on the fummits of our mountains and in our plains may be explained without the aid of frequently repeated revolutions. If the various phenomena which strike us are the effects of convulfion, why not of one alone fufficient for the purpose?

I must not pass unnoticed the opinions of many lefs bold and less fyftematic philofophers, who are convinced with me that the date of the last great revolution which the earth has undergone cannot be very remote, but yet think themselves obliged, by the various phenomena of geology, by the formation, the cryftallization, the depofition and arrangement of ftony matters, to admit, if not the eternity at least the infinitely far removed origin of what they call the carcass of this globe (dd). Such feems to be the idea of Mr. de Sauffure; and others, fuch as Mr. Bourit, flatter themselves that this far removed antiquity is reconcileable to the Mofaical narration. This however appears to. me impoffible, as according to Genefis the whole work of the creation, including that of the abyfs, of the earth, of the fun, moon and ftars, is there represented, not as an interrupted, but as a continued operation completed by the formation of man, whose existence is limited to 17 or at most 22 ages before the deluge. But I must own, that it appears to me surprising, that perfons fo familiarized with the phenomena of chemistry; who are daily witneffes, in our little chemical experiments, of the promptitude with which the intimate mixture of the most diffimilar matters is effected; who as quickly fee them again feparated and depofited according to their affinities; who

view without aftonishment the cryftallization of different falts in regular though various forms, the arborisation of metals, and the decompofition or the fublimation of the hardest fubftances within the short interval of a few hours;-it feems, I fay, surprising, that such persons should think it neceffary to recur to the operation of infinite ages to conceive the concretion or cryftallization of ftony fubftances in the great laboratory of nature, where every kind of menftruum was abundant and every kind of agency at hand, and furely many as yet unknown to chemifts. (ee) The fimple and familiar operation of the churn may give an easily conceivable and perhaps no inapt idea of the formation of the different groffer fubftances of the globe. The rotation of the earth, the forces of affinity or repulfion, will surely supply abundant motion to excite the necessary fermentation. Could then the great Creator, who had all the materials and all the forces of univerfal nature at his command, require innumerable ages to accomplish operations which are not in fact more difficult to be conceived, and differ only in magnitude and variety? Would the feemingly gradual depofition of calcareous particles, or the concretion or cryftallization of vitreous ones, require thousands of years from the hands of the Omnipotent, whilft the milkmaid fees fimilar effects proceed from her feeble operations in a few hours? But if, after all, fix days of twenty-four hours fhould yet appear to these gentlemen too short a time for the pretended very flow depofition in beds of many fubftances, I will observe, that the duration of that night which preceded the creation of light is by no means limited by

Moses; and that, as I fhall hereafter fhew, the days of the creation, and particularly the firft, are probably not to be measured by ours. From these they may take the time which they may still think neceffary for the completion of operations, which, they will however own, are not to be calculated by the powers of feeble man.

From this impartial review of the feveral fyftems of modern fyftematic philofophy, and the curfory obfervations I have made on them, you will, I think, Sir, find that their very bafis is either founded on dubious, mistaken or perverted facts, or in many points directly contradictory to the only well-known, fundamental laws of nature; that the conclufions drawn from partial, controvertible, or real facts are generally hasty, and by no means convincing. Hence, whatever may be thought of the Mofaical narration, and of the most antient traditions of mankind, according with it in every main point, they are not yet overturned by any fyftem hitherto broached, claiming fuperior and much less unrestricted confidence. If the brief account of the creation and deluge given us in Genefis is yet infufficiently explained to these sublime philosophers, should it even still remain inexplicable in all its parts, and should we yet find it difficult to adapt to it the actual phenomena of this earth, the question still will be, whether its veracity or our infufficient knowledge of nature is to be controverted?

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- NOTES

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS

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LETTER IV.

How

(a) Page 283.

is it poffible, say many of these philofophers, to give the smallest credit to an author who tells us of fo many miraculous facts, which we declare to be impoffible, because they are contrary to nature? If the laws of nature are the will of God, they must be, like him, immutable. Such are the fophifms of thefe fublime reafoners: but plain common sense, at least as valuable as their logic, can easily conceive that the free author of a work disposed to answer one general end, may, yet without abfurdity, momentarily alter the direction of fome part of it to ferve a particular purpose, without breaking into his firft defign. But in whose favour, continue they, could thefe infringements on the general laws of nature be permitted? Is it credible that it fhould be for the most infignificant, the most unworthy, and the vileft race that ever crawled upon the earth? The national vanity of this Jewish writer is ftill more abfurd, and more impertinent, than that of the Egyptians. But does that vanity appear like theirs in perpetually exalting his nation above all others? Whilft he tells them that they are the predestined inftruments in the hands of God, to preferve his name to future nations, does he aim to exalt their origin above that of other men? On the contrary, he for ever lays before them their forlorn 3 C 2

and

and defenceless state, from which they were raised, not by their own pr vers, but by the hand of God. He fhews them to be one of the laft and smallest branches of then exifting nations; and takes away from them, as well as from the rest of mankind, every filly pretenfion to a divine or very dif tant origin. He exposes to them the fignal favours they had received, and reminds them of the marvels operated for them, of which they had themfelves been witneffés. It is not to their merits thefe are attributed, but to promises made to fome of their ancestors for the happiness of future generations. To them he fpares not the bittereft reproaches on their stiff-necked indocility. In the face of fo many prodigies their frequent difobedience is no less extraordinary than the miracles themfelves. It is no lefs fingular, that a nation should have preserved with so much veneration a book which bears fuch hard teftimonies against it, and which places the great body of the people in the rank of the most vile and most deteftable of men. All these fingularities are as marvellous, and as contrary to the common workings of the human mind, as the miracles which Mofes reports are incompatible with the common laws and order of physical nature. At least, if Mofes, like fome other legislators, the better to fubjugate his people, and to make his laws received, had deceived an ignorant nation by illufive prodigies, he certainly did not flatter it on its origin; and for the times anterior to Abraham, he could have no intereft in falfifying the traditions commonly received. These traditions are confirmed by thofe of two nations yet exifting, the Tartars and Arabs, separated from one another by immenfe tracts of country, and which, like the Jewith nation, have alone preserved their races without mixture. With the first of thefe the people to whom Mofes addreffed himself never had the smallest intercourse or relation.

(b) Page 284..

Mr. de Maillet, or Telliamed, who has left us many valuable obfervations on the formation of valleys, and on the concretion of ftony fubftances, and whom, though Mr. de Buffon has borrowed much from his ideas, it must be observed, he never mentions, is a ftriking example how far a man of

fenfe