SECT. XI.

THEORY OF WORTHINGTON.

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IN 1773, Dr. William Worthington published a theory, in which great learning and piety, and a considerable share of ingenuity, are combined. He maintained that the earth, in its primitive state, was plain and uniform and that all mountains, and every thing irregular and rugged in the surface oft, are the result of the curse pronounced on the ground after the fall; that the melancholy lapse of our first parents was immediately followed by earthquakes, and every species of convulsion, which produced these dreadful effects the surface of our earth; that the antediluvian earth greatly abounded with water, much more than at present, and that the greatest quantity of it was collected about the poles; that at first the poles of the earth were erect, and at right angles with the plane of the equator; that the centre of the earth was then the centre of gravity; that the deluge was produced by the centre of gravity being removed twenty-three degrees and a half nearer to one of the poles, which led to a corresponding deviation of the poles from their former position, and thus threw the great body of water accumulated round them on those parts of the earth where little had existed before, and by these means drowned them. This event he supposed, increased the irregularity of the earth's surface, and produced many of those phenomena, which so plainly establish the reality of the general deluge.

* Scripture Theory of the Earth, 8vo. 1773.

SECT. XII.

THEORY OF WHITEHURST.

ANOTHER British theorist, of still more celebrated name, published a new system of geology in 1778. was Mr. Whitehurst, a gentleman of respectable talents and information, and whose theory has attracted considerable attention.* Mr. Whitehurst supposes, that not only this globe, but the whole of the planetary system, was once in a state of fluidity, and that the earth acquired its oblate spheroidical form by revolving round its axis in that state. In this fluid state, the component parts of the earth were suspended in one general undivided mass, "without form and void." These parts were endued with a variety of principles or laws of elective attraction, though equally and universally governed by the same law of gravitation. They were heterogeneous; and by their attraction progressively formed a habitable world. As the component parts of the chaos successively separated, the sea universally prevailed over the earth; and this would have continued to be the case had it not been for the sun and moon, which were coeval with the earth, and by their attractive influence interfered with the regular subsiding of the solid matter, which was going on. As the separation of the solids and fluids increased, the former were moved from place to place, without regularity; and hence the sea became unequally deep. These inequalities daily becoming greater, in process of time dry land was formed, and divided the sea; islands gradually appeared, like sand-banks above the water, and at length became firm, dry and fit for the reception of the animal and vegetable kingdoms. He supposed that mountains and continents were not primary productions of nature, but of a very distant period from the creation; that they are the effects of subterranean fires and commo

* An Inquiry into the Original State and Formation of the Earth, &c. by John Whitehurst, F. R. S. 1778.

tions, and were produced when the strata of the earth had acquired their greatest degree of firmness and cohesion, and when the testaceous matter had assumed a stony hardness. And, finally, that the marine shells found in various places, on and below the surface of the earth, were for the most part generated, lived and died, in the places in which they are found; that they were not brought from distant regions, as some have supposed; and consequently, that these beds of shells, &c. were originally the bottom of the ocean.

SECT. XIII.

THEORY OF DE LUC.

TWO or three years after the appearance of Mr. Whitehurst's publication, M. de Luc, of Geneva, dissatisfied with all the numerous theories which had been proposed, offered another, which has occupied considerable attention in the scientific world.* He supposes that the ocean once covered our continents; that the bottom of the old ocean was full of mountains, which neither the waters, nor any other cause known to us, formed, and which he therefore calls primordial. These mountains rose above the surface of the waters, and formed islands. These islands, and the ancient continents, were fruitful and well peopled; and the ancient sea had tides, currents, and tempests, as the present ocean. These powers acting upon the soft matters which are known to have formed the bottom of the ancient ocean, produced accumulations of calcareous substances, which, in process of time, became more or less mixed with marine bodies. The rivers, in the mean while carried from the land into the sea scattered remains of animal and vegetable productions; the sea itself washed them from its coasts into its bosom ; and these materials, transported by currents, became a

*Lettres Physiques et Morales sur l'Histoire de la Terre et de l'Homme, &c. by J. A. de Luc, 8vo. 5 tom. 1780. This theory, as to its principal outlines, was first suggested by Mr. Edward King; but was afterwards much extended and improved by M. de Luc.

secondary soil upon its primordial bottom. Fires and elastic fluids, formed by fermentations, made various openings in the bottom of the ocean, whence proceeded torrents of liquid substances and lava; which gave rise to the volcanic mountains observable on the surface of our continents. The continents which existed in a state of population and fertility, while the sea covered those which we now inhabit, though they did not form a solid mass, but were, properly speaking, vaults, which covered immense caverns, maintained their elevation above the level of the ocean by the strength of their pillars; which being of primordial matter, were solid and stable but the changes which the subterranean fires produced at the bottom of the ancient sea opened passages for its waters into the interior of the earth; the fermentation produced by this eruption shook the pillars of the primitive earth; which sinking into its caverns, the old continents disappeared, and their surface descending below the level of the waters, a general inundation ensued. This was the

general deluge: the sea now covered all the globe, except the islands of its ancient bottom, which increased in number and magnitude, until the weight of the water added to that of the superior vaults, crushed the inferior ones, and deepened more and more the new bed of the ocean; so that, at last, by a motion rapid, but not violent, all the waters retired from their former bed, and left our continents dry. Secondary mountains, and other irregularities, were afterwards formed by volcanic commotions and maritime currents and convulsions.

This learned theorist professes a firm belief in revelation; and insists that all the principal lines in the Mosaic history are confirmed, and none of them contradicted, by the most attentive survey of the globe. It may well be questioned, however, whether some parts of his theory can be reconciled with the sacred records: and they are precisely those parts which it is most difficult to reconcile with reason and sound philosophy.

SECT. XIV.

THEORY OF MILNE.

NEXT to the theory of M. de Luc appears that of Mr. Milne; which, though less celebrated, is by no means unworthy of notice.* This gentleman declares himself a warm friend to revelation, and professes to have formed a system in strict conformity with the sacred history. In some respects he agrees with Mr. Whitehurst; in others he adopts the opinions of M. de Luc.; while, with regard to a third class of his doctrines, he claims to be original : he supposes that the earth, immediately after the fall, and in consequence of the divine curse pronounced against it, underwent a total change, by means of the elementary fire lodged at that time near its centre; and that hence arose the irregularities which now appear in the earth's surface.

SECT. XV.

THEORY OF DR. HUTTON.

THE theory of Milne was followed by that of Dr. James Hutton, of Edinburgh, which has been much more distinguished, and excited incomparably more attention. Dr. Hutton thinks, that all our rocks and strata have been formed by subsidence under the waters of a former ocean, from the decay of a former earth, carried down to the sea by land floods; that the strata at

* A Course of Physico-Theological Lectures on the State of the World, from the Creation to the Deluge, by Robert Milne, A. M. octavo, 1786.

Theory of the Earth; or, an Investigation of the Laws observable in the Composition, Dissolution, and Restoration of Land upon the Earth, by James Hutton, M. D. F. R. S. E. This Memoir is contained in the Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, vol. i.