1856.] Science and the Bible. 105
Besides
this, the author doubts, on grounds he so contemns, — scientific
grounds—whether the higher kinds of vegetation, if any, were created
before the sun. He says : " For the development of these, if not for
their origination, there is needed the orderly arrangement of the
seasons and the regularly-adjusted light and heat of some great
luminary."
Moreoyer,
he mentions no reason for the wonderful fact, that two so diverse
creations as that of vegetation and the dividing the land from the
seas took place in one day; nor for the equally marvellous fact, that
the creation of quadrupeds took place on the same day with that of man.
On
the creation of man, we have the crude speculations that have already
been cited (p. 98), a miserable substitute for wisdom that comes from
above. ;
Temptations
to remark and criticism follow one, all through the pages of such a
work; there is so much to complain of, in the author's philosophy, his
exegesis, his ready way of making the Mosaic record literal or "
phenomenal," to suit his theory ; his misapprehension of science, and
denunciation of established truth. We therefore have had to cull
sparingly, not to run to a tedious length.
Is
it not a marvel that a learned Professor should accord, in his
cosmogony, with the views of science in all their grander points, and
yet lose no opportunity to denounce science : should adopt, with
science, the idea of indefinite periods for days, and then pick a
quarrel because geologists make the days, he thinks, too long; should
build up a system out of Nature and natural causes, or what he
supposes to be natural causes, and still abuse a science that also uses
Nature and natural causes, and studies not to stretch those causes
beyond what is warranted by direct observation ; should attempt to
grasp a subject that requires the highest knowledge of natural
possibilities, without the least investigation as to what are the
actual powers or capabilities of fsature ? An honest doubt of the
conclusions of geologists, in the mind of one who has not pursued the
subject, is reasonable enough; but for such a one, in his acknowledged
emptmess, to turn around and charge science or the students of Nature
with flippancy and ignorance, is at least to prove
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