BOOK I.

containing DIVERS INGENIOUS THEORIES AND PHI¬
LOSOPHIC SPECULATIONS, CONCERNING THE CREA¬
TION AND POPULATION OF THE WORLD, AS CON¬
NECTED WITH THE HISTORY OF NEW YORK.
 

CHAPTER I.

Description of the World.

According to the best authorities, the world in
which we dwell, is a huge opaque, reflecting, in¬
animate mass, floating in the vast ethereal ocean
of infinite space. It has the form of an orange,
being an oblate spheroid, curiously flattened at
opposite parts, for the insertion of two imaginary
poles, which are supposed to penetrate and unite
at the centre; thus forming an axis on which the
mighty orange turns with a regular diurnal revo¬
lution.

The transitions of light and darkness, whence
proceed the alternations of day and night, are pro¬
duced by this diurnal revolution successively pre-