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sound, it ought to follow that in this representative sense was 
the expression actually taken by those for whom the cos- 
mogony was originally intended, i. e., those unacquainted with 
and unbiassed by the discoveries of Science. Evidence that it 
was so taken may appear in two ways : — (i.) In general ex- 
pressions indicative of the conviction that human measures 
of time, when predicated of God, are only representative, not 
literal ; which testify to the familiarity of the principle in 
question, (ii.) In particular applications of this principle to 
the divisions of time named in the narrative. The cosmo- 
gony being not confined to the Hebrew race, we unhesitatingly 
include among our witnesses testimonies from other nations 
as well. 
(i.) General expressions . — The first to be noticed is Job x. 
4-5, where the inadequacy of human expressions as applied 
to God is strongly brought out. “ Hast Thou eyes of flesh, 
or seest Thou as men see ? Are Thy days as man's days, or 
Thy years as the days of man ? " Here the expressions as to 
time are placed upon exactly the same footing as those con- 
cerning “ eyes 33 and “ seeing," which every one admits to be 
representative. So plainly Job also regarded “ days 33 and 
“ years." The same thought is expressed in another form 
in Psalm xc. 4 — “ A thousand years in Thine eyes are as 
yesterday when it is passed, and as a watch in the night ; " 
and again, in 2 Peter iii. 8—“ One day with the Lord is as a 
thousand years, and a thousand years as one day." Here the 
idea is not the inadequacy of human time-measures when 
applied to God, but the still more fundamental one of the 
different relation in which the same absolute measures stand 
when applied to God and to man ; this difference being the 
cause of the inadequacy of which Job speaks. With such 
general conceptions there could be no difficulty in the way of 
rightly understanding the days of cosmogony. Bather we 
may say that, with such principles of thought firmly impressed 
upon their minds, it was impossible for one spiritually vigor- 
ous to take these “ days " in any other than a representative 
sense. 
(ii.) Particular applications . — The original form of the cos- 
mogony having been strictly preserved among the Jews, we 
are obliged to look for information on this point to the tra- 
ditions preserved by other nations. Of these the Chaldaean, 
Grecian, Egyptian, and Phoenician have lost all trace of the 
element of time. The remaining three, the Indian, Persian, 
and Etruscan, all afford the clearest testimony to the way in 
which these “ days " were understood in ancient times. The 
Indian has lost, indeed, the six-fold division, but still, how- 
