163 
higher range of thought than the remaining term in the 
creation of man, “ in our likeness,” •'OrviE'T which is feeble in 
comparison (“ similitude, likeness, image,” Gres. Lex.)* 
The purpose is then stated for which they (Adam, including 
his wife) were created. Adam was to have dominion, i.e. to 
be a visible God upon earth to all below him ; as he was, on 
the other hand, to forbear to aspire to the glories of the Elohim 
above him, to whom he was to render unfailing homage and 
obedience. 
This original dignity of man was dimly seen, even, by the 
heathen : — 
Os homini sublime dedit, coelumque tueri 
Docuit, et erectos ad sidera tollere vultus. 
In the Chaldean history men are formed by the mixture of 
the blood of Bel, the demiurge, with the earth; something divine 
being thus intermingled with much that is earthy ! 
It is a favourite subject of agnostic criticism that in Gene- 
sis ii. man is said to be formed of clay, and that science 
cannot find alumina in his composition. This is, however, a 
misconception of the subject. The word used is simply dust, 
and no reasonable criticism could extract from this any other 
meaning than that man was formed, as to his body, of materials 
derived from the earth, whilst his life (or “ lives ” rather) was 
from the breath of the Creator. 
The word used ( (e formed no doubt naturally directs 
our minds to the thought of a potter, and clay as the plastic 
material with which he works ; but it is surely hyper criticism 
to carp at all figurative language when used in Scripture. 
In the meantime, this very natural figure appears to have 
been widely adopted amongst the nations of the earth to 
express the creative action. Amongst the Egyptians, we find 
certain monuments showing the creative Demiurge kneading 
the clay, to form it into man, on the same potter's wheel on 
which he has formed the primordial egg of the universe. J 
Amongst the North- American Indians, the Mandans had a 
tradition that the Great Spirit formed two figures of clay, 
which he dried and animated with the breath of his mouth ; 
and of which one received the name of the first man, and the 
* M. Lenormant shows that the religion of Zoroaster is, perhaps, the 
most in accord with the Scriptures, in ascribing the 'creation of man to 
the good and great God who formed the universe and man, his crowning 
work, in six successive periods. Lenormant, Les Origines, p. 50, &c. and his 
Appendix. 
t Vide Ges. Lex., sub voce "1^ i( to form or fashion as a potter.” 
X Lenormant, Les Origines de VHistoire , p. 39. 
