262 On the Cosmogony of Moses; 
and he proves that the words here used do not necessarily imply 
a new creation of the sun, and cites the authority of Origen 
who was of the same opinion. Accordingly the sun may have 
existed before this period, though it only now became visible on 
the earth in consequence of the changes which had taken place 
in the terrestrial atmosphere. On this hypothesis all the mo- 
tions of the solar system may be supposed to have subsisted 
for ages before the epoch to which the Mosaic Cosmogony (ex- 
cept perhaps the first verse of it) refers, 
If this interpretation be allowed, the whole Cosmogony will 
present a scheme perfectly rational and consisteut with itself, as 
well as coinciding admirably with the information which natural 
philosophers have gained concerning the system of the world, 
It. is well known that certain stars have at various times disap- 
peared from the heaveus or have ceased to be luminous, while, 
others have been observed which were not before visible; as the 
star observed by Hipparchus, which induced that celebrated 
astronomer. to make a catalogue of the heavenly bodies, and that 
which shone for ‘a time with so much splendor in Cassiopeia. 
Others have been for a time either partially or wholly obscured, 
and have again become luminous. Hence it is probable that 
those which have been observed for the first time, really existed 
in the heavens before they were seen, and remained for many 
ages in a dark unilluminated state. Such may have been the 
condition of our sun and solar system before the period when 
light is said by Moses to have appeared in the world; and 
during the preceding ages the state of the earth revolving round 
a dark sun is well described by the expressions ‘* The earth 
was desolate and void, and darkness upon the face of the deep.” 
if these speculations are allowed, in which no cause is assumed 
that is not known really to exist, I would venture to propose 
the following paraphrase of the Cosmogony : 
Ver. 1. At some very remote epoch God created the ma- 
terial universe. 
[Through the remainder of the chapter Moses confines his 
attention to the changes that were effected in this terraqueous 
globe, and only ‘* mentions such other parts of the universe as 
became eventually correlative to it.” 
Ver. 2. The world remained long desolate and void, and a 
dark mist * environed the surface of our globe. 
At length the Divine Energy (the Spirit of God) began to 
exert itself, and to set in action that train of physical changes 
which was destined to develop the organized creation. 
* This is the sense of the Hebrew word wn. —See Parkhurst’s and 
Buxtorf's Lexicons. 
Ver, 
