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they would not come properly within our consideration. When we have 
criticised and carefully examined the supposed teachings of science, and have 
shown that the objections to Scripture resting upon them are without 
foundation, it will he time enough to discuss, if then necessary, the exegetical 
question. Besides, the statement as to the earth being built up literally 
with pillars is one which I cannot conceive any man would gravely adopt ; 
and, if not, there is ready nothing for us, as a scientific society, to examine 
with reference to that notion. It is also well known that Mr. Goodwin had 
committed a great blunder in alluding to the Bible as teaching that the 
firmament is something fixed and solid. He had overlooked even the 
marginal reading in our English Bibles, where the word (translated 
firmament in the text) is rendered “ expansion.” It may also be considered 
as san interesting fact that Sir Matthew Hale, in his work on The Origin of 
Mankind (written about 200 years ago), had specially noticed this rendering 
of the Hebrew word rakia, or rakah, as properly meaning “expansion” 
Moreover, leaving out everything like critical exegesis or interpretation, we 
must remember that in another verse of Genesis we have the “ open 
firmament of Heaven” spoken of, in which the birds were to fly; and this 
pmdudes all idea of anything solid having been intended by the use of the 
VulLe^ rma 't ? nl nu he S6DSe 0f an ° pen expanse (. ex P^ionem, as in the 
Vulgate), is consistent with the plain and obvious meaning of the Scripture 
narrative. The idea of the crystalline spheres was purely heathen, ? and 
among them it was a S wra-scientific notion ; but it is an idea for which no 
sanction whatever could be found in the Bible. It is, however, somewhat 
remarkable that modern science has actually revived this notion. In the 
latest Blue Book published under the auspices of the late Admiral Fitzroy 
there is a quotation from the late Sir John Lubbock, F.K.S., which I beg leave 
to read. Admiral Fitzroy says Poisson, in his ‘ Treatise on Heat,’ assumed 
the excessive cold of space has a condensing effect on air, causing it to become 
viscous ; and a very eminent mathematician [Sir John Lubbock] lately wrote 
to me, saying that he inclined to a similar view, if not to a belief in its actual 
congelation . Frozen air around our atmosphere ! » exclaims Admiral 
1 zroy ; so we find here the old and exploded scientific notion of crystalline 
solid spheres again revived in our day, and not repudiated even by such an 
authority as the lamented Admiral Fitzroy. There are a series of other 
questions alluded to m the paper which I do not think could ever come 
W 1 hm the investigations of this Society. For instance, the allusion to the 
serpent and the temptation in Eden. There is really no question as to the 
.present adaptability of the serpent to crawling ; and I never heard of any 
one who held, that for a long period before the fall of Adam, there was a race 
of serpents who naturally walked and talked. (Laughter.) It was out of 
the question to think of testing the record of the supernatural state of thino-s 
m Eden-when God himself is spoken of as “ walking in the garden,” and 
talking with man-by any scientific investigation of the things in nature now 
But it must be remembered that in the Scriptural story, taking it as it is 
there is no. warrant for the imagined long periods before man’s fall, which have 
