Not far from Ætna lies Strombolo, and other adjacent Islands, where there are also such Magazines of Fire; and throughout all Regions and Countries in the West-Indies and in the East, in the northern and southern Parts of the Earth, there are some of these Volcano’s, which are sensible Evidences that the Earth is incompact and full of Caverns; besides, the roarings and bellowings that use to be heard before an Eruption of these Volcano’s argue some dreadful Hollowness in the Belly, or under the Roots of the Mountain, where the Exhalations struggle before they can break their Prison.

The subterraneous Cavities, that we have spoke of hitherto, are such as are visible in the Surface of the Earth, and break the Skin by some gaping Orifice; but the Miners and those that work under Ground meet with many more in the Bowels of the Earth, that never reach to the Top of it; Burrows and Channels, and Clifts and Caverns, that never had the Comfort of one Beam of Light since the great Fall of the Earth. And where we think the Ground is firm and solid, as upon Heaths and Downs, it often betrays its Hollowness, by sounding under the Horses Feet and the Chariot Wheels that pass over it. We do not know when and where we stand upon good Ground, if it was examin’d deep enough; and to make us further sensible of this, we will instance in two Things that argue the Unsoundness and Hollowness of the Earth in the inward Recesses of it, tho’ the Surface be intire and unbroken; these are Earthquakes and the Communication of subterraneous Waters and Seas: Of which two we will speak a little more particularly.

Earthquakes are too evident Demonstrations of the Hollowness of the Earth, being the dreadful Effects or Consequences of it; for if the Body of the Earth was sound and compact, there would be no such thing in Nature as an Earthquake. They are commonly accompanied with an heavy dead Sound, like a dull Thunder which ariseth from the Vapours that are striving in the Womb of Nature, when her Throws are coming upon her. And that these Caverns where the Vapours lie are very large and capacious, we are taught sometimes by sad Experience; for whole Cities and Countries have been swallow’d up into them, as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the Region of Pentapolis, and several Cities in Greece, and in Asia, and other Parts. Whole Islands also have been thus absorpt in an Earthquake; the Pillars and Props they stood upon being broken, they have sunk and fallen in as an House blown up. I am also of Opinion, that those Islands that are made by Divulsion from a Continent, as Sicily was broken off from Italy, and Great-Britain, as some think, from France, have been made the same way; that is, the Isthmus or Necks of Land, that join’d these Islands with their Continents before, have been hollow, and being either worn by the Water, or shak’d by an Earthquake, have sunk down, and so made Way for the Sea to overflow them, and of a Promontory to make an Island. For it is not at all likely that the Neck of Land continued standing, and the Sea overflow’d it, and so made an Island; for then, all those Passages between such Islands, and their respective Continents, would be extremely shallow and unnavigable, which we do not find them to be. Nor is it any more Wonder if such a Neck of Land should fall, than that a Mountain should sink, or any other Tract of Land, and a Lake rise in its Place, which hath often happened. Plato supposeth his Atlantis to have been greater than Asia and Africa together, and yet to have sunk all into the Sea; whether that be true or no, I do not think it impossible that some Arms of the Sea, or Sinus’s, might have had such an Original as that; and I am very apt to think, that for some Years after the Deluge, ’till the Fragments were well settled and adjusted, great Alterations would happen as to the Face of the Sea and the Land; many of the Fragments would change their Posture, and many would sink into the Water, that stood out before, the Props failing that bore them up, or the Joints and Corners whereby they lean’d upon one another: And thereupon a new Face of Things would arise, and a new Deluge for that part of the Earth. Such Removes and Interchanges, I believe, would often happen in the first Ages after the Flood; as we see in all other Ruins, there happen lesser and secondary Ruins after the first, ’till the Parts be so well pois’d and settled, that without some Violence they scarce change their Posture any more.

But to return to our Earthquakes, and to give an Instance or two of their Extent and Violence: Pliny mentions one in the Reign of Tiberius Cæsar, that struck down twelve Cities of Asia in one Night. And Fournier gives us an Account of one in Peru, that reach’d three hundred Leagues along the Sea-shore, and seventy Leagues In-land; and level’d the Mountains all along as it went, threw down the Cities, turn’d the Rivers out of their Channels, and made an universal Havock and Confusion: And all this, he saith, was done within the Space of seven or eight Minutes. There must be dreadful Vaults and Mines under that Continent that gave Passage to the Vapours, and Liberty to play for Nine Hundred Miles in length, and above two Hundred in breadth. Asia also hath been very subject to these Desolations by Earthquakes; and many Parts in Europe, as Greece, Italy, and others. The Truth is, our Cities are built upon Ruins, and our Fields and Countries stand upon broken Arches and Vaults, and so does the greatest Part of the outward Frame of the Earth, and therefore it is no Wonder if it be often shaken; there being Quantities of Exhalations within these Mines, or cavernous Passages, that are capable of Rarefaction and Inflammation; and, upon such Occasions, requiring more Room, they shake or break the Ground that covers them. And thus much concerning Earthquakes.

A second Observation that argues the Hollowness of the Earth, is the Communication of the Seas and Lakes under Ground. The Caspian and Mediterranean Seas, and several Lakes, receive into them great Rivers, and yet have no visible Out-let: These must have subterraneous Out-lets, by which they empty themselves, otherwise they would redound and overflow the Brims of their Vessel. The Mediterranean is most remarkable in this Kind, because ’tis observ’d, that at one End the great Ocean flows into it through the Straits of Gibraltar, with a sensible Current, and towards the other End about Constantinople the Pontus flows down into it with a Stream so strong, that Vessels have much ado to stem it; and yet it neither hath any visible Evacuation or Out-let, nor overflows its Banks. And besides that it is thus fed at either End, it is fed by the Navel too, as I may so say; it sucks in, by their Channels, several Rivers into its Belly, whereof the Nile is one very great and considerable. These Things have made it a great Problem, What becomes of the Water of the Mediterranean Sea? And for my Part, I think the Solution is very easy, namely, that it is discharged by subterraneous Passages, or convey’d by Channels under the Ground into the Ocean. And this manner of Discharge or Conveyance is not peculiar to the Mediterranean, but is common to it with the Caspian Sea, and other Seas and Lakes, that receive great Rivers into them, and have no visible Issue.

I know there have been propos’d several other Ways to answer this Difficulty concerning the Efflux or Consumption of the Waters of the Mediterranean; some have suppos’d a double Current in the Strait of Gibraltar, one that carry’d the Water in, and another that brought it out; like the Arteries and Veins in our Body, the one exporting our Blood from the Heart, and the other re-importing it: So they suppos’d one Current upon the Surface, which carry’d the Water into the Mediterranean, and under it at a certain Depth a Counter-Current, which brought the Water back into the Ocean. But this hath neither Proof nor Foundation; for unless it was included in Pipes, as our Blood is, or consisted of Liquors very different, these cross Currents would mingle and destroy one another. Others are of Opinion, that all the Water that flows into the Mediterranean, or a Quantity equal to it, is consumed in Exhalations every Day: This seems to be a bolder Supposition than the other; for if so much be consumed in Vapours and Exhalations every Day as flows into this Sea, what if this Sea had an Out-let and discharg’d by that, every Day, as much as it receiv’d? In a few Days the Vapours would have consumed all the rest; and yet we see many Lakes that have as free an Out-let as an In-let, and are not consum’d, or sensibly diminish’d by the Vapours. Besides, this Reason is a Summer Reason, and would pass very ill in Winter, when the Heat of the Sun is much less powerful: At least there would be a very sensible Difference betwixt the Height of the Waters in Summer and Winter, if so much was consum’d every Day, as this Explication supposeth. And the Truth is, this Want of a visible Out-let is not a Property belonging only to the Mediterranean Sea, as we noted before, but is also in other Seas and great Lakes, some lying in one Climate and some in another, where there is no Reason to suppose such excessive Exhalations; and tho’ ’tis true some Rivers in Africk, and in other Parts of the Earth, are thus exhal’d and dry’d up, without ever flowing into the Sea (as were all the Rivers in the first Earth) yet this is where the Sands and parch’d Ground suck up a great part of them; the heat of the Climate being excessively strong, and the Channel of the River growing shallower by degrees, and it may be, divided into lesser Branches and Rivulets; which are Causes that take no Place here. And therefore we must return to our first Reason, which is universal, for all Seasons of the Year and all Climates; and seeing we are assur’d that there are subterraneous Channels and Passages, for Rivers often fall into the Ground, and sometimes rise again, and sometimes never return; why should we doubt to ascribe this Effect to so obvious a Cause? Nay, I believe, the very Ocean doth evacuate it self by subterraneous Out-lets; for considering what a prodigious Mass of Water falls into it every Day from the wide Mouths of all the Rivers of the Earth, it must have Out-lets proportionable; and those Syrtes or great Whirlpools, that are constant in certain Parts or Sinus’s of the Sea, as upon the Coast of Norway and of Italy, arise probably from subterraneous Out-lets in those Places, whereby the Water sinks, and turns, and draws into it whatsoever comes within such a Compass; and if there was no Issue at the Bottom, tho’ it might by contrary Currents turn Things round within its Sphere, yet there is no Reason from that, why it should suck them down to the Bottom. Neither does it seem improbable, that the Currents of the Sea are from these In-draughts, and that there is always a submarine In-let in some part of them, to make a Circulation of the Waters. But thus much for the subterraneous Communication of Seas and Lakes.

And thus much in general concerning subterraneous Cavities, and concerning the hollow and broken Frame of the Earth. If I had now Magick enough to shew you at one View all the Inside of the Earth, which we have imperfectly describ’d; if we could go under the Roots of the Mountains, and into the Sides of the broken Rocks; or could dive into the Earth with one of those Rivers that sink under Ground, and follow its Course and all its Windings till it rise again, or led us to the Sea, we should have a much stronger and more effectual Idea of the broken Form of the Earth, than any we can excite by these faint Descriptions collected from Reason. The Ancients I remember us’d to represent these hollow Caves and subterraneous Regions in the Nature of a World under Ground, and suppos’d it inhabited by the Nymphs, especially the Nymphs of the Waters and the Sea-Goddesses; so Orpheus sung of old; and in Imitation of him Virgil hath made a Description of those Regions; feigning the Nymph Cyrene to send for her Son to come down to her, and make her a Visit in those Shades where Mortals were not admitted.

If we now could open the Earth as this Nymph did the Water, and go down into the Bosom of it; see all the dark Chambers and Apartments there, how ill contriv’d, and how ill kept; so many Holes and Corners, some fill’d with Smoak and Fire, some with Water, and some with Vapours and mouldy Air; how like a Ruin it lies gaping and torn in the Parts of it; We should not easily believe that God created it into this Form immediately out of nothing: It would have cost no more to have made Things in better Order; nay, it had been more easy and more simple: And accordingly we are assured that all Things were made at first in Beauty and Proportion. And if we consider Nature and the Manner of the first Formation of the Earth, ’tis evident that there could be no such Holes and Caverns, nor broken Pieces, made then in the Body of it; for the grosser Parts of the Chaos falling down towards the Center, they would there compose a Mass of Earth uniform and compact, the Water swimming above it; and this first Mass under the Water could have no Caverns or Vacuities in it; for if it had any, the earthy Parts, while the Mass was liquid or semi-liquid, would have sunk into them and fill’d them up, expelling the Air or Water that was there; and when afterwards there came to be a Crust or new Earth form’d upon the Face of the Waters, there could be no Cavities, no Dens, no Fragments in it, no more than in the other; and for the same general Reason, that is, passing from a liquid Form into a concrete or solid, leisurely and by degrees, it would slow and settle together in an entire Mass; there being nothing broken, nor any Thing hard, to bear the Parts off from one another, or to intercept any empty Spaces between them.

’Tis manifest then, that the Earth could not be in this cavernous Form originally, by any Work of Nature, nor by any immediate Action of God, seeing there is neither Use nor Beauty in this kind of Construction. Do we not then, as reasonably, as aptly, ascribe it to that Desolation that was brought upon the Earth in the general Deluge, when its outward Frame was dissolv’d and fell into the great Abyss? How easily doth this answer all that we have observ’d concerning the subterraneous Regions? That hollow and broken Posture of Things under Ground, all those Caves and Holes, and blind Recesses, that are otherwise so unaccountable, say but that they are a Ruin, and you have in one Word explain’d them all. For there is no sort of Cavities, interior or exterior, great or little, open or shut, wet or dry, of what Form or Fashion soever, but we might reasonably expect them in a Ruin of that Nature. And as for the subterraneous Waters, seeing the Earth fell into the Abyss, the Pillars and Foundations of the present (exterior) Earth must stand immers’d in Water, and therefore at such a Depth from the Surface every where, there must be Water found, if the Soil be of a Nature to admit it. ’Tis true, all subterraneous Waters do not proceed from this Original, for many of them are the Effects of Rains and melted Snows sunk into the Earth; but that in digging any where you constantly come to Water at length, even in the most solid Ground, this cannot proceed from these Rains or Snows, but must come from below, and from a Cause as general as the Effect is; which can be no other in my Judgment than this, that the Roots of the exterior Earth stand within the old Abyss, whereof, as a great Part lies open in the Sea, so the rest lies hid and cover’d among the Fragments of the Earth; sometimes dispers’d and only moistning the Parts, as our Blood lies in the Flesh, and in the Habit of the Body; sometimes in greater or lesser Masses, as the Blood in our Vessels. And this I take to be the true Account of subterraneous Waters, as distinguish’d from Fountains and Rivers, and from the Matter and Causes of them.

Thus much we have spoke to give a general Idea of the inward Parts of the Earth, and an easy Explication of them by our Hypothesis; which whether it be true or no, if you compare it impartially with Nature, you will confess at least, that all these Things are just in such a Form and Posture as if it was true.

Chap. X.

Concerning the Channel of the Sea, and the Original of it; The Causes of its irregular Form and unequal Depths: As also of the Original of Islands, their Situation and other Properties.

We have hitherto given an Account of the subterraneous Regions, and of their general Form; We now come above Ground to view the Surface of the Globe, which we find Terraqueous, or divided into Sea and Land: These we must survey, and what is remarkable in them as to their Frame and Structure, we must give an Account of from our Hypothesis, and shew to be unaccountable from any other yet known.

As for the Ocean, there are two things considerable in it, the Water and the Channel that contains it. The Water no doubt is as ancient as the Earth, and cotemporary with it, and we suppose it to be part of the great Abyss wherein the World was drown’d; the rest lying cover’d under the Hollow Fragments of Continents and Islands. But that is not so much the Subject of our present Discourse as the Channel of the Ocean, that vast and prodigious Cavity that runs quite round the Globe, and reacheth, for ought we know, from Pole to Pole, and in many Places is unsearchably deep: When I present this great Gulf to my Imagination, emptied of all its Waters, naked and gaping at the Sun, stretching its Jaws from one End of the Earth to another, it appears to me the most ghastly thing in Nature. What Hands or Instruments could work a Trench in the Body of the Earth of this vastness, and lay Mountains and Rocks on the side of it, as Ramparts to enclose it?

But as we justly admire its Greatness, so we cannot at all admire its Beauty or Elegancy, for ’tis as deform’d and irregular as it is great. And there appearing nothing of Order, or any regular Design in its Parts, it seems reasonable to believe that it was not the Work of Nature, according to her first Intention, or according to the first Model that was drawn in Measure and Proportion by the Line and by the Plummet, but a secondary Work, and the best that could be made of broken Materials. And upon this Supposition ’tis easy to imagine, how upon the Dissolution of the Primæval Earth, the Channel of the Sea was made, or that huge Cavity that lies between the several Continents of the Earth; which shall be more particularly explain’d after we have view’d a little better the Form of it, and the Islands that lie scatter’d by its Shores.

There is no Cavity in the Earth, whether open or subterraneous, that is comparably so great as that of the Ocean, nor would any appear of that Deformity if we could see it empty. The Inside of a Cave is rough and unsightly; the Beds of great Rivers and great Lakes, when they are laid dry, look very raw and rude, the Valleys of the Earth, if they were naked, without Trees and without Grass, nothing but bare Ground and bare Stones, from the tops of their Mountains, would have a ghastly Aspect; but the Sea-Channel is the Complex of all these; here Caves, empty Lakes, naked Valleys are represented as in their Original, or rather far exceeded and out-done as to all their Irregularities; for the Cavity of the Ocean is universally irregular, both as to the Shores and Borders of it; as to the uncertain Breadth and the uncertain Depth of its several Parts, and as to its Ground and Bottom and the whole Mould: If the Sea had been drawn round the Earth in regular Figures and Borders, it might have been a great Beauty to our Globe, and we should reasonably have concluded it a Work of the first Creation, or of Nature’s first Production; but finding on the contrary all the Marks of Disorder and Disproportion in it, we may as reasonably conclude, that it did not belong to the first Order of Things, but was something succedaneous, when the Degeneracy of Mankind, and the Judgments of God had destroyed the first World, and subjected the Creation to some kind of Vanity.

Nor can it easily be imagin’d, if the Sea had been always, and the Earth, in this Terraqueous Form, broke into Continents and Islands, how Mankind could have been propagated at first thro’ the Face of the Earth, all from one Head and from one Place. For Navigation was not then known, at least as to the Grand Ocean, or to pass from Continent to Continent; and I believe Noah’s Ark was the first Ship, or Vessel of Bulk, that ever was built in the World; how could then the Posterity of Adam overflow the Earth, and stock the several Parts of the World, if they had been distant or separate then, as they are now, by the Interposal of the great Ocean? But this Consideration we will insist upon more largely in another Place; let us reflect upon the Irregularities of the Sea-Channel again, and the possible Causes of it.

If we could imagine the Channel of the Sea to have been made as we may imagine the Channel of Rivers to have been, by long and insensible Attrition, the Water wearing by degrees the Ground under it, by the Force it hath from its Descent and Course, we should not wonder at its irregular Form; but ’tis not possible this Channel should have had any such Original; whence should its Water have descended, from what Mountains, or from what Clouds? Where is the Spring-head of the Sea? What Force could eat away half the Surface of the Earth; and wear it hollow to an immeasurable Depth? This must not be from feeble and lingring Causes, such as the Attrition of Waters, but from some great Violence offer’d to Nature, such as we suppose to have been in the general Deluge, when the Frame of the Earth was broken. And after we have a little survey’d the Sea-Coast, and, so far as we can, the Form of the Sea-Channel, we shall the more easily believe that they could have no other Original than what we assign.

The Shores and Coasts of the Sea are no way equal or uniform, but go in a Line uncertainly crooked and broke; indented and jagg’d as a thing torn, as you may see in the Maps of the Coasts and the Sea-charts; and yet there are innumerable more Inequalities than are taken Notice of in those Draughts; for they only mark the greater Promontories and Bays; but there are besides those a Multitude of Creeks and Out-lets, Necks of Land and Angles, which break the Evenness of the Shore in all manner of Ways. Then the Height and Level of the Shore is as uncertain as the Line of it; ’tis sometimes high and sometimes low, sometimes spread in sandy Plains, as smooth as the Sea it self, and of such an equal Height with it, that the Waves seem to have no Bounds, but the meer Figure and Convexity of the Globe; in other Places ’tis rais’d into Banks and Ramparts of Earth, and in others ’tis wall’d in with Rocks; and all this without any Order that we can observe, or any other Reason than that this is what might be expected in a Ruin.

As to the Depths and Soundings of the Sea, they are under no Rule nor Equality, any more than the Figures of the Shores; Shallows in some Places, and Gulphs in others; Beds of Sands sometimes, and sometimes Rocks under Water; as Navigators have learn’d by a long and dangerous Experience: And tho’ we that are upon dry Land, are not much concern’d how the Rocks and the Shelves lie in the Sea, yet a poor Shipwreckt-Mariner, when he hath run his Vessel upon a Rock in the middle of the Channel, expostulates bitterly with Nature, who it was that plac’d that Rock there, and to what purpose? Was there not Room enough, saith he, upon the Land, or the Shore, to lay your great Stones, but they must be thrown into the middle of the Sea, as it were in spite to Navigation? The best Apology that can be made for Nature in this Case, so far as I know, is to confess, that the whole Business of the Sea-Channel is but a Ruin, and in a Ruin Things tumble uncertainly, and commonly lie in Confusion: Tho’ to speak the Truth, it seldom happens, unless in narrow Seas, that Rocks, or Banks, or Islands, lie in the middle of them, or very far from the Shores.

Having view’d the more visible Parts of the Channel of the Sea, we must now descend to the Bottom of it, and see the Form and Contrivance of that; but who shall guide us in our Journey, while we walk, as Job saith, Chap. xxxviii. 16. in the search of the Deep? Or who can make a Description of that which none hath seen? It is reasonable to believe, that the Bottom of the Sea is much more rugged, broken and irregular than the Face of the Land. There are Mountains, and Valleys, and Rocks, and Ridges of Rocks, and all the common Inequalities we see upon Land; beside these, ’tis very likely there are Caves under Water, and hollow Passages into the Bowels of the Earth, by which the Seas circulate and communicate one with another, and with subterraneous Waters; those great Eddies and infamous Syrtes and Whirpools that are in some Seas, as the Baltick and the Mediterranean, that suck into them and overwhelm whatever comes within their reach, shew that there is something below that sucks from them in Proportion, and that drinks up the Sea, as the Sea drinks up the Rivers. We ought also to imagine the Shores within the Water to go inclin’d and sloping, but with great Inequality; there are many Shelves in the way, and Chambers, and sharp Angles; and many broken Rocks and great Stones lie rolled down to the Bottom.

’Tis true these things affect us little, because they are not expos’d to our Senses; and we seldom give our selves the trouble to collect from Reason what the Form of the invisible and inaccessible Parts of the Earth is; or if we do sometimes, those Ideas are faint and weak, and make no lasting Impression upon our Imagination and Passions; but if we should suppose the Ocean dry, and that we look’d down from the Top of some high Cloud upon the empty Shell, how horridly and barbarously would it look? And with what Amazement should we see it under us like an open Hell, or a wide bottomless Pit? So deep, and hollow, and vast; so broken and confus’d, so every way deform’d and monstrous. This would effectually waken our Imagination, and make us enquire and wonder how such a thing came in Nature; from what Causes, by what Force or Engines could the Earth be torn in this prodigious manner? Did they dig the Sea with Spades, and carry out the Molds in Hand-baskets? Where are the Entrails laid? and how did they cleave the Rocks asunder? If as many Pioneers as the Army of Xerxes had been at Work ever since the Beginning of the World, they could not have made a Ditch of this Greatness. Nor is it the Greatness only, but that wild and multifarious Confusion which we see in the Parts and Fashion of it, that makes it strange and unaccountable; ’tis another Chaos in its kind; who can paint the Scenes of it? Gulphs, and Precipices, and Cataracts; Pits within Pits, and Rocks under Rocks, broken Mountains and ragged Islands, that look as if they had been Countries pull’d up by the Roots, and planted in the Sea.

If we could make true and full Representations of these things to our selves, I think we should not be so bold as to make them the immediate Product of Divine Omnipotence; being destitute of all Appearance of Art or Counsel. The first Orders of things are more perfect and regular; and this Decorum seems to be observ’d, that Nature doth not fall into Disorder till Mankind be first degenerate and leads the way. Monsters have been often made an Argument against Providence; if a Calf have two Heads, or five Legs, straight there must not be a God in Heaven, or at least not upon Earth; and yet this is but a Chance that happens once in many Years, and is of no consequence at all to the rest of the World: But if we make the standing Frame of Nature monstrous, or deform’d and disproportion’d, and to have been so not by Corruption and Degeneracy, but immediately by divine Creation or Formation, it would not be so easy to answer that Objection against Providence. Let us therefore prevent this Imputation; and supposing, according to our Theory, that these Things were not originally thus, let us now explain more distinctly how they came to pass at the Deluge, or upon the Dissolution of the first Earth.

And we will not content our selves with a general Answer to these Observations concerning the Sea-Channel, as if it was a sufficient Account of them to say they were the Effects of a Ruin; there are other things to be consider’d and explain’d beside this Irregularity, as the vast Hollowness of this Cavity, bigger incomparably than any other belonging to the Earth; and also the Declivity of the Sides of it, which lie shelving from Top to Bottom: For notwithstanding all the Inequalities we have taken Notice of in the Channel of the Sea, it hath one general Form, which may, though under many Differences, be observed throughout, and that is, that the Shores and Sides within the Water lie inclin’d, and you descend by degrees to the deepest Part which is towards the Middle. This, I know, admits of many Exceptions; for sometimes upon a rocky Shore, or among rocky Islands, the Sea is very deep close to the Rocks, and the deeper, commonly the higher and steeper the Rocks are. Also where the Descent is more leisurely, ’tis often after a different Manner, in some Coasts more equal and uniform, in others more broken and interrupted; but still there is a Descent to the Channel or deepest Part, and this in the deep Ocean is fathomless; and such a deep Ocean, and such a deep Channel there is always between Continents. This, I think, is a Property as determinate as any we can pitch upon in the Channel of the Sea, and with those other two mention’d; its vast Cavity, and universal Irregularity, is all one can desire an Account of, as to the Form of it; we will therefore from this Ground take our Rise and first Measures for the Explication of the Sea-Channel.

Let us suppose then in the Dissolution of the Earth, when it began to fall, that it was divided only into three or four Fragments, according to the Number of our Continents; but those Fragments being vastly great could not descend at their full Breadth and Expansion, or at least could not descend so fast in the Middle, as towards the Extremities; because the Air about the Edges would yield and give Place easily, not having far to go, to get out of the Way; but the Air that was under the Middle of the Fragment could not without a very swift Motion get from under the Concave of it, and consequently its Descent there would be more resisted and suspended; but the Sides in the mean time would continually descend, bending the Fragment with their Weight, and so making it of a lesser Compass and Expansion than it was before: And by this Means there would be an Interval and Distance made between the two falling Fragments, and a good Part of the Abyss, after their Descent, would lie uncover’d in the Middle betwixt them; as may be seen in the annex’d Figure, where the Fragments A. B. bending downwards in their Extremities, separate as they go, and after they are faln, leave a good Space in the Abyss betwixt them altogether uncover’d: This Space is the main Channel of the great Ocean, lying betwixt two Continents; and the inclining Sides shew the Declivity of the Shores.

This we have represented here only in a Ring or Circle of the Earth, in the first Figure; but it may be better represented in a broader Surface, as in the second Figure, where the two Fragments A. B. that are to make the two opposite Continents, fall in like double Doors, opening downwards, the Hinges being towards the Land on either Side, so as at the Bottom they leave in the Middle betwixt them a deep Channel of Water, a. a. a. such as is betwixt all Continents; and the Water reaching a good Height upon the Land on either Side, makes Sea there too, but shallower, and by degrees you descend into the deepest Channel.

This gives an Account of two Things that we mention’d to be consider’d and explain’d as to the Sea, how the great Cavity of its Channel was made, and how it was made in that general Form of Declivity in its Sides from the Land: The third Thing was the Irregularities of it, both as to its various Depths, and as to the Form of the Shores and of the Bottom. And this is as easily and naturally explain’d from the same Supposition as the former two; for tho’ we have hitherto represented the Fragments A. B. as even and regular after their Fall, because that was most simple, and there was no occasion then to represent them otherwise, yet we must suppose, that as soon as in their Fall they hit upon the Top or Bottom of the Abyss, that great Force and Weight with which they descended broke off all the Edges and Extremities, and so made innumerable Ruptures and Inequalities in the Shores, and as many within the Sea, and at the Bottom; where the broken Rocks and Lumps of Earth would lie in all imaginable Disorder; as you may conceive from the third Figure. For when the Motion came on a sudden to be obstructed, the Load of the Fragment still pressing it forwards, such a Concussion arose, as made thousands of lesser Fragments, of all Shapes and Magnitudes, and in all Postures and Forms, and most of them irregular. And by these Fractions and secondary Ruins the Line of the Shores was broken, and the Level of them too: In some Places they would stand high, in others low, sometimes rough, and sometimes even, and generally crooked, with Angles and In-lets, and uncertain Windings. The Bottom also by the same Stroke was diversify’d into all Manner of Forms, sometimes rocky with Pits and Gulphs, and sometimes spread in plain Beds, sometimes shallow, and sometimes deep; for those Differences would depend only upon the Situation of the secondary Fragments; and so it might come to pass, that some Places near the Shore might be excessive deep when a Rock or Rocks stood in a steep Posture, as (Figure 3.) b. b. b. and, on the contrary, sometimes Places much more advanc’d into the Ocean might be less deep, where a Fragment of Earth lay under Water, or one bore up another, as c. c. c. but these Cases would not be very frequent. To conclude, There are no Properties of the Sea-channel, that I know of, nor Differences or Irregularities in the Form of it, which this Hypothesis doth not give a fair Account of: And having thus far open’d the Way and laid down the general Grounds for their Explication, other things that are more minute, we leave to the Curiosity of particular Genius’s; being unwilling to clog the Theory at first with things that may seem unnecessary. We proceed now to the Consideration of Islands.

We must in the first Place distinguish between Original Islands and Fictitious Islands: Those I call fictitious, that are not of the same Date and Antiquity with the Sea, but have been made some at one time, some at another, by accidental Causes, as the Aggestion of Sands and Sand-beds, or the Sea leaving the Tops of some shallow Places that lie high, and yet flowing about the lower Skirts of them; these make sandy and plain Islands, that have no high Land in them, and are but Mock-Islands in effect. Others are made by Divulsion from some Continent, when an Isthmus, or the Neck of a Promontory running into the Sea, sinks or falls in, by an Earthquake or otherwise, and the Sea entring in at the Gap passeth through, and makes that Promontory or Country become an Island. Thus the Island Sicily is suppos’d to have been made, and all Africa might be an Island, if the Isthmus between the Mediterranean and the red Sea should sink down. And these Islands may have Rocks and Mountains in them, if the Land had so before. Lastly, There are Islands that have been said to rise from the Bottom of the Sea; History mentions such in both the Archipelago’s, Ægæan and Indian; and this seems to argue that there are great Fragments or Tracts of Earth that lie loose at the Bottom of the Sea, or that are not incorporated with the Ground; which agrees very well with our Explication of the Sea-Channel.

But beside these Islands, and the several Sorts of them, there are others which I call Original; because they could not be produc’d in any of the forementioned Ways, but are of the same Origin and Antiquity with the Channel of the Sea; and such are the Generality of our Islands; they were not made of Heaps of Sands, nor torn from any Continent, but are as ancient as the Continents themselves, namely, ever since the Deluge, the common Parent of them both. Nor is there any Difficulty to understand how Islands were made at the Dissolution of the Earth, any more than how Continents were made; for Islands are but lesser Continents, or Continents greater Islands; and according as Continents were made of greater Masses of Earth, or greater Fragments standing above the Water, so Islands were made of less, but so big always, and in such a Posture, as to bear their Tops above the Water. Yet tho’ they agree thus far, there is a particular Difference to be taken notice of, as to their Origin; for the Continents were made of those three or four primary Masses into which the falling Orb of the Earth was divided, but the Islands were made of the Fractures of these, and broken off by the Fall, from the Skirts and Extremities of the Continents: We noted before, that when those great Masses and primary Fragments came to dash upon the Abyss in their Fall, the sudden Stop of the Motion, and the weighty Bulk of the descending Fragment broke off all the Edges and Extremities of it, which Edges and Extremities broken off made the Islands; and accordingly we see that they generally lie scatter’d along the Sides of the Continents, and are but Splinters, as it were, of those greater Bodies. ’Tis true, beside these, there were an infinite Number of other Pieces broke off that do not appear, some making Rocks under Water, some Shallows and Banks in the Sea; but the greatest of them when they fell either one upon another, or in such a Posture as to prop up one another, their Heads and higher Parts would stand out of the Water and make Islands.

Thus I conceive the Islands of the Sea were at first produc’d; we cannot wonder therefore that they should be so numerous, or far more numerous than the Continents; these are the Parents, and those are the Children; nor can we wonder to see along the Sides of the Continents several Islands, or Sets of Islands, sown, as it were, by Handfuls, or laid in Trains; for the Manner of their Generation would lead us to think they would be so plac’d. So the American Islands lie scatter’d upon the Coast of that Continent; the Maldivian and Philippine upon the East-India Shore, and the Hesperides upon the Africk; and there seldom happen to be any towards the Middle of the Ocean, tho’ by an Accident, that also might come to pass. Lastly, It suits very well with our Explication, that there should be Mountains and Rocks, sometimes in Clusters, sometimes in long Chains, in all Islands; (as we find there are in all that are true and original) for ’tis that makes them high enough to appear above the Water, and strong enough to continue and preserve themselves in that high Situation.

And thus much may suffice for a summary Explication of the Causes of the Sea-Channel and Islands, according to our Hypothesis.

Chap. XI.

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

We have been in the Hollows of the Earth, and the Chambers of the Deep, amongst the Damps and Steams of those lower Regions; let us now go air our selves on the Tops of the Mountains, where we shall have a more free and large Horizon, and quite another Face of Things will present it self to our Observation.

The greatest Objects of Nature are, methinks, the most pleasing to behold; and next to the great Concave of the Heavens, and those boundless Regions where the Stars inhabit, there is nothing that I look upon with more Pleasure than the wide Sea and the Mountains of the Earth. There is something august and stately in the Air of these things, that inspires the Mind with great Thoughts and Passions; we do naturally, upon such Occasions, think of God and his Greatness: And whatsoever hath but the Shadow and Appearance of Infinite, as all Things have that are too big for our Comprehension, they fill and over-bear the Mind with their Excess, and cast it into a pleasing kind of Stupor and Admiration.

And yet these Mountains we are speaking of, to confess the Truth, are nothing but great Ruins; but such as shew a certain Magnificence in Nature; as from old Temples and broken Amphitheatres of the Romans we collect the Greatness of that People. But the Grandeur of a Nation is less sensible to those that never see the Remains and Monuments they have left; and those who never see the mountainous Parts of the Earth scarce ever reflect upon the Causes of them, or what Power in Nature could be sufficient to produce them. The Truth is, the Generality of People have not Sense and Curiosity enough to raise a Question concerning these things, or concerning the Original of them. You may tell them that Mountains grow out of the Earth like Fuzz-balls, or that there are Monsters under Ground, that throw up Mountains as Moles do Mole-hills; they will scarce raise one Objection against your Doctrine. Or if you would appear more Learned, tell them that the Earth is a great Animal, and these are Wens that grow upon its Body; this would pass current for Philosophy; so much is the World drown’d in Stupidity and sensual Pleasures, and so little inquisitive into the Works of God and Nature.

There is nothing doth more awaken our Thoughts, or excite our Minds to enquire into the Causes of such Things, than the actual View of them; as I have had Experience my self, when it was my Fortune to cross the Alps and Apennine Mountains; for the Sight of those wild, vast, and indigested Heaps of Stones and Earth did so deeply strike my Fancy, that I was not easy ’till I could give my self some tolerable Account how that Confusion came in Nature, ’Tis true, the Height of Mountains compar’d with the Diameter of the Earth is not considerable, but the Extent of them and the Ground they stand upon bears a considerable Proportion to the Surface of the Earth; and if from Europe we may take our Measures for the rest, I easily believe, that the Mountains do at least take up the Tenth Part of the dry Land. The Geographers are not very careful to describe or note in their Charts the Multitude or Situation of Mountains; They mark the Bounds of Countries, the Site of Cities and Towns, and the Course of Rivers, because these are Things of chief Use to Civil Affairs and Commerce, and that they design to serve, and not Philosophy or natural History. But Cluverius, in his Description of Ancient Germany, Switzerland, and Italy, hath given Maps of those Countries more approaching to the natural Face of them, and we have drawn (at the end of this Chapter) such a Map of either Hemisphere, without marking Countries or Towns, or any such artificial Things; distinguishing only Land and Sea, Islands and Continents, Mountains and not Mountains; and ’tis very useful to imagine the Earth in this Manner, and to look often upon such bare Draughts, as shew us Nature undrest; for then we are best able to judge what her true Shapes and Proportions are.

’Tis certain that we naturally imagine the Surface of the Earth much more regular than it is; for unless we be in some mountainous Parts, there seldom occur any great Inequalities within so much Compass of Ground as we can at once reach with our Eye; and to conceive the rest, we multiply the same Idea, and extend it to those Parts of the Earth that we do not see, and so fancy the whole Globe much more smooth and uniform than it is. But suppose a Man was carried asleep out of a plain Country amongst the Alps, and left there upon the Top of one of the highest Mountains, when he wak’d and look’d about him, he wou’d think himself in an inchanted Country, or carried into another World; every Thing wou’d appear to him so different to what he had ever seen or imagin’d before. To see on every Hand of him a Multitude of vast Bodies thrown together in Confusion, as those Mountains are; Rocks standing naked round about him; and the hollow Valleys gaping under him; and at his Feet, it may be, an Heap of frozen Snow in the midst of Summer. He would hear the Thunder come from below, and see the black Clouds hanging beneath him; upon such a Prospect it would not be easy to him to persuade himself that he was still upon the same Earth; but if he did, he would be convinc’d, at least, that there are some Regions of it strangely rude, and ruin-like, and very different from what he had ever thought of before. But the Inhabitants of these wild Places are even with us; for those that live amongst the Alps, and the great Mountains, think that all the rest of the Earth is like their Country, all broken into Mountains, and Valleys, and Precipices; they never see other, and most People think of nothing but what they have seen at one time or an other.

These Alps we are speaking of are the greatest Range of Mountains in Europe; and ’tis prodigious to see and to consider of what extent these Heaps of Stones and Rubbish are; one way they over-spread Savoy and Dauphine, and reach thro’ France to the Pyrenean Mountains, and so to the Ocean. The other way they run along the Skirts of Germany, thro’ Styria, Pannonia, and Dalmatia, as far as Thrace and the Black Sea. Then backwards they cover Switzerland and the Parts adjacent; and that Branch of them which we call the Apennines strikes thro’ Italy, and is, as it were, the Back-bone of that Country. This must needs be a large Space of Ground which they stand upon; yet ’tis not this Part of Europe only that is laden with Mountains, the Northern Part is as rough and rude in the Face of the Country, as in the Manners of the People; Bohemia, Silesia, Denmark, Norway, Sweedland, Lapland, and Iseland, and all the Coasts of the Baltick Sea, are full of Clifts, and Rocks, and Crags of Mountains: Besides the Riphean Mountains in Muscovy, which the Inhabitants there use to call the Stone-girdle, and believe that it girds the Earth round about.

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

In America, the Andes, or a Ridge of Mountains so call’d, are reported to be higher than any we have, reaching above a Thousand Leagues in Length, and Twenty in Breadth, where they are the narrowest. In Africk the Mountain Atlas, that for its height was said to bear the Heavens on its Back, runs all along from the Western Sea to the Borders of Ægypt, parallel with the Mediterranean. There also are the Mountains of the Moon, and many more, whereof we have but an imperfect Account, as neither indeed of that Country in the remote and inner Parts of it. Asia is better known, and the Mountains thereof better describ’d: Taurus, which is the principal, was adjudg’d by the Ancient Geographers the greatest in the World. It divides Asia into two Parts, which have their Denomination from it: And there is an Anti-Taurus the greater and the less, which accordingly divide Armenia into greater and less. Then the Cruciform Mountains of Imaus, the famous Caucasus, the long Chains of Tartary and China, and the rocky and mountainous Arabia. If one could at once have a Prospect of all these together, one would be easily satisfied, that the Globe of the Earth is a more rude and indigested Body than ’tis commonly imagin’d; if one could see, I say, all the Kingdoms and Regions of the Earth at one view, how they lie in broken Heaps; the Sea hath overwhelmed one half of them, and what remains are but the taller Parts of a Ruin. Look upon those great Ranges of Mountains in Europe or in Asia, whereof we have given a short Survey; in what Confusion do they lie? They have neither Form nor Beauty, nor Shape, nor Order, no more than the Clouds in the Air. Then how barren, how desolate, how naked are they? How they stand neglected by Nature? Neither the Rains can soften them, nor the Dews from Heaven make them fruitful.

I have given this short Account of the Mountains of the Earth, to help to remove that Prejudice we are apt to have, or that Conceit, that the present Earth is regularly form’d. And to this Purpose I do not doubt but that it would be of very good Use to have natural Maps of the Earth, as we noted before, as well as civil; and done with the same Care and Judgment.

Our common Maps I call Civil, which note the Distinction of Countries and of Cities, and represent the Artificial Earth as inhabited and cultivated: But Natural Maps leave out all that, and represent the Earth as it would be if there was not an Inhabitant upon it, nor ever had been; the Skeleton of the Earth, as I may so say, with the sight of all its Parts. Methinks also every Prince should have such a Draught of his own Country and Dominions, to see how the Ground lies in the several Parts of them, which highest, which lowest; what respect they have to one another, and to the Sea; how the Rivers flow, and why; how the Mountains stand; how the Heaths and how the Marshes are plac’d. Such a Map or Survey would be useful both in time of War and Peace, and many good Observations might be made by it, not only as to natural History and Philosophy, but also in order to the perfect Improvement of a Country. But to return to our Mountains.

And this View of the Multitude and Greatness of them, may help to rectify our Mistakes about the Form of the Earth; so before we proceed to examine their Causes it will be good to observe further, that these Mountains are plac’d in no Order one with another, that can either respect Use or Beauty; and if you consider them singly, they do not consist of any Proportion of Parts that is referable to any Design, or that hath the least Footsteps of Art or Counsel. There is nothing in Nature more shapeless and ill-figur’d than an old Rock or a Mountain, and all that Variety that is among them, is but the various Modes of Irregularity; so as you cannot make a better Character of them, in short, than to say they are of all Forms and Figures except regular. Then if you would go within these Mountains (for they are generally hollow) you would find all things there more rude, if possible, than without: And lastly, if you look upon an Heap of them together, or a mountainous Country, they are the greatest Examples of Confusion that we know in Nature; no Tempest or Earthquake puts Things into more Disorder. ’Tis true, they cannot look so ill now as they did at first; a Ruin that is fresh, looks much worse than afterwards, when the Earth grows discolour’d and skinn’d over. But I fancy, if we had seen the Mountains when they were new born and raw, when the Earth was fresh broken, and the Waters of the Deluge newly retir’d, the Fractions and Confusions of them would have appear’d very ghastly and frightful.

After this general Survey of the Mountains of the Earth and their Properties, let us now reflect upon the Causes of them. There is a double Pleasure in Philosophy; first, that of Admiration, whilst we contemplate Things that are great and wonderful, and do not yet understand their Causes; for tho’ Admiration proceeds from Ignorance, yet there is a certain Charm and Sweetness in that Passion. Then the second Pleasure is greater and more intellectual, which is that of distinct Knowledge and Comprehension, when we come to have the Key that unlocks those Secrets, and see the Methods wherein those Things come to pass that we admir’d before: The Reasons why the World is so or so, and from what Causes Nature, or any Part of Nature, came into such a State; and this we are now to enquire after, as to the Mountains of the Earth, what their Original was, how and when the Earth came into this strange Frame and Structure? In the Beginning of our World, when the Earth rose from a Chaos, ’twas impossible it should come immediately into this mountainous Form; because a Mass that is fluid, as a Chaos is, cannot lie in any other Figure than what is regular; for the constant Laws of Nature do certainly bring all Liquors into that Form: And a Chaos is not call’d so from any Confusion or Brokenness in the Form of it, but from a Confusion and Mixture of all sorts of Ingredients in the Composition of it. So we have already produc’d in the precedent Chapters, a double Argument that the Earth was not originally in this Form, both because it rose from a Chaos, which could not of it self, or by any immediate Concretion, settle into a Form of this Nature, as hath been shewn in the fourth and fifth Chapters; as also because if it had been originally made thus, it could never have undergone a Deluge, as hath been prov’d in the second and third Chapters. If this be then a secondary and succedaneous Form, the great Question is, from what Causes it arises.

Some have thought that Mountains, and all other Irregularities in the Earth, have Rise from Earthquakes, and such like Causes; others have thought that they came from the universal Deluge; yet not from any Dissolution of the Earth that was then, but only from the great Agitation of the Waters, which broke the Ground into this rude and unequal Form. Both these Causes seem to me very incompetent and insufficient. Earthquakes seldom make Mountains, they often take them away, and sink them down into the Caverns that lie under them; besides, Earthquakes are not in all Countries and Climates as Mountains are; for as we have observ’d more than once, there is neither Island that is Original, nor Continent any where in the Earth, in what Latitude soever, but hath Mountains and Rocks in it. And lastly, what Probability is there, or how is it credible, that those vast Tracks of Land which we see fill’d with Mountains both in Europe, Asia and Africa, were rais’d by Earthquakes, or any Eruptions from below? In what Age of the World was this done, and why not continu’d? As for the Deluge, which they alledge as another Cause, I doubt not but Mountains were made in the Time of the general Deluge, that great Change and Transformation of the Earth happen’d then, but not from such Causes as are pretended, that is, the bare rolling and agitation of the Waters; for if the Earth was smooth and plain before the Flood, as they seem to suppose as well as we do, the Waters could have little or no Power over a smooth Surface to tear it any way in Pieces, no more than they do a Meadow or low Ground when they lie upon it; for that which makes Torrents and Land floods violent, is their Fall from the Mountains and high Lands, which our Earth is now full of; but if the Rain fell upon even and level Ground, it would only sodden and compress it; there is no possibility how it should raise Mountains in it. And if we could imagine an universal Deluge as the Earth is now constituted, it would rather throw down the Hills and Mountains, than raise new ones; or by beating down their Tops and loose Parts, help to fill the Valleys, and bring the Earth nearer to Evenness and Plainness.

Seeing then there are no Hopes of explaining the Origin of Mountains, either from particular Earthquakes, or from the general Deluge, according to the common Notion and Explication of it; these not being Causes answerable to such vast Effects: Let us try our Hypothesis again; which hath made us a Channel large enough for the Sea, and Room for all subterraneous Cavities, and I think will find us Materials enough to raise all the Mountains of the Earth. We suppose the great Arch or Circumference of the first Earth to have fallen into the Abyss at the Deluge, and seeing that was larger than the Surface it fell upon, ’tis absolutely certain, that it could not all fall flat, or lie under the Water: Now as all those Parts that stood above the Water made dry Land, or the present habitable Earth, so such Parts of the dry Land as stood higher than the rest, made Hills and Mountains; and this is the first and general Account of them, and of all the Inequalities of the Earth. But to consider these Things a little more particularly: There is a double Cause and Necessity of Mountains, first this now mention’d, because the exterior Orb of the Earth was greater than the interior, which it fell upon, and therefore it could not all fall flat; and secondly, because this exterior Orb did not fall so flat and large as it might, or did not cover all the Bottom of the Abyss, as it was very capable to do; but as we shew’d before in explaining the Channel of the Ocean, it left a gaping in the Middle, or an Abyss-channel, as I should call it; and the broader this Abyss-channel was, the more Mountains there would be upon the dry Land; for there would be more Earth, or more of the falling Orb left, and less Room to place it in, and therefore it must stand more in Heaps.

In what Parts of the Earth these Heaps would lie, and in what particular manner, it cannot be expected that we should tell; but all that we have hitherto observ’d concerning Mountains, how strange soever, and otherwise unaccountable, may easily be explain’d and deduc’d from this Original; we shall not wonder at their Greatness and Vastness, seeing they are the Ruins of a broken World; and they would take up more or less of the dry Land, according as the Ocean took up more or less Space of our Globe: Then as to their Figure and Form, whether external or internal, ’tis just such as answers our Expectation, and no more than what the Hypothesis leads us to; for you would easily believe that these Heaps would be irregular in all manner of ways, whether consider’d apart, or in their Situation to one another. And they would lie commonly in Clusters and in Ridges, for those are two of the most general Postures of the Parts of a Ruin, when they fall inwards. Lastly, We cannot wonder that Mountains should be generally hollow; for great Bodies falling together in Confusion, or bearing and leaning against one another, must needs make a great many Hollownesses in them, and by their unequal Applications empty Spaces will be intercepted. We see also from the same Reason why mountainous Countries are subject to Earthquakes; and why Mountains often sink and fall down into the Caverns that lie under them; their Joints and Props being decayed and worn, they become unable to bear their Weight. And all these Properties you see hang upon one and the same String, and are just Consequences from our Supposition concerning the Dissolution of the first Earth. And there is no surer Mark of a good Hypothesis, than when it doth not only hit luckily in one or two Particulars, but answers all that it is to be apply’d to, and is adequate to Nature in her whole Extent.

But how fully or easily soever these things may answer Nature, you will say, it may be, that all this is but an Hypothesis; that is, a kind of Fiction or Supposition that Things were so and so at first, and by the Coherence and Agreement of the Effects with such a Supposition, you would argue and prove that they were really so. This I confess is true, this is the Method, and if we would know any Thing in Nature further than our Senses go, we can know it no otherwise than by an Hypothesis. When Things are either too little for our Senses, or too remote and inaccessible, we have no Way to know the inward Nature, and the Causes of their sensible Properties, but by reasoning upon an Hypothesis. If you would know, for Example, of what Parts Water, or any other Liquor consists, they are too little to be discern’d by the Eye; you must therefore take a Supposition concerning their invisible Figure and Form, and if that agrees and gives the Reason of all their sensible Qualities, you understand the Nature of Water. In like manner, if you would know the Nature of a Comet, or of what Matter the Sun consists, which are Things inaccessible to us, you can do this no otherwise than by an Hypothesis; and if that Hypothesis be easy and intelligible, and answers all the Phænomena of those two Bodies, you have done as much as a Philosopher or as human Reason can do. And this is what we have attempted concerning the Earth and concerning the Deluge. We have laid down an Hypothesis that is easy and perspicuous, consisting of a few things, and those very intelligible, and from this we have given an Account how the old World was destroy’d by a Deluge of Water, and how the Earth came into this present Form, so distinguish’d and interrupted with Sea and Land, Mountains and Valleys, and so broken in the Surface and inward Parts of it.

But to speak the Truth, this Theory is something more than a bare Hypothesis; because we are assured that the general Ground that we go upon is true, namely, That the Earth rose at first from a Chaos; for besides Reason and Antiquity, Scripture it self doth assure us of that; and that one Point being granted, we have deduc’d from it all the rest by a direct Chain of Consequences, which I think cannot be broken easily in any Part or Link of it. Besides, the great Hinge of this Theory, upon which all the rest turns, is the Distinction we make of the antediluvian Earth and Heavens from the Postdiluvian, as to their Form and Constitution. And it will never be beaten out of my Head, but that St. Peter, 2 Epist. chap. iii. 5, 6. hath made the same Distinction sixteen hundred Years since, and to the very same purpose; so that we have sure footing here again, and the Theory riseth above the Character of a bare Hypothesis. And whereas an Hypothesis that is clear and proportion’d to Nature in every Respect, is accounted morally certain, we must in Equity give more than a moral Certitude to this Theory. But I mean this only as to the general Parts of it; for as to Particularities, I look upon them only as problematical, and accordingly I affirm nothing therein but with a Power of Revocation, and a Liberty to change my Opinion when I shall be better inform’d. Neither do I know any Author that hath treated a Matter new, remote, and consisting of a Multitude of Particulars, who would not have had occasion, if he had liv’d to have seen his Hypothesis fully examin’d, to have chang’d his Mind and Manner of explaining Things in many material Instances.

To conclude both this Chapter and this Section, we have here added a Map or Draught of the Earth, according to the natural Face of it, as it would appear from the Moon, if we were a little nearer to her; or as it was at first after the Deluge, before Cities were built, Distinctions of Countries made, or any Alterations by human Industry. ’Tis chiefly to expose more to view the Mountains of the Earth, and the Proportions of Sea and Land; to shew it as it lies in itself, and as a Naturalist ought to conceive and consider it. ’Tis true, there are far more Mountains upon the Earth than what are here represented, for more could not conveniently be plac’d in this narrow Scheme; but the best and most effectual Way of representing the Body of the Earth as it is by Nature, would be, not in plain Tables, but by a rough Globe, expressing all the considerable Inequalities that are upon the Earth. The smooth Globes that we use, do but nourish in us the Conceit of the Earth’s Regularity; and tho’ they may be convenient enough for geographical Purposes, they are not so proper for natural Science, nothing would be more useful in this Respect, than a rough Globe of the largest Dimensions, wherein the Channel of the Sea should be really hollow, as it is in Nature, with all its unequal Depths according to the best Soundings, and the Shores express’d both according to Matter and Form, little Rocks standing where there are Rocks, and Sands and Beaches in the Places where they are found; and all the Islands planted in the Sea-channel in a due Form, and in their solid Dimensions. Then upon the Land should stand all the Ranges of Mountains, in the same Order or Disorder that Nature hath set them there: And the in-land Seas, and great Lakes, or rather the Beds they lie in, should be duly represented; as also the vast Desarts of Sand as they lie upon the Earth. And this being done with Care and due Art, would be a true Epitome, or true Model of our Earth. Where we should see, besides other Instructions, what a rude Lump our World is, which we are so apt to dote upon.