intercourse--different 'Types of Mankind,' at distinct epochas, and in countries widely apart, had arrived, naturally, at cosmogonic conclusions similar to the doctrines of that Hebraical school of which his harmonic and melodious numbers remain a magnificent memento. "That process seems to have been the following: The ancients knew, as we do, that man _is_ upon the earth; and they were persuaded, as we are, that his appearance was preceded by unfathomable depths of time. Unable (as we are still) to measure periods antecedent to man by any _chronological_ standard, the ancients rationally reached the tabulation of some events anterior to man through _induction_--a method not original with Lord Bacon, because known to St. Paul; 'for his unseen things from the creation of the world, his power and Godhead, are clearly seen, _being understood by the things that are made_' (Rom. i., 20). Man, they felt, could not have lived upon earth without _animal_ food; ergo, 'cattle' preceded him, together with birds, reptiles, fishes, etc. Nothing living, they knew, could have existed without light and heat; ergo, the _solar system_ antedated animal life, no less than the _vegetation_ indispensable for animal support. But terrestrial plants can not grow without _earth_; ergo, that dry land had to be separated from pre-existent 'waters.' Their geological speculations inclining rather to the _Neptunian_ than to the _Plutonian_ theory--for Werner ever preceded Hutton--the ancients found it difficult to 'divide the waters from the waters' without interposing a metallic substance that 'divided the waters which were _under_ the firmament from the waters that were _above_ the firmament;' so they inferred, logically, that a _firmament_ must have been actually created for this object. [_E.g._, 'The _windows_ of the skies' (Gen. vii., 11); 'the waters _above_ the skies' (Psa. cxlviii., 4).] Before the 'waters' (and here is the peculiar error of the genesiacal bard) some of the ancients claimed the pre-existence of _light_ (a view adopted by the writer of Genesis 1st); while others asserted that 'chaos' prevailed. Both schools united, however, in the conviction that DARKNESS--_Erebus_--anteceded all other _created things_. What, said these ancients, can have existed before the 'darkness?' _Ens entium_, the CREATOR, was the humbled reply. _Elohim_ is the Hebrew vocal expression of that climax; to define whose attributes, save through the phenomena of creation, is an attempt we leave to others more presumptuous than ourselves."