THE PRIMEVAL STORM. 223 



electrical phenomena as in the bosom of the summer-cloud 

 which rising vapors swell into a threatening monster that 

 rears its "thunder-head" above our western horizon. Here, 

 in this storm of the ages, the dazzling glare of ten thousand 

 lightning gleams sheds an infernal tinge over the murky world ; 

 and the responsive voices of ten thousand thunders split the 

 welkin with their detonations. While this fury and chaos reign, 

 the line of battle sinks to the hot surface of the earth, and all 

 at once the attacking waters are volatilized in ten thousand 

 explosions, which rend the elements. Imagination, even, 

 shrinks from the contemplation of the scene. 



But we must brave the struggle through ; the culmination 

 of the great seonic storm is passed. The powers of fire are 

 vanquished ; the waters gather over the heated crust. They 

 are furious with effervescence and ebullition, but they hold 

 possession. On all sides rise columns of steam from a boiling 

 ocean. The atmosphere, once so arid, is now soaked with 

 vapor. The skies still drip with rains, but the gloom is not 

 so dense. There seems to be a day-break on the scene. The 

 exhaustion of the clouds proceeds ; and now behold, it is dawn. 

 A new cosmic day is rising on the flooded world. The volume 

 of the ocean swells ; it has no shore. The clouds, fed by the 

 vapors of a heated ocean are not dispersed ; but a brightening 

 glow heralds promises of a new age. The years speed on, and 

 the alternations of night and day are discernible. The years 

 speed on, and expectation waits for some glorious denoue- 

 ment. Behold, it arrives. The sun in his daily circuit 

 about the world so long lost to him, rose one day in the east- 

 ern sky, and a broad rift in the clouds let in a golden beam 

 of sunlight, direct upon the waters which enwrapped the earth. 



How changed the scene since last those rays fell useless on 

 the scorched and glowing crust. Then the self-luminous earlh 

 cast no shadow, and there was no night. Now, one hemi- 

 sphere is in darkness and the other is in sunlight. Now for 

 the first time, as the earth rolls on its axis, the succession of 

 night and day becomes possible. Now, for the first time, the 

 sun becomes "the ruler of the day" and the moon of the 



