1888. | NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 149 
cally speaking, is that figure which is styled synecdoche, or put- 
ting a part for a whole. Theft stands for all crimes against 
property ; murder, for all against the person ; adultery, for all 
against purity ; and so through the list ; everywhere the last of 
a class is put for the whole class. So I take it, the days of 
Genesis, each the last day of a long period, are used in the com- 
mandment for the whole periods. 
I have spoken only of the negative results arising from an exe- 
gesis based upon the rigid rules laid down in the beginning of 
this investigation. Its positive results are no less important, 
and are worthy the serious attention of its critics. 
The following statements are clearly set forth in the first four 
verses. 
The earth had a beginning. 
It was without form’ and void. 
Before motion, it was enveloped in darkness. 
Motion was imparted by the same first cause that created the 
heavens and the earth. 
The earth then was not solid, but a mobile flowing substance 
(mayim, that which flows). 
The first visible effect of motion was the production of light. 
Light became good (7. e., such as that of the sun), before 
there was a separation between light and darkness, 7. ¢., before 
day and night began. 
To see the value of these statements, one needs to reverse 
them, or change their order, thus: 
‘<The earth never had a beginning;” then, all that we have 
been taught about the sun’s loss of energy, or about the effect of 
tidal friction, or Prof. Tait’s degradation of energy, is an error, 
‘¢The earth never was without form and void, never was a 
mobile, easily flowing substance;” then, what scientists have 
taught us about the earth’s once gaseous condition is an error. 
‘Darkness did not cover the deep, before motion was im- 
parted;” then, the corpuscular and the undulatory theory of 
light are both errors, physical impossibilities. 
“Light did not become good light till after day and night 
began.” 
Then, what the spectroscope has told us about the poor, 
three-banded spectrum of nebulous matter, gradually improving 
as the gaseous substances approach a liquid or solid form, till it 
becomes good light, like that of the sun, all this is an error. 
The importance of these statements and their order cannot 
well be overestimated. 
1This is not a happy translation of ‘‘tohu.” It is ‘‘ vanity, almost 
nothingness,” a term peculiarly applicable to nebulous matter, a thou- 
sand times thinner than air. 
