394 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



by weeks was a matter of familiar knowledge to Moses. Then, this 

 being so, it is quite intelligible that the successive works of creation, 

 beginning with light and culminating in man, should fit themselves, 

 as it were, into the framework which the division of the week sup- 

 plied. Some framework would manifestly be required, and this frame- 

 work would be ready-made. 



There would be an advantage in this presentation of the week, 

 which would be analogous to that which belonged to the whole 

 Mosaic cosmogony, as a testimony against idolatry. The tendency, 

 to which the nations almost universally fell victims, was to worship 

 the heavenly bodies ; but the story of creation, as given to the 

 ancient church, distinctly asserted the creature character of these 

 bodies, and with great and emphatic distinctiveness man's superiority 

 to them all ; the first chapter of Genesis was an eloquent protest 

 against the worship of the host of heaven ; and so, if there was a 

 tendency to connect the days of the week with this same kind of false 

 worship, by giving one day to the sun, another to the moon, and so 

 on, nothing could more effectually cure this error than the appro- 

 priation of the days as representative of the stages of operation in the 

 creative work of the one supreme God. The days did not belong to 

 the planets, owed no allegiance to them, and were not influenced by 

 them, however it might be true that the method of reckoning them 

 was due to the number of these bodies ; they were simply the first, 

 second, third . . . days ; all were alike except the seventh, upon 

 which a special character was impressed. And it may be remarked 

 in this connection that the Israelites never adopted the heathen 

 practice, almost if not quite universal, of designating the days of the 

 week by the names of the planets or of deities ; to an Israelite Sunday 

 was the first day of the week, and nothing more ; the seventh day 

 was the Sabbath, and the sixth was the day of preparation, but no 

 taint could be found the whole week through of anything which 

 could be twisted or perverted to idolatrous ends. The Christian 

 Church has not thought it necessary to take so much precaution ; 

 bearing in mind that through her Lord the idols have been " utterly 

 abolished," she has not feared to suffer to remain in her nomenclature 

 some of the relics of the heathen past. "When the Society of Friends 

 endeavored to substitute the Jewish system for that which is current 

 in Christendom, it was felt that the effort was unnecessary and un- 

 profitable, and it has consequently failed outside their own body. 

 The mongrel method of denoting the days of the week, which prevails 

 throughout Europe, varying from one country to another, but mongrel 

 in all, can not be defended upon any except antiquarian principles, 

 but may be acknowledged to be free in common use from all taint of 

 superstition or any danger of bringing in idolatry. 



I shall be quite prepared to find that the view which has been 

 taken in this essay of the relation of the seven days of Genesis to the 



