d of the absurdity which it was
understood to express. Now, whether you account for this fact by
admitting their inspiration, or by alleging that they drew their
language from the Hebrew original, and not from the Greek translation,
it is in either case perfectly conclusive as to the scriptural meaning
of the word. Indeed, it is marvelous how any man who is familiar with
his Bible, and knows that the Scriptures usually describe the sky by
metaphors conveying the very opposite ideas to those of solidity or
permanence--as, "stretched out like a curtain," "spread abroad like a
tent to dwell in," "folded up like a vesture," and the like--should
allow himself to be imposed on by the impudent falsehood of Voltaire,
that the Bible teaches us that the sky is a solid metallic or crystal
hemisphere, supported by pillars.

Those beautiful figures of sacred poetry in which the universe is
represented as the palace of the Great King, adorned with majestic
"pillars," and "windows of heaven," whence he scatters his gifts among
his expectant subjects in the courts below, have been grossly abused for
the support of this miserable falsehood. We are assured, that so
ignorant was Moses of the true nature of the atmosphere, and of the
origin of rain, that he believed and taught that there was an ocean of
fresh water on _the outside_ of this metal hemisphere, which covered the
earth like a great sugar-kettle, bottom upward, and was supported on
pillars; and at the bottom of the ocean were trap-doors, to let the
rain through; which trap-doors in the metal firmament are to be
understood, when the Bible speaks of the windows of heaven. Now, the
bottom of an ocean is an odd place for windows, and a trap-door is
rather a strange kind of watering-pot; and if Moses put the ocean of
fresh water on the _outside_ of his metal hemisphere, he must have
changed his notions of gravity materially from the time he planned the
brazen hemisphere for the tabernacle, which he turned mouth upward, and
put the water in the _inside_.

While such writers are quite clear about the metal trap-doors and the
ocean, they have not yet fully fathomed the construction and arrangement
of the pillars. Whether the Bible teaches that they are "pillars of
salt," like Lot's wife, or of flesh and blood, like "James, Cephas, and
John," or such "iron pillars and brazen walls" as Jeremiah was against
the house of Israel--whether they consisted of "cloud and fire," like
the pillar