]

In the Appendix the reader will find several short essays on special
points collateral to the general subject, and important in the
solution of some of its difficulties, but which could not be
conveniently included in the text. More especially I would refer to
the summaries given in the Appendix of the present state of our
knowledge as to the origin of life, of species, and of man--topics not
discussed in much detail in the body of the work, both because of the
wide fields of controversy to which they lead, and because I have
treated of them somewhat fully in a previous work, "The Story of the
Earth and Man," in which the detailed history of life as disclosed by
science was the main subject in hand.

J. W. D.

_May, 1877._

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

THE MYSTERY OF ORIGINS AND ITS SOLUTIONS.

Reality of the Unseen.--Personality of God.--Possibility of a
Revelation of Origins.--Turanian, Aryan, and Semitic Solutions
of the Mystery.--The Abrahamic Genesis.--The Mosaic Genesis Page 9

CHAPTER II.

OBJECTS AND NATURE OF A REVELATION OF ORIGINS.

Objects to be Attained by a Revelation of Origins.--Its Method and
Structure.--Vision of Creation.--Translation of the First Chapter of
Genesis 35

CHAPTER III.

OBJECTS AND NATURE OF A REVELATION OF ORIGINS
(_continued_).

Character of the Revelation and its Views of Nature.--Natural Law.--
Progress and Development.--Purpose and Use.--Type or Pattern 70

CHAPTER IV.

THE BEGINNING.

The Universe not eternal.--Its Creation.--The Heavens.--The Earth.--
The Creator, Elohim.--The Beginning very Remote in Time 87

CHAPTER V.

THE DESOLATE VOID.

Characteristics of Biblical Chaos.--The Primitive Deep.--The Divine
Spirit.--The Breath of God.--Chaos in other Cosmogonies.--Chemical
and Physical Conditions of the Primitive Chaos 100

CHAPTER VI.

LIGHT AND CREATIVE DAYS.

What is Implied in Cosmic Light.--Its Gradual Condensation.--Day and
Night.--Days of Creation.--Their Nature and Length.--They are
Olams, AEons or Time-worlds.--Objections to this View
Answered.--Confirmations from Extraneous Sources. 115

CHAPTER VII.

THE ATMOSPHERE.

Its Present Constitution.--Waters Above and Below.--The "Expanse"
of Genesis not a So