554 On the Mammoth t 



over the face of which the Spirit of God moved, covered tlie 

 whole furface of the globe, and had remained in that ftate 

 for two uncertain periods, until the working of nature under 

 the command of God forced up and elevated the earth in 

 parts, fo that the waters were gathered together, which took 

 place in a third period of the progreflive exiftence of this our 

 planet. 



But apart all authority, any true philofopher, v^-ho meets 

 by tracing back the operations of nature in her progreflive 

 advance to the prefent ftate of the planet, will find it in its 

 firft period an aqueous planet ; will find that light or caloric, 

 or whatever that firft power was, fpecially gave courfe to other 

 powers ; and that the powers of evaporation, both expanfive 

 and attractive, were and are the caufes of the feparation of 

 the elaftic fluid, the atmofphere ; that the earth has been 

 thrown up from the bottom of thefe vi-aters by various ex- 

 piofions and volcanic eruptions : and that the earth became, 

 under thefe procefles, in its vegetative ftate, a fit habitation, 

 firft, for the fowls of the air and all flying infers; and next 

 for the beafts of the field and all creeping things; and laftly, 

 for man, exaftly according to the philofophic defcription 

 given in the divine narrative. But while he confiders this 

 advancing progrefl!ion, he will find nothing to decide as to 

 the length and continuance of each of thefe periods. That 

 thefe periods are not to be underftood as days, is part of the 

 faft. Becaufe three of thefe periods were paft, according to 

 the narrative itfelf, before that divifion of time took place, 

 which was not till the fourth period. 



I fliall now, grounding myfelf on the faft as above ftated, 

 afllime that this planet was, in its firft period of exiftence, an 

 aqueous planet •, and finding nothing to decide or determine 

 the continuance of this period, aflume alfothat it continued, 

 according to the courfe of nature in her progreffion, in this 

 fiate for an indefinite period ; and further, that in this period 

 and in this ftate of the planet " God created great whales 

 and every living creature which moveth, which the waters 

 brought forth abundantly after their kind." I find it difficult 

 to conceive that thefe waters, which are defcriptively faid 

 thus to bring forth fo abundantly, fhould remain for four 

 periods of the planet's exiftence totally unprodu6live till the 

 fifth. The only way that I find to reconcile this difficulty 

 in the divine narrative, is, that thefe marine beings are 

 omitted to be noticed until they are clafled with all other 

 living terreftrial creatures under one head, according to the 

 order of method, not the order of lime, in the fifth period, 

 when the earth became a proper habitation for fuch terref- 

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