whenever scientific speculation has thrown down any fresh gage of battle,
as against the validity of these "sacred writings," the advocates of the
latter have only had to take it up to dispel the mists of controversy and
achieve a more conclusive triumph than ever. For the truth of this
statement it is only necessary for us to instance a few of the more
important facts contained in the Bible Genesis. And should it be found
that the writer of this volume has discovered, in a long overlooked, much
neglected, and inaccurately translated passage of this Genesis, a key that
unlocks the whole "mystery of life," as the great battle is now waging
between the materialists and vitalists of this country and Europe, it will
most conclusively establish the point we shall here make--that in no
equally limited compass, in ancient or modern manuscript or published
volume, since the first dawn of letters to the present time, are there to
be found so many conclusively established facts of genuine scientific
value as in the first chapter of Genesis.

In dispelling the mists of prejudice, and possibly of doubtful
translation, let us look this "genesis" squarely in the face:--

1. Take the statement that "in the beginning" the earth was without form
and void, and darkness rested upon the face of the depths. Here is not
only no conflict with science, but the great suggestive fact which led
Laplace to construct his "Nebular Hypothesis," or that magnificent
system of world-structures which regards the universe as originally
consisting of uniformly diffused matter filling all space, and hence
"without form and void," but which subsequently became aggregated by
gravitation into an infinite number of sun-systems, occupying
inconceivably vast areas in space.

2. Nor can science well afford to cavil at that other most important