in other parts of Scripture indicate, at least, the influence of these
earlier teachings, and of a pure monotheistic faith, in creating a
high and just appreciation of nature among the Hebrew people.

It is now necessary to inquire in what precise form this remarkable
revelation of the origin of the world has been given. I have already
referred to the hypothesis that it represents a vision of creation
presented to the mind of a seer, as if in a series of pictures which
he represents to us in words. This is perhaps the most intelligible
conception of the manner of communication of a revelation from God;
and inasmuch as it is that referred to in other parts of the Bible as
the mode of presentation of the future to inspired prophets, there can
be no impropriety in supposing it to have been the means of
communicating the knowledge of the unknown past. We may imagine the
seer--perhaps some aboriginal patriarch, long before the time of
Moses--perhaps the first man himself--wrapt in ecstatic vision, having
his senses closed to all the impressions of the present time, and
looking as at a moving procession of the events of the earth's past
history, presented to him in a series of apparent days and nights. In
the first chapter of Genesis he rehearses this divine vision to us,
not in poetry, but in a series of regularly arranged parts or
strophes, thrown into a sort of rhythmical order fitted to impress
them on the memory, and to allow them to be handed down from mouth to
mouth, perhaps through successive generations of men, before they
could be fixed in a written form of words. Though the style can
scarcely be called poetical, since its expressions are obviously
literal and unadorned by figures of speech, the production may not
unfairly be called the Song or Ballad of Creation, and it presents an
Archaic simplicity reminding us of the compositions of the oldest and
rudest times, while it has also an artificial and orderly arrangement,
much obscured by its division into verses and chapters in our Bibles.
It is undoubtedly also characterized by a clearness and grandeur of
expression very striking and majestic, and which shows that it was
written by and intended for men of no mean and contracted minds, but
who could grasp the great problems of the origin of things, and
comprehend and express them in a bold and vigorous manner. It may be
well, before proceeding farther, to present to the reader this ancient
document in a form more