all at last must be resolv'd into Miracle Now how it has come to pass that this draining off the Waters of the Deluge has been so much stuck at I cannot tell The thing it self having I think no difficulty in it Certainly the pores and interstices of 30 or 40. Miles of dry Earth are capable of receiving 3 or 4 Miles of Water into 'em and certainly the same Fissures which permitted the ascent of the Fluids from beneath before would after the ceasing of that force permit the descent of the Waters of the Deluge and by degrees in length of time draw them off and so leave the Earth as it now appears to us For what is in the perpendicular Fissures will sideways run into and saturate by the Horizontal Fissures and other passages all the Neighbouring Earth which if Mr. Keill doubts of let him but make a hole in the Earth and fill it with Water and see whether he do not perceive the Neighbouring parts to be moistened and the hole to be soon empty enough to require a new supply notwithstanding there be no subterraneous Cavern ready to receive it which easy experiment may go a great way to convince Mr. Keill that the removing the Waters of the Deluge is no such insuperable Problem as he seems to suppose it Thus I have gone through the whole Body of the Reflections made by Mr. Keill on my New Theory and hope I have observ'd the Rules which at his desire I at first set my self in this Reply And all that I in my turn shall claim of him in case he think sit to make any Rejoinder is this That he would be careful therein to observe the same Rules himself which he expected from me and be as ready to own any satisfaction I may have given him in any points as to reinforce those Objections he may perhaps not yet be satisfied about And as I shall willingly correct any occasional mistakes whether in other points or in the Mathematicks of my Book a few of which tho' of no ill consequence to the Theory it self I am conscious of if it ever come to a Second Edition So in order thereto I shall heartily thank Mr. Keill or any body else who shall be so kind as by Letter to inform me of any of them I have now done with Mr. Keill's Remarks on my Theory and before we part I shall only desire him to answer plainly to a question or two relating to the matter now in debate between us and shall then take my leave I. Since Mr. Keill grants that a Comet pass'd by at the Deluge and yet contends that the Flood is not to be solv'd therefrom but is to be believ'd wholly miraculous To what purpose did the Comet so providentially pass by just at that time if it had no relation to the Deluge Does Mr. Keill imagine That the same miraculous power which caus'd the Deluge could not also without the attraction of a Comet make the Earth's Orbit Elliptical A strange unheard of and most surprizing Phaenomenon happens in the World A Blazing Star which we but seldom discover at a vast distance in the Heavens descends hard by the body of our Earth which without the greatest exactness in the Chain of Providence does not happen in thousands nay millions of years and as soon as ever 't is pass'd by a wonderful and incredible Deluge of Waters overflows the whole Earth and drowns all its Inhabitants without any other visible or imaginable occasion in the World and yet as it seems the Comet only accidentally pass'd by and had no hand at all in the Deluge Credat Iudaeus Apella 2. How could those effects I have mention'd be avoided upon the passing by of the Comet We are not now in a Cartesian Vortex where fancy and contrivance can introduce or hinder any effect at pleasure But we are in Mechanical and Experimental Philosophy which is an inflexible thing and not at all subject to our inclinations When the Comet therefore was just pass'd by us I desire to know how the Earth could possibly avoid passing through its Atmosphere and Tail If it could not Pray what could prevent the acquiring that Column of Vapours I by computation find would fall on its Surface And if such a Column of Vapours was left on the Earth what could hinder their becoming Water and drowning the Earth I shall not though I easily might carry on the Chain of Queries any longer But if Mr. Keill can fairly Answer me these few leading Questions I shall then believe him alike able to Answer the rest and so I shall not pursue this particular any farther but leave it and this whole matter to his and the Reader 's leisure and consideration Apr. 1. 1698. HAVING thus finished what I had to return to Mr. Keill I shall upon this occasion consider such other material Difficulties and Objections relating to the New Theory as have come to my knowledge any way either in Print or in private Letters concealing still the Names of those who have been so kind as to content themselves with the latter method tho' at the same time it will appear that in many cases the Authors need have been no more ashamed of their Arguments than any of those who have chosen the more publick method and appear'd from the Press against me And I fear not to appeal to the Persons concern'd for the fairness and justness of my proposal of their Objections and that the returns I now make are generally for substance the same which my private Answers contain'd upon the several occasions To go on therefore with the numbers 12. The next Objection is That I have omitted many insuperable difficulties which have been urg'd against the Forming of our present upper Earth from the Sediment of the Dâ—luge In answer whereto for to say nothing that the non-appearance of any Towns Cities Buildings or other Remains of the Antediluvian World is next to a demonstration on my side I must own that I was so incapable of overcoming those insuperable difficulâ—iâ—s that I knew nothing of them and I did not in the least think that what I of my self suppos'd concerning the natural Subsiding of that Sediment and without any prior Dissolution of the Old Earth its composing a new Crust upon it had been once hit upon by any one else before me Now whether there be such insuperable difficulties as to the main strokes of that Hypothesis I ought not to pretend Skill enough in the Phaenomena of the inner Earth positively to determin Dr. Woodward's larger Work ought to be publish'd before one can venture to pronounce too dogmatically in that Point As to my self I see hitherto no reason to change my Belief therein notwithstanding the confidence of this Author Whatever difficulties may appear at the first sight arising it may be from a misunderstanding of several particulars relating thereto and of several circumstances therein to be consider'd yet those numerous Shells Bones
refer to the past Ages and not to the time of the commencing of the Creation to which principally if not solely All Commentators I think refer them it will be to Mr. Keill's purpose but if not here is no valid Objection against this part of the New Theory For as to the word Abyss which was once dark and afterward enlightened I see no reason to restrain it at this time to the Dense Fluid alone whither indeed the Light could not penetrate after it was once intirely and distinctly collected together below the Earth But by it is I think in this place meant all that heterogeneous and hitherto muddy Fluid which was beneath the Earth's future Surface or peculiarly below that place where Adam was to bâ—made and where the Spectator in this historiâ—â—l Journal of the Creation is suppos'd to have 〈◊〉 And I believe there can be no reason to refuse this Interpretation nor consequently to create hence any difficulty against my Hypothesis relating to this matter What comes to be next consider'd is this 2. If we proceed Mechanically and Gradually in the Formation of a Planet from a Comet 's Atmosphere we must allow the whole Subsidence to be as leisurely and to proceed by the same steps that the violence of its Heat decreases which will then be compleated not in six Days or single Years but scarcely in as many Centuries and the Opake parts will take so much time in descending and composing the Crust of Earth that the Sun might always as freely almost penetrate the Upper Regions of the Atmosphere at least if not farther as it does the whole Atmospheres of Comets while they are within our Observation Now in Answer to this which I own to be an Argument of Good force and to deserve Consideration I say That if we found from the Phaenomena of Comets in their descent towards the Sun after their long Periods to cool and settle in since their last Perihelia that they had no Atmospheres but that the Masses which formerly compos'd 'em were subsided and become like the Surface of Planets then indeed this Reasoning were unavoidable Tho' even in that case this would only enforce a still larger Interpretation of the Days of Creation than I allow without any farther harm to the rest of the Theory But seeing the contrary is evident from Astronomical Observations this cannot affect my Hypothesis It must indeed from hence I think follow that all the same Laws Properties and Operations of Bodies which we find establish'd here on Earth do not so universally obtain in the Atmospheres of Comets which I confess the consideration of their Phaenomena has always oblig'd me to believe and which any one who reads a Page or two may easily see I was aware of when I wrote my Theory The Introduction of the particular Laws Powers and Properties of Bodies with us that of Universal Gravity ever excepted being in my Opinion there explain'd the Immediate effect of the Spirit of God who is said to have moved on the face of the Waters at the very beginning of the Mosaick Creation And so much I hope may suffice to shew the inconsequence of this Argument and that my Answer is no present Evasion of an emergent Difficulty but my setled Thoughts ever since I wrote the New Theory And the consideration of this matter will afford a like Answer to what is with some shew of Strength urg'd in the next place 3. If the Sand Stones and Gravel of our Earth were formerly in the Atmosphere of a Comet which is once in every Revolution prodigiously scorch'd by the nearness of the Sun they must formerly have been melted become transparent and been turn'd into Glass because such is now the natural Effect of a violent degree of Heat with us in the like case I answer But then as we have just now observ'd we can't universally reason from the State and Phaenomena of a Planet after its Formation to the Chaotick Condition it was in before Tho' in truth we do not need this Answer in the present Case For neither is it certain that because such gross and compounded Bodies on Liquefaction become Glass that therefore their first elementary Atoms or primary Dust scatter'd separately in the vastness of the Atmosphere would then have been subject to the same Mutation Nor if that were granted does Mr. Keill know that either our Earth or the Comet that came by at the Flood was one of those which approach so near the Sun as that the Effects he mentions must be unavoidable in them tho' they should be so in others whose Perihelia expose them to the utmost degree of Scorching imaginable But to proceed 4. 'T is Objected that there is no need of a Central hot Solid to solve the Origin of Springs and such other Phaenomena of Nature they being better accounted for by other means nor if there were a Central hot Solid could its Heat be here sensible because the Heat of a very vehement Fire can't penetrate a stone Wall of a few Feet in thickness Now as to the Reality of an internal Heat below the influence of the Sun in the Bowels of the Earth 't is undeniable matter of fact and must be accounted for whatever become of the Origin of Springs or the like Phaenomena and so it may be needful to admit a hot Central Solid even tho' such Effects as I with Dr. Woodward am willing to ascribe to an Heat should be deducible from other causes Tho' truly I don't think that account Mr. Keill refers to here of the Origin of Fountains so universal as to stand in no need of subterranean Vapours For which tho' I believe I can give good reasons yet I don't think it at all necessary at present to engage in so long and somewhat foreign a Controversy But then as to the confinement of heat by a Wall of no great thickness 't is a very different case from our Earth whâ—re the Heat ever ascending upwards has first a Fluid to heat which when hot in one place will thereby be heated throughout and after that has a crust of Earth somewhat loosely put together and multitudes of Perpendicular Fissures quite through it with other pores and horizontal Fissures to permit the passage of the warm Steams to the upper Regions Besides all which the Heat is not merely deriv'd anew from the Central Solid but has been by its means ever preserv'd since it self was deriv'd from the Sun at the ancient Perihelia All which circumstances do so much alter the case that if Mr. Keill had been aware of them I hardly suppose he would have much insisted on this as a mighty difficulty in my Book We are now come to the principal doubt of all which relates to my Interpretation of this Fourth day's Work so as to exclude the Original Creation of the heavenly Bodies at that time Wherein Mr. Keill thinks I have not exactly observ'd my own First Postulatum
the happiness of that particular Spot where alone the living part of the Creation was to reside as on consideration will easily appear Thus for instance the heat of the day-time would gradually increase before and decrease after noon but yet would never be violent because almost all the increase of the Heat by the Sun 's rising above the Horizon still higher and higher in the Forenoon or Spring would be prevented by his real receding from the Earth and approaching nearer his Apegseon during the same time vice versâ in the Afternoon or Summer which would render the state of the Air more equable and uniform and less uneasy or inconvenient than any other method whatsoever Thus also not only the Cold of the Night which by our then being nearest the Sun would be inconsiderable but the Duration and Darkness thereof two very severe and frightful Phaenomena in my former Hypothesis would be entirely avoided For the whole Night would then bear no more proportion to the entire 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 than in the Ellipsis the Area p B q bears to the whole Area H B G F Suppose the Proportion of 1 to 6 which will amount to no more than two Months Out of which Night-time we must deduct the two Crepuscula each of about half a Month which reduces now the Darkness of the Night to a single Month Out of which another half Month is to be still deducted for the Moon 's being above the Horizon and enlightening the Earth So that at last if the Moon 's Crepuscula be at all allow'd for we shall scarce have a single Week of pure Darkness in the whole Year Which Hypothesis does at the first View so fully take off the popular Objections made against me and affords so easy and natural a Solution of the Difficulties urg'd by Mr. Keill besides its peculiar Fitness to render the primary Animals and particularly our first Parents happy and their state to the utmost degree Paradisiacal that I shall add no more in confirmation of it but leave it to Mr. Keill's and the Intelligent Readers own Consideration Only before I pass on I cannot but take notice of a great mistake of Mr. Keill's about the quantity of Heat in the primitive Earth from my Hypothesis which he reckons some hundred of times as great as in the present State which I am sure must be a plain Error and all its Consequences which he from thence draws against me without any foundation The Heat then for the light half year being but the same quantity of Heat all at once which now at times and with interruptions we are partakers of Which may deserve Mr. Keill's consideration and correction We are now come to the principal Part of my Theory the Account of the Deluge of Noah against which 't is objected by Mr. Keill 7. That the Presence of a Comet tho' it would cause considerable Tides in the Seas above yet it could not in the Abyss below the Earth because this latter is pent in and closely shut up within a thick and solid Crust of Earth and has therefore no room to raise it self as the Waters of the Seas have Now in answer to this I wonder how Mr. Keill comes to imagin the Orb of Earth to be so compact and solid a Sphere as to be able to overcome the great Impulse which on the Comet 's approach the Abyss would make upon it In my Hypothesis I am sure it had only the Consistence of adjoining Columns sinking down together into the same Fluid and that extreamly broken divided and shatter'd at the commencing of the Diurnal Rotation when great Numbers of Clefts and Fissures were every-where made through it and the Orb by consequence dispos'd to a division and separation of Parts upon any considerable Impulse whatsoever One might almost as well assert that a Floor of disjoined Planks laid cross the Thames without any fastness on either side could sustain the force of the Tide and prevent its Ascent as that our Crust of Earth so cleft and disjoined as it was should be able to sustain the force of the Tide in the Abyss and prevent its Ascent and those Effects which would be consequent thereupon 8. 'T is objected that the Expanded Vapors deriv'd from the Comet would by passing through the Air and its resistence at their first descent be all turn'd into Water and so tho' this may at once drown the World yet it will not account for the long Rains of forty Days to which the Deluge of Noah was principally owing Now in answer to this I say That tho' much the greatest part of the Vapors should have been at first turn'd into Water and so continued yet 't is hard that Mr. Keill will not allow many of them to escape the same enow at least to make a constant Rain for forty days together I am sure 't is to me strange that so thin a Body as our Air lying in so small a compass about the Earth as the height of not very many Miles for much higher 't is so very thin as to be perfectly inconsiderable should have the good luck to stop arrest and condense all and every part of so immense and swift a descending Column of Vapors as we have here to be consider'd But besides not to question whether Mr. Keill's method of reducing Vapors into Rain-water be universal or not Let it be granted that these hot Vapors were at their first descent forc'd together yet till that quantity of Heat which caus'd and continued their degree of Expansion in the Comet 's Atmosphere or Tail were mightily diminish'd and they become as cool as Vapors turning into Water with us till then I say whatsoever their first violent Motion might on the sudden produce yet their own proper Heat would immediately rarify 'em again and so elevate 'em to a proportionable height in the Air and capacitate them to produce that continual forty days Rain which appears to have had so great a share in the Universal Deluge 9. 'T is objected That tho' a persorated Cylinder of Stone or Marble pressing upon Water in an exactly equal Cylindrical Vessel under it would thereby force it or any lighter Fluid on its Surface through the holes upwards yet the Pressure of the Additional Waters upon the Crust of Earth could not cause the Eruption of the Dense Fluid or of any Waters lying upon it in the Bowels of the Earth on several accounts particularly because in the first ase the Cylinder is specifically heavier than Water but in the second the Orb of Earth is lighter than the Dense Fluid under it which Mr. Keill supposes does wholly alter the case Now in answer to this I say If Mr. Keill desire it I will put a Cylinder of Wood which is lighter than Water instead of one of Stone or Marble which is heavier and I do not doubt of the truth of the Experiment in this case if that will afford him
satisfaction But indeed I perceive by all Mr. Keill's Reasoning here that he mistakes my Notion and that 't is but setting him right in this and all his difficulties will vanish of their own accord I say then and I am sure Mr. Keill can't contradict it that a lighter Solid will as truly press a Fluid heavier than it self till it is sunk so deep as the known Law of Hydrostaticks requires as a solid that is Specifically heavier And if by its closeness of texture and want of room about it it be hindred from really descending so far it will continually press the Fluid and force it upwards or any way where there are any Holes and Fissures without an equal degree of pressure upon them And this certainly is the present Case Suppose the Columns of Earth at the beginning were 200 Miles in Depth in the whole and taken together but half so Dense as the Fluid on which they rely'd Then at the Mosaick Creation when the Strata of the Columns were not yet consolidated but every where previous to the Fluid the several Columns would as Mr. Keill well knows sink 100 Miles into the Fluid and the other 100 Miles would be extant above it If now after the Consolidation of the Strata when the Orb can't sink freely as before a New addition be made at the top of each Column whether of lighter or heavier matter 't is all one equal in weight to two Miles of the same Column which is just the case of the Deluge In this state 't is evident that the pressure of two intire Miles of each Column being so prodigiously great must squeeze the Fluid upward through the Fissures which were just open'd and fill'd with Water to the height of perhaps 60 or 70 Miles from the Neighbouring Earth Satur'd with the same and thereby throw out the incumbent Water and perhaps it self upon the Face of the Earth And this the more easily because the pressure was from the Water which would lie chiefly in the Valleys whilst the Fissures were mostly in the Mountains and so above the Surface of the Cortex which otherwise by running into them would a little stop the upward current and retard the motion of the ascending Waters Which things being I think undeniably true and plainly express'd in my Book I must be a little surpriz'd that one so well Vers'd in Hydrostaticks as Mr. Keill should be so perplex'd in this matter All Mr. Keill's Demonstrations suppose either that not the Water on the Earth but in the Fissures did contribute to raising the Fluid through them which I could not be so childish as to imagine Or that the several Columns of Earth had free liberty and could subside as far as occasion should be which I have in my Book as well as here shew'd they could not Or that a pressure from a Column specifically heavier than the Fluid is necessary to raise it upward when 't is evidently all one though it be lighter So that upon the whole I think Mr. Keill might have spar'd those peremptory words which he uses in this point From all this it is demonstratively evident that by no sort of pressure of the Incumbent Fluid the Abyss could be forced upwards to spread it self on the Surface of the Earth Which I hope on farther consideration he will think fit to retract 10. 'T is Objected That whereas I derive at least half the Waters of the Deluge from the Bowels of the Earth this is impossible because there can be no Sphere or Collection of Waters between the Earth and the dense Fluid which is the only place besides in Mr. Keill's Opinion the Fissures themselves capable of containing the same In Answer whereto I cannot but say 't is strange Mr. Keill should look for Subterraneous Waters every where else but where I always plac'd 'em in the pores and cavities of all the lower Earth And I imagine Mr. Keill himself will not deny that 60 or 70 Miles together of the inward Earth satur'd and full with Water might afford much more than we have occasion for at the Deluge and so might easily supply the Fissures in a constant drein for 5 Months together with enough to go more than half way in the laying the Surface of the whole Earth under Water However since we know not nor did I ever directly assign in what proportion the two several causes of the Deluge contributed their shares thereto my Theory is not concern'd though no more Water was thrown out upon the Earth than fill'd the Fissures as high as the Earth was satur'd with Water at the Mosaick Creation which Quantity even Mr. Keill seems not unwilling to allow me As to the Dense Fluid it self and whether the force were great enough any where to cast any quantity thereof out upon the Earth I know not how to determine Though so far I am sure that vast quantities of it might have been on the Earth without any of its appearing now above ground which is Mr. Keill's Objection in this case For unless there was more than Satur'd and perhaps Consolidated with the Sediment of the Waters which now as Mr. Keill will grant composes at least two or three hundred Feet thickness of our present Earth I am sure we are not on account of their mighty gravity bearing 'em to the bottom of the whole Fluid to expect any remains of it in the Seas or Ocean no nor in any Pits Holes or Valleys upon the present Earth And here Mr. Keill is so kind as to afford me a breathing time and to grant so many of my solutions to be right at once namely all those relating to Dr. Woodward's Essay and the Sediment of the Deluge that I cannot but own my real Joy on this occasion That the force of my reasoning should here prove so strong as to satisfy even Mr. Keill who seems so little to acquiesce in many other of my Arguments in that intire point of which I must grant my self from any enquiries of my own to be the least Master of all other in my Book And truly I must say that I think Mr. Keill by confessing that I have convincingly enough prov'd that a Comet pass'd by the Earth at the Deluge and that All Dr. Woodward's Phaenomena are rightly accounted for by that easy Hypothesis I took concerning them By these concessions I say I believe Mr. Keill has done more to establish my Book than all his Objections will avail to reject it And himself is therefore much more my Friend and Patron than he ever intended to have been by these Remarks on my Theory But to leave this Digression and proceed to the. 11. And Last Objection which is this That though I can easily fetch as much Water as I have occasion for upon the Earth to drown it yet I have no way to get handsomly rid of it again and consequently my solutions of the Phaenomena of the universal Deluge come to nothing and
of Noah and the Ark In that Hemisphere of the Earth which escap'd the primary descent of the Vapors and so let 'em have been never so hot would be cool'd e're they became Rain I pray what harm could a Comet tho' 10 times as hot as the Earth which yet is too great a heat in the descent to the Sun at the distance of at least 30000 miles do to it For tho' the Comet which Mr. Newton mentions were heated prodigiously and would not cool in a very long time yet this revolving in such an Orbit as my Figure supposes sustaining but the 60th part of the heat and revolving if the Trajectories were similar not under 20 times the period of the other is not liable to the same computations or ought to occasion the same difficulties which if the other had come by in its room might justly have been alledg'd against me 20. 'T is Objected with great shew of strength that the different attractions of the Earth and Moon must separate 'em farther than before and thereby at once alter the species of the Orbit of the Moon and its periodical time also on the continuance of which last so much depends for at the Comets approach it would before it came at either of 'em draw 'em asunder and accelerate 'em differently and after it was past 'em it would do the same by reason of the different distances of the one and the other to the Comet and by reason of the proportional attraction of the one commencing before that of the other In Answer to this difficulty which deserves a careful consideration I deny that any such eccentricity or difference of periodical time in the Moon would follow For as the acceleration of the Earth commenc'd before that of the Moon so also did its retardation and as while the Comet was above or below 'em both it would separate them so while it was between 'em it would draw 'em together Besides in general I demonstrate the whole thing thus The Earth and the Moon had equal velocity and a right position before And the velocity and position were equally increas'd or affected alike by the Comet as from the like position of these two Bodies in a System revolving about their Common Center of Gravity and from the equal approach and acceleration of the Comet to 'em both is plain And consequently their old Position and common Revolutions would still remain So that when the Moon 's Eccentricity could be no other way caus'd by the Comet than I conjectur'd in which the Period of the Moon would still be preserv'd all these fears may be at an end Tho' I heartily thank this Objector for putting me upon clearing so substantial a point in which the main of the New Theory was so deeply concern'd 21. That our Earth should have been once a Comet seems not probable because in all past History no other Comet has been observ'd to stop and become a Planet which one would imagine should now and then have happen'd since the Mosaick Creation For Answer to which I say That as the Earth is inconsiderable in comparison of the Universe or the Solar System so I believe is 6000 or 7000 years the Period I suppose of its duration much more about 2000 years the reach of our Astronomical Histories to the Duration of the whole System So that tho' we have no other Example of an Earth form'd from a Comet yet this is no great difficulty in the Case I believe Worlds are not form'd every Age nor perhaps every thousandth Age neither 22. Why should not the Comet to which I ascribe the Deluge have been seen many days before it approach'd the Earth since 't was in opposition to the Sun In Answer to which I say That if it were seen as perhaps it was and so the memory of the Flood 's happening upon it preserv'd which one of my Solutions will easily permit any one to suppose yet because its nearest approach was indiscernible to those who Surviv'd and because withal 't was not then imaginable that a blazing Star could drown the World or indeed could approach the Earth at all 't is not to be expected that any Ancient History should ascribe the Flood to it 23. 'T is Objected That whereas I assert that the point B. or place of the Comet 's passing by the Earth by reason of the prevalence of the outward attraction over the inward must have been five six or seven degrees after the place of the Perihelion on the contrary by the nearness of the inward attraction downward immediately after the passing by of the Comet so far as to over-balance the longer time of the outward attraction the point B. ought rather to be as far before the Perihelion and that by consequence one of my greatest coincidences is gone and my superstructure all precarious and false In Answer to which I must ingenuously own that this is so far true as to take away the distance between the point B and the Perihelion which I before assign'd upon a general view and before any trial by computation Nay I must farther own that the above-mention'd inward attraction by reason of its nearness does over-ballance the longer time of the outward and so the point B. must be rather on the other side of the Perihelion But then I must say 't is on Calculation so small as is wholly inconsiderable and the point B and the Perihelion coincident which being thus granted unless we can find the motion of the Perihelion to have been slower than Mr. Flamstead's Table which I alone mention'd before allows this will be a shrew'd difficulty in the present case and destroy one of the best Foundations of the New Theory Now in this Enquiry I find that Mr. Newton's computation à priori corrected allows but 53â…“ degrees to the motion of the Perihelion since the Deluge That Mr. Street's Tables are very nearly for the same number viz. 53 10 11 Nay that Tycho's Tables allow only 50½ so that if we take a mean 51½ this will bring the Perihelion at the Deluge to the very day the 17th degree of Taurus and the 17th day of the second Month. Which last computation of Tycho's as it was that I first observ'd so now I finding it so near the exactest computations of others I acquiesce in one very near it and am not displeasâ—d that by means of this coincidence the very day of the beginning of the Deluge may almost be assign'd already and when the Perihelion's motion is better fix'd may perhaps be Perfectly so to the still greater confirmation of all those coincidences which of themselves have appear'd so remarkable in the case APPENDIX UPON this Occasion I think 't is proper to own and correct a mistake in the New Theory where the Axis of a Cone is affirmed to pass through the Focus of the Ellipsis generated thereon which mistake as I am now satisfy'd it is tho'
A VINDICATION OF THE New Theâ—ry of the Earth FROM THE EXCEPTIONS OF Mr. KEILL and Others WITH An HISTORICAL PREFACE of the Occasions of the Discoveries therein contain'd and some Corrections and Additions LONDON Printed for Benj. Tooke at the Middle-Temple-Gate in Fleetstreet 1698. PREFACE IT may not perhaps for some Reasons be improper in it self or unacceptable to the Reader to have a short History of the Occasions and Methods of the discovery of the several Particulars in the New Theory and to see by what steps I proceeded in that matter that at once I may claim to my self what Interest or Right I really had in the same and it may appear how far and in what manner any other Persons or Opportunities were concern'd therein and at the same time the Reader may perceive how little Affinity there is between a bare Hypothesis the product only of the Wit and Skill of the Inventor and the several Branches of a Theory in which the foregoing Qualifications were not necessary and so can or ought to be very little consider'd therein To wave therefore any more words by way of Introduction I shall come to that Account it self which is the single Subject of this Preface The Reader is therefore to know that ever since I saw the University and began to rellish the New Philosophy I mean particularly the Cartesian togegether with some other later discoveries of a more solid nature I withal fell into an exceeding liking of the main part of Dr. Burnet's Theory of the Earth and thought my self never more pleas'd than in a repeated perusal of so ingenious and remarkable a Book Insomuch that upon my being to perform the accustomed Exercise in the Schools for my first degree one of my Positions was in Vindication of the same This good liking continued with me a great while after till my deeper researches into Mechanical Philosophy and the Discoveries contain'd in Mr. Newton's wonderful Book began to convince me of the Indefensibleness of many of the particulars and that the whole Scheme as it then lay could not be justify'd by the Principles of sound Philosophy nor did it upon better consideration agree with the accounts in the Holy Scriptures Yet still several of the particulars especially the Perpetual Equinox before the Flood and the Situation of the Earth upon a Fluid Abyss seem'd very reasonable and very agreeable to the Accounts Sacred and Profane of those ancient Ages of the World And as I have never yet found reason to alter my Opinion about the latter when duly stated so I was in great perplexity how to believe the former since I found the way of changing the Position of the Earth's Axis in Dr. Burnet by the Laws of Mechanism plainly impossible on which yet â—he before mention'd Opinion did in great measure depend In this doubtfulness of Mind a Thought came into my head since which I believe 't is now at the least five or six Years That from Mr. Newton's Discoveries 't was certain that a Comet might pass near the Earth and that also in case it pass'd near enough and in a certain trajectory it might alter the Position of the Earth's Axis as now the Sun does backward and forward every year tho' this be a thing only known to those who have made some progress in Mr. Newton's Book and not here to be explain'd for every Reader I thought it therefore worth my while after a long time to try whether by this means if a Comet in the most advantagious manner possible came near the Earth at the Deluge the Earth's Axis could be thereby chang'd from a Parallelism to that of the Ecliptick to the Obliquity of 23½ Degrees which it has had ever since that time This calculation I try'd about November or December 1694. But could by no means perceive that the hundredth part of the present Obliquity was by any such Method to be accounted for Which occasion'd therefore my laying aside that Hypothesis I had so long before been fond of and desirous to establish and permitted my Thoughts a greater freedom about the occasions of the Deluge than Dr. Burnet's Notions had allow'd me before Not long after this considering the Nature of Comets and viewing sometimes Mr. Newton's Scheme of the last famous one among us which my self could easily remember in 1680 and 1681. A Thought came into my mind which in discourse I mention'd to a very Learned Friend that 't was possible the Tail of a Comet might afford Water at the Deluge and that the confused Mass of Air and irregular Steams from the Comet 's Atmosphere or Tail might afford a fair Solution of that Phaenomenon I had been so desirous of the Perpetual Equinox to account for before I mean the unhealthy state of our Air and Earth at present and the effect thereof the shortning of Mens lives ever since the Deluge These were my first and crude thoughts of this matter which tho' the particulars were but ill adjusted and uncertain yet gave me an eagerness of considering the matter farther and occasion'd all the subsequent discoveries which are contain'd in the New Theory And truly upon a little farther consideration now the hint was once given I soon found that a great many of the Phaenomena of Nature and of the Deluge did of their own accord fall in with my Notion and that if on its Original Formation the Inward constitution of the Earth were suppos'd a Fluid as I had long done tho' on no good consideration of the nature of that Fluid and if withal the Inequality of the Earth's Surface at first which Dr. Burnet positively deny'd could be Mechanically accounted for I then imagin'd I could go a great way in a new Hypothesis of the Mosaick Creation and the Deluge At which time about Easter 1695 Dr. Woodward's Essay was made publick and read by me with a great deal of eagerness and sollicitude to see whether the History of the Phaenomena of the Inward parts of the Earth would accord with or contradict those Notions I began to entertain about the Points before-mention'd And as a little before I had observ'd that 't was highly reasonable to suppose a Fluid nearer the Center of the Earth to be heavier than those upon its Surface yea than that Orb of Earth which was above it so as I was reading Dr. Woodward's Essay That Axiom also in Hydrostaticks that Bodies according to their different specifick Gravities will sink into Fluids in a different proportions and so be extant in different degrees came into my thoughts upon what occasion I know not and together eas'd me to my no small satisfaction of the Difficulties which before stopp'd my progress in that Hypothesis my Thoughts were so busy upon Having now got the main strokes of the New Theory so far as concern'd the particular Phaenomena of the Deluge at least in my mind and not finding the Observations in Dr. Woodward's Essay wholly disagreeable to the same I began to write
e're long be demonstrated that days are only in two places of the Scripture denominated by Evening Mornings the one here and the other in Daniel and that 't is evident in the latter they signify years will not be averse from believing the former to denote the same also Besides I have already deny'd that all words of time are us'd wholly promiscuously in Scripture and am confident the contrary is not to be prov'd therefrom But as to the prophane Testimonies those who can give a rational account of 'em will never slight ' em And whatever is here in the general said I refer my self to the considering Reader whether I have not demonstrated those Ancient Philosophers to agree better to mine than to Dr. Burnet's Hypothesis But instead of a farther Answer here I shall add another confirmation of the same nature which since my Book was publish'd was discover'd by a Friend and communicated to me which I must own to be a much more remarkable Testimony than any of those I formerly insisted on which therefore I shall recommend to the Reader 's consideration and 't is this 'T was the Assertion of Empedocles That in the Primitive Constitution of things the Day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by reason of the slowness of the Sun's course was equal to Ten Months Which if we allow either to refer to the time when the Civil year as the Roman before Numa Pompilius had but 10 Months or to the day time alone I mean the space of the Sun 's being above the Horizon which is a common acceptation of the Word Day accords so exactly with my Hypothesis as it stands at present that nothing can do more so and coming so late so unexpected and yet so intirely home to our point is justly I think to be look'd on as decretory in the present case 15. 'T is said I have not ground enough to suppose a double course of Rain at the Deluge This is a matter of small consequence for as I with others think the double course much the most agreeable to the Sacred History and have accordingly accounted for it so in case it were not so no great harm would accrue to the rest of my Theory for as if the Comet 's Orb was exactly in the plain of the Ecliptick the Earth would fall a second time into it unless its Tail was very short so if either of those circumstances were otherwise which we can only determine from the effects there could be no second course of Rain upon my Hypothesis All which is said more with regard to others notions than my own for I confess I see no manner of reason to recede in this point from what I have said already in the New Theory 16. 'T is said that by supposing Seas without Clouds before the Flood I contradict the known Phaenomena of nature for when Vapors and Steams are rais'd they must necessarily gather into Clouds as they do at present But sure this is too hasty a Conclusion and if the Moon has Seas as is generally allow'd 't is contrary to the known appearances of that Planet to say nothing of any of the others And certainly the long spaces at some times and in some Regions which are without Clouds even in our present state of things when yet vast quantities of Vapors continue in the Air are sufficient Answers to this Argument 'T is I think the Wind and the irregular Condensation and descent of the superior and inferior Vapors which occasion those thick Masses in the Air we call Clouds and those showers consequent thereupon and not any thing belonging to the Antediluvian Earth 17. 'T is Objected with great shew of accuracy that in 40 days or 96 day but a very small quantity of Vapors 4000 times as rare as our Air could descend within which spaces yet the Rains at the Deluge must be confin'd for as Vapors now condense and fall about a mile in six hours when they compose the dew so vapours 4000 times rarer would be 4000 times as long before they would descend so that every Mile of the Comet 's Vapor at least that of the Tail must be 1000 days or almost 3 years in condensing into rain and so by consequence 750000 Miles of this Vapor must be almost three times 750000 years before it be all condens'd and fallen upon the Earth Now in Answer to this I say Here is a gross mistake that every Mile of the Comet 's Vapors must have a distinct time of condensing and descending As they all fell at once upon the Earth at first so those of the same degree of rareness would generally be condens'd and descend at once upon the Earth in rain afterwards And as the Vapors being of several degrees of rareness and subject to various chances would successively descend and cause continual Rains so I think the spaces of 40 and of 96 days sufficient to confine the last of 'em respectively The Altitude and where the Air is 4000 times as rare as with us and whence by consequence the highest would descend from is not so many Miles as one would imagine as the Torricellian Tube by its different height at the foot and top of Mountains assures us nor indeed any other than very well agrees with the 40 and 96 days of descent which are necessary in the present case as on a fair Calculation will I believe easily appear tho' 't is so impossible to state all the points relating to this matter very nicely that I think it hardly worth while to set about it since the general consideration hereof does so wholly take off the force of the present Objection 18. 'T is said that because the bodies of Comets appear much less in their Perihelia than before 't is probable their Tales are Smoak and not Vapor and that the Earth of the Comets was by the Sun's heat evaporated and composed the Tail Now truly this is to me News that the Central Body of a Comet grows much less at the Perihelion 'T is true the Atmosphere becomes somewhat less at that time which is a natural effect of the rarefaction of part of it into the Tail But Smoak is an Earthly Substance not to be rarifi'd or elevated in any proportion with Vapors and indeed when I see showers of Dust or Smoak as common as those of Rain I may be tempted to doubt of this point but hardly before especially if we regard the Tail in its descent from the cold Regions which must certainly be Vapor till the violence of the heat in the Perihelion doth mix other Earthly Bodies therewith Tho' if much Smoak were among the Vapors I see not what great harm would ensue to my Hypothesis thereby 19. 'T is said Noah and the Ark must have been scorch'd or burnt by the heat of the Comet and its Atmosphere if they came as near as my Hypothesis requires To omit here the place
Observations hereafter I refer the Reader 'T is perhaps worth our Enquiry whether most mens Notions of the time for the abating of the Waters of the Deluge be not very precarious at least if not wholly mistaken 'T is the general Opinion taken from the Mosaick History of the Flood that the Waters were wholly subsided and the Earth laid as dry in a manner as 't is at present by that time Noah came out of the Ark or in the Space of about a Year from the beginning of the Flood 'T is true Moses says that on the seventeenth Day of the seventh Month the Waters were abated and the Ark rested on the Mountains of Ararat That on the first Day of the tenth Month the tops of the Mountains were seen That on the first Day of the next Year the Waters were dried up from off the Earth And then lastly That on the twenty-seventh Day of the second Month was the Earth dried and Noah call'd out of the Ark. But all this may be very true and yet vast quantities of the Waters of the Deluge might at the same time remain on the face of the Earth And as the present Ocean may be still part of the same so the rest of them might require a hundred or two hundred Years before they arriv'd at or near to their present subsidence and condition And this I think is the truth of the case and is so far from contradicting the Sacred History that it may be establish'd by an Observation or two from thence as well as by the present Phaenomena of Nature As to the Sacred History of Moses 't is first evident that the Mountainous Regions about Ararat or Caucasus especially since they were from my Hypothesis particularly Elevated above the rest might be wholly clear of the Waters in a year's time and yet the lower Plains and Valleys in a very different Case and still to a great depth under the Water And 't is as evident 2ly That we have no authentick Account of the lower Plains being become dry and habitable even in Regions more elevated than many others I mean about the middle Parts of our Continent till the Building of Babel the Confusion of Languages and the Dispersion of the Nations over the Earth none of which happen'd before the Second Century from the Deluge in the days of Peleg And then as to the present Phaenomena of Nature I think they determin the Question before us and sufficiently demonstrate the longer abode of the Waters of the Deluge upon the Earth than is commonly allow'd For as many Maritime Countreys which I have already observ'd and others have noted the same do by their remarkably even and smooth Surface shew they have been made so in length of time by the motion of the Sea which now lays the Sands in the same manner So does the Consideration of the Nature and Position of the Strata of the Earth in some places now fully confirm the same Observation Near my Habitation at present upon the Sea-coast there is a pretty high and remarkable Cliff at the least twenty Foot above the Surface of the Ocean adjoining and yet 't is to the very top Stratum of all almost as evidently the Product of the Waters laying Heaps Strata and Beds of Sand and Chingle as that very Shore on which we stand and which is daily made and remov'd by the Tides and Waves of the present Ocean And as I do not doubt from the always equal height of the Ocean every-where that 't is frequently thus in other places also so this is I think a plain Evidence that the Ocean has been at least 20 Foot higher than 't is now and that for a long time together sufficient I mean to heap up such mighty Beds of Sand and Chingle as the present observation does require Which of it self is at once a demonstration that all the lower Regions near the Sea have formerly been drown'd and layn under water And at the same time does fully confirm that length of time which I assert was taken up in the intire subsidence of the Waters of the Deluge In this place I cannot but propose a Conjecture I have for some time had in my mind about the Peopling of China which I think may deserve to be consider'd and 't is This. That the Chinese are the Offspring of Noah himself after the Flood and not deriv'd from any of his other posterity Shem Ham or Iaphet as the inhabitants of the rest of the World are This Conjecture depends on the following Reasons 1. The account of the Posterity of Shem Ham and Iaphet and of their dispersion gives no hint of any that went so far East as China as I think is plain from the best expositions of the 10th of Genesis where that matter is chiefly treated of 2. Since the dispersion of the Posterity of Shem Ham and Iaphet appears to have begun about Babylon a Countrey so remote as China could not be so soon reach'd and peopled as the prodigious Numbers of its Inhabitants at present shew it to have been The nearest regions must have been first and most fully peopled and the remoter not till Men were increas'd sufficiently to require new Habitations and accordingly it has happen'd in the Countries of Europe Africa and the Western parts of Asia to which I suppose the dispersion begun at Babel is confin'd But this is a sufficient proof that so very large and prodigiously populous a Country as China could not be of so late an Original as it must be in case the Chinese are deriv'd from this dispersion 3. The Sacred History soon after the Flood confines it self within the then known World which I think did not include China no more than America and which is stil'd the whole Earth very often in Scripture and at the same time says not a word of the great Father of the whole Race of Mankind Noah excepting the number of years he Liv'd Now this is I think a kind of intimation that Noah had no share in the Actions related in the Sacred History and so by a fair consequence was probably plac'd in China a region out of the compass of the then known World 4. 'T is otherwise strange that whereas Caucasus the resting-place of the Ark was so near the middle of our Continent no footsteps should remain of any Colonies sent Eastward but all Mankind should take one course and place themselves in the Western Regions alone and this at the same time that no reason can be given why the Western Countreys should be more inviting to them than the Eastern since the latter certainly have been as valuable and pleasant to the past and present Ages as the former 5. The Chinese Language and Writing are so intirely different from those with us which the confusion at Babel introduc'd and are at so vast a distance from them that I think they cannot well be deriv'd from thence nor from