Genesis 1:20
The earth has now become a delightful abode, but it is entirely without
inhabitants. Two days more shall people it with animals, and the water
itself, which has hitherto been the obstacle of production, shall be
first of all rendered productive. God said, “Let the waters bring forth
abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly
above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.” And the effect of
this creative word is recorded with some variations, which it may be
well to note. “And God created great whales, and every living creature
that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly after
their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind.”
In connection with the remark, offered yesterday as to the use of the
word made, as distinguished from that of the word created, the reader
will not fail to observe, that now again, when the statement has
reference to a direct calling into existence of that which did not
previously in any form exist, the latter word is again employed.
Milton scarcely anywhere, in so narrow a compass, indicates his
profound knowledge of biblical lore, as in the version he has given of
the first clause of the Divine mandate uttered on the fifth day of
creation -
“Let the waters generate
Reptile with spawn abundant.”
He knew that the word translated “moving creature,” was not “moving,”
or “creeping” (as elsewhere rendered), but rapidly multiplying or
“swarming creatures,” - in short, to all kinds of living creatures,
inhabiting the waters, which are oviparous, and remarkable for
fecundity, as we know is eminently the case with the finny tribes. In
other passages of Scripture it is applied even to the smaller land
animals and reptiles noted for their swarming abundance. The word
translated “moving creature,” is in fact the noun of the very verb
which, in the same verse, is rendered “to bring forth abundantly.” Thus
we see, that the immense numbers of these creatures, the astonishing
fecundity with which they were endowed, is the prevalent idea of this
description. Indeed, there is no phrase in human language in which,
both by noun and verb, this idea could be more forcibly expressed, than
in the Hebrew original. And yet all language fails to convey an idea of
the amazing extent of that “abundance” in bringing forth, with which
these creatures were endowed on the day of their creation. This is, of
course, more remarkable in some species than in others - and is most
obvious to our notice in the immense shoals of herrings, pilchards, and
mackerel upon our own shores. Many other species are probably
equally prolific; but not being of gregarious habits, are not seen
together in such vast numbers, and are in consequence less easily
taken. But any one who attempts to estimate the number of eggs in the
roes of various kinds of fish, may form some faint conception of the
degree in which the sea generates “reptiles with spawn abundant.” The
old microscopist Leuwenhoek gave estimates which the mind could
scarcely grasp. The greater accuracy of modern research has somewhat
moderated his statements; but enough remains to fill the mind with
astonishment. Thus the roe of a codfish has been found to contain nine
millions of eggs; of a flounder, nearly a million and half; of a
mackerel, half a million; of tenches, three hundred and fifty thousand;
of the carp, from one to six hundred thousand; of the roach and sole, a
hundred thousand; of herrings, perches, and smelts, twenty and thirty
thousand; lobsters, from seven to twenty thousand; shrimps and prawns,
above three thousand. In fact, scarcely a month passes in which the
reader may not gather, from the commonest sources, some facts showing
the enormous productiveness of fish. At one time we are told that a
hundred thousand mackerel are, in the season, brought weekly to the
London fish-market (Billingsgate); another time we hear that herrings
or pilchards have been caught so abundantly, as to have no market-value
except as manure - for which purpose they are carted away, in tens and
hundreds of thousands, by the farmers near the coast. Look, then, at
the sprats, the white bait, the shrimps, and consider what hecatombs of
these minute existences are sacrificed to help the dinner of a Dives,
or to form the supper of a Lazarus.
Nor, if we look at the text, does this function of bringing forth
abundantly, apply only to the inmates of the waters, but is extended to
the inhabitants of the air. And how truly! Look at the countless
number - millions on millions - of the eggs of one species of bird only,
that are consumed in the London market, and consider that nearly all
these might, in the course of nature, become birds, did not man
interfere; and hence form some idea of the marvellous productiveness of
the feathered tribes. Still more, the vast shoals of fish have a most
exact parallel in the immense flocks of some kinds of birds. The
Passenger Pigeon of North America, has been seen in flocks a mile
broad, that took four hours in passing, at the rate of a mile a minute;
and which have been reckoned, on these data, to contain about two
thousand and a quarter millions of birds. So Captain Flinders, in that
remarkable voyage, one of the bird-facts in which a poet of our own day
has immortalized, Note: James Montgomery, in his Pelican Island.] saw a
flock of petrels, three hundred yards or more broad, and fifty to
eighty yards deep, flying as compactly as their wings could move, and
that took an hour and a half in passing, at the rate of thirty miles an
hour. This immense body was reckoned to comprise a hundred and fifty
millions of birds. So, in the Antarctic regions, the ground is
sometimes covered to the extent of two or three miles, with millions of
that strange bird, the penguin; and when the purple grackle of America
assembles for migration, a congregated multitude of many hundred
thousands is at once present to the view.
A valuable writer, in a work which embodies a vast body of curious, but
not well-digested, nor always accurate facts, well remarks on this
subject, Note: Sharon Turner, in his Sacred History of the World.] - “The
quantity of individuals of the various bird genera which are at any one
time, and at all times, existing in our world, surpasses not only our
usual supposition, but even all power of human numeration, at least as
to any real distinct conception of the amount; for we can only pen down
the words millions, billions, trillions, quadrillions, and such other
augmentative terms, in which all actual comprehension soon becomes lost
in mere verbal sounds.”
Thus has been fulfilled, in these creatures, the great command, which
became to them the law of their being - “Be fruitful, and multiply, and
fill the waters of the seas, and let fowl multiply in the
earth.”
