390 ON THEORIES OF THE EARTH. 



leading also to comparisons little flattering to his suc- 

 cessors. We need not wonder that he acquired an ex- 

 tended reputation,, as his work became the incitement 

 to rival and successive theories. Rejecting the antient 

 philosophy, he maintains that as the earth was cre- 

 ated so shall it be destroyed : while one of his argu- 

 ments has been used by a recent writer, almost in his 

 very words. I shall refer to the passage where he re- 

 marks, that if the earth had existed from eternity, it 

 must have acquired a very different appearance, from 

 the waste of the mountains and the displacement of 

 the sea ; since Burnet must be in every hand. I do 

 not make a work, little indebted to the labours of 

 others, a repository of quotations. 



The remarks on the condensation of the original 

 chaos, serve, as, often before, to show how little those 

 systems which possess the reputation, have also the 

 merit of novelty. Though with the advantages of 

 modern knowledge, the theory of La Place is but that 

 of Burnet. But, henceforward, he becomes extrava- 

 gant : the separated atmosphere depositing a sphere 

 of water, first, on the solid nucleus, and then an in- 

 vesting one of. earth ; the habitation of "the golden 

 age." And the rupture of this, causing the Deluge, 

 produces also the present distribution of sea and land. 

 This must suffice for a writer who, nevertheless, like 

 some green spot in the wilderness, refreshes us with u 

 luxuriance and a variety, the more striking, from their 

 contrast with the dreary deserts of geological theories. 



The cornet of Whiston, the original germ of his 

 earth, anticipates La Place even more perfectly. As 

 the work of creation proceeded, its contents subsided 

 according to their specific gravities, while the nucleus 

 still retains its heat. If he has attempted to compute 

 the time of cooling, he has also anticipated, though 



