Analysis of the Protogcea of Leibnitz. 59 



condition of the globe and the deluge ; the next sixteen treat prin- 

 cipally of mineral veins and the causes by which they have been 

 produced ; thirteen relate to organic remains, especially shells ; and 

 the last thirteen to the caverns of the Hartz, amber, alluvium, turf 

 and other miscellaneous matters. A more particular account of the 

 different sections is subjoined. 



1 . Some reasons are assigned for the composition of the ensuing 

 treatise, as (a.) The importance of the subject, giving value to even 

 a moderate acquaintance with it. {h.) The enterprise in which he 

 was about to engage, of writing the early history of the House of 

 Brunswick, to which he seems to consider the Protogaea as an ap- 

 propriate introduction;* so that the merry author of the history of 

 "^evf York, from the creation of the world to the end of the Dutch 

 dynasty, is not without a precedent in the case of this illustrious au- 

 thor, (c.) The opportunities afforded by his peculiar situation, for 

 acquiring information upon these subjects. 



2. The form of the earth in the beginning Was regular and its 

 surface smooth, the mountains being of more recent date ; because 

 God makes nothing imperfect and because it was fluid. Its fluidity, 

 which was the effect of heat, is proved by the existence of veins, 

 crystals, and the remains of plants and animals, (" solida intra soli- 

 dum clausa,") in the rocks. 



3. The present aspect of the earth has been produced by confla- 

 grations, succeeded by deluges. It was first a star or body ejected 

 from the sun, lucid by itself, upon whose surface scoriae were form- 

 ed ; it cooled and ceased to be luminous. This is rendered proba- 

 ble by the circumstance that the rocks and scoriae from a furnace, 

 are alike convertible by heat into glass, especially if certain salts be 

 added ; by which they are proved to have a common basis. 



4. The moisture that had hovered in vapor around the hot globe, 

 was condensed as its temperature sank, and being attracted by the 

 ashes or rbmains of the recent conflagration, formed a lixivium or 

 lye and thus created the salt sea. As the crust of the earth cooled, 

 large cavities were formed in it, by the breaking up of which and 

 the subsidence of the rocky masses, it was diversified with moun- 

 tains and vallies. The inundations produced by these changes 

 formed the more recent strata. j- 



* "Itaquc ab antiqujssinio iiostri tractus statu orsuro dicendum est aliquid de pri- 

 ma facie terraruin." 



t " SecutK inundaliones quce cum deinde rursus sedimenta per intervalla depone- 

 rent atque his indurescen(ibus redeunte mox simili causa strata subinde diversa alia 



