THE EARTH 



this universal dissolution, and, for that pur- 

 pose, endeavours to show that the parts of 

 animals have a stronger cohesion than those 

 o( minerals ; and that, while even the hardest 

 rocks may be dissolved, bones and shells 

 may still continue entire. 



So much for Woodward: but of all the sys- 

 tems which were published respecting the 

 earth's formation, that of Whiston was most 

 applauded, and most opposed. Nor need we 

 wonder: for being supported with all the pa- 

 rade of deep calculation, it awed the igno- 

 rant, 'and produced the approbation of such 

 as would be thought otherwise ; as it implied 

 a knowledge of abstruse learning, to be even 

 thought capable of comprehending what the 

 writer aimed at. In fact, it is not easy to 

 divest this theory of its mathematical garb : 

 but those who have had leisure, have found 

 the result of our philosopher's reasoning to be 

 thus: He supposes the earth to have been ori- 

 ginally a comet; and he considers the history 

 of the creation, as given us in scripture, to have 

 its commencement just when it was, by the 

 hand of the Creator, more regularly placed as 

 a planet in our solar system. Before that time 

 he supposes it to have been a globe without 

 beauty or proportion ; a world in disorder ; 

 subject to all the vicissitudes which comets 

 endure ; some of which have been found, at 

 different times, a thousand times hotter than 

 melted iron; at others, a thousand times 

 colder than ice. These alterations of heat and 

 cold, continually melting and freezing the 

 surface of the earth, he supposes to have pro- 

 duced, to a certain depth, a chaos entirely 

 resembling that described by the poets, sur- 

 rounding the solid contents of the earth, which 

 still continued unchanged in the midst, making 

 a great burning globe of more than two thou- 

 sand leagues in diameter. This surrounding 

 chaos, however, was far from being solid : he 

 resembles it to a dense though fluid atmos- 

 phere, composed of substances mingled, agi- 

 tated, and shocked against each other; and 

 in this disorder he describes the earth to have 

 been just at the eve of creation. 



But upon its orbit being then changed, when 

 it was more regularly wheeled round the sun, 

 every thing took its proper place ; every part 

 of the surrounding fluid then fell into a situa- 

 tion, in proportion as it was light or heavy. 



The middle, or central part, which always re- 

 mained unchanged, still continued so, retain- 

 ing a part of that heat which it received in its 

 primeval approaches towards the sun ; which 

 neat, he calculates, may continue for about 

 six thousand years. Next to this fell the hea- 

 vier parts of the chaotic atmosphere, which 

 serve to sustain the lighter: but as in descend- 

 ing they could not entirely be separated from 

 many watery parts, with which they were 

 intimately mixed, they drew down a part of 

 these also with them; and these could not 

 mount again after the surface of the earth was 

 consolidated : they, therefore, surrounded the 

 heavy first-descending parts in the same man- 

 ner as these surround the central globe. Thus 

 the entire body of the earth is composed in- 

 ternally of a great burning globe : next which 

 is placed a heavy terrene substance, that 

 encompasses it ; round which also is circum- 

 fused a body of water. Upon this body of water, 

 the crust of earth, which we inhabit, is placed: 

 so that, according to him, the globe is compo- 

 sed of a number of coats, or shells, one within 

 the other, all of different densities. The body 

 of the earth being thus formed, the air, which 

 is the lightest substance of all, surrounded its 

 surface ; and the beams of the sun, darting 

 through, produced that light which, we are 

 told, hrst obeyed the Creator's command. 



The whole economy of the creation being 

 thus adjusted, it only remained to account for 

 the risings and depressions on the surface of 

 the earth, with the other seeming irregulari- 

 ties of its present appearance. The hills and 

 valleys are considered by him as formed by 

 their pressing upon the internal fluid, which 

 sustains the outward shell of earth, with great- 

 er or less weight : those parts of the earth 

 which are heaviest sink into the subjacent 

 fluid more deeply, and become valleys; those 

 that are lightest, rise higher upon the earth's 

 surface, and are called mountains. 



Such was the face of nature before the de- 

 luge : the earth was then more fertile and po- 

 pulous than it is at present ; the life of man 

 and animals was extended to ten times its pre- 

 sent duration; and all these advantages arose 

 from the superior heat of the central globe, 

 which ever since has been cooling. As its 

 heat was then in full power, the genial prin- 

 ciple was also much greater than at present ; 



