compared with the Discoveries of the Modern Sciences. 241 
rived the elements with which she has formed the celestial 
bodies composing the wonderful assemblage of the universe. 
It is likewise from the bosom of these masses of nebulosities, 
so abundantly diffused through space, that she draws the 
stellar and planetary bodies. 
It is a remarkable fact, that the cosmogony given in Ge- 
nesis, is the only one that has established this distinction be- 
tween the primitive creation of all matter and its co-ordina- 
tion. Not long since, our knowledge was not sufficiently ad- 
vanced to enable us to appreciate these great differences in 
time and in things. Not less than seven thousand years were 
necessary to enable us to comprehend the reality of such a 
distinction, and to shew that it was founded on the nature of 
things. We can now follow step by step these transforma- 
tions of nebulous matter, and see it pass through different 
states before producing stellar and planetary bodies analogous 
to those of the solar system. 
This distinction,* established by Scripture, is founded on 
two orders of facts entirely independent of each other, and 
which, owing to that circumstance, have their weight and 
authority increased. The first refers to the transformations 
which take place, in space, between nebulosities and the 
new stars produced by their condensation. The second has 
reference to the space of time necessary for the light of the 
most distant nebulosities to reach us. This space is so con- 
siderable, that, according to the observation of facts, we must 
refer the first emission of this light to about a hundred thou- 
sand years before the appearance of man. 
* Not only does Genesis distinguish the creation of matter from its 
co-ordination, but the same thing is observable in all the other books of 
Scripture. Thus we find in Psalm xxxiii., verses 6th, 7th, and 9th, that 
« By the word of the Lord were the heavens made ; and all the host of 
them by the breath of His mouth. He gathereth the waters of the sea 
together as an heap; he layeth up the deep in store-houses. He spake 
and it was done; He commanded and it stood fast.” So much for the 
spontaneity of creation. With regard to the posterior co-ordination of 
the objects created at the beginning of time, we read in Psalm viii., 
verse 3d., ‘‘ When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the 
moon and the stars which thou hast ordained.” 
VOL. XXXVIII. NO. LXXVI.—APRIL 1845. Q 
