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relieving it from the mistakes of bigotry and 

 ignorance on the one hand, and the misrepre- 

 sentations of infidelity on the other. 



In the first place, I must observe that there 

 seems to be nothing in the scriptural account 

 which militates against the supposition, that the 

 materials of which our globe is composed existed 

 long previously to the commencement of the 

 Mosaic creation, or which even contradicts the 

 opinion, that many races of living beings may 

 have preceded that period. The very terms, in- 

 deed, in which the history of this latest creation 

 is introduced, if they do riot positively imply, do, 

 at least, evidently leave room for the hypothesis. 

 " In the beginning God created the heavens 

 and the earth," is the short but emphatic intro- 

 duction to the sublime passage, intimating mere- 

 ly that matter is not eternal and self-existent, 

 but that there was a period in the infinity of 

 duration in which it had a "beginning," and was 

 called out of nothing by the Divine fiat. Then 

 follows a description of the state of the globe, 

 immediately before the plastic hand of the Al- 

 mighty was applied, at the commencement of our 

 creation, to mould it into order and beauty ; 

 " The earth was without form and void ; and dark- 

 ness was upon the face of the deep ;" that is the 

 whole materials of this planet were at that time 

 in a state of chaos. Of what took place during the 

 period, whether long or short, between the first 

 formation of these materials, and their appear- 

 ance in this state of disruption and darkness, we 



