EVOLUTION AND GENESIS 107 



advanced discoveries of our various natural sci- 

 ences is in fact such that it evoked from Ampere 

 the emphatic remark, that will not seem startling 

 to any one acquainted with this interesting theme, 

 that: "Either Moses knew as much about science 

 as we, or else he was inspired." 



And yet there is no need whatsoever of leaning 

 upon science for an intelligent and wholly satis- 

 factory explanation of the Sacred Text. Thus, 

 among various interpretations that can quite rea- 

 sonably be given, it will suffice to call attention to 

 the interesting "vision theory," which prescinds 

 entirely from all scientific explanation. It re- 

 gards the successive days as merely successive 

 visions, in which the work of creation was un- 

 rolled before the sacred seer, without any neces- 

 sary regard to a strictly chronological order. Not 

 unlike the cinema, each vision might thus have 

 faded away into darkness and the new revelation 

 have again dawned in light. Such visions could 

 have been shown in dream. The sequence of 

 events might then have been chosen just to serve 

 the end intended. Any logical order would have 

 sufficed, as in a historical work, military, political, 

 social and cultural events can be grouped sep- 

 arately, no matter what their chronological or- 

 der may have been. 



It need not be supposed that these revelations 

 were made at the time that the book of Genesis 

 was composed. They may have been given to the 



