386 ON THEORIES OF THE EARTH. 



destroyed by such objections ; while it carried this 

 cosmogony down to after ages, as I need not say ; 

 having written enough on those who have produced 

 "tant de phrases et si pen de choses." Yet in distin- 

 guishing those, who, though considering matter eter- 

 nal, believe the present form of the universe to be 

 comparatively recent, we approximate to some of the 

 modern theories of the earth. 



The Oriental cosmogonies are interesting, chiefly, 

 as giving the genealogy of the former. That of the 

 Egyptians, claiming Thot.li as its .B.uffon, is imperfect: 

 but he who desires more than I can give, will find it 

 in Eusebius. And if its fundamental part, the action 

 of the Orus on a Chaos, is familiar, I need not also 

 say where a parallel doctrine is found, under a very 

 different authority ; nor that Plutarch and Eusebius 

 disagree respecting it. Geologists will be more inte- 

 rested in knowing, that Egypt considered the earth as 

 subject to certain periods of .revolution, and that it 

 was to be destroyed and renewed by fire and water : 

 whence the Ecpyroses and Cataclysmi, and the Great 

 Year of Greece. And if, according to Zeno, the fires 

 concealed within the earth will at length set it in 

 flames, while the inferior divinities are absorbed into 

 the Supreme Spirit, who, after a certain repose, will 

 produce a better world, we trace the oriental doctrines 

 which he had derived from his parentage. I may refer 

 to Seneca and Lncan : but thus are the inferior Gods, 

 Brachrna, Vishnu, and Sivh, to return to the Unspeak- 

 able intelligence, while the Calpas of the same school 

 are the revolutions in question. Here also we dis- 

 cover the origin of the Millenarian hypothesis; while, 

 if the curious reader desires to amuse himself with the 

 opposing opinions of Justin Martyr and St. Jerom, so 

 may he learn at how many periods it has been revived, 



