22 THE HISTORY OF 



" As to its internal substance, our globe, having once belonged to the 

 sun, it continues to be a uniform mass of melted matter, very proba- 

 bly vitrified in its primeval fusion. But its surface is very differently 

 composed. Having been in the beginning heated to a degree equal to, 

 if not greater than what comets are found to sustain ; like them it had 

 an atmosphere of vapours floating round it, and which cooling by de- 

 grees, condensed and subsided upon its surface. These vapours form- 

 ed, according to their different densities, the earth, the water, and the 

 air ; the heavier parts falling first, and the lighter remaining still 

 suspended." 



Thus far our philosopher is, at least, as much a system-maker as 

 Winston or Burnet ; and, indeed, he fights his way with great perse- 

 verance and ingenuity, through a thousand objections that naturally 

 arise Having, at last, got upon the earth, he supposes himself on 

 firmer ground, and goes forward with greater security. Turning his 

 attention to the present appearance of things upon this globe, he pro- 

 nounces from the view, that the whole earth was at first under water. 

 This water he supposes to have been the lighter parts of its former 

 evaporation, which, while the earthy particles sunk downwards by their 

 natural gravity, floated on the surface, and covered it for a considera- 

 ble space of time. 



" The surface of the earth," says he,* " must have been in the be* 

 ginning much less solid than it is at present ; and, consequently, the 

 same causes which at this day produce but very slight changes, must 

 then, upon so complying a substance, have had very considerable ef 

 fects. We have no reason to doubt but that it was then covered with 

 the waters of the sea ; and that those waters were above the tops 

 of our highest mountains : since, even in such elevated situations, we 

 find shells and other marine productions in very great abundance. It 

 appears also that the sea continued for a considerable time upon the 

 face of the earth : for as these layers of shells are found so very fre- 

 quent at such great depths, and in such prodigious quantities, it seems 

 impossible for such numbers to have been supported all alive at one 

 time : so that they must have been brought there by successive depo- 

 sitions. These shells are also found in the bodies of the hardest 

 rocks, where they could not have been deposited, all at once, at the 

 time of the del..ge, or at ar such instant revolution ; since that would 

 be to suppose, ..Aat all the rocks in which they are found, were, at 

 that instant, in a state of dissolution, which would he absurd to assert. 

 The sea, therefore, deposited them wheresoever they are now to bo 

 founH, and that by slow and successive degrees. 



" It will appear also, that the sea covered the whole earth, from the 

 appearance of its layers, which lying regularly one above the other, 

 seem all to resemble the sediment formed at different times by the ocean. 

 Hence, by the irregular force of its waves, and its currents driving 

 the bottom into sand-banks, mountains must have been gradually 

 formed within this universal covering of waters ; and these sue 

 cessively raising their heads above its surface, must, in time, have 

 formed the highest ridges of mountains upon land, together with con 



Theorie de la Terre, vol. i. p. 111. 



