78 



ON GEOLOGY. 



darkness was upon the face of the deep (or abyss).— And the Spirit of God 

 MOVED upon the face of the waters." 



We are hence, therefore, necessarily led to infer that the first change of 

 the formless chaos, after its existence, was into a state of universal aqueous 

 solution ; for it was upon the surface of the waters that the Divine Spirit 

 commenced his operative power. We are next informed, that this chaotic 

 mass acquired shape, not instantaneously, but by a series of six distinct days, 

 or generations (that is, epochs), as Moses afterward calls them ;* and appa- 

 rently through the agency of the established laws of gravity and crystalliza- 

 tion, which regulate it at the present moment. 



It tells us, that during the first of these days, or generations, was evolved, 

 what, indeed, agreeably to the laws of gravity, must have been evolved first 

 of all, the matter of light and heat ; of all material substances the most subtle 

 and attenuate ; those by which alone the sun operates, and has ever operated, 

 upon the earth and the other planets, and which may be the identical sub- 

 stances that constitute his essence. f And it tells us also, that the luminous 

 matter thus evolved produced light without the assistance of the sun or moon, 

 which were not set in the sky or firmament, and had no rule till the fourth day 

 or generation : that the light thus produced flowed by tides, and alternately 

 intermitted, constituting a single day and a single night of each of such epochs 

 or generations, whatever their length might be, of which we have no informa- 

 tion communicated to us. 



It tells us, that during the second day or generation uprose progressively 

 the fine fluids, or waters, as they are poeti(;ally and beautifully denominated, 

 of the firmament, and filled the blue ethereal void with a vital atmosphere. 

 That during the third day or generation the waters more properly so called, 

 or the grosser and compacter fluids of the general mass, were strained off 

 and gathered together into the vast bed of the ocean, and the dry land began 

 to make its appearance, by disclosing the peaks or highest points of the primi- 

 tive mountains ; in consequence of which a progress instantly commenced 

 from inorganic matter to vegetable organization, the surface of the earth, as 

 well above as under the waters, being covered with plants and herbs, bearing 

 seeds after their respective kinds ; thus laying a basis for those carbonaceous 

 materials, the remains of vegetable matter, which we have already observed 

 are occasionally to be traced in some of the layers or formations of the class 

 of^primitive rocks (the lowest of the whole), without a single particle of ani- 

 mal relics intermixed with them. 



It tells us, that during the fourth day, or epoch, the sun and moon, now 

 completed, were set in the firmament, the solar system was finished, its laws 

 were established, and the celestial orrery was put into play ; in consequence 

 of which the harmonious revolutions of signs and of seasons, of days and of 

 years, struck up for the first time their mighty symphony. That the fifth pe- 

 riod was allotted exclusively to the formation of water-fowl, and the countless 

 tribes of aquatic creatures ; and consequently, to that of those lowest ranks 

 of animal life, testaceous worms, corals, and other zoophytes, whose relics, 

 as we have already observed, are alone to be traced in the second class of 

 rocks or transition-formations, and still more freely in the third or horizontal 

 formations ; these being the only animals as yet created, since the air and 

 the water, and the utmost peaks of the loftiest mountains, were the only parts 

 as yet inhabitable. It tells us, still continuing the same grand and exquisite 

 climax, that towards the close of this period, the mass of waters having suffi- 

 ciently retired into the deep bed appointed for them, the sixth and concluding 

 period was devoted to the formation of terrestrial animals ; and, last of all, as 

 the masterpiece of the whole, to that of man himself. 



Such is the beautiful but literal progression of the creation, according to 

 the Mosaic account, as must be perceived by every one who will carefully 

 peruse it for himself. 



Of the extent, however, of the days or generations that preceded the forma- 



♦ Gen. ii, 4. 



t Herschel, Phil. Trans, vol. Ixxxiv. 



