CHAP. IV. describes, much in the same manner, the optical PART II. effect of a continued cloud, enveloping two contending armies during a day of obstinate conflict: ουδέ κε φαιης ούτε ποτ' ΗΕΛΙΟΝ στον εμμεναι, ουτε ΣΕΛΗΝΗΝ Around, so dense the murky clouds arise, It seem'd, nor sun nor moon possessed the skies. The cause of the diversity of day and night, continued therefore to be unapparent, relatively to the earth; but that cause was now in course of perpetual operation, and it therefore now completed the Second Day. 1 Iliad. xvii. 366. 176 PART II. CHAP. V. CHAPTER V. THE historian now proceeds to his Third Article, which consists of two parts: 66 66 And GOD said; Let the wATERS UNDER THE HEAVEN be gathered together unto ONE PLACE, and let the DRY-LAND appear. And "it was so. "And GOD called the dry-land EARTH, and "the gathering together of the waters called He And God saw that it was good. SEAS. "And GOD said; Let the EARTH bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the FRUITTREE yielding fruit after its kind, whose seed "is in itself upon the earth. And it was so. 66 66 "And the earth brought forth grass; and "herb yielding seed after its kind: and the TREE yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after its kind and God saw that it was good. 66 "And the evening and the morning were the 66 THIRD DAY." CHAP. V. I. In the first part of this article are briefly PART II. related, two vast and wonderful events; of the most essential importance to the science of a true geology: namely, 1. the formation of a bed, or basin, to receive the mass of waters hitherto equally and interminately diffused over the whole solid and compacted surface of the mineral globe; and, 2. the consequent immediate exposure of a large portion of that globe. The second part of the article, relates the first formation of all the vegetable matter, with which that exposed portion was immediately invested. We may here again observe, with Rosenmuller1; that on, in the second verse, denotes the abyss, not in any sense of a chaos, but simply, of the sea flowing without limits, as Hesychius explains aßucces; for, what is called the abyss, in the second verse, is in the same verse called also, p, the waters; and the same D'D—waters, in this verse, become ', the sea, merely by being congregated in one place, and therefore, being reduced within limits. II. Previous to these amazing operations, the globe, disengaged from its cloak of mist in consequence of the ascent of the vapours into the higher regions of the atmosphere, presents to CHAP. V. PART II. the contemplation the appearance of an aqueous spheroid; its solid parts being as yet concealed beneath the waters. It was now the design of God, to expose a portion of those solid parts, and to reduce the unlimited surface of waters, which concealed it, within limited bounds; thus converting the abyss, into a sea. The record imports; that the waters, which occasioned the concealment, were to be removed and collected into one place, in order that, пwan—ǹ Enpa, that substance which was dry, might be seen, or rendered visible, —. openTw: so that the latter might reveal its nature and actual position, by a change in the place and circumstances of the former. So Josephus represents the general operation : τη τρίτη ίσησι την γην, ΑΝΑΧΕΑΣ περι αυτην την θαλασσαν on the "third day God established the land, by causing "the re-fusion of the sea around it :" avaxew, refundo. Virgil describes the exposure of the seabed, by the retirement of the waters; and, what in one place he represents as, 66 The briefness of this clause, and the nature of the subject, has caused it to be little con CHAP. V. templated in proportion to its importance; and PART II: therefore, it has not been observed, that the same sublimity which is universally perceived in the clause-Let there be LIGHT: and there was light; subsists equally in this-Let the waters be gathered together unto ONE PLACE, and let the dry-land be seen: and it was so. The sentiment of sublimity in the former clause, results from the contemplation, of an instantaneous transition of the universe from profound darkness to splendid brightness, at the command of God. All men feel the sadness of the former, and the delight of the latter; and they are therefore instantly sensible, of the glorious nature of the change which was then so suddenly produced. But, the nature of the change which must necessarily have taken place, in suddenly rendering visible a part of a solid globe whose surface was universally overflowed, and concealed, by a flood of waters, is not so immediately apprehended; the mind, therefore, does not dwell upon it, but is contented with the general statement of the fact, that the sea was formed. But it is to the stupendous mode of that formation, that the historian here summons our contemplation. It is self-evident, that if the surface of a globe were entirely covered with a fluid attached to it only by the law of gravitation, and if the whole of that fluid |