izes the transfusion by him of water into blood, which, as the Magi were capable of imitating, we do not deem entitled to be placed within the category of miracles. But the Talmud advances in his favour a yet higher pretension to chemical science, by the liquefaction of gold. But if Moses possessed the chemical art of rendering gold potable, he was at the same time ignorant of the elementary principles of chemical science. He did not know that water was compounded of two gases, which were perpetually generating and ascending from the earth, and that the atmosphere possessed the property of retaining them, where they united and condensed, and then descended in the shape of rain.

Had Moses' knowledge of chemistry been actuated by inspiration, he would have been conscious of the needlessness of constructing a reservoir for rain water above the firmament.

Gen i. 9-13.

"And God said, Let the waters under The Third the Heaven be gathered together into one Day. place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so. And God called the land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good. And God said, Let the Earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself upon the Earth and it was so. And the Earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself after his kind: and God saw that it was good. And the evening and the morning were the third day."

The theories of Moses are so decidedly Commentary on the Third opposed to the readings in the Book of Day. Nature, which the all-wise Author of Creation has spread open for the perusal of his intelligent creatures, that many learned divines have attempted to reconcile them, and especially have undertaken the task of harmonizing the scriptural cosmographic writings with the science of geology.

If

The attempt is an abortive one. Geology cannot be made to harmonize with the Mosaic theories. on the first day, Moses is convicted of an ignorance in the merely elementary principles of astronomy; on the second, in those of chemistry: so also on the third day, he will be found to have had no acquaintance with geological research.

Some parts of the earth's crust give unmistakable evidence of having changed place with the waters, not once or twice, but on several occasions. This is proved by the various layers containing alternate depositions of marine fossils, and of land fossils, demonstrating that the marine fossils were contributed, whilst the stratum of earth that contains them was forming at the bottom of the sea. Then, either from volcanic action, or from some one of the numerous natural influences constantly in operation, it has been elevated above the surface of the ocean, and having become dry land, was gradually overlaid by another stratum, which received its contribution of land fossils. Each of these processes occupied the cycle of time needful for the formation of its particular stratum, then again to have been submerged and again to have risen, during epochs of countless ages of gradual operation.

During this lengthened and seemingly interminable process, great changes have been effected in the struc

ture of the earth's surface. In some places, clays, sands, and earths have, from a variety of causes, hardened into solid rock, holding within their adamantine grasp, specimens of the productions in the vegetable and animal kingdoms, which had an existence during the cycle of their solidification. In other places, solid rocks have been repulverized, or reground, by the thousands of influences which time produces; and in many places are at this moment receiving their respective museums in natural history, to be displayed to admiring generations of intelligent beings in the remote ages of the earth's future history.

The science of geology further proves that this legend, if it treat of the first formation of this earth, cannot advance a pretension to inspiration; for an inspired author would know, that in the primitive formation of this earth, and probably for countless ages after the particles of matter commenced to unite, humidity was not known; water had not an existence. Granite, which is primitive rock, is entirely divested either of marine fossils, or of land fossils. Neither water, nor vegetable, nor animal substance, existed at the epoch at which granite constituted the rock of sole formation; consequently, the assertion that the waters were gathered together into one place, and that vegetation covered the dry land, at the epoch of the early creation, is incorrect, and disproves an inspired authorship.

Moreover, the genial influence of the sun was needed to promote vegetation, and the sun was uncreated. Water, unaided by the fructifying heat of that luminary, fails to generate vegetation, of which we have demonstrative evidence in the actual condition of the earth's surface at the Northern and Southern Poles.

Gen. i. 14-19.

:

"And God said, Let there be lights in The Fourth the firmament of the Heaven, to divide Day. the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days and years. And let them be for lights in the firmament of the Heaven, to give light upon the earth and it was so. And God made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also. And God set them in the firmament of the heaven, to give light upon the earth, and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.”

Commen

tary on the

Fourth Day

darkness."

On this day lights were created in the firmament of the heaven "to divide the day from the night, and the light from the

We have seen that on the first day also light was created, and was divided from the darkness, and it was equally destined to divide the day from the night. It is to be presumed, therefore, that the process by which light was produced on the first day, was dissimilar to that on the fourth day, and that it terminated on that day, and was superseded by a new and, to us, more familiar process. Two great lights (the sun and the moon) were created; "the greater light to rule the day, the lesser light to rule the night."

The author of this hypothesis did not know that this earth (the planet on which man exists) is a fractional part of a system of stars, subordinate to the sun, and that when this earth is placed in comparison with the sun as to size, it is but a grain of dust floating in space. The sun is 1,300,000 times larger than this

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earth; that is to say, it would require 1,300,000 globes, the size of this earth, to make one sun; and astronomy teaches that the universe contains myriads on myriads of similar suns, and systems of subordinate stars, placed at immeasurable distances from each other. If this earth were removed from our planetary system, and to disappear entirely, its absence would doubtless occasion some derangement amongst the remaining orbs of our system; but if the sun were removed, the dissolution of this earth must follow as an immediate consequence; and yet, according to the Mosaic theory, this diminutive terrestrial planet was the primary object of creation, and was destined to monopolize duty from the sun, and from all the remaining orbs of the universe.

The legend continues that "God made the stars also; and God set them in the firmament of the heaven, to give light upon the earth." The fixed stars do not shed any light upon the earth. They are the suns of other systems, and each one shines by an inherent light given to it by the Creator, totally irrespective of the light from our sun, or of the light which proceeds from its neighbouring stars.

The author of the Mosaic theory, from his casual and incidental mention of the stars, "He made the stars also," seems to consider them of very minor importance, as if they were created off hand, instanter, and without any great effort or greater usefulness of purpose, than for signs, and for seasons, and for days and for years, for the edification of the people of the earth. We have particularized the immense size of the sun, when compared with our earth; but the sun, large as he is, is a diminutive object, compared with some of the stars. Herschel estimates the size of one