On the Mosaic account of the Creation. 



389 



agree with him, that " the transfer of the waters was gradual 

 and progressive, like that of the waters of a lock, in which a 

 vessel descends imperceptibly from a higher to a lower level ; 

 which implies gradual and successive subsidences of the former 

 earth, admitting of proportionate advances of the waters. *" 

 But in admitting these facts it only becomes the more ap- 

 parent that the production of the desired reflux by such 

 means is an utter impossibility; for the successive depres- 

 sions in the sea-girt mineral mass, would but have caused 

 the gradual subsidence of the waters, not only without pro- 

 ducing any reflux whatever, but also without rendering any 

 dry land visible, unless, which is likewise an impossibility, 

 a vacuum could have been produced capable of containing in 

 its bosom the whole of the waters of the ocean ! 



This point may be reduced to a mathematical certainty by 

 the accompanying problem. 



Comp. Est. p. 270. 



3 E 



