THE DRY LAND AND THE FIRST PLANTS.
"And God said, Let the waters under the heavens be gathered
into one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.
And God called the dry land earth, and the gathering of
waters called he seas; and God saw that it was good.
"And God said, Let the earth bring forth the springing herb,
the herb bearing seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit,
after its kind, whose seed is in it on the earth: and it was
so. And the earth brought forth the tender herb, the herb
yielding seed, and the tree bearing fruit whose seed is in
it, after its kind; and God saw that it was good."--Genesis
i., 10, 11.
These are events sufficiently simple and intelligible in their general
character. Geology shows us that the emergence of the dry land must
have resulted from the elevation of parts of the bed of the ancient
universal ocean, and that the agent employed in such changes is the
bending and crumpling of the outer crust of the earth, caused by
lateral pressure, and operating either in a slow and regular manner or
by sudden paroxysms. It farther informs us that the existing
continents consist of stratified or bedded masses, more or less
inclined, fissured and irregularly elevated, and usually supported by
crystalline rocks which have been produced among them, or forced up
beneath or through them by internal agencies, and which truly
constitute the pillars and foundations of the earth. These elevations,
it is true, were successive, and belong to different periods; but the
appearance of the first dry land is that intended here.
The elevation of the dry land is more frequently referred to in
Scripture than any other cosmological fact; and while all have been
misapprehended, the statements on this subject have been even more
unjustly dealt with than others. In the text, the word "earth"
(_aretz_[78]) is, by divine sanction, narrowed in meaning to the dry
land; but while some expositors are quite willing to restrict it to
this, or even a more limited sense, in the first and second verses of
this chapter, almost the only verses in the Bible where the terms of
the narrative make such a restriction inadmissible, they are equally
ready to understand it as meaning the whole globe in places where the
explanatory clause in the verse now under consideration teaches us
that we should understand the land only, as distinguished from the
sea. I may quote some of these passages, and note the views they give;
always bearing in mind that, after the intimation here given, we must
understand the term "earth" as applying _only to the continents_ or
_dry land_, unless where the context otherwise fixes the meaning. We
may first turn to Psalm civ.:
"Thou laidst the foundations of the earth,
That it should never be removed;
Thou coveredst it with the deep as with a garment;
The waters stood above the mountains;
At thy rebuke they fled;
At the sound of thy thunder they hasted away;
Mountains ascended, valleys descended
To the place thou hast appointed for them:
Thou hast appointed them bounds that they may not pass,
That they return not again to cover the earth."
The position of these verses in this "the hymn of creation" leaves no
doubt that they refer to the events we are now considering. I have
given above the literal reading of the line that refers to the
elevation of mountains and subsidence of valleys; admitting, however,
that the grammatical construction gives an air of probability to the
rendering in our version, "they go up by the mountains, they go down
by the valleys," which, on the other hand, is rendered very improbable
by the sense. In whichever sense we understand this line, the picture
presented to us by the Psalmist includes the elevation of the
mountains and continents, the subsidence of the waters into their
depressed basins, and the firm establishment of the dry land on its
rocky foundations, the whole accompanied by a feature not noticed in
Genesis--the voice of God's thunder--or, in other words, electrical
and volcanic explosions. The following quotations refer to the same
subject:
"Before the mountains were settled,
Before the hills was I (the Wisdom of God) brought forth;
While as yet he had not made the earth,
Nor the plains, nor the higher parts of the habitable world.
When he gave the sea his decree
That the waters should not pass his limits,
When he determined the foundations of the earth."
--Proverbs viii., 25.
"Thou hast established the earth, and it endureth,
According to thy decrees they continue this day,
For all are thy servants."
--Psalm cxix., 90.
"Who shaketh the earth out of its place,
And its pillars tremble."
--Job ix., 6.
"Where wast thou when I founded the earth?
Declare, if thou hast knowledge.
Who hath fixed the proportion thereof, if thou knowest?
Who stretched the line upon it?
Upon what are its foundations settled?
Or who laid its corner-stone,
When the morning stars sang together,
And all the sons of God shouted for joy?
Who shut up the sea with doors
In its bursting forth as from the womb?
When I made the cloud its garment,
And swathed it in thick darkness,
I measured out for it my limit,
And fixed its bars and doors;
And said, Thus far shalt thou come, but no farther,
And here shall thy proud waves be stayed."
--Job xxxviii., 4.
In these passages the foundation of the earth at first, as well as the
shaking of its pillars by the earthquake, are connected with what we
usually call natural law--the decree of the Almighty--the unchanging
arrangements of an unchangeable Creator, whose "hands formed the dry
land."[79] This is the ultimate cause not only of the elevation of the
land, but of all other natural things and processes. The naturalist
does not require to be informed that the details, in so far as they
are referred to in the above passages, are perfectly in accordance
with what we know of the nature and support of continental masses.
Geological observation and mathematical calculation have in our day
combined their powers to give clear views of the manner in which the
fractured strata of the earth are wedged and arched together, and
supported by internal igneous masses upheaved from beneath, and
subsequently cooled and hardened. A general view of these facts which
we have learned from scientific inquiry, the Hebrews gleaned with
nearly as much precision from the short account of the elevation of
the land in Genesis, and from the later comments of their inspired
poets. From the same source our own great poet, Milton, learned these
cosmical facts, before the rise of geology, and expressed them in
unexceptionable terms:
"The mountains huge appear
Emergent, and their broad bare backs upheave
Into the clouds, their tops ascend the sky.
So high as heaved the tumid hills, so low
Down sunk a hollow bottom, broad and deep,
Capacious bed of waters."
In further illustration of the opinions of the Scripture writers
respecting the nature of the earth, and the disturbances to which it
is liable, I quote the following passages. The first is from the
magnificent description of Jehovah descending to succor his people
amid the terrors of the earthquake, the volcano, and the
thunder-storm, in Psalm xviii.:
"Then shook and trembled the earth,
The foundations of the hills moved and were shaken,
Because he was angry.
Smoke went up from his nostrils,
Fire from his mouth devoured,
Coals were kindled by it.
Then were seen the channels of the waters,
And the foundations of the world were discovered,
At thy rebuke--O Jehovah--
At the blast of the breath of thy nostrils."
In another place in the Psalms we find volcanic action thus tersely
sketched:
"He looketh on the earth and it trembleth,
He toucheth the hills and they smoke."
--Psalm civ., 32.
Perhaps the most remarkable discourse on this subject in the whole
Bible is that in Job xxviii., in which mining operations are
introduced as an illustration of the difficulty of obtaining true
wisdom. This passage is interesting both from its extreme antiquity,
and the advancement in knowledge and practical skill which it
indicates. It presents, however, many difficulties; and its details
have almost entirely lost their true significance in our common
English version:
"Surely there is a vein for silver,
And a place for the gold which men refine;
Iron is taken from the earth,
And copper is molten from the ore.
To the end of darkness and to all extremes man searcheth,
For the stones of darkness and the shadow of death.
He opens a passage [shaft] from where men dwell,
Unsupported by the foot, they hang down and swing to and fro.[80]
The earth--out of it cometh bread;
And beneath, it is overturned as by fire.[81]
Its stones are the place of sapphires,
And it hath lumps[82] of gold.
The path (thereto) the bird of prey hath not known,
The vulture's eye hath not seen it.[83]
The wild beasts' whelps have not trodden it,
The lion hath not passed over it.
Man layeth his hand on the hard rock,
He turneth up the mountains from their roots,
He cutteth channels [_adits_] in the rocks,
His eye seeth every precious thing.
He restraineth the streams from trickling,
And bringeth the hidden thing to light.
But where shall wisdom be found,
And where is the place of understanding?"
This passage, incidentally introduced, gives us a glimpse of the
knowledge of the interior of the earth and its products, as it existed
in an age probably anterior to that of Moses. It brings before us the
repositories of the valuable metals and gems--the mining operations,
apparently of some magnitude and difficulty, undertaken in extracting
them--and the wonderful structure of the earth itself, green and
productive at the surface, rich in precious metals beneath, and deeper
still the abode of intense subterranean fires. The only thing wanting
to give completeness to the picture is some mention of the fossil
remains buried in the earth; and, as the main thought is the eager and
successful search for useful minerals, this can hardly be regarded as
a defect. The application of all this is finer than almost any thing
else in didactic poetry. Man can explore depths of the earth
inaccessible to all other creatures, and extract thence treasures of
inestimable value; yet, after thus exhausting all the natural riches
of the earth, he too often lacks that highest wisdom which alone can
fit him for the true ends of his spiritual being. How true is all
this, even in our own wonder-working days! A poet of to-day could
scarcely say more of subterranean wonders, or say it more truthfully
and beautifully; nor could he arrive at a conclusion more pregnant
with the highest philosophy than the closing words:
"The fear of the Lord, that is wisdom;
And to depart from evil is understanding."
The emergence of the dry land is followed by a repetition of the
approval of the Creator. "God saw that it was good." To our view that
primeval dry land would scarcely have seemed good. It was a world of
bare, rocky peaks, and verdureless valleys--here active volcanoes,
with their heaps of scoriae and scarcely cooled lava currents--there
vast mudflats, recently upheaved from the bottom of the
waters--nowhere even a blade of grass or a clinging lichen. Yet it was
good in the view of its Maker, who could see it in relation to the
uses for which he had made it, and as a fit preparatory step to the
new wonders he was soon to introduce. Then too, as we are informed in
Job xxxviii., "The morning stars sang together, and all the sons of
God shouted for joy." We also, when we think of the beautiful variety
of the terrestrial surface, the character and composition of its
soils, the variety of climate and exposure resulting from its degrees
of elevation, the arrangements for the continuance of springs and
streams, and many other beneficial provisions connected with the
merely mechanical arrangements of the dry land, may well join in the
tribute of praise to the All-wise Creator. There is, however, a
farther thought suggested by the approval of the great Artificer. In
this wondrous progress of creation, it seems as if every thing at
first was in its best estate. No succeeding state could parallel the
unbroken symmetry of the earth in the fluid and vaporous condition of
the "deep." Before the elevation of the land, the atmospheric currents
and the deposition of moisture must have been surpassingly regular.
The first dry land may have presented crags and peaks and ravines and
volcanic cones in a more marvellous and perfect manner than any
succeeding continents--even as the dry and barren moon now, in this
respect, far surpasses the earths. In the progress of organic life,
geology gives similar indications, in the variety and magnitude of
many animal types on their first introduction; so that this may very
possibly be a law of creation.
During the emergence of the first dry land, large quantities of
detrital matter must have been deposited in the waters, and in part
elevated into land. All of these beds would, probably, be destitute of
organic remains; but if such beds were formed and still remain, they
are probably unknown to us, for the oldest formations that we
know--those of the Eozoic age--contain traces of such remains. It has,
indeed, been suggested that these most ancient organisms are, as it
were, overlooked in the history of creation, or regarded as equivalent
to those shapeless monsters and animals of the darkness that are
referred to in the older Turanian versions of this story of creation.
I doubt very much, however, if this is a fair interpretation of our
ancient record; but we shall be in a better position to discuss it
when we come to the actual introduction of animals.
Modern analogy would induce us to believe that the land was not
elevated suddenly; but either by a series of small paroxysms, as in
the case of Chili, or by a gradual and imperceptible movement, as in
the case of Sweden--two of the most remarkable modern instances of
elevation of land--accompanied, however, in the case of the last by
local subsidence.[84] In either of these ways the seas and rivers
would have time to smooth the more rugged inequalities, to widen the
ravines into valleys, and to spread out sediment in the lower grounds;
thus fitting the surface for the habitation of plants and animals. We
must not suppose, however, that the dry land had any close resemblance
to that now existing in its form or distribution. Geology amply
proves that since the first appearance of dry land, its contour has
frequently been changed, and probably also its position. Hence nearly
all our present land consists of rocks which have been formed under
the waters, long after the period now under consideration, and have
been subsequently hardened and elevated; and since all the existing
high mountain ranges are of a comparatively late age, it is probable
that this primeval dry land was low, as well as, in the earlier part
of the period at least, of comparatively small extent. It is, however,
by no means certain that there may not have been a greater expanse of
land toward the close of this period than that which afterwards
existed in those older periods of animal life to which the earliest
fossiliferous rocks of the geologist carry us back; since, as already
hinted, it seems to be a rule in creation that each new object shall
be highly developed of its kind at its first appearance, and since
there have been in geological time many great subsidences as well as
elevations. Neither must we forget that the oldest land has been
subjected throughout geological time to wearing and degrading
agencies, and that from its waste the later formations have been
mainly derived.
It would be wrong, however, to omit to state that, though we may know
at present no remains of the first dry land, we are not ignorant of
its general distribution; for the present continents show, in the
arrangement of their formations and mountain chains, evidence that
they are parts of a plan sketched out from the beginning. It has often
been remarked by physical geographers that the great lines of coast
and mountain ranges are generally in directions approaching to
northeast and southwest, or northwest and southeast, and that where
they run in other directions, as in the case of the south of Europe
and Asia, they are much broken by salient and re-entering angles,
formed by lines having these directions. Professor R. Owen, of
Tennessee, and Professor Pierce, of Harvard College, were, I believe,
the first to point out that these lines are in reality parts of great
circles tangent to the polar circles, and the latter to suggest a
theory of their origin, based on the action of solar heat and the
seasons on a cooling earth. This has been more fully stated by Mr. W.
Lowthian Green in his curious book, "Vestiges of the Molten
Globe."[85] It would appear that the great circles in question are in
reality at right angles to the line of direction of the attraction of
the sun and moon at the period of either solstice, and when they
happen to be in conjunction or opposition at these periods; and that
such circles would be the lines on which the thin crust of a cooling
globe would be most likely to be ruptured by its internal tidal-wave.
Whatever the cause of the phenomenon, it is evident that in the
formation of its surface inequalities the earth has cracked--so to
speak--along two series of great circles tangent to the polar circles;
and that these, with certain subordinate lines of fracture running
north and south and east and west, have determined the forms of the
continents from their origin.
M. Elie de Beaumont, and after him most other geologists, have
attributed the elevation of the continents and the upheaval and
plication of mountain chains to the secular refrigeration of the
earth, causing its outer shell to become too capacious for its
contracting interior mass, and thus to break or bend, and to settle
toward the centre. This view would well accord with the terms in which
the elevation of the land is mentioned throughout the Bible, and
especially with the general progress of the work as we have gleaned
it from the Mosaic narrative; since from the period of the desolate
void and aeriform deep to that now before us secular refrigeration
must have been steadily in progress. Let us also observe here that the
earliest fractures of the crust would determine the first coast lines,
and the first slopes along which sedimentary matter would descend from
the land and be deposited in the sea. They would also modify the
direction of the ocean currents. Thus the deposition of new formations
would be directed by these old lines, as would also to some extent the
course of all subsequent fractures and plications. Thus it happens
that the lines of outcrop of the oldest rocks first raised out of the
waters already marked out the forms of the continents, and that the
later formations appear rather as fillings-up and extensions of the
skeleton established by the first dry land. Farther, the lines of
plication first established along the borders of the continents formed
resisting walls along which, in the continued contraction of the
earth, pressure was exerted from the ocean bed, widening and elevating
these lines of upheaval, and still farther fixing the general forms of
the continents, and giving variety to their surfaces. In the progress
of geological time there have also been successive depressions and
re-elevations of the continental plateaus, subjecting them alternately
to the wearing and disintegrating action of the atmosphere and its
waters, and to the influence of waves and ocean currents, and
especially to that of the deep-seated polar currents which have
throughout geological ages been loading the submerged areas of the
earth's surface with the products of the waste caused by frost and ice
in the polar regions. These causes again have been progressively
increasing the oblateness of the earth's figure, and, along with the
slackening of its rotation, preparing the way for those periodical
collapses in the equatorial and temperate regions which form the
boundaries of some of our most important geological periods.[86]
Throughout all these changes the great general plan of the continents,
first sketched out when the "foundations of the earth" were laid,
before Eozoic time, was being elaborated.
The same creative period that witnessed the first appearance of dry
land saw it also clothed with vegetation; and it is quite likely that
this is intended to teach that no time was lost in clothing the earth
with plants--that the first emerging portions received their vegetable
tenants as they became fitted for them--and that each additional
region, as it rose above the surface of the waters, in like manner
received the species of plants for which it was adapted. What was the
nature of this earliest vegetation? The sacred writer specifies three
descriptions of plants as included in it; and, by considering the
terms which he uses, some information on this subject may be gained.
_Deshe_, translated "grass" in our version, is derived from a verb
signifying to spring up or bud forth; the same verb, indeed, used in
this verse to denote "bringing forth," literally causing to spring up.
Its radical meaning is, therefore, vegetation in the act of sprouting
or springing forth; or, as connected with this, young and delicate
herbage. Thus, in Job xxxviii., "To satisfy the desolate and waste
ground, and to cause the bud of the _young herbage_ to spring forth."
Here the reference is, no doubt, to the bulbous and tuberous rooted
plants of the desert plains, which, fading away in the summer drought,
burst forth with magical rapidity on the setting-in of rain. The
following passages are similar: Psalm xxiii., "He maketh me to lie
down in green pastures" (literally, young or _tender herbage_);
Deuteronomy xxiii., "Small rain upon the _tender herb_;" Isaiah
xxxvii., "_Grass_ on the house-tops." The word is also used for
herbage such as can be eaten by cattle or cut down for fodder, though
even in these cases the idea of young and tender herbage is evidently
included; "Fat as a heifer at _grass_" (Jer. xiv.)--that is, feeding
on young succulent grass, not that which is dry and parched. "Cut down
as the grass, or wither as the green herb," like the soft, tender
grass, soon cut down and quickly withering. With respect to the use of
the word in this place, I may remark: 1. It is not here correctly
translated by the word "grass;" for grass bears seed, and is,
consequently, a member of the second class of plants mentioned. Even
if we set aside all idea of inspiration, it is obviously impossible
that any one living among a pastoral or agricultural people could have
been ignorant of this fact. 2. It can scarcely be a general term,
including all plants when in a young or tender state. The idea of
their springing up is included in the verb, and this was but a very
temporary condition. Besides, this word does not appear to be employed
for the young state of shrubs or trees. 3. We thus appear to be shut
up to the conclusion that _deshe_ here means those plants, mostly
small and herbaceous, which bear no proper seeds;[87] in other words,
the Cryptogamia--as fungi, mosses, lichens, ferns, etc. The remaining
words are translated with sufficient accuracy in our version. They
denote seed-bearing or phoenogamous herbs and trees. The special
mention of the fructification of plants is probably intended not only
for distinction, but also to indicate the new power of organic
reproduction now first introduced on the surface of our planet, and to
mark its difference from the creative act itself. That this new and
wondrous phenomenon should be so stated is thus in strict scientific
propriety, and it is precisely the point that would be seized by an
intelligent spectator of the visions of creation, who had previously
witnessed only the accretion and disintegration of mineral substances,
and to whom this marvellous power of organic reproduction would be in
every respect a new creation.
The arrangement of plants in the three great classes of cryptogams,
seed-bearing herbs, and fruit-bearing trees differs in one important
point--viz., the separation of herbaceous plants from trees--from
modern botanical classification. It is, however, sufficiently natural
for the purposes of a general description like this, and perhaps gives
more precise ideas of the meaning intended than any other arrangement
equally concise and popular. It is also probable that the object of
the writer was not so much a natural-history classification as an
account of the _order_ of creation, and that he wishes to affirm that
the introduction of these three classes of plants on the earth
corresponded with the order here stated. This view renders it
unnecessary to vindicate the accuracy of the arrangement on botanical
grounds, since the historical order was evidently better suited to the
purpose in view, and in so far as the earlier appearance of
cryptogamous plants is concerned, it is in strict accordance with
geological fact.
A very important truth is contained in the expression "after its
kind"--that is, after its _species_; for the Hebrew "_min_," used
here, has strictly this sense, and, like the Greek _idea_ and the
Latin _species_, conveys the notion of form as well as that of kind.
It is used to denote species of animals, in Leviticus i., 14, and in
Deuteronomy xiv., 15. We are taught by this statement that plants were
created each kind by itself; and that creation was not a sort of
slump-work to be perfected by the operation of a law of development,
as fancied by some modern speculators. In this assertion of the
distinctness of species, and the production of each as a distinct part
of the creative plan, revelation tallies perfectly with the
conclusions of natural science, which lead us to believe that each
species, as observed by us, is permanently reproductive, variable
within narrow limits, and incapable of permanent intermixture with
other species; and though hypotheses of modification by descent, and
of the production of new species by such modification, may be formed,
they are not in accordance with experience, and are still among the
unproved speculations which haunt the outskirts of true science. We
shall be better prepared, however, to weigh the relations of such
hypotheses to our revelation of origins when we shall have reached the
period of the introduction of animal life.
Some additional facts contained in the recapitulation of the creative
work in Chapter II. may very properly be considered here, as they seem
to refer to the climatal conditions of the earth during the growth of
the most ancient vegetation, and before the final adjustment of the
astronomical relations of the earth on the fourth day. "And every
shrub of the land before it was on the earth, and every herb of the
land before it sprung up. For the Lord God had not caused it to rain
on the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground; but a mist
ascended from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground."
This has been supposed to be a description of the state of the earth
during the whole period anterior to the fall of man. There is,
however, no Scripture evidence of this; and geology informs us that
rain fell as at present far back in the Palaeozoic period, countless
ages before the creation of man or the existing animals. Although,
however, such a condition of the earth as that stated in these verses
has not been known in any geological period, yet it is not
inconceivable, but in reality corresponds with the other conditions of
nature likely to have prevailed on the third day, as described in
Genesis. The land of this period, we may suppose, was not very
extensive nor very elevated. Hence the temperature would be uniform
and the air moist. The luminous and calorific matter connected with
the sun still occupied a large space, and therefore diffused heat and
light more uniformly than at present. The internal heat of the earth
may still have produced an effect in warming the oceanic waters. The
combined operation of these causes, of which we, perhaps, have some
traces as late as the Carboniferous period, might well produce a state
of things in which the earth was watered, not by showers of rain, but
by the gentle and continued precipitation of finely divided moisture,
in the manner now observed in those climates in which vegetation is
nourished for a considerable part of the year by nocturnal mists and
copious dews. The atmosphere, in short, as yet partook in some slight
degree of the same moist and misty character which prevailed before
the "establishment of the clouds above"--the airy firmament of the
second day. The introduction of these explanatory particulars by the
sacred historian furnishes an additional argument for the theory of
long periods. That vegetation should exist for two or three natural
days without rain or the irrigation which is given in culture, was, as
already stated, a circumstance altogether unworthy of notice; but the
growth during a long period of a varied and highly organized flora,
without this advantage, and by the aid of a special natural provision
afterward discontinued, was in all respects so remarkable and so
highly illustrative of the expedients of the divine wisdom that it
deserved a prominent place.
It is evident that the words of the inspired writer include plants
belonging to all the great subdivisions of the vegetable kingdom. This
earliest vegetation was not rude or incomplete, or restricted to the
lower forms of life. It was not even, like that of the coal period,
solely or mainly cryptogamous or gymnospermous. It included trees
bearing fruit, as well as lichens and mosses, and it received the same
stamp of approbation bestowed on other portions of the work--"it was
good." We have a good right to assume that its excellence had
reference not only to its own period, but to subsequent conditions of
the earth. Vegetation is the great assimilating power, the converter
of inorganic into organic matter suitable for the sustenance of
animals. In like manner the lower tribes of plants prepare the way for
the higher. We should therefore have expected _a priori_ that
vegetation would have clothed the earth before the creation of
animals, and a sufficient time before it to allow soils to be
accumulated, and surplus stores of organic matter to be prepared in
advance: this consideration alone would also induce us to assign a
considerable duration to the third day. After the elevation of land,
and the draining off from it of the saline matter with which it would
be saturated, a process often very tedious, especially in low tracts
of ground, the soil would still consist only of mineral matter, and
must have been for a long period occupied by plants suited to this
condition of things, in order that sufficient organic matter might be
accumulated for the growth of a more varied vegetation; a
consideration which perhaps illustrates the order of the plants in the
narrative.
It may be objected to the above views that, however accordant with
chemical and physiological probabilities, they do not harmonize with
the facts of geology; since the earliest fossiliferous formations
contain almost exclusively the remains of animals, which must
therefore have preceded, or at least been coeval with, the earliest
forms of terrestrial vegetation. This objection is founded on
well-ascertained facts, but facts which may have no connection with
the third day of creation when regarded as a long period. The oldest
geological formations are of marine origin, and contain remains of
marine animals, with those of plants supposed to be allied to the
existing algae or sea-weeds. Geology can not, however, assure us either
that no land plants existed contemporaneously with these earliest
animals, or that no land flora preceded them. These oldest
fossiliferous rocks may mark the commencement of animal life, but they
testify nothing as to the existence or non-existence of a previous
period of vegetation alone. Farther, the rocks which contain the
oldest remains of life exist as far as yet known in a condition so
highly metamorphic as almost to preclude the possibility of their
containing any distinguishable vegetable fossils; yet they contain
vast deposits of carbon in the form of graphite, and if this, like
more modern coaly matter, was accumulated by vegetable growth, it must
indicate an exuberance of plants in these earliest geological periods,
but of plants as yet altogether unknown to us. It is possible,
therefore, that in these Eozoic rocks we may have remnants of the
formations of the third Mosaic day; and if we should ever be so
fortunate as to find any portion of them containing vegetable fossils,
and these of species differing from any hitherto known, either in a
fossil state or recent, and rising higher, in elevation and complexity
of type, than the flora of the succeeding Silurian and Carboniferous
eras, we may then suppose that we have penetrated to the monuments of
this third creative aeon. The only other alternative by which these
verses can be reconciled with geology is that adopted by the late Hugh
Miller, who supposes that the plants of the third day are those of the
Carboniferous period; but, besides the apparent anachronism involved
in this, we now know that the coal flora consisted mainly of
cryptogams allied to ferns and club-mosses, and of gymnosperms allied
to the pines and cycads, the higher orders of plants being almost
entirely wanting. For these reasons we are shut up to the conclusion
that this flora of the third day must have its place before the
Palaeozoic period of geology.
To those who are familiar with the vast lapse of time required by the
geological history of the earth, it may be startling to ascribe the
whole of it to three or four of the creative days. If, however, it be
admitted that these days were periods of unknown duration, no reason
remains for limiting their length any farther than the facts of the
case require. If in the strata of the earth which are accessible to us
we can detect the evidence of its existence for myriads of years, why
may not its Creator be able to carry our view back for myriads more.
It may be humbling to our pride of knowledge, but it is not on any
scientific ground improbable, that the oldest animal remains known to
geology belong to the middle period of the earth's history, and were
preceded by an enormous lapse of ages in which the earth was being
prepared for animal existence, but of which no records remain, except
those contained in the inspired history.
It would be quite unphilosophical for geology to affirm either that
animal life must always have existed, or that its earliest animals are
necessarily the earliest organic beings. To use, with a slight
modification, the words of an able thinker on these subjects,[88]
"For ages the prejudice prevailed that the historical period, or that
which is coeval with the life of man, exhausted the whole history of
the globe. Geologists removed that prejudice," but must not substitute
"another in its place, viz., that geological time is coeval with the
globe itself, or that organic life always existed on its surface."
A second doubt as to the existence of this primitive flora may be
based on the statement that it included the highest forms of plants.
Had it consisted only of low and imperfect vegetables, there might
have been much less difficulty in admitting its probability. Farther,
we find that even in the Carboniferous period scarcely any plants of
the higher orders flourished, and there was a preponderance of the
lower forms of the vegetable kingdom. We have, however, in geological
chronology, many illustrations of the fact that the progress of
improvement has not been continuous or uninterrupted, and that the
preservation of the flora and fauna of many geological periods has
been very imperfect. Hence the occurrence in one particular stratum or
group of strata of few or low representatives of animal and vegetable
life affords no proof that a better state of things may not have
existed previously. We also find, in the case of animals, that each
tribe attained to its highest development at the time when, in the
progress of creation, it occupied the summit of the scale of life.
Analogy would thus lead us to believe that when plants alone existed,
they may have assumed nobler forms than any now existing, or that
tribes now represented by few and humble species may at that time have
been so great in numbers and development as to fill all the offices of
our present complicated flora, as well as, perhaps, some of those now
occupied by animals. We have this principle exemplified in the
Carboniferous flora, by the magnitude of its arborescent club-mosses,
and the vast variety of its gymnosperms. For this reason we may
anticipate that if any remains of this early plant-creation should be
disinterred, they will prove to be among the most wonderful and
interesting geological relics ever discovered, and will enlarge our
views of the compass and capabilities of the vegetable kingdom, and
especially of its lower forms.
A farther objection is the uselessness of the existence of plants for
a long period, without any animals to subsist on or enjoy them, and
even without forming any accumulation of fossil fuel or other products
useful to man. The only direct answer to this has already been given.
The previous existence of plants may have been, and probably was,
essential to the comfort and subsistence of the animals afterwards
introduced. Independently of this, however, we have an analogous case
in the geological history of animals, which prevents this fact from
standing alone. Why was the earth tenanted so long by the inferior
races of animals, and why were so much skill and contrivance expended
on their structures, and even on their external ornament, when there
was no intelligent mind on earth to appreciate their beauties. Even in
the present world we may as well ask why the uninhabited islands of
the ocean are found to be replete with luxuriant vegetable life, why
God causes it to rain in the desert where human foot never treads, or
why he clothes with a marvellous exuberance of beautiful animal and
plant forms the depths of the sea. We can but say that these things
seemed and seem good to the Creator, and may serve uses unknown to us;
and this is precisely what we must be content to say respecting the
plant-creation of the Eozoic period.
Some writers[89] on this subject have suggested that the cosmical use
of this plant-creation was the abstraction from the atmosphere of an
excess of carbonic acid unfavorable to the animal life subsequently to
be introduced. This use it may have served, and when its effects had
been gradually lost through metamorphism and decay, that second great
withdrawal of carbon which took place in the Carboniferous period may
have been rendered necessary. The reasons afforded by natural history
for supposing that plants preceded animals are thus stated by
Professor Dana:
"The proof from science of the existence of plants before animals is
inferential, and still may be deemed satisfactory. Distinct fossils
have not been found, all that ever existed in the azoic[90] rocks
having been obliterated. The arguments in the affirmative are as
follows:
"1. The existence of limestone rocks among the other beds, similar
limestones in later ages having been of organic origin; also the
occurrence of carbon in the shape of graphite, graphite being, in
known cases in rocks, a result of the alteration of the carbon of
plants.
"2. The fact that the cooling earth would have been fitted for
vegetable life for a long age before animals could have existed; the
principle being exemplified everywhere that the earth was occupied at
each period with the highest kinds of life the conditions allowed.
"3. The fact that vegetation subserved an important purpose in the
coal-period in ridding the atmosphere of carbonic acid for the
subsequent introduction of land animals, suggests a valid reason for
believing that the same great purpose, the true purpose of vegetation,
was effected through the ocean before the _waters_ were fitted for
animal life.
"4. Vegetation being directly or mediately the food of animals, it
must have had a previous existence. The latter part of the azoic age
in geology we therefore regard as the age when the plant kingdom was
instituted, the latter half of the third day in Genesis. However short
or long the epoch, it was one of the great steps of progress."
In concluding the examination of the work of the third day, I must
again remind the reader that, on the theory of long creative periods,
the words under consideration must refer to the first introduction of
vegetation, in forms that have long since ceased to exist. Geology
informs us that in the period of which it is cognizant the vegetation
of the earth has been several times renewed, and that no plants of the
older and middle geological periods now exist. We may therefore rest
assured that the vegetable species, and probably also many of the
generic and family forms of the vegetation of the third day, have long
since perished, and been replaced by others suited to the changed
condition of the earth. It is indeed probable that during the third
and fourth days themselves there might be many removals and renewals
of the terrestrial flora, so that perhaps every species created at the
commencement of the introduction of plants may have been extinct
before the close of the period. Nevertheless it was marked by the
introduction of vegetation, which in one or another set of forms has
ever since clothed the earth.
At the commencement of the third day the earth was still covered by
the waters. As time advanced islands and mountain-peaks arose from
the ocean, vomiting forth the molten and igneous materials of the
interior of the earth's crust. Plains and valleys were then spread
around, rivers traced out their beds, and the ocean was limited by
coasts and divided by far-stretching continents. At the command of the
Creator plants sprung from the soil--the earliest of organized
structures--at first probably few and small, and fitted to contend
against the disadvantages of soils impregnated with saline particles
and destitute of organic matter; but as the day advanced increasing in
number, magnitude, and elevation, until at length the earth was
clothed with a luxuriant and varied vegetation, worthy the approval of
the Creator, and the admiring song of the angelic "sons of God."