conditions above mentioned: and if the cause of heat ceased, the waters would of course, in cooling, retire into their proper places. If the central nucleus be supposed 3000 miles, and the internal sea only 1500 miles deep, its contents will then be 99,200,000,000 cubic miles; or, 125 times the water required. and in that case, an additional heat of 36 degrees to the previous temperature of the earth, will be sufficient to produce the above described effect.It is scarce necessary to say, that the perfect regularity here supposed to exist in the form of the in terior parts of the globe, is of no consequence to the proposed hypothesis; which will be equally just, if the above given quantity of waters be any how disposed within the earth.-Neither is it here proposed to discuss the reality of a central fire, which many philosophers maintain, and many deny. It may not be unworthy to remark, that the above hypothesis, which does not in any way contradict any law of nature, does singularly accord with the Mosaic narrative of the deluge: for the sudden expansion of the internal waters would, of course, force them up through the chasms of the exterior crust, in dreadful jets and torrents; while their heat would cause such vapors to ascend into the atmosphere, as; when condensed; would produce torrents of rain beyond our conception.'

"The possibility of an universal deluge, then; of a deluge rising fifteen cubits above the highest mountains, can hardly be denied. It is not at all necessary to suppose, with Sir Henry, that the antediluvian mountains were as high as those of the present earth. They may have been of a very different form and size, and composed of other materials."

Dr. Geddes, vol. 1, Crit. Rem. on Gen. vii, 20, $Tc. After all, this great critic, as usual, labors, to lower the Mosaic account; and thinks "that a great deal of the fabulous is mixed with the history of Noah's flood." The humble opinion of the writer of these Lectures, differs widely from him, in this respect; and he is satisfied with taking this ingenious hypothesis, which even Dr. Geddes admits, proves such a deluge possible, without accepting his concluding observations.

NOTE 7-Experiment by the Bishop of Landaff, on the quantity of water exhaled from the earth on a summer's day.

Who would have conjectured, that an acre of ground, even after having been parched by the heat of the sun in summer, dispersed into the air, above 1600 gallons of water, in the space of twelve of the hottest hours of the day? No vapor is seen to ascend; and we little suppose, that in the hottest part of the day, it more usually does ascend than in any other. The experiment from which I draw this conclusion, is so easy to be made, that every one may satisfy himself the truth of it. On the 2d day of June, 1779, when the sun shone bright and hot, I put a large drinking glass, with its mouth downwards, upon a grass-plat which was mown close; there had been no rain for above a month, and the grass was become brown: in less than two minutes, the inside of the glass was clouded with a vapor, and in half an hour, drops of water began to trickle down its inside, in various places. This experiment was repeated several times with the same success.

"That I might accurately estimate the quantity, thus raised, in a certain portion of time, I measured the area of the mouth of the glass, and found it to be twenty square inches: there are 1296 square inches in a yard, and 4840 square yards in a statute acre; hence, if we can find the means of measuring the quantity of vapor raised from twenty square inches of earth, suppose in one quarter of an hour, it will be an easy matter to calculate the. quantity which would be raised, with the same-degree of heat, from an acre in twelve hours.

The method I took to measure the quantity of vapor, was not, perhaps, the most accurate which might be thought of, but it was simple and easy to be practised: when the glass had stood on the grass-plat one quarter of an hour, and had collected a quantity of vapor, I wiped its inside with a piece of muslin, the weight of which had been previously taken; as soon as the glass was wiped dry, the muslin was weighed again, its increase of weight shewed the quantity of vapor which had been collected. The medium increase of weight, from several experiments made on the same day, between twelve and three o'clock, was six grains, collected in one quarter of an hour, from twenty square inches of earth. If the reader takes the trouble to make the calculation, he will find, that above 1600 gallons reckoning eight pints to a gallon, and estimating the weight of a pint of water at one pound avoirdupois, or 7000 grains Troy-weight, would be raised at the

rate here mentioned, from an acre of ground in twenty-four hours.

"It may easily be conceived, that the quantity thus elevated, will be greater when the ground has been well soaked with rain, provided the heat be the same. I did not happen to mark the heat of the ground, when I made the fore-mentioned experiments. The two following, are more circumstantial: thre ground had been wetted, the day before I made them, by a thunder-shower; the heat of the earth, at the time of making them, estimated by a thermometer laid upon the grass, was ninety-six degrees; one experiment gave 1973 gallons from an acre in twelve hours; the other gave 1905. Another experiment made when there had been no rain for a week, and the heat of the earth was one hundred and ten degrees, gave after the rate of 2800 gallons from an acre in twelve hours.

The earth was hotter, than the air, as it was exposed to the reflection of the sun's rays from a brick wall."

Watson's Chemical Essays, vol. 3, p. 52—56.

LECTURE IV.

NOTE 2.-The giant's war described by different ancient poets.

See Hom. Odys. xi.

Proud of their strength, and more than mortal size,

The gods they challenge, and affect the skies,
Heav'd on Olympus, tott'ring Ossa stood,
On Ossa, Pelion nods with all his wood.

Pope's Hom. Odys. b. xi, l. 385-888.

Also Virg. Georg. lib. i, v. 279-283.

And cruel Typhoeus, and the brethren, leagued to scale heaven. Thrice, indeed, they attempted to pile Ossa upon Pelion, and to roll woody Olympus† upon Ossa: thrice the Father of heaven overthrew the mountains, thus heaped up with thunder.

Also Ovid Met. fab. vi, lib. iv, 151-155.

•Two high mountains in Thessaly.

† An hill between Thessaly and Macedon, so high, that the heathen poets usually apply its name to heaven.

Nor were the gods themselves more safe above,
Against beleaguer'd heav'n the giants move:
Hills pil'd on hills, on mountains, mountains lie,
To make their mad approaches to the sky.
Till Jove, no longer patient, took his time
T'avenge, with thunder, their audacious crime;
Red light'ning play'd along the firmament,
And their demolish'd works to pieces rent.

DRYDEN.

Garth's Ovid, b. i, l. 193, &c. NOTE 3. See page 123, Joseph. quotation from one of the Sybils.

NOTE 4-Testimony of Abydenus, preserved by Eusebius; EX ABYDENO. Euseb. Prap. ix, c. 14.

Translated in page 124.

NOTE 5.-Remark of Grotius respecting the building of Babylon: "Falso autem a Græsis proditum, conditam a Semiramide Babylonem, etiam Berosus in Chaldaicis prodidit, ut nos Josephus docet contra Appionem, primo: eundemque errorem tum ex Philone Biblio, tum ex Dorotheo Sidonio refellit Julius Firmicus. Vide et quæ de gigantibus a turri ex Eupolemo nobis adducit Eusebius Præparat. Evangelicæ lib. xx, cap. 17."

Grot. de Relig. Christ. § xvi, in not. 63.

LECTURE V.

NOTE 1 Testimony to the fact that the Chaldeans worshipped fire, extracted from the works of the pious and eloquent Saurin.

Saur. Dics. sur la Bible, Tome I. disc. xi. p. 78.

"There is a remarkable passage in Rufin respecting the idolatry of the Chaldeans: the testimony of this author is confirmed by that of Suidas:

"They say that the Chaldeans formerly carried fire, which was their God, through all the provinces, to contend with all the other divinities, that whoever conquered in this combat might be deemed the true one. The deities of air, of gold, of

silver, of wood, and of stone, were easily consumed by the fire, which had the superiority over all. A priest of Canopus bethought himself of this stratagem. The Egyptians had certain vases of earth, which had little apertures on all sides, and which He filled one were designed to filtrate the water of the Nile.

of these vases with water: he closed all the holes of it with wax: he placed a head upon it; which was said to be that of Menelaus, and he exalted it to a divinity. The Chaldeans kindled the fire round this vase, that these two deities might contend together. But the fire having quickly melted the wax which covered the aperture of the pitcher, it was presently extinguished by the water which issued from it, and the priest of Canopus obtained the victory."

"These are the words of Rufin."

NOTE 2.-There is a singular coincidence between the language used by the Deity, in his conference with Abraham, and the words which Ovid puts into the mouth of his Jupiter. In the one case, it is to be considered altogether as a figure of speech, for the Deity could obtain no additional information, by descending in a human form: in the latter instance, the poet speaks in exact conformity to the ideas which the heathens entertained of the limited knowledge of their divinities. We will lay the passages together.

MOSES.

"And the LORD said, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grevious; I will go down now, and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it, which ia come unto me; and if not, I will know." Gen. xviii, 20, 21.

"The INFAMY of the times had REACHED OUR EARS: WISHING it might be FALSE, I DESCENDED from high OLYMPUS, and, a god, I passed through the earth UNDER A HUMAN FORM.'

NOTE 3.-The several testimonies collected from different ancient writers, respecting the lake Asphaltites and its vicinity, with the traditions of its destruction by fire are translated in page 155.

Ovid Met. lib. i, 211-213.