star in the constellation Lyra, to be more than 54,000 times larger than our sun, which star fills a cubical space of 681,471,000,000,000,000 miles. One hundred millions of such stars lie within range of the telescope, and between every two stars there is an interval of more than 200,000,000,000 of miles of space. "Who can think," says Herschel, "of what lies beyond the telescopic view! In such a thought is not the mind lost in sublimity and grandeur?"

The great astronomer tells us the mind is lost in the contemplation of such sublimity and grandeur, and so is every mind, except that of those who are content with the paucity of knowledge conveyed by the author of this oracular theory, who, closed within the density of his own grove, obtained his knowledge of the heavenly bodies from the partial glimmering of their light, as seen through its umbrageous darkness.

Gen. i. 2025.-The

"And God said, "Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature Fifth Day. 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." On this day the waters were made "to Commentary on the Fifth bring forth abundantly the moving creature Day. that hath life." On reference to the first

day, it will be found, that water was one of the chaotic elements, and existed previously to the Beginning; or, in other words, previous to the epoch of time, at which the elements of chaos were reduced to order, and subjected to law. All then was darkness, "and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." The waters were made subservient to law on the second day, and were divided into two parts and disappeared, one part above, and the other part below the firmament. This, in some degree, corresponds with our commentary on the third day, in which we have shown there was an epoch in the creation, during which the surface of the earth was destitute of water. When the crust of our planet consisted solely of granite rock, the earth was anhydrous, and incapable of supporting life. To return, however, to the Mosaic theory, the earth was clothed with grass, and with plants and fruit-trees on the third day; but the first process of vegetative living matter, must have appeared within the waters on the second day, for moisture is the parent of vegetative life. Zoophytes also, which are the connecting link between vegetable and animal life, must have been brought into existence, so soon as the waters were brought under the influence of law. The next form of animal life after the zoophytes are the Invertebrata, or the race of animals destitute of a vertebral column.

It is premature to create "great whales," which are mammals, and which appertain to a distinct family of animal life, brought into existence at an epoch corresponding with the sixth day.

It is likewise premature to have placed on record on the fifth day, the creation of "fowl that may fly

above the earth." It follows, therefore, that, in accordance with law, the first vegetable life had shape as marine plants, at an epoch corresponding with the second day, and also the first marine link in connection with animal life, the zoophytes, on the same day. On the third day, the dry land was clothed with grass, with plants and with trees, and the marine and the land invertebrata were created. On the fourth day, a pause intervened in terrestrial production, which occupied itself solely with the creation of "the lights in the firmament of heaven, to give light upon the earth." On the fifth day, the Vertebrata amongst the animals of the waters were created, but not " great whales," which are mammals, nor birds, which are Vertebrated land animals, both of which are allied to zoological families which had not an existence until the sixth day.

Gen. i. 24-31.

66

'And God said, Let the earth bring The Sixth forth the living creature after his kind, Day. 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. And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed

them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so. And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day."

Commentary

This day, like the previous ones, is on the Sixth exhibitive of Hebraic disarrangement in Day. the order of creation. We must remember that Moses is not the author of these legends. They are legends of Chaldean origin, and Moses was merely their compiler, having retained them, in all probability, as amongst the least objectionable of the theories which had circulation amongst the Chaldean slaves, at the time at which he offered himself to them as their leader and emancipator. Moses, therefore, must not be made responsible for their inaccuracies. We call them the Mosaic theory, because he is the first person who (so to speak) caused them to appear in print, but he does not lay any claim to them as the literary productions of his own pen, and the sin of their authorship does not, therefore, lie at his door.

The vertebrated land animals were created on this day, and we shall include also the "great whales" and

other mammals of the deep, and likewise the birds of the air, but we shall exclude "every creeping thing," so far as they relate to the invertebrate reptiles and the insect tribes, which, according to the order of nature, were brought into existence on the third day.

But now we come to the crowning work of creation. The author of this theory has committed the error of bringing man into existence on the same day on which the remainder of the vertebrated animals were created; whereas man is a being of a late creation, much more recent than the Quadrumana, which is the connecting link between the inferior animals and man. The fossil remains of the Quadrumana, or ape tribe, are numerous, and are found imbedded in rocks of remote age; but the fossil remains of the Bimana, or the animals of the genus homo, are rare, and are found imbedded in rocks of recent date only.

The Bimana is of the highest order of Mammalia of which man is the type and sole genus. If man, therefore, be a separate creation specially mentioned by name, on whom was bestowed a high organization worthy of the blessing of his Creator, who placed all other created matter under his dominion,-then, the seventh day was that on which this gifted creature was introduced into the world. Nor will this act of creation on the seventh day withdraw from man the obligation to dedicate a special duty of reverence and thanksgiving on every seventh day, in commemoration of his Creator's blessing, of which he became the recipient on that day.

This interpretation is more accordant with the exercise of that high faculty with which the Creator blessed man than the Chaldean interpretation, which