38 THEORY OF THE EARTH. 



Older Systems of Geologists. 



During a long time, two events or epochs only, 

 the Creation and the Deluge, were admitted as 

 comprehending the changes which have been ope- 

 rated upon the globe ; and all the efforts of geo- 

 logists were directed to account for the present 

 existing state of things, by imagining a certain 

 original state, afterwards modified by the deluge, 

 of which also, as to its causes, its operations, and 

 its effects, each entertained his own theory. 



Thus, according to one *, the earth was at first 

 invested with an uniform light crust, which cover- 

 ed the abyss of the sea ; and which being broken 

 up for the production of the deluge, formed the 

 mountains by its fragments. According to ano- 

 ther f, the deluge was occasioned by a momentary 

 suspension of cohesion among the particles of mi- 

 neral bodies ; the whole mass of the globe was dis- 

 solved, and the paste thus formed became penetra- 

 ted with shells. According to a third J, God raised 



this I did not profess to give my own opinion, as some re- 

 spectable geologists seem to have believed. If their mistake 

 has arisen from any thing equivocal in my expressions, I here 

 apologize to them. 



* Burnet, Telluris Theoria Sacra. Lond. 1681. 



t Woodward, Essay towards the Natural History of the 

 Earth. Lond. 1702. 



t Scheuchzcr, Mem. de 1'Acad. 1708. 



