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in English
r
r
only hills & mountains taken out of et
those who suppose all ee
but one who we
earth from one place to another might suppose (if it were necessa
ry) all the earth a quarter of a mile or half a mile lower
then the top of the seas or then the lowest valleys, or even
lower then that, was thrown out of the deep. But the opinion
being to me absurd, I say no more of it. I could wish I
was as well satisfied the
of e
applied to stretch the
atmosphere) should make it shrink, unless you suppose it at
first overstre
of undulation, & that ee
was in eee
figure you desire my opinion what that figure it
inclined to beleive it spherical or not much oval. And my chief
reason for that opinion is ee
appear round so far as we can discern by Telescopes, & I take ee
make it oval that of Iupiter would much more make Iupiter oval
the
being 20 or 30 times greater then the r
caused by the diurnal motion of r
the largeness of his body & swiftness of his revolutions. The sun also
has a motion about his axis & yet is round. What may be argued
from ee
I cannot tell, nor what from ee
to a degree in several latitudes, not knowing how exactly those mea
sures were made or the Latitudes of places taken.
You seem to apprehend that I would have the r
of ee
formed as r
bottom, th
in my letter. Of r
have given the most plausible account. And yet if one would go
about to explain it otherwise Philosophically, he might say that e
crystallises not all over e
long barrs of salt: so the
first, not all over the earth alike, but here & there in veins or
beds of divers sorts of stones & minerals. That in other places ch
remained yet soft, the air che
superior regions of eearth the
grees extricating it self, gave liberty to the
subside & leave the first coagulated places standing up like hills:
which subsiding would be encreased by the draining & drying of that
ties some dry others filled with water. That after the upper crust
of the earth by the heat of the sun together th
action of minerals, was hardened & set; the earth in the lower
regions still going closer together left large caverns between it
& the upper crust filled thch
its weight it spewed out by degrees till it had done shrinking, ch
cavers
And if you will, it may be supposed one great orb of water
between e
not a very regular one. That in process of time many exhalations
were gathered in those caverns which would have expanded them
selves into 40 or 50 times the room they lay in, or more, had
they been at liberty. ffor if air in a glass may be crouded into
18 or 20 times less room then it takes at liberty & yet not burst
the glass, much more may subterranean exhalations by the vast weight
of e
they can in any place lift up & burst that crust of earth.
That at length somewhere forcing a breach, they by expanding
themselves forced out vast quantities of water before they could all
get out themselves, ch
by by great falls of rain in spouts & all together made e
after the vapors were out e
That the air chethe
degrees extricating it self might be pent up in one or more
great caverns in the lower earth under ee
time of ee
self might also force out ee
That the upper crust or
stretch before ee
weight shrinking to its natural posture might help much to force
out the waters. That e
brake out & have ever since continued frequently to do so,
being found by experience noxious to mans health infect the air
& cause that shortness of life ch
flood. And that several pieces of earth either at the flood
or since falling, some perhaps into e
less & shallower cavities, have caused many of those Phænomena
we see on e
But you will ask how could an uniform chaos coagulate at
first irregularly in heterogenous veins or masses to cause hills. T
me then how an uniform solution of saltpeter coagulates
long barrs; or to give you another instance, if Tinn, (such as the Pew
terers buy from the mines in Cornwel to make Pewter of) be melted
& then let stand to cool till it begin to congeal & when it be
gins to congeale at ee
more fluid part of ech
first, you will see a good part of e
after the fluider part of ech
run from between them appear like so many hills with as much
irregularity as any hills on ee
& ee
All
not in some respects more probable. And though the pressure of e
Moon or Vortex &c may promote ee
hills, yet I did not in my former letter design to explain the ge
neration of hills thereby, but only to insinuate how a Sea might be
made above ground in your own hypothesis before the flood besides
the subterranean great deep, & thereby all difficulty of explaining
rivers & the main point in ch
agree might be avoyded. But this sea I
Equator but rather to be two seas in two opposite parts of it where
the cause of err
of ee
As to Moses I do not think his description of e
Philosophical or feigned, but that he described realities in a language ar
tificially adapted to ece of e
of two great lights I suppose he means their apparent, not real great
ness. So when he tells us God placed those lights in et
I suppose of their apparent not of their real place, his business being
not to correct the vulgar notions in matters philosophical
a description of ee
city of ee
4th day, I do not think their creation from beginning to end was
done ee
mentions their creation as they were physicall
then this earth & perhaps habitable worlds, but only as they were
lights to this earth, & therefore though their creation could not physi
cally e
ation ch
things in order according to e
one day to one thing, they were to be referred to some day or other
& rather to eth day then any other if the air then first be
came clear enough for them to shine through it & so put on e
appearance of lights in e
till then they could not properly be described under e
lights, nor was their description under that notion to be deferred after
they had that appearance though it may be the creation of some of
them was not yet completed. Thus far perhaps one might be allowed
to go in eeeth day, but in efift
for Moses to describe e
done neither in reality nor in appearance me thinks is something
hard. & that ee
water but that of rivers that is none but fresh water above ground
there could be no fish but such as live in fresh water & so one
half of e
upon a new creation after e
queous globe th
have.
You ask what was that light created e
was eee
considerable a thing as to take up one day's work? & would not e
of eth
things fully would require comment upon Moses whom I dare not pretend to un
derstand: yet to say something by way of conjecture, one may suppose that all e
Planets about r
of new ones appearing or old ones ceasing. That they all & ee
became separated into several parcels each parcel for a planet. That
at eeee
& upon e
compact & well defined body we now see it. And the preceding darkness
& light now cast upon ee
the evening & morning chee
earth had any diurnall motion or was formed into a globular body.
That it being Moses design to describe the origination of this earth only &
to touch upon other things only so far as they related to it, he passes
over the division of ee
fountain of that light God made that is eeth
respect to the Chaos of re
face of ea
suppose that after re
principle chch
center) it shrunk closer together & at length a great part of it condensing
subsided in e
globe& tch
above & the air che
both. Thus was the Chaos at once separated into three regions the globe
of muddy waters below e
mament & ethe deep & the waters on eche
he teaches the division of all those waters into two parts with a firma
ment between them: che
was in no wise to be omitted by Moses. After this general division of e
chaos Moses teaches a subdivision of one of its
waters under ei
of the whole globous mass. ffor ch
then that eee
leave them dry land & gather together into e
And some parts might be made higher then others not only by e
cause of eee
was made by division from e
not be spherical. And now while the new planted vegetables grew to be
food for Animals, the heavens becoming clear for ee
Moon & starrs in e
on ee
on eee
those lights created at this time, Moses here sets down their creation
as if he had then lived & were now describing what he saw. Omit them
he could not thee
judgment of e
selves would have made ee
& become a Philosopher more then a Prophet. He mentions them therefore
only so far as e
nomena in r
a time as they were made such phænomena. Consider therefore whether
any one who understood the process of e
to e
& theologically as Moses has done, without omitting any thing material che
vulgar have a notion of or describing any being further then the vulgar have
a notion of it, could mend that description chee
more poetical then natural, so also are some other expressions of Moses, as where
wards stopped again Gen 8 & yet the things signified by such figurative
expressions are not Ideall or moral but true. ffor Moses accommodating his
words to eee
manner as one of e
had he lived & seen et
Now for eee
you may make ee
if there was no diurnal motion till there was a terraqueous globe, that
is till towards ee
earth put in motion by an eaven force applied to it, & that e
revolution was done in one of r
there would be three revolutions of a third five of a fourth seaven &c
& of the 183d yeare 365 revolutions, that is as many as there are days
in r
about 90 of r
profess I know no sufficient naturall cause of e
Where natural causes are at hand God uses them as instruments in his
works, but I doe not thinck them alone sufficient for e
fore may be allowed to suppose that amongst other things God gave the
earth it's motion by such degrees & at such times as was most suitable
to e
you may by supposing day & night was made by the annual motion
of e
the end of e
And why might not birds & fishes endure one long night as well as those
& other animals endure many in Greenland, or rather why not better
then the tender substances ch
successions of short days & nights & consequently of heat and cold? ffor
what think you would become of an egge or Embryo ch
quently grow hot & cold? Yet if you think e
supposing the divine operations quicker. But be it as it will, me thinks
one of the tenn ts
of er
300 years & th
be grounded on a fiction. At least Divines will hardly be perswaded to
As I am writing, another illustration of e
proposed above comes into my mind. Milk is as uniform a liquor as ee
be dry, the surface of e
mountanous as the earth in any place. I forbear to describe other causes
of mountains, as e
earth was well hardned, the settling & shringe
after eer
their antiquity out of Prov. 8.25. Iob: 15.7 Psal. 90.2 but rather beg rche
because I have not set down any thing I espouse have well considered
or will undertake to defend.