8 



A HISTORY OF 



ly opposite to the sun, so that it enjoyed one 

 perpetual and luxuriant spring. However, this 

 delightful face of nature did not long continue 

 in the same state ; for, after a time, it began 

 to crack and open in fissures; a circumstance 

 which always succeeds when the sun exhales 

 the moisture from rich or marshy situations. 

 The crimes of mankind had been for some 

 time preparing to draw down the wrath of 

 Heaven; and they, at length, induced the 

 Deity to defer repairing these breaches in na- 

 ture. Thus the chasms of the earth every 

 day became wider, and, at length, they pene- 

 trated to the great abyss of waters ; and the 

 whole earth, in a manner, fell in. Then en- 

 sued a total disorder in the uniform beauty 

 of the first creation, the terrene surface of the 

 globe being broken down: as it sunk the wa- 

 ters gushed out in its place ; the deluge be- 

 came universal; all mankind, except eight 

 persons, were destroyed, and their posterity 

 condemned to toil upon the ruins of desolated 

 nature." 



It only remains to mention the manner in 

 which he relieves the earth from this univer- 

 sal wreck, which would seem to be as difficult 

 as even its first formation: "These great mas- 

 ses of earth falling into the abj'ss, drew down 

 with them vast quantities also of air ; and, by 

 dashing against each other, and breaking into 

 small parts by the repeated violence of the 

 shock, they, at length, left between them large 

 cavities, filled with nothing but air. These 

 cavities naturally offered a bed to receive 

 the influent waters; and in proportion as they 

 filled, the face of the earth became once more 

 visible. The higher parts of its broken sur- 

 face, now become the tops of mountains, were 

 the first that appeared ; the plains soon after 

 came forward, and, at length, the whole globe 

 was delivered from the waters, except the pla- 

 ces in the lowest situations ; so that the ocean 

 and the seas are still a part of the ancient 

 abyss, that have not had a place to return. 

 Islands and rocks are fragments of the earth's 

 former crust ; kingdoms and continents are 

 larger masses of its broken substance; and all 

 the^ inequalities that are to be found on the 

 surface of the present earth, are owing to the 

 accidental confusion into which both earth 

 and waters were then thrown.'' 



The next theorist was Woodward, who, in 



his Essay towards a Natural History of the 

 Earth, which was only designed to precede a 

 greater work, has endeavoured to give a more 

 rational account of its appearances ; and was, 

 in fact, much better furnished for such an un- 

 dertaking than any of his predecessors, being 

 one of the most assiduous naturalists of his 

 time. His little book, therefore, contains many 

 important facts, relative to natural history, 

 although his system may be weak and ground- 

 less. 



He begins by asserting that all terrene sub- 

 stances are disposed in beds of various na- 

 tures, lying horizontally one over the other, 

 somewhat like the coats of an onion ; that 

 they are replete with shells, and other produc- 

 tions of the sea ; these shells being found in 

 the deepest cavities, and on the tops of the 

 highest mountains. From these observations, 

 which are warranted by experience, he pro- 

 ceeds to observe, that these shells and extra- 

 neous fossils are not productions of the earth, 

 but are all actual remains of those animals 

 which they are known to resemble ; that all 

 the beds of the earth lie under each other, in 

 the order of their specific gravity ; and that 

 they are disposed as if they had been left there 

 by subsiding waters. All these assertions he 

 affirms with much earnestness, although daily 

 experience contradicts him in some of them; 

 particularly we find layers of stone often over 

 the lightest soils, and the softest earth under 

 the hardest bodies. However, having taken 

 it for granted, that all the layers of the earth 

 are found in the order of their specific gravi- 

 ty, the lightest at the top, and the heaviest 

 next the centre, he consequently asserts, and 

 it will not improbably follow, that all the sub- 

 stances of which the earth is composed were 

 once in an actual state of dissolution. This 

 universal dissolution he takes to have hap- 

 pened at the time of the flood. He supposes, 

 that at that time a body of water, which was 

 then in the centre of the earth, uniting with 

 that which was found on the surface, so far 

 separated the terrene parts as to mix all to- 

 gether in one fluid mass; the contents of 

 which afterwards sinking according to their 

 respective gravities, produced the present ap- 

 pearances of the earth. Being aware, how- 

 ever, of an objection, that fossil substances are 

 not found dissolved, he exempts ihein from 



