Il6 Analysis of Scientific Books. 



atmosphere attached to its surface. " So that the creation of 

 the sun as a part of ' the host of heaven,' does not necessarily 

 imply the creation of light, and conversely, the creation of light 

 does not necessarily imply the creation of the body of the sun. 

 In the first creation of ' the heaven and the earth,' therefore, 

 not the planetary orbs only, but the solar orb itself, was created 

 in darkness, awaiting that light which by one simple divine 

 operation was to be communicated at once to all. When, then, 

 the almighty v/ord, in commanding light, commanded the first 

 illumination of the solar atmosphere, its new light was imme- 

 diately caught and reflected throughout space, by all the mem- 

 bers of the planetary system. And well may we imagine, that, 

 in that first sudden and magnificent illumination of the universe, 

 ' The morning stars sang together, and the sons of God shouted 

 for joy !' " 



The body of the sun itself, however, or rather its luminous 

 atmosphere, was still concealed from the earth by the waters 

 on its surface, and the exhalations which the sun's heat raised 

 from them. It was not till the fourth day, that the cause of 

 light was to be visibly revealed to the earth. But its effects, 

 and the alternation of light and darkness, subsisted from the 

 first day, when " both the solar fountain of light was opened in 

 the heavens, and the earth received its first impulse of rotation 

 on its axis, and in its orbit :" and consequently, " time, which 

 only exists in reference to that revolution, began with the crea- 

 tion of the globe, and the commencement of its revolution in 

 darkness ; and the creation of light succeeded at that proportion 

 of distance in time, which was thenceforth to constitute the per- 

 petual diurnal divisions of the two." 



The philosophy of Bacon and Newton is in perfect unison 

 with the sound learning and criticism of RosenmuUer, and 

 concurs with him in concluding, that the days of creation were 

 not, as the chaos of the mineral geology requires, indefinite 

 measures of time, but natural days — beginning from one even- 

 ing, and ending with the next ; and he equally coincides with 

 those illustrious men in reprobating, in the strongest terms, 

 the preposterous inference of a chaos from the language of 

 Moses. 



The division of " the waters from the waters," by the firma- 

 ment, is explained to mean the separation of the watery vapours 

 from the waters covering the earth, by the creation and interpo- 

 sition of the aerial atmosphere ; but this vapour, in the form of 

 congregated clouds, still prevented the sun itself from being 

 visible. 



The mode of the " gathering together of the waters into one 

 place," on the thi'd day, forms a remarkable feature in our 

 author's exposition of the sacred text. This he considers to 

 have been effected by a violent disruption and depression of 



