necessary causes, will, I should imagine, amount to something like Demonstration.

To account for these Phenomena on the surface of the Earth, (the surface alone being all that concerns the emmet man, and the sole object of these speculations,*) it is necessary simply to refer to the physical effects produced on that surface by REGULAR CHANGES in the Earth's motion, AS A PLANET. To those regular planetary changes may easily be referred all the wonders in the Pheno. mena of the surface, which have occasioned so much difficulty in the finite and local examinations of Geologists. It is unnecessary, however, in the course of such a developement, to turn from the general argument, to discuss exceptions arising from local or temporary combinations; and it ought to satisfy curiosity, if I illustrate the general and overbear ing Causes of the Phenomena-causes which it may be shewn a posteriori are equal to the effects-and from which the effects might, at any time, have been anticipated à priori, had the causes been understood before the effects took place.

TWO MOTIONS of the earth not difficult to be understood, and which I will endeavour to make plain to the most unscientific reader, will solve all the dif ficulties which have long embarrassed these questions, and lead to results the most interesting that can affect the mind of man. It will appear that changes, like those that have past, will inevitably take place AGAIN and AGAIN; that like causes must and will produce SIMILAR EFFECTS; that the fair regions which we now inhabit must, in the regular course of nature, be covered again by the ocean; that new layers of marine productions of sand, gravel, and broken mountains, will overwhelm that soil to which we now feel such lively attach inent; and finally that new countries, or arrangements of land, will again arise in due course in those mundane sites, which at present are occupied by civilised Europe, and by large parts of Asia and America!

At this period of the Life of Know ledge, it is scarcely necessary to state that we exist on a globe, which, at the dis

* How seldom is man able to explore more than a furlong in depth, or the sixty-four thousandth part of the Earth's Diameter! The deepest mines are not more than half-amile, or the sixteen thousandth part of the Earth's Diameter! The sting of a Bee in the Hide of an Elephant !

tance of 95 millions of miles, moves round the sun in a year; or, that the orbit of the earth is not an exact circle, but an oval or ellipse; and that the sun is not in the middle of the ellipse, but in one of its foci, or in one of the two centres of the ellipse; consequently, as those foci are three millions of miles asunder, the earth is at one season but 92 millions of miles from the sun, and at the opposite season 98 millions distant. These facts, as well as another, that the planes (or poles) of the Earth's Equator and Orbit are inclined 23 degrees to each other, are also well known, and are repeated here only for precision's sake.

When the earth is in that part of its orbit which is the nearest to the sun, it is then said to be in its PERIHELION; and at that time let it be remembered it is six millions of miles nearer to the sun than at the opposite point.* When in its perihelion, the disposition to fall to the sun, or the centripetal force, is increased nearly one fifteenth; to coun teract which, the centrifugal force carries it through 61 minutes per day, instead of 57 minutes, its motion at the aphelion distance, or 59' its mean motion. This increased motion and the combined forces necessarily generate an increase in the tides, and accumulate a body of waters towards the parallel of the earth, in which lies the direction of the forces. All the economy of the earth may then be said to be stimulated to VIGOROUS OR INCREASED ACTION, and an unusual bustle and energy, if such terms can be applied to the grandeur of nature, take place in the elements of air and water, whether they are considered as agents or patients.

Hence

On January 1, 1801, the place of the earth's perihelion was in 9° 30' of Cancer,

at which time the sun would of course be in the apparently opposite part, or in 9° 30′ of the 31st of December. From this cause it is Capricorn, corresponding to his position on that the sun performs his apparent course during our winter months in nearly 8 day■ less than in our summer months, because when in Perigee he moves over a greater portion of the ecliptic in the same time, than he does in Apogee; and from the same cause also the waters of the earth are in more vigorous action.

t For the purposes of this reasoning it matters not whether the Newtonian doctrine of a vague gravitation or attraction, and a supernatural centrifugal force be adopted; or whether the hypothesis which I lately published in your 216th Number is preferred, ex

Hence then it doubtless is, that in this age so vast and continued a body of water surrounds the South Pole, extending even to the 30th degree of south latitude, and leaving no considerable body of land in the whole southern hemisphere. The waters are at this time, however, by the peculiar modification of the forces, impelled or driven in masses into that hemisphere, to counteract, by the increased momentum of their oscillations, the increased centripetal force of the earth in its PERIHELION, which in this age happens on the last day of December, while the sun is passing vertical over 23° of south latitude.

IN THAT PARALLEL consequently lies the centre or direction of the maxima of the centripetal and centrifugal forces. If then the earth were always in its perihelion on that day, these effects would always happen in the southern hemisphere, and that hemisphere would always have an excess of water, and the northern hemisphere an excess of land! I am aware that the question of the Equilibrium of the waters of the ocean, has not escaped the observation of some acute philosophers; but it is the Equilibrium of the two Hemispheres, rather than a local Equilibrium which is of consequence in these operations of nature. The Northern Hemisphere cannot be made to contain the waters of the Southern Hemisphere, without overwhelming a large portion of the Land; and this will be required whenever the perihelion point moves through the four northern signs.

cept that by the latter mode the cause goes before the effect, and by the old hypothesis the effect is assumed as the cause. I conceive that the falling together of bodies is occasioned by the necessary compression of an universal fluid; and the Newtonians call it a power by the name of attraction. I ascribe the cause of the centrifugal force to be the oscillation of the waters, which they deem an effect, and refer that force to the immediate agency of the Deity! Which is the most like philosophy must be left to others; but it happens in this, as in many other instances in nature, that cause and effect are so blended and equal as to become convertible terms, without varying the effects, the results, or the force of the arguments arising out of them. If the oscillations of the waters are admitted to be the centrifugal force, the roundabout elucidation of opposing tides will be blotted from our philosophy-a doctrine nearly as arbitrary as that of the Fits of easy Reflection and Transmission in particles of Light.

1

the

Here then are new and striking Data for Terraqueous Epochs and Revolutions! Here are great seasons for progressive change, surprising in their results, but imperceptible to man; of which each gradation is 5233 years; in which the opposite effects are produced only in every 10,450 years-and in which the same effects can recur only in every 20,900 years!!!

Such are the periods to which the Psalmist referred, when, in addressing the Eternal Deity, he says, "A thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday !" Truly such periods can be to the Eternal only as days, and as parts of the days of the vain diminutive-MAN!-Our perceptions of present space are more clear than of absent time, otherwise we should feel as much incredulity in regard to millions, and millions of miles, as we feel at first consideration in regard to fifty or a hundred thousand years. We know however that infinite past time, is as necessary and as real as infinite present space, and the ratio of a million of miles or years, to either of those infinites is equal!

With a terrestrial Globe and an Ephemeris before me, I shall note the four times, PAST and TO COME, in which the perihelion point advanced, or will advance, through 113 degrees of declina tion, producing sensible variations when compared with the middle of each former period.

THE PRESENT EPOCH of great southern declination will last till the perihelion point arrives at 11 degrees of south declination, i.e. it will continue during the progress of that point through four complete signs, or 6977 years, of which (as the Sun's perihelion is in 9 degrees of VP) 4070 years have already

expired. No considerable change then has taken place since the year 2258, B. C. and none will occur from this cause till about the year 4719.

THE SECOND EPOCH is that which arises from the passage of the perihelion point through the declination from 113 south, to the Equator, and this will last while it passes through the single sign Pisces, or 1744 years; i. e. between the years 4719 and 6463. Referring to the past, it occurred 5814 years ago, or 4002 before Christ.

THE THIRD EPOCH is that which passes while the perihelion point is moving from the Equator to 11 degrees of north declination, or while in ascending it moves through Aries, making 1744 years, and extending from the year 6463 to the year 8207. Referring to times past, it included the passage through Virgo, extending to 5746 years B. C.

The fourth PERIOD will last as long as the first or present period, or during the passage of the perihelion point through the four northern signs, or during 6977 years; i.e. from the year 8207 to 15,184; and, referring to pust times, this epoch occurred between the years 5746 B. C. and 12,723 B. C.

In every 20,931 years the same periods and phenomena are, of course, repeated, from the recurrence of the

same causes.

In remarking on these grand natural EPOCHS, it is evident that we are now, in 1812, advanced a little beyond the middle of a period of nearly 7000 years; during all which time the maxima of the centripetal and centrifugal forces lie in the southern hemisphere, and consequently accumulate the waters in that hemisphere, deluging, overwhelming, and changing, the surface of all the land; an operation which has been proceeding during at least 4000 years past, and which will continue for other 3000 years, with little abatement of cause or force. Of course, during this prodigious time, a contrary effect has taken place in the northern hemisphere, from which the waters have been drawn off to produce the maxiina, and the balance of forces required in the southern hemi sphere.

The SECOND and THIRD Periods of 1744 years each (descending through

This seems to accord with the received Chronology of the period of the Deluge, i. e. 2,948 years B. C., and is consequently very remarkable!

ÁIONTHLY MAG., No. 224.

mand, and ascending through and Y), may not improperly be joined in one ascending and one descending, of 3488 years. This may be said to be the period of the grand and operative transit of the forces from the northern to the southern hemisphere. It was in part of this Epoch, doubtless in its middle, on passing the Equator, that the last great and decided changes took place, and established themselves in our NORTHERN Hemisphere. This happened, as stated, 4002 years before Christ, a fractional period, sooner or later, as the perihelion point at that time passed the Equator towards the south. THEN it doubtless WAS that "the Earth (i.e, the Northern Hemisphere, of which Moses was treating) was without form and void, and that the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters; and that God said, let the waters under the Heavens be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land ap pear, and it was so. And God called the dry land Earth, and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas.”How beautiful! How sublime! How accordant too with the effects likely to result from the perihelion point passing the Equator just at that time to the southward!

I have strained nothing in this calculation, in which any person may follow me, by referring to LA PLACE, POND, or VINCE; and I confess I have been both surprised and delighted at the Harmony which I have found to exist between the grand changes, which evidently must have taken place, from the secondary causes described, about 4002 years before Christ, the RECORDS OF THE SACRED WRITINGS, and all we know of the state of these parts of the world, drawn from the early accounts of the Greeks and Romans.*

The next time the perihelion point

Doubtless other effects took place after the action of the forces passed to the Southward; and, when on arriving at 112 of South Declination, about the year 2,258 B. C.. they would begin to act on the Southern Hemisphere, and to produce there such a deluge perhaps, as the Scriptures and all ancient writings agree in recording. The Terra Australis has vanished, notwithstanding all the traditions in regard to its ancient existence. How forcibly also do these reasonings bring

to recollection Plato's account of the For. tunate Islands. They give sanction too to what have been hastily treated as the dreams of the Hindoos, Egyptians, Chaldeans, and Chinese!

passes