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rocks, it, [the earth,] appears to have been inhabited by a class of animals, and decorated with vegetation, suited to its physical condition and the imbedded remains are sufficient evidence of this fact." Dr. Good says of the same Geological strata :- "It is in this second class of formations, that petrifactions first make their appearance; and it deserves particular attention, that they are uniformly confined, both in the animal and vegetable kingdoms, to those in the lowest links in the scale of organization. It is here also that the carbonaceous matter, which is chiefly of vegetable origin, first makes its appearance in any considerable quantity." Silliman :

"In regard to vegetables, there is good reason to believe that they were at least as early as animals. Vegetables are found more or less through the whole Transition Series." This author thinks that some vegetables have become so carbonized as to lose their identity, in which case, vegetable productions "will claim the highest rank in organic antiquity." Buckland, vol. I. p. 57. Higgins, p. 227. Good, p. 68. Bakewell, p. 555.

260. It has before been observed, that the earth possessed originally a much higher temperature than at present; a supposition indispensable to a correct and rational system of Geology. The proof of the fact, (or one of the proofs,) is derived from the vegetable and animal relics just referred to. They are such as could not have grown and lived in the climate that now prevails where they are found; and they are found too plentifully, and in too perfect a form, to have been transmitted to the place they now occupy, from some distant region. They required, and must have had, a much higher temperature; in other words, a much higher temperature must have prevailed, on that part of the globe, at that time. The fact doubtless is, that from the earth's primeval state, to the present time, the temperature has been constantly decreasing; sometimes very slowly, and at others very rapidly, depending on the convulsions and revolutions that have taken place.

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SECTION V. — FOURTH DAY OF CREATION.

14. And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:

15. And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so. 16. And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule

the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.

17. And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth,

18. And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good.

19. And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.

261. We would suggest what seems to us a very rational theory, that what is stated of our planet, as to its progressive formation, was also true of the other planets that make up the system; and no less true of the central body that controls and governs the rest. The sun, therefore, according to this theory, was in existence on the first day, and gave light then, as it gave light afterwards. It was not then a perfect sun, any more than the earth was a perfect earth. The one changed and improved as well as the other; and the same was true of the whole system. In process of time the whole was completed; and the system set in motion, as the writer informs us. And since it was not his purpose to give us a particular account of the other planets, but only of the earth, he therefore passes over the processes to which they were subjected; and states, in a brief and general way, the fact of their creation, and the arrangement of the whole into one great system; and he chooses the only proper time for making this statement, viz. at the completion of the work on the fourth day; though the bodies referred to, may have existed, in an imperfect state, as did the earth, at the very beginning.

262. It may be remarked, however, that the passage admits of a construction that will obviate the difficulty in another way. The past tense in the Hebrew language, was not divided, as in our own, into Imperfect, Perfect and Pluperfect; but it expressed all these by one form only; and in translating, the sense of the passage, and its connections, must determine what form of our verb to Hence, verse 16, on the passage now under consideration, may be put into brackets, and rendered thus ;

use.

[And God had made two great lights, the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night; the stars also] which would throw the creation of these bodies into the past, and make only the placing of them in the firmament of heaven, to have been done on the fourth day. We conceive that either mode of removing the difficulty is sufficient; and that the theory that would commend itself to our judgment, as most worthy of acceptance on the ground of reason, is also in harmony with the Bible account, when rightly construed.

263. Another difficulty may be noticed and removed by philosophical facts. The two great lights were placed "in the firmament of heaven;" but it will be objected that this cannot be true, as these bodies are far beyond our firmament or atmosphere. To this, it would be a sufficient reply, perhaps, to say, that the writer makes use of popular language, which is accommodated to appearances, rather than to facts, as when we speak of the sun rising and setting, though we know no such thing really occurs, but only appears to. But if the objector insists on a philosophical accuracy of language, on the part of the writer of the Bible account, we would remind him that the language here used is strictly accurate and philosophical. The lights are in the firmament of heaven, and indeed they are but a little way from us, else we could not see them, though the bodies that produce them are far away. I do not presume that our philosophical objector will claim that he can see to the distance of 95 millions of miles, or even 240 thousand miles.

As the mention of evening and morning, on the first days, proves the diurnal revolution of the globe at that time; so the reference to the seasons and years, proves the annual revolution of the earth, on the fourth day.

SECTION VI. FIFTH DAY OF CREATION.

20. And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.

21. And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly after

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their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind; and God saw that it was good.

22. And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.

23. And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.

264. The number of living creatures, great and small, that exist in the depths of the ocean, is beyond all human calculation. The waters have truly brought forth "abundantly," from the great whales, down through all forms of life to the minutest of living creatures, of which the naked eye does not take cognizance.

The statement of the writer seems to convey the idea that the waters brought forth the fowls, as well as the fishes; and there seems to be some propriety in receiving the statement in this way; for the two elements, water and air, are similar, and their respective inhabitants are constructed on similar principles. The passage, however, admits of a different construction. It may be construed thus; Let the waters bring forth abundantly, &c., and [let] the fowl fly above the earth. Again; God created great whales, which the waters brought forth, &e.; and [God created] every winged fowl, &c.

This passage speaks of marine animals; and the account of the creation of land animals is subsequent to this; and hence the relics of marine animals are found lowest in the earth, as men of science informs us. Bakewell says; "The lower series of the transition beds contain almost exclusively the remains of marine animals." Speaking of the strata above the transition, called the Secondary Formations, the same author says; "The fossil remains, in the upper secondary strata, are, with some exceptions, those of marine animals, but of different genera or species from those in the strata below them." Buckland; “The first remains of animal life, yet noticed, are marine." Bakewell, p. 7. Buckland, vol. I. p. 340.

265. The Bible record says that God created great

ment:

whales; but the term "whale" denotes any large fish or marine animal. And it must not be passed in silence, that, among marine fossils, we found animals of immense magnitude. Geologically, such animals are called "reptiles." On this subject Mantell has the following state"There was a period when the earth was peopled by oviporous quadrupeds of the most appalling magnitude. Reptiles were the lords of creation." Higgins: "There was a time in the history of our world, when these animals (reptiles) attained an appalling magnitude, and rioting in the wide expanse of waters, swayed the sceptre of uncontrolled power over all other created beings. They all appear to have existed at a period when our earth enjoyed a much higher temperature than it now possesses. Judging from the antiquity of the rocks, in which the bones of reptiles are found, they appear to have been created a long period before the viviporous animals, and at a time when the earth was unfit for animals of a higher organization." Cuvier says: -"It will be impossible not to acknowledge, as a certain truth, the number, the largeness, and the variety, of the reptiles that inhabited the sea and the land at the epoch at which the strata of the Jura (mountains) were deposited." Sir Humphrey Davy, Von Bush, Ure, and others could be quoted in favor of the same thing. It is sufficient to say that no respectable scholar, having the least acquaintance with Geological science, assumes to deny the fact stated in the Bible, that the first animal existences were both abundant in quantity and monstrous in size; and that the element to which they principally belonged, was water. Higgins, p. 257.

We may add that there is a natural reason why marine animals were not created sooner than they were, which is, that the element in which they were to live, was not till then, in a condition to receive them. Its temperature was too high; and it held in solution too many mineral substances, as the rocky strata, formed above them, clearly indicate. Nor was this element in a condition then to support animals of a higher and more perfect organization. Hence, when it became so, the huge and unsightly monsters disappeared, and more perfect races took their place.