THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. 



572. The third epoch of creation was signalised by the pro- 

 duction of Mammifers and of land animals generally (ver. 24) : 

 "And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature 

 after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth 

 after his kind : and it ^as so. And God made the beast of the 

 earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing 

 that creepeth upon the earth after his kind : and God saw that it 

 was good." 



573. The later geological ages, and especially the Tertiary, are 

 here indicated, in which, as has been shown, the tribes mentioned 

 in this short and popular statement were created. 



574. The fourth, last, and latest great act of Omnipotence 

 was the creation of the human race. On the last day or 

 epoch of creation, " God said, Let us make man in our own 

 image, after our likeness : ^and let them have dominion over 

 the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the 

 cattle of the field, and over all the earth, and over every creeping 

 thing that creepeth* upon the earth. So God created man in 

 his own image, in the image of God created he him ; male and 

 female created he them." 



575. It is perhaps in this last part of the Mosaic narrative that 

 the most striking and interesting accordance with geological 

 science is observable. According to Genesis, the last epoch of 

 creation was exclusively given to the creation of the human race. 

 Naturalists have reduced animal forms to seventy-eight orders, 

 in one of which man stands alone. It appears from the researches 

 of palaeontologists that of these seventy-eight, all but one, that 

 including man, were created before the close of the Tertiary 

 period, and that in the creation which followed that period, man 

 was the only animal order added to those of former creations. 



576. I have thought it right to develope these points at some 

 length, inasmuch as many consciences have felt alarm at the 

 supposed discordance between Scriptural history and geological 

 discovery. It will, however, be seen, from what I have here 

 stated, that not only no such discordance exists, but that making 

 such allowances for the latitude of language, as are indispensable 

 in the interpretation of so brief and popular a description, designed 

 not for the scientific but for the mass of mankind, as that given in 

 Genesis, there is the most remarkable and satisfactory accordance 

 with natural phenomena. 



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