_The Original Differences of the Primitive Earth from the present or
post-diluvian. The three Characters of Paradise and the Golden Age
found in the Primitive Earth. A particular Explication of each
Character._
WE have hitherto only perplex’d the Argument and our selves, by shewing
how inexplicable the State of _Paradise_ is, according to the present
Order of Things, and the present Condition of the Earth. We must now
therefore bring into View that Original and Antediluvian Earth, where we
pretend its Seat was, and shew it capable of all those Privileges which
we have deny’d to the present; in virtue of which Privileges, and of the
order of Nature establish’d there, that Primitive Earth might be truly
_Paradisiacal_, as in the Golden Age; and some Region of it might be
peculiarly so, according to the receiv’d _Idea_ of _Paradise_. And this,
I think, is all the Knowledge and Satisfaction that we can expect, or
that Providence hath allow’d us in this Argument.
THE Primigenial Earth, which in the first Book (_Chap. 5._) we rais’d
from a Chaos, and set up in an habitable Form, we must now survey again
with more Care, to observe its principal Differences from the present
Earth, and what Influence they will have upon the Question in Hand.
These Differences, as we have said before, were chiefly three; the Form
of it, which was smooth, even, and regular; the Posture and Situation of
it to the Sun, which was direct, and not as it is at present, inclin’d
and oblique; and the Figure of it, which was more apparently and
regularly Oval than it is now. From these three Differences flow’d a
great many more, inferior and subordinate; and which had a considerable
Influence upon the moral World at that Time, as well as the natural. But
we will only observe here, their more immediate Effects, and that in
reference to those general Characters or Properties of the Golden Age
and of _Paradise_, which we have instanc’d in, and whereof we are bound
to give an Account by our _Hypothesis_.
AND in this respect the most Fundamental of those three Differences we
mentioned, was that of the right Posture and Situation of the Earth to
the Sun; for from this immediately follow’d a perpetual Æquinox all the
Earth over, or, if you will, a perpetual Spring: And that was the great
Thing we found wanting in the present Earth to make it _Paradisiacal_,
or capable of being so. Wherefore this being now found and establish’d
in the Primitive Earth, the other two Properties of Longevity, and of
spontaneous and vital Fertility, will be of more easy Explication. In
the mean Time let us view a little the Reasons and Causes of that
regular Situation in the first Earth.
THE Truth is, one cannot so well require a Reason of the regular
Situation the Earth had then, for that was most simple and natural; as
of the irregular Situation it hath now, standing oblique and inclin’d to
the Sun or the Ecliptick: Whereby the Course of the Year is become
unequal, and we are cast into a great Diversity of Seasons. But however,
stating the first aright with its Circumstances, we shall have a better
Prospect upon the second, and see from what Causes, and in what Manner,
it came to pass. Let us therefore suppose the Earth, with the rest of
its fellow Planets, to be carried about the Sun in the Ecliptick, by the
Motion of the liquid Heavens; and being at that time perfectly uniform
and regular, having the same Center of its Magnitude and Gravity, it
would by the Equality of its Libration necessarily have its Axis
parallel to the Axis of the same Ecliptick, both its Poles being equally
inclin’d to the Sun. And this Posture I call a _right Situation_, as
oppos’d to oblique or inclin’d; or a _parallel_ Situation, if you
please. Now this is a Thing that needs no Proof besides its own
Evidence; for ’tis the immediate result and common Effect of Gravity or
Libration, that a Body, freely left to it self in a fluid _Medium_,
should settle in such a Posture as best answers to its Gravitation; and
this first Earth whereof we speak, being uniform, and every way equally
balanced, there was no Reason why it should incline at one End, more
than at the other, towards the Sun. As if you should suppose a Ship to
stand North and South under the Equator, if it was equally built and
equally ballasted, it would not incline to one Pole or other, but keep
its Axis parallel to the Axis of the Earth; but if the Ballast lay more
at one End, it would dip towards that Pole, and rise proportionably
higher towards the other. So those great Ships that sail about the Sun
once a Year, or once in so many Years, whilst they are uniformly built
and equally pois’d, they keep steady and even with the Axis of their
Orbit; but if they lose that Equality, and the Center of their Gravity
change, the heavier End will incline more towards the common Center of
their Motion, and the other End will recede from it. So particularly the
Earth, which makes one in that Aëry Fleet, when it scap’d so narrowly
from being Shipwreckt in the great Deluge, was however so broken and
disorder’d, that it lost its equal Poise, and thereupon the Center of
its Gravity changing, one Pole became more inclin’d towards the Sun, and
the other more remov’d from it, and so its right and parallel Situation
which it had before, to the Axis of the Ecliptick, was chang’d into an
Oblique; in which skew Posture it hath stood ever since, and is likely
so to do for some Ages to come. I instance in this, as the most obvious
Cause of the Change of the Situation of the Earth, though, it may be,
upon this followed a Change in its Magnetism, and that might also
contribute to the same Effect.
HOWEVER, this Change and Obliquity of the Earth’s Posture had a long
train of Consequences depending upon it; whereof that was the most
immediate, that it alter’d the Form of the Year, and brought in that
Inequality of Seasons, which hath since obtain’d: As, on the contrary,
while the Earth was in its first and natural Posture, in a more easy and
regular Disposition to the Sun, that had also another respective train
of Consequences, whereof one of the first, and that which we are most
concern’d in at present, was, that it made a perpetual Equinox or Spring
to all the World, all the Parts of the Year had one and the same Tenor,
Face and Temper; there was no Winter or Summer, Seed-Time or Harvest,
but a continual Temperature of the Air and Verdure of the Earth. And
this fully answers the first and fundamental Character of the Golden Age
and of _Paradise_; and what Antiquity, whether Heathen or Christian,
hath spoken concerning that perpetual Serenity and constant Spring that
reign’d there, which in the one was accounted Fabulous, and in the other
Hyperbolical, we see to have been really and philosophically true. Nor
is there any Wonder in the Thing, the wonder is rather on our side, that
the Earth should stand and continue in that forc’d Posture wherein it is
now, spinning Yearly about an Axis, I mean that of the Equator, that
doth not belong to the Orbit of its Motion; This, I say, is more strange
than that it once stood in a Posture that was streight and regular; as
we more justly admire the Tower at _Pisa_, that stands crook’d, than
twenty other streight Towers that are much higher.
HAVING got this Foundation to stand upon, the rest of our Work will go
on more easily; and the two other Characters which we mention’d, will
not be of very difficult Explication. The spontaneous Fertility of the
Earth, and its Production of Animals at that time, we have in some
measure explain’d before, supposing it to proceed partly from the
Richness of the primigenial Soil, and partly from this constant Spring
and Benignity of the Heavens, which we have now establish’d: These were
always ready to excite Nature, and put her upon Action, and never to
interrupt her in any of her Motions or Attempts. We have shew’d in the
fifth Chapter of the first Book, how this primigenial Soil was made, and
of what Ingredients; which were such as compose the richest and fattest
Soil, being a light Earth mix’d with unctuous Juices, and then
afterwards refresh’d and diluted with the Dews of Heaven all the Year
long, and cherish’d with a continual Warmth from the Sun. What more
hopeful Beginning of a World than this? You will grant, I believe, that
whatsoever degree, or whatsoever kind of Fruitfulness could be expected
from a Soil and a Sun, might be reasonably expected there. We see great
Woods and Forests of Trees rise spontaneously, and that since the Flood
(for who can imagine that the ancient Forests, whereof some were so
vastly great, were planted by the Hand of Man?) why should we not then
believe that Fruit-trees and Corn rose as spontaneously in that first
Earth? That which makes Husbandry and human Arts so necessary now for
the Fruits and Productions of the Earth, is partly indeed the Decay of
the Soil, but chiefly the Diversity of Seasons, whereby they perish, if
care be not taken of them; but when there was neither Heat nor Cold,
Winter nor Summer, every Season was a Seed-time to Nature, and every
Season an Harvest.
THIS, it may be, you will allow as to the Fruits of the Earth, but that
the same Earth should produce Animals also, will not be thought so
intelligible. Since it hath been discover’d, that the first Materials of
all Animals are Eggs, as Seeds are of Plants, it doth not seem so hard
to conceive, that these Eggs might be in the first Earth, as well as
those Seeds; for there is a great Analogy and Similitude betwixt them;
especially if you compare these Seeds first with the Eggs of Insects or
Fishes, and then with the Eggs of viviparous Animals. And as for those
Juices which the Eggs of viviparous Animals imbibe thorough their Coats
from the Womb, they might as well imbibe them, or something analogous to
them, from a conveniently temper’d Earth, as Plant-Eggs do; and these
Things being admitted, the Progress is much what the same in Seeds as
Eggs, and in one sort of Eggs as in another.
’TIS true, Animal-Eggs do not seem to be fruitful of themselves, without
the Influence of the Male; and this is not necessary in Plant-Eggs or
vegetable Seeds. But neither doth it seem necessary in all Animal-Eggs,
if there be any Animals _sponte orta_, as they call them, or bred
without Copulation. And, as we observ’d before, according to the best
Knowledge that we have of this Male influence, it is reasonable to
believe, that it may be supplied by the Heavens or _Æther_. The
Ancients, both the _Stoicks_ and _Aristotle_, have suppos’d that there
was something of an æthereal Element in the Malegeniture, from whence
the Virtue of it chiefly proceeded; and if so, why may we not suppose,
at that Time, some general Impression or Irradiation of that purer
Element to fructify the new made Earth? _Moses_ saith there was an
Incubation of the Spirit of God upon the Mass, and without all doubt
that was either to form or fructify it, and by the Mediation of this
active Principle; but the Ancients speak more plainly with express
mention of this _Æther_, and of the Impregnation of the Earth by it, as
betwixt Male and Female. As in the Place before cited;
_Tum pater omnipotens fœcundis imbribus Æther
Conjugis in gremium lætæ descendit; & omnes
Magnus alit magno commixtus corpore fœtus._
Which Notion, I remember, St. _Austin_ saith, _De Civ. D. lib. iv. c.
10._ _Virgil_ did not take from the Fictions of the Poets, but out of
the Books of the Philosophers. Some of the gravest Authors amongst the
_Romans_ have reported, that this Virtue hath been convey’d into the
Wombs of some Animals by the Winds, or the _Zephyri_; and as I easily
believe that the first fresh Air was more impregnated with this æthereal
Principle than ours is, so I see no reason but those balmy Dews, that
fell every Night in the Primitive Earth, might be the Vehicle of it as
well as the Malegeniture is now; and from them the teeming Earth, and
those vital Seeds which it contain’d, were actuated, and receiv’d their
first Fruitfulness.
NOW this Principle, howsoever convey’d to those Rudiments of Life which
we call Eggs, is that which gives the first stroke towards Animation;
and this seems to be, by exciting a Ferment in those little Masses,
whereby the Parts are loosen’d, and dispos’d for that Formation which is
to follow afterwards. And I see nothing that hinders, but that we may
reasonably suppose that these Animal Productions might proceed thus far
in the Primigenial Earth. And as to their Progress and the Formation of
the Body, by what Agents or Principles soever that great Work is carried
on in the Womb of the Female, it might by the same be carried on there.
Neither would there be any Danger of miscarrying by Excess of Heat or
Cold, for the Air was always of an equal Temper and moderate Warmth; and
all other Impediments were remov’d, and all Principles ready, whether
active or passive; so as we may justly conclude, that as _Eve_ was the
Mother of all living, as to Mankind, so was the Earth the Great Mother
of all living Creatures besides.
THE third Character to be explain’d, and the most extraordinary in
Appearance, is that of Longevity. This sprung from the same Root in my
Opinion, with the other; though the Connexion, it may be, is not so
visible. We shew’d in the foregoing Chapter, that no Advantage of Diet,
or of strong Constitutions, could have carried their Lives, before the
Flood, to that wonderful Length, if they had been exposed to the same
Changes of Air and of Seasons that our Bodies are: But taking a
perpetual Equinox, and fixing the Heavens, you fix the Life of Man too;
which was not then in such a rapid Flux as it is now, but seem’d to
stand still as the Sun did once without Declension. There is no Question
but every thing upon Earth, and especially the Animate World, would be
much more permanent, if the general Course of Nature was more steady and
uniform; a Stability in the Heavens makes a Stability in all Things
below; and that Change and Contrariety of Qualities that we have in
these Regions, is the Fountain of Corruption, and suffers nothing to be
long in quiet: Either by intestine Motions and Fermentations excited
within, or by outward Impressions, Bodies are no sooner well
constituted, but they are tending again to Dissolution. The _Æther_ in
their little Pores and Chinks is unequally agitated, and differently
mov’d at different Times, and so is the Air in their greater, and the
Vapours and Atmosphere round about them: All these shake and unsettle
both the Texture and Continuity of Bodies. Whereas in a fix’d State of
Nature, where these Principles have always the same constant and uniform
Motion, when they are once suited to the Forms and Compositions of
Bodies, they give them no further Disturbance; they enjoy a long and
lasting Peace, without any Commotions or Violence within or without.
WE find our selves sensible Changes in our Bodies upon the Turn of the
Year, and the Change of Seasons; new Fermentations in the Blood and
Resolutions of the Humours; which if they do not amount to Diseases, at
least they disturb Nature, and have a bad Effect, not only upon the
fluid Parts, but also upon the more solid, upon the Springs and Fibres
in the Organs of the Body, to weaken them and unfit them by degrees for
their respective Functions. For though the Change is not sensible
immediately in these Parts, yet after many repeated Impressions every
Year, by unequal Heat and Cold, Driness and Moisture, contracting and
relaxing the Fibres, their Tone at length is in a great Measure
destroy’d, and brought to a manifest Debility; and the great Springs
falling, the lesser, that depend upon them, fall in Proportion, and all
the Symptoms of Decay and old Age follow. We see by daily Experience,
that Bodies are kept better in the same _Medium_, as we call it, than if
they often change their _Medium_, as sometimes in Air, sometimes in
Water, moistned and dry’d, heated and cool’d; these different states
weaken the Contexture of the Parts: But our Bodies, in the present State
of Nature, are put into an hundred different _Mediums_ in the Course of
a Year; sometimes we are steep’d in Water, or in a misty foggy Air, for
several Days together; sometimes we are almost frozen with Cold, then
fainting with Heat at another time of the Year; and the Winds are of a
different Nature, and the Air of a different Weight and Pressure,
according to the Weather and the Seasons: These Things would wear our
Bodies, tho’ they were built of Oak, and that in a very short Time, in
Comparison of what they would last, if they were always encompass’d with
one and the same _Medium_, under one and the same Temper, as it was in
the Primitive Earth.
THE Ancients seem to have been sensible of this, and of the true Causes
of those long Periods of Life; for wheresoever they assign’d a great
Longevity, as they did not only to their golden Age, but also to their
particular and topical _Paradises_, they also assign’d there a constant
Serenity and Equality of the Heavens, and sometimes expresly a constant
Equinox; as might be made appear from their Authors. And some of our
christian Authors have gone farther, and connected these two together,
as Cause and Effect, for they say that the Longevity of the Antediluvian
Patriarchs proceeded from a favourable Aspect and Influence of the
Heavens at that Time; which _Aspect_ of the Heavens, being rightly
interpreted, is the same thing that we call the position of the Heavens,
or the right Situation of the Sun and the Earth, from whence came a
perpetual Equinox. And if we consider the present Earth, I know no Place
where they live longer than in that little Island of the _Bermudas_,
where, according to the Proportion of Time they hold out there, after
they are arriv’d from other Parts, one may reasonably suppose, that the
Natives would live two hundred Years, and there’s nothing appears in
that Island that should give long Life above other Places, but the
extraordinary Steadiness of the Weather, and of the Temper of the Air
throughout the whole Year, so as there is scarce any considerable
Difference of Seasons.
BUT because it would take up too much Time to shew in this Place the
full and just Reasons why, and how these long Periods of Life depend
upon the Stability of the Heavens: And how on the contrary, from their
Inconstancy and Mutability these Periods are shorten’d, as in the
present Order of Nature; we will set apart the next Chapter to treat
upon that Subject; yet by way of Digression only, so as those that have
a mind may pass to the following, where the Thread of this Discourse is
continued. In the mean Time you see, we have prepar’d an Earth for
_Paradise_, and given a fair and intelligible Account of those three
general Characters, which, according to the Rules of Method, must be
determin’d before any further Progress can be made in this Argument. For
in the Doctrine of _Paradise_ there are two things to be consider’d, the
State of it and the Place of it; And as it is first in Order of Nature,
so it is much more material, to find out the State of it, than the
Region where it stood. We need not follow the Windings of Rivers, and
the Interpretation of hard Names, to discover this, we take more
faithful Guides: The unanimous Reports of Antiquity, sacred and profane,
supported by a regular Theory. Upon these Grounds we go, and have thus
far proceeded on our way; which we hope will grow more easy and
pleasant, the nearer we come to our Journey’s End.