376 Miscellanies. 



for the residence of the present race of men. This doctrine supposes 

 that the first verse in Genesis refers to the first creation of the matter of 

 the globe, and of the celestial orbs ; and that between that event and the 

 creation of man, an indefinite period of long duration elapsed before the 

 reduction of the earth to its present form. 



Long before your treatise on Geology was written, and anterior to the 

 modern discoveries of the remains of animals and plants in the different 

 formations of the crust of the earth, I had conceived the same opinion, 

 I could hardly express my opinions better than Bishop Gleig has expressed 

 them in a note in page 32 of your book, Philadelphia edition. 



My object now is merely to offer a few remarks on the Hebrew words 

 hara and asali, which are used to express creation and making. I sup- 

 pose that lexicographers and commentators have mistaken the primary 

 signification of hara. Gesenius supposes the primary sense to be to cut, 

 cut out, to carve, or to form hy cutting or carving, from the notion of 

 breaking, cutting, or separating, inherent in the radical syllable ^13. 



But this is probably a mistake, which shows how imperfectly the most 

 eminent scholars understand the order in which the various uses of words 

 are derived from a radical signification. If the primary sense were to 

 cut, or carve, the sense of heing horn or producing young, could not be 

 deduced from it. Yet Gesenius himself thus interprets the word, in Ezek. 

 21 : 30, 28 : 13 ; Ps. 104 : 30. 



The primary sense of the word is probably to separate in some form or 

 other, and ci^ffm^ may be deduced from that sense. But in expressing 

 creation, the sense is, io produce, to drive out, or send forth. Creation 

 was a producing to light or to existence in a visible form. Thus the 

 apostle expresses the fact, as Macknight renders the original words, and 

 as I should render them : " so that the things which are seen were not 

 made of things which appeared;" that is of things previously formed and 

 visible. Heb. 11 : 3. I am the more inclined to this opinion, because 

 I believe the word hai^a is our English word hear, or of the same family, 

 coinciding with the sense in which we use it for the production of infants 

 and of births. 



The word asah seems rather to denote the act or process of shaping 

 ?indfttingfor use, by giving due form to a thing. And I would suggest 

 it as worthy of consideration, whether the sense of the passage. Gen. 

 11:3, in which both of these words are used, is not this — Because that 

 in it he had rested from all his works which God produced for form cdion ; 

 created to be reduced to a form for use, or for its intended purposes. 



For the great variety of uses or application of this Hebrew root, see 

 the Introduction to my Quarto Dictionary. 



These suggestions are offered with some diffidence, by 



Your obedient servant, N. Webster. 



New Haven, Connecticut, United States, Nov. 16, 1838. 



