Selected quad for the lemma: water_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
water_n	cold_a	dry_a	moist_a	4,796	5	10.4311	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A47114	An examination of Dr. Burnet's Theory of the earth together with some remarks on Mr. Whiston's New theory of the earth / by Jo. Keill ...	Keill, John, 1671-1721.	1698 (1698)	Wing K132; ESTC R15430	75,308	201

writers of Hydrostaticks that a sphere whose centre of Gravity is the same with its centre of Magnitude if put in a fluid of the same specifick gravity with it self will retain any given position and therefore there can be no reason drawn from the earths gravity or equilibration why the position of its axis should be perpendicular to the plane of the Ecliptick rather than any other of its diameters CHAP. V. Of Rivers THE Theorist having represented to us the first Earth as a smooth regular and uniform body without Mountains and without a Sea In the 5th Chap. of his second book he starts a great difficulty how it was watered from what causes and in what manner how could Fountains rise or Rivers flow in an Earth of that form and nature he has shut up the Sea with thick walls on every side and taken away all communication that could be 'twixt it and the external earth he has removed all the Hills and Mountains where the Springs use to rise and whence the Rivers descend to water the face of the ground and lastly he has left no issue for these Rivers no Ocean to receive them or any place to disburthen themselves into So that his new found World is like to be a dry and barren wilderness and so far from being Paradisaical that it would scarce be Habitable These indeed are great difficulties and the Theorist has acknowledged them to be such for he sayes there was nothing in his whole Theory that gave so rude a stop to his thoughts as that part of it concerning the Rivers of the first Earth But as the difficulties are great and as one would think insuperable so no doubt the glory that redounds to the Theorist must be nothing less if they be clearly taken away To understand therefore what the state of the primitive Rivers and waters would be he finds it necessary to consider and examine how the rains fell in the first Earth and he tells us that the order of nature in the Regions of the an would be very different from what it is now there could be no violent motions there nor any thing that proceeded from extremity of cold as Ice Snow or Hail and as for Winds they could neither be impetuous nor irregular in that Earth of his seeing there were no Mountains nor any other inequalities to obstruct the course of the vapours nor any unequal seasons nor unequal actions of the Sun but as for waters meteors dews and rains there could not but be plenty of these in some part or other of that Earth for the action of the Sun in raising vapours was very strong and very constant and the Earth was at first moist and soft and according as it grew more dry the rayes of the Sun would pierce more deep into it and reach at length the great abyss which lay underneath and was an unexhausted storehouse of new vapours Now the same heat which extracted these vapours so copiously would also hinder them from condensing into rain in the warmer parts of the Earth and there being no mountains or contrary winds or any such causes to stop or compress them they would take their course where they were least resisted which is towards the Poles and the colder regions of the Earth for East and West they would meet with as warm an air and vapours as much agitated as themselves which therefore will not yield to their progress that way but North and South they will find a more easy passage so that the concourse of vapours which were raised chiefty about the Equinoctial and middle parts of it would be towards the extreme parts or the Poles When these vapours thus driven by the heat of the Sun were arrived in the cooler Regions near the Poles they would be condensed into rain for wanting there the cause of their agitation namely the heat of the Sun their motion would soon begin to languish and they would fall close to one another in the form of water Thus he thinks he has found a sufficient source for waters in the first earth which would never fail neither diminish nor overflow But tho' he esteems this an inexhaustible store-house and an easy way to furnish Waters yet if it be narrowly examined he will find it not in the least sufficient for such an effect For first according to his own hypothesis there could be no Rivers for a long time after the formation of the Earth till the Sun had crackt the outward crust thereof and its heat had reacht the great abyss which the Theorist must needs own will require a very considerable space of time one would think it would be several hundreds of years before the Suns heat could perform such an effect during all which time the inhabitants of the Earth must be without waters and rivers and lead very sad and uncomfortable lives Is this the fruit of the Golden Age or is this consistent with the happiness of the antediluvian Fathers in my opinion it is directly contrary to the Scriptures for they give us an account of rivers immediately after the formation of the Earth But 2 dly I will hereafter prove that the Suns Beams did never yet reach so deep in the Earth as the thickness of the first crustation must have been and consequently there never could arise any vapours from the abyss to furnish the rivers 3 dly Supposing the heat of the Sun to have crackt the crust and to have raised vapours from the abyss yet it is certain it could not do it in such a quantity as would be sufficient to furnish the Earth with waters And now the Theorist will tell us what can be more sufficient than the whole orb of water sure this would do or else nothing could this he will say is an inexhaustible treasure that the rivers could never drain and therefore there was no fear of want of waters from thence Yes there was reason to fear it very much for supposing that there was enough in the abyss yet perhaps the action of the Sun would not raise so much as would be sufficient to water the Earth so there may be enough of Gold in the bowels of the earth but if we cannot come at it we shall never be the richer for it That I may examine this I will suppose that the mouths of these cracks which the Sun is said to have made by its heat to be a 1 10000 part of the surface of the earth this will exceed 2600 square miles which I think is as much as the Theorist can reasonably allow them for if it were but one continued crack round the equator of a miles breadth it would not exceed 25000. miles 2 dly I will suppose with the Theorist that one half of the surface of the present earth is Land and the other is Sea and by consequence the mouths of those pits or cracks must be one five thousandth part of the whole of the now Ocean Now it is evident