1888. | NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 147 
higher forms. Prof. Le Conte in his ‘‘ Evolution,” page 248, 
says: ‘‘Such changes are usually more or less paroxysmal, far 
more rapid at some times than at others.’”” The abruptness is 
quite as marked in the strata as in Genesis. 
As to man, the time has not yet come to dogmatize from the 
scientific standpoint as to the mode or date of his coming into 
existence. Adam, according to Genesis, was formed in the same 
epoch with present cattle, beasts, and other creatures. Whether 
human beings preceded Adam, no hint is given, but silence is 
not denial. In later chapters there are two or three statements 
which the existence of pre-Adamic men would render more easy 
to understand. Scientists as yet are able to give very little in- 
formation on the subject. It seems the part of wisdom to wait 
until we have more knowledge in regard to man’s early history. 
As to the work of the fourth period, it is claimed that Moses 
teaches that the ‘‘ great lights”? were made and placed in the 
heavens after there nad been grass and fruit trees; the sun after 
vegetation ! 
The same close adherence to the letter of the account will, I 
think, carry it safely by this difficulty. Read as literally as 
possible, Moses says: Let the lights in the firmament (expanse) 
of heaven be for to divide (a Hebraism for, let the lights in the 
firmament of heaven divide) between the day and the night, and 
let them be for signs and for seasons, for days and for years. 
And then he says: And it was so, it was done. 
This seems to settle the matter, for if the two great lights had 
already obeyed the command, how could they be called into ex- 
istence afterwards ? Hence the next verse does not teach that 
they were made then ; it is merely one more claim to creatorship. 
It is a parenthetical statement that God, to whom their obedience 
had just been recorded, was their Creator. He made them, 
placed them on high, assigned them their duties in reference to 
our planet; and he made the stars also. 
Its place in the narrative, between modern plants and modern 
animals, seems to correspond most nearly to that of the Glacial 
epoch. When scientists have told us what occurred during this 
period and at what time the axis of the earth became inclined 
twenty-three and one-half degrees, we shall be in a condition to 
compare what they say with what Moses has put on record. 
_ The theme is a tempting one, but lies beyond the limits of this 
aper. 
ri that 1 would now insist upon is, that Genesis does not 
teach that the sun and moon were made so late in the world’s 
history. 
No part of this account has given rise to so much controversy 
as the word rendered ‘‘day.” It is claimed that, according to 
