'21S Xalural His lor ij. [Cii ap. III. 



sponding deviation of the poles fi'om their former 

 position, and thus threw the great body of water 

 accumulated round tliem on those parts of the 

 earth where little had existed before, and by these 

 means drowned them. This event, he supposed, 

 increased the irregularity of the earth's surface, and 

 produced many of those phenomena, which so 

 plainly establish the reality of the general deluge. 



Another British theorist, of still more celebrated 

 name, published a new system of geology in 1778. 

 This v.as Mr. Whitehurst, a gentleman of rcspecr 

 tabic talents and information, and Vvhose theory 

 has attracted considerable attention*. ISIr. White- 

 hurst supposes, that not only this globe but the 

 v.hole of the planetary system was once in a state 

 of fluidity, and that the earth acquired its oblate 

 spheroidical form by revolving round its axis in 

 that state. In this fluid state, the component parts 

 of the earth were suspended in one general undi-r 

 videdmass, " without form and void." These parts 

 were endued with a variety of principles or laws 

 of elective attraction, though equally and univer- 

 sally governed by the same law of gravitation. 

 They were heterogeneous; and by their attraction 

 progressively formed a habitable world. As the 

 component parts of the chaos successively sepa- 

 rated, the sea universally prevailed over the earth; 

 and this would have continued to be the case had 

 it not been for the sun and moon, which were co- 

 eval with the earth, and l>y their attractive influ- 

 ence interfered with the regular subsiding of the 

 solid matter, which was going on. As the sepa- 



* Ail Iixp/ir)/ vh'o the X)rigiiml State and Formation of the 

 Eurih, kc, by John Whiichurst, F.R.S. )77S. 



