It is not to be supposed that amongst the various hypotheses of which the cosmogony of the world has been the object, a literal acceptation of the scriptural account finds no defenders among men of science. “Why,” asks one of these writers,[8] after some scornful remarks upon the geologists and their science--“why an omnipotent Creator should have called into being a gaseous-granite nebulous world, only to have to cool it down again, consisting as it does of an endless variety of substances, should even have been supposed to be originally constituted of the matter of granite alone, for nothing else was provided by the theory, nobody can rationally explain. How the earth’s centre now could be liquid fire with its surface solid and cold and its seas not boiling caldrons, has never been attempted to be accounted for. How educated gentlemen, engaged in scientific investigations, ever came to accept such a monstrously stupid mass of absurdities as deductions of ‘science,’ and put them in comparison with the rational account of the creation given by Moses, is more difficult to understand than even this vague theory itself, which it is impossible to describe. [8] “Fresh Springs of Truth.” R. Griffin and Co. “Of the first creation of the chaotic world,” the same writer goes on to say, “or the material elements, before they were shaped into their present forms, we can scarce have the most vague conception. All our experience relates to their existing conditions. But knowing somewhat of the variety of the constituent elements and their distinct properties, by which they manifest their existence to us, we cannot conceive of their creation without presupposing a Divine wisdom, and--if I may say so, with all reverence, and only to suit our human notions--a Divine ingenuity,” and he follows for six days the operations as described by Moses, with a running comment. When light is created, the conception of the work becomes simpler to our minds. Its least manifestation would suffice at once to dispel darkness, and yet how marvellous is the light! In the second day’s work the firmament of heaven is opened; the expanse of the air between the heavens and the earth, dividing the waters above from the waters below, is the work recorded as performed. Not till the third day commence the first geological operations. The waters of the earth are gathered together into seas, and the dry land is made to appear. It is now that we can imagine that the formation of the primary strata commenced, while by some of the internal forces of matter the earth was elevated and stood above the waters.