surrounded the earth were so dealt with, that
light could reach the earth: the light was thus divided from the
darkness, and the rotating globe would experience the alternation of day
and night.

The "day" having thus been created formally (so to speak), the Divine
Author proceeds to mark, by His own Procedure, the use of the "days"
which He had provided for the earth.

On this view, of course, the origin of light as a "force"--the first
beginning of its pulsations--is not detailed, any more than the origin
of electric force, or heat, or gravitation.

Here, too, I may remark that the idea of _creation_, which it has been
one of my chief objects to develop, is illustrated. This remark holds
good, whether an original creation of light is intended, or only an
arrangement whereby light was for the first time introduced to the
earth's surface. The idea of creating light not only involves the Divine
Conception of the thing, and the marvellous method of its production,[1]
but doubtless, also, all those wonderful laws of reflection, refraction,
polarization, and a thousand others, which the science of Physical
Optics investigates.

[Footnote 1: And this is still a mystery to us. _What_ light is we do
not know--we can only speak of our own sensation of it. Nor do we know
_what_ vibrates to produce light. Hypothetical terms, such as "ether,"
"luminiferous-medium," and so forth, only conceal our ignorance.]

Naturally enough, in this case, the double idea involved in
creation--the Divine concept and its realization--will, in the nature of
things, fall into one. No process of evolution is required; none is
indicated by science. Directly the Divine hand gave the impulse
concurrently with the Divine thought--light would be. In the nature of
things there is no place for a line between the Divine fiat and its
realization, as there is in the production of life-forms on the earth.
Or, on the other view, directly the Divine command went forth, the
vapours would clear and allow the transmission of light.

(2) "AND GOD SAID, LET THERE BE A FIRMAMENT (EXPANSE) IN THE MIDST OF
THE WATERS, AND LET IT DIVIDE THE WATERS FROM THE WATERS....AND GOD
CALLED THE FIRMAMENT HEAVEN."

There has been gathered round this verse what I may call rather an
ill-natured controversy, because there is no real ground for it; and the
objections taken seem rather of a desire to find out something against
the narrative at any price, than to make the best