Page:Geology and Mineralogy considered with reference to Natural Theology, 1837, volume 1.djvu/39

It appears highly probable from recent discoveries,^[1] that light is not a material substance, but only an effect of undulations of ether; that this infinitely subtle and elastic ether pervades all space, and even the interior of all bodies; so long as it remains at rest, there is total darkness; when it is put into a peculiar state of vibration, the sensation of light is produced: this vibration may be excited by various causes; e. g. by the sun, by they stars, by electricity, combustion, &c. If then light be not a substance, but only a series of vibrations of ether, i. e. an effect produced on a subtile fluid, by the excitement of one or many extraneous causes, it can hardly be said, nor is it said, in Gen. i. 3, to have been created,^[2] though it may be literally said to be called into action.

Lastly, in the reference made in the Fourth Commandment, Exod. xx. 11, to the six days of the Mosaic creation, the word asah, "made," is the same which is used in Gen. i. 7, and Gen. i. 16, and which has been shown to be less strong and less comprehensive than bara, "created;" and as it by no means necessarily implies creation out of nothing, it may be here employed to express a new arrangement of materials that existed before.^[3]

After all, it should be recollected that the question is not respecting the correctness of the Mosaic narrative, but of our interpretation of it; and still further, it should be borne in mind that the object of this account was, not to state in what manner, but by whom, the world was made. As the prevailing tendency of men in those early days, was to worship the most glorious objects of nature, namely, the sun and moon and stars; it should seem to have been one important point in the Mosaic account of creation, to guard

1. For a general statement of the undulatory theory of light, see Sir John Herschell, art. Light, part iii. sec. 2. Encyc. Metropol. See also Professor Airy's Mathematical Tracts, 2d edit. 1831, p. 249; and Mrs. Somerville's Connexion of the Physical Sciences, 1834, p. 185.
2. See Note, p. 30.
3. See Note, p. 27.