suppose a mighty rock or heap of rocks to fall from that height, or a great island, or a continent; these would expel the waters out of their places, with such a force and violence, as to fling them among the highest clouds.

"Tis incredible to what height sometimes great stones and cinders will be thrown, at the eruptions of fiery mountains; and the pressure of a great mass of earth falling into the abyss, though it be a force of another kind, could not but impel the water with so much strength as would carry it up to a great height in the air, and to the top of any thing that lay in its way, any eminency, high fragment, or new mountain; and then rolling back again, it would sweep down with it whatsoever it rushed upon, woods, buildings, living creatures, and carry them all headlong into the great gulph. Sometimes a mass of water would be quite struck off and separate from the rest, and tost through the air like a flying river; but the common motion of the waves was to climb up the hills, or inclined fragments; and then return into the valleys and deeps again, with a perpetual fluctuation, going and coming, ascending and descending, till the violence of them being spent by degrees, they settled at last in the places allotted for them; where "bounds are set that they cannot pass over, that they return not again to cover the earth."-Psal. civ. 6, 7, 8, 9.

Neither is it to be wondered, that the great tumult

of the waters, and the extremity of the deluge, lasted for some, months; for besides that the first shock and commotion of the abyss was extremely violent, from the general fall of the earth, there were ever and anon some secondary ruins; or some parts of the great ruin, that were not well settled, broke again and made new commotions; and 'twas a considerable time before the great fragments that fell, and their lesser dependencies, could be so adjusted and fitted, as to rest in a firm and immoveable posture: for the props and stays whereby they leaned one upon another, or upon the bottom of the abyss, often failed, either by the incumbent weight, or the violent impulses of the water against them; and so renewed or continued the disorder and confusion of the abyss. Besides, we are to observe, that these great fragments falling hollow, they inclosed and bore down with them under their concave surface a great deal of air; and while the water compassed these fragments and overflowed them, the air could not readily get out of those prisons but by degrees, as the earth and water above would give way; so as this would also hinder the settlement of the abyss, and the retiring of the water into those subterraneous channels, for some time. But at length, when this air had found a vent, and left its place to the water and the ruins, both primary and secondary were settled and fixed; then the, waters of the abyss began to settle too, and the dry

:

land to appear; first, the tops of the mountains, then the high grounds, then the plains and the rest of the earth. And this gradual subsidency of the abyss, (which Moses also hath particularly noted) and discovery of the several parts of the earth, would also take up a considerable time.

Thus a new world appeared, or the earth put on its new form, and became divided into sea and land; and the abyss, which from several ages, even from the beginning of the world, had lain hid in the womb of the earth, was brought to light and discovered; the greatest part of it constituting our present ocean, and the rest filling the lower cavities of the earth; upon the land appeared the mountains and the hills, and the islands in the sea, and the rocks upon the shore. And so the Divine Providence having prepared nature for so great a change, at one stroke dissolved the frame of the old world, and made us a new one out of its ruins, which we now inhabit since the deluge. All which things being thus explained, deduced, and stated, we now add and pronounce our third and last proposition," that the disruption of the abyss, or dissolution of the primæval earth, and its fall into the abyss, was the cause of the uni versal deluge, and of the destruction of the old world."

The two propositions before proved, are, 1. That the antidiluvian earth was of a dif ferent form and construction from the present. 2. That the face of the earth before the deluge was smooth, regular, and uniform, without mountains, and without a sea;-propositions, which are implied in the remarks preced ing the extract.

This theory of the earth is no longer considered in any other light than as a beautiful philosophical romance. It displays indeed powers of imagination, and of description, of the first order; but unfortunately, much of the spirit of the Latin original has evaporated in his own English translation. In comparing this description with the same in his own Latin, we cannot avoid being sensibly struck with its inferiority. The author seems scarcely to have understood himself. It is obvious, that he is far less intimately acquainted with the powers of his own language, than with those of the Roman. He had not the art, in his own tongue, of investing his sublime conceptions with language of suitable loftiness. His Latin style, however, though admirable in itself, as adapted to the expression of elevated thoughts, is not the Latin of the Augustan age, nor of

any other period of the Roman language; it is peculiarly his own; though perhaps it is such as a Roman of the same cast of sentiment, writing on the same subject, and possessed of equal elevation of genius, would have chosen as the vehicle of his thoughts.

2. The second work of Burnet was his Árchæologia Philosophica, sive Doctrina Antiqua de Rerum Originibus. In the preface to the edition of 1753, the author tells us, that "his design is to enquire into the opinions of the ancients, concerning the nature of things, in order to vindicate and give antiquity its due praise; and to shew, that neither were our ancestors dunces, nor was wisdom or true philosophy born with us."

In this book he has called in question the literal history of the fall; and written a Dialogue between Eve and the Serpent, which gave great offence to his orthodoxical brethren. In a new edition, therefore, printed in Holland, he ordered it to be suppressed. It had been printed, however, both in the first. and second editions.

3. His book De Fide et Officiis Christianorum, was published after his death; of which the second edition, in 8vo. is dated 1733, Lon