Observations hereafter I refer the Reader 'T is perhaps worth our Enquiry whether most mens Notions of the time for the abating of the Waters of the Deluge be not very precarious at least if not wholly mistaken 'T is the general Opinion taken from the Mosaick History of the Flood that the Waters were wholly subsided and the Earth laid as dry in a manner as 't is at present by that time Noah came out of the Ark or in the Space of about a Year from the beginning of the Flood 'T is true Moses says that on the seventeenth Day of the seventh Month the Waters were abated and the Ark rested on the Mountains of Ararat That on the first Day of the tenth Month the tops of the Mountains were seen That on the first Day of the next Year the Waters were dried up from off the Earth And then lastly That on the twenty-seventh Day of the second Month was the Earth dried and Noah call'd out of the Ark. But all this may be very true and yet vast quantities of the Waters of the Deluge might at the same time remain on the face of the Earth And as the present Ocean may be still part of the same so the rest of them might require a hundred or two hundred Years before they arriv'd at or near to their present subsidence and condition And this I think is the truth of the case and is so far from contradicting the Sacred History that it may be establish'd by an Observation or two from thence as well as by the present Phaenomena of Nature As to the Sacred History of Moses 't is first evident that the Mountainous Regions about Ararat or Caucasus especially since they were from my Hypothesis particularly Elevated above the rest might be wholly clear of the Waters in a year's time and yet the lower Plains and Valleys in a very different Case and still to a great depth under the Water And 't is as evident 2ly That we have no authentick Account of the lower Plains being become dry and habitable even in Regions more elevated than many others I mean about the middle Parts of our Continent till the Building of Babel the Confusion of Languages and the Dispersion of the Nations over the Earth none of which happen'd before the Second Century from the Deluge in the days of Peleg And then as to the present Phaenomena of Nature I think they determin the Question before us and sufficiently demonstrate the longer abode of the Waters of the Deluge upon the Earth than is commonly allow'd For as many Maritime Countreys which I have already observ'd and others have noted the same do by their remarkably even and smooth Surface shew they have been made so in length of time by the motion of the Sea which now lays the Sands in the same manner So does the Consideration of the Nature and Position of the Strata of the Earth in some places now fully confirm the same Observation Near my Habitation at present upon the Sea-coast there is a pretty high and remarkable Cliff at the least twenty Foot above the Surface of the Ocean adjoining and yet 't is to the very top Stratum of all almost as evidently the Product of the Waters laying Heaps Strata and Beds of Sand and Chingle as that very Shore on which we stand and which is daily made and remov'd by the Tides and Waves of the present Ocean And as I do not doubt from the always equal height of the Ocean every-where that 't is frequently thus in other places also so this is I think a plain Evidence that the Ocean has been at least 20 Foot higher than 't is now and that for a long time together sufficient I mean to heap up such mighty Beds of Sand and Chingle as the present observation does require Which of it self is at once a demonstration that all the lower Regions near the Sea have formerly been drown'd and layn under water And at the same time does fully confirm that length of time which I assert was taken up in the intire subsidence of the Waters of the Deluge In this place I cannot but propose a Conjecture I have for some time had in my mind about the Peopling of China which I think may deserve to be consider'd and 't is This. That the Chinese are the Offspring of Noah himself after the Flood and not deriv'd from any of his other posterity Shem Ham or Iaphet as the inhabitants of the rest of the World are This Conjecture depends on the following Reasons 1. The account of the Posterity of Shem Ham and Iaphet and of their dispersion gives no hint of any that went so far East as China as I think is plain from the best expositions of the 10th of Genesis where that matter is chiefly treated of 2. Since the dispersion of the Posterity of Shem Ham and Iaphet appears to have begun about Babylon a Countrey so remote as China could not be so soon reach'd and peopled as the prodigious Numbers of its Inhabitants at present shew it to have been The nearest regions must have been first and most fully peopled and the remoter not till Men were increas'd sufficiently to require new Habitations and accordingly it has happen'd in the Countries of Europe Africa and the Western parts of Asia to which I suppose the dispersion begun at Babel is confin'd But this is a sufficient proof that so very large and prodigiously populous a Country as China could not be of so late an Original as it must be in case the Chinese are deriv'd from this dispersion 3. The Sacred History soon after the Flood confines it self within the then known World which I think did not include China no more than America and which is stil'd the whole Earth very often in Scripture and at the same time says not a word of the great Father of the whole Race of Mankind Noah excepting the number of years he Liv'd Now this is I think a kind of intimation that Noah had no share in the Actions related in the Sacred History and so by a fair consequence was probably plac'd in China a region out of the compass of the then known World 4. 'T is otherwise strange that whereas Caucasus the resting-place of the Ark was so near the middle of our Continent no footsteps should remain of any Colonies sent Eastward but all Mankind should take one course and place themselves in the Western Regions alone and this at the same time that no reason can be given why the Western Countreys should be more inviting to them than the Eastern since the latter certainly have been as valuable and pleasant to the past and present Ages as the former 5. The Chinese Language and Writing are so intirely different from those with us which the confusion at Babel introduc'd and are at so vast a distance from them that I think they cannot well be deriv'd from thence nor from
the happiness of that particular Spot where alone the living part of the Creation was to reside as on consideration will easily appear Thus for instance the heat of the day-time would gradually increase before and decrease after noon but yet would never be violent because almost all the increase of the Heat by the Sun 's rising above the Horizon still higher and higher in the Forenoon or Spring would be prevented by his real receding from the Earth and approaching nearer his Apegseon during the same time vice versâ in the Afternoon or Summer which would render the state of the Air more equable and uniform and less uneasy or inconvenient than any other method whatsoever Thus also not only the Cold of the Night which by our then being nearest the Sun would be inconsiderable but the Duration and Darkness thereof two very severe and frightful Phaenomena in my former Hypothesis would be entirely avoided For the whole Night would then bear no more proportion to the entire 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 than in the Ellipsis the Area p B q bears to the whole Area H B G F Suppose the Proportion of 1 to 6 which will amount to no more than two Months Out of which Night-time we must deduct the two Crepuscula each of about half a Month which reduces now the Darkness of the Night to a single Month Out of which another half Month is to be still deducted for the Moon 's being above the Horizon and enlightening the Earth So that at last if the Moon 's Crepuscula be at all allow'd for we shall scarce have a single Week of pure Darkness in the whole Year Which Hypothesis does at the first View so fully take off the popular Objections made against me and affords so easy and natural a Solution of the Difficulties urg'd by Mr. Keill besides its peculiar Fitness to render the primary Animals and particularly our first Parents happy and their state to the utmost degree Paradisiacal that I shall add no more in confirmation of it but leave it to Mr. Keill's and the Intelligent Readers own Consideration Only before I pass on I cannot but take notice of a great mistake of Mr. Keill's about the quantity of Heat in the primitive Earth from my Hypothesis which he reckons some hundred of times as great as in the present State which I am sure must be a plain Error and all its Consequences which he from thence draws against me without any foundation The Heat then for the light half year being but the same quantity of Heat all at once which now at times and with interruptions we are partakers of Which may deserve Mr. Keill's consideration and correction We are now come to the principal Part of my Theory the Account of the Deluge of Noah against which 't is objected by Mr. Keill 7. That the Presence of a Comet tho' it would cause considerable Tides in the Seas above yet it could not in the Abyss below the Earth because this latter is pent in and closely shut up within a thick and solid Crust of Earth and has therefore no room to raise it self as the Waters of the Seas have Now in answer to this I wonder how Mr. Keill comes to imagin the Orb of Earth to be so compact and solid a Sphere as to be able to overcome the great Impulse which on the Comet 's approach the Abyss would make upon it In my Hypothesis I am sure it had only the Consistence of adjoining Columns sinking down together into the same Fluid and that extreamly broken divided and shatter'd at the commencing of the Diurnal Rotation when great Numbers of Clefts and Fissures were every-where made through it and the Orb by consequence dispos'd to a division and separation of Parts upon any considerable Impulse whatsoever One might almost as well assert that a Floor of disjoined Planks laid cross the Thames without any fastness on either side could sustain the force of the Tide and prevent its Ascent as that our Crust of Earth so cleft and disjoined as it was should be able to sustain the force of the Tide in the Abyss and prevent its Ascent and those Effects which would be consequent thereupon 8. 'T is objected that the Expanded Vapors deriv'd from the Comet would by passing through the Air and its resistence at their first descent be all turn'd into Water and so tho' this may at once drown the World yet it will not account for the long Rains of forty Days to which the Deluge of Noah was principally owing Now in answer to this I say That tho' much the greatest part of the Vapors should have been at first turn'd into Water and so continued yet 't is hard that Mr. Keill will not allow many of them to escape the same enow at least to make a constant Rain for forty days together I am sure 't is to me strange that so thin a Body as our Air lying in so small a compass about the Earth as the height of not very many Miles for much higher 't is so very thin as to be perfectly inconsiderable should have the good luck to stop arrest and condense all and every part of so immense and swift a descending Column of Vapors as we have here to be consider'd But besides not to question whether Mr. Keill's method of reducing Vapors into Rain-water be universal or not Let it be granted that these hot Vapors were at their first descent forc'd together yet till that quantity of Heat which caus'd and continued their degree of Expansion in the Comet 's Atmosphere or Tail were mightily diminish'd and they become as cool as Vapors turning into Water with us till then I say whatsoever their first violent Motion might on the sudden produce yet their own proper Heat would immediately rarify 'em again and so elevate 'em to a proportionable height in the Air and capacitate them to produce that continual forty days Rain which appears to have had so great a share in the Universal Deluge 9. 'T is objected That tho' a persorated Cylinder of Stone or Marble pressing upon Water in an exactly equal Cylindrical Vessel under it would thereby force it or any lighter Fluid on its Surface through the holes upwards yet the Pressure of the Additional Waters upon the Crust of Earth could not cause the Eruption of the Dense Fluid or of any Waters lying upon it in the Bowels of the Earth on several accounts particularly because in the first ase the Cylinder is specifically heavier than Water but in the second the Orb of Earth is lighter than the Dense Fluid under it which Mr. Keill supposes does wholly alter the case Now in answer to this I say If Mr. Keill desire it I will put a Cylinder of Wood which is lighter than Water instead of one of Stone or Marble which is heavier and I do not doubt of the truth of the Experiment in this case if that will afford him
but receded from the Letter of the Scripture without sufficient Reasons for so doing As to which Point I must still own that I am by no means of Mr. Keill's mind and since he only delivers his opinion without producing his particular Reasons or enervating any of those I had so largely given for what I asserted I see no occasion for a farther Vindication at present and so shall still leave that matter to the consideration of the free and impartial Reader However since here occur some particular Difficulties I shall take notice of such of them as have not already been consider'd 5. T is objected That because Comets have no secondary Ones moving about them the Moon our secondary Planet must either have been really created or at least brought into our Neighbourhood on the fourth Day which being therefore the importance of the word Made with relation to one ought to be taken in the same sense when referr'd to the other of the heavenly Bodies and so my Interpretation of this day's work which is built on other Principles must be a mistake Now tho' I might ask why the Moon might not as well have come into our Neighbourhood before as just upon this day in case she had not of old been our Companion Yet to put this matter to another issue I desire Mr. Keill to prove that no Comets have any Satellites revolving about them For my part I think the Observations we have yet made about Comets are not nice nor numerous enough to determin this Point Nay rather what the Histories of many Comets relate about the various Shapes and Figures they have sometimes appeared under seems to me hardly accountable unless we allow lesser Comets to have been Companions to the greater and by their various Positions and other circumstances to have occasion'd some at least of that variety and strangeness in many of their Phaenomâ—nâ— which not a few Accounts confirm to us 6. 'T is alledg'd that before the Sun became visible 't is not supposable that on the second Day of the Creation his Heat could raise Vapors enow to fiâ—l the Seas Lakes and Rivers in the primitive Earth on which yet my account of their Original is entirely built Now not to examin the Computation which Mr. Keill makes use of about the quantity of Water rais'd and falling in a year which I suppose may be accurate enough Nor to enquire how little the Heat of the Sun may be diminish'd on the Earth by so few Vapors collected together as may yet be sufficient to hide his Body from our fight I would ask Mr. Keill What if the Sun in half a year did not draw up Vapors enow to make the thousandth part of the present Ocean What is this to me who assert there was no Ocean till the Deluge nor no other than small Seas and Lakes perhaps not containing much more than a thousandth part of the Water that is now upon the Earth And this is so visible in my Book that I prove there was before the Flood no Ocean by this very reason That the Sun could not draw up Vapors enow in half a years time to compose so vast a collection of Waters Which if Mr. Keill had been pleas'd to observe he might have spar'd me the pains of answering such an Objection Having proceeded thus far in my own Vindication I must now according to my promise be so ingenuous as to own that much of Mr. Keill's Reasoning against my Third Hypothesis of an Only Annual motion of the Earth before the Fall and so of a half year of Cold and Darkness together without a greater freedom of thought than I expect in most Readers taken as 't is at present laid down in my Book is strong and forcible and unless I fly to such Evasions as I have resolv'd against not easily to be avoided But then I must desire Mr. Keill to do me so much Justice as to remember that I told the Reader I had somewhat farther to say in the case which might therefore by a private enquiry have been first understood before this whole Proposition of so great Importance had been absolutely rejected My Words are these This when rightly consider'd may save me the labour of returning any other Answer to the particular Difficulty here mention'd and of enlarging upon several other things which might be said to great satisfaction on the present occasion That upon this Opportunity therefore I may fully clear my Hypothesis from this Obvious Popular and not inconsiderable Objection I shall endeavour to set this matter in a new and clear Light And tho' I do not my self see any plain Necessity of altering any thing I have said on this Head yet because I have been long inclinable to think the following Hypothesis very probable as 't is certainly very agreeable to the Phaenomena of Nature and the main Principles of my Theory and very likely to satisfy the difficulties of abundance of Readers I shall more fully explain my thoughts in this case and thereby shew that all the Arguments that are levell'd against this Branch of the New Theory are unconcluding Notwithstanding therefore I have already and do still assert that the Original Orbits of the Planets and particularly of the Earth were perfect Circles meaning by the Original Orbits those in which they were to revolve immediately after they were intirely form'd and were to be universally inhabited Yet I must now add what I at first had some imperfect Thoughts about that this Reduction of the very Oblong and Eccentrical Orbit of our Earth whilst it was a Comet into a Uniform Concentrical and Circular one which I suppose it had before the Deluge may justly be allow'd to have been gradual and not done at once the greatest part at the Commencing of the Mosaick Creation and the rest at the Commencing of the Diurnal Rotation afterwards As indeed the Diurnal Rotation could not Mechanically begin I mean by the oblique Collision of a Comet but that the annual Orbit would thereby be alter'd also Which being suppos'd and that Providence adjusted all circumstances so as should be most to the advantage of Paradise We shall then have the Earth revolving in a moderate Ellipsis without any Diurnal Rotation about the Sun in the Space of a Year Tho' the exact length of that Year will not now be determinable A Day and a Year will be all one We shall have that Diameter of the Earth which pass'd through Paradise parallel to the longer Axis of that Ellipsis it revolv'd in And withal we shall have the place of Paradise respecting the same fixt Stars with the Perthelion of the Ellipsis Which being suppos'd as the Circular Orbit is much the best for a Globe inhabited all round that providing equally for the convenience of both Hemispheres So is this Elliptick Orbit the best for a Globe inhabited but in one place as the Earth was in the Primitive State this providing peculiarly for
satisfaction But indeed I perceive by all Mr. Keill's Reasoning here that he mistakes my Notion and that 't is but setting him right in this and all his difficulties will vanish of their own accord I say then and I am sure Mr. Keill can't contradict it that a lighter Solid will as truly press a Fluid heavier than it self till it is sunk so deep as the known Law of Hydrostaticks requires as a solid that is Specifically heavier And if by its closeness of texture and want of room about it it be hindred from really descending so far it will continually press the Fluid and force it upwards or any way where there are any Holes and Fissures without an equal degree of pressure upon them And this certainly is the present Case Suppose the Columns of Earth at the beginning were 200 Miles in Depth in the whole and taken together but half so Dense as the Fluid on which they rely'd Then at the Mosaick Creation when the Strata of the Columns were not yet consolidated but every where previous to the Fluid the several Columns would as Mr. Keill well knows sink 100 Miles into the Fluid and the other 100 Miles would be extant above it If now after the Consolidation of the Strata when the Orb can't sink freely as before a New addition be made at the top of each Column whether of lighter or heavier matter 't is all one equal in weight to two Miles of the same Column which is just the case of the Deluge In this state 't is evident that the pressure of two intire Miles of each Column being so prodigiously great must squeeze the Fluid upward through the Fissures which were just open'd and fill'd with Water to the height of perhaps 60 or 70 Miles from the Neighbouring Earth Satur'd with the same and thereby throw out the incumbent Water and perhaps it self upon the Face of the Earth And this the more easily because the pressure was from the Water which would lie chiefly in the Valleys whilst the Fissures were mostly in the Mountains and so above the Surface of the Cortex which otherwise by running into them would a little stop the upward current and retard the motion of the ascending Waters Which things being I think undeniably true and plainly express'd in my Book I must be a little surpriz'd that one so well Vers'd in Hydrostaticks as Mr. Keill should be so perplex'd in this matter All Mr. Keill's Demonstrations suppose either that not the Water on the Earth but in the Fissures did contribute to raising the Fluid through them which I could not be so childish as to imagine Or that the several Columns of Earth had free liberty and could subside as far as occasion should be which I have in my Book as well as here shew'd they could not Or that a pressure from a Column specifically heavier than the Fluid is necessary to raise it upward when 't is evidently all one though it be lighter So that upon the whole I think Mr. Keill might have spar'd those peremptory words which he uses in this point From all this it is demonstratively evident that by no sort of pressure of the Incumbent Fluid the Abyss could be forced upwards to spread it self on the Surface of the Earth Which I hope on farther consideration he will think fit to retract 10. 'T is Objected That whereas I derive at least half the Waters of the Deluge from the Bowels of the Earth this is impossible because there can be no Sphere or Collection of Waters between the Earth and the dense Fluid which is the only place besides in Mr. Keill's Opinion the Fissures themselves capable of containing the same In Answer whereto I cannot but say 't is strange Mr. Keill should look for Subterraneous Waters every where else but where I always plac'd 'em in the pores and cavities of all the lower Earth And I imagine Mr. Keill himself will not deny that 60 or 70 Miles together of the inward Earth satur'd and full with Water might afford much more than we have occasion for at the Deluge and so might easily supply the Fissures in a constant drein for 5 Months together with enough to go more than half way in the laying the Surface of the whole Earth under Water However since we know not nor did I ever directly assign in what proportion the two several causes of the Deluge contributed their shares thereto my Theory is not concern'd though no more Water was thrown out upon the Earth than fill'd the Fissures as high as the Earth was satur'd with Water at the Mosaick Creation which Quantity even Mr. Keill seems not unwilling to allow me As to the Dense Fluid it self and whether the force were great enough any where to cast any quantity thereof out upon the Earth I know not how to determine Though so far I am sure that vast quantities of it might have been on the Earth without any of its appearing now above ground which is Mr. Keill's Objection in this case For unless there was more than Satur'd and perhaps Consolidated with the Sediment of the Waters which now as Mr. Keill will grant composes at least two or three hundred Feet thickness of our present Earth I am sure we are not on account of their mighty gravity bearing 'em to the bottom of the whole Fluid to expect any remains of it in the Seas or Ocean no nor in any Pits Holes or Valleys upon the present Earth And here Mr. Keill is so kind as to afford me a breathing time and to grant so many of my solutions to be right at once namely all those relating to Dr. Woodward's Essay and the Sediment of the Deluge that I cannot but own my real Joy on this occasion That the force of my reasoning should here prove so strong as to satisfy even Mr. Keill who seems so little to acquiesce in many other of my Arguments in that intire point of which I must grant my self from any enquiries of my own to be the least Master of all other in my Book And truly I must say that I think Mr. Keill by confessing that I have convincingly enough prov'd that a Comet pass'd by the Earth at the Deluge and that All Dr. Woodward's Phaenomena are rightly accounted for by that easy Hypothesis I took concerning them By these concessions I say I believe Mr. Keill has done more to establish my Book than all his Objections will avail to reject it And himself is therefore much more my Friend and Patron than he ever intended to have been by these Remarks on my Theory But to leave this Digression and proceed to the. 11. And Last Objection which is this That though I can easily fetch as much Water as I have occasion for upon the Earth to drown it yet I have no way to get handsomly rid of it again and consequently my solutions of the Phaenomena of the universal Deluge come to nothing and
all at last must be resolv'd into Miracle Now how it has come to pass that this draining off the Waters of the Deluge has been so much stuck at I cannot tell The thing it self having I think no difficulty in it Certainly the pores and interstices of 30 or 40. Miles of dry Earth are capable of receiving 3 or 4 Miles of Water into 'em and certainly the same Fissures which permitted the ascent of the Fluids from beneath before would after the ceasing of that force permit the descent of the Waters of the Deluge and by degrees in length of time draw them off and so leave the Earth as it now appears to us For what is in the perpendicular Fissures will sideways run into and saturate by the Horizontal Fissures and other passages all the Neighbouring Earth which if Mr. Keill doubts of let him but make a hole in the Earth and fill it with Water and see whether he do not perceive the Neighbouring parts to be moistened and the hole to be soon empty enough to require a new supply notwithstanding there be no subterraneous Cavern ready to receive it which easy experiment may go a great way to convince Mr. Keill that the removing the Waters of the Deluge is no such insuperable Problem as he seems to suppose it Thus I have gone through the whole Body of the Reflections made by Mr. Keill on my New Theory and hope I have observ'd the Rules which at his desire I at first set my self in this Reply And all that I in my turn shall claim of him in case he think sit to make any Rejoinder is this That he would be careful therein to observe the same Rules himself which he expected from me and be as ready to own any satisfaction I may have given him in any points as to reinforce those Objections he may perhaps not yet be satisfied about And as I shall willingly correct any occasional mistakes whether in other points or in the Mathematicks of my Book a few of which tho' of no ill consequence to the Theory it self I am conscious of if it ever come to a Second Edition So in order thereto I shall heartily thank Mr. Keill or any body else who shall be so kind as by Letter to inform me of any of them I have now done with Mr. Keill's Remarks on my Theory and before we part I shall only desire him to answer plainly to a question or two relating to the matter now in debate between us and shall then take my leave I. Since Mr. Keill grants that a Comet pass'd by at the Deluge and yet contends that the Flood is not to be solv'd therefrom but is to be believ'd wholly miraculous To what purpose did the Comet so providentially pass by just at that time if it had no relation to the Deluge Does Mr. Keill imagine That the same miraculous power which caus'd the Deluge could not also without the attraction of a Comet make the Earth's Orbit Elliptical A strange unheard of and most surprizing Phaenomenon happens in the World A Blazing Star which we but seldom discover at a vast distance in the Heavens descends hard by the body of our Earth which without the greatest exactness in the Chain of Providence does not happen in thousands nay millions of years and as soon as ever 't is pass'd by a wonderful and incredible Deluge of Waters overflows the whole Earth and drowns all its Inhabitants without any other visible or imaginable occasion in the World and yet as it seems the Comet only accidentally pass'd by and had no hand at all in the Deluge Credat Iudaeus Apella 2. How could those effects I have mention'd be avoided upon the passing by of the Comet We are not now in a Cartesian Vortex where fancy and contrivance can introduce or hinder any effect at pleasure But we are in Mechanical and Experimental Philosophy which is an inflexible thing and not at all subject to our inclinations When the Comet therefore was just pass'd by us I desire to know how the Earth could possibly avoid passing through its Atmosphere and Tail If it could not Pray what could prevent the acquiring that Column of Vapours I by computation find would fall on its Surface And if such a Column of Vapours was left on the Earth what could hinder their becoming Water and drowning the Earth I shall not though I easily might carry on the Chain of Queries any longer But if Mr. Keill can fairly Answer me these few leading Questions I shall then believe him alike able to Answer the rest and so I shall not pursue this particular any farther but leave it and this whole matter to his and the Reader 's leisure and consideration Apr. 1. 1698. HAVING thus finished what I had to return to Mr. Keill I shall upon this occasion consider such other material Difficulties and Objections relating to the New Theory as have come to my knowledge any way either in Print or in private Letters concealing still the Names of those who have been so kind as to content themselves with the latter method tho' at the same time it will appear that in many cases the Authors need have been no more ashamed of their Arguments than any of those who have chosen the more publick method and appear'd from the Press against me And I fear not to appeal to the Persons concern'd for the fairness and justness of my proposal of their Objections and that the returns I now make are generally for substance the same which my private Answers contain'd upon the several occasions To go on therefore with the numbers 12. The next Objection is That I have omitted many insuperable difficulties which have been urg'd against the Forming of our present upper Earth from the Sediment of the Dâ—luge In answer whereto for to say nothing that the non-appearance of any Towns Cities Buildings or other Remains of the Antediluvian World is next to a demonstration on my side I must own that I was so incapable of overcoming those insuperable difficulâ—iâ—s that I knew nothing of them and I did not in the least think that what I of my self suppos'd concerning the natural Subsiding of that Sediment and without any prior Dissolution of the Old Earth its composing a new Crust upon it had been once hit upon by any one else before me Now whether there be such insuperable difficulties as to the main strokes of that Hypothesis I ought not to pretend Skill enough in the Phaenomena of the inner Earth positively to determin Dr. Woodward's larger Work ought to be publish'd before one can venture to pronounce too dogmatically in that Point As to my self I see hitherto no reason to change my Belief therein notwithstanding the confidence of this Author Whatever difficulties may appear at the first sight arising it may be from a misunderstanding of several particulars relating thereto and of several circumstances therein to be consider'd yet those numerous Shells Bones