in its primary import, seems to signify the bringing into being something which did not before exist. The term is therefore most generally applied to the original production of the materials whereof the visible world is composed. It is also, however, used in a secondary or subordinate sense, to denote those subsequent operations of the Deity upon the matter so produced, by which the whole system of nature and all the primitive genera of things received their form, qualities, and laws.

There is no subject concerning which there have been more disputes than this of creation. It is certain that none of the ancient philosophers had the smallest idea of its being possible to produce a substance out of nothing, or that even the power of the Deity himself could work without any materials to work upon. Hence some of them, among whom was Aristotle, asserted that the world was eternal both as to its matter and form. Others, though they believed that the gods had given the world its form, yet imagined the materials whereof it is composed to have been eternal. Indeed the opinions of the ancients, who had not had the benefit of revelation, were on this head so confused and contradictory, that nothing of any consequence can be deduced from them. The freethinkers of our own and of former ages have denied the possibility of creation, as being a contradiction to reason; and of consequence have taken the opportunity from thence to discredit revelation. On the other hand, many defenders of the sacred writings have asserted, that creation out of nothing, so far from being a contradiction to reason, is not only probable, but demonstrably certain. Nay, some have gone so far as to say, that from the very inspection of the visible system of nature, we are able to infer that it was once in a state of non-existence. It would be impossible for us, however, to enter into the multiplicity of arguments used on both sides; nor can we pretend to settle it, as the subject is confessedly above human comprehension.

As to the works of creation which the Deity is known to us to have performed; all other beings, beside himself, are his creatures. Men and other animals that inhabit the earth and the seas, all the immense varieties of herbs and plants of which the vegetable kingdom consists; the globe of the earth, and the expanse of the ocean; these we know to have been produced by his power. Besides the terrestrial world which we inhabit, we see many other material bodies disposed around it in the wide extent of space. The moon, which is in a particular manner connected with our earth, and even dependent upon it; the sun, and the other planets with their satellites, which, like the earth, circulate round the sun, and appear to derive from him light and heat; those bodies which we call fixed stars, and consider as illuminating and cherishing with heat each its peculiar system of planets; and the comets which at certain periods surprise us with their appearance, and the nature of whose connection with the general system of nature, or with any particular system of planets, we cannot pretend to have fully discovered;—these are so many more of the Deity's works, from the contemplation of which we cannot but conceive the most awful ideas of his creative power.

Matter, however, whatever the varieties of form under which it is made to appear, the relative disposition of its parts, or the motions communicated to it, is but an inferior part of the works of creation. We believe ourselves to be animated with a much higher principle than brute matter; in viewing the manners and economy of the lower animals, we can scarce avoid acknowledging even them to consist of something more than various modifications of matter and motion: The other planetary bodies which seem to be in circumstances nearly analogous to those of our earth, are surely, as well as it, destined for the habitations of rational, intelligent beings. The existence of intelligences of an higher order than man, though infinitely below the Deity, appears extremely probable:—Of those spiritual beings called Angels we have express intimation in scripture; (see the article ANGELS.) Such are our notions concerning the existence of beings essentially distinct from matter, and in their nature far superior to it: these, too, must be the creatures of the Deity, and of his works of creation the noblest part. But the limits of creation we must not pretend to define. How far the regions of space extend, or how they are filled, we know not. How the planetary worlds, the sun and the fixed stars, are occupied, we do not pretend to have ascertained. We are even ignorant how wide a diversity of forms, what an infinity of living animated beings may inhabit our own globe. So confined is our knowledge of creation; yet so grand, so awful, that part which our narrow understandings can comprehend!

Concerning the periods of time at which the Deity executed his several works of creation, it cannot be pretended that mankind have had opportunities of receiving very particular information. From viewing which God the phenomena of nature, and considering the general executed laws by which they are regulated, we cannot draw of creation any conclusive or even plausible inference with respect to the precise period at which the universe must have begun to exist. We know not, nor can we hope to ascertain, whether the different systems of planets circulating round our sun and the other fixed stars, were all created at one period, or each at a different period. We cannot even determine, from anything that appears on the face of nature, whether our earth was not created at a later period than any of her fellow planets which revolve round the same sun. Astronomers are, from time to time, making new discoveries in the heavens; and it is impossible to say whether some of these successive discoveries may not be owing to successive creations.

Philosophers have, indeed, formed some curious conjectures jackets concerning the antiquity of the earth, from the appearances of its surface, and from the nature and disposition of its interior strata. The beds of lava in the neighbourhood of volcanoes have afforded ground for some calculations, which, though they do not fix the period of the earth's origin, are yet thought to prove that period to have been much more remote than the earliest age of sacred or profane history. * In the neighbourhood of mount Etna, or on the sides of that extensive mountain, there are beds of lava covered over with a considerable thickness of earth; and at least another, again, which, though known from ancient monuments and historical records to have issued from the volcano at least 2000 years ago, is still almost entirely destitute of soil and vegetation: in one place a pit has been cut through seven different strata of lava; and these have been found separated from each other by almost as many thick beds of rich earth. Now, from the fact, that a stratum of lava 2000 years old is yet scarcely covered with earth, it has been inferred by the ingenious canon Recupero, who has laboured 30 years on the natural history of mount Etna, that the lowest of these strata which have been divided by so many beds of earth, must have been emitted from the volcanic crater at least 14000 years ago; and consequently that the age of the earth, whatever it may exceed this term of years, cannot possibly be less. Other facts of a similar nature likewise concur to justify this conjecture.

But all these facts are as nothing in comparison with the long series which would be requisite to establish such a conjecture as an incontrovertible truth. And, besides, any evidence which they can be supposed to afford, may be very easily explained away. The bed of lava which in the course of 2000 years has scarce acquired a covering of earth, is confessed to stand in a situation in which it is exposed to the spray of the sea, and to all the violence of winds and rains. In such a situation, it cannot be thought that a thick bed of earth could, in any length of time, be formed on it: we might as well expect depth of soil and vigorous vegetation on the craggy cliffs of hills. In crevices here and there over it, in which the earth has been retained, there is a depth of soil which supports large trees. This fact, therefore, admits of no such inference as that which Recupero has pretended to deduce from it. The local circumstances, again, of the seven strata that have been pierced through, are very different. They are situated at Jaci Reale, in a situation where showers of ashes from the volcano must frequently fall; and where whatever falls must be naturally retained and accumulated:—so that seven beds of earth might be formed on these seven strata of lava much sooner than one thin layer could be formed on the stratum above mentioned. In other places, some of which are within the influence of the same awful volcano, and some adjacent to that of Vesuvius, soil is known to have accumulated on lava with the help of showers of ashes from the volcanoes, with sufficient rapidity to justify this supposition concerning the coverings of the strata at Jaci Reale. From the observation of these phenomena of volcanoes, therefore, no facts have been gained that can help us to determine with any certainty the earth's age. And so wide is the variety of circumstances to be here taken into account, that it cannot be hoped that this desideratum will be ever supplied from this quarter. See further the article Earth; n° 177 and 178.

But by examining the composition and arrangement of the interior strata of the globe, and by viewing the general appearance of its surface, the ingenuity of philosophers has, with better hopes, sought to guess at the length of time during which it must have existed. Observing the exuviae of sea and land animals deposited at profound depths under ground, and accompanied with vegetable bodies in a good state of preservation, as well as with oleaginous and bituminous substances which have in all probability been formed from vegetable bodies; and remarking at the same time with what confusion the other materials composing the crust of this terrestrial ball, are, in various instances, not arranged, but cast together; they have concluded that the earth must have existed for many an age before the earliest events recorded in sacred or profane history, and must have undergone many a revolution, before it settled in its present state. Such at least are the ideas which Button and M. de Luc, and also Dr Hutton *, seem desirous to impress us with concerning its changes and antiquity.—It will be only doing justice to these philosophers to acknowledge, that they have collected, with amazing industry, almost every fact in the natural history of the earth that can serve to give plausibility to their conjectures. But still their facts, besides the inconsistency of many of them, are by far too scanty to warrant the conclusions which they have pretended to deduce from them. See the article Earth.

The voice of profane history is far from being definitive concerning the age of the world; nor is it to be expected that it should. When the earth first arose from its origin, or even their own. Profane history is not, however, without accounts of the age of the earth and the origin of human society; but those accounts are various and contradictory.—Plato in his dialogue intitled Critias, mentions his celebrated Atalantis to have been buried in the ocean about 9000 years before the age in which he wrote. He affirms it to have been well known to the Egyptian priests and to the contemporary inhabitants of Attica. The learned world, indeed, generally agree in regarding his accounts of that island as a fiction, which the author himself did not design to be understood in any other light: some, however, are more credulous, and others go so far as to acknowledge doubts: and, if the existence of such an island, at a period so distant, be admitted as a fact worthy of any credit, the age of the world may be reckoned as at least considerably more than 12,000 years. The pretensions of the Chinese represent the world as some hundreds of thousands of years older: and we are also told* that the astronomical records of the ancient Chaldeans carried back the origin of society to a very remote period; no less than 473,000 years. The Egyptian priests reckoned between Menes and Sethon 341 generations†. But these accounts are... are so discordant, and so slenderly supported by evidence, that we cannot hesitate to reject them all as false; the fables of historians scarce merit so much attention as the hypotheses of philosophers.

When from profane we turn to sacred history, we may reasonably expect more accurate and more credible information concerning the antiquity of the globe. As the authenticity of the Holy Scriptures is so incontrovertibly established, wherever they afford evidence concerning any fact, that evidence must be regarded as decisive. A fact so important as the present may be thought highly worthy of a place in them. Unfortunately, however, even the sacred writings do not fix the era of the creation with sufficient accuracy; they leave us, in some measure, at a loss whether to extend what they say concerning that era to the whole contents of created space, or to confine it to our earth and its inhabitants: different copies give different dates; and even in the same copy, different parts relating the same events, either disagree or do not speak decisively with regard to the length of the time in which they passed.—In the beginning of the fifth chapter of the first book of Kings, the time which elapsed between the departure of the children of Israel from Egypt, and the period at which Solomon laid the foundation of his temple, is said to have been 480 years: And in the book of Judges again, the age of all the patriarchs amounts to 592 years.†

The Hebrew copy of the bible, which we Christians for good reasons consider as the most authentic, dates the creation of the world 3944 years before the Christian era. The Samaritan bible, again, fixes the era of the creation 4305 years before the birth of Christ. And the Greek translation, known by the name of the Septuagint version of the bible, gives 5720 as the number of the years which intervened between those two periods. As many other different calculations of the years contained in the same intermediate space of time, might be formed upon other dates in the sacred volume, differing in the different copies. By comparing the various dates in the sacred writings, examining how these have come to disagree and to be diversified in different copies, endeavouring to reconcile the most authentic profane with sacred chronology, and eking out deficiency of dates and evidence with conjecture; some ingenious men have formed schemes of chronology, plausible indeed, but not supported by sufficient authorities, which they would gladly persuade us to receive in preference to any of those above mentioned. Other makes out from the Hebrew bible 4004 years, as the term between the creation and the birth of Christ: Josephus, according to Dr Wills and Mr Whiston, makes it 4658 years; and M. Pezron, with the help of the Septuagint, extends it to 5872 years. Other's system is the most generally received.

But though these different systems of chronology are so inconsistent and so slenderly supported, yet the differences among them are so inconsiderable in comparison with those which arise before us when we contemplate the chronology of the Chinese, the Chaldeans, and the Egyptians, and they agree so well with the general information of authentic history and with the appearances of nature and of society, that they may be considered as nearly fixing the true period of the creation of the earth.

Profane history cannot be expected to contain an account of the first events which passed after the creation of the substances of which the universe consists; this head The conjectures of ancient philosophers on this subject cannot merit attention; for vague tradition, and gained from the appearances of nature, the only data on which any other they could proceed in forming their conjectures, could hardly admit of no fair inductions concerning those events; and besides, instead of listening to tradition, or examining the appearances of nature, they generally consulted imagination, and imagination alone, on such occasions. Here, therefore, we have nothing to hope but from the sacred writings. From them we may expect historical information, not to be obtained from any other source. What they communicate is communicated on divine authority; and it is only on such authority we can receive any accounts concerning the creation.

A few hints in the book of Job, afford the earliest hints concerning the creation of the world. "Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth, when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?" "Behold, he put no trust in his servants, Chap. his angels he charged with folly." "And unto man, xxxviii. (or to Adam), he said, Behold, the fear of the Lord ver. 4 & 7. is wisdom, and to depart from evil is understanding."† Ch. iv. These passages rather hint at than relate facts. But ver. 18, it has been inferred from them, that there were stars ver. 28. in the firmament, and angels in heaven, before the formation of our globe; that angels as well as man have fallen; and that other injunctions, besides that of abstaining from the forbidden fruit, were laid on Adam when he was first placed in Paradise. If the interpretation be admitted as just, the fruit of these facts may be considered as forming, as it were, a point with Lect. I., which our knowledge of the works of the Deity commences; the period of time at which the second event took place is not specified; and the precept to Adam must no doubt have been uttered after he was formed and inspired with intelligence. Yet with regard to the first of the above quotations from the book of Job, the only one that is of importance to us at present, it must be acknowledged, that it has been differently understood. The morning stars might sing together, and the sons of God shout for joy, on account both of their own creation and of the creation of the earth at one time; and yet Job, having been himself made a conscious being at a much later period, not be able to tell where he was at that era of exulting gratitude and congratulation.

Moses relates, that* "in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. And the earth (continues count of he) was without form and void; and darkness was the cre- upon the face of the deep: and the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light; and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light day, and the darkness he called night: and the evening and the morning were the first day." During five succeeding days the work of creation was carried on. On the CREATION

The second day, a firmament was made to separate the waters, and that firmament called heaven; on the third day, the waters were collected into seas, and the land from which the waters retired caused to produce grasses and trees and other plants; on the fourth day, lights were made to appear in the firmament; to enlighten the earth, to divide the day from the night, and to distinguish time into seasons and years; on the fifth day, the seas were peopled with whales and other fishes, and the air with fowls; on the sixth day, the earth was furnished with reptiles and quadrupeds of all kinds; and on the same day, the first human pair, the progenitors of all the human race, were created in God's own image.

Some difficulties occur in comparing this account of the creation with the laws which appear at present to regulate the system of nature. We find it hard to conceive how the earth, while yet a stranger to the influence of the sun, could experience the vicissitude of day and night; and are astonished at the rapidity with which trees and herbage first overspread its surface. The condition of matter when the earth was without form and void, and the operation of the spirit of God on the face of the waters, are equally mysterious.

Some ingenious men have eagerly laboured to remove these difficulties. Among these is Dr Burnet, whose theory of the earth has now been long considered as fanciful and ill-founded. He supposes all the celestial bodies, even the sun and all the other planets of the solar system, to have existed long before the earth. The chaos on which the spirit of God moved, consisted, according to him, of the first principles from which all terrestrial bodies have been formed. When those laws by which the material world is regulated first began to operate on the mass, he supposes that its grovier and heavier parts would sink towards the centre, and there form a solid ball. Around this solid ball two species of particles would still float together in confusion. Of these he thinks one, being more volatile, would by degrees make its escape from the other, would leave it still recumbent on the solid centre, and spread around it in an atmosphere. The middle stratum he composes of aqueous and oleaginous fluids; and he makes no doubt, that after the air had made its escape, the levity of the oleaginous fluids would enable them to rise above the aqueous, and dispose themselves next the surface of the liquid mass. On them he supposes the impure atmosphere to have then deposited a quantity of terrene particles, sufficient to form, by intermixture with the oils, a thick crust of rich earth for the production of plants and herbage, and to afford an habitation to animals. This delicate shell he was careful not to furrow with seas or load with mountains; either of these would have reduced all to confusion. Such is his earth; and after moulding it with so much ingenuity, and into so happy a form, he contents himself, without venturing to use the same freedoms with the remaining part of Moses's account of the creation.

But Moses affords nothing that can be with any propriety used in the foundation of such a theory; he tells not whether the chaos consisted of those terrene, and aqueous, and oleaginous, and aerial particles which Dr Burnet finds in it; he confines not the seas within a crust of earth; nor does he inform us that the scenery of nature was not diversified by hills and vales. Besides, the author of this theory has, without any evidence, supposed matter to have been originally under the influence of laws very different from those by which it is at present regulated. Oil, indeed, while fluid, floats above water; but in a concrete state, it sinks in water like other solid bodies. If reduced into that state by combination with terrene matters, sufficient to render the mixture proper for the nourishment and production of vegetables; its specific gravity will be still greater, and it will consequently sink to much sooner. How a concrete substance, consisting of earth and oil, could float on water, appears an inexplicable enigma. But we need not here take farther pains in combating and triumphing over this theory, which has long since fallen and sunk to its grave.

Mr Whitton treats both the scriptures and the laws of nature with greater reverence. Yet he certainly involves himself in no trifling difficulties in attempting to solve those which Moses presents. He supposes the sun, moon, and stars to be all more ancient than the earth. The chaos from which the earth was formed, he represents as having been originally the atmosphere of a comet. The six days of the creation he would persuade us to believe equal to six of our years; for he is of opinion, that the earth did not revolve daily round its axis, but only annually round its orbit, till after the fall of man.

On the first day or year, therefore, the more ponderous parts of the chaos were according to this theory conglomerated into an orb of earth, the chinks and interstices over that orb filled up with water, and the exterior part or atmosphere rarefied, so as to admit some faint glimmering of the rays of the sun.

On the second day, the atmosphere was diffused to its due extent around the earth, and reduced to a degree of rarity and purity which rendered it still more suitable for the transmission of light; the earth was still more consolidated; and the waters being almost entirely excluded from the interstices which they before occupied, were partly spread over the surface of the earth, and partly raised in vapour into the atmosphere or firmament.

On the third day, the earth's surface became so irregular, in one place rising into hills, in another sinking into vales, as to cause the waters, which were before equally diffused, to collect into seas and lakes, leaving large tracts of ground unoccupied. And no sooner was a part of the earth's surface left bare by the waters, than the general influence of the sun produced on it a rich covering of herbage, and all the different species of vegetables.

On the fourth day, the earth was rendered subject to the regular influence of the sun, moon, and stars.

On the fifth day or year, things were so far advanced, that fishes and fowls were now produced from the waters.

On the sixth day was the earth furnished with animals; and the lord of all the other animals, man, was now created.

Such is Mr Whitton's account of the phenomena of the Mosaic creation. But he likewise affirms much more than can be reasonably granted. The atmosphere's theory. sphere of a comet could not well be the primitive chaos; it is not an obscure, but a pellucid fluid; and its exterior strata, if of the same nature with the matter of our earth, must be scorified by its near approaches to the sun. Had the earth not begun to move round its axis till after the work of creation was completed, the immoderate degrees of heat and cold which its different parts would have alternately felt, would in all probability have proved fatal to both plants and animals. Even the most artful interpretation of Moses's words cannot represent him as meaning to inform us that the sun and moon were created at different periods. But philosophy will scarce permit us to imagine that the moon was formed before the earth. And therefore we cannot upon good grounds agree with Mr Whitton, that the creation of the earth was later than that of the other bodies of the solar system.

Among others who have endeavoured to explain the original formation of the earth, and the changes which it has undergone, is M. de Luc. This cosmologist, like Mr Whitton, thinks that the days of the creation were much longer periods of time than our present days. He seems to think that the earth had existed long before the Mosaic creation; but began at that era to experience new changes, and to be regulated by new laws; that all the different events described by Moses in his history of the creation, actually took place in the order in which he relates them; but that Moses's days are indefinite spaces of time, which must have been very long, but of which we cannot hope to ascertain the precise length. These are ingenious conjectures; but they do not appear necessary, nor are they justified by facts. For a fuller and more close investigation of this part of the subject, we must refer to the article EARTH: and shall now close the present article with a short explanation of what appears to us the most natural way of understanding Moses's account of the creation.

It has been conjectured*, with great probability, that the creation of which Moses is the historian, was neither confined to the earth alone, nor extended to the whole universe. The relation which all the planets of the solar system bear to the same illuminating body countenances the conjecture, that they, together with the luminary by which they are enlightened, were all created at one period: but it would perhaps be to conceive too meanly of the benevolence, wisdom, and active power of the Deity to suppose that before that period these had never been exerted in any work of creation. Yet even here we have not demonstrative evidence.

On the supposition that the whole solar system was created at once, which has at least the merit of doing no violence to the narrative of Moses, the creation of the sun and the other planets may be understood to have been carried on at the same time with the creation of the earth. In that case, even in the course of the first day, though not longer than our present days, those bodies might be reduced to such order, and their relative motions so far established, as to begin the distinction between light and darkness, day and night.

On the second day, we may naturally understand from Moses's narrative, that the atmosphere was purified, and the specific gravities of aqueous vapour and atmospheric air so adjusted, as to render the latter capable of supporting the former.

On the third day the waters were first collected into lakes and seas: but in what manner, we cannot well determine. Some call in the operation of earthquakes; others tell us, that when the earth was first formed, the exterior strata were, at different parts over its surface, of different specific gravities; and that the more ponderous parts now sunk nearer the common centre, while the lighter parts still remaining equally remote from it as before, formed islands, continents, hills, and mountains. But these are mere fancies; and we have not facts to offer in their stead. On the latter part of this day vegetables were caused to spring up over the earth. Their growth must have been much more rapid than we ever behold it now: but by what particular act of supernatural power that might be effected, we should in vain inquire.

On the fourth day the sun, moon, and stars, were made to appear. But according to the conjecture which we have mentioned as plausible, though without ascribing to it the evidence of certain truth, those heavenly bodies are to be considered as having been created before this day. But they might now begin to exert their full influence on the earth in the same manner as they have since continued to do.

The creation of the inanimate world was now finished, and the earth prepared for the reception of animals. On the fifth day, therefore, were the living inhabitants of the air and the waters created.

On the sixth day the inferior animals inhabiting the earth were first created; and after that, the whole work was crowned by the creation of a male and a female of the human species. To the account of the creation of the animals, nothing certain can be added in explanation of Moses's narrative. No more but one pair of the human species were at first created: the same economy might possibly be observed in the creation of the inferior animals.