GEOLOGY. 



systems which have been offered of the 

 formation of the world, and of the several 

 changes which it has undergone, it is 

 proposed to appropriate the remaining 

 part of this article to that purpose. 



Omitting to notice any further the 

 scriptural account of the creation of the 

 world, merely on account of the brevity 

 of the narration preventing the disposal 

 of the events there related in a systema- 

 tic arrangement ; we shall only here ge- 

 nerally remark, that the occurrence of 

 the most prominent circumstances related 

 in that account has been repeatedly in- 

 ferred by the most learned writers, who 

 have endeavoured, from a view of the 

 present state of the world, and of the va- 

 rious changes which it has undergone, to 

 Form some conjectures with respect to its 

 original formation. 



From the very imperfect accounts 

 Which have reached us, of the doctrines 

 of the Egyptian philosophers on this sub- 

 ject, we can only learn, that they were of 

 Opinion, that, at the beginning, the water 

 had covered the whole surface of the 

 world ; and that this was proved by the 

 remains of organized beings, which were 

 so frequently seen in the substance of the 

 earth. These waters, it was supposed, 

 had retired to the interior cavities of the 

 globe, remaining in this great abyss, rea- 

 dy to issue out and produce the most ex- 

 tensive inundations ; to one of which it 

 was supposed that some of their records 

 referred. The axis of the globe they 

 believed to have been originally parallel 

 with that of the plane of its orbit ; and 

 whilst it remained thus, they supposed 

 that a perpetual spring existed, but that, 

 on its inclining, an alteration of seasons 

 took place. 



The Chaldseans, like the Egyptians, 

 are supposed, by Diodorus Siculus, to 

 have believed the earth to be hollow ; 

 and that, in the early ages of its forma- 

 tion, a perpetual spring had existed. The 

 Indians also believed in the existence of 

 a vast abyss in the centre of the earth, 

 for the reception of the water, which re- 

 mained after the consolidation of the crust 

 of the earth : they also believed in a ge- 

 neral deluge of the earth, and in a subse- 

 quent retiring of the waters. 



The opinions of the Epicureans, as de- 

 livered to us by Lucretius, appear to have 

 been, that by the separation and appro- 

 priate re-union of accordant atoms, the 

 different elements were formed, which, 

 by the regulating influence of gravity, 

 were separated from each other, and dis- 

 posed in their allotted regions. One of the 



processes which was thus performed was 

 the formation of the earth itself; which, 

 being then variously acted upon, under- 

 went those alterations of its surface, from 

 which proceeded the vast cavities for the 

 reception of the ocean, and those irre- 

 gularities which divide its surface into 

 hills and vallies. 



Since several of the hypotheses of the 

 formation of the world, and the changes 

 which have brought it to its present 

 state, deserve rather to be regarded as 

 ingeniously devised allegories, than sys- 

 tems regularly deduced, it is not intend- 

 ed to do much more than specify those, 

 the consideration of which will yield 

 but little information. In agreement with 

 this rule, we shall only state, respecting 

 the hypothesis of Des Cartes, that he con- 

 ceived that this globe might originally 

 have been composed, like the sun, of the 

 pure element (lire ;) but that, by de- 

 grees, its less subtle parts had gradually 

 collected together, and formed thick and 

 obscure masses at its surface, similar to 

 those accumulations which occasion the 

 spots which we see on the sun. From 

 the gradual, but, at length, complete in- 

 crustation thus formed, he supposed that 

 the whole planet, at length, became co- 

 vered and obfuscated ; that, in this man- 

 ner, different crusts were formed, and 

 that, from the falling in of parts of the 

 exterior crust into the cavity beneath, 

 the irregularities of the earth's surface 

 were produced. 



To this hypothesis of Des Cartes, that 

 of Leibnitz very nearly approaches ; he 

 supposed the crust, of which we have, 

 just spoken, to have been of a vitreous 

 nature, the minute fragments of which 

 are the sand that is every where so abun- 

 dant. The affinity of our earth to the sun 

 has been more strictly asserted by Buffon, 

 who informs us, that the earth was origi- 

 nally separated from the sun, by the 

 stroke which the sun received from the 

 falling in of a comet ; that this fragment, 

 during its cooling, acquired, from its ro- 

 tation, a spheroidal form, cavities being, 

 at the same time, formed in its interior 

 part, whilst its vapours condensed, and 

 formed the waters of the ocean. Bicher 

 entertained the o pinion, that there ex- 

 isted in the centre of the globe a cavity, 

 which contained an accumulation of sul- 

 phurous, bituminous, and other mineral 

 principles, which, raised in the state of va- 

 pours, by the internal heat, formed the va- 

 rious mineral substances which are con- 

 tained in the substance of the earth. This 

 hypothesis, so little supported by probabi- 



