,301 Spherical Form of tie Earth. [Book VI. 



earth's fhadow in lunar eclipfes. We have a ftill 

 plainer proof of its rotundity, from the appearance of 



objeds 



* variety of happy caufes, to re-people the earth, and to give birth 

 to a race of men flow in believing ill-imagined theories of the 

 earth. 



After fo many theories of the earth, which had been publilhed, 

 applauded, anfwered, and forgotten, M. Buffon ventured to add one 

 more to the number. This philofopher was in every refpeft bet- 

 ter qualified than any of his predeceflbrs for fuch an attempt, being 

 furnimed with more materials, having a brighter imagination to 

 find new proofs, and a better ftyle to cloath them in. However, if 

 one fo ill qualified as I am may judge, this feems the weak eft part 

 of his admirable work; and I could wifti that he had been content 

 with giving us fafts inftead of fyftems ; that, inftead of being a 

 reafbner> he had contented himfelf with being merely an hif- 

 torian. 



He begins his fyftem by making a diftincVion between the firft 

 part of it and the laft; the one being founded only on conjecture, 

 the other depending entirely upon aftuai obfervation. The latter 

 part of his theory may, therefore, be true, though the former 

 fhould be found erroneous. 



The planets, fays he, and the earth among the number, might 

 have been formerly (he only offers this as conjecture) a part of the 

 body of the fun, and adherent to its fubftance. In this fituation, 

 a comet falling in upon that great body might have given it fuch 

 a (hock; and fo fhaken its whole frame, that foine of its particles 

 might have been driven off like {beaming fparkles from red hot 

 iron ; and each of thefe ftreams of fire, fmall as they were in com- 

 parifon of the fun, might have been large enough to have made an 

 earth as great, nay many times greater than ours. So that in this 

 manner the planets, together with the globe which we inhabit, 

 might have been driven off from the body of the fun by an impul- 

 five force: in this manner alfo they would continue to recede from 

 it for ever, were they not drawn back by its fuperior power of at- 

 traction ; and thus, by the combination of the two motions, they 

 are wheeled round in circles. 



Being in this manner detached at a diftance from the body of 

 the fun, the planets, from having been at firft globes of liquid fire, 

 gradually became cool. The earth alfo having been impelled 

 obliquely forward, received a rotatory motion upon its axis at the 



very 



