The uses of this Theory for the illustration of Antiquity; The ancient Chaos explain’d; The inhabitability of the Torrid Zone; The change of the Poles of the World; The doctrine of the Mundane Egg; How America was first peopled; How Paradise within the Circle of the Moon.
WE have now dispatch’d the Theory of the Primæval Earth, and reviv’d a forgotten World; ’Tis pity the first and fairest works of Nature should be lost out of the memory of Man, and that we should so much dote upon the Ruines, as never to think upon the Original Structure. As the modern Artists from some broken pieces of an ancient Statue, make out all the other parts and proportions; so from the broken and scatter’d limbs of the first World we have shown you how to raise the whole Fabrick again; and renew the prospect of those pleasant Scenes that first see the light, and first entertain’d Man, when he came to act upon this new-erected Stage.
We have drawn this Theory chiefly to give an account of the Universal Deluge, and of Paradise; but as when one lights a Candle to look for one or two things which they want, the light will not confine it self to those two objects, but shows all the other in the room; so, methinks, we have unexpectedly cast a light upon all Antiquity, in seeking after these two things, or in retrieving the Notion and Doctrine of the Primæval Earth, upon which they depended. For in ancient Learning there are many Discourses, and many Conclusions deliver’d to us, that are so obscure and confus’d, and so remote from the present state of things, that one cannot well distinguish, whether they are fictions or realities; and there is no way to distinguish with certainty, but by a clear Theory upon the same subjects; which showing us the truth directly, and independently upon them, shows us also by reflection, how far they are true or false, and in what sence they are to be interpreted and understood. And the present Theory being of great extent, we shall find it serviceable in many things, for the illustration of such dubious and obscure doctrines in Antiquity.
To begin with their Ancient CHAOS, what a dark story have they made of it, both their Philosophers and Poets; and how fabulous in appearance? ’Tis deliver’d as confus’dly as the Mass it self could be, and hath not been reduc’d to order, nor indeed made intelligible by any. They tell us of moral principles in the Chaos instead of natural, of strife, and discord, and division on the one hand, and Love, Friendship, and Venus on the other; and, after a long contest, Love got the better of Discord, and united the disagreeing principles: This is one part of their story. Then they make the forming of the World out of the Chaos a kind of
We have already explain’d, in several places, the Golden Age of the Ancients, and laid down such grounds as will enable us to discern what is real, and what Poetical, in the reports and characters that Antiquity hath given of those first Ages of the World. And if there be any thing amongst the Ancients that refers to another Earth, as Plato's Atlantis, which he says, was absorpt by an Earthquake, and an inundation, as the Primæval Earth was; or his Æthereal Earth mention’d in his Phædo, which he opposeth to this broken hollow Earth; makes it to have long-liv’d inhabitants, and to be without Rains and Storms, as that first Earth was also; or the pendulous Gardens of Alcinous, or such like, to which nothing answers in present Nature, by reflecting upon the state of the first Earth, we find an easie explication of them. We have also explain’d what the Antichthon and Antichthones of the Ancients were, and what the true ground of that distinction was. But nothing seems more remarkable than the inhabitability of the Torrid Zone, if we consider what a general fame and belief it had amongst the Ancients, and yet in the present form of the Earth we find no such thing, nor any foundation for it. I cannot believe that this was so universally receiv’d upon a slight presumption only, because it lay under the course of the Sun, if the Sun had then the same latitude from the Æquator in his course and motion that he hath now, and made the same variety of seasons; whereby even the honest parts of the Earth have a Winter, or something equivalent to it. But if we apply this to the Primæval Earth, whose posture was direct to the Sun, standing always fixt in its Equinoctial, we shall easily believe that the Torrid Zone was then uninhabitable by extremity of heat, there being no difference of seasons, noge ofr any chan weather, the Sun hanging always over head at the same distance, and in the same direction. Besides this, the descent of the Rivers in that first Earth was such, that they could never reach the Equinoctial parts, as we have shown before; by which means, and the want of Rain, that Region must necessarily be turn’d into a dry Desart. Now this being really the state of the first Earth, the fame and general belief that the Torrid Zone was uninhabitable had this true Original, and continued still with posterity after the Deluge, though the causes then were taken away; for they being ignorant of the change that was made in Nature at that time, kept up still the same Tradition and opinion currant, till observation and experience taught later Ages to correct it. As the true miracles that were in the Christian Church at first, occasion’d a fame and belief of their continuance long after they had really ceast.
This gives an easie account, and, I think, the true cause, of that opinion, amongst the Ancients generally receiv’d, That the Torrid Zone was uninhabitable. I say generally receiv’d; for not only the Poets, both Greek and Latin, but their Philosophers, Astronomers and Geographers, had the same notion, and deliver'd
But to return to Antiquity; We may add under this Head another observation or doctrine amongst the Ancients, strange enough in appearance, which yet receives an easie explication from the preceding Theory; They say, The Poles of the World did once change their situation, and were at first in another posture from what they are in now, till that inclination happen’d; This the ancient Philosophers often make mention of, as Anaxagoras, Empedocles, Diogenes, Leucippus, Democritus; as may be seen in Laertius, and in Plutarch; and the Stars, they say, at first were carried about the Earth in a more uniform manner. This is no more than what we have observ’d and told you in other words, namely, that the Earth chang’d its posture at the Deluge, and thereby made these seeming changes in the Heavens; its Poles before pointed to the Poles of the Ecliptick, which now point to the Poles of the Æquator, and its Axis is become parallel with that Axis; and this is the mystery and interpretation of what they say in other terms; this makes the different aspect of the Heavens, and of its Poles: And I am apt to think, that those changes in the course of the Stars, which the Ancients sometimes speak of, and especially the Ægyptians, if they did not proceed from defects in their Calendar, had no other Physical account than this.
And as they say the Poles of the World were in another situation at first, so at first they say, there was no variety of seasons in the Year, as in their Golden Age. Which is very coherent with all the rest, and still runs along with the Theory. And you may observe, that all these things we have instanc’d in hitherto, are but links of the same chain, in connexion and dependance upon one another. When the Primæval Earth was made out of the Chaos, its form and posture was such, as, of course, brought on all those Scenes which Antiquity hath kept the remembrance of: though now in another state of Nature they seem very strange;
To these illustrations of Antiquity in things Natural and Geographical, give me leave to add, and to resolve from the same Theory, one Historical difficulty; and ’twill seem, ’tis likely, of no less moment than any we have hitherto insisted upon, and I am sure hath exercis’d the Pens of many Learned men with small or no success. ’Tis to give an account of the Original of the people of America, how that Continent was first peopled and inhabited, or any other Continent distinct from ours, wherein we suppose Adam to have liv’d, and to have propagated his posterity. ’Tis certain, that all Mankind came from one Head, or from one common Parent; Certain, I say, according to the History of Moses, confirm'd
We see then the great difficulty concerning the peopling the several Continents and Islands of the Earth, and particularly of America, easily remov’d by this Hypothesis; The propagation of Mankind, and of all sorts of Animals into those several portions of the World, may readily be understood, if you admit the true form of the first Earth: But without that ’tis an endless controversie, as those commonly are that proceed upon a false supposition. I will not examine here the several projects and methods that have been propos’d, some by one Author, and some by another, for getting people into America; they confute one another, methinks, very well; and to show, as we have done, that the ground they go upon is imaginary, is a compendious way of confuting them all together. However, those that will not admit our Hypothesis, concerning the continuity and uniformity of the first Earth, stand oblig’d still to give us an account of the propagation of Mankind from one Head, and how the posterity of Adam got into America.
’Twill be said, possibly, that this doth not intirely remove the difficulty, because it returns again after the Flood; and then we suppose the Earth broken into Continents and Islands, in the same manner that it is now; How then did the posterity of Noah get into America, to people it after the Flood? I do not know that ever they got into America till Columbus went thither in the last Age, who, for any thing I know, was the first of Noah's progeny that ever set foot in that Continent. Scripture tells us, that all Mankind rise from one Head, namely, from Adam, and his fault was derived to posterity, but no where that Noah was the common Head of Mankind that hath been since his time, nor does any doctrine of faith, that I know of, depend upon that supposition. When the great frame of the Earth broke at the Deluge, Providence fore-see into how many Continents it would be divided after the ceasing of the Flood, and accordingly, as we may reasonably suppose, made provision to save a remnant in every Continent, that the race of Mankind might not be quite extinct in any of them. What
To conclude all, we see this Theory, which was drawn only by a thred of Reason, and the Laws of Nature, abstractly from all Antiquity, notwithstanding casts a light upon many passages there, which were otherwise accounted fictions, or unintelligible truths; and though we do not alledge these as proofs of the Theory, for it carries its own light and proof with it, yet whether we will or no, they do mutually confirm, as well as illustrate, one another; And ’tis a pleasure also, when one hath wrought out truth by meer dint of thinking, and examination of causes, and propos’d it plainly and openly, to meet with it again amongst the Ancients, disguis’d, and in an old fashion’d dress: scarce to be known or discover’d, but by those that before-hand knew it very well. And it would be a further pleasure and satisfaction, to have render’d those Doctrines and Notions, for the future, intelligible and useful to others, as well as delightful to our selves.
