is certainly much more likely that in the story of the
second chapter and seventh verse he has passed on to an event which
transpired at the close of the seventh day, or, still more probably, on
the _first_ day of a new series. And if it were so, we would thus have,
in the time of this second and spiritual creation, a beautiful symbol of
a more recent first-day's-work, when manifestation was made of a life
far nobler than Adam's.

_A._ Your parallel is not without beauty, and, therefore, not without
weight; but I cannot see enough of difference between the two accounts
to warrant the hypothesis that the first refers to an unspiritual man,
the second to a spiritual. The first account says that 'man was made in
God's image.' The second says of the man which it describes, that 'God
breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and he became a living
soul.'

_B._ We must not attach too much importance to the term 'God's image.'
The sacred writer might make use of such an expression merely to show
the excellency of the image or form of the body of this first human
race, whose frame, relatively to the inferior animals, was, _par
excellence_, God's image. And on the whole, the difference between the
two accounts is very wide and very important. The first passage does not
stand connected with the history of the present race at all: the second
does. In the former passage the creation of a _race_ is described, but
the _individual_ is not even named: in the latter we are not merely told
of a race, we are introduced to an individual. His name is given, and he
is connected with the existing race of mankind by a continuous history.
In speaking of the difference between the two passages, it were well to
consider that, till of late, there has been no reason to suspect their
real significancy, _i. e._, to suppose that they spoke of two creations
and two races. But now that the proofs of a pre-Adamite race are fast
accumulating upon us, it were well to inquire whether God's revelation
has not anticipated the story which the strange hieroglyphics of his
finger are now unfolding. The philologist and the geologist are each
deciphering the same story in two different books, that are equally
divine. It remains to be seen which will be the first to read correctly.

_A._ The account in the second chapter certainly speaks explicitly
enough of the creation of the soul or spirit.

_B._ Yes; and observe this: that the seventh day, a mighty geol