256 On the Physical Facts contained in the Bible, 
issuing from the bosom of the earth at the voice of God, 
and rising above the plains and valleys. It gives us an ac- 
count of the process of their elevation, in terms which might 
have been used by a poetical geologist. ‘“ The mountains,”’ 
is the enthusiastic language employed, “ the mountains rise 
above the deep, and the valleys sink to the place which thou 
hast chosen for them.” 
Reference is even made to the force by which they have 
been elevated ; it is represented as proportionate to the ele- 
vation to which these eminences have been raised, being most 
powerful when employed in elevating the mountains properly 
so called, and weaker when its efforts were limited to the 
raising of the hills above the valleys. In its figurative style, 
it compares the elevation of the former to the skipping of 
rams, and that of the second to the leaping of lambs.* 
The earth is thus represented as being soft as clay, at the 
time of these great events. It is then described as having 
assumed a new face, and having adorned itself with a new 
garment,t a sort of allusion to the sedimentary deposits 
with which the superficial crust became covered. 
When Scripture speaks of the electric fluid, it represents 
it to us as resounding throughout the whole space of the 
heavens, and causing its lightnings to shine even to the 
remotest parts of the earth. After their light the thunder 
roars, and its rolling sound is heard. The noise of the thun- 
der, it says, announces that the wrath of God is about to 
fall on all that aspires to elevate itself. Scarcely has the 
sound been heard, when the bolt has already struck. Thus 
God breaks forth in the voice of his thunder; he who works 
such great and mighty wonders, traces his path in the thun- 
der, and regulates the course of the tempests. 
Such is the idea which it gives us of this phenomenon, the 
rapidity of which is even greater than that of light. In fact, 
according to Mr Becquerel’s experiments on the rapidity of 
* See Job. xxviii, 4; Psalm xc. 2; xevii.5; civ. 6, 8,9; exliv. 5 
Proverbs viii. 25 ; Ezekiel xlvii.; Zechariah xiv. 4, 8. 
+t See Job xxxviii. 14. 
