inundation or overflowing of the earth, either wholly or in part, by water.

We have several deluges recorded in history; as that of Ogyges, which overflowed almost all Attica; and that of Deucalion, which drowned all Thessaly in Greece: but the most memorable was that called the Universal Deluge, or Noah's Flood, which overflowed and destroyed the whole earth; and from which only Noah, and those with him in the ark, escaped.

The destruction of the whole earth by water, and its formation anew in the way we see it, is an event so exceedingly remarkable, and so much out of the ordinary course of nature, that it is no wonder to find the reality of the fact called in question by many. As the giving up this point, however, would utterly destroy the authenticity of the sacred writings, those who have undertaken the defence of revelation, have consequently laboured to bring some positive evidence of the fact, distinct from that of Moses; and not only to shew how by natural means such an event might have happened, but likewise to bring proofs that it actually did happen. There are two principal arguments against the existence of a universal deluge: 1. The want of a sufficient quantity of water to cover the whole earth to the height mentioned by Moses. Or, 2. Supposing this to be obviated, the immutability of the laws of nature are urged; as it is thought, that, during the time of the flood, the great law of gravitation must have been suspended, or rather reversed, and the fluid water have had no tendency to return to the lowest parts of the earth as we see it hath at present.—On the other hand, most of those who maintain the reality of the universal deluge, have had recourse to the waters of the ocean as insufficient in quantity; and to the omnipotence of God, exerted either immediately, or by the mediation of some of the great natural agents, for raising them to the height to which they are said to have risen.

The finding a quantity of water sufficient for an universal deluge, hath however been looked on as a matter of great difficulty, and various hypotheses have been invented to solve it.

1. It hath been asserted, that a quantity of water was created on purpose, and at a proper time annihilated by divine power. This, however, besides its being absolutely without evidence, is directly contrary to the words of the sacred writer whom the assertors of this hypothesis mean to defend. He expressly derives the waters of the flood from two sources; first, the fountains of the great deep, which he tells us were all broken up; and secondly, the windows of heaven, which he says were opened: and speaking of the decrease of the waters, he says, the fountains of the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped; and the waters returned continually from off the earth. Here it is obvious, that Moses was so far from having any difficulty about the quantity of water, that he thought the sources from whence it came were not exhausted; since both of them required to be flopped by the same Almighty hand who opened them, lest the flood should increase more than it actually did.

2. Dr Burnet, in his Telluris Theoria Sacra, endeavours to shew, that all the waters in the ocean are not sufficient to cover the earth to the depth assigned by Moses. Supposing the sea drained quite dry, and all the clouds of the atmosphere dissolved into rain, we should still, according to him, want much the greatest part of the water of a deluge. To get clear of this difficulty, Dr Burnet and others have adopted Descartes's theory. That philosopher will have the antediluvian world to have been perfectly round and equal, without mountains or valleys. He accounts for its formation on mechanical principles, by supposing it at first in the condition of a thick turbid fluid replete with divers heterogeneous matters; which, subsiding by slow degrees, formed themselves into different concentric strata, or beds; by the laws of gravity. Dr Burnet improves on this theory, by supposing the the primitive earth to have been no more than a shell or crust investing the surface of the water contained in the ocean, and in the central abyss which he and others suppose to exist in the bowels of the earth *. At the time of the flood, this outward crust, according to him, broke in a thousand places; and consequently sunk down among the water, which thus spouted up in vast cataracts, and overflowed the whole surface. He supposes also, that before the flood there was a perfect coincidence of the equator with the ecliptic, and consequently that the antediluvian world enjoyed a perpetual spring; but that the violence of the shock by which the outer crust was broken, shifted also the position of the earth, and produced the present obliquity of the ecliptic. This theory, it will be observed, is equally arbitrary with the former. But it is, besides, directly contrary to the words of Moses, who assures us, that all the high hills were covered; while Dr Burnet affirms that there were then no hills in being.

3. Other authors, supposing a sufficient fund of water in the abyss, or sea, are only concerned for an expedient to bring it forth: accordingly, some have recourse to a shifting of the earth's centre of gravity, which, drawing after it the water out of its channel, overwhelmed the several parts of the earth successively.

4. The inquisitive Mr Whiston, in his New Theory of the Earth, shews, from several remarkable coincidences, that a comet descending in the place of the ecliptic, towards its perihelion, passed just before the earth on the first day of the deluge; the consequences whereof would be, first, that this comet, when it came below the moon, would raise a vast and strong tide, both in the small seas which according to his hypothesis were in the antediluvian earth, (for he allows no great ocean there, as in ours), and also in the abyss which was under the upper crust of the earth. And this tide would rise, and increase all the time of the approach of the comet towards the earth; and would be at its greatest height when the comet was at its least distance from it. By the force of which tide, as also by the attraction of the comet, he judges, that the abyss must put on an elliptical figure, whose surface being considerably larger than the former spherical one, the outward crust of the earth, incumbent on the abyss, must accommodate itself to that figure, which it could not do while it held solid, and conjoined together. He concludes, therefore, that it must of necessity be extended, and at last broke by the violence of the said tides, and attraction; out of which the included water issuing, was a great means of the deluge: this answering to what Moses speaks of the "fountains of the great deep being broke open."—Again, the same comet, he shews, in its descent towards the sun, passed so close by the body of the earth, as to involve it in its atmosphere, and tail, for a considerable time; and of consequence, left a vast quantity of its vapours, both expanded and condensed, on its surface; a great part of which being afterwards rarefied by the solar heat would be drawn up into the atmosphere, and afterwards return in violent rains: and this he takes to be what Moses intimates by "the windows of heaven being opened," and particularly by the "forty days rain." For as the following rain, which with this made the whole time of raining 150 days, Mr Whiston attributes it to the earth coming a second time within the atmosphere of the comet, as the comet was on its return from the sun. Lastly, to remove this vast orb of waters again, he supposes a mighty wind to have arisen, which dried up fome, and forced the rest into the abyss again through the clefs by which it came up: only a good quantity remained in the alveus of the great ocean, now first made, and in lesser seas, lakes, &c.—This theory was at first only proposed as an hypothesis; but, on further consideration, Mr Whiston thought he could actually prove that a comet did at that time pass very near the earth, and that it was the same which afterwards appeared in 1680. After this, he looked upon his theory no longer as an hypothesis, but published it in a particular tract entitled The cause of the deluge demonstrated.—But the uncertainty of the comet's return in 1758, when supposed to be absent only 75 or 76 years *, must certainly render Mr Whiston's calculations for such a length of time extremely dubious; and, the great similarity between the tails of comets and streams of electric matter renders his supposition of their being aqueous vapours exceedingly improbable.

5. According to Mr de la Pryme, the antediluvian world had an external sea, as well as land, with mountains, rivers, &c.; and the deluge was effected by breaking the subterraneous caverns, and pillars thereof, with dreadful earthquakes, and causing the same to be for the most part, if not wholly, absorbed and swallowed up, and covered by the seas that we now have. Lastly, this earth of ours arose out of the bottom of the antediluvian sea; and in its room, just as many islands are swallowed down, and others thrust up in their stead.—On this, as on all the other hypotheses, it may be remarked, that it is quite arbitrary, and without the least foundation from the words of Moses. The sacred historian speaks not one word of earthquakes; nay, from the nature of the thing, we know it is impossible that the flood could have been occasioned by an earthquake, and the ark preserved, without a miracle. It is certain, that, if a ship sinks at sea, the commotion excited in the water by the descent of such a large body, will swallow up a small boat that happens to come too near. If the pillars of the earth itself then were broken, what must the commotion have been, when the continents of Europe, Asia, and Africa, descended into the abyss at once? not to mention America, which lying at so great a distance from Noah, he might be supposed out of danger from that quarter. By what miracle was the little ark preserved amidst the tumult of those impetuous waves which must have rushed in from all quarters? Besides, as the ark was built not at sea, but on dry ground; when the earth on which it rested sunk down, the ark must have sunk along with it; and the waters falling in as it were over-head, must have dashed in pieces the strongest vessel that can be imagined. Earthquakes, also, operate suddenly and violently; whereas, according to the Mosaic account, the flood came on gradually, and did not arrive at its height till six weeks, or perhaps five months, after it began.

6. Mr Hutchinson and his followers present us with a theory of the deluge, which they pretend to derive from the word of God itself. This theory hath been particularly enlarged upon and illustrated by Mr Cato, who in 1768 published a volume on the subject. This gentleman asserts, that when the world was first created, at the time when it is said to have been "without form and void," the terrestrial matter was then entirely dissolved in the aqueous; so that the whole formed, as it were, a thick muddy water. The figure of the whole was spherical; and on the outside of this sphere, lay the gross dark air. Within the sphere of earth and water, was an immense cavity, called by Moses the deep; and this internal cavity was filled with air of a kind similar to that on the outside. On the creation of light, the internal air received elasticity sufficient to burst out through the external covering of earth and water. Upon this the water descended, filled up the void, and left the earth in a form similar to what it hath at present.—Thus, according to him, the antediluvian world, as well as the present, consisted of a vast collection or nucleus of water, called the great deep, or the abyss; and over this the shell of earth, perforated in many places; by which means the waters of the ocean communicated with the abyss.

The breaking up of these fountains was occasioned by a miraculous pressure of the atmosphere, from the immediate action of the Deity himself. So violent was this pressure, that the air descended to where it had been originally; occupied the space of the abyss; and drove out the waters over the whole face of the dry land.—But this account, so far from being infallibly certain, seems inconsistent with the most common observations. No pressure, however violent, will cause water rise above its level, unless that pressure is unequal. If, therefore, the atmosphere entered into the supposed abyss, by a vehement pressure on the surface of the ocean, that pressure must only have been on one place, or on a few places: and even though we suppose the atmosphere to have been the agent made use of, it is impossible, that it could have remained for any time in the abyss, without a continued miracle; as the pressure of the water would immediately have forced it up again, through those holes which had afforded it a passage downwards.

The explication given from Hutchison by Mr Catcott, of the "windows of heaven," is somewhat extraordinary. According to him, these windows are not in heaven, but in the bowels of the earth; and mean no more than the cracks and fissures by which the air, as he calls them, found a passage through the shell or covering of earth, which they utterly dissolved, and reduced to its original state of fluidity. It is, however, difficult to conceive how the opening of such windows as these could cause a violent rain for 40 days and nights.

It is not to be supposed, that we can pretend to ascertain any thing on the subject more than others have done. The following conjectures, however, may be offered on the manner in which the deluge might have happened without any violence to the established laws of nature.

1. If we consider the quantity of water requisite for the purpose of the deluge, it will not appear to very extraordinary as has been commonly represented. The height of the highest hills is not thought to exceed three miles. It will therefore be deemed a sufficient allowance, when we suppose the waters of the deluge to have been four miles deep on the surface of the ground. Now, it is certain, that water, or any other matter, when spread out at large upon the ground, seems to occupy an immense space in comparison of what it does when contained in a cubical vessel, or when packed together in a cubical form. Suppose we wanted to overflow a room 16 feet every way, or containing 256 square feet, with water, to the height of one foot, it may be nearly done by a cubical vessel of six feet, filled with water. A cube of eight feet will cover it two feet deep, and a cube of ten feet will very nearly cover it four feet deep. It makes not the least difference, whether we suppose feet or miles, to be covered. A cube of ten miles of water, would very nearly overflow 256 square miles of plain ground, to the height of four miles. But if we take into our account the vast number of eminences with which the surface of the earth abounds, the abovementioned quantity of water would do a great deal more. If, therefore, we attempt to calculate the quantity of water sufficient to deluge the earth, we must make a very considerable allowance for the bulk of all the hills on its surface. To consider this matter, however, in its utmost latitude. The surface of the earth is supposed, by the latest computations, to contain 199,512,595 square miles. To overflow this surface to the height of four miles, is required a parallelopiped of water 16 miles deep, and containing 49,878,143 square miles of surface. Now, considering the immense thickness of the globe of the earth, it can by no means be improbable, that this whole quantity of water may be contained in its bowels; without the necessity of any remarkable abyss, or huge collection of water, such as most of our theorists suppose to exist in the centre. It is certain, that as far as the earth has been dug, it hath been found not dry, but moist; nor have we the least reason to imagine, that it is not at least equally moist all the way down to the centre. How moist it really is, cannot be known, nor the quantity of water requisite to impart to it the degree of moisture it has; but we are sure it must be immense. The earth is computed to be near 8000 miles in diameter. The ocean is of an unfathomable depth; but there is no reason for supposing it more than a few miles. To make all reasonable allowances, however, we shall suppose the whole solid matter in the globe to be only equal to a cube of 5000 miles; and even on this supposition we shall find, that all the waters of the deluge would not be half sufficient to moisten it. The above mentioned parallelopiped of water would indeed contain 798,050,368 cubic miles of that fluid; but the cube of earth containing no less than an hundred and twenty-five thousand millions of cubic miles, it is evident, that the quantity assigned for the deluge would scarce be known to moisten it. It could have indeed no more effect this way, than a single pound of water could have upon 150 times its bulk of dry earth. We are persuaded therefore, that any person who will try by experiment how much water a given quantity of earth contains, and from that experiment will make calculations with regard to the whole quantity of water contained in the bowels of the earth, must be abundantly satisfied, that though all the water of the deluge had been thence derived, the diminution of the general store would, comparatively speaking, have been next to nothing.

2. It was not from the bowels of the earth only that the waters were discharged, but also from the air; for we are assured by Moses, that it rained 40 days and 40 nights. This source of the diluvian waters hath been considered as of small consequence by almost every one who hath treated on the subject. The general opinion concerning this matter we shall transcribe from the Universal History, Vol. I., where it is very fully expressed. "According to the observations made of the quantity of water that falls in rain, the rains could not afford one ocean, nor half an ocean, and would be a very inconsiderable part of what was necessary for a deluge. If it rained 40 days and 40 nights throughout the whole earth at once, it might be sufficient to lay all the lower grounds under water, but it would signify very little as to the overflowing of the mountains; so that it has been said, that if the deluge had been made by rains only, there would have needed not 40 days, but 40 years to have brought it to pass. And if we suppose the whole atmosphere condensed into water, it would not all have been sufficient for this effect; for it is certain that it could not have risen above 32 feet, the height to which water can be raised by the pressure of the atmosphere: for the weight of the whole air, when condensed into water, can be no more than equal to its weight in its natural state, and must become no less than 800 times denser; for that is the difference between the weight of the heaviest air, and that of water."

On this subject we must observe, that there is a very general mistake with regard to the air, similar to the afore-mentioned one regarding the earth. Because the earth below our feet appears to our senses firm and compact, therefore the vast quantity of water, contained even in the most solid parts of it, and which will readily appear on proper experiment, is overlooked, and treated as a non-entity. In like manner, because the air does not always deluge with excessive rains, it is also imagined that it contains but very little water. Because the pressure of the air is able to raise only 32 feet of water on the surface of the earth, it is therefore supposed we may know to what depth the atmosphere could deluge the earth if it was to let fall the whole water contained in it. But daily observations shew, that the pressure of the atmosphere hath not the least connection with the quantity of water it contains. Nay, if there is any connection, the air seems to be lighter when it contains most water. In the course of a long summer's drought, for instance, the mercury in the barometer will stand at 30 inches, or little more. If it does so at the beginning of the drought, it ought to ascend continually during the time the dry weather continues; because the air is all the while absorbing water in great quantity from the surface of the earth and sea. This, however, is known to be contrary to fact. At such times the mercury does not ascend, but remains stationary; and what is still more extraordinary, when the drought is about to have an end, the air, while it yet contains the whole quantity of water it absorbed, and hath not discharged one single drop, becomes suddenly lighter, and the mercury will perhaps sink an inch before any rain falls. The most surprising phenomenon, however, is yet to come. After the atmosphere has been discharging for a number of days successively a quantity of matter 800 times heavier than itself, instead of being lightened by the discharge, it becomes heavier, nay specifically heavier, than it was before. It is also certain, that very dry air, provided it is not at the same time very hot, is always heavier; and the driest air which we are acquainted with, namely Dr Priestley's dephlogisticated air, is considerably heavier than the air we commonly breathe.

For these reasons we think the quantity of water contained in the whole atmosphere ought to be considered as indefinite, especially as we know that by whatever agent it is suspended, that agent must counteract the force of gravity, otherwise the water would immediately descend; and while the force of gravity in any substance is counteracted, that substance cannot appear to us to gravitate at all.

3. The above considerations render it probable at least, that there is in nature a quantity of water sufficient to deluge the world, provided it was applied to the purpose. We must next consider whether there is any natural agent powerful enough to effectuate this purpose. We shall take the phrases used by Moses in their most obvious sense. The breaking up of the fountains of the deep we may reasonably suppose to have been the opening of all the passages whether small or great, thro' which the subterraneous waters possibly could discharge themselves on the surface of the earth. The opening of the windows of heaven we may also suppose to be the pouring out the water, contained in the atmosphere, thro' those invisible passages by which it enters in such a manner as totally to elude every one of our senses, as when water is absorbed by the air in evaporation. As both these are said to have been opened at the same time, it seems from thence probable, that one natural agent was employed to do both. Now it is certain, that the industry of modern inquirers hath discovered an agent unknown to the former ages, and whose influence is so great, that with regard to this world it may be said to have a kind of omnipotence. The agent we mean is electricity. It is certain, that, by means of it, immense quantities of water can be raised to a great height in the air. This is proved by the phenomena of water-sprouts. Mr Forster relates, that he happened to see one break very near him, and observed a flash of lightning proceed from it at the moment of its breaking. The conclusion from this is obvious. When the electric matter was discharged from the water, it could no longer be supported by the atmosphere, but immediately fell down. Though water-sprouts do not appear in this country, yet every one must have made an observation somewhat similar to Mr Forster's. In a violent storm of thunder and rain, after every flash of lightning, or discharge of electricity from the clouds, the rain pours down with increased violence; thus shewing, that the cloud, having parted with so much of its electricity, cannot longer be supported in the form of vapour, but must descend in rain. It is not indeed yet discovered that electricity is the cause of the suspension of water in the atmosphere; but it is certain that evaporation is promoted by electrifying the fluid to be evaporated*. It may therefore be admitted as a possibility, that the electric fluid contained in the air is the agent by which it is enabled to suspend the water which rises in vapour. If therefore the air is deprived of the due proportion of this fluid, it is evident that rain must fall in prodigious quantities.

Again, we are assured, from the most undeniable observations, that electricity is able to swell up water on the surface of the earth. This we can make it do even in our trifling experiments; and much more must the whole force of the fluid be supposed capable of doing it, if applied to the waters of the ocean, or any others.

The agitation of the sea in earthquakes is a sufficient proof of this. It is certain, that at these times there is a discharge of a vast quantity of electric matter from the earth into the air; and as soon as this happens, all becomes quiet on the surface of the earth.

From a multitude of observations, it also appears, that there is, at all times, a passage of electric matter from the atmosphere into the earth, and vice versa from the earth into the atmosphere. There is therefore no absurdity in supposing the Deity to have influenced the action of the natural powers in such a manner that for 40 days and nights the electric matter contained in the atmosphere should descend into the bowels of the earth;—if indeed there is occasion for supposing any such immediate influence at all, since it is not impossible that there might have been, from some natural cause, a descent of this matter from the atmosphere for that time. But by whatever cause the descent was occasioned, the consequence would be, the breaking up of the fountains of the deep, and the opening the windows of heaven. The water contained in the atmosphere being left without support, would descend in impetuous rains; while the waters of the ocean, those from which fountains originate, and those contained in the solid earth itself, would rise from the very centre, and meet the waters which descended from above. Thus the breaking up of the fountains of the deep, and the opening the windows of heaven, would accompany each other, as Moses tells us they actually did; for, according to him, both happened on the same day.

In this manner the flood would come on quietly and gradually, without that violence to the globe which Burnet, Whiston, and other theorists, are obliged to suppose. The abatement of the waters would ensue on the ascent of the electric fluid to where it was before. The atmosphere would then absorb the water as formerly; that which had ascended through the earth would again subside; and thus every thing would return to its pristine state.

Thus, we think, the Mosaic account of the deluge may reasonably enough be received as a possibility, even by the most rigid inquirers: it remains now to take notice of those proofs which have been brought for it as a matter of fact. These may be reduced to two:

1. The general consent of all nations; and, 2. The existence of vast quantities of marine productions on the tops of mountains, and under the surface of the ground, at great distances from the sea.—The latter of these hath been most insisted on, and till lately was generally reckoned decisive. The observations, however, of the latest philosophers, on volcanoes, have furnished an evasion of this argument. Sir William Hamilton first shewed, that volcanoes are capable of forming mountains of very considerable size; that the fire of them lies very deep, and often below the water of the ocean itself. Hence, it is easy to see, how marine substances may be found at all depths on these volcanic mountains, and yet afford no proof of a deluge. Others have improved on this, and seem inclined to suppose that all the mountains, nay, all the habitable parts of the globe, were originally thrown up by volcanic explosions from the bottom of the ocean.

But for a particular consideration of these matters, see the articles Earth, Mountain, and Volcano.