tion of its axis became at least more confiderable, and its rotation round it somewhat variable; the poles were diverged, and in consequence the track of its orbit became equally oblique to the equator. So long as the poles of the earth were perpendicular to the equator, and that its courfe varied not from that line, the days and nights were equal throughout the year; perpetual fpring reigned all over this globe, and its temperature was every where moderate. After the change, God finds it neceffary to fore-warn Noah that he must expect fucceffive changes of feasons, and viciffitudes of heat and cold, fuch as he had never yet experienced.

In the former world, the nature of the furface and the difpofition of the lands and waters probably affifted not a little, with the position of the globe, to moderate both heat and cold in every quarter of it. Lefs prominent inequalities on the face of the land, a more equal proportion of land and water, and a more general intermixture of thefe, would contribute to this, and were no doubt the means. The conftant vicinity of feas of very moderate extent would from the vapours exhaled from them inceffantly moiften the dry land without, the help of rains; and Mofes expreffly tells us, none were neceffary to water the earth: and hence the rain-bow, firft appearing to Noah after the deluge, was literally to him a new phænomenon. In these limited seas the flux and re-flux were scarcely fenfible, but sufficient. to freshen and sweeten the waters by gentle agitation, and the air by moderate breezes. In the prefent state of things, vast tracts of deep

deep and extensive ocean, with little or no intervening lands, cover two-thirds of the globe, are expofed to the whole influence of the moon, rise into mountainous waves, and by their mutable and tumultuous agitations raife equal conflicts in the furrounding atmosphere. On the coafts, far-extended capes and promontories create ftrong and violent currents, and increase by oppofition the fury of waves rolling to them from immenfe diftances and ftirred up from unfathomable depths. To this the great irregularity of the bottom of many feas, either by the accidents of the deluge, or by these currents fcooped out into deep valleys or into abyffes creating whirlpools and tornados, contributes not a little. It appears that the un even bottoms and depth of feas, ftill more than their immensity, render them boisterous. The vaft Pacific Ocean from being shallow is feldom heaved into high waves. Elevated ranges of mountains on the land, whofe freezing regions are ever in conflict with the inferior atmosphere, interfecting each other in various angles, and divided by deep valleys acting as so many fuckers, raise tempests and hurricanes in the air, which roufe an equal tumult in the adjoining feas; and in their turn the agitations of the waves disturb the air anew. Where mountains rife near or from the coasts themselves, the fea is so much the fooner and more terribly affected. The deep Atlantic Ocean and the Northern Seas between Afia and America, forced also into ftrong currents by numerous far-projecting lands, are in confequence for ever agitated by dreadful storms and tempefts. To preclude fuch violent and sudden changes, both in the feas and

in

in the atmosphere, which by the prefent difpofition of the earth affect the health and vigour of every thing that has life, we must neceffarily prefume it to have been very different when life could be protracted fo much beyond its prefent fpan. Instead of immense uninterrupted oceans, and extensive continents without seas diversely traversed with chains of high mountains, the lands, more equally diftributed on every part of the globe, were no less beautifully than usefully intersected by feas of moderate depth and extent, communicating with each other by ftreights which further facilitated the intercourse of their inhabitants (a). More frequent and extenfive perhaps towards the equator, they would foften and refresh the hotter air of that climate lying directly under the course of the fun, and in parts more diftant they were fo difpofed as to moderate increafing cold. Every where the vapours rifing from them would furnish dews, proportionable to the wants of the fomewhat varied climes, to irrigate the earth. On the furrounding lands no towering mountains reared their heads into the cold regions of the air to accumulate fnows and ice, to chill the atmosphere, or gather round them storms and tempefts; but hills of fmall elevation, perhaps under the equator fomewhat higher to moderate the heat, afforded gentle breezes to fan the air, and diversified the habitations of mankind. This difpofition of the lands and waters would entertain a mild and benign temperature as well under the fun's course as in parts more removed from its influence, and, conjointly with the conftant equality of days, nights, and feafons, would afford perpetual

spring to all parts of the whole furface of the earth. No cold or burning varieties of temperature would freeze or fcorch the earth, or alternately chill or boil the blood of living animals, check or dry

up the fources of vegetation. It was not till after the deluge that God faid to Noah, "that winter and fummer, heat and cold, feedtime and harvest, should alternately fucceed each other;" proof that it was not fo before, and that he then forewarned him of a new order and dispensation of things hitherto unknown to him. If there are yet fituations on the earth where fruits and flowers appear together, men pay dearly for this advantage by peftilential heats and deluges of rain, equally trying and destructive to the human frame. Meffieurs Wallerius and de Luc allow not more than 50 toifes to the highest antediluvian hills, and Mr. Whitehurst reduces them to as many feet. I fhall not prefume to fix their utmost elevation; but I imagine that, higher under the direct rays of the fun, and lower at greater distances, they no where were of fuch height as to be the repofitories of ice or fnow, or to chill to froft either their own or furrounding atmospheres. Perhaps the elevation of fome iflands under the equator might confiderably exceed their highest computations. Such might perhaps be neceffary to draw more forcibly the vapours of the fea during the day, thence to be gently wafted by fomewhat ftronger breezes during the night, to irrigate with more plentiful dews adjacent continents expofed to the full ardours of the fun. But ftorms and thunder were no where engendered, because the air, whofe temperature was almoft equal in all parts, was not over3 Y

charged

charged in one place to disburden a superabundance of moisture, electricity, or heat, in destructive torrents on another. By the favour of this so happily tempered equilibrium of the air, the earth throughout all its climes produced with little labour in every season the most falubrious fruits and vegetables, and men arrived to the highest perfection of their organization. Intemperate changes altered not or fhook the springs of life; and man, if his own exceffes or accidents haftened not his end, funk gently, at the expiration of many centuries, into the arms of death pronounced against him fince his fall. Those animals which at present cannot range beyond the torrid zones wandered with impunity into the middle circles; and if any required a cooler climate, they found one more fuitable to their natures under the poles: to the present sharp air of those fituations they have fince been gradually inured and fitted.

Such a pofition of the globe and fuch a diftribution of its lands and waters as I have here defcribed, we may, I think, conceive adequate to the maintaining of a never-fading scene of fertility, and of a mild and nearly equal temperature, over the greatest part of the earth; and some such causes must have existed to have given that conftant falubrity of climate which protracted the life of man fo far beyond its prefent limits. Some few of the confequences of fuch a different order of things-an invariability of temperature, fubject to no changes from heat to cold, or to the viciffitude of feasons, and the fufficiency of dews to water the whole earth without the

intervention