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The body of the earth being thus formed, the air, which is the lightest 
substance of all, surrounded its surface; and the beams of the sun darting 
through, produced that light which, we are told, first obeyed the Creator’s 
command. 
The whole ceconomy of the creation being thus adjusted, it only remained 
to account for the risings and depressions on the surface of the earth, with 
the other seeming irregularities of its present appearance. 
The hills and vallies are considered by him as formed by their pressing 
upon the internal fluid, which sustains the outward shell of the earth, with 
greater or less weight: those parts of the earth which are heaviest, sink into 
the subjacent fluid more deeply, and become vallies: those that are lightest, 
rise higher upon the earth’s surface, and are called mountains. 
Such was the face of nature before the deluge; the earth was then more 
fertile and populous than it is at present; the life of a man and animals was 
extended to ten times its present duration: and all these advantages arose 
from the superior heat of the central globe, which ever since has been 
cooling. 
As its heat was then in f ill power , the genial principle was also much 
greater than at present; vegetation and animal increase were carried on with 
more vigour; and all nature seemed teeming with the seeds of life.” 
But I find I am now treading on slippery and enchanted ground. I shall 
hasten, therefore, to another explanation of this curious phenomenon, less 
dependent on conjecture.—I fear I may be thought by some already to have 
gone too far into the bewitching and airy regions of fancy and conjecture. 
