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things, that one cannot well distinguish, whether they
are fictions or realities; and there is no way to distinguish with certainty, but by a clear Theory upon
the same subjects; which showing us the truth directly, and independently upon them, shows us also by
reflection, how far they are true or false, and in what
sence they are to be interpreted and understood. And
the present Theory being of great extent, we shall
find it serviceable in many things, for the illustration
of such dubious and obscure doctrines in Antiquity.
To begin with their Ancient CHAOS, what a
dark story have they made of it, both their Philosophers and Poers; and how fabulous in appearance?
'Tis deliver'd as confus'dly as the Mass it self could be,
and hath not been reducd to order, nor indeed made
intelligible by any. They tell us of moral principles
in the Chaos instead of natural, of strife, and discord, and
division on the one hand, and Love, Friendship, and
Venus on the other; and after a long contest Love got
the better of Discord, and united the disagreeing principles: This is one part of their story. Then they
make the forming of the World our of the Chaos a
kind of Genealogie or Pedigree; Chaos was the common Parent of all, and from Chaos sprung, first,
Night, and Tartarus, or Oceanus; Night was a teeming
Mother, and of her were born Æther and the Earth;
The Earth conceiv'd by the influences of Æther, and
brought forth Man and all Animals.
This seems to be a Poetical fiction rather than Philosophy; yet when 'tis set in a true light, and compar'd with our Theory of the Chaos, 'twill appear a
pretty regular account, how the World was form'd
at first, or how the Chaos divided it self successively
into several Regions, rising one after another, and propagated one from another, as Children and posterity
from a common Parent. We show'd in the first Book,
Chap. 5. how the Chaos, from an uniform mass,
wrought it self into several Regions or Elements; the
grossest part sinking to the Center, upon this lay the
mass of Water, and over the Water was a Region of
dark, impure, caliginous Air; This impure caliginous
Air is that which the Ancients call Night, and the mass
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