"At first Chaos was, and night, and dark Erebus, and wide Tartarus; nor was there earth, or air, or heaven; but first of all black-winged night lays a wind-egg in the boundless bosom of Erebus, from which in revolving time sprang the much-desired Eros, his back glittering with golden wings, like to the swift whirlwinds."-ARISTOPH. Aves, v. 692. "Nature produceth at the first rude lumps and masses, not as yet brought into shape and fashion."-PLUT. Sympos. 1. II. c. 3.

"C He sang

"Before the seas, and this terrestial ball,

And heaven's high canopy, that covers all,
One was the face of nature, if a face,—
Rather a rude and indigested mass,
A lifeless lump, unfashioned and unframed,
Of jarring seeds, and justly CHAOS named.
No sun was lighted up the world to view;
No moon did yet her blunted horns renew;
Nor yet was earth suspended in the sky;
Nor poised, did on her own foundations lie;
Nor seas about the shores their arms had thrown,
But earth, and air, and water, were in one.
Thus air was void of light and each unstable,
And water's dark abyss un-navigable.
No certain form on any was impressed;

All were confused and each disturbed the rest:

For hot and cold were in one body fixed,

And soft with hard, and light with heavy mixed.

But God, or Nature, while they thus contend,

To these internal discords put an end."-OVID. Metam. 1. I. v. 1.

of the dark and ancient Chaos, on which the day dawned not; and of a world without light; and how the God divided the liquid depths and fixed in the midst this globe of earth."-SIL. ITAL. 1. XI. v. 456.

Water was considered in the Thalesian philosophy the most excellent of all the elements, as that from which all other things were produced.

v. 200.

"Oceanus, the parent of the Gods, and Tethys their mother."-Hoм. I. 1. xiv.

"The most ancient Philosophers constituted both Oceanus and Tethys as the parents of generation, and Water as the object of adjuration among the gods-called Styx by the poets. For most entitled to respect is that which is most ancient; and an object of adjuration is a thing most entitled to respect."-ARISTOT. Metaph. 1. 1. c 3.

"According to the Brachmans the principles of all things are different; but the principle of the world's formation was water."-STRAB. 1. XV. c. 1.

"Thales the Milesian affirmed that water was the first principle of the whole world.”—PLUT. de placitis philos. 1. 1. c. 3.

"Thales the Milesian asserted water to be the origin of all things; and that God was that mind which formed all things from water."-CIC. de Nat. Deor. 1. 1. c. 10.

"Anaximenes said that the air was infinite, but that the things which were generated from it were finite; and that the earth and water and fire were generated, and from them was produced everything else."-CIC. Quæst. academ. c. 37.

"Know, first, that heaven, and earth's compacted frame,
And flowing waters, and the starry flame,
And both the radiant lights, one common soul
Inspires, and feeds, and animates, the whole.

This active mind, infused through all the space,

Unites and mingles with the mighty mass.' -VIRG. En. 1. vi. v. 724.

3. And God said, Let there be light and there was light. "All power is his; and whatsoe'er He wills,

The will itself, omnipotent, fulfils."-Hoм. Odys. 1. XIV. v. 445.

"Easy alike to Jove the word, the deed."-Esc. Suppl. v. 595.

"From Chaos Erebus and ebon night;

From night the day sprang forth and shining air,
Whom to the love of Erebus she gave.

Earth first produced the Heaven, whose starry cope,
Like to herself immense, might compass her

On

every side, and be to blessed gods

A mansion unremoved for aye."-HES. Theog. v. 123.

Orpheus sang

"—how earth and ocean and the sky,
Discordant union of deformity,

Were mixed in chaos, ere the pow'r divine
Bade beauteous order from confusion shine;
Bade the bright orb his stated journeys know,
And mountains rise, and sounding rivers flow.
Then beauteous nymphs along the margins rov'd
And living creatures through creation mov'd."

APOL. RHOD. Arg. 1. 1. v. 496.

5. The evening and the morning were the first day.

Different nations have adopted various methods of reckoning the beginning and end of the civil day. Among the Babylonians it was reckoned from sunrise to sunrise; by the Romans, from midnight to midnight; by the Umbrians from noon to noon; and by the Athenians and others, as well as by the Hebrews, from sunset to sunset. In the 23rd chapter of Leviticus it is written "From even to even shall ye celebrate your Sabbath ;” and this was, doubtless, the method which prevailed from the beginning of the world. Among the Celtic nations the same custom may be observed; whence our expressions -"se'nnight," and " fortnight." The Greek word vvxoýμepov a night and a day, or the space of 24 hours, may be referred to the same origin.

"The Gauls do not reckon time by the number of days, but by the nights."CES. de bell. Gall. 1. vI. c. 18.

"The_Germans, in reckoning time, do not count the number of days, but of nights."-TAC. Germ. c. 11.

7. And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.

8. And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.

"First I will sing a lofty song concerning ancient chaos,
How natures were assimilated and heaven made perfect,

And the broad-breasted earth and the depths of the sea created;
And of much-wise love, the ancient and self-perfect,
Who produced all these things, separating one from another."

ORPH. Argon. v. 423.

"God taking up whatever is visible, not as being possessed of tranquillity, but greatly and irregularly agitated, brought it from disorder into order."-PLAT. Timæus, c. 6.

Aristotle shows the folly of those who argue that the world was made by a fortuitous concourse of atoms, saying,

"A carpenter would give a better account than this; for he would not think it sufficient to say that because the instruments, the axes, the planes, and chisels happened to fall so and so upon the timber, cutting it here and there, that therefore it was hollow in one place and level in another, and by that means the whole came to be of such a form; but he will say it was because he himself made such strokes and that he directed the

instruments and determined their motion, after such a manner, to this end, that he might make the whole a fabric fit for such purposes?"-ARISTOT. de part. anim. 1. 1. c. 1.

"Anaxagoras employs mind as a machine for the production of the orderly system

of the world."—IBID. Metaph. 1. 1. c. 4.

Apollonius Rhodius, speaking of animals of "doubtful form," refers by way of illustration, to the period

"When the teeming earth

On living things bestowed primeval birth,

While she, great parent, moist and pliant lay,

As yet unhardened by the stroke of day."-APOL. RHOD. Arg. l. iv. v. 672. "Some were of opinion that the universe was produced and corruptible, and that the generation of mankind took place at a specific time; for when, at the beginning, the union of all things took place, heaven and earth had but one form, their natures being commingled together; but afterwards upon a separation of the bodies from each other, the universe assumed the order which is now seen in it."-DIOD. SIC. 1. I. c. 7.

Silenus

"Now I will sing how moving seeds were hurled,

How tossed to order, how they framed the world;
How sun and moon began; what steady force

Marked out their walk, what makes them keep their course :
For sure unthinking seeds did ne'er dispose

Themselves by counsel, nor their order chose ;

Nor any compacts made, how each should move;
But from eternal through the vacuum strove,
By their own weight, or by external blows,
All motions tried, to find the best of those,
All unions too; if by their various play,
They could compose new beings any way:

Thus long they whirled; most sorts of motions passed,
Most sorts of unions too, they joined at last

In such convenient order; whence began

The sea, the heaven, and earth, and beasts, and man:
But yet no glittering sun, no twinkling star,
No heaven, no waving sea, no earth, no air,
Nor anything like these did then appear;
But a vast heap, and from this mighty mass
Each part retired, and took its proper place:
Agreeing seeds combined; each atom ran
And sought his like, and so the frame began."

LUCRET. de rer. nat. 1. v. v. 417.

sung the secret seeds of nature's frame;
How seas, and earth, and air, and active flame
Fell through the mighty void, and in their fall,
Were blindly gathered in this goodly ball.
The tender soil then stiff'ning by degrees
Shut from the bounded earth the bounding seas.
Then earth and ocean various forms disclose ;

And a new sun, to the new world arose ;

And mists, condensed to clouds, obscure the sky ;

And clouds, dissolved, the thirsty ground supply.

The rising trees the lofty mountains grace;

The lofty mountains feed the savage race."-VIRG. Ecl. VI. v. 31.

"High o'er the clouds, and empty realms of wind,

The God a clearer space for heaven designed;

Where fields of light, and liquid æther flow;
Purged from the ponderous dregs of earth below.

Scarce had the power distinguished these, when straight

The stars, no longer overlaid with weight,

Erect their heads from underneath the mass,

And upward shoot, and kindle as they pass,

And with diffusive light adorn the heavenly place.

Thus earth from air, and seas from earth, were driven,

And grosser air sunk from etherial heaven."-Ov. Metam. 1. I. v. 67.

"A rude heap, without arrangement existed at first and the stars, the earth, and the sea wore one face. Anon the firmament is placed above the earth, the land is encircled by the sea, and the naked chaos retreats to its distinct parts. Woods receive the beasts, and the air the birds; while ye fish conceal yourselves in the liquid stream."-IBID. de arte amandi, 1. 11. v. 467.

14. And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:

15. And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so.

16. And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.

"Now the great sun and the refulgent moon,

And morn that shines to men who walk the earth,

And all immortal gods who dwell above

The spacious firmament, received their birth."-HES. Theogon. v. 371.

"When atlas-born the Pleiad stars arise

Before the sun, above the dawning skies,

'Tis time to reap; and when they sink below
The morn-illumined west, 'tis time to sow."

IBID. Oper. et dier. v. 381.

"The sun, by its light, not only renders each object visible, but points out the hours of the day to us. The stars indicate the hours of the night; while the moon shews us at the same time the divisions of the night, and also of the months."-XEN. Mem. Soc. 1. IV. c. 3.

"God contrived the days and nights, months and years, which had no existence prior to the universe, but rose into being contemporaneously with its formation."PLAT. Timæus, c. 10.

"The Deity created the sun, the moon, and the five other stars which are denominated planets, to distinguish and guard over the numbers of time."-IBID. c.11.

"God, ever good,

Daily provides for man his daily food,

Ordains the seasons by his signs on high,

Studding with gems of light the azure canopy:

What time with plough and spade to break the soil,

That plenteous stores may bless the reaper's toil,

What time to plant and prune the vine he shows,

And hangs the purple cluster on the boughs."-ARAT. Phœn. v.5.

"The gods, propitious to man's feeble race,

These signs in heaven, his guides and beacons place."-IBID. v. 732.

"To mark the lengthening and the shortening day,

To trace the sun throughout his annual way,

The zodiac signs suffice. They also show

The times ordained to plough, to plant, to sow.

These all are taught by great immortal Jove,

Who orders all below and all above."-IBID. Diosem. v.8.

See notes on Job xxxvIII. 31.

The idea of ruling over the night is expressed in the following epithets :

"Goddess queen, divine Selene!"-ORPH. Hymn in Selen. v. 1.
"Ruler of the stars!"-IBID. v. 10.

'Glory of the stars!"-VIRG. Æn. 1. Ix. v. 405.

"Two-horned Queen of the stars!"-HOR. Carm. Sec. v. 99.

66

'Bright glory of the heavens."—IBID. v. 66.

"Shining goddess of the darkened world."-SEN. Hippol. v. 310.

21. And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good.. 22. And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.

23. And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.

24. And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind : and it was so.

"There is nothing extravagant in the idea that both men and beasts were originally formed from the earth."-ARISTOT: de gen. Anim. 1. III. c. 11.

"New herds of beasts he sends the plains to share :

New colonies of birds to people air:

And to their oozy beds the finny fish repair."-Ov. Met. 1. 1. v. 74.

26. And God said, Let us make man in our image after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

27. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

"The opinion of those who fashion the statues of the gods in the human resemblance is not irrational. For if the human soul is most near and most similar to divinity, it is not reasonable to suppose that divinity would invest that which is most similar to himself with a deformed body, but rather with one which would be an easy vehicle to immortal souls, light, and adapted to motion. For this alone, of all the bodies on the earth, raises its summit on high, is magnificent, superb, and full of symmetry. In the resemblance of such a body the Greeks think fit

to honour the gods."-MAX. TYR. diss. 38.

"This animal-prescient, sagacious, complex, acute, full of memory, reason, and counsel, which we call man-has been generated by the supreme God in a most transcendent condition. For he is the only creature among all the races and descriptions of animated beings who is endued with superior reason and thought. And what is there, I do not say in man alone, but in all heaven and earth, more Divine than reason?"-Cic. de leg. 1. 1. c. 7.

"The Deity was pleased to create and adorn man to be the chief and president of all terrestial creatures."-IBID. c. 9.

"The human mind being derived from Divine reason, can be compared with nothing but the Deity himself."-IBID. Tusc. 1. v. c. 13.

"A creature of a more exalted kind

Was wanting yet, and then was man designed:
Conscious of thought, of more capacious breast,
For empire formed and fit to rule the rest.