There! said La Foret, what d'ye say to that? yet this is nothing. The Explanation as clear as it is, depends on the Knowlege of other Things which I have heard him relate elsewhere, and which you must needs be acquainted with in order to understand the Matter throughly. Be that as it will, reply'd Le Grand, I think all this is very good, and I wish that our Doctor would entertain us in the same Manner on the Formation of Meteors, which must needs be a most diverting Subject. I had rather, said I, give you some Notion of the Mathematics, of which I have learnt something. 'Tis a Science which perhaps may be of Service to you if ever we go from hence, at least it will help to pass away the Time. They all consented to my Proposal with Joy, only Le Grand, who was fond of the Sciences, shook his Head. You have put in a Clause for Natural Philosophy, said he, which is not displeasing to me at all; I dearly love to treat of the Works of Nature, nevertheless we must not require too much at the Hands of our Matters: Be so good only before we conclude this agreeable Conversation, to tell us what your Opinion is with regard to the Deluge; for in the Manner you talk'd just now, I fancy you are of the Vulgar Opinion: Tell us freely whether you think it was Universal or Partial.
As Salvation is not at all concern'd in the Question, said I, which way soever it be determin'd, I came without any Scruple into the Opinion of one of the Regents of my College, who publickly declared, that it was impossible for all the Water in the World to cover the whole Earth to such a Height as the Scripture seems to mention. But is not God Omnipotent, said Le Grand, and besides, is it not said that the Flood-Gates of Heaven were open'd? Undoubtedly, said I, but the Divines don't pretend to make this a Miracle; if they did, I should not have one Word to say. I don't deny but he who created the Universe can create new Bodies of Water when he will, but I affirm that if he made new Waters for that Purpose, he afterwards annihilated them. And as for the Flood-Gates of Heaven, 'tis a poetical and metaphorical Expression us'd by the Author to dignify his Subject.
How comes it to pass, said another, that as there is a Region of Fire, there might not as well be a Region of Water, which Providence might make use of upon Occasion, as an inexhaustible Magazine, either to moisten the Earth in a Time of Drought, or to lay certain Countries under Water? That, reply'd Le Grand, is a meer Trifle. The first is a Fiction of the ancient Philosophers: The second a Chimæra of Children, which nevertheless I have heard urg'd by Persons of Sense. For in short, where should a watery Region be plac'd? If above the Firmament, it would have no Correspondence with the Earth; if under, 'tis impossible we should see the Fix'd Stars, because the least Mist deprives us of the Light of the Sun. But without going so much out of the way for a Remedy, let it only be consider'd, that when it has rain'd 8 or 10 Days together in any one Place, there is a Flood; now, suppose it only to rain every where with the same Violence for forty Days together, and then the Thing does not seem to me to be attended with so much Difficulty.
You don't consider, said I to him, when there is a great deal of Rain in one Place, there's too great a Drought in another, and that what the Sun exhales in one Part the Clouds carry to another. If it were to rain every where with so much Violence, the whole Ocean as it were must first of all be exhal'd in Vapours, in which Case all that fell would but barely suffice to fill the low Places from whence the Water was drawn to form the Clouds, so that it would require a great many more to cover the whole Globe to the Height of 15 Cubits above the Alpes and the Peak of Teneriff; Mountains that are perhaps two Leagues high; which you plainly see is impossible.
Mean time, another Difficulty occurs with respect to the Size of the Ark. My Master, who taught me Mathematics, had the Curiosity to take the Dimensions of this great Vessel, and to calculate the Contents of it; then he examin'd Pliny, and consulted all the Books of Voyages in order to make out an exact List of all the various Animals that we have any Knowlege of at this Time. Finally, he computed how much Provision would be necessary for a Year's Subsistence of all those Creatures, and 8 Persons; but when he had collected all this together, he found the Bulk to be so great, that the Vessel could not be big enough by far to contain it, not to mention the Animals which we never heard of, and which are undoubtedly very numerous.
But, said Le Grand, have we a right Notion of the Measures mention'd by Moses? Yes, said I, the Cubit we read of in the Scripture was a Foot and half long, and that you may not think we talk at random, you must know that the Ancients perceiving that Men are not alike tall and stout, and that consequently their Limbs must be in Proportion very different from one another, agreed, instead of making use of their Elbows for their common Measures in Traffic, to take four Barley-Corns laid flat one by another for the Measure of a Finger's Breadth, four of which made a Hand's Breadth, or three Inches, and twelve Inches or sixteen Fingers Breadths a Foot: One and half of these Feet made a Cubit, and five Feet the Geometrical Pace, whereas the ordinary Pace is but two Foot and half. The Rod was twelve Foot. The Furlong consisted of a hundred and twenty five Foot, and the Italian Mile of eight Furlongs, from whence you perceive that the first Measures that were invented by Mankind, came afterwards to the Greeks, Romans, and several other Nations. This being so, 'tis natural to conclude that the Deluge related by Moses was not universal with regard to the Earth, but only with regard to Man, The World was then in its Infancy, and its Inhabitants had not had Time enough to multiply and spread. God said that Part of it which was inhabited under Water, it was not necessary for him to drown all the other Parts, accordingly it was enough for Noah to preserve only the Species of Cattle which were in those Countries, in which case the Ark was sufficient to hold more, and consequently all the other Difficulties vanish. For as to the Expression of the whole World, 'tis very common for the Sacred Writers to make use of it to signify a Part of it; witness the Passage where 'tis said with respect to Joseph and Mary, that all the World should be enroll'd, which every Body knows cannot be understood of more than those Countries which were under the Government of the Roman Emperor.
Upon this all my Companions retir'd with Resolution to dive as far as possible into the Mathematics, and to improve by my Lectures. Accordingly we began next Day with Euclid's Elements. Tho' that Author had not gone thro' my Hands in several Years, I had taken so much Care to revolve the principal Contents of his six first Books often in my Mind that I seldom hesitated in the Demonstrations I made from him. From thence we proceeded to Geometry in which indeed I was not so expert, besides that in order to go through a regular Course of it, we wanted Books and Instruments, which there was no Appearance of recovering where we were; and in fine we concluded with Fortification. I should have been glad also to have taught them a little of Algebra, but Le Grand was the only Person that seem'd inclinable to apply to it, which indeed was but now and then, and he was quite discourag'd from proceeding, as soon as we came to the Cubic Equations.
We spent several Years in these fine Sciences, insomuch that there were no smooth sandy Places but what were full of Geometrical Figures, especially in the Downs and upon the Shore, to which we often went for the Air. We were there one Day when the Rolling-in of the Tide gave us an Occasion to discourse of the Flux and Reflux of the Ocean, during which we were extremely surpriz'd to see to the West as far as our Eye-sight could reach, a Body which we had not discover'd before. We were at first divided in our Opinions what it should be; some thought that as the Water was low, it was the Point of some Rock, others would have it to be a little Cloud. Normand affirm'd he had seen the same Thing before, and the rest asserted 'twas a Ship. To be certain of the matter I fix'd two Arrows in the Ground, which form'd a right Line with this Body, and placing myself behind them, I observ'd immediately that it mov'd, and that consequently it could not be a Rock. We then were very attentive to observe whether the Figure of it did not change as Clouds do commonly, which spread, increase, or vanish by degrees; but not perceiving any Alteration for half an Hour, only that it was a little bigger if any thing, we concluded that it must absolutely be a Ship, which was sent by Providence to deliver us from our tedious Solitude.
The Wind blew a little fresh, and as it was not yet Noon, we had Hopes of its coming up with us before Night, since it coasted along the Shore. La Foret, who was more afraid than any of us that so rare and unexpected a Conveniency should escape us, was of Opinion that four of us should go aboard our Long-Boat, which we had carefully laid up near twelve Years ago in the Hut that we built at our Arrival, and had not made use of since, and venture out with nothing but our Oars in order to meet the Ship, for fear she should put off from the Coast before they who navigated her knew we were here, and that consequently we should never have such another Opportunity if we neglected this. His Opinion was approv'd of, the Boat was tackled out, and La Foret with three others went aboard her. Tho' they had but two Oars, they tugg'd so hard that in a very little time we lost Sight of 'em. Mean time the great Ship drew near, and we began to distinguish the Sails when we observ'd the Sun approach the Horizon. We had at least a League and half to travel to the first Lodge that we had made between our Fort and the Sea, and the Moon rose late. These Considerations made us think of retiring to it, which we did, and found there some Remains of Provision that we had brought thither in the Morning, which were a very seasonable Relief to us.
Tho' we were fatigued, it was impossible for us to close our Eyes, and there was not one Man of us but was mortally uneasy. In the Morning before Day we return'd the directest Way we could find towards the Shore. At our Arrival we were overjoy'd to see the great Ship lying at Anchor a little lower about a League at Sea, and two Long-Boats at the same time coming Ashore, so that we advanc'd to meet them at Landing. The Captain of the Vessel not knowing who they were that came aboard him detain'd two of 'em, and made use of their Comrades as Guides to eight Men whom he sent off in the Ship-Boat to know who we were. Immediately we were order'd to go and fetch our Baggage, and to return with it as soon as possible, because the Ground there not being very fit for Anchorage, if the least foul Weather had happen'd it would have been dangerous. Six of the Ship's Crew went along with us. When we came to our Fort, we took what we thought the best of every thing, and left the rest for the Savages, if ever they thought fit to return. Notwithstanding all our Haste 'twas Night before we came to the Ship. La Foret had already inform'd the Captain of the Nature of the Country which we were going to leave, or rather had taken care to give him as disadvantageous a Character of it as he could; so that having no great mind to see it, he immediately set sail, and gave us Cause to thank God for delivering us from that miserable Place, where 18 Years ago we had the Misfortune to be cast Ashore.