ot to his
body, but to his thick dark covering. It is questionable whether a human
eye on the surface of Mercury would ever behold the sun, notwithstanding
his near proximity; nor would he be often visible, if at all, from the
surface of Jupiter. Nor, yet further, would a warm steaming atmosphere
muffled in clouds have been unfavorable to a rank, flowerless vegetation
like that of the Coal Measures. There are moist, mild, cloudy days of
spring and early Summer that rejoice the heart of the farmer, for he
knows how conducive they are to the young growth on his fields. The Coal
Measure climate would have consisted of an unbroken series of these,
with mayhap a little more of cloud and moisture, and a great deal more
of heat. The earth would have been a vast greenhouse covered with smoked
glass; and a vigorous though mayhap loosely knit and faintly colored
vegetation would have luxuriated under its shade.

The fifth and sixth days,--that of winged fowl and great sea monsters,
and that of cattle and beasts of the earth,--I must regard as adequately
represented by those Secondary ages, Oolitic and Cretaceous, during
which birds were introduced, and reptiles received their greatest
development, and those Tertiary ages during which the gigantic mammals
possessed the earth and occupied the largest space in creation. To the
close of this latter period,--the evening of the sixth day,--man
belongs,--at once the last created of terrestrial creatures, and
infinitely beyond comparison the most elevated in the scale; and with
man's appearance on the scene the days of creation end, and the Divine
Sabbath begins,--that Sabbath of rest from creative labor of which the
proper work is the moral development and elevation of the species, and
which will terminate only with the full completion of that sublime task
on the full accomplishment of which God's eternal purposes and the
tendencies of man's progressive nature seem alike directed. Now, I am
greatly mistaken if we have not in the six geologic periods all the
elements, without misplacement or exaggeration, of the Mosaic drama of
creation.

I have referred in my brief survey to extended periods. It is probable,
however, that the prophetic vision of creation, if such was its
character, consisted of only single representative scenes, embracing
each but a point of time; it was, let us suppose, a diorama, over whose
shifting pictures the curtain rose and fell six times in
succession,--once d