CHAP. VIII.
The uses of this Theory for the illustration of Antiquity; The ancient Chaos explain'd; The inhabitability of the Torrid Zone; The change of
the Poles of the World; The doctrine of the
Mundane Egg; How America was first
peopled; How Paradise within the Circle of the
Moon.
WE have now dispatch'd the Theory of the Primæval Earth, and reviv'd a forgotten World;
'Tis pity the first and fairest works of Nature should
be lost out of the memory of Man, and that we
should so much dote upon the Ruines, as never to
think upon the Original Structure. As the modern
Artists from some broken pieces of an ancient Statue,
make out all the other parts and proportions; so
from the broken and scatter'd limbs of the first World
we have shown you how to raise the whole Fabrick
again; and renew the prospect of those pleasant
Scenes that first see the light, and first entertain'd
Man, when he came to act upon this new-erected
Stage.
We have drawn this Theory chiefly to give an account of the Universal Deluge, and of Paradise; but
as when one lights a Candle to look for one or two
things which they want, the light will not confine it
self to those two objects, but shows all the other in
the room; so, methinks, we have unexpectedly cast a
light upon all Antiquity, in seeking after these two
things, or in retrieving the Notion and Doctrine of
the Primæval Earth, upon which they depended. For
in ancient Learning there are many Discourses, and
many Conclusions deliver'd to us, that are so obscure
and confus'd, and so remote from the present state of
