(5.) The energizing light of the sun shining on the earth,--an essential preliminary to the display of the systems of life. (6.) Introduction of the system of life. (7.) Introduction of Mammals, the highest order of Vertebrates,--the class afterward to be dignified by including a being of moral and intellectual nature. (8.) Introduction of Man. _Cosmogony of the Bible._--There is one ancient document on cosmogony--that of the opening page of the Bible--which is not only admired for its sublimity, but is very generally believed to be of divine origin, and which, therefore, demands at least a brief consideration in this place. In the first place, it may be observed that _this document if true, is of divine origin_. For no human mind was witness of the events; and no such mind in the early age of the world, unless gifted with superhuman intelligence, could have contrived such a scheme;--would have placed the creation of the sun, the source of light to the earth, so long after the creation of light, even on the _fourth_ day, and, what is equally singular, between the creation of plants and that of animals, when so important to both; and none could have reached to the depths of philosophy exhibited in the whole plan. Again, _If divine, the account must bear marks of human imperfection, since it was communicated through man_. Ideas suggested to a human mind by the Deity would take shape in that mind according to its range of knowledge, modes of thought, and use of language, unless it were at the same time supernaturally gifted with the profound knowledge and wisdom adequate to their conception; and even then they could not be intelligibly expressed, for want of words to represent them. The central thought of each step in the Scripture cosmogony--for example, Light,--the dividing of the fluid earth from the fluid around it, individualizing the earth,--the arrangement of its land and water,--vegetation,--and so on--is brought out in the simple and natural style of a sublime intellect, wise for its times, but unversed in the depths of science which the future was to reveal. The idea of vegetation to such a one would be vegetation as he knew it; and so it is described. The idea of dividing the earth from the fluid around it would take the form of a dividing from the fluid above, in the imperfect conceptions of a mind unacquainted with the earth’s sphericity and the true nature of the firmament,--especially as the event was beyond the reach of all ordinary thought.