The question as to what kind of reading shall yield us the most exquisite enjoyment, largely depends upon our ability for self-development. Taste in reading, as in eating, is often an educated faculty. The relish that we now have for many kinds of food, we had to acquire. We all have faculties for intellectual, moral and spiritual enjoyment, in lines of thought corresponding. These must be developed by use. Reader, you have the ability, if you will allow it to be developed, of enjoying a perusal

1. That all matter existed, or was created in a primeval state of heat. One hypothesis is, that all matter of our system was concentrated in one heated ball as a central sun. 2. That planets are portions of this matter, thrown off by a rapid rotary motion of the sun. Properly named, this theory was the centro-centrifugal theory, now quite out of date. That this theory might be true, the sun must have turned upon its axis with a velocity sufficient not only to destroy gravitation at its surface,

1. All matter was created at once, and is correlative. 2. In its primary condition it was in cold gas; diffused in equilibrium in that portion of space now occupied with systems: it follows that gravitation, heat, form, motion and power would in this state be wanting. 3. A power, outside of created matter, must transform this substance from the inertia of rest to that of motion. No sooner was a center of matter gathered, than gravitation acted upon all parts of the universe. The centers of all s

1. In the relative quantities of sedimentary and lava rock. By far the greater portion of rock of all lands is sedimentary. Lava is the exception. If the source of supply is an internal sea, 7,880 miles in diameter, the reverse of this would most likely be true. 2. In the relative order of the two kinds of rock. Except in very restricted locations, sedimentary rock is at the bottom, in the middle, and at the top of the earth’s crust. Lava has never been found as an integral part of the supposed

1. The even climate of such a world would tend to his longevity, and be most genial to his feelings. Man’s nature calls for an even climate. Now by art he tries to even up the climate of the year. (1.) Less than two-thirds of the lighted hemisphere could have been covered with dry land. Many bodies of water are known to have been included within the areas of land. The pole, pointing directly toward the sun, must have been near Gibraltar. Allowing that land extended in every direction, four thous

1. Like Homer, who dated his poem in the rising of the star Sirius, so Job dated his book in the Pleiades, while the sun was gaining his vernal equinox in the star Alcyone of this constellation. The Septuagint speaks of Job’s age at the commencement of his trial as being one hundred years. By the closing statement appended to his book, we learn that he lived after his restoration one hundred and forty years. This makes his age two hundred and forty at his death. Alcyone marks by precession of th

1. Peter must have understood the import of this divine poem, when he wrote, “For this they are willingly ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water.” So also “The earth, that then was, being overflowed.” 2. So Solomon understood the poem. Personifying the eternity of wisdom, under things timely, he wrote, “Before the mountains were settled, before the hills were brought forth.” Notice the sedimentary character of the mo

1. The account, given in Genesis, of creation is in the form of an Epic Poem. As a treatise on any subject, it would be incomplete. Its design seems to be to give, in the form of poetic suggestions, the connecting links to unite creation with creation’s God. For such a purpose, it is the grandest and most complete of all productions of the pen. Six of these days are marked by contrasts, “called evening and morning” but the seventh is peculiar, having neither. The sixth is said to close God’s lab

1. Creation includes not only the bringing into existence of matter, but all its undeveloped forces and changes. Revelation, upon this subject, is suggestive, rather than exhaustive, of what we need above what Nature shows, to trace creation back to God. The greatest difficulty in reading this poem understandingly, is in rightly rendering the phenomena noticed upon the second day. Figures of metonymy abound. As a rule, figures once used in prophecy are not changed when used by another prophet. H

1. A globe of vapor in contact with the cold voids of space must condense or liquify. The beginning would be upon the outside; constantly growing heavier according to bulk, it would work its way nearer to the sun. Having become a center of attraction, and coming back to the now closed-up ring, it would claim a portion of the same as an atmosphere. Increasing now its centrifugal force, it gained an orbit inside the ring, still drawing nearer the sun. Job’s attention had been called to the earth’s

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 wil

1. The contrasts of evening and morning of the fifth day are found in the sea. The contrasts of the sixth upon the land. The evening of the fifth began with the “moving things of the sea,” ending with the “whale.” With the exception of the first day, the fifth must have extended through a much longer time than all the others put together. The contrast between moving diatoms of the Gneiss rock, and the whale of the Miocene in size, is apparent. But the contrast is in a higher sense. All this long

1. Beasts, with a perishable spirit, are the evening of the sixth day. Man without an immortal spirit is the morning. Here we shall find the grandest contrast of any of the six days. Historic man is the morning, extending to the end of God’s work, in reference to matter. Duration ceases to be measured at the close of this day. Solomon alludes to the contrasts found in this day. “Who knoweth the spirit of the beast, that goeth downward; and the spirit of man, that goeth upward?” For a long time t