the Land would consist of Plains and Valleys and Mountains according as the Pieces of this Ruin were plac'd and dispos'd: Upon the Banks of the Sea would stand the Rocks, and near the Shore would be Islands, or lesser Fragments of Earth compass'd round by Water. Then as to subterraneous Waters, and all subterraneous Caverns and Hollownesses, upon this Supposition those things could not be otherwise; for the Parts would fall hollow in many Places in this, as in all other Ruins: And seeing the Earth fell into this Abyss, the Waters at a certain Height would flow into all those hollow Places and Cavities; and would also sink and insinuate into many Parts of the solid Earth. And though these subterraneous Vaults or Holes, whether dry or full of Water, would be more or less in all Places, where the Parts fell hollow; yet they would be found especially about the Roots of the Mountains, and the higher Parts of the Earth; for there the Sides bearing up one against the other, they could not lie so close at the Bottoms, but many Vacuities would be intercepted. Nor are there any other Inequalities or Irregularities observable in the present Form of the Earth; whether in the Surface of it, or interior Construction, whereof this Hypothesis doth give a ready, fair, and intelligible Account; and doth at one View represent them all to us, with their Causes, as in a Glass: And whether that Glass be true, and the Image answer to the Original, if you doubt it, we will hereafter examine them Piece by Piece. But in the first Place we must consider the general Deluge, how easily and truly this Supposition represents and explains it, and answers all the Properties and Conditions of it.

I think it will be easily allowed, that such a Dissolution of the Earth as we have proposed, and Fall of it into the Abyss, would certainly make an Universal Deluge; and effectively destroy the old World, which perished in it. But we have not yet particularly proved this Dissolution, and in what manner the Deluge followed upon it: And to assert things in gross never makes that firm Impression upon our Understandings, and upon our Belief, as to see them deduced with their Causes and Circumstances; and therefore we must endeavour to shew what Preparations there were in Nature for this great Dissolution, and after what manner it came to pass, and the Deluge in Consequence of it.

We have noted before, that Moses imputed the Deluge to the Disruption of the Abyss; and St. Peter, to the particular

Constitution of the Earth, which made it obnoxious to be absorp't in Water, so that our Explication so far is justified. But it was below the Dignity of those Sacred Pen-men, or the Spirits of God that directed them, to shew us the Causes of this Disruption, or of this Absorption; this is left to the Enquiries of Men. For it was never the Design of Providence, to give such particular Explications of natural Things, as should make us idle, or the Use of Reason unnecessary; but on the contrary, by delivering great Conclusions to us to excite our Curiosity and Inquisitiveness after the Methods by which such things were brought to pass and it may be there is no greater Trial or Instance of natural Wisdom, than to find out the Channel in which these great Resolutions of Nature, which we treat on, flow and succeed one another.

Let us therefore resume that System of the antediluvian Earth, which we have deduced from the Chaos, and which we find to answer St. Peter's Description and Moses's Account of the Deluge. This Earth could not be obnoxious to a Deluge, as the Apostle supposeth it to have been, but by a Dissolution; for the Abyss was enclosed within its Bowels. And Moses doth in effect tell us, there was such a Dissolution; when he saith, The Fountains of the great Abyss were broken open. For Fountains are broken open no otherwise than by breaking up the Ground that covers them. We must therefore enquire in what Order, and from what Causes the Frame of this exterior Earth was dissolved, and then we shall soon see how, upon that Dissolution, the Deluge immediately prevailed and overflowed all the Parts of it.

I do not think it in the power of human Wit to determine how long this Frame would stand, how many Years, or how many Ages; but one would soon imagine, that this kind of Structure would not be perpetual, nor last indeed many thousands of Years, if one consider the Effect that the Heat of the Sun would have upon it, and the Waters under it; drying and parching the one, and rarefying the other into Vapours. For we must consider, that the Course of the Sun at that Time, or the Posture of the Earth to the Sun, was such, that there was no Diversity or Alteration of Seasons in the Year, as there is now; by reason of which Alteration, our Earth is kept in an Equality of Temper, the contrary Seasons balancing one another; so as what Moisture the Heat of Summer sucks out of the Earth, 'tis repaid in the Rains of the

next Winter; and what Chaps were made in it, are filled up again, and the Earth reduced to its former Constitution. But if we should imagine a continual Summer, the Earth would proceed in Dryness still more and more, and the Cracks would be wider, and pierce deeper into the Substance of it. And such a continual Summer there was, at least an Equality of Seasons in the antediluvian Earth, as shall be proved in the following Book, concerning Paradise. In the meantime, this being supposed, let us consider what Effect it would have upon this Arch of the exterior Earth, and the Waters under it.

:

We cannot believe, but that the Heat of the Sun, within the Space of some hundreds of Years, would have reduced this Earth to a considerable Degree of Dryness in certain Parts; and also have much rarefied and exhal'd the Waters beneath it And considering the Structure of that Globe, the exterior Crust and the Waters lying round under it, both exposed to the Sun, we may fitly compare it to an Æolipile, or an hollow Sphere with Water in it, which the Heat of the Fire rarefies and turns into Vapours and Wind. The Sun here is as the Fire, and the exterior Earth is as the Shell of the Eolipile, and the Abyss as the Water within it; now when the Heat of the Sun had pierced thro' the Shell and reached the Waters, it began to rarefy them, and raise them into Vapours, which Rarefaction made them require more Space and Room than they needed before, while they lay close and quiet. And finding themselves pent in by the exterior Earth, they pressed with Violence against that Arch, to make it yield and give way to their Dilatation and Eruption. So we see all Vapours and Exhalations inclosed within the Earth, and agitated there, strive to break out, and often shake the Ground with their Attempts to get loose. And in the Comparison we used of an Æolipile, if the Mouth of it be stop'd that gives the Vent, the Water rarefied will burst the Vessel with its Force: And the Resemblance of the Earth to an Egg, which we used before, holds also in this Respect; for when it heats before the Fire, the Moisture and Air within being rarefied, makes it often burst the Shell. And I do the more willingly mention this last Comparison, because I observe that some of the Ancients, when they speak of the Doctrine of the Mundane Egg, say, that after a certain Period of Time it was broken.

But there is yet another Thing to be considered in this Case; for as the Heat of the Sun gave Force to these Vapours

more and more, and made them more strong and violent; so on the other Hand, it also weakened more and more the Arch of the Earth, that was to resist them; sucking out the Moisture that was the Cement of its Parts, drying it immoderately, and chapping it in sundry Places. And there being no Winter then to close up and unite its Parts, and restore the Earth to its former Strength and Compactness, yet grew more and more disposed to a Dissolution. And at length, these Preparations in Nature being made on either side, the Force of the Vapours increased, and the Walls weakened which should have kept them in, when the appointed time was come, that All-wise Providence had designed for the Punishment of a sinful World, the whole Fabrick brake, and the Frame of the Earth was torn in Pieces, as by an Earthquake; and those great Portions or Fragments, into which it was divided, fell down into the Abyss, some in one Posture, and some in another.

This is a short and general Account how we may conceive the Dissolution of the first Earth, and an Universal Deluge arising upon it. And this manner of Dissolution hath so many Examples in Nature every Age, that we need not insist farther upon the Explication of it. The generality of Earthquakes arise from like Causes, and often end in a like Effect, a partial Deluge or Inundation of the Place or Country where they happen; and of these we have seen some Instances even in our own Times: But whensoever it so happens that the Vapours and Exhalations shut up in the Caverns of the Earth by Rarefaction or Compression come to be straitened, they strive every way to set themselves at Liberty, and often break their Prison, or the Cover of the Earth that kept them in; which Earth upon that Disruption falls into the subterraneous Caverns that lie under it: And if it so happens that those Caverns are full of Water, as generally they are, if they be great or deep, that City or Tract of Land is drown'd. And also the Fall of such a Mass of Earth, with its Weight and Bulk, doth often force out the Water so impetuously, as to throw it upon all the Country round about. There are innumerable Examples in History (whereof we shall mention some hereafter) of Cities and Countries thus swallowed up, or overflow'd, by an Earthquake, and an Inundation arising upon it. And according to the manner of their Fall or Ruin, they either remain'd wholly under Water, and perpetually drown'd as Sodom and Gomorrah, Plato's Atlantis, Bura and Helice, and other Cities and

Regions in Greece and Asia; or they partly emerg'd, and became dry Land again; when (their Situation being pretty high) the Waters, after their violent Agitation was abated, retir'd into the lower Places, and into their Channels.

Now if we compare these Partial Dissolutions of the Earth with an Universal Dissolution, we may as easily conceive an Universal Deluge from an Universal Dissolution, as a Partial Deluge from a Partial. If we can conceive a City, a Country, an Island, a Continent thus absorb'd and overflown; if we do but enlarge our Thought and Imagination a little, we may conceive it as well of the whole Earth. And it seems strange to me, that none of the Ancients should hit upon this way of explaining the Universal Deluge.

THE CLOCK CASE.

A CONFESSION FOUND IN A PRISON IN THE TIME OF CHARLES THE SECOND.

BY CHARLES DICKENS.

[CHARLES DICKENS, one of the greatest novelists and humorists of the world, was born February 7, 1812, at Portsea, Eng. His father being unprosperous, he had no regular education and much hardship; at fourteen became an attorney's clerk, and at seventeen a reporter. His first short story appeared in December, 1833; the collected "Sketches by Boz" in 1836, which also saw the first number of "The Pickwick Papers," finished in November, 1837. There followed "Oliver Twist," "Nicholas Nickleby," "Master Humphrey's Clock" (finally dissolved into the "Old Curiosity Shop" and "Barnaby Rudge "), the "American Notes," "Martin Chuzzlewit," the "Christmas Carol" (other Christmas stories followed later), "Notes from Italy," 'Dombey and Son,' ""David Copperfield," "Bleak House," "Hard Times," "Little Dorrit," "Great Expectations," "A Tale of Two Cities," "Our Mutual Friend," and the unfinished "Edwin Drood.". Several of these, and his "Uncommercial Traveller" papers, appeared in All the Year Round, which he edited. He died June 9, 1870.]

I HELD a lieutenant's commission in his Majesty's army and served abroad in the campaigns of 1677 and 1678. The Treaty of Nimeguen being concluded, I returned home, and retiring from the service withdrew to a small estate lying a few miles east of London, which I had recently acquired in right of my wife.

This is the last night I have to live, and I will set down the