foolscap paper; to numerate it would be next to impossible; to conceive of it would be quite impossible.

'If we wish to ascertain the cubic space in cubic miles ; that is, the length, breadth, and height, of the whole space, in linear miles, considering it as a cube, or having equal sides, divide 1398 by 3, and the quotient, 466, is the number of places of figures representing the miles in each side. Now a billion is expressed by ten figures; divide 466 by 10, and 46 will be the number of repetitions of billions; that is, the number of miles in each side, will be billions of billions of billions of billions, repeated 46 times.

'Of course the above calculation takes no account of the philosophical question as to how much of the shelly matter of one generation may be redissolved, and go to the formation of succeeding generations. The question is answered in its strict and literal sense, supposing each individual to be formed of matter furnished by the great reservoir of the ocean, independent of all others."

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Having received the above lucid statement, and its results having been much beyond what I conceived would be the bulk in the time specified, I addressed another note to the Professor, asking him to state the number of cubic miles in the earth, and its comparative size to the cubic miles in the above calculation. His reply follows:

The diameter of the earth being 7912 miles, the number of cubic miles contained in it, is 259,333,411,700, about, and the number of such globes contained in the space occupied by the shells would be expressed by 1382—12— 1370 places of figures.'

"It should be particularly noticed that this estimate takes but one species, instead of three thousand, the true number; that one tenth of a cubic inch is much below the average size; and, also, that an increase of five for one

year only, instead of, perhaps, one hundred for ten years, reduces the estimate low enough to satisfy any one. And yet the results are astounding. The cubic miles in the earth are expressed by twelve figures. The natural increase of one species alone, at the rate above stated, in 2000 years, produces a mass of matter which would make as many billions of worlds, as large as the earth, as is expressed, not by 12 places of figures, which is the size of the earth, but by 1370 places of figures."

We have dwelt minutely upon the fossiliferous formations of the primary period, because here, mainly, the Mosaic account of creation has been supposed to conflict with the facts of Geology. Having done so, there will be no necessity for dwelling, with such minuteness, upon the history of the remaining days, we shall therefore consider them much more briefly.

The next step in the process of creation was the production, by the Almighty, of the expanse, or atmosphere, which surrounds the Earth. This must have vastly changed the previous condition of the globe. There was now a medium for evaporation, and a new element, upon which the vapors could be borne and the clouds formed, which existed not during the first day. The waters of the globe must now have become more agitated than before,-the temperature of the atmosphere, being necessarily variable, must have begun to produce currents of wind, - these must have disturbed the former quiescence of the water and the consequence must have been the extinction of many of the previous forms of life,

which accords exactly with the discovered facts of Geology. But the places of these extinguished existences were supplied by the creation of new orders of being, adapted to the changed condition of the globe.

Another important result was produced by the creation of this new element. As, according to computation, the atmosphere extends forty-five miles above the earth, it became a medium to sustain a vast amount of vapor, which was now to be separated from the waters of the Ocean, so that their amount might, thereby, be lessened, and the dry land the sooner appear.

The period of this creation constituted the evening and morning of the "second day," which was a literal revolution of the earth upon its axis, but yet another immense period of time-one as long as Geology indicates, for not yet was the light gathered into the focal intensity of a sun, although that light might have been much more concentrated than during the first day, which the fossiliferous formations of this period indicate, and it would, therefore, have been shorter than the first day though very long.

On the third day the waters of the Globe were collected together into separated oceans, seas, and lakes, and the dry land was made to appear, very probably by the upheaving of its submerged surface into heights or mountains, by the action of subterranean fires or chemical agencies, which had been generated during the immense period of the two previous days, leaving

corresponding cavities for the water. And now grass, and trees, and fruit, were produced, but the light was not yet formed into a sun, although the geological formations of this period indicate a still greater condensation than heretofore.

Now the caviler may affect to scoff at the gradual condensation of light, but if he does he scoffs also at some of the well attested discoveries of Astronomy. Sir William Herschel draws the conclusion, from certain appearances in the heavens, that the detached masses of nebulæ are, in some cases, assuming, very slowly, but surely, a more and more globular and concentrated form, as though new suns and systems were in the process of formation.

On the fourth day God completely condensed the light into the focal intensity of our present sun. Then, for the first time, the Moon, and Venus, and Mars, and Jupiter, and Saturn, and all the other planets of the Solar System, which had before been invisible, on account of the feebleness of the light, flashed out into visibility as though they had for the first time. been created, and commenced their diurnal and annual revolutions which have since been maintained with such perfect and undeviating regularity in accordance with those physical laws which were then established by the Almighty.

Having thus passed through with our examination of the progress of the first four days of creation and considered the effect of a gradual condensation of light into the focal intensity of our sun, we are willing

to contrast our views upon this subject with the various and conflicting opinions which appear in the quotations we have made from the British Cyclopedia. Upon our hypothesis we need not make the reply that Cyril makes to the scoffs of Julian "that Moses' view was to accommodate his story to the ignorance of the Jews; not to reason accurately on the origin of things," nor need we like Philo call it a piece of rustic simplicity to imagine that God really employed six days in the production of things;" nor need we yet with Dr. Geddes consider "that the Mosaic account was a most beautiful mythos or philosophical fiction." For we think that any unprejudiced mind must conclude that upon this hypothesis the philosophy of Moses was quite as sound and rational as that of a Newton, a Locke, or any other sage that has existed or written since his day.

And now, as the earth had previously been prepared for it, and as the light had become sufficiently intense to produce vegetation, God created upon the fifth day, all the various races of beasts, birds, and fishes, which now exist upon the globe, and which, according to Geology, took the place of many of those modes of organic life which had previously existed, and which had, one after another, become extinct, as the several successive changes occurred in the progressive organization of the earth, which extinguished forms of life constituted the remainder of those fossiliferous depositions existing in the rocky stratifications of the globe not heretofore considered in our argument.