'fhe cl,aos (or w11ter) ti1Lmot (tho sea) woR In gloom profound- an ocean without lho proclucing-mothor of the whole ol light." them," &c. ( Vid. Macclona!tl's 'Creation,' &c., p. 51.) (' Chalclonn Genesis,' p. 62.) 6. The de~cription of ,haoR irivcn by Ovid is 2. The Babylonian cosmogony, accordil!g to too 11ppro1,riltte to be ov01·looked :- l:lerosus (n. o. 330-260), commences with 11 time "in which there existed notl,ing but " Ante mare et tcllns, et, 'luod tcgit omnia, dn1·knoss nnd nn abyss of wnters, wherein erelurn, 1esidecl most hideous being9, which were Unus erat toto naturre vultus in orbo, produced of e. twofold principle. . . . . . Quern dixcre chaos ; rudis indigcsta11ue The person who presided ~ver _them was a moles woman named Omoroca, winch rn the Chal- . . . . . . . . . . . quia corpore in uno denn language is Thalo.tth, in Greek Thalassa, Fri!!':ida pugnabant calidis, humentia. sicci:'1, the sea but which might equally be inter- Moflia cum duris, sine pondere habenlia preted 'the moon" (' Chaldcan Genesis,' pp. pond us" (' Metamor.,' lib. i. 1). 40, 41). 3. Th~ Egyptia71; account _of the Yet not more remarkable are these indirect 01igin of the universe, as given by D1odorus confirmations of the truthfulness of the Bib- Siculus, represents the heaven nnd earth as lical cosmogony than the dire~t corr? bora- blended to(Tether, till afterwards the elemcn ta tions it derives from the d1scovenes of began to ~epamte and tho nir to move. modern science. (1) The nebular hypo- According to another idea, there wns a v~st thesis of Laplace, which, though only a. abyss enveloped in boundless darkness,. w_1th hypothesis, must yet be ad~i_tted to _p~ssess a subtle spirit intellectual in power, ex1strng a high degree of p~obabihty, Etrik!ngly in the chaos (:rilacdonald, 'Creation and the attests its anthent1c1ty. That emwent Fall 'p. 49). 4. The Phamician cosmogony astronomer demonstrated that a huge chaotic says' "The first principle of the universe mass of nebulous matter, revolving in space was 'a dark windy air and an eternal dark on its own axis with a. sufficient velocity, chaos. Through the love of the Spirit to its and gradually condensing from a high _degree own principles II mixture arose, and a con- of heat, would eventually, by throwrng off nection called desire, the beginning of all successive rings from the parent boJy, de- things. From this connection of the Spirit velop nil the celestial orbs that presently was begotten mot, which, according to some, compose our planetary sys_tem. T½o.ugh for signifies mud, according to others, a cor- a long time reganled With suspmon by ruption of a wotery mixture, but is probabl>' Biblical scholars, and at the first only tenta- e. feminine form of mo, water. From this tively thrown out by its author, Kant, yet so were developed creatures in the shape of an exactly docs it account for the phenomena of eag called zophasemin" (Macdonald, p. 50), our solar system as disclos_ed by the _tel~- 6: The Indian mythology is very striking scope, that it may now be said to have vmd1- in its resemblance to tho 1\Iosaie narratil'e. cated its claim to be accepted as the best The institutes of Menu affirm that at first solution science has to give of the forma- all was dark, the world still resting in the tion of the universe ; while further nnd purpose of the Eternal, whose first thought more Jispnssionate reflection has convinced create1l wnter, and in it the seed of life. theologians generally, that so _far ~-011;1 co~- This became au egg, from which issued llictin" with the utterances of rnsp1rat10n, 1t Brahma, the creative power, who divided his rather°surprisingly endorses them. (2) Th~ own substance and became male and female. researches of physical philosophy in con- The wo terg were called nara, as being the nection with hydrodynn.mics have success-. production of N nra, or the Spirit of God, fully established that the present form al w:10 on occcu.nt of these being his first our earth, that of (the solid of revolution nya~a, or plac<l ol n:otion, is named Naray- called) an oblate spheroid, is sue½ as it.n:ust rJJa or movi'll!I on the wate1's. A remark- necessarily have assumed had its origrnal ebl~ hymn from the Rig Veda, translated by condition been that of a liquid mass rev~lv- Dr. Mox Muller, also closely approximates ing round its own axis. (3) Geolog,cal to tho Scriptural account:- science likewise contributes its quoto. to tho " Nor aught nor nought existed; yon bright constantly accumulating weight of ~vidence sky in support of the Jilosni~ 1;1arrat~ve, . by Was not, nor heaven's broa!l woof out- nnnouncin" as the result of its mvest1gahous stretched nbove. in connecti~u with the earth's crust, that The only ono bNnthcd breathkss by itself; below II certain point, cnlled "the stratum Other than it there nothing since hath of invariable temperature," the heat of the been. interior mass becomes greater in proportion Do l'knc~s tho~e wos anJ nII ot first wos to the depth beneath the surf~ce, thus le11d- veiled ing not unnaturally to the mfercuce tha.l 6 THE nooK OF GENESIS. (en. 1. 1 2.
" the cnrth bas nssumc<l. its pr<'scnt stntc by gnseous, or fluid stnte" (Green's 'Gcoloi:r cooling <l.own from an intensely heated, or p. 48i).