The formation o f the earth affords a wide field for fpecula-
tion ; and, accordingly, many ingenious theories have been conceived
to explain the various appearances which its furface exhibits.
T he beft modern naturalifts feem, however, to agree,
that water has been one o f the principal agents to produce thefe
effeCts. The great Linnseus, whofe penetrating mind pervaded
the whole empire o f nature, after many and laborious enquiries,
acquiefced in the truth o f the facred writings, that the whole
globe o f the earth was, at fome period o f time, fubmerfed in water,
and covered with the vaft ocean, until in the lapfe
o f time one little ifland appeared in this immenfe fea,
which ifland muft have been o f courfe the higheft mountain
upon the furface o f the earth. In fupport o f his hypo-
thefis, he adduces a number o f facts, many o f which have fallen
within his own observation, o f the progreffive retreat o f the
fea, the diminution o f fprings and rivers, and the neceflary increment
o f land. Among the moil remarkable o f thefe are
the obfervations made by the inhabitants o f Northern Bothnia
upon the rooks on the fea coaft, from whence it appeared that,
in the courfe o f a century, the fea had fubfided more than four
fe e t ; fo that fix thoufand years ago, fuppofing the rate o f retiring
to have been the fame, the fea was higher than at prefent
by two hundred and forty feet. Such great- and fenfible depref-
fion o f the water o f the fea muft, however, have been only local;
otherwife, as I have elfewhere obferved, the Red Sea and the
Mediterranean would have joined1 w ithin the period o f hiftory.
The fea, it is true, in fome parts o f the world; gains upon the
land, and in others the land upon the fea-, but thefe effects arife
from a different caufe to that which is fuppofed to produce a general
neral retreat. It is true, alfo, that in the neighbourhood o f
mountains and great rivers, very material changes have taken
placé in the courfe o f a few ages. The fragments o f the
former, worn away by the alternate aCtion o f the fun and rains-,,
are borne down by the torrents o f the latter, and depofited in
the eddies formed by the two banks o f the rivers where they
join the fea, producing thus alluvious land as, for example, the.
Delta o f Egypt, which has gradually been depofited out o f the
foil o f Abyflinia and Upper E g yp t; the plains o f the northern
parts o f China, which have been formed out o f the mountains
©fTartary; and thofe o f India-from the Thebetian mountains,
and the other high lands to the northward and weftward o f the
peninfula. As, however, a much greater proportion o f the fragments
borne down by rivers muft be depofited in the bofom
©f the deep than on its fhores, the fea b y this confiant and effective
operation ought rather to advance than to retreat. We may
therefore, perhaps, conclude that, whatever the changes may.
have been which the furface o f the earth has undergone, with
regard to the proportion and the pofttion o f land and water, the
appearances we now behold in various parts o f the globe can
only be explained by fuppofing. fome temporary and preternatural
caufe, or elfe by affhming an incalculable period o f time
for their production.
But to return from this digreflion to the moreimmediate fub-
je£t o f the prefent feCtion. It is fufficiently remarkable, and:
no inconfiderable proof of: the truth o f the Sacred Writings,,
that almoft every nation has fome traditionary account o f a deluge,
fome making it univerfal,, and others local : prefuming,,
however,