Telliamed, or, The world explain'd : containing discourses between an Indian philospher and a missionary, on the diminution of the sea, the formation of the earth, the origin of men & animals : and other singular subjects, relating to natural history & philosphy ; a very curious work.

  • Maillet, Benoît de, 1656-1738. Telliamed. English
Date:
1797
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Telliamed, or, The world explain'd : containing discourses between an Indian philospher and a missionary, on the diminution of the sea, the formation of the earth, the origin of men & animals : and other singular subjects, relating to natural history & philosphy ; a very curious work. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    [ '34 ] examine the arrangement of the plants cr leaves in the (tones in which they are found. You can- not doubt but they have been placed there horizon- tally to the globe, and fo arranged that they appear to have been applied with the hand : You will in- deed find Tome of them bruifed or divided, no doubt by the impetuofity of the torrents which carried them from the mountains fuperior to the lea, or by the violence of her waves ; but you will find none of them folded, which is an infalli- ble proof that they were kept in that extenfion by the waters in which they floated when they were at laft precipitated to the bottom. Hence we muit conclude, that our grounds have been formed in this manner, and gradually in the bofom of the fea, of mud, fand, and other fubftances which the waves contain, at all times, and which they carry from one part to another, where they arrange them fucceilively. Now if the fea has reared our mountains from foot to top, as it is impoffible to doubt after the obfervations I have made ; if thefe compohtions could not be formed unlefs the waters furmounted their higheft fummit ; if the fea has fince diminifh- ed to its prefent furface, as the one fuppofes the other ; that prodigious quantity of water, which was certainly greater than that which remains to be exhaufied cannot have paffed from one part of the globe to another, fince the fea is equally diminifhed in all parts of the world. It would therefore be unreafonable to think, that the waters are aug- mented in height in fome few places which have not yet been difcovered, while they are diminifhed in all other parts. Befides, the furface of the fea is not lefs convex than that of the earth. If that flate which is peculiar to the waters round a fpheri- cal body which turns upon its axis, fuffers fome