376 Miscellaniés. 
for the residence of the present race of men. This doctrine supposes 
that the first verse in Genesis refers to the first creation of the matter of 
the globe, and of the celestial orbs ; ; and that between that event and the 
creation of man, an indefinite period of long duration elapsed before the 
reduction of the earth to its present form. 
- Long before your treatise on Geology was written, and anterior to the 
modern discoveries of the-remains of animals and plants in the different 
formations of the crust of the earth, I had conceived the same opinion. 
I could hardly express my opinions better than Bishop Gleig has expressed 
them in a note in page 32 of your book, Philadelphia edition. 
My object now is merely to offer a few remarks on the Hebrew words 
bara and-asah, which are used to express creation and making. I sup- 
pose that lexicographers and commentators have mistaken the’ primary 
signification of bara. Gesenius supposes the primary sense to be to cut, 
_ cut out, to carve, or to form by cutting or carving, from the notion of 
ae cutting, or separating, inherent in the radical syllable 43. - 
© But this is probably a mistake, which shows how imperfectly the most 
eminent scholars understand the order in which the various uses of words 
are derived from a radical signification. If the primary sense were to 
cut, or carve, the sense of being born or producing young, could not be 
deduced from it. Yet Gesenius himself thus miereetee the word, in Ezek. 
21: 30, 28:13; Ps. 104: 30. 
The primary sense of the word is probably ta spate in some form or 
other, and cutting may be deduced from that sense. “But in éxpressing 
creation, ‘the sense isto produce, to drive out, or send forth. Creation 
was a producing to light or.to existence ° a visible form. Thus the 
apostle expresses the fact, = Macknight renders the original words, and 
as I should sea them: ‘so that the things which are seen were not 
of t vared ; ;” that is of things’ previously formed and 
appe 
visible. “Heb. 11: 23: Tein: the: since inclined t this opinion, because — 
I believe the word bara i is our English word bear, or of the same family, 
coinciding with the sense in which we use it for the nes of infants 
and of births. 
The word asah seems ethane to denote the act or process of shaping 
and fitting for use, by giving due form to a thing.’ And I would suggest 
it as worthy of consideration, whether the sense of the passdge, Gen. 
11: 3, in which both of thes words are used, is not this—Because that 
in it he had rested from all his works which God produced for formation ; 
created to be reduced to a form for use, or for its intended purposes. 
For the ‘great variety of uses or application of Lars Hebrew Jom see 
the Introduction to my Quarto Dictionary. 
‘suggestions are offered with some diffidence, iy = 
our obedient servant, N- WEBSTER. 
“New Haven, Camsistaiem, United States, hh 16, 1898. ne Te 
