-within the ocean when in a fluid state.-The confideration of the different ftate of the atmosphere at different heights of mountains, leads our author to the fubject of electricity. In explaining it's nature he maintains, that phlogifton, fire, and the cleetric fluid, are modifications of the fame element. The various operations of this fluid in the atmosphere are described, and it's influence on plants and animals is confidered. After fome general obfervations on the experimental method of philofophizing. the author paffes on to the confideration of the phenomena of the loadstone, and the theories by which they have been explained; and shows wherein they resemble, and wherein they differ from electricity. The question concerning the impenetrability of matter is next confidered; and the imperfection of our knowledge of the elementary parts and primary agents in nature is acknowledged.

The formation of combustible matters within the bowels of the earth is the next fubject in difcuffion; their distinct characters are enumerated, and their powerful action within the earth defcribed. The very ingenious and original obfervations, which are made upon this fubject, we cannot pass over without a quotation. VOL. II. P. 115.

The conjoint operation of fire and water is tremendous. Fluids, you know, are raised to a boiling state, when the matter of fire pafles with fuch rapidity and force through their fubftance, as to be fuperior to the preffure of the air upon their furface; and when this point is gained, the fire having nothing further to refift it, the heat never rifes higher; fo that all fluids have a certain fixed degree, at which they boil. Water will not boil (except in fome particular cafes) but with an heat of 212 degrees. Yet, when the preffure of the atmosphere is almost entirely removed in the vacuum of an air pump, water will boil with an heat not exceeding 95 degrees, or 117 degrees below the heat required in the open air: and hence it appears, that fire and air act as antagonists in the operation of boiling *.

Water in vapour, occupies 1400 times more fpace than in fluidity; and by the fame degree of heat is rarefied 14,000 times, while air is only rarefied two-thirds +. Its fpring and elasticity, confequently, are fuch as to produce dreadful explofions when pent up. Even in mechanics, we fee it is used to move the heaviest bodies. It favors combuftion, and hence Boerhaave looked upon flame to be principally formed of water. At Geyfer, in Iceland, fays Van Troil, one fees within the circumference of three miles, forty or fifty boiling fprings together, which feem to proceed all from the fame refervoir. In fome the water is perfectly clear; in others, thick. The water fpouts up from all, fome continually, others at intervals. The altitude of one of thefe fpouts, meafured by a quadrant, was ninety-two feet. The force of the vapours which throw up this water, is exceffive; it not only prevents the ftones which are by way of experiment thrown into the opening, from finking, but even throws them up to a very great height together with the water.

Philofophy of the Elements.

† Philof. Transact.”

But,

But, if while acting by itself it is thus powerful, how irrefiftible must it be, when it comes in contact with metals in fuɓon in the bowels of the earth. An explofion then immediately takes place, and the parts of the metal are fcattered in all directions. The force with which this team can act, is indeed wonderful. About 60 years ago, during the operation of cafting fome brass cannon, in the prefence of a number of spectators, the heat of the metal of the first gun drove fo much damp into the mould of the fecond, which was near it, that as foon as the metal was let into it, it blew up with the greatest violence, tearing up the ground fome feet; breaking down the furnace, unroofing the houfe, and killing many people on the fpot. Thus, as it has been related, the explosion was like thunder; and the force was equal to the noife; for the matter was fcattered by the blast, as duft would be before the wind.

So apparent a reafon for fome of the phænomena of nature, did not fail to ftrike the minds of reflecting men, and to point out to them the way of fatisfactorily explaining difficulties of no inconfiderable stubbornnefs. It is found by experience, fays Burnet, that water, fo gentle in itfelf when undisturbed, flies, when it falls amongst liquid metals, with an incredible impetuofity, and breaks, or bears down every thing that would ftop its motion and expanfion. This caufes the marvellous force of volcanos, when they throw out ftones and rocks. This explofion is made by the fudden rarefaction of fea waters, which fall in receptacles of molten ore, and ardent liquids within the cavities of the mountains; and thereupon follow the noifes, roarings and eruptions of thofe places. Volcanos, fays he, are always in mountains, and generally, if not always, near the fea; and when its waters by fubterraneous paffages, are driven under the mountain, they meet there with metals, and minerals diffolved, and are immediately rarefied, and, by way of explofion, fly out at the mouth or funnel of the mountain, bearing before them whatsoever stands in their way.

The explofion and eruption of the various matters of a volcano, proceed indeed in all probability, from the accefs of a large quantity of water, which either enters through fome crack in the bottom of the fea, or from fources in the earth *. If the mafs of water so admitted, be fufficiently great, it will extinguish the fubterraneous fire; if not, it will fuddenly be converted into vapour, whofe elaftic force is known to be feveral thousand times greater than that of gunpowder. But, as I have already faid, the contact of water with metals is that which probably produces the most tremendous effects. If we confider the immenfe quantity of matter thrown up at different times by volcanos, without leffening their apparent bulk, what frightful hoards of both fire and metals, in readiness for the acceffion of water, muit we not fuppofe accumulated in the internal parts of the globe. The chymical examination of the volcanic matters thus ejected, proves that iron

• * Kirwan.'

makes

makes from one-fifth to one-fourth of their whole fubftance. How enormous the quantity, therefore, of this metal, or at least of the stones in which it is contained.'

'The author goes on to account for earthquakes, partly from internal fires, and partly from electricity; the caufe of volcanic eruptions are more particularly explained, and the history of the formation of bafaltes is given. Thefe ingenious fpeculations are concluded by further reflections on the great and general convulfions, which have taken place in nature, in which a perpetual circulation of elements is maintained.

The next subject, to which our author turns his attention, is the age of the world; the traditionary account of which is fhown to be uncertain. The era of the creation, he is of opinion, is not to be afcertained by the mofaic hiftory, which is not intended to be philofophical but popular, and probably in part fymbolical. In confirmation of this opinion, it is remarked, that much of the language of fcripture must be understood as fymbolical; and that the free ufe of reafon is neceffary in interpreting the fcriptures, on account of the popular manner in which they are written, and the variations which time has occafioned in the facred books. A deluge, it is fhown, was believed in the most remote periods of antiquity; but it is afcertained, that it is not neceffary, from the language of fcripture, to fuppofe it univerfal, and that many confiderations prove it to have been partial. VOL. II. P. 252.

The farther we penetrate into antiquity, the ftronger are the fymptoms of the belief of a deluge, The remembrance of fuch a difafter entered into the plan of all religions. The ftriking fimilitude between the ideas of the fcandinavians and chaldeans, on the origin, and the end of the world; the traditions found in America, amongit the inhabitants of Florida and the Brafils, which are the fame with thofe of the japanese; prove, that the fame misfortunes have befallen thofe countries, fo widely afunder. All the plains of Syria, fays Melo, were formerly laid under water. Plutarch, Ovid, and other mythologists, defcribe the deluge of Deucalion, which happened, they fay, in Theffaly, about 700 years after our epoch of the univerfal deluge. It is faid, there was one in Attica 330 years before that of Deucalion. In the year of Christ 1095, a deluge in Syria drowned a prodigious number of people. In 1164, a deluge in Friezeland covered the whole coafts, and deftroyed the greatest part of the inhabitants. And again, another inundation happened in the fame countries in 1248, in which upwards of 100,000 men are faid to have loft their lives. Lut the fate of Callao, as it has been one of the most recent, has been the most accurately defcribed to us. Lima continued in great fplendor until the year 1747, when a moft dreadful concuffion of the earth happened, which entirely devoured Callao, and the port belonging to it; and laid threefourths of the city level with the ground. Nothing can be coneeived more terrible than the deftruction of Callao. Of all the inhabitants, one man, and one man only, efcaped. The people ran from their houses in the utmost terror and confufion. The ftruggling wretch who furvived, heard a cry of miferere rife from

all

all parts of the city. But all was immediately hufbed. The fea rufled in and overwhelmed it. The inhabitants were buried in its bofom. All was filent as the grave.

It has been remarked, that fome fpecies of difputants, as fome fpecies of combatants, though poffeffed of no great valour, will yet fight excellently behind a wall: thus a man of tenacity, and ftrongly prejudiced, will be both fierce and rugged behind a text of fcripture; but, in the open fields of reafon and of philofophy, he will be gentle and tractable as a lamb. This is a pofition, uncontrovertible in fome points, but in others, I should fuppofe much to be doubted. In Genefis, the account given us by Mofes of the deluge, is fhort and plain. He fays," All the fountains of the great deep were broken up; and the windows and flood-gates of heaven were opened: and the rain was upon the earth, forty days and forty nights." Thefe were the two grand fources of the deluge. Yet, one of these fources has been fuppofed more than fufficient for the purpose. Philofophers, fay the advocates of this opinion, are puzzled to find water enough for an univerfal deluge. To affift their endeavours it has been remarked, that were all the water precipitated which is diffolved in the air, it might probably be fufficient to cover the furface of the whole earth, to the depth of about 30 feet. But this is phyfically erroneous; for fhould all the water in the atmosphere be in a moment condenfed, it would be very far from being able to caufe a general deluge. The calculation is to be made *. While fufpended in the atmosphere, we must look upon the water to be rarefied. The atmosphere itself, weighs only a column of water from 32 to 33 feet. Thus, fuppofing it all water, it could not funifh more than this quantity. Allowing, therefore, the whole atmosphere to be water, and that it fhould have betaken itfelf to the lowest fituation,-to the fea; and allowing alfo the fea to be a moiety of the globe; the whole of these waters thus collected together, would not elevate the general level of the ocean more than 66 feet. How inadequate this to an univerfal deluge!

But there is a prodigious annulus encompaffing Saturn; and why might not there have been one round our earth, for ab effe ad poffe certiflime valet confequentia? Why may it not likewife be fuppofed, that the vapours of the earth fermenting into inflammation, and expanding by rarefaction at the grand period of the deluge; by their elaftic preffure on the fubterraneous waters, fhould have forced those waters upon the furface? The furrounding ring, attracted by the nearer approach of the waters of the abyfs, would of courfe have inftantly poured down with waters of the atmosphere, and thus the cataracts and windows of heaven would have been opened. In the mean time, the earth would have fhook and trembled. Subterraneous eructations would have distorted her ftrata in all directions; would have exchanged furface for core'; and mountains for vallies. Earthquakes, volcanos, and convulfions, would have univerfally

• * De Luc.'

taken

taken place, and, in fhort, thus the ruin would have been completed. The two brothers Sheutzers again conceived the matter differently. They diffented from all complicated action ;-they imagined that the motion of the earth, on its axis, was fuddenly ftopped by the fupreme will; and that the waters, from the continuation of the force of their movement, at once fpread themfelves with violence over the earth and by this, they perfuaded themselves, they had explained all the phænomena of the deluge; even how the oriental plant was tranfported, and could find its way into Saxony.

:

If the univerfality of the deluge be infifted on, I will acknowledge, that unless we allow a creation and annihilation of waters; or the bringing down vast quantities from fomething which no longer exits, and which must have again been caught up by fome no longer exifting, fubfequent attraction, no fuch univerfal deluge could have happened to this globe; nor could the face of nature have been reftored to the ftate it appears to us at prefent, without having altered the whole terraqueous frame; and without having miraculously turned fluids into folids at once. The waters began to decrease after one hundred and fifty days. If the fea lie in an equal convexity with the land, or lower generally than the fhore, and much lower than the midland, as it is certainly known to do, what could, on the other hand, the fea have contributed to the deluge? It would have kept its place as it does now. The fame would have happened to the fubterraneous waters, for water does not afcend unless by force. But, let us imagine force ufed, and the waters of the fea and caverns drawn upon the furface of the earth, we shall not be in any refpect the nearer for this; for if you take thefe waters out of their places, thofe places mult have been filled up again with waters during the deluge. You cannot fuppofe the channel of the fea would ftand gaping without water, when all the earth was overflowed, and the tops of the mountains were covered *. The fame may be faid with refpect to fubterraneous cavities: if you fuppofe the water to have been pumped from them, you muft likewife fuppofe the water to have been fucked back, when the earth came to be effectually laid under water. Thus, every way confidered, we can neither find fource, nor iffue, for fuch an exceffive mafs of waters, as the general deluge would have required.

We have already remarked, that the ifraelites looked upon the earth as a vaft plain, and that the rain came from a collection of waters above the firmament; at the fame time that the earth floated on another mnafs of waters, both of which were opened at the deluge. "And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament, from the waters which were above the firmament." But, as fuch waters now are univerfally understood not to exift, and as the earth is mathematically afcertained to be a fpheroid, the effects, or the conclu fions drawn from data fo erroneous, fhould ceafe with their

• * Burnet.'

caufes.