ed 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 God'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 God) 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 pass 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 God 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 xxxviii., 4.

In these passages 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 passages, are perfectly in accordance
with what we know of the nature and support of continental masses.
Geological observation and mathematical calculation