The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1880-04-21

Was Ihe advance In life, and that 1T was
essentially the age of Reptiles and Fishes
And so of the sixth day There were
still plants on the earth in abundance
and the seas still swarmed with life. and
the higher forms of birds were now first
introduced; but the dominant tine of this
age was the Beasts of the Field.
Moses does not say that all existing
plants preceded the beginning of animal
life. Professor Toy says this for him.
Moses describes the great creative periods
as prophet looking back, and combining
himself to fifteen or twenty sentences,
would have described them-taking them
In order. He seizes upon the character
istic work of each particular epoch, and
singles out the eliminating types which
characterized the life-periods. With one
stroke of his pencil he marks out this
dominating conspicuous feature
Now any Manual of Geology pursues a
precisely similar plan. We shall find in
modern geology the history of the earth
divided into an Archean Period, an Age
of Invertebrates, an Age of Fishes, an Age
of Reptiles, an Age of Mammals, etc.
Modern Geology Jo1loeos the plan of Noses.
1t would be easy to show that the divis-
ions adopted by Moses correspond strictly
with the divisions of Geology as marked
out by the progress of life; but we have
not the space. 1t is simply astonishing
how the two records run together.
What Moses designed in his account
of the third day was to state the two
great facts, that then the land was raised
out of the water, and that then vegeta-
ton appeared. He speaks of 'the tender
green, the herb yielding seed, and the
fruit-tree yielding fruit, etc." All these
forms of vegetable life had probably APP
peared in the most remote geological
ages. We suggested this in our previous
article. And we also suggested the pro
liability that the fora of the Eozoic Era
was of higher organization than that of
the Carboniferous Period, basing it on the
analogy that among animals each tribe
attained to its maximum development
when it occupied the summit of the
scale Of life. Now it was only in the
Eozoic (Archean) Era that Plants occu-
pied the summit of the scale of life.
If the Mosaic account is merely a Ba-
bylonish legend, how did he happen to
stick so close to the discoveries of modern
science? He starts with chaos or neb-
ula; so does science. He speaks of the
waters prevailing over the earth so does
science. He makes the light independent
OF the sun; so does science. He raises
the land out of the water; so does geology.
He introduces plants before animals so
does geology. He strongly intimates
that the concentration of light and heat
in the sun was gradual thing; so does
astronomy. He groups together fishes,
reptiles, and birds in one great aeon SO
does geology. He makes the waters
bring forth his birds; so does geology.
He then brings his mammals suddenly
on the stage; 50 does geology, from which
we learn that the beasts of the field ap-
pear upon the scene with the most start
ling abruptness at the close of the Creta-
ceous Epoch. He then grouping him
with the mammals) introduces Man dur
ing the same period so does geology.
He makes man very recent; SO does ge-
ology The primeval man of Genesis is a
complete man in every sense of the term !;
so is the prmeval man of prehistoric
archaeology: Why should Prof Toy over
look all these correspondence, and dwell
so perversely on what he conceives to
be discrepancies? Why does he fail to
recognize the wonderful general fidelity
of the Mosaic record, to say the least, to
the discoveries of modern science and
tasten his microscope on apparent minor
discrepancies, which, if they really exist,
may be cleared up with the advance of
geological and astronomical science? It
was reserved for recent science by the
discovery Of reptile-birds 0ike the arch
eopteryx) to show the close connection
which exists zoologically between the