The creation & deluge, according to a new theory; confirming the Bible account, removing most of the difficulties heretofore suggested by sceptical philosophers, and indicating future cosmological changes down to the final consummation and end of earth

Front matter

O R Vi

? [SMITHSONIAN DEPOSIT.] f

^UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.!

Chapter II

No mountains before the Flood — -Luminous ring around the Earth — Thar "windows of Heaven — Cause of the sudden change of climate at the Poles from tropical to frigid— Light prior to that of tbe Sun — No antediluvian remains of man, nor of the works of man — The place where Noah built th« Ark — What went with the waters of the flood — Saturn is to be overflowed !

CHAPTER W.

Subsiding of the Ocean — American Deluge — Other floods — A dilemma — Physical and moral necessity for the Deluge— A great change is about to take place on this Earth — Preparatory legislation needed — The type of animal life progressing — .The inferior animals will be exterminated by man — A new race of animals, superior to man, may hereafter appear.

Chapter IV

There must have been a Creator, and that was God! — How things stood before the world was 1 — Formation of the Earth and other planets, according to a general law — attraction — gravitation — repulsion — The sun diminishing in size, will become extinct! — A more perfect day — Celestial pathway: — Where the first tree came from — " The law of Nature," (enacted by the Creator,) is, " the law of God!"

Chapter V

The Antediluvian World is now covered by the Mediterranean Sea — Biblical chronology tested by known data — How Moses became informed of the Creation and Deluge — Those who had ships could not thereby save themselves— Several of the Antediluvians lived until the time of Abraham.

Chapter VI

Man not carnivorous before the flood — Capacity of the Ark — Earth enriched by the Deluge—A grand Lent — Destruction of fishes— The reason why the carnivorous did not eat up the graminivorous animals on leaving the ark — Abstract of the Mosaical account — The tact and talent of the celebrated navigator Noah, during his voyage upon a shoreless ocean, in the large

sel that ever floated.

Chapter VII

The Creation was the result of natural law, or "law of Natui tameous production — Formation of coal — Birds originally came sea — Modern instances — Quails or snails in the wildernecs — New What caused the difference between animal and vegetable life — Rest, Ces-

8&ti©n (from consummation, not fatigue,) — New woilds formed, "old ones d«* stroyed,

Chapter VIII

Organic law created and sustained by Deity — Exalts our ideas of His power and goodness — Diiference between the inventions of man and the creations of G-od — Perpetual motion— A great change in the heavens is approaching!— Final destruction of the world — The antediluvians were of infe- -xior organization — Longevity before the fiood-rMosaical account is true — Internal evidence — The history of Creation, written by Adam or some one of those to whom he dictated it, and that of the Deluge by Noah, Shem, Ham or Japheth ; not by Moses 1 — Recapitulation.

Chapter IX

Description of drawings and diagrams, with explanatory remarks — Cause *nd exemplification of annular motion — Condition of the Earth on the morning of the second day of the Creation, after the separation of the waters — Production of light and heat by compression of air-— The Earth with its illuminated ring as it appeared prior to the Deluge — How a planet was ejected from the sun (according to some theorists) — Concluding obser- Tations — The Ejid of Earth — Final destruction of the present system of things — " New Heavens and a new Earth."

LIST OF PLATES.

FRONTISPIECE.

Showing, the appearance of the Antediluvian World, surrounded by a luminous ring, as seen from one of the other Planets, prior to the Deluge !

PLATE II.

The condition of the Earth on the s,econd day of Creation, immediately

after the separation of the waters. Apparatus for producing light and heat

by the compression of air.

PLATE III.

Stellar and solar attraction — The cause of the annular rotation of tht

Earth.

PLATE IV.

Attraction and Repulsion— How a planet (according to some theorists,) was ejected from the sun.

ERRATA.

Page 75, for sixty-one,. , read fiftysix.

I11 *76 in the 16th line from the top, for 56, read 54.

" I9th line from the top, for 54, read 56.

" 2d line from the bottom, for 53, .read 77.

*• 11 1st line from the bottom, for 204, read 228,

The Creation and Deluge.

Chapter I

Whoever attempts to introduce anything ?iew, in Science, Morality, Political Economy, Philosophy or Philanthropy, must expect to meet with doubts and misapprehensions : nevertheless, reasonable persons will not condemn, until they have first given an attentive hearing. The time has passed when novelty was, of itself, sufficient to insure rejection or derision.

Philosophers, Sceptics and Atheists, occasionally have endeavored to discredit the Scriptural account of the Creation and Flood, by suggestions of the following character :

No rain which we can conceive of, could in forty days cover the earth with water five miles deep, which it would have to do, if " all the mountains were covered."

Where could so much water come from ? — If all the vapor in the atmosphere were suddenly condensed into water, it would not amount to one foot in depth !

Waiving these objections, and supposing the earth to have been so covered, what became of that vast c amount of water ! (of the extra rive miles above the level of the ocean.)

If the water prevailed over the earth for ten months and twelve days, all terrene life (vegetable as well as animal,) must have been destroyed, and "every living thing and all cattle," that were in the Ark, when released, if not before, would have perished with hunger !

How could a vessel of the size of the Ark, contain eight persons, and single or septenary duplicates of all other animals, with sufficient sustenance or provender for twelve months ?

We find no antediluvian remains of man, nor of the works of man ! Consequently there is no evidence that such persons ever existed.

If a knowledge of the Creation or of the Delude were necessary or useful to man, why should that information have been withheld until " revealed" to Moses ?

How could there be "light" before the sun, moon, or stars were created ?

Can it be possible, that a beneficent Creator would make millions of human beings, and then destroy them by a premature, sudden and violent death?

The Creator being a just God, and no respecter of persons or ol creatures, wThy should one class, namely, marine animals, be exempted from the general destruction ? — For, nobody pretends thai fishes were drowned in the flood.

How could all the vegetables and animals have been created in <?r day::' The latter would have starred whilst the former were arriving- at maturity ! On the - it must have required at least i4 six thousand ;: a r .

It is perfectly ahsurd to talk of human beings having lived from 500 to nearly 1000 yea;

There have been r Floods upon this earth, but

no " general Deb; i e . " N a h 8 fiood was a very small affair, probably only an overflow of some river.

If the Deluge to be considered as "a mira all reasoning is unnecessary, for it is just as easy believe a miracle as a //one: whenever we

have to leave natural laws, and resort to the supposition of 3 Jay of miraculous po wex - ?ulations are , we inur. go it blind ;r' but if it be true, that

{i The first Abnightx ca~ e Acts not by partial but by general la

then we are net bound to believe iptions of phy-

al phenomena, which are cor to natural law.

and common sense.

The Bible ac Lb either true or it is c If

the first chapter be not true, it invalidates the five books."" (all said to be written by the same hand.) ;ot to be believed, how can we helieve the If the Biblical account of the destruction of the world by the Deluge, be true, it would look - if there had been a at the Crealion, and tl

fore, the maker had to blot it out and be^in anew.

anil other similar e - n <•]

against the Scriptural account, by men who professed to be seeking after truth— men of untiring industry and research, many of whom felt conscious of the integrity of their purpose, and were not to be deterred from investigation, by a dogmatical assertion of " Divine authenticity."

It is important to ascertain, if possible, the truth or fallacy of the Mosaical account, for if we can show that it is probably true, and in harmony with the laws of nature, then may we more readily yield our assent to those portions which, in the present state of human knowledge, cannot as yet be tested by man.

Therefore, laying aside all prejudice against the sacred volume, or bigotry in its favor, let us calmly, seriously, and earnestly endeavor to investigate the facts therein narrated.

We are about to consider what is called the new theory of the Creation and Deluge ; but it is not all new: part has long been known, yet, it is necessary to introduce that which is known in order to explain that which is unknown ; for

" What can we reason, but from what we know ?"

This new theory, accounts for many of the phenomena described in the Bible, not heretofore satisfactorily explained; it removes most of the doubts suggested by unbelieving Philosophers and Sceptics : it is calculated to disabuse the public mind, from the insinuations of mistaken, although it may be; well meaning, investigators into the mysteries revealed to man by

, 21

the inspiration of the Almighty ; and, without affirming, and without denying his divine authority, it shows, that the account given by Moses is rational and probable — the usual objections thereto arising from a misapprehension of the text.

The Creation was the result of natural laws, and there was a moral and physical necessity for the "Deluge.

The Flood was not caused by rain alone.

The earth, like Saturn, was formerly surrounded by a luminous ring, (we shall endeavor to ascertain what formed, and what became of that ring.)

" There was light," before the light of the sun, moon, or stars, reached this earth !

The habitable portion of the Antediluvian world is now under water !

Probably not more than ten or fifteen thousand persons were destroyed by the Flood! Being about the number of deaths in the city of New York in a single year.

The history of Creation could have been, and most likely was, transmitted from Adam to Jacob by two men! one of whom received it from Adam, and the other communicated it to Jacob, who through Joseph, made it known to the Elders of Israel, and the Magi of Egypt, from whom Moses might have received it.

Other historical facts have been handed down through much more equivocal testimony, and admitted as true, by all classes of men.

In the absence of writing, and of printing, the history of the Creation and Deluge might have been interpolated, forgotten, or entirely lost, had it not been for a wonderful triplication of the means of preservation ; for in that case, we should have had to depend upon inspiration, corroborated only by geology, whereas now, we have the probability, almost amounting to certainty, of its having been transmitted orally also : therein we see the wisdom and design of the Creator in giving a long term of lift to the original inhabitants; which object being accomplished, it was evidence of benevolence and forecast, to shorten the average period of human existence, whereby many more sentient beings could enjoy life, than if the original term had been continued. Independent of intuition or inspiration, the earlier antediluvians could onlv have acquired knowledge by actual observation and experiment; and not having the art of printing, many things would have been lost to succeeding ages, had the term of life been no longer than it is at present.

It has been observed, that when there are two or more ways to accomplish an end, the Almighty always selects the best, and generally, if not universally, the most simple; — had the present term of human life been originally adopted, the account of the Creation must have passed through many, instead of only one person from Adam to Noah.

The account of the Deluge was probably given to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, by those who had been eye witnesses of that catastrophe. It will be shown that two of the passengers in the ark, lived to the time of Abraham, and one of these until the time of Jacob and, as the Deluge was the most remarkable event ha their lives, no doubt, in their old age, they related the story to sueh as were then living ; for it is the nature of old men, to become retrospective and communicative upon the occurrences of their early days. This does not contradict, if it does not confirm the Christian and Hebrew belief, that the Pentateuch was written by inspiration. y

The six days of Creation, and the years of the lives of the patriarchs, will be shown to have been of the same length as our present days and years, and no longer !

In order to establish the foregoing positions, we will test the Biblical Chronology by known data.

The antediluvian animals consisted of only a few classes, orders, families, genera and species ; so that the ark was quite large enough. Natural history and geology confirm this, and so far as they have a bearing thereon, they confirm other parts of this theory.

To deny there having been one general Deluge, is about as rational as to deny the Creation ; for there is nearly as much evidence of the one as of the other. Certainly there is far more evidence of a general deluge, than of " a number of small floods ;" and yet we do not deny that there may have been many partial inundations, and we can account for some of them.

The difficulties to which we have alluded, arise in part, from a misapprehension of the text. For instance, the Bible does not say the water wTas five miles deep ; that is a mistake of modern Philosophers, as will be shown in our next chapter. .

Chapter II

"Some hold the heavens, like a top, Are kept by circulation up, And wer't not for their wheeling 'round, They'd instantly fall to the ground."

Mountains exist at present about five miles high ; but we have no evidence that there were such, before the Flood. Moses says; " fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail : and the mountains were covered." The Jewish cubit was not quite twenty-two inches; so that the flood spoken of in holy writ, was only about twenty-eight feet in depth — not " five miles." Learned men generally admit, that " in the beginning," the earth was in a heated, gaseous, fluid, or incandescent state, and that, as it cooled, it hardened into rocks, the disintegration of which formed what is called ground, the surplus water becoming separated, and remaining in a fluid, vaporic or steamlike state. It is evident, from the well-known laws of motion operating upon a body in such a state, that the superficial land in the first instance, was nearly level, forming vast morasses or marshes, with occasional pieces of meadow or upland. The fauna and flora of the antediluvian world, as we novv find them embedded in the rocks, corroborate this idea : the great Saurian animals (resembling enormous lizards or crocodiles)— the shells, the plants, all evince a low marshy, ,or swampy soil, a warm climate, and abundance of shallow water : for example ; cryptogamous plants, having their fruit concealed and flowerless, such as mushrooms, ferns, mosses and sea-weeds ; — ■ monocotyledonous plants, whose seeds have but one lobe, as palms, rushes, lilies, grasses, &c. ; — lycopodiums, (ground pine,) such as are used in the decoration of churches at Christmas, &c.

There were then no elevations such as we now call mountains. The term mountain was a diminutive, and did not originally express the idea which it now does ; hence, Moses uses the expression, " all the high hills, that were under the whole heaven, and the mountains, were covered." This, taken in connexion with the small depth of water required to cover them, leads to the inference, that the high hills were not mountains, and that the mountains were not high hills : for, if his testimony is to be taken, neither the high hills nor the mountains were more than twenty-eight feet in height.

We have proved that Moses did not say that the waters were "five miles deep/' but, on the contrary, that they were only twenty-eight feet deep; and consequently, he did not attempt to exaggerate the catastrophe. We will nevertheless admit, that even that depth was far more than could be obtained from the atmosphere, supposing it to have rained violently for forty successive days and nights over all the world at the same time; which, without extraneous aid, is impossible ! The first foot of water would exhaust the moisture from the atmosphere, and unless there were

n some other source than evaporation, it could never increase beyond that depth. But there was another source : as we read in Genesis I. 6 to 10, inclusive —

"And God said, let there be a firmament- in the midst of the waters : and let it divide the waters from the waters.

" And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament : and it was so.

" And God called the firmament, Heaven : and the evening and the morning were the second day.

" And God said, let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear : and it was so.

" And God called the dry land earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he seas : and God saw that it was good."

There are no waters now either in, or above this firmament; for, by our telescopes, we can penetrate far, very far, beyond that heaven, and see other heavens, with other suns and worlds innumerable ; but no water intervenes : therefore, that water is not there now ; that it was there once, is highly probable ; for, (independent of the assertion of Moses, that prior to the creation of man " the Lord had not caused it to rain upon the earth, but there went up a mist fro??i the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground,") by the laws of dynamics as applied to spouting fluids, the centrifugal force and the great velocity of the earth's motion, whilst the materials of which it was composed were excessively heated, the steam might have been driven off until its levity corresponded with that of the higher altitudes, and there, equipoised and retarded from further progression by the centripetal force or law of gravitation, have revolved around the earth in a ring, like those of Saturn. Then, as the point of perpetual congelation descended, it would have become a narrow band or ring of ice or snow, encircling the whole earth, at a high elevation ; reflecting the light of the sun or emitting its own light, (as hereinafter explained,) and appearing at a distance to be highly luminous.

[Whilst this work was passing through the press, the proof sheets were submitted to a learned friend for inspection and criticism, who suggests that, meeting a colder atmosphere, the steam must have been condensed into rain and fallen to the earth, and therefore could not have formed such a ring.

That this would be the case at present, is probable; but we must recollect, that the circumstances at and before the Creation, were very different from what they are now.

According to the modern theory of the origin of the Earth, the space between this planet and Mars had then lately ceased from being a portion of the Sun itself; and that luminary, after the earth was former], being as large as the orbit of Venus, and consequently nearer the earth than it is now, the temperature here must have been, even after consolidation, at least as great as that of Mercury, which is seven times that of the Earth ; and therefore, the surrounding space was then at too elevated a temperature to produce the condensation of steam by cold, even at the great altitude to which we have supposed the steam to have arisen.}

Ci In the beginning," when what now constitutes the solid parts of the Globe, were at a red, or perhaps a white heat, the freezing point must have been at a vast distance from the Earth. What is now water being then steam, rising to a great altitude and forming the aforesaid ring, would tend, together with the cooling of the surface of the globe, to lower the point of perpetual congelation, until it would gradually descend to, and freeze the whole of that vaporic ring; a condensation, or agglomeration, or both, would then take place in the particles forming that ring ; thus increasing the density and gravity of these conglomerates, and causing them to commence their downward course, as in the case of snow and rain ; which downward tendency would be somewhat accelerated by the uprising of the mountains to the height of nearly five miles.

It would have required man}^ centuries so to reduce the temperature, as that the point of congelation should descend to, and embrace this vaporic ring — and, even then, the condensation and consequent descent would be slow at first, but at last extremely rapid.

This vast body of water, snow, or ice7 surrounding the earth in the equatorial region, operated like a cloud, sheet or covering, and prevented the radiation of heat from the earth's surface ; thus, in part, accounting for the equalization of the tropical climate, which existed nearly all over the globe prior to the general deluge ; or it might have produced this effect by refracting or bending the sun's rays, causing them to fall more perpendicularly on what are now the temperate and frigid zones ; or both these modes of action may have occurred harmoniously at the same time.

The level surface of the globe, (which at that time was without mountainous ranges of highly elevated land, without rain or clouds.) the absence of great oceans to temper the atmosphere, and the heated and comparatively thin crust of the earth prior to the Deluge, will also aid us in accounting for the ardent climate, which then belonged to what are now called the temperate, and a portion of the frigid zones.

Opposite electrical conditions coming together, produce light; (the aurora borealis is supposed to be caused in that way;) consequently, this ring might have emitted light from one side, whilst it reflected the rays of the sun from the other.

A time arrived, when this watery ring yielded to the attraction of gravitation, and descended to the earth; and to this, Moses alluded when he said, "the windows of heaven were opened ;" and this was the '• flood of waters" which God told Noah he would " bring1'' upon the earth.

Here then was a cataract as much superior to Niaw

gara, as Niagara is to the smallest mill dam ! This tremendous water-fall continued for five months ! — Imagine the waters of the St. Lawrence, Hudson, Delaware, Susquehanna, Mississippi and Amazon to be united and constantly falling to the earth, from a height of many miles, for five consecutive months, accompanied all that time by rain, (caused by this violent commotion,) which rain, for the first forty days and nights,, poured down in torrents; and the bottom of the sea continually exploding with a noise, compared to which, all the artillery of man added to the loudest thunder, would be but as a whisper ; whilst mountains and mountain ranges, came peering up from the interior portions of the globe,— and you may form some conception of the descent of that vast volume of water, and the terrible uprising and down sinking of different portions of the crust of the earth, — or, of what is to be understood when we speak of the Deluge !

We have not gauged those rivers,, nor measured the cubical content of the ocean ; therefore, the above comparison may not be in strict proportion as to the respective quantities of water. This is not necessary, - — our present object being to give some idea of the immensity of the catastrophe, and not an exact admeasurement of the agents employed on that occasion.

There are those, who think " Noah should have looked out from the Ark now and then, to observe what was going on around him, so as to be able to transmit the account to us; instead of shutting him self up, month after month, without so much as opening a window !"

Under the circumstances, we think it was proper to shut down the dead lights, (if there were any,) and to do precisely what Noah did. — No doubt he and his family were terrified into simple and implicit obedience to all that he and they were commanded to do. — " Remember Lot's wife!" Inquisitiveness, which induces us to pry into other people's affairs, sometimes leads into trouble ; how much more then, when we attempt to scrutinize (except to vindicate or explain,) " the ways of God to man."

The Americans are a bold, investigating people; but we know of none of them who would venture unbidden to pry into and record, for the gratification of an incredulous or gainsaying posterity, the doings of the Almighty, amid

" The wreck of matter and the crush of worlds."

Many other animals have physical courage, as great or even greater than that of man, yet the most ferocious beasts will quail, when surrounded by phenomena such as we have described ; and this may in part account for their docility on board the ark. — Again, as Noah and his family had to feed and fodder this vast number of flesh, grass, and graineating animals, every farmer's boy can understand they must have had plenty to do, without spending their time in looking out of the door or the window of the ark ; therefore, let no one censure Noah or his companions for "not having the curiosity" and temerity " to look out and see what the Lord was doing." Grateful for their own deliverance, where they could not unriddle, they 'had learned to trust! Besides ; it would have been a painful sight to behold their friends and neighbors, some of whom were their near relatives, struggling against their doom, and appealing to them by name, and by every endearing consideration, calculated to move the human heart, to assist them in their great extremity ; — none but a demon would wish to look upon such a scene ! Then, there were their own property and possessions, their dwellings, lands, fields, vineyards, servants, (some of them " to the manor born;") their flocks and herds, and all their substance (except what they had with them, which, probably, was comparatively little,) sinking below the world of waters, to be lost to them for ever, whilst they were embarking on an interminable oceanp in a non-descript vessel, without sail, oar, compass, chart, rudder, cable or anchor, not knowing that they would ever find another home or country !

A thousand heart-rending scenes must have been presented, had Noah or any of his family been permitted to look out of the ark, upon the devastation and destruction then going on around them : Therefore, it was in mercy that " the Lord shut him in /"

How irrational and cruel must it have appeared, to those who were connected with Noah by blood, marriage, business or friendship, to see him " saving all manner of unclean beasts and creeping things,"

Whilst he was "leaving his relatives and friends to perish !" many of whom could have been accommodated on board the ark, " if some of those vile beasts were thrown overboard." So that it was in wisdom as well as mercy, that he was " shut in" and not allowed to look upon or hold any communication with, a drowning world !

Moses speaks of rain, as well as of the water that was poured down from " the windows of heaven," and therefore, he could not have meant that they were one and the same thing — he evidently makes a discrimination, and considers them as two separate and distinct sources from which the water was sapplied that deluged the earth.

Rain, in the present state of tranquillity, does not add to the quantity of water on the earth, because it is first taken up into the atmosphere, before it can descend again ; thus there is now no increase of water in a cosmological view ; but at the time of the flood, " the waters prevailed and increased greatly upon the earth."

We shall have occasion in a subsequent chapter, to show that there was no rain prior to the Deluge; — if that were the case, then the continued evaporation for more than 1600 years, less the amount nightly deposited in the shape of dew, would have saturated the atmosphere, and aided in causing the vaporic ring to descend to the earth.