5. THE LITERAL DAY
INTERPRETATION.
The character of the Scripture chaos which precedes the
six-days' work we have already seen. The terms "waste and desolate,'' which
apply to the earth in this condition, speak of a lapse from the primitive
state. The land is buried under the waters, and darkness rests upon it. We have
reason to believe, as I have before said, that it had already acquired, in the
main, its configuration. "The waters stood above the mountains," says the book
of Psalms. The mountains, therefore, are recognized, and geology plainly
indicates that they were outlined, as we say, from the beginning. The
continents have been gradually formed, the mountains gradually upheaved, that
is plain ; but there was no destruction of continents, so far as we can find,
and formation of others in their place ; no subsiding of mountain-ranges, to be
replaced by others. Thus in the period of desolation, already we find the earth
materially finished in the form which it at present has.
Again, we are
not to think of a total want of atmosphere ; for, as I have pointed out, all
that the second day indicates is the creation of an "expanse,'' not an
atmosphere. Nor is it necessary even to suppose that before this the sun had
not acted as a luminary to the earth. There is no necessity to deny that it had
so acted, but, so far us Scripture is concerned, we scarcely expect to find
this confirmed. That the mass of the sun existed is not at all against the
Scriptual statements here, but rather in agreement with them. Life, on the
other hand, seems clearly stated to have been absolutely extinct that is,
supposing it to have formerly existed, which we may reasonably believe that
geology has proved.
If we take, then, the chronology of Scripture,
allowing, as we may, for various estimates of that chronology, the Period of
man's existence upon the earth will not at any rate exceed seven thousand years
and this should give us dates whereby we might reach somewhat definitely the
the of the six-days' work. The question here, then, occurs, Can we find any
thing which answers to such a state of the earth as has just been described
immediately preceding man's appearance upon it? To answer this, we must first
of all dismiss from our minds indeed the thought of such periods of the as are
being claimed by geologists. It is easy to show that the claim they make on
this score has no real justification. The basis of such calculations assumes
what can never be proved, and what is indeed against all probability, that the
rate of change which is at present taking place upon the earth can be rightly
taken as the rate of changes of its surface from the beginning. Into this I
cannot, of course, enter now; but it is an admitted fact for most that all
evidence of man's existence upon the earth dates from the Glacial period, and
not before. It is the estimate of a recent writer that this period ended,
"somewhat suddenly," some where about from five to seven thousand years ago.
This, at any rate, is the estimate of scientific men, totally apart from any
theories of Scripture-interpretation.
This glacial period, when we
first look at it, gives us some apparent extraordinary coincidences with
Scripture. It is a time during some part of which at least the whole of North
America to the fortieth latitude, of Europe to the fiftieth, Siberia mainly if
not entirely, are found to have been covered with water. Strata which had not
been submerged from the earliest periods then were overflowed. As the
land emerged, it left the evidence of this in the sea-beaches of the
terrace-period, found far up upon the mountains. This the of submergence was
preceded by another - the true glacial one, as to the exact nature of which
opinions are divided - some contending it to have been a the rather of
elevation than of subsidence, while others take the opposite view. In any case,
it was a time when the whole surface indicated was covered with ice. The
evidences are found in boulders of foreign material left, as on Mt. Washington,
at an elevation of six thousand feet; in Scotland, at Ben Uarn More, at an
altitude of three thousand five hundred and eighty-nine feet, and elsewhere
similarly through the northern part of North America and Europe. On Mt.
Lebanon, boulder-drift has been observed, according to Dr. Hooker, six thousand
feet above the level of the sea. In South America, similar evidences have been
found from Tierra del Fuego to about forty-one degrees south latitude.
According to Agassiz, glacial deposit from the Andes has been found throughout
the valley of the Amazon; and he is stated to have been convinced "that as the
theory of the ancient extension of glaciers in Europe is gradually coming to be
accepted by geologists, so will the existence of like phenomena both in North
and South America through the same period be recognized sooner or later as part
of the great series of physical events, extending over the whole globe."
"Indeed," he asserts, "when the iceberg period shall be fully understood, it
will he seen that the absurdity lies in supposing that climatic conditions so
different could be limited to a small portion of the earth's surface. If a
geological winter existed at all, it must have been cosmic; and it is quite as
rational to look for its traces in the southern hemisphere to the south of the
line as to the north of it."
Throughout the strata thus formed the
traces of existent life are very scanty; so much so as to elicit expressions of
astonishment from one like Lyell; but we shall have to look at this directly.
The statement just given, upon the warrant of mcii who may be considered of the
most unexceptionable authority, show at least a state remarkably approaching
the waste and desolate condition of the earth announced in the second verse of
the first of Genesis; and such a condition can scarcely be found in connection
with another period of the earth's history, as known geologically, so long as
life has lasted upon it. Exception will no doubt be taken to the view that the
glacial phenomena indicate either an entire submersion of the earth or an
entire extinction of life. These are the points we have to look at more
narrowly. But it certainly should be enough to promise serious inquiry when we
find such correspondence of fact with a statement of so ancient a document as
confessedly we have in the book of Genesis. Let us now address ourselves, then,
to the examination of such points as these.
Geology itself had first
taught us the occurrence of breaks in the life-history of the globe from the
beginning. "The older geologists held," says Prof. Nicholson, "what probably
every one would be tempted to believe at first, that the close of each
formation was characterized by a general destruction of the forms of life in
that period; and that the commencement of each new formation was accompanied
by the creation of a number of new animals and plants destined to figure as the
characteristic fossils of the same." His answer to this is not one which,
according to his own account, science necessitates so much as a certain
hypothesis which is widely influencing men's minds. He says, "This theory,
however, not only invokes forces and processes, which we can in no way account
for, but overlooks the fact that most of the great formations are separated by
lapses of the unrepresented perhaps by any deposit of rock, or represented only
in some particular area, and yet perhaps as great or greater than the whole the
occupied in the production of the formation itself. Nowadays, most geologists
hold that there was no such sudden destruction of life at the close of each
geological epoch, and no such creation of fresh forms at the commencement of
the next period." That, it must be confessed, is what most geologists hold. The
question of why they hold it is another matter. The facts remain the same as
they ever were. No longer ago than the date of Agassiz's well-known "Essay on
Classification" it could be stated by him that "the number of species still
considered as identical in the several successive periods is growing smaller
and smaller in proportion as they are more closely compared. I have already
shown, long ago, how widely many of the tertiary species, generally considered
as identical with the living ones, differ from them and also how different the
species of the same family may be in the successive subdivisions of the same
great geological formation. Hall has come to the same results in his
investigations of the fossils of the state of New York. Every monograph reduces
their number in each formation. Thus Barrande, who has devoted so many years to
the most minute investigations of the trilobites of Bohemia, has come to the
conclusion that their species do not extend from one formation to the other.
D'Orbigny and Pictet have come to the same conclusion for the fossil remains of
all classes. It may well be said, as fossil remains are studied more carefully
in the physiological point of view, the supposed identity of species in
different geological formations gradually vanishes more and more. So the
limitation of species in the already ascertained in a general way by the
earlier investigators of their remains in successive geological formations is
circumscribed step by step within narrower, more definite, and also more
equable periods The facts do not exhibit the gradual disappearance of a limited
number of species and an equally gradual introduction of an equally limited
number of new ones; but on the contrary, the simultaneous creation amid the
simultaneous destruction of entire fauna, and a coincidence between these
changes in the organic world and the great physical changes our earth has
undergone."
Such a statement in the present day will perhaps provoke an
almost scornful reioinder; but there can be no question of the competency of
the men who made such statements, and the facts remain practically little
altered by any new discoveries since their time. The alteration is entirely one
of men's minds, with regard to the facts. Just about the the that the essay on
classification was published, or but shortly after, Mr. Darwin's views of the
origin of species were given to the world. Hypothetical as they were and are,
their wide-spread acceptance is now a matter of history. Evolution will not
admit of these breaks in geological series.. The facts must stilt themselves to
these altered views. The gaps remain, but they must be gaps in our knowledge,
not in fact. Here, as so often, our ignorance is successfully pleaded as the
basis of knowledge; and an unbroken life-series from the beginning is what has
come to be everywhere affirmed.
With regard to the glacial period,
especial exception will be taken to any view which represents it as a period of
universal extinction of life. It may he confessed also that on many accounts,
which may easily be specified, it is hardly possible to arrive at present at
all the facts of the case. The "drift,'' so - called, in North America is
especially marked by the absence of life; fragments of semi-fossilized wood
being all that is found in it. In Europe, however, things are differently
stated ; although here also Sir Chas. Lyell remarks, as already said, upon the
scantiness of life which, he notices, the extreme cold of that period is not
sufficient to account for. It is well known, however, that the very names given
to the various tertiary formations ate based upon time supposed identity of
living moluscui with those existing as far back as the Eoceno itself. In the
Locene, about three and a half per cent, of species were believed to be
identical with recent finds in the middle tertiary or Miocene, ten to forty per
cent. ; and in the later Phocene, fitty to ninety per cent. Dana, however,
states that in the Eocene the species are all extinct, and that these formulae
are not capable of general application. It was in face of Lyell's statement
that Agassiz made his own contrary one, which has been given from his essay ;
and with regard to the standard of calculation adopted by Lycll, it would seem
as if it were not very happily chosen. Prof. Carpenter says, "The softness of
the entire body of the mollusk prevents us from recognizing the form and
structure of the animal after death in any other way than by the shell; but
upon this, it must be remembered, entire reliance cannot be placed, since it is
liable to great variation in accordance with the circumstances of the
individual, whilst it is by no means certain that there are constant
differences in its form in distinct species.'' D'Orbigny's manual, to which
Agessiz refers, is in complete opposition to Lyal in this matter, who, as the
head of the uniformitarian school, had already his own hypothesis to influence
him in his view of the facts.
With regard to the fish of the tertiary
epoch, we have again the statement of Prof. Agassiz as to their difference from
those now living, he says, "They are so nearly related to existing forms that
it is often difficult, considering the enormous number (about eght thousand
living species) and the imperfect state of preservation of the fossils, to
determine exactly their specific relations. In general, I may say that I have
not found a single species which was perfectly identical with any
marine-existing fish, except the little species, inullotus villosus,
which is found in nodules of clay of unknown geological age in Greenland." This
statement of Agassiz is quoted without objection by Prof. Owen and Dr. Page.
With regard to higher forms there is again diversity of judgment.
Prof. Owen tells us that certain quadrupeds buried in the tertiary rocks, such
as moles and shrews, hares, rabbits, voles, and other rodents, are not
distinguishable from the species that still exist ; but he expresses himself
with great hesitation and caution upon the subject of the identity of the
tertiary with existing spepies. He does so in consequence of the meagreness of
the data on which such judgments are formed.'' Many quadrupeds, however, are
asserted to be preglacial and to have survived this period,- the elephant, for
instance, among others; but the question here has difficulties peculiarly its
own, which we must shortly consider. Thus far, that is, as far as regards the
preglacial and present species, we have very competent authority for their
almost entire difference.
As to the glacial and related strata, there
are several points to be considered which will naturally influence our
acceptance of many statements that are current. First, it is to be remarked
that such a period as we are now considering is one which would involve, by its
very character, a mixing of material such as would be very hard to disentangle.
In considering the question of the identity of species between any two
formations, we have to take into account what seems very much forgotten, that
the latter of these is formed, generally speaking, by the disintegration of the
former. It is natural, therefore, that the species of a prior formation wonid
be, to some extent, mingled with those of the one following it. Thus, in
carboniferous rocks have been found pebbles containing Linguine of the Potsdam
sandstone from the lower Sunnan ; and Lyell observes that "many of the fossils
found in the red crag have been washed out of the older tertiary strata,
especially out of London clay ;" and again, in the same page of the well-known
"Elements," he remarks, as to certain fragments of the bones of Cetacea,"that
they may be derived from the destruction of beds of another formation.'' Where
we have to do with results of ice-action, as admittedly we have in the present
case, we have above all to take this into consideration. Ice is a great
mixer. Page remarks this with regard to icebergs, which are the very things, as
perhaps most geologists believe, which produced the mass of phenomena of the
boulder-drift. "Many of the bergs which drift out to sea, having been the
extremities of glaciers while in attachment to the coast, are loaded with large
angular fragments of rock and other debris; and many of the floes, having been
ground on shore-ice, lift with them immense masses of water-worn shingle and
gravel. Thus, as both melt away, the bottom of the ocean must he strewed with
very heterogeneous and curiously assorted material. Nay, icebergs have been
encountered in the North Sea covered or interstratified with ancient soil,
among which were the bones of mammoths and other extinct animals, still further
confusing the nature of their deposits by mingling the remains of an existing
fauna (reindeer, musk-ox, arctic-bear, etc.) with one of a much higher
antiquity."
The matter is still more complicated by the assertion, made
by not a few of the present day, and coming perhaps to be the most generally
received opinion, that there were at least two glacial periods succeeding one
another. Thus the products of a more recent one would have to be very carefully
distinguished from those of an earlier; and I believe that there are evidences
that some, at least, of the remains which are generally counted preglacial are
rather to be considered interglacial remains, that is, that have accumulated
between these two similar periods. These so-called preglacial strata are,
moreover, found but scantily. The Cromer beds are considered the principal; and
Lyell remarks that the plants of its buried forests "agree singularly" with
those of the lignite of Dueraten, which is considered to be interglacial.