from it that they knew nothing at all of them and the first Writing they used was only the simple Pictures and Gravings of the things they would represent Beasts Birds and the like which way of Expression was afterwards called Hieroglyphick But this fell into disuse when Letters were afterwards discovered they being in all respects a far more excellent and noble Invention We see therefore that there were several Reasons why those early Ages could not transmit Accounts of the state of the Earth and of these Marine Bodies in their times down to the succeeding Generations So that these having little more to trust to than their own Imagination and no surer a Guide in their Reasonings about these things than bare Conjecture 't was no wonder that they fell into gross and palpable Mistakes concerning them Nor much more wonder is it that an Epicurus one who could ever espouse a Notion so enormously absurd and senseless as that the World was framed by Chance that this vast regular and most stupendous Pile was owing to no higher a Principle than a fortuitous Congress of Atoms and that either there was no God at all or which is much the same thing that he was an impotent and lazy Being and wholly without concern for the Affairs of this lower World I say 't is in no wise strange that such a one should believe as he did that things were blindly shuffled and hurled about in the World that the Elements were at constant Strife and War with each other that in some places the Sea invaded the Land in others the Land got ground of the Sea that all Nature was in an Hurry and Tumult and that as the World was first made so should it be again dissolved and destroyed by Chance that it had alreaready made large Advances that way being infirm and worn with Age shattered and crazy and would in time dwindle and fall back again into its original Chaos Did Gravity the Inclination of Bodies towards the same common Center to which Inclination they owe their respective order and site in regard of each other very many of their Motions and Actions and in a great measure their present Constitution did this I say happen from so contingent precarious and inconstant Causes as many have believed or did it stand upon so â—icklish and tottering a Foundation as some Mens fancy hath placed it 't would be no wonder should it frequently vary its Center swerve and shift upon every turn and that there should ensue thereupon not only such Motions and Alterations of the Bounds of the Sea as they imagine but likewise many other and not less pernicious Perturbations of the course of even universal Nature Or was the Universe left to its own Conduct and Management the whole Mass of created Matter to its proper Disposition and Tendency were there no restraint of Bounds to the Earth nor Curb to the fury of the Ocean was there not One who had set bars and doors to it and said hitherto shalt thou come but no farther and here shall thy proud Waves be staid then indeed might we well expect such Vicissitudes and Confusions of things such Justlings and Clashings in Nature such Depredations and Changes of Sea and Land But if the same mighty Power which in the beginning produced this vast System of Bodies out of Nothing and disposed and ranged them into the most excellent and beautiful order we now behold which at first framed an Earth of a Constitution sutable to the innocent state of its primitive Inhabitants and afterwards when Man had degenerated and quitted that Innocence altered that Constitution of the Earth by means of the Deluge and reduced it to the Condition 't is now in thereby adapting it more nearly to the present Exigencies of things to the laps'd and frail state of humane Nature If that same Power be yet at the Helm if it preside in the Government of the Natural World and hath still the same peculiar Care of Mankind and for their sake of the Earth as heretofore all which shall be evidently made out then may we very reasonably conclude 't will also continue to preserve this Earth to be a convenient Habitation for the future Races of Mankind and to furnish forth all things necessary for their use Animals Vegetables and Minerals as long as Mankind it self shall endure that is till the Design and Reason of its Preservation shall cease and till then so steady are the Purposes of Almighty Wisdom so firm establish'd and constant the Laws whereby it supports and rules the Universe the Earth Sea and all natural things will continue in the state wherein they now are without the least Senescence or Decay without jarring disorder or invasion of one another without inversion or variation of the ordinary Periods Revolutions and Successions of things and we have the highest security imaginable that While the Earth remaineth Seed-time and Harvest and Cold and Heat and Summer and Winter and Day and Night shall not cease And whatever may be urged in behalf of the Ancients I cannot well see I confess what can be said for the later Authors who have embrac'd the same Tenets more than that these Learned Men took up those Tenets on trust their over-great deference to the Dictates of Antiquity betraying them into a persuasion of such Changes in the Earth I have given my Reasons above why I cannot think the Ancients competent Judges in this Case We have at this time of day better and more certain means of Information than they had and therefore it were to have been wish'd that these Gentlemen had not thus obsequiously followed them but gone another way to work It would certainly have been much better had they taken the pains to have look'd a little into Matter of Fact had they consulted History and Geography in order duely to acquaint themselves with the past and present state of the terraqueous Globe and not to have pass'd Sentence till they had first compared the most ancient Descriptions of Countries with the Countries themselves as now they stand Nay had they but read and attended to the Accounts which the very Authors from whom they borrow these Opinions have left us they might have discovered even from them the Errors and Oversights of their Authors and have learn'd that the Face of Sea and Land is the very same at this day that it was when those Accounts were compiled and that the Globe hath not sustained any considerable Alterations either in the whole or any of its Parts in all this time Those who can content themselves with a Superficial View of Things who are satisfied with contemplating them in gross and can acquiesce in a general and less nice Examination of them whose Thoughts are narrow and bounded and their Prospects of Nature scanty and by piecemeal must needs make very short and defective Judgments and oftentimes very erroneous and wide of truth Some fanciful Men have expected nothing but Confusion
of Anatolia by the Caicus Hermus Cayster and the other Rivers which pass through them To be short That no Island or Country in the whole World was ever raised by this means notwithstanding that very many Authors and some of considerable note have believed that all the abovementioned Countries were so raised nay to so strange a height of Extravagance do some otherwise Learned and Curious Persons run when they indulge Fancy too far and rely wholly upon Probabilities and Conjectures there is hardly any one single Island or Country all round the Globe that one Writer or other hath not thought to have been formed after this manner or at least some very large part of it That there is no authentick Instance of any considerable tract of Land that was thrown up from the bottom of the Sea by an Earthquake or other subterranean Explosion so as to become an Island and be render'd habitable That Rhodus Thera Therasia and several other Islands which were supposed by the Ancients and upon their Authority by later Authors to have been thus raised had really no such Original but have stood out above Water as long as the rest of their Fellow Islands and stand now just as the Universal Deluge left them That as to that affection of Bodies which is called their Gravity it clearly â—urpasses all the Powers of meer Nature and all the Mechanism of Matter That as any one Body or part of Matter cannot be the Cause of its own Gravity so no more can it ever possibly be the Cause of the Gravity of another Body or part of Matter That neither the Earth's diurnal Revolution upon its Axis nor any magnetick Effluvia of the Earth nor the Air or Atmosphere which environs the Earth nor the AEther or Materia subtilis of the Cartesians in what manner soever moved or agitated all which have been proposed by several Learned Men as the Causes of Gravity nor any other Fluid or Matter whatever can of it self produce such an Effect as is that of the Gravity of Bodies That it does not proceed from the Efficiency of any such contingent and unstable Agents but stands on a Basis more firm and stedfast being intirely owing to the direct Concourse of the Power of the Author of Nature immediately in his hand and the main Engine whereby this stupendous Fabrick of the Universe is managed and supported the prime Hinge whereon the whole frame of Nature moves and is principally concerned if not the sole Efficient in the most remarkable Phoenomena of the Natural World which should Gravity once cease or be withdrawn would instantly shiver into Millions of Atoms and relapse into its primitive Confusion That the common Center of Gravity in the terraqueous Globe is steady immovable and not liable to any accidental Transposition nor hath it ever shifted or changed its Station And that there is no declination of Latitude nor variation of the Elevation of the Pole notwithstanding what some Learned Men have asserted What concerns the raising of new Mountains Deterrations or the Devolution of Earth down upon the Valleys from the Hills and higher Grounds and Islands torn off from the main Continent by Earthquakes or by the furious and impetuous insults of the Sea these I say will fall more properly under our Consideration on another Occasion And for the Mutations of lesser moment which some have fancied to have happened within this Interval I mean for the last four thousand Years since the Deluge I chuse rather to pass them over at present than to crowd and encumber this short Tract with the account of them I must needs freely own that when I first directed my Thoughts this way 't was matter of real Admiration to me to find that a Belief of so many and such great Alterations in the Earth had gained so large footing and made good its ground so many Ages in the World there being not the least signs nor footsteps of any such thing upon the face of the whole Earth no tolerable Foundation for such a Belief either in Nature or History But I soon saw very well that the Moderns generally entertained it meerly upon the Credit and Tradition of the Ancients and that without due Examination or Enquiry into the Truth and Probability of it and 't was not long e're I discovered what it was that so generally misled the Ancients into these Mistakes But of that more by and by Those ancient Pagan Writers were indeed very much excusable as to this matter Philosophy was then again in its Infancy there remaining but few marks of the old Tradition and those much obliterated and defaced by Time so that they had only dark and faint Idea's narrow and scanty Conceptions of Providence and were ignorant of its Intentions and of the methods of its Conduct in the Government and Preservation of the Natural World They wanted a longer Experience of these things a larger stock of Observations and Records of the state of the Earth before their times having as things then stood nothing to assist them in their Enquiries besides their own Guesses and Fancy For their Progenitors and those who had lived in the earlier Ages were almost entirely taken up with Business of another kind That fatal Calamity the Deluge had wrought such a Change that they beheld every where a new face of things and the Earth did not then teem forth its Encrease as formerly of its own accord but required Culture and the Assistance of their Hands much more than before it did The provision of Bread for Food Clothing to ward off the Injury and Inclemency of the Air and other like Employs for the Comfort and Support of Life being of indispensible necessity were to be first look'd after and these Employs being then for the most part new to them and such as they were unskill'd in were alone enough to take up the greatest part of their time The methods they used of Agriculture and other Arts of like importance were so aukward and tedious as to afford them little leisure for Works of the Brain for History or Contemplations of that nature And till better Experience had led their Posterity to the Improvements of Arts till the Plow and other useful Instruments were found out and they had learn'd more compendious and expeditious ways of dispatching those Affairs whereby they shortned their Labours and so gained time there was no shew of Learning or Matters of Speculation among them and we hear little or nothing of Writing nay 't was a very considerable time before Letters themselves were found out I know very well there are some who talk of Letters before the Deluge but that is a matter of meer Conjecture and I think nothing can be peremptorily determined either the one way or the other though I shall shew that 't is highly probable they had none Be that how it will I shall plainly make out that the Ages which next succeeded the Deluge had none so far
he tells us that after the Deluge was over and Noah and his Family come forth of the Ark He builded an Altar unto the Lord and offered burnt-offerings on the Altar and the â—ord smelled a sweet savour and the Lord said in his heart I will not again Curse the Ground any more neither will I again smite any more every thing living as I have done Wherein he plainly refers to the Curse denounc'd above at the Apostacy of Adam implying that it was not fulfilled till the Deluge And a little after he as plainly intimates that the fulfilling of it lay in the Destruction of the Earth then wrought For speaking again of the same thing instead of the Expression Curse the Ground here used he makes use of Destroy the Earth The whole Passage runs thus And I will establish my Covenant with you neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood neither shall there any more be a Flood to destroy the Earth Nor is it indeed in any wise strange that this Curse had not it's Effect sooner especially since 't was not limited to any time There are so many Presidents on Record in Holy Writ of this way of proceeding that no one can be well ignorant of them so that I shall not need to charge this place with more than one and that shall be the Case of Ham for which we are likewise beholden to the same Author Moses This Person by his indiscreet and unnatural Irrision and exposing of his Father incurrs his Indignation and Curse But which is very remarkable Noah does not lay the Curse upon Ham who was actually guilty of the Crime whether out of greater Tenderness he being of the two nearer allied unto him or for what other reason I shall not here enquire but transferrs it to Canaan Cursed be Canaan a Servant of Servants shall he be to his Brethren to Shem and to Iaphet Nay which is still more this was never inflicted upon Canaan in person but upon his Posterity and that not till many Generations afterwards at such time as the Israelites returning out of Egypt possest themselves of the Country of the Canaanites and made them their Servants The Story is so well known that I shall not need to point it out to the Reader who may peruse it at his leisure 'T was well onwards of a thousand Years before ever this Curse began to take effect before the Canaanites were brought under Servitude by the Israelites who were descended from Shem and a great many more before 't was finally accomplished and they subjected unto the Posterity of Iaphet To conclude 't was really a longer time before this than it was before the other the Curse upon the Earth was fully brought about To proceed therefore to the other Point the Tillage of the Earth before the Deluge That there was Tillage bestowed upon it Moses does indeed intimate in general and at large but whether it was bestowed on all or only upon some parts of that Earth as also what sort of Tillage that was and what Labour it cost is not exprest so that for all this we are at liberty and may use our Discretion For the present I must pass by the Enquiry but in due place I hope to give some Satisfaction in it and to shew that their Agriculture was nothing near so laborious and troublesome nor did it take up so much time as ours doth That 's a Consequence of the Proof of the greater Fertility of that Earth it being plain that the more it exerted that Fertility the less need there was of Manure of Culture or Humane Industry to excite and promote it Nor can any Man reasonably suspect because of this mention of Tillage that the Curse upon the Ground was come on or that the primitive Exuberance of the Earth was lessened and abridged before the Deluge for Moses makes mention of Tillage before ever Adam was created There was not says he a man to till the ground and consequently there would have been requisite such a Tillage as this which he speaks of in these three Chapters tho' the Curse had never been denounc'd or Man had not fallen But 't is highly probable that upon Adam's Disobedience Almighty God chased him out of Paradise the fairest and most delicious part of that Earth into some other the most barren and unpleasant of all the whole Globe the more effectually to signifie his Displeasure and to convince that unhappy Man how great a Misfortune and Forfeiture he had incurred by his late Offence And here above all other Parts of the Earth there would be Work and Employ for him and for his Son Cain And thus much may serve for the present to shew that my Account of the Antediluvian Earth is so far from interfereing with that which Moses hath given us that it holds forth a natural and unforc'd Interpretation of his Sense on this Subject There are a few other Passages in the same Author which may require some Explication but they are none of them such that a Reader of moderate Understanding may not easily clear them without my Assistance so that I shall not crowd this Piece with them for I fear 't will be thought that I have already taken too great a liberty The Compass that I am confined unto by the Rules of this kind of Writing is so narrow that I am forced to pass over many things in silence and can but just touch upon others To lay down every thing at length and in its full light so as to obviate all Exceptions and remove every Difficulty would carry me out too far beyond the Measures allowed to a Tract of this Nature That 's the Business of the Larger Work of which this is only the Module or Platform In that Work I hope to make amends for these Omissions and particularly shall consider What was the immediate Instrument or Means whereby the Stone and other solid Matter of the Antediluvian Earth was dissolved and reduced to the Condition mentioned Consect 2. of this Part. Why the Shells Teeth Bones and other parts of Animal Bodies as also the Trunks Roots and other parts of Vegetables were not dissolved as well as the Stone and other Mineral Solids of that Earth Of this I shall assign a plain and Physical Reason taken meerly from the Cause of the Solidity of these Mineral Bodies which I shew to be quite different from that whereunto Vegetables and Animals owe the Cohaesion of their parts and that this was suspended and ceased at the time that the Water of the Deluge came forth which the other I mean the Cause of the Cohaesion of the Parts of Animals and Vegetables did not with the reason of this What was the Reason that in case the Terrestrial Globe was entirely dissolved and there be now and was then a Space or Cavity in the Central parts of it so large as to give reception to that mighty Mass of
communicates and stands at an AEquilibrium with that subterranean Conservatory is by that means restored back to the Abyss whence it returns again in a continual Circulation to the Surface of the Earth in Vapours and Springs That the final Cause of this Distribution of Water in such quantity to all parts of the Earth indifferently in Springs Rivers and Rain and of this perpetual Circulation and Motion of it is the Propagation of Bodies Animals Vegetables and Minerals in a continued Succession That for Animals they either feed upon Vegetables immediately or which comes to the same at last upon other Animals which have fed upon them so that Vegetables are the first and main Fund and fit Matter being supplied unto these Provision is thereby made for the Nourishment of Animals these Vegetables being no other than so many Machines serving to derive that Matter from the Earth to digest and prepare it for their food leisurely and by little and little as they can admit and dispose of it and as it is brought to them by the Ministration of this Fluid That Vegetables being naturally fix'd and tyed alâ—ays to the same place and so not able as Animals are to shift and seek out after Matter proper for their Increment 't was indispensably necessary that it should be brought to them and that there should be some Agent thus ready and at hand in all places to do them that Office and so carry on this great and important Work For this Matter being impotent sluggish and inactive hath no more power to stir or move it self to these Bodies than they themselves have to move unto it and therefore it must have lain eternally confined to its Beds of Earth and then none of these Bodies could ever have been formed were there not this or the like Agent to educe it thence and bear it unto them Nor does the Water thus hurried about from place to place serve only to carry the Matter unto these Bodies but the parts of it being very voluble and lubricous as well as fine and small it easily insinuates it self into and placidly distends the Tubes and Vessels of Vegetables and by that means introduces into them the Matter it bears along with it conveying it to the several Parts of them where each Part by a particular Mechanism in the Structure of it detaches and assumes those Particles of the Mass so conveyed which are proper for the Nutrition and Augmentation of that Part incorporating these with it and letting all the rest pass on with the Fluid those Particles which are either superfluous and more than the parts of the Plant can admit and manage at one time or that are not suitable and proper for the Nourishment of any of the parts of a Plant of that kind passing out at the Extremities of it along with the Water And this latter Office it does likewise to Animals Water and other Fluids serving to convey the Matter whereby they are nourished from their Stomachs and Guts through the Lacteals and other finer Vessels to the several parts of their Bodies But the Formation of Animals and Vegetables being a thing somewhat foreign to my present purpose I shall adjourn the fuller Consideration of it to another Occasion How far Water is concerned in the Formation of Minerals will appear more at large in the succeeding Part of this Work That 't is this Vapour or subtile Fluid that ascending thus incessantly out of the Abyss and pervading the Strata of Gravel Sand Earth Stone and the rest by degrees rots and decays the Bones Shells Teeth and other parts of Animals as also the Trees and other Vegetables which were lodged in those Strata at the Deluge this Fluid by its continual Attrition as it passes successively by them fretting the said Bodies by little and little wearing off and dissipating their constituent Corpuscles and at length quite dissolving and destroying their Texture That yet it hath not this Effect indifferently upon all of them those which happened to be reposed in the firmer and compacter Strata e.g. of Marble the closer kinds of Sand-stone Chalk and the like being thereby protected in great measure from its Attacks it passing through these only in lesser quantity and that slowly and with difficulty so that its Motion here being more feeble and languid the Shells and other Bodies enclosed in these are usually found very firm and entire many of them retaining even their natural Colours to this day though they have lain thus above four thousand years and may doubtless endure much longer even as long as those Strata to which they owe their Preservation shall themselves endure and continue entire and undisturbed whilst those which were lodged in Marle Sand Gravel and the like more loose and pervious Matter are so rotted and decayed that they are now not at all or very difficultly distinguishable from the Marle or other Matter in which they lye Not but that there are sometimes found even in these laxer Strata Shells Teeth and other Bodies that are still tolerably firm and that have escaped pretty safe but these are only such as are of a more than ordinary robust and durable Constitution whereby they were enabled the better to withstand the repeated Assaults of the permeating Fluid and to maintain their Integrity whilst the other tenderer kinds perish'd and were destroyed That this same subtile Fluid exerts the same power upon the Surface of the Earth that it does in the Bowels of it and as it is instrumental to the Formation of Bodies here so is it likewise by a different Operation which I have not room to describe in this place of the Destruction of them and that Corrosion and Dissolution of Bodies even the most solid and durable which is vulgarly ascrib'd to the Air is caused meerly by the Action of this Matter upon them the Air being so far from injuring and preying upon the Bodies it environs that it contributes to their Security and Preservation by impeding and obstructing the Action of this Matter and were it not for the Interposition of the Air they could never be able to make so long and vigorous Resistance as now they do That this Subterranean Heat or Fire which thus elevates the Water out of the Abyss being in any part of the Earth stop'd and so diverted from its ordinary course by some accidental Glut or Obstruction in the Pores or Passages through which it used to ascend to the Surface and being by that means preternaturally assembled in greater quantity than usual into one place it causes a great Rarifaction and Intumescence of the Water of the Abyss putting it into very great Commotions and Disorders and at the same time making the like Effort upon the Earth which is expanded upon the face of the Abyss it occasions that Agitation and Concussion of it which we call an Earthquake That this Effort is in some Earthquakes so vehement that it splits and tears the Earth
reason that these seldom or never happen but in the Summer time when the hotter the Weather is the greater and more frequent are the Damps That besides this of the Sun they are also sometimes raised by the Accession of other Heat and particularly by the Fires which the Miners use in the Grooves for breaking the Rocks and for other Ends. That the Quantity of mineral Matter thus raised is according as there is more or less of it in those Mines especially of Sulphur Nitre and the like subtile and easily moveable Minerals and as the Heat is there more or less intense That this mineral Matter being sustained in the Air there and floating about in the Mines and Pits it hits upon and affixes it self unto the Workmens Tools to their Cloaths Candles or any other bodies that occurr That where there is any considerable quantity of Sulphur in the Exhalation thus floating too and again it takes fire at the Candles burns with a blue Flame and emits a strong sulphureous Smell That these Damps differ in their Effects according to the different Minerals that are the Cause of them ours in England being generally reducible to two kinds whereof one is called the Suffocating the other the Fulminating Damp. That the former of these extinguisheth the Candles makes the Workmen faint and vertiginous and when very great suffocates and kills them The Fulminating Damp will take fire at a Candle or other Flame and upon its Accension gives a Crack or Report like the Discharge of a Gun and makes likewise an Explosion so forcible as sometimes to kill the Miners break their Limbs shake the Earth and force Coles Stones and other Bodies even though they be of very great Weight and Bulk from the bottom of the Pit or Mine up through the Shaft discharging them out at the Top or Mouth of it sometimes striking off the Turn which stands thereon and mounting all up to a great height in the Air this being succeeded by a Smoak which both in Smell and all other respects resembles that of fired Gunpowder and is as may appear from these and other Phaenomena of it nothing but an Exhalation of Nitre and Sulphur which are the principal Ingredients of that Composition we call Gunpowder That as these Damps are caused by Heat so they are remedied by withdrawing that Heat and by conveying forth the mineral Steams which the Miners effect by Perflations with large Bellows by letting down Tubes and sinking new Shafts whereby they give free passage and motion to the Air which ventilates and cools the Mines purges and frees them from these mineral Exhalations That at such time as the Sun's power is so great as thus to penetrate the exteriour Parts of the Earth to disturb these mineral Particles and raise them from out the Strata wherein they lay it does not only sustain them in the Air of Grotto's Mines and other Caverns under ground but likewise bears them out through the Mouths of those Caverns and through the ordinary Cracks and Pores of the Earth mounting them up along with the watery Exhalations into the Atmosphere especially Sulphur Nitre and the other more light and active Minerals where they form Meteors and are particularly the Cause of Thunder and of Lightning That this mineral Matter requiring a considerable degree of Heat to raise it the most Northern Climes and the Winter Seasons are for that reason little or not at all troubled with Thunder it seldom happening in any great measure but in the hotter Months and in the Southern Countries as in Congo Guinea and other Parts of Africa and in the Southern Parts of Asia and America where 't is during the Season of their great Rains horribly loud and astonishing and as much exceeds the Thunder of these Northern Climes as the Heat there exceeds that of these Climes That the mineral Matter which is discharged forth of Vulcano's and other like Spiracles and out of the Thermae ascends up into the Air and contributes to the Formation of these Meteors That likewise the Nitre and Sulphur which are belch'd forth of the Earth at the time of Earthquakes the Countries which are most obnoxious to this Malady abounding as I have already intimated with these two Minerals particularly in such plenty as to thicken and darken the Air constitute there a kind of AErial Gunpowder and are the Cause of that dismal and terrible Thunder and Lightning which commonly if not always attend Earthquakes even when all was till then calm and clear and not the least Sign or Presage of any such thing before the Earthquake began That as the mineral Eruptions which happen during Earthquakes and the Steams and Damps of Mines are detrimental to Health hurtful and injurious to the Bodies of Men and other Animals so likewise are the Mineral Exhalations which are thus raised by the Sun out of the Body of the Earth up into the Atmosphere but more especially in those Parts of it where there are Arsenical or other like noxious Minerals lodged underneath That these mingling with and being disseminated in the Air and passing together with it into the Lungs in Respiration are by them transmitted into the Body where they infect the Mass of Blood create Perturbations and disorderly Motions therein and lay the Foundation of Pestilential Fevers and other malignant Distempers That 't is for this reason that the Southern Countries are more frequently molested and incommoded by these Distempers than the Northern are and that they are more rise and stirring in the hotter Months in Iuly and August than in the colder December Ianuary and the rest That 't is indeed true that in September and October which are none of the hottest Months these Diseases are oftentimes as epidemical as in the precedent and warmer Season and do not abate and remit in proportion to the remission of the Sun's Heat in those Months but this is purely accidental and happens meerly because the Heat within the Surface of the Earth is not liable to so sudden Vicissitudes or so quickly spent and dispersed as is that which is upon it and in the Air. This therefore the Pores of the Earth remaining still as free and open as ever continues to send out the mineral Steams as before but in lesser and lesser quantity answerably to the gradual Diminution of this Heat Which Steams though now sent up to the Surface of the Earth only in lesser plenty may be much more offensive and mischievous than in the hotter Months when it came forth in far greater For the Sun's power being in those Months also greater it then straitways hurries these Steams up into the Atmosphere whereas in the colder its power being lessened it cannot bear it up so fast so that it stays and stagnates near the Surface of the Earth swimming and floating about in that Region of the Air wherein we breath where it must needs be much more pernicious than when born up to a greater