70 Does the Mosaic Cosmogony 



which are to be accounted for by the uniformly condensed and 

 brief form of the whole narration. 



We proceed to the work of the sixth epoch, which concluded 

 with the creation of man. 



In the English translation we find creeping things again in- 

 cluded among the beings which were created during this period, 

 and these English terms> in their most commonly received ac- 

 ceptation, imply some of the insect or reptile tribes. We have 

 seen that the Septuagint countenances the interpretation creep- 

 ing things ; but the Hebrew term (remes) does not. This is 

 derived from a verb which signifies to move, and which is so 

 far from being limited in its application to the insects or the 

 reptiles, that, in Psalm civ. 20, 21, we find it applied to the 

 beasts of the forest and the young lions : " Thou makest dark- 

 ness and it is night, wherein all the beasts of the forest do creep 

 (tiremos). The young lions roar after their prey."" In the 

 24th and 25th verses, (remes) is grouped with cattle (behemach), 

 and beast of the earth (haith haaretz). Proofs are abundant, 

 and too tedious to be all referred to, that by (behemah) the 

 Hebrews generally expressed the larger herbivorous animals, 

 and by (haith haaretz) the larger beasts of prey. ( For the for- 

 mer see Genesis xxxiv. 23, and for the latter Leviticus xxvi. 22). 

 Thus we find races of mammalia expressed by these terms, and 

 to comprehend the whole class we must understand (remes) as 

 referring to its other tribes. It is at least no race of insects 

 that can be meant by the term, for, in point of fact, where any 

 of these are obviously meant in other Hebrew passages, either 

 the name (sheretz) is given to them as in Leviticus xi. 42, 

 " Whatsoever doth multiply feet among all creeping things^^ 

 (hasheretz), or the name (oph), as we have already seen. 



It is true that remes is applied to the oviparous tribes, but 

 not as a noun or name, but as a verb to express their motion, 

 just as in some passages above quoted, we have seen sheretz ap- 

 plied as a verb, but not a name to mammalia. 



Previously to setting down the following table of coincidences 

 between the 1st chapter of Genesis and the results of geological 

 observation, it is necessary to make a remark on one passage in 

 Humboldt'*s table of geological formations, which possesses a 

 classical celebrity over Europe. In that table, following an 



