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ON THEORIES OF THE EARTH. 386 destroyed by such objections; while it carried this cosmogony down to after ages, as I need not say; having written enough on those who have produced “tant de phrases et si peu de choses.” Yet in distin guishing those, who, though considering matter eter nal, believe the present form of the universe to he comparatively recent, vve approximate to some of the modern theories of the earth. The Oriental cosmogonies are interesting, chiefly, as giving the genealogy of the former. That of the Egyptians, claiming Thoth as its Bufl'on, is imperfect: hut he who desires more than I can give, will find it in Eusebius. And if its fundamental part, the action of the Orus on a Chaos, is familiar, I need not also say where a parallel doctrine is found, under a very different authority ; nor that Plutarch and Eusebius disagree respecting it. Geologists will he more inte rested in knowing, that Egypt considered the earth as subject to certain periods of revolution, and that it was to he destroyed and renewed by fire and water : whence the Ecpyroses and Catadysmi, and the Great Year of Greece. And if, according to Zeno, the fires concealed within the earth will at length set it in flames, while the inferior divinities are absorbed into the Supreme Spirit, who, after a certain repose, will produce a better world, we trace the oriental doctrines which he had derived from his parentage. I may refer to Seneca and Lucan : hut thus are the inferior Gods, Brachma, Vishnu, and Sivh, to return to the Unspeak able intelligence, while the Calpas of the same school are the revolutions in c|uestion. Here also we dis cover the origin of the Millenarian hypothesis; while, if the curious reader desires to amuse himself with the opposing opinions of Justin Martyr and St. Jerom,so may he learn at how many periods it has been revived,