Delaware weekly Republican. [volume] (Wilmington, Del.) 1841-188?, 1857-04-30

% ton, the following beautiful ixtract from III
d last book OF the lamented Hugh Miller. |
y has beauty ofstyle and conception but sci
dom attained and forcibly reminds one of tn
Pollock. o.
1t "THE TESTIMONY OF THE ROCKS"
Y THE MOSAIC VISION OF CREATION.
!, From The late 5tr. Hugh Miier's late york, nots
0 published.
: Such description (says Mr. Miller) of the
creative vision of Moses as the one given by
h Milton ofthat vision of the future which he
1t represents as conjured up before Adam by the
y archangel, would be task rather for the sci
entiic poet than for the mere practical geolo-
(; gist or sober theologian. Let us suppose that
!. 1t took place far from man, in an untrodden
a recess of the indian desert ere vet the vision
y OF the burning bush had been youehsoied
G and that, as in the vision OF st. John in Pat.
Q mos, voices were mingled with scenes, and the
g ear as certainly addressed as the eye. A
o mgreat darkness - flrst fall upon the prophet
f ike that which in an earlier age fell upon Alb.
!, raham, but without the " horror 20 and, as the
Divine Spirit moves on the face of the wildly
: troubled waters, as q visible aurora envelopod
by the pitchy cloud, the great doctrine is oral
| ly ennuciated, that sin the beginning God cre-
1 ated the heavens and tho earth" Unreckoned
ages, condensed in tho vision into a few brief
moments, pass awayi the creative voice is
| "Sail HcdTu. - Leu lnelS De ugnt, and
straightwaya gray difiused light springs up
in the east, and, casting its sickly glcam over
acloud-limited expanse off steaming vaporOus
sea, journeys through the heavens towards the
west. One heavy, sunless day is made the
representative ofmyriads; the faint light wax
es iainter-it sinks beneath the dim, underlined
horizon; the first scene of the drama closes
upon the seer and he sits awhile on his hill
top in darkness, solitary but not sad, in what
! seems to be calm and starless night
| The light again brightens-it is day. and
ever an eSpanse of ocean without visible |
bound the horizon has become wider and |
sharper of outline than before. There is life |
IN that great sea, ,-invertebrate, mayhap also |
lchthylc lfei but, from the comparative dis
tance of tho point Of view occupied by the
prophet, only the slow roll OF Its waves can be
uiseerned, as they rise and fall in long undu-
lations before gentle gale; and what most
strongly impresses the eye is tho change
which has taken place in the atmospheric
scenery. That lower stratum of the heaven
occupied in tho previous vision by seething
steam, or gray, sinoke-like fog is clear and
transparenti and only in an upper region,
where the previously invisible vapoHr OF the
tepid sea has thickened in the cold, do the
clouds appear. But there, in the higher stra-
"a Of the atmospheres, they lie, thick and man
ltold,- upper sea Of great waves, separated
from those beneath by the transparent hrma-
ment, and, like them too, impelled in rolling
masses by the wind. A mighty advance has
taken place in creation; but its most conspieu-
GUS optical sign is the existence OF a transpar-
ent utmospheres,--o a armament stretched
out over the earth, that separates the waters
above from the waters below. But darkness
descends for tho third time upon the seer for
the evening and the morning have completed
the second day.
Yet again the light rises undera canopy of
clond, but the scene has changed, and there is
no longer an unbroken cxpanse Of sea. The
white surf breaks, at the distant horizon on
an insulated reaf, formed mayhap by the Sill
grlan or Old Red coral zoophYtes ages before
uurlnS 'the bygone yesterday anu DnatS In
long lines OF foam, nearer at hand, against a
low winding shore, the sea-ward barrier of u
widely-spread country. Fer at the Divine
command the land has arisen from tho deep,-
not inconspicuously and in scattered islets, as
at an earlier time, but in extensive though fiat
and marshy continents, little raised over the
sea-level, and yet further fiat has covered 1
them with the great carboniferous fora. The
scene is one OF mighty forests of cone bearing I
trees,-of palms and tree-ierns, and gigantic '
on the opener slopes, and of \
great reeds clustering by the sides OF quiet q
lakes and dark rolling rivers. There is deep
gloom in the receSses of the thicker woods, s.
and low thick mists creep along the dank marsh c
or sluggish stream, But there is a general t
tightening OF the Sky overhead as theday de-
clines, redder flush than had hitherto lighted s.
lpthe prospect falls athwart ern-covered bank 50
md long Withdrawing glade. And while the Sc
urther evening has fallen on prophet, he be- 1t
zones sensible, as it wears on, and the fourth W
lawn approaches, that yet another change has
AIKEN place. The Creator has spoken, and the
stars look out from openings Of deep uneoud- Gl
ID blue; and as the day rises, and the planet 10
u morning pales in the cast, the broken 81
,loudlets arc transmitted from bronze into u
'old, and anon tho gold becomes fire, and at d;
ength the glorious sun arises out of the sea, k'
md enters on his course rejoicing. II is a VI
brilliant day; the waves, OF deeper and soft ST
'r blue than before, dance and sparkle in the NJ
ght; the earth, with little else to attract the W
aze, has assumed brighter green; and as
he sun declines amid even richer glories than II
hose which had eneircled his rising, the
1oon appears full orbed in the east--to &C
he human eye, the second great luminary of IN
he heayens,-and climbs slowly to the zenith ir
S night advances, shedding its mild radiances &C
N land and sea. m
Again the day breaks; the prospect consists br
5 before, of land and ocean. There are great W.
ine woods, reed covered swamps, wide plains, th
Winding rivers, and broad lakes and bright an
un shines over all. But tho landscape de- TO
ives its interest and novelty from feature tn
Unmarked before. Gigantic birds stalk along co
he sands or wade far into the water in quest tn
II their ichthvic food while birds Of lesser az
ize float upon the lakes, or scream discordant II
n lowering ilocks, thick as insects in tho m
aim OF summer evening, over the narrower az
oas, or brighten with the sunlit CLEAN of their u
wings the thick woods. And ocean has its pl
Monsters; great t'ianniRum" tempest the deep, IT
rs they heave their huge bulk over the sur
ace, to inhale the life sustaining air; and out Y
of their nostris goeih smoke, as out Of a asee- a
hing pot or cauldron," Monstrous creatures, q
irmed in massive scales, haunt the rivers, or 81
jcour the fiat rank meadows; earth, air and o
water chnr1n1 with aninnl lifn, MI fba al
sun sets on busy scene, in which unering in
stinct pursues unremittingly its few simple "
ends,-thc support and preservation of the u
individual, the propagation Of the species, and "
the protection and maintenance of the young. 10
Again the night dcscends, for tho fifth day OF
mas closed and morning breaks on the sixth IN
md last day of creation. Cattle and beasts Of er
The field Craze On the plain the thick-skinned "
-hinoceros wallows in the marshes the squat ~
rustles among the reeds, or u'
1lunges sullenly into the riyeri great herds of
elephants seek their food among the Young
ierbage of the woods; while animals of lierceF pu
lature,- the lion, the leopard and the bear, in
larbor in deep caves till the evening, or lie in II
vait for their prey amid tangled thickets, or NJ,
,eneath some broken bank. AT length, as the wi
lay wanes and the shadows lengthen, man, the SD
esponsible lord Of creation, formed in Gods 81
wn image, is introduced upon the scene, and on
he work of creation ceases forever upon earth. tn
he night falls once more upon the prospect, 10
nd there dawns yet another morrow,--the wa
morrow OF Gods rest.-tUat Divine Sabbath tn
n which there is no more creative labour, aud I'll
'hich, '' blessed and sanctfed /" beyond all oi
he days that had gone before, has as its spe- tn
ial object the moral elevation and final re-
emption Of man. And over it no evening is tn
epresented in the record as falling, for its wi
pecial work is not yet complete. Such seems OF
0 have been the sublime panorama Of creation WI
Exhibited in vision OF old to .-,.... ........
The shepherd who first taught the chosen do