NOMOS. 167 



bulging of the earth to the bed of the sea, and to 

 " break up the fountains of the great deep" by 

 bringing them to the surface as land. At the same 

 time, the encroachments of the waters upon the land, 

 which are consequent upon the sinking of the land 

 and the rising of the bed of the sea, must be greatly 

 accelerated by the tremendous rains arising from the 

 vaporising action of the sun upon the water of the 

 ocean. And thus " the fountains of the great deep" 

 may have been "broken up," and the "windows of 

 heaven" may have been "opened." The waters, 

 moreover, must have gone on continually encroaching 

 upon the land until the earth was reduced to its primal 

 state of a shoreless ocean. But the earth could not 

 continue in this state. On the contrary, the land 

 must continue to sink, and the bed of the sea to rise, 

 until the land had changed places with the bed of 

 the sea the bed of the sea becoming as much raised 

 above the water as the ancient land was formerly. 

 It must be so, for the expansive power which now 

 operates to restore the land is the same power which 

 operated to raise the land at the creation. All this 

 is intelligible, but is it probable ? It is probable, 

 we think, because these causes must have been in 

 operation, unless the law of nature had been sus- 

 pended during the eventful year of the deluge, and 

 because it is not possible to believe in miraculous 

 interference where natural causes will suffice. It is 

 not possible to entertain such an opinion without 

 supposing that Infinite Wisdom has decreed some- 

 thing superfluous. 



Nor is it a sufficient objection to this view, that the 



M4 



