CHAPTER II. 



THEORY OF DIRECT CREATION. 



" There grew an old Oak in the Vale of Elul, 

 Old as the world, and planted in the Day, 

 In that mysterious day, wherein God made 

 The earth, and heavens, and each plant of the field, 

 Before it was in the earth, and every herb 

 Before it grew, while man as yet was not." 



HERAUD, Judgment of the Flood, v. 307312. 



SOME may think that we have already devoted 

 too much space to subjects foreign to the 

 Theory of Evolution ; but it is impossible to 

 insist too strongly upon the difference between 

 the Universe as it appeared to the ancients, and 

 as it appears to the moderns. We are always 

 liable to overlook this difference, and conse- 

 quently to misjudge both the ancients and their 

 writings. On the other hand, it would be folly 

 to undervalue or ridicule them on this account, 

 for the highest genius is, and always must be of 

 great rarity. It is not often that a man appears 

 who is enabled by the mere force of his natural 

 endowments to leave an indelible mark upon the 

 ages for all time. Hundreds or even thousands 



