The History of the Heavens

§ 3

culture according to the particular nature of that land, on the feast days, and on the seasons, which, after the destruction caused on the Earth by the Deluge original: "Zondtvloedt," referring to the biblical Great Flood of Noah, were something unusual. This notorious event changed the order of Nature significantly, as the Earth was thereby jolted out of its place, causing the Change of Seasons; storms and tempests were born; freezing cold and burning heat arose, and finally, the life of Man was shortened. Before that time, a perpetual Spring prevailed; the sun was always at the Equator original: "Middellyn"; the air was always temperate, without rains, without storms, without atmospheric phenomena original: "Verheevelingen," an archaic term referring to any meteorological or celestial occurrences like meteors or lightning. Behold, a New System. It is true, the famous Bishop Burnet Thomas Burnet (c. 1635–1715), an English theologian and author of "Telluris Theoria Sacra" (The Sacred Theory of the Earth), in the second book of his Sacred Theory of the Earth original: "Heilige Aerdkloots Beschouwinge", has already asserted the alignment of the Earth with the sun in the first world; but he did not determine the time of the change. However, our learned and very precise author has argued and clarified this matter so powerfully and clearly, and presented it with such probability, that it [possesses] the most evident—