of soft-bodied animals, at a very early period, ages before such species 

 as whales and cattle existed. On the very same day, according to the 

 narrative, god formed an androgynous, or hermaphrodite man, having 

 two sexes, and being the fac-simile of himself. Many ancient races 

 believed that their god was androgynous, and no doubt the writer of 

 this account held the same opinion, regarding the good principle of the 

 summer months, or Elohim, as a bi-sexual and reproductive deity. If 

 this be not the correct view of the matter, it would be interesting to 

 know which of the two sexes the god of Genesis partakes of. 



On the seventh day god rested from his work ; but we do not find 

 any record of his having done anything to cause fatigue, except giving 

 utterance to his fiat day by day. 



This story is so palpably absurd as to need no argument to prove it 

 so, were it not for the fact that certain crafty persons, seeing the utter 

 impossibility of reconciling it with science and reason, have seen fit to 

 invent new interpretations of the original, in order to give it an appear- 

 ance of truth. One sect maintains that the days were epochs, and not 

 ordinary days, which, if it were true, would merely augment the diffi- 

 culty by making the earth to have existed, with vegetation, for ages 

 instead of days, without the sun ; but we have already seen that this 

 theory will not hold ground for a moment. 



Another more cunning class of religionists have propounded the 

 hypothesis that the whole story is meant to be an epitome of what oc- 

 curred at the origin of the universe and life, and that ordinary days 

 were really meant, and purposely utilised to epitomise long periods of 

 time, as was customary with ancient writers, who frequently availed 

 themselves of poets' licence in this manner. This theory is pnmd facie 

 a plausible one, and has, no doubt, satisfied many restless and thought- 

 less spirits amongst us ; but in reality it differs but little, if at all, from 

 the preceding hypothesis, both leaving us in much the same position 

 They declare that the very same order is maintained in the narrative as 

 that adopted by scientists ; that both agree that the earth was foiled 

 first, and then, in the following order, vegetation, fishes, birds, beasts 

 of the field, and man. We know well enough, however, that the sun 

 is absolutely necessary for the existence of the vegetable kingdom ; 

 that birds did not appear before reptiles and worms, but long after 

 them ; and that mammals made their appearance, not before creeping 



