322 Sir H. Davy on t/ie Formation bfilie Earth. 



offers, I think, an argument for believing that the interior of the globe is 

 fluid." 



The Stranger answered, " I beg you to consider the views I have been de. 

 veloping as merely hypothetical — one of the many resting places that may 

 be taken by the imagination in considering this subject. There are, how- 

 ever, distinct facts in favour of tlie idea, that the interior of tlie globe has a 

 higher temperature than the surface ; the heat increasing in mines the deeper 

 we penetrate ; and the number of warm springs that rise from great depths, 

 in almost all countries, are certainly favourable to the idea. The opinion, 

 that volcanoes are owing to this general and simple cause, is, I think, likewise 

 more agreeable to tlie analogies of things, than to suppose them dependent 

 upon partial chemical changes, such as the action of air and water upon the 

 combustible bases of the earths and alkalies, though it is extremely probable 

 that these substances may exist beneath the surface, and may occasion some 

 results of volcanic fire ; and, on this subject, my notion may perhaps be 

 more trusted, as, for a long while, I thought volcanic eruptions were ounng to che- 

 mical agencies of the newly discovered earths and alkalies ; and I made many and 

 some dangerous experiments, in the hope of confirming this notion, but in vain." 



Ambrosio. " You are obliged to have recourse to creations for all the living 

 beings in your philosophical romance : I do not see why you should not sup- 

 pose creations or arrangements of dead matter by the same laws of infinite 

 wisdom ; and whj' our globe should not rise at once a divine work, fitted for 

 all the objects of living and intelligent natures." 



The Stranger replied, " I have merely attempted a philosophical history, 

 founded upon the facts known respecting rocks and strata, and the remains 

 they contain. I begin with wliat may be called a Creation, a fluid glol)e sup- 

 plied with an immense atmosphere ; and the series of phenomena which I 

 imagine consequent to the creation, T suppose produced by powers impressed 

 upon it by Omnipotence." 



Ambrosio said, " There is this verisimilitude in your history, that it is not 

 contradictory to the little we are informed by revelation as to the origin of 

 the globe, the order produced in the chaotic state, and the succession of living 

 forms generated in the days of creation, which may be what philosophers call 

 ' the Epochas of Nature' ; for a day with Omnipotence is as a thousand years, 

 and a thousand years as one day." 



" I must object," Onuphrio said, " to your interpretation of the scientific 

 view of our friend; and to your disposition to blend them with tlie cosmo- 

 geny of Moses. Allowing the divine origin of the Book of Genesis, you must 

 admit, that it was not intended to teach the Jews systems of philosophy ; but 

 the laws of life and morals; and a great man and an excellent christian raised 

 his voice, two centuries ago, against this mode of applying, and of often 

 wresting the sense of the Scriptures, to make them conformable to human 

 fancies ; ' from which,* says Lord Dacon, ' arose not only false and fantasti- 

 cal philosophies, but likewise heretical religions.' If the Scriptures are to be 

 literally interpreted, and systems of science found in them, Galileo merited 

 his persecution, and we ought still to believe that the sun turns round the 

 earth." 



Amb. " You mistake my view, Onuphrio, if 3'ou imagine I am desirous of 

 aising a system of geology on the Book of Genesis- It cannot be doubted 



