66 Outlines of Geology. 



universal deluge. He tells us, that when the elements separated 

 from the original fluid mass, the heaviest particles tending to a 

 centre, constituted a nucleus upon which water and air after- 

 wards assumed their respective stations. The air, however, was 

 not as we now see it a transparent attenuated medium, but it was 

 loaded with exhalations and impurities which it gradually let fall 

 upon the surface of the water, and then floated upon the whole in 

 cloudless serenity. The deposited matter, constituting a rich 

 crust, sent forth its vegetable productions, and soon became 

 clothed with uninterrupted verdure ; every thing was smooth, 

 soft, and regular, and there was, he says, an universal 

 spring ; for the plane of the ecliptic was coincident with that of 

 the equator. In process of time, however, the green and even 

 surface just described, began to suffer from the continuous action 

 of the sun's rays, which formed cracks and fissures that ulti- 

 mately extended to the abyss of waters beneath, and these being 

 sent forth by elastic vapours expanded by heat, soon inundated 

 the superficies ; an universal deluge ensued ; and, in the violent 

 shocks and concussions that attended it, rocks and mountains 

 and all the inequalities of the present surface had their origin ; then 

 the waters gradually subsided into the residuary cavities forming 

 the ocean, and partly were absorbed into the crevices of the dis- 

 jointed strata and nucleus ; vegetation began to re-appear, and 

 the once uninterrupted and uniform surface was now broken up 

 into islands and continents, and mountains and valleys. — Absurd, 

 as from this condensed and unadorned sketch, Burnet's narrative 

 must appear, it is told with such ingenuity and elegance, and 

 supported with so much erudition, as to entitle it to all the merit 

 that can belong to a highly elaborate and poetical fiction. 

 Addison has eulogized it in Latin verse, Steele has praised it in 

 the Spectator, and Warton, in his essay on Pope, ranks the author 

 ** with the select few in whom are united the great faculties of 

 the understanding ; judgment, imagination, memory." 



But, although Burnet received and deserved the encomiums of 

 the learned, the praise that he earned is rather that of the poet 

 than of the philosopher. Dr. Flamstead, adverting to his rich 



