We have still the broken Materials of that first World, and walk upon its Ruins; while it stood, there was the Seat of _Paradise_, and the Scenes of the _Golden Age_; when it fell, it made the Deluge; and this unshapen Earth we now inhabit, is the Form it was found in when the Waters had retir’d, and the dry Land appear’d. These things, Sir, I propose and presume to prove in the following Treatise, which I willingly submit to your Majesty’s Judgment and Censure; being very well satisfied, that if I had sought a Patron in all the List of Kings, your Contemporaries, or in the Roll of your Nobles of either Order, I could not have found a more competent Judge in a Speculation of this Nature. Your Majesty’s Sagacity, and happy Genius for natural History, for Observations and Remarks upon the Earth, the Heavens, and the Sea, is a better Preparation for Inquiries of this kind, than all the dead Learning of the Schools. SIR, This Theory, in the full Extent of it, is to reach to the last Period of the Earth, and the End of all Things; but this first Volume takes in only so much as is already past, from the Origin of the Earth, to this present Time and State of Nature. To describe in like manner the Changes and Revolutions of Nature that are to come, and see thorough all succeeding Ages, will require a steady and attentive Eye, and a Retreat from the Noise of the World; especially so to connect the Parts, and present them all under one View, that we may see, as in a Mirror, the several Faces of Nature, from first to last, throughout all the Circle of Successions. YOUR Majesty having been pleas’d to give Encouragement to this Translation, I humbly present it to your gracious Acceptance. And ’tis our Interest, as well as Duty, in Disquisitions of this Nature, to address our selves to your Majesty, as the Defender of _Philosophick Liberties_, against those that would usurp upon the fundamental Privilege and Birthright of Mankind, _The free Use of Reason_. Your Majesty hath always appear’d the Royal Patron of Learning and the Sciences; and ’tis suitable to the Greatness of a Princely Spirit to favour and promote whatsoever tends to the Enlargement of human Knowledge, and the Improvement of human Nature. To be Good and Gracious, and a Lover of Knowledge, are, methinks, two of the most amiable Things in this World: And that your Majesty may always bear that Character in present and future Ages; and after a long and prosperous Reign enjoy a blessed Immortality, is the constant Prayer of _Your MAJESTY’s Most Humble and Most Obedient Subject_, THOMAS BURNET. PREFACE TO THE READER.