THE SACRED THEORY OF THE EARTH

by Thomas Burnet

THE THEORY OF THE EARTH

Book 2

Concerning the PRIMAL EARTH, AND PARADISE.

CHAPTER IX

A general objection against this Theory, viz. That if there had been such a Primitive Earth, as we pretend, the fame of it would have sounded throughout all Antiquity. The Eastern and Western Learning considered, the most considerable Records of both are lost; what footsteps remain relating to this Subject. The Jewishand ChristianLearning considered; how far lost as to this Argument, and what Notes or Traditions remain. Lastly, how far the Sacred Writings bear witness to it. The Providential conduct of Knowledge in the World. A recapitulation and state of the Theory.

HAVING gone through the two first Parts, and the two first Books of this Theory, that concern the Primitive World, the Universal Deluge, and the state of Paradise, We have leizure now to reflect a little, and consider what may probably be objected against a Theory of this nature. I do not mean single objections against single parts, for those may be many, and such as I cannot fore-see; but what may be said against the body and substance of the Theory, and the credibility of it, appearing new and surprising, and yet of great extent and importance. This, I fancy, will induce many to say, surely this cannot be a reality; for if there had been such a Primitive Earth, and such a Primitive World as is here represented, and so remarkably different from the present, it could not have been so utterly forgotten, or lain hid for so many Ages; all Antiquity would have rung of it; the memory of it would have been kept fresh by Books or Traditions. Can we imagine, that it should lie buried for some thousands of years in deep silence and oblivion; and now only when the second World is drawing to an end, we begin to discover that there was a first, and that of another make and order from this?

To satisfie this objection, or surmise rather, it will be convenient to take a good large scope and compass in our Discourse; We must not suppose, that this Primitive World hath been wholly lost out of the memory of man, or out of History, for we have some History and Chronology of it preserved by Moses, and likewise in the Monuments of the Ancients, more or less; for they all supposed a World before the Deluge. But ’tis the Philosophy of this Primitive World that hath been lost in a great measure, what the state of Nature was then, and wherein it differed from the present or Post-diluvian order of things. This, I confess, hath been little taken notice of; it hath been generally thought or presumed, that the World before the Flood was of the same form and constitution with the present World; This we do not deny, but rather think it designed and Providential, that there should not remain a clear and full knowledge of that first state of things; and we may easily suppose how it might decay and perish, if we consider how little of the remote Antiquities of the World have ever been brought down to our knowledge.

The Greeksand Romansdivided the Ages of the World into three periods or intervals, whereof they called the first the ObscurePeriod, the second the Fabulous, and the third Historical. The dark and obscure Period was from the beginning of the World to the Deluge; what passed then, either in Nature or amongst Men, they have no Records, no account, by their own confession; all that space of time was covered with darkness and oblivion; so that we ought rather to wonder at those remains they have, and those broken notions of the Golden Age, and the conditions of it, how they were saved out of the common shipwrack, than to expect from them the Philosophy of that World, and all its differences from the present. And as for the other Nations that pretend to greater Antiquities, to more ancient History and Chronology, from what is left of their Monuments many will allow only this difference, that their fabulous Age begun more high, or that they had more ancient Fables.

But besides that our expectations cannot be great from the learning of the Gentiles, we have not the means or opportunity to inform our selves well what Notions they did leave us concerning the Primitive World; for their Books and Monuments are generally lost, or lie hid unknown to us. The Learning of the World may be divided into the Eastern learning and the Western; and I look upon the Eastern as far more considerable for Philosophical Antiquities, and Philosophical Conclusions; I say Conclusions, for I do not believe either of them had any considerable Theory, or Contexture of Principles and Conclusions together: But ’tis certain, that in the East, from what Source soever it came, Humane or Divine, they had some extraordinary Doctrines and Notions disperst amongst them. Now as by the Western learning we understand that of the Greeksand Romans; so by the Eastern, that which was amongst the Ægyptians, Phœnicians, Chaldæans, Assyrians, and Persians; and of the Learning of these Nations, how little have we now left? except some fragments and Citations in GreekAuthors, what do we know of them? But if we had, not only those Books intire, whereof we have now the gleanings and reversions only, but all that have perisht besides, especially in that famous Library at Alexandria; if these, I say, were all restored to the World again, we might promise our selves the satisfaction of seeing more of the Antiquities, and Natural History of the first World, than we have now left, or can reasonably expect. That Library we speak of, at Alexandria, was a Collection, besides GreekBooks, of Ægyptian, Chaldæan, and all the Eastern Learning; and Cedrenusmakes it to consist of an hundred thousand Volumes: But Josephussaith, when the Translation of the Bible by the Septuagintwas to be added to it, Demetrius Phalereus(who was Keeper or Governour of it) told the King then, that he had already two hundred thousand Volumes, and that he hoped to make them up five hundred thousand; And he was better than his word, or his Successors for him, for Ammianus Marcellinus, and other Authors, report them to have increased to seven hundred thousand. This Library was unfortunately burnt in the sacking of Alexandriaby Cæsar, and considering that all these were ancient Books, and generally of the Eastern wisdom, ’twas an inestimable and irreparable loss to the Commonwealth of Learning. In like manner we are told of a vast Library of Books of all Arts and Sciences, in China, burnt by the command or caprice of one of their Kings. Wherein, the Chineses, according to their vanity, were used to say, greater riches were lost, than will be in the last Conflagration.

As for the Western Learning, we may remember what the ÆgyptianPriest says to Solonin Plato's Timæus, You Greeks are always Children, and know nothing of Antiquity; And if the Greekswere so, much more the Romans, who came after them in time, and for so great a People, and so much civilized, never any had less Philosophy, and less of the Sciences amongst them than the Romanshad; They studied only the Art of Speaking, of Governing, and of Fighting: and left the rest to the Greeksand Eastern Nations, as unprofitable. Yet we have reason to believe, that the best Philosophical Antiquities that the Romanshad, perisht with the Books of Varro, of NumaPompilius, and of the ancient Sibyls.Varrowrit, as St. Austintells us, a multitude of Volumes, and of various sorts, and I had rather retrieve his works, than the works of any other RomanAuthor; not his Etymologies and Criticisms, where we see nothing admirable, but his Theologia Physica, and his Antiquitates; which in all probability would have given us more light into remote times, and the Natural History of the past World, than all the LatinAuthors besides have done. He has left the forementioned distinction of three Periods of time; He had the doctrine of the Mundane Egg, as we see in Probus Grammaticus; and he gave us that observation of the Star Venus, concerning the great change she suffered about the time of our Deluge.

NumaPompiliuswas doubtless a contemplative man, and ’tis thought that he understood the true System of the World, and represented the Sun by his Vestal Fire; though, methinks, Vestadoes not so properly refer to the Sun, as to the Earth, which hath a Sacred fire too, that is not to be extinguisht. He ordered his Books to be buried with him, which were found in a Stone-Chest by him, four hundred years after his death; They were in all twenty-four, whereof twelve contained Sacred Rites and Ceremonies, and the other twelve the Philosophy and Wisdom of the Greeks; The Romansgave them to the Prætor Petiliusto peruse; and to make his report to the Senate, whether they were fit to be publisht or no: The Prætormade a wise politick report, that the Contents of them might be of dangerous consequence to the establisht Laws and Religion; and thereupon they were condemned to be burnt, and Posterity was deprived of that ancient treasure, whatsoever it was. What the nine Books of the Sibylcontained, that were offered to King Tarquin, we little know; She valued them high, and the higher still, the more they seemed to slight or neglect them; which is a piece of very natural indignation or contempt, when one is satisfied of the worth of what they offer. ’Tis likely they respected, besides the fate of Rome, the fate and several periods of the World, both past and to come, and the most mystical passages of them. And in these Authors and Monuments are lost the greatest hopes of Natural and Philosophick Antiquities, that we could have had from the Romans.

And as to the Greeks, their best and Sacred Learning was not originally their own; they enricht themselves with the spoils of the East, and the remains we have of that Eastern Learning, is what we pick out of the Greeks; whose works, I believe, if they were intirely extant, we should not need to go any further for witnesses to confirm all the principal parts of this Theory. With what regret does one read in Laertius, Suidas, and others, the promising titles of Books writ by the GreekPhilosophers, hundreds or thousands, whereof there is not one now extant; and those that are extant are generally but fragments: Those Authors also that have writ their Lives, or collected their Opinions, have done it confusedly and injudiciously. I should hope for as much light and instruction, as to the Original of the World, from Orpheusalone, if his works had been preserved, as from all that is extant now of the other GreekPhilosophers. We may see from what remains of him, that he understood in a good measure, how the Earth rise from a Chaos, what was its external Figure, and what the form of its inward structure; The opinion of the OvalFigure of the Earth is ascribed to Orpheusand his Disciples; and the doctrine of the Mundane Eggis so peculiarly his, that ’tis called by Proclus, The Orphick Egg; not that he was the first Author of that doctrine, but the first that brought it into Greece.

Thus much concerning the Heathen Learning, Eastern and Western, and the small remains of it in things Philosophical; ’tis no wonder then if the account we have left us from them of the Primitive Earth, and the Antiquities of the natural World be very imperfect. And yet we have traced (in the precedent Chapter, and more largely in our LatinTreatise) the foot-steps of several parts of this Theory amongst the writings and Traditions of the Ancients: and even of those parts that seem the most strange and singular, and that are the Basis upon which the rest stand. We have shown there, that their account of the Chaos, though it seemed to many but a Poetical Rhapsody, contained the true mystery of the formation of the Primitive Earth. We have also shown upon the same occasion, that both the external Figure and internal form of that Earth was comprized and signified in their ancient doctrine of the Mundane Egg, which hath been propagated through all the Learned Nations. And lastly, as to the situation of that Earth, and the change of its posture since, that the memory of that has been kept up, we have brought several testimonies and indications from the GreekPhilosophers. And these were the three great and fundamental properties of the Primitive Earth, upon which all the other depend, and all its differences from the present Order of Nature. You see then, though Providence hath suffered the Heathen Learning and their Monuments, in a great part, to perish, yet we are not left wholly without witnesses amongst them, in a speculation of this great importance.

You will say, it may be, though this account, as to the Books and Learning of the Heathen, may be lookt upon as reasonable, yet we might expect however, from the Jewishand ChristianAuthors, a more full and satisfactory account of that Primitive Earth, and of the Old World. First, as to the Jews, ’tis well known that they have no ancient Learning, unless by way of Tradition, amongst them. There is not a Book extant in their Language, excepting the Canon of the Old Testament, that hath not been writ since our Saviour's time. They are very bad Masters of Antiquity, and they may in some measure be excused, because of their several captivities, dispersions, and desolations. In the Babylonishcaptivity their Temple was ransacked, and they did not preserve, as is thought, so much as the Autograph or original Manuscript of the Law, nor the Books of those of their Prophets that were then extant, and kept in the Temple; And at their return from the Captivity after seventy years, they seem to have had forgot their Native Language so much, that the Law was to be interpreted to them in Chaldee, after it was read in Hebrew; for so I understand that interpretation in Nehemiah. ’Twas a great Providence, methinks, that they should any way preserve their Law, and other Books of Scripture, in the Captivity, for so long a time; for ’tis likely they had not the liberty of using them in any publick worship, seeing they returned so ignorant of their own Language, and, as ’tis thought, of their Alphabet and Character too. And if their Sacred Books were hardly preserved, we may easily believe all others perisht in that publick desolation.

Yet there was another destruction of that Nation, and their Temple, greater than this, by the Romans; and if there were any remains of Learning preserved in the former ruine, or any recruits made since that time, this second desolation would sweep them all away. And accordingly we see they have nothing left in their Tongue, besides the Bible, so ancient as the destruction of Jerusalem. These and other publick calamities of the JewishNation, may reasonably be thought to have wasted their Records of ancient Learning, if they had any; for, to speak truth, the Jewsare a people of little curiosity, as to Sciences and Philosophical enquiries: They were very tenacious of their own customs, and careful of those Traditions that did respect them, but were not remarkable, that I know of, or thought great Proficients in any other sort of Learning. There has been a great fame, ’tis true, of the Jewish Cabala, and of great mysteries contained in it; and, I believe, there was once a Traditional doctrine amongst some of them, that had extraordinary Notions and Conclusions: But where is this now to be found? The Esseneswere the likeliest Sect, one would think, to retain such doctrines, but ’tis probable they are now so mixt with things fabulous and fantastical, that what one should alledge from thence would be of little or no authority. One Head in this Cabalawas the doctrine of the Sephiroth, and though the explication of them be uncertain, the Inferiour Sephirothin the Corporeal World cannot so well be applied to any thing, as to those several Orbs and Regions, infolding one another, whereof the Primigenial Earth was composed. Yet such conjectures, I know, are of no validity, but in consort with better Arguments. I have often thought also, that their first and second Temple represented the first and second Earth or World; and that of Ezekiel's, which is the third, is still to be erected, the most beautiful of all, when this second Temple of the World shall be burnt down. If the Prophecies of Enochhad been preserved, and taken into the Canon by Ezra, after their return from Babylon, when the Collection of their Sacred Books is supposed to have been made, we might probably have had a considerable account there, both of times past and to come, of Antiquities and Futuritions; for those Prophecies are generally supposed to have contained both the first and second fate of this Earth, and all the Periods of it. But as this Book is lost to us, so I look upon all others that pretend to be Ante-Mosaical or Patriarchal, as Spurious and Fabulous.

Thus much concerning the Jews. As for ChristianAuthors, their knowledge must be from some of these fore-mentioned, Jewsor Heathens; or else by Apostolical Tradition: For the ChristianFathers were not very speculative, so as to raise a Theory from their own thoughts and contemplations, concerning the Origin of the Earth. We have instanced, in the last Chapter, in a ChristianTradition, concerning Paradise, and the high situation of it, which is fully consonant to the site of the Primitive Earth, where Paradise stood, and doth seem plainly to refer to it, being unintelligible upon any other supposition. And ’twas, I believe, this elevation of Paradise, and the pensile structure of that ParadisiacalEarth, that gave occasion to Celsus, as we see by Origen's answer, to say, that the Christian Paradisewas taken from the pensile Gardens of Alcinous:But we may see now what was the ground of such expressions or Traditions amongst the Ancients, which Providence left to keep mens minds awake; not fully to instruct them, but to confirm them in the truth, when it should come to be made known in other methods. We have noted also above, that the ancient Books and Authors amongst the Christians, that were most likely to inform us in this Argument, have perisht, and are lost out of the World, such as Ephrem Syrusde ortu rerum, and Tertulliande Paradiso; and that piece which is extant, of Moses Bar Cepha's upon this subject, receives more light from our Hypothesis, than from any other I know; for correcting some mistakes about the Figure of the Earth, which the Ancients were often guilty of, the obscurity or confusion of that Discourse in other things, may be easily rectified, if compared with this Theory.

Of this nature also is that Tradition that is common both to Jewsand Christians, and which we have often mentioned before, that there was a perpetual serenity, and perpetual Equinox in Paradise; which cannot be upon this Earth, not so much as under the Equinoctial; for they have a sort of Winter and Summer there, a course of Rains at certain times of the Year, and great inequalities of the Air, as to heat and cold, moisture and drought. They had also Traditions amongst them, That there was no Rain from the beginning of the World till the Deluge, and that there were no Mountains till the Flood, and such like; These, you see, point directly at such an Earth, as we have described. And I call these Traditions, because we cannot find the Original Authors of them; The ancient ordinary Gloss(upon Genesis) which some make Eight hundred years old, mentions both these Opinions; so does Historia Scholastica, Alcuinus, Rabanus Maurus, Lyranus, and such Collectors of Antiquity. Bedealso relates that of the plainnessor smoothness of the Ante-diluvianEarth. Yet these are reported Traditionally, as it were, naming no Authors or Books from whence they were taken; Nor can it be imagined that they feigned them themselves; to what end or purpose? it served no interest; or upon what ground? seeing they had no Theory that could lead them to such Notions as these, or that could be strengthened and confirmed by them. Those opinions also of the Fathers, which we recited in the seventh Chapter, placing Paradisebeyond the Torrid Zone, and making it thereby inaccessible, suit very well to the form, qualities, and bipartition of the Primæval Earth, and seem to be grounded upon them.

Thus much may serve for a short Survey of the ancient Learning, to give us a reasonable account, why the memory and knowledge of the Primitive Earth should be so much lost out of the World; and what we retain of it still; which would be far more, I do not doubt, if all Manuscripts were brought to light, that are yet extant in publick or private Libraries. The truth is, one cannot judge with certainty, neither what things have been recorded and preserved in the monuments of Learning, nor what are still; not what have been, because so many of those Monuments are lost: The AlexandrianLibrary, which we spoke of before, seems to have been the greatest Collection that ever was made before Christianity, and the Constantinopolitan(begun by Constantine, and destroyed in the Fifth Century, when it was raised to the number, as is said, of one hundred twenty thousand Volumes) the most valuable that was ever since, and both these have been permitted by Providence to perish in the merciless Flames. Besides those devastations of Books and Libraries that have been made in Christendom, by the Northernbarbarous Nations overflowing Europe, and the Saracensand Turksgreat parts of Asiaand Africk. It is hard therefore to pronounce what knowledge hath been in the World, or what accounts of Antiquity; Neither can we well judge what remain, or of what things the memory may be still latently conserved; for besides those Manuscripts that are yet unexamined in these parts of Christendom, and those that have been scarce viewed in the great Abyssineor ÆthiopickLibrary, there are many, doubtless, of good value in other parts; and we know particularly of two famed Libraries, that of Buda, and that of Fez, both in the hands of Mahometans; who keep them as the Dragon did the Golden Apples, will neither make use of them themselves, nor suffer others to peruse them. The Library of Fezis said to contain thirty two thousand Volumes inArabick; and though the ArabickLearning was mostwhat Western, and therefore of less account, yet they did deal in EasternLearning too; for Avicennawrit a Book with that Title, Philosophia Orientalis. There may be also in the East thousands of Manuscripts unknown to us, of greater value than most books we have: And as to those subjects we are treating of, I should promise my self more light and confirmation from the SyriackAuthors than from any others. These things being considered, we can make but a very imperfect estimate, what evidences are left us, and what accounts of the Primitive Earth; and if these deductions and defalcations be made, both for what Books are wholly lost, and for what lie asleep or dead in Libraries, we have reason to be satisfied in a Theory of this nature, to find so good attestations as we have produced for the several parts of it; which we purpose to inlarge upon considerably at another time and occasion.

But to carry this Objection as far as may be, let us suppose it to be urged still in the last place, that though these Humane writings have perisht, or be imperfect, yet in the Divine writings at least, we might expect, that the memory of the Old World, and of the Primitive Earth should have been preserved. To this I answer in short, That we could not expect in the Scriptures any Natural Theory of that Earth, nor any account of it, but what was general; and this we have, both by the Tehom-Rabbaof Moses, and the description of the same Abysse in other places of Scripture, as we have shown at large in the First Book, Chap. 7. And also by the description which St. Peterhath given of the Ante-diluvian Heavens and Earth, and their different constitution from the present. You will say, it may be, that that place of St. Peteris capable of another interpretation; so are most places of Scripture, if you speak of a bare capacity; they are capable of more than one interpretation; but that which is most natural, proper and congruous, suitable to the words, suitable to the Argument, and suitable to the Context, wherein is nothing superfluous or impertinent, that we prefer and accept of as the most reasonable interpretation. Besides, in such Texts as relate to the Natural World, if of two interpretations proposed, one agrees better with the Theory of Nature than the other, cæteris paribus, that ought to be prefered. And by these two rules we are willing to be tried, in the exposition of that remarkable Discourse of St. Peter's, and to stand to that sence which is found most agreeable to them.

Give me leave to conclude the whole Discourse with this general Consideration; ’Tis reasonable to suppose, that there is a Providence in the conduct of Knowledge, as well as of other affairs on the Earth; and that it was not designed that all the mysteries of Nature and Providence should be plainly and clearly understood throughout all the Ages of the World; but that there is an Order establisht for this, as for other things, and certain Periods and Seasons; And what was made known to the Ancients only by broken Conclusions and Traditions, will be known (in the later Ages of the World) in a more perfect way, by Principles and Theories. The increase of Knowledge being that which changeth so much the face of the World, and the state of Humane affairs, I do not doubt but there is a particular care and superintendency for the conduct of it; by what steps and degrees it should come to light, at what Seasons and in what Ages; what evidence should be left, either in Scripture, Reason, or Tradition, for the grounds of it; how clear or obscure, how disperst or united; all these things were weighed and considered, and such measures taken as best suit the designs of Providence, and the general project and method proposed in the government of the World. And I make no question but the state both of the Old World, and of that which is to come, is exhibited to us in Scripture in such a measure and proportion, as is fit for this forementioned purpose; not as the Articles of our Faith, or the precepts of a good Life, which he that runs may read; but to the attentive and reflexive, to those that are unprejudiced, and to those that are inquisitive, and have their minds open and prepared for the discernment of mysteries of such a nature.

Thus much in answer to that general Objection which might be made against this Theory, Thatit is not founded in Antiquity. I do not doubt but there may be many particular Objections against Parts and Sections of it, and the exposing it thus in our own Tongue may excite some or other, it may be, to make them; but if any be so minded, I desire (if they be Scholars) that it may rather be in Latin, as being more proper for a subject of this nature; and also that they would keep themselves close to the substance of the Theory, and wound that as much as they can; but to make excursions upon things accidental or collateral, that do not destroy the Hypothesis, is but to trouble the World with impertinencies. Now the substance of the Theory is this, THAT there was a Primitive Earthof another form from the present, and inhabited by Mankind till the Deluge; That it had those properties and conditions that we have ascribed to it, namely, a perpetual Equinox or Spring, by reason of its rightsituation to the Sun; Was of an Oval Figure, and the exteriour face of it smooth and uniform, without Mountains or a Sea. That in this Earth stood Paradise; the doctrine whereof cannot be understood but upon supposition of this Primitive Earth, and its properties. Then that the disruption and fall of this Earth into the Abysse, which lay under it, was that which made the Universal Deluge, and the destruction of the Old World; And that neither Noah's Flood, nor the present form of the Earth can be explained in any other method that is rational, nor by any other Causes that are intelligible. These are the Vitals of the Theory, and the primary Assertions, whereof I do freely profess my full belief: and whosoever by solid reasons will show me in an Errour, and undeceive me, I shall be very much obliged to him. There are other lesser Conclusions which flow from these, and may be called Secondary, as that the Longævity of the Ante-diluvians depended upon their perpetual Equinox, and the perpetual equality and serenity of the Air; That the Torrid Zone in the Primitive Earth was uninhabitable; And that all their Rivers flowed from the extreme parts of the Earth towards the Equinoctial; there being neither Rain, nor Rainbow, in the temperate and habitable Regions of it; And lastly, that the place of Paradise, according to the opinion of Antiquity, was in the Southern Hemisphere. These, I think, are all truly deduced and Evidenced in their several ways, though they be not such essential parts of the Theory, as the former. There are also besides, many particular Explications that are to be considered with more liberty and latitude, and may be perhaps upon better thoughts, or better observations, corrected, without any prejudice to the general Theory.

Those places of Scripture which we have cited, I think, are all truly applied; and I have not mentioned Moses's Cosmopœia, because I thought it delivered by him as a Lawgiver, not as a Philosopher; which I intend to show at large in another Treatise, not thinking that discussion proper for the Vulgar Tongue. Upon the whole, we are to remember, that some allowances are to be made for every Hypothesisthat is new-proposed and untri'd: and that we ought not out of levity of wit, or any private design, discountenance free and fair Essays: nor from any other motive, but the only love and concern of Truth.

THE SACRED THEORY OF THE EARTH

by Thomas Burnet

THE THEORY OF THE EARTH

Book 2

Concerning the PRIMAL EARTH, AND PARADISE.

CHAPTER VIII

The uses of this Theory for the illustration of Antiquity; The ancient Chaos explained; The inhabitability of the Torrid Zone; The change of the Poles of the World; The doctrine of the Mundane Egg; How Americawas first peopled; How Paradisewithin the Circle of the Moon.

WE have now dispatched the Theory of the Primæval Earth, and revived a forgotten World; ’Tis pity the first and fairest works of Nature should be lost out of the memory of Man, and that we should so much dote upon the Ruines, as never to think upon the Original Structure. As the modern Artists from some broken pieces of an ancient Statue, make out all the other parts and proportions; so from the broken and scattered limbs of the first World we have shown you how to raise the whole Fabrick again; and renew the prospect of those pleasant Scenes that first see the light, and first entertained Man, when he came to act upon this new-erected Stage.

We have drawn this Theory chiefly to give an account of the Universal Deluge, and of Paradise; but as when one lights a Candle to look for one or two things which they want, the light will not confine it self to those two objects, but shows all the other in the room; so, methinks, we have unexpectedly cast a light upon all Antiquity, in seeking after these two things, or in retrieving the Notion and Doctrine of the Primæval Earth, upon which they depended. For in ancient Learning there are many Discourses, and many Conclusions delivered to us, that are so obscure and confused, and so remote from the present state of things, that one cannot well distinguish, whether they are fictions or realities; and there is no way to distinguish with certainty, but by a clear Theory upon the same subjects; which showing us the truth directly, and independently upon them, shows us also by reflection, how far they are true or false, and in what sence they are to be interpreted and understood. And the present Theory being of great extent, we shall find it serviceable in many things, for the illustration of such dubious and obscure doctrines in Antiquity.

To begin with their Ancient CHAOS, what a dark story have they made of it, both their Philosophers and Poets; and how fabulous in appearance? ’Tis delivered as confusedly as the Mass it self could be, and hath not been reduced to order, nor indeed made intelligible by any. They tell us of moralprinciples in the Chaos instead of natural, of strife, and discord, and divisionon the one hand, and Love, Friendship, and Venuson the other; and, after a long contest, Love got the better of Discord, and united the disagreeing principles: This is one part of their story. Then they make the forming of the World out of the Chaos a kind ofGenealogieor Pedigree; Chaoswas the common Parent of all, and from Chaos sprung, first, Night, and Tartarus, or Oceanus; Night was a teeming Mother, and of her were born Ætherand the Earth; The Earth conceived by the influences of Æther, and brought forth Man and all Animals.

This seems to be a Poetical fiction rather than Philosophy; yet when ’tis set in a true light, and compared with our Theory of the Chaos, ’twill appear a pretty regular account, how the World was formed at first, or how the Chaos divided it self successively into several Regions, rising one after another, and propagated one from another, as Children and Posterity from a common Parent. We showed in the first Book, Chap. 5, how the Chaos, from an uniform mass, wrought it self into several Regions or Elements; the grossest part sinking to the Center, upon this lay the mass of Water, and over the Water was a Region of dark, impure, caliginous Air; This impure, caliginous Air is that which the Ancients call Night, and the mass of Water Oceanusor Tartarus, for those two terms with them are often of the like force, Tartarusbeing Oceanusinclosed and locked up: Thus we have the first off-spring of the Chaos, or its first-born twins, Noxand Oceanus. Now this turbid Air purifying it self by degrees, as the more subtle parts flew upwards, and composed the Æther; so the earthy parts that were mixt with it dropt down upon the surface of the Water, or the liquid mass; and that mass on the other hand sending up its lighter and more oily parts towards its surface, these two incorporate there, and by their mixture and union compose a Body of Earth quite round the mass of Waters: And this was the first habitable Earth, which as it was, you see, the Daughter of Noxand Oceanus, so it was the Mother of all other things, and all living Creatures, which at the beginning of the World sprung out of its fruitful womb.

This doctrine of the Chaos, for the greater pomp of the business, the Ancients called their Theogonia, or the Genealogy of the Gods; for they gave their Gods, at least their Terrestrial Gods, an original and beginning; and all the Elements and greater portions of Nature they made Gods and Goddesses, or their Deities presided over them in such a manner, that the names were used promiscuously for one another. We also mentioned before some moral principles, which they placed in the Chaos, Erisand Eros; Strife, discord, and disaffection which prevailed at first, and afterward Love, kindness and union got the upper hand, and in spite of those factious and dividing principles gathered together the separated Elements, and united them into an habitable World. This is all easily understood, if we do but look upon the Schemes of the rising World, as we have set them down in that fifth Chapter; for in the first commotion of the Chaos, after an intestine struggle of all the parts, the Elements separated from one another into so many distinct bodies or masses, and in this state and posture things continued a good while, which the Ancients, after their Poetick or Moral way, called the Reign of Eris or Contention, of hatred, flight and disaffection; and if things had always continued in that System, we should never have had an habitable World. But Love and good Nature conquered at length, Venus rise out of the Sea, and received into her bosom, and intangled in her imbraces the falling Æther, viz. The parts of lighter earth, which were mixt with the Air in that first separation, and gave it the name of Night, fell down upon the oily parts of the Sea-mass, which lay floating upon the surface of it, and by that union and conjunction, a new Body, and a new World was produced, which was the first habitable Earth. This is the interpretation of their mystical Philosophy of the Chaos, and the resolution of it into plain natural History: Which you may see more fully discust in the LatinTreatise.

We have already explained, in several places, the Golden Ageof the Ancients, and laid down such grounds as will enable us to discern what is real, and what Poetical, in the reports and characters that Antiquity hath given of those first Ages of the World. And if there be any thing amongst the Ancients that refers to another Earth, as Plato's Atlantis, which he says, was absorpt by an Earthquake, and an inundation, as the Primæval Earth was; or his ÆtherealEarth mentioned in his Phædo, which he opposeth to this broken hollow Earth; makes it to have long-lived inhabitants, and to be without Rains and Storms, as that first Earth was also; or the pendulous Gardensof Alcinous, or such like, to which nothing answers in present Nature, by reflecting upon the state of the first Earth, we find an easie explication of them. We have also explained what the Antichthonand Antichthonesof the Ancients were, and what the true ground of that distinction was. But nothing seems more remarkable than the inhabitability of the Torrid Zone, if we consider what a general fame and belief it had amongst the Ancients, and yet in the present form of the Earth we find no such thing, nor any foundation for it. I cannot believe that this was so universally received upon a slight presumption only, because it lay under the course of the Sun, if the Sun had then the same latitude from the Æquator in his course and motion that he hath now, and made the same variety of seasons; whereby even the honest parts of the Earth have a Winter, or something equivalent to it. But if we apply this to the Primæval Earth, whose posture was direct to the Sun, standing always fixt in its Equinoctial, we shall easily believe that the Torrid Zone was then uninhabitable by extremity of heat, there being no difference of seasons, noge ofr any chan weather, the Sun hanging always over head at the same distance, and in the same direction. Besides this, the descent of the Rivers in that first Earth was such, that they could never reach the Equinoctial parts, as we have shown before; by which means, and the want of Rain, that Region must necessarily be turned into a dry Desart. Now this being really the state of the first Earth, the fame and general belief that the Torrid Zone was uninhabitable had this true Original, and continued still with posterity after the Deluge, though the causes then were taken away; for they being ignorant of the change that was made in Nature at that time, kept up still the same Tradition and opinion currant, till observation and experience taught later Ages to correct it. As the true miracles that were in the Christian Church at first, occasioned a fame and belief of their continuance long after they had really ceast.

This gives an easie account, and, I think, the true cause, of that opinion, amongst the Ancients generally received, That the Torrid Zone was uninhabitable. I say generally received; for not only the Poets, both Greekand Latin, but their Philosophers, Astronomers and Geographers, had the same notion, and deliver'd the same doctrine; as Aristotle, Cleomedes, Achilles Tatius, Ptolomy, Cicero, Strabo, Mela, Pliny, Macrobius, &c. And to speak truth, the whole doctrine of the Zones is calculated more properly for the first Earth, than for the present; for the divisions and bounds of them now, are but arbitrary, being habitable all over, and having no visible distinction; whereas they were then determined by Nature, and the Globe of the Earth was really divided into so many Regions of a very different aspect and quality; which would have appeared at a distance, if they had been lookt upon from the Clouds, or from the Moon, as Jupiter's Belts, or as so many Girdles or Swathing-bands about the body of the Earth: And so the word imports, and so the Ancients use to call them Cinguliand Fasciæ. But in the present form of the Earth, if it was seen at a distance, no such distinction would appear in the parts of it, nor scarce any other but that of Land and Water, and of Mountains and Valleys, which are nothing to the purpose of Zones. And to add this note further, When the Earth lay in this regular form, divided into Regions or Walks, if I may so call them, as this gave occasion of its distinction by Zones, so if we might consider all that Earth as a Paradise, and Paradiseas a Garden, (for it is always called so in Scripture, and in JewishAuthors) as this Torrid Zone, bare of Grass and Trees, made a kind of Gravel-walk in the middle: so there was a green Walk on either hand of it, made by the temperate Zones; and beyond those lay a Canal, which watered the Garden from either side.

But to return to Antiquity; We may add under this Head another observation or doctrine amongst the Ancients, strange enough in appearance, which yet receives an easie explication from the preceding Theory; They say, The Polesof the World did once change their situation, and were at first in another posture from what they are in now, till that inclination happened; This the ancient Philosophers often make mention of, as Anaxagoras, Empedocles, Diogenes, Leucippus, Democritus; as may be seen in Laertius, and in Plutarch; and the Stars, they say, at first were carried about the Earth in a more uniform manner. This is no more than what we have observed and told you in other words, namely, that the Earth changed its posture at the Deluge, and thereby made these seeming changes in the Heavens; its Poles before pointed to the Poles of the Ecliptick, which now point to the Poles of the Æquator, and its Axis is become parallel with that Axis; and this is the mystery and interpretation of what they say in other terms; this makes the different aspect of the Heavens, and of its Poles: And I am apt to think, that those changes in the course of the Stars, which the Ancients sometimes speak of, and especially the Ægyptians, if they did not proceed from defects in their Calendar, had no other Physical account than this.

And as they say the Poles of the World were in another situation at first, so at first they say, there was no variety of seasons in the Year, as in their Golden Age. Which is very coherent with all the rest, and still runs along with the Theory. And you may observe, that all these things we have instanced in hitherto, are but links of the same chain, in connexion and dependance upon one another. When the Primæval Earth was made out of the Chaos, its form and posture was such, as, of course, brought on all those Scenes which Antiquity hath kept the remembrance of: though now in another state of Nature they seem very strange; especially being disguised, as some of them are, by their odd manner of representing them. That the Poles of the World stood once in another posture; That the Year had no diversity of Seasons; That the Torrid Zone was uninhabitable; That the two Hemispheres had no possibility of intercourse, and such like: These all hang upon the same string; or lean one upon another as Stones in the same Building; whereof we have, by this Theory, laid the very foundation bare, that you may see what they all stand upon, and in what order.

There is still one remarkable Notion or Doctrine amongst the Ancients, which we have not spoken to; ’tis partly Symbolical, and the propriety of the Symbol, or of the Application of it, hath been little understood; ’Tis their doctrine of the Mundane Egg, or their comparing the World to an Egg, and especially in the original composition of it. This seems to be a mean comparison, the World and an Egg, what proportion, or what resemblance betwixt these two things? And yet I do not know any Symbolical doctrine, or conclusion, that hath been so universally entertained by the Mystæ, or Wise and Learned, of all Nations; as hath been noted before in the Fifth Chapter of the First Book, and at large in the LatinTreatise. ’Tis certain, that by the Worldin this similitude, they do not mean the Great Universe, for that hath neither Figure, nor any determinate form of composition, and it would be a great vanity and rashness in any one to compare this to an Egg; The works of God are immense, as his nature is infinite, and we cannot make any image or resemblance of either of them; but this comparison is to be understood of the Sublunary World, or of the Earth; And for a general key to Antiquity upon this Argument, we may lay this down as a Maxim or Canon, That what the Ancients have said concerning the form and figure of the World, or concerning the Original of it from a Chaos, or about its periods and dissolution, are never to be understood of the Great Universe, but of our Earth, or of this Sublunary and Terrestrial World. And this observation being made, do but reflect upon our Theory of the Earth, the manner of its composition at first, and the figure of it, being compleated, and you will need no other interpreter to understand this mystery. We have showed there, that the figure of it, when finisht, was Oval, and the inward form of it was a frame of four Regions incompassing one another, where that of Fire lay in the middle like the Yolk, and a shell of Earth inclosed them all. This gives a solution so easie and natural, and shows such an aptness and elegancy in the representation, that one cannot doubt, upon a view, and compare of circumstances, but that we have truly found out the Riddle of the Mundane Egg.

To these illustrations of Antiquity in things Natural and Geographical, give me leave to add, and to resolve from the same Theory, one Historical difficulty; and ’twill seem, ’tis likely, of no less moment than any we have hitherto insisted upon, and I am sure hath exercised the Pens of many Learned men with small or no success. ’Tis to give an account of the Original of the people of America, how that Continent was first peopled and inhabited, or any other Continent distinct from ours, wherein we suppose Adamto have lived, and to have propagated his posterity. ’Tis certain, that all Mankind came from one Head, or from one common Parent; Certain, I say, according to the History of Moses, confirm'd by Apostolical authority; and ’tis also admitted on all hands that Adamafter his expulsion out of Paradise, wheresoever he was before, lived in this Continent, which being encompassed with great Seas, and separate from Americaon either side, how could the children of Adampass the wide Ocean, to hunt out remote habitations in America? How easie is the answer to this great Question, which hath imployed the time of so many Learned men to resolve? Or rather how suddenly doth it vanish at the sight of truth, as a phantom at the approach of light? The ground sinks under it that it seemed to stand upon; Adam's Earth was not broken into Continents and Islands, as ours is, nor the parts of it separated by Seas and Mountains; ’twas one continued and smooth surface, and gave free and easie passage from the rising to the setting Sun: So according as his progeny increast, and new swarms were ready to go abroad, they might spread themselves on either hand, East and West, without any interruption or impediment; neither Sea, Mountain, nor Desart would stand in their way. ’Tis true, the passage was not so free North and South, they could not go out of one Hemisphere into another, but Providence seems to have made provision for that, in transplanting Adaminto this Hemisphere, after he had laid the foundation of a World in the Other.

We see then the great difficulty concerning the peopling the several Continents and Islands of the Earth, and particularly of America, easily removed by this Hypothesis; The propagation of Mankind, and of all sorts of Animals into those several portions of the World, may readily be understood, if you admit the true form of the first Earth: But without that ’tis an endless controversie, as those commonly are that proceed upon a false supposition. I will not examine here the several projects and methods that have been proposed, some by one Author, and some by another, for getting people into America; they confute one another, methinks, very well; and to show, as we have done, that the ground they go upon is imaginary, is a compendious way of confuting them all together. However, those that will not admit our Hypothesis, concerning the continuity and uniformity of the first Earth, stand obliged still to give us an account of the propagation of Mankind from one Head, and how the posterity of Adamgot into America.

’Twill be said, possibly, that this doth not intirely remove the difficulty, because it returns again after the Flood; and then we suppose the Earth broken into Continents and Islands, in the same manner that it is now; How then did the posterity of Noahget into America, to people it after the Flood? I do not know that ever they got into Americatill Columbuswent thither in the last Age, who, for any thing I know, was the first of Noah's progeny that ever set foot in that Continent. Scripture tells us, that all Mankind rise from one Head, namely, from Adam, and his fault was derived to posterity, but no where that Noahwas the common Head of Mankind that hath been since his time, nor does any doctrine of faith, that I know of, depend upon that supposition. When the great frame of the Earth broke at the Deluge, Providence fore-see into how many Continents it would be divided after the ceasing of the Flood, and accordingly, as we may reasonably suppose, made provision to save a remnant in every Continent, that the race of Mankind might not be quite extinct in any of them. What provision he made in our Continent we know from Sacred History, but as that takes notice of no other Continent but ours, so neither could it take notice of any method that was used there for saving of a remnant of men; but ’twere great presumption, methinks, to imagine that Providence had a care of none but us, or could not find out ways of preservation in other places, as well as in that where our habitations were to be. Asia, Africkand Europewere repeopled by the Sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japhet, but we read nothing of their going over into America, or sending any Colonies thither; and that World which is near as big as ours, must have stood long without people, or any thing of Humane race in it, after the Flood, if it stood so till this was full, or till men navigated the Ocean, and by chance discovered it: It seems more reasonable to suppose, that there was a stock providentially reserved there, as well as here, out of which they sprung again; but we do not pretend in an Argument of this nature to define or determine any thing positively. To conclude, as this is but a secondary difficulty, and of no great force, so neither is it any thing peculiar to us, or to our Hypothesis, but alike common to both; and if they can propose any reasonable way, whereby the Sons of Noahmight be transplanted into America, with all my heart; but all the ways that I have met with hitherto, have seemed to me meer fictions, or meer presumptions. Besides, finding Birds and Beasts there, which are no where upon our Continent, nor would live in our Countries if brought hither, ’tis a fair conjecture that they were not carried from us, but originally bred and preserved there.

Thus much for the illustration of Antiquity in some points of Humane literature, by our Theory of the Primæval Earth; There is also in Christian Antiquitya Tradition or Doctrine, that appears as obscure and as much a Paradox as any of these, and better deserves an illustration, because it relates more closely and expressly to our present subject: ’Tis that Notion or Opinion amongt the Ancients concerning Paradise, that it was seated as high as the Sphere of the Moon, or within the Lunar Circle. This looks very strange, and indeed extravagantly, at first sight, but the wonder will cease, if we understand this not of Paradise taken apart from the rest of the Earth, but of the whole Primæval Earth, wherein the Seat of Paradisewas; That was really seated much higher than the present Earth, and may be reasonably supposed to have been as much elevated as the tops of our Mountains are now. And that phrase of reaching to the Sphere of the Moon, signifies no more than those other expressions of reaching to Heaven, or reaching above the Clouds, which are phrases commonly used to express the height of Buildings, or of Mountains, and such like things: So the Builders of Babelsaid, they would make a Tower should reach to Heaven; Olympusand Parnassusare said by the Poets to reach to Heaven, or to rise above the Clouds; And Plinyand Solinususe this very expression of the Lunar Circle, when they describe the height of Mount Atlas, Eductus in viciniam Lunaris Circuli. The Ancients, I believe, aimed particularly by this phrase, to express an height above the middle Region, or above our Atmosphere, that Paradisemight be serene; and where our Atmosphere ended, they reckoned the Sphere of the Moon begun, and therefore said it reached to the Sphere of the Moon. Many of the Christian Fathers exprest their opinion concerning the high situation of Paradisein plain and formal terms, as St. Basil, Damascen, Moses Bar Cepha, &c. but this phrase of reaching to the Lunar Circleis repeated by several of them, and said to be of great Antiquity. Aquinas, Albertus, and others, ascribe it to Bede, but many to St. Austin; and therefore Ambrosius Catharinusis angry with their great Schoolman, that he should derive it from Bede, seeing St. Austinwriting to Orosius, delivered this doctrine, which surely, says He, St. Austinneither feigned nor dreamed only, but had received it from Antiquity: And from so great Antiquity, that it was no less than Apostolical, if we credit Albertus Magnus, and the ancient Books he appeals to; for He says this Tradition was derived as high as from St. Thomasthe Apostle. His words are these, after he had delivered his own opinion. Hoc tamen dico, &c. But this I say, without prejudice to the better opinion, for I have found it in some most ancient Books, that Thomasthe Apostle was the Author of that opinion, which is usually attributed to Bedeand Strabus, namely, that Paradisewas so high as to reach to the Lunar Circle. But thus much concerning this Opinion, and concerning Antiquity.

To conclude all, we see this Theory, which was drawn only by a thred of Reason, and the Laws of Nature, abstractly from all Antiquity, notwithstanding casts a light upon many passages there, which were otherwise accounted fictions, or unintelligible truths; and though we do not alledge these as proofs of the Theory, for it carries its own light and proof with it, yet whether we will or no, they do mutually confirm, as well as illustrate, one another; And ’tis a pleasure also, when one hath wrought out truth by meer dint of thinking, and examination of causes, and proposed it plainly and openly, to meet with it again amongst the Ancients, disguised, and in an old fashioned dress: scarce to be known or discovered, but by those that before-hand knew it very well. And it would be a further pleasure and satisfaction, to have rendered those Doctrines and Notions, for the future, intelligible and useful to others, as well as delightful to our selves.

THE SACRED THEORY OF THE EARTH

by Thomas Burnet

THE THEORY OF THE EARTH

Book 2

Concerning the PRIMAL EARTH, AND PARADISE.

CHAPTER VII

The place of Paradisecannot be determined from the Theory only, nor from Scripture only; what the sence of Antiquity was concerning it, both as to the Jews and Heathens, and especially as to the Christian Fathers; That they generally placed it out of this Continent, in the Southern Hemisphere.

WE have now prepared our work for the last finishing stroaks; described the first Earth, and compared it with the Present; and not only the two Earths, but in a good measure the whole State and Oeconomy of those two Worlds. It remains only to determine the place of Paradisein that Primæval Earth; I say, in that Primæval Earth, for we have driven the point so far already, that the seat of it could not be in the present Earth, whose Form, Site, and Air are so disposed, as could not consist with the first and most indispensable properties of Paradise: And accordingly, we see with what ill success our modern Authors have ranged over the Earth, to find a fit spot of ground to plant Paradisein; some would set it on the top of an high Mountain, that it might have good Air and fair weather, as being above the Clouds, and the middle Region; but then they were at a loss for Water, which made a great part of the pleasure and beauty of that place; Others therefore would seat it in a Plain, or in a River-Island, that they might have Water enough, but then it would be subject to the injuries of the Air, and foul weather at the seasons of the Year, from which, both Reason and all Authority have exempted Paradise. ’Tis like seeking a perfect beauty in a mortal Body, there are so many things required to it, as to complexion, Features, Proportions and Air, that they never meet altogether in one person; neither can all the properties of a Terrestrial Paradiseever meet together in one place, though never so well chosen, in this present Earth.

But in the Primæval Earth, which we have described, ’tis easie to find a Seat that had all those beauties and conveniences; we have every where, through the temperate Climates, a clear and constant Air, a fruitful Soil, pleasant Waters, and all the general characters of Paradise; so that the trouble will be rather, in that competition, what part or Region to pitch upon in particular. But to come as near it as we can, we must remember in the first place, how that Earth was divided into two Hemispheres, distant and separated from one another, not by an imaginary line, but by a real boundary that could not be past; so as the first inquiry will be, in whether of these Hemispheres was the Seat of Paradise. To answer this only according to our Theory, I confess, I see no natural reason or occasion to place it in one Hemisphere more than in another, I see no ground of difference or pre-eminence, that one had above the other; and I am apt to think, that depended rather upon the will of God, and the Series of Providence that was to follow in this Earth, than upon any natural incapacity in one of these two Regions more than in the other, for planting in it the Garden of God. Neither doth Scripture determine, with any certainty, either Hemisphere for the place of it; for when ’tis said to be in Eden, or to be the Garden of Eden, ’tis no more than the Garden of pleasureor delight, as the word signifies: And even the Septuagint, who render this word Eden, as a proper name twice, (Gen. 2. ver. 8 & 10) do in the same story render it twice as a common name, signifying τρυ, pleasure, (Chap. 2. 15 and Chap. 3. 24) and so they do accordingly render it in Ezekiel(Chap. 31. 9, 16, 18) where this Garden of Edenis spoken of again. Some have thought that the word Mekiddim(Geb. 2. 8) was to be rendered in the East, or Eastward, as we read it, and therefore determined the site of Paradise; but ’tis only the SeptuagintTranslate it so, all the other GreekVersions, and St. Jerom, the Vulgate, the ChaldeeParaphrase, and the Syriackrender it from the beginning, or in the beginning, or to that effect. And we that do not believe the Septuagintto have been infallible, or inspired, have no reason to prefer their single authority above all the rest. Some also think the place of Paradisemay be determined by the four Rivers that are named as belonging to it, and the Countries they ran thorough; but the names of those Rivers are to me uncertain, and two of them altogether unintelligible. Where are there four Rivers in our Continent that come from one Head, as these are said to have done, either at the entrance or issue of the Garden. ’Tis true, if you admit our Hypothesis, concerning the fraction and disruption of the Earth at the Deluge, then we cannot expect to find Rivers now as they were before, the general Source is changed, and their Chanels are all broke up; but if you do not admit such a dissolution of the Earth, but suppose the Deluge to have been only like a standing Pool, after it had once covered the surface of the Earth, I do not see why it should make any great havock or confusion in it; and they that go that way, are therefore the more obliged to show us still the Rivers of Paradise. Several of the Ancients, as we shall show hereafter, supposed these four Rivers to have their Heads in the other Hemisphere, and if so, the Seat of Paradisemight be there too. But let them first agree amongst themselves, concerning these Rivers, and the Countries they run thorough, and we will undertake to show, that there cannot be any such in this Continent.

Seeing then neither the Theory doth determine, nor Scripture, where the place of Paradisewas, nor in whether Hemisphere, we must appeal to Antiquity, or the opinions of the Ancients; for I know no other Guide, but one of these three, Scripture, Reason, and ancient Tradition; and where the two former are silent, it seems very reasonable to consult the third. And that our Inquiries may be comprehensive enough, we will consider what the Jews, what the Heathens, and what the ChristianFathers have said or determined concerning the Seat of Paradise. The Jewsand HebrewDoctors place it in neither Hemisphere, but betwixt both, under the Æquinoctial, as you may see plainly in Abravanel, Manasses Ben-Israel, Maimonides, Aben Ezra, and others. But the reason why they carried it no further than the Line, is because they supposed it certain, as Aben Ezratells us, that the days and nights were always equal in Paradise, and they did not know how that could be, unless it stood under the Æquinoctial. But we have shown another method, wherein that perpetual Æquinox came to pass, and how it was common to all the parts and Climates of that Earth, which if they had been aware of, and that the Torrid Zone at that time was utterly uninhabitable, having removed their Paradisethus far from home, they would probably have removed it a little further, into the temperate Climates of the other Hemisphere.

The Ancient Heathens, Poets and Philosophers, had the notion of Paradise, or rather of several Paradisesin the Earth; and ’tis remarkable, that they placed them generally, if not all of them, out of this Continent; in the Ocean, or beyond it, or in another Orb or Hemisphere. The Garden of the Hesperides, the Fortunate Islands, the Elysian Fields, Ogygiaand Toprabane, as it is described by Diodorus Siculus, with others such like; which as they were all characterized like so many Paradises, so they were all seated out of our Continent by their Geography and descriptions of them.

Thus far Antiquity seems to incline to the other Hemisphere, or to some place beyond the bounds of our Continent for the Seat of Paradise; But that which we are most to depend upon in this affair, is Christian Antiquity, the Judgment and Tradition of the Fathers upon this Argument. And we may safely say in the first place, negatively, that none of the Christian Fathers, Latinor Greek, ever placed Paradisein Mesopotamia; that is a conceit and invention of some modern Authors, which hath been much incouraged of late, because it gave men ease and rest as to further inquiries, in an argument they could not well manage. Secondly, we may affirm, that none of the Christian Fathers have placed Paradisein any determinate Region of our Continent, AsiaAfrickor Europe. I have read of one or two Authors, I think, that fansied Paradiseto have been at Jerusalem, but ’twas a meer fancy, that no body regarded or pursued. The controversie amongst the Fathers concerning Paradise, was quite another thing from what it is now of late: They disputed and controverted, whether Paradisewas Corporeal, or Intellectual only, and Allegorical; This was the grand point amongst them. Then of those that thought it Corporeal, some placed it high in the Air, some inaccessible by Desarts or Mountains, and many beyond the Ocean, or in another World; And in these chiefly consisted the differences and diversity of opinions amongst them; nor do we find that they named any particular place or Country in the known parts of the Earth for the Seat of Paradise, or that one contested for one spot of ground, and another for another, which is the vain temerity of modern Authors; as if they could tell to an Acre of Land where Paradisestood, or could set their foot upon the Center of the Garden. These have corrupted and misrepresented the notion of our Paradise, just as some modern Poets have the notion of the Elysian Fields, which Homerand the Ancients placed remote on the extremities of the Earth, and these would make a little green Meadow in Campania Felixto be the famed Elysium.

Thus much concerning the Fathers, negatively; but to discover as far as we can, what their positive Assertions were in this Argument, we may observe, that though their opinions be differently exprest, they generally concenter in this, that the Southern Hemispherewas the Seat of Paradise. This, I say, seems manifestly to be the sence of Christian Antiquity and Tradition, so far as there is any thing definitive in the remains we have upon that subject. Some of the Fathers did not believe Paradiseto be Corporeal and Local, and those are to be laid aside in the first place, as to this point; Others that thought it Local, did not determine any thing (as most of them indeed did not) concerning the particular place of it; But the rest that did, though they have exprest themselves in various ways, and under various forms, yet, upon a due interpretation, they all meet in one common and general conclusion, That Paradisewas seated beyond the Æquinoctial, or in the other Hemisphere.

And to understand this aright, we must reflect, in the first place, upon the form of the Primæval Earth, and of the two Hemispheres of which it consisted, altogether incommunicable one with another, by reason of the Torrid Zone betwixt them; so as those two Hemispheres were then as two distinct Worlds, or distinct Earths, that had no commerce with one another. And this Notion or Tradition we find amongst Heathen Authors, as well as Christian, this Opposite Earth being called by them Antichthon, and its Inhabitants Antichthones: For those words comprehend both the Antipodesand Antœci, or all beyond the Line, as is manifest from their best Authors, as Achilles Tatius, and Cæsar Germanicusupon Aratus, Probus Grammaticus, Censorinus, Pomponius Mela, and Pliny. And these were called another World, and lookt upon as another stock and race of Mankind, as appears from Ciceroand Macrobius; But as the latter part was their mistake, so the former is acknowledged by Christian Authors, as well as others; and particularly St. Clement, in his Epistle to the Corinthians, mentions a World, or Worlds beyond the Ocean, subject to Divine Providence, and the great Lord of Nature, as well as ours. This passage of St. Clementis also cited by St. Jerom, in his Commentary upon Ephes. 2. 2 and by Origen Periarchon, where the Inhabittants of that other World are called Antichthones.

I make this remark in the first place, that we may understand the true sence and importance of those phrases and expressions amongst the Ancients, when they say Paradisewas in another World. Which are not to be so understood, as if they thought Paradisewas in the Moon, or in Jupiter, or hung above like a Cloud or a Meteor, they were not so extravagant; but that Paradisewas in another Hemisphere, which was called Antichthon, another Earth, or another Worldfrom Ours; and justly reputed so, because of an impossibility of commerce or intercourse betwixt their respective Inhabitants. And this remark being premised, we will now distribute the Christian Authors and Fathers that have delivered their opinion concerning the place of Paradise, into three or four ranks or orders; and though they express themselves differently, you will see, when duly examined and expounded, they all conspire and concur in the forementioned conclusion, Thatthe Seat of Paradisewas in the other Hemisphere.

In the first rank then we will place and reckon those that have set Paradisein another World, or in another Earth; seeing, according to the foregoing Explication, that is the same thing, as to affirm it seated beyond the Torrid Zone in the other Hemisphere. In this number are Ephrem Syrus, Moses Bar Cepha, Tatianus, and of later date Jacobus de Valentia. To these are to be added again such Authors as say, that Adam, when he was turned out of Paradise, was brought into our Earth, or into our Region of the Earth; for this is tantamount with the former; And this seems to be the sence of St. Jeromin several places against Jovinian, as also of Constantine, in his Oration in Eusebius, and is positively asserted by Sulpitius Severus. And lastly, those Authors that represent Paradiseas remote from our World, and inaccessible, so St. Austin, Procopius Gazeus, Beda, Strabus Fuldensis, Historia Scholiastica, and others, these, I say, pursue the same notion of Antiquity; for what is remote from our World (that is, from our Continent, as 1 we before explained it) is to be understood to be that Antichthon, or Anti-hemisphere which the Ancients opposed to ours.

Another sett of Authors, that interpret the Flaming Swordthat guarded Paradiseto be the Torrid Zone, do plainly intimate, that Paradisein their opinion lay beyond the Torrid Zone, or in the Anti-hemisphere; And thus Tertullianinterprets the Flaming Sword, and in such words as fully confirm our sence: Paradise, He says, by the Torrid Zone, as by a wall of Fire, was severed from the communication and knowledge of our World. It lay then on the other side of this Zone. And St. Cyprian, or the ancient Author that passeth under his name, in his Comment upon Genesis, expresseth himself to the same effect; so also St. Austinand Isidore Hispalensisare thought to interpret it: And Aquinas, who makes Paradiseinaccessible, gives this reason for it, Propter vehementiam æstûs in locis intermediis ex propinquitate Solis, & hoc significatur per Flammeum Gladium: Because of that vehement heat in the parts betwixt us and that, arising from the nearness of the Sun, and this is signified by the Flaming Sword. And this interpretation of the Flaming Swordreceives a remarkable force and Emphasis from our Theory and description of the Primæval Earth, for there the Torrid Zone was as a wall of Fire indeed, or a Region of flame which none could pass or subsist in, no more than in a Furnace.

There is another form of expression amongst the Ancients concerning Paradise, which, if deciphered, is of the same force and signification with this we have already instanced in; They say sometimes, Paradise was beyond the Ocean, or that the Rivers of Paradisecame from beyond the Ocean. This is of the same import with the former Head, and points still at the other Hemisphere; for, as we noted before, some of them fixt their Antichthonand Antichthonesbeyond the Ocean; that is, since there was an Ocean, Since the form of the Earth was changed, and the Torrid Zone become habitable, and consequently could not be a boundary or separation betwixt the two Worlds. Wherefore, as some run still upon the old division by the Torrid Zone, others took the new division by the Ocean. Which Ocean they supposed to lie from East to West betwixt the Tropicks; as may be seen in ancient Authors, Geminus, Herodotus, Cicero de Republicâ, and Clemens Romanus, whom we cited before. St. Austin also speaks upon the same supposition, when he would confute the doctrine of the Antipodes, or Antichthones; and Macrobius, I remember, makes it an Argument of Providence, that the Sun and the Planets, in what part of their course soever they are betwixt the two Tropicks, have still the Ocean under them, that they may be cooled and nourisht by its moisture. They thought the Sea, like a Girdle, went round the Earth, and the temperate Zones on either side were the habitable Regions, whereof this was called the Oicouméne, and the other Antichthon.

This being observed, ’tis not material, whether their Notion was true or false, it shows us what their meaning was, and what part of the Earth they designed, when they spoke of any thing beyond the Ocean; namely, that they meant beyond the Line, in the other Hemisphere, or in the Antichthon; and accordingly, when they say Paradise, or the Fountains of its Rivers were beyond the Ocean, they say the same thing in other terms with the rest of those Authors we have cited. In Moses Bar Cephaabove mentioned, we find a Chapter upon this subject, Quomodo trajecerint Mortales inde ex Paradisi terrâ in hanc Terram? How Mankind past out of that Earth or Continent where Paradisewas, into that where we are?Namely, how they past the Ocean, that lay betwixt them, as the answer there given explains it. And so Ephrem Syrusis cited often in that Treatise, placing Paradisebeyond the Ocean. The Essenesalso, who were the most Philosophick Sect of the Jews, placed Paradise, according to Josephus, beyond the Ocean, under a perfect temperature of Air. And that passage in Eusebius, in the Oration of Constantine, being corrected and restored to the true reading, represents Paradise, in like manner, as in another Continent, from whence Adamwas brought, after his transgression, into this. And lastly, there are some Authors, whose testimony and authority may deserve to be considered, not for their own Antiquity, but because they are professedly transcribers of Antiquity and Traditions, such as Strabus, Comestor, and the like, who are known to give this account or report of Paradisefrom the Ancients, that it was interposito Oceano ab Orbe nostro vel à Zonâ nostrâ habitabili secretus, Separated from our Orb or Hemisphere by the interposition of the Ocean.

It is also observable, that many of the Ancients that took Tigris, Euphrates, Nileand Gangesfor the Rivers of Paradise, said that those Heads or Fountains of them which we have in our Continent, are but their Capita secunda, their second Sources, and that their first Sources were in another Orb where Paradisewas; and thus Hugo de Sancto Victoresays, Sanctos communiter sensisse, that the Holy men of old were generally of that opinion. To this sence also Moses Bar Cephaoften expresseth himself; as also Epiphanius, Procopius Gazeus, and Severianus in Catenâ. Which notion amongst the Ancients, concerning the trajection or passage of the Paradisiacal Rivers under-ground, or under-Sea, from one Continent into another, is to me, I confess, unintelligible, either in the first or second Earth; but however it discovers their sence and opinion of the Seat of Paradise, that it was not to be sought for in Asiaor in Africk, where those Rivers rise to us, but in some remoter parts of the World, where they supposed their first Sources to be.

This is a short account of what the Christian Fathers have left us, concerning the Seat of Paradise; and the truth is, ’tis but a short and broken account; yet ’tis no wonder it should be so, if we consider, as we noted before, that several of them did not believe Paradiseto be Local and Corporeal; Others that did believe it so, yet did not offer to determine the place of it, but left that matter wholly untoucht and undecided; And the rest that did speak to that point, did it commonly both in general terms, and in expressions that were disguised, and needed interpretation; but all these differences and obscurities of expression, you see, when duly stated and expounded, may signifie one and the same thing, and terminate all in this common Conclusion, That Paradisewas without our Continent, according to the general opinion and Tradition of Antiquity. And I do not doubt but the Tradition would have been both more express and more universal, if the Ancients had understood Geography better; for those of the Ancients that did not admit or believe, that there were Antipodesor Antichthones, as Lactantius, St. Austin, and some others, these could not joyn in the common opinion about the place of Paradise, because they thought there was no Land, nor any thing habitable ἔξω τ῾ οἰκουμγύης, or besides this Continent. And yet St. Austinwas so cautious, that as he was bounded on the one hand by his false Ideaof the Earth, that he could not joyn with Antiquity as to the place of Paradise; so on the other hand he had that respect for it, that he would not say any thing to the contrary; therefore being to give his opinion, he says only, Terrestrem esse Paradisum, & locum ejus ab hominum cognitione esse remotissimum: That it is somewhere upon the Earth, but the place of it very remote from the knowledge of Men.

And as their ignorance of the Globe of the Earth was one reason, why the doctrine of Paradisewas so broken and obscure, so another reason why it is much more so at present is, because the chief ancient Books writ upon that subject, are lost; Ephrem Syrus, who lived in the Fourth Century, writ a Commentary in Genesin sive de Ortu rerum, concerning the Origin of the Earth; and by those remains that are cited from it, we have reason to believe, that it contained many things remarkable concerning the first Earth, and concerning Paradise, Tertullianalso writ a Book de Paradiso, which is wholly lost; and we see to what effect it would have been, by his making the Torrid Zone to be the Flaming Sword, and the partition betwixt this Earth and Paradise; which two Earths he more than once distinguisheth as very different from one another. The most ancient Author that I know upon this subject, at least of those that writ of it literally, is Moses Bar Cepha, a SyrianBishop, who lived about seven hundred years since, and his Book is translated into Latin, by that Learned and Judicious man, Andreas Masius. Bar Cephawrites upon the same Views of Paradisethat we have here presented, that it was beyond the Ocean, in another tract of Land, or another Continent from that which we inhabit: As appears from the very Titles of his Eighth, Tenth, and Fourteenth Chapters. But we must allow him for his mistaken Notions about the form of the Earth; for he seems to have fansied the Earth plain, (not only as opposed to rough and Mountainous, for so it was plain; but as opposed to Spherical) and the Ocean to have divided it in two parts, an Interiour, and an Exteriour, and in that Exteriour part was Paradise. Such allowances must often be made for Geographical mistakes, in examining and understanding the writings of the Ancients. The rest of the Syrian Fathers, as well as Ephremand Bar Cepha, incline to the same doctrine of Paradise, and seem to have retained more of the ancient Notions concerning it, than the Greekand LatinFathers have; and yet there is in all some fragments of this doctrine, and but fragments in the best.

We might add in that last place, that as the most ancient Treatises concerning Paradiseare lost, so also the ancient Glossesand Catenæupon Scripture, where we might have found the Traditions and Opinions of the Ancients upon this subject, are many of them either lost or unpublisht; And upon this consideration we did not think it improper to cite some Authors of small Antiquity, but such as have transcribed several things out of ancient Manuscript-glosses into their Commentaries: They living however before Printing was invented, or Learning well restored, and before the Reformation. I add that also before the Reformation, for since that time the Protestant Authors having lessened the authority of Traditions, the Pontificial Doctors content themselves to insist only upon such as they thought were useful or necessary, left by multiplying others that were but matter of curiosity, they should bring the first into question, and render the whole doctrine of Traditions more dubious and exceptionable; And upon this account, there are some Authors that writ an Age or two before the Reformation, that have with more freedom told us the Tenets and Traditions of the Ancients in these Speculations, that are but collateral to Religion, than any have done since. And I must confess, I am apt to think that what remains concerning the doctrine of Paradise, and the Primæval Earth, is in a good measure Traditional; for one may observe, that those that treat upon these subjects, quote the true Opinions, and tell you some of the Ancients held so and so, as That Paradisewas in another Earth, or higher than this Earth, That there were no Mountains before the Flood, nor any Rain, and such like: yet they do not name those ancient Authors that held these Opinions; which makes me apt to believe, either that they were conveyed by a Traditional communication from one to another, or that there were other Books extant upon those subjects, or other Glosses, than what are now known.

Finally, to conclude this Discourse concerning the Seat of Paradise, we must mind you again upon what Basis it stands. We declared freely, that we could not by our Theory alone determine the particular place of it, only by that we are assured that it was in the Primæval Earth, and not in the present; but in what Region, or in whether Hemisphere of that Earth it was seated, we cannot define from Speculation only. ’Tis true, if we hold fast to that Scripture-conclusion, That all Mankind rise from one Head, and from one and the same Stock and Lineage, (which doth not seem to be according to the sentiments of the Heathens) we must suppose they were born in one Hemisphere, and after some time translated into the other, or a Colony of them; But this still doth not determine, in whether of the two they begun, and were first seated before their translation; and I am apt to think that depended rather, as we noted before, upon the Divine pleasure, and the train of affairs that was to succeed, than upon Natural causes and differences. Some of the Ancients, I know, made both the Soil and the Stars more noble in the Southern Hemisphere, than in ours, but I do not see any proof or warrant for it; wherefore laying aside all natural Topicks, we are willing, in this particular, to refer our selves wholly to the report and majority of Votes amongst the Ancients; who yet do not seem to me to lay much stress upon the notion of a particular and topical Paradise, and therefore use general and remote expressions concerning it. And finding no place for it in this Continent, they are willing to quit their hands of it, by placing it in a Region some-where far off, and inaccessible. This, together with the old Tradition, that Paradise was in another Earth, seems to me to give an account of most of their Opinions concerning the Seat of Paradise.

Footnotes

185:1 Οχουμένη.

THE SACRED THEORY OF THE EARTH

by Thomas Burnet

THE THEORY OF THE EARTH

Book 2

Concerning the PRIMAL EARTH, AND PARADISE.

CHAPTER VI

A Recollection and Review of what hath been said concerning the Primitive Earth; with a more full Survey of the State of the first World, Natural and Civil, and the comparison of it with the present World.

WE have now, in a good measure, finisht our description of the first and Ante-diluvian Earth; And as Travellers, when they see strange Countries, make it part of their pleasure and imEvidencement, to compare them with their own, to observe the differences, and wherein they excel, or come short of one another: So it will not be unpleasant, nor unuseful, it may be, having made a discovery, not of a new Country, but of a new World, and travelled it over in our thoughts and fancy, now to sit down and compare it with our own: And ’twill be no hard task, from the general differences which we have taken notice of already, to observe what lesser would arise, and what the whole face of Nature would be.

’Tis also one fruit of travelling, that by seeing variety of places and people, of humours, fashions, and forms of living, it frees us, by degrees, from that pedantry and littleness of Spirit, whereby we are apt to censure every thing for absurd and ridiculous, that is not according to our own way, and the mode of our own Country; But if instead of crossing the Seas, we could waft our selves over to our neighbouring Planets, we should meet with such varieties there, both in Nature and Mankind, as would very much enlarge our thoughts and Souls, and help to cure those diseases of little minds, that make them troublesome to others, as well as uneasie to themselves.

But seeing our heavy Bodies are not made for such Voyages, the best and greatest thing we can do in this kind, is to make a Survey and reflection upon the Ante-diluvian Earth, which in some sence was another World from this, and it may be, as different as some two Planets are from one another. We have declared already the general grounds upon which we must proceed, and must now trace the consequences of them, and drive them down into particulars, which will show us in most things, wherein that Earth, or that World, differed from the present. The form of that Earth, and its situation to the Sun, were two of its most fundamental differences from ours; As to the form of it, ’twas all one smooth Continent, one continued surface of earth, without any Sea, any Mountains, or Rocks; any Holes, Dens or Caverns: And the situation of it to the Sun was such as made a perpetual Æquinox. These two joyned together, lay the foundation of a new Astronomy, Meteorology, Hydrography and Geography; such as were proper and peculiar to that World. The Earth by this means having its Axis parallel to the Axis of the Ecliptick, the Heavens would appear in another posture: And their diurnal motion, which is imputed to the Primum Mobile, and supposed to be upon the Poles of the Æquator, would then be upon the same Poles with the second and Periodical motions of the Orbs and Planets, namely, upon the Poles of the Ecliptick; by which means the Phænomenaof the Heavens would be more simple and regular, and much of that intangledness and perplexity, which we find now in Astronomy, would be taken away. Whether the Sun and the Moon would suffer any Eclipses then, cannot well be determined, unless one knew what the course of the Moon was at that time, or whether she was then come into our neighbourhood: Her presence seems to have been less needful when there were no long Winter-nights, nor the great Pool of the Sea to move or govern.

As for the Regions of the Air and the Meteors, we have in the preceding Chapter set down what the state of them would be, and in how much a better order, and more peaceable, that Kingdom was, till the Earth was broken and displaced, and the course of Nature chang'd: Nothing violent, nothing frightful, nothing troublesome or incommodious to Mankind, came from above, but the countenance of the Heavens was always smooth and serene. I have often thought it a very desirable piece of power, if a man could but command a fair day, when he had occasion for it, for himself, or for his friends; ’tis more than the greatest Prince or Potentate upon Earth can do; yet they never wanted one in that World, nor ever see a foul one. Besides, they had constant breezes from the motion of the Earth, and the course of the Vapours, which cooled the open Plains, and made the weather temperate, as well as fair. But we have spoken enough in other places upon this subject of the Air and the Heavens, Let us now descend to the Earth.

The Earth was divided into two Hemispheres, separated by the Torrid Zone, which at that time was uninhabitable, and utterly unpassable; so as the two Hemispheres made two distinct Worlds, which, so far as we can judge, had no manner of commerce or communication one with another. The Southern Hemisphere the Ancients called Antichthon, the Opposite Earth, or the Other World. And this name and notion remained long after the reason of it had ceast. Just as the Torrid Zone was generally accounted uninhabitable by the Ancients, even in their time, because it really had been so once, and the Tradition remained uncorrected, when the causes were taken away; namely, when the Earth had changed its posture to the Sun after the Deluge.

This may be lookt upon as the first division of that Primæval Earth, into two Hemispheres, naturally severed and disunited: But it was also divided into five Zones, two Frigid, two Temperate, and the Torrid betwixt them. And this distinction of the Globe into five Zones, I think, did properly belong to that Original Earth, and Primitive Geography, and improperly, and by translation only, to the present. For all the Zones of our Earth are habitable, and their distinctions are in a manner but imaginary, not fixt by Nature; whereas in that Earth where the Rivers failed, and the Regions became uninhabitable, by reason of driness and heat, there begun the Torrid Zone; and where the Regions became uninhabitable, by reason of cold and moisture, there begun the Frigid Zone; and these being determined, they became bounds on either side to the Temperate. But all this was altered when the posture of the Earth was changed; and changed for that very purpose, as some of the Ancients have said, That the uninhabitable parts of the Earth might become habitable. Yet though there was so much of the first Earth uninhabitable, there remained as much to be inhabited as we have now; for the Sea, since the breaking up of the Abysse, hath taken away half of the Earth from us, a great part whereof was to them good Land. Besides, we are not to suppose, that the Torrid Zone was of that extent we make it now, twenty three degrees and more on either side of the Æquator; these bounds are set only by the Tropicks, and the Tropicks by the obliquity of the course of the Sun, or of the posture of the Earth, which was not in that World. Where the Rivers stopt, there the Torrid Zone would begin, but the Sun was directly perpendicular to no part of it, but the middle.

How the Rivers flowed in the first Earth we have before explained sufficiently, and what parts the Rivers did not reach, were turned into Sands and Desarts by the heat of the Sun; for I cannot easily imagine, that the Sandy Desarts of the Earth were made so at first, immediately and from the beginning of the World; from what causes should that be, and to what purpose? But in those Tracts of the Earth that were not refresht with Rivers and moisture, which cement the parts, the ground would moulder and crumble into little pieces, and then those pieces by the heat of the Sun were baked into Stone. And this would come to pass chiefly in the hot and scorched Regions of the Earth, though it might happen sometimes where there was not that extremity of heat, if by any chance a place wanted Rivers and Water to keep the Earth in due temper; but those Sands would not be so early or ancient as the other. As for greater loose Stones, and rough Pebbles, there were none in that Earth; Deucalionand Pyrrha, when the Deluge was over, found new-made Stones to cast behind their backs; the bones of their mother Earth, which then were broken in pieces, in that great ruine.

As for Plants and Trees, we cannot imagine but that they must needs abound in the Primitive Earth, seeing it was so well watered, and had a soil so fruitful; A new unlaboured soil, replenisht with the Seeds of all Vegetables; and a warm Sun that would call upon Nature early for her First-fruits, to be offered up at the beginning of her course. Nature had a wild luxuriancy at first, which humane industry by degrees gave form and order to; The Waters Howed with a constant and gentle Current, and were easily led which way the Inhabitants had a mind, for their use, or for their pleasure; and shady Trees, which grow best in moist and warm Countries, graced the Banks of their Rivers or Canals. But that which was the beauty and crown of all, was their perpetual Spring, the Fields always green, the Flowers always fresh, and the Trees always covered with Leaves and Fruit: But we have occasionally spoken of these things in several places, and may do again hereafter, and therefore need not inlarge upon them here.

As for Subterraneous things, Metals and Minerals, I believe they had none in the first Earth; and the happier they; no Gold, nor Silver, nor courser Metals. The use of these is either imaginary, or in such works, as, by the constitution of their World, they had little occasion for. And Minerals are either for Medicine, which they had no need of further than Herbs; or for Materials to certain Arts, which were not then in use, or were supplied by other ways. These Subterraneous things, Metals and metallick Minerals, are Factitious, not Original bodies, coeval with the Earth; but are made in process of time, after long preparations and concoctions, by the action of the Sun within the bowels of the Earth. And if the Stamina or principles of them rise from the lower Regions that lie under the Abysse, as I am apt to think they do, it doth not seem probable, that they could be drawn through such a mass of Waters, or that the heat of the Sun could on a sudden penetrate so deep, and be able to loosen them, and raise them into the exterior Earth. And as the first Age of the World was called Golden, though it knew not what Gold was; so the following Ages had their names from several Metals, which lay then asleep in the dark and deep womb of Nature, and see not the Sun till many Years and Ages afterwards.

Having run through the several Regions of Nature, from top to bottom, from the Heavens to the lower parts of the Earth, and made some observations upon their order in the Ante-diluvian World; Let us now look upon Man and other living Creatures, that make the Superiour and Animate part of Nature. We have observed, and sufficiently spoken to that difference betwixt the men of the old World, and those of the present, in point of Longævity, and given the reasons of it; but we must not imagine, that this long life was peculiar to Man, all other Animals had their share of it, and were in their proportion longer-lived than they are now. Nay, not only Animals, but also Vegetables, and the forms of all living things were far more permanent; The Trees of the Field and of the Forest, in all probability, out-lasted the lives of Men; and I do not know but the first Groves of Pines and Cedars that grew out of the Earth, or that were planted in the Garden of God, might be standing when the Deluge came, and see, from first to last, the entire course and period of a World.

We might add here, with St. Austin, another observation, both concerning Men and other lying Creatures in the first World, that They were greater, as well as longer-lived, than they are at present. This seems to be a very reasonable conjecture, for the state of every thing that hath life, is divided into the time of its growth, its consistency, and its decay; and when the whole duration is longer, every one of these parts, though not always in like proportions, will be longer. We must suppose then, that the growth both in Men and other Animals lasted longer in that World than it doth now, and consequently carried their Bodies both to a greater height and bulk. And in like manner, their Trees would be both taller, and every way bigger than ours; neither were they in any danger there to be blown down by Winds and Storms, or struck with Thunder, though they had been as high as the ÆgyptianPyramids; and whatsoever their height was, if they had Roots and Trunks proportionable, and were streight and well poised, they would stand firm, and with a greater majesty. The Fowls of Heaven making their Nests in their Boughs, and under their shadow the Beasts of the Field bringing forth their Young. When things are fairly possible in their causes, and possible in several degrees, higher or lower, ’tis weakness of Spirit in us, to think there is nothing in Nature, but in that one way, or in that one degree, that we are used to. And whosoever believes those accounts given us, both by the Ancients 1 and Moderns, 2 of the IndianTrees, will not think it strange that those of the first Earth, should much exceed any that we now see in this World. That Allegorical description of the glory of Assyriain Ezekiel(Chap. 31) by allusion to Trees, and particularly to the Trees of Paradise, was chiefly for the greatness and stateliness of them; and there is all fairness of reason to believe, that in that first Earth, both the Birds of the Air, and the Beasts of the Field, and the Trees, and their Fruit, were all, in their several kinds, more large and goodly than Nature produces any now.

So much in short concerning the Natural World, Inanimate or Animate; We should now take a prospect of the Moral World of that time, or of the Civil and Artificial World; what the order and Oeconomy of these was, what the manner of living, and how the Scenes of humane life were different from ours at present. The Ancients, especially the Poets, in their description of the Golden Age, exhibit to us an Order of things, and a Form of life, very remote from any thing we see in our days; but they are not to be trusted in all particulars, many times they exaggerate matters on purpose, that they may seem more strange, or more great, and by that means move and please us more. A Moralor PhilosophickHistory of the World well writ, would certainly be a very useful work, to observe and relate how the Scenes of Humane life have changed in several Ages, the Modes and Forms of living, in what simplicity Men begun at first, and by what degrees they came out of that way, by luxury, ambition, imEvidencement, or changes in Nature; then what new forms and modifications were superadded by the invention of Arts, what by Religion, what by Superstition. This would be a view of things more instructive, and more satisfactory, than to know what Kings Reigned in such an Age, and what Battles were fought; which common History teacheth, and teacheth little more. Such affairs are but the little underplots in the Tragi-comedy of the World; the main design is of another nature, and of far greater extent and consequence. But to return to the subject;

As the Animate World depends upon the Inanimate, so the Civil World depends upon them both, and takes its measures from them: Nature is the foundation still, and the affairs of Mankind are a superstructure that will be always proportioned to it. There fore we must look back upon the model or picture of their natural World, which we have drawn before, to make our conjectures or judgment of the Civil and Artificial that were to accompany it. We observed from their perpetual Æquinox, and the smoothness of the Earth, that the Air would be always calm, and the Heavens fair, no cold or violent Winds, Rains, or Storms, no extremity of weather in any kind, and therefore they would need little protection from the injuries of the Air in that state; whereas now one great part of the affairs of life, is to preserve our selves from those inconveniences, by building and cloathing. How many Hands, and how many Trades are imployed about these two things, which then were in a manner needless, or at least in such plainness and simplicity, that every man might be his own workman. Tents and Bowers would keep them from all incommodities of the Air and weather, better than Stone-walls, and strong Roofs defend us now; and men are apt to take the easiest ways of living, till necessity or vice put them upon others that are more laborious, and more artificial. We also observed and Evidenced, that they had no Sea in the Primitive and Ante-diluvian World, which makes a vast difference ’twixt us and them; This takes up half of our Globe, and a good part of Mankind is busied with Sea-affairs and Navigation. They had little need of Merchandizing then, Nature supplied them at home with all necessaries, which were few, and they were not so greedy of superfluities as we are. We may add to these what concerned their Food and Diet; Antiquity doth generally suppose that men were not Carnivorous in those Ages of the World, or did not feed upon Flesh, but only upon Fruit and Herbs. And this seems to be plainly confirmed by Scripture; for after the Deluge God Almighty gives Noahand his Posterity a Licence to eat Flesh, (Gen. 9. 2, 3.) Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you. Whereas before in the new-made Earth God had prescribed them Herbs and Fruit for their Diet, Gen. 1. 29. Behold, I have given you every Herb bearing Seed, which is upon the face of all the Earth; and every Tree, in the which is the Fruit of a Tree yielding Seed, to you it shall be for meat. And of this Natural Diet they would be provided to their hands, without further preparation, as the Birds and the Beasts are.

Upon these general grounds we may infer and conclude, that the Civil World then, as well as the Natural, had a very different face and aspect from what it hath now; for of these Heads, Food and Cloathing, Building and Traffick, with that train of Arts, Trades and Manufactures that attend them, the Civil order of things is in a great measure constituted and compounded: These make the business of life, the several occupations of Men, the noise and hurry of the World; These fill our Cities, and our Fairs, and our Havens and Ports; Yet all these fine things are but the effects of indigency and necessitousness, and were, for the most part, needless and unknown in that first state of Nature. The Ancients have told us the same things in effect, but telling us them without their grounds, which they themselves did not know, they lookt like Poetical stories, and pleasant fictions, and with most men past for no better. We have shewn them in another light, with their Reasons and Causes, deduced from the state of the natural World, which is the Basis upon which they stand; and this doth not only give them a just and full credibility, but also lays a foundation for after-thoughts, and further deductions, when they meet with minds disposed to pursue Speculations of this Nature.

As for Laws, Government, natural Religion, Military and Judicial affairs, with all their Equipage, which make an higher order of things in the Civil and Moral World, to calculate these upon the grounds given, would be more difficult, and more uncertain; neither do they at all belong to the present Theory. But from what we have already observed, we may be able to make a better judgment of those Traditional accounts which the Ancients have left us concerning these things, in the early Ages of the World, and the Primitive state of Nature. No doubt in these, as in all other particulars, there was a great easiness and simplicity in comparison of what is now, we are in a more pompous, forced, and artificial method, which partly the change of Nature, and partly the Vices and Vanities of men have introduced and establisht. But these things, with many more, ought to be the subject of a Philosophick Historyof the World, which we mentioned before.

This is a short and general Scheme of the Primæval World, compared with the Modern; yet these things did not equally run through all the Parts and Ages of it, there was a declension and degeneracy, both Natural and Moral, by degrees, and especially towards the latter end; but the principal form of Nature remaining till the Deluge and the dissolution of that Heavens and Earth, till then also this Civil frame of things would stand in a great measure. And though such a state of Nature, and of Mankind, when ’tis proposed crudely, and without its grounds, appear fabulous or imaginary, yet ’tis really in it self a state, not only possible, but more easie and natural, than what the World is in at present. And if one of the old Ante-diluvian Patriarchs should rise from the dead, he would be more surprised to see our World in that posture it is, than we can be by the story and description of his. As an Indianhath more reason to wonder at the Europeanmodes, than we have to wonder at their plain manner of living. ’Tis we that have left the tract of Nature, that are wrought and screwed up into artifices, that have disguised our selves; and ’tis in our World that the Scenes are changed, and become more strange and Fantastical.

I will conclude this Discourse with an easie remark, and without any particular Application of it. ’Tis a strange power that custom hath upon weak and little Spirits; whose thoughts reach no further than their Senses; and what they have seen and been used to, they make the standard and measure of Nature, of Reason, and of all Decorum. Neither are there any sort of men more positive and tenacious of their petty opinions, than they are; nor more censorious, even to bitterness and malice. And ’tis generally so, that those that have the least evidence for the truth of their beloved opinions, are most peevish and impatient in the defence of them. This sort of men are the last that will be made wise men, if ever they be; for they have the worst of diseases that accompany ignorance, and do not so much as know themselves to be sick.

Footnotes

178:1 Plin. li. 7, c. 2. Strab. l. 17.
178:2 Hort. Malabr.vol. 3.