GEOLOGY. 



623 



than his predecessor, and on this account had greatly 

 the advantage of him, he produced a work far less 

 ingenious and interesting. He also proceeded on the 

 supposition of theMosaic history being literally true.and 

 ascribed the present aspect of our globe to the sole 

 influence of the general deluge. He supposed that all 

 the substances of which the earth is composed were 

 once in a state of solution ; that this solution took 

 place at the flood; that on the gradual retiring of the 

 waters, the various substances held in solution, or 

 suspended in them, subsided in distinct strata, accord- 

 ing to their specific gravities ; and that these are 

 arranged horizontally, one over the other, like the 

 coats of an onion. As this theory was soon found to 

 contradict some of the plainest and most unquestion- 

 able facts which the geologists observed, it has had 

 few admirers, and its refutation has been usually con- 

 sidered as obvious and easy. 



In 1696, Mr. William Whistoii, a man of uncom- 

 mon acuteness, and of still greater learning, published 

 a " New Theory of the Earth," from its origin to the 

 consummation of all things. He supposed the earth, i 

 in the beginning, to be an uninhabitable comet, sub- 

 ject to such extremes of heat and cold as that its i 

 matter, being sometimes liquefied and sometimes | 

 frozen, was in the form of a chaos, or an abyss sur- | 

 rounded with utter darkness. This chaos was the 

 atmosphere of the comet, composed of heterogeneous 

 materials, having its centre occupied by a globular, 

 hot, solid nucleus, of about '2000 leagues diameter. 

 Such was the condition of the earth before the period 

 described by Moses as the " Creation." On the first 

 day of the creation every material of this rude mass 

 began to be arranged according to its specific gravity. 

 The heavy fluids sank down, and left to the earthy, 

 watery, and aerial substances the superior regions. 

 Round the solid nucleus is placed the heavy fluid, 

 which descended first, and formed the great abyss, 

 upon which the earth floats as a cork upon the fluid 

 metal mercury. The great abyss is formed of two 

 concentric circles, the interior being the heavy fluid, 

 and the superior water; upon which last the cirth or 

 solid crust we inhabit is immediately formed. So 

 that, according to this theorist, the globe is composed 

 of a number of coats or shells, one within the other, 

 of different materials, and of different densities. The 

 air, the lightest substance of all, surrounds the outer 

 coat, and the rays of the sun, making their way 

 through the atmosphere, produced the light which 

 Moses tells us first obeyed the divine command. 

 The hills and valleys are formed by the mass of 

 which they consist, pressing with greater or less 

 weight upon the inner coat of the earth ; those parts 

 which are heaviest sinking lowest into the subjacent 

 fluid, and making valleys, and those which are the 

 lightest rising higher, and forming mountains. 



Such Mr. Whiston supposed to be the state of our 

 globe before the deluge. Owing to the superior heat, 

 at that time, of the central parts, which have been 

 ever since cooling, the earth was more fruitful and 

 populous anterior to that event than since. The 

 iter vigour of the genial principle was more favour- 

 aide to animal and vegetable life. But, as all the 

 advantages of plenty and longevity which this circum- 

 stance produced were productive only of moral evil, 

 it pleased God to testify his displeasure against, sin, 

 by bringing a flood upon a guilty world. The flood 

 was produced, this theorist supposed, in the following 

 manner : A comet, descending in the plane of the 



ecliptic to its perihelion, made a near approach to the 

 earth. The approximation of so large a body raised 

 a strong tide, and produced such a commotion in the 

 abyss concealed under the external crust, that the 

 latter was broken, and the waters, which had been 

 before pent up, broke forth with great violence and 

 were the principal means of producing the deluge. 

 In aid of this, he had recourse to another supposition, 

 which was, that the comet, while it passed so near the 

 earth as to produce these effects by the force of 

 attraction, also involved our globe in its atmosphere 

 for a considerable time, and deposited vast quantities 

 of vapour on its surface, which produced violent and 

 long-continued rains : and, finally, that this vast body 

 of water was removed by a mighty wind, which dried 

 up a large portion, and forced the rest into the abyss 

 from which it had been drawn, leaving only enough 

 to form the ocean and rivers which we now behold. 



In the early part of the eighteenth century the 

 celebrated John Hutchinson formed a theory of the 

 earth, which he professed to derive exclusively from 

 Scripture. He supposed that when the earth was 

 first created, the terrestrial solid matter was entirely 

 dissolved in the aqueous, forming a tenacious chaotic 

 mass ; that the figure of this mass was spherical, and 

 on the outside of this sphere lay a body of impure 

 air"; that within the enclosed sphere of earth or water 

 was an immense cavity, called by Moses the deep ; 

 that this internal cavity was filled with mephitic air, 

 similar to that on the outside ; that on the creation 

 of light the internal air received elasticity sufficient 

 to force its way through the external covering ; that 

 immediately on this the water descended, filled up 

 the void, and left the earth in a form similar to that 

 which it bears at present ; that when it pleased God 

 to destroy mankind by a flood, he caused, by his own 

 miraculous agency, such a pressure of the atmosphere 

 on the surface of the earth, that a large portion of it 

 was forced into the internal cavity which it had for- 

 merly occupied, and expelled the waters from it with 

 great violence, spreading them over the surface. 



Mr. Hutchinson supposed that after the divine 

 purposes were answered by the deluge, the globe, by 

 a process similar to that which first took place, was 

 restored to the form which it now bears. 



In 1740, the abbe Moro, an Italian philosopher, 

 published a theory of the earth, which he chiefly 

 derived from the works of Ray, which appeared in 

 the preceding century. He supposed that the surface 

 of the earth, as we now behold it, and especially the 

 mountainous parts, arose originally from the bottom 

 of the ocean. At first, according to him, these 

 mountains contained neither strata of shells, nor any 

 'organised fossils ; but by mean of subterranean con- 

 flagrations, earthquakes, and volcanoes, these sub- 

 stances were thrown up in confused heaps, after 

 which they successively subsided according to their 

 different specific gravities, and thereby necessarily 

 disposed themselves in different strata. He also 

 maintained that these submarine eruptions, while 

 they threw up huge and irregular masses of matter, 

 also ingulfed marine plants and animals of every 

 kind, which subsided in like manner, and thus formed 

 new mountains, and new beds of stones, sand, 

 metals, and other minerals, intermingled with the 

 remains of vegetable and animal bodies, all which 

 remained under the sea till some new agitation threw 

 them above its surface. He supposed that the waters 

 by which the earth was originally overflowed, sub- 



