264 NICOLAUS STENO 



fluid, however, at a time when animals and plants were not 

 yet to be found, and that the fluid covered all things, is proved 

 by the strata of the higher mountains, free from all heteroge- 

 neous material. And the form of these strata bears witness 

 to the presence of a fluid, while the substance bears witness 

 to the absence of heterogeneous bodies. But the similarity 

 of matter and form in the strata of mountains which are dif- 

 ferent and distant from each other, proves that the fluid was 

 universal. But if one say that the solids of a different kind 

 contained in those strata were destroyed in course of time, he 

 will by no means be able to deny that in that case a marked 

 difference must have been noticed between the matter of the 

 stratum and the matter which percolated through the pores of 

 the stratum, filling up the spaces of the bodies which had been 

 destroyed. If, however, other strata which are filled with dif- 

 p. 70. ferent bodies are, in certain places, found above the strata of 

 the first fluid, from this fact nothing would follow excepting 

 that above the strata of the first fluid new strata were deposited 

 by another fluid, whose matter could likewise have refilled the 

 wastes of the strata left by the first fluid. Thus we must 

 always come back to the fact that at the time when those strata 

 of matter unmixed, and evident in all mountains, were being 

 formed, the rest of the strata did not yet exist, but that all 

 things were covered by a fluid free from plants and animals and 

 other solids. Now since no one can deny that these strata are 

 of a kind which could have been produced directly by the First 

 Cause, we recognize in them the evident agreement of Scripture 

 with Nature. 



Concerning the time and manner of the second aspect of the 

 earth, which was a plane and dry. Nature is likewise silent. 

 Scripture speaks. As for the rest Nature, asserting that such 

 an aspect did at one time exist, is confirmed by Scripture, which 

 teaches us that the waters welling from a single source over- 

 flowed the whole earth.^ 



When the third aspect of the earth, which is determined to 

 have been rough, began, neither Scripture nor Nature makes 

 plain. Nature proves that the unevenness was great, while 

 Scripture makes mention of mountains ^ at the time of the 



1 See Genesis, 2. 10-14. ^ See Genesis, 7. ig-20. 



