NOMOS. 



163 



out of the 

 waters, and 

 its founda- 

 tions fixed, 

 by the expan- 

 sive action of 

 the solar 

 heat. 



through the earth during the first two 

 days, and see them converging into a 

 focus within the interior. We may fancy 

 the fusion and expansion consequent upon 

 this focal action as gradually upheaving 

 the overlying crust of the solid earth, until it 

 begins to raise it above the level of the waters. We 

 may trace this land as it expands into a broad 

 equatorial belt ; for as the earth revolves upon her 

 axis each part of the equator must pass in succession 

 over the focus. We may trace this ring as it expands 

 into continents and towers into mountains. All this 

 we may see as the natural consequence of the 

 operation of that agency which we call heat; and 

 because we can do this we are constrained to think 

 that the land was raised out of the waters at the 

 creation by natural rather than by miraculous causes. 



A similar conclusion may also be drawn from the 

 manner in which the land reappeared after the 

 deluge, as we may see by pondering upon 

 the history of this catastrophe: 



" In the 600th year of Noah's life, in 

 the 2nd month, the 17th day of the 

 month, the same day were all the foun- 

 tains of the great deep broken up, and 

 the windows of heaven were opened. 

 And the rain was upon the earth 40 days 

 and 40 nights. In the self-same day 

 entered Noah, and Shem and Ham and 

 Japhet, the sons of Noah, and Noah's wife, and 

 the wives of the three sons with them, into the 

 ark ; they, and every beast after his kind, and all the 



The same 

 expansive 

 action of the 

 solar heat 

 would sub- 

 merge the 

 land and 

 raise it after- 

 wards in ano- 

 ther place, if 

 the position 

 of the earth 

 in sp a 

 changed suf- 

 ficiently. 



