22 HISTORY OF 



agitated, and shocked against each other j and in this disorder he 

 desciibes the earth to have been just at the eve of creation. 



But upon its orbit being then changed, when it was more 

 regularly wheeled round the sun, every thing took its proper 

 place ; every part of the surrounding fluid then fell into a situa- 

 tion, in proportion as it was light or heavy. The middle, or 

 central part, which always remained unchanged, still continu ed 

 so, retaining a part of that heat which it received in its primeval 

 J approaches towards the sun; which heat, he calculates, may 

 continue for about six thousand years. Next to this fell the 

 Heavier parts of the chaotic atmosphere, which serve to sustain 

 the lighter: but as in descending they could not entirely be 

 separated from many watery parts, with which they were inti- 

 mately mixed, they drew down a part of these also with them ; 

 and these could not mount again after the surface of the earth 

 was consolidated : they, therefore, surrounded the heavy first- 

 descending parts in the same manner as these surround the cen- 

 tral globe. Thus the entire body of the earth is composed in- 

 ternally of a great burning globe : next which is placed a heavy 

 terrene substance, that encompasses it ; round which is also cir- 

 cumfused a body of water. Upon this body of water, the crust 

 of earth, which we inhabit, is placed : so that, according to him, 

 the globe is composed of a number of coats, or shells, one within 

 the other, all of different densities. The body of the earth 

 being thus formed, the air, which is the lightest substance of all, 

 surrounded its surface ; and the beams of the sun, darting 

 through, produced that light which, we are told, first obeyed the 

 Creator's command. 



The whole economy of the creation being thus adjusted, it 

 only remained to account for the risings and depressions on the 

 sui'face of the earth, with the other seeming irregularities of its 

 present appearance. The hills and valleys are considered by 

 him as formed by their pressing upon the internal fluid, which 

 sustains the outward shell of earth, with greater or less weight ; 

 those parts of the earth which are heaviest sink into the subja- 

 cent fluid more deeply, and become valleys : those that are lighter 

 rise higher upon the earth's surface, and are called mountains. 



Such was the face of nature before the deluge : the earth was 

 then more fertile and populous than it is at present ; the life ot 

 man and animals was extended to ten times its present duration j 



