Geologia, or, A discourse concerning the earth before the deluge wherein the form and properties ascribed to it, in a book intitlued The theory of the earth, are excepted against ... / by Erasmus Warren ...

CHAP. V.

1. The Form of the Earth Excepted against, from the want of Rivers. 2. Notwithstanding the way devised to raise them, there would have been none in due time. 3. Whereupon Two great Inconveni∣ences must have ensued. 4. No Rivers could have been before the Flood.

1. THEa chief thing for Life is Water, said the Son of Sirach. It is necessary and use∣ful upon numberless accounts. So that that Hypo∣thesis which implies the Earth was without ••••rings and Rivers for many hundreds of Years, ma•• justly be rejected. And for this reason the supposed Form of the Earth cannot be maintained. For according to that, the Element of Water was fast shut up within the Exteriour Orb of the Earth; and how could it issue forth from thence, through so thick and solid a terrestrial Concretion? For that being made after the manner abovesaid, there could be no gaping chasms, nor indeed little clefts or chinks in it; whereat the imprison'd Waters might get out. Or if there had been never such plenty of lesser cracks or larger rists in it; yet the Water being settled in that place, which was proper to its Na∣ture, there it would have staid by the innate Law or Principle of its Gravity. Unless by Elastie Power, Protrusion, Rarefaction, or the like, it were forced thence; there it would have made its perpe∣tual aboad, had the Earth been never so open o•• pervious, by reason of fissures or holes in the same.

2. But therefore Exhalation is here made use of, and as a proper Engin is set to do this mighty work, of fetching up Rivers from the inaccessible Pit. The operation, in short, was performed thus, The heat of the Sun raising plenty of Vapours, chiefly about the middle parts of the Earth, out of the subterraneous Deep; they finding most li∣berty and easiest progress, toward North and South, directed their motion towards the Poles of the Earth. Where, being condensed by the cold of those Regions in∣to Rain, they descended in constant and exuberant distil∣lations. And these Distillations were the Fountains that supplied the first World with Rivers, running continu∣ally from the Polar to the 〈◊〉〈◊〉 parts of the Earth. But according to this Hydrography, I shall endeavour, first, to make it out that there could be no Rivers in due time: and secondly, that there could be none at all. And as for Springs, the Hypothesis does not pretend to any.

First, It would have kept Rivers too long, out of being. For according to that Philosophy we have now to do with, the new made Earth was com∣posed of nothing but Dust and an Oily liquor. And it being of such a Composition, and of a vast thick∣ness; it must needs be a considerable time before the Sun could penetrate into the Abyis under it, and draw up vapours from thence; if it could do it at all in so copious a manner.

Secondly, The Air being at first quite empty of Vapours, it would take a great quantity of them to make the Atmosphere of the Earth, or to fill up that. To which add that every part of the Earth about its Aequator, being turned from the Sun, every four and twenty hours, as long as it was

obverted to it; many of those Vapours which were lifted up by day, would fall down again by night in the same Latitude where they arose, without being dispersed to the Polar Regions. And thus the production of Rivers would have been something retarded again.

Thirdly, The surface of the Earth being endued with a wonderful feracity it must immediately put forth in an inconceiveable plenty of all sorts of Ve∣getables: which from luxuriant pullulations, would strangely advance by most speedy and prodigious growths. And this Superfetation of the virginal Soil, proceeding from that extraordinary fruitfulness where∣with it was originally impregnated; must farther hinder the early rise of Rivers. Not so much by consuming the matter of them, as another way. For the Earth being thick beset with the flourish∣ing apparatus, or goodly Furniture of its own bring∣ing forth (such perhaps for abundance and excel∣lency, as never crowned the most fertil Country, or fruitful season since) though Dews or Rains fell without intermission; yet the Waters would have stuck or hung so much, amongst the rank and matted tufts of Grass, Herbs, Shrubs, &c. as not to have been able in a short space of time, to have gotten into Streams, and constituted Rivers of such a length, as they must have been of.

Fourthly, In case these Waters had met with no checks, but had fallen immediately into such Bodies, as would have forced their passage along in holding Currents: yet then they must ••ave digged their own Chanels too, being sure to find none till they made them. But considering how slowly they must have crept, as having no kind of Precipices or steeper downfals to quicken them; and how glib

they must have been, by gliding gently upon the fat and viscous Glebe; and what a thick and thrum∣my and close wrought Mantle the Earth then wore: for them to have furrowed out deep and winding passages in that Earth, must have been a good whiles work again, if fecible at all without the help of Art. For

Lastly, It seems improbable that any Rivers, without the help of that, should have been pro∣duced. The reason is this, The Rains descending at all times, and in all places alike, a round the Poles; and the whole surface of the Earth being more level and even, than any Plain in the World; the Waters instead of parting into streams, would have spread over all the Earth at once, in a ge∣neral diffusion; as any one may find by pouring Water upon a Globe. By which overflow, the Primigenial Soil (which was a light and soft Mold) being suppled into a perfect Moor or Quagmire; must have continued drowned, till by reducing the Water into artificial Canels, it could have been laid dry. But when there would have been hands for this great work (GOD making Mankind but in one single Pair) let them that please consider. And they may think also, where Paradise could have been; and what shift poor Fowls, and Beasts, yea, Men themselves should have made; till the Earth, like a Fen, thus under Water, could have been cut and drained.

3. Now so slow and late a Production of Rivers, would have drawn two great inconveniences after it. It would have clashed with Scripture; and charged Providence with Preposterousness.

First, It would have clashed with Scripture. For no sooner was Man created and placed in Paradise, but presently we read, That a River went out of Eden to water the garden, Gen. 2. 10. But had all Rivers come into being, as the Theory teaches, one could never have been there so early. Nor did it go out of Eden, by running through it only, but it arose there, say some, and as much is signified, they would perswade us, by the word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 which denotes its going out (they tell us) as a Child goes out of the Womb: and so the River must be born in Eden, or spring up originally there. But the Word is too com∣monly used, in a larger sense, both in the Sacred and Rabbinical Writings, to have any such stress laid upon it. Though most certain it is, that a River there was in Eden; and in order of Divine Story (and so why not in order of time?) very early: even before the Fall of Adam, or the Formation of Eve. And which is farther remarkable, it was a large River too; for it was parted into several Heads, and able to feed most considerable streams. One of which, namely, Euphrates, is reckoned among the biggest Rivers in the World, to this day. But had it come by derivation from the Polar Fountains, it could never have been made so soon; much less could it have been so large. And then besides, we read at the Sixth Verse of the same Chapter, that GOD had not caused to rain upon the Earth as yet; and so that River could not possibly proceed from Rains, that fell about the ends or Poles of it.

Though (by the way) how that Expression should countenance an Impluvious state before the Flood, as the Latin Theory would ••ake it, is not so clear and easie to be understood. For, if we consider, there was no Water upon that Earth, but what fell in Rain.

And in two Regions of that Earth, there were Rains continually descending: and they seem to have been of little other use, than for those Rains to come down in. And to say, That by the Earth there, was meant only Regiones cult••, or the inhabited Countries of the Earth; would be an unwarranted restriction of the Scriptures sense. For in the Story of the Creation, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, the Earth, is still put (as we may observe) for the entire Globe of the Earth, or at least for 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, the whole face of the ground, as Gen. 2. 6. Nor may it be said to be spoken ad captum vulgi, as to the common peoples apprehension. For surely they were not such dull Souls, in the first World, but (had Na∣ture stood in that order as the Theory sets it) they would have traced their Rivers to their heads, many hundreds of Years before the Deluge; and have been generally and throughly acquainted, with those Rains by which they were raised. They would then have known as well, that Rivers came from Rains at the ends of the Earth; as we do now, that Gold comes from Guinea, or the distant Indies. Yea, the want of room (they multiplying exceedingly) would have forced them to find out the rainy Regions, while they must have spread their Colonies to the Borders of them.

Secondly, It would tax the Providence of Heaven with Praeposterousness. That is, in reference to one sort of Animals, the Fishes. For then they must have been brought into being, before there were fit Re∣ceptacles for them. I confess, GOD said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, Gen. 1. 20. Which may seem to take off the objected inconvenience. For if so be that the Waters were to bring forth Fishes, before they existed, they could not lack agreeable Mansions upon their first

emergency into being: inasmuch as the same Element was to afford them habitation, from whence they de∣rived their production.

But grant that the Waters were to be productive of Fishes. Yet they might not be so prima vice, at the very first. Or if they did then help towards producing them; it could be only by yielding a rude kind of mat∣ter, out of which they might be formed: such as Adam's Rib was for the making of Eve. And there∣fore though GOD said, at the Twentieth Verse, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life; Yet in the next Verse it is said, That GOD CREATED every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly. Where, if, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, created, does not denote GOD's making them out of pure nothing, (according to the rigid School-notion of Creation) yet it signifies (which is the lowest sense of the word) that he made them ex materia prorsus inha∣bili, out of matter of it self (till the Creator chang'd and disposed it) altogether unfit for such an use. So that albeit the Waters brought forth Fishes, yet they did not do it, by any vis plastica, formative power of their own solely; but so far as they afforded general (and naturally inept) Materials for their composition.

And, in some sense, the Waters (we know) have brought forth Fishes ever since. That is, by cherish∣ing their Spermata, or Spawn committed to them. For they receiving those young and tender rudiments of life (upon their first ejection or exclusion) into their liquid Wombs; do nurse up the naked and imperfect Seminals, through the several Stages of an incompleat 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, or Birth; till they arrive at animation and ma∣turity. But then this implys that the First Fishes came into being by an extraordinary way; and could not be produced as they are now; because there were

none before them, none to propagate them, by casting forth such spermatic Principles. The aboriginal ones (as I may call them) for this very reason, must be made by GOD's immediate hand. Though whether he made them out of nothing, or out of watry Mate∣rials; is all one as to our purpose. For either way it was absolutely necessary, that Rivers should be extant as well as they; that so they might be in a readiness to receive them.

But now according to the Hypothesis under consi∣deration, the Fishes of the two, must exist first, if the Creation (as I hope we have proved) were per∣fected in Six Days. For they were made upon the Fifth Day, says Moses, and how could there be Ri∣vers so timely according to this new contrivance? The Sun it self was created but just the day before. And so what a work must here be done, to make Rivers co∣etaneous with the Fish we speak of? The beams of the Sun must have pierced into the Earth, and that so deep as to have reached the Abyss. And from thence plenty of Vapours must have been exhal'd into the Air. And these Vapours being upon the wing must have taken their flight as far as the Polar Regions. And there they must have been condensed into Rains. And these Rains must have made Bodies of Waters. And these Bodies of Waters must have been so great, as to have slowed along, through or against all obstacles. And these Floods must have been so violent, as to have hollow'd out Chan••ls for themselves all the way they went. And all this in one days space. Otherwise there must have been no Fishes made. Or they must not have been made, when GOD says they were. Or when they were made, there must have been no sutable Receptacles for them. For as for the Wa∣ters of the Abyss, they could by no means serve

for this use, as will appear in the Sequel of our Discourse.

4. But we are to pursue this matter farther yet. There could be no Rivers in due time; that has been evidenced. It is next to be proved that there could be none at all before the Flood.

How Rivers were first made, we have been in∣structed, by Rains descending from above. But whereabouts were these to fall? In the Frigid Zones, or towards the Poles, we are told; and the Scheme representing them, shows as much. But then, me∣thinks, they should have been in great danger, yea, under inavoidable necessity of Freezing. For the Sun (according to this Hypothesis) moving always in the Aequinoctial, before the Flood; he would constantly have been as remote from those raining Regions, as he is now from us in the depth of Winter, when he runs through Capricorn; or which is all one, when the Earth traverseth the opposite Sign. And there being then, no such Clouds as now; nor yet any Seas, by their foggy Vapours to mitigate the keenness of the Air; nor any Hills or Valleys, to cause a warmth by confused and irregular reflections of the Sun-beams: the Frosts within the Polar Circles, must needs have been exceeding sharp and terrible. And so the Fountains that should have fed the whole World with Water, would have been fast seal∣ed up.

And then if the Earth were of an Oval Figure (as this Hypothesis affirms) grant but its Diameter to have been the same at its Aequinoctial parts then, that it is now (as in reason it must be greater, be∣cause it is fallen in since, and so grown less) and this would have ••et its Poles a great deal farther

from the Aequator, and so from the Sun. For to inlarge a Circle, into an Oval Figure, its area must be made a quarter as big again at least one way of its Diameter, as it was before.

[illustration]

Fig: 2 Pag: 115

Thus, if the Circle c d e f be divided into Eight parts, by the parallel lines 1 2 3 4 5 6 7: we shall find that the two Arches a and b, forming the Circle into a moderate Oval; will at the points a and b, include such spaces between them∣selves

and the sides of the Circle c, and e, as shall be equal in breadth, to any two spaces betwixt the equi∣distant Parallels. According to which proportions allowing the Earth to be 7000. Miles in Diameter (though the true measure of it makes it more) and then adding a fourth part to it, to render it Oval, viz. 1750. Mile thickness: the Earth at each Pole, must bear above fourteen Degrees Latitude, or near nine hundred Miles extent, more than if it had been exactly round. And that Hypothesis which removes its Poles so much farther from the Sun; must also allow the cold thereabouts to be proportionably augmented. And though in the hundred and fourth Degree of Latitude (as we must call it) on each side of the Aequator; that is, at the very Poles, there might have been perpetual day; the beams of the Sun reaching a and b, the two Poles of the supposed Oval Earth; and illightning them continually: yet his heat in those places, must needs have been ex∣ceeding languid; forasmuch as his Orb would al∣ways have been half above, and half under the Hori∣zon to them. This will be clear from the Scheme, if we do but conceive the line i d f to be the Aequator, and the Sun ever moving directly in it. For then it must divide him into two Semidiameters g and h, at all times conspicuous at the Poles respectively. That is to say, the Semidiameter g, at the Pole a; and the Semidiame∣ter, h, at the Pole b. But then the Sun's being thus hal∣ved, must of necessity be a mighty diminution of his in∣fluence, especially at so extraordinary a distance. It would have rendred his warmth more faint, than it is with us in the Winter Solsti••e, when he is just a Set∣ting, or half set.

But our business is rather to enquire what the temperature of the Air would have been, nearer

to the polar Circles; where these Rains are conceived to have fallen. Now if these Regions were as re∣mote from the Sun, as we are when he is farthest from us; the Air must have been every whit as freezing there, as it is with us in the very dead of Winter. And that they were some degrees farther from the Sun, I think we need not question. For when the Sun is gone farthest from us, he reaches but to twenty three degrees and an half of Southern Latitude: which added to our fifty two of Northern, the whole amounts but to seventy five and an half. But granting the Earth to have been stretcht out to that length, to which its oval fashion would have extended it; and the supposed dripping Countries in the first World, might easily have been farther from the Sun (and consequently colder) by several Degrees.

In case it be opposed, That nights with us, when the Sun is retired to his utmost point in Capricorn, are some hours longer, than they could be in the prediluvial State; and that this might so far strengthen the Cold, as to make it superior to what it could be in the wet Regions we speak of: I answer, though our Nights be somewhat longer; yet we now dwell among Clouds and Seas, which do very much be∣mist and thicken the Air; and so make it warmer than it could be in the primitive World, where nei∣ther of them were to be ••ound at the rate we have them. And truly the perpetual absence of them, must needs have made the Air more severely nipping in the Frigid Zones then, than it is now. Especially they being shot out so far from the Sun, by virtue of the oblong figure of the first Earth. For even as the Earth is now of a Globular make; the Rains might have fallen in the Frigid Zones for ten Degrees latitude, or six hundred Miles together, and yet

(on the one side have been five Degrees distant from the Poles themselves; and on the other side) have been seventy five Degrees distant from the Sun in the Aequinox; which is as far (to half a Degree) as he is ever remov'd from us. But then if we add better than fourteen Degrees more to each Pole, upon ac∣compt of the Earth's O••iformity; the Rains must be removed a great way farther from the Sun still (per∣haps the whole fourteen Degrees) into Climates most horridly cold and freezing. And though there would have been constant Day about the very Poles; yet in this Oval Earth, there would have been as much Night in the presumed rainy Regions; as in any other part of it whatever. For so we may observe, that those rays of the Sun, which fell upon that Earth, sup∣pose at k and l (whereabouts according to the Hydro∣graphic Scheme in the Theory, we may imagine the Rainy Regions were) could not illighten the opposite side of it at m and n, till such time as those points were turned to him, which they could not be sooner than the point f; where it must have been of the biggest circumference, measuring it in way of Longitude.

Indeed it must be owned that it is not the Sun's distance in Winter, which does only or chiefly make our Climate so cold; but the oblique falling of his beams on the Earth. So that instead of his re∣treating Southward forty seven Degrees (the whole space between the Tropics) were he at the time of his entring into Cancer (when he is nearest to us) but elevated directly as many Degrees, or removed only perpendicularly from us: our Winter (if any) would be very moderate, because his beams would be re∣flected in the same Angles as before. But his re∣cession from us being in way of latitude or declination; ••is Rays must fall the more obliquely upon the Earth.

From which kind of incidence it comes to pass, that they rebound in obtuse Angles, and the heat which should be caused by more direct reverberations, is impaired. As also many of his beams are reflected by the Atmosphaere, another way, and come not at us at all. But then the Sun being farther distant from the rainy Regions in the praediluvian Earth; his beams must have fallen more obliquely upon them still; and so the cold must have been greater there, because his influence was less. And therefore what can be thought, but that the Dewy Rains (if any could have been in those parts) should either in falling have been turned into Hails; or if they fell in Water, have been frozen into Ice. And so instead of stream∣ing along and refreshing the Earth, they must have stood congeled into Mountains. Especially if we consider that extremely cold hanging Mists must have always incircled those Regions above; and so have shut out that sorry kind of influence, which might have been derived from the so remote and feeble Sun.

It may a little inforce what has been said, that all who have held (with the Theorist) the Torrid Zone was uninhabitable by reason of heat; ever believed that the Frigid ones were so, through extremity of cold: as Aristotle, Cicero, Strabo, Mela, Pliny, and others.

To which add, That several Navigators, attempting to find out a nearer course to China, have been frozen to death. Yet they failed nothing so far Northward, as the rainy Regions in the Oval Earth, must have lain. Though without question they chose the most seasonable time for the Enterprize; I mean when the Sun was on this side of the Aequator: where now he may advance (though he could not do

so (says the Theory) before the Flood) twenty three Degrees and an half; which on Earth we reckon about fourteen hundred Miles.

Nor is what Mercator remembers touching Nov•• Zembla, impertinent to the Case. Here the Air is very sharp, and the Cold most vehement and intolerable. And again; their Tents are covered with Whales skins, the Cold being continually very sharp in these parts. Their drink (the Geographer goes on) is warm blood of wild Beasts, or else Ice water; there are no Rivers or Springs, because the violence of the Cold does so shut up the Earth, that Springs of waters cannot break forth. And where Rivers cannot flow out of the Earth for Forst; surely they cannot fall down from Heaven. Yet this Island is extended but form the Seventieth to the Seventy sixth Degree of Northern Latitude, or thereabouts. Speed also informs us, that the Isles of Shetland in the Deucalidonian Sea, are ever covered with Ice and Snow. Yet Ptolomy placeth them but in the Sixty third De∣gree of Latitude; which is a good way on this side of the Arctic Circle. Heylin also says of Island, that it is a damnable cold Country. And Blaeu reports of the Frigid Zones, Perpetuum istic horridumque est fri∣gus, There is perpetual and horrid Cold. Lastly, the Theorist himself so far agrees with us, as to own that the Frigid Zones in the first Earth were uninhabi∣table; and that by reason of† Cold, as well as Moisture.

Notes

• a

  Ecclus. 29. 21.
• Page 206.
• Theor. pa••. 227.
• Page. 227.
• Instit. As∣tron. de 〈◊〉〈◊〉 Glob. c. 4. § 2.
• †

  Pag. 242.