86 The Testimony of tlie Rocks. 



is a brilliant day ; the waves, of a deeper and softer blue tban 

 before, dance and sparkle in the light ; the earth, with little else 

 to attract the gaze, has assumed a garb of brighter green ; and as 

 the sun declines amid even richer glories than those which had 

 encircled his rising, the moon appears full orbed in the east, — to 

 the human eye the second great luminary of the heavens, — and 

 climbs slowly to the zenith as night advances, shedding its mild 

 radiance on land and sea. 



"Again the day breaks; the prospect consists, as before, of land 

 and ocean. There are great pine woods, reed-covered swamps, 

 wide plains, winding rivers,, and broad lakes ; and a bright sun 

 shines over all. But the landscape derives its interest and novelty 

 from a feature unmarked before. Gigantic birds stalk along the 

 sands, or wade far into the water in quest of their ichthyic food ;: 

 while birds of lesser size float upon the lakes, or scream discordant 

 in hovering flocks, thick as insects in the calm of a summer even- 

 ing, over the narrower seas, or brighten with the sunlit gleam of 

 their wings the thick woods. And ocean has its monsters : great 

 " tennmm" tempest the deep, as they heave their huge bulk over 

 the surface, to inhale the life-sustaining air ; and out of their nos- 

 trils goeth smoke, as out of a " seething pot or cauldron." Mon- 

 strous creatures, armed in massive scales, haunt the rivers, or 

 scour the flat rank meadows; earth, air, and water are charged 

 with animal life ; and the sun sets on a busy scene, in which un- 

 erring instinct pursues unremittingly its few simple ends, — ^the 

 support and preservation of the individual, the propagation of the 

 species, and the protection and maintenance of the young. 



" Again the night descends, for the fifth day has closed ; and 

 morning breaks on the sixth and last day of creation. Cattle and 

 beasts of the fields graze on the plains ;. the thick skinned rhinor 

 ceros wallows in the marshes ; the squat hippopotamus rustles- 

 among the reeds, or plunges sullenly into the river ; great herds 

 of elephants seek their food amid the young heibage of the 

 woods ; while animals of fiercer nature, the lion, the leopard, and 

 the bear, — harbor in deep caves till the evening, or lie in wfiit for 

 their prey amid tangled thickets, or beneath some broken bank. 

 At length, as the day wanes and the shadows lengthen, man, the- 

 responsible lord of creation, formed in God's own image, is intro- 

 duced upon the scene, and the work of creation ceases forever 

 upon the earth. The night falls once more upon the prospect, 

 and there dawns yet another morrow,— the morrow of God's rest,. 



