of time, an aeon or day of the
Creator."

CHAPTER VIII.

THE ATMOSPHERE.

Genesis i. 6 to 8 : " 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 Hea-
ven ; and the evening and the morning were the second day."

At the opening of the period to which we are now intro-
duced, 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 vapour.

The regular and constant constituents of the atmosphere
are the elements Oxygen and Nitrogen, which, at the tem-
perature 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 vapour of water, in a per-
fectly aeriform and transparent condition. This vapour is

THE ATMOSPHERE. 131

not, however, permanently gaseous. At all temperatures be-
low 212 degrees, it tends to the liquid state ; and its elastic
force, which preserves its particles in the separated state of
vapour, increases or diminishes at a more rapid rate than
the increase or diminution of temperature. Hence the
quantity of vapour that can he suspended in clear air,
depends on the temperature of the air itself. As the tem-
perature of the air rises, its power of sustaining vapour
increases more rapidly than its temperature ; and as the
temperature of the air falls, the elastic force of its con-
tained vapour diminishes in a greater ratio, until it can
exist as an invisible vapour no longer, but becomes con-
densed into minute bubbles or globules, forming cloud,
mist or rain. Two other circumstances operate along with
these properties of air and vapour. 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 con-
tinually 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 vapour 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

132 ARCHAIA.

proportioned to tlie diminution of temperature and the
quantity of vapour 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 precipita-
tion 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 vapour proper to the two extremes, and moisture is
precipitated. It thus happens that layers of cloud accu-
mulate 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 vapour, which constitutes the atmospheric
firmament. *

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."f
The explanation is — 1st the extreme levity of the minute
globules, which causes them to fall very slowly ; 2nd they are

* Daniell's Meteorological Essays ; Prout's Bridgewater Trea-
tise; Art. Meteorology Encyc. Brit; Maury's Physical Geo-
graphy of the Sea.

fKaemtz, Course of Meteorology.

THE ATMOSPHERE. 133

supported by currents of air, especially by the ascending
currents developed both in still air and in storms ; Srdly
clouds are often dissolving on one side and forming at
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."* 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 re-
gulate mixtures of gases and vapours did not prevail in the

Encyc, Brit. Art. Meteorology.

134 ARCHAIA.

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 pre-
vented them from operating as at present. Such a condi-
tion might possibly be the result of an excessive evaporar
tion 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 this period, the internal temperature of the
earth was probably vastly greater than at present, and per-
haps 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 vapour to
keep the lower strata of air in a constant state of saturation,
and to occasion an equally constant precipitation of mois-
tire from the colder strata above. This would merely be

THE ATMOSPHERE. 135

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 radi-
ating 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 pre-
ponderated over that from within, when the result stated
in the text would be effected.

The statements of our primitive authority for this con-
dition 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 ?

136 ARCHAIA.

We may now consider the words in whicli this great im-
provement in the condition of the earth is recorded. The
Hebrew term for the atmosphere is Rakiah^ literally some-
thing expanded or beaten out — an expanse. It is rendered
in our version " firmament," and in the Septuagint
" Stereomay^ a word having the same 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 un-
derstood by the Hebrews, appears from several passages of
the Bible. Job says of God, " Who alone spreadeth out the
heavens."* 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

* It is not meant that the word Rakiah occurs in these passa-
ges, but to shew how by other words the idea of stretching out
or extension rather than solidity is implied. The verb in the
two first passages is Nata to spread out.

THE ATMOSPHERE. 137

have prevailed at tlie 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 colour, 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 hea-
vens 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 recognise in all these mere poetical figures, not
intended to be literally understood. A late learned writer
wishes us to believe that the intention of the Bible in these
plaxies is actually to teach that the clouds are contained in
skin bottles or something similar, and that they are emptied

138 ARCHAIA.

through hatches in a solid firmament. To found such a
belief, however, on a few figurative statements, seems ridi-
culous, especially when we consider that the writers of the
scripture 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 mau
who has seen a cloud gather on a mountain's brow, or dis-
solve 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 ad-
dress to Job :

" Hast thou with hun stretched out the sky
Which is firm and like a molten mirror ?"

But the word translated sky here is not " Rdkiah " or
" Shamayim^^^ but another signifying the clouds, so that
we should regard Elihu as speaking of the apparent firm=
ness 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."* 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 characterised as a
modern figment of men more learned in books but less

* See also Humboldt^ Cosmos, Yol. 2, Pt. I,

THE ATMOSPHERE. 139

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 104,
where the writer thus addresses the Almighty :

" Bless the Lord, 0 my soul !
0 Lord, my God, thou art very great :
Thou art clothed with honour 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 sup-
posed 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 Grod 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 j it recurred at

140 ARCHAIA.

once to the will — the decree — of Jehovah ; and was con-
tent 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 vapour
thereof."

God called the expanse " Heavens." 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 ex-
panse ; and accordingly throughout the scriptures it is used
in this way ; rahiah occurs very rarely, as if it had become
nearly obsolete, or was perhaps regarded as a merely tech-
nical 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 inter-
fere 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 under-
stand 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 :

THE ATMOSPHERE. 141

" 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 favourably represents the
knowledge of nature that existed at a time probably ante-
rior to the age of Moses — a knowledge far superior to that
which we find in the works of many modern poets and ex-

142 ARCHAIA.

positors, and accompanied by an intense appreciation of the
grandeur and beauty of natural objects.

" For he draweth up the drops of water,
Kain is condensed* from his vapour,
Which the clouds do drop,
And distil upon man abundantly.
Yea, can any understand the distribution of the clouds
Or the thundering of his tabernacle. f
Behold he spreadeth his lightning upon it.
He covereth it as with the depths of the sea.
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,t
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,

* Heb., " they refine."

f " His pavilion round about him was dark waters and thick
clouds of the skies," Ps. xviii. This expression explains that in
the text.

t Translation of these lines much disputed and very difficult.
Gesenius and Oonant render it — "His thunder tells of him; to
the herds even of Him who is on high."

THE ATMOSPHERE. 143

X-^

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 cannot 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 eometh the whirlwind

And cold out of the north,

By the breath of God the frost is produced

And the breadth of waters becomes straitened ;

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, 0 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 works 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 ? "§

§ I take advantage of this long quotation to state that in the
case of this and other passages quoted from the Old Testament,

144 ARCHAIA.

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 scrip-
ture, 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 vapour thereof; he also speaks
of the clouds as being scattered before the brightness of
the sun ; and notices, in truthful as well as exalted lan-
guage, the nature and succession of the lightning's flash, the
thunder, and the precipitation of rain that follows. Solo-
mon also informs us that the "establishment of the clouds

I have carefully consulted the original ; but have availed my-
self 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 oc-
casionally to give a free translation where this seemed neces-
sary to perspicuity. In the Book of Job, I have consulted
principally the translation appended to Barnes's Commentary,
and have derived some hints, -while the work was going through
press, from Dr. Conant's new translation, New York, 185"?.

THE ATMOSPHERE. 145

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 vapour which cause the separa-

* Appendix 0.

146 ARCHAIA.

tion 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 pro-
bably a very regular and uniform condition of the atmos-
pheric currents, and of the processes of evaporation and
condensation."

CHAPTER IX.

THE DRY LAND.

Genesis i. 10 : " And God said, let the waters under the hea-
vens 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."

These are events sufficiently simple and intelligible in
their general character. Geology shows ns that the emer-
gence 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 internal
igneous or volcanic energy of the earth, developed in its
gradual cooling, 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 ele-
vated, and usually supported by crystalline rocks which
have been forced up beneath or through them by internal
agencies, and which truly constitute the pillars and foun-
dations of the earth. These elevations, it is true, were
successive, and belong to difierent periods ; but the appear-
ance 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 sub-
ject have been even more unjustly dealt with than others*

148 ARCHAIA.

In the text, the word (aretz)* earth, 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 inadmissi-
ble, 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 in this verse, 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 word is one of those that pervade both Semitic and
Indo-European tongues. Sanscrit, ahara; Pehlevi, aria; Latin,
terra; German, erde; Gothic, airtha; Scottish, yird; English,
earth. — (Gesenius.)

THE DRY LAND. 149

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 " j 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 passages refer to the same subject : —

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. 20.

" Thou hast established the earth and it endureth,
According to thy decrees they continue this day,
For all are thy servants." Psalm cxix. 20.

150 ARCHAIA.

"Who shaketh the earth out of its place
And its pillars tremble." Job ix. 5.

" 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 38. 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 de-
cree of the Almighty — the unchanging arrangements of an
unchangeable Creator, whose "hands formed the dryland."*
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

* Psalm xcv.

THE DRY LAND. 151

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 gene-
ral 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 learned
these cosmical facts, before the rise of geology, and express-
ed 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 distur-
bances to which it is liable, I quote the following passages.
The first is from that magnificent description of Jehovah
descending to succour his people amid the terrors of the
earthquake, the volcano, and the thunder storm, in Psaha
18th:

152 ARCHAIA.

" 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 — 0 Jehovah —
At the blast of the breath of thy nostrils."

In another passage in the psalms we find volcanic action
thus briefly sketched :

" He looketh on the earth and it trembleth,
He toucheth the hills and they smoke.

Psalm civ. 32.

Perhaps the most remarkable passage on this subject in
the whole Bible is that in Job 28th, 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 pre-
sents, 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.

THE DRY LAND. 153

To the end of darkness and to all extremes man searchetb,

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,*

The earth— out of it cometh bread ;

And beneath, it is overturned as by fire.f

Its stones are the place of sapphires,

And it hath lumpsj of gold.

The path (thereto) the bird of prey hath not known,

The vulture's eye hath not seen it.§

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 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 pro-

• Gesenius.

t Perhaps "changed," metamorphosed, as by fire. Conant
has "destroyed."

} "Dust" in our version, literally lumps or "nuggets."

§ 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
Mm to find his prey.

L

154 ARCHAIA.

ducts, as it existed in an age 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 minerals 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 anything
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 con-
clusion 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 repeti-
tion of the approval of the Creator. " God saw that it
was good." To our view, that primeval dry land would

THE DRY LAND. 155

scarcely have seemed good. It was a world of bare, rockj
peaks, and verdureless valleys ; — here active volcanoes, with
their heaps of scoriae and scarcely cooled lava currents ; —
there vast mud-flats, 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 charac-
ter 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 everything at first was in its
best estate. No succeeding state could parallel the unbro-
ken symmetry of the earth in the fluid and vaporous con-
dition 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

156 ARCHAIA.

than any succeeding continents, — even as the dry and bar-
ren moon now, in this respect, far surpasses the earth. In
the progress of organic life, geology gives similar indica-
tions, 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 quan-
tities of detrital matter must have been deposited in the
waters, and in part elevated into land. All of these beds
would, of course, be destitute of organic remains ) and it
i possible that some of them might yet be identified
There is, in fact, a series of non-fossiliferous rocks (the
Azoic) mostly in a metamorphic state, and regarded as
older than the oldest fossiliferous strata. It is, however,
at present impossible certainly to separate beds which may
have been deposited at this period, from those which were
deposited after the creation of the first organised beings,
since all traces of these may have been obliterated by
metamorphism.

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.* In either of these ways, the sea and

Lyell's Principles of Geology.

THE DRY LAND. 157

rivers would have time to smooth the more rugged in-
equalities, 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 distribu-
tion. 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 compara-
tively 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 ex-
panse 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 deve-
loped of its kind in its first appearance, and since there
have been in geological time many great subsidences aa
well as elevations.

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 ;

158 ARCHAIA.

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 direc-
tions approaching to north-east and south-west, or north-
west and south-east, 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. Prof. Pierce, of
Harvard College, was, I believe, the first to point out that
these lines are in reality parts of great circles tangent to
the Polar circles, and to suggest a theory of their origin,
based on the action of solar heat and the seasons on a
cooling earth. The theory appears inadequate to account
for the fact ; but this remains, and shows that in the for-
mation 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
though apparently still older lines of fracture running east
and west, have determined the forms of the continents
from their origin.

M. Elie de Beaumont, and after him many other geo-
logists, attribute the elevation of 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 settle towards the centre. This view

THE DRY LAND. 159

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 the great leading
process.

De Beaumont has extended his general theory into a
complex system, connecting the relative ages of mountain
systems with their directions. This system is as yet,
however, among the uncertain results of the science of the
earth, and we cannot look for such details in the scrip-
tures. For this reason, I have been content with the more
general statement given above, which enforces the leading
truth now before us, that the first dry land was essentially
that which, variously modified and extended, and covered
by successive formations,* still exists.

* It is also to be noted, that, in so far as aqueous deposits, as
well as igneous outbursts, are concerned in the building of
continents, these must in all periods have been guided and modi-
fied by the original lines of fracture.

CHAPTER X.

THE FIRST VEGETATION,

Genesis i. 11 : "And God said let the earth bring forth the
tender 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 yield-
ing seed, and the tree bearing fruit whose seed is in it, after its
kind : and God saw that it was good."

The same creative period that witnessed the first appear-
ance 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 in-
cluded 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 herb-

THE FIRST VEGETATION. 161

age. Thus, in Job 38th, "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 fol-
lowing passages are similar :— Psalm 23d, " He maketh me
to lie down in green pastures" (literally young or tender
herbage) ; Deuteronomy 23d, " Small rain upon the tender
herb''; Isaiah 37th, ''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 an heifer at grass/' (Jer. 14),— 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, conse-
quently, a member of the second class of plants mentionedo
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

162 ARCHAIA.

appear to be employed for the young state of shrubs or trees.
3. We thus appear to be shut up to the conclusion, that
desJie here means those plants, mostly small and herba-
ceous, which bear no proper seeds;* in other words, the
Cryptogamia, as fungi, mosses, lichens, ferns, &c. 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 difierence from the creative act itself.

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 her-
baceous plants from trees, from modern botanical classifi-
cations. 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 unneces-

* Tenera herba, sine semine saltern conspicuo." — Rosenmuller^
Scholia,

THE FIRST VEGETATION. 163

sary to vindicate the accuracy of the arrangement on
botanical grounds, since the historical order was evidently
better suited to the purpose in view.

A very important truth is contained in the expression,
*' after its kind " ; that is, after its species ; for the Hebrew
" miTi ", 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. and 14, and in Deuteronomy
xiv. and 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 by a distinct creative act, revelation
tallies perfectly with the conclusions of natural science,
which lead us to believe that each species is permanently
reproductive, variable within narrow limits, incapable of
permanent intermixture with other species, and a direct
product of creative power.

Some additional facts contained in the recapitulation of
the creative work in chapter ii., may very properly be con-
sidered here, as they seem to refer to the climatal condi-
tions of the earth during the growth of this most ancient
vegetation, and before the final adjustment of the astrono-
mical 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

164 ARCHAIA.

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, at least
as far back as the carboniferous period, f countless ages
before the creation of man or the existing animals. Al-
though, however, such a condition of the earth as that
stated in these verses, has not been known in any geolo-
gical 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,

* Bush proposes to read, "nor had a mist ascended," &c.
This seems, however, in this place, a forced rendering of the
Hebrew.

t Recent observations of the writer appear to carry it back
to the Devonian period. See Proc. Geol. Society of London,
1859.

THE FIRST VEGETATION. 165

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 vegeta-
tion 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
organised 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 promi-
nent place.

It is evident that the words of the inspired writer include
plants belonging to all the great sub-divisions of the vege=
table 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 and gymnospermous. It included trees

166 ARCHAIA.

bearing fruit, as well as lichens and mosses, and it re-
ceived 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 ex-
pected 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 considera-
tion 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 only consist of
mineral matter, and must have been for a long period oc-
cupied 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,

THE FIRST VEGETATION. 167

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 con-
tain remains of marine animals with those of plants sup-
posed to be allied to the existing algae or sea-weeds.
Geology cannot, however, assure us either that no land
plants existed contemporaneously with these earliest ani-
mals, 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-ex-
istence of a previous period of vegetation alone. Farther,
the rocks formed prior to these oldest fossiliferous strata,
exist as far as yet known in a condition so highly meta-
morphic as almost to preclude the possibility of their con-
taining any distinguisable fossils. It is possible therefore,
that in these Azoic 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
fossils, and these the remains of plants 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 monu-
ments of this third creative Aeon. The only other alter-
native by which these verses can be reconciled with geology
is that adopted by the late Hugh Miller, who supposes that

168 ARCHAIA.

the plants of the third day are those of the carbonifer-
ous period ; but beside 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 Palasozoic period
of Geology. That there were plants before this period,
we may infer almost with certainty from the abundance
and distribution of carbonaceous matter in the form of
graphite, in the Azoic or Laurentian rocks of Canada ; but
of the form or structure of these plants we know nothing.*
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 two or three 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 myri-
ads 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 ge-
ology belong to the middle period of the earth's history,
and were preceded by an enormous lapse of ages in which

♦ See Appendix D.

THE FIRST VEGETATION. 169

the earth was being prepared for animal existence, but of
which no records remain, except those contained in the in-
spired 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 be-
ings. To use, with a slight modification, the words of one
of the ablest of our younger geologists,* " For ages the
prejudice prevailed that the historical period, or that which
is coeval with the life of man, exhausted the whole his-
tory of the globe. Geologists removed that prejudice," but
must not substitute " another in its place, viz : that geolo-
gical time is coeval with the globe itself, or that organic
life always existed on its surface,"

A farther objection 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 dif-
ficulty 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 conti-
nuous or uninterrupted, and that the preservation of the
flora and fauna of many geological periods has been very im

♦ Haughton, Address to Geological Society, Dublin.

H

170 ARCHAIA.

perfect. 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 de-
velopment 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 car-
boniferous 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 ever 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 ftiel or other products useful to man. The only

* Appendix E.

THE PIBST VEGETATION. 171

direct answer to this has been already given. The previ-
ous existence of plants may have been, and probably was,
essential to the comfort and subsistence of the animals af-
terwards 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 Azoic period.

Some writers* 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 unfavourable

* See McDonald, " Creation and Fall." Prof. 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.

172 ARCHAIA.

to the animal life subsequently to be introduced. This
use it may have served, and when its eflfects had been gra-
dually lost through metamorphism and decay, that second
great withdrawal of carbon which took place in the carbo-
niferous period may have been rendered necessary. The
reasons afforded by natural history for supposing that
plants preceded animals, are thus stated by Prof. Dana : —
" The proof from science of the existence of plants be-
fore animals is inferential, and still may be deemed satis-
factory. Distinct fossils have not been found: all that
ever existed in the azoic 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 gra-
phite, 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 pur-
pose in the coal-period, in ridding the atmosphere of
carbonic acid for the subsequent introduction of land ani-
mals, 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.

THE FIRST VEGETATION. 173

4. Vegetation being directly or mediately the food of
animals, it must have had a previous existence. The lat-
ter 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 cognisant, 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
Btill covered by the waters. As time advanced, islands and

174 ARCHAIA.

mountain peaks arose from the ocean, vomiting forth the
molten and igneous materials of the interior of the earth's
crust. Plains and vallies were then spread around, rivers
traced out their beds, and the ocean was limited by coasts
and divided by far-stretching continents. At the com-
mand 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 or-
ganic 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 Grod."

CHAPTEK XL

LUMINARIES.

Genesis i. 15 to 19 : " 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 luminnary to preside over the
night. He made the stars also. And God platied 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."

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 these verses, interrupting as
they do the progress of the organic creation, and constitut-
ing 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 cannot fully answer these
questions, we at least feel convinced that the position of
these verses is not accidental, and not that which would

176 ARCHAIA.

have been chosen 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 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 plane-
tary 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 a direct interposition of creative
power. The latter is the more probable view.

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 luminous ether
around the sun.

3. The heavenly bodies are said to be 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

LXTMINARIES. 177

idolatrous worship ; or perhaps of the earthly events they
are supposed to influence. The arrangements now per-
fected 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 ambi-
guity 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 ^pointed 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 im-
pression 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

178 ARCHAIA.

fixed stars, and it is by no means probable that these were
in any way affected by the work of 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 of 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 condensar
tion of the luminous ether around the sun, was one of the
most important of these changes. On the hypothesis of
La Place, formerly adopted by us, 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 elabo-
ration 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, when on the eve of introducing animal life, it
might be proper for the Creator to interfere 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 intro-
duction of " existing causes " in inorganic nature, and we
henceforth find no more creative interference, except in the

LUMINARIES. 179

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 j
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 introduc-
tion 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 modi-
fications the same in kind with those which they now ex-
perience, though perhaps different in degree. In these
verses 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 phe-
nomena depend. Scripture, 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. There are modern physicists and philoso-
phers who stumble at the doctrine that the introduction of
species of animals and plants implies direct creative power,
and who desire to have the geologist refer this as well as
merely physical changes to laws still in operation. Natu-
ralists oppose to such views all experience, the wonderful
structures and forms of animals, and the manner in which
species appear in geological time. One of the most eminent

180 ARCHAIA.

of living naturalists* well remarks that if we take as the
simplest form of the animal its egg, and examine the won-
drous structures and powers apparent there, we cannot
after such study suppose the origin of a species from any
mere physical cause. Moses sides on this point with the
geologists and naturalists, by affirming that the creative ar-
rangements relating to mere matter ceased on the fourth day,
after which all in this department proceeds on unchanging
law, creation continuing only with reference to animate
existence, t

The verses relating to the fourth day are silent respect-
ing the mundane history of the period ; and geology gives
no very certain information concerning it. If, however, we
assume that the Azoic 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 Silurian series, that during or toward the close of
this day, the crust of the earth was affected by great move-
ments. There is another consideration also leading to im-
portant 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

• Agassizj " Contributions to the Natural History of America."
t Appendix F.

LUMINARIES. 181

day the extent of dry land was considerable, and was pro-
bably gradually increasing. If then the Cambrian and
Silurian systems, the oldest fossiliferous rocks known, be-
long to the commencement of the fifth day, we must con-
clude that, during the fourth, much of the land previously
existing had been again submerged. In other words, dur-
ing 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 sub-
merged 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.

ARCHAIA.

" He commandeth the sun and it shineth not,
He sealeth up the stars,!
He alone spreadeth out the heavens,
And walketh on the high waves of the sea.
He maketh Arcturus, Orion,

The Pleiades and the secret chambers of the south.
Who doeth great things past finding out.
Yea, marvellous things beyond number.." — Joh 9, 9.

" Canst thou tighten the bonds of the Pleiades*

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." — Joh
38, 31.

t 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.

* The rendering " sweet influences " in our version may be
correct, but the weight of argument appears to favour 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 those of winter.

LUMINARIES. 183

I may merely remark on these passages, that the cham-
bers 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 for-
mer group, and the wide separation of those of the latter j
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 as-
tronomy, 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. Mazzofroth 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 writ-
ten. 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 observa-
tions from 3000 B.C., and the arguments of Baily and others,

184 ARCHAIA.

founded on internal evidence, give some colour of truth to
the claim. The Chaldeans at a very early period had ascer»
tained 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 sphe-
rical, 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 open-
ing 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 fine 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 8.

" 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 147.

LUMINARIES. 185

" The heavens declare the glory of God,
The firmament showeth his handywork ;
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 19.

These are excellent illustrations of the truth of the scrip-
ture 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 and 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 beau-
tiful, whether seen in the Creator or reflected from his
works.

The work of this day opens up a wide field for astro-
nomical 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. The objects of the writer of Genesis may
be summed up in the following general statements :
N

186 AROHAIA.

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 sys-
tem were perfected before the introduction of animals om
GUT planet.

CHAPTER XII.

THE LOWER ANIMALS.

Genesis i. 20 to 23 : " 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."

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 swarm-
ing 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 ap-
pear to have adopted, without, perhaps, any very clear

188 ARCHAIA.

notions of the creatures intended. The manner in which
it is used in other passages, places its true meaning be-
yond doubt. I select as illustrations of the most apposite
character, those verses in Leviticus in which clean and un-
clean animals are specified, and in which we have a right to
expect the most precise zoological nomenclature that the
Hebrew can afford. In Leviticus 11th and 20th to 23rd5
Insects are defined to be flying sheretzim, and in verses
29th, &c., 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 iden-
tifications, 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 swarm-
eth on the earth, shall be an abomination unto you, it shall
not be eaten ; whatsoever goeth upon the belly (serpents,
worms, snails, &c.), 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 LOWER ANIMALS. 189

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 mollusca, radiata and articulata 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 ovo-viviparous, 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 cere-
monial law. We conclude, therefore, that the prolific
animals of the fifth day's creation belonged to the three
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 distin-
guished 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.

190 ARCHAIA.

Subsequent translators and commentators have laid under
contribution all sorts of marine monsters, including the
sea-serpent, in their endeavours to attach a precise mean-
ing 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 has arisen from
confounding two distinct words, tannin and tanj 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 conjec-
ture as to the animal intended, is that of Gesenius, who
supposes it to be the jackall. 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 endeavour to combine all the charac-
ters 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

THE LOWER ANIMALS, 191

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 be-
come heaps, a dwelling-place for "dragons" (tanim).
There can be no doubt that the animals intended here are
quite difierent. The devouring tannin is a huge preda-
<5eous river reptile, a fit emblem of the Babylonian monarch ;
the tan is the jackall that will soon howl in his ruined
palaces. It is interesting to know that philologists trace a
connection between tannin aad the Greek tein^, 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 length-
ened or extended creature, which corresponds well with its
application to the crocodile. Taking all th« above facts in
connection, we are quite safe in concluding that the crea-
tures 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.*

3, In verse 21st, the remainder of the skeretzinij beside
the larger reptiles, are included in the general terms,
" Living creature that moveth." The term " living crea-

• See Appendix G. 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.

192r ARCHAIA.

ture " 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, r ernes), and fishes." In the present connec-
tion, it probably has its most general sense ; unless, indeed,
the apparent repetition in this verse relates to the amphi-
bious or semi-terrestrial creatures associated with the great
reptiles ; and, in that case, smaller 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 mis-
conception 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.

THE LOWER ANIMALS. 193

5. In addition to the great mass of sheretzim, so accu-
rately characterised 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 consi-
der the contrast here with the creation of plants and of
the higher animals, both of which proceed from the earth.

7. It cannot 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, indi-
cate 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 two-fold division of the period — the earlier com-
mencing with the creation of the humbler invertebrates,
the later characterised by the great reptiles — which is the
ax5tual state of the case as disclosed by geology.

8. The Creator recognises the introduction of sentient
existence and volition, by blessing this new work of his

194 ABCHAU.

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.

When we inquire what information geology affords res-
pecting the period under consideration, the answer may be
fiill 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 ab-eady 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 oldest fossiliferous rocks, we find the remains
crustaceans, mollusks and radiates, such as shrimps, shellfish,
and starfishes, which appear to have inhabited the bottom
of a shallow ocean. Among these were some genera belong-
ing to the higher forms of the mollusca and radiata, but
apparently as yet no vertebrated animals. Fishes were
then introduced, and have left their remains in the upper

THE LOWEB ANIMALS. 195

Silurian rocks, and very abundantly in the Devonian and
Carboniferous, in wbich also the first reptiles occur. 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 period, an abundant and luxuriant vegeta-
tion. The Mesozoic period is, however, emphatically the
age of reptiles. This class then reached its climax, in the
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, and were
represented by some very gigantic species. Toward the
close of the period, several 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
Mesozoig^ — we find, first, the lower sJieretzim represented
by the invertebrata and the fishes, then the great reptiles
and the birds ; and it cannot be denied, that, if we admit
that the Mosaic day under consideration corresponds with
these geological periods, it would be impossible better to
characterise 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 j and
their connection with the present system of nature consists

196 ARCHAIA.

only in their forming with it a more perfect series than
our present fauna alone could afford. 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 sum-
med up as follows.

1. According to both records, the causes which at present
regulate the distribution of light and heat and moisture,
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 shows 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 j though the geologic record, if taken alone,

THE LOWER ANIMALS. 197

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 vegeta-
tion 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.*

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

* The interesting discovery, by Mr. Beale and others, of thir-
teen species of mammalia in the Purbeck, and that of Professor
Emmons of a few species 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 Amphi-
therium 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, g-oes far to increase the
improbability of the existence of the higher mammals.

198 ARCHAU.

last, and marking a gradual assimilation of tlie 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, between this
and the earlier tertiary rocks, points to this as extremely
probable. I shall close these remarks by a quotation on
this subject from Ansted's " Ancient world :" — " The close
of the Secondary (Mesozoic) period was succeeded by a
general disruption of the various beds that had been depo-
sited in those parts of the world to which we have access,
and by changes and modifications so considerable as to
alter the whole face of nature. It would appear, also, that
a long period of time elapsed before newer beds were
thrown down ; since the chalky mud (of the newest Meso-
zoic rocks) not only had time to harden into chalk, but
the surface of the chalk itself was much rubbed and worn.
So completely and absolutely is the line of demarcation
drawn between the secondary and newer deposits, in parts
of the world where these beds have been recognised in
actual contact, that it had become a common notion among
geologists to assume the destruction of all natural relations
between them ; concluding that not one single species of

THE LOWER ANIMALS. 199

animal or vegetable connected the two periods, and lived
through the intervening disturbances. Although this
view certainly requires modifications in points of detail, it
is still correct in a general sense, and expresses without
much exaggeration the real difference in condition, the
result perhaps of greater time than is elsewhere indicated.
In this way, the secondary period is distinctly cut off from
the tertiary," In the same work, chaps. 6th and 11th,
will be found vivid sketches of the general features of the
inorganic world in the Palaeozoic and Mesozoic periods,
highly illustrative of the parallelism between these animal
remains and the creatures produced on the fifth day.*

It thus appears that scripture and geology so tar con-
cur respecting the events of this period, as to establish-
even without any other evidence, a probability that the
fifth day corresponds with the geological periods with which
I have endeavoured 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

* No break of continuity in the succession of life revealed by
geology can be regarded as established by positive evidence j
and most of the breaks of this kind ascertained by the earlier
geologists have proved to be merely local. But the one which
has maintained itself most constantly in all portions of the earth
is certainly that between the Mesozoic and Tertiary. Even in
cases where, as in some parts of the tertiary districts of the
United States, there seemed to be a gradation of fossils, later
observations tend to show a real distinctness.

200 ARCHAIA,

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 cannot 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. Com-
parative anatomy has shown that these extinct animal s,
though often varying much from their modern representa-
tives, are in no respect rude or imperfect; that they have
the same appearance of careful planning and elaborate exe-
cution, 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 com-
binations 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, there-
fore, in these respects, not without their use as manifesta-
tions of the Creator, in this our later age.

THE LOWER ANIMALS. 201

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 further
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 aU the types. Hence our
existing system of organic nature, though probably more
complete than any that preceded it, is still only fragmen-
tary. 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 gropes after 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 ?

202 ARGHAIA.

Are God and Nature then at strife,

That Nature lends such evil dreama?
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 roU'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.

THE LOWER ANIMALS. 203

0 life as futile, then, as frail !

0 for thy voice to soothe and bless I

What hope of answer, or redress ?
Behind the veil, behind the veil."

The Creator himself, however, 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 pro
vidence ; 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 preserva-
tion, 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 great name.* The psalmist

• I do not consider it necessary to notice the singular doc-
trine of " prochronism," developed in Mr. Gosse's "Omphalos";
since, however ingenious as a specimen of logical skepticism,
it cannot be regarded by any one acquainted with geological
facts as affording a satisfactory explanation of them. It is
interesting chiefly as a modern instance of that barren, meta-
physical speculation, which, in a by-gone time, was applied to
nature, instead of patient, inductive inquiry. I have no doubt
that its excellent author will himself be brought to regard it
from this point of view.

204 ARCHAIA.

would almost appear to have had all these thoughts before
his mind, when he poured out his wonder in the 104th
Psalm : —

" 0 Lord, how manifold are thy works I
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 ;

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. In 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,* and stores of

* It is very interesting, in connection with this, to note that
nearly all the earliest and greatest seats of population and civi-
lisation have been placed on the more modern geological depo-
sits, or on those in which stores of fuel have been accumulated
by the growth of extinct plants.

THE LOWER ANIMALS. 205

mineral products were accumulated, to enable man in his
fallen state to earn subsistence and the blessings of civili-
sation by the sweat of his brow. And if it pleased the
Almighty, during these preparatory processes, to replenish
the land and sea with herbs, and trees, and creeping things,
and great reptilian monsters, — to fill it with such forms of
life as in its imperfect state it was capable of sustaining,
who shall venture to criticise his procedure, or say to him,
" What doest thou?"

CHAPTER XIII.

THE HIGHER ANIMALS.

Genesis i. 24 and 25: "And God said, let the land bring
forth animals after their kinds ; the herbivora, the reptiles, and
the carniTora, after their kinds ; and it was so. And God made
carnivorous mammals after their kinds, and herbivorous mam-
mals after their kinds, and every reptile of the land after its
kind ; and God saw that it was good."

The creation of animals, unlike that of plants, occupies
two days. Here our attention is restricted to the inhabi-
tants of the land, and chiefly to their higher forms.
Several new terms are introduced to our notice, which I
have endeavoured 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
^^ BJiemaW ; 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 Elings 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. Notwithstand-
ing this wide range of meaning, however, there are
passages, and these of the greatest authority in reference

THE HIGHER ANIMALS. 207

to our present subject, in which it strictly means the her-
bivorous mammals, and which show that when it was
necessary to distinguish these from the predaceous or car-
nivorous tribes, this term was specially employed. In
Leviticus xi., verses 22 to 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, hhemah is strictly
a synonym of herhivora, including ruminants, rodents and
pachyderms. 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 ana-
chronism. At the same time, I have 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 "rewies," 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 crea-
tures lower than the mammals, introduced in this period.

3. The compound term (" hay'th-eretz)^ which I have

208 ARCHAIA.

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
for 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, 2nd a variety of terrestrial reptilia
and other .lower forms not included in the work of the
previous day; 3rd, 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 them 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 ear-
lier of which herbivorous animals took the lead, and in the
later those that are carnivorous. In either case, we may
infer that herbivora predominated in the earlier creations
of the period.

It is almost unnecessary to say that this period corresponds
with the Tertiary era of geologists. The coincidences are
very marked and striking. As already stated, though in

THE HIGHER ANIMALS. 209

the later secondary period there were great facilities for
the preservation of mammals, in the strata then being depo-
sited, 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 j
most of the gigantic reptiles had disappeared, and terrestrial
mammals of large size and high organization, had taken
their place. During the whole tertiary period, this pre-
dominance of the mammalia continued -, and as the meso-
zoic 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 pachydermata, and that many of these ex-
tinct pachyderms 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 further knowledge also as a singular remnant of an ex-
tinct gigantic race. It is at least curious that while in the

210 ARCHAIA.

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 car-
nivora 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.

The following extract from Ansted, in which he sums
up the mammalian tribes of the older and middle tertiary
periods, forms an apt illustration of the statements of scrip-
ture which we have just been considering. I quote this work
because its pictures are very vivid, and bring out this corres-
pondence very distinctly. The same facts appear in every
popular book on geology, but not in the scenic form which
corresponds best with the Mosaic delineation. Hugh Mil-
ler has sketched these correspondences in the Testimony of
the Kocks ; but he writes with the scripture narrative di-
rectly in view, which was not the case with Ansted.

"The interior of the land of which the surrounding
waters were thus peopled, was no less remarkable, and ex-
hibited appearances equally instructive. Troops of mon*
keys might be seen skipping lightly from branch to branch
in the various trees, or heard mowing and chattering and
howling in the deep recesses of the forest. Of the birds,
some clothed in plumage of almost tropical brilliancy were
busy in the forests, while others, such as the vulture,
hovered over the spots where death had been busy ; gigan-
tic serpents might be seen invidiously watching their prey.

THE HIGHER ANIMALS. . 211

Other serpents in gaudy dress, were darting upon the
smaller quadrupeds and birds, and insects glittered brightly
in the sun * * * . With the monkeys were associated
small opossums, squirrels, a racoon, and other animals at
that time the tenants of the forests. Several of the smaller
carnivora prowled about preying on these, and among them
a species of fox and wolf, show that as there was a large
supply of animal food so there were other animals to avail
themselves of the supply. But in all this one thing is re-
markable, it is the almost total absence of the tribe of
ruminants. None of those which are so useful and neces-
sary to man were then to be seen. The deer tribe and the
goat, the sheep, the ox, the camel, all are wanting ; and
their place was filled by various representatives belonging
to the tribe of which the hog, the horse, the rhinoceros and
the elephant are the present types. These indeed were
abundant and varied enough both in their dimensions,
their appearance, and their habits. Some swam in the
water ; some tripped lightly and elegantly on the borders
of the marshes, others constantly on the alert, ran like the
wind on the slightest approach of danger. Everything was
thus perfectly adapted to animal wants and necessities, but
no preparation was yet made for man."

" During this time (the middle tertiary period) the land
was becoming peopled with all that rich variety of mam-
malian life, which characterised the later tertiary periods
in the northern hemisphere. In addition to the elephant
and the Mastodon, the latter of which soon died out, we

212 ARCHAIA.

have two distinct and well-marked species of rhinoceros, a
hippopotamus, several kinds of horses, large insectivorous
animals, and a considerhble number of Carnivora, some of
large size, and differing considerably from the groups now
inhabiting these parts of the world. We also find an im-
portant and very interesting group of true ruminants,
including a gigantic deer, and the aurochs. With these
are associated marine Mammalia in great variety, forming,
on the whole, a singular and well-marked group, interesting
in the highest degree for the analogies it exhibits with
widely-spread existing species, as well as for the differences
presented between it and any neighbouring fauna."

This was the European fauna of the earlier and
middle Tertiary. That of the later tertiaries is still
rich in pachyderms, represented by the gigantic fossil ele-
phants and mastodons, of which different species appear to
have replaced each other in successive sub-divisions of the
period. In America we have at the same time a remarkable
group of large quadrupeds allied to the modern sloths; and in
Europe, America and Asia many true ruminants, as well as
formidable carnivora. Yet all or nearly all of these later
tertiary animals had disappeared before the advent of man.

Dana well sums up the grand march of mammalian life
as follows : —

'' 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

THE HIGHER ANIMALS. 213

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 Aus-
tralia, as the old mastodon, twenty feet long and nine feet
high, exceeds the modern buffalo. Such, according to ge-
ology, was the age of mammals, when the brute species
existed in their gi-eatest magnificence, and brutal ferocity
had free play ; when the dens of bears and hyenas, prowl-
ing 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 com-
parisons 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,""

CHAPTER XIV.

MAN.

Gbnbsis i. 26 to 31 : " 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 do-
minion 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 everything that he had made, and behold it
was very good. And evening and morning were 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 consti-
tution there was something new and not included in pre-
vious parts of the work, even in its material. Man was

MAN. 215

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 intelli-
gent 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 nar-
row 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 gene-
ral 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 carni-
vorous 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 with the free

216 ARCHAIA.

exercise of the powers of enjoyment bestowed on animals by
the Creator, a rule akin to that which a merciful man ex-
ercises 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 resto-
ration 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 fruit-
ful 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, be-
longing 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 con-
cerned. These facts, taken in connection, lead to grave ques-
tions. How is the happy and innocent state of man con-
sistent with the contemporaneous existence of carnivorous
and predaceous animals, which, as both scripture and geo-

MAN, 217

logy 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.
Internal probabilities, as well as the tracing of many im-
portant species to this source, show that the district of
Asia in the vicinity of the Euphrates and Tigris, to which
the scripture assigns the origin of the human race, was an
eminent centre of this description ; and at the period under
consideration, it may either have been cleared of its previous
inhabitants, or may not have yet been invaded by animals
spreading from other centres.* 2. To remove all zoolo-
gical 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

* See Appendix H.
P

^18 ARCHAIA.

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 2d and 19th, et seq^., where God is represented as
forming them out of the ground and exhibiting them to
Adam ; a passage otherwise superfluous, and indeed tend-
ing to confuse the meaning of the document, 3, The diffi-
culty attending the extension of the human race in a state
of innocence, is at once obviated by the geological doctrine
of the extinction of species. We know that in past geolo-
gical 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 pro-
cess 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 gra^
dually 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

MAN. 21^

from innocence, would thus consist in the permission given
to the predaceous animals and the thorns and the briars,
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 arrest-
ment in the progress of the earth, in that last great revo-
lution which would have converted it into an Eden ; and
the anomalies of its present state consist, according to scrip-
ture, 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 cannot 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 ex-
ternal 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 pre-
daceous 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 illus-
trate 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 crea-

220 ABCHAIA.

tion, 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 geolc^ist were
asked to state, a priori, the conditions proper to the crea-
tion of any important species, he could only say — ^the pre»-
paration 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.* The
difficulties of the subject have arisen from supposing, con-
trary 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 necessa>
rily have been his companions there.

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 cannot mean that
every animal in the earth was herbivorous. It may refer

• See Lyell, Principles of Geology, "Introduction of Species."

MAN. 221

to the group of animals associated with man in Eden ; or,
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 ani-
mal 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
unquestionably 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 many 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. He has not done so, we are at liberty to
suppose, because the fact as revealed to him was 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 uni-
versal catastrophe since the first creation of mammals ; on
the other hand, we cannot with certainty trace any existing
species back beyond the eommeneement of the tertiary era.

222 ARCHAIA.

Greology and revelation, therefore, coincide in referring the
creation of man to the close of the perio^ in which mam-
mals were introduced and became predominant, and in
establishing a marked separation between that period and
the preceding one in which the lower animals held undis-
puted sway. This coincidence, while it strengthens the pro-
bability 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 succes-
sive physical changes, and long series of organised 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

MAN, 223

exalted. It consists in the enjoyment of the favour of
Ood, 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. 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 worship-
ped art too much, reverenced and studied 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
€ven he acknowledges the preeminent 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 ^^f 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.

224 AKCHAM.

I do not wish here so to depredate art, as to raise the
question — why should there be such a thing as fine art ?
Why we should attempt to imitate that "vdiich we cannot
equal, and which yet every where surrounds us? The
necessities of man's fallen nature, — ^his desire to perpetuate
the perishing forms dear to him^ — his own conceptions of
the beautiful, and his longing to realize them, — his ambi-
tious wish to create something that may give him an undy-^
ing reputation, -^his idolatrous desire to embody in material
form, something that he or others may reverence or worship ;:,
these and such reasons are sufficient to account for art
aspirations, as con&tant products of out mental constitution,.
Let us accord to art the admiration which it deserves, but
let us not forget that nature i& the- highest art — the art
which embraces in itself all else that truly deserves the*
name.

One essential diflference between imitative art and nature,,
is that the former is wholly superficial, while the latter hasj
an inner life and finer structure, corresponding to its out-
ward form. The painter's bouquet of flowers may charm
us with its fine combinution of forms and colors, and with
the thought and taste that speak in. every hue and tint ;.
but examine it closely, and it becomes a mass of patches of
color, in which the parts of the actual flower are but rudely
shadowed forth. The natural flower, on the other hand,
yields to the closest examination, only new structures and'
more delicate beauties not perceived at the first glance j:
and even under the microscope, we find it pregnant with

MAN. 22&

new wonders, so that if we represent separately all its
various parts and internal stractures, we have a series of
pictures, each full of beauty and interest, and the whole
showing us that the painter's genius has availed only to
depict that outer layer of charms which lies at the very
surface. And then in the actual flower, we have all those
changes of beauty that march in procession from the un-
folding bud to the ripening fruit. Truly may the lily of
the field laugh to scorn the efforts of human art, when we
place them in competition as objects addressed to our
higher powers and tastes.

In like manner the Apollo of the Sculptor may repre-
sent, not only years of study and laborious days of delicate
chiseling, but also a beau-ideal of manly symmetry and
grace, such as we can seldom find approached in the real
world ; but take, for comparison, the living, well-developed
human form, and you have an object infinitely more full
of beauty. Every motion of such a form is a new statue.
In a few minutes it gives you a whole gallery of varied
attitudes ; and then within, you have the wondrous mecha-
nism of bones and muscles, which, if not individually
beautiful, become so to our inner mental vision, when we
consider their adaptation to this infinity of graceful form
and motion. The frame contrived to enshrine the immor-
tal mind of man, is the chief of the works of God known
to us ; and is not the less beautiful, that, in our present
fallen state, considerations, both moral and physical, require
that the nakedness, which was its primeval glory and dis-

226 ARCHAIA.

tinction, should be covered from our sight. It is a high
ambition that fires the sculptor with the hope, that he shall
be able to embody even one of those attitudes that speak
the emotions of the soul within. Yet, after he has ex-
hausted all his art, how cold, how dead, how intensely
wearisome and monotonous, when compared with the living
form, is the changeless beauty of the statue. The little-
ness of art is equally apparent when it attempts to rival
the grandeur of nature. Her towers and spires have less
effect than those rocky pinnacles and mountain peaks ; her
pillared porticos do not equal nature's colonnades of stately
trunks and graceful foliage. We habitually acknowledge
this, when we adorn our finest buildings with surrounding
trees, just as nature masks with foliage the bases of rude
cliffs, and the flanks of precipices.

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. Both will thus rise to that highest taste, which
will enable them to appreciate nok 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

MAN. 227

genius, without violating natural truth and unity, and na-
ture 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 culti-
vation of the study of nature. This is also an easier
branch of education, provided the instructors have suffi-
cient knowledge. Good works of art are rare and costly ;
but good works of nature are everywhere around us, wait-
ing 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 Hebrew literature. 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

228 ARCHAIA.

of man, and which lead him to adequate conceptions of the
Creator. 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, re^
vealed 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 defi-
nite order or significance. An observer soon arrives at the
conclusion that it is a series of circling changes, ever re-
turning to the same points, ever renewing their courses,
under the axjtion 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 suc-
cession. 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

MAN. 229

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 shut-
tles, 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 be-
ginning had a plan before his mind, that this plan embraced
various types or patterns of existence ; that on these pat-
terns 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 artifici-
alities, 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

230 ARCHAIA.

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
that 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 fe-
male"; and in the succeeding more full details 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 afterwards
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 really is good reason to
believe with some modern naturalists, that man is not of
one but several origins, we must admit Moses to have been

MAN. 231

very imperfectly informed. Nor, on the other hand, does
the Bible allow us to assign a very high antiquity to the
origin of man. Its careful genealogical tables admit of but
very narrow limits of difference of opinion as to the age of
the human world or aeon ; and especially of the deluge,
from which man took his second point of departure. These
questions, so much agitated now, demand a separate and
careful consideration ; but we must first devote a few pages
to the simple statements of the Bible respecting the Sab-
bath of creation, and its relation to human history.

CHAPTER XV.

THE REST OF THE CREATOR.

Gekesis ii. 1 and 3 : " 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."

The end of the sixth day closed the work of creation pro-
perly so called, as well as that of forming and arranging
the things created. The beginning of the seventh intro-
duced a period, which, according to the views already
stated, was to be occupied ly the continued increase and
diffusion of man and the creatures under his dominion,
and by the gradual disappearance of tribes of creatures un-
connected 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 geological 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. Some geo-
ogists, it is true, are not prepared to admit that new
species have not been created during the human era ; but
they do not maintain that any positive evidence of such
creation exists. Others strongly contend, that the negative

THE REST OF THE CREATOR. 233

evidence is sufficiently perfect to warrant us in affirming
that the creation terminated in man. Perhaps on this
subject no authority is better than that of the late Prof.
E. 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 crea-
tion 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;
tinder such influence, he lost his moral balance, in stretch-
ing 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

Q

234 ARCHAIA.

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, how-
ever, skeptical as to revealed religion, who does not feel in
his inmost heart, the disjointed state of the present rela-
tions of man to nature; the natural wreck that results
fi-oni 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 I God did not find him-
self 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 pow-
erful 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^

THE REST OF THE CREATOR. 235

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 sucoeeding night.*

' The seventh day is the modern or human era in geology 5
and, though it cannot yet boast of any physical changes so
great as those of past periods, it is still of great interest, as
affording the facts on which we must depend for explana-
tions of past changes ; and as immediately connected in
time with those later tertiary periods which afford so many
curious problems to the geological student. This last sub-
ject is still involved in some obscurity, though there are no
geological reasons for assigning to man any greater anti-
quity than that of the Bible chronology, f I shall, there-
fore, 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.

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 dis-
trict 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 ques-
tion of the site ef Eden, seem to suppose. In this view

* For an expositioa of the details of the fall, I beg to refer
the reader to McDonald's " Creation and the Fall," to Kitto's
■*' Antediluvians and Pa^triarchs," asad Kurtz's " History of the
Old Covenant."

* Appendix !«»

236 ARCHAIA.

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. I may merely mention one, because
it throws light on the great antiquity of this geographical
description, and has been strangely mystified by exposi-
tors,— the relation of those rivers to Cush or Ethiopia, and
Havilah a tribe 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, pushed their migrations and conquests along
the Tigris to the northward, and established there the first
empire. It is probably this primitive Cushite empire
which, in the epoch of the description of Eden, was limited
to the north by the Oxus, and was believed to extend over
the old site of Eden ; an interesting coincidence, throwing
light on many obscure points in the early history of man ;
and since this Cushite empire had perished even before the
time of Moses, indicating 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.*

* The Bible specifies, perhaps only as the principal of these
arts, music and musical instruments by Jubal, metallurgy by

THE REST OF THE CREATOR. 237

Whether any remains of this ancient population or its
works exist, will probably not be determined with certainty,
till we have accurate geological investigations of the whole
country in the neighbourhood of the Caspian Sea, and
along the great rivers of western Asia. Should such
remains be found, we may infer, from the extreme longe-
vity assigned to the antediluvians, that their skeletons
would present peculiarities entitling them to be considered
a very well-marked variety of the human species.* 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 me-
chanical and fine arts ; and that a subsequent mixture of
these tribes produced, as generally occurs in such cases, a
race excelling both in energy and physical endowments —
the " giants " — mighty men of violence — that were in those

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 repre-
sentatives of the family of Lamech, or other heroes wrongly
identified with them. Yery possibly their sister Naamah, "the
beautiful," is introduced for the same reason, as the true original
of Ashtaroth, Diana, Aphrodite, and other female deities of the
heathen.

* Should such remains be found, it would not be at all sur-
prising to find many anatomists recognising in them the relics
of a new and extinct species of man.

238 ARCHAIA.

days.* If any undoubtedly antediluvian remains are ever
discovered, we may confidently anticipate that the distinc-
tive characteristics of these races may be detected in their
osseous structures as well as in their works of art. Far-
ther, it is to be inferred from notices in the fourth chapter
of Genesis, that before the deluge there was both a nomadic
and a citizen 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, except the presumption, based on negative
evidence, that no mode of writing had been invented pre-
vious to the deluge.

3. When the antediluvian population had fully proved
itself unfit to enter into the divine scheme of moral reno-
vation, 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 impor-
tant 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, shut us
up to this conclusion, which is now accepted by the best

* I cannot 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.

THE REST OF THE CREATOR. 239

biblical expositors,* and whicb inflicts no violence on the
terms of the record. Viewed in this light, the phenomena
recorded in the Bible, in connection with geological pro-
babilities, 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 ele-
vation of neighbouring regions, f In this case it is possible
that the Caspian Sea, which is now 160 feet below the
level of the ocean, and which was probably much more
extensive then than at present, received much of the drain-
age 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 may 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 ?"

Joh xxii. 15.

On comparing this statement with the answer of Job in the

* See King's "Geology and Religion"; also Hitchcock, and
Dr. J. P. Smith.
t See Appendix H.

240 ARCHAIA.

26tli 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,"^ was supposed to mark the position of the pre-Noachic
population, as the Dead Sea afterwards 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 Ham-
ite men, (the Anakim, Emim, &c.), inhabiting western
Asia at a very remote period ; and it must here refer either
to them or to the still earlier antediluvian giants. f

After the deluge, we find the human race settled in the
fertile plains of the Euphrates and Tigris, attracted thither

* Kitto's Bible Illustrations — book of Job.

t See article "Rephaim" in Kitto's Journal of Sacred Literar-
ture. 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.

THE BEST OF THE CREATOR. 241

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 accord-
ingly 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. 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 as the first rebel
against the primitive patriarchal rule, and the founder of
the first despotism. This bold and ambitious man, subse-
quently deified under different names, established a Cushite
empire, which appears to have extended its sway over the
tribes occupying south-western Asia and north-eastern
Africa, everywhere supporting its power by force of arms,
and introducing a debasing polytheistic hero-worship and

* Appendix I.

242 ARCHAIA.

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 on 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
demoralised sons of Japheth, carried with them their cha-
racteristic civilization and mythology, to take root in new
forms in Greece and Italy.* Meanwhile the Assyrian and
Persian (Elamite) races were growing in middle Asia, and
probably driving the more eastern remnants of the Nim-
rodic 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

* On the biblical view of this subject, the so-called Arian
mythology, common to India and Greece, is either a derivative
from the Cushite civilisation, 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 adoration of deified
ancestors and heroes, (See Appendix K.)

THE REST OP THE CREATOR. 243

receiving new confirmations from tlie investigations of tlie
ancient Assyrian monuments, enable ns 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 cheru-
bim, &c., in the old heathenism of India, Assyria and
Southern Europe, and which they share with Egypt, hav-
ing 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 vene-
ration the grander powers and objects of nature, the mighty
Cainites of the world before the flood, and the post-dilu-
vian 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 localised in each ; and it is only in compara-

244 ARCHAIA.

lively modern times, that we have been able to recognise
the full certainty of the view held long since by many inge-
nious 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 honoured, though sub-
sequently overshadowed by more recent divinities. The
later Assyrian readings of Col. Rawlinson and Dr. Hincks,
and the more recent works on Egyptian Antiquities, are
full of pregnant hints on these subjects. It would, how-
ever, 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 sacred history
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 post-diluvian portions of the former.

In relation to this last aspect of the subject, we may
fairly infer that the regions in which remains of antedilu-
vian nations are most likely (according to the Bible) to be
discovered, are the Aralo-Caspian plain, and the skirts of
the Caucasus and Elburz mountains, and the valleys of the
Tigris and Euphrates. In connection with this, it may be
remarked, that there is good geological evidence that both

THE REST OF THE CREATOR. 245

the Caucasus and the Himmalayah have experienced im-
portant elevatory movements in the later tertiary or modern
periods, and that in the same periods the Caspian region
has been depressed far below its present level.* These
movements were possibly connected with the diluvial catas-
trophe. We may also infer that the oldest remains of
post-diluvial population, are to be looked for along the
courses of the Euphrates and Tigris, though it is likely
that nothing now remains older than the Assyrian dynas-
ties that succeeded the old Cushite empire ; or that, if such
remains exist, they may be deeply covered by the alluvial
deposits of the rivers. Some fortunate discovery in these
regions may yet, perhaps, enable us to fix with accuracy
the point in geological time at which the human race ori-
ginated, and its precise relations to the fauna of the later
tertiary era.

* See Appendix H.

CHAPTER XVL

f NITY AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN.

G-fiN. X. 22 : " These are the families of the sons of Noahj after
their generations^ in their nations : and by these "were the na«
tions divided in the earth after the flood."

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 what-
ever 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 uni*
versality of that christrian atonement which proclaims that
" as in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive."
Fortunately, however, the greater weight of scientific
authority is still on the side of the Bible, and philology
comes in with strong corroborative evidence. But just as

TTNITY AND ANTIQtTlTY OF MAN. 247

the orthodox theologian is beginning to congratulate him-
self 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 the new American
ethnological school, try to pierce Moses and his abettors
with both horns of the dilemma at once, maintaining that
men are of different species, and that they have existed for
an enormous length of time as well.

To sift thoroughly the mass of fact and supposed fact
that has been accumulated by the advocates of the plura-
lity of origin and pre-adamite antiquity of man, would
demand a treatise of itself; but the question really hinge&
on a few points. These I shall endeavour to present to
the reader as clearly as possible in a single chapter, that h©
may be able to weigh for himself the influence which they
should have on our interpretation of the Bible or belief in
its authority. I shall take first the question as to the
unity of man, in its zoological aspect.

The last common ground on which all opinions on this
subject meet, is the truth that in nature all animals occur
in species or "according to their kinds;" these species
being according to the Bible direct products of the crea-
tive power, and science as yet knows nothing to the contrary
of this. From this point the opinions of naturalists di-
verge. Some maintain that men are of one species and

248 ARCHAIA.

one origin. Others hold the specific unity in a limited
sense, but deny the common origin. Others deny both,
erecting the races of men into distinct species. It is the
difference here as to the real nature of species that compli*
cates the question in its natural history aspect. If we are
content to admit that the individuals of the species in
natural history may or may not have had a common origin,
we give up not only all the evidence that natural history
can afford as to the unity of man, but also as to the crea-
tion of any species. We really give up much more, and
unsettle the very foundations of natural science ; but this
does not concern us here. If, on the other hand, it can
be shown that the idea of species is necessarily connected
with community of origin, we still have to show that the
races of men present the characters, not of distinct species,
but of varieties of one. We might, it is true, in such a
case fairly throw the burden of proof on our opponents,
and require them to show, in the case of some considerable
number of species, that the individuals of each actually
have had different points of origin ; and next, that these
cases are, in their leading features, parallel to that of man.
I prefer, however, the bolder and simpler course, of inquiry
as to the positive evidence afforded by species of their unity
of origin, and then as to that which connects all the races
of man as parts of one species.

I. What, then, are species ? Here it must be observed,
that it is much more difficult to give a good definition of
species than to assure ourselves of the reality of the exist-

UNITY AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 249

ence of specific forms. Cuvier defined species to be " the
collection of all the beings descended the one from the
other, or from common parents, and of those which bear as
close a resemblance to these as they bear to each other."
De Candolle somewhat modifies Cuvier's definition, in form
though not in purport, including under one species all the
individuals which bear to each other " so close a resem-
blance as to allow of our supposing that they have proceeded
originally from a single being or a single pair." Both
these definitions assume continuous descent from a primal
form or protoplast ; and this view Dr. Morton, with a special
application to the human race, has sought to express by
defining species to be a group of individuals descended
from a "primordial organic form." Other naturalists,
wishing to avoid, on the one hand, the hypothesis of des-
cent from a single pair, and on the other the obscurity
arising from the question of the origin of primordial forms,
have sought to frame a definition based simply on the
created origin and observed properties of species. The
most successful of these is, perhaps, that of Prof. Dana,*
who defines species to be, "a specific amount or condition
of concentrated force defined in the act or law of creation " ;
a definition which, without stating it in terms, fully implies
all that is demanded by that of Cuvier. But this and
all similar attempts have an abstract character which sepa-
rates them very widely from the facts with which natural-

* Thoughts on Species, Silliman's Journal.
E

250 AKCHAIA,

ists work in determining species. This and the previous
difficulties Prof. Agassiz attempts to overcome by a defini-
tion which assumes nothing, and confines itself to the mere
apparent differences and resemblances. He regards a
species as consisting of individuals distinguished by their
relations " to one another and the world in which they
live, as well as by the proportions of their parts^ their orna-
mentation/' &c.t This definition is so vague that it allows
joom even to infer that the same species may have origi-
Bated from many protoplasts scattered in different places-
It amounts, indeed, to little more than an admission that
we cannot define species without including with the ob-
served facts the deductions as to unity of origin to which
they lead.

Let us inquire, then, how naturalists determine speciea,
that we may if possible learn from this what is the real
nature of the specific unit.

We can determine species only by the comparison of
individuals. If all these agree in all their characters ex-
cept 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 esta-
blish specific diversity, but to suggest its possibility ; and
in such cases there is often great liability to error. In,

t Contributions to Natural History of America^ Vol. 1,

UNITY AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 251

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 un-
changed? 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 individuals show-
ing 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 dif-
ferent species.

2. The intervals between species must be distinctly
marked, and not slurred over by intermediate gradations.

252 ARCHAIA.

3. The specific characters must be invariably transmit-
ted from generation to generation, so that they remain
equally distinct in their limits if traced backward or for-
ward in time.

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.*

These general properties of species will, I think, be ad-
mitted by all naturalists as based on nature, and absolutely
necessary to the existence of natural history as a science. f

* See, for farther illustration of these views, Agassiz " Con-
tributions to Natural History of America," vol 1, p. 51 ; Dana,
"Thoughts on Species," Proceedings American Association and
Silliman's Journal, 1856; Carpenter, " Varieties of Mankind^
Todd's Cyclopedia ; Pritchard, " Natural History of Man."

f Certain views expressed by Mr. C. Darwin and Mr. Wallace
in the Linnean Transactions for 1858, may be regarded as hos-
tile to some of the general principles stated in the text, and as
almost amounting to a revival of those exploded Lamarckian
ideas of the transmutation of species, which are the extreme
opposite of the views of Agassiz ; and yet, as often happens in
such cases, meet them at certain points. I have seen only ab-
stracts of these papers, but I believe Mr. Darwin's view to extend
no farther than the assertion that within the limits of variation
of a species there will be some varieties more capable of con-
tinuous propagation and subsistence than others ; and that these
last will die out, so that the species will ultimately be repre-
sented, not by its typical form, but by a variety. This does not
affect the question of the nature of species ; and, in so far as it

UNITY AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 253

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 varia-
tions have been observed. There are others in which the
variations are so great 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

is true, perhaps means merely that since variability is a means
of accommodation to physical changes, the species will follow
the pressure of these as far as its elasticity permits. Mr. Wal-
lace goes farther, and, because some species can vary very far
from their original type, supposes that such variation may be
indefinite. This assumption, for it can be nothing else, involves
consequences in the indefinite gradation of specific forms which
are contrary to all experience. I do not, therefore, think it ne-
cessary to resume here the controversies about unlimited varia-
tion and development which were urged some time since, and
are now being supplanted by an opposite tendency equally
unsafe, which, while professing great nicety as to specific deter-
mination, threatens to break down the distinction of species
in another way. (See Appendix F.)

254 ARCHAIA.

resemble in some respects the young of another ; as, for
instance, in the hornless oxen, and beardless individuals
in man. If we inquire as to the causes on which the
greater or less disposition to vary depend, 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. We know, how-
ever, very well, 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 loco-
motive 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 sim-
plicity of structure, in other cases on a high degree of
intelligence and consequent adaptation to various modes

TTNITY AND ANTIQUITY OP MAN. 255

of subsistence. Those minute, simply organised, 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 never-
theless 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 spe-
cial requirements of habitat, and so can vary greatly and
>extend over a large portion of the earth. Further in con-
nection with this subject, it may be observed that the con-
ditions favourable to variation are also in the case of th«
higher animals favourable to domestication.

2. Varieties may originate in two different ways. Itt
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. Examples may be found in Pritchard, Roulin,
Bachman, and Cabell,* and also in Youatt's treatise on

* Pritchard, ^' Natural History of Man " ; Bachman, « Unity
of the Eumaa Race " j Cabell, " Unity of Man."

256 ARCHAIA,

cattle. A very remarkable instance is that of tlie " 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, " ex-
ternally 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 out-
wards; when walking they carry their heads low on a
short neck, and their hinder legs are rather longer com-
pared with the front legs than is usual." It is farther
remarkable in respect to this breed that it is, from its con-
formation of head, less adapted to the severe droughts of
those regions than the ordinary cattle, and cannot, there-
fore, be regarded as an adaptation to circumstances.*
Many writers on the subject of the Unity of Man assume
that an,y marked variety must require a long time for its
production. Our experience in the case of the domestic

* Darwin informs us that the cattle introduced into the
Falkland Islands, have assumed three varieties of colour, which
appear to keep themselves distinct. In the same Islands the
common rabbit has split into two varieties, one of which has
been described as a distinct species. In St. Helena and the
Gallipagos the rat has passed into varieties very distinct from
the common breeds. All these changes must have occurred
within a few generations.

UNITY AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 257

animals teaches tlie reverse of this view ; a very important
point in this controversy, too often overlooked.

3. The duration or permanence of varieties is very dif-
ferent. Some return at once to the normal type when the
causes of change are removed. Others perpetuate them-
selves 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 reproduc-
tion 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 histori-
cal 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 over-
look 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 favourable circum-
stances, to the original type. 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 varie-

258 ARCHAIA,

ties of the same species. Many very interesting facts in
illustration of these points might be adduced. The do-
mesticated 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.* The horse is probably not known in a state ori-
ginally wild, but it has run wild in America and in Siberia.
In the prairies of North America, according to Catlin,f
they still show great varieties of colour. The same is the case
in Sable Island, off the coast of Nova Scotia,J where herds
of wild horses have existed since an early period in the set-
tlement of America. In South America and Siberia they
have assumed a uniform chesnut or bay colour. In the
plains of Western America they retain the dimensions and
vigour 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 shoulder,
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 espe-
cially when the variation is in the nature of degeneracy.

4. Some characters are more subject to variation than
others. We have already ascertained that variation never

* Pritehard. f " North American Indians."

i Haliburton's Nova Scotia ; Gilpin's Lecture on Sable Island.

UNITY AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 259

proceeds beyond the limits of the species. Consequently
it cannot apply to those characters which are distinctive of
the genus, or the order or class. But among the charac-
ters of the species there are some that are usually little
liable to change. In the higher animals variation takes
place very readily in the colour 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 colour 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. Psy-
chological functions, as the so-called instincts of animals, are
also very liable to change, and to have these changes perpe-
tuated in races. Very remarkable instances of this have
been collected by Sir C. Lyell* and Dr. Pritchard. Lastly,
important physiological characters, as the period of gesta-
tion, &c., and the structure of the internal organs connected
with the functions of nutrition, respiration, &c., are little

* Principles of Geology ; Natural History of Man. See also a
very able article on the Varieties of Man, by Dr. Carpenter, in
Todd's Cyclopedia.

260 ARCHAIA.

liable to change, and remain unaffected by the most ex-
treme variations in other points.

5. Varieties or races of the same species are fully repro-
ductive with each other, which is not the case with true
species. Attempts have been made by Dr. Morton and
others to prove that mixed races, resulting from the union
of individuals of distinct species, have been produced ; but,
on carefully examining the evidence adduced, I find that
the greater part of it consists of very doubtful statements ;
and that no good case of this exceptional fact has really
been made out. Dr. Bachman has, I think, very satis-
factorily disproved the allegations offered on this point.
Independently of this controversy, however, to which an
exaggerated importance has been attached — even by Prof.
Agassiz, who writes as if naturalists had based the whole
question on this one point,* — there are certain general
principles which can scarcely be disputed: — 1. Intermix-
ture of distinct species rarely, if ever, occurs freely in
nature. It is generally a result of artificial contrivance.
2. 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 return-
ing to it ; or if ever fertile inter se, which is somewhat
doubtful, rapidly run out. It has been maintained, espe-
cially by Dr. Nott and Prof. Agassiz, that there is still
another possibility, namely, that of the perfect and con-

* Contributions to the Natural History of America — Section
on Species.

UNITY AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 261

tinued fertility of such mixed races ; but their only proofs
are derived from the intermixture of the races of men, of
dogs, and of poultry, all of which are cases actually in dis-
pute at present, as to the original unity or diversity of the
so-called species.

II. We next proceed to inquire whether the characters
of the races of men are those of distinct species, or only of
permanent varieties.

1. It is necessary to premise that the case of man is not
that of a wild animal ; and that it presents many points of
difference even from the case of the domesticated lower
animals. According to the Bible history, man was origi-
nally 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 unquestion-
ably accords very well with his organisation. He still
subsists principally on vegetable food, is most numerous
in the warmer regions of the earth; and, when so subsist-
ing 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, there-
fore, in the conditions most favourable to variation.
Again, man possesses more than merely animal instincts.
His mental powers permit him to devise means of locomo-
tion, 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

262 AECHAIA.

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 ani-
mals. 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 com-
pare man with these creatures, it must be under protest
that what we learn from them must be understood with
reference to his greater capabilities.

Another point which deserves notice under this head, is
that man, whether or not a single species, constitutes a
single genus, and this genus the only one of its order.
The structural differences between man and the lower ani-
mals have always indicated the propriety of constituting a
distinct order for man. Professor Owen has very clearly
pointed out the enormous width of the space which sepa-
rates man from the most anthropoid of the apes ; and in
his admirable new arrangement of the mammals, based on
the form and complexity of the brain,* he separates man
in the order Archencephala, rightly deciding that his ner-

* Journal of Linnean Society, 1857.

UNITY AND ANTIQUITY OP MAN. 263

Tous centre differs very materially in its structure and the
proportions of its parts from that of all other mammals.
These facts afford an additional reason for caution in com-
paring man with the creatures beneath him,

2. The races of man are deficient of some of the essen-
tial characters of species. It is true that they are repro-
duced with considerable permanency; and it has even
been asserted that no change whatever can be established.
But this is not the fact ; though, from the intermixture
of races, doubt may be thrown on many of the instances that
have been adduced. The Jew, dispersed over all the world,
but preserving his race almost unmixed, is fair or xanthous
in the north of Europe, of a dark complexion in the south
of Europe, and in Malabar, absolutely black. The Arab,
in like manner, is fair in the mountains of Yemen ; black
in Lower Mesopotamia and in Nubia. In both cases the
features have experienced less change than the colour.
The Magyars of Hungary and the Turks have, however,
lost the characteristic Mongolian features of their ances-
tors and assumed those of Europeans.* The Anglo-Ameri-
can of the United States csn already be easily distinguished
from the Englishman. The same is the case with the
French Canadian. Both, in those districts where they have
been little mixed with new European blood, are gradually
assuming a cast of feature and skull tending perhaps
in some degree to those of the aboriginal American.

* Carpenter, Todd's Cyclo., Pritchard, Latham, Layard. No
doubt there have been mixtures more or less in the latter cases.

264 ARCHAIA.

Similar changes have already been observed in Australia,
The Negro population of the United States is now ex-
tremely different, both in colour and form, from the low-
caste Africans in whom it originated ; and the difference
is greater than the probable mixture of European blood
can account for. Such changes are, however, necessarily
slow, and the observation of them is dij65cult. 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 colour, or shape of skull, the so-called
species have still no distinct limits ; and all the arrange-
ments formed differ from each other, and from the deduc-
tions 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 defini-
tion, eminently unnatural. One of the latest attempts of
this kind is contained in an eccentric essay by the late
Mr. Gliddon, in the conglomeration of works entitled the
"Indigenous Races of the Earth." The essay, "The
Monogenists and the Polygenists," is characterised much
more by a rabid spirit of hostility to the scriptures than by

tTNITY AND A:NTIQTJITY OF MAN. 265

scientific precision; but its substance is attempted to be
embodied in an "Ethnographic Tableau," exhibiting spe-
cimens of the races of mankind, arranged first in the
eight "realms " or regions indicated by Prof. Agassiz, and
then in no less than sixty-five groups, called "families " by
the author. The production is interesting, as exhibiting
in a striking manner the difl&culty of arriving at a separa-
tion of the human race into distinct groups. The rows of
heads are intended to be read horizontally ; but, if they
are traced vertically or diagonally, we find nearly as great
coincidences in colour, hair, feature, and skull, as in the
direction intended to mark out the specific realms or fami-
lies. The whole — -if the representations could be relied on
as fair average illustrations of the races — would form a
very good antidote to the tendency of the book in which it
appears ; and it is certainly worthy of men who, like one
of the contributors to the volume, can say in one breath
that men appear to be of distinct species, and in the next
that this question loses its importance " in the presence of
a still higher one — the original diversity of all organic
forms.'"'*

* I cannot conceal my belief that the appearance of such
works as the "Types of Mankind" and " Indigenous Kaces of
the Earth," which, under pretence of scientific investigation,
deal so much in unverified statements as to facts, garbled quo-
tations, and confused and illogical controversy, boldly asserting
as facts or acknowledged principles the most doubtful proposi-
tions, and regarding with skepticism the b«st established results

266 ARCHAIA.

3. The races of men diflfer in those points in which the
higher animals usually vary with the greatest facility.
The physical characters chiefly relied on have been colour,
character of hair and form of skull, together with diversi-
ties 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,* —
who does not, however, commit himself to any specific dis-
tinctions,— has arranged the various races of men on the
very simple and obvious ground of colour. 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, philologieally, and structurally alike;
and unites those which, on other grounds, would be sepa-
rated. The white race includes the Hamite Abyssinian,
the Semitic Arabian, the Japetic 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

of previous investigations, — are most discreditable to American
science. It is even more lamentable that men like Agassiz
and Leidy should allow themselves to be identified with such
works.
* The Races of Men, &c. Boston, 1848.

UNITY AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 267

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 conclu-
sively demonstrates that the colour of the varieties of the
human race must be arbitrary and accidental, and altoge-
ther independent of unity or diversity of origin.

Much use has been made, by the advocates of diver-
sity 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 Ameri-
can round.* 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,! — and the writer has satisfied himself of the fact by
his own observation, — that it does not exceed the differ-
ences 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

* Browne, of Philadelphia, quoted by Kneeland and others.
t Todd's Cyclopedia, Art. Varieties of Man.

268 ARCHAIA.

cells. In the proportionate development of these several
parts, in the quantity of colouring matter present, and in
the transverse section, the human hair differs very consi-
derably 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 friz-
zled 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 ap-
parently 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 colour. 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 occa-
sional appearance of the most abnormal forms, without
apparent cause, in individuals. The differences depending
on greater or less abundance or vigour 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.

tJNITT AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 269

Confessedly the most important differences of tlie 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, &c., 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 occur-
ring 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 valu-
able, 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 pro-
ject 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 promi-
nent. For the extremes of these varieties, Retzius has
proposed the very suitable names of brachy-kephalic or

270 ARCHAIA.

short-headed, and dolicho-kephalic or long-headed. The
dififerences 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 gene-
ralisations— as Prof. 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.* Exclusive of idiots, artificially compressed heads,
and deformities, the differences between the brachy-kephalic
and dolicho-kephalic heads, range from equality in the pari-
etal and longitudinal diameter to the proportions of about
14 to 24. As stated by some ethnologists, these differ-
ences 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 imma-
ture form perpetuated ; and appears not only in the Negro
but in the Eskimo, 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 na-
tions ; 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

Canadian Journal, 185 T.

TJNITT AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 271

heads and prominent jaws are not always associated with
each other ; and his classification, as quoted by Dr. Meigs,*
is really the testimony of an able observer against the value
of these characters. He shows that the Celtic and Ger-
manic races (in part) have long heads and straight jaws;
while the Negroes, Australians, Oceanians, Caribs, Green-
landers, &c, have long heads and prominent jaws. The
Laplanders, Fins, Turks, Sclaves, Persians, &c., have
short heads and straight jaws ; while the Tartars, Mongo-
lians, Incas, Malays, Papuans, &c., 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 progna-
thous 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. Any observer
may satisfy himself of this by examination of the facial forms
in the natives of those ruder districts in Great Britain and
Ireland,f where the type has not been modified by culture,

* Indigenous Races, p. 253.

t See Carpenter in Todd's Cyclopedia. These facts are re-
markably manifest in the lower class of immigrants to America,
whether from Britain, Ireland, or the continent of Europe. It is
& question how far poor food and exposure, as well as the causes
before mentioned, may tend to give a degraded form of skull.

272 ARCHAIA.

and where lie will often find forms as coarse as tbose of the
Negro or Mongol.

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-kepha-
lic 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 unsymmetrieal 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 proba-
ble 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 arti-
ficial modifications of the natural cranium familiar to the
American ethnologist." To what extent may such forms
become hereditary, and to what extent may the long heads
of Negroes be due to the habit in some African nations of
slinging the child sidelong on the back of the mother, in-
stead of strapping it to a board as is the custom of the
American Indians ? These are questions pertaining to the
nursery, and it might be well to have the verdict of a jury
of matrons on them, before building new ethnological doc-
trines on the comparison of crania.

While the points in which the races of men vary are
those in which lower animals are most liable to undergo

UNITY AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 273

cliange, the several races display a remarkable consiancy in
those which are usually less variable. Pritchard and Car-
penter have well shown this in relation to physiological
points, as for instance the age of arriving at maturity, the
average and extreme duration of Hfe, and the several pe-
riods 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."' 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 hog,
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 head-quarters as a species are in the
same regions which have supported the greatest and oldest
known communities of men. We, of course, exclude from
our comparison the native hogs of the Cape de Verd Islands,

* For an interesting inquiry into the origin of the dog, see
the article in Todd's Cyclopedia already referred to.

274 ARCHAIA.

of the south of Africa, and of Papua, which have been
regarded as distinct species ; and we need not insist on the
Chinese hog, though this can scarcely claim specific dis-
tinctness. The colour 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 colour. 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 differ-
ence between the skull of the ordinary domestic hog and
that of the wild boar, is quite equal to that observed be-
tween the Negro and European skulls. 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.*
These are the more remarkable, because, in the American
instances, there can be no doubt that the common hog has
assumed these abnormal forms.

5. All varieties or races of men intermix freely, in a man-
ner 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 diver-
sity would do well to study. Even in varieties of those
domestic animals which are certainly specifically identical,

* Pritchard, Bachman, Cabell.

UNITY AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 275

as the hog, the sheep, the ox — although crosses between
the varieties may be easily 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 varie-
ties are proved by experience to be of weakly and unpro-
ductive 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 pro-
ducing 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 vigour, as in the case of
judicious crosses of some domestic animals. Where a dif-
ferent 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

276 ARCHAIA.

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 scrofu-
lous 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 hard-
ships congenial to the other; or, on the other hand, too
much of the wild nature of the ruder parent to subsist un-
der 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 Hkely to be in the first
instance successful. In the mean time this department of
the subject may be safely left to Dr. Nott, who, in his
essay on hybridity in the ' Types of Mankind,' states as the
result of a long series of observations in the Southern
States, several propositions in reference to mulattos, in the
main remarkably accordant with the observed facts in cross
breeds of inferior animals of like species. It is true that
he maintains, contrary to his own general doctrine that
hybrids of closely allied species are permanently prolific, —
that the mulattoes are too unproductive and delicate to be
preserved from extinction except by intermixture with the
pure races ; but to reconcile this with undeniable facts, he

UNITY AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 277

is obli"'ed to bring a wholesale accusation of want of chas-
tity against the mulatto women — an assertion as monstrous
and improbable as it is the reverse of flattering to the mo-
rality of his compatriots.

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 colour, for instance.
The fair varieties of man occur only in the northern tem-
perate zone, and chiefly in the equable climates of that
zone. In extreme climates, even when cold, dusky and
yellow colours appear. The black and blackish-brown
colours are confined to the intertroi)ical regions, and appear
in such portions of all the great races of mankind as have
been long there domiciled. Diet and degree of exposure
have also evidently very mut^h to do with form, stature,
and colour. The deer-eating Chippewayan of certain dis-
tricts 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 defi-
ciency of perspiration or of combustion in the lungs, appear
everywhere to darken the skin.^' The Negro type in its
extreme form is peculiar to low and humid river valleys of

* A curious note, by Dr. John Rae, on the change of com-
plexion in the Sandwich Islanders, consequent on the introduc-
tion of clothing, may be found in the "Montreal Medical Chro-
nicle," 1856, and the " Canadian Journal " for the same year.

278 ARCHAIA.

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
Esquimaux 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 con-
tinent men appear who approximate to the Malay. Every-
where, 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 carni-
vorous, aggressive, and actively barbarous, the brachy-
kephalic forms abound. These and many other conside-
rations 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

* Latham, in his late work, "Descriptive Ethnology," illus-
trates this fact very fully, showing that the Tula tribes occupy
the dry plateaus, and the Negroes the worst valleys. He far-
ther adds, — " Mark on a map the areas on which these several
varieties are spread, compare it with the geological chart of
Russegger, and the closeness of the coincidences will perhaps
surprise you. The blacks are found on the Tertiary and recent
deposits. The primitive and volcanic tracts will give the Euro-
pean faces. The intermediate conformations will be found on
the sandstone. Read Livingstone. The same results will pre-
sent themselves, and the author himself will draw attention to
them. The Negro is an exceptional African."

UNITY AND ANTIQUITY OP MAN. 279

— because the differences are of a character in every res-
pect 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 re-
markable instance may illustrate my meaning. It is the
hairy family of Siam, described by Mr. Crawford and Mr,
Yule.* 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 cha-
racters 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
re-appeared 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 cir-
cumstances favourable 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 spe-
cies ; and any one who had suggested the possibility of its

* Latham's Descriptive Ethnology.

280 ARCHATA.

liaviDg originated witliin a few generations as a variety,
would liave been laughed at for his credulity. It is unne-
cessary to cite any farther instances. I merely wish to
insist on the necessity of a rigid comparison of the varia-
tions which appear in man, either suddenly or in a slow or
secular manner, with the characters of the so-called races
or species.

I have been obliged, by the limits to which this subject
must here be necessarily confined, to restrict myself to a
very short review of the points in which the races of men
resemble varieties rather than species. Every reader, how-
evei, has some knowledge of tlic facts as to the variations
observable in the same and different races, and the pheno-
mena connec[ed with them, and may thus make the com-
parison for hhnself. Further information may be found in
Pi'itchard, in Bachman, and in a very useful summary of
the argument by Prof Cabell in his review of the Types
of Mankiad aad Indigenous Races of the Earth.'" "We
must now proceed to the third department of our inquiry j
Are the individuals of one species necessarily of one origin,
and does the unity of the human species thus prove its
unity of origin ?

III. A few years ago it would hardly have been consi-
dered necessary to ask such a question : naturalists were
generally disposed to agree with the great Cuvier, that
" We are under the necessity of admitting the existence of

* Published separately under the title, ''Unity of Mankind."

UNITY AND ANTIQUITY OP MAN. 281

certain forms which have perpettiated themselves from
the beginning of the world without exceeding the limits
first prescribed; all the individuals belonging to one of
these forms constitute what is termed a species." The
necessity of the case is indeed apparent at first sight. We
observe in any species continuous unchanged reproduction
and increase. Traced forward, if no obstacles intervened,
this would give us indefinite multiplication. Traced back-
ward, it would lead to the smallest possible number of
individuals; that is, to origin in a single individual, or
single pair. If any one asks us to admit more, he asks us
to admit more than a sufficient cause for the observed
phenomena, and must, therefore, be put on the proof of
the necessity of such additional causes. Farther, he may
be required to prove the plurality of origin in the case of
every species in question.

The only modern naturalist of eminence who seems dis-
posed to attempt this proof of the diversity of origin of
species, is Prof Agassiz, whose principal argument is the
geographical distribution of animals. The world may, in
reference to its animal inhabitants, be divided into several
zoological districts, more or less distinctly limited, and
more or less large, in each of which there is a special group
of species created for and probably in that region ; but
there always are a few species, sometimes many, that are
common to two or more regions. These species naturalists
have usually supposed to have extended themselves from

282 ARCHAIA.

one region into another; and the late Prof. E. Forbes*
has brought together a remarkable and curious series of
facts to show that this must have been actually the case
with the plants and animals of the West of Europe. f Prof.
Agassiz prefers to believe that these species, common to
two centres of creation, have originated separately in each.
It is quite plain that no one can be fairly called on to be-
lieve this, unless, after making all allowance for possible
modes of transference and for changes of surface that may
have occurred, there shall remain no possibility of the
transmission of the species in question from one of its sup-
posed or known centres of creation to the other. Agassiz,
however, overlooking the necessity which continuous re-
production lays upon us to demand such proof, really begs
the question in so far as distribution is concerned, and
substituting for evidence a definition of species altogether
excluding the idea of common origin, thus tries to shift
the burden of proof on his opponents. Let us examine
his definition as stated in the Contributions to the Natural
History of America. Its shorter form has already been
given, but a more full explanation is afforded by the follow-
ing passage, which I quote, along with some objections
which I have urged against it elsewhere J :—

* Memoirs of Geological Survey of Great Britain.

f Prof. Gray has also on similar principles very ably account-
ed for the remarkable resemblance of the floras of Eastern Asia
and Eastern America.— (Silliman's Journal, Aug. 1859.)

t Canadian Naturalist and Geologist, Aug. 1858.

UNITY AND ANTIQUITY OP MAN. 283

" The species is an ideal entity, as much as the genus,
the family, the order, the class, or the type ; it continues
to exist, while its representatives die, generation after
generation. But these representatives do not simply re-
present what is specific in the individual, they exhibit and
reproduce in the same manner, generation after generation,
all that is generic in them, all that characterises the family,
the order, the class, the branch, with the same fullness,
the same constancy, the same precision. Species, then,
exist in nature in the same manner as any other groups ;
they are quite as ideal in their mode of existence as genera,
families, &c., or quite as real. But individuals truly exist
in a different way : no one of them exhibits at one time all
the characteristics of the species, even though it be her-
maphrodite ; neither do any two represent it, even though
the species be not polymorphous; for individuals have a
growth, a youth, a mature age, an old age, and are bound
to some limited home during their lifetime. It is true,
species are also limited in their existence ; but for our pur-
pose, we can consider these limits as boundless, inasmuch
as we have no means of fixing their duration, either for
the past geological ages, or for the present period, whilst
the short cycles of the life of individuals are easily mea-
surable quantities. Now, as truly as individuals, while
they exist, represent their species for the time being, and
do not constitute them, so truly do these same individuals
represent at the same time their genus, their family, their
order, their class, and their type, the characters of which
they bear as indelibly as those of the species."

284 ARCHAIA.

In this general statement, with the explanations else-
where given of it, in relation to the supposed capacity of
species for intermixture, and original creation of numbers
of representatives of the same species in different places,
we see much that is objectionable, and a want of that accu-
racy of thought which is essential in treating of such a
subject. The author, indeed, reverses the processes of
sound reasoning — first framing a definition which excludes
some of the usual characters of species, and then deducing
from it certain conclusions as to their origin. The defini-
tion itself will not endure criticism.

First, we cannot admit the high standing here given to
the individual animal. The individual is confounded
with an entirely different thing, namely, the unit of the
science. As has been well stated above, the individual
rarely represents the species as a whole. To give this we
have to employ a series of individuals, including the differ-
ences of age and sex, and the limits of variation under
external circumstances. The individuals representing
these varieties are, therefore, only fractional parts of a unit,
which is the species. Let it be observed, also, that the
relation here is different from that which subsists between
the species and the genus. Each species should have all
the generic characters with those that are specific; but
each individual, as a fraction of the species, need not neces-
sarily possess all the mature characters of the species ; and
this is one reason of the indistinct notion in many minds
that the limits of species are more uncertain than those of

UNITY AND ANTIQUITY OP MAN. 285

genera. On the other hand, the idea of specific unity ia
expressed by our attaching the specific name to any indi-
vidual that we may happen to have ; and even popular
speech expresses it when it says the grizzly bear, the Arctic
fox.

Secondly, the species is not merely an ideal unit : it is
a unit in the work of creation. No one better indicates
than Agassiz the doctrine of the creation of animals ; but
to what is it that creation refers? — not to genera and
higher groups, they express only the relations of things
created, — not to individuals as now existing, they are the
results of the laws of invariability and increase of the
species, — ^but to certain original individuals, protoplasts,
formed after their kinds or species, and representing the
powers and limits of variation inherent in the species —
the potentialities of their existence, as Dana well expresses
it. The species, therefore, with all its powers and capaci-
ties for reproduction, is that which the Creator has made,
his unit in the work, as well as ours in the study. The
individuals axe merely so many masses of organised matter,
in which, for the time, the powers of the species are embo-
died ; and the only animal having a true individuality is
man, who enjoys this by virtue of mental endowments,
over-ruling the instincts which in other animals narrowly
limit the action of the individual. To this great difference
between the limitations imposed on animals by a narrow
range of specific powers, and the capacity for individual
action which in man forces even his physical organisation,

286 ARCHAIA.

in itself more plastic than that of most other animals, to
bend to his dominant will, we trace not only the varieties
of the human species, but the changes which man effects
upon those lower animals which in instincts and constitu-
tion are sufficiently ductile for domestication.

Thirdly, the species is different, not in degree, but in
kind, from the genus, the order, and the class. We may
recognise a generic resemblance in a series of line engrav-
ings representing different subjects, but we recognise a
specific unity only in those struck from the same plate ;
and no one can convince us that the resemblance of a series
of coins, medals, or prints, from different dies or plates, is
at all of the same kind with that which subsists between
those produced from the same die or plate. In like man-
ner, the relation between the members of the brood of the
song-sparrow of this spring, is of a different kind as well as
different degree from that between the song-sparrow and
any other species of sparrow. So of the brood of last year
to which the parent sparrows may have belonged ; so by
parity of reasoning of all former broods, and all song-spar-
rows everywhere. The species differs from all other groups
in not being an ideal entity, but consisting of individuals
struck from the same die, produced by continuous repro-
duction from the same creative source. Nor need we sup-
pose with our author — for as yet it is merely an hypothesis
— that species may have sprung from two or several origins.
We cannot be required to assume a cause greater than that
which the effect demands ; and if one pair of the American

UNITY AND ANTIQUITY OP MAN. 287

Crow or Canada Goose would now be sufficient, in a cal-
culable number of years, to supply all America with these
species, we need not suppose any more. Even in those
cases where one centre of creation appears to be insufficient,
this may only be a defect in our information, as to the
precise range of the species, its capabilities for accommo-
dating itself to external differences of habitat, and the
geological changes which may have occurred since its crea-
tion. Take the example given at page 40 of the " Contri-
butions." The American Widgeon and British Widgeon,
and the American and British red-headed Ducks, are dis-
tinct species. The Mallard and Scaup Duck are common
to both sides of the Atlantic. The inference is that since
the distinct species of Widgeons and Bed Ducks were pro-
bably created on the opposite sides of the Atlantic, so were
the Mallards, though specifically identical. To prove this
is obviously altogether impossible ; but even to establish
some degree of probability in its favor, it would be neces-
sary to show that the Widgeons and Bed Ducks equal the
Mallard and Scaup Duck in hardiness, in adaptability to
different conditions of climate and food, in migratory in-
stinct and physical powers of migration ; and farther, that
these species are equally old in geological time. We do
not happen to know, in reference to this last particular,
which species is the oldest, if there is any difference ; but
remains of ducks have been found in the later deposits,
and if it should prove that the species now more widely
distributed existed at a time when the distribution of land

288 ARCHAIA.

and water was different from that which now prevails, we
should have a case quite parallel to many known to geolo-
gists, and utterly subversive of the view before us. The
Mallard is also an unfortunate instance, from its well-
known adaptation for domesticity, and consequently proved
capability of sustaining very different conditions of exist-
ence. The Scaup Duck, hardy and carnivorous, a sea-duck
and a good diver, and Asiatic as well as European, is pro-
bably far better fitted for extensive migration than the
Widgeon. It is on such grounds, incapable of positive
proof, and with palpable flaws in even the negative evi-
dence, that we are required to multiply the miracle of
creation, rather than to submit patiently to investigate the
psychical, physiological, and physical agencies involved in
one of the most interesting problems of zoology, the geo-
graphical distribution of animals.

One farther remark is rendered necessary by the illus-
tration above referred to. No one knows better than
Agassiz that to compare, in reference to their geographical
distribution, animals nearly related, may often lead to
errors greater than those likely to result from the compari-
son of creatures widely different in structure but adapted
for somewhat similar external conditions of existence. It
is a fact very curious in itself, independently of this appli-
cation, that we find closely related species differing remark-
ably in this respect ; and that, on the other hand, animals
of very different grades and structures are equally remark-
able for wide geographical ranges. The causes of these

UNITY AND ANTIQUITY OP MAN. 289

differences are often easily found in structural, physiologi-
cal, or psychical peculiarities; but in many cases they
depend on minute differences not easily appreciable, or on
the effects of geological changes.

Fourthly. — Our author commences his dissertation on
species by taunting those who maintain the natural limits
set to hybridity with a petitio principii. The accusation
might be turned against himself. The facts shewing that
species in their natural state do not intermix, and that
hybrids are only in exceptional cases fertile, so enormously
preponderate over the few cases of fertile hybridity, that
the latter may be regarded as the sort of exception which
proves the rule. The practical value of this character in
ascertaining the distinctions of species in difficult cases is
quite another question, as is the precise nature of the re-
semblances in distinct species which most favour hybridity,
and the greater or less fixity of the barrier in the case of
species inhabiting widely separated geographical areas,
when these are artificially brought together. Nor is the
specific unity to be broken down by arguments derived
from the difficulty of discriminating or of identifying spe-
cies. The limits of variability differ for every species, and
must be ascertained by patient investigation of large num-
bers of specimens, before we can confidently assert the
boundaries in some widely distributed and variable species ;
but in the greater number this is not difficult, and in all
may be ascertained by patient inquiry.

Fifthly. — The above considerations, in connection with

290 ARCHAIA.

the doctrines of created protoplasts, and the immutability
of species, as so ably argued by Agassiz himself, we hold
irresistibly compel us to the conclusion of Cuvier, that a
species consists of the " beings descended the one from the
other or from common parents." This being admitted, it
must be only on the most cogent grounds, to be established
in every individual case, that we can admit a difference of
origin either in geological time or in space, for animals
that on comparison appear to be specifically identical ; and
we cannot allow ourselves to be required to prove the unity
of origin of species in general, any farther than in cases
where there appears to be actual evidence of diverse origin.
Such evidence must be required not only by those who
hold the unity of origin of man, but also by the physical
geographer and geologist. If the same species has in
many or ordinary cases been created several times over in
different regions or in different geological times, the
occurrence of such species can be no certain evidence either
of locality or of geological date. Farther, although in the
varieties of a species all derived from one origin, we can
have some guarantee for the limitation of these varieties
by a certain law, this can scarcely hold if we allow the
individuals assigned to one species to have been, with the
variations incidental to them, the product of different local
creations. In this case, we reduce species to mere types,
graduating insensibly into each other. In short, for prao-
tical purposes, there may as well be no species at all, since
we then have no fixed limits on which to base our larger

UNITY AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 291

aggregates ; and, on the principle that extremes meet, this
doctrine leads to precisely the same practical results with
the Lamarckian hypothesis of transmutation.

Farther, it is manifestly not true that species are limited
in any precise manner to geographical districts. Nay
more, we have evidence in modern times of species having
extended their limits over several regions. The black rat
(^Mus rattus) has done so long since. The brown rat
(^Mus decumanus) has done so in still more modern times,
and not only over-rides all regions, but domiciles itself
against their will with all races of men. The horse, the
ox, and the hog, only required to be brought to America,
to show that they needed no second local creation to allow
them to flourish in a new region. Man brought them, it
is true ; but he had to extend himself first. The modern
extension of the European race of men is itself a case in
point. The Teutonic and Celtic man seems to live and
thrive, albeit with some small tendency to vary, in the
fauna of temperate America, of South Africa and of Aus-
tralia, as well as in nearly every other " region " of the
earth. Nor is this peculiar to civilised man. The Malay
race, against the enormous physical obstacle of a wide
ocean area, has extended itself from Madagascar to Easter
Island and the coast of California, and from the Sandwich
Islands in the north to New Zealand in the south, inde-
pendently of its affinities with tribes on the mainland of
Asia; "thus reaching, chiefly within the tropics, over 200
degrees of longitude, or 20 degrees more than half the

292 ARCHAIA.

circumference of the globe, and spreading in a direction
north and south over 70 degrees."* This extension is
proved, not merely by physical characters, but by language,
a far more certain criterion. Nor is this race, so widely
distributed, altogether isolated. It is connected, through
the continental Malays, with the populations of Southern
and Eastern Asia; and even in Madagascar, its language
retains some Sanscrit words.f

The Eskimo of Arctic America is identical, in structure
and language, with his neighbours on the Asiatic side of
Behring's Straits; and these graduate insensibly into a
long chain of northern tribes, ending in the Fins and
Laps, and sending off many links of connection to all the
Mongolian nations. Nay, even the Caucasians, long re-
garded as the type of the European races, appear, accord-
ing to Latham, to be connected by language with this
stock. On the other hand, although in Eastern America
the Eskimo come abruptly into contact with tribes some-
what unlike themselves, on the west coast they graduate
insensibly into the Indian ; and Wilson has shown that
their conformation of skull is much less unlike that of the
normal Indian than Dr. Morton had supposed. The
American runs across all regions, with little change of
feature, colour, or skull, except when the latter has been
artificially compressed; and it has recently been ascer-

* Ellis, " Madagascar," Appendix. See also tiyell's Princi-
ples of Geology.
t W Humboldt.

UNITY AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 293

tained that the characters of the Eskimo and Samoyede
re-appear in Patagonia,* just as somewhat similar Mongol
characters re-appear in the Hottentot of South Africa ; a
singular proof that climate, food, and other external con-
ditions, rather than race, must be regarded as the cause of
variation in these instances. Such facts show that what-
ever difficulties may attend the explanation of the wide
geographical distribution of some animals, there are none
in the case of man. The attempt, then, sanctioned by so
great a name as that of Agassiz, to establish diversity of
origin for the individuals of the same species on the ground
of geographical distribution, falls to the ground • and per-
haps fails most signally of all in the case of man. We
may, therefore, safely rest on that philosophical necessity
for the unity of origin of each species with which we com-
menced this part of the inquiry ; at least until it shall be
shown that the individuals of some one true species must
be diverse in origin.

I have now presented a brief summary of the zoological
facts and principles bearing on this question ; and have, I
trust, shown that what we know of species and their dis-
tribution should at least induce us to regard as probable
the specific unity and common origin of all nations of men.
We may now turn to these questions as they present them-
selves in the light of philology and history.

IV. In many animals the voice is useful as a distinctive
character; but in man it has an importance altogether

* Latham, " Varieties of Man."

294 ARCHAIA.

peculiar. The gift of speech is one of his sole prerogatives,
and identity in its mode of exercise is not only the strong-
est 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 philo-
logical investigations have shown many and unexpected
nnks of connection in vocabulary, or grammatical struc-
ture, or both, between languages apparently the most dis-
similar. 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. Let us ex-
amine for a little these results as they are presented to us
by Latham, Muller, Bunsen, and other modern philolo-
gists.

A convenient starting-point is afibrded by the great
group of languages known as the Indo-European or Japetic.
From the Ganges to the west coast of Ireland, through
Indian, Persian, Greek, Italian, German, Celt, runs one
Sreat 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 lan-
guages. 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

UNITY AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 295

Semitic tongues. Do these mark a different origin ? The
philologists answer in the negative, pointing to the fea-
tures 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 inscrip-
tions 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* 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 state-
ment to which I have not the least hesitation in commit-
ting myself "f To the north the Indo-European area is
bounded by a great group of semi-barbarous populations,

* Donaldson has pointed out (Brit. Association Proceedings,
1851) links of connection between the Slavonian or Sarmatian
tongues and the Semitic languages, which, in like manner, indi-
cate the primitive union of the two great branches of languages.
(See also Appendix I.)

f Man and his Migrations. See also " Descriptive Ethnolo-
gy," where the Semitic aflfinities are very strongly brought out.

296 ARCHAIA.

mostly with Mongolian features, and speaking languages
which have been grouped as Turanian. These Turanian
languages, on the one hand, graduate without perceptible
break into the Eskimo and American Indian; on the
other, according to Muller and Latham, they are united,
though less distinctly, with the Semitic and Japetic tongues.
Another great area on the coasts and in the islands
of the Pacific is overspread by the Malay, which, through
the populations of trans-gangetic India, connects itself with
the great Indo-European line. If we regard physical cha-
racters, 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 pheno-
mena 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 per-
fect languages. 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

UNITY AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 29t

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 cir-
cumstances 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 ut-
most 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 ori-
ginal 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 sub-
jects, a source of misapprehension, which deserves special
mention in this place. The scriptures derive all the na-

u

298 ARCHAIA.

tions 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 sup-
posed 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
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 miscon-
ception ; and perhaps it would be well to abandon altoge-
ther 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,* 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

* I can scarcely except such terms as " Japetic," and " Ja-
petidae," for lapetus can hardly be anything else than a tradi-
tional name borrowed from Semitic ethnology, or handed down
from the Japhetic progenitors of the Greeks.

UNITY AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 299

is obviously unfair to apply the terms of Moses in a differ-
ent way from that in which he uses them. A very preva-
lent 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" *
groups representing the changes of the outlying and bar-
barous 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 in-
stance Latham and Dr. Max Muller, 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 of less im-
portance than the denial of the unity of the species, since
the Bible does not precisely limit the antiquity of man, or
of the deluge, which, on its view, is of the same import.
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 rea-
son of this demand is the supposed length of time required
to effect the necessary changes. This is a subject on which

* See Art. " Philology " Ency. Brit., last edition.

360 ARCHAIA.

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 bar-
barism 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
ocour 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.*

Had the human race everywhere preserved its history
from its origin, we should then have had certain evidence
as to its points and times of origination. Unfortunately,
this has not been the case. Barbarous nations have no
history. Most of the so-called ancient nations are compa-

* See Appendix I. 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 lan-
guages in Europe furnish enough of familiar instances.

UNITY AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 301

ratively modern, and even their history loses itself in
myths. The only ancient nations that have given us in
detail their own written history are the Hebrews, the Hin-
doos, and the Chinese. The last people, though professedly
very ancient, trace their history from a period of barbar-
ism; a view confirmed by their physical characters and
the nature of their civilization; and on this account, if
no other, their history cannot be considered as of any eth-
nological value. The early Hindoo history is palpably
fabulous or distorted, and has been variously modified and
changed in comparatively modern times. The Hebrew
history, as it bears on this point, we shall notice in the
sequel. There is one great and very ancient people — the
Egyptian — evidently civilised from the beginning of all
history, that have not succeeded in transmitting to us,
except in garbled fragments, their history ; but have left
abundant monumental evidence of great events that trans-
pired among them; and, except the Hebrews, these are
the only people who can profess to give vl» any authentic
ancient history carrying us back to the origin of man.

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

302 ARCHAIA.

features and physical conformation, tended to the Euro-
pean forms, 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, Arian, 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 civilised
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, cer-
tainly 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 century or -two of the 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 ^ 2712
Syncellus and calculated by various archae- ?- to

ologists, ^ 2782

Herodotus' astronomical ^eduction by Rennell, 2890
Estimate by G-liddon in "Ancient Egypt," .... 2750
Bunsen, "Egypt's Place," &c., 4000

UNITY AND ANTIQUITY OP MAN. 303

The truth may be somewhere near the mean of the shorter
chronologies given in this list.* 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
Lis 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. Further, 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 sove-
reigns 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 pre-
cise age of which could only be vaguely known even in his
time, and which are diflferent in their statements in dijQfer-
ent localities. It is only by making due allowance for
these uncertainties, that any historical value can be at-
tached to these earlier dynasties of Manetho. Yet Bun-
sen has lately built on an uncertain interpretation of

* Reginald S. Poole has adduced very ingenious arguments,
monumental, astronomical, and mythological, for the date B.C.
2111.

304 AROHAIA.

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 monu-
ments and Manetho.* Discarding, therefore, in the mean

* It is curious that almost simultaneously with the appear-
ance of Bunsen's scheme, a similar 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 in-
dicate an antiquity of 13,371 years. But the basis of the
calculation is the rate of deposit (3^ 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. Further, we have to take into account the
natural or artificial changes of the river's bed, which in thia
very place is said to have been diverted from its course by
Menes, and which near Cairo is now nearly a mile from its for-
mer site. The liability to error and fraud in boring operations
is also very well known. It has further been suggested that
the deep cracks which form in the soil of Egypt, and the sink-
ing of wells in ancient times, are other probable causes of error j
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 honour and ability, is thus open to

UNITY AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 305

time, ttis obviously exaggerated date, we may roughly esti-
mate the date of Menes as 2000 to 2500 years B.C.,* and
proceed to state some of the facts relating to our present
subject 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 gene-
rations of his successors. The monuments of this period
show nothing of the complicated idolatry, ritual, and caste
system of later times, and are deficient in evidence of the
refinement and variety of art afterwards attained. They
also show that these early monarchs were principally en-
gaged in dyking and otherwise reclaiming the alluvial flats j
an evidence precisely of the same character with that
which every traveller sees in the more recently settled dis-
tricts of Canada, where the forest is giving way to the
exertions of the farmer. This primitive state of things is

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. See also
Appendix L.

* 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. ; and it
seems nearly certain that before the 18th dynasty, of which
this king was the 5th sovereign, there was no settled general
government over all Egypt. See on this and other points re-
lating to Bunsen's views, an able review in the London Quarterly,

306 ARCHAIA.

indelibly stamped on the written and monumental history
of this period in Egypt. Farther, in this primitive period,
known as the " old monarchy," very few domestic animals
appear, and experiments seem to have been in progress to
tame others, natives of the country, as the hyena, the an-
telope, the stork. Even the dog in the older dynasties is
represented by one or at most two varieties, and the pre-
valent one is a wolfish-looking animal akin to the present
wild or half-tamed dogs of the East.* The Egyptians,
too, of the earlier dynasties are more homogeneous in their
appearance than those of the later, after conquest and mi-
gration had introduced new races ; and the earliest monu-
mental 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 representar
tion of the Negro features occur until, at the earliest, the
17th dynasty. This allows ample time, 1000 years at the
least, for the development, under abnormal circumstances
and isolation, of all the most strongly-marked varieties of
man. For proof of these statements I may refer to the

* 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 experi-
ments of Jacob with Laban's flock, furnish a curious instance
of attempts to induce variation.

UNITY AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 307

works of any of the Egyptologists, and may merely add
that these and many other remarkable facts in the early
monumental history of Egypt, which are patent to any
reader, have been strangely overlooked or misapplied by
ethnologists. Osburn,* though on many points too ready
to follow very slender and doubtful clues, deserves credit
for the attention which he has given to these hints.

But, in noticing the historical information as to the
unity and antiquity of man, we must turn to the Bible
itself, which, independently of its religious claims, is surely
an historical document quite as respectable as even the
monumental records of Egypt. And what a contrast do
we find here to the darkness of Egyptian history and the
speculations of those who attempt to reason on it ! The
Bible has no mythical period. It treats of no ages of gods
and demi-gods, claims no fabulous antiquity for its people,
asserts no divine origin for its heroes. It has many mar-
vels and wonders, but they are all wrought by the Omni-
potent Creator. Its human history is stamped with the
impress of truth and nature, and its chronology is that
merely of a continuous succession of human beings, differ-
ing from our present experience only in the duration which
it assigns to human life in those primitive periods when
our species was young on the earth ; a point on which we
have no data as yet from other sources either to oppose or
confirm its doctrine. Nor does the Bible ever personify

* Monuments of Egypt.

3i)8 ARCH4.IA.

natural objects or processes, in that vague way which ren-
ders us doubtful whether in the ancient myths of the
heathen we are reading of every-day phenomena in a fan-
ciful dress, or of human history seen through a coloured
and distorting medium.

The Bible gives us a definite epoch, that of the deluge,
for all human origins ; but though no family but that of
Noah survived this 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, 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 question of the unity of man.

1. Adam and Isha, the woman, afterwards called Eve
(Life-giver) in consequence of the promise of a Redeemer,
commenced a life of husbandry on their expulsion from
Eden; and during the lifetime of the primal pair, the
sheep, at least, was domesticated. 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 con-
nection with the thunderbolt. In the time of Noah the
distinction of clean and unclean beasts, and the taking of

UNITY AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 309

seven pairs of certain beasts and birds into the ark, im-
ply that several mammals and birds were domesticated.*

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. f

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 since, who have attempted to force
distinct tribes into one nationality, failed. The guilt at-
tributed to them probably relates to the attempt to break
up the patriarchal organisation, which, in these early times,
was the outward form of true religion.

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 Grenesis, gives the principal branches ; but these,
of course, continued to sub-divide 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

* Genesis 4, 5, 6 and Tth chapters. See also our previous
remarks on the deluge,
t Genesis 4.

310 ARCHAIA.

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 his-
tory.

5. The tripartite division in Genesis 10th, indicates a
somewhat strict geographical separation of the three main
trunks. The regions marked out for Japhet include
Europe and North-western Asia. The name Japhet, as
well as the statements in the table, indicate a versatile,
nomadic, and colonising disposition as characteristic of
these tribes.* The Median population, the same with a
portion of that now often called Arian,f was the only branch

* Japhet is " enlargement," his sons are Scythians and inhabi-
tants of the isles, varying in language and nationality ; and Noah
predicts, " God shall enlarge Japhet, he shall dwell in the tents
of Shem, Ham shall be his servant." These are surely character-
istic 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 Japhet 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.

t The language of this people, the stem of the Indo-European
languages, is, though in a later form, probably that of the Arian
or Persepolitan part of the trilingual inscriptions at Behistun
and elsewhere in Persia.

UNITY AND ANTIQtriTT OP MAN. 311

remaining near the original seats of the species, and in a
settled condition. The outlying portions of the posterity
of Japhet, 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 race. The Shemite nations shewed little tendency to
migrate, being grouped about the Euphrates and Tigris val-
leys and neighbouring regions. For this reason, with the
exception of certain Arab tribes, they present no instances
of barbarism, and generally retained a high cerebral orga-
nization 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 Asia and Northern Africa. It
established the earliest military and monarchical institu-
tions, 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 institu-
tions of the old world before the flood. The Hamite race
is remarkable for the early development of pantheism and
hero-worship, and for the material character of its civili-
zation. It presents us with the darkest colours, and in

Sl2 ARCHAIA.

the vast solitudes of Africa, its outlying tribes must have
fallen into comparative barbarism a few centuries after
the deluge. It in farther to be observed, that, according to
the Bible, the Canaanites and other Hamite nations spoke
languages not essentially different from those of the Shem-
ites, while the Japhetite nations were to them barbarians,
" a nation whose tongue thou shalt not understand." There
was, too, at the date of the exodus, 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 suffi-
ciently 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 prin-
cipal 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 favour-
able 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 intercom-
munication 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.

UNITT AND ANTIQUITY OP MAN. 313

A multitude of Bible notices might easily be quoted
illustrative of these points, and also of the consistency of
the Mosaic narrative with itself. These have often been
mentioned by commentators, and one may sufl&ce here.
Abraham, who is said by the Jews to have been contempo-
rary with Shem, as Menes by the Egyptians with Ham, at
least lived sufficiently near to the time of the rise of the
eaxHest nations, to be taken as an illustration of this prim-
itive 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 sur-
vivors of the deluge. Yet his tribe increases in com-
paratively 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.

The Hebrew ethnology excels all others in its breadth of
conception and freedom from local prejudices. The Egyp-
tians, the Greeks, and probably most other ancient nations,
had no true conceptions of the unity of man. Their hero-
worship and local polytheism fostered narrow views of the
V

314 ARCHAIA.

subject. The Hebrews, with as mucli national pride as any
other people, were restrained by their monotheistic theology
from elevating their ancestors into gods, and from worship-
ping local divinities. They based their claims to eminence
on their being the people chosen of God as the depository of
his sacred truth, and that truth required them to acknow-
ledge the brotherhood of man. A Jew of Tarsus first
maintained this doctrine and its companion one of the va-
nity of polytheism and merely local religion, before the
literati of Athens. Christianity has borne it aloft on its
banner over the world, proclaiming the common origin and
common destiny of Greek and Jew, Barbarian and Scy-
thian, bond and free. The tenet is a noble one. The
tyrant and the slaveholder may well turn pale in its pre-
sence, and secretly rejoice if any doubt can be cast on its
truth ; but no true-hearted lover of his kind, will part with
it, unless wrung from him by the compulsion of far stronger
arguments than those which I have attempted to review in
the previous pages.

I purposely close with this view of the subject, because
it brings us back again to the mosaic record. To persons
unacquainted with the many forms in which the doctrine
of the unity of origin of man has recently been assailed,
this chapter may appear unnecessarily prdix. To those
who have waded through the ponderous tomes of some
modern ethnographers, it may appear a too meagre review.
My object has been merely to expose the slenderness of the
grounds on which certain theories on this subject have been

tFNITY AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 315

built, and the necessity, if natural history is to be called
on to bear evidence in the question of unity or diversity
of species in man, that patient investigation of the probable
extent of his migrations and limits of his variations, should
take the place of hasty assumptions of limitation to geo-
graphical regions, and of primitive diversity of forms.

CHAPTER XVII.

COMPARISONS AND CONCLUSIONS.

Job xxvi., 14 : " Lo these are but outlines of His ways, and
how faint the whisper which we hear of Him — the thunder of
His power who could understand."

In the preceding pages I have^ as far as possible, avoided
that mode of treating my subject wbicb 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 illustra-
tion or coincidence could be perceived. In the present
chapter I propose to enquire 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 for-
tunate 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 deny me the right to study
them, and even if I should appear extreme in some of my
views, or venture to be almost as enthusiastic as the com-
mentators of Homer, Shakespeare or Dante, I cannot be
very severely blamed. But the direct comparison of these
ancient records with results of modern science, is obnoxious

COMPARISONS AND CONCLUSIONS, 317

to many minds on very different grounds : and all the more
so that so few men are ardent students both of nature and
revelation. There are, as yet, but few even of educated
men whose range of study has included anything that is
practical or useful either in Hebrew literature or geological
science. That slipshod Christianity which contents itself
with supposing that conclusions which ar« 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 per-
petual 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 lia-
bility 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. 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 ex-
ploration. 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

318 AROHAIA.

universe, and at tlie 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. 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 generalisation, 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 endeavour to present to the reader only well ascer-
tained 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

COMPARISONS AND CONCLUSIONS. 319

the scriptures enunciate distinct doctrines on many points
relating to tlie 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 results of the operation, during long
periods, of the causes of change, whether mechanical, che-
mical, 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, sand-
stones, 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, green-
Btone, and trap, which are molten rocks formed in the
manner of modern lavas. So general has been this sort-
ing, altering, and disturbance of the substance of the earth's
crust, that, though we know its structure over large por-
tions of our continents, to the depth of several miles, the
geologist can point to no instance of a truly primitive rock

320 ARCHAIA.

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 obser
vation, 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 pre-
sent 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 gra-
dually, 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 still
lying buried in the crust of the earth." *

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 rocks formed
at the same period, yet there is, on the great scale, a regu-
lar 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

* Lyell's Manual of Elementary Geology.

COMPARISONS AND CONCLUSIONS. 321

that in the case of beds of sand, clay, &c., 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 " for-
mations" in geology.

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 organised 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
neighbouring 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

322 ARCHAIA.

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.

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 gra-
dual, all the present organised beings were swept away,
and that, when the earth was renewed by the fiat 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 crea-
tures 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 na-

COMPARISONS AND CONCLrSIONS,

323

ture 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 mark out the history of the
earth into distinct periods. These periods are not sepa-
rated 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 gene-
rally 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 apj)earance of each class, with
a few notes of the subsequent history of the principal
forms : —

periods.

SrSTBMS OF
FORMATIONS.

classes of ANIMALS.

PLANTS.

I.

Azoic
Period.

Ancient Meta-
m 0 r p h i c
rocks of
Scandinavia,
Canada, &c.

II.

Primary

OR

Palaeozoic
Period.

Cambrian ..-j

Radiata — Hydrozoa (?)
Mollusca — Brachiopoda.
Articulata — A n n e 1 i da,
Crustacea.

Algae.

324

ARCHAIA.

SYSTEMS OP

PERIODS.

formations.

CLASSES OF ANIMALS.

PLANTS.

II.

Radiata — Protozoa, An-

Primary

thozoa, Echinodermata

OR

Mollusca — Polyzoa,Tuni-

A c r 0 g e -

Palaeozoic

cata, Lamellibranchi-

nous Land

Continued.

Silurian, . . . ■

ata, Gasteropoda,
Pteropoda, Cephal-
opoda.
Vertebrata — Fishes at

plants?

close of period.

i;

Vertebrata — Fishes, Ga-

Acrogens.

Devonian,... .

noid and Placoid —

andGjmn-

\

Reptiles (?)

nosperms.

r

Mollusca — P u 1 m 0 n a ta,

Acrogens,
Gymno-

Carbonifer-

Articulata — Insects,

sperms,

ous,

Arachnidans.

Endo-

Ferie&ra^a—Batrachians,

gens?

prevalent.

Permian, . .

Vertebrata Lacertian

Reptiles.

III.

Triassic,.... ;

Vertebrata — Higher Rep-

Secondary

tiles prevalent ; Birds.

or

'

Vertebrata — Great pre-

Endoge-

Mesozoic

valence of higher Rep-

nous trees

Period.

Jurassic, ... ■

tiles ; Fishes, homocer-
que ; Marsupial Mam-

mals,

Angiosper-

Cretaceous, [

Vertebrata — Decadence
of reign of Reptiles.

mous Exo-
gens.

lY.

Vertebrata — M a m m a 1 s Exogens

Tertiary

-

prevalent, especially

prevalent.

or

Eocene,

Pachyderms, Cycloid

Cainozoic

and Ctenoid fishes.

Period.

First Zivmgin vertebrates.

Miocene,... . |

Living Invertebrates

more numerous.

Pliocene,... ';

Living Invertebrates still

more numerous.

V.

Post Plio- J
cene, .... 1

First living Mammals.

Existing

Post Ter-

Living Invertebrates pre-

vegeta-

tiary OR

valent.

tion.

Modern.

Recent, iMan & Living Mammals.

COMPARISONS AND CONCLUSIONS. 325

The oldest fossil remains known belong to extinct spe-
cies of zoophytes, shell-fish and crustaceans, and the algae
or sea-weeds. In the Palaeozoic period, though reptiles
existed towards its close, the higher orders of fishes seem
to have been the dominant tribe of animals ; and vegeta-
tion 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 pro-
minent place. In the tertiary and modern eras, the mam-
malia, with man, have assumed the highest place. On
this series of groups, and the succession of living beings^
Sir C. Lyell remarks — " It is not pretended that the prin-
cipal 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 difierent kinds of sedi-
ment were d^osited."

5. The lapse of time embraced in the geological history
of the earth is enormous. Fully to appreciate this, it i&
necessary to study the science in detail, and to explore its
phenomena as disclosed in actual nature. A few facts, how-
ever, out of hundreds which might have been selected, will
suffice to indicate the state of the case. The delta and allu-

326 ARCHAIA.

vial plain of the Mississippi, belong to tlie post-pliocene or
modern period. Taking in connection the mass of mat*
ter in the delta and the known rate of deposition by the
river, we are obliged to admit that the period occupied in the
deposition of this mass of muddy sediment must have ex-
tended to " many ten thousands of years."* To be quite
safe, let us take 40,000 years* We may then safely mul-
tiply this number by ten for the length of the tertiary
period. We may add as much more 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 as
long as the mesozoic and tertiary together. Great though
these demands may seem, they are probably far below the
rigid requirements of the case.f Take another illustration
from another 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.

* Lyell.

t 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 afiforded to Prof. Agassiz
a still more extended measure of the Post tertiary period.

COMPARISONS AND CONCLUSIONS. 327

Supposing all these separate fossil soils and coals to have
been formed with the greatest possible rapidity, ten thou-
sand 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 sin-
gle 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. Thus, then, we find
that the earth in its present state is the product of changes
which have proceeded probably during countless years, yet
we have no geological evidence that even this great lapse
of time carries us back to that beginning revealed in scrip-
ture, in which the materials of the universe sprang into
being at the word of God.

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 dark-
ness, 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

328 ARCHAIA.

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 arrange-
ments. There is every reason to believe that in the inor-
ganic 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 instances of improvement and advance by the intro-
duction of new types of being, but not of development of
one species from another. We have already given a gene-
ral outline of this advancement of organised nature. It
has consisted in the creation, from time to time, of new
and more highly organised 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. For instance, in the earlier palaeozoic
period, we have molluscous animals and fishes, then appa-
rently the highest forms of life, appearing with a very
advanced organization, not surpassed, if even equalled, in

COMPARISONS AND CONCLUSIONS, 329

modern times. In the later part of the same great period,
some lower forms of vegetable life, now restricted to a
comparatively humble place, were employed to constitute
magnificent forests. In the Mesozoie period again, reptiles
attained to their highest point in organization and variety
of form and employment, while mammalia had as yet
scarcely appeared,*

* 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 Mesozoie epoch, the lacertian reptiles presented
huge elephantine, carnivorous and herbivorous species, the
Megalosaurus, Iguanodon, &c. ; flying species, with hollow bones
and ample wings, the Pterodactyles ; and aquatic whale-like
species, Cetiosaurus, Ichthyosaurus, &c. These creatures ac-
tually filled the offices now occupied by the mammals ; and,
though lacertian in their affinities, they must have had circula-
tory, respiratory, and nervous systems far in advance of any
modern reptiles even of the order of Loricates. Even compara-
tive anatomists have given to this view of the subject less atten-
tion than it deserves ; and the author was once taken to task
for an assertion of this nature, by one of our ablest living natu-
ralists, to whom it did not appear to have occurred that a
Dinosaurian walking the earth with elephantine tread, or a Pte-
rodactyl cleaving the air with rapid wings, must necessarily
have enjoyed a far more perfect circulation and respiration than
the highest living reptiles, and so have approached more nearly
to the mammals and birds, and have been fitted to fill their
offices, to their exclusion.

W

330 ARCHAIA.

These and similar facts have obliged geologists to admit
that the advance of organic nature must have been the
result of direct creative interposition. Hence we find that
geology, which, more than any other science, has been ac-
cused of infidel tendency, is the only one which leads us
directly into the presence of the Author of nature^ and
finds itself obliged, in order to account for the phenomena
which it observes, to have recourse to the " Miracle of
Creation." I cannot better close this head and this part
of the subject, than by quoting some of the views expressed
by leading geologists, on this important part of the
relations of geology to revelation.

Prof. Pictet of Geneva, a very able and careful palaeon- •
tologist, in the introduction to his " Traite de Palaeontol-
ogie," as translated for the Journal of the Geological
Society, remarks: —

'' 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. L astly,
we can least of all account by this theory for the appear-
ance 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."

COMPARISONS AND CONCLUSIONS. 331

Hugh Miller, in his " Footprints of the Creator," thus
strongly asserts the same view : —

" With the introduction of man into the scene of exist-
ence, creation, I repeat, seems to have ceased. What is it
that now takes its place and performs its work ? During
the previous dynasties, all elevation in the scale was an
effect simply of creation. Nature lay dead in a waste
theatre of rock, vapour and sea; in which the insensate
aws, chemical, mechanical and electric, carried on their
bhnd, unintelligent processes. The creative fiat went
forth, and amid waters that straightway teemed with life
in its lowest forms, vegetable and animal, the dynasty of
the fish was introduced. Many ages passed, during which
there took place no further elevation ; on the contrary, in
not a few of the newly introduced species of the reigning
class, there appeared for the first time examples of a sym-
metrical misplacement of parts ; and, in at least one family
of fishes, instances of defect of parts. There was the ma-
nifestation of a downward tendency toward the degradation
of monstrosity, when the elevatory fiat again went forth,
and, through an act of creation, the dynasty of the reptile,
began. Again many ages passed by, marked apparently
by the introduction of a warm-blooded oviparous animal,
the bird, and a few marsupial quadrupeds ; but in which
the prevailing class reigned undeposed, though at least un-
elevated. Yet again, however, the elevatory fiat went forth,
and, through an act of creation, the dynasty of the mam-
miferous quadruped began. And, after the further lapse
of ages, the elevatory fiat went forth yet once more in an

332 ARCHAIA.

act of creation, and with the human, heaven-aspiring dy-
nasty, the moral government of God, in its connection at
least with the world which we inhabit, " took beginning" ;
and then creation ceased. Why ? — simply because God's
moral government had begun."

Sir C. Lyell, in an Anniversary Address as President
of the Geological Society (1851), largely and ably discusses
the subject of progressive development and introduction of
types and species. There is probably no geologist of our
day more favourably situated for sketching the present
aspect of geology in reference to these great principles, or
more fully possessing the wide range of knowledge and
thought necessary for the task. His views differ in some
points from those just quoted, but their general tendency
is the same : —

" If, therefore, the doctrine of successive development
had been palaeontologically true, as I have endeavoured to
show that it is not ; if the sponge, the cephalopod, the fish,
the reptile, the bird and the mammifer, had followed each
other in regular chronological order, the creation of each
of these classes being separated from the others by vast
intervals of time ; and if it were clear that man had been
created later by at least one entire period, — still I should
have been wholly unable to recognize, in his entrance on
the earth, the last term of one and the same series of de-
velopments. Even then the creation of man would rather
seem to have been the beginning of some new and differ-
ent order of things. * * By the creation of a species
I simply mean the beginning of a new series of organic

COMPARISONS AND CONCLUSIONS. 333

phenomena, such as we usually understand by the term
" species." Whether such commencement be brought about
by the direct intervention of the First Cause, or by some
unknown second cause or law appointed by the Author of
nature, is a point upon which I will not venture to offer a
conjecture.

" In the first publication of the Huttonian theory, it
was declared that we can neither see the beginning nor the
end of that vast series of phenomena which it is our
business as geologists to investigate. After sixty years of
renewed inquiry, and after we have greatly enlarged the
sphere of our knowledge, the same conclusion seems to me
to hold true. But if any one should appeal to such results
in support of the doctrine of an eternal succession, I may
reply that the evidence has become more and more decisive
in favour of the recent origin of our own species. The
intellect of man and his spiritual and moral nature are the
highest works of creative power known to us in the uni-
verse ; and to have traced out the date of their commence-
ment in past time, — to have succeeded in referring so
memorable an event to one out of a long succession of
periods, each of enormous duration, — is perhaps a more
wonderful achievement of science than it would be to have
simply discovered the dawn of animal or vegetable life, or
the precise time when out of chaos or out of nothing, a
globe of inanimate matter was first formed." *

* It appears for some years past to have become a recognized
practice of the Presidents of the Geological Society, in their
annual addresses, to devote a few concluding paragraphs to

334 ARCHAIA.

The actual position of geology in relation to the succes-
sion of organic life and the creation of species, cannot be
more shortly or clearly stated than in the following propo-
sitions by Dr. Bronn, in his essay on the " Laws of Deve-
lopment of the Organic World," to which the prize was
awarded by the French Academy in 1856. I quote from
the translation in the notice of the work by Mr. Hamilton,

such general subjects. In 1852, Mr. Hopkins vindicated the
doctrine of the progression of the inorganic 'arrangements of
the earth, from the period of its first creation. In 1854, Prof.
Forbes introduced his remarkable doctrine of polarity in the
introduction of organic forms, which, had he lived, he might
have followed out into other general views. Its bearing on our
subject is merely that it is a hint toward the tracing of a general
plan in creation, of such a character, that, while generic forms
were more plentifully developed at the beginning of the Palaeo-
zoic and more sparingly toward its close, the reverse mode
appears in the Mesozoic and Tertiary. In 1856, Mr. Hamilton
ably exposed the fallacies of Prof. Powell's reasonings on the
supposed infinite variability of species. In 1857, Major-General
Portlock, while protesting against the limitation of scientific
inquiry by any views of the Bible narrative, maintains the crea-
tion of species by the Divine fiat, locally, and in adaptation to
the circumstances of their several localities. In 1858, he
attacljs, perhaps too severely, Mr. Gosse's ingenious but
eccentric theory. It is instructive to observe how carefully
these men, writing for the most advanced geological minds,
touch on the mystery of creation, and how little in the main
their views as to its probable nature differ from the doctrines of
revelation.

^COMPARISONS AND CONCLUSIONS. 335

in the Journal of the Geological Society of London, Feb.
1859:—

"1. The first productions of this power in the oldest
Neptunian strata of the earth consisted of Plants, Zoo-
phytes, Molluscs, Crustaceans, and perhaps even Fish;
the simultaneous appearance of which, therefore, contrar
diets 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 transforma-
tion 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 difierent forms of plants
and animals, a certain regular course and plan is percep-
tible, which is quite independent of chance. Whilst 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 ofier an equivalent, in num-
ber, organization, and duties to be performed, for those
which have disappeared, but which are also generally more
varied, and therefore partly more perfect, and always main-
tain an equilibrium with each other in their stage of
organization, their mode of life, and functions. There

336 AROHAIA.

always exists, therefore, a certain fixed relation betweers
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 mil-
lions 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 ap-
pearance, 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 everything 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

COMPARISONS AND CONCLUSIONS. 337

animals, and arranged and regulated all those countless
individual conditions ; which power, however, must in this
case have stood in the most immediate connexion 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 condi-
tions of life for the constantly increasing numbers and
higher classes of organic forms in consequence of this per-
fection. Only in this way can we explain how the deve-
lopment 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 connexion with those powers and circum-
stances which effected the perfection of the earth's sur-
face."

338 ARCHAIA,

It will be observed that this author, while rejecting the
transmutation of species, and insisting on a definite plan
harmonizing organic and physical existence in all their
mutations, leans to the idea of a creative law rather than
to that of creative acts ; but this is really little more than
a verbal difference. These principles lead also to the
grand idea, 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 necessa-
rily 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 chro-

* The reader will find further views of this subject in the con-
clusion of Murchison's " Siluria," and in Agassiz's contributions
to the Natural History of America. See also Appendix F.

COMPARISONS AND CONCLUSIONS. 339

nological 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
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 spiri-
tual theology. Had the pen of inspiration written but
the words, " In the beginning God created the heaven and
the earth," and added no more, these words alone would

340 AROHAIA.

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 appropri-
ately stand at the entrance of Holy Scripture, referring us
to the works which men behold, as the visible manifesta-
tion 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

COMPARISONS AND CONCLUSIONS. 341

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 pre-
sent state of things had not an ascertained beginning, but
that there has been a great, and, so far as we know, unli-
mited, 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 objec-
tor, 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 crea-
tion. Science admits these, as far as the objects with

342 ARCHAIA.

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.

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 scrip-
ture 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, tend-
ing 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

COMPARISONS AND CONCLUSIONS. 343

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 animal life, but that on the earlier
stages, only certain of the lower forms of animals were
present, but 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 very oldest fossiliferous rocks, e.g. the Lower
Silurian or Cambrian, we find the moUusca represented
mainly by their highest and lowest classes, by allies of the
cuttle-fish and nautilus^ and by the lowest bivalve ^ell-
fishes. The arfciculata 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 fossili-
ferous beds. The E-adiata, in like manner, are represented
by species of their highest class, the star-fishes, &c., and
by some of their simpler polyp forms. At the very begin-
ning, 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 j
and in the succeeding Devonian and Carboniferous rocks,

344 ARCHAIA.

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 addi-
tion, first of the reptile, which attained its highest perfec-
tion 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

COMPARISONS AND CONCLUSIONS. 345

to elevation, but that on the contrary we should rather
suspect a tendency to degeneracy and ultimate disappear-
ance, 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
Bee 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 birth-place 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 begin-
ning there has been but one great System of nature.
We can imagine it to have been otherwise. Our existing

346 ARCHAIA.

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 scrip-
ture, 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 per-
fections 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 fir&t

COMPARISONS AND CONCLUSIONS. 347

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 con-
struction 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. G-eological 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 recog-
nized 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 dif-
ficulty 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 con-

348 ARCHAIA.

tinuity, 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,
afterwards separated in distinct groups ; thus in the earlier
formations, the sauroid fishes unite peculiarities afterwards
divided between the fish and reptiles, constituting what
Agassiz calls a synthetic type. Again, the series of crea-
tures 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-king-
doms, 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 fore-shadow
and predict others that are to succeed them in time, as the
winged and marine reptiles of the Mesozoic rocks, the
birds and the 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

COMPARISONS AND CONCLUSIONS. 349

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 correspond-
ence. 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 that of 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

350

ARCHAIA.

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 Greolo-
gical and Biblical periods, extending it as far as either
record can carry us : —

PARALLELISM OF THE SCRIPTURAL COSMOGONY WITH
THE ASTRONOMICAL AND GEOLOGICAL HISTORY
OF THE EARTH.

BIBLICAL AEONS.

The Beginning.

First Day. — Earth mantled by
the Vaporous Deep — Produc-
tion of Light.

Second Day. — Earth covered by
the Waters. — Formation of
the Atmosphere.

Third Day. — Emergence of Dry
Land — Introduction of Vege-
tation.

Fourth Day. — Completion of
the arrangements of the Solar
System.

Fifth Day. — Invertebrates and
Fishes, and afterwards great
Reptiles and Birds created.

PERIODS DEDUCED FROM SCIENTI-
FIC CONSIDERATIONS.

Creation of Matter.

Condensation of Planetary Bo-
dies from a nebulous mass —
Hypothesis of original incan-
descence.

Primitive Universal Ocean, and
establishment of Atmosphe-
ric equilibrium.

Elevation of the land which
furnished the materials of the
Azoic rocks — Azoic Period
of Geology.

Metamorphism of Azoic rocks
and disturbances preceding
the Cambrian epoch — Domi-
nion of "Existing Causes"
begins.

Palaeozoic Period — Reign of
Invertebrates and Fishes.

Mesozoic Period — Reign of Rep-
tiles.

COMPARISONS AND CONCLUSIONS.

351

BIBLICAL ABONS.

Sixth Day. — Introduction of
Mammals — Creation of Man
and Edenic Group of Ani-
mals.

Seventh Day. Cessation of

Work 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."*

PERIODS DEDUCED PROM SCIEN-
TIFIC CONSIDERATIONS.

Tertiary Period— Reign of Mam-
mals.

Post Tertiary — Existing Mam-
mals and Man.

Period of Human History.

* Heb. IV., 9, 2 Peter III. 13.

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 exten-
sively than at present. Scripture also expressly states that
the waters were the birth-place 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 pro-
per 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,

ARCHAIA.

even mammals, may have existed in the earliest periods *
yet there are, as already pointed out, some positive indica-
tions of this kind. The scripture, however, commits itself
to a positive 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. Though, however, the Bible informs us of a
universal ocean preceding the existence of land, it also
gives indications of a still earlier period of igneous fluidity
or gaseous expansion. Gleology 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. Scrip-
ture 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 depart-
ment, 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 pro«

COMPARISONS AND CONCLUSIONS. 35S

ducts from the interior of the earth. This grand general-
ization, 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 doc-
trine of divine revelation, announced more than three thou-
sand years ago by the Hebrew law-giver ; not for scientific
purposes, but as a part of the theology of the Hebrew
monotheism.

7. Both records agree in assuring us that death pre-
vailed 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 j 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 ofiensive 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

354 ARCHAIA,

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

COMPARISONS AND CONCLUSIONS. 355

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 ironstone, 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 pros-
perity 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 hemis-
phere, on which marine animals had previously accumu-
lated 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 under-
lying 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
subterraneous 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

356 ARCHAIA.

brow ; and now for the first time appears the use of these
buried coal swamps. They now aflford at once the mate-
rials of improvement in the arts, and of comfortable sub-
sistence 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
a 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 ven-

COMPARISONS AND CONCLUSIONS. 357

ture 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 natu-
ralist. The Bible, unlike every other system of religious
doctrine, fears no investigation or discussion. It courts
these. " While science," says a modern divine,"* 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 deci-
phers ; 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 unearth-
ing of some ancient 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

* Hamilton.

358 ARCHAIA.

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 con-
firmation 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-renuncia-
tion, casts himself in faith on that Divine Bedeemer, who
is at once the creator of the heavens and the earth, and
the brother and the' friend of the penitent and the con-
trite. 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

COMPARISONS AND CONCLUSIONS. 359

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 repe-
tition 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.— AUTHENTICITY AND GENUINENESS OF THE
MOSAIC BOOKS.

This question has been so thoroughly settled by the labours
of many eminent scholars, that I have assumed in the text,
the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch, as an undeniable fact.
Still, as it is sometimes called in question by that class of
erratic critics who make skepticism in all that is Biblical a
necessary accompaniment of historical and ethnological re-
search, I may shortly state one of the lines of argument followed
on this subject, and which is quite sufficient to satisfy my own
mind.

1. The septuagint translation proves the Pentateuch to have
existed in its present form, and to have been recognized in Egypt
and Palestine as genuine, about 300 years B. C, in the reign of
Ptolemy I., when that translation was commenced. This, be it
observed, is as far back as the time of Manetho, on whom so
much reliance has been placed for early Egyptian history.

2. It was received by the Jews, on the return from Babylon,
as their proper national law, and was acted on as such. Nor
could it have been written or even compiled at that time, else
its acceptance must have been local, and its language more
modern.

3. The independent preservation of the Pentateuch by the
Samaritans shows that its acceptance was not confined to the
kingdom of Judah merely, and affords a distinct and disinter-
ested evidence to its purity and authenticity.

4. The Mosaic books do not recognize the kingly constitution,
and therefore could not have been a forgery of any period sub-
sequent to the time of Samuel. Further, the Psalms, which
belong to the period of David, and thence to the captivity,
constantly recognize the history of the Pentateuch, its cosmo-
gony, and its ritual, as those of the nation.

362 APFENDIX.

5. The above considerations carry back the antiquity of these
books to the time of Samuel, say 250 years after the contempo-
raries of Moses. But the whole history of Samuel, as well as
that of Joshua and the Judges, implies the existence of the
Mosaic ritual, and the accuracy of its history. It is not possible
that in the time of Samuel, or at any previous period, this
connected history could have been forged or palmed on the
people.

6. The books of Moses have nothing of the mythical aspect of
the legends of other nations relating to the same early periods.
They do narrate miracles, but these are ascribed to the direct
interposition of God ; and their human history is of a rational
and sober character, ascribing no superhuman feats to man.
They have, farther, in so far as the events stated to have occur-
red in the time of Moses are concerned, strong indications of
being the narrative of a contemporary. For example, they
detail with great accuracy many points in the manners, religion
and government of Egypt, now known from the monuments to
be strictly correct ; but which could in ancient times have been
distinctly known only to contemporaries, and these are not
paraded as remarkable, but introduced artlessly and inciden-
tally. Farther, we know from Egyptian discoveries, that the
Mosaic books could have been committed to writing at the time
when they were composed, and may have been directly handed
down to us in that way. We have Egyptian inscriptions of a
date considerably prior to that of Moses ; and the Hebrew and
Phenician alphabets, confessedly the oldest in the world, are
manifestly derived from the phonetic hieroglyphs of Egypt.
Moses was not, therefore, like some early bards in Europe, un-
der the necessity of entrusting his compositions to oral trans-
mission. He could leave them in a written form, and in the
hands of an organized priestly body interested in preserving
them.

Lastly, the pre- Mosaic history, the events of the exodus, and
the provisions of the law, all harmonize with each other, and
coincide in so many complicated ways, that it is difficult, if not
impossible, to imagine any way in which they could have been
concocted at a time posterior to that of the exodus.

Nothing in ancient literature, and little even in more
modern literature, can thus be more certainly ascertained to be
genuine than the Pentateuch ; and, in addition to the above and
many other arguments which have been adduced, those wha
attach any value to the authority of our Saviour, as recorded
by the Evangelists, have his testimony that the Jews in his
time possessed '• Moses and the Prophets."

It is evident that if Moses was the writer of Genesis, the
"Document" hypothesis is reduced to the comparatively insig-
nificant question, — Did Moses avail himself of any sacred lore

APPENDIX. 363

that may have existed in his time ? Even this, however, has
scarcely any ground for its support, except the general diffusion
of similar views of creation ; which appears to imply that this
part of revelation preceded the dispersion of man. The sup-
posed contradictions of dififerent parts of the earlier chapters,
will be seen in the text to have no existence. The few diversities
of style are quite insignificant, and fully accounted for by the
changing nature of the subject. The only other argument of
any weight is the use of the different names Elohim and Jeho-
vah for God. The first is his name considered as the Almighty,
the Creator. The second as the Self-Existent — He who was
and is and is to come — and in more especial relation to his moral
government. With respect to the use of these names, a very
little comparison of scripture passages assures us — 1. That Elo-
him is specially appropriate in speaking of creation and nature,
2. That Jehovah is specially appropriate in speaking of man
and of redemption. 3. This distinction is kept up in the early
chapters of Genesis, but with a conjoint use of the terms in
passing from the creative work to the human history. 4. In
the later books, except in certain solemn and peculiar circum-
stances, the terms are used as synonymous.

I have not noticed, as having no practical bearing on the
solution of the question as to the origin of the narrative of
creation, the ingenious but fanciful theory of Hoffman, that the
perfect intellect of man before the fall embraced a kind of
intuitive knowledge of the facts of creation, which has formed
the substratum of Genesis 1st. Kurtz, on the other hand, main-
taining that it is truly a divine revelation, but older than the
time of Moses, argues very ingeniously that its probable date is
that of Enoch, in whose time men began to call on the "name
of the Lord" in a formal and public manner — in connection,
perhaps, with the first revelation made to man after the fall.
(See Introd. to " History of the Old Covenant," translated by
Edersheim.)

B.— RELATION OF THE HUMAN AND TERTIARY
PERIODS.

That explanation of the Mosaic cosmogony which supposes that
a long time elapsed between the " beginning," and that condi-
tion of the earth mentioned in verse 2nd of Genesis 1st ; and
that the chaos of verse 2nd immediately preceded the creation
of man, raises the geological question ; Was there any such chaos
at the close of the tertiary and before the modern period. Geology
answers in the negative, and offers most conclusive reasons.
In the Pleistocene period, raised beaches and other indications
show that our existing continents were gradually rising and
assuming their present outlines, while the higher animals of the

364 APPENDIX.

land were in the main quite distinct from the present. But they
■were not wholly distinct. While species of Mastodon and Mam-
moth, for example, roamed over the northern parts of both con-
tinents, they were accompanied by the Musk Ox and some other
quadrupeds that still survive, and were sheltered by forests of
Norway spruce, arbor vitae, balsam poplar, and other trees that
still clothe these regions. In the same period the inhabitants of
the seas were almost without exception the same as at present.
These statements are proved by the evidence of well explored
deposits on both sides of the Atlantic. Before the commence-
ment of the Pleistocene period, nearly the whole land of the
northern hemisphere appears to have been submerged, and dur-
ing or in the progress of this submergence, the great Boulder
formation or Drift was deposited. But though this great sub-
mergence must have been fatal to most of the inhabitants of the
land, and forms a marked separation between the newer Pliocene
and Pleistocene periods, it scarcely affected the Marine inverte-
brates, except in their geographical distribution, and these con-
sequently extend back into the Pliocene periods, where they
become the contemporaries of quite a different creation of terres-
trial mammals.

If instead of tracing life backward, we begin at the Eocene
tertiaries when the first modern animals appear, we find first a
few marine invertebrates that still exist ; in the Miocene and
Pliocene the proportion increases, and in the Pleistocene exist-
ing species of the higher animals and of terrestrial plants make
their appearance in the same gradual manner. Nor is there any-
where, between the Eocene aud the modern period, any break
in the chain of existence at all comparable with that which
occurs between the Eocene and the preceding mesozoic forma-
tions. In short, geology testifies to the gradual introduction of
existing forms, species by species, and to the similar gradual
extinction of previous forms, and the modern world is connected
by one unbroken chain of organic existence with those pre-ada-
mite worlds which have passed away. Further, if we trace back
existing species of animals to their origin, we first lose man,
then the other Mammals, and last of all the invertebrates of the
sea; so that the duration of the existence of species is parallel
to that of generic and family forms in the whole geologic history,
when we trace this back to what appears to be the origin of
animal life.

The application of these facts to the argument respecting daya
of creation is obvious. It may be found stated, very clearly and
with more of illustration, in Hugh Miller's lecture on the " Two
Records" in the Testimony of the Rocks. Further details will
be found in Lyell's Elements, and with special reference to
Great Britain, in Forbes' paper on the Tertiary and Pleistocene
Faunae, in the Memoirs of the Geological Survey of Great

APPENDIX. 365

Britain, Facts relating to Canada, where these later formations
are very clearly exhibited, will be found in papers by Prof.
Ramsay and the author in the Canadian Naturalist, 185*1 & 1858.
I am truly sorry that the absence of a Geological chaos im-
mediately before man, and the views given in the text as to the
nature of the primeval "desolation and emptiness," remove one
of the foundations on which Kurtz has chosen to rebuild the
remarkable doctrine of the original association of angels with
our planet, which has suggested itself to so many thinkers. It
may be stated thus : — The angels were the original inhabitants
of the earth as well as of other planets and perhaps of the stars
also. Those inhabiting the earth fell, and the earth in conse-
quence passed into that state designated by " tohu vabohu."
From this state it was redeemed by the divine power, the fallen
angels banished, and man introduced. Hence the possibility of
man attaining to knowledge of evil, and hence also the enmity
of fallen angels and their desire to restore their power over this
world. The theological harmonies of this doctrine are not, how-
ever, affected by our dissociating it from its supposed geological
relations.

C.— ORIGINAL FLUIDITY OP THE EARTH.

In the text, the original fluidity or even gaseous expansion of
the materials of our planet, is assumed as most in accordance
with the scriptural intimations as to its earliest state. In the
popular mind, however, this doctrine has been losing ground,
owing to the circumstance, that, while the rate of increase of
temperature from the surface, as measured in mines and other
excavations, wouW give the earth a solid crust not more than
a hundred miles in thickness, astronomical considerations show
that its solid shell, if it be not wholly solid, must be at least
eight times that thickness. In connection with this, the bold
but baseless speculation of Poisson, that the whole solar system
may be moving through portions of space differently heated,
and thus in some geological periods acquiring and in others
losing heat, and also the chemical theories of volcanic action
proposed by Daubeny and others, — show that there may be
other ways of accounting for the phenomena.

Of the astronomical contributions to our knowledge of this
obscure suoject, one of the most important is the series of cal-
culations, based on the phenomena of Precession and Nutation,
by Mr. Hopkins of Cambridge, These calculations, it is true,
rest on a very narrow basis, and have recently been disputed.
Mr. Hopkins's general conclusion is that the "minimum thick-
ness of the crust of the globe, consistent with the observed
amount of precession, cannot be less than one-fourth of the
earth's radius," in other words from 1000 to 800 miles. The

366 APPENDIX.

hypothetical views stated by Mr. Hopkins, in reference to the
manner in which the earth reached its present state, are thus
condensed by Mr. McLaren in Jameson's Edinburgh Philosophi-
cal Journal : —

" If the earth was originally fluid, it might pass to the solid
state in two modes. The heat would be continually dissipated
from the surface, and would therefore be greatest at the centre ;
and so long as the mass was fluid, the inequality of the heat
would cause a constant circulation betwixt the surface and the
centre. Now, if the effect of heat in preventing solidification
was greater than that of pressure in promoting it, solidification
would begin at the surface, where a crust would be formed, and
would gradually increase in thickness, by the addition of layer
after layer to its lower side. But if the effect of pressure in
promoting solidification was greater than that of heat in pre-
venting it, solidification would begin at the centre, and extend
outwardly. While the process was going on, circulation would
continue in the fluid part exterior to the solid nucleus. But,
before the last portions became solid, a state of imperfect fluidity
would arise, just sufficient to prevent circulation. The coolest
particles at the surface being then no longer able to descend, a
crust would be formed, from which the process of solidification
would proceed far more rapidly downwards than upwards from
the solid nucleus. Our globe would thus arrive at a state in
which it would be composed of a solid exterior shell and a solid
central nucleus, with matter in a state of fusion betwixt them."

Such, then, according to Mr. Hopkins, may be the present
condition of the interior of the earth ; and he further supposes
that within the solid shell itself, there are in all probability
large reservoirs of melted rock, forming the foci of the volcanic
action of the geological periods of the earth's history.

The calculations of Mr. Hopkins have recently been discussed
by Prof. Haughton of Dublin and Archdeacon Pratt of Calcutta ;
the former maintaining that such calculations rest on arbitrary
hypotheses and are of no real value, and that the crust of the
earth may be either 10 miles or 4000 in thickness : — the latter
supporting Mr. Hopkins' views. Should the astronomers finally
adopt the view of Prof. Haughton, then the geologists must be
content to return to their own lines of investigation ; and may
pretty, safely affirm on the evidence of the observed increase of
temperature, the wide diffusion of volcanic action, the extensive
lateral motions which have taken place in portions of the earth's
crust, the form of the great sunken area of the Pacific, and the
extensive metamorphism of the older stratified rocks, that what-
ever its primitive state, the solid portions of the earfh known to
us do rest, in whole or in part, on fluid matter, and have been
in that condition throughout geological time.

Prof. T. Sterry Hunt has well explained the chemical condi-

APPENDIX, 367

tions of the atmosphere of a molten globe, in his paper on
^' Some Points in Chemical Geology" in the Proceedings of the
Geological Society of London, 1859.

D.— AZOIC ROCKS.

The announcement of the certain existence of an Azoic series,
underlying the lowest Silurian beds, was made by Sir R. I.
Murchison, in the Proceedings of the Geological Society, April
1845, in the following terms : —

" The fossils, indeed, described by several writers, had shown
that true Silurian deposits existed in Sweden and Norway, and
it was therefore necessary for us to see and describe the abso-
lute contact of the lowest sedimentary strata with the crystal-
line rocks of that region. We have come to the conclusion that
the lowest of these beds that are fossiliferous are the exact
equivalents of the lower Silurian strata of the British Isles, and
that they have been formed out of and rest upon slaty and
other rocks which had undergone crystallization before their
particles were ground up to compose the earliest beds in which
remains of organic life appear. We apply to these crystalline
masses, therefore, the term Azoic, simply to express that while,
a,s far as research has hitherto gone, no vestiges of living things
have been found in them, so also from their nature they seem to
have been formed under such accompanying conditions of
intense heat and fusion, that it is hopeless to attempt to find in
them traces of organization."

In the Proceedings for the same month, is a paper by Capt.
Bayfield, R.N., on the junction of the Lower Silurian and meta-
morphosed rocks of Lower Canada and Labrador, in which he
states facts of precisely the same character with those observed
by Murchison in Scandinavia. In his report for 1856, on the
Geology of Canada, Sir W. E. Logan confirmed, by observa-
tions in the region of the Ottawa, the conclusions of Capt.
Bayfield. Sir W. E. Logan has since ascertained that there are
in Canada, below the Potsdam sandstone, the oldest member of
the Silurian system, two series of non-fossiliferous rocks. The
Upper or newer of these, the Huronian series, consists of slates,
sandstones, conglomerates, and limestone, with interstratified
plutonic rocks, principally greenstone and trap. This system
occurs chiefly in the north-west of Canada, on the northern
shores of Lakes Huron and Superior, and belongs to a period
of intense igneous action and disturbance preceding, in these
localities at least, the commencement of the Palaeozoic period.

The second and lower of the two Azoic series is the Lauren-
tian, extending over a wide region along the north side of the
St. Lawrence valley, from Labrador to the west end of Lake
Superior, and thence to an unknown distance northward and

S68 APPENDIX.

westward, and also occupying a considerable space in northern
New York. It consists of bedded crystalline rocks, principally
hornblendic gneiss, felspar rock^and crystalline limestone, witk
dolomite. With these are associated great masses of intrusive
rock ; and the whole have been disturbed and contorted in a
most fantastic manner. Sir Wm. Logan has carefully worked
out the stratigraphical arrangements of some parts of these
Laurentian districts, and has shewn that they are regularly
bedded and sedimentary rocks in an altered state — conclusions
which have been confirmed and illustrated by the chemical
researches of Prof. Hunt. The following section, taken from
the Report of the Canadian Survey for 1851, represents a small
part of the thickness of these beds, and illustrates some of
these points : —

Ft. in.
Pure white, highly crystalline, coarse-grained limestone,
with small disseminated scales of graphite running

in layers, and rounded grains of mica,. 5 0

An aggregate of colourless translucent quartz, containing
cleavable forms of white feldspar, readily decompos-
ing by the action of the weather into kaolin, with
patches of greenish chloritic limestone containing
brown mica : in same parts the feldspar is replaced
by a soft greenish-white sub-translucent unctuous
mineral, having a somewhat columnar structure, and'
a waxy lustre resembling indurated talc; and there
are present occasional scales of graphite, and grains
of copper pyrites decomposing into the blue carbo-
nate, 0 4

A fine grained and more calcareous aggregate of quartz,
with cleavable forms of feldspar and cale-spar, and
scales of graphite ; green stains oecur in patches, . . OS
Coarse conglomerate, of which the matrix is a fine grained
quartzose sandstone, somewhat calcareous, and still
containing white feldspar, which occurs in the forms
of grains and pebbles, associated with well defined
large and small pebbles of vitreous, milk-blue, trans-
lucent and sometimes opalescent quartz. There are
pebbles of fine grained homogeneous greyish sand-
stone more calcareous than the matrix ; some similar
to these, but nearly white and more pulverulent,,
afford to chemical tests a small quantity of phosphate-
of lime, and others of yellowish grey sandstone are
finely but distinctly laminated, the laminae being
shewn by intervening bands of a white color ; one of
the laminated pebbles is characterised by a layer of
coarser pebbles in one of the divisions. The sand-
stone pebbles are flat, and lie on their flat sides 'vsk

APPENDIX. S6$

the general plane of the stratification. Mica is dis-
seminated in considerable abundance, and there are

a few scales of graphite, 1 6

Fine grained calcareous sandstone, 0 2

Fine grained, very hard, crystalline, arenaceous bluish-
grey limestone, weathering reddish, with a few scales

of graphite, 0 4

Pure white, highly crystalline, coarse grained limestone
with scales of graphite in some abundance, and
rounded grains of mica, besides small grains of amber
colored chondrodite running in layers, 6 0

13 6

These rocks, in so far as known, are destitute of well charac-
terised fossils ; but the officers of the Surrey have recently
found in one of the limestones^ bodies resembling corals, and
which may be organic ; and the occurrence of carbonaceous
matter in the form of graphite and of crystalline phosphate of
lime, affords a strong presumption that they have contained
organic matters. They may, therefore, ultimately prove to be
no older than the dawn of animal or plant life on our planet.
However this may be, the occurrence of pebbles of sandstone
in these beds shows that when they were formed there were
shores or shoals on which pebbles were rounded, and that these
shores or shoals were in part formed of sedimentary rocks
which must themselves have been a product of the waste of still
older masses. These Laurentian rocks thus carry us back two
whole periods before the formation of the beds that contain the
earliest known animal remains. Further details on this sub-
ject will be found in the Reports of the Canadian Survey for
1853-6.

E. —ANCIENT FLORAS.

The most ancient land-flora of which we know anything with
certainty, is that of the Devonian period. The Primordial
zone or Cambrian system, and the Silurian system, though rich
in marine animals, have as yet afforded no well-characterized
land-plants. The Devonian flora contains some of the higher
Cryptogams, representing two of the three leading families now
existing, the Ferns and Lycopodiacese, e.g., Sphenopteris, Neu-
ropteris, Lepidodendron, Knorria, Psilophyton. The gymnosperms
are represented by the Coniferous genera Dadoxijlon, Proto-
taxites, Aporoxylon; and by the Cycadoid genera Sigillariaj
Catamites; but the Sigillareae and Coniferae are rare. There
is also a genus of uncertain affinities, probably Cryptogamous —
Noeggerathia. (See Goeppert's Transition Flora ; Unger in

S70 APPENDIX.

Vienna Transactions, 1856 ; Dawson on Devonian Plants of
Canada, Proc. Geol. Socy., 1859.)

In the succeeding carboniferous period, we have a great de-
velopment of Cryptogams and Gymnosperras in species and
genera, and possibly a few Endogens. Notwithstanding the
great number of carboniferous species known, there is still no
representation of the highest (Exogenous) plants and trees.
This accounts for, and almost necessarily implies, the want of
the higher land-animals.

With respect to the time required for the accumulation of the
coal measures, and the mode of formation of coal, I may refer
to the account of the section of the South Joggins in "Acadian
Geology," and in Proc. Geol. Socy. of London, 1853, and to my
paper on "The Structures in Coal," Proc. Geol. Socy. for 1853.

F —DEVELOPMENT OF SPECIFIC FORMS BY NATURAL
LAW.

The mysterious question of the origin of species, still con-
tinues to be agitated ; though it is still true that we have no
certain evidence either that any organized structure can origi-
nate, under any natural law, from dead matter,' or that any
species can by any possibility give origin to another. All that
we can hope to reach, either by geological or zoological inves-
tigation of this subject, is probably some more clear conception
of the manner and order of introduction of species.

On this subject, geology appears to give a decided negative
to the gradual development of higher from lower forms ; the
law being rather the appearance of every type in its highest
perfection, and a development by the introduction of new types,
or modifications of types. Sir Charles Lyell, in his anniversary
address quoted in the text, gives a very clear summary of the
geological evidence on this subject, which still holds good, and
has even been strengthened by facts more recently acquired : —

" Before I go into details, whether of fact or argument, on
this question, I shall proceed, for the sake of enabling you the
more readily to follow my train of reasoning, to make a brief
preliminary statement of the principal points which I expect to
establish in opposition to the theory of successive develop-
ment.

" First, in regard to fossil plants, it is natural that those less
developed tribes which inhabit salt water, should be the oldest
yet known in a fossil state, because the lowest strata which we
have hitherto found, happen to be marine, although the contem-
poraneous Silurian land may very probably have been inhabited
hj plants more highly organized.

" Secondly, the most ancient terrestrial flora with which we
can be said to have any real acquaintance (the carboniferous)

APPENDIX. 371

contains Coniferae, which are by no means of the lowest grade
in the phaenogamous class, and, according to many botanists of
high authority. Palms, which are as highly organized as any
members of the vegetable creation.

" Thirdly, in the secondary formations, from the triassic to the
Purbeck inclusive, gymnosperms allied to Zamia and Cycas
predominate ; but with these are associated some monocotyle-
dons or endogens, of species inferior to no phaenogamous plants
in the perfection or complexity of their organs.

" Fourthly, in the strata from the cretaceous to the upper-
most tertiary inclusive, all the principal classes of living plants
occur, including the dicotyledonous angiosperms of Brongniart.
During this vast lapse of time four or five complete changes of
species took place, yet no step whatever was made in advance
at any one of these periods by the addition of more highly
organized plants.

" Fifthly, in regard to the animal kingdom, the lowest Silurian
strata contain highly developed representatives of the three great
divisions of radiata, articulata, and moUusca, showing that the
marine invertebrate animals were as perfect then as in the exist-
ing seas. They also comprise some indications of fish, the
scarcity of which in a fossil state, as well as the absence of
cetacea, does not appear inexplicable in the present imperfect
state of our investigations, when we consider the corresponding
rarity and sometimes the absence of the like remains observed
in dredging the beds of existing seas.

" Sixthly, the upper Silurian group contains amongst its
fossil fish cestraciont sharks, than which no ichthyic type is
more elevated.

" Seventhly, in the carboniferous fauna there have been
recently discovered several skeletons of reptiles of by no means
a low or simple organization, and in the Permian there are
saurians of as high a grade as any now existing ; while the ab-
sence of terrestrial mammalia in the palaeozoic rocks generally,
may admit of the same explanation as our ignorance of most of
the insects and all the pulmoniferous mollusca, as well as of
Helices and other land-shells of the same era.*

" Eighthly, the fish and reptiles of the secondary rocks are as
fully developed in their organization as those now living. The
birds are represented by numerous foot-prints and coprolites in
the Trias of New England, and by a few bones not yet generi-
cally determined, from Stonesfield and the English Wealden.

" Ninthly, the land quadrupeds of the secondary period are
limited to two genera, occurring in the inferior oolite of Stones-

* A single laud shell was found by Sir Charles and the writer in the suc-
ceediuir summer, in the coal measures of Nova Scotia ; and is still the only
PalaBOzoic pulmonate known.

372 APPENDIX.

field ; the cetacea by one specimen from the Kimmeridge clay,
the true position of which requires further inquiry, while an
indication of another is afforded by a cetacean parasite in the
chalk. But we have yet to learn whether in the secondary
periods there was really a scarcity of mammalia,* (such as may
have arisen from an extraordinary predominance of reptiles,
aquatic and terrestrial, discharging the same functions,) or
whether it be simply apparent and referable to the small pro-
gress made as yet in collecting the remains of the inhabitants
of the land and rivers, since we have hitherto discovered but
few freshwater, and no land mollusca in rocks of the same age.

'' Tenthly, in regard to the palaeontology of the tertiary
periods, there seems every reason to believe that the orders of
the mammalia were as well represented as now, and by species
as highly organized ; whether we turn to the Lower, or to the
Middle, or to the Upper Eocene periods, or to the Miocene or
Pliocene ; so that during five or more changes, in this the high-
est class of vertebrata, not a single step was made in advance,
tending to fill up the chasm which separates the most highly
gifted of the inferior animals and man.

" Eleventhly, the geological proofs that the human species
was created after the zoological changes above enumerated are
very strong. It even appears that man came later upon the
earth than the larger proportion of animals and plants which
are now his contemporaries. Yet, for reasons above stated, had
the date of his origin been earlier by several periods, the event
would have constituted neither a greater nor a less innovation,
on the previously established state of the animate world. In
other words, there are no palaeontological grounds for believing
that the mammiferous fauna after being slowly developed for
ages had just reached its culminating point, and made its near-
est approach in organization, instinct, and other attributes, to
the human type, when the progressive intellect and the rational
and moral nature of man became for the first time connected
with the terrestrial system."

Pictet, in his *' Traite de Palaeontologie " — the most valuable
work on the general natural history of fossil animals that we
possess — enters fully into this subject, and states the following
conclusions under his fifth law, that " The faunas of the most
ancient formations are made up of the less perfectly organized
animals, and the degree of perfection increases as we approach
the more recent epochs " f : —

" The succession of organic beings is explained by some
theorists by the transformation of species, assuming that the
animals of the ancient formations have become modified by the
influence of atmospheric and climatal changes, &c., which the

* Several other species have since been discovered,
t Translated in Jour, of Geol. Socy., vol. 7.

APPENDIX. 373

globe has undergone, so that the original forms have insensibly
become metamorphosed into others, of which the different strata
have preserved and handed down the indications, and these
forms have at length by successive changes attained their pre-
sent condition.

" The other theory supposes a complete destruction of all the
species by each catastrophe which has terminated an epoch,
and a new creation at the dawn of the next succeeding epoch.

" The theory of the transformation of species seems to me
totally inadmissible, and diametrically opposed to everything
that we learn from the study of zoology and physiology. This
theory connects itself, as I have before observed, with the idea
of a scale of beings, and that of the gradual advance towards
perfection in the succession of geological periods. This indeed
is the bond of union, and the completion and the explanation of
such an idea, giving it the consistency of a system. The natu-
ralists who have adopted some of these views are naturally led
to accept the others, and the same reasons which I have already
adduced, and which lead me to deny generally and absolutely
the existence of a scale of beings and the gradual advance to
perfection of successive geological faunas, also oblige me to
reject the notion of the transmutation of species as accounting
for the succession of organized beings on the surface of the
globe.

" In conducting this argument, it is necessary to point out
how little reason there is for assuming that the powers of nature
were at an earlier period of the earth's history very different
from what they are now. The same general laws which now
govern the world have probably been in action ever since its
creation, and it is impossible to admit any essential difference
in their nature. The most that we are at liberty to do is to
conjecture that the limits of action of each may have been
somewhat more extended, — that the temperature, for instance,
may have been higher, and the aqueous deposits more abundant
and rapid ; but the influence of these agents on organization
must have been analogous to that which under similar circum-
stances would be exercised at present.

" The study of the fossils of the more ancient rocks exhibits
similar organization to that of existing species, and there is
nothing from which we can safely conclude that the tempera-
ture was very different, or that the constitution of the atmos-
phere varied. To admit, therefore, any modifications in organi-
zation produced by external agency, seems to me the needless
intrc duction of a ground of uncertainty, and the phrases so
often made use of with reference to the youthful vigour and the
more energetic forces of nature at an earlier period should, I
think, be avoided, as representing false, exaggerated, or inde-
finite views.

874 APPENDIX.

" If, then, assuming a sounder basis, we endeavour to deduce
the unknown from the known, — that is, to apply to the earlier
period of the earth's history what we have learnt with regard
to existing nature, — we shall arrive at the following conclu-
sions :

" All the observations and researches of any value agree in
proclaiming the permanence of species at the present day. The
thirty centuries which have passed away since the Egyptians
embalmed the carcases of men and animals, have not in any
way influenced the characteristic peculiarities of the races which
inhabit Egypt. The crocodiles, the species of ibis and the
ichneumons now living there, are identical in specific character
with those which so many ages ago trod the banks of the Nile.
Between the living animal and the mummy there are not only
no differences in the essential organs, but there are none even
in the most minute details, such as the number and shape of
the scales, the dimensions of the bones, &c. And this perma-
nency of species seems ensured to us by nature by the existence
of those important regulations which prevent the mixture of
distinct races, and the consequent formation of intermediate
types. All physiologists are aware, that if two species are not
very closely allied, they will not breed together at all ; and
that even if the species are very near, but not identical, they
produce hybrids which are incapable of continuing their race
and becoming the progenitors of a modified form or new species.
Every aberration from the type in the way of crossing species
is thus instantly stopped.

'• True it is, indeed, that the changes and varieties introduced
in domesticated species have been brought forward as an argu-
ment against this conclusion ; but although such changes
unquestionably take place in horses, oxen, sheep, pigs and goats,
and yet more remarkably perhaps in dogs, where the form of
the cranium becomes modified, yet these very facts appear to
me to furnish a conclusion totally different from that which it
has been attempted to draw. The individuals the most widely
removed from the primitive type never present any real differ-
ence of form in the important organs. The skeleton always
exhibits invariable characters, as well with regard to thp num-
ber of the bones and their apophyses as to their relations with
one another, while the organs of nutrition, the nervous system,
and in short every distinctive peculiarity of organization is
submitted to the same law. The only marked difference exists
either in the absolute dimensions, a point known to be very
variable, or in external peculiarities yet more fugitive ; and
with the exception of those modifications in the form of the
cranium, which we may easily suppose to be connected with
differences of instinct and to be the direct result of education,
it cannot be said that any one of the domestic animals in its

APPENDIX. 375

most extreme varieties loses the character of the species. If
therefore we find that the most energetic among external agents,
— modifications of climate, of habit, of instinct and of food, —
have only been able during the lapse of ages to produce some
trifling change, which has not altered the type of the species,
are we not, from this examination of the domestic animals,
justified in believing the permanence of species rather than their
transmutation ?

" And this view is the more probable, since the differences
between one fauna and another are very considerable ; and we
have not to treat of trifling modifications of a type, but rather
of complete transitions, often into very remote forms. Some
naturalists indeed have not shrunk from such consequences, and
have asserted that the reptiles of the secondary period owe their
parentage to the palaeozoic fishes, and were themselves the pro-
genitors of the tertiary mammals. Where is the physiologist
who will admit such conclusions? and yet quite as much must
be granted if it is attempted to deduce all the geological faunas
from an original one by the simple transformation of species,
and by means of a passage from one to another, without the
direct intervention of a creative power acting at the commence-
ment of each epoch.

" And if for the production of such results it is assumed, con-
trary to what we have supposed, that there have been great
i4terations of temperature, and changes in the constitution of
ae atmosphere, or that nature in her early youth was more
vigorous, the laws of physiology are not less violated. Such
extreme changes in the external agents might well have destroyed
the species, and they very probably would have done so, but
they could hardly modify them in any essential point.

" It seems therefore to me impossible that we should admit as
an explanation of the phasnomenon of successive faunas the
passage of species into one another. The limits of such transi-
tions 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 dis-
tinguish two successive faunas.

" And lastly, one 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 theory of successive creations is the only one that
remains; and although it is, like the rest, opposed by very
weighty objections, I am not aware of any good argument
directly impugning it ; and I believe that in the present condi-
tion of our knowledge it is the only theory admissible, although
I am bound to add that it is by no means completely satisfac-

376 APPENDIX,

tory, since it does not seem to me to account suflElciently for all
the facts, and perhaps it is at best only provisionary. It
explains well the differences which exist between successive
faunas, but there are also resemblances between these faunas
for which it offers no explanation.

" In order to illustrate the unsatisfactory nature of this
theory, we have only to compare two successive creations of
the same epoch, as for instance two faunas of the cretaceous
period. In such a comparison, no one could fail to be struck
hy the intimate relation that exists among them, since most of
the genera would be found the same, while a large number of
the species are so nearly allied that they might easily be mis-
taken for one another. In other words, two successive faunas
often have the same physiognomical aspect; and in the case
just mentioned, if we compare the turonian with the albian
fossils (those of the upper chalk with the species from the
uppermost greensand), we shall readily find close resemblances.
Is it probable that the earlier fauna had been completely anni-
hilated, and then, by a new and independent act of creation,
replaced by another fauna altogether new and yet so much
resembling it? Surely there must be something which has still
escaped observation ; but I must repeat, that the somewhat
vague objections thus suggested are in no way to be compared
to those more definite ones which militate against the other
theories.

" These facts also influence the manner in which we regard
the existing creation. Do all animals appear exactly as they
issued from the hands of the Creator, or have only a certain
number of types been introduced, whence the others were
derived ? It seems to me difficult to admit that each one of
those innumerable species, of the accurate determination of
which we are so often in doubt, was in all its characters of
detail a distinct and separate act of creation.

" To these questions, however, Paleontology is able to answer
only in a very insufficient manner. The succession of organized
beings, the origin of existing species and their geographical
distribution, the formation of the different families of mankind,
all these are but different aspects of the same great problem, a
solution of which on any one point would necessarily throw
great light upon the others.

" I believe, then, that the theory of successive creation, which
is the least objectionable of all, is true in a general sense, but
that other causes have perhaps combined with it to determine
the actual state of existing creation and of earlier faunas.
Possibly those modifications of species, which, as I have already
shown, cannot explain the introduction of new types and the
appearance of very distinct species, have still had some share
in producing a number of allied species from a common type ;

APPENDIX. 377

or in other words, perhaps we must in this, as in other ques-
tions, not expect a too high exclusive explanation, but admit
the intervention of various causes.

" I do not, however, believe that our science is at present in
a condition to give a satisfactory solution of these difficulties ;
and though we may with greater or less distinctness foresee
such a solution, it cannot yet be demonstrated. A strict and
intelligent study of nature is required, in order to bring together
the various materials. We must know better than we do now
each one of the successive creations, in order to form a com-
plete idea of their mutual relations, and of their differences from
those which have preceded and followed them. This is the
most important problem of Paleontology, and its solution is
only to be found in the observation of facts, for they alone are
permanent, and they perhaps will outlive all the theories dis-
cussed at the present day."

What may be regarded as a physical hypothesis of the crea-
tion of species, has been maintained by Prof. Powell, in his
essay on the " Philosophy of Creation." It is thus criticised by
Mr. Hamilton, in his anniversary address as President of the
Geological Society : —

" Before concluding these observations, which, however im-
perfect they may be, have nevertheless, I fear, greatly exceeded
the usual space allotted to these Addresses, I am desirous of
saying a few words on a subject closely connected with the
highest considerations of our science, and which has been
argued with great ability by one of the most philosophical
writers of the day. I allude to the Essay of Prof. Baden Powell
on the Philosophy of Creation. One of the many great and
transcendental questions discussed in this Essay is the contro-
versy as to whether we are to give a preference to the old
doctrine of the immutability of species, or to the more recently
introduced theory of transmutation. The question is undoubt-
edly one of great difficulty, but it is not the less necessary that
we should endeavour to form a definite opinion on the subject,
founded on the fullest and most authentic information we can
obtain. It may indeed, in some respects, be said to be one of
the most important questions in geological investigation. Why
do we endeavour to obtain correct information respecting the
true order and arrangement of stratification ? Why do we en-
deavour to obtain the most perfect collections of the organic
remains of each stratum and formation, and to ascertain the
different classes and groups of organized beings which have
dwelt and flourished on the surface of the globe at the different
periods of its existence? Surely not for the sake of such col-
lections and such knowledge of stratification per se. For,
although, owing to peculiar circumstances, many geologists
may not have the opportunity of carrying their investigations

378 APPENDIX.

beyond these points, it should never be forgotten that all such
information is but a stepping-stone to higher generalizations.
It is but the alphabet of one of the languages in which Nature
speaks to us, and by means of which we must endeavour to
unravel the past history of our globe, and to form some idea, so
far as our finite faculties permit us, of the first origin, and
inductively of the final objects^ of creation. In this point of
view, the question as to the immutability or transmutation of
species is one which touches the very existence of our science,
and I am therefore desirous of briefly pointing out what appears
to be a fallacy in some of the statements of Prof. Powell on
this subject.

" The arguments of the various writers on both sides are fully
and fairly given in this work, and the author professes merely
to point out the bearings of the question, the difficulties in
which it is involved, and to'controvert what he considers hasty
and untenable assertions on either side. But while doing this,
it is impossible to avoid the conviction that he has a decided
bias to one side, that he considers the doctrine of transmutation
of species more consistent with sound philosophical induction
than what he calls the hypothesis of an eternal immutability.
I shall not pretend to occupy your time by going through argu-
ments so well known to every palaeontologist and geologist. I
only wish, as I said before, to point out one or two conclusions
which involve what appear to me a fallacy.

" After showing how the successive investigations of the great
comparative anatomists and zoologists of the last half-century
have resulted in the establishment of the doctrine of the unity
of composition of animal forms, a result to which the researches
of Prof. Owen have mainly contributed, he proceeds to the
examination of the question of species. He points out the
existence of sub-species and varieties, many of which become
permanent, and alludes to the number of new species constantly
discovered which have to be inserted between other allied
species already known, inferring that the specific differences
between each must by such additions tend to diminish continu-
ally, and that all species tend to be connected by more and
more close affinities. Thus, he argues, all differences gradually
disappear, and there results no greater difference between two
allied species than between varieties of the same species, and
consequently no difficulty in admitting that the difference which
does exist is not greater than what might be expected as the
result of local circumstances, modifying external forms, and
thus practically producing transmutation. Indeed he goes still
further, and adopting an infinite duration of time, and an infi-
nite number of species, he argues that there will ultimately be
no perceptible difference at all between two allied species. Th©
following is his argument :—

APPENDIX. » 379

" ' But, while the number of species thus tends to become
infinitely great, the extreme difference between man (let us sup-
pose) at one end and a zoophyte at the other end of the scale is
constantly finite ; hence the average difference between any
two species tends to become infinitely small ; multiplied by the
number of species, it must still be equal to a finite quantity ;
and the product being finite if the first factor be infinity, the
second must be zeroJ "

" This argument appears to involve a fallacy. If this infinite
number of allied species is to prove the transmutation of one
form into another by showing that the difference between them
is infinitely small, it would be necessary to prove either that
they had all existed contemporaneously together, or that the
allied forms immediately succeeded each other. But when the
author calls in the aid of long geological epochs, in which some
of these closely allied forms existed at long intervening periods,
I cannot see how the question of transmutation is thereby
strengthened. If A, B, and G are the allied forms, and A and
C existed either together or in immediately succeeding periods,
and B, which is the connecting link between them, is only
found to exist after many millions of vears, or even only after
the other two had died out, the theory of transmutation cannot
be supported by assuming the gradual change of A into C,
through the intervening form of B. If every possible gradation
of form existed in the fauna of one period and of one region, or
of successive periods and neighbouring regions, then indeed the
advocates of the transmutation theory might endeavour to
maintain that all these forms were only varieties of one type
occasioned by the peculiar conditions of life in which each was
placed ; but this conclusion is no longer valid when long
periods have intervened between the existence of one form and
that of the other. The utmost argument that could be drawn
from such premises would be a confirmation of the great doctrine
of unity of plan in the creation of all organized life, extending
through all ages of the world.

" Another fallacy may, I think, be detected in the manner in
which Prof. Powell, after stating the arguments on both sides,
points out the real alternative. He says, ' The only question is
as to the sense in which such change of species is to be under-
stood ; whether individuals naturally produced from parents
were modified by successive variations of parts in any stage of
early growth or rudimental development, until in one or more
generations the whole species became in fact a different one ;
or whether we are to believe that the whole race perished with-
out reproducing itself, while, independent of it, another new race ^
or other new individuals (by whatever means) came into exist-
ence, of a nature closely allied to the last, and differing often
by the slightest shades, yet unconnected with them by descent ;

380 • APPENDIX.

whether there was a propagation of the s&me principle of vitality
(in whatever germ it may be imagined to have been conveyed),
or whether a new principle or germ originated independently of
any preceding, out of its existing inorganic elements.^

" In the sentence which I have just quoted, there are two sets
of alternatives, and I think that in each set the author has
inserted a fallacy in stating the second alternative respecting
the theory of immutability. In the first set he has assumed,
without any warrant, that a whole former race has perished and
is succeeded by another of a closely allied nature and often dif-
fering only by the slightest shades. In such a case, viz., where
the difference is very slight, it may be possible that the second
race is really the descendant of that previously existing, slightly
modified by the external conditions of life in which it was
placed. But the author has omitted all reference to those spe-
cies which occur in the new or upper formations, whose resem-
blances or analogies to those of the preceding period are very
distant or imperfect, and which cannot therefore be looked upon
as the descendants or modifications of the pre-existing forms.
There are undoubtedly species which have been continued
through many geological periods, have survived many local
disturbances, and which, while others may have perished, have
been kept alive by greater vital energies or other influences,
and have become the associates of new forms introduced for the
first time and having no resemblance to or analogy with the
forms which had preceded them. We know that some species
pass into many varieties, sometimes even contemporaneously
with the existence of the typical form ; there is, therefore, surely
nothing inconsistent with the theory of immutability in suppos-
ing, under peculiar circumstances, that varieties of some species
may also take the place in a subsequent period of the original
typical form. This, however, is the exception, and not the
rule.

" With regard to the second set of alternatives in the passage
I have quoted, I think Prof. Powell is too much begging the
question when he concludes the sentence with these words :
* out of the existing inorganic elements.' Surely this is taking
too physical or material a view of the matter, and one not
required by those principles of inductive philosophy which he so
strongly supports. The advocates of immutability of species do
not generally talk of a principle of vitality originating out of
inorganic elements. When old forms die out, and are succeeded
by new, the matter of which the new consist is derived from the
existing inorganic elements ; but the life or principle of vitality
by which it is animated must proceed from a different source,
from that same source, mysterious it may be, which first breathed
life into those creatures which dwelt in the earliest palaeozoic
ages. Organic life on this earth must have had a beginning,

APPENDIX. 381

and that beginning must have proceeded from a source very
different from that dead matter which formed the visible body ;
and from that same source proceeded the principle of vitality
which animated the new forms when successively created on
the earth. And with reference to this question, I must empha-
tically deny the right assumed by Prof. Powell, when he puts
what he calls an imaginary case of a truly new species making
its appearance, to question those who deny the theory of trans-
mutation, how this new species made its appearance ; whether
it appeared as an ovum or seed, or at what period of growth,
&c. When Prof. Powell can state in what form the first living
organisms appeared on the earth s surface, he may demand an
answer to this question. It is the more remarkable that Prof.
Powell should make this demand, as he has stated, in a former
part of the Essay, that in a geological point of view the term
'Creation' signifies the fact of origination of a particular form
of animal or vegetable life, without implying anything as to
the precise mode of such origination : not that I think this defi-
nition altogether satisfactory, but yet it might have precluded
him from making such a demand.

" But I have been led into a longer statement than I had
intended, I will merely add that, notwithstanding these criti-
cisms that I have ventured on, the essays of Prof. Powell deserve
a careful and attentive reading. They are eminently suggestive
and replete with deep thoughts and scientific views, and form
an interesting element of the geological, or rather geognostic,
literature of the day,"

Agassiz also combats this view in his " Contributions to
the Natural History of America," vol. 1, showing that its author
has quite misapprehended the nature of organic existence and
the order of its introduction. Perhaps, in consequence of these
and other criticisms. Prof. Powell in his last series of Essays on
the Order of Nature, is a little less confident in the assertion of
his views, though he still characterizes successive acts of crea-
tion as casual suspensions or interruptions of the order of
nature ; as if law and order were themselves anything other
than the more constant operations of the same power supposed
to act at rarer intervals, though probably with equal regularity,
in the introduction of species. Such misconceptions are, how-
ever, inseparable from the peculiarly shallow view which this
writer and others of his school take both of nature and revela-
tion ; compressing the former within the bounds of merely
physical law, lopping off the Old Testament from the latter, and
overlooking altogether the higher unity which binds both toge-
ther as emanations of the same Almighty mind.

In the concluding lecture of a course on the Fossil Mammals,
Prof. Owen has given utterance to some valuable and suggestiva
hints, which I give as reported in the London Athenaeum. They

382 APPENDIX.

show that, though not fully awake to all the relations of the
subject, this great comparative anatomist tends toward broad
and enlightened views of it : —

" As to the successions, or coming in, of new species, one
might speculate on the gradual modifiability of the individual ;
on the tendency of certain varieties to survive local changes,
and thus progressively diverge from an older type ; on the pro-
duction and fertility of monstrous offspring ; on the possibility,
e.g-., of an auk being occasionally hatched with a somewhat longer
winglet, and a dwarfed stature ; on the probability of such a
variety better adapting itself to the changing climate or other
conditions than the old type — of such an origin of Alca torda,
e.g. ; — but to what purpose ? Past experience of the chance
aims of human fancy, unchecked and unguided by observed
facts, shows how widely they have ever glanced away from the
golden centre of truth.

" Upon the sum of the evidence, which, in the present course,
I have had the honour to submit to you, I have affirmed that
the successive extinction of Amphitheria, Spalacotheria, Tri-
conodons, and other mesozoic forms of mammals, has been
followed by the introduction of much more numerous, varied,
and higher-organized forms of the class, during the tertiary
periods. There are, however, geologists who maintain that this
is an assumption, based upon a partial knowledge of the facts.
Mere negative evidence, they allege, can never satisfactorily
establish the proposition that the mammalian class is of late
introduction, nor prevent the conjecture that it may have been
as richly represented in secondary as in tertiary times, could
we but get evidence of the terrestrial fauna of the oolitic con-
tinent. To this objection I have to reply : in the palaeozoic
Strata, which, from their extent and depth, indicate, in the
earth's existence as a seat of organic life, a period as prolonged
as that which has followed their deposition, no trace of mam-
mals has been observed. It may be conceded that, were mam-
mals peculiar to dry land, such negative evidence would weigh
little in producing conviction of their non-existence during the
Silurian and Devonian aeons, because the explored parts of such
strata have been deposited from an ocean, and the chance of
finding a terrestrial and air-breathing creature's remains in
oceanic deposits is very remote. But, in the present state .of
the warm-blooded, air-breathing, viviparous class, no genera
and species are represented by such numerous and widely-dis-
persed individuals, as those of the order Cetacea, which, under
the guise of fishes, dwell, and can only live, in the ocean. In
all Cetacea the skeleton is well ossified, and the vertebrae are
very numerous : the smallest cetaceans would be deemed large
amongst land mammals, the largest surpass any creatures of
which we have yet gained cognizance : the hugest ichthyosaur,

APPENDIX, 3^

igiianodon, megalosaur, mammoth, or megathere, is a dwarf in
comparison with the modern whale of a hundred feet in length.
During the period in which we have proof that Cetacea have
existed, the evidence in the shape of bones and teeth, which
latter enduring characteristics in most of the species are pecu-
liar for their great number in the same individual, must have
been abundantly deposited at the bottom of the sea; and as
cachalots, grampuses, dolphins, and porpoises are seen gambol-
ling in shoals in deep oceans, far from land, their remains will
form the most characteristic evidences of vertebrate life in the
strata now in course of formation at the bottom of such oceans.
Accordingly, it consists with the known characteristics of the
cetacean class to find the marine deposits which fell from seas
tenanted, as now, with vertebrates of that high grade, contain-
ing the fossil evidences of the order in vast abundance. The
red crag of our eastern counties contains petrified fragments of
the skeletons and teeth of various Cetacea, in such quantities
as to constitute a great part of that source of phosphate of lime
for which the red crag is worked for the manufacture of artifi-
cial manure. The scanty evidence of Cetacea in cretaceous
beds seems to indicate a similar period for their beginning as
for the soft-scaled cycloid and ctenoid fishes which have super-
seded the ganoid orders of mesozoic times.

'' We cannot doubt but that had the genera Icthyosaurus,
Pliosaurus, or Plesiosaurus, been represented by species in the
same ocean that was tempested by the Balasonodons and Dio-
plodons of the miocene age, the bones and teeth of those marine
reptiles would have testified to their existence as abundantly as
they do at a previous epoch in the earth's history. But no
fossil relic of an enaliosaur has been found in tertiary strata,
and no living enaliosaur has been detected in the present seas ;
and they are consequently held by competent naturalists to be
extinct. In like manner does such negative evidence weigh
with me in proof of the non-existence of marine mammals in the
liassic and oolitic times. In the marine deposits of those
secondary or mesozoic epochs, the evidence of vertebrates
governing the ocean, and preying on inferior marine vertebrates,
is as abundant as that of air-breathing vertebrates in the ter-
tiary strata ; but in the one the fossils are exclusively of the
cold-blooded reptilian class, in the other of the warm-blooded
mammalian class. The Enaliosauria, Cetiosauria, and Croco-
dilia, played the same part and fulfilled similar offices in the
seas from which the lias and oolites were precipitated, as the
Delphinidffi and Balgenidae did in the tertiary, and still do in
the present seas. The unbiassed conclusion from both negative
and positive evidence in this matter is, that the Cetacea suc-
ceeded and superseded the Enaliosauria. To the mind that will
not accept such conclusions, the stratified oolitic rocks must

384 APPENDIX.

cease to be monuments or trustworthy records of the condition
of life on the earth at that period. So far, however, as any
general conclusion can be deduced from the large sum of evi-
dence above referred to, and contrasted, it is against the doctrine
of the Uniformitarians. Organic remains, traced from their
earliest known graves, are succeeded, one series by another, to
the present period, and never re-appear when once lost sight or
the ascending search. As well might we expect a living Ich-
thyosaur in the Pacific, as a fossil whale in the Lias : the rule
governs as strongly in the retrospect as the prospect. And not
only as respects the Vertebrata, but the sum of the animal spe-
cies at each geological period has been distinct and peculiar to
such period. Not that the extinction of such forms or species
was sudden or simultaneous : the evidences so interpreted have
been but local : over the wider field of life, at any given epoch,
the change has been gradual ; and, as it would seem, obedient
to some general, but as yet, ill-comprehended law. In regard
to animal life, and its assigned work on this planet, there has,
however, plainly been an ascent and progress in the main.

" Although the Mammalia, in regard to the plenary develop-
ment of the characteristic orders, belong to the Tertiary division
of geological time, just as ' Echini are most common in the
superior strata; Ammonites in those beneath, and Product!
with numerous Encrini, in the lowest' of the secondary strata,
yet the beginnings of the class manifest themselves in the for-
mations of the earlier preceding division of geological time.
No one, save a prepossessed Uniformitarian, would infer from
the Lucina of the permian, and the Opis of the trias, that the
Lamellibranchiate Mollusks existed in the same rich variety of
development at these periods as during the tertiary and present
times ; and no prepossession can close the eyes to the fact that
the Lamellibranchiate have superseded the Palliobranchiate
bivalves,

" On negative evidence Orthisina, Theca, Producta, or Spiri-
fer are believed not to exist in the present seas : neither are the
existing genera of siphonated bivalves and univalves deemed to
have abounded in permian, triassic, or oolitic times. To sus-
pect that they may have then existed, but have hitherto escaped
observation, because certain Lamellibranchs with an open man-
tle, and some holostomatous and asiphonate Gasteropods, have
left their remains in secondary strata, is not more reasonable,
as it seems to me, than to conclude that the proportion of mam-
malian life may have been as great in secondary as in tertiary
strata, because a few small forms of the lowest orders have
made their appearance in triassic and oolitic beds.

" Turning from a retrospect into past time to the prospect of
time to come, — and I have received more than one inquiry into
the amount of prophetic insight imparted by Palseontology, — I

APPENDIX. 385

may crave indulgence for a few words, of more sound, perhaps,
than significance. But the reflective mind cannot evade or
resist the tendency to speculate on the future course and ulti-
mate fate of vital phenomena in this planet. There seems to
have been a time when life was not ; there may, therefore, be a
period when it will cease to be. Our most soaring speculations
still show a kinship to our nature ; we see the element of finality
in §0 much that we have cognizance of, that it must needs
mingle with our thoughts, and bias our conclusions on many
things. The end of the world has been presented to man's
mind under divers aspects : — as a general conflagration ; as the
same, preceded by a millennial exaltation of the world to a
Paradisiacal state, — the abode of a higher and blessed race of
intelligences. If the guide-post of Palgeontology may seem to
point to a course ascending to the condition of the latter specu-
lation, it points but a very short way, and in leaving it we find
ourselves in a wilderness of conjecture, where to try to advance
is to find ourselves ' in wandering mazes lost.'

" With much more satisfaction do I return to the legitimate
deductions from the phenomena we have had under review.

" In the survey which I have taken in the present course of
lectures of the genesis, succession, geographical distribution,
afiflnities, and osteology of the mammalian class, if I have suc-
ceeded in demonstrating the perfect adaptation of each varying
form to the exigencies, and habits, and well-being of the species,
I have fulfilled one object which I had in view, viz., to set forth
the beneficence and intelligence of the Creative Power. If I
have been able to demonstrate a uniform plan pervading the
osteological structure of so many diversified animated beings,
I must have enforced, were that necessary, as strong a convic-
tion of the unity of the Creative Cause. If, in all the striking
changes of form and proportion which have passed under review,
we could discern only the results of minor modifications of the
same few osseous elements, — surely we must be the more
strikingly impressed with the wisdom and power of that Cause
which could produce so much variety, and at the same time
such perfect adaptations and endowments, out of means so
simple. For, in what have those mechanical instruments, — the
hands of the ape, the hoofs of the horse, the fins of the whale,
the trowels of the mole, the wings of the bat, — so variously
formed to obey the behests of volition in denizens of different
elements — in what, I say, have they differed from the artificial
instruments which we ourselves plan with foresight and calcu-
lation for analogous uses, save in their greater complexity, in
their perfection, and in the unity and simplicity of the elements
which are modified to constitute these several locomotive or-
gans. Everywhere in organic nature we see the means not
only subservient to an end, but that end accomplished by the

386 APPENDIX.

simplest means. Hence we are compelled to regard the Great
Cause of all, not like certain philosophic ancients, as a uniform
and quiescent mind, as an all-pervading anima mundi^ but as an
active and anticipating intelligence. By applying the laws of
comparative anatomy to the relics of extinct races of animals
contained in and characterizing the different strata of the earth's
crust, and corresponding with as many epochs in the earth's
history, we make an important step in advance of all preceding
philosophies, and are able to demonstrate that the same per-
vading, active, and beneficent intelligence which manifests His
power in our times, has also manifested his power in times long
anterior to the records of our existence. But we likewise, by
these investigations, gain a still more important truth, viz.,
that the phenomena of the world do not succeed each other
with the mechanical sameness attributed to them in the cycles
of the Epicurean philosophy ; for we are able to demonstrate
that the different epochs of the history of the earth were attended
with corresponding changes of organic structure ; and that, in
all these instances of change, the organs, as far as we could
comprehend their use, were exactly those best suited to the
functions of the being. Hence we not only show intelligence
evoking means adapted to the end ; but, at successive times
and periods, producing a change of mechanism adapted to a
change in external conditions. Thus the highest generaliza-
tions in the science of organic bodies, like the Newtonian laws
of universal matter, lead to the unequivocal conviction of a
great First Cause, which is certainly not mechanical. Unfet-
tered by narrow restrictions, — unchecked by the timid and
unworthy fears of mistrustful minds, clinging, in regard to mere
physical questions, to beliefs, for which the Author of all truth
has been pleased to substitute knowledge, — our science becomes
connected with the loftiest of moral speculations ; and I know
of no topic more fitting to the sentiments with which I desire
to conclude the present course. If I believed — to use the lan-
guage of a gifted contemporary — that the imagination, the
feelings, the active intellectual powers, bearing on the business
of life, and the highest capacities of our nature, were blunted
and impaired by the study of physiological and palasontological
phenomena, I should then regard our science as little better
than a moral sepulchre, in which, like the strong man, we were
burying ourselves and those around us in ruins of oar own
creating. But surely we must all believe too firmly in the im-
mutable attribute? of that Being, in whom all truth, of whatever
kind, finds its proper resting-place, to think that the principles
of physical and moral truth can ever be in lasting collision."

At the meeting of the British Association in Aberdeen (1859),
Sir Charles Lyell announced a forthcoming work by Charles
Darwin, in which that able zoologist will endeavour to prove

APPENDIX. 3S7

*' that those powers of nature which give rise to races and per-
manent varieties in animals and plants, are the same as those
which, in much longer periods, produce species, and, in a still
longer series of ages, give rise to differences of generic rank."

It would, of course, be imprudent to criticise this work before
its appearance ; and we may rest assured, that, whatever the
value of his conclusions, a naturalist like Darwin must add
vastly to our knowledge of the facts bearing on the subject.
It is quite safe, however, to assert, that he can never succeed in
proving that variation and specific unity are attributable to the
same cause. The continuous reproductive power implanted in
the species, and the changes impressed on it from without^ are,
like cohesion and heat in reference to the particles of matter —
opposite influences. The one may counteract or modify the
other, but cannot take its place. It is easy to understand
how variation, combined with geographical changes and local
extinction, may so separate the members of a species as to
simulate distinctness. It must also be admitted from the ana-
logy of God's operations, that the creative acts, whatever their
nature, must, as well as variability, be regulated by some law ;
but the law of variation cannot possibly be identical with the
law of specific origin and continuation which it modifies, except
in some such general sense as that in which gravitation may
produce disturbances of movements which themselves are pro-
duced by gravitation. But, in such a case, it is absurd to
maintain that the disturbing cause of attraction from without,
can have produced the original motions. In the same manner
all that we know of variability points to the conclusion that it
is subordinate to specific unity, though subject to the same vital
laws. Specific origin it cannot reach, though it may imitate
its effects, and present analogous phases of change, illustrative
of the real laws of creation of species. It is to be hoped that
Mr. Darwin will not neglect this distinction, and thus vitiate
the great mass of facts which he has accumulated, by grouping
them around an untenable thesis.

In this connection, I may direct attention to one of the laws
of variation, not perhaps sufficiently insisted on in the text.
On any theory of the origin of species, these must always have
originated in the physical conditions most favourable to their
existence in the full integrity of their powers. This being ad-
mitted, it follows that variation is always in the direction of
degeneracy, except where individuals already degenerate are in-
duced by some new and favourable combination of circumstances
to retrace the steps of their degradation. Observed facts accord
with this, and show also, that, even under favourable circum-
stances, re-elevation is more slow and difficult than degeneracy.
While, therefore, it is just conceivable that, a higher form being
given, lower forms might result from its degeneracy or disinte-
gration, it is impossible that the variation of lower forms could

38S

APPENDIX.

result in the production of anything higher. Consequently,
something beyond and higher than variability is required to
account for the observed succession of species in time.

G.— THE TANNINIM.

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 for-
mer, as well as to illustrate tbe utility in such cases of " com-
paring scripture with scripture " :—

1. Tannin.

Ex. vii. 9. — Tate thy rod and
cast it before Pharaoh, and it
shall become a serpent.

Dent, xxxii. 23. — Their vine
is the poison of dragons.

Job vii. 12. — Am I a sea or
a whale, that thou settest a
watch over me.

Psal. Ixxiv. 14.— Thou didst
divide the sea by thy strength.
Thou breakest the heads of the
dragons in the waters.

Psalm xci. 13. — The young
lion and the dragon thou shalt
trample under foot.

Psal. cxlviii. 7. — Praise the
Lord ye dragons and all deeps.

Is. xxvii. 1. — He shall slay
the dragon in the midst of the
sea (river.)

Is. li. 9. — Hath cut Rahab
and wounded the dragon.

Jer. li. 34. — (Nebuchadnez-
zar) hath swallowed me up as
a dragon.

Ezekiel xxix. 3.— Pharaoh,
king of Egypt, the great dragon
that lieth in the rivers.

Probably a serpent, though
perhaps a crocodile. (Septua-
gint, " dpdK(j)v.")

Perhaps a species of serpent.
(Sept., *' dpdioDv.")

Michaelis and others think,
probably correctly, that the
Nile and the crocodile, both
objects of vigilance to the
Egyptians, are intended. (Sep-
tuagint, "^paicwv.")

Evidently refers to the des-
truction of the Egyptians in
the Red Sea, under emblem of
the crocodile. (Septuagint,
dpaKiov.'^)

The association shows that a
powerful carnivorous animal is
meant. (Sept., " cipaKwv.")

Evidently an aquatic crea-
ture. (Sept., " ^pdKiov.")

A large predaceous aquatic
animal (the crocodile), used
here as an emblem of Egypt.
(Sept., '^dpdKiov:')

Same as above.

A large predaceous animal
(Sept.,'^" SpdKujv.^')

In the Hebrew tanim appears
by mistake for tannin. This
is clearly the crocodile of the
Nile. Verses 4 and 5 show
that it is a large aquatic ani-
mal with scales. (Septuagint,
" dpdKUJv.")

APPENDIX.

389

2. Tan.

Psalm xliv. 19. — Thou hast
sore broken us in the place of
dra^om.

Is. xxxiv. 13. — (Bozrah in
Idumea) shall be a habitation
of dragons and a court of owls
(or ostriches).

I Is. xliii. 20. — The wild beasts
shall honour me, the dragons
and the ostriches, because I
give water in the wilderness.

Is. xiii. 22. — Dragons in their
pleasant palaces.

Is. XXXV. T. — And the parch-
ed ground shall become a pool,
and the thirsty land springs of
water ; in the habitation of
dragons where each lay, shall
be grass with reeds and rushes.

Job. XXX. 29. — I am a brother
of dragons and a companion of
ostriches.

Jer. ix., xi. : 10, 21.— I will
make Jerusalem heaps, a den
of dragons.

Lam. iv. 3. — Even the sea-
monsters draw out the breast,
they give suck to their young
ones. The daughter of my
people is become cruel, like the
ostriches in the wilderness.

Micah i. 8. — I will make a
wailing like the dragons, and
mourning like the owls (os-
triches).

Some understand this of ship-
wreck ; but, more probably,
the place of dragons is the de-
sert. (Sept., " KOt/CWCTlS.")

An animal inhabiting ruins,
and associated with the ostrich.
(Sept., " traprjv.")

Evidently an animal of the
dry deserts. (Sept., " <jtipr]v.")

Represented as inhabiting
the ruins of Babylon, and asso-
ciated with wild beasts of the
desert. (Sept., " kxivosJ^)

An animal making its lair or
nest in dry, parched places.
(Sept., "5jo^i5.")

The association indicates an
animal of the desert, and the
context that its cry is mourn-
ful. (Sept., " rreiprjv.")

Same as above. See also
Jeremiah xlix., xxxii., 51, 37,
and Mai. i. 3, where the word
is in the female form (tanoth).
(Septuagint, ^' SpuKuv" and
" (TTpoveds.")

In the Hebrew text the word
is Tannin evidently an error
for Tanim. The suckling of
young, and association of os-
triches, agree with this. (Sept.,

The wailing cry accords with
the view of Gesenius that the
jackal is meant. (Septuagint,
" ^pd/cwv.")

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 Assy-

390 APPENDIX.

ria. 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, rep-
tiles. The Tan is evidently a small mammal of the desert.

H.— RECENT ELEVATION OF WESTERN AND CENTRAL
ASIA, AND SPECIFIC CENTRES OP CREATION.

Many recent geological discoveries in Asia, establish and
confirm the views given in the text, in reference to the creation
of man and the deluge.

In a paper on the Geology of the Taurus, by W. W. Smyth,
Esq., in the 1st vol. of the Journal of the London Geolog'ical
Society, we are informed that the igneous rocks which have
given to that district its present form and elevation, belong to
a late tertiary era, and that the same remark probably applies
to an extensive region extending from Asia Minor and Syria
into Mesopotamia.

In a paper on the Geology of the Himalaya, by Col. Strachey,
in the 7th vol. of the same Journal, we find that while almost
the whole of India is of comparatively recent elevation above
the level of the sea, there exists in the Plain of Thibet, an exten-
sive surface of terdary beds, evidently of aqueous and probably
of marine origin, and now at an elevation of 16,000 to 17,000
feet above the sea. The fossils of these beds show that they
belong to a late tertiary period, but whether their elevation to
their present great height belongs to the modern or tertiary
era, we have as yet no means of judging.

In Prof. Hitchcock's " Geology of the Globe," 1853, I find it
stated, on the authority of M. Dubois, that the process of eleva-
tion in the chain of the Caucasus has extended even into the
recent era, and it is even suggested that such elevation may
have occasioned the Noachic deluge. It is said also that ano-
ther geologist finds a peculiar mud deposit in Armenia, which
he suspects may have been left by the Noachian deluge. This
may possibly be a continuation of the Tchornozem of Russia, a
widely diffused surface bed of tertiary mud, described by Sir
R. I. Murchison, and which is more recent than the pleistocene
gravels of those regions. It farther appears, from Sir R. I.
Murchison's explorations in Russia, that the chain of the Ural
Mountains, as well as all those regions in Northern Europe and
Siberia which are covered by the Northern Drift or boulder
formation, must be added to the recently elevated region of
Western Asia. He has shewn that in the latest tertiary period,
the Urals, then a low chain, formed the western coast of a com-
paratively narrow belt of wooded country, extending across
the southern part of Siberia, while the plains of Northern Europe
and Northern Siberia were under water. If any considerable

APPENDIX. 391

part of these elevations, and those referred to in the preceding
part of this note, occurred in the post-Adamic period, and in
connection with subsidence of the Aralo-Caspian plain, we can
be at no loss for the physical agencies employed by the
Almighty in the extinction of the Antediluvian nations.

For the full exposition of the doctrine of centres of creation^
referred to in the text, I must refer to an Essay by Prof. E.
Forbes, in the first volume of the Memoirs of the Geological
Survey of Great Britain. Prof. Forbes reasons on the assump-
tion of specific centres^ or points from which each species
became diffused ; each species being supposed to be composed
of descendants from a single pair. On this view, every country
has been peopled either — 1st, by species created within its limits ;
or, 2nd, by species transported to it ; or, 3rd, by species which
have migrated to it. Prof. Forbes reasons at great length on
the sources of the present Flora and Fauna of the British Islands,
which he believes to be descended mainly from progenitors
created before the Human era, but posterior to the Eocene Ter-
tiary, and to have been derived from several sources, through
the medium of continuous connecting tracts of land since sub-
merged. Were it possible, in the present state of knowledge, to
obtain a similar collection of facts in reference to the original
seats of man in Asia, many difficulties in reference to the con-
nection of geological and human history would be at once
removed.

I.— PRIMITIVE UNITY OF LANGUAGE.

I may refer to the Essay of Dr. Max Muller, on Comparative
Mythology, for a very clear statement of the character of the
links that bind together the Indo-European languages. These
affinities indicate — 1. A radical identity of all these tongues.
2. That they are not derivatives one from another, but all from
some primitive common source — the " Arian " stock. 3. That
this ancient stock had attained considerable advancement in
civilization before its dispersion. Dr. Muller does not attempt
any comparison with the Semitic tongues, though many of the
words which he cites as examples invite to such comparisons,
and the theories on this subject referred to in the text show that
such comparisons may be profitably made, though many diffi-
culties surround the subject, especially in consequence of the
very early date at which the Arian and Semitic tongues can be
shown to have been distinct, and the many movements of popu-
lation that have subsequently occurred. I may merely state
here that the Semitic type of language has some philological
claims to be regarded as more ancient and nearer to the primi-
tive stock than the Arian. I may illustrate this by a few of the

392 APPENDIX.

words referred to in the able essay above cited. No terms are
more constant than those which refer to the nearest family-
relations. Thus the Indo-European languages furnish the fol-
lowing table : —

Sanscrit, Zend. Greek. Latin. Gothic, Slave, Erse.

Father, Pit&r, Patar, TraTrjp, Pater, Fadar, Athair.

Motlier, Matar, Matar, M^VP)^ Mater, Mate, Mathair.

Daughter, Duhitar,Dugh(lhar,0wyar;]|O, Daubtar, Dukte, Dear.

For the roots of the two first lines of words Muller refers us
to the Sancrit Pa to protect, and Ma to produce. But this is
obviously fallacious, since the sounds ma, amma, pa or ba,
appa, are the first articulate utterances of the infant, and have
no doubt been adopted by the parents as their own names — the
sense of protector and producer being secondary, and founded
on the relation itself. Now, in the Semitic languages we have
these words in their primary unchanged forms of jib , .Abba, Am^
jirnmaj Mau; and as early as the date of Job we have Ab used
in the secondary sense of protection. Again, the word daugh-
ter may be traced to a Sanscrit root signifying to milk, the
daughter being naturally the milkmaid of the family ; but it is
quite certain that daughters must have been before milkmaids,
so that this must be an accidental and secondary name ; and it
has not been introduced among the Semites, who, using the
term ben, referring to the building up of the family, for the son,
have the feminine form of the same word for the daughter. These
are a few out of many instances which might be adduced to
show that Semite words are more primitive than Arian words.
So also is Semite grammar, which is undeveloped as to inflex-
ions ; and thus has an unchanged and primordial aspect. If we
ask reasons for this, we may be referred to the fixed and sta-
tionary character of Semitic civilization in general ; and with
more immediate relation to this subject, to the circumstance
that these languages were reduced to writing at a very early
period, and thus had the conservative influence of a literature
long before it existed in the Arian tongues, which have at a
comparatively modern period borrowed their alphabets from the
Semite nations. This view is well stated by Donaldson* : —

" The distinctive characteristics of the Semitic languages may
be said to consist in the generally triliteral form of their unin-
flected words, and in the invariably syntactical contrivances by
which the whole mechanism of speech is carried on. I seek the
cause of this in the early adoption of alphabetical writing, in
the establishment of a literature, and in the unusually frequent
intermixture of cognate races."

Report Brit. Association, 1851.

APPENDIX. 393

He then proceeds to remark that the Slavonian, one of the
latest branches of the Indo-European languages to be reduced
to writing, differs most widely from the Semitic tongues in
grammatical structure, though not in words. In a subsequent
passage he thus remarks on the Semitic alphabet : —

" The palaeography of the Semitic nations lies half-way be-
tween that of the Greeks and Indians, who adopted no system of
writing except the alphabetic, and did not make use of this until
their poetical literature had taken root and begun to flourish ;
and that of the Chinese and Egyptians, who employed picture
writing instead of their memories from the very earliest period,
and who never attained to a perfectly abstract and simple
alphabet. I believe that the first Semitic alphabet was due to
the Hebrews rather than to the Phenicians. The sacred history
of this nation tells us that their great legislator was educated
in Egypt at a time when the phonetic hieroglyphs were in gene-
ral use ; and there cannot be the least doubt that the Phenician
and Hebrew characters may be traced to particular signs in the
Egyptian Syllabarium. Some very satisfactory specimens of
this have been given by Mr. Thurleigh Wedgwood, in the Trans.
Phil. Soc. ; Vol. 5, No. 101. It has always appeared to me a
most interesting fact, that we owe our first alphabet to the same
race from which we derive the foundations of our religion.
Picture writing and picture-worship are intimately connected.
Abstraction is anti-idolatrous, and is manifested in the inven-
tion of an alphabet quite as much as in the adoption of a pure
theism : nor would I quarrel with any one if he thought fit to
ascribe to the same inspiration the commandments written on
the two tables of stone, and the simple characters by which
they expressed their meaning. Be this as it may, it seems pretty
clear that the Hebrews never had any but an alphabetical sys-
tem, if any ; and it is also clear that they had no literature
except that which was written down alphabetically. The same
may be said of the other pure races of the Syro- Arabian family ;
and this alone will explain the permanence and uniformity of
their syntactical structure."

The Bible itself curiously coincides with these deductions of
philology. Writing is mentioned incidentally in Job, but it
first appears historically in Exodus. In Joshua, however, there
is mention of a " city of books " or writings — Kirjath Shephar —
as existing previously in Canaan. An antiquity even Antedilu-
vian is claimed for Semitic words, by their occurring in the
names of men in that era ; and the fact that the races affiliated
to both Shem and Ham used in common the languages now
known as Semitic, is abundantly proved by the history of the
patriarchs and of Egypt. The Semitic languages were conse-
quently those of the first great civilized communities. The
Bible also is cognizant of the fact of the branching of the

2a

394 APPENDIX.

Arian languages from the primitive stock, as well as of those
sporadic forms of speech which appertain to rude outlying frag-
ments of the human race everywhere ; and it has a history of
its own to account for them ; namely, the confusion of tongues
at Babel. This event, which must have occurred within two
centuries of the deluge, may either have been miraculous or an
ordinary interposition of Providence. In the former case, we
must take the statement as it stands, and need not even trouble
ourselves with the numberless conjectures which have been
advanced as to its mode of occurrence. In the latter case, it
becomes a part of the ordinary political history of the world,
and may be read thus. Within a short time after the deluge,
many families of men, scattering themselves abroad, and adopt-
ing various modes of life, began very rapidly to differ in their
modes of thought and expression, and to become isolated from
each other ; processes which would naturally be very rapid in
the case of small tribes with a slender stock of words, and con-
stantly meeting in their wanderings with new objects, and
adopting new contrivances and modes of subsistence. To arrest
these changes, certain leaders attempted to collect all or most
of these tribes into one civil or national organization ; but the
attempt only showed that the process of separation had al-
ready proceeded too far — that the plans of Divine Providence
could not be averted by merely political combinations ; and the
race became dispersed, one portion of it to retain the primitive
forms of expression, the others to modify indefinitely the con-
struction of speech either in the direction of barbaric rudeness
or of artificial complexity and polish.

K.— ANCIENT MYTHOLOGIES.

The current views respecting the relations of ancient mytho-
logies 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. Muller in the Oxford Essays, and which
traces at least the Indo-European theogony to a mere personifi-
cation 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 Arian 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 primi-
tive faith of man, and with this it ranks the doctrine of a malig-
nant 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.

AI»PENDIX. 395

2. In the Hebrew theology the fall introduces the new doc-
trine 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 mani-
festly 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 Apo-
calypse they re-appear 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 monu-
ments of Greek Asia and of Etruria. Further, it was evidently
an easy step to proceed from these cherubic figures to the ado-
ration 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 con-
queror, inventor or reformer, was thus recognized as in some
sense the " coming man," just as Eve supposed she saw him in
her first-born.

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. The greater
gods of Egypt and of Greece were obviously of this character,
and in China and Polynesia we see at this day this kind of ido-
latry 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 pre-historic and pre-
Adamite world, changing it into a period of gods and demi-
gods.

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 phe-
nomena of volcanoes, earthquakes, thunder-storms, eclipses,
become supernatural portents ; and as the idea of power asso-
ciates itself with them, they are personified as actual agents
and become gods. In like manner, the more constant and use-
ful objects and processes of nature, become personified as benefi-
cent deities. This may be, to a great extent, the character of
the Arian theology; but, except where all ideas of primitive

396 APPENDIX.

religion and traditions of early history hare been lost^ it cannot
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 honour 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 Semite mono-
theistic 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 Ashteroth
Karnaim — the two horned Astarte, a female divinity and proto-
type of Diana, and perhaps a historic personage, in whom both
the moon and the domestic ox were rendered objects of worship.
This is the earliest Bible notice of idolatry.* In Egypt a mytho-
logy of complex diversity existed at least as far back. We
must remember, however, that Egypt is Cush as well as Miz-
raim, and its idolatry is probably to be traced, in the first
instance, to the Nimrodic empire, from which, as from a com-
mon 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
Arians, 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 orig'n of the false
religions of antiquity ; and to suggest as inquiries in relation
to every form of mythology — how much of it is primitive mono-
theism, 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 other of
these forms of idolatry ; and to ask him to reflect that really

* Except, perhaps, Job zxxi. 27.

APPENDIX. 397

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.

L__SUPPOSED TERTIARY RACES OP MEN.

It may be anticipated that almost every year will produce
supposed cases of human remains or works of art in the later
tertiary deposits. There are so many causes of accidental inter-
mixtures, and ordinary observers are so little aware of the
sources of error against which it is necessary to guard, that mis-
takes of this kind are inevitable. Even geologists are very
likely to be misled in investigations of this nature. A remark-
able instance of this, in the case of the delta of the Nile, has
been already noticed. Another discovery, which has lately
made some noise in the scientific world, is probably referable to
the same category. I refer to the supposed occurrence of im-
plements of flint in the gravel at Abbeville in France. This
was first maintained by M. Boucher de Perthes in 1849, but his
statements appeared so improbable that little attention was
given to them. More recently, Mr. Prestwick and Mr. Evans
have brought the subject before the Royal Society and the
Society of Antiquaries in England, in connection with the dis-
covery of flint weapons with bones of extinct animals in a cave
at Brixham.

Should the objects found in this case prove to be really pro-
ducts of art, and their position be certainly in the pleistocene
drift, contemporary with the extinct Elephant, Rhinoceros,
Hyaena, &c.^ of the west of Europe, then we might with cer-
tainty conclude — First, that the race by which these implements
were made existed at a period immeasurably more ancient than
any assigned even by Bunsen's new chronology, or the myths
of Egypt or China, to the human species ; and secondly, that
this race is not at all connected with biblical or historical man,
but must be an extinct species of anthropoid animal, belong-
ing to a prior geological period. That there cannot have been
any such species before man, and sufficiently intelligent to
make flint weapons, I am not prepared to maintain ; but I do
not regard the evidence adduced as at all suflBcient to establish
its existence, still less to carry back the human species to a
period rendered even geologically improbable by the lapse of
time, and the extinction of nearly all the land-animals in the
meantime. The defects in the proof, as stated at present, are
of the following kinds : —

I. The implements found are not certainly artificial. They
are described as follows by Mr. Evans, as reported in the
AthencBum :

" 1. Flakes of flint, apparently intended for knives or arrow-

398 APPENDIX.

heads. 2. Pointed implements, usually truncated at the base,
and varying in length from four to nine inches — possibly used
as spear or lance heads, which in shape they resemble. 3.
Oval or almond-shaped implements, from two to nine inches in
length, and with a cutting edge all round. They have gene-
rally one end more sharply curved than the other, and occa-
sionally even pointed, and were possibly used as sling-stones,
or as axes, cutting at either end, with a handle bound round the
centre. The evidence derived from the implements of the first
form is not of much weight, on account of the extreme simpli-
city of the implements, which at times renders it difficult to
determine whether they are produced by art or by natural
causes. This simplicity of form would also prevent the flint
flakes made at the earliest period from being distinguishable
from those of a later date. The case is different with the other
two forms of implements, of which numerous specimens were
exhibited ; all indisputably worked by the hand of man, and not
indebted for their shape to any natural configuration or peculiar
fracture of the flint. They present no analogy in form to the
well-known implements of the so-called Celtic or stone period,
which, moreover, have for the most part some portion, if not the
whole, of their surface ground or polished, and are frequently
made from other stones than flint. Those from the drift are,
on the contrary, never ground, and are exclusively of flint.
They have, indeed, every appearance of having been fabricated
by another race of men, who, from the fact that the Celtic stone
weapons have been found in the superficial soil above the drift
containing these ruder weapons, as well as from other conside-
rations, must have inhabited this region of the globe at a period
anterior to its so-called Celtic occupation."

The objects found are here admitted to differ from the imple-
ments of the primitive Celts, and they differ ia like manner from
those of the American Indians, which are almost if not quite un-
distinguishable from those of ancient Europe and Asia. One at
least of the kinds mentioned has scarcely a semblance of artifi-
cial form, and the others are all merely fractured, not ground
or polished. In so far as one can judge, without actually in-
specting the specimens, these appear to be fatal defects in their
claim to be weapons. The observers have evidently not taken
into consideration the effects of intense frost in splitting flinty
and jaspery stones. It is easy to find, among the debris of the
jasper veins of Nova Scotia, for instance, abundance of ready-
made arrow-heads and other weapons ; and there is every reason
to believe that the Indians, and perhaps the aboriginal Celts also,
sought for and found those naturally split stones which gave
them the least trouble in the manufacture, just as they selected
beach pebbles of suitable forms for anchors, pestles and ham-
mers, and hard slates with oblique joints for knives. To these

APPENDIX. 399

natural forms, however, the savage usually adds a little polishing,
notching, or other adaptation ; and this seems to be wanting in
the greater part of the specimens from Abbeville.

2. Nothing is more difficult, especially in an uneven country,
than to ascertain the extent to which old gravels have been
re-arranged by earthquake waves or land floods. Nor does the
occurrence in them of bones of extinct animals prove anything,
since these are shifted with the gravel. Very careful and de-
tailed observations of the locality would be required to attain
any certainty on this point.

3. The places in which gravel pits are dug, are often just
those to which the aborigines are likely to have resorted for
their supply of flint weapons. They may have burrowed in the
gravel for that purpose, and their pits may have been subse-
quently filled up. Farther, savages generally make their imple-
ments as near as possible to the places where they procure the
raw material ; and in making flint weapons, where the material
abounds, they reject without scruple all except those that are
most easily worked into form. If of human origin at all, the
so-called weapons of Abbeville are more like such rejectamenta
than perfected implements. This would also account for the
quantity found, which would otherwise seem to be inconsistent
with the supposition of human workmanship.

4. The circumstance that no bones or other remains referable
to man have been found with the flint articles, is more in accord-
ance with the suppositions stated above, than with that of their
human origin, in any other way than as the rejectamenta of an
ancient manufacture.

5. From a summary of the facts given by Sir Charles Lyell
at the late meeting of the British Association (1859), as the
result of personal investigations, it appears that the gravels in
question are fluviatile and dependent on the present valley of
the Somme, though still apparently of very great antiquity.
This places the subject in an entirely different position from
that in which it was left by Perthes and Prestwick. River
gravels are often composed of older debris, re-assorted in a
comparatively short time, and containing tertiary remains inter-
mixed with those that are modern ; and it is usually quite
impossible to determine their age with certainty. Farther, if
we may judge from American rivers, those of France must,
when the country was covered with forest, have been much
larger than at present ; and at the same time their annual freshets
must have been smaller, so that nothing is more natural than
that remains of the savage aborigines should be found in beds
now far removed from the action of the rivers. When to this
we add the occurrence at intervals of great river inundations,
we cannot, without a series of investigations bearing on the
eflfects of all these changes, allow any great antiquity to be

400 APPENDIX.

claimed for such deposits. The subject is, in short, in such a
condition at present, that nothing can with safety be affirmed
with respect to it.

I may add, that Sir Charles Lyell, while admitting the appa-
rent contemporaneous association of human remains with those
of extinct animals of the Tertiary period at Brixham, rejects as
modern the so-called fossil men of Denise in central France,
which had been associated with the Abbeville discoveries.

PINIS

IIsTDEX.

Page

Abraham, 313

" Accommodation," theory of 44

Agassiz on Species, 281

" on Prophetic Types, 348

Animals, Lower, Creation of 187

" Higher, Creation of 206

Ansted on Mesozoic Fauna, 198

" on Tertiary Fauna, 210

AntediluYians, 236

Antiquity of the Earth, 325

« of Man, . . ." 299, 308

Aretz, eT, T2, 148

Astronomy of the Hebrews, 183

Atmosphere, constitution of 130

" creation of 133

Augustine on creative days, 106

Azoic rocks, 16*7, 367

Bara, 61

Babel, 241

Bachman on hybridity, 260

Beginning, 339, 68

Bede on creative days, 106

Beaumont, De, on continents, 158

Behemoth, 209

Bhemah, 206

Birds, creation of 193

Bronn on origin of species, 334

Brachykephalic skulls, 269

Bunsen's chronology, 303

INDEX.

Carnivora, creation of 208

Carpenter on varieties of man, 2*71

Centres of Creation, 390

Chaos, , 71, T9

Cosmogony, Hebrew, its objects, 11

" " its character, 26

" " its authority, 30

" of Egypt, 19, 122

" of Phenicia, 79, 80

" of Greece, 80

" of India, 81, 123

" of Persia, 122

Colour of races of men, 266, 277

Cranial characters in man, 269

Creation, 61

CuYier on species, 249

Days of creation, 98

1st, 86

2d, 130

3d, 143

4th, 175

5th, 187

6th, 206

Tth, 232

Prophetic, 127

Dana on creation, 118

" on creation of plants, 172

" on Tertiary Fauna, 212

Darwin on species, 252

" on Niata cattle, 256

Development in nature, 52, 370

Deep, 75

Desh^, 160

Deluge, 238

De Candolle on species, 249

Design in nature, 54

Diodorus Siculus on Egypt, 79

Dolicho-kephalic crania, 2'70

INDEX.

Earth, 66, 12

" its foundations, 148

Ecclesiastes 1st, 51

Eden, conditions of 217

" site of 235

Egypt, Early History of 302

Elohim, 69, 363

Exodus xxiv. 10, 13t

Final causes, 354

Firmament, 130

Foundations of the Earth, 45, 148

Fluidity, original, of the Earth, 365

Genesis i. 1, 60

" i. 3, 86

« i. 5, 98

« i. 6, 130

" i. 10, 147

« i. 11, * 160

« i. 15, 175

« i. 20, 187

" i. 24, 206

" i. 26, 214

« ii 163,232

" iv. 23, 27

Geology, principles of 319

Gliddon on races of men, 264

Gosse on prochronism, 203

« Grass," in Gen. i., 160

Hair of races of man, 267

Hamite races, 311

Harmony of revelation and science, 339

Heavens, 64, 140, 175

Herbivora, creation of 206

Hitchcock on creative days, H^

Hopkins on Crust of the Globe, 304

Horner on Alluvium of Nile, • 304

Hunt on chemistry of Incandescent Globe, 366

INDEX.

Humboldt on Hebrew poetry, 21

Hybridity, laws of 260

" in man, 274

Incandescence of the Earth 134

Japhetite races, 310

Jehovah, 69, 363

Jones, Sir Wm., on Indian cosmogony, 123

Job 9, 5, 150

9, 9, 182

28, 152

28, 26, 50

36, 37, 142

38, 50, 141, 150

38,12, 97

38, 31, 182

38, 33, 50

Kurtz on days of vision, 128

Latham on languages of Africa, 295, 278

" on radiation of languages, 296

Lamech, his poem, 27

Laws of nature, 50

La Place, nebular hypothesis, 89

Land, its creation, 147

" geological history of 157

Languages, unity of 391

Leviticus 11th, 188

Light, 86

Logan on Azoic Rocks, 367

Luminaries, 1 75

Lyell on origin of species, 332, 370

Mammals, creation of 206

Manetho, chronology of 303

Man, creation of 214

Menes, his epoch, 302

INDEX.

Mesozoic period, 195

Miller on creative days, 107

" on creation of plants, 167

" on origin of species, 331

Morton on species, 249

Murchison on Azoic Rocks, 36*1

Mythology as related to the Bible, 394

Negro races, 2 78

Nimrod, 241

Origen on creative days, 106

Pentateuch, its authenticity and genuineness, 361

Periods, creative 98

Persians, cosmogony of 122

Philology, its evidence on Unity of Man, 294

Pierce on forms of Continents, 158

Pictet on origin of species, 330, 372

Pickering, classification of Man, 266

Plants, creation of 160

Povfell on Genesis, 39

Progress in nature, 52, 342

Prochronism, 203

Proverbs 8, 51, 68, 149

" 19, 76

Psalms 8, 184

« 8,1,.... 66

" 8, 28, 51

•* 18, 151

" 19, 185

« 90,1, 104

« 104, 139, 148, 204

" 119,90, 51

" 119,20, 149

« 139, 58

" 148,6, 50

« 147, 184

INDEX.

Rakiah, 136

Reptiles, 190

Remes, 192, 206

Reconciliation of Scripture and Geology, 316

Shamayim, 64

Shemite races, 311

Sheretz, 187

Spirit of God, agency of, in creation, "78

Species, in Genesis 1st, 163

" nature of 248

" unity of origin of 280

" creation of 370

Stereoma, 136

Spheres, Celestial, doctrine of 46

Table of Geological chronology, 323

" of Biblical cosmogony, 350

Tannin, 189, 388

Tennyson on types in nature, 201

Type in nature, ,. 56

Types of mankind, 35

Unity of man, 261

Unity of nature, 345

Varieties, laws of 253

Veda, its cosmogony, 81

Vegetation, creation of * 160

Wallace on species, 252

Whales, great, of Gen. 1, 189

Wilson on American crania, 270

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List of Puhlica tions. 1 3

The Voyage of the Constance ; a tale of the Polar Seas. By
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Stories of the Great Prairie. From the Novels of J. F. Cooper.
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Also, uniform, same price.
Stories of the Woods, from the Adventures of Leather-Stocking.
Stories of the Sea, from Cooper's Naval Novels.
The Voyage of the Constance. By Mary Gillies. 3s. M.
The Swiss Family Robinson, and Sequel. In 1 vol. 3s. 6d.
The Story Without an End. Translated by Sarah Austin. 2s. &d.
Adventures on the Great Hunting-Grounds of the World. From

the Frence of Victor Meunier. With additional matter, including the
Duke of Edinburgh's Elephant Hunt, &c. With 22 Engravings,
price 5s.

" The book for all boys in whom the love of travel and adventure is
strong. They icill find here plenty to amuse them and much to instruct
them besides." — Times.

Also, lately published.
One Thousand Miles in the Rob Roy Canoe. By John Macgregor, M.A. 5s.
The Rob Roy on the Baltic. By the same Author. 5s.
Sailing Alone; or, 1,500 Miles Voyage in the Yawl Rob Roy. By the

same Author. 5s.
Golden Hair; aTaleof the Pilgrim Fathers. BySirLascelles Wraxall. 5s.
Black Panther : a Boy's Adventures amongst the Red Skins. By the

same Author. 5s,

14 Sampson Low and Co.'s

Jacob and Joseph, and the Lesson of their Lives for the Young.
By Elihu Burritt, Author of "Old Burcheirs Pockets, &c." Numerous
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Anecdotes of the Queen and Royal Family of England. Collected,
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Geography for my Children. By Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe.
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lish Lady, under the Direction of the Authoress. With upwards of Fifty
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Little Gerty ; or, the First Prayer, abridged and adapted for
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Price 6d.

Great Fun and More Fun for our Little Friends. By Harriet
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BELLES I.ETTRES, FICTION, &c.

LD Town Folks. By the Author of " Uncle Tom's

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David Gray ; and other Essays, chiefly on Poetry. By Robert
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List of Publications. 15

The Book of the Sounet; being Selections, with an Essay on
Sonnets and Sonneteers. By the late Leigh Hunt. Edited, from the
original MS. with Additions, by S. Adams Lee. 2 vols, price ISi.

Lyra Saci-a Americana: Gems of American Poetry, selected
with Notes and Biographical Sketches by C. D. Cleveland, D.D., Author
of the " INIilton Concordance." 18mo., cloth, gilt edges. Price 4s. M.

Poems of the Inner Life, Selected chiefly from modern Authors,
by permission. Small post 8vo. 6s. ; gilt edges, 6s. M.

English and Scotch Ballads, &c. An extensive Collection.
With Notices of the kindred Ballads of other Nations. Edited by F. J.
Child. 8 vols. fcap. cloth, 3s. Qd. each

Lyrical Pieces, Secular and Sacred, from the Home Circle of a
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of Grettou, Northamptonshire, and Hon. Canon of Peterborough. With
numerous Illustrative Vignettes, and with Archaeological and other
Notes. Crown 8vo. bevelled boards, price 8s. 6af.

The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table. By Oliver Wendell
Holmes, LL.D. Popular Edition, Is. Illustrated Edition, choicely
printed, cloth extra, &s.

The Professor at the Breakfast Table. By Oliver Wendell Holmes,
Author of "The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table." Cheap Edition,
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numerous illustrations, cloth, 5s.

The Blackbird of Baden, and Other Stories. By Robert
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" A pleasant book, deserving; honest praise." — Athenaeum. " Furnishes
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sesses the art of story -telling" — Daily News,

Queer Little People. By the Author of " Uncle Tom's Cabin."

Fcap. Is. Also by the same Author.

The Little Foxes that Spoil the Grapes, Is.

House and Home Papers, Is.

The Pearl of Orr's Island, Illustrated by Gilbert, 5s.

The Minister's Wooing. Illustrated by Phiz, 5s.

The Story of Four Little Women : Meg, Joe, Beth, and Amy.
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Helen Felton's Question : a Book for Girls. By Agnes Wylde.
Faith Gartney's Girlhood. By INIrs. D. T. Whitney. Seventh thousand.
The Gayworthys. By the same Author. Third Edition."
A Summer in Leslie Goldthwaite's Life. By the same Author.
The Masque at Ludlow. By the Author of " Mary Powell."
Miss Biddy Frobisher : a Salt Water Story. By the same Author.
Selvaggio; a Story of Italy. By the same Author. New Edition.
The Journal of a Waiting Gentlewoman. By a new Author. New Edition.
The Shady Side and the Sunny Side. Two Tales of New England,

16 Sampson Low add OoJs List of Publications.

Edelweiss: a Story of Swiss Life. By Berthold Auerbach.
Fcap. 8vo. 5s.

New and Cheaper Edition of " A Mere Story." By the Author
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"■A story that tve strongly recommend our readers to procure. . . . Alto-
gether it is a very jAeasant little book, sparkliyig and original, which no one
ivill read icithout a good deal of enjoymetit.''' — Guardian.

Marian ; or, the Light of Some One's Home. By Maud Jeanne
Franc. Small post 8vo., 5s.

Also, by the same Author.
Emily's Choice : an Australian Tale. 5s.
Vermont Vale : or, Home Pictures in Australia. 58.
Minnie's Mission, a Temperance Story. 4s.

Tauchnitz's English Editions of German Authors. Each volume
cloth flexible, 2s. ; or sewed, Is. M. The following are now ready : —

1. On the Heights. By B. Auerbach. 3 vols.

2. In the Year '13. By Frita Renter. 1 vol.

3. Faust. By Goethe. 1 A'ol.

4. Undine, and other Tales. By Fouque. 1 vol.
5 L'Arrabiata. By Paul Heyse. 1 vol.

6. The Princess, and other Tales. By Heinrich Zschokke. 1 vol.

7. Lessiug's Nathan the Wise.

8. Hacklander's Behind the Counter, translated by Mary Howitt.

9. Three Tales. By W. Hauff.

10. Joachim r. Kamern ; Diary of a Poor Young Lady. By M.Nathusius.

11. Poems by Ferdinand Freiligrath, a selection of Translations. Edited

by his daughter.

12. Gabriel : a Story of Magileburgh. From the German of Paul Heyse.

By Arthur INIilman."

Low's Copyright Cheap Editions of American Authors. A

thoroughly good and cheap series of editions, which, whilst combining
every advantage that can be secured by the best workmanship at the
lowest possible rate, will possess an additional claim on the reading
public by providing for the remuneration of the American author and
the legal protection of the English publisher. Ready : —

1. Haunted Hearts. By the Author of " The Lamplighter."

2. The Guardian Angel. By " The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table."

3. The Minister's Wooing. By the .-inthor of " Uncle Tom's Cabin."

4. Views Afoot. By Bayard Taylor.

5. Kathrina, Her Life and Mine. By J. G. Holland.

6. Hans Brinker ; or. Life in Holland. By Mrs. Dodge,

7. Men, Women, and Ghosts. By Miss Phelps.

To be followed by a New Volume on the first of every alternate month.
Each complete in itself, printed from new type, with Initial Letters and Orna-
ments, price Is. 6d. enamelled flexible cover, or 2s. cloth.

LONDON : SAMPSON LOW, SON, AND MARSTON,

CROWN BUILDINGS, 188, FLEET STREET.

English, American, and Colonial Booksellers and Publishers.

Chiswick Pre?s:— Whittingham and Wilkius, Tooks Court, Chancery Lane.

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