398 PLEASANT WA YS IN SCIENCE. 



most interesting part of the narrative. We see that, accord- 

 ing to the Babylonian philosophy, the earth is regarded as 

 formed from the waters and resting after its creation above 

 a vast abyss of chaotic water. We find traces of this old 

 hypothesis in several biblical passages, as, for instance, in 

 the words of the Third Commandment, " the heaven above, 

 the earth beneath, and the waters under the earth ; " and 

 again in Proverbs xxx. 4, " Who hath bound the waters in 

 a garment ? who hath established all the ends of the earth ?" 

 " The great gates in the darkness shrouded, the fastenings 

 strong on the left and right," in the Babylonian account, 

 refer to the enclosure of the great infernal lake, so that the 

 waters under the earth might not overwhelm the world. It 

 is from out the dark ocean beneath the earth that the god 

 Anu calls the moon into being. He opens the mighty gates 

 shrouded in the nether darkness, and creates a vast whirl- 

 pool in the gloomy ocean ; then " at his bidding, from the 

 turmoil arose the moon like a giant bubble, and passing 

 through the open gates mounted on its destined way across 

 the vaults of heaven." It is strange to reflect that in quite 

 recent times, at least 4000 years after the Babylonian tablet 

 was written, and who shall tell how many years after the 

 tradition was first invented ? a theory of the moon's origin 

 not unlike the Babylonian hypothesis has been advanced, 

 despite overwhelming dynamical objections ; and a modern 

 paradoxist has even pointed to the spot beneath the ocean 

 where a sudden increase of depth indicates that matter was 

 suddenly extruded long ago, and driven forcibly away from 

 the earth to the orbit along which that expelled mass our 

 moon is now travelling. 



It would have been interesting to have known how the 

 Babylonian tablet described the creation of Shamas, the 

 sun ; though, so far as can be judged from the fragments 

 above quoted, there was not the same fulness of detail in 

 this part of the description as in that relating to the moon. 

 Mr. Smith infers that the Babylonians considered the moon 

 the more important body, unlike the writer or compiler of 



