Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1858-04-17

The Scientific AR1er1cGa gives tf'e ioiio''
mo summary of a recent article IN the
B;bIjotheca Sacra, by Professor Dana, c
Yale College, on the harmony OF Sci
ence and Revelation in regard to the Gre
alton:
We will endeavor to present the sHb
stance Of Professor DanA's account OF
the history of Creation, because Ii IS the
latest. clearest, and best we have seen
and must be of interest to every son o.
Adam.
He states that Geology proves our earth
TO have been at one time fiery bail III
spaee: then dry land and seas Appeared
with tropical cline over tie whole globe.
At a later period, mountains began TO en-
large, the dry land to expand, temperate
climate TO gather about the poles, and tribes
of animals become more localized. Then,
in the last AGE before man, the continents
take their full breadth; rivers flow, every
where valleys are formed, the zones OF eli
mate nearly like our own, and every region
of the globe has It's peculiar fauna. Fin
ally, the features and climates, and lie at
tain their present variety, as man appear"
to take his place at the command OF hi
Maker
His idea, concerning the production CT
light are peculiar, and as we have seen
the same views before, sad now find them
endorsed by Prot. Dana, we presume they
are accepted as the most correct theory OF
light by all who have paid any attention
to the subject He says without mutual
molecular action, there could be neither
lirht or heat. But let it be endowed with
intense attraction of different degrees or
conditions, and it would produce light a.
the first effect Of mutual action begun
The command 'Let light be-" was the
summons to activity in matter. The plain
meaning Of this is, that the matter compo-
sing the earth was in existence before the
law of gravity, and that it matter when
it was endowed with gravity, the mutual
action resulting therefrom produced light;
in other words, light is the effect OF The law
Of grayitation.
The records Of the rocks, Prof. Dana as
eerts, declare that the creations of the ami
NAL kingdom came not forth all at once,
but in long progression. There was an
AGE when shell-fsh, such as cuttle-fish, co
rails, and trilobites, were dormant. The
earth was then too warm, and the atmos
phere too impure for more exalted forms
This was the Silurian age of geological
science. The next age was when the fish
es filled the seas, which is the Donovan
of Geology. Then followed another, wlen
reptiles, frogs and salamanders conmenc-
ed. Land plants then came forth, aud
were of exhuberant growth, to abstract car
bonic gas from the atmosphere and purify
the air. Tie vegetable products of thai
age are now found in our coal fields. AT
ter that came the "ReptiIlian age" when
there were reptiles larger than whales il
the water; leyiathan reptiles on the land,
and flying reptiles in the air.
In each of these ages there were distinct
creatures succeeding to determinations of
previously existing life. Through the 81
lurian, Denovion, Carboniferous, and Rep
lillian ages in America--titteen times al
least the seas were swept of there species,
and in the succeeding epoch not a specie
of the former occurs. All this occurred dn-
ring the fJth day of Genesis, according to
the theory of biologists, which may have
occupied a period Of more than million Of
our years.
The next epoch, the si.rth dag, was the
advent of man, and the more perfect mann
mails, and Prof. Dana asserts with othe
biologists, that the whole plan of creation
had evident reference to Man, as the enc
and crown of tie animal kingdom, ane
science has no evidence Chat any living
species have been created since lis appear
ance on this g'obe.
There is no dispute whatever in rogars
to the order of creation; biologists assel
that the orders Of creation described il
Genesis, accord exactly with geological
science, and the records of the Scriptur,
are in perfect harmony. The only 81 ie3l
of dispute then, is in reference to til, ques-
tion of time.
SNAKES IN ABYssINlA.-What vas til.
spiral thing that rolled and unrolcti itsel