Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 28.djvu/641

Rh mammals, and man. I shall compare the text of Genesis with geological statements; but shall make no attempt, unless this be an attempt, to profit by a consensus of geologists.

I suppose it to be admitted on all hands that no perfectly comprehensive and complete correspondence can be established between the terms of the Mosaic text and modern discovery. No one, for instance, could conclude from it that which appears to be generally recognized, that a great reptile-age would be revealed by the Mesozoic rocks.

Yet I think readers, who have been swept away by the torrent of Mr. Huxley's denunciations, will feel some surprise when on drawing summarily into line the main allegations, and especially this ruling order of the Proem, they see how small a part of them is brought into question by Mr. Huxley, and to how large an extent they are favored by the tendencies, presumptions, and even conclusions of scientific inquiry.

First, as to the cosmogony, or the formation of the earth and the heavenly bodies—

1. The first operation recorded in Genesis appears to be the formation of light. 'It is detached, apparently, from the waste or formless elemental mass (verses 2–5), which is left relatively dark by its withdrawal.

2. Next we hear of the existence of vapor, and of its condensation into water on the surface of the earth (verses 6–10). Vegetation subsequently begins: but this belongs rather to geology than to cosmogony (verses 11, 12).

3. In a new period, the heavenly bodies are declared to be fully formed and visible, dividing the day from the night (verses 14–18).

Under the guidance particularly of Dr. Whewell, I have referred to the nebular hypothesis as confirmatory of this account.

Mr. Huxley has not either denied the hypothesis, or argued against it. But I turn to Phillips's "Manual of Geology," edited and adapted by Mr. Seeley and Mr. Etheridge (1885). It has a section in vol. i. (pp. 15–19) on "Modern Speculations concerning the Origin of the Earth."

The first agent here noticed as contributing to the work of production is the "gas hydrogen in a burning state," which now "forms the enveloping portion of the sun's atmosphere;" whence we are told the inference arises that the earth also was once "incandescent at its surface," and that its rocks may have been "products of combustion." Is not this representation of light with heat for its ally, as the first element in this Speculation, remarkably accordant with the opening of the Proem to Genesis?

Next it appears (ibid.) that "the product of this combustion is vapor," which with diminished heat condenses into water, and eventually accumulates "in depressions on the sun's surface so as to form oceans and seas." "It is at least probable that the earth has passed