land, and upon it a varied vegetable life, similar to that which now
exists, made its appearance; that the fourth day was signalised by the
apparition of the sun, the stars, the moon, and the planets; that, on
the fifth day, aquatic animals originated within the waters; that, on
the sixth day, the earth gave rise to our four-footed terrestrial
creatures, and to all varieties of terrestrial animals except birds,
which had appeared on the preceding day; and, finally, that man appeared
upon the earth, and the emergence of the universe from chaos was
finished. Milton tells us, without the least ambiguity, what a spectator
of these marvellous occurrences would have witnessed. I doubt not that
his poem is familiar to all of you, but I should like to recall one
passage to your minds, in order that I may be justified in what I have
said regarding the perfectly concrete, definite picture of the origin of
the animal world which Milton draws. He says:--

"The sixth, and of creation last, arose
With evening harps and matin, when God said,
'Let the earth bring forth soul living in her kind,
Cattle and creeping things, and beast of the earth,
Each in their kind!' The earth obeyed, and, straight
Opening her fertile womb, teemed at a birth
Innumerous living creatures, perfect forms,
Limbed and full-grown. Out of the ground uprose,
As from his lair, the wild beast, where he wons
In forest wild, in thicket, brake, or den;
Among the trees in pairs they rose, they walked;
The cattle in the fields and meadows green;
Those rare and solitary; these in flocks
Pasturing at once, and in broad herds upsprung.
The grassy clods now calved; now half appears