the little church at Grasmere, "In memory of William Wordsworth, a true philosopher and poet, who, by the special gift and calling of Almighty God, whether he discoursed on Man or Nature, failed not to lift up the heart to Holy Things; tired not of maintaining the cause of the Poor and Simple, and so in perilous times was raised up to be a chief minister not only of Noblest Poesy, but of High and Sacred Truth."

VOL. LIII. NO. 209.

ARTICLE III.

THE HEBREW COSMOGONY.

A PAPER FOR SCIENTISTS.

BY CHARLES B. WARRING, PH. D.

WITHIN the last few decades, scientists have made great advances in the knowledge of the earth's history during that immeasurably long period which preceded the creation of Adam. They have destroyed the illusion, once universal outside of Judæa, that the earth was eternal, as well as the opposite belief, prevalent till recently through all Christendom, that the whole universe came into being only six thousand years ago, completely finished and peopled, as now, in six common consecutive days. They have discovered a number of important facts as to the earth's primal condition, the origin and nature of light, its poor quality at first, its progress from poverty to present richness and power, the beginning of day and night, the once vaporous state of the waters now in the seas, their deposition, the then condition of the atmosphere, the once universal ocean, the emergence of the land, the order in which life began, and that in which, millions of years later, plants, and water, air, and land animals reached their final development and culmination in present living species, man's contemporaries.

The Hebrew Cosmogony also purports to tell of occurrences and conditions before Adam, and makes many statements about the very matters in reference to which scientists have been making their discoveries. So far as these are concerned, it falls within the domain of science, and thus, for the first time since the story was written, it becomes possible

to determine its character by other testimony than its own. With this in view, I propose to compare its physical statements, one by one, with what scientists have told us. It has, it is true, another and very important side, the theological, -but with that the present paper has nothing to do. The reader will see that this discussion extends only to the creation of Adam. The first chapter is complete in itself, has a style and character of its own, and is true or not, independently of all that comes after it.

It goes without saying, that to reach permanent results, and no others will be satisfactory, the account must be taken just as it reads, without forcing the meaning of words, or changing the order of what it says, or interpolating into it anything not already there. There are many things believed to be the teachings of this story, which have no place in it. These in fairness should all be ruled out, relegated to Milton's "Creation," the great omnium-gatherum of mediæval errors as to how and when our world was made.2 I propose to take it with the utmost literalness, neither adding to it nor taking from it, any more than an astronomer would add to or take from a photograph of a celestial phenomenon. This is severe treatment to apply to a document written so many centuries before the birth of modern science. If it stands the test, its truth will be established, and if it fails, it can easily return to the safe, but not very enviable, position. assigned to it by the higher critics, and described by Dr. Cocker, as poetic, unhistorical, and unchronological, where it need no longer fear the assaults of gnostic or agnostic scientists, or of anybody else.

The history of the earth divides naturally into two parts, -the nebulous and the solid, the former preceding, the latter coming after, the formation of the opaque crust which

1In a few places the reader will notice a change from the common version, but only to get closer to the original.

Paradise Lost, vii.

still covers its surface. The characterizing phenomenon which marked the end of the first period, and the beginning of the second, was the commencement of the division between light and darkness which makes days and nights.

The Hebrew Cosmogony-I have omitted to say it is found in the first chapter of Genesis-readily divides in the same way.

I shall therefore style the first part of the account,

THE WORLD BEFORE DAYS AND NIGHTS.

SCIENCE'S ACCOUNT, A. D. 1895.

There exists an eternal First Cause which men call God.

The heavens and earth are not coeternal with God, but were made by him.

They did not, as was long believed, come finished into existence, but needed to be wrought through many stages of evolution to their present condition.

The earth at first was an unsegregated, and undistinguishable part of an immense nebulous mass,1 and therefore had neither shape nor form.

The nebulous matter was inconceivably rare, -millions of times

GENESIS' ACCOUNT, B. C. 2000?
God preceded all.

"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth."

They are not pronounced good. (Although this was the most important thing of all, Genesis clearly implies a lack of completion by not calling the heavens and earth “good," a word which when applied to them, or to light, water or land, plants or animals, has no reference to moral quality, but only to completion and fitness for its use, as when one says a good farm, a good watch, and the like.)

"And the earth was without form."

("Without form" poorly renders the Hebrew word tohu. This is

1 Few will question the once gaseous condition of our earth, although there is the greatest difference of opinion as to how the solar system was formed from the great primal mass. This, however, does not concern our present inquiry, for Genesis says nothing about how it was done, and, I may add, Science to-day can say no more.