We have now brought to a conclusion the first part of our inquiry. We have endeavored to show that there is nothing in Scripture or Tradition which forbids us to admit a long interval of time between the Creation of the world and the work of the Six Days. It remains to examine what was the nature of these Six Days themselves. Were they, as Saint Augustine maintained, one single indivisible instant of time? or were they days of twenty-four hours, as is more commonly supposed? or were they simply periods of time of which the duration is left wholly undetermined in the Sacred Text? [Illustration] [Illustration] _CHAPTER XX._ SECOND HYPOTHESIS;--THE DAYS OF CREATION LONG PERIODS OF TIME. _Diversity of opinion among the early fathers regarding the days of creation--Saint Augustine, Philo Judæus, Clement of Alexandria, Origen, Saint Athanasius, Saint Eucherius, Procopius--Albertus Magnus, Saint Thomas, Cardinal Cajetan--Inference from these testimonies--First argument in favor of the popular interpretation; a day, in the literal sense, means a period of twenty-four hours--Answer--This word often used in Scripture for an indefinite period--Examples from the Old and New Testament--Second argument; the days of creation have an evening and a morning--Answer--Interpretation of Saint Augustine, Venerable Bede, and other fathers of the church--Third argument; the reason alleged for the institution of the Sabbath-day--Answer--The law of the Sabbath extended to every seventh year as well as to every seventh day--The seventh day of God’s rest a long period of indefinite duration._ No one who will take the trouble to investigate, with any reasonable diligence and research, the nature of the Mosaic Days, can fail to be struck with the remarkable diversity of opinion that existed on the subject among the early Fathers of the Church. Yet this diversity of opinion is often overlooked by modern writers. They fancy that the meaning of the word Day is so plain as to leave no room for doubt or controversy; that a day can be nothing else than a period of twenty-four hours, marked by the succession of light and darkness; and that in this sense the Mosaic narrative was universally understood until quite recently, when a new explanation was invented, to meet the requirements of modern science. All this is far from true. The meaning of the Mosaic Days has been, in point of fact, a subject of controversy from the earliest times. And Saint Augustine tells us that the question appeared to him so difficult that he could pronounce no decisive judgment upon it. “As to these Days,” he says, “what kind they were, it is very difficult, nay, it is impossible to imagine, and much more so to explain.”[136]