The Book of Genesis had told how all things were called into existence by a Divine utterance: "God said, Let there be."

His utterance was interrupted by frequent coughing; every sentence came out with a struggle.

The historian observes and records, in different lands and ages, the rise or explicit utterance of belief in one God.

Each generation hands it on beautified to the next; each has done something to give utterance to the universal thought.

Considered as a " prose epic," or a vivid utterance of the thought of the period, it has a permanent and unique value.