APPENDIX. NOTES. 389 



many regions when uninhabited, God so willing, by dilu- 

 vial, volcanic, or other action of the elements, might be 

 materially altered, new mountain ridges might be elevated, 

 mighty disruptions take place, and other changes to which 

 there could be no witnesses, but which can only be con- 

 jectured by the features such countries now exhibit. 



NOTE 11, p. 41. We learn from the Apostle St. Peter, 

 that the primeval globe, and its heavens or atmosphere, 

 perished at the deluge. I shall add a few words here on 

 the passage of St. Peter alluded to in the text. Speaking 

 of the scoffers of the last days, and of the deluge, Whereby, 

 he says, the world that then was being over/lowed with 

 water perished ; he adds, But the heavens and earth, which 

 are now, by the same word are kept in store, &c. In this 

 passage it must be observed that the term world in the 

 sixth verse is synonymous with the heavens and the earth 

 taken together of the fifth and seventh verses, and by it 

 seems to be meaYit that the earth with its own heavens, or 

 the atmosphere that surrounds it, both perished or were de- 

 stroyed, 1 which is rendered further evident by the expres- 

 sion: But the heavens and earth which are now. From 

 which it may be gathered that the heavens and earth 

 which are now, are different from the heavens and earth 

 which were destroyed at the deluge ; and as the latter has 

 evidently been reconstructed, and vegetable and animal 

 remains have been mixed with the dislocated materials 

 and as it were detritus of the original world; 2 so the new 

 atmosphere might be, and probably was differently mixed, 

 so as to be less friendly to health and longevity, which 



1 Gr. 



2 See above, p. 384, and Herschel in Cab. Cyclop, xiv. 141. 

 No. 135. 



