;. V 
 
 vi-^M^ 
 
 
 f '- 
 
LIBRARY 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 OF" 
 
 Mrs. SARAH P. WALS WORTH. 
 
 Received October, 1894. 
 Accessions No . 5*7*1 *5~*y . Class A/b . 
 
 i 
 

 
NOAH AND HIS TIMES : 
 
 EMBRACING THE 
 
 CONSIDERATION OF VARIOUS INQUIRIES 
 
 RELATIVE TO THE 
 
 ANTEDILUVIAN AND EARLIER POSTDILUVIAN 
 PERIODS, 
 
 WITH DISCUSSIONS OF SEVERAL OF THE LEADING 
 QUESTIONS OF THE PRESENT DAY. 
 
 BY THE 
 
 REV. J. MUNSON OLMSTEAD, M. A. 
 
 AUTHOR OF "THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS FOR THE IMPENITENT," 
 "OUR FIRST MOTHER," ETC. 
 
 BOSTON: 
 GOULD AND LINCOLN, 
 
 59 WASHINGTON STREET. 
 1854. 
 
Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1853, by 
 
 J. MUNSON OLMSTEAD, 
 In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. 
 
 DAM RE I, L & MOORE, PRJMTKES. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 THE difficulties connected with the writing of the fol- 
 lowing work were so fully anticipated by the author, that 
 not until some time after a demand in this day for one of 
 the kind was, in conversation with some literary and 
 Christian friends, insisted on, and himself warmly urged 
 to undertake it, could he obtain his . own consent to 
 engage in the effort. No contemporaneous historic pen 
 had left aught concerning the period to be surveyed a 
 period of almost a thousand years, and lying back near 
 the beginning of time commencing with the year of 
 the world 1056, and extending to 2006 ; and the sum 
 of what the pen o inspiration had afterward recorded, 
 was comprised within the compass of a few short chapters. 
 A large portion too of the subjects soliciting investigation 
 were intrinsically difficult to be handled. If, in the great 
 absence of historic detail, it migjit be thought that the 
 investigations and discoveries of modern science could 
 
17 PEEFACE. 
 
 yield important aids as indeed justly it might yet 
 the writer could not but be aware that even those aids 
 would not be rendered available without a large measure 
 of labor and research. He had previously written a 
 work bearing on a proximate prior period, and therefore, 
 it might be said, was experimentally aware of the ob- 
 stacles to be met with in the composition of such a work. 
 
 The consideration that to a large number of minds the 
 field lay in a territory almost utterly unknown, and, as 
 respects other minds, over and around which error on the 
 one hand and skepticism on the other hovered, at length 
 brought him to the determination to commence, and 
 impelled him to prosecute to completion, the undertaking. 
 
 The subjects more largely discussed, are the Deluge, in 
 that variety of aspect in which it is to be contemplated ; 
 the statutory Death Penalty ; the Shinaric occurrences ; 
 and the question as to the Unity or Plurality of the Hu- 
 man Races. As to the first of these, viz. the Noachic 
 Deluge, of the various inquiries instituted, those which 
 have more than others engaged the author's attention, 
 relate to the reality and modus of the occurrence ; the 
 existence or absence of Physical Evidence of the Scrip- 
 turally narrated event involving the question respect- 
 ing the Epoch of Creation ; together with the Extent 
 of that Inundation. In regard to the second, that is, the 
 statutory Death Penalty, never, it must be confessed, 
 
PREFACE. V 
 
 was there a more urgent call than now for the presenta- 
 tion of correct views upon it. As to the Shinaric oc- 
 currences, these involve matters of no small interest, 
 especially in relation to Language, and the Settlement, 
 locally, of mankind over the Earth's surface. And the 
 Question relative to the Unity or Plurality of ancestral 
 origin of the Varieties of Humankind never before en- 
 listed such a degree of interest as at present. What is 
 regarded as adding peculiar moment to this latter ques- 
 tion is the manner in which important Scriptural doctrines 
 will be affected, according to its decision one way or the 
 other. 
 
 Of the various other matters treated in the volume 
 as to most of them, briefly indeed it is not deemed 
 requisite here to make mention, inasmuch as they are 
 particularly specified both in the Table of Contents, and 
 at the head of the several pages of the work. The 
 reader will naturally cast his eye over the former ere he 
 proceeds to the perusal of the book. The writer cannot 
 but entertain the belief that those who do this will have 
 some desire to see what is said concerning them hi the 
 body of the volume. 
 
 The aids which in the investigation of the topics dis- 
 cussed were received from other authors have been in 
 some form indicated in their proper places in the work. 
 His facilities for examination of the best authorities, 
 
Yl PREFACE. 
 
 before and during the composition of the volume, were 
 not inconsiderable, and he cannot but feel grateful for the 
 free access to those of them belonging not to his collec- 
 tion, which was so generously afforded. 
 
 THE AUTHOR. 
 NOVEMBER 15, 1853. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 INTRODUCTION, 13 
 
 EVENING FIRST. 
 
 Import of the name Noah Why the name given Noah's Contem- 
 poraries The Antediluvian Events he witnessed Genealo- 
 gical Table of Patriarchs from the Creation to the Deluge 
 Antediluvian Puberty A prominent Event of Enos's day 
 What its character The names of the Patriarchs expressive,.. 16 
 
 EVENING SECOND. 
 
 
 Enoch's Translation Its influence Doctrine of a Future State 
 
 When Noah became pious The Cainite Line Nominal 
 Similarities The Cainite Lamech Antediluvian Arts, 28 
 
 EVENING THIRD, 
 
 Antediluvian Arts, continued The State of Science Inquiry as 
 to the origin of Alphabetic Writing Date of the Sabbatic In- 
 stitution, 41 
 
Vlll CONTENTS. 
 
 EVENING FOURTH. 
 
 Who the " sons of God " spoken of in Gen. 6: 2 Who the Giants in 
 Gen. 6 : 4 Increasing Degeneracy Mournful Corruption 
 Unrestrained Violence This state how caused The Divine 
 Displeasure excited "The Lord repented," its meaning,.... 56 
 
 EVENING FIFTH. 
 
 The Divine Resolve The Command given to Noah Children of 
 the Patriarch Order of the birth of the Three sons Amount 
 of Antediluvian Population A strange Conceit Characteris- 
 tics of the Patriarch Import of 1 Peter 3 : 19, 20, 71 
 
 EVENING SIXTH. 
 
 The Patriarch's Fidelity The Ark Its Dimensions Of what 
 constructed Where built Its particular Construction How 
 long in building " Noah's Carpenters " Date of Naval Ar- 
 chitecture The warning, how promulgated Righteous, how 
 many A Curious Story, . 80 
 
 EVENING SEVENTH. 
 
 Distrust of Geology unreasonable Science and Scripture harmoni- 
 ous The Ark entered The Noachic Deluge begun At 
 what Time of the year Circumstances recounted The ungod- 
 ly, how affected The melancholy Scene The Patriarch's 
 Emotions Infidel Cavil The Dispensation not unrighteous, . . 98 
 
 EVENING EIGHTH. 
 
 The Form of Prayer ascribed to the Patriarch Noah how occupied 
 in the Ark The Eight why preserved Genesis real History 
 Remarks on right Interpretation Traditional Evidence of 
 the Noachian Deluge, 110 
 
CONTENTS. IX 
 
 EVENING NINTH. 
 
 Traditional Evidence of the Noachic Deluge, continued Remarks 
 on Proof from Tradition Mythological Evidence The Apa- 
 mcs.ii Medals Additional Memorials, 123 
 
 EVENING TENTH. 
 
 Inquiry as to Physical Evidence of the Flood of Genesis Theories 
 and Geological Facts considered, 136 
 
 EVENING ELEVENTH. 
 
 Inquiry as to Physical Evidence of the Flood of Genesis, contin- 
 ued Theories and Geological Facts considered, 149 
 
 EVENING TWELFTH. 
 
 Facts as to Drift, etc. The forementioned Facts and Gen. 1:1,2 
 not in conflict Inquiry as to Physical Evidence of the Noachic 
 Deluge, concluded, 161 
 
 EVENING THIRTEENTH. 
 On the Extent of Noah's Flood, 174 
 
 EVENING FOURTEENTH. 
 
 On the Extent of Noah's Flood, continued Call for the Dis- 
 cussion, 187 
 
 EVENING FIFTEENTH. 
 
 The Flood of Genesis produced not solely by Natural Causes In- 
 quiry as to the Ark's Resting place, 200 
 
 EVENING SIXTEENTH. 
 
 Inquiry as to the Ark's Resting place, continued Egress from the 
 Ark Earth's altered appearance Legend of the Seven Sleep- 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 ers A striking Allegory Remarkable Transition The 
 grateful Return The Altar and Sacrifice Character of the 
 Oblation The Sacrificial Rite, its Rise and Design, 212 
 
 EVENING SEVENTEETH. 
 
 The Sacrificial Rite, its Rise and Design, continued, The Precept 
 in Gen. 9: 1 The Dominion of Dread Grant of Animal 
 Food Why this Grant The Specified Restriction The 
 Eating of Blood prohibited Wherefore the Prohibition,.... 224 
 
 EVENING EIGHTEENTH. 
 
 The Eating of Blood, wherefore prohibited Exaction for Blood- 
 shedding The Statutory Death Penalty 236 
 
 EVENING NINETEENTH. 
 The Statutory Death Penalty, continued, 248 
 
 EVENING TWENTIETH. 
 The Statutory Death Penalty, continued, 259 
 
 EVENING TWENTY-FIRST. 
 
 The Statutory Death Penalty, continued The Flood of Noah not 
 to reappear The Covenant against it The Bow of Promise 
 The Occupation entered upon The Planting of the Vine- 
 yard The alleged Sin of the Patriarch, 271 
 
 EVENING TWENTY-SECOND. 
 
 Carpings of Skepticism The Patriarch's Predictions At what 
 Time uttered Names of the Three Sons prophetic Advan- 
 tages from the Past "The Seven Precepts " Approach to 
 a new Era Increase of Numbers 284 
 
CONTENTS. XI 
 
 EVENING TWENTY-THIRD. 
 
 Extending of Settlement The Land of Shinar entered The Phrase 
 "From the East" considered Additional as to the Ark's 
 Resting place The View of Adelung Date of Migration 
 to Shinar What the name " Peleg " indicates Query as to 
 the Immigrants Whether All or only Part of the Noachidae 
 entered Shinar The Unity of the Shinaric Band not long to 
 remain unbroken, 294 
 
 \. 
 
 EVENING TWENTY-FOURTH. 
 
 Inquiry as to the Primitive Language Concerning the Origin of 
 Language Abuse of Linguistic Unity Divine Determination 
 against the Return of Antediluvian Wickedness Ambitious 
 Aspirations at Shinar The Tower of Babel, why erected, 308 
 
 EVENING TWENTY-FIFTH. 
 
 The Babelic Tower, its Design Size and Form of the Tower 
 Character of the Act of the Babel Builders Inference relative 
 to the Patriarch Who were the Builders Who dissented 
 from the Enterprise The Divine Interference The Confusion 
 of Tongues: Inquiry as to its Character, 321 
 
 EVENING TWENTY-SIXTH. 
 
 The Confusion of Tongues : Inquiry as to its Character, continued 
 Historic Notices and Traditions of the Events at Babel The 
 Chieftain Nimrod Genealogical Table of Postdiluvian Patri- 
 archs to the time of Abraham Concerning Date of Events, 
 Amount of Population, etc., 333 
 
 EVENING TWENTY-SEVENTH. 
 
 References to Decree of Distribution The Idea of a Previous 
 Division The Dispersion considered Geographical Settle- 
 ment of Tribes or Families A. Descendants of Japheth B. 
 Descendants of Ham C. Descendants of Shem, 346 
 
Xll CONTENTS. 
 
 EVENING TWENTY-EIGHTH. 
 
 Descent of all Mankind from Noah ; or the Unity of the Human 
 Races The Five Varieties of Blumenbach, viz. : the Cauca- 
 sian, Mongolian, Ethiopian, American, and Malay : The Leading 
 Characters of Each, . .' 359 
 
 EVENING TWENTY-NINTH. 
 
 Descent of all Mankind from Noah ; or the Unity of the Human 
 Races, 372 
 
 EVENING THIRTIETH. 
 
 Demand upon Advocates of Plurality Archaeological Objection 
 against the doctrine of the Universal Descent of Mankind from 
 Noah considered, 38o 
 
 EVENING THIRTY-FIRST. 
 
 Consideration of the Archaeological Objection, continued Scripture 
 Chronology The Common Chronology may be retained A 
 frequent Error in Tables Antediluvian Longevity Post- 
 diluvian Reduction of term of Life How to be accounted for 
 The Life of the Patriarch how eventful ; and what the Magnitude 
 of the Events The Patriarch's Influence, how benign and 
 lasting His Memorial with us, 398 
 
NOAH AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 IT was about sunset on a day in the middle of November, 
 of the year 185-, that three young men were seen crossing 
 the beautiful green plat termed " the square," in the delight- 
 ful borough of , and entering the mansion of a Mr. 
 
 . This gentleman, who was for several years 
 
 employed in an important professional vocation in , 
 
 had, on account of somewhat impaired health, retired from 
 that station, and, with his small family, had recently come to 
 reside in this charming locality. It was a borough noted not 
 only for its beauty, but for the elevated and excellent 
 character of its population. 
 
 Belonging to the families of its residents were some fifty 
 young men, who had formed the resolution to avail themselves 
 of every facility within reach for augmenting their intellect- 
 ual stores, and preparing to be otherwise than useless drones 
 in whatever community, severally, they should be afterward 
 assigned their permanent abode ; and having learned that 
 
 among his various other acquirements, Mr. had turned 
 
 his attention somewhat specially, and from choice, to those de- 
 partments of knowledge which sustain an interesting connection 
 with Sacred History, they had held a meeting, and after 
 2 
 
14 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 deliberation had appointed the three young gentlemen alluded 
 to, to wait on him with an invitation and request that he would 
 favor them with a series of Evening Lectures upon Noah and 
 
 his Times. This invitation Mr. promised to take 
 
 into consideration, and, if they would call the succeeding 
 evening, to give them, then, an answer. 
 
 Upon their calling, at the time appointed, they received in 
 substance the following reply : So far as falls within the com- 
 pass of my power it will afford me pleasure, young gentlemen, 
 to comply with the invitation and request which you were 
 the commissioned organ in conveying to me last evening. 
 
 The range of topic which has been suggested is extensive, 
 and will require brevity of treatment of any one part of it. 
 At no previous period was a discussion of the questions which 
 will come before us so important, for never before since man 
 was breathed into being was there the same amount of effort 
 put forth to array Science against Revelation to represent 
 the testimonies of the former as conflicting, and utterly 
 irreconcilable, with the testimonies of the latter. Anti-bibli- 
 cal prejudice, in connection with more or less scientific pos- 
 session or pretension, has specially exerted itself, in -our day, 
 to prove the prime sacred historian to have fallen into many 
 serious mistakes to have penned numerous untruths. It 
 will be our endeavor, among other things, to show that it is 
 not quite so clear as some would have us believe, that the 
 historic statements of Moses are unworthy of credence ; 
 to try to make it appear that as Nature does not, so neither 
 does Scripture, proclaim a falsehood ; that their utterances, 
 so far as both have any thing to say on the same subjects, are 
 not discrepant eminently harmonize. This will indeed 
 constitute but a part of our endeavor. Attempts will also be 
 made to explain the import of a large number of hints given 
 by the archaic writer in that succinct but comprehensive por- 
 
INTRODUCTION. 15 
 
 tion of the Word of God the first eleven chapters of Gen- 
 esis, and to exhibit some variety of opinion among authors 
 respecting their meaning. 
 
 As those from whom you come profess alone a desire for 
 instruction, as their number is small, and my vocal power at 
 present quite limited, my efforts before them must not be 
 expected to partake so much of the character of lectures 
 from a platform, as that of conversational or familiar exer- 
 cises. These also will be brief. 
 
 Please say to the body of whom you are a committee that 
 the exercises will consist of two per week (Tuesday and Fri- 
 day evenings,) until the series shall be completed ; and that 
 on Tuesday evening next, Providence permitting, will be had, 
 in the hall where they are accustomed to assemble, our First 
 Exercise. 
 
EVENING FIRST. 
 
 YOUNG GENTLEMEN : 
 
 Whilst I appear before you with some distrust of my 
 ability to satisfy your reasonable desires and expectations, I 
 cannot at the same time say that it is with reluctance. Your 
 age, your thirst for knowledge, and the intrinsic interest and 
 importance of the subjects upon the investigation of which 
 you desire to enter, were all such as to urge me to accept of 
 the respectful invitation which through your committee was 
 presented me. In addition, I am thus furnished an occasion 
 to enlarge my acquaintance with truths and facts which at 
 no previous period engaged so interested and general atten- 
 tion, or about which doubt or incredulity has so much 
 hovered. 
 
 NOAH AND HIS TIMES : To the Sacred Annals we must 
 resort where else can we ? for prime and reliable infor- 
 mation in regard to these ? I say, where else can we ? for 
 no history save that of which Moses is the writer, reaches 
 within centuries of the period in which that patriarch was 
 engaged in acting his part on this sublunary theatre. Yet 
 within how circumscribed a compass is embraced all that the 
 writings of that sacred archaic historian contain respecting 
 them. A few short chapters what can be penned in some 
 half a dozen hours and you come to the end of all that 
 the first inspired annalist has to say about them. 
 
 Noah : The first mention which the pen of history makes 
 
IMPORT OP THE NAME NOAH. 17 
 
 of him is in the closing part (verses 28 32,) of the 5th 
 chapter of Genesis. The original terms expressive of his 
 name, TO noach, and cm nahham, denoting rest and comfort, 
 have so much resemblance to each other that we may regard 
 the language as an instance of that paranomasia which is of 
 not infrequent occurrence in the sacred writings. By the 
 prompting of the spirit of prophecy was probably the be- 
 stowal of this name by his father Lamech. Precisely in 
 what sense, however, there was to be in the person of this 
 son a fulfilment of the prediction, is perhaps indeterminable. 
 Bishop Sherlock was of the opinion that the curse upon the 
 earth inflicted in consequence of Adam's sin had, in connec- 
 tion with the progressive increase of corruption and crime, 
 been growing more and more severe ever since the Fall, so 
 that the exertion and toil requisite to bring from the ground 
 a sufficient sustenance for life had become almost intolerable. 
 And those words of Lamech upon conferring the name, and 
 as a reason for it, " This same shall comfort us concerning 
 our work, and the (sorrowful) toil of our hands, because of 
 the ground which the Lord hath cursed," (Gen. 5 : 29,) he 
 supposes to refer to a general expectation that by the inter- 
 vention or instrumentality of some distinguished personage, 
 the rigor of the curse was to be greatly abated, and the earth 
 measurably restored to its primitive fertility and ease of cul- 
 tivation. This personage he conceives that the Sethite 
 Lamech (Sethite, in distinction from one of the same name, 
 the fifth in descent from Cain,) under divine suggestion, 
 recognized in his new-born child, and bestowed upon him a 
 name in accordance with the fact. The prediction thus un- 
 derstood he maintains has been verified by the event ; that 
 the earth, from the time of the flood, was in a good degree 
 restored from the curse laid upon it at the Fall, and is still 
 enjoying the effect of the blessing bestowed upon Noah. 
 Says Bishop Patrick on this point : There was a general 
 2* 
 
18 WHY THE NAME GIVEN. 
 
 curse upon the earth for the sin of Adam, and a particular 
 one for the sin of Cain. Now God, Lamech foretells, would 
 in great measure take them both off, and bless the earth to 
 the posterity of this same man (Noah,) who perfected the 
 art of husbandry, and found out fitter instruments for culti- 
 vating the soil than had been previously known. The He- 
 brew interpreters generally expound the declaration, " He 
 shall comfort us concerning our work and the toil of our 
 hands," thus : He shall make our labor in tilling the earth 
 more easy less toilsome to us. 
 
 Dr. Shuckford (in his Connexions, vol. 1, p. 93,) advances 
 the idea, that Lamech was probably informed from God, that 
 his son Noah should obtain a grant of the creatures for the 
 use of man ; and knowing the labor and inconveniences they 
 were then under, he rejoiced in foreseeing what ease and 
 comfort they would have when they should obtain a large 
 supply of food from the creatures, superadded to what could 
 be produced from the ground by tillage. 
 
 Ainsworth, in his Annotations, says that this prophecy his 
 father uttered of him, as he that should be a figure of Christ 
 in his building of the ark, and offering of sacrifice, whereby 
 God smelled a savor of rest, and said he would not curse 
 the ground any more for man's sake. And Dr. J. Pye Smith, 
 in his article Noah, in Kitto's Cyclopedia, remarks that the 
 declaration, " This same shall comfort us," &c., contains an 
 undoubted allusion to the penal consequences of the fall in 
 earthly toils and sufferings, and to the hope of a Deliverer 
 excited by the promise made to our First Mother. That 
 this expectation was grounded upon a Divine communication 
 he thinks is to be inferred from the importance attached to 
 it, and the confidence of its expression. 
 
 We have thought it proper to cite this variety of opinions 
 in detail, because of its relation to the very name of the 
 patriarch whose Life and Times are to be so much with us 
 
NOAH'S CONTEMPORARIES. 19 
 
 the theme of meditation. Suffer me, in conclusion on this 
 point, to remark, that while the father of Noah, in the con- 
 ferring of this appellation, may perhaps have had respect to the 
 precious Messianic promise relating to the seed of the woman, 
 and might even have hoped, possibly, that he had obtained 
 that promised seed ; yet it may be imagined more probable 
 that Lamech spoke by the spirit of prophecy, which revealed 
 to him, thus early, that our patriarch would be an extraor- 
 dinary person ; and not only a great comfort to his parents 
 and relatives amidst their toils and sorrows, but likewise a 
 great blessing to mankind ; with especial reference to the 
 preservation of the human species with him in the ark, which 
 typified the salvation of sinners by Jesus Christ. 
 
 Noah lived, in all, 950 years. Six hundred of these he 
 passed in the Old World, so to speak, and three hundred and 
 fifty in the New. He was born, according to the Hebrew or 
 Usherian chronology, Anno Mundi, 1056, and died A. M. 
 2006 that is, according to the chronology just referred to, 
 two years before the birth of Abraham. You see, then, young 
 gentlemen, the extent of the field over which you have 
 requested me to lead you. With nearly all of the Antedilu- 
 vian Patriarchs Noah was contemporary I mean, he was 
 on the earth a portion of the same time that they were. He 
 was not acquainted with Adam, nor even with his son Seth, 
 being born 126 years after the death of the former, and 14 
 years subsequent to the decease of the latter. With all those 
 of Adam's sons and daughters, however, who were born 
 twenty or more years posterior to Seth's birth, and lived to 
 as great age as did Seth, he might have been acquainted ; 
 and if he lived in the same part of the world and had in- 
 tercourse with them, he could from their lips have learned 
 what they heard their father Adam relate about the creation 
 about paradise, its locality, its scenery, beauties, and the 
 situation, enjoyments, and avocations of the primal pair whilst 
 
20 THE ANTEDILUVIAN EVENTS HE WITNESSED. 
 
 there was a retention of their innocence ; of the temptation in its 
 various particulars ; of the guise and manner in general in 
 which the Tempter appeared ; what he uttered ; the sort of 
 wiles and arts he practised ; of the Fall, and the way in 
 which Jehovah appeared to and accosted our first parents ; 
 their emotional experience, efforts for concealment, arraign- 
 ment, trial, and ejectment from the garden ; how and where 
 they were afterwards situated ; the dealings of the Lord with 
 them during their subsequent lifetime ; the special events they 
 witnessed and scenes passed through ; together with those 
 interesting particulars relating to the kind and measure 
 of intercourse Jehovah had with them, and disclosures he 
 made to them. 
 
 Or, as Adam lived until Noah's grandfather, Methuselah, 
 was 243 years old, and Lamech, his father, 56 ; and as the 
 former lived till the very year of the Deluge, and the latter 
 departed this life only five years prior to that event, Noah 
 could have enjoyed the privilege of hearing each of these 
 recount what they may have heard from Adam's and Eve's 
 lips concerning the objects and events a moment since men- 
 tioned. 
 
 As to those antediluvian patriarchs whose names are re- 
 corded, it is worthy of note and you may see it by looking 
 over the Table I will, before closing this Exercise, give you 
 that Noah lived back in Enos's (Adam's grandson's) time, 
 eighty-six years : in Enos's son Cainan's lifetime, 179 
 years ; lived as a contemporary with Mahalaleel, 234 years ; 
 with Jared, 366 ; with Methuselah, his grandfather, 600 
 years ; and with his father, 595 for Noah's father, as you 
 will discover by the table, died five years before his grand- 
 father. Accordingly, Noah was witness to a not inconsider- 
 able portion of the events which transpired anterior to the 
 Flood, as well as those occurring during the period of 350 
 years subsequently. Accept, young gentlemen, of a copy, 
 each, of the Table to which I have alluded. Compare it at 
 
ANTEDILUVIAN PUBERTY. 
 
 21 
 
 your leisure with the Genealogical Record which the sacred 
 historian has furnished in the 5th of Genesis. 
 
 
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 JB| 
 
 09 
 
 i 
 
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 o 
 
 8 . 
 
 ACCORDING TO THE HEBREW TEXT. 
 
 .a * 
 
 IN 
 
 I'll 
 
 9 
 
 ji 
 
 
 M 
 
 co <-* 
 
 ^ K*> 
 
 .6 
 
 rt 
 
 
 rt 
 
 ^ 
 
 p> O 
 
 n^ 
 
 Q 
 
 
 fi*s 
 
 r^ +J 
 
 LJ S 
 
 0) 
 
 "5 
 
 
 M > 
 
 W.3 
 
 M c3 
 1 
 
 3 
 
 P 
 
 
 1 
 
 130 
 
 800 
 
 930 
 
 930 
 
 Seth, 
 
 130 
 
 105 
 
 807 
 
 912 
 
 1042 
 
 
 235 
 
 90 
 
 815 
 
 905 
 
 1140 
 
 
 325 
 
 70 
 
 840 
 
 910 
 
 1235 
 
 Mahalaleel, 
 
 395 
 
 65 
 
 830 
 
 895 
 
 1290 
 
 
 460 
 
 162 
 
 800 
 
 962 
 
 1422 
 
 
 622 
 
 65 
 
 300 
 
 365 
 
 987 
 
 
 687 
 
 187 
 
 782 
 
 969 
 
 1656 
 
 
 874 
 
 182 
 
 595 
 
 777 
 
 1651 
 
 Noah, 
 
 1056 
 
 500 
 
 
 950 
 
 2006 
 
 Our patriarch (Noah) was in the 600th year of his age 
 when the overflowing Flood came (Gen. 7: 11) which 
 diluvial event occurred in the year of the world 1656. It is 
 noteworthy that all the antediluvian patriarchs, except Noah, 
 visited the earth ere the first father of our race left it. La- 
 mech ; Noah's father, as has been already hinted, was a half- 
 dozen years beyond half a century old at the time that Adam 
 encountered the dying strife. These all, Noah solely 
 excepted, might receive from their first father's own mouth a 
 full and minute account of the scenes he witnessed, and the 
 events transpiring in time's dawn. 
 
 Whether, in the genealogical record contained in the 5th of 
 Genesis, the son whose name is given was the first or eldest 
 child of each patriarch, or whether these all, or a part of 
 them, had children born to them antecedently, cannot, except 
 in Seth's case, be determined, any more than it can be cer- 
 tainly determined whether those antediluvians arrived at 
 maturity as early as mankind do now, or whether they 
 ripened then more slowly, and in proportion as they lived 
 
22 A PROMINENT EVENT OF ENOS's DAT. 
 
 longer. Upon that statement, (Gen. 5 : 6,) " Seth lived an 
 hundred and five years and begat Enos," Bishop Patrick re- 
 marks, that we must not think Seth lived so long before he 
 begat any children any more than that Adam had none till he 
 was 130 years old, when he begat Seth. We must consider, 
 says he, that Moses sets down only those persons by whom 
 the line of Noah was drawn from Seth, and Abraham's line 
 from Noah, by their true ancestors, whether they are the 
 eldest of the family or not. Seth, he continues, it is likely 
 had many other children ere Enos was born, as Methuselah, 
 we may be confident, had before the birth of Lamech ; and 
 Lamech had prior to the birth of Noah, though Moses does 
 not mention those elder children of Lamech, because he was 
 here concerned only to inform us who was the father of Noah. 
 
 If the antediluvians did arrive at puberty as early as 
 human beings do now, it surely is not improbable that every 
 one of them had children born to them, and in not a few 
 cases quite a number, anterior to the one in each case whose 
 name is given for the youngest period in which any of them, 
 after Adam, is spoken of as having a son born, is at the age 
 of 65 years, and only two at so early a period of life even as 
 that; whilst the majority were over a hundred; one 162, 
 another 182, and gtill another 187, before the birth of the 
 recorded son. 
 
 As Adam's grandson, Enos, lived until Noah was fourscore 
 and four years old, the latter may have become directly, per- 
 sonally, acquainted with the event have obtained a more 
 certain knowledge in regard to it, than, as will soon appear, 
 his descendants, at least modern, have acquired related in 
 Gen. 4 : 26 to wit : " Then began men to call upon the name 
 of the Lord." We do not lay claim to so large a share of pre- 
 sumption as to venture to speak positively concerning the 
 import of these words, as used in the original. The language 
 has been the source of much perplexity and trouble to biblical 
 critics and expounders. This has arisen in part from the paren- 
 
WHAT ITS CHARACTER. 23 
 
 thetic character of the sentence, and its extreme brevity ; but 
 more still from the varieties of signification of the verb 
 ibn halal, which may be understood as denoting both to 
 begin, and to profane. If the former rendering be adopted, 
 then the declaration contained in the passage will be, "A 
 beginning was made for calling by or upon the name of Jeho- 
 vah. If the latter be chosen, then the passage may be read : 
 " Profanation was committed for calling the name of Jehovah," 
 i. e., applying the divine name to other objects. 
 
 Among those biblical expositors who have selected the first 
 of the two meanings specified and we believe they constitute 
 the major number there is still some variety of interpreta- 
 tion of the clause, yet of an affiliated or kindred character 
 understanding the words to indicate an event favorable to 
 piety. That variety may be summarily presented : Then 
 began the worshippers of Jehovah to be distinguished by the 
 appellation, sons of God. (This interpretation was adopted 
 by Aquila, Piscator, Diodati, Hackspan, Leclerc, Bishop 
 Patrick, Wells, Deserer, &c. Deserer's note merits citation : 
 " Some pious families began to call themselves sons, in the 
 Hebrew idiom equivalent to disciples, learners, of God, in 
 order to distinguish themselves from the sons of men, those 
 who disregarded the instructions of divine authority, and gave 
 themselves up to wickedness.)" Then commenced not a 
 first offering of prayer to the Lord, since our first parents, 
 Abel, Seth, and many others, were previously, no doubt, true 
 supplicants and worshippers but an increase of the spirit of 
 true religion. Then the godly " began to stir up themselves" 
 as Matthew Henry has it, " to do more in religion than they 
 had done perhaps not more than had been done at first, but 
 more than had been done of late, since the defection of Cain. 
 Or now there was so great a reformation in religion that it 
 was, as it were, a new beginning of it." Then began among 
 men an extension of religious privileges. Then commenced 
 they the erection of temples, being desirous to offer worship to 
 
24 WHAT ITS CHARACTER. 
 
 the Lord of Hosts in public and solemn assemblies, and not 
 solely, as formerly, in their closets and families. Then be- 
 gan the pious to make a more open and formal profession of 
 religion giving to the church of God a more thoroughly 
 organized form, and marked visibility in this way rendering 
 more distinguishable and wide the distance between the friends 
 and the enemies of God ; and increasing the obstacles to all 
 improper and injurious association betwixt the former and the 
 latter. We will only further remark, on this side, that the 
 Syriac version, and the Latin of Jerome, both make JZnos, 
 exclusively, the agent of the verb : " Then he (Enos) began to 
 call upon the name of the Lord." 
 
 On the other hand, as the word bbn halal, denotes also to 
 profane an obvious instance of which you may witness by 
 turning to Lev. 19 : 12, there have been not a few who 
 have understood the declaration in the passage referred to, to 
 be made of the ivicked considering the meaning of the 
 historian to be, that the most holy name which belongs to the 
 Creator and Possessor of heaven and earth alone the name 
 Jehovah was now profaned by wicked men; being im- 
 piously given unto creatures, particularly the sun, and other 
 heavenly bodies. This is the more common view among the 
 learned Jewish writers and the learned Selden and several 
 others join them in it. The Jewish writer, Maimonides, in 
 his Treatise on Idolatry, holds forth this view, and has dis- 
 cussed it at some length. You will not tire if I give it you : 
 " In the days of Enos, the sons of Adam erred with great 
 error ; and their error was this : They said, forasmuch as 
 God ' ath created these stars and spheres to govern the 
 world, and set them on high, and imparted honor unto them, 
 and they are ministers that minister before him ; it is meet 
 that man should laud and glorify, and give them honor. 
 For this is the will of God, that we magnify and honor 
 whomsoever He magnifieth and honoreth: even as a king 
 would have them that stand before him ; and this is the honor 
 
WHAT ITS CHARACTER. 25 
 
 of the king himself. When this thing was come up into their 
 hearts, they began to build temples unto the stars, and to 
 offer sacrifice unto them, and to laud and glorify them with 
 words, and to worship before them, that they might in their 
 evil opinion obtain favor of the Creator. And this was the 
 sort of idolatry, &c. And, in process of time, there stood up 
 false prophets among the sons of Adam, who said that God 
 had commanded and said unto them, Worship such a star, or 
 all the stars, and do sacrifice unto them thus and thus : and 
 build a temple for it, and make an image of it, that all the 
 people, women and children, may worship it ; and the false 
 prophet showed them the image which he had feigned out of 
 his own heart, and said it was the image of such a star, 
 which was made known to him by prophecy. And they 
 began after this manner to make images in temples, and 
 under trees, and on tops of mountains and hills, and as- 
 sembled together and worshipped them. And this thing was 
 spread through all the world, to serve images with services 
 different one from another, and to sacrifice unto and worship 
 them. So in process of time, the Glorious and Fearful 
 name (of Jehovah) was forgotten out of the mouth of all the 
 living, and out of their knowledge, and they acknowledged 
 him not. And there was found no people on the earth that 
 knew aught save images of wood and stone, which they had 
 been trained up from their childhood to worship and serve, 
 and to swear by their names. And the wise men that were 
 among them, as the priests and such like, thought there was 
 no god save the stars and spheres, for whose sake and in 
 whose likeness they had made these images. But as ; r the 
 Rock Everlasting, there was no man that acknowledged Him 
 or knew Him, save a few persons in the world, as Enoch, 
 Methuselah, Noah, Shem, and Heber. And in this way did 
 the world walk and converse, till that pillar of the world, 
 Abraham, our Father, was born." 
 
 That the world was, even thus early, in such a melancholy 
 
26 THE NAMES EXPRESSIVE. 
 
 state with regard to morals and religion as to favor this view, 
 has by some been understood to be indicated by the name 
 jEnos, which signifies sorrowful his father, a good man, and 
 grieved at the degeneracy, present and prospective, of a large 
 portion of mankind, being prompted to confer the name on 
 this account. It was customary in those times, as it has 
 indeed been in later, to bestow names on children according 
 to the occurrences in life, or the expectations of parents. 
 Hence also Enos, perceiving the posterity of Cain to deteri- 
 orate, morally, as time progressed, was affected by this fact, 
 and feared the consequences of it as to themselves, and that 
 the moral contamination might spread and seriously affect 
 others, and therefore appropriated to his son the name 
 Cainan a word signifying Lamentation, or as some define 
 it, Possessor, as if apprehending that this his child might 
 become possessor of a like moral malady with that which he 
 witnessed Cain's descendants disseminating. Though Cainan 
 had his name from the wickedness of Gain's family, yet he 
 himself was resolved to maintain the true worship of God in 
 his own, and therefore called his son Mahalaleel, i. e., a 
 Praiser or* Worshipper of God. In the days of Mahalaleel, 
 as tradition tells us, a defection occurred among the progeny 
 of Seth, who went down from the elevated or hill country 
 where they dwelt, and allied themselves to the daughters of 
 the Cainite stock; and therefore Mahalaleel denominated 
 his son Jared, which signifies descending. Jared, to guard 
 against the very general corruption, devoted himself and his 
 descendants more zealously to the service of the Lord 
 Almighty, and accordingly designated his son by the name 
 Enoch, which means a dedication. Enoch, by the spirit of 
 prophecy, foreseeing the destruction which would come upon 
 the world, immediately after the death of his son, called him 
 Methuselah the first part of which (methu) signifies he dies ; 
 and the other part (selah) denotes the sending forth (as of 
 water), indicating what actually at length occurred, for 
 
THE NAMES EXPRESSIVE. 27 
 
 Methuselah died in the year of the deluge. Methuselah, 
 perceiving the wickedness in the posterity of Seth, as well as 
 that of Cain, to grow every day worse and worse, called his 
 son Lantech, which intimates a poor man, humbled, and 
 afflicted with grief, for the present corruption, and fear of 
 future punishment. And Lamech, conceiving better hopes of 
 his son, gave him the name Noah, the import of which we 
 have already stated. 
 
 These all had " sons and daughters," probably a large 
 number of each, but the historian, under the guidance of 
 the Spirit, has not furnished us with a catalogue of the nu- 
 merous collateral branches, but only of the principal persons 
 by whom, in a right line, the succession was continued down 
 to Noah, and thence to Abraham, the Founder of the Jewish 
 nation. 
 
 <?$5*fe 
 
EVENING SECOND. 
 
 YOTJNG GENTLEMEN : 
 
 One of our patriarch's more immediate ancestors there was, 
 whom, on account of his comparatively brief stay on the shores 
 of time, Noah never saw. We allude to his great grandfather, 
 Enoch, whose removal from the world took place Anno 
 Mundi 987, i. e., 69 years anterior to Noah's introduction 
 upon this earthly platform. Yet his ears had heard his father, 
 grandfather, and others, speak so much about him, that it 
 seemed to him almost as if he had had a personal and some- 
 what intimate acquaintance with him. This Enoch a very 
 different character, by the way, from a son of Cain by the 
 same name was in some respects one of the most remarka- 
 ble personages of antediluvian times. We learn from the 
 epistle of Jude (14th and 15th verses) that he was a prophet 
 of God, foretelling not alone clearly, but in glowing terms, a 
 judgment to come ; and likewise a preacher of righteousness, 
 and a bold, unflinching reprover of the ungodly of his day 
 who, en passant, had not only become, at this so high period 
 of antiquity, numerous, but excessively daring in their impiety. 
 How the apostle Jude was put in possession of what he states 
 in the verses to which we have alluded, there have been vari- 
 ous conjectures concerning. The Jews ascribed to him, 
 among other things, visions and prophecies in abundance, and 
 had a curious tradition that these were arranged by Enoch in 
 a book ; that this book was delivered to his son Methuselah, 
 
ENOCH'S TRANSLATION. 29 
 
 who, before his death, put it into the hands of Noah, who pre- 
 served it in the ark ; and after the Flood that this book was 
 made known to the world, and handed down from generation 
 to generation. That this is improbable, we need hardly take 
 the pains to declare. There was, however, an Apocryphal 
 Book of Enoch, which its translator, Archbishop Laurence, 
 thinks was written in the reign of Herod. That it was com- 
 posed at least thus early, appears supported by the fact of its 
 being alluded to by Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Clemens Alex- 
 andrinus, Origen, &c. ; and from its being likewise quoted on 
 various occasions in the Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs, 
 which Nitzsch has shown to belong to the latter part of the 
 first or the beginning of the second century. It has been the 
 opinion of some, that Jude cited in substance what he men- 
 tions from it ; and really there is a remarkable similarity, as 
 you will perceive by comparing those verses in Jude to which 
 we have referred, with the following language from the Book 
 of Enoch : "Behold he comes with ten thousands of his 
 saints, to execute judgment upon them, and destroy the 
 wicked, and reprove all the carnal for everything which the 
 sinful and ungodly have done, and committed against him." 
 These words constitute the second chapter of the volume. 
 The conjecture has been entertained by others, that Jude either 
 quoted a traditional prophecy, or had the words apparently 
 cited by him immediately suggested by the Holy Spirit. 
 
 That Enoch was a man of extraordinary sanctity that 
 he was such for one of his day not only, but for any period 
 of the world none, after what the Spirit of Inspiration has 
 averred about him, will be inclined to question. It is asserted 
 of him, that " he walked with God" a form of expression im- 
 plying the closest fellowship with Jehovah which it is possi- 
 ble to enjoy this side of the city of glory. Such a similitude 
 to the spirits of the upper sphere did he, and that, too, early 
 in antediluvian life, bear, that Infinite Love would not suffer 
 him any longer to tarry at such a distance from the measure- 
 3* 
 
30 ITS INFLUENCE. 
 
 less Fountain of bliss. "Wishing to have him where sin and 
 sorrow are unknown nearer, much nearer his blazing 
 throne within the encircling effulgence of his glory the 
 Supreme Arbiter, without waiting for him to throw off his 
 mantle, caught him up, and far beyond the gaze of mortals 
 suddenly bearing him, set him down on sunnier heights than 
 mortal vision witnesses. What an exemption from humani- 
 ty's common lot ! With the " King of Terrors," this man 
 never had to maintain a conflict. He obtained the laurel 
 without drawing the blade. In the expressive brevity of In- 
 spiration, " Enoch was translated that he should not see 
 death ; " " he was not, for God took him." 
 
 Noah, as well as others, heard a great deal about that won- 
 derful occurrence the translation of this his ancestor ; it 
 was still a fresh theme as well as frequent, of conversation, 
 when he was a boy ; it had been but as yesterday since 
 it had occurred, according to the appearance and reckoning 
 of antediluvian times. It was a memorable event truly 
 sufficient to kindle amazement at any period of the world. 
 Very early in life it became a very prominent theme of 
 meditation with our patriarch. He pondered it with intense 
 interest. The evidence it afforded of a, future life of an 
 existence other than earthly, would, it is to be presumed, be 
 not one of the least likely to arrest and hold his attention. 
 Adam had died; Eve, Abel, Seth had died these ere he 
 had stepped on this planet. Since he had become a sojourn- 
 er upon it, his own eyes had witnessed the mortal throes of 
 at least some of his species. He had witnessed the apparent 
 cessation of their being ; had observed the change which 
 had come over their once active forms. Their once spark- 
 ling and rolling eye he had seen grow dim and moveless ; 
 their hands, those executive members, drop by their side, 
 saying in substance as they fell, we have finished our work. 
 He had marked the vital current to stop and freeze in their 
 systems. He knew where all that had been visible of them 
 
DOCTRINE OF A FUTURE STATE. 31 
 
 had been deposited. None of them did he witness returning 
 to life ; none of them had he seen moving again among the 
 living. Is there then no future life ? he soliloquizes with 
 anxiety. Where is my great grandfather, Enoch ? Did any 
 one see his eye grow dim ? his hands fall ? his feet refuse to 
 do their office ? Who has seen him die ? What has become 
 of this man, my ancestor ? Who can say that he has borne 
 him away and buried or otherwise disposed of him ? He has 
 not ceased to be r he exists somewhere, though not apparently 
 where mortal vision can behold him. But if he, though re- 
 moved, exists, is his case altogether peculiar ? Does, will, 
 no other one have an existence after removal? Thus 
 Noah's mind operated, reasoned ; and thus also other antedi- 
 luvian minds doubtless moved and reasoned. Enoch, indeed, 
 might have been borne aloft, Elijah-like, as in their sight. 
 His neighbors may have seen the chariot bearing him into 
 the blue heavens ; might have inquired, Whither is he going ? 
 and received such an answer as to silence all doubt in regard 
 to a state of existence beyond this life. The antediluvians 
 needed a lesson on this subject ; they needed to be taught 
 that there is another state of being ; and their great Creator 
 in mercy presented as to their eyesight the immensely inter- 
 esting and important truth. And when our patriarch became 
 a preacher, as we shall see hereafter that he did, he doubt- 
 less insisted much on this doctrine, as now we call it, as a 
 not trifling or unimportant reason why they should not, in the 
 language of the epicure, " Live " while " they live " an ar- 
 gument, and it ought to have been a potent and influential 
 one, why they should not live a life of impiety why they 
 should not provoke but please the Supreme Disposer of their 
 immortal destiny. 
 
 Some have doubted whether the doctrine of a future state 
 is any where held forth in the Old Testament. Dr. Warbur- 
 ton, who seemed to take pleasure in advancing or advocating 
 some new and startling opinion, and in attacking ordinarily 
 
32 WHEN NOAH BECAME PIOUS. 
 
 received truths and established principles, has, in his Divine 
 Legation of Moses, (vol. 2, pp. 553-568,) set forth the idea 
 that the Mosaic covenant contained no promises directly re- 
 lating to a future state because, as he argues, Moses was 
 secure of an equal providence, and therefore needed not sub- 
 sidiary sanctions taken from a future state, without the belief 
 of which the doctrine of a universal Providence cannot 
 ordinarily be vindicated, nor the general sanctions of religion 
 secured. We wish you to examine Dr. Warburton's reason- 
 ing when convenient. To me it appears strange that any 
 should hesitate about admitting the doctrine in question to be 
 one of the great things revealed under the ancient economy, 
 since good men, even before Moses, (as we learn from Heb. 
 11 : 13, 16,) were animated by views of a future state ; as he 
 (Moses) himself plainly was (see verses 24-26 of the same 
 chapter) ; and the promises of heavenly felicity were con- 
 tained even in the covenant made with Abraham, which 
 the Mosaic could not disannul. We have not time even to 
 refer you to the numerous passages of the Old Testament, 
 teaching, as we think, and -plainly, this truth. All that we 
 are concerned to say at present, is, that the historic fact rela- 
 tive to Enoch's translation, as well as that of Elijah, is of 
 such a nature as to impel us to infer the truth respecting 
 which we have spoken.* 
 
 That our patriarch's soul was warmed and. set on fire by 
 the contemplation of this event, so full of meaning, seems to 
 us unquestionable ; and by it we may imagine that he was 
 stimulated to become an imitator of this wonderful saint, 
 whom God so early received within the gates of pearl ; and 
 
 * That Old Testament saints indulged an expectation of a state of ex- 
 istence beyond this life is indicated in the following, among numerous 
 other passages, viz. : Gen. 49 : 18 ; Ps. 16 : 9-11 ; Ps. 17 : 15 ; Ps. 73 : 
 17, 27; Job 19: 25-27; Eccl. 3: 15, 16,21; Eccl. 7: 12, 18; Isa. 3: 10, 
 11; Isa. 26: 19; Isa. 35 : 10; Ezek. 18: 19,21; Dan. 12 : 2. Let the 
 promises of the Old Testament likewise be carefully inspected. Look, as 
 a specimen, at the following : Dan. 12: 13 ; Hag. 2: 23 ; Zech. 3 : 7. 
 
THE CAINITE LINE. 33 
 
 that he attained, at least so early as the noon of life, such a 
 character as to piety, that what was said of Enoch was like- 
 wise said of him, that he " walked with God." (Gen. 6 : 9.) 
 
 Just at what period of life Noah became pious, we are not 
 told ; with such a degree of information, however, we are 
 furnished as to know that when he was no farther advanced 
 than 480 years, i. e., 120 years before the Deluge, he was 
 signalized for his piety. So different was he then from all 
 others on this terrestrial ball, as to be specially distinguished 
 in the divine regards and dealings toward him, (Gen. 6 : 8.) 
 He had, without a peradventure, been, for years previous, 
 stemming the tide of iniquity which had risen to a high pitch 
 some time before, and had been attaining a greater and still 
 greater doleful altitude, until it threatened to bear every 
 thing before it sparing nothing of the semblance of excel- 
 lence or goodness on the globe. 
 
 To maintain a character for pious devotedness in such a 
 world as this, with so many obstacles in the way, is, under 
 the now existing circumstances, by no means of easy accom- 
 plishment ; requires, indisputably, great strength of the reli- 
 gious principle ; special divine superintendence and gracious 
 influence. How much more difficult to maintain such a 
 character, such an elevation of the spiritual thermometer, 
 under the circumstances at that time existing ! circum- 
 stances which we shall ere long somewhat specially consider. 
 
 If we turn our attention to the Cainite branch of the An- 
 tediluvians, it may be remarked that as Cain came into being 
 almost as soon as his father, being probably not more than 
 one or two years his junior, and as it is presumable that he 
 was not for a greater number of years than Adam an earthly 
 sojourner, he must have ceased to be seen among the living^ 
 ere our patriarch's birth. It is to be believed also, that 
 several of Cain's older children had journeyed into the 
 land of souls. With some of his younger, had his place 6f 
 residence been near, he might have been a junior contempo- 
 rary not only, but have had an undesirable acquaintance. 
 
34 THE CAINITE LINE. 
 
 But Cain, from a sense of guilt ; from a strong aversion to 
 everything having the semblance of piety ; and from regard 
 to his own safety, for notwithstanding what the Lord had 
 told him, he no doubt had fearful apprehensions of having 
 Abel's blood avenged on him, and consequently, instead of 
 being desirous to be located in immediate propinquity, wished 
 to get and keep, if not at a respectful, at least at an unannoy- 
 ing and safe distance from the other branches of Adam's 
 progeny, from these causes the belief is to be entertained 
 that he wandered and at length fixed on some locality as a 
 place of abode, far eastward from where his parents, brothers 
 and sisters had their residence. Hence our patriarch may 
 have come in contact with none of them in the earlier part 
 of his antediluvian sojourn. Yet from childhood, or adoles- 
 cence, he may, through one or another channel, have received 
 some information in regard to them ; something concerning 
 the immoralities prevalent among them ; about their infi- 
 del opinions, or idolatrous rites and practices rites and 
 practices which, as you have heard, probably originated, if 
 they did not become notorious, so early as the days of Enos. 
 The sacred penman has given us no very minute or ex- 
 tended history of the Cainites. He has afforded us a brief 
 genealogical list the names of the heads of some genera- 
 tions but did not, as he condescended to do in the case of 
 the Sethites, tell us so much as the term of life of any of 
 them. " Look," says Dr. Kitto, (Bib. Illustrations, vol. 1, 
 p. 98,) " at the two lists of the descendants of Cain and of 
 Seth respectively. In the former are simply names, inter- 
 rupted by a snatch of old verse, by the account of some 
 equivocal proceedings of Lamech, and by a hint concerning 
 the invention of arts. In the genealogy of the line of Seth, 
 the persons acquire distinct individuality. Not only the 
 names are given, but how old they were when favored with 
 a son, how long they lived after, and what was the sum of 
 their age. The interruptions in the (Sethite) list have no 
 respect to inventions or any such matters, but have reference 
 
THE CAINITE LINE. 35 
 
 to the religious character or religious hopes of the individ- 
 uals. The Cainite list is of the earth, earthy ; the Sethite 
 list has a savor of heaven, and yet is of the highest interest, 
 being in fact the basis of chronology and history." " The 
 righteous shall be had in everlasting remembrance but the 
 memory of the wicked shall rot." I will, young gentlemen, 
 present you a table containing the genealogical list of the 
 Cainites, drawn from Gen. 4 : 17 22 ; and, for the sake 
 of easy comparison, in a sort of parallelism, the genealogical 
 list of the Sethites. Here it is : 
 
 ADAM EVE. 
 
 Cain Abel * . Seth. 
 
 Enoch. Enos. 
 
 I I 
 
 Irad. Cainan. 
 
 I 
 
 Mehujael. Mehalaleel. 
 
 Methusael. Jared. 
 
 I I 
 
 Adah Lamech Zillah. Enoch. 
 
 Methuselah. 
 
 Jabal. . Jubal. .Tubal-Cam. .Naamah. 
 
 Lamech. 
 
 Noah. 
 
 Japheth Shem Ham. 
 
36 NOMINAL SIMILARITIES. 
 
 You observe in this list some remarkable similarities and 
 resemblances between Cainites and Sethites as to name. 
 You find, for instance, the father of Methuselah bearing the 
 same name with the son of Cain ; and the son of Methuselah 
 the same name with the son of Methusael. There are strik- 
 ing resemblances in sound between other names of the two 
 branches. This is hardly to be wondered at, considering that 
 there was but one language in existence among mankind 
 before the deluge. The resemblances, however, except in 
 the two cases which are alike, are rather in sound than in 
 sense. The inference from resemblance, and from the import 
 especially of the names given to some of Cain's progeny, in 
 favor of the piety of these latter an inference which has 
 by some been drawn does not appear to me to have a very 
 firm support, inasmuch as the religious aspect of those 
 names in the case of the Cainites may be, and probably in 
 fact was, that of idolatry. 
 
 Something worthy of note is given us in relation to the 
 Cainite Lamech. His is the first recorded instance of polyg- 
 amy, (Gen. 4:19;) a practice which directly contravenes the 
 original ordinance of Heaven, that two only should con- 
 stitute one flesh; and for introducing which, Lamech is con- 
 demned to infamous notoriety as long as the sacred narrative 
 shall be read. Those who desert God's church and ordi- 
 nances, young gentlemen, lay themselves open to all manner of 
 temptation. Highly favored and blessed are they who have 
 the checks and restraints which these impose. 
 
 Perhaps it may not be out of place here to remark, that 
 the words of this Lamech to his two wives, (Gen. 4 : 24, 25,) 
 have very much perplexed biblical interpreters. A tradition 
 (Jewish) says that Lamech, growing blind, when hunting 
 killed Cain ignorantly, believing that he killed some beast ; 
 and that afterward he slew his own son, Tubal-Cain, who had 
 been the cause of this murder, because he had directed him 
 to shoot at a certain place in the thicket where he heard 
 something stir. 
 
THE CAINITE LAMECH. 37 
 
 Onkelos, who wrote the first Chaldee Paraphrase on the 
 Pentateuch, takes quite a different view, however, from this. 
 He reads the words with an interrogation : " Have I slain a 
 man to my wounding ? and a young man to my hurt ? " Ac- 
 cordingly he paraphrases the passage thus : " I have not 
 killed a man that I should bear the sin of it, nor have I de- 
 stroyed a young man, that my offspring should be cut off for 
 it." Shuckford has improved this interpretation by supposing 
 that Lamech was endeavoring to reason his wife and family 
 out of their fear of having the death of Abel revenged upon 
 them, they being of the posterity of Cain. As if he had 
 said, " What have we done that we should be afraid ? We 
 have not killed a man, nor offered any injury to our brethren 
 of any other family ; and if God would not allow Cain to be 
 killed, who had murdered his brother, but threatened to take 
 seven-fold vengeance on any that should kill him ; doubtless 
 they must expect much greater punishment who should pre- 
 sume to kill any of us. Therefore we may surely look upon 
 ourselves as safe under the protection of the law and of the 
 providence of God. 
 
 As the Hebrew particle " for " has sometimes a conditional 
 meaning equivalent to if, although, supposing that, Lamech's 
 words are susceptible of a hypothetical interpretation. " Sup- 
 pose that when designedly and dangerously wounded by a 
 murderous weapon in the hand of a ruffian, I should slay my 
 assailant, whether a grown man or a daring youth, yet as it 
 would be done in self-defence, I should not incur the guilt 
 of murder. For if the man that should have killed Cain, 
 who slew his brother without provocation, were to be punished 
 seven-fold, then he who should undertake to inflict vengeance 
 upon me for slaying a man in my own defence, shall be pun- 
 ished seventy and seven fold." Thus one sinner takes liberty 
 to sin from the suspension of judgment toward another. Bush, 
 in his note on the words, says, " The speech was perhaps 
 prompted by Lamech, having witnessed the mischievous 
 4 
 
38 THE CAINITE LAMECH. 
 
 effects of some of his sons' newly invented instruments of 
 iron and brass, which probably began to be wielded to the in- 
 jury or destruction of human life." The Chaldee renders the 
 passage, '< For I have not killed a man that I should bear sin 
 for him : nor destroyed a young man that my seed should be 
 consumed for him." The speech is in hemistichs, according 
 to the genius of the Hebrew poetry, and, as it seems, was not 
 written by Moses, but handed down by tradition. 
 
 This Lamech, Josephus says, had by his two wives seventy- 
 seven children. How many soever he had, the archaic record 
 gives us the names of but three sons and one daughter. Yet 
 we have no reason from this circumstance to infer that he had 
 no more than three, any more than that the other antedilu- 
 vians were the parents of no other children than those whose 
 names are on record. Perhaps in regard to no one item do 
 the conceptions of ordinary readers come farther short of the 
 reality, than concerning the number of the proximate offspring 
 of these millenary parents who lived beyond the flood. 
 Think of the number, we will not say of years merely of 
 centuries in which the process of pro-creation with parental 
 couples would ordinarily continue. Josephus's statement, 
 touching the number of Lamech's offspring, does not appear 
 to us exaggerated. Probability favors the idea that this 
 Cainite bigamist was the father of a greater rather than of a 
 less number. 
 
 Being the seventh from Adam, as was the Sethite Enoch, 
 this descendant of Cain was probably a contemporary with that 
 holy man ; though, being possessed of a very dissimilar char- 
 acter, and consequently unprepared to ascend with him in his 
 chariot of fire to paradise, it may be presumed that mercy 
 permitted him to continue so much longer an inhabitant of 
 earth as to live four or five centuries contemporaneously with 
 Noah. Infinite benevolence not seldom suffers very bad men 
 to tarry in this world until their face is covered with wrinkles 
 and their head with snows, inasmuch as it is the best world 
 
ANTEDILUVIAN ARTS. 39 
 
 they are likely ever to have to live in. Whether our patri- 
 arch's ministrations of remonstrance and love ever reached 
 this sinner may be considered doubtful. It does npt appear 
 to me a wild conjecture that he died as he lived a poor, 
 impenitent, unreformed creature. 
 
 Concerning the sons of this Lamech we mean the three 
 whose names are given by the historian there is something 
 truly noteworthy related : that is, that they were the inven- 
 tors or special promoters of useful arts. It is said of Jabal, 
 that he was " the father of such as dwell in tents, and have 
 cattle," (Gen. 4: 20,) Hebrew, " the father of the inhabitants 
 of the tent," Chaldee, " the master." The original author, de- 
 viser or founder of any particular craft or vocation, is styled 
 the father of such as prosecute it. The nomadic mode of life, 
 although not entirely unknown before, for sheep had pre- 
 viously, even so early as Abel's time (Gen. 4 : 2,) been kept, 
 demanding a measure of superintending vigilance and care, 
 such as belongs to a shepherd, yet appears to have been then 
 organized into a distinct form of social existence. As this 
 mode of life required frequent change of locality for the 
 accommodation of the flock or herd with renewed supplies of 
 water and pasturage, there was a call for such a sort of hab- 
 itation as was easy of erection and of transfer. Neces- 
 sity, therefore, suggested and at length led to the invention 
 of tents, in the room of more permanent and costly structures. 
 Here is a fact not unworthy of note, because of its bearing 
 on a favorite theory of not a few, as to the primeval condition 
 of the human family. Instead of the rude tent, pertaining 
 specially to the roving, savage mode of life, being of earliest 
 invention or adoption, thirteen centuries passed ere this sort 
 of structure was known. Fixed habitations were of prior 
 origin, and these in such clusters sometimes as to constitute 
 cities and villages a mode of life indicating the higher con- 
 dition of social being. Indeed, the first born man, mark it, 
 built a city, (Gen. 4: 17) ; the tent came later by more than 
 
40 ANTEDILUVIAN ARTS. 
 
 a thousand years. Cast this fact, young gentlemen, you may 
 in the teeth of those who would warmly contend for the, to 
 them, fond hypothesis that man advanced progressively to 
 civilization from a savage state. Houses preceded tents; 
 towns and cities went before encampments ; the settled was 
 anterior to the wandering and nomadic life. Confirmatory of 
 this, our first father, immediately upon leaving the garden, 
 entered on agriculture (Gen. 3 : 23) an employment not 
 favorite with savages, and one demanding a fixed residence. 
 
 Of Jabot, another son of the polygamist, it is narrated that 
 he " was the father of all such as handle the harp and organ," 
 (Gen. 4 ; 21). It is not to be imagined that the ear of an 
 antediluvian had never been previously regaled by strains of 
 melody. Not only had the feathered songsters been pouring 
 forth, from the beginning, their notes of sweetness, but the 
 human voice had oft charmed the listener with its ravishing 
 music. But now appears to have been the period when 
 instruments were invented to aid the human voice, or add to 
 the pleasures of man by enlarging the resources of this choice 
 fine art, instruments of greater compass or power than 
 men's vocal organs. Upon the precise form and construction 
 of those instruments of which Jubal is here said to have 
 been the inventor, there can of course be no pronouncing 
 with certainty. The harp was doubtless a stringed instru- 
 ment played upon by the hand, as was David's, or, as Jose- 
 phus intimates, with the plectrum or bow. 
 
 The organ which Jubal invented and gave instruction 
 upon, is not to be supposed to resemble the modern instru- 
 ment bearing that name. It was a wind instrument composed 
 probably of a few pipes of unequal length and thickness, 
 joined together ; being nearly identical with the pipe of Pan 
 among the Greeks, or that simple instrument termed a mouth- 
 organ, which is still in common use in some parts of Europe. 
 For my sake, as well as yours, we here conclude the evening's 
 Exercise. 
 
EVENING THIRD. 
 
 YOUNG GENTLEMEN: 
 
 You remember the topic with which we closed the last 
 Exercise. Tubal-cain, another son of Lamech, the bigamist, 
 but by a different wife, the sacred narrator introduces to our 
 notice as " an instructor of every artificer in brass and iron," 
 (Gen. 4: 22). As brass is a factitious metal, composed of 
 copper and zinc, it may be believed that instead of it, literally, 
 copper is here meant. Observe you will that this artificer is 
 not here spoken of as the "father" or inventor of the art of 
 working these metals. It is hardly to be presumed that all 
 the agricultural and architectural operations prior to his time 
 could have been prosecuted without any use of metals. The 
 language does not imply this. But from it we are led to 
 believe that this man so greatly improved the art, and so 
 excelled in the manufacture of the various implements of 
 husbandry, architecture, and other instruments of utility and 
 convenience, and as this was getting to be a period of 
 violence weapons of attack and defence, that he became 
 famous for his ingenuity and skill, and a very successful 
 instructor of others. From the name of this artificer is 
 thought to be derived the Vulcan of the Greeks, the fabled 
 god of smiths. So great appear to have been Tubal-cain's 
 improvements in metallurgy, and so useful a man to have 
 become in his line, that scarcely an ancient nation can be found 
 that has not preserved some traditional notices of him. 
 
42 ANTEDILUVIAN ARTS. 
 
 Of a sister of Tubal-cain the pen of the sacred historian 
 makes mention but gives us naught concerning her but her 
 name. Yet this, be it observed, is more than is said of any 
 of the fairer sex save three, from the Creation down to this 
 time. Tradition says more of her than does Moses, yet even 
 it is very taciturn concerning her only reporting that she 
 was the inventor of the arts of spinning and weaving. The 
 word Naamah signifies fair or beautiful. Was her beauty 
 productive of such effects as to lead to the inscription of her 
 name on such a tablet ? or what else was the cause of its 
 mention ? Let those who would fain find out the cause of 
 everything, enlighten us in this simple matter, if they can in 
 weightier things about which Scripture is silent. " To what 
 she owed her fame," says one, "a fame of 6000 years 
 must remain inscrutable. As one finds among the ruins of 
 time some old gray monument, too important and distin- 
 guished to have been constructed for a person of mean note, 
 but discovers thereon only a NAME, which the rust of ages 
 has left unconsumed so is it with Lamech's illustrious 
 daughter." 
 
 Whether among the Sethites, and other lines of Adam's 
 descendants, arts were equally the object of attention, we are 
 not in possession of the necessary data for definitely ascer- 
 taining. It is hardly to be supposed that they were inferior 
 to the Cainites in inventive genius or in enterprise ; but as 
 the sacred annalist could find something of a higher nature 
 to record in reference to the Sethites, even the exalted, sub- 
 lime things of religion ; and as he could discover naught 
 better to proclaim of the Cainites, than that among at least 
 a portion of them, arts were cultivated he may thence have 
 been led to be entirely incommunicative or taciturn on this 
 point respecting the former. It is, indeed, possible that the 
 absence of regard for higher interests may have so directed 
 all mental force, among the progeny of Cam, into the chan- 
 nel alluded to, as that they may have excelled the other 
 
ANTEDILUVIAN SCIENCE. 43 
 
 branches of Adam's family, particularly the progeny of Seth, 
 in this particular. 
 
 On the whole, from the intimations already referred to 
 in the brief antediluvian annals upon the subject ; from the 
 amount of knowledge imparted to our great primogenitor at 
 the first, and subsequently added to, progressively, during his 
 protracted career ; from the length of antediluvian life, pre- 
 senting a rare opportunity for advancement in this respect ; 
 from the facility afforded by universal and entire uniformity 
 of language ; from the vast extent as to numbers as well as 
 territory to which the population of the world before the 
 Flood must have reached ; from the necessity of their inven- 
 tion and cultivation largely in order to the sustenance, not to 
 say comfort, of said population ; from the fact, additionally, 
 of which we are put in possession by the record, respecting 
 the building of a vessel of such construction, and so im- 
 mense dimensions and capacity, as the ark requiring some 
 variety as well as perfection of mechanical facilities, as well 
 as knowledge and skill in their application and use ; together 
 with the far from diminutive enterprises, the great, magnifi- 
 cent undertakings of Noah's descendants so soon after the 
 deluge as the Scriptures intimate, from all these circum- 
 stances combined, we have forced upon us the conclusion, 
 that the arts must have arrived, during the antediluvian 
 period, at quite a prominent and far-reaching stage of ad- 
 vancement. 
 
 And what shall we say concerning antediluvian science ? 
 Why, such a question is of itself sufficient to ereate a smile 
 on the ruddy faces of those who are accustomed to imagine 
 the primal state of man to have been one of savageism. 
 Men of this idea find it extremely difficult to conceive how 
 the human kind could have succeeded in emerging from their 
 caves and forests, and approximating in any considerable de- 
 gree a state of civilization, in a period so short as that inter- 
 vening between the creation and the deluge. As we are so 
 
44 ANTEDILUVIAN SCIENCE. 
 
 feeble-minded as to believe that Moses did not write a book of 
 fables ; or that man was first a savage or, as some savans 
 have seemed sincerely to imagine a monad, or at most an 
 ape ; as we believe savageism to be a degeneracy from a 
 primal state of high civilization ; and was, if we except mor- 
 ally, unknown until some time posterior to the Flood we 
 thence feel no special reluctance to the dropping of a few 
 words about what we a moment ago hinted at, viz., the state 
 of science among the antediluvians. From what has been 
 said by us respecting the advanced stage to which the arts 
 attained in the first age of the world, it is to be inferred that 
 those sciences bearing particularly on practical life, must 
 have h :d some sort of existence, and even have made consid- 
 erable progress since science, if not in form, yet in sub- 
 stance, must lie at the basis of and give birth to them. But 
 not alone those sciences bearing the most intimate relation to 
 the arts are we compelled to infer to have had an exclusive 
 existence. The Mosaic history affords us such intimations as 
 to lead us to the conclusion that others were not altogether 
 unknown. Availing ourselves of those intimations, we pro- 
 ceed to observe, first, that if our primeval progenitor was 
 possessed of such an acquaintance with zoology as we are con- 
 strained from Gen. 2 : 20 to believe he was, it is not irrational 
 to conclude that he would not be so mute, selfish, or regard- 
 less of what related to the comfort and elevation of those 
 immediately descending from him, as to impart none of his 
 knowledge of this interesting branch to them. And if be 
 gave them instruction in this science, it is equally probable 
 that they would not altogether fail to give tuition to their 
 offspring. And thus an acquaintance with this science would 
 in greater or less measure be transmitted from one genera- 
 tion to another till the time of the Flood, and through our 
 patriarch to cis-diluvian times. Nor are we left without 
 at least some feeble intimations in the Mosaic record, that 
 
ANTEDILUVIAN SCIENCE. 45 
 
 the science of astronomy was not altogether unknown among 
 the inhabitants of the Old World. Time, for instance, was 
 evidently, even then, divided into days, and months, and 
 years ; into summer and winter ; and it is reasonable to infer 
 that the causes of such changes as originated these divisions 
 would not wholly escape the investigating notice of that man 
 who came directly from the Creator's hands, and was, by the 
 same Being that formed him, endowed confessedly on other 
 subjects with no inconsiderable share of knowledge. And if 
 he after any manner became the possessor of some knowledge 
 in this department, a transmission of it would be made to his 
 proximate offspring, and by them to theirs, and so onward ; 
 and thus no one of the generations of the Old World would 
 fail to be reached by some measure of instruction relative to 
 the subject. Josephus says, not Moses, you may there- 
 fore give as much or as little weight to it as you please, 
 that they of Seth's time, " were the inventors of that peculiar 
 sort of wisdom which is concerned with the heavenly bodies 
 and their order " in other words, were the cultivators of 
 the science of astronomy. (Ant. ch. 2, p. 27.) Again ; if 
 the prime head and educator of the antediluvians our first 
 father had not a formal and full acquaintance with, yet 
 that he had a knowledge of some essential principles in bot- 
 any, is shown by the fact that he knew how to distinguish 
 " seed-bearing herb " and " tree in which is a seed-bearing 
 fruit," with " every green herb." (Gen. 1 : 29, 30.) In the 
 history of Noah we are furnished with intimations not only 
 that he was so well acquainted with zoology -as to distinguish 
 between " clean and unclean beasts," and to execute the office 
 of receiving into the ark a specified number of every kind of 
 living creature to do which without mistake in any instance 
 would require no small measure of. zoological knowledge, 
 but, it would seem that of botanic science, particularly of some 
 of its important elements, this our patriarch could not have 
 4* 
 
46 ' ORIGIN OF ALPHABETIC WRITING. 
 
 been very ignorant. The vine, the olive, the gopher, are 
 spoken of in such a manner as clearly to intimate a knowledge 
 of their qualities. In regard to mineralogy let us in a word re- 
 mark that the antediluvian population were at least possessed 
 of such a measure of knowledge of it as to distinguish met- 
 als, and understood the leading qualities of the more import- 
 ant of them. 
 
 The question has been much agitated among savans, 
 When and where originated Alphabetic Writing ? So ad- 
 mirable and useful is this art, that in the absence of reliable 
 historic testimony tending to its decision, we cannot reasona- 
 bly be surprised at it. As has been the case in regard to 
 numerous other matters, different nations of antiquity have 
 claimed the honor of its invention. The pretensions of no 
 one of them have appeared to have anything very substantial 
 to sustain them. * That the art is quite ancient no one does or 
 can dispute. A large number of writers, Jewish and Chris- 
 tian, ancient and modern, have contented themselves with 
 tracing its origin to the time of Moses, alleging that God 
 taught him the form and use of alphabetic letters in the ex- 
 emplar of the two tables containing the Decalogue, written, 
 as the text assures us, with the finger of God, whatever 
 interpretation may be given to that form of expression. In- 
 deed, on this very expression some have essayed to found an 
 argument in favor of its origination at the time of that stu- 
 pendous Sinaitic transaction. The main arguments in support 
 of the position that the art of alphabetic writing was commu- 
 nicated to the great Jewish leader at the period alluded to, 
 may be found set forth by Dr. Winder, in his History of 
 Knowledge. If so important an art had an existence before 
 the Flood, it seems amazing to those entertaining this opin- 
 ion, that, whilst inferior arts are noticed, no mention of it 
 should be discoverable in the record of those earlier times. 
 And between the Flood and the giving of the Law at Sinai 
 
ORIGIN OF ALPHABETIC WRITING. 47 
 
 there were various periods and transactions, say they, during 
 which, had alphabetical letters existed, they would not only 
 have been of the greatest utility, but next to indispensable, 
 and could scarcely fail of being mentioned. Such periods and 
 events were some of those occurring between the Deluge and 
 the departure of Abraham from Chaldea ; at the subsequent 
 death of Sarah in Canaan, when Abraham bought the cave 
 of Ephron from the sons of Heth verbal exclusively the 
 whole transaction ; at the time of Isaac's marriage, or the 
 event of his league with Gerar, when Jacob went to, tarried 
 with, or returned from Laban ; the affair of Joseph's trans- 
 fer to Egypt, his servitude, and his preferment there ; the 
 descent of the Israelitish family to that land, their heavy 
 oppression, and the stupendous miracles connected with their 
 deliverance. Not only is there no written mention made of 
 these at the period of their occurrence, but all these trans- 
 actions, and all the correspondence between the parties, as 
 well as all the communications of Heaven, were effected by 
 verbal intercourse. 
 
 A common additional argument in favor of so compara- 
 tively late a date of the origin of the art we are speaking of, 
 is the absence of any special necessity for the existence of 
 such an art in order to the transmission of information to 
 succeeding times, at a period when the lives of individuals 
 extended to wellnigh a thousand years. By three persons, 
 for example Adam, Methuselah, Shem could be handed 
 forward to Abraham and his times all the knowledge attained 
 by them of transactions occurring during the interval of two 
 thousand years and more from the Creation. How differ- 
 ent this from having to rely for information, concerning the 
 incidents of so protracted a season, on the testimony of the 
 memories of a great number of persons. Urged likewise it 
 might be, that such, in various other respects, was the state 
 of things in the earlier periods of the world, as little to de- 
 
48 ORIGIN OF ALPHABETIC WRITING. 
 
 mand the existence of sucli an art as that of writing par- 
 ticularly that of alphabetic writing.* 
 
 On the other hand : For the earlier existence of this art 
 the following arguments may be, and most if not all of them 
 have been, urged. 
 
 1st. The silence of Scripture upon the subject would sug- 
 gest that so important and essential an art had been known 
 before otherwise the archaic historian would probably 
 have added this extraordinary and divine revelation to the 
 other parts of his information respecting the transactions of 
 Sinai. 
 
 2d. The population of the world became so multitudinous, 
 and so widely dispersed, some time anterior to the flood, as 
 to render very desirable and requisite some other mode of 
 communication than the traditional or oral. 
 
 * The facilities for communicating or handing down information, orally, 
 from the time of Adam to that of Abraham, may be perceived by a glance 
 at the following table. 
 
 Adam was contemporary with 
 
 Years. 
 Lamcch, 56 
 
 Methuselah, 243 
 
 Jared, 470 
 
 Mahalaleel, 535 
 
 Cainan, 605 
 
 Enos, 695 
 
 Noah was contemporary with 
 
 Years. 
 
 Lamech, 595 
 
 Methuselah, 600 
 
 Jared, 366 
 
 Mahalaleel, 234 
 
 Cainan, 179 
 
 Enos, 84 
 
 Shem was contemporary with 
 
 Lamech, , 93* 
 
 Methuselah, , 93 
 
 Noah 448 
 
 Abraham, 150 
 
ORIGIN OF ALPHABETIC WRITING. 49 
 
 3d. In the first ages of the world it would be inexpressi- 
 bly important to preserve, in some fixed or stable form, the 
 knowledge of God, of creation, of the fall, &c., &c. Few 
 persons repeat a thing in the precise words in which a detail 
 was given to them ; and the most trifling change in expres- 
 sion may either destroy or much alter the sense. It was a 
 matter of vast moment that the most exact account should 
 have been preserved of the creation of the world, the apostacy 
 of man, &c., as well as many prophecies of deepest interest to 
 unborn generations. Lists of numbers, genealogical lists, 
 such, for instance, as are to be found in the 5th, 10th, and llth 
 chapters of Genesis lists, chronologically, as well as other- 
 wise, of immense consequence, would hardly be entrusted 
 to uncertain memory, solely, to transmit to future times. 
 " The book of the genealogy " of the antediluvian patriarchs 
 is evidently represented as a written record, (Gen. 5:1.) 
 Inspect, in that 5th chapter, the record of their names, their 
 generations, residues of life, and total ages. Is it probable that 
 these all, embracing thirty large and unconnected numbers, 
 rising from 100 to near 1000 years, would be left to be hand- 
 ed down to the days of Moses by oral tradition merely ? 
 Nor is it scarcely to be credited that a history of centuries, 
 including minute circumstances, changes, and conversations 
 in many different countries, would be entrusted to any barely 
 verbal medium of transmission. 
 
 4th. The opinion has been entertained by some writers of 
 distinction Dr. J. Pye Smith is of the number that 
 Moses received important aid in writing the earlier part of 
 the history he penned, from previously existing docu- 
 ments several distinct compositions, marked by their dif- 
 ferences of style and by express formularies of commence- 
 ment. The eminent author just named refers us to the fol- 
 lowing apparently distinct compositions, requesting it to be 
 observed, however, that the evidence is not equally clear in 
 every case, viz., First : Gen. 1 : 1 to 2 : 3 ; Second, 2 : 4 to 
 
50 ORIGIN OF ALPHABETIC WRITING. 
 
 3:24; Third, ch. 4 ; Fourth, 5 : 1 to 6 : 8 ; Fifth, 6 : .9 to 
 9 : 29 ; Sixth, ch. 10 ; Seventh, 9 : 1-9 ; Eighth, 9 : 10- 
 26. Chapter 36th, of Genesis, is also regarded by him as a 
 separate document. This opinion relative to separate docu- 
 ments is maintained also by Calmet. It strikes some as an 
 objection to this view, that it seems to carry with it an im- 
 pingement of the inspiration of Moses. This however does 
 by no means follow, any more than a quotation from a heathen 
 author by Paul (see Acts 17 : 28) is to be properly consid- 
 ered to militate against the inspiration of that apostle. 
 
 5th. It is believed that the Book of Job is the most ancient 
 written document extant. Job himself lived, I know not how 
 long before, but certainly before the Exode. Hales says two 
 hundred years before. Our version of the Scriptures fixes 
 the time of this patriarch at B. C. 1520, i. e., 29 years anterior 
 o the departure of the Israelites from Egypt. Now in 
 perusing the book going under his name, you will find decla- 
 rations proving that letters and looks were known to him and 
 his countrymen, who were a people quite distinct from the 
 Hebrews. Look at Job 19 : 23, 24 ; " Oh that my words 
 were now written ! Oh that they were printed in a book ! 
 that they were graven with an iron pen and lead, in the rock 
 forever." Also, Job 31: 35; "Oh that mine adversary 
 had written a book." Could such expressions have been used, 
 would they have had any meaning, if the art of writing 
 had been then unknown ? And could there have been even 
 such terms as book and pen, or what these terms indicated, 
 had the things themselves no existence? If then it be 
 granted that the Book of Job was written, and such expres- 
 sions were current, anterior to the Exode, it becomes evident 
 from Sacred History that writing was not only in use before 
 the law was given on Mt. Sinai, but that it was also known 
 amongst other patriarchal tribes than the children of Israel. 
 Lightfoot and others think that Elihu wrote the book of Job. 
 Now he was a descendant of Nahor, the brother of Abraham, 
 
ORIGIN OF ALPHABETIC WRITING. 51 
 
 and might thus be possessed of whatsoever arts the family of 
 Terah had inherited from Noah. In Job 9 : 25, the patri- 
 arch exclaims, " My days are swifter than a post." Does 
 not this imply the regular transmission, from place to place, 
 of written intelligence by appointed messengers ? 
 
 6th. Prior to the giving of the law at Sinai, Moses had 
 been commanded to write the important transactions which 
 occurred during the progress of the Israelites from Egypt 
 to Canaan. " And the Lord said unto Moses, Write this for 
 a memorial in a book." An account of the discomfiture of 
 the Amalekites is the first thing said to have been written by 
 the historian. This battle was fought ere the people left 
 Rephidim, (Ex. 17 : 13, 14,) whence they departed into the 
 wilderness of Sinai. 
 
 7th. Another argument which we will present on this side 
 of the question is the following : One of the places conquered 
 by the Israelites after they entered Canaan was Debir, the 
 original name of which was Kirjath-sepher, the meaning of 
 which is, the City of Books ; or Kirjath-sannah, the City of 
 Letters, (Josh. 15 : 49 : Judges 1:1.) Where could the 
 Canaanites have obtained their knowledge of letters or of 
 books ? Not from the Hebrews, with whom they were 
 unacquainted, or at war. From other sources they must 
 have derived them. Being descended from Canaan, the 
 son of Ham,, the Canaanites had probably preserved and 
 cultivated the same arts and sciences which Mizraim, another 
 son of Ham, carried into Egypt, (Gen. 10 : 6.) 
 
 If, young gentlemen, after duly weighing the arguments 
 which have been presented by us on both sides of this inter- 
 esting question, you should on the whole conclude that alpha- 
 betic writing originated at a period at least earlier than the 
 giving of the law at Sinai ; a question still remains to be 
 agitated, whether its origin was so early as before the Deluge^ 
 or at least as to fall within the lifetime of our patriarch. 
 
 Some of the arguments already advanced you have ob- 
 
52 ORIGIN OF ALPHABETIC WRITING. 
 
 served to favor the opinion that it was not unknown in ante- 
 diluvian times. 
 
 Was there a genuine book of Enoch ? Did that man of 
 God, the seventh from Adam, write one? If it could be 
 determined that he did, it would carry the origin of writing, 
 either alphabetic or symbolic, to within a period less, at least, 
 than 1000 years after the creation, and so prior to Noah's 
 time. 
 
 In the earlier part of this Exercise, allusion was made to 
 what Josephus has said respecting the inventions and discov- 
 eries of the Sethites in Astronomy. That historian has 
 added : " And that their inventions and discoveries might not 
 be lost before they were sufficiently known, upon Adam's 
 prediction that the world was to be destroyed, at one time by 
 water, and at another by fire, they (the Sethites) made two 
 pillars, the one of brick, the other of stone ; they inscribed 
 the discoveries upon them both, that in case the pillar of 
 brick, should be destroyed by the flood, the pillar of stone 
 might remain, and exhibit those discoveries to mankind ; and 
 also inform them that there was another pillar of brick 
 erected by them. Now," adds Josephus, " this remains in 
 the land of Siriad to this day." 
 
 If any faith were to be reposed in this statement of Jose- 
 phus, it would go to confirm the idea that writing of some 
 form or sort was not unknown or unpractised before the flood. 
 We acknowledge it to be a flimsy basis on which to erect an 
 argument. The story does not, in our view, possess the 
 strongest marks of verity. If all mankind were to be de- 
 stroyed by water, there would then be none to whom those 
 records on the pillars could be conveyed after the flood ; 
 if not all mankind, then those remaining could have otherwise 
 conveyed to the postdiluvian world, a knowledge of the in- 
 ventions or discoveries, the arts and sciences, whatsoever 
 they might be, of the Old World. Besides, those Sethites 
 who could have faith enough to erect such pillars, and exe- 
 
DATE OF THE SABBATIC INSTITUTION. 53 
 
 cute such inscriptions, would also be apt so to heed and profit 
 by the warning or prophecy, whether coming from Adam or 
 Noah, as to prepare to escape the destruction, and, by a pro- 
 longation of their life, convey to the New World, a knowledge 
 of all that was valuable as to science or art, invention or 
 discovery, of the Old. 
 
 Some Jewish and oriental traditions ascribe the invention 
 of writing to Seth, the son of Adam ; others to the Sethite 
 Enoch ; but little or no weight is to be attached to them. 
 Yet they do show this, that there was an opinion prevailing 
 to a greater or less extent, anciently, that letters were not of 
 postdiluvian date. In conclusion on this topic, let us in a 
 word remark, that I know not how many have, along with 
 Calmet, been inclined to entertain the idea that alphabetic 
 writing was not, any more than oral language, of human in- 
 vention ; and that when God gave the one, he communicated 
 also that invaluable boon, the other. 
 
 We know not where, preferably, to introduce the question, 
 Had Noah and his contemporaries any knowledge of the 
 Sabbatic Institution ? Had that choice means of moral re- 
 straint and improvement, and of the cultivation of a right spirit 
 toward the Infinite One, an existence so early as antedilu- 
 vian times ? It is possible that such an interrogatory may 
 have a startling effect upon the mind of some that hear me. 
 You have all, probably, been accustomed to regard the 
 statement made in Gen. 2 : 3 as the history of an occurrence 
 taking place immediately after the six days* work of creation 
 was completed ; that at that so ancient period the Sabbath 
 was instituted. Several biblical interpreters, however, have 
 not been of this opinion, to which number belonged, for 
 instance, Limborch, Leclerc, and Archdeacon Paley. These 
 have regarded the passage in Genesis just referred to, as pro- 
 leptical or anticipatory, and referring to the period when the 
 law of the Sabbath, along with other legal institutions, was 
 given to the Israelites in the wilderness. It does indeed 
 
54 DATE OP THE SABBATIC INSTITUTION. 
 
 seem a somewhat remarkable circumstance, that there is by the 
 sacred historian* no direct mention made of the Sabbath be- 
 tween Gen. 2 : 3, and Ex. 16:23. It is this silence of the his- 
 torian that is urged as a principal argument in favor of the 
 sentiment to which we have adverted. Yet that declaration in 
 the second chapter of Genesis has in itself every appearance 
 of being in the strictest sense historic in other words, as 
 relating an event occurring immediately after the creation . 
 and the reason assigned there for its institution, " Because 
 that in it he (the Lord) rested from all his work which God 
 created and made," does satisfactorily to our mind indicate it. 
 As to that silence of Moses to which allusion has been made, 
 it appears to us that it cannot warrant our inferring that the 
 Sabbath was not known or at all observed by pious pa- 
 triarchs of earliest times, since probability is far from favor- 
 ing the idea that they had no stated time for rest or devotion ; 
 or that they were left destitute of so salutary an institution. 
 Besides, it might be argued on the same principle, that 
 the Sabbath was wholly lost sight of or unobserved from 
 Moses to David, since in the history of that so great inter- 
 vening period there is no mention of the day. On the same 
 ground, moreover, it might be pleaded that among the Israelites 
 there was no recognition or observance of the rite of circum- 
 cision from their settlement in Canaan to the circumcision of 
 Christ, since no notice is taken of such a thing in all that 
 intervening time. Again: There are not obscure indica- 
 tions that the hebdomadal division of time was observed by 
 the early patriarchs, and that the Sabbath was regarded as 
 the day for religious worship. Look at Gen. 4: 3, " And in 
 process of time," &c. The words rendered " in process of 
 time " literally signify " at the end of days ; " or, " at the 
 cutting off of days " at the close of a section of days 
 a very natural expression for the end of a week. If such be 
 the meaning, it would seem to refer to the division of time 
 just previously mentioned, and also the use of this day for 
 
DATE OF THE SABBATIC INSTITUTION. 55 
 
 sacred exercises. The same hebdomadal division of time 
 appears to have been observed by our patriarch. The com- 
 mand to enter the ark was given seven days ere the coming 
 of the waters of the flood. (Gen. 7 : 4-10.) Seven days 
 elapsed between the times of sending forth the dove. (Gen. 
 8 : 10-12.) Are there not here discernible indications 
 that this division of time was not incidental that it was a 
 settled one and observed according to an original com- 
 mand ? Seven days, or a whole week, were devoted by Jo- 
 seph to the mourning for his father. Job, also, and friends ob- 
 served the term of seven days (Job 2 : 13). Again : The first 
 mention of the Sabbath in Exodus occurs before the giving of 
 the law (Ex. 16 : 23) ; consequently, the obligatoriness of the 
 Sabbath is acknowledged, irrespective of the Mosaic law ; 
 and when alluded to there, mark how it is done. Who can 
 help seeing that it is spoken of as a thing then already 
 known ? 
 
 The hebdomadal method of dividing time, it is worthy to 
 be observed, prevailed even in those heathen nations who 
 can be supposed to have had no knowledge of the law of 
 Moses. And we actually find that they accounted one day 
 of the seven more sacred than the rest. Thus Heriod styles 
 the seventh day, the illustrious light of the sun, 
 
 And Homer says, 
 
 E36o[taT7] 6' tjireiTa K.arri'kvd ev ispov 
 
 " Then came the seventh day, which is sacred or holy." All 
 the nations of the East, indeed, have in all ages made use of 
 this week of seven days, for which it is difficult to account 
 without admitting that this knowledge was derived from the 
 common ancestors of the human race. 
 
 Without adding any more in reference to this question, we 
 trust you are prepared to admit with us that the blessing of 
 a Sabbath was not withheld from the primitive world. 
 
EVENING FOURTH. 
 
 YOUNG GENTLEMEN : 
 
 This evening's exercise we open with a brief consideration 
 of a novel event, an event which appears first to have 
 occurred soon after the memorable close of the pilgrimage of 
 Enoch. This we state in part on the authority of Josephus, 
 who makes it to have begun to take place near the com- 
 mencement of the eighth generation from Adam. The event 
 was a matrimonial alliance entered into between parties that 
 ought never to have come together. " The sons of God " be- 
 gan to intermarry with the " daughters of men." (Gen. 6 : 2.) 
 Should you inquire, Who were these parties ? you would 
 probably deem me not a very competent instructor if I 
 should not be able to render an immediate and satisfactory 
 answer. And yet even among eminent men there has been 
 some diversity of opinion on this point particularly in ref- 
 erence to the first named, "the sons of God" The Apocry- 
 phal Book of Enoch, which we have had occasion before to 
 mention, speaks of them as angels, (ch. 7:2). Josephus 
 also calls them angels, (Ant. ch. 3, sec. 1st). Many of the 
 Christian Fathers of the first three or four centuries, e. g. 
 Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Clemens Alexandrinus, Tertullian, 
 Cyprian, Lactantius, and even Eusebius, entertained a similar 
 opinion. Coming down to our own time, you may perhaps 
 be somewhat surprised to learn that Dr. Kitto is disposed to 
 favor this view. (Bib. 111. vol. 1, p. 132,) 
 
WHO WERE "THE SONS OF GOD." 57 
 
 If " the sons of God " be understood to be angels, then the 
 phrase, " the daughters of men," indicates females of Adam's 
 progeny, not of any one line definitely but of any line or 
 branch indifferently, so only they were "fair," or of 
 every line promiscuously. 
 
 Now there are in our view some serious objections 
 against interpreting the phrase, " the sons of God," after the 
 manner which has been spoken of. The angels if these 
 be the creatures understood must of course have assumed 
 human bodies, since " spirits " merely, such as are the an- 
 gels in their ordinary mode of being, (Ps. 104: 4,) would be 
 illy prepared to take to themselves " wives of the daughters of 
 men." And if for this purpose they assumed human bodies, did 
 they assume them permanently ? If not, but, after having ac- 
 complished the mischievous, nefarious, lecherous end for which 
 they assumed them, put the bodies off, they would be exceed- 
 ingly unfaithful and treacherous husbands. Good angels, sure- 
 ly, they could not have been, for these want no wives of the 
 daughters of men. Quite too wise as well as holy are they 
 to desire any such incongruous alliance. If they did enter 
 into the conjugal relation at all, (which we are assured they 
 do not, Mat. 22 : 30,) they would seek, for partners, crea- 
 tures considerably different from any of the fallen, however 
 "fair" of Adam's offspring. In two or three respects, we 
 may be sure, they would be guilty of no such conduct as is 
 attributed to the " sons of God " spoken of by Moses in the 6th 
 of Genesis. If angels at all, they must then have been evil 
 ones spirits from the pit. Now there is the following 
 serious objection to this idea that though in the Scriptures 
 good angels are in a few instances denominated " sons of 
 God," yet evil angels, never. This thought also is not un- 
 worthy of mention : They who understand " the sons of God" 
 in the 6th of Genesis to mean angels, understand the giants 
 spoken of in that chapter, to be the product of such strange 
 and incongruous alliance. What an abnormal and wondrous 
 
58 WHO WERE "THE SONS OF GOD." 
 
 sort of creatu res, then, must these giants have been ! what 
 marvellous hybrids semi-diabolic, semi-human ! Not at 
 all amazing that a Flood should be produced and hastened 
 by such a race ! 
 
 Some expositors attempt to arrive at the import of the 
 phrase " sons of God " by a resort to the genius and idiom of 
 the Hebrew. They have, for example, observed a lofty 
 mountain to be called " a mountain of God ; " a great rush- 
 ing wind, a " wind of God ; " and kings, magistrates, or 
 mighty men, to be sometimes denominated " sons of God." 
 Hence they have concluded that the phrase "sons of God," 
 in the place in question, should be understood to denote so?is 
 of the mighty. They would therefore make the passage 
 mean, that certain great or mighty ones among the antedilu- 
 vians began to select wives from among the beautiful daugh- 
 ters of men of low station. This interpretation is exposed to 
 the objection that it does not appear to account for the conse- 
 quence which the sacred writer intimates to have followed 
 from the kind of intermarriage which he had in view. 
 
 The query then returns upon us, Who are " the sons of 
 God " specified in Gen. 6:2? That idea, it may be re- 
 plied, which is embraced, we believe, by most modern exposi- 
 tors, is probably much nearer the truth, is indeed the 
 correct one, that they were of the posterity of Seth. The 
 pious are God's regenerated and adopted children ; are de- 
 nominated the " sons and daughters of the Lord Almighty," 
 passim, in the Bible. Comparatively, these Sethites were of 
 a pious race ; numbers of their ancestry were truly godly 
 belonged to God in covenant. On account of this relation- 
 ship to a pious ancestry, and to a greater or less number of 
 contemporaries who had not openly, and some not in heart, 
 forsaken God ; from this cause rather than from real moral 
 likeness to Him whom they should have in a most important 
 respect resembled for there had already been a sad deteri- 
 oration among the Sethites the distinctive appellation was 
 
WHO THE GIANTS. 59 
 
 still retained; the accustomed phraseology, more strictly 
 appropriate as applied to their progenitors than to them, was 
 still used, hence are, in the passage of sacred history re- 
 ferred to, denominated sons of God. 
 
 The " daughters of men " are so called in contradistinction 
 from the sons or daughters of God ; were of the Cainite 
 instead of Sethite stock ; bore no intimate and endeared rela- 
 tion to God ; were never transferred from their connection 
 with a fallen and depraved ancestry, to a gracious connection 
 with the Father of spirits. Hebrew, " daughters of the 
 Adam" not only descendants of fallen Adani, but retaining 
 the likeness of him as fallen. 
 
 Do you ask, Who were "the giants " of whom mention is 
 made in Gen. 6:4? The original word nephilim, here 
 translated giants, literally means f oilers, from naphal, he fell. 
 Accordingly, by eminent critics has the passage been so inter- 
 preted as to make it speak merely of " men of violence ; 
 men who beat down, oppressed, and plundered the weak and 
 defenceless." Aquila translates nephilim,, men who attack, 
 who fall with impetuosity on others. Simmachus renders it 
 Eutiot, violent men, cruel, whose only rule of action is vio- 
 lence. The term has no particular reference to stature. 
 The Septuagint translates the original word by gigantes, 
 from two words, signifying to be born of the earth, or earth- 
 born ; a term from which we learn both the origin and im- 
 port of the English word giant. It would appear then that 
 from the Hebrew term here translated giants, we can derive 
 no authority for attaching to the word in our version the idea 
 of vast stature. It is indeed not altogether improbable that 
 the men of the Old World were both in stature and strength 
 superior to those of the present day; an inference dedu- 
 cible from antediluvian longevity long life being commonly 
 the effect of uncommon constitutional vigor. 
 
 Arrived we now have, young gentlemen, where we may 
 begin to feel the suction of the awful maelstrom ; where every 
 
60 INCREASING DEGENERACY. 
 
 thing is to be discerned tending toward a tremendous cataract 
 or whirlpool so tremendous indeed as to threaten to shatter 
 or ingulf every thing. One of the most marked events, not 
 alone of Noah's time, but in this world's history, are we ap- 
 proaching ; on the confines we are of two worlds, as the 
 accustomed phraseology allows us to say, the end of the 
 Old World and beginning of the New. 
 
 Drawing towards the close of his fifth century, as to age, 
 is our patriarch. Witnessed with, oh, what sadness had he, 
 for some time previous, the increasing degeneracy, not only 
 of other lines of the first father's descendants, but even of the 
 best the Sethites. In their social and moral state these 
 last had stood preeminent. The Church of the living God, 
 even, had had from its beginning an existence chiefly among 
 them. There had Jehovah specially found a resting place, 
 and a seed to serve him. Some of the progeny of Seth of 
 earlier times had lived so near to God as to attract the world's 
 gaze. One had even been borne embodied as- on angel-wings 
 to heaven. But times are now altered. The children of this 
 choicest line, for the most part, are not what were their 
 fathers. The lamp of piety burns feebly, emits but few rays. 
 The forms of religion have been somewhat kept up, but the 
 life and power of godliness, with mournfully few exceptions 
 are, and for a season past have been, wanting. 
 
 What a record does the pen of inspiration now give us of 
 the population of the globe ? Hearken : " God saw," the All- 
 seeing eye saw it was such a condition as specially to 
 attract the notice of the Omniscient and Infinitely Holy One, 
 " that the wickedness of man was great in the earth." 
 But this is not all ! He saw that " every imagination of his 
 (man's) heart" of man's not the heart of a few, but of 
 the race " was " not alone partially " only evil " ; not 
 solely sometimes, or by turns " continually" (Gen. 6 : 5.) 
 This language is to be understood intensively. There is, it 
 is true, no good thing, no holiness, in man by nature, either 
 
MOURNFUL CORRUPTION. 61 
 
 as to his state or exercises. But it is not this latter which is 
 intended to be taught as a formal truth in this place. There is 
 here meant to be denoted a specialty as to degree a mar- 
 vellous excess, as well as universality, of wickedness. Lis- 
 ten again to the Divine Testifier : " The earth was corrupt 
 before God, all flesh had corrupted his way upon the 
 earth," (Gen. 6: 11, 12). What a state of moral degeneracy 
 is here denoted ! What a one vast putrid mass spread before 
 the gaze of Infinite Purity ! If you picture to yourself every 
 thing unclean in taste and feeling, in conversation and con- 
 duct ; universal in extent and enormous in measure, as to 
 what is here averred, you will then have before your mind's 
 eye some image of what is denoted by the language here 
 used by the sacred writer. The sin of idolatry, which is an 
 awfully corrupt thing before God, is one of the items here in- 
 cluded. The people's doing corruptly, (2 Chron. 27 : 2,) is 
 explained in 2 Kings 15 : 35, by their sacrificing and burn- 
 ing incense in the high places. This flagrant wickedness, 
 (which was probably not unknown among the Cainites for 
 some time ere this,) was perpetrated " before God," openly, 
 publicly, without disguise, to his very face, and every where. 
 There is likewise indicated an absence of all personal, do- 
 mestic, and social virtue and purity, and the abounding of the 
 opposite in thought and feeling, in speech and behavior. 
 Every spring, fountain, was turned to filthiness. Sin is an 
 unclean thing before God. Other forms of iniquity may be 
 considered as signified, profanity or blasphemy a 
 casting of contempt in word and conduct on every thing 
 sacred ; every elevating sentiment, every ennobling principle 
 set at naught, reviled, repudiated ; and all that is vile and 
 degrading embraced, fostered, encouraged. 
 
 Listen to what the inspired annalist additionally declares 
 concerning the condition of the world at this period. " The 
 earth was filled with violence," (Gen. 6 : 11). How mourn- 
 fully emphatic this language ! Violence was " the order of 
 
 4 s^^ 
 
62 UNRESTRAINED VIOLENCE. 
 
 the day," so to spealr. No security to any thing valuable or 
 precious, to reputation, chastity, property, personal, do- 
 mestic, social or civil rights ; or even to life itself. Rude, 
 defamatory utterances ; malicious, hostile treatment ; rapes, 
 rapines, excessive oppressions and cruelties ; mobs ; noisy and 
 bloody strifes ; wars ; murders, these were every where to 
 be witnessed : these filled the world. I say, the world, for 
 mankind had greatly multiplied, as Gen. 6:1, properly in- 
 terpreted, indicates. The human population had become 
 vastly numerous as well as wide-spread. Cast your eye 
 again, young gentlemen, on that language we just quoted : 
 "The earth" not some circumscribed locality, or small 
 spots here and there, solely. " Filled " not barely had a 
 little sprinkling. With " violence " not a little indulgence 
 of wrong impulses ; not merely an inconsiderable exhibition 
 in the life of dishonest, covetous, rapacious, lewd, malicious, 
 oppressive, cruel, murderous propensity and purpose. 
 
 But was there no government, no law, no penal code ? you 
 will naturally inquire. Amongst the Cainites there probably 
 not only was not, but never had been much of either. The 
 character of their ancestor, and his example and influence, 
 would naturally lead to nothing very wholesome of this sort. 
 Among the Sethites, and other branches of Adam's progeny, 
 particular patriarchal governments had existed ; patriarchal 
 authority had, from the beginning downward, been more or 
 less exercised and respected ; and as those lines multiplied 
 as to ramifications and numbers, municipal regulations, some 
 form or forms of civil government, would be called for and 
 indispensable. But as corruption increased, authority would 
 become more lax ; laws more lenient, less exactive ; and 
 what laws were enacted would be by degrees unexecuted. 
 What is government or law but the creature of public senti- 
 ment ? What, when enacted, is a wholesome law worth, if 
 there be not principle, virtue, energy, or courage enough in 
 being to enforce it ? At the time we are now speaking of, 
 
THIS STATE HOW CAUSED. 63 
 
 there was probably little of what was worthy of the name of 
 government or law in existence. Corruption had come to 
 such a pitch wickedness highhanded, flagitious, had ob- 
 tained such an ascendency and prevalence, that law and 
 order were trampled under foot ; wild anarchy for the most 
 part existed and triumphed. Every one did, we will not say 
 what was right in his own eyes, but what he listed ; and from 
 the hints given by the archaic historian, we see what that 
 would be, " only evil." 
 
 Desire you to know, by what means, after what manner, the 
 world before the Flood became so enormously corrupt ? 
 the earth so filled with violence ? 
 
 One prominent circumstance leading to so deplorable a 
 state of things amongst the antediluvians, and which is indi- 
 cated by Moses, was the intercourse, even to intermarriage, 
 which was introduced, about the midlife of Noah, between 
 " the sons of God " and " the daughters of men," in other 
 words, between the Sethites and Cainites. If we put any 
 confidence in what Maimonides has related, sometime since 
 quoted by us, concerning what occurred in the days of Enos ; 
 or if we will compare Genesis 6 : 5, with Rom. 1 : 21, 23 ; 
 if we bring to mind what St. Jude says about certain un- 
 godly men in his days, who, after being represented as " de- 
 nying the only Lord God," adds, " Woe unto them, for they 
 are gone in the way of Gain (Jude, verses 4, 11) ; and if we 
 consider too what took place so soon posterior to the Flood in 
 relation to that sin we shall probably arrive at the conclu- 
 sion that idolatry began to prevail early, and now prevailed ex- 
 tensively, among the wicked and accursed progeny of Cain. 
 On those other enormous sins of the Cainites their infidelity 
 and awful profligacy the heinous sin of idolatry being, so 
 to speak, grafted, then ; for the posterity of Seth, who had 
 professed the true worship, to enter upon terms of intimacy ; 
 to incorporate themselves with the Cainite race ; to enter 
 even into matrimonial compacts with them : the sons of Seth 
 
64 THIS STATE HOW CAUSED. 
 
 to take to wife the daughters of Cain, joining with them in 
 the most intimate of human relationships, how could this 
 fail to be otherwise than of exceedingly corrupting and fatal 
 consequence? To the Israelites God knew and intimated 
 what would be the effect of an alliance of this kind with the 
 idolatrous nations, when he said, (Deut. 7 : 2, 3,) " Thou 
 shalt make no covenant with them ; neither shalt thou make 
 marriages with them ; thy daughter thou shalt not give unto 
 his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son : For 
 they will turn away thy son from following me, that they 
 may serve other gods." This matter Balaam understood 
 quite well, when, perceiving that every other avenue was 
 closed to the effecting of the injury of the children of Israel, 
 counselled the Moabites to commence a familiarity with 
 them. And the sad result we are told : " The people," i. e., 
 the Israelitish people, "were called unto the sacrifices of 
 their gods ; and the people did eat, and bowed down to their 
 gods," (Numbers 25 : 1, 2.) Abraham also proved himself 
 well aware of this peril, when he manifested such anxiety 
 and uneasiness lest his son Isaac should marry a Canaanitish 
 woman. Hence it is likewise to be inferred that the sin of 
 the Sethites, after all the light and privileges they had en- 
 joyed, and favors and blessings they had received from God, 
 was very heinous, to go and mingle and intermarry 
 with the profligate and idolatrous Cainites. They could not 
 but have foreseen that the consequence in all probability 
 would be their seduction from the true worship of Jehovah, 
 as well as into the paths of vice and profligacy. If tradition 
 reports the truth, the heinousness of their conduct is still far- 
 ther enhanced, being committed against solemn and repeated 
 warning, and in the face, too, of an oath. The tradition ad- 
 verted to purports that Adam, and Seth, and Enos, each, 
 when dying, called the different branches of his family 
 about him, and gave them a strict charge that they should 
 always live separate from, and have no manner of inter- 
 
THIS STATE HOW CAUSED. 65 
 
 course with the impious family or descendants of the mur- 
 derer Cain ; and, moreover, that it was the custom of the 
 Sethites in particular, at certain times to swear by the blood 
 of Abel which was their solemn oath that they would 
 not run counter to this charge or warning. Even thus early 
 though the principle had not been wrought into a maxim, 
 it was a clear suggestion of reason, or a deduction from ob- 
 servation or experience the idea was not destitute of exis- 
 tence, that " evil communications corrupt good manners." 
 
 For some centuries the Cainites on the one hand, and the 
 Sethites, and, we may add, other lines of our first father's 
 descendants on the other, kept separate, partly from a 
 regard among the latter to the repeated monitions or charges 
 which they had received, and the solemn oath taken ; partly 
 from an abhorrence of idolatry and of other gross sins and 
 enormities of the Cainites ; as well as because the places of 
 their residence were not contiguous to one another. Cain is 
 understood as having gone a good way distant from the other 
 branches though just how far is not known. The phrase, 
 " land of Nod," gives us no definite information on this point. 
 Nod being the original word for a vagabond, the land of Nod 
 means the land of the vagrancy of the wretched outcast. It 
 had no name till Cain went thither. All the geography that 
 Moses has afforded us concerning it is no more than barely 
 that it lay eastward from Eden. As to what distance at 
 how many scores or centuries of leagues eastward from the 
 prime abode of the first human pair no shadow of a hint 
 is given. 
 
 The rapid and vast multiplication of numbers in the two 
 lines of Cain and Seth, leading to a correspondent spread as 
 to location, brought portions of them at length to the inhabit- 
 ing of proximate territories ; when young men of the Seth- 
 ite branch coming in contact with* some of the fairer of the 
 fair sex among the Outcast's posterity, were so tempted by 
 their beauty that they could not rest easy until they had pro- 
 
66 THIS STATE HOW CAUSED. 
 
 posed and contracted marriage with them. Had the Sethitc 
 race possessed the sterling principles and the abhorrence of 
 wickedness which belonged to their ancestors, no temptation of 
 this sort could have been strong enough to overcome them ; but, 
 as we hinted before, there had occurred already a melancholy 
 decline. The influence which this conjugal union exerted 
 upon the husbands was very baleful ; but the effect of it upon 
 their progeny still more so. What can be expected of chil- 
 dren, having such mothers, but the worst type of character and 
 conduct ? Vastly more is the moulding of character, the 
 shaping of the sentiments and the life, in the power of moth- 
 ers than of fathers. Unprincipled, abandoned, idolatrous, 
 excessively wicked Cainite mothers ! what the results upon 
 the rising race, but of a kind the most lamentable and evil ? 
 Moreover, what a mischievous and corrupting influence 
 would such a posterity diffuse all around them ! 
 
 But although this alone is particularly specified by the 
 sacred writer, there were yet other causes at work to produce 
 that universal and excessive degeneracy and wickedness 
 which he mentions. The great length of life to which the 
 unregenerate antediluvian population attained, doubtless was 
 the occasion of contributing not an inconsiderable share. 
 What, in any age, and under any circumstances, is to be 
 looked for from unsanctified human nature but gradual dete- 
 rioration, without special gracious influence, a progress 
 from bad to worse ? The principles belonging to the unre- 
 newed human heart not only grow and strengthen with 
 increasing years, but impel the possessor onward in a de- 
 scending or receding course ; the distance, whatever may to 
 the casual or superficial observer be the appearance, is con- 
 stantly widening between him and God, and so between him 
 and all that enters into true moral excellence and goodness. 
 A life continued through half a score of centuries appears so 
 wellnigh changeless and interminable ; is adapted to occasion 
 such an absence of fear in regard to death's attack, and of 
 
THIS STATE HOW CAUSED. 67 
 
 apprehension respecting judgment's doom, as to rid the 
 wicked of wholesome and needful restraints ; as naturally to 
 embolden them in a course of unrepentant ungodliness ; to 
 produce increasing recklessness and fearful and approximat- 
 ingly incorrigible obduracy ; to make them of gigantic effi- 
 ciency in the ranks and cause of the Adversary ; to prolong, 
 enlarge, and widen their injurious and ruinous influence over 
 the younger portions of the race, not only those to whom 
 they are more especially related, but those far greater num- 
 bers with whom they may more or less come in contact. 
 
 We may likewise in part account for the deplorably sunken 
 and awfully corrupt condition of the human race, at this 
 period, from still another cause ; and that is, there was then 
 in existence among the inhabitants of the globe but one lan- 
 guage, and so no obstruction, as to this particular, pre- 
 sented to the most general as well as intimate intercourse. 
 Had the state of public sentiment or the general tone of mor- 
 als been good, such facilities for intercourse as would be 
 afforded by the universal prevalence among the family of 
 man of one and the same language, would have been, and in 
 a high degree, not only intellectually, but morally beneficial. 
 But owing to the fact that even in the best preceding periods, 
 notwithstanding all that grace had done, the majority were 
 wicked ; that for a while before the period of which we 
 speak, nearly the whole of mankind were so, and a consider- 
 able proportion very wicked, this facility for free, unob- 
 structed and general intercourse was attended with its evils ; 
 facilitated the dissemination of the various phases and forms 
 of vice and crime, as well as deepened the hue of everywhere 
 abounding iniquity. 
 
 Let it be additionally considered, that this universal preva- 
 lence of one language would, along with other existing cir- 
 cumstances, naturally lead to what has been very commonly 
 regarded as a fact, that the antediluvian population, large, 
 multitudinous as it had become, was more dense in proportion 
 
68 THE DIVINE DISPLEASURE EXCITED. 
 
 to the whole number, i. e., were, wherever communities were 
 settled, crowded more compactly, than any postdiluvian 
 period, even up to our day, has witnessed : the conse- 
 quence of which would be, the more easy and rapid spread of 
 corruption and hydra-headed iniquity. 
 
 Such a direful, dreadful state of moral pollution, vice, vio- 
 lence so extreme in degree, and so uncircumscribed, ex- 
 tending, raging, every where ~ could not but be inconceivably 
 offensive to that Being Supreme who is "of purer eyes 
 than to behold evil, and cannot look on iniquity ; " and ex- 
 ceedingly the more so from the fact that the family of man, 
 in all its branches, had not, from the Fall downward, been 
 the objects of entire judicial abandonment on the part of the 
 Deity; but had, if we except the accursed race of Cain, 
 been very kindly and graciously dealt with ; had, through 
 various media, in numerous ways, been afforded means and 
 facilities for forming an acquaintance both with truth and 
 duty. In his abounding benevolence, God had set pious 
 fathers and mothers and more remote progenitors and relatives 
 to imparting instruction, counsel, admonition, and warning ; 
 had in a direct manner, from time to time, spoken to them 
 preceptively and tuitionally ; had imparted to them, and that 
 too, very early, precious gospel intimations, as in the PROMISE 
 and the SACRIFICE ; had made communications through Vis- 
 ions, and Voices, and Dreams, and Angelic Ministries ; had 
 prophesied to them through Enoch, and enlightened them as 
 to a future and immortal life immortal life for the whole 
 man through the marvellous translation of the last named ; 
 and, for a while past, moreover had preached to them by our 
 patriarch (2 Pet. 2 : 5.) Considering all these things, and, 
 perhaps we might safely say, a good deal besides which tjie 
 brief antediluvian record does not include superadded 
 to nature's utterances; taking into account all these 
 that antediluvian population should have been a holy, God- 
 fearing, and God-serving people, surely, instead of what, at 
 
"THE LORD REPENTED" ITS MEANING. G9 
 
 the season of which we are speaking, they are represented 
 by the archaic writer to have been. 
 
 So desperate, on the contrary, in despite of these things, 
 had become the character and conduct of the human family, 
 as to fall short utterly of the great end for which they had 
 been brought into being ; and thus in the strong and strange 
 sounding language of the historian, " it repented the Lord 
 that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at 
 his heart," (Gen. 6 : 6.) 
 
 Perplexed, no doubt, have some minds been at this form of 
 expression. Difficulty have they encountered in arriving at 
 a comprehension of its import, or in reconciling it with what 
 they have conceived the Infinite Divinity to be. It seems 
 to impinge one or more of his attributes ; to indicate, at the 
 least, that the Supreme Being had been sorely disappointed 
 in regard to man ; that the latter had not deported himself 
 as the former, when he made him, had expected that he 
 would. And is God then not omniscient ? Did he not know 
 the end from the beginning? Spread out before his vast, 
 illimitable mind, were not absolutely all phases of being, con- 
 dition, character, conduct ? Known unto him from everlasting 
 were not all things that ever have been and ever shall be ? 
 
 Let it be remarked of that language quoted which has 
 given rise to such perplexity, that it presents one of the many 
 instances of the anthropopathia ; a mode of expression 
 adapted by the graciousness of Divine condescension to the 
 fmiteness of human capacity, particularly to that stage of 
 culture which has not the mastery of abstract phraseology ; 
 a condescension which kindly stoops to convey spiritual sen- 
 timents in language borrowed from sensible and familiar 
 objects, and from the well understood passions and emotions 
 of men. Disappointment and sorrow are indeed not properly 
 predicable of the All-knowing and Infinitely happy God. All 
 the ingredients which enter into man's repentance, then, do 
 not enter into that which is predicated of the Lord. But, 
 4* 
 
70 "THE LORD REPENTED" ITS MEANING. 
 
 when man repents, he changes his course acts differently 
 from what he did before. A father is sorry that he has ex- 
 pended so much money in the education of his wayward and 
 profligate son, and so determines that he will expend upon 
 him no more. An artisan constructs a machine or instrument 
 which does not answer the end that he designed or thought 
 he might reasonably expect from it ; it is useless ; it is 
 an incumbrance ; and so he, instead of taking pains to 
 preserve, destroys it. Now it is this latter that is imported 
 when the word " repent " is used in reference to Jehovah. 
 Mankind had not answered the great end for which they were 
 made ; had not deported themselves as the Lord had a right 
 to expect ; and his providential kindness and care he deter- 
 mines shall not be exercised toward them as formerly. He 
 will alter his dispensations ; will change his course ; deal 
 differently toward them from what he had done. The idea 
 of disapprobation enters into repentance in man's case ; and 
 so it does, though in a different relation, into the repentence 
 which the Scriptures affirm of God : disapprobation of the 
 thing as it is. You have the idea. Your patience will not 
 be further taxed, this evening. 
 
EVENING FIFTH. 
 
 YOUNG GENTLEMEN : 
 
 Such deep and universal corruption as that to which we 
 had our attention directed in the last exercise, the sovereign 
 Lord of all resolves shall not be perpetuated ; such a raging 
 torrent of horrible wickedness and diabolical violence he de- 
 termines shall not flow down in unbroken, uninterrupted suc- 
 cession, to unborn generations, one after another, for all 
 coming time. He prefers that the future generations of his 
 human creatures should not be the offspring of those who had 
 become so contaminated by iniquity and so demonized in vio- 
 lence ; and whose reproductions would have thereby been 
 injurious to themselves and to human nature. He is exceed- 
 ingly unwilling that such vices and crimes as had become 
 general should be continued as the settled character and 
 habit of the human order of being. His benevolence moved 
 him to the adoption of a course which would be followed 
 with the attainment of the greatest aggregate of good. If, 
 by utterly destroying a generation so depraved and mis- 
 chievous as the one then existing, all succeeding generations 
 down to the last gasp of time would receive vast benefit, 
 could the infinitely good Ruler over all fail to do the thing ? 
 particularly when justice, instead of remonstrating against, 
 would urgently, eloquently, plead for it. He to whom be- 
 longeth dominion was so wise as well as benevolent as greatly 
 
72 THE DIVINE RESOLVE. 
 
 to prefer a new production of mankind from a particular and 
 single stem, selected out of the preexisting society for that 
 purpose, than to continue the corrupt and corrupting mass 
 that was then encumbering and cursing the earth. 
 
 Besides, Jehovah has a character as moral governor to 
 sustain before all the holy of the universe ; to vindicate from 
 all imputation, and defend from all suspicion. God is infi- 
 nitely holy ; hates sin with a perfect hatred ; and he is deter- 
 mined to throw forth such a manifestation of his abhorrence 
 of it as would not be forgotten in all coming time. He is a 
 just God, and he will not continue to treat so leniently a race 
 so sunk in sin, so desperate and diabolical in habit, so polluted 
 and blood-reddened with crime, as to allow occasion for any 
 of his creatures, in any age to come, to infer that justice is 
 not an attribute of his nature that righteousness belongeth 
 not to Him. No, no ; He will not so lose sight of his own 
 glory. Though benevolence, and patience, and mercy are 
 not absent from his heart, he will, he is determined to inter- 
 rupt the flow of the dark tide. By one tremendous display 
 of his power he will sweep the putrid and putrifying mass 
 from the globe. He tells Noah, so peculiar a man is he so 
 different from the rest one whom the historian in words of 
 emphasis says had u found grace in his sight " God lets 
 this man know what his determination is. His Spirit, through 
 the media and means we a while since specified, had labored 
 to restrain, circumscribe, lessen, annihilate, the abounding ini- 
 quity : to lead men to a sense of duty, and to a regard to what 
 was honest, kind, lovely, and of good report ; to recognize 
 their solemn responsibilities and their true interests ; but in 
 vain. The obdurate, infatuate, and infuriate race grieved 
 and vexed that Spirit ; resisted and spurned his influences ; 
 " set at naught his counsel, and would none of his reproof." 
 
 "And the Lord said," i. e., to himself: " I will destroy man 
 whom I have created from the face of the earth ; both man, 
 and beast, and creeping thing, and the fowls of the air," 
 
THE COMMAND GIVEN TO NOAII. 7o 
 
 | 
 
 _ 
 
 (Gen. 6:7;) and this purpose he states to Noah in a succeed--/ 
 ing verse (v. 13th). He then proceeds (verses 14-16) to 
 command our patriarch to build an ark, particularizing the 
 form and dimensions; and, in the verse following, (17th,) he 
 declares the means by which his determination shall be exe- 
 cuted, viz., by " a flood of waters" But why, some might be 
 disposed to exclaim why should the beast, and creeping 
 thing, and fowls of the air partake in the destruction ? 
 Why must they be involved in the ruin, since they had no 
 participation in the sin ? The response which we are dis- 
 posed to give to this is, that the animal tribes being made for 
 man's use and as a kind of appendage to him, they hence are 
 involved in his calamities. Man's sin brings ruin upon his 
 comforts as well as upon himself. Besides, God is the origi- 
 nal and prime proprietor of all things, and may do what he 
 will with his own. Situated, moreover, as the animal tribes 
 here are, and having no immortal part to fit for a felicitous 
 future, a cessation of existence can be to them no great evil. 
 And does the Lord hasten to the execution of his solemn 
 and tremendous purpose ? No. The vessel itself which our 
 patriarch was enjoined to make, could not be built in a day. 
 Not only was it to be a vast structure, but of so many com- 
 partments, and contrivances, and conveniences, and so thor- 
 oughly constructed for safety, and with a view to the answer- 
 ing of the ends in full of its construction, as necessarily to 
 require no little time to complete it. Even to provide the 
 materials would consume a considerable season. But besides 
 this, God has an attribute of mercy as well as of justice ; he 
 is long suffering and pitiful as well as holy and righteous. 
 Notwithstanding the superfluity of naughtiness and the deluge 
 of sin everywhere prevalent, and constituting a deep, dark 
 flood he holds back the deluge of water ; stays the over- 
 flowing and angry flood and for no less a period than one 
 hundred and twenty years, (Gen. 6: 3.) And here we 
 
74 CHILDREN OF THE PATRIARCH. 
 
 ought not to fail to notice the incidental corroboration af- 
 forded by this circumstance, to the duration, ascribed by the 
 record, to human life before the flood. Dr. Kitto has called 
 the attention of his readers to this point in his Biblical 
 Illustrations, vol. 1, p. 138 : "A hundred and twenty years," 
 says he, " would have been too long, according to the present 
 duration of life ; for many who were not born when the 
 judgment was first denounced would have died before it was 
 accomplished ; and so long a delay of judgment would have 
 weakened the force of the denunciation, and would have al- 
 lowed most people to view it as a thing not to happen in 
 their time, and which therefore they would but lightly re- 
 gard. But one hundred and twenty years was less than the 
 eighth of the average duration of antediluvian life ; and, in 
 respect of warning, was not more to that generation than nine 
 years would be to us. It was therefore an interval just long 
 enough for effective warning, without being so long as to 
 allow any man that lived, to deem that he might neglect that 
 warning without danger." 
 
 From twenty to twenty-six or thirty years subsequently to 
 the first intimations received by our patriarch concerning the 
 Divine intentions to destroy the population of the earth for 
 their wickedness, there were born unto him the three sons, 
 Shem, Ham, and Japheth. At the birth of the elder of these 
 Noah was in his 500th year, (Gen. 5 : 32 and 6 : 10.) Though 
 no mention is made of it in the extremely brief archaic record, 
 it would nevertheless be unreasonable to suppose that our 
 patriarch had had no children born unto him anterior to this 
 period of his life. Judging from the time that the other 
 antediluvian patriarchs, according to the specifications of the 
 historian in the previous part of the fifth chapter, had become 
 parents, we might infer that Noah's children, previously born, 
 had amounted to a large number, but, under the pernicious 
 influences of their time, having gone in the way of Cain ; 
 
ORDER OP THE BIRTH OF THE THREE SONS. 7.) 
 
 become undistinguishable from the multitudes of the incorri- 
 gibly ungodly ; the memory of them was not retained 
 was left to rot. These shared the fate of the millions whose 
 example they had imitated. If Noah had had them wholly 
 under his own paternal and wholesome influence they doubt- 
 less would have formed a different character, and come to a 
 different end : For he probably was pious ere he became a 
 parent; even, as has been previously intimated by us, in 
 quite early life. But he would have been obliged to withdraw 
 or withhold them from all but strictly domestic association in 
 order to a successful preserving of them from danger of con- 
 tamination from a corrupt and ungodly world ; and our patri- 
 arch had not early experience, or observation, or rigor enough 
 to adopt so restrictive a course with his earlier children. As 
 the three whose names are mentioned were born posterior to 
 the intimations he had received relative to God's purpose to 
 destroy mankind for their iniquities, he would naturally be 
 led to the adoption of a faithful and effective restraining 
 regimen in reference to them. 
 
 Of the three sons of our patriarch whose names are given 
 in the record, though Shem is the first in order as to the 
 mention, yet Japheth was the elder, as you may perceive by 
 looking at Gen. 10 : 21 ; and this seems inferable from 1 
 Chron. 1 : 5, &c., his descendants being first given in the 
 genealogical roll there found. Shem was next in age to 
 Japheth, for we learn from Gen. 9 : 24, that Ham was the 
 youngest. "We are aware that some have thought Ham to 
 have been the second of the three, because he is almost 
 invariably mentioned between the other two ; but this argu- 
 ment, derived from order of mention, is of no weight against 
 positive testimony ; and if such an argument were decisive 
 in this case, it would settle it as a fact that Japheth was 
 younger than Ham, since his name usually comes last in the 
 record. Their father being in his 500th year when the eldest 
 
76 AMOUNT OF ANTEDILUVIAN POPULATION. 
 
 of the three was bora, (Gen. 5 : 32 ;) and in his 600th year* 
 when he entered the ark, (Gen. 7 : 11 ;) and, two years after 
 the flood, Shem, at the birth of Arphaxad, being 100 years 
 of age, (Gen. 11 : 10,) and so 98 when the flood came 
 on, you perceive that Japheth must have been two years the 
 senior of Shem. And, if there was the same difference in 
 age between Shem and Ham the younger, then Noah was in 
 his 504th year at the birth of this last, and Ham in his 96th 
 year at the commencement of the Deluge. 
 
 Should it be inquired why Shem, though not the oldest, is 
 always first named by the historian, it might be answered, 
 because the genealogies and the chronology are kept up in 
 his line ; and the principal parts of the sacred history relate to 
 his descendants. And though Ham was the youngest, yet he is 
 always named next, because the sacred history has more to do 
 with his descendants than with those of Japheth we mean 
 so far as circumstantial detail is concerned. 
 
 From what has been observed respecting the age of Noah 
 when his three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth were born, 
 along with the fact of there being the interval of but two 
 years between the birth of Japheth and Shem, and probably 
 (reasoning from analogy) between the latter and Ham, may 
 we not derive suggestive aid in arriving at some correct 
 idea concerning the numbers to which the human popula- 
 tion amounted anterior to the Deluge ? If Noah and other 
 autediluvians began to sustain the parental relation, severally, 
 
 *Noah is indeed, in Gen. 7 : 6, said to have been 600 years old when the 
 flood of waters was upon the earth ; but this expression is afterward ex- 
 plained that it was in the 600th year of his age, (see 1 1th verse). " Annus 
 inchoatus pro perfecto habetur." A distinguished Jewish author lays it 
 down as a rule to be observed, that part of the month or year is as the 
 whole. This is so in regard to day also, as is evident in the case of our Sa- 
 viour's resurrection. Dr. A. Clarke, remarking on the clause in the llth 
 verse, " in the 600th year of Noah's life," says, " This must have been in 
 the beginning of the 600th year of his life, for he was a year in the ark, 
 (oh. 8 : 13,) and died 950 years old, (ch. 9 : 29.) It is thus evident that 
 when the flood commenced he had just entered on his 600th year. 
 
AMOUNT OP ANTEDILUVIAN POPULATION. 77 
 
 we will not say at 20 or 30 years old, but at the age of 80 or 
 100, and continued having children born to them up to the 
 age of 500 and over, as is revealed as the case with father 
 Noah ; and if the interval, as to births, was on an average 
 not much if any more than that between the birth of Japheth 
 and Shem, i. e., two years, then the population of the globe 
 prior to the deluge, making all reasonable allowance (from 
 every cause or circumstance) for death's doings, could not 
 have been small ; must have become very numerous. During 
 the last two hundred years of the Old World we may, it is 
 true, believe that the increase would not be proportionate to 
 what it had been for a similar period preceding, (though the 
 regular increase should have been much greater,) because 
 " violence was then great in the earth," hurrying thousands, 
 yea, probably millions to an untimely end. Yet, taking even 
 this noteworthy circumstance into the account, the inhabitants 
 of this planet must have become immensely numerous. Not 
 alone from the great number of children which antediluvian 
 parental pairs would have born to them, let it be observed, 
 would the population become great; but from the circum- 
 stance, moreover, of many generations flourishing in a meas- 
 ure simultaneously, occupying the earth for a greater or less 
 period together, as a consequence of prevalent longevity. 
 Without a resort to any extravagant tabular computations, 
 such as Winston's, for example, (see Rees's Cyclopedia, Art. 
 Antediluvians,) we might be justly charged with acting irra- 
 tionally, did we set narrow limits to the number of inhabit- 
 ants of the Old World, for centuries before the flood came on. 
 
 Japheth, Shem, and Ham were severally married previous 
 to the Deluge, (Gen. 7 : 13 ;) yet they either had no children 
 antecedently, or these did not live ; since they carried none 1 
 with them into the ark. Eight of human kind alone found 
 refuge there, (1 Pet. 3 : 20). 
 
 If you have any desire to become wise above what is writ- 
 ten in regard to the names borne by Noah's wife and the 
 
78 A STRANGE CONCEIT. 
 
 wives of his three sons, look into Bedford's Scripture Chro- 
 nology, pages 140, 141, where you may read, " The Oriental 
 writers call the wife of Noah by several names, as Titsiah, 
 Naamah, and Aritsiah ; this last meaning earthly, because 
 like the earth she was the mother of all living. Another 
 writer is so positive as to say that the name of Noah's wife 
 was Haical, the daughter of Narausa, the son of Enoch ; and 
 that his three sons took them wives of the daughters of Me- 
 thuselah, and that the name of Shem's wife was Salit ; the 
 name of Ham's wife Nahlat ; and the name of Japheth's wife 
 Arisisah. It is probable," continues Bedford, " that the wives 
 of Noah, Shem, and Japheth, were of the posterity of Seth, 
 and that none of these married into the race of Cain, because 
 they were esteemed to be men of piety and virtue, and there- 
 fore most likely to observe the command, which seems to be 
 handed down from their ancestors, that they should not marry 
 into strange families. As for Ham, his character was differ- 
 ent from the rest, and therefore a curse was entailed on his 
 posterity for his immoralities. So that since Plutarch tells 
 us that some called the wife of Ham, Namaus, it is easy to 
 conjecture that she was Naamah, the daughter of Lamech, 
 sister of Tubal-cain of the race of Cain, the last person 
 mentioned in that line, and the only woman before the flood 
 of whose birth Moses takes any notice." We cannot omit to 
 say, young gentlemen, that this last conjecture, though curi- 
 ous, is certainly very incredible. Naamah, the daughter of 
 the Cainite Lamech, was probably born too long before Hani 
 to become his wife, inasmuch as her father, as was on a former 
 occasion intimated, was, like the Sethite Enoch, of the seventh 
 generation from Adam, and may consequently be inferred to 
 have been contemporary with him. If Ham was rendered a 
 worse man than he otherwise would have been, through the in- 
 fluence of a wicked wife, he needed not to go among the Cain- 
 ites to find one of that character; for just before the flood the 
 women of the Sethite line, even, as well as of the multitudinous 
 
CHARACTERISTICS OF THE PATRIARCH. 79 
 
 other lines, had been involved in and been carried away by 
 the generally raging tide of corruption. 
 
 Scarcely has a hint yet been dropped concerning the char- 
 acter of our patriarch. The period of one hundred and twenty 
 years, intervening between the first intimations received by him 
 respecting the divinely intended submergence of the world with 
 its multitudinous and guilty population, and the actual occur- 
 rence of the threatened punitive event, afforded occasion, as 
 you all cannot but perceive, for the exhibition of prominent 
 leading traits, mental, moral, and religious, in the man whose 
 history we are particularly considering. To continue godly, un- 
 unswervingly, unflinchingly godly, whilst in its various, almost 
 countless forms, ungodliness was every where prevalent and 
 popular not only, but guileful, unscrupulous, bold, unblushing, 
 malignant, persecuting, and untiringly active, required a large 
 amount of mental strength, and of firmness and resolution in 
 favor of truth and righteousness. Noah was firm immova- 
 ble as a rock. He fully and uninterruptedly maintained his 
 integrity as a friend and servant of God. Naught in the 
 form of allurement could draw, or of menace and terror 
 drive him from a strict and becomingly rigid adherence to the 
 principles which have the approval of Heaven. No pusil- 
 lanimous shrinking ! Earth and hell seemed leagued against 
 him ; but their arts and power were insufficient to weaken or 
 mar his fidelity to the Infinite King. Ridicule, mockery, 
 scoffing, derision, reproach, menace ; whatever malevolence 
 or cunning could suggest, or deep and multiform depravity 
 invent these were tried upon him, repeatedly, protractedly 
 but wholly in vain. The same man of God was he still ; 
 or rather did he become more and more the giant in vigor, 
 and the rock in firmness. Familiarity with the sight of vice 
 and wickedness, which has ordinarily such a tendency to 
 relax the muscles and weaken the nerves of virtue, appeared 
 to have the diametrically opposite effect upon him. The 
 more he witnessed of iniquity, the greater became his detes- 
 tation of it, and to it did he oppose a bolder, firmer front. 
 
80 CHARACTERISTICS OF THE PATRIARCH. 
 
 He was eminently a patient man. If ever human creature 
 was, this man you must acknowledge to have been deeply 
 tried. With much had he to meet which is grievous to flesh 
 and blood. From what we have just been declaring in rela- 
 tion to what was brought to bear against him, it is manifest 
 that something more than his integrity or loyalty was sub- 
 jected to trial. His patience also was put to the test. He 
 bore his troubles well ; we say not " like a man ; " rather 
 might we in truth say, like something more than man. Re- 
 taliation, revenge, spite, complaint not a word do we hear 
 of aught of this sort in his case. In Ezek. 14: 14, his 1 
 name is thrown in with that of one whom Holy Writ repre- 
 sents as the patientest of men. He was exposed to much 
 scoff and insult. Whilst engaged in collecting the materials 
 for the construction of the vessel which was intended to float 
 upon the waters, and whilst occupied in building it, ridicule 
 would ply its weapons diligently, no doubt ; ridicule than 
 which human sensibilities have found scarcely anything 
 harder to be borne. How many will shrink and wither, and 
 abandon an enterprise, or desist from the prosecution of an 
 allotted task, or cease the pursuit of a course prescribed by 
 duty, rather than continue to encounter its terrible inflictions 
 or bear its thrice-dreaded stings. Yet our patriarch persisted 
 in the execution of what was assigned him, in the face of, 
 notwithstanding it all, and kept his soul in patience. 
 
 And then, again : Consider the faith of this man, as to its 
 measure and its influence. The Almighty had indicated his 
 purpose to destroy mankind for their wickedness and the 
 means by which his purpose should be accomplished. Now, 
 unbelief might have said, Surely this cannot be God's voice ; 
 it does not sound like a Divine denunciation or direction. 
 Will God find it in his heart to destroy every living thing, 
 innocent children even, and cattle, and creeping things ? 'And 
 where will he find water enough to drown the world ? And 
 how will those living things which appear to have been desig- 
 
CHARACTERISTICS OF THE PATRIARCH. 81 
 
 nated, be collected, and after what manner preserved in the 
 ark ? A thousand difficulties might by unbelief be suggested, 
 from month to month, during the progress of one hundred and 
 twenty years, to turn him aside from the prosecution of such a 
 work as that of building the ark, or the effecting of its comple- 
 tion. And whilst officiating as a preacher of righteousness 
 for so occupied, in a greater or less measure, we are assured 
 he was, (*2 Pet. 2:5;) while prosecuting the work of going 
 from place to place extensively, and warning the people of 
 the impending storm ; giving them notice of the threatened 
 judgment; and calling them to repentance for their iniqui- 
 ties ; to an abandonment of their vicious and highly criminal 
 excesses, that so they might escape both temporal and 
 eternal destruction, Satan and wicked men might very fre- 
 quently suggest what might naturally tend to originate doubt 
 in Noah's mind whether, indeed there was ground on which 
 to base a reasonable or certain conclusion that a flood would 
 visit the earth and destroy the living things, rational and 
 irrational, upon its surface, unless mankind relented and 
 changed their course. 4 Yet, in the case of our patriarch, faith 
 had such potency, this principle was so operative and influen- 
 tial, that he perseveres in preaching, remonstrating with and 
 warning the ungodly generation, and in building the ark ; no 
 cessation of effort was there to bring mankind to a reformation 
 of their manners, and the restoration of the true religion and 
 Avorship among them up to the very month and day in which 
 the appointed period of Divine patience or forbearance was 
 to terminate ; or at least until the ark was finished and ready 
 to receive the allotted inmates. What faith, what faith was 
 that which reigned in the heart of our patriarch, enough 
 to excite the admiration of human kind in every age down- 
 ward ! Can we fail to be struck with amazement at its 
 large degree and its effective energy ? " By faith Noah, being 
 warned of God of things not seen as yet, prepared an ark to 
 the saving of his house ; by the which he condemned the world, 
 
82 CHARACTERISTICS OF TttE PATRIARCH. 
 
 and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith," 
 (Heb. 11 : 7.) 
 
 Noah's courage is by no means unworthy of note. If there 
 ever was a truly and eminently courageous man, where can 
 you succeed better in finding him than in the person of our 
 patriarch ? We have said he was " a preacher of righteous- 
 ness." It is comparatively easy to prosecute such a calling 
 where public sentiment is on the side of order and virtue ; 
 but a hard and even perilous business amidst abounding 
 corruption, and when every thing evil and iniquitous receives 
 the public sanction and is popular. Yet this man went forth, 
 undaunted, undismayed, instructing, counselling, reproving 
 the people ; and telling them that within such a space of 
 time the Almighty Sovereign would by a flood sweep them 
 from life, unless they should seasonably repent and turn unto 
 Him, the only true God and their legitimate Ruler. How 
 many even of the Lord's professing people are ashamed or 
 afraid to avow their abhorrence of the evils which they see 
 commonly practised. "What numbers, through a base 
 timidity of spirit, will wink at if not actually yield compliance 
 with what their hearts condemn, through fear of reproach or 
 of becoming unpopular losing caste. Instead of exerting 
 themselves the more in opposition to sin because it is 
 countenanced by the multitude, they cease altogether to 
 oppose the ^torrent ; the voice of remonstrance is hushed ; 
 they become mute in regard to prevailing abominations if 
 they do not even become apologists. 
 
 Noah lent no countenance to sin ; he boldly reproved it in 
 whatsoever form and by whomsoever committed ; and against 
 its perpetrators denounced the overwhelming judgment of the 
 Omnipotent and Infinitely Just One. We need more men of 
 courage, of iron nerve and dauntless heart, and on the altar 
 of whose souls flames the love of God, in our day; men who 
 are not afraid to be singular when the cause of godliness 
 requires it ; and who, where fidelity and duty demand, are 
 
CHARACTERISTICS OF THE PATRIARCH. 83 
 
 not unwilling to expose their popularity, and temporal 
 interests, and if need be, what is so much dearer even as 
 life, to hazard, so that the Ruler Supreme may be pleased 
 and served. Our second father could not have proceeded in 
 the building of the ark even, unless he had been remarkably 
 courageous. He would have shrunk away from the work in 
 fear for his life, long ere its completion, had he had but a 
 modicum of the spirit of a coward within him. Perseverance, 
 under the circumstances, exhibited a moral heroism such as 
 is not superabundant in our or any age. 
 
 And omit we will another important feature, doubtless, of 
 our patriarch's moral constitution or character, if we fail to 
 hold him forth as a man of benevolence and compassion. It 
 was not in wrath that Noah went to and fro, teaching and 
 admonishing, rebuking and warning the corrupt inhabitants 
 of the Old World ; but, on the contrary, in love and pity. 
 He did not pant for their overthrow. He ardently desired 
 their escape from the menaced judgment. He longed for 
 their reformation, so iniquity should not be their ruin. Their 
 prospective destruction must have wrung many tears from 
 his eyes ; caused his heart to bleed not a little ; and he no 
 doubt offered much prayer to God, as well as much exhor- 
 tation to men. Not that he would have them saved in 
 but from their sins. He could not have conceived it best, 
 in the face of God's decision, to have their evil customs 
 and iniquitous practices perpetuated handed down from 
 father to son in endless succession. If there could be no 
 reformation he would give his vote for no preservation. He 
 would take sides with God, ay, and with man too, as to 
 coming generations. Benevolence, broad, expansive, would 
 demand that no such dark moral flood should forever roll 
 over the world. He no doubt preferred, in coincidence with 
 the Lord's preference, a flood of waters to a flood of sin. 
 Noah, it may be believed, so executed his office as a 
 preacher, as to show to the guilty inhabitants of the world 
 
84 IMPORT OF 1 PETER, 3: 19, 20. 
 
 before the flood, that he really desired their welfare ; wished 
 their salvation, not their destruction. "Whilst their unbelief, 
 as well as love of sin, le'd them to reject his counsel as un- 
 called for, they could not really harbor a suspicion in regard 
 to his honesty or good will. They thought him not a bad 
 man, but a weak, credulous, visionary, deluded, infatuated 
 one. Hence his teachings and remonstrances, his admoni- 
 tions, exhortations, and warnings, were in vain. Those ante- 
 diluvians were incorrigible. 
 
 And here let me remark that the words in 1 Pet. 3: 
 19, 20, which speak of Christ, by his Spirit, as having "gone 
 and preached unto the spirits in prison, which sometimes 
 were disobedient when once the long suffering of God waited 
 in the days of Noah, while the ark was preparing," have 
 appeared to some very mysterious in their import, whilst by 
 some others they have been so interpreted as to favor the 
 doctrine of a purgatory. The meaning appears to be, that 
 the Mediator, God the second person, had, by his Spirit, in- 
 spired his servant Noah to announce to the wicked antedilu- 
 vians the approaching deluge, and preach repentance to that 
 incorrigible generation, who persisted in their sins, and were 
 in the prison of hell, (that is, the adults among them,) at the 
 time the apostle wrote; being confined there till the judgment 
 of the great day. For they had " some time been dis- 
 obedient " and unbelieving, even during the one hundred and 
 twenty years of God's long suffering, after the deluge was pre- 
 dicted, but before it was sent. At that time Noah was occupied 
 in preparing the ark, showing his faith by his works, and calling 
 them to repent and seek mercy from God. But they unani- 
 mously and obstinately rejected his message ; and thus they 
 were destroyed by the flood ; whilst only eight persons had 
 their lives preserved in the ark, being delivered from the 
 waters and carried above them: so that the floods which 
 drowned all others without exception, concurred in their 
 deliverance. 
 
EVENING SIXTH. 
 
 YOUNG GENTLEMEN : 
 
 It is a high commendation of our patriarch, a truly notable 
 encomium, which was given by the sacred writer, in the 
 closing verse of the 6th chapter of Genesis. " Thus did 
 Noah ; according to all that God commanded him, so did he." 
 Said of him more particularly may we understand this to be, 
 in reference to his compliance with the divine directions 
 respecting the building and replenishing of the ark. (Genesis 
 6: 14-21.) Viewed in all its circumstances, Noah's was 
 one of the sublimest instances of obedience ever rendered by 
 a fallen man to his Creator. That which he was commanded 
 to build was a vast structure a work of years. The labor 
 and expense necessary to be incurred in the procuring and 
 preparing of the materials, and in its erection, must have 
 been immense. It was a strange vessel, as well as large 
 one the like of which exactly, whatever other water-craft 
 might have before fallen under his observation, he had never 
 previously witnessed ; to be constructed moreover for an 
 unwonted emergency ; and the derisive assaults and re- 
 proachful merriment, if naught more serious, which, in ob- 
 servance of the directions he had received in regard to it, he 
 would from the unbelieving, profane and impious crowd, be 
 obliged to encounter, would be almost beyond endurance. 
 Year after year floated by ; no discernible symptoms of 
 5 
 
86 THE PATRIARCH'S FIDELITY. 
 
 the menaced judicial or punitive visitation made their ap- 
 pearance, apart from those barely which the proclamation of 
 the patriarch, and the gradual, protracted preparing of the ark, 
 indicated. Yet under the impelling influence of a faith 
 which staggered not, and of regard to the command or will of 
 Heaven, he entered upon and continued a course of laborious 
 action, steadily, for a not inconsiderable series of years. 
 Boldly faced he reproach ; meekly encountered he scorn. 
 Instead of swerving or shrinking at all from the execution of 
 the bidden task, under the apprehension or unavoidable per- 
 ception of the unpopularity of such a procedure, he persisted 
 in it to the consummation. Received a commission he had 
 from the Lord pertaining to the instruction and warning of 
 the people. That commission he concealed not through fear ; 
 he perverted not out of regard to personal convenience or 
 advantage. He proclaimed the predicted judgment of God, 
 and protested with holy earnestness and eloquence against 
 the sins of his contemporaries their debauchery and in- 
 justice, their idolatry and violence. May we imitate this 
 noble model, young gentlemen. It may indeed throw us 
 into the category of singularity ; but whose fault will that be ? 
 Was it Noah's fault that he was a singular character in the 
 Old World ? a man of peculiar habits or conduct ? Was it 
 not the fault of those whose character and conduct were 
 of so discrepant a type from his ? of those who refused to 
 listen to the voice of Heavenly love, and to observe the man- 
 dates proceeding from Infinite authority ? And would not 
 Noah have paid a very unbecoming deference to the worldly 
 and degenerate multitude, had he, yielding to their influence 
 or will, consented to disregard the expressed will of Heaven, 
 and to perish with them, rather than secure the divine ap- 
 proval and his own salvation ? Let us not, then, carry our 
 complaisance to so culpable and fearful an extent, where 
 we have such a God as ours to serve, and such a soul as ours 
 at stake. We may feel and express our regret at being 
 
THE ARK ITS DIMENSIONS. 87 
 
 compelled to be singular; may assure those from whom we 
 differ that we are not so for singularity's sake ; but that, like 
 Noah, we feel disposed to obey God rather than man, where 
 both cannot at the same time be obeyed ; and that we deem 
 it incomparably better to be saved with Noah and his little 
 family, than to perish with the multitude. 
 
 The vessel which our patriarch was commanded to build 
 for the preservation of " the eight souls," was, as has been 
 intimated, one of no inconsiderable size. Its dimensions are 
 specified in Genesis 6:15. From that account it will ap- 
 pear to you to have been an immense structure by far the 
 largest floating edifice ever borne upon the waters. This 
 will hold true, without, as some have done, taking the cubit 
 in the verse referred to, to indicate the geometrical cubit, which 
 contains six of the ordinary. The word cubit is derived from 
 the Latin cubitus, the lower arm. It is used, to denote 
 the distance, the number of inches, between the elbow and 
 the extremity of the middle finger. The length of the cubit 
 has in different nations varied according to the diversity in 
 size or stature of the people respectively, or the length of the 
 lower arm the distance from the elbow to the end of the 
 middle finger of their men of average size. The lesser or 
 common cubit is reckoned at eighteen inches. The Egyptian, 
 or, which is probably the same, the Hebrew cubit, was twenty- 
 one inches and 888 thousandths nearly twenty-two inches. 
 According to this measure, the ark was in length about 547 feet ; 
 in width ninety-one feet, two inches, and in height forty-seven 
 feet, two inches. But taking even the shortest cubit, that of 
 eighteen inches, it was still a structure of immense capacity. 
 Says Bush, in his note on Genesis 6: 15, "Taking the cubit 
 of least length, it is capable of demonstration that the vessel 
 must have been of the burden of 43,413 tons." " Now," con- 
 tinues he, " a first rate man-of-war is between 2,200 and 2,300 
 tons ; the ark consequently possessed a capacity of storage 
 equal to that of eighteen ships of the line of the largest class ; 
 
88 OF WHAT CONSTRUCTED. 
 
 which upon a moderate computation are capable of carrying 
 20,000 men, with stores and provisions for six months' con- 
 sumption, besides 1800 pieces of cannon." 
 
 The chief material which the Lord directed to be employed 
 in the construction of the ark was gopher-wood, ^Si ^y atze 
 gopher, mentioned nowhere else in the Scriptures. What 
 particular kind of wood this was, we can be aided in ascer- 
 taining, only from the name ; the country where the wood is 
 supposed to have been procured ; or from the traditional 
 opinions respecting it. The Septuagint have rendered it 
 " square timbers ; " and Jerome, in the Vulgate, renders it 
 " pitched wood." Some have adopted the opinion that a 
 kind of pine tree is intended, and the Persian translator IMS 
 the pine ; but Celsius objects that this kind of tree was never 
 common in Babylonia and Assyria. The Chaldee version 
 and some others give the cedar, because it was always plenti- 
 ful in Asia, and was distinguished by the incorruptible 
 nature of its wood. But cedar is a very general term, and 
 correctly applied only to different kinds of juniper, which, 
 though yielding excellent wood, never grow to a large size 
 in any warm country. It may be considered doubtful whether 
 gopher is the name of any particular species of tree. Atze go- 
 pher, (Hebrew,) perhaps indicate trees or woods of pitch, i. e., 
 such as fir, pine, cypress, turpentine, cedar and other trees of a 
 pitchy kind, adapted to the purpose of ship-building. If any 
 particular sort of tree of this description be intended more than 
 than another, it is probably the cypress, (nvrrpiaaog)) as the 
 radical consonants in the Greek and Hebrew words are the 
 same, and as the cypress is eminently distinguished for its 
 durability, and the power of resisting injuries incidental to 
 other kinds of wood ; while its resinous properties would 
 tend to render it impervious to water. The greater number 
 of writers, for such reasons as those just stated, have under- 
 stood the cypress to be meant ; and this opinion is supported 
 by such authorities as Fuller, Bochart, and Celsius. 
 
WHERE BUILT* 89 
 
 As to the tradition mentioned by Bedford and others, that 
 Noah, failing of success in reclaiming his superlatively impi- 
 ous and obdurate contemporaries, and finding himself and 
 family in manifest danger of some mortal violence for his 
 good will, departed from the land where he had formerly 
 resided, and settled in a desert region called Cyparisson, (so 
 named from the abundance of cypress trees growing there ;) 
 and, because of the facilities thus afforded, there built the 
 ar k, suffice it to say, that no sufficient evidence can be 
 adduced in its support. Probability seems to us to favor the 
 idea that to impress them more fully with the certainty of the 
 threatened judgment, our patriarch began and continued to 
 prosecute his task openly, and in the sight, so to speak, of all 
 men. It appears probable, moreover, that he assured the 
 multitude of that region from day to day, and endeavored to 
 have the intelligence borne abroad, that what he engaged in 
 doing was by divine command, and that the object of his la- 
 bor was to preserve himself and household from the ruin 
 which was impending over the world. And thus every plank 
 he added, and every spike he drove, would be an additional 
 warning of the certain and terrible doom which awaited them, 
 unless by timely repentance and reformation it should be 
 averted. As for hazard of losing his life, Noah knew that it 
 was not to be apprehended. He had the unwavering con- 
 viction in his mind that if God assign a human creature a 
 duty to perform, that creature, cherishing the spirit of obedi- 
 ence, is immortal until the allotted work be done. We can 
 account for Noah's preservation in an age when holiness was 
 so hated, pious admonition so repugnant, and when violence 
 so reigned, on no other ground than that of special divine 
 protection. " The name of the Lord is a strong Tower ; the 
 righteous runneth into it and is safe." 
 
 It may not be amiss to glance at some other specified par- 
 ticulars relative to the ark's construction, (Gen. 6: 14-16.) 
 " Rooms shalt thou make in the ark," Hebrew, nests. These 
 
90 ITS PARTICULAR CONSTRUCTION. 
 
 were cells, or stalls, or small apartments, into which the inte- 
 rior of the structure was laid out, for the different kinds of 
 animals. " With lower, second, and third stories shalt thou 
 make it." This shows that there was no waste space in this 
 vast fabric. Every foot of its enormous area, from bottom 
 to top, was carefully laid out in receptacles for the accommo- 
 dation of the living inmates intended for it. The larger 
 animals probably were assigned their place in the lower 
 story ; smaller in the second ; birds, reptiles, &c., in the 
 upper. " A window shalt thou make to the ark." The term 
 window is probably used here collectively, indicating the means 
 of admitting light ; a transparency or at least translucency ; 
 if not something equivalent to glass, at least something ad- 
 mitting a measure of light. " And in a cubit shalt thou finish 
 it above;" or, to a cubit shalt thou reduce it at the top 
 seeming to indicate that the roof in which the translucency 
 or series of windows or skylights was set, sloped upward to a 
 ridge at the top, of about a cubit in width. " The door of 
 the ark shalt thou set in the side thereof." This aperture 
 must have been of considerable size, intended as it was for 
 ingress, among others, of some large animals. Prof. Bush 
 thinks the word translated door is to be taken in a collective 
 sense, implying a number of openings in the different stories 
 of the ark, designed for entrances for the animals, and after- 
 wards for the admission of air, and the discharge of ordure. 
 These apertures, he says, might ordinarily be closed by lattice 
 work. 
 
 Although in Hebrews 11:7, and 9 : 4, the same Greek 
 word, kibotos, is used to denote the ark of Noah and the ark 
 of the covenant, yet the Hebrew terms are different that 
 denoting the former being tebat, and the one indicating the 
 latter arun. The exact form of the ark of Noah is not stated 
 by the sacred historian the specified length and breadth 
 and height leaving certain other matters indeterminate. 
 As it was constructed not so much with a view to progressive 
 
HOW LONG IN BUILDING. 91 
 
 motion, as to float for a given time upon the water, it is not 
 necessary to suppose it to have been modelled like the hull 
 of a modern ship ; or placed in a sort of boat, as in the com- 
 mon figure. The simple idea given in the history is that of 
 an enormous oblong box, secured upon a strong and thick 
 rafting floor. Had it been built from a keel, with a curving 
 bottom like a ship, it could not have well rested on the dry 
 land after the flood, without falling over upon one or the other 
 side, to the imminent danger of all its tenants. Moreover, 
 it is obvious that it was unfurnished with rudder or sails. 
 " Thou shalt pitch it within and without with pitch." The 
 pitch here spoken of was some kind of bituminous substance, 
 which from its soft and pliable qualities was well adapted to 
 smearing over the ark, and closing every chink and crevice. 
 A coat, spread over the inside and outside, would make it 
 perfectly water proof, and the more so as the substance itself 
 would, it is probable, be constantly acquiring greater hardness 
 and tenacity. 
 
 Should you, young gentlemen, be asked this question : 
 " How many of the one hundred and twenty years was Noah 
 actually employed in providing the materials and building 
 the large vessel ? " what would be your reply ? That he was 
 the whole of those years thus occupied, Bedford (see his Chro- 
 nology, p. 21, note,) by comparing Gen. 6 : 3 with 1 Pet. 
 3 : 20, thinks to be very evident. But although the ark was 
 a vast structure, and was confessedly the work of years, yet it 
 has by more or less been imagined that a considerably shorter 
 period than the forementioned was abundantly sufficient for the 
 accomplishment of the task ; and they imagine that such a 
 length of time as the whole period of forbearance to be thus 
 occupied, would require a concurrence of miracles to prevent 
 that part of the vessel which was first built from suffering 
 decay ere the last part of it should be finished. As to the 
 time employed in providing the materials and in building it 
 we will not be able to come to a determinate conclusion until, 
 
92 "NOAH'S CARPENTERS." 
 
 especially, we can ascertain how many workmen, besides Noah 
 and his three sons, were occupied in its construction. You 
 have heard, we presume, the story about Noah's carpenters ; 
 how, though employed in building the ark, they did not enter 
 it ; helped others to the means of salvation whilst themselves, 
 through unbelief, perished. The like of which occurs even 
 at this day, numbers, by their contributions, helping others 
 to the means of grace, who, through the improvement of them, 
 enter first the gospel ark, and then heaven, whilst the former, 
 through unbelief, enter neither ; perish in their sins. 
 
 We hinted, we believe, before, that intimations were proba- 
 bly received by our patriarch, concerning the divine intention 
 to destroy mankind by a Deluge, years anterior to the time 
 in which he received a command from God to prepare an ark 
 for the saving of himself and household. Is it not note- 
 worthy, that Noah and family were saved by the same ele- 
 ment by which the rest of mankind perished ? the like of 
 which takes place in reference to the gospel ; which is a 
 savor of life to some, while it is a savor of death unto 
 others. 
 
 Was the ark, built by Noah, the first example of naval 
 architecture ? Did the art of the shipwright originate in this 
 remarkable structure ? We think not. It can scarcely be 
 believed that man had been so long on the earth, so vastly 
 multiplied as to numbers, and of course so extended as to 
 settlement, without a resort to some means, and convenient 
 means too, for crossing rivers and even seas. It is incredible 
 that the state of the arts should have been so low amongst 
 the antediluvians, with all the advantages which they enjoyed, 
 as that they should remain, up to the period under considera- 
 tion, destitute of all knowledge of an art with which the 
 most savage nations on the globe in modern times are not 
 unacquainted. Besides, the very instructions given to our 
 patriarch in regard to the making cf the ark, are of such a 
 character, so few and so general, as to imply that they were 
 
DATE OF NAVAL ARCHITECTURE. 03 
 
 addressed to one who would be at no loss as to the working out 
 or filling up of the details. So large a vessel, and answering, as 
 it would appear, so exactly the purpose for which it was de- 
 signed, and yet with such a paucity and vagueness of directions, 
 we may be assured, could not have been constructed by a 
 novice ; by one who had never before seen a floating building. 
 The progress of the arts among the antediluvians, of which 
 we have on a former occasion spoken, likewise forbids the 
 supposition that this was the first naval structure. But, 
 say you, if nautical craft had been previously in existence, 
 and the mariner's vocation understood, why did not mul- 
 titudes of the antediluvians avail themselves of these 
 facilities for escaping a watery grave ? A very rational 
 question, truly. The reply to it which we would give is, that 
 the same cause which kepft the Israelites so long out of 
 Canaan, and which keeps so many sinners in every age from 
 entering the ship that plies between earth and heaven, ope- 
 rated to prevent the inhabitants of the Old World from having 
 recourse to any means of escape from the inundation caused 
 by the descending torrents, and by the rapid rush of waters 
 already on the earth. They were overtaken unexpectedly ; 
 not so much from a want of antecedent warning, but from a 
 want of belief in the truth of the message that God had 
 caused to be borne to them. They perished just as sinners 
 in Christendom do now through unbelief. 
 
 Concerning what part of the world it was in which Noah 
 built the ark there has been some diversity of conjecture. 
 We say, conjecture for where Moses has given no direct 
 or definite information respecting matters so ancient, much 
 of what professes to be knowledge is better entitled to the 
 name of conjecture. One supposes, strangely enough, that 
 he built it in Palestine, and that he planted the cedars of 
 which he made it, in the plains of Sodom. Another conceives 
 it to have been built near Mount Caucasus, that outlying 
 member of the Asiatic highlands. A third, in China, where 
 5* 
 
94 THE WARNING, HOW PROMULGATED. 
 
 he imagines Noah dwelt before the flood. The greater num- 
 ber of writers appear to favor the idea that it was built in 
 Chaldea or Babylonia, where history relates that there was 
 so great a quantity of cypress, in the groves, in the time of 
 Alexander the Great, that that prince built a whole fleet out 
 of it, for want of other timber. And the conjecture appears 
 confirmed by the Chaldean tradition, which makes Xisuthrus 
 
 thought to be another name for Noah set sail from that 
 country. Bedford has a chapter, entitled, "Of the place 
 where Noah built the ark," (Chronology, chapter 9th). " The 
 place," says he, " where Noah and his family built the ark was 
 most probably in the land of Shinar, near the river Tigris on 
 the northeast side of Babylon ; " and he refers to Bochart's 
 Phaleg, lib. 1, ch. 4, in confirmation of his opinion. 
 
 In Gen. 6 : 8, we have the words, " With thee will I estab- 
 lish my covenant" words addressed by the Lord to our 
 patriarch. In them there is reference to an express arrange- 
 ment into which the Deity entered, to save Noah and the 
 other seven from the general ruin. This was said to him 
 immediately subsequent to his reception of the command and 
 directions in regard to the building of the ark ; and it served, 
 no doubt, to encourage and animate him in the commencement 
 and prosecution of so arduous and expensive an undertaking 
 
 and one which, as has been formerly intimated, would 
 subject him to much mockery and opposition. 
 
 We, a few evenings since, spoke of Noah's officiating as a 
 preacher of righteousness ; of his admonishing and warning 
 the inhabitants of the Old World, and calling them to repent- 
 ance. Now, if there were no others to promulgate the 
 intelligence and spread the warning, would not most of the 
 multitudinous and extended population of the globe have re- 
 mained ignorant and unwarned of what awaited them ? And, 
 had all received the monitory notice and urgent call to refor- 
 mation, of what avail would it have been if the Almighty 
 Sovereign had determined to destroy all mankind, with the 
 
RIGHTEOUS, HOW MANY. 95 
 
 * 
 
 bare exception of " the eight souls ? " To such interrogatories, 
 the response may be given That, had none beside Noah, 
 cordially and with dutiful assiduity, engaged in the tuitionary 
 and monitory work alluded to ; had the people of one neighbor- 
 hood, and then another, and still another, as they received the 
 information and warning from the lips of our patriarch, but 
 conversed and clamored about, and grumblingly and noisily 
 trumpeted forth what had been proclaimed to them by this 
 herald of God ; or, on the other hand, had the multitudes who 
 actually heard him, duly regarded his monitory utterances, 
 and wisely heeded and improved his warm and kindly intend- 
 ed calls, and made them the theme of conversation in tfre 
 company of all with whom they, one after another, came in 
 contact, why, then, some time ere the expiration of the one 
 hundred and twenty years, the substance of Noah's promul- 
 gations, it might be rationally believed, would have reached 
 the entire human family then occupying a place on the earth's 
 surface. And as to the second question, if, upon receiving 
 the intelligence, call, and warning, a general repentance and 
 reformation had ensued, the opinion may be indulged, that, as 
 in the case of Nineveh, (Jonah, 3d ch.,) a respite or release 
 from the threatened doom would have been granted. May 
 we not entertain the idea that, had even a few of them exer- 
 cised contrition, and, by faith, sought admission into the ark, 
 it would have been opened to as many as it could contain ? 
 and, moreover, that, if still larger numbers had, in humble 
 and penitent faith, prepared arks, they also might have been 
 preserved ? 
 
 In Genesis 6 : 8, 9, it is remarked, that " Noah found grace 
 in the eyes of the Lord ; and that he was a just or righteous 
 man, and perfect in his generations." As this language is 
 emphatic, and is apparently expressive of a peculiarity, you 
 may be tempted to inquire Was there at that time no 
 righteous man on the globe, excepting this patriarch ? no 
 human being beside, who enjoyed the divine favor? Our 
 
96 RIGHTEOUS, HOW 'MANY. 
 
 answer is No one, as the language seems clearly to inti- 
 mate, of the same generation with our patriarch, (Gen. 7:1); 
 no one born as late as he, excepting, of course, members of 
 his own family. We are, indeed, not informed by the record, 
 that any of " the eight souls " embraced in the covenant, so 
 " Jj* called in the eighteenth verse, was pious beside Noah himself. 
 Some infer, from the so individual character of the language 
 used, that no other than he was truly pious. We have been 
 accustomed to regard some of the rest, particularly Noah's 
 wife, and Shem and his wife, as, at that time, the subjects of 
 divine grace. We have also been disposed to look with 
 respect upon Japheth and his conjugal companion. There 
 are historic intimations, certainly, quite favorable to Japheth's 
 character ; that, for instance, in Genesis 9 : 23. 
 
 Noah's father was, probably, a righteous man ; and he, as 
 you were in a former Exercise told, lived until five years 
 before the flood. Noah's grandfather, Methuselah, may also 
 be believed to have been a renewed man, and a subject of the 
 divine favor ; and he lived, as you have heard, until the very 
 year of the deluge; yes, and to the very month perhaps 
 week. You remember, we formerly spoke of the meaning of 
 the name Methuselah, and that his father Enoch gave him 
 this name prophetically, as indicating that his death and the 
 coming of the flood should be simultaneous. Methuselah, 
 (from methu and sela,) has been understood to mean about 
 this : when he is dead, shall ensue an emission or inundation 
 of waters, to the destruction of the whole earth. This in- 
 genious conjecture of Bochart, in his Phaleg, may be con- 
 sidered as carrying with it more of the air of probability, 
 than any other account of his name. Not only did he die the 
 very year of the flood, but, Jewish writers will have it, seven 
 days before, referring to Genesis 7:10; and that he was 
 taken away from the evil to come. One Jew has chosen to 
 be even more minute as to the time of his removal. Let me, 
 as a morceau, give you this Jew's story. 
 
A CURIOUS STORT. 97 
 
 He relates that " when Noah had entered the ark, he stayed 
 there for some time, and the flood came not ; which, when he 
 perceived, he said unto God: O, thou Lord of the world, 
 wherefore hast thou brought me into the ark? either that 
 thou shouldst kill me, or that thou shouldst preserve me alive ? 
 And God answered him, That I might preserve thee alive. 
 And Noah said again, If it is so, why do we sit here in the 
 ark, and the flood doth not come ? It had been better* for us 
 to have tarried on the earth. And God answered again, and 
 said unto him, There is still one old man upon the earth who 
 is perfectly just, and for his sake the flood cannot come upon 
 the earth, as long as he lives. And Noah said again, O, 
 Lord of the world, who is that just man ? And God answer- 
 ed him, It is Methuselah, thy elder. And Noah said, Since 
 this is so, bring him in to us, that so the flood may come upon 
 the world, as thou hast said. And God answered, He shall 
 not live above a week, and when he is dead and buried, the 
 flood shall immediately follow. Within which space of time 
 Methuselah died, and the flood came accordingly." This 
 story is taken from Bedford's Chronology, closing part of 
 chapter 10. 
 
EVENING SEVENTH. 
 
 YOUNG GENTLEMEN : 
 
 We now enter, more directly, upon the consideration of an 
 interesting and thrilling portion of sacred history ; the most 
 remarkable physical event which, since man's creation, the 
 world has ever witnessed; and, contemplated in a moral 
 aspect, as an event occurring under the divine administration, 
 and with which God is represented as having, so to speak, 
 specially to do, it ought not only to excite our interest, but 
 deserves to be pondered thoroughly. The portion of history 
 to which we allude, is commenced in the seventh chapter of 
 Genesis and concluded in the eighth. You will not consider 
 me as asking too much, if I request you to have your Bibles 
 open before you at this part, for the sake of more easy and 
 ready reference. In relation to the event here brought 
 prominently to view, the truth of the history that narrates it 
 has been, especially of late, and is still, a good deal called in 
 question. 
 
 Some pious minds, even some biblical expounders, have 
 become alarmed at the promulgated results of geological 
 investigation, and, more especially, at the positiveriess and 
 boldness, in certain quarters, of geological hypothesis and 
 inference. That a portion of what is termed science, is 
 "science falsely so called," it requires, indeed, no large 
 amount of sagacity to discover. That skepticism has, of late 
 
DISTRUST OF GEOLOGY UNREASONABLE. 99 
 
 years, been greatly emboldened by the progress of geological 
 discovery, and has manifested a very strong anxiety to create, 
 and, in every way, magnify, at first sight apparent discrepan- 
 cies between science and revelation, or the works and the 
 word of God, we must have been actually asleep if we have 
 not discerned. And some pious readers and expositors of 
 Scripture, having been unwilling in the least to modify their 
 interpretation of the sacred history relating to the creation 
 and the deluge, have so doggedly set themselves against, and 
 resolutely decried, ascertained and settled geological facts 
 unhesitatingly denouncing them as fancies as, no doubt, to 
 increase the evil which they would wish to see suppressed; 
 as to confirm the before unconfirmed skeptic, and kindle 
 flickering unbelief into something more nearly approximating 
 a flame. 
 
 It is our ardent wish, that the friends of the Bible should 
 indulge no fears lest the progress of science, in any of its 
 departments, should tend to undermine the Christian fabric, 
 or ignore the sacred Scriptures as a divine revelation. From 
 the advancement of true science, we may justly expect to 
 derive important aid in arriving at a correct understanding 
 of different portions of the word of God. As Christians, hail 
 we, with more than stinted joy, every step taken on the 
 threshold, and to be taken in the interior of the great temple 
 of nature. It aids us in treading, with clearer, safer, firmer 
 step, and with a soul elevated and kindled into ravishment, 
 the more magnificent and beautiful temple of God's special 
 revelation. We have no sympathies, then, with the decriers 
 of geology, or of any other true science. We look for good, 
 and only good, finally to flow, from its every spring, to the 
 cause of that precious religion which the Holy Scriptures were 
 given, by the great Author of all good, to teach. That " a 
 little learning is a dangerous thing," was discovered before 
 the modern discoveries were made in geology and its cognates. 
 A smattering of a thing may leave the mind in a fog, encir- 
 
100 SCIENCE AND SCRIPTURE HARMONIOUS. 
 
 cled in which, it may run on some dangerous shoal or rock, 
 and founder or go to wreck ; but those who penetrate beyond, 
 without meeting with any disaster, will find a region of whole- 
 some atmosphere and clear sky, where the rays of nature and 
 revelation delightfully commingle, and prove to each other 
 subsidiary in constituting a bright and glorious day. 
 
 Within reach of the candid inquirer, there is ample inde- 
 pendent evidence, indeed, that the Bible is what it professes 
 to be : the Word of the living God. There is evidence 
 external, historical, from prophecy and miracle ; and there is 
 delightful evidence internal ; and, whilst the former is to be 
 held in high and grateful appreciation, we may say of this 
 latter, that the plain, unsophisticated, and sincere reader of 
 the sacred pages cannot help but find it, ay, and feel it too. 
 Many, such is their depravity, or perverse obstinacy, or 
 reckless obduracy, will not read in order to find either of the 
 kinds of evidence alluded to. You, young gentlemen, do not 
 need that we should stop in our historic course, or turn aside, 
 to deliver a series of lectures on the evidences in support of 
 the Scriptures as a divine revelation. You have not lived 
 to this day, or been the sons of such sires, without having 
 studied and become thoroughly, as well as intelligently, con- 
 vinced, that the Bible is neither a stupid nor a cunningly 
 devised fable. As to the true Christian and more than one 
 of you, we are happy to believe, is such he has, superadded, 
 experimental evidence, that our sacred volume is neither from 
 Satan nor wicked men. 
 
 Let what has been now dropped suffice on this head, only 
 adding, "Let God be true, but every man a liar; " and that 
 if any dogma or tenet, professing to be the result of scientific 
 investigation or discovery, contravene any plainly revealed or 
 correctly understood truth or fact taught in the Bible, the 
 former should not be received as true is not entitled to 
 credence. There may be a misinterpreting of parts of nature, 
 or of parts of revelation, one or both : if of either, a discrep- 
 
THE ARK ENTERED. 101 
 
 ancy of course will ensue ; there will be a want of harmony 
 in the opinions entertained or embraced ; truth and error will 
 come in conflict. In order to coalescence there must be a 
 review and a correction of the misinterpretation, on which- 
 soever side it lie. This being done, there will appear no 
 hostile or warring utterances between the two great things of 
 which God is alike the author : the volume of Nature, and 
 that inestimably precious volume which we call THE BIBLE. 
 He who addresses you thinks he has just as much reason to 
 believe the universe to be a lie, as he has to believe the con- 
 tents of the Bible to be but "old wives' fables" It is hardly 
 requisite to say, that he finds no reason to believe either. Let 
 us now proceed with the history. 
 
 The allotted period of the divine forbearance having ex- 
 pired, and the ark being ready, Noah is commanded by the 
 Lord to enter it, with his wife, his three sons, and their 
 wives, (ch. 7:1.) What else he was directed to introduce, 
 may be seen stated in the second and third verses. You dis- 
 cover, in the second verse, a distinction indicated between 
 beasts clean and unclean. Such distinction existed both 
 before and after the flood ; but, it would seem, not precisely 
 on the same ground. Before, the unclean were so 
 considered and called, solely because they were not to be used 
 for sacrifice ; after, because there were some which were not 
 to be made use of either for this purpose, or for food, (Lev. 
 11 ; Deut. 14.) 
 
 Wish to know you may, young gentlemen, how all the 
 living creatures which were to become inmates, together with 
 the provisions requisite for their sustenance, could be got 
 ready, and stored in the ark, so expeditiously. Michaelis has 
 advanced the opinion that our patriarch occupied much of the 
 one hundred and twenty years of forbearance and warning in 
 collecting these together. But we might then ask, how 
 without a special revelation could Noah have ascertained that 
 his collection was complete ? Arid how, without an incredible 
 
102 THE NOACHIC DELUGE BEGUN. 
 
 knowledge of Natural History, could he have avoided over- 
 charging his vessel with specimens of varieties of the same 
 species of animal ? Is it not much more credible, as well as 
 much more in accordance with other parts of the transaction, 
 to suppose that the various living things which were intended 
 for the ark, were preternaturally guided to this their destined 
 place of shelter ? 
 
 At the end of seven days the intermediate period being 
 allowed for the admittance and arrangement of every thing 
 in their appropriate places in the floating edifice the 
 heavens began to pour down rain, and those portions of the 
 globe where the waters were stored to pour forth their liquid 
 treasures over the before dry land, (ch. 7 : 11.) The first of 
 these you observe to be expressed in the highly figurative 
 and beautiful, but peculiar phraseology, " the windows of 
 heaven were opened." The original term tvo^ia aruboth 
 being applied to such windows as are made of lattice work, 
 Prof. Bush, from this circumstance, in connection with the 
 declaration of their being opened, makes the language imply 
 that the water, instead of gently descending in drops, as if 
 mada to percolate through a net-work medium, fell in tor- 
 rents like waterspouts, as if the windows had been opened for 
 this purpose on hinges, and every obstruction were removed. 
 If this be not fanciful, then the marginal rendering of " sluices 
 or flood-gates," though wholly paraphrastic, is well suited to" 
 the idea. This intensive interpretation of the phraseology 
 just quoted, and that which is given by the same expositor to 
 the language respecting the " breaking up of the fountains of 
 the deep," do not, indeed, as we may have occasion here- 
 after to see, accord with the tranquil theory of some dis- 
 tinguished modern geologists. We will here merely drop 
 the remark, that it would not greatly surprise us, if, after a 
 pretty thorough examination of the modus of the flood's 
 occurrence, you should find yourselves favorably inclined to 
 the opinion that the truth somewhere interlies the two ex- 
 
AT WHAT TIME OF THE TEAR. 103 
 
 tremes. That strong expression, " the fountains of the great 
 deep were broken up," indicates that all the waters of the 
 globe, wherever those vast liquid stores lay, were lifted and 
 made to overspread the previously dry portions of the earth. 
 We are not necessitated to entertain that unphilosophical no- 
 tion of many of the old writers, that the phrase " fountains of 
 the great deep " denotes a vast ocean or numerous minor but 
 very large bodies of water situated in the interior of the 
 earth ; and the event predicated of them to mean the belching 
 out of these upon the before desiccate surface. The phrase- 
 ology is adapted to popular impressions on the subject, and 
 imports in general that the waters issued from their ocean- 
 beds, and other terrestrial repositories, and overspread the in- 
 habited dry land. 
 
 It utterly and immeasurably surpasses all possibility for 
 the human mind, in its extremest stretch, to conceive of the 
 stupendousness as well as fearfulness of the occurrence so 
 summarily but sublimely stated in Gen. 7: 11. We shall 
 act more wisely and profitably, young gentlemen, in contem- 
 plating it with wonder and awe, than by the labored employ 
 of a multitude of words in bootless efforts to explain it. 
 
 There is specific mention made, by the prime historian, 
 of the period of the year when the Noachian Flood com- 
 menced, (ch. 7 : 11) ; but as the year began differently in 
 Noah's and in Moses' time from what it does in ours, perhaps 
 you may not all feel prepared at once to say to what part 
 exactly of our year " the second month and seventeenth day of 
 the month " of the sacred historian, corresponds. Who among 
 you will volunteer an opinion ? If you all are too modest, 
 the speaker must offer one. The Israelites had their ecclesi- 
 astical or sacred year, and their civil year. The former com- 
 menced with the month Nisan, alias Abib, agreeing with 
 parts of March and April. The latter, which alone prevailed 
 among them prior to their departure from Egypt, began with 
 Tisri which, according to what may perhaps be accounted 
 
104 CIRCUMSTANCES RECOUNTED. 
 
 the best authorities, commenced about the time of the 
 autumnal equinox, i. e. about the 20th of September. The 
 " seventeenth day of the second month " (Marchesvan) would 
 accordingly correspond with our 6th of November. 
 
 On that day the rain began to fall, which continued falling 
 for forty days and nights in succession, (12th verse,) that is ? 
 until the 16th of December. At the same time the earth's 
 watery treasures began to move from their accustomed repos- 
 itories, in order to the accomplishment of the fearful deter- 
 mination of the Deity. 
 
 At the end of one hundred and fifty days, (five months 
 from the commencement of the Deluge,) the ark, on the 
 7th month and 17th day of the month, found some sort 
 of repose. On the 10th month and 1st day of the month, 
 the mountain tops became visible. On the llth month and 
 llth day of the month, the raven was sent forth. On the 
 18th, and again on the 25th of the same month, the dove was 
 sent out, which returned. On the 12th month, and 2d day of 
 the month, the dove was again sent out, which returned not. 
 On the 601st year, that is, of Noah's age, the 1st month and 
 1st day of the month, the waters were dried up from off the 
 surface, the body of the earth still being saturated with 
 water. On the 2d month of the last mentioned year, and 
 27th day of the month, the ground being fully dried, Noah 
 and family made their egress from the ark. The aggregate 
 period that these were in the floating vessel you thus perceive 
 to have been one year and ten days. If the seven days of 
 preparatory arrangement, immediately preceding the com- 
 mencing rain's descent, be included, then the whole time 
 would be a year and seventeen days. 
 
 And did not those seven days discourse so eloquently of 
 the nearing judgment of God, and of the fearful perils of the 
 ungodly, as to move at least some of them to cry for mercy 
 and earnestly seek protection ? "Whilst the solemn and 
 striking spectacle of the animals in succession, and then of 
 
THE UNGODLY HOW AFFECTED. 105 
 
 the Noachic family, passing into the ark was presented to 
 their gaze, was no salutary impression produced on the 
 superlatively wicked multitude who witnessed it ? It would 
 seem not, not the least. Or if any of the crowd began to 
 feel some qualms of conscience, or some misgiving apprehen- 
 sions, these were too slight, or too late, to be of any avail for 
 their succor. "And the Lord shut him in," (ch. 7 : 16). Af- 
 ter the waters had actually commenced rushing from their 
 aerial and earthly repositories, numbers for the moment might 
 have crowded toward the rising vessel, importunate for that 
 admission which they had before slighted. But too late ! 
 An immovable barricade forbade all farther ingress. And 
 the rapidly rising, rushing tide would allow but an awful 
 shriek, and all is over ! 
 
 If the advance of the commencing flood was slow enough 
 to admit of it, then those deeply solemn and affecting scenes 
 would have been witnessed, descriptions of which have prob- 
 ably fallen under your notice of animals and men in the 
 various localities, the numerous and widely extended portions 
 of the globe where they dwelt, fleeing in awful affright 
 and dismay to high and still higher eminences for safety or 
 escape, as the rising, threatening tide in altitude progressed. 
 Here are a few descriptive touches of the kind alluded to : 
 " The various tribes of creatures were driven, day by day 
 from one resource to another, until none was left. The men 
 who hoped that the waters would soon subside, or whose re- 
 treat from their towns and villages was cut off by the sur- 
 rounding waters, may be conceived to have retreated to the 
 towers and the trees, watching with horror the gradual rise of 
 the waters, and dropping off, one by one, in fatigue and want, 
 from the extremest boughs into the encroaching flood, even 
 before its waters reached them. For those who retreated 
 to the high lands, there was even a more terrible lot 
 than for those whom the waters soonest slew. Thousands, 
 who had succeeded in reaching the mountains, must have 
 
106 THE MELANCHOLY SCENE. 
 
 perished with hunger, even before the waters swept off the 
 miserable remnant of their numbers. With them, how soon 
 did the joy of escape to a station of fancied safety from the 
 waters, give place to the consciousness that they were without 
 food or the means of obtaining any, upon the mountains, and 
 must speedily perish there unless the waters soon subsided. 
 But they did not subside. They rose ; and, in their rise, 
 narrowed, day by day, the area of possible existence. The 
 young and tender died the aged died men in their 
 strength died till at last, some sole survivor, who had seen 
 all the dear companions of his prime perish before his eyes, 
 stood alone upon the mountain, and rushed to meet the flood in 
 his frenzy, or sunk into it in the listlessness of his despair." 
 
 If the waters of the deluge did rise slowly and the 
 period which the history allows for them to reach their cul- 
 minating point affords a plausible ground for the belief that they 
 did then this picture is not overdrawn. Then the horrors 
 of the scene or scenes presented immeasurably surpass all 
 power of description. And if, indeed, on the other hand, as 
 others believe, the tide rose with such rapidity or suddenness, 
 as almost instantaneously to render all flight to fancied places 
 of security impossible then, too, it is not in the power of 
 words to convey an adequate description of the terrors of 
 the scene. Then what countless simultaneous death-struggles ; 
 then what an aggregated, measureless, horrific death-groan of 
 an expiring world ! Had you a sufficiently broad-sweeping 
 vision to survey at a glance the globe, we might ask you to 
 tell us, where, among the countless myriads of previously 
 living things overspreading the earth, there is to be discovered, 
 outside barely of the Noaehic receptacle, one, one, retaining 
 life. Sunk beneath the mighty waters, all ! From his ark 
 our second father looks out upon universal desolation ! Sin 
 and unbelief what have ye done ? God is just ! Ay, and 
 merciful too merciful to them that believe ! They find 
 safety ride securely over the billowy deep ! Behold the 
 
THE PATRIARCH'S EMOTIONS. 107 
 
 * 
 
 goodness and severity of God ! Is sin a small evil ? Is un- 
 belief a safe one ? " And to whom sware he that they should 
 not enter into his rest but to them that believed not ? So we 
 see that they could not enter in because of unbelief." Let 
 them fear and repudiate it who would not perish. Is faith or 
 piety a vain thing ? What else put and preserved that son 
 of Lamech in the floating vessel ? And what else puts any 
 human souls in heaven ? 
 
 Can we, young gentlemen, barely cast our eye over the brief 
 simple narrative of that vast diluvial destruction of life, with a 
 heart void of welling emotion ? And think you that our 
 patriarch could have been an eyewitness, as it were, of the 
 wide death-struggle, and heard the groans and shrieks of a 
 dying world a simultaneous sighing out of universal life 
 with no stirring impulses ? especially, when, among that 
 innumerable throng crowding the gates of death, were not a 
 few near relatives of his own ; probably, as we have formerly 
 hinted, even a considerable number of his own earlier born 
 sons and daughters ! At the same time we cannot say that 
 there was in his soul any warring against the administration 
 of the Universal Sovereign. His language, doubtless, over 
 the boundless desolation wa?, " Righteous art thou, O Lord, 
 and upright are thy judgments." 
 
 You, no doubt, as well as myself, have witnessed in certain 
 quarters, wondrous ebullitions of sympathy and commiseration 
 for the destroyed ; and heard from their lips exclamations of 
 amazement at the reported conduct of the Destroyer. They 
 cannot reconcile such a procedure with the ideas they have 
 been accustomed to entertain of the Supreme Being. What 
 wonderful concern for his honor ! And several of these 
 sympathetic and compassionate souls are so staggered at, 
 that they absolutely cannot be so weak or credulous as to be- 
 lieve the alleged history, in which this so-called narrative is 
 contained, to be true. Their reason and all their better im- 
 pulses compel them to think either that Moses did not write 
 
108 INFIDEL CAVIL. 
 
 this story, or else that he was somehow deceived, and under 
 this deception was led to ascribe to the Almighty's agency 
 what he had naught to do with ; or, that the writer had been 
 misinformed in regard to an event, which, though related to 
 him as having occurred in the time of his predecessors, yet 
 never happened, at least except in a very circumscribed de- 
 gree ; a very limited inundation, such as has often occurred 
 since those early times ! 
 
 Now we shall not turn apologists for God ; he needs no 
 apology for his conduct from us ; is fully able to sustain his 
 own honor, vindicate his own character. Nor are our kind 
 offices vastly needed to maintain the correctness of Moses' 
 knowledge or statements. We would prefer commending to 
 scoffers and skeptics to read the Bible a good deal more than 
 they have ever yet done ; and with more of a modicum of the 
 candor that they have ever yet brought to the perusal of our 
 Sacred Book. And if any superaddition, in the way of 
 counsel, be requisite, wo would recommend to them the ex- 
 amination of some of the more able of the many treatises on 
 the Evidences of the Authenticity and Inspiration of the 
 Holy Scriptures ; of both which we mean the Scriptures 
 and the Treatises they may safely be affirmed to be dis- 
 creditably ignorant. 
 
 Cavillers have appeared to be particularly distressed at 
 the thought, that young children, who confessedly had done 
 no evil, should, and in such vast numbers too, be cut off 
 along with the adult population. Now to this, a word in 
 response. " All souls are mine," says God ; and if he choose 
 to take any to himself ere they have made a long tarry in the 
 body, no one has any right to find fault. The children 
 alluded to were very kindly dealt with in being exalted to 
 the divine abode, in lieu of being left to grow up under 
 deleterious and ruinous parental and social influences, such 
 as they would have risen up from childhood to maturity 
 under, had no deluge occurred. Besides : More than a sin- 
 
THE DISPENSATION NOT UNRIGHTEOUS. 109 
 
 gle miracle would have been requisite to preserve the infantile 
 whilst the adult population were destroyed; and to sustain 
 them through childhood and adolescence, without human 
 adult instrumentalities employed in their sustentation. The 
 removal of such a number in the dawn of being, though from 
 the prison to the palace, was indeed an administrative act 
 solemn in its character. But let not God be charged fool- 
 ishly. To us or others no great share of mental discernment 
 can be justly attributed, if we or they cannot discover wisdom 
 and benevolence to have been prominent qualities of the dis- 
 pensation. No, no. The broad besom of Omnipotence did 
 not sweep the world of its entire living tenantry, causelessly, 
 wantonly. " Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right ? " 
 Nor, as we may well believe, was this thing done without a 
 great struggle first, in the heart of God, between Justice and 
 Mercy. The occurrence, viewed as an act of divine admin- 
 istration, would have worn a very different aspect, had no in- 
 timation or warning been beforehand given to the guilty 
 population of the globe, of Jehovah's displeasure with their 
 wickedness, together with his intention to destroy them, and 
 at such a specific period, unless by repentance and reforma- 
 tion they should avert the doom. We have heard how 
 assiduous and faithful was God's servant Noah, in instructing, 
 remonstrating with, and warning the people. And whose 
 fault was it but their own, if they did not profit by the min- 
 istrations ? Nor do we feel disposed peremptorily to declare 
 that absolutely all did fail in this particular. In the interval 
 of one hundred and twenty years, whilst many must have 
 died, may not some of that number have been deeply, and to 
 themselves advantageously, impressed by what of truth and 
 counsel fell from the lips of the " preacher of righteousness," 
 and by the threatened judgments of an offended God ? 
 
EVENING EIGHTH. 
 
 YOUNG GENTLEMEN: 
 
 You will have no objection, we suppose, to hear the form of 
 prayer which Noah is said to have used whilst he and his fam- 
 ily were tenanting the ark. It is not necessary to say, that it 
 was not sent down to us by Noah ; and that Moses has left 
 no statement about it ; but " some Oriental writers." How 
 they knew just after what manner he prayed, or exactly what 
 words he employed, you will excuse us from telling you, for a 
 reason which you will deem satisfactory : because we do not 
 know, and have no means of knowing. The form runs thus : 
 " O Lord, thou art truly great, and there is nothing so great 
 as that it can be compared to thee. Look upon us with an 
 eye of mercy, and deliver us from the deluge of waters. I 
 entreat this of thee for the love of Adam, the first man ; for 
 the love of Abel, thy saint ; for the righteousness of Seth, 
 whom thou hast loved. Let us not be reckoned in the num- 
 ber of those who have disobeyed thy commandments ; but still 
 extend thy merciful care to us, because thou hast hitherto been 
 our deliverer, and all thy creatures shall declare thy praise. 
 Amen." It is brief, you see, and has in it a measure of 
 appropriateness. Many have not been so felicitous in the 
 choice of words. Noah, who had "walked with God" before 
 the deluge, no doubt was engaged much in directly devotional 
 exercise during its prevalence, and whilst in his floating 
 
NOAH HOW OCCUPIED IN THE ARX. Ill 
 
 house ; but as, under the circumstances, his heart must have 
 been so full of emotion, as well as his intellect of thought, and 
 as out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh, it 
 is very improbable that he confined himself to any such sum- 
 mary form of prayer ; and, not less so, that he offered suppli- 
 cation unto God, and asked for mercy and safe deliverance, 
 only for the love of Adam and Abel, and for the righteousness 
 of Seth. 
 
 Think, young gentlemen, of the strange situation, for a 
 year and more, in which this man of God was placed. How 
 much to arouse his mind and move his heart ! If he had not 
 crowds of great and solemn thoughts, and warm and big 
 emotions, he then was not the man we take him to have 
 been. If our patriarch had been a very good, but a weak 
 man one of small mental calibre, or destitute of the quali- 
 ties in general which constitute what may be called a great 
 and efficient man it is reasonable to think, that God would 
 have never committed or entrusted so much, and matters of 
 unspeakable moment pertaining both to the Old and New 
 World, to his execution, care, or management. Among the 
 numerous themes which would naturally occupy the great 
 mind of such a man, whilst in his big vessel, upon the wide, 
 watery waste, would be the amazing greatness, power, wis- 
 dom, holiness, justice of God ; the character and practices of 
 the population of the Old World ; the evil and demerit of 
 sin ; the state of the recently living millions of the globe, 
 and what must ensue to them whilst traversing the long line 
 of a future interminable being ; together with the amazingly, 
 unaccountably distinguishing providential and gracious conduct 
 of the Lord Almighty toward himself and the seven others 
 the sole survivors of the myriads of Adam's progeny 
 sheltered from even the fear of evil. And in conjunction 
 with or as immediate sequences of such thoughts, what fervid 
 and expanded feelings must have come thickly looming up 
 from his inmost soul. 
 
112 THE EIGHT WHY PRESERVED. 
 
 Wide of the truth in our conceptions would we get, were 
 we to conceive that the second father of our race found his 
 life, whilst in the floating house, a dull, stagnant one. Besides 
 the interesting and busy occupation which his soul in all its 
 faculties found whilst a moving dweller on the mighty deep 
 
 besides the abundant intellectual and emotional products 
 to which it gave birth the physical man was not exempt 
 from all occasion for the taxing of its energies, or the putting 
 forth of its activities ; and this not in the case of Noah ex- 
 clusively, but of the whole family. The appetites and what 
 pertained to the health and comfort of subhuman cotenants 
 
 bird, beast, reptile would make such demands, neces- 
 sarily, on other than the mental powers, that there was no 
 danger of time hanging heavy on their hands, or appearing 
 to move sluggishly. Busy hands make busy wings. 
 
 Bather a mysterious or strange proceeding it may to some 
 appear, that the Infinite King should have chosen to remove 
 all of mankind, except eight persons, from the earth, and yet 
 not the whole. As the Omnipotent could so easily have 
 created an entirely new and holy race of intelligent beings, 
 why did he not choose to remove all of the apostate family of 
 man, in preference to what he did ? It would, as one of the 
 apparently least benefits resulting from it, have saved that 
 vast expenditure of time, property, and labor incurred in the 
 construction of the ark, and the replenishing of it with, and 
 the support for so considerable a period of its numerous 
 animal tenantry. As for Noah and any members of his 
 household that were pious, these, it might be said, could, by 
 the Sovereign Disposer, have been transferred from this low, 
 dark vale, to glory's lustrous summits, immediately before the 
 submerging judgment was caused to visit the globe. 
 
 Jehovah could indeed, without any great draught on his 
 almightiness, have brought into existence a new and holy 
 race in the room of the apostate and corrupt species of 
 creatures which had so failed to answer the great end for 
 
GENESIS REAL HISTORY. 113 
 
 which God's fingers formed them ; but there was no greater 
 reason why he should have taken this course now, than 
 immediately subsequent to our first parents' fall. Besides, 
 he had early committed himself against this course. The 
 fulfilment of the First Promise would forbid the destruc- 
 
 \ 
 
 tion of the entire human race. The purposed manifestation 
 of certain features of his own infinitely glorious character, 
 moreover, would preclude it. Neither in our first nor second 
 father's time would God suffer Satan utterly to defeat his 
 great end in bringing into existence mankind. It may also 
 be added that Infinite Wisdom preferred taking advantage of 
 the stock of knowledge and experience of our patriarch in 
 the founding of a new world. 
 
 As the Biblical account of the Noachic cataclysm is be- 
 fore you, there is no call for a rehearsal of all the particulars, 
 relative to this memorable occurrence, which are there given. 
 But, says growing and emboldened incredulity, Did an event, 
 corresponding in all its features with this account, ever occur ? 
 There are, perhaps, greater numbers in our day than there 
 have been in any preceding age, who seem not backward 
 about saying, in reply to such a question, No. This is in 
 substance a denial, either that Moses wrote this account ; that 
 he was a credible and inspired writer ; or, that he meant the 
 first eight or ten chapters of Genesis to be taken in the light 
 of literal history. This leads us to remark, in reference to 
 the part of the Bible now before us, what we have previously 
 said in relation to the entire Book, that, as you did not, at 
 the outset, prefer such a request, so we cannot consent to 
 pause in our prescribed course, to deliver a series of lectures 
 in proof of these several points. Nor, as the evidences in re- 
 gard to these are so ably and amply presented in numerous 
 accessible works, is such a thing at all requisite. That the 
 writer of the earlier chapters of Genesis intended what he 
 wrote to be understood in the light of myth, allegory, or poetry, 
 common sense, to say nothing more, rejects the idea. Dog- 
 
114 REMARKS ON RIGHT INTERPRETATION. 
 
 matic as to some, not to you, it may appear, we are willing 
 with confidence to aver, that the scribe who drafted that doc- 
 ument designed to throw from his pen naught other than plain, 
 unsophisticated, sober history. Figurative phraseology is 
 indeed not wholly abstained from ; and a speaking according 
 to appearances, instead of philosophically or scientifically, we 
 find. It should not, we think, be regarded as inconsonant 
 with the honor of God's word, that its references to natural 
 objects should be, in the character of thought and expression, 
 such as comported with the conceptions, impressions, grade 
 of knowledge, of the age in which they are delivered. The 
 Sacred Scriptures deal not in scientific or logical distinctions 
 or rigid definitions. They were addressed to the heart and 
 understanding in popular forms of speech, such as the mass 
 of men could readily comprehend. Thus the sun is spoken 
 of as rising and setting ; and when language of this sort is 
 met with, we, of this age, do not suppose it to be used with 
 astronomical correctness, but only according to appearances. 
 The great object of Scripture being to teach the world reli- 
 gious truth, not to serve as a text-book of science, the lan- 
 guage employed to describe natural phenomena must have 
 been adapted to the state of knowledge among the people to 
 whom the Scripture was addressed. You perceive then how 
 there may occur instances of apparent contradiction between 
 the statements of Science and Revelation. The latter may 
 describe phenomena according to apparent truth ; whilst the 
 former describes the same according to the actual truth. Had 
 the language of Revelation been scientifically accurate, it 
 would have defeated the object for which the Scriptures were 
 given ; for it must have anticipated scientific discovery, and 
 therefore have been unintelligible to those ignorant of such 
 discoveries. Or, if these had been explained by Inspiration, 
 the Bible would have become a text-book in physical science, 
 rather than a guide to duty and eternal life. Since, then, 
 Science and Revelation treat of the same subjects but inci- 
 
TRADITIONAL EVIDENCE OF THE DELUGE. 115 
 
 dentally, " we ought," as the respected author of the "Reli- 
 gion of Geology " observes, " only to expect that the facts 
 of science, rightly understood, should not contradict the 
 statements of revelation, correctly interpreted" It is, young 
 gentlemen, too much to expect of finite, fallible humanity, 
 that all misconception or misinterpretation of every thing, 
 either in the department of nature or of Scripture, should have 
 been wholly avoided ; and equally too much to expect that it 
 will all speedily end. There are men we would say it 
 kindly who are exceedingly tenacious of the opinions they 
 have embraced, however hastily, from how insufficient exam- 
 ination or data soever these opinions have been formed. The 
 men alluded to, act or feel, in reference to said opinions, as if 
 they were infallible, could not possibly have fallen into a 
 mistake. There will be, especially with some of these men, a 
 very tardy abandonment of confidence in their infallibility. 
 Hence we look for the clashing of arms, the maintenance of 
 conflict between portions of the interpreters or rather misin- 
 terpreters referred to, not wholly to subside for some time to 
 come. But this digression has been extended beyond what 
 was designed. 
 
 If the Bible contain a divine revelation, a thing which 
 we fully, firmly, and, as we think, on thoroughly examined 
 evidence, believe, then its statements its correctly un- 
 derstood, rightly interpreted statements need no confirma- 
 tion from extraneous or foreign sources ; from natural or from 
 traditional utterances. Yet it is possible for our confidence in 
 the correctness of our interpretation of a scriptural document 
 or statement, to receive confirmation or strength, when na- 
 ture's or tradition's testimony is of like import with it. 
 
 If such a remarkable event did transpire as that of the 
 scripturally reported Noachian Deluge, although the number 
 surviving the catastrophe, to transmit it, was small, yet we 
 would naturally expect that some notices of it would, by 
 
116 TRADITIONAL EVIDENCE OF THE DELUOE. 
 
 tradition or orally, be handed down from one generation to 
 another, and more or less extend to different portions of the 
 descendants of the Noachic family. And so we find it. 
 Traditions there are existing, in various, not only contiguous, 
 but widely distant, nations of the globe, more or less distinct, 
 relating to this stupendous physical occurrence this unpar- 
 alleled and marvellous inundation. We say, relating to this; 
 for, upon their presentation, you will be able to trace such 
 features as will leave your mind in no dubiety as to their 
 primary derivation, or appropriate reference. You will 
 observe, a thing which we would naturally expect, that 
 these traditions mostly partake less and less of distinctness, 
 in proportion as we recede from the quarter of the world 
 where the ark rested. But, in giving an abstract of these 
 traditions, it is difficult to decide where it is best to begin. 
 This, however, is, perha'ps, a matter of no great moment. 
 
 Our mind runs, naturally, first to the Orient, there being 
 the theatre of those particular occurrences specified by the 
 inspired narrator, respecting the deluge. Suppose we com- 
 mence with Chaldea. The tradition of that country runs 
 thus: "The god Chronus appeared to Xisuthrus in a 
 vision, and warned him, that, on the fifteenth day of the 
 month Daesius, there would occur an inundation, by which 
 the race of man would be destroyed. He therefore ordered 
 him to build a vessel, and into it to take with him his friends 
 and connections ; and to convey every thing essential to the 
 sustaining of life on board ; together with specimens of all 
 the different living creatures, birds and quadrupeds ; and to 
 trust himself fearlessly to the deep. In compliance with 
 these directions, Xisuthrus constructed a vessel, in length 
 five stadia, (i. e., about three-fourths of a mile,) and two 
 stadia in breadth. Into this he collected every thing he had 
 prepared, and last of all entered it himself, with his wife, 
 children, and friends. After the flood had been upon the 
 
TRADITIONAL EVIDENCE OP THE DELUGE. 117 
 
 earth, and was in time abated, Xisuthrus sent out birds from 
 the vessel, which, finding no food or place for rest, returned 
 to him. After the lapse of some days, he sent them forth 
 again, and they returned with their feet tinged with mud. 
 He, subsequently, made with them a third trial, and they 
 returned no more : from which he inferred that the surface 
 of the earth had appeared above the waters. He according- 
 ly made an opening in the vessel, and, on looking out, found 
 that it was stranded upon a mountain, which he afterwards 
 ascertained to be in the land of Armenia." (See Cory's 
 Ancient Fragments for it in full.) 
 
 Berosus, a Chaldean priest, who lived two hundred and 
 seventy years before Christ, gathered from traditions exist- 
 ing in his region the following. After stating that before the 
 flood there was a great city of giants, called Aeno, situated 
 near Libanus, who governed the whole world, his account pro- 
 ceeds thus : " There was one among the giants who reverenced 
 the gods, and was more wise and prudent than all the rest ; 
 his name was Noa ; he dwelt in Syria, with his three sons, 
 Sem, Japet, Cham, and their wives, the great Tidea, Pandora, 
 Noea and Noegla. This man, fearing the destruction which 
 he foresaw from the stars would come to pass, began in the 
 seventy-eighth year before the inundation, to build a ship 
 covered like an ark. Seventy-eight years from the time he 
 began to build this ship, the ocean of a sudden broke out, 
 and all the inland seas and the rivers and fountains bursting 
 from beneath, (attended with the most violent rains from 
 heaven for many days,) overflowed all the mountains ; so 
 that the whole human race was buried in the waters, except 
 Noa and his family, who were saved by means of the ship ; 
 which being lifted up by the waters, rested at last upon the 
 top of the Glordyaean mountain, of which it is reported, there 
 now remaineth some part, and that men take away the bitu- 
 men from it, and make use of it by way of a charm, or expia- 
 6* 
 
118 TRADITIONAL EVIDENCE OF THE DELUGE. 
 
 tion to avert evil. We must therefore allow from these 
 premises, that which both the Chaldeans and Scythians write 
 of, that after the earth was dried from the waters, there were 
 no more than the above mentioned eight persons in Armenia, 
 and that from these all men upon earth sprung ; and for this 
 reason it is, that the Scythians justly call Noa the father of 
 all the greater and lesser gods, the author of the human race, 
 the chaos, and seed of the world." 
 
 Among the ancient Persians was likewise found the tradi- 
 tion of a general deluge. Alluded to only wildly is the 
 subject in the Zendavesta ; but among the ancient books of 
 the Parsees who inherit the worship and notions of the 
 ancient Persians is one which states that the world having 
 been corrupted by Ahriman, the evil one, it was thought 
 necessary to bring over the world a universal flood of waters, 
 that all impurity might be washed away. Accordingly the 
 rain came down in drops as large as the head of a bull, until 
 the earth was wholly covered with water to the height of a 
 man, and all the khaufaters (the creatures of the evil one) 
 perished. The waters then gradually subsided, and first the 
 mountains and then the plains appeared once more. In this 
 tradition there is the deficiency of a family preserved in an 
 ark, which we find in even remoter regions. But it is stated 
 that after the flood there was a new creation of men and 
 animals. 
 
 The ancient Egyptians were manifestly not unacquainted 
 with the doctrine of a general deluge, though the details of 
 their belief have not been transmitted to us. The Egyptian 
 historian Manetho, as quoted by Syncellus and Eusebius, 
 speaks of certain inscribed pillars, which were set up by the 
 Thoth, the first Hermes, and the inscriptions on which were 
 after the deluge transcribed into books. Plato also states in 
 his Timceus, that having questioned a certain Egyptian priest 
 on the subject, he was informed that the gods, wishing to 
 
TRADITIONAL EVIDENCE OF THE DELUGE. 119 
 
 purify the earth by water, overwhelmed it by a deluge. On 
 this occasion certain shepherds and herdsmen were saved 
 upon the tops of the mountains ; but those who dwelt in 
 towns were swept away by the rising waters. Whether this 
 statement applied to the general deluge might indeed admit 
 of doubt, were it not that the religion of the ancient 
 Egyptians abounds in Noachic memorials, which fix the true 
 purport of such statements. From another source also we 
 gather the following : The Noah of Egypt appears to have 
 been Osiris. Typhon, a personification of the sea, enticed 
 him into an ark, which being closed, he was forced to sea ; 
 and it is a curious fact, that he embarked on the 17th day 
 of the month Athyr, the very day, most probably, when 
 Noah entered the ark. 
 
 The famous tradition of Deucalion's deluge, as preserved 
 among the Greeks, has so close a coincidence with that of 
 Noah, that the accounts possessed by us seem to read like 
 amplified reports of the record in Genesis. Philo, the Alex- 
 andrian Jew, who was well acquainted with both sacred and 
 pagan literature, plainly affirms that Deucalion was Noah. 
 His words (translated) are, " The Grecians call him Deuca- 
 lion, but the Chaldeans style him Noah ; in whose time there 
 happened the great eruption of waters." Another author 
 says (in Gr.), "O Noe Xisouthros para Chaldaios." Of this 
 deluge of Deucalion we have two accounts : one by Lucian, 
 and another by Ovid. That by the last named is the most 
 poetical, as well as the most full in descriptive details ; 
 whilst that of the first mentioned is most consistently in 
 agreement with the Mosaic details throughout. As your 
 countenances express a desire to hear them, we will present 
 you with an abstract of each. 
 
 After giving an account of the giants assailing heaven by 
 piling mountains on mountains, and then of the " impious, 
 arrogant, and cruel brood " that sprung out of the " impreg- 
 
120 TRADITIONAL EVIDENCE OF THE DELUGE. 
 
 nant earth " from their blood, the Roman poet, Ovid, pro- 
 ceeds (Dry den's translation) to say, 
 
 " But Jove 
 
 Concludes to pour a wat'ry deluge down, 
 And what lie durst not burn, concludes to drown. 
 
 Impetuous rain descends ; 
 Nor from his patrimonial heaven alone 
 Is Jove content to pour his vengeance down : 
 Aid from his brother of the seas he craves, 
 To help him with auxiliary waves. 
 Then with his mace the monarch struck the ground, 
 And rising storms a ready passage found. 
 Now seas and earth were in confusion lost, 
 A world of waters and without a coast. 
 A mountain of stupendous height there stands 
 Betwixt the Athenian and Bseotian lands, 
 Parnassus is its name ; whose forky rise 
 Mounts through the clouds and mates the lofty skies ; 
 High on the summit of this dubious cliff, 
 Deucalion wafting moored his little skiff. 
 He with his wife were only left behind, 
 Of perished man ; they two were human kind ; 
 The most upright of mortal man was he, 
 The most sincere and holy woman she, 
 When Jupiter, surveying earth from high, 
 Beheld it in a lake of waters lie 
 He loosed the northern wind ; fierce Boreas flies 
 To puff away the clouds and purge the skies." 
 
 [Ovid's Metam. lib. 1.] 
 
 Lucian's account, which may in distinction from the former 
 be also called the Grecian, is on this wise : " The present 
 race of mankind are different from those who first existed ; 
 for those of the antediluvian world were all destroyed. The 
 present world is peopled from the sons of Deucalion ; having 
 increased to so great a number from one person. In respect 
 to the former brood, they were men of violence, and lawless 
 in their dealings. They regarded not oaths, nor observed the 
 rites of hospitality, nor showed mercy to those who sued for. 
 it. On this account they were doomed to destruction ; and, 
 for this purpose, there was a mighty eruption of waters from 
 
TRADITIONAL EVIDENCE OF THE DELUGE. 121 
 
 the earth, attended with heavy showers from above, so that 
 the rivers swelled, and the sea overflowed, till the whole 
 earth was covered with a flood, and all flesh drowned. Deu- 
 calion alone was preserved to re-people the world. This 
 mercy was shown him on account of his justice and piety. 
 His preservation was effected in this manner : He put all his 
 family, both his sons and their wives, into a vast chest, (or 
 ark,) which he had provided ; and he went into it himself. 
 At the same time animals of every species, boars, horses, 
 lions, serpents, whatever lived upon the face of the earth, 
 followed him by pairs ; all which he received into the chest, 
 (ark,) and experienced no evil from them. As to what hap- 
 pened after this, there is an ancient tradition among those of 
 Hierapolis, that in their country a great chasm opened and 
 received all the water; whereupon Deucalion erected altars 
 and built the temple of Juno over the chasm." Thus far 
 from Lucian. Plutarch mentions that Deucalion sent out a 
 dove from the ark, whose return indicated a continuance of 
 the deluge ; but its neglect to return, when sent out the 
 second time, or, as some say, its return with muddy feet, 
 showed that the waters had disappeared. 
 
 Analogous traditions are found scattered over the whole 
 peopled globe. There had been an expression of some 
 doubts whether such a belief prevailed among the Chinese. 
 But, says Sir William Jones, " I may assure you, after full 
 inquiry and consideration, that the Chinese believe the earth 
 to have been wholly covered with water, which, in works of 
 undisputed authority, they describe as flowing abundantly ? 
 then subsiding, and separating the higher from the lower 
 stage of mankind ; and that the divisions of time, from which 
 their poetical history begins, just preceded the appearance of 
 Fohi, (Fohee,) in the mountains of China." (See Asiatic 
 Researches, vol. 2 : Dis. on Chinese.) The antiquities of the 
 Chinese reach no higher than the times of Noah, for Fohi 
 was their first king. The age of Fohi has been thought, by 
 
122 TRADITIONAL EVIDENCE OF THE DELUGE. 
 
 some writers, to coincide with that of Moses' Noah ; and 
 Shuckford even says, there are many reasons to conclude 
 Moses' Noah and the Chinese Fohi to be the same person. 
 (See Shuckford's Connexions, vol. 1, p. 29.) But we must 
 postpone the further consideration of the voice of tradition to 
 another evening. 
 
EVENING NINTH. 
 
 YOUNG GENTLEMEN : 
 
 Of the Hindoo tradition relative to the deluge, the follow- 
 ing is Sir Win. Jones's abridged account, as it is contained in 
 the poem of the Bhagavat : " The demon Hayagriva having 
 purloined the vedas from the custody of Brahma, while he 
 was reposing at the close of the sixth Manwantara, the whole 
 race of men became corrupt, except the seven Bishis, and 
 Satyavrata, who then reigned in Drevira, a maritime region 
 to the south of Carnata. This prince was performing his 
 ablutions in the river Critamala, when Vishnu appeared to 
 him in the shape of a sm'all fish ; and, after several augmen- 
 tations of bulk in different waters, was placed by Satyavrata 
 in the ocean, where he thus addressed his amazed votary : 
 ' In seven days all creatures who have offended me shall be 
 destroyed by a deluge ; but thou shalt be secured in a capa- 
 cious vessel miraculously formed. Take, therefore, all kinds 
 of medicinal herbs and esculent grain for food, arid, together 
 with the seven holy men, your respective wives, and pairs of 
 all animals, enter the ark without fear; then shalt thou know 
 God face to face, and all thy questions shall be answered.' 
 Saying this, he disappeared ; and, after seven days, the ocean 
 began to overflow the coasts, and the earth to be flooded by 
 constant showers, when Satyavrata, meditating on the Deity? 
 
124 TRADITIONAL EVIDENCE OP THE DELUGE. 
 
 saw a large vessel moving on the waters. He entered it, 
 having in all respects conformed to the instructions of 
 Vishnu, who, in the form of a vast fish, suffered the vessel 
 to be tied with a great sea-serpent, as with a cable, to his 
 measureless horn. "When the deluge had ceased, Vishnu 
 slew the demon, and recovered the vedas, instructed the 
 Satyavrata in divine knowledge, and appointed him the 
 seventh Menu, by the name of Vaivaswata." (Asiatic Re- 
 searches, vol.2; on Chronology of the Hindoos.) "And, 
 according to the Pauranias and the followers of Buddhu," 
 says Capt. Wilford, "the ark rested on the mountain of 
 Aryavarta, Aryawart, or India." (Same work, vol. 6, p. 
 521.) 
 
 Some further particulars have been given by Sir Wm. 
 Jones, from the Hindoo traditions, respecting this Satyavrata, 
 which present a still more striking coincidence with the his- 
 tory of Noah, subsequent to the deluge. " To Satyavarman, 
 that sovereign of the whole earth, were born three sons : the 
 eldest Sharma ; then Charma ; " (in the common dialect, ac- 
 cording to Wilford, pronounced Sham and Cham ;) " and the 
 third Jyapeti by name. They were all men of good morals, 
 excellent in virtue and virtuous deeds ; skilled in the use of 
 weapons, to strike with or to be thrown ; brave men, eager 
 for victory or battle. But Satyavarman, being continually 
 delighted with devout meditation, and seeing his sons fit for 
 dominion, laid upon them the burden of government, while 
 he remained honoring and satisfying the gods, and priests, 
 and kine. One day, by the act of destiny, the king having 
 drunk mead, became senseless, and lay asleep naked ; then 
 was he seen by Charma, and by him were his two brothers 
 called, to whom he said, i What has now befallen ? in what 
 state is this our sire ? ' By those two was he hidden with 
 clothes, and called to his senses again and again. Having 
 recovered his intellect, and perfectly knowing what had 
 passed, he cursed Charma, saying, ' Thou shalt be the ser- 
 
TRADITIONAL EVIDENCE OF THE DELUGE. 125 
 
 vant of servants ; and, since thou wert a laughter in their 
 presence, from laughter shalt thou acquire a name/ Then 
 he gave to Charma the wide domain on the south of the 
 snowy mountains ; and to Jyapeti he gave all on the north 
 of the snowy mountains; but he, (Satyavarman,) by the 
 power of religious contemplation, attained supreme bliss." 
 (Vol. 3d of Asiatic Res.) 
 
 Among the aboriginal tribes of the American Continent, 
 even, exist traditions of the deluge. The Mexicans, for 
 instance, had traditions of a flood which destroyed all the 
 human family except one man and his wife, who escaped in 
 the hollow trunk of an ahahuete or cypress tree. The chil- 
 dren born numerously to them, after the subsidence of the 
 waters, were dumb, until they received the gift of speech 
 from a dove, which came and perched itself on a lofty tree. 
 Humboldt, in his Vues des Cordilleras, informs us that there 
 are Mexican paintings of this event extant, in which Coxcox, 
 the Noah of the Mexicans, and his wife, Xochi quetzal, are 
 seated in the trunk of a tree, covered with leaves, and float- 
 ing amid the waters, while Matalcueje or Chalchiuhege, the 
 goddess of water, pours down her floods upon the earth. In 
 the different representations of this scene, men are seen swim- 
 ming and perishing in the waters, and birds are discovered 
 fluttering and dying upon the surface, where they through 
 exhaustion have fallen. 
 
 In Humboldt's work just alluded to, there is an allegorical 
 painting (plate 15) in which a serpent, cut asunder, but still 
 living, is seen shut up in a tank of water, from the midst of 
 which rises a plant. To the left is a woman crowned with a 
 garland ; while to the right is represented a man shut up in 
 a kind of jar. A personage is likewise represented, to whose 
 victorious arm the miserable condition of the serpent is to be 
 ascribed. The allegory thus pictured has reference, says 
 Humboldt, to the serpent which poisoned the water the 
 source of all organic life ; to the victory over him, like that 
 
126 TRADITIONAL EVIDENCE OP THE DELUGE. 
 
 of Krishna over the dragon Kaliya ; to the seduction of the 
 world, and to its purification by water. Here can we fail to 
 trace the deluge, as well as other prominent Scripture inci- 
 dents ? 
 
 According to Humboldt and Herrera, the Mechoachans, a 
 people in comparative propinquity to the Mexicans, believed 
 that mankind, becoming forgetful of their origin and duties, 
 were punished by a universal deluge, from which the priest 
 Tezpi, and his wife and children, were alone preserved. He 
 shut himself up in a large chest of wood, into which he put 
 all kinds of animals and all useful seeds. When the Great 
 Spirit ordered the waters to subside, Tezpi sent out a bird 
 called aura, (the Zopilote, a species of vulture,) which, finding 
 food in dead carcasses, returned ; then several other birds, 
 till at length the humming bird returned with a branch in 
 its beak. 
 
 The inhabitants of Cuba related, " that an old man, know- 
 ing the deluge was to come, built a great ship, and went into 
 it, with his family and abundance of animals ; that he sent 
 out a crow, which did not return staying to feed on the 
 dead bodies ; and afterward returned with a green branch ; " 
 with other particulars, as far as Noah's sons covering him 
 when drunk, and others scoffing at it, &c. (See Herrera's 
 History of America, as quoted by Catcott, p. 72.) "In 
 Peru" says Herrera, in the same work, " the ancient In- 
 dians reported that they had received by tradition from their 
 ancestors, that many years before there were any Incas, at 
 the time when the country was very populous, there happened 
 a great flood ; the sea breaking out beyond its bounds, so that 
 the land was covered with water, and all the people perished. 
 The Guancas inhabiting the vale of Xausca, and the nations 
 of Chiquito in the province of Caliao, add that some persons 
 remained in the hollows and caves of the highest mountains, 
 who again peopled the land. Others of the mountain people 
 affirm that all perished in the deluge, only six persons being 
 
REMARKS ON PROOF FROM TRADITION. 127 
 
 saved on a float, from whom descended all the inhabitants of 
 the country." The natives of Terra Firma believe, that 
 " when the universal deluge happened, one man, with his 
 wife and children, escaped in a canoe, and that from them 
 the world had been peopled," &c. " The most barbarous of 
 the Brazilians," says Herrera, " have some knowledge of a 
 general deluge ; it being their opinion that the whole race of 
 mankind were extirpated by this means, except one man and 
 his own sister, who being enceinte before, they by degrees 
 repeopled the world." The Brazilians near the coast had a 
 very particular tradition of a deluge, which grew out of a 
 quarrel between two brothers, and which rose until the earth 
 was entirely submerged. All mankind were destroyed ex- 
 cept the two brothers and their wives ; who were saved by 
 climbing trees on the tops of the mountains. The Crees, a 
 tribe of Arctic Indians, Dr. Richardson (a companion of 
 Franklin in his polar expedition) says, " all spoke of a uni- 
 versal deluge, from which one family alone escaped, with all 
 kinds of birds and beasts, on a huge raft." " Even the 
 Indians of the Choctaw tribe" (says Dr. Hamilton, in his 
 Friend of Moses, page 322) " had, it is well known, when they 
 first came into contact with the whites, traditions handed 
 down from their remotest ancestors, of a mighty deluge, from 
 which a small number of persons only escaped on a raft. In 
 these North American Indian traditions a muskrat figures as 
 the substitute of Noah's dove." The tradition of a general 
 flood, we are by good authority informed, is found among the 
 natives of the South Sea Islands. The inhabitants of Tahiti, 
 being asked concerning their origin, replied that " their 
 Supreme God, a long time ago, being angry, dragged the 
 earth through the sea, when their Island was broken off and 
 preserved." 
 
 Now if any feel themselves able, we confess we do not, 
 to account philosophically or rationally for such remarkable 
 and wide-spread coincidences as are traceable between these 
 
128 MYTHOLOGICAL EVIDENCE. 
 
 traditions and the Scriptural account of the deluge of Noah, 
 without supposing them all to refer to one and the same 
 event. The ark : why find we so frequent mention made 
 of it as the vessel in which the survivors were preserved, 
 when a vessel of some other form might be more naturally 
 imagined as the means of preservation ? And, more es- 
 pecially, whence the notion of sending out the dove and the 
 raven, to ascertain the state of the earth's surface ? And 
 why into the earliest and the fabulous periods of a nation's 
 history is the deluge of tradition thrown back ? "Admit these 
 traditions to be all founded upon the Noachian deluge," as 
 one remarks, " and all difficulties vanish ; but deny this 
 identity, and we need a miracle, greater than would be re- 
 quired for a universal deluge, to resolve them." 
 
 But to other than such oral or written traditions we might 
 resort to find proof confirmatory of the Mosaic account of the 
 event we are considering. It might be shown that memorials 
 of the Noachic deluge were wrought into the very structure 
 of heathenism. The ancient systems of mythology and 
 polytheism have been shown to be filled with idolatrous com- 
 memorations of that occurrence. Look at Bryant's " Analy- 
 sis of Ancient Mythology," or that more recent work, Har- 
 court's " Doctrine of the Deluge," and you will see this in 
 lengthened and amplified detail exhibited. "We cannot con- 
 sent to fatigue you with a recital. We will but give you "a 
 brick as a specimen of the building." In the character of 
 Inachus, Atlas, Dionusos, Janus, Zeus, Saturn, and several 
 other gods and goddesses among the Greeks, Noah and his 
 sons may be distinctly recognized. In the Orient, our patri- 
 arch was called Noas, Noasis, Nusus, and Nus. Hence the 
 Greek Dionusos, the prototype of the Latin Bacchus, whose 
 name has generally been supposed to be derived from Dios, 
 the genitive of Zeus, and Nuse, a city of India ; or, more 
 probably, the city took its name from Nusus, since there were 
 many other cities of that name, as well as mountains, in 
 
MYTHOLOGICAL EVIDENCE. 129 
 
 various parts of the world, mostly distinguished, however, for 
 the cultivation of the vine. This Dionusos the Greeks made 
 a great warrior, " who went with an army over the face of 
 the whole earth ; and taught mankind, as he passed along, 
 the method of planting the vine ; and how to press out the 
 juice and receive it in proper vessels." Such an allusion, 
 young gentlemen, to the character and some of the most 
 striking incidents in the life of Noah can hardly have been 
 accidental. In the ancient sacred mysteries, too, as well 
 as in the histories of the individual who survived some 
 terrible catastrophe, there is frequent reference to the door 
 of the ark, and the imprisonment of Noah within it, for a 
 time. " The entrance through it," (the door,) says Bryan t ? 
 " the ancients esteemed a passage to death and darkness ; 
 but the egress from it was represented as a return to life. 
 Hence the opening and shutting of it were religiously 
 recorded. And as the stay in the ark was an intermediate 
 state between a lost world and a world renewed, this was 
 also alluded to in their hieroglyphical representations. We 
 accordingly find Janus with two faces ; having a retrospect to 
 what was past, as well as a view forward to what was to 
 come. They styled him Patulcius and Clusius, in allusion to 
 the history above given. The person preserved is always 
 mentioned as preserved in an ark. He is described as being 
 in a state of darkness, which is represented allegorically as a 
 state of death. He then obtains a new life, which is called a 
 second birth, and he is said to have his youth renewed. He 
 is on this account looked upon as the first-born of mankind ; 
 and both his antediluvian and postdiluvian states are com- 
 memorated, and sometimes the intermediate state also is 
 spoken of." 
 
 The author just quoted from, supposes the Triad of Plato, 
 Proclus, and other ancient writers, to have been derived from 
 the deification of the three families of which our patriarch 
 was the head. This has indeed by some been supposed to 
 
130 9 MYTHOLOGICAL EVIDENCE. 
 
 have reference to the Trinity of the Scriptures ; but these 
 give evidence in other parts of their writings that such a 
 doctrine was unknown to them. The patriarch and his three 
 sons are likewise, in other connections, alluded to by the 
 ancient mythologists. 
 
 " In the ceremonies of heathen worship," (quoting the lan- 
 guage of a writer in the Biblical Repository, vol. 9, page 91,) 
 " the ark was a very conspicuous object. There was the 
 sacred Baris of the Egyptians, made use of in celebrating 
 the rites of Osiris ; the ship of Iris at Rome, carried yearly 
 in procession, and the sacred cups in the form of boats, called 
 Cymbia and Scyphi, which were used in a similar manner. 
 The deification of the ark, or rather of the genius of the ark, 
 is very manifest in the names and characters of numerous hea- 
 then deities. The ark was distinguished by the terms Theba, 
 Baris, Arguz, Aren, Arene, Laris, Boutus, Boeotus, Cibotus, 
 etc. And from these names were formed different divinities. 
 But as the terms have various degrees of correspondence, a 
 relation more or less remote was supposed to exist between 
 the deities formed from them. Sometimes we perceive a 
 confounding together of the ark and Noah ; but this is not 
 unexpected, for the whole of the heathen mythology consists 
 of an absurd mixture of truth with error." 
 
 " In this connection," the same writer goes on to say, " the 
 famous Ogdoas of the Egyptians should be mentioned. This 
 consisted of eight persons sailing together in the Sacred Baris 
 or ark. And there is not small reason for believing that the 
 famous Argonautic Expedition, celebrated by the Greeks, 
 was fabulous, and that its history in fact was derived from 
 the history of the Noachian deluge." 
 
 Among other mementos of this catastrophe incorporated 
 into ancient mythology, we find the dove, the raven, and the 
 rainbow. The latter, according to Moses, having been con- 
 stituted the token of a covenant between God and man, was 
 held in uncommon regard for many ages. But the dove is 
 
MYTHOLOGICAL EVIDENCE. 131 
 
 found in almost all the mythological histories. It was 
 regarded as a peculiar messenger of the gods, and emblem 
 of peace and good fortune. On the other hand, the raven, 
 which, unlike the dove, disappointed the hopes of Noah by 
 never returning to the ark, was generally regarded as a bird 
 of ill omen. Among the ancient Amonians the name of the 
 dove was Ion, lona, or lones ; hence the Oinas of the 
 Greeks. This bird was assumed by the Babylonians for 
 their national ensign, having been depicted upon their military 
 standards. They were hence styled lonians, or children of the 
 dove ; and their city lonah. These titles are given in Jer. 
 25 : 38 ; also 46 : 16 ; and 50 : 16. We are told that it was 
 a custom among the ancient mariners to let fly from the ship, 
 during a voyage, a dove or a pigeon, in order to predict by 
 its movements the success of their voyage. It was thought 
 to be the best time for sailing, when the sun and the seven 
 stars near the head of Taurus were in conjunction. Hence 
 these stars are called Peleiades or Pleiades, the doves. The 
 goddess Venus appears to have been the ancient lonah ; and 
 hence in her history are numerous allusions to the dove of 
 Noah and the deluge. (See Bib. Rep. vol. 9, p. 91.) 
 
 Similar allusions to the Noachic deluge are afforded in the 
 mythologies of other nations besides those of Greece and 
 Rome. They are to be found, e. g., in the histories of the 
 Phenician Sydyk, Dagon, and Agmenes ; the Assyrian 
 Derceto and Astarte ; the Egyptian Isis, Osiris, Sesostris and 
 Oannes ; the Chinese Fohi, and the Hindoo Menu, Buddhu, 
 and Vishnu. Although there is much room here for the 
 play of a fertile imagination, yet the allusions are frequently 
 too striking, and the coincidences too remarkable, to allow us 
 to impute all to fancy, and they justify us in coming to the 
 conclusion that the deluge of Noah formed a principal ground- 
 work of ancient mythology. 
 
 Before leaving altogether this branch of the subject, permit 
 me to refer you, in the briefest manner, to two or three matters 
 
132 THE APAMEAN MEDALS. 
 
 partaking of the character of ancient memorials of the 
 deluge. The first of these that I will name are the famous 
 Apamean medals I mean certain imperial bronze medals of 
 the city of Apamea, in Phrygia. Whilst they bear on one 
 side the head of different emperors, there is inscribed on the 
 other, in the language of Eckhel, " A chest swimming upon 
 the waters, in which a man and woman appear from the 
 breast upwards. Without it, with their faces turned from it, 
 advance a woman robed, and a man in a short garment, hold- 
 ing up their right hands. On the lid of the chest stands a 
 bird, and another, balanced in air, holds in its claws an olive 
 branch." (See Eckhel's Doctrina Numorum Veterum.) In 
 Lecture Ninth of his work on the Connection between Science 
 and Revealed Religion, Dr. Wiseman remarks on this : " The 
 small compass of a medal could hardly give a more expressive 
 representation of this great event" the Noachian deluge. 
 "We have two different scenes, but manifestly the same 
 actors. For the costume and heads of the persons standing 
 outside, do not allow us to consider them others than the 
 figures in the ark. We have these individuals first floating 
 over the waters in an ark ; then standing on dry land in an 
 attitude of admiration, with the dove bearing the symbol of 
 peace above them. But the most interesting circumstance 
 yet remains. On the front panel of this ark are some letters, 
 and the discussion of their import has been the subject of 
 many learned dissertations. Bianchini published two copies 
 of this medal, on one of which he reads NOE, and on the 
 other NEO, the former of which readings Falconieri also 
 gives upon another medal. Eckhel, after examining the dif- 
 ferent explanations given by others, etc., concludes that as 
 the entire scene represented on the medal, bears manifest 
 reference to the Noachian deluge, so must the inscription on 
 the ark ; and that consequently it is the name of that patri- 
 arch. This he illustrates from the coins of Magnesia in 
 Ionia, on which is the figure of a ship, bearing the inscrip- 
 
ADDITIONAL MEMORIALS. 133 
 
 tion ARGO ; no doubt for the purpose of clearly specifying 
 the mythological event to which it refers, the expedition of 
 the Argonauts." 
 
 But, it may be asked, what could have induced the 
 Apameans to choose such an event for their symbol on their 
 coins ? To this we have the reply, That it was customary 
 for cities to take, as their emblems, any remarkable event 
 which was fabled, or reported to have happened there. 
 Thus the city of Thermae, in Sicily, has Hercules upon its 
 coins, because he is supposed in mythology to have there 
 reposed. Now this is precisely the case with Apamea, or, as 
 it anciently was called, Celeene. For the Sibylline books, 
 which, however spurious, are sufficient testimony of the exist- 
 ence of a popular tradition, expressly tell us, that in the 
 neighborhood of Celaene stands the mountain Ararat, upon 
 which the ark reposed. This tradition, evidently, having no 
 reference to Deucalion's deluge, the seat of which was 
 Greece, is sufficient to account for the adoption of such a* 
 representation upon the Apamean coins. Hence, too, prob- 
 ably, arose another ancient name of this city, Kibotos, (Gr. 
 the Ark,) as Winkelman has shown ; and this name is the very 
 word used by the Septuagint and Josephus in describing 
 Noah's ark. You may see a plate in the work of Wiseman, 
 referred to, giving a striking representation of these medals. 
 
 In the same work, likewise, there is brought to our notice 
 an extremely curious monument, which is considered as 
 bearing no other explanation but such as has been given to 
 the Apamean medals, that is, as commemorative of the 
 deluge. It was found in the year 1696, by a workman, 
 whilst engaged in excavating a monument in the vicinity of 
 Rome. It came, we are told, into the possession of the 
 antiquarian Ficoroni, and a minute account of it was pub- 
 lished by Bianchini, in the following year. An engraving 
 accompanies it, a copy of which, together with a description, 
 you may find in Dr. Wiseman's ninth lecture. We hope you 
 7 
 
134 ADDITIONAL MEMORIALS. 
 
 will, at the earliest opportunity, look at the representation, 
 and read the description there given. You will be both 
 entertained and instructed by it. Of this monument, it will 
 not be an easy matter to give any other explanation than 
 what must obviously strike one's mind at once that it 
 alludes to the destruction of the human race, with the excep- 
 tion of a few, who, with pairs of animals, were saved in some 
 species of ark or chest. 
 
 In a series of pictures representing ceremonies in honor of 
 Bacchus, found in the lava-whelmed city of Herculaneum, 
 appears, we are told, what may with some probability be 
 supposed to offer the form which the ancients imagined the 
 ark to possess, and what well enough accords with the idea 
 we have entertained of it. Upon her shoulder a woman is 
 carrying a square box, having a projecting roof, and at the 
 end a door. Being borne in a commemorative procession, it 
 is manifestly a sacred Thebat or ark. Its door at the side, 
 and its projecting roof, show that it was not a bare chest ; 
 whilst the absence of the usual characteristics, and the 
 occasion of its use, indicate that it is not a model house, or 
 a votive offering. 
 
 It is not unlikely that those of the monuments called 
 Druidical, which bear the name of kistvaens, and in which 
 the stones are disposed in the form of a chest or house, were 
 intended as memorials of the ark. At least it has been 
 shown by Davis, (Celtic Researches,) that the ark was not 
 only typified among the Celts by rafts and islands, but by 
 a stone ark or chest, which is precisely the meaning of 
 kist-(chest)-vaen. (See Kitto's Cyc. : art. Ark.) 
 
 The opinion is indorsed by the respected author of Bible 
 Illustrations, (vol. 1, p. 157,) that the sacred mountains of 
 various lands are to be viewed as " commemorative of the 
 mount on which the ark rested, and which was venerated as 
 the spot of ground, once isolated among the waters, to which 
 the nations of mankind may all trace they- origin." And the 
 
ADDITIONAL MEMORIALS. 135 
 
 same writer intimates it to be an idea entitled to belief, that 
 the "high places" on which the Jews were wont to offer 
 their worship, had the same reference. He even imagines it 
 probable, that the pyramids of Egypt, and, still more, the tall 
 masses of broken masonry which yet appear in the Babylonian 
 plains, were intended to represent or symbolize the mountain 
 from which the Noachida3 had gone forth. Finally, we 
 would remark, that the conjecture has not, to some, appeared 
 improbable, that the "mounds," those mountains in minia- 
 ture which are to be found in such numbers both in the 
 eastern and western world, were designed for a similar 
 end. 
 
EVENING TENTH. 
 
 YOUNG GENTLMEN : 
 
 Justly may it be thought by you high time for us to in- 
 quire whether, in addition to the evidences adduced in the 
 two preceding Exercises, any physical proofs exist of the 
 Noachic cataclysm ; anything on the globe, the theatre 
 professedly of such an occurrence, that may with propriety 
 be regarded as corroborative of the statements contained in 
 the seventh and eighth chapters of Genesis. Are there 
 any discernible marks, any distinguishable traces, on or be- 
 neath the earths surface, of an event corresponding in its 
 prominent features with what is distinctively denominated 
 the Noachian Deluge ? 
 
 A minute and full narrative of human belief or opinion 
 relating to this point, as well as to the cause or causes oper- 
 ating to produce the catastrophe, along with the manner of 
 occurrence, would constitute both a long and a curious por- 
 tion of history. To give such a narration in regard to each, 
 would occupy more time than either you or myself would, in 
 our limited evening series, consider desirable. With some 
 brief notices of opinions concerning them, severally, we must 
 at present content ourselves. 
 
 In Sir Charles Lyell's work, entitled Principles of Geology ; 
 and in Dr. John Pye Smith's Relation between the Holy 
 Scriptures and some parts of Geological Science ; as well as 
 
INQUIRY AS TO PHYSICAL EVIDENCE. 137 
 
 in Dr. Edward Hitchcock's Religion of Geology, may be 
 found a somewhat full statement, especially taken together, 
 in regard to these ; - and to which works we take pleasure 
 in referring you. 
 
 That the earth, particularly its crust, has undergone great 
 changes since this planet's original formation by its Creator? 
 you do not need to be informed. Whether any, and if any, 
 what distinguishable portion of these changes may be correct- 
 ly attributed to the instrumentality of the Noachic Flood, is a 
 matter concerning which you may, in this connection, be justly 
 desirous to hear at least a little. In what we shall attempt 
 touching this, will be almost unavoidably intermingled, here 
 and there, some historic notices of opinion pertaining to the 
 instrumental cause or causes, and mode of occurrence, of the 
 Noachic cataclysm. 
 
 Dr. Thomas Burnet, following Des Cartes, entertained the 
 opinion that anterior to Noah's Flood, our terrestrial ball was 
 so different in the appearance of its surface from what it 
 ever since has exhibited, as to have presented to the view a 
 perfectly round body, without eminences, valleys, or sea ; " an 
 orbicular crust, smooth, regular, and uniform," investing the 
 face of the abyss or deep ; that this crust, being heated by 
 constant, unvarying action of the sun, became dry and chinky, 
 and by the rarefaction and expansion of the inclosed vapors, 
 clave, burst, and fell down irregularly into the water, crowd- 
 ing the latter up, thus producing an inundation, and drowning 
 the former inhabitants. Thus, according to this author, our 
 ocean is a part of the ancient abyss ; the rest of this latter 
 remains in the internal cavities with which the sea has still a 
 communication. Islands and sea-rocks are the small frag- 
 ments, and continents are the large masses of the ancient 
 crust. As both the rupture and fall of this crust were 
 effected in a confused manner, it is not surprising that the 
 surface of the present earth should be full of mountains, 
 gulfs, plains, and irregularities of every kind. 
 
138 INQUIRY AS TO PHYSICAL EVIDENCE 
 
 But, according to the theory of this cosmologist, not only 
 was the earth's surface thus altered at the time of Noah's 
 flood, but the earth itself, relatively to the sun, changed as 
 to its position. By the diluvial catastrophe, the violence of 
 the shock which the earth received was so great, that the 
 plane of the equator and that of the ecliptic, which were 
 before coincident, became variant in the measure which ever 
 since has existed: whence arose the difference of seasons, 
 which, of course, did not belong to the antediluvian earth. 
 
 These views were set forth in extenso, and in a style ornate 
 and attractive, in a work published, a part in 1680, and the 
 remainder in 1689, the full title of which, curiously enough, 
 runs thus : " The sacred theory of the Earth ; containing 
 an account of the original of the Earth, and of all the general 
 changes which it hath already undergone, or is to undergo, 
 till the consummation of all things." 
 
 If this theory of Burnet, young gentlemen, were regarded 
 by us as true, then, whenever we looked upon a mountain, 
 or any eminence ; or into a valley of either a greater or less 
 extent or depth ; or abroad upon the sea, or any considerable 
 body of waters ; or witnessed, as we are not unwelcomely 
 compelled to do, the changing seasons, we should have 
 confirmatory evidence, through the medium of sight afforded 
 us, of the truth of the Mosaic History in reference to the 
 Noachian Deluge. 
 
 The correctness of those views of Burnet, which we have 
 specified, was early called in question. That they were 
 tmphilosophical, appears to have been believed by Newton 
 and La Place, and to have been elaborately shown by Keill. 
 And that they are unscriptural, must be obvious to any care- 
 ful reader of the Mosaic account, which expressly mentions 
 mountains as the standard of altitude of the diluvial waters, 
 as well as indicates, in the form of promise, that every thing 
 pertaining to climatic variations, or mutations of seasons, 
 should be restored to its ancient state, (Gen. 7 : 19, 20 ; 8 : 
 
OF THE NOACHIC DELUGE. 139 
 
 22.) It might be added, that by denying a sea to the ante- 
 diluvian earth, as you have seen Burnet's theory to do, it 
 comes directly in conflict with that scriptural statement 
 concerning the work of the third day, that " the waters under 
 the heavens were gathered together unto one place, and the 
 dry land appeared ; and that God called the dry land earth, 
 and the gathering together of the waters called he seas" 
 (Gen. 1 : 9, 10.) Yet, strange to say, Burnet was of the 
 clerical profession, and no doubt imagined his theory to be 
 not only philosophical, but scriptural. How accommodatingly 
 does a man's belief often shape itself to his wishes ! Yet, of 
 the work of this author, let me say, that though it was but "a 
 fine historical romance," as BuiFon afterwards called it, it 
 nevertheless, in Burnet's time, met with laudations from some 
 high sources, and was treated by numbers as one of profound 
 science. 
 
 Living in an age when the word geology is so much on 
 the tongue, and the utterances of that science which the word 
 indicates, so widely promulgated, you cannot be. wholly un- 
 acquainted with palaeontology^ or the subject of "fossil organic 
 remains" It was not until the latter part of the sixteenth 
 century that there was, in Christian nations, any marked 
 interest taken either in these or any thing else pertaining to 
 geology. In 1517, some excavations being made at Verona, 
 in Italy, for the purpose of repairing the city, brought to light 
 marine shells and other organized fossils, which led to the 
 agitation of two or three interesting questions respecting 
 them. One of these questions related to their nature and 
 origin. First, Were they the remains of once organized 
 and living creatures? or were they merely simulacra, or 
 resemblances? Fracastoro was one of a few who main- 
 tained, that they were once real animals. The major num- 
 ber contended, that they never belonged to living things 
 were simulacra solely. Next, How did they originate? 
 If they once belonged to living creatures, all who were not 
 
140 INQUIRY AS TO PHYSICAL EVIDENCE: 
 
 actual atheists, were prepared to ascribe their origin to the 
 Great First Cause. Those who thought them to be only 
 resemblances, were divided in opinion as to their origin, a 
 part maintaining that the Almighty made the layers of rock 
 with these marks or figures in them, just after the manner in 
 which they are found ; others, that they were produced by 
 " a plastic force," which, it was said, had power to fashion 
 stones into organic forms. Andrea Mattioli embraced the 
 notion, and was followed in it by numbers, that a certain 
 " materia pinguis," or " fatty matter," existing in the earth, 
 and set into fermentation by heat, gave birth to fossil organic 
 shapes. Fallopia, of Padua, conceived that petrified shells 
 were generated by fermentation in the spots where they are 
 found ; or that they had in some cases acquired their form 
 from the " tumultuous movements of terrestrial exhalations.' 
 (See Lyell's Principles of Geology, vol. 1, p. 38.) In the 
 same spirit Mercati, who published, in 1574, faithful figures 
 of the fossil shells preserved by Pope Sixtus V., in the 
 museum of the Vatican, expressed an opinion that they were 
 mere stones, which had assumed their peculiar configuration 
 from the influence of the heavenly bodies ; and Olivi, of Cre- 
 mona, who described the fossil remains of a rich museum at 
 Verona, was satisfied with considering them as mere " sports 
 of nature." Palissy, a French writer, undertook, in 1580, to 
 combat the notions of many of his contemporaries in Italy, in 
 regard to petrified shells. Of him Fontenelle, when pro- 
 nouncing his eulogy in the French Academy, a century and 
 a half later, said, He was the first who dared to assert in 
 Paris, that fossil remains of testacea and fish had once be- 
 longed to marine animals, that they were not mere freaks 
 of nature. In opposition to the prejudices of the age, (1688,) 
 Hooke. and some others with him, we are told by Lyell, 
 argued against the idea, that nature had formed fossil bodies 
 for no other end than to play the mimic in the mineral king- 
 dom, maintaining that figured stones were really the sev- 
 
THEORIES AND FACTS CONSIDERED. 141 
 
 eral bodies they represent, or the mouldings of them petrified ; 
 and not, as some have imagined, a lusus naturce, sporting 
 herself in the needless formation of useless beings. (See 
 Lyell's Prin. of Geol., vol. 1, p. 45.) 
 
 Those of you, young gentlemen, who have inspected speci- 
 mens of these fossils, whether on the spots where they reposed 
 in or were taken from their rocky beds, or arranged on their 
 shelves in cabinets, can have, we are persuaded, but one opinion 
 about them. Not a lingering doubt can with such remain 
 that the vital principle once had place within them. Freaks 
 of nature ! such freaks ? Impossible ! As to the Almighty 
 Creator, that he could form all the layers of rock which 
 encircle this earthly ball, with all the figures in them which 
 we call animal petrifactions, who entertains a doubt ? But 
 then, would he ? Would he so exert his power as to impinge 
 his wisdom ? as to cast reflection on that attribute ? What ! 
 the Infinite God exercise his puissance and skill in organizing, 
 with utmost nicety, matter into nameless varieties and count- 
 less numbers of exactly and minutely organized resemblances 
 to the forms of living things ! And for what end ? One 
 worthy of the Infinitely Wise ? Who will say, Yes ? Those 
 who have held, or, if such a supposition can be entertained, 
 do hold what we call animal petrifactions to be mere simulacra, 
 and produced, moreover, by "a, plastic force " or a "materia 
 pinguis" can hardly escape the imputation of being " without 
 God in the world ; " of holding a tenet atheistic in its character 
 or bearings ; of nullifying or ignoring one of the strongest 
 evidences of the Divine Existence; we mean, marks of de- 
 sign ; signs of contrivance and skill. 
 
 The controversy or discussion regarding the nature and 
 origin of fossil organic remains, which we mentioned as 
 started in the beginning of the sixteenth century, did not 
 cease with the termination of that century ; if it did altogether 
 indeed with that of the two following centuries. 
 
 But another question in regard to these remains, and 
 
142 INQUIRY AS TO PHYSICAL EVIDENCE! 
 
 which, as having a special bearing on the topic on hand, we 
 have now to do with - a question much and warmly discussed 
 at the time and place we specified, had respect to the cause 
 and manner, including locality, of their deposition. They 
 marine as well as other fossils are to be found, so to speak, 
 every where ; on mountains as well as on plains reposing 
 in, helping to compose, the rocky strata which encase the 
 earth. Now, as we intimated, the additional question which 
 was started by the simple occurrence at Verona, was, How 
 were they brought into the situations which they occupy ? With 
 the exception of a few, Fracastoro at their head, the answer 
 was, They were deposited there by Noah's deluge. And from 
 that time onward for three hundred years shall I say up 
 to this day ? the same question was agitated ; and until 
 recently within a comparatively few years past the 
 major part even of the learned, returned the answer a mo- 
 ment since stated : They were brought and deposited where 
 they are by the deluge of Noah. A large number of writers, 
 living at different periods of the three centuries preceding the 
 present, might be named as holding and attempting to support 
 the tenet embraced in the answer just given ; but we will 
 quote only a few among the more recent. " It may also be 
 observed," says the Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, 
 Art. Deluge, " that in the regions far remote from the 
 Euphrates and Tigris, viz., Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Eng- 
 land, the United States, etc., there are frequently found, in 
 places scores of leagues from the sea, and even on the tops 
 of high mountains, whole trees sunk deep under ground, as 
 also teeth and bones of animals, fishes entire, sea-shells, ears 
 of corn, etc., petrified ; which the best naturalists are agreed 
 could never have come there, but by the deluge." Says the 
 Evangelical Church Journal of Prussia, (see Literary and 
 Theological Review, vol. 1, p. 424,) " Equally certain must 
 the fact of a former flood, overflowing the mountains, appear 
 to the naturalist, (even independent of the Bible, and of the 
 
THEORIES AND FACTS CONSIDERED. 143 
 
 traditions of many ancient nations agreeing with it,) when 
 he finds millions of shells upon the highest mountain tops," 
 etc. Even Rees's Cyclopedia, Art. Deluge, states, and 
 without any correction, that " the present external surface of 
 the earth, its internal constitution, the arrangements of its 
 various strata, the remains of marine animals and petrified 
 shells found at great distances from their original habitation, 
 incorporated with the earth, or on eminences far elevated 
 above the level of the sea, etc., have been alleged as exist- 
 ing monuments of a deluge, and evidences of its universali- 
 ty." And what may seem strange to you even that 
 really able and scientific man, Mr. Kirby, so late as in the 
 year 1835, said, in his Bridge water Treatise, among other 
 things respecting the deluge, that " the heavens and earth 
 which are now, are different from the heavens and earth 
 which were destroyed at the deluge ; and the latter has evi- 
 dently been reconstructed, and vegetable and animal remains 
 have been mixed with the dislocated materials and as it were 
 detritus of the original world." This scientific man does 
 indeed confess that he had no such acquaintance with the 
 science of Geology as to qualify him to speak intelligently 
 on such a subject. His words are, " My own knowledge of 
 Geology and its principles, as now laid down, is too slight to 
 qualify me to compare them with what has been delivered in 
 Scripture on the subjects here alluded to" that is, the 
 general subject of the deluge. " What a pity," says Rev. 
 Pres. Hitchcock, " after such a confession, that he should 
 have undertaken to theorize upon some of the most difficult 
 parts of that science, and to defend the wild hypothesis of the 
 physico-theologists of bygone centuries." Mr. Kirby indeed 
 shows a fact that may somewhat amaze you in his 
 Treatise referred to, that he had adopted, with slight modifi- 
 cations, the essential features of the hypothesis of dissolution 
 and re-consolidation of the earth by the deluge, set forth by 
 Dr. Jphn "Woodward, in the latter part of the seventeeth 
 century. 
 
144 INQUIRY AS TO PHYSICAL EVIDENCE : 
 
 This last named writer, having assumed that all the 
 geological changes which appear to have taken place in the 
 earth's crust were produced by the deluge ; and perceiving 
 that the solid strata to a great depth must have been once in 
 a fluid state, in order to envelop so many relics of organic 
 nature, adopted the idea that " the whole terrestrial globe 
 was taken to pieces and dissolved at the flood ; and that the 
 strata settled down from this promiscuous mass, as any earthy 
 sediment from a fluid." (Essay towards a Natural History 
 of the Earth Preface- 1695.) Believing that it will be 
 agreeable to you to hear something additional in reference to 
 this hypothesis or theory of Woodward, we will give you a 
 brief abstract from Recs's Cyclopedia : " Taking the sev- 
 eral strata for the sediments of a deluge, and considering the 
 circumstances of those fishes, shells, and other exuvisB 
 found in them, this author drew several illustrative infer- 
 ences as First : That these marine bodies, and other spoils 
 of salt-water fishes, were borne forth out of the sea by the 
 general deluge ; and on the return of the water to its ante- 
 cedent bed, were left behind upon the land. Secondly : That 
 while the flood covered the globe, all the solid matters, as 
 stones, metals, minerals, and fossils, were totally dissolved, 
 and the cohesion of their corpuscles, with those of the less 
 solid bodies, as earth, flesh of animals, and vegetables, were 
 sustained promiscuously in the water, and made one common 
 mass. Thirdly : That all the mass, thus sustained, was at 
 length precipitated to the bottom ; and that according to the 
 laws of gravity the heaviest settled first, and the rest in order. 
 And that the matters thus subsiding, constituted the several 
 strata of stone, earth, coal, &c. Fourthly : That these strata 
 were originally all parallel, even, and regular, and rendered 
 the surface of the earth perfectly spherical ; and that the 
 whole mass of water lay upon them, and constituted a fluid 
 sphere compassing the globe. Fifthly : That after some 
 time, by the force of an agent eate<J within the earth, these 
 
THEORIES AND FACTS CONSIDERED. 145 
 
 strata were broken on all sides of the globe, and their situa- 
 tion varied ; being elevated in some places, and depressed in 
 others ; whence mountains, valleys, grottos, etc., with the 
 channel of the sea, islands, etc. In one word, the whole ter- 
 raqueous globe was put, by this disruption and dislocation 
 of the strata, into the condition in which we now behold it. 
 Sixthly : That upon the first disruption of the strata, and 
 the depression of some and elevation of other part:?, which 
 happened towards the end of the deluge, the mass of water 
 fell back again into the depressed and lowest parts of the 
 earth, into lakes and other cavities, and the channel of the 
 ocean, and through the fissures, whereby this communicates 
 with the abyss, which it filled until it came to an equilibrium 
 with the ocean." 
 
 After having given you this cited account of Woodward's 
 theory for doing which you will be better able fully to ap- 
 preciate the reason after a while than now it will be expe- 
 dient for us to lay before you, from the same source, a few 
 sentences setting forth some of its objectionable features : 
 " To this system it has been objected, that it is absurd to 
 suppose that before the deluge there were no mountains, since 
 we are expressly told that the waters rose fifteen cubits above 
 the tops of the highest mountains ; on the other hand, it is 
 not said that the waters destroyed or dissolved the mountains. 
 On the contrary, the mountains remained firm in their 
 original situation, and the ark rested upon that eminence 
 which was first deserted by the waters. Besides ; it can- 
 not be reasonably imagined that during the short time of the 
 deluge, the waters could dissolve the mountains, and the 
 whole fabric of the earth. Can we suppose that in the 
 space of forty days, the hardest rocks and minerals were dis- 
 solved by simple water, and yet that shells, bones, and other 
 productions of the sea, were able to resist a menstruum to 
 which the most solid materials had yielded ? Dr. "Woodward 
 asserts that the materials of the different strata are arranged 
 
146 INQUIRY AS TO PHYSICAL EVIDENCE : 
 
 according to their specific gravities. To this it has been 
 objected that we every day see solid rocks placed above clay, 
 sand, pit-coal, bitumen, and other comparatively light bodies. 
 If indeed it were uniformly found, through the whole earth, 
 that the upper stratum was bitumen, followed successively by 
 strata of chalk, marl, clay, sand, stone, marble, and metals, it 
 would in that case be probable that all these materials had 
 been precipitated at once ; and this, Dr. Woodward confident- 
 ly affirms. Whereas, the most superficial observer need only 
 open his eyes to convince himself that heavy strata are often 
 found above light ones ; and, consequently, that these sedi- 
 ments could not be deposited at the same time, but must have 
 been transported and deposited, as Mr. Buffon says, by the 
 ocean at successive periods." 
 
 As a matter of history, young gentlemen, you may feel inter- 
 ested in knowing that this notion, a prominent, leading one in 
 Dr. Woodward's theory, and, we. may add, Dr. Burnet's, and 
 some others' too, of a dissolution and reconsolidation of the 
 earth at the deluge, continued to be a .favorite with philoso- 
 phers for nearly a century. Mr. Catcott, whose Treatise on 
 the Deluge was published in 1761 between seventy and 
 eighty years after Woodward's work appeared not only 
 gave a prominent place in it to the hypothesis of the Earth's 
 dissolution and reconsolidation at the time of the Noachic 
 inundation, but would have his readers believe with him, 
 that the sacred Scriptures teach this doctrine. After quoting 
 with approbation that strange idea of Hutchinson in his 
 Moses's Principia, that the " windows of heaven," mentioned 
 in the account of the Flood, mean, " passages of the airs " 
 through the cracks in the earth's crust, he remarks : " As 
 there are other texts which mention the dissolution of the 
 earth, it may be proper to cite them. (Ps. 46 : 2,) ' God is 
 our refuge therefore will not we fear though the earth be 
 removed,' (Hebrew, bemot, be changed, be quite altered as it 
 was at the deluge.) Sixth verse : ' He uttered his voice, 
 
THEORIES AND FACTS CONSIDERED. 147 
 
 the earth melted] (flowed, dissolved to atoms.) Again, (Job 
 28 : 9, 10,) * He putteth forth his hand ' (the expansion, his 
 instrument or the agent by which he worked) * upon the 
 rock ; he overturneth the mountains by the roots ; he caused 
 the rivers to burst forth from between the rocks' (or broke 
 open the fountains of the abyss). ' His eye ' (symbolically 
 placed for the light) ( saw ' (passed through or between) 
 1 every minute thing ' (every atom, and so dissolved the 
 whole). 'He (at last) bound up the waters from weeping' 
 (that is, from passing through the shell of the earth, as tears 
 make their way through the orb of the eye ; or as it is re- 
 lated, Gen. 8 : 2, He stopped the fountains of the abyss and 
 the windows of heaven). 'And brought out the light from 
 its hiding-place ' (i, e., from the inward parts of the earth 
 from between every atom, where it lay hid, and kept each 
 atom separate from the other, and so the whole in a state of 
 dissolution ; his bringing out those parts of the light which 
 caused the dissolution would of course permit the agents to 
 act in their usual way, and so reform the earth.)" 
 
 You see, young gentlemen, the kind of Scripture proof 
 which Catcott brings. You may scarcely be able to keep 
 your minds from harboring the idea that the interpretation 
 was constructed to suit a favorite theory ; nor find it remark- 
 ably easy to keep wonder out of them how such an exegesis 
 could satisfy any able or respectable mind that the Sacred 
 Scriptures do teach what they are here produced to estab- 
 lish. 
 
 Some philosophers or theorists who accorded in opinion 
 with Burnet as to the existence, beneath the crust of the 
 earth, of a vast abyss of waters, did not resort to or fix upon 
 precisely the same means that he did for bringing those 
 waters upward and outward so as to cause a deluge, or sub- 
 mergence of the outer crust, its dissolution, and the mingling 
 of the innumerable particles which had composed it with the 
 before living things which had existed on the exterior crus 
 
148 INQUIRY AS TO PHYSICAL EVIDENCE. 
 
 and in the interior abyss. Catcott resorted to a pressure of 
 the air on the crust's surface, so as to force out the liquid 
 store from its subterraneous repository. Some others, to 
 caloric, causing an expansion of the waters of the abyss, and 
 consequently a pressing and rising of them upward, thus 
 shattering the crust, or dissolving it by passing through the 
 pores : Such heat reaching the water of the great abyss from 
 the crust that had been long and powerfully operated on by 
 the sun's rays, or else from the solid nucleus beneath. For 
 illustration on this point we might refer you to some curious 
 calculations made by Sir Henry Englefield, to show how a 
 slight expansion of the waters, conceived to have place with- 
 in the globe, might produce a general deluge. He assumes 
 that the solid crust of the globe is 1000 miles thick ; and 
 that beneath this is an abyss of waters 2000 miles thick ; 
 leaving a solid central nucleus 2000 miles in diameter, i. e., 
 1000 miles each side of the centre of the nucleus. Assuming 
 that the temperature of the whole globe, before the deluge, 
 was 50 Fahrenheit, and that from some cause it was 
 suddenly raised to 83, he finds, since water expands one 
 twenty-fifth of its bulk from freezing to boiling, that this in- 
 crease of heat would be sufficient to deluge the earth. If the 
 cause of the elevation of the temperature were then removed, 
 the waters would contract to their original bulk, and leave 
 the continents again dry. 
 
EVENING ELEVENTH. 
 
 YOUNG GENTLEMEN : 
 
 Instead of one vast subterraneous abyss, many philosophic 
 theorists have preferred to substitute a large number of in- 
 ferior abysses in the earth's interior, and these abysses 
 communicating with seas of greater or less dimensions on 
 its surface. Then to bring these waters, with their living 
 tenants, forth from those abysses and seas on to the dry land, 
 for the purpose of effecting a general submergence of the 
 latter, different means have been imaginatively resorted to. 
 Dr. Halley's resort was to the appulse or impingement of a 
 comet, causing an instantaneous change in the polar and diur- 
 nal rotation of the globe. The great agitation that must have 
 been thus occasioned would force the waters from their 
 previous repositories upon the dry land, and, as he observes, 
 among other things, would be sufficient to account for all 
 those strange appearances of heaping vast quantities of earth 
 and high cliffs upon beds of shells which were previously in 
 the abysses and seas, and raising up mountains where none 
 antecedently existed. Mr. Wm. Whiston, who published 
 his "New Theory of the Earth" in 1696, has an ingenious 
 hypothesis, similar to that of Dr. Halley, with respect to the 
 primary cause of the deluge, but much more largely applied 
 and explained. He shows, from several remarkable coinci- 
 dences, that a comet, descending in the plane of the ecliptic 
 
150 INQUIRY AS TO PHYSICAL EVIDENCE: 
 
 towards its perihelion, passed just before the earth on the 
 first day of the deluge ; the consequences of which would be, 
 first, that this comet, when it came below the moon, would 
 raise a prodigiously vast and strong tide, both in the small 
 seas which, according to this hypothesis, were in the antedi- 
 luvian earth, for he allowed no great ocean there, as in 
 ours, and in the subterraneous abyss; and that this tide 
 would rise and increase all the time of the approach of the 
 comet towards the earth, and would be at its greatest height 
 when the comet was at its least distance from it. By the 
 force of this tide, and also by the attraction of the comet, he 
 judges that the abyss must put on an elliptic, or rather an 
 exactly oval figure, whose surface being considerably larger 
 than the former spherical one, the outward crust of the earth, 
 incumbent on the abyss, must accommodate itself to that 
 figure, which it could not do while it remained solid and 
 conjoined. He concludes, therefore, that it must of necessity 
 be extended, and at last broken, by the violence of the said 
 tides and attraction ; and have innumerable fissures made 
 quite through it, out of which the included water issuing, was 
 a great means of the flood ; this answering to what Moses 
 speaks of " the fountains of the great deep being broken up." 
 Again ; the same comet, he shows, in its descent towards the 
 sun, must have passed so close by the body of the earth as to 
 involve it in its atmosphere and tail for a considerable time ; 
 and, of consequence, it must have left a vast quantity of its 
 vapors, both expanded and condensed, on its surface ; a great 
 part of which, being rarefied by the solar heat, would be 
 drawn up again into the atmosphere, and afterward descend 
 in violent rains upon the earth : and this he takes to be what 
 Moses intimates by " the windows of heaven being opened," 
 and particularly by the forty days' rain. 
 
 It may be proper to remark what appears fatal to the 
 cometic hypothesis both of Halley and Whiston that their 
 main instrument has been since shown a very insufficient 
 
THEORIES AND FACTS CONSIDERED. 151 
 
 one to produce the effects which they attribute to it : we al- 
 lude to the ascertainment, by comparatively recent observa- 
 tions, of the fact that certainly some and probably all comets 
 consist of matter so attenuated that were this earthy ball to 
 come into direct collision with one r it is doubtful whether we 
 should be conscious of it. Dr. Hitchcock, quoting from 
 WhewelPs Bridgewater Treatise, says, " They have no more 
 solidity or coherence than a cloud of dust or a wreath of 
 smoke, through which the stars are visible with no perceptible 
 diminution of their brightness. These discoveries, admitted 
 now by the ablest astronomers, have doubtless given the 
 final quietus to this cometic theory of the deluge ; though we 
 perceive that some geologists on the continent still cling to 
 this hypothesis." (Biblical Repository, volume 9, p. 108.) 
 
 Ray, an eminent naturalist, and a contemporary of Burnet 
 and Whiston, had recourse to the hypothesis of a shifting of 
 the centre of gravity of the earth ; somewhat after the manner 
 in which Dr. Halley explains magnetism by a mass of me- 
 tallic iron in the earth, which has a revolution distinct from 
 that of the earth, and is of irregular form. As the attracting 
 centre changed, it would cause the waters successively to 
 deluge and desert the different parts of the surface. 
 
 The author of the article in the Biblical Repository from 
 whicfy. we recently quoted, gives the name of a distinguished 
 professor of our own day who has suggested the following 
 ingenious hypothesis, to bring the waters of the earth's 
 abysses over the dry land. He supposes " vast galvanic ar- 
 rangements to exist in the bowels of the earth, which might 
 have generated vast quantities of hydrogen, oxygen, and car- 
 bonic acid by decomposition, and that these gases, occupying 
 the upper portions of subterranean cavities, would, as they 
 accumulated, force the waters out, and cause them gradually 
 to overflow the land, but after their escape the waters would 
 flow back again into these internal reservoirs." 
 
 It is hoped that your large stock of patience will not become 
 
152 INQUIRY AS TO PHYSICAL EVIDENCE: 
 
 entirely exhausted if we hint at another hypothesis. It is 
 one which has been much in vogue, and has received coun- 
 tenance from several able geologists. This hypothesis em- 
 braces the supposition that the sea, (taking this last term in a 
 collective sense,) and the land changed places at the Noach- 
 ian Deluge ; that our present continents, by" earthquakes," 
 "subterraneous fires," "volcanic agency" each of these 
 forms of expression has by different writers been used 
 were raised up from their before humble position beneath the 
 primitive ocean, and the contents of the latter, at that time 
 and by that means, poured over upon the previously dry 
 land. Hooke, as appears from his " Discourse of Earth- 
 quakes," published in his Posthumous Works at the begin- 
 ning of the eighteenth century, embraced this idea. " During 
 the great catastrophe," says he, " there might have been a 
 changing of that part which was before dry land into sea by 
 sinking, and of that which was sea into dry land by raising, 
 and marine bodies might have been buried in sediment be- 
 neath the ocean in the interval between the Creation and the 
 Deluge." Toward the close of the same century we find 
 M. DeLuc, Professor of Philosophy and Geology at Gottin- 
 gen, embracing and defending, for the most part, these views : 
 We say, for the most part for he differed from Hooke in 
 supposing all the fossiliferous strata, so far as he had any 
 understanding of them, to have been deposited during the 
 period of the deluge itself. (See DeLuc's Letters on the 
 Physical History of the Earth). So late as within the last 
 half century we might say the last thirty or thirty-five 
 years, two works have appeared from English authors lit- 
 erary or theoretic rather than scientific or practical geologists 
 defending the hypothesis substantially set forth by Hooke. 
 We allude to Granville Penn and George Fairholme, Esqs. 
 These writers suppose the primary rocks to have been 
 created just as we find them, for the original framework 
 of the globe. The secondary rocks they maintain were de- 
 
THEORIES AND FACTS CONSIDERED. 153 
 
 posited between the Creation and the Deluge ; and the 
 tertiary strata, along with the diluvial, by the Deluge. This 
 theory of course requires us to suppose that the antedilu- 
 vian continents were sunk beneath the ocean at the deluge, 
 and our present ones were then raised above the waters. 
 
 There is a theory relating to the Mosaic Flood's occurrence 
 which appears to we know not how many, very plausible. 
 It has a resemblance in one of its features to the last men- 
 tioned. The theory to which we refer, supposes the bed of 
 some ocean to have been by volcanic agency elevated ; that 
 the waters of said ocean with their living contents were thus 
 . thrown over the adjoining territories ; and that the mighty 
 wave thus produced would not stop till it had swept over all 
 the continents and islands. "Whilst this theory has the ad- 
 vantage of requiring less water than most if not all of the 
 other theories mentioned, to bring about a general submer- 
 sion, it is liable to an objection which has been indeed urged 
 against it, to wit, that all parts of the earth could not have 
 thus been enveloped simultaneously ; that the territory first 
 inundated must have been left dry ere the wave had reached 
 other portions of the continents. And an additional objection 
 has been urged : that such a violent rushing of waters over 
 the land as would thus be caused, appears unlike the scrip- 
 tural account, and would seem greatly to imperil the ark, 
 with both its human and sub-human tenantry. 
 
 As to most if not all of the theorists to whose views we 
 have been adverting, there manifestly prevailed in their 
 mind a full and firm belief in the truth of the Mosaic record 
 contained in the seventh and eighth chapters of Genesis ; 
 and, understanding somewhat concerning the spread and de- 
 position of marine as well as other fossil organic remains, 
 and being entirely at a loss how to account for such diffusion 
 and deposit in consentaneousness with their apprehensions 
 of the teachings of the earliest portion of sacred history, 
 they referred these phenomena, in the manner we have seen, 
 to the Flood of Noah. 
 
154 INQUIRY AS TO PHYSICAL EVIDENCE: 
 
 Such has been the advance of geological science within 
 the last half century ; such the results of extensive and un- 
 tiring investigation, during this period, in that line that a 
 writer can no longer be considered as moving his pen intelli- 
 gently, who ascribes the formation of the earth's fossiliferous 
 strata, either in whole or in part, to the Noachian deluge. 
 The time, we are aware, has been, when such a declaration 
 as this last would have been accounted tantamount to an ab- 
 negation of the truth of the Mosaic writings. After our 
 former averments, it seems hardly necessary to affirm, in a 
 formal manner, our full and unwavering belief in the authen- 
 ticity and divine inspiration of every part and parcel of our 
 Canonical Scriptures. We hope we shall not be understood 
 as asserting our firm belief in the correctness of every one's 
 interpretation of every part of our sacred volume. On the 
 contrary, we are constrained to believe that the very first 
 verse of the Bible, and the second, have, in a chronological 
 respect at least, not escaped misinterpretation. In regard 
 to this we may have occasion to say a few words hereafter. 
 
 About to lay before you certain facts, let us premise, that 
 
 a thing indeed hinted at in the preceding Exercise 
 
 the idea formerly entertained by large numbers, and still 
 by some, that all the rocks composing the earth's crust, in- 
 clusive of their contents, were by the Omnipotent created 
 just as we now meet them ; and that the supposed remains of 
 animals and plants, fauna and flora, which a not inconsider- 
 able portion of them contain, and which occur in all states or 
 stages from a comparatively slight change to a complete 
 conversion into stone, were never real animals and plants, 
 but only resemblances, is advocated by no man who with 
 science and care has examined rocks and organic remains. 
 Every scrutinizing and candid observer has had forced upon 
 him the conclusion that the former of these, so far as the crust 
 of the globe has been explored, to the depth of several miles, 
 have been the result of second causes ; that is, are now in a 
 
THEORIES AND FACTS CONSIDERED. 155 
 
 different state from that in which they were originally created ; 
 and that the latter are the remains of once living creatures. 
 Proceed now we shall to the statement of the few facts to 
 which we made allusion observing, that important aid in 
 the presentation of them is derived from Dr. Hitchcock's 
 recent work, entitled The Religion of Geology. 
 
 First. The fossiliferous rocks, or such as contain animals 
 and plants, are not less than six or seven miles in perpendicu- 
 lar thickness, and are composed of hundreds and thousands of 
 alternate layers of different kinds, all of which appear to 
 have heen deposited, just as rocks are now forming, at the 
 bottom of lakes and seas ; and hence their deposition must 
 have occupied an immense period of time. The process of 
 forming rocks by the accumulation of mud, sand, and gravel, is 
 very slow. In general, such accumulations at the bottom of 
 lakes and the ocean do not increase more than a few inches 
 in a century. It is certain that since man existed on the 
 globe, materials for the production of rocks have not accu- 
 mulated to the average density of more than from one hun- 
 dred to two hundred feet. The evidence of this position is, 
 that neither the works nor the remains of man have been 
 found any deeper in the earth than in the upper part of the 
 superficial deposit called alluvium. Had man existed while 
 the other deposits were going on, no possible reason can be 
 assigned why his bones and the fruits of his labors should 
 not be found mixed with those of other animals, so abundant 
 in the rocks to the depth of six or seven miles. In the last 
 six thousand years, then, only one six-hundredth part of the 
 stratified rocks would seem to have been accumulated. Even 
 if we admit that this deposition progressed in particular places 
 much faster than at present, a variety of facts forbids the 
 supposition that this was the general progressive mode of 
 their formation. 
 
 Second. During the deposition of the stratified rocks (in 
 the larger portion of which fossil organic remains are found,) 
 
156 INQUIRY AS TO PHYSICAL EVIDENCE: 
 
 a great number of changes must have occurred in the matter 
 of which they are composed. Hundreds of such changes 
 can be easily counted, and they often imply great changes in 
 the waters holding the materials in solution or suspension ; 
 such changes indeed as must have required different oceans 
 over the same spot. Such events could not have taken place 
 with extensive elevations and subsidences of the earth's crust, 
 nor could such vertical movements have happened without 
 much intervening time, as numerous facts evince. Here we 
 have evidence of vast periods occupied in the secondary pro- 
 duction and arrangements of the earth's crust. 
 
 Third. The remains of marine and other animals and 
 plants, found in the earth, are not mingled confusedly together, 
 as we should certainly be compelled to look for, had they been 
 brought over the land promiscuously by a deluge ; but are 
 found arranged, for the most part, in as much order as the 
 drawers of a well-regulated cabinet ; though, by the way, as 
 the celebrated Hugh Miller has shown, not so as to confirm 
 the truth of the " development hypothesis " set forth anew 
 in the " Vestiges of Creation" but, on the contrary, after the 
 manner to confute it. In general those animals and plants 
 seem to have lived and died on or near the spots where they 
 are now found ; and as countless millions of these remains 
 are often seen piled together, so as to form almost entire 
 mountains, the periods requisite for their formation must have 
 been far otherwise than short. Could they have been in dura- 
 tion other than immensely long ? 
 
 Fourth. It is an apparently well-established fact, that there 
 have been upon the globe, previous to the existing races, not 
 less than five distinct periods of organized existence ; that is, 
 five great groups of animals and plants, so completely in- 
 dependent that no species whatever is found in more than 
 one of them, having lived and successively passed away before 
 the creation of the races which now occupy the surface. Other 
 standard writers make the number of these periods of ex- 
 
THEORIES AND FACTS CONSIDERED. 157 
 
 istence as many as twelve. Comparative anatomy testifies 
 that so unlike in structure were these different groups, that 
 they could not have coexisted in the same climate and other 
 external circumstances. 
 
 Fifth. In the earliest times in which animals and plants 
 lived, the climate over the whole globe appears to have been 
 as warm as it is now between the tropics, or even warmer. 
 And the slow change from warmer to colder appears to have 
 been the chief cause of the successive destruction of the 
 different races ; and new ones were created, better adapted 
 to the altered condition of the globe ; and yet each group 
 seems to have occupied the globe through a period of great 
 length. 
 
 Sixth. Among the thirty thousand varieties of animals 
 and plants found in the rocky strata, very few living species 
 have been detected ; and even these few occur in the most 
 recent rocks ; while in the secondary group, not less than six 
 miles thick, not a single species now on the globe has been 
 discovered. Hence the present races did not exist till after 
 those in the secondary rocks had died. No human remains 
 have been found below those alluvial deposits which are now 
 forming by rivers, lakes, and the ocean. Hence it is to be in- 
 ferred that man was one of the latest creatures that was 
 placed on the globe. 
 
 Seventh. The present continents of the globe, with perhaps 
 the exception of some of their highest mountains, have, for a 
 long period, constituted the bottom of the ocean, and have 
 been subsequently either elevated into their present position, 
 or the waters have been drained off from their surface. This, 
 Dr. Hitchcock says, though regarded with much skepticism 
 by many, is as satisfactorily proved as any principle of 
 physical science not resting on mathematical demonstration. 
 (See Religion of Geology, p. 21.) 
 
 Now if all, or the main part, of what we have been just 
 stating as facts, be such, and not fancies, and eminent 
 
158 INQUIRY AS TO PHYSICAL EVIDENCE : 
 
 scientific investigators of the earth's strata numbers of 
 them, too, not only Christians, but Christian divines unite 
 in the opinion that they are demonstrable and manifest facts, 
 what is the conclusion to be drawn from them, touching 
 the point before us ? Who that receive them as real and 
 true, thoroughly weigh them, and compare them with the 
 memorable diluvial event described by the sacred historian ; 
 its comparatively recent occurrence ; its transient character, 
 being in all but of three hundred and seventy -five days' con- 
 tinuance ; and other characteristics, as set forth in the seventh 
 and eighth chapters of Genesis, can ascribe the formation of 
 the earth's fossiliferous strata, in whole or in part, to the 
 Noachian deluge ? Will not such feel themselves constrained 
 to infer, that the fossil organic remains imbedded in the rocky 
 strata of the earth's crust, are not to be regarded as present- 
 ing traces of the cataclysm described by Moses ? 
 
 Let us next proceed to inquire whether, in the drift or 
 alluvium above, there may not be discovered indisputable 
 traces of the Noachic catastrophe. So it used to be very 
 commonly thought. We can spend but a short time in ex- 
 amining whether this opinion is or is not correct. Here 
 allow me to remark that, if you will look into Dr. Buckland's 
 Reliquiae Diluviance, published in 1823, you will see that that 
 eminent geologist, when he penned that work, thought that 
 there were on the present surface of the earth discoverable 
 and decisive effects of the diluvial waters. As an item in 
 proof, let me read the following single sentence, found on 
 page 237 : " An agent thus gigantic appears to have 
 operated universally on the surface of our planet at the 
 period of the deluge ; the spaces then laid bare by the 
 sweeping away of the solid materials that had before filled 
 them, are called Valleys of Denudation ; and the effects we 
 see produced by the water in the minor cases I have just 
 mentioned, by presenting us an example within tangible 
 limits, prepare us to comprehend the mighty and stupendous 
 
THEORIES AND FACTS CONSIDERED. 159 
 
 magnitude of those forces by which whole strata were swept 
 away, and valleys laid open, and gorges excavated in the 
 more solid portions of the substance of the earth, bearing the 
 same proportion to the overwhelming ocean by which they 
 were produced, that modern ravines on the sides of mountains 
 bear to the torrents which, since the retreat of the deluge, 
 have created and continue to enlarge them." Dr. Buckland 
 wrote this passage after exploring the drift or, as it was 
 usually called, diluvium of the British Isles, and in reference 
 to the results of his observations. That celebrated palaeontol- 
 ogist, Baron Cuvier, who had remarked, that he "thought, 
 with DeLuc and Dolomieu, that if there be any thing settled 
 in geology, it is this, that the surface of our globe has been 
 subjected to a great and sudden revolution, the date of which 
 cannot be carried much farther back than five or six thousand 
 years," speaking of the mud, gravel, and bones of the Kirk- 
 dale caves, proceeds thus : " Most carefully described by 
 Prof. Buckland, under the name of diluvium, and exceedingly 
 different from those other beds of similarly rolled materials, 
 which are constantly deposited by torrents and rivers, and 
 contain only the bones of animals existing in the country, and 
 to which Mr. Buckland gives the name of alluvium; they 
 now form, in the eyes of all geologists, the fullest proof to the 
 senses, of that immense inundation which came last in the 
 catastrophes of our globe." (Discours sur les Revolutions 
 de la surface du globe, etc., p. 141.) 
 
 In his Bridgewater Treatise, published in 1836, Dr. 
 Buckland lets us know that he had abandoned the opinion 
 advanced and argued in his Reliquice, respecting the geolo- 
 gical evidence of a deluge, so far as relates to the Noachian. 
 His language on page 94 of that Treatise is : " Discoveries 
 which have been made since the publication of this work, 
 (the Reliquiae Diluviana?,) show that many of the animals 
 therein described, existed during more than one geological 
 period preceding the catastrophe by which they were extir- 
 
160 INQUIRY AS TO PHYSICAL EVIDENCE. 
 
 pated. Hence it seems more probable that the event in 
 question was the last of the many geological revolutions that 
 have been produced by violent irruptions of water, rather 
 than the comparatively tranquil inundation described in the 
 Inspired Narrative. It has been justly argued, against the 
 attempt to identify these two great historical and natural 
 phenomena, that, as the rise and fall of the waters of the 
 Mosaic deluge are described to have been gradual and of 
 short duration, they would have produced comparatively little 
 change on the surface of the country they overflowed." 
 
 Arguments to sustain the affirmative of the question, Is 
 there geological evidence of an extensive deluge, (the Noachian 
 is not specified,) since the earth assumed essentially its present 
 form ? you may find adduced in the tenth volume of the 
 Biblical Repository, pp. 335-374. Justice could not be done 
 either to that side of the question, or to that article, by at- 
 tempting a synopsis. It is hoped that you all will, at the 
 earliest opportunity, read it in toto for yourselves. And here 
 suffer -me also to recommend the perusal ot that work of Dr. 
 Buckland, lately referred to his Reliquiae Diluvianae. It 
 will bring you to an acqaintance with some interesting 
 phenomena, to what cause or causes soever they may justly 
 be attributed. 
 
EVENING TWELFTH. 
 
 YOUNG GENTLEMEN: 
 
 In support of the position that most of the cases of accu- 
 mulations of drift, the dispersion of bowlders, and the polish 
 and striae of the rocks in place, occurred prior to man's ex- 
 istence upon the globe, and cannot have been the result of 
 Noah's deluge, allow me to give you an abstract of a few 
 arguments, which you may find more fully presented in Dr. 
 Pye Smith's " Scripture and Geology," Lecture Fifth ; and 
 Dr. Hitchcock's " Religion of Geology," parts of Lectures 
 First, Second, and Fourth. 
 
 First. Since the geological period now passing com- 
 menced, called the alluvial or pleistocene period, certain 
 changes have been going on which indicate a very great an- 
 tiquity to the drift period. Instance the formation of deltas 
 and terraces. Of deltas take a single example. The amount 
 of sediment which is carried down the Mississippi and de- 
 posited yearly, is at such a rate as to have required 14,200 
 years to form the whole delta in the manner it exists. As to 
 terraces, they occur along some of the rivers of this and other 
 countries from 400 to 500 feet above their present beds, and 
 around our lakes to the height of nearly 1000 feet. Yet 
 scarcely anywhere, since the memory of man, have even the 
 lowest of these terraces been formed, save on a very limited 
 scale, and of a few feet in height. 
 
162 THE FORE-MENTIONED FACTS 
 
 Second. The organic remains found in the alluvium con- 
 siderably above the drift, are many of them of extinct species. 
 Now the presumption is, that extinct animals and plants 
 belong to a creation anterior to man, especially if they 
 exhibit a tropical character as those do which are usually 
 assigned to the drift, since we have no evidence of a 
 tropical climate in northern latitudes until we get back to a 
 period far anterior to man. 
 
 Third. No remains of man or his works have been found 
 in drift, nor indeed till we rise almost to the top of the allu- 
 vial deposit. Even ancient Armenia, says Dr. Hitchcock, 
 has now been examined geologically with sufficient care to 
 make it almost certain that human remains do not exist there 
 in drift, if drift is found there at all. 
 
 Fourth. The agency producing drift must have operated 
 during a vastly longer period than the three hundred and 
 seventy-five days of Noah's Flood. It could be shown that 
 extensive erosions which are referable to that agency, and 
 the huge masses of detritus which have been the result, must 
 have demanded centuries and even decades of them. Nor 
 will any supposed increase of power in the agency explain 
 the results, without admitting a long period for their action. 
 
 Fifth. In the Noachian deluge, water appears to have 
 been the principal agent ; but in the production of drift, ice 
 was at least equally concerned. 
 
 If you all have not those works in your possession to which 
 reference has been made relative to this subject, you may see 
 some of these facts, the last among the rest, set forth in Mrs. 
 Somerville's Physical Geography the latter part of first 
 and second chapters. 
 
 In the light of such facts as those which have been now 
 stated if facts they be how untenable appears the notion 
 that even the drift exhibits distinguishable traces of Noah's 
 deluge. 
 
 Had you, young gentlemen, never had any previous intima- 
 
AND GEN. 1 : 1, 2 NOT IN CONFLICT. 163 
 
 tion respecting these facts, together with those relative to the 
 fossiliferous strata, presented in the preceding Exercise ; and 
 had you known naught about any interpretation of the first 
 part of Genesis other than what has been (though we are in- 
 clined to think incorrectly) denominated the more literal, and 
 certainly until of late has been the more common, you would 
 probably feel alarmed at the apparent discrepancy between 
 these facts and the Mosaic history in regard to the time, etc., 
 of this world's creation. Ere proceeding farther in the direct 
 consideration of the Noachic deluge, it is not only proper, but 
 a regard for sacred truth demands, that we should first show 
 that no real discrepancy exists between the facts brought to 
 view and the averments of the inspired historian at the com- 
 mencement of the book of Genesis. " In the beginning God 
 created the heaven and the earth." Here are taught two 
 things : First, That " the heaven and the earth " had a " be- 
 ginning" were not from everlasting. Secondly, That they 
 had their beginning from "God" not from chance not 
 from any source beside him. No indication is to be discerned 
 in that first verse, in regard to the chronology of " the begin- 
 ning " there spoken of. Those interpreters who have made 
 it belong to the first of the six geogonic days the beginning 
 of the first of those days, and who understand the work 
 there summarily described, to be that of the primary part of 
 the first day, have had no sufficient authority for so doing. 
 And the formal announcement contained in the second verse 
 appears plainly to show that the archaic writer did not mean 
 to have it understood that no interval passed between the 
 transaction recorded in the first verse and that of which men- 
 tion is made in the third. The history of the six days' work, 
 the best biblical expositors now consider to commence with 
 the last named verse. The language of Moses indisputably 
 will allow an indefinite interval to have elapsed between the 
 transaction related in the first verse and what is narrated in 
 the third and succeeding verses of the chapter. Such an 
 
164 THE FORE-MENTIONED FACTS 
 
 interpretation appears to us the more rational, apart from all 
 consideration of the interesting principles or facts brought to 
 light and established by modern geological investigation. It 
 certainly dissipates all semblance of collision between geology 
 and revelation in regard to the period of this planet's exist- 
 ence. It gives the geologist full scope for his largest specu- 
 lations concerning the age of the world. It permits him to 
 maintain that its primary condition was as unlike to the 
 present as appearances allow him to infer ; and affords him 
 time enough for all the mutations of mineral constitution and 
 organic life which its strata are thought to reveal. It sup- 
 poses all these passed over sub silentio by the sacred penman, 
 because irrelevant to the object of revelation : What is de- 
 clared in the first verse and the second being deemed all that 
 it was requisite to state respecting what transpired anterior to 
 the work of the six geogonic days. 
 
 You are aware that the interpretation of the first part of 
 Genesis, of which we have spoken, is not a novel or unheard 
 of one. Besides what Dr. Pye Smith relates in regard to the 
 views of certain biblical expositors who lived before geology, 
 as a science, had an existence, such as Justin Martyr, Gregory 
 Nazianzen, Basil, Origen, Theodoret, and Augustin, it seems 
 to us proper, and for some reasons expedient, to refer to the 
 opinions of some distinguished biblical interpreters of modern 
 times. " By the phrase, ' in the beginning,' " says Doeder- 
 lin, " the time is declared when something began to be. But 
 when God produced this remarkable work Moses does not pre- 
 cisely define." " Were we to concede to naturalists," says 
 Baumgarten Crusius, " all the reasonings which they advance 
 in favor of the earth's early existence, the conclusion would 
 only be, that the earth itself has existed much more than 6000 
 years, and that it had then already suffered many great and 
 important revolutions. But if this were so, would the rela- 
 tion of Moses thereby become false and untenable ? I cannot 
 think so." "The detailed history of creation in the first 
 
AND GEN. 1 : 1, 2 NOT IN CONFLICT. 165 
 
 chapter of Genesis," says Dr. Chalmers, " begins at the mid- 
 dle of the second verse ; and what precedes might be under- 
 stood as an introductory sentence, by which we are most 
 appositely told, both that God created all things at the first, 
 and that afterwards by what interval of time it is not 
 specified the earth lapsed into a chaos, from the darkness 
 and disorder of which the present system or economy of 
 things was made to arise. Between the initial act and the 
 details of Genesis, the world, for aught we know, might have 
 been the theatre of many revolutions, the traces of which 
 geology may still investigate," etc. " A philological survey 
 of the initial sections of the Bible," says Dr. J. Pye Smith, 
 "brings out the result: First, That the prime sentence is 
 a simple, independent, all-comprehending axiom, to this effect 
 that matter, elementary or combined, aggregated only or 
 organized, and dependent, sentient, and intellectual beings, 
 have not existed from eternity, either in self-continuity or in 
 succession, but had a beginning ; that their beginning took 
 place by the all-powerful will of one Being, the Self-existent, 
 Independent, and Infinite in all perfection, and that the date 
 of that beginning is not made known. Second, That at a 
 recent epoch, our planet was brought into a state of disorgani- 
 zation, detritus, or ruin, (perhaps we have no perfectly appro- 
 priate term,) from a former condition. Third, That it 
 pleased the almighty, wise, and benevolent Supreme, out of 
 that state of ruin to adjust the surface of the earth to its now 
 existing condition, the whole extending through the period 
 of six natural days." " My firm persuasion is," says Dr. 
 John Harris, " that the first verse of Genesis was designed 
 by the Divine Spirit, to announce the absolute origination of 
 the material universe by the Almighty Creator ; and that is so 
 understood in the other parts of holy writ ; that, passing by 
 an indefinite interval, the second verse describes the state of 
 our planet immediately prior to the Adarnic creation ; and 
 that the third verse begins the account of the six days' work." 
 8* 
 
166 THE FORE-MENTIONED FACTS 
 
 " Our best expositors of Scripture," says Dr. David King, of 
 Glasgow, " seem to be now pretty generally agreed that the 
 opening verse in Genesis has no necessary connection with 
 the verses which follow. They think it may be understood 
 as making a separate and independent statement regarding 
 the creation proper, and that the phrase, l in the beginning,' 
 may be expressive of an indefinitely remote antiquity. On 
 this principle the Bible recognizes, in the first instance, the 
 great age of the earth, and then tells us of the changes it 
 underwent, at a period long subsequent, in order to 
 render it a fit abode for the family of man. The work 
 of the six days was not, according to this view, a crea- 
 tion in the strict sense of the term, but a renovation, a 
 remodelling of preexistent materials." Citations, young 
 gentlemen, could be greatly multiplied having respect to 
 this point, but a labor of this kind must be deemed now 
 supererogatory. Such an interpretation of nature and Scrip- 
 ture as is set forth in the work entitled, " Epoch of Creation" 
 while it will secure the preferences of some, cannot, we are 
 convinced, at this late day, be generally entertained. The 
 motives of the writer are indeed to be respected, it having 
 manifestly been his desire and aim to subserve the cause of 
 science and religion. If, therefore, his effort prove a failure 
 which we have no doubt it must while such failure will 
 not itself yield him positive gratification, it will at least not 
 ignore his good intentions, nor be followed by qualms of 
 conscience. 
 
 That interpretation of the initial part of Genesis of which 
 we have signified our approval, but which we were not 
 hasty in adopting, can, we think, alone be sustained as the 
 correct one. Particularly interested it is believed your 
 minds will be in the confirmation which it receives from the 
 facts ascertained or settled by the progress of geological in- 
 vestigation. Had it been so that the world's prime existence 
 and man's had been contemporaneous, then we should expect 
 
AND GEN. 1 : 1, 2 NOT IN CONFLICT. 167 
 
 the remains of human kind and their works to be found in- 
 termingled with the remains of other once living creatures in 
 the different fossiliferous strata, even the lowest ; whereas, 
 on the contrary, no human remains, as you have heard, have 
 been discovered in the rocky layers composing the crust of 
 the globe ; nor in any, says Mr. Richardson, " since the ac- 
 cumulations of silt or mud, which date from the most modern 
 era, the yesterday, as it were, in the infinite history of the 
 past. It is only in these accumulations of the historic period 
 that we discover the remains of even the most ancient fami- 
 lies of mankind. In the solid rocks, we repeat, no traces of 
 man are discernible ; but a still stronger proof," continues this 
 writer, " of the modern " (he means comparatively modern) 
 " date of our species, exists in the obvious fact, that if man 
 had really been an inhabitant of the earth during the earliest 
 history," (meaning during the earliest period of the earth's 
 existence,) " his skeleton, or the mere fragments of his os- 
 seous structure, would have constituted the least of those rel- 
 ics which he would have bequeathed to the soil of which he 
 was an inhabitant. We should have discovered his mighty 
 and majestic works, which so far transcend in duration his 
 own ephemeral existence. We should have found his cities 
 and his structures overwhelmed in the waters of ancient seas, 
 or buried beneath the ejections of primeval volcanoes ; his 
 majestic pyramids sunk in the beds of ancient rivers ; his 
 mountain temples hewn on the surface of the deepest and 
 the oldest rocks. We should have encountered his bridges 
 of granite and of iron, his palaces of limestone and of marble ; 
 the tombs wldlch he reared over the objects of his affection, 
 the shrines which he erected in honor of his God. But in 
 the absence of these or any other traces of man in any save 
 in the most superficial deposits, we are compelled to acknowl- 
 edge the chronology of Holy Writ ; to recognize the com- 
 plete and satisfactory accordance of science with revelation ; 
 and to admit that the existence of man has not extended 
 beyond the five or six thousand years upon the earth, which 
 
168 INQUIRY AS TO PHYSICAL EVIDENCE 
 
 the Scriptures assign as the period of his creation." (See 
 Richardson's Geology, pp. 90, 91.) 
 
 But, let us suppose you to say, Is it not marvellous that 
 such an event as Moses describes the Noachian Flood to 
 have been, should leave no visible evidences behind of its 
 occurrence ; and does not the infidel seem to be thus fur- 
 nished with a pretty powerful weapon with which to contend 
 against the truth of the Mosaic history respecting it ? In 
 the way of reply, let it be specially noted, that we do not 
 deny that there are any visible or discoverable traces on the 
 earth's surface, or beneath it, of the Noachian deluge ; but 
 any clearly distinguishable traces. We have meant to say, 
 and to produce facts to show, that there are no physical 
 phenomena or appearances beneath or even upon the earth's 
 surface, concerning which it can, with absolute certainty, be 
 affirmed, These are the effects of the Flood of Noah ; these 
 are determinate proofs of its occurrence. 
 
 We proceed now to consider, very briefly, how this absence 
 of distinguishable traces may be accounted for. First : On 
 the supposition that the theory advanced by Hooke, and 
 subsequently advocated by DeLuc, Fairholme, and others, 
 be true, so far as relates to the mutual interchange of sea 
 and dry land at the time of the Noachic Flood, i. e., that our 
 postdiluvian ocean beds were mainly antediluvian dry land, 
 and vice versa, an idea which is a revived favorite with at 
 least some in our day, (see Friend of Moses, &c.) then are 
 we thereby afforded a very convincing reason why our present 
 earth, (dry land,) should afford no visible, distinguishable 
 traces of the Mosaic inundation. And althou^fc geologists of 
 no mean attainments think that " the facts of geology forbid 
 the idea that our present continents formed the bed of the 
 ocean at so reeent a date as that of the Noachic cataclysm," 
 vet as the author of the Friend of Moses has intimated 
 the bare fact of the so remarkably general absence of human 
 osseous remains and human works of art from the present 
 
OF THE NOACHIC DELUGE. 169 
 
 habitable parts of our globe, seems very strongly to favor 
 that idea. If the antediluvians and their works were buried 
 beneath the present oceans, one of the best of reasons is fur- 
 nished why the remains of these are not discernible on or be- 
 neath the surface of our present continents ; and will go far, 
 to say the least, toward accounting for the absence of other 
 diluvial traces from our postdiluvian dry land. Or, Secondly : 
 If the tranquil theory, advanced and advocated by Dr. Flem- 
 ing and Sir Charles Lyell, and embraced by numerous other 
 savans, be received as true, we may see why no distinguisha- 
 ble physical traces are left of the Mosaic inundation. Let me 
 give you a few sentences from the writings of some of these 
 men regarding this point. Dr. Fleming, who we believe led 
 the way in advancing the tranquil theory, uses the following 
 language : " I have formed my notions of the Noachian deluge, 
 not from Ovid, but from the Bible. There the simple narra- 
 tive of Moses permits me to believe that the waters rose upon 
 the earth by deyrees, and returned by degrees ; that the flood ex- 
 hibited no violent impetuosity, neither displacing the soil nor 
 the vegetable tribes which it supported, nor rendering the 
 ground unfit for the cultivation of the vine. "With this con- 
 viction in my mind, I am not prepared to witness in nature 
 any remaining marks of the catastrophe ; and I feel my 
 respect for the authority of revelation heightened when I 
 see on the present surface no memorials of the event." 
 (See Edinburgh Phil. Journal, vol. 14, pp. 214, 215.) "I 
 agree," says Mr. Lyell, " with Dr. Fleming, that in the nar- 
 rative of Moses there are no terms employed that indicate 
 the impetuous rushing of the waters, either as they rose, or 
 when they retired upon the restraining of the rain and the 
 passing of a wind over the earth. On the contrary, the olive 
 branch brought back by the dove seems as clear an indication 
 to us that the vegetation was not destroyed, as it was to Noah 
 that the dry land was about to appear." (Principles of Ge- 
 ology, vol. 4, p. 216.) That able geological writer, Dr. 
 
170 INQUIRY AS TO PHYSICAL EVIDENCE 
 
 Macculloch, says, " There is nothing in this history (the Mo- 
 saic) from which we can infer a state of turbulence or 
 violence in the water. There is nothing to make us suppose 
 that the deluge could have disjoined islands, excavated 
 valleys, or deposited alluvia. It is deficient alike in the two 
 needful powers, motion and time. In this plain narrative, 
 the water rises during a short period, and subsides through 
 one not long, leaving on an eminence that vessel which was 
 to preserve and perpetuate man. Of the Mosaic deluge in 
 particular, I have no hesitation in saying, that it has never 
 been proved to have produced a single existing appearance 
 of any kind, and that it ought to be struck out of the list 
 of geological causes." Yet the man who expressed himself 
 thus, is so very decided in his views of the supreme authority 
 of the Bible over all science, that we find him saying, " If 
 there were aught in Geology which contradicted that Word, 
 I should be among the first to say, the science is in error." 
 (See A System of Geology with a Theory of the Earth, and 
 an Examination of its Connection with the Sacred Writings, 
 by John Macculloch, F. R. S., London, 1831, vol. 2, pp. 32, 
 33.) " It has been justly argued," says the Rev. Dr. Buck- 
 land, (Bridgewater Treatise, p. 95,) " that as the rise and fall 
 of the waters of the Mosaic deluge are described to have 
 been gradual, and of short duration, they would have pro- 
 duced comparatively little change on the surface of the coun- 
 try they overflowed." 
 
 Thirdly. But supposing we should not espouse, in its 
 length and breadth, " the tranquil theory " of Dr. Fleming 
 and Mr. Lyell, and we feel a little inclined to agree with 
 Mr. Harcourt in thinking that the latter of these gentlemen 
 " has carried his theory of tranquillity to a degree which 
 borders upon ridicule," when he lays so much stress, in proof 
 of it, on the circumstance of " the olive leaf," which the dove 
 brought back, as remaining through the cataclysm ; sup- 
 posing we should admit that there was some degree of 
 
OF THE NOACHIC DELUGE. 171 
 
 violence and tumult in the commencement, continuance, and 
 retiring of the diluvial waters, and that therefore some traces 
 of them or their doings must have been left behind, yet 
 will any man, capable of estimating the effects of geological 
 agencies, maintain that these traces, being superficial, must 
 have certainly remained to the present time ? 
 
 Dr. Hitchcock, (see Bib. Repository, vol. 10, p. 334), 
 touching this point, says "Even admitting that the scriptu- 
 ral account would lead us to infer that not a little of violence 
 and tumultuous action attended that event " a thing, by the 
 way, which Dr. Hitchcock, when he penned that article, 
 believed " it does not follow that its effects could be distin- 
 guished thousands of years afterwards. Currents of water 
 could have affected only the surface of the globe, and their 
 effects would be similar to those now produced by rivers and 
 floods. Yet as they would be spread over the whole surface, 
 and not so much confined as rivers to a particular channel, 
 they would be less striking, and sooner obliterated. They 
 would consist principally in the removal of the softer parts of 
 the surface, and the abrasion of the harder parts. But simi- 
 lar processes have been going on ever since the last deluge, 
 almost everywhere ; and whether after the lapse of centuries 
 we should be able to distinguish diluvial from alluvial action, 
 it is impossible to say. Perhaps the traces of Noah's deluge 
 might be all obliterated. If they are all gone, then, the fact 
 argues nothing against the scriptural account." Suppose, 
 young gentlemen, that in our opinion there are many and 
 very considerable effects remaining at this day on the earth, 
 of the inundation described by the sacred writer, yet the 
 bare fact of our being unable to identify them to single 
 them out from effects produced by other instrumentalities, 
 or to distinguish them from more modern and local disturb- 
 ances, and present them as certain evidence, this inability, 
 where a modicum of modesty has existence, will effectually 
 prevent a resort to or an urging of such appearances, how- 
 
172 INQUIRY AS TO PHYSICAL EVIDENCE 
 
 ever plausible or probable, in proof of the diluvial occurrence 
 which we are considering. There is one thing that we may 
 affirm with confidence ; it is, that geology presents no 
 facts that afford any presumption against the occurrence of 
 that stupendous cataclysm which the Scriptures bring to our 
 notice. On the other hand, she will admit that " in the ele- 
 . vation and subsidence of mountains and continents, and in 
 volcanic agency generally, of which geology contains so many 
 examples, we have an adequate cause for extensive if not 
 universal deluges ; nor can she say how recently this cause 
 may have operated beneath certain oceans, sufficiently to 
 have produced the deluge of the Scriptures. So that, in fact, 
 we have in geology a presumption in favor of, rather than 
 against such a deluge." 
 
 Having such testimony as that of the Iraelitish Moses, 
 such abundant evidence as is accessible that he wrote as he 
 was moved by the Holy Ghost, and so his testimony deci- 
 sive in favor of the transpiring of the diluvial event which 
 he has narrated ; and in addition to this, the remarkable 
 kind and amount of mythological, monumental, traditional 
 evidence, corroborative, if it be proper so to speak, of the 
 Mosaic history in relation to it can we need the clear, 
 indubitable utterances of the earth itself to produce complete 
 conviction in our minds, that what the archaic annalist has 
 recorded concerning the deluge said to have occurred in the 
 days of Noah, is true ? Even if we had no testimony but 
 that of Moses to the fact ; and no evidence that this man was 
 anything more than an uninspired but credible historian, 
 would we act irrationally in believing firmly that such a 
 diluvial event occurred as he relates ? Do we receive as 
 credible no professed history in regard to any matter, unless 
 we have other evidence than that of the testimony of the his- 
 torian in its support ? and, we may add, what is in point, 
 unless we can find inscribed on even the tablet of nature un- 
 questionable evidence of its truth ? Are we not prepared to 
 
OF THE NOACHIC DELUGE. 173 
 
 say that the man, whoever he be, acts unbecomingly, irra- 
 tionally, who refuses to believe such an event as that of the 
 Noachian deluge, so called, to have actually occurred, unless 
 he finds other evidence to sustain it than that which he has 
 or can obtain ? 
 
EVENING THIRTEENTH. 
 
 YOUNG GENTLEMEN : 
 
 Something relative to the extent of the Noachian deluge 
 you will not be unsolicitous to hear. Was it universal, or 
 partial ? Better satisfied you probably will or may reason- 
 ably be, to have a brief synopsis of the arguments on both 
 sides of this question laid before you, rather than to have an 
 expression of the opinion of an individual so humble as my- 
 self. Suffer me first to state the chief arguments which may 
 be adduced in favor of the absolute universality of the 
 Noachic cataclysm. 
 
 First. The Sacred Scriptures seem to teach this. Let a 
 believer in Holy Writ come without prejudice or preposses- 
 sion to the perusal of the Mosaic account of this event, and 
 he will hardly fail of arriving at the conclusion that the 
 Flood of Noah extended over the entire globe. Just open 
 your Bible and read Gen. 7 : 19-23. What limitation, it 
 might with emphasis be asked, can be assigned to that lan- 
 guage in the first of those verses ? "All the high hills that 
 were under the whole heaven, were covered." And the next 
 verse, " Fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail ; and the 
 mountains were covered," appears to indicate that the waters 
 prevailed so many cubits above all the mountains of the 
 earth. And the universal destruction, declared in the three 
 succeeding verses, of all sentient and animal existence, 
 save alone the ark's tenantry, implies the absolutely universal 
 
ON THE EXTENT OP NOAH*S FLOOD. 175 
 
 spread of the destroying element. Let it be added, that 
 the covenant spoken of in Genesis 9 : 11, with the language 
 there used, appears plainly to indicate that no other inunda- 
 tion, up to the end of time, should be comparable to the del- 
 uge of Noah. Yet many partial and somewhat destructive 
 inundations have happened since the time of that cataclysm's 
 occurrence, and many more doubtless will. It seems infer- 
 able that so peculiarly great and extensive must have been 
 the Flood of Genesis, as to be wellnigh or quite universal. 
 "While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, etc., 
 shall not cease " as it is of course implied they had done 
 during the prevalence of more than the twelvemonth of this 
 desolating judgment's continuance. 
 
 Secondly. All who are willing to rely on the testimony of 
 Moses, so interpret his language as to concede that all man- 
 kind, save the " eight souls " in the ark, were reached and 
 submerged by the flood. But according to what we have 
 (may it not be said,) pretty conclusively, on a former occa- 
 sion, shown, the population of the antediluvian world must 
 have been very numerous and wide-spread, so much so, 
 that their universal submergence must have required so ex- 
 tensive a flow of the diluvial waters as to reach wellnigh, if 
 not entirely, " earth's remotest bounds." I know that Dr. 
 Pye Smith, in order to bring the population of the Old World 
 within such numerical limits as not to overstock the extreme- 
 ly circumscribed territory marked out by him as exclusively 
 reached by the Noachic inundation, has computed the number 
 to which mankind attained before that cataclysm, as exceed- 
 ingly small, so small that he will find few, if any, to accord 
 with him in opinion. Any theory which makes the antedilu- 
 vian population much if any less numerous than the present 
 population of the globe, will probably appear to you unworthy 
 to be entertained. That population whom the flood came 
 and took away, might have lived within narrower geograph- 
 ical limits than the present, we are disposed to imagine 
 
176 ON THE EXTENT OF NOAH'S FLOOD. 
 
 they did so, yet within limits by no means so circumscribed, 
 that the before-named eminent author's little inundation 
 could have reached more than a modicum of the entire 
 number. 
 
 Thirdly. If the deluge of the Mosaic history were local, 
 limited, instead of universal, there would have seemed little 
 necessity for such a direction as Noah received from God, to 
 build that immense structure, the ark ; little occasion for 
 incurring such an expenditure of time and toil as was en- 
 countered in its construction. That enormous vessel could, 
 we would think, have been easily dispensed with. The 
 " eight souls " could have been directed by the Supreme to 
 repair to some district of country uninhabited by any of the 
 wicked progeny of Adam whom God purposed to destroy ; a 
 region beyond the confines of the territory inhabited by the 
 doomed population, and which the Almighty had in such case 
 determined to inundate ; and all the living creatures which 
 he wished to preserve could have been caused to move to 
 that exempt locality and thus find escape from destruction 
 by the diluvial judgment. Or, if the specimens of the various 
 living creatures which entered the ark could be found exist- 
 ing in the locality to which the eight souls should be directed 
 to repair, or any other locality indeed which the waters of 
 the local inundation should not reach, then the change of 
 location of aught beside the eight souls might have apparent- 
 ly been dispensed with. The inference which may be le- 
 gitimately drawn is, that no escape by such means, or by 
 other than the ark, was feasible ; and so that the deluge of 
 Noah was universal. 
 
 Or if, to preserve all beside, an ark should, even in case 
 of a partial inundation, be deemed requisite ; or, for the 
 display of God's holiness and justice, if both a deluge and an 
 ark should be regarded as essential, why, if the Flood was 
 but local, could there be need to take into the floating vessel, 
 birds, and, among the feathered tribe, so widely diffused 
 
ON THE EXTENT OF NOAH'S FLOOD. 177 
 
 ones, as the dove and raven ? " It is," says Kitto, speaking 
 on this point " it is altogether a most remarkable circum- 
 stance, that the only creatures, of those contained in the ark 
 which are named, are those whose existence upon earth 
 would not have been affected by any deluge much less than 
 universal. And if the diluvial waters rose fifteen cubits 
 above all the mountains of the countries which the raven and 
 the dove inhabit, the level must have been high enough to 
 give universality to the deluge." 
 
 You recollect we referred you, a few evenings since, to 
 the traditions existing among all nations relative to the 
 Noachic Flood. From the universality of those traditions 
 an argument has sometimes been deduced, to support the 
 doctrine of the universality of the historic or Mosaic deluge. 
 The argument is not conclusive. Nothing indeed is proved 
 by it on either side. The existence of such traditions in 
 different nations does not prove that the deluge to which they 
 refer prevailed in all those several nations. The people of 
 those several nations springing all from a common ancestry, 
 and that ancestry those whom the ark had been the instru- 
 ment in saving from the flood, this circumstance is suffi- 
 cient to account for the so wide prevalence of the traditions 
 spoken of. It was natural that every nation indeed should 
 in its tradition make its own land the scene of the calamity 
 to which such tradition had reference, to localize the 
 event, and in their own territory. This at least to a great 
 extent was done. Though such a use as that we have 
 alluded to, may not, yet no less than two other important 
 uses may, be made of those traditions of all people. One of 
 these has been formerly availed of, viz. : to confirm the 
 Mosaic account of the Flood; to show, as the Sacred 
 Scriptures affirm, that there was an inundation by which the 
 whole family of man, Noah and his household excepted, 
 were destroyed. The other use and it is one which 
 speculating infidelity will not like is, to serve as an 
 
178 ON THE EXTENT OF NOAH'S JFLOOD. 
 
 auxiliary in proving, in further conformity with the 
 Scripture record, that all the existing nations and tribes of 
 men are descended from that one little family which survived 
 the Deluge. 
 
 Nor is that old argument of any appositeness or validity 
 toward proving the universality of the Flood, which Stack- 
 house, in his Bible History, has stated thus : " We need only 
 turn aside the surface a little, and look into the bowels of the 
 earth, and we shall find arguments enough for our convic- 
 tion," i. e. that the Flood was universal. " For the beds of 
 shells, which are often found on the tops of the highest 
 mountains, and the petrified bones, and teeth of fishes, which 
 are dug up some hundreds of miles from the sea, are the 
 clearest evidences in the world, that the waters have some 
 time or other, overflowed the highest parts of the earth ; 
 nor can it, with any color of reason, be asserted that these 
 subterraneous bodies are only the mimicry or mock produc- 
 tions of nature ; for, that they are real shells the nicest ex- 
 amination, both of the eye and microscope, does evince ; and 
 that they are true bones, may be proved by burning them, 
 which, as it does other bones, turns them first into a coal, and 
 afterwards into calx." We have before offered reasons why 
 the fossil remains, marine and other, found in the rocky strata 
 of six or seven miles in thickness, as well as those found in 
 the detritus nearer the surface, cannot rightly be regarded as 
 vestiges or effects of the Noachian deluge. If this be so, 
 they cannot of course be adduced as evidence of the uni- 
 versality of that deluge. It may here, en passant, be re- 
 marked, that all the strata encrusting the globe, to the depth 
 of from seven to ten miles, unquestionably show the action 
 of water in their formation, and that the vast deposits of 
 marine organic remains in a large portion of those strata 
 everywhere found, and under the circumstances in which 
 they are found existing, show that the ocean not merely once, 
 but several times, occupied the parts of the earth now consti- 
 
ON THE EXTENT OP NOAH's FLOOD. 179 
 
 luting the continents of our planet. As to the point before us, 
 we need only urge what is fatal to the argument quoted from 
 Stackhouse, the fact that neither the works nor the osseous re- 
 mains of man have been found any deeper than in the upper 
 part of that superficial deposit called alluvium. Had the 
 miles of rocky strata miles in density which we have 
 spoken of, been formed, and the fossil organic remains, to the 
 depth we have mentioned, been deposited, by or at the time 
 of the Flood of the Mosaic history, or even since man's cre- 
 ation, no plausible or possible reason, it seems to us, can be 
 assigned why his bones and the fruits of his labors should not 
 be found intermixed with those of other animals in the rocky 
 strata referred to, as well as in the mass of detritus above 
 the latter, and underlying the superficial alluvium where 
 alone human osseous and mechanical or industrial remains 
 are discoverable. 
 
 Fourthly. But, in the way of argument for a universal 
 deluge, may not the following be urged ? It has been the 
 opinion of several geologists that back beyond the six geogonic 
 days, our continents have been several times the beds of 
 seas, and have continued so for a long period each time, and 
 that these continents did not rise into dry land by the exceed- 
 ingly slow process of sedimentary deposition, but by means 
 of earthquakes, subterraneous fires, valcanic agency. Now if 
 there were such general submergences of our dry land far 
 back, may there not, reasoning from analogy, have been a 
 general submergence of the dry land at the time of the 
 Mosaic Flood ? Does not even the archaic annalist himself, 
 in Gen. 1 : 9, 10, taken in connection with the second verse, 
 use language of such sort as to imply that there was some- 
 thing equivalent to a universal deluge prevailing on this planet 
 when the work of the six geogonic days commenced ? Does 
 it not seem as though there was no dry land visible, until on 
 the third day God made it to appear ? If there then had 
 been a general submergence of the dry land just prior to the 
 
180 ON THE EXTENT OF NOAH'S FLOOD. 
 
 creation of Adam, may not a submergence have taken place 
 in the time of his descendant, Noah, bearing such a resem- 
 blance to it as to call for a " gathering together of the waters 
 into one place," as it were, and a thus " making the dry land 
 to appear ? " 
 
 Lastly, on this side: Could the diluvial waters have 
 extended so far and wide as to drown all the antediluvian 
 inhabitants, and have attained such an elevation as fifteen 
 cubits above the loftiest mountains of the globe, and yet not 
 be borne by the law of gravity over the earth's entire sur- 
 face ? Without supernatural interposition could any portion 
 of it have escaped being inundated? 
 
 We shall now take a glance at the other side of this ques- 
 tion ; shall proceed to state briefly the main arguments in 
 favor of the local, limited character of Noah's Flood. These 
 arguments will be presented mainly in the form of objections 
 to the tenet that the cataclysm of sacred history was univer- 
 sal. Connected with the statement of the objective arguments, 
 it may be expedient to hint at the manner in which they have 
 been or may be met by those who hold to the flood's universal 
 extent. This is deemed proper, because the literal interpre- 
 tation of the language of Moses appears to call for an un- 
 limited inundation. 
 
 To clear the way for the presentation of the arguments on 
 the limited side, without, in doing so, appearing unwilling 
 to receive most readily and cordially as true what the inspired 
 pages bear witness to on this subject, we will show how those 
 who espouse the limited side meet the charge of running 
 counter to Holy Writ in the entertainment of their view. 
 Admitting with candor that the language employed by the 
 archaic historian to describe the deluge does seem to denote a 
 literal universality especially that used in the nineteenth 
 verse of the seventh chapter " the waters prevailed exceed- 
 ingly upon the earth ; and all the high hills that were under 
 the whole heaven were covered" they urge in answer, that 
 
ON THE EXTENT OF NOAIl's FLOOD. 181 
 
 in the sacred writings, " universal terms are often used to 
 signify only a very large amount in number or quantity." (See 
 Dr. Pye Smith's Scripture and Geology, p. 247.) They call 
 on us to note such passages as the following : "And tjhe 
 famine was over all the face of the earth ; and all the coun- 
 tries came to Egypt, to buy corn from Joseph, because that 
 the famine was extreme in all the lands," (Gen. 41 : 56, 57.) 
 Yet it is manifest that only those countries are meant lying 
 around or within practicable distance of Egypt, for so bulky 
 an article as corn or grain, was transported, it is highly proba- 
 ble, on the backs of asses and camels. "All the cattle of Egypt 
 died," (Ex. 9 : G ;) yet the connection shows that this ex- 
 pression is to be taken in a limited sense. " The hail smote 
 every herb of the field, and brake every tree of the field," 
 but, a few days subsequently, the devastation of the locust is 
 described thus : " Jhey did eat every herb of the land, and 
 all the fruit of the trees, which the hail had left," (Ibid 10 : 
 5, 15.) " All the people brake off the golden ear-rings which 
 were in their ears, and brought them unto Aaron," (Ibid 32 : 
 3,) meaning, undoubtedly, a large number of persons, but 
 far from literally the whole, or even a majority of the people, 
 as will appear upon an examination of the whole account. 
 " This day will I begin to put the dread of thee, and the fear 
 of thee, upon the nations that are under the whole heaven," 
 (Deut. 2 : 25 ;) yet this declaration seems to respect only the 
 nations of Canaan and those lying upon its frontier. "And 
 all the earth sought to Solomon to hear his wisdom," (1 Kings 
 10 : 24.) It need not be said that this language is used in a 
 limited sense. Passages are numerous in which the phrase 
 " all the earth " signifies only the land of Palestine. "We 
 would instance, Deut, 34 : 1 ; Isai. 7 : 24 ; 10 : 14 ; Jer. 1 : 
 18; 4: 20; 8: 16; 12: 12; 40: 4; Zeph. 1: 18; 3: 19; 
 Zech. 14:10. In Acts 2 : 5, it is said that at the time of 
 Pentecost, " there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout 
 men, out of every nation under heaven." Yet in the enumera- 
 9 
 
182 ON THE EXTENT OF NOAH'S FLOOD. 
 
 tion, which follows this passage, of the different places from 
 which those Jews had come, we find only a region extending 
 from Italy to Persia, and from Egypt to the Euxine. It 
 could have been a district of only about similar size which 
 Paul meant, when, addressing the Colossians, (1 : 23,) he 
 speaks of the gospel as that " which was preached to every 
 creature which is under heaven." The phraseology of these 
 passages is so similar to that descriptive of the deluge ; so 
 universal are the terms while we cannot doubt their import 
 to be limited that we are abundantly justified, they think ? 
 in considering the deluge as limited if other parts of the 
 Bible, or the facts of natural history, require such a limita- 
 tion which they believe to be the case. On the ground of 
 such analogy as we have been speaking of in the use of uni- 
 versal terms, eminent biblical expositors, anterior to geology's 
 existence, as a science, as well as since, ha,ve so interpreted 
 the Mosaic account of the deluge, as to understand that inun- 
 dation to have been limited. They so understood it on exe- 
 getical grounds. It appears, too, from some remarks which 
 they have dropped, that they were the better satisfied with 
 their interpretation on the ground that there appeared to them 
 no necessity for a universal deluge, as the same end, they 
 thought, might be accomplished by a partial one. Let us hear 
 what is said by two or three of the interpreters referred to. 
 
 Said Bishop Stillingfleet (Origines Sacrse, Book 3, chap- 
 ter 4,) " I cannot see any urgent necessity from the Scripture 
 to assert that the flood did spread over all the surface of the 
 earth. That all mankind, those in the ark excepted, were 
 destroyed by it, is most certain, according to the Scriptures. 
 The flood was universal as to mankind ; but from thence fol- 
 lows no necessity at all of asserting the universality of it as 
 to the globe of the earth, unless it be sufficiently proved that 
 the whole earth was peopled before the flood, which I despair 
 of ever seeing proved." " Consentiunt quidem omnes," says 
 DeLuc, " diluvium universale fuisse, quotenus totum orbem, 
 
ON THE EXTENT OF NOAH'S FLOOD. 183 
 
 habitatum oppressit, universumque humanum genus ex- 
 empla Noachi familia, eo interiit. At alii volunt totum 
 telluris globum aquis tectum fuisse, quod alii negant." That 
 eminent divine, Matthew Poole, in his Synopsis, on Gen. 7 : 
 19, remarks as follows : "It is not to be supposed that the 
 entire globe of the earth was covered with water. Where 
 was the need of overwhelming those regions in which there 
 were no human beings ? It would be highly unreasonable to 
 suppose that mankind had so increased before the deluge, as 
 to have penetrated to all the corners of the earth. Absurd 
 it would be to affirm that the effects of the punishment in- 
 flicted upon men alone, applied to places in which there were 
 no men. If then we should entertain the belief that not so 
 much as the hundredth part of the globe was overspread with 
 water, still the deluge would be universal, because the extir- 
 pation took effect upon all the part of the world which was 
 inhabited." In another work, his Annotations, published 
 after his death, the same author says, " Peradventure this 
 flood might not be simply universal over the whole earth, but 
 only over the habitable world, where either men or beasts 
 lived ; which was as much as either the meritorious cause of 
 the flood, the sins of men, or the end of it, the destruction of 
 all men and beasts, required." Dr. J. Pye Smith, after refer- 
 ring to scriptural instances in which universal terms were to 
 be understood in a limited sense, says : " From these in- 
 stances of the scriptural idiom in the application of phrase- 
 ology similar to that in the narrative concerning the Flood, I 
 humbly think that those terms do not oblige us to understand 
 a literal universality ; so that we are exonerated from some 
 otherwise insuperable difficulties in Natural History and Ge- 
 ology. If so much of the earth was overflowed as was occu- 
 pied by the human race, both the physical and the moral ends 
 of that awful visitation were answered." The Rev. David 
 King, LL. D., of Glasgow, in his recent work, entitled, 
 " Principles of Geology explained," says : " Our best expos- 
 
184 ON THE EXTENT OF NOAH'S FLOOD. 
 
 itors of Scripture are now generally of opinion that the 
 flood, though extensive, was local," p. 56. "If we adopt," 
 he adds, (p. 61,) " the principle which the Scripture itself so 
 unequivocally sanctions that general terms may be used 
 with a limited sense the whole account is simple and con- 
 sistent. A deluge of great extent inundated the dry land. 
 In respect to men, whom it was designed to punish for their 
 wickedness, it was universal, excepting only Noah and his 
 family, whom it pleased God to spare alive. Along with 
 them were preserved such animals as were most useful to 
 them, and such as were fitted to fulfil the purposes of Provi- 
 dence after the waters should have retired." 
 
 The dijficulties'which beset the idea of a literally universal 
 deluge, irrespective of those which geology presents, are 
 indeed somewhat formidable. Some of these allow me now 
 to state. You will find a more full and formidable array of 
 them in the works of Dr. J. P. Smith and President Hitchcock. 
 
 The first difficulty which we will mention arises from the 
 enormous amount of water which, it has been urged, would be 
 requisite to effect an absolutely universal inundation. It 
 has been said, for instance, that to cover the earth to the tops 
 of the highest mountains, the quantity of water requisite 
 would be eight times greater than that existing on the 
 present surface of the globe. In some of the theories of 
 which we on a former occasion made mention, you may have 
 noticed an attempt to meet this difficulty. If there be or 
 prior to the deluge were underlying the earth's crust, such 
 a massive aqueous abyss as the projectors of those theories 
 speak of; or a large number of minor abysses, communicating 
 with the superficial seas, as others have conjectured, or, I 
 might say, as they have considered Moses as teaching when 
 he speaks of " the fountains of the great deep," then would 
 there be found no inadequate supply of liquid stores probably, 
 when brought up to the earth's surface and their theories, 
 
ON THE EXTENT OF NOAH'S FLOOD. 185 
 
 you remember, suggest one or another mode of accomplishing 
 that to inundate this entire little planet, and to the degree 
 which the Scriptures seem to indicate. This idea of the ex- 
 istence of one vast abyss, or many inferior abysses, in the 
 earth's bowels, is, in the view of those who entertain it, sug- 
 gested, or at least supported, by Scripture ; not merely by the 
 expression " fountains of the great deep," used by Moses, but 
 by several passages besides, such as the following cited by 
 Stackhouse : " God founded the earth upon the seas, and 
 established it upon the floods " " He stretched out the earth 
 above the waters ; he gathered up the waters as in a bag " 
 so some translate it, " and laid up the depth in storehouses." 
 " When he set a compass upon the face of the depth ; when 
 he strengthened the fountains of the deep." But that these 
 passages teach the existence of a vast subterranean abyss, a 
 large number of miles in depth, encircling the whole interior 
 of the globe ; or a large number of great but minor subterra- 
 neous abysses, is not very generally understood, we think, by 
 biblical expounders. Certain it is, that since the recent re- 
 markable discoveries made concerning central heat, the idea 
 is not, it is believed, among able Christian geologists, com- 
 monly entertained. " The internal parts of the earth " we 
 quote from Dr. Hitchcock's Religion of Geology, p. 21 
 " are found to possess a very high temperature ; nor can 
 it be doubted that at least oceans of melted matter exist 
 beneath the crust ; and perhaps even all the deep-seated in- 
 terior is in a state of fusion." The idea of an abyss or 
 abysses of water of great depth in themselves, and deeply 
 seated in the earth, is hardly consistent with such a fact, if 
 fact it be. Enough is now known of the structure of this 
 earth to convince us that no subterranean aqueous stores exist 
 in the earth's interior, equal to an emergency such as that of 
 inundating the entire surface of the globe to a depth of 
 five miles above the seas' present level. The expression 
 
186 ON THE EXTENT OP NOAIl's FLOOD. 
 
 " the great deep," or " fountains of the great deep," is so 
 used elsewhere in the Scriptures, as to show it to denote the 
 general collection of oceanic waters, or the seas, regarded 
 and spoken of as deep places, occupying different portions of 
 the surface of the earth. 
 
EVENING FOURTEENTH. 
 
 YOUNG GENTLEMEN: 
 
 Having at the close of the last evening's Exercise consid- 
 ered one of the difficulties besetting the idea of a literally 
 universal deluge, let us now proceed to notice others. We 
 will begin with the following : If such a mass of waters 
 were actually brought upon the earth as would be sufficient 
 to overlie all the plains not only, but hills and mountains of 
 the entire globe, and rise to the height above them all of fif- 
 teen cubits, the consequences which would ensue, in the view 
 of Dr. J. Pye Smith, would be, he knows not how awfully 
 disastrous. There would be, he says, " an increase of the 
 equatorial diameter by some eleven or twelve miles. Two 
 new elements would hence accrue to the actions of gravity 
 upon our planet. The absolute weight would be greatly in- 
 creased, and the causes of the mutation of the axis would be 
 varied. I am not competent," he continues, " to the calculation 
 of the changes in the motions of the earth whieh would thus be 
 produced, and which would propagate their effects through the 
 whole solar system ; and indeed to the entire extent of the 
 material creation: but they would certainly be very great.'* 
 To this it might be remarked, that if, to effect the universal 
 Flood, there were no actual increase or addition to the quan- 
 tity of the water, but only a bringing of the previously ex- 
 isting masses from their repositories in oceans, seas, lakes, 
 
188 ON THE EXTENT OF NOAH'S FLOOD. 
 
 by the expansive power of underlying fires, or by some sub- 
 terranean or other forces, over the surface of the antecedently 
 dry land, no augmentation would there then be of this planet's 
 gravity, and no such disastrous effects would ensue to the en- 
 tire universe, or to the different portions of the solar system, 
 as the just named eminent author apprehended. At least "I 
 am not competent " to conceive that there would any such 
 alarming consequences follow. But this, it might be said, 
 would be only bringing forward one difficulty to prevent 
 another. For to this idea of the sea and land changing 
 places at the time of the deluge, there are objections. Besides 
 some which may be conceived, of a more strictly geological 
 character, there are two quite obvious ones which may be 
 urged: One in reference to the Garden of Eden ; and the 
 other, the olive leaf. First, in relation to the Garden of Eden. 
 The interchange of sea and dry land at the time of the flood, 
 it may be and has been urged, involves the permanent sub- 
 mergence of the ancient paradise ; implies that that once 
 favored spot, " the Garden," now, according to that hypothesis, 
 forms a part of the present ocean's bed ; but Moses, in his 
 description, which he wrote some centuries subsequent to the 
 deluge, evidently did not so understand or represent it. He 
 obviously meant his readers to understand, that Eden's local- 
 ity might, in his day at least, be ascertained without any great 
 difficulty. 
 
 The author of that singularly entitled work, The Friend of 
 Moses, has devised, or at least stated, a plan to meet it. It is, 
 if we mistake not, by supposing the region to which the Gar- 
 den of Eden belonged, to have been exempted in one respect 
 from the fate of all the other antediluvian territory. He 
 supposes that region to have, after a brief season, emerged 
 from the waters, and have constituted ever since a part of the 
 dry land of our postdiluvian world. (See that work, p. 349.) 
 
 As to the "olive leaf" of which Moses speaks not olive 
 branch, as Mr. Lyell calls it and the rapid appearance 
 
ON THE EXTENT OF NOAH'S FLOOD. 189 
 
 indeed of vegetation in general after the deluge these Mr. 
 Fairholme and Dr. Hamilton attempt to account for in con- 
 sistency with the idea of an interchange of sea and dry land 
 at the flood. The former, in answer to the question, " Whence 
 then came the olive leaf?" responds, "Whence, we may ask 
 in return, came the vegetation on which the first created 
 animals fed ? and how was the face of the earth renewed and 
 rearranged in the beautiful order in which we now see it ? 
 Although no mention is made, by the sacred historian, of the 
 exercise of creative power after the deluge, yet we are left to 
 infer the unavoidable necessity of such rearrangement, unless 
 we are prepared to reject both the record of the flood itself, 
 and the clear corroborations of that record which can be 
 drawn from the geological phenomena of the earth." (See 
 Fairholme's Geol. of Scripture, p. 349.) The latter, Dr. 
 Hamilton, does not think it needful to insist on the exercise 
 of creative power in order to the renewal of vegetation on the 
 earth's surface after the deluge, and so the appearance of the 
 olive leaf. " It is quite natural to suppose," says he, " that, 
 as the ancient lands sank beneath the waters, immense quan- 
 tities of fertile soil would be washed away by those waters, 
 and would be held in solution therein ; and also that seeds in 
 great variety and in vast quantities, and fruits of all sorts, 
 would be lifted up, and would remain floating about ; and that 
 as the new lands were rising, great quantities of this soil 
 would be deposited thereon, in the form of mud ; and seeds 
 of all sorts, still capable of germinating, would be lodged in 
 various localities on the emerging lands, many of them mixed 
 with and covered up in the mud so deposited, and which, after 
 a very short time of favorable weather, in that genial climate, 
 would present, in suitable situations, thousands of patches of 
 thriving vegetation ; much as now, every year, is observed 
 in Egypt, on the retiring of the waters of the Nile. Among 
 these patches of verdure, the rapidly shooting scions of seed- 
 ling trees, and vines and shrubs, in countless. variety might 
 
190 ON THE EXTENT OF NOAH'S FLOOD. 
 
 appear. As to the olive leaf, this writer says, " The leaf of 
 a seedling olive plant, some few days old, would have answered 
 every purpose to indicate the ground left dry by the retiring 
 waters, and the commencing of vegetation." 
 
 The aqueous treasures of the antediluvian ocean, if trans- 
 ferred to, would be all-sufficient to cover the depressed ante- 
 diluvian dry land entirely, and rise to that altitude, even, 
 above the most elevated parts (fifteen cubits,) which the 
 sacred writer indicates ; and this, without adopting the suppo- 
 sition of Steno, as quoted by Lyell, that the loftiest moun- 
 tains of the antediluvian dry land may not have been very 
 high. 
 
 Mr. Gleig takes it for granted that the time has gone by 
 when any one pretending to the character of a philosopher 
 or man of science, would dream of objecting to the Mosaic 
 account of the deluge which he thinks most obviously 
 teaches the absolute universality of that catastrophe or 
 judgment on the ground of a difficulty in finding a suffi- 
 ciency of water for the purpose, inasmuch, especially, as 
 philosophers, from obvious phenomena, have inferred that 
 the globe has, anterior to the Noachic flood, been several 
 times covered and for a long season with water. This 
 author throws out the intimation, indeed, that, according to 
 the theory on a former occasion mentioned, " it is not neces- 
 sary to suppose that the waters prevailed over the whole 
 surface of the earth at one and the same time. If the foun- 
 tains of the great deep," says he, " were broken up towards 
 the south pole, and the progress of the waters was northward, 
 it is evident that the southern regions must have been first 
 inundated, and " (supernaturally as he thinks,) " the waters 
 may have been impelled forward, leaving the mountains of 
 the regions behind them dry, as soon as all the living 
 creatures in these mountains were destroyed. This could be 
 done by a change of the centre of gravity, or by many other 
 means easy to Omnipotence ; and if such was the case, much 
 
OX THE EXTENT OF NOAIl's FLOOD. 191 
 
 of the difficulty respecting the quantity of water necessary to 
 overwhelm the whole earth, is at once removed." (See 
 Gleig's History of the Bible, vol. 1, pages 80 and 85.) 
 This last mode of accounting for the deluge, differs from that 
 advanced by Hooke and advocated by Fairholme, in that it 
 supposes the waters, after sweeping by degrees over the sur- 
 face of the dry land, leaving the earth drained behind as it pro- 
 gresses, to pass again into and settle in their ancient bed ; 
 whereas according to those writers, there was ^permanent inter- 
 change of sea and dry land occurring at the time of the 
 Flood. Those who do not feel prepared to embrace either of 
 these two last named but somewhat resembling theories, im- 
 agine that neither of them can be exactly reconciled with the 
 words of the Mosaic account : not the former, because it con- 
 templates such a violent rushing of the waters over the land 
 an idea not suggested by the Mosaic narrative ; which, 
 likewise, contrary to that theory, seems to convey the idea of 
 a simultaneous covering of all the dry land ; not the latter, 
 because the same land which was inundated, seems, accord- 
 ing to Moses' description, to have again emerged, that 
 there was a retiring or subsiding of the waters into their 
 ancient beds. We leave you, young gentlemen, to examine 
 at your leisure and see, whether the scriptural account and 
 these theories, or either of them, can be made to coalesce. 
 
 Another objection to the flood's absolute universality is, 
 the difficulty of affording ample room in the ark for pairs of 
 unclean, and septuples of clean animals, of absolutely every 
 kind of each of these denominations to be found on the entire 
 globe. The number of species already described by zoolo- 
 gists has been said to be not less than 150,000 ; and the 
 probable number existing on the globe is conjectured to be 
 not less than half a million. And for the greater number of 
 these must provision have been made, since most of them in- 
 habit either the air or the dry land. A thousand species of 
 mammalia, 6000 species of birds, 2000 species of reptiles, 
 
192 ON THE EXTENT OF NOAH'S FLOOD. 
 
 and 120,000 species of insects, are already described, says 
 the objector, and must have been provided with space and 
 food. Will any, it is emphatically asked, belieye this 
 possible, in a vessel -of no more capacity than Moses men- 
 tions ? 
 
 The objection, thus stated, appears formidable truly. Yet 
 those who hold that the deluge was universal, endeavor 
 to maintain the ark's adequate capacity. In the first place, 
 in regard to the ark's dimensions, they say the cubit 
 which Moses mentions was not the ordinary one of eighteen 
 inches, as was demonstrated by Mr. Greaves, who, 
 measuring the pyramids in Egypt, and comparing the 
 accounts which Herodotus, Strabo, and others give of their 
 size, found the length of a cubit to be ^lyVotf inches. Such 
 being the ancient cubit, the ark must have been 547 feet in 
 length; 91 feet 2 inches in breadth; and 54 feet 8 inches in 
 height. In-the above calculation the decimals are omitted, 
 which, if taken into the account, would have considerably 
 increased the capacity. Now, if along with the enormous 
 magnitude of the vessel, it be considered that the term spe- 
 cies is applied oftentimes to varieties of what belong in 
 reality to the same species, thus greatly reducing the recently 
 named numbers of species in the department of animated 
 nature ; and if, %oing still farther, we say with Dr. Adam 
 Clarke, " it is a question whether in this (Mosaic) account, 
 any but the different GENERA of animals necessary to be 
 brought into the ark, should be included ; " then the ob- 
 jection appears to lose very much of its formidableness, to 
 say the least. And if, in addition to all hitherto said, we 
 make the number of clean creatures small as must have 
 been the case if at that period only animals proper for 
 sacrifice were so called, and that the sevens specified in 
 regard to these, may be regarded as meaning not seven pairs, 
 but seven singles (as if three couples for brocd, and the odd 
 seventh for sacrifice,) for the language is '< by $crens"t the 
 
ON THE EXTENT OF NOAH'S FLOOD. 193 
 
 objection is then so weakened, that many will regard it as of 
 little force ; more especially when, added to all the foregoing, 
 it could be 'and has been plead, that of all the living 
 creatures entering the ark, " the vastly greater proportion 
 were small, and numbers of them could be placed together in 
 the same compartment ; " and that " many animals, also, are 
 torpid during the winter, and would probably lie dormant 
 during the long and wintry storm of the deluge ; while, for 
 all of them, much less than the usual amount of food would 
 suffice, in consequence of their inactivity during the whole 
 period of their confinement in a floating vessel." 
 
 But if the ark were capacious enough to hold specimens of 
 all kinds of living creatures, yet It is objected that all kinds 
 of them could not have been preserved in the ark, because of 
 a want of power in all kinds to accommodate themselves to any 
 one climate. So true is this, it is urged, that if tropical ani- 
 mals were to be removed to the temperate zones, and 
 especially to the frigid regions, they could not long survive ; 
 and that almost equally fatal would it be for the animals of 
 high latitudes to take up their abode near the equator. 
 Hence specimens of the various kinds coming from the differ- 
 ent climates to which they are adapted, could not, especially 
 for so long a time as the deluge continued, have lived togeth- 
 er in the one floating vessel of Noah.' The fact in the way 
 of reply to this, has been urged, that travelling menageries 
 contain collections of animals of a great variety of kinds not 
 only, but from various and very different climates and widely 
 separated localities. "The white bear from the Arctic 
 ocean, the lion from the burning deserts of Africa, the tiger 
 from the jungles of Bengal, the elephant from Ceylon, the 
 llama from South America, the orang-outang from Borneo, 
 and even the kangaroo from New Holland, with the arma- 
 dillo of Central America, and the bear of the Rocky moun- 
 tains, have been known to exist for many months and even 
 years, side by side, in the same menagerie ; " and that 
 
194 ON THE EXTENT OF NOAIl's FLOOD. 
 
 % 
 
 " during the continuance of the deluge the temperature of 
 the atmosphere would probably Jbe a medium between the 
 intense cold of the Arctic, and the fiery heat of the tropics, 
 a temperature in which all animals could exist for a con- 
 siderable length of time." 
 
 Again: It has been objected to an absolutely universal 
 deluge, that it would cause a mixture of the salt and fresh 
 waters of the globe. But many of the marine fishes and 
 mollusks could live alone in salt water, it is argued ; and the 
 fresh-water ones would be destroyed, it is urged, by being 
 kept even a short time in salt water ; whilst some species, 
 though they can indeed live in brackish water, would still be 
 affected fatally, in all probability, by such circumstances as 
 the increased volume of water, and the scattering and float- 
 ing away of their nutriment. There would of necessity then 
 be a vast if not entire destruction of aquatic animals. 
 
 There is an attempt to meet this objection, not by denying 
 that there exists a distinction of the kind which the objection 
 contemplates, but by questioning the soundness of the infer- 
 ence in its full extent which is deduced from it. Is it a 
 settled truth that salt-water fishes and mollusks cannot live a 
 while in water somewhat less salt; and that fresh-water 
 fishes cannot subsist for a season in a less fresh element ? 
 But even supposing all the living tenants of fresh water to 
 have perished, might there not have been a provision for 
 replenishing the fresh waters with living stores by means of 
 spawn here and there plentifully and safely deposited ? 
 " May it not even be true," it is asked, " that the germs of 
 animal life lie imbedded at this very moment beneath the 
 stratum forming the bed of the ocean, and that they are so 
 guarded by surrounding mud, and the immense pressure of 
 ocean's waters, from all action of the atmosphere, and from 
 all escape of vital moisture and gas, that vitality still exists 
 there ; so that when, ages hence, the present ocean-bed 
 shall be upheaved, it shall bring with it to the sun and air, 
 
ON THE EXTENT OF NOAH'S FLOOD. 195 
 
 the seeds of appropriate animal no less than of vegetable life 
 in countless myriads ? And why may it not have been thus 
 with lands upheaved at the deluge ? " 
 
 A difficulty which geology is thought to present against 
 the absolute universality of the Mosaic Flood is stated by Dr. 
 Pye Smith in his " Scripture and Geology," pp. 126-131. 
 We will give you a mere hint in regard to its character. " In 
 a district more than forty miles in length and twenty in 
 breadth, in the southern part of Central France comprised 
 in the ancient provincial divisions of Auvergne and Langue- 
 doc are the unquestionable cones, craters, and other charac- 
 teristic remains of more than two hundred volcanic hills and 
 mountains. These, in former periods of our planet's history, 
 have projected their tremendous fiery masses, ashes and 
 water, into the air ; and vast streams of melted rocks along 
 the ground." Passing over much that is said " many of 
 these hills, in the form of sugar-loaves, consist of or are 
 coated over with pumice stones and other loose and light 
 substances, which every person knows to be volcanic prod- 
 ucts. It is self-evident that these could not have withstood 
 the action of a flood : they must have been broken down 
 and washed away with the first rush of water. Either then 
 the eruptions which produced them, took place since the del- 
 uge ; or that deluge did not reach to this part of the earth. 
 Against the former side of this alternative the argument 
 from analogy is very strong." An attempt to meet this ar- 
 gument against the flood's universality you may find in 
 "The Friend of Moses," pp. 361-369, which, along with 
 Dr. Pye Smith's statement, we hope you will look at when 
 convenient. 
 
 Finally : There has been an objection urged not only 
 against the flood's universality, but against the occurrence 
 indeed of any such event as the deluge of Noah at the period 
 assigned by the Mosaic annals, an objection based on the 
 records of some Oriental Nations, as the Egyptians, Chinese, 
 
196 ON THE EXTENT OF NOAH'S FLOOD. 
 
 etc., assigning them an antiquity far back beyond that of the 
 Noachic cataclysm. We shall not here consider how this 
 objection has been or may be met. As a question of an 
 ethnological character will hereafter, Providence permitting, 
 at some time demand our attention, the validity of those 
 claims put forth by the nations alluded to, to an origin so 
 vastly ancient, will then be examined. We imagine that 
 whether the deluge of Noah was or was not universal, it may 
 then be pretty clearly shown that this matter can with no 
 propriety be urged in proof either against the occurrence of 
 such an event, or against its absolute universality. 
 
 From what has by us been now advanced, in the form of 
 argument, on each side of the question relating to the extent 
 of the Noachic deluge, you may feel yourselves not exactly 
 prepared to come to a determinate conclusion, whether that 
 inundation was, or was not, absolutely universal. Inasmuch 
 as, whilst the language of Moses, employed in describing the 
 flood appears, when most literally interpreted, to teach its 
 universality, yet, as we have seen, can be, as to its universal 
 terms, so construed as to suffer our faith to cling with unre- 
 laxing tenacity to the verity of the Mosaic account, without 
 deciding, firmly and finally, that it could have been of no less 
 extent ; and inasmuch as you are yet in the May-time of 
 life, and so, in the clemency of a benignant Providence, you 
 may be afforded an unstinted opportunity to examine the 
 subject, in its every feature and relation, more thoroughly, 
 we would not deem it advisable for you at present to pro- 
 nounce dogmatically an opinion on one side or the other. 
 While this is said by us, however, we do hope you feel 
 prepared to declare, that neither the language of the Mosaic 
 description, nor that used directly by the Deity to our patriarch, 
 wherein he says, " neither shall there any more be a flood to 
 destroy the earth ; " as well as what is embraced in the pas- 
 sages preceding and succeeding this declaration, from the 9th 
 to the end of the 17th verse of the 9th chapter of Genesis, 
 
ON THE EXTENT OP NOAH*S FLOOD. 197 
 
 and chapter 8th, verses 21st and 22d; together with the 
 credible evidence formerly adduced in support of the idea 
 that the antediluvian population had become numerically very 
 great, that neither all combined, nor any of these things, 
 will, in your view, allow you to conclude that the flood of 
 Noah was not so extraordinary, or remarkably peculiar, but 
 that there have been, and in all likelihood hereafter will be, 
 inundations of very similar character, both as to extent and 
 otherwise, or indeed either. 
 
 It is to be presumed that no great degree of regret will be 
 felt rising in your minds at the perceptible indications of a 
 close being about to be put to our extended remarks on the 
 event which, for so many evenings, has been occupying our 
 attention. Some of your minds, indeed, may not have been 
 entirely barren of wonder, that we should have imagined it 
 needful or expedient to dwell so long on this theme. Had 
 we, young gentlemen, indulged the suspicion that you were 
 affected with the " yellow cover " malady, we should have 
 some time since relinquished the subject, or rather should 
 have never consented to commence it, nor indeed any part of 
 this series of Evening Exercises. There are those in mul- 
 titudes, before whom we would never think of opening our 
 mouth on any of the themes embraced in this "course." 
 Other things in abundance they can find, better suited to their 
 capacities, as well as more congenial to their tastes. It is 
 not worth while to waste time or words in finding fault with 
 their preferences. There must be mental as well as physical 
 nonenities or vacuities in the world. It would not be a 
 world, so to speak, without them. And it would seem a 
 great pity if nothing appropriate could be found to introduce 
 into those spaces of emptiness. If " nature abhors a vacuum," 
 pray, why may we not ? You, young gentlemen, were, we 
 trust, born for a higher destiny than that of merely inhaling 
 the wind, or even the malaria of pestilential marshes. 
 
198 CALL FOR THE DISCUSSION. 
 
 In the circumstance that the Deluge was so prominent an 
 event in the lifetime of our patriarch, may be descried a 
 plausible reason for making it so prominent a theme in a 
 course of lectures on "Noah and his Times" It is not, 
 however, so much for the purpose of adapting our exercises 
 to the just named title, that we have drawn so heavily on 
 your "bank" of patience, as because of the fact that skepticism 
 is at present audaciously and assiduously occupying itself in 
 attempts to discover and urge startling disparities and irrecon- 
 cilable discrepancies between the recently ascertained facts, or 
 remarkable modern discoveries, of science, and the teachings 
 of our venerated and sacred volume, in regard particularly to 
 Creation and the Deluge. There is also another reason, not 
 altogether isolated from the preceding, for entering so fully 
 into the subject which has been so much before us. There 
 is still not an inconsiderable number of Bible readers who 
 have been so taught to interpret the initial part of Genesis, as 
 to harbor an opinion conflicting with the findings of science ; 
 and who, moreover, have been accustomed to indulge the 
 belief, that all fossil organic remains, whether imbedded in 
 the rocky strata, or overlying them, almost every where to 
 be detected on this planet, were borne and deposited thither 
 by the deluge of Noah, and are themselves indisputable 
 evidences of that event. When such persons hear for the 
 first time, or hear barely, what geologists and naturalists aver 
 from investigation as ascertained principles, or settled facts, 
 principles or facts bearing on these points, one or other 
 of the following things is likely to take place : Either they 
 will have their faith shaken, or hearts tortured with suspi- 
 cion, concerning the credibility of the Mosaic history; their 
 hostility or unfriendly jealousy awakened toward sciences 
 which threaten to uproot or ignore those previously imbibed 
 opinions of which we have just made mention ; or, on the 
 other hand, by conceitedly and pertinaciously adhering to 
 them, and fiercely charging all with being infidels, or favor- 
 
CALL FOR THE DISCUSSION. 199 
 
 ing their cause, who teach or hold differently, help to 
 confirm the really skeptical in their anti-biblical doubts and 
 prejudices. Solicitous we cannot but be, young gentlemen, 
 that you should be qualified correctly to interpret both Nature 
 and Scripture relative to the interesting and important mat- 
 ters in question ; and be instrumental in leading others to the 
 possession of intelligent and truthful sentiments respecting 
 them. 
 
EVENING FIFTEENTH. 
 
 YOUNG GENTLEMEN: 
 
 We cannot consent to conclude our remarks in relation to 
 the Noachic cataclysm without dropping a word in regard to 
 what we conceive to be an important element, so to speak, in 
 the agencies giving rise to, or somehow connected with, the 
 phenomena of that stupendous diluvial occurrence. Some 
 even Christian philosophers, appear to have a strong as well 
 as strange disinclination to assign to aught save the operation 
 of natural principles or agencies, whatever, whether as to 
 origin or otherwise, pertains to this event. We are free to 
 say that we cannot enroll ourselves among the number who 
 imagine it to have been brought about solely by natural 
 means : we say, solely, for that there was an entire ab- 
 sence of the operation of natural or secondary causes, even 
 the sacred narrative does not allow us to believe : making 
 mention, as you perceive, of the descending rain and the 
 issuing forth of the waters from oceanic and lesser reposi- 
 tories ; and, in facilitating the subsidence of the diluvial 
 waters, or reappearance of dry land, the blowing of a wind 
 over the liquid surface such a wind as produced a strong 
 and sudden evaporation, or served to hasten their retirement 
 to the reservoirs they had left. Whatever natural agencies 
 or existing instrumentalities the Omnipotent and Infinitely 
 Wise might choose, were of course concerned in the accom- 
 
PRETERNATURAL AGENCT. 201 
 
 plisliment of what Jehovah had purposed in regard to the 
 corrupt and incorrigible inhabitants of the Old World. 
 Reasons satisfactory to ourselves we find for not excluding or 
 losing sight of preternatural agency in the effecting of the 
 destruction of those millions whom God did not deem fit to 
 live. Desire you from us a statement of these reasons? 
 In the first place, then, the Scriptures represent the Deluge 
 as a strictly punitive event, as possessing the charac- 
 ter of a judicial infliction. So the sacred historian ob- 
 viously understood it ; so he designed his readers to believe. 
 So Noah himself understood it, and manifestly would 
 have his descendants in every generation, and everywhere, 
 believe. But in order that mankind everywhere, and in 
 every age, should thus believe, and be suitably and salu- 
 tarily impressed by it, the Deity Supreme would see to hav- 
 ing it so brought about, that its character should not entirely 
 be wrapped up and hid in the operation of natural agencies, 
 or secondary causes. God's care on this point is discernible 
 in the fact that all theories which have attempted to account 
 for the rise, or to explain the various phenomena of the 
 Deluge of sacred history, which have failed to recognize 
 immediate divine interposition or agency, have failed likewise 
 in satisfying the mind of the generality of those who have 
 examined them. Infidels, or those who have desired to 
 ignore or throw discredit upon the whole Mosaic account 
 these have manifested dissatisfaction with those theories 
 wanting, as those men do, no agency natural or supernatural 
 to effect an event which they profess to believe never 
 occurred ; whilst others, who are not infidels, find both their 
 faith and reason demanding the operation of something addi- 
 tional to and above that of strictly natural causes as are 
 commonly called the principles or powers with which the 
 Deity has invested or endowed nature. 
 
 Let us remark, in the next place, that if you will look at 
 Gen. 6 : 7, where the Lord is to be found saying to himself, 
 
202 THE FLOOD OP GENESIS PRODUCED 
 
 " I will destroy man, whom I have created, from the face of 
 the earth," etc. ; and into the 13th verse of the same chapter, 
 where he is to be found saying to Noah, " The end of all flesh 
 is come before me ; for the earth is filled with violence through 
 them ; behold I will destroy them with the earth," you 
 will hardly be able to convince yourselves that the Lord ex- 
 pressed to himself and to Noah, merely the result of what he 
 foresaw certain powers or principles in nature, after the inter- 
 val of a specified number of years, of themselves solely, unin- 
 tensified, undirected, uncontrolled, would effect. And we 
 cannot find it in our heart to blame you, if you fail of ability 
 to convince yourselves of this. 
 
 Again. To me it appears difficult to ponder and weigh the 
 full import and force of that emphatic " Behold I, EVEN I, do 
 bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh 
 wherein is the breath of life ; " a declaration of God which 
 you may see in Gen. 6: 17, and yet entertain the belief 
 that the whole diluvial event of which we have been treating, 
 was brought about exclusively by natural powers or laws. 
 That "I, even 1, " seems to me to present, very clearly, and 
 emphatically too, a personal and supernatural agent as oper- 
 ating, and not mediately only, but immediately, in bringing 
 over the earth the sweeping diluvial judgment. It is hard 
 for me to believe that that 17th verse contains only a divine 
 prediction that after the lapse of a specified number of years, 
 natural agencies will cause an inundation which will prove 
 generally destructive to the living creatures inhabiting this 
 planet ; and an implied announcement on the part of God, 
 that he did not intend to interfere to prevent the catastrophe, 
 and for the reason that mankind had become so wicked. 
 And again, When I read that language from the lips divine, 
 contained in Gen. 8 : 21, 22, a part of which is, " I will not 
 again curse the ground any more for man's sake, neither 
 will I again smite any more every living thing as I have 
 done;" and when, additionally, in Gen. 9: 11, I find God 
 
NOT SOLELY BY NATURAL CAUSES. 203 
 
 solemnly as well as formally declaring to our patriarch, 
 " I will establish my covenant with you ; neither shall all 
 flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood ; " and 
 examine the whole paragraph in which this is included, my 
 reason will not, no sound principle of exegesis will, allow me 
 to interpret the language as containing barely a prediction 
 that there never will be again such an operation of natural 
 causes as to bring about an inundation so extensive or destruc- 
 tive as that which had just passed away. 
 
 If any professing to have a reverence for the Bible can, 
 we cannot, either erase from that Book of books or explain 
 away the record of the many miracles which we there find ; 
 the revealed numerous instances, in both Testaments, of 
 direct divine interposition or agency to effect things above or 
 beyond what the powers of nature alone could accomplish. 
 And we are left to infer that if, on numerous other occasions, 
 and for less important ends, the Omnipotent has stepped 
 from his throne and exerted just a little of his Almighti- 
 ness in putting, for the time, an efficiency into natural powers 
 or principles which is known not ordinarily to belong to 
 them ; or, without any instrumentalities at all, doing such or 
 such things which for some end he wished to be accomplished ; 
 then, we cannot see why, for a greatly paramount end, an 
 end so very momentous as that for which the earth was 
 visited by the inundation of which the sacred archaic histo- 
 rian speaks, the Infinite One should not put forth a little of 
 his boundless power to produce such inundation. And that 
 he did so, whether others will or will not, we will and must 
 believe. 
 
 But, " if it was miraculous, then we must give up the idea 
 of philosophizing about it," says the author of The Religion 
 of Geology, p. 127. If that respected author means by this 
 remark that, if there was something preternatural introduced 
 in bringing about the deluge, we are thereby precluded from 
 making any inquiries in reference to it, we cannot see how 
 
204 THE FLOOD OF GENESIS PRODUCED 
 
 this necessarily follows. It appears to me that we are not 
 deprived of the liberty of inquiring what and how far natural 
 means or agencies were employed in relation to the event. 
 We may still, it strikes me, lawfully inquire whether any, 
 and, if any, what distinguishable physical traces of that 
 occurrence are discoverable at this day on the globe. We 
 are at liberty to seek for responses, both from the written 
 revelation of God, and the material or physical one, to such 
 additional interrogatories as, How far did the cataclysm ex- 
 tend? What quantity of water was requisite to effect it? 
 Whence came it ? How high did it rise ? What effects, as 
 to kind and degree, followed to animated nature ? to all 
 questions, in short, against which faith, reverence, and reason 
 would not issue their veto. 
 
 Though it may sound much like a truism, yet we are not 
 without our object in saying it, that there are some things 
 which can by no one be reverently or rightly done. No one 
 can, with due reverence or propriety, treat the Mosaic testi- 
 mony as if it were utterly unworthy of credence as if it did 
 not possess the attributes of history or, as if it ought not to 
 be received as such. Nor, in the light or face of that testi- 
 mony, that history, ought any set of men to act, we will not 
 say so deistically, but atheistically, as to leave unthought of, 
 or suffer to remain wholly out of view, the Great First Cause, 
 or Supreme and Universal Ruler, in their inquiries relative 
 to that great diluvial occurrence to which we have had our 
 thoughts directed ; nor even in appearance attempt to divest 
 that event of the discernible marks of a special divine judg- 
 ment inflicted on an exceedingly corrupt and incorrigibly 
 wicked world. We are constrained here to express our 
 surprise and sorrow that some even Christian divines, 
 through their intense fondness for philosophic investigation 
 or inquiry, have allowed themselves to speak of the deluge 
 of Noah, as if God had had no more, directly, to do with it, 
 than he has with the steady revolutions of the planets in their 
 
NOT 8OLELY BY NATURAL CAUSES. 205 
 
 orbits, or any other event occurring under the ordinary and 
 sole operation or control, so far as we can discover, of nature's 
 principles or laws. With respect to these men, we must be 
 permitted to say, that we think it due to their character and 
 position not to proceed in their speculations or inquiries rela- 
 tive to the Noachic inundation, so much as if there were no 
 special written divine testimony concerning it. Let not this 
 remark, however, be considered as applying to more than a 
 comparatively few of those occupying that position, who have 
 published the results of their speculations or inquiries on the 
 subject. It is only here and there one that has become so 
 ambitious or fond of playing the philosopher, as wellnigh to 
 forget that there is a Bible conferred by a benevolent God to 
 serve as a lamp to our feet and a light to our path. 
 
 If, prompted or impelled by such clear scriptural inti- 
 mations as have been referred to, we, to natural causes or 
 agencies, superadd the preternatural, in our inquiries respect- 
 ing the cause or causes connected with the diluvial occurrence 
 described in the Mosaic narrative ; if, not natural powers 
 exclusively were concerned in bringing it about, but, along 
 with, or at their head, the power of the Omnipotent is to be 
 regarded as having been put forth ; then, difficulties such 
 as the cavilling mind finds in the way of the occurrence of 
 just such a deluge, in all its features, as the archaic historian, 
 Moses, describes, are at once given to the winds : for where, 
 where are to be found such difficulties or obstacles as to 
 confront or defy Omnipotence ? 
 
 If you have not hitherto felt, you may by this time begin 
 to feel a desire to hear where the ark finally stranded or 
 settled. Where was it that the inmates of the floating house, 
 human and sub-human, left it, again to take up their abode on 
 dry land? The Scriptures, we are disposed to think, do not 
 speak so determinately on this point, as that the precise spot 
 can be certainly ascertained. Indeed, had they spoken thus, 
 
 there would not, among biblical interpreters, have prevailed 
 10 
 
206 INQUIRY AS TO THE ARK'S RESTING PLACE. 
 
 the variety of conjecture which we find. The Mosaic history 
 has been considered as containing two brief statements from 
 which to arrive at an opinion, to wit : That in Gen. 8 : 4, 
 where it is said that " the ark " (at a time which it specifies,) 
 " rested upon the mountains of Ararat ; " and that in 11 : 2, 
 where we read concerning the Noachidae, that " as they 
 journeyed from the East, they found a plain in the land of 
 Shinar, and they dwelt there." The phrase " mountains of 
 Ararat," in the former of the two passages cited, has led the 
 major number of expositors to locate the place of exodus in 
 Armenia. The word Ararat occurs in three other places in 
 the Sacred Scriptures, 2 Kings 19 : 37 ; Isa. 37 : 38 ; Jer. 
 51 : 27 ; in the first two of which it is rendered Armenia. 
 The earliest tradition fixed on one of the chain of mountains 
 which separate Armenia from Mesopotamia, and which, as 
 they also inclose Kurdistan, (the land of the Kurds,) ob- 
 tained the name of Kardu, or Carduchian range, corrupted 
 into Gordiaean and Cordyaean. This opinion prevailed 
 among the Chaldeans, if the testimony of Berosus as quoted 
 by Josephus may be relied upon : " It is said there is still 
 some part of this ship in Armenia, at the mountain of the 
 Cordyseans ; and that people carry off pieces of the bitumen, 
 which they use as amulets." (Antiq. 1 : 3, 6.) From that 
 tradition, doubtless it was, that Mohammed was led to say in 
 his Koran, (11 : 46) "The ark rested on the mountain Al- 
 Judi." That name was probably a corruption of Giordi, i. e. 
 Gordisean (the designation given to the entire range,) but 
 afterwards applied to the special locality where the ark was 
 supposed to have rested. This is on a mountain a little to 
 the east of Jezizah ibn Omar (the ancient Bezabde) on the 
 Tigris. This tradition respecting the locality where the ark 
 rested, may be found adopted by the Chaldee paraphrasts, as 
 well as by the Syriac translators and commentators, and all 
 the Syrian churches. In the three texts where " Ararat" 
 occurs, the Targum of Oakelos has 1TO Kardu; and, 
 
INQUIRY AS TO THE ARK'S RESTING PLACE. 207 
 
 according to Buxtorf, the term " Kardyan " was in Chaldee 
 synonymous with " Armenian." At Gen. 8 : 4, we are 
 informed that the Arabic of Erpenius has Jibal-el-Karud 
 (the mountain of the Kurds) which is likewise found in the 
 " Book of Adam " of the Zabacans. 
 
 Another and later tradition, and one which has been more 
 commonly adopted by Christians of the Occident, makes the 
 ark to have rested on a great mountain in the north of Ar- 
 menia. Such influence had this tradition on the popular 
 belief, as in course of time to give to that towering eminence 
 the name of Ararat as if no doubt could be entertained 
 that it was the Ararat of the Scriptures. The native Arme- 
 nians called it Macis, and the Turks Aghur-dagh or Agri- 
 dagh, i. e. " The Heavy or Great Mountain." The Persians 
 call it Kuhi Nuch, Noah's mountain. The Armenian ety- 
 mology of the name of the city of Nachchevan (which lies 
 east of it) is said to be " the first place of descent or lodg- 
 ing ; " being regarded as the place where Noah resided after 
 descending from the mount. This mountain, now going 
 among western nations under the name Ararat, consists of 
 two immense conical elevations, the altitude of the taller 
 being 17,750 feet above the level of the sea, and 14,573 feet 
 above the level of the plain; that of the lower 13,420 feet 
 above the sea, and 10,435 feet above the plain ; thus tower- 
 ing in massive and majestic grandeur from the valley of the 
 Aras, the ancient Araxes. The Rev. Eli Smith says of it, 
 " Not among the mountains of Ararat, certainly, or of Ar- 
 menia generally, nor those of any part of the world where I 
 have been, have I ever seen one whose majesty could plead 
 half so powerfully its claims to the honor of having once been 
 the stepping stone between the Old World and the New. I 
 gave myself up to the feeling, that on its summit were once 
 congregated all the inhabitants of the earth ; and that, while 
 in ,the valley of the Araxes, I was paying a visit to the 
 second cradle of the human race. Nor can I allow my 
 
208 INQUIRY AS TO THE ARK*S RESTING PLACE. 
 
 opinion to be at all shaken by the Chaldee paraphrasts, the 
 Syrian translators and commentators, and the traditions of 
 the whole family of Syrian churches which translate the 
 passage in question, * mountains of the Kurds' " Sir 
 Robert Ker Porter thus graphically describes this stupendous 
 work of nature : "As the vale opened beneath us, in our 
 descent, my whole attention became absorbed in the view 
 before me. A vast plain peopled with countless villages, the 
 towers and spires of the churches of Eitch-mia-adzen arising 
 from amidst them ; the glittering waters of the Araxes flow- 
 ing through the fresh green of the vale ; and the subordinate 
 range of mountains skirting the base of the awful monument 
 of the antediluvian world, it seemed to stand a stupendous 
 link in the history of man, uniting the two races of men 
 before and after the flood. But it was not until we had 
 arrived upon the flat plain, that I beheld Ararat in all its 
 amplitude of grandeur. From the spot on which I stood, it 
 appeared as if the hugest mountains of the world had been 
 piled upon each other, to form this one sublime immensity of 
 earth, and rock, and snow. The icy peaks of its double 
 heads rose majestically into the clear and cloudless heavens ; 
 the sun blazed bright upon them, and the reflection sent forth 
 dazzling radiance equal to other suns. My eye, not able to 
 rest for any length of time upon the blinding glory of its 
 summits, wandered down the apparently interminable sides, 
 till I could no longer trace their vast lines in the mists of the 
 horizon ; when an irrepressible impulse immediately carrying 
 my eye upwards again, refixed my gaze on the awful glare 
 of Ararat; and this bewildered sensibility of sight being 
 answered by a similar feeling in the mind, for some moments 
 I was lost in a strange suspension of the powers of thought." 
 Of the two separate peaks, called the Little and the Great 
 Ararat, which are separated by a chasm about seven miles 
 in width, Sir Robert thus speaks: "These inaccessible 
 summits have never been trodden by the foot of man since 
 
INQUIRY AS TO THE ARS/S RESTING PLACE. 209 
 
 the days of Noah, if even then ; for my idea is, that the ark 
 rested in the space between these heads, and not on the top 
 of either. Various attempts have been made in different 
 ages to ascend these tremendous mountain pyramids, but in 
 vain. Their form, snows, and glaciers are insurmountable 
 obstacles ; the distance being so great from the commence- 
 ment of the icy regions to the highest points, cold alone 
 would be the destruction of any person who should have the 
 hardihood to persevere." 
 
 At the time when Sir R. K. Porter's Travels were pub- 
 lished, and indeed until some twenty-five or thirty years 
 since, the summit of this lofty mountain was considered abso- 
 lutely inaccessible. Attempts had at various times been 
 made to reach its top, but beyond the limit of perpetual 
 snow scarcely any succeeded in planting their feet. In the 
 year 1700, the French traveller Tournefort persevered long, 
 and in the face of many difficulties, but was foiled in the end. 
 Early in the present century the Pasha of Bayazeed under- 
 took the ascent, but with success no better. In 1829, a Dr. 
 Parrot claimed the honor of first reaching the summit of this 
 towering eminence. Taking with him a Mr. Behagel as 
 mineralogist, Messrs. Hehn and Schiemann, medical students 
 of Moscow, and Mr. Foderow, astronomer of St. Petersburg, 
 he undertook and accomplished the remarkable achievement. 
 An account of his ascent, extracted from a work published 
 by Professor Parrot at Berlin, may be founct in the Foreign 
 Quarterly Review for June, 1835. It is quite interesting, 
 but too long to allow me to give it to you here. Twice was 
 he repelled, it is said, by the snowy crest ; but in th third 
 attempt he succeeded, after almost unparalleled effort, in 
 reaching its lofty pinnacle. He found himself on a slightly 
 convex and almost circular platform, two hundred and twenty 
 feet in diameter, which at the extremity declined rather steeply 
 on all sides. This was the silver crest of Ararat, composed 
 of eternal ice, unbroken by a rock or stone. On account of 
 
210 INQUIRY AS TO THE ARK*S RESTING PLACE. 
 
 the immense distance, nothing could be seen distinctly. The 
 whole valley of the Araxes was covered with a grey mist, 
 through which the towns of Erivan and Sardarabad appeared 
 as small dark spots. To the E. S. E. was the lesser Ararat, 
 whose head, as viewed from this higher point, did not appear 
 like a cone, as it does from the plain, but like the top of a 
 square truncated pyramid, with larger and smaller rocky 
 elevations at the edges and' in the middle. The party spent 
 three quarters of an hour, we are told, on its summit, and 
 then, after planting an oaken cross thereon, descended. In 
 their descent, " it was a splendid sight to behold the dark 
 shadows which the mountains on the west cast upon the 
 plain, and then the profound darkness which covered all the 
 valleys, and which rose gradually higher and higher on the 
 side of Ararat, whose icy summit was still illuminated by the 
 beams of the setting sun." 
 
 The fact of such an ascent as that which Dr. Parrot pro- 
 fesses to have accomplished is indeed, it is said, doubted by 
 the Armenians, but their incredulity is based upon their su- 
 perstition. They firmly believe that on the top of that 
 mountain is Noah's ark existing at the present day, and that 
 in order to preserve it an approach is to no one allowed. 
 This tradition, which is founded upon some monkish legend, 
 has received the sanction of the church, and become in effect 
 an article of faith which an Armenian would scarcely renounce 
 even were he in person placed on that very summit where 
 he believes it in undecaying perfection to be. 
 
 It was so early as at the end of one hundred and fifty 
 days,.or five months, after the deluge commenced, that the 
 ark is said, to have " rested on the mountains of Ararat," 
 (Gen. 8 : 4.) Now if by the resting there spoken of, be 
 meant a grounding and permanent resting, it appears to us 
 strange that from being so high as fifteen cubits above that, 
 and even loftier eminences on the globe, the waters should 
 have been at this time only of such height as that a final 
 
INQUIRY AS TO THE ARK'S RESTING PLACE. 211 
 
 stranding could have taken place, and yet the process of 
 exsiccation or abatement afterward be so slow that the 
 tops of the mountains should not be visible until some 
 two and a half months subsequently, which, by looking 
 at the fifth verse of the eighth chapter and comparing 
 with the verse preceding, you will perceive to have been 
 the fact. But this is not the most formidable objection 
 which may be urged against that interpretation of the 
 fourth verse which makes the resting of the ark there 
 spoken of, to denote a stranding, and that not simply, but such 
 a stranding as to involve a permanent settlement. For then 
 it must have been from that eminence that there was an 
 egression of the Noachic family, together with all the living 
 inferior creatures which had been preserved in it, from the 
 ark, and the finding of their way in safety far down the pre- 
 cipitous, rocky and icy declivity or declivities into the habit- 
 able regions below ; a thing utterly impracticable without 
 miraculous interference or aid, as we are constrained to infer 
 from the fact to which our attention has been called, viz., 
 that its ascent is so difficult and next to utterly impracticable 
 an achievement so all but absolutely transcending human 
 power, that notwithstanding the many strenuous efforts that 
 were at different periods put forth for its achievement, the 
 summit was never actually reached from below until a 
 quarter of a century since, and then only after almost super- 
 human exertion. Hence necessity seems to be laid upon us 
 to adopt a somewhat different interpretation, either of the 
 phrase "mountains of Ararat" or of the word "rested" in 
 Genesis 8 : 4. But it being time* for us to close, the con- 
 sid(?ration of this you may expect to introduce the next 
 Exercise. 
 
EVENING SIXTEENTH. 
 
 YOUNG GENTLEMEN: 
 
 Toward arriving at a correct conclusion as to the particular 
 locality where the ark finally or permanently rested, no such 
 determinate assistance can, in our view, be derived from the 
 phraseology WT& *nn ^9 al hare Ararat, rendered " upon the 
 mountains of Ararat" as the great majority of commentators 
 appear to have imagined. It may well be inquired, what 
 authority or right have they to interpret it as indicating a 
 particular mountain, now known by the name Ararat, situated 
 in modern Armenia? Does it not seem much more rational 
 and proper to understand that plural phraseology as denoting 
 a mountainous district within a country or province bearing 
 the denomination of Ararat? just as the expressions, the 
 mountains of Israel, the mountains of Samaria, the mountains 
 of Abarim, etc., are understood to denote the mountainous 
 districts of those countries. The sacred historian, then, may 
 be regarded as not intending, by the phraseology referred to, 
 to designate a particular mountain-top as that on which the 
 floating fabric found a lodgment or repose, but to say, in 
 general terms, that this took place in some part of the moun- 
 tain range which distinguished the country of Ararat, and may 
 be believed to have been in or near the modern Armenia. 
 Should it be contended, in favor of that more usual interpre- 
 tation of commentators which has been mentioned, that the 
 
INQUIRY AS TO THE ARIv's RESTING PLACE. 213 
 
 double peak of Agridah makes the plural phraseology 
 pertinent ; and that the ark, as we have observed Sir R. K. 
 Porter to think, may have rested in the valley between the 
 two peaks, and thus, as it were, on the two mountains ; it 
 may to this be replied, that, since we are told, in verse fifth, 
 that it was not until the first of the tenth month that the tops 
 of the mountains were seen, it is not possible that the ark 
 should have stranded in the valley between the two peaks, 
 and far below their tops, some two and a half months anterior 
 to that period. 
 
 Next, as to the proper interpretation of the phrase " rested 
 upon" (or the original,) in the same verse, (the fourth,) let us 
 drop a word. Should we feel disposed to entertain favorably 
 the idea thrown out by the Rev. N. Morren, in the Article "Ar- 
 arat" of Dr. Kitto's Cyclopedia, we shall consider the sacred 
 historian as still farther from intending to point out a particu- 
 lar locality, as that on which the ark found a final lodgment. 
 That writer thinks that it may be fairly questioned whether 
 the Hebrew words translated "rested upon" in Genesis 8: 4, 
 should be understood as meaning an actual grounding upon 
 the mountainous region, much less a particular mountain, of 
 Ararat. Obtained a comparative and temporary repose over, 
 expresses, in his view, the import of the original ; or, at least, 
 according to his opinion, the words of the Hebrew are to be 
 considered susceptible of such an interpretation. The lan- 
 guage of Moses, in that fourth verse, then, may be regarded as 
 indicating that the ark, after having been driven and tossed 
 to and fro on the waste of waters, for the previous five 
 months, obtained, for at least a while, a measure of compara- 
 tive repose, and became more stationary over (b2) the 
 mountainous region of Ararat. "That this may be the 
 import of the expression," says Mr. Morren, " will be denied 
 by none who are acquainted with the genius of the Hebrew 
 language, and with the latitude of meaning attachable to the 
 verb rna, which, (as is observed by Taylor in his Concord- 
 10* 
 
214 INQUIRY AS TO THE ARK'S RESTING PLACE. 
 
 ance,) includes whatever comes under the idea of ( remaining 
 quietly in a place without being disturbed.' A vessel," he 
 continues, " enjoys more real rest, when becalmed, than when 
 she grounds on the top of a submarine mountain in a troubled 
 sea." If such an interpretation be allowable, and we fully 
 believe it to be, it is easy to perceive that we get rid of 
 several more or less formidable difficulties, at which this 
 writer hints, and then he concludes thus : " Finally, we, on 
 this hypothesis, solve the question, 'If the descendants of 
 Noah settled near the resting-place of the ark, in Armenia, 
 how could they be said to approach the plain of Shinar, or 
 Babylonia, from the east?' (Gen. 11 : 2.) For, as we read 
 the narrative, the precise resting-place of the ark is nowhere 
 mentioned; and though, for a time, stationary 'over' the 
 mountains of Ararat, it may, before the final subsidence of 
 the waters, have been carried considerably to the east of 
 them." As the import of the phrase "from the east" (al- 
 luded to in the words just quoted,) can be more conveniently, 
 as well as appropriately, considered when we come to speak 
 of the spot where, according to the archaic historian, the 
 Noachidse, in whole or in part, soon after the flood settled, 
 which is specified in Genesis 11: 2, we shall defer, 
 until that more fitting occasion, what we have particularly to 
 say respecting it, as well as concerning the inference which 
 some have drawn from that phrase, in regard to the place 
 where the ark finally rested. 
 
 If the more prominent of the mental and emotional exer- 
 cises of our patriarch and family, whilst inclosed for a year 
 and more in the great vessel, could be given in detail, it 
 would, doubtless, present to us a superlatively interesting and 
 instructive history. So peculiar were their circumstances, 
 shut out so long from the world and its accustomed associa- 
 tions and employments ; floating in merciful imprisonment, 
 for more than a twelvemonth, over the face of the eminently 
 " mighty deep," together with the incidents and situation of 
 
EGRESS FROM THE ARK. 215 
 
 things which preceded and led to their strange and unprece- 
 dented confinement, it is impossible that these should not 
 have been instrumental in giving birth, in such minds and 
 hearts, to many strikingly novel and interesting thoughts and 
 feelings. A lively and prolific imagination might, peradven- 
 ture, put some of these into form, and throw them attractively 
 and glowingly before our mind's eye ; but a full and reliable 
 history of them no being, save One, could furnish ; and that 
 One has not seen fit to do it ; and to this want, what we have 
 to do in a thousand other cases, we have to do here quietly, 
 acquiescingly submit. 
 
 "And it came to pass in the six hundred and first year, in 
 the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried 
 up from off the earth ; and Noah removed the covering of 
 the ark, and looked, and behold, the face of the ground was 
 dry. And in the second month, on the seven and twentieth 
 day of the month, was the earth dried." And what then en- 
 sued ? Lo, the door, the so long closed and sealed door of 
 the floating house is thrown open ; and Noah receives from 
 God the command, " Go forth " " Go forth of the ark, thou, 
 and thy wife, and thy sons, and thy sons' wives with thee. 
 Bring forth with thee every living thing that is with thee of 
 all flesh." Oh, with what strange and big thoughts and emo- 
 tions do the Noachidas hear the mandate, and commence and 
 consummate their egress. Behold them ! What full-laden 
 and thrice eloquent utterances do their waked and glowing 
 countenances, and swelling, heaving bosoms, pour forth! 
 Yet their lips speak not ; these have for the time lost the 
 power of so doing ! 
 
 How different a world from what our patriarch had been 
 for six hundred years accustomed to look and tread upon, is 
 the one on which his eyes gaze and his feet fall as he passes 
 from his floating structure. Where is the teeming popula- 
 tion with which he had previously been surrounded ? Where 
 on every hand the busy stir of sentient and animated exis- 
 
21 G LEGEND OF THE SEVEN SLEEPERS. 
 
 tence ? The very face of nature, how altered ! The green 
 hills, the waving plains, the rich foliage, the cheering ver- 
 dure, the floral beauties and fragrances that were where 
 are they ? Suppose you had laid down in some charming 
 vale where, ere your senses were leadened by sleep, your 
 eye would be feasted with beauties, and your ear with melo- 
 dies, and, upon waking, found yourselves encompassed 
 with one entire scene of unbroken stillness and utter desola- 
 tion, would you not be affected deeply, strangely, by the con- 
 trast ? Were our postdiluvian father and the seven souls 
 with him such different specimens of humanity as not to be 
 wellnigh overcome by the contrast which they on every hand 
 witnessed? They must have felt very much indeed as if. 
 their vessel had landed them on the face of some before 
 untenanted, unvisited world. They could recognize abso- 
 lutely nothing. " The seven sleepers " had occasion to 
 feel little surprise in the comparison ; and to be at incompar- 
 ably less loss as to their whereabouts. 
 
 As you may not all have become acquainted with the 
 legend to which we have referred, it will not be amiss to lay 
 it before you. In the interval which elapsed between the 
 reign of the Emperor Decius and the death of Theodosius the 
 younger, i. e., between the years 249 and 450 of our era, 
 the union of the Roman empire had been dissolved, and some 
 of its fairest provinces overrun by the barbarians of the north. 
 The seat of government had passed from Rome to Constanti- 
 nople, and the throne from a pagan persecutor to a succes- 
 sion of Christian and orthodox princes. The genius of the 
 empire had been humbled in the dust, and the altars of Diana 
 and Hercules were on the point of being transferred to Catho- 
 lic saints and martyrs. The legend relates that " when 
 Decius was still persecuting the Christians, seven noble 
 youths of Ephesus concealed themselves in a spacious cavern 
 in the side of an adjacent mountain, where they were doomed 
 to perish by the tyrant, who gave orders that the entrance 
 
A STRIKING ALLEGORY. 217 
 
 should be firmly secured with a pile of huge stones. They 
 immediately fell into a deep slumber, which was miraculously 
 prolonged, without injuring the powers of life, during a period 
 of one hundred and eighty-seven years. At the end of that 
 time the slaves of Adolius, to whom the inheritance of the 
 mountain had descended, removed the stones to supply mate- 
 rials for some rustic edifice : the light of the sun darted into 
 the cavern, and the seven sleepers were permitted to awake. 
 After a slumber, as they thought, of a few hours, they were 
 pressed by the calls of hunger, and resolved that Jamblichus, 
 one of their number, should secretly return to the city to pur- 
 chase bread for the use of his companions. The youth could 
 no longer recognize the once familiar aspect of his native 
 country, and his surprise was increased by the appearance of 
 a large cross triumphantly erected over the principal gate of 
 Ephesus. His singular dress and obsolete language con- 
 founded the baker, to whom he offered an ancient medal of 
 Decius as the current coin of the empire ; and Jamblichus, 
 on the suspicion of a secret treasure, was dragged before the 
 judge. Their mutual inquiries produced thg amazing dis- 
 covery, that two centuries were almost elapsed since Jam- 
 blichus and his friends had escaped from the rage of a pagan 
 tyrant." (Gibbon's Decline and Fall, chap. 23.) 
 
 As farther illustrating or setting forth the changes which a 
 series of years produce, you will allow me to give you the 
 following passage from an Arabian writer, Mohammed Kaz- 
 wini, who flourished in the seventh century of the Hegira, 
 or at the close of the thirteenth century of our era. It is 
 given as the narrative of Khidhz, an allegorical personage : 
 " I passed one day by a very ancient and wonderfully popu- 
 lous city, and asked one of its inhabitants how long it had 
 been founded. ' It is indeed a mighty city,' replied he ; * we 
 know not how long it has existed, and our ancestors were on 
 this subject as ignorant as ourselves.' Five centuries after- 
 wards, as I passed by the same place, I could not perceive 
 
218 REMARKABLE TRANSITION. 
 
 the slightest vestige of the city. I demanded of a peasant, 
 who was gathering herbs upon its former site, how long it had 
 been destroyed. * In sooth, a strange question/ replied he. 
 ' The ground here has never been different from what you now 
 behold it.' Was there not of old, said I, a splendid city here ? 
 * Never,' answered he, * so far as we have seen, and never 
 did our fathers speak to us of any such.' On my return 
 there five hundred years afterwards, I found the sea in the 
 same place, and on its shores were a party of fishermen, of 
 whom I inquired how long the land had been covered by the 
 waters. * Is this a question,' said they, ' for a man like you ? 
 this spot has always been what it is now.' I again returned, 
 five hundred years afterwards, and the sea had disappeared ; 
 I inquired of a man who stood alone upon the spot, how 
 long ago this change had taken place, and he gave me the 
 same answer as I had received before. Lastly, on coming 
 back again after an equal lapse of time, I found there a flour- 
 ishing city, more populous and more rich in beautiful build- 
 ings than the city I had seen the first time ; and when I fain 
 would have informed myself concerning its origin, the inhab- 
 itants answered me, ' Its rise is lost in remote antiquity ; 
 we are ignorant how long it has existed, and our fathers were 
 on this subject as ignorant as ourselves.' " 
 
 Had Kazwini lived in our day, he might have constructed 
 a story which would embrace in it much shorter intervals for 
 the transpiring of astonishing changes, particularly in the 
 hemisphere which we inhabit. Instead of centuries, a score 
 or two of years, in this age of the world, are followed with 
 scarcely less amazing alterations. But as to our patriarch, 
 not even the last mentioned interval was taken to effect the 
 still more wonderful changes which stared on his vision. The 
 interval of a year and a few days has produced, oh, what 
 mutations ! and not in one or a few localities merely. " Old 
 things are passed away ; behold, all things are become new ! " 
 The world which he had been accustomed to gaze upon, with 
 
THE GRATEFUL RETURN. 210 
 
 its marts, its busy hum, its works of art, its green meadows 
 or verdant lawns, its gardens and fields of strikingly variegated 
 and describeless charms, and its numerous, nameless stores 
 where is it ? What world is this to which the great ship 
 has transported him now spread out before his astonished 
 gaze? Oh, father second father! with what big and 
 strange emotions did thy bosom swell ! Scarcely when thou 
 afterward enteredst that wondrous world of light and glory, 
 matchless and ineffable, where thou, a rapt spirit, now hast 
 thy abode, couldst thou have felt much more strangely ! The 
 Deluge over, thou hadst to begin anew thy course ; and, in- 
 stead of being, as formerly, a Brother, thou hadst to turn 
 Father, of mankind ! 
 
 God had " remembered Noah ; " had sat upon the flood 
 of great waters, and kindly and carefully preserved him from 
 fear of evil amid their rage and roar ; and, having accom- 
 plished his dreadful yet righteous and just purpose toward 
 the infatuate and infuriate throng who had turned the old 
 world into an antechamber of or rather into a second hell, 
 had made a wind to pass over, and drive away or dry up, the 
 mighty sea ; and now brought his feet to stand on an exsic- 
 cated earth, which had already commenced mantling herself 
 in verdant and floral bloom and beauty. And shall not our 
 now postdiluvian patriarch remember God in return ? Ah 
 we would do this man injustice by saying or thinking of him, 
 that his Infinite Preserver and Benefactor had been at any 
 time absent from his mind or heart, during the memorable 
 year and ten days, of his strange incarceration in the provi- 
 dential prison-ship ! No sooner after his feet have again 
 pressed the dry ground, and he finished superintending the 
 egress of the ark's safely kept tenants, than he enters upon the 
 erection of " an altar" on which, " of every clean beast, and 
 of every clean fowl," to offer " burnt offerings " unto the Lord. 
 (Gen. 8: 20.) Our English word altar comes from one in 
 the Latin (altus) which signifies high, because altars were 
 
220 THE ALTAR AND SACRIFICE. 
 
 originally made of high raised mounds of earth, (Ex. 20 : 
 24,) or built on the tops of hills and mountains. Though 
 this altar of Noah is the first of which we find any mention 
 in the Sacred Records, yet, as we read of sacrificial oblations 
 before the flood, even in the earliest times before, there were, 
 undoubtedly, altars found or made, on which to present them 
 unto God. As our patriarch, ere he became a postdiluvian, 
 was not ignorant of this mode of religious worship ; as he, 
 without a peradventure, had himself oft, during the six hun- 
 dred years which he had passed in the antediluvian world, 
 given expression after this manner to his grateful and devo- 
 tional impulses, he had no occasion to wait for the issue, 
 from a divine source, of a special mandate thus to express 
 his gratitude to the " Giver of all good" for the signal mer- 
 cies which he had experienced ; and it was without question 
 doubly pleasing and precious to the Lord, that he went about 
 it, " not of constraint, but willingly." Apart from direct com- 
 mand, he was indeed not without sufficient to move him to 
 this course. Aware of the thrice awful fate of the millions 
 of his antediluvian contemporaries ; of not only the simulta- 
 neousness of his salvation and their destruction ; but of the 
 fact that the same waves which had swept them from the 
 land of the living had been the means of keeping him and 
 his little household in it ; that the " eight souls " had been 
 so mercifully and marvellously distinguished as to be the sole 
 survivors of a heretofore vastly multiplied, and, so recently as 
 it were as yesterday, eminently multitudinous race ; borne 
 on the bosom of so widely sweeping and tremendously deso- 
 lating a judgment, unharmed and undismayed, to a secure 
 and quiet haven, our second father needed nothing super- 
 added, surely, to inspire him with the most melting and moving 
 impulses ; to fill his big soul to overflowing with emotions of 
 gratefulness, which he would naturally, and by a sort of moral 
 necessity, make it his first business suitably to express. 
 As to the precise nature of the sacrifice at this time 
 
CHARACTER OF THE OBLATION. 221 
 
 offered by our postdiluvian progenitor, it appears to have 
 partaken of the twofold character of eucharistic and expia- 
 tory ; the occasion giving it the one attribute, and the ma- 
 terial the other : for, under the law, not usually of the bloody 
 sort were thank-offerings. It somehow strikes us that herein 
 is our highly esteemed second father to be regarded as 
 offering thanks to the Father of mercies for his signal bene- 
 factions, his thrice memorable favors, in the believing 
 recognition and feeling sense, that all those mercies and 
 blessings for which he expresses himself thankful, have come 
 to him through Uood have reached him through the me- 
 dium or channel of that meritorious and expiatory Sacrifice of 
 which his bloody " burnt-offerings " were a type. Through 
 this same medium, and in this same exercise, he rendered 
 adoration as well as expressed his grateful acknowledgments 
 unto God ; devoted himself and household renewedly to his 
 service; and 'sought protection and blessing further for him 
 and his, amidst the desolations which surrounded them, and, 
 as we may believe, on his posterity, in all its anticipated 
 ramifications, in all coming time. 
 
 The oblation of our pious ancestor, thus presented, we are 
 assured was accepted of God, and his prayer, we are left to 
 infer, not unavailing. What we find in the two succeeding 
 verses clearly asserts the one and implies the other. " The 
 Lord smelled a sweet savor;" the sacrifice which our 
 worthy patriarch offered was as grateful and acceptable to 
 the Lord as sweet odors are to a man. Not that the smell 
 of burning flesh could in itself be pleasing to God ; but 
 as it prefigured the sacrifice of the atoning Mediator, to be 
 offered in the fulness of time ; and as the oblation, with its 
 attendant exercises, was expressive of Noah's sense of per- 
 sonal unworthiness, of his dependence for all benefactions, 
 past and to come, on a vicarious basis, and his grateful love to 
 the beneficent and merciful " Giver of every good and per 
 feet gift." 
 
222 THE SACRIFICIAL RITE, ITS RISE AND DESIGN. 
 
 There is, young gentlemen, an implied truth underlying 
 that declaration relative to the acceptableness to the Deity of 
 the oblation presented by our patriarch on " the altar which he 
 had builded : " It is, that the sacrificial proceeding was either 
 an act of obedience to a direct divine command received by him, 
 or else an act in the way of observance of a previously existing 
 divine institution. But the Record affords us no intimation 
 from which we can infer the former. The latter, therefore, is to 
 be concluded to be the truth, namely, that it was done in observ- 
 ance of a divine institution previously existing. The manner, 
 moreover, in which our second father entered upon the business 
 of offering a sacrifice or sacrifices, shows that it was with him 
 no novel performance. And if he had been accustomed to 
 engage in acts of this kind, it may well be believed that he 
 had not been altogether singular in this ; that those pious 
 antediluvians with whom he, during the half dozen centu- 
 ries that he had lived before the flood, at one time and 
 another was acquainted, had been accustomed to do the like. 
 And whence the custom which they followed, it is not diffi- 
 cult to conceive. Many of these early patriarchs had been 
 born so far back toward the sunrise of time as to have en- 
 joyed a personal acquaintance with righteous Abel. Now it 
 is matter of record that this son of our first parents offered 
 animal sacrifices, and that in this act he did what was well- 
 pleasing to God. The smoke of the sacrifice came up as a 
 sweet savor before Jehovah. How so? Did that Infinite 
 Being delight in the smell of burnt flesh and blood simply ? 
 Was it not, must it not have been, because the sacrifice was 
 an important instituted type ; and that the offerer, in the act 
 he performed, engaged with an obedient spirit in the ob- 
 servance of a divine institution, and in the exercise of faith 
 faith relative to the source whence it originated, and in 
 regard to what the sacrifice prefigured ? That there was an 
 exercise of this last mentioned principle by the righteous and 
 accepted offerer, is a matter concerning which we have spe- 
 
THE SACRIFICIAL RITE, ITS RISE AND DESIGN. 223 
 
 cific Scripture testimony as you may see by turning to 
 Hebrew 11 : 4. Yet, that Abel offered the first animal 
 sacrifice that was ever presented before the Lord, when he 
 performed this recorded act, he who addresses you does not 
 believe for reasons of which he will postpone the mention 
 till the beginning of another lecture. 
 
EVENING SEVENTEENTH. 
 
 YOUNG GENTLEMEN: 
 
 That Abel's animal oblation, mentioned in Gen. 4 : 4, was 
 not the first of the kind ever offered before the Lord we do 
 not believe, for the following reasons: JFirst. He does 
 not appear to have performed this solemn act from a direct 
 divine command addressed to him immediately before. Had 
 this been the case, it seems probable that there would have 
 been a mention by the historian of the. circumstance. Second. 
 He was a young man, and appeared to be but following an 
 example previously set him. That his father before him had 
 been accustomed to offer animal sacrifices we are almost 
 forced to infer from the fact that " the coats of skins," skins 
 of slain animals which our first parents wore, were not the 
 skins of animals slain for food, since animal food was not 
 allowed to man until subsequent to the deluge. The rational 
 conclusion, and apparently the only rational one which can 
 be drawn, is, that they were the skins of animals slain for 
 sacrifice. It is reasonable to believe, nay, we are impelled 
 to the belief, that as, to our first parents, just after their 
 guilty fall, the Lord gave audible, so he likewise gave visible 
 intimations of his mercy ; that he would inspire hope, and 
 fan it, by something addressed to the eye as well as the ear; 
 and that therefore he, just after their expulsion from the 
 Garden, introduced an institution which was adapted to indi- 
 
THE SACRIFICIAL RITE, ITS RISE AND DESIGN. 225 
 
 cate not only that should God be approached and worshipped 
 by them, though fallen ; but also how he could be approached 
 and worshipped acceptably, after a manner so acceptable 
 as again to receive, and have their hearts kindled into ecstasy 
 by, his smiles. Here, if there are those who do not, we look 
 for and find the origin, the divine origin, of the sacrificial 
 rite, the great typical institution which answered so mo- 
 mentous and merciful a purpose all the way down from the 
 Fall to the period, four thousand years after, when the Great 
 Sacrifice which it foreshadowed, and was given for the special 
 purpose of foreshadowing, appeared. 
 
 We may hence see how, as our patriarch's heart, as he 
 and his household stepped forth from the ark, was so full of 
 gratitude that he pantingly hastened to give expression to it 
 
 to pour out its full tide at the feet of his Infinite Preserver 
 and Benefactor, so his mind was full of the institution 
 which, in tones somewhat above a whisper, told how God 
 could be merciful and yet be just ; how He who infinitely 
 hated sin could be approached and worshipped, ay, and 
 thanked, acceptably, by the sinner. 
 
 Apart from, or in addition to, what has been already said 
 in regard to the divine origin of the Sacrificial Institution, 
 we would be led to infer it from its character and intent, 
 the former of which being such as that we cannot see how 
 unaided, uninstructed human reason should have originated 
 or hit upon such a rite ; and the latter such as that an idea of 
 the sort could spontaneously, or of its own accord, hardly 
 have had birth in the human mind. 
 
 The sacrificial rite has in some phase or form been found 
 prevailing among all nations, even among those who 
 have little or no knowledge of its original or true intent, 
 and who are destitute of a knowledge of the true God 
 even. Whence had all the nations of the globe this rite ? 
 
 whence but from one and the same source, by tradi- 
 tion from the prime Noachic family? affording one of 
 
226 THE SACRIFICIAL RITE, ITS RISE AND DESIGN. 
 
 many proofs that all the nations and tribes of men are 
 descended from that one great postdiluvian who, upon 
 leaving the ark, hastened to build an altar unto the Lord, 
 and to offer burnt offerings thereon. 
 
 As we hinted toward the close of the preceding Exercise, 
 there is, in the two verses succeeding the record of the 
 sacrificial act of our patriarch, an implied intimation, and 
 it is so clear as to be unmistakable, that the supplications of 
 our pious progenitor, presented in connection and simulta- 
 neously with his animal oblation, were not unavailing. 
 Examine those verses and you will not fail of saying so. 
 As, what the Lord there " said in his heart " we find him 
 afterward, in substance, saying, in the form of a covenant, 
 to Noah, (see Gen. 9 : 9-17,) we will reserve whatever 
 remarks we are disposed to make relative to this point, to 
 the time when the consideration of that covenant will come 
 in regular course before us. 
 
 If you will now cast your eye on the commencing verses 
 of the ninth chapter of Genesis, you will have the topics 
 suggested to your mind upon the consideration of which we, 
 in the order there presented, are about to enter. That we 
 may not lose sight of the chronology, it may not be amiss to 
 remark that, according to the Hebrew reckoning, had Adam 
 been still alive, he would have entered upon his one thou- 
 sand six hundred and fifty -seventh year. Our postdiluvian 
 father had now entered upon his six hundred and first year. 
 There is yet therefore more than one third of his Life and 
 Times still to come under review, for he lived, as we 
 shall see, three hundred and fifty years after the Flood, and 
 died, according to the Hebrew or Usherian computation, two 
 years before the birth of Abraham. We have thought it 
 proper and expedient to mention this now, that we may not, 
 through remissness in regard to the reckoning, lose sight of 
 where we are on the sea of time, or how much space we 
 have still to traverse. 
 
THE PRECEPT IN GEN. 9 I 1. 227 
 
 Lest he who came over the great waters from the Old 
 World, or any of the seven who were companions of his voy- 
 age, should infer from any cause such for instance as, along 
 with the woful apostacy of the first father of the race, the 
 consequent depravity, and proneness to do evil among his 
 posterity, and the baleful effect which had been witnessed, 
 the other side of the Flood, of the great augmentation of their 
 number or from the character of the Lord's recent astonish- 
 ing dealings toward the vast antediluvian population, and the 
 extreme paucity of the number that had been preserved from 
 a watery grave that the Most High, from a feeling of hos- 
 tility toward the apostate human family, or from considera- 
 tions of expediency, would be averse to the great increase 
 again of their numbers, the Supreme Sovereign deemed that 
 there was occasion for a reissue of the command given to our 
 first parents on the day of their creation, to " be fruitful, and 
 multiply, and replenish the earth," (Gen. 9:1, compared 
 with 1 : 28,) as well as for a reassurance of his blessing upon 
 him and his. 
 
 But, in the way of the great and rapid multiplication of 
 human beings, and the replenishing of the postdiluvian earth 
 with them, some formidable obstacles lay. The survivors of 
 the former world, what a feeble handful ! and the sun of our 
 second father and mother so far past the meridian, that no 
 auxiliary advantages could they rationally expect to yield to 
 their three sons with their wives toward restocking the world 
 with inhabitants ; and serious apprehensions might very 
 naturally be entertained that in their inceptive paucity and 
 weakness they would be illy prepared to cope with the fero- 
 cious portions of the animal kingdom, which there was a 
 likelihood of so multiplying, and speedily, as greatly to im- 
 peril their safety and life. To relieve or preserve the feeble 
 band from all unnerving or tormenting anxiety on that score, 
 the Lord informs or promises Noah and his sons that " the 
 fear and dread of them should be upon every beast of the 
 
228 THE DOMINION OF DREAD. 
 
 earth, and upon every fowl of the air, upon all that moveth 
 upon the earth, and upon all the fishes of the sea ; into your 
 hand," says he, " are they delivered." A somewhat signal 
 disparity appears between the original grant of dominion over 
 the brute creation and this postdiluvian one. Our first father, 
 ere he ate " the apple," ruled the inferior animals by love 
 and kindness, as their gentleness and docility were palpa- 
 bly their predominant characteristics. Not so in regard to 
 our second father and his progeny. The sacrifice of human 
 innocence long ere Noah saw the light, had been succeeded 
 by a sacrifice of the pleasant primeval sway. Henceforth, 
 among almost all orders of the animal tribes, untractableness, 
 ferocity, and enmity to man were observably prevalent. The 
 Deity does not therefore say to this little postdiluvian band, 
 with so good a man even as Noah at their head, The love of 
 you shall so control all the animal tribes that you shall have 
 naught to fear from them. In other words, the full primitive 
 grant is not restored, as the full primitive innocence is not. 
 But in the room of love, another principle shall operate 
 powerfully and generally for man's security, the principle 
 of fear or terror. Herein is the mercy of God shown to 
 fallen man, for He it is who has so constituted the inferior 
 animals since mankind became fallen. And truly the human 
 family became so altered by the fall, that it is scarcely to be 
 wondered at that even the most fierce and ferocious of the 
 sub-human orders of creatures should stand in awe of and run 
 from them, as thinking their distance preferable to their 
 presence ; and this without a constitution remarkably variant 
 from the primitive. And have you not sometimes had your 
 surprise excited, at one time to witness animals of greatly 
 superior strength to that of man, tamely and quietly sub- 
 mitting not alone to his control, but likewise his tyranny ; 
 at another, not only those of great strength, but also ferocity, 
 fleeing in utmost trepidation from those animals in human 
 shape whom they have the means of so easily and quickly 
 
GRANT OF ANIMAL FOOD. 
 
 destroying ? Here is one of the vastly diversified forms in 
 which God's mercy is exhibited to man, which he should not 
 be so stolid as not to recognize, nor so stubbornly ungrateful 
 as not to feel and express thankfulness for. In what we have 
 alluded to, the majesty of man's presence, and the fact of his 
 original lordship, are by the brute creation strikingly 
 acknowledged. 
 
 To stimulate and encourage our patriarch, his sons, and 
 their progeny, in the great work which a wide, unsettled, and 
 unsubdued world called upon them to engage in and to prose- 
 cute, the Supreme in his munificent clemency made a grant 
 as to means of sustenance, additional to what had been made 
 to man at the first ; and one tending to mitigate the curse, 
 " in the sweat of thy face shall thou eat bread," to mitigate 
 the severity of hard and continuous toil. We allude to the 
 item of animal food: " Every moving thing that liveth shall 
 be meat for you ; even as the green herb have I given you 
 all things," (Gen. 9 : 3.) What a large, liberal, universal 
 grant is here, in the room of the limited one of which we find 
 mention in Gen. 1 : 29. It has been generally agreed among 
 writers, that mankind before the flood, notwithstanding the 
 lawlessness and flagitiousness at length of their conduct in 
 many or most other respects, confined themselves within the 
 limits of the original grant. Hence it may be inferred that 
 from the fall, when the curse fell upon the face of the ground 
 for man's sake, down through all the antediluvian period, the 
 lives of men must have been very toilsome. In the sweat 
 of their face, literally, and emphatically, they must have 
 eaten their bread. Mention was made in our first lecture of 
 the opinion of Shuckford as to the main reason why Lamech 
 gave his son the name Noah. If animals were at all used 
 for food prior to the flood, it was done by transcending the 
 grant originally made by the Creator. Explicitly allowed 
 until now it indisputably appears not to have been ; even if, 
 from the language employed in Gen. 1 ; 29, it may not be 
 11 
 
230 TVHY THIS GRANT. 
 
 inferred that the use of flesh for food from the first was not 
 absolutely forbidden. 
 
 Should it be inquired why mankind, after the flood, had a 
 larger grant made them, as to articles of diet, than before, it 
 might not be found easy, perhaps, to return a fully satisfac- 
 tory answer: unless So the Lord willed, would fully satistY 
 the inquirer. In addition to the one a moment ago hinted at, 
 namely, that every disheartening obstacle might be taken out 
 of the way of our postdiluvian progenitor in the re-settling of 
 tne world, some, whose minds are prolific of conjectures, 
 have ventured to advance the idea, that, at the time, and as 
 an effect of the deluge, so much of an alteration took place in 
 the vegetable world, as to render its productions less nutritive 
 than they were previously ; as well as such a change, prob- 
 ably, in the constitution of man, as to render a grosser and 
 higher diet essential. These have thought, that it might be 
 safely inferred, from the fact of this enlarged grant, that the 
 earth was less fertile posterior, than it was prior, to the flood ; 
 and that the human constitution was greatly impaired by the 
 alterations which had occurred through the whole economy 
 of nature. " Morbid debility, induced by an often unfriendly 
 state of the atmosphere, with sore and long-continued labor, 
 would necessarily require a higher nutriment than vegetables 
 could supply. That this was the case, appears sufficiently 
 clear from the grant of animal food, which, had it not been 
 indispensably necessary, had not been made." Such is the 
 language of Dr. Adam Clarke. You may weigh the opinion 
 here advanced, and try to ascertain how much it is worth. 
 Others have thought an idea at a greater remove from 
 being a favorite with us than the preceding that God 
 indulged our postdiluvian ancestry in this, because of the 
 hardness of their heart an opinion not very complimentary 
 to Noah and his sons and that, perceiving the eagerness 
 of their appetites towards " carnal food," and designing withal 
 to abbreviate the term of human life, he gave them a free 
 
THE SPECIFIED RESTRICTION. 231 
 
 license to eat it, knowing a free indulgence in it particularly 
 efficient toward the bringing about of that end. Theodoret 
 has assigned a reason for God's extending the grant to the 
 flesh of animals, which has in it more of plausibility, to wit : 
 " that the omniscient and infinitely adorable Jehovah, fore- 
 knowing that, in future ages, men would idolize his creatures, 
 would aggravate the absurdity, and make it the more ridicu- 
 lous so to do, by their consuming at their tables what they 
 sacrificed at their altars ; since nothing is more absurd than 
 to worship what we eat." In our view, the grant was pal- 
 pably intended, in part, by a kind and pitying God, as a 
 compensation for the difficulty and scantiness with which, in 
 comparison with the luxuriance and abundance of an age of 
 innocence, (not to say of the whole antediluvian period,) the 
 earth yielded her fruit, since the curse because of man's sin. 
 Finally, on this subject, let us say, that God, by granting to 
 mankind carnivorous propensities and privileges, has taken 
 care to impose a check on the otherwise too rapid and great 
 increase of the various animal species. 
 
 The language of the grant, "Every moving thing that 
 lii'eth" though very general, is still not entirely unrestrictive. 
 It is implied that animals allowed for food were to be killed 
 for this purpose ; that such as died of themselves, or were 
 slain by other beasts, were excluded from the grant. Nor is 
 that so general expression, just quoted, to be so widely inter- 
 preted as to leave us to infer, that every kind of living 
 creature is proper food for man. On the children of Israel 
 you may, by looking over Leviticus, llth ch., and Deuteron- 
 omy 14th, find various restrictions imposed, a portion of 
 which, at least r are observed by all the civilized portions of 
 Noah's descendants. 
 
 The kind dietetic grant, made to our postdiluvian father, 
 was attended with a specified prohibitory restriction, which 
 must not be passed over in utter silence. This restriction 
 related to the BLOOD of the animal: "Flesh with the life 
 
232 THE EATING OF BLOOD PROHIBITED. 
 
 (or soul) thereof, the Hood thereof, shall ye not eat," (fourth 
 verse.) Concerning the nature of this prohibition, it may 
 be remarked, first, that the Hebrew doctors understood it to 
 relate to a cutting off any part of a living animal, and eating 
 it while the lifeUood was in it. Of the seven precepts which 
 an old tradition of the Rabbinical Jews says that Noah de- 
 livered to his children, to be enjoined on all their descendants, 
 one, the last named of them, forbade the eating of any part 
 of an animal still living. A fierce and barbarous people is 
 spoken of by Maimonides, who, after cutting pieces of flesh 
 from a living animal, devoured it raw, with blood streaming 
 from it, as a part of their idolatrous worship. That this 
 horrid practice has prevailed, and was recently kept up, 
 among the Abyssinians, we must believe, if we place reliance 
 on the reports of Mr. Bruce and Mr. Salt, confirmed by the 
 statements of a later traveller, Mr. Madden. Mr. Bruce's 
 report runs thus : " Not long after our losing sight of the 
 ruins of this ancient capital of Abyssinia, we overtook three 
 travellers driving a cow before them. They had black goat- 
 skins upon their shoulders, and lances and shields in their 
 hands ; in other respects, they were but thinly clothed ; they 
 appeared to be soldiers. The cow did not seem to be fat- 
 tened for killing, and it occurred to us all, that it had been 
 stolen. This, however, was not our business, nor was such 
 an occurrence at all remarkable in a country so long engaged 
 in war. "We saw that our attendants attached themselves, in 
 a particular manner, to the three soldiers that were driving 
 the cow, and held a short conversation with them. Soon 
 after, we arrived at the hithermost bank of the river, where 
 I thought we were to pitch our tent : the drivers suddenly 
 tripped up the cow, and gave the poor animal a very rude 
 fall upon the ground, which was but the beginning of her 
 sufferings. One of them sat across her neck, holding down 
 her head by the horns, the other twisted the halter about her 
 fore feet, while the third, who had a knife in his hand, to my 
 
THE EATING OF BLOOD PROHIBITED. 233 
 
 great surprise, in place of taking her by the throat, got astride 
 of her before her hind legs, and gave her a very deep wound 
 in the upper part of the buttock. From the time I had seen 
 them throw the beast on the ground, I had rejoiced, thinking 
 that when three people were killing a cow, they must have 
 agreed to sell part of her to us ; and I was much disappointed 
 upon hearing the Abyssinians say, that we were to pass the 
 river to the other side, and not encamp where I intended. 
 Upon my proposing they should bargain for part of the cow, 
 my men answered, what they had already learned in conver- 
 sation, that they were not then to kill her, that she was not 
 wholly theirs, and they could not sell her. This awakened 
 my curiosity ; I let my people go forward, and stayed myself 
 till I saw, with the utmost astonishment, two pieces, thicker 
 and longer than our ordinary beef-steaks, cut out of the higher 
 part of the buttock of the beast : how it was done I cannot 
 positively say, because, judging the cow was to be killed, 
 from the moment I saw the knife drawn, I was not anxious 
 to view that catastrophe, which was by no means an object of 
 curiosity. Whatever way it was done, it surely was adroitly, 
 and the two pieces were spread upon the outside of one of 
 their shields. One of them still continued holding the head, 
 while the other two were busy in curing the wound. This, 
 too, was done not in an ordinary manner. The skin, which 
 had covered the flesh which was taken away, was left entire, 
 and flapped over the wound, and was fastened to the corre- 
 sponding part by two or more small skewers or pins. Whether 
 they had put any thing under the skin, between that and the 
 wounded flesh, I know not ; but, at the river side where they 
 were, they had prepared a cataplasm of clay, with which they 
 covered the wound ; they then forced the animal to rise, and 
 drove it on before them, to furnish them with a fuller meal 
 when they should meet their companions in the evening." 
 (Travels, vol. 3, p. 142.) On the 299th page of the same 
 volume of Bruce, is the following : " We have an instance 
 
234 WHY THE PROHIBITION. 
 
 \ 
 
 in the life of Saul, that shows the propensity of the Israelites 
 to this crime : Saul's army, after a battle, flew, that is, fell 
 voraciously upon the cattle they had taken, and threw them 
 upon the ground to cut off their flesh, and eat them raw ; so 
 that the army was defiled by eating blood, or living animals. 
 (1 Sam. 14: 33.) To prevent this, Saul caused to be rolled 
 to htm a great stone, and ordered those that killed their oxen, 
 to cut their throats upon that stone. This was the only law- 
 ful way of killing animals for food ; the tying of the ox, and 
 throwing it upon the ground, were not permitted as equivalent. 
 The Israelites did, probably, in that case, as the Abyssinians 
 do at this day : they cut a part of his throat, so that blood 
 might be seen on the ground, but nothing mortal to the animal 
 followed from that wound ; but, after laying his head upon a 
 large stone, and cutting his throat, the blood fell from on high, 
 or was poured on the ground like water, and sufficient evi- 
 dence appeared that the creature was dead, before it was 
 attempted to eat it. We have seen that the Abyssinians 
 came from Palestine a very few years after this, and we are 
 not to doubt that they then carried with them this, with 
 many other Jewish customs, which they have continued to 
 this day." 
 
 Though the horrid practice of which Mr. Bruce speaks, 
 may be regarded as involved in the spirit of the prohibition of 
 the fourth verse, yet it has not been ordinarily considered by 
 expositors as its principal or primary drift. Mr. Selden, in 
 his book De Jure, etc., has quite a learned chapter on this 
 subject (lib. 7, ch. 1,) in which he has given the several opin- 
 ions of the Rabbins about it ; but whether these give much 
 true information concerning it, is, to say the least, very 
 questionable. 
 
 It appears from the language comprising the prohibition 
 addressed to Noah, that the use of blood in its simple un- 
 mixed state, as an article of diet, was what was more direct- 
 ly meant to be interdicted. Should you inquire the reason 
 
WHY THE PROHIBITION. 235 
 
 or reasons for this prohibitory injunction, we cannot say that 
 we would be able fully to satisfy you. Some have endeav- 
 ored to find physical or prudential reasons, such as that 
 this article affords " a very crude, almost indigestible," and so, 
 " unwholsome aliment ; " or, that it has " a tendency to 
 beget a cruel, ferocious, and blood-thirsty disposition " in 
 those who use it. These words, " life thereof which is the 
 Hood thereof" appear to hint at some moral consideration or 
 considerations, appear to imply the sacredness of the 
 thing forbidden to be used, because of the relation it stands 
 in to life to life in some sense, natural or symbolical. But 
 our ordinary limits will not allow us to finish what we have 
 to say on the subject, this evening. 
 
EVENING EIGHTEENTH. 
 
 YOUNG GENTLEMEN: 
 
 Hardly to be contended is it, that the words " life thereof, 
 which is the blood thereof" were, by Him who on this occasion 
 uttered them, designed to put forth a strictly physiological 
 doctrine ; to affirm, as many have believed, that, in the 
 strictest sense, blood is a vital fluid. For notwithstanding 
 that the investigations of the distinguished Dr. John Hunter 
 seemed to tend strongly toward the establishing of it as a 
 truth, physiologists have never yet been able to determine or 
 settle the point, what is life, or in what it consists. As the 
 Bible was not given for a scientific text-book, but speaks of 
 natural things very much according to the ordinary concep- 
 tions of men at the time when its various parts were written 
 we shall not be justly chargeable with heresy, if we should 
 interpret the words which we have cited as designed simply 
 to express the general truth, so familiar to all, that in the 
 animal kingdom the presence and circulation of the blood is 
 essential to life's existence or continuance ; that where the 
 former is not, the latter is not in general to be found. The 
 moral argument, or at least one branch of it, then, is, " Life 
 is sacred ; " blood is essential to life ; therefore eat it not. 
 But inasmuch as when we affirm, life is sacred, we must mean 
 that life which we individually have no right or authority to 
 take away, and so must mean only human life the validity 
 
THE EATING OF BLOOD, WHEREFORE FORBIDDEN. 237 
 
 of this argument may well be questioned. We are then 
 thrown upon the symbolical import of blood, in order to an 
 arriving at the reason, the great moral reason, why the eating 
 of blood was prohibited to Noah and his progeny. And what 
 that symbolical import was, Noah did not then need to be 
 informed, as the previous building of an altar, and the offering 
 of animal sacrifices thereon, testify in his case. The blood 
 of the Great Sacrifice was prefigured by the blood of the 
 animal sacrifices. Hence, in an eminent sense, the sacred- 
 ness of the latter. And that we are not arguing wildly or at 
 random when we find here the great reason why the eating of 
 blood was inhibited to mankind after the deluge, may appear 
 from such an express subsequent declaration as the following : 
 " Whatsoever man there be of the house of Israel, or of the 
 strangers that sojourn among you, that eateth any manner of 
 blood ; I will even set my face against that soul that eateth 
 blood, and will cut him off from among his people. For the 
 life of the flesh is in the blood ; and I have given it to you 
 upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls ; for it is 
 the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul," (Levit. 17 : 
 10, 11.) The full force of this language cannot be appre- 
 ciated without bearing in mind that the original word (nephesh) 
 for life, and soul, is the same ; so that in saying that the life 
 of the flesh is in the blood, and that it is the blood that makes 
 atonement for the soul (i. e. the life,) it is virtually said that 
 life goes for life in the great scheme of expiation. We 
 accordingly find it prophetically affirmed of Jesus Christ, in 
 undoubted allusion to this very language, that he should 
 " pour out his soul (nephesh) unto death," (Isa. 53 : 12 ;) that 
 is, should shed his vital blood, give his life. 
 
 The like inhibition that was enjoined on Noah and family 
 
 just after their egress from the ark, was incorporated into the 
 
 ceremonial code of the Jews, and a like reason is assigned 
 
 in the latter case as in the former. This you have seen in 
 
 11* 
 
238 THE EATING OF BLOOD, WHEREFORE FORBIDDEN. 
 
 the quotation from Lev. 17: 10, 11, 14. But in the case of 
 the Jew?, there was an additional reason for this prohibition 
 being pressed on them, to wit, to help to separate them widely 
 from the Gentiles. Among these latter, the use of blood was 
 common. They drank it often at their sacrifices, and in 
 making covenants or compacts. That blood was thus drank 
 by the heathens, particularly by the Sabians, in their sacri- 
 fices, is fully proved by Spencer, (De Leg. pp. 377-380.) 
 
 As to the question whether the precept given to our post- 
 diluvian progenitors of abstaining from blood, be at present 
 binding upon Christians, though as to its practical bearing we 
 would suppose nothing would need to be said, yet in regard 
 to its moral, it ought not to be passed over in perfect silence. 
 Not on the ceremonial ground to which we have alluded, as 
 separating the Jews from the Gentiles, but on a ground ex- 
 isting apart from and anterior to any ceremonial law ; for 
 the reason that life is in the blood, understanding the term 
 life in a natural and symbolical sense, or even in the latter 
 solely, it might be urged that blood should, by Christians, as a 
 separate and special article of diet, be abstained from. This 
 might be plead on the ground of the natural sense, for thus the 
 reason applies to mankind under any and every dispensation 
 does not change with changing circumstances or time ; and 
 on the ground of the symbolical sense, for thus it shadows 
 forth the life or soul that has been poured out unto death for 
 us f or our sins and to procure our release or exemption 
 from death eternal. On the other hand, it may be and has 
 been argued, that the use of blood as a type being done away ? 
 the Ante-type having come the blood of the Mediator and 
 Surety having been shed the reason for abstaining from its 
 dietetic use has ceased. " Lex stat dum ratio manet " no 
 longer. And though at the Council of Jerusalem, in order 
 that offence might not be given to the Jews, as well as to 
 remove the Christian converts of their day, coming from the 
 ranks of Gentilism, in feeling and practice, as far as pos- 
 
EXACTION FOR BLOOD SHEDDING. 239 
 
 sible from the feelings and practices of idolaters around 
 them, regarding this matter, the Apostles of our Lord ad- 
 vised abstinence from it, (Acts 15 : 28, 29,) yet the eating 
 it or not eating it is no part of our religion as neither of 
 these reasons can be urged why we should practise abstinence 
 from it ; that hence we are left at perfect liberty to choose 
 our own course in regard to it. As an item of history it 
 may be stated that, up to the present, the prohibitory precept 
 given to Noah, which we have been considering, is scrupu- 
 lously obeyed by the Oriental Christians, and by the whole 
 Greek church ; who appear to think, so far as their knowledge 
 goes, that as blood was not allowed to be eaten before Christ's 
 advent, because it pointed out the blood that was to be shed 
 for the sin of the world it should not, since Christ's advent 
 and crucifixion, be eaten, because it should ever be considered 
 as representing the blood which has been shed for the remission 
 of sins. 
 
 "We have seen, young gentlemen, what care the Divine 
 Being took to secure our patriarch's posterity against any ap- 
 prehended impediment to their preservation and great in- 
 crease, from the ferocity and ravages of wild beasts. But 
 an obstable to their security and multiplication might be 
 apprehended from another quarter. Noah and his sons had 
 witnessed frequent and fearful exhibitions of violence and 
 bloodshed in the Old World. They had no reason to sup- 
 pose that the waters of the deluge had so washed away the 
 corruption or sinfulness of man's nature, that no evil of a like 
 type would ever again appear. The Supreme Legislator and 
 Governor proceeds therefore to the utterance of what was 
 adapted to allay tormenting and discouraging apprehensions 
 from this source. To Noah and his sons, as personating the 
 whole family and race of mankind, he declares that he would 
 require the blood of those in return, who should shed the life- 
 blood of others; he would require it of every animal he 
 would require it of every man ; at the hand of every man's 
 brother would he require the life of man. (Gen. 9 : 5.) 
 
240 EXACTION FOR BLOOD SHEDDING. 
 
 The Ruler Supreme had not indeed, in antecedent times, 
 acted fully on this principle ; had not been thus rigid or strict 
 in his exactions. He had for certain reasons proceeded in 
 his administration more leniently. The first murderer, Cain, 
 he did not visit at once with the full punishment which was 
 due to the perpetrator of such a horrid deed. Others of the 
 antediluvians who, posterior to this, committed a like crime, 
 had been treated with similar leniency as had been shown to 
 Cain. This mild mode of proceeding toward such perpetra- 
 tors of deeds of violence and blood in the Old World the 
 Supreme Ruler perhaps had adopted to convince men of the 
 exceeding wickedness of the human heart when left to act 
 out what was in it ; and to show to all future ages that He 
 was disposed to act with as much mildness in the administra- 
 tion of his government over the world as possible ; and that 
 in adopting the course which he did from immediately sub- 
 sequent to the Flood downward in introducing the stern 
 law, and seeing to have it adhered to or acted on, which he 
 announced to Noah, he was not acting the part of a cruel 
 tyrant; was not proceeding with undue or uncalled for 
 severity ; was just doing what mercy as well as justice de- 
 manded ; what human M r elfare absolutely and palpably 
 required. 
 
 In that language, " Surely your blood of your lives will I 
 require : at the hand of every beast will I require it ; and at 
 the hand of every man, at the hand of every man's brother 
 will I require the life of man," the Divine Sovereign assures 
 Noah that He (who was Lord over all) from that time forth, 
 or during the lack of those institutions which might otherwise 
 prove a security, would take it directly upon Himself to see 
 to the maintenance of the interests of justice among his crea- 
 tures ; would, in his righteous providence, exact from man 
 and beast the human blood which should by either be shed ; 
 and would thus prevent that violence and awful havoc of life 
 which are to be reckoned among the prominent means of 
 
THE STATUTORY DEATH PENALTY. 241 
 
 ruining the Old World, and which, unless prevented, our 
 patriarch and his progeny might justly fear would go far 
 toward destroying the New. 
 
 But Jehovah does not stop with the general assurance to 
 our postdiluvian ancestor as to what He in his providence 
 will see, in this respect, to having done. He issues the fol- 
 lowing command so we call it ; and seems to say, It shall 
 be incorporated into the body of human law, and stand 
 forever as a binding statute : " WHOSO SHEDDETH MAN'S 
 
 BLOOD, BY MAN SHALL HIS BLOOD BE SHED." (Gen. 9 : 6.) 
 
 We are altogether of the opinion of those who consider 
 this notable declaration as pointing to the then coming ex- 
 istence of human government and law ; and as announcing 
 and establishing its sanctions under all the awfulness and 
 permanence of the divine authority. Here, in our view, is 
 a solemn ordinance of Heaven, that death by the hand of the 
 magistrate shall follow the commission of the crime of murder. 
 There is, in that case, involved here, the divine institution 
 and sanction of the Civil Magistracy. The fifth and 
 sixth verses of the ninth chapter of Genesis set forth the 
 following argument of God with our postdiluvian progenitor 
 and his progeny : " Indulge not fear. Divine Almightiness 
 and Avenging Justice these shall afford you protection. 
 Am not I a universal Lawgiver and Ruler ? In mine own 
 overruling providence the fear of death shall be made to 
 operate for the insurance of life. Let it be known that ever, 
 henceforth, he who taketh away murderously the life of 
 another shall forfeit his own life. Not that it shall be taken 
 away by the hand of private revenge or violence. Know 
 that in the very foundation of human government I in my 
 providence have determined that there shall be laid, as its 
 corner-stone, this ordinance : Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by 
 man shall his blood be shed. Henceforward I ordain death 
 by the hand of the magistrate to follow the perpetration of 
 the crime of murder." (See Cheever's Punishment by 
 
242 THE STATUTORY DEATH PENALTY. 
 
 Death, p. 135.) "Two things," says Michaelis, in his Com 
 mentatio Prior de Pcena Homicidii "Two things we're 
 contained in this law given to Noah, namely, the power to 
 proceed by capital punishment against the homicide, and the 
 imperative obligation to use that power. God had declared 
 that he would make inquisition for blood, and he adds that he 
 would do it by the instrumentality of men, committing to 
 them the right of death against the murderer. It was thus 
 that the divine and most benignant Legislator bound togeth- 
 er and strengthened the society of the first postdiluvian com- 
 monwealth." It is said in this quotation, that the power or 
 right of death was committed to men. As it was committed 
 for security, it was of course not committed into the hands of 
 individuals at random. We are bound to regard the lan- 
 guage, " by man shall his blood be shed," as referring to the 
 formal exercise of justice in the civil government. That 
 learned Huguenot, Andrew Rivet, observes of it, "The 
 passage is a rule, by God himself promulgated, according to 
 which the voluntary wicked homicide, the man who ma- 
 liciously sheds human blood, shall himself be deprived of life 
 by man, that is, by the legitimately constituted magistracy." 
 Munster, as quoted in Poole's Synopsis, says, " The magis- 
 tracy is here constituted by God, and a sword put into its 
 hands. God, who had hitherto taken the judgment into his 
 own hands exclusively, after the deluge makes man a par- 
 taker of his authority, and gives to him the power of life and 
 death." Vatablus remarks, " Hoc versu homicidis mors 
 denunciatur quomodocunque moriantur sive jussu magis- 
 tratus, sive a quocunque aliunde a Deo misso carnifice : " " In 
 this verse death is denounced against murderers, whether 
 by command of the magistrate, or by any other executioner 
 commissioned from God." ( Critici Sacri, Tom. 1, p. 158.) 
 Likewise Calvin : " Sic autem Deus vindictam minatur ac 
 denunciat homicidis, ut armet etium gladio magistratus ad 
 coedes ulciscendas, ne impune fundatur sanguis hominum : " 
 " God thus threatens and denounces the punishment of the 
 
THE STATUTORY DEATH PENALTY. 243 
 
 murderer, in order that the magistracy may be armed with a 
 sword for the avenging of murder, lest the blood of man 
 should be shed with impunity." ( Opera, Tom. 1, p. 53.) 
 The Chaldee paraphrastic interpretation of the passage is : 
 " Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man, that is, by witnesses, 
 with the sentence of the judges, shall his blood be shed." 
 
 The opposers of Capital Punishment have been very 
 desirous to annihilate or evade the force of this divine 
 statute, delivered primarily to our postdiluvian father. We 
 do not wonder at their anxiety to demolish this citadel, for 
 until this be accomplished the prospect of general or final 
 victory is not flattering. And what methods have been 
 adopted by them to effect this ? One is to substitute the 
 word whatsoever for whoso or whosoever. Whatsoever 
 sheddeth man's blood, by man shall its blood be shed. The 
 literal rendering of the original is, " Shedding man's blood, by 
 man shall his blood be shed." To show, however, that our 
 common English version is the natural translation of the 
 Hebrew construction, it is only necessary to present the fact 
 that if our English sentence, " Whoso sheddeth" &c., were 
 given forth to be translated into the Hebrew, the same con- 
 struction would be used as is used in the original text. In 
 the Septuagint, the pronoun is distinguished as in our ver- 
 sion. Michaelis did indeed choose the word " whatsoever " in 
 order to include beast as well as man, thinking it better to 
 accord with the preceding context ; not at all with the view 
 of excluding man, as his paraphrase proves. It runs thus : 
 " Whatsoever creature sheddeth human blood, be it man or 
 beast, by man shall its blood in like manner be shed." The 
 advocate of the abolition of the death penalty can obtain no 
 help from this quarter, inasmuch as if it were rendered 
 ichatsoever, it would comprise man as well as beast. But 
 the argument attempted to be drawn from this source is ex- 
 tremely absurd, as it makes God, at the opening of the new 
 world, and in relation to the crime of murder, to legislate for 
 
244 THE STATUTORY DEATH PENALTY. 
 
 brutes, and not for men : If a beast kill a man, its life shall 
 be taken away ; but if a man murder his fellow-man, this 
 statute has naught in it applicable to his case his blood 
 must stay where it is. Admirable logic! If a man then 
 wish the life of his fellow taken, and for this purpose should 
 let forth his mastiff upon and thus dispatch him, the poor 
 mastiff must lose his life, but his master escape. Verily this 
 is a hard case for the poor animal, and an easy one for the 
 owner, who is the cause of the death of the person killed and 
 of the dog which was only the instrument of the master in 
 the perpetration of the murderous deed. For the court to 
 condemn and sentence the man to death, say these humane 
 expositors of God's law, would be but adding murder to 
 murder; "if the court please," let the mastiff be hung, but 
 pity and protect the master. Let the court remember it is 
 only whatsoever, and that " whatsoever " relates only to the 
 quadruped ! If you belonged to the court or jury, would 
 you not be perfectly silenced or annihilated by so irrefragable 
 or ponderous an argument ? And suppose Noah had under- 
 stood the statute to be, " whatsoever sheddeth man's blood, 
 by man shall that beast's blood be shed," would he have felt 
 himself and posterity to be by such statute protected from 
 violence, secured from hazardous assault, from every quarter 
 from which harm could be reasonably apprehended to come 
 to him or them ? 
 
 Another mode in which the opponents of capital punish- 
 ment attempt to ignore or evade the force of this statute, is 
 by maintaining the language, " Whoso sheddeth," &c., to be 
 of the character, not of a law or command, but of a prediction : 
 intimating that the murderer will usually die some violent 
 death. Now, as to this, it may be remarked, First, That 
 such an interpretation, even if admitted to be correct, would 
 not vastly help their case ; for such a consequence would then 
 follow the commission of murder only as the result of the 
 ordering of Divine Providence, and the course of Providence 
 
THE STATUTORY DEATH PENALTY. 245 
 
 is but another name for the expression of the will of God. 
 Again : If the Omniscient and Omnipotent Ruler over all 
 has here predicted that capital punishment shall prevail, 
 opponents may as well give up their opposition to it, since 
 opposition, however strenuous, will in such case prove un- 
 availing. Let them not imagine that they can prevent the 
 fulfilment of a divine prediction. Is it not even presumptu- 
 ously irreligious to make such an attempt ? But once more : 
 We might with as much reason, and indeed for the same rea- 
 son, interpret the various parts of the Decalogue as mere 
 predictions, for the same form of language is there used. As 
 the Hebrew imperative has no third person, the future in 
 such instance supplies the form of the imperative is always 
 used indeed in its stead. 
 
 It is likewise sometimes argued by opponents of the death 
 penalty, that the statute given to our postdiluvian ancestor is 
 simply a permission not an injunction. But it seems to 
 follow, according to this construction, that God gives to any 
 and every man the permission to kill the murderer. This 
 will not do. It is not consentaneous with what the Sacred 
 "Word teaches in relation to private revenge : " Avenge not 
 yourselves," &c. And yet this constructive argument compels 
 our opponents to the assumption that God here authorizes 
 any and every individual to take into his own hands the 
 avenging of the crime of murder by the death of the mur- 
 derer. This inconsistency is to be in no way avoided but by 
 the interpretation of the statute as belonging not to private 
 individuals, but to the 'magistracy. But if it be permissive 
 to governments, then, on the concession of those objective 
 reasoners, we have a complete divine sanction for this death 
 penalty, if any government deem it expedient. Wrong then 
 it cannot be for human governments to inflict it on the shed- 
 ders of human blood. 
 
 The opponents of capital punishment resort to another 
 shift. Admitting it to be a command or statute, say they, still 
 
246 THE STATUTORY DEATH PENALTY. 
 
 it is one of those old institutions that were not designed to be 
 perpetual ; one of those ancient legal directions given to a 
 particular people and which were intended to exist or be of 
 force only for a particular time enactments that are done 
 away by the introduction of the gospel dispensation. Replied 
 to this it may and should be, that if it were a peculiarly 
 Jewish institution or ordinance if it were of the character 
 of the precepts of the ceremonial law merely, this might with 
 more semblance of plausibility be plead. But how can such 
 ground be taken with propriety? Look at the persons to 
 whom, and the time and circumstances in which, this precept 
 was delivered. It had its origin some centuries ere the 
 Jews, as such, had an existence. It was given to the then 
 whole human race ; for the " eight souls " were all of human 
 kind at that period in being. It was addressed to our post- 
 diluvian progenitors as the progenitors of all mankind who 
 should thereafter set foot on the earth ; was designed (how 
 can it be doubted ?) as a law for their descendants of every 
 generation and locality, as well as for themselves and 
 their proximate progeny. Having been given long anterior 
 to the peculiarly Mosaic or Jewish institutions, it is not de- 
 pendent on them, " derives from them no part of its authority, 
 permanence, or sacredness, but would be just as perfect, clear, 
 and authoritative, if they were all swept from existence. It is 
 an ordinance as extensive and comprehensive as is the promise 
 that while the earth continued, heat and cold, day and night, 
 summer and winter, seed-time and harvest, should not fail. 
 It is an ordinance just as universal for all mankind, as the 
 permission to eat animal food ; no more to be restricted to a 
 particular people, or considered as connected with the after 
 application of the Levitical law, than the declaration that 
 the dread of man should be upon the beasts of the forest is 
 to be considered as a promise made only to the Hebrews ; no 
 more than the declaration that the blood of man shall be 
 required of every beast is to be considered as applying only 
 
THE STATUTORY DEATH PENALTY". 247 
 
 to particular races of animals, or to animals occupying a 
 particular portion of the earth, the land of Canaan for 
 example. The ordinance is just as universal and compre- 
 hensive, as were to be the posterity of Noah ; it was given 
 to him for all his sons, and all their races. It is neither 
 Jewish, nor Gentile, nor Christian ; neither belonging to one 
 dispensation nor another ; but it is an ordinance of humanity 
 and of civil society, the world over." (Oheever.) 
 
 Should you hear men pleading against this law, that it was 
 adapted to the necessities of a barbarous age or people, but 
 that a necessity for it does not exist in our day, and among 
 a civilized and cultivated people, you would be disposed to 
 say in reply, Were they to whom this statute was primarily 
 given barbarians ? "Was it not, on the contrary, given forth 
 while there was a greater proportion of both wisdom and 
 goodness in the world than there has ever been since ? Those 
 whom the Almighty had so carefully preserved from the 
 flood's destroying sweep, were not a band of barbarians, as 
 we have had occasion to know. And when there was a 
 reenactment or repromulgation, centuries afterward, it was 
 not the least wise, least refined, and least religious people 
 which this globe had on its surface, among whom this took 
 place. 
 
EVENING NINETEENTH. 
 
 YOUNG GENTLEMEN : 
 
 That Divine Legislator who primarily enacted the law, 
 "Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be 
 shed," alone has the right primarily to revoke or abrogate it. 
 And has he done so ? Has he found any civil community, in 
 any age, so humane, cultivated, and refined, as not to need the 
 punitive, restraining, preventive influence of this statute, and 
 so has repealed it rendered it null and void, as to them ? 
 If so, let the age, or the community, be pointed out. When, 
 where, has the Supreme Legislator and Ruler revoked this 
 statute ? Hark ! From a certain quarter, not within this 
 room, young gentlemen, do we mean from any of you we 
 could not expect to hear it, from opponents of Capital 
 Punishment a voice comes, saying, God by his Son repeal- 
 ed it. The clement, kind-hearted Saviour enjoined on men 
 the fostering entertainment, and ready, cordial exercise of 
 benignity and love; interdicted the indulgence of a bitter 
 and vindictive spirit a spirit of revengeful or malicious 
 retaliation. "Ye have heard," says that Saviour, "that it 
 hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth : 
 But I say unto you, that ye resist not evil ; but whosoever 
 shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other 
 also." "Ye have heard," says he again, "that it hath been 
 said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy : 
 
THE STATUTORY DEATH PENALTY. 249 
 
 But I say unto you, Love your enemies," &c. And his 
 apostles, catching his spirit, and instructed by his words and 
 example, said, " Recompense to no man evil for evil ; Thou 
 shalt love thy neighbor as thyself; and love worketh no ill to 
 his neighbor." We trust you love these instructions, and the 
 spirit which both they breathe and enjoin. They forbid the 
 indulgence of a malignant spirit or temper ; they inhibit pri- 
 vate retaliation and revenge ; they enjoin mutual love. Such 
 precepts, and prohibitions, and instructions, Christ and his 
 apostles saw that even the better portion of mankind for 
 such were the Jews, until Christianity began to have a 
 prevalence needed. If the interpretations referred to 
 should be so interpreted, as to be understood to amount to 
 a virtual abrogation of the Noachic statute ; as forbidding, in 
 other words, capital punishment ; then, their prohibitory 
 intention and injunction do not stop there, but they inhibit 
 every kind and degree of punishment for any and every 
 crime. They abrogate or annihilate the whole penal code 
 of every people. Such an interpretation would lead to the 
 nullification of all law, for what are laws without penal 
 sanctions? They cease to be aught above or beyond 
 counsels. Nay, more : All government is annihilated ; 
 universal anarchy reigns. Violence and bloodshed, as well 
 as other species of evil, surpassing, if possible, what was to 
 be witnessed in antediluvian times, would prevail, until no 
 phase or vestige of order not only, but of human existence 
 [. even, would remain. 
 
 We have searched the New Testament, and can find no- 
 where any revocation or repeal of the statute God gave to 
 our postdiluvian ancestry. None of Christ's precepts or 
 teachings appear to us to look that way. " I came not," said 
 he, " to destroy the law." We find him repealing no law ; 
 not even the ritual law, which its very nature evinces the 
 Divine Lawgiver to have intended to endure only for a time. 
 Lex stat, dum ratio manet ; the law typical had accom- 
 
250 THE STATUTORY DEATH PENALTY. 
 
 plished its end when the great Ante-type appeared, when the 
 Great Sacrifice was offered ; and then expired, not by formal 
 abrogation, but by its own limitation. As to any great moral 
 or civil rule of God's enactment, our Saviour interfered not 
 with it. One of the two thieves who were crucified with 
 Christ, though so instructed as to understand somewhat con- 
 cerning Christ's kingdom, and the way of becoming a subject 
 of it* did not know of any repeal by Christ of the law relating 
 to murder ; and they, doubtless, in their robberies, had more 
 than once committed the crime. His language to the other 
 was : "And we indeed justly ; for we receive but the due re- 
 ward of our deeds" The Saviour, who heard this, did not 
 contradict him ; did not say, I have repealed that severe law 
 given to Noah, as contrary to the genius or spirit of the dis- 
 pensation I am introducing. So far from anything of this 
 kind falling from his lips, he tacitly admits the correctness of 
 what the malefactor had uttered, and so the justice of the 
 doom of the two malefactors. Paul, who at the time may be 
 reasonably supposed to have a more thorough understanding 
 than the penitent thief had of Christ's teachings, and of the 
 spirit and character of the new dispensation, said, when 
 standing before Festus under an accusation from the Jews, 
 "If I be an offender, or have committed anything worthy of 
 death, I refuse not to die," (Acts 25: 11.) The inference 
 which we are compelled to draw from this, is too plain and 
 obvious to need statement. It ought to make^the opposer of 
 Capital Punishment, on the ground just alluded to, squirm 
 not a little. Hear Paul again, when he is writing a grave 
 epistle, and his mind and hand are guided by the spirit of in- 
 spiration. Turn to Romans 13: 1-4. Inspect it; it need 
 not be recited ; but we do choose to recite what is, in our 
 view, so correctly and well expressed by Dr. G. B. Cheever 
 upon it. "In this passage," says he, "several things are 
 brought into view. First, The divine appointment of human 
 government. Second, A distinct and explicit recognition of 
 
THE STATUTORY DEATH PENALTY. 251 
 
 the penalty of death for crime as then in existence, and of the 
 righteousness of this custom. Third, A recognition of it not 
 as the result of any compact in society, by which individual 
 rights are committed to the government, but as coming di- 
 rectly from the appointment and authority of God. Fourth, 
 A recognition of penal inflictions as a matter of pure retribu- 
 tive justice, and not of mere expediency." What important 
 as well as clearly legitimate deductions are these. Here 
 then, under the Christian dispensation, is to be found an 
 inspired apostle of our Lord sanctioning capital punishment, 
 and referring it to the ordinance of God ; it is the use of the 
 sword in the punishment of crime by magistrates as the 
 ministers of God. Can there be any other plausible or pos- 
 sible view taken of this passage? An 'illustrious place, it is 
 called by an illustrious commentator, to prove the divine au- 
 thority of capital punishment ; and he adds : " Contendant 
 igitur cum Deo, qui sanguinem nocentium hominum effundi 
 nefas esse putant." "They contend, therefore, with God, 
 who deem it to be wrong to shed the blood of guilty men." 
 ( Calvini in Pauli JEpistolas Commentarii, vol. 1, p. 174.) 
 
 Compare what is said by Paul in the three concluding verses 
 of Romans 12th chapter, with the four initial verses of the 
 13th chapter, to which we have just been referring you ; note 
 their juxtaposition and relation, and then tell me, can it, in 
 the face of this examination and comparison, be with any 
 plausibility plead that the duty of private forgiveness inter- 
 feres at all with the course of public justice in the infliction 
 of capital punishment for the crime of intentional murder ? 
 The conclusion appears to me irresistible, unless logic has 
 run stark mad, that the postdiluvian death penalty and the 
 mild spirit of the Christian dispensation, instead of being 
 incompatible, are entirely consistent. 
 
 Let those who imagine that Jesus Christ accounted the 
 penalty of death for intentional homicide too severe to har- 
 monize with or have a continued existence under the mild 
 
 
252 THE STATUTORY DEATH PENALTY. 
 
 and benign dispensation which he came to usher in, just cast 
 their eye if they will condescend to do such a thing on 
 Mat. 26 : 52, where our Saviour says to Peter, " Put up 
 again thy sword in its place ; for all they that take the sword 
 shall perish with the sword." Whilst in the first part of this 
 verse there is an inhibition of private avenging of injury, we 
 mistake much if in the latter part there is not both an im- 
 plied supposition of the existence of the death penalty, and a 
 sanction of it. There is, in our view, a manifest reference 
 here to the old and well-known Noachic ordinance, which had 
 come to be not only a fundamental law, but a fundamental 
 proverb of society. Let them look also it is hoped they 
 will excuse us for imposing such a task upon them at 
 Rev. 13 : 10, middle clause, where there is a declaration of 
 the same nature with the preceding. In this last assertion, 
 as in the former, there is an obvious appeal to the authority 
 of a known divine sanction, and to a proverbial sanction 
 which has grown out of the divine. There is nothing which 
 looks like or toward an annihilation of the Noachic statute 
 with its penalty ; but, on the contrary, a prima facie repro- 
 mulgation of it by the great New Testament teacher. 
 
 At the time the Divine Being gave the ordinance to our 
 postdiluvian ancestry, he gave also the reason for it : " For 
 in the image of God made he man." The image here spoken 
 of is understood by many to indicate the authority with which 
 human magistracy is invested for the punishment of crime. 
 The magistrate resembles as well as represents the infinite 
 Judge and Ruler in this respect. It is however more com- 
 monly understood to indicate that resemblance to himself with 
 which the Creator invested the human creature at the first, 
 and which, since the fall, if in a moral yet not in every other 
 respect, as reason, conscience, and immortality for instance, is 
 not obliterated. Interpreted either way, the reason assigned 
 remains and ever will ; is not limited to any country, any 
 age or generation/ According then to that maxim which has 
 
THE STATUTORY DEATH PENALTY. 253 
 
 been before quoted, viz. : " Lex stat, dum ratio manet," the 
 law stands, while the reason continues, this same statute is, 
 and always will be, everywhere binding. 
 
 The further prosecution of this subject would be deemed by 
 us superfluous, were it not that the law forbidding murder 
 upon pain of death, is so much and by so many maligned in 
 our day ; and were not so wide as well as strenuous efforts 
 put forth to procure its erasure from our statute-books. Such 
 erasure has indeed in some instances already been effected. 
 If the experiment be not followed by such results as sooner 
 or later to induce and impel its restoration, we confess we 
 shall be not a little disappointed. We despair of seeing man 
 become a more wise or even a more clement legislator than 
 God ; and any legislative body that either aboilshes or at- 
 tempts to abolish this penal statute, in our view transcends 
 its proper sphere ; legislates against the divine legislation. It 
 will be to us a mournful thing, to witness any increased or 
 extended legislation of this character. A restoration of the 
 divine penal statute, in cases where it has already been erased 
 or abrogated, would present to us a sight much more 
 pleasing. 
 
 There are those who, should they hear or read what we 
 have already advanced, would no doubt charge our advocacy 
 of the death penalty to a malign spirit ; or else ourselves as 
 having been guilty of remissness in not coming into the world 
 in some former and less enlightened age. That this is an age 
 of " progress," a man would indeed have poor sight not to be 
 able to see. The character of much of the progress delights 
 us exceedingly; whilst some of it, such is our blindness, 
 strikes our feeble and obscure vision as being in the wrong 
 direction. There is, in such an improved and advancing 
 period as the present, some little danger of becoming " wise 
 above what is written." We are willing to move no faster 
 or farther than is practicable and yet keep within the limits 
 of the " record." 
 
 
254 THE STATUTORY DEATH PENALTY. 
 
 That not yet indeed formidable but increasing band, " the 
 non-resistants," strenuously resist this ordinance of God ; level 
 their heaviest artillery against it, with a view to its summary 
 and universal dispatch. The occupants of the frozen, arctic 
 regions of skepticism, and of the frigid Districts adjacent, are 
 warm in their 'opposition to what they choose to denominate 
 the murderous statute. False philanthropy and sickly sen- 
 timentalism overflow with sympathy for those whose hearts 
 are steeped and hands dyed in blood ; are actually irrigating 
 with their tears the fields, already saturated with human gore, 
 which are occupied by homicides ; but have little or no sym- 
 pathy for those whose glowing sympathies have, along with 
 their lifeblood, been let out by the cold and cruel murderer's 
 blade ; yes, and have few or no tears for those whose faces 
 are suffused with tears, and hearts wrung with grief, over 
 murdered friends and kindred. Ah, if all they who evince 
 such deep anxiety for the protection of the life of assassins 
 and murderers, would cherish more anxiety and expend more 
 effort to throw the shield of philanthropic protection over 
 endangered society, and advocate and uphold the statute, in 
 all its force and sternness, which, when it is universally advo- 
 cated or sustained, exerts so potent an influence in preserv- 
 ing untold numbers from becoming murderers, they would in 
 our opinion, take a much more palpable and ready way of 
 showing themselves genuine philanthropists. If life be so 
 valuable that, according to the view of some there should in 
 the murderer's case be no statutory penalty to threaten its 
 extinction ; it is, in the view of others, of so much higher 
 value, that the most effective means possible should be up- 
 held and befriended, should be caused to exist and operate, 
 for the protection of the masses of every community from 
 the assaults of the murderous weapon. God has exhibited 
 his high estimate of human life in that Noachic statute which 
 we are so unwilling to see by human legislation annihilated ; 
 and naught is known by us so eloquent and efficient to 
 
THE STATUTORY DEATH PENALTY. 255 
 
 create and keep up in the entire mind and heart of any com- 
 munity a deep and perpetually as well as powerfully influen- 
 tial impression of life's inestimable value, as this divine 
 statutory enactment. Abolish this ordinance and you abolish 
 what God in the issuing of it has said, and men in every 
 judicious and practicable mode should say, is, than any and 
 every mere human device, a more effectual and general pre- 
 servative of human life from the promptings and pantings of 
 greedy cupidity, and of infuriate malevolence and violence, 
 for its effusion. That French writer showed himself not 
 stolid, who, on being asked to lend his aid to the abolition of 
 the death penalty, replied, " With all my heart ; only let the 
 messieurs, the assassins, begin the reform by abstaining from 
 murder." 
 
 Such is the enormity of the crime of murder, as to leave 
 at an unapproachable distance all other crimes perpetrated 
 by mortals against their fellows ; and the Supreme Legisla- 
 tor, in his wisdom and love, has fixed upon an appropriate 
 retribution. It is fitting that a crime of such surpassing 
 magnitude, should be so distinguished in the rules and pro- 
 ceedings of human jurisprudence as to be visited with the 
 extremest penal infliction known this side of the great white 
 Throne. The penalty should be in kind and degree so ter- 
 rific, should so puissantly address itself to the principle of 
 fear in man, as to surmount, stifle, subdue, every motive or 
 impulse to the perpetration of a deed of such superlative 
 atrocity. Its voice should be so loud and strong as to 
 drown the voice of every passion, urging to the com- 
 mission of the deed of blood. What numbers, by the 
 warnings and appeals of an existing death penalty, are an- 
 nually restrained and preserved from becoming homicides, 
 God only knows ; far more, doubtless, than .has ever entered 
 the conceptions of the multitude. And what numbers, on 
 the other hand, are by this means annually preserved from 
 violent death, how many hearts are thus yearly kept from 
 
256 THE STATUTORY DEATH PENALTY. 
 
 being penetrated by the leaden missile or the sharp-pointed 
 steel, is probably not only unconceived, but wellnigh incon- 
 ceivable. The prince of darkness could have never been 
 justly denominated " a liar," much less "the father of lies," 
 had naught ever proceeded from his burning lips more 
 untrue than that saying of his, recorded in the book of Job : 
 "All that a man hath will he give for his life." So con- 
 stituted is man as a creature, and such moreover is he as a 
 guilty creature, that more than every other evil which is 
 felt or feared this side of eternity's domains, he fears death. 
 This sentiment, we are aware, does not meet with universal 
 assent, at least verbal ; but the number, comparatively, is as 
 yet not great, who are willing to subject their reputation for 
 intellectual and moral sanity to suspicion, by the promulga- 
 tion of an opposite tenet. 
 
 Some, who, like their great prototype, we would say 
 were we not so reluctant to speak reproachfully of any 
 antecedent, let us in preference say are inclined to cite 
 Scripture when, and only when, it is conceived to suit a 
 favorite purpose, may be heard quoting that heavenly 
 precept, (Ex. 20: 13,) "Thou shalt not kill;" protrude 
 it as an argument against the taking away of human life 
 on any account, after any manner ; strangely forgetting, 
 or appearing to forget, both that it stands in the very neigh- 
 borhood of precepts which on some accounts, and after 
 certain methods, order it (see Ex. 21 : 12, 15, 16, 17, 22) ; 
 and that this great moral precept was designed to pro- 
 hibit and prevent the murderous occupation of killing from 
 being followed. It surely does not need any great sagacity 
 to discover that it is the crime of murder, and " whatsoever 
 tendeth thereunto," against which that interdict is aimed : 
 not to prohibit the divinely constituted magistracy from exe- 
 cuting the duties of their office ; nor to interfere in the least 
 with their legitimate and appropriate functions. " The com- 
 mand, Thou shalt not kill," observes Grotius, "does not 
 
THE STATUTORY DEATH PENALTY. 257 
 
 disprove the right and duty of capital punishment inflicted 
 on criminals." It might be added, Neither does it disprove 
 the lawfulness of all defensive war ; nor in every case, or 
 under all circumstances, the right of self-defence. 
 
 In the statute to which our attention is directed, is the 
 penalty really too severe ? In other words, does it transcend 
 the bounds of justice ? The source whence it came affords 
 sufficient proof that it does not ; for though the act of God in 
 affixing such a penalty to the crime contemplated, does not of 
 itself make it just ; yet such is the rectitude of his nature, 
 that we may be sure he would never affix to a law a 
 penalty which can with propriety be declared unjust. Being 
 omniscient, he understands perfectly what of evil or suffer- 
 ing every crime deserves ; and being infinitely righteous, he 
 will in no case by statute visit it beyond its intrinsic demerit. 
 Who then has any cause to complain of this penal statute of 
 the Divine Lawgiver? Who any justifiable reason to 
 malign it, whether it be found in the divine or in a human 
 statute-book ? Who behaves well when he speaks of it as 
 barbarous, tyrannical, cruel ; when he charges it with being 
 malevolent, revengeful, vindictive, inhuman ; as being a dis- 
 grace and reproach to any nation which has and is inclined 
 to keep it in her criminal statute-book ; who calls it a stain, 
 a great blood-blot on its pages ? 
 
 But in order to prove the justice of the punishment of 
 death, we are not necessitated to fall back on the perfections 
 of the Divine Lawgiver ; as if no evidence could elsewhere 
 be obtained for its support. A voice appears to come from 
 the depths of the soul of universal humanity, declaring the 
 justice of the punishment of death for the crime of homicide. 
 Cain, after the murder of his brother, felt so conscious of 
 deserving death, and was so possessed of the idea that what 
 was his sentiment on this point, was or would be the senti- 
 ment of all others of his kind, that he could look upon them 
 in no other light than as righteous and assiduous avengers of 
 
258 THE STATUTORY DEATH PENALTY. 
 
 his atrocious deed. The "barbarous people," as the Ro- 
 mans considered them, among whom, after his shipwreck, 
 Paul fell, evinced the possession of what we call the natural 
 sentiment in the human bosom that murder merits death 
 in what fell from their lips: "No doubt," said they one to 
 another, when they saw the venomous reptile come forth from 
 the fire which that apostle had kindled, and fasten on his 
 hand : " No doubt this man is a murderer , whom, though he 
 hath escaped the sea, yet vengeance suffereth not to live." 
 It would not do to call it malice or revenge on the part of 
 this people toward the apostle, impelling them thus to speak 
 to each other. What occasion had they for malice or re- 
 venge toward Paul ? No ; they manifestly expressed but 
 the natural sentiment possessing their minds. Ancient poets 
 are found speaking of this sentiment, as one that is natural 
 to the human bosom. That it is a deep and indestructible 
 instinct of the human heart, might be shown by an appeal to 
 the pages of all history both sacred and profane ; the evi- 
 dence is exhibited, with few and trifling exceptions, in the 
 legislation and practice of all nations, ancient and modern, 
 barbarous and civilized, Pagan and Jewish, classical and 
 Christian; a universal instinct, which, whilst it began to 
 utter itself in the conscience-stricken exclamations of the 
 terrified Cain, has reverberated in the soul of every mur- 
 derer, from that day to this; has been confirmed by the 
 consenting voice of not only the historians and poets, but 
 philosophers and sages of all time ; and, as we believe, 
 finds a response more or less distinct in every unso- 
 phisticated human heart. All mankind, it is true, may 
 have erred. But it surely becomes the individual mind to 
 be modest, when it calls in question the voice of the race. 
 
EVENING TWENTIETH. 
 
 YOUNG GENTLEMEN: 
 
 Is not a feeling originated in the breast of every one, 
 when he hears of a deliberate or intentional murder, that the 
 perpetrator of the deed ought not to live ? What is it but an 
 instinct of man's being, a sentiment of which mankind can 
 hardly divest themselves, which, when some judicial tribunal 
 betrays signs of a disposition to let a known deliberate homi- 
 cide escape, gives such manifestations of a determination, 
 among the mass of citizens all around, that so it shall not be, 
 as to stimulate or nerve the before shrinking tribunal to 
 "judge righteous judgment;" to do what, not malice or re- 
 venge, but simple, sober justice requires ? There is what, in 
 the phraseology of the day, is denominated " Lynch law " 
 a desperate remedy indeed for evils may the Ruler Su- 
 preme vouchsafe his needed restraining, controlling influence 
 to preserve the supremacy of legal enactment : what, far 
 be it from us to say always^ but sometimes, is that unhand- 
 some as well as unhandsomely denominated thing, but an 
 underlying innate sentiment of justice, prompting to the 
 doing of what, peradventure, the chosen or appointed magis- 
 tracy, from some unjustifiable cause, leave, or evince a pro- 
 pensity to leave, undone ? 
 
 God has not, indeed, as we have seen, left it to this natural 
 
260 THE STATUTORY DEATH PENALTY. 
 
 sense of retributive justice in man's bosom, nor to the judg- 
 ment or discretion of " the powers that be," though these be 
 of his ordination, to determine on and inflict such punishment 
 for wilful homicide, lest pity for the wretched felon, or sym- 
 pathy toward sorrowing, to be disgraced, and appealing rela- 
 tives, or something else, should overcome their better 
 judgment, and cause them to leave the claims of justice 
 unsatisfied. His command to our great postdiluvian progen- 
 itor, which has been shown to be universally and perpetually 
 binding, renders it the absolute duty of civil governments to 
 have a law of this kind in their peijal code ; of judicial tri- 
 bunals to determine the cases of violation ; and of executive 
 officers to carry it into execution. The Infinite Ruler is to 
 be regarded as the punisher of the crime of murder with 
 death through the constituted civil authorities which are his 
 ministries ; inflicts this punishment on the murderer as that 
 which his crime deserves, and because he deserves it. Not 
 that this is all that is due the crime of murder. This as well 
 as every other sin merits more than any temporal infliction 
 of ill. But the Most High takes the after reckoning directly 
 into his own hands ; and, where there has been no flying to 
 the vicarious atonement which the gospel reveals, lets not 
 justice sleep beyond the melancholy yet righteous termination 
 of the murderer's mortal life. 
 
 In our reasonings about the proper penalty for murder, 
 apart from the direct consideration of the divine statute on 
 the subject, we should see to it that the idea of justice or 
 righteous retribution be not lost sight of. It underlies all 
 the reasons which mere human ratiocination, keeping within 
 its legitimate province, can find for the infliction of punish^- 
 ment No consideration of utility or expediency should be 
 allowed to override or ignore this since it is not allowable 
 for society, any more than for individuals, to " do evil that 
 good may come." If we can do justly, and important bene- 
 ficial ends can be at the same time arrived at or secured, 
 
THE STATUTORY DEATH PENALTY. 261 
 
 society or government then indeed has additional weighty 
 inducements for a given penal infliction. 
 
 In inquiries in regard to the ends of punishment, some 
 writers, as Dymond for example, (see Essays on the Princi- 
 ples of Morality, Essay Third, chapters 11 and 12,) have 
 declared reformation, the reformation of the criminal, to be 
 the primary and paramount end; and so, as the death of the 
 murderer would put him beyond the reach of reformation, 
 argue that capital punishment is improper should not be 
 inflicted. The correctness of this tenet, and so of the con- 
 clusion built upon it, we think may well be questioned, and 
 for the following reasons : First, Suffering caused for such 
 an end, like the afflictions of the righteous, possess the char- 
 acter of merciful discipline rather than punishment. Secondly, 
 If reformation were the prime end of punishment, a large 
 proportion of criminals, particularly of the higher grades, 
 should go unpunished, since repentance and reformation, as 
 to its spirit, have in their case so soon followed the commission 
 of the crime as to precede the practicable season for trial and 
 sentence. The prime and paramount reason for punishment 
 would cease to exist ere it could ordinarily be inflicted. 
 And what the baleful consequences would be of letting so 
 many criminals pass without punishment it would be vain for 
 us to attempt to describe, since they would far surpass the 
 power of description. But, thirdly, The restraining or de- 
 terring of a person from becoming a criminal, rather than the 
 reforming of him after he has become one, is entitled to the 
 precedence : just as the prevention of disease is ever prefera- 
 ble to its cure. Much more is the preventing of a person, 
 through an appeal to his fear of death or love of life, from 
 becoming a murderer, entitled to priority over his reformation 
 after his becoming one, from the fact that in the former case, 
 there is by the same means the preventing of the life of some 
 other person or persons from being sacrificed. A law which, 
 by so just but thrice fearful a penalty as death, prevents 
 12* 
 
2C2 THE STATUTORY DEATH PENALTY. 
 
 large numbers in a commonwealth from becoming murderers, 
 prevents, at the same time, the sacrifice of the lives of far 
 greater numbers of its citizens, and produces, moreover? 
 general quiet from fear of so great an evil throughout the 
 length and breadth of the commonwealth, an advantage 
 itself too great for practicable appreciation. What is the 
 benefit of a reformation of those who, for want of a penal 
 statute of this kind, become murderers in a given common- 
 wealth, compared with this aggregate ? As to reformation, 
 that kind of it, that deep, thorough reformation of the felon 
 which is succeeded in his case with life everlasting, is incom- 
 parably the more valuable to himself. Now what sort of 
 penalty is the more likely to be instrumental in effecting this ? 
 The oppugners of capital punishment are sometimes heard 
 arguing against such punishment on the ground of its send- 
 ing an immortal soul unprepared to its last account; and 
 imprisonment for life is warmly urged, for this reason, as a 
 substitute. Now unless the execution of the death penalty 
 follow so speedily the trial and conviction as no judicial 
 tribunal in any and particularly in a Christian country 
 should direct or allow we think we have good reason for 
 believing that the sentence of death is, as a means, better 
 adapted than imprisonment for life to secure so unspeakably 
 momentous and benign an end ; that by taking away the 
 former sanction from the majesty of law, our criminal juris- 
 prudence would be deprived of its highest penal instrumentality 
 for bringing the soul, first, into the dust of true penitence, 
 and next, to the bosom of the pitying and potent Saviour of 
 sinners, even " the chief." What, under God, it may with 
 superlative emphasis be asked, so likely to set a hard- 
 ened, blood-stained sinner to think about the deep hue of 
 not only the one but all his sins, the instant and pressing 
 need of pardon, and to put him to crying earnestly for mercy 
 from the high and heavenly Source mercy that can roll 
 away his guilt, and lift him up and station him on the 
 
THE STATUTORY DEATH PENALTY. 263 
 
 glory-crowned summit of the paradisiac mount as the 
 certainty indubitable that death is eminently near, even at 
 the door ; as the knowledge that on such a month, week, 
 day, near by, his day of grace will terminate, and he be 
 ushered, disembodied, into the presence of his Divine Judge ? 
 If that will not, oh, what else will, move and melt his soul, 
 and bring him to the feet of sovereign, saving Love ? On 
 the other hand, imprisonment for life has a tendency to 
 encourage delay; the time for mercy seeking appears to 
 stretch out to a vast length, an almost interminable dura- 
 tion, as it were, before him; many things may occur; a 
 pardon after a while, even, is possible; a studiously good 
 behavior may secure a mitigation of the sentence, may bring 
 him soon out of his prison-house and place him again in the 
 blaze and bustle of the world ; ample time and opportunity 
 will in all likelihood be allowed, years hence, to rush to the 
 free and full fountain of life. " Some men are at fault with 
 capital punishment," says Grotius, "because with life all 
 opportunity of repentance is cut off. But they well know 
 that good magistrates have the greatest vigilance in this mat- 
 ter, and that no criminal may be hurried to execution without 
 ample time to acknowledge and heartily detest his sins. But 
 if men say that a still longer period of life might produce a 
 still deeper repentance, it may be answered, that the experi- 
 ment has often proved otherwise : there have been those to 
 whom that pithy and solemn sarcasm of Seneca might have 
 been addressed, We have one good thing more to offer you, and 
 that is death" In E. G. Wakefield's Facts relating to the Pun- 
 ishment of Death, he says that " the Rev. Mr. Cotton, the 
 Ordinary of Newgate, who has been chaplain of the jail for 
 more than a dozen years, has often acknowledged to him, 
 that he does not remember an instance of what he considered 
 sincere conversion to religious sentiments, except in prisoners 
 who were executed. A very great show of religious fervor is 
 often made by prisoners even from the moment of their 
 
264 THE STATUTORY DEATH PENALTY. 
 
 entrance in Newgate, still more after they enter the cells. 
 But in such cases, when the punishment is finally settled at 
 something less than death, the prisoner invariably behaves as if 
 all his religion had been hypocrisy." 
 
 As to the reforming influence of imprisonment for life, so 
 far as citizenship is concerned, it puzzles us extremely to 
 perceive how this is to be ascertained or even effected, seeing 
 that he who is incarcerated for life is prevented thereby 
 from ever becoming a citizen. 
 
 A word was spoken, a while since, on the influence which 
 the death penalty has in deterring men from the commission 
 of murder, and the associated and consequent effect of afford- 
 ing protection to society from its direful ravages. Some will 
 have it that imprisonment for life, especially solitary im- 
 prisonment, will better answer these ends ; and plead that, of 
 the two penalties, the latter is the more terrible. In con- 
 firmation, some will say that they themselves would account 
 perpetual solitary incarceration the greater and more dread- 
 ful punishment. But if the alternative were actually pre- 
 sented ; if, arraigned and convicted, it were left to them by 
 the court to choose between the two we are ready to de- 
 clare, without any hesitation or peradventure, what their 
 choice would be. They would, one and all, be seen march- 
 ing into the prison and the solitary cell, rather than to the 
 gallows ; ay, and feel considerably inclined to thank " their 
 stars," if not the court nor Providence, that they had found 
 such snug quarters. Naught this side of the Judgment is so 
 dreadful to universal manhood as death ; nothing this side of 
 the cold, chilling river which bounds the territory of Time is 
 so sweet to the human kind as life. A celebrated German 
 romance writer, when summoned unexpectedly to that river's 
 brink, exclaimed as loudly as his remaining strength would 
 suffer him, " Only life ! this sweet life ! life at any price, life 
 even with suffering, only life, life, life ! " 
 
 To the strong, deep, instinctive dread of death which the 
 
THE STATUTORY DEATH PENALTY. 265 
 
 Creator lias implanted in the constitution of every sentient, 
 and, we may say, of every living creature, there are, in the 
 case of the sufferer of capital punishment, to be added the 
 disgrace attendant on his mode of death, and the intensely 
 terrific and awful retributions of eternity, of which his guilty 
 conscience gives indescribably awful forebodings. All these 
 meeting together in the case of the felonious homicide dying 
 by the hand of the executioner, what is there in the thought 
 of any punishment beside, coming anywhere near being so 
 great and mighty a preventive of the crime of murder, and 
 protective of society from its thrice fearful and melancholy 
 assaults ? As corroborative of this position, and refutatory 
 of the position of those who contend that imprisonment for 
 life is a greater punishment, and a more potent or influential 
 means of deterring or restraining men from the perpetration 
 of murder, and of affording security to society from its dreadful 
 havoc, we might refer you to the experience of several gov- 
 ernments, who, after a trial of a few years, were induced to 
 abandon their experiment. The principal cases which our 
 memory enables us to suggest are those of the Empress 
 Catherine of Russia, and the Grand Duke, Leopold, of 
 Tuscany. In the Conversations Lexicon, a work of un- 
 doubted authority, it is declared : " That even in those 
 countries where the governments, from a mistaken feeling of 
 humanity, abolished capital punishments, they were com- 
 pelled again to introduce them ; because, according to the 
 prevailing views of men, death is regarded as the greatest 
 evil, to avoid which, men will willingly submit to the most 
 laborious life, so long as there is any hope of escaping from 
 it ; and because, moreover, the punishment of death is the 
 most terrible of all penalties." 
 
 As the Noachic statute and penalty have reference exclu- 
 sively to the crime of murder, in the full and proper sense of 
 that term, so have we, in our present advocacy. It would be 
 treating us unjustly not to bear in mind that it is for murder, 
 
266 THE STATUTORY DEATH PENALTY. 
 
 not anything short of it for intentional murder, not accident- 
 al homicide, nor for homicide in palpable self-defence for 
 murder clearly proved, and this before a proper tribunal, not a 
 case uncertain, or insufficiently established by evidence, nor a 
 case clearly made out before a self-constituted body that we 
 plead for the infliction, by the properly appointed instrument- 
 ality, of the punishment of death. As for any penalty short 
 of this for the extreme crime just designated, whether it be 
 imprisonment for life, or something else, it is, however kindly 
 intended, but a poor substitute, in our view, for the divinely 
 selected, authorized, and enjoined penalty. Let imprison- 
 ment for life, which seems to be the favorite with the ma- 
 jority of the opponents of the death penalty ; let it be the 
 substituted penalty for murder; and let it be without fail 
 ever inflicted in full, and still it is so. God's wisdom and 
 God's benevolence of both of which there is a signal dis- 
 play in the Noachic ordinance have been, are, and ever 
 will be, superior to man's. Whilst we would not present the 
 lenity, laxity, or abuse, as an argument yet we may be 
 permitted, en passant, to ask, What more, scarcely, is the 
 punishment of imprisonment for life, as most commonly 
 executed, than a name ? We quote from good authority, from 
 a citizen of deservedly high repute in that commonwealth, 
 when we state as a fact the following : " In the State of New 
 York, the average length of time spent in prison by those 
 criminals who have been sentenced to imprisonment for life, 
 has been six years ! " 
 
 Let an additional consideration be urged. Suppose the 
 adversaries of the death penalty for murder, in any country 
 say in the United States to have their will. In every 
 state of that Republic this penalty is abolished ; and the penal- 
 ty of imprisonment for a term of years, or, we will say, for life, 
 is put in its room. The crime of murder, and several other 
 crimes, theft and robbery to a certain amount, for example, 
 then stand penally on the same footing. A like motive or 
 
THE STATUTORY DEATII PENALTY. 207 
 
 inducement is presented to all the inhabitants of the land to 
 abstain from any one of these crimes as from the other. It 
 is said to them, If you murder another, or steal another's 
 goods to a certain amount, or rob a person of such a sum of 
 money, you shall, if detected, if the crime be proved against 
 you, be thrown into prison, and be confined there during 
 your mortal life. Look then at the estimate, relatively, that 
 is set on the life of a human being. It is worth such an 
 amount of goods, or such a sum of money : This proclaimed 
 to the people of the land proclaimed by its statutes. 
 From north to south, east to west, the proclamation is made, 
 that the life of a man, woman, or child, is worth so much 
 money, or such a quantity of goods. And so is there a like 
 estimate made as to crime. The crime of murder, and the 
 crimes of theft and robbery to a certain amount of goods or 
 money, are alike as to magnitude or guilt. This also is pro- 
 claimed, through the medium of statute, throughout the 
 length and breadth of the country. What we are disposed 
 to press this question what will be the effect, morally and 
 practically, in that land ? Tell us, ye kind, philanthropic 
 souls, who love human life so vastly, that ye would as soon 
 have your neighbor lose such an amount of goods, or in 
 money, as to lose his mortal life, let us have a sober, 
 candid response to the interrogatory just stated. No wonder 
 ye scratch your heads, and look somewhat embarrassed or 
 puzzled. 
 
 Let us cast our eye at another aspect of the case. Things 
 stand according to the foregoing supposition. The law, 
 punishing murder with death, is repealed. Another, affixing 
 the penalty of incarceration for life, is the substitute. The 
 crime of theft and robbery, to a certain amount, there are 
 laws forbidding under a like penalty. Let a man be detect- 
 ed and convicted of either of these crimes, and his home is a 
 prison until "the golden bowl be broken." Here are a 
 hundred or a thousand men, in different parts of the broad land, 
 
268 THE STATUTORY DEATH PENALTY. 
 
 who are committing a theft ; are stealing an amount of goods 
 for which, if the crime be proved against them, they must 
 suffer the penalty just stated. Just as they have perpetrated 
 the furtive deed, their eye meets the eye of some one, each, 
 that has witnessed their act of stealth. This witness will, if 
 he have the opportunity, expose him, and be the means of his 
 arrest and conviction. Each of the hundred or thousand 
 thieves, knowing this, will say to himself, " Let me kill this 
 witness and I shall avoid detection. If I, in killing him, 
 should even be discovered and convicted of the crime of 
 taking away his life, I shall fare no worse than if I let the 
 witness escape. Whereas, if he be killed, there may be no 
 one to witness against me for this latter offence, I see 
 none," and he takes away his life. A hundred or a thousand 
 lives, according to the supposition, are at once thus sacrificed, 
 and ten thousand hearts are wrung with anguish. On the 
 night succeeding the transaction just depicted, a hundred or 
 a thousand robbers, in different sections of the wide country, 
 find each his victim ; have wrested from him such a sum as, 
 if convicted, will subject him to perpetual imprisonment. 
 His victim, if suffered to escape with life, will be a witness 
 against him. These robbers say, each, as did the thieves, 
 " Let me kill him and I may avoid detection. At the worst, 
 I can fare no worse. I may, probably will, escape altogether, 
 if I let out his heart's blood." The dagger at once finds its 
 way to the seat of life. Again a hundred or a thousand souls 
 are hurried away from their mortal tenement, and everywhere 
 through the land are to be witnessed mourning, lamentation, 
 and woe. O, how short-sighted and mistaken a philan- 
 throphy, how stolid and cruel a benevolence, is that of the 
 men who would erase from every penal code the law which 
 exacts the death of the detected and convicted murderer! 
 The heads of these men are amazingly at fault, whether or 
 not their hearts be. It is our heart's desire and prayer to 
 God, that they may never succeed in expunging from the 
 
THE STATUTORY DEATH PENALTY. 269 
 
 statute-books of earth that statute of heaven, which has such 
 a heart of benevolence and face of smiling love ; to push 
 away such an aegis of protection to the lifeblood of untold 
 numbers ; to batter down such a wall of defence, or destroy 
 so mighty and invaluable a safeguard to society. 
 
 Bear with us on this theme a moment longer, whilst we 
 mention and essay to dispatch one other and a somewhat 
 choice argument of the adversaries of "legalized murder." 
 If this one of their strongholds cannot be demolished without 
 the consumption of much time, be assured that to relieve 
 your patience, already taxed considerably beyond what we 
 had anticipated, it will be left for the pickaxes and battering 
 rams of others to effect a demolition. And what is this 
 stronghold? Why, the following: "That society comes 
 wholly from voluntary compact; that inasmuch as govern- 
 ment, thus originating, derives its rights from the delegated 
 rights of individuals, and individuals cannot delegate what 
 they themselves possess not; and inasmuch as no man has 
 a right to take away his own life therefore, no man can 
 impart this right to others : consequently no government can 
 have the right, in any circumstances, to take away life." 
 
 Now, what we may reasonably exact from those whose is 
 this reasoning, is, to establish their premise ; to prove that 
 society is the creature of social or voluntary compact. Let 
 them show this to be true, ere they attempt to prove or 
 disprove anything from it. We opine that they may find it 
 as difficult to show when men met together for this end, as 
 those holding to the human invention of oral language find it 
 to show when that convention met to talk about inventing 
 words and forming a language. When was such convention 
 held? Let them produce the records of the meeting. Let 
 them point us to the history of its proceedings. Surely so 
 important a meeting would not be suffered to pass utterly 
 unrecorded. The pen of history does it make no mention 
 of so momentous a transaction? Where are the records? 
 
270 THE STATUTORY DEATH PENALTY. 
 
 Where the historic account? Until they produce some 
 reliable testimony on this point, we may not feel ourselves 
 in possession of enough light to keep us from regarding their 
 premise as but a figment of the imagination. The brief 
 residue of the argument, relating to the penalty which we 
 are considering, will be offered when we meet again. 
 
EVENING TWENTY-FIRST. 
 
 YOUNG GENTLEMEN: 
 
 Civil Society is an ordinance of God ; it must be established, 
 therefore, upon the principles which God has established. 
 
 We have, on a former occasion, spoken of the Noachic or- 
 dinance as containing the sanction and divine authority of a 
 civil magistracy ; that to <l man " in this capacity is com- 
 mitted, by the Supreme Legislator and Governor, the solemn 
 power, authority, and duty, of recompensing the murderer; 
 and what recompense is due, and to be visited on the blood- 
 stained felon, has not been left to the judgment or discretion 
 of the magistracy to determine. He from whom the latter 
 derived their authority has said, Thus shall it be done : 
 "Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by the constituted powers 
 (human) shall his blood be shed." The power of the sword, 
 the power of life and death, as the highest and most awful 
 sanction of the human government, is, then, conferred by that 
 ordinance directly from God upon the civil magistracy. This 
 highest function of government is to be regarded as a person- 
 ification, exponent, or representative of all its just functions. 
 
 But, meeting those oppugners of capital punishment whose 
 reasoning is such as was toward the close of the last Exercise 
 stated, in a manner on their assumed ground, it may be 
 
272 THE STATUTORY DEATH PENALTY. 
 
 replied to them : Man has by nature, as we speak, the right of 
 self-defence ; and if a man's family be violently set upon, 
 with palpable intent to kill, or to the manifest endangering of 
 life, he has a right to defend them, though at the risk of the 
 life of him who has made the inchoate murderous assault. 
 Now this right of self-defence, possessed by every man in a 
 state of nature you observe we are using language of a 
 type to suit that of our opposing reasoners he gives up, to 
 a certain degree, in the compact of society. It becomes in 
 part to the extent of the surrendry the business of the 
 government to protect and defend individuals ; and the privi- 
 lege so delegated gives to the government the right to take 
 away life. A government must have the power of life and 
 death lodged with it for the purposes of human society. 
 Wherever civil society exists, it is one of its inherent rights, 
 and wherever civil government has any existence, it is one 
 of its paramount duties, to administer justice so far as the 
 conservation of the general well-being may require ; so far at 
 least as to defend and protect the lives of its citizens ; of 
 course to inflict the (what we have shown to be) just penalty 
 of death upon the man-slayer upon him who has already 
 taken away the life of another whenever that penalty is 
 necessary, in the common and practical sense of the word, for 
 the protection of the lives of others ; for the safety and de- 
 fence of the community in general. No less considerable 
 a document than the Declaration of American Independ- 
 ence declares the design of government to be, to protect the 
 governed in the enjoyment of their inalienable rights, life, 
 liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. If our opponents con- 
 tend that government has no right to take away an " inalien- 
 able right" on any ground, even for the protection of society, 
 they must then abandon the idea, must surrender it to their 
 own argument, that government has the right to punish a 
 criminal, a murderer even, with imprisonment for life, be- 
 cause liberty is an inalienable right, of which he is deprived, 
 
THE FLOOD OF NOAH NOT TO REAPPEAR. 273 
 
 and ever, beyond recall or recovery, by such imprisonment. 
 Their argument or inference from delegated rights will oper- 
 ate against the right of government to punish a man with im- 
 prisonment for life, as well as with the loss of life. The 
 argument runs thus : No man has a right to imprison him- 
 self for life, in a solitary cell, an outcast or recluse from 
 society, a contemner of its relative duties. But if he have 
 not this right in himself, he cannot delegate or resign it to 
 others ; therefore no human government has a right to im- 
 prison any man for life. The argument would therefore 
 prove too much for those who advocate the punishment of 
 imprisonment for life as a substitute for the punishment of 
 death to the murderer. 
 
 Let us say, in conclusion on this topic, we feel that we 
 cannot express too high a regard for the universally and per- 
 petually binding statute which the Lawgiver Supreme gave 
 to our patriarch for his posterity. And without any undue 
 or boastful professions of benevolence toward our species, we 
 must say that, as we feel exceedingly unwilling that any 
 greater number than now do should become murderers, and 
 likewise any more than now do should become victims of the 
 murderer's bullet or blade, the desire intense must be indulged 
 by us, that men, in their fatuity or madness, may never suc- 
 ceed in efforts for effecting the abrogation, in any land, of so 
 benignly preventive and protective a statute. 
 
 But, after all the words of encouragement which have been 
 yet addressed by the Lord to the postdiluvian family, intended 
 for themselves and their proximate and remote progeny, they 
 were still liable to be troubled with fearful apprehensions 
 from another source. The gathering clouds of the heavens, 
 or the storm which with winged speed should come sweeping 
 across the horizon, might present an impediment to their 
 multiplication and their prosperity; might induce a catas- 
 trophe of like terrific and melancholy character and conse- 
 quences with that from which the earth had just emerged, and 
 
274 THE FLOOD OF NOAH NOT TO REAPPEAR. 
 
 from which the Noachidge in their life-boat had, of all the 
 multitudinous family of man, alone been preserved. 
 
 We are told by Josephus that Noah, in a persuasion that 
 Jehovah had doomed mankind to destruction, lay under a 
 mortal dread for fear of a repetition of the diluvial judgment, 
 and that it would end in an annual inundation ; so that he 
 presented himself before the Lord with sacrifices and 
 prayers, humbly beseeching him " that nature might there- 
 after proceed in its former orderly course; and that he 
 would not bring on so great a judgment any more, by which 
 the whole race of creatures might be in danger of destruc- 
 tion ; but that having now punished the wicked, he would of 
 his clemency spare the remainder, and such as he had hither- 
 to judged fit to be delivered from so severe a calamity ; for 
 that otherwise these last must be more miserable than the 
 first, and that they must be condemned to a worse condition 
 than the others, unless they be suffered to escape entirely ; 
 that is, if they be reserved for another deluge, while they 
 must be afflicted with the terror and the sight of the first 
 deluge, and must^also be destroyed by a second." (Lib. 1, 
 ch. 3.) It is, however, not to be supposed probable that our 
 patriarch was tormented with a dread of a future annual 
 return of such a judgment, inasmuch as he knew that the 
 great and criminal causes of the deluge were such as could 
 not happen annually. Besides, having found favor in the 
 eyes of the Deity, and been so distinguishingly and mirac- 
 ulously preserved from such an everywhere reaching judg- 
 ment, he. can hardly be supposed to have so soon lost all 
 confidence in his great and merciful Preserver, and to be so 
 under the dominion of abject and servile fear. We may 
 therefore conclude his sacrificial oblation and prayer to have 
 in them more of the eucharistic than of the deprecatory. It 
 is not improbable that he, on this occasion as well as various 
 others, indeed, did beseech the Most High and Most Mighty 
 that he would save his posterity from running into those 
 
THE COVENANT AGAINST IT. 275 
 
 excesses of wickedness, that " superfluity of naughtiness," 
 into which the inhabitants of the antediluvian age had so 
 audaciously and madly run ; and the belief, also, may very 
 rationally be entertained that it was not so much for Noah's 
 sake as for that of his sons and their posterity, that God did 
 what we are about to speak of. 
 
 The devastating Flood, with its thrice calamitous effects, 
 was still full before the mind's eye of that family which in 
 their big life-boat had navigated the world of waters ; and 
 the clustering and swelling emotions which had been excited, 
 had yet scarcely found time for inceptive subsidence. How 
 know we, they might say, after the encouraging averments 
 which had yet reached their ear how know we but that 
 some time ere by nature's slow process of decay our bodies 
 become lifeless, or, if not so soon, at least during the time of 
 some generation of our descendants not very far in the 
 future, there may sweep over the globe a calamity similar 
 to that with which it has just been visited? How know we 
 but the fruit of our body, or the fruits of our toil, may some 
 day lie beneath the waves of another mighty and desolating 
 inundation ? 
 
 In kind and condescending replication God says, " After 
 this manner ye shall know it for the purpose which I have 
 had in my heart shall be put into words, and something more 
 attractive and expressive than words: I will never again 
 smite the earth with so great, so wide, and awful a judgment 
 though the native human heart has not by the flood of 
 waters been so washed from its filthiness as that the latter 
 will not show itself, and early, by the streams which will flow 
 from it. While the earth remaineth, seed-time and harvest, 
 and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night 
 shall not cease. I promise, yea, I solemnly covenant, that all 
 flesh shall never again be destroyed by a deluge. Nor shall 
 you or your progeny be suffered to forget this my veritable 
 promise, my solemn covenant. That arch which was seen 
 
276 THE BOW OF PROMISE. 
 
 attending the calm rains before, but, amid the descending tor- 
 rents which helped to swell the waters of the deluge, was 
 not seen, that gorgeous arch shall hereafter appear in such 
 frequency, and in such phenomenal connection, as, whilst it 
 shall excite your unfailing admiration by its beauty, shall 
 serve to allay your fears by its betokening significancy. By 
 its appearance, spanning from time to time the heavens and 
 at well selected seasons, you shall be reminded of this my 
 covenant. This bow of promise, skirting the forefront of 
 darkness, shall tell of preservation, not of destruction ; of 
 smiling peace, not of frowning wrath. At the occurrence of 
 that phenomenon, looking upward, above your head shall ap- 
 pear the calm cerulean vault, tending to make or preserve as 
 calm the spirit ; and off, fronting the retiring cloud in the dis- 
 tance, shall be spread the bow that God has bent ; at sight of 
 which you will have a renewed, a vivid recollection of 
 Jehovah's sure and gracious covenant." We say gracious, for 
 Noah's neither proximate nor remote posterity, in their dif- 
 ferent and successive generations, would know but that, in 
 this particular, what has been shall again be, except for this. 
 The assured tranquillity which this covenant has been and 
 will be instrumental of producing and preserving among men 
 is great and invaluable. But the benefits of it were not to be 
 confined to man. Cast your eye over the record, and you 
 will see that, as in the nature of them, so in the divine inten- 
 tion, they were to extend to all the animal creation, unable, 
 as they would be, to understand the token. So comprehen- 
 sive, young gentlemen, is the beneficence of Heaven. The 
 phrase " with you " (10th verse) having respect to the inferior 
 races of living things, is so repeated as to give it emphasis, 
 and not only points to the intimate relation constituted by the 
 Creator between man and man, but to teach, by so high 
 example as the divine, mindfulness, kindness, the opposite of 
 carelessness and cruelty, toward the lower orders of crea- 
 tures. 
 
THE BOW OF PROMISE. 277 
 
 It is, we believe, a somewhat common opinion that that 
 specified token of the covenant, the rainbow, was a thing 
 unknown prior to this period; and we must acknowledge 
 that that language, in our version " I do set my bow in the 
 cloud," &c., (Gen. 9 : 13, 14) is, in the minds of ordinary 
 readers, well adapted to originate and nourish such an im- 
 pression. Nor is this impression wholly confined to common 
 readers. Among the learned there have not been wanting 
 some who not only hold to, but advocate it. " Though it had 
 rained," say they, " before the deluge, yet the superintending 
 Providence which caused the rainbow to appear as a pledge 
 of the assurance that he gave, (that the world should never 
 more be destroyed by water,) might have prevented the con- 
 currence of such circumstances in the time of rain as were 
 essentially necessary for the formation of a bow. It might 
 have rained when the sun was set, or when he was more 
 than fifty-four degrees high, when no bow could be seen, and 
 the rain might continue between the spectator and .the sun 
 until the clouds were expended, or in any other direction but 
 that of an opposition to the sun." (See Ewing's Lectures on 
 Nat. Philosophy.) Such is their philosophical reasoning; 
 next, as to their moral. Allowing the first appearance of the 
 celestial arch not to have been anterior to this, the effect 
 would be far more vivid and striking, apparently, upon the 
 mind of Noah and his sons, than had the splendid spectacle 
 been to them already familiar. Admitting the causes pro- 
 ducing it to have existed from the creation, it does not 
 necessarily follow that the phenomenon itself had been 
 actually witnessed until subsequent to the deluge. The 
 occurrence antecedently might have been prevented by the 
 Divine Ruler, from a foresight of the moral uses to which he 
 designed to have it applied after the flood. A dissipation or 
 suppression of all rising fears of a diluvial occurrence in 
 future, similar to the one just past an assurance of security 
 against it this being the grand end of the sign fixed on 
 13 
 
278 THE BOW OF PROMISE. 
 
 a novel may be rationally supposed more efficacious than a 
 familiar phenomenon toward this benign end. Thus it 
 might be very plausibly reasoned ; whilst the setting of the 
 bow in the cloud, as is the phraseology of the record, to serve 
 as a token, seems to forbid the rational entertainment of the 
 idea, that it was a spectacle to the sight of which our post- 
 diluvian patriarch and family had been accustomed. 
 
 But then, on the other hand, it may be plead, First, That 
 the rainbow being the natural effect of the refraction and 
 reflection of the sun's rays f a *M 1 g on water, and as rains were 
 probably not less freque n vi c*than posterior to the deluge, 
 it would require quit stretch of the reasoning faculty to 
 bring it to the cone ^lOn that the rainbow had not been a 
 familiar phenomenon in the first age of the world as well as 
 since. Secondly, That the argument is by no means con- 
 clusive in support of the forementioned idea, which is sought 
 to be drawn from the word "set" in our version, since 
 the original word ^nro nathatti, translated set, in numerous 
 instances in the Scriptures imports appointing or consti- 
 tuting, as might be easily shown. The reading of the 
 verse would then be, " I do appoint my bow in the cloud to 
 be a token of the covenant between me and the earth." 
 Thirdly, The argument employed by God with the eight 
 souls and coming progeny, to allay or prevent rising fears, 
 runs substantially on this wise : You have been familiar, 
 in times past, with that phenomenon, in certain junctures, the 
 rainbow as you have been with the rising and setting of 
 the sun. From your past observation or experience you are 
 led to infer that that phenomenon will, from time to time, in 
 similar junctures, appear in perpetuity up to the world's end, 
 3ust as you infer from your past observation of the sun's 
 rising and setting, that this process will be perpetual. Now 
 as perpetual or unfailing as you believe will be the rainbow's 
 appearance, sopshall it be with this my promise or covenant. 
 It shall not fail. You can surely repose as firm reliance on 
 
THE OCCUPATION ENTERED UPON. 279 
 
 my word, as you do respecting the perpetuity of the course 
 of nature. Have you ever known it fail ? You believe it 
 never will. You shall be reminded of the unfailing character 
 of this my covenant in all future appearances of my bow in 
 the cloud. I appoint that bow as a token for all time to 
 come. Seeing it, you shall be reminded of my standing, 
 perpetual covenant. You will be assured from it, that no 
 such wide-sweeping, devastating judgment shall again visit 
 the earth. 
 
 It was a beautiful token which the Most High fixed- on or 
 appointed, you will all acknowledge ; and one which, not 
 occurring so frequently like the rising or the setting of the 
 sun as through great familiarity with the sight, to fail to 
 answer that benign end, so, on the other hand, being of not 
 too infrequent occurrence for it, appears remarkably well 
 adapted to answer the intended beneficent purpose. 
 
 After the transpiring of the interesting matters to which 
 our attention has been last directed, and by which Noah and 
 his sons could not but be greatly encouraged, the next 
 mention which the Mosaic narrative affords concerning our 
 esteemed postdiluvian father, relates to his resumption of an 
 occupation which he may be supposed to have mainly prose- 
 cuted in earlier life, to wit, that of husbandry. Descending 
 with his family from the mountain range where the ark finally 
 rested, (if any such elevation is to be indeed considered as its 
 stranding-place,) into the lower hill country, or the plain, we 
 cannot say how far distant not improbably contiguous 
 and taking the more useful animals with them, whether for 
 service or for sustenance, he, assisted by his sons, com- 
 menced tilling the ground ; and at length, among other things 
 that they did, planted a vineyard: a thing with which these 
 postdiluvians were probably not unacquainted the other side 
 of the waters. For, in antediluvian times, animal food not 
 being an allowed esculent, it may reasonably be supposed 
 that along with other articles yielding nutriment, the vine 
 
280 THE PLANTING OF THE VINEYARD. 
 
 would be cultivated for the sake of its nutritious fruit ; and 
 this rather than for the expressed juice as a beverage. 
 
 How long subsequent to his egress from the ark Noah 
 " planted his vineyard," and how long after his vines began 
 to yield their luscious treasures, the occurrence of which we 
 are about to speak transpired, we cannot certainly say. But, 
 as the three sons of our patriarch had none of them any 
 children until after they left the vessel, and as one of the sons 
 of Ham, we mean Canaan, was probably not only born, but 
 quite a lad at the time that Ham behaved in the unbecoming 
 manner we shall hear of a boy old enough to participate, 
 after some manner, in the father's crime, and so in the conse- 
 quent malediction, it may hence be concluded that an 
 interval had elapsed of at least some eighteen or twenty 
 years. In the record (Gen. 10 : 6,) Canaan being placed 
 the last of Ham's four sons, seems to indicate that he was the 
 youngest ; if so, the intervening period would be consider- 
 ably longer. Bedford extends the interval to over one 
 hundred years (Chronology, pp. 178, 180) ; but this appears 
 to us an unreasonable extreme. The writer of the article 
 Noah, in Kitto's Cyclopedia, says, " The narrative makes it 
 evident that the occurrence, the invention of wine-making, 
 must have been some years after the cessation of the flood ; 
 for not Ham himself, but Canaan his son, is the first and em- 
 phatic object of the prophetic curse. We cannot with reason 
 assume less than sixteen or eighteen years." In another 
 article from the same pen, it is said, " The undutiful conduct 
 of Ham and his fourth son cannot well be assigned to a point 
 of time earlier than twenty or thirty years after the Flood." 
 (Dispersion of Nations.) The premise on which this con- 
 clusion is based may not perhaps strike every one as the 
 most certain. It being a prophetic malediction which fell on 
 Ham, extending to his posterity in every line and not barely 
 that of Canaan, the reason why the last named son specially 
 
THE ALLEGED SIN OF THE PATRIARCH. 281 
 
 and alone was mentioned may have been, because that in the 
 historian's subsequent narrative the fate of Canaan's family 
 or descendants, consentaneous with the prophetic malediction, 
 would become, in a manner necessarily, a matter of particular 
 detail ; and not because of any participation by Canaan in 
 the crime of his father. Living, as Moses did, when the 
 Israelites, who descended from Shem, were about to take pos- 
 session of the land of Canaan, it was of peculiar importance 
 that they should be informed that the people whose country 
 the Lord their God had given them to possess, were under a 
 curse from the days of their peculiar prime ancestor. This 
 being so, it might be considered unnecessary to suppose 
 Canaan to have been at the time even born. Consequently 
 the occurrence which we are about to relate, and drop a few 
 words of comment upon, might have transpired sooner after 
 the egression of the Noachic family from their confinement, 
 than the period we a moment since stated. Yet we, on the 
 whole, prefer the former view, it seeming to us to have more 
 of the air of probability. 
 
 The incident, or rather series of incidents, related in Gen. 
 9 : 20-24, are there exhibited in so plain terms as that no 
 comment can perhaps lead to a better understanding of their 
 character than is to be obtained from the bare record itself, 
 except possibly in regard to one particular. There has been 
 some difference of opinion concerning the precise import of 
 the words, " He drank of the wine and was drunken." If by 
 the wine spoken of is meant the unfermented juice of the 
 grape, then the word " drunken " would no more indicate 
 inebriant excess, than, in the account relative to the miracle 
 performed by our Saviour at Cana in Galilee, the words, 
 " when men have well drunk," denote, when men have become 
 well intoxicated. Noah's act would then be rather one of 
 surfeit than of ebriety ; of surfeit disposing, like excessive 
 eating, to sleep. If the wine of which this patriarch par- 
 took was fermented, and so possessed inebriating qualities, it 
 
282 THE ALLEGED SIN OF THE PATRIARCH. 
 
 may still be inquired whether the word drunken denotes 
 being affected to intoxication, or merely to somewhat beyond 
 innocent satiety. Or, again : if by this language Noah is to 
 be understood to have been actually overcome by the wine's 
 stimulating properties, the question may arise, whether he 
 was, at the time he partook, so unacquainted with this sort of 
 liquor, or of the strength of that in particular of which he 
 drank, as to reduce his act to one of ignorance or inad- 
 vertence. Viewing the deed of this man in its worst light, 
 he fell into sin, a grievous sin. We then have an account of 
 the melancholy fall into sin of a man who had been, in the 
 eyes of the Omniscient Deity himself, for a long time very 
 eminent for piety; and there comes from the mournful 
 occurrence a note of warning, " Let him that thinketh he 
 standeth take heed lest he fall." It is our wish to do no 
 injustice to our patriarch, on the one hand, by -bringing a 
 heavy charge positively against him, since except the bare 
 language which we have quoted, there is no other, not a word, 
 from which we can possibly gather that he had been guilty of 
 a culpable slip here. On the other hand we would not be 
 willing to offer a word apologetic of an act of sin, whether it 
 be a sin of the greatest saint or of the smallest. If Noah on 
 this occasion was indeed intoxicated, he would, were he here, 
 thank no one for turning apologist for him. As a man of 
 God he would attempt no apology for himself. Instead of 
 trying to extenuate his offence, he, in brokenness of spirit, 
 and humbled in the dust, would rather cry, " God be merciful 
 to me a sinner." If our second father did fall by an act of 
 intemperance, it is the only act of the kind which we have 
 any ground for imagining he ever fell into. And supposing 
 our postdiluvian progenitor's act to have been in criminality 
 all that the severest interpretation of the Mosaic narration 
 can make it, is not then our confidence in the strict and un- 
 swerving veracity of the narrator enhanced, as well as our 
 idea of the eminent excellence in general of our worthy 
 
THE ALLEGED SIN OF THE PATRIARCH. 283 
 
 patriarch's character, when we see that narrator not refrain- 
 ing from the unapologetic mention of a fault in an individual 
 whom he is describing, when he finds one, and when there is 
 but one faulty deed to be discovered, of which to make 
 mention ? 
 
EVENING TWENTY-SECOND. 
 
 YOUNG GENTLEMEN: 
 
 If you will look at the twenty-second and twenty-third 
 verses of the ninth chapter of Genesis, you will, in the differ- 
 ence of conduct of the three sons of Noah, in the case there 
 stated, witness the exemplification of a truth in support of 
 which we have been afforded many^more recent examples ; 
 and that is, what a striking difference there may be in the 
 character and conduct of members of the same household, 
 children of the same parents ; brought up or nurtured under 
 like circumstances ; enjoying similar intellectual, social, and 
 moral advantages. With wonder it may be asked, How 
 comes it ? Why is it so ? If we are not Hamites in our 
 character, let us listen with proper feeling to the interrogato- 
 ries, " Who maketh thee to differ ? and what hast thou that 
 thou didst not receive ? " The worst characters and the best 
 sometimes issue from the same domicile, are nourished at the 
 same breast. Ham had been highly favored ; had been pre- 
 served as a favorite in the ark from the overflowing Flood ; 
 and for this preservation he was peculiarly, eminently in- 
 debted, under God, to his father. And what requital does 
 he make ? They who are under obligations to be the most, 
 are sometimes the least grateful. The want of filial grati- 
 tude and filial reverence what a deficiency ! Even the 
 failings of a father, instead of being proclaimed as from the 
 
CARPINGS OP SKEPTICISM. 285 
 
 house-top, should not be even so much as whispered in 
 secret ; instead of being wantonly exposed, or made the sub- 
 ject of jeer or merriment, should be studiously concealed 
 from the gaze of all, and give rise to compassionate and 
 tearful concern. How many are saved by the mercy of 
 Heaven from sin ; how many, as in the case of Ham, to sin ! 
 So it turns out, though not in the latter case so intended. 
 How utter a failure prove all attempts to find language ade- 
 quate to express our souFs abhorrence of the conduct of this 
 son ; and, on the other hand, our admiring appreciation of 
 the superlatively delicate and reverential feelings and deport- 
 ment, toward their exposed sire, of Shem and Japheth ! 
 
 And what incident does the narrative next present to our 
 inspection? Will you have the goodness, young gentlemen, 
 to examine thoroughly the paragraph embraced in verses 
 twenty-five to twenty-seven. How are those words to be 
 regarded, as to character and purport ? Men of anti-biblical 
 prejudices, if their minds are at all active, may probably find 
 something here, taken in connection with the contents of the 
 paragraph immediately preceding, to carp at : " Ah, this 
 saint, Noah, wakes from his cups, quite crusty. No sooner 
 do the fumes of his excess a little evaporate, than, ascertain- 
 ing what a plight he has been in what a shameful exposure 
 of his person has accompanied his drunken stupor ; the 
 amusement which it has afforded to one of his sons, and the 
 tender thoughtfulness and delicate concern and conduct of his 
 two others ; their solicitude to preserve his name from 
 reproach, and spare his sensibilities he begins, as one 
 perfectly beside himself, to hurl forth his curses against poor 
 Ham, not sparing even Ham's innocent son, Canaan, from 
 his maledictive ebullitions ; whilst, as if to carry his spleen 
 still father against this his amused son, he, on the opposite 
 hand, flatters and pours out copious benedictions on those 
 who had pitied his weakness, and tried to throw a mantle 
 over his name as well as his nudity." Do not imagine that 
 13* 
 
286 THE PATRIARCH'S PREDICTIONS. 
 
 we have done antibiblists injustice by putting into their 
 mouths this language. Such is the spirit of which they oft 
 evince the possession, as to convince us that if your ears heard 
 \vhat they would have to say about such a matter, you would 
 think that our picture is by no means overdrawn. 
 
 Well, you may say, what have you to offer in reply to the 
 carpings, if such they be, of these men ? Offer ? why, they, 
 in my view, as in everything else with which the Bible has 
 to do, greatly misrepresent the case. In the first place as 
 to the character of what on this occasion was uttered by our 
 postdiluvian ancestor, events have clearly shown it to be of 
 the nature of a prediction, as to all whose names are speci- 
 fied, or rather the descendants of them respectively whom 
 they represent. Yes, it was naught other than a prediction 
 and a remarkable one it was true in every iota, as the 
 progress of time, and the occurrences accompanying its pro- 
 gress, have demonstrated beyond all rational doubt. Young 
 as you are in years, you are not to be presumed such perfect 
 strangers to history as not to be assured of this. "What, for 
 instance, does history testify concerning the character and 
 consequent fate of large portions of Canaan's descendants ? 
 What, moreover, respecting various other lines of Plain's 
 posterity ? Read the words, " A servant of servants shall 
 he be unto his brethren ! " This, though said directly in re- 
 gard to Canaan's posterity, yet is to be considered inclu- 
 sive of Ham's descendants in the other branches, Canaan, as 
 being prominent, representing the whole, as Ephraim, for 
 the same cause, is, in the sacred records, not unfrequently 
 found used to indicate the ten tribes. Now compare this 
 strong language " a servant of servants," with what is known 
 to have been largely the fate of the African population, de- 
 scendants of Ham. The phrase just named is a Hebraic 
 idiom, conveying a superlative idea : a servant reduced to 
 the lowest degree of servitude or degradation. It is specifi- 
 
THE PATRIARCH'S PREDICTIONS. 287 
 
 cally predicted, you observe, that Canaan shall be a servant 
 to both Shem and Japheth, i. e. that Ham's progeny shall 
 occupy a position of inferiority and subserviency to Shem's 
 and Japheth's descendants. How signally fulfilled ! You 
 find it foretold that the Lord would be specially the ts God of 
 Shem," (26th verse.) This is the first instance in Holy 
 Writ of the Infinite One being called the God of any special 
 person or persons : a testimony to Shem's exemplary piety, 
 (not forgetting its application to his posterity,) and God's 
 condescending goodness. You will discern a verification of 
 what is here foretold, by recognizing the fact that Shem was 
 the ancestor of the Messiah, and the progenitor of the Jews. 
 The " enlargement of Japheth" is predicted. Behold it veri- 
 fied : the whole of Europe ; a considerable part of Asia ; 
 and an eminently large proportion of America, have been 
 peopled and are occupied by Japheth's offspring. It is like- 
 wise foretold of Japheth, that he should " dwell in the tents 
 of Shem:" that is, that Japheth's descendants should be- 
 come participators in the choice spiritual privileges, or moral 
 and religious advantages, vouchsafed to the Shemites, in par- 
 ticular allusion to those of the Hebrews ; and, as it may be 
 understood, dwell at length, and for a considerable season, in 
 the tents of the Shemites, to the exclusion of the latter : veri- 
 fied or fulfilled in the rejection of the Jews, and the adoption 
 of the Japhetic Gentiles in their room. 
 
 In regard to the insinuation of Noah's cursing Canaan 
 though innocent, it may be observed, first, that the Jewish 
 doctors have been generally of the opinion that Canaan was 
 not only a partner with his father in the offence, but a leader 
 in it. In the next place, interpreting the language of our 
 patriarch in reference to Ham or Canaan, as well as in rela- 
 tion to Shem and Japheth i. e. the descendants of each, as 
 predictive, what then becomes of the charge implying injus- 
 tice ? Prediction is surely not to be identified or confounded 
 witli causation. The foretelling of an event does not cause 
 
288 AT WHAT TIME UTTERED. 
 
 it. This is so with regard to predictions relating both to 
 good and ill, and equally so with the one as with the other. 
 Noah had no direct or special agency in bringing evil on 
 Ham's offspring, nor good on the offspring of Shem and 
 Japheth ; nor did Noah entertain any idea, when he gave 
 utterance to the language under consideration, that he was 
 himself, at the time, fixing or affecting the destiny of any 
 portion of his either proximate or remote descendants. He 
 was neither so quixotic nor idiotic as to imagine his words to 
 be, in their nature or their influence, causative ; as to harbor 
 the notion, or have the shadow of it float across his brain, 
 that he was pouring out blessings or curses that should take 
 effect as coming from his lips. Nor are we to contemplate 
 him here as even giving expression to personal desires or 
 private wishes in relation to the progeny, near or remote, of 
 any of his sons. Lastly, on this topic : Nor if the insinu- 
 ation merit the shadow of a notice was Noah, by either 
 the good or bad influence of the wine he drank, aided in 
 prophesying after the manner he did : For though the nar- 
 rative of what he uttered, and the narrative of what he ante- 
 cedently did, are put by the historian in remarkable juxta- 
 position, yet this may have been the result, solely, of desire 
 with the narrator to consult brevity, and not at all from 
 proximity as to time in the occurrence of the two : instances 
 of similar nature occurring elsewhere in sacred history from 
 such a cause. We are of the opinion, and are not alone in 
 it, that a considerable season intervened between our patri- 
 arch's two acts of wine-drinking and prophesying. But, if 
 the drinking of the wine and the prophesying did occur the 
 one very shortly after the other what then ? Why, we 
 think in that case there is good ground for inferring that 
 Noah's act of wine-drinking was not of that culpable nature 
 was not followed with such an effect as that the one 
 thing could not with propriety or consistency follow speedily 
 the other. We shall then believe the following view, from 
 
NAMES OF THE THREE SONS PROPHETIC. 289 
 
 the pen of Dr. J. Pye Smith, to be about the correct one : 
 " The vine had existed before the flood, and Noah could not 
 be unacquainted with it ; but not till now had grapes been 
 grown of such size, sweetness, and abundance of juice, as to 
 strike out the thought of expressing that juice, and reserving 
 it in a vessel for future use. Noah, we think it probable, 
 knew not that in a few days it would ferment and acquire 
 new and surprising properties. Innocently and without 
 suspicion he drunk of the alluring beverage, as if it had 
 been water from the spring. The consequence is recorded 
 in the characteristic simplicity of style which affirms neither 
 censure nor apology. We regard that consequence as not a 
 sinful intoxication, both from what was probably the occa- 
 sional cause, and from the immediate agency of the Spirit of 
 God in communicating prophecy. The latter indeed is not 
 an impregnable ground ; for bad men might receive gifts of 
 inspiration, as Balaam and Judas ; but Noah was eminently 
 a righteous and perfect man, and it is inconceivable that a 
 miraculous influence of God should be granted in immediate 
 contiguity with a sinful action." (See Kitto's Cyc., Art. 
 Noah.) 
 
 Whilst speaking about so remarkable a manifestation of a 
 prophetic spirit, on the part of our patriarch, in regard to the 
 coming condition or destiny of his three sons or their progeny 
 severally, we should not omit to remark, that even the names 
 borne by these sons seemed themselves prophetic ; Shem sig- 
 nifying name, as if pointing to some marked distinction over 
 his brethren ; Ham denoting heat, as if indicating the cli- 
 matic locality to be occupied by his posterity ; and the im- 
 port of Japheth being enlargement, as if betokening the 
 increase, spread, and prosperity of his offspring. By this 
 explanation you are at once reminded of the striking coinci- 
 dence between the purport of these names severally, and 
 that of the prophecy, relatively, on which we have been 
 commenting. 
 
290 ADVANTAGES FROM THE PAST. 
 
 Mention was, a short time since, made of the resumption 
 by Noah of the art of husbandry knowledge and experi- 
 ence in regard to which the great builder and navigator had 
 acquired the other side of the waste of waters. This knowl- 
 edge and experience, attained in earlier life, and which were 
 among the few useful relics which the flood had not destroyed, 
 would be eminently in requisition in the new era : a world of 
 desolation being spread out before the Noachidce, and much 
 of the means of subsistence having necessarily to be extorted 
 from the soil by cultivation. And that attempts to cultivate 
 the now new surface of the earth would not be altogether 
 fruitless, the inchoate verdure, on every hand exhibiting it- 
 self, would be suited to afford encouraging and stimulating 
 intimations. Advantages, moreover, great and invaluable 
 for the prosecution of agriculture, that noble and indispensable 
 calling, might and doubtless were derived, by his near and 
 more distant offspring, from the instructions, oral and practi- 
 cal, of this once antediluvian and now postdiluvian husband- 
 man. 
 
 Nor, so far as relates to industrial and necessary pursuits, 
 was it in agriculture, solely, that the cisdiluvian inherited or 
 derived essential benefits from the transdiluvian world. A 
 knowledge of the main or more useful mechanic arts found, 
 in the duomundane family, a medium of descent from a 
 former age to the ages succeeding the great catastrophe. 
 An acquaintance with architecture, among others, thus found 
 a channel of transmission to the various lines and genera- 
 tions of the postdiluvian population. You can at least faint- 
 ly imagine how important to the convenience and comfort of 
 the earth's new denizens, must have been the inheritance of 
 a knowledge of this art, all the previous works of man, 
 edifices to occupy with the rest, having one and all, by the 
 great besom, been swept from the globe. Even the experi- 
 ence and practical facility, architecturally, which Noah and 
 his sons had acquired or increased in the erection of the ark 
 
"THE SEVEN PRECEPTS." 291 
 
 itself, would thus be made to tell advantageously on the con- 
 veniences and comforts of the New World. On the whole, 
 then, it was comparatively under quite favorable auspices 
 that the postdiluvian population commenced and pursued 
 their career. The elements of temporal weal or worldly 
 prosperity were not wanting ; had floated down to them in 
 the strange flat-bottomed but capacious boat which came 
 from " the world beyond the flood." 
 
 But this, young gentlemen, is not all. Advantages other 
 than those connected with secular science and art came over 
 the waters which rolled between the Old and the New World. 
 Great moral truths and lessons, for the regulation of the 
 heart and life, came to the cisdiluvian generations from a 
 world which had been, but now was not: truths and, lessons 
 for creatures standing in important relations to God ; creatures 
 accountable and immortal. What kind and measure of 
 influence these great truths and lessons had on those por- 
 tions of the biseval patriarch's posterity which came into 
 existence during his subsequent lifetime, we may be afforded 
 some little glimpse of in the further survey of " his Times." 
 Some developments, ere we are done, will, in all proba- 
 bility, heave upon our mental vision. 
 
 It will not be accounted amiss for us just to make mention 
 of an old tradition of the Rabbinical Hebrews, on which too 
 they lay great stress, that at this juncture our worthy 
 patriarch delivered to his children seven precepts, to be 
 enjoined on all their descendants. These inhibit, first, Idol- 
 atry; second, Irreverence to the Deity; third, Homicide; 
 fourth, Unchastity ; fifth, Fraud and Plundering ; the sixth 
 enjoins Government and Obedience ; and the seventh inter- 
 dicts the eating of any part of an animal still living. These 
 precepts have, by Mr. Selden, been largely illustrated, and 
 are regarded by this writer as a concise tablet of the Law of 
 Nature. (See his De Jure Nat. et Gent, juxta Disciplin. 
 
292 APPROACH TO A NEW ERA. 
 
 Ebrseorum.) Though no positive evidence is possessed by 
 us of their having been formally enjoined upon our respected 
 postdiluvian father, perhaps there can be found no decisive 
 reason for rejecting such a hypothesis. 
 
 We have now arrived at a point in the Mosaic annals 
 where a hasty or careless reader might be betrayed into the 
 idea that Noah here ended his days, - the ninth chapter of 
 Genesis closing with the announcement of his death. In this 
 matter the sacred historian was evidently more controlled by 
 some other consideration than that relating to chronological 
 order ; since, according to the Hebrew Chronology, which for 
 obvious reasons we are following in these Exercises, the place, 
 chronologically, for this record, would be toward the end of 
 the eleventh chapter, immediately preceding the record of 
 the birth of Abraham. There is a similar disregard of chrono- 
 logical order in this historian's recitals we speak not of it 
 complainingly God forbid that we should in other in- 
 stances. In reference to Abraham himself this is so ; who 
 lived until his grandson, Jacob, was a lad of fifteen, and yet 
 there is mention made of his decease some time antecedent 
 to the record of the birth of the latter. 
 
 Just as there are persons who can stand on the margin 
 of a broad and majestic river without having any inquisitive 
 desire excited to learn where its waters rise and whither they 
 empty themselves : or enter a city and leave it without any 
 interest being kindled in their minds, respecting its origin or 
 its prospects ; or can look up into the blue and begemmed 
 heavens, or abroad upon the wide domains of nature, with 
 scarcely more of the spirit of inquiry, or feeling of interest, 
 than creatures sub-human manifest, so may there be found 
 readers of the sacred annals, who will glance over the 
 tenth and eleventh chapters of Genesis, without experi- 
 encing any lively interest, and certainly without an intellect 
 roused to intense inquisitiveness. And yet here are the 
 historic elements of truly great and wondrous facts. Here 
 
INCREASE OP NUMBERS. 293 
 
 are the records of the inceptions of what have swollen into 
 many and mighty things, of the rise of no less than all the 
 various languages and nations of the earth. Brief and frag- 
 mentary as are the limits comprised in the two chapters just 
 named, inquiries regarding them will not, we are persuaded? 
 be prosecuted with indifference by such minds as are ad- 
 dressed in these lectures. Yet, lest you should feel disap- 
 pointment, it may not be amiss to have you apprised that our 
 path will not be one exempt from obstructions or obscurities ; 
 that scarcely any part of it, as we travel onward, will we find 
 irradiated and gilded by blazing, brilliant sunlight; whilst 
 here and there, in instances not infrequent, shall we be 
 necessitated to feel our way, where our eyes will afford little 
 assistance, and where we shall be exceedingly perplexed 
 with hesitancy just what course to take. None, we are 
 sure, but a dogmatist of the most gigantic and rigid type, of 
 what we might call the " first water," will be able to traverse 
 these forests and both feel and maintain that he is always 
 right. It will indeed be our aim here and there to present 
 more than one view which has been or may be taken concern- 
 ing one Bnd another point inviting inquiry or soliciting 
 notice. You must not, in the prosecution of our further 
 inquiries, be surprised to find little direct mention made of 
 our patriarch not because, however, we shall have travelled 
 beyond " his Times," that is, if the Hebrew computation be 
 correct which we are not disposed here either to affirm or 
 deny, yet proceeding on the assumption at present of its cor- 
 rectness ; but because, treading in the footprints of the archaic 
 annalist, we are led to the contemplation of objects and 
 events with which his contemporary progeny had, apparently, 
 to say the least, much more to do than himself. 
 
 Not unobservant of the injunction or counsel to "be fruit- 
 ful and multiply " and thus haste to " replenish " the depopu- 
 lated earth, the three sons of Noah had scarcely sooner left 
 the ark, than they began to have children born to them. Of 
 
294 INCREASE OF NUMBERS. 
 
 this the record gives specific intimation where it makes 
 mention (chapter 11 : 10) of the birth of Shem's son Ar- 
 phaxad occurring " two years after the Flood." As you, in 
 anticipation of each Evening's Exercise, probably peruse 
 beforehand such portions of the Mosaic records as are likely 
 to come next under examination, it will hardly be requisite to 
 request you to refresh your memory with the contents of the 
 tenth chapter of the first book of the Pentateuch. Yet 
 as you have the sacred volume spread open before you, it 
 will not be useless to cast your eye over the names of those 
 descendants of Noah's three sons, there given, who were born 
 within a century after the deluge, and to mark them not only 
 as names standing at the heads of lines, but as furnishing a 
 clue by which to arrive at some at least vague conjecture 
 what number of descendants Noah could count up at that 
 century's close. It is simply in the light of a genealogical 
 list that we ask you now to look at it. On some future occa- 
 sion we shall recall your attention to and request you to con- 
 template and inspect it as an interesting and exceedingly im- 
 portant ethnological document. It was no part of the business 
 of the first postdiluvian century actually to form or organ- 
 ize nations, but rather to take the prerequisite steps toward 
 it to produce and shape the suitable materials out of which 
 those larger associational institutions might afterward be 
 formed. Nations, as such, of necessity had no existence until 
 after the first one hundred years had taken their station with 
 the years beyond the flood. But as will on inspection be 
 discovered it being in a dispersed and incipiently national 
 capacity that a considerable portion of the tenth chapter sets 
 forth the peoples of whom it speaks, we are led, first in order 
 of time, to examine those records, in the eleventh chapter, 
 giving intimations of events which obviously, from their very 
 nature, must have preceded more or less regular and wide- 
 spread national organizations. 
 
EVENING TWENTY-THIRD. 
 
 YOUNG GENTLEMEN : 
 
 Just how numerous, at the close of the first century after 
 the flood, the postdiluvians had become, the brief genealogical 
 roll contained in the tenth chapter of Genesis does not afford 
 us the requisite data for determining. We can, in general 
 terms, safely affirm that our patriarch's descendants must 
 by this time have swollen to very considerable numbers. 
 Prompted not only by near relationship and social disposition, 
 but by regard to safety and protection from the rage and 
 voracity of wild beasts, they would continue to reside 
 in as immediate propinquity as the facilities essential for 
 securing a subsistence would allow. Yet they may not 
 have continued to the utmost degree stationary. A little of 
 a migratory course might, after a while, have been adopted 
 by them, so far as agricultural operations, to which we have 
 seen them early to have turned their attention, would at all 
 admit. Particularly is it supposable that they would gradu- 
 ally extend their settlements from less to more fertile and 
 salubrious localities ; and their progressively augmenting 
 numbers would likewise necessarily lead to the enlargement, 
 year by year, of the area which they would occupy. An 
 acquaintance with what pertained to life's greater con- 
 veniences and comforts would, as their observation and 
 experience extended, acquire progressive enlargement. They 
 
296 THE LAND OF SHINAR ENTERED. 
 
 would be thus stimulated to push their investigations and 
 discoveries still farther; to penetrate hitherto unoccupied 
 regions ; until at length having ascertained that within an 
 attainable distance lay a broad, promisingly fertile and well- 
 watered domain, unbroken by lofty and rocky eminences, 
 or wide and malarious morasses more or less of them, 
 we shall not at present attempt to say how many, began to 
 be moved by an irrepressible anxiety to enter upon its oc- 
 cupation ; whilst a few at least, perhaps, actuated by impulses 
 less justifiable, incentives less commendable, might set them- 
 selves to excogitate and mature the plans for effecting an 
 eligible and speedy removal to, and proprietary occupancy 
 of, the vast and extraordinarily inviting territory. 
 
 Every arrangement made, they enter this land, denominated 
 TpB Shinar, the same in general which bore afterward the 
 name of Babylonia so called from the name of its chief 
 city, Babylon, the origin of which will soon be seen. This 
 country likewise bore subsequently the name of Chaldea. Its 
 boundaries, indeed, were for some time not very determinate. 
 In a restricted sense, Shinar was that province of Asia, 
 bordered on the north by a portion of Mesopotamia ; on the 
 east by the Tigris ; on the south by the Persian gulf; and on 
 the west or southwest by the Arabian desert. In a larger 
 or more general sense, it designated that vast plain watered 
 by the Euphrates and the Tigris. The particular locality 
 selected and primarily settled on by the immigrants, seems to 
 have been that embracing what subsequently became the site 
 and vicinity of the city of Babylon. 
 
 This district you find them approaching and entering "from 
 the east." (Ch. 11:2.) This phraseology we wish you par- 
 ticularly to note. Had the lofty peak of Agridagh in Armenia 
 been the spot where the ark stranded or finally settled had 
 it been near the foot of that proudly towering eminence 
 where, according to a very common idea, the Noachian family 
 
THE PHRASE "FROM THE EAST" CONSIDERED. 297 
 
 first located themselves after their egress from the floating 
 vessel, and from which the land of Shinar is to be considered 
 as having been approached, the language of the historian 
 should have then run : " As they journeyed from the north " 
 such being the direction from Shinar, or Babylonia, of the 
 locality just mentioned. To obviate this difficulty, some 
 indeed have essayed to give to the original (Dllpfa mikkedem) 
 the rendering of "to the east" "ad orientem, vel orientem 
 versus," (see Drusus in loco, and Fuller ; Miscel. Sac. Liber 
 1, ch. 4,) or eastward, as in Genesis 13: 11. We cannot 
 adopt this rendering ; our version, obviously, according to our 
 view, presenting the correct translation of the original. You 
 remember the argument we, a few evenings since, (see Even- 
 ings Fifteenth and Sixteenth,) presented in opposition to the 
 idea, that the Agridagh was the locality where the ark of Noah 
 finally rested, and whence the eight souls proceeded to re-settle 
 the earth. We would now, in addition, urge this : That not 
 from the north and Mount Agridagh lay far northward 
 but " from the east" Shinar was approached. As the vicinity 
 of Agridagh may be supposed, moreover, on account of its 
 climate, to afford a very unsuitable spot for the planting of a 
 vineyard, and as our patriarch, as we have seen, soon turned 
 his attention in part that way, it may from this circumstance 
 be inferred that it was some lower latitude where the floating 
 house finally rested, and the prime postdiluvian family first 
 selected their temporary abode. From all the considerations 
 which have been presented, it would not at all surprise us to 
 learn that you have come to the conclusion that though 
 the ark found, for a while, a measure of repose over the 
 not mountain no such definite language as that 
 " mountains of Ararat," or Armenia, yet it afterward floated 
 to a more southern latitude ; settling finally either on some 
 part of the mountain range running between Assyria and 
 Media, Susiana and Persia, or else on one or the other side ? 
 probably the eastern, of said range. If you will look into 
 
98 ADDITIONAL AS TO THE ARK'S RESTING PLACE. 
 
 Malte-Brun's Geography, vol. 2, pages 99 and 108, you will 
 find the following remarks : " The Gordian mountains of 
 Xenophon, called Corduene in the map of d'Anville, fill 
 the whole of Koordistan; one branch prolonged to the south 
 is the Zagrus (Zagros, Gr.) of the ancients, which separates 
 the Ottoman empire from Persia. According to the Koords, 
 Dgiondi is the mountain on which Noah's ark rested. This 
 is within the Pashalic of Diarbekir, and not far from Djezi- 
 ra, the capital of a principality, the inhabitants of which are 
 called Bottani." We certainly could not advise you to be 
 in haste about coming to any positive and unalterable de- 
 cision on the subject. 
 
 Sir Walter Raleigh, bearing in mind what the Scripture 
 says relative to the migration of the Shinar settlers from the 
 east, placed the mountain where he supposed the ark to strand, 
 much farther eastward than the range just named, " near 
 Scythia and Sogdiana and almost as far as the East Indies " 
 on the great Caucasian range, somewhere between twenty 
 and thirty degrees eastward from Babylonia. Mr. Shuck- 
 ford's idea appears similar to this last. Taking the phrase 
 " mountains of Ararat " to indicate that extended mountain 
 range running from Armenia past the southern end of the Cas- 
 pian far eastward, or bearing somewhat to the south of east, 
 he advances the conjecture that the ark rested finally at some 
 spot in that range between India and ancient Scythia (mod- 
 ern Tartary). And it must be confessed, his reasoning has 
 in it some plausibility. We may have occasion, after a short 
 time, to speak of a little of it. Meanwhile, should you find it 
 convenient, look into his Connections, vol. 1, pp. 99-104. We 
 will just say here, that this conjecture of Mr. Shuckford ap- 
 pears pretty strongly objectionable on the ground that the dis- 
 tance thence to Shinar, being not less than from 1200 to 
 1500 miles, seems unreasonably great for the Shinar settlers, 
 in face of the difficulties and dangers at that early period neces- 
 sarily to be surmounted, to undertake, even by slow marches, 
 
THE VIEW OF ADELUNG. 299 
 
 or after repeated intervals especially, as they would have 
 no incentive to such an enterprise from any impracticability 
 of finding an extensive, reasonably fertile, and salubrious 
 district nearer. Bedford thinks he discovers, about nine 
 degrees east from Shinar, a mountain-bed on which the ark 
 sunk to repose. (See his Scripture Chronology, page 187.) 
 The exact spot it is manifestly vain to attempt to ascertain. 
 The chief reason why some lofty mountain summit, and par- 
 ticularly the eminently towering peak of the Agridagh, has 
 been, by so many interpreters, imagined to be the place of 
 the ark's final settlement, has, doubtless, been the fancied 
 necessity imposed on them of understanding Gen. 8 : 4, as 
 designating such place of ultimate stranding. But if Mr. 
 Morren's view, to which we, several evenings since, (Even- 
 ing Sixteenth,) adverted, be correct, it is not necessary to 
 seek for any preeminently lofty mountain altitude, nor indeed 
 any mountain range at 'all, for the ark's final resting-place, 
 a plain serving at least as well, since Moses, according to 
 that interpretation, makes no statement concerning this point ; 
 and on some accounts, certainly, a plain, for egress, and 
 making arrangements for settlement, even though temporary, 
 would be considerably more convenient. 
 
 We cannot resist the temptation to give you the view of 
 Adelung, respecting the locality which he conceives to have 
 been occupied by man in the dawn of his being; and, if he 
 can be said to have recognized a deluge, the part of the globe 
 which more or less of the Noachidae left when they "journeyed 
 from the east " to Shinar. It was that lovely land separated 
 by mountains from India, Persia (in its larger sense), and 
 Thibet the enchanting valley of Cashmere. Owing to its 
 elevation, the heat of the South is said to be tempered into 
 a perpetual spring, and Nature here puts forth her every 
 power to bring all her works, plants, animals, and man, to 
 the highest state of perfection. At his first creation, man 
 ere by time and experience there had been a ripening of 
 
300 DATE OF THE MIGRATION TO SHINAR. 
 
 his faculties required an abode where nature's free bounty 
 would supply all his wants ; in fine, he needed, with reference 
 even to his mere physical necessities, a Paradise ! To this 
 appellation, thought Adelung, no country in Asia can assert 
 a better claim than the charming land of Cashmere. Even 
 the men of this country he represents as distinguished, among 
 Asiatics, by superior natural endowments, mental and physi- 
 cal. They have none of the Tartar physiognomy, but exhibit 
 the features of the European race ; while, in genius and intel- 
 ligence, they surpass most other Oriental nations. Adelung's 
 description of this enchanting country calls to mind, in many 
 of its features, the Happy Valley in Rasselas. 
 
 Among the arguments adduced in support of Adelung's 
 fanciful idea, as plausible a one as any appears to us to be, 
 that Cashmere lies in a direct line, as may be seen by the 
 map, to the east of Shinar or Mesopotamia. The whole in- 
 tervening territory is occupied by the Central Asiatic table 
 land of Persia or Iran, which, in general, is said to form one 
 continual descent from its highest elevation on the borders of 
 Cashmere to its termination near the plain of Shinar. As 
 to Ar-ar-at, Eitter is of the opinion that it may reasonably 
 be inferred to be nothing else than a term commonly applied 
 in the East to " a country of lofty mountains," an expression 
 highly appropriate to the Persian table land, both at its centre, 
 and at its junction with the Semitic regions near the banks 
 of the Tigris and Euphrates. With this idea Sir Win. Jones 
 at least so far accorded as to be confident in the opinion that 
 after the deluge the place of settlement of mankind was Iran, 
 which was the proper and native name of Persia and some 
 connected regions. His own words are, " The human family 
 after the flood established themselves in the northern parts of 
 Iran." (See his Works, vol. 3, pp. 191-196.) 
 
 How soon, after the flood, did the migration to Shinar 
 take place ? is a question to which it may very reason- 
 ably be supposed you would desire to have an answer. A 
 
WHAT THE NAME " PELEG " INDICATES. 301 
 
 main datum for the [determination of this point has been 
 considered to be afforded by the archaic historian in ch. 10 : 
 25, i. e., in the name Peleg, which signifies division, and the 
 reason assigned for the affixing of that appellation, to wit, 
 " for in his days was the earth divided ; " in allusion, as has 
 been very commonly thought, to the Dispersion. It has 
 indeed been questioned by some respectable philologists 
 whether the name Peleg was given at all in reference to such 
 a separation of mankind as the dispersion. They have been 
 rather inclined to think that the event which singularly 
 marked Peleg's life was an occurrence in physical geography 
 an earthquake which produced a vast chasm, separating 
 two considerable parts of the earth, in or near the district 
 inhabited by man. The possibility of some geological con- 
 vulsion at or about that time, and somewhere near where 
 mankind then were, can indeed be neither affirmed nor de- 
 nied no history or geography, sacred or secular, having any 
 thing to say about it. The first named idea we are disposed 
 the rather to embrace, it appearing to us the more plausible, 
 as it certainly is the more common. The implication seems 
 to be that of a division or dispersion of nations, like that of 
 streams of water from one source, and that as this occurred 
 in the days of Peleg, he received his name from this event. 
 It is worthy of notice that the original term, or the root from 
 which it comes, is elsewhere, as e. g., Psalm 55 : 9, applied 
 to denote not a physical but a moral division, and in the place 
 just referred to, one singularly analogous to that which we 
 take to have given occasion to Phaleg's name. Josephus 
 says, " He was called Phaleg, because he was born at the 
 dispersion of the nations to their several countries ; for 
 Phaleg among the Hebrews signifies division" 
 
 Now, upon examination, it will be ascertained that this 
 
 man Phaleg or Peleg was born the one hundred and first 
 
 year after the flood. If this was the name given him at his 
 
 birth because that was the exact era of the Dispersion, and if 
 
 14 
 
302 WHAT THE NAME "PELEG" INDICATES. 
 
 we allow some ten or twenty years to intervene between the 
 first arrival of the migrators in Shinar and this event an 
 interval apparently requisite for taking the inchoative steps, 
 making the indispensable preparatory arrangements, and the 
 actual commencement and prosecution of the work event- 
 uating in a division or dispersion of the people, it will then 
 have been eighty or ninety years after the deluge that the 
 immigrants arrived at that spot on the Euphrates where they 
 concluded to establish themselves. As, however, Peleg lived, 
 in all, two hundred and thirty-nine years, and as in the pas- 
 sage referred to it is only said, in general terms, that " in his 
 days was the earth divided," several writers of note have 
 preferred a later period in Peleg's life than that of his birth, 
 as the exact epoch of the dispersion, some his midlife, i. e. 
 one hundred and twenty years subsequent to his birth ; which, 
 added to the one hundred years preceding his birth, would 
 bring the period of the dispersion to two hundred and twenty 
 years posterior to the flood, and so the date of the arrival of 
 the Shinar immigrants at their new home about two hundred 
 or two hundred and ten years after the egression of our patri- 
 arch and his family from the ark. In such case the name 
 Peleg must have been assigned to him who bore it either 
 prophetically, or else was not the appellation originally given 
 him, but was appropriated years afterwards, and on account 
 of the occurrence of the event which it designated. The 
 Comprehensive Commentary, in notes on Gen. 11 : 1,2, says, 
 "Many learned men are of opinion that the events here 
 recorded occurred about the time of Peleg's birth, or one 
 hundred and one years after the deluge ; but their arguments 
 are by no means conclusive ; and the idea impressed on the 
 mind in reading the chapter, of the numbers to which the 
 family of Noah was already increased, favors the opinion 
 that a longer number of years had elapsed. Probably the 
 division of the earth before mentioned was a distinct trans- 
 action from the dispersion which took place on this occasion. 
 
QUERY AS TO THE IMMIGRANTS. 303 
 
 Some regular division of the earth seems to have taken place 
 at the time Peleg was born, probably by divine appointment, 
 under the direction of Noah and his sons." 
 
 Another question concerning which you will doubtless wish to 
 hear something remarked, and which we could not indeed justi- 
 fiably pass by in silence, is this : Did all or only a part of man- 
 kind, then existing, constitute the company who journeyed from 
 the east and became settlers in Shinar ? Let the man step 
 forward, if such a one there be, who can decisively respond 
 to this interrogation. In regard to it there may be considered 
 room for, as there certainly has been, a discrepance of 
 opinion. In the first place, Mr. Shuckford is quite confident 
 in his belief that only a part of Noah's descendants travelled 
 to Shinar from his far easterly mountain-bed where he has 
 the ark sink to rest. This author makes Noah and a portion 
 of his progeny, from thence pass over, first, into the adjacent 
 part of Tartary, and thence, soon after, into the district lying 
 in the northwestern part of China. For this his twofold 
 opinion, his stronger or more prominent reasons are the fol- 
 lowing : first, there is no mention in particular made of Noah 
 in all the proceedings connected with the Shinar settlement 
 and dispersion, a circumstance utterly unaccountable, in 
 his view, had this patriarch been of the number. Second, 
 the character of much of the proceedings of the Shinarites 
 was such as to indicate his absence, instead of presence. 
 Third, China, historically viewed, must have been at least as 
 early settled as Chaldea. Fourth, a Chaldean tradition 
 about the Deluge, (formerly referred to) makes Xisuthrus, 
 (so they called Noah), after coming with his wife, daughter, 
 and pilot, forth from the ark, and offering sacrifice, to disap- 
 pear and never to be seen again ; whilst Xisuthrus's sons, 
 according to the same tradition, journeyed towards Baby- 
 lonia, and built Babylon and several other cities. Fifth, the 
 language and learning, as well as history of the Chinese, all 
 favor this opinion. There are reasons which Mr. Shuck- 
 
304 WHETHER ALL OR ONLY A PART 
 
 ford specifies for believing that the Chinese Fohi (Fohee) 
 and Noah were one and the same person. (See Shuckford's 
 Connexions, vol. 1, book 2, p. 99, &c.) That some of these 
 reasons, as expanded by this writer, are very plausible, can- 
 not with reason be disputed. 
 
 There are other authors of prominence who, whilst they 
 do not accord in opinion with Shuckford respecting the 
 extreme orient landing of the ark, and so concerning the 
 locality of the prime settlement of the Noachic family after 
 leaving it, yet so far agree with him as to imagine that those 
 whom the sacred historian speaks of in chapter 11: 2, as 
 migrating to Shinar, were only a part of the existing 
 human race. Preferring the Septuagint, or some similar, to 
 the Hebrew chronology, or selecting a later period than that 
 of the birth of Peleg as indicating the epoch, and thus making 
 room for it, they held forth that the Babelic dispersion 
 occurred at a considerably later period than the beginning of 
 the second century after the Deluge, and that, under the 
 direction of Noah or of Noah's God, there had occurred a 
 previous division or dispersion of our second father's descend- 
 ants ; and that those who at length migrated to Shinar were 
 not under the guidance of the best of leaders, or under the 
 influence of the best of impulses, and were mostly indeed 
 Hamites. A little of Mr. Bryant's view, as given in his 
 Ancient Mythology, (vol. 6, p. 260,) is. the following: 
 " When mankind had become very numerous, it pleased God 
 to allot to the various families different regions to which they 
 were to retire : and they accordingly, in the days of Peleg, 
 did remove and betake themselves to their different depart- 
 ments. But the sons of Cush would not obey. They went 
 off under the conduct of the arch-rebel Nimrod, and seem to 
 have been for a long time in a roving state ; but at last they 
 arrived at the plains of Shinar. These they found occupied 
 by Ashur (Gen. 10: 11) and his sons; for they had been 
 placed there by divine appointment. But they ejected him 
 
OF THE NOACHID.E ENTERED SHINAR. 305 
 
 and seized upon his dominions." With this view of Bryant, 
 Dr. J. P. Smith substantially agrees. The view of Mr. 
 Gleig may be seen in detail in his History of the Bible, 
 vol. 1, chap. 5. It would seem necessarily to follow from all 
 interpretations of the record of this type, that what Moses 
 relates as occurring at Babel, of which we are soon to speak, 
 had little to do with the actual origination of the various 
 languages and nations of the earth. From the tenor of their 
 reasoning it is manifestly the impression of most if not all of 
 the authors to whom we are now alluding, that such were the 
 motives by which the Shinaric Babel-builders were actuated, 
 as to be necessarily preclusive of the idea that either Noah 
 or any of that portion of his progeny of similar moral or 
 spiritual type with him, could have mingled with such a band, 
 or been, after the most distant manner even, participants in 
 their deeds. And this last-named impression, perhaps,' may 
 have constituted the prime motive power in the devising of 
 the theory at which we have been hinting. 
 
 Now, as it may be said both of Mr. Shuckford's view and 
 of the somewhat variant one of Mr. Bryant, that they do not 
 appear to harinonize with the most literal or direct interpreta- 
 tion of the Mosaic account, the view naturally suggested by 
 the language of Moses to the mind of the plain, unsophisti- 
 cated reader seems to us preferable, if the difficulties ap- 
 parently standing in the way of its adoption can, at the same 
 time, and after a manner coincident with reason, be met and 
 overcome. We submit, then, whether such reader, upon 
 casting his eye over the first and second verses of the eleventh 
 chapter of Genesis, would fail to receive the impression that 
 the totality of then existent mankind are comprised in the 
 migrating company that, journeying from the east, entered the 
 plain of Shinar. May there not be a rational entertainment 
 of the belief that during the entire lapse of a century, or of 
 two or even three centuries, from the deluge falling, as 
 either extreme of this vaguely indicated period would, " in the 
 
306 THE UNITY OF THE SHINARIC BAND 
 
 days of Peleg," the whole of postdiluvian humankind 
 would be under the influence of strong and controlling im- 
 pulses, to keep together ? Near relationship, warm mutual 
 affection, regard to safety amidst threatening dangers, on the 
 one hand, and on the other, the previously ascertained 
 peculiar eligibility of the broad, beautiful, fruitful Shinaric 
 plain, lying between and on either side of the rivers Tigris 
 and Euphrates, and extending some distance both above and 
 below their junction these all, together with the mutual 
 assistances which could in various ways be rendered, and 
 which could not, up to this time, be well dispensed with, 
 would, we may believe, serve to bring them, in unbroken 
 ranks, into this exceedingly inviting territory, a territory, 
 every thing considered, which would much surpass any of 
 prior occupancy or discovery. The Sovereign Supreme had 
 indeed a great and wise purpose to accomplish. He would 
 not have the different and distant portions of the globe 
 remain unpeopled or unimproved. He knew that it would 
 tend to the more rapid increase of the posterity of our 
 patriarch, after a certain season, to have the bands loosed 
 which kept them together. Population is known to increase 
 far more rapidly in new countries, where the resources of the 
 land are without limit, than in old ones, where men keep 
 together in masses, whose numbers press closely on the means 
 of subsistence. Intellectually, morally, religiously, important 
 benefits would, when the proper season should come, accrue 
 to men by being thrown into distinct bands, into separate and 
 more or less isolated communities. The population of the 
 Old World had suffered immense detriment by living as com- 
 pactly, as much huddled together, as they did. Were man- 
 kind not depraved were their moral state altogether what 
 it ought to be then, to the extent that the means of subsist- 
 ence, convenience, and general comfort would allow, they 
 might cluster together. Heaven is not and never will be 
 rendered uncomfortable, how densely populated soever any 
 
NOT LONG TO REMAIN UNBROKEN. 307 
 
 
 
 portions of its dominions are, or all of them may at length 
 become. The greater and more dense such a population as 
 the heavenly, the better. But Adam's posterity, Noah's 
 posterity both the first and second father's children, here, 
 are a good deal different from our Divine Father's children, 
 human and angelic, on the celestial plains. The inhabitants 
 of this planet are " very far gone from original righteous- 
 ness " so far gone, that the mutual influence of example, 
 and of unobstructed and intimate general intercourse, would 
 on the whole be far from salutary far from promotive of 
 individual and social welfare and happiness. Better, consid- 
 ering what they are, vastly better, to have many and great 
 obstructions thrown in the way of intimate and general asso- 
 ciation and intercourse ; better to have them divided off into 
 a multiplicity of tribes, and peoples, and nations, by such 
 varieties of language as to prevent different portions from 
 transmitting their thoughts to all other minds, or their feel- 
 ings to all other hearts ; and by such impediments to inter- 
 course as are interposed by what are termed natural barriers* 
 by rivers, hills, seas, mountains. 
 
 The humankind, at the time they entered the plains of 
 Shinar, were on the eve of the period that divine wisdom 
 and benevolence had fixed on for throwing them apart into 
 different bands ; for commencing a process which would 
 eventuate in locating them in numerous, diversified, and 
 wide spread portions of earth's broad surface north, south, 
 east, west ; in this continent and in that ; until all habitable 
 parts of the globe should be marked by human footprints. 
 
EVENING TWENTY-FOURTH. 
 
 YOUNG GENTLEMEN: 
 
 How interesting a fact is that which is made known to us 
 in the initial verse of the eleventh chapter of Genesis a 
 fact of which we should have remained in profound ignorance 
 but for divine communication. At the time of the immigra- 
 tion to the plains of Shinar, and ever, antecedently, from 
 the hour that human lips first uttered a syllable, downward, 
 only one language prevailed among mankind. " The 
 whole earth was of one language (lip) and of one speech," 
 one kind of words. By "the whole earth," is obviously 
 meant, in this verse, the inhabitants of the whole earth a 
 Hebraic idiom of very frequent occurrence. If you inquire, 
 What was this language ? you must allow us to inquire in 
 return, What answer shall we give ? As the question, how- 
 ever, is one which cannot with reason be entirely waived, 
 we will, in the first place, venture the remark, that it was 
 doubtless, in our view, the language which Noah and his 
 sons spake when they came from, whilst in, and before they 
 entered, the ark ; the language which Noah's father, Lamech, 
 and grandfather, Methuselah, spake. And as these lived, 
 the former fifty-six, and the latter two hundred and forty- 
 three years on the earth anterior to the death of Adam, it 
 was the language which our first father spake. Such were 
 
INQUIRY AS TO THE PRIMITIVE LANGUAGE. 309 
 
 the circumstances that, though the interval was a protracted 
 one, no direct divine interference was requisite to preserve 
 the unity. There was little room for any great change of 
 language, when mankind lived so long as they are reported 
 to have done before the flood, when two links (Adam, 
 Methuselah) constituted, so to speak, the whole chain from 
 the Creation to the Deluge. This longevity was a potent 
 and effectual conservative of the great vehiele of thought in 
 its primal form, as you must all perceive. If some new 
 terms were, from time to time, introduced ; if the vehicle, 
 after a while, became even considerably more capacious than 
 it primarily was, the great comparative compactness of the 
 population, (at which we, on a former occasion, hinted,) pre- 
 vailing during a part of that morning of the world, would 
 afford the means of easy and rapid transmission to all the 
 portions of the body. There were no great inducements 
 tending to the origination of considerable alterations in lan- 
 guage ; but strong motives operating to the contrary. 
 
 But, toward the affording of an answer to the question, 
 What was the primitive, and, up to the period which Genesis 
 11: 1 contemplates, the universal language of mankind? 
 you may think we have still not approached very near. It 
 would, young gentlemen, require a considerable measure of 
 courage, or of confidence, to essay an approach much nearer. 
 No question in philology has, perhaps, been more largely or 
 warmly discussed than has this. "The Hebrew, Syriac, 
 Arabic, Chaldee, Phoenician, Egyptian, Ethiopic, Sanscrit, 
 and Chinese," remarks Dr. Hales, " have each had their re- 
 spective advocates for the palm of priority and precedence." 
 He might have added to the list several others. " Of these 
 various claimants," continues Dr. Hales, " the language spoken 
 by the inhabitants of the first districts occupied by Noah's 
 family, after the flood, seems to have the fairest pretensions to 
 
 originality, or rather of affinity to the primitive language, 
 14* 
 
310 INQUIRY AS TO THE PRIMITIVE LANGUAGE. 
 
 supposing all to be altered, more or less, by lapse of time 
 and change of place ; 
 
 Mortalia facta peribunt, 
 
 Nedum sermonum stet honos et gratia yivax. HOR. 
 
 And accordingly ' the tongues of the Japhethites ' are men- 
 tioned, Gen. 10 : 5 ; 'the tongues of the Hamites/ verse 20 ; 
 and ' the tongues of the Shemites,' verse 31 ; which, perhaps, 
 are placed last, as varying least from the primitive language, 
 because they lay nearest to the original settlement after the 
 deluge." Of all the families of languages, the Shemitic 
 used to be the more favored claimant ; and though there was 
 rivalry among the members of this latter family, the Hebrew 
 collected by far the more numerous suffrages in its favor. 
 "From the antiquities of Josephus and the Targums, or 
 Chaldee paraphrases of Onkelos and of Jerusalem," says Dr. 
 Wiseman, "down to Anton, in 1800, Christians and Jews 
 considered its pretensions as almost definitively decided ; and 
 names of the highest rank in literature, Lipsius, Scaliger, 
 Bochart, and Vossius, have trusted the truth of many of 
 their theories to the certainty of this opinion." 
 
 In favor of the position, that the Hebrew was the primitive 
 and only prevalent language from the Creation till the time 
 of the Confusion of Tongues, we will hint at two of the more 
 prominent and plausible arguments which have fallen under 
 our notice. The first of them is in substance this : The 
 names of persons and of places mentioned in the early history 
 of the world are pure Hebrew. Thus Adam, Eve, Cain, 
 Abel, Seth, Mehujael, Methusael, Methuselah, Noah, Shem, 
 &c. ; and of Eden, Nod, Enoch, (the city,) &c., are all words 
 of purely Hebraic form, structure, and signification. These 
 are found in the earliest history that from the pen of 
 Moses ; nor is there the least evidence or appearance of 
 their being interpretations or translations, by the historian, 
 of primitive or earlier terms, as has by some been suggested. 
 
INQUIRY AS TO THE PRIMITIVE LANGUAGE. oil 
 
 Had they been translations, the fact, it is thought, would 
 have somehow been indicated. The sacred penman gives 
 not the faintest or most distant hint of giving a translation of 
 preexistent terms ; nor does he, in the whole course of his 
 history, when speaking of the names of persons, utter a single 
 word from which we can infer the existence of an earlier 
 language. Nay, more: all the proper names in the ante- 
 diluvian history are personally and historically descriptive, 
 and the verb or appellative which forms the name really and 
 always gives the sound and meaning wanted ; which could 
 not be, if the compositions which we have were a translation 
 from a prior document in a different language. Thus : 
 "Ishah, because she was taken from Ish" (Gen. 2 : 23) ; 
 "Adam called the name of his Ishah, Havah, because she 
 was the mother of all Hai" (3 : 20) ; " Cain, because Canithi, 
 a man from Jehovah," (4:1). " She called his name Shetk, 
 for God shath for me another seed," (verse 20.) Think of 
 each name, too, as having in it prophetic or historic signifi- 
 cancy as embracing in itself the reason why that person or 
 place was given that name and not another. The other 
 argument urged in support of the before-mentioned position 
 is, in a word, this : If any of the three branches of Noah's 
 offspring were not involved in the crime of the Babel-builders, 
 they would not be directly involved in the judgment which 
 fell upon those builders, in other words, they would almost 
 certainly retain the language previously spoken by them, that 
 is, the primeval language. But we shall hereafter see a good 
 reason for inferring that the Shemites were not involved in 
 the crime; consequently, that they continued afterward to 
 speak the same tongue as before; but it is known that a 
 peculiarly prominent branch of them did afterward speak 
 the Hebrew that this was eminently, exclusively, their 
 language. 
 
 Many distinguished philologists however there are, and the 
 number appears to have been of late considerably on the 
 
312 INQUIRY AS TO THE PRIMITIVE LANGUAGE. 
 
 increase, who think they find such formidable objections 
 against this position, as to render it inadmissible ; who feel 
 disposed without hesitancy to declare that, whether con- 
 sidered historically, or with reference to its internal structure, 
 the Hebrew cannot lay just claim to be the primitive tongue. 
 We will merely remark, as to some of the objections which 
 we have seen specifically urged against this position, that 
 they do not appear to us of any allowable weight, being 
 based upon the assumption that the prime language of man- 
 kind was of human invention an assumption the validity 
 of which we can by no means admit. 
 
 The claims of the Chinese to be the primitive tongue have 
 been warmly advocated by Webb, and several other writers. 
 The leading considerations that are urged appear to be, its 
 confessedly great antiquity, and its simple monosyllabic 
 character. Of it, (in his Connexions, vol. 1, p. 122) Mr. 
 Shuckford says, that "it seems to have some marks of being 
 the first original language of mankind. Its words are few, 
 and all its words are confessedly monosyllables. If Noah, 
 the great father and restorer of mankind, upon coming out of 
 the ark, settled here, it is very probable that he left here the 
 universal language of the world. One thing, at least," he 
 continues, "appears pretty clear, that whatever was the 
 original of the Chinese tongue, it seems to be the first that 
 ever was in those parts. All changes and alterations of 
 language are commonly for the better, but the Chinese 
 language is so like a first and uncultivated essay, that it is 
 hard to conceive any other tongue to have been prior to it ; 
 and whether this be the first language or not, the circum- 
 stances of this language consisting of monosyllables, is a very 
 considerable argument that the first language was in this 
 respect like it ; for though it is natural to think that man- 
 kind might begin to form single sounds first, and afterwards 
 come to enlarge their speech by doubling and redoubling 
 them ; yet it can in no wise be conceived that if men had at 
 
CONCERNING THE ORIGIN OF LANGUAGE. 313 
 
 first known the plenty of expression arising from words of 
 more syllables than one, any person or people would have 
 been so stupid as to have reduced their languages to words 
 of but one." 
 
 In support of the Sanskrit as the primeval tongue, some of 
 the chief arguments set forth by its advocates are, its great 
 though unknown antiqueness; its radical materials being 
 monosyllabic ; and its regularity, richness and finish. Be- 
 sides the several other tongues named as claimants in the 
 quotation made from Dr. Hales, who would have dreamed 
 that the world could have ever seen such visionaries, yet 
 such there have been, as have zealously advocated the Cel- 
 tic, the Biscayan, and even the Low Dutch, as the language 
 of our first and second father ! 
 
 Whilst, however, there have been warm and elaborate 
 endeavors made, and by large numbers, to maintain some 
 particular known language to have been the primeval, there 
 have been, on the other hand, some of the greatest names in 
 in the study and comparison of languages, who believe and 
 argue that " the primeval language has not been anywhere 
 preserved, but that fragments of it must, from the common 
 origin of all, everywhere exist ; that these fragments will 
 indicate the original derivation and kindredship of all ; and 
 that some direct causation of no common agency has op- 
 erated to begin, and has so permanently affected mankind as 
 to establish, a striking and universally experienced diversity." 
 These last are the words of a later writer than Grotius, who 
 himself said, " Nullibi puram exstare, sed reliquias ejus esse 
 in linguis omnibus." 
 
 Whatever the prime language of the human kind was, one 
 thing we think may with positiveness be declared concerning 
 it : that it originated not on earth, but in heaven ; was the 
 invention of God, not of man. It was a gift communicated 
 to our species by the Supreme Donor, and early so early 
 as the day on which creatures of this order began to be. So 
 
314 CONCERNING THE ORIGIN OF LANGUAGE. 
 
 the Bible teaches ; so human reason, unperverted, teaches. 
 As man was not a monad, nor barely so much higher a 
 creature as a monkey, primarily ; as his distinguishing traits 
 as an intellectual and moral being are not the exclusive re- 
 sult of spontaneous and prolonged development ; as he came 
 from the hands of a Wise and Omnific Creator, and in the 
 form and with the powers of a man not of an inferior 
 animal of man, too, physically and mentally mature, not 
 with the mind and body of an infant ; as he was designed to 
 occupy a peculiarly important position, and act an important 
 part, as an intellectual, social, and moral being, on this 
 planet, his Creator would afford him the indispensable means 
 and facilities, at the outset, for answering the great, mo- 
 mentous purposes of his existence ; and one of the promi- 
 nent among these would be Language, the main, almost 
 exclusive vehicle for conveying the products of one mind and 
 heart to the mind and heart of another ; for prosecuting an 
 interchange of those higher and more valuable commodities 
 especially the mental and the moral. All theories whose 
 object or burden is, to find the origin of language anywhere 
 short of the Divine Munificence, involve impracticabilities 
 most gigantic, and absurdities most gross. If any linguistic 
 vehicle, copious enough to be w r orthy of the name of language, 
 were not necessarily, for the most part, arbitrary, having in 
 it little of what grammarians term onomatopoeia, the ab- 
 surdity would not appear so great or monstrous of assigning 
 it a human paternity. A language, made up mostly of sounds 
 between which and the meaning there is no natural connec- 
 tion, if it were from man, would be, we may suppose, from 
 him in an associated capacity ; would be the result of consul- 
 tation and mutually expressed consent and arrangement. 
 Then, what mind of the least remove from perfect stolidity 
 or obtuseness can fail to perceive the absurdity involved : a 
 conversational convention or conventions held a lingual 
 consultation had to invent or settle upon a vehicle of conver- 
 
ABUSE OF LINGUISTIC UNITY. 315 
 
 sation or medium of intercourse! Verily the projectors of 
 such a theory can hardly fail of securing notoriety of im- 
 mortalizing themselves ; but we are not so enormously en- 
 vious as to grudge them the kind of notoriety which they 
 have been or shall be so successful as to secure. Greatly 
 prefer remaining would we in our sombrous obscurity. This 
 is not indeed a solitary instance it is one of the multitudi- 
 nous instances in which the human heart's reluctance 
 manifests itself to give unto the Lord the tribute of honor 
 and of gratitude which is his due. 
 
 This one language, whatever one it was, flowing, as we 
 have thus briefly argued, directly from the choice and full 
 fountain of Heavenly Munificence, had, along with other 
 divine gifts, been greatly misused or perverted by the ante- 
 diluvians ; and the time was now hurrying on apace, when 
 there would be afforded by postdiluvians, too, a specimen of 
 abuse. Among the Noachidae, thus far, the linguistic unity 
 had served a good purpose ; and had it thereafter been made 
 to serve no other, the linguistic diversities which have since, 
 and to an extent great and in some respects very incommo- 
 dious, prevailed, would probably, for the most part, have 
 remained unknown. From some of the divine regulations, 
 restraints, and provisions, already hinted at, you cannot but 
 have caught a glimpse of God's anxious desire that the post- 
 diluvian race should not run into the impious and horrid 
 excesses of antediluvian times. He did not wish to bring 
 another sweeping and universally devastating deluge of waters 
 over the earth ; he had determined he would not had even 
 declared he would not on this point the Deity had com- 
 mitted himself. But whilst God had determined and declared 
 this, he had not done it unwittingly or incautiously. Pie had 
 coetaneously determined, as occasions or urgent necessities 
 should present themselves, to erect the barriers, or give rise 
 to the obstacles, one after another, which should prevent such 
 superfluities of naughtiness, such awful excesses of wicked- 
 
316 DIVINE DETERMINATION AGAINST THE RETURN 
 
 ness, from again having an existence among human kind. 
 The social principle in man is of God's implanting ; and 
 whilst its exercises are kept within legitimate bounds, such 
 bounds as not to contravene God's purposes, or thwart his 
 kind designs toward the race, it may have its free indulgence 
 and its thrilling play ; but when it is suffered greatly to 
 transcend those bounds, the consequence will be not only 
 offence to God, but injury to man ; which latter indeed is 
 a thing not well pleasing to Infinite Benevolence. If the 
 Ruler Supreme, then, throw obstacles in the way of such 
 excessive and criminal exercise, in the case of those who 
 are guilty in the matter; if he throw inconveniences and 
 discomforts into their lot ; if he resort to efficient means for 
 putting them apart ; drive them, not as individuals indeed, 
 but in families, tribes, bands, into different and distant local- 
 ities, they will have no good reason for surprise or complaint. 
 Restraints to sin, obstructions to its increasing and awfully 
 abounding prevalence, how rough soever the garb which they 
 may wear, are less judgments than mercies ; have an angel's 
 heart, though they appear to show the lion's paw or the croc- 
 odile's covering. 
 
 Such mischiefs as rose out of the prevalence of one lan- 
 guage in the Old World, the Most High was resolutely deter- 
 mined should not prevail in the New. When He therefore 
 should witness the inceptions of mischiefs among the postcli- 
 luvians from this source, and, with such a mind as He had, 
 knew to what, if unchecked, they would grow ; when, in the 
 world this side the flood, he should observe the social prin- 
 ciple inchoately abused, and foresee the danger of its run- 
 ning into abuses far greater abuses too that would be likely 
 to become widespread and permanent, unless some counter- 
 acting force or preventive influence should be thrown in he 
 might be looked for to interpose ; after some manner to stay 
 the commencing or stop the threatening tide. An occasion, 
 as we believe has been already hinted, is now about to arise, 
 
OF ANTEDILUVIAN WICKEDNESS. 317 
 
 demanding God's interposition to prevent a great and alarm- 
 ing increase of wickedness ; to break into fragments a social 
 body that threatened to assimilate itself, in moral character- 
 istics, to that awfully corrupt body of the Old World whom 
 the Almighty, in just judgment toward them, but in mercy 
 toward the then future generations, destroyed. 
 
 For a brief season after their arrival on the plains of 
 Shinar the immigrants would reside in tents ; but being well 
 pleased with what they saw of the country in general, and 
 induced particularly by the measure of fertility which their 
 inceptive agricultural operations showed it to possess, they 
 soon commenced the erection of more permanent as well as 
 more commodious and costly habitations ; and as a large 
 proportion of these, we may suppose, were, for safety as well 
 as sociality, located contiguous to each other, there would, 
 in the course of a very few years, appear a cluster amount- 
 ing to a scattered village of not inconsiderable dimensions 
 which seems to have at length excited the ambition of 
 more or less to see the settlement so enlarged, and structures 
 erected of such size as well as numbers, as to constitute a 
 respectable city. There being no stone quarries to be found 
 in all that region, and the settlers wishing the edifices which 
 they reared to be of substantial materials, and discovering 
 the means in abundance for it they made bricks, and, with 
 bitumen for cement, they progressed, not indeed with re- 
 markable rapidity, but as fast as their other necessary avoca- 
 tions, as well as their gradually increasing numbers, would 
 allow, in this work. Thus far there may have been no 
 marked criminality in the motives of the greater portion at 
 least, probably of nearly the whole company, of the Shi- 
 narites. There were a few enterprising and ambitious spirits, 
 doubtless, who from near the commencement of the time in 
 which they entered upon the erection of permanent habita- 
 tions, began to indulge more of an aspiring disposition than 
 they had ever before felt ; and every thing about them seemed 
 
 
318 AMBITIOUS ASPIRATIONS AT SIIINAE. 
 
 adapted to foster such a spirit. One active, bold, energetic, 
 and comparatively young man in particular, who had already 
 signalized himself somewhat, in such ways as were practica- 
 ble more especially in hunting and had been for a while 
 the leader of a band in this had begun to meditate greater 
 things, and put himself forward as leader ; in which thing 
 the majority probably at first rather unwittingly or silently 
 acquiesced ; and afterwards, as his claims became more and 
 more prominent and plausible, the major portion, setting aside 
 or too much overlooking patriarchal authority, might be in- 
 duced to lift their voice for him. Noah and his three sons 
 had hitherto been the counsellors and principal leaders 
 of the junior band ; and, on account of their seniority and 
 greater wisdom and experience, should have been still, and 
 ever, until they should be actually disabled by age and con- 
 sequent mental or bodily infirmity. Noah, in particular, 
 should have continued not only their magnate, but their fa- 
 vorite ruler, we would think, while life should last, or until 
 dotage should absolutely compel his retirement from the ac- 
 tivities of busy, or his abandonment of the cares and per- 
 plexities of regal life. He was indeed now an old man, 
 beginning to bend under the weight of years, and perhaps 
 little able to bear, longer, aught of what was intrinsically 
 onerous. That this patriarch was not among the Shinar 
 immigrants we are unable to discover any such reasons 
 as to constrain us to believe. It has been conjectured 
 by some, and with much strenuousness maintained, that 
 he could not have been of the company who came hither, 
 because no particular mention is made of him at any time 
 after the plains of Shinar are entered. But, his name had 
 not been mentioned by the historian during the period of at 
 least sixty or seventy years before never subsequent to 
 the time in which he uttered the prophecies on which we 
 briefly commented if we except the brief record which 
 chronologically belongs to a period considerably posterior to 
 
THE TOWER OF BABEL WHY ERECTED. 319 
 
 that which we have yet reached. If there is no mention 
 directly made of him for some three hundred years anterior 
 to his death, then the silence of the historian cannot reason- 
 ably be produced as evidence that he was not one of the 
 company who came to Shinar. If there is no mention of 
 him for so long a period, there is then, of course, no record 
 of his being, during that period, elsewhere. As to the silence 
 of the historian about our patriarch for so long a season, we 
 hardly need be surprised at it, if we will but consider two 
 things : First, That Noah had already been far more the 
 subject of notice, on the part of the sacred writer, than any 
 man who had preceded him, as great and noted as some of 
 them must in their day have been. Secondly, The archaic 
 annalist is studying brevity, that he may the sooner arrive at 
 that portion of our postdiluvian father's descendants, of which 
 " the father of the faithful," that is, Abraham, stands at the 
 head. 
 
 Next came the proposition to erect a tower perhaps not 
 a loudly or openly proclaimed proposition at the first, particu- 
 larly as to the chief object the projector had in view in its 
 erection but a whispered suggestion, coming primarily from 
 some rather young but ambitious spirit, and thrown cautiously 
 into the ear of first a few, " to feel of them," as the phrase is ; 
 and receiving encouragement, it is spread more widely, and 
 by degrees more openly, until the prospect appears fair for 
 its being entertained favorably by the majority, who had 
 more of youth on their side than wisdom, more energy than 
 caution, more ambition or pride than piety. 
 
 There have been various conjectures concerning the object 
 or objects had in view by the projectors in the erection of this 
 tower. Josephus and some others have supposed that it was 
 a measure of safety against some future devastating flood. 
 There is, in this, no great compliment paid to the faith of the 
 Babel-builders, or else not to their faculty of memory. They 
 had surely been taught by their pious ancestor what God had 
 
320 THE TOWER OF BABEL WHY ERECTED. 
 
 promised and covenanted in relation to this matter. If they 
 did not believe, they have indeed had a multiplicity of imita- 
 tors since their day. Never, from their time downward, has 
 it been fashionable with the far major portion of mankind to 
 believe God, or to live and act by faith in the declarations of 
 Infinite Truth. But if these Babel-builders were without 
 faith, must we believe them to have been also without sense 
 or reason ? so utterly bereft or destitute of it as to flatter 
 themselves with the fond conceit that any considerable num- 
 ber of future generations could find a means of safety in any 
 such tower as to magnitude which they could build ? or to 
 select such a locality as a valley or plain, instead of a lofty 
 mountain, to serve for protection against the towering waves 
 of another Noachian Flood ? 
 
EVENING TWENTY-FIFTH. 
 
 YOUNG GENTLEMEN: 
 
 It has by some been conjectured that the Babelic Tower 
 was designed as a temple of idolatry ; but of this there can be 
 produced no sufficient evidence ; nor does it seem to us prob- 
 able that the sin of idolatry began to prevail at so early a 
 season after the deluge. Nor can we entertain the notion 
 that it was intended as a mere ' monument of architectural 
 effort and skill, like the pyramids of Egypt ; though it is not 
 impossible but that in prosecuting the enterprise there was 
 felt some ambitious desire to transmit to succeeding genera- 
 tions, a name illustrious for grand design and bold undertak- 
 ing. Of the paramount objects of the projector or projectors, 
 one, and that which for a while at first might have been 
 almost exclusively promulgated, not improbably was, to serve 
 as a landmark in that sea of land, the vast and unbroken 
 plains of Babylonia and the territory adjacent. They who, 
 from time to time, and for one and another purpose, should 
 traverse those plains, the compass of which was then unknown, 
 would really feel to be essential something of this kind to 
 serve as a landmark ; without which they might frequently 
 be unable to find their way back to the seat of population ; 
 and thus, involuntarily, considerable numbers might be scat- 
 tered abroad, and lost as to the main settlement. There was 
 no doubt a higher object, however, in the mind of at least the 
 
322 THE BABELIC ^TOWER, ITS DESIGN. 
 
 master spirit ; which was, to build up a vast central metropo- 
 lis of a gradually extending and prospectively mighty empire 
 a sort of universal monarchy. By the arrogant and aspir- 
 ing leader in the notable emprise there was manifestly 
 cherished a controlling desire that there should be no scatter- 
 ing of the people into isolated and independent communities ; 
 no dispersions of different portions of the Shinaric inhabitants 
 into many, and far distant, and widely separated localities, 
 which should lead to the establishment of a multiplicity of 
 governments, with as many rulers at their heads respectively. 
 Whilst it was, as a matter of course, expected that the popu- 
 lation would, even rapidly, increase, such was the number 
 already as to impel to this expectation it was the ambitious 
 wish of the leader, and soon, probably, far beyond the wish of 
 him alone, that that increase, calling for as rapidly increasing 
 extent of territory to be occupied, should extend continuously 
 in a widening circle, having for a common centre the city 
 whose foundations were already laid, with its projected lofty 
 tower now to be built, to serve to add ornament and magnifi- 
 cence to the metropolis ; and, in anticipation of a rising 
 necessity, now and then, for the employment of martial force 
 to quell the insurrection, or by compulsion bring back stray- 
 ing bands or migrating hordes, to answer, on the one hand, if 
 need be, as a place of resort for defence or security, and, on 
 the other, as a place of deposit and custody for arms. 
 
 The site of the city and tower which at a subsequent 
 period received the name of Babel, was on the west bank of 
 the Euphrates, some three hundred miles above its mouth, 
 and about twice that distance east of Jerusalem, the same 
 site in part, we may believe, which was occupied afterwards 
 by the great and renowned city of Babylon. The city of the 
 Babel-builders, indeed, was probably the nucleus of the last 
 named ; not having been destroyed, nor even the begun tower 
 itself annihilated, as some have erroneously imagined, at the 
 time of the Confusion. 
 
SIZE AND FORM OF THE TOWER. 323 
 
 Different suppositions have been made respecting the size and 
 form of the projected and begun tower of the aspirant Shinaric 
 builders. That it was intended to be a lofty structure, for one 
 of that age, and for the number of hands that could or would 
 be employed upon it, appears from chapter 11:4. It is 
 spoken of by Josephus as also of " great thickness." Whether 
 its shaft was round, square, hexagonal, or octagonal, we can- 
 not speak determinately. You have probably seen it deline- 
 ated as being in shape round, with a spiral pathway leading 
 to the top (Stackhouse, vol. 1, p. 172) ; but it appears more 
 credible that it was square or quadrangular ; and that struc- 
 tures remaining in various parts of the world are transcripts 
 or imitations of it. Strabo calls it " a square pyramid ; " and 
 " a quadrangular pyramid " it is affirmed to have been by 
 Coleman. 
 
 In regard to the precise character of the proceeding the 
 kind and measure of the impiety or culpability involved in the 
 tower's erection what shall be said ? That the instigator 
 and leader in the affair, and those under his direction or in- 
 fluence, contravened any direct and known command of 
 Heaven, there are writers who say that there is no scriptural 
 authority for believing. As much as you have examined the 
 writings of Moses, have you ever discovered any promulgated 
 precept, relative to the matter, that was violated by them, 
 unless it be that general injunction given to the Noachic 
 family just after their leaving of the ark, to " multiply and 
 replenish the earth ? " But had they known or remembered 
 this general direction, must it necessarily have been apparent 
 to them that in the act of rearing the tower there would be 
 any contravention of it ? It is asserted by Josephus, but on 
 what authority may not be to you very discernible, unless it 
 be the precept just adverted to, that " God also commanded 
 them to send colonies abroad for the thqrough peopling of the 
 earth, and that they might not raise seditions among them- 
 selves, but might cultivate a great part of the earth, and 
 
324 CHARACTER OF THE ACT OF THE BABEL BUILDERS. 
 
 enjoy its fruits after a plentiful manner. But they were so 
 ill-instructed that they did not obey God ; for which reason 
 they fell into calamities, and were made sensible by experi- 
 ence of what sin they had been guilty. For when they 
 flourished with a numerous youth, God admonished them 
 again to send out colonies ; but they, imagining that the pros- 
 perity they enjoyed was not derived from the favor of God, 
 but supposing that their own power was the proper cause of 
 the plentiful condition they were in, did not obey him. Nay, 
 they added to this their disobedience to the divine will, the sus- 
 picion that they were therefore ordered to send out separate 
 colonies, that being divided asunder they might the more 
 easily be oppressed." (Ant. p. 29.) 
 
 Now whether this be an exactly veritable statement of the 
 case, or not, we have seen it in substance reaffirmed by 
 several writers ; and both Josephus and they ought to know 
 what they have so positively averred to be so. We suspect 
 predications of this nature to have been made by these 
 authors rather on the ground of inference, than of any direct 
 divine precept that they could find. In this latter respect 
 they were probably no more successful than you have been 
 unless they resorted to tradition rather than the historic 
 averments of Moses. Yet suppose the Babel-builders, with 
 their chieftain, were not aware of transgressing any direct 
 divine injunction ; nay, more : suppose there never had been 
 issued by the Lord any command from which they could infer 
 that the creation of such a structure, and for such a purpose, 
 would contravene the will of Heaven, it still remains a fact, 
 that they were running counter, in their schemes and wishes, 
 to God's intentions. The Ruler Supreme had in his mind 
 quite a different purpose or plan from theirs. He saw what 
 their motives and designs were. He wanted no universal 
 monarchy to be founded on this his footstool no metropolis 
 of the whole earth, either on the banks of the Euphrates or 
 elsewhere. He desired that when the time should come 
 
INFERENCE RELATIVE TO THE PATRIARCH. 325 
 
 and it was now just at hand the different quarters of the 
 earth should be colonized ; the human kind should be sprin- 
 kled, so to speak, over different parts north, south, east, 
 west, of J;he globe's surface ; thrown, as we intimated a while 
 ago, into many peoples, and tribes, and nations. And his 
 purpose must stand his plans be carried out his, not 
 theirs. Their ambition and policy on the one hand, and His 
 wisdom and benevolence on the other, in regard to the sta- 
 tioning of Noah's fast-increasing descendants, and to what 
 pertained otherwise to their lot, were so far from coalescing, 
 that both could not be met and satisfied. The former, 
 therefore, must be foiled. And God adopts his own wise 
 and mild mode of doing it. He does not hurl down his 
 thunderbolts and destroy them ; he does not cause the tower 
 they were rearing, to totter and fall and bury them in its 
 ruins. He inflicts upon them no physical suffering. He 
 only throws in a bar to concerted action ; their main medium 
 of intimacy this is interfered with ; their channel of inter- 
 course was blocked up ; the bands which had united them, 
 bound them closely together, were broken ; they are obliged 
 to stop in their work cannot proceed. Oh, how are the 
 wise taken in their own craftiness ; and the counsel of the 
 froward, how is it carried headlong. The Lord disappointeth 
 the devices of the crafty, so that their hands cannot perform 
 their enterprise. (Job 5 : 12, 13.) That the projectors and 
 builders of the tower were not under the controi of commend- 
 able or justifiable impulses, is very evident, since they had 
 not regard to the divine glory or will in the matter. Pride, 
 a towering ambition, a spirit of self-aggrandizement, actuated 
 them in what they did. 
 
 But where is our patriarchal sage whilst the plot is matur- 
 ing, and, afterward, whilst the tower is rising toward the 
 sky ? Where is that aged man of God, who, in years gone 
 by, when the whole world had contemned and forsaken the 
 Lord, and run into flagitious excesses, into the extremes of 
 15 
 
326 INFERENCE RELATIVE TO THE PATRIARCH. 
 
 wickedness, still unflinchingly clung to the Almighty, and was 
 so unswervingly regardful of his Heavenly Sovereign's will 
 and pleasure ? Has he been privy to the scheme of the Ba- 
 bel-builders, and, though too aged and infirm to bring physi- 
 cal aid to the enterprise, has he lent it his countenance, and 
 encouraged and urged others to summon their physical ener- 
 gies to the work of pushing the offensive structure toward the 
 heavens ? Not so. Aware what manner of spirit this old 
 saint was of what a tender and superlative concern had 
 been for centuries cherished by him for the divine glory, and 
 how opposed to human when set in antagonism with and pro- 
 cured at the expense of the divine, those occupying the van 
 in the Babelic translation would be so far from expecting to 
 obtain his sanction to a project like theirs, if its features in 
 frank and undisguised fairness were all laid before him, took 
 great pains, no doubt, to shroud in impenetrable concealment 
 their main designs; endeavored, by subterfuges, misrepre- 
 sentations, ingenious devices, dishonest artifices, to keep him 
 as ignorant as possible of the leading motives impelling them 
 to the enterprise. This they would be strongly induced to 
 do from fear of antagonistic influence from one so venerable, 
 and whose will had formerly, for so long a season, been law 
 to his offspring. If, after any manner, from any source, this 
 patriarchal chief did receive hints or gather suspicions rela- 
 tive to their principal object in this undertaking, and if he had 
 received at any time such intimations from on high as to 
 bring him to some understanding of God's designs or inten- 
 tions in regard to the settlement of his descendants, and the 
 formation of a large number of tribes and nations in different 
 parts of the wide world a thing which we think there is 
 pretty good reason for believing did occur at the period and 
 in connection with the prophecies which he, at a prior season, 
 had uttered respecting the prospective situation or destiny of 
 his three sons and their progeny respectively he then did 
 not fail to discountenance the ambitious and reprehensible 
 
WHO WERE THE BUILDERS. 327 
 
 proceeding, and, to the extent of his then existing ability, 
 labor to dissuade all over whom he could hope to have influ- 
 ence, from lending aid, in any measure or manner, to the 
 work. If such intimations as we have just hinted at had been 
 received by Noah, he had probably promulgated the fact, 
 either years previously, or, it may be, just before the forma- 
 tion of the project relating to the city and tower. He might, 
 just antecedently to this latter, have said to his posterity, now 
 on the plains of Shinar : " It is not in accordance with the will 
 of Heaven, and so will not be expedient or proper for you all 
 to entertain the idea of settling here permanently, and so, of 
 making arrangements accordingly. Not only will your num- 
 bers soon become too great for you to be able comfortably to 
 reside or even obtain the means essential to subsistence in 
 even so broad a territory as this appears to be ; but I have 
 received intimations from that Father who originated our 
 being, and who from his celestial pavilion is now looking 
 down upon us, that his desires and designs are that by you 
 and your descendants the different portions of the wide world 
 shall be colonized." And we may suppose our patriarch to 
 follow this general announcement with considerable par- 
 ticularity and fulness of detail. And it may have been this 
 announcement that gave rise indeed to the first thought, and 
 then to the ripening, of the scheme we are considering. The 
 master spirit revolves the matter in his mind, and says to 
 himself, " This is not agreeable to me. Let me summon a 
 council, consisting of a few, in whom I can confide, and who 
 are accustomed to listen to me." The issue is, a resolution 
 that no such occurrence as a sundering of the bands and a 
 separation of the Shinaric residents must take place ; and then 
 the means of prevention are considered and determined on : 
 " Go to," say they ; " let us build us a city and a tower, 
 whose top may reach unto heaven, and let us make us a 
 name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole 
 earth." Here then is rebellion, direct and stout rebellion, and 
 
328 WHO DISSENTED FROM THE ENTERPRISE. 
 
 not merely against Noah, but God. And what gives particu- 
 lar plausibility to this view of the affair is, that the leader in 
 the undertaking was called by a name which signifies " son 
 of rebellion," and which is thought to have been assigned 
 him either prophetically, or, more probably, after and on ac- 
 count of his prominent agency in this transaction. This man, 
 with several coadjutors much resembling himself and under 
 his influence, appears to have been successful in inducing a 
 large proportion of the people all the Karaites, nearly or 
 quite the whole number of the Japhethites, and of the Shem- 
 ites some, we cannot say just how many, to unite with them 
 in rearing the projected structure. Among the means used to 
 weaken and destroy the influence of the patriarch's counsels, 
 remonstrances, and entreaties, with those of them who were 
 at first somewhat reluctant about enlisting in the project, one 
 probably was, to represent the old man as in his dotage and 
 behind the times. There were those, however, who, having 
 listened to and profited eminently by this aged saint's instruc- 
 tions and counsels before, would not turn a deaf ear to him 
 now. These were the pious among the Shemites. 
 
 We some time since caught a glimpse of the contrast in 
 character between Shem and Ham. These contrasts reap- 
 pear are distinguishably stamped on their offspring. If the 
 Shemites, for want of numerical strength, cannot control or 
 stay the proceedings in reference to the tower, they can at 
 least refrain from taking any part in its erection. They can 
 continue at their lawful and useful avocations ; and, if not 
 all, a considerable proportion of them all the pious, and 
 probably some others did so. As to the progeny of 
 Japheth they, like their paternal ancestor of that name, 
 were full of energy ; had a soul fired with ambition and love 
 of enterprise ; the elements of greatness pervading their 
 whole being ; panting to give birth and enlargement both to 
 the useful and ornamental of life ; ready not only to think, 
 but to act having not alone heads to plan, but hands to 
 
THE DIVINE INTERFERENCE. 329 
 
 execute; inclined in a measure, but not equally with the 
 Shemites, to inquire about the moralities of projects and pro- 
 ceedings ; somewhat, but not excessively, scrupulous less 
 inquisitive, as to the right and the wrong, than the expedient 
 and inexpedient ; differing both from the Shemite and Hamite 
 lines in several important particulars besides what course 
 do these Japhethites take in relation to the tower? We have 
 already, in a general way, answered that question. That 
 they would in a body go with the Shemites, could, with such 
 traits as we have specified, be hardly expected ; nor, with 
 the measure of scrupulosity which they had, that they would, 
 unanimously and with full consent, unite with the prime 
 projectors and their kin, the Hamites. The far major num- 
 ber, however, nearly the whole, say, Let the tower go up ; 
 and they prove not inefficient auxiliaries. Indeed the tower 
 would have never reached a moiety of the size and height it 
 did, but for them. 
 
 " The Lord " the same yesterday, to-day, and forever 
 not indifferent to earthly transactions then, any more than 
 now " came down to see the city and the tower which the 
 children of men were building," (fifth verse). Mark the 
 phrase, "the children of men" It may be used here, as 
 some have thought, in contradistinction from " the children 
 of God" indicating that none of the pious embarked in the 
 transaction a thing, it is to be believed, strictly true; or it 
 may have been intended to express, in a general way, the 
 fact that the people, i. e., the major portion, were more or 
 less concerned in the enterprise. Unquestionably was this 
 so, for the project would never have gone forward as it did, 
 had not the majority of the Shinarites been in its favor. 
 
 The Omniscient inspected the whole character of the pro- 
 ceeding; traced out all the vast results which would, both 
 sooner and later, here and there, flow out of it, should the 
 scheme be consummated. " Go to " He is resolved what 
 to do. The narration, as Dr. Smith remarks, " is given -in the 
 
330 THE CONFUSION OP TONGUES : 
 
 extreme style of anthropopathic and anthropomorphic de- 
 scription." " Go to, let us go down and there confound their 
 language, that they may not understand one another's speech. 
 And," it is added, "they left off to build the city," including, 
 doubtless, the tower. And, in the way of explanation, is this 
 remark subjoined by the narrator, "Therefore is the name of 
 it called Babel, (Confusion,) because the Lord did there con- 
 found the language of all the earth." Note, en passant, the 
 concluding clause of that verse, (ninth.) which some seem 
 anxious to limit in import to "all the land" as meaning 
 merely Shinar because they do not wish to be precluded 
 the entertainment of a favorite idea, namely, that there were 
 other descendants of Noah existing at the time elsewhere, 
 and in a variety of localities ; and, moreover, speaking, 
 probably, ere then, several, they do not tell us how many, 
 languages or dialects. 
 
 The confusion of tongues which took place at Balel what 
 shall we, young gentlemen, say upon this topic ? If there be 
 a man possessing the exact diagnosis of the case, we wish he 
 might occupy our chair while this point is under consideration. 
 It was rather a waggish remark of a piquant writer, that man 
 being an instrument of a thousand strings, there might be 
 expected all sorts of tunes from him. Certain it is, that on 
 this, as on innumerable other subjects, there is considerable 
 diversity of sentiment or conjecture. As to some of its 
 features, we are indeed prepared to speak positively ; as to 
 others, we can only speak conjecturally, or lay before you the 
 conjectures of others. In the first place, we may say, what 
 is in antagonism to the speculations of some, that there was 
 miraculous intervention. God interposed, and directly, in 
 the case. An effect or effects were produced traceable im- 
 mediately to Him. And so the historian palpably represents 
 it. In the next place, the principal effect pertained to lan- 
 guage. This we say, in opposition to the opinion of some, 
 the learned Vitringa for one, that the operation was not upon 
 
INQUIRY AS TO ITS CHARACTER. 331 
 
 the words or modes of speech at all, but upon the tempers, 
 views, and counsels, of those engaged in the Babel-building 
 enterprise. The author just named, thinks that the language 
 of the record may be understood as importing such a discord- 
 ance of opinion, such a dissimilarity or want of unity in 
 counsel and purpose produced, as effectually to prevent a 
 further prosecution of the work, and such a sundering of the 
 bonds of amity as to lead to a separation socially; that 
 there was a bar interposed to further concord a splitting 
 of the multitude into various antagonistic or contending fac- 
 tions, which could no longer cooperate, but were necessitated 
 to separate and disperse in different directions leading to 
 the fulfilment of the divine purpose, and the frustration of 
 theirs. In support of this interpretation, Vitringa appeals to 
 the usage of the sacred writers in several passages, where 
 this sense of the terms appears to be involved. 
 
 If there were no other objection to be urged against the 
 interpretation just stated, this, we think, may be : that it fails 
 tcr meet the reason assigned in the seventh verse for con- 
 founding the language of the builders, to wit, " that they may 
 not understand one another's speech." That interpretation 
 likewise appears objectionable on the ground of its leaving 
 out of view the great ulterior end of the divine interposition, 
 viz., the creating of a bar to intercourse which would not 
 simply cause a cessation of the work a matter in itself of 
 comparatively small, perhaps I may say, of no moment ; nor 
 of one leading to a separation or dispersion, for the time 
 being, or temporarily, alone but a bar effective of per- 
 manent results, of the kind just intimated; not barely a 
 putting, but a keeping, of the different portions of them 
 permanently apart ; a settling of them, in an organized ca- 
 pacity, in, different localities on the earth's surface; the 
 bringing into existence of obstacles to their future coalition 
 or universal union under one government. This would be 
 
332 THE CONFUSION OF TONGUES. 
 
 effectually done, and, as we understand the record, was 
 accomplished, by a touching of the medium of intercourse 
 by bringing about a change, adequate to the producing of the 
 desired result, in language. 
 
EVENING TWENTY-SIXTH. 
 
 YOUNG GENTLEMEN: 
 
 Mr. Bryant attempts to adduce reasons for believing that 
 the confusion of speech was a failure of the physical organs, 
 (miraculously inflicted indeed,) producing unintelligible pro- 
 nunciation of one and the same language; that this effect 
 was temporary, ceasing upon a disruption of the confederacy ; 
 and that it extended no farther than to the house of Gush and 
 his adherents. From what has been already hinted by us 
 you may infer that we do not accord with him in belief as to 
 two of the points, at least, here presented. This author's 
 opinion of the very limited extent of the effect which he holds 
 to have been produced, has its foundation in the notion that 
 only the Cushites, and a comparatively small number besides, 
 were, either actively, or after any manner, engaged in the 
 Babelic project. This last he has not proved ; nor does it 
 appear to us to accord with the tenor of the Mosaic history 
 on the subject. Not a particle more satisfactory to us is the 
 idea that the lingual effect of which he speaks was only tem- 
 porary, inasmuch as there is in it an ignoring or losing sight 
 of the ulterior and paramount end of divine interference in 
 the matter which end was indicated by us in the closing 
 part of the preceding Exercise. '* , -! 
 
 As to opinions entertained respecting the particular lin- 
 guistic effect or effects produced at Babel, they may be 
 15* 
 
331 THE CONFUSION OF TONGUES. 
 
 reduced to three. The first that we will name is, That there 
 was preternatural origin then and there given to a consider- 
 able number of new languages having little or no affinity to 
 each other; and that these languages may reasonably be 
 conceived as numerous as the families or tribes who separated 
 from each other. The second is, That, exclusive of the prime 
 language still probably retained among those who took no 
 part in, but, on the contrary, were hostile to, the Babelic 
 transaction, there were two or more new languages miracu- 
 lously originated diverging into varieties of dialect so 
 variant as to be, for the most part, mutually unintelligible ; 
 and that these corresponded numerically with the affiliated 
 companies between whom there was a severance, and differ- 
 ence of local or territorial allotment. The third opinion is, 
 That it consisted of alterations in the pronunciation, by 
 permutation of the labial letters, for instance, with the 
 palatal. This last hypothesis, that is, of a diversified change 
 in the pronunciation, leading to variety and persistency of 
 result, has been thought to derive support in part from the 
 word J15E3 saphah, which, though in the first, sixth, and 
 seventh verses, translated language, literally means lip; in 
 the utterance of words in any language, the lip being one of 
 the principal organs. And the Jewish writer Philo, in 
 speaking of the event at Babel, says, " He (Moses) calls it 
 ' confusion,'' whereas if he had designed to indicate the rise 
 of different languages, he would have more aptly called it 
 ' division ; ' for those things which are divided into parts, are 
 not so much confounded as distinguished." The meaning of 
 the verb to oalal, occurring in the Mosaic account twice, 
 is imagined to lend support to this opinion. Its signification 
 is to mingle things together, it is said, so as to produce com- 
 pounds or heterogeneous masses. A lip may be said to be 
 confounded, when a mode of utterance, previously distinct^ 
 clear, and intelligible, becomes by any means impeded, thick, 
 stammering, or, in a word, confused. A confusion rising out 
 
HISTORIC NOTICES AND TRADITIONS. 335 
 
 of a novel and great variety of pronunciation, it has been 
 suggested, would in its consequences be, for the time being, 
 much the same as if it were a multiplication of new languages ; 
 and the dialectic discrepancies, thus originating, would become 
 gradually more and more marked, as men became more widely 
 separated, in families and tribes, from each other ; and by the 
 influence of climate, laws, customs, religion, and various 
 other causes, till they finally issued in substantially different 
 languages. 
 
 An ethnological inquiry, young gentlemen, will after a 
 while claim from us some notice, and we may then probably 
 ascertain whether the study of Comparative Philology, so 
 diligently prosecuted in certain quarters of late years, has not 
 led to some results tending toward a decision of this interest- 
 ing but difficult question. It will not disappoint or surprise 
 us if from that source gleams of light shall be gathered afford- 
 ing some aid, if not in arriving at a determinate conclusion, 
 at least at some plausible conjectures as to which of the three 
 opinions that have been specified has in it most of the 
 semblance of truth. 
 
 As to the alleged events in general at Babel, although, 
 when we have the testimony of an inspired historian respect- 
 ing them, our minds should require naught corroborative from 
 any other source in order to produce full belief, yet when his- 
 toric notices or traditions are elsewhere to be found bearing 
 on the same points, it may not be amiss to allude to at least 
 some of them. Josephus says, " The Sybil " a fictitious 
 appellation of some unknown author, probably about the 
 second century before Christ " The Sybil also makes men- 
 tion of this Tower and of the Confusion of the Language, 
 when she says thus : When all men were of one language, 
 some of them built a high tower, as if they would thereby 
 ascend up to heaven, but the gods sent storms of wind and 
 overthrew the tower, and gave every one his peculiar 
 language ; and for this reason it was that the city was called 
 
336 NOTICES OF THE EVENTS AT BABEL. 
 
 Babylon." (Ant., b. 1, chap. 4, sec. 3.) Alexander Polyhis- 
 tor, who flourished about one hundred years before Christ, 
 has the following passage : " Eupolemus, in his book concern- 
 ing the Jews of Assyria, says that the city of Babylon was 
 first built by those who had been preserved from the deluge ; 
 that they were giants," i. e., in the Greek sense, not so 
 much men of enormous stature, as their mythological heroes, 
 of great prowess "that they also erected the tower of 
 which history gives account ; but that it was overthrown by 
 the mighty power from God, and consequently the giants 
 were scattered abroad over the whole earth." Abydenus, 
 who is said to have flourished in the fourth century B. C., 
 makes the following statement, as quoted by Eusebius, from 
 whom the preceding likewise is derived : " There are some 
 who say that the first men sprung out of the earth ; that they 
 boasted of their strength and size ; that they contemptuously 
 maintained themselves to be superior to the gods ; that they 
 erected a lofty tower where now is Babylon ; then, when it 
 had been carried on almost up to heaven, the very winds 
 came to assist the gods, and overthrew the vast structure 
 upon its builders. Its ruins were called Babylon. The men, 
 who before had possessed one tongue, were brought by the 
 gods to a many-sounding voice ; and afterwards war arose 
 between Cronus (Saturn) and Titan. Moreover, the place 
 in which they built the tower is now called Babylon, on ac- 
 count of the confusing of the prior clearness with respect to 
 speech ; for the Hebrews call confusion Babel." Plato also 
 reports a tradition that, in the golden age, men and animals 
 made use of one common language, but too ambitiously 
 aspiring to immortality, were, as a punishment, confounded 
 in their speech by Jupiter. 
 
 You have marked the fact that these Gentile notices repre- 
 sent the work of the Babel-builders to have been interrupted 
 after a manner of which the sacred historian makes no men- 
 tion, viz.: by a tremendous tempest. This super-addition 
 
THE CHIEFTAIN NIMROD. 337 
 
 gives so different a phase to the divine conduct in the case, 
 that it ought not to obtain credence. It is evident from the 
 record of the inspired Moses, that the Almighty chose a 
 more mild and permanently effective method for accomplishing 
 his main design, namely, the dispersion into different parts 
 of the earth of the inhabitants of Shinar. The sacred writer 
 merely tells us that " they left off to build the city," as a 
 consequence of confusion in their language being unable 
 longer to understand one another or act in concert. 
 
 It is the opinion of some writers that this tower of the 
 Babel-builders was so massive a structure as either to consti- 
 tute the nucleus of the vast pile which Herodotus so particu- 
 larly describes as reared by the second founder of Babylon, 
 i. e. Nebuchadnezzar, or else as affording a portion of the 
 materials of which that vast and wonderful structure was 
 composed. As to the identification of either the first or 
 second tower with any now existing ruin, it is perhaps im- 
 practicable. As entitled to this distinction, no less than three 
 masses of ruin in the region of Babylon have indeed been by 
 different writers claimed, to wit, Nimrod's tower at Akkerk- 
 hoof ; the Mujahlibah, about 950 yards east from the bank of 
 the Euphrates, and five miles above the modern town of 
 Hillah ; and the Birs Nimroud, to the west of that river and 
 about six mites to the south-east of Hillah. 
 
 We have spoken of a chieftain who instigated and led on 
 the enterprise of building the city and tower which have been 
 claiming our notice. This was Nimrod, a son of Gush, and 
 grandson of Ham a man of great energy and prowess, who 
 had distinguished himself beforehand as a hunter of wild 
 beasts a business not simply recreative but useful, situated 
 as were the nascent population of those early times. Suc- 
 cessful as an individual at first, he soon gathered around him 
 a body of athletic young men whom he led and directed in 
 his hunting exercises and excursions ; over whom he obtained 
 such an ascendency and influence that they became prepared 
 
338 THE CHIEFTAIN NIMROD. 
 
 to second him in any project he might undertake, or favor 
 any suggestion which might proceed from him. Patriarchal 
 authority and influence, before dominant, was thus gradually 
 undermined or interfered with, until at length, as to the 
 majority, the sinews of that antecedently venerated and 
 ascendant power so lost their tension and vigor that the 
 government of this order could no longer maintain its ground 
 was, in regard to that Babelic confederacy or community, 
 subverted not a vestige remaining. Though, as we have 
 seen, Noah retained an influence over the better, and, we 
 presume, larger portion of the Shemites, and some, not im- 
 probably of the Japhethites, yet he was, after this manner and 
 by this means, shorn of his main strength ; and being ad- 
 vanced in years, he was unfitted to make any strenuous efforts 
 to regain his former ascendant and authoritative position over 
 those who, so rebelliously and nefariously as respected him, 
 had put themselves under the chieftaincy of a bold and 
 energetic junior, whose measures and movements were more 
 of the type suited to their tastes and preferences. In setting 
 forth Nimrod as the prime subverter of the patriarchal gov- 
 ernment, after the deluge, and as the leader of the enterprise 
 pertaining to Babel, we proceed upon the authority not of 
 Josephus alone, but of the far larger number of authors of 
 distinction nearly all of this kind who have specially in- 
 vestigated and expressed their views on the subject. He is 
 indeed the first individual who is recorded to have aspired to 
 dominion over his fellow-men ; and it being expressly said of 
 him that "the beginning of his kingdom was Babel," (Gene- 
 sis 10 : 10,) what can be more natural than the conclusion 
 that he was the leader in the Babelic transaction, and that 
 the project was in great measure a scheme of his for acquir- 
 ing and retaining the mastery of the world ? And was it not 
 eminently worthy of the divine wisdom and benevolence, 
 benevolence in regard to the race, to counteract his scheme ? 
 a scheme which had in it so many and great elements of evil ; 
 
THE CHIEFTAIN NIMROD. 
 
 339 
 
 and which, had it been carried out or consummated, would, 
 without a peradventure, have proved so vastly prolific of ill. 
 You may have somewhere met with the intimation, as he 
 who addresses you has, that at the time of the Babel-building 
 proceedings, if the birth of Peleg be regarded as represent- 
 ing the date of them, this man, Nimrod, could not have 
 reached sufficient years to have acted the part of an instiga- 
 tor and leader in them. Now while we do not feel disposed 
 to express any partiality for that so early date which, as 
 indicative of the precise epoch of those proceedings, may, we 
 think, be justly deemed quite problematical, yet it appears 
 to us that if this latter could be proved exactly correct, it 
 would not thence necessarily follow that Nlmrod was not and 
 could not have been the prime mover and master spirit in 
 those transactions. Let us see. You remember that Peleg's 
 birth occurred the one hundred and first year after the flood.* 
 
 * A Genealogical Table of Postdiluvian Patriarchs, to the time of Abra- 
 ham. (See Gen. 11 : 10-26.) 
 
 
 Born in the year 
 of the world. 
 
 Age when named 
 son born. 
 
 Lived afterward 
 years. 
 
 o 
 
 0) ' ' 
 
 o> 
 
 rS 
 
 *! 
 
 
 1558 
 
 100 
 
 . 500 
 
 600 
 
 2158 
 
 
 1658 
 
 35 
 
 403 
 
 438 
 
 2096 
 
 Salah, 
 
 1693 
 
 30 
 
 403 
 
 433 
 
 2126 
 
 
 1723 
 
 34 
 
 430 
 
 464 
 
 2187 
 
 
 1757 
 
 30 
 
 209 
 
 239 
 
 1996 
 
 
 1787 
 
 32 
 
 207 
 
 239 
 
 2026 
 
 
 1819 
 
 30 
 
 200 
 
 230 
 
 2049 
 
 Nahor , 
 
 1849 
 
 29 
 
 119 
 
 148 
 
 1997 
 
 
 1878 
 
 5 70* 
 
 
 205 
 
 2083 
 
 
 2008 
 
 I loO 
 
 
 175 
 
 2183 
 
 * The number 70 indicates the age of Terah when Haran was born ; and 
 the number 130 the age of the father at the birth of Abraham. The 
 reader may see this explained near the middle of Evening Thirty-first. 
 
340 THE CHIEFTAIN NIMROD. 
 
 In the Genealogical Table which has been just handed you, 
 will you have the goodness, young gentlemen, particularly to 
 note the two following things : First, The length of life of 
 the postdiluvians in the Shemitic line there named. You will 
 observe that on an average they did not attain to more than 
 about one third of the age of the antediluvians. Secondly, 
 Mark at what time of life they severally became parents from 
 Arphaxad down to Nahor, the father of Terah ; that it was 
 from thirty to thirty-Jive years of age that is, they became 
 parents earlier than the antediluvians, proportionally to the 
 earlier occurrence of their decease. 
 
 Now as Arphaxad, the elder son of Shem, was born two 
 years after the flood (chapter 11 : 10,) so may have Gush, 
 the elder son of Ham, (chapter 10 : 6,) been born as early 
 as two years subsequent to that event. And as you have 
 marked those Shemites to have become fathers at the age of 
 from thirty to thirty-five, so may we believe Gush, Ham's 
 son, to have commenced sustaining the paternal relation in 
 equally early life, i. e. at the age of thirty or thirty-five 
 say the longer of these two periods. You perceive that, 
 according to this, Nimrod, had he been the oldest son of 
 Gush, would have come into the world thirty-seven years 
 after the flood. But instead of supposing Nimrod to have 
 been the eldest son of his father, reckon him the sixth the 
 names of five other sons being previously mentioned (chap- 
 ter 10 : 7, 8 ;) and admit an interval of two years to have 
 occurred between the births of each two of the several sons 
 then, Nimrod's birth would have taken place forty-seven 
 years posterior to the deluge, and fifty-three or fifty -four 
 years the latter properly anterior to the birth of Peleg. 
 That is, at the time of the building of the tower, or of the 
 division consequent on the confusion, Nimrod was fifty-four 
 years old at just about such a time of life in which he 
 might be naturally expected to be most forward to launch 
 into an enterprise of the kind, in its various characteristics) 
 with that of Babel. 
 
THE CHIEFTAIN NIMROD. 341 
 
 The name Nimrod is from a verb (Tito marad) whicli sig- 
 nifies to rebel, and is quite descriptive of the character of him 
 who bore it a man who spent his life in opposition to the 
 Divine Will. As a chieftain or ruler he appears to have 
 been ever actuated by desires and motives, ambitious and self- 
 ish ; and so far as he became, after any manner, acquainted 
 with the purposes, plans, will, of the Kuler Supreme, he 
 seems, in regard to these, to have invariably put himself in 
 a posture of resolute and daring antagonism. This we have 
 seen notoriously exemplified in the affair recently contem- 
 plated. It is probable that the name Nimrod was not given this 
 " son of rebellion " by his parents, but by after ages as ex- 
 pressive of his character. As an opposer of patriarchal 
 authority and a subverter of the patriarchal government, he 
 merited the descriptive and expressive appellation by which 
 he has been ever known and designated since it was first 
 applied to him. " He began to be a mighty one in the earth," 
 says the sacred historian (ch. 10 : 8.) That he became a 
 great subjugator and oppressor of his fellow-men, has been 
 an opinion handed down from generation to generation con- 
 cerning him. That the inhuman practice of war, at least in 
 the ages succeeding the flood, originated with this bold and 
 aspiring usurper, is in the highest degree probable : 
 
 " Proud Nimrod first the bloody chase began, 
 A mighty hunter and his prey was man." 
 
 Ancient testimonies do not even confine themselves to repre- 
 sentations of him as the first of tyrannical oppressors of his 
 species, but hold him forth as the prominent instigator of a 
 widespread apostacy from the faith, and defection from the 
 worship of his patriarchal ancestry. Josephus says of him 
 that " he was a bold man, and of great strength of hand ; and 
 that he gradually changed the government into tyranny, 
 seeing no other way of turning men from the fear of God 
 but to bring them to a constant dependence on his own 
 
342 CONCERNING DATE OF EVENTS, 
 
 power." The Targum of Onkelos informs us that " he began to 
 be a mighty man in sin, a murderer of innocent men, and a 
 rebel before the Lord." In the Jerusalem Targum it is said, 
 " he was a hunter of the children of men in their lano-uajres, 
 
 O O s 
 
 and he said unto them, Depart from the religion of Shem, 
 and cleave unto the institutes of Nimrod." "When we come 
 to speak of the dispersion, and somewhat in regard to what 
 followed it, we may have occasion to drop a few words addi- 
 tional concerning this man. 
 
 To the not uncommon opinion that the birth of Peleg, or 
 the one hundred and first year after the flood, is to be viewed 
 as the proper era of the confusion of tongues, and the com- 
 mencement of the division and resulting dispersion of man- 
 kind, objections may be and have been urged ; and some of 
 them are certainly not without weight. We will specify only 
 two or three. The first objection that we will state is not, we 
 think, the most formidable. It is in substance this : That 
 the descendants of our postdiluvian father could not, so early 
 as the beginning of the second century succeeding the deluge, 
 have attained to such numbers as that all, much less a part, 
 of them would have been sufficient to commence and prosecute 
 so magnificent an undertaking as that of building such a city 
 and tower as those of Babel. This objection does not appear 
 to us insusceptible of an answer. It strikes us that something 
 like the following might be plausibly set forth in reply: 
 May not an erroneous notion be conceived, first, in reference 
 to the magnitude of the Babelic city and tower? It is 
 evident that the term city is often employed in sacred history 
 to denote a population, or cluster of edifices, of no great mag- 
 nitude. And as to the tower, it certainly is possible that it 
 may have been no such structure, either as to massiveness or 
 altitude, as has been very commonly conceived. Quite a 
 mistake may be, and frequently is, committed by attaching 
 modern ideas to ancient terms. In the next place, an error 
 may be fallen into concerning the numbers to which Noah's 
 
AMOUNT OF POPULATION, ETC. 343 
 
 descendants had attained at the end of the first century after 
 the flood, by losing sight of two things : First ; the length 
 of the period with parental couples, in which, in that age of 
 the world, the process of procreation would ordinarily continue 
 which was not merely some twenty to twenty-five years, as 
 now ; but, on an average, (from the time of the deluge to that 
 of Peleg,) ranging from one hundred to one hundred and fifty 
 years. Secondly ; an error may likewise arise in the mind 
 of the reader of the genealogical list of Genesis, tenth 'chapter, 
 from imagining that that list is comprehensive of all Noah's 
 posterity so far downward from the flood as it professes to 
 extend ; whereas it is very far from being so, as any one may 
 perceive barely by noting, that in all that roll there is not to 
 be discovered the name of an individual female. This, how- 
 ever, is only a part of the omission. Read, for instance, from 
 the second to the fourth verse, inclusive, and you will find 
 that, while the names of seven sons of Japheth are given, 
 there is ho record of the names of Japheth's sons' sons, ex- 
 cept barely in the case of the two sons, Gomer and Javan. 
 Again ; look at the names of the sons of Gush, in the seventh 
 and eighth verses. These are six in number ; yet you find 
 the names of only two grandsons. In the twenty-second 
 verse, the names of five sons of Shem are mentioned ; but no 
 mention is made of children of any of these sons, save in the 
 case of two. And that Noah's three sons, taken together, 
 had no more children no more sons even than the six- 
 teen that are noticed by the historian, who, with the fact 
 before the mind a moment ago adverted to, will imagine ? It 
 is recommended to you, in this connection, to inspect the first 
 verse of the ninth chapter. Doing this, and weighing at the 
 same time the hints just thrown out, we would not be sur- 
 prised if you should come to the conclusion that, so early as 
 at the beginning of the second century after the deluge, the 
 posterity of our patriarch could not have been numerically 
 small and when you recollect, moreover, that none had so 
 
344 CONCERNING DATE OF EVENTS, 
 
 soon sunk to the tomb from tottering old age ; that, below 
 Noah and his wife, there were, at the period of Peleg's birth, 
 some four or five generations together on the earth. So far 
 as relates to numbers, then, there may have existed, at the 
 period just named, no deficiency for the execution of the 
 Babelic project. 
 
 A large proportion of these, however, be it observed, were 
 young at the time of Peleg's birth too young to be 
 efficient auxiliaries, and, as to many of them, auxiliaries at 
 all, in the building of the city and tower. And here, in the 
 juvenility, as well as childhood and infancy, of so great a 
 proportion of the Shinarites, at the end of a century from the 
 flood's cessation, may be found both a plausible and forcible 
 objection against fixing the era of the confusion and dispersion 
 so early as the birth of Peleg. Such a consideration may 
 itself prove so heavy a weight in the scale as, with many if 
 not all of you, to cause a preponderance in favor of a con- 
 siderably later point of time " in the days " of this son of 
 Heber than the earlier dawn of his being, for the confusion 
 of tongues ; for the consequent division of mankind into many 
 distinct bands ; and their divergence into different and, in 
 numerous cases, widely distant localities on our globe. Only 
 see to it, that in your anxiety and care to avoid Scylla, you 
 do not run upon Charybdis : in other words, that, adhering 
 to the common chronology, you do not fix on so late a period 
 in Peleg's two hundred and thirty-nine years, as to encroach 
 upon the season requisite for such a settling of different 
 portions of the world as is known to have occurred prior to 
 the time of Abraham's departure from Ur of the Chaldees. 
 
 There may be a supposition entertained of this sort : that, 
 about the time of Peleg's birth, there was a divinely appointed 
 division of the earth among Noah's offspring; that God 
 then gave direction to our patriarch and his three sons, after 
 some method, in regard to it ; but that the several families, 
 
AMOUNT OF POPULATION, ETC. 345 
 
 or closely affiliated branches, to which the various regions 
 had, by divine appointment, been assigned, did not at once, 
 nor until years afterward, separate, to take possession of 
 them ; that either because the time which the Supreme Dis- 
 poser appointed was not the then present, but lay at a certain 
 distance in the future, or else because of a strong, irrepressible 
 desire of the people to remain together, they did not separate ; 
 and that, say a century subsequently, upon Noah, seconded 
 by one or more of his sons, urging a compliance with the 
 divine appointment, a bold and apparently ingenious project 
 was devised by Nimrod with a few coadjutors, and favored 
 by the people the project which has been repeatedly 
 specified to prevent the fulfilment of the indicated will of 
 the Deity, the Infinite King interposed in the way to which 
 our attention has been directed. This would make the epoch 
 of the actual division and dispersion, about two centuries 
 posterior to the deluge, a season of adequate length, surely, 
 not alone for a great multiplication of our postdiluvian father's 
 posterity, but the arriving of a large proportion of them at 
 maturity. 
 
EVENING TWENTY-SEVENTH. 
 
 YOUNG GENTLEMEN: 
 
 Having on a former occasion alluded to a divine decree or 
 appointment relative to the earth's distribution amongst the 
 progeny of our patriarch, it is proper to add, that a prevail- 
 ing tradition of such a decree existed, and is moreover thought 
 to be intimated both in the Old and New Testament. Moses, 
 it has been believed, refers to it, in Deuteronomy 32 : 7-9, 
 as handed down to the children of Israel " from the days of 
 old, and the years of many generations ; as they might learn 
 from their fathers and elders ; " and further, as conveying to 
 that portion of the Shemites of which Jacob was the more 
 immediate head that is, the twelve tribes of Israel a 
 grant of the territory afterward known as the land of Pales- 
 tine, to be their lot. And, by the way, this may be regarded 
 as furnishing one of the proofs of the justice of the expulsion 
 of the Canaanites, in a subsequent age, from that land, as 
 usurpers an expulsion effected through the instrumentality 
 of the Israelites, its rightful proprietors, under Moses, Joshua, 
 and their successors. Mention of the divine decree relating 
 to this grant we find made to Abraham in Gen. 15 : 13-21 ; 
 and there was a recapitulation to Isaac and Jacob. This 
 decree had been made known to the Ilamites before the Con- 
 fusion at Babel occurred ; and with it that portion of them 
 must have been acquainted who entered and were prime 
 
REFERENCES TO DECREE OF DISTRIBUTION. 347 
 
 settlers in that land. And may not the knowledge of the 
 divine allotment of this territory to people of the Shemite 
 line, satisfactorily account for the extreme agitation and panic 
 with which the devoted nations of Canaan were struck at the 
 miraculous passage by the Israelites through the Red Sea, and 
 approach to their confines, so finely described by the historian 
 in Exodus 15: 14-16? 
 
 It is thought that in Acts 17 : 26, there is reference by St. 
 Paul, to the same decree as a well known tradition in the 
 heathen world, when, addressing the Athenians, he speaks of 
 mankind as all of " one blood," race, or stock, " the sons of 
 Adam," and of Noah in succession ; and of the seasons and 
 boundaries of their respective settlements as previously regu- 
 lated by the clivine appointment. And this was conformable 
 to their own geographical allegory, that Chronus, the god of 
 time, divided the universe among his three sons, allotting the 
 upper regions of the north to Japheth ; the maritime or mid- 
 dle regions to Shem; and the lower regions of the south 
 to Ham. 
 
 In his History of the Dynasties, Abulfaragi furnishes a tra- 
 dition that our postdiluvian father distributed the habitable 
 earth, from north to south, between his sons, and gave to 
 Ham the region of the blacks ; to Shem the region of the 
 ta,wny,fuscorum; and to Japheth the region of the ruddy, 
 rubrorum. According to this assignment, all that region em- 
 bracing what afterwards went under the name of Assyria, 
 Babylonia, Syria, Palestine, &c., fell to the Shemitic branch 
 of Noah's posterity. Whosoever then, besides Shemites, 
 should, under any chieftain, attempt to establish themselves in 
 any portion of this region, would be guilty of rebellion against 
 a divine decree or appointment, as well as of usurpation of 
 what belonged of right to others. 
 
 Of those writers who imagine that the migrating company, 
 indicated in the initial part of the eleventh chapter of Genesis, 
 as entering the plains of Shinar, and at so late a day, too, as the 
 
348 THE IDEA OF A PREVIOUS DIVISION. 
 
 chronology of the Septuagint or of Dr. Hales will allow, con- 
 sisted in large part of Cushites, more or less believe that in 
 accordance with a promulgated decree of God and under the 
 direction of Noah, a previous division of the nascent popula- 
 tion had taken place whilst they were still somewhere in the 
 region of the primary settlement of the Noachidse after the 
 deluge, and probably at a period marked by the birth of 
 Peleg ; and that the Arphaxadites, (of the line of Shem,) had 
 then gone and taken possession of their allotted portion in the 
 plain of the Euphrates ; that the Cushites, under the chieftain 
 Nimrod, refusing to go and occupy the territory assigned 
 them, after roving hither and thither for some time, and col- 
 lecting some of the baser sort from other families, introduced 
 themselves into the plains of Shinar ; made war with and sub- 
 dued or drove out the Arphaxadites from their rightful pos- 
 session ; established themselves in their lot ; and devised and 
 partially executed a project for preventing any future disper- 
 sion of their numbers. This would make the conduct of 
 Nimrod, indeed, and the Babelic confederates under him, 
 doubly rebellious and flagrant, and afford a powerful reason, 
 truly, for divine interference to overturn their scheme and 
 scatter them. Yet such an interpretation of the Mosaic 
 record has appeared too remote from literality to secure the 
 suffrages of the majority of distinguished savans who have 
 directed their investigations to this part of sacred history;- 
 with whom it has been a settled opinion that the Shinaric 
 plains presented the great centre whence proceeded the dis- 
 tribution of the human race over the face of the globe. 
 
 As to particular and reliable information in regard to the 
 dispersion of mankind from that great centre, we would have 
 you expect little from us. Were there no other preventive, 
 time itself would allow but a glance at the broad and difficult 
 theme. If by throwing out a few hints, however, we succeed 
 in exciting in you a desire for further inquiry, the little that 
 
THE DISPERSION CONSIDERED. 349 
 
 we have to say will not be laid before you in vain. Please 
 to turn now to Genesis 10th chapter. 
 
 The separation which of necessity commenced among the 
 Shinaric population, as a consequence of the confusion of 
 tongues, we must not suppose was confusedly entered upon. 
 The general tenor of the chapter, and what is remarked in 
 the 5th, 20th, and 31st verses in particular, forbid the just 
 entertainment of such an idea. The confusion affected inter- 
 course and concert between families and tribes, rather than 
 between individuals of the same tribe and family. We have 
 good reason for believing that members of the same small 
 affiliated company found no obstacle of a linguistic nature in 
 the way of free mutual intercourse. By different families or 
 groups the members of which severally were related by con- 
 sanguinity and affinity, arrangements were deliberately made 
 to go forth and occupy new homes, settle new and different 
 regions. The three greater branches of Noah's posterity 
 were not suffered to be to a large extent forgetful of the great 
 general divisions of the earth's surface which through their 
 common progenitor had been divinely appointed them re- 
 spectively ; and, with some exceptions which are not to be 
 lost sight of, were caused to yield compliance with the divine 
 allotment made to direct their course, when they moved, 
 accordingly. It would be a mistake to suppose that the do- 
 mestic or social groups of the various lines or branches 
 reached always their place of ultimate destination speedily. 
 In numerous cases, we may suppose that it was after a long 
 interval that this was effected. The Ruler over all was not 
 severe in his exactions in this respect. Indeed he had wisely 
 and kindly appointed the " times" as well as the " bounds of 
 their habitation ; " had predetermined the when as well as the 
 where, respectively, of their future and final settlement. 
 Their numbers, their progressive increase, what pertained to 
 their means of sustenance, their convenience, &c., would all 
 16 
 
350 GEOGRAPHICAL SETTLEMENT OF TRIBES. 
 
 be taken into the account by Infinite "Wisdom and Benevo- 
 lence, in his sovereign plans and allotments relative to them. 
 In your inspection of the genealogical table of this tenth 
 chapter, bear in mind, as your eye runs over the names there 
 given, that they are not to be regarded merely in an individ- 
 ual capacity ; but, for the most part, as the names of the 
 families, tribes, or nations descended from them ; just as 
 Judah and Israel, though names of single persons, were also 
 the names of whole nations ; or just as the names of the 
 twelve sons of Jacob were likewise the names of the twelve 
 tribes of Israel. Many of the names in this roll, indeed, are 
 not of the singular but the plural number. All those ending 
 in im are so, it being the plural form of the Hebrew noun. 
 (See verses 13 and 14.) Those ending in ite, you hardly 
 need be told, are descriptive of tribes, not of individuals. 
 (See verses 16-18.) Indeed scarcely a single name, there 
 mentioned, is to be understood solely in an individual ca- 
 pacity. This- genealogical chart then possesses ethnographic 
 features, and is a document, in this respect, of no inconsider- 
 able value. There is not indeed, at this distance of time, 
 furnished by it all the definite information which it doubtless 
 afforded to those who lived nearer the days of Moses. In 
 the course of ages various circumstances would operate to 
 produce changes in the names of tribes and peoples such 
 changes thaft it might at length become difficult if not 
 altogether impossible, where a record of the changes has not 
 been kept, (and what is more common than neglect here ?) to 
 trace the same people through all the periods of their ex- 
 istence. To locate correctly, by this means, all the tribes 
 and peoples whose primary names are here given, is a thing 
 therefore not to be expected. The labors and researches of 
 such men as Bochart, LeClerc, Wells, Michaelis, Sir Wm. 
 Jones, Hales, Faber, Gesenius, Baumgarten, &c., on the 
 subject, though unattended, in a large number of instances, 
 with satisfactory results, are nevertheless not to be lightly 
 
A. DESCENDANTS OF JAPHETII. 351 
 
 estimated. Of these we shall in a measure avail ourselves 
 in laying before you the little upon the topic which we have 
 on the whole thought it best to present to your consideration. 
 Inquiries, patient, untiring, now in the course of prosecution, 
 into the physical resemblances, varieties and discrepancies of 
 the different portions of mankind ; together with a careful 
 and thorough examination and comparison of the various 
 languages and dialects of the earth the study of compara- 
 tive philology or linguistics (Fr. linguistique,) at present 
 prosecuted, particularly by the German mind, with admirable 
 zeal and diligence these, ere your youthful tabernacles 
 shall become untenanted, will probably afford you much addi- 
 tional information, assisted by which you will doubtless be 
 able materially to modify and add gradually increasing cor- 
 rectness as well as extent to what, with great diffidence and 
 hesitancy, we are about to submit to your notice. The 
 authorities consulted by us are by no means agreed as to the 
 geographical position of many of the tribes. We shall con- 
 sider them in the order in which they are presented by the 
 sacred historian. 
 
 A. DESCENDANTS OP JAPHETH. (Gen. 10 : 2-5.) 
 
 I. GOMER. The Cimmerians on the north coast of the 
 Euxine. Thence they spread west over parts of Europe : 
 the Celtic and Iberian tribes, "Welsh, Gaelic, Irish, Breton ; 
 Gauls, Galatians, the Kymzy . Sons of Gomer : 
 
 (a). Ashkenaz. Axeni, inhabitants of the southeastern 
 coast of the Black Sea, where we find a country Askania, 
 and a river Askanius, and a part of Armenia ; the Basques 
 in the north of Spain ; Saxony, or perhaps all of Ger- 
 many. 
 
 (b). Riphath. Rhibii, east of the Euxine ; Tobata, and 
 other parts of Paphlagonia; Croatia; the Riphsean moun- 
 tains. 
 
 (c). Togarmah. A province of Armenia. The Arme- 
 
352 A. DESCENDANTS OF JAPHETH. 
 
 mans are said to call themselves " The house of Thorgom." 
 The prophet Ezekiel uses the same expression (Ezek. 38 : 
 6; 27: 14). 
 
 II. MAGOG. In Ezekiel this appears to be employed as 
 the name of a country, and Gog that of its chieftain. The 
 Mongoles, Moguls ; the great Tartar nation. 
 
 III. MADAI. The Medes ; people of Iran, to whom the 
 Sanscrit language belonged ; primeval inhabitants of Hin- 
 doostan. 
 
 IV. JAVAN. The lonians or Greeks. Sons of Javan : 
 (a). JElisha. Greeks especially of the Peloponesus, Hel- 
 las ; Elis, in which is Alisium. 
 
 (b). Tarshish. The east coast of Spain, where the Phoe- 
 nicians afterward planted their colony. Opinions have been 
 divided concerning it. 
 
 (c). Kittim. Inhabitants of the isles and northern coasts 
 of the Mediterranean, particularly the Macedonians and the 
 Romans, and those farther to the west. 
 
 (d). Dodanim. The [Dodonaei in Epirus, perhaps in- 
 cluding the lonians. Dodona, a colony from which probably 
 settled at the mouths of the Rhone, Rhodanus. In 1 
 Chron. 1 : 7, we read Rhodanim (a permutation of D and R, 
 not unexampled) ; from which it has been imagined that the 
 inhabitants of Rhodes might perhaps be indicated. 
 
 To the Javanian (Ionian) branch is attributed the peopling 
 of " the isles of the nations," (verse 5th.) The Hebrew word 
 E^K isles, was used to denote not only such countries as are 
 surrounded on all sides by the sea, but those also which were 
 so situated in relation to the Jews, that people could not or 
 did not go to or come from them except by water. Thus the 
 expression meant all countries, generally, beyond sea ; and 
 the inhabitants of such countries were to the Jews " islanders," 
 though occupying continental regions. The term applies, 
 therefore, for the most part, to the countries west of Palestine, 
 the usual communication with which was by the Mediterra- 
 
B. DESCENDANTS OP HAM. 353 
 
 nean. In a general sense the expression may be understood 
 to apply to Europe as far as known, and to Asia Minor. 
 
 B. DESCENDANTS OF HAM. (Gen. 10 : 6-20.) 
 
 I. GUSH. Southwestern Arabia, the modern province of 
 Jemen; in a more extended sense, Ethiopia, including 
 Southern Arabia, and Ethiopia in Africa south of Fgypt. 
 
 Sons of Gush : 
 
 (a). Seba. This tribe or class is .probably referred to 
 Suba, a native name of Meroe upon the Nile, in the farthest 
 south of Egypt, or the beginning of Ethiopia. 
 
 (b). Havilah. Vestiges of this word are found in various 
 names of places in Western Arabia, and the adjacent parts 
 of Africa. It is quite distinct from the Havilah of Gen. 
 2: 11. 
 
 (c). Saitoh. Supposed to be situated in Arabia, on the 
 Red Sea, probably in Gush or Arabian Ethiopia. 
 
 (d). JKaamah 9 JRhegma. On the Arabian coast of the 
 Persian Gulf. 
 
 Two sons of this Raamah are mentioned, to wit, Sheba and 
 Dedan. Places of these names we find in the subsequent 
 Scriptures distinguished for trade and opulence. They both 
 lie in the western part of Arabia. It was the queen of this 
 Sheba who came to learn of the wisdom of Solomon. Dedan 
 is not improbably considered as the origin of Aden, that very 
 ancient seaport and island at the mouth of the Arabian Gulf 
 or Red Sea, which has recently risen into new importance. 
 
 (e). Sabtecha. The inhabitants of the west coast of the 
 Red Sea, in African Ethiopia. 
 
 (f). Nimrod, an individual. Besides Babel, his metrop- 
 olis, he built three cities or towns in the great plain of Shi- 
 nar, viz. Erech, Accad, and Calneh. These have by some 
 been conjectured to have been Aracca or Arecha on the Ti- 
 gris (some think Edessa) ; Sacada, near the confluence of 
 
354 B. DESCENDANTS OF HAM. 
 
 the Lycus and the Tigris ; and Chalonitis, afterwards called 
 Ctesiphon. Upon these conjectures lies much obscurity. If 
 Nimrod did not continue at Babel immediately subsequent to 
 the Confusion, he is thought soon, with adherents, to have 
 returned to it, and made it the capital of his kingdom, (10th 
 verse.) 
 
 As to the import of the llth verse there is a difference of 
 opinion. Some attempt to maintain that Asshur, the son of 
 Shem, is here meant to be spoken of, and that it is declared 
 that he went forth out of the land of Shinar, and built Nin- 
 eveh, Rehoboth, &c. Others think that in that verse it is 
 meant to be affirmed that " Out of that land he (Nimrod) 
 went forth to Assyria," i. e. to invade it. This is indeed the 
 marginal reading in our English Bible ; and it is supported 
 not only by such ancient authorities as the Targums of On- 
 kelos and Jerusalem, and by Theophilus and Jerome ; but by 
 such moderns as Bochart,- Hyde, Marsham, Wells, Le Chais, 
 Faber, Hales, Morren, Clarke, Scott, &c. This latter inter- 
 pretation is supported by such reasons as the following : 1st- 
 That it perfectly accords with Nimrod's character to repre- 
 sent him as hunting from land to land for the purpose of ex- 
 tending his dominion. 2d. There would be an irrelevancy 
 in introducing Asshur, the son of Shem, in the midst of the 
 genealogy of Ham. 3d. The land of Asshur is distinguished 
 from " the land of Nimrod " in the prophecy of Micah, 5 : 6. 
 4th. The original word asn exivit, " went forth," frequent- 
 ly denotes hostile invasion. Besides ; the noun Asshur is 
 often put for the land of Assyria, (Gen. 2:14; Num. 24 : 
 24, &c.) It is, on the other hand, true that the textual ren- 
 dering of the llth verse is countenanced by most of the 
 ancient translators, and by Josephus. 
 
 II. MIZRAIM. Literally the two Egypts, the Upper and 
 the Lower : each was denominated Misr, a word even now 
 vernacular in that country. Of his descendants seven are 
 
6. DESCENDANTS OF HAM. 355 
 
 specified under plural names, some of which are well ascer- 
 tained. 
 
 (a). Ludim. Ludites, celebrated as soldiers and archers, 
 (Isa. 66:19; Jer. 46 : 9 ; Ezek. 27 : 10 ; 30 : 5,) and in those 
 passages connected with other peoples known to be African. 
 The Ludim, probably, lay toward Ethiopia. They must not 
 be confounded with the Lydians of Asia Minor. 
 
 (b). Anamim. Uncertain ; by Bochart supposed to have 
 been wandering tribes about the temple of Jupiter Ammon, 
 where was an ancient people called Nasamones. 
 
 (c). Lehabim. Perhaps inhabitants of a coast district 
 immediately west of Egypt. Probably the Lubim, (2 
 Chron. 12:3; Nahum 3 : 9.) 
 
 (d). Pathrusim. The people of the Thebaid, (Pathros,) 
 in Upper Egypt. 
 
 (e). " Casluhim,) out of whom came Philistim." A 
 people on the northeast coast of Egypt, of whom the Philis- 
 tines were a colony, probably combined with some of the 
 Caphtorim. 
 
 (f). Caphtorim. Believed to have inhabited the island 
 Cyprus. 
 
 III. PHUT. In two or three passages besides, does this 
 word occur always in connection with Africa. Phutes, an 
 African river, is mentioned by Josephus and by Pliny. 
 Hitter, the great modern archaeologist geographer, says that 
 hordes of peoples have been poured out of Futa, in the interior 
 of Africa. 
 
 IV. CANAAN. His descendants came out of Arabia, 
 planted colonies in Palestine, and gradually possessed them- 
 selves of the whole country. 
 
 His children or posterity : 
 
 (a). Sidon, his firstborn, founded the city of that name, 
 (b). JSeth, the ancestor of the Hittites. The remaining 
 nine, mentioned in verses 16-18, are laid down in the singu 
 
35G C. DESCENDANTS OF SHEM. 
 
 lar of the patronymic, or patrial adjective. All are assigned 
 to Palestine, and the boundaries of the country are precisely 
 given. 
 
 C. DESCENDANTS OF SHEM. (Gen. 10: 21-31.) 
 
 Children of Shem: 
 
 I. ELAM. The ancestor of the Elamites or Elymaeans, 
 who possessed Elymais, a region between Susiana and Media, 
 now termed Khusistan. The Japhetian Persians subsequent- 
 ly entered that region, and gained the ascendancy, and after- 
 ward they were comprehended under the name of Elam. 
 
 II. ASSHUR. The ancestor of the Assyrians. 
 
 III. ARPHAXAD. Though named after, he was born 
 before either of the two preceding. The word is a compound, 
 and is supposed to denote Neighboring to the Chasdim, i. e., 
 Chaldeans. The name appears in Arrapachitis, a province 
 in northern Assyria, the primitive seat of the Chasdim, and 
 near to which, or in it, Abraham was born. 
 
 Salah is the only son of Arphaxad whose name is given ; 
 and the only son of Salah mentioned in the genealogical 
 list is 
 
 Eber. The important circumstance attaching itself to this 
 man's name, is that of being the origin of the name Ebrew> 
 or, as it is commonly written, Hebrew, the ancient and uni- 
 versal name of the nation or people descending from him 
 through Abraham. 
 
 Of Eber, the annalist gives us the names of two sons : 
 
 (a). Peleg. The only important circumstance connected 
 with his name, of which mention is made, has been noticed. 
 
 (b). Joktan. The ancestor of the numerous tribes of 
 Arabs in Yemen, Arabia Felix or Happy which last is so 
 called on account of its spices and other rich products, and to 
 distinguish it from the Rocky and the Desert. Of Joktan 's 
 
C, DESCENDANTS OP SHEM. 357 
 
 immediate descendants, Moses has given us the names of 
 thirteen. These are to be regarded as the founders of the 
 tribes alluded to, and as affording them their distinctive ap- 
 pellations. These thirteen tribes seem to have formed the 
 confederacy of the independent and unconquerable Arabs, 
 whose peninsular, desert, and mountainous country served as 
 a defence from invasion. In subsequent times, Abraham's 
 son IshmaeFs descendants were united with them. In the 
 thirtieth verse, the phrase, " from Mesha, as thou goest unto 
 Sephar," is intended to indicate their boundaries. The 
 former is probably the country Maishon or Mesene, at the 
 northwest head of the Persian Gulf; and the latter, on the 
 southwest coast of Arabia, where is found a mount Sabber, 
 answering, it is thought, to the mount which Moses names. 
 
 IV. LUD. From this fourth named son of Shem the 
 Lydians in Asia Minor derived their name. 
 
 V. ARAM. From him the inhabitants of Syria, Chalonitis, 
 and a considerable part of Mesopotamia derived their origin. 
 The Hebrews gave the name Aram to the tract of country 
 lying between Phenicia on the west, Palestine on the south, 
 Arabia Deserta and the river Tigris on the east, and the 
 mountain range of Taurus on the north. The Aram 
 Naharaim of Scripture embraces at least the northern por- 
 tion, and some think the whole, of Mesopotamia. This latter 
 is a less common name in the sacred writings than Padan- 
 aram, i. e., plain of Aram, to denote the territory lying 
 between the Tigris and Euphrates. 
 
 Children or posterity of Aram : 
 
 (a). Uz. In the northern part of, Arabia, bordering 
 upon Chaldea : the land of Job. 
 
 (b). Hul. The large flat district in the north of Pales- 
 tine, through which lies the initial course of the Jordan, even 
 now called the land of Huleh, and in which is the lake Huleh, 
 anciently Merom. 
 16* 
 
358 C. DESCENDANTS OF SHEM. 
 
 (c). Gether. East of Armenia ; x Carthara was a city on 
 the Tigris. 
 
 (d). Mash. This indicates a mountain region, it is 
 believed, branching eastward from the great ridge of the 
 Taurus ; the Masian mountains of the Greeks and Romans. 
 
 Here is concluded what we have to say upon this intricate 
 and difficult subject. 
 
EVENING TWENTY-EIGHTH. 
 
 YOUNG GENTLEMEN: 
 
 In our last, we were called to speak of tribes and peoples 
 who, consequent upon the disruption of the confederacy at 
 Babel, went forth in various directions from the Shinaric 
 plains to fulfil the divine purpose in regard to the colonizing 
 of different portions of the world. That these migrating 
 bands were all descendants of Noah, who that receives the 
 writings of Moses as entitled to confidence will question ? 
 But, did absolutely all mankind descend from our patriarch ? 
 Certain expressions here and there employed by us in pre- 
 ceding lectures, when speaking of this man, were such that 
 the inference might be drawn, that so we believed. It is in- 
 deed our opinion that every creature possessed of the attri- 
 butes of humanity, now on the earth, is consanguineously 
 related to Noah can claim him as a progenitor ; and that 
 ever since the Flood there have been but four persons on the 
 globe whose descent was not from him. These four were 
 Noah's wife and the wife of each of his three sons. Upon 
 their death, and ever since, the globe has been occupied ex- 
 clusively by his progeny. 
 
 So believe not all. Even recently, and from a distinguished 
 naturalistic source, has there been not a prime announcement 
 indeed, but a confident repromulgation of a doctrine with 
 which this is not in harmony. We shall continue holding to 
 
360 DESCENT OF ALL MANKIND FROM NOAH ; 
 
 our tenet, however, until we discover such reasons for its 
 repudiation as appear to us irresistible. We derived it pri- 
 marily from certain declarations of the archaic historian. 
 Apart from what is embraced in that portion of bis annals 
 relating to times prior to the Flood, we understand Moses as 
 teaching that absolutely all the antediluvians who were living 
 at the very commencement of the Deluge, perished in the 
 waters, save the eight persons that entered the ark. What 
 else can he be reasonably understood as asserting in Genesis 
 7 : 21-23 ? Those minatory declarations, too, contained in 
 Genesis 6 : 7, 13, and 17, if fulfilled what else can they be 
 believed to teach? And, then, how shall we interpret 9 : 19, 
 but as presenting the idea that the postdiluvian world was 
 peopled exclusively by Noah's three sons ? And what inter- 
 pretation shall we give to the words, " to keep seed alive upon 
 the face of all the earth," Genesis 7 : 3, but as assigning a 
 reason for the aggregate command given to our magnate in 
 the preceding part of that chapter ? And if we have mis- 
 taken Moses as to these testimonies, then so the apostle 
 Peter appears likewise to have done. For, speaking of the 
 ark of Noah (1 Peter 3 : 20,) he says, " wherein few, that 
 is, eight souls were saved by water." Does he not seem to 
 think that of the absolute totality of mankind, only the eight 
 persons who were in the ark were preserved from drowning ? 
 And so, very generally, have those readers who had a rever- 
 ence for the Sacred Scriptures, believed even those of them 
 who did not believe in the complete universality of the deluge 
 yes, Dr. Pye Smith, even, who imagined the flood of Noah 
 to have been confined to a comparatively small part of the 
 globe. 
 
 As for ourselves, we shall consider it sufficiently early to 
 reject the testimony of Moses in regard to the occurrence of 
 such an event as what is called the Noachian Deluge ; or to 
 understand its effects upon mankind to have been less exten- 
 sive than the language of that writer which lias been referred 
 
OR THE UNITY OF THE HUMAN RACES. 361 
 
 to seems to indicate ; or else to believe what may be justly 
 regarded as a rare and not very demonstrable dogma that 
 since the Noachic cataclysm, the Almighty has created some 
 new pairs or races of human creatures and located them on 
 different parts of the earth's surface. 
 
 In addition to the Mosaic testimony just ad verted to in sup- 
 port of the tenet to which we hold, we would remind you of 
 the evidence in its favor which is yielded by the traditions of 
 different nations respecting the Noachic deluge, of which we 
 made mention on the Eighth and Ninth Evenings. This last 
 evidence itself is such as cannot very easily be set aside. 
 
 What, you may ask, is urged in support of that antago- 
 nistic position that all mankind cannot have proceeded from 
 a common centre, or from one paternal or ancestral source ? 
 We cannot go into detail. A general declaration of a justly 
 celebrated naturalist of our day is : " Men were primitively 
 located in the various parts of the world they inhabit ; and 
 they arose everywhere in those harmonic proportions with 
 other living beings, which would at once secure their preserva- 
 tion, and contribute to their welfare." This is followed with 
 the remark that, " To suppose all men originated from Adam 
 and Eve is to assume that the order of creation has been 
 changed in the course of historic time, and to give to the 
 Mosaic record a meaning that it was never intended to have." 
 For this and similar declarations, see Christian Examiner, of 
 July, 1850, pp. 137-139. 
 
 We must be permitted, with all due deference, humbly to 
 say in general to this : Whatever may be regarded or shown 
 to be true of the several portions of the inferior animals, 
 man is eminently a cosmopolite. He is so through the 
 physical susceptibilities and the reason with which his Creator 
 has endowed him. Everywhere a domestic animal he 
 leaves his footprints on the snows of the polar regions ; he 
 basks on the burning plains of the torrid zone ; as well as 
 regales himself and flourishes in temperate climes. He rears 
 
362 DESCENT OP ALL MANKIND FROM NOAH: 
 
 his cottage on earth's loftier elevations, as well as secures a 
 home in her deeper vales. His constitution may become 
 adapted to the localities or proximities of malarious fens ; 
 and he may be seen reposing on the oases of the thrice siccid, 
 sandy desert. His geographical range is no less than the 
 broad earth ; he can live and move literally everywhere on 
 the surface of this planet. The human animal is remarked 
 by Dr. Paley to be the only one which is naked, and the only 
 one which can clothe itself. This is one of the properties 
 which renders him an animal of all climates and of all sea- 
 sons. He can adapt the lightness of his covering to the 
 temperature of his abode. Had he been born with a fleece 
 upon his back, although he might have been comforted by its 
 warmth in high latitudes, it would have oppressed him by its 
 weight and heat as the species spread toward the equator. 
 He is withal so wellnigh omnivorous a creature that he need 
 be compelled nowhere to endure starvation through a want 
 of means essential to his sustenance. If science may ascer- 
 tain and talk of distinct " zoological provinces," let not the 
 phraseology be considered appropriate to the human kind. 
 There is no essential connection between any one .portion of 
 the globe and the portion of humanity specially occupying it. 
 Look at the aboriginal American actually occupying all 
 latitudes. The undivided, entire earth is the one proper 
 province of man. 
 
 The argument on which antagonists principally rely in 
 their onset against the doctrine of the unity of the human 
 races as to original paternity, is the number and marked char- 
 acter of the existing varieties. These are alleged to be so 
 broad, as well as permanent and ancient, as to impel to the 
 conclusion that one man, as Noah, could not have been the 
 genital ancestor of all. These varieties naturalists have 
 made attempts to classify. We have not much faith, we ac- 
 knowledge, in those lines of demarcation which they have 
 essayed to assign, since they are far from agreeing among 
 
THE CAUCASIAN VARIETY. 3G3 
 
 themselves ; and since, as Dr. Bachraan (in his Doctrine of 
 the Unity, p. 170) observes, there would be more varieties 
 that c^uld not conveniently be forced into either race than in 
 the individuals that compose the races themselves. The 
 more generally adopted classification, perhaps, is that of 
 Blumenbach. This distinguished naturalist distributes the 
 genus "homo" into the Caucasian, Mongolian, Ethiopian, 
 American, and Malay varieties. The Caucasian he regards 
 as the primitive stock. It deviates into two extremes, name- 
 ly, the Mongolian on one side, and the Ethiopian on the 
 other. The two other varieties hold the middle places be- 
 tween the Caucasian and the two extremes ; that is, the 
 American (aboriginal) comes in between the Caucasian and 
 Mongolian ; and the Malay between the Caucasian and 
 Ethiopian. 
 
 The marks and descriptions serving to define these five 
 varieties of Blumenbach, are given in Dr. Lawrence's Lec- 
 tures on Man, pp. 376-390. "We cannot refrain from laying 
 before you the following abstract : 
 
 I. CAUCASIAN VARIETY. Characters. A white skin, 
 either with a fair rosy tint, or inclining to brown ; red cheeks ; 
 hair black, or of the various lighter colors. Irides dark in 
 those with brown skin, light in the fair or rosy complexioned. 
 Large cranium with small face ; the upper and anterior re- 
 gions of the former particularly developed ; and the latter 
 falling perpendicularly under them. Face oval and straight, 
 with features distinct from each other ; expanded forehead, 
 narrow and rather aquiline nose, and small mouth ; front 
 teeth of both jaws perpendicular ; lips, particularly the lower, 
 gently turned out ; chin full and rounded. Moral feelings 
 and intellectual powers most energetic, and susceptible of the 
 highest development and culture. 
 
 The name of this variety is derived from Mount Caucasus, 
 because in its neighborhood, and particularly towards the 
 south, a very beautiful race of men, the Georgians, are met 
 
364 THE MONGOLIAN VARIETY. 
 
 with ; and because the more common opinion has been, that 
 the original abode of postdiluvian man was near that quarter. 
 
 In this variety are included all the ancient and modern 
 Europeans except the Laplanders and the rest of the Finnish 
 race ; the descendants of Europeans, of course, in the United 
 States and other parts of the Western Continent ; the former 
 and present inhabitants of Western Asia, as far as the river 
 Ob, the Caspian Sea, and the Ganges ; that is, the Assyrians, 
 Medes, and Chaldaeans; the Sarmatians, Scythians, and 
 Parthians ; the Philistines, Phoenicians, Jews, and the inhab- 
 itants of Syria generally ; the Tartars, properly so called ; 
 the several tribes actually occupying the chain of Caucasus ; 
 the Georgians (as we said), Circassians, Mingrelians, Arme- 
 nians ; the Turks, Persians, Arabians, Afghans, and Hindoos 
 of high caste ; the northern Africans, including not only those 
 north of the Great Desert, but even some tribes placed in 
 more southern regions; the Egyptians, Abyssinians, and 
 Guanches. 
 
 II. MONGOLIAN VARIETY. This is characterized by olive 
 color, which in many cases is ve'ry light, and black eyes ; 
 black, straight, strong and thin hair ; little or no beard ; head 
 of a square form, with small and low forehead ; broad and 
 flattened face, with the features running together ; the glabella 
 flat and very broad ; nose small and flat ; rounded cheeks 
 projecting externally ; narrow and linear aperture of the eye- 
 lids ; eyes placed very obliquely ; slight projection of the 
 chin ; large ears ; thick lips. The stature, particularly in 
 the countries near the North Pole, is inferior to that of 
 Europeans. 
 
 In it are included the numerous more or less rude, and in 
 great part nomadic tribes, which occupy central and northern 
 Asia ; as the Mongols, Calmucks, and Burats, the Montchoos 
 or Mandshurs, Daourians, Tungooses, and Coreans ; the 
 Samoiedes, Yukagirs, Coriacks, Tschutski, and Kamtscha- 
 dales ; the Chinese and Japanese ; the inhabitants of Thibet 
 
ETHIOPIAN, AMERICAN, AND MALAY. 365 
 
 and Bootan, those of Tongquin, Cochin China, Ava, Pegu, 
 Cambodia, Laos and Siam ; the Finnish races of northern 
 Europe, as the Laplanders ; and the tribes of Esquimaux ex- 
 tending over the northern parts of America, from Bhering's 
 Strait to the extremity of Greenland. 
 
 III. ETHIOPIAN VARIETY. The skin anil eyes black ; 
 the hair black and woolly ; the skull compressed laterally and 
 elongated towards the front ; the forehead low, narrow, and 
 slanting ; the cheek bones prominent ; the jaws narrow and 
 projecting; the upper front teeth oblique; the chin receding. 
 The eyes are prominent ; the nose broad, thick, flat, and con- 
 fused with the extended jaw ; the lips, and particularly the 
 upper one, thick. In many instances the knees turn in. 
 
 All the natives of Africa, not included in the first variety, 
 belong to this. 
 
 IV. AMERICAN VARIETY. Characterized by a dark skin, 
 of a more or less red tint ; black, straight, and strong hair, 
 small beard, which is generally eradicated, and a countenance 
 and skull very similar to those of the Mongolian tribes. The 
 forehead is low, the eyes deep, the face broad, particularly 
 across the cheeks, which are prominent and rounded. Yet 
 the face is not so flattened as in the Mongols ; the nose and 
 other features being more distinct and projecting. The 
 mouth is large, and the lips rather thick. The forehead and 
 vertex are in some cases deformed by art. 
 
 This variety includes all the Americans (aboriginal) with 
 the exception of the Esquimaux. 
 
 V. MALAY VARIETY. Brown color, from a light tawny 
 tint, not deeper than that of the Spaniards and Portuguese, to 
 a deep brown approaching to black. Hair black, more or 
 less curled, and abundant. Head rather narrow ; bones of 
 the face large and prominent ; nose full and broad towards 
 the apex ; mouth large. 
 
 To this division belong the inhabitants of the peninsula of 
 Malacca, of Sumatra, Java, Borneo, Celebes, and the adja- 
 
36G DESCENT OP ALL MANKIND FROM NOAH ; 
 
 cent Asiatic islands ; of the Molucca, Ladrone, Philippine, 
 Marian, and Caroline groups ; of New Holland, Van Die- 
 man's Land, New Guinea, New Zealand, and the numberless 
 islands scattered through the whole of the South Sea. It is 
 called Malay, because most of the tribes speak the Malay 
 language ; which may be traced, in the various ramifications 
 of this race, from Madagascar to Easter Island. 
 
 Such, young gentlemen, are the varieties as to configura- 
 tion, complexion, etc., of mankind. They are striking. 
 Could all they among whom so many, and, as to the extremes 
 especially, so great varieties exist, have proceeded from one 
 stock ? Is it credible ? 
 
 We will introduce whatever will be offered by us in 
 reply, with the declaration, if not of a great naturalist, at 
 least of a great man, and one who was not accustomed to 
 speak at random. Addressing a body of sages at Athens, 
 there fell from his lips this sentence : " God hath made of one 
 Mood all nations of men, to dwell on all the face of the earth." 
 Acts 17 : 26. The statement is not so obscure as to need 
 explanation or comment. "We have been accustomed to listen 
 with respect and confidence to the declarations of this man in 
 regard to other matters, and we can discover no good reason 
 why we should not also as to this. 
 
 At the outset of what we ourselves have to say in answer to 
 the interrogatory just stated, the following remark will be 
 found true : There is a wide distinction between man, in all his 
 varieties, and all other animals. Betwixt them there lies a 
 boundary so broad that no Lamarck, with all the ingenuity he 
 may think himself to possess, can get his monads, or even any 
 larger and more active kind of animal, over it. The boundary 
 may be safely declared to be utterly impassable. There is an 
 immense remove of human from all other creatures beneath 
 the sun. Let it be observed, in the next place, that great 
 and surprising as we have seen the varieties among the 
 human kind to be there are, on the other hand, remarkable 
 
OR THE UNITY OF THE HUMAN RACES. 367 
 
 resemblances between all the several portions of them notable 
 uniformity amidst the variety. Having specified the varieties, 
 it would not be right to suffer the resemblances to pass without 
 some notice. 
 
 With particular reference to this point, then, let us take a 
 glance at man's osseous structure. Besides the teeth, there 
 are two hundred and eight bones in the human frame. In 
 every " race " or variety, however widely separated, there are to 
 be found the same number of bones.* There is a peculiarity 
 in the breast bone : that is, in infancy it has eight pieces ; in 
 youth three ; in old age but one. This is true alike in regard 
 to all the " races." The cranium is composed of eight bones ; 
 each ear has four small bones ; the face fourteen. No differ- 
 ence is to be discovered, in these particulars, among the 
 different portions of mankind. The trunk has fifty-four 
 bones ; the spinal column is composed of twenty-four ver- 
 tebrae or pieces of bone. The resemblance here is perfect 
 amongst men everywhere. The phalanges of the fingers 
 have three ranges of bones ; the thumb but two. The bones 
 of the foot, tarsal and metatarsal, are in the human creature 
 peculiar he differs in this respect from every other creature 
 on the globe. As to dentition there is a peculiarity among the 
 human kind. There is a set of temporary teeth, twenty in 
 number, possessed in infancy or childhood. Between the 
 years of six and fourteen, these drop out and are replaced by 
 thirty-two permanent teeth. In these several respects, what 
 is true of any one part of mankind is true of all. 
 
 Let us next glance at man's physiological organism. The 
 number and arrangement of the muscles are similar in all 
 human bodies. In the digestive, circulatory, secretory, and 
 respiratory organs, no difference has been detected amongst 
 
 * If differences have been detected in the number of vertebrse in indi- 
 viduals occasionally a rib more or less than the usual number these 
 differences were found principally to exist in different individuals of the 
 white race. 
 
368 DESCENT OP ALL MANKIND FROM NOAH; 
 
 the diversities of men. The temperature of the body, more- 
 over, is the same in all ; or at least there is no more difference 
 here, between the five varieties of mankind, than is discernible 
 among individuals of the same variety. Again : There is that 
 beautiful mechanism, the larynx peculiar to the human 
 creature, and affording him the priceless power of speech and 
 of song. This complicated and mysterious structure will, 
 upon examination, be discovered to be, amongst all the 
 physical phases of humanity, identical. Everywhere, man 
 has the power of affording to the products of his mind a 
 verbal vehicle, and of pouring forth from his lips melodious 
 strains. Numerous physical similarities might be added to 
 those already mentioned of which, however, we will only 
 specify these three : The human creature, wherever found, is 
 bimanous ; of smooth skin ; and of erect posture. 
 
 The different species of sub-human mammalia exhibit pecu- 
 liarities in the period of gestation ; in the number of their 
 young ; in the time of arriving at maturity ; and in the term 
 of life. If mankind were composed of a variety of species, 
 instead of varieties of one and the same species, we might 
 expect among them to find an absence of uniformity or resem- 
 blance here. But in all the races or varieties of men, there 
 is a general uniformity in these several respects. 
 
 All the human races, the lowest among them not excepted, 
 evince the possession of the power of reasoning and of com- 
 bination, and after methods strikingly distinguishing them 
 from all the other tribes of living things. As in other ways, 
 witness its manifestation in regard to the uses of fire; in 
 reference to a resort to artificial apparel ; and in the construc- 
 tion of advancingly commodious or comfortable habitations. 
 As to instincts ; as to the wondrous capability of recognizing 
 moral distinctions ; and as to the upspringing and elative 
 hope of immortality, may be observed a notable likeness in 
 universal manhood, as well as a broad distinction in its every 
 phase between it and all the inferior forms of life. We will 
 
OR THE UNITY OF THE HUMAN RACES. 369 
 
 name but this additional feature of resemblance to be marked 
 amongst all the families of man. It is the capacity of in- 
 definite improvement as to their mental and moral powers. 
 
 Now such being the resemblances found among universal 
 mankind, we may ask with emphasis, what good reason have 
 any on any principles of science, what grounds to deny 
 their common origin ? 
 
 We proceed to another argument. No word in our lan- 
 guage, perhaps, is more loosely used than species; and in the 
 scientific world various have been the definitions given to 
 it definitions, in many cases, framed apparently to suit 
 favorite theories. What, in zoology, is a species ? One of 
 the first ethnologists of the day, Dr. Latham, in his Natural 
 History of the Varieties of Man, tells us that u a species is a 
 class of individuals, each of which is hypothetically considered 
 to ' be the descendant of the same protoplast, or of the same 
 pair of protoplasts." We can perceive no valid objection to this 
 statement. A species of living things, then, is such a tribe, 
 or portion of them, as have descended from the same original 
 stock or parentage. Now nature (as we say), does nothing 
 in vain. The specific distinctions to which she has given rise 
 in animated existence, have their uses. They serve for the 
 safety, convenience, and comfort of sub-human tribes ; and, in 
 reference to those inferior forms of organic life, they answer 
 not dissimilar ends to man. They are fixed; and how im- 
 mensely important it is, that they should be so. We speak 
 of strictly specific distinctions. If they could, through coition, 
 be extensively interfered with if by intermixtures indefinite- 
 ly they might be confounded all the lines of demarcation 
 which were primarily drawn, if these could be effaced we 
 will not essay to conjecture the evils or mischiefs which would 
 ensue; how numerous, diversified, and great monstrosities, 
 even, might be the consequence. Nature such is the com- 
 mon, though not unobjectionable, mode of expression we use 
 it because it is common, meaning properly by it the God of 
 
370 DESCENT OF ALL MANKIND FROM NOAH ; 
 
 nature Nature has, therefore, seen to it, that this shall not 
 happen. She has taken care to raise an effectual, impassable 
 barrier to such an occurrence. This is twofold. First, she 
 has produced between the different species a strong, invincible 
 repugnance to union. Secondly and this is what we wish 
 specially to be noted she has imparted to each species an 
 organization so peculiar to itself, as to render it impracticable 
 for creatures of any two species to originate a new one. By 
 some of the species, most nearly approximating each other 
 organically, individual hybrids may, by forced copulation, be 
 engendered ; but hybrids are infertile ; there is not the capa- 
 city among them of a permanent reproduction of their kind. 
 This doctrine of the general sterility of hybrids this inca- 
 pability among them to perpetuate their kind, or form new 
 species, there have indeed been efforts put forth, and by some 
 quite respectable naturalists, to overthrow ; but we cannot say 
 of them, that they have been as successful as they have been 
 strenuous and earnest. Indeed we think, by the justly cele- 
 brated Dr. Bachman, in particular, in his Unity of the Human 
 Race, the doctrine just named has been shown to be insuscep- 
 tible of overthrow. This author's treatise we hope you may 
 soqn consult, with the view of satisfying your minds on this 
 point. 
 
 Now for an application of the doctrine to the interesting 
 and important question before us. Reasoning from analogy 
 we are constrained to infer that if among mankind there 
 existed strictly specific diversities if in regard to tribes, or 
 portions, or if you please, races, of them a plurality of an- 
 cestral origin were predicable, then so far as copulative asso- 
 ciation with each other should result in the production of 
 offspring, the latter would be infertile ; the incapability of 
 permanent reproduction would be found existing. Now what 
 is the fact ? Who needs to be informed of the universal and 
 permanent fertility of the different races mutually associating ? 
 The Caucasian, Mongolian, African, Malay, and aboriginal 
 
OR THE UNITY OF THE HUMAN RACES. 371 
 
 American, associationallj afford us" ample evidence of such 
 being the fact. On the confines of Asia, Africa, and Europe, 
 many new intermediate races have been thus produced all 
 fertile in their generations, and in their various copulative 
 interminglings. " Within the last two hundred years, a new 
 race has sprung up in Mexico and South America, between 
 one branch of the Caucasian and the native Indian, together 
 with no small admixture of African blood. In the United 
 States, whose first permanent settlement commenced in Vir- 
 ginia, in 1607, the two extremes of African and Caucasian 
 have met and produced an intermediate race." (Jlachman.) 
 Malte-Brun, speaking of the Portuguese in Africa, says : 
 " The Rio South branch is inhabited by the Maloes, a negro 
 race, so completely mingled with the descendants of the 
 original Portuguese as not to be distinguished from them." 
 There is a large and growing tribe in South Africa, called 
 the Griqua, on Orange river, who are a mixture of the origi- 
 nal Dutch settlers and the Hottentots. To this we have the 
 testimony of respectable writers. Ample proof is not want- 
 ing that no organic bar to productive sexual intercourse ex- 
 ists between the several varieties. We hesitate not indeed 
 to affirm it as a truth that no fact is more fully or satisfac- 
 torily established than that all " the races " of human kind 
 produce in perpetuity an intermediate and fertile progeny. 
 The inference is, that they all belong to one species have 
 their descent from the same original stock. 
 
EVENING TWENTY-NINTH. 
 
 YOUNG GENTLEMEN: 
 
 Opponents of the doctrine that universal mankind have 
 the same original paternity, or are of the same species, insist 
 that it cannot so be, on account of the diversities as to con- 
 figuration and complexion known to exist among the human 
 "races." But is diversity in these respects evidential of 
 specific difference ? Is all variety to be regarded as specific ? 
 Look at the lower animals. Does one and the same species 
 amongst them exhibit no varieties ? Were it so, a strong 
 argument might thence be analogically derived, that man- 
 kind, if all of a common species or origin, should manifest 
 identity of feature and color throughout the whole range of 
 them. Then, diversities showing themselves, so far, numeri- 
 cally, as they made their appearance, would be the number 
 of the species or original stocks whence they proceeded. But 
 who so wild as to contend for such a thing ? On examining 
 the lower tribes we find in the same species, or in those 
 known to have descended from the same original stock, a 
 tendency to assume diversities both as to feature and color. 
 The bare fact then that diversities in these respects exist 
 among the families of man does not of itself show an ab- 
 sence of identity in origin. God has ordained the existence 
 of such varieties in the same species varieties confined 
 indeed within certain limits such limits as not to confound 
 
DESCENT OF ALL MANKIND FROM NOAH. 373 
 
 or interfere with specific distinctions. He has manifested 
 not only wisdom, but benevolence in so doing. Suppose, e. g., 
 any one species were of entire uniformity as to figure and 
 color, what would be the consequence, not merely or so much 
 to that species, but to human ownership ? Property in do- 
 mestic animals, as is easy to perceive, could hardly exist, 
 were this the case. Who could tell which animal of a given 
 species was his, and which another man's, were this so ? And 
 in regard to mankind, or any one race of them, if they were 
 all identical in conformation and complexion, we can easily 
 imagine that some perplexing and troublesome inconveniences, 
 and amusing or melancholy mistakes, would ensue. The 
 domestic relation could hardly subsist indeed under such 
 circumstances. Husbands would be unable to recognize 
 their wives, and vice versa. Children would be without the 
 best means, to say the least, of knowing their parents ; and 
 parents of determining who were their children. The honest 
 man might be confounded with and punished in the room of 
 the rogue, and the latter be taken for and treated as an honest 
 man. The great social wheels would have to stop, and con- 
 fusion indescribable and interminable would be the result 
 not as at Babel, from variety, but from similarity or identity. 
 
 Another and what may be deemed a higher end of this 
 diversity in each existing species, or of the law in conformity 
 with which such variety arises, is the following: As the 
 whole earth was not uniform as to climate, etc., there was a 
 necessity, in order to the securing of important ends, that an 
 adaptability should be introduced into the physical constitu- 
 tion, by which creatures of the same species should be able 
 not only to exist, but more or less flourish, in different tem- 
 peratures, or'otherwise diversified circumstances and localities. 
 
 But the advocates of the doctrine of plurality urge that the 
 
 varieties in the five classes of mankind, particularly some of 
 
 them, are "exceeding broad" too broad to allow a rational 
 
 entertainment of the idea that all belong to one species, or 
 
 17 
 
374 DESCENT OF ALL MANKIND FROM NOAH; 
 
 originated in a common ancestry. The objectors to our 
 doctrine on this ground may be invited to turn tlieir eye to 
 the sub-human departments of organic and animated existence ; 
 especially to those kinds that have been subjected to domesti- 
 cation. The question may be pressed upon them, Are there 
 not wide varieties among creatures of one and the same 
 species to be found there? varieties anatomical, physio- 
 logical, and in color, equally wide with those discoverable 
 among the human races ? We would ask them to look at 
 the several species of domesticated animals : At the horse 
 (Equus caballus.) "Under all its varieties," as Dr. Bachman 
 observes, (p. 124,) "it is undoubtedly of one species, since 
 it is the only true horse, either in a wild or domesticated 
 state." By all naturalists of high authority it is admitted 
 and has been maintained that it has descended from the same 
 stock. Let them cast their eye at the massive London dray 
 horse, or Pennsylvania Conestoga, down through the varieties, 
 the Arabian horse, the French coach horse, Canada horse, the 
 marsh tackey of Carolina, to the pony of the Shetland 
 islands. Will the advocate of a plurality of species in men 
 on account of variety observable among them, turn from this 
 survey of the equine species and continue to insist that the 
 races of men cannot be of the same species, or have their 
 descent from a common ancestral stock ? Let them be invited 
 to inspect the varieties of the cow, the sheep, the dog, swine, 
 and domestic fowl. Will they not find as broad varieties 
 among these, severally, as among mankind ? Yet we might 
 reasonably expect greater varieties to prevail amongst men 
 than amongst the members of any sub-human species, in part 
 arising from or connected with the truly cosmical adapta- 
 bilities of which the human creature evinces the possession. 
 
 But it may be urged by oppugners of the doctrine of unity, 
 that if the prominent physical varieties among men are not 
 specific and primary, but owing to subsequent accidental 
 causes or influences, we should be compelled to look for no 
 
OR THE UNITY OF THE HUMAN RACES. 375 
 
 fixedness or permanence of color, etc., under opposite acci- 
 dental causes or influences. On the supposition, for instance, 
 that climate be one of those influences, the same man would 
 change in color if for any considerable period removed frorn 
 one climate to another; and as long or often as climatic 
 changes occurred, and to the degree in which they occurred, 
 so long or often, and to such degree, would complexional and 
 other alterations ensue. 
 
 We will preface the few words which we shall offer in reply, 
 with remarking that complexion or color, though so obvious 
 as to be commonly regarded as one of the most important dis- 
 tinctions in the races, is in reality not so. The seat of the 
 diversified tints is barely the rete mucosum, a delicate stra- 
 tum interposed between the epidermis and cutis vera or true 
 skin. A distinction so superficial does not appear to furnish 
 a solid foundation on which to build a hypothesis so weighty 
 as a plurality of species ; or to present a vastly formidable 
 objection to the doctrine of unity of descent of the various 
 families of man. That climate, situation, food, mode of life, 
 etc., exert an influence upon the susceptible human constitu- 
 tion, few if any will deny, how much soever they may differ as 
 to the degree or duration of the influence. There is an indis- 
 putable tendency in the human creature, and we may add, in 
 sub-human, too, to put on certain changes of color, hair, 
 form, etc., when removed from one climate and locality 
 to another, or when subjected to any great change in manner 
 or habits of life. "Whether," says a respectable writer, 
 "the external condition of these changes be the chemical 
 solar rays ; the altitude or depression of the general level ; 
 the difference of geological formations ; the varying agencies 
 of magnetism and electricity ; atmospheric peculiarities ; mias- 
 matic exhalations from vegetable or mineral matter ; differ- 
 ence of soils ; proximity to the ocean ; variety of food, habits 
 of life and exposure all of which perhaps at times come in 
 play or other causes yet more occult ; there can be no 
 
376 DESCENT OF ALL MANKIND FROM NOAH; 
 
 question about the fact that such causes are at work. The 
 general fact is, that when the other physical conditions are 
 the same, tribes living nearest the equator, and level of the 
 sea, are marked with the darkest skin and the crispest hair. 
 Thus, we make a gradual ascent from the jetty negro of the 
 line to the olive colored Arab, the brown Moor, the swarthy 
 Italian, the dusky Spaniard, the dark-skinned Frenchman, the 
 ruddy Englishman, and the pallid Scandinavian." (Moore.) 
 In regard to the duration or permanence of varieties, this 
 appears to be a general fact, that, when once formed, they 
 never return to their original type, if left to themselves. 
 They may be changed into new varieties, by being subjected 
 to new circumstances ; but, if left alone, they will perpetuate 
 their own characteristics, and not those from which they 
 have departed. The motto of nature is, nulla vestigia re- 
 trorsum. Hence the negro does not become white or ruddy 
 by leaving a burning equatorial region and becoming an in- 
 habitant of a temperate locality. 
 
 By the advocates of plurality of primeval parentage, it is 
 additionally urged, that the prominent diversities found among 
 men are ancient so ancient as to be incompatible with the 
 doctrine that universal mankind proceeded from a single 
 original stock. With the view of fully establishing this point, 
 the mummies of Egypt have been hunted up, and the grave- 
 yards of gray antiquity ransacked. 
 
 That prominent varieties early had an existence we are not 
 disposed to deny. The flexile tendencies to variation, the 
 adaptive susceptibilities imparted to man's physical constitu- 
 tion at the beginning, would, under appropriate circumstances 
 or influences, to some extent work out results of this nature 
 even in antediluvian times. This law had made its imprints 
 on the little Noachic band that had come over the waters from 
 the Old to the New World. Under its operation even Noah's 
 three sons were not precisely alike. Much less were their 
 wives, who came from different families and probably differ- 
 
OR THE UNITY OF THE HUMAN RACES. 377 
 
 ent localities of the Old World. Their immediate offspring 
 would be more variant from one another than were they. 
 And as one generation succeeded another, the diversities 
 would by the same cause increase. If, as some suppose, the 
 deluge for a time left influences tending to facilitate the oper- 
 ation of existing constitutional adaptabilities, and if, as has 
 been also imagined, these last were in the earlier ages greater 
 than since, there then would, very soon after the Flood, 
 appear very considerable varieties among our patriarch's 
 descendants. 
 
 But in accounting for the antiquity of leading varieties in 
 the human kind, it is our deliberate opinion that at some early 
 period subsequent to the Deluge, there was a preternatural 
 intensifying of prime physical susceptibilities ; that this may 
 have occurred at the era of God's giving directions to Noah 
 respecting the partition of the earth among his descendants ; 
 or, as we are rather inclined to think, synchronally with the 
 miraculous Confusion of Tongues at Babel. We have on a 
 former occasion expressed our belief of the great final cause of 
 that Confusion. For the same grand reason it seems to us 
 that the Supreme Ruler would superadd the effect just men- 
 tioned. Devising for wise and benevolent purposes the 
 speedy spread of mankind abroad, and not only their proxi- 
 mate or temporary but persistent separation, he would, the 
 more effectually and completely to secure what he wished, 
 cause early to exist among the postdiluvians, considerable 
 physical as well as linguistic diversities. This intensifying 
 of original constitutional tendencies to variation he would 
 cause to continue just so long as would be seen by him requi- 
 site to secure the desired broad and abiding physical differ- 
 ences. As to intermediate varieties, they are produced, 
 among other means, by copulative interminglings of the 
 wider ; and they are on the constant increase. 
 
 In our last preceding lecture we referred to an eminent 
 naturalist of our day, as the repromulgator of the doctrine of 
 
378 DESCENT OF ALL MANKIND FROM NOAH; 
 
 a plurality of origin of mankind. He, contrary to all others, 
 if we mistake not, holding to the plurality doctrine, acknow- 
 ledges the genus "homo" to consist of a single species, but 
 uses the term species in such a sense as not to be incompatible 
 with the doctrine of diversity of origin. Having first labored 
 to establish the position that there are certain "zoological 
 provinces," the fauna as well as flora of which severally were 
 created in the province itself, and not introduced into it by 
 migration or transfer from a common centre, he proceeds to 
 maintain that " each province has its own race of men, which 
 could not have come from a single pair, but must have been 
 created each in the province where it is found." The proto- 
 plasts or primary human occupants of the different provinces, 
 too, were not created simultaneously, but at different seasons. 
 The Adam and Eve of Genesis, according to him, were far 
 from the only pair brought into being when they were ; and 
 they were by no means of the first race of the human kind 
 that were created. 
 
 To this we venture the following very brief remarks in 
 reply: First, The fact that the human creature is possessed 
 of cosmical and not merely provincial adaptabilities is itself 
 pretty strong proof, that the races of mankind were not 
 created and primarily located at different centres. Secondly, 
 Violence is done to the Mosaic history by attempts to recon- 
 cile it with the hypothesis that "Adam and Eve were not the 
 only nor the first human pair created." If Adam and Eve 
 were formed on the sixth geogonic day, there could have been 
 no pre-Adamites ; and if biblical interpreters, and no less 
 than an-inspired apostle among the number, (1 Cor. 15: 45, 
 47,) understand correctly the teachings of the archaic record, 
 then Adam was- "the first man," and, consequently, there 
 were no other men created simultaneously with him, much 
 less before him. Thirdly r , A creative act being a miracle, it is 
 unphilosophical to resort to so many miracles for the produc- 
 tion of a species, when a far less number may be reasonably 
 
OR THE UNITY OP THE HUMAN RACES. 379 
 
 believed quite sufficient to answer the purpose. Fourthly, 
 The prevalent conclusions of the highest geological authori- 
 ties go to confirm the Mosaic account as to the recent date 
 of primeval man. These testify that there were no pre- 
 Adamites. Fifthly, All history, as well as tradition, points 
 to one part of the earth, and that Central Asia, as the cradle 
 of the human race. Sixthly, It is declared by Dr. Pickering, 
 that it appears, " on zoological grounds, that the human family 
 is foreign to the American Continent." 
 
 An important branch of ethnology remains yet unconsulted 
 in regard to the interesting and momentous inquiry before us. 
 It might be justly considered as a great and, indeed, culpable 
 omission, did we altogether fail to question her in reference 
 to the extent of the paternity of our patriarch. We allude 
 to Comparative Philology, or what the French term Linguis- 
 tique. We regret that we have time to listen to the testimony 
 of this witness but for a few moments. Thankful we will 
 feel, however, for the opportunity to catch from her lips even 
 a few w r ords on this point. It is not yet three-fourths of a 
 century little, if any, more than a half since she assumed 
 such form and dimensions as to entitle her to the appellation 
 of science. Bursting forth then from the dark and narrow 
 cell and heavy enslaving shackles by which she had long 
 been cramped, as well as confined, she exhibited, for a while, 
 the wild and antic waywardness of chafed and inexperienced 
 childhood. The last century may, perhaps, truly be said to 
 have closed with such a state of linguistique as either to favor 
 the now confessedly insupportable hypothesis, that the Babelic 
 Confusion consisted or resulted in the origination of quite a 
 number of languages, bearing, for the most part, no affinities 
 to each other ; or else to corroborate such a theory as that of 
 Professor Agassiz, that mankind had originated in different 
 "provinces," between the different portions or various clusters 
 of whom there existed, at least primarily, no more linguistic 
 than sanguineous relationship. Those linguists who continued 
 
380 DESCENT OF ALL MANKIND FROM NOAH ; 
 
 to recognize any family connection, did so on the ground of 
 what they regarded Mosaic authority, and then seemed to 
 know no other family than Shemitic, which they made emi- 
 nently broad so broad as to embrace the whole range of 
 language. 
 
 The present century opened with the dawn of more intel- 
 ligent views in regard, first, to what constitutes the truly 
 Shemitic, or, as Dr. Prichard prefers terming it, Syro-Ardbian 
 family which, by the way, comprises the Hebrew, Aramaic 
 (Chaldee and Syriac,) and the Arabic, inclusive of the 
 Ethiopic and extreme northern African. Having proceeded 
 thus far, marking the relations and defining the bounds of the 
 different portions of this family philology did not nor could 
 stop there. She, synchronously, began making a new and 
 remarkable discovery ; commenced tracing a connection of a 
 nature before not dreamed of. One member after another 
 she succeeded in detecting of that numerically large and 
 geographically extensive family now known under the name 
 of Indo-European. In the valuable Ethnographic Map usu- 
 ally placed at the front of Dr. Wiseman's Lectures on the 
 Connection between Science and Revealed Religion, you may 
 behold at a glance the boundaries (among others) of this 
 wide family, beginning at the southeastern extremity of 
 hither India ; running through a large part of middle and 
 western peninsular Asia, embracing the territories of the 
 Hindoos, Afghans, Persians, Ancient Medes, Khurds, Ossetes 
 of Caucasus, Armenians, etc., and, with the exception of a 
 few narrow and curiously isolated spots, the whole of Europe. 
 The names of the principal modern languages prevailing 
 within these vast territorial limits, are indicated in large 
 measure by the names of the countries in which they are 
 found, together with those ancient languages, the Sanskrit of 
 the farther East, and the Greek and Latin of the West. 
 Through the untiring efforts of able European philologists, 
 there have been proved most undoubted affinities existing 
 
OR THE UNITY OF THE HUMAN RACES. . 381 
 
 between these several languages real and manifest affinities* 
 not alone verbal or radical, but also in grammatical structure. 
 " If we compare," says Dr. Prichard, " the grammatical forms 
 and vocabularies of the Sanskrit, Greek, Latin, Zend, Ger- 
 man, Lithuanian, Slavic, and Celtic languages, we discover 
 besides analogies in the laws of construction or in the 
 mechanism of speech, which is of all marks of affinity the 
 most important a palpable resemblance in many of those 
 words which represent the ideas of a people in the most sim- 
 ple state of existence. Such are terms expressive of family 
 relations, father, mother, brother, sister, son, daughter ; 
 names for the most striking objects of the material universe ; 
 terms distinguishing the different parts of the body, as head, 
 feet, eyes, ears ; names of numbers up to five, ten, or twenty ; 
 verbs descriptive of the most common sensations and bodily 
 acts, such as eating, drinking, sleeping, seeing, hearing," etc. 
 (Researches into the Physical History of Mankind, vol. 3, p. 
 9.) It might be briefly added, that resemblances between 
 the numerous members of this family are to be traced in the 
 personal, demonstrative, and interrogative pronouns ; in ver- 
 bal roots and words of primary necessity ; in the case signs of 
 nouns, and in the case system generally ; a prevalent resem- 
 blance in what is usually called the conventional gender of 
 nouns ; in the formation of the comparative and superlative 
 degrees of adjectives ; in the internal inflection of verbs, etc. 
 Of all the numerous members of the great Indo-European 
 family, none is more noteworthy than the Sanskrit whose 
 history has so much of the air of romance ; whose origin, 
 contrary to the strange and untenable conjecture of Dugald 
 Stewart, lies back in remote antiquity ; and whose position, 
 in regard to the other members, is peculiarly prominent, if 
 not actually paternal; a language remarkable, moreover, 
 for its energy, regularity, and richness the name itself, 
 according to Bopp, signifying " adorned, completed, perfect ; " 
 as well as associationally, in an eminent degree, interesting, 
 17* 
 
382 DESCENT OF ALL MANKIND FTIOM NOAIT ; 
 
 from the many striking similarities between it and the other 
 members of the immense family. Of Sanskrit roots, there 
 are said to be not less than five hundred to be found in the 
 European languages. 
 
 In the light barely of the facts thus summarily brought to 
 view, how can the mind fail to infer the unity of the vast 
 Indo-European race, so called, and their origin from one 
 locality and one family? 
 
 In regard to the two important families already named, to 
 wit, the Shemitic and Indo-European, we would have you 
 apprised of the fact that, instead of sustaining the attitude of 
 complete isolation, as respects one another, they, contrary to 
 what has been believed by some, may be shown to be linked 
 together, both " by points of actual contact, and by the inter- 
 position of the Coptic, in a mysterious affinity, grounded on 
 the essential structure, and most necessary forms, of the 
 three." Those who may entertain any doubt upon this point, 
 may be referred to the evidence presented in Dr. Wiseman's 
 second lecture, (on the Connection &c.,) drawn from Lip- 
 sius's Palaeography. 
 
 Now, were we to say naught, did we indeed know naught, 
 definitely, about any other portions of the human race, we 
 might not illogically draw a broad conclusion from what has 
 been already advanced. If so large a part of mankind as 
 these two families, the Shemitic and Indo-European 
 comprise, are so linked together as to indicate prime local and 
 parental identity ; or, to go no farther, if so truly vast a 
 portion of human creatures, even, as the Indo-European fam- 
 ily contain, possess such unity ; speak, as it were, one lan- 
 guage have proceeded from one locality, had one origin 
 we could hardly be accused of doing violence to logic, or of 
 leaping beyond all legitimate bounds, by concluding that the 
 other portions of the genus "homo" sprang from the same 
 locality and genital source. Yet, there are some ascertained 
 indications, a passing notice of which, notwithstanding all 
 
Oil THE UNITY OF THE HUMAN RACES. 383 
 
 our solicitude for brevity, it will not be expedient wholly 
 to withhold. 
 
 As to the languages of the Mongolian race, although they 
 apparently differ much from the Indo-European, yet, from 
 some instances of "resemblance already discovered, it seems 
 not improbable that, as facilities for investigation increase, 
 many important analogies may be ascertained. It is clear, 
 as the respected Professor Gibbs, of Yale, has remarked, that 
 " the religious life of the race has been formed by Buddhism 
 from India; and that their religious language is a mere 
 dialect of the Sanskrit." Who then can think himself acting 
 reasonably by giving them a separate origin ? especially, 
 as the line of demarcation, as Dr. Prichard has shown, is 
 difficult to be made the Turks, for example, having claims 
 both ways. 
 
 In reference to the Malay or Polynesian race, we would 
 simply remark, that we have good authority for averring that 
 there is a radical resemblance between their languages ; and 
 that a distinct origin for that race, either on historical or 
 philological grounds, is not known to have any respectable 
 advocate. 
 
 In regard to the African dialects, the means have hitherto 
 been but stintedly enjoyed for determining their character. 
 An article from the pen of Rev. J. L. Wilson, published in 
 the Biblica Sacra, (November, 1847,) shows that they begin 
 already to arrange themselves in groups ; and that, in par- 
 ticular, " crossing the Mountains of the Moon, we find one 
 great family of languages extending itself over the whole of 
 the southern division of the continent," 
 
 As to the Aboriginal American race, it has been observed 
 that a general similarity of structure has been found in their 
 languages ; that these begin to arrange themselves in groups ; 
 and that no sufficient reason exists for holding to their separate 
 origin. 
 
 What then, young gentlemen, is the conclusion to which by 
 
384 DESCENT OF ALL MANKIND FROM NOAH. 
 
 this linguistic inquiry we are led, but the following? So far 
 as Comparative Philology has yet possessed herself of the 
 ability to bear intelligent and correct testimony, she witnesses 
 in favor of one local and ancestral source for the human kind ; 
 and, as to her yet future advances, she promises to bear 
 gradually clearer and fuller evidence in the same direction. 
 Facilities for intercommunication are now so multiplying 
 and extending, that the time is, perhaps, not far distant when 
 the sciences which specially have to do with the main ques- 
 tion before us, will find no obstacle in the way, or opportunity 
 wanting, to the most unbounded investigation, or extensive 
 research. Those who shall then be living on the earth, as 
 some of you may be, will, we venture to predict, be afforded 
 the privilege of seeing such an abundance of clear and strong 
 evidence in support of the doctrine for which we are con- 
 tending, as to allow the existence of no doubt about its truth. 
 We do not, indeed, imagine that philological investigation, 
 when most extended as well as thorough, will be able to trace 
 such perfect analogies or affinities between all languages, as 
 to ignore or disprove the Mosaic testimony in regard to the 
 linguistic event at Babel ; but these two things she may 
 effectually succeed in doing: She may cast no little light 
 upon the character of that event ; and she may show conclu- 
 sively that mankind, in all her multitudes and varieties, are 
 the descendants of those who were gathered on the Shinaric 
 plains. And this being done, there will, from that point, be 
 no difficulty in tracing the entire human kind up to our 
 patriarch as their common father. 
 
EVENING THIRTIETH. 
 
 YOUNG GENTLEMEN: 
 
 Were we reasoning with professed anti-biblists on the 
 topic which has the last two evenings engaged our notice, we 
 would not, of course, think of resorting to the Bible for argu- 
 ment ask not at all what witness it bears on the question. 
 But as at least some of the advocates of plurality profess a 
 reverence for the Sacred Scriptures ; essay to convince 
 the friends of Revelation that their theory conflicts not 
 with her testimonies nay, farther, derives a measure of 
 support from that source it is lawful and proper for us to 
 meet them here, and to attempt to show that their labor in 
 that direction is uselessly expended ; that their pluralistic 
 hypothesis is neither supported by nor reconcilable with the 
 teachings of the Word of God. On this ground it was that 
 early in the argument there was, on two or three occasions, 
 reference made by us to it more particularly to its historic 
 testimony in relation to the subject. But we feel the more 
 inimical to their theory on account of what we deem the bale- 
 ful effect, in the case of those who embrace it, on doctrinal 
 belief. Indeed we see not how such theory can be clung to 
 without having one's religious creed rendered (if not before- 
 hand so) exceedingly inconsistent with the didactic utterances 
 of Holy Writ. To our heart no order of truths is so dear as 
 those denominated evangelical ; and their hold on human belief 
 
386 DEMAND ON ADVOCATES OP PLURALITY. 
 
 we cannot see in any manner or measure impaired but with 
 deep pain. 
 
 Before those advocates of plurality who profess to have a 
 reverence for the Bible can with propriety expect the friends 
 of evangelical religion to entertain favorably their theory, it 
 may, we think, be reasonably demanded of them that they 
 take some pains to show that the two are not in conflict, 
 that at least as to some of the prominent features they 
 coalesce. They may be kindly asked to show how in order to 
 the enjoyment of a happy immortality, for instance, not some 
 men merely not some of the races or varieties of human 
 creatures barely not the inhabitants solely of one or a few 
 of the "zoological provinces" but absolutely all men, 
 everywhere, need to hear and believe the gospel ; why a 
 great moral ^revolution is universally indispensable; why 
 all men, everywhere not simply some one race or variety 
 of mankind are required to repent, deny themselves, 
 receive and follow Chirst why they must so do or else be 
 eternally wretched. Those pluralists may be asked to satisfy 
 so small a demand as that of showing how all the races or 
 varieties of mankind, the entire human occupants of all the 
 zoological provinces, without an exception, are sinful and 
 mortal. Those who hold to the unity of origin of all human 
 beings who believe that entire mankind descended from 
 one human pair stand ready to satisfy, and very quickly 
 too, every demand of this sort. Those who ask them such 
 questions they will refer to a few verses, mostly in the fifth 
 chapter of Paul's Epistle to the Romans, as explanatory of 
 the whole matter. 
 
 But, should it be granted that all the existing inhabitants 
 of the globe have proceeded from the same original stock 
 are the descendants of a common father yet it may be 
 objected that our postdiluvian patriarch, so called, cannot 
 rightly be regarded, even in a secondary sense, as that com- 
 mon father that he is entitled to no such distinction as that 
 
ATICTI^EOLOGICAL OBJECTION. 387 
 
 of universal paternity. The objection to which we refer is 
 of an archaeological or historical character, and runs thus : 
 There are nations presenting evidence of higher antiquity 
 than the days of Noah such, for instance, as the Chaldeans, 
 Chinese, Hindoos, and especially the Egyptians. 
 
 That claims of this kind have been set up, cannot be de- 
 nied ; but we are not quite prepared to say that the justness 
 of them is undeniable. Apart from the hints furnished by 
 the Mosaic records, be it observed, there is extant no reliable 
 history of the rise of the nations of remotest antiquity. A 
 few scattered fragments of so-called annals, only, have sur- 
 vived the wreck of ages, and these are " rudis indigestaque 
 molis," a rude and indigested mass, floating on the gulf of 
 time, incongruous in themselves, and unconnected with each 
 other ; oppressed and smothered almost beneath successive 
 accumulations of mythologic fiction, philosophizing allegory, 
 and recondite mysticism. 
 
 As to the Chaldeans we hardly need say more than this 
 that though Alexander (called the Great) is reported to have 
 discovered in Babylon observations for one thousand nine 
 hundred and three years previous to his arrival thither, the 
 very commencement of their chronology has been proved to 
 go no farther back than the era of king Nabonassar, 
 or seven hundred and forty-seven years before Christ. 
 Among the fragments from Berosus's history preserved 
 by Josephus, Eusebius, and others, is to be found a tra- 
 dition of their original, which is remarkable for being so 
 closely analogous to the details of sacred history, as to leave 
 no doubt upon the mind concerning the source whence 
 it came. After an elaborate description of Babylonia, 
 and a strange story of a certain creature which in the first 
 year of the world came out of the Red Sea, conversed fa- 
 miliarly with men, and taught them the knowledge of letters 
 and several useful arts, Berosus proceeds to give a short 
 account of the kings, the names of whom were Alorus, Alas- 
 
388 ARCHAEOLOGICAL OBJECTION AGAINST 
 
 parus, Amilon, Ammenon, Megalarus, Daomus, Eudoreschus, 
 Amempsinus, Oliartes, and Xisuthrus. The first of these 
 corresponds with the Adam of Genesis ; as the last, from 
 what is said of him, manifestly does with Noah. For of this 
 Xisuthrus it is related that he was forewarned of a flood ; 
 commanded to build a ship, &c., according to the tradition 
 among the Chaldeans to which we referred when treating on 
 the subject of traditions of the deluge. The ten kings whose 
 names have just been given, maybe understood as correspond- 
 ing with or answering to the heads of the ten generations 
 preceding the deluge in the line of Seth. Here then is to be 
 seen something rather corroborative of, than hostile to, the 
 Mosaic history. Syncellus indeed notices (p. 30) a period of 
 four hundred and thirty-two thousand years, as including the 
 reigns of their first kings. But this is evidently the amount 
 of one thousand two hundred years multiplied by three hun- 
 dred and sixty days the Chaldeans, in after ages, to 
 enhance their antiquity, magnifying days into years. (See 
 Hales's Analysis of Chronology, vol. 1, p. 143, and vol. 
 3, p. 9.) 
 
 The Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, under the head 
 of Empire of Babylon, after remarking of it, that it may be 
 considered as the first great monarchy of which any records 
 are to be found in history, says, " It appears to have been 
 founded a short time after the flood ; and according to the 
 astronomical tables sent by Alexander to Aristotle about 
 two thousand two hundred and thirty-four years B. C. Of 
 this first Babylonian kingdom there is very little to be known 
 except what is related in the Sacred Scriptures ; 'that about 
 two thousand years B. C. it consisted, under Nimrod, of four 
 cities, Babel, Erech, Accad, and Calneh," etc* 
 
 As to the Chinese nation, there has been claimed by and 
 for her great antiquity. But that their empire as such ex- 
 isted before the Flood, and before the era which we assign for 
 the Creation of the World, is as extravagant and unfounded 
 as the mythological stories of some other nations. We have 
 
UNIVERSAL DESCENT FROM NOAH CONSIDERED. 389 
 
 in our hand the first of two volumes from the pen of the Rev. 
 Charles Gutzlaff, whose name is familiar to you all, en- 
 titled, " A Sketch of Chinese History, Ancient and Modern/' 
 from which, as reliable authority, we will give you a few sen- 
 tences. " Not only," says this writer, " is the fabulous part of 
 the Chinese history very uncertain, but even the first two dy- 
 nasties, Hea and Shang, labor under great difficulties, which 
 have never been entirely removed. We must in fact date 
 the authentic history of China from Confucius, five hundred 
 and fifty years B. C., and consider the duration of the pre- 
 ceding period as uncertain. Chinese ancient astronomy has 
 been celebrated by many ; but if we suppose their calcula- 
 tions to have been correct, the ancient Chinese, who lived 
 according to their historians four thousand years ago, greatly 
 surpassed their posterity of the present day, who, after so 
 much instruction from foreigners, still betray a childish ignor- 
 ance on many essential points of this difficult science. Con- 
 fucius evidently labors to refer the origin of his doctrines 
 (which either originated with himself or were transmitted to 
 him by tradition) to the remotest antiquity, for the purpose 
 of inspiring his countrymen with veneration for them. In 
 order to effect this, he had to create for his nation an authen- 
 tic history out of the materials furnished by tradition. As 
 there were no regular annals, or any celebrated histori- 
 ographer who flourished before his era, he was not able, not- 
 withstanding the most laborious researches, to avoid error. 
 The destruction of the greater part of Chinese books by 
 Che-hwang-te, the first universal monarch of China," (whose 
 reign commenced two hundred and forty-six years B. C.,) 
 " doubtless contributed likewise to render the chronology 
 more erroneous," (page 55). You have heard what the author 
 has said concerning the first two, i. e. the Hea and Shang 
 dynasties. Yet those commenced only in the two thousand 
 two hundred and seventh year B. C., and extended down to the 
 one thousand one hundred and twenty-third year B. C. (See 
 
390 ARCHAEOLOGICAL OBJECTION AGAINST 
 
 pages 5S-GO.) In other words, the earliest dynasty, even 
 according to this very doubtful record of Confucius, did not, 
 according to the shortest, i. e. the Hebrew chronology, com- 
 mence until one hundred and forty-one years subsequent to 
 the Deluge, and according to the Septuagint not until one 
 thousand and thirty-nine years posterior to that event. In the 
 extract from Mr. Gutzlaff, allusion is made to the destruc- 
 tion of books by the Emperor Hoangti (Che-hwang-te.) Like 
 Nabonassar, the king of Babylon in an earlier reign, this sove- 
 reign was so ambitious of being reputed by posterity the found- 
 er of the empire, that he ordered all the books, medals, coin?!, 
 and monuments of antiquity which could be laid hold of to be 
 destroyed, that there might remain no earlier record, date, or 
 authority relative to religion, science, and politics, than those 
 of his reign. Hence, says Dr. Hales, (Chronology, vol. 1, p. 
 296,) " their most authentic history, composed from the relics 
 of their ancient books by Sse-ma-trien, about a century be- 
 fore Christ, marked neither the dates nor the duration of 
 reigns or dynasties, until B. C. 878." The celebrated 
 Klaproth, who came from the study of their authors with no 
 prejudices inducing to an undue depreciation of the glories of 
 the so-called Celestials, instead of allowing them the ex- 
 tremely venerable antiquity claimed for them by some of 
 their historians, does not hesitate to deny the existence of 
 historic certainty in their empire, earlier than seven hundred 
 and eighty-two years before Christ. Should we allow that 
 land then to have been penetrated and incipiently colonized 
 quite early after the Flood according to the common chronol- 
 ogy, it strikes us that we cannot be reasonably charged with 
 doing injustice to any high claim presented. 
 
 As to the Hindoo nation, great efforts have been made to 
 establish her claims to such an excessive antiquity as to con- 
 flict with the Mosaic history in regard to the peopling of the 
 postdiluvian world. One of the ways in which this has been 
 essayed to be done, has been by a reference to her astronomy. 
 
UNIVERSAL DESCENT FROM NOAH CONSIDERED. 391 
 
 The " unfortunate Bailly," as Dr. Wiseman calls him, has 
 very specially labored to show it from this source. But Mr. 
 Bentley, in particular, has effectually proved his attempt to 
 be eminently a failure. The Varishta Siddhanta and the 
 Sarya Siddhanta, which the Hindoos used to date at some 
 millions of years back, have, by the computations of this lat- 
 ter author, been brought down to the tenth or eleventh cen- 
 tury of the Christian era. Even La Place, a friend of Bailly, 
 speaking of the Indian (Hindoo) astronomical tables, say?, 
 they " suppose a very advanced state of astronomy ; but there 
 is every reason to believe that they can claim no very high 
 antiquity." To these testimonies may be added that of Dr. 
 Maskelyne, of Heeren, Cuvier, and Klaproth, who thus 
 writes : " Les tables astronomiques des Hindous, auxquelles 
 on avait attribue une antiquite prodigieuse, ontete construites 
 dans le septieme siecle de 1'ere vulgaire, et ont etc posteri- 
 eurement reportees par des calculs a une epoque anterieure." 
 (Memoires relatifs a 1'Asie.) 
 
 If we pass from the astronomy to the history of the Hin- 
 doo nation, we shall not, upon thorough research, find any 
 such evidence of high antiquity as to excite alarm lest our 
 postdiluvian progenitor should lose his paternity as to that 
 people. There will, in our investigations, be discovered more 
 proofs of the ambition of that nation to be thought very ancient, 
 than of their actually being so. But of direct personal in- 
 vestigation we are spared the trouble since such men as 
 Sir Wm. Jones, Wilfort, Heeren, and Col. Tod, have gone 
 over this ground, and given us the results of their examina- 
 tion. The conclusion to which these men have come is, that 
 when divested of fable, the history of this people may be 
 dated back some two thousand years before the Christian 
 era. The last named gentleman (Col. Tod,) assuming, al- 
 most without limitation, the chronological tables of the coun- 
 try, does indeed extend a little the period. He has ventured 
 to place the establishment in India proper of the two grand 
 
392 ARCHAEOLOGICAL OBJECTION AGAINST 
 
 races distinctively called those of Soorya and Chandra at about 
 two thousand two hundred and fifty-six years before Christ. 
 If you would like to see a somewhat detailed account of the 
 investigations to which we have been alluding, look into 
 Wiseman's Lectures, on the Connection between Science and 
 Revealed Religion, vol. 2, Lecture 7. An additional thing, 
 on the authority of Col. Tod, you will find there stated, going 
 to confirm the credibility of the Mosaic history in regard to 
 the earth's colonization which is, that the Hindoos them- 
 selves establish the birthplace of their nation towards the 
 west ; and, still farther, that there are such curious coincidences 
 between the origin assigned to their respective nations by the 
 Monguls, Chinese, and Hindoos, whilst distinguished by dif- 
 ferent languages, as to establish the fact of a common origin. 
 As to Egypt, though human feet early pressed her soil, yet 
 we believe her to present no human footprints bearing testi- 
 mony to an earlier colonization than the Mosaic annals will 
 allow. From her monuments and her history, both, efforts 
 have been indeed made to extort testimony adverse to certain 
 historic statements of Moses, (as to time rather than as to fact, 
 however,) and it is surely well to examine the true character 
 of that testimony. As friends of revelation we have no fears 
 as to the result. We indeed much mistake, if where infidelity 
 has wishfully and zealously sought to find evidence hostile to, 
 there may not be found proof confirmatory of the verity of 
 the records of the sacred historian ; especially if we do not 
 discard or repudiate the Septuagint chronology. Worthy 
 interpreters have been found of Egypt's dark sayings. Her 
 monuments have been interrogated interrogated by men 
 to whom they were not unwilling to listen. To the lips of 
 her hieroglyphics, even, Young, the Champollions, Wilkinson, 
 Rosellini, etc., have put their ear, and come away with re- 
 plies not of a character to cheer the heart of skepticism. You 
 will fully understand our allusion by the persual of the 
 Eighth Lecture of the work of Dr. Wiseman, but a moment 
 
UNIVERSAL DESCENT FROM NOAH CONSIDERED. 393 
 
 or two since referred to ;*lhd the first three chapters of the 
 work of Dr. Hawks, entitled, The Monuments of Egypt ; or, 
 Egypt a Witness for the Bible. Among other things let me 
 request you to note the result of inquiries and discussions 
 respecting the Zodiacs of Dendera and Esneh. How absurd 
 has been shown the antiquity which had, even by Burkhardt, 
 Dupuis, etc., been ascribed or allowed to them. 
 
 And if we turn from her monuments and prosecute our re- 
 searches in ancient history, in order to ascertain their rise, 
 the period of the prime settlement of the land of the Phara- 
 ohs, we shall find ourselves enveloped in mist impenetrable. 
 Than in relation to it there is no portion of the remoter annals 
 of the human race more obscure from the want of authentic 
 records, or more perplexed by groundless conjecture and 
 bold speculation. The ancient annalists whom the anxious 
 inquirer interrogates, require of him to carry back his imagi- 
 nation to an era many thousand years prior to the existence 
 of all written deeds ; and then gravely introduce him to gods 
 and demigods who had once condescended to dwell on the 
 banks of the Nile, and to govern the fancied inhabitants of 
 that fertile region. In regard to that land it may indeed be 
 affirmed, that the limits between mythology and the simple 
 annals of a mortal race are not yet fully established. 
 
 Yet, to a certain extent, at least, the history of ancient 
 Egypt can be placed on credible grounds. The reign of 
 Menes is to be considered as marking the limits of legitimate 
 inquiry in this field. By different investigators different 
 dates have been fixed on for the commencement of his reign. 
 According to Dr. Hales, (Analysis of Ancient Chronology, 
 vol. 4, p. 418,) it commenced B. C. 2412 years ; according 
 to Dr. Prichard, 2214 B. C. The principal authority on 
 which this reign has been determined, is Josephus, who had 
 better means of becoming acquainted with the works of 
 Manetho, than were enjoyed by Eusebius, Syncellus, or 
 others. This writer (see his Antiq., Lib. 8, ch. G) assures 
 
394 ARCHAEOLOGICAL OBJECTION AGAINST 
 
 us, that Menes lived many years Before Abraham, and that 
 he ruled more than one thousand three hundred years before 
 Solomon. Here are such data furnished as helped Drs. 
 Hales and Prichard to arrive at their conclusions. If you 
 bear in mind that Dr. Hales's Chronology is the extended one 
 which substantially corresponds with the Septuagint Chro- 
 nology, there will be found, in the date at which he fixes the 
 commencement of the reign of Menes, nothing to conflict with 
 the Mosaic history relative to the period of the Flood, the 
 Dispersion, etc. Dr. Hales makes the first Egyptian Dynasty, 
 
 beginning with Menes, 2412 B. C., to last two hundred 
 and fifty-three years, i. e., to 2159 B. C. ; the second Dynas- 
 ty, under the Hyk-shos, or shepherd kings a foreign race 
 
 from the last named period, two hundred and sixty years, 
 i. e., to 1899 B. C. But be it remembered that the same 
 Dr. Hales fixes the epoch of the Deluge at 3155 B. C. - 
 presenting an interval of seven hundred and forty-three 
 years between the Flood and the rise of the first Egyptian 
 Dynasty. 
 
 Menes, called by Syncellus Mestraim, is regarded by 
 Shuckford as the Mizraim of Moses. But shall we say 
 naught of those dynasties which preceded Menes ; thirty 
 dynasties, consisting of one hundred and thirteen genera- 
 tions, and which took up the space of thirty-six thousand 
 five hundred and twenty-five years ; or of the after-reign of 
 eight demigods, during the space of two hundred and seven- 
 teen additional years ; or of the Cycli Cynici, i. e., according 
 to Manetho, a race of heroes, in number fifteen, whose reigns 
 occupied the space of four hundred and forty-three still addi- 
 tional years ? What shall we say, unless this, that they who 
 believe it en masse to be anything above fiction or fable, have 
 a larger development of the organ of credulity than we have 
 any pretensions to ? That Egypt had been peopled before 
 the Flood, we have no doubt ; and if we imagine, with Afri- 
 canus, that all of what professed to be historic, in regard to 
 
UNIVERSAL DESCENT FROM NOAH CONSIDERED. 395 
 
 times preceding Menes, may have been built upon some 
 traditional fragments or broken reports relative to Egypt in 
 the antediluvian age, it is to be presumed that few will put 
 themselves to the trouble of quarrelling or finding fault with 
 us for it. "We shall not tell all that we might conjecture upon 
 this point choosing to keep more silent in reference to it 
 than Mr. Shuckford has done. 
 
 From Menes or Misr downward, if, instead of imagining 
 with Manetho, the whole number of kings to have succeeded 
 one another in a direct line, we agree with Sir John Marsham 
 in making a certain number of them contemporaries of each 
 other, we shall find all clear. Moses may then be regarded 
 as no great errorist even in chronology. As soon as you 
 shall have opportunity, it is hoped you will consult the work 
 of Mr. R. S. Poole, entitled Horce Egyptiacce. This Mr. 
 Poole was brought up on the banks of the Nile ; is a gentle- 
 man of talents and learning, of skilful and laborious research ; 
 and has spent many years in the study of the monuments. This 
 author has adduced proofs, from the monuments themselves, 
 that several of the dynasties were really contemporaneous 
 just as Sir John Marsham, and not only he, indeed, but most 
 of the learned for ages have supposed would prove to be the 
 case. Mr. Poole discovered on the monuments a variety of 
 astronomical signs and records, the interpretation of which, 
 it appears, he has ascertained ; and his calculations based on 
 those astronomical records confirm the conclusions he deduces 
 from other sources, all going to show that the whole of 
 Egyptian Chronology, when properly understood and reduced 
 to order, is entirely consistent with the chronology of the 
 Bible. As to the train of evidence adduced by Mr. Poole, 
 so complete and convincing does it appear, that Sir J. G. 
 Wilkinson, one of the most learned of living men in all that 
 relates to Egyptian archaeology, has published his entire 
 concurrence in the views of this writer on Egyptian chro- 
 nology, and his convictions of the satisfactory character of the 
 
396 ARCHAEOLOGICAL OBJECTION AGAINST 
 
 evidence which that gentleman has drawn from the monu- 
 ments. At the same time, we will not be surprised if the 
 accuracy of these results shall be called in question by those 
 who are strongly committed in the support of the high 
 antiquity advocated by Lipsius and Bunsen. 
 
 We feel unwilling to dismiss the archaeological question 
 without first dropping two general considerations ; only one 
 of which however will we tax you with the statement of, this 
 evening reserving the other with which to commence the 
 next and closing Exercise. 
 
 The first, then, is this : As we do not find Moses con- 
 cerned about giving us even a connected history, much less a 
 formal chronology of the times intervening between the crea- 
 tion and the birth of Abraham ; and as the dates presented 
 in his genealogical lists could so easily undergo alterations, 
 either through the carelessness or haste of transcribers, or 
 (from some motive) through design, we need not consider 
 the matters of fact or of doctrine of the book of Genesis over- 
 thrown, even if the commonly received Hebrew chronology 
 of that book, or that of the Greek translation, the Septuagint, 
 could be proved erroneous. Not only might the doctrines 
 which Moses there teaches still be true ; but the facts which 
 he states may have occurred this, though the precise time 
 of their occurrence should not be found accurately stated. 
 We like that remark of Dr. Hawks in his " Monuments of 
 Egypt," p. 30, " It does not affect the respect due to the 
 book as an inspired volume of fact or doctrine, to consider its 
 general chronology an open question. That it has been so 
 considered and treated by some of the most pious and learned 
 men is a fact well known to the Biblical student. When 
 time is not of the essence of a fact recorded, it is unimportant. 
 There are few even of modern histories that harmonize in 
 dates ; yet no one doubts the facts they state. In this case, 
 as in the kindred one of geological science, it would seem that 
 the simple purpose for which the book was written has been 
 
UNIVERSAL DESCENT FROM NOAH CONSIDERED. 397 
 
 overlooked. The Bible was never intended to be a system 
 of chronology nor a treatise on geology." 
 
 Whilst we unhesitatingly subscribe to the sentiments ad- 
 vanced in this quotation, let it not be understood after what 
 we have said we cannot be understood as making any con- 
 cessions to anti-biblists in regard to the main matter under 
 consideration. It is a vain pretence that such and such 
 nations had their rise many thousands of years ago. Even 
 the little that we last evening said, or rather alluded to, is 
 enough to show this. That there will yet appear a full and 
 most unquestionable refutation or exposure of the pretensions 
 of certain nations to an antiquity irreconcilable with the 
 chronology of Genesis, we most confidently anticipate, nor do 
 we believe the day far distant. After what we have hinted, 
 will you not indeed believe that it has already dawned ? In 
 the " land of Ham " in particular, much has already been 
 and more is no doubt on the eve of being discovered, not only 
 coincident with but corroborative or illustrative of various 
 items of Biblical history. Those who are greedy of cumula- 
 tive or confirmatory testimony in regard to the statements of 
 the writer of the Pentateuch, are not likely to be left without 
 much more of an archaeological character than they in any 
 wise can reasonably demand. As it was with the Jews 
 regarding Jesus' Messiahship, so is it in our day relative to 
 the Mosaic history. There is a calling out for more evi- 
 dence. Never satisfied with the mass which they are already 
 afforded, like the daughters of the horseleech theirc ontinual 
 cry is Give, give. It is probable that with one tenth part of 
 the evidence they would be content, in relation to any points 
 not belonging to or connected with Sacred History. Only 
 in regard to BiUical matters is it that they exhibit so pro- 
 digious a maw. 
 18 
 
EVENING THIRTY-FIRST. 
 
 YOUNG GENTLEMEN: 
 
 The archaeological consideration, second in order, with which 
 we proposed to introduce this Exercise, is the following : 
 Those several nations who pretend to so vastly remote anti- 
 quity of origin as to make not barely the Noah but even the 
 Adam of Genesis a comparatively very modern gentleman, 
 need not travel far, no, not a step, either forward, backward, 
 or laterally, to find a flat denial of their ridiculous preten- 
 sions. They may find it beneath their feet. The detritus 
 and rocky strata of the parts of the globe where they dwell, 
 furnish a substantial refutation of all pretensions of the kind. 
 These say, No remains of such pretended far back ancestry 
 lie in our bosom. And if the pretenders are not satisfied 
 with such a declaration from the lips of the witness, let them 
 penetrate her bowels and see whether they can get any more 
 favorable response there. 
 
 In Cuvier's Theory of the Earth, the date of origin of the 
 human species is discussed both on geological and historical 
 grounds, embracing a large mass of learning ; and the date 
 usually assigned to the origin of mankind adopted. The 
 same views have been expressed by Sir Charles Lyell ; views 
 which he espouses, not merely as the result of his own re- 
 searches and reasonings, but of the prevalent conclusions of 
 the highest geological authorities. " I need not dwell," ob- 
 
THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL OBJECTION CONSIDERED. 399 
 
 serves Mr. Lyell, " on the proofs of the low antiquity of our 
 species, for it is not controverted by any experienced geologist ; 
 indeed, the real difficulty consists in tracing back the signs of 
 man's existence on the earth to that comparatively modern 
 period when species, now his contemporaries, began to pre- 
 dominate. If there be a difference of opinion respecting the 
 occurrence, in certain deposits, of the remains of man and 
 his works, it is always in reference to strata confessedly of 
 the most modern order ; and it is never pretended that our 
 race coexisted with assemblages of animals and plants of 
 which all or even a great part of the species are extinct." 
 You may see an analogous argument of Berkley for the re- 
 cent origin of man, quoted with approbation by Mr. Lyell in 
 his Principles of Geology, vol. 3, p. 203. 
 
 The character of the testimony borne by geological facts 
 in relation to man and his works before the Flood, is such 
 as strongly to favor the idea that all the present nations and 
 races of men are descended from our patriarch. In regard 
 to the nature of the facts, we, to avoid repetition, refer you 
 to those having a bearing on the subject, presented on the 
 Eleventh and Twelfth Evenings. 
 
 But so pertinacious and perverse is skepticism, as further- 
 more to attempt to urge an objection to the universal pater- 
 nity of our patriarch, drawn from the Mosaic history itself. 
 It is of this nature : According to what Moses has narrated, 
 Abraham, when he first entered Canaan, and, soon afterward, 
 Egypt, found there already great and populous nations ; and 
 it is not unreasonable to infer that equally populous and 
 flourishing nations existed at the time in various other parts 
 of the world. Yet how could this be if these all descended 
 from Noah ? Could the posterity of this one man have pos- 
 sibly so increased and extended itself, so soon after the flood ? 
 as to answer to this state of things ? 
 
 This brings up the question of Scripture Chronology 
 concerning which we can say but little and yet carry out our 
 
400 SCRIPTURE CHRONOLOGY. 
 
 purpose of closing our course of lectures this evening. 
 Others besides skeptics, even many learned interpreters of 
 the Sacred Word, have been moved, partly by this just stated 
 consideration, to prefer a more extended to the common 
 chronology. 
 
 The chronology adopted by the English translators of 
 the Sacred Scriptures, and placed in the margin of our 
 Bibles, is that of the Masoretic or common Hebrew 
 text. According to it, the period which elapsed between 
 the Deluge and the call of Abraham was four hundred 
 and twenty-seven years; and between the Deluge and 
 the birth of Christ two thousand [three hundred and forty- 
 eight years. The extended scheme to which we alluded, is 
 the Septuagint chronology that is, the chronology of an 
 ancient Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures. Accord- 
 ing to this latter, the interval between the Deluge and the 
 call of Abraham was one thousand two hundred and five 
 years ; and between the Flood and the birth of our Lord 
 three thousand one hundred and fifty-four years. You see 
 how long and confessedly adequate a period the Septuagint 
 chronology presents for the increase, extensive spread, and 
 national organization of Noah's posterity before Abraham 
 left Mesopotamia for Canaan. If this latter chronological 
 system can be shown to be correct, the skeptical objection is 
 at once divested of all semblance of validity. Hence, at least 
 in part, many sincere friends of Holy Writ have been very 
 solicitous for its maintenance, and not a few able Biblical 
 scholars have volunteered their services in its advocacy. 
 Of the arguments advanced by these in its favor, many are 
 not a little plausible ; some very forcible. Among others it 
 is, for example, urged, that the shortened scheme adopted by 
 Archbishop Usher from the Masorite Jews, is recent in its 
 origin, when compared with the more comprehensive chro- 
 nology of the Septuagint ; that this last was used before the 
 advent of our Lord ; was followed by the fathers of the church ; 
 
SCRIPTURE CHRONOLOGY. 
 
 401 
 
 and appears not to have been called in question till, in the 
 eighth century, a disposition to exchange it for the Rabbini- 
 cal method of reckoning was first manifested by the venerable 
 Bede.* It may be farther urged that the contracted scheme 
 
 * The two following Tables give the Patriarchal Genealogies from Adam 
 to Abraham, according to the Septuagint Chronology. 
 
 TABLE I. From Adam to the Deluge. 
 
 
 IS 
 
 |s 
 
 Is 
 
 - 
 
 Is 
 
 
 s 
 
 fi *l 
 
 >H 0> 
 
 .S 2 
 
 
 
 **"" 
 
 Jl^.S 
 
 ^rf 
 
 'S ^ 
 
 
 
 is 
 
 "S'S 
 
 l5 
 
 s 
 
 2? 
 
 
 M > 
 
 W n 
 
 
 
 
 s 
 
 
 1 
 
 230 
 
 700 
 
 930 
 
 930 
 
 Seth, 
 
 230 
 
 205 
 
 707 
 
 912 
 
 1142 
 
 
 435 
 
 190 
 
 715 
 
 905 
 
 1340 
 
 
 625 
 
 170 
 
 740 
 
 910 
 
 1535 
 
 
 795 
 
 165 
 
 730 
 
 895 
 
 1690 
 
 
 960 
 
 162 
 
 800 
 
 962 
 
 1922 
 
 Enoch, 
 
 1122 
 
 165 
 
 200 
 
 365 
 
 1487 
 
 
 1287 
 
 187 
 
 782 
 
 969 
 
 2256 
 
 
 1474 
 
 188 
 
 565 
 
 753 
 
 2227 
 
 Noah, 
 
 1662 
 
 600 
 
 
 950 
 
 2612 
 
 Deluge, 
 
 2262 
 
 
 
 
 
 TABLE II. From the Deluge to Birth of Abraham. 
 
 Shem, 
 
 
 2 
 
 
 600 
 
 
 
 2264 
 
 135 
 
 303 
 
 438 
 
 2702 
 
 Cainan 2d, 
 
 2399 
 
 130 
 
 330 
 
 460 
 
 2859 
 
 Salah, 
 
 2529 
 
 130 
 
 303 
 
 433 
 
 2962 
 
 
 2659 
 
 134 
 
 270 
 
 404 
 
 3063 
 
 Peles . 
 
 2793 
 
 130 
 
 109 
 
 239 
 
 3032 
 
 
 2923 
 
 132 
 
 
 239 
 
 3162 
 
 
 3055 
 
 130 
 
 100 
 
 230 
 
 3285 
 
 
 3185 
 
 79 
 
 69 
 
 148 
 
 3333 
 
 Terah, 
 
 3264 
 
 f 70 
 
 
 205 
 
 3469 
 
 
 ( 3334 
 
 I 130 
 
 
 
 
 
 $3394 
 
 
 
 
 
 According to this chronology, the interval between the Deluge and the 
 birth of Haran, Terah's eldest son, is seen to be one thousand and 
 seventy-two years; and between the Deluge and the birth of Terah's 
 younger son, Abraham, one thousand one hundred and thirty-two years. 
 
 N. B. Let the reader compare the; above tables with the two tables 
 in the Hebrew or common chronology, to be found, one on page 21, and 
 the other on page 339 of this volume. 
 
402 SCRIPTURE CHRONOLOGY. 
 
 of the Hebrew or Masoretic text is rejected by many of the 
 greatest names in this branch of Biblical literature, as being, 
 according to their view, inconsistent both with the records of 
 other nations, and with the history of the ancient Hebrews 
 themselves. A detailed statement of grounds for admitting 
 the authority of the Septuagint in preference to that of the 
 Usherian or common Hebrew, may be found in a preliminary 
 dissertation prefixed to the first volume of Dr. M. Russell's 
 Connection of Sacred and Profane History, which we hope 
 you will soon read. This author contends that the chro- 
 nology of the Hebrew Scriptures and that of the Greek 
 version were originally the same ; and that the accuracy of 
 the latter was not called in question by the Jews for nearly 
 four hundred years that is, until the rapid progress of 
 Christianity awakened the enmity of certain unprincipled in- 
 dividuals of that nation, who were induced to alter the dates 
 of their ancient chronicles, in order to weaken the arguments 
 derived from them in support of the new religion. With 
 the Septuagint letj it be noted that not only Josephus, but 
 also Hales and Jackson, substantially agree in reckoning. 
 It has been thought that for a while past that system has 
 been considerably multiplying suffrages in its favor. 
 
 In support of the commonly received chronology, on the 
 other hand, the following considerations may be urged: 
 The fact of the Usherian or shorter reckoning being embodied 
 in the Hebrew text is itself not a feeble argument against the 
 longer computation ; and there appears also to be internal 
 probability against it. It is assumed that the framers of the 
 present Hebrew text set out with the deliberate intention of 
 curtailing the true chronology. Yet such a charge is more 
 easily made than substantiated. A procedure of this nature 
 would operate against the ordinarily entertained Jewish 
 opinion relative to the time of the Messiah's advent. It is 
 quite certain that they have not tampered with the sacred 
 text in those places where the temptation to it was greatest ; 
 
SCRIPTURE CHRONOLOGY. 403 
 
 and they ought not, therefore, to be accused of this sacrilege 
 in instances of inferior moment, except upon very strong and 
 clear proof. May it not be urged against such, a charge, that 
 the Jews of the Rabbinical schools, those of Palestine, were 
 guarded against all temptation of tampering with the sacred 
 text, by the strict and even superstitious reverence with 
 which they regarded the letter of the divine word ? But the 
 Alexandrine Jews, living under the influence of Grecian 
 literature, and in a syncretizing age, began very early to 
 relax this rigorous restraint of the written letter. Of this 
 tendency so alien from the character of the Rabbinical or 
 Palestinian Judaism the Septuagint version exhibits mani- 
 fest traces. They had also a special motive for lengthening the 
 Hebrew textual chronology. The Egyptians, among whom 
 they had their residence, would be disposed to sneer at a 
 nation whose origin was so recent as their sacred records 
 made the Hebrew. Hence they would have an intelligent 
 inducement tending to the lengthening of the genealogies. 
 Clinton, in his Fasti Hellenici, p. 297, says, "The Chaldasans 
 and Egyptians, (whose histories were about that time" i. e., 
 about the time the Septuagint translation was made " pub- 
 lished by Berosus and Manetho,) laid claim to a remote 
 antiquity. Hence the translators of the Pentateuch into 
 Greek might be led to augment the amount of the genera- 
 tions by the centenary additions, and by the interpolation of 
 the second Oainan, in order to carry back the epochs of the 
 creation and of the flood to a period more conformable with 
 the high pretensions of the Egyptians and Chaldseans." And 
 the manner in which the thing is done, witnesses to such a 
 procedure. Deliberation is manifest. The very regularity 
 of the scheme is sufficient to bring it under strong suspicion 
 of contrivance. Allusion is particularly had to the centenary 
 additions and deductions. On this latter side of the chrono- 
 logical question you may find something noteworthy in 
 
404 THE COMMON CHRONOLOGT MAY BE RETAINED. 
 
 Clinton's Fasti Hellenici, pp. 283-297 ; and specially so in 
 Brown's Ordo Scedorum, pp. 318-354. 
 
 After weighing the arguments in behalf both of the longer 
 and shorter Chronologies, we feel inclined to adhere to the 
 latter, that is, the Usherian or Hebrew, if, so soon after the 
 Flood as four hundred and twenty-seven years, (the era, 
 according to it, of the call of Abraham,) we can rationally 
 account for such multiplication, spread, and settlement of 
 Noah's posterity, as authentic history, relative to those times, 
 leads us to believe then prevailed. 
 
 Allow us then to submit (in briefest form) the three fol- 
 lowing considerations, and to ask whether these, if duly 
 revolved in the mind, may not be deemed enough to satisfy 
 any reasonable inquirer in relation to this matter. First 
 After referring you to what was said on the Twenty-sixth 
 Evening, concerning the number to which the offspring of our 
 postdiluvian progenitor must have amounted at the close of 
 the first century after the deluge we would remark, that, 
 in the interval between the flood and the call of Abraham, so 
 long with parental pairs did the process of procreation con- 
 tinue from one hundred to one hundred and fifty years 
 and from protracted life so many generations would become, 
 so to speak, contemporaneous, that Noah's descendants, at the 
 close of that interval, must have attained to great numerical 
 magnitude far greater than persons, if they lose sight of 
 these two circumstances, would at all imagine. Second 
 Let readers be on their guard against being deceived by 
 terms. What, pray, for the most part, were cities, kingdoms, 
 nations, then ? Should they be conceived of after a modern 
 fashion the same ideas precisely be attached would not 
 great error be the consequence ? Consider that each small 
 tribe or group had a head or chief to whom was applied the 
 title of king : thus, king of Sodom, king of Gomorrah, king of 
 Admah, king of Zeboiim, Gen. 14: 2. Look at Josh. 12: 
 9-24, and you will see that, in the small land of Canaan, 
 
A FREQUENT ERROR IN TABLES. 405 
 
 there were, so late as in the "days of Joshua, no less than 
 thirty-one kings and so many kingdoms. Look at the size 
 and military force [of the early kingdoms, in the light of 
 Gen. 14. Canaan, from its fertility and situation, may be 
 believed to have been as well, if not better, stored with 
 inhabitants than any of the neighboring provinces, when 
 Abraham and Lot first came into it ; yet, though they 
 were possessed of considerable flocks and herds, which soon 
 became so large as to render it impracticable for them 
 to dwell together, yet, when separated, they experienced 
 no difficulty about finding a plenty of vacant room both for 
 their families and their living substance. Third We are 
 liable to harbor misconception respecting the amount of event 
 and change occurring in a given period, say from one to four 
 or five centuries. It is much greater than is ordinarily con-^ 
 ceived. Just think, for example, that in the United States of 
 America, the first permanent settlement took place in A. D. 
 1609 not quite two hundred and fifty years ago. This 
 idea is finely illustrated in that passage from Kazwini, cited 
 by us on the Sixteenth Evening. 
 
 We have said the call of Abraham was four hundred and 
 twenty-seven years after the flood. It is needful to note this, 
 inasmuch as many of the printed tables of genealogies 
 would make the date sixty years less which is an error. 
 Abraham was seventy-five years old when, in compliance 
 with the divine call, he left Mesopotamia for Canaan, (Gen. 
 12: 4.) By subtracting this seventy-five from four hundred 
 and twenty-seven, you fix the birth of Abraham at three 
 hundred and fifty-two, post diluvium ; but the tables alluded 
 to fix it at two hundred and ninety-two a mistake arising 
 out of the erroneous assumption that Abraham, because first 
 named, was the eldest son of Terah, and born when the father 
 was seventy years old, (Gen. 11 : 26.) But as Terah died 
 at the age of two hundred and five, (Gen. 11 : 32,) and was 
 deceased when Abraham departed for Canaan, (compare 11: 
 
406 ANTEDILUVIAN LONGEVITY. 
 
 32, and 12: 4,) by subtracting seventy-five from two hundred 
 and five, you have one hundred and thirty as the age of 
 Terah when his son Abraham was born, i. e., sixty years 
 below the seventy which those tables assign as the period of 
 Abraham's birth. You thus see the correctness of our asser- 
 tion concerning the true era of the call of Abraham. 
 
 According to the Hebrew computation, Abraham, then, 
 was born Anno Mundi 1656+352=2008 ; and being born 
 three hundred and fifty-two years subsequent to the deluge, 
 Noah's departure out of the world (occurring three hundred 
 and fifty years posterior to the Flood, Gen. 9 : 28) took 
 place but two years prior to Abraham's entrance into it ; and 
 when our patriarch was nine hundred and fifty years old. 
 (Gen. 9 : 29.) 
 
 What an age ! and for a postdiluvian too ! you may ex- 
 claim. Six hundred of those years, however, were passed 
 as an antediluvian ; for there is this peculiarity about Noah 
 and the seven other souls that were ferried over the waters 
 that they lived in two worlds, and served as a link 
 between the two. Yes ; nearly two-thirds of Noah's nine 
 hundred and fifty years he spent as an antediluvian, and 
 brought his longiaeval constitution indeed from beyond the 
 Flood. No one beside who has died since the deluge, at- 
 tained to near so great age as he. 
 
 Antediluvian longevity has, in every postdiluvian age, 
 been a source of wonder ; and it has fallen to our lot to hear 
 some curious conjectures respecting it. So strange has the 
 Mosaic account, pertaining to that matter, appeared to num- 
 bers, that they have been induced to imagine those antedilu- 
 vian years could not have been of equal length with ours 
 that they must have been not solar but lunar years, i. e. 
 months. This conjecture however is untenable, as may be 
 perceived by the extreme absurdity of its making antediluvi- 
 an parentage to commence in perfect childhood at from 
 the age of sixty-five to one hundred and eighty-seven months, 
 
POSTDILUVIAN REDUCTION OF TERM OP LIFE. 407 
 
 as may be seen by casting the eye over the fifth chapter of 
 Genesis. 
 
 Others, discerning the untenableness of that idea, have 
 imagined the comparatively few instances of longevity of 
 which the record makes mention, to constitute nearly or quite 
 all the cases of the kind that occurred in early times that 
 the population generally attained no such great age. To 
 this there are two objections : First The idea has nothing 
 in the record to sustain it. The small number of generations of 
 Cain's posterity before the Noachic deluge, as indicated in the 
 fourth chapter of Genesis, appears to warrant the inference that 
 they attained to similar longevity with those of the Sethite 
 line spoken of in the fifth chapter. Second The supposi- 
 tion involves a palpably miraculous distinction wrought in 
 favor of the few longiseval over the many breviseval antedilu- 
 vians, for which no adequate or appropriate final cause is 
 either suggested by Scripture ^or to be detected by reason. 
 
 After the Deluge there was a considerably rapid progres- 
 sive reduction of the term of human life, as the sacred history 
 assures us. This progress may be divided into stages or 
 periods. Thus, the first reduction began with Shem, who 
 lived six hundred years; the second with Arphaxad, who 
 lived four hundred and thirty-eight years ; the third reduction 
 with Peleg, who lived two hundred and thirty-nine years. 
 Thence there appeared a more gradual decline, until our long 
 existing standard of threescore years and ten was reached. 
 
 Should it be inquired whether any, and if any what, as- 
 signable physical causes existed in antediluvian times, tend- 
 ing to the so extraordinary prolongation of human life, it 
 might be replied that conjecture has assigned the operation of 
 the two following : First A more temperate dietetic regi- 
 men, consisting largely in the absence of animal food and of 
 intoxicating beverages. Second In an evenness of tem- 
 perature peculiar to the antediluvian age arising, as Dr. 
 Burnet thought, from the axis of the earth being, until the 
 
408 HOW TO BE ACCOUNTED FOR. 
 
 time of the flood, perpendicular to the plane of the ecliptic 
 a theory which the learned now generally regard as unsus- 
 tainable. 
 
 For the gradual reduction of the standard of life after the 
 grand cataclysm, three reasons of a physical nature have 
 been set forth 1st. The introduction of animal food and 
 stimulating beverages. 2d. The change, in reference to the 
 plane of the ecliptic, of the earth's axis to an oblique position. 
 3d. Malarious influences left by the deluge upon its retiring. 
 
 It is our belief that the prolongation or reduction of the 
 term of life cannot be satisfactorily accounted for by a refer- 
 ence to the operation, exclusively, of natural principles or 
 secondary causes. We think it necessary to have recourse, 
 additionally, to supernatural influence and that influence of 
 a character relaxing or intensifying, according to the stand- 
 point proper to be selected from which to survey the matter. 
 If from the standpoint of the present or some abridged stand- 
 ard of human life then supernatural influence is to be 
 viewed as relaxing the law of mortality, as to tensive action 
 in the early ages of this world's history ; if from the stand- 
 point of the longiaeval term, intensifying that law as to its 
 operation : This order of proceeding belonging to the depart- 
 ment of God's particular providence relative to man. 
 
 The final cause of the antediluvian longevity is to be re- 
 garded as at least two-fold : the rapid multiplication of man- 
 kind, and colonizing of the earth; and the invention and 
 advancement of the useful arts. The final cause or causes 
 of the postdiluvian reduction, in the different degrees, may 
 be viewed as, in part, the preventing of the human species 
 from becoming numerically so great as to operate injuriously 
 to human character and welfare, and unfavorably to the 
 divine service and glory. 
 
 Somewhere have we seen we remember not where 
 the substance of the following paragraph : After the creation, 
 when the world was to be peopled by one man and one woman, 
 
LIFE OP THE PATRIARCH, HOW EVENTFUL. 409 
 
 the age of the greater part of those on record was nine hun- 
 dred years and upwards. But after the flood, when there 
 were three couples to repeople the earth, none of the patriarchs 
 except Shem reached the age of five hundred years ; and 
 only the first three of this line, viz., Arphaxad, Salah, and 
 Eber, came near that age, which was in the first century 
 after the flood. In the second century, we do not find that any 
 attained the age of two hundred and forty ; and in the third 
 century, none except Terah arrived at two hundred ; by which 
 time the world was so well peopled, that they had built 
 cities, and were found in distinct nations under their respec- 
 tive kings. 
 
 If the fixed standard of human life were that of Methuse- 
 lah's age, or even that of Abraham's, the world would soon be 
 overstocked. On the other hand, if the age of man were 
 limited N to that of divers other animals to ten, twenty, or 
 thirty years only the decay of mankind would then be too 
 fast. But on the present scale the balance is nearly even, 
 and life and death keep an equal pace. In thus maintaining, 
 throughout all ages and places, these proportions of mankind, 
 and of all other creatures, God declares himself to be indeed 
 the ruler of the world. 
 
 By abbreviating the term of human life since the great in- 
 undation, the Supreme Being has shown his determination 
 not to suffer antediluvian wickedness, in its enormous fla- 
 grancies, again to prevail, nor antediluvian scenes to reap- 
 pear. Those evils which flowed out of or were aggravated 
 by so great protraction of life, the Divine Monarch would 
 not have to exist in postdiluvian times. 
 
 How eventful a life, not so much as to the number but 
 magnitude of the scenes or occurrences which, in the provi- 
 dence of God, it was the lot of our postdiluvian ancestor to 
 pass through events, a portion of them at least, partaking 
 of the character of the prominent or leading ones of time 
 events, too, in which he would never have borne so illustrious 
 19 
 
410 WHAT THE MAGNITUDE OF THE EVENTS. 
 
 or important a part, had it not been that early after his 
 natural, he had been born by a new and heavenly birth. As 
 regards, for example, his position relatively to the inhabitants 
 of the Old "World, he would never, by the Ruler over all, 
 have been selected to act the part he did to open his lips 
 as a preacher of righteousness to essay to stem the torrent 
 of iniquity, or change the current of affairs had it not been 
 for that peculiarity of the age his piety. How superlative 
 a regard was his for the glory of the Infinite One, and for the 
 well-being (not only nor so much in the lower as in the higher 
 sense) of his fellow-men. How intense was his desire for a 
 change in those knit to him by a common humanity and de- 
 scent, so iniquity should not be their ruin. It is a saying of 
 its denizens, that " Naples is a piece of heaven fallen down 
 to earth." Oh, how much did our worthy patriarch long for 
 something of heaven to come down to earth, to preserve the 
 latter from sinking down to hell ; but the Old World would 
 not have it, no, not so good a specimen even as Naples, which 
 you will all say is none of the best ; and so the flood came 
 and bore her to her own place. Ah, what a groan was that 
 in heaven, when the first big, voluminous, synchronal wail of 
 its new tenants ascended from the awful, bottomless abyss ! 
 
 We have said that Noah would have never borne the trans- 
 cendently distinguished, as well as praiseworthy part he did 
 in time's earlier events, but for his piety, his eminent piety. 
 This is specially true of that paramount event of his day, the 
 deluge. But for this peculiarity, he, with the multitudinous 
 throng, would have sunk as lead beneath the mighty waves, 
 instead of being the chosen instrument of ferrying his little 
 family, with the sub-human creatures, over the waters, to 
 stock an untenanted world. 
 
 How grateful should we feel that so great, wise, and good 
 a man was chosen to commence the colonizing of the depopu- 
 lated earth, and lay the foundation of her institutions. How 
 long since, but for the benign effects, upon the postdiluvian 
 
THE PATRIARCH'S INFLUENCE 411 
 
 generations, of his exertions as well as example of the 
 shaping, moulding influence of his instructions, counsels, kind 
 ministries, and, withal, many and fervent prayers might 
 this earth in toto have become as Sodom ; have experienced 
 the fiery fate of Gomorrah. Our saint and sage was incom- 
 parably more useful in the New World than he had ever suc- 
 ceeded in being in the Old. "What gave him a special ad- 
 vantage for usefulness among the postdiluvians was, that he 
 stood at their head was the parent of them all ; had the 
 opportunity of superintending and directing the course of the 
 twig in its up-risings, and the fountain in its out-flowings. 
 He indeed fell far short of accomplishing for his offspring 
 all that his benevolent soul desired. Ere he left the world 
 he was compelled to witness upspringing evils which ago- 
 nized his spirit yes, even of so great and aggravated 
 an evil, perhaps, as that of a turning of the hearts of some 
 from the true God to idols. It appears at least that ere 
 Abraham left the land of his nativity, the sin of idolatry was 
 not wholly unknown in it. (See Josh. 24 : 2, 14.) Be this 
 as it may, our postdiluvian father accomplished for his de- 
 scendants, instrumen tally, an inexpressible amount of good. 
 Yes, much as there is in the world to be deplored far as 
 large portions of humanity are from what it is highly desira- 
 ble they should be still, how much worse both as to char- 
 acter and^condition would the family of man in its entireness 
 have been, but for the early benign ministries of our great 
 and good progenitor. Eminently may it be declared of him, that 
 " though dead he yet speaketh ; " though long, long since, out 
 of the world, he left and sent down to succeeding generations, 
 influences salutary and precious that are yet in it ; aye, and 
 are this day and hour widely, as well as strikingly, visible. 
 Would that all the intermediate progenitors of the present 
 population of the globe, and the existing population itself, had 
 been so willing to be profited by, as to be more like him. 
 Were the possession of grace dependent upon generation, 
 
412 HOW BENIGN AND LASTING. 
 
 instead of regeneration, its prevalence and blessed effects 
 would be vastly more extensive than we now find them. 
 
 Noah's spirit has been long mingling with the glorified 
 and happy of the spirit world beholding sights which 
 angel spirits witness ; engaged in their elevated and rap- 
 turous exercises with a measure of peculiarity indeed as 
 regards, particularly, the latter ; singing some strains "which 
 angel voices can hardly reach ; harping some notes which 
 angel harps cannot touch. 
 
 Oh, what heights of glory does the patriarch spirit already 
 occupy! his intellect how expanded and how stored! his 
 heart how crowded and swollen with big and blissful emotions ! 
 but, be it observed, the intellect and heart of that spirit have 
 not yet attained to all the capacity or amount of choice stores 
 of which they are susceptible. And, when will they ? Echo 
 answers, When will they ? 
 
 Shall our spirits immortal, young gentlemen, ever ascend 
 and approach near enough to this patriarch-spirit, not only to 
 behold but have converse with him, our honored ancestor ? 
 Shall we have addressed to us any of the utterances of his 
 lips ; receive great thoughts from his into our minds ; and 
 have any of the more choice emotions of his swelling bosom 
 reappearing in ours? One thing we do know that if 
 heaven's golden gates ever turn on their hinges for our 
 admittance, our eyes shall gaze on a greater than Noah, and 
 one that has done more for Noah's posterity, than that excel- 
 lent and benevolent patriarch ever did for them, or ever had 
 it in his power to do : One, also, wearing the whole likeness 
 of humanity, corporeal as well as spiritual. For though 
 Noah's spirit is, his body is not in heaven. It is here 
 yes, here. Oh, that living men might treat it better, than 
 upon it with infidel, contemptuous foot to trample. Yes, the 
 whole of the second father of mankind ( is not absent from our 
 terrestrial abode. Though, some thousands of years since, 
 all belonging to our patriarch, that was just ready for it, 
 
HIS MEMORIAL WITH TJS. 413 
 
 passed from the shores of time to a territory that by time's 
 foot is never trodden ; yet he left behind him a memorial 
 a physical, visible memorial. He left behind him that body 
 which, for so prolonged a season, housed his spirit ; those lips 
 which had uttered the words of instruction, tones' of admoni- 
 tion, notes of warning, which fell upon the ears of the ungodly 
 of the world beyond the flood's rolling waves ; those hands 
 which were employed in the construction of the floating 
 house that transported the prime tenants of the new from a 
 former world. Yes, young friends, we may with our own 
 eyes have seen some portion of the outer garment which 
 Noah's spirit wore. And, oh, does not the very dust appear 
 to us the more attractive and dear, when we think that some 
 of it, falling upon our eye-sight, helped to constitute the 
 mantle, the fleshy robe, worn by so great and holy men as 
 our Patriarch, and Abraham, and Moses, and David, and the 
 prophets, yea, and by the apostles of our Lord, and hundreds 
 and thousands, and millions too, all of Noah's progeny, of 
 whom the world was not worthy? Yes, the very dust of 
 earth is endeared, when we think of this ; and especially 
 when, in addition, we think that this very dust may again 
 help to enrobe those saints in glory ; this very dust become 
 instinct with life, become immortal ; stand in organized, em- 
 bodied form before the throne of the Infinite Majesty ; and 
 appear beautiful beyond all that mortal vision has ever 
 beheld ; and continue so, aye, pass on from the beautiful to 
 the more beautiful, from glory to glory, unintermittedly, 
 without end ! We bless thee this hour, O Infinite, for the 
 information thou hast given, that the mortal shall become 
 immortal so that our pious ancestry, in the habiliments 
 which once they wore, shall be seen by us those whom we 
 knew on this earthly ball again seen by us, but habiliments 
 renewed, indeed, and appearing superior far to what they 
 were when they constituted the apparel of the saints wearing 
 them, ere they were put off. 
 
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