compared with the New World. 253 
Man was destined in time to perish from cold.” We have 
no occasion to give way to such an apprehension. The diminu- 
tion of the central heat, far from injuring, may perhaps: be 
of advantage to us. It will contribute at least to give addi- 
tional thickness to the crust of the earth, and, by confirming 
its solidity, render earthquakes and other phenomena which: 
shake the surface of the globe of rarer occurrence. 
The terrestrial globe is, as we thus perceive, a ae 
habitation. Solid beds, of inconsiderable thickness, separate 
us from subterranean fires; and a gaseous mixture scarcely 
a score of leagues in height (See Note 10) protects us 
against the glacial cold of the interplanetary regions (See 
Note 11). We thus revolve in space with an extreme 
rapidity, of which we are unconscious, and often without 
suspecting the singularity of our abode. We may inhabit 
it without fear ;—thanks to the harmony which reigns among 
created things, not only in this earth, but spina ai the 
entire universe. 
Positive facts confirm the reality of the conditions which 
we have enumerated, and which have determined the beauty 
and richness of the vegetation of the earliest geological eras. 
An elevated temperature and a considerable humidity, aris- 
ing from the great extent of the seas and the activity of 
evaporation, have powerfully contributed to this result. 
These different causes have produced rain-torrents, of which 
nothing in the present day can give us any idea. The proof of 
their violence is written in the interior of the earth’s strata, 
where what are believed to be traces of them have been found. 
They were probably never accompanied, in the early ages of 
the world, with the symbol of peace painted in prismatic co- 
lourson the sky, as happens in certain parts of America, where 
the rains are of such extreme violence that they cannot pro- 
duce this brilliant phenomenon. Finally, ancient inunda- 
tions indicate, by their extent, that they must have been the 
effect of more considerable masses of water than those which 
now produce even the greatest floods. Such is the Deluge, of 
which the tradition is preserved among every people, and 
which is attested by so many indisputable physical proofs. » 
