Copperplate engraving from Georges-Louis Leclerc, Compte de Buffon \Histoire Naturelle\" Volume 1, Plate 2. \"History and theory of the Earth\" 1749. Bouchare del. and Sonteran sculp. Though this image pays homage to God's role in the divine order, Buffon was no Biblical literalist. He concluded the planets were created at the same time by a comet crashing into the sun. The faculty of theology were not happy, and Buffon retracted saying \"it is better to be humble than hung\". In this volume Buffon believed the Earth's history was cyclical, with the oceans creating the mountains, valleys and strata. These features are brought above the surface by slow upheavals, to be eroded into the sea by rain. Beneath the sea the mountains and valleys reform, and in time are returned to create new continents. His viewpoint was broadly uniformatarian. In 1778 he estimated the Earth's age at 75, 000 years."