CHAP. V.
Concerning the Waters of the Primitive Earth:
What the state of the Regions of the Air was then,
and how all Waters proceeded from them; how the
Rivers arose, what was their course, and how
they ended. Several things in Sacred Writ that
confirm this Hydrography of the first Earth;
especially the Origin of the Rainbow.
HAving thus far clear'd our way to Paradise, and
given a rational account of its general properties; before we proceed to discourse of the place of
it, there is one affair of moment, concerning this
Primitive Earth, that must first be stated and explain'd; and that is, How it was water'd; from what
causes and in what manner. How could Fountains
rise, or Rivers flow in an Earth of that Form and Nature? We have shut up the Sea with thick walls on
every side, and taken away all communication that
could be 'twixt it and the external Earth; and we have
remov'd all the Hills and the Mountains where the
Springs use to rise, and whence the Rivers descend to
water the face of the ground: And lastly, we have
left no issue for these Rivers, no Ocean to receive
them, nor any other place to disburden themselves
into: So that our New-found World is like to be a
dry and barren Wilderness, and so far from being Paradisiacal, that it would scarce be habitable.
I confess there was nothing in this whole Theory
that gave so rude a stop to my thoughts, as this part
of it, concerning the Rivers of the first Earth; how
they rise, how they flow'd, and how they ended. It
seem'd at first, that we had wip'd away at once the
Notion and whole Doctrine of Rivers; we had turn'd
the Earth so smooth, that there was not an Hill or
