Virginia Argus. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1796-1816, 1805-06-01

labor vc-y hasAby wild hypothesis TO car
| ~ back the origin or the world to so re-
mate "a prriod, as 10 bewilder imag'nation'
and induce his readers 10 believe u e'cr,
nal? AK him also. who made his coinet'
And If tha, was ere ..cd, which could pro-
duce such extraordinary effects, why
4 might not the earth be created ana piaceo
i in lis proper orbit, and at once rendered
habiiabie, as Moses said Il was by the same
astonishing power, which created buttons
4 cometi Ifhe should say that comets were
The productions OF certain portions % mat.
/ ter operating on each other by certain iun-
mutable laws unknown to us--you may
reply that this modest acknowledgment
TO SUPPOSE il would not be consistent with
such modesly. to deny that what he calls
The operations OF matter may be the effects
of some allwise and all-powerful-age
unknown to us, and beyond the reach OF
human comprehension, but sufficiently
dis,inel from brute senseless mater, and
blind chance. You may hear one philo.
sopher making a parade Of his asst onoini.
cal knowledge, by remarking that Moses
speaks ofthe stars as being seen within
the six days OF creation, whereas, he will
add. we know that frorn the well asccr-
tanned motion OF light, they could not be
seen in as many years. To this you may
reply that Moses does not say that the
stars were seen within the six days, or
when they were seen he only says that
God made them, e lie madethc stars also.
But you may remind the philosophers, that
it Moses had SAID they were created on
The day, but were not visible ill so
many years after, as their light would take
up in coming 10 the earth, this would have
been unio'elligible to the Jews, and he
would have been laughed at by all his read
ers ill since The Newtonan philosophy
hndbeen verified by Bradley and others.
You might boldly tell him, that had Mo-
ses said that they were seen OH the day
they were created, you would rather sup
pose that the same Almighty power which
created them, had rendered them visible
instantaneously, and had afterwards esia-
blisiIed the laws for the propagation OF
their light, than 10 suspect the veracity OF
an author on whose credit rnoinenious
concerns depend. And you might add,
that rather than doubt the Mosaic account
OF the rainbow, you would believe that
drops OF rain,s ill afer the deluge, had
not the power of refructing the rays OF
light, or, that flight, til then, had not the
refrangibility and other properties it now
has; and that the interposition OF the Cree
ator upon such extraordinary occasions,
lis so far from deroga,ing from his wisdom
and power, as some would have us think,
that it is furnishing a demonstration of
ms repeated exercise ofomnipotence and
shat alter finishing his works, he has not,
Ike mortal, slept over them but rules
and superintends the minutest circum-
| stance respecting them, furnishing at pro-
per intervals, striking proofs of his continu-
ed agency, and almighty power. tits, my
dear, matter of great consolation to a
friend OF the bible, that the wisest of the
/ philosophers who have endeavored 10 ri
dicule it, have exposed themselves To the
laughter ofmuch wiser philosophers. For
all such laugh at the bungling hypothesis
OF comets striking off from the Sun
streams Of liquid fire which were whirled
into planets; or that Of the planets flying
on, of volcanic craters IN the sun, and the
moon cut OF the bowels of The earth In
my next, my dear, / will say something
TO enable you to Withstand the attacks on
the Mosaic account of the deluge.
am, SC. your affeclioni. father.
: The rain water. after the deluge, might have
. acquired greater refraetive power by its taking
up more carbon denser Substances in the ascent
S OF vapeurs, than before the intimate mixture of
h earth and water by the deuge. and the breaking
: W tne fountains Of the great deep.
Il tine rays of light might have received some
adai'ional matter, by their attraction from the
d'hefen' gasesof which the atmosphere after the
oeiuse' was composed, when passing throuzI, it.
50 as % enerease their refrangibily, or even 10
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