A NEW VIEW OF THE MOSAIC NARRATIVE OF CREATION. * ACCIDENT
has often given the first hint which has led to great discoveries, and difficulties, which no direct efforts availed to solve, have suddenly vanished upon a fortuitous change in the point of view. By such a happy chance as this, the author, who an- nounces his good fortune under the quaint title of "Nuggets from the Oldest Diggings," believes he has hit upon the true import of the first two chapters of Genesis. Grant that his point of view is not a figment of his imagination, but a practicable stand point existing in rerum nature, and he undertakes to show that there is no discrepancy whatever between the Mosaic record and the results of geological researches. The contrary opinion, he maintains, is a consequence solely of the erroneous nature of the ordinary interpretation, which holds the Narrative to he a history of a series of miraculous events, following each other rapidly, and resulting in tin formation of the earth as we now see it. Ile, on the other hand, believes that it records but one mira- culous act, the bringing of all material things into being with the properties belonging to them, and that what else it narrates is the sequel of that act through the operations of the laws it had imposed ; only this part of the process is told in dramatic imagery. It is hinted by the Scotsman that Rioter Woden Van- dyck is a nom de plume, adopted by " one of our best writers." However that may be, the author of the " Nuggets" is unques- tionably an able man, and writes with grace and vigour. We will let him expound the leading points of his argument in his own words.
LAWS OF NATURE.
The truth is, that the name " Laws of Nature," which we give to the classifications our minds make of the operations visible in the material crea- tion, means simply the order of action of some agent; and the agent of whose aotion those laws are the rules cannot be any part or portion of the things ruled, all which, whatever be their properties, are limited things, beings of time and space. The agent who governs nature must be, so to speak, beyond nature, existing in a manner different from that, in which created natures exist, and, therefore, in a manner which by the human in- tellect, that perceives only things of time and space, is inconceivable, WI he himself is incomprehensible. Of this Being, untimed, unspatzd, infinite, nature is the work, and the laws of nature are simply his mode of working, of which natures majestic unity, and the no less majestic uniformity and Nuggets from the Oldest Diggings; or, Researches in the Mosaic Creation. By Meter Woden Vandyck. Published by Hamilton, Adams, and Co. harmony of her laws, with the utter absence of any breach, defect, disorder, or decay, is of all proofs the most clear and impressive. Hence that very absence from material things of any supernatural appearances or miraculous interventions, and what may be called the silence of nature respecting God, on which Atheism has been founded is the very strongest attestation which nature can give, at once of her having proceeded from God, and of being under his constant and immediate government. His omnipresence alone can explain her unity and her unbroken order.
THE MOSAIC NARRATIVE AND PHILOSOPHY.
I think the Mosaic narrative gives, when rightly understood, the same view of what is commonly called the work of the six days, as philosophy
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does of the present course of nature. The common opinion is, that the six days' work consists of a series of miracles—that is, of supernatural acts of the Divine hand. I persuade that this is a misinterpretation of the record, and that, with the exception 'on of the very first act, which was the creation of the substance of t e universe, the whole events narrated were truly effects of the laws given to the created mass, showing themselves gra- dually and in succession, and by a process which, if witnessed, would have appeared to be exactly the same natural and unmiraculous operation of cause and effect with which we are familiar. The first act was undoubtedly mi- raculous, and out of the course of nature, because what we call Nature did not then exist ; but the succeeding acts were all operations within the na- ture or universe which the first act called into being, and were develms merits of the properties belonging to the matter of that universe, brought about by the powers with which it was endowed, in obedience to the Divine will, and under the Divine superintendence. After the first creative act, what is described is the formation of earth and its tenants out of a disorderly mass of matter ; and this is represented as having been accomplished by movements within that mass itself—that is to say, by means of second causes • it having been the Divine pleasure to act then as he acts now, to make the world out of matter, in the same manner as he maintains and go- verns the world since it was made—namely, through the instrumentality of the things material and spiritual, of which it consists Interpreting the narrative from the point of view of an ordinary observer, I understand the first two verses to tell of acts possible only to the immediate power of God. These are the act which brought all things into being, and the act (if indeed it was a separate act) which endowed all things with the proper- ties special to each. The operations narrated in the verses following, are manifestly of a different nature. The words tell of successive vocal com- mands of the Deity, in obedience to which the created things severally addressed immediately manifest the property, take the form, or produce the things commanded. Evidently it is everywhere implied that the things addressed were prepared or fitted to fulfil the command. And therefore I judge it not unreasonable to hold that the true import of the narrative, viewed as a narrative of operations in nature, is, that in the order and at the time indicated, the matter of this earth and the adjoining heavens, in obedience to the laws of its Divine anthem, was brought into the conditaon, and peopled with the living beings mentioned in the narrative. The real fact was that the preappointed steps of progression, which the matter of the earth had been prepared for making, so as to become this orderly and peopled world, took place at that time in due order. But this undramatic reality is told in dramatic imagery. Thus the vocal utterances of Divine will recorded as coming before each event are surely dramatic ; the literal
i meaning seems hardly intelligible, but taken allegorically, they teach the undoubted truth, that all that was done sprang from an act of God's will.
HOW MOSES TELLS HIS STORY.
To me he seems to tell the story of the creation to the Hebrew tribes, very much as a pious parent might, even in these enlightened times, tell his child the history of any natural production, such as a tree. Probably such a parent would begin by saying that all trees were made by God, and then proceed to inform his listening pupil, that to produce the tree before him, God had commanded the wind, or some other messenger, to convey a seed from some similar tree to the spot where it stood, and that this had been done ; that God had then commanded the soil on which the seed fell to foster it, and the clouds to water it, which also had been done ; that he next commanded the seed to swell and strike roots into the soil below, and send up shoots into the air above, which had been done; next, he bade the sun to shed light and heat on it, the winds to fan it, the rain and dew to water it ; and further, bade the stem to grow up, sending forth buds and leaves, and branches and blossoms, and fruits, in which, and in all things else, his will had been obeyed. In short, the whole history of the plant might be gone through more or less minutely or accurately, each step of the wonderful process being ascribed to the direct action of God, instead of to what a bota- nist would call the laws of nature. In this way our imaginary father might lodge the truths he loved, distinctly and deeply in the soul of his child, while telling him what were simple and ordinary factsin the order of nature, a process that was quite common and unmarvellous' the development of an organized being in accordance with the laws of its lcincl. . . . No doubtGod has a way of growing a world, just as be has a way of growing a tree.. . The formation of this world of ours was, I verily believe, a process of natural law, which has been repeated with variations, and is, perhaps, at this mo- ment repeating in ten thousand parts of space.
THE CREATIVE WEEK.
A common opinion is, that these various expressions of Divine will were really spoken, and were parts of a series of miraculous acts, each of which was begun and completed within a short period, such as a natural day. In very recent times, and also it would appear by some ancient commentators, the periods of action have been understood not to be so limited, the popular no- tion at present being that they were each probably a very long tract of time. Still the Divine acts proper to each period are held to have been direct per- sonal Divine interventions of a creative or miraculous character. Further, the acts of each period arc held to have been not only done within it, but completed, leaving their results behind it. These have continued through the succeeding periods, and down to the present day ; but the creative acts of one day are supposed not to have begun till the creative acts of the preceding day, with all their results, such as we now see them, had been finished. From all these opinions our view differs in several respects. First, it holds the utterances of God's will as indicating the laws which God had impressed upon the several departments of the universe, the earth, and the forms of life specified. Secondly, it holds that the Narrative records the order of initiation of those laws, and gives at the same time a concise description of the general character of the effects or results proper to each. Thirdly, it holds that the periods mentioned in the-Narrative are the periods of such initiation, but do not embrace their subsequent operation and effects. The time which in any sense was so special to any law or act of God as to be called its day, was that limited time at the beginning when the act was done—that is, the law was instituted or impressed and set in operation. Lastly, it holds that, since the time or days of their respective initiations, the whole laws have continued in operation, altogether and iu harmony. Of the incalculable ages that have since elapsed, no portion has been possessed by any one law more than by another ; there has been no succession in their relation to each other; the only succession predicable respecting them having ceased with the period allotted to setting them all ageing. Probably this period was a brief one, and the second work followed the first, the third
the second, and so on, at short intervals, which in the Narrative are sup- posed to be described by the word " day." The time when each work was instituted, was thereby peculiar to it, and so might .be called its day. . . . An illustration will probably make our meaning clear. Suppose that on each of the first six days of a particular week a man is born, and that these six men live the ordinary term of man's life. Of the week in which they were born, each wouldhave a day of special interest to himself—namely, his birthday ; but the whole weeks and years following would belong to him no more than to the rest, but would be common to the lives of all. In strict analogy with this supposed case is the fact regarding the works of the creative week. •
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