mSCOVERlES "WITH SACRED HISTORT. 35 



ft appears highly probable from recent discoveries,* that 

 J.ight is not a material substance, but only an effect of undu- 

 lations of ether ; that this infinitely subtle and elastic ether 

 pervades all space, and even the interior of all bodies ; so 

 long as it remains at rest, there is total darkness ; when 

 it is put into a peculiar state of vibration, the sensation of 

 light is produced : this vibration may be excited by various 

 causes ; e. g. by the sun, by the stars, by electricity, com- 

 bustion, &c. If then hght be not a substance, but only a 

 series of vibrations of ether, i. e. an effect produced on a 

 subtile fluid, by the excitement of one or many extraneous 

 causes, it can hardly be said, nor is it said, in Gen. i. 3, to 

 have been a~eated,-\ though it may be literally said to be 

 called into action. 



Lastly, in the reference made in the Fourth Command- 

 ment, Exod. XX. 11, to the six days of the Mosaic creation, 

 the word asah, " made," is the same which is used in Gen. 

 i. 7, and Gen. i. 16, and which has been shown to be less 

 strong and less comprehensive than bara, " created ;" and 

 us it by no means necessarily implies creation out of 

 ■nothing, it may be here employed to express a new arrange- 

 ment of materials that existed bcfore.J 



After all, it should be recollected that the question is not 

 respecting the correctness of the Mosaic narrative, but of 

 our interpretation of it ; and still farther, it should be borne 

 in mind that the object of this account was not to state in 

 ivhat manner but by lahofu, the world was made. As the 

 prevailing tendency of men in those early days was to 

 worship the most glorious objects of nature, namely, the 

 sun and moon and stars ; it should seem to have been one 

 'important point in the Mosaic account of creation, to guard 



* For a general statement of the undiilatory theory of light, see Sir 

 John Herschel!, art. Light, part iii. sec. 2. Encyc. Metropol. See also 

 Professor Airy's Mathematical Tracts, 2d edit. 1831, p. 249 ; and Mrs. 

 Somerville's Connexion of the Physical Sciences, 1834, p. 185. 



t See Note, p. 30. 



t See Note, p. 27. 



