THE EARTH. 19 



describing the changes which the earth has under- 

 gone, or shall hereafter undergo, is well known 

 for the warmth with which it is imagined, and 

 the weakness with which it is reasoned, for the 

 elegance of its style, and the meanness of its phi- 

 losophy. The earth, says he, before the deluge, 

 was very differently formed from what it is at 

 present : it was at first a fluid mass ; a chaos com- 

 posed of various substances, differing both in 

 density and figure : those which were most heavy 

 sunk to the centre, and formed in the middle of 

 our globe a hard solid body ; those of a lighter 

 nature remained next ; and the waters, which were 

 lighter still, swam upon its surface, and covered 

 the earth on every side. The air, and all those 

 fluids which were lighter than water, floated upon 

 this also, and in the same manner encompassed 

 the globe ; so that between the surrounding body 

 of waters, and the circumambient air, there was 

 formed a coat of oil, and other unctuous sub- 

 stances, lighter than water. However, as the 

 air was still extremely impure, and must have 

 carried up with it many of those earthy particles 

 with which it once was intimately blended, it soon 

 began to defecate, and to depose these particles 

 upon the oily surface already mentioned, which 

 uniting together, the earth and oil formed that 

 crust which soon became an habitable surface, giv- 

 ing life to vegetation, and dwelling to animals. 



This imaginary antediluvian abode was very 

 different from what we see at present. " The 

 earth was light and rich ; and formed of a sub- 

 stance entirely adapted to the feeble state of in- 



