compared with the Discoveries of the Modern Sciences. 251 
this abyss the waters made a violent eruption at the period 
of the Deluge, as at the time of chaos, and the innumerable 
ages which had preceded it.* 
Thus the Sacred Scriptures, antecedently to modern dis- 
coveries, shew us the exterior crust of the earth issuing 
from the bosom of the waters, and this same crust enclosing 
in its interior an immense quantity of water in a liquid state.t+ 
These facts have been confirmed by observation and science. 
Is it not consistent with common experience, that subter- 
ranean waters are almost as abundant as those which flow 
on the surface of the earth? The globe would appear to 
contain in its interior, rivers, torrents, lakes, and perhaps 
even seas. When the Bible speaks of the Deluge, it repre- 
sents it as produced by impetuous and violent rains, the 
flood-gates of heaven being opened. On the other hand, it 
describes the waters enclosed in the bowels of the earth, as 
having gushed up to the surface in torrents. They swelled, 
at the same time, the exterior waters, which accumulated 
and overflowed on every side, according to the energetic ex- 
pression of Job. All these causes united produced this ter- 
rible catastrophe, which brought destruction on the human 
race, and which was followed by their renovation.{ Such 
facts are still the cause, not indeed of deluges analogous to 
that the violence of which the Bible describes, but of inun- 
dations which afflict and desolate the earth at distant and 
* See Genesis, vii. 11; Ps. Ixxvii.; civ. 
+ According to Ps. cxxxvi. 6, the earth is founded and stretched out 
above the waters: Quis firmavit terram super aquas?—“ The Lord has 
founded the earth upon the seas, and established it upon the floods,” 
Ps. xxiv. 2; “ Les géants gémissent sous les eaua,” Job xxvi. 5. [The 
French and German versions of this passage differ from the English 
translation—Ep.]| Moses wishes for Joseph, “ the blessings of the 
deep that coucheth beneath,” that is to say, abundance of spring water, 
Deut. xxxiii. 13.—[Several references are here made by the author to 
passages of Scripture, which he regards as corroborating his statements. 
These references, probably from typographical errors, are, in many 
cases, obviously incorrect, and are therefore omitted.—ED. | 
t See Job xxxviii. 8; Genesis vii. 11 (rupti sunt fontes abyssi et cataractes 
coeli aperiuntur). 
