and the earth" is of frequent occurrence throughout the Scriptures, and for the most part signifies our globe with its atmosphere. The following are given as examples:

2 Sam. xviii. 9. "And he was taken up between the heaven and the earth."

Zech. v. 9. "They lifted up the ephah between the heaven and the earth."

Luke xvi. 17. "And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away."

Rev. xx. 11. "The earth and the heaven fled away." If the earth fled or passed away, it would carry its atmosphere along with it as it does at present in its annual revolution round the sun. In these and other passages which might be adduced, "the heaven" can refer to nothing else than the atmosphere; and in two of them, the circumstance of the heaven being described as moving along with the earth affords additional proof that the atmosphere is intended. In these and many other passages throughout the Scriptures, where the heaven and the earth are spoken of together, the events described relate to the human period, and, by consequence, to the state of the earth and its atmosphere in that period. In Gen. i. 1, the presence of the atmosphere proves that a globe is meant by" the earth," for matter not formed into a globe would have no atmosphere; and a globe, too, in a highly advanced state as "the earth" shows. Comets have no atmosphere; and our globe, when it was in a gaseous state, would have none either. An atmosphere seems to imply a solid, habitable globe.

External evidence in favour of the views of verse 1 here advocated.

What has hitherto been advanced bearing on the right interpretation of verse 1 may be termed the internal evidence. Before passing on to another verse

I shall produce a few external proofs in support of the same views.

Moses is an historian as well as a lawgiver. In works of an historical nature, the best authors, both ancient and modern, commence their narratives with a few prefatory remarks relating directly and closely to the subjects on which they have undertaken to write. These introductory observations generally contain a summary, in whole or in part, of the histories to which they are prefixed; and always look prospectively to the work on hand, never retrospectively to events hidden and unrecorded in the far remote ages of the past. Herodotus, the father of profane history, thus introduces his great work :—

"This history is the work of Herodotus of Halicarnassus: (it was undertaken) that the public transactions of nations might not be blotted out of memory through lapse of time, and that the great and wonderful deeds, achieved by both Greeks and barbarians, might not (from being unrecorded) lose their glory; and, in addition to other things, the author points out the causes which led them to engage in war with one another." The reader cannot fail to remark how closely all this bears upon the work to which it is prefixed; Herodotus tells you his motive for undertaking the work-the wars he is about to describe—and that he will explain the causes which led to these wars. After this highly suitable preface, he enters immediately on the history of the war mentioned in it-no interval-long or short-coming between it and the subjects on which he purposes to write. Thucydides wrote the history of the Peloponnesian War; his preface, whilst it is briefer than that of Herodotus, is equally pointed and appropriate :

"Thucydides, the Peloponnesian, wrote this war between the Peloponnesians and the Athenians," &c.

Livy, the Roman historian, has a long preface; the very first sentence of it contains an announcement of the whole of his vast undertaking:

"Facturusne operae pretium sim, si a primordiis urbis res populi Romani perscriberim."

Even poets

A race both unconfined and free,

are careful to announce the subject of their works in
their proems.
Homer in the first seven lines of the
Iliad gives a summary of the whole twenty-four books,
which proem Pope thus renders into English verse:

"Achilles' wrath, to Greece the direful spring
Of woes unnumbered, heavenly goddess sing;
That wrath which hurl'd to Pluto's gloomy reign
The souls of mighty chiefs untimely slain;
Whose limbs unburied on the native shore,
Devouring dogs and hungry vultures tore;
Since great Achilles and Atrides strove:

Such was the sovereign doom, and such the will of Jove."

The proem to the Odyssey runs out to ten verses, and is occupied, like that of the Iliad, in giving the contents of the whole poem :

"Muse, make the man thy theme, for shrewdness famed And genius versatile, who far and wide

A wanderer, after Ilium overthrown,

Discovered various cities, and the mind

And manners learn'd of men in lands remote.
He numerous woes, on ocean tossed, endured,
Anxious to save himself, and to conduct
His followers to their home; yet all his care
Preserved them not; they perished self-destroyed
By their own fault; infatuate! who devoured
The oxen of the all-o'erseeing sun,

And, punished for that crime, returned no more.
Daughter divine of Jove, these things record,
As it may please thee, even in our ears."

COWPER.

Virgil has both a proem and an invocation to the muse as an introduction to his Æneid; taken together they furnish a summary of the whole work:

"Arma virumque cano, Trojae qui primus ab oris," &c.

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Musa, mihi causas memora, quo numine laeso,” &c.

Now in not one of these instances do we find an interval between the announcement of the subject, and the entrance upon the work; in each we perceive the closest possible connection between the brief opening, and the copious details which follow and illustrate it. Never was there such an anomaly in writing heard of before, as the long interval which the a priori men ascribe to Moses. Had a profane author ventured to publish such a preface as they say Moses has written, the critics would not have been long in exposing the absurdity. A date, such as "in the beginning" prefixed to a general statement "God created the heaven and the earth," unless followed up by a detailed account of the things done, leaves both the time and the events undefined. We have no means of knowing what were the miracles wrought, nor the particular time when they were wrought. Standing wholly isolated from particular facts, the date can throw no light upon the things performed, nor the things performed reflect back any light upon the date. Geology has made known to us several beginnings in the history of our globe; and by nothing but a knowledge of particular facts can it be determined to which of all these Moses makes allusion; and if Moses has not communicated these facts, he has begun his history with a blunder that would bring disgrace on a profane author, notwithstanding his claim to divine inspiration.

But, it is not the inspired penman Moses who has committed a mistake; it is certain profane authors of our own day who have grossly misinterpreted what

he has written. When we read verse 1, giving the common and obvious meaning to the few words of which it is made up, we cannot but perceive that it contains a summary of the six days, and the six days' work of creation; and that, whilst it throws light upon the rest of the chapter, the rest of the chapter pays it amply back. Thus viewed, the whole composition is seen to be in full accordance with the established laws of good writing, and in every respect worthy of the divine source whence it emanated. We know and can enumerate all the particular overt acts implied in "created" verse 1; and knowing these, we can tell the exact time to which "in the beginning" refers; for, as the six days' works are followed up by the history of the human race, chronology gives us the precise number of years that have run their course since God finished the heavens and the earth.

Look now to the first verse as "a simple, independent, all-comprehensive axiom;" we have a general statement without a single particular statement annexed to it, and particular statements unprefaced by a general statement having reference to them-a twofold blunder in composition which no good profane author would ever commit. But there is a third blunder, quite in keeping with the two already pointed out a general statement, referring to one creative period, is connected by means of a conjunction (and) with particular statements descriptive of another creative period :

Ver. 1. "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth."

Ver. 2. void."

"AND the earth was without form and

Where, in the whole range of profane history, will you find errors so palpable and gross as these? But where is the theologian or the geologist who will directly affirm that Moses has made such mistakes? Yet