of Yorkshire in England, filled for the most part with the bones and
skeletons of hyaenas, of the same species now found in the southernmost
point of Africa--the Cape of Good Hope. These bones were intermixed with
those of tigers, bears, wolves, as also of elephants, rhinosceri, and
other animals, among which were found the remains of the old large deer,
that is not now to be met with in England. The profound Naturalist,
Schubert, whom, in subjects of this kind, I willingly take for my guide,
observes in his natural history with respect to this newly discovered
cavern (which evidently belongs to another, long extinct, and anterior
world of nature); that the opinion which would make a whole stratum of
bones to have been swept thither by floods in so sound a state, and from
so remote a distance, is perfectly inadmissible. He shews it to be much
more probable that this cave was the den of a troop of hyaenas, which had
dragged thither the bones of the other animals; for this fell and
rapacious animal feeds by preference on bones, which it knows how to
break, as it is in the habit of raking up dead bodies.--What an immense
interval separates that now highly civilized state--those flourishing
provinces--that country abounding, and almost overteeming with all the
fruits of human industry, with all the productions of mechanic
skill;--that cultivated garden, that Island-Queen, the mistress of every
sea;--what an immense interval separates her from those savage times,
when troops of hyaenas prowled about the land, together with the other
gigantic animals of the southern zone, and tropic clime!
Thus it is natural to suppose that in one of the last great revolutions
of nature the climate of the earth has undergone a total change; and
that originally the now icy north enjoyed a glowing warmth, a rich
fertility, and all the fulness of luxuriant life. A number of still more
decisive facts declare for this supposition, or, to speak more properly,
this certainty; since we discover in the upper parts of Northern Asia,
and in general throughout the Polar regions, entire forests of palm in
the subterraneous strata, as also well-preserved remains of whole herds
of elephants, and of many other kindred species of animals now totally
extinct. Long before most of these facts were discovered, Leibnitz had
conjectured that originally the earth in general, even in the north,
enjoyed a much warmer temperature than in the present period of
all-ruling and progressive frost; and Buffon and others have established
on this idea their hypothesis of a vast central fire in the interior of
the earth. The interior parts of the earth and its internal depths are a
region totally impervious to the eye of mortal man, and can least of all
be approached by those ordinary paths of hypothesis adopted by
naturalists and geologists. The region designed for the existence of
man, and of every other creature endowed with organic life, as well as
the sphere open to the preception of man's senses, is confined to a
limited space between the upper and lower parts of the earth,
exceedingly small in proportion to the diameter, or even semi-diameter
of the earth, and forming only the exterior surface, or outer skin, of
the great body of the earth. Even at a very slight depth below the
earth's surface, all change of seasons ceases, and an even temperature
eternally prevails, approximating rather to cold, than living heat. Yet
on this side the earth is more easy of access than in the upper regions,
where not only the higher Alps and glaciers are the last attainable
limit to human daring, but even the pure ether of the supernal
atmosphere made an aeronaut, celebrated for his disaster, learn at his
own cost, how very near is that boundary where, in deadening cold, all
life and all observation cease. It is in the physical, as in the moral
world--where light and heat should exist, there two things are
necessary--a power to give light and communicate heat, and a substance
capable of receiving and absorbing the one and the other. Where either
condition is wanting, there reigns eternal darkness, and deadly and
eternal cold; and so the fact, that the whole action of heat, and of all
the life it produces, is confined entirely to this lower atmosphere,
should awake attention rather than create surprise. In all matters, even
of this sort, we cannot be too mindful of the necessity of confining our
researches to that small narrowly circumscribed sphere inhabited by man,
and of never exceeding those limits.
Thus to explain the fact that the habitable earth has not, as
originally, so warm a temperature as the north, we need not have
recourse to any supposition of a central fire suddenly extinguished,
like an oven that becomes cold, or to any other violent hypothesis of
the same kind; for this fact may be sufficiently accounted for by the
last great revolution of Nature--the general deluge, which as may be
assumed with great probability, produced a change in the heretofore much
purer, balmier, and more genial atmosphere. That, towards the equator,
the position of the earth's axis has undergone a change, and that
thereby this great revolution in the earth's climate was occasioned, is
indeed a bare possibility; but until further proof, this must be
regarded as a purely gratuitous hypothesis. But without subscribing to
these fanciful suppositions, and mathematical theories, and without
wishing to penetrate, with some geologists, into the hidden depths of
the earth in quest of an imagined central fire, we shall find on the
inhabited surface of the globe, or very near it, many proofs and
indications of the once superior energy of the principle of fire--a
principle whereof volcanoes whether subsisting or extinct, and the
kindred phenomena of earthquakes, may be considered the last feeble,
surviving effects; for not basalt only, but porphyry, granite, and in
general all the primary rocks, and those which, according to the
classifications of geologists, are more immediately akin to them, can be
proved to be of a volcanic nature with as much certainty, as we can
trace, in the horizontal secondary formations, the destructive influence
and operation of the element of water. Hence this layer of
subterraneous, though now in general slumbering fire, with all its
volcanic arteries and veins of earthquakes, may once have been as widely
diffused over the surface of the globe as the element of water, now
occupying so large a portion of that surface. As volcanic rocks exist in
the ocean, or rather at its bottom, and as their eruptions burst through
the body of waters up to the surface of the sea; as their volcanic
agency gives birth to earthquakes, and not unfrequently raises and
heaves up new islands from the depths of the ocean; naturalists have
concluded, with reason from these various facts, that the volcanic basis
of the earth's surface though tolerably near, must still be somewhat
deeper than the bottom of the sea. And without stopping to examine the
hypothesis relative to the immeasurable depth of the ocean, the opinion
which fixes the earth's basis at about 30,000 feet, or one geographical
mile and a half below the surface of the sea, does not exceed the modest
limits of a well-considered probability. In the present period of the
globe, water is the predominant element on the earth's surface. But if
that volcanic power which lies deeper in the bosom of the earth, and the
kindred principle of fire, had at an earlier epoch of nature, the same
influence and operation on the earth, as water afterwards had; we can
well imagine such an influence to have materially affected the lower
atmosphere, and to have rendered the climate of the earth, even in the
North, totally different from what it is at present.
The strata of bones formed by the old flood, and the buried remains of a
former race of animals, call forth a remark, which is not without
importance in respect to the primitive history of man:--it is, that
among the many bones of other large and small land animals, which form
of themselves a rich and varied collection of the subterraneous products
of nature, the fossile remains of man are scarcely any where to be
found. It has sometimes happened that what were at first considered the
bones of human giants have been afterwards proved to have been those of
animals. It is so very rare an instance to meet in fossile remains with
a real human bone, skull, jaw-bone or entire human skeleton (as in one
particular instance was found enclosed in a lime-stone, mixed with some
few utensils and instruments of the primitive world, such as a
stone-knife, a copper axe, an iron club, and a dagger of a very ancient
form, together with some human bones); that the very rareness of the
exception serves only to confirm the general rule. Were we from this
fact immediately to draw the conclusion that during all those
revolutions of nature mankind had not yet existence, such an hypothesis
would be rash, groundless, completely at variance with history--one to
which many even physical objections, too long to detail here, might be
opposed. That so very few, and indeed scarcely any human bones are to be
found among the fossile remains of the primitive world, may possibly be
owing to the circumstance that by the very artificial, hot, and highly
seasoned food of men, their bones, from their chemical nature and
qualities, are more liable to destruction than those of other animals. I
may here repeat what I have already had occasion to remark, and what is
here of especial importance, as applying particularly to the history and
circumstances of the primitive world;--namely, that all things are not
susceptible of an entire, satisfactory, and absolutely certain
explanation; and that yet we may form a tolerably correct conception of
general facts; though many of the particulars may remain for a time
unexplained, or at least not capable of a full explanation. So on the
other hand, it would be premature, and little conformable to the grave
circumspection of the historian, to reduce all those natural
catastrophes (the vouching monuments and mysterious inscriptions of
which are now daily disclosed to the eye of Science as she explores the
deep sepulchres of the earth)--to reduce, I say, all those natural
catastrophes exclusively to the one nearest to the historical times, and
which indeed is attested by the clear, unanimous tradition of all, or at
least of most ancient nations; for several mighty and violent,
revolutions of nature, of various kinds, though of a less general
extent, may possibly have happened, and very probably did really happen
simultaneously with, or subsequently, or even previously to the last
general flood.
The irruption of the Black Sea into the Thracian Bosphorus is regarded
by very competent judges in such matters, as an event perfectly
historical, or at least, from its proximity to the historical times, as
not comparatively of so primitive a date. A celebrated Northern
naturalist has shewn it to be extremely probable, that the Caspian Sea,
and the lake Aral were originally united with the Euxine, and that on
the other hand the North Sea extended very far over land, and even near
to those regions, leaving some marine plants very different from those
of the Southern Seas. The sea originally must have stretched much
farther over the earth and even over many places where now is dry land,
as may easily be inferred from the great and extensive salt-steppes in
Asia, Africa, and some parts of Eastern Europe, which furnish many and
irrefragable proofs that the land was once occupied by the sea.
All these great physical changes are not necessarily and exclusively to
be ascribed to the last general deluge. The presumed irruption of the
Mediterranean into the ocean, as well as many other mere partial
revolutions in the earth and sea, may have occurred much later and quite
apart from this great event. The original magnificence of the climate of
the North, as displayed in the luxuriant richness of all organic
productions, is commemorated in many traditions of the primitive
nations, especially those of Southern Asia; and in these sagas, the
North is ever made the subject of uncommon eulogy. That the North enjoys
a certain natural pre-eminence appears to be matter of certainty, and to
be even susceptible of scientific demonstration. The northern and
southern extremities of our planet appear at least to be very unlike, if
we judge the terraqueous globe according to the present state of
geographical knowledge. While the old and new continents, the north of
Asia and of America, extend in long and wide tracts of land high up
towards the North Pole, so that the boundaries of land cannot be every
where perfectly defined; water is the predominant element around the
colder South Pole, towards which even the southernmost point of America,
and the remotest Island of Polynesia--the extreme verge of land--make no
near approach; and beyond these points, so far as the boldest navigators
have been able to penetrate, they have discovered only sea and ice, and
no where a real Polar region of any great extent. Thus the South Pole is
the cold and watery side, or as we should say in dynamics, the negative
and weaker end of the earth's body, while the North Pole on the other
hand appears to be the positive and stronger extremity; for, though the
centre of the earth's magnetic attraction and magnetic life, accords not
mathematically with the northern point, yet it lies at no very great
distance from it. In other phenomena of nature, too, the real seat and
principle of life will be found, not at the mathematical point, but a
little removed from it.
Another circumstance worthy of consideration is, that the Northern
firmament possesses by far the largest and most brilliant
constellations, and that though the Southern firmament is embellished by
its own, they are neither in the same number, nor of the same beauty. To
the impressions made by such objects, the men of the primitive ages were
certainly far more alive than those of the present day; and an obscure
feeling for nature, grounded on the real natural superiority of the
North, as well as the poetical sagas which were in part the natural
offspring of such feelings, may have contributed to direct the stream of
the first migrations of nations towards the North, and have occasioned
the very early colonization and settlement of its regions: for, in
primitive antiquity, a certain presentient instinct, it is right to
suppose, was much oftener the primary cause of those migrations than
such a spirit of commercial speculation as afterwards animated the
Phoenicians and their various colonies. We may here also observe that
even in its present state, the remoter North has its own peculiar charms
and advantages, and that by human industry it may attain to a much
higher degree of productiveness, than we should be at first-sight
tempted to suppose. In this sense ought to be taken the tradition of
antiquity, as to the happy and virtuous people of the Hyperboreans; and
it is easy to understand it in this sense without inferring thence too
many consequences. If on the other hand, some able and learned
naturalists, led away by this fact, appear almost inclined to regard the
region of the North Pole, once in the enjoyment of a warm southern
temperature, as one of the earliest, nay the very earliest abode of the
human race; I cannot follow them in their hypothesis, opposed as it is
to the positive and unanimous tradition of many and most ancient
nations, pointing with one concurrent voice to central Asia as man's
primitive dwelling-place. It appears indeed that the tradition of
antiquity as to the Island of Atlantis ought to be considered
historical; but instead of regarding this country as an island of the
Blessed situated in the arctic circle, I think it much more natural to
refer the whole tradition to an obscure nautical knowledge of America,
or of those adjacent islands at which Columbus first touched, and to
which the Phoenician pilots (who beyond all doubt circumnavigated
Africa) may not improbably have been driven in the course of their
voyage.
I have laid it down as an invariable maxim constantly to follow
historical tradition, and to hold fast by that clue, even when many
things in the testimony and declarations of tradition appear strange and
almost inexplicable, or at least enigmatical; for so soon as in the
investigations of ancient history, we let slip that thread of Ariadne,
we can find no outlet from the labyrinth of fanciful theories, and the
chaos of clashing opinions. For this reason I cannot concur in the very
violent hypothesis which a celebrated geologist, towards the close of
the last century, M. De Luc, has hazarded respecting the deluge, and
which the excellent Stolberg has adopted in his great historical
work;[38] although the author of this theory, so far from intending to
oppose it to the Mosaic account of the deluge, or to set aside the
narrative of the inspired historian, conceived his hypothesis was
calculated to furnish the strongest confirmation and clearest
illustration of the sacred text. But I cannot reconcile his theory
either with Holy Writ, or with the general testimony of historical
tradition. The supposition is this, that the deluge was not a general
inundation of the whole earth, according to the ordinary belief, but a
mere change of the solid and fluid parts of the earth's surface, a
dynamical transmutation of land and sea, so that what was formerly land
became sea, and vice versa. This is much more than can be found in the
old account of the Noachian flood, or than a sound critical
interpretation would infer; and the supposition that the names of rivers
and countries occurring in the Bible, refer to those objects as they
existed in the original dry land; and are again to be transferred to
similar objects in the new land that sprang up with, or after, or out of
the deluge; this supposition, I say, bears too evidently the stamp of
arbitrary conjecture, to gain admission and credit with those who have
taken historical tradition for their guide. If by the geological facts
which offer, or which we think offer, satisfactory proof, not only of
the general Noachian flood, but of more than one deluge and of still
more violent catastrophes of nature; if by these geological facts before
our eyes, such a total revolution and dynamic transmutation of land and
sea were really proved (and the character of these proofs I must abandon
to the investigation and judgment of others); this great revolution
examined in an historical point of view, and in reference to the Mosaic
history, must then be rather referred to that elder period, whereof it
is said: "The earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the
face of the deep; but the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the
waters."
These words which announce the presage of a new morn of creation, not
only represent a darker and wilder state of the globe, but very clearly
show the element of water to be still in predominant force. Even the
division of the elements of the waters above the firmament, and of the
waters below it, on the second day of creation--the permanent limitation
of the sea for the formation and visible appearance of dry land,
necessarily imply a mighty revolution in the earth, and afford
additional proof that the Mosaic history speaks not only of one, but of
several catastrophes of nature; a circumstance that has not been near
enough attended to in the geological interpretation and illustration of
the Bible. But to the bold and ill-founded hypothesis above-mentioned,
many geological facts may be opposed, for in the midst of vast tracts
and strata of an ancient bottom of the sea, many spots are found covered
with the accumulated remains of land animals, with trunks of trees and
various other products of vegetation, pertaining not to the sea, but to
dry land.
With the clearest and most indubitable precision, the Mosaic history
fixes the primitive dwelling-place of man in that central region of
Western Asia situate near two great rivers, and amid four inland seas,
the Persian and Arabian gulfs on the one hand, and the Caspian and
Mediterranean seas on the other, and which is likewise designated for
the same purpose by the concurrent traditions of most other primitive
nations. The ancient tradition of the European nations as to their own
origin and early history, conducts the enquirer constantly to the
Caucasian regions, to Asia Minor, to Phoenicia, and to Egypt;
countries all of them contiguous to, in the vicinity and even on the
coast of, that central region. Among the primitive Asiatic nations, the
Chinese place the cradle of their origin and civilization in the
north-western province of Shensee; and the Indians fix theirs towards
the north of the Himalaya mountains. Thus this last tradition points to
Bactriana, which, as it borders on Persia, approximates consequently to
that central region; whereof the holy and primitive country of the
Persian Sagas, Atropatena or land of fire, now known by the name of
Adherbijan forms a part. With a clearness and precision which admit of
no doubt, the Mosaic history designates the two great rivers of that
central region, the Tigris and Euphrates, by the same names which they
have ever afterwards borne; and even the name of Eden, down to a later
period, was affixed to a country near Damascus, and to another in
Assyria. The third river of Paradise has been sought for by some in a
more Northerly direction--in the region of Mount Caucasus; and though
not with equal certainty as in the other two instances, they have
thought to find it in the Phasis. The fourth river towards the South,
the old Interpreters generally took to be the Nile; but the description
of its course is so widely different from the present situation of that
river, and the present geography of the whole of those regions, that
here at least a very great change must have occurred, in order to
occasion this discrepancy between the old description of this river's
course, and the present geography of the country.
In another circumstance, also, which has been mostly too little attended
to, this disparity between the Mosaic description and the present
conformation of those regions is particularly striking. The geography of
the rivers of Paradise, at least of two or three, may be easily traced,
though the fourth remains a matter of uncertainty; but the one source of
Paradise in which those four rivers had their rise, in order thence to
spread, and diffuse fertility over the whole earth--this one source,
which is precisely the object of most importance, can no where be found
on the earth; whether it be dried or filled up, or howsoever it has been
removed. In attending to some indications in Scripture, and without
transgressing the due limits of interpretation, may we not be permitted
to conjecture that the first chastisement inflicted on man by expulsion
from his first glorious habitation and primeval home, may have been
accompanied by a change in Paradise brought about by some natural
convulsion? To judge by analogy, and from circumstances, which even a
passage in Holy Writ alludes to, this convulsion must have been rather a
volcanic eruption, by which even at the present day the sources of
rivers are dried up, and their course completely changed, than a mere
inundation that we are ever wont to regard as the sole possible cause of
physical revolutions. Many vestiges of such changes may perhaps be
proved from even geological observation;--thus to cite only one example,
the dead sea in Palestine itself may be included in the number of those
lakes that bear very evident traces of a volcanic origin. The
supposition, however, which we have ventured to make, must not be looked
upon in the light of a formal hypothesis, but rather as a question
dictated by a love of enquiry, and by a desire for the further
elucidation of a subject not yet sufficiently understood.