tle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field." Here it is affirmed that all the land-animals which were then created were brought to the father of mankind to be distinguished and named. Now, unless it be assumed that animals alike from the torrid zone and from the arctic circle were miraculously wafted across deserts and oceans to the limits of Eden, or else that they were created in Eden to be subsequently transported to their respective regions, (either assumption involving a cluster of extravagances which is surely too enormous to be entertained,) it follows that the animals said to have been brought to Adam were such as were henceforth to inhabit the Edenic region, probably such as were suited for domestication and use, and that such only were at that time created.

11. The situation of this important region can only be spoken of generally. It was "eastward," or an eastern country; that is, it lay easterly from Palestine, the probable station-point of the writer. Of the river-system † which is described as characterizing it immediately after the Adamic creation, the Phrat and the Hiddekel are generally agreed to be the Euphrates and the Tigris. While the land of gold and of precious stones through which two of the rivers passed, assists us further in at least approximating to the birth-place of man. The garden of Eden was probably situated on the southern slope of Armenia; for the greater part of this country, constituting an elevated table-land, with numerous ranges of higher mountains rising above it, is intersected in all directions by rapid streams; and here the Euphrates and Tigris have their rise, not far from each other. But Eden itself may have embraced the fairest portion of Asia and a part of Africa. The probability is, however, that it was limited to that portion of Asia which is bounded by the Indian Sea, the Persian Gulf, and the Arabian Desert, on the south; by the Caucasian Mountains, the Caspian Sea, and Tartary, on the north; by the chains of Taurus and Amanus, on the west; and, on the east, by the high land which, in the steppe of the Kirghis, connects the western ridges of the Altai mountains and the Himalaya range, about the sources of the Ganges; comprehending a tract lying between 25° and 40° N. latitude, and between 30° and 80° E. longitude.

12. Whatever may have been the condition, at that time, of

* Gen. ii. 8, p (the prep. often makes a periphrasis of the genitive,) of the eastern country — i. e., towards, or at, the east.

† Gen. ii. 10-14.

other parts of the surface of our planet, here was a region which a tremendous cataclysm, at some previous period, had superficially convulsed and laid utterly waste. To a human eye surveying the desolation from the centre, the anarchy would appear to be universal; and, probably, so extensive and ruinous was it, that the equilibrium of nature was disturbed in regions far beyond the centre and actual scene of the chaos. The physical cause of the convulsion may have been the subsidence, owing to an igneous movement below, (one of a series to which that portion of the earth is still subject, for it forms part of the great volcanic range extending from Central Asia to the Azores,) of a considerable region; for the surface is described as being covered with water. One of the consequences was a thick darkness. Even an ordinary cloud will conceal the sun. A dense fog will render artificial light necessary at noon-day. A local convulsion of the earth has been known to envelope a district of many miles extent in midnight gloom. What, then, may we suppose to have been the turbid and opaque condition of the atmosphere, when all its elements over a wide region were in a state of conflicting activity and revolution!

13. On the face of this troubled deep the Spirit of God brooded; and to the profound gloom of the atmosphere the voice of Omnipotence said, Be Light. The laws of gravity, of molecular attraction, and of light, were forthwith so recalled into operation, that the surging deep began to be tranquillized. The restoration of light was the chief work of the first day; or, as it must have appeared to a terrestrial spectator, had there been one, its production. But that this light was at first only very partially reproduced, is evident from the work assigned to the second day; for the atmosphere was still laden with dense watery vapor, which must have rendered it a very imperfect medium for the light, and probably unfit for organic life. This vapor, therefore, was next collected into floating masses, or clouds, and become "the waters above the firmament," in distinction from "the waters" which still overflowed the earth "under the firmament." The balanced condition of the atmosphere having been thus comparatively restored, the Divine Creator proceeded, on the third day, to arrange the surface of the earth. He bade the waters to collect and confine themselves within certain boundaries. And as this could take place only by the upheaving of the subjacent land, He called for "the dry land to appear: and it was so." Everlasting hills lifted themselves up, and awaited his further command. The

fiat, it will be observed, is not now creative, but formative, and is represented as being issued, not to the land, but to the water; for, owing to its greater mobility, it would have appeared to a spectator to be hastening away and voluntarily giving place to the land, rather than as being actually displaced by it. Yet the running off of the waters was doubtless the effect of the miraculous elevation of the land. Vegetation was called for, and the newly raised lands were forthwith covered with grasses, herbs, and fruit trees terms designating, by a common figure, the whole vegetable kingdom. The morning of the fourth day dawned, and behold, not now a dubious and gloomy twilight, but the sun itself enthroned, and "rejoicing as a strong man to run a race." Of course, by a spectator then standing on the earth for the first time, the appearance of the sun, and perhaps of the moon in another part of the heavens at the same time, would have been regarded as the sudden production of “two great lights." These luminaries, light-dispensers, or lightbearers, the Divine Creator now "made," in the common sense of appointed, to serve a purpose which they had never answered before, (inasmuch as there had been no intelligent beings on the earth to appropriate them to the use,) to "be for signs and for seasons, and for days and for years," to his coming creatureman. And now again "the stars" shone forth. The fifth morning of creation came: and the waters teemed with fish, and birds winged their way through the air. "And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let the fowl multiply in the earth," a commission which obviously recognized the ordinance of animal death, and involved its necessity; as the grant of the green herb for food involved the condition of vegetable death: for continued propagation supposes the removal of some, at least, of the preceding generations, otherwise room and food would soon be wanting. The sixth day beheld the occupation of the earth by landanimals of various tribes: and the Glorious Creator, saw that the whole "was good." Of man's creation—the last and crowning act of the Divine process-we shall speak presently.

14. As far, then, as the law now under consideration relates to the preparation of the region destined for man's immediate abode, its conditions are all satisfied. Often, before, we are to suppose, the same tract of the earth's surface had been the scene of Creative intervention. Very various and conclusive evidence exists that, at an early period of the ancient earth, the northern hemisphere was almost entirely submerged. But

So

after the formation of the carboniferous strata, land was successively upheaved from the deep by repeated convulsions, and the physical geography of those regions greatly modified. recently as the tertiary period, the great lowland of Siberia an area nearly equal to all Europe appears, from the character of its marine strata, to have emerged. Shells of tertiary species have been found in the plains of Armenia.* And fossil remains of still existing species inhabiting valleys and plains have been found lodged in the peaks of the Sewalik range,† westward of the river Jumna, indicating the comparatively recent action of a subterraneous upheaving force. Indeed, the volcanic region commencing in China and Tartary extends through the Caspian to the Caucasus, the countries bordering the Black Sea, and through part of Asia Minor to Syria; still keeping it, at times and in places, in violent commotion. But as often as such Pre-Adamite disturbance and consequent desolation had occurred, the Divine Creator had renewed the face of the earth, and, in the later epochs, had successively placed on its surface new forms of animal life. In a similar manner, on the present occasion, the face of the ancient earth is once more renewed. It is not said that, on the third day, He called new matter into existence; but that He gave to the confused and conflicting materials already existing, a new arrangement. All the mechanical and chemical laws which the ancient physical creation had known were again reinstated in power, and resumed their tranquil operation. The laws of organic life were summoned anew to activity; and sentient existence reappeared in the fulness of enjoyment. Or, taking the order of the Divine Perfections which the Pre-Adamite Earth displayed — POWER had first stilled the conflict of chaos, and restored the reign of pre-existing physical law over inorganic nature; and hence, in the Ruach Elohim, or Spirit of God, of Gen, i. 2, the predominant idea is that of power. WISDOM employed inorganic matter as means for the accomplishment of organic ends — clothing the earth with vegetable life and beauty. And GOODNESS once

*Mr. W. J. Hamilton's "Tour in Asia Minor," ii. 386.

† Falconer and Cautley, in Proceed. Geol. Soc., Nov. 15, 1843.

In the second edition of his "Scripture and Geology," the Rev. Dr. J. P. Smith remarks on the phrases, Let the waters breed, and the earth brought forth, that "the kernel of truth which they enclose is, that animal and vegetable bodies are organized out of the very materials which constitute water and the commonest minerals."-P. 279, Note.

more called for various orders of animal existence, and filled the whole with enjoyment.

15. But were the laws of nature as known to the ancient earth, and now recalled into operation in his Edenic region, introduced and embodied in the constitution of the new-made man? This is the condition which the Law now under consideration especially requires.

We have seen the preparations made for the presence of the coming human being. The mansion is ready, but, as yet, the inhabitant is not. Here is the temple complete; the worshipper is now to be created. Eden is waiting to yield its fruits; but "there is not a man to till the ground." Was not His absence felt as a want, a state of unsatisfied incompletion? Did not creation await His coming with suspense? Did not a universal silence reign to hear the mandate for His creation issued? Let it be remarked, however, that the form of the Creative fiat is now changed. He who hath said, Let there be light, saith not, Let there be man. The Creator himself, as if to mark the importance of the crisis, is described as having paused. To denote the new style and superior excellence of the work which is now to be performed, the Elohim is represented as proceeding to it deliberately, and as the result of self-consultation. To indicate the God-like character and destiny of the creature, the “Elohim said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness, and let them have dominion over all the earth."* And to represent the direct and peculiar derivation of the new creature, he is described as formed by the immediate hand, and inspired by the in-breathing of the Godhead.

16. A priori, indeed, it might have been said with a feeling of wondering interest. What will, what can be, the mysterious constitution of a creature whose high destiny it is that he is to read the creation as a manifestation of the Deity, himself being, by that very act, and by the power of performing it, superior to all the rest of creation! What a vast advance will he present on all that has previously existed! However far the mere animal may have proceeded along the brightening upward path which man is meant to travel, even if it went considerably beyond its present stage, the interval which separates it from the coming human being would yet be vast, greater than any known on earth before. And if for no other reason, for this, that the mere animal, by its destitution of those properties

* Gen. i. 26.