254 On the Physical Facts contained in the Bible, 
its crust, thus inflamed in the interior, is covered with water 
on the surface. Above this liquid mass, continents and 
mountains, which are its most elevated points, have risen up 
to afford an asylum to man, as well as to terrestrial animals 
and vegetables. 
Who, then, has informed Job that the interior of the 
earth was filled with such a burning heat ? Who has taught 
him the existence of the central fire, the possibility of which 
Buffon had conceived before the hypothesis had become a 
demonstrated fact 2? We do not reply to this question, on ac- 
count of the point of view under which we have considered 
the Sacred Books. 
We have reason to be surprised at thus finding in the 
Bible physical truths so long misunderstood, or so long un- 
known ; namely, the weight of the air and the central fire. 
Notwithstanding the existence of this interior heat, the 
effects of which it appreciates, Scripture does not fail to ad- 
mit the extent and thickness of the solid crust of the globe, 
which encloses immense quantities of water concealed in its 
depths. 
The Sacred Books, it is true, in giving us an idea of these 
great facts, has not taught us them in the language of natu- 
ral philosophers. Their language is never that of Copernicus, 
Newton, Kepler, or Laplace. The reason which has pre- 
vented the authors of these admirable books from doing this, 
is one of the strongest that can be conceived. If they had 
expressed themselves respecting the scenes of nature, not 
as these present themselves to our eyes, but according to 
the notions which philosophers of a future age might form 
of them, they would certainly not have been understood, 
even by the most enlightened minds. 
Besides, the most advanced language of science is almost 
in every instance only the language of appearances. The 
visible and material world is, to a greater extent than is 
supposed, a scene of illusions and errors. What we call 
reality is often a mere figure, having a relation to a more 
hidden reality, or to an analysis carried a further length. 
Such an expression, in our mouths, has nothing absolute in 
it; it is a relative term, which we employ in proportion as 
