out after great Rains which they call Gypsies which jet and spout up a great height Neither is this Eruption of Springs after long Rains proper and peculiar only to the Wolds of Yorkshire but common to other Countreys also as Dr. Childrey witnesseth in these words Sometimes there breaks out water in the manner of a sudden Land-flood out of certain Stones that are like Rocks standing aloft in open Fields near the rising of the River Kynet in Kent which is reputed by the Common People a fore-runner of Dearth That the sudden eruption of Springs in places where they use not always to run should be a sign of Dearth is no wonder For these unusual Eruptions which in Kent we call Nailbourns are caused by extream gluts of Rain or lasting wet Weather and never happen but in wet years witness the year 1648. when there were many of them and to our purpose very remarkable it was that in the year 1654. several Springs and Rivulets were quite dried up by reason of the precedent Drought which raged most in 1651 1652 and 1653. As the Head of the Stour that rises near Elham in Kent and runs through Canterbury was dry for some Miles space and the like happened to the Stream that crosseth the Road-way between Sittingburn and Canterbury at Ospring near Feversham which at other times ran with a plentiful Current but then wholly failed So we see that it is not infrequent for new Springs to break out in wet years and for old ones to fail in great Droughts And Strabo in his first Book out of Xanthus the Lydian tells us That in the time of Artaxerxes there was so great a Drought that Rivers and Lakes and Wells of water failed and were dried up I cannot here also forbear to add the probable account he Dr. Witty gives of the Supply of the Spring-well on the Castle-hill at Scarborough at which I confess I was somewhat puzzled This Well saith he though it be upon the top of the Rock not many yards deep and also upon the edge of the Cliff is doubtless supplied by secret Channels within the Ground that convey the Rain and Showers into it being placed on a dependent part of the Rock near unto which there are also Cellars under an old ruinated Chappel which after a great Rain are full of Water but are dried up in a long Drought As for what is said concerning the River Volgas pouring out so much water into the Caspian Sea as in a years time would make up a mass of water equal to the Globe of the Earth and of the hourly effusions of the River Po in Italy which Ricciolus hath computed to amount to 18000000 cubical Paces of water Whence a late learned Writer hath probably inferred that all the Rivers in the World together do daily discharge half an Ocean of waters into the Sea I must confess my self to be unsatisfied therewith I will not question their Calculations but I suspect they are out in their Hypotheses The Opinion of Mr. Edmund Halley that Springs and Rivers owe their Original to Vapours condensed on the sides of Mountains rather than unto Rains I acknowledge to be very ingenious grounded upon good Observations and worthy of its Author and I will not deny it to be in part true in those hot Countreys in the Torrid Zone and near it where by reason of the great Heats the Vapours are more copiously exhaled out of the Earth and its likely carried up high in the â—â—rm of Vapours The inferiour Aâ—r at least is so charged with them and by that means so very moist that in some places their Knives rust even in their Pockets and in the Night so very fresh and cold partly also by reason of the length of the Nights that exposing the Body to it causes Colds and Catarrhs and is very dangerous Whence also their Dews are so great as in good measure to recompence the want of Rain and serve for the nourishment of Plants as they do even in Spain it self I shall first of all propose this Opinion in the Words of the Author and then discourse a little upon it After he had enumerated many of the high Ridges and Tracts of Mountains in the four Quarters of the World he thus proceeds Each of which far surpass the usual height to which the Aqueous Vapours of themselves ascend and on the tops of which the Air is so cold and rarified as to retain but a small part of those Vapours that shall be brought thither by the Winds Those Vapours therefore that are raised copiously in the Sea and by the Winds are carried over the low Lands to those Ridges of Mountains are there compelled by the stream of the Air to mount up with it to the tops of the Mountains where the water presently precipitates gleeting down by the Crannies of the Stone and part of the Vapour entring into the Cavities of the Hills the water thereof gathers as in an Alembick into the Basons of Stone it finds which being once filled all the overpâ—us of water that comes thither runs over by the lowest place and breaking out by the sides of the Hills forms single Springs Many of these running down by the Valleys or Guts between the Ridges of the Hills and coming to unite form little Rivulets or Brooks Many of these again meeting in one common Valley and gaining the plain ground being grown less rapid become a River and many of these being united in one common Channel make such Streams as the Rhine the Rhosne and the Danube which latter one would hardly think the Collection of Water condensed out of Vapour unless we consider how vast a Tract of Ground that River drains and that it is the sum of all those Springs which break out on the South side of the Carpathian Mountains and on the North side of the immense Ridge of the Alps which is one continued Chain of Mountains from Switzerland to the Black Sea And it may almost pass for a Rule that the magnitude of a River or the quantity of water it evacuates is proportionable to the length and height of the Ridges from whence its Fountains arise Now this Theory of Springs is not a bare Hypothesis but founded on Experience which it was my luck to gain in my abode at St. Helena where in the night time on the tops of the Hills about Eight hundred yards above the Sea there was so strange a condensation or rather precipitation of the Vapours that it was a great impediment to my Celestial Observations for in the clear Sky the Dew would â—all â—o â—ait as to cover each half quarter of an hour my Glasses with little drops so that I was necessitated to wipe them off so often and my Paper on which I wrote my Observations would immediately be so wet with the Dew that it would not bear Ink by which it may be supposed how fast the water gathers in those mighty high Ridges I but
and therefore I presume that all the rest do so too as the Inabitants affirmed But in the Summer time after the Snow hath been some time melted their Streams decay again notwithstanding any Vapours condensed upon them proportionable to the Droughts neither are there any Floods but upon falls of Rain 3. That the Snow dissolved and soaking into the Earth is the Original of the Alpine Springs a probable Argument may be taken from the colour of the Water of those Rivers which descend from the Alps at least on this Northern side which I observed to be of a Sea-green even to a great distance from their Heads which whence can it proceed unless from the Nitrous Particles of the Snow water of which they consist Another also from the Bronchocele or gutturine tumour an Endemial Disease of the Natives of those parts which Physicians and Naturalists attribute to the water they drink not without good reason because say they it consists of melted Snow which gives it that malignant quality Scaliger speaking of this Disease Saith Id ab aqua fit è nivibus liquefactis quae multum terrestris crudi continet But because Iulius Palmarius may possibly be in the right who imputes this Disease to the steams of the Minerals especially Mercurial wherewith these Mountains abound which insect the waters and render them noxious to the nervous parts I shall not insist upon this particular In confirmation of what I have said concerning the Original of the Alpine Springs I shall add the Opinion of the Learned Alphonsus Borellus concerning the Fountains springing up or issuing out of the sides of Mount Aetna in Sicily They are probably saith he either generated or at least encreased from the melting of the Snow which doth perpetually occupy the top of the Mountain And this is manifest in that they are not dimished nor decrease in Summer as alsewhere it happens but often flow more plentifully Lib. De incendiis Aetnae What Mr. Halley saith of Springs that they are perpetual and without diminution even when no Rain falls for a long space of time If he understands it generally of all Springs I add that are accounted quick ones too I deny his assertion that some there may be of that nature I grant a reason whereof may be given viz. that the Out-let is too small to empty the water of all the Veins and Earth that lye above it in a long time In our Native Country of England there are living and lasting Springs rising at the feet of our small Hills and Hillocks to which I am sure the Vapours contribute very little which is so obvious to every man that I think I need not spend time to prove it Yet must I not dissemble or deny that in the Summer time the Vapours do ascend or are carried up in that form by the sides of the Mountains to their highest tops and above them for there falls no Snow there in the heat of Summer and that which lies there is for the most part dissolved But that Rain falls plentifully there I my self can witness having been on the two highest Tops of the Mount Iura which keeps the Snow all Winter on the one called Thuiri in a Thunder shower and on the other called la Dolaz in a smart and continuing Rain So that I will not deny but in Summer time the Vapours may contribute somewhat to the Springs as I have elsewhere intimated Clouds almost continually hanging upon the tops of the Mountains and the Sun having there but little power And now that I am discoursing of these things give me leave to set down an Observation I made in the last great Frost the sharpest that was ever known in the memory of Man which I had before met with in Books but did not give firm credit to that is that notwithstanding the violence of the Frost all the Springs about us brake out and ran more plentifully than usually they did at any other time which I knew not what to impute to unless perchance the close stopping the Pores of the Earth and keeping in that part which at other times was wont to vapour away which Account I neither then could nor can yet fully acquiesce in To this I will here add an Abstract of a Letter written by my honoured Friend Dr. Tancred Robinson YOV may peradventure meet with some opposition against your Hypothesis of Fountains though indeed I am more and more confirm'd in your Opinion of them and the use of the Mountains Father Tachart in his second Voyage to Siam says when he went up to the top of the Table Mountain at the Cape of Good Hope the Rocks and Shrubs were perpetually dropping and feeding the Springs and Rills below there being generally Clouds hanging on the sides near the top This constant distillation of Vapours from the Ocean on the many high Ridges of that great Promontory may peradventure be one cause of the wonderful fertility and luxury of the Soil which produces more rare Plants and Animals then any known Spot of Ground in the World the Discovery whereof is owing to the Curiosity and Wisdom of the Dutch The same observation hath been frequently made by our English Merchants in the Madera and Canary Islands the first of which is near in the same Latitude on the North of the Aequator that the afore-mentioned Cape is in on the South especially in their Iourneys up to the Pike of Tenerist in which at such and such heights they were always wet to the skin by the droppings of the great Stones yet no Rain over head the same I have felt in passing over some of the Alps. The Trees which in the Islands of Ferro St. Thomas and in Guiny are said to furnish the Inhabitants with most of their water stand on the sides of vast Mountains Vossius in his Notes on Pomponius Mela affirms them to be Arborescent Ferula's though indeed according to Paludanus his dry'd Sample sent to the Duke of Wirtenberg they seem rather to be of the Laurel kind perhaps there are many different sorts of them I believe there is something in the many Relations of Travellers and Voyagers concerning these Trees but then I fancy they are all mistaken when they say the water issues out of the Trees The Vapors stop't by the Mountains condense and distil down by the Boughs There being no Mountains in Egypt may be one reason why there is little or no Rain in that Country and consequently no fresh Springs therefore in their Caravans they carry all their water with them in great Borracio's and they owe the Inundation of their River Nile to the stationary or periodical Rains on the high parts of Aethiopia This may be the cause that the vast Ridge and Chain of Mountains in Peru are continually water'd when the great Plains in that Countrey are all dry'd up and parch't This Hypothesis concerning the Original of Springs from Vapours may hold better in those hot Regions within
Mankind whose right the Kingdom was 6. The sending out of a Dove to try whether the Waters were abated and the Flood gone off is we have seen by Plutarch attributed to Deucalion 7. Lucian in his Timon and in his Book De Dea Syria sets forth the Particulars of Deucalion's after the Example of Noah's Flood 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Deucalion was the only Man that was left for a second Generation for his Prudence and Piety sake And he was saved in this manner He made a great Ark and got aboard it with his Wife and Children And to him came Swine and Horses and Lions and Serpents and all other living Creatures which the Earth maintains according to their kinds by pairs and he received them all and they hurt him not for there was by Divine Instinct a great friendship among them and they sailed together in the Ark so long as the Waters prevailed And in his Timon he saith That Noah laid up in the Ark plenty of all Provisions for their sustenance TAB I. pag 69 The two ancient Apamian Coyns taken out of Octav. Falconieri de Nummo Apamensi Deucalionaei Diluvij typum exhibente 8 â—â— Romae By the Greek inscriptions they were stamp under Philippus Marcus Aurelius Alexander and Septimius Severus Howbeit I do not deny that there was such a particular Flood in Thessaly as they call Deucalion's which happened Seven Hundred and Seventy Years or thereabouts after the general Deluge I acknowiedge also a more ancient Flood in Attica in the time of Ogyges about Two hundred and thirty years before Deucalion's by which the Countrey was so marred that it lay waste and uncultivated without Inhabitants for almost Two hundred years CHAP. II. Of the Causes of the Deluge WHat were the instrumental Causes or Means of the Flood Whether was it effected by natural or supernatural Means only Whether was God no further concerned in it than in so ordering second Causes at first as of themselves necessarily to bring it in at such a time First Those that hold this Deluge was altogether miraculous and that God Almighty created Waters on purpose to serve this occasion and when they had done their work destroyed them again dispatcht the Business and loose or cut the Knot in a few words And yet this Hypothesis is not so absurd and precarious as at first sight it may seem to be For the World being already full there needed not nor indeed could be any Creation of Water out of nothing but only a Transmutation of some other Body into Water Now if we grant all Natural Bodies even the Elements themselves to be mutually transmutable as few Men doubt and some think they can demonstrate why might not the Divine Power and Providence bring together at that time such natural Agents as might change the Air or Aether or both together into Water and so supply what was wanting in Rains and extraordinary Eruptions of Springs To them that argue the Improbability of such a change from the great quantity of Air requisite to the making of a little Water it may be answered That if Air and all Bodies commixt with it were together changed into Water they must needs make a bulk of Water of equal quantity with themselves unless we will grant a Peripatetical Condensation and Rarefaction and hold that the same Matter may have sometimes a greater sometimes a lesser quantity or extension This Cause the conversion of Air into Water the Learned Jesuite Athanasius Kircher in his Book De Arca Noae alledges as the undoubted instrumental Cause or Means of the Deluge in these words Dico totum illud aereum spatium usque ad supremam regionem aeris praepotentis Dei virtute in aquas per inexplicabilem nubium coacervatarum multitudinem quâ replebatur conversam esse cujus ubertas tanta fuit ut Aer supremus cum inferiori in Oceanum commutatus videri potuerit non naturae viribus sed illius cujus voluntati imperio cuncta subsunt That is I affirm That all that Aereal space that reaches up to the supreme Region of the Air was by the power of the Omnipolent God and instrumentality of an inexplicable multitude of Clouds amassed together wherewith it was filled changed into Water so that the upper and lower Air might seem to be 〈◊〉 into an Ocean not by the strength of Naâ—â—â—e but of him to whose Will and 〈◊〉 all things are subject And he is so confident that this Deluge in which the 〈…〉 raised fifteen Cubits above the highest by Mountains was not nor could be effected by natural Causes but by the right hand of the most High God only that he saith No Man can deny it but he who doth not penetrate how far the power of Nature can extend and where it is limited To conclude this Hypothesis hath the Suffrages of most Learned Men. But because the Scripture assigning the Causes or Means of the Inundation makes no mention of any conversion of Air into Water but only of the breaking up the Fountains of the Great Deep and the opening of the Windows of Heaven I suppose those Causes may be sufficient to work the Effect and that we need not have recourse to such an Assistance As for those that make the Deluge Topical and restrain it to a narrow compass of Land their Opinion is I think sufficiently confuted by a late ingenious Author to whom therefore I refer the Reader I shall not undertake the Defence or Confutation of those or any other Hypothesis only tell you which at present seems to me most probable and that is theirs who for a partial cause of the Deluge assign either a change of the Center of the Earth or a violent depression of the Surface of the Ocean and a forcing the Waters up from the subterraneous Abyss through the Channels of the Fountains that were then broken up and opened First then let us consider what Causes the Scripture assigns of the Flood and they are two 1. The breaking up the Fountains of the great Deep 2. The opening of the Windows of Heaven I shall first treat of this last By the opening of the Windows of Heaven is I suppose to be understood the causing of all the Water that was suspended in the Air to descend down in Rain upon the Earth the effect hereof here mentioned being a long continuing Rain of Forty days And that these Treasuries of the Air will afford no small quantity of Water may be made appear both by Scripture and Reason 1. By Scripture which opposes the Waters that are above the Heavens or Firmament to those that are under them which if they were not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and in some measure equal it would never do Gen. 1. 6. God is said to make a Firmament in the midst of the Waters and to divide the Waters which were under the Firmament from the Waters which were above the Firmament And this was the work of a whole
Town who retired thither perished there with many other persons there remaining only one Abby and about fifty Houses and those so shattered that they fell one after another There were about six hundred of the Inhabitants drown'd the rest being abroad in the Field gathering their silk fled to the Mountains where they suffered very much for want of Provisions The Goods Trees Stone Sand and other Rubbish which the Waters carried away were in so great abundance that they made a bank above the Water two Miles in length near the mouth of the River where before the Sea was very deep This Town is situate in that part of Sicily called the Valley of Demona on the side of the River Tortorica about five and Twenty Miles from the Tuscan Sea The Towns of Randazzo and Francaville and several others have likewise been destroyed by this great Flood It is added that Mount Aetna casts out such abundance of Water that all the neighbouring Country is drowned Which if it be true as I see no reason to doubt it this is a further proof against Borellius that the Caverns of Aetna are more then superficial and reach down to the very Roots and Foundations of that Mountain communicating with the Subterraneous Abyss and the Sea its self from whence in all likelyhood these Waters were derived as is evident in those poured out by Vesuvius Many other Floods we read of in Histories whether caused by Rains or Inundations of the Sea is uncertain and therefore I shall not spend time in setting them down The effect of all which relating to the Earth in general is the wasting and washing away of Mountains and high Grounds the raising of the Valleys and Bottoms and consequently levelling of the Earth and landing up of the Sea Thirdly The last thing I shall mention which hath effected considerable Changes in the Earth is boisterous and outragious Winds and Hurricanes of which I need not give Instances they every year almost happening These I conceive have a great Interest in the Inundations of the Sea we have before mentioned These raise up those great Hills or Downs of Sand we see all along the Coasts of the Low-Countreys and the Western-shores of England and the like places These sometimes blow up so much Sand and drive it so far as to cover the adjacent Countreys and to mar whole Fields yea to bury Towns and Villages They are also a concurrent cause of those huge Banks and Shelves of Sand that are so dangerous to Mariners and bar up Havens and ruin Port-Towns of which many Instances might be given I find in Dr. Hakewil's Apology a story or two shewing the great force and strength of Winds the one taken out of Bellarmine's Book De ascensu mentis in Deum per scal creat grad 2. Vidi ego saith the Cardinal quod nisi vidissem non crederem à vehementissimo vento effossam ingentem terrae molem eámque delatam super pagum quendam ut fovea altissima conspiceretur unde terra eruta fuerat pagus totus coopertus quasi sepultus manserit ad quem terra illa devenerat i. e. I my self have seen which if I had not seen I should not have believed a very great quantity of Earth digged out and taken up by the force of a strong Wind and carried up a Village thereby so that there remained to be seen a great empty hollowness in the place from whence it was lifted and the Village upon which it lighted was in a manner all covered over and buried in it The other out of Stow who reports That in the Year 1095. during the Reign of King William Rufus there happened in London an outragious Wind which bore down in that City alone six hundred Houses and blew off the Roof of Bow-Church with which the Beams were born into the Air a great height six whereof being 27 foot long with their fall were driven 23 foot deep into the ground the streets of the City lying then unpaved Now then to sum up what we have said The Changes and Alterations that have been made in the Superficial Part of the Terraqueous Globe have been effected chiefly by Water Fire and Wind. Those by Water have been either by the Motions of the Sea or by Rains and both either ordinary or extraordinary The ordinary Tides and Spring-tides of the Sea do wash away the shores and change Sand-banks and the like The extraordinary and tempestuous motions of the Sea raised by raging and impetuous Winds subterraneous Fires or some other hidden causes overwhelm Islands open Fretum's throw up huge beds and banks of Sand nay vast baiches of Stone extending some Miles and drown whole Countreys The ordinary Rains contribute something to the daily diminution of the Mountains filling up of the Valleys and atterrating the skirts of the Seas The extraordinary Rains causing great Floods and Deluges have more visible and remarkable influences upon such mutations doing that in a few days which the ordinary Weather could not effect it may be in an hundred years In all these Changes the Winds have a great interest the motion of the Clouds being wholly owing to them and in a great measure also the overflowings and inundations of the Sea Whatever Changes have been wrought by Earthquakes Thunders and Eruptions of Vulcano's are the effects of Fire All these Causes co-operate toward the lowring of the Mountains levelling of the Earth straitning and landing up of the Sea and in fine compelling the Waters to return upon the dry Land and cover the whole Surface of it as at the first How to obviate this in a natural way I know not unless by a transmutation of the two Elements of Water and Earth one into another which I can by no means grant 'T is true indeed the rocky parts of the Mountains may be so hard and impenetrable as to resist and hold out against all the Assaults of the Water and utmost rage of the Sea but then all the Earth and Sand being washed from them nothing but as it were their Skeletons will remain extant above the Waters and the Earth be in effect drowned But though I cannot imagine or think upon any natural means to prevent and put a stop to this effect yet do I not deny that there may be some and I am the rather inclinable so to think because the World doth not in any degree proceed so fast towards this Period as the force and agency of all these Causes together seem to require For as I said before the Oracle predicting the carrying on the shore of Cilicia as far as Cyprus by the Earth and Mud that the turbid River Pyramus should bring down and let fall in the interjacent strait is so far from being filled up that there hath not any considerable progress been made towards it so far as I have heard or read in these 2000 years And we find by experience that the longer the World lasts the fewer Concussions and
the middle of the Earth which could not be meant saith he of the Sepulchre because that was hewen out of a Rock in its Superficies 3. It is a received Opinion among the Divines of the Church of Rome that Hell is about the Center of the Earth insomuch as some of them have been solicitous to demonstrate that there is room enough to receive all the Damned by giving us the Dimensions thereof Neither is it repugnant to the History of the Creation in Genesis For tho' indeed Moses doth mention only Water and Earth as the component parts of this Body yet doth he not assert that the Earth is a simple uniform homogeneous Body as neither do we when we say Vpon the face of the earth or the like For the Earth we see is a Mass made up of a multitude of different Species of Bodies Metals Minerals Stones and other Fossils Sand Clay Marle Chalk c. which do all agree in that they are consistent and solid more or less and are in that respect contradistinguished to Water and together compound one Mass which we call Earth Whether the interior parts of the Earth be made up of so great a variety of different Bodies is to us altogether unknown For tho' it be observed by Colliers that the Beds of Coals lie one way and do always dip towards the East let them go never so deep so that would it quit cost and were it not for the Water they say they might pursue the Bed of Coals to the very Center of the Earth the Coals never failing or coming to an end that way yet that is but a rash and ungrounded Conjecture For what is the depth of the profoundest Mines were they a Mile deep to the Semidiameter of the Earth not as one to four thousand Comparing this Observation of Dipping with my Notes about other Mines I find that the Veins or Beds of all generally run East and West and dip towards the East Of which what Account or Reason can we give but the motion of the Earth from West to East I know some say that the Veins for Example of Tin and Silver dip to the North tho' they confess they run East and West which is a thing I cannot understand the Veins of those Metals being narrow things Sir Tho. Willoughby in his fore-mentioned Letter writes thus I have talked with some of my Colliers about the lying of the Coal and find that generally the Basset end as they call it lies West and runs deeper toward the East allowing about twenty Yards in length to gain one in depth but sometimes they decline a little from this posture for mine lie almost South-West and North-East They always sink to the East more or less There may therefore for ought we know be Fire about the Center of the Earth as well as any other Body if it can find a Pabulum or Fuel there to maintain it And why may it not since the Fires in those subterraneous Caverns of Aetna Vesuvius Stromboli Hecla and other burning Mountains or Vulcano's have found wherewith to feed them for Thousands of Years And as there are at some tho' uncertain Periods of Time violent Eruptions of Fire from the Craters of those Mountains and mighty Streams of melted Materials poured forth from thence so why may not this Central Fire in the Earth if any such there be receiving accidentally extraordinary supplies of convenient Fuel either from some inflammable Matter within or from without rend the thick exterior Cortex which imprisons it or finding some Vents and Issues break forth and overflow the whole Superficies of the Earth and burn up all things This is not impossible and we have seen some Phaenomena in Nature which bid fair towards a Probability of it For what should be the reason of new Stars appearing and disappearing again as that noted one in Cassiopeia which at first shone with as great a lustre as Venus and then by degrees diminishing after some two Years vanish'd quite away but that by great supplies of combustible Matter the internal Fire suddenly increasing in quantity and force either found or made its way through the Cracks or Vents of the Maculae which inclosed it and in an instant as it were overflowed the whole surface of the Star whence proceeded that illustrious Light which afterwards again gradually decayed its supply failing Whereas other newly appearing Stars which either have a constant supply of Matter or where the Fire hath quite dissolved the Maculae and made them comply with its motion have endured for a long time as that which now shines in the Neck of Cygnus which appears and disappears at certain Intervals But because it is not demonstrable that there is any such Central Fire in the Earth I propose the eruption thereof rather as a possible than probable means of a Conflagration and proceed to the last means whereby it may naturally be effected and that is SECT IV. The Fourth Natural Cause of the World's Dissolution the Earth's Dryness and Inflammability IV. THE Dryness and Inflammability of the Earth under the Torrid Zone with the eruption of the Vulcano's to set it on fire Those that hold the Inclination of the Equator to the Ecliptick daily to diminish so that after the Revolutions of some Ages they will jump and consent tell us that the Sun-beams lying perpendicularly and constantly on the parts under the Equator the Ground thereabout must needs be extremely parch'd and rendred apt for Inflammation But for my part I own no such Decrement of Inclination And the best Mathematicians of our Age deny that there hath been any since the eldest Observations that are come down to us For tho' indeed Ptolomy and Hipparchus do make it more than we find it by above twenty Minutes yet that Difference is not so considerable but that it may well be imputed to the Difference of Instruments or Observations in point of Exactness So that not having decreased for Eighteen hundred Years past there is not the least ground for Conjecture that it will alter in Eighteen hundred Years to come should the World last so long And yet if there were such a Diminution it would not conduce much so far as I can see to the bringing on of a Conflagration For tho' the Earth would be extremely dried and perchance thereby rendred more inflammable yet the Air being by the same Heat as much rarified would contain but few nitrous Particles and so be inept to maintain the Fire which we see cannot live without them It being much deaded by the Sun shining upon it and burning very remisly in Summer time and hot Weather For this reason in Southern Countries in extraordinary hot Seasons the Air scarce sufficeth for Respiration To the clearing up of this let us a little consider what Fire is It seems to consist of three different sorts of parts 1. An extremely thin and subtil Body whose Particles are in a very vehement and rapid motion 2.