"Captain Bonnycastle coming up the gulf of St. Lawrence, on the 7th of September, 1826, was roused by the mate of the vessel in great alarm from an unusual appearance. It was a starlight night, when suddenly the sky became overcast in the direction of the highland of Cornwallis County, and an instantaneous and intensely vivid light, resembling the aurora, or northern lights, shot out from the hitherto dark and gloomy sea, on the lee bow, which was so brilliant that it lighted every thing distinctly, even to the mast-head. The light spread over the sea between the two shores, and the waves, which before had been tranquil, now began to be agitated. Captain Bonnycastle describes the scene as that of a blazing sheet of awful and most brilliant light. A long and vivid line of light, superior in brightness to the parts of the sea not immediately near the vessel, showed the base of the high, frowning and dark land abreast; the sky became lowering and more intensely obscure. Long, tortuous lines of light showed immense numbers of large fish darting about as if in consternation. The top-sail yard and mizen boom were lighted by the glare, as if gas-lights had been burning directly below them; and until just before daybreak, at four o'clock, the {177} most minute objects were distinctly visible." (_Connection of Physical Sciences, p_. 288.) In the fourth and fifth verses of the first chapter of Genesis we are told, "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 morning were the first day." In spite of all the sneers of infidels, the candid reader finds the divine record sublime in its simplicity. The good effect of light upon our planet was immediately apparent. The earth having now become sufficiently condensed to cast a shadow, there was, of course, one side enjoying the light of the sun while the other was in shadow. Thus the dark body of the earth was the means by which God divided the light from the darkness, as at the present; and the first rotation of the earth upon its axis causing the shadow and the light to be alternately on every part of the earth, produced the evening and the morning of the first day. How long the first day was, we know not. From observations of phenomena going on in the Spiral Nebula at the present time, it is reasonable to suppose that the first revolution of the earth upon its axis occupied a vast epoch of time. The next process in the organization of the earth was the forming of an atmosphere: "And God said, let there be a firmament" (literally, _expanse_) "in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. And God made the firmament, {178} and divided the waters, which are under the firmament: and it was so." (_Gen. i_, 6-7).