as complete; and though it occurs in the Septuagint
and other ancient versions, it is not based on the Hebrew original. In
truth, we know that those Grecian philosophers--of the Ionic and
Pythagorean schools--who lived nearest the times of the Hebrew
writers, and who derived the elements of their science from Egypt and
Western Asia, taught very different doctrines. How absurd, then, is it
thus to fasten upon the sacred writers, contrary to their own words,
the views of a school of astronomy which probably arose long after
their time, when we know that more accurate ideas prevailed nearer
their epoch. Secondly, though there is some reason for stating that
the "ancients," though certainly not those of Israel, believed in
celestial spheres supporting the heavenly bodies, I suspect that the
doctrine of a solid vault _supporting the clouds_, except as a mere
poetical or mythological fancy, is a product of the imagination of the
theologians and closet philosophers of a more modern time. The
testimony of men's senses appears to be in favor of the whole universe
revolving around a plane earth, though the oldest astronomical school
with which we are acquainted suspected that this is an illusion; but
the every-day observation of the most unlettered man who treads the
fields and is wet with the mists and rains must convince him that
there is no _sub-nubilar_ solid sphere. If, therefore, the Bible had
taught such a doctrine, it would have shocked the common-sense even of
the plain husbandmen to whom it was addressed, and could have found no
fit audience except among a portion of the literati of comparatively
modern times. Thirdly, with respect to the foundations of the earth, I
may remark that in the tenth verse of Genesis there occurs a
definition as precise as that of any lexicon--"and God called the _dry
land_ earth;" consequently it is but fair to assume that the earth
afterwards spoken of as supported above the waters is the dry land or
continental masses of the earth, and no geologist can object to the
statement that the dry land is supported above the waters by
foundations or pillars.

We shall find in our examination of the document itself that all the
instances of such accommodation which have been cited by writers on
this subject are as baseless as those above referred to. It is much to
be regretted that so many otherwise useful expositors have either
wanted that familiarity with the aspects of external nature by which
a