THE SACRED THEORY OF THE EARTH

by Thomas Burnet

THE THEORY OF THE EARTH

Book 2

Concerning the PRIMAL EARTH, AND PARADISE.

CHAPTER I

The Introduction and Contents of the Second Book. The general state of the Primal Earth, and ofParadise.

WE have already seen a World begin and perish; An Earth raised from the rudiments of a Chaos, and dissolved and destroyed in an Universal Deluge. We have given also an imperfect description of that Primal Earth, so far as was necessary to show the causes and manner of its dissolution. But we must not content our selves with this; Seeing that Earth was the first Theater upon which mortals appeared and acted, and continued so for above Sixteen hundred Years; and that with Scenes, as both Reason and History tell us, very extraordinary and very different from these of our present Earth, tis reasonable we should endeavour to make a more full discovery and description of it; Especially seeing Paradisewas there; that seat of pleasure which our first Parents lost, and which all their posterity have much ado to find again.

In the First Book we so far described This new-found World, as to shew it very different in form and fabrick from the present Earth; there was no Sea there, no Mountains, nor Rocks, nor broken Caves, twas all one continued and regular mass, smooth, simple and compleat, as the first works of Nature use to be, But to know thus much only, doth rather excite our curiosity than satisfie it; what were the other properties of this World? how were the Heavens, how the Elements? what accommodation for humane life? why was it more proper to be the seat of Paradisethan the present Earth? Unless we know these things, you will say, it will seem but an aery Ideato us; and tis certain that the more properties and particularities that we know concerning any thing, the more real it appears to be.

As it was our chief design therefore in the precedent Book, to give an account of the Universal Deluge, by way of a just Theory; so we propose to our selves chiefly in this Book, from the same Theory to give a just account of Paradise; and in performing of this, we shall be led into a more full examination and display of that first Earth, and of its qualities. And if we be so happy, as by the conduct of the same principles and the same method, to give as fair an account, and as intelligible of the state of Paradisein that Original Earth, as we have done of the Deluge by the dissolution of it, and of the form of this Earth which succeeded, one must be very morose or melancholy to imagine that the grounds we go upon, all this while, are wholly false or fictitious. A foundation which will bear the weight of two Worlds without sinking, must surely stand upon a firm Rock. And I am apt to promise my self that this Theory of the Earth will find acceptance and credit, more or less, with all but those, that think it a sufficient answer to all arguments, to say it is a Novelty.

But to proceed in our disquisition concerning Paradise, we may note, in the first place, two opinions to be avoided, being both extreams; one that placeth Paradisein the extra-mundane Regions, or in the Air, or in the Moon; and the other that makes it so inconsiderable, as to be confined to a little spot of ground in Mesopotamia, or some other Country of Asia, the Earth being now as it was then. This offends as much in the defect, as the other in the excess. For it is not any single Region of the Earth that can be Paradisiacal, unless all Nature conspire and a certain Order of things proper and peculiar for that state. Nor is it of less importance to find out this peculiar Order of things, than to find out the particular feat of Paradise, but rather pre-requisite to it: We will endeavour therefore to discover and determine both, so far as a Theory can go, beginning with that which is more general.

Tis certain there were some qualities and conditions of Paradisethat were not meerly Topical, but common to all the rest of the Earth at that time; and these we must consider in the first place, examine what they were, and upon what they depended. History, both Sacred and Profane, must tell us what they were, and our Theory must show us upon what causes they depended. I had once, I confess, proposed to my self another method, independent upon History or Effects; I thought to have continued the description of the Primitive or Ante-diluvian Earth from the contemplation of its causes only, and then left it to the judgment of others to determine, whether that was not the Earth where the Golden Age was past, and where Paradisestood. For I had observed three conditions or characters of it, which I thought were sufficient to answer all that we knew concerning that first state of things, viz. The regularity of its surface; The situation or posture of its Body to the Sun; and the Figure of it:From these three general causes, I thought might be deduced all the chief differences of that Earth from the present, and particularly those that made it more capable of being Paradisiacal.

But upon second thoughts I judged it more useful and expedient to lay aside the Causes at present, and begin with the Effects, that we might have some sensible matter to work upon. Bare Idea's of things are lookt upon as Romantick till Effects be proposed, whereof they are to give an account; that makes us value the Causes when necessity puts us upon enquiry after them; and the reasons of things are very acceptable, when they ease the mind, anxious, and at a loss, how to understand Nature without their help. We will therefore, without more ado, premise those things that have been taken notice of as extraordinary and peculiar to the first Ages of the World, and to Paradise, and which neither do, nor can, obtain in the present Earth; whereof the first is a perpetual Spring or Equinox; The second, the Longevity of Animals; the and third Their production out of the Earth, and the great fertility of the soil in all other things.

These difficulties guard the way to Paradiselike the flaming Sword, and must be removed before we can enter; these are general Preliminaries which we must explain before we proceed to enquire after the particular place of this Garden of Pleasure. The Ancients have taken notice of all these in the first Ages of the World, or in their Golden Age, as they call it; and I do not doubt but what they ascribed to the Golden Age, was more remarkably true of Paradise; yet was not so peculiar to it, but that it did in a good measure extend to other parts of the Earth at that time. And tis manifest that their Golden Age was contemporary with our Paradise; for they make it begin immediately after the production and inhabitation of the Earth (which They, as well as Moses, raise from the Chaos) and to degenerate by degrees till the Deluge; when the World ended and begun again.

That this parallel may the better appear, we may observe, that as we say that the whole Earth was, in some sence, Paradisiacal in the first Ages of the World, and that there was besides, one Region or Portion of it that was peculiarly so, and bore the denomination of Paradise; So the Ancients besides their Golden Age, which was common to all the Earth, noted some parts of it that were more Golden, if I may so say, than the rest, and which did more particularly answer to Paradise; as their ElysianFields, Fortunate Islands, Gardens of Hesperides, Alcinous, &c. these had a double portion of pleasantness, and besides the advantages which they had common with the rest of the Earth at that time, had something proper and singular, which gave them a distinct consideration and character from the rest.

Having made this observation, let us proceed, and see what Antiquity saith concerning that first and Paradisiacal state of things, upon those three Heads forementioned; First that there was a perpetual Spring, and constant serenity of the Air; This is often repeated by the Ancient Poets, in their description of the Golden Age:

Non alios primcrescentis origine mundi
Illuxisse dies, aliumve habuisse tenorem,
Crediderim: Ver illud erat, Ver magnus agebat
Orbis, & hybernis parcebant flatibus Euri.

Such days the new-born Earth enjoyed of old,
And the calm Heavens in this same tenour rowled:
All the great World had then one constant Spring,
No cold East-winds, such as our Winters bring.

For I interpret this in the same sence with Ovid's Verses of the Golden Age:

Ver erat ernum: placidique tepentibus auris
Mulcebant Zephyri natos sine semine flores.

The Spring was constant, and soft Winds that blew
Raised, without Seed, Flowrs always sweet and new.

And then upon the expiration of the Golden Age, He says,

Jupiter antiqui contraxit tempora Veris, &c.

WhenJove begun to reign he changed the Year,
And for one Spring four Seasons made appear.

The Ancients supposed, that in the reign of Saturn, who was an Ante-diluvian God, as I may so call him, Time Howed with a more even motion, and there was no diversity of Seasons in the Year; but Jupiter, they say, first introduced that, when he came to manage affairs. This is exprest after their way, who seldom give any severe and Philosophical accounts of the changes of Nature. And as they supposed this perpetual Spring in the Golden Age, so they did also in their particular Elysiums; as I could show largely from their Authors, if it would not multiply Citations too much in this place.

The Christian Authors have no less celebrated the perpetual Spring and Serenity of the Heavens in Paradise; such expressions or descriptions you will find in Justin Martyr, St. Basil, Damascen, Isadore Hispalensis, and others; insomuch that Bellarmine, I remember, reflecting upon those Characters of Paradise, which many of the Fathers have given in these respects, saith, such things could not be, unless the Sun had then another course from what he hath now; or which is more easie, the Earth another situation. Which conjecture will hereafter appear to have been well-grounded. In the mean time, let us see the Christian Poetry upon this subject, as we have seen the Romanupon the other. Alcimus Avitushath thus described Paradisein his Notes upon Genesis:

Non hic alterni succedit temporis unquam
Bruma, nec tivi redeunt post frigora Soles;
H Ver assiduum Cli clementia servat.
Turbidus Auster abest, sempque sub aere sudo
Nubila diffugiunt, jugi cessura sereno.
Nec poscit Natura loci, quos non habet, imbres,
Sed contenta suo dotantur germina rore.
Perpetuviret omne solum, terrue benignbr> Blanda nitet facies: Stant semper collibus herb
Arboribque com &c.

No change of Seasons or excess was there,
No Winter chilled, nor Summer scorched the Air,
But, with a constant Spring, Nature was fresh and fair.
Rough Winds or Rains that Region never knew,
Watered with Rivers and the morning Dew;
The Heavns still clear, the Fields still green and gay,
No Clouds above, nor on the Earth decay;
Trees kept their leaves and verdure all the Year,
And Fruits were never out of Season there.

And as the Christian Authors, so likewise the Jewishhave spoken of Paradisein the same manner; they tell us also that the days there were always of the same length throughout the whole Year; and that made them fancy Paradiseto lie under the uinoctial; as we shall see in its due place. Tis true, we do not find these things mentioned expresly in the Sacred writings, but the effects that Howed from them are recorded there, and we may reasonably suppose Providence to have foreseen, that when those Effects came to be scaned and narrowly lookt into, they would lead us to a discovery of the Causes, and particularly of this great and general Cause, that perpetual uinoxand unity of seasons in the Year, till the Deluge. The Longity of the Ante-diluvians cannot be explained upon any other supposition, as we shall have occasion to show hereafter; and that you know is recorded carefully in Scripture: As also that there was no Rainbowbefore the Flood; which goes upon the same ground, that there was no variety of Seasons, nor any Rain: And this by many is thought to be understood by Moseshis words, Gen. 2. 5, 6. which he speaks of the first and Paradisiacal Earth. Lastly, seeing the Earth then brought forth the principles of life and all living Creatures (Man excepted) according to Moses, Gen. 1. 24. we must suppose that the state of the Heavens was such as favoured these Conceptions and Births, which could not possibly be brought to perfection, as the Seasons of the Year are at present. The first time that we have mention made in Scripture of Summer and Winter, and the differences of Seasons, is at the ending of the Deluge, Gen. 8. 22. Hence forward all the days of the Earth, Seed-time and Harvest, Heat and Cold, Summer and Winter, Day and Night shall not cease. Tis true these words are so lax, that they may be understood either of a new course of Nature then instituted, or of an old one restored; but seeing it doth appear from other arguments and considerations, that there was at that time a new course of Nature constituted, it is more reasonable to interpret the words in that sence; which, as it is agreeable to truth, according to Reason and Antiquity; so it renders that remark of Mosesof far greater importance, if it be understood as an indication of a new order then setled in Nature, which should continue thence forwards so long as the Earth endured. Nor do I at all wonder that such things should not be expresly and positively declared in Scripture, for natural mysteries in the Holy writings, as well as Prophetical, are many times, on set purpose, incompleatly delivered, so as to awaken and excite our thoughts rather than full resolve them: This being often more suitable to the designs of Providence in the government of the World. But thus much for this first common or general Character of the Golden Age, and of Paradise, a perpetual Serenity and perpetual uinox.

The second Character is the Longity of men; and, as is probable, of all other Animals in proportion. This, methinks, is as strange and surprising as the other; and I know no difference betwixt the Ante-diluvian World and the present, so apt to affect us, if we reflect upon it, as this wonderful disproportion in the Ages of Men; Our fore-fathers and their Posterity; They lived seven, eight, nine hundred Years and upwards, and tis a wonder now if a man live to one hundred. Our Oaks do not last so long as their Bodies did; Stone and Iron would scarce out-wear them. And this property of the first Ages, or their Inhabitants, how strange soever, is well attested, and beyond all exception, having the joynt consent of Sacred and Profane History. The Scripture sets down the precise Age of a series of Ante-diluvian Patriarchs, and by that measures the time from the beginning of the World to the Deluge; so as all Sacred Chronology stands upon that bottom. Yet I know some have thought this so improbable and incongruous a thing, that to save the credit of Mosesand the Sacred History, they interpret these years of Lunaryears or months; and so the Ages of these Patriarchs are reduced to much what the same measure with the common life of man at this time. It may be observed in this, as in many other instances, that for want of a Theory to make things credible and intelligible, men of wit and parts have often deprest the sence of Scripture; and that not out of any ill will to Scripture or Religion, but because they could not otherwise, upon the stock of their notions, give themselves a rational account of things recorded there. But I hope when we come to explain the causes of this longity, we shall show that it is altogether as strange a thing that men should have such short lives as they have now, as that they had such long lives in the first Ages of the World. In the mean time, there are a great many collateral reasons to assure us that Lunaryears cannot be here understood by Moses, for all Antiquity gives the same account of those first Ages of the World, and of the first men, that they were extreamly long-lived. We meet with it generally in the description of the Golden Age; and not only so, but in their Topical Paradisesalso they always supposed a great vivacity or longevity in those that enjoyed them. And Josephusspeaking upon this subject, saith, the Authors of all the learned Nations, Greeksor Barbarians, bear witness to Moses's doctrine in this particular. And in the MosaicalHistory it self, there are several circumstances and marks that discover plainly, that the years of the Patriarchs cannot be understood of Lunaryears; as we shall have occasion to show in another place. We proceed in the mean time to the third and last Character, The extraordinary fertility of the Soil, and the production of Animals out of the new-made Earth.

The first part of this Character is unquestionable; All Antiquity speaks of the plenty of the Golden Age, and of their Paradises, whether Christian or Heathen. The fruits of the Earth at first were spontaneous, and the ground without being torn and tormented, satisfied the wants or desires of man. When Nature was fresh and full, all things Howed from her more easily and more pure, like the first running of the Grape, or the Hony-comb; but now she must be prest and squeezed, and her productions tast more of the Earth and of bitterness. The Ancient Poets have often pleased themselves in making descriptions of this happy state, and in admiring the riches and liberality of Nature at that time, but we need not transcribe their Poetry here, seeing this point is not, I think, contested by any. The second part of this Character, concerning the spontaneous Origin of living Creatures out of that first Earth, is not so unquestionable; and as to Man, Mosesplainly implies that there was a particular action or ministery of Providence in the formation of his Body, but as to other Animals He seems to suppose that the Earth brought them forth as it did Herbs and Plants. (Gen. 1. 24 compared with the 11 Verse.) And the truth is, there is no such great difference betwixt Vegetable and Animals Egg, or betwixt the Seeds out of which Plants rise, and the Eggs out of which all Animals rise, but that we may conceive, the one as well as the other, in the first Earth: And as some warmth and influence from the Sun is required for the Vegetation of Seeds, so that influence or impregnation which is necessary to make animal Eggs fruitful, was imputed by the Ancients to the her, or to an active and pure Element which had the same effect upon our great Mother the Earth, as the irradiation of the Male hath upon the Females Eggs.

Tum Pater omnipotens fcundis imbribus her
Conjugis in gremium ldescendit.

In fruitful showrs of herJove did glide
Into the bosom of his joyful Bride.

Tis true, this opinion of the spontaneous Origin of Animals in the first Earth, hath lain under some Odium, because it was commonly reckoned to be Epicurus's opinion peculiarly; and he extended it not only to all brute Creatures, but to Mankind also, whom he supposed to grow out of the Earth in great numbers, in several Parts and Countries, like other Animals; which is a notion contrary to the Sacred writings; for they declare, that all Mankind, though diffused now through the several parts and Regions of the Earth, rise at first from one Head or single Man and Woman; which is a Conclusion of great importance, and that could not, I think, by the Light of Nature, have ever been discovered. And this makes the Epicureanopinion the more improbable, for why should two rise only, if they sprung from the Earth? or how could they rise in their full growth and perfection, as Adamand Evedid? But as for the opinion of Animals rising out of the Earth at first, that was not at all peculiar to Epicurus; The Stoickswere of the same mind, and the Pythagoreans, and the yptians, and, I think, all that supposed the Earth to rise from a Chaos. Neither do I know any harm in that opinion, if duly limited and stated; for what inconvenience is it, or what diminution of Providence, that there should be the principles of Life, as well as the principles of Vegetation, in the new Earth? And unless you suppose all the first Animals, as well as the first man, to have been made at one stroke, in their full growth and perfection, which we have neither reason nor authority sufficient to believe; if they were made young, little and weak, as they come now into the World, there seems to be no way for their production more proper, and decorous, than that they should spring from their great Mother the Earth. Lastly, considering the innumerable little Creatures that are upon the Earth, Insects and Creeping things: and that these were not created out of nothing, but formed out of the ground: I think that an office most proper for Nature, that can set so many hands to work at once; and that hath hands fit for all those little operations or manufactures, how small soever, that would less become the dignity of Superiour Agents.

Thus much for the Preliminaries, or three general Characters of Paradise, which were common to it with the rest of the Primeval Earth; and were the chief ingredients of the Golden Age, so much celebrated by the Ancients. I know there were several other differences betwixt that Earth and this, but these are the original; and such as are not necessary to be premised for the general Explication of Paradise, we reserve for another place. We may, in the mean time observe, how preposterously they go to work, that set themselves immediately to find out some pleasant place of the Earth to fix Paradisein, before they have considered, or laid any grounds, to explain the general conditions of it, wheresoever it was. These must be first known and determined, and we must take our aim and directions from these, how to proceed further in our enquiries after it; otherwise we sail without a Compass, or seek a Port and know not which way it lies. And as we should think him a very unskilful Pilot that sought a place in the new World, or America, that really was in the old; so they commit no less an error, that seek Paradisein the present Earth, as now constituted, which could only belong to the former, and to the state of the first World: As will appear more plainly in the following Chapter.

THE SACRED THEORY OF THE EARTH

by Thomas Burnet

THE THEORY OF THE EARTH

Containing an Account of the Original of the Earth AND OF ALL THE GENERAL CHANGES Which it hath already undergone, OR IS TO UNDERGO Throughout the whole Courƒe of its Duration.

THE SECOND BOOK

Concerning thePRIMÆVAL EARTH, AND ConcerningPARADISE.

LONDON,

Printed by R. Norton, for Walter Kettilby, at the Biƒhops-Head in S. Paul's Church-Yard, 1691.

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Title Page of Second Book

THE SACRED THEORY OF THE EARTH

by Thomas Burnet

THE THEORY OF THE EARTH

Book I

Concerning the Deluge, and the Dissolution of the Earth.

CHAPTER XII

A short review of what hath been already treated of, and in what manner. The several faces and Schemes under which the Earth would appear to a Stranger, that should view it first at a distance, and then more closely, and the Application of them to our subject. All methods, whether Philosophical or Theological, that have been offered by others for the Explication of the Form of the Earth, are examined and refuted. A conjecture concerning the other Planets, their Natural Form and State compared with ours.

WE have finisht the Three Sections of this Book, and in this last Chapter we will make a short review and reflection upon what hath been hitherto treated of, and add some further confirmations of it. The Explication of the Universal Deluge was the first proposal and design of this Discourse, to make that a thing credible and intelligible to the mind of Man: And the full Explication of this drew in the whole Theory of the Earth: Whose original we have deduced from its first Source, and shewed both what was its Primal Form, and how it came into its present Form. The summ of our Hypothesisconcerning the Universal Deluge was this; That it came not to pass, as was vulgarly believed, by any excess of Rains, or any Inundation of the Sea, nor could ever be effected by a meer abundance of Waters; unless we suppose some dissolution of the Earth at the same time, namely when the Great Abysswas broken open. And accordingly we shewed that without such a dissolution, or if the Earth had been always in the same form it is now, no mass of water, any where to be found in the World, could have equaled the height of the Mountains, or made such an universal Deluge. Secondly, we shewed that the form of the Earth at first, and till the Deluge, was such as made it capable and subject to a Dissolution: And thirdly, that such a dissolution being supposed, the Doctrine of the universal Deluge is very reasonable and intelligible; And not only the doctrine of the Deluge, but the same supposition is a Key to all Nature besides, shewing us how our Globe became Terraqueous, what was the original of Mountains, of the Sea-chanel, of Islands, of subterraneous Cavities; Things, which without this supposition, are as unintelligible as the universal Flood it self. And these things reciprocally confirming one another, our Hypothesisof the Deluge is armed both breast and back, by the causes and by the effects.

It remains now, that, as to confirm our Explication of the Deluge, we shewed all other accounts that had been given of it to be ineffectual or impossible, so to confirm our doctrine concerning the dissolution of the Earth, and concerning the original of Mountains, Seas, and all inequalities upon it, or within it, we must examine what causes have been assigned by others, or what accounts given of these things: That seeing their defectiveness, we may have the more assurance and satisfaction in our own method.

And in order to this, let us observe first the general forms under which the Earth may be considered, or under which it doth appear accordingly as we view it more nearly or remotely; And the first of these and the most general is that of a Terraqueous Globe. If a Philosopher should come out of another World out of curiosity to see our Earth, the first discovery or observation he would make would be this, that it was a Terraqueous Globe; Thus much he might observe at a great distance when he came but near the borders of our World. This we discern in the Moon and most of the Planets, that they are divided into Sea and Land, and how this division came, would be his first remark and inquiry concerning our Earth; and how also those subdivisions of Islands, or little Earths which lie in the Water, how these were formed, and that great Chanel that contains them both.

The second form that the Earth appears under, is that of an uneven and Mountainous Globe. When our Traveller had got below the Circle of the Moon, he would discern the bald tops of our Mountains, and the long ranges of them upon our Continents. We cannot from the Earth discern Mountains and Valleys in the Moon, directly, but from the motion of the light and shadows which we see there, we easily collect that there are such inequalities: And accordingly we suppose that our Mountains would appear at a great distance, and the shady Valleys lying under them; and that this curious person that came to view our Earth, would make that his second Enquiry, how those Mountains were formed? and how our Globe came to be so rude and irregular? for we may justly demand how any irregularity came into Nature, seeing all her first motions and her first forms are regular, and whatsoever is not so is but secondary, and the consequence of some degeneracy, or of some decay.

The third visible form of our Earth is that of a broken Globe; not broken throughout, but in the outward parts and Regions of it. This, it may be, you will say, is not a visible form; it doth not appear to the eye, without reasoning, that the surface of the Earth is so broken. Suppose our new Visitant had now passed the middle Region of the Air, and was alighted upon the top of Pick Teneriffefor his first resting place, and that sitting there he took a view of the great Rocks, the wide Sea, and of the shores of Africkand Europe; for we'll suppose his piercing Eye to reach so far; I will not say that at first sight he would pronounce that the surface of this Globe was broken, unless he knew it to be so by comparison with some other Planet like to it; but the broken form and figure of many parts of the Rocks, and the posture in which they lay, or great portions of them, some inclined, some prostrate, some erected, would naturally lead him to that thought, that they were a ruine; He would see also the Islands tore from the Continents, and both the shores of the Continents and their in-land parts in the same disorder and irregular situation. Besides, he had this great advantage in viewing the Earth at a distance, that he could see a whole Hemisphere together, which, as he made his approaches through the Air, would have much what the same aspect and countenance as tis represented with in the great Scheme;} And if any man should accidentally hit upon that Scheme, not knowing or thinking that it was the Earth, I believe his first thought of it would be, that it was some great broken body, or ruined frame of matter; and the original, I am sure, is more manifestly so. But we'll leave our Strange-Philosopher to his own observations, and with him good Guides and Interpreters in his Survey of the Earth, and that he would make a favourable report at his return home, of our little dirty Planet.

In the mean time, let us pursue, in our own way, this Third Ideaof the Earth a little further, as it is a broken Globe. Nature I know hath dissembled and covered this form as much as may be, and time hath helpt to repair some of the old breaches, or fill them up; besides, the changes that have been made by Art and Humane industry, by Agriculture, Planting, and Building Towns, hath made the face of the Earth quite another thing from what it was in its naked rudeness. As mankind is much altered from its Pristine state, from what it was four thousand years ago, or towards the first Ages after the Flood, when the Nations lived in simplicity or barbarousness; So is the Earth too, and both so disguised and transformed, that if one of those Primitive Fathers should rise from the dead, he would scarce know this to be the same World which he lived in before. But to discern the true form of the Earth, whether intire or broken, regular or disordered, we must in the first place take away all those ornaments or additions made by Art or Nature, and view the bare carcass of the Earth, as it hath nothing on it but Rocks and Mountains, Desarts and Fields, and hollow Valleys, and a wide Sea. Then secondly, we must in our imagination empty this Chanel of the Sea, take out all the Waters that hinder the sight of it, and look upon the dry Ditch, measure the depth and breadth of it in our mind, and observe the manner of its construction, and in what a wild posture all the parts of it lie; according as it hath been formerly represented. And lastly, we must take off the cover of all Subterraneous places and deep Caverns, to see the inside of the Earth; and lay bare the roots of Mountains, to look into those holes and Vaults that are under them, filled sometimes with Fire, sometimes with Water, and sometimes with thick Air and Vapours. The object being thus prepared, we are then to look fixedly upon it, and to pronounce what we think of this disfigured mass, whether this Exteriour frame doth not seem to be shattered; and whether it doth more aptly resemble a new-made World, or the ruines of one broken. I confess when this Ideaof the Earth is present to my thoughts, I can no more believe that this was the form wherein it was first produced, than if I had seen the Temple of Jerusalemin its ruines, when defaced and sacked by the Babylonians, I could have perswaded my self that it had never been in any other posture, and that Solomonhad given orders for building it so.

So much for the form of the Earth: It remains now that we examine what causes have been assigned by others of these irregularities in the form of the Earth, which we explain by the dissolution of it; what accounts any of the Ancients have given or attempted to give, how the Earth swelled into Mountains in certain places, and in others was deprest into low Valleys, how the body of it was so broken, and how the Chanel of the Sea was made. The Elements naturally lie in regular forms one above another, and now we find them mixt, confounded and transposed, how comes this disturbance and disordination in Nature? The Explications of these things that have been given by others, may be reduced to two general sorts, Philosophicalor Theological, and we will try them both for our satisfaction.

Of Philosophers none was more concerned to give an account of such things than Epicurus, both because he acknowledged the Origin of the Earth to have been from a Chaos, and also admitted no causes to act in Nature but Matter and Motion: Yet all the account we have from the Epicureansof the form of the Earth, and the great inequalities that are in it, is so slight and trivial, that me-thinks it doth not deserve the name of a Philosophical Explication. They say that the Earth and Water were mixed at first, or rather the Earth was above the Water, and as the Earth was condensed by the heat of the Sun, and the Winds, the Water was squeezed out in certain places, which either it found hollow or made so; and so was the Chanel of the Sea made. Then as for Mountains, while some parts of the Earth shrunk and sunk in this manner, others would not sink, and these standing still while the others fell lower, made the Mountains. How the subterraneous Cavities were made according to them, I do not find.

This is all the Account that Monsieur Gassendi(who seems to have made it his business, as well as his pleasure, to embellish that Philosophy) can help us to out of the EpicureanAuthors, how the Earth came into this form; And he that can content himself with this, is, in my mind, of an humour very easie to be pleased. Do the Sun and the Wind use to squeaze pools of Water out of the Earth, and that in such a quantity as to make an Ocean? They dry the Earth, and the Waters too, and rarifie them into vapours, but I never knew them to be the causes of pressing Water out of the Earth by condensation. Could they compress the Earth any otherwise, than by drying it and making it hard? and in proportion, as it was more dry, would it not the more imbibe and suck up the Water? and how were the great Mountains of the Earth made, in the North and in the South, where the influence of the Sun is not great? what sunk the Earth there, and made the flesh start from the bones? But tis no wonder that Epicurus should give such a mean account of the Origin of the Earth, and the form of its parts, who did not so much as understand the general Figure of the Body of it, that it was Spherical, or that the Heavens encompast it round. One must have a blind love for that Philosophy, and for the conclusions it drives at, not to see its lameness and defects in those first and fundamental parts.

Aristotle, though he was not concerned to give an account how the Earth came into this present form, as he supposed it, Eternal; yet upon another consideration he seems obliged to give some reason how the Elements came into this disorder; seeing he supposeth, that, according to the order of Nature, the Water should lie above the Earth in a Sphere, as the Air doth above the Water, and his Fire above the Air. This he toucheth upon in his Meteors, but so gently and fearfully, as if he was handling hot coals. He saith the Sea is to be considered as the Element, or body of Waters that belongs to this Earth, and that these Waters change places, and the Sea is some Ages in one part of the Globe, and some Ages in another; but that this is at such great distances of time that there can be no memory or record of it. And he seems willing to suppose that the Water was once all over the Earth, but that it dried up in certain places, and continuing in others, it there made the Sea.

What a miserable account is this? As to his change or removal of the Sea-chanel in several Ages, as it is without all proof or probability, if he mean it of the Chanel of the great Ocean, so tis nothing to the purpose here; for the question is not why the Chanel of the Sea is in such a part of the Earth, rather than in another, but why there is any such prodigious Cavity in or upon the Earth any where. And if we take his supposition, that the Element of Water was once higher than the Earth, and lay in a Sphere about it, then let him tell us in plain terms how the Earth got above, or how the Cavity of the Ocean was made, and how the Mountains rise; for this Elementary Earth which lay under the Water, was, I suppose, equal and smooth when it lay there; and what reason was there, that the Waters should be dried in one part of it, more than another, if they were every where of an equal depth, and the ground equal under them? It was not the Climates made any distinction, for there is Sea towards the Poles, as well as under the uator; but suppose they were dried up in certain places, that would make no Mountains, no more than there are Mountains in our dried Marches: And the places where they were not dried, would not therefore become as deep and hollow as the Sea-chanel, and tear the Earth and Rocks in pieces. If you should say that this very Elementary Earth, as it lay under the Waters, was unequal, and was so originally, formed into Mountains and Valleys, and great Cavities; besides that the supposition is altogether irrational in it self, you must suppose a prodigious mass of Water to cover such an Earth; as much as we found requisite for the vulgar Deluge, namely, eight Oceans; and what then is become of the other seven? Upon the whole I do not see that either in Epicurus's way, who seems to suppose that the Waters were at first within the Earth; nor in Aristotle's way, who seems to suppose them upon the Earth, any rational or tolerable account can be given of the present form of the Earth.

Wherefore some modern Authors, dissatisfied, as very well they might be, with these Explications given us by the Ancients concerning the form of the Earth, have pitched upon other causes, more true indeed in their kind, and in their degree, but that fall as much short of those effects to which they would apply them. They say that all the irregularities of the body of the Earth have risen from Earthquakes in particular places, and from Torrents and Inundations, and from eruptions of Fire, or such like causes, whereof we see some instances more or less every Age; And these have made that havock upon the face of the Earth, and turned things up-side down, raising the Earth in some places, and making great Cavities or Chasms in others, so as to have brought it at length into that torn, broken, and disorderly form in which we now see it.

These Authors do so far agree with us, as to acknowledge that the present irregular form of the Earth must have proceeded from ruines and dissolutions of one sort or other, but these ruines they make to have been partial only, in this or in that Country, by piece-meal, and in several Ages, and from no other causes but such as still continue to act in Nature, namely, accidental Earthquakes and eruptions of Fires and Waters. These causes we acknowledge as readily as they do, but not as capable to produce so great effects as they would ascribe to them: The surface of the Earth may be a little changed by such accidents as these, but for the most part they rather sink the Mountains than raise new ones: As when Houses are blown up by Mines of powder, they are not set higher, but generally fall lower and flatter: Or suppose they do sometimes raise an Hill, or a little Mount, what's that to the great Mountains of our World, to those long and vast piles of Rocks and Stones, which the Earth can scarce bear? What's that to strong-backt Taurusor Atlas, to the American Andes, or to a Mountain that reacheth from the Pyreneansto the EuxineSea? There's as much difference between these and those factitious Mountains they speak of, as betwixt them and Mole-hills.

And to answer more distinctly to this opinion, as before in speaking of Islands we distinguished betwixt Factitious and Original Islands, so if you please we may distinguish here betwixt Factitious and Original Mountains; and allowing some few, and those of the fifth or sixth magnitude, to have risen from such accidental causes, we enquire concerning the rest and the greatest, what was their Original?

If we should suppose that the seven Hills upon which Romestands, came from ruines or eruptions, or any such causes, it doth not follow that the Alpswere made so too. And as for Mountains, so for the Cavities of the Earth, I suppose there may be disruptions sometimes made by Earthquakes, and holes worn by subterraneous Fires and Waters; but what's that to the Chanel of the Atlantick Ocean, or of the Pacifick Ocean, which is extended an hundred and fifty degrees under the uator, and towards the Poles still further. He that should derive such mighty things from no greater causes, I should think him a very credulous Philosopher. And we are too subject indeed to that fault of credulity in matter of Philosophizing; Many when they have found out causes that are proper for certain effects within such a compass, they cannot keep them there, but they will make them do every thing for them; and extend them often to other effects of a superiour nature or degree, which their activity can by no means reach to. nahath been a burning Mountain ever since and above the memory of Man, yet it hath not destroyed that Island, nor made any new Chanel to the Sea, though it stands so near it. Neither is Vesuviusabove two or three miles distant from the Sea-side, to the best of my remembrance, and yet in so many Ages it hath made no passage to it, neither open nor subterraneous. Tis true some Isthmus's have been thrown down by Earthquakes, and some Lakes have been made in that manner, but what's this to a Ditch nine thousand miles broad? such an one we have upon the Earth, and of a depth that is not measurable; what proportion have these causes to such an instance? and how many thousand Ages must be allowed to them to do their work, more than the Chronology of our Earth will bear?

Besides, when were these great Earthquakes and disruptions, that did such great execution upon the body of the Earth? was this before the Flood or since? If before, then the old difficulty returns, how could there be a Flood, if the Earth was in this Mountainous form before that time? This, I think, is demonstrated impossible in the Second and Third Chapters. If since the Flood, where were the Waters of the Earth before these Earthquakes made a Chanel for them? Besides, where is the History or Tradition that speaks of these strange things, and of this great change of the Earth? hath any writ of the Origins of the Alps? In what year of Rome, or what Olympiadthey were born? or how they grew from little ones? how the Earth groaned when it brought them forth, when its bowels were torn by the ragged Rocks? Do the Chronicles of the Nations mention these things, or ancient fame, or ancient Fables? were they made all at once, or in successive Ages? These causes continue still in Nature, we have still Earthquakes and subterraneous Fires and Waters, why should they not still operate and have the same effects? We often hear of Cities thrown down by Earthquakes, or Countries swallowed up, but whoever heard of a new chain of Mountains made upon the Earth, or a new Chanel made for the Ocean? We do not read that there hath been so much as a new Sinusof the Sea ever since the memory of man: Which is far more feasible than what they pretend. And things of this nature being both strange and sensible, excite admiration and great attention when they come to pass, and would certainly have been remembred or propagated in some way or other, if they had ever happened since the Deluge. They have recorded the foundation of Cities and Monarchies, the appearance of blazing-Stars, the eruptions of fiery Mountains, the most remarkable Earthquakes and Inundations, the great Eclipses or obscurations of the Sun, and any thing that looked strange or prodigy-like, whether in the Heavens or on Earth, and these which would have been the greatest prodigies and greatest changes that ever happened in nature, would these have escaped all observation and memory of men? that's as incredible as the things themselves are.

Lastly, to comprehend all these opinions together, both of the Ancient and Modern Authors, they seem all to agree with us in this, Thatthe Earth was once under another form; otherwise why do they go about to shew the causes how it came into this form. I desire then to know what form they suppose the Earth to have been under before the Mountains were made, the Chanel of the Sea, or subterraneous Cavities. Either they must take that form which we have assigned it before the Deluge, or else they must suppose it covered with Water, till the Sea-chanels were made, and the Mountains brought forth; As in that Fig. pag. 55 . And no doubt it was once in this form, both reason and the authority of Mosesassures us of it; and this is the Test which every opinion must be brought to, how the Earth emerged out of that watery form? and in particular, as to that opinion which we are now examining, the question is, howby Earthquakes, and fiery eruptions, subterraneous Waters, and such like causes, the body of the Earth could be wrought from that form to this present form? And the thing is impossible at first sight; for such causes as these could not take place in such an Earth. As for subterraneous Waters, there could be none at that time, for they were all above ground; and as for subterraneous Exhalations, whether Fiery or Aery, there was no place for them neither, for the Earth when it lay under the Water was a solid uniform mass, compact and close united in its parts, as we have shewn before upon several occasions; no Mines or hollow Vaults for the Vapours to be lodged in, no Store-houses of Fire, nothing that could make Earthquakes, nor any sort of ruines or eruptions: These are Engines that cannot play but in an Earth already broken, hollow, and cavernous. Therefore the Authors of this opinion do in effect beg the question; they assign such causes of the present form of the Earth, as could not take place, nor have any activity until the Earth was in this form: These causes may contribute something to increase the rudeness and inequalities of the Earth in certain places, but they could not be the original causes of it: And that not only because of their disproportion to such effects, but also because of their incapacity, or non-existence at that time when these effects were to be wrought.

Thus much concerning the Philosophical opinions, or the natural Causes that have been assigned for the irregular form of this present Earth. Let us now consider the Theological opinions, how Mountains were made at first, and the wonderful Chanel of the Sea: And these Authors say, God Almighty made them immediately when he made the World; and so dispatch the business in a few words. This is a short account indeed, but we must take heed that we do not derogate from the perfection of God, by ascribing all things promiscuously to his immediate action. I have often suggested that the first order of things is regular and simple, according as the Divine Nature is; and continues so till there is some degeneracy in the moral World; I have also noted upon several occasions, especially in the Lat. Treat. Chap. II the deformity and incommodiousness of the present Earth; and from these two considerations we may reasonably infer, that the present state of the Earth was not Original, but is a state of subjection to Vanity, wherein it must continue till the redemption and restitution of all things.

But besides this general consideration, there are many others, both Natural and Theological against this opinion, which the Authors of it, I believe, will find unanswerable. As first, St. Peter's distinction betwixt the present Earth and the Ante-diluvian; and that in opposition to certain profane persons, who seem to have been of the same opinion with these Authors, namely, that the Heavens and the Earth were the same now that they had been from the beginning, and that there had been no change in Nature, either of late, or in former Ages; These St. Peter confutes and upbraids them with ignorance or forgetfulness of the change that was brought upon Nature at the Deluge, or that the Ante-diluvian Heavens and Earth were of a different form and constitution from the present, whereby that World was obnoxious to a Deluge of Water, as the present is to a Deluge of Fire. Let these Authors put themselves in the place of those Objectors, and see what answer they can make to the Apostle, whom I leave to dispute the case with them. I hope they will not treat this Epistle of St. Peter's so rudely as Didymus Alexandrinusdid, an ancient Christian, and one of St. Jerom's Masters, he was of the same opinion with these Theological Authors, and so fierce in it, that seeing St. Peter's doctrine here to be contrary, he said this Epistle of St. Peter's was corrupted, and was not to be received into the Canon. And all this because it taught that the Heavens and the Earth had changed their form, and would do so again at the Conflagration; so as the same World would be Triform in success of time. We acknowledge his Exposition of St. Peter's words to be very true, but what he makes an argument of the corruption of this Epistle, is rather, in my mind, a peculiar argument of its Divine Inspiration. In the second place, these writers dash upon the old rock, the impossibility of explaining the Deluge; if there were Mountains from the beginning, and the Earth then in the same form as it is now. Thirdly, they make the state of Paradiseas unintelligible as that of the Deluge; For those properties that are assigned to Paradiseby the Ancients, are inconsistent with the present form of the Earth: As will appear in the Second Book. Lastly, they must answer, and give an account of all those marks which we have observed in Nature (both in this Chapter, and the Ninth, Tenth, and Eleventh), of fractions, ruines, and dissolutions that have been on the Earth, and which we have shewn to be inexplicable, unless we admit that the Earth was once in another form.

These arguments being premised, let us now bring their opinion close to the Test, and see in what manner these Mountains must have been made according to them, and how the Chanel of the Sea, and all other Cavities of the Earth.}Let us to this purpose consider the Earth again in that transient incompleat form which it had when the Abysse encompast the whole body of it; we both agree that the Earth was once in this state, and they say that it came immediately out of this state into its present form, there being made by a supernatural Power a great Chanel or Ditch in one part of it, which drew off the Waters from the rest, and the Earth which was squeezed and forced out of this Ditch made the Mountains. So there is the Chanel of the Sea made, and the Mountains of the Earth; how the subterraneous Cavities were made according to these Authors, I do not well know. This I confess seems to me a very gross thought, and a way of working very un-God-like; but however let's have patience to examine it.

And in the first place, if the Mountains were taken out of the Chanel of the Sea, then they are equal to it, and would fill it up if they were thrown in again. But these proportions upon examination will not agree; for though the Mountains of the Earth be very great, yet they do not equal by much the great Ocean. The Ocean extends to half the surface of the Earth; and if you suppose the greatest depth of the Ocean to answer the height of the greatest Mountains, and the middle depth to the middle sort of Mountains, the Mountains ought to cover all the dry Land to make them answer to all the capacity of the Ocean; whereas we supposed them upon a reasonable computation to cover but the tenth part of the dry Land; and consequently, neither they, nor the Sea-chanel, could have been produced in this manner, because of their great disproportion to one another. And the same thing appears, if we compare the Mountains with the Abyss, which covered the Earth before this Chanel was made; for this Chanel being made great enough to contain all the Abyss, the Mountains taken out of it must also be equal to all the Abyss, but the aggregate of the Mountains will not answer this by many degrees; for suppose the Abyss was but half as deep as the deep Ocean, to make this Calculus answer, all the dry Land ought to be covered with Mountains, and with Mountains as high as the Ocean is deep, or doubly high to the depth of the Abyss, because they are but upon one half of the Globe. And this is the first argument against the reciprocal production of Mountains and the Sea, their incongruency or disproportion.

Secondly, we are to consider that a great many Mountains of the Earth are far distant from any Seas, as the great in-land Mountains of Asiaand of Africk, and the SarmatickMountains, and others in Europe, how were these great bodies flung thorough the Air from their respective Seas, whence they were taken, to those places where they stand? What appearance is there in common reason, or credibility, that these huge masses of Earth and Stone that stand in the middle of Continents, were dug out of any Seas? We think it strange, and very deservedly, that a little Chapel should be transported from Palestineto Italyover Land and Sea, much more the transportation of Mount Atlasor Taurusthorough the Air, or of a range of Mountains two or three thousand miles long, would surely upon all accounts appear incongruous and incredible: Besides, neither the hollow form of Mountains, nor the stony matter whereof they commonly consist, agrees with that supposition, that they were prest or taken out of the Chanel of the Sea.

Lastly, We are to consider that the Mountains are not barely laid upon the Earth, as a Tomb-stone upon a Grave, nor stand as Statues do upon a Pedestal, as this opinion seems to suppose; but they are one continued substance with the body of the Earth, and their roots reach into the Abyss; As the Rocks by the Sea-side go as deep as the bottom of the Sea in one continued mass: And tis a ridiculous thing to imagine the Earth first a plain surface, then all the Mountains set upon it, as Hay-cocks in a Field, standing upon their fiat bottoms. There is no such common surface in Nature, nor consequently any such super-additions, tis all one frame or mass, only broken and disjoynted in the parts of it. To conclude, tis not only the Mountains that make the inequalities of the Earth, or the irregularity of its surface, every Country, every Province, every Field hath an unequal and different situation, higher or lower, inclined more or less, and sometimes one way, sometimes another, you can scarce take a miles compass in any place where the surface of the ground continues uniform; and can you imagine that there were Moulds or Stones brought from the Sea-chanel to make all those inequalities? Or that Earthquakes have been in every Country, and in every Field? The inner Veins and Lares of the Earth are also broken as well as the surface. These must proceed from universal causes, and all those that have been alledged, whether from Philosophy or Theology, are but particular or Topical. I am fully satisfied, in contemplation of these things, and so I think every unprejudiced person may be, that to such an irregular variety of situation and construction, as we see every where in the parts of the Earth, nothing could answer but some universal concussion or dislocation, in the nature of a general ruine.

We have now finisht this first part of our Theory, and all that concerns the Deluge or dissolution of the Earth; and we have not only establisht our own Hypothesisby positive arguments, but also produced and examined all suppositions that have been offered by others, whether Philosophical or Theological, for the Explication of the same things; so as nothing seems now to remain further upon this subject. For a conclusion of all, we will consider, if you please, the rest of the Earths, or of the Planets within our Heavens, that appertain to the same common Sun; to see, so far as we can go by rational conjectures, if they be not of the same Fabrick, and have undergone the like fate and forms with our Earth. It is now acknowledged by the generality of Learned Men, that the Planets are Opake bodies, and particularly our next neighbour, the Moon, is known to be a Terraqueous Globe, consisting of Mountains and Valleys, as our Earth does; and we have no reason to believe but that she came into that form by a dissolution, or from like causes as our Earth did. Mercuryis so near the Sun, that we cannot well discern his face, whether spotted or no, nor make a judgment of it. But as for Venusand Mars, if the spots that be observed in them be their Waters or their Sea, as they are in the Moon, tis likely They are also Terraqueous Globes, and in much what a like form with the Moon and the Earth, and, for ought we know, from like causes. Particularly as to Venus, tis a remarkable passage that St. Austin hath preserved out of Varro, he saith, That about the time of the great Deluge there was a wonderful alteration or Catastrophe happened to the Planet Venus, and that she changed her colour, form, figure, and magnitude. This is a great presumption that she suffered her dissolution about the same time that our Earth did. I do not know that any such thing is recorded concerning any of the other Planets, but the body of Mars looks very rugged, broken, and much disordered.

Saturnand Jupiterdeserve a distinct consideration, as having something particular and different from the rest of the Planets. Saturnis remarkable for his Hoopor Ring, which seems to stand off from his body, and would strongly induce one to believe, that the exteriour Earth of that Planet, at its dissolution, did not all fall in, but the Polar parts sinking into the Abyss, the middle or uinoctial parts still subsisted, and bore themselves up in the nature of an Arch about the Planet, or of a Bridge, as it were, built over the Sea of Saturn. Jupiter of all the Planets I take to be most intire, and in an Ante-diluvian state; His Fascir Belts, as they call them, I should guess to be Waters, or the two frigid Zones, where his Waters fall and make two Canals in those parts; such as we shall show to have been in our Earth before it was broke. This Planet without all doubt is turned about its Axis, otherwise how should its Four Moons be carried about it? And this is also collected from the motion of that (permanent) spot that is upon its body; which spot I take to be either a Lake, or a Chasm and Hiatusinto the Abysse of the Planet; that is part of the Abysse open or uncovered, like the Aperture we made in the Seventh Figure. And this might either have been left so, by Providence, at first, for some reasons fitting that Earth, or it may have fain in afterwards, as Plato's Atlantis, or as Sodomand Gomorrha, as some judgment upon part of that World. However that be, as to the Belts of Jupiter, which are the most remarkable Phomenonof that Planet, I take them to be his Zones, and to lie parallel with one another, and I believe also with his uator: But we must first know how his Poles lie, and in what situation with the Ecliptick, and in what Aspect to us, before such things can be certainly determined. In the mean time, if we have guest aright, that Jupiteris in an Ante-diluvian state, I should rather expect to find the Figure of his Body, than of any other of the Planets, to be Oval or Oblong, such as our Earth was before its Deluge. To conclude, seeing all the Planets that are placed in this Heaven, and are the foster-children of this Sun, seem to have some affinity one with another, and have much-what the same countenance, and the same general Phomena; It seems probable that they rise much-what the same way, and after the like manner as our Earth, each one from its respective Chaos; And that they had the same Elementary Regions at first, and an exteriour Orb formed over their Abyss: And lastly, that every one of them hath suffered, or is to suffer its Deluge, as our Earth hath done. These, I say, are probable conjectures according to the Analogy of Reason and Nature, so far as we can judge concerning things very remote and inaccessible.

And these things being thus, and our Theory of the Deluge, and the Dissolution which brought it, having such a general agreement both with our Heavens and our Earth, I think there is nothing but the uncouthness of the thing to some mens understandings, the custom of thinking otherwise, and the uneasiness of entring into a new sett of thoughts, that can be a bar or hindrance to its reception.

THE SACRED THEORY OF THE EARTH

by Thomas Burnet

THE THEORY OF THE EARTH

Book I

Concerning the Deluge, and the Dissolution of the Earth.

CHAPTER XI

Concerning the Mountains of the Earth, their greatness and irregular Form, their Situation, Causes, and Origin.

WE have been in the hollows of the Earth, and the Chambers of the Deep, amongst the damps and steams of those lower Regions; let us now go air our selves on the tops of the Mountains, where we shall have a more free and large Horizon, and quite another face of things will present it self to our observation.

The greatest objects of Nature are, methinks, the most pleasing to behold; and next to the great Concave of the Heavens, and those boundless Regions where the Stars inhabit, there is nothing that I look upon with more pleasure than the, wide Sea and the Mountains of the Earth. There is something august and stately in the Air of these things, that inspires the mind with great thoughts and passions; We do naturally, upon such occasions, think of God and his greatness: and whatsoever hath but the shadow and appearance of INFINITE, as all things have that are too big for our comprehension, they fill and over-bear the mind with their Excess, and cast it into a pleasing kind of stupor and admiration.

And yet these Mountains we are speaking of, to confess the truth, are nothing but great ruines; but such as show a certain magnificence in Nature; as from old Temples and broken Amphitheaters of the Romanswe collect the greatness of that people. But the grandeur of a Nation is less sensible to those that never see the remains and monuments they have left, and those who never see the mountainous parts of the Earth, scarce ever reflect upon the causes of them, or what power in Nature could be sufficient to produce them. The truth is, the generality of people have not sence and curiosity enough to raise a question concerning these things, or concerning the Original of them. You may tell them that Mountains grow out of the Earth like Fuzz-balls, or that there are Monsters under ground that throw up Mountains as Moles do Mole-hills; they will scarce raise one objection against your doctrine; or if you would appear more Learned, tell them that the Earth is a great Animal, and these are Wens that grow upon its body. This would pass current for Philosophy; so much is the World drowned in stupidity and sensual pleasures, and so little inquisitive into the works of God and Nature.

There is nothing doth more awaken our thoughts or excite our minds to enquire into the causes of such things, than the actual view of them; as I have had experience my self when it was my fortune to cross theAlps and AppennineMountains; for the sight of those wild, vast and indigested heaps of Stones and Earth, did so deeply strike my fancy, that I was not easie till I could give my self some tolerable account how that confusion came in Nature. Tis true, the height of Mountains compared with the Diameter of the Earth is not considerable, but the extent of them and the ground they stand upon, bears a considerable proportion to the surface of the Earth; and if from Europewe may take our measures for the rest, I easily believe, that the Mountains do at least take up the tenth part of the dry land. The Geographers are not very careful to describe or note in their Charts, the multitude or situation of Mountains; They mark the bounds of Countries, the site of Cities and Towns, and the course of Rivers, because these are things of chief use to civil affairs and commerce, and that they design to serve, and not Philosophy or Natural History. But Cluveriusin his description of Ancient Germany, Switzerlandand Italy, hath given Maps of those Countries more approaching to the natural face of them, and we have drawn (at the end of this Chapter) such a Map of either Hemisphere, without marking Countries or Towns, or any such artificial things; distinguishing only Land and Sea, Islands and Continents, Mountains and not Mountains; and tis very useful to imagine the Earth in this manner, and to look often upon such bare draughts as shew us Nature undrest; for then we are best able to judge what her true shapes and proportions are.

Tis certain that we naturally imagine the surface of the Earth much more regular than it is; for unless we be in some Mountainous parts, there seldom occur any great inequalities within so much compass of ground as we can, at once, reach with our Eye; and to conceive the rest, we multiply the same Idea, and extend it to those parts of the Earth that we do not see; and so fancy the whole Globe much more smooth and uniform than it is. But suppose a man was carried asleep out of a Plain Country, amongst the Alps, and left there upon the top of one of the highest Mountains, when he waked and looked about him, he would think himself in an inchanted Country, or carried into another World; Every thing would appear to him so different to what he had ever seen or imagined before. To see on every hand of him a multitude of vast bodies thrown together in confusion, as those Mountains are; Rocks standing naked round about him; and the hollow Valleys gaping under him; and at his feet it may be, an heap of frozen Snow in the midst of Summer. He would hear the thunder come from below, and see the black Clouds hanging beneath him; Upon such a prospect, it would not be easie to him to perswade himself that he was still upon the same Earth; but if he did, he would be convinced, at least, that there are some Regions of it strangely rude, and ruine-like, and very different from what he had ever thought of before. But the inhabitants of these wild places are even with us; for those that live amongst the Alpsand the great Mountains, think that all the rest of the Earth is like their Country, all broken into Mountains, and Valleys, and Precipices; They never see other, and most people think of nothing but what they have seen at one time or another.

These Alpswe are speaking of are the greatest range of Mountains in Europe; and tis prodigious to see and to consider of what extent these heaps of Stones and Rubbish are; one way they overspread Savoyand Dauphin and reach through Franceto the PyreneanMountains, and so to the Ocean. The other way they run along the skirts of Germany, through Stiria, Pannonia, and Dalmatia, as far as Thraceand the Black Sea. Then backwards they cover Switzerlandand the parts adjacent; and that branch of them which we call the Appennines, strikes through Italy, and is, as it were, the back-bone of that Country. This must needs be a large space of ground which they stand upon; Yet tis not this part of Europeonly that is laden with Mountains, the Northern part is as rough and rude in the face of the Country, as in the manners of the people; Bohemia, Silesia, Denmark, Norway, Sweedland, Lapland, and Iseland, and all the coasts of the Baltick Sea, are full of Clifts, and Rocks, and Crags of Mountains: Besides the RipheanMountains in Muscovy, which the Inhabitants there use to call the Stone girdle, and believe that it girds the Earth round about.

Nor are the other parts of our Continent more free from Mountains than Europe, nor other parts of the Earth than our Continent: They are in the New World as well as the Old; and if they could discover two or three New Worlds or Continents more, they would still find them there. Neither is there any Original Island upon the Earth, but is either all a Rock, or hath Rocks and Mountains in it. And all the dry Land, and every Continent, is but a kind of Mountain: though that Mountain hath a multitude of lesser ones, and Valleys, and Plains, and Lakes, and Marshes, and all variety of grounds.

In America, the Andes, or a ridge of Mountains so called, are reported to be higher than any we have, reaching above a thousand Leagues in length, and twenty in breadth, where they are the narrowest. In Africkthe Mountain Atlas, that for its height was said to bear the Heavens on its back, runs all along from the Western Sea to the borders of ypt, parallel with the Mediterranean. There also are the Mountains of the Moon, and many more whereof we have but an imperfect account, as neither indeed of that Country in the remote and inner parts of it. Asiais better known, and the Mountains thereof better describ'd: Taurus, which is the principal, was adjudged by the ancient Geographers the greatest in the World. It divides Asia into two parts, which have their denomination from it: And there is an Anti-Taurusthe greater and the less, which accordingly divide Armeniainto greater and less. Then the CruciformMountains of Imaus, the famous Caucasus, the long Chains of Tartaryand China, and the Rocky and Mountainous Arabia. If one could at once have a prospect of all these together, one would be easily satisfied, that the Globe of the Earth is a more rude and indigested Body than tis commonly imagined; If one could see, I say, all the Kingdoms and Regions of the Earth at one view, how they lie in broken heaps; The Sea hath overwhelmed one half of them, and what remains are but the taller parts of a ruine. Look upon those great ranges of Mountains in Europeor in Asia, whereof we have given a short survey, in what confusion do they lie? They have neither form nor beauty, nor shape, nor order, no more than the Clouds in the Air. Then how barren, how desolate, how naked are they? how they stand neglected by Nature? neither the Rains can soften them, nor the Dews from Heaven make them fruitful.

I have given this short account of the Mountains of the Earth, to help to remove that prejudice we are apt to have, or that conceit, That the present Earth is regularly formed. And to this purpose I do not doubt but that it would be of very good use to have naturalMaps of the Earth, as we noted before, as well as civil; and done with the same care and judgment. Our common Maps I call Civil, which note the distinction of Countries and of Cities, and represent the Artificial Earth as inhabited and cultivated: But natural Maps leave out all that, and represent the Earth as it would be if there was not an Inhabitant upon it, nor ever had been; the Skeleton of the Earth, as I may so say, with the site of all its parts. Methinks also every Prince should have such a Draught of his own Country and Dominions, to see how the ground lies in the several parts of them, which highest, which lowest; what respect they have to one another, and to the Sea; how the Rivers flow, and why; how the Mountains stand, how the Heaths, and how the Marches are placed. Such a Map or Survey would be useful both in time of War and Peace, and many good observations might be made by it, not only as to Natural History and Philosophy, but also in order to the perfect imEvidencement of a Countrey. But to return to our Mountains.

As this Survey of the multitude and greatness of them may help to rectifie our mistakes about the form of the Earth, so before we proceed to examine their causes, it will be good to observe farther, that these Mountains are placed in no order one with another, that can either respect use or beauty; And if you consider them singly, they do not consist of any proportion of parts that is referrable to any design, or that hath the least footsteps of Art or Counsel. There is nothing in Nature more shapeless and ill-figured than an old Rock or a Mountain, and all that variety that is among them, is but the various modes of irregularity; so as you cannot make a better character of them, in short, than to say they are of all forms and figures, except regular. Then if you could go within these Mountains, (for they are generally hollow,) you would find all things there more rude, if possible, than without: And lastly, if you look upon an heap of them together, or a Mountainous Country, they are the greatest examples of confusion that we know in Nature; no Tempest or Earthquake puts things into more disorder. Tis true, they cannot look so ill now as they did at first; a ruine that is fresh looks much worse than afterwards, when the Earth grows discoloured and skined over. But I fancy if we had seen the Mountains when they were new-born and raw, when the Earth was fresh broken, and the waters of the Deluge newly retied, the fractions and confusions of them would have appeared very gastly and frightful.

After this general Survey of the Mountains of the Earth and their properties, let us now reflect upon the causes of them. There is a double pleasure in Philosophy, first that of Admiration, whilst we contemplate things that are great and wonderful, and do not yet understand their Causes; for though admiration proceed from ignorance, yet there is a certain charm and sweetness in that passion. Then the second pleasure is greater and more intellectual, which is that of distinct knowledge and comprehension, when we come to have the Key that unlocks those secrets, and see the methods wherein those things come to pass that we admired before; The reasons why the World is so or so, and from what causes Nature, or any part of Nature, came into such a state; and this we are now to enquire after as to the Mountains of the Earth, what their original was, how and when the Earth came into this strange frame and structure? In the beginning of our World, when the Earth rise from a Chaos, twas impossible it should come immediately into this Mountainous form; because a mass that is fluid, as a Chaos is, cannot lie in any other figure than what is regular; for the constant laws of Nature do certainly bring all Liquors into that form: And a Chaos is not called so from any confusion or brokenness in the form of it, but from a confusion and mixture of all sorts of ingredients in the composition of it. So we have already produced, in the precedent Chapters, a double argument that the Earth was not originally in this form, both becaute it rise from a Chaos, which could not of it self, or by any immediate concretion, settle into a form of this nature, as hath been shown in the Fourth and Fifth Chapters; as also because if it had been originally made thus, it could never have undergone a Deluge, as hath been Evidenced in the Second and Third Chapters. If this be then a secondary and succedaneous form, the great question is from what causes it arises.

Some have thought that Mountains, and all other irregularities in the Earth, have rise from Earthquakes, and such like causes; others have thought that they came from the universal Deluge; yet not from any dissolution of the Earth that was then, but only from the great agitation of the waters, which broke the ground into this rude and unequal form. Both these causes seem to me very incompetent and insufficient. Earthquakes seldom make Mountains, they often take them away, and sink them down into the Caverns that lie under them; Besides, Earthquakes are not in all Countries and Climates as Mountains are; for, as we have observed more than once, there is neither Island that is original, nor Continent any where in the Earth, in what latitude soever, but hath Mountains and Rocks in it. And lastly, what probability is there, or how is it credible, that those vast tracts of Land which we see filled with Mountains both in Europe, Asiaand Africa, were raised by Earthquakes, or any eruptions from below. In what Age of the World was this done, and why not continued? As for the Deluge, I doubt not but Mountains were made in the time of the general Deluge, that great change and transformation of the Earth happened then, but not from such causes as are pretended, that is, the bare rowling and agitation of the waters; For if the Earth was smooth and plain before the Flood, as they seem to suppose as well as we do, the waters could have little or no power over a smooth surface to tear it any way in pieces, no more than they do a meadow or low ground when they lie upon it; for that which makes Torrents and Land-floods violent, is their fall from the Mountains and high Lands, which our Earth is now full of, but if the Rain fell upon even and level ground, it would only sadden and compress it; there is no possibility how it should raise Mountains in it. And if we could imagine an universal Deluge as the Earth is now constituted, it would rather throw down the Hills and Mountains than raise new ones; or by beating down their tops and loose parts, help to fill the Valleys, and bring the Earth nearer to evenness and plainness.

Seeing then there are no hopes of explaining the Origin of Mountains, either from particular Earthquakes, or from the general Deluge, according to the common notion and Explication of it; these not being causes answerable to such vast effects; Let us try our Hypothesisagain; which hath made us a Chanel large enough for the Sea, and room for all subterraneous Cavities, and I think will find us materials enough to raise all the Mountains of the Earth. We suppose the great Arch or circumference of the first Earth to have fallen into the Abyss at the Deluge, and seeing that was larger than the surface it fell upon, tis absolutely certain, that it could not all fall flat, or lie under the water: Now as all those parts that stood above the water made dry Land, or the present habitable Earth, so such parts of the dry Land as stood higher than the rest, made Hills and Mountains; And this is the first and general account of them, and of all the inequalities of the Earth. But to consider these things a little more particularly; There is a double cause and necessity of Mountains, first this now mentioned, because the exteriour Orb of the Earth was greater than the interiour which it fell upon, and therefore it could not all fall flat; and secondly, because this exteriour Orb did not fall so flat and large as it might, or did not cover all the bottom of the Abyss, as it was very capable to do; but as we shewed before in explaining the Chanel of the Ocean, it left a gaping in the middle, or an Abyss-chanel, as I should call it; and the broader this Abyss-chanel was, the more Mountains there would be upon the dry Land; for there would be more Earth, or more of the falling Orb left, and less room to place it in, and therefore it must stand more in heaps.

In what parts of the Earth these heaps would lie, and in what particular manner, it cannot be expected that we should tell; but all that we have hitherto observ'd concerning Mountains, how strange soever and otherwise unaccountable, may easily be explained, and deduced from this original; we shall not wonder at their greatness and vastness, seeing they are the ruines of a broken World; and they would take up more or less of the dry Land, according as the Ocean took up more or less space of our Globe: Then as to their figure and form, whether External or Internal, tis just such as answers our expectation, and no more than what the Hypothesisleads us to; For you would easily believe that these heaps would be irregular in all manner of ways, whether considered apart, or in their situation to one another. And they would lie commonly in Clusters and in Ridges, for those are two of the most general postures of the parts of a ruine, when they fall inwards. Lastly, we cannot wonder that Mountains should be generally hollow; For great bodies falling together in confusion, or bearing and leaning against one another, must needs make a great many hollownesses in them, and by their unequal Applications empty spaces will be intercepted. We see also from the same reason, why mountainous Countries are subject to Earthquakes; and why Mountains often sink and fall down into the Caverns that lie under them; their joynts and props being decayed and worn, they become unable to bear their weight. And all these properties you see hang upon one and the same string, and are just consequences from our supposition concerning the dissolution of the first Earth. And there is no surer mark of a good Hypothesis, than when it doth not only hit luckily in one or two particulars, but answers all that it is to be applied to, and is adequate to Nature in her whole extent.

But how fully or easily soever these things may answer Nature, you will say, it may be, that all this is but an Hypothesis; that is, a kind of fiction or supposition that things were so and so at first, and by the coherence and agreement of the Effects with such a supposition, you would argue and Evidence that they were really so. This I confess is true, this is the method, and if we would know any thing in Nature further than our senses go, we can know it no otherwise than by an Hypothesis. When things are either too little for our senses, or too remote and inaccessible, we have no way to know the inward Nature, and the causes of their sensible properties, but by reasoning upon an Hypothesis. If you would know, for example, of what parts Water, or any other Liquor consists, they are too little to be discerned by the Eye, you must therefore take a supposition concerning their invisible figure and form, and if that agrees and gives the reason of all their sensible qualities, you understand the nature of Water. In like manner, if you would know the nature of a Comet, or of what matter the Sun consists, which are things inaccessible to us, you can do this no otherwise than by an Hypothesis; and if that Hypothesisbe easie and intelligible, and answers all the Phomenaof those two bodies, you have done as much as a Philosopheror as Humane reasoncan do. And this is what we have attempted concerning the Earth and concerning the Deluge; We have laid down an Hypothesisthat is easie and perspicuous, consisting of a few things, and those very intelligible, and from this we have given an account how the Old World was destroyed by a Deluge of water, and how the Earth came into this present form; so distinguished and interrupted with Sea and Land, Mountains and Valleys, and so broken in the surface and inward parts of it.

Fig 1

But to speak the Truth, this Theory is something more than a bare Hypothesis; because we are assured that the general ground that we go upon is true, namely, that the Earth rise at first from a Chaos; for besides Reason and Antiquity, Scripture it self doth assure as of that; and that one point being granted, we have deduced from it all the rest by a direct chain of consequences, which I think cannot be broken easily in partpart or link of it. Besides, the great hinge of this Theory upon which all the rest turns, is the distinction we make of the Antediluvian Earth and Heavens from the Post-diluvian, as to their form and constitution.

Fig. 2

And it will never be beaten out of my head, but that St. Peterhath made the same distinction sixteen hundred years since, and to the very same purpose; so that we have sure footing here again, and the Theory riseth above the character of a bare Hypothesis. And whereas an Hypothesisthat is clear and proportioned to Nature in every respect, is accounted morally certain, we must in equity give more than a moral certitude to this Theory. But I mean this only as to the general parts of it; for as to particularities, I look upon them only as problematical, and accordingly I affirm nothing therein but with a power of revocation, and a liberty to change my opinion when I shall be better informed. Neither do I know any Author that hath treated a matter new, remote, and consisting of a multitude of particulars, who would not have had occasion, if he had lived to have seen his Hypothesisfully examined, to have changed his mind and manner of explaining things, in many material instances.

To conclude both this Chapter and this Section, we have here added a Map or Draught of the Earth, according to the Natural face of it, as it would appear from the Moon, if we were a little nearer to her; or as it was at first after the Deluge, before Cities were built, distinctions of Countries made, or any alterations by humane industry. Tis chiefly to expose more to view the Mountains of the Earth, and the proportions of Sea and Land, to shew it as it lies in it self, and as a Naturalist ought to conceive and consider it. Tis true, there are far more Mountains upon the Earth than what are here represented, for more could not conveniently be placed in this narrow Scheme; But the best and most effectual way of representing the body of the Earth as it is by Nature, would be, not in plain Tables, but by a rough Globe, expressing all the considerable inequalities that are upon the Earth. The smooth Globes that we use, do but nourish in us the conceit of the Earth's regularity, and though they may be convenient enough for Geographical purposes, they are not so proper for Natural Science; nothing would be more useful, in this respect, than a rough Globe of the largest dimensions, wherein the Chanel of the Sea should be really hollow, as it is in Nature, with all its unequal depths according to the best soundings, and the shores exprest both according to matter and form, little Rocks standing where there are Rocks, and Sands and Beaches in the places where they are found; And all the Islands planted in the Sea-chanel in a due form, and in their solid dimensions. Then upon the Land should stand all the ranges of Mountains, in the same order or disorder that Nature hath set them there; And the in-land Seas, and great Lakes, or rather the beds they lie in, should be duly represented; as also the vast desarts of Sand as they lie upon the Earth. And this being done with care and due Art, would be a true Epitome or true model of our Earth. Where we should see, besides other instructions, what a rude Lump our World is, which we are so apt to dote upon.