from the eastern and fouthern ocean, round Good-Hope and Cape-Horn, it fhould as foon overflow our coafts, as when it is vertical to the fhores of Guinea?If the moon (in conjunction with the fun) by preffion and attraction, was the principal caufe of flux and reflux, why is there no established tide on the Mediterranean Sea, though of a vast breadth, and two thousand miles in length, from the Streights of Gibraltar to the coafts of Syria and Palestine; but only fome irregular and unaccountable fwellings and falls in a few places of this fea, to wit, at Tunis, Melfina, Venice, and Negropont; and these fwellings, as I have seen, flowing sometimes 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 times in 24 hours; in the most irregular manner; against the fixed laws of preffion and attraction, afcribed to the moon and fun, on a fuppofition of their caufing the tides?—If preffion, and the Strong attractive power of the moon, and the weaker influence of the fun, forces the immenfe ocean twice a day from its natural quietus, and rolls it in tides, why has the Cafpian Sea no Tide; no fwelling or flow, regular or irregular, excepting that fometimes, in the fpace of 16 years, and never fooner, it rises many fathoms, and drowns the adjacent country, to the almoft ruin, fometimes, of Aftracan in Afiatic Ruffia; as happened when I was there to embark for Perfia?If it be faid, that this is properly a lake, hav

ing no communication with the ocean; yet, I anfwer, that it is in every quality of faltnefs, etc. as much a fea as any other fea; and large enough for the luminaries attraction and preffion; being 500 miles from north to fouth, and near 400 miles in breadth from eaft to weft: I fay, large enough to avoid continuing neceffarily in equilibrio, as Dr. Rutherforth fays must be the cafe, on account of the fmall extent of this fea. 500 by 400 miles of fea, does not require that fuch a fea fhould prefs equally, or that the gravity of its water fhould be equally diminished in every part of it, and fo out of the powers, addititious and ablatitious, of the luminary; that is, the force, with which the moon encreases the waters gravity, and the force, with which the moon diminishes the waters gravity. If the moon in zenith or nadir did the work, the equilibrium of the Cafpian might be destroyed as well as any other equilibrium of water, by force, addititious or ablatitious, or by the fum, of thefe forces: therefore, there might, by this theory, be tides in the Cafpian fea, tho' not great ones. There are small as well as great tides. The tides of the Atlantic ocean are inferior in every respect to thofe of the larger Pacific ocean. A quarter of a great circle of the earth, that is, an extent of ocean from east to weft 90°, is only N required

Earth

effect of

Calies.

required that the tides may have their full motion. A tide of lefs motion may be in fuch an extent of fea as the Cafpian.

In the last place, how does the theory of tides account for the regular peculiarity of the flux and reflux of the Atlantic, different from all other tides; while at Bathsha in the kingdom of Tunquin, there never is more than one tide in 24 hours; and fome days, no tide?-For my part, I refolve the whole into the immediate power of the Deity. This power is gravity, attraction, repulfe. The inactivity of matter requires the conftancy and univerfality of divine power to support the material univerfe, and move it as occafion requires; that is, as infinite wisdom sees most conducive to the benefit of his creation.

Men of fine imagination may make a wonquakes the derful difplay of mathematical learning in immaterial accounts of gravity, etc. combined with the principles of mechanism; and electricity, which is called, the immediate officer of God Almighty; but the truth is, a conftant repetition of divine acts in regular and irregular motions of the earth and the feas. The finger of God moves the land and the waters.

In the cafe of earthquakes, as electricity or aerial power, is infufficient to produce them, in my opinion, for two reasons before given; to wit, that the electrical stroke is ever fingle and momentary, but the vibrations

of

and

4

of the earth, in a quake, are often 3 minutes, and have held to 7 minutes and that, befides the fwelling and trembling of the earth, it has fo opened at those times, as to swallow not only houfes and people, but even mountains, and to fend forth great rivers and vast waters. And, as fubterranean fire and vapor, I think, can never do fuch work, for many reafons that may be offered we muft, I think, afcribe the earthquakes to the immediate impreffion of divine power; by which a city is tumbled into ruins in three or four minutes, in the fad manner Libon was destroyed the first of November, 1755. or, the water of the great abyss is with fuch violence moved, that it shakes the arches of the earth, and where infinite wisdom directs, is enabled by Almighty Power to open the globe with tremendous noises, and pour forth vaft torrents of water, to cover a land where once a flourishing city has ftood. The electric stroke cannot be more dreadful than such exertion of omnipotence. The immediate action of the Deity, to destroy, must be as efficacious furely as any fubordinate agent or cause and it must be more terrible to the mind, as there can be no fuppofition of accident in ruin this way: but we fee as it were the almighty arm, exerting an irresistible force, that could in the fame few moments N 2 that

An account of

mufcular

and that it

that a large town and its inhabitants are destroyed, shake the whole world into one dreadful ruin, or feparate it into nothing. To my apprehenfion, the aerial power of electricity is not fo fearfully ftriking, as the Creator's appearing, on the spot, to Shake terribly the earth: and if we confider, that it is on account of fin, that God refigns his omnipotence to his wrath, and commands his whole difpleasure to arife, muft not this account of an earthquake have the greatest tendency to reform the manners of the furviving people?

As to mufcular motion, if it be rightly confidered, it appears very plainly to proceed motion; from a living force, impreffed ab extra; that is caufed by mechanifm does not act as caufe in this affair; a continued but the divine power acts in the cafe, as it Deity. does in many different places of the human

act of the

body at once, and with inexpreffible variety.

Various are the accounts that learned men have given of muscular motion, and ingenious are their reafonings on the fubject: but they are not fatisfactory, nor do they at all explain the thing, and account for it. What is a muscle ?

It is to be fure a bundle of fmall blood veffels, confifting of arteries and their returning veins, laid one upon another in their parallel plates, running thro' the whole length of the muscle; and at small intervals, these

blood