[ 2^7 ] , 



" And God faid let there be light, and there was light ;" here 

 we may obferve tha.t JaBs only, were revealed to Mofes or the per- 

 fon (mofl: probably Adam) from whom their tradition defcended. 

 The words chofen by Mofes, or this perfon, were fuch as coincided 

 with his own notions, or were moft intelligible to an ignorant peo- 

 ple. The phrafes, God faid, God faw it was good ^ God called, ufed 

 in this chapter, are mere anthropological phrafes, fuited to the con- 

 ception of thofe to whom thefe fads were related, for religious and 

 moral and not merely for fcientific purpofes. To men of fcience 

 their fignification could not be ambiguous. " Go^y2(/^," fignifying 

 no more than that events naturally poffible took place by virtue of 

 the laws of their produdion, which laws God had eftabliflied. 

 *' God faw it was good ^' fignifies merely that it was good, and the 

 expreffion " God called" denotes no more than that it received fuch 

 a name. 



The produdion of light ftands next in the order of events re- 

 corded by Mofes, as it does in our theory, and moft probably denotes 

 the flames of volcanic eruptions, the Hebrew certainly bears this 

 fignification. The period of its exiftence Mofes called day, evi- 

 dently from its refemblance to true days, which could have exifted 

 only at a fubfequent period, namely after the fun had gained its 

 luminous powers. 



" And God faid, let there be a firmament in the midft of the 

 " waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters." Here Mofes 



L 1 2 indicates 



