io Cuvier's Theory of I lie Earth. 22? 



Wider that as the period of the Creation of the earth in compute 

 ins; its age; whence it follows that it is now 5819 years old ; 

 which is the common opinion. 



It follows, therefore, that the five first verses of the first chap- 

 ter of Genesis are usually considered as including the work of the 

 " first day " ; in which is comprehended the conception of an al- 

 most simultaneous creation of ihe earth, supposing the day spo- 

 ken of to tie equal only to our natural day. 



If this be true, where were the "thousands of ages" alluded 

 to bv Cuvier, as "preceding the history of the race of man?" 

 who, according to Moses, was created on the sixtJi day (in the 

 usual acceptation of his words) from the creation of the earth. 



.lameson exphiins tlie word "day" by a resort to the hypo- 

 thesis of Bishop iIor>lev, that the motion of the earth may have 

 been slower at the time of" its form;uion, tlian after it was formed* 

 This hy]mthesis is j>lausible, and maybe true; but we can by no 

 means verify it. 



Let us attend to the words of Moses; 



" 1. In the beginning God created the heaven and the 

 earth.-^2. And the earth u«s without form, and void ; ami 

 darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the spirit of God 

 moved upon t'le face of the waters." 



On perusing and re-perusing the al>ove, as well as the context, 

 often and with the utmost attention, I cannot persuade myself 

 that it is incumbent on us to include the whole of the facts re- 

 corded in the five first verses, as necessarily comprehended in 

 the vvoik of the first day; and though it is not for us to attempt 

 to imravel the great and sublime mysteries of creation, it seems 

 to me that we shall not be doing despite to the meaning of the 

 inspired writer, bv declaring that " in the beginning God cre- 

 ated the heaven and the earth;" and by making a pause, where 

 he has concluded a sentence, by iecording a fact. 



In this record there is no limit implied, except that the earth 

 was created "in the beginning," — nor is there in the succeeding 

 verse any limit implied, as to the length of time in which it con- 

 tinued "without form, and void;" nothing by which w6 can pos- 

 sibly deduce the conclusion that, in order to make up the exact 

 term of 5819 years, the earth has existed only the precise num- 

 ber and duration of so many natural days as make up that num- 

 ber of years. 



If we accept the proffered hypothesis of slower revolutioti, we 

 shall have a term totally undefined ; it may comprehend thti 

 *' thousands of ages " alluded to by Cuvier, greater in number 

 than human thought can compass. 



But it seems probable that, however the hypothesis of sIqv ' 

 revolution micht apply to the time which I conceive to,"^^^ 



