y dissolves into itself. Sublime idea! far surpassing that
of the tender-hearted damsel of antiquity, who wept herself into a
fountain; or the good dame of Narbonne in France, who, for a volubility of
tongue unusual in her sex, was doomed to peel five hundred thousand and
thirty-nine ropes of onions, and actually run out at her eyes before half
the hideous task was accomplished.

Whistorn, the same ingenious philosopher who rivaled Ditton in his
researches after the longitude (for which the mischief-loving Swift
discharged on their heads a most savory stanza), has distinguished himself
by a very admirable theory respecting the earth. He conjectures that it
was originally a chaotic comet, which, being selected for the abode of
man, was removed from its eccentric orbit; and whirled round the sun in
its present regular motion; by which change of direction, order succeeded
to confusion in the arrangement of its component parts. The philosopher
adds that the deluge was produced by an uncourteous salute from the watery
tail of another comet; doubtless through sheer envy of its improved
condition; thus furnishing a melancholy proof that jealousy may prevail
even among the heavenly bodies, and discord interrupt that celestial
harmony of the spheres so melodiously sung by the poets.

But I pass over a variety of excellent theories, among which are those of
Burnet, and Woodward, and Whitehurst; regretting extremely that my time
will not suffer me to give them the notice they deserve; and shall
conclude with that of the renowned Dr. Darwin. This learned Theban, who is
as much distinguished for rhyme as reason, and for good-natured credulity
as serious research, and who has recommended himself wonderfully to the
good graces of the ladies, by letting them into all the gallantries,
amours, debaucheries, and other topics of scandal of the court of Flora,
has fallen upon a theory worthy of his combustible imagination. According
to his opinion, the huge mass of chaos took a sudden occasion to explode,
like a barrel of gunpowder, and in that act exploded the sun--which, in
its flight, by a similar convulsion, exploded the earth, which in like
guise exploded the moon--and thus, by a concatenation of explosions, the
whole solar system was produced, and set most systematically in
motion![18]

By the great variety of theories here alluded to, every one of which, if
thoroughly examined, will be found surprisingly consistent in all its
parts