WHAT IS CREATION? 237 



testifies to plant life. The pre-Cambrian rocks 

 contain deposits of this nature. Again, Moses 

 merely describes the origin of things, not their 

 whole after history and development. The first 

 vegetables he calls deshe, which signifies lowly 

 plants in general, i.e., seaweeds, lichens, etc., in 

 fact, flowerless plants (Cryptogams), which botanists 

 place at the bottom of the scale. Herbs yielding 

 seed, and trees bearing fruit, the higher botanical 

 division of Phanerogams or flowering plants, appeared 

 in later times, when the earth's condition had be- 

 come more favourable to their survival. 



On the fifth day Moses says that " the waters 

 brought forth the moving creatures," or sheretzim, a 

 word which in Leviticus xi. is applied to insects, 

 creeping things, and small creatures generally. The 

 proper word for "fish" does not occur till verse 

 twenty-six, which refers to man's dominion over 

 terrestrial things. The word sheretzim, then, pro- 

 bably refers to lowly marine life and insects, many 

 of which pass their larval condition in water. No 

 better word than tanninim could have been used 

 by which to denote the great sea-monsters of the 

 Secondaries, and so Moses, like the geologist, puts 

 reptiles before birds. With regard to the higher 

 class of mammalia there is no dispute. Nothing 

 can be clearer, therefore, than that the writer of 

 Genesis, when interpreted correctly, is in perfect 

 accord with the demonstrated facts of Geology. 



The subject of man's antiquity is a vast one, and 

 can only be alluded to briefly. The whole point of 

 the objection turns upon the rate at which certain 



