as to consider the moon a luminous body, which own light, instead of borrowing it from the sun. so far as examination has been made, the hisarts, the antiquities, and the languages of all nacur to prove the comparatively recent origin of at races of men. ion proves the Mosaic account of the Deluge. on of the deluge, in many instances very nearly g with the account given of that catastrophe by s been almost universally preserved among the ations. It is indeed a very remarkable fact conhat event, that the memory, or traditions of most ds with some traces of its history, however imThis is even the case with several of the nations liscovered, and before unknown to the civilized d which therefore could not have derived this from the history of Moses, or from the commuf travellers. it reciting, in detail, the abundant proof which ontain on this subject, we must content ourselves ing to a few of these traditions. And Diodorus wer a a remnant of th He also says th but that all ily, and that this of man. Many more e thors, but we s flood, more or Hindoos, Burm latter refers not to the cause of traditions are al Druids, as well and Nicaraguans covered people of fore their convers anders. See Bis duction, vol. i. From these va were not only a universal deluge, and that these tr the account given In closing this few facts stated in concurrent testim face of the earth and often in the that the rocks the the folly of unbel this subject, but b more than sufficie is affirms that Berosus, the Chaldean historian, d the circumstances of a great deluge, in which nd perished except a few, and that Noachus, the of the human race, was carried in an ark to the an Armenian mountain. Josephus also testiHieronimus, the Egyptian historian, who wrote ities of the Phoenicians, and Nicholas of Daogether with other writers, in common with Beeak of this same deluge. Likewise there is a preserved of Abydemus, an ancient Assyrian in which it is said, not only that there was a ut that it was foretold before it happened, and were sent forth from the ark three different see whether the waters had abated. This fragstates that the ark was driven to Armenia. It necessary to observe how nearly these accounts h that of Moses, and yet it is by no means supat they were derived from the sacred writings, he traditions of the nations among whom these resided. - the Greeks, Plato mentions the great deluge, cities were destroyed, and the useful arts lost. tion, though blun truth. And, last odorus affirms that there was a tradition among ptians, that almost all animals perished by a genge, which happened in Deucalion's time. commentators and scholars inform us, that Deucaod, and that of Noah's are the same. Plutarch, in unt of the sagacity of animals says, that a dove out by Deucalion, which coming back to the ark as a sign that the flood continued, but afterwards vay, proved that there was dry land. n mentions Deucalion's flood, and states that only mnt of the human family was saved from its effects. says that the present race of man was not the first, all were destroyed, except Deucalion and his famthat this destruction was caused by the wickedness more examples of a similar kind are noted by auut we shall only mention that traditions of the ore or less mixed with fable, are retained by the Burmans, and Chinese. The tradition of the ers not only directly to the deluge itself, but also use of it, viz., the wickedness of man. Similar are also traced among the ancient Goths and is well as among the recent Mexicans, Brazilians, raguans; to which may be added the newly dispeople of Western Caledonia, the Otaheitans, beconversion to Christianity and the Sandwich IslSee Bishop Newton's works, and Horne's Introvol. i. these various facts it is manifest, that the heathen only acquainted by tradition with the fact of a deluge, but also with many of its circumstances, these traditions often bear a striking analogy to int given by Moses. ing this part of our subject, we may remark, that stated in history, can bring to its support so much at testimony, as that of a universal deluge. The he earth almost everywhere records its effects, in the most eloquent and striking manner, so ocks themselves are everlasting witnesses against of unbelievers. Profane history is not silent on ect, but brings forward her testimony in quantity n sufficient to establish an ordinary fact. Tradigh blunted by fable, clearly testifies to the same command of Divine authority, have not only dein the most simple and lucid terms, this awful cae, but have explained the reason why such a cawas brought upon our race Ark of Noah. It has been objected against the imensions of Noah's ark were three hundred cu- the Deluge Universal? We have stated at the beginning of thi the mountains as can be offere Hale's Analysis of Chronology, vol. i., p. 328. The reader res to pursue this subject, will find a good summary in Introduction to the Critical study of the Scriptures, vol. i. ooks which treat the subject more at large, and in conith Geology, are Howard's History of the Earth and Man, kland's Reliquiæ Diluvianæ. Cuvier's Theory of the Jre's New System of Geology, and Penn's Comparative of the Mineral and Mosaical Geologies. 9 g of this article that an objection had been raised he truth of the Mosaic history, on account of there supposed a sufficient quantity of water now on , to cover the mountains as there represented. At 1 of the creation, the whole earth was surrounded er, otherwise there is no meaning in the comLet the waters under the heavens be gathered unto one place, and let the dry land appear." If cted that this was before the elevation of the hills ntains, and that the earth at that time was a all, and therefore might be entirely covered by a um of water, it requiring much less to cover a han an uneven surface, still, until it can be shown lepth the earth was then covered, it cannot be at there was not a sufficient quantity to cover tains as they now exist. As there have been no ions, the quantity of water now existing, is unthe same that it was when it surrounded the th. It is now chiefly collected into one continu, the depth of which is in general entirely unCalculations, it is true, have been made, on the of water the oceans, seas, and lakes contain, with estimating the aggregate amount on the earth. obvious, that not even an approximation to the be offered on this subject, until more is known g the depths of the different oceans, than at Besides, it is not necessary to suppose that all ains were covered on the same day, or even the deluge might have swept the earth from one o another, in a manner similar to the great tides esent day. The only difficulty in the way of pothesis, is the length of time which the mouninued covered where the ark rested. But as very reason to believe that the eastern portion be was the only one then inhabited, and as the s a punitive measure, brought on by the wickviolence of man, we may reasonably suppose an first, and continued longest in the countries dwelt. Perhaps the "windows of heaven" ed only over that devoted portion of the earth, hence the flood swept in all directions to other is certain that all parts of the earth which have -ined contain monum nts of a weenin deluce roved not only by the removal of great masses of n their places, but also by the organic remains apeds and fish, found buried at great heights e sea, and under such circumstances as to show were deposited there by water. t however supposed that in every instance where ains are found far above the sea, they were dethe deluge, as it will be seen in another place, stone, and other strata containing shells, have ated by subterranean forces. niversality of the deluge is sufficiently proved, by the appearance of the earth, and that it covmountains, at least many of them, there is good believe, independently of the assertions of Scripgh the physical evidence on this point is perconclusive. all the animals existing in the primitive world in the ark? It is certain that there once existed ds on the earth, which are unknown at the preand which it is nearly as certain do not anyist. The remains of these extinct species, as we ady shown, are found in almost every part of the Did these races perish at the time of the deluge, y gradually become extinct, before or since, that ne? sions with resp which the anim and general cata ancient races, an in its effects. T terred, are what ing to the deluge exception of the the present time. Taking these c that there are suf species of quadru of the general de Moses, and that t which destroyed e cept Noah and his A comparison those of present on different species. that not all, or eve the deluge, were pl perished by its wat The divine com the ark "of every sort, must therefo with a limited sign ture language, and which we translate on Cor. i. 13, says t in its utmost exten phrases, in all lan affixed, either to p signifies only a gre ception." In like manner, every, in scripture, nify various of dif many, a great numb In the narrative o employed in this in "And behold I, ev the earth, to destroy from under heaven. had corrupted his w Fossil bones are in such a state of preservation, as hat their races were in existence at no very reod. This is especially the case in cold climates, ria, where the tusks of elephants are undecayed. e produces the decomposition and total destrucIl organized substances, when exposed to the re, or buried in the ground, and among the Sibes, there are some which show its effects much n others. These, therefore, we may suppose, cumstances being equal, are the most ancient. neral, the Siberian bones of quadrupeds, as well found in other countries, and attributed to the ear to be of about the same antiquity, and bese remains, or those of similar species, wherever pear to have been buried under similar circumThe kind of deposite in which they are found is re similar, and apparently of the same age, and ologists have generally come to similar conclu |