PROOFS
OF THE
THEORY OF THE EARTH
Of the System of Whiston.*
THIS author begins his theory with a dissertation on the creation of the world. He alledges, that the account given of it by Moses is not properly understood; and that, in inquiries of this kind, men, contenting themselves with the most evident and superficial views, give too little of their attention to nature, reason, and philosophy. The common notions, he observes, concerning the six days work, are false; and the description of Moses is not an exact or philosophic account of the creation and origin of the universe, but only an historical [97] narrative of the formation of the terrestrial globe. The earth, in his estimation, formerly existed in Chaos, and, at the time mentioned by Moses, it only received a form, situation, and consistence, necessary for the habitation of mankind. I shall not give a detail of Whiston’s proofs, nor enter upon a formal refutation of them; but content myself with a short view of his theory, which will show it to be contrary to the scriptures, and, of course, that his proofs must be false. Besides, he treats this matter more like a polemical divine than a philosopher.
Leaving these false principles, he proceeds to some ingenious notions, which, though singular, will not, to those who are influenced by the enthusiasm of system, appear to be destitute of probability. He tells us, that the antient Chaos, from which the earth originated, was the atmosphere of a comet; that the annual motion of the earth began when it received its new form; but that its diurnal motion commenced not till the fall of Adam; that the Ecliptic cut the tropic of Cancer in a point precisely opposite to Paradise, which was situated on the northwest frontier of Assyria; that, before the deluge, the year began at the autumnal equinox, and that the orbits of the earth and planets were then perfect circles; that the deluge commenced on the 18th of November, in the year of the Julian period 2365, or 2349 before Christ; that, previous to the deluge, the solar and lunar [98] year were the same, and consisted exactly of 360 days; that a comet, descending in the plane of the ecliptic to its perihelion, on the very day that the deluge began, made a near approach to the earth; that there is a great heat in the bowels of the earth, which is constantly expanding from the centre to the circumference; that the figure of the earth resembles an egg; that the mountains are the lightest parts of the globe, &c. He then attributes to the deluge all the changes the earth has undergone, blindly adopts Woodward’s theory, uses indiscriminately all that author’s remarks on the present state of the earth; but assumes more the air of an original, when he treats of its future condition. The earth, says Mr Whiston, will be consumed by fire; and its destruction will be preceded by earthquakes, thunder, and hideous meteors; the sun and moon will assume a dreadful aspect; the heavens will seem to fall; and the whole earth will be in flames. But, after the fire shall have devoured every impurity of this globe, and vitrified and rendered it transparent as the purest crystal, the saints and spirits of the blessed shall take possession of it, and there remain till the general judgment.
This hypothesis appears, at first view, to be extravagant and fantastical. But the author has managed his ideas with such dexterity, and placed them in so strong a light, that they no longer have the air of absolute chimeras. He has [99] adorned his subject with much science and ingenuity: And it is astonishing, that, from such a medley of strange notions, he should have been able to compose a system so plausible. But it is not to the vulgar that it has this brilliant appearance; the learned are more easily deceived by the glare of erudition, and the force of new ideas. Mr Whiston was a celebrated astronomer. Accustomed to contemplate the heavens, to measure the motions of the stars, and to consider the great phaenomena of nature, he could never imagine, that this grain of sand, which we inhabit, occupied more the attention of its Creator than the universe which contains, in the vast regions of space, millions of other suns and other worlds. He alledges, that Moses has not given us the history of the first creation of this globe, but only a detail of those circumstances which attended its receiving a form fit for the habitation of men, when the Almighty transformed it from the state of a comet to that of a planet. Comets, owing to the excentricity [sic] of their orbits, are subject to dreadful vicissitudes: sometimes, like that of 1680, they are a thousand times hotter than melted iron, and sometimes a thousand times more cold than ice: They cannot, therefore, furnish habitation to any creatures of which we can form a conception; or rather, they are altogether uninhabitable. [100]
The planets, on the contrary, are tranquil bodies; their distances from the sun vary but little; and their temperature continues so nearly the same, that it permits plants and animals to grow and to multiply.
In the beginning, says Mr Whiston, God created the universe; but the earth was then an uninhabitable comet, and subject to such alternate extremes of cold and heat, that its matter, being sometime liquified [sic] and sometimes frozen, was in the form of a chaos, or an abyss, surrounded with utter darkness: And darkness covered the face of the deep. This chaos was the atmosphere of the comet, a body composed of heterogeneous materials, having its centre occupied with a globular, solid, hot nucleus of about 2000 leagues in diameter, round which was an extensive mass of a thick fluid, mixed with heterogeneous and undigested materials, like the chaos of the antients, rudis et indigestaque moles. This great atmosphere contained few dry, solid, or earthy particles, and still less of water or air; but it was amply filled with thick and heavy fluids, mixed, agitated, and jumbled together in the utmost confusion. Such was the condition of the earth when six days old: but, next day, that is, on the first day of creation, when the excentric [sic] orbit of the comet was changed into an ellipse, nearly circular, every thing assumed its proper place; the different materials arranged themselves accor- [101] ding to their specific gravities; the heavy fluids sunk down, and left to the earthy, watery, and aerial substances, the superior regions. These also descended in the order of their gravities; fist the earth, then the water, and, lastly, the air. In this manner, the immense volume of chaos was reduced to a moderate sphere, the center of which is a solid body that still retains the heat it received from the sun, when formerly the nucleus of a comet. This heat may easily last 6000 years, since the comet 1680 would require 50,000 before it cooled. Round the solid and burning nucleus, at the center of the earth, is placed the heavy fluid which descended first, and formed the great abyss, upon which the earth floats like a cork on quick-silver. But, as the earthy parts were originally mixed with a great body of water, they, in descending, drove before them a part of this water, which was confined there when the earth consolidated, and formed a stratum concentric with the heavy fluid that surrounds the nucleus. Thus, the great abyss is composed of two concentric circles, the interior being a heavy fluid, and the superior water, upon which last the earth is immediately founded. From this admirable arrangement, produced by the atmosphere of a comet, are to be deduced the theory of the earth, and an explication of all its phaenomena.
After the atmosphere of the comet had been freed from the solid and earthy particles, a pure [102] air only remained, through which the rays of the sun instantly penetrated, and produced light: Let there be light; and there was light. The vast columns or beds of which the earth is composed, being formed with so much precipitation, is the reason why they differ so much in density; the heavier sunk deeper into the abyss than the lighter, and, of course, gave rise to mountains and valleys: these inequalities, before the deluge, were differently situated from what they are at present. Instead of that vast valley which contains the ocean, many small caverns were dispersed over the globe, each of which contained a part of the waters. The mountains were then at greater distances, and formed not large chains. But the earth was a thousand times more fertile, and contained a thousand times more inhabitants; and the life of man, and of the other animals, was ten times longer. All these effects were produced by the superior heat of the central fire, which gave birth to a greater number of plants and animals, and, at the same time, bestowed on them a degree of vigour that enabled them to exist long, and to multiply abundantly. But this heat had a miserable effect upon the dispositions of men and other animals: It augmented the passions, robbed man of his innocence, and diminished the sagacity of the brute creation. All creatures, excepting the fishes, who inhabited a colder element, felt the influence of the central heat, became vicious, [103] and merited death. This universal death was accordingly inflicted, on Wednesday the 28th day of November, by a dreadful deluge, which lasted 40 days and 40 nights, and was occasioned by the tail of a comet meeting with the earth, in returning from its perihelion.
The tail of a comet is the lightest part of its atmosphere. It is a transparent and subtile [sic] vapour raised by the sun from the body of the comet. This vapour, which is composed of aerial and watery particles extremely rarified, follows the comet in its descent to its perihelion, and goes before the comet in its ascent, its situation being always opposite to the sun, as if it had an affection for the shade, and wished to avoid the scorching rays of the sun. this column of a vapour is often of an immense extent; and its length always increases in proportion as the comet approaches nearer the sun. Now, as many comets descend below the annual orbit of the earth, it is not surprising that the earth should sometimes be involved in this vapour. This dreadful even happened at the time of the deluge. The tail of a comet, in two hours, will discharge a quantity of water equal to that contained in the whole ocean. In fine, this tail is what Moses calls the cataracts of heaven: And the cataracts of heaven were opened. The globe of the earth, when it meets with a comet’s tail, must necessarily, in its passage through this body of vapour, appropriate [104] part of its materials. Every thing that comes within the sphere of the earth’s attraction must fall upon it, and must fall in the form of vapour, since the tail itself principally consists of that element. In this manner, rain may come from the heavens in such abundance, as to produce an universal deluge, and to surmount the tops of the highest mountains.
Our author, however, unwilling to go beyond the letter of the sacred writings, does not ascribe the deluge to this rain alone, which he has chosen to bring from so great a distance. He takes advantage of water wherever he can find it: The great abyss, as we have seen, contains a considerable quantity. The earth, in its approach towards the comet, would feel the force of its attraction; the waters in the great abyss would be so agitated with a motion similar to that of the tides, as would necessarily break the shell or crust in many places, and make the water rush out upon the surface: And the fountains of the abyss were opened.
But how, it may be asked, was this vast collection of water, so liberally furnished by the great abyss, and by the comet’s tail, afterwards disposed of? Our author is not embarrassed by this circumstance. As soon as the earth escaped from the comet, the flux and reflux of the great abyss necessarily ceased. From that moment, the waters on the surface rushed down with a violence by the same channels out of which they [105] had issued. The great abyss swallowed up not only its own water, but all that had been deposited by the comet, which it was sufficiently enabled to contain; because, during its agitation, and when it broke the crust, it had greatly enlarged its dimensions, by pushing the earth farther from it on all sides. It was at this time, likewise, that the earth, which was formerly a sphere, assumed its elliptical figure. This effect was produced by the centrifugal force occasioned by the diurnal motion of the earth, and by the attraction of the comet; for the earth, when passing through the tail of the comet, was so situated, that its equatorial parts were nearest that star; and, of course, the power of the comet’s attraction, concurring with the earth’s centrifugal force, elevated the equatorial regions with the greater facility, because the crust was broken in an infinite number of places, and because the flux and reflux of the abyss pushed more violently against the equator than any where else.
This is the history Mr Whiston gives of the creation, of the causes of the universal deluge, of the longevity of the antediluvians, and of the figure of the earth. All these difficult subjects seem to have given our author very little trouble. But he appears to be greatly puzzled about Noah’s ark. In that dreadful confusion produced by the conjunction of the tail of a comet, and by the waters of the great abyss, and in that horrible period, when not only [106] the elements of this globe were confounded, but when the heavens concurred with the bowels of the earth in producing new elements to increase the chaos, how is it to be imagined that the ark could float tranquilly, with its numerous and valuable cargo, upon the surface of the waves? Here our author struggles hard, in order to account for the preservation of the ark. But, as his reasoning, upon this subject, appears to be inconclusive, ill-imagined, and heterodox, I shall only observe how hard it is for a man, who had explained objects so great and surprising, without having recourse to a supernatural power, to be stopped in his career by a trifling circumstance. But he chuses to risk drowning himself along with the ark, rather than to ascribe the preservation of this precious vessel to the interposition of the Almighty!
I shall only make a single remark upon this system, of which I have given a faithful abridgement. Whenever men are so presumptuous as to attempt a physical explanation of theological truths; whenever they allow themselves to interpret the sacred text by views purely human; whenever they reason concerning the will of the Deity, and the execution of his decrees; they must necessarily involve themselves in obscurity, and tumble into a chaos of confusion, like the author of this whimsical system, which, notwith- [107] standing all its absurdities, has been received with great applause. Mr Whiston neither doubted of the truth of the deluge, nor of the authenticity of the sacred writings. But, as physics and astronomy occupied his principal attention, he mistook passages of holy writ for physical facts, and for results of astronomical observation; and so strangely jumbled divinity with human science, that he has given birth to the most extraordinary system that perhaps ever did or ever will appear. [108]
Notes
* See a new theory of the Earth by Will. Whiston,