Now I contend that Moses employed the word "_rakia_" with exactly the same propriety, neither more nor less, as when a Divine now-a-days employs the English word "firmament." It does not follow that the man who speaks of "the spacious firmament on high," is under so considerable a delusion as to suspect that the firmament is _a firm thing_; nor does it follow that Moses thought that "_rakia_" was _a solid_ substance either,--even if _solidity_ was the prevailing etymological notion in the word, and even if the Hebrews were no better philosophers than Mr. Goodwin would have us believe. The Essayist's objection is therefore worthless. GOD was content that Moses should employ the ordinary language of his day,--accommodate himself to the forms of speech then prevalent,--coin no new words. What is there unreasonable in the circumstance? What possible ground does it furnish for a supposition that the _etymological_ force of the word,--or even that the popular physical theory of which that word may, or may not, have once been the connotation,--denoted _the sense in which Moses employed it_? Is it to be supposed that when a physician speaks of a "_jovial_ temperament," he insinuates his approval of an exploded system of medicine? Do astronomers maintain that the Sun has a _disk_, or the Earth _an axis_? that the former _leaves its place_ in the heavens when it suffers 'eclipse[123]?' or that the latter has a superior _latitude_, from East to West? To give the most familiar instance of all,--Do scientific men believe that the sun _rises_, and _sets_?--And yet all _say_ that it does, until this hour!... Why is Moses to be judged by a less favourable standard than anybody else,--than Shakspeare, than Hooker, even than Mr. Goodwin? The first, in an exquisite passage, bids Jessica,-- "Look how the floor of heav'n Is thick inlayed with patens of bright gold." Did Shakspeare expect his beautiful language would be tortured into a shape which would convict him of talking nonsense?--But this is poetry. Then take Hooker's prose:-- "If the frame of that heavenly arch erected over our heads should loosen and dissolve itself; ... if the Moon should wander from her beaten way[124]," &c.