the year attain respectively their
peculiar marks in due time and of their own accord, even so the several
acts of each embodied spirit attend it naturally.

"That the human race might be multiplied, he caused the Brahmen, the
Cshatriya, the Vaisya and the Sudra to proceed from his mouth, his arm,
his thigh and his foot.

"Having divided his own substance, the mighty power became half male, half
female, or nature active and passive, and from that female he produced
Viraz. Know me, O most excellent of Brahmens, to be that person whom the
male power, Viraz, having performed austere devotion, produced by myself;
me, the secondary framer of all this visible world. It was I who, desirous
of giving birth to a race of men, performed very difficult religious
duties, and first produced ten Lords of created beings, animated in
holiness, Marichi, Atri, Angiras, Pulastya, Pulaha, Cratu, Prachetas, or
Dacsha, Vasishtha, Bhrigu and Narada; they, abundant in glory, produced
seven other Menu, together with deities and the mansions of deities, and
Maharshis, or great sages, unlimited in power; benevolent genii, and
fierce giants, blood-thirsty savages, heavenly quiristers, nymphs and
demons, huge serpents and snakes of smaller size, birds of mighty wing,
and separate companies of Pitirs, or progenitors of mankind; lightnings
and thunder-bolts, clouds and colored bows of Indra, falling meteors,
earth-rending vapors, comets and luminaries of various degrees;
horse-faced sylvans, apes, fish, and a variety of birds, tame cattle,
deer, men, and ravenous beasts with two rows of teeth; small and large
reptiles, moths, lice, fleas, and common flies, with every biting knat and
immovable substances of distinct sorts."

Reader, I have given you this chapter of ancient cosmogonies under the
conviction that a bare statement of them must convince any one of either
the ignorance or dishonesty of infidels who claim that Moses learned all
that he gave in his cosmogony from the ancient cosmogonies. How was it
that Moses avoided all their errors and extravagance? How was it that he
gave such a severely simple description of creation, which no rhetoric can
improve, and no scientist _successfully_ refute?

Can you believe that energy, or force, lies behind all things, operating
them, without believing there is something lying behind it, to which it
belongs?

Can you believe that a concourse of dead atoms held a solemn convention,
went into harm