CHAPTER IX.

WONDERS OF THE ANIMAL CREATION.

"And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven. And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth. And the evening and the morning were the fifth day. And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so. And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good."-GEN. i. 20–25.

I RECEIVED this week an anonymous letter on the subject of one of our lessons; for which I thank the author, although I do not know him. He reproves me for having said that plants have life. "To attribute life to plants," he says, "is to overthrow at once revelation, science, and philosophy."

He is deceived as to revelation, as, on the contrary, it speaks of the death of plants (Jude 12), and consequently attributes life to them. And he is equally deceived with respect to science and philosophy. I might cite many authorities, but I shall select only three, and I

shall choose them from the Institute of France (the Academy of Science).

A short time ago, in an article written for the Revue des Deux Mondes, the learned Babinet thus writes, on what he calls vegetable life and animal life: "As well in the animal as in the vegetable kingdom, it would be necessary for us to know what life is; but this is a subject about which we are completely ignorant."

The man who might be most fitly chosen to represent both science and philosophy, is undoubtedly the great Cuvier, and he uses the same language.

Lastly, I quote a passage from the interesting work of M. Quatrefages, entitled “Rambles of a Naturalist." "Let us be careful," he says, "in this investigation, not to separate plants from animals; for in these two kingdoms of nature, inert matter, after being vivified by life, rises to a state of organization under the control of the same laws'

But let us return to our verses for to-day. We have now got the length of the works of the fifth and sixth days. With the blessing of God, I intend to try to explain them to

you in two ways, according to geology, and according to the Bible; which, you will find, both tell the same story, and help to explain each other.

There are two ways in which we may become acquainted with the history of Nineveh, the ancient capital of the Assyrian empire. The first way is by reading its history in the works of the historians who have related it; the second is by going to the spot to search among its ruins, as Mr. Layard has been doing for more than twelve years. There he has found not only the magnificent palaces of Nineveh, -"that exceeding great city of three days' journey," but also the well-known Bible names of Sennacherib, Shalmaneser, and many others; and even their portraits, painted and sculptured during their own lives; their wars, their feasts, their hunting parties, their victories, their ceremonies, all depicted on the walls; and their archives and records, written and engraved on tablets of brick. Well, dear children, as there are thus two ways of knowing the history of Nineveh, so in like manner there are two ways of knowing the history of the creation of our earth.

The first and the most certain way is to read about it in the Bible; but the second, and perhaps the more striking, is to search for it below the surface of the earth itself, and to study its ruins; for among these, most astonishing and instructive discoveries are to be made, as I shall soon show you.

For nearly one hundred years geologists have been studying the history of the earth's crust in this way, as I told you before, when I mentioned to you MM. de Luc and de Saussure. You remember, doubtless, how many times already I have shown you with what exactness their discoveries confirm the boldest assertions of the narrative of Moses about the work of the first four days,-assertions which the learned men of former times refused to believe, and even derided. Well, my friends, the opinions of all have changed since then, and I should like to explain this subject more fully to you, with the hope of making you reverence and admire, more than ever, the precious pages of Genesis, which never change.

In our last lesson we stopped at the time of the fourth day's work.

How beautiful our earth then was! The