368 
dinavia has been referred to as containing some evidence, though rather 
problematical evidence, in favour of the Scriptural narrative. I have been 
looking at some of my old note-books, and I find that in one of them I have 
gathered from one of the Icelandic Eddas, which represent the most ancient 
form of Scandinavian learning, the following account of creation : — 
“ In the day-spring of the ages there was neither earth below nor heaven 
above to be distinguished. The whole was one vast abyss. The sun had no 
palace, and the stars knew not their dwelling-place.” 
The “abyss in darkness” describes chaos well, and harmonizes with the 
statement of Moses as to the primitive condition of the world. In India, 
according to the Hindoo philosophy, the Eternal Being, Brahm, after 
creating the world, destroyed it on several successive occasions, and repro- 
duced it again after repeated submersions under the ocean. In the Manava 
Shastra, quoted by Sir William Jones in the Asiatic Researches (vol. i. 
p. 245), it is said : — 
“ The world was all darkness till the self-existent God (Brahm), making it 
manifest with the elements, perfectly dispelled the gloom. Desiring to raise 
up creatures by an emanation from his own essence, he first created the 
waters, and impressed them with a power of motion. By that power was 
produced a golden egg, blazing like a thousand stars, in which was bom 
Brahma, the great parent of all rational beings. That divinity, having 
dwelt in the egg for revolving years, himself meditating on himself, divided 
it into two halves, from which he formed the heavens and earth, placing in 
the midst the subtle aether, the spirit of the world, and the permanent 
receptacle of the waters.” 
That also harmonizes with the statement of the Mosaic narrative. The 
Hindoos also use their word which signifies day as expressing the same 
thing as our day, and yet when spoken with regard to the Creator, it 
expresses something totally distinct and different from it. Let me add a 
quotation on this point from Maurice’s History of India : — 
“ A day of Brahma is a Kalpa. According to Major Wilford, there are 
five great Kalpas, at the end of each of which all things are annihilated, or 
absorbed into the essence of the Supreme Being. Every Kalpa, except the 
first, is preceded by a universal cataclysm of water.” 
Here you have also a statement of universal deluges, or the earth entirely 
covered with water ; and also Mr. Warington’s theory as to days is retained. 
The quotations I have made do, I think, harmonize with the line of thought 
and with the arguments which we find in Mr. Warington’s paper. 
Rev. John Manners. — The more we consider the matter involved in 
this paper the more we shall see the perfect agreement and harmony 
between science and that which is given to us in Genesis in reference to 
the creation. I should render the first verse of Genesis, “ In the 
beginning God created the heavens and the earth,” in this way : — “ By the 
beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” Some may ask, “ But 
what would you make of that ? ” Simply this, that it gets rid of the point of 
time, and would go to show that at the beginning all things were brought into 
