8 



ORIENTAL COSMOGONY. 



[Oh. II. 



man 



In tlie beginning of tilings, we are told, the First Sole 

 Cause ' with a thought created the waters/ and then moved 

 upon their surface in the form of Brahma the creator, by 

 whose agency the emergence of the dry land was effected 

 and the peopling of the earth with plants, animals, celestial 



Afterwards, as often as a general con- 

 flagration at the close of each manwantara had annihilated 

 every visible and existing thing, Brahma, on awaking from 

 his sleep, finds the whole world a shapeless ocean. Accord- 

 ingly, in the legendary poem called the Puranas, composed 

 at a later date than the Yedas, the three first Avatars or 

 descents of the Deity upon earth have for their object to 

 recover the land from the waters. For this purpose Vishnu 

 is made successively to assume the form of a fish, a tortoise, 



and a boar. 



Extravagant as may be some of the conceits and fictions 

 which disfigure these pretended revelations, we can by no 



means 



them 



imagination, or believe them to have been composed without 

 regard to opinions and theories founded on the observation 



Natur 



onomy 



at the North Pole, the year was divided into a long day and 

 night, and that their long day was the northern, and their 

 night the southern course of the sun ; and to the inhabitants 

 of the moon, it is said one day is equal in length to one 

 month of mortals.* If such statements cannot be resolved 

 into mere conjectures, we have no right to refer to chance 

 alone the prevailing notion that the earth and its inha- 

 bitants had formerly undergone a succession of revolutions 

 and aqueous catastrophes interrupted by long intervals of 

 tranquillity. 



Now, there are 

 have originated. The marks of former convulsions on every 

 part of the surface of our planet are obvious and striking. 

 The remains of marine animals imbedded in the solid strata 

 are so abundant, that they may be expected to force them- 

 selves on the attention of every people who have made some 

 progress in refinement; and especially where one class ol 



* Menu, Inst. c. i. 66, and 67. 



two sources in which such a theory may 





