This Chapter is chiefly concerning the _Central Fire_, and the _Origin_
of the _Chaos_; of both which, the Theorist had declared he would not
treat: And ’tis an unreasonable Violence to force an Author to treat of
what Things we please, and not allow him to prescribe Bounds to his own
Discourse. As to the first of these, see what the Theorist hath said,
_Engl. Theor._ _p._ 451, and 86, 67. By which Passages it is evident,
that he did not meddle with the central Parts of the Earth; nor thought
it necessary for his Hypothesis: As is also more fully express’d in the
_Latin Theory_, _p._ 45. For, do but allow him a Chaos from the Bottom
of the Abyss, upwards to the Moon, and he desires no more for the
Formation of an habitable Earth: Neither is it the Part of Wisdom, to
load a new Subject with unnecessary Curiosities.
Then as to the Origin of the Chaos, see how the Theorist bounds his
Discourse as to that, [15]_Engl. Theor._ _p._ 451. _I did not think it
necessary to carry the Story and Original of the Earth, higher than the
Chaos, as_ Zoroaster _and_ Orpheus _seem to have done; but taking that
for our Foundation which Antiquity, sacred and profane, does suppose,
and natural Reason approve and confirm, we have form’d the Earth from
it_. To form an habitable Earth from a Chaos given, and to shew all the
great Periods and general Changes of that Earth, throughout the whole
Course of its Duration, or while it remain’d an Earth, was the adequate
Design of the Theorist. And was this Design so short or shallow, that it
could not satisfy the great Soul of the Exceptor, _p._ 88. but it must
be a _Flaw_ in the Hypothesis, that it did go higher than the Chaos? We
content our selves with these Bounds at present. And when a Man
declares, that he will write only the _Roman_ History, will you say his
Work’s imperfect, because it does not take in the _Persian_ and
_Assyrian_?
These Things consider’d, to speak freely of this Chapter, it seems to
me, in a great Measure, impertinent; unless it was design’d to shew the
Learning of the Observator, who loves, I perceive, to dabble in
Philosophy, though little to the Purpose: For, as far as I see, his
Disquistions generally end in Scepticism; he disputes first one way,
then another; and, at last determines nothing. He rambles betwixt _Des
Cartes_ and _Moses_, the _Rabbies_, the _Septuagint_, the _Platonists_,
_Magnetisme_, _striate Particles_, and _Præ-existence of Souls_: And
ends in nothing, as to the Formation of the Earth, which was to be the
Subject of the Chapter. We proceed therefore to the next, in hopes to
meet with closer Reasoning.
Footnote 15:
_Si admittamus insupor Ignam Centratem, sive Maisom ignir in centra
Terra, quod quidem ain est basus argumenti. Neque partem intimam
Chaos, niji ibiter & pro formo, conjiaeravi, cum ad um, nesram non
spestet._ _Vid. etiam_ p. 186.