tive as the old pre-Adamite reptiles. The Sun of Righteousness
at length arose, and the darkness began to pass away; but eighteen
centuries have elapsed, and we still see but the gray dawn of morning,
which we yet firmly believe will brighten into a glorious day that
shall know no succeeding night.[100]

The seventh day is the modern or human era in geology; and, though it
can not yet boast of any physical changes so great as those of past
periods, it is still of much interest, as affording the facts on which
we must depend for explanations of past changes; and as immediately
connected in time with those later tertiary periods which afford so
many curious problems to the geological student. The actual connection
of the human with preceding periods is still involved in some
obscurity; and, as we shall see, there has recently been a strong
tendency to throw back the origin of man into prehistoric ages of
enormous length, on grounds which are, however, much less certain than
is commonly imagined. This question we have to examine; but before
entering upon it may shortly sketch the actual import of the
statements of the Hebrew Scriptures respecting what may be called the
prehistoric duration of the human species. This is the more necessary,
as the most crude notions seem very widely to prevail on the subject.
I shall, therefore, in this place notice some general facts deducible
from the Bible, and which may be useful in appreciating the true
relation of the human era to those which preceded it. It will be
understood that I shall endeavor merely to present a picture of what
the Bible actually teaches, and which any one can verify by reading
the book of Genesis.

1. The local centre of creation of the human species, and probably of
a group of creatures coeval with it, was Eden; a country of which the
Scriptures give a somewhat minute geographical description. It was
evidently a district of Western Asia; and, from its possession of
several important rivers, rather a region or large territory than a
limited spot, such as many, who have discussed the question of the
site of Eden, seem to suppose. In this view it is a matter of no
moment to fix its site more nearly than the indication of the Bible
that it included the sources and probably large portions of the
valleys of the Tigris, the Euphrates, and perhaps the Oxus and
Jaxartes. Into the minor difficulties respecting the site of Eden it
would be unprofitable to enter, and it