COMETAEY INFLUENCES. 



the comet ; that the matters of various natures confusedly mixed 

 which composed the nebulosity, subsided more or less quickly, 

 according to their specific gravities ; that then the solid nucleus 

 was at first surrounded by a dense and thick fluid; that the 

 earthy matters precipitated themselves afterwards, and formed a 

 covering over the dense fluid a kind of crust, which may be 

 compared to the shell of an egg ; that the water, in its turn, came 

 to cover this solid crust ; that in a considerable degree it became 

 filtered through the fissures, and spread itself over the thick fluid ; 

 that, in fine, the gaseous matters remaining suspended, purified 

 themselves gradually, and constituted our atmosphere. 



Thus, according to his theory, the great biblical abyss is sup- 

 posed to consist of a solid nucleus and of two concentric orbs. 

 Of these orbs, that nearest to the centre is formed of a heavy fluid 

 which first precipitated itself; the second is of water ; it is then, 

 properly speaking, upon the last of these fluids that the exterior 

 and solid crust of the earth reposes. 



It is proper now to examine how, after the constitution of the 

 globe to which at least many geologists could oppose more than 

 one difficulty, Whiston explains the two principal events of the 

 deluge described by Moses. 



"In the six hundredth year of Noah's life," says the book of 

 Genesis, "on the seventeenth day of the second month, the same 

 day were all the fountains of the great deep broken tip, and the windows 

 of heaven were opened." 



At the period of the deluge, the comet of 1680, says Whiston, 

 was only nine or ten thousand miles from the earth : it attracted, 

 therefore, the water from the great deep, as the moon at present 

 attracts the waters of the ocean. Its action, on account of that 

 great proximity, must have tended to produce an immense tide. 

 The terrestrial shell could not resist the impetuosity of the inunda- 

 tion ; it broke in at a great number of points, and the waters, 

 then free, spread themselves over the continents. The reader will 

 here recognise the rupture of the fountains of the great deep. 



The ordinary rains of our days, even continued for forty days, 

 would have produced but a small accumulation. In taking for 

 daily rain that which falls at Paris annually, the produce of six 

 weeks, far from covering the highest mountains, would scarcely 

 have formed a depth of eighty feet. It was therefore necessary to 

 refer to other sources than the cataracts of heaven. Whiston has 

 found them in the nebulosity and tail of the comet. 



According to him, the nebulosity reached the earth near the 



Gordian (Ararat) mountains. Those mountains intercepted the 



entire tail. The terrestrial atmosphere, thus charged with an 



immense quantity of aqueous particles, was sufficient to produce 



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