Up to the Carboniferous time of deposit, the air had never been sufficiently cleared of its dark clouds of deadly gases, to admit sunshine on the earth. Vegetation had not reached a climax. No mention is to be made of animals existing, until this climax is reached. It will be reached when the sun shall have taken off the “swaddling band” of her childhood, and depositing the same, as coal, in the earth, shall give the earth a clothing of flowers. Non-flowering plants are evening, the contrast will be the flowering plant in the sunshine. 1. By figure of metonymy, again he traced the progress of deposits through the sun, which God had made, with the moon and stars. The labor of the sun to clear the atmosphere, calling for immediate help of God, was long and persevering. Poetically, the narrative is enriched by this elegant figure, in putting cause for effect. As now from the earth for the first time he beholds the clear sunlight, he doubtless is reminded, that in mentioning the creation of this center of attraction in our system, he had given a name which indicated a specific property of the sun, viz, light; whereas it also had heat and force. Now, calling it by a generic name, and remembering also that in describing the origin of Earth no mention had been made of the rest of the heavens, he incidentally mentions that God made them all, without attempting the individual history of either. His mission is to trace in progress the contrasting changes of God’s work in the Earth. And to his text he adheres. Since the sun is the only source of permanent natural light within our system, and since Moses had made light to contrast with the darkness of chaos in the first day, it seems strange that any intelligent reader should understand him to speak of the bringing into existence of the great orb of light the fourth day. Shining in on the earth is all that is noted.