Esmark on the Geological Historic of the Earth. 109 



there is still much remaining which we cannot explain, with re- 

 gard to the original formation of the earth, and the successive 

 revolutions it has undergone, especially as we find that all these 

 took place prior to the existence of the human race. For this 

 reason, we are not able to give a perfectly satisfactory account 

 of the history of the creation by Moses, who, without determin- 

 ing the length of this period, merely says, that, " in the begin- 

 ning, God created the heaven and the earth, and that the earth 

 was without form and void." In all probability a very long pe- 

 riod, perhaps several thousands of our present years, intervened 

 between the creation of the world and the time when the earth 

 had advanced £*> far in the arrangement of its parts as to be ca- 

 pable of exhibiting signs of organization. By a day and a 

 night, we now understand the period of the earth's revolution 

 round its axis ; by a year, the revolution of the earth in its orbit 

 round the sun. Moses says, that the light was first formed, 

 and that that was the first day. On the third day after this, 

 the sun and moon were formed. As we have now no light but 

 what comes either immediately from the sun himself, or by re- 

 flection from the moon ; and as there was light, and likewise 

 day and night before the sun and moon were formed, we must 

 infer that the day here mentioned has been of a different charac- 

 ter from our day, and that this light had a different source from 

 an immediate communication from the sun. We may there- 

 fore conclude, that during the period of the incipient forma- 

 tion of the earth, it had possessed a light peculiar to its own 

 constitution, such as we shall afterwards find exhibited in the 

 case of other heavenly bodies in a similar stage of their forma- 

 tion. 



For this purpose, let us cast a glance over the solar system, 

 stating such phenomena as may assist in explaining this forma- 

 tion of the earth. On viewing this system, besides the earth, 

 which completes its circuit round the sun in a period which we 

 can exactly calculate, there are several other globes, some of 

 them larger than the earth, and some of them smaller, which re- 

 volve round the sun likewise in a determined period, some of 

 them longer than that of the earth, and some of them shorter. 

 Besides these bodies, the planets, with their satellites or moons, 

 there belong also to the solar system a multitude of comets. 



