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perforins its diurnal revolution ; and are to consider the words morning 
and evening, applied to a time when the sun is said not to have been 
formed, as bearing the same meaning which they now convey, it must 
be acknowledged that the stumbling-block is immoveable. But if, on 
the other hand, the word day be admitted as figuratively designating 
certain indefinite periods, in which particular parts of the great work 
of creation were accomplished, no difficulty will then remain. The 
age of the world, according to the scriptural account, will then agree 
with that which is manifested by the phenomena of its stratification. 
I am aware, that I shall obtain very little support in such a change 
from the critical expositors of this part of scriptural history, even 
should I plead, that in the poetical language of the prophets this word 
is sometimes thus used. I, however, trust, that I shall have produced 
no slight authority in its favour, if I show you that Moses himself 
employs this word in this sense, when speaking of the whole creation of 
the heavens and the earth , and all the host of them. “ These,” he says, 
“ are the generations of the heavens and the earth, when they were 
created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens*.” 
It is not necessary to proceed any further on this subject : it is, how- 
ever, fair to state, that I did not commence the inquiries contained in 
these volumes without being forewarned of the great probability, that 
they would terminate in the establishing of certain facts, which might 
materially contradict the Mosaic account of the creation. This, how- 
ever, instead of checking, served only to promote the investigation ; it 
being concluded, that if this were made with a due attention to impar- 
tiality, truth would be the result, and a fair criterion, by which the 
authority of this account might in some measure be judged, would be 
produced. Unapprised of what would be the termination of this in- 
quiry, I resolved to prosecute it with fairness ; to shrink from no ques- 
tion, on account of its supposed tenderness ; and to conceal no conclu- 
sion, however repugnant to popular opinion or prejudice. That the 
* Genesis ii. 4. 
