intense suffering, in every faculty, or rather it was the life of the spirit which protracted till the following day the life of a body in which the work of death and even of decomposition had already commenced. He said he was glad to know that his friends were near him, but that he wished to pray alone, and without any thing to distract his thoughts, because he desired that his Saviour should find him in prayer at the last moment. He again took leave of all who were present. Another violent fit of coughing and of spasms now came on, after which he presented his pulse for the last time to his father, saying, 'Dear father, does it still beat?' Still a little, my son.' 'What o'clock is it?' 'Half-past twelve.' 'Still a few moments longer of suffering; and what is that! My Saviour had many worse even in Gethsemane, when he was praying for me. Farewell, father, you will soon follow me.' 'Yes, my son, yet a few more years, and I shall join you.' will follow me very soon. rest in the arms of Jesus!' We thought we still heard these words :-" Receive my spirit." He slept in the Lord, after remaining the last hour perfectly calm, and lying in his father's arms.

'No, dear father, you Farewell! I am going to

It was five days after the avowal of his conversion, on the 12th of April, that he died, about two o'clock in the afternoon, aged 27 years; and on the 21st of the same month his father, who was a remarkably strong and healthy man, and whose faculties, filling, as he did, the office of magistrate, were perfectly unimpaired, died at the age of 70, of a bilious and inflammatory disease, the commencement of which the physicians dated from the evening of his son's death. He, together with his wife, had nursed with

resignation and tenderness the son whose death they had long foreseen. He had appeared to concentrate within himself the surprize and emotions which the striking conversion of the young man had given rise to. The father, of a robust constitution and of a lively temperament, passed the eight days of an acute illness with the greatest patience, in the midst of his family, God supporting them under these two severe trials. The last days of the father, to our great surprize, were filled with the same Christian thoughts which had occupied those of his son.

The compiler of this short account has not put his name to it, because it would have been the means of making known the family to which this interesting young man belonged. If, however, contrary to all expectations, any difficulty should arise relating to the facts which he has related in simple truth, he should think it right to answer them by naming himself.

THINGS OF OLD.

No. III.

THE WORLD BEFORE THE FLOOD.

THE antediluvian world has been a fruitful subject to that race of happy dreamers commonly called poets. They have revelled amidst their own creations of war, love, treachery, rapine, &c. &c. and have very ingeniously adapted them to the slight but striking notices which holy writ affords of that mysterious period. Many of their beautiful or wild effusions are probably known to my readers; but perhaps they are not so well acquainted with the still extant, profane history of the old world.

Sanchoniatho the Phoenician, however, supplies us with a detail of the generations and the events in the line of Cain; and though his narrative be somewhat scanty, yet it is not only valuable, but also reconcilable to the still briefer notices of scripture; as both Bishop Cumberland and the learned Faber have shewn, with great ingenuity and erudition.

Both the history and the very existence of Sanchoniatho have given rise to many disputes among the learned. It was the fashion with many Christian divines to deny that he ever wrote, or indeed lived, and to assert that Philo-Byblius or Porphyry invented both the historian and his history; because

these philosophers used the Phoenician chronicle as an argument against Christianity; and it was therefore concluded to be necessarily contrary to it. But if the historic portion of the narrative can be reconciled to the Mosaic account of the antediluvian world, and proved to be the history of the line of Cain, why should we reject it? If the weapons of our enemies can be turned against themselves, and that with complete success, why should we throw them away, or bury them in the earth, instead of employing them to our own advantage? The theologic portion of his details is indeed too absurd and wildly mythologic to be reconciled to reason; but as that is an argument that he was of an earlier date than the Platonic philosophers of the first and second century, so the coincidence of the historic part with scripture equally proves that the narrative is not an invention of Greek or Roman paganism.

The only supposition which we can entertain as to Sanchoniatho, is that he formed the first part of his chronicle from the absurd superstitions of his Phoenician countrymen, and added the historical portion from certain traditions of primeval truth. Where he obtained these, Porphyry expressly tells us, for he says that Sanchoniatho drew much of his information from the records of Hierombalus, or Jerombaal, priest of the god Jao; and if we admit, what the learned Bochart has apparently proved, that this was Jerub-baal, or Gideon, a worshipper of Jah, or Jehovah, then the part he derived from him, must have been that which is consonant to scripture.

It is much to be wished that Sanchoniatho's history existed in as perfect a form as those of other ancient writers; but the first book is the only reMAY, 1840.

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mains which we possess of this curious work, and that under many disadvantages; for it was first translated from the original Phoenician into Greek, by Philo, then quoted by Porphyry, and re-quoted from him by Eusebius, in whose Præparatio Evangelica we find it (lib. i. cap. 10.)

The date at which the author flourished has been variously fixed by different authors. Porphyry allows him to be later than Moses, but contemporary with Semiramis; some place him about the time of David, and others would carry him back to the days of Gideon.

I shall pass over all the mystical theology of our author; referring such of my readers as wish to be fully acquainted with his evening chaos,-dark wind,-vivification by the sound of thunder,-watery heat,-spies of heaven,'-and so forth, to Eusebius himself. The Phoenician history is the part with which we are concerned; and as Mr. Faber's interpretation, in his Dissertation on the Cabiri (vol. i.) seems to me more reasonable than that of Bishop Cumberland, in those points where they differ, I shall endeavour to make my readers acquainted with it in the best and briefest manner I can, space forbidding me to give both explanations.

The father of all mankind, says Sanchoniatho, was named Protogomus; and his wife was Eon, who first gathered fruit from trees. Surely none will deny that we have here Adam and Eve; for Protogomus signifies first-made, and probably by such a name Adam was usually known to his descendants; for we do not find any proper name given him in scripture, Adam merely signifying the man. Eon is merely a Greek form of Eve, the V being frequently