LIGHT, LUMINARIES AND LIFE. 203 
that of a being possessed (potentially or actually) of endowments 
of a higher order than the rest of that Creation. We have 
much yet to learn, no deubt, on this supremely interesting 
question; but I doubt if we shall ever explain, by any 
evolutionary theory, the possession by Man of “the Inner 
Light,” the God-consciousness seen in its full development in 
the Second Adham. 
DISCUSSION. 
On the conclusion of the paper the CHAIRMAN expressed the 
thanks of the meeting to Mr. Irving for so ably supplying his father’s 
place, and the great regret that must be felt by all that Dr. Irving 
could not himself be present to take part in the discussion of his 
extremely interesting paper. They all hoped that Dr. Irving would 
soon be restored to health. 
Dr. Woops SMytH.—We have listened to an able paper which 
has been excellently well read by Dr. Irving’s son. With the 
criticism of Canon Driver’s views I entirely agree, yet he mis-directs 
the views of the great majority of the clergy and ministers of the 
churches. Gesenius and Kalisch, rather than Wordsworth, are our 
chief authorities for translating the word for “firmament” as an 
expanse. Dr. Irving’s idea, that the writer of Genesis i, regarded 
the Milky Way as the waters above the firmament is, I believe, 
doubly untenable. The writer of the cosmogony did not write 
from observation, but from Divine inspiration. ‘The waters above 
the firmament are the clouds which are not vapour but true water. 
They often lie in seas above the firmament, roll in waves and break 
in spray upon mountain summits. The “firmament” is also used 
in a more extended sense than this. The views of Lord Kelvin 
which Dr. Irving adopts, were refuted at the Cambridge meeting of 
the British Association—the folding of the crust of the earth render 
Kelvin’s view, that the earth solidified from centre to circumference, 
an impossibility. Professor Sollas has adopted Kelvin’s view, and 
finds it necessary to regard the earth as having been a frozen 
globe for about twenty millions of years! Now when the sun 
would have gained sufficient power to melt this frozen globe, his 
