Mineral and Mosaical Geologies. 115 



Otir author then proceeds, in the first place, to shew, that 

 4.he interpretation of the Hebrew text in the first chapter of 

 Genesis, as it stands in our Bible, is not absolutely correct, and 

 to suggest the alterations which seem to him to be necessary, 

 and which he supports with great learning and critical acumen. 

 He adopts and defends the canons of interpretation laid down 

 by Rosenmuller, namely, " That the style of the first chapter, 

 as of the whole book of Genesis, is strictly historical, and that 

 it betrays no vestige whatever of allegorical or figurative de- 

 scription." That "since this history was adapted to the com- 

 prehension of the commonesi capacity, IMoses speaks according 

 to optical, not physical truth — that is, he describes the effects 

 of creation optically, or as they would have appeared to the 

 eye, without any assignment of physical causes." 



A circumstantial inquiry into the events of the six days of 

 creation, with occasional criticisms on the true interpretation of 

 the original Hebrew, occupies the remainder of the second part. 

 It would be impossible, within the limits of a review, to follow 

 the author through all the details of this important division of 

 his work. We must therefore refer our readers to the original 

 for the several minutise, and confine ourselves to the general 

 outline, with such occasional quotations from the text, as the 

 importance of the subject, or justice to our author, may seem 

 to require. 



"At the beginning," says Newton, " and in one moment of 

 time," says Bacon, the earth was created, entire and complete, 

 as to its form and texture, though enveloped with a marine 

 fluid, resting on and flowing over every part of its surface, 

 which formed for a very short time the bed of an universal sea. 

 The solid body was concealed by the cloak of waters, and total 

 darkness encompassed that cloak ; God then commanded the 

 existence of light, and divided the light from the darkness — 

 " that is, he established and gave first operation to the laws of 

 proportion and succession between the measures of the two, 

 and having given origin and action to those laws, they accom- 

 plished in their due course the first day. 



The apparent confusion between the command, " Let there 

 be light," delivered on the first day of creation, and the record 

 that God made two great lights, on the fourth day, which 

 has been a stumbling-block to maniy eminent writers, is thus 

 ingeniously cleared up by our author. 



The light of which Moses speaks in the first day, " proceeded 

 from the same solar foiintain of light" that has always illumi- 

 nated this world, but " ignorance on the one hand, and system 

 and hypothesis on the other, have variously contrived to per- 

 plex or pervert this simple recital." The late Sir William 

 Herschel discovered that the body of the sun is an opaque sub- 

 stance, and that its light and heat proceed from a luminous 

 Vol. XV. I 



