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 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
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 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924029284399 
 
THE 
 
 CHEMICAL HISTORY 
 
 SIX DAYS OF qREATION. 
 
 By JOHN PHIN, C. E. 
 
 EDITOR OF THE * ' TECHNOLOaiST. " 
 
 "Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the Word of God ; so 
 that the things which are seen were not made of things which do appear." 
 
 — Hebrews ix:3. 
 " For if things be not as they are told in any relation, that relation must be false. And 
 if false in part, we cannot trust it either in whole or in part." 
 
 — Leslie's "Short and Easy Meikodwzth Deists." 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 
 THE TBADE SUPPLIED BT 
 
 THE AMERICAN NEWS COMPANY, 
 1870. 
 
EDterail Bfloftrflng to Act of Congresa, in the year 1870, by John Phin, in tho Olerk's Office of the DIatrloi 
 Court of the United Siatea, for the Southern Distriot of New York. . 
 
n mtmiiiixnm. 
 
 ^a^a'fb ^'fiorh^ 
 
 Teacher, 
 
 MELROSE, SCOTLAND. 
 
 " Favor is deoeittul and beauty is vain, but a woman that feareth the 
 Lord Bbe shall be praised." 
 
PREFACE 
 
 What has a worker amongst furnaces, crucibles and retorts to do with 
 a theological subject ? Much, every way ; not only on the broad ground 
 that it concerns humanity, but also because it is in the results which are to 
 be obtained only in the laboratory, that we must look for a clue to guide us 
 through much of the darkness which surrounds the history of the earliest 
 periods of creation. 
 
 The numerous attempts which have been made to reconcile the Mosaic 
 cosmogony with that indicated by modem science, testify to the deep inte- 
 rest which most thinking men feel in the subject. The first chapter of 
 Genesis has engaged the earnest efforts of the ablest and most learned of 
 our orthodox divines, and it has called forth the hostility of the most bitter 
 enemies of revelation. Alike in the covert attack of the author of the 
 "Mosaic Cosmogony" in the "Essays and Reviews," and in the coarser* 
 infidelity of Nott and Gliddon, the position is taken that the Mosaic 
 account is "not an authentic utterance of Divine knowledge, but a human 
 utterance.'' [And to-day the battle is waged as fiercely as ever. Dr. 
 Schaff, in his preface to the recent and extensive commentary of Lange, 
 states explicitly that " no other book of the Bible stands more in need of 
 an exhaustive commentary just at this time. No one is so much exposed 
 to the attacks of modem science in its temporary conflict with revealed 
 truth. We say lemporary conflict, for there can be no essential or ultimate 
 discord between science and religion, philosophy and theology. The God 
 of reason and the God of revelation is one and the same, and cannot con- 
 tradict Himself. The difficulty lies only in our imperfect knowledge and 
 comprehension of the book of nature, or of the Bible, or of both."] 
 
 * We cliaracterize tbe infidelity of Nott and Gliddon as *' coarse," because it is want- 
 ing in that liberality which leads aU rightly-constituted minds to accord a full measure 
 of courtesy to those who differ from them. TMa country is supposed to be Christian, 
 and in it there are many to whom the Bible is dear. What then are we to think of a 
 writer whose want of decency is such as to allow him to perpetrate the following parody 
 of a well-known nnrsery rhyme : 
 
 " The real question, however, posited vn logical shape, is this : — The Hebrew Moses wrote 
 the Hebrew PentateiKh. Did the Hebrew Moses write the Hebrew Pentateuch ? If the He- 
 brew Moses wrote the Hebrew Pentateuch, where is the Hebrew Pentateuch the Hebrew Moses 
 wrote?" — Ttpeb or Makkbto, p. 625. 
 
b PREFACE. 
 
 In suggesting the points of harmony between science and revelation that 
 are set forth in the following pages, the author would not be supposed to 
 assume that we have reached the ultimate results either of scientific research 
 or of biblical exegesis. But so far as the present light of science goes, we 
 have endeavored to give a correct statement of facts ; and the theory sug- 
 gested certainly accords so wonderfully with the Mosaic account that it is at 
 least impossible to say that In this matter science ia in the slightest degree 
 opposed to revelation. 
 
 We at first proposed to content ourselves with merely stating what we 
 believe to be the scientific record, as developed by the application, of chemi- 
 cal and physical principles, since the accordance which exists between this 
 record and that given by Moses is too strict and too obvious to require that 
 we should point it out. But we confess that as we proceeded in our work, 
 the temptation to depart from this intention has frequently proved too 
 strong for us. 
 
 The matter of the following little brochure has been delivered several 
 times in nearly its present form, as a course of three lectures, in Western 
 New York, during, the winter of 1866-7. In substance, however, these 
 lectures were delivered in the City of Rochester, N. T., during the early 
 part of the year 1862. 
 Havana, N, T., 1868. 
 
 POSTSOEIPT. 
 
 '• Times change, and we change with them." The following little work 
 was written at the dates above given, but has lain unpublished until the 
 present time. Since the manuscript was in reality completed, other works 
 have been published, the most noticeable of which is Lange's Commentary, 
 to which has been prefixed a very able dissertation by Prof. Taylor Lewis. 
 Oh looking over our little brochure in the light of these more ponderous 
 tomes, we find a wonderful similarity between many of the ideas, and even 
 expressions contained in the two. It may be well, therefore, to state that 
 with the exception of an interpolation in the preface (marked with brackets), 
 and the first part of Chapter I., the MS. was sent to the printer precisely as 
 it was copied from the rough draft, which was written by the author in the 
 beginning of 1868. 
 New York, 1870. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 Chap. I.— CREATION, 9 
 
 Chap. II.— MATTER AND FORCE. 22 
 
 Chap, in.— THE BEGINNING, 37 
 
 Chap. IV.^THE DATS OF CREATION, 42 
 
 Chap. V.— THE FIRST DAY, 46 
 
 Chap. VI.— THE SECOND DAT, 51 
 
 Chap. VH.— THE TEQRD DAY. THE PRIMEVAL ATMOSPHERE, 61 
 
 Chap. VHI.- THE FOURTH DAT, 79 
 
 Chap. IX.— THE FIFTH AND SIXTH DATS. 81 
 
 Chap. X.— WHENCE DID MOSES OBTAIN HIS KNOWLEDGE 
 
 OF THE ORIGIN OF THE EARTH ? 87 
 
CHAPTEK I. 
 
 A full consideration of this subject does not come within 
 the scope of the chemist's investigations. With the origin 
 of gold or iron he has nothing to do ; the physical prop- 
 erties of these bodies are all that concern him and these 
 throw no Mght upon questions relating to the source or ori- 
 gin of their being. After the first creative act has been 
 effected ; after gold, iron, oxygen, sulphur, carbon and the 
 other elements have come into existence, chemistry has 
 everything to do with the changes which they undergo and 
 produce, and with their influence on the growth and devel- 
 opment of the world of which they form a part. But 
 beyond this point chemical investigation cannot go. It is 
 true that physical science does point to a beginning ; and 
 it is equally certain that the doctrine of the eternity of 
 matter does not receive much support from chemistry and 
 physics. But in regard to all these points science has 
 nothing definite to offer. At the same time, however, there 
 are certain subjects upon which modem science throws a 
 good deal of light, even though it cannot be said to solve 
 them. Thus there has long been a dispute as to the char- 
 acter of the creation mentioned in the first verse of Genesis. 
 Some have regarded the first verse as a sort of announce- 
 ment of the calling of matter into existence out of nothing, 
 while the second and subsequent verses give an account of 
 that which may have occurred millions of years after the 
 
10 HISTOBY OF THE CREATION. 
 
 first creation. Upon this view the earth is supposed to 
 have existed for long ages in its present form, peopled with 
 the strange beings revealed by modem geology, and enjoying 
 light and an alternation of night and day, that maintained 
 a living flora and fauna on its surface. Those who adopt this 
 theory believe that at the close of this period the earth was 
 violently convulsed ; the internal fires, let loose by volcanic 
 action, came in contact with the waters of the ocean, and 
 produced vast volumes of steam and carbonic and sulphurous 
 acids. These dense vapors not only encircled the earth and 
 produced total darkness on its surface ; they also destroyed 
 all animal and vegetable life, and the earth became, in the 
 words of the text, loTiu and hohu, "without form, and void," 
 waste and desolate. The clearing away of these vapors was 
 the re-ordainrng of light and the creation of the firmament ; 
 while in the subsequent verses are described the re-ordering 
 and re-peopling of our planet. To a certain extent such 
 an hypothesis affords a fair explanation of the text ; but 
 there are in it certain deficiencies which must prove fatal 
 objections. The most prominent of these are well stated by 
 Prof. Lewisun the following passage taken from his " Spe- 
 cial Introduction to the First Chapter of Genesis," pre- 
 fixed to the American edition of Lange's Commentary: 
 
 "Another question arises. Was all the creation that 
 Moses intends to describe intra sex dies, within six days, or 
 was that part mentioned in the first verse extra dies, as it 
 must be if the six days chronologically began in the evening 
 — that is in the tohu and bohu, or when darkness was upon 
 the face of the deep ? But such exclusion would seem to 
 be in the face of the express declaration in the fourth com- 
 mandment : " In six days (within six days) God created 
 the heavens and the earth." If, then, there was anything 
 extra dies, or before the chronological beginning of the first 
 
CEBATION. 11 
 
 day, which is so distinctly marked by its evening, it could 
 not be intended here as part of this account, for from the 
 time God began this creative work (whatever it might in- 
 clude) until He rested in the evening after the sixth, there 
 were six days, be they long or short, and no more. The 
 reasoning is plain. The six days began with the evening of 
 the tohu, followed by the "I^i<"I, or command for the shining 
 of the light, which was the first act in the formation of the 
 heavens and the earth afterwards described. If, then, the 
 first verse denotes a beginning before this, it must have been 
 extra sex dies. If we would bring it within, then it must 
 be regarded as a caption to the whole account, or as a sum- 
 mary of the process afterward in detail set forth. If it is 
 without, then what is meant by the heavens and the earth 
 (especially the earth) therein mentioned ? Or it niight be 
 asked (and it would be very difficult to answer {he question). 
 What part of the first day ? or how are we to get any part 
 of the first day or first night between the i^'nU (created) of 
 the first verse and the nn"in (moved) of the second?" 
 
 The hypothesis which we have just detailed is usually 
 adopted by those who are anxious to find grounds for ac- 
 cepting six days of twenty-four hours each as the period of 
 time that comprised the work described in the second and 
 subsequent verses. If, however, we adopt the twenty-four 
 hour theory, and consider the fearful velocity with which the 
 waters must have moved on the third day, and the extraord- 
 inary convulsions which must have accoinpanied the work of 
 the second day, we shall find that we must accept a condition 
 of things as inexplicable, upon natural principles, as any sys- 
 tem involving a mere series of creative fiats. We must 
 remember, however, that the problem is not to discover how 
 God might have done this thing, but to determine how He 
 did do it. All ways would have been alike easy to Him. 
 
12 HISTORY OF THE CREATION. 
 
 But it is the province of science, as far as it has just data, 
 to roll back the history of this planet, to unfold the long roll 
 of the ages, and to discover the method and laws according 
 to which the process of creation was carried out. In attempt- 
 ing this we shall hope to be able to demonstrate that no 
 expedients are necessary in order to reconcile the simple 
 account given by Moses with the scheme that is unfolded by 
 science. 
 
 But although we cannot see any grounds for supposing 
 that the first verses and those that follow do not relate to 
 one and the same creation, it is unquestionable that some 
 of our ablest commentators have found philological intima- 
 tions that the account there given relates, not to the creation 
 of the univeree, but to a creation or some creation ; in other 
 words, to that creation with which we are more immediately 
 concerned. 
 
 That this is not improbable every scientific man will ' 
 readily allow. Our planet is not the only planet, and our 
 sun is not the only sun found in the several systems to which 
 they belong. And so there may be other stellar systems far 
 beyond the range of our telescopes — systems from which no 
 influence of any kind has as yet penetrated to us across the 
 dark abyss which divides their bounds from ours. When 
 we speak of the creation of our stellar system as the only 
 creation, we exhibit a strange ignorance of the wondrous 
 extent of space. In the stellar system to which we belong 
 there are members so remote that thousands of years elapse 
 before the light emitted by them is able to reach us, although 
 it travels at the rate of 200,000 miles per second. So that 
 perchance when we turn our eyes to the blue vault above 
 us, we receive from many a tiny star light which was emitted, 
 when Adam walked the gardens of Paradise and communed 
 with his God-given helpmeet. And yet, this vast distance, 
 
CEEATION. 13 
 
 when compared with the void that separates us from the 
 next stellar system, may be but as a step — an insignificant 
 dinding line. 
 
 One of the most sublime discoveries of modern times is 
 the universality of gravitation. But this universality has 
 been traced but to the nearest fixed star ; and far beyond 
 our stellar system there may exist stars to which gravitation 
 does not extend. It has been suraiised by modern science 
 that all forms of force are mere modes of motion either of 
 the grosser matter recognisable by our senses, or of a more 
 subtile fluid or fluids which have as yet escaped detection. 
 There are even good grounds for believing in the existence 
 of several of these fluids, each one differing from the others 
 in mobility. Thus we have succeeded in attaining a vacuum 
 so perfect that electricity cannot pass through it, and it is 
 generally believed that the space outside of our atmosphere 
 — that is, the space between the earth and the sun — ^is so 
 devoid of matter that even the subtile lightning flash cannot 
 leap across it. But no vacuum yet attained can bar the 
 passage of heat or light — ^much less of gravitation. It may 
 not be impossible, however, that in that abyss which divides 
 us from these distant creations of the Great Author of all, 
 there may exist such a perfect vacuity that even gravitation 
 cannot pass the great gulf. In this case, these distant crea- 
 tions would not affect or disturb our astronomical relations, 
 and many such creations might exist, each perfectly distinct, 
 and none interfering with the others. In the infinite 
 expanse of space a stellar system occupies a less proportionate 
 extent than does the mote in our atmosphere as it dances in 
 the sunlight. Science favors the supposition that our earth 
 and system is but one of the younger members of the great 
 family which, as children of the Almighty Creator, occupy 
 the universe. If this be so, how many creations may there 
 not have been antecedent to ours ? 
 
14 HISTORY OF THE OKEATION. 
 
 We have already remarked that with the origin or crea- 
 tion (bringing into existence) of things science has nothing 
 to do, for the simple reason that the subject lies beyond its 
 scope and power. And so too in regard to the methods 
 adopted by the Divine Creator, science is mute. We find 
 man on the earth, but (as mere scientists) we know not 
 whence he comes or whither he goes. Attempts have been 
 made in recent times to solve this problem, and the develop- 
 ment hypothesis has been propounded as a solution of the 
 mystery. We must confess that however 'much we may 
 dissent from some of the propositions put forth by those 
 who have adopted this theory, we cannot share in that theo- 
 logical timidity which raises a fresh alai-m at every new 
 solution of these old questions. Athnism is not concealed 
 in the hypothesis, but in the deductions which men draw 
 from this hypothesis. It is not because of the facts with 
 which he deals, but because of the folly of his heart that 
 the atheist says " There is no God ;" and we have good 
 authority for saying that though you bray him and his false 
 logic in the mortar of reason, among the wheat of facts, 
 with the pestle of argument, yet will not his folly depart 
 from him.* The nebular hypothesis and the development 
 hypothesis may both be true, and God still remain the 
 Creator of the universe. For He must be the author of the 
 laws according to which the development in both cases pro- 
 ceeded ; and we cannot see that His power and sovereignty 
 are exhibited in a lesser degree in creation by law than in 
 creation by fiat. 
 
 " Only let us keep to the old Hebrew modes of thinking 
 and speaking," says the writer already quoted, " and we 
 need not be afraid of naturalism. It is God's nature that 
 we read of in Genesis. If life is said to come from the 
 waters, let us remember that it was upon these same waters 
 
 "Plover', s xxvii:22. 
 
CREATION. 15 
 
 the Spirit moved in the first mysterious night of creation. 
 If it is naturalism, it is the naturalism of the Bible ; and 
 the wonder is that such plain declarations of birth, growth, 
 succession, law, generation — one thing coming out of another 
 — should have been so much overlooked. It is because the 
 Scripture doctrine of the Word, or Logos in nature has so 
 fallen out of our theology, that we dread so much the ap- 
 pearance of naturalism. In proportion as we have lost that 
 true scriptural idea of supernatural) sm, which sees no incon- 
 sistency in such blendings, are we driven to the dogmatic 
 or arbitrary supernaturalism to defend our religious ideas 
 from the equally dogmatic and arbitrary naturalism of 
 modern science. 
 
 " We have endeavored to be brief ; but the reader is 
 requested to compare the hints here given, with the unmis- 
 takable language of the scripture. Instantaneous creations 
 there might have been, for anything our reason could say to 
 the contrary ; but the actual creation in the Bible is set 
 forth as a succession. It is a series of p1~]^p or genera- 
 tions, each one revealing those unseen things of Grod from 
 which are made the things that do appear. The other mode 
 would have been to us the revelation of a fact or facts alone. 
 As we have it given unto us, it is a revelation of something 
 more and higher — of law, of process, — of artistic beauty,— of 
 architectural wisdom. It is not the power alone, but the 
 very mind of Grod that is shown to us. The one would 
 havp been a creation simply in space ; God has seen fit to 
 reveal to us a creation in time as well as in space, and this 
 is inseparable from the ideas of succession, series, causation 
 — in a word, of nature, beginning in ^the supernatural, yet 
 having its law given to it, and capable of yielding obedience 
 to that law." * 
 
 " Prof. Lewis' " Special Introduction to the First Chapter of Gene- 
 sis-" — ^Lange's Commentary, vol. 1, page 147. 
 
16 HISTORY OF THE CREATION. 
 
 And yet in the face of these sound conclusions by one of 
 oiu- most eminent commentators and theologians, it is too 
 often true that when the scientific man presents theories 
 whereby it is attempted to unveil the processes of creation, 
 many good men are apt to recoil from that which appears to 
 them little else than sacrilege ; and they even go so far as to 
 assert that all such attempts are mere covert efforts to rob 
 Jehovah of His glory, and to assign to the laws and powers 
 of dead matter the honor due unto His name. We must 
 confess that with such feelings we have no sympathy. 
 
 To the unsophisticated mind the idea is a natural one 
 that all the operations of Him who is without variableness 
 or shadow of turning ; who is the same yesterday, to-day 
 and forever, will show a certain uniformity that will indi- 
 cate identity of origin. We would not be understood as 
 saying that throughout these works there may not be great 
 diversity and wonderful variety ; but we do think that it is 
 natural to expect a certain markedness of character which 
 will indicate the work of Him who forms alike the dew- 
 drop and the universe. 
 
 Now when we examine the broad pages of the book of 
 nature, we find just such peculiarities stamped upon every 
 feature ; and amongst these peculiarities we find none more 
 sifongly marked than the law of gradual growth. Wher- 
 ever we turn we find that nature does not proceed by leaps, 
 but by gradual development. 
 
 We do not find men starting instantaneously into full- 
 groTvn manhood, like Minerva from the brain of Jupiter, or 
 the armed men from the teeth of the dragon. There is first 
 the embryo, then the child, then the man ; and, under nor- 
 mal circumstances, the man sinks into the grave by slow 
 degrees. So, too, the monarchs of the forest do not appear 
 in an instant, nor in a night, nor in a year. Thousands of 
 
CREATION. 17 
 
 years have rolled away since those tiny shoots first burst 
 their covering in the soil of California. Gradually they 
 grew, night and day, summer and winter, lending their 
 influences to favor their increase. Century after century 
 glided into the past and at length those gigantic trees, which 
 are the wonder of the world, reared their huge forms along 
 the coast of the Pacific. And what is true of men and of 
 those trees is true of all else. How long did it take those 
 diamonds to grow ? And through how many years did those 
 huge crystals of quartz attract fresh material to their shining 
 surfaces before they reached their present size and beauty P 
 
 So numerous are the examples of this truth that it needs 
 but expression to command assent. Every where in nature 
 we see that the Creator works by means of physical agents ; 
 every effect is produced by comparatively slow processes ; 
 every result is obtained by work. 
 
 Even in spiritual matters, growth, whether in grace or in 
 wickedness, is a feature obvious to every careful and candid 
 observer. Men do not become bad of a sudden, nor can we 
 attain spiritual perfection in a day. Aided by the spirit we 
 must "work out our salvation with fear and trembling, 
 adding to our faith, virtue ; and to virtue, knowledge ; and 
 to knowledge, temperance ; and to temperance, patience ; 
 and to patience, godliness ; and to godliness, brotherly kind- 
 ness ; and to brotherly kindness, charity."* 
 
 Alike in the physical and in the moral world, the divine 
 saying is true, — " The father worketh hitherto and I work." 
 As, in the case of Naaman, it was not according to the 
 divine system that the prophet should come out and stand 
 and call on the name of the Lord, his God, and strike his 
 hand on the place and recover the leper, a plan in strict 
 accordance, not only with the ideas of the idolatrous Syrian, 
 
 * 2 Peter, T., 5. 
 
18 HISTORY OF THE CREATION. 
 
 but with the ideas of most men in regard to an omnipotent 
 God, foi- few of us can see a reason for the command's running: 
 "Gro wash and be clean," instead of simply, " Be clean." So, 
 too, in the history of the creation, we find the command, — 
 "Let there be light," — standing forth in simple majesty, but 
 we may also find, on careful examination, that this com- 
 mand involved much more than the mere calling into being 
 of a luminous ether, or its equivalent. Many processes are 
 contained therein ; many laws were ordained to ensure their 
 fulfilment ; many forces were called into activity. And yet 
 whether the prophet calls upon the name of his God and 
 recovers the leper, or the aflBlicted Syrian makes a long 
 journey to wash in the waters of Jordan ; whether the 
 simple command goes forth : " Let' there be Ught," or 
 whether general laws are ordained to produce that result, 
 the necessity for the direct intervention of God is in all 
 cases the same. 
 
 Hence, it does not seem to us that the attempt to deduce 
 from natural laws an account of the process of creation can 
 be looked upon as in any sense an attempt to set mere phys- 
 ical laws above the divine agency. 
 
 Had God seen fit he could have called this universe and 
 all its inhabitants into being in an instant — in the twink- 
 ling of an eye. But he saw fit to occupy six days in the 
 work, and shall we find fault with his plans ? 
 
 There is another point which demands our attention in 
 this connection ; Granting that Jehovah is the creator and 
 upholder of the universe ; granting that he has ordained all 
 those physical laws which govern the movements and rela- 
 tions of matter and force ; have we any reason to suppose 
 that he ordained one set of laws to bear sway during the 
 period of creation, and another to regulate the world after 
 all the various movements and processes had been set in 
 action ? 
 
. CREATION. 19 
 
 We confess that, to us, the idea that such a thing could 
 be possible, is highly repugnant. To us, it seems much 
 more in accordance with all that we know of the divine 
 character, that the laws which were ordained in the first 
 creation and which He pronounced very good, should still 
 govern the universe. And, therefore, we believe that the 
 light, which first poured its rays across the dark primeval 
 abyss, was similar in its origin and in all its properties, to 
 the light which gladdens our eyes ; that the force which 
 now draws the upthrown stone back to its mother earth, 
 and causes that earth to roll in a certain definite orbit, 
 "whose foundation cannot be shaken," is the same force 
 that, on the morning of the second day, upreared the 
 spacious firmament with all the heavenly hosts. 
 
 And in all this we can see nothing which detracts from 
 the divine glory. 
 
 In the following pages we have adopted much of what is 
 known as the nebular hypothesis. Towards this hypothesis, 
 there exists, in the minds of many religious men, a feeling 
 of decided antipathy. In so far as this antipathy rests 
 upon a conviction that the nebular hypothesis is not well 
 founded, we have a great respect for it, but we feel other- 
 wise when no better argument can be advanced against it, 
 than that it is opposed to certain preconceived notions and 
 certain current interpretations of biblical statement. 
 
 This hypothesis has been branded as a concealed species 
 of atheism. It might be well, for those who entertain this 
 view, to remember that it has been received by good and 
 pious men — men who certainly cannot be accu ed of impiety, 
 much less, atheism. 
 
 Of this hypothesis, Whewell remarks, in his Bridgewater 
 treatise : "If we grant, for a moment, the hypothesis, it by 
 no means proves that the solar system was formed without 
 
20 HISTORY OF THE CREATION. 
 
 the intervention of intelligence and design. It only trans- 
 fers our view of the skill exercised and the means employed, 
 to another part of the work. For, how came the sun and 
 its atmosphere to have such materials, such motions, such a 
 constitution, that these consequences followed from their 
 primordial condition ? How came the parent vapor thus 
 to be capable of coherence, separation, contraction, solidifi- 
 cation ? How came the laws of its motion, attraction, 
 repulsion, condensation to be fixed, as to lead to a beau- 
 tiful and harmonious system in the end ? How came it to 
 be neither too fluid nor too tenacious, to contract neither too 
 quickly nor too slowly for the successive formation of the 
 several planetary bodies ? How came that substance, which 
 at one time was a luminous vapor, to be, at a subsequent 
 period, solids and fluids of many various kinds ? What, 
 but design and intelligence, prepared and tempered this 
 previously existing element, so that it should, by its natural 
 changes, produce such an orderly system ? And, if in this 
 way, we suppose a planet to be produced, what sort of a 
 body would it be ? Something, it may be presumed, 
 resembling a large meteoric stone. How comes this mass 
 to be covered with motion and organization, with life and 
 happiness ? What primitive cause stocked it with plants 
 and animals and produced all the wonderful and subtle con- 
 trivances which we find in their structure ; all the wide and 
 profound mutual dependences which we trace in their econ- 
 omy ? Was man, with his thought and feeling, his powers 
 and hopes, liis will and conscience, also produced as an ulti- 
 mate result of the condensation of the solar atmosphere ? 
 Except we allow a prior purpose and intelligence presiding 
 over this material, "primitive cause," how irreconcilable is 
 it witii the evidence which crowds upon us on every side ! 
 « « » «; » « « « tt 
 
CREATION. 21 
 
 Leaving, then, to other persons and to future ages, to 
 decide upon the scientific merits of the nebular hypothesis, 
 we conceive that this opinion cannot, in sound reason, affect 
 at all the view which we have been endeavoring to illustrate 
 — the view of the universe, as the work of a wise and good 
 Creator. Let it be supposed, that the point to which this 
 hypothesis leads us, is the ultimate point of physical science; 
 that the farthest glimpse we can obtain of the material 
 universe, by our natural faculties, shows it to us, occupied 
 by a boundless abyss of luminous matter ; still we ask, how 
 space came to be thus occupied ? If we establish, by phys- 
 icad proofs, that the first fact which can be traced in the 
 history of the world, is that " there was light," we shall 
 still be led, even by our natural reason, to suppose that 
 before this could occur, God said, " Let there be light." 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 fatter and Fat^ce, 
 
 The world in which we live may not inaptly be compared 
 to a large library, in which each rock, each plant, each 
 animal, represents a volume, more or less elaborately com- 
 posed by its Divine Author. And as, in a library, we find 
 each book made up of sentences, which, in turn, are com- 
 posed of words, while these words are themselves com- 
 pounded of a comparatively small number of letters, so in 
 nature we find that the matter of which rocks, plants and 
 animals are composed may be resolved into some seventy 
 or eighty letters or elements. A full account of these ele- 
 ments may be foujid in any of our standard works on chem- 
 istry. 
 
 But other agents besides matter are concerned in the 
 physical phenomena of the world around us. All matter 
 seems to be associated with force. The force of the sunlight 
 falling upon the leaves of the forest is absorbed, if we may 
 use the expression, and becomes associated with matter. 
 That association may continue for hundreds or for millions 
 of years and yet stand ready at any moment to be sundered 
 at the behest of more powerful agencies. Thus the carbon 
 deposited in the coal mines of Pennsylvania has lain there 
 for untold ages, but daily it is made to yield up its asso- 
 ciated powers which are again called into the roll of active 
 agencies. At one time it smelts the iron ore in the neigh- 
 boring valleys and worthless dirt is transformed into shining 
 metal through the agency of the same affinities that built 
 the mighty columns of the primeval forests ; at another 
 
MATTER AND FORGE. 23 
 
 tim3 its stores of power are evolved in t]i3 f jrm of mechanical 
 force, and the steamboat is propelled, and the lightning train 
 hurried along its iron path by means of energies which for 
 long ages have quietly slept beneath the green turf of the 
 mountain side ; while in another form it illumines our 
 streets and our assembly rooms with the buried sunlight of 
 a million years ago. 
 
 But these forces, as they exist around us, are silent and 
 apparently inactive and oftentimes we forget that they have 
 any existence ; or, if we look for them at all, we are apt to 
 seek them where they are least to be found. The great 
 works of nature are done in silence and in quiet, and we, 
 ignorant that we are, look for, the manifestations of power 
 amid noise and tumult, forgetting that the forest, whose 
 mighty trees are sufficient to form navies and build palaces, 
 was built up atom by atom, in silence and stillness. And 
 yet the labored pillars of the glorious palace of the wise king 
 of the Jews were not more wonderfully constructed or more 
 beautifully ornamented than are these living columns. 
 
 When we look for power, we seek it amidst the great 
 commotions of nature. Standing by Niagara, we regard it 
 as a peculiar instance of the immensity of divine power, 
 and so it is. But we forget that it requires more force to 
 ripen the cornfields of Ohio than would be evolved by ten 
 Niagaras. We stand by the ocean, when its billows, under 
 the influence of a wild tempest, are heaved and tossed to 
 and fro, and we look upon it with wonder and with awe ; 
 but we forget that an hour's gentle sunlight, falling • upon 
 the bosom of that same ocean and raising its waters in 
 fleecy clouds to the sky, gives out as much power as would 
 be required to produce the fiercest tempest that ever struck 
 terror to the heart of a navy. 
 
 Truly we have not yet reached the depth of meaning 
 
24 HISTORY OF THE CREATION. 
 
 contained in that wonderful vision in which the prophet 
 was taught that it is not in the whirlwind, though it be 
 great and strong, rending the mountains and breaking the 
 rocks ; not in the earthquake ; not in the fire ; but in the 
 still, small voice, -that the very presence and power of God- 
 head has its abiding place. 
 
 Consider that goblet of water — so pure, so limpid. Did 
 you ever think of its wonderful history and of the good of 
 which, during thousands of years, it has been the untir- 
 ing agent ? Long ages, before man came upon this scene, 
 it received its existence from the hand of the Great Creator, 
 and on that third morning of creation, when the seas fled 
 before the face of Jehovah, it heard and obeyed his voice, and 
 the dry land appeared. But the sun, with his burning lips, 
 kissed the bosom of the great deep and raised it in fleecy 
 clouds to 
 
 " Bear light shade, for the leaves when laid, 
 In their noon day droams." 
 
 And then it fell on the distant hill-tops and the tender 
 grass rejoiced as it sparkled in the morning sun. It rippled 
 down the mountain side and the valley smiled in beauty 
 and in fragrance ; it hung in silvery pearls on the spray, 
 and the woodland songsters sipped its nectar and warbled 
 forth their praise ; it lay in dewy drops upon the rose leaves, 
 as pure— we had almost said as beautiful as they ; more 
 baautiful still, it fluttei-ed from the clouds in pure and 
 snowy flakes and clothed the earth as with a ganueut, that 
 the tender plants might not feel the keen northern blasts. 
 
 Wherever it has gone it has carried mercy, ; nd health, 
 and pleasure. The fevered lip of the wounded warrior has 
 groaned for it ; the little child, tossing in burning delirium 
 on its pallet, has stretched forth its feeble hands for it ; it 
 
MATTER AND FORCE. 25 
 
 has laved the brow of beauty and made it more beautiful 
 still, and it has carried health and happiness to the poor 
 man's home. 
 
 And yet the contents of this goblet, so delicate that it 
 might lave an infant's cheek without injuring it ; so limpid 
 that the finest thread of gossamer might divide it and sus- 
 tain no harm, contains within its bosom, forces, which, if 
 suddenly liberated, would prove more terrible than the 
 fiercest storm. No bombshell, that ever tore up a battle- 
 field, carries more powerful elements of destruction in its 
 bosom than exists in that goblet of water. Nor is this the 
 startling paradox of the theorist. No fact in chemistry is 
 more fully substantiated than that the atoms of each drop 
 of water are held together by forces of greater energy than 
 is required to produce a powerful flash of lightning. Thus, 
 Faradiy, in his " Electrical Eesearches," tells us : 
 
 " It is wonderful to observe how small a quantity of a 
 compound body is decomposed by a certain portion of elec- 
 tricity. Let us, for instance, consider this and a few other 
 points in relation to water. One grain of water, acidulated 
 to facilitate conduction, will require an electric current to 
 be continued three minutes and three-quarters of time to effect 
 its decomposition, which current must be powerful enough 
 to retain a platina wire, 104 of an inch in thickness, 
 red-hot, in the air during the whole time ; and, if interrupt- 
 ed any where by charcoal points, will produce a very bril- 
 liant and constant star of light. If attention be paid to the 
 instantaneous discharge of electricity of tension, as illus- 
 trated in the beautiful experiments of Mr. Wheatstone, and 
 to what I have said elsewhere on the relation of common 
 voltaic electricity, it will not be too much to say that this 
 necessary quantity of electricity is equal to a very powerful 
 flash of lightning. Yet we have it under perfect command; 
 
26 HISTOEY OF THE CREATION. 
 
 can evolve, direct and employ it at pleasure ; and when it 
 has performed its full work of electrolization, it has only 
 separated the elements of a single grain of toater. 
 
 " On the other hand, the relation between the conduction 
 of the electricity and the decomposition of the water is so 
 close, that one cannot take, place without the other. If the 
 water is altered only in that small degree, which consists in 
 its having the solid instead of the fluid state, the conduc- 
 tion is stopped and the decomposition is stopped with it. 
 Whether the conduction be considered as depending upon 
 the decomposition or not, still the relation of the two func- 
 tions is equally intimate and inseparable. 
 
 " Considering this close and two-fold relation, namely, 
 that without decomposition transmission of electricity does 
 not occur ; and that, for a given definite quantity of elec- 
 tricity passed, an equally definite and constant quantity of 
 water or other matter is decomposed ; considering, also, 
 that the agent, which is electricity, is simply employed in 
 overcoming electrical powers in the body subjected to its 
 action ; it seems a probable and almost an inevitable con- 
 soquence, that the quantity that passes is the equivalent of, 
 and therefore equal to, that of the particles separated ; i. e. 
 that if the electrical power which holds the elements of a 
 grain of water in combination, or which makes a grain of 
 oxygen and hydrogen, in the right proportions, unite into 
 water when they are made to combine, could be thrown into 
 the condition of a current, it would exactly equal the current 
 required for the separation of that grain of water into its 
 elements again. 
 
 "This view of the subject gives an almost overwhelming 
 idea of the extraordinary quantity or degree of electric power 
 which naturally belongs to the particles of matter ; but it 
 is not inconsistent in the sUghtest degree with the facts 
 which can be brought to bear on this point. 
 
MATTER AND FOBCE. 27 
 
 "What an enormous quantity of electricity, therefore, is 
 required for the decomposition of a single grain of water. 
 We have already seen that it must be in quantity sufficient 
 to sustain a platina wire ^^ of an inch in thickness, red-hot,, 
 m contact with the air, for three minutes and three-quarters, 
 a quantity which is almost infinitely greater than that which 
 could be evolved by the little standard voltaic arrangement 
 to which I have just referred. I have endeavored to make 
 a comparison by the loss of weight, of such a wire, in a given 
 time, in such an acid, according to a principle and experi- 
 ment to be almost immediately described ; but the propor- 
 tion is so high that I am almost afraid to mention it. It 
 would appear that 800,000 such charges of the Leyden 
 battery, as I have referred to above, would be necessary to 
 supply electricity sufficient to decompose a single grain of 
 water ; or, if I am right, to equal the quantity of electricity 
 which is naturally associated with the elements of that 
 grain of water, endowing them with their mutual chemical 
 affinity." 
 
 But the hand of Grod has been laid on these mysterious 
 agents and we move about among them, scarcely conscious 
 of their presence. They are obeying his will and are angels 
 of mercy, not messengers of wrath. 
 
 It is true that, as ordinarily associated with matter, the 
 chemical and electrical forces are not directly obvious to our 
 senses. They exist in that condition which has been termed ^ 
 latent. Now this term latent, though a very good one in some 
 circumstances, has produced more misconception, in regard 
 to the physical forces, than any other word in use. 
 
 Take, for example, the phenomena of heat as it becomes 
 latent in steam. We all know that if water be heated, 
 after it reaches the boiling point, no subsequent addition of 
 heat produces any elevation of temperature, but the water 
 
28 HISTORT OF THE CREATION. 
 
 is gradually converted into steam, and this steam has the 
 same temperature as the water from which it was formed, 
 viz : 212° Fah. 
 
 But if we collect a pound of this steam and condense it, 
 so as to abstract the heat from it, we get enough of heat to 
 raise many pounds of water from the ordinary tempej-ature 
 to the boiling point. 
 
 Now where was this heat which disappeared in the steam 
 and reappeared again when it ■ was condensed ? We say 
 that it was latent, and we speak correctly if by latent we 
 mean that it was hid from the direct observation of the 
 senses. But if by latent we mean that it was dormant 
 and inactive, we commit a great error. Dormant, it 
 certainly was not. It had its own work to perform the 
 while and it could not do that and raise the mercury in 
 our thermometers too. It held the particles of, water 
 asunder so that they occupied nearly two thousand times 
 the space they did before, and when the power which 
 held them so apart was withdrawn, they rushed together 
 and formed either a liquid or a solid, according to the 
 amount of heat absorbed. 
 
 In the case just cited, matter and the physical forces 
 acting on it, may be compared to two athletes struggling for 
 the mastery. See how they strain, and tug, and heave. 
 Every muscle is tense, every nerve strained and their move- 
 meats are made with the celerity of thought and the sharp- 
 ness of the lightning stroke. No want of power there, no 
 lack of evidence of its existence. But now see. They have 
 clinched for the final effort, but the strength and will of each 
 is so nicely balanced, that neither has the advantage, and 
 there they stand as still and rigid as two statues carved in 
 marble. But is there no force there, or is that force dor- 
 mant ? The rigid limbs, compressed lips and unbreathing 
 effort show that if any ordinary resistance were opposed to 
 
MATTER AND FOBCE. 29 
 
 the power exerted, the opposing body would be hurled into 
 the air as from a catapult, or dashed prostrate on the earth. 
 In this case we do not associate want of power with appar- 
 ent inactivity ; we know that the very stillness denotes the 
 greatness of the exertion. 
 
 And so with the material elements. The materials com- 
 posing most of the objects around us are held together by 
 forces, which, from the very work wTdch they are perform- 
 ing, are concealed from our view. 
 
 As, in order fully to comprehend the subject of the corre- 
 lation of the forces and the relation of matter and force, it 
 is necessary that we should have clear ideas in regard to 
 what may be called latent or concealed force, we will en- 
 deavor to present the question in another, and, perhaps, a still 
 more forcible light. 
 
 It is a generally received opinion that all gases are merely 
 vapors of liquids that boil at very low temperatures. Thus, 
 while water boils at 212°, common ether boils at 96° and 
 sulphurous acid at 0°. Consequently, while water is always 
 a solid or a liquid, in all parts of the earth, ether would be a 
 permanent gas in any place where the highest tropical tem- 
 perature prevailed, and sulphurous acid is always a gas 
 except in the cold of the polar regions. Even the dense and 
 brilliant metal, mercury, when exposed to a temperature 
 sufficiently high, becomes, in reality, a perfectly colorless and 
 transparent gas, and carbonic acid gas, when exposed to a 
 temperature sufficiently low, becomes first a yellowish, oily- 
 looking liquid and then a beautiful snow-white solid. The 
 only difference, then, between common snow and carbonic 
 acid snow, is, that the one is much colder than the other, 
 while, on the other hand, the only difference between car- 
 bonic acid gas and mercuiy gas, is, that the one requires a 
 higher temperature for its existence than the other. There 
 
30 HISTORY OF THE CREATION. 
 
 are certain gases, however, which no degree of cold yet 
 reached, has reduced to the liquid, far less to the solid fonn. 
 Prominent among these are oxygen and hydrogen — the two 
 gases, that, when combined, form water. But, after it had 
 been observed that intense cold tended to reduce all gases 
 and vapors to the liquid- form, it was supposed that, if 
 hydrogen and oxygen could only be made cold enough, they 
 would become liquid too. So they were cooled with freezing 
 mixtures but still they remained in the gaseous state. Then 
 a still more powerful freezing agent (solid carbonic acid) 
 was used. But, although mercury became solid, and alco- 
 hol, unless very pure, became thick and pasty, instead of 
 clear and limpid, still hydrogen remained unaltered. After 
 a time a still more powerful freezing agent (liquified laugh- 
 ing gas) was discovered. Natterer, of Vienna, made a pow- 
 erful steel pump and pumped laughing gas into a large iron 
 receiver or bottle until it became liquified with the pressure. 
 When a little of this liquid was poured into the air it evap- 
 orated and produced the greatest degree of cold ever observed 
 — a degree of cold 257° below the zero of Fahrenheit's ther- 
 mometer. Of such a temperature we have but a very faint 
 idea. Let us begin at the temperature of our own bodies 
 and, gradually descending, by well known stages, see if we 
 can realize the fearful degree of cold that is expressed by 
 2.57° below zero. 
 
 Human existence requires a temperature in the neighbor- 
 hood of 100°, a temperature which, under ordinary circum- 
 stances, is easily maintained by the chemical and vital 
 actions going on in the system, whenever the external atmos- 
 phere does not sink below 60°. When the temperature of 
 the surrounding air falls below 60°, the animal carries on a 
 continual fight for the maintenance of its normal tempera- 
 ture. At thirty two, the contest becomes more energetic. 
 
MATTER AND FORCE. 31 
 
 Warm clothing is called into requisition, and, if the air 
 should be agitated by keen winds, the clothing must be 
 warm and the fuel (food) liberal or the animal will 
 suffer. When the temperature sinks to zero, even, on a 
 clear, still day, there are few persons that do not feel it 
 keenly, and, if any wind should be stirring, ugh ! how cold 
 it is ! But, keenly though we feel it, we have just begun to 
 descend the scale. Let us take a leap down to -40° : The 
 mercury in our thermometers will now congeal, and, if we 
 find it necessary to expose ourselves, we must encase our 
 persons in triple layers of fur. Let us take another leap, of 
 equal magnitude, and descend to -80°. This is lower than 
 any natural temperature ever observed and it is improbable 
 that human life could be long sustained in an atmosphere 
 cooled to this degree. At six degrees below this point, car- 
 bonic acid condenses to a hquid and the breath of our 
 nostrils would condense as it issued forth and would fall to 
 the ground in streams. Forty-four degrees below this point 
 carries us to -130°. If such a temperature could be pro- 
 duced over a large area, what strange phenomena would 
 present themselves ! The air would be dry — dryer than the 
 summer dust — ^for all moisture would have been precipitated 
 from it long ere this temperature had been reached. No 
 animal could breathe such air, and if plants could live and 
 perform their functions at such a low temperature, they 
 could find no sustenance in an atmosphere as cold as this, 
 for all the carbonic acid would descend to the earth as beau- 
 tiful white snow. The breath from the nostrils of every 
 animal, provided animals could exist, would yield a shower 
 of these flakes and the air would be entirely purified from 
 the products of respiration. And yet -vye are not half way 
 down to the point reached by Natterer. He went twice 
 as far, and, even then, oxygen and hydrogen did not liquify, 
 but maintained their condition as clear and beautiful gases- 
 
32 HISTORY OF THE CKEATION. 
 
 But, cold alone was not the only agent brought to bear on 
 these gases for the purpose of reducing them to the liquid 
 form. They were subjected to immense pressure, a pressure 
 far exceeding anything with which we are familiar in ordin- 
 ary life. It is well known that if water be subjected to great 
 pressure it will remain a liquid at temperatures far above 
 the boiling point, although, if exposed to the air at that 
 degree of heat, it will become a clear vapor which cannot be 
 distinguished from a true gas. Nitrogen, oxygen and hydrogen 
 are undoubtedly liquids at some very low, though unknown, 
 temperature. Their boiling point is probably a great deal 
 lower than 300° below zero ; the boiling point of carbonic 
 acid is 80° below zero ; the boiling point of water is 212° 
 above zero ; and the boiling point of mercury is 600° above 
 zero. And just as water may be heated far above 212° and 
 stiU remain a liquid, provided it be subjected to great press- 
 ure, so it was thought that oxygen and hydrogen gases 
 might be subjected to what was, for them, a very high tem- 
 perature, (-257°) and yet remain a liquid, provided the 
 pressure should remain sufficient. So Natterer constructed 
 a series of very finely made steel pumps. With one of these 
 he condensed one of the gases into a strong vessel imtil it 
 occupied but the three hundreth part of its original bulk. 
 Then, with a still more powerful pump, he condensed this 
 already dense gas so as to reduce it still further. It will 
 readily be seen, that, by employing gas in a condensed state, 
 it was much easier to force it through the valves of the 
 second pump than if gas at the ordinary pressure had been 
 used. In this way, by working with gas gradually increas- 
 ing in density, he finally obtained a pressure of 3,000 atmos- 
 pheres. Now, our readers know that the atmosphere presses 
 on each square inch with a force of 15 lbs., or rather less, 
 consequently, 3,000 atmospheres would give us 45',000 lbs.. 
 
MATTER AND rOECE. 33^ 
 
 or 22 i tons, per square inch. If we have no idea of a tem- 
 perature of 257° below zero, neither can we fully grasp the 
 enormous pressure expressed by the figures 45,000 lbs. per 
 equareinch. Most solid substances would be crushed to powder 
 under such a pressure as this. And yet to this wonderful 
 pressure did Natterer subject oxygen and hydrogen. But 
 even a cold of -257° and a pressure of 45,000 lbs. per square 
 inch made no impression on them, at least, so far as change 
 of form is concerned. 
 
 But that which Natterer, aided by all the resources of 
 modern science, failed to do, chemical affinity does instantly 
 and perfectly. Mix the gases in proper proportions and 
 bring the smallest flame into contact with them so as to 
 produce ignition and they will instantly rush together with 
 a loud report, combine and form a perfect liquid — water. 
 It is perfectly obvious that the elementary atoms of this 
 new liquid — water — must be held together by a force suf- 
 ficient to overcome their expansive force. We have seen 
 what this expansive force is capable of resisting, and con- 
 sequently we can form a comparative estimate of the power 
 of chemical affinity. If this be so, is our statement in 
 regard to the forces latent in a cup of water overcharged.'' 
 
 It is still an unsettled question whether there are various 
 forces, or whether all are not manifestations of one general 
 force. It is even a question .of dispute as to whether there 
 is such a thing at all as force, that is to say whether or not 
 force may not be merely a condition of matter. 
 
 Whatever be the theoretical view which we may take of 
 this subject, the phenomena with which we are chiefly con- 
 c rned, will remain unaffected. No future change in chemi- 
 cal theories can ever affect the fact that the gases which we 
 call oxygen and hydrogen will explode when they are mixed 
 in certain proportions and ignited ; no new views of chemi- 
 
34 HISTOBT OF THE CREATION. 
 
 <3al and electrical action can ever rob the battery of its power 
 or take away its ability to effect certain decompositions ; and 
 no new developments can ever annul the fact that when 
 the motion of a body is destroyed, its temperature is raised. 
 
 Whatever view we take of force, however, it is evident 
 that there are various modes of manifestation which differ 
 very widely amongst themselves. Heat, Electricity, Chem- 
 ical Affinity and Gravity all produce results which are mark- 
 edly different. 
 
 It has been said by some that there is such a unity in 
 nature that it does violence to our ideas of the fitness of 
 things to suppose that there can be more than one kind of 
 matter or one form of force. Such reasoning, however, is 
 obviously based upon a very naiTow generalization. 
 
 Individuality, or, in other words, diversity, rather than 
 unity, seems to be the marked feature of creation. No two 
 leaves in the forest ; no two grains of sand on the sea-shore ; 
 no two of all the individuals of the human race that ever 
 trod this earth were ever so precisely alike that a higher 
 intelligence could have mistaken one for the other. Every 
 one has been stamped with its own individuality, and we 
 see no reason why the same may not be true of the material 
 elements and of the forces. 
 
 The question of identity can only be solved by a suffici- 
 ently wide generalization of facts — not by any a priori 
 reasoning. 
 
 But, however this may be ; whether there be one force or 
 several, this much is certain, that one force can often do the 
 work of another, and so eliminate it, and as it were, set it 
 free. 
 
 Thus heat if sufficiently intense eliminates light ; chemi- 
 cal affinity gives rise to light, heat and electricity, and so on 
 of the others. This curious chain of relations is known as 
 
MATTER AND FOECE. 35 
 
 the correlation ,of the. forces and is one of the most wonder- 
 ful of all the modern developments of science. 
 
 It would be impossible to enter here into a full discussion 
 of this subject, nor is it necessary, as there are various works 
 now before the public in which the matter is fully presented. 
 We must rest content with a mere statement of the general 
 result. 
 
 Amongst all the various forms or modes of force, there is 
 only one which has not been correlated with the others, and 
 that one is gravity. Heat, Light, Electricity, Magnetism, 
 Cohesion and Chemical AflSnity may each be made to pro- 
 duce (if we may be allowed the expression) all the other 
 forms, or, at least, to modify their action. Gravity alone 
 stands aloof. But gravity is so far connected with the other 
 forces that it is capable of giving rise to motion, and this 
 motion is an efficient agent in producing the other forms of 
 force. Thus, whenever motion is arrested, heat is invariably 
 produced. And, if the heat produced be sufficiently intense, 
 light is never absent. The amount of heat and light whicli 
 can be thus produced by the conversion of motion is some- 
 thing wonderful. 
 
 The savage, by the friction of two pieces of wood, gener- 
 ates an amount of heat sufficient to produce fire ; I have 
 myself, by laying it on an anvil and striking it rapidly, 
 rendered a piece of iron sufficiently hot to inflame sulphur ; 
 the cannon balls which strike an iron target are always 
 rendered intensely hot, and in many of the experiments at 
 Shoeburyness, a brilliant flash of light was seen when the 
 ball struck the target. 
 
 But all these instances pale before the intense degree of 
 heat which the most rigorous calculation shows us would 
 be produced by arresting the motion of bodies moving with 
 the velocity of the members of our solar system. 
 
36 HISTORY OF THE CREATION. 
 
 " Our earth moves in its orbit with a velocity -of 68,040 
 miles an houi'. Were this motion stopped, an amount of 
 heat would be developed sufficient to raise the temperature 
 of a globe of lead, of the same size as the earth, 384,000 
 degrees of the centigrade thermometer. It has been prophe- 
 sied that the ' elements shall melt with fervent heat.' The 
 earth's own motion embraces the conditions of fulfillment ; 
 stop that motion, and the greater part, if not the whole, of 
 her mass would be reduced to vapour. If the earth fell into 
 the sun, the amount of heat developed by the shock would 
 be equal to that developed by the combustion of 6,435 
 earths of solid coal.' " (TyndaU.) 
 
 Whenever, then, bodies are in motion and this motion is 
 destroyed, heat and light are the result. If we find no heat 
 and no light, we may be certalin that no bodies are falling 
 together in obedience to the other forces. Hence, when we 
 are told that " darkness was upon the face of the deep " 
 (abyss,) we feel certain that in that abyss, either the physi- 
 cal forces were not, or their powers were held in abeyance. 
 
CHAPTEK III. 
 
 Science, as well as reYelation, points to a " beginning." 
 Geology points to a time when man did not inhabit the 
 earth — when for him there was a beginning. So too for 
 lower organisms ; so too for the rocky minerals ; so to6 for 
 the round world itself. That it has existed for a finite and 
 definite, although unknown, period, all science testifies ; and 
 revelation tells us that it was made by Grod, and that at 
 first it was " without form, and void." The precise mean- 
 ign of this term " without form, and void," is still under 
 discussion, although commentators seem generally inclined 
 to accept the form "waste and desolate'' — a term which 
 certainly complies with all the requirements of the original 
 language. But at the same time, if what we mean by 
 " waste and desolate " — that is, if a universal Sahara ful- 
 fils the condition indicated by the words " without form and 
 void," much more does that state in which science indicates 
 that the world at first existed. We must remember that 
 the terms are meant to be emphatic ; that not only man, 
 but animals and plants were as yet uncreated. Even the 
 dry land had not appeared, and there was no division of the 
 waters which were under the firmament and the waters 
 which were above the firmament. A mere desert, or a sim- 
 ple globe covered with water, would hardly comply with the 
 conditions here required. We are afraid that those who 
 adopt the terms " waste and desolate," as equivalent to 
 " without form, and void," introduce into their ideas too 
 
38 HISTORY OF THE CREATION. 
 
 mucli of the feeling that localities in which the wants of 
 humanity can not be supplied, may be called " waste and 
 desolate." Such thinkers should remember that many 
 things were pronounced good by God before man's require- 
 ments had presented themselves. 
 
 "It would not be a painful, but a pleasant thing, surely, 
 to learn that some of the stars, such as the new planet 
 Flora, were great gardens, like Eden of old before Adam 
 was created ; gardens of God, consecrated entirely to vege- 
 table life, where foot of man or beast had never trod, nor 
 wing of bird or insect fanned the breeze ; where the trees 
 never crackled before the pioneer's torch, nor rang with the 
 woodman's axe — but every flower was 
 
 ' Born to blush unseen, 
 And waste its sweetness on the desert air.' 
 
 Neither is it the remembrance of the Arabian Nights, nor 
 thought of Aladdin's lamp, that makes us add that we 
 should rejoice to learn that there was such a thing as an 
 otherwise-uninhabited star, peopled solely by magnificent 
 crystals. What a grand thing a world would be containing, 
 though it contained nothing else, columns of rock crystal 
 like icebergs, and mountains of purple amethyst, domes of 
 rubies, pinnacles and cliffs of emeralds and diamonds, and 
 gates and foundations of precious stones, such as John saw 
 in the Holy Jerusalem descending out of heaven ! All who 
 reach the happy land ai-e to enter heaven as little children ; 
 and it may please God, besides other methods of instruc- 
 tion, to teach His little ones His greatness and power by 
 showing them such a world as we have imagined."* 
 
 Planets answering to this description could not be said to 
 be " without form, and void," nor would they to the eye of 
 
 * Religio Chemici, p. 53. 
 
THE BEGINNING. 39 
 
 God be " waste and desolate." Let us then retrace the 
 history of our planet and endeavor to discover a period at 
 which it could be said of it that it was " without form and 
 void." 
 
 At this period it was evidently not any such earth as that 
 which we now see beneath our feet — flowers springing up 
 on every hand, purling brooks winding their way back to 
 their great mother the ocean ; an earth filled with the sing- 
 ing of birds, and across whose thousand hills the cattle roam. 
 Nay, more than all that ; an earth in which is enshrined 
 the hopes and fears, the loves and hates, the aspirations and 
 despondencies of uncounted hosts ; an earth filled with 
 humanity on its surface, and beneath whose sod lie the 
 graves of interred millions, with all their hopes of a glo- 
 rious resurrection. Nothing like tins ; for of such an earth 
 it could not be said that it was " without form, and void." 
 
 Was it then when huge volcanic masses lay piled in 
 gigantic heaps over the face of the earth ? when as yet the 
 softening influence of time had not weathered the rough 
 mountain's, brow, whose blasted and withered surface was 
 seamed by many a lightning stroke ? when dense gases and 
 hot vapors gushed from a thousand springs, and produced 
 black and heavy clouds, which wrapped the whole earth in 
 darkness, shut out the light of day, and cast back the red 
 and lurid gleams of unnumbered volcanoes, as with fitful 
 flashes they lit up the horrid scene below ? when steaming 
 rivers rolled their muddy streams over fiery beds to a seeth- 
 ing ocean ? when, instead of crystal lakes and pellucid 
 ponds, the valleys held but the boiling and foaming caput 
 mortuum of a Titanic distillation ? when no wing clove the 
 murky air, and no sound was heard save the heavy boom of 
 volcanic explosions.? Even then the earth had "form," 
 and it was not " void ;" "and to a higher intelligence, free 
 
40 HISTORY OF THE CREATION. 
 
 from the physical wants of humanity, it would not have 
 been either "waste" or "desolate." The physical laws or- 
 dained by the Creator bore sway over every part, and the 
 most perfect order governed every phenomenon — the growth 
 of crystals, the flow of streams, and the condensation of 
 vapor. 
 
 Was it then while this globe hissed through space a fiery 
 mass of molten matter, and, like a baleful star, threw her 
 red and glaring light upon her sister planets ? Not even 
 then, for liquid though it was, it had form and shape. Are 
 the pearly dew-drops which at dawn glisten in the rays of 
 the new-bom day without form ? Far from it. Beautiful 
 they are in their purity and pellucid yet silvery lustre ; but 
 lovely they are too from their perfect /orm. 
 
 In none of these conditions, then, could the earth have 
 been said to be without form ; therefore we conclude that 
 the beginning to which science and revelation alike point, 
 was a period when this round world had no being as such ; 
 to a time when its atoms had not been brought together ; 
 to an age when it existed merely as floating vapora — the 
 laws of gravitation not having as yet arranged its atoms, 
 and the laws of chemistry not having united the elements 
 of which it is composed ; in a word, to a period when it was 
 reaUy " without form and void," and when darkness was 
 over the abyss in which it lay. 
 
 It is evident that by the heavens and the earth is here 
 meant simply the material universe. Heaven, we are told, 
 was the work of the second day ; and on the ordinary sys- 
 tems of interpretation, this fact introduces some confusion. 
 But if we accept the terms " heavens and earth " in their 
 ordinary sense, as meaning simply the materials of which 
 the earth, sun, moon and stars are composed, we shall find 
 that all confusion disappears. The earth, sun, moon and 
 
THE BEGINNING. 41 
 
 Stars themselves were not at this time created as distinct 
 iadividuals, but, called into being at the fiat of Him who 
 " made not the things which are seen out of things which 
 do appear," the materials of which they are composed 
 floated through space as mere nebulous matter — utterly 
 inactive, and utterly dark. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 The Bat).s sxi l^vmiinn. 
 
 As nia_v be seen in the works of Nott & Gliddon, quoted 
 in a subsequent page, the infidel and the scoffer have ridi- 
 culed beyond measure the idea of there being " days " and 
 light before the creation of the Sun, and even the learned 
 father, Augustine, long before Geology had made any claims 
 to the rank of a Science, exclaimed, in reference to the days 
 before the creation of the Sun, " What mean these days, 
 these strange, sunless days ?" Indeed no point connected 
 with the Mosaic record has given rise to more discussion 
 than the nature and duration of the days of creation. In 
 general, two meanings have been applied to the word day. 
 By some it has been held to mean a day of twenty-four 
 hours, while othei's have regarded it as signifying an indefi- 
 nite period, embracing many such days. The latter definition 
 has been adopted by most of those authors who have sought 
 to reconcile the Mosaic and the Geologic records, while the 
 fiist definition has in general found favor v^ith linguists and 
 theologians, and those who fail to appreciate the force of 
 scientific evidence. Thus the learned Hebraist, Kalisch, 
 says : " It is philologically impossible to understand the 
 word day in any other sense than as a period of twenty-four 
 hours." 
 
 To us it seems that, if language has any definite meaning 
 at all, the term day has been so fully defined by the in- 
 spired author as to leave no doubt as to its meaning. Let us 
 
THE DAYS OF CREATION. 43 
 
 see what that definition is. In verses 4 and 5 we read : 
 " And God saw the light that it was good ; and God divided* 
 the light from the darkness. And God called the light, day, 
 and the darkness he called night, and the evening and the 
 morning were the first day ;" (or, as the passage may he 
 more literally rendered — " and there was evening and there 
 was morning — day one.") 
 
 Here it will be observed that in conformity with common 
 usage we have two distinct meanings given to the word day. 
 By day in the first instance is meant that period of light 
 which succeeds the darkness or night, while in the second 
 the word day includes also a period of darkness or night, 
 just as we say ten days — ^meaning thereby ten days and ten 
 nights — the word day here including both. 
 
 In its broader sense then, a day is here defined as a period 
 of darkness and a period of light, and the duration of these 
 combined periods is not, by any means, confined to twenty- 
 four hours, either in common language or in the words of 
 the text. 
 
 Was the day in which Joshua smote the Amorites not a 
 " day," because its duration was nearly doubled ? The 
 sacred writer calls it a day, although he tells us that " there 
 was no day like that before it nor after it." And when we 
 go to the North Pole and find the Sun circling round the 
 horizon for months without any evening or darkness, must 
 we do violence to the sacred definition, and say : sometimes 
 
 * Tbe word bere rendered, divided, may perhaps be more properly translated, dis- 
 Hnguished butween. We do not propose to base our interpretation of this chapter upon 
 any forced translation of the sacred text, and we would not have suggested the above 
 alteration if the amended form which we propose, had not been very old and common. 
 
 in an old bible published at Basle, in 1534, we find the following Latin translation of 
 the Hebrew text — the original and the translation 'being printed in parallel columns. 
 (We give it verbatim et literatim;) — "In principio creavit deus coelum & terra. Terra 
 ante erat informis & inanis, & tenebrae erant super facie abyssi: & spiritus dei movebat 
 se super facie aquaram. Bixitque deus : fiat lux k facta est lux.— Et vidit deus lucem 
 quod esset bona : & distinxit (distin^ighed) deus inter lucem & inter tenebras. Vocavitque 
 deus lucem diem, & tenebras vocavlt nocte: & fuit vespera fuitque mane diesunus." 
 (And evening was and morning was one day.) 
 
44 HISTORY OF THE CBEATION. 
 
 evening and morning are one day, but in higher latitudes 
 one morning is long enough to make a great many days ? 
 Yet we certainly cannot see how this is to be avoided if we 
 adopt the definition given by Kalisoh and others. 
 
 But let us consider particularly fhejirst day and examine 
 the biblical definition of a day, as applied to it. The in- 
 spired author tells us that in the beginning there was 
 darkness upon the face of the deep, and then he adds that 
 God said " Let there be light," and there was light ; and 
 further we are told that " the evening and the morning were 
 the first day." The question then occurs, does the evening 
 here mentioned cover the entire period of darkness alluded 
 to as existing prior to the ordaining of light ? And if not, 
 by what authority are twelve hours more or less detached 
 from this long period and called the first evening ? And if 
 it be claimed that the first " evening " covers the whole 
 period of preceding darkness, then by what authority is it 
 claimed that this darkness was limited to twelve hours or 
 twenty-four hours or twenty-four billions of hours, and, con- 
 sequently, where is any authority found for limiting the 
 duration of the first day to twenty-four hours ? At present 
 we find that every twenty-four hours brings round a period 
 of light and a period of darkness, which we call a day. 
 The duration of this period is governed by the rotation of 
 the earth on its axis, and with us, therefore, a day is twenty- 
 four hours. Suppose that some cause other than the rotation 
 of the earth should produce the alternation of night and 
 day, would the diuation of the day still be iwenty-four 
 hours, or might it be something else P 
 
 To us it seems clear, beyond all possibility of doubt, that 
 God has not seen fit in this case to define a day to be twenty- 
 four hours, nor does he declare that it depends upon the 
 period required by the earth for a rotation upon its axis ; 
 
THE DAYS OF CREATION. 45 
 
 and those wlio superadd these conditions to his definition 
 evidently exhibit a disposition to be wise sCbove that which 
 is written. Indeed we are expressly told that the Sun did 
 not govern the day until the fourth period, and hence to us 
 it seems obvious that a day is simply an evening and a 
 morning — a period of darkness and a period of light ; and 
 that the duration of such day is not at all limited by any 
 thing contained in the text. 
 
 In this connection we may note the peculiarity of ar- 
 rangement — the evening being placed before the morning — 
 an unusual thing with us and evidently based upon the fact 
 that in the order of creation, evening preceded morning — 
 darkness was before light.* 
 
 Now if we can find in the scientific record of creation, 
 six periods of darkness and six periods of light-: if further 
 we find that during the first four or five of these periods, 
 the work indicated by science and the work laid down by 
 Moses agree most perfectly, while for the fifth and sixth 
 the probability of agreement is very great, does not the 
 evidence as to the truth of the Mosaic account, and the 
 correctness of our interpretation of it, amount almost to 
 a demonstration. 
 
 We hope to present strong scientific grounds for the belief 
 that there were six such periods of darkness and light during 
 the creation of this globe, and that these periods coincide 
 .exactly with the six days of Moses. 
 
 Upon the value of this evidence in favor of the divine 
 origin of the Pentateuch, it is unnecessary to enlarge. We 
 therefore proceed to an examination of the process of crea- 
 tion as indicated by science, comparing it day by day with 
 the record given by Moses. 
 
 * We are aware of the peouliaritieB of Eastern nations in this respect, and also of 
 the Gothic nations in numbering by nights instead of days, (fortnight, se'nnight, &o.,) 
 and winters instead of years, but this does not detract from the coincidence in the text. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 Tbe First Baij:. 
 
 We have already observed that the statement " Darkness 
 was upon the face of the deep," indicates the entire absence 
 of active physical force. If either chemical action, gravity, 
 or any other of the known forms of force had been at work, 
 light would have been produced, and the universe would 
 not have lain in darkness. But God had not as yet seen fit 
 to call these forces into action. Whether they existed at all 
 or not is a question that lies beyond the reach of human 
 knowledge. They may have existed from that beginning 
 when God created the heaven and the earth ; or they may 
 have been called not only into activity, but into being at 
 that word of the Almighty which commanded the burst- 
 ing forth of light. By ordinary minds it is not found 
 impossible, or even difficult, to conceive of matter as existing 
 without associated force. We see two bars of steel — one 
 powerfully magnetic, and the other perfectly free from mag- 
 netism. Yet one is just as much steel as the other. And 
 so of electricity, light, heat, etc. Excellent philosophers 
 have entertained the idea of an absolute zero, at which 
 bodies were divested of all heat, and became mere matter — ■ 
 so far as that particular form of force is concerned. 
 
 And so too of gravity. True we find no case in which 
 bodies do not exert an attraction for surrounding masses, 
 but we find no difficulty in conceiving of two bodies which 
 would lie side by side forever in a quiescent condition. And 
 yet a well-known writer on chemical subjects states that it 
 is impossible even to think of matter unassoci ted with 
 force. 
 
THE FIRST DAY. 47 
 
 This point, however, although one of deep interest, does 
 not greatly affect our present subject. The Mosaic record 
 tells us that at one time darkness was upon the face of the 
 deep, and science eq[ually declares that matter was most 
 probably diffused through space in the form of atoms which 
 did not act upon each other. Under any circumstances, it 
 is more than probable that if gravity had not yet acted upon 
 the atoms of this floating matter, neither had chemical 
 affinity. Let us then consider what would be the effect of 
 calling into action the forces which we have mentioned, and 
 also what would be the order of the phenomena. 
 
 Such a consideration carries us back in imagination to 
 that beginning when the "heavens and the earth" had just 
 been created ; but when as yet there was no sun, no moon, 
 no stars — nothing but a vast abyss, thinly peopled by the 
 ultimate atoms of matter ; the whole universe being envel- 
 oped in darkness, compared with which the gloom of the 
 darkest night is but a cloudy day. It was truly the reign 
 of Nox and Erebus. There was no motion, no heat, no 
 sound, no life. i^"othing existed but dead matter and that 
 Spirit who 
 
 " from the first 
 
 Was present, and, with mighty wings outspread. 
 Dove like sat brooding on the vast abyss, 
 And made it pregnant." 
 
 But now the fiat of the Almighty goes forth. He says 
 " Let there be light," and instantly throughout the wide 
 expanse is felt the force of new activities, while morning — 
 the first morning of creation — breaks over all. 
 
 Soft and nebulous at first, it lights up the dark corners of 
 the universe with the beauty of a summer twilight. Grad- 
 ually it increases, until the heavens are aglow, and light 
 more brilliant than the fiercest tropic noon exists everywhere. 
 
48 HISTOEY OF THE CREATION. 
 
 Not light from a sun here, and a star there, pouring their 
 feeble rays across the darkness — ^for as yet there was no sun, 
 no moon, no stars — but light everywhere, until space itself 
 seemed to be luminous with light so bright that the beams 
 of the sun himself, if he had then existed, would have been 
 drowned in the radiant flood. 
 
 By what process was this result attained ? Light, as we 
 have seen, may be the result of many different physical pro- 
 cesses. Prominent amongst these are chemical affinity and 
 mechanical action — the latter, in most of the cases occur- 
 ring in nature, being due to the influence of gravity. 
 
 Now let us suppose that the expression " Let there be 
 light," is but a modified form of the command " Let the 
 physical forces act upon matter ;" the one being the expres- 
 sion of the means, while the other, in more sublime form, 
 simply states the result. Instantly the atoms throughout 
 the universe would fall toward each other. It is true that 
 they would also fall toward some one or more definite cen- 
 tre or centres ; but on their path toward these centres they 
 would undoubtedly fall towards each other — just as two 
 balls of lead or other heavy substance, suspended by two 
 strings, are attracted, not only by the earth, but by each 
 other, and consequently never under such circumstances 
 hang perfectly plumb. They would thus be brought within 
 the sphere of chemical action ; and combustion, with the 
 production of light and heat, would .be the result. That 
 most of the elements would enter into combination by mere 
 contact, and without the agency of a preparatory elevation 
 of temperature, is beyond all doubt. Iron and lead, when 
 reduced to a sufficiently fine state of division, burn when 
 simply poured into the air. The metals of the alkalies 
 combine with oxygen, even when in masses of considerable 
 size ; and, at all ordinary temperatures, chlorine enters into 
 
THE FIRST DAY. 49 
 
 CQmbination with most of the metals, in whatever way 
 they may be presented to it. 
 
 It is therefore tolerably certain that if iron, lead, magne- 
 sium, calcium, aluminium, and the other easily-oxidable 
 metals were mixed with oxygen, chlorine, &c., in the state 
 of gas or vapor — as they would be if freed from the influ- 
 ence of cohesion and gravity — as soon as gravity, cohesion 
 and chemical affinity were set in operation, they would move 
 towards each other ; combination would ensue, and we 
 would have an almost infinite number of small masses, 
 which, from the intense chemical action, would be in a state 
 of ignition, and whose particles, when they had cooled to 
 the proper temperature, would be held together, not only by 
 gravity, but 'by cohesion. Such masses would probably re- 
 semble our meteorites ; and when they had become cold, 
 they would give off no light when merely existing in space 
 or passing through it, unless a multitude of them were 
 brought together, or unless they became heated by passing 
 through the denser atmosphere of some large body, like the 
 sun or the earth. 
 
 It is also more than probable that this state of chemical 
 action would go on throughout the whole universe. It is. 
 very unlikely that it would commence at any definite center, 
 and consequently we have every reason for believing that 
 the entire universe was filled with one glow of light. The 
 amount and intensity of light which would be produced by 
 such a conflagration is something of which we can form but 
 a feeble conception. The following illustration may serve 
 to convey some faint idea of the intensity of the light of the 
 first day : 
 
 The one-thousanth part of a pound of magnesium wire, 
 burned in the open air, vrill give a light which will last 
 during one second, and can be seen at a distance of thirty 
 
50 HISTORY OF THE CEEAT10^. 
 
 miles. It will illuminate a large hall so that the furthest 
 corners will be brilliantly lighted. If then we take into 
 consideration the single metal magnesium, and reflect upon 
 the amount and intensity of the light which would be pro- 
 duced by the combustion of the quantity which enters into 
 the composition of the rocks which form many of our moun- 
 tain ranges, we cannot fail to see that the combustion of the 
 other metals, together with the carbon (now existing as 
 coal, carbonates and carbonic acid), sulphui', phosphorus, 
 &c., of our earth alone, would illuminate a very large space 
 in the heavens. The earth, however, forms but a small 
 fraction of the enormous stores of light-giving material 
 which were consumed when G-od said " Let there be light." 
 Nay, even the sun, whose mass is equal to that of 354,936 
 earths like ours, is but an infinitesimal portion of the whole. 
 
 And by these means, doubtless, it pleased G-od to produce 
 the light of the first day — ^that day which was called into 
 being, not by the creation of the 'sun, but by simply calling 
 into action the physical forces. Can any one reflect on 
 these things and say that our description of the first day 
 is exaggerated ? 
 
 The account given by Moses of this first day is unequalled 
 for its beautiful simplicity and its strict accuracy. True, it 
 has been ridiculed beyond measure — but only by men who 
 were ignorant alike of the power of God and the first prin- 
 ciples of chemistry. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 The Secarxd Batj. 
 
 But the first day gradually draws to a close, and night 
 comes on apace. What, then, were the causes which gave 
 rise to the second period of darkness and the second period 
 of light — that darkness and that light which has been de- 
 scribed in the words, "and the evening and the morning 
 were the second day ?" 
 
 In addition to the chemical action which we have de- 
 scribed, there would be another agency at work tending to 
 produce light and lieat. This would be the mechanical 
 action produced by the motion of the particles towards each 
 other, and which would be converted into heat when these 
 particles came together. 
 
 At first, however, but little light would be produced by 
 this agency. The motion towards each other of the masses 
 which we have described, would, during the first few mil- 
 lions of years, be unquestionably very slow ; and not until 
 a sufficient amount of matter had accumulated rouni some 
 definite centre or centres, would any light at all be given off. 
 
 It is a truth taught in every public school, that bodies 
 existing in space attract each other with a force which is 
 directly as the masses and inversely as the squares of their 
 distances from each other. Experience has taught us that 
 by most persons who have not given particular attention to 
 the subject, gravity is regarded as a very powerful force, 
 whereas it is, in a certain sense, one of the feeblest. Com- 
 
52 HISTORY OF THE CREATION. 
 
 pare it, for example, with the force of cohesion. The attrac- 
 tion which exists between a single layer of particles extend- 
 ing across a very slender wire of steel, is much more powerful 
 than the attraction which exists between even such a large 
 body as the earth and another body of the size and weight 
 of a man. This is shown by the fact that the weight of a 
 man may be suspended from such a wire without breaking 
 it. While therefore the attraction of gravity, when exerted 
 by such accumulations of matter as the sun, or even the 
 earth, is very powerful, between masses of small size, 
 situated at great distances from each other, it is almost im- 
 perceptible. 
 
 It is not too much to say that two masses of the size of 
 the largest meteorite that ever descended to our earth, if 
 placed on opposite sides of the orbit of Neptune, would not 
 attract each other with a force sufficient to move the most 
 delicate chemical balance ; and during the first few millions 
 of years, it is improbable that their rate of motion towards 
 each other would be such as would be perceptible to the 
 keenest human vision, aided by a powerful microscope. But 
 that they would tend towards each other with gradually- 
 increasing velocrty, does not admit of doubt ; and after a 
 period of time of sufficient length, they would approach 
 each other with a velocity greatly exceeding that of the 
 swiftest cannon ball. 
 
 An important question now suggests itself. Would the 
 light resulting from the gradual condensation and falling 
 together of these masses begin to illuminate the heavens 
 before the light produced by the union of the elements 
 under the influence of cohesion and chemical affinity had 
 entirely died away ? 
 
 At first, as we have just remarked, the motion of these 
 small masses or atoms towards a common centre, would be 
 
THE SECOND DAT. 53 
 
 very slow. No definite centre* marked by a powerful 
 attracting mass, would exist, and not until the contents of 
 a space probably as large as the present solar system had 
 been concentrated together, would any great light or heat 
 have been produced. In making this estimate we are 
 guided by general considerations in regard to the probable 
 amount of matter existing in a definite space. If we sup- 
 pose our sun and solar system to be a fair example of the 
 numerous other systems which surround us, ^e must con- 
 clude that the proportion of matter to space originally 
 existing in a nebular form was exceedingly small. The 
 nearest fixed star is not less than, 20,000,000,000 miles dis- 
 .tant. Suppose for an instant that our sun, with its 
 attendant planets, were suddenly resolved into vapor, and 
 made to fill equably a sphere of this diameter. Such calcu- 
 lations as we have been able to make, lead us to conclude 
 that the atmosphere created by such a process would not 
 exceed in density the vacuum produced by a good ordinary 
 air-pump. 
 
 Consider then, if you will, the incredibly slight force 
 which would tend to collect the atoms or small compound 
 masses throughout this space. Millions of years would 
 probably elapse before the formation of a nucleus containing 
 as much matter as exists in the little planet Hestia, on which 
 a ton of matter would weigh but a few pounds, and upon 
 whose surface a mass of iron would fall with a shock scarcely 
 perceptible. 
 
 And during this period, instead of each small meteorite 
 rushing with lightning-like velocity to its destination, and. 
 glowing with fierce heat from atmospheric resistance, it 
 
 *A central mass would not be neceBsary for the mere attracting of tlie distant 
 masses. The common centre of gravity of the whole woxild probably be sufficiently defi- 
 nite to effect this. But a central nucleus -^buld be necessary for the conversion of the 
 motion of these small masses into light and heat. 
 
54 HISTOEY OF THE CREATION. 
 
 would pass through a comparative vacuum, and would 
 finally fall on the attracting mass more like a downy feather 
 on the placid surface of a lake, than like the fierce plunge 
 of a solid body against a sun or planet. 
 
 No person of sound judgment can consider all the circum- 
 stances attending the first aggregation of matter, without 
 perceiving that the process must have been an exceedingly 
 slow one. Millions and millions of years must have passed 
 away before the accumulations round any central point of 
 attraction could contain as much matter as exists in our 
 own sun ; and long ere this the primeval fires must have 
 died of sheer exhaustion, the small meteoric masses pro- 
 duced by the first combustion must have cooled, darkness-^ 
 even the blackness of ashes — wrapped the universe in its 
 gloom, and the first day came to a close. 
 
 Who dares to assert that that day was one of 24 hours .'' 
 That twelve hours bounded the night which brooded over 
 the face of ci-eation from the beginning, when God called 
 the heavens and the eaith into being," until that morning 
 when he said, " Let there be light, and there was light." 
 
 Who shall dare to say that that light which produced the 
 first day, and which illumined the universe when as yet 
 there was neither sun, moon nor stars, was bounded in its 
 duration by 12 hours, or 24 hours, or 24 millions of years ? 
 God does not so bound it. He tells us that it was a period 
 of darkness, and a period of light, and that he was pleased 
 to give it the same name that we apply to similar alterna- 
 tions of light and darkness on our globe. But as to its 
 duration, nothing whatever is said. 
 
 It is not impossible that the time may come when we 
 shall be able to determine its duration with as groat accuracy 
 as we are able to determine any other large quantity. We 
 have weighed some of the stars in balances, measured their 
 
THE SECOND DAY. 55 
 
 distances, and obtained a clue to their chemical composition. 
 And the time may perhaps arrive when all the data neces- 
 sary for determining the length of the first day shall be 
 within our reach. But not yet. 
 
 And now night has again wrapped the universe in its 
 embrace ; and darkness, but not inaction, has fallen over 
 all. Still that distant centre continues to attract the float- 
 ing masses. The nearer ones fall into it, increase its bulk 
 and add to its power. Gradually through that long night 
 it enlarges, untU at length the falling meteors no longer 
 glide gently to its surface. Across untold distances it 
 attracts the quiescent masses, and draws them towards it by 
 a subtle chain. Gently and almost imperceptibly they 
 move at first, but gradually their velocity increases, and at 
 length they dash against the central mass with a force which 
 gives rise to light and heat, and lo ! a faint star rises on the 
 gloom, and day again begins to dawn ! 
 
 But faster and faster these falling masses come. The 
 faint speck of light is becoming a sun, and at length, after 
 a period of whose length we can form but a faint idea, it 
 glows ^vith a light, compared with which the beams of our 
 sun are but as twilight — ^and the second day, with its pros- 
 pective work, is fully ushered in. 
 
 And here an interesting question arises : Would the 
 morning light of this day be produced by one sun, or by 
 several ? Or in other words, would there be one great cen- 
 tre of attraction for all these masses, or would there be 
 many ? 
 
 It is true that this question does not materially affect the 
 value of our general deductions, but it is a point which 
 possesses features of deep interest. We confess that we 
 incline to the belief that all the matter which now con- 
 stitutes the sun and moon and stars, as well as our own 
 
56 HISTORY OF THE CREATION. 
 
 earth, was at one time collected together in one central 
 sphere — that central sphere being probably the great central 
 sun around which recent astronomical discoveries indicate 
 that our solar system is revolving. Our grounds for this 
 supposition are these : 
 
 If the existing matter had primarily fallen towards two 
 or more grand centres, what was there to prevent these 
 centres from falling together ? In the case of our solar 
 system we know that the earth and planets are kept from 
 falling together by centrifugal force, which opposes the 
 action of gravity and balances the system as a whole. But 
 here let us state for the benefit of the non-scientific reader 
 that this centrifugal force is not one of the natural forces, 
 like gravity or cohesion, but is dependent for its existence 
 upon that tendency which all bodies have to continue in 
 motion in straight lines. The centrifugal force which keeps 
 the planets at a distance from the sun has its origin in the 
 motion which was first produced by the action of gravity, 
 and we cannot conceive of any mutual dependence and 
 balance existing between bodies which were not, in the first 
 instance, connected as are our own sun and its planets. 
 
 We regard it, therefore, as almost certain that our sun 
 bears the same relation to some more distant centre that the 
 earth does to the sun, and the moon to the earth. Nay, it 
 is not impossible that instead of our being in a secondary 
 or tertiary system, there may be many systems above us ; 
 that our sun is but a planet in the great starry system 
 which surrounds us, and that even this starry system itself 
 is but one of many systems of suns, which, with their 
 planets and satellites, revolve round some more distant 
 centre. 
 
 A study of the physical laws which govern the universe 
 teaches us that unless the original nebulous matter was 
 
THE SECOND DAY. 57 
 
 equally diffused through space, this central sun would, from 
 the very nature of its origin, acquire a rotatory motion on its 
 axis. This motion would become more rapid as the mass 
 acquired a greater degree of concentration, and at last the 
 velocity would become so great that the centrifugal force of 
 the exterior portion of the mass would balance the tendency 
 to fall towards the centre ; a ring would consequently form 
 round the equatorial belt, and, at length, a sun or a star 
 would be separated from the primal mass. This sun or star 
 would remain in space, but, as the distance between it and 
 the parent mass became greater in consequence of the con- 
 traction of the latter, it would fly off further, and would, 
 at. the same time, revolve on its own axis while it continued 
 to revolve in an orbit a little larger than the size of the 
 original ring. As it cooled, the rapidity of its axial rotation 
 would increase, until at last, it, too, would give off secondary 
 suns or stars, while the first or parent mass would still con- 
 tinue to give off other suns, which would bear the same 
 relation to the globe first given off that Saturn and the 
 other planets bear to Neptune. And so in descending series 
 the process would go on. As previously stated, it is impos- 
 sible for us to tell in which of all these series we are found. 
 That our sun revolves around some distant centre, recent 
 investigations have placed beyond all doubt, and, if this be 
 so, then unquestionably there are other bodies of the 
 same character as our sun, pursuing a similar journey. And, 
 it is not at aU impossible that the centre around which we 
 revolve is but a secondary or tertiary sun in the grand 
 scheme of the universe ; that the system of stars which, 
 each night unfolds to our view, is but one system amongst 
 many others, which through countless ages have pursued 
 their silent course around that great primal sun, whose 
 beams constituted the source of light of the second day. 
 
58 HISTORY OF THE CREATION. 
 
 In proceBB of time our sun would be thrown off ; after a 
 further period the superior planets would be formed, and 
 finally our earth would be separated or divided from the 
 parent mass of our solar system. If now we bear in mind 
 that the sun at this time probably extended as a fluid or 
 gaseous mass up to or beyond the bounds of the earth's 
 orbit ; that when first formed the earth was probably a 
 fluid mass, which extended far beyond the orbit of the 
 moon, and that it was by the separation of these fluid mass- 
 es from each other that the heavens, as known to us, were 
 constituted, we shall find no difficulty in seeing that the 
 description of this process as given in Genesis 1 : 6,7, 8, 
 is as accurate as the imperfect nature of the Hebrew lan- 
 guage would allow. 
 
 " And God said, let there be a firmament in the midst of 
 the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. 
 
 And God made the firmament, and divided the waters 
 which were under the firmament from the waters which were 
 above the finnament ; and it was so. 
 
 And God called the firmament Heaven, and the evening 
 and the morning were the second day." 
 
 We must remember, in the first place, that it is not prob- 
 able that Moses originated the word here translated firma- 
 ment ; but that he probably adopted the word which was 
 in use amongst the Hebrews to denote the region in which 
 the stars are placed. 
 
 Bear in mind also, that the language in which Moses wrote 
 had no equivalent to our word "air" or "atmosphere." 
 
 " The Hebrew language has no word for air, properly 
 
 • speaking, because they knew not the thing. Their nearest 
 
 approaches were with words that denoted watery vapour 
 
 condensed and thus rendered visible, whether floating around 
 
 them or seen in the breathing of animals ; and words for 
 
THE SECOND DAY. 59 
 
 smoke arising from substances burning ; and for air in mo- 
 tion, wind, a zephyr wbisper, or a storm. But of elastic 
 fluids they had no idea." — J. Pye Smith. 
 
 Bemember also that the Hebrews had no terms for the 
 abstract ideas which we express by " fluid " or " matter." 
 If Moses had designed to express the idea — ^^ In the begin- 
 ning God created matter" he could not have found words 
 to serve his purpose. 
 
 Bearing in mind, then, these imperfections of language, 
 and making due allowance for the use of ordinary coUoquial 
 expressions, which, though really inaccurate, are found both 
 in Scripture, and in common use by scientific men, we find 
 no difficulty in understanding the description given by Moses 
 of the second day's work. 
 
 It is scientifically certain that the material which was 
 divided was the fluid matter of the great central sun and 
 of our own luminary. By their division, and by placing 
 the " concave vault " of heaven between the earth and the 
 stars and their parent globe ; between the fluid above the 
 firmament and the fluid below it, the solar system was 
 formed and the firmament created. 
 
 Nor is the firmament which holds the sun and the stars 
 in their places the flimsy affair which some scoffing critics 
 would have us believe it to be. Solid brass and adamantine 
 rocks are not more firm than those foundations which He 
 laid of old for the earth, that it should not be moved ; and 
 that mysterious chain which links sun and earth together, 
 is not the less strong because eye hath not seen it, nor sense 
 of touch felt it, nor hath it entered into the heart of man 
 to conceive what it is. 
 
 The idea that by the firmament is here meant the atmos- 
 phere which divides between the clouds and the ocean, is 
 too obviously absurd to need refutation — " And God called 
 
60 HISTORY OF THE CREATION. 
 
 the fii-mament Heaven." We have stood on a mountain 
 side and seen the storm clouds rolling beneath our feet, 
 while yet lower down lay the blue expanse of ocean. Had 
 we passed through Heaven, and ascended above it ? And 
 would any Hebrew have so understood the words of Moses 
 as to suppose that we had ? 
 
 Beyond all question the ordaining of the firmament was 
 the arranging of the starry and planetary spheres in the 
 relations which they now sustain to each other — the creation 
 of what we would understand by the word Heaven. 
 
 And that this was the work of the second day — the sec- 
 ond period of light — both science and revelation most 
 distinctly assert. During the first portion of that long day 
 the beams of the great central sun illumined the universe. 
 As fast as it cooled fresh suns were separated from it, and 
 from these, others, until in the order of creation our earth 
 was formed. 
 
 And now this new formed earth rolls round its parent sun 
 a fiery, molten mass. At length the moon is separated' from 
 it, but neither sun nor moon as yet govern night or day, for 
 the earth itself is luminous, and on every part of its glow- 
 ing surface a lurid, self-evolved light is maintained. Of 
 neither the sun nor the moon do we hear anything until the 
 fourth day, when they are set " for signs, and for seasons, 
 and for days, and for years." 
 
CHAPTEE VII. 
 
 Third Bay;, The 3lf nmetjal ^imasphere. 
 
 That up to this time there would be no need of the light 
 of the sun and moon is quite in accordance with the results 
 of modem research, for it is a general belief amongst scien- 
 tific men that the temperature of the earth was at one time 
 sufficiently high to produce fusion of the entire mass. The 
 grounds upon which this opinion is based have been well 
 stated by Prof. Dana in his Manual of G-eology. 
 
 "Ascertaining through astronomy that the sun of our 
 system is in intense ignition ; that the moon, the earth's 
 satellite, was once a globe of fire, but is now cooled and 
 covered with extinct craters, and that space is filled with 
 burning suns ; and learning also from physical science that 
 all heated bodies in space must have been losing heat through 
 past time — the smallest most rapidly — we safely conclude 
 that the earth has passed through a stage of igneous 
 fluidity.' 
 
 If this be true, it foUows that during this period the at- 
 mosphere of our planet must have presented a constitution, 
 and produced effects very different from those exhibited by 
 the air we breathe. 
 
 It is to be presumed that so far as kind and quantity of 
 matter is concerned, the earth, as a whole, is the same now 
 that it ever was — that nothing has been added and nothing 
 taken away. The constituents of the present atmosphere 
 undoubtedly accompanied the earth on its first journey 
 
62 HISTORY OF THE CREATION. 
 
 round the sun ; and the only difference between the present 
 atmosphere and that of the primeval world, consists in the 
 large additions of volatile matter, which would be caused 
 by an increase of temperature. 
 
 The chemical combinations, and consequently the physi- 
 cal forms in which the various elements composing the earth 
 and its atmosphere would exist, would depend largely upon 
 temperature, and upon the proportion in which the several 
 elements might be present. 
 
 Assuming a temperature equal to a full red heat, the fol- 
 lowing would probably be the conditions in which the more 
 important elements now forming the earth would be found : 
 
 Carbon. — Nearly all the free carbon found in the earth 
 shows signs of having, at no very distant day (speaking cos- 
 mogonically), formed part of the tissues of living vegetables; 
 and the laws of vegetable life teach us that before it could 
 reach this point it must have existed as carbonic acid.* 
 But aside from the evidence thus afforded, we know that at 
 the temperature named the carbon would have taken oxygen 
 from the air, from almost all metals, from sulphates and 
 from water, until it had been entirely converted into car- 
 bonic acid. We may therefore set it down as certain that 
 all the carbon which now exists in coal, in living and fossil 
 animals, and in living vegetables, existed at this time as 
 carbonic acid. 
 
 Oxygen. — So long as any free carbon, free sulphur, free 
 hydrogen, oxidable metal or sulphides existed, no oxygen 
 would be found in the free state at the temperature we have 
 indicated. Hence the proportion of carbon, &c. existing in 
 the earth becomes an interesting question, as it at present 
 
 * As thlB work is designed for the use of that ill-deflned individual known as " the 
 popular reader," we have not deemed it best to introduce the new chemical nomencla- 
 ture. Carbonic anhydride is sUll best known by the name of carbonic acid, and areentic 
 mtrate by that of nitrate of silver. 
 
THE THIRD DAT. 63 
 
 forms the great bulk of deoxidating material. We are in- 
 clined to believe that the carbon alone now existing in the 
 earth is sufficient to convert aU the oxygen of the air into 
 carbonic acid, and leave a large surplus for the deoxidation 
 of the sulphates and metallic oxides. We base this esti- 
 mate on the following data : 
 
 The coal area in North America alone is estimated to 
 cover 310,500 square miles, and the aggregate thickness of 
 the layers varies from 8 to 120 feet. If we take a mean of 
 60 feet, which we think is not far out of the way, the cal- 
 culation will be as follows : 
 
 Taking Newcastle coal as the standard (Pennsylvania 
 anthracite would give results more in favor of our hypothe- 
 sis) we find that a cubic foot weighs 79 lbs., and 100 lbs. of 
 such coal consists of — 
 
 Carbon, 83.274 
 
 Hydrogen, 5.171 
 
 Oxygen and Nitrogen 9.036 
 
 Ashes 2.519 
 
 Allowing the oxygen to form eight parts, this would can- 
 cel one part of the hydrogen, and we then have four parts 
 of hydrogen left uncombined. 
 
 The amount of oxygen required to saturate such a mass 
 would be as follows : 
 
 Carbon '-i^' = 222 lbs. oxygen. 
 
 Hydrogen »-i» = 32 " " 
 
 100 lbs. of Coal, requiring 254 lbs. of oxygen 
 for their perfect combustion. 
 
 Now the air resting on each square foot of the earth's 
 surface is equal to 2,121 lbs. Of this, one-fifth, or 424 lbs., 
 is oxygen. Hence 157 lbs. of Newcastle coal would convert 
 into carbonic acid and water all the air resting upon a square 
 
64 HISTOBY OF THE CREATION. 
 
 foot. This amount of coal is contained in rather les8 than 
 two cubic feet. Hence each square foot of a bed of coal 60 
 feet thick, would convert into carbonic acid and water all 
 the air standing on 30 square feet ; and the coal in North 
 America alone would saturate all the air that rests on 
 9,315,000 square miles. 
 
 But the surface of the North American continent is com- 
 puted to be equal to 8,080,000 square miles. Hence the 
 coal beds which are known to exist beneath its surface would 
 be amply sufficient to convert into carbonic acid and water 
 all the oxygen which rests upon it. 
 
 When we transfer our investigations to other continents, 
 we meet substantially the same results. In some cases, as 
 in the west of England and South Wales, the coal beds 
 attain a vastly greater magnitude — being estimated at an 
 aggregate thickness of 200 to 300 feet, distributed amongst 
 100 seams, which are interspersed amongst 10,000 to 
 12,000 feet of coal-bearing strata. Some coal basins which 
 are disposed amongst the secondary formations in the centre 
 and south of France, present beds less numerous, but thicker, 
 and less regularly stratified. The two basins of the Saone 
 and Loire, the principal mines of which are Creuzat, Blauzy, 
 Montchanin and Epinac, contain only ten beds ; but some 
 of these attain 100, and even 120 feet in thickness, as at 
 Montchanin. 
 
 It must be remembered that in all this we speak only of 
 the ascertained- extent of these coal fields. In addition to 
 this, we have the published opinion of Sir R. Murchison, 
 that the whole of the Permian series of rocks have foi;' their 
 floor coal fields more or less extensive. 
 
 When, therefore, we consider further that it is far from 
 probable that we have discovered more than a very small 
 per centage of all the coal that exists in the earth ; and 
 
THE THIRD DAY. 65 
 
 still further, that the ocean probably covers as great a pro- 
 portionate amount of coal as the land ; when we further 
 take into consideration the carbon and hydrogen of all the 
 petroleum, of all the living forests and plants, together with 
 the amount that exists in the soil as roots and humus, all the 
 peat beds, all the animals, marine and terrestrial, and all the 
 marine vegetables, the amount of carbon and hydrogen 
 available for the purpose indicated is enormous. Such cal- 
 culations as we have been able to make, lead us to believe 
 that it is far in excess of v that required to saturate all the 
 oxygen of the air ; and, indeed, that after this had been 
 eflfected, a" balance would remain sufficiently large to deoxi- 
 date all the sulphates, and many of the oxides. 
 
 Sulphur. — Sulphur exists at present in a free state, 
 though probably not in very large quantities ; the great 
 bulk of the sulphur which enters into the composition of 
 the globe being found in combination as sulphates and sul- 
 phides. It is more than probable that at the period under 
 consideration the sulphur existed in combination with vari- 
 ous metals as sulphides. 
 
 Chlorine undoubtedly existed as chloride and chiefly 
 in combination with calcium. This salt is perfectly fixed at 
 a temperature much higher than that to which we suppose 
 it to have been subjected, and there is undoubtedly calcium 
 enough now existing as carbonate of hme to saturate all the 
 chlorine in existence. 
 
 Silica probably existed in combination with earths and 
 alkalies, but to a greater extent than it does now. It may 
 be safely assumed that all the free silica now in existence, 
 would be absorbed by the potash, soda and lime which under 
 the conditions we have named would have combined, with it 
 instead of uniting with carbonic acid. Sulphate of lime, 
 which forms such a large proportion of the rock crust of the 
 
66 HISTORY OF THE CREATION. 
 
 earth, is readily decomposed by silica when the temperature 
 becomes elevated — silicate of lime, sulphurous acid, and 
 oxygen, being the products of the chemical changes involved, 
 
 A consideration of these facts would lead us to believe 
 that at the period to which we refer, the atmosphere con- 
 tained the following constituents: 
 
 let. All the nitrogen and carbonic acid now found there. 
 
 2nd. All the oxygen now found in the atmosphere, but 
 converted into carbonic acid. 
 
 3rd. All the carbonic acid which would be produced by 
 the deoxidation of the oxides and sulphates by the surplus 
 carbon. 
 
 4th. All the carbonic acid now existing as carbonate of 
 lime, &c. Carbonate of lime could not exist at a tempera- 
 ture much higher than that described, and we must remem- 
 ber that the earth was then cooling, and that the temperature 
 previously existing was much higher. The amount of gas 
 derived from this source would be very large. Each cubic 
 foot of marble contains about 72 lbs. of carbonic acid. The 
 gas existing in a bed of pure marble 30 feet thick, would 
 double the amount of the atmosphere resting on it. 
 
 5th. All the water existing in the ocean, rivers and lakes; all 
 the moisture existing in the earth and which is always found 
 on digging deeply; all the water arising from the combustion 
 of the hydrogen found in coal, petroleum, plants, animals, 
 &c. To this must be added all the water found in combina- 
 tion with minerals. In this form, water is much more uni- 
 versally diffused than those who have not studied the sub- 
 ject are apt to suppose. Even hard Basaltic rocks contain 
 four per cent, of their weight of water. Clay, which to the 
 ordinary observer appears perfectly dry, contains from 6 to 
 16 per cent, of water. If we allow 10 per cent, for the aver- 
 age proportion of water in clay, a bed of clay 140 feet deep 
 
THE THIRD DAY. 67 
 
 would contain an amount of water sufficient to double the 
 weight of our atmosphere if it were converted into vapor. 
 
 6th. All the nitrogen existing in combination in animals 
 and vegetables. 
 
 A recent writer on Geological subjects, M. Figuier, denies 
 that at this period the atmosphere was any richer in carbonic 
 acid than it is to-day. In his work, " The World before the 
 Deluge," he says: " Seeing the enormous mass of vegetation 
 which then covered the globe, extending from one pole to 
 the other; considering also the great proportion of carbon 
 and hydrogen which exists in the bituminous matter of coal, 
 it has been thought, and not without reason, that the at- 
 mosphere of the period would be richer in carbonic acid than 
 the atmosphere of our days. It has even been thought that 
 the great proportion of carbonic acid gas in the atmosphere 
 was an explanation of the small number of animals, espec- 
 ially aerians, which then lived. This, however, is pure de- 
 duction, totally deficient in proof. Nothing proves that the 
 atmosphere of the period was richer in carbonic acid than 
 the atmosphere of our days." 
 
 And yet Mr. Figuier believes that the earth had just cool- 
 ed from a state of incandescence ! Certainly no chemist 
 would for an instant entertain the idea that the oxygen and 
 carbon which now exist could be brought together at the 
 temperature he mentions without entering into combination. 
 And if once combined, by what power could they be separat- 
 ed ? Only by the growth of plants which thus served to 
 prepare the way for the advent of animals, and after having 
 performed their allotted task, were consigned to the depths 
 of the ocean, there to await the requirements of a still high- 
 er order of beings. 
 
 If we adopt the views which we have here advocated, it 
 is obvious that the primeval atmosphere must -have consist- 
 ed chiefly of carbonic acid, watery vapor, and nitrogen, the 
 
68 HISTOKY OF THE CREATION. 
 
 small quantity of vapor of mercury and volatile salts not 
 being worth consideration. 
 
 For a long time subsequent to the formation of solid mat- 
 ter on the surface of the earth, this atmosphere would re- 
 main clear and comparatively transparent, or, at most, it 
 would be but slightly obscured by precipitated clouds of the 
 more volatile salts, and it would unquestionably remain in 
 this condition just as long as the temperature of the earth 
 was sufficiently high to maintain in the form of pennanent 
 gas the watery vapor of which it chiefly consisted. Although 
 this temperature would be vastly greater than 212° owing 
 to the enormously increased atmospheric pressure, yet it 
 may have been far below the fusing point of most solids. 
 
 It is, of course, impossible to make anything like an accur- 
 ate calculation of the extent of this atmosphere and of its 
 barometric pressure, but the following is believed to be an 
 approximation to the truth. 
 
 Constituents of the Primitive Atmosphere. Inches of Murmry. 
 
 Present atmosphere 30 
 
 Water of the ocean, lakes and rivers — average depth of ocean 
 assumed to be about four miles, which is equivalent to 
 an average depth over the surface of the earth of three 
 miles 14,079 
 
 Water mechanically interspersed through the earth and found 
 on digging wells and sinking the deepest mines — not less 
 thanhalf amile 2,346 
 
 Water which is now chemically combined with the minerals 
 forming the crust of the earth, but which would be driv- 
 en off at the temperature we have assumed — say four per 
 cent, of the earth's crust — one mile 4,693 
 
 Carbonic acid produced by the saturation of the oxygen of 
 
 the air, an additional 2| 
 
 Carbonic acid produced by the oxygen of the oxides, sulphates, 
 
 &c., probably not less than ■ 5 
 
 Carbonic acid from the carbonate of lime, magnesia, &c., ex- 
 isting as limestone, coral and shells.* 1,000 
 
 Height in inches of the barometric column equivalent to the 
 
 primeval atmosphere 22,155j 
 
 "As previously remarked, the amount of carbonic acid now locked up 
 
THE THIRD DAT. 69 
 
 la other words the mercurial barometer instead of staud- 
 iag at a height of 30 inches, stood at a height of over one 
 third of a mile. It has even been estimated by M. Figuier 
 and others that at this time the atmosphere extended to the 
 moon, in which case if we represented the space occupied by 
 such an atmosphere by a circle small enough to be contain- 
 ed on this page, the earth would appear of a diameter equal 
 to the tenth of an inch. But this extended atmosphere 
 must not be confounded with that nebulous condition in 
 which much of the matter forming the earth existed at the 
 time the ring, which ultimately contracted into the moon, 
 separated from its' parent globe. 
 
 Under such circumstances, a pump, instead of refusing to 
 draw water from a depth of over 34 feet, would have worked 
 even if the well had been over four miles deep, and each 
 square inch instead of supporting a pressure of fifteen pounds 
 was subjected to one of over 11,000 lbs ! A boy's sucker, 3 
 inches in diameter, would have been able to lift a rock 
 weighing 35 tons ! The little brackets furnished with ad- 
 
 in this way is very large. Thus Dana gives tlie thickness of the lime- 
 stone beds found in the Appalachian range, as follows : ' 
 
 Limes'ones. 
 
 1 Potsdam periods 200 feet. 
 
 2 Rest of Lower Silurian 6,000 " 
 
 3 Lower Silurian era 6,200 " 
 
 4 Upper Silurian era 600 " 
 
 5 DevoDian Age 100 " 
 
 Carboniferous Age 125 " 
 
 Total thickness, 13,225 feet. 
 
 Beds of chalk, 500 feet thick, and extending over considerable areas ; 
 mountains of compact limestone, marble, and other forms of carbonate ; 
 enormous beds of shells, marl, &c., together with the considerable per- 
 centage of carbonate of lime found in many soils, altogether make an 
 aggregate which leaves no doubt that the amount of gas derived from 
 this source is not over estimated at one thousand inches of mercury. 
 
70 HISTORY OF THE CREATION. 
 
 hesive suckers which we attach to walls, &c., for temporary 
 supports, would have adhered so that the power of ten strong 
 men could not have removed one of them. Some kinds of 
 insects and toads possess suckers whereby they can cling to 
 objects and support themselves against the action of gravity. 
 If the feet of a man of 1.50 lbs. had been furnished with simi- 
 lar suckers for a similar purpose, these suckers need not have 
 been more than one-fourth of an inch in diameter to have en- 
 abled him to walk head-down on a ceiling. It is well known 
 that on some of the high mountains of the globe, eggs cannot 
 be boiled because the pressure of the air is so far diminished 
 that the boiling point of water is lower than the cooking 
 point of eggs. In the primeval atmosphere, the eggs would 
 have been reduced to charcoal long before the water had 
 boiled. 
 
 With such pressures and temperatures it is difficult to 
 calculate how far the rays of light would be absorbed in 
 passing through the atmosphere ; but it is certain that at 
 an early stage of the process of cooling, the sun's rays would 
 be entirely obstructed, and Cimmerian darkness would en- 
 velope the earth. And not until the greater part of the 
 vast amount of water which we have described had been 
 precipitated in the form of rain, would day have again 
 dawned. 
 
 Slowly, then, but steadily, the process of cooling would go 
 on. The amount of heat radiated by -the earth would be 
 no longer able to retain the superincumbent watery vapor in 
 a gaseous state. Clouds would begin to form, and gradu- 
 ally, but surely, night would descend upon our globe. Not 
 a night limited by a semi-rotation of the earth upon its axis, 
 but a night whose reign endured for thousands of years. 
 The earth might revolve and present its varying surface to 
 the sun, but no ray of light could penetrate the dense 
 gloom in which it was enwrapped. 
 
THE THIRD DAY. 71 
 
 Let US consideF for a moment how intense and complete 
 was the darkness of this night. 
 
 We have all seen the sun's face darkened by thunder- 
 clouds, when their black masses were driven by fierce tem- 
 pests across his disc. From the cheerful light of day the 
 change to intense gloom was rapid. The birds sought the 
 densest shade, the wild beasts fled to their lairs, and men's 
 faces grew pale as they gazed upon nature and upon each 
 other. And yet all this was produced by clouds represent- 
 ing at most but a few inches of water. 
 
 Again, we have seen a light, fleecy cloud of vapor float- 
 ing away on a still day from a passing locomotive, and. 
 throwing down its shadow upon the green fields — a shadow 
 black as ink. And yet, if all the water in this tiny cloud 
 had been precipitated on the meadow over which it passed, 
 it would not have deposited on the darkened area a depth 
 of water equal to the tenth of an inch. 
 
 What then must have been the darkness of that night, 
 when the clouds — which wrapped the earth as with a swad- 
 dling band — contained water sufficient to have covered the 
 whole surface of the earth to the depth of from four to five 
 miles ? 
 
 As the process of cooling gradually advances, the enor- 
 mous atmosphere which we have described — an atmosphere 
 to be measured in yards of mercury instead of inches — grad- 
 ually precipitates its moisture on the earth in the form of 
 rain. And what a fearful rain was that ! Noah's deluge 
 was but as a summer shower compared with the torrents of 
 that awful night. Year after year, century after century, 
 the rain fell down in floods, and ever and anon, as it touched 
 some heated spot on the earth's surface, or found its way 
 into some crevice, it passed back again to the clouds with 
 explosive violence. Moreover, the surface of the earth would, 
 
72 HISTORY OF THE CREATION. 
 
 by sucli sudden cooling, be distorted and riven into still 
 greater chasms. Into these, the boiling waters of this prim- 
 eval deluge would be poured, but only to aggravate the mis- 
 chief ; so that who can tell the duration of that long period 
 of darkness, during which, the oceans that now are, were 
 distilled and re-distiUed as in a huge alembic. And yet, 
 puny man, with his false interpretations, would limit the 
 duration of this night to 12 hours ! 
 
 But at length a period arrives, when the waters, instead 
 of being constantly returned to the clouds, whence they came, 
 remain in quiet on the surface of the earth. And as cloud 
 after cloud discharges its watery burden, the ocean rises until 
 it covers the entire face of the globe. During this long 
 period it was one continuous rain, and every hill-side was 
 washed by constant torrents of a volume and velocity of 
 which we have no conception. 
 
 No hills could withstand such a deluge as that. No con- 
 tinent could resist the denuding action of such fearful floods. 
 The results of former upheavals would be worn down and 
 when the last shower had fallen, and the sun's rays once 
 more lit up the surface of this planet, it is more than prob- 
 able that the morning of that day rose upon one unbroken 
 expanse of water. 
 
 And now the question arises : If the sun is the source of 
 light for that third day, why was it not a day of 24 hours ? 
 Moses tells us that ths sun was not yet set for signs, and for 
 seasons, and for days, and for years ; and science equally 
 declares that, during the long ages of that third day, the 
 sun never rose or set, but, like Joshua's sun on Gibeon, he 
 hasted not to go down until the creative work was finished. 
 
 As this is not only a novel, but no doubt a rather start- 
 ling proposition, we propose to lay the proof of it somewhat 
 fully before our readers. 
 
THE THIRD DAY. 73 
 
 Every boy knows, that wlien a stick is thrust into water 
 in a slanting direction, it appears broken or bent, and the 
 explanation of this will be found in any school philosophy. 
 
 In the same manner, if we place a coin in a basin and 
 stand in such a position that the edge of the basin just 
 hides the coin from view, on pouring water into the basin, 
 the coin will become visible. In fact, the coin will seem to 
 be raised — a phenomenon due to the bending which the rays 
 of light sustain on passing out of the water. 
 
 Now, the same cause that rendered the coin visible when 
 the vessel was filled with water, causes the sun to be visible 
 to us after he has, in reality, descended beneath the horizon. 
 
 To such an extent does this obtain, that, when the lower 
 edge of the sun has touched the horizon, his whole disc has, 
 in reality, passed below it and would be entirely out of sight 
 and concealed by the convexity of ;the earth, but for the 
 bending round it which the rays of light have undergone in 
 their passage through the air. 
 
 " But, even after the sun has set, the influence of the 
 atmosphere still continues to send us a portion of his light ; 
 not, indeed, by direct transmission, but by reflection upon 
 the vapors, and minute solid particles which float in it, and 
 perhaps, also, on the actual material atoms of the air itself. 
 To understand how this takes place we must recollect that 
 it is not only by the direct hght of a luminous object that 
 we see, but that whatever portion of its light which would 
 not otherwise reach our eyes is intercepted in its course and 
 thrown back, or laterally, upon us, becomes to us a means 
 of illumination. Such reflective obstacles always exist float- 
 ing in the air. The whole course of a sunbeam, penetrating 
 through the chink of a window-shutter, into a dark room, is 
 visible as a bright line in the air ; and even if it be stifled, 
 or let out through an opposite crevice, the light scattered 
 
74 HISTOKY OF THE CREATION. 
 
 through the apartment from this source, is sufficient to pre- 
 vent entire darkness in the room. The luminous lines 
 occasionally seen in the air, in a sky full of partially broken 
 clouds, which the vulgar term " the sun drawing water," 
 are similarly caused. They are sunbeams through apertm-es 
 in clouds, partially intercepted and reflected on the dust 
 and vapors of the air below. Thus it is with those solar 
 rays, which, after the sun itself is concealed by the con- 
 vexity of the earth, continue to traverse the higher regions 
 of the atmosphere above our heads, and pass through and 
 out of it without directly striking upon the earth at all. 
 Some portion of them is intercepted and reflected by the 
 floating particles above mentioned, and thrown back, or 
 laterally, so as to reach us, and afford us that secondary 
 illumination, which is twilight." — HerscheU. 
 
 In northern latitudes, these and other causes conspire to 
 render a portion of the year a continuous daylight, and this, 
 too, in localities where the sun is not constantly above the 
 horizon. Hence in almanacs calculated for the northern 
 parts of Great Britain, there will be found a long series of 
 days against which is noted " No real night at this time." 
 And we ourselves have read fine print at midnight in the 
 Scottish capital. 
 
 Nothing strikes the stranger more forcibly, if he visits 
 Sweden at the season of- the year when the days are longest, 
 than the absence of the night. Dr. Baird relates some in- 
 teresting facts. He arrived at Stockholm from Grottenburg, 
 four hundred miles distant, in the morning, and in the 
 afternoon went to see some friends. He returned about mid- 
 night, when it was as light as it is England an hour before 
 sunset. You can see distinctly, but all was quiet in the 
 streets; it seemed as if the inhabitants had gone away or 
 were dead. The sun in June goes down in Stockholm a 
 
THE THIRD DAT. 75 
 
 little before ten o'clock. There is great illumination all 
 night, as the sun passes round the earth toward the north 
 pole, and the refraction of its rays is such that you can see 
 to read at midnight without any artificial light. The first 
 morning Dr. Baird awoke in Stockholm he was surprised to 
 see the sun shining in the room. He looked at his watch 
 and found it only three o'clock. The next time he awoke it 
 was five o'clock; but there were persons in the streets. 
 
 There is a mountain at the head of Bothnia where on 
 the 21st of June the sun does not appear to go down at all. 
 The steamboat goes up from Stockholm for the purpose of 
 conveying those who are curious to witness the phenomenon. 
 It occurs only one night. The sun reaches the horizon,' 
 you can see the whole face of it, and in five minutes more it 
 begins to rise. At the North Cape, latitude 72 degrees, the 
 sun does not go down for several weeks. In June it would 
 be about 25 degrees above the horizon at midnight. In the 
 winter-time the sun disappears and is not seen for weeks; 
 then it comes and remains for ten or fifteen minutes, after 
 which it descends, and after a time it does not set at all, but 
 makes almost a circle round the heavens. Dr. Baird was asked 
 how they managed in those latitudes with hired persons, 
 and what they considered a day. He replied that they 
 worked by the hour, and twelve hours was considered a day's 
 work. Birds and- animals take their accustomed rest at the 
 usual hour, whether the sun goes down or not. 
 
 Let us now consider the very smaU extent of atmosphere 
 which is sufficient to efiect all this. 
 
 The height of our present atmosphere is generally estima- 
 ted at 50 miles, and whatever objections may be urged 
 against this height as a limit, there is no doubt of the fact 
 that at a height of fifty miles the atmosphere is so rare that 
 it does not equal in density the air which is found in the 
 exhausted receivers of our best common air pumps. 
 
76 HISTORY OF THE CEEATIOK. 
 
 The diameter of the earth is in round numbers 8,000 
 miles, and 50 miles is the m part of this. If, therefore, we 
 were to represent the earth by a globe one' inch in diameter, 
 the atmosphere would form around it an envelope about as 
 thick as a sheet of writing paper. 
 
 But the atmosphere which on the third day still re- 
 mained around the earth, must have been of much greater 
 extent. In addition to the material of the present atmos- 
 phere there would remain all the carbonic acid and other 
 gases which we have described, and these gases, at the re- 
 sulting pressure and existing temperature, would retain a 
 very large amount of water, in the condition of invisible 
 vapor, so that a barometric pressure of 1,200 inches, or 40 
 atmospheres is nothing extravagant or impossible. 
 
 The effect which would be produced by an atmosphere of 
 forty times greater extent would be vastly greater in propor- 
 tion, because not only would the rays throughout a much 
 greater range of space be deflected, but each ray would be 
 deflected to a greater extent. Hence it is not at all improb- 
 able that a soft yet brilliant twilight was never absent from 
 any portion of the earth's surface. On certain parts of the 
 earth the sun disappeared but for a few minutes, and it is 
 not impossible that for a short portion of the year two suns 
 were visible in Scotland and Canada, one rising in the east 
 before the other had set in the west. 
 
 In perusing the account of the creation given in the first 
 chapter of Genesis, it must strike every attentive reader that 
 while the entire second day is devoted to the ordaining or 
 creation of the firmament, the third day has crowded into it 
 not only the gathering together of the waters, but the 
 creation of the vegetable kingdom. We think that an ordin- 
 arily speculative character would have placed the creation of 
 the firmament and the gathering of the waters together, and 
 
THE THIRD DAT. 77 
 
 left the plants to the fourth day. But Moses followed the 
 truth too closely. 
 
 We have previously stated that when the third day 
 dawned upon our earth the sun's rays fell upon an unbroken 
 expanse of ocean. But such a state of things could not 
 long continue. The earth's solid crust was still com- 
 paratively thin; the evaporation of that vast layer of water 
 would cool it rapidly; its contraction could hardly be sup- 
 posed to proceed equably, and upheavals of great extent 
 would be the result. It is doubtful if at this time any of 
 our present mountain ranges were elevated. It is quite 
 possible that even the oldest mountains are of much more 
 recent origin. However this may be, it is certain that dry 
 land would soon make its appearance, and the seas be 
 gathered together in one place. 
 
 Plants now appear upon the surface of the earth, and 
 grow apace. Gigantic ferns and monstrous palms clothe 
 the newly elevated land. In that hot and moist air they 
 grow to maturity and sink to decay with astonishing 
 rapidity. 
 
 At last the atmosphere is so far purified and diminished 
 that day becomes no longer a continuous visible presence of 
 the sun, but merely an illumination of the globe, similar to 
 that previously mentioned, as occurring in Scotland in mid- 
 summer. True it is still constant day, but day subject to 
 changes of brilliancy, according as the sun poured his direct 
 rays on the earth's surface, or illuminated it by a brilliant 
 yet soft twilight. » 
 
 We have already had occasion to note that it is probable 
 that the several days differed greatly in brightness, and it is 
 probable that the same is true in regard to the nights. The 
 light of the first day was unquestionably the most univer- 
 sally diffused, and, on the whole, the most brilliant, if we 
 
78 HISTORY OF THE CREATION. 
 
 regard the general illumination. But the light of the vast 
 central sun, of the second day, no doubt far exceeded it in 
 its own immediate vicinity. The brilliancy of that day will 
 probably be equalled only when the " Heavens shall pass 
 away with a great noise and the elements shall melt with 
 fervent heat," and a new Heavens and a new earth shall 
 appear. 
 
 But after the earth had been separated from the sun, and 
 while it depended upon its own luminosity for daylight it is 
 probable that the day was anything but brilliant. Still it 
 was day. No distinction is made in the sacred record, and 
 none can be made by science. Dull winter days, shrouded 
 in clouds and mist, are days as well as the brightest of the 
 sunny hours of summer. 
 
 The third day was probably far inferior in brilliancy to 
 our days. The heavy and often murky atmosphere would 
 make it dull, and it would be at length entirely obscured by a 
 phenomenon different from anything that has yet entered 
 into our consideration. 
 
CHAPTER VTII. 
 
 TbB Wnuvih Batj. 
 
 On this day the sun and moon were ordained as regulators 
 of night and day, being appointed " to divide the day from 
 the night " and " to be for signs, and for seasons, and for 
 days, and for years." From this time forward, therefore, 
 not only is the sun the great source of light to the earth, 
 hut it is the obscuration of his rays, by whatever means ef- 
 fected, that regulates day and night. The darkness of the 
 first, second, and third evenings was not produced by the 
 darkening of the sun, or the shutting out of his rays. On 
 the first and second evenings he did not exist, and it was 
 the cooling of the earth itself, not the mere absence of sun- 
 light, that produced the third period of darkness. So that 
 the obscuration that preceded the fourth day — that is the 
 evening of the fourth day, was the first period which exhib- 
 ited the governing agency of the sun. But from this night 
 onward it is the varying relations of the sun to the earth 
 that produce and regulate the alterations of day and night. 
 
 The darkness which preceded the fourth day was probably 
 produced by the rapid evaporation of water introduced into 
 the highly heated interior of the earth by extensive earth- 
 quakes. However much some eminent geologists may be 
 opposed to the idea that such agencies as earthquakes, rains, 
 &c., once acted with far greater intensity than they do at 
 
80 HISTOET OF THE OKEATION. 
 
 present, we have no doubt that such was the case, and we 
 can scarcely believe that matters settled down into the quiet 
 which now reigns without one or more fearful convulsions. 
 The night which would be the result of these causes was 
 most probably of short duration. The vapor produced in 
 the way which we have described would be precipitated in 
 the course of a few years and light would again enliven the 
 face of the earth, while the descent of such large quantities 
 of water at a comparatively low temperature would tend 
 powerfully to wash and purify the air and fit it for the in- 
 habitants which were to be introduced on the fifth day. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Th:e Wiiih m^ Bxth Batjs. 
 
 Thus far we have trod on the firm ground of well ascer- 
 tained facts. That the chemical and physical forces now in 
 operation would produce the results we have indicated is 
 known as certainly as any facts in science, and we might, 
 without impropriety, rest here ' nd take our stand upon the 
 ground that a narrative which has been found strictly accur- 
 ate for the first four days would probably be found correct 
 for the remaining two. An efficient cause of the alternation 
 of light and darkness during two further periods, might be 
 found in various cosmical changes that might occur, such as 
 the evolution of vapor produced by the access of water to 
 the internal fires, &c. But the most probable cause is found 
 in the influence produced upon the sun itself by the giving 
 off of the inferior planets, Venus and Mercury. During 
 the periods immediately preceding and succeeding each of 
 these events there would be a succession of darkness and 
 light and thus we would have two more days added to the 
 number. 
 
 That this would in all probability be the case, a very 
 sUght consideration of the subject will show. At the time 
 that the earth was separated, the matter composing the sun 
 must have occupied a space nearly as large as the pres- 
 ent orbit of our planet, and for a long period prior 
 
82 HISTORY OF THE CEBATION. 
 
 to the separation of Venus there would be daylight 
 — not very brilliant it is true, but still daylight. For we 
 must remember that owing to the enormous surface at this 
 time presented by the sun, the quantity of heat and light 
 emitted would be very much greater than at the present rate 
 while the intensity would be greatly less. The light would 
 therefore be feeble at first but would become more intense 
 as the sun gradually contracted, for it is a well known fact 
 that a very small amount of condensation on the part of the 
 sun or the earth would suflSce to raise enormously the tem- 
 perature of either of these bodies. It has been calculated 
 that a contraction to the extent of l-l,0(X)th of his diameter 
 would cause such an elevation of the temperature of the sun 
 as would suffice for several hundred years' expenditure of 
 heat at his present rate of emission. 
 
 Professor Plateau has devised a beautiful experiment that 
 affords a very striking illustration of some of the points con- 
 nected with the formation of these rings and the ultimate 
 formation of planets out of them. Unfortunately, however, 
 this experiment has been adduced by pseudo-scientific lectur- 
 ers and literary men, who have not studied it carefully, as a 
 perfect illustration of the whole process of the formation of 
 the planets. In this experiment the rings are thrown off by 
 centrifugal force and the resulting planets revolve round the 
 central axis at a distance considerably greater than that at 
 which they were originally situated. It is obvious that no 
 such result could ever occur in nature. The rings and plan- 
 ets are not thrown off by centrifugal force, but are separated 
 by the contraction of the interior mass and are simply held 
 in their places by centrifugal force. Consequently in the 
 formation of the solar system the sun must at one time have 
 fiUed the orbit of Neptune and gradually contracted leaving 
 rings and ultimately planets at every step. As the interior 
 
THE FIFTH AND SIXTH DAYS. 83 
 
 mass of the sun contracted and separated from the rings 
 which afterwards formed the planet Venus, this ring would 
 virtually form a cloud of vapor which would obscure the 
 rays of the sun and prevent them from reaching the earth.. 
 Night would consequently settle over our planet and only 
 when this ring had broken and contracted so as to form a 
 spheroidal mass would day again dawn. After a time another 
 ring would form, another cloud of condensed vapor would 
 encircle the sun and obscure his rays, and another night 
 would shroud the earth in comparative darkness, which 
 would he dispelled only after Mercury had attained a. 
 separate existence. During the existence of these two 
 rings, therefore, " the sun himself would grow dark," and 
 night would descend over the solar system. Not a night of 
 the intense darkness of the primeval night, when there did 
 not exist a single source of light in the whole universe ; but 
 a night which "would be dark when compared with the pre- 
 vious days. The stars would shine as brightly as they do 
 now, and the sun and moon would give off some light,, 
 although the latter would be quite faint. So that it is 
 probable that there was sufficient light to maintain in a ' 
 feeble way the processes of vegetation, and thus save alive, 
 many of the plants already created. 
 
 We must not forget that day and night — darkress and 
 daylight — as known to us, are but comparative terms. We 
 have no experience of that absolute darkness, that per-^ 
 feet night, which reigned before God said " Let there be 
 light ;" and as little are our senses able to convey to our 
 minds any idea of the fullness of that light which burst 
 upon the universe during the period immediately succeeding 
 the giving forth of the Divine fiat. 
 
 At, the same time the physical condition of the earth, and its 
 relations to plant and animal life, would undergo a gradual 
 
84 HISTOBY OF THE CREATION. 
 
 change. During the first of these two periods (the 5th day) 
 the atmosphere would remain impure — highly charged with 
 carhonic acid — so that no mammals could exist in it. But 
 it is well known that fishes and reptiles can exist in an 
 atmosphere of a purity far inferior to that required for what 
 are called warm-blooded animals. Snakes will live for hours 
 in a comparative vacuum ; and we have kept both snakes 
 and lizards for days in an atmosphere so highly charged 
 with carbonic acid that it proved rapidly fatal to mice. It 
 is not improbable, therefore, that during all this time the 
 atmosphere maintained a refractive power sufficiently high 
 to produce continuous daylight whenever the sun was in a 
 condition to give ofi^ sufficient light. During the fifth day, 
 then — ^that is, at and subsequent to the time Venus was 
 formed — fish, i-eptiles and birds were called into existence ; 
 for they could live in such an atmosphere as then existed. 
 
 But the atmosphere grows gradually purer. The difi'er- 
 cnce between the light of the sun at different periods of the 
 24 hom'S becomes greater, although, from the fact that dur- 
 ing the early part of this day the bright portions of the 24 
 hours were duller and the dark portions brighter than at its 
 close, the whole period would seem one continuous day. 
 The high refractive power of the atmosphere would bring 
 much of the light of the stars and moon as well as the light 
 of the sun to the earth, and the brighter portions of the 24 
 hours would gradually become brighter as the substance of 
 the Sim contracted, and thus the days of 24 hours would be- 
 come more marked. 
 
 At last the ring which is to form Mercury separates — a 
 long night again settles down over the earth and when Mer- 
 cury is formed and the sun at length illumines the morning 
 of the sixth day, the atmosphere is so pure that cattle and 
 creeping things, (beasts of pray that creep on their victims) 
 
THE FIFTH AND SIXTH DATS. 85 
 
 make their appearance. Towards the close man is called 
 into heing and the days become reduced to a uniform length 
 of 24 hours, the length of this period being determined sole- 
 ly by the revolution of the earth on its axis. It must be 
 borpe in mind that this change would be gradual. It would 
 be difficult to say where the long day ended and the short 
 day began, but then it would be difficult to say precisely 
 when our present days end and the nights begin. 
 
 In order to exhibit more fully the wonderful accordance 
 between the account thus given by science and the record 
 found in the first chapter of Q-eriesis, we give on the opposite 
 page a tabular synopsis of the system which we have just 
 endeavored to explain. 
 
 The table gives 1st, the days in their order; 2d, the evening 
 and momingj or darkness and light of each day, and the 
 causes which produced that darkness and light; 3rd, the 
 special work of each day as set forth in the Bible and in the 
 records as given by science. 
 
86 
 
 HISTORY OF THE CREATION. 
 
 THE SIX DAYS OF CEEATION. 
 
 Period. 
 FiBST Day. 
 
 Evening 
 
 f resultB from the primeval dart- 
 I ness existing from the beginniDg. 
 
 Morning ( results from the chemical union 
 ( and comhuBtion of the elements. 
 
 Work Bone. 
 
 The creation 
 of Light or the 
 calling into ac- 
 tivity of the 
 physical forc- 
 es. 
 
 Second Day. 
 
 Evening J results from the cooling of the 
 ( ashes of the great comhustion. 
 
 Morning f results from the hght of the great 
 ( Central Sun. 
 
 The Creation 
 of the firma- 
 ment or the ar- 
 rangement of 
 the heavenly 
 bodies and in- 
 terstellar spa- 
 ces. 
 
 Thied Day. 
 
 f (results from the cooling of the 
 
 I Evening < earth and the deposition of dense 
 I ( clouds. 
 
 Morning 
 
 results from the clearing away 
 of the clouds and the shming of 
 the Sun, day being rendered con- 
 tinuous by the enormous refrac- 
 tive power of the primeval atmos- 
 phere. 
 
 Elevation of 
 the land, that 
 is, the division 
 of the land and 
 water and the 
 creation of 
 plants. 
 
 FoTjHTH Day. 
 
 Evening j results from the obscuration of 
 j the Sun by vapor. 
 
 r results from the precipitation of 
 Morning this vapor and the clearing of the 
 atmosphere, the refractivepower 
 of the latter being stiU sufficient- 
 ly powerful to produce eontiim- 
 ous day. 
 
 The ordain- 
 ing of the sun 
 and moon as 
 
 tovernors o f 
 ay and night. 
 
 Fifth Day. 
 
 Evening (results from the separation of 
 j Venus from the Sun. 
 
 (results from the restoration of 
 Morning i the brilliancy of the Sun which 
 I still shines continuously. 
 
 Creation of 
 fishes, reptiles 
 and birds. 
 
 Sixth Day. 
 
 Evening ( results from the separation of 
 I Mercury from the Sun. 
 
 Morning ( results from the restoration of 
 I the Sun's brilliancy. 
 
 Creation of 
 mammals and 
 man. 
 
CHAPTEE X. 
 
 Where did Moses obtain his Knowledge of the 
 Origin at' the Earth?. 
 
 It ia not our purpose to enter into a full discussion of this 
 question. We propose to consider merely one source whence 
 he did not obtain it, and thus endeavor to reply to a certain 
 class of writers who claim that whatever is true in the Mo- 
 saic cosmogony is merely such as would suggest itself to 
 any well-informed mind, while the alleged errors and dis- 
 crepancies are such as render it utterly unacceptable as a 
 correct history of the Creation. These objections have been 
 thus stated by Gliddon in his " Types of Mankind." 
 
 "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 supreme 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 palseontological discoveries of the XlXth 
 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, 
 
88 HISTORY OF THE CREATION. 
 
 not exposed, however, until long after his era^ by post Co- 
 pernican astronomy. The oversight is where he wrote, 
 (Gen. I., 6-8,) " Let there be EAQIE," I e., a firmament, 
 which proves that his notions of " sky" (solid like the con- 
 cavity of a copper basin, with stars set as brilliants in the 
 metal) were the same as those of the adjacent people of his 
 time, indeed, of all men, before the publication of Newton's 
 Principia, and ©f Laplace's Mechanique Celeste. The blun- 
 der is where he conceives that AUK, " light," and lOM, 
 " day," (Gen. I, 14^18,) could have been physically possible 
 three whole days before the " two great luminaries," Sun 
 and Moon, were created. These venial errors deducted,* his 
 majestic song beautifully illustrates the simple process of 
 ratiocination, through which — often without the slightest 
 historical proof of intercourse — different " Types of Man- 
 kind," at distinct epochas, and in countries widely apart, 
 had arrived, naturally, at cosmogonic conclusions, similar to 
 the doctrines of that Hebraical school, of which his har- 
 monic and melodious numbers remain a magnificent me- 
 mento. 
 
 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 depth of time. Unable, as we 
 are still, to measure periods antecedent to man by any 
 chronological standai'd, 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 eternal power and godhead, are clearly 
 seen, being understood by the things that are made.'' 
 
 * These objections are very fair illustrationB of the solollsm of the authors of 
 Types of Mankind. They have been fully refuted in our previous pag«8. 
 
ORIGIN OF GENESIS I. 89 
 
 (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 necessary for animal support. But terrestrial 
 plants cannot grow without earth, ergo, dry land had to be 
 separated from pre-existent "waters." Their geological 
 speculations inclining rather to the Neptunian than to the 
 Plutonian theory — for Werner ever preceded Hutton — the 
 ancients found it difficult to divide the waters from the 
 waters " without interposing a metallic substance that di- 
 vided the waters which were under the firmament from the 
 waters which were above the firmament ;" so they inferred, 
 logically, that a firmament must have been actually created 
 for this object. [E. g., "The windows of the skies," (Gen. 
 VII, 2 j) " the waters above the skies," Ps. OXLVIII, 4.)] 
 Before the " waters " (and here is the peculiar error of the 
 genesaical bard,) some of the ancients claimed the pre-ex- 
 istence of lighty (a view adopted by the writer of Genesis 
 1st,) whilst others asserted that " chaos " prevailed. Both 
 schools united, however, in the conviction that dakkness — 
 Erebus — anteceded all other created things. What, said 
 these ancients, can have existed before the " darkness ?" 
 Ens Entium, the Ceeatoe, was the humbled reply. Elo- 
 HiM 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." 
 
 In this brief passage the reader will perceive several im- 
 portant errors — errors, too, which Moses has avoided. It 
 would thus appear that Mr. Gliddon, with all his "pro- 
 cesses of ratiocination," and all the " palaeontological dis- 
 
90 HISTORY OF THE CREATION. 
 
 coveries of the XlXth century," is unable to give us an 
 account of the Creation as correct as that of the old Hebrew 
 writer whom he so unmercifully ridicules. And we assert, 
 without any fear of successful contradiction, that to arrive, 
 by ordinary intellectual methods, at the conclusions stated 
 by Moses, would require a far more intimate acquaintance 
 with physical science than has been exhibited either by Mr. 
 Gliddon or by Mr. Goodwin, of the Essays and Keviews. 
 Moreover, if we possess this knowledge, we wiU be led to 
 just those apparent oppositions to ordinary common sense 
 which these gentlemen condemn. 
 
 The question then arises : Did the ancients possess such 
 a thorough acquaintance with physical science as would have 
 enabled Moses, who " was learned in all the wisdom of the 
 Egyptians,""* to elaborate by his own knowledge the system 
 which he has propounded ? 
 
 A very careful examination of this question leads us to 
 say most emphatically that the ancients were not in possess- 
 ion of any such science. 
 
 The knowledge possessed by the ancients has been greatly 
 overestimated having been judged entirely by men who were 
 themselves thoroughly ignorant of physical science, and who 
 were readily led away by the dreamy and romantic feelings 
 of reverence which we cherish towards the arts and sciences 
 of those ancient times. Hence, in the popular mind, a high 
 degree of importance has been attached to the crudest of 
 the inventions which have gone out of use, and scholars 
 have excited our wonder and curiosity concerning the skill 
 of the ancients, until some have almost come to believe that 
 all knowledge died with them. "We have book upon book 
 detailing and admiring those achievements of theirs which 
 
 * Acts vli, 22. 
 
ORIGIN OP GENESIS I. 91 
 
 are supposed to be beyond our reach, until the very name 
 of the " Lost Arts " has acquired a charm for most ears — 
 carrying us back, in imagination, to those drean/y times 
 around which twine so many legends and so much mystery 
 — ^those-days in which there were "giants," not only in 
 stature, but in intellect and skill. 
 
 In reading the accounts given and lamented over by 
 Pancirrollus, Dutens, Goguet and others, concerning the 
 lost arts, the first thing that strikes us is the ignorance dis- 
 played by these men of the state of the arts existing at the 
 time in which they wrote, and we are forcibly reminded of 
 Dr Johnson's remark in relation to Goldsmith's project for 
 sending a scientific commission to investigate the unknown 
 arts of Asia : " Sir, if he went out on such an inquiry, he 
 would bring home a grinding barrow, such as you see in 
 every street in London, and think he had furnished a won- 
 derful improvement." 
 
 The fact is, that few literary men are competent judgtes 
 of the distinguishing features of mechanical inventions, and, 
 consequently, we find the most curious statements constantly 
 gaining currency in the literary world. They quote Solomon 
 to prove that there is nothing new under the sun, and the 
 faintest shadow of a hint by an old author is tortured into 
 a full description, and assumed as evidence that the inven- 
 tion, however recondite, was fully known. Led away in this 
 manner, they assure us, that there were railroads in Egypt, 
 microscopes in Nineveh, and printing machines in China. 
 But they forget to tell us that which is equally true, viz : 
 that the man who first laid down one log so as to roli 
 another over it, laid the first railroad track ; the boy who 
 first looked through the silvery drops of dew on a cabbage 
 leaf, used a microscope ; and, long before man came upon 
 this stage of existence, there were printers, whose impres- 
 
92 HISTORY OF THE CKEATION. 
 
 sions, left upon the sands of Connecticut, endure to the 
 present day. 
 
 But any engineer will tell you that a rut such as the 
 Egyptians chiseled in the rocks over which they drew their 
 huge stones, is not a railroad; any microscopist will tell 
 you that a bit of convex glass is very far from being a micro- 
 scope; and if you inquire of the printer you will find that 
 a wood-cut, however elaborate, will not enable you to set up 
 a printing office. 
 
 Hence, despite the boasted achievements of the ancients, 
 every intelligent technologist knows that a railroad upon 
 which men and merchandise can be transported at a speed 
 equal to that of the swiftest bird is a thing not half a 
 century old; a microscope which will reveal the invisible 
 world around us and enable us to enter the penetralia of 
 animal and vegetable life is not much older; while the 
 movable type which confer all its value upon the printing 
 press have not existed during a tithe of the world's historic 
 age. It is true that these gentlemen attempt to make up 
 for all this by treating modern inventions in the same stvle, 
 and hence we find that when they attempt to describe arts 
 and processes they are apt to do so in such glowing terms 
 that the very inventors themselves would fail to recognize 
 their offspring. Bead their account of such matters and 
 you will suppose that all difficulties in art have disappeared; 
 that every process advances with " unerring certainty," and 
 every machine works with " infallible regularity." If they 
 attempt to give us an account of the science of the month 
 they seem to possess the happy faculty of producing a 
 brilliant and interesting article from materials which the 
 scientific man hardly thinks it worth while to record. We 
 find them announcing a new invention for reducing metals 
 from their ores by electricity, and forthwith they tell us 
 
ORIGIN OF GENESIS 1. 93 
 
 that 80 perfect is the process that copper will become cheap- 
 er than iron, and that if bur copper coins continue their re- 
 lation of size to actual value, cents Avill be as large as dinner 
 plates.* This week we are advised to sell out any shares, 
 we may have in gas stock, as the new electric or mag- 
 nesium light will soon be produced at such a rate, and with 
 so" much facility that we shall find it to our interest to dis- 
 pense even with windows, and the week after we are 
 promised a condensed form of food, which will be palatable,, 
 and withal so nutritious that the occupation of the cook 
 win foUow that of Othello; pastry shops will be deserted; 
 while so nicely will the ingredients of the proposed form of 
 aliment be adjusted that our children may be grown into 
 physical or intelliectual giants, or both, at our will. 
 
 Now men who write in this sprightly but loose strain; 
 who draw upon their imaginations for their data and upon 
 their hopes for their results, may produce very readable 
 articles, but they will hardly succeed in giving a faithful 
 and honest picture of the state of the arts amongst us. 
 And if their lucubrations should descend to distant ages, we 
 can picture to ourselves some future PanciroUus or Wendell 
 Phillips descanting upon the wonderful achievements of the 
 nineteenth century; moralizing upon the decline of science 
 and art- amongst his cZegrewera^e contemporaries; and giving 
 a long list of Lost Arts which never existed, except upon 
 paper. 
 
 A fair specimen of the exaggerated ideas which often 
 obtain concerning the wisdom of the Egyptians is afforded by 
 the " Potable Gold " of Moses. Boerhave in his " Elemen- 
 ta Chemiae" says: "Moses, who was skilled in the learning 
 of the Egyptians was able to burn gold, so as to reduce it 
 
 * This was written before the days of " nickels." Tlie statement was really made, 
 by a well-known literary Periodical in tbeir " Science of tbe Month.'* 
 
94 HISTORY OF THE CREATION. 
 
 to a powder capable of mixing with water, and fit to be 
 drank, which is one of the highest effects of the art and 
 which the greatest chemists at this day are unacquainted 
 with, Frederick the third. King of Denmark, curious to put 
 this operation in practice, engaged some able chemists of 
 his time to attempt it. After many trials they at last suc- 
 ceeded, but it was in following the method of Moses, by 
 first of all reducing the gold into small parts by means of 
 fire, and then pounding it in a mortar, (along with water to 
 be sure,) till it was so far dissolved as to become potable." 
 
 A careful perusal of the sacred author would have saved 
 the Danish monarch all this trouble. There is no ground 
 for supposing that the golden calf was dissolved. Moses 
 himself in another place (Deut. IX, 21), describes the pro- 
 cess adopted. " I took your sin, the calf which ye made, 
 and burnt it with fire, and stamped it, and ground it very 
 small, even until it was as small as dust, and 1 cast the dust 
 thereof into the brook that descended out of the mount." 
 
 The truth is that beyond a familiarity with a few chemi- 
 cals, including lunar caustic, (which was rediscovered at a 
 very early period in the history of modern chemistry,) the 
 Egyptians had no knowledge of chemistry, and we have not 
 the slightest grounds for believing that their knowledge ex- 
 tended beyond the mere technical uses of these chemical 
 substances. Of their constitution and properties they knew 
 nothing. 
 
 We have no reason to believe that even alchemy with its 
 hopes 'and aims, was known to the Egyptians and other 
 ancient nations. It is certainly not mentioned either by 
 Herodotus or Pliny, who both give an account of the wisdom 
 of the ancients, and undoubtedly had abundant opportunity 
 of acquainting themselves with whatever was known in 
 these earlv times. 
 
ORIGIN OF GENESIS I. 95 
 
 Far less had the ancients any knowledge of those higher 
 departments of science which have opened up to us such 
 wonderful views of the constitution of the universe and the 
 origin of our globe. Astronomy and Geology with their 
 strange revelations, and chemistry and physics with their 
 wonderful laws, are but of yesterday, and have rendered a 
 true scientific cosmogony possible only within the memory 
 of living men. 
 
 Beyond all question the knowledge contained in the first 
 chapter of G-enesis was not part of the learning of the 
 'Egyptians, and to others, therefore, we leave a solution of 
 the question — Where did Moses obtain his wonderfully ac- 
 curate information ? 
 
 THE END.