394 PLEASANT WAYS IN SCIENCE. 



Creation, the appointment of the heavenly orbs running 

 parallel to the biblical account of the fourth day of Creation. 

 It is important to notice its significance in this respect 

 We can understand now the meaning underlying the words, 

 "God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the 

 heavens, to divide the day from the night ; and let them be 

 for signs and for seasons, and for days and years." The 

 order, indeed, in which the bodies are formed according to 

 the biblical account is inverted. The greater light the 

 sun is made first, to rule the day : then the lesser light 

 the moon to rule the night These are the heavenly 

 bodies which in this description rule the day of 24 hours. 

 The sun may be regarded also as ruling (according to the 

 ancient view, as according to nature) the seasons and the 

 year. The stars remain as set in the heaven for signs. 

 " He made the stars also." " And God set them " that is, 

 the sun, moon, and stars " in the firmament of the heaven 

 to give light upon the earth, and to rule over the day and 

 over the night," and so forth. 



No one can doubt, I conceive, that the biblical account 

 is superior to the other, both in a scientific and in a literary 

 sense. It states much less as actually known, and what it 

 does state accords better with the facts known in the writer's 

 day. Then, the Babylonian narrative, though impressive in 

 certain passages, is overloaded with detail. In both accounts 

 we find the heavenly bodies set in the firmament by a 

 special creative act, and specially designed for the benefit 

 of man. And in passing I would observe that the discovery 

 of these Babylonian inscriptions, however they may be 

 interpreted, and whether they be regarded as somewhat 

 earlier or somewhat later than the Bible narrative, appears 

 to dispose finally of the fantastic interpretation assigned by 

 Hugh Miller and others to the biblical cosmogony, as 

 corresponding to a series of visions in which the varying 

 aspects of the world were presented. It has long seemed 

 to me an utterly untenable proposition that a narrative 

 seemingly intended to describe definitely a certain series of 



