The Natural Hijlory Part 1. 



verfiori or variation of the ordinary Pe- 

 riods, Revolutions, and Succeffioos of 

 things : and we have the higheft fecu- 

 rity imaginable, that While the Earth 

 remaimthj Seed- time and Harvejl^ and 

 Cold and Hedt^ and Summer and Winter^ 

 and Day and Night jhall not ceafe. 



And whatever may be urged in be- 

 half of the Ancients^ 1 cannot well fee^ 

 I confeis, what can be faid for the 

 later J^thors^ who have embracM the 

 fame Tenets, more than that thefe 

 Learned Men took up thofe Tenets on 

 trufiy their over-great deference to the 

 i>iQ:ates of Antiquity betraying them 

 into a perfaafion of fuch Changes in 

 the Earth. I have given my Reafons 

 above why I cannot think the Ancients 

 competent Judges in this Cafe. We 

 have, at this time of day, better and 

 more certain means of Information 

 than they had ; and therefore it were 

 to have been wilh'd, that thefe Gentle- 

 men had not thus obfequioufly follow- 

 ed them^ but gone another way to 

 work. It would certainly have beefi 

 much better, had they taken the pains 

 to have look'd a little into Matter of 

 Fa5i : had they confulted Hiftory and 

 Geography^ in order dueiy to acquaint 



them- 



