LIGHT, LUMINARIES AND LIFE. 193 
informs us. During that vast interval the moon (with a mass 
about one-eightieth of that of the earth) must have soon lost its 
feeble initial luminosity, and revolved as a dark satellite round the 
earth, becoming effective as a luminary only later on, when the 
solar rays became sufficiently powerful to strongly illuminate «.* 
This was pointed out by myself in the Guardian; but the point 
was entirely missed by the distinguished Professor of Hebrew at 
Oxford, who simply met the argument by a reiteration of his 
previous fallacy. 
Having answered objections then, and put the matter more 
fully in the present paper, I repeat, that, however he may have 
got the idea, the inspired writer, in introducing the sun and 
moon (qué luminaries) at a stage when vegetable evolution had 
made considerable advance, gives expression to an idea, which 
does not conflict with the latest conclusions of science. As I 
read the passage, the statement—* He made the stars also ”—is 
parenthetical, and simply reminds us that they were also 
embraced in the same range of the monotheistic idea of creation. 
We ought fairly to allow for a certain amount of temporal 
overlap, if not even parallelism, when we have dismissed from 
our minds the notion of “the days” as indicating periods of 
time, and become possessed of the far grander and more 
ennobling conception of them, as representing so many definite 
“ phases of Creative Will and Thought realised.” 
By a closer study in the light of advancing science of such 
apparent discrepancies as those dealt with in this paper and 
elsewhere, we are brought nearer to the acceptance of the thesis— 
“The Genesis account of Creation not inconsistent with the 
teaching of Geology ” ;{ and the truth of this is not affected by 
the fact that the Holy Scriptures were never intended to teach 
men the Sciences of Nature. May we not say with Mr. Manley§ 
that, so far as the Creation story is concerned, the grand old Book 
still stands out surviving the tides of criticism that have rolled 
over it, like the primeval rocks of the earth itself ? 
Note to V.Those tides, in the early stages (when the moon was 
nearer the earth and the attraction of its mass upon terrestrial water 
* The time required for the cooling of the Moon compared with the 
time required for the cooling of the Earth would be (cet. par) as 1 : 80° or 
as L : 512,000. 
+ See further my previons paper, “ Evolutionary Law, etc.” : also the 
Guardian, Oct. 30th, 1907. 
t Professor Edward Hull, F.R.S., in the Church Family Newspaper, 
Oct. 2nd, 1908. 
§ Guardian, Oct. 9th, 1907. 
