compared with the Discoveries of the Modern Sciences. 253 
Scripture does not fail to declare to us that God has marked 
out their limits, and has fixed their boundaries and barriers, 
which they cannot pass over. In its poetical style it ex- 
claims, “ Sea, hitherto shalt thou come, and no further ; and 
here shall thy proud waves be staid.”’ 
In other places it points out the depth of the sea, and re- 
fers to the greatness of its abysses, maintained by the waters 
which issue from the bosom of the clouds. The rains also 
quench the parched lands, and cause the grass of the mea- 
dow to spring. With regard to the waters, they are some- 
times converted into ice, and become hard as a stone: their 
solidity thus accidentally gives solidity tothe surface of thesea. 
It represents the frost as spread over the earth like salt, 
and making the plants rough like the leaves of thistles. 
When the cold north wind blows, the water becomes as 
crystal. The frost rests on the whole mass of waters, and 
renders them like an impenetrable breastplate. 
_. When the snow falls on the earth, it extends itself over 
it like a multitude of birds of passage lighting upon it in 
flocks ; it spreads itself like hosts of locusts descending from 
the clouds. The eye admires the brilliancy of its whiteness ; 
but the mind is alarmed at the inundations it threatens. 
Finally, when the bad weather ceases, the warm and moist 
winds become felt, and with them the snow and frost disap- 
pear. Thus, throughout, and at every step, Scripture indi- 
cates to us the influence of the waters diffused through space, 
and their effects on the earth. 
The Bible, in order to give us an idea of the influence of 
the central heat, does not confine itself to speaking to us of 
that which it exercised on the waters of the Deluge ; it gives 
us further information, when referring to the interior con- 
dition of our planet. In fact, according to it, if the surface 
of the earth furnishes to man the elements of his nourish- 
ment, beneath the solid crust, “‘ The earth is,’’ nevertheless, 
“on fire, and as it were turned up.”* The greater part of 
* The Hebrew word thakhethejah, used by Job, chap. xxviii. 5, means 
beneath *t. The text runs “ Itis from the earth that bread comes; and 
beneath it, it is turned up, and as on fire.” 
