208 Natural History, [Ch;ip. III. 



earth was more fruitful and populous anterior to 

 that event than, since. The greater vigour of 

 the genial principle was more friendly to animal 

 and vegetable life. But as all tJie advantages of 

 plenty and longevity which this circumstance pro- 

 duced, were productive only of moral evil, it pleased 

 God to testify his displeasure against sin, by bring- 

 ing a flood upon a guilty world. The flood vv:as 

 produced, as this theorist supposed, in the follow- 

 ing manner. A Cornet^ descending in the plane 

 of the ecliptic to its perihelion, made a near ap- 

 proach to the earth. The approximation of so 

 large a body raised such a strong tide, and pro- 

 duced such powerful commotion in the. abyss con- 

 cealed under the external crust, ♦that the latter was 

 broken, and the waters which had been before 

 pent up, burst forth with great violence, and, were 

 the principal means of producing the deluge. In 

 aid of this, he had recourse to another supposition,, 

 which ^vas, that the comet, while it passed so near 

 the earth as to produce these efl'ects by the force 

 of attraction, also involved our globe in its atmo- 

 sphere and tail for a considerable time, and depo- 

 sited vast quantities of vapours on its surface,, 

 'vvhich produced violent and long-continued rains j 

 and, fmally, that this vast body of waters was re- 

 moved by a mighty wind, whicli dried up a large 

 portion, and forced the rest into the abyss from 

 which it had been drawn, leaving only enough 

 to form the ocean and rivers which we now be- 

 liold. 



The fanciful and untenable theories wliich have 

 been briefly stated, served little other purpose than 

 to amuse the curious, and excite to new, and, for 



