_Why_ the origin of things
should be revealed; (2) _How_ it could be revealed; and (3) _What_
would require to be revealed in order to form the basis of a rational
theism.

CHAPTER II.

OBJECTS AND NATURE OF A REVELATION OF ORIGINS.

"There are two books from which I collect my divinity;
besides that written one of God, another of his servant
nature--that universal and public manuscript that lies
expansed unto the eyes of all."--SIR T. BROWNE.

There are some questions, simple enough in themselves, respecting the
general character and object of the references to nature and creation
in the Scriptures, which yet are so variously and vaguely answered
that they deserve some consideration before entering on the detailed
study of the subject. These are: (1) The object of the introduction of
such subjects into the Hebrew sacred books--the _why_ of the
revelation of origins. (2) The origin, character, and structure of the
narrative of creation and other cosmological statements in those
books--the _how_ of the revelation. (3) The character of the Biblical
cosmogony, and general views of nature to which it leads--the _what_
of the revelation.

(1) _The Object of the Introduction of a Cosmogony in the
Bible._--Man, even in his rudest and most uncivilized state, does not
limit his mental vision to his daily wants. He desires to live not
merely in the present, but in the future also and the past. This is a
psychological peculiarity which, as much as any other, marks his
separation from the lower animals, and which in his utmost degradation
he never wholly loses. Whatever may be fancied as to imagined
prehistoric nations, it is certain that no people now existing, or
historically known to us, is so rude as to be destitute of some hopes
or fears in reference to the future, some traditions as to the distant
past. Every religious system that has had any influence over the human
mind has included such ideas. Nor are we to regard this as an
accident. It depends on fixed principles in our constitution, which
crave as their proper aliment such information; and if it can not be
obtained, the mind, rather than want it, invents for itself. We might
infer from this very circumstance that a true religion, emanating from
the Creator, would supply this craving; and might content ourselves
with affirming that, on this ground alone, it behooved revelation to
have a cosmogony.

But the religion of the Hebrews es