198 MK. <il. \I>STONE AND GENESIS v 



animals obviously depend on plants ; and because, without cropi 

 and harvests, there seemed to be no particular need of heavenly 



for the seasons. 

 These were provided by the fourth day's work. Light 



d already ; but now vehicles for the distribution of light, 

 in a special manner and with varying degrees of intensity, were 

 provided. I conceive that the previous alternations of light and 

 darkness were supposed to go on; but that the "light" 

 strengthened during the daytime by the sun, which, as a source 

 of heat a- well as of light, glided up the firmament from tin- 

 east, and slid down in the west, each day. Very probably cadi 

 day's sun was supposed to be a new one. And as the light of 

 the day was strengthened by the sun, so the darkness of the 

 night was weakened by the moon, which regularly waxed and 

 waned every month. The stars are, as it weiv, thrown in. 

 And nothing can more sharply mark the doctrinnl purpose of 

 the author, than the manner in which he deals with thi- 

 nly bodies, which the Gentiles identified so closely with 

 thfir gods, as if they were mere accessories to the almanac. 



Animals come next in order of creation, and the general notion 

 of tin- writer seems to be that they were produced by the medium 

 in which they live ; that is to say, the aquatic animals by the 



n, and the terrestrial animals by the land. But ther. 

 a difficulty about flying things, such as bats, birds, and in- 

 The cosmogonist seems to have had no conception of "air " as 

 an rl. -mental body. His "elements" are earth and water, and 

 he ignores air as much as he docs fire. Birds " ily above the 



arth in the open lirmanient " or "on the face of the expanse " 

 "f h'-avni. They are not said to fly through the air. The 



hoice of a generative medium for Hying tilings, therefore, 

 seemed to lie between water and earth ; and, if we take into 



i-pieuousness of the great lli.i-ks of water-birds 

 and the swarms of winged insects, which appear t<> arise from 



r, I tllillk the prefer' lire o f W at<T breo]|le> intelligible. 



1 do not put this forward as more than a probable 



to the creation of aquatic animals on the fifth, 



that of land animal-, on the sixth day, and that of man la>t ,.f 



all, I pn-Mimc th. ordei \\a., determined by the fact that man 



