[ 2^6 ] 



iefled a lefs abridged copy of Genefis than wc do, exprefsly tells ns 

 that the earth was covered with water ;" the abyfs, like a garment, 

 " was its covering." Pfalm civ. v. 6. 



Hence we fee that the water was from the beginning in a liquid 

 flate (and not in that of ice) as I have mentioned ; and confequently 

 elementary fire, or the principle of heat, exifted from the begin- 

 ning. 



" And the fpirit of God (or rather a fpirit of God) moved on the 

 " face of the waters ;" here fpirit denotes an invifible elaftic fluid, 

 viz. the great evaporation that took place foon after the creation, 

 as foon as the folids began to cryflallize, as I have fhewn. Of God, 

 is a well known Hebrew idiom denoting great ; moved, or rather 

 hovered, over the waters. David here mentions a fad which he 

 undoubtedly took from Mofes, though omitted in our prefent copies 

 of Genefis, and this fa6l is effential to our theory, namely, that 

 " the waters Itood above the mountains." Pfalm civ. v. 6. Therefore 

 the mountains were formed in the bofom of the waters, as I have 

 ftated. Nay he ufes an exprefllon that moft probably hath hitherto 

 been ill underftood, that " God fixed the earth on its bafis, from 

 " which it fhall not be removed for ever." This appears to me to 

 denote the depofition of the folids contained in the chaotic waters, 

 on the folid kernel of the globe, from whence they fhould never 

 be removed nor indeed have they ever fince. 



" And 



