218 
gives an account of the creation of heaven and earth and all the 
things therein. Considering that this account treats of subjects 
that were far removed from all human cognizance and experience, 
it would be a foolish proceeding to draw inferences from it on any 
other hypothesis than that it is a direct communication from the 
Holy Spirit of the Creator. On this ground alone can it be 
accepted as trustworthy. And surely there is nothing unreasonable 
in the belief that the Creator has Himself given to His intelligent 
creatures an account of His creation. The principles I am ad- 
vocating are such as to make it necessary to insist on this point. 
For, by definition, the primitive facts cannot be reached by reason- 
ing, although, without knowing them, the sciences to which they 
respectively belong have no theoretical foundation. It may be ad- 
mitted that something may be done towards hypothetically laying 
such foundation by observation and research, since, in fact, this has 
been done in the case of theoretical Physics ; but with respect to 
other departments of Natural Science I shall presently have occa- 
sion to remark that attempts of this nature have led to very un- 
certain results. It is, at least, evident that no surer foundations 
for the sciences of Geology, Botany, and Natural History could 
be laid than authoritative declarations from the Author of the 
Universe as to what are really the ultimate and primordial facts of 
these sciences. At the same time it must be admitted that with 
respect to the laws of the operations whereby facts of observation 
result from the ultimate facts, no information can be obtained from 
the first chapter of Genesis, which states only primary conditions 
and final causes, leaving apparently the modus operandi for our 
scientific researches. It may, however, be said that it is legitimate 
to employ the knowledge acquired by such research in interpreting 
the Scriptural statements. 
38. This being understood, we may next inquire what informa- 
tion respecting the foundations, or ultimate facts, of Natural 
Science may be gathered from the revelations of Gen. i. In making 
this philosophic use of that chapter I propose to take it just as it is 
given in the Septuagint, on account of the sanction which this 
version has received in the New Testament, and the improbability 
that any rendering of Hebrew texts of later date by many centuries 
thau the text w'hich was in the hands of the Seventy Interpreters 
can as faithfully express the meaning of the original and the mind 
of the Spirit as that ancient Interpretation. The literal transla- 
tion of verses 1 and 2 is as follows : — “ In the beginning God 
made the heaven and the earth. Now the earth was invisible and 
unfurnished ; and darkness was upon the abyss ; and breath of 
God was borne upon the water.” The first verse may be taken as 
simply asserting that all the constituents of external nature were 
