The Origin of the World According to Revelation and Science Part 8

"And G.o.d said, Let the earth bring forth the springing herb, the herb bearing seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit, after its kind, whose seed is in it on the earth: and it was so. And the earth brought forth the tender herb, the herb yielding seed, and the tree bearing fruit whose seed is in it, after its kind; and G.o.d saw that it was good."--Genesis i., 10, 11.

These are events sufficiently simple and intelligible in their general character. Geology shows us that the emergence of the dry land must have resulted from the elevation of parts of the bed of the ancient universal ocean, and that the agent employed in such changes is the bending and crumpling of the outer crust of the earth, caused by lateral pressure, and operating either in a slow and regular manner or by sudden paroxysms. It farther informs us that the existing continents consist of stratified or bedded ma.s.ses, more or less inclined, fissured and irregularly elevated, and usually supported by crystalline rocks which have been produced among them, or forced up beneath or through them by internal agencies, and which truly const.i.tute the pillars and foundations of the earth. These elevations, it is true, were successive, and belong to different periods; but the appearance of the first dry land is that intended here.

The elevation of the dry land is more frequently referred to in Scripture than any other cosmological fact; and while all have been misapprehended, the statements on this subject have been even more unjustly dealt with than others. In the text, the word "earth"

(_aretz_[78]) is, by divine sanction, narrowed in meaning to the dry land; but while some expositors are quite willing to restrict it to this, or even a more limited sense, in the first and second verses of this chapter, almost the only verses in the Bible where the terms of the narrative make such a restriction inadmissible, they are equally ready to understand it as meaning the whole globe in places where the explanatory clause in the verse now under consideration teaches us that we should understand the land only, as distinguished from the sea. I may quote some of these pa.s.sages, and note the views they give; always bearing in mind that, after the intimation here given, we must understand the term "earth" as applying _only to the continents_ or _dry land_, unless where the context otherwise fixes the meaning. We may first turn to Psalm civ.:

"Thou laidst the foundations of the earth, That it should never be removed; Thou coveredst it with the deep as with a garment; The waters stood above the mountains; At thy rebuke they fled; At the sound of thy thunder they hasted away; Mountains ascended, valleys descended To the place thou hast appointed for them: Thou hast appointed them bounds that they may not pa.s.s, That they return not again to cover the earth."

The position of these verses in this "the hymn of creation" leaves no doubt that they refer to the events we are now considering. I have given above the literal reading of the line that refers to the elevation of mountains and subsidence of valleys; admitting, however, that the grammatical construction gives an air of probability to the rendering in our version, "they go up by the mountains, they go down by the valleys," which, on the other hand, is rendered very improbable by the sense. In whichever sense we understand this line, the picture presented to us by the Psalmist includes the elevation of the mountains and continents, the subsidence of the waters into their depressed basins, and the firm establishment of the dry land on its rocky foundations, the whole accompanied by a feature not noticed in Genesis--the voice of G.o.d's thunder--or, in other words, electrical and volcanic explosions. The following quotations refer to the same subject:

"Before the mountains were settled, Before the hills was I (the Wisdom of G.o.d) brought forth; While as yet he had not made the earth, Nor the plains, nor the higher parts of the habitable world.

When he gave the sea his decree That the waters should not pa.s.s his limits, When he determined the foundations of the earth."

--Proverbs viii., 25.

"Thou hast established the earth, and it endureth, According to thy decrees they continue this day, For all are thy servants."

--Psalm cxix., 90.

"Who shaketh the earth out of its place, And its pillars tremble."

--Job ix., 6.

"Where wast thou when I founded the earth?

Declare, if thou hast knowledge.

Who hath fixed the proportion thereof, if thou knowest?

Who stretched the line upon it?

Upon what are its foundations settled?

Or who laid its corner-stone, When the morning stars sang together, And all the sons of G.o.d shouted for joy?

Who shut up the sea with doors In its bursting forth as from the womb?

When I made the cloud its garment, And swathed it in thick darkness, I measured out for it my limit, And fixed its bars and doors; And said, Thus far shalt thou come, but no farther, And here shall thy proud waves be stayed."

--Job x.x.xviii., 4.

In these pa.s.sages the foundation of the earth at first, as well as the shaking of its pillars by the earthquake, are connected with what we usually call natural law--the decree of the Almighty--the unchanging arrangements of an unchangeable Creator, whose "hands formed the dry land."[79] This is the ultimate cause not only of the elevation of the land, but of all other natural things and processes. The naturalist does not require to be informed that the details, in so far as they are referred to in the above pa.s.sages, are perfectly in accordance with what we know of the nature and support of continental ma.s.ses.

Geological observation and mathematical calculation have in our day combined their powers to give clear views of the manner in which the fractured strata of the earth are wedged and arched together, and supported by internal igneous ma.s.ses upheaved from beneath, and subsequently cooled and hardened. A general view of these facts which we have learned from scientific inquiry, the Hebrews gleaned with nearly as much precision from the short account of the elevation of the land in Genesis, and from the later comments of their inspired poets. From the same source our own great poet, Milton, learned these cosmical facts, before the rise of geology, and expressed them in unexceptionable terms:

"The mountains huge appear Emergent, and their broad bare backs upheave Into the clouds, their tops ascend the sky.

So high as heaved the tumid hills, so low Down sunk a hollow bottom, broad and deep, Capacious bed of waters."

In further ill.u.s.tration of the opinions of the Scripture writers respecting the nature of the earth, and the disturbances to which it is liable, I quote the following pa.s.sages. The first is from the magnificent description of Jehovah descending to succor his people amid the terrors of the earthquake, the volcano, and the thunder-storm, in Psalm xviii.:

"Then shook and trembled the earth, The foundations of the hills moved and were shaken, Because he was angry.

Smoke went up from his nostrils, Fire from his mouth devoured, Coals were kindled by it.

Then were seen the channels of the waters, And the foundations of the world were discovered, At thy rebuke--O Jehovah-- At the blast of the breath of thy nostrils."

In another place in the Psalms we find volcanic action thus tersely sketched:

"He looketh on the earth and it trembleth, He toucheth the hills and they smoke."

--Psalm civ., 32.

Perhaps the most remarkable discourse on this subject in the whole Bible is that in Job xxviii., in which mining operations are introduced as an ill.u.s.tration of the difficulty of obtaining true wisdom. This pa.s.sage is interesting both from its extreme antiquity, and the advancement in knowledge and practical skill which it indicates. It presents, however, many difficulties; and its details have almost entirely lost their true significance in our common English version:

"Surely there is a vein for silver, And a place for the gold which men refine; Iron is taken from the earth, And copper is molten from the ore.

To the end of darkness and to all extremes man searcheth, For the stones of darkness and the shadow of death.

He opens a pa.s.sage [shaft] from where men dwell, Unsupported by the foot, they hang down and swing to and fro.[80]

The earth--out of it cometh bread; And beneath, it is overturned as by fire.[81]

Its stones are the place of sapphires, And it hath lumps[82] of gold.

The path (thereto) the bird of prey hath not known, The vulture's eye hath not seen it.[83]

The wild beasts' whelps have not trodden it, The lion hath not pa.s.sed over it.

Man layeth his hand on the hard rock, He turneth up the mountains from their roots, He cutteth channels [_adits_] in the rocks, His eye seeth every precious thing.

He restraineth the streams from trickling, And bringeth the hidden thing to light.

But where shall wisdom be found, And where is the place of understanding?"

This pa.s.sage, incidentally introduced, gives us a glimpse of the knowledge of the interior of the earth and its products, as it existed in an age probably anterior to that of Moses. It brings before us the repositories of the valuable metals and gems--the mining operations, apparently of some magnitude and difficulty, undertaken in extracting them--and the wonderful structure of the earth itself, green and productive at the surface, rich in precious metals beneath, and deeper still the abode of intense subterranean fires. The only thing wanting to give completeness to the picture is some mention of the fossil remains buried in the earth; and, as the main thought is the eager and successful search for useful minerals, this can hardly be regarded as a defect. The application of all this is finer than almost any thing else in didactic poetry. Man can explore depths of the earth inaccessible to all other creatures, and extract thence treasures of inestimable value; yet, after thus exhausting all the natural riches of the earth, he too often lacks that highest wisdom which alone can fit him for the true ends of his spiritual being. How true is all this, even in our own wonder-working days! A poet of to-day could scarcely say more of subterranean wonders, or say it more truthfully and beautifully; nor could he arrive at a conclusion more pregnant with the highest philosophy than the closing words:

"The fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; And to depart from evil is understanding."

The emergence of the dry land is followed by a repet.i.tion of the approval of the Creator. "G.o.d saw that it was good." To our view that primeval dry land would scarcely have seemed good. It was a world of bare, rocky peaks, and verdureless valleys--here active volcanoes, with their heaps of scoriae and scarcely cooled lava currents--there vast mudflats, recently upheaved from the bottom of the waters--nowhere even a blade of gra.s.s or a clinging lichen. Yet it was good in the view of its Maker, who could see it in relation to the uses for which he had made it, and as a fit preparatory step to the new wonders he was soon to introduce. Then too, as we are informed in Job x.x.xviii., "The morning stars sang together, and all the sons of G.o.d shouted for joy." We also, when we think of the beautiful variety of the terrestrial surface, the character and composition of its soils, the variety of climate and exposure resulting from its degrees of elevation, the arrangements for the continuance of springs and streams, and many other beneficial provisions connected with the merely mechanical arrangements of the dry land, may well join in the tribute of praise to the All-wise Creator. There is, however, a farther thought suggested by the approval of the great Artificer. In this wondrous progress of creation, it seems as if every thing at first was in its best estate. No succeeding state could parallel the unbroken symmetry of the earth in the fluid and vaporous condition of the "deep." Before the elevation of the land, the atmospheric currents and the deposition of moisture must have been surpa.s.singly regular.

The first dry land may have presented crags and peaks and ravines and volcanic cones in a more marvellous and perfect manner than any succeeding continents--even as the dry and barren moon now, in this respect, far surpa.s.ses the earths. In the progress of organic life, geology gives similar indications, in the variety and magnitude of many animal types on their first introduction; so that this may very possibly be a law of creation.

During the emergence of the first dry land, large quant.i.ties of detrital matter must have been deposited in the waters, and in part elevated into land. All of these beds would, probably, be dest.i.tute of organic remains; but if such beds were formed and still remain, they are probably unknown to us, for the oldest formations that we know--those of the Eozoic age--contain traces of such remains. It has, indeed, been suggested that these most ancient organisms are, as it were, overlooked in the history of creation, or regarded as equivalent to those shapeless monsters and animals of the darkness that are referred to in the older Turanian versions of this story of creation.

I doubt very much, however, if this is a fair interpretation of our ancient record; but we shall be in a better position to discuss it when we come to the actual introduction of animals.

Modern a.n.a.logy would induce us to believe that the land was not elevated suddenly; but either by a series of small paroxysms, as in the case of Chili, or by a gradual and imperceptible movement, as in the case of Sweden--two of the most remarkable modern instances of elevation of land--accompanied, however, in the case of the last by local subsidence.[84] In either of these ways the seas and rivers would have time to smooth the more rugged inequalities, to widen the ravines into valleys, and to spread out sediment in the lower grounds; thus fitting the surface for the habitation of plants and animals. We must not suppose, however, that the dry land had any close resemblance to that now existing in its form or distribution. Geology amply proves that since the first appearance of dry land, its contour has frequently been changed, and probably also its position. Hence nearly all our present land consists of rocks which have been formed under the waters, long after the period now under consideration, and have been subsequently hardened and elevated; and since all the existing high mountain ranges are of a comparatively late age, it is probable that this primeval dry land was low, as well as, in the earlier part of the period at least, of comparatively small extent. It is, however, by no means certain that there may not have been a greater expanse of land toward the close of this period than that which afterwards existed in those older periods of animal life to which the earliest fossiliferous rocks of the geologist carry us back; since, as already hinted, it seems to be a rule in creation that each new object shall be highly developed of its kind at its first appearance, and since there have been in geological time many great subsidences as well as elevations. Neither must we forget that the oldest land has been subjected throughout geological time to wearing and degrading agencies, and that from its waste the later formations have been mainly derived.

It would be wrong, however, to omit to state that, though we may know at present no remains of the first dry land, we are not ignorant of its general distribution; for the present continents show, in the arrangement of their formations and mountain chains, evidence that they are parts of a plan sketched out from the beginning. It has often been remarked by physical geographers that the great lines of coast and mountain ranges are generally in directions approaching to northeast and southwest, or northwest and southeast, and that where they run in other directions, as in the case of the south of Europe and Asia, they are much broken by salient and re-entering angles, formed by lines having these directions. Professor R. Owen, of Tennessee, and Professor Pierce, of Harvard College, were, I believe, the first to point out that these lines are in reality parts of great circles tangent to the polar circles, and the latter to suggest a theory of their origin, based on the action of solar heat and the seasons on a cooling earth. This has been more fully stated by Mr. W.

Lowthian Green in his curious book, "Vestiges of the Molten Globe."[85] It would appear that the great circles in question are in reality at right angles to the line of direction of the attraction of the sun and moon at the period of either solstice, and when they happen to be in conjunction or opposition at these periods; and that such circles would be the lines on which the thin crust of a cooling globe would be most likely to be ruptured by its internal tidal-wave.

Whatever the cause of the phenomenon, it is evident that in the formation of its surface inequalities the earth has cracked--so to speak--along two series of great circles tangent to the polar circles; and that these, with certain subordinate lines of fracture running north and south and east and west, have determined the forms of the continents from their origin.

M. Elie de Beaumont, and after him most other geologists, have attributed the elevation of the continents and the upheaval and plication of mountain chains to the secular refrigeration of the earth, causing its outer sh.e.l.l to become too capacious for its contracting interior ma.s.s, and thus to break or bend, and to settle toward the centre. This view would well accord with the terms in which the elevation of the land is mentioned throughout the Bible, and especially with the general progress of the work as we have gleaned it from the Mosaic narrative; since from the period of the desolate void and aeriform deep to that now before us secular refrigeration must have been steadily in progress. Let us also observe here that the earliest fractures of the crust would determine the first coast lines, and the first slopes along which sedimentary matter would descend from the land and be deposited in the sea. They would also modify the direction of the ocean currents. Thus the deposition of new formations would be directed by these old lines, as would also to some extent the course of all subsequent fractures and plications. Thus it happens that the lines of outcrop of the oldest rocks first raised out of the waters already marked out the forms of the continents, and that the later formations appear rather as fillings-up and extensions of the skeleton established by the first dry land. Farther, the lines of plication first established along the borders of the continents formed resisting walls along which, in the continued contraction of the earth, pressure was exerted from the ocean bed, widening and elevating these lines of upheaval, and still farther fixing the general forms of the continents, and giving variety to their surfaces. In the progress of geological time there have also been successive depressions and re-elevations of the continental plateaus, subjecting them alternately to the wearing and disintegrating action of the atmosphere and its waters, and to the influence of waves and ocean currents, and especially to that of the deep-seated polar currents which have throughout geological ages been loading the submerged areas of the earth's surface with the products of the waste caused by frost and ice in the polar regions. These causes again have been progressively increasing the oblateness of the earth's figure, and, along with the slackening of its rotation, preparing the way for those periodical collapses in the equatorial and temperate regions which form the boundaries of some of our most important geological periods.[86]

Throughout all these changes the great general plan of the continents, first sketched out when the "foundations of the earth" were laid, before Eozoic time, was being elaborated.

The same creative period that witnessed the first appearance of dry land saw it also clothed with vegetation; and it is quite likely that this is intended to teach that no time was lost in clothing the earth with plants--that the first emerging portions received their vegetable tenants as they became fitted for them--and that each additional region, as it rose above the surface of the waters, in like manner received the species of plants for which it was adapted. What was the nature of this earliest vegetation? The sacred writer specifies three descriptions of plants as included in it; and, by considering the terms which he uses, some information on this subject may be gained.

_Deshe_, translated "gra.s.s" in our version, is derived from a verb signifying to spring up or bud forth; the same verb, indeed, used in this verse to denote "bringing forth," literally causing to spring up.

Its radical meaning is, therefore, vegetation in the act of sprouting or springing forth; or, as connected with this, young and delicate herbage. Thus, in Job x.x.xviii., "To satisfy the desolate and waste ground, and to cause the bud of the _young herbage_ to spring forth."

Here the reference is, no doubt, to the bulbous and tuberous rooted plants of the desert plains, which, fading away in the summer drought, burst forth with magical rapidity on the setting-in of rain. The following pa.s.sages are similar: Psalm xxiii., "He maketh me to lie down in green pastures" (literally, young or _tender herbage_); Deuteronomy xxiii., "Small rain upon the _tender herb_;" Isaiah x.x.xvii., "_Gra.s.s_ on the house-tops." The word is also used for herbage such as can be eaten by cattle or cut down for fodder, though even in these cases the idea of young and tender herbage is evidently included; "Fat as a heifer at _gra.s.s_" (Jer. xiv.)--that is, feeding on young succulent gra.s.s, not that which is dry and parched. "Cut down as the gra.s.s, or wither as the green herb," like the soft, tender gra.s.s, soon cut down and quickly withering. With respect to the use of the word in this place, I may remark: 1. It is not here correctly translated by the word "gra.s.s;" for gra.s.s bears seed, and is, consequently, a member of the second cla.s.s of plants mentioned. Even if we set aside all idea of inspiration, it is obviously impossible that any one living among a pastoral or agricultural people could have been ignorant of this fact. 2. It can scarcely be a general term, including all plants when in a young or tender state. The idea of their springing up is included in the verb, and this was but a very temporary condition. Besides, this word does not appear to be employed for the young state of shrubs or trees. 3. We thus appear to be shut up to the conclusion that _deshe_ here means those plants, mostly small and herbaceous, which bear no proper seeds;[87] in other words, the Cryptogamia--as fungi, mosses, lichens, ferns, etc. The remaining words are translated with sufficient accuracy in our version. They denote seed-bearing or phoenogamous herbs and trees. The special mention of the fructification of plants is probably intended not only for distinction, but also to indicate the new power of organic reproduction now first introduced on the surface of our planet, and to mark its difference from the creative act itself. That this new and wondrous phenomenon should be so stated is thus in strict scientific propriety, and it is precisely the point that would be seized by an intelligent spectator of the visions of creation, who had previously witnessed only the accretion and disintegration of mineral substances, and to whom this marvellous power of organic reproduction would be in every respect a new creation.

The arrangement of plants in the three great cla.s.ses of cryptogams, seed-bearing herbs, and fruit-bearing trees differs in one important point--viz., the separation of herbaceous plants from trees--from modern botanical cla.s.sification. It is, however, sufficiently natural for the purposes of a general description like this, and perhaps gives more precise ideas of the meaning intended than any other arrangement equally concise and popular. It is also probable that the object of the writer was not so much a natural-history cla.s.sification as an account of the _order_ of creation, and that he wishes to affirm that the introduction of these three cla.s.ses of plants on the earth corresponded with the order here stated. This view renders it unnecessary to vindicate the accuracy of the arrangement on botanical grounds, since the historical order was evidently better suited to the purpose in view, and in so far as the earlier appearance of cryptogamous plants is concerned, it is in strict accordance with geological fact.

A very important truth is contained in the expression "after its kind"--that is, after its _species_; for the Hebrew "_min_," used here, has strictly this sense, and, like the Greek _idea_ and the Latin _species_, conveys the notion of form as well as that of kind.

It is used to denote species of animals, in Leviticus i., 14, and in Deuteronomy xiv., 15. We are taught by this statement that plants were created each kind by itself; and that creation was not a sort of slump-work to be perfected by the operation of a law of development, as fancied by some modern speculators. In this a.s.sertion of the distinctness of species, and the production of each as a distinct part of the creative plan, revelation tallies perfectly with the conclusions of natural science, which lead us to believe that each species, as observed by us, is permanently reproductive, variable within narrow limits, and incapable of permanent intermixture with other species; and though hypotheses of modification by descent, and of the production of new species by such modification, may be formed, they are not in accordance with experience, and are still among the unproved speculations which haunt the outskirts of true science. We shall be better prepared, however, to weigh the relations of such hypotheses to our revelation of origins when we shall have reached the period of the introduction of animal life.

Some additional facts contained in the recapitulation of the creative work in Chapter II. may very properly be considered here, as they seem to refer to the climatal conditions of the earth during the growth of the most ancient vegetation, and before the final adjustment of the astronomical relations of the earth on the fourth day. "And every shrub of the land before it was on the earth, and every herb of the land before it sprung up. For the Lord G.o.d had not caused it to rain on the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground; but a mist ascended from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground."

This has been supposed to be a description of the state of the earth during the whole period anterior to the fall of man. There is, however, no Scripture evidence of this; and geology informs us that rain fell as at present far back in the Palaeozoic period, countless ages before the creation of man or the existing animals. Although, however, such a condition of the earth as that stated in these verses has not been known in any geological period, yet it is not inconceivable, but in reality corresponds with the other conditions of nature likely to have prevailed on the third day, as described in Genesis. The land of this period, we may suppose, was not very extensive nor very elevated. Hence the temperature would be uniform and the air moist. The luminous and calorific matter connected with the sun still occupied a large s.p.a.ce, and therefore diffused heat and light more uniformly than at present. The internal heat of the earth may still have produced an effect in warming the oceanic waters. The combined operation of these causes, of which we, perhaps, have some traces as late as the Carboniferous period, might well produce a state of things in which the earth was watered, not by showers of rain, but by the gentle and continued precipitation of finely divided moisture, in the manner now observed in those climates in which vegetation is nourished for a considerable part of the year by nocturnal mists and copious dews. The atmosphere, in short, as yet partook in some slight degree of the same moist and misty character which prevailed before the "establishment of the clouds above"--the airy firmament of the second day. The introduction of these explanatory particulars by the sacred historian furnishes an additional argument for the theory of long periods. That vegetation should exist for two or three natural days without rain or the irrigation which is given in culture, was, as already stated, a circ.u.mstance altogether unworthy of notice; but the growth during a long period of a varied and highly organized flora, without this advantage, and by the aid of a special natural provision afterward discontinued, was in all respects so remarkable and so highly ill.u.s.trative of the expedients of the divine wisdom that it deserved a prominent place.

It is evident that the words of the inspired writer include plants belonging to all the great subdivisions of the vegetable kingdom. This earliest vegetation was not rude or incomplete, or restricted to the lower forms of life. It was not even, like that of the coal period, solely or mainly cryptogamous or gymnospermous. It included trees bearing fruit, as well as lichens and mosses, and it received the same stamp of approbation bestowed on other portions of the work--"it was good." We have a good right to a.s.sume that its excellence had reference not only to its own period, but to subsequent conditions of the earth. Vegetation is the great a.s.similating power, the converter of inorganic into organic matter suitable for the sustenance of animals. In like manner the lower tribes of plants prepare the way for the higher. We should therefore have expected _a priori_ that vegetation would have clothed the earth before the creation of animals, and a sufficient time before it to allow soils to be acc.u.mulated, and surplus stores of organic matter to be prepared in advance: this consideration alone would also induce us to a.s.sign a considerable duration to the third day. After the elevation of land, and the draining off from it of the saline matter with which it would be saturated, a process often very tedious, especially in low tracts of ground, the soil would still consist only of mineral matter, and must have been for a long period occupied by plants suited to this condition of things, in order that sufficient organic matter might be acc.u.mulated for the growth of a more varied vegetation; a consideration which perhaps ill.u.s.trates the order of the plants in the narrative.