The History of Astronomy

is said to be given by Moses to us in "five words," and Ingersoll quotes those words thus, "He made the stars also." He should have been contented with only "three words," he has two too many. Turn up the passage and you will see that I am right, for the words he made have no business there. What, then, is the meaning? The entire passage supplies the answer: "He set the greater light to rule the day, and lesser light page 16 to rule the night—the stars also." Is it not most patently evident that the office given to the moon was also given to the stars? and might justly be placed thus, "the lesser light, and also the stars, to rale the night." If Ingersoll or any other can show from this statement anything inconsistent with facts, he will do more than any of his predecessors. It matters little what he "believes," it is what he proves, that we have to do with, or that will affect the minds of the religious thoughtful. To me it appears that Moses knew more about the science of astronomy than most men give him credit for. There are few cosmologists who have been able to write so consistent a description of the great event. To those who have made it a matter of conscientious study, the harmony between the Mosaic record and geological discoveries is most overpoweringly wonderful, and such scurrilous attacks upon it as that made by Ingersoll only tend to deepen their admiration! But, was it written as a history of astronomy? Who gave Ingersoll authority to say that it was? not certainly the author of Genesis. It is simply one of Ingersoll's supposititious facts, created by him for an "express purpose."