CHAP. I. The INTRODUCTION. _An Account of the whole Work; of the Extent and general Order of it._ Since I was first inclin’d to the Contemplation of Nature, and took Pleasure to trace out the Causes of Effects, and the Dependance of one thing upon another in the visible Creation, I had always, methought, a particular Curiosity to look back into the Sources and ORIGINAL of Things; and to view in my Mind, so far as I was able, the Beginning and Progress of a RISING WORLD. AND after some Essays of this Nature, and as I thought, not unsuccessful, I carried on my Enquiries further, to try whether this _Rising World_, when form’d and finish’d, would continue always the same; in the same Form, Structure, and Consistency; or what Changes it would successively undergo, by the continued Action of the same Causes that first produc’d it; and, lastly, what would be its final Period and Consummation. This whole Series and Compass of Things taken together, I call’d a COURSE OF NATURE, or, a SYSTEM OF NATURAL PROVIDENCE; and thought there was nothing belonging to the external World more fit, or more worthy our Study and Meditation, nor any thing that would conduce more to discover the Ways of Divine Providence, and to shew us the Grounds of all true Knowledge concerning Nature. And therefore, to clear up the several Parts of this Theory, I was willing to lay aside a great many other Speculations, and all those dry Subtilties with which the Schools and the Books of Philosophers are usually fill’d. BUT when we speak of a _Rising World_, and the Contemplation of it, we do not mean this, of the _Great Universe_; for who can describe the Original of that vast Frame? But we speak of the _Sublunary World_, this Earth, and its Dependencies, which rose out of a Chaos about Six Thousand Years ago. And seeing it hath fallen to our Lot to act upon this Stage, to have our present Home and Residence here, it seems most reasonable, and the Place design’d by Providence, where we should first employ our Thoughts, to understand the Works of God and Nature. We have accordingly therefore design’d in this Work to give an Account of the Original of the Earth, and of all the great and general Changes that it hath already undergone, or is hence forwards to undergo, till the Consummation of all things. For if from those Principles we have here taken, and that Theory we have begun in these two first Books, we can deduce with Success and Clearness the Origin of the Earth, and those States of it that are already past; following the same Thread, and by the Conduct of the same Theory, we will pursue its Fate and History thro’ future Ages, and mark all the great Changes and Conversions that attend it _while Day and Night shall last_; that is, so long as it continues an Earth.