University of California. 
 
 Mrs. SARAH P. WALSWORTH. 
 
 Received October, 1894. 
 ^Accessions No . Si? ^3 • Class No. 
 
 V 
 
 I 
 
vw:archTve:oTg;dmairsmrenaofmoses, 
 
RECOMMENDATIONS. 
 
 Theological Seminary, 
 Columbia, S. C, February 25th, 1852. 
 Reverend and Dear Sir, 
 
 I have heard that it is your intention to present in a more perma- 
 nent form, the substance of those Essays in defence of the Mosaic 
 writings, which have appeared in the columns of the Southern Presby- 
 terian. I cannot but express my high appreciation of the diligence and 
 ability manifested by you in investigating those intricate subjects of 
 scientific and antiquarian research, which are so far beyond the read- 
 ing of most professional men. 
 
 While difiering in one or two minor points, I have a full conviction of 
 the general soundness of your conclusions, and a belief that your book 
 will be a timely aid to many inquiring minds, which either need to be 
 better informed as to the early documents of our faith, or are in danger 
 of perversion from the skepticism of philosophy, falsely so-called. 
 
 From the substance of your work which lies before me, I cannot 
 but commend it to the attention of thinking men, and to our students 
 of divinity, who will find it of material service, in enabling them to 
 make up their minds on the difficult points on which you speak. 
 I remain, 
 
 Very truly yours. 
 Rev. Dr. Hamilton. GEO. HOWE. 
 
 [From the Southern Presbyterian Review, Columbia, S. C, Jan. 1852.] 
 " The attention paid by Dr. Hamilton to the modern skeptical objec- 
 tions to the Scriptures, as exhibited in various of his recent writings, 
 entitles him to the thanks of the Christian Church." (p. 453.) 
 
I RECOMMENDATIO]S'S. 
 
 [Extract of a letter from Reverend W. A. Scott, D.D.. of New Orleans, 
 to the Author.] 
 
 " I have read with some care your last articles. The first series I 
 read as they appeared in the New Orleans Presbyterian, I am more in- 
 terested in your Essays on the Deluge, Moses, and Death, than in the 
 others. This may be, not because they are more able, but because 
 they embrace points that have given me more trouble than the other 
 subjects do ; and because they strike me as being more original, and 
 adapted to the times. 
 
 '^ I regard all your Essays as able, clear, and highly valuable to the 
 cause of truth. I think they should be presented to the public in a 
 more permanent, convenient, and inviting form, than as newspaper es- 
 says. As to the Deluge, I concur with you. 
 
 " When I read, several years ago, the work of the very learned and 
 able Dr. John Pye Smith, on ' Geology and Scripture,' I came to a con- 
 clusion the reverse of what he sought to establish. I believe, as you 
 show, that the Deluge was universal, and that it was caused by the 
 sinking of the land of the old world, and the rising up of the bed of 
 former seas and oceans. Nor is it at all improbable that some island 
 or continent may yet arise from ocean's depths, with antediluvian re- 
 mains upon it, to confound the enemies of the Bible, &c. &c. 
 
 (Signed,) "W.A.SCOTT. 
 
 " New Orleans, Oct. 13, 1861." 
 
THE 
 
 "FRIEND OF MOSES;" 
 
 OB, 
 
 A DEFENCE OF THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 AS 
 
 THE PRODUCTION OF MOSES AND AN 
 INSPIRED DOCUMENT, 
 
 AGAINST 
 
 THE OBJECTIONS OF MODERN SKEPTICISM. 
 
 BY 
 
 WM. T. HAMILTON, D.D., 
 
 PASTOR OF THE GOVEENMENT STREET CHURCH, MOBILE, ALA. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 PUBLISHED BY M. W. DODD, 
 
 BRICK CHURCH CHAPEL, OPPOSITE CITY HALL. 
 
 1852. 
 
 
 ^^ Of TBDi*^^ 
 

 ^- 
 
 j£*^ 
 
 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1852, 
 
 BY M. W. DODD, 
 
 In the Clerk's office of the Southern District of New York. 
 
 STKREOTYPKD BY THOMAS B. SMITH, 
 216 WILLIAM STREET, N. T. 
 
THE PEOPLE OF MY PASTORAL CHARGE, 
 
 THE CONGREGATION OF THE GOVERNMENT ST. CHURCH, MOBILE : 
 
 TO ALL SINCERE INQUIRERS AFTER TRUTH, 
 
 AND MORE PARTICULARLY TO STUDENTS OF DIVINITY: 
 
 TO DR. J. C. NOTT OF MOBILE, 
 
 WHOM, WIDELY THOUGH WE DIFFER IN OUR VIEWS ON THE SUBJECTS HERE 
 
 DISCUSSED, I YET RESPECT AS A SCHOLAR AND A WRITER, ESTEEM 
 
 AS A MAN, AND VALUE AS A FRIEND : 
 
 AND ALSO TO THE 
 
 MINISTERS AND ELDERS OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 
 AT THE SOUTH, 
 
 @^l)i6 boinmc. 
 
 THE FRUIT OF CAREFUL RESEARCH AND MUCH THOUGHT, IS RESPECTFULLY 
 AND AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED, BY 
 
 WM. T. HAMILTON. 
 
 Mobile, March 15th, 1852. 
 
/;"?" 1 V 
 
.^^I^-A.^ 
 
 
 £4 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 The object of the little work now presented to the public is de- 
 clared in the Title Page. It is designed as a vindication of that part 
 of the records of our faith, known as the books of Moses, from the 
 objections and the misrepresentations that have been advanced and 
 diligently propagated within the last half-century. These objections 
 are drawn from various sources — from science — from critical re- 
 search — and from oriental archives. That every objection here no- 
 ticed is answered satisfactorily, the Author dare not flatter himself: 
 "but that each objection has been carefully weighed and impartially 
 examined, with the best means of judgment accessible to him, he 
 does aflarm. 
 
 Several years have elapsed since circumstances, which it is not 
 necessary here to explain, induced the writer to direct his attention 
 once again, and more particularly, to the subjects discussed in this 
 volume, many of which had occupied his attention and awakened 
 his lively interest, in earlier life. 
 
 In writing these pages, the Author has freely availed himself of 
 the works of others. Generally, reference is expressly made to the 
 works so used : but it is very possible that the thoughts, and even 
 the words of others, may have been introduced, even into the text, 
 where such reference is not made. In preparing a work like this, 
 amid the varied avocations of a Christian pastor, settled in a 
 Southern city, such omissions are almost unavoidable. 
 
 At the close of the volume will be appended a list of most of the 
 authors herein referred to, or consulted ; and the edition will be 
 named, so that if plagiarism be suspected, it may be detected with- 
 out difficulty. 
 
 The Lecture on the Unity of the Human Race, with which the 
 volume closes, is designed rather as the introduction to a fuller dis- 
 
Vlll PREFACE. 
 
 cussion of that important point, whicli the Author hopes hereafter 
 to prepare for publication. 
 
 How numerous and formidable soever may be the objections 
 that lie, on scientific grounds, against the doctrine that the whole 
 population of the globe are of one stock — the descendants of Adam 
 and Eve, and again of Noah — the teachings of the Bible leave us 
 no alternative. So, at least, it seems to the author of this volume. 
 No view of this subject that has been put forth by other writers, 
 fully satisfies his mind. 
 
 Could the lapse of time, aided by climatic influence, diversity of 
 food, of habits, &c., be supposed adequate to accomplish such changes 
 as must have been made in the different colonies of Noah's descend- 
 ants, in order to produce the various races of men now inhabiting 
 our globe ; yet the records of the East, the monuments of Egypt, 
 and the contents of her catacombs, show a similar diversity to have 
 existed at so early a period, that there was not — adopt what system 
 of chronology you may — sufficient time between the Deluge and the 
 first recorded evidence of the existence of that diversity, to account 
 for the production of that change. The reasoning of the learned 
 Pritchard on that subject, and the argument of Rev. Dr. Thomas 
 Smythe, of Charleston, S. C, do not, therefore, fully meet the case. 
 
 A more attentive consideration of the sacred record given in 
 Genesis, has led to the conclusion, that the miraculous confounding 
 of tongues at Babel was attended by such modification of man's 
 physical constitution, as to insure the speedy production of those 
 changes necessary to adapt the several divisions of man to the cli- 
 mate and the locality to which they were destined. This idea is 
 presented in the closing Lecture, on the Unity. It was embodied in 
 Essays on that subject published in the Mobile Herald and Tribune, 
 in August and September, 1850 ; and also in the Southeni Presby- 
 terian, published at Milledgville, Ga., about the same time. Ad- 
 missible or otherwise, that view of the subject the author of these 
 pages claims as original. He has seen the same idea advanced by 
 other writers since that period, without any acknowledgment of its 
 origin. Previously to the issue of the Essays above referred to, he 
 never met with the idea in the works of any author. Yet it is so 
 simple, and, as he conceives, so natural an inference, in the circum- 
 stances, that very possibly it may have occurred to other minds, 
 unprompted, as it did to his own. 
 
PREFACE. IX 
 
 The dispersion of mankind after the Deluge, the origin of nations, 
 the history of writing, and the great and perplexed question of Bib- 
 lical chronology, are reserved for discussion in a future work, should 
 life and ability be spared. 
 
 Objections are sometimes urged against Christian pastors engaging 
 in works like the present, apart from their appropriate duties as 
 ministers of reconciliation. On that subject, the author of this work 
 begs leave to present the following sensible remarks, extracted from 
 a letter addressed to him by an intelligent, a learned, and a judicious 
 friend, who is himself also a Christian pastor, and one eminently 
 successful and universally esteemed, the Rev. W. A. Scott, D.D., of 
 New Orleans : 
 
 " I am aware that there are objections to pastors, and even to 
 learned professors engaging in services ab extra^ or supplementary 
 to their ordinary duties. Certainly a pastor's responsibihties to his 
 people are awful. Well may he cry out, as he considers this, ' Lord^ 
 who is sufficient for these things f A right-minded pastor will feel 
 that his people are emphatically committed to his care, that he is 
 set over them by the Holy Ghost, to watch for their souls as one 
 that must give an account to God. But, is his soul to be fettered 
 down to his own parish ? Is he not to pray and labor for the Church 
 universal, and for the conversion of the world ? What would havo 
 been the state and character of our Christian literature, if all the 
 men of God before us, had thought and labored only and exclusively 
 for their own immediate congregations — if they had contented them- 
 selves with doing nothing but preaching repentance and faith ? How 
 much would the Church of Christ have lost by such a narrow-minded, 
 suicidal policy ? Who will defend the outposts of the gospel, if pas- 
 tors do not ? On this very point I have met with a paragraph in the 
 work on ' The Letter and Spirit^'' by Dr. Vaughan, (editor of the Brit- 
 ish Quarterly Review,) which is worthy of being carefully considered. 
 
 " ' Concerning this doctrine, {i.e. that pastors should do nothing but 
 what relates to the immediate wants of their congregations, he says,) 
 we know not another doctrine more likely to be acceptable to the 
 prince of darkness ; for we know not another which, in proportion 
 to its prevalence, would operate more thorouglily to his purpose. 
 Now, as through all past time, not only the preaching of the gos- 
 pel, but the defence of Christianity through the world, if sustained 
 at all, must be sustained chiefly by men who are by profession its 
 
X PREFACE. 
 
 ministers. Such is the manifest design of Providence; and the 
 meddling and short-sighted men who oppose themselves to it, know 
 not what they do. If the priesthood of the sanctuary is to be a 
 match for the priesthood of letters, the path of its labors must be- 
 come wider and more diversified every day. Men who see this, 
 must give Httle heed to those who see it not.' (Letter and Spirit, p. 
 78, London, 1849.) 
 
 " Again," (continues Dr. Scott,) " the same arguments which call 
 for higher, and wider, and more diversified, and more earnest work 
 in the pulpit, call equally loud for the use of the press in behalf of 
 the same object. The religious literature that is needed must be 
 of a high character ; and while it may not professedly labor for the con- 
 version of souls, will, nevertheless, lead to that most important result. 
 
 "Whatever removes prejudices, cancels objections to the Bible, 
 opens up the understanding to discern true judgment, and exhibits 
 Christianity in alliance with common sense, and with the general 
 intelligence and culture of the age, — in a word, whatever contributes 
 to give the religion of the Bible a social status, contributes, under 
 God, to give it a converting power. 
 
 " In the irrigation of Egypt,* there is much apart from, and prior 
 to, the long wished-for, and harvest-producing flood ! There are 
 all the appliances and machinery of human effort waiting for the 
 Providence-sent overflowing. 
 
 " So, in the history of society and in the experience of individnalo, 
 there is much that is not only preliminary to conversion, but apart 
 from, and yet in order to conversion. The truth must come into 
 actual contact with the men, before it can make them free. They 
 must hear of Christ, and have knowledge of Him, before they can 
 believe in him. Whatever, then, contributes to place the Bible be- 
 fore men of intelligence, freed from their prejudices against it, and 
 gives it, in their view, authority, as the word of God, contributes to 
 their conversion, if they become obedient to its teachings.'''' 
 
 In these excellent views, the author of this work heartily concurs 
 with Dr. Scott. 
 
 Mobile, March 15, 1852. 
 
 * Dr. Scott has recently made a tour in Egypt and the East. 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS, 
 
 PAGK 
 
 Dkdication V 
 
 PUEFAOE Vii 
 
 Introduction — Presenting a brief View of the German Geological 
 Mode of Interpretation vii 
 
 LECTUKE I. 
 
 THE CHARACTER OF MOSES AS A SCHOLAR AND A 
 STATESMAN. 
 
 The probable Date of his Birth under the Eighteenth Dynasty.— 
 Education. — Rabbinical Traditions respecting his Infancy. — His 
 Military Career in Ethiopia. — His Purity of Character. — Firmness. — 
 Military Achievements. — Conjecture as to Monumental Records of 
 it. — His Skill as a Leader. — His Accuracy as a Historian. — Charac- 
 teristics of his Style as a Writer. — Sagacity as a Statesman. — "Wis- 
 dom as a Legislator. — Peculiarities of the Mosaic Institutions. — 
 CivD. Polity. — Law of Murder, and Cities of Refuge. — Moral Code. 
 — Mosaic Institutions and Laws not borrowed from Egypt. — Testi- 
 monies on that Point. — General Summary 35 
 
 LECTUKE II. 
 
 TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. 
 
 The Necessity of a Revelation to Man : argued from the Religious 
 Instinct innate in Man. — The Importance of Human Destiny. — Man's 
 limited Powers, — The enfeebling Influence of Moral Obliquity. — 
 
xii CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGB 
 
 The Character of the Religious Systems embraced among the most 
 enlightened Nations of Antiquity. — Hindoo Sacred Books.— China : 
 the Chou-King, and Confucius. — Ancient Persians. — Religious Sys- 
 tem of the Ancient Egyptians. — Idea of One God not exhibited in 
 Egyptian Monuments. — Ethical Teachings of the Ancient Philos- 
 ophers. — General Sentiment of Antiquity betraying an Expectation 
 of a Revelation 80 
 
 LECTUEE in. 
 
 THE BIBLE AS A REVELATION FROM GOD. 
 
 Definition. — ^The Books of which the Bible is composed are of extreme 
 Antiquity. — Mis-statements of Strauss corrected. — Care of the Jews 
 in transcribing. — The Bible itself claims to be Divine. — In it nothing 
 inconsistent with this high Claim. — Contrast PueriUties of Religious 
 Systems of India and Egypt. — Bible worthy, in every Point, of its 
 high Claim. — Miracles, what : Instances : a suitable Attestation of a 
 Revelation. — Miracles not impossible, or the Admission of them 
 absurd. — Peculiar Character of the Jews inexplicable but on Admis- 
 sion of Mosaic Miracles. — Those of Gospel admitted by early Assail- 
 ants of Christianity. — Influence of the Bible on Man proves it 
 Divine. — Nations without the Bible : Romans, Chaldaeans, Persians, 
 Assyrians. — China, Ancient Civilization. — Curious Evidences of it. — 
 Eclipses. — Seven Years' Famine. — Mariner's Compass. — Printing. — 
 Ancient Egypt. — Ridiculous Superstitions. — New Evidence for the 
 Bible constantly turning up as Time moves on and Science and 
 Learning advance 10& 
 
 LECTUEE lY. 
 
 AUTHENTICITY AND GENUINENESS OF THE PENTATEUCH 
 AS THE WORK OF MOSES. 
 
 Five Books bearing the Name of Moses. — Indispensable as an Introduc- 
 tion to the other Sacred Books. — Always regarded by the Jews as 
 the Work of their great Lawgiver. — So regarded by the Learned in 
 Europe and in the United States. — Some who once denied, after 
 
CONTENTS. Xlll 
 
 PAGB 
 
 thorough Examination, admitted the Mosaic Origin of these Books. 
 — The Books themselves state repeatedly that Moses wrote them, 
 and wrote by God's Command. — In the later Jewish Scriptures tliese 
 Books are often mentioned as the Law : the Law given by Moses. 
 — Written Books, not an Oral Law meant. — Hilkiah did not palm 
 on Josiah Forged Documents as a "Work of Moses. — Hilkiah found 
 the Autograph Copy of Moses. — The Pentateuch was the Statute 
 Book of the Jewish Nation. — Evidence of Existence of Pentateuch, 
 and regarded as the Work of Moses in Ages subsequent to the Cap- 
 tivity. — Mentioned in Historical Books ; in Prophets ; in Psalms. — 
 Samaritan Copy. — Testimony of Josephus. — Translation of the 
 Seventy. — Imposition impossible. — Character and Style of these 
 Books agree precisely with what we know of Moses, and with no 
 other Man. — Mosaic Origin distinctly acknowledged by Christ and 
 the Apostles. — No Ancient Author supported by an equal Amount 
 of Evidence 144 
 
 LECTUKE Y. 
 
 GENESIS, THE WOKK OF MOSES, AND INSPIRED. 
 
 A necessary Opening to the other Five Books. — The first Eleven 
 Chapters inseparably connected with all the rest. — Its Importance 
 as the Basis of all History. — Recapitulation of Argument in Lecture 
 IV. — Internal Evidence in this and the other Books of the Penta- 
 teuch that they emanated from the same Author. — Christ and the 
 Writers of the New Testament recognized Genesis as the Work of 
 Moses. — Many Passages in the other Jewish Writers clearly imply 
 tlie same. — Whether entirely Original, or Compiled from other 
 sources, not Material. — Moses gave it to the Jews. — Notions of 
 Vitringa, Astruc, &c., as to many Fragmentary Documents. — The 
 Theory of a Jehovah Document, and an Elohim Document. — No 
 contradictory Repetitions. — Moses proceeds Logically, giving Gen- 
 erals first, Particulars afterwards. — Genesis always esteemed by 
 Jews as the Work of Moses. — Found in every Ancient Copy, and 
 every Version of the Jewish Scriptures. — Testimony of distinguished 
 Ancient Heathen Writers to the Leading Facts in the Mosaic 
 History, and to the wide-spread Reputation of Moses as a States- 
 man, a Lawgiver, and a Writer 192 
 
 1 
 
Xiv CONTEXTS. 
 
 LECTUKE YI. 
 
 CREATION IN SIX DAYS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Is this true ? — In what Sense is it true ? — All Truths are consistent 
 one with another. — God's Works and his Word must harmonize. — 
 Care demanded in explaining the Sacred Record. — Mere Theories, 
 plausible but not proved, weigh not against the Averments of 
 Scripture. — The Nebular Hypothesis, and Doctrine of Development 
 from Lower to Higher Forms of Animal Life, both rejected among 
 Scientific Men. — Importance of full Confidence in Bible Statements. 
 — Theory of Diversity of Origin for the Human Races, a bare un- 
 supported Hypothesis. — Difficulty of a minutely particular Interpre- 
 tation of the first Chapter in Genesis. — Indefinite Gap between the 
 Beginning, Gea L 1, and the Six Days' Creation. — Opinions of 
 Eminent Men. — Theory of Days of Indefinite Duration, Geological 
 Cycles, considered. — Four Objections to that Theory. — Attempted 
 Explanation of Creation in Six Days. — Meaning of Terms Create, 
 Make, Fashion, <fec. — Pearson. — Mosaic Account shown to be most 
 Reasonable, by a comparison with Diodorus, Diogenes Laertius, and 
 Wilkinson respecting the Egyptians. — Hindoo Cosmogony. — De 
 Lembre, Bentley, Sir W. Jones, and others. — The Chaldaeans. — 
 Absurd Fables of the old Chinese Authors. — Man of recent Origin 
 on Earth, as Moses testifies, demonstrated by Science. — Sacredness 
 of the Weekly Sabbath 226 
 
 LECTURE VII. 
 
 POPULATION OF THE EARTH IN THE DAYS OF CAIN, AND 
 LONGEVITY OF THE PATRIARCHS. 
 
 Story of Caia — Bloody Sacrifices. — Prescribed Mode of Worship and 
 Priesthood. — Father of Family the Priest. — Meaning of " Stood be- 
 fore the Lord ;" " Went out from the Presence of the Lord." — Mark 
 set on Cain. — Where Cain obtained a Wife. — Rapid Increase of the 
 Famdies of Man. — Incestuous Marriages. — Such Marriages at first 
 inevitable, on every Theory of Races. — Antediluvian Longevity, 
 corroborated by Ancient Tradition in other Nations, and the recorded 
 
CONTENTS. XV 
 
 PA.OK 
 
 Reigns of their early Sovereigns. — Reasons for preferring the Sep- 
 tuagint Chronology to the Hebrew. — Egyptian Monumental Records 
 present nothing, fully authenticated, that can shake the Credit of Moses 26*7 
 
 LECTUEE YIII. 
 
 THE GIANTS. 
 
 These Ancient Bible Histories not borrowed from Heathen Mythology. 
 — Import of the Phrase, " Sons of God," and " Daughters of Men." — 
 Superstitious Notions of early Christian Writers on this subject. — 
 Curious Account from Maimonides, of the Origin of Idolatry. — Evil 
 of Lustful Marriages. — Giants, Import of the Term. — Not necessarily 
 of huge Stature. — Probable Origin, — No Evidence that Ancients 
 generally were of larger Stature than Moderns. — Supposed Bones 
 of Antediluvian Giants disinterred were not Human. — Instances of 
 unusual Stature, Ancient and Modern. — Men of gigantic Stature 
 mentioned in diflferent Parts of the Bible as extraordinary Cases. — 
 Such still occur. — Patagonians, &c. 294 
 
 LECTUEE IX. 
 
 DEATH AMONG THE CREATURES OF GOD.- 
 EXTENT, AND CONSEQUENCES. 
 
 To Man, the Fruit of Sin, wide-spread Consequences. — Benevolently 
 ordered, to the Individual, to Society. — Extent of Death. — Universal 
 in Animal Creation. — Is Death among Lower Animals the Fruit of 
 Man's Sin? — Difficulties attending the Affirmative. — Facts adduced 
 proving that Death did invade the Animal Occupants of this Globe 
 before Adam sinned ; before Man was formed. — Fossil Remains in 
 Geological Strata. — Gigantic Fossil Saurian, with Remains in its 
 Stomach of Animals' on which it had fed. — Animal Remains abun- 
 dant in nearly all Rocks, Limestone, Chalk, Polishing-stone. — In- 
 fusoria incredibly abundant. — Vast Mountains mere Masses of Re- 
 mains of Dead Animalculae. — Pyramids. — Coral. — Deltas of Rivers. 
 — Death inevitable to Material Organization. — Law of Eden. — 
 Tree of Life 312 
 
XVl CONTENTS. 
 
 LECTURE X. 
 
 THE DELUGE UNIVERSAL. PART I. 
 
 PAoa 
 
 Bible not a Text-Book of Science, yet contains much deeply interest- 
 ing to the Scientific. — Faith of Noah. — Active Obedience. — Moses 
 teaches, the Flood universal. — His Language implies it. — The 
 Narrative is History, not Allegory. — Evidence from New Testa- 
 ment — Theory of Local Inundation. — Universal Tradition in aU 
 Nations. — Ceremonies commemorative of a Deluge universal. — 
 Chaldaeans, Gentoos, Indians of Mexico and South America. — Origin 
 of Mounds and Pyramids. — Chinese. — Argument therefrom. — Ly ell's 
 Theory unreasonable. — Supposed Traces of Diluvian Action on the 
 Earth. — Views of Ancient Philosophers (Strabo, <tc.) on the Fossils 
 then known. — Evidence of crossing Currents. — Alternating Layers 
 of Fresh Water, and Marine Deposits of different Ages. — No indu- 
 bitable Traces of the Action of Noah's Flood yet found. — Change in 
 the Views of Christian Geologists. — Buckland, Sedgwick, <tc. — 
 Direction of Currents. — Boulders. — Alterations of Level in Land 
 and Sea. — Temple of Jupiter Serapis, near Naples. — Views of Dr. 
 Fleming 889 
 
 LECTURE XI. 
 
 THE DELUGE UNIVERSAL. PART II. 
 
 Reeapitulation. — Mosaic Doctrine. — Deluge universal. — Objections 
 against its Universality. — On Scientific Grounds. — Quantity of 
 Water needed. — Subterranean Oceans. — Increased Weight of Earth. 
 — Disturb whole Solar System. — Deluge a Miracle. — Sinking of old 
 Continents, upheaval of old Ocean's Beds. — Lands now rising. — 
 Others sinking. — Laws of Nature not uniform in all Ages ; in the 
 sense of Lyell. — The Uniformity includes Exceptions. — Garden of 
 Eden. — Site not ascertained on any Theory. — Human Remains Ante- 
 diluvian not found. — Because all now beneath the deep Sea. — Rapid 
 Vegetation after Flood. — Olive Leaf — Noah's Vineyard, — Expla- 
 nation of this. — Alleged Incapacity of the Ark to contain all the 
 
CONTENTS. XVU 
 
 PAOB 
 
 Animals. — Difficulty of Animals from remotest Regions all living 
 in one Climate so long. — Dispersion of the Animals to their respec- 
 tive Climates. — Destruction of all Fresh Water Animals in such a 
 Deluge. — Objection to the Universality of the Deluge. — From the 
 great Age of certain Trees. — From Appearances presented in certain 
 Volcanic Regions in France, Sicily and Asia Minor. — Solution of 
 these Difficulties. — Impossible Descent of Animals, &c., from Mount 
 Ararat. — Monuments of the East, chiefly of Egypt, said to be many 
 Centuries older than the Epoch of Noah's Deluge. — Brief Solution 
 of this Difficulty. — Discoveries of Mr. R. S. Poole in Egyptian 
 Archaeology and Chronology. — Possible Future Upheaval of Antedi- 
 luvian Cities, and of Nimrod's Battle-grounds . . . .0. . . .381 
 
 LECTUEE XII. 
 
 MAN ONE FAMILY. 
 
 All the Races of Men the Descendants of one Primitive Stock. — Diver- 
 sity of Origin claimed for the different Races, especially the Negro. 
 — Theory of Professor Agassiz. — His Reasoning. — His Explanation 
 of the Terra unity. — Of the Phrase, all made of one blood. — Objec- 
 tions to his Theory. — Contrary to Scripture. — Against the Testimony 
 of Philological Facts. — Philology Agassiz rejects as irrelevant. — 
 General Arguments on both Sides. — Argument for distinct Origin of 
 the Negro, particularly. — Polygamy among the dark Races. — Pro- 
 fessor Agassiz's Argument. — Objections to his Theory and his 
 
 Reasoning. — His Reasoning based on Assumption. The Mode of hia 
 
 Argument is inconsistent with his avowed Principles. — His Theory 
 imperfect and inconsistent with itself, as the one Type, the Abori- 
 ginal Indian, spread over the vast Extent of America, shows. — Adap- 
 tation of different Races to their Localities designed of God. — The 
 origin of Man and Animals beyond the Reach of mere Science. — 
 Testimony of Johan. Miiller. — Man differs from Animals much in 
 Origin also. — If the Creator reveal not Origin it must be ever hid. — 
 Teaching of the Bible. — Old Testament and New. — For the present 
 Diversity in Descendants from one common Stock the Bible accounts. 
 — Law to produce this Change impressed on Human Constitution 
 at Babel ; at Confusion of Tongues. — This Argued. — Challenge of 
 
XVUl CONTENTS. 
 
 PAOC 
 
 Agassiz met. — Analogy shows Change once made is permanent. — 
 This Change before Historical Times. — This View- accounts for all 
 Facts, explains all Difficulties, consistent with all Bible Doctrines. — 
 Incidental Evidence hence arising for Truth of Mosaic Books. — 
 Antiquity of Negro Race from Egyptian Monuments, but the old 
 Egyptians not Negroes. — Characteristics of Human Races do not 
 prove them distinct Species. — Mixed Races and their Fertility show 
 this. — Man an Anomaly in the Animal World. — Cannot reason from 
 an anomalous Case to other ordmary Cases. — Analogous Changes in 
 Lower Animals yield no valid Argument. — Nor alledged Inferiority 
 of Intellect in the Dark Races. — Case of Egyptians examined — 
 Instances of Negro Intelligence met with by the Author. — Adapted- 
 ness of Religion to all Races Evidence of this essential Unity. — Chris- 
 tian Missions. — The Traditions prevailmg among Men of all Races 
 and all Countries respecting a Deluge, and their Descent from the 
 one Family alone surviving that Event, bespeak a common Origin. — 
 This Point argued. — Evidence of early Civilization in all Countries 
 argues a common Origin. — A Comparison of Language gives Evi- 
 dence equal to Demonstration, of a common Origin. — Recapitulation 
 of the whole Argument 408 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Indebtedness of Modern Literature to the Bible 51*7 
 
 List of Authors referred to in this Work 648 
 
ftrSIVBRSIT 
 
 INTEODUCTION. 
 
 "The Bible," (said that great oriental scholar, Sir 
 William Jones,) "contains more sublimity, more ex- 
 quisite beauty, more pure morality, more important his- 
 tory, and finer strains of poetry and eloquence, than can 
 be collected from all other books — in whatever age or 
 language they may be written !" 
 
 •'The Bible," (said that masterly genius of modern 
 eloquence, Patrick Henry,) " is a book worth more than 
 all other books that were ever printed," 
 
 Of this wonderful book, that clear and logical rea- 
 soner, John Locke, has said, " It has God for its author, 
 salvation for its end, and truth, without any mixture of 
 error, for its matter." 
 
 And yet, against the authority of this best of all books, 
 attacks have been made, again and again, with deter- 
 mined and often with bitter hostility. To these several 
 attacks, numerous, and often masterly replies have been 
 published. 
 
 But within the last thirty or forty years, fresh at- 
 tacks have been made, on various grounds ; chiefly 
 scientific. 
 
 Astronomy, geology, physiology and ethnology, have 
 all been arrayed against the teachings of the Bible, and 
 
viii INTRODUCTION. 
 
 especially against the Pentateuch, the first ^ve books 
 of the Jewish Scripture, and which are generally as- 
 cribed to Moses as their author. The historical records 
 of several ancient oriental nations, and especially the 
 records still found among the monuments of Egypt, 
 whose numerous hieroglyphic inscriptions we can now 
 decipher, have been ostentatiously paraded in opposi- 
 tion to the books of Moses; and men of note in the 
 learned world have not been wanting who maintained 
 that these records, together with certain astronomical 
 tables found in the East, prove conclusively, that the 
 chronology of the Pentateuch is completely worthless, 
 its historic statements are entitled to no credit, and that 
 the book of Genesis especially, is nothing more than a 
 collection of old traditionary tales, and mythical repre- 
 sentations, of no historical value whatever. 
 
 These are very strong averments; they have been 
 very boldly and very confidently put forth, and they 
 are calculated to shake the faith of the unsuspecting, in 
 the truth of holy writ. The confidence with which the 
 assault is made, the appearance of learned research 
 presented in the writings of those who thus attack, 
 and the very nature of the materials constituting the 
 weapons of assault — very learned oriental documents 
 claiming a monstrous antiquity, and the interpreted 
 hieroglyphics of the old Pharaonic dynasties, still legible 
 in the halls of their palaces, the courts of their temples, 
 and the chambers of their tombs, still found over the 
 whole extent of the Nile valley, and other ancient 
 works and inscriptions met with occasionally in Arabia 
 and other eastern lands; and, when declared under the 
 sanction of names justly honored in the learned world 
 
INTRODUCTION. IX 
 
 for patient industry, and extensive erudition, to be de- 
 monstrative of the inaccuracy of the Mosaic record as 
 we have it, all this cannot but make a deep impression 
 on many a mind. 
 
 The poison has sunk into many a breast, which the 
 antidote will never reach. The object proposed to him- 
 self by the writer of the following essays, is to examine 
 this poison, and neutralize its power. The result of his 
 labors in this wide department of inquiry, is here given 
 to the public, and is commended especially to the in- 
 telligent seeker after Pruth^ with the request that these 
 pages be attentively perused, and the facts and reason- 
 ings, and authorities herein adduced, be imjpartially 
 weighed. Truth is the sole object aimed at by the 
 writer, and if by the reader the truth be sought, the 
 result is not doubtful. 
 
 The Bible has successfully sustained too many as- 
 saults, from almost every quarter, and from opponents 
 furnished with, every degree of talent, and every variety 
 of learning, for its friends to feel any solicitude as to the 
 final issue now. 
 
 Troops of assailants in the last century, including 
 every grade of intellectual qualiiication, from Paine, 
 Yolney, Yoltaire, to Hobbs, Bolingbroke, Hume, and 
 Gibbon, and a host of continental writers, tried the 
 temper of their weapons against the citadel of revealed 
 truth, and a host of defenders, as Campbell, Erskine, 
 West, Butler, Paley, &c., arose to show how strong are 
 the bulwarks, how impregnable the defences of that 
 glorious citadel. 
 
 The grounds of assault are now changed, and critical 
 ingenuity questions the genuineness of the sacred books. 
 
.^ INTRODUCTION. 
 
 and scientific discovery is arrayed in opposition to the 
 Bible-recorded facts, and archaeological research is as- 
 sumed to furnish proof conclusive, that the early his- 
 tory of the Bible is radically defective. The coarse 
 abuse of Paine is rejected, the sneering insinuations of 
 Gibbon are silenced, the subtle sophistry of Hume is 
 abandoned ; but we are told of the facts of geology, of 
 the wonderful revealments in the heavenly expanse, of 
 the demonstrated verities of physiological science, and 
 of anatomical investigation, — we are told of the authen- 
 ticated records of India and of China, running back 
 many ages beyond any probable date of Noah's flood, — 
 and we are told of the certain results of the discoveries 
 of Lepsius in Egypt, as all uniting their evidence to 
 confute Moses, and to throw utter discredit on the his- 
 toric portion of the Pentateuch. 
 
 But, to use the language of the profound Butler, (see 
 his Analogy, part 2, ch. 8,) " the truth of our religion, 
 like the truth of all common matters, is to be judged of 
 by all the evidence taken together. And unless the 
 whole series of things which may be alleged in the ar- 
 gument, and every particular thing in it, can reasonably 
 be supposed to have been by accident, then is the 
 truth of it proved. It is obvious how much advantage 
 the nature of this evidence gives to those who attack 
 Christianity, especially in conversation. For it is easy 
 to show, in a short and lively manner, that such and 
 such things in the Bible are liable to objection ; but it 
 is impossible to show, in like manner, the united force 
 of the whole argument in one view." 
 
 "Most absurdly premature it is, then," (says a judi- 
 cious writer in the Edinburgh Keview for Oct. 1849, 
 
INTEODUCTION. XI 
 
 p. 182,) " to raise a paean over the fall of Christianity, or 
 of any one of its essential doctrines, upon every new 
 attack upon it, when it has already withstood so many, 
 from the time of Julian to Bolingbroke, and from Boling- 
 broke to Strauss." 
 
 " The only question fairly at issue, must ever be, — 
 whether the general evidence for the Bible will over- 
 bear the difficulties which we cannot separate from its 
 truths : — if it will not^ we must reject it wholly ^ if it 
 will^ we must receive it wholly: there is plainly no 
 middle ground between absolute infidelity and abso- 
 lute belief !" (id. p. 182.) 
 
 True, there are still difficulties, and some of them of 
 grave import, attending the reception of the entire vol- 
 ume of Revelation ; but the question always recurs, do 
 these difficulties overbalance the mass of evidence in its 
 favor ? An intelligent and candid inquirer must answer, 
 unhesitatingly, assuredly they do not : — the evidence in 
 favor of the divine origin of the Bible preponderates de- 
 cidedly and vastly. " N'or must we overlook the fact, 
 that these difficulties are susceptible of indefinite alle- 
 viation as time rolls onP The believer in the plenary 
 inspiration of all the canonical books of the Old Testa- 
 ment and of the New, (Genesis included,) may wait 
 with calmness the progress of events, " assured, that, as 
 in so many past instances of premature triumph on the 
 part of the deriders of such inspiration, the very ground 
 which these deniers now occupy will one day be his 
 own ; and the very discoveries, apparently hostile, of 
 science, of philosophy, and of archaeology, will be ulti- 
 mately found elements of the strength of his cause," 
 (id. p, 184-187.) Eevelation, therefore, has nothing to 
 
xii INTRODUCTION. 
 
 fear, but much to hope from the labors of the learned, 
 and the discoveries of science. 
 
 Advances in science may enable us the better to un- 
 derstand, and the more correctly to interpret the sacred 
 volume ; but shake our confidence in it — neiier ! 
 
 Present me, to-morrow, with some discovery of unde- 
 niable facts that seem to be really and directly hostile 
 to some statements found in the Bible, and I will still 
 say — " The facts I admit^ and the statements of the 
 Bible I still believe. There is^ I confess^ an apparent 
 contrariety. In the present state of our knowledge^ 1 
 see not how to reconcile the two. But wait. Time and 
 advancing knowledge will yet bring to light other truths 
 which shall yet show the perfect consistency of what., at 
 present., seem to be irreconcilahly contradictoinj posi- 
 tions. Either the alleged facts are misapprehended 
 and misapplied,* as in the layers of alternating beds 
 
 * A singular illustration of this was furnished by the pseans of triumph 
 with which all Europe resounded about thirty years since, over the mys- 
 terious paintings found on the ceiling of a temple at Denderah, in Upper 
 Egypt. These paintings were apparently astronomical, and are still 
 known as the Zodiacs of Denderah, &c, (See in Egypte^ by Champol- 
 lion Figeae, plate 11, and p. 107-110; also Monumens de I'Egyple et de 
 NvMe, Champollion, vol. iv. of plates and plate 804, bis et ter. See also 
 Bioti, Recherchcs, &c.) 
 
 These paintings, it was at first taken for granted, represented the state 
 of the heavens at the time the temple was built. The most extravagant 
 ideas of the antiquity of these pictorial monuments were advanced. 
 Some pronounced them 3,000, some 4,000. and others even 7,000 years 
 old. 
 
 Somewhat similar representations were found delineated in two temples 
 at Esneh. At length patient research brought to light the fact, that the 
 smaller temple at Esneh, pronounced by some to be two or three thou- 
 sand years anterior to Christ, was built, and the paintings had been exe- 
 cuted by two Egyptians, in the tenth year of the Roman Emperor Anto- 
 
INTRODUCTION. XUl 
 
 of lava with superincumbent soil, noticed by Brydone 
 in Sicily, or we misinterpret the statements of the 
 Scripture, and substitute our inferences for its actual 
 teachings ; as did the ecclesiastics of former days, who 
 condemned as heretical the doctrine of Galileo, that 
 the sun is stationary in the centre of our system, with 
 the earth and the planets revolving round him, instead 
 of the sun moving round the earth, which those eccle- 
 siastics did verily swppose the Bible taught." 
 
 No one now dreams of objecting these facts presented 
 in the first principles of astronomic science against the 
 truth of the Bible on account of its phraseology, which is 
 the current phraseology of society on these subjects, and 
 adapted to popular comprehension. If, then, we are told 
 that scientific discovery compels us to modify the doc- 
 trines of the Bible, we answer — This assertion contains a 
 misrepresentation. Extending knowledge may enable 
 us the better to understand the statements found in the 
 
 nius, i.e. A.D. 147 ; while a Greek inscription over the portico of the tem- 
 ple at Denderah declared it to have been dedicated to the safety of the 
 Emperor Tiberius. " Ainsi done (adds Champollion Figeae, Egypte, p, 
 110,) I'antiquite du pronaos d'Esneh est incontestablement fixee : sa con- 
 struction ne remonte pas au-dela de I'erapereur Claude : ses sculptures 
 descendent jusqu'a Caracalla, et du nombre de celles-ci est le fameux 
 zodiaque dont on a tant i)a.Y\6."— Egypte, p. 110. 
 
 In like manner, certain inscriptions discovered on a mummy, at Thebes, 
 much like the zodiac at Denderah, were found to be astrological tables, 
 respecting the destiny of the person whose body the mummy was, and 
 jwt astronomical tables at all. The parentage and name of the person 
 were mentioned, his birth, Jan. 12, A.D. 95 ; his death, June 2d, A.D, 
 106. And yet, for this mummy and the inscription thereon found, an an- 
 tiquity of five or six thousand years had been claimed. Thus ended the 
 dazzling visions of high antiquity to Egypt, and the consequent refuta- 
 tion of the Mosaic chronology, based on the discoveries made at Dende- 
 rah, Esneh, and Thebes. 
 
xiv INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Bible, and thus to modify our interpretation of its doc- 
 trines, and render us more accurate and more strictly 
 Scriptural; but the doctrines of the Bible still stand 
 there, unaltered, as at first. 
 
 There is, therefore, no manner of weight attending 
 the charge as thus put forth by a living writer. (See 
 Two Lectures, &c., by Dr. J. C. K., p. T.) " There is 
 unceasing change in religious doctrines. What are re- 
 garded in one age as essential parts of our Bible, are, 
 in another, repudiated as spuriotis, and one reading 
 after another recedes as science advances?'' 
 
 In a modified sense this must always be true. In- 
 creasing knowledge will enable a man to obtain a better 
 understanding of almost any document. Critical acu- 
 men, and the collation of ancient manuscripts, old ver- 
 sions, and difi*erent copies, may lead to the improvement 
 of the text by the emendation of here and there a trivial 
 error. The various emendations so much talked of, 
 rarely, we may say never, touch any vital doctrine or 
 statement. While every advance we make in acquaint- 
 ance with the history, the antiquities, the writings, the 
 works of art, and with the manners and customs of an- 
 cient nations furnishes us the means for eliciting a fuller 
 and clearer meaning from the language of the Bible, 
 as of any other ancient document. 
 
 In actual life this is often exemplified. You receive a 
 communication from a distant correspondent. From 
 the first its statements are sufficiently intelligible for 
 all the purposes of practical utility. But if afterwards 
 you visit the place where the document was written, 
 and make yourself acquainted with the various facts as 
 to localities, persons, and prevailing customs, which 
 
INTRODUCTION. XV 
 
 were, indeed, not expressly mentioned in the document, 
 nor even directly alluded to ; but which, entirely famil- 
 iar to the writer, influenced his mind, and modified 
 his phraseology, — then the statements contained in that 
 document, you can better understand ; a meaning be- 
 fore latent, in many a phrase therein, becomes now 
 obvious. Yet the document itself remains as before it 
 was, unaltered and the same : the only diflerence is, 
 you are now qualified the more accurately to explain it. 
 In our courts of law, for the right interpretation given 
 to testamentary documents, the importance of a thor- 
 ough knowledge of the opinions, circumstances, and 
 habits of the testator, is fully appreciated ; and every 
 scholar is aware of the absolute necessity for a knowl- 
 edge of ancient customs and ancient localities, to a 
 due understanding of the ancient classical writings. 
 
 The fact, then, that an ancient document conveys 
 different ideas to the man whose knowledge is enlarged, 
 various and accurate, from those which one less accom- 
 plished gleans from it, is evidence rather of its genuine- 
 ness than otherwise. 
 
 So we may aver, that what little light modern science 
 throws upon this subject, rather tends to confirm than 
 to detract from the authority of the sacred narrative. 
 
 However superior to us the ancient Egyptians may 
 have been in architecture, in some branches of mechan- 
 ics, and of the fine arts, yet we have no reason to 
 imagine that they, or that Moses himself, could have 
 had the remotest idea of the great truths of geology, 
 or of those embraced in other branches of modern 
 Bcience. 
 
 The fact, then, that in recording with unprecedented 
 
Xvi INTRODUCTION. 
 
 brevity, the circumstances attending the creation of 
 man, and the preparation of this earth to become the 
 place of man's abode, Moses has so expressed himself, 
 that, as science extends her researches and multiplies 
 her discoveries, his ancient record, so far from offering 
 absurdities and contradictions, becomes only the plainer, 
 the more intelligible, and the more evidently probable, 
 can be accounted for on no other ground, than that 
 Moses was inspired by the All-wise Maker of the world, 
 to write his history in the words of immutable Truth. 
 Modern science shows, conclusively, that the opening 
 part, at least, of the Book of Genesis, must have been 
 the dictate of unerring wisdom ! 
 
 Plainly, now, if the Bible be given by inspiration 
 from God, we must receive its teachings just as they 
 are given to us. This the rationalistic critics of Germany 
 do not. " So long as the canonicity of any of the records 
 of Scripture, or any portion of them, or so long as the 
 true interpretation of them is in dispute, we may fairly 
 doubt ; but, that point once decided by honest criticism, 
 to say we receive such and such portions on account of 
 the weight of the general evidence, and yet reject other 
 portions, though sustained hy the same evidence^ because 
 we think there is something unreasonable, or revolting 
 in their substance, is plainly to accept evidence only 
 where it pleases us., and to reject it where it pleases us 
 not."— ^6?m. Rev., Oct. 1849, p. 182. 
 
 It is then my sincere and deliberate conviction, that 
 the authority of any one book in the Bible being once 
 admitted, after a careful examination of its claims to 
 inspiration, then, forthwith, and unconditionally, we are 
 bound to surrender our judgment to its teachings. 
 
INTRODUCTION. XVll 
 
 This is demanded alike by common honesty, sound 
 sense, and true philosophy. In reference to the Bible, 
 claiming, as it does, to be a revelation from God, there 
 is, and there can be no middle ground, between abso- 
 lute infidelity and absolute belief. 
 
 And yet the learned rationalistic expositors of the 
 Bible, that have appeared in Germany, aim to hold this 
 middle ground. Though called theologians, they treat 
 the Bible just as they would any of the profane classics, 
 deny all miracles, and explain away all the supernatural 
 events therein recorded, by the agency of natural 
 causes. As their writings are often referred to, and 
 their opinions quoted as authoritative, and absolutely 
 decisive, by many of the modern assailants of the Bible, 
 it may be not inappropriate to give here a brief sketch 
 of the opinions and the works of the chief among these 
 German rationalistic expositors of the Bible. Thus, it 
 has been recently proclaimed to the American public, 
 that " it is in Germany that philosophy, archaDology, 
 and all those studies which form the ground-work of 
 biblical criticism have been most advanced ; and this is 
 the fatherland of Luther, Gesenius, Ewald, Eichhorn, 
 Hautman, Gabler, the Rosen miillers, De Wette, Strauss, 
 and other commentators, who have no equals in Eng- 
 land or America. It is men of this stamp, and such 
 men as Channing, Norton, Parker, Palfrey, &c., of 
 I^ew England, who alone jpossess the Tcnowledge requi- 
 site for deciding such questions^ that dare to teach 
 that the Bible manuscripts have not come down to us 
 untarnished by human hands ; and that the Penta- 
 teuch is an anonymous jproduction^ of unknown origin^ 
 compiled many centuries after the time of Moses^ and 
 
 >^ OP THJ?^^^ 
 
 UFI7BIISIT 
 
Xviii INTRODUCTION. 
 
 consequently of no authority in settling questions of 
 science. (See Tivo Lectures., dsc.., p. 18.) 
 
 Who then are these men, Eichhorn, De Wette, 
 Strauss, &c. &c., thus recommended as the only com- 
 petent judges, the only tmstworthy expositors of holy 
 writ? 
 
 They are, for the most part, German writers, whose 
 works profess to be introductory to, or expository of the 
 sacred Scriptures, or some portions of them. 
 
 Johannes G. Eichhom was bom about the middle of 
 the last century, and, by his numerous writings, he ob- 
 tained great celebrity as an Oriental scholar, a histo- 
 rian, and a biblical critic. He was professor in the 
 university of Jena, and afterwards in that of Gottingen. 
 His "Introduction to the Old and the New Testament," 
 is replete with the fruits of learned research, and is still 
 valuable. It has gone through several editions. But, 
 learned though he was, and acute in his criticisms, Eich- 
 horn was a decided rationalist. Yet still Eichhorn em- 
 phatically maintained the Mosaic origin of the Penta- 
 teuch, Genesis included. 
 
 Dr. Strauss, the latest of these writers, and still 
 living, blames Eichhorn, in that he but half adopted 
 the rationalistic view ; since he found no difficulty in 
 admitting suppositions which, in Dr. Strauss's esteem, 
 are most unnatural, as, e. g. that " the Pentateuch was 
 written during the passage through the wilderness," 
 i. e. it was written by Moses. And certainly, if wi-it- 
 ten by Moses, it must have been written during the 
 passage through the wilderness, since it records the 
 events which occurred before, and during that passage ; 
 and since, also, when Israel crossed the Jordan, and 
 
INTRODUCTION. XIK 
 
 entered Canaan, Moses was dead. See Strauss's In- 
 troduction to his " Life of Jesus y'' vol. i. p. 20. 
 
 Strauss is certainly a competent judge of the senti- 
 ments of his distinguished countrymen, and predeces- 
 sors in biblical criticism. He thus writes of Eichhorn, 
 of Dr. Paulus, De Wette, &c. See the " Introduction^'' 
 p. 15, &c. &c. 
 
 " Eichhorn, in his critical examination of the Frag- 
 ments,* agrees with the Fragmentists in refusing to 
 recognize an immediate divine agency, at all events, 
 in the narratives of early date. The mythological re-: 
 searches of a Heyne had so far enlarged the circle of 
 vision as to lead Eichhorn to perceive that, ' divine in- 
 terpositions must he alike admitted^ or alike denied^ in 
 the primitive histories qf all people. "^ It was the prac- 
 tice of all nations, — of the Grecians as well as the Ori- 
 entals, — to refer every unexjDected or inexplicable oc- 
 currence, immediately to the Deity. The sages of an- 
 tiquity lived in continual communion with superior 
 intelligences. 
 
 "Whilst these representations, (such is Eichhorn's 
 statement of the matter,) are always, in reference to 
 the Hebrew records, understood verbally and literally, 
 it has hitherto been customary to explain similar repre- 
 sentations in the pagan histories, by presupposing either 
 deception and gross falsehood, or the misinterpretation 
 and corruption of tradition. But Eichhorn thinks ^'^^,9- 
 
 * These are a collection of Essays published in Germany by Sessung, 
 in 1774, presenting the grossest Deistical arguments against revealed re- 
 ligion, against the books of the Old and the New Testament, denouncing 
 the men honored in Scripture, as base and unworthy, denouncing the 
 doctrines and the laws laid down in Scripture, as barbarous and unwor- 
 thy of God, and denouncing the miracles as absurd and incredible. 
 
3iiy INTRODUCTION. 
 
 tice evidently requires that Hebrew mid pagan histcxry 
 should he treated in the same way^ so that intercourse 
 with celestial beings, during a state of infancy, must 
 either be accorded to all nations^ pagan and Hebrew, 
 or equally denied to all." 
 
 Now surely this is 8ufl5ciently explicit. The learned 
 Eichhorn, a renowned biblical critic, too, hesitates not 
 to put the supernatural part of the Mosaic history, on 
 precisely the same footing as the pagan mythological 
 fables. On p. 17, Dr. Strauss thus proceeds: "Eich- 
 horn is of opinion that no objection can be urged 
 against the attempt to resolve all the Mosaic narratives 
 into natural occurrences :" he " agreed with the Natu- 
 ralists in divesting the biblical narratives of all their 
 immediately divine contents : but he rejects the conclu- 
 sion that Moses was an impostor, pronouncing it over- 
 hasty and unjust." 
 
 In conformity with these principles, Eichhorn sought 
 to explain naturally the histories of Noah, Abraham, 
 Moses, &c. Viewed in the light of that age, the ap- 
 pointment of Moses to be the leader of the Israelites, 
 was nothing more than the long-cherished project of 
 the patriot to emancipate his people ; which, when pre- 
 sented before his mind with more than usual vividness 
 in his dreams^ was, hy him believed to be a di/vine i/n- 
 spiration / 
 
 The flames and smoke which ascended from Mount 
 Sinai at the giving of the law, were merely a fire which 
 Moses kindled in order to make a deeper impression 
 upon the imagination of the people, together with an 
 accidental thunder-storm, which arose at that particu- 
 lar moment. The shining of his countenance was the 
 
INTRODUCTION, XXI 
 
 natural effect of his being overheated ; but it was sup- 
 posed to be a divine manifestation, not only by the 
 people, but by Moses himself, he being ignorant of the 
 true cause. 
 
 In his application of this mode of interpretation to 
 the 'New Testament, Eichhorn was more reserved. In- 
 deed, it was only to a few of the narratives in the Acts 
 of the Apostles, such as the miracle of the day of Pen- 
 tecost, the conversion of the Apostle Paul, and the 
 many apparitions of angels, that he allowed himself to 
 apply it. Here, too, he refers the supernatural to the 
 figurative language of the Bible, in which, for example, 
 *' a happy accident is called a protecting angel, a joy- 
 ous thought, the salutation of an angel, and a peaceful 
 state of mind, a comforting angel." 
 
 Such is the spirit pervading the hermeneutics of 
 Eichhorn. 
 
 " But," (continues Dr. Strauss,) " it was Dr. Paulus, 
 who, by his commentary on the gospels, in 1800, first 
 acquired the full reputation of a Christian Eveme- 
 rus.* In the Introduction to this work, Paulus states 
 it to be the primary requisite to a biblical critic, to be 
 able to distinguish between what is fact, and what is 
 opinion. That which has been actually experienced 
 internally or externally, by the participants in an event, 
 he csi\ls/aet. The interpretation of an event, the sup- 
 
 * So designated from a learned writer, Evemenis, who proposed a two- 
 fold method of explaining the ancient pagan mythology, representing the 
 deities of the popular worship as good and benevolent men, the law- 
 givers, and just rulers of early times, whom popular gratitude had dei- 
 fied ; or, on the other hand, as artful impostors, and cruel tyrants, who 
 had successfully imposed on popular credulity, to subject the masses to 
 their control ! 
 
XXll INTRODUCTION. 
 
 posed causes to which it is referred by the participants, 
 or by the narrators, he calls opinion. But, according 
 to Dr. Paulus, these two elements became so easily 
 blended and confounded in the minds both of the original 
 fiharers in an event, and of the subsequent relators and 
 historians, that fact and opinion lose their distinctions ; 
 so that the one and the other, are believed and recorded 
 with equal confidence in their historical truth. This in- 
 termixture is particularly apparent in the books of the 
 New Testament. In his commentary, and also in his 
 later work, 'The Life of Jesus,' Dr. Paulus firmly 
 maintains the historical truth of the gospel narratives, 
 and he aims to weave them into one consecutive chron- 
 ologically arranged detail of facts ; but he explains 
 away everything of immediate divine agency / a/nd he 
 denies all siipematural intervention. Jesus, to him, 
 is not the * Son of God,' in the sense of the Church, 
 but a wise and virtuous human being ; and the eftects 
 he produced a/re not m.iracles^ but acts, sometimes of 
 benevolence and friendship, sometimes of medical skill, 
 and sometimes, also, the results of accident and good 
 fortune," (id. pp. 18, 19.) 
 
 Eichhorn agrees with Paulus and others, in consider- 
 ing the mira^culous in the sacred history as a drapery^ 
 which needs only to be drawn aside in order to disclose 
 the pure historic form. 
 
 De Wette, also, who was the most distinguished of all 
 the so-called liberal theologians of Germany, rejects 
 everything supernatural in the sacred books. He de- 
 clares that common sense decides a Tnmacle to he im- 
 
 The rationalistic or natural mode of interpretation 
 
INTRODUCTION. XXUl 
 
 employed by Eichliorn and Paulus, necessarily supposes 
 a basis of historic truth in the narrative, and that the 
 records containing the narrative, must have originated 
 at, or near the time when the events occur, and have 
 originated from the testimony of eye and ear witnesses. 
 Hence, Eichhorn admits the Mosaic origin of the Pen- 
 tateuch. 
 
 If these records be of later origin, and based on less 
 original reports, what security is there that what is 
 taken for matter of fact, does not belong to mere opinion, 
 or tradition ? 
 
 The transition from the rationalistic to the mythical 
 interpretation, is natural and easy. Semler had spoken 
 of " Jewish mythology^ and had called the histories of 
 Samson, and of Esther, mythi." 
 
 Gabler, Schelling and others, would interpret sacred 
 history, no less than profane, on the mythical principle, 
 according to the axioms laid down by Heyne. A my- 
 this^ omnis primorum hominum cum historia tumphil- 
 osophia^ procedit ! In 1820, Bauer published what he 
 called a '' Hebrew Mythology of the Old and New Tes- 
 ta/mentP The earliest records of all nations are mythi- 
 cal^ and why should those of the Hebrews be the sole 
 exception ? 
 
 By this writer (Bauer,) a narrative is deemed mythical, 
 1st. When it proceeds from an age in which were no 
 written records, but events were transmitted by tradi- 
 tion. 
 
 2d. When it presents, as historical, accounts of events 
 which were beyond the reach of experience ; as, e. g. 
 occurrences connected with the spiritual world : or, 
 
 3d. When it deals in the marvellous, and is couched 
 
XXIV INTRODUCTION. 
 
 in symbolical language. Many such narratives occur 
 in the Bible. 
 
 Wegscheider, (another distinguished liberal critic,) 
 declared it impossible to rescue the Bible from the re- 
 proaches and scoffs of its enemies, except by the ac- 
 knowledgment of mythi in the sacred writings, and the 
 separation of their inherent meaning, from their unhis- 
 toric form. 
 
 Yater, another celebrated biblical expositor, boldly 
 declared that the peculiar character of the narrative in 
 the Pentateuch cannot be truly comprehended, unless 
 we concede, that they are not the production of an eye- 
 witness^ but are a series of transmitted traditions." 
 
 But De Wette went still further than Yater, and ad- 
 vocated the mythical interpretation of a large propor- 
 tion of the Old Testament histories. De Wette lays 
 down a principle which effectually refutes the ration- 
 alistic mode of interpretation. It is this. "The only 
 means of acquaintance with a history is tlie naiTative 
 which we possess concerning it ; and beyond that narra- 
 tive^ the historian or tJie interpreter caiinot go. In these 
 Bible records^ the narrative reports to us only a super- 
 natural course of events, which we must either receive 
 or reject. If we reject the narrative, we know nothing 
 at all about the event ; and we are not justified in 
 allowing ourselves to invent a natural course of events 
 of which the narrative is totally silent." 
 
 In this position De Wette was undoubtedly right, and 
 the rigid application of this principle wholly anniliilates 
 most of the so-called psychological interpretations of 
 events related in the gospel histories, as even Eichhorn 
 saw and admitted. For example, the Naturalist denies 
 
INTRODUCTION. XXV 
 
 God's covenant with Abraham as a historic fact : but 
 still, he maintains, the narrative had a historical basis : 
 as, e.g.^ "Though no objective divine communication 
 took place, still the occurrence had a subjective reality 
 in Abraham's mind, in a dream, or in a waking vision. 
 In other words, a natural thought was awakened in 
 Abraham's bosom, which, in the spirit of the age, he 
 referred to God." 
 
 To this point of view, taken by the rationalist, De 
 Wette very shrewdly and happily replies, by asking 
 " How he knows, that such thoughts arose in Abraham's 
 mind ? The narrative refers them to God ; and if we re- 
 ject the narrative, we know nothing at all about these 
 thoughts of Abraham, and consequently cannot know 
 that they had arisen in him naturally." According to 
 general experience such hopes as are described in this 
 covenant, viz. that he should become the father of a 
 mighty nation, which should possess the land of Canaan, 
 could not have sprung up naturally in Abraham's 
 mind. But, (adds De Wette,) it is quite natural^ that 
 the Israelites, when they had become a numerous peo- 
 ple in possession of that land, " should invent the cove- 
 nant^ in order to render their ancestor illustrious .^" 
 Thus, adds Dr. Strauss, " the natural explanation, by 
 its own unnaturalness, ever brings us back to the mythi- 
 cal." 
 
 We plain American Christians may add, that the 
 natural interpretation by its unnaturalness, and the 
 mythical by its absurdity, in some instances, and by 
 its daring impiety in others, both combine to drive us 
 back to the supernatural — to the plain old-fashioned 
 interpretation, by reference to miraculous intervention. 
 
XXvi INTRODUCTION. 
 
 On that ground, and on that only, all becomes plain, 
 consistent, and intelligible. By this mythical interpre- 
 tation of Bible narratives you may, indeed, get rid of 
 all chronological difficulties, and of troublesome dis- 
 crepancies ; but you are compelled to deny the genu- 
 ineness of the books, and you destroy their authenticity. 
 Thus, De Wette, denying the possibility of miracles 
 and of prophecy, maintains the modern origin of the 
 Pentateuch, and especially of the Book of Genesis, 
 from the miraculous nature of the events therein record- 
 ed. He thus reasons : since they record supernatural 
 events, these narratives must be myths. But to be 
 myths these narratives must have originated in reports 
 that arose long subsequent to the times to which they 
 refer. His words are : " Such accounts can only owe 
 their origin to popular report^ which must have been of 
 very long standing, to have become exaggerated to 
 the degree in which it is given in this book." 
 
 Dr. Strauss himself, who is by some extolled as a pre- 
 eminently able and sound biblical expositor, carries out 
 this principle of mythical interpretation, with unsparing 
 hand, and applies it equally to the New Testament and 
 to the Old. 
 
 In the Introduction to his celebrated " Life of Jemis^'* 
 Strauss says, (vol. i. p. 64,) " The fact is, the pure his- 
 toric idea was never developed among the Hebrews, 
 during the whole of their political existence." He 
 adds, " Indeed, no just notion of the true nature of his- 
 tory is possible^ without a perception of the inviolability 
 of the chain of finite causes, and of the impossibility of 
 miracles. ^^ — Again, p. 74, vol. i., he says, " The result, 
 however surprising, of a general examination of the 
 
INTRODUCTION. XXVll 
 
 biblical history is, that the Hebrew and Christian reli- 
 gions, like all others, have their myths." 
 
 Still further to illustrate the views of this writer, 
 notice the criterion he lays down, pp. 87, 88, by which 
 to distinguish what he calls the negative phrase of 
 myth in the gospel history, i. e. fable, or legend, which 
 is not historically true. Thus, " when the narrative is 
 irreconcilable with the known and universal laws which 
 govern the course of events. When, therefore, we meet 
 with an account of certain phenomena or events, of 
 whicli it is either expressly stated or implied, that they 
 were produced immediately by God himself, (such as 
 divine apparitions, voices from heaven, and the like,) 
 or by human beings possessed of supernatural powers, 
 (miracles, prophecies, &c.,) such an account is, so far^ 
 to be considered not historical. '^'^ 
 
 So, then, if Dr. Strauss is to be our guide in the inter- 
 pretation of the Bible, the covenant with Abraham, — 
 the Exodus of Israel from Egypt, — and the history of 
 Israel's wandering in the desert ; — the gospel account 
 of the annunciation, by an angel, to the blessed Virgin, 
 — that of the miraculous conception of Christ ; — the 
 whole series of miracles ascribed to Christ, and even 
 his resurrection from the dead, and his ascension after- 
 wards, in bodily form, up to heaven, are all to be re- 
 garded as myths, as mere fables and fictions that have 
 no foundation in truth. These narratives are all, in Dr. 
 Strauss's view, utterly destitute of historic truth. 
 
 " And inasmuch," continues he, " as, in general, the 
 intermingling of the spiritual world with the human, is 
 found only in unauthentic records, and is irreconcilable 
 with all just conceptions ; so narratives of angels and 
 
XXviii INTRODUCTION. 
 
 of devils, of their appearing in human shape, and inter- 
 fering with human concerns, cannot possibly he received 
 as historical.''^ 
 
 Of course this critical axiom condemns as utterly- 
 fabulous, the history of the deliverance of the three 
 Israelites from ]S"ebuchadnezzar's fiery furnace ; the 
 deliverance of Daniel in the lion's den. It repudiates, 
 also, the vision of Zecharias in the temple, and his 
 dumbness till after the birth of the Baptist. It repudi- 
 ates the history of the temptation of Christ, his agony 
 in the garden of Gethsemane, and the appearance of 
 angels at his tomb on the morning of the resurrection, 
 and at his subsequent ascension ! — so wide-sweeping is 
 the operation of this one rule. Accordingly, when, in the 
 body of his work, Strauss sets himself to expound the 
 history of Christ's nativity, he denies the appearance 
 of an angel to Mary, he denies the miraculous concep- 
 tion of Christ, and he represents Jesus as the son of 
 Joseph and Mary, bora as any other son, bom lawfully 
 of his parents. Dr. Strauss boldly denies that the gos- 
 pel histories are the production of eye-witnesses, or of 
 contemporary writers at all. 
 
 On p. 56 of vol. i. he says : — " This alleged ocular tes- 
 timony, or proximity in point of time, of the sacred 
 historians, to the events recorded, is mere assumption^ 
 an assumption originating in the titles which Biblical 
 books bear in our canon." Again, p. 68, he says, " The 
 external testimony respecting the composition of our 
 gospels, so far from forcing upon us the conclusion, that 
 they proceeded from eye-witnesses, or well-informed 
 contemporaries, leaves the decision to be determined 
 wholly by internal grounds of evidence, i. e. by the na- 
 
INTRODUCTION. XXIX 
 
 ture of the gospel narratives themselves." Accordingly, 
 he thus concludes his examination of the annunciation 
 and birth of John the Baptist, as given by Luke : " We 
 stand here upon purely mythical, poetical ground ; the 
 only historical reality which we can hold fast, as posi- 
 tive matter of fact, being this — the impression made 
 by John the Baptist, in virtue of his ministry and his 
 relation to Jesus, was so powerful as to lead to the sub- 
 sequent glorification of his hirth^ in connection with the 
 birth of the Messiah in the Christian legend." (Vol. i. 
 p. 121.) 
 
 In vol. i. p. 193, Strauss remarks: — "We have no 
 ground for denying that the mother of Jesus lore her 
 husband several other children^ besides Jesus, younger^ 
 and jperhajps^ also^ older than Jesus ; because the repre- 
 sentation in the ITew Testament, that Jesus was the 
 first-born son^ may belong no less to the myths than the 
 representations given by the early Fathers, that Jesus 
 was an only son." 
 
 Eichhorn had previously avowed the opinion, that our 
 four gospels in their present form were not in use, and 
 were not known, till the end of the second century. Pre- 
 vious to that time, it is supposed that other gosjpels werQ 
 in circulation, allied to those we possess, but not the 
 same. This is substantially the opinion maintained on 
 this subject by Strauss. (See pp. 62, 63.) 
 
 For the miraculous events recorded in the gospel 
 biographies of Jesus, Strauss thus attempts to account : 
 " The expectation of a Messiah had grown up among 
 the Israelitish people long before the time of Jesus, and 
 just then it had ripened to full maturity." (Yol. i. p. 80.) 
 Again, p. 81, we read : " Believing that Moses and all 
 
XXX INTRODUCTION. 
 
 the prophets had prophesied of the Messiah, (see John 
 V. 46, Luke iv. 21, xxiv. 27,) it was natural for the Jews, 
 with their allegorizing tendency, to consider their ac- 
 tions and destiny {i. e. those of the prophets) as types 
 of the Messiah, so as to take their sayings for pre- 
 dictions. In general, the whole Messianic age was ex- 
 pected to be full of signs and wonders. The eyes of 
 the blind should be opened, the ears of the deaf should 
 be unclosed, thfe lame should leap, and the tongue of 
 the dumb praise God, (Isa. xxxv. 5, xlii. 7, comp. xxxii. 
 8, 4.) These, merely figurative expressions, soon came 
 to be understood literally (Matt. xi. 5, Luke vii. 21, c^c.) ; 
 and thus the idea of the Messiah was continually filling 
 up with details, even before the appearance of Jesus. 
 Thus many of the legends respecting him had not to 
 be newly invented : they already existed in the popular 
 hope of the Messiah, having been mostly derived, with 
 various modifications, from the Old Testament ; and they 
 had merely to be transferred to Jesus, and accommo- 
 dated to his character and doctrines. In no case could 
 it be easier for the person who first added any new 
 feature to the description of Jesus, to believe himself 
 its genuineness, since his argument would be, Jesus 
 was the Messiah^ therefore^ such and such things hap- 
 pened to himP "Besides," adds Strauss, "we must 
 take into account the overwhelming impression which 
 was made upon those around him by the personal char- 
 acter and discourse of Jesus as long as he lived among 
 them, which did not suifer them deliberately to scruti- 
 nize and compare him with their previous standard. 
 The belief in him as the Messiah extended to wider 
 circles only hy slow degrees^ and even during his life- 
 
INTKODUCTION. XXXI 
 
 time the people may have reported many wonderful 
 stories about him, (Matt. xiv. 2.) After his death, the 
 belief in his resurrection, however that belief may 
 HAVE ARISEN, afforded a more than sufficient proof of 
 his Messiahship, so that all the other miracles in his his- 
 tory, need not be considered as the foundation of the 
 faith in this^ but may rather be adduced as the conse- 
 quence of it." (Yol. i. pp. 82, 83.) 
 
 Of all miracles, this universal infatuation of the con- 
 temporaries of Jesus, and of the men of several suc- 
 ceeding ages who heard of him, thus supposed by 
 Strauss, and by him offered as the natural explanation 
 of the wonders recorded in the New Testament, is the 
 most miraculous. His contemporaries were so over- 
 whelmed by the effect of the sayings and doings of 
 Jesus, who was only a very good and wise man, that 
 they could not judge soberly of him, nor of his acts. 
 His kind deeds were magnified into wonderful miracles 
 on every hand. Succeeding generations labored under 
 the same delusion, which deepened and spread ; and 
 men kept inventing new miracles and ascribed them to 
 Jesus, and really believed they were true, though noth- 
 ing of the kind had actually happened. They believed 
 and taught that his conception was miraculous, and 
 preceded by angelic appearances and prodigies, though 
 he had been born just like any other child ; na}^, they 
 persuaded themselves to believe finally, that after his 
 death, Jesus had arisen and had appeared alive repeat- 
 edly to many who knew him well, though nothing of 
 the kind had occurred to Jesus when dead more than 
 to any other dead man ! And this is rational criticism 
 on the gospel history! To this palpable absurdity are 
 
XXXll INTRODUCTION. 
 
 men driven who deny the miracles recorded in holy 
 writ ! Their theory of solution is far more incredible 
 than are all the miracles of the New Testament ! Put 
 out of view the absurdities into which it drives him, 
 and we must admit that this system of Dr. Strauss is a 
 very convenient one, truly. It rests wholly on his as- 
 sumed position — his great axiom — the chain of natural 
 events is immutable. The sequence of nature's laws is 
 invariable. 
 
 A miracle is impossible, prophecy is impossible, there- 
 fore all accounts detailing miracles, are not true, they 
 are but fables. Such fables are the growth of long 
 time in rude ages, therefore the Pentateuch must have 
 been a collection of traditions, put together many ages 
 after the occurrence of the wonderful events which 
 they so exaggerate; consequently the Pentateuch can- 
 not be the work of Moses. Moreover, the gospel histo- 
 ries also being full of marvels, could not have been the 
 production of eye-witnesses, as is vulgarly believed. 
 The Jewish expectation of a Messiah prepared the way 
 for something extraordinary and wonderful. Jesus of 
 Galilee was no ordinary man. His life and teachings 
 made a deep impression upon the public mind. The 
 idea that he was the long looked-for Messiah was sug- 
 gested : the notion took, and spread rapidly and widely. 
 
 All the long-cherished national ideas about the Mes- 
 siah were soon associated with the name of Jesus. 
 Popular rumors spread the idea and extended the be- 
 lief. Yarious accounts of the rumored wonders were 
 written by difterent unknown individuals, and were 
 widely circulated ! These narratives were very soon 
 ascribed to the immediate followers of Jesus, his apos- 
 
INTRODUCTION. XXXUl 
 
 ties, as they were designated, as the authors of them ; 
 and at length the Four Gospels, as we now have them, 
 were the result ! And this miserable system is put 
 forth to the world as criticism, learned criticism ! It is 
 put forth by men celebrated for profound erudition and 
 critical acumen ; men, too, who are called theologians 
 and Christian divines ! But in reality, this system ut- 
 terly repudiates the authority of the documents it pro- 
 fessedly expounds. 
 
 This entire system of exposition, is but a learned in- 
 fidelity : it rests upon a mere dogmatic assumption, viz. 
 nothing is credible or possible which does not come 
 within the range of our personal experience or personal 
 observation ! The argument amounts to just this : 
 " Because we have never seen the regular chain of sec- 
 ondary causes and their effects disturbed by single ar- 
 bitrary acts of interposition by the One Absolute Cause, 
 therefore such disturbance never did take place, never 
 could take place, it is impossible, and no evidence can 
 prove that it has occurred ! 
 
 If the fundamental principle on which Strauss and 
 his co-laborers proceed in their criticisms, be correct, 
 then the African chieftain who scornfully rejected as 
 absurd and incredible, the accounts furnished him by 
 his foreign visitors, of countries where water becomes 
 at times hard and solid as the rocks, was in the right : 
 then, too, the wonderful convulsions of the surface of 
 this planet of ours, as taught by geologists, are incredi- 
 ble, and their occurrence must be deemed impossible. 
 These learned men, in presenting themselves as inter- 
 preters of the sacred books, do straightway assume the 
 character of judges : and instead of confining them- 
 
 2* 
 
XXxiv INTRODUCTION. 
 
 selves to the proper business of exposition, i. e. explain- 
 ing what those books really do teach, they dogmatically 
 declare, that so and so these books cannot teach, be- 
 cause so to teach were absurd ; and therefore these 
 books do not teach so. 
 
 Whatever else it may be, this is not sober criticism. 
 The business of a critic is to expound the true import 
 of a document just as it stands, not to prescribe what 
 its meaning ought to be, or what doctrines it ought to 
 contain ! And especially in interpreting a book claim- 
 ing to be divinely inspired, there is no middle ground 
 between absolute infidelity, and absolute belief ! 
 
 The design of the following pages is to vindicate the 
 authority of the sacred books, and more especially of 
 the books of Moses, against the sophistry of the ration- 
 alist, the cavils of infidelity, against the objections 
 urged on various scientific grounds, and against the 
 difficulties presented in the alleged results of modern 
 research and recent discovery among the archives of the 
 East and the monumental records of Egypt. May the 
 God of Truth accept this humble tribute to the value of 
 His holy book, and make it useful to many a young 
 inquirer ! 
 
 Mobile, Febrnary 25, 1862. 
 
[tJNIVERSITT] 
 
 LECTUEE I. 
 
 THE CHARACTER OF MOSES AS A SCHOLAR AND A 
 STATESMAN. 
 
 The result of the latest researches among the monu- 
 ments of Egypt, compared with the data furnished in the 
 most carefully revised chronological tables, would lead 
 us to conclude, that Moses, the great Jewish lawgiver 
 and leader, was born in the sixteenth, or early in the fif- 
 teenth century before the Christian era ; and during the 
 early period of the eighteenth dynasty of Egypt. — Dr. 
 Nolan places the Exodus in the time of Thothmes lY., 
 B.C. 1492. 
 
 Wilkinson places the birth of Moses B.C. 1571, under 
 Amosis Chebron, the first King of the eighteenth dynasty. 
 
 The Exodus he places under Thuramosis, or Toth- 
 mosis, or Thothmes III., the sixth King of the eighteenth 
 dynasty, B.C. 1491. 
 
 Osburn seems to place the birth of Moses in B.C. 1847, 
 under Amosis the first King of eighteenth dynasty. 
 
 But ChampoUion Figeac places the Exodus at B.C. 
 1528. (See Egypte, p. 340.) 
 
 Moses was, unquestionably, long anterior to all the 
 records of authentic history, saving only the books fur- 
 nished by his own pen. The reputed annals of China, 
 of India, and of Chaldsea, are, demonstrably, of much 
 
36 THE CHARACTER OF MOSES 
 
 later origin. Some few hieroglyphic inscriptions on the 
 monuments of Egypt, may possibly antedate him ; though 
 even this is not beyond the reach of doubt. Certain it is 
 that society was yet in its infancy — saving only in Egypt, 
 — and possibly in the far East ; Homer, the father of 
 Grecian song, was long, long posterior ; and even the 
 Trojan wars, of which Homer sung, occurred only in the 
 time of Solomon, many centuries after Moses. The 
 Grecian, the Persian, and even the Chaldaean empires, 
 whose history is, to ^^5, that of the remotest antiquity, 
 sprang into being many ages after Moses lay sleeping in 
 the dust. The countries where those nations afterwards 
 flourished, and where the kingdoms of modern times 
 afterwards arose, were either a wilderness, yet unre- 
 claimed from their original solitude, or at best, the seat 
 of hordes of wandering barbarians. 
 
 Egypt was, indeed, already occupied by a people nu- 
 merous and powerful, — a people subjected to a govern- 
 ment well organized and vigorously administered ; a 
 people, too, far advanced in knowledge of the arts and 
 sciences, as the still extant monuments of their greatness 
 demonstrate. But the Egyptians stood alone. The terri- 
 tories adjacent seem to have been occupied — as Palestine 
 unquestionably was — by numerous petty tribes, mutually 
 jealous of, and hostile towards, one another ; and engag- 
 ed in frequent bloody wars. In such a state of society, 
 civilization cannot advance ; men remain, for long, rude, 
 unpolished and ignorant ; and it is passing strange, thai 
 in such a state of things, such a man as Moses should 
 have arisen, and such writings as those constituting the 
 Pentateuch, should have been produced ! 
 
 Therefore, whether we consider the age in which he 
 
AS A SCHOLAR AND A STATESMAN. 37 
 
 lived, — the condition of society around him, — the dis- 
 position of the people with whom he had to do, — the diffi- 
 culties with which he had to contend, or the triumphs 
 he achieved in arms, in arts and in literature ; in ethics, 
 in legislation, and in government; Moses must be pro- 
 nounced the most extraordinary man that ever lived ! 
 
 Of the race of Abraham, in the line of Levi the son 
 of Jacob, Moses first saw the light in Egypt, where his 
 countrymen had resided for several generations, and 
 were now suffering cruel oppression from the powerful 
 Egyptian monarch. The date of the birth of Moses 
 cannot be fixed with absolute precision ; but, according 
 to the ordinary computation, it was about a.m. 2433, 
 or B.C. 1600 ; Usher makes the Exodus, B.C. 1495. It was 
 certainly during the period when the cruel policy of the 
 Egyptian court required the destruction of all male 
 Hebrew infants. From this fate Moses was rescued by 
 very extraordinary means. 
 
 Maternal tenderness had secreted the child for three 
 months, when further concealment becoming impracti- 
 cable, he was placed by his mother in a kind of cradle, or 
 basket of bulrushes, carefully prepared so as to render it 
 impervious to water, and in this frail vessel he was left near 
 the water's edge, on the bank of the Nile, where he was 
 found by Thermothis, (according to Dr. Nolan Ame7ise,) 
 the daughter of Pharaoh. Moved by pity, and struck by 
 his rare infant beauty, the princess rescued the found- 
 ling, adopted him for her own son, and by a strange but 
 happy coincidence, he was by her confided to the care 
 of his own mother as nurse. From the manner of his 
 preservation, he was called Mou-sha, (Heb. Moshee — 
 Moses, i. e. drawn from water.) — Usher'' s Exodus^ B.C. 1491. 
 
38 THE CHARACTER OF MOSES 
 
 For it is found that the Egyptian names given in the 
 books of Moses, are genuine Egyptian, as is proved from 
 the monuments.* 
 
 How long Moses remained in the family of his own 
 parents, we know not ; but it was certainly long enough 
 for him to become thoroughly imbued with the true na- 
 tional feeling of a Hebrew. At a suitable age, he was 
 claimed by the princess, and educated with all the care 
 due to one openly acknowledged as the adopted son of 
 the heir to the most powerful throne in. the world I 
 
 Josephus tells us, that when only four years old, Moses 
 was presented by the princess to the reigning Pharaoh, 
 her father, as her son and heir ; and that to gratify his 
 daughter, the monarch took the child in his arms and 
 placed the royal crown on his head; but that he cast it 
 indignantly to the ground and trampled upon it. Where- 
 upon, several of Pharaoh's most revered counsellors ad- 
 vised the immediate destruction of the child, as of one 
 certain, should he live, to bring dire calamities on the 
 kingdom, the emblem of whose sovereignty he thus 
 early treated with indignity. This cruel policy Provi- 
 dence suffered not to be carried into effect. 
 
 His position in the court of Pharaoh must have insur- 
 ed to him the best possible education ; and as the royal 
 family of Egypt were connected with the priesthood, (the 
 monarch himself being often of the sacerdotal order,) 
 Moses must have had access to all the varied stores of 
 knowledge, in history, natural science, philosophy, legis- 
 
 * The Hebrew rabbins relate wonderful stories of the infancy of 
 Moses. Among others, they aver that the princess was a leper; that 
 the mere touch of the ark containing tlie infant, cured her, and hence 
 her determination to adopt the child it contained. 
 
AS A SCHOLAR AND A STATESMAN. 89 
 
 lation, and government, — to all the monuments of their 
 antiquity, and the secrets of their religion, for which that 
 ancient people were distinguished. And thus it is re- 
 corded, — ^^ Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the 
 Egyptians /" 
 
 An apt scholar he was unquestionably, for the writings 
 he has left behind him, and the records of his vast 
 achievements, show that he far transcended his instruc- 
 tors in true wisdom, and in sober practical learning. 
 
 In the court of Pharaoh Moses held his distinguished 
 position till he had reached full maturity. About the age 
 of forty, Josephus assures us, he headed the Egyptian 
 armies in an expedition into Ethiopia, where he subdued 
 the city Saba ; he also won the affections of Tharbis, the 
 princess of the people he had vanquished, and married 
 her. If this tradition be true, we know not that he had 
 any issue by this marriage. 
 
 It must have been after his return from this successful 
 military expedition that the circumstance occurred, which, 
 by reviving an instinctive and indomitable love for his 
 own peculiar and oppressed race, gave a new and unex- 
 pected turn to the current of his life, and altered the en- 
 tire complexion of his destiny. 
 
 Distinguished in rank, high in favor at court, and 
 honored for his brilliant success in arms, Moses could 
 not forget that he was of the stock of Abraham, and that 
 the oppressed Hebrews whom he beheld toiling in cruel 
 bondage, were his brethren ! 
 
 The merest accident, seemingly, roused these latent 
 feelings into sudden and decisive action. Going out one 
 day, for the express purpose of observing the condition 
 of his countrymen, his indignation was aroused by the 
 
40 THE CHARACTER OF MOSES 
 
 spectacle of an Egyptian smiting a Hebrew. Glancing 
 hastily around to assure himself that he was not observ- 
 ed, he vindicated his Hebrew brother, by killing the 
 Egyptian on the spot. The body he hid in the sand. 
 Attempting, on another occasion, soon after, to reconcile 
 two Hebrews whom he found quarrelling, his interfer- 
 ence was resisted by the aggressor, accompanied by a 
 bitter taunt against him as the killer of the Egyptian, so 
 recently. Justly concluding that the deed was known, 
 that an investigation must take place and punishment 
 follow, unmitigated by royal favor — which must now be 
 lost to him — Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh, who, 
 as he had surmised, sought to slay him. The old Jewish 
 rabbins have here a singular story. They tell us that Moses 
 was actually apprehended for this act, and condemned 
 to death ; but that God caused his neck suddenly to as- 
 sume a preternatural hardness, so that the sword of the 
 executioner, not only left Moses uninjured, but by its re- 
 bound, killed the executioner himself. At such fables 
 we can only smile. Certain it is that Moses left the 
 country, and retired to Midian, where he who had dwelt 
 in courts, and had led powerful armies to conquest, en- 
 gaged himself to Jethro, a priest of the country, in the 
 humble capacity of herdsman, or keeper of his flocks. In 
 this obscure retreat, he remained many years, having 
 married Zipporah, daughter of Jethro, by whom he had 
 two sons. This entire and long continued seclusion 
 furnished Moses with abundant leisure for reflection on the 
 condition and prospects of his countrymen, and for 
 maturing plans for their relief. 
 
 Here also, as we may well suppose, he reviewed the 
 studies of his early youth, and explored those fields of 
 
AS A SCHOLAR AND A STATESMAN". 41 
 
 knowledge, to reap which, those studies had qualified him. 
 Here, doubtless, he rendered himself familiar with the 
 traditions and the imperfect records then in existence of 
 the history of mankind since the flood, and possibly in 
 antediluvian times : and here, in all probabiHty, he wrote 
 the book of Genesis, and revised, (perhaps translated,) 
 the book of Job, for the use of his countrymen. Certain 
 it is that here he claims to have received his commission 
 from the Almighty Jehovah, to act as His representative 
 in the deliverance of the Hebrews from Egyptian bon- 
 dage, and in their safe conduct to the promised land! 
 The project of such an enterprise seems to have been 
 brooding in his mind for many years. 
 
 The dying martyr Stephen represents Moses as enter- 
 taining this idea even at the time he killed the Egyptian, 
 previously to his flight into Midian, ''''for he sujyposed his 
 brethren would have understood how God^ hy his hand^ would 
 deliver them .'"' (Acts vii. 25.) Not improbably the supine- 
 ness, the tame serf-like spirit evinced by his countrymen 
 on that occasion, had chilled the fervor of patriotic feel- 
 ing in the breast of their illustrious defender, and long 
 suppressed the spirit of heroic daring that was glow- 
 ing within him. Eepressed it was, and held in check 
 for years, but eradicated it could not be; and amid 
 the shady retreats around Horeb, where he tended his 
 flocks, the wrongs of his countrymen, and the means and 
 mode of redress were oft and deeply pondered! Tlie 
 season for action at length arrived. The strange phe- 
 nomenon of a bush on Mount Horeb, burning appar- 
 ently, with brilliant blaze and intense heat, yet still un- 
 consumed, caught his attention and arrested his steps. A 
 voice addressing him from the midst of the burning 
 
42 THE CHARACTER OF MOSES 
 
 bush, satisfied him that he stood in the presence of Je- 
 hovah, Abraham's God. Then and there it was that 
 Moses received his heavenly commission, as the deliverer, 
 the legislator, the prophet and the leader of Israel ; he 
 was clothed with full authority and invested with all 
 necessary powers to achieve the magnificent enterprise. 
 He promptly obeyed. He made immediate arrangements 
 to pass, with his young family, into Egypt, there to enter 
 upon the discharge of his new functions. On his journey 
 from Midian to Egypt occurred a singular incident. By 
 some unexplained means, probably a malignant disease, 
 Moses was placed in eminent peril of his life. Kightly 
 interpreting this as a proof of heaven's displeasure, for the 
 neglect of the sacred Jewish covenant in his own family, 
 he caused both his sons to be circumcised. The peril 
 passed away, and he resumed his journey, with this im- 
 pressive lesson, " That no public commission^ no official 
 engagements^ can lawfully he allowed to inter/ere with private 
 personal or social duties^ Ere he reached Egypt, Moses 
 was joined by his brother Aaron, whom, by divine direc- 
 tion, he associated with him as his coadjutor and spokes- 
 man. They summoned the leading men of Israel, de- 
 tailed to them their plans, and opened their commission. 
 The hope of national deliverance was awakened, and the 
 people agreed to submit to Moses, as the leader, and the 
 prophet, duly commissioned of Jehovah. Speedily there- 
 after Moses appeared at court and obtained an audience 
 of the reigning Pharaoh, and boldly demanded the re- 
 lease of the whole Hebrew people, for the avowed pur- 
 pose of their passing beyond the Egyptian frontier, there 
 to serve the God of their ancestors with rites, which, to 
 the ox-worshiping Egyptians, would have seemed an 
 
AS A SCHOLAR AND A STATESMAN. 48 
 
 impious abomination. This demand, earnestly made, and 
 urged in repeated audiences before the monarch, was 
 long and resolutely refused : until a series of prodigies, 
 unprecedented and unparalleled in the world's history, 
 wrung from the proud Pharaoh, a reluctant consent. 
 
 The further details of the matchless career of Moses I 
 shall not minutely pursue. They constitute the historical 
 portion of the books of Moses, chiefly the Exodus, and 
 are familiar to all. 
 
 Under the guidance of this illustrious leader, the whole 
 body of the Hebrews, with their wives and their little 
 ones, their flocks and their herds, and greatly enriched 
 by liberal largess from their late oppressors, left the Egyp- 
 tian frontier behind them. At the shores of the Bed 
 Sea they were overtaken by the disciplined hosts of the 
 repentant Pharaoh's armies in hot pursuit. Through the 
 Red Sea, miraculously divided before them, Israel's 
 bands safely passed, while the pursuing Egyptians were 
 therein drowned beneath its returning waters. During 
 their long sojourn of many years in the desert regions 
 of Arabia, the Hebrews were led, directed, provided for 
 and protected from every foe by the matchless skill, the 
 sleepless vigilance, and the untiring energy of this re- 
 nowned commander. He fed them with food that fell 
 daily like the dew : he supplied them with water that 
 gushed at his bidding from the sterile rock, and at Sinai's 
 rugged mountain, near which they lay encamped about 
 a year, he deUvered to them, as the immediate enactment 
 of the Mighty Jehovah, whose servant he avowed him- 
 self, that inimitable document, that matchless code of 
 morals, the decalogue^ the two tables containing the ten 
 commandments. 
 
44 THE CHARACTER OF MOSES 
 
 At length, when he had brought the Hebrews, after a 
 sojourn of nearly forty years in the Arabian desert, to 
 the borders of the promised land, this distinguished man 
 pronounced his farewell discourse in the hearing of all 
 the people. He delivered, in their presence, a copy of 
 the annals he had written, and which also embodied the 
 entire system of laws he had enacted, into the hands of 
 the chief ecclesiastical officers, to be by them sacredly 
 preserved in the ark, the palladium of their religion and 
 of their national hopes. He resigned the government into 
 the hands of Joshua, whom he had carefully trained 
 to act as his successor,- and then this venerable prince, 
 this matchless lawgiver, retired to die in privacy, in the 
 presence only of the God he had so long served. At the 
 age of 120 years, while yet "Aw eye was not dim, nor his 
 natural force ahated,'^ Moses died, deeply lamented ; and 
 to this day, by his whole nation, he is revered as the 
 greatest as well as the first of their prophets, and the 
 most distinguished man of all their race ! 
 
 The character of Moses presents a brilliant assemblage 
 of excellences, rarely found combined in any one indi- 
 vidual ! 
 
 As a man, his conduct was most exemplary. He dis- 
 charged all the duties of private life with uniform pro- 
 priety. As a son, a brother, a husband and a father, his 
 life was a pattern of propriety, and his reputation with- 
 out a stain. The kind fraternal intercourse he ever 
 maintained with Aaron his brother, and with Miriam his 
 sister, was every way becoming, while the respect with 
 which he treated Jethro, the father of Zipporah his wife, 
 and the readiness with which he adopted the discreet sug- 
 gestions Jethro made respecting the appointment of subor- 
 
AS A SCHOLAR AND A STATESMAN". 45 
 
 dinate judges, (see Exod. xviii. 17-27;) evince the beauty 
 of reverence for virtuous age, the courtesy of the kind 
 kinsman, and the policy of the sagacious statesman. The 
 conduct of Moses furnishes a beautiful exemplification of 
 that regard for the claims of age, of kindred, and of one's 
 country, so emphatically enjoined in his writings. 
 
 He was evidently a good man and sincere. Moses was no 
 impostor. He devoutly, believed in the divine origin of 
 the commission under which he acted, and in the truth 
 and importance of the doctrines he inculcated. This his 
 whole life shows. In prosecution of his extraordinary 
 mission, he hazarded his lofty position in the Egyptian 
 court. He vindicated his oppressed countrymen at the 
 risk of his own life, and after he had entered on the pub- 
 lic duties of his great enterprise, he braved every danger. 
 He fearlessly presented himself before the powerful Pha- 
 raoh, the deadly enemy of his race ; and in the presence 
 of the scoffing court, he vindicated his own commission, 
 the majesty of the God in whose name he acted, and the 
 rights of the oppressed Israelites, for whom he pleaded. 
 Neither murmurings among his own people, nor threats 
 nor insults from the Egyptian court, could deter him or 
 cause him to waver for an instant. He carried his point. 
 He led the Hebrews forth from under the yoke of Pha- 
 raoh, and saw them encamped in safety near the foot of 
 Mount Sinai, after a series of prodigies unheard of in the 
 history of the world till then. Of these prodigies a mi- 
 nute account is given in his writings. In memory of 
 them, rites peculiar and most expressive were by him 
 incorporated into the religious system of the Hebrews : 
 and he appeals to their knowledge of these very events, 
 as containing the reason for the appointment, and suffi- 
 
46 THE CHARACTER OF MOSES 
 
 cient motives for tlie conscientious observance of these 
 very rites. Imposition here would have been impracti- 
 cable. Had these assertions of miracles and prodigies 
 performed by Moses on their behalf and before their own 
 eyes, been false, the Jews would have known it ; and 
 they never could have been induced to favor and to per- 
 petuate the shameless lie, by observing these rites, and 
 enjoining on their children the sacred observance of them 
 in all time to come. But observe them they did, with 
 great reverence ; and they have perpetuated this observ- 
 ance among their descendants, in every age, to the pres- 
 ent day ! 
 
 The Jews, who had every advantage for ascertaining 
 the truth in this case, firmly believed in the sincerity of 
 Moses, and in the truth of his narration of prodigies by 
 him performed. And to this day their descendants be- 
 lieve the same, and revere the memory of Moses as of a 
 man pre-eminently wise^ sincere^ and good. Moses was also 
 a man of great firmness and self-control. In many ways 
 this was shown. It is apparent in the steadfastness with 
 which he adhered to his one great purpose of emanci- 
 pating Israel, and habituating them to the novel institu- 
 tions he felt himself commissioned to establish. The 
 frowns of power, and the clamors of the mob were alike 
 incapable of shaking his settled purpose, or of turning 
 him from it for a moment. 
 
 When the people gathered together in tumultuous as- 
 semblies, loudly clamoring against his rule as unauthor- 
 ized and irksome, he calmly faced the angry multitude 
 and reproved them for their folly, and their impious re- 
 bellion against the God he served. When he saw the 
 multitude sunk in licentious indulgence, and thus in- 
 
AS A SCHOLAR AND A STATESMAN. 47 
 
 viting speedy destruction, Moses hesitated not to apply 
 the severest remedies. He ralHed his faithful adherents 
 around him, and, sword in hand, he reduced the multi- 
 tude to reason and submission, even though it cost the 
 lives of thousands. 'Twas the only price at which a 
 return to virtue and good order could be purchased. 
 
 When, on another occasion, his integrity was called in 
 question, and the validity of his commission, and of the 
 priesthood he had instituted was denied, alone and un- 
 supported he meets the tumultuous rebels, and fronting 
 them all, he calmly appeals to heaven for the vindication 
 of his integrity and the punishment of his assailants. 
 Fire suddenly breaking forth and consuming the sacrile- 
 gious invaders of the priesthood, an earthquake that 
 swallowed up Korah, and the next day's pestilence that 
 swept through the murmuring camp, fully justified his 
 noble self-possession, and reliance on God. It is impos- 
 sible to contemplate Moses in the midst of scenes like 
 these, (and they were, alas ! but too frequent,) without 
 being struck with the dignity of his character as pre-em- 
 inently ^rm, calm^ and self-possessed. 
 
 As a patriot^ Moses was yet more distinguished. No man 
 that ever lived accomplished more for his countrymen, 
 and secured less to himself. Contemplate but what Moses 
 achieved, and at what cost to himself, and his character 
 will stand forth beaming with the glory of the purest pa- 
 triotism. Himself trained in a court, surrounded with its 
 pleasures, and loaded with its honors, he beheld the spec- 
 tacle of a people enslaved, degraded, and cruelly oppressed. 
 Those wretched victims of a relentless policy, he could 
 not forget were his countrymen and his brethren ! Most 
 men, in the position of Moses, would have shunned 
 
48 THE CHARACTER OF MOSES 
 
 them, ashamed of his origin, and desirous to eradicate 
 the remembrance of it from his own mind, and from the 
 minds of the courtiers around him. But so far from 
 this, the noble-minded Moses felt and yielded to the 
 claims of consanguinity. He clung to his people the 
 more tenaciously for the misery in which he saw them 
 sunk. He identified himself with them by one daring 
 act, as if to show his determination to rescue them, or to 
 perish in the attempt. The ignorance of his countrymen, 
 their degradation of character, (an inevitable fruit of 
 long years of servitude,) and their strong yearnings after 
 the idolatrous usages and licentious pleasures prevailing 
 around them, presented formidable difficulties. Nothing 
 deterred at the prospect, Moses met these difficulties pa- 
 tiently and resolutely, and, by a discreet perseverance, he 
 overcame them all. 
 
 The sacred functions of the priestly office he assigned 
 to Aaron, his brother, to be perpetuated in his family ; 
 for Phineas, the son of Aaron, had shown himself every 
 way equal to this high dignity. His own sons Moses left 
 in the inferior rank of Levites, subordinate to the priest- 
 hood. During his own natural life, it is true, Moses was 
 the leader and the judge of Israel. But, after giving 
 them a pure religion, national independence, and a gov- 
 ernment strongly imbued with a genuine democratic 
 spirit, (since the most important offices were elective,) he 
 appointed Joshua, a man unconnected with his own fam- 
 ily, to succeed him as leader of Israel, and to settle the 
 tribes in the promised land of Canaan. The whole life 
 of Moses is replete with genuine patriotism — noble, pure — 
 as that of the immortal Washington. Moses was to the 
 
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50 THE CHARACTER OF MOSES 
 
 These monuments could not have been erected before 
 the soil on which they stand, and from which their build- 
 ers must have obtained their sustenance, was formed.* 
 
 Moreover, in the first chapter of Genesis, Moses gives 
 a concise history of the origin of this earth, and of its 
 living occupants. Now a diligent comparison of the sev- 
 eral steps, in the creative process, as detailed by Moses, 
 with the most approved theories of cosmogony now in 
 vogue among the learned, and especially with the order 
 which geological researches show that the great Archi- 
 tect of the universe did actually observe in the produc- 
 tion of the several occupants of our globe, from the first 
 breaking up of chaos, has satisfied many among the 
 learned, that however it may have been obtained by the 
 writer, the scientific knowledge embodied in the books 
 of Moses is so varied, so profound, and so accurate, that 
 the noblest results of modern scientific research, are only 
 an approximation to a recovery, in our times, of scientific 
 knowledge perfectly familiar to Moses. 
 
 The erudite and candid author of L'Egypte Pha- 
 raonique, remarks on this subject : — 
 
 " The cosmogony of Moses, simple, clear, and natural, 
 is evidently the result of learned research. The author 
 of this system, respecting the origin of the earth and the 
 heavens, mtjist necessarily have devoted himself to profound 
 meditations on the history of the globe : and it is certain, that 
 geology must, in his day, have reached an extraordinary point 
 of perfection, for the historian to follow, as Moses has done, 
 step by step, all the mysteries of that creation." Again, 
 he writes : — 
 
 " No mortal man assisted at the work of creation : no 
 * See M. Henri's "Egypte Pharaonique," vol. i. 40, 41. 
 
AS A SCHOLAR AND A STATESMAN. 51 
 
 human eye could have penetrated the mystery, and re- 
 ported to us that which took place at the grand epoch of 
 the origin of this world. And yet Moses recounts all 
 that the hand of God wrought to form this universe: 
 and what Moses relates, exhibits an exactitude and an 
 accuracy so complete, that the progress which the sci- 
 ences have made in our days, lends the support of their 
 resistless testimony to each one of his narrations. So 
 valuable are the writings of Moses as embodying the 
 first principles of science. 
 
 To quote the language of a distinguished French wri- 
 ter, who rejects the idea of inspiration: — ''The history 
 of the creation, as given by Moses, which is the system 
 of Egypt in the first, or learned age of its existence, can 
 only be regarded as the result of the long-continued study 
 of a great number of countries of different geologic for- 
 juations, compared one with another, and the application 
 of principles deduced from laborious geognostic explora- 
 tions. It evinces, consequently, a very advanced state 
 of the sciences, chemical, and consequently of mathe- 
 matics also." (Henri, Egypte Pharaonique, vol. i. pp. 155, 
 156.) 
 
 Another writer in the same language, remarks: — '^ So 
 many things would prove Moses to be a wise geologist of our 
 age, if he did not learn the facts which he relates, from 
 some other source than the study of the formation of the 
 globe, that it is only a mind in which great frivolity of 
 character is joined to deplorable ignorance, that can per- 
 ceive any flagrant contradiction between Holy Scripture 
 and the profane sciences." (Am. Saintes' History of na- 
 tionalism in Germany. Eng. Transl. Lond. 1849, p. 263.) 
 In another passage in the same work, M. Saintes re- 
 
52- THE CHARACTER OF MOSES 
 
 marks : — " The sciences, in our days, display in their 
 teachings, notwithstanding the assertions to the contrary, 
 more and more harmony with biblical facts." He here 
 refers to the first part of Genesis, (id. p. 67.) 
 
 A mind of the highest order, then, Moses unquestion- 
 tionably had; a mind well disciplined, richly cultivated, 
 and thoroughly conversant with the profoundest philo- 
 sophical views of the age: while he soared far above 
 those views, immeasurably outstripping his contempo- 
 raries ! 
 
 The simple majesty in which he presents the idea 
 of God, the one Being uncreated and the all-powerful 
 Creator of all things, the directness with which he states 
 his lofty doctrines, and the perfect clearness and pre- 
 cision with which he lays down the several duties of 
 morality, and that too, in an age of idolatry, superstition, 
 and licentiousness sanctioned under the venerable name^ 
 of religion, discover in the Jewish leader a mind of 
 transcendent powers, of surpassing vigor, and clearness, 
 far-reaching in its views, and deep, penetrating, and ac- 
 curate in its conclusions. 
 
 In the vast expanse of ethics and philosophy, Moses 
 was the morning star that ushers in the day. He was 
 the Columbus who explored unknown deeps, the reveal- 
 er of the certain and the solid. What though you tell 
 me that Moses was thus elevated in intellectual dignity 
 and power, by the direct inspiration of God ! Admitted, 
 freely admitted : but what then ? All minds are the pro- 
 duct of God, all their powers and capacities, their talents, 
 their capabilities, yea genius itself^ are from God ! Our 
 talents for acquiring knowledge, our opportunities and 
 facilities for gaining it, and our tact and ability for rightly 
 
AS A SCHOLAR AND A STATESMAN. 53 
 
 using it when gained, are all the gift of God, as truly as 
 was the supernatural knowledge of Moses. But knowl- 
 edge, however gained, expands and strengthens the 
 mind that has it. Moses had a mind pre-eminently vigor- 
 ous, and active, richly stored, too, with knowledge which 
 he well knew how to use to the best advantage. That 
 knowledge, that tact and ability were his, and not the 
 less so because he was inspired. They appertained to his 
 mind, they determined bis character, and made him what 
 he was, the master spirit of the age, the glory of his 
 nation, an ornament to humanity and a blessing to man. 
 
 As to his writings^ Moses is distinguished for the sim- 
 plicity of his diction, the clearness with which he con- 
 veys his ideas, and the purity of the style in which those 
 ideas are clothed. Occasionally he rises to the loftiest 
 heights of eloquence ; as in the triumphant anthem sung 
 on the destruction of the Egyptian hosts in the Eed Sea, 
 (Exod. XV. 1-20,) in the prophecies he attributes to Ba- 
 laam, and in the beautiful description he gives of the care 
 of Jehovah over his people, like a majestic eagle hovering 
 over, guarding and directing her young, (Deut. xxxii. 
 1-14.) 
 
 In the pathetic too, the history he gives of Joseph, is to 
 this day unrivalled for a touching simplicity true to nature. 
 
 To the pen of Moses we may certainly ascribe the first 
 five books of the Hebrew Scriptures, i. e. Genesis^ Exodus^ 
 Leviticus^ Numbers^ and Deuteronomy. Besides these books, 
 known as the Pentateuch, the Jews generally reckon as 
 the product of Moses eleven psalms, i. e. from the xc. 
 to C. : of this, however, we have no absolute certainty. 
 
 By not a few distinguished men it has also been be- 
 lieved, that Moses is the author of the book of Job. The 
 
54 THE CHARACTER OF MOSES 
 
 celebrated Origen, who flourished in the third century 
 of the Christian era, maintained that Moses translated the 
 book of Job out of Syriac, or Arabic, into Hebrew. This 
 opinion is still held by many : nor is it altogether im- 
 probable ; although there is certainly a great difference, 
 remarked by learned men, between the style in which 
 the book of Job, and those of the Pentateuch are written. 
 
 The author of writings such as these, which have out- 
 lived so many ages and centuries, which have come down 
 to us through thousands of years, and which still com- 
 mand the veneration of the most enlightened portion of 
 mankind, as treasuries of knowledge, and oracles of wis- 
 dom, is surely entitled to the very foremost place on the 
 records of fame as a scholar^ a thinker and a writer. He 
 IS all original^ from first to last. Before all others in time, 
 he still stands, unsurpassed in accurate science, unequalled 
 in simphcity, clearness, sublimity and touching pathos. 
 As such he is still universally admired and used. 
 
 But, in the tumultuous scenes of public life^ as well as in 
 private, in the camp and the field, as well as in the closet, 
 die conduct and the achievements of Moses^ command oxer 
 respect. He was a brave warrior and a successful general no 
 less than a profound scholar. Like CaDsar, he could con- 
 duct an army to victory in the face of an immensely su- 
 perior enemy, and then exchange the sword for the pen, 
 and furnish interest and instruction both, in the modest 
 narrative he wrote of deeds achieved by his own skill 
 and prowess. Tradition represents Moses as waging suc- 
 cessful war in Ethiopia, in command of the Egyptian 
 armies, and acquiring distinction, power and renown, 
 before he abandoned the court of which he was an adopt- 
 ed son. Of these earlier exploits, however, we have 
 
AS A SCHOLAR AND A STATESMAN. 55 
 
 received no authentic records. But, from the hour when 
 he stepped forth as the advocate and the leader of the 
 Hebrews, his military talents were called into requisi- 
 tion, and their exertion was signally successful. 
 
 The hare fact that he could arouse to a sense of their 
 wrongs a vast, but miserable horde of task-driven serfs, 
 that he could inspire them with a desire for freedom, and 
 keep that desire alive; that he could unite this undis- 
 ciplined rabble in one body and keep them so ; that he 
 could lead them forth in safety, encumbered as they were 
 with their women, their children, their cattle and all 
 their possessions, and that too in the face of a powerful 
 monarch, their oppressor, backed as that monarch was 
 by a numerous, disciplined, and well-appointed army, 
 bent on arresting their departure, and riveting upon them 
 again the yoke of bondage ; the fact that Moses could so 
 arrange this vast multitude embarrassed by so many en- 
 cumbrances, as that, in the midst of a sterile and inhos- 
 pitable desert they should move in safety, and be fur- 
 nished with ample sustenance; and that this successful 
 leadership, notwithstanding all these complicated difficul- 
 ties, should be continued through the long period of forty 
 years, until he saw them on the borders of a fertile and 
 populous country, eager to take possession, and now fully 
 qualified to do so, by the discipline to which they had 
 been so long subjected, all this must ever suffice to place 
 Moses in the first rank of military leaders. However 
 this skill might have been obtained by him, certain it is 
 that Moses had it: and Moses exercised it, not for the 
 purpose of self-aggrandizement, but exclusively for the 
 good of his nation. He used this skill, for the elevation 
 of a tumultuous rabble of slaves, to the character and 
 
56 THE CHARACTER OF MOSES 
 
 Standing of a brave people, determined on national exist- 
 ence, independence and honor, and competent to win it 
 for themselves. 
 
 We know, indeed, that throughout the whole of his 
 splendid and trying career, God himself sustained and 
 directed Moses; and we know, too, that God directed 
 and sustained Cyrus, and Alexander. On the pages of 
 history these men stand prominent, as great military 
 leaders. Viewing all the circumstances of the case, 
 Moses is yet more deserving of honor, as the most daring, 
 skilful, and successful general of the age in which he 
 lived. 
 
 It would be strange if amid the multiplicity of monu- 
 ments commemorative of the exploits of Pharaohs 
 and of Satraps, vastly his inferiors in daring and in suc- 
 cess, that no monument proclaiming the prowess of 
 Moses should have survived. Already the rocks of 
 Sinai have found a voice, attesting, somewhat hesitating- 
 ly as yet, it may be, yet still attesting the prodigies 
 wrought for Israel in the deserts of Arabia. And if the 
 tradition of the earlier exploits of Moses in his Ethiopian 
 campaigns should be authentic, it were no wonder if yet, 
 when the mists of obscurity that still enshroud these 
 Nile-valley monuments, shall have been more fully dis- 
 persed, it shall be found that among those remoter and 
 most ancient monuments in Nubia and Ethiopia, appear 
 the record of military conquests achieved by Moses for 
 the Egyptian crown, — achievements, the glory of which 
 could not be tarnished, nor the proud recollection of 
 them be willingly obliterated among the Egyptians, even 
 though the champion who had gleaned those honors for 
 Egypt, had subsequently abandoned the court and the 
 
AS A SCHOLAR AND A STATESMAN. 57 
 
 country, and had by a series of exploits not less splendid 
 founded a rival kingdom in Asia. Among the monu- 
 ments of the several Eameses,* it is at least possible that 
 the Ethiopian conquests of Moses may yet be found com- 
 memorated. Ea, is a prefix to many Egyptian names, 
 of import equivalent to that of our phrase, the royal ; 
 and of these several Rameses, may not some one yet 
 prove the designation of the Hebrew-born, adopted son of 
 Pharaoh's daughter, — the conqueror of Saba and Ethio- 
 pia, — the accepted spouse of Ethiopia's queen, Tharbis ; 
 and designated both from his adoption at the court of 
 Pharaoh, and from his royal nuptials in Ethiopia, — Ra- 
 Meses, — the royal Moses !f 
 
 * Ramses is explained as meaning begotten of Re, orof Phre, the "off- 
 spring of the Sun," or of heaven. But since in Egyptian, the vowels 
 are often, indeed generally omitted, just as in Hebrew, without the points, 
 Ramses, i. e. Ra-meses, presents the very name Moses, with the prefix 
 Ra, indicating royalty. 
 
 As to the distinguished position held by Moses, see the testimony of 
 ancient writers, as adduced by Mons. Champollion Figeac, in his Egypte, 
 (I'Univers Pittoresque,) pp. 121, 122. 
 
 f It may be interesting to consult, on this point, " Monumens de 
 I'Egypte et de Nubie, by Champollion le Jeune, vol. i. of the Plates, and 
 Plates XI., XIII., and XV., in which the Pharaoh (Ramses V.,) is 
 styled again and again, Meses, beloved of Amoun." See also Osburn's 
 Ancient Egypt, p. 14. See also Rosellini, B. 6, PI. CI., Plate 32. 4 ; 164. 
 3 ; and Depense XXX., where the cartouche of Sesostris, or Ramses III. 
 is given, whose name and title Osburn renders thus: "Pharaoh vigilant 
 injustice. coTrjpe, Sesostris, the approved of the Sun, [the beloved of 
 Amoun, Ramses] III." There is in these cartouches no Ra. it is merely 
 Mcses, beloved of Amoun. See also the last line of royal names in the 
 ToMe of Abydos ; see Champollion Figeac, plate 47. A copy of this table 
 is also given in Dr. Hawkes's Egypt and its Monuments, p. 25. 
 
 These magnificent delineations of Ramses are mostly at Ipsamboul, in 
 temples near the region of Moses' conquests, and which were constructed 
 at a period near his time. (See Champollion Figeac, pp. 340, 341.) 
 
68 THE CHARACTER OF MOSES 
 
 Not to dwell on this conjecture, certain it is, that we 
 can add, — as a statesman^ Moses ranks amoiig tlie greatest. 
 He found his people oppressed, enslaved, and consequent- 
 ly degraded. For helpless subjection to the power of 
 others, speedily deteriorates the whole man, and self- 
 reliance dies. A generation brought up in slavery, are 
 unfitted for freedom; to them, independence would be 
 fraught with curses as much as with blessings. Their 
 children may be trained to a nobler destiny, but the race 
 that has itself grown up in slavery, can be elevated, if at 
 all, only by slow degrees. The experience of centuries 
 and that in all countries, has taught mankind this lesson. 
 
 But Moses saw this, as by intuition ; and he laid his 
 plans, and made his arrangements on the dictate of a 
 masterly policy, which was indeed essential to the success 
 of his noble scheme. 
 
 The original race of slaves that left Egypt, adults, 
 under Moses, ever showed themselves restless, turbulent, 
 — impatient of the wholesome restraints of law, and regu- 
 lar government, and incapable of appreciating the advan- 
 tages of such government. This race passed away in 
 the wilderness; and their sons, trained under the institu- 
 tions that were to distinguish them above all other 
 nations, yielded a cheerful obedience to the laws, and 
 fully carried out the plans of their great prophet. 
 
 To accomplish such a task, to control the discordant 
 elements with which Moses had to work, and by his tact 
 and management to raise a band of emancipated serfs, 
 and their children, in intelligence, civilization and self- 
 respect, until they could be safely settled in a country of 
 their own, and be formed into a community, the first in 
 the world, to be the depositary of a free government, 
 
AS A SCHOLAR AND A STATESMAN. 59 
 
 under a written constitution, whicli distinctly prescribed 
 the duties, and secured the privileges of all, religious and 
 political, public and private, those of magistrates and 
 of citizens ; and to effect all this in one generation, was 
 a work accomplished hut once in the history of the world, 
 a statesman-like work, to which the genius of Moses 
 alone, of all men that ever lived, has been found equal. 
 
 The institutions established by Moses were pre-emi- 
 nently judicious, and admirably adapted to the character 
 of the people ; their peculiar position as the sole deposi- 
 tary of a pure religion ; a people to be kept separate and 
 distinct from all the rest of the world. These institutions 
 were designed to endure ; and they have endured. For 
 several thousands of years they have been maintained 
 by the Jews, and that, too, even since the dispersion of 
 that people into all parts of the globe; and they still 
 retain a vigor that promises perpetuity. 
 
 "These institutions," as one has well said, (see Eobin- 
 son's Calmet,) " have withstood the fury of persecution, 
 and the still more dangerous snares of seduction. They 
 are, to this day, essentially the same in China, in India, 
 in Persia, and in Europe. They may have been neg- 
 lected, they may have been interpolated, they may have 
 been abused ; but they are the same, and they are still 
 observed. Nor is the claim of consanguinity and broth- 
 erhood unfelt throughout the whole race. Despised and 
 scattered abroad among all nations, they are distinct from 
 all, and bound to each other by ties which the lapse of 
 ages has not destroyed, and has hardly weakened." Kor 
 is it certain, that even should the whole Hebrew race 
 embrace Christianity, every rite that distinguishes them 
 as Jews, must absolutely cease and determine. 
 
60 THE CHARACTER OF MOSES 
 
 Their three great annual festivals, when every adult 
 male must attend in one place where stood the altar of 
 God ; their great Sabbatic year ; their numerous priest- 
 hood for the conduct of the splendid temple worship ; 
 their various admirable courts of justice, and their mag- 
 istrates nearly all elective, as well as their laws of inher- 
 itance, and year of Jubilee, were peculiar institutions, 
 well adapted to secure their purity, as a nation settled 
 permanently in one country. All these might fall into 
 disuse on their dispersion into distant lands ; but yet, as 
 Jews, however dispersed, they are marked as a distinct 
 race, and as one, by circumcision, by the annual passover, 
 by their weekly 7th-day sabbath, and by their synagogue 
 service for the reading of the sacred books of their 
 fathers. 
 
 Now, a mind that could form the conception of a govern- 
 ment embodying such institutions so peculiar and unique, 
 yet so influential in their character, and so durable in 
 their nature ; a mind that could and did devise the de- 
 tails of this system, and the means for carrying it out 
 into full and practical operation, with materials such as 
 were presented in the Hebrews just emerging from 
 Egyptian bondage ; a system that should raise them from 
 barbarism to civilization and refinement, that should suit 
 their condition when settled in a land that Moses never 
 visited ; a system that should be still appropriate in the 
 height of their growing prosperity, to be witnessed only 
 in the far-off future ; and a system that revolutions, dis- 
 persion and wretchedness cannot overthrow, yea, that 
 time itself neither wears out nor renders obsolete; — a 
 mind which conceived and executed this system in all 
 its vastness, and with all its minute details, must have 
 
AS A SCHOLAR AND A STATESMAN. 61 
 
 been pre-eminent for an exuberance of all tbose great 
 qualities, which, when found even in a moderate degree, 
 stamp their possessor as an able statesman, and a man of 
 genius. 
 
 But it is when considered as a lawgiver that the true great- 
 ness of Moses is best seen. Law is the slow growth of ages. 
 'Tis the index of public intelligence, the standard of civ- 
 ilization ! All history shows that the advance from bar- 
 barism to that condition in which government is adminis- 
 tered in strict accordance to written law, is very slow ; it re- 
 quires a long course of years. Laws are usually enacted 
 cautiously, one after another, as the exigencies that call 
 for them arise, and the alteration, amendment, or repeal 
 of old laws is constantly taking place. Law is the con- 
 centrated experience ofages, rendered durable by record. 
 
 Moses alone was blessed with a mind so capacious, 
 views so enlarged, and political sagacity so keen and so 
 profound, that he produced at once a system of laws, 
 civil and ecclesiastical both, which settled the entire gov- 
 ernment of a new people, one which was about speedily 
 to become great and powerful, and settled it on a durable 
 foundation. But little prepared could the Jews have 
 been to appreciate the institutions of Moses. They had 
 indeed long dwelt in Egypt, and in daily contact with 
 the most enlightened people then on earth; but they 
 had held among that people an inferior position. A race 
 of hard-worked, despised and sorely oppressed serfs; 
 they had but just burst their bonds. Whatever the civ- 
 ilization around them in Egypt, the Jews had had but 
 little opportunity to derive benefit from it. On the great 
 subject of religious opinions and moral conduct, all na- 
 tions and all tribes of that period were in deplorable 
 
 >'^ OF Ton^ 
 
 'UFI7ERSITrl 
 
62 THE CHARACTER OF MOSES 
 
 error. Polytheism and gross idolatry everywhere pre- 
 vailed, and even the Egyptians were notoriously addicted 
 to gross superstitions, paying religious homage to beasts, 
 and birds, and reptiles. Of the state of morals among the 
 Egyptians^ we have no very definite accounts ; but among 
 the Canaanites and all other adjoining countries, it was 
 wretched in the extreme. This universal degradation 
 the Hebrews could not have entirely escaped. Every- 
 thing in the people for whom he planned, and in the 
 condition of society around him, was, therefore, adverse 
 to the magnificent designs of Moses; and yet he ma- 
 tured, and he accomplished these designs ! 
 
 The basis of his whole system was, reverence for the one 
 only God, the supreme Ruler ! God was the head of the 
 Jewish government. The worship of God was also hom- 
 age to the sovereign ; and idolatrous practices were not 
 impiety merely, they were treason against the state. 
 Hence the severity of the laws Moses enacted against 
 heathenish practices : a severity necessary to the contin- 
 ued existence of Israel as a nation, at the time and under 
 the circumstances. A severity, however, which gives no 
 sanction to bigotry or to religious intolerance now. 
 
 Under the Mosaic code, the priesthood was assigned to 
 the family of Aaron alone ; while the whole tribe of Levi 
 was devoted to the subordinate duties of waiting on the 
 priesthood in their sacred services, caring for the sacred 
 vessels, the music, and all the requisites for public wor- 
 ship. In this tribe also, sacred literature was more espe- 
 cially cultivated, the law was diligently cared for, copies 
 of it were multiplied and preserved, its statutes were in- 
 terpreted and taught to the people. The duties of all the 
 several ecclesiastical officers, were minutely prescribed, 
 
AS A SCHOLAR AND A STATESMAN. 63 
 
 and the maintenance of these officers was carefully pro- 
 vided for by law. 
 
 For the due administration of public affairs, ample pro- 
 vision was made. Each one of the twelve tribes was, in 
 some respects, an independent community, administering 
 its own internal affairs, by a government composed of 
 officers of its own selection : while a general council of 
 the nation, composed of delegates from each of the tribes, 
 guarded the interests of the entire confederacy. 
 
 Through this national council, the extraordinary lead- 
 ers, such as Moses, the judges, and, in later times, even 
 the kings, communicated with the tribes, and made their 
 enactments known to the people. The Jewish common- 
 wealth, as constituted by Moses, was a confederacy of re- 
 publics, strongly resembling the complex government of 
 these United States. 
 
 Each tribe had its own head, or prince^ who was elected 
 to this high office from among the descendants, in the di- 
 rect line, of the founder of the tribe. By the prudent 
 counsel of Jethro, Moses appointed additional magis- 
 trates, viz. judges, some over ten, some over fifty, some 
 over a hundred, and others over a thousand men : and 
 all these leaders of thousands, or elders, were associated 
 together, under the prince of the tribe, as the general 
 council of the tribe. When all such elders dwelling in 
 any city or neighborhood, were convened, they formed 
 the legislative assembly of that city or neighborhood. 
 (Deut. xix. 12 ; xxv. 8, 9. Judg. viii. 14 ; ix. %-4:Q ; xi. 
 5. 1 Sam. viii. 4 ; xvi. 4.) When the chief elders from 
 all the tribes were convened in one body, (or by their 
 duly appointed delegates : see Exod. xix. 7 ; xxiv. 3-8 ; 
 xxiv. 31, 32. Levit. iv. 13; xviii. 3-5; ix. 5,) they 
 
64 THE CHARACTER OF MOSES 
 
 formed the legislative assembly of tlie entire nation. (Judg. 
 i. 1-11 ; xi. 5 ; xx. 12-24. Josh, xxiii. 1, 2 ; xxiv. 1.) 
 The priests, who were the learned class in the commu- 
 nity, were also hereditary officers in the state, being 
 clothed with civil no less than religious functions. They 
 had a seat in this grand assembly. (Exod. xxxii. 29. 
 Numb, xxxvi. 13 ; viii. 6-26.) The priests were the 
 authorized interpreters of the law, civil and ecclesiastical 
 both. This great national assembly, or Comitia, was 
 summoned by special messengers, and convened before 
 the tabernacle in early times. They exercised the chief 
 rights of sovereignty. They declared war, concluded 
 peace,> ratified treaties, appointed civil rulers, generals, 
 and, in later times, even the kings. The oath of office 
 was administered by the judge, {e. g. Joshua or Samuel,) 
 and in later times by the king. The king himself was 
 sworn into office by the Comitia, acting in the name of 
 the people. (Exod. xix. 7 ; xxiv. 2-8. Josh. ix. 18-21. 
 Judg, XX. 1 ; xi. 14; xx. 13-20. 1 Sam. x. 24; xi. 14, &c.) 
 In a time of peculiar difficulty from sedition, Moses 
 selected seventy distinguished men from among the dif 
 ferent tribes, to act as his counsellors in affiiirs of state. 
 These were called the Sanhednm. (Numb, xi.) These, 
 however, were not judges. They were appointed for a 
 specific purpose, and their office ended with the life of 
 Moses. From the death of Moses till the captivity, we 
 find no mention of a sanhedrim. After the captivity, in- 
 deed, in the time of the Maccabees, the Jews appointed a 
 sanhedrim of seventy-two elders, over whom presided 
 the High Priest. But this sanhedrim, which in later 
 ages acted as the supreme council of the nation, is by no 
 means to be confounded with the sanhedrim of Moses. 
 
AS A SCHOLAR AND A STATESMAN. 65 
 
 The trials conducted before the several law courts, 
 were usually held at the gate of the city, an unencum- 
 bered space of public resort. To insure openness^ and 
 due deliberation, no capital case could lawfully be tried 
 at night. Hence courts were usually held in the morn- 
 ing. ISTor was it lawful to examine a cause, pass sen- 
 tence, and put that sentence in execution the same day. 
 In the trial of Jesus Christ all these merciful legal pre- 
 cautions were disregarded ! 
 
 These several institutions were admirably adapted to 
 the character and the circumstances of the Jews, and were 
 well calculated to accustom them to the government of 
 established law, the only guarantee for order and freedom. 
 
 There is, however, one institution established by 
 Moses, which discovers a wonderful tact, in turning ap- 
 parently formidable obstacles in the way of the rule of 
 law, into a means for establishing it the more effectually. 
 I refer to the Cities of Kefuge. 
 
 From time immemorial it had been deemed the duty 
 of the mah next of kin to a person slain by violence, 
 to avenge his death on the slayer. He was called the 
 hlood-avenger. If he failed to punish the killer of his 
 kinsman, he was accounted infamous. In a rude state of 
 society, this custom must be highly useful ; but it is ob- 
 viously liable to great abuses. Homicide is not always 
 murder. 
 
 The province of established tribunals of justice it is, to 
 ascertain not only the fact of the slaying, and the person 
 of the slayer, but also the intention, criminal or other- 
 wise. If the slaying was accidental, or necessary 
 to self-defence, then it was not criminal ; but of 
 this the blood-avenger could not judge impartially. 
 
66 THE CHARACTER OF MOSES 
 
 His kinsman being slain, his part it was to avenge him, 
 and infamy covered him if he slew not the slayer. 
 The fact of the slaying was all he looked at ; of its justi- 
 fiableness he was not, and he could not be a competent 
 judge. The person of the slayer once known, he must 
 slay hiniyOT live in infamy. To remedy the fearful abuses 
 to which this custom must always be liable, Moses resort- 
 ed to a singular e:jtpedient. 
 
 He appointed six cities of refuge, three on each side 
 of the Jordan ; to these cities straight roads were to be 
 opened from every part of the country. A man who had 
 slain any person, must flee to the nearest of these cities 
 of refuge, which were all placed under the control of the 
 Priests and Levites. If found by the blood-avenger out- 
 side of the city, he could be lawfully slain ; but so long 
 as he remained within the city of refuge, he was safe 
 from the immediate stroke of the blood-avenger. In that 
 city he must abide until duly tried before a legal tribu- 
 nal, and his guilt or innocence determined. If proved 
 guilty of wilful murder, he was forthwith surrendered to 
 the blood-avenger, to be by him slain. In such case, the 
 death of the convicted murderer was inevitable. No 
 sanctuary could shelter the convicted murderer, and no 
 commutation was admitted. 
 
 If, on trial, acquitted of intentional murder, he was 
 still required to d^^'ell in the city of refuge during his 
 whole life, unless the High Priest should die ; on the 
 occurrence of this event, the homicide might fearlessly 
 return to his own home, the blood-avenger having no 
 longer any legal right to molest him. 
 
 Thus, by this singular institution, Moses extended no 
 shield to the guilty, he did not aim to crush at once the 
 
AS A SCHOLAR AND A STATESMAN. 67 
 
 spirit of private vengeance ; but he sagaciously availed 
 himself of that spirit, and of the custom to which it had 
 given birth, to induce the criminal murderer, and the 
 unfortunate homicide, alike, to throw themselves on the 
 protection of law for security from immediate pursuit and 
 destruction, and for a fair and open trial afterwards. 
 The very custom and the deep feelings which would 
 seem to threaten insuperable opposition to the empire 
 of law, and the action of regular tribunals, were thus 
 skilfully turned into important auxiliaries, to insure the 
 influence of law, and establish the authority of its tribu- 
 nals. The Mosaic law respecting the cities of refuge, was a 
 masterly stroke of legislative policy. 
 
 But it is the moral laiVj briefly expressed, in the ten com- 
 mandments, — tJie decalogue, as recorded in Exod. ch. xx., 
 that yields to Moses the palm of matchless legislative wisdom. 
 
 The teachings of sages and philosophers, on the subject 
 of human duty, have usually, in every age and country, 
 been prolix and obscure, and so shrouded in mystery as 
 to be nearly unintelligible to the great mass of mankind. 
 But in the moral law first promulgated by Moses, we 
 have just the reverse of all this. In this inimitable 
 document, we find the entire range of human duties 
 comprised in a compass so brief, that a child may commit 
 the whole to memory in a few hours ; and yet so compre- 
 hensive is this law, that it covers the entire field of duty. 
 No one duty to God or man is here omitted. Ko one is 
 there of the many forms of vice, or gradations in crime, 
 which is not herein unequivocally condemned. 
 
 Brief though this wonderful document is, it is yet 
 perfectly intelligible to all. Each duty is herein so 
 clearly defined, and so fully set forth, that the little 
 
68 THE CHARACTER OF MOSES 
 
 child, the superstitious idolater, and the rude barbarian 
 as well as the philosopher and the man of science, may 
 hence learn to whom he owes his being, — the service ap- 
 propriate to that great Maker, and all the duties towards 
 his fellow-men, which spring from his relation to them 
 and to God, our common Creator. This peerless docu- 
 ment, while it develops principles which may amaze 
 and charm the strongest intellect, and the most cultivated 
 mind, does also lay down its positions so distinctly, and 
 detail duty so clearly and definitely, that its meaning is 
 perfectly obvious to the humblest capacity and the most 
 ordinary attention! Moreover, this law accords in all 
 respects to the convictions of right, inherent in every 
 human breast. 
 
 It is a law adapted not to any one age of the world ex- 
 clusively, nor to any one race of men, nor to any one 
 class in society ! It is pre-eminently, the law for man^ for 
 the whole human family, in all ages, in all countries, and 
 in every condition of life! 
 
 No revolutions in the political world, no rise or fall of 
 powerful dynasties, no change in the aspect of society, 
 can ever, either add to the force, or impair the authority 
 of this noble law. It is based on principles, and it deals 
 with relations that appertain to human nature, and are 
 unchangeable. To the white man and the black ; to the 
 monarch on his throne, and to the beggar in his hovel ; to 
 the exalted leader of a nation of freemen, and to the 
 slave at his meanest drudgery ; to the statesman loaded 
 with the cares of government, and to the obscurest 
 of the multitude whose political destpy he controls ; to 
 the profound philosopher ; to the applauded author of 
 brilliant discoveries in science, and to the most illiterate 
 
AS A SCHOLAR AND A STATESMAN. 6? 
 
 peasant tliat plods thouglitlessly at his daily toil, this law 
 is invariably and alike applicable ! No lapse of ages can 
 render it obsolete ; no advances in science can impair its 
 lustre, or weaken its force : no change of circumstances 
 can make it inapplicable or inappropriate. So long as 
 man is man, dependent as a creature of God, and a 
 member of the social body, this law must retain its force, 
 and be always appropriate. So based in truth are the 
 principles on which it rests, that it never can lose its au- 
 thority over a single human being. 
 
 Some writers there are, who would have us believe 
 that Moses did not originate, but that he borrowed from 
 the Egyptians, his code of morals, his pure Theism, and 
 his most important regulations ; and this, forsooth, be- 
 cause we are told '"''Moses toas learned in all the wisdom of 
 the Egyptians^ 
 
 This position is demonstrably false. 
 
 That Moses was a perfect master of all the wisdom of 
 Egypt, is true ; and so the Bible asserts. But it does not 
 thence follow, that he possessed no other knowledge 
 besides that derived from Egypt. It is no unheard-of 
 thing for a scholar to master all the knowledge that his 
 teacher can impart, and afterwards to accumulate^ upon 
 this, much larger and more valuable knowledge, by his 
 own independent researches. This, we know, Moses 
 did ; and for this his long retirement in Midian furnished 
 time, and ample opportunity. 
 
 Moreover, the boasted wisdom of the Egyptians, has 
 been much exaggerated: for, whether we judge by the 
 report of that wisdom furnished in the classical writers 
 of ancient Greece, or from the testimony yielded by the 
 records of the Egyptian sages themselves, as now opened 
 
70 THE CHARACTER OF MOSES 
 
 to the world in the interpreted hieroglyphics of their 
 gorgeous temples, palaces and tombs, and in their ritual 
 of the dead, we find nothing to sustain this assertion. 
 Some important moral duties are therein recognized : a 
 future life seems to be there shadowed forth.* But, the 
 soul of the Mosaic system, i. e. the existence of one sole 
 Supreme God, a pure spirit, and, the common brother- 
 hood of all mankind, as the creatures of one God, the 
 children of one Heavenly Father, that is not found there. 
 Over all the acres of surface covered by the hieroglyphic 
 writing and the brilliant picturing of the ancient Egyp- 
 tians, which still exist in wonderful preservation among 
 her monuments, you look in vain for a recognition of the 
 one only OodI No sign, no symbol, no token of this 
 one fundamental truth, is there found. (See Sir G. Wil- 
 kinson's Mann, and Oust. 2d series, vol. i. p. 178.) On 
 this subject the testimony of the celebrated Dr. Pritchard 
 is clear and explicit. In his learned work, the Analysis 
 of Egyptian Mythology, p. 406, he says : " With respect 
 to theology^ no two systems can be more directly opposed 
 to each other than the Mosaic doctrine was to that of the 
 Egyptians." 
 
 Again, p. 408, Dr. P. remarks : — " In the most striking 
 features in the whole system of civil regulations^ the plan 
 adopted by the Hebrew lawgiver, stands in direct oppo- 
 sition to the polity of the Egyptians." 
 
 * I say seems to be there shadowed forth. See Wilkinson's 2d series, 
 Plates 87 and 88, and the description, vol. ii. pp. 442-448. See also the 
 magnificent, and very curious Plate of the Judgment of the soul as given 
 by Rosellini, Dispensa XXXVIII. m. d. c. Plate LXVI. ; and see Cham- 
 poUion, Monumens de I'Egypte et de Nubie, vol. iii. of the Plates, and 
 Plate 272. This representation is found at Thebes, Biban, El Molouk. 
 
AS A SCHOLAR AND A STATESMAN. 71 
 
 Dr. Bedford, in his useful book, entitled '' Holy Scrip- 
 ture verified," remarks, p. 60, (Lond. ed. 1837,) "Ko sort 
 of analogy can be traced between the theory (of cosmog- 
 ony,) which Moses has left us, and any of the speculations 
 which the Egyptians indulged."^ 
 
 We may add further, that an imitation of the rites or 
 the doctrines of the Egyptians, introduced by Moses into 
 the institutions he gave to the Jews, would have been 
 next to impossible, because it would have tended to de- 
 stroy their confidence in him as an inspired prophet. On 
 the conviction felt by them that he was a prophet in- 
 spired by Jehovah, rested the sole authority of Moses 
 over the Jews. He denounced the customs of the Egyp- 
 tians. An inspired prophet could not consistently borrow 
 religious observances from a people whom he denounced 
 as impious idolaters. 
 
 * The doctrine of the Egyptians as to the continued existence of the 
 soul after death, was not that of immortality, properly speaking, but of 
 metempsychosis ; i. e. a, fresh birth into another body, and then another, 
 &c. After it has gone through all the terrestrial, marine, and winged 
 animals, it again enters a human body. (Herodotus, ii. 123 : see also 
 Wilkinson, Rosellini, and Charapollion, quoted above.) This circuit was 
 supposed to occupy 3000 years ; like the doctrine of the Indian philoso- 
 phy. (Faber, Pagan Idolatry, vol. i. pp. 14, 111 and 113.) That it might 
 be ready to receive the returning soul, at the end of this 3000 years, the 
 body was embalmed with so great care. 
 
 What resemblance has this to any teaching of Moses '? Moses has been 
 charged with borrowing from the Egyptians, the idea of the Urim and 
 Thummira. (See Diod. Sic. i. 65, 5, B. i. ch. 48.) Gesenius refers to this. 
 Grotius turned the tables, by charging this imitation upon the later Egyp- 
 tians. He maintains that they borrowed this from the Jews. " Imitati 
 sunt hoc, (i. e. the breast-plate of the Jewish High Priest,) sed ut pueri 
 virorum res, imitantur Egyptii.* (De Veritate, i. 16.) 
 
 • See an able examination of this charge in Tompkin's Hulsean Prize Essay for 1849, 
 pp. 80-92. 
 
72 THE CHARACTER OP MOSES 
 
 Sir William Jones also, the great Oriental scholar, has 
 remarked, "There is no shadow of foundation for the 
 opinion that Moses hoiTOwed the first part of Genesis from the 
 literature of Egypt J^ (id. p. 60.) He adds, " Still less can 
 the adamantine pillars of our Christian faith be moved 
 by the result of any debates as to the comparative an- 
 tiquity of the Hindoos and Egyptians, or of any inquiry 
 into the Indian theology." (id.) 
 
 The ancient Egyptians were an ingenious people, re- 
 fined and luxurious in their manners undoubtedly. But, 
 of originating the ideas with which, as its living spirit, 
 its pervading essence, the Mosaic moral code is replete, 
 Egypt, with all its splendor and with all its wisdom, was 
 (for all that has yet been brought to light) as utterly in- 
 capable, as would be the savage warriors, the aborigines 
 of our own American forests ; as are the Caffres and the 
 Hottentots of South Africa ! 
 
 That the sublime doctrines, the comprehensive views, 
 the pure morality and the wonderfully accurate science* 
 with which the books of Moses are replete, could have 
 been obtained by him from the ingenious authors of the 
 mythological delineations, still found adorning the mag- 
 nificent temples, the splendid palaces, and the elaborately 
 wrought tombs now standing in the valley of the Nile, 
 is merely and simply an utter impossibility. \ 
 
 ♦ The learned Adrien Balbi has said : — " No monument, either histori- 
 cal or astronomical, has yet been able to prove the books of Moses false : 
 but, on the contrary, with those books agree, in the most remarkable 
 manner, the results obtained by the most learned philologues and the 
 profoundest geometricians." (Atlas Ethnographique du Globe, Mappe- 
 monde. Eth. 1.) 
 
 t Mr, Tompkins, in his Hulsean Prize Essay, 1849, says, (p. 79,) " The 
 
AS A SCHOLAR AND A STATESMAN. 73 
 
 How wonderful, then, must have been the mind of him 
 who first arranged and embodied the ideas that make up 
 this great law. This law has withstood the revolutions of 
 time, the shock of determined opposition, and the scrutiny 
 of jealousy. The cavils of objectors, and the reflections 
 and researches of the learned, have failed to discover in 
 the moral precepts of this law any one defect, or to make 
 upon it any improvement. 
 
 It has been the admiration of the ablest legislators in 
 all subsequent ages, and it has been used as the model 
 after which the most approved and successful laws have 
 been framed. It embodies the substance of all sound 
 legislation, and it presents the essential germ of all true 
 religion. As it was the earliest, so it has been found to 
 be the wisest, the noblest, the completest of all laws. 
 Issuing as it did in a remote, a superstitious, and a bar- 
 barous age, it presents an embodiment of wisdom never 
 since surpassed, never since equalled in any age ! 
 
 Great discoveries are usually made gradually. A 
 glimpse of some great truth is first obtained : it is con- 
 jectured rather than known; and time, and thought, 
 and labor, must perfect the discovery. But in this in- 
 stance the discovery was made at once : the great truths 
 of morality and religion burst forth upon mankind in all 
 their glory, like the sun rising brightly on the morning 
 sky. The system was given to the world by Moses at 
 once clear, well-defined, perfect, evincing itself to be im- 
 
 sublime truths of Revelation have as logical a connection with the abom- 
 inations of Egypt, as they have with the nebulous theory of Hagel." 
 
 And evenBunsen, in speaking of the sacred books of the Egyptians, says, 
 (p. 49, vol. i.) " These contain no history of the Egyptian people as do the 
 books of the Old Testament, The idea of the people, and still more of 
 the people's God, the Creator of heaven and earth, is wanting." 
 
 4 
 
74 THE CHARACTER OF MOSES 
 
 mutable truth, by its universal applicability, at all times 
 and to all men, of all races, everywhere. 'Twas no rude 
 conjecture; 'twas a complete discovery. ''Twos a heav- 
 enly birth. 'Twas the true prototype of that beautiful old 
 fable of classical Greece. Pallas, the embodiment of wis- 
 dom, springing forth quick, matured, and armed cap-a- 
 pie, from the brow of Jupiter, or from the Supreme In- 
 tellect. Plain it is then, that the decalogue is a monument 
 of wisdom^ unparalleled in the annals of mankind I Hence 
 it may be safely affirmed : — 
 
 Such was the genius of Moses ^ that he^ more than any 
 other man, has influenced the destiny of mankind. 
 
 Every now and then men have appeared in human so- 
 ciety, endowed with minds so vigorous, active, and com- 
 manding, as, that they have moulded the opinions, and 
 controlled the intellectual movements of their own age, and 
 of succeeding generations. These were the master-spir- 
 its of their age. Such were Homer and Aristotle, Soc- 
 rates and Plato, Demosthenes and Caesar, each in his pe- 
 culiar sphere of influence. Such, too, were Charlemagne, 
 and but lately. Napoleon, Bacon, Newton, and Luther, 
 each in his own department of action ; but Moses has 
 shown himself the great master-spirit, not of one age, 
 but of all ages, and of all nations, too ! 
 
 His institutions moulded the character and shaped the 
 destiny of the entire Jewish nation, certainly. The pure 
 religion he taught, and the admirable moral precepts he 
 laid down, were, indeed, shut up for ages among that one 
 people. But they have gradually spread abroad among 
 mankind, and have proved most influential in further- 
 ing the progress of civilization and human happiness! 
 Christianity, the religion of the most intelligent and en- 
 
AS A SCHOLAK AND A STATESMAN. 75 
 
 terprising nations on the earth, is founded on the religion 
 of Moses. From him, also, Mohammed borrowed his dis- 
 tinguishing religious tenets, and all of his ethics that are 
 valuable ; and Mohammedanism is the religion of a large 
 portion of Asia, and of many tribes and nations of Africa, 
 while the laws enacted by Moses, and especially the law 
 of the Ten Commandments, constitute the acknowledged 
 basis of all wise and effective legislation in every civil- 
 ized country under heaven ! 
 
 Nor must we overlook the spirit of liberty pervading 
 the government Moses established, with its officers and 
 its magistrates all selected by the suffrages of the people, 
 over whom, when chosen, they ruled. On this point Dr. 
 Pritchard (Anal Myihol. Egyipt. p. 408) has remarked : — 
 " The founders of the Egyptian civil regulations made 
 it their chief endeavor to depress the masses in society, and 
 to elevate the/ez/J in wealth and power. On the contrary, 
 the system of society established by Moses was one of 
 perfect equality ; not the casual result of circumstances, 
 but this was the object which Moses purposely con- 
 trived a great part of his civil institutions to uphold." 
 The Hebrews were all required to regard each other as 
 brethren. 
 
 By these institutions a spirit of freedom was awakened 
 in the heart of the Jewish nation, which never perished, 
 and which rarely slept. It led to deeds of heroic daring, 
 and of surpassing endurance, in resistance against the 
 oppressions of tyranny, when the rights of conscience 
 were invaded. The reiterated and daring struggles of 
 the Jews for religious freedom have, in almost all ages, 
 presented to mankind an impressive spectacle. Christi- 
 anity perpetuated this spirit, and raised it yet higher. 
 
76 THE CHARACTER OF MOSES 
 
 Popular elections and popular representative assemblies 
 were introduced from the synagogue into the church. 
 
 "When it was attempted, oppression was resisted unto 
 the death. And who can tell how far the freedom now 
 enjoyed among many nations, and extending more widely 
 every year, may be the offspring of that spirit of liberty 
 that has ever animated the church, and the Jewish na- 
 tion before it ? 
 
 The task of fully tracing out the influence exerted on 
 the world, and the benefits conferred on man by the 
 Jewish nation, in true religion, pure morals, sound legis- 
 lation, and in extending the spirit of religious independ- 
 ence and of political freedom, has yet to be performed. 
 Trace their entire history, and the Jewish nation will be 
 found to exhibit claims to the admiration and to the grat- 
 itude of mankind, as the earliest and the most unyield- 
 ing advocates of the rights of conscience, and the boldest 
 champions of freedom the world has ever beheld ! 
 
 Its obligation to the Jews has never yet been acknowl- 
 edged by the world, nor even appreciated. And I, for 
 one, count it an honor to the American republic, and to 
 the age in which we live, that an act of tardy justice has 
 at length been done to this long oppressed but noble race, 
 in that the Secretary of State (Mr. Webster) has recently 
 set a proud example to the nations of the earth, in refus- 
 ing to ratify a treaty with a foreign power, on the sole 
 ground that that treaty made invidious distinctions ad- 
 verse to the race of Abraham ! All honor to the name 
 of Daniel Webster therefor ! 
 
 Nor can we forget that all the good conferred on the 
 world by and through the Jews, is a direct result of the 
 institutions established, and the truths promulgated by 
 
AS A SCHOLAR AND A STATESMAN. H 
 
 the Jewish lawgiver Moses/ Yiew this man in what 
 light you may, and he presents the most splendid char- 
 acter on record ! 
 
 As an individual, he was virtuous and pure ; a genuine 
 patriot, zealous and untiring, firm and self-possessed ; a 
 profoundly learned man, and an accomplished writer ; a 
 successful general, and a pre-eminently able statesman ; 
 a wise lawgiver, and a man of commanding genius be- 
 yond all that ever lived. Moses has done more than 
 any one man, and more than any combination of men 
 ever did, to influence the condition, and to improve the 
 character, not of his own peculiar nation only, but of all 
 nations ! 
 
 Thus distinguished, Moses stands forth to view as a 
 man of pre-eminent worth, of incomparable mind, of 
 matchless attainments, of wisdom unexampled! How 
 suitable it was, then, that such a man should have been 
 honored to act as the mouth-piece of heaven, to proclaim 
 to men their duties, and prepare them to receive the 
 higher gift of salvation, afterwards made known in the 
 gospel of Christ. And in fact, to adopt the language of 
 another, (Dr. Bedford, Hoi. Scrip. Verified, p. 16,) " The 
 brief statements given in the first few paragraphs of the 
 books of Moses, imply a knowledge which could not have 
 been acquired by any of those means which men possess. 
 They display an insight into the laws and acts of nature, 
 which it is impossible to ascribe to the individual writer, 
 or to the people among whom he received his education. 
 So far as great truths and universal principles of nature 
 can be discovered by human effort, we 'know perfectly 
 well that great labor, cautious investigation, patient re- 
 search, and much time are demanded. They require a 
 
78 THE CHARACTER OF MOSES 
 
 large induction of particulars, and a great accumulation 
 .of facts, before they can be securely and confidently as- 
 serted. It is a rare (one might say a totally unheard-of) 
 case, for such principles or truths to be brought to ma- 
 turity by a single mind." In fact, it never has been 
 done. " The first, in general, merely suggests them. 
 Others, and usually in a long succession, verify and prove 
 them, in all their bearings." 
 
 " When, therefore, we perceive how slowly great prin- 
 ciples and general laws are discovered, even by the most 
 comprehensive and accomplished minds, in the present 
 day, it must appear altogeOier incredible that Moses should 
 have ascertained all the great natural truths which he 
 records, by his own researches, or that he should have de- 
 rived them from the wisdom of the Egyptians !" (p. 17.) 
 
 The information imparted to us by Moses upon these 
 recondite subjects, is of so peculiar a character — it is so 
 accurate, so comprehensive, and it so entirely anticipates 
 all that has been brought to light by science, even down 
 to this very hour, that it is impossible to attribute it to tlie 
 ordinary sources of human knowledge ! Moses was, beyond 
 denial, a man of transcendent genius. But no mere genius 
 could possibly have accumulated the knowledge his 
 writings embody. There is, to this day, no theory ex- 
 tant as to the origin of the world, that is even plausible, 
 which does not assume as its basis the very principles 
 first laid down by Moses alone. Add to this his theology, 
 so simple, so sublime, so rational ; add, also, his inimita- 
 ble code of morals, and the evidence is complete. There is 
 no possible way of accounting for this vast, this amazing, 
 this superhuman wisdom of Moses, but by acceding to 
 his own statement — a statement sustained by other direct, 
 
AS A SCHOLAR AND A STATESMAN. 79 
 
 varied, and conclusive proofs — Moses was a prophet — ^he 
 wrote just as lie was inspired of God to write. 
 
 How fully entitled, then, to our cordial reception and 
 our implicit confidence, are the precepts of a religious 
 teacher so pre-eminently endowed and gifted of heaven 
 as was Moses ! And how puny are the powers, and 
 how contemptible in comparison are the teachings of the 
 pigmy opponents, who, in our day, would seek to sub 
 vert the authority of Moses ! By every competent and 
 impartial investigator, Moses must be acknowledged, 
 and that quite independently of his divine commission, 
 to be the Father of History, and the Founder of Litera- 
 ture : and how our reverence for his character, and our 
 esteem for his writings should rise, when wt? are assured 
 also that Moses was, under God's own guidance, promul- 
 gator of the only true religion — the originator of all 
 sound jurisprudence — the great Teacher of pure morals — 
 yea, that Moses was also the planner and the author of 
 the first truly popular government among the nations of 
 the earth. 
 
 If George Washington is justly honored by a great 
 nation as the Father of his emancipated country, much 
 more should Moses be honored by all^ not only as the first 
 and the most distinguished of all the prophets of God, 
 but also as the Instructor and the Benefactor of the whole 
 Family of Mankind! 
 
LECTUEE II. 
 
 NECESSITY FOR REVELATION. 
 Acts xvii. 23.—" To the unknown God." — 'Ayvumi^ 0c^. 
 
 To the unknown God I What a designation ! And 
 this was the inscription adorning the face of an altar seen 
 bj the Apostle Paul, in the very heart of Athens, the 
 centre and focus of the refinement, wealth, literature and 
 piety of all Greece I 
 
 There it stood, open to the notice of all : and that such 
 altar, bearing such inscription, did anciently stand in 
 the heart of Athens, is attested by several writers of 
 classical antiquity. It was the memorial, we are told, of 
 a fearful pestilence, stayed by the intervention of some 
 unascertained power, after all the deities of the Grecian 
 Pantheon had been supplicated in vain I 
 
 There it stood ! — a memento of deliverance, but a token, 
 also, of ignorance ! — of ignorance on matters the most 
 deeply interesting : ignorance too, prevailing amongst a 
 people the most polished, the most learned, the most 
 philosophic of all antiquity ! That majestic altar at 
 Athens, that mysterious inscription, " to the unknown 
 Ood /" was a palpable indication of the necessity for a divine 
 Revelation to man ! So at least, the great Apostle to the 
 
NECESSITY FOR REVELATION. 81 
 
 Gentiles evidently regarded it ; for he seized the occasion 
 furnished by his arraignment before the august court of 
 the Areopagus, to present to his philosophic audience, a 
 brief outline of the doctrines of Kevelation, respecting one 
 God, the Creator of all, the common brotherhood of all 
 the races of mankind, and the duty of all to render a 
 pure and spiritual homage to their common Creator. 
 " Whom ye ignorantly worship^ Him declare I unto youP'' 
 
 If the subtle Stoics, the polished Epicureans, and the 
 philosophers of the Areopagus at Athens^ needed, in 
 matters of religion, to be instructed by a divinely in- 
 spired teacher, much more must the great bulk of man- 
 kind need it! Hence the theme of this lecture. ^^ For 
 the safe-guidance of man, a revelation from God is needed F 
 By revelation, I would be understood to mean, knowledge 
 beyond the reach of unaided reason ; knowledge supernaturally 
 conveyed, hy direct inspiration from God: such as the great 
 body of Christians understand the Apostle to mean, when 
 he tells us, ^' all Scripture is given hy inspiration of GodP 
 and again, ^''holy men of old spake as they were moved hy 
 the Holy GhostJ' 
 
 There is, indeed, a modern spurious philosophy, a 
 canting imitation of German mysticism, which is mag- 
 niloquent, and obscure, dealing largely in high-sounding 
 words utterly misapplied. 
 
 The advocates of this pseudo-philosophy descant much 
 on spirit and essence, development and progress. With 
 them, science is a revelation ; reason is an inspiration ; 
 analogy is a symbolization, the seed is a prophecy of the 
 future plant. With them, every truth is sacred, and all 
 knowledge is divine ! Writers, and declaimers of this 
 stamp, strike the unreflecting as original and profound, 
 
82 NECESSITY FOR REVELATIOlSr. 
 
 simply because they deal in unintelligible mysticisms, 
 perverting terms, and confounding all language. 
 
 In one sense it may he said, that all truth is sacred: but 
 certainly reason is not inspiration ; any more than gazing 
 on the heavens with the naked eye, is the same as sur- 
 veying the vast expanse through a skilfully constructed 
 telescope I 
 
 Natural science is the proper field of action for human 
 reason, in which to try her own inherent power. 
 
 Eevelation is another, and altogether a different field, 
 into which the human mind is led only by inspiration^ i. e. 
 by a supernatural influence direct from God ; wholly dis- 
 tinct from mere reason, and above it. 
 
 To use these terms indiscriminately, or to substitute 
 the one for the other, is to confound things entirely 
 difierent and distinct. It is, in fact, to render language 
 useless, or rather, to make it the instrument for blinding 
 and misleading. 
 
 Revelation^ then^ super naturally ifnparted by inspiration 
 from Ood, is necessary to man I It is so, because, 
 
 1st. The religious instinct is innate in man. It is a feel- 
 ing ingrained, apparently, in the very nature of man, 
 that he is a being, not only frail, and dependent on a 
 higher power, but also responsible to that power. Among 
 men of every nation and tribe under heaven, in every 
 country, and in every climate, is found the evidence of 
 this religious instinct. 
 
 It is so now, and it has been so, in all ages. Every 
 tribe of men, no matter how rude, has been found to have 
 its own deities, its ceremonies of worship, its dogmas of 
 belief; its hopes and its fears, founded upon those dog- 
 mas. The Jew and the Gentile, the Asiatic, the Euro- 
 
NECESSITY FOR REVELATION. 88 
 
 pean, and the American savage, the Islamite, the Brah- 
 mins of Hindostan, the Buddhist of Ceylon, the followers 
 of Confucius in the celestial empire, and the dark-skinned 
 trembler before the gree-gree in the burning wilds of 
 Africa, all corroborate this statement. There is not one 
 single well-authenticated case in exception I 
 
 Some few savage tribes have been spoken of by trav- 
 ellers, as so debased that they gave no indication of any 
 ideas of a superior power, or of personal responsibility. 
 But, a better acquaintance with such savages, and with 
 their language, has usually shown, they were not entirely 
 destitute of religious sensibility ; although their notions 
 on these points may have been very obscure. 
 
 It may, then, be safely asserted, that a recognition of 
 a higher power, and a sense of responsibility to that 
 power, are characteristic of man, wherever found. The 
 religious instinct seems to appertain to humanity as 
 such. 
 
 Now, for the gratification of all other instinctive pro- 
 pensities, suitable means are bountifully provided by the 
 Creator. He has given us the air to breathe, food to eat, 
 water to drink, the day for labor, and the night for re- 
 pose, — the social feelings and the domestic relations, — 
 together with all the varied objects around us, to excite 
 and to gratify man's thirst for knowledge ! Surely, then, 
 this instinctive hnging for an acquaintance with our duties^ 
 our future prospects, and the means of solid happiness, 
 was not given to us in vain ! 
 
 As truly as the structure of the eye shows the need of 
 light in which to use it, and warrants the belief that light 
 will be given for that purpose ; so this moral structure of 
 man, this internal organization, shows the need of su- 
 
9$ ' NECESSITY FOR REVELATION. 
 
 pernatural light, for its appropriate actions, and war- 
 rants the hope that such spiritual light will not be with- 
 held. 
 
 Again, 2d. The importance of the interests involved^ shoivs 
 the need of Bevelation. For the sustenance, the safety, and 
 the comfort of man, in this world, ample means are pro- 
 vided. With a mind capable of observing, comparing, rea- 
 soning, and planning, and with a body admirably adapted 
 to serve as the instrument for effecting his purposes, and 
 carrying out his plans, man walks the lord of this earth f 
 The soil he treads, yields, in return for his labor, a 
 copious harvest of varied products for his sustenance; 
 while the fowls of the air, and the inhabitants of the 
 deep, no less than the beasts of the field, minister to his 
 luxury. Home, with its comforts and its heart-felt de- 
 lights, — society, with its conveniences and all its refining 
 influences, contribute largely to the happiness of man, 
 and show the providential arrangements of the mighty 
 Creator, for his well- being. 
 
 Well may life be valued, and the light of the sun 
 prized ! But life is short, and if, as there is cogent rea- 
 son for believing, we are immortal, then, for us, the one 
 grand inquiry is, and ever must be, how can we render 
 that future life a happy one ? 
 
 In comparison with this, all that relates merely to the 
 interests of this our brief sojourn on earth, sinks into in- 
 significance. 
 
 If you were about to remove to a far distant country, 
 a foreign land, there to settle for life, you would spare 
 no pains to obtain correct information as to the country, 
 its productions, its climate, — the character of its inhabi- 
 tants, the peculiarities of their society, their laws, their 
 
NECESSITY FOR REVELATION. 85 
 
 customs, — and all that could enable you to decide as to 
 the requisites for there making yourself respectable, com- 
 fortable, and at home ; you would not trust to your own 
 surmises, nor to the mere assertions of rash pretenders ; 
 you would require authentic information from competent 
 sources. 
 
 So, also, our immortal nature proclaims the necessity 
 for information, such as no child of earth, however gifted, 
 can impart, respecting the unseen world that awaits us, 
 and the means by which we may be fitted to enter that 
 world, with a fair prospect of safety, of honor, of happi- 
 ness when there ! This needed instritction, a revelation 
 from God can alone impart. 
 
 Again, 3d. The limited extent of our powers demands it ! 
 For all that respects this life alone, and its interests, we 
 are abundantly qualified to judge and to act. We have 
 here to do with objects that are palpable to the senses, 
 with agents, whose nature is known to us, and on whose 
 movements we can calculate. 
 
 The results of scientific research, in so many depart- 
 ments of nature, the regularity of the seasons, and the 
 stability of what are called the laws of nature, all combine 
 to enable us to lay our plans, and prosecute them with 
 vigor, almost certain, that, by a prudent foresight against 
 possible contingencies, success will crown our efforts to 
 secure comfort, respectability, and usefulness in life. 
 Every man knows that by industry, skill and upright- 
 ness in his business, combined with discretion in his 
 conduct, and prudence in the management of his proper- 
 ty or his gains, all that a reasonable ambition can de- 
 sire in his peculiar station, may be his. The agricultur- 
 ist, the mechanic, the merchant and the scholar, all busy 
 
86 NECESSITY FOR REVELATION. 
 
 themselves in matters with which they are conversant, 
 and to understand and to manage which, their own in- 
 herent powers are sufficient. But, in regard to the high- 
 er interests of the hfe to come, we have no such natural 
 means of judging ! Our condition and our destiny after 
 death, we possess no faculty, no power, no means what- 
 ever of ascertaining. That can be determined only by 
 the unseen Author of our being. The great fact of the 
 existence of that august Being, we can establish with suffi- 
 cient clearness and certainty, by the operation of our 
 reason. Some of his attributes, also, we can make out, — 
 such as his greatness, his omniscience^ and his Almighty 
 power. For his justice^ also, we discern proof, ample and 
 conclusive. But what may be the precise nature of the 
 relation we sustain to him, what may be the service he 
 requires from us, what the duties he requires to be by us 
 exercised, one towards another, and what may be the 
 hearing of our conduct in this life, upon our destiny her eafte)', 
 we cannot, by unaided reason, determine. All this lies 
 utterly beyond the reach of our noblest powers ! 
 
 Equally inscrutable to us is the question. Can this sense 
 of guilt, loading our hearts, be relieved? Is God merciful ? 
 Can He pardon the guilty ? and, if so, how ? by what 
 means? In what way, and on what conditions, is that 
 pardon to be had? No mere human intellect is suffi- 
 ciently acute, active, or powerful to grasp effectually 
 these points, and to answer satisfactorily these deeply 
 interesting inquiries. That answer can be yielded only by 
 inspiration from God/ 
 
 It is not enough here to fall back upon the goodness of 
 God, and say, " I'm not afraid to trust my Maker. He 
 who has provided for us here a world so bright, and so 
 
NECESSITY FOR REVELATION. 87 
 
 rich in materials for enjoyment, can make all needed ar- 
 rangements to render us happy hereafter. If I do my 
 duty here, I have no fears for hereafter, so long as God 
 is good, and is almighty !" Agreed, I say ; but this brings 
 us no nearer to the point than before ! 
 
 God can render us happy hereafter, no less than here ; 
 but the question is, will He ? and in what way ? on what 
 terms ? What, if it should turn out to be true, that the 
 formation in us, and by us, of a certain moral condition, or 
 charade?', is absolutely indispensable to our future happi- 
 ness, just as the bud must precede the blossom, as sowing 
 the seed must precede gathering in the harvest, or as the 
 cause must precede the effect ? If such is, in truth, the 
 law of spiritual being, and spiritual progress, God will 
 not, and he cannot, violate this law for the sole purpose 
 of accommodating us ! The interests we have at stake 
 are too vast to be hazarded on a rash assumption. We 
 here want certainty, not conjecture! That certainty, rev- 
 elation, and revelation alone can yield! 
 
 If we do our duty here, we may dismiss all fear for 
 hereafter, you say ! So say I, too ! But still the ques- 
 tion recurs, what is our dutyf It is, at least, possible, 
 that duty here may include something more than probity 
 in our dealings, man with man, and self-control in our 
 pleasures ! But if so, then, one who has been strictly 
 honest, amiable, honored and useful among his fellow- 
 men, may yet have failed in some of his essential duties, 
 and thus he may fail to meet with perfect happiness here- 
 after! He may even find bitter disappointment, and 
 heavy sorrow awaiting him! Who shall say? Obvi- 
 ously, a revelation from God, and that alone, can settle 
 these fundamental points. 
 
88 NECESSITY FOR REVELATION. 
 
 But, further, 4th. Not only are our powers limited, 
 but they are enfeebled by our moral obliquity^ and \h.Q judg- 
 ment is perverted by inclination. 
 
 Account for it or not, as we may, it is a fact plain and 
 undeniable, that the moral condition of a man aifects his 
 intellectual powers, and his judgment, at least, in regard 
 to all questions of right and duty. 
 
 The conviction that such is the fact, is indicated in 
 many ways, on every hand. It is shown in the demand 
 for a blameless life in the teachers of religion. It is 
 shown on trials in your courts of justice, by the rejection 
 as incompetent jurors and improper judges, of all persons 
 whose interests or affections are supposed to be involved 
 in the issue of such trial. It is shown in the abatement 
 with which the testimony of interested witnesses, how- 
 ever generally upright, is always received; and in the 
 undeniable power of prejudice to bias the judgment. 
 
 If you would bring to settlement a disputed claim, if 
 you would terminate a misunderstanding or a quarrel, 
 you seek as arbitrator a man of admitted probity, and 
 one who has no interest whatever involved in the affair. 
 From impartial probity alone do you anticipate a clear dis- 
 cernment of the true merits of the case, and a just de- 
 cision. 
 
 But in the case of our duties and our responsibilities 
 to our Maker, we are deeply interested ; an unprejudiced 
 judgment is almost impossible to us. Who is not aware 
 how frequently his judgment and his inclinations clash? 
 That which is easy to us, or profitable, or pleasant, we 
 readily persuade ourselves must be innocent. That to 
 which inclination strongly prompts, we are with difficulty 
 brought to recognize as evil. Nay, even where the judg- 
 
NECESSITY FOR REVELATION. 89 
 
 merit is correct and clear, an inclination to the contrary 
 will too generally control the conduct ; and this ill con- 
 duct will, ere long, operate on the whole man, clouding 
 his judgment, and impairing his perceptions, as well as 
 debasing the character ! 
 
 This reflex influence of wrong-doing is forcibly ex- 
 pressed in that oft-quoted passage : — 
 
 "Vice is a monster of so hideous mien, 
 As, to be hated, needs but to be seen ; 
 Yet, seen too oft— familiar with her face, 
 We first endure, then pity, then embrace !" 
 
 This power of evil habits to pervert the judgment, is 
 noted in the Bible, where it is said that the wicked " call 
 good^ evil ; and evil^ good /" 
 
 And this conflict between conviction of right, and in- 
 clination to wrong, is expressed in that well-known line 
 of the Koman poet, " Video meliora, prohoque^ sed deteriora 
 sequoT /" 
 
 " I see the good, and I approve, 
 But yet — the worse pursue !" 
 
 The same is intimated in a very striking passage in 
 Paul's letter to the Komans, (Eom. vii. 19,) " The good 
 that I would, I do not ; but the evil which I would not, that 
 
 I dor 
 
 These inward conflicts in men's bosoms, and this fre- 
 quent contrariety between conduct and conviction, led 
 certain distinguished philosophers of old to maintain, 
 that every man has within him two opposing demons, or 
 spirits, urging him in different directions : the one good, 
 the other evil. If, now, in the wisest and the purest of 
 the heathen sages, this innate tendency to evil, was 
 
90 NECESSITY FOR REVELATION. 
 
 found, not only perverting the conduct, but biassing and 
 blinding the judgment, as to what is right, and what 
 wrong, if even in one possessed of a clear and infallible 
 rule of duty before him, this adverse influence was still 
 felt, what must be the uncertainty of judgment on all 
 these high points, in those left without any higher guid- 
 ance than their own reason, ever faltering and stagger- 
 ing beneath the influence of selfish passions, and corrupt 
 tendencies ! 
 
 This powerful and ever active sympathy between a 
 defective wavering judgment, and busy evil tendencies, 
 proclaims, as with trumpet-tongue, in every nation, and 
 every tribe, the necessity for a revelation from heaven^ to 
 make known to us ilie path of rights of safety ^ and of peace/ 
 Like the altar " To Hie unknown Oody'' at Athens, it is a 
 memento of ignorance and of the urgent need of a heavenly 
 teaching I 
 
 Again, 5th. The systems of religion embraced among the 
 most enlightened nations of antiquity ^ serve hut to show yet 
 more clearly ^ the need of a revelation I If in anything cor- 
 rect notions prevail among men, we might surely expect 
 to meet with them in the religious belief, and in the sys- 
 tem of worship maintained; for correctness there, is 
 most desirable, and most important. 
 
 But, in every nation, and from the remotest times, the 
 religious systems of men without the Bible, have been 
 defective and absurd. 
 
 Of the mythology of Greece and Eome, I need not 
 now speak : it was a tissue of grandeur and littleness ; 
 of imposing splendor, and the most disgusting licentious- 
 ness. The little of good which it did present, was de- 
 rived, originally, from Egypt. 
 
NECESSITY FOR REVELATION. 91 
 
 As to what the doctrines of Bramah can do for man- 
 kind, let India testify, where society is divided into 
 castes, hopelessly separated from each other ; where a 
 cruel superstition degrades the mass of the people; 
 where veracity is almost unknown, and where impurity, 
 open and utterly shameless, taints even their highest 
 ceremonies of religious worship. 
 
 In regard to the Yedas, or sacred books of the Hin- 
 doos, it is asserted by M. Pauthier, (Livres Sacrees de 
 I'Orient, p. 313,) that, " The deities invoked appear, on 
 a hasty examination of the Yedas, to be as varied as are 
 the authors of the prayers addressed to them. But, ac- 
 cording to the most ancient annotations made on the 
 Indian Scriptures, these names, so numerous, of persons 
 and of things, are all to be resolved into different titles 
 of three divinities^ and finally, of one God alone. 
 
 The ISTig-ham-ti, or Glossary of the Yedas, terminates 
 with three lists of the names of gods ; the first containing 
 all those which appear to be synonyms of fire; the 
 second, the synonyms of air ; and the third, those of 
 the sun. In the last part of the Ni-rouk-ta, which relates 
 exclusively to the divinities, it is twice asserted there are 
 only three gods ; and that these three gods denote only 
 one deity^ is established by numerous passages in the 
 Yeda itself 
 
 Thus it is distinctly stated, " The divinities are three 
 only, whose habitations are the earth, the intermediate 
 region, and the heavens ; i. e. fire, air, and the sun." 
 
 These divinities are all specified by various mysterious 
 names, and the Lord of creation, is their divinity collec- 
 tively. 
 
 Again. " There is but one only Divinity, the great 
 
92 NECESSITY FOR REVELATION. 
 
 Soul^ {Mahdn Atmah.) It is named tlie Sun ; for the Sun 
 is the soul of all other beings, and this is declared by the 
 wise man, (le sage.) The Sun is the soul of whatever moves ; 
 and of whatever moves not.''* The other divinities are por- 
 tions, or fractions of his person. (See Notice sur les Ye- 
 das, Pauthier, pp. 313 and 314.) 
 
 Of Ghina^ we know too little, and the boasted documents 
 of its extreme antiquity are too feebly corroborated by 
 any evidence save what they bear upon the face of 
 them, for us to institute a full comparison. It is true, 
 indeed, that M. Pauthier, the learned historian of China, 
 the translator and commentator on Chinese philosophy, 
 literature and religion, asserts, in his "Introduction to 
 the Sacred "Writings of the East :" " The Chinese civiliza- 
 tion is, without doubt, ike most ancient civilization of 
 the existing world. It is carried back authentically, {i. e. 
 by the testimony of Chinese historians,) as far as two 
 thousand, six hundred years before our era ; i. e. to B. c. 
 2600." 
 
 " The documents collected together in the work called 
 Chou-King^ i. e. tlie Book^ by way of eminence, (like as our 
 sacred Scriptures are called Oie Bible., or The Book,) are 
 the most ancient documents of the history of the world. 
 The ideas contained in the Chou-King, respecting the 
 Deity, the beneficent influence which he constantly ex- 
 erts upon the affairs of the world, are very pure, and 
 worthy, in all respects, of the soundest philosophy." (See 
 Livres Sacr^es de I'Orient, par M. Pauthier, Introduc- 
 tion, p. X. Paris, 1842.) 
 
 Such are the bold assertions of this enthusiastic advo- 
 cate of the vast antiquity claimed for China. And yet, 
 M. Pauthier himself admits that this work, Chou-King, is 
 
NECESSITY FOR REVELATION. 93 
 
 but a compilation, arranged by Confucius, so late as tbe 
 middle of tbe sixth century before Christ; although 
 Mon. Pauthier contends that this great Chinese philoso- 
 pher had so profound a respect for antiquity, that he 
 altered not at all the accounts he collected from ancient 
 documents, and put in order, in that publication. " Be- 
 sides," (adds Mon. P.,) " to Sinologues, (^. e. to Chinese 
 scholars, those skilled in the Chinese tongue,) the style 
 of these writings, which differs as much from the style 
 of modern Chinese writings, as the style of the twelve 
 tables differs from the style of Cicero, is sufficient proof 
 of their antiquity." 
 
 On the showing of this distinguished Orientalist him- 
 self, then, it is plain, that the authenticity of these 
 Chinese sacred documents, is more than questionable: 
 their high antiquity is conjectural at best. 
 
 Pauthier is doubtless an able Sinologue himself, but 
 he cannot be supposed able to appreciate the niceties of 
 the ancient Chinese, and of the more modern, as might a 
 profoundly learned native Chinese scholar. A Chinese, 
 or a Hindoo sage, might master the English language 
 sufficiently to read it fluently and accurately, and even 
 to appreciate its qualities and to speak it too : but such 
 foreign critic would obviously be quite incompetent to 
 decide questions involving such niceties as must be con- 
 sidered in pronouncing on the spuriousness or genuine- 
 ness of the work put forth by Chatteron. An accom- 
 plished native writer might, without great difficulty, im- 
 pose on a foreign critic, as of extreme antiquity, a docu- 
 ment really modern, but composed for the purpose of its 
 being passed off, for one of great antiquity. 
 
 Besides all this, the documents themselves, of which 
 
94 NECESSITY FOR REVELATION. 
 
 translations are now extant, in more than one of the lan- 
 guages of modern Europe, (the French translation of a por- 
 tion of it, by M. Pauthier himself, is now before me,) fur- 
 nish evidence, that the system of Confucius, and the doc- 
 trines taught in this renowned book, the Chou-King, were 
 political^ rather than religious ; they respected man rather 
 as a community^ consisting of governors and governed, than 
 as an individual. The admissions of Pauthier himself 
 show this. Thus, (and I here quote Mon. Pauthier's own 
 words,) " In the Chou-King, we shall especially remark 
 the intervention of heaven, or of the Supreme Intelligence, 
 (de la Kaison Supreme,) in the relations of princes with 
 the people (avec les populations,) or of governments with 
 the governed ; and this intervention is always in favor 
 of the latter, that is to say, of the people, &c. &c."* 
 
 But, whatever may have been, or may now be, the 
 character of the religious philosophy of the Chinese, as 
 held by their learned dignitaries, certain it is that the 
 institutions of Confucius (admirable though they were 
 for many sound moral precepts) are not inconsistent with 
 idolatry, and with the extensive prevalence of infanticide 
 among the people at large. 
 
 It is well known, also, that the Assyrians and Chal- 
 
 * The Confucian system of religion, if religion it can be called, for it 
 has little or nothing to do with theology, is merely a scheme of ethics 
 and politics, from which things spiritual and divine, are, generally speak- 
 ing, excluded. In the works of Confucius, there are some allusions to 
 Heaven, as the presiding power of nature, and to Fate, as the determiner 
 of all things : but he does not appear to attribute originality to the one, 
 or rationality to the other. " Life and death are decreed by Fate ; riches 
 and poverty rest with Heaven." 
 
 See " China, Political, Commercial and Social," by R. M. Martin, Esq. 
 London, 1847 : vol. i. p. 67. 
 
NECESSITY FOR REVELATION. 95 
 
 deans were idolaters, and were greatly addicted to as- 
 trology — as the Persians still are to this day. 
 
 The ancient Persians acknowledged two ruling prin- 
 ciples — the one good, Oromanzes ; the other evil, Ari- 
 manes. They offered sacrifices to both : to the former, 
 sacrifices of thanksgiving ; to the latter, sacrifices depre- 
 catory — in order to avert calamities. Such, and so pit- 
 iable were the religious systems of the most remarkable, 
 and the most highly civilized among the nations of an- 
 tiquity. 
 
 In China and in India, both, we find still existing the 
 remains of their ancient dogmas treasured up in their 
 sacred books. 
 
 Ample time has been afforded to develop the full in- 
 fluence of their religious tenets on the manners and the 
 practices of the people at large ; for both these ancient 
 nations, and more especially the Chinese, have, through 
 a long succession of ages, preserved themselves isolated 
 from all other nations, and consequently untouched by 
 the customs and the sentiments of foreigners. The result 
 is such, as modern observation has found them. They 
 are a people refined in manners, and luxurious in their 
 habits, idolatrous, and deeply superstitious. 
 
 But, we are now frequently and very confidently told, 
 that in Egypt, the cradle of wisdom, and the birth-place 
 of the arts, there was found a system of religious belief, 
 together with a code of morals, wise, healthful, worthy 
 of man, and the actual prototype of Judaism, and, conse- 
 quently, of Christianity too. Moses is said to have been 
 '' learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians ;" and the doc- 
 trines he taught, and the institutions he established, show 
 it to be true. For, all that is excellent and distinctive in 
 
96 NECESSITY FOR REVELATION. 
 
 the Jewish law, and the Jewish ceremonial rites, was (as 
 the enthusiastic admirers of Egyptian archaeology tell us) 
 plainly borrowed from Egypt I 
 
 In this bold statement there is a strange compound of 
 truth and falsehood. 
 
 A series of stupendous monuments is really found in 
 Egypt, of extreme antiquity ; and they present historical 
 paintings, and hieroglyphic records, running back, in 
 regular sequence, to a period long anterior to the time 
 of Christ ; nay, even anterior to Moses ; and possibly 
 older also than the age of Joseph ; — we might almost say, 
 older than the time of Abraham himself I On these 
 monuments the names and the attributes of their gods are 
 recorded — the ceremonies of their worship are described 
 — and the tenets of their creed are set forth. The doc- 
 trine of the soul, as separate and distinct from the body 
 — as surviving the life on earth — is plainly recognized. 
 Many admirable precepts of morality are set forth in their 
 ritual of the dead ; in the trial to which they represent 
 every man as subjected after death, before the forty-two 
 judges of the dead, in the region of Amenti. The souls 
 of men they represent as subject to a metempsychosis — 
 a passage from one animal into another — till their stains 
 are gradually purified, when the souls are absorbed in 
 the essence of their greatest of gods, Amoun. (Wilkin- 
 son's Man. and Cus. 2d Series, v. 2, p. 112.) Egypt was, 
 undoubtedly, peopled by one of the earliest colonies from 
 among the children of Noah. These colonists brought 
 with them, it is probable, a knowledge of the one God, 
 and of the moral virtues he requires and approves. 
 
 The ancient Egyptian ritual gives proof of the patri- 
 archal oiigin of the Egyptian creed ; but their whole re- 
 
NECESSITY FOR EEVELATION. 97 
 
 ligious system gives proof also of the corrupting influ- 
 ence of priestly cunning. The priesthood in Egypt was 
 always a large and a powerful class. They were originally 
 the rulers of the whole land, as the historic tables of the 
 dynasties of their gods seem to intimate. The military 
 order afterwards seized on supreme power,* about B.C. 
 2200, and furnished the kings. But even their kings, 
 the most illustrious and the most powerful, were compel- 
 led to be introduced into the ranks, and initiated into the 
 mysteries of the priesthood, before they could enjoy the 
 ^clat of a public and solemn coronation, as monarchs of 
 Egypt. (See Wilkinson.) 
 
 The great truths of religion, so far as they were really 
 known, were shrouded in mysteries, and were shadowed 
 forth to the people only in symbols. The knowledge of 
 the real meaning of those symbols — of the spirit of their 
 religion, was confined to the initiated. 
 
 Among the Egyptians, the priesthood was a secret or- 
 der, and knowledge the most sacred and important, was 
 a kind of freemasonry, communicated only by symbols, 
 and shrouded in the deepest mystery. 
 
 Lucian asserts : " The Egyptians were reputed the first 
 who had a conception of the gods, an acquaintance with 
 religious matters, and a knowledge of sacred names." 
 
 Sir J. G. Wilkinson asserts that, " superstitiously at- 
 tached to their sacred institutions, and professing a reli- 
 gion which admitted much outward show, the Egyptians 
 clothed their ceremonies with all the grandeur of solemn 
 pomp : and the celebration of their religious rites was 
 
 * This is the view taken by Champollion, and it seems to me but 
 reasonable, althoug;h the learned Heeren appears inclined to doubt its 
 accuracy. See his Egypt, pp. 497, 498. 
 
 5 
 
98 NECESSITY FOR REVELATION. 
 
 remarkable for all that human ingenuity could devise, to 
 render them splendid and imposing." (Manners, &c. An- 
 cient Egypt, 2d series, vol. i. p. 141.) 
 
 It may be averred that even Papal Kome, with all her 
 gorgeous splendor of ceremonial, falls immeasurably short 
 of the majestic pageantry of ancient Egyptian ceremo- 
 nies. (See plates to Wilkinson's Manners and Customs, 
 &c., 2d series, vol. ii.)* 
 
 The ancient Egyptians are said by the learned to have 
 held the doctrine of one only Supreme Being, the source 
 of all, and independent of all I 
 
 It is not improbable that they were acquainted with 
 this grand truth, handed down to them by tradition from 
 the patriarchs who survived the deluge. That there was 
 some remnant of truth lying at the basis of the religious 
 system of Egypt, as late at least as the time of the patriarch 
 Joseph, is rendered more than probable, by Joseph's mar- 
 riage with Asenath, daughter of Potiphera, priest of On, 
 or Heliopolis. (Gen. xli. 45.) The idolatrous daughter 
 of a priest of a religion wholly idolatrous, we cannot 
 suppose would have been chosen by the pious Joseph, 
 to become his wife, the mother of his sons, the future 
 heads of tribes in Israel. 
 
 But the knowledge of the One God, if still held in 
 Egypt, must have been regarded as one of their most 
 sacred mysteries — it was confined to the priesthood and 
 
 * See e. g. the pictorial representation of the ceremonies performed at 
 the coronation of a king, from the sculptures of Rameses III. at Medinet 
 Haboo, Thebes. (Wilkinson, vol. iii. of 2d series.) See also the great 
 funeral procession of a royal scribe, delineated at Thebes, (vol. iii. as 
 above.) See also Champollion, Monumens de I'Egypte et de Nubie. 
 (Plates, vol. i. Plate 11, 12, 13. PI. 27, 28, 29.) 
 
NECESSITY FOR REVELATION. 99 
 
 the initiated, and carefully veiled in mysterious symbols, 
 from the vulgar. 
 
 Certain it is, at least, that whatever may have been the 
 knowledge on this subject, held by the Egyptian priest- 
 hood, the ancient Egyptians did not, under any foi'm^ sym- 
 bol or hieroglyphic, represent the idea of the unity of 
 God. (Wilk. Man. and Customs of Anct. Egyptians, 2d 
 series, vol. ii. pp. 176-178.) 
 
 " It appears," (says Wilkinson,) " that the divinity him- 
 self was not represented in the sculptures of Egypt, and 
 that the figures of their gods were but deified attributes, 
 indicative of intellect, power, goodness, might, and other 
 qualities in the Supreme Deity." Over all the acres of 
 hieroglyphic painting and hieroglyphic writing, not one 
 solitary recognition has yet been found of the one Su- 
 preme God. No one sign, symbol, or character has been 
 detected representing this grand idea. 
 
 Like the ancient Greeks and Eomans, the Egyptians 
 divided their gods into different classes, or grades. Of 
 their great gods, the Greeks reckoned twelve. 
 
 The great gods of Egypt were eight in number, one of 
 whom generally formed, in conjunction with two of the 
 others, a triad, which was worshipped by a particular 
 city or district, with peculiar veneration. In these Egyp- 
 tian triads, the third member proceeded from the other 
 two, ^. e. from the first and the second. Memphis, Philae, 
 Thebes, and nearly every large city or nome, had its own 
 peculiar triad.* Throughout every part of Egypt, all the 
 
 * The great triad worshipped at Thebes was the god Amoun, the god- 
 dess Maut, and their son Khonso. Another triad was Osiris, Isis, and 
 their son Horus, always represented as very youthful. This was the triad 
 greatly revered at Philae. (Wilk. 2d series, vol. i. p. 185.) Neph, (or 
 
100 NECESSITY FOR REVELATION. 
 
 great gods were treated with respect. But an immense 
 number of other deities were set up as objects of wor- 
 ship, some in one place, and some in another ; and it 
 often occurred that certain rites were performed in one 
 district, which were totally different from those practised 
 in another. Among the objects of adoration in Egypt, 
 was the bull Apis, the cow, the crocodile, the cat, the 
 dog, and even vegetables, such as leeks, &c. Hence the 
 severe satire of the Koman poet Juvenal. (Sat. 15th.) 
 
 " Who knows not, Bythinian Volusius, what monsters 
 Mad Egypt can worship 1 This place adores a crocodile, — 
 That fears an ibis, saturated with serpents ; 
 A golden image of a sacred Cereopithecus shines, 
 Where the magic chords resound from the half-Memnon ; 
 And ancient Thebes lies overthrown with its hundred gates ! 
 There, a sea-fish,— here a river-fish, there, 
 Whole towns worship a dog,— nobody Diana. 
 It is a sin to violate a leek, or an onion, or to break them with a bite," 
 
 In this, satire though it is, there is no exaggeration.* 
 
 Eneph,) Sat5, and Anouk constituted the triad chiefly honored at Ele- 
 phantine and the Cataracts. 
 
 * Two towns (as Plutarch tells us) waged obstinate war one upon the 
 other, (see Plut. de Isid. ^ 72 ; and Wilk. 1st ser. vol. iii. p. 59,) because 
 the people of Cynopolis were in the habit of eating a fish esteemed sacred 
 by the people of Satopolis, in the Thebaid. So, also, at Denderah the 
 crocodile was abhorred, while at Ombos it was worshipped ; and hence, at 
 one time, cruel wars were waged between these two cities. In the second 
 volume of his second series, on the Manners and Customs of the Ancient 
 Egyptians, Sir J. G. Wilkinson tells us that " many serious quarrels ensued 
 between whole towns and provinces, owing to the circumstance of a sacred 
 animal having been killed, either from accident or design, by the inhabi- 
 tants of a neighboring district, where its worship was not acknowledged." 
 This, also, has been noticed, by the same keen Roman satirist, Juvenal : 
 " Numina vicinorum, 
 Odit uterque locus : cum solos dicit habendos 
 Esse deos, quos ipse colit." — Juv. Sat. xv. 36, 
 See also Wilkinson, 2d series, vol. ii. p. 159. 
 
NECESSITY FOR REVELATION. 101 
 
 Even so late as the time of tlie Eoman dominion in 
 Egypt, so deep-rooted were these superstitions that a 
 Koman soldier, who had accidentally killed a cat, was 
 put to death ; and not even the power of the Eomans, 
 the conquerors of the country, availed to save him. So 
 says Diodorus, (i. § 3.) See Wilkinson, 1st series, vol. iii. 
 p. 43. 
 
 When a dog died, every person in the house to which 
 he belonged, went into mourning, fasted the entire day, 
 and every article of food that happened to be in the 
 house, or on the premises at the time, was carefully 
 destroyed. (Wilk. 2d ser., vol. ii. p. 140 : also 1st ser. 
 vol. iii. pp. 42, 43.) 
 
 The Egyptians had an immense number of deities: 
 gods were made of the senses^ the virtues, and of every ab- 
 stract idea which had reference to the deity or to man. 
 Intellect, might, wisdom, prudence, fortitude, &c., were all 
 deified ! The year, the month, the day, the very hour, were 
 all placed, each under its own peculiar divinity. (Wilk. 
 2d ser., vol. i. p. 172.) The sun, the moon, air, earth, the 
 Nile, and the generative principle in nature, were all deified 
 and worshipped. Nay the dead were considered as 
 identified with the gods ; and a modified worship was 
 rendered by every man to his deceased ancestors, repre- 
 sented by their mummies. 
 
 One instance, at least, has been found, of a Pharaoh 
 standing, while yet living, and with his queen by his side, 
 paying divine honors to the representative of his own 
 body, embalmed as a mummy, — the symbol of his own 
 future deification. (See Mons. Ampere, Eev. des Deux 
 Mondes, Nov. 1846, p. 685.) Such were the religious 
 tenets, and the practices prevailing among the ancient 
 
102 NECESSITY FOR REVELATION. 
 
 Egyptians, the result of their boasted wisdom. What- 
 ever may have been the excellence of the dogmas reveal- 
 ed to the initiated priesthood, under their symbols, — to 
 the mass, to the whole nation, the teaching of Egyptian 
 wisdom, was that of polytheism, idolatry, and an utterly 
 ridiculous superstition. 
 
 On the most splendid of their temples and their shrines, 
 the gorgeous pictorial delineations, and the mysterious 
 hieroglyphic records, practically read "y/yywa*© Stdf^ To the 
 Unknoivn Ood. The very wisdom of the Egyptians, so 
 sadly perverted in all that relates to the object and the 
 forms of worship, is one of the most significant of all 
 proofs, that to guide man aright^ a revelation from heaven is 
 indispensable ! 
 
 Again, 6th. The ethical teaching of the ablest of ancient 
 philosophers, was of such a character^ as to demonstrate the 
 need of a divine revelation. 
 
 On the fearful corruption of morals, generally preva- 
 lent among the nations of antiquity, and among the hea- 
 then of our own day, I shall not dwell ; although the 
 practical influence of the ethics inculcated by their teach- 
 ers, is therein faithfully reflected. The ancient Egyp- 
 tians were singularly blameless in their manners, so far 
 as the evidence presented on their monuments goes to 
 show, and many admirable precepts of morality were 
 embodied in their ritual of the dead. 
 
 A similar concession may be made, in regard to the 
 comparatively pure morals prevailing in China. 
 
 The moral precepts which were but imperfectly set 
 forth among the Egyptians, were all embodied by Moses, 
 in his laws, and were therein placed in their true light, 
 exhibited in their proper relations, grounded on just 
 
NECESSITY FOR REVELATION. ^ 103 
 
 considerations, and sustained by the only appropriate 
 authority. 
 
 But, if we except this dim glimmering of patriarchal 
 light still lingering in Egypt, and possibly, also, among 
 the mountain fastnesses of western China, the whole an- 
 cient world was shrouded in the thickest gloom of moral 
 darkness. 
 
 Plato derived his best ethical notions from Egypt ; and 
 from Plato, Cicero, Seneca, and the other distinguished 
 philosophers of Kome, and even of Greece, drew largely 
 for their opinions in morals. 
 
 But, although each of these celebrated men laid down 
 many just principles, and wholesome rules, still, there is 
 hardly any one vice which has not been vindicated and 
 recommended by one or more of the illustrious sages of 
 antiquity ! 
 
 One recommends lying, in certain cases ; another jus- 
 tifies suicide ; and we know, that in their own conduct, 
 an illustration of their moral code was often presented 
 by contrast, rather than by conformity. Upon the great 
 mass of society, their reasoning was powerUss. To the 
 multitude, their ethical system was unknown; or if 
 known, it was unintelligible. 
 
 The great mass of men, in all ages, are doomed to daily 
 toil, through their whole life. They have neither leisure, 
 nor ability, nor inclination, for abstruse speculation and 
 nice reasoning. 
 
 The system of ethical philosophy, as taught by the 
 ancient sages, is, after all, but the reasoning of fallible 
 and imperfect men. It carries no authority. It will not 
 induce a man to forego a coveted pleasure, when brought 
 within his reach. 
 
104 NECESSITY FOR REVELATION. 
 
 In order to control the passions of men, and arouse 
 conscience to vindicate the righi^ in opposition to the de- 
 sirable, there must be presented a rule of duty not only 
 plain, explicit, and intelligible, but also of unquestio/i- 
 ahle authority. Such rule revelation alone can furnish. 
 The very nature, therefore, of the wisest teachings of the 
 wisest men of antiquity, in morals, shows the necessity for 
 a revelation from God himself / 
 
 Lastly, 7th. The general sentiment of mankind betrays 
 the expectation of a revelation, and does, therefore, bespeak its 
 necessity. Go where you may, among men, and you find 
 some system of religious belief, and religious practices, 
 which, however rude, are professedly derived from 
 heaven. Egypt, ascribing her sacred rites to Isis, Osiris 
 and Ptah, to Amoun, to Thoth and Khonso, incarnations 
 of the supreme monad ; China with its heaven-taught 
 Confucius ; India with her Brahmins and her sacred 
 books; Numah, with his institutions enjoined upon him 
 in his mysterious conferences with the nymph Egeria ; 
 Mohammed, with his visions and his teacher-angel ; and 
 the North American savage prophet with his dreams, 
 and his voices of the Great Spirit, all combine to show a 
 deep-seated conviction in the human heart, that, in what 
 relates to man's duties and responsibilities to his Maker, 
 a supernatural guidance is desirable, is indeed necessary, 
 and that the attainment of such guidance is not hope- 
 less. 
 
 The best and the wisest among the ancient sages felt, 
 and awowed the conviction, that, for men, divine guid- 
 ance is needed. 
 
 Cicero expressed himself in a very striking manner. 
 
 Socrates is yet more explicit ; he avows his despair 
 
NECESSITY FOR REVELATION. 105 
 
 of ever attaining to anything like certain knowledge in re- 
 ligion, or in morals, until some divine teacher shall come 
 to instruct us. His words are, " We must, of necessity, 
 wait, till some one from Him who careth for us, shall 
 come and instruct us, how we ought to behave towards 
 God, and towards man." (See Faber's Difficulties of In- 
 fidelity.) 
 
 Plato, who had visited Egypt, and had been initiated 
 into many of its sacred mysteries, still felt himself com- 
 pelled to declare, " We cannot know, of ourselves, what 
 petition will be pleasing to God, or what worship we 
 should pay to him ; but it is necessary that a lawgiver 
 should be sent from heaven to instruct us." Such a 
 divinely-commissioned teacher Plato expected, and he 
 adds : " Oh ! how greatly do I desire to see that man, 
 and who he is ! " Plato even affirms, that this lawgiver^ 
 or teacher, must he more than man, in order that he may 
 teach us what man could not hnow hy his own nature. 
 
 Such were the convictions, so deep, so clear, in the 
 minds of those most competent of all our race, in ancient 
 times, to judge in the case, that supernatural instruction, 
 directly from God, is needed for man, in all that pertains 
 to religion and to moral duties. Thus we find that the 
 polytheistic belief and the multifarious rites of ancient na- 
 tions — the various pretences to a heaven-descended reli- 
 gion — the claims of impostors — and the aspirations of 
 distinguished sages in time past, all combine to show the 
 necessity for a divine revelation. Every sacrifice offered 
 on the face of the earth — every struggle of the victims 
 slain, proclaimed the need of revelation. In this point of 
 view, every gorgeous pile erected and used as a temple, 
 in Egypt or in India — every Grecian mystery — every 
 
 5# 
 
106 NECESSITY FOR KEYELATION". 
 
 Eoman shrine, was an altar mutely pointing " To the Un- 
 known God /" demonstrating the need of a revelation. 
 
 The mariner, who has navigated in safety the open 
 ocean, and is now approaching an unknown coast, when 
 he sees the rude breakers tossing and roaring between 
 him and the desired port, and beholds before his eyes the 
 fruits of self-confidence in others — one vessel thumping 
 upon the rocks — another stranded on the beach — an- 
 other already beaten to pieces among the foaming break- 
 ers — readily admits his need of a pilot, and hoists his 
 signal to secure one to guide him in safety through the 
 unknown channel. 
 
 So also the necessity for revelation in all that per- 
 tains to religion and to moral duty, is betrayed by 
 " the instinct of religion characteristic of man everywhere ; 
 hy the importance of the interests involved^ because we 
 are immortal ; hy the imperfection of our powers^ and 
 the limitation of our capacities ; hy the significant fact^ 
 also, that the free and appropriate exercise of these our pow- 
 ers is impeded by our evil passions ^ and the judgment is im- 
 paired by our corrupt tendencies; — while all this is yet 
 further corrohorated by the defective nature and the ahsurd 
 character of the religions established among even the nohlest 
 nations of antiquity, the Egyptians pre-eminently. The 
 morals taught by the ivisest of merely human teachers have 
 been grievously defective ; and the morals prevailing in so- 
 ciety, where unaided reason was the sole guide, have heen 
 yet vjorse than the precepts — have, indeed, been fearfully 
 depraved. And lastly, the general sentiment of mankind, 
 as expressed in the innumerable pretensions to an authorita- 
 tive religion, and the hope, avowed by some of the most dis- 
 tinguished philosophers of antiquity, that some divine teacher 
 
NECESSITY FOK REVELATION. 107 
 
 would yet he commissioned of heaven to enlighten mankind — 
 all these considerations concentrate their force on one 
 and the same point, and show the necessity for revelation, 
 and the importance of it ; and they show also that the 
 expectation of a revelation from God is rational and is 
 well founded, since, without a revelation, all attempts at 
 worship are directed to ^^ an unknown QodP 
 
 If no revelation has been vouchsafed to us, then we 
 are floating on the vast ocean of existence ignorant of 
 our origin, ignorant of our destiny, without direction, 
 without guide, without hope — ^like a ship at sea without 
 rudder, without charts, without compass, without any 
 means of ascertaining her position, or of controlhng her 
 course, driven hither and thither, the sport of every tem- 
 pest, helpless as a log, and completely at the mercy of the 
 winds and the waves. 
 
LECTURE III. 
 
 THE BIBLE IS A REVELATION FROM GOD. 
 2 Tim. iii. 16.—" All Scripture is given by inspiration of God." 
 
 Having presented some of the considerations which 
 go to prove the necessity for a revelation from God to 
 man, I propose now to show that the Bible is such a reve- 
 lation; that it is a divinely inspired book. I do not 
 maintain merely that the Bible contains a revelation ; for 
 that might be true if only a small part were inspired, 
 (the Gospel of John, for instance,) while the rest might 
 be myth, or full of error, or it might be, at best, a beau- 
 tiful human production. More, far more than this, we 
 hold and shall maintain. We believe that all Scripture, 
 the whole Bible, was, as an inspired apostle expressed it, 
 ^' given by inspiration of Godf so that the Bible, from 
 first to last, when rightly understood, is truth, pure truth, 
 without any admixture of error. This is the one only 
 point I propose now to illustrate. What is meant by 
 the Scriptures, or the Bible, it is not necessary here to 
 define. The sacred book is now in every house, and in 
 the hands of every individual. It is well known to all. 
 It includes the Old Testament, i. e. those writings ascribed 
 to Moses and the Hebrew prophets, those books which 
 
THE BIBLE IS A REVELATION FROM GOD. 109 
 
 have, in all ages, been counted sacred among the Jews ; 
 and also the New Testament, i. e. the four gospels, and 
 the epistles or letters, ascribed to the apostles, Paul, 
 James, Jude, Peter and John, together with the book of 
 Acts, and the Apocalypse or Revelation. All these have 
 been received as divinely inspired, from the earliest ages 
 of the Christian Church. 
 
 The Apocrypha we reject, because, though containing 
 writings of unquestionable antiquity, the production of 
 devout, and generally discreet men, yet the true marks 
 of inspiration are wanting in the Apocrypha. 
 
 TJie hooks of the Old and New Testament are divinely in- 
 spired. 
 
 1st. These booJcs are ofgreat^ some of them of extreme an- 
 tiquity. We can satisfactorily trace them to the several 
 aeras when they claim to have been written. 
 
 The Bible is, as every one is aware, a collection of 
 several distinct works, little books, or tracts, written on 
 very different subjects, and by many different authors ; at 
 different periods, also, extending altogether over a space 
 of about 1600 years, from Moses to John, the last of the 
 apostles. 
 
 The writings of the New Testament can be satisfacto- 
 rily traced, partly by venerable manuscripts, and partly 
 by references to them, and by quotations from them in 
 writers of established reputation, back to a period not 
 very far removed from the time of the first planting of 
 the Christian churches by the Apostles and the immedi- 
 ate disciples of Christ. This has been clearly proved by 
 various industrious writers, and especially by Dr. Lard- 
 ner in his great work, " The Gredihility of the Gospel His 
 toryj'^ in which that learned and impartial author has 
 
110 THE BIBLE IS A REVELATION FROM GOD. 
 
 shown, that the principal facts recorded in the New Tes- 
 tament are confirmed by passages of ancient authors who 
 were contemporary with our Saviour, or his Apostles, or 
 who lived near their time. Indeed, so numerous are the 
 passages from different parts of the New Testament 
 quoted in writers of the earlier ages of Christianity, that, 
 were the New Testament lost, it might be almost fully 
 restored by collecting these several quotations from it. 
 
 Again. Many proofs turn up incidentally, of the gen- 
 uineness and truth of the New Testament writings; 
 proofs found in allusions to men and events, to customs 
 and to laws, peculiar to those times ; which may be sup- 
 posed well known to the writers of the times, but which 
 a forger of spurious documents would be certain to have 
 overlooked. This kind of evidence is presented with 
 great force and beauty by Dr. Paley, in his Hora3 Pau- 
 linae. A striking instance of this kind of evidence has 
 been recently adduced. 
 
 It had been objected by the celebrated German ration- 
 alist. Dr. Strauss, and others, that by the inaccuracies in 
 some of their statements, the New Testament writers had 
 betrayed themselves, and furnished conclusive proofs 
 that the books bearing the names of these writers, were 
 the product of a period considerably posterior to the 
 apostolic age ; because no writer of that time could have 
 been ignorant of the real facts. 
 
 For instance, Luke calls Gallio ^^ Proconsul of Achatay 
 (Acts xviii. 12.) We should not have expected it, since, 
 though Achaia was originally a senatorial province, Ti- 
 berias had changed it into an imperial one, and the title 
 of its governor was, therefore, Procurator. But now, a 
 passage in Suetonius informs us, that Claudius had re- 
 
THE BIBLE IS A KEVELATION FROM GOD. Ill 
 
 stored the province to the Senate : and thus, most unex- 
 pectedly it turns out, that Luke has given the correct 
 designation. 
 
 Again. Luke calls Sergius Paulus Oovernor of Cyprus^ 
 (Acts xiii. 4-7 :) yet we might have expected to find in 
 Cyprus only a praetor, since Cyprus was an imperial 
 province. In this case also, (remarks the celebrated Dr. 
 Tholuck,) the correctness of the historian has been re- 
 markably attested. For coins^ and later still, a passage 
 in Dion Cassius, have been found, giving proof that Au- 
 gustus restored this province to the Senate : and thus, as 
 if purposely to vindicate the Evangelist, the old historian 
 adds, " thus proconsuls began to he sent into that island also^ 
 (Transl. from Tholuck, pp. 21, 22.) In the same manner 
 coins have been found proving that Luke is correct in 
 some other passages of his writings, the accuracy of 
 which had been disputed. 
 
 Is it not fair, then, to suppose, that other apparent dis- 
 crepancies of the same order, may be eventually removed 
 by similar evidence ? (Edinb. Eeview, October, 1849, p. 
 180.) 
 
 It has often been alleged by infidels, and the allegation 
 is reiterated by Strauss, that in the several accounts of 
 the resurrection of Christ, given by the Evangelists, ir- 
 reconcilable contradictions occur, absolutely fatal to the 
 whole story. Gilbert West, in his book on the Eesur- 
 rection, has long since triumphantly refuted these very 
 objections. Mitchell's " Guide against Infidelity, ^^ may be 
 consulted with advantage on this point, (pp. 71-152.) 
 
 As to the Old Testament, our copies correspond with 
 those in possession of the Jews, and by them held in so 
 great reverence, that many centuries since, the learned 
 
112 THE BIBLE IS A REVELATION FROM GOD. 
 
 rabbins counted every word and every letter in each of 
 the books of which the Old Testament is composed ; and 
 so careful were they in transcribing copies of their law, 
 V. e. of the Old Testament scriptures, that if, in writing it 
 out, the copyist omitted one letter, or introduced a super- 
 fluous one ; or if the parchment became blotted, it was 
 put aside as useless ; the whole copy was regarded as 
 spoiled. With such care employed from time immemo- 
 rial, a mistake of any consequence was almost impossible. 
 
 Besides this, we have furnished us in the writings of 
 Josephus, a learned Jew of the age next succeeding that 
 of Christ, a list of the books held sacred by the Jews. It 
 corresponds with that of the books making up the Old 
 Testament as we have it. Josephus gave also a history 
 of his nation, taken from the Jewish scriptures of his 
 day. That history corresponds, in all its leading facts, 
 with the contents of the Old Testament now. 
 
 Furthermore, a Greek translation of the Old Testament 
 had been extensively used, for two centuries before Jose- 
 phus, among the Jews scattered in different provinces of 
 the Roman empire in which the Greek language gene- 
 rally prevailed. 
 
 Moreover, the prophetic and the historical books do 
 mutually illustrate and corroborate each other, furnish- 
 ing also points of contact with the history of other na- 
 tions of antiquity, and exhibiting a series of historical 
 events running back to the times of Joshua, the im- 
 mediate successor of Moses. The circumstances of the 
 case are such, that deception and mistake are almost 
 impossible. 
 
 For the authenticity of no ancient book extant is there 
 evidence so abundant, varied and satisfactory, as there is 
 
THE BIBLE IS A REVELATION FROM GOD. 113 
 
 for that of the Bible, and especially for that of the five 
 books of Moses. 
 
 The Bible, it is certain, contains the most ancient 
 books now existing in the world : and the several docu- 
 ments of which it is composed, were demonstrably writ- 
 ten at the times to which they are, respectively, ascribed. 
 There is no room for the suspicion, that forgeries, of 
 more modern date, may have been foisted in among them. 
 
 Again, 2d. The Bible itself claims to he inspired. Mo- 
 ses, in the laws he enacted, and the institutions he estab- 
 lished for Israel, did most explicitly and repeatedly 
 declare, that he followed the instructions given to him by 
 Jehovah himself, (see Ex. iii. 7-10 ; vi. 1 ; vii. 1 ; Levit. vi. 
 1 ; viii. 1 ; xxv. 1. &c. Deut. xxvi. 16-18.) The deca- 
 logue was proclaimed in audible tones from Mount Sinai, 
 in the hearing of all Israel. 
 
 The Jewish prophets do, one and all, aver, that they 
 spake and wrote only as the Divine Spirit directed. 
 They wrote from his dictation, (Isa. i. 1, 10, 18 ; ii. 1 ; vi. 
 1 ; Ixvi. 1 ; Jer. i. 2 ; ii. 1 ; vii. 1. Ezek. i. 1 ; vi. 1 ; 
 xii. 1. Dan. ix. 12, 13, &c. &c.) Jesus Christ did une- 
 quivocally recognize the Jewish Scriptures, as divinely 
 inspired: (see John v. 39. Luke xvi. 16 ; xix. 29.) 
 
 The Apostles tell us that the psalmist was a prophet, 
 (Acts ii. 30 ;) and that the Holy Ghost spake by David, 
 (Acts iv. 25. Heb. iv. 7 ;) by Joel, (Acts ii. 17 ; compare 
 also Heb. iii. 7, with Ps. xcv. 7 ; and also Heb. ix. 7, 8, 
 with Exod. XXX. 19, &c.) Yea, the Apostles tell us that 
 all Scripture is given by inspiration of God: and Peter 
 ranks the writings of Paul with the other Scriptures ; (2 
 Pet. iii. 15-16 ;) while John pronounces a terrific curse on 
 the man who shall add to, or take from the words of the 
 
 ;Uiri7EESIT7j 
 
114 THE BIBLE IS A REVELATION FROM GOD. 
 
 book written by inspiration, (Rev. xxii. 19.) The books 
 which go to make up our Bible, are venerable from their 
 extreme antiquity ; and unless the writers of them were 
 shameless impostors, and wicked liars, these books are 
 pure truth, having been penned, from first to last, under 
 the teaching and the control of God himself 
 
 But, 3d. In Hie Bible nothing is found inconsistent with 
 this high claim. Not a few there are, in our day, who 
 openly, maintain that the Bible is but one among the 
 many mythical systems of religion, which have origina- 
 ted in the remote antiquity of different nations ; and that 
 the lapse of time it is, which has gradually clothed with 
 a supernatural garb events, simple and natural in their 
 origin. Hence they boldly conclude the several books 
 of the Bible could not have been written at the time as- 
 cribed to them, because a long succession of ages was 
 requisite to introduce into the tradition^ on which alone, 
 (as they contend,) all these narratives must have been 
 based, its supernatural portion. 
 
 It is obvious, however, that this pretended philosophic 
 view of the subject, rests upon nothing else than a rash 
 assumption : an assumption contradicted by all the his- 
 torical facts in the case ; contradicted by the full proof 
 which we have, that all these several books were ivritten, 
 from the Apocalypse by John, back to the five books of 
 Moses, in the very ages to which they are severally as- 
 cribed. 
 
 But now compare the teachings of the Bible with the 
 sacred myths of any other nation. The deities that 
 figured on the Olympus of Greece, and were honored in 
 the Capitol at Eome, were shameless reprobates, whose 
 intrigues, jealousies, meanness, and outrageous passions 
 
THE BIBLE IS A REVELATION FEOM GOD. 115 
 
 would not be tolerated in any respectable society of our 
 times. 
 
 In India, the religious system was, and it still is, a 
 strange compound of mystical philosophy, and gross in- 
 decency : while even the gravest and the purest of all an- 
 cient pagan mythologies — that prevailing over the whole 
 valley of the Nile, embraced fables of the most puerile 
 character, notwithstanding the matchless wisdom claimed 
 for the hierarchy who taught it. Witness the travels of 
 the goddess Isis, in search of the body of her murdered 
 husband; the god Osiris ; and the conflict of Isis and of 
 her son Horus, with the dreaded god Tryphoon, (the 
 murderer of Osiris,) to recover possession of the body. 
 (See Sir J. G. Wilkinson's Mann, and Gust, of the Ancient 
 Egyptians, 2d series, vol i. pp. 329-333.) No such child- 
 ish fables are given in the Bible. Ilere there is nothing 
 monstrous or unnatural; nothing, even, weak or frivo- 
 lous ; nothing merely human, in the sentiments or the 
 conduct, attributed to the Deity. 
 
 The entire absence from the Bible of all such silly 
 narratives, such impossible monstrosities, such degrading 
 passions, and of such debasing views and revolting pic- 
 tures, as abound in the myths of all, even the most in- 
 tellectual and refined of the nations of antiquity, shows 
 the immeasurable superiority of the Bible above all other 
 of the so called sacred writings^ and it bespeaks, for the 
 Bible, an origin in truth. 
 
 Again, 4th. Not only is there, in the Bible, not?iing in- 
 consistent with a divine origin, but it is, in every point, wor- 
 thy of its high claim. This is true, whether you contem- 
 plate the beautiful simplicity of its style, the majesty with 
 which it clothes every representation of the Deity, as a 
 
116 THE BIBLE IS A KEVELATION FROM GOD. 
 
 pure spirit, self-existent and indestructible, wise, just, 
 and good ; whether you look at the imre morality taught 
 in the Bible, the wonderful doctrines it unfolds, the wise 
 maxims it records, or the reasonable duties it enjoins. 
 Every page of this matchless book, beams with won- 
 ders ! wonders of wisdom and of kindness. It relates 
 the most astonishing events with the calm simplicity of 
 conscious truth. No exaggeration is found in this book; 
 no labored attempt at display ; no effort to surprise. Its 
 writers express themselves with the unmistakable dig- 
 nity of conviction. The representation given of God is 
 grand beyond compare : and it is, in every point, a repre- 
 sentation well comporting with the Great First Cause ; 
 " with whom is no variableness, neither shadow oftuiiiing /" 
 
 The idea of creative might is presented with match- 
 less simplicity and beauty. " Ood said^ Let iliere be light; 
 and Uiere was light /" He called the whole universe into 
 being with his word. " He spake, and it was done ; he com- 
 manded, and it stood fast T^ While the tenderness and 
 compassion of the Deity are expressed with inimitable 
 sweetness. *' JeJiovah is mefrciful and gracious, long-suffer- 
 ing and abundant in goodness and truth," yea, ^^li/ce as a 
 father pitieth his children^ so the Lord pitieth them that fear 
 Him." Ps. ciii. 8, 13. 
 
 Where, in all the records of Egyptian wisdom, can 
 you find sentiments like these? Where, amid all the 
 reasonings of Grecian sages, or of Eoman moralists, will 
 you meet with so copious a treasury of sound, practical 
 instruction as the book of Proverbs contains? And 
 where, among all the learned of antiquity, or the pol- 
 ished and subtle disputants of Islamism, or of Buddhism, 
 will you light upon views of the common brotherhood 
 
THE BIBLE IS A REVELATION FE'OM GOD. 117 
 
 of all men, together with moral precepts so just, so rea- 
 sonable, so all-comprehensive, and so kind, withal, as 
 those with which the Bible abounds? " Thou shalt love 
 thy neighbor as thyself j^'' is a precept so unique, yet so 
 reasonable, so simple, yet so comprehensive, as that it, 
 of itself, may be said to stamp the book which first pre- 
 sented it, with the unmistakable marks of a divine 
 origin ! 
 
 View it on whatever side, and in whatsoever light you 
 will, and the Bible stands forth as a document every way 
 worthy of the high origin it claims. It is from God : it 
 can have proceeded from none other ! 
 
 Another kind of evidence is that — 
 
 Fifth, furnished by miracles. 
 
 A miracle has been defined to be a temporary suspen- 
 sion of the laws of nature. For instance, the dividing of 
 the waters of the Red Sea, before the advancing bands of 
 Israel, simply on the extension of his rod over the 
 waters, by Moses ; the falling dovjn of the walls of Jericho 
 at the blowing of the rams' horns, by order of Joshua ; 
 the sudden withering of the fig-tree cursed by Christ ; and 
 the walking of Christ upon the surface of the sea of Tiherias, 
 were all miracles, because these effects were brought 
 about in such manner, as that the ordinary operation of 
 the laws of nature was interrupted. 
 
 The laws of nature are those which God himself has 
 established, and the operation of which continues un- 
 changed, at all ordinary times, and in all places. To 
 alter these laws, or to interrupt their regular operation, 
 is beyond human power. If, on any occasion, these 
 laws be interrupted, or suspended, it must be, because 
 God, who impressed these laws upon the material uni- 
 
118 THE BIBLE IS A REVELATION FROM GOD. 
 
 verse, has so willed it. If, on any occasion, these laws 
 have been interrupted at the bidding of mortal man, the 
 fact of such interruption, is itself a proof that the power 
 so to do, has, for the occasion, been delegated to that 
 man. In all nations, and in all ages, this has been felt 
 and admitted. Nicodemus but expressed the instinctive 
 feeling of every human mind, when he said to Jesus, 
 " No man can do these miracles^ except God be ivith himy 
 Suppose you should see me step forth before you all,* 
 and take my stand in front of this edifice, and while the 
 heavens are clear and cloudless over our heads, I should 
 command the clouds to assemble, and rain to fall copi- 
 ously on one single well-defined spot, (say over ewQiy 
 inch of surface inclosed within the railings surrounding 
 La Fayette Square, immediately fronting this structure, 
 and not one drop to fall outside that inclosure,) and that 
 you should then see the thick masses of dark clouds sud- 
 denly coming up, and rapidly gathering overhead, and 
 torrents of rain descending forthwith on that precise 
 spot, and that only, not wetting even a hair's breadth be- 
 yond it, and then, at my bidding, you should see the 
 rain instantly cease, the clouds disperse and disappear, 
 leaving the heavens serene and bright as before. Or 
 suppose you should, at my instance, follow me to your 
 city cemetery, and see me there standing before the 
 grave of one whom you had all seen a corpse, and seen 
 there interred some three or four days antecedently; 
 and at my bidding you should see that buried corpse 
 rise, bursting through the earth or the masonry that had 
 
 * Delivered in the Presbyterian Church, on La Fayette Square, New 
 Orleans, January, 1852. 
 
THE BIBLE IS A REVELATION FROM GOD. 119 
 
 been placed over it, and stand forth before you all, alive, 
 healthy, active, and vigorous, as you had known that 
 person for months and years previously ; there is not one 
 here, whatever be his theoretic sentiments, who would not 
 feel convinced, for the time at least, that this had been 
 done by the direct interference of God himself, and done 
 to secure some important end. You would instinctively 
 feel, this is a miracle; and could have been wrought 
 only by the power of God. 
 
 It is true, some learned men have denied the occur- 
 rence, nay, even the possibility of miracles. The laws 
 of nature, they tell us, are fixed and unchangeable, the 
 sequence of cause and effect is invariably the same. 
 And, therefore, every narrative which either asserts or 
 implies a miracle, is necessarily false ; or else, it is a myth, 
 a mere fable, or an allegory. 
 
 All nations, they tell us, have had their myths; their 
 early religious traditions encumbered with such fables ; 
 and why should the Jewish mjgihs, Mosaic or Evangelic, 
 be interpreted by any other rule ? (See Strauss' Life of 
 Jesus.) I answer : A bold denial is no argument. A mere 
 assertion that the narratives of miracles found in the 
 Bible, are myths, is no proof The difference between 
 the character and the occasion of the miracles related in 
 the Bible, and the fables of heathen mythology, is great 
 as that between light and darkness. 
 
 In the miracles recorded in the Bible, there is nothing 
 puerile, nothing secret or clandestine, nothing ridiculous. 
 They were wrought in open da}^, in the presence of many 
 witnesses, — wrought on occasions of great moment, and 
 of deep interest, and wrought for ends worthy of the in- 
 terference of the Deity. They were wrought to punish 
 
120 THE BIBLE IS A REVELATION FROM GOD. 
 
 gross wickedness, to protect the worshipers of the true 
 God ; wrought to prepare the way for the instruction of 
 a select nation, and through them, for the instruction of 
 all manhind, in truths of the highest importance to all, — 
 truths which, as all history shows, men could in no other 
 way obtain ! 
 
 That there is an Intelligent First Cause of all things, that 
 the laws of nature are those which He has seen fit to estab- 
 lish, and that He can^ if He shall see fit, alter, modify, or 
 suspend for a time, the operation of these laws, no sane 
 mind can doubt. 
 
 If, now, man he immortal^ if a life of endless duration 
 awaits him after death, then the destinies of man stamp 
 upon him a value immeasurably greater than that of the 
 globe, or of any merely material masses, however vast, 
 however diversified, how magnificently soever they may 
 be arranged. 
 
 If man be immortal, then the occasional interruption 
 of the operation of laws trapressed upon merely material 
 masses, was an expedient worthy to be employed by the 
 Author of nature, as the very means which could best 
 (perhaps the only means which could) arrest the attention 
 of man, and prepare him to receive with full belief, for 
 his guidance as to his eternal interests, the instruction so 
 presented to him* because such interruption of the laws 
 of nature, furnishes attestation unequivocal and deci- 
 sive, that the instruction so introduced came from God, 
 his Maker ; for, " No man can perform a miracle, eoccepi 
 God be with him /" 
 
 Such miraculous attestation Moses gave to Israel, in 
 the plagues sent at his word, upon Egypt, — ^in his leading 
 Israel dry-shod through the Ked Sea, while the hosts of 
 
THE BIBLE IS A REVELATION FROM GOD. 121 
 
 Egypt, attempting to follow them, perished therein, — in 
 the law given by him from Mount Sinai, — in his causing 
 water to rush from the rock at Horeb ; and on many 
 other occasions. 
 
 Such attestations Joshua gave at Jericho, and in the 
 preternatural lengthening of the day at the battle in the 
 valley of Ajalon, Josh. x. 12, 13. Such attestation gave 
 also Elijah, when, in the presence of all Israel, the priests 
 of Baal called in vain on their gods, while promptly in an- 
 swer to Elijah's prayer, fire came down upon the altar, 
 and licked up the water with which the victims and the 
 altar had been saturated, and the very trenches around 
 the altar were filled. 
 
 In regard to the Mosaic miracles, it is an absolute im- 
 possibility that the whole Jewish nation could have been 
 deceived. The actual occurrence of the miracles record- 
 ed in the Pentateuch, and their occurrence as there re- 
 corded, furnishes the only rational explanation of the 
 existence of the Jews, with all their peculiar rites, cus- 
 toms, and religious observances. 
 
 They who deny the miracles of Moses, are compelled 
 to deny the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch ; be- 
 cause the acutest among all these skeptical deniers, see 
 and admit, that if Moses, the Jewish lawgiver, did really 
 write the Pentateuch, and deliver a copy of it in the pres- 
 ence of all the people, into the hands of the priests, to be 
 by them laid up in the sides of the ark, there to be pre- 
 served as a public and perpetual memorial of their early 
 history ; and of the origin of their peculiar religious 
 rites, (as in Deut. xxxi. 24-26, it is asserted that Moses 
 did,) then all the miracles must have taken place, just as 
 therein related ; and in that case, the Pentateuch is a true 
 
 6 
 
122 THE BIBLE IS A REVELATION FROM GOD. 
 
 historic document. The authenticity of the Pentateuch, 
 as the work of Moses, being once established, the accu- 
 racy of the narrative, and the truth of the miracles it re- 
 cords, follow inevitably. But, for the authenticity of the 
 Pentateuch, there is a body of evidence more direct, 
 copious and forcible, than there is for the genuineness of 
 any book of antiquity. 
 
 In like manner, the hooks of the New Testament can be 
 traced back to the times in which they claim to have been 
 written. All the earliest writers who mention Chris- 
 tianity, agree in dating the time when Christianity had its 
 origin^ as the New Testament writers do. Furthermore : 
 the writings of the Apostles and Evangelists are proved 
 to be authentic and genuine, by the universally admitted 
 fact, that the most ancient Christian writers— ^eveM those 
 contemporary with the Apostles^ as Clemens Romanus, Ig- 
 natius, &c. — make quotations from the books of the New 
 Testament, and ascribe them to the Apostles of Jesus 
 Christ. (See the Prelections of Michaelis.) Tertullian 
 even appeals to the original manuscripts of the New Tes- 
 tament, as existing in his day. (Vide de Proscriptioni- 
 bus, sec. 36.) A version of the New Testament in the 
 Syriac language, was made at a very early period, prob- 
 ably within less than a century after the time of the 
 Apostles. 
 
 It is remarkable, also, that the early opposers of the gos- 
 pel did not deny the miracles performed by Christ and his 
 Apostles, but sought to account for them by magic, or by 
 natural causes. This is distinctly proved from the writ- 
 ings of the early apologists for Christianity. Moreover, 
 the controversies which arose, and the opposition to the 
 gospel which was made in the early ages of the church, 
 
THE BIBLE IS A REVELATION FROM GOD. 123 
 
 sprang, not from doubts regarding the divine origin of 
 the gospels and the epistles, but rather, because in those 
 early ages many desired to make the teachings of the 
 New Testament accord to their preconceived notions and 
 philosophical theories. (See Mitchell's Guide, pp. 174, 175.) 
 Moreover, it has been shown by Mr. Babbage (9th Bridg- 
 water Treatise) that, on the very principles on which 
 Hume based his celebrated objection against miracles, it 
 is immensely more probable, even on the mathematical 
 doctrine of chances, that miracles should occur, than that 
 several independent witnesses should testify falsely to 
 the same statement. The fact, then, being once estab- 
 lished, that the miracles recorded in the Bible did really 
 take place, proves conclusively that God, the author of 
 nature, has given his sanction to the Bible AS TRUE ! 
 
 But again, 6th. Prophecy furnishes another^ a distinct^ 
 and a conclusive evidence that the Bible is from Ood. To 
 foresee the occurrence of future and far distant events, is 
 obviously beyond the utmost stretch of human sagacity. 
 So many agencies are everywhere at work, beyond the 
 control of man — so many influences, from unanticipated 
 sources, may spring up to modify the result of any given 
 series of events, that human foresight is speedily at fault ; 
 and although, under ordinary circumstances, a probable 
 conjecture may be formed, and a prediction founded on 
 such probability may now and then be verified, yet every 
 one feels that to predict vjith certainty^ as to time and man- 
 ner^ events yet future, transcends the power of man I 
 When, in compliance with the earnest entreaty of Pha- 
 raoh, that the plague of frogs should be removed, and 
 again that of flies, Moses had said, " To-morrow shall the 
 plague ceasej^ the promise was a prediction ; which, being 
 
124 THE BIBLE IS A REVELATION FROM GOD. 
 
 verified at the time specified, Pharaoh knew full well 
 could have been uttered only by inspiration from God. 
 (Exod. viii. 10, 29.) 
 
 Isaiah predicted (Isa. xlv. 1-5 ; xiii. 1, 2, 17-22) the 
 overthrow of the mighty Babylon, by Cyrus the Mede. 
 Many years afterwards that prediction was verified to 
 the very letter ; clearly showing that Isaiah had delivered 
 his prophecy under the guidance of the Omniscient Spirit, 
 who alone seeth the end from the beginning. (Isa. xiii. 
 19, and compare Dan. v. 28-31.) 
 
 In like manner, the exact fulfilment of the predictions 
 respecting the destruction of Tyre, (Isa. xxiii. ;) of Sidon, 
 (Isa. xxiii. ;) of Nineveh, (Zeph. ii. 13, 14, 15 ;) and those 
 denouncing the fall and degradation of Egypt, at that 
 time the most powerful nation on the globe, (Isa. xix. ;) 
 the predictions uttered by Jesus Christ, respecting the 
 destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, with all the un- 
 exampled horrors of that event — predictions uttered by 
 Christ and recorded by the Evangelists, and published 
 to the world many years before the time of Titus and 
 Vespasian ; and the condition of the Jews to this day, a 
 distinct race, scattered abroad everywhere among all the 
 nations of the earth, and everywhere oppressed and de- 
 spised, so precisely accordant to the reiterated predictions 
 of their own ancient prophets, (see Deut. xxviii. 63-66 ;) all 
 bespeak the controlling power of unerring wisdom, ex- 
 erted upon the minds of the prophets, and of the writers 
 of the several books of the Bible, and prove that Bible to 
 be true — to be the word of God — the dictate of inspiration. 
 
 Again, 7th. The influence upon mankind exerted by the 
 Bible, proves it divine ; or at least well comports with the 
 idea that it is divine. 
 
THE BIBLE IS A REVELATION FROM GOD. 125 
 
 A communication from God, professing to detail our 
 duties, and to instruct us in truths of the highest impor- 
 tance, might well be expected to prove powerful in its 
 influences, and eminently beneficial to man, far as the 
 knowledge of it should extend: and such, in fact, we 
 find to be the case. 
 
 Look the world throughout, and wherever you find 
 civilization, humanity to the defenceless and to enemies, 
 combined with refinement of manners and dignity of sen- 
 timent, there you find the Bible known, and its doctrines 
 promulgated. 
 
 To this, there are, I am well aware, some apparently 
 signal exceptions. 
 
 In times of old, the Greeks and the Eomans were, at 
 one period, eminently civilized and refined: and yet 
 they had no Bible. 
 
 True ! But among both those people, the corruption 
 of morals was incredible ; and the lack of humanity to 
 the vanquished in war, was extreme ! Witness their sys- 
 tem ofhelotry, with the barbarities it allowed, in their do- 
 mestic establishment ; the head of each household having 
 the power of life and of death over his children, and over 
 his slaves; a power often exercised too. Witness also 
 the cruel atrocities practised by the victorious army of 
 Titus himself, the Delight of mankind though he was 
 called, on the miserable Jewish captives crucified by thou- 
 sands around the smoking ruins of the holy city, their 
 beloved Jerusalem ! 
 
 The Persians^ Chaldceans and Assyrians also, as ancient 
 history declares, and as the recent explorations made 
 among the ruins of Persepolis and of Nineveh attest. 
 
126 THE BIBLE IS A REYELATION FROM GOD. 
 
 were nations eminently civilized, and yet they were idol- 
 aters, destitute of revelation ! \ 
 
 True I But who shall say how far patriarchal tradi- 
 tion respecting the divine attributes and human duties, 
 may have been preserved among these nations, an anti- 
 dote to the influence of popular superstition, an incentive 
 to noble sentiments and to noble deeds ! The hints scat- 
 tered over the prophetic pages, respecting the usages and 
 the religious notions of these powerful nations of oriental 
 antiquity, fully warrant the position, that the knowledge 
 of the true God was not yet entirely lost among them. 
 (See Dan. ii. 47; iv. 8-13, and v. 34-37; vi. 25-27, and 
 Jonah ill. 5-9.) 
 
 The Chinese also, that great and wonderful nation, a 
 world of humanity within itself, has, from an extreme 
 antiquity, been distinguished by a peculiar civilization. 
 When Europe was occupied by tribes of rude barbari- 
 ans, scattered here and there, in feeble settlements among 
 its forests, China was populous and powerful, was pos- 
 sessed of a literature and of laws. Even at that early 
 period, China had made great advances in knowledge of 
 the arts, and in useful inventions. In China the mari- 
 ner's compass was even then employed, being attached to 
 vehicles for the guidance of travellers crossing the vast 
 steppes or deserts of Upper Asia. A very singular rec- 
 ord, preserved in the ancient Chinese annals, assures us 
 of this fact. 
 
 It is well known that the Chinese exhibit annals, or 
 public registers of their empire, claiming an extreme an- 
 tiquity, as far back as B.C. 2300 : some claim to B.C. 2600. 
 They speak of an inscription of vast antiquity graven on 
 a rock on the mountain Heng-chau, and ascribed to the 
 
THE BIBLE IS A REVELATION P^KOM GOD. 127 
 
 emperor Yu, B.C. 2278. This time-worn inscription has 
 been deciphered and copied into their public annals. 
 These annals furnish another striking instance of early 
 civilization. In the reign of Choan-Kang, who is de- 
 scribed as ascending the throne B.C. 2159, a great eclipse 
 of the sun occurred. It was the duty of the royal as- 
 tronomers to forewarn the monarch of the approach of 
 such phenomena. The astronomers Ho and Hi, who 
 then held that distinguished post, having failed to fore- 
 tell this eclipse, were for this neglect both executed as 
 traitors.* The antiquity claimed for these Chinese an- 
 
 * See Chine, par M. Pauthier, p. 58. Also Du Halde's China, vol. i. p. 
 290. Also Bedford's Scripture Chronology, p. 88. 
 
 The Chinese annals inform us, that Hong-Chau, the mountain on the 
 rock of which the inscription of Yu was found, almost obliterated by 
 time, was a celebrated mountain in China, to which, in ancient times, 
 their raonarchs annually resorted to present sacrifice to the Supreme In- 
 telligence. Of the inscription above referred to, copies have been pub- 
 lished in Europe, accompanied by a French translation. 
 
 In 1839, when the learned Orientalist, M. Pauthier, published his work 
 on China, none of the cuneiform inscriptions discovered at Babylon and 
 Persepolis, nor of those found in Arabia Petrae and Syria, were regarded 
 as older than the time of Semiramis, (b.c. 2100 ;) and as the researches 
 of Lepsius in Egypt and Nubia had not then been made, this Chinese in- 
 scription was considered as the most ancient in the world. For, as no 
 Egyptian monument had then been identified beyond the time of Sesos- 
 tris, or Ramses the Great, (b.c. 2278,) the Chinese monument was older 
 by several years. At the present time, an antiquity amounting to b.c. 
 2300, is claimed for some of the monuments of Egypt. (See Chine, par 
 M. Pauthier, p. 53. Paris, 1839.) Nay, Egyptian monuments are by the 
 resolute Lepsius, asserted to be existing, as old as 2500 years before 
 Abraham, i. e. b.c. 4300. (See Revue des Deux Mondes, Dec. 1847, p. 
 1035.) We can, however, now add, (Dec. 1851,) that the still later re- 
 searches of Mr. Stuart Reginald Poole, the results of which have been 
 published in London in his learned work, " Horaj Egyptiacse," seem to 
 prove satisfactorily from the evidence presented by the hieroglyphic in- 
 
128 THE BIBLE IS A REVELATION FROM GOD. 
 
 nals, is unquestionably too great, for the documents now 
 existing among the Chinese, were chiefly compiled by 
 Confucius about B.C. 530 : yet it is plain that, at a very 
 
 scriptions on the monnments themselves, that many of the Egyptian dy- 
 nasties were really contemporaneous, and that the chronology of the 
 Egyptian monuments, the true key to it being at length found, does actu- 
 ally corroborate, and very nearly coincide with, the chronology of the 
 Bible. To the truth and trustworthiness of the Egyptian chronology 
 thus presented to the world by Mr. Poole, Sir J. G. Wilkinson (than 
 whom no man living is a more competent judge) has publicly given his 
 attestation. Moreover, the astronomical calculations on which, in part, 
 Mr. Poole bases his system, have been examined, and their correctness 
 has been ascertained and certified by Mr. Airy, Astronomer Royal at 
 Greenwich. (See Poole, Hone EgyptiacaB, Preface, p. vii. and Introduc- 
 tion, p. xxii., note.) 
 
 The chronological question I reserve for fuller discnssion hereafter. 
 The facts only, or what are, in these Oriental annals, stated as facts, am I 
 now concerned with. 
 
 In the Chinese annals we find the following curious statement: — 
 
 The emperor Yao began to reign b.c. 2357. In the 5th year of his 
 reign, (i. c. b.c. 2353,) a strange event occurred. At the court of Yao 
 there arrived from the South (i. e. from countries south of China,) a 
 stranger, a barbarian, of the family or race named You-6e-tchang, bear- 
 ing as a present a huge tortoise divine, aged 1000 years, and above 
 two feet long, and about two feet broad, having on its back characters in 
 writing, Kho-t6ou, i. e. shaped like tadpoles, (a forme de tetards,) which 
 characters comprised the history of the world, from the earliest times, until 
 then. Yao ordered this strange text to be transcribed ; and he named it 
 Kou-ei-lie, i. e. Annals of the Tortoise. 
 
 Now, since the Egyptians and the Phoenicians were the only nations, 
 who, at that early period, are known to have possessed the art of writing, 
 the learned have concluded these stranger visitors must have been from 
 the one or the other of those nations, most probably Phoenician ; and 
 that the strange writing was one of the books of Hermes. (See Essai 
 sur I'origine et la Formation similaire des Ecritures Figuratives, Chinoises 
 et Egyptiennes, par Mon. G. Pauthier, p. 8. Paris, 1842.) 
 
 Nor was this the only instance of the kind. Another is mentioned 
 1242 years later, of a communication of the same nation of You-6e-tchang, 
 
THE BIBLE IS A EEVELATION FKOM GOD. 129 
 
 early period, the Chinese were greatly advanced in civil- 
 ization. 
 
 Moreover, the books now revered by the Chinese as 
 
 with China. This occurred in the 6th year of Tching-ooang, i. e. b.c. 
 1110. (See " Chine," par G. Pauthier, p. 87.) The text of the Chinese 
 historian reads thus : " Certain persons, You-ee-tchang, came to the court." 
 The annalist, in the work entitled, " Li-tai-Ki-sse," adds, " You-ee-tchang is 
 a maritime country of the South, frojn which three linguists, or inter- 
 preters, persons of the highest rank, came to present to the Emperor of 
 China three white pheasants. Tcheou-Koung, (the uncle of the Empe- 
 ror, and also the prime minister,) presented them with chariots which in- 
 dicated the south," {i. e. furnished each with a mariner's compass, or an 
 instrument constructed on like principles,) in order to guide them on their 
 return. The year following they set out on their journey. (Martin's 
 China; vol. i. p. 194, Du Halde, vol. i. p. 274. See also Humboldt's Cos- 
 mos, vol. i. p. 180, vol. ii. p. 191.) 
 
 From the mention made in this curious record of white plieasants, birds 
 found only in South Africa, (Caffraria,) learned men have supposed that 
 these strangers must have been Egyptians. But, since this record, if at 
 all authentic, must relate to events occurring about the time when vessels 
 from Tyre and Sidon sailed to Ophir for gold for the temple of Solomon, 
 it is not improbable that Phoenicians, accompanied by Jews, may have 
 reached China at this early period, bearing with them some of the curi- 
 ous products of the countries they touched at on their voyage, and thus 
 the art of writing may have been conveyed to China, (Essai sur I'Ori- 
 gine, &c., p. 10, and note.) 
 
 We know with certainty that Chinese bottles have been found in 
 Egypt, in some of the tombs of high antiquity. Wilkinson's Man. and 
 Cust. 1st series, vol. iii, pp. 106, 107. See Pickering on the Races pp. 
 366, 373, 
 
 Writing certainly appears to have been in use in China at a very early 
 period. The books possessed by the Chinese, and by them accounted 
 sacred, are certainly very ancient, although it can, (I think,) be easily 
 shown, that the oldest of them all are considerably posterior to the ear- 
 lier Jewish records. China furnishes no monuments to corroborate the 
 claim to antiquity for their written books. Among the Chinese there was 
 also at a very early period a kind of printing in use. 
 
 Besides other inventions which may fairly be ascribed to the Chinese, 
 
 6# 
 
130 THE BIBLE IS A REVELATION FROM GOD. 
 
 sacred, do, in the wise precepts they embody, give proof 
 of the lingering remains of patriarchal tradition, even 
 among this singular people. And we find, in fact, that 
 among the earliest colonies sent forth from among the 
 descendants of Noah, the posterity of Joktan spread 
 towards the East, (Gen. x. 29, 30.) 
 
 But notwithstanding all the advantages yielded her in 
 her early civilization, China has remained stationary for 
 ages. She had no written revelation from God. But 
 the once rude hordes of Europe, stimulated by the high 
 truths which the Bible in their possession has diffused 
 among them, have gradually advanced in knowledge, in 
 civilization, in all that can elevate man, until a mere 
 handful of Bible-taught Europeans, with their energy 
 and their warlike skill, have shown themselves more 
 than a match for China, and have even compelled the 
 celestial empire to come to terms. 
 
 But the exception apparently the most complete, is fur- 
 nished by the kingdom of the Pharaohs, the monumental 
 records of which carry us back to an almost fabulous an- 
 tiquity. Thus M. Ampere states, as the result of Egyp- 
 
 there is a chemical preparation, greatly resembling gunpowder, if it was 
 not the thing itself. It is what by some other ancient writers is men- 
 tioned as " the Grecian fire,^^ and which, as we learn from the Byzantine 
 writers, was brought to Constantinople, a.d. 670, from Heliopolis, in Egypt, 
 by Callimachus. Heliopolis was then in possession of an Arab race ; and 
 it is argued with great plausibility, that the Arabs had acquired from the 
 Chinese the knowledge of this preparation, which they introduced into 
 Egypt. For among the Chinese have been found also very ancient traces 
 of detonating arms, by them most expressively named poo. Indeed, the 
 celebrated Remusat has found proof of the existence among the Chinese 
 of ancient implements or arms resembling cannon, 
 
 (See No. VI. Mon. J. Ampere's " Recherches en Egypte et Nubie," in 
 "RevuedesDeuxMondes,"pp. 410, 411. May, 1847. Paris.) 
 
THE BIBLE IS A REVELATION FROM GOD. 181 
 
 tian researches up to Dec. 1847, (and chiefly those of the 
 Baron Lepsius,) monumental records running back so far 
 as 2500 years hefore Abraham^ i. e. to B.C. 4300, (^. e. 296 
 years before the date of Adam's creation, as calculated by 
 Usher ;) and these records come down as low as to a.d. 
 250, covering a period, altogether, of 4550 years. (See 
 Kevue des Deux Mondes. Dec. 1847, p. 1035.) 
 
 Now, though we unhesitatingly deny this extreme an- 
 tiquity, and think we can positively disprove it^ yet these 
 Egyptian monuments do unquestionably present to our 
 astonished view, ample indication of high civilization at 
 a very remote period ; of a knowledge of the fine arts, 
 and, in justice we must add, of a system of ethics purer, 
 more humane and more becoming, than can be found in 
 any other nation on earth, unenlightened by the records 
 of revealed truth. But it should also be observed, this 
 high moral tone is characteristic chiefly of the earlier ages 
 of the Pharaohs. As you ascend towards the era of the 
 patriarchs, you find clearer proofs of a high moral senti- 
 ment. There is obvious indication of deterioration as 
 you descend the stream of time.* This lends confirma- 
 tion to the idea, that all there was of truth and of moral 
 worth, embodied in the Egyptian's sacred lore, had been 
 derived straight from the patriarchs, and probably from 
 Noah himself As time rolled on, corruption crept into 
 the system, and fable was superadded to tradition, until, 
 even in the time of Moses, the creed of Egypt was but a 
 chain of myths, strangely connected with a moral code 
 still vastly superior to that of any other myth-loving 
 people of antiquity. 
 
 The Pharaoh contemporary with Abraham, evidently 
 
 * See the last Lecture in this work under the head, Early Civilization. 
 
132 THE BIBLE IS A REVELATION FROM GOD. 
 
 had some knowledge of the true God, and revered his 
 authority. 
 
 In the time of Joseph, the great-grandson of Abraham, 
 Egypt seems to have risen to much higher power ; yet 
 her Pharaoh still respected the worshipers of Jehovah. 
 But in the time of Moses, everything was changed. It 
 would seem that a new dynasty must, by that time, have 
 seized upon the throne. State policy predominated 
 over religious scruples, and the superstitions of the Nile 
 reigned over the entire valley, fertilized by its singular 
 waters.* But whatever light derived from patriarchal 
 
 '*' How strange these superstitions, how characteristic of the country, 
 and totally unlike those of any other nations. 
 
 Thus at one time, obstinate and bloody warfare was maintained be- 
 tween the inhabitants of Ombos, who worshipped the crocodile, and the 
 people of Denderah, (where was found the celebrated Zodiac, which oc- 
 casioned so much controversy in Europe, about thirty years since,) who 
 abhorred the crocodile. (See Amptire, in Rev. des Deux Mondes, April, 
 1848, p. 77.) Another distinctive characteristic of Egyptian superstition 
 was, that the souls of deceased persons were believed to be absorbed in, or 
 identified with, Osiris, one of their chief deities, and the supreme judge 
 of the dead : and in the funeral rites, the dead is often called Osiris. 
 (Rev. des Deux Mondes, January, 1819, p. 103.) Hence it was, that 
 worship was paid to the dead by their descendants. Thus, on the monu- 
 ments at Gournah, Ramses I. is represented as worishipped by his giand- 
 8on. (Id. Dec. 1847, p. 1022.) 
 
 At Elithyia, in Upper Egypt, Amenophis III., (the same who is, by the 
 Greeks, confounded with Memnon, represented by the twofold Colossus, 
 on the plains of Thebes,) is represented as offering religious homage to 
 his father, as one among the gods. (Id. April, 1848, p. 71) 
 
 Tlie monuments at Silsilis exhibit similar representations of persons 
 worshiping their deceased ancestors, (p. 76.) In the magnificent temple, 
 formed by excavations in the rocks at Derr, in Nubia, Ramses the Great 
 (B.C. 2278) is represented as one among the gods. (Id. Jan. 1849, p. 95.) 
 
 In this temple, and even in the sanctuary itself, Ramses is one, in a 
 group of four gods, the other three being Pthah, Amoiuij and Phre ; and 
 
THE BIBLE IS A REVELATION FROM GOD. 133 
 
 tradition may have still lingered, feebly glimmering 
 among the nations of antiquity, it seems to have, long 
 since, become extinct over almost the entire world of 
 mankind. 
 
 what is still stranger, the name and sign of Ramses are appended to the 
 side, both of the figure that offers the worship, and of the figures to 
 whom it is offered. In other words, King Ramses is here depicted, 
 offering worship to the effigy of himself 
 
 In the still more magnificent temple at Ipsamboul, higher up the Nile, 
 in Nubia, a similar representation is given, on a scale of colossal gran- 
 deur, of Ramses adoring himself, in the second hall of the great temple, 
 to the left of the entrance. (Id. p. 105.) 
 
 Nay, as if to cap the climax of absurdities, and show how utterly blind- 
 ed men may be by superstition, in some of the inscriptions in the royal 
 tombs, the kings alone are addressed in worship. Sometimes the kings 
 are represented as receiving the prayers of men, and, as intercessors, pre- 
 senting them to the gods ; like the saints, whose intercession with heaven, 
 is implored in the Catholic churches. And sometimes, even, it is the gods, 
 who are represented on the monuments of Egypt, as themselves offering 
 worship to the Pharaohs. (Id. p. 106.) 
 
 Another striking instance of this self-worship by the Pharaohs, is pre- 
 sented in the hieroglyphics covering a large stone table connected with 
 the great stone Sphynx near the pyramids of Gizeh. This tablet has 
 been nearly covered with sand ; but on the part yet exposed, is read the 
 name Thoulmosis IV. behind the king who is presenting worship, and it 
 is read also behind the Sphynx ; that is to say, the king adored : for the 
 Sphynx was a symbol of the king. (See Vyse on the Pyramids, vol. iii. 
 Plate 8, and p. 114.) 
 
 M. Cavaglia dug away the sand before the great Sphynx ; and he thus 
 brought to light a small temple between the huge paws of the Sphynx, 
 and on a stone tablet of this temple is recorded in hieroglyphics, a more 
 recent name, that of Sesostris, doing homage to the Sphynx, which is here 
 named Horus, identified with the sun, an emblem of royalty. (Id. Nov., 
 1846, p. 685, See Vyse, on Pyr., vol. iii, p. 115.) Nay, to show that there 
 can be no mistake in the matter, several of the monuments exhibit the 
 names of priests, consecrated to the service of these Pharaohs, as to gods. 
 
 In possession of Clot, Bey, a French physician in the service of the 
 Pasha, M. Ampere saw a sarcophagus, on which is read the name Me.ncs, 
 
134 THE BIBLE IS A REVELATION FROM GOD. 
 
 Certain it is that now^ all nations on the globe that are 
 destitute of the Bible, are ignorant of the true God, are 
 debased by superstitions, often of the most revolting 
 character, and exhibit a depravation of morals, startling, 
 and positively appalling. iVbr, to Hiis assertion does either 
 India or China^ at this day, fuimish exceptions. Wher- 
 ever the Bible has been introduced by Christian mission- 
 aries, it has become, even among the rudest tribes, the 
 precursor of improved morals, — of marriage, — of the 
 elevation of woman to something like her proper posi- 
 tion, — of domestic purity and peace, — of agriculture, — of 
 advancing civilization, and even of literature. It does 
 
 the earliest Egyptian king. The person whose mummy once occupied 
 this sarcophagus, was a priest, devoted to the service of several of the 
 gods, whose names are read in the inscriptions. These gods, as enumera- 
 ted on the sarcophagus are, Thot, Phtah, Osiris and Menes, The man 
 was a priest of Menes. (Id. March, 1847, p. 903.) Several similar instan- 
 ces are found, of the names of priests, devoted to the service of cer- 
 tain gods, amongst which the name of a Pharaoh stands, as one of 
 the gods. So also, the Upper Nile was worshipped as a god, and as 
 such it had priests devoted to its service. Thus at Syout, the present 
 capital of Upper Egypt, anciently called Lycopolis, a large and magnifi- 
 cent sepulchre has been explored. It was the tomb of " a priest of the 
 Upper Nile !" The Upper Nile, then, was honored as a god, and as such 
 it had priests specially consecrated to its service. (See Rev, des Deux 
 Mondes, July, 1847, p. 225.) 
 
 We may form some idea of the extent and magnificence of the tombs of 
 Egypt, from this one fact, stated by M. Ampere. (Rev. des Deux Mondes, 
 Dec. 1849, pp. 10-31.) The tomb of a priest, named Petemenof, dug in the 
 rock of the mountain near Assassif, exhibits three tiers of apartments, or 
 three stories. It is more extensive than that of any of their kings, and is 
 covered with hieroglyphics and with sculpture of the most beautiful execu- 
 tion. These sculptures and hieroglyphics, which cover the walls of the 
 galleries and of the chambers, are spread over a surface, estimated by Sir 
 J. G. Wilkinson to be upwards of 20,000 square feet, or nearly an acre and 
 a quarter ! 
 
THE BIBLE IS A REVELATION FROM GOD. 135 
 
 away with cannibalism, with human sacrifices, and with 
 infanticide. It has already saved from extinction tribes 
 of men, which, by the cruel practices of heathenism, 
 were fast dying out. Of these effects of the Bible, the 
 Sandwich Islands, 'New Zealand, and sundry other 
 island groups of Oceanica, are illustrations. 
 
 Surely, then, these happy and elevating influences 
 flowing from the Bible, wherever it is made known, well 
 and nobly comport with its high claim to a divine origin, 
 and lend confirmation to the other and varied evidences 
 that the Bible is from God / 
 
 For, 8th and lastly. The progress of time, while it may 
 weaken some of the evidences for the truth of the Bible, 
 strengthens other evidences, and constantly furnishes new 
 proofs/ The evidence furnished by miracles, though 
 more than all others, convincing to the original witness- 
 es, and to their immediate successors, must necessarily 
 lose somewhat of its force, the further we are removed 
 by time, from the actual witnesses of them. Were mir- 
 acles the only source of evidence for the truth of the 
 Bible, the force of that evidence might, in time, die out, 
 if no fresh miracles were wrought at intervals to strength- 
 en and renew that evidence. But miracles constitute 
 one only, among many sources of evidence for the truth 
 of the Bible. Its sublime doctrines, its pure morality, 
 its reasonable precepts, its adaptedness to the character 
 and the circumstances of man, everywhere and at all 
 times ; and its benign influence upon the individual and 
 upon the community that receive it, furnish additional, 
 forcible, and sometimes conclusive evidence. But we 
 have also what the apostle calls, "a more sure word of 
 prophecy, ^^ whereunto we shall do well if we take heed. 
 
136 THE BIBLE IS A REVELATION FROM GOD. 
 
 Prophecy must, in the nature of the case, be often ob- 
 scure when delivered; and it may remain unintelligible 
 until, from its unexpected fulfilment, bursts a flood of 
 light that shows at once the truth of the prophecy, and 
 the inspiration of the book containing it. 
 
 The intimations concerning the manner of his death, 
 that were occasionally given by Christ in his discourses, 
 were utterly mysterious, even to his disciples, until they 
 beheld the very person of their Master, whom they had 
 seen dying on the cross, and then buried, a bloody corpse, 
 in the tomb of Joseph, now again alive among them. 
 Then all became plain. The predictions delivered by 
 Christ, respecting the destruction of Jerusalem, must, 
 when they heard their Master utter them, have been in- 
 comprehensible to the apostles. But those of them who 
 survived that great national catastrophe, must have had 
 their faith in the prescience of Jesus, and their faith in 
 the divine warrant on which they themselves, as preach- 
 ers of his gospel, were acting, greatly strengthened by the 
 terrible scenes they witnessed, so minutely verifying the 
 Saviour's prophecy. Says one : 
 
 " If a transmitted revelation contain within its pages 
 a prophecy of events, dark and unintelligible of itself, and 
 therefore unfit to cause its own fulfilment ; and if, from 
 time to time, facts occur, explaining instantly, by no cir- 
 cuitous or lengthened process, but clearly and explicitly, 
 the mystic words ; if the explanation of that which till 
 then was dark and mysterious, even to the learned and 
 reflecting, flashes with spontaneous conviction on the 
 minds of multitudes, who now discover for the first time 
 the events to have been clearly predicted ; then, a reve- 
 lation, however faint from the lapse of time, revives with 
 
THE BIBLE IS A KEVELATION FROM GOD. 137 
 
 renewed energy, and claims its reception with a force 
 almost equal to that which it demanded from those to 
 whom it was originally delivered." (Mr. Babbage, 9th 
 Bridgw. Treat, ch. xi. pp. 133, 134.) 
 
 Such sudden flashing of conviction seems to have been 
 felt by the 3,000 on the day of Pentecost, when, under 
 the address of Peter, they perceived that Jesus of Naza- 
 reth was their own Messiah, whose death and resurrec- 
 tion they now discerned had been predicted by the royal 
 prophet David ; while, in the miraculous gift of tongues 
 possessed by the disciples before them, they beheld the 
 shedding forth of God's Spirit, as predicted by Joel, 
 (Joel ii. 28, 29.) So also the present aspect of the sites 
 of ancient Sidon and Tyre — the recovered monuments 
 of Nineveh — the desolate state of Babylon, and of the 
 rock-built cities of Idumsea — the entire past history and 
 the present condition of the Jews — nay, the very monu- 
 ments of Egypt, (whatever their ultimate influence may 
 be upon the mere question of chronology,) are all so cor- 
 roborative of the writings of the Jewish prophets, that a 
 careful collation of the one with the other is continually 
 flashing fresh and stronger conviction on the minds of 
 many, and is every year brightening the evidence for 
 the truth of the sacred oracles. 
 
 The results of learned research among the long-hidden 
 records of the East, furnish also, every now and then, 
 curious coincidences with the statements given in the old 
 Hebrew Scriptures, well calculated to strengthen our 
 confidence in the perfect truth of every part of the Bible. 
 
 Thus the annals, both of India and of China, speak of 
 a terrific and utterly destructive flood, in times of remote 
 antiquity ; and the Hindoo account is almost an echo of 
 
138 THE BIBLE IS A KEVELATION FROM GOD. 
 
 the narrative of Moses. In the early Chinese annals 
 mention is made also of a terrible famine over the whole 
 land, that lasted for seven years, from B.C. 1766 to B.C. 
 1759. This is said to have occurred in the reign of one 
 of their emperors, (Tahin-than, B.C. 1760,) who must have 
 been contemporary with Joseph, viceroy of Egypt.* 
 
 * The account of the Flood, as presented in the Chinese annals, seems 
 to describe a local inundation, though one vastly extensive and destructive. 
 In reading this account, one can hardly fail to believe, that the story is 
 based upon some indefinite traditional rumor of the great Noachian 
 deluge. This record stands in the book called Chou-King, under the 
 reign of the Emperor Yao, b.c. 2300. The historian says : " Immense 
 waves rolled over the mountains and covered the hills. These formi- 
 dable masses of water increased more and more, and threatened to sub- 
 merge the very heavens." {Chine, par G. Pauthier, pp. 12, 13.) Mons. 
 Pauthier contends that this is the description of a local inundation only, 
 given in the exaggerated style of the East. Several inundations are 
 spoken of in these old Chinese writings. (See also Du Ilalde's China, 
 vol, i. p. 283.) The seven years' famine in China, from b.c. 1766 to 1759, 
 under the Emperor Tahin-thSn, is mentioned by Pauthier, pp. 65, 66, 
 and also by Du Halde, vol. i. p. 299. London, 1736. 
 
 From the monuments of Egypt, also, incidental confirmation of the 
 accuracy of the Jewish history is gathered. For instance : At Kamak, in 
 Upper Egypt, Champollion discovered, on the south wall of the grand 
 hall of the temple, among the paintings, a representation of the Egyptian 
 Pharaoh Sesoneh, dragging to the feet of the gods a great number of 
 human figures. Of these, each one bears on his breast, written, the name 
 of the people and of the country of which he is a representative. Among 
 them appears very distinctly, written on the breast of one of the fig- 
 ures, Jaudh Malk, or Melekh, with the sign beneath it denoting foreign 
 land. These are two Hebrew words. King of Judah, written in Egyptian 
 hieroglyphics ; just as we write foreign words in English characters— the 
 pachalic of Damascus : the Inca of Peru. Now we read (1 Kings xiv. 26, 
 26 ; 2 Chron xii. 3-9) that Shishak, King of Egypt, took Jerusalem, and 
 carried off the treasury of King Rehoboam, 
 
 So that here, an event about the end of the tenth century before Christ, 
 is recorded in the book of Kmgs, and we find it corroborated by the 
 
THE BIBLE IS A REVELATION FROM GOD. 139 
 
 But there is yet one other point of view in which the 
 progress of time sheds light upon the Bible, and furnishes 
 additional evidence of its divine origin. I refer to the 
 effect of the advancement of science. Many have sup- 
 posed that improvements in science tend to invalidate the 
 authority of the Bible : but it is not so. Various objec- 
 tions that once seemed formidable, advancing science has 
 shown to be groundless. We may, then, safely conclude, 
 that the new difficulties which are now and then raised 
 
 Egyptian monuments; and the name of this king of Egypt is found 
 in its proper place, on the lists of Manetho, (Ampere, Rev. des Deux 
 Mondes. Dec. 1847, pp. 1010, 1011.) 
 
 The very portrait of Rehohoam, or what is presumed to be his por- 
 trait, is found delineated on this wall at Karnak, (Champollion Figeac, pi. 
 76. Champollion, Monumens, &c. Plates, vol. iii. Plate 305, fig. 3. 
 See Wilkinson, vol i. p. 137.) 
 
 Again, observes Mons. Ampere, (Rev. May, 1847, p. 414,) when notic- 
 ing the name of Potipherah, priest of On, or Heliopolis, whose daughter 
 Joseph espoused : " The names of men, of women, of places, mentioned in 
 the book of Genesis, where the story relates to Egypt, abundantly show 
 the veracity of the old Hebrew chronicler ; for all these names are of 
 Coptic origin ; their meaning is found in the Coptic language, which 
 shows, at the same time also, that Coptic was really the language of an- 
 cient Egypt. 
 
 " Thus Phraha, of which we have made the name Pharaoh, means in 
 Coptic, or Egyptian, the sun. This is the title which the kings of Egypt 
 take in the hieroglyphic legends, where they are always assimilated to 
 Horus. See the tablet between the paws of the great Sphynx. See 
 Vyse, plate 8 of vol. iii. Vol. iii. p. 115. 
 
 *' The name of honor conferred upon Joseph, Zophnath-paaneah, (Gen. 
 xli. 45,) or Psonte-phanech, is not Hebrew, but Coptic, and its meaning is 
 found only in that language. 
 
 '* The same is true of the name Moses. Hebrew has no name like it ; 
 no words explaining its derivation ; but Mocha, or rather Mo-skeh, in Cop- 
 tic signifies, issued from the loalers. And surely, the child drawn by 
 Pharaoh's daughter from the Nile, ought to bear an Egyptian, and not a 
 Hebrew name." 
 
140 THE BIBLE IS A REVELATION FROM GOD. 
 
 by modern science, in its various departments, will, when 
 the bounds of human knowledge are yet more widely 
 extended, be shown to be equally baseless. Had the 
 sacred writers expressed themselves in terms strictly 
 comporting with the present state of knowledge, their 
 averments must, on many points, have been for ages 
 unintelligible even to the learned, and apparently even 
 false ; and many forms of expression, adapted to the 
 present state of knowledge, would no doubt, to our more 
 enlightened successors, a few generations hence, appear 
 fully as erroneous as do now those passages most strenu- 
 ously objected to at present. As it is, truth is, in the 
 Bible, expressed in terms adapted to popular apprehen- 
 sion : and the proper use of extending science is, to en- 
 able us to understand more accurately the real meaning 
 of the sacred record. No one now objects to such ex- 
 pressions as those respecting the rising and setting of 
 the sun, employed in adaptation to popular usage. 
 
 And when it is recollected, that the sacred writers 
 could, of themselves, have viewed things, and spoken of 
 them, only in accordance to the notions prevailing in the 
 age and the country in which they lived, it is certainly 
 amazing, it is another indication that their minds were 
 controlled and directed by the unerring mind^ that they 
 have so expressed themselves, (as e. g. Moses in the ac- 
 count he has given, in Genesis, chapter i., of the creation,) 
 as that while, from the very first, the main facts were all 
 intelligible to any reader, yet, the more widely the 
 bounds of human knowledge are extended, the scriptural 
 statements become, not obscure, unintelligible, and con- 
 fused, but only the plainer, the more beautifully con- 
 sistent and intelligible. The discoveries of geologists, 
 
THE BIBLE IS A REVELATION FROM GOD. 141 
 
 which warrant the idea that this earth may have been in 
 existence, and been subjected to several successive con- 
 vulsions, that may have occupied a period stretching 
 through thousands, nay even millions of years, before 
 man existed at all, must, it was at first supposed, bear 
 with their entire weight, against the Mosaic account of 
 creation. 
 
 A closer examination of the Mosaic record shows, 
 these fears are groundless ; and leaves us only to admire 
 the evidence of supernatural wisdom guiding the writer's 
 pen, in the manner in which the book of Genesis opens. 
 The first and second verses of Genesis must certainly 
 have been inspired ; for no mere human sagacity could 
 have so framed the statement, as that from the first, it 
 should be intelligible as to the facts, that Jehovah is the 
 creator of all things, and that the earth subsisted in other 
 forms than the present, ere man appeared upon it ; while 
 yet, it clearly admits of an interval between the first pro- 
 duction of this globe, and the creation of man upon it, 
 long as the vast cycles which geological science may de- 
 mand for the formation of all the several strata, with their 
 numerous succession of vegetable and of animal deposits. 
 
 True, there are difficulties yet remaining. But the 
 lessons of the past must be lost upon us, ere we sufier 
 our faith in the sacred records to falter. Time has al- 
 ready cleared up many difficulties, once as formidable as 
 these now appear. 
 
 We have, then, but to wait patiently, and time, and 
 the researches of the learned, will eventually clear up 
 the most perplexing of those difficulties yet in our way, 
 and pour fresh light upon the sacred oracles, rendering 
 plain what is now obscure, and placing the authority of 
 
142 THE BIBLE IS A REVELATION" FROM GOD. 
 
 the Bible, as a revelation from God, on broader, firmer 
 ground than ever. 
 
 Revelation, whicli is necessarily obscure, in some points, 
 from the first, and which moreover loses continually 
 somewhat of its force from long transmission, does yet con- 
 tain within itself the means of its own verification ; so 
 that extending science and advancing knowledge among men, 
 render its meaning but the plainer, and thus throws 
 upon it, and around it, a light, the evidence of its truth, 
 that shall become but the stronger and the clearer, with 
 the lapse of ages. Thus has it been with the Bible hith- 
 erto, and thus it will be, doubtless, in all time to come. 
 
 The fulfilment of prophecy^ the researches of the learned^ 
 and the extension of human knowledge, are continually pro- 
 claiming, ALL Scripture is given by inspiration of 
 God! 
 
 The Bible is made up of documents of a very great anti- 
 quity ; it claims to be insinred; it betrays nothing at all incon- 
 sistent with this high claim, for there is in it, nothing puerile, 
 weak, or unbecoming ; it is, in every point, worthy of the 
 origin it claims; it is attested by many astonishing miracles ; 
 it is supported by various and wonderful prophecies already 
 fulfilled, and by others which are heing fulfilled before our 
 very eyes ; its divine origin is witnessed also by its admi- 
 rable influence in promoting civilization, humanity, and re- 
 finement among men ; and even time itself, though it 
 may seem to impair the lustre of its evidence in some 
 points, does, in fact, yield a constantly increasing confirma- 
 tion of its truth, and elucidation of its worth, as THE VERY 
 VOICE OF God. 
 
 Conclusion. The one great lesson we hence learn is, 
 " Holdfast to the truth,^"* be steadfast, be not carried about 
 
THE BIBLE IS A KEVELATION FROM GOD. 143 
 
 by every wind of doctrine. Let not your faith in this 
 blessed book be shaken, by the plausible objections 
 which every sciolist can start. 
 
 The Bible is from ' God. It is the one sole light that 
 Aeaven has vouchsafed to illumine our path to life's 
 close. Amen. 
 
LECTURE IV. 
 
 THE PENTATEUCH THE WORK OF MOSES, GENUINE 
 AND AUTHENTIC. 
 
 The Pentateuch is a designation familiarly applied to 
 the first five books of the Bible, viz. Genesis, Exodus, 
 Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. The authority 
 of the Pentateuch, as the work of Moses, and written by 
 inspiration of God, has been held by the Christian church 
 in all ages, and by the whole people of the Jews. 
 
 Such is the subject matter of these books, their close 
 connection one with another, and with all the other books 
 of the Old Testament and of the New, that they consti- 
 tute an appropriate and necessary introduction to all the 
 rest of the Bible. Without the Pentateuch, the other 
 books of Scripture would be unintelligible ; for the Scrip- 
 tures abound with assertions and allusions to events, 
 which are recorded in the Pentateuch, and nowhere 
 else ; and without the Pentateuch these allusions would 
 be wholly incomprehensible. Keep this fact in mind, 
 and then consider the frequency with which, in nearly 
 every part of the Bible, " the hook ofilie law," " the law of 
 Moses,^^ and similar phrases are found, indicative of the 
 highest respect; consider also, the importance attached 
 by the Jews to the promises of God made to them as a 
 
THE PENTATEUCH. 145 
 
 nation, promises found recorded only in the Pentateucli ; 
 and then call to mind, also, the frequency with which, in 
 the New Testament, Jesus Christ, and his inspired apos- 
 tles after him, refer to events recorded only in the Pen- 
 tateuch, quote sentiments and doctrines as taught in the 
 laio of Moses ^ and which are found only in the Pentateuch. 
 Kemember, moreover, how frequently they reason from 
 data, such as laws and precepts laid down in the Penta- 
 teuch, and nowhere else; and surely all this furnishes 
 ample ground for the earnestness with which the friends 
 of revelation have always contended for the divine origin 
 of these five books, as the work of Moses and divinely 
 inspired, and as the very foundation on which rests the 
 whole structure of revealed truth ; and for the jealous 
 solicitude with which the friends of the Bible, as the ora- 
 cles of God, have ever guarded these venerable records 
 from assaults designed to overthrow their authority ! 
 
 But we find it confidently asserted, " The Pentateuch 
 has not reached us in an authentic form :" again, '' There 
 is no evidence whatever that in the time of Moses there 
 existed anywhere, on the face of the earth, an alphabet by 
 which such a work as the Pentateuch could have been 
 written and transmitted to posterity." " If the five books 
 of the Pentateuch really had the origin which popular 
 opinion has attributed to them, some mention of them 
 would have been made in the Old or New Testaments : 
 but they are both silent on the subject. They frequently 
 speak of the laiu of Moses, but nowhere name the books 
 of the Pentateuch." 
 
 Again. *' At what time the old Hebrew alphabet was 
 formed, is not known ; but it is of later date than the 
 Phoenician, from which it is derived." Again : " The 
 
 7 
 
146 THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 best authorities assure us, that the Samaritan square let- 
 ters, in which the Pentateuch first appears in history, 
 were invented many centuries after Moses, and were 
 probably adopted about the time of the captivity." 
 Again, it has been said, "We have no history of the 
 Hebrew text by which it can be traced beyond the Baby- 
 lonish captivity, one thousand years nearly, after the 
 epoch of Moses." 
 
 These are bold assertions certainly : that they are in 
 reality baseless, will be shown. But the confidence with 
 which these assertions are made, and the industrious ac- 
 tivity with which they are disseminated in every part of 
 our land, render it necessary to examine their force, and 
 to vindicate anew the authenticity of the five books of 
 Moses. 
 
 As to the art of writing, and the origin of written 
 characters in which to express the various ideas presented 
 to us in the books of Moses as they now exist ; this is a 
 matter not quite free- from difficulty, certainly, and here- 
 after I propose to discuss it more fully. At present it may 
 be sufficient to observe, that were it shown beyond dis- 
 pute, that^neither the Chinese, nor the Egyptians, nor any 
 other pagaift; 'nation, in those remote ages, were in posses- 
 sion of what might with strict propriety be called an 
 alphabet ; but that they then wrote their records in sym- 
 bolic signs, representing sounds or syllables, and some- 
 times distinct ideas ; this would not prove that the He- 
 brews had no such alphabet. Because certain nations had 
 no suitable alphabetical characters in which to write such 
 a record as the Pentateuch, it surely does not follow that 
 no other people had such characters. If the Pentateuch 
 can be actually traced back to the time of Moses, (as we 
 
GENUINE AND AUTHENTIC. 147 
 
 think it certainly can,) then there was at that time some 
 mode of writing, suitable to be employed in the perform- 
 ance of such a work. If these characters did not exist 
 before the time of Moses, then Moses must himself have 
 invented them, or they must have been divinely taught 
 to Moses. The fact that Moses is the author of the Penta- 
 teuch being once established, is itself full proof that, in 
 the time of Moses, there did exist a suitable set of char- 
 acters in which to write this great work.* 
 
 The origin of those written characters, whether by the 
 invention of Moses, or otherwise, is a separate and dis- 
 tinct question. 
 
 Suppose, now, it were proved beyond contradiction, 
 that the characters in which was written the very oldest 
 copy of the Pentateuch known in history, were invented 
 many ages after the death of Moses, — that proved fact 
 would not in the least invalidate the evidence for the 
 authorship of Moses, as the writer of the Pentateuch. 
 Because it is very plain that the copying out of an old 
 document in new and more convenient characters, is nei- 
 ther incredible nor unheard of The great work of the 
 Baron Lepsius on Egyptian chronology, and the work of 
 the learned Dr. L. Ideler, entitled, Handbook of Chro- 
 
 * On this, subject Lepsius has thus expressed himself: " No one, now 
 at least, in combating the old view that the inscriptions (on the rocks of 
 Sinai,) are traceable to the Israelites, would make use of the argument 
 that the Israelites did not possess at that time a complete system of writ- 
 ten characters, which was in frequent use. From the then state of things 
 in Egypt, as we are now acquainted with them, and of which the Jews 
 must have been cognizant in the fertile province of Goshen, it is wholly 
 incredible that they did not possess a running hand as well as the Egj^p- 
 tians ; however improbable it may be that, as has been supposed, they 
 borrowed it in any degree from the hieratic character of the Egyptians." 
 (See Lepsius' Tour from Thebes to Sinai, pp. 88, 89.) 
 
148 THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 nology, both printed at Berlin, are both written in the 
 German language, and yet they are both printed in the 
 Roman characters in use with us, and not in the old 
 G-erman letters. Suppose, further, that an edition of all 
 the works of Luther should be now printed in Roman 
 letters, as more convenient than the usual German type, 
 this republication of an old work in new characters, not 
 in use at the place and the time when Luther lived, can- 
 not in the least diminish the weight of the evidence 
 which goes to show that Luther wrote these books. So, 
 if proved that the characters in which the very oldest 
 copies of the Pentateuch may have been written were in- 
 vented centuries after the death of Moses, that would 
 not touch the question of the Mosaic authorship of that 
 work. Ezra may, after the captivity, have revised, cor- 
 rected and transcribed in more convenient, and more 
 generally intelligible characters, for publication, the five 
 books of Moses, and the other sacred books of his nation 
 that had been written and published many centuries be- 
 fore his time. It is even possible that the Pentateuch 
 may have been originally written in an improved hiero- 
 glyphic character ; and copied out in strictly alphabetic 
 characters, only in the time of Ezra. 
 
 The authority of Professor Norton, of Harvard Uni- 
 versity, is given for the assertion that the evidence is 
 sufficient to render it probable^ that the Pentateuch was in 
 existence about a century after the return of the Jews 
 from their captivity, which was the year B.C. 536. 
 
 We are also very confidently told that most of the 
 German and other continental writers in Europe, regard 
 the first nine or ten chapters of Genesis, as made up of 
 vague data, draivn from the mythical traditions of Asia and 
 
GENUINE AND AUTHENTIC. 149 
 
 Egypt This last position is examined in detail in the 
 Lecture on the Authority of Genesis, in this work. 
 
 Certain it is that De Wette, Strauss, and the other 
 modern German rationalists and mythists, deny the 
 Mosaic origin of the Pentateuch, especially of Genesis ; 
 and utterly scout the idea of its inspiration, as we under- 
 stand that term. 
 
 The position is openly assumed, broadly stated, and 
 confidently relied on by these learned writers, and it is 
 perseveringly employed in all their criticisms and reason- 
 ings, on the teachings of these sacred books, — that " a 
 miracle is impossible,^^ and that, therefore, a record contain- 
 ing the account of a miracle, is, so far, not historical, — it 
 is a myth, a fable that has grown up and gained a place 
 in popular tradition in the lapse of many ages ; and that, 
 therefore, "the Pentateuch, which abounds in narratives 
 of such wonders, could not have been written hy Moses, nor 
 by any person contemporaneous with, or very soon fol- 
 lowing Moses ; it must have been the production of a 
 period later by many ages, than any actor amid the 
 scenes so described." 
 
 Now this fundamental axiom of these German critics, 
 viz. : that a miracle is impossible, is a mere assertion, and 
 the reasoning founded upon it is weak, as the assertion is 
 bold. It looks so much like begging the whole question 
 at issue, that the wonder is how any sensible man could 
 commit himself to such reasoning. If there be a God, 
 then a miracle is not impossible: because the power 
 which established the laws of nature, is competent to 
 alter, to destroy, or to suspend those laws. Whether 
 miracles have actually occurred, is altogether a different 
 question. 
 
150 THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 If man be immortal, lie needs direction from an unerr- 
 ing source to aid him in his efforts to render that immor- 
 tality a happy one. Such unerring source of wisdom is 
 God alone. The necessities of man do, then, demand a 
 revelation from his Maker ; and a revelation, that it may 
 gain credence, and accomplish its proper en^, must be 
 authenticated in such manner, as shall render its divine 
 origin clear and unquestionable. 
 
 Miracles famish the very kind of authentication 
 needed, and the best, perhaps the only mode of authen- 
 tication practicable, because they bespeak the direct in- 
 tervention of the God of nature, the God that made us, 
 and to whom we must account. 
 
 It is moreover obvious, that the miracles recorded in 
 the Pentateuch are of such a nature, and are so connected 
 with the history given, and with the laws promulgated 
 therein, that the history itself stands or falls with the 
 miracles ; and these miracles constitute one of the strong- 
 est proofs that Moses, and Moses alone, must have been 
 the writer of these books. 
 
 It is certainly the received opinion throughout Christen- 
 dom, and it now is, and it always has been the opinion 
 of the great body of theologians in all countries, that the 
 Pentateuch, substantially as we now have it, is the work 
 of Moses, the inspired lawgiver of the Jews. This 
 opinion has been maintained by such men as Eichhorn, 
 Michaelis, Eckermann, Rosenmiiller, Tholuck, Neander, 
 &c., in continental Europe: — by such as Lightfoot, Still- 
 ingfleet, Prideaux, Graves, Butler, Faber, Home, and a 
 host of others among British writers ; and in this coun- 
 try, by Professor Stuart, and nearly every theologian of 
 note. 
 
GENUINE AND AUTHENTIC. 151 
 
 Moreover, it is a well-known and significant fact, tliat 
 of those who once questioned the genuineness of these 
 books, or of some part of them, not a few there are, who, 
 after a laborious and careful investigation of the whole 
 field of inquiry, have openly avowed their conviction 
 that the Pentateuch is, substantially, the work of Moses. 
 Such was the case with the celebrated Le Clerc, and to 
 some extent, also, with Nachtigal, and Eichard Simon. 
 
 The learned Hasse, (see Eosenmiiller, Proleg. Pentat. 
 pp. 10, 11,) once denied utterly the Mosaic origin of the 
 Pentateuch, attributing it, (as some now do,) to the age 
 of the closing exile ; but long afterwards, he altered his 
 opinion and declared, "7^ cannot he denied that the purity 
 of language^ the eloquence of style, and the poetic imagery dis- 
 coverable in Genesis, betray the hand of Moses, and that the 
 age of David, {i. e. the writings produced in the age of 
 David,) presupposes the existence of the Mosaic luritings.^^ 
 
 The learned Michaelis, whose name is, of itself, in a 
 question of this nature, equivalent to a host, thus writes, 
 " That Moses is the author of the five books usually called his, 
 is the common opinion of Christians and Jews ; and I regard 
 it, not only as perfectly correct, hut as certain as anything 
 luhich can be known, respecting the composition of any ancient 
 hookr 
 
 Another accomplished German scholar, in a treatise 
 on the mythical interpretation of the sacred books, pub- 
 lished but a few years since, asserts that, " the Pentateuch 
 171 its "present form, must he ascribed to Moses alone." 
 
 Even the distinguished Hartmann, who is far enough 
 from what we should deem strict orthodoxy on these 
 points, freely admits that the mythical expounders of 
 the sacred books have by no means made good their 
 
152 THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 position, viz., 'that the Pentateuch is not the work of 
 Moses. 
 
 It is also well worth noting, that nearly all who have 
 impugned the genuineness and authenticity of the Penta- 
 teuch, had previously avowed opinions which compel 
 them, for consistency's sake, to deny the authority of 
 these books. Thus Vater, De Wette, Strauss, deny the 
 possibility of miracles, and deny plenary inspiration. So, 
 also, in this country, and among British writers, they who 
 deny the unity of the human races, and contend for a 
 variety of distinct original races, created in several dis- 
 tinct localities ; they also who yield to the extravagant 
 claims for a high antiquity in China, India, Egypt, &c., 
 dispute the genuineness of much of the received Hebrew 
 text of the Pentateuch, and deny the Mosaic origin of at 
 least the earlier chapters of Genesis. 
 
 Such bias, or previous commitment is obviously un- 
 favorable to impartial investigation, nay is incompatible 
 with it. 
 
 The position is, then, here distinctly assumed. 2he 
 Pentateuch is a genmiie work of Moses the great Jewish 
 Lawgiver: and it is an authentic luork^ one to he relied 
 on, because Moses was a prophet, inspired of God I 
 
 If it was the work of Moses, then the Pentateuch must 
 have been written during the sojourn of Israel in the wil- 
 derness, i. e. in the interval between the Exodus from 
 Egypt, and the entrance of Israel into Canaan. Yet the 
 book of Genesis may, not improbably, have been written 
 before the Exodus. 
 
 The whole argument for the Mosaic origin of the Pen- 
 tateuch, is thus beautifully presented by Ern. Fred. Car. 
 Kosenmiiller, in one brief sentence. " Pentatemhum Most 
 
GENUINE AND AUTHENTIC. 153 
 
 auciori trihuit omnis Hebraica et Christiania antiquitas^ 
 rotionihus quce vel ex ipso ductce sunt opere^ vel aliis idoneis 
 testimoniis nituntury " All antiquity, Christian and Jew-- 
 ish, assigns the Pentateuch to Moses as its author, for 
 reasons which are either drawn from the work itself, or 
 which rest on other appropriate (sufficient) testimonies." 
 
 Thus, in plain terms it is declared, (Deut. xxxi, 9-18 ; 
 vers. 22, 24, 26) this whole hooh^ from the beginning to the 
 end, was written by Moses, and was delivered to the elders 
 of the people and the priests, that it might be carefully 
 preserved in the sanctuary of the tabernacle near the ark 
 of the covenant, and read in the hearing of the people, on 
 certain solemn festival days. In various parts of the 
 work itself, also, it is said, at one time, that certain laws, 
 at another, that the narrative of certain events that had 
 occurred, were, by Moses, written in the book. So, in 
 Exod. xvii. 14, the plots and the doom of the Amale- 
 kites, were, in obedience to divine command, written by 
 Moses in the book. Such is the phraseology, (the article 
 being used,) as to show that the writer speaks of some 
 one particular and well-known book. 
 
 Again, in Exod. xxiv. 4-7, after the promulgation 
 of the moral law, the decalogue, we read, " Moses wrote 
 all the words of Jehovah in the booh of the covenant^ which he 
 read to all the peopled' 
 
 Other prescriptions afterwards superadded Moses was 
 again directed to commit to writing. (Exod. xxxiv. 27.) 
 Further, Moses is said, in Numb, xxxiii. 1-2, to have 
 regulated the movements of Israel in their journeyings, by 
 divine command, and by the same command, to have re- 
 corded these movements. The book of Numbers closes 
 with these words. " These are the commandments and 
 
 1* 
 
154 THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 jiLdgments which Jehovah commanded hy the hand of Moses 
 unto the children of Israel^ in the plains of Moah^ near 
 Jericho J^ (Numb, xxxvi. 13.) 
 
 In Deuteronomy, in which are given various explana- 
 tions of, and additions to, former laws, Moses does, in 
 his several addresses to the people, speak repeatedly of 
 " this law^'' and *' t]ie hook of this law^ (See especially the 
 28th chapter, passim, and ver. 61.) 
 
 From all this it is plain, that the writer of these books 
 claims to be Moses, and asserts that Moses himself com- 
 mitted to writing the laws, and the instructions he had re- 
 ceived from Jehovah, and had communicated to Israel ; 
 and also, that the books, or rolls containing these writ- 
 ings, Moses had himself delivered to the people. 
 
 Moreover, in very many places in the other and later 
 books of the Old Testament, mention is made of " the 
 law /" " the law which Jehovah gave to Israel hy Moses^ 
 Thus, Joshua was admonished, soon after the death of 
 Moses, to " ohserve tJte law given hy Moses,^^ and habitually 
 to " read in the hook of the law of Moses. ^^ (Josh. i. 7, 8.) 
 
 So also, on a very solemn occasion, Joshua admonished 
 the leaders of Israel (Josh, xxiii 8-16,) to do all things 
 which were ^^ written in the hook of the law of Moses^^' (also 
 ver. 6.) 
 
 In the open comitia, or great assemblies of the people, 
 held by Joshua, he publicly enumerated, as facts well 
 known to all, the chief events recorded in the Pentateuch, 
 detailing them in order. He also caused the people 
 openly to renew their covenant to serve Jehovah, as 
 their God, in obedience to the law given by Moses, and 
 the account of this renewing of the covenant, he wrote, 
 and added it to the hook of the law of Qod, (see Josh. xxiv. 
 
GENUINE AND AUTHENTIC. 155 
 
 26;) which must be, beyond a doubt, the very book 
 which, in chap. i. 7-8, and chap, xxiii. 6, and viii. 32, is 
 spoken of as ^' the book of the law of Moses ,'' and again in 
 Josh. viii. 34, as " the hook of the law^^ i. e. the Pentateuch, 
 David, just before his death, exhorts his son Solomon, 
 (1 Kings ii. 3,) to observe all the precepts " written in the 
 law of MosesP 
 
 In 2 Kings xiv. 6, we are told that Amaziah, king 
 of Judah, put to death the murderers of his father, but 
 spared their children, as it is written, (^. e. enjoined,) "m 
 the hook of the law of Moses ^'' The words which follow, as 
 expressing this injunction, are the very words found in 
 Deut. xxiv. 16. In 2 Kings xxii. 8, we read of the 
 finding in the temple, by Hilkiah, the high-priest, of 
 " the hook of the law^^ which, in the next chapter, (xxiii. 2,) 
 is called " the hook of the covenant^ In 2 Chron. xxxiv. 14, 
 (which contains another account of this finding of the 
 book of the law in the temple by Hilkiah,) the book so 
 found is called yet more distinctly " the hook of the law 
 written hy Moses ;" and from this book so found, Shaphan, 
 the royal scribe, read before Josiah, the king, '''promises 
 and threatening s^^^ which could hardly have been any 
 other than those found recorded in Levit. xxvi. 3-45, and 
 Deut. xxvii. 11 to the 68th ver. of chap, xxviii., as will 
 appear from a comparison of 2 Kings xxiii. 20-23, since 
 Josiah directed the passover to be observed with all the 
 solemnities, and all the rites, which were prescribed " in 
 the hook of the covenantj^ found by Hilkiah ; and then it is 
 said in 2 Kings xxiii. 25, that no king arose equal to 
 Josiah, who turned to Jehovah with his whole hearty accord- 
 ing TO ALL THE LAW OF MosES. From all this the infer- 
 ence is inevitable, the book of the covenant found by 
 
156 THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 Hilkiah was the Pentateuch^ tlie sacred writings which in 
 Joshua, in the first book of Kings, and in the other Jew- 
 ish Scriptures down to the time of Josiah, were so often 
 mentioned as " the law of Moses^^^ *' tlie hook of the law,'''' 
 " the hook of the covenant which Jehovah gave hy Moses." 
 
 Hence it is plain that there is no ground for the posi- 
 tion assumed by certain opposers of the Mosaic origin 
 of the Pentateuch, who tell us that when in the Jewish 
 histories before the captivity, we find such phrases as 
 "the law," "the law of Moses," &c., it was an oral law 
 merely, a traditionary history, and traditionary precepts 
 alone, to which allusion was made ; a series of prescrip- 
 tions for the mode of Jewish worship, and for the regu- 
 lation of manners, handed down by tradition, and not 
 written, unless we except some detached fragments, such 
 as, possibly, the (lecahgue, the lists of names, or genealo- 
 gies, and perhaps, also, a bare outline of the journeys, 
 and the stoppings, or encampments of Israel in the wil- 
 derness. Perhaps, (they add,) these detached written 
 fragments, and these traditionary laws, had been collected 
 together and arranged in order, and committed to writing 
 by Hilkiah, in the document which he presented to King 
 Josiah, under the plausible pretext that it was found by 
 him in the temple. 
 
 These authors, ever fertile in conjecture, would have 
 us believe that this book, originating in reality with Hil- 
 kiah, though published as the work of Moses, was after- 
 wards revised, improved and enlarged by Ezra, who 
 finally issued it in the form in which we now have it. 
 But this theory is wholly untenable. Apply in this case 
 the axiom laid down by the celebrated De Wette as a 
 canon of criticism, and by which the rationalistic inter- 
 
GENUINE AND AUTHENTIC. 157 
 
 pretation is refuted. " The only means of acquaintance 
 with a history^ is the narrative we possess concerning it ; and 
 beyond that narrative the interpreter^ or the commentator^ or 
 the critic^ cannot go /" 
 
 Of what Hilkiah did in this case, we know absolutely 
 nothing but what the narrative in 2 Kings and 2 Chron. 
 tells us. 
 
 What authority has any one to say that Hilkiah forged 
 a document, a new compilation of old fragments of his- 
 tory, and of the current traditions and popular legends 
 respecting Israel and the rites of Levitical worshij), and 
 that he then palmed this forgery on Josiah as an ancient 
 document, the work of Moses, and found by Hilkiah in 
 the temple ? This notion is a mere figment, a groundless 
 fancy, an unsupported assumption, resorted to in order to 
 avoid the necessity of attributing to Moses himself, as its 
 author, the Pentateuch as we now have it. 
 
 The Jewish record says that Hilkiah/?wnc? in the temple 
 ''^ the hook of the covenant of Jehovah^ We must either 
 receive this account just as it is given, or reject it alto- 
 gether. If we reject the narrative, we know nothing at 
 all about this book of the covenant produced by Hilkiah; 
 and in that case, and then, of course, the objection 
 against the existence of the Pentateuch as a written doc- 
 ument before the time of Josiah, and that against its 
 Mosaic origin, which is founded upon this narrative of 
 the finding of the hook of the covenant in the temple by 
 Hilkiah, and its being presented by him to the king as a 
 document before unknown to the Jewish monarch and 
 to his court, fall at once to the ground. 
 
 The language in which, long before Hiikiah's time, 
 *' the law of Moses^^ is alluded to, in the Jewish sacred 
 
158 THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 books, shows clearly it was a written^ not an oral law, that 
 is there intended: for it is again and again called ^^ the 
 book of the law,^' or ^^ the book of the covenant which Jehovah 
 gave to Israel by the hand of Moses J^ Now these allusions 
 are found in passages taken from nearly every part of 
 the whole Pentateuch, as the quotations already herein 
 given may serve to show. 
 
 This theory that Hilkiah palmed off upon the king 
 a forgery of his own — a mere compilation of historical 
 fragments and traditionary legends — as a genuine work 
 of Moses, is improbable in the extreme ! It rests on one 
 or the other of two suppositions. Either, 1st. That be- 
 fore Josiah's time there was no written document known 
 as the law of Moses — this we have seen to be contrary to 
 the fact, as distinctly stated in Joshua and 1st book of 
 Kings : or, 2d. That in consequence of the impiety pre- 
 vailing during several of the preceding reigns, those of 
 Ahaz, Manasseh, and Amon, the law had fallen into neg- 
 lect ; and that every copy of the law had been lost, until 
 this document was produced by Hilkiah : nay, that even 
 this must have been a mere fragment, (probably chapters 
 xxvii. xxviii. xxix. and xxx. of Deuteronomy, contain- 
 ing the account of the renewing of the covenant on the 
 plains of Moab. Compare 2 Kings xxii. 8, 9, 11, 16, 17, 
 and ch. xxiii. ; also 2 Chron. xxxiv. 14, &c.,) and that 
 this fragment he used as the groundwork for the compi- 
 lation he prepared and presented to the King. 
 
 But this supposition is entirely gratuitous ; it is in 
 contradiction of the narrative. Moreover, it is utterly 
 incredible that every copy of the law of Moses should 
 have been lost. "Whatever the impiety of the Jewish 
 monarch and his court, there must always have been 
 
GENUINE AND AUTHENTIC. 159 
 
 found some persons among sucli a people as the Jews, 
 and particularly in tlie corps of the priesthood, and 
 among those of the tribe of Levi, (a tribe entirely de- 
 voted to the duties of religion and to the Mosaic ritual,) 
 possessed of sufficient reverence for the God of their 
 fathers, and for the institutions of their national faith, 
 to preserve with care the records of that faith by them 
 at the time possessed, and by them deemed authentic and 
 even sacred. That in such a nation such documents 
 should be unknown, even at the court, however idolatrous 
 and dissipated that court might be, is very improbable ; 
 but that every copy in the whole nation should have 
 been lost, is utterly incredible. 
 
 But suppose that even this strange and improbable 
 circumstance had occurred, viz., that every other copy 
 of the law in the whole nation had been lost, it surely 
 could not have been very difficult for Josiah, witli the 
 aid of distinguished scribes, such as Shaphan, and the 
 more intelligent and studious among the members of 
 the sacerdotal order, to determine the character of the 
 document produced by Hilkiah, by an examination of its 
 contents — a comparison of its prescriptions with the re- 
 ceived traditions, and the established forms of worship 
 — and especially from a comparison of its contents with 
 the numerous passages in the book of Joshua, and the 
 other authentic records of their national history in which 
 allusions to, and quotations from " the hook of the law of 
 Moses'' occur : unless, indeed, the advocates of the theory 
 of Hilkiah's forgery, will show also that Hilkiah altered 
 and interpolated all the sacred records of his nation, from 
 the time of Joshua to that of Josiah, in order to sustain 
 
160 THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 and give plausibility to his forgery — a task that must 
 certainly be hopeless. 
 
 The authenticity of the document produced by Hil- 
 kiah could have been readily ascertained at the time, 
 and a forgery such as is now ascribed to him, would have 
 been totally impracticable. 
 
 Nor must it be here forgotten, that the Pentateuch 
 was the statute-book of the land of Israel. It was the 
 fountain of law, the rule of justice, the reference for the 
 settlement of all disputed rights and conflicting claims 
 in all the courts of justice throughout the whole terri- 
 tory occupied by the nation, and by its every tribe. In 
 such circumstances, the supposition of the complete loss 
 of every copy of the law of Moses involves a monstrous 
 absurdity. Besides, it is certain that copies of the law 
 were not unknown to Josiah, and to his immediate pred- 
 ecessors. Manasseh, his grandfather, after a career of 
 great wickedness, (see 2 Kings xxi. 1, 16, and 2 Chron. 
 xxxiii. 1,11,) repented, and turned and served zealously 
 the God of his fathers, (2 Chron. xxiii. 11, 19.) This, as 
 a Jewish monarch, implies his careful compliance with 
 fhe precepts given in the Pentateuch. (See 2 Chron. 
 xxiii. 16.) 
 
 Moreover, this finding of " the hook of tlie covenant" by 
 Hilkiah, occurred in the eighteenth year of the reign of 
 Josiah. (2 Kings xxii. 3, comp. ver. 8.) But from his 
 very accession to the throne, while yet a mere child, Jo- 
 siah honored Jehovah, the God of his fathers, and copied 
 the example of his illustrious ancestor David, engaging 
 heartily in the effort to restore the worship of God in its 
 purity. (See 2 Kings xxii. 2, 6.) But this he could not 
 have done without consulting ^Uhe law of the Lord" i. e. 
 
GENUINE AND AUTHENTIC. 161 
 
 the Pentateuch, the books of Moses so often referred to 
 in the annals of his nation, and in the devotional songs 
 composed by his royal ancestors David and Solomon, 
 and which were chaunted daily in the temple service. 
 In these annals and sacred songs, the Pentateuch was 
 repeatedly designated as " the laiv of Jehovah given by 
 Mosesy That sacred document it was, a copy of which 
 was, by divine command, laid up in the sanctuary of Je- 
 hovah, close by (perhaps in) the ark of the covenant. 
 (See Deut. xxxi. 9, and especially vers. 25, 26.) In addi- 
 tion to all this, this venerable document was, once every 
 seven years, to be read at the feast of tabernacles, in the 
 hearing of all Israel. (Deut. xxxi. 9 ; 10. 11.) 
 
 From all this it follows, that the Pentateuch, the book 
 of the law given by Moses, could not have been unknown 
 to Hilkiah, nor to Josiah or his court. 
 
 The whole history of Josiah supposes the existence of 
 this work, as a work well known, publicly acknowledged, 
 and revered as sacred by the monarch, and by his whole 
 court. There is, therefore, great weight in the suggestion 
 made by some among the learned, that " the hook of the 
 lawj'' found by Hilkiah in the house of the Lord, was the 
 original document^ the very copy of the Pentateuch deliv- 
 ered by Moses to the Levites, shortly before his death, 
 to be by them laid up in the side of the arh^ a perpetual 
 memorial. (Deut. xxxi. 24-26.) 
 
 The finding of this precious document, The Auto- 
 graph Pentateuch, in the handwriting of Moses himself 
 — the venerable proi^het^ the revered lawgiver of their nation, 
 the founder of their faith^ may well be supposed to have 
 produced no ordinary sensation at the Jewish court. 
 Occurring as it did, also, at a time when the pious mon- 
 
162 THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 arch was busily intent on effecting an. entire reformation 
 in the nation, and a complete restoration of the ancient 
 worship in its original purity, and while that reformation 
 was still incomplete, it would naturally awaken a deep 
 interest, and call forth a more diligent search into the 
 real provisions of the holy law, as detailed in this inesti- 
 mable document I 
 
 All this will well account for the redoubled zeal man- 
 ifested by the monarch, to ascertain wherein his reforma- 
 tion, yet in progress, was defective, and to insure its full 
 completion, guided by the prescriptions laid down in this 
 ancient, this authentic document, which had sp long lain 
 unconsulted in its sacred and almost forgotten repository. 
 From the time of Joshua, the immediate successor of Mo- 
 ses, down to the reign of Josiah, the very time when, on 
 such a subject, most obscurity might be expected, we 
 meet, in the Jewish scriptures, with mention made of 
 " the laiv of Moses" " the laiu of the Lord," " the book of the 
 law" &c. In connection with these expressions we also 
 find reference to circumstances, to doctrines, precepts, 
 denunciations, and to rites and observauQes, as mentioned 
 in that law, and which we can identify with passages in 
 the Pentateuch as we now have it. 
 
 From Joshua to Hilkiah, (about B.C. 624,) this ancient 
 document had been mentioned and referred to, and 
 quoted from, in all the sacred books of the nation, the 
 public and authentic registry of their history. 
 
 Nay, the great business of the reign of this very mon- 
 arch, Josiah, had been to re-establish the rites and ob- 
 servances prescribed in this great work, the Pentateuch. 
 
 The book found by Hilkiah in the temple could not 
 have been the decalogue alone, as some have contended. 
 
GENUINE AND AUTHENTIC. 163 
 
 It was not merely the 27th and 28th chapters of Deute- 
 ronomy, containing the curses, as others have argued: 
 but it must have been a complete copy of the entire Pen- 
 tateuch, as has been shown by the learned Bertholdt^ who 
 remarks : '' The solemn celebration of the passover by 
 Josiah, according to the prescriptions of the book which 
 Hilkiah had found, proves that this book (so found) was 
 not Deuteronomy, nor any smaller subsequent compila- 
 tion, hut the whole Pentateuch. The directions respecting 
 the passover, that are found in Deuteronomy (see chap, 
 xvi. 1-8) are few and incomplete. The principal laws 
 concerning the feast of unleavened bread, which Josiah 
 must have had before him when he gave directions for the 
 celebration of his passover, are only to be found in 
 Exod. xii. 1-20, and Numb, xxviii. 16-25." But 
 Numbers and Exodus presuppose the existence of Gen- 
 esis, which is introductory to them, and without which 
 they are incomplete, and to a great extent, unintelli- 
 gible. 
 
 Furthermore, the readiness with which Josiah and his 
 court received this new-found book of the law, the rev- 
 erence with which the king consulted it, and the zeal 
 with which he set himself to obey its directions for regu- 
 lating the rites and observances of the national worship 
 in the temple, all show that this was not a 7iew wor\ be- 
 fore unknown and unheard of, as De Wette, Norton, and 
 others would persuade us. An anonymous work, of 
 doubtful origin, and previously unknown, men are not 
 wont to receive at once, as authoritative and divine ; and 
 that too, even to their own condemnation ! 
 
 But if it was, as the whole history seems to imply, the 
 venerable autograph copy of the Pentateuch, from the 
 
1<64" THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 hand of Moses himself, which had been lying, for ages, 
 in its sacred repository, in the sides of the ark ; the dis- 
 covery of this document, almost forgotten, perhaps, but 
 which, when once brought to light, could easily be iden- 
 tified in that age, in that building, (the temple at Jerusa- 
 lem, before the captivity,) and under those memorable 
 circumstances, would necessarily awaken an interest 
 strong and abiding, in the breast of Josiah, and through- 
 out his court, and thus the new impulse given by this 
 discovery to the monarch's efforts, already previously 
 commenced, for a thorough reformation of religion, is 
 quite natural, and easily understood. The language em- 
 ployed in 2 Chron. xxxiv. 14, in relating this discovery, 
 seems to favor this idea of an autograph document. *' Hil- 
 Jciah^ the priest, found a book of the law of the Lord hy Moses^^^ 
 where the word urritien^ or given^ by Moses, may well be 
 supplied. Certain it is, however, that this could not 
 have been the first appearance of the Pentateuch. 
 
 In the historical hooks of the Old Testament, subsequent 
 to the captivity, ample evidence is furnished that the Pen- 
 tateuch was in existence at that time, and that it was 
 considered as the work of Moses. When a part of the 
 Jews had returned from Babylon to Judea, we read, 
 (Ezraiii. 2,) thatJeshua, the priest, and Zerubbabel, with 
 their kindred and retainers, built the altar of " The Ood 
 of Israel^^^ to offer burnt-offerings thereon, ''''as it is written 
 in the law of Moses ^ the man of God." 
 
 Now it is in Leviticus, chapter vi. and vii., &c., that 
 the law regulating these burnt-offerings is found. 
 
 Again, at the dedication of the second temple, we are 
 told, (Ezra vi. 18,) they set the priests in their divisions, 
 and the Levites in their courses, for the service of God, 
 
GENUINE AND AUTHENTIC. 165 
 
 which is at Jerusalem, " 05 it is W7'itten in the booh of 
 MosesJ^ 
 
 With this record of what Ezra did, compare the direc- 
 tions found in Numb. iii. 6, &c., and chap. viii. 6-28. 
 Nehemiah also, in the opening of the book bearing his 
 name, (see ISTeh. i. 7, &c. &c.,) does, in prayer, confess 
 the sins of Israel, in having neglected the institutions 
 given by Moses ; and then, he pleads, on behalf of the 
 penitent Jews, the promises God had made by Moses, 
 plainly referring to Levit. xxvi. 41. Deut. iv. 26. 27, 
 28 ; XXX. 1-5, &c. See especially Deut. xxx. 3-6. 
 
 These quotations bring us down to a period within 
 about four centuries and a half, before the nativity of 
 Christ, and they completely establish this point : that, as 
 in the time of Joshua, and Amaziah, and of Josiah, so 
 now, after the return from captivity, there were extant 
 among the Jews, books to which, as authoritative in 
 the case, reference was made constantly and publicly, in 
 all that related to the national worship and to public 
 law ; books from which were quoted promises and 
 threats, as from Jehovah, the God of their fathers. It is 
 also a point established, that these boohs tt;ere, by common 
 consent, through all this long course of time, attributed to 
 Moses J the inspired legislator and prophet of the nation, as 
 their author. 
 
 And this opinion, be it remarked, was not that enter- 
 tained by a few distinguished persons only. It was an 
 opinion general throughout the nation ; an opinion that 
 had been handed down to them from their fathers, 
 through a long succession of ages. 
 
 Great weight is added to this argument, from the fact, 
 that through all this long course of time, everything re- 
 
166 THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 lating to tlie civil polity and to the religious establish- 
 ment of the Hebrews, had been regulated, even from the 
 days of Joshua, in conformity with the directions given 
 in the Pentateuch. 
 
 Sometimes, indeed, these sacred books had not been 
 duly consulted, the directions therein contained had been 
 occasionally neglected; but, after a time, abuses had been 
 reformed, and a return had been made to the standard 
 of duty laid down in the Pentateuch. Hence we find 
 that in the historical books of the Jews, those leaders of 
 the nation who conformed, and caused the people to con- 
 form, to the laws of Moses, as given in the Pentateuch, 
 are commended. Those, on the contrary, who disre- 
 garded these laws, are severely censured. Moreover, the 
 several national calamities that came upon them, and at 
 one time, almost to their extinction, are all attributed, in 
 these their national records, to the displeasure of Je- 
 hovah, in punishment of their neglect of these very laws 
 contained only in the Pentateuch. The writings of their 
 prophets also, abound with comminations against those 
 who should be guilty of neglecting, and with assurances 
 of prosperity to those who should cheerfully obey, the 
 laws of Moses as given in the Pentateuch. 
 
 Yet further is it to be remarked, that, the festivals 
 spoken of and the religious solemnities recorded, or recom- 
 mended, in their historical books, and in the writings of 
 their prophets, are all such, as had been previously in- 
 stituted, and for which ample directions are furnished in 
 the Pentatefoch. 
 
 Moreover, the authentic records of their national his- 
 tory, the devotional compositions of their sacred bards, 
 used as anthems in the solemn services of their public 
 
GENUINE AND AUTHENTIC. 167 
 
 worship, especially in ttie teraple, and the writings of 
 their prophets also, all contain frequent allusions to the 
 covenant established with their pious ancestor, Abraham, 
 as recorded in Genesis, and to events that occurred to 
 their ancestors in Egypt, at the crossing of the Eed Sea, 
 and during their migrations in the great Arabian desert, 
 and to the circumstances that attended the giving of the 
 law, especially at Mount Sinai. These allusions are so 
 numerous, so minutely particular, and so fully agreeing 
 with the accounts given in Exodus, and the following 
 books of the Pentateuch, as to show that these five books, 
 now attributed to Moses, and very much as we now have 
 them, must have been extant, well known, and highly 
 revered as sacred, among the Jews, during the whole 
 period of their national existence, from the time of 
 Joshua, immediately succeeding Moses, until the last of 
 their acknowledged prophets, and the completion of even 
 the last of these sacred books now found In our canon of 
 the Old Testament. 
 
 This point might be largely illustrated by quotations 
 from the Psalms, and all the prophets from Isaiah to 
 Malachi. As a specimen only, examine the following: 
 Josh. i. 7, &c., and compare Psalm i. 2 ; Ixxxi. 3, 5, 10, 
 11, 12 ; Psalm Ixvi. 5, 6, 7, 15 ; Psalm Ixxvii. 5, 7, and 
 11-20 ; see the whole Ixxviii. Psalm ; Psalm Ixxx. 8 ; Ps. 
 xcix. 6, 7, 8 ; ciii. 6, 7 ; Psalm cv. entire ; Psalm cxiv. 
 Bead carefully Psalm cxix. entire ; Ps. Ixviii. 2-15 ; Ps. 
 Ixxxi. 4-8, composed about the time of David. Bead the 
 whole of Psalm cv. composed perhaps in the time of Solo- 
 mon ; also Psalm Ixxviii. 1-55, of the time, probably, of 
 Eehoboam, or Adonijah. See also Psalm cvi. composed 
 about the time of the captivity. Compare also 1 Chron. 
 
168 THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 xvi. 8-23; xxii. 11, 13; 2 Kings xvii. 13, 15, 19. Pas- 
 sages of similar character, are, in the prophets, amost in- 
 numerable. 
 
 The passages in the Pentateuch referred to in these 
 Jater books of the Jewish Scripture, are not there given 
 literally ; for such was not the custom of the age : nor 
 could it be expected, in those times, when copies of books 
 were very scarce. Among the Jews, especially, such 
 literal quotation could not be expected. They were ac- 
 customed to hear the law publicly read, at their solemn 
 festivals. The impression made upon them would be 
 rather, deep as to the facts, than minutely accurate as to 
 the words : and this would be the case, even with their 
 prophets and their kings, who must, from childhood, 
 have mingled in the assemblies of the people, and on 
 whose minds the impressions of early childhood, would, 
 of course, be the deepest, and most durable. 
 
 With this remark in view compare Psalm Ixviii. 1, 
 with Numb. x. 36 ; also Psalm xcv. 7, 8, with Numb, 
 xiv. 22, 23 ; compare Exod. xxxiv. 6, 7, and Numb. xiv. 
 18 : with Psalm Ixxxvi. 15 ; Psalm ciii. 8 ; Psalm cxlv. 8 ; 
 also with Joel ii. 13, and Jonah iv. 2. Again, compare 
 Numb, xxiii. 19, with 1 Sam. xv. 29. 
 
 No one, who will examine these several passages, can 
 doubt that the writers of these psalms, of 1 Samuel, of 
 the books of Joel, and Amos and Jonah, do refer directly 
 to the corresponding places in Exodus, in Numbers, and 
 in Leviticus, respectively. The thought, the sentiment is 
 given, and almost the very words. 
 
 Take a few more examples, and compare Hos. ix. 10, 
 with Numb. xxv. 3 ; and Hos. xi. 8, with Gen. xix. 24, 25. 
 
 In Joel i. 9, 13, complaint is made that the meat- 
 
GENUINE AND AUTHENTIC. 169 
 
 offerings and the' drink-offerings were withheld from the 
 priests and from the house of God. But the law prescrib- 
 ing these offerings is found in Levit. 2d chap, and in 
 chap. vi. 14-23, &c. 
 
 Compare also, Amos ii. 9, with Numb. xxi. 20-30. 
 Compare Amos iv. 10, with Exod. iv. 3^ to Exod. xii. 
 29-31. Amos iv. 11, with Gen. xix. 24-26. Compare 
 Micah vi. 5, with Numb. xxii. 2, and to xxv. 5. 
 
 Compare also Micah vi. 6, with Levit. ix. 2, 3, &c. 
 Isaiah (i. 11-14,) enumerates feasts and religious rites, 
 precisely such as in the Pentateuch are instituted and 
 prescribed with great minuteness, in several places. Com- 
 pare also Isaiah xii. 2, with Exod. xv. 2 ; compare IIos. 
 iv. 13, and Deut. xii. 2 ; compare also Deut. xix. 14, 
 and xxvii. 17, concerning the land-mark, with Prov. xxii. 
 28, and Prov. xxiii. 10. 
 
 Compare Hos. vi. 3, with Deut. xi. 14 ; and Hos. ix. 
 10, with Deut. xxxii. 10 ; also Hos. xiv. 3, with Exod. 
 xxii. 22, 23, and with Deut. x. 18. Compare Amos ii. 7, 
 (profane my holy name,) with Levit. xx. 3 ; also Amos 
 ii. 10, and v. 25 with Deut. xxix. 5 ; Deut. viii. 2. Com- 
 pare Amos iii. 2, and Deut. xiv. 2 ; also Amos v. 11, with 
 Deut. xxviii. 30. 
 
 These quotations from nearly all the books of the Jew- 
 ish sacred writings might be greatly extended ; but these 
 are sufficient to show that in the writings of the Jewish 
 historians, prophets and sacred songsters, the books of the 
 Pentateuch are everywhere mentioned, referred to, or 
 quoted, as the production of Moses, and as entitled to 
 profound respect, because they constituted the law of 
 -Jehovah^ the gift of heaven by the hand of Moses. 
 
 Such has been the belief of the Jews in all ages and in 
 
 8 
 
170 THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 all lands : a belief handed down by tradition, and corrob- 
 orated by those references to, and quotations from the 
 work, found in all their sacred books, from the earliest to 
 the latest. 
 
 The evidence furnished by the Jewish apocryphal 
 books, which, though not inspired, are yet quite ancient, 
 goes to establish the same point. 
 
 When, at length, the Jews had become dispersed in 
 great numbers among the different nations in Europe, 
 Asia and Africa, and the ancient Hebrew, the language 
 in which the Pentateuch and their other sacred books are 
 written, was no longer familiarly spoken, a translation 
 into Greek, then the prevailing language, was made by 
 certain learned men, somewhere about B.C. 200, or pos- 
 sibly a little earlier. This translation, called the Septua- 
 gint, or version of the seventy, soon passed into exten- 
 sive use among the Jews, and from this version, the wri- 
 ters of the New Testament frequently quote. 
 
 Josephus, the Jewish historian, a few years later than 
 Christ, unquestionably recognized the Pentateuch as the 
 work of Moses ; and he represents this as the universal 
 belief of the Jews, from the very time of Moses. 
 
 To a later period it is not necessary to pursue the 
 argument. 
 
 The Samaritan Pentateuch, also, which is certainly 
 very ancient, dating, at the latest, within a short period 
 subsequent to the return from captivity, and not improb- 
 ably considerably earlier, although its origin is not 
 known with absolute certainty, is but a copy, in a differ- 
 ent and probably an older set of characters, (called by 
 some the old Hebrew, or Phoenician,) of the very same 
 books that compose the Pentateuch, as now found in the 
 
GENUINE AND AUTHENTIC. 171 
 
 Hebrew Bible, and in the Septuagint version. The 
 Samaritan Pentateuch differs, it is true, in some particu- 
 lars, from the Hebrew ; but it is sufficiently close in its 
 resemblance, to lend strong confirmation to the doctrine 
 of the Mosaic origin of the Pentateuch. 
 
 Of all the Jewish Scriptures, the Samaritans received 
 as of divine authority, the Pentateuch alone ; and that, 
 on the very ground that it was the production of Moses. 
 After the revolt of the ten tribes, and the establishment 
 of the kingdom of Israel, Samaria^ the capital of Israel, 
 sought to rival Jerusalem, the capital of Judah. A 
 temple was erected on Mount Gerizim, and a rival wor- 
 ship was there established. But though it was the policy 
 of the Kings of Israel, to encourage attendance on the 
 sacrifices, and other rites of worship established at Sa- 
 maria, so as to wean their subjects as much as possible 
 from Judah, and the temple- worship at Jerusalem, yet in 
 Samaria, as truly as in Jerusalem, the authority of " the 
 hooh of the lavj^^ given by Moses, was recognized ; and the 
 prescriptions given in the Pentateuch, were followed, 
 (except, perhaps, in the character of the priesthood,) as 
 the acknowledged law. (See John iv. 20, 22.) 
 
 This great schism among the Hebrews, instead of fur- 
 nishing the occasion for foisting in among the sacred 
 books, a spurious document, as the production of Moses, 
 must have presented increased and insuperable obstacles 
 in the way of any such attempt. For instance, what 
 King of Judah could possibly hope to succeed in the at- 
 tempt at such a fraud, so long as the Kings of Israel and 
 the people of Samaria could step forwards and expose it? 
 Such attempt, if made by either Josiah or Ezra, would 
 have been easily and at once defeated by the Samaritans, 
 
172 " THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 who could and who would have said, " Up to the time of 
 our separation into two distinct governments, we wor- 
 shipped at the same shrine, we listened to the reading of 
 the same sacred books. The books you now offer as the 
 work of Moses, the leader and deliverer of our fathers 
 from Egypt, and the promulgator of all the laws of our 
 common religion, are a new production. "We never 
 heard of them before. Our old men know nothing of 
 such a book. They have had no tradition of any such 
 book, handed down to them from their fathers. This 
 work, unheard of until now, is certainly a forgery, it is a 
 modern production, it cannot he the work of Moses ^ 
 
 Such objections and such reasonings would certainly 
 be offered, and they would be fatal to the attempt. 
 
 At no time, from the days of Joshua, would it have 
 been possible for any man, or any body of men to intro- 
 duce among the Jewish sacred records a modern work, 
 or a modern compilation of ancient fragments and tradi- 
 tions, and to gain for it the confidence and respect of the 
 nation, as a work of Moses. The imposition would have 
 been at once detected. 
 
 On solemn festival occasions, which frequently recur- 
 red, the books of Moses, i. e. the law, were publicly read 
 in the hearing of all the people. (Deut. xxxi. 9-13, 
 22, 24, 26. The first attempt thus to read publicly a 
 new production, as the work of Moses, must have pro- 
 duced immediate inquiry, and an exposure of the im- 
 position. Hilkiah could not have succeeded in such a 
 fraud, nor could Ezra ; although it is highly probable 
 that Ezra collected the sacred books, collated different 
 copies, and prepared and brought into public use, a re- 
 
GENUINE AND AUTHENTIC. 173 
 
 vised and accurate copy of these books, and especially 
 of the Pentateuch.* 
 
 It is, moreover, not improbable, that in his revised 
 edition of the sacred books, Ezra introduced the modern 
 Hebrew characters now in use, as more convenient, in 
 place of the old Samaritan, (the Phoenician, as they are 
 sometimes called,) formerly used in copies of the law, 
 and which are still found in the Samaritan copies of the 
 Pentateuch. It is also highly probable that from the 
 pen of Ezra, (himself an inspired man,) if not from the 
 hand' of Joshua previously, originated those few passages 
 in the Pentateuch, (such, e. g. as the close of Deuteronomy, 
 containing a brief account of the death and burial of 
 Moses,) which certainly could not have been written by 
 Moses himself — passages on which some of the most 
 popular objections against the Mosaic authorship of the 
 Pentateuch have been predicated. 
 
 In addition to the above argument, drawn from refer- 
 ences to the facts stated and the language found in the 
 Pentateuch, standing in all the several books of the later 
 Jewish Scriptures, down to the close of the Old Testament 
 canon, a Christian must regard it as decisive of the ques- 
 tion, in that Jesus Christ does, in very many instances, 
 speak of " Moses, ^^ of " the law of Moses, ^^ '''■Moses and the 
 prophets,^'' so as to leave no doubt at all that he was fa- 
 miliar with the Pentateuch, as we now have it. Christ 
 speaks of Abraham, of Lot, of the overthrow of Sodom 
 and Gomorrah. He speaks of Noah and the deluge ; 
 
 * " The great work of Ezra," says the learned Prideaux, (see his 
 Connec. of Sac. and Prof. History, vol. ii. p. 102,) •' was the collecting to- 
 gether, and setting forth, a correct edition of the Holy Scriptures. This 
 both Christians and Jews give Ezra the credit of." 
 
174 THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 of the bush burning unconsumed in the view of Moses ; 
 of the lifting up of the brazen serpent in the wilderness ; 
 and he speaks also of other incidents, and sayings, and 
 institutions of Moses, almost innumerable ; and he speaks 
 of them as recorded in the books that Moses wrote. So 
 far, then, from being true, that the Old Testament and 
 the New are silent as to the Pentateuch, and its author- 
 ship by Moses, the Old Testament and the New are fall 
 of evidence that Moses was, and that Moses alone could 
 be, and alone was, the writer of those very books we call 
 the Pentateuch. 
 
 It is egregious trifling to affirm, that the other ivriters 
 in the Bible frequently speak of the " law of Moses J'' but they 
 nowhere name the books of the Pentateuch. The mere name 
 by which a book is designated, is of very little impor- 
 tance. The names of the several books, as given in our 
 Bibles, are of modern origin. They are Greek — confer- 
 red, probably, by the Greek translators of the Old Tes- 
 tament. These names could not, then, have been applied 
 to any of the several books composing the Pentateuch ; 
 nor could the designation, " Pentateuch^^' which is also a 
 word of Greek derivation, and of comparatively modern 
 origin^ have been applied to these books by any one of 
 the writers of the Old Testament, and for the best of 
 all reasons, viz., these names were not in use at all ; 
 they were not invented until long after Malachi, the last 
 of the prophets, was dead. 
 
 As to the writers of the New Testament, themselves 
 Jews, the phraseology current in the nation in their day, 
 to designate the different portions of the sacred record, 
 viz., " Moses and the prophets ^'^ or " the law and the proph- 
 ets,^^ or " the law, the prophets, and the psalms,^' was neces- 
 
GENUINE AND AUTHENTIC. 175 
 
 sarily by them, employed. Even to this day, the Jews 
 have never discovered any inclination to abandon their 
 own national phraseology for that of foreigners and Gen- 
 tiles ; and least of all in relation to matters strictly Jew- 
 ish, and connected with their religion and their law. To 
 object to the Mosaic origin of the Pentateuch, the fact 
 that modern names which are now applied to its several 
 constituent parts were not employed by the ancient Jew- 
 ish prophets, historians, and bards, in times preceding the 
 first invention of those modern names, is surely a novel 
 expedient. 
 
 It reminds one of the terms in which was couched the 
 challenge made by the celebrated Prof Agassiz (the only 
 instance probably in which that distinguished naturalist 
 has evinced ignorance of the true nature of the evidence he 
 adduces to sustain the position he assumes — see Christian 
 Examiner for July, 1850,) to theologians to produce from 
 the Scriptures a single text in which the several varieties of 
 color, features, &c., now found distinguishing the Caucas- 
 ian, the Negro, the Mongul, &c., as different races are as- 
 serted to have been derived from changes introduced in a prim- 
 itively more uniform stock. This is prescribing the mode 
 in which alone a writer shall express his thoughts, and 
 that mode one in which, from the very nature of things, 
 that waiter could not have contemplated the subject, be- 
 cause it is insisting that a doctrine cannot be taught in an 
 ancient document, unless it be clothed in terms which 
 could only have originated in, and which are inseparable 
 from, the circumstances and the intellectual condition of 
 a distinct, a different, and a greatly posterior age ! 
 
 Others have contended that all the evidence adduced for 
 the Mosaic origin of the Pentateuch fails to establish that 
 
176 THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 point. They tell us, that although it may be true the 
 frequent mention of ^'the law of Moses^^ &c., made in the 
 Jewish Scriptures before the captivity, and the passages 
 from the Pentateuch cited in those Jewish Scriptures, 
 and the allusions therein contained to laws and to cus- 
 toms, now found in the Pentateuch, and in the Penta- 
 teuch alone, do not prove that the Pentateuch was then ex- 
 isting a written document, much as we now possess it, and 
 that it was then attributed to Moses as its author ; but that 
 all this well comports with the hypothesis, that the Pen- 
 tateuch is a modern compilation, not older than the cap- 
 tivity, and that it embodies, through the care of its skilful 
 compilers, certain old traditions, and orally perpetuated 
 laws, together with certain ancient historical fragments, 
 some of which may possibly have been found, recorded 
 in a rude, hieroglyphic character, on some plaistered altar, 
 pillar, or wall, that had survived the desolations effected 
 at the time of the captivity ! Tim is a hold lajpothesis^ 
 hut groundless and utterly improhable. It is a hypothesis 
 advanced in the teeth of many strong opposing facts. It 
 is advanced for the sole purpose of sustaining a favorite 
 theory, and giving plausibility to a foregone conclusion. 
 It is just about as reasonable a hypothesis as would be 
 that which should maintain that the works of William 
 Shakspeare, the great English dramatic bard, are not the 
 veritable production of the witty and versatile deer-stealer 
 in the age of the British Elizabeth, but that they are a 
 much more modern production, from the hand of a more 
 polished, though now unknown writer, who has skilfully 
 embodied in his work all the witty sayings, and striking 
 sentiments, and magnificent descriptions, and sublime 
 imagery, floating in popular tradition, or found scattered 
 
GENUINE AND AUTHENTIC. 177 
 
 over the pages of writers who flourished a little after the 
 age of the bard of Avon, which traditions and fragments 
 were generally attributed to that eccentric genius ! 
 
 To maintain such hypothesis of the modern origin of 
 the Pentateuch, is as if a person should undertake to 
 show that the Pilgrim's Progress and the Holy War were 
 not written by John Bunyan, the poor tinker and Bap- 
 tist preacher, who so long languished a prisoner in Bed- 
 ford jail. Oh no ! the preaching tinker was an illiterate 
 man, altogether unequal to the writing of works like 
 these in their pure style of nervous old Saxon English. 
 John Bunyan (it might be said) was a wonderful man 
 certainly, and endowed with no ordinary genius ; yet 
 genius alone cannot form an accomplished writer. Bun- 
 yan doubtless threw out many striking thoughts, and de- 
 tailed to his friends and associates some marvellous 
 stories, in a singularly allegorical style : still these were 
 mere detached fragments, orally delivered and orally 
 propagated ; until some accomplished and modern admi- 
 rer of this rude native genius, collected these traditionary 
 allegories, (just as Chatterton gave out that he had col- 
 lected old British ballads, and as McPherson pretended 
 that he had collected from the mouth of popular enthu- 
 siasm, the traditionary pieces he published as the Poems 
 of Ossian,) and reduced them to a regular system, giving 
 them to the world, as we now have them, under the 
 name of the Bedford tinker and preacher. 
 
 The refutation of such hypothesis would be effected in 
 a mode precisely similar to that which we pursue in prov- 
 ing that the Pentateuch was written by Moses. That is, 
 we show that the work was in existence at several suc- 
 cessive periods running back to the age of its reputed 
 
 8* 
 
178 THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 author, sustain this proof by references to the work, ad- 
 duced from other authors, or by quotations in those au- 
 thors from this work, as a work known and ascribed to 
 Shakspeare, to Bunyan, or to Moses, as the case maybe! 
 This is all the evidence the case admits of, whether as to 
 the Pilgrim, the Tempest, and Macbeth, &c., or the Pen- 
 tateuch. 
 
 All tradition, and the evidence presented in the whole 
 series of Jewish Scriptures, unite to show that the Penta- 
 teuch, substantially as we now have it, was written by 
 Moses. But if Moses wrote the Pentateuch, then it is a 
 genuine and veracious historical document, and all the 
 wonderful events it relates did really occur! If this be 
 true, then Moses wrote by commission from God; he 
 was divinely inspired! No man, assuredly, could in- 
 duce a whole nation to receive such a book, and to re- 
 ceive it as containing both the history of their national 
 origin, the law of their religion, the canon of their ritual 
 in worship, and the statute-book of their whole land ; and 
 not only thus to receive it, but also to observe with most 
 religious exactness, as the Israelites did for many ages, 
 rites so numerous, so singular, so expensive, (and so pre- 
 posterous, too, if the narrative given in these books be 
 false,) unless that nation knew^ beyond a doubt, that the 
 whole series of events related in that book was true, and 
 that the long succession of wonderful, and until then^ un- 
 heard-of prodigies, had really occurred before their own eyes, 
 just as the book describes them. 
 
 So plain is it that if Moses wrote the Pentateuch, then 
 the events therein recorded must be true, marvellous 
 though they were, that on this very ground the German 
 mythical interpreters found their strongest, and, indeed. 
 
GENUINE AND AUTHENTIC. 179 
 
 almost their only argument. They reason thus : "If 
 Moses was the writer of the Pentateuch, the narrative it 
 contains must be true : because no man could present to 
 a nation a narrative of events which he therein declares 
 had occurred to them, and appoint laws for the observ- 
 ance of certain rites, founded upon the truth of those 
 events, and persuade that whole nation to receive such 
 book, and to adopt such rites as sacred, unless that peo- 
 ple knew, with certainty, that the narrative was true. 
 But the stories given in the Pentateuch cannot he true^ 
 because a miracle is impossible^ and the Pentateuch relates 
 as facts, the occurrence of many astounding miracles; 
 therefore the Pentateuch cannot be historically true, as 
 to its facts ; and therefore the Pentateuch cannot have 
 been written by Moses. It miLst be the production of a 
 later age, after sufficient time had elapsed to allow the 
 formation and general spread of rumors, and traditions, 
 becoming more and more marvellous, as time rolled on, 
 until they could, without obvious distortion, be presented 
 in one continuous narrative of unparalleled prodigies, as 
 now found in the Pentateuch." 
 
 But certainly, we may reply, if a blank denial is thus 
 to set aside all well-ascertained tradition, and the testi- 
 mony of historical documents, then inquiry is fruitless, 
 and argument is of no value. The skepticism of German 
 mythists, in relation to the possibility of miracles, not- 
 withstanding, and their bold denial of the Mosaic origin 
 of the Pentateuch, notwithstanding, also, we must still 
 believe that the Pentateuch was written by Moses. 
 
 It is, moreover, well worthy of attentive notice, that 
 with its claim to Mosaic origin^ the character of this venerable 
 docttment well comports/ 
 
tS6 THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 The Pentateuch bears the impress of its reputed au- 
 thor, of the age in which he lived, of the admirable edu- 
 cation he had received at the court of Egypt, and of the 
 nations among whom he moved, and by whom he was 
 surrounded. It may be safely asserted, that no man but 
 Moses, or one educated as Moses was, and a contempo- 
 rary of the age in which Moses certainly lived, could 
 have written the Pentateuch. 
 
 In the descriptions therein given, and the allusions 
 made to nations and tribes of men, to historical events, 
 and to geographical matters — such as cities, rivers, coun- 
 tries — their climate, their productions, the prevailing cus- 
 toms of their inhabitants — and especially in everything 
 which, in these several respects, relates to Egypt and to 
 the regions skirting the Arabian desert, these books ex- 
 hibit ample and conclusive evidence, that they are the 
 work of one who had lived in Egypt, and who had been 
 there most thoroughly educated in the era of Egypt's 
 greatest glory and power. 
 
 This point might be largely illustrated, and it has in- 
 deed been well illustrated in the work of Ilengstenberg, 
 entitled, " Egypt and the books of Moses ;" also in 
 " Egypt, her Testimony to the Truth," by Osburne ; and 
 in " liccherches en Nuhie et en Egyjptc^'' by Ampere ; to say 
 nothing of older and more erudite authors. Moreover, 
 the statements found in the Pentateuch concerning the 
 transit of the Hebrews from Egypt, through the Red 
 Sea, the transactions near Mount Sinai, and their wan- 
 derings from place to place for many long years, in the 
 great Arabian desert, and the circumstances detailed in 
 connection with other events related in these books, are 
 found to agree well with all that can be now ascertained 
 
GENUINE AND AUTHENTIC. Wl 
 
 relative to tlie places mentioned, as they must have been 
 at that time. (See on this subject, " Tour from Thebes 
 to Sinai," by Lepsius ; passim. See Laborde's Arabia 
 and Petra; fol. passim. Paris, 1830. See Eobinson's 
 Biblical Researches. See Lynch's Expedition to the 
 Dead Sea.) 
 
 Another strong corroborative argument for the Mosaic 
 authorship of these books may be thus stated : 
 
 The plan, the arrangement of the several parts of the Pen- 
 tateuch^ the character of the compositioti, the language and 
 the very style in which it is written, all agree with the char- 
 acter of Moses, with that of the age in which he lived, and of 
 the people for whom he wrote. 
 
 The earlier portions of this work, as Genesis and Ex- 
 odus, are brief in their narrative, concise in style, and 
 simple in structure. Nor is it by any means improbable, 
 that in the earlier chapters of Genesis may be embodied 
 some ancient oral traditions, and some fragmentary his- 
 toric documents of a remote antiquity. These traditions 
 and legends, if admitted by Moses in his work, were, 
 doubtless, by him carefully selected from sources well 
 known as authentic — reduced to order — and freed from 
 all admixture of popular error and superstitious additions ; 
 and were thus by the same master-mind, Moses, so in- 
 troduced in these books, as that they justly claim respect 
 under the seal of divine inspiration ; and they demand 
 attention, as constituting an introduction to the narrative 
 of events subsequently declared in these books to have 
 occurred in the writer's own time — an introduction in- 
 dispensable to the right understanding of those events, 
 and of their bearing on the interests of the nation for 
 whom he wrote. 
 
182 THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 For, certainly, it is obvious that without the book of 
 Genesis, the causes which led to the temporary residence 
 of the Israelites in Egypt, their marvellous deliverance 
 thence, their migrations in the wilderness, and their final 
 settlement in Canaan, with all the astounding prodigies 
 that attended this their exodus, their wanderings, and 
 their permanent establishment, together with all the pe- 
 culiar rites and institutions of religion adopted among 
 the Israelites, are totally inexplicable. 
 
 The book of Genesis, therefore, and the opening of 
 Exodus, constitute a necessary preface to the remainder 
 of the Pentateuch : necessary to prepare the minds of 
 the Israelites for rendering homage to Jehovah alone, as 
 the Creator of heaven and earth — the God of their ances- 
 tors — in obedience to the laws in these very books de- 
 clared to be appointed for them, on His authority. 
 
 Moreover, in the account given by Moses of the insti- 
 tution of these laws, he records only those facts in the 
 Jewish history which must have been well known to 
 every Israelite ; facts which had given occasion to the 
 enactment of these laws and to the institution of these 
 peculiar rites, as for instance the institution of the Pass- 
 over in Egypt ; or facts which might well serve as a mo- 
 tive for the observance of the rites thus instituted, as, 
 c. g, the destruction of Corah and his abettors. 
 
 The closing book of the Pentateuch, Deuteronomy, is 
 somewhat peculiar, but perfectly characteristic of the 
 writer, and of the age to which it is attributed. It is more 
 diffuse in its style, than the other books, and it abounds 
 with repetitions. It is, indeed, just such a production as 
 we might look for, from an old man, long habituated to 
 govern and to guide a people still unsettled, somewhat 
 
GENUINE AND AUTHENTIC. 186 
 
 rude, and often refractory ; but whose interests laj near 
 his heart. 
 
 In this book (says the learned Rosenmiiller,) we hear 
 a leader near his end, recalling to the remembrance of 
 his people, all the (wonderful) events which had occurred 
 to them under his leadership, and earnestly exhorting 
 them to the scrupulous observance of those laws, and. 
 those institutions, which, by divine authority, he had es- 
 tablished among them ; while, in some few instances, he 
 repealed laws previously given, and appointed new ones. 
 In Deuteronomy, he refers to three other books previously 
 written, to the contents of which he appeals, and he 
 urges the observance of the laws therein contained; and 
 from the strange events therein recorded, he draws argu- 
 ments and reasons for obedience to those laws. 
 
 So that, without a knowledge of these other books of 
 the Pentateuch, the readers of Deuteronomy must be ut- 
 terly at a loss to understand it. The several books that 
 make up the Pentateuch, are, therefore, closely connected 
 together : they constitute the parts of one whole, and any 
 one of these parts being wanting, the work is incomplete. 
 
 The fragmentary character of a large portion of the Penta- 
 teuch^ and the diversity of style found in the different portions 
 of it, have been triumphantly appealed to,* as yielding 
 proof that these hooks cannot be the work of Moses, nor of 
 any one man, but of several persons, and probably at 
 different and distant periods. On the contrary, we con- 
 tend that the fragmentary character of a large part of 
 the Pentateuch, and the very diversity of style distin- 
 guishing the earlier from the later portions of it, are pre- 
 
 * See Appendix to Two Lectures, &c., by Dr. J. C. N., pp. 114, 116. 
 New York, 1849. 
 
184: THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 cisely such as we might expect to find in an extended 
 work, written by such a man as Moses, burdened with 
 the cares of government, and continually wandering 
 with a numerous and undisciplined people, from place to 
 place. 
 
 The diversity of style perceptible in the different parts 
 of this work, will be found on a dispassionate examina- 
 tion, to be no more than what the course of time and the 
 progress of events in the long leadership of Moses over 
 Israel, must necessarily have produced in the writings 
 of the same man. Had these books been the production of 
 different authors, or were the Pentateuch a mere compi- 
 lation of old legends and fragmentary documents put to- 
 gether by one man, the style of the different portions of 
 the work must have been greatly more varied, — betray- 
 ing the authorship of several different hands. Eosen- 
 miiller has very briefly stated this point of the argument, 
 thus, — speaking of the books following Genesis, he re- 
 marks: "Ordo rationis non ubique coramodus, et oratio 
 ipsa progreditur scepe per disrupta sine nexu fragmenta, 
 haud raro singulari clausula terminata: quoe, arguunt 
 (not a diversity of authors, but) auctorem non continen- 
 ter scribenteirij sed soepius interruptum^ qualem novimus 
 Mosen tot, tantisque negotiis obrutum, continuisque 
 migrationibus distractum." — (Proleg. in Pent. p. 6.) 
 
 The stjde of the Pentateuch is certainly not uniform ; 
 the latter portion of it, and especially Deuteronomy, is 
 more verbose, more impetuous, more hortatory, and more 
 figurative : precisely what we might expect, if its author 
 be Moses, then an old man, but still active, and deeply 
 patriotic. 
 
 The learned Jahn has remarked, on this point: " The 
 
GENUINE AND AUTHENTIC. 186 
 
 order, the arrangement of the parts, is very peculiar. It 
 is not strictly regular, and connected ; but often abrupt 
 and almost unnatural ; it often consists of successive 
 fragments, broken, unconnected, and these are sometimes 
 wound up with distinct conclusions." 
 
 This, also, is what we might look for, in the produc- 
 tion of a man like Moses, distracted by a multiplicity of 
 avocations, writing, not continuously, but with frequent 
 interruptions ; and for that very reason, terminating dif- 
 ferent parts of his work with special conclusions. The 
 latter portion of the Pentateuch partakes, obviously, of 
 the character of a journal of passing events, interspersed 
 with appropriate reflections, that are expressed mainly in 
 the form of prescription, or of admonition. 
 
 This whole work bears the impress of the progress of 
 years, during which, the writer, from varying circum- 
 stances, and advancing age, had changed his style and 
 language; sometimes writing with his own hand ; some- 
 times dictating to an amanuensis, and sometimes, even 
 incorporating into his work, certain trustworthy ancient 
 traditions, or extracts from public and authentic records. 
 All this seems plain, and almost self-evident, and it will 
 account for much of the diversity of style found in dif- 
 ferent portions of the Pentateuch. 
 
 Once more. The language in luliich the Pentateuch is 
 written, Hebrew pure as in the best days of Jewish liter- 
 ature, has been appealed to as proof that Moses could not 
 be the writer of the Pentateuch. 
 
 The argument is thus stated, '' The Hebreiu of the Pen- 
 tateuch, is almost identical vnth that of the later prophets : 
 and yet it is very improbable that the Hebreiu underwent no 
 change during the space of a thousand yeo^rs^ And certain 
 
186 THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 critics tell us that, in the books written about the time 
 of the captivity, we find forms of words, phrases, and 
 unusual significations affixed to some words, identical 
 with those found in the books attributed to Moses. (See 
 Rosenm. Proleg to Pent. p. 6, sec. 3.) So De Wette, {In- 
 trod, to Old Test. vol. ii. p. 40,) boldly asserts, ''The 
 authors of the (so-called) Mosaic hoohs^ betray themselves as 
 living at a later age.""^ De Wette is here speaking of the 
 style, and peculiarities of forms, and of phrases occur- 
 ring in the Pentateuch ; and he adduces many particu- 
 lars to sustain his position. 
 
 But, in reply to this objection^ we aver : It is asserted 
 by critics certainly as learned, as impartial, as candid, 
 and every way as competent to judge, as was De Wette, 
 or any one of all those who take the same ground with 
 De Wette, that the language in which the Pentateuch is 
 written, is certainly very ancient Hebrew ; and it is, in 
 many respects, peculiar. The few foreign words which 
 occur in it, are obviously of Egyptian origin. There are 
 very many words and phrases, peculiar to the Penta- 
 teuch, and which are not found at all in any of the later 
 books of the Jewish Scriptures. Of these forms, or 
 words, peculiar to the Pentateuch exclusively, the late 
 learned Jahn collected upwards of one hundred, and 
 this list was, in a posthumous work of his, extended to 
 above two hundred; while many other phrases, and 
 words, and forms, occurring in the later Jewish writings, 
 are not found at all in the Pentateuch. • 
 
 The language in which the Pentateuch is written, is 
 indeed very much like that employed in the Psalms, and 
 even in the later writings ; but that there is a very per- 
 ceptible difference ; that the style of the Pentateuch is 
 
GENUINE AND AUTHENTIC. 187 
 
 peculiar to itself in many important particulars, will be 
 very obvious to anyone who will attentively read, in his 
 Hebrew Bible, several successive chapters in Genesis, 
 in Exodus, and in Deuteronomy, and then read three or 
 four of the Psalms, in different parts of the book, follow- 
 ing it by reading portions in the books of Ezra, of Hosea, 
 of Malachi. Obvious points of difference will be found, 
 although it may not be easy to mention precisely wherein 
 that difference lies, with the critical skill of Jahn or of 
 Rosenmiiller. All this notwithstanding, it is cheerfully 
 conceded that there is a great similarity between the He- 
 brew of the Pentateuch and that of the later books of the 
 Jewish Scriptures ; but not greater than might naturally 
 be expected even in the writers of ages so wide apart, 
 among a people like the Jews, who, separated from all 
 other nations, by their religion, their laws, and their ab- 
 horrence of strangers, had very little intercourse with 
 foreigners, and might, therefore, be expected to retain 
 their language in greater purity, and for a longer period, 
 than almost any other nation. 
 
 Besides all this, the books of Moses constituted not 
 only the classics of their literature, but also the standard 
 of their religious belief, and further still, their ecclesias- 
 tical canon, and the law of the land. 
 
 In their solemn religious assemblies^ the books of Moses 
 were continually read, in the hearing of all the people. 
 
 In their courts of justice^ also, and in all their legal pro- 
 ceedings, civil and criminal both, the Pentateuch was the 
 statute-book, the authority uniformly appealed to. 
 
 All these circumstances would contribute to render 
 the language, and the peculiar phraseology of the Penta- 
 teuch familiar to every Jew, and would tend to keep the 
 
188 ■ THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 language of that document pure, and unchanged, in cur- 
 rent use. 
 
 Furthermore, from its very structure, it may, I think, 
 be affirmed, that the Hebrew, like most of the other ori- 
 ental tongues, is less liable to corruption and to change, 
 than are our Western dialects. 
 
 The Orient is proverbially stationary. Its customs, its 
 opinions, and its languages, like the monuments of Egypt, 
 furnish but slight indications of the effect produced by 
 rolling ages. 
 
 Of the Chinese language^ it is asserted by Dr. Marsh- 
 man, (confessedly, a competent judge in the case,) that 
 for 2000 years, Chinese writings show scarcely any per- 
 ceptible change. The language employed in the works 
 of Confucius, and that used by his commentators, 1500 
 years after him, exhibit no difference, unless it be that 
 the master is more concise in his style, than his disciples. 
 The language is the same in both. 
 
 In the character of the Arabic language^ a similar stead- 
 fastness is, by competent judges, said to appear. On a 
 comparison of the Koran with its later commentaries, 
 there is found but little change in the Arabic, from the 
 time of Mohammed. 
 
 Why, then, should the great resemblance in the lan- 
 guage employed by David, by Solomon, or by the later 
 prophets, to that of the Pentateuch, be deemed an objec- 
 tion to the Mosaic origin of that document ? 
 
 Another objection^ and the last I shall notice, is to this effect: 
 
 Language is of slow growth ; and ages are requisite to 
 bring the dialect of a rude and unsettled tribe like the 
 Hebrews to anything like the grace and flexibility of a 
 perfect language. Now the Hebrew of the Pentateuch, 
 
GENUINE AND AUTHENTIC. 189 
 
 is equal to that of the best productions of the most pros- 
 perous ages of Hebrew literature. 
 
 It is, therefore, utterly incredible, that one man, Moses, 
 the very first writer in the language, and who alone raised 
 himself to distinction, in a rude age, should have produced 
 a work, which at once presented the language he used, in 
 a state of the highest perfection, equal to the noblest of 
 all subsequent productions in that language. 
 
 But, now, a moment's reflection will show that this ob- 
 jection carries but little, if any weight. The language of 
 Homer, peculiar and characteristic though it is, is not in- 
 ferior in vigor, in expressiveness, or in the flexibility of 
 its forms, to the most polished productions of later ages. 
 
 Luther, by his writings, fixed the character of the 
 modern German. 
 
 Shakspeare, together with the English version of the 
 Bible, may be said, before and beyond all other works, 
 to have established the standard of good English. 
 
 It is well known, also, that among the savage tribes 
 roaming in the wilds of America, are some whose lan- 
 guages are so perfect in their structure, exhibiting such 
 variety in their combinations, declensions, and expres- 
 sions, such copiousness, also, in their synonyms, as can 
 scarcely be equalled, and certainly not excelled, by the 
 most cultivated languages of Europe, or even of Asia. 
 (See Humboldt.) 
 
 Let but a Luther, a Shakspeare, a Milton, or, above 
 all, a Moses arise in one of these tribes, and who shall say 
 that his literary efforts would not result in a work, the 
 standard of the language, for many successive genera- 
 tions ? Among a people like the Israelites, rude indeed 
 as to government, and the due appreciation of free insti- 
 
190 THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 tutions, and not rude as. to the arts, literature, and civil- 
 ization, since they emerged from the bosom of the most 
 civilized nation then existing, it is not wonderful that 
 Moses (certainly a man of genius, and thoroughly edu- 
 cated, aye, probably the finest scholar of that highly cul- 
 tivated age,) should, when composing a series of writings 
 which embody doctrines so sublime, narratives so touch- 
 ing, events so various and so astounding, and laws so 
 diversified and so copious, as are found in the Penta- 
 teuch, produce a work in which the language he em- 
 ployed should at once appear in almost its perfection, 
 and become the standard of the tongue, and the model 
 of succeeding writers. 
 
 The purity of the Hebrew in which the Pentateuch is 
 written, and the fragmentary character of its contents, do 
 therefore, so far from furnishing ground of objection 
 against the Mosaic origin of that document, rather con- 
 firm and complete the arguments adduced to prove that 
 Moses did write the Pentateuch. 
 
 The language is the genuine old Hebrew, with some 
 admixture, here and there, of Egyptian terms ; just as 
 we might expect to find in a work of Moses, himself a 
 pure Hebrew, a man of pre-eminent genius, and of vast 
 learning ; but of learning acquired at the royal court of 
 Egypt. 
 
 Such, then, is the character of the Pentateuch, both as 
 to its language, its contents, its style, and its whole ar- 
 rangement, that it is exactly the kind of document we 
 might have looked for from Moses, a man of pure Hebrew 
 descent, of commanding talents, great learning, and sound 
 discretion, who, while burdened with many duties, often 
 unavoidably interrupted, and harassed by frequent jour- 
 
GENUINE AND AUTHENTIC. 191 
 
 neyings from place to place, in command of a turbulent 
 multitude, busied himself in the composition of these 
 books, at intervals, during the long period of forty years ; 
 and who wrote Deuteronomy last of all, when he was 
 quite an old man, and near his end. On a careful review 
 of the whole argument we may safely aver : We have 
 not so much evidence, by a great deal, nor evidence so 
 direct, to show that the Dialogues ascribed to Plato, are 
 really his work, or that the treatise " On the JSublwie," is 
 the work of Longinus, or that Virgil wrote the ^neid 
 and the Georgics, nor that " Othelbj'' is the genuine work 
 of William Shakspeare, as we have to show that Moses, 
 the adopted son of Egypt's royal house, the Hebrew-born 
 protege of Pharaoh's daughter, the emancipator and 
 the legislator of Israel, did really write, and did deliver 
 for safe keeping to the sacerdotal tribe in his nation, as 
 his own work, his great legacy to his countrymen, the 
 Pentateuch, substantially as we now have it. 
 
LECTURE V. 
 
 GENESIS THE WORK OF MOSES, AND INSPIRED. 
 
 In tbe preceding lecture was presented the course of 
 reasoning, deemed satisfactory in proof of the position 
 that the first five books in the Bible, called the Penta- 
 teuch, or the books of Moses, were really written by the 
 great Jewish lawgiver, and by him alone. But, inas- 
 much as the main efforts of the skeptical are directed 
 against the book of Genesis, to shake our confidence in 
 its authenticity, and to show that Moses did not write it, 
 that point is discussed in the present lecture. In order 
 that the reasoning which will be adduced to establish the 
 Mosaic origin of the book of Genesis may be duly appre- 
 ciated, it is here prefaced by a brief recapitulation of the 
 argument for the Mosaic authorship of the whole Penta- 
 teuch, as one document. Thus : 
 
 Among the books we have received from the Jews, and 
 by them deemed sacred, are five, considered as constituting 
 together one work, which is, by the Jews, unanimously, 
 and has been, in all ages, attributed to their great law- 
 giver, Moses. This book, the Pentateuch, is obviously 
 very ancient. It is introductory to all the other Jewish 
 books ; and it forms the foundation on which rests the 
 system of their faith, and their peculiar rites. It is spoken 
 
GENESIS THE WORK OF MOSES. 198 
 
 of, referred to, or quoted from, in all the other Jewish 
 sacred books. On examining this work itself, we find the 
 claim therein advanced, that Moses, the great Jewish 
 lawgiver, did himself write it : and this claim is so put, 
 as to cover the entire document, the whole of the five 
 books of which the Pentateuch consists. This claim is 
 fully corroborated by the manner in which, in every 
 succeeding part of the Jewish Scriptures, from Joshua to 
 Malachi, this document is referred to as ^'•ihe law" ^'•the 
 law of the Lord^^ "^Ae hook of the law of Moses ^ That, by 
 the phrases, " the law of Hoses'^ " the hook of the law, " &c., so 
 often occurring in all the other writings of the Old Testa- 
 ment, reference is intended to the Pentateuch, the whole 
 document including the five books, as we now have it, 
 and not to any mere tradition, or oral law, or to any 
 smaller fragmentary documents, is plain, from the char- 
 acter of the phrases themselves, and from the connection 
 in which they occur. This is also yet more obvious from 
 the facts, 
 
 1st. That Moses, on its completion, publicly delivered 
 to the Levites a copy of his work, to be, by them, care- 
 fully deposited in the Ark of the covenant ; that it might, 
 with that ark, be sacredly preserved, in the sanctuary of 
 their worship. (See Deut. xxxi. 24, 25, 26.) 
 
 2d. That it was to be publicly read before all the 
 people, in certain solemn assemblies often recurring. 
 (See Deut. xxxi. 10, 11.) 
 
 8d. That in the work itself, many wonderful prodigies 
 are related, as of actual occurrence under the leadership 
 of Moses, and as being well known to all the people. 
 
 4th. That on these facts the peculiar institutions of the 
 Jews were based ; and the motives to observe these in- 
 
 9 
 
194 GENESIS THE WORK OF MOSES. 
 
 stitutions, were drawn solely from the deep conviction of 
 the truth of this statement of facts. 
 
 In a case of this kind, imposition on a whole nation, 
 was out of the question. Moreover, this very document, 
 the Pentateuch, was the statute-book of the land. It was 
 the standard authority of jurisprudence, in the practice 
 of the courts of justice, as well as the fountain-head of 
 their religious faith. 
 
 This circumstance would, of itself, render imposition 
 and the introduction, at any time, of forgeries, as the 
 genuine work of Mos^s, doubly impossible. 
 
 At no period, from Joshua to the close of the captivity, 
 could such forgery have succeeded. Hilkiah did not 
 palm, and he could not possibly have palmed on King 
 Josiah, a forged document, as the law of Moses. He 
 produced, it is probable, from its ancient repository in 
 the sides of the ark, where it had long lain almost for- 
 gotten, the autograph copy of the Pentateuch, in the hand- 
 writing of Moses himself (See 2 Kings xxiii. 8; 2 
 Chron. xxxiv. 14.) Ezra did not impose on the people a 
 compilation of his own, as the work of Moses ; such for- 
 gery would have been impracticable. Ezra merely put 
 forth a new and correct edition of the books of Moses ; 
 and probably in a copy, written out in the present He- 
 brew letters, more modern, and deemed more convenient 
 than the ancient Phoenician characters. A calm exami- 
 nation of all the facts in the case, will show to any can- 
 did mind, that at no time after the death of Moses, would 
 it have been possible for any man, however distinguish- 
 ed, or however adroit, to palm upon the confidence of 
 the people as the work of Moses, any forged books, and 
 to introduce such books into general use among them, in 
 
GENESIS THE WORK OF MOSES. 195 
 
 regulating the services of their temple-worship, and the 
 proceedings of their courts of justice. 
 
 There is not, for the authorship of any ancient book 
 in existence, evidence so full, so complete, and so con- 
 clusive, as there is for the Mosaic origin of the Penta- 
 teuch. For, to avail myself of a brief argument present- 
 ed by the industrious and judicious Jahn : — 
 
 1. The promulgation of no other ancient book was 
 equally solemn, public, and known to all contemporaries. 
 
 2. The authorship of no ancient book is equally cer- 
 tain, or, in the prevalent scarcity of books, could be 
 handed down to posterity with equal facility. 
 
 3. No other book was, like this, preserved in a public 
 and sacred place, and hallowed by the reverence of an 
 entire nation. 
 
 4. No other book received, like this, a public and per- 
 petual testimony, from the public observance of laws 
 contained in it, which were never totally and entirely 
 neglected. For, be it remembered, the laws laid down in 
 the Pentateuch were observed, (and to this day, many 
 of those laws are observed, so far as circumstances will 
 permit, by Jews in every country under heaven,) for 
 these very reasons, that they were written in the books 
 of Moses, and that they were by him promulgated, under 
 authority from that God who created the universe, and 
 who sent the deluge on a disobedient world ; and who 
 had given various ample promises to the patriarchs, a 
 part of which he had already fulfilled ; and who, finally, 
 had performed many astonishing miracles in Egypt and 
 in Arabia, as recorded in this very book, in favor of 
 the Jews, their ancestors, as His own peculiar people. 
 
 Furthermore, when, after the death of Solomon, a 
 
196 GENESIS THE WORK OF MOSES. 
 
 schism took place in the Jewish nation, even then, 
 among the schismatic Israelites, or Samaritans, a copy of 
 the Pentateuch, as the work of Moses, the common law- 
 giver of the whole nation, was carefully preserved, writ- 
 ten in the old Phoenician characters. This work has ever 
 been held in great reverence among the Samaritans, and 
 it has been perpetuated to the present day. Of this 
 Samaritan copy of the Pentateuch, a version in the more 
 modern Samaritan dialect, has long been in existence 
 among them. This work, and its version, both agree 
 substantially with the Hebrew Pentateuch. 
 
 Moreover, some century or two after the death of the 
 last of the Hebrew prophets, a version of the whole Jew- 
 ish Scriptures, and first and earliest of the Pentateuch, 
 was published in Greek, which soon passed into very 
 general use. This version is often quoted from, in the 
 New Testament. Josephus also, the Jewish historian, a 
 little after the time of Christ, bears testimony to the 
 Mosaic origin of the Pentateuch, and gives an abstract 
 of its history. Lastly, the language in which the Penta- 
 teuch is written, the pure old Hebrew, with a few Egyp- 
 tian words intermixed, the intimate acquaintance which 
 it shows its author to have possessed with the countries, 
 the people, and the customs of those times, especially of 
 Egypt, as it certainly was, when Moses lived ; and the 
 arrangement of the subject matter contained in the Pen- 
 tateuch, together with the fragmentary character of much 
 of its contents, and the difference of style perceptible 
 in the earlier and the later portions of the work, — all 
 agree precisely with what we might look for in such a 
 work, if Moses were the author ; and all these circum- 
 
GENESIS THE WORK OF MOSES. 197 
 
 stances are utterly inconsistent with the supposition of 
 any person's being the author, other than Moses. 
 
 Against this strong body of evidence for the author- 
 ship of Moses, there is no contrary and contradictory 
 evidence. They who refuse to admit the authorship of 
 Moses, base their refusal mainly on the groundless as- 
 sumption, that a miracle is impossible ; and the hypothe- 
 ses they advance as to the authorship of the venerable 
 Pentateuch, are as various as are their names. 
 
 In addition to all this is the fact, that everywhere in 
 the New Testament, the Pentateuch is spoken of as the 
 law ; it is referred to as the work of Moses ; he is said 
 to have luritten in the law ; and the facts recorded, and 
 the doctrines taught in this law in the Pentateuch, are 
 referred to as taught by Moses ; and they are argued 
 from, both by Christ himself and by his Apostles, as un- 
 doubtedly true, and as given by inspiration from God ! 
 To all, this fact must carry great weight. To a believer 
 in the divine mission of Jesus Christ, and in the inspi- 
 ration of the New Testament writers, it is decisive. 
 
 As illustrations of this point, see John i. 17 : *' The law 
 was given by Moses." In the parable of the rich man 
 and Lazarus, Christ represents Abraham as saying : 
 " They have Moses and the prophets, let them hear 
 them." " If they hear not Moses and the prophets, 
 neither will they be persuaded," &c. (Luke xvi. 29, 31.) 
 He argues that the dead will rise^ from what Moses heard 
 at the burning hush. (Luke xx. 37 : compare Exod. iii. 
 1-6. The perpetuity of the marriage bond, Christ argues 
 from the laiv of Moses. (Matt. xix. 4, 7, 8 : compare 
 Gen. i. 27, and Deut. xxiv. 1, 2, 3, 4.) Christ speaks 
 (John iii. 14) of the lifting wp of the brazen serpent in the 
 
 ^^^ Off tiij<; * <*\. 
 
 fUFIVBESITTl 
 
198 GENESIS THE WORK OF MOSES. 
 
 tmlderness. (Compare Num. xxi. 6, 9.) Christ refers to 
 Lofs escape from Sodom. (Luke xvii. 28, 29 : compare 
 Gen. xix. 24, 25.) He speaks of the feeding of Israel 
 with manna, in the wilderness, as an undoubted fact. 
 (John vi. 31, 32 : compare Exod. xvi. 14, 15, 35.) He 
 asks of the Jews, " Did not Moses give you the law V 
 (John vii. 19.) In John v. 46, 47, Christ says to thfe 
 Jews, " Had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me, 
 for he wrote of me ; but if ye believe not his writings.'^ 
 This is decisive ! Eead also the dying speech of the 
 martyr Stephen in Acts, 7th chap. See also 1 Cor. x. 
 2 : compare Exod. xiv. 22, and 2 Cor. iii. 7, 13 : compare 
 Exod. xxxiv. 29, 33. 
 
 Such was the estimation in which the New Testament 
 writers, and Jesus Christ himself, held the Pentateuch, as 
 the writing of Moses and the word of God ! 
 
 Surely, then, if any historical fact can be established, 
 it is an established fact, that Moses himself wrote the 
 Pentateuch. But if Moses wrote the Pentateuch, then 
 the miracles it records are facts, genuine historical facts, 
 not myths. They are sober truth, not fiction ; and if so, 
 then Moses, like all true prophets, wrote as "/le was 
 moved by the Holy Ghosts 
 
 Against the Mosaic authorship of Genesis, however, 
 many objections are urged, and on various grounds. 
 But Genesis is included in the Pentateuch as a constitu- 
 ent part of it ; and equally with the other four of these 
 books it has, from the first, by Jews and Christians alike, 
 been attributed to Moses. The evidence that it is the 
 work of the Hebrew lawgiver is clear and cogent ; nor 
 can Genesis be assigned to any other person, as its author. 
 It is found in every copy of the Old Testament, in 
 
GENESIS THE WORK OF MOSES. 199 
 
 every copy of the Pentateucli, and in every version of 
 both ! Almost as often as the other four books, it is rec- 
 ognized, appealed to, and quoted from, in the later 
 writings of the Old Testament, and in those of the 'New. 
 The objections now urged against its Mosaic origin are 
 entirely of modern growth ; and earnestly and ingeniously 
 have many learned men labored to prove it, or at least 
 the first eleven chapters of it, to be the production of a 
 time much later than the age of Moses. 
 
 The reasons for these strenuous and oft-repeated exer- 
 tions to disprove the divine origin of Genesis, lie, doubt- 
 less, in the supposed contrariety of its statements to cer- 
 tain alleged facts in science; and in its undoubted 
 contrariety to certain favorite hypotheses of scientific 
 men. 
 
 And yet it requires but a very moderate degree of 
 attention to the subject to satisfy a candid mind, that 
 Genesis, just as we now have it, — the first eleven chapters 
 no less than the rest — must be included in the Pentateuch, 
 as part and parcel of the work of Moses. 
 
 Genesis constitutes an appropriate, and indeed an in- 
 dispensable introduction to the other books of the Penta- 
 teuch, and to the whole Bible ; which would be lamen- 
 tably incomplete, and to a great extent, unintelligible 
 without it. 
 
 The argument presented by the learned Eosenmiiller 
 to show that Genesis was written by Moses, is so neat, 
 and so brief, that I here give it entire, especially since it 
 is conclusive as it is neat. 
 
 He first exhibits an epitome of the contents of Gene- 
 sis, thus, "The first book of the Pentateuch, known 
 among the Jews as ni;a-a (Barai-shith,) by the first He- 
 
200 GENESIS THE WORK OF MOSES. 
 
 brew word with .which it opens, and by the Greeks called 
 Genesis, from its contents, which tell of the origin of all 
 things, constitutes a kind of preface to the other four 
 books, inasmuch as it contains the things necessary to 
 be known, for understanding what is related in the other 
 books, and what is there taught respecting the worship 
 of the one God ; and it prepares the mind for compre- 
 hending the nature and the bearing (legum complexus) 
 of the laws promulgated in those four books following. 
 
 From the commencement of all things, and the first 
 beginnings of the human race, this book traces the origin 
 of the Hebrew nation. After relating the dispersion of 
 mankind over all the earth, the book restricts the history 
 to the one family of Heber, and selecting Abraham as 
 the hero, (versoque ad Abrahamum stylo,) the writer 
 busies himself almost exclusively, in the affairs of this 
 one man, and his descendants; selecting mostly those 
 occurrences which are connected with the magnificent 
 and reiterated promises of God made to those ancestors 
 of the Hebrew nation, and to those actions of these men, 
 by which their faith in God is illustrated. He points 
 out the origin of the customs which prevailed among the 
 Hebrews, (as e. g. Gen. xxxii. 32, their abstaining from 
 eating certain parts of an animal.) He indicates, also, 
 the origin of their sacrifices ; and he gives the history of 
 their rites^ as e. g. circumcision. 
 
 In the story of Joseph, this book is more diffuse, and 
 it closes with his death ; so that the Jewish readers might 
 know how it happened, that their ancestors had settled 
 in Egypt. 
 
 That this book of Genesis was written hy Moses^ and by 
 no other man, is argued, because, if Moses wrote the 
 
GENESIS THE WORK OF MOSES. 201 
 
 other four books of the Pentateuch, this first book, Gen- 
 esis, must also, necessarily, have been written by the 
 very same author, since it bears the closest connection 
 with those other books ; and if you take Genesis away^ 
 you will have a work incomplete, and headless ; a work 
 without a proper commencement. 
 
 Without Genesis, the Hebrews could not know who 
 was the God of their fathers, whom, nevertheless, they 
 honored in various modes, as their king and their law- 
 giver ! Without Genesis, they would be in utter igno- 
 rance as to what were those promises made by God to 
 their ancestors, and of which mention is frequently made 
 in the other books of Moses ; as e. g. the passages found 
 in Exod. vi. 4 ; xiii. 5 ; Deut. i. 8 ; ix. 5 ; xxix. 13 ; xxx. 
 20 ; xxxiv. 4 ; refer to Gen. xii. 7 ; xiii. 15 ; xv. 18 ; 
 xvii. 8 ; xxiv. 7 ; xxvi. 3, 4; 1. 24.* 
 
 When inculcating the observance of the primitive law 
 for keeping holy the weekly Sabbath, (Exod. xx. 11, 
 xxxi. 16, 17,) Moses does, most obviously, refer to the 
 narrative given in Gen. ii. 2, 3. Moreover, in other re- 
 spects, such an agreement may be noticed between Gen- 
 esis and the other books of the Pentateuch, as would 
 naturally be looked for, in the productions of one and 
 the same author. As illustrative of this, compare the 
 removal of the bones of Joseph from Egypt, related in 
 Exod. xiii. 19, with Gen. 1. 25. Compare also Levit. 
 xvii. 14, with Gen, ix. 4 ; and compare Numb, xxiii. 24, 
 
 * How great must be the force of a preconceived opinion, when De 
 Wette, with these facts before him, ventures the assertion : " It might 
 with equal propriety be said that Genesis was designed as an introduc- 
 tion to the Psalms, or to Ecclesiastes, as to the Levitical law. The book 
 simply records the uncertain and mythical history of the Hebrew race 
 from Adam till the descent to Egypt."— Introd. to the 0. T. vol. ii. p. 31. 
 
 9* 
 
202 GENESIS THE WORK OF MOSES. 
 
 and also Numb. xxiv. 19, with Gen, xlix. 9, and Deut. 
 ii. 5, with Gen. xxxvi. 8 : also, Deut. ii. 12, with Gen. 
 xiv. 6, and Gen. xxxvi. 20 : also, Deut. xxix. 28, with 
 Gen. xix. 24. 
 
 It is remarked that the larger part of these passages in 
 Genesis, referred to in the other books of Moses, are found 
 in the latter portion of Genesis, the part after the 11th 
 chapter of Genesis, (but yet Exod. xx. 11, and xxxi. 16, 
 17, refer to Gen. ii. 2, 8, and the prohibition of the eat- 
 ing of blood, Levit. xvii. 14, refers to Gen. ix. 14, &c.) 
 
 From this circumstance mainly, certain learned critics 
 have advanced the idea, that the first ten or eleven chap- 
 ters of Genesis, are the production of a much later age ; 
 probably about the time of the captivity. But this view 
 can by no means be sustained. 
 
 As this is a point of vital import, I beg attention to 
 the considerations I shall present. These earlier chap- 
 ters constitute an indispensable introduction to the rest, 
 which cannot be understood without them. 
 
 These earlier chapters, also, are themselves distinctly 
 referred to in several passages of the other four books of 
 the Pentateuch, as well as in the later books of the Jew- 
 ish Scriptures. In the New Testament, also, these refer- 
 ences to Genesis, and to the contents of the first eleven 
 chapters thereof, are frequent, distinct, and unequivocal ; 
 rendering it certain that Jesus Christ and his apostles, 
 and the writers of the New Testament documents, re- 
 ceived the whole book of Genesis just as it now stands 
 in our Bibles, as the work of Moses, and an inspired 
 book. If the New Testament is an inspired book, so 
 also must the whole book of Genesis be inspired, and the 
 production of Moses, undoubtedly. 
 
GENESIS THE WORK OF MOSES. 203 
 
 Christ himself^ "when explaining the law of marriage^ in 
 Matt. xix. 4, 5, refers to Gen. i. 27, and Gen. ii. 24, and 
 quotes the very words. In Matt. xxiv. 88, 39, Christ refers 
 also to the flood^ which destroyed all living creatures on 
 the face of the earth, except Noah, and those with him 
 in the ark, as related in Gen. 7th chapter, compare Gen. 
 vi. 10-13. 
 
 To this record of the flood^ Peter also refers^ 2 Pet. ii. 5, 
 and 2 Pet. iii. 6. 
 
 The writer to the Hebrews refers^ in chap. xi. 8, to the 
 creation as given, Gen. i. 1, 2 ; and in Heb. xi. 4, ref- 
 erence is made to the offering presented hy Abel, and to his 
 murder by Cain, as related in Gen. iv. 2-8. The transla- 
 tion of Enoch, recorded in Gen. v. 24, is mentioned Heb. 
 xi. 5, and is also referred to by the apostle Jude, (Jude 
 ver. 14.) Paul, also, in his letter to the Eomans, men- 
 tions the transgression of Adam, the progenitor of the whole 
 human race, (Rom. v. 14, 16, 17, 18, and more particu- 
 larly still in 1 Tim. ii. 13, 14,) *' Adam was first formed ; 
 then Eve : and Adam luas not deceived, but the woman, being 
 deceived, was in the transgression.'''' Here reference is un- 
 doubtedly made to Gen. i. 27, Gen. ii. 7, and vers. 18, 20, 
 22, and to Gen. iii. 1, 7. Further illustration of this point 
 were superfluous. If the New Testament can be authori- 
 tative in a case of this kind, then the point is settled ; 
 and the entire book of Genesis, the earlier no less than 
 the later portion of it, is the work of Moses, and is an in- 
 spired document. 
 
 It is demonstrable that under the general designations, 
 " the law,^^ " the law of Moses,"" kc, so often occurring in 
 all the historical books of the Jewish Scriptures, in the 
 Psalms, and in the prophets, Genesis, no less than the 
 
204 GENESIS THE WORK OF MOSES. 
 
 other four books of the Pentateuch, was included. To 
 make this plain, consult the following passages from 
 these later books of the Old Testament, wherein various 
 portions of Genesis are either directly quoted, or dis- 
 tinctly referred to. Thus Hos. vi. 7, " They, like Adam, 
 (in our version, like men,) have transgressed," &ic., see 
 Job xxxi. 33 : compare with Gen. iii. 9, 13. Again, with 
 Psalm xlvii. 9; cv. 9, 42. Isa. xxix. 22; Ixiii. 16. 
 Ezek. xxxiii. 24, and Micah vii. 20 : compare Gen. xii. 
 1-3, and also the 13th, 14th and 17th chapters of Genesis. 
 
 Again, compare Joshua xxiv. 3, with Gen. xxxii. 
 9; xxvi. 3, 24. Further, compare Isaiah liv. 9, and 
 Ezek. xiv. 14, 20, with Gen. vi. 8, and vii. 6 ; and 
 again. Gen. viii. 20, 22. See also Joshua xxiv. 3, 4. 1 
 Chron. xvi. 16, and Psalm cv. 9 ; also Jer. xxxiii. 26 ; 
 and with them compare Gen. xv. 4, 5 ; xvi. 2, 8. Gen. 
 xxi. 1, 4, 12 ; chap. xxv. 2, 3 ; xxvi. 2, 4. Compare 
 also Isa. xli. 8, and 2 Chron. xx. 7, with Gen. xviii. 17, 
 18. Gen. xii. 2, 3 ; xvii. 2, 4, 7 : and compare also James 
 ii. 23. Yet again with Hosea xii. 2, 3, 4, 12, compare Gen. 
 xxv. 26; xxxii. 24, 28, and xxviii. 5. Still further, 
 compare Hosea i. 10, with Gen. xxii. 17, and Gen. xxxii. 
 12 ; and compare Hosea xii. 4, with Gen. xxxii. 28. 
 
 To one who will examine into this subject, and inspect 
 the passages which may be cited, it will be abundantly 
 obvious, that in nearly all the books of the Old Testa- 
 ment and the New, Genesis — the former, no less than 
 the latter portion of it — is recognized as the writing of 
 Moses and the word of God. 
 
 But it is sometimes boldly contended that the wJiole of 
 Genesis is not the work of Moses, because, 
 
 1st. A great part of its contents are of such a charac- 
 
GENESIS THE WOKK OF MOSES. 205 
 
 ter tliat Moses could not have written it of his own knowl- 
 edge. He must have received the accounts respecting 
 the creation, and respecting persons and events before 
 the deluge, hy tradition^ current in his times, and sup- 
 posed to have been handed down from generation to gen- 
 eration : or else from old fragmentary written documents 
 relating to those obscure events. And 
 
 Because, 2d. The book itself, as it now stands, shows 
 unmistakable evidence of several different and distinct 
 documents incorporated together. 
 
 This last hypothesis let us first examine, for much 
 weight has of late years been attached to the notion that 
 Genesis is composed, to a great extent, of pre-existing 
 documents. 
 
 The celebrated Yitringa was probably one of the first, 
 if not the very first, who suggested the idea of older 
 fragmentary documents having been used in the com- 
 pilation of Genesis. In a work published at Brussels in 
 1753, entitled, " Conjectures sur les Memoir es Originaux 
 dont il paroit que Moyse s'est servi pour composer le livre de 
 QeneseJ^ &c., i. e. " Conjectures as to the Original Me- 
 moirs of which Moses availed himself in composing the 
 book of Genesis," &c., by Astruc, this conjecture of Yi- 
 tringa's was fully carried out, and the writer reckons 
 twelve such original documents, larger or smaller. Eich- 
 horn enumerated two such documents, and De Wette 
 contents himself with two. Other learned men have 
 advocated this notion ; and even Pareau, a living writer, 
 and a distinguished critic, considers it as " proved be- 
 yond a doubt, that the book of Genesis is formed of 
 various fragments, written by divers authors, and merely 
 compiled by Moses, and thus prefixed to his own history." 
 
20d GENESIS THE "WORK OF MOSES. 
 
 But from this very fact, Pareau derives an argument for 
 the truth and fidelity of Genesis, as a historical work. 
 
 The arguments on which rests this theory of older frag- 
 mentary documents having been used by Moses in com- 
 posing Genesis, are briefly these : 
 
 (1.) Every historian, in treating of times long ante- 
 cedent to his own, resorts to more ancient documents as 
 his authority ; and why should not Moses ? 
 
 (2.) It is entirely incredible that such lists of names 
 and dates as are given in Genesis, chapters v. vi. x. and 
 xi., could have been orally perpetuated. Brief written 
 documents, or memoranda, seem more likely. 
 
 (3.) Genesis contains various repetitions, or double 
 narratives of the same early events. 
 
 (4.) The various headings, inscriptions, or titles, found 
 in the earlier chapters of Genesis, (see ch. ii. 4 ; v. 1 ; vi. 
 9 ; X. 1 ; and xi. 27,) seem to authorize the idea, that 
 the portions so headed are distinct documents. 
 
 (5.) The variations of style perceptible in these several 
 documents, sustain this idea. The style is mostly dif- 
 ferent from that of Moses. (Compare Gen. 14th ch. and 
 Gen. 23d ch. : compare also ch. 5th, with ch. 10th.) 
 
 (6.) Further corroboration is lent to this hypothesis, 
 by the uniform use of the word Jehovah^ as the name of 
 the Supreme Deity, in certain of these passages or docu- 
 ments ; and the like use of the word Elohim, as such 
 name, in the others. 
 
 De Wette carries out this idea, and divides Genesis 
 into two distinct parts, designated as the Jehovah docu- 
 ment and the Elohim document. The latter he regards 
 as the chief, or original work : the parts in which the 
 name Jehovah occurs, he deems interpolations. 
 
GENESIS THE WORK OF MOSES. 207 
 
 As specimens of these two alleged different original 
 documents, take the following. As a part of the Jehovah 
 document^ in which the name Jehovah occurs, are adduced, 
 Gen. vi. 5-7 ; vii. 1-6. As a part of the Ulohirn docu- 
 ment, in which the word Elohim occurs as the name of 
 God, see Gen. vi. 12-22. 
 
 In these corresponding passages, the same event is re- 
 lated ; but the narratives differ. It may be well to be 
 reminded that when, in the Hebrew text, the word Je- 
 hovah occurs, it is generally, in our version, rendered 
 Lord, and printed in capital letters ; while the word 
 Elohim is uniformly translated God. 
 
 To a sober-minded person, who has no favorite theory 
 to sustain, or to defend, it seems marvellous that learned 
 critics should have spent so much time and labor in the 
 attempt to establish this theory : the evidence is not suf- 
 ficient to sustain it, and if it were, no result of any impor- 
 tance would follow. Most assuredly the distinct heading 
 of several different portions of the work (as Gen. ii. 4; v. 1 ; 
 vi. 9, &c.) does not prove diversity of authorship ; for the 
 peculiarity and the importance of these several passages, 
 which are chiefly genealogical tables, may well demand 
 separate headings, to distinguish them respectively. 
 
 Nor can the so-called repetitions of narratives establish 
 diversity of authorship. 
 
 They are generally introduced as a fuller account with 
 more particulars of an event which has, in more general 
 terms, been previously stated ; and are well adapted to 
 convey a clearer, because a more precise and a fuller 
 idea of the event so detailed. As, e. g. the two several 
 accounts of the creation of man, as found Gen. i. 27, 28, 
 compared with Gen. ii. 7, and verses 18-23. 
 
208 GENESIS THE WORK OF MOSES. 
 
 On these two passages a recent writer has remarked, 
 (see Dr. J. C. Nott's Two Lectures, pp. 59, 60,) ''Here 
 we have two entirely distinct accounts of the creation of man^ 
 and directly contradicting each other. ^^ 
 
 The only rational explanation of these discrepancies 
 which can be offered, adds this writer, is, that the Book 
 of Genesis is nothing more than an assemblage of very 
 ancient fragments (or traditions,) of uncertain origin^ put 
 together without order, and consequently of no historical 
 value^ (p. 60.) 
 
 A rash assertion this, and totally groundless. The 
 narratives of the creation of man, as given Gen. i. 27, 28, 
 and again, Gen. ii. 7, and vers. 18, 23, are distinct, certainly, 
 but not contradictory. The narrative in the first chapter 
 states briefly the fact, that the first pair of the human 
 race, man and woman both, were created by God on the 
 sixth day. But after the close of the sixth day the work 
 of creation was ended, as expressed by the strong figure, 
 — God rested on the seventh day. 
 
 The second chapter relates the same event, viz., the 
 creation of the first human pair, but with greater minute- 
 ness, and with sundry particulars as to the mode of their 
 creation on the sixth day, and their immediate location in 
 the garden of Eden, which could not well be introduced 
 in the brief, general account given in the first chapter, 
 which was* designed to teach us simply the fact, that the 
 whole material universe was created by the God of Abra- 
 ham; and that at some undefined period, but in the brief 
 space of six consecutive days, this our earth, was by Him 
 reduced to its present condition of sea and land, — sur- 
 rounded by the atmosphere, illumined by the sun, moon, 
 and stars. — covered with its luxuriant vegetation, and 
 
GENESIS THE WORK OF MOSES. 209 
 
 peopled by tlie countless tribes of living occupants, now 
 swarming in its waters, roaming in its forests, and bound- 
 ing over its plains, or flying through tlie yielding air ; and 
 that on the sixth day man, in the first human pair, male 
 and female, was produced, the last and crowning work 
 of God on earth. 
 
 The fact of the creation of the first human pair, and of 
 their creation by God on the sixth day, is alone stated in 
 Genesis, first chapter. 
 
 The mode of their creation, and the habitation assign- 
 ed them, are detailed in Gen. second chap. In the third 
 chap, we are told that God had planted, or arranged a 
 garden in Eden, for man's accommodation ; but it does 
 not necessarily follow that this was done after the close 
 of the sixth day. When, (as is stated in Gen. i. 11,) the 
 earth was made on the third day, to bring forth herbage 
 and trees of every variety, what should forbid the gar- 
 den spot in Eden, designed for man's first abode, to pro- 
 duce on that day, all the varied beauty that was to dis- 
 tinguish it ? 
 
 Moreover, if early on the morning of the sixth day, 
 Adam was created of the dust of the earth, (Gen. ii. 7,) 
 there would be ample time before night, for the naming 
 of the animals, (Gen. ii. 19,) and for his subsequent deep 
 sleep, and the formation of Eve. 
 
 But it is not absolutely necessary to suppose that this 
 naming of the animals took place on the sixth day, or be- 
 fore the formation of Eve, even though it is said, vers. 
 20, after the account of the naming of the animals, "ybr 
 Adam there was not found a help meet for him" any more 
 than it is necessary to suppose that the production of the 
 beasts of the field out of the ground, and of the fowl of 
 
210 GENESIS THE WORK OF MOSES. 
 
 the air, was subsequent to the creation of man ; because 
 in Gen. ii. 19, the production of the animals is again 
 mentioned, after the statement of the fact, that no suitable 
 companion for man was found. The beasts of the field 
 were, no less than Adam, created on the sixth day, Gen. 
 i. 24, 25, and may possibly have been created after man 
 was formed, though the order observed in the first chapter 
 leads us to suppose that the beasts of the field were pro- 
 duced before man. But the fowls, mentioned in Gen. ii. 
 19, in conjunction with the beasts, were certainly pro- 
 duced on the fifth day, as is expressly stated. Gen. i. 21 ; 
 so that the supplementary narrative given in Gen. second 
 chapter, decides nothing as to the order of creation, but 
 simply states the reasons why certain creative acts were 
 put forth. For man, as Lord of all on earth, the inferior 
 animals were produced ; and since before as well as after 
 their creation, their nature and capabilities were all ob- 
 vious to the Creator's eye, — as none of the inferior crea- 
 tures would be a suitable mate for man, and man would 
 see this when all should pass in review before him ; 
 therefore, of a rib taken from the side of the sleeping man, 
 God formed the woman, and that on the sixth day; 
 whether that forming of the woman preceded or follow- 
 ed the naming of the animals. The view here presented 
 of the explanatory character, of the supplementary nar- 
 rative found in Genesis, is in accordance with the judg- 
 ment of the soundest biblical expositors. Thus, the 
 learned Dr. Lightfoot, (Works, vol. ii. p. 11,) when speak- 
 ing of the production of vegetation on the third day of 
 creation, remarks, — " This day Ood plants the plcasayit 
 garden of Uden," and in a note, he adds, "The story of 
 Eden, Gen. ii. 9-14, should, in proper order, lie between 
 
GENESIS THE WORK OF MOSES. 21l 
 
 verses 12 and 13 of this first chapter. But Moses hath 
 reserved the history of that, to be handled at Adam's 
 being placed in it, because he would despatch his treatise of 
 generals^ before he comes to particulars.''^ 
 
 This one remark of the learned old Presbyterian divine 
 Lightfoot, furnishes a complete answer to all the objec- 
 tions so often and so ostentatiously urged against the 
 double narratives, the fuller statement of particulars 
 given by way of supplement to a history before more 
 briefly recorded in Genesis, as e. g. in this double narra- 
 tive of man's creation, as found Gen. i. 27-28, and Gen. 
 ii. 7, 8, 21, 22. Moses would despatch his treatment of 
 generals, before he comes to particulars. It is the natural 
 course to pursue ; it is the logical order of arrangement. 
 
 These two narratives of man's creation are indeed 
 separate and distinct, but ihei/ are perfectly harmonious and 
 consiste7it. They are not contradictory^ for the one is an 
 amplification of the other : it is explanatory of it. And 
 in every historical work we open, we find, towards the 
 closing of one account, a statement, in general terms, of 
 some important occurrence, which is afterwards related 
 anew, with ampler detail of particulars. Of this, instan- 
 ces almost innumerable might be cited. So, as if treat- 
 ing of one of a number of quite ordinary cases of the 
 kind, as a thing quite natural, and to be expected. Dr. 
 Lightfoot's opening remark (see his Works, vol. ii. p. 11,) 
 on the 2d chapter of Genesis, is, " This chapter is a par- 
 ticularizing upon some generals of the chapter preceding.-'' 
 
 The various double narratives, or repetitions of the 
 same early event, as observed in Genesis, furnish, there- 
 fore, no ground of objection against the Mosaic author- 
 ship of the entire book. 
 
212 GENESIS THE WORK OF MOSES. 
 
 Again, as to the hypothesis that separate fragmentary 
 documents must have been used in the compilation of 
 Genesis, so far as that hypothesis is founded on the use 
 of two different designations for the Supreme Being, viz. 
 Jehovah in some passages, and Elohim in others, it may 
 be observed, that this, although a somewhat remarkable 
 circumstance, is not peculiar to Genesis, nor to the Pen- 
 tateuch. It is not unusual for the same writer to apply 
 different designations to the same subject, in different por- 
 tions of the same work; and sometimes to use these 
 designations indiscriminately. This may be noticed in 
 several other books, also, of the Old Testament itself 
 For instance in Jonah, chap. iv. in verses 1, 4, the word 
 Jehovah is used as the name of God ; in ver. 6, he is 
 styled Jehovah Elohim, the Lord God : in verses 7, 8, 
 and 9, Elohim is used ; and in ver. 10, Jehovah is again 
 used. And yet no one would think of making out, from 
 this fact, that the 4th chapter of Jonah is made up of 
 several distinct documents, the work of different authors. 
 
 But the book of Genesis does itself furnish materials for 
 the refutation of this theory of two fragmentary docu- 
 ments, distinguished by the exclusive use of the word 
 Jehovah in the one, and Elohim in the other: for, in the 
 narrative occupying the whole passage from Gen. ii. 4, 
 to the end of chapter iii., the compound designation, 
 Jehovah Elohim is used. And yet, in the midst of the 
 use of this compound name, Elohim is three times used 
 by itself, in Gen. iii. 1, 3, 5 ; and in the latter part of this 
 same book, from and after chap, xxviii. ver. 10, the names 
 of Elohim, and Jehovah, are used interchangeably and 
 indiscriminately. This theory of a Jehovah document, 
 and an Elohim document, is therefore unfounded. 
 
GENESIS THE WORK OF MOSES. 213 
 
 But even if this theory were unanswerably demonstra- 
 ted, if it were proved beyond successful contradiction, 
 that the entire book of Genesis is a mere comjjilation of 
 fragmentary documents, or of such venerable documents 
 combined with oral traditions interwoven with them, this 
 would not affect the genuineness, nor detract from the 
 value, of the book, as a work compiled by Moses ; nor 
 would it impair its authority as a true history in all par- 
 ticulars, a trustworthy document in all points. If with 
 the other books of the Pentateuch, Genesis tvas delivered 
 to the Jews by Moses, that fact stamps the whole booh as au- 
 thentic, and authoritative. The character of Moses as an 
 accurate historian, an upright man, and a prophet com- 
 missioned of God, is a full guarantee, for the truth and 
 accuracy of all that he solemnly delivered to the Jews, to 
 be held as sacred books. Whether a compilation, or an 
 original composition from his own pen, matters not, — de- 
 livered to the Jews by Moses, it is sacred, it is inspired, it 
 forms a part of " the law of Moses ^ 
 
 It is worthy of remark, that all the objections urged 
 against the genuineness of Genesis as a work of Moses, 
 are based on the assumption that the author was not in- 
 spired : that in writing this book, he must have sought 
 his materials, and gained his information solely from 
 sources accessible to any writer of the times. 
 
 Admit the inspiration of Moses, and all these objections 
 die at once. 
 
 Hence the difficulty raised on the ground of the im- 
 possibility that the writer of this book could of his oion 
 knowledge, have recorded events occurring at so remote a 
 period, as the deluge, and even in the family of Adam ; 
 and that therefore he must have collected old traditions, 
 
214 GENESIS THE WORK OF MOSES. 
 
 and even ancient written documents, since the long lists 
 of names and dates in the geological tables, could not 
 possibly have been perpetuated by mere oral tradition, is 
 very easily set aside. 
 
 Moses gave to the Jews the whole Pentateuch, includ- 
 ing Genesis, as a document truthful and trustworthy ; as 
 a document essential to the right understanding of the 
 character and attributes of the God of their fathers ; and 
 as necessary to show them the relation they bore to the 
 only true God, and the service they were required to 
 render to Him. In all this, Moses claimed to be acting 
 under commission from the living God ; the credentials 
 of his mission being set forth in the wonderful events re- 
 corded in those books, the truth of which record was 
 known to the whole nation. 
 
 On the truth of these recorded facts, Moses rested his 
 high claim. 
 
 On the universal conviction, throughout the whole na- 
 tion, that these facts were all true, known by almost every 
 individual to be true, just as therein recorded, that high 
 claim of Moses was admitted, and those books were re- 
 ceived as a message from God. As such, they were care- 
 fully treasured up. A copy was kept, with the ark, in 
 the very sanctuary of the nation. 
 
 Numerous other copies were made with extreme care, 
 and were used frequently in the public reading of the 
 laws and precepts therein contained. 
 
 These laws, and the institutions set forth in this book, 
 were observed, and have been observed among the Jews 
 in all ages, since Moses to the present day, notwithstand- 
 ing the many eventful changes in their history. 
 
 The uniform testimony of their national traditions. 
 
GENESIS THE WORK OF MOSES. 215 
 
 corroborates the testimony of all their sacred writings, 
 that Moses was God's chosen servant ; and that, in giving 
 them the Pentateuch, Genesis included, he only presented 
 to them, in a permanent form, a standard copy of the doc- 
 trines taught, and the laws appointed by Jehovah, the 
 God of their fathers ! His official presentation of Gene- 
 sis to the people of Israel, was an open assertion that it 
 is truth, and inspired of God ! As such, they admitted 
 it ; as such, they have always esteemed it to this day. 
 
 Whether, therefore, the earlier events recorded in the 
 first eleven chapters of Genesis, viz., the creation, the 
 occurrences in the family of Adam, the translation of 
 Enoch, the flood, the confusion of tongues at Babel, the 
 dispersion of mankind, &c., down to the calling of Abra- 
 ham, were gathered by Moses from the traditions handed 
 down through the patriarchs, or were contained in old 
 written documents, brief historical fragments, which he 
 collected, and reduced to order, or whether these early 
 events were before unknown until communicated to 
 Moses by immediate inspiration, is of but very little 
 consequence. The decision of this point cannot affect 
 the argument for the authorship of Genesis, nor that for 
 its truth in every point. The character of Moses as a 
 prophet, and his high commission as the agent through 
 whom God communicated His will to Israel, are a full 
 guarantee for the truth of every statement found in Gen- 
 esis, as well as for the authority of every doctrine, and 
 every law laid doAvn in the other four books of the Pen- 
 tateuch. 
 
 If Moses compiled Genesis, either wholly or in part, 
 from previously existing documents, he was divinely in- 
 spired to select, arrange, to alter, expunge, or add to 
 
216 GENESIS THE WORK OF MOSES. 
 
 those documents, as truth demanded. If he received the 
 facts merely as handed down by oral tradition, he was, 
 in like manner, guided of God to receive and to record 
 the truth, tlie whole truth needed in the case, and nothing 
 hut the truth! And if Moses wrote the whole as com- 
 municated directly to him by inspiration alone, then the 
 very truth necessary to be known in the case, and the 
 truth alone, pure and free from all admixture of error, 
 must have been the result of his authorship ! 
 
 All that could have been handed down by tradition^ it 
 would have been easy for Moses to obtain, in a direct 
 line from Adam himself, and that through a very small 
 number of relaters. 
 
 From Adam to Noah, a period of about 1656 years, 
 but one intermediate link was necessary. 
 
 Methuselah lived to converse with both Adam and 
 Noah; and Lamech, the father of Noah, was fifty-six 
 years old when Adam died. 
 
 Shem connected Noah with Abraham, having lived to 
 converse with both, as Isaac also did with Abraham and 
 with Joseph ; and from Joseph these traditions could be 
 easily conveyed to Moses by Amram, who was contem- 
 porary with Joseph. (See Dr. A. Clarke's preface to his 
 Commentary on Genesis.) 
 
 Six persons, then, between Adam and Moses, would 
 have been sufficient to convey to Moses traditions from 
 the very origin of the human race. 
 
 Abundant facilities, therefore, existed for correct tradi- 
 tion, orally perpetuated, from the very first, down to the 
 great Hebrew lawgiver. 
 
 But tradition^ unaided by direct revelation from God, could 
 not possibly have supplied all that is recorded in Genesis. 
 
GENESIS THE WORK OF MOSES. 217 
 
 The original chaotic condition of the elements, and their 
 subsequent reduction to the present order of things ; the 
 successive order observed in the production of light, of 
 sea, and of dry land; of vegetable forms, and of living 
 animals, swarming in the air, the water, and on the dry 
 land ; the mode in which, and the time when Adam 
 was formed, and subsequently Eve : all this must have 
 been as unknown to Adam himself, without a revelation 
 from God, as it would be to us. For plainly, Adam 
 could not, from his own consciousness merely, after his 
 creation, nor from his observation on events thereafter 
 occurring, have ascertained the mode of his own creation, 
 from the dust of the earth ; nor the mode or the successive 
 order in which other objects around him had been pro- 
 duced, any more than Professor Agassiz, or any other 
 naturalist, however distinguished or skilful he may be, 
 can, from the structure, the habits or the locality of ani- 
 mals as observed now, ascertain the manner, the time or 
 the place of their original production. 
 
 The origin of things lies back of human observation, 
 human experience, and human consciousness ; and to pre- 
 tend to adduce demonstration^ on points so remote and so 
 inscrutable, is positively absurd. The knowledge of the 
 origin of things, must be learnt by immediate revelation 
 from God, or it must forever remain unknown. 
 
 All these, and similar facts, if included in patriarchal 
 tradition, (which is scarcely probable,) must have been re- 
 vealed to Adam by his Maker. Still, even in that case, 
 the spirit of inspiration would have been necessary for 
 Moses, {and he had it,) to preserve him from error, in 
 stating the facts he records, however these facts might 
 have reached him. We receive Genesis as a true history, 
 
 10 
 
218 GENESIS THE WORK OF MOSES. 
 
 on the authority of Moses, who selected and arranged its 
 contents, and gave it to the Jews. For Moses was a man, 
 the whole of whose illustrious career proclaimed him 
 commissioned from the God of nature, to make known to 
 the Jews and to mankind these truths, otherwise unat- 
 tainable, as well as to promulgate the laws of the Jewish 
 worship, and the decalogue^ that matchless rule of duty to 
 all mankind. 
 
 We do, therefore, still maintain the Mosaic origin, and 
 the divine authority of Genesis, no less than of the other 
 books of the Pentateuch. 
 
 As such the Jews have always esteemed it. It is found 
 in every copy of the Hebrew Bible, in the Samaritan 
 Pentateuch, and in Qwevy ancient version of the Jewish 
 Scriptures. 
 
 Genesis is indispensable as an introduction to the other 
 books of the Pentateuch, and, indeed, to all the others 
 of the sacred writings. Without Genesis, they would be 
 almost unintelligible. 
 
 If Genesis were totally lost, no existing documents 
 could supply its place. 
 
 Truths, now generally admitted as incontrovertible, 
 because taught in Genesis, would be to us lost, and un- 
 recoverable ; or if remembered, they would be held on 
 doubtful authority, unsustained by sufficient evidence. 
 
 Genesis, from the very earliest portions of it, is re- 
 ferred to ; the statements it contains are recognized as 
 true, and they are assumed as the basis of argument ; 
 and the very language of Genesis is quoted again and 
 again, in nearly every book of the Old Testament and 
 of the New ; and this is so done, as to show that Gene- 
 sis was, by all these sacred writers, regarded as a part 
 
GENESIS THE WORK OF MOSES. 219 
 
 of the writings of Moses, and a document of revealed 
 truth. 
 
 Against this strong array of evidence, the counter 
 arguments are few and feeble. The alleged impossibility 
 of its Mosaic origin, on the ground that the miracles it 
 records are fables, because a miracle is impossible, and be- 
 cause it takes a long course of ages to introduce the 
 rumor of such prodigies into popular belief and popular 
 tradition, is a mere assumption, absolutely atheistic in its 
 origin, and unphilosophical in its nature; for it involves 
 a petitio principii ; it is, in fact, a mere begging of the 
 question at issue. 
 
 The objections based on the fragmentary character of 
 certain portions of the Hebrew Pentateuch, especially 
 of Genesis, and on the traditionary character of certain 
 portions of its contents, are utterly worthless ; and for the 
 very plain reason, that the publisher of a document is 
 not necessarily the original composer of every sentence 
 it contains. The act of publishing a work endorses its 
 contents, whether historical or didactic, with the whole 
 authority of the publisher. That Moses actually pub- 
 lished, i. e. openly delivered to the Jews, the book of 
 Genesis, no less than the other four books of the Pen- 
 tateuch, as forming, together, the one authoritative doc- 
 ument, containing the truths, the doctrines and the 
 laws which Jehovah himself directed him to communi- 
 cate to them, has been abundantly proved. (See Deut. 
 xxxi. 9-13, and also verses 22-26.) That official act 
 — of so delivering this book to the Jews, — pledged the 
 character of Moses as a man, and his authority as an in- 
 spired prophet, to the truth of all contained in the entire doc- 
 um^ent, from first to last. A pledge unaffected by the 
 
220 GENESIS THE WORK OF MOSES. 
 
 mode in which he might have obtained, originally, pos- 
 session of these facts and statements ; whether by direct 
 revelation to his own mind, or by the diligent collection 
 and collation of oral traditions, by means of ancient 
 documents of written fragmentary history. 
 
 As an inspired prophet, Moses was guided to select 
 and arrange, to write and to publish the truth, and the 
 truth alone, whether revealed to him in visions and 
 dreams, or inward suggestions from God's Holy Spirit, 
 or gathered from patriarchal traditions, orally perpetu- 
 ated ; or found by him in old written documents ; 
 whether two chiefly — the Jehovah document and the 
 Elohim document, as Eichhorn supposed and as De 
 Wette contended; or whether there are a dozen such 
 original documents, used in the compilation, as Astruc 
 conjectured in 1753. However its materials may have 
 been derived, matters not. 
 
 Moses delivered Genesis to the Jews as a part of God's 
 message to them. For us, that is enough. If Moses de- 
 livered Genesis to iJie Jewish churchy in the wilderness^ then 
 Genesis must be an inspired book, and true, every part of it J 
 
 This argument, standing as it does, without an objec- 
 tion that will bear a moment's calm examination, is per- 
 fectly conclusive. 
 
 The manner in which Christ speaks of Moses, and of 
 some of the most marvellous of the events recorded in 
 Genesis, would, in the estimation of every sober-minded 
 inquirer, settle this question fully and forever, notwith- 
 standing all the subtle arguments of Strauss, and the bold 
 assertions of De Wette, echoed among us here by the 
 ephemeral writers of our day. 
 
 The question of the Mosaic authorship, and the in- 
 
GENESIS THE WORK OF MOSES. 221 
 
 spired character of the book of Grenesis, ought to be re- 
 garded as forever settled. 
 
 It is incomparably more likely that objections now 
 raised against the authenticity of Genesis, and the whole 
 Pentateuch, and against the genuineness of any part of 
 it, as the work of Moses, spring from the prejudices of 
 the objector, and from the ignorance on many essential 
 points bearing on the subject, which at this great dis- 
 tance of time, TYiust inevitably attach to even the acutest, 
 the most industrious, and the most profoundly learned 
 among these objectors, than that a whole people should 
 have received such a book as the Pentateuch, the stan- 
 dard of their religious faith, and the statute-book of their 
 nation and of their land, and should have held it in sa- 
 cred estimation through the whole long period of their 
 national existence, about 1500 years, nay, for thirty-five 
 centuries, reckoning to the present time, as the work of 
 their great Lawgiver, and should all this time have reve- 
 rently obeyed it as such, while yet, all the time, even 
 from the very first, they have been in error as to its ori- 
 gin ! The thing is incredible ! The supposition of it is 
 palpably absurd ! 
 
 It is an interesting fact, and strongly corroborative of 
 the foregoing argument for the Mosaic origin of Genesis, 
 that by many distinguished writers of pagan antiquity^ Mo- 
 ses is alluded to, and sometimes designated by name, as 
 the great original Lawgiver of the Jews, and the most 
 prominent among the ivriters of their sacred hoolcs I The 
 testimony of these ancient authors is the more important, 
 because they were, almost without exception, prejudiced, 
 not in favor of the Jews, but against them, their religion 
 and their laws. 
 
222 GENESIS THE WORK OF MOSES. 
 
 Thus Josephus, in his work against Apion, (lib. i. § 26,) 
 quotes passages from the works of Manetho, (the author 
 who furnishes the famous list of Egyptian kings and dy- 
 nasties,) and also from Cheremon, Apollonius, and Ly- 
 simmachus, besides some other ancient writers, Greek 
 and Egyptian both, works extant in his day, though now 
 lost. The passages thus quoted by Josephus, agree in 
 admitting that Moses was the leader of the Jews, when 
 they departed from Egypt ; and that he was the founder 
 of their laws. 
 
 We may be certain that Josephus quotes these passa- 
 ges correctly, because they contain, also, insinuations 
 highly discreditable to the Jews. (See also Josephus, 
 lib. i. § 32 and § 34. See also Bishop Newton on Moses 
 and his writings.) 
 
 Eusebius also (Proep. Evang. lib. ix. chap. 26, 29) pro- 
 duces passages of like import from Eupolemus and Ar- 
 topanas. 
 
 Strabo, the Geographer, also, (Geog. lib. xv.,) gives an 
 account of the law of Moses as forbidding images, and 
 limiting worship to one Invisible Being. (See also "War- 
 burton's Div. Leg. vol. i. ; and Leland against Morgan.) 
 
 Celsus, also, refers to this very passage in Strabo, and 
 frequently mentions Moses ; and alludes to various cir- 
 cumstances in the Jewish history, showing that he was 
 familiar with it. 
 
 Justin (from Trogus Pompoius,) tells us that Moses, 
 being driven from Egypt, led a band of exiles, and en- 
 camped at Mount Sinai, and there consecrated the seventh 
 day a sacred solemnity ; or, as he calls' it, a perpetual 
 fast. (Just. Hist. lib. 36. c. ii.) 
 
 Pliny the Elder (Hist. Nat. lib. 30, c. i.) speaks of 
 
GENESIS THE WORK OF MOSES. 223 
 
 Moses as an eminent magician : referring, undoubtedly, 
 to the miracles he wrought. 
 
 Tacitus mentions Moses as one of the exiles from 
 Egypt, who persuaded his companions to follow him as a 
 celestial guide. He notices his journeyings in the wil- 
 derness, the relief of the people's thirst, and their receiv- 
 ing laivs from Moses. (Tac. Hist. lib. v. c. 8, 4.) 
 
 Juvenal mentions Moses a5 the author of a volume pre- 
 served with great care among the Jews, and in which the 
 worship of images, and the eating of swine's flesh were 
 forbidden, and in which circumcision and the observance 
 of the Sabbath are enjoined. (Juv. Sat. xiv. v. 96, 106.) 
 
 Longinus cites Moses as the lawgiver of the Jews; and 
 he quotes from Gen. i. 2, '' Ood said. Let there he lights and 
 there was llght,^^ as a specimen of the true sublime. 
 (Long, de Sublim. § 9.) 
 
 Numenius, a Pythagorean philosopher of Apamea, is 
 quoted both by Eusebius (Prsepar. Evang. lib. ix. sec. xi. 
 10) and by Origen, (Orig. cont. Cels. lib. iv.,) as speak- 
 ing of Moses by the name of Mus^eus, as a leader of the 
 Jews, who, by his prayers, brought dreadful calamities 
 upon Egypt. This Numenius it is, who is reported to 
 have said that " Plato was only Moses speaking Greeks 
 (See Doddridge's Lectures : also Lardner's Testimony, 
 vol. iii.) 
 
 Josephus, in his catalogue of Jewish sacred books, 
 expressly mentions the Pentateuch, the five books, as 
 the work of Moses. 
 
 Philo, an Egyptian Jew, a little posterior to Josephus, 
 acknowledged as canonical no other books than those 
 contained in the Hebrew Bible, including the Pentateuch. 
 Philo was a cool-headed philosopher. 
 
224 GENESIS THE WORK OF MOSES. 
 
 Porpliyry, an acute, learned, and bitter enemy of 
 Christianity, admitted the genuineness of the Pentateuch, 
 and acknowledged that Moses ivas prior to the Phoenician 
 historiaiij Sanconiathon, who flourished before the Trojan 
 war. 
 
 And it is worthy of remark that, amid all the disputes 
 that arose in the first four centuries of the Christian sera, 
 between the friends and the enemies of the gospel, the 
 genuineness of the Pentateuch, as the writing of Moses, 
 seems never to have been called in question. Even the 
 Apostate, Julian the Emperor, admitted the authority of 
 the books of Moses I These objections fade away and 
 disappear, as you advance towards the time of Moses. 
 They are of modern growth exclusively. 
 
 But we are told that these, and other objections that 
 are now put forth with a triumphant air, spring from the 
 modern advance in science. So be it, then ! Base your 
 objections on scientific ground exclusively, and on that 
 ground the friends of the Bible and of Moses will cheer- 
 fully meet them. 
 
 But on the ground of criticism fairly applied to the 
 Pentateuch, as an ancient document, attributed from the 
 very first to Moses, the Jewish lawgiver, as its author, 
 the evidence is all against the objector. There is not 
 evidence so full, so appropriate, so conclusive for the 
 genuineness of the works of Herodotus, of the annals of 
 Tacitus, nor even of the Commentaries of C^Bsar, nor for 
 the work attributed to any ancient author, — no, not by 
 a vast deal, — that there is for the genuineness of the 
 whole Pentateuch, as the work of Moses. Whether en- 
 tirely the composition of his own pen, or partly made up 
 of ancient traditions collected by him, or of old historical 
 
GENESIS THE WOEK OF MOSES. 225 
 
 fragmentary documents compiled, collated, and incorpo- 
 rated into the work, matters not. Genesis, together with 
 the other four books of the Pentateuch, was by Moses, 
 an inspired prophet, publicly delivered to the Jewish na- 
 tion as a message from God. As such it was received. 
 As such it has been preserved, revered, and honored by 
 them to this day. As such it was recognized by Jesus 
 Christ and his Apostles. 
 
 The genuineness of the book of Genesis as the work 
 of Moses, is, then, beyond rational doubt. And, if a 
 genuine work of Moses, an inspired hooh, a revelation from 
 Godj it must he / 
 
 10* 
 
'^^ 
 
 LECTUKE VI. 
 
 CREATION IN SIX DAYS. 
 
 ExoD. XX. 11.—" In six days Jehovah made heaven and earth, the sea, 
 and all that in them is." 
 
 By the Israelites as they lay encamped at the foot of 
 Mount Sinai, this brief sentence was heard sounding 
 among the clouds, and the lightnings that flashed around 
 that mountain's lofty summit : heard in the awful tones 
 of Jehovah's own voice, as he spake, in the hearing of the 
 entire people, all the words of the ten commandments, — 
 the one supreme law, for the regulation of the conduct of 
 man, wherever found, in all his relations to God, to his 
 fellow-men, and to himself. These words are a history in 
 miniature^ of this world^s creation I 
 
 They were uttered, and they are recorded, as the 
 reason for the institution of the weekly Sahbath, and they 
 present the one and original ground for the observance^ by 
 maUj of one day ^ for restj after every six days' toil. " Be- 
 member the Sabbath day to keep it holy ; for^ in six days Je- 
 hovah made heaven and earthy the sea and all that in them is ; 
 and rested the seventh day ; wherefore^ Jehovah blessed 
 THE Sabbath day, and hallowed it I 
 
 Every Sabbath day you hear this declaration read, in 
 the solemn convocation of the worshipers of God. In 
 
CKEATION IN SIX DAYS. 227 
 
 cbildhood, you committed it to memory. It is taught to 
 your children. It is read in thousands of assemblies con- 
 vened for the worship of God, every week : and thousands 
 and thousands of children, in every country of Christen- 
 dom, and at scores of missionary stations in almost every 
 part of the heathen world, are taught to repeat these 
 words as true ; sacredly true ; beyond a doubt true. Is 
 the assertion herein contained really true ? And if so, in 
 what sense is it true f 
 
 Such are the points I propose now to discuss. 
 
 If the Bible be from God, as I have endeavored briefly 
 to show, then the fourth commandment contains, in these 
 words, a true account of the creation of this world. If 
 so, and if we can ascertain the genuine meaning of these 
 words, we have the truth on this great subject. 
 
 Now certain it is, that all truth, like its author and its 
 original fountain, God, is immutable, eternal, and in- 
 variably consistent with itself. No two truths can pos- 
 sibly be contradictory of each other. If, then, I have 
 found one truth^ distinctly marked, and fully proved, I 
 may safely lay that one truth up, in my heart of hearts, 
 as a jewel of priceless value, durable, incorruptible, and 
 beyond the reach of change. 
 
 Ten thousand difficulties may be thrown around it. 
 Its bearings upon, and even its consistency with, other 
 known truths, may be obscure, and beyond my ken. 
 Yet, if it be a truth, it is connected with all other truths, 
 and it is perfectly consistent with them all, and with each 
 one of them : and although I may not be able now clearly 
 to discern that consistency, and much less to point it out 
 to the satisfaction of others, yet consistent with them it 
 must be, and it is; and time will show it. 
 
228 CREATION IN SIX DAYS. 
 
 On this ground it is that the friends of the Bible, 
 deeply convinced, from evidence which is deemed appro- 
 priate, full and conclusive, that the Bible is, in sober 
 verity, a revelation from Almighty God, hold it to be 
 truth, pure and unmixed. 
 
 We do, therefore, believe, that this revealed truth must 
 be consistent with all and with every truth, be it derived 
 from what source it may. We are persuaded, that no 
 one truth which God may discover to us in his works, 
 can (by any possibility,) be found to contradict any truth 
 He has revealed to us in his word. And, therefore, 
 when, as the result of scientific investigation, or of anti- 
 quarian research, a position seems to be established, 
 which presents an aspect of hostility to any statement 
 found in the Bible, we pause^ until further investigation 
 shall yield clearer light ; perfectly satisfied that Uie truth^ 
 when really elicited by science, or when gleaned from 
 antique monuments, will be found, not to contradict, but 
 to confirm the statements made on the page of inspiration. 
 
 Thus it has always turned out hitherto, and thus we are 
 persuaded it will yet turn out in every future instance. 
 
 We worship the God made known to us in the Bible ; 
 and we hold the statements therein contained to be the 
 most certain of all truths. 
 
 A position taken, no matter what be the learning, or 
 the scientific skill, nor how world-wide may be the celeb- 
 rity of him, or of those by whom that position is taken, 
 if it he inconsistent witJi, or contradictory ofi Bible state- 
 ments, we regard with distrust. We cannot at once class 
 it with undoubted truths. We would have it subjected 
 to the most rigid scrutiny, until its real character shall be 
 ascertained beyond the possibility of a cavil. 
 
CREATION IN SIX DAYS. 229 
 
 In all past instances, the result of patient and thorough 
 investigation has justified crur firm confidence in the Bi- 
 ble, nor can we doubt that so it ever will be hereafter. 
 And yet the enthusiastic devotees of mere science charge 
 the friends of the Bible, (and especially the clergy,) with 
 being bigoted adherents to antiquated notions, opposers 
 of free investigation, and enemies to science. 
 
 A host of names might be cited in refutation of the 
 charge, such as those of Buckland, Pye Smith, Chalmers, 
 Hitchcock, not to insist on such as Mantell, Silliman, 
 Henry, Conyheare, Eichardson, Hugh Miller, Ansted, Ly- 
 ell, all friends of revelation, and communicants in the 
 Christian church, no less than eminent for scientific at- 
 tainments. 
 
 True, the friends of the Bible are not willing to have 
 crude conjectures and theories, at best but half estab- 
 lished, substituted in place of the teachings of inspiration. 
 
 We would not have wild hypotheses, which, though 
 defended by plausible arguments, are obviously not 
 proved — proclaimed to the world as demonstrated truths 
 — before which every position, previously regarded as 
 truth, is to give way the moment it is found inconsistent 
 with these novel and ever- varying theories. 
 
 As such baseless theories, it seems to me must be 
 ranked, most of those novel dogmas now most pertina- 
 ciously advocated, and industriously propagated among 
 us by means of essays, and lectures, and dissertations 
 almost daily issuing from the press, and quoted, and 
 lauded, and defended in many of our literary periodi- 
 cals and public journals. 
 
 Of such is the nebular hypothesis^ as it is termed, which 
 seeks to account for the origin of suns and of planets, 
 
CREATION IN SIX DAYS. 
 
 (our system and our earth included,) from a kind of fire- 
 mist filling the vast expanse of nature. 
 
 Of this attenuated substance, different masses are, by 
 the advocates of this theory, supposed to have been put 
 in motion, each mass revolving round its own appropri- 
 ate centre, and gradually contracting, and in so doing, 
 throwing off portions, ever and anon, which become 
 planets, each turning round upon its own centre, and 
 moving also in its own peculiar path, or orbit, around 
 the parent mass, which becomes, in due time, a sun, the 
 centre of a system comprising it, and all of the several 
 inferior masses, or satellites, thrown off from it, and 
 revolving round it. 
 
 This nebular hypothesis has been pronounced a mere 
 theory, ingenious, perhaps, but not proved, and it was 
 so pronounced by no less an authority than that of Sir 
 John Herschel. (See his Opening Address at the meet- 
 ing of the British Association at Cambridge, June 19, 
 1845.) 
 
 In regard to this nebular hypothesis, I would not be 
 understood as asserting that it may not, after all, be the 
 true one, but only that it is not yet proved to be true, 
 and it cannot, therefore, be safely used as the basis of any 
 argument. 
 
 But I do earnestly protest against the use which some 
 writers have shown themselves ready to make of this 
 hypothesis, so to account for the origin of the several 
 systems making up the universe, by mere natural causes, 
 as virtually to exclude God from all direct agency in the 
 creation. 
 
 Another of these crude hypotheses, is the doctrine of 
 development^ or of progression^ as it is sometimes designa- 
 
CREATION IN SIX DAYS. 231 
 
 ted, wliicli seeks to account for the production of all ani- 
 mals, and of man himself, by gradual progress, from the 
 simple mass of a minute jelly-point, quickened by elec- 
 tric forces, to higher and yet higher forms of organiza- 
 tion, until, finally, man appears — an improvement upon 
 his prototype, the ape, or ourang-outang. 
 
 This doctrine, though once strangely sanctioned by the 
 great name of Lamarck, has, by late writers of the high- 
 est authority, been condemned, as being not only not 
 sustained, but plainly contradicted by the latest discover- 
 ies among the fossil remains, included in some of even 
 the oldest deposits. Sir C. Lyell, speaking of this 
 theory of the progressive development of animal and 
 vegetable life, and their successive advancement from a 
 simpler to a more perfect state, asks very significantly, 
 " Has it any foundation in fact .^" and then he adds, " No 
 geologists, who are in possession of all the data now es- 
 tablished respecting fossil remains, will, for a moment, 
 contend for this doctrine, in all its details." — (Principles 
 of Geology, chap. ix. p. 131, 8th ed. 1850.) 
 
 Again he says, p. 143, " We have already vertebrated 
 animals, in the most ancient strata." Again, p. 144, 
 " In this succession of quadrupeds, we cannot detect any 
 signs of a progressive development of organization." 
 
 Consult also, Footprints of Creation, by H. Miller, pp. 
 204, 205. On this doctrine of development, Mr. Ansted, 
 in his neat work entitled, " The Ancient World," says, "In 
 making use of the word succession^ I have no intention of 
 assuming a gradual modification of species, in the way of 
 development of a higher organization, as if animals origi- 
 nally created imperfect, were subsequently, and hj mani- 
 fest gradation, at length enabled to perform functions of 
 
232 CREATION IN SIX DAYS. 
 
 a higher kind ; for this is hy no means the case^ so far as 
 the observations of geologists have hitherto been able to 
 determine," (p. 65.) 
 
 Again he says, p. 66 j " Some persons conclude that 
 there was a succession, and a gradual development of 
 higher types of existence, in a certain order of creation. 
 But, so far as geology, in its present state, affords evi- 
 dence on the subject, the facts seem decidedly opposed to any 
 such view." — (See also pp. 391, 392.) 
 
 So also the celebrated Professor Owen, in a paper read 
 before the British Association when met at Plymouth, in 
 1842, (see Report, p. 202,) remarks, — " Though a general 
 progress may be discerned, yet the interruptions and 
 faults, (to use a geological phrase,) negative the notion 
 that progression has been the result of self-developing 
 energies, adequate to the transmutation of specific char- 
 acters ; but on the contrary, support the conclusion, that 
 the modifications of osteological structure which charac- 
 terize the extinct reptiles, were originally impressed upon 
 them at their creation, and have been neither derived 
 from improvement of a lower, nor lost by progressive de- 
 velopment into a higher type." 
 
 On this subject, consult also Sir C. Lyell's remarks on 
 the celebrated theory of Lamarck. (Princ. Geol. b. iii. 
 chap. 35, 36, pp. 544-568, 8th edit. Lond. 1850.) 
 
 Testimony equally explicit and decided against the 
 doctrine of progressive development is given by Richard- 
 son, H. Miller, Ansted, Professors Owen and Hitchcock, 
 and other distinguished men, and testimony corroborated 
 by scientific facts, decisive in the case. 
 
 The theory of progressive development, may now be 
 ranked among the dreams of the past. Most laboriously 
 
CEEATION IN SIX DAYS. 238 
 
 argued, and learnedly defended, and industriously propa- 
 gated of late, has been the doctrine of a separate and dis- 
 tinct origin^ for the several differeyit races of mankind^ or di- 
 visions of the human family, a doctrine which denies their 
 descent from one human pair, the common ancestors of 
 all men ; and strange to say, this astounding dogma is 
 pronounced by men of note, in the scientific world, to be 
 not inconsistent with the teachings of the Bible ! 
 
 Another doctrine is favored, at least, by some geolo- 
 gists of name, and is boldly contended for by not a few 
 of the prominent ethnologists, and archaeologists, and 
 even by some of the historians of our day, especially in 
 France and Germany. This doctrine assigns to our globe, 
 not only as a distinct planet, but also as now consti- 
 tuted and subsequent to the last of the great cataclysms, 
 or convulsions of which geology treats, and with it as- 
 signs to man as its occupant, a vast^ an absolutely fabulous 
 antiquity^ running back, according to some, thousands of 
 ages antecedent to the date assigned to Noah's deluge, 
 and even to the date of the creation of Adam. 
 
 These, and some kindred dogmas, are conjectures at 
 best : fortified, it is true, by some few admitted facts, and 
 seconded by a great deal of plausible reasoning, but, most 
 assuredly, not proved. These several dogmas I propose 
 hereafter to examine, but not now. To us it seems but 
 reasonable and right to require that, until a position is 
 fully established as truth undeniable, it be kept under 
 advisement, and subjected to close and searching scru- 
 tiny, if it present the appearance of hostility to revelation. 
 This we ash^ and this is all we ask ! If, after thorough 
 investigation, it be found to be truth, it will not be at 
 variance with the actual teachings of the Bible. 
 
234 CREATION IN SIX DAYS. 
 
 • We contend not for any merely human system, either 
 of doctrines, or of chronological dates ; we contend only 
 for the truth of the Bible itself. 
 
 If, on any point, we have misunderstood or misinter- 
 preted the Bible, we shall gladly avail ourselves of any 
 means for rectifying our opinions, and coming at a nearer 
 and a clearer view of the meaning of God's veritable 
 teachings, let those means reach us from what quarter 
 they may. 
 
 But, if it be once shown that any one assertion made 
 in the Bible is erroneous, then my confidence in the Bi- 
 ble is shaken, and my confidence in that particular book, 
 or portion of the Bible, in' which the error is shown to 
 exist, is gone, utterly gone forever. 
 
 The Bible may still be the best, and the noblest book 
 on earth — it may contain the most ancient history that 
 is authentic, the finest thoughts, the most magnificent 
 imagery, the most spirit-stirring poetry, and the purest 
 system of morality too, (all this, the Bible certainly does 
 contain,) but if, in any part essential to its integrity as a 
 whole, it involve one false doctrine, one erroneous asser- 
 tion, it cannot be a revelation from God 1 Because God, 
 who is the fountain of all truth, can never embody a lie, 
 in a communication proceeding from Him. A solitary 
 assertion, an insulated sentence, or paragraph, (such, e. g. 
 as the story of Christ's interview with the woman taken 
 in adultery, and with her accusers, recorded in John viii. 
 3-11,) may have been foisted into the sacred record, by 
 carelessness or the mistake of early expositors and of 
 subsequent transcribers possibly such interpolation may 
 have been designedly made, from some unknown quar- 
 ter, and yet the doctrines and the history of the Bible 
 
CREATION IN SIX DAYS. 235 
 
 may remain unaffected, as it would be. in the case just 
 supposed. 
 
 But a passage, containing particulars essential to the 
 integrity of a narrative or record, which involves and on 
 which rests a doctrine, that is oft repeated in various 
 forms and in different places ; more especially if that 
 doctrine be vital to the system of religion taught in the Bi- 
 ble, cannot be shown to be unworthy of credit, without 
 shaking utterly and irretrievably, all confidence in the 
 truth of the Bible. 
 
 Such vital doctrine is, unquestionably, the common ori- 
 gin of all the races of men from one and the same human 
 pair ! 
 
 Whatever the difference of anatomical structure, color, 
 features, habits, or mental capacity now found among 
 men, all men have sprung from the one original pair 
 created in Eden, and all nations of men are of one hhod; 
 else. Genesis is a fallacious document, the epistles of Paul 
 must be rejected, especially Eomans and Hebrews, and 
 the letters to Timothy ; and the book of Acts records a 
 falsehood as truth. But if so, then the whole gospel is 
 virtually nullified. For, if there were other original 
 pairs, besides Adam and Eve, formed by the Creator as 
 the progenitors of the several races of men, then, since 
 Christ died for the children of Adam only, and since no 
 one of us can now tell with absolute certainty from what 
 race he is sprung, it must be impossible to decide who is 
 or who is not entitled to look for a participation in the 
 benefit of the Gospel salvation. Happily for our peace 
 as believers in revelation, although the naturalist may 
 conjecture^ that different races of men are indigenous in 
 different regions of the earth, the idea is a conjecture merely. 
 
236 CREATION IN SIX DAYS. 
 
 To adduce proof, is impossible ; because the grounds of 
 evidence on this subject, lie back of all experience, ut- 
 terly beyond all range of human observation. As an 
 eminent philosopher. Dr. Hutton, has said of geology : 
 " Geology treats of the changes effected on the earth's 
 surface, since its creation. About the origin of the earth, 
 it teaches, and it can teach, literally nothing^ (See Kich- 
 ardson's Geology, p. 92.) 
 
 So it is equally true of natural history : it treats of the 
 nature, the properties, and the habits of organized bodies 
 now existing, or that have existed upon the earth. But 
 of the oiijgin of those bodies, it teaches, and it can teach, 
 absolutely nothing I 
 
 The doctrine of the diversity of origin for the several 
 races of mankind, is founded on hypotJiesis merely ; it is 
 opposed by strong probabilities, and it is directly in the 
 teeth of the teachings of the Bible. 
 
 It is hare hypothesis against revelation I 
 
 Again : it has, with confidence, been asserted, that the 
 certain results of geological explorations, show conclu- 
 sively, that the heavens and the earth could not have 
 been created in the short space of six natural days — six 
 revolutions of the earth on its axis! But the Bible 
 seems to assert that so it was ; and if the teachings of 
 geology were actually inconsistent with the Bible state- 
 ment, when rightly understood, I, for one, would un- 
 hesitatingly reject geology, and keep to Moses. 
 
 But they are not at all inconsistent, as I hope to show. 
 
 True, I have not, as yet, met with any exposition of 
 the 1st chap, of Genesis, showing its accordance, in all 
 minute particulars^ with the well-ascertained results, the 
 demonstrated doctrines (as they may be designated,) of 
 
CREATION IN SIX DAYS. 207, 
 
 geology. But the great facts presented in the Mosaic 
 cosmogony, are so accordant to the great facts brought 
 to our knowledge by sound geology, that the wonder is, 
 not that we cannot discern a strict agreement in all 
 minute points, as detailed in Genesis, but that, in an age 
 so remote as that of Moses, (nearly 3,500 years since,) 
 when, as all we know of antiquity assures us, the facts 
 brought to light by modern geological research were un- 
 known and unimagined, even by the most learned, and 
 by Moses himself; still, the great Hebrew legislator, in a 
 description of the creation, comprised in a few lines, and 
 composing, altogether, but one brief paragraph, has 
 given us an outline of the events attending creation, 
 which was, from the first, and to the most ignorant 
 reader, intelligible as to the leading facts, viz., that the 
 heavens, and the earth are the production of an Almighty 
 God ; and that, after our globe had existed for some un- 
 defined period, in a mode different from the present, it 
 was, at some remote point in the past, reduced, by the 
 same Almighty God, to a condition fitted to receive its 
 present varied occupants, man included, which were, in 
 gradual succession, brought into existence, to dwell upon 
 it. And yet this brief outline of the history of creation 
 is found to be rendered not absurd, but only the clearer, 
 and the more intelligible, the further science extends her 
 discoveries, and enlarges our acquaintance with the 
 structure of this earth, and with the nature and disposi- 
 tion of its several component parts. 
 
 For, modern research has shown, that man, and the 
 existing races of animated beings, are of a comparatively 
 modern date. That the earth itself, in the various strata 
 or beds of rock, lying one above another, and which, by 
 
288 CREATION IN SIX DAYS. 
 
 different agencies, have been made accessible to our re- 
 search, contains the remains of several successive races 
 of animal occupants of this globe, which lived and 
 flourished, each race during its appropriate period, and 
 which perished, by successive convulsions of nature, that 
 left their remains, the proof of their existence, imbedded 
 in the soil they had occupied ; left there, when it was 
 submerged, time and again, beneath the invading waters 
 of the great deep. 
 
 Extensive observations, made with great care, by 
 many independent and competent explorers, and made 
 in almost every region of the earth, throughout the 
 length and breadth of Europe, in Northern Africa, in 
 Kussia, in Hindostan, in Arabia, in Palestine, in Egypt, 
 in the West Indies, and over a large part of both North 
 and South America, yield similar results. On this sub- 
 ject, therefore, there is no room left for doubt. This 
 earth must have been existing for many long ages. It 
 has been tenanted by many successive races of living 
 occupants, and it was subjected to several great and 
 vastly extensive changes on its surface, in periods of 
 time, running back, it may be for thousands or possibly 
 for millions of ages, before man was created on the earth. 
 
 Now Moses tells us that in the beginning God created 
 the heavens and the earth. This declaration is perfectly 
 intelligible, and quite reasonable. But, how far back 
 before our time, or before the creation of man, this begin- 
 ning may have been, Moses does not say ; nor does he 
 furnish any data on which we might found a computation 
 as to the interval between that beginning and our time. 
 
 The next statement Moses makes is, that this earth 
 was without form, and void, and covered with darkness, 
 
CKEATION IN SIX DAYS. 239 
 
 land and water being commingled in one chaotic mass. 
 And from this state it was, that the earth was gradually 
 reduced to its present condition, and peopled with its 
 present occupants, at the period with which his history 
 commences. Moses does not say that such was the con- 
 dition of the earth when it was first brought into being, 
 and that God proceeded immedirMy to prepare it for the 
 reception of man. His narrative is not inconsistent with 
 the idea of myriads of ages between the first creation of 
 the earth and the chaotic state immediately preceding the 
 creation of man, and of the living races, his contempo- 
 raries. And a very long interval geological facts cer- 
 tainly require us to suppose. 
 
 So far, then, there is entire harmony between the de- 
 ductions of science and the teachings of Genesis. This 
 agreement has, again and again, been pointed out by 
 distinguished scholars in the scientific world. 
 
 Thus says Richardson, in his classical work, modestly 
 entitled, " Geology for Beginners," (2d edit. p. 82 :) 
 "Among the most valuable and most satisfactory of 
 the first lessons taught by geology, must be enumerated 
 the conviction, which its very earliest inquiries serve to 
 convey, of the perfect harmony of the science with reve- 
 lation, and the groundless nature of those fears which 
 many well-meaning, but mistaken persons, so needlessly 
 entertain, of the possibility of collision between the two." 
 " It may sufiice to dispel such fears, if we state, that in 
 all essential points, and we would particularly instance 
 the date of the creation ofman^ we find the records of Scrip- 
 ture fully and completely confirmed by the evidence of 
 physical facts." (p. 84.) 
 
 Professor Silliman, of Yale College, in his Introduc- 
 
240 CREATION IN SIX DAYS. 
 
 tion to the American edition of Dr. Mantell's Wonders 
 of Creation, remarks : " While the science of astronomy 
 is, in fact, inconsistent with the apparent movements of 
 the heavens, and therefore with the popular phraseology 
 of the Scriptures, if taken literally, which allude to 
 physical objects as they appear to the uninstructed mind, 
 not as they are in reality ; so that now, all agree in un- 
 derstanding the language of the Scriptures as being ap- 
 plied to the appearances of the heavens, of which alone 
 mankind in general can form any just conception ; geol- 
 ogy presents not even this discrepancy, but, on the con- 
 trary, a substantial agreement in its facts, with the Scrip- 
 ture !" Again : " The Scripture declares, there was a he- 
 ginning ; and geology proves that there was a time when 
 neither plants, nor animals, nor man existed." Again : 
 " The consistency of geology with the early Scripture 
 history, is susceptible of a perfect and triumphant de- 
 fence." (Vol. i. p. 23, Mantell's Wonders of Geology, 
 6th edit. London, 1848.) 
 
 Dr. Mantell himself remarks, that while the Bible re- 
 veals to us the moral history and destiny of our race, and 
 instructs us that the existing races of beings have inhab- 
 ited the earth but a few thousand years, the physical 
 monuments of our globe bear witness to the same truth." 
 (Vol. i. p. 29.) 
 
 The celebrated Bishop Berkeley, who lived before the 
 discoveries of geology burst upon the scientific world, 
 could, (as appears from an eloquent passage cited by 
 Lyell, in the 5th edition of his Principles of Geology, 
 vol. iii. p. 250,) even from the limited knowledge of fos- 
 sil remains then obtained, perceive that the frame of our 
 globe must be of vast antiquity ; and yet he regards that 
 
CREATION IN" SIX DAYS. 241 
 
 antiquity as no way inconsistent with the historical ac- 
 count of events recorded in the book of Genesis. (See 
 also Lyell's Princ. of Geol. 8th edit. London, 1850, 
 p. 789.) 
 
 The great English geologist, Sir C. Lyell, does, in the 
 8th edition of his Principles (1850) express, although in 
 measured terms, a similar judgment, as to the harmony 
 of geology and the Bible. He argues, at length, the 
 recent origin of man, (pp. 144, 145.) In the conclu- 
 ding remarks he says: " We admit the creation of man to 
 have occurred at a comparatively modern epochJ'' (p. 773.) 
 Again, on p. 740, stands this striking observation, " That 
 many signs of the agency of man would have lasted at 
 least as long as ' the shells of the primitive world^ had our 
 race been as ancient, we may feel fully persuaded, as was 
 Berkeley." 
 
 In relation to the harmony of science and revelation, 
 as to the creation of man, the present learned Bishop of 
 London has eloquently remarked, in one of his sermons : 
 "As we are not called upon by Scripture to admit, so 
 neither are we required to deny, the supposition, that the 
 matter, without form and void, out of which the globe 
 was formed, may have consisted of the wreck and relics 
 of more ancient worlds, created and destroyed, by the 
 same Almighty Power, which called our world into be- 
 ing, and will, one day, cause it to pass away I" 
 
 Mr. Eichardson also says, "The comparatively modern 
 period of the creation of man, and the inferior age of our 
 race, to that of the globe which we inhabit, is a fact re- 
 vealed by Scripture, and confirmed by science." The 
 same internal evidence which convinces us of the extreme 
 antiquity of our planet, affords the like satisfactory proof 
 
 11 
 
242 CREATION IN SIX DAYS. 
 
 of the comparatively modern period of the origin of our 
 species. (Geol. p. 89.) 
 
 But after all, Moses certainly does say, that ^^ in six days 
 Jehovah made heaven and earthy the sea and all that in them 
 w;" which seems to imply that the entire universe was 
 produced, and fashioned to its present form, in the brief 
 period of six days, from the first creative act. 
 
 Such was long the understanding of the passage, and 
 such is still the interpretation that many good men give 
 it ; and certain it is, that the phrase " the heavens and the 
 earth,^^ is often used in the Bible, to denote the entire 
 universe, the whole material creation. 
 
 If this were plainly and necessarily, the only interpre- 
 tation the passage will bear, then the teachings of Moses 
 would be inconsistent with the conclusions drawn from 
 the facts of geology ; and, in that case, no alternative 
 would be left us: we must either reject the Pentateuch, 
 or reject the doctrines of geology. 
 
 Now certainly, in the interpretation of a document so 
 ancient as is the Pentateuch, and that too, in relation to 
 a subject so obscure as is the creation, if facts well ascer- 
 tained, and doctrines absolutely demonstrated, present ir- 
 reconcilable contradictions to the interpretation we had 
 deemed most natural, the proper inference would seem 
 to be, that the error lies rather in our imperfect interpre- 
 tation, than in the veritable meaning of the document, 
 forming part of a book proved to be inspired, or in the 
 doctrines carefully based on scientific ground. 
 
 To remove this difficulty, some distinguished men, 
 (among whom, at one time, Professor Silliman was,) have 
 conjectured that the word day in the 1st chapter of Gene- 
 sis, and in Exod, xx. 11, denotes, not a natural day of 
 
CREATION IN SIX DAYS. 243 
 
 twenty-four hours, but an indefinite period ; in which in- 
 definite sense, the word day certainly appears to be used 
 in some other passages in the Bible. This interpretation 
 they deem corroborated, by the correspondence between 
 the successive steps of the creation, as related by Moses, 
 beginning with reptiles, and fishes, the lowest forms of 
 animal life, and thence passing on up to those of higher 
 organization, and lastly to man, and a similar series qf 
 successive races of extinct animals, found imbedded in 
 different strata in the earth, beginning with simpler forms 
 in the lower strata, and gradually exhibiting a higher 
 organization in the several series nearer to the present 
 system. 
 
 Nay, some have conjectured, that all these strata of ex- 
 tinct animals were deposited in the period intervening 
 between the creation of Adam, and the subsiding of the 
 waters of Noah's deluge. This theory has been put forth 
 anew by a recent American writer.* 
 
 If this interpretation, and its attendant theory could be 
 established, it would, at once, remove all difficulty. But 
 it cannot. Against its adoption lie several objections 
 that are weighty ; are, indeed, insuperable. For : 
 
 1st. The narrative in Genesis is a plain statement. In 
 one part of it, the word day is evidently used in its ordi- 
 nary sense, to denote a natural day of twenty-four hours. 
 To interpret the same word, in the same passage, in two 
 senses so different, and so wide apart, as must be done on 
 the hypothesis of indefinite periods, and that without any- 
 thing in the passage itself intimating a change in the 
 meaning attached to it, is contrary to all rules of sound 
 interpretation. 
 
 * Epoch of Creation, by Dr. Lord, 1861, passim, and especially p. 244. 
 
244 CREATION IN SIX DAYS. 
 
 In the fourtli commandment, the fact that God em- 
 ployed six immense periods of time in the work of crea- 
 tion, and then rested a seventh period that may have ex- 
 tended through many ages, would hardly strike one as 
 presenting a cogent reason why man should rest one nat- 
 ural day of twenty-four hours, after every six natural 
 days spent in labor ! To say the least, this interpreta- 
 tion is a forced and an unnatural one. (See a curious 
 note on this point in Hugh Miller's Foot Prints, p. 308.) 
 
 But, 2d. The analogy pointed out in the series of the 
 Mosaic six days' creation, and in that of the strata of 
 fossil remains, does not hold good throughout, either as 
 to number, or, strictly speaking, as to order and struc- 
 ture ; although there is a general resemblance, which is 
 very striking. 
 
 3d. The time intervening between the creation of Adam and 
 the exodus of Noah from the ark, is too short to allow the de- 
 posit of all the hnown strata of extinct animals. Fossil re- 
 mains of former races of now extinct animals, are found 
 through various strata of rock, lying one over the other, 
 to a thickness, or a depth, estimated as equal to six miles. 
 
 Ages innumerable, and the occurrence of one great 
 convulsion of earth after another, must have been required 
 to give time for the existence, and enable us to account 
 for the destruction, and the successive accumulation of 
 these various races, in the rocks gradually formed by 
 the deposit from overspreading waters. 
 
 In some countries there are beds of chalk many hun- 
 dreds of feet in thickness, (Richardson, pp. 450-454,) and 
 in others, vast masses of limestone ; and this chalk, or 
 limestone, is composed of countless myriads upon myr- 
 iads of minute microscopic shells, each of which was once 
 
CREATION IN SIX DAYS. 245 
 
 the habitation of a living creature, as completely organ- 
 ized as were the living creatures once tenanting the most 
 splendid of the beautiful shells that adorn the centre-table 
 or the mantel of a modern lady's parlor ; but so minute, 
 that millions upon millions of them are included in a 
 cubic inch of the rock. What countless ages must have 
 elapsed, ere, from such materials, masses of chalk or of 
 limestone, miles in extent, and hundreds of feet in thick- 
 ness, could have been formed. Why, even* the soft 
 limestone found abundantly in Alabama, a rock which 
 abounds in fossils lying through its entire mass, like the 
 fruit in a plum-cake, is, in many places, seven and even 
 nine hundred feet thick, as is proved by the borings made 
 in various parts of Greene and Sumpter counties, for 
 Artesian wells. And this rock is comparatively a recent 
 deposit. In his late report on the geology of Alabama, 
 Professor Toomey, of the University of Alabama, very 
 justly remarks, (p. 123,) "The whole of what is called 
 rotten limestone, once existed in the state of soft mud, 
 a sedimentary deposit formed gradually at the bottom of a deep 
 sea; and hence the remains of marine animals and shells 
 found in it." 
 
 Now, we may well ask, could the waters of JSToah's 
 deluge, however tumultuous, have brought together, and 
 deposited over the region where now it lies, this vast 
 mass of limestone, when that deluge lasted less than a 
 year ? It is utterly incredible. 
 
 And, for the entire series of animal deposits known to 
 exist for miles in thickness, and consisting of several dis- 
 tinct layers of the remains of whole races that lived their 
 allotted periods, in different ages, and perished ; furnish- 
 ing evidence in their very structure, and in the nature of 
 
246 CREATION IN SIX DAYS. 
 
 the materials in which thej lie imbedded, that, in the 
 times of their several existences, the surface of the earth 
 presented widely different aspects, and that the very ele- 
 ments amid which they had their existence were essen- 
 tially different from what they now are, as to the nature 
 and the proportions of their constituent ingredients. To 
 account for all this, any amount of time we may reason- 
 ably assign between Adam and Noah would be utterly 
 insufficient. It might almost be said, that time enough 
 for all these deposits would hardly result even from the 
 utter rejection of Usher's computation of dates, and the 
 adoption of the wild fables of Hindostan, which counts 
 its cycles of the past back through hundreds of millions 
 of years.* 
 
 Why, even to form the present Delta of the Mississippi 
 river, below New Orleans, which is a mere alluvium, a 
 deposit newer by many ages than the limestone of the 
 prairies, and which is even still in progress, the time re- 
 quisite would, if we assume the constancy in past ages 
 of the present laws of nature, and rate of progress, re- 
 quire, (as the accomplished French explorer in Egypt, 
 Mons. J. Ampere, tells us Sir C. Lyell has computed,) 
 sixty-seven thousand years.f (Revue des Deux Mondes, 
 
 ♦ If the theory I have proposed to account for the deluge be correct, 
 that the beds of ancient seas were then upheaved, and now fonn the 
 lands, although this might account for many of the marine deposits, yet 
 it would not account for the different strata— some of marine, some of 
 fresh water origin— and other strata containing land animals and rep- 
 tiles. These strata of diverse origin, alternating one with another in va- 
 rious places, show that there must have been repeated alterations of 
 level, and that these changes must have occupied a vastly prolonged 
 period of time. 
 
 t The time computed, some years since, by Dr. Dickenson of Missis- 
 sippi, for the formation of this Delta, was 13,000 or 14,000 years. 
 
CREATION IN SIX DAYS. 247 
 
 Nov. 1846, p. 667. See also Princ. of Geol. pp. 218, 
 219. 8tli edition.) 
 
 The alluvial deposit of this Delta is less than three 
 hundred feet thick, and it lies on the surface of the earth, 
 where it has never been subjected to any very great pres- 
 sure, such as that exerted by the waters of the ocean, 
 hundreds of fathoms deep, upon the materials beneath, 
 composing the bed of the sea. What array of figures, 
 then, will suffice to express the length of time requisite 
 to form the varied deposits included in the compact sub- 
 stance of the strata of rock, piled one "upon the other to 
 a depth of six or seven miles ?* Compared with such a 
 period, the interval between Adam and Noah, is but a 
 point — a mere moment of time ! 
 
 Besides all this, it must be borne in mind that, 4th. If 
 the flood of Noah was the grand agent in maJcing the depos- 
 its^ and forming the strata known to exist, there must have 
 been human beings entombed among the animals, and covered 
 up with them in the deposits made by the subsiding waters of 
 the deluge. 
 
 How comes it, then, that among all these various strata, 
 embodying fossil remains, found at various depths, and in 
 different countries, all over the globe, no fossil human re- 
 mains have as yet been disinterred? True, a few such 
 human fossils have, at times, been spoken of; but all 
 such are now known to be of modern origin, imbedded 
 in rock of very recent formation, as at Guadaloupe, (see 
 Wonders of Geology, vol. i. pp. 86, 87,) or petrified 
 through the influence of well-understood local causes. 
 (See Lyell's Princ. Geol. pp. 713-717, London, 1850.) 
 
 A curious instance of a human body, completely petri- 
 
 * Hitchcock, Relig. of Geol. p. 21. 
 
248 CREATION IN SIX DAYS. 
 
 iied in the space of a very few years, has been reported 
 in the newspapers, within the last year. The body of a 
 man, apparently that of an Irish laborer, wearing cordu- 
 roy trowsers, found at Morrison, in Illinois, and the whole 
 completely turned into stone. (See the Presbyterian, 
 Dec. 13, 1851, p. 199.) 
 
 Dr. Mantell, after describing a conglomerated mass, 
 consisting of beads, J^nives and sand, which was obtained 
 from a ship, stranded off Hastings, on the English coast, 
 upwards of a century ago, when it was imbedded in 
 silt and sand, says, " The cementing material had been 
 derived from the oxidation of the blades of the knives." 
 He also remarks, that from the bed of the Thames, large 
 masses of a firm conglomerate are occasionally dredged 
 up, in which Koman coins, and fragments of pottery are 
 imbedded, the stone through which these articles are in- 
 termingled, being formed of sand and clay solidified by 
 ferruginous infiltration. Dr. Mantell follows these state- 
 ments with this important remark : " The consolidation 
 of sand, gravel, and other detritus, by this agency, is 
 taking place everywhere ; on the shores of the Mediter- 
 ranean, — on the coasts of the West India Islands, and 
 of the Isle of Ascension, — and on the borders of the 
 United States. Thus, the remains of man at Guadaloupe, 
 — of turtle in the Isle of Ascension, — of recent shells and 
 bones of the ruminants at Nice, — of ancient pottery in 
 Greece, — and of animal and vegetable substances in 
 Great Britain, have become imbedded and preserved." — 
 (Vol. i. p. 84.) 
 
 Indeed these modern conglomerates, in which pottery 
 and other fragments of man's workmanship are imbedded, 
 are now so numerous, especially in Greece, that, in the 
 
CREATION IN SIX DAYS. 249 
 
 absence of other monuments, they would sufficiently 
 mark the human era, in the earth's history. — (Lyell's 
 Princ. Geol. p. 708.) 
 
 In such conglomerates, or in caverns where they lie 
 intermixed with the fossil bones of animals, and often of 
 extinct species, fragments of human bones are often 
 found in Sicily, in Franconia, in Wales, and in the south 
 of France. But all these human remains are compara- 
 tively recent. 
 
 It is not (see Lyell's Princ. Geol. p. 716,) on the evi- 
 dence of such intermixtures that we ought readily to ad- 
 mit, either the high antiquity of the human race, or the 
 recent date of certain lost species of quadrupeds. Again, 
 he remarks .• " The human bones, therefore, in the caves, 
 which are associated with such fabricated objects, must 
 belong, not to antediluvian periods, but to a people in 
 the same stage of civilization as those who constructed 
 the tumuli and altars," (p. 715.) 
 
 In the opinion of those most competent to judge in the 
 case, that point is therefore settled. ISTo human fossils 
 occur in the older deposits ; no relics of man have been 
 found deeper or older than the alluvium, ^. e. the deposit 
 of soil made by rivers, local inundations, and the disinte- 
 gration of mountain crags, appertaining to the present 
 system of our earth's surface ; none anterior, even, to the 
 deluge of Koah, nor coeval with it. Why it is that no 
 remains of human beings entombed beneath the waters 
 of the Noachian deluge, have as yet been discovered, I 
 will endeavor hereafter to explain. 
 
 The argument presented more than a century ago by 
 Bishop Berkeley, in proof of the recent origin of man, is 
 equally in j^oint against the hypothesis now under review, 
 
 11* 
 
250 CREATION IN SIX DAYS. 
 
 viz., that all known fossil remains must have been 
 deposited during the prevalence of Noah's deluge, or in 
 the ages intervening between that deluge and the crea- 
 tion of Adam. " To any one, (says Berkeley,) who con- 
 siders that on digging into the earth, such quantities of 
 shells, and in some places, bones and horns of animals 
 are found, sound and entire after having lain there, in all 
 probability, thousands of years ; it would seem probable 
 that guns, medals, and implements in metal and stone, 
 might have lain entipe, buried under ground forty or 
 fifty thousand years, if the world had been so old. How 
 comes it, then, that no remains are found, no antiqui- 
 ties of those numerous ages, preceding the Scripture 
 accounts of time; that no fragments of buildings, no 
 public monuments, no intaglios, statues, basso-relievos, 
 medals, inscriptions, utensils, or artificial works of any 
 kind are ever discovered, which may bear testimony to 
 the existence of those mighty empires, — those succes- 
 sions of monarchs, heroes and demigods, for so many 
 thousand years? Let us look forward, and suppose ten 
 or twenty thousand years to come, during which time we 
 will suppose that plagues, famines, wars and earthquakes^ 
 shall have made great havoc in the world; is it not 
 highly probable that at the end of such a period, pillars, 
 vases and statues now in being, of granite, or porphyry, 
 or jasper, (stones of such hardness as we know them to 
 have lasted two thousand years above ground, without 
 any considerable alteration,) would be a record of these 
 and past ages ? Or that some of our current coins might 
 be dug up, or old walls, the foundation of buildings, 
 show themselves, as well as the shells and stones of 
 the 'primeval world^ which are preserved down to our 
 
CREATION IN SIX DAYS. 251 
 
 times ?" ( Alcepliron, or the Minute Philosopher, vol. ii. 
 pp. 84, 85. 1732. See also Lyell's Princ. Geol. p. 739. 
 1850.) 
 
 The same argument on this point, but arranged accord- 
 ing to the present state of scientific knowledge, is thus 
 beautifully presented by Mr. Eichardson : " The whole 
 vast series of aqueous deposits, are crowded with organic 
 remains, with fragments of the weeds, plants, corals, shells, 
 crustace3e, fish, reptiles, birds and mammalia, relics of the 
 vegetable and animal existence of the ancient earth ; hut 
 no fossil remains of the human form have yet been discovered 
 in the solid rocks themselves^ or in any, since the accumula- 
 tions of silt or mud, which date from the most modern 
 aera, 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 families of mankind: that in the British Isles, 
 we meet with the implements or utensils of the ancient 
 Britons, or the coins and weapons of their Eoman inva- 
 ders ; that in Italy, we find the Cyclopean structures and 
 works of the Etruscans, a nation who appeared to have 
 preceded the Komans in the occupation of Italy, and to 
 have excelled them in civilization and the arts of life ; 
 while vestiges of the Pelasgi are alike discovered in sim- 
 ilar deposits in Greece ; and in the New World, traces 
 exist of the Talteques, a people who seem to have been 
 the predecessors of the Mexicans, and their superiors in 
 knowledge and improvement. In the solid roc\ we re- 
 peat, no traces of man are discernible. 
 
 " Yet had the human race been really the aborigines 
 of the physical history of our planet ; had they actually 
 existed in its primeval times, (and, I may add, this reason- 
 
262 CREATION IN SIX DAYS. 
 
 ing is equally as forcible against the hypothesis, that all 
 the fossiliferous rocks were deposited during the post- 
 Adamic down to the Noachian oera, as it is against the 
 hypothesis Mr. Richardson is opposing,) then their re- 
 mains would unquestionably have been found scattered 
 througho\it its various deposits, from the oldest to the 
 most recent in the series. No impediment exists to their 
 conservation. Our bones, composed of the same ele- 
 ments as those of the animal races, are equally capable 
 of being kept from destruction. The same battle-field 
 has preserved the bones of the horse and his rider ; the 
 same cavern, which in earlier a^ras gave shelter, during 
 life, to the hyena and the bear, and retained their skele- 
 tons after death, has alike preserved the remains of those 
 human occupants, who, at a later period, found, in the 
 same retreat, a refuge and a tomb. 
 
 " But a still stronger proof of the modem date of our 
 species, (and, we may add, of the pre-Adamic date of 
 those vast beds of animal fossils,) exists in the obvious 
 fact, that if man had really been an inhabitant of the 
 earth during its earliest history, (when these fossils were 
 deposited,) his skeleton, or the mere fragments of his 
 osseous structure, would have coiutitiited the least of those 
 relics 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 ejec- 
 tions 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 
 
CREATION IN SIX DAYS. 253 
 
 shonld have encountered his bridges of granite and of 
 iron, his palaces of limestone and of marble ; the tombs 
 which 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 acknowledge the chronology of Holy Writ, 
 to recognize the complete 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 the Scriptures assign as 
 the period of his creation." (Richardson's Geology, pp. 
 89-91.) 
 
 These extracts are long, but they are appropriate, and 
 they are eloquent. The argument they present against 
 the contemporaneous existence of man, and of the races 
 of extinct animals and plants, whose fossil remains we 
 find imbedded in the several geologic strata, almost to 
 the very deepest, is forcible and conclusive. 
 
 From all these considerations it is plain, the theory of 
 independent periods, as the meaning of the six days of 
 creation, and that also of the post-Adamic, or of tho 
 ISToacho-diluvian origin of the several fossil strata now 
 found in the crust of our globe, must be abandoned. 
 (Foot Prints of Creation, p. 308, note.) 
 
 What, then, is the meaning of the narrative given in 
 the 1st chapter of Genesis, and of the declaration in 
 Exod. XX. 11, " /ti six days Jehovah made heaven and 
 earthy the sea^ and all things that therein areP 
 
 This declaration, embodied in the fourth command- 
 ment, I take to be an epitome of the entire narrative 
 given in Gen. ch. i. from ver. 3 to the close of the chapter. 
 
254 CREATION IN SIX DAYS. 
 
 Genesis 1st chap, and v. 1, informs us, that at some 
 undefined period in the boundless past, occurred the 
 original production of the material universe, by the 
 power of God. 
 
 With the third verse of that chapter seems to com- 
 mence a narrative of the manner in which, after the last 
 great geologic convulsion, which left this globe in a state 
 of wild and dark chaos, as described in v. 2, tuithout form 
 and voidj the earth was gradually arranged, illumined, 
 made fertile, and peopled with living tenants, and with 
 man also, in a series of divine creative acts, running 
 through six successive natural days of ordinary length. 
 
 The 1st chap, of Genesis from v. 3d to the end of the 
 chapter, does, then, present us with a history of the re- 
 ordering (^f our planetary system, more especially of this 
 earth, after the last great geologic catastrophe, prior to 
 man's creation. 
 
 That catastrophe, as this narrative leads us to conclude, 
 was a general one, and left the whole earth in what may 
 be called a chaotic state, the land and water being com- 
 mingled; and the very atmosphere seems to have been so 
 far affected by the general disturbance, as that it was not 
 capable of transmitting the light of the sun, and heavenly 
 bodies, until the fourth day. 
 
 During the continuance of that chaotic state, the latest 
 deposit of geologic strata known to us, and prior to the 
 alluvium now in process of formation, may not improb- 
 ably have been made ; and then, in the course of six 
 successive days of the ordinary length, God saw fit to 
 arrange this earth, clothe it with vegetation, people it 
 with living creatures, and finally, on the sixth day, place 
 man upon it ; after the appearance of the sun and the 
 
CREATION IN SIX DAYS. 255 
 
 moon to rule the day and the night respectively, had 
 taken place on the fourth day ; the atmosphere having, 
 by that time, been divinely prepared, duly to transmit 
 the light, as now. Hence, in language adapted to 
 express the idea of the arrangement of the earth to its 
 place in the solar system, He, who in Gen. i. 1, is de- 
 clared to have created the entire universe at some un- 
 determined period in the past, and who, in various other 
 passages of Scripture, as well as in the record o/ the 
 events of the fourth day of creation, is said to have made 
 the stars also, is in Exod. xx. 11, said to have created in 
 six days heaven and earth, the sea and all things 
 therein; because, in the six consecutive days, occupied 
 in reducing the chaotic mass to the condition in which 
 we now behold our globe. He (the original creator of all 
 things out of nothing,) was pleased to order this earth, 
 provide it with living tenants, and to spread out visibly 
 before them, the expanse of heaven, adorned with all its 
 glorious luminaries, by night and by day. Although its 
 substance had been existing long before, the Creator then 
 re-established in a manner obvious to the perception of 
 its new occupants, the relation of this earth with the sun, 
 moon, and stars, in the series of creative acts, filling up 
 six successive days. 
 
 In this sense, and not as directly referring to the original 
 production of the substance of the earthy and of the system 
 to which this earth belongs^ do I understand the declaration 
 contained in \hQ fourth commandment. That original pro- 
 duction is recorded in the first verse of Genesis. But it 
 has been asserted that the word x'lS (barah) used in Gen. 
 i. 1, means literally to create, to produce from nothing ; 
 while the interpretation I have here given of the narra- 
 
256 CREATION IN SIX DAYS. 
 
 tive of the six days' creation, is equivalent to interpret- 
 ing it as meaning only the same as nia:?, fashioned out of 
 pre-existing materials. 
 
 This objection I would answer in the words of Bishop 
 Pearson, *' We must not attempt, weakly to collect the 
 meaning of creation from the use of any one word. For 
 K'^a is used promiscuously with niS5, which is of the 
 greatest latitude, denoting any kind of effect, and with 
 ■>s?, which rather implies a formation out of something ; 
 and from which comes the word "la;^, a potter. In Gen. 
 ii. 3, 4, and Isa. xlv. 12, ms5 and N'^a are used inter- 
 changeably — I made the earth and created man upon it. 
 Compare also Ps. cxv. 15, and cxxi. 2, with Isa. xlii. 5, 
 and xlv. 18. Compare, also, Isa. xvii. 7, with Eccl. 
 xii. 1. The LXX. translate fif^a indifferently with noieiv 
 
 and xTt^ety. 
 
 " Again, 'i::*' is usually rendered by the Jewish Targum, 
 N^a, and by the LXX. though generally nlarrsiv^ yet 
 sometimes xrt^e**'. That it has the same signification will 
 appear by comparing Gen. ii. 4, with Isa. xlv. 12, and not 
 only so, but by the single verse, Isa. xliii. 1. ' Now thus 
 saith the Lord "lK">a, that created thee, Jacob, "|">2£'', and, 
 he that formed thee, Israel.' 
 
 *' Lastly, all these are conjointly used in the same valid- 
 ity of expression, in Isa. xliii. 7, Every one that is 
 called by my name : for mxiSj I have created him for 
 my glory, I'^niS"', I have formed him, yea I'^n'^ias, I have 
 made him." (See Pearson on the Creed, p. 79, note J. 
 Kitto's Cyclop. Bib. art. Creation.) 
 
 To cut off the last lingering doubt on this subject, it 
 may be remarked, that while in Gen. i. 1, to express 
 original creation, the word ^y^ is used : in the fourth 
 
CREATION IN SIX DAYS. 257 
 
 commandment, Exod. xx. 11, the word used is not fitnn 
 but nb:?, which shows that so far as the words of the 
 Hebrew text can decide the point, the idea there con- 
 veyed is rather that of the due arrangement and garnish- 
 ing of the earth out of pre-existing materials than that of 
 original creation. 
 
 As to the date of the original creation of the earth's 
 substance, we know literally nothing. Nor is it my inten- 
 tion to enter now upon an examination of the chronolo- 
 gical era of Adam's creation. In the narrative itself, as 
 given in the Bible, nothing is said respecting the date of 
 creation. On this subject, the computations of learned 
 men vary greatly ; and the different versions of the Old 
 Testament, and even the different copies of the Hebrew 
 text itself, show an unaccountable variation in the num- 
 bers they record, and consequently, in the chronological 
 data they furnish. The Samaritan copy of the Penta- 
 teuch differs from the Hebrew, and the Septuagint from 
 both. Archbishop Usher, as the result of much learned 
 research, has computed the creation of Adam, at about 
 B.C. 4004 : and this is the date generally adopted, in the 
 Protestant churches, at least, and where the English lan- 
 guage is spoken. This is the date introduced into our 
 English Bible, and to this date all other events are chron- 
 ologically adjusted. The church of Eome is under- 
 stood rather to favor the Septuagint chronology, which 
 allows a greater age to our system. But of the Septua- 
 gint itself, there are two distinct lines of copies. Of 
 these, one furnishes numbers, which when compared and 
 computed, would make the date of man's creation about 
 B.C. 5708 ; and the other, about B.C. 5878. 
 
 A computation of the numbers given in the received 
 
258 CREATION IN SIX DAYS. 
 
 Hebrew text of the Pentateuch, yields B.C. 4111, as the 
 date of Adam's creation : while the history of Josephus, 
 the Jewish writer, nearly contemporary with Christ, gives 
 B.C. 4658. So that the chronology by Usher, which we 
 have been accustomed to follow, is by far the most con- 
 tracted of all* 
 
 It is very obvious that, from a variety of causes, chron- 
 ological computations are always subject to great uncer- 
 tainty. But happily, the mere date of creation is not of 
 vital importance, either to the credit of the Bible, or to 
 the interests of religion. Adopt what chronological sys- 
 tem you choose, the fact of the creation of the universe, 
 and all it contains, by Jehovah, the God of Abraham, 
 and the fact that this earth was, in six days, from a pre- 
 vious chaotic state, prepared by Jehovah for the reception 
 of man, who, upon the sixth of those days, was created and 
 placed in Eden ; and that this first origin of man oc- 
 curred somewhere between six and eight thousand years 
 ago, still stands. 
 
 The difficulty we may find in merely arranging chron- 
 ological dates, cannot afiect the truth of the facts re- 
 corded, nor the credibility of the narrative containing 
 that record. 
 
 The objection which is sometimes urged against the 
 distribution of the several creative acts over six consecu- 
 tive days, as though such distribution were unbecoming 
 the wisdom and the greatness of God, is utterly futile. 
 If God so willed it, as Moses relates, that the creative 
 process should proceed at a certain rate only, and should 
 
 * See the Eng. Univ. Hist. Ano., vol. i. pp. 69-72. Preface, pp. 61-63. 
 See Hale's Chronology, vol. i. pp. 210-264. Jackson's Chronology, vol. I 
 pp. 34-68. 
 
CREATION IN SIX DAYS. 259 
 
 occupy any one definite portion of time ; or that it should 
 continue and be repeated through successive portions; 
 since His wisdom qualifies Him to discern what is best, 
 so his Almighty power enables Him to carry out into 
 execution the plan He approves, and to do it just when, 
 and where, and as He approves. 
 
 For all that has yet been adduced to the contrary, we 
 can still cordially believe the account given by Moses of 
 the remodeling of our earth from a chaotic condition, the 
 wreck, possibly, of former worlds ; its being replenished 
 with living occupants, man included, by the operations 
 of God, in six successive days ; and the ordering of its 
 atmosphere, so as that its living tenants should receive 
 on the fourth day the full benefit of the sun, moon, and 
 stars, as resulting from the earth's position among the 
 planets in the solar system; and we can still perceive 
 that these facts, so interesting to us, are to us a valid rea- 
 son for religiously observing a weekly Sabbath, accord- 
 ing to the record in Exod. xx. 11, "/n six days Jehovah 
 made heaven and earthy the sea and all that in them is, and 
 rested the seventh day : wherefore Jehovah blessed the Sabbath 
 day, and hallowed it." 
 
 The Mosaic account of creation, as thus understood, is 
 reasonable in itself, and consistent with all known scien- 
 tific facts. It is indeed beautiful, and worthy of God, 
 as a comparison with the cosmogonies held and taught 
 anfong the boasted nations of antiquity will show. 
 
 Of the Egyptians, Diodorus asserts, they held that, in 
 the beginning, the heavens and the earth had only one 
 form, being united in their nature : but having become 
 separated afterwards, the world took the character we now 
 behold. 
 
260 CREATION IN SIX DAYS. 
 
 By the movement of the atmosphere, the igneous parts 
 arose ; which gave to the sun, and other heavenly bodies, 
 their rotary movement : and a solid matter was precipi- 
 tated to form the sea and earth, from which fish and 
 other animals were produced; much as now, in Egypt, 
 on the subsiding of the inundation of the Nile, myriads 
 of insects come forth from the mud. 
 
 This was also the system of the Phoenicians. This 
 system assigns no part, in the formation of the universe, 
 to an intelligent Cause. 
 
 Diogenes Laertius states, on the authority of Manetho 
 and Ilecata^us, that the Egyptians held matter as i\iQ first 
 •principle: and that the Sun and Moon were their first 
 deities. 
 
 But, though it is difiicult, from the imperfect, and 
 often conflicting statements found in Greek writers, to 
 gather the truth respecting Egyptian dogmas ; and al- 
 though, nowhere on the monuments thus far explored, 
 spread though the pictorial records are over many acres 
 of surface, is there found any symbol, or character, repre- 
 senting the idea of One Supreme Intelligence ;* still, it is 
 not improbable that the ancient Egyptians did admit the 
 existence of a Supreme Intellect, pervading the universe, 
 much as the human soul pervades the body. Yet in con- 
 junction with this, they admitted a male generative prin- 
 ciple residing in the Sun ; and a female generative prin- 
 ciple residing in the Moon.f 
 
 * See Wilkinson's Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians, 2d 
 series, vol. i. p. 178. 
 
 t See Wilkinson's Manners and Customs, 2d series, vol. i. pp. 214-217. 
 Dr. Pritchard's Analysis of Egyptian Mythology, book ii. chap. 1 and 
 2, and chiefly p. 165. 
 
CREATION IN SIX DAYS. 261 
 
 It was chiefly in the Thebaid, where the worship of 
 Cneph as the Supreme God prevailed, that this less ir- 
 rational hypothesis was held. 
 
 Lower Egypt has, from time immemorial, been grossly 
 idolatrous. (Eng. Univ. Hist. Anct. vol. i. p. 14.) 
 
 The Egyptian mythology as stated by Lyell (Princ. 
 Geol. p. 10,) he has gathered exclusively from the Greek 
 writers, who certainly held many erroneous notions about 
 Egypt. Plutarch asserts that the Egyptians maintained 
 the doctrine of successive destructions, and restorations 
 of the world. These were celebrated in the famous 
 hymns of Orpheus, said to have been brought from the 
 banks of the Nile. These catastrophes were determined 
 by the return of the great cycle or great year, when, 
 after a long period of revolutions, the heavenly bodies 
 returned to the same relative position in the heavens. 
 This great year was variously estimated. According to 
 Orpheus, it consisted of 120,000 years; to others, 800,000 ; 
 and according to Cassander, it was 360,000 years." (See 
 Pritchard's Egyp. Mythology, p. 166, &c.) 
 
 The ancient Chaldseans, or Babylonians, held a strange 
 hypothesis. The material of the universe, they deemed 
 eternal^ unoriginated, and incapable of destruction. It 
 was reduced to form by their supreme god, Bel us. Be- 
 fore his intervention, they represent the earth as a dark 
 chaos, peopled with horrid monsters. On reading their 
 description of this chaos, one can hardly resist the idea, 
 they must have seen the isaurians, the mastodons, and 
 other fossil monsters revealed to us by modern geologic re- 
 search. (See Jackson's Chronology, vol. i. pp. 120, 216.) 
 
 Many of the ancient sages held the universe to be eter- 
 nal ; a necessary emanation of the Infinite Essence. This 
 
262 CREATION IN SIX DAYS. 
 
 was the opinion of Aristotle, and of some of Plato^s 
 followers. (Universal Hist. vol. i. p. 3.) 
 
 Ocellus Lycanus, a little anterior to Plato, maintained 
 that the universe is, of itself, eternal and perfect ; incapa- 
 ble of beginning or of end. Yet he also maintained the 
 existence of God ; and that, from God, man had received 
 his faculties and powers. His tenets plainly involve 
 an inconsistency. (See also Bishop Cumberland's San- 
 choniatho, pp. 1-4, 13-27 ; id. p. 3.) 
 
 Of the notions held on this subject, by the Hindoos, it 
 is not easy to gather a clear idea. The Indians counted 
 time by periods including, each, many millions of solar 
 years. By creation they understood a series of renewals,* 
 or renovations of the order of things ; and man is but 
 an accidental incident to these renovations. The first 
 three of the great ages have already passed, equal to 
 3,888,000 years. 
 
 We are in the fourth of these ages, and of this fourth 
 age, 4,946 years are already gone, forming a great or 
 divine age. Of these great ages, seventy-four form a reign 
 of Manou: and fourteen reigns of Manou, form a kalpa. 
 Or, it takes one thousand great ages, formed of forty mortal 
 ages, to compose a kalpa, or period of 4,320,000,000 of 
 yeai-s ; which immense duration, constitutes only one day 
 of Brahma, or rather of the manifestation of the world. 
 
 But the period of the disappearance of the world, i. e. 
 of its absorption into the essence of Brahma, is of equal 
 duration. Therefore, according to the Gentoo belief, as 
 the present is the fifty-sixth manifestation, the world has 
 already stood, in its present renovated state, 5,620,000 
 years; and it ought yet to continue 4,320,000,000 years, 
 * See Faber's Pagan Idolatry, vol. i. pp. 121-140. 
 
CKEATION IN SIX DAYS. 263 
 
 in all * So boundless are the dreamy notions presented 
 in the Hindoo system of cosmogony. And yet there are 
 those who pretend to regard them as based on truth, and 
 confirmed by astronomical calculations.! 
 
 A comparison of the several points presented in this 
 system of the Hindoos, will at once detect incongruities. 
 
 I may here remark, that the outline of the Hindoo 
 cosmogony furnished to Sir C. Lyell, by Professor Wil- 
 son, who now occupies the chair of Sanscrit literature 
 in the University of Oxford, England, agrees substan- 
 tially with the sketch above presented : thus, '' We are 
 told in the institutions of Menu, that the first sole Cause, 
 with a thought created the waters, and then moved upon 
 their surface in the form of Brahma, the Creator. On 
 awaking from sleep, Brahma always finds the world a 
 shapeless ocean, and his first effort is to effect the emer- 
 gence of the land, and to form the firmament; after 
 which, he vivifies the earth in succession with plants, 
 animals, celestial creatures, and men. 
 
 ^^ At the end of a day of Brahma, which lasts for many 
 thousand ages, he is said to rest, and then, all existing 
 forms are destroyed. As soon as he awakes, the world 
 is renewed to be again destroyed, and again renewed, 
 after each Jcal^a, or day of Brahma's existence, &c. &c.":j: 
 
 * See Maurice's India, vol. ii. pp. 341-351 ; vol. iv. p. 699 ; vol. vii. p. 
 845. See Asiatic Researches, vol. ii. p. 112. 
 
 f See Bentley's Letters on Hindu Astronomy, preface, p. xiv. ; also pp. 
 181 and 195. Asiatic Researches, vol. vi. p. 540, &c. Delambre's His- 
 tory of Astronomy, vol. i. pp. 347, 400, 441 ; also, Discours Preliminairc, 
 pp. viii. and ix. Paris, 1817, 4to. ; also, Lepsius, Chronologic der Egypter, 
 vol. i. pp. 3-6. 
 
 'l In the cosmogonies of India and of Chaldaea, we find traces perhaps 
 of patriarchal tradition, respecting chaos before man's creation ; perhaps 
 
264 CREATION IN SIX DAYS. 
 
 The Chinese, also, exhibit what they call history, run- 
 ning back to a remote antiquity, but less extravagant 
 than that of the Hindoos. They record events as far 
 back as the sixty-first year of Hoang-Ti, the first monarch 
 of their first cycle, B.C. 2637. But others of these 
 writers, as e. g. the renowned historian Tchou-Hi, go back 
 to B.C. 3400. There are, again, other historians among 
 the Chinese, who record many reigns^ or remote periods 
 before this, reaching back to a first man^ whom they 
 name Pan-Kou, or Hoen-Tu, which means primordial. 
 To him, as the Hindoos also to Menou, they assign the 
 control of nature, and the work of creation ; and the Chi- 
 nese make this primordial man, Pan-Kou, the first em- 
 peror of China. His era, they declare, was ninety-six 
 millions of years before Confucius, who lived B.C. 479 ; 
 so that, according to these modest chroniclers, the first 
 emperor of China flourished only 96,002,131 years since; 
 and this same first Chinese emperor created the world, 
 or at least, reduced it to its present order.* (See Chine, 
 
 of doctrines obtained in some unknown way from the Jewish Scriptures ; 
 and possibly this idea of successive destructions and renovations, may 
 have been suggested by fossil animals (disinterred in very remote ages. 
 See Lyell's Principles of Geology, pp. 5, 6, 7, 10th edition. See, also, 
 L'Univers Pittoresque, Asic, tom. iii. Inde, pp. 163—172 ; also, L'Univ. 
 Pit. Chine, par M. Pauthicr, pp. 20-23. A kalpa or day of Brahma, is 
 reckoned at 4,300,000,000 of our years. 
 
 * The Chinese have a fabulous chronology similar to that of the Hin- 
 doos, and almost equally extravagant. It includes dynasties of monarchs, 
 the Tien-hoang, and the Ti-hoang, each of whom held the sceptre during 
 18:000 years; but after this their lives dwindled to so narrow a span, that 
 the reigns of nine monarchs are comprehended in 45,000 years. The ten 
 kis or ages, which elapsed from Pan-Kou to Confucius, is variously esti- 
 mated from 276,000 years, to 96,961,740. These eras may certainly vie 
 with those assigned in the Vcdas, and Puranas. There is, however, 
 
CREATION IN SIX DAYS. 265 
 
 de M. Pauthier, p. 20.) And yet there are men who 
 would have us adopt these absurd Chinese fables, as veri- 
 table history, and as entitled to credit in preference to 
 the modest and rational account given by Moses ; who 
 tells us that in the beginning, or originally, the whole 
 material universe, the earth and all the heavenly bodies 
 were' created by one God, who was known and wor- 
 shipped among the Jews under the name of Jehovah. 
 But Moses specified no time, no point in the boundless 
 past, when this grand effect was produced. Nor does 
 Moses say whether the creative act was performed in- 
 stantly and at once, or by a process involving the em- 
 ployment of subordinate agencies, that may have spread 
 through long successive cycles of ages. The one grand 
 fact only, that the entire universe is the work of Je- 
 hovah, does Moses state. So that, in truth, even if the 
 nebular hypothesis, which represents suns and systems 
 as being produced, by a very slow, and long-continued 
 process, from the most impalpable of all substances, an 
 attenuated fire, mist, a mass of gas charged with caloric, 
 should be established by sufiicient proofs, the adoption 
 of it as true, would in no way militate against our 
 cordial belief in the Mosaic cosmogony. 
 
 For all that Moses teaches to the contrary, time may 
 (as an elegant writer on geology expresses it) he an essen- 
 tial element in the process of original creation/^ 
 
 this important distinction, that, while the successive Hindoo yugs, or 
 ages, extending to millions of years, form the sacred chronology of that 
 people, the Chinese treat their own fabulous records not only with con- 
 tempt, as puerile, but with horror, as profane. (Ancient History of China, 
 Edinburgh Cabinet Library, vol. i. p. 40.) 
 
 * Mr, Mitford, in his learned History of Greece, gives this noble testi- 
 mony to the value of the Mosaic writings : — 
 
 12 
 
266 CREATION IN SIX DAYS. 
 
 After the wonderful epitome of cosmogODj, given in 
 the first verse of Genesis, Moses proceeds, in Gen. i. 3-47, 
 (and he briefly reiterates the same doctrine in Exod. xx. 
 11,) to describe the manner in which the earth, from a 
 previous chaotic state, was reduced to its present order, 
 clothed with verdure, peopled with living races, and with 
 man, and illumined by the rays of the sun and the other 
 luminaries of heaven; and that this renovation was ef- 
 fected by a series of creative acts, which occupied six suc- 
 cessive days, and were discontinued on the seventh day. 
 For this very reason, lue are required to keep holy a 
 weekly Sabbath. ** Remember the Sabbath day to keep 
 it holy, for in six days Jehovah made heaven and earthy the 
 sea and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day : where- 
 fore Jehovah blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it." 
 
 " Since the deep researches of modern philosophers in natural history, 
 assisted by the extensive discoveries of modern navigators, through the 
 great enlargement of our acquaintance with the face of our globe, have 
 opened so many sources of wonder, without affording any adequate means 
 to arrive at the causes of the phenomena, new objections have been made 
 to the Mosaic history of the first ages of the world, which, it has been 
 urged, must have been intended to relate, not to the whole world, but to 
 those parts, with which the Jewish people had more immediate concern. 
 Many, however, and insuperable as the difiiculties occurring in that con- 
 cise historical sketch may be, some arising from extreme antiquity of 
 idiom, some, perhaps, from injury received in multifarious translations, 
 and others from that allegorical style, always familiar and always in 
 esteem in the East, invention still has never been able to form any theory 
 equally consistent with the principles of the most enlightened philosophy, 
 or equally consonant to the most authentic testimonies remaining from 
 remotest ages, whether transmitted by human memory or borne in the 
 foce of nature." (Mitford's Greece, vol. i. pp. 2, 3.) 
 
LECTURE VII. 
 
 POPULOUSNESS OF THE EARTH IN THE DAYS OF CAIN, 
 AND THE LONGEVITY OF THE ANCIENT PATRIARCHS. 
 
 Gen. iv. 15. — " The Lord set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him 
 
 should kill him." 
 Gen. v. 27. — " And all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred sixty 
 
 and nine years; and he died." 
 
 The selection of these two very striking passages from 
 the antediluvian history, is a sufficiently intelligible inti- 
 mation of my purpose to examine some of the more spe- 
 cious objections which have been boastingly urged against 
 the book of Genesis, and against the historical facts it 
 records. 
 
 Of these objections, two demand a more special at- 
 tention. 
 
 The one is drawn from the story of Cain, the murderer 
 of his brother Abel, and from the populousness of the 
 earth at that time, which the story seems to imply : — a 
 populousness much greater, it is said, than the doctrine 
 that Adam and Eve were the sole progenitors of the en- 
 tire human race, will warrant. 
 
 The other objection has respect to the long lives of the an- 
 tediluvian patriarchs : a longevity which, we are told, is 
 utterly incredible ; and which can be shown to be fabu- 
 
268 POPULOUSNESS IN THE DAYS OF CAIN, AND 
 
 lous, from the sure testimony of contemporaneous monu- 
 ments. 
 
 I. The story of Gain^ though short, is an affecting and 
 instructive one. 
 
 The first man that was born of woman, he was the 
 first to stain the annals of humanity with a dark and 
 bloody crime. 
 
 From the Mosaic narrative it would appear that Cain 
 was a tiller of the ground, while Abel, his younger 
 brother, busied himself chiefly in the care of flocks of 
 sheep. Instructed, no doubt, from their infancy, to re- 
 vere and to worship God their maker, one occasion there 
 was, on which both the brothers brought sacrifice to God. 
 The offering of the younger, which was of the firstlings 
 of his flock, was accepted of the Most High. Cain, who 
 brought of the fruits of the ground, was not accepted. 
 " The Lord had respect unto Abel and tx) his offenng : but 
 unto Cain and his offering, He had not respect/" Gen. iv. 
 4,5. 
 
 The reasons for this difference were doubtless just and 
 good : but the result was, that " Cain luas very wroth, and 
 his countenance felir A gloomy, dissatisfied, and even 
 revengeful spirit was awakened in his breast. The wri- 
 ter to the Hebrews (see Heb. xi. 4) accounts for the dif- 
 ference in the acceptableness of these two offerings : ^^ By 
 faitli Abel offered a more acceptable offering Hian Gain^* But 
 we know thsit faith has respect to the word of God. 
 
 * On this passage, (^Gen. iv. 7,) Mons. Cahen, the learned author of a 
 recent French translation of the Bible, remarks : " Both the brothers had 
 brought an oblation ; but the younger brought of the most valuable of 
 his possessions : and the elder at hazard, without choice, and without hav- 
 ing cut the offering in pieces, according to the customary rite. (Jarchi.) 
 
^ LONGEVITY OF THE ANCIENT PATRIARCHS. 269 
 
 There must, then, have been some divine precept given 
 to the first human family, respecting sacrifices, a precept 
 which, in the offering of Abel, was complied with, and in 
 that of Cain was disregarded. 
 
 Hence, it has been reasonably argued, that the worship 
 of God by bloody sacrifices, symbolical of the one great 
 atoning sacrifice for sin, afterwards to be made in the 
 death of Christ the lamb of God, had been already insti- 
 tuted by direct command of God, at this early period ; 
 and not improbably this institution was appointed imme- 
 diately after the fall. 
 
 A supposition which is strengthened by the recorded 
 fact, that after sentence had been pronounced by the Most 
 High upon the sinning pair, a sentence which assured 
 them that they were mortal, Jehovah himself conde- 
 scended to clothe them with skins, probably of animals 
 slain, by God's teaching then vouchsafed to them, in 
 order to be offered in sacrifice to God ; in anticipation, 
 and symbolic representation, of the promised seed of the 
 woman. 
 
 It is remarkable, also, that no record is found in holy 
 writ of permission given to man to use the flesh of ani- 
 mals as food until after the deluge. (See Faber's Pagan 
 Idolatry, vol. i. p. 43, note.) We know, also, that from 
 tbe remotest antiquity, and in nearly every nation under 
 heaven, as far back as historic records, or even tradition 
 reaches, the practice of offering in sacrifice animals slain 
 for the purpose, has prevailed. 
 
 It is a further, and a very rational inference from these 
 
 The Samaritan text employs here a word, which expresses an action, as 
 it were, to cut into morsels. The Septuagint seems also to follow this 
 reading. (La Bible, Traduc. Nouvelle. Paris, 1831, par. M. Cahen.) 
 
270 POPULOUSNESS IN THE DAYS OF CAIN, AND 
 
 considerations, that if God appointed in the family of 
 Adam worship by bloody sacrifices, he must have ap- 
 pointed also a ritual^ or mode of worship, a priesthood^ or 
 persons to officiate in this worship, and probably also a 
 place where this worship should be publicly offered by 
 the whole assembled family or community. And al- 
 though the narrative in Genesis makes no explicit men- 
 tion of these several divine regulations, yet many cir- 
 cumstances incidentally made known in these ancient 
 documents comport with this view, and confirm it. 
 
 The solemn blessing given by the dying patriarchs to 
 the first-born son, (Gen. xxvii. 27-29, 33-36, xxviii. 4, 
 and xlviii. 14, 17-19,) looks very much like an open 
 consecration, or induction to a sacred office. The bless- 
 ing of the first-born included also a double portion of 
 goods, (Deut. xxi. 17,) obviously, as it would seem, to 
 meet the expenses incident to the worship which his po- 
 sition, as the head of the whole family, required the first- 
 born son to maintain. Hence, also, the profound defer- 
 ence shown in ancient times to the patriarch, or head of 
 the family ; and hence, also, the great authority he exer- 
 cised over all his descendants, however numerous. 
 
 That there was also some one particular spot where 
 stood the altar, and where, in the presence of his whole 
 family, the patriarch, or the father, officiated in the sol- 
 emn worship of God, by the offering in sacrifice on that 
 altar, suitable animals slain for the purpose, is rendered 
 highly probable by several considerations. 
 
 There is also good reason to believe that this worship 
 was offered at regular stated seasons ; and that these sea- 
 sons were the weekly recurring Sabbaths, every thought- 
 ful reader of the word of God will readily perceive. 
 
LONGEVITY OF THE ANCIEISTT PATRIARCHS. 271 
 
 That there was in patriarchal times, and even in the 
 family of Adam, some one place more especially devoted 
 to this worship of God by sacrifice, has been shown to 
 be highly probable by Mr. Blunt, of Cambridge, Eng- 
 land, in his very interesting work, entitled " Undesigned 
 Coincidences J^ 
 
 " To stand,^^ or to do things " before the LordJ^ is a phrase 
 oft occurring in the patriarchal history, and generally, (as 
 Mr. B. has observed,) in what seems to be a local sense. 
 We read of Abraham, and again of Jacob, " building an 
 altar to the Lord^'^ and offering sacrifice thereon, (Gen. xii. 
 7 ; xxii. 9 ; xxxv. 1, 8.) Jacob built an altar at Bethel to 
 the Lord. When he came out of the ark after the flood, 
 (Gen. viii. 20,) Noah builded an altar to the Lord. When 
 the angels, who had forewarned Abraham of the ap- 
 proaching doom of Sodom, had left Abraham, and were 
 gone away, ^^ Abraham " as we read, ^^ stood yet before the 
 Lord^' (Gen. xviii. 22,) i. e. he stayed to plead with God 
 on behalf of those devoted cities, and to plead in the 
 place best suited to such a service, the place where God 
 was by him usually worshipped. 
 
 Accordingly, it follows immediately after, ^' and Abra- 
 ham drew near^ and saidJ^ Again, we read, that the next 
 day ^^ Abraham gat up early in the morning^ (probably his 
 usual hour of prayer,) to the place where he stood before the 
 Lord^^ i. e. the same place where he had been pleading 
 the day before ; and, in all probability, the altar he had 
 built when he first came to Mamre, for at Mamre he still 
 resided. 
 
 So also when Isaac purposed to bless his son before he 
 died, it was to be done before the Lord^ (Gen. xxvii. 7,) i. e. be- 
 fore the altar erected by Isaac at Beersheba, (Gen. xxvi. 25.) 
 
272 POPULOUSNESS IN THE DAYS OF CAIN, AND 
 
 So also, afterwards, among the children of Israel in the 
 wilderness, before the great tabernacle was built, when 
 any man would ^^ seek the Lord^" ho went out to the tent 
 erected for that purpose by Moses, outside of the camp, 
 where, with appropriate solemnities, he could perform 
 his devotions " before the LordJ'' (Exod. xxxiii. 7.) 
 
 The offerings presented by Cain and Abel respectively, 
 seem to have been brought to one and the same place. 
 One would judge, at least, that they were in view of each 
 other, so that the acceptance of Abel's offering, and the 
 rejection of Cain's, were known to both of them. 
 
 This appears to have been an act of private devotion, 
 performed by each for himself, not the public worship 
 attended by the whole family ; else it would have been 
 conducted by Adam in person, as the head of the family, 
 just as in later ages. Job offered sacrifice for his sons and 
 his daughters, daily, lest they should have offended God 
 by sin, (Job i. 5.) Yet private though this worship of- 
 fered by Cain and Abel was, it was still offered hef(yre 
 the Lord^ i. e. in the place consecrated to worship. Hence 
 when afterwards, as a consequence of his great sin, Cain 
 wandered away from his first home, and from the society 
 of his parents and his kindred, he is said to have gone out 
 from the 'presence of the Lord; for in thus wandering away, 
 he left behind him the place and the altar, where God 
 was worshipped, and where even the symbol of God's 
 presence may have been visible to the eye, as it was after- 
 wards in the Shekinah, or cloud of glory, above the 
 mercy-seat in the Holiest of all, in the tabernacle first, 
 and then in the temple. To approach the consecrated 
 spot where the altar stood, was " to dravj near unto the 
 Lord^'^ it was to "to stand in the presence of the Lord." 
 
. LONGEVITY OF THE ANCIENT PATRIARCHS. 273 
 
 To remove to another land was to go out from the presence 
 of the Lord. So to remove was to leave behind him the 
 place and the institutions of God's worship ; i. e. saith 
 Poole, '' egressus est e loco presentioe Divince^ hoc est, e loco 
 EcclesicG congregatair 
 
 Hence we can see how utterly void of force are the 
 cavils against the credibility of Genesis, as an inspired 
 book, on the ground of such expressions as this, " Cain 
 went out from the presence of the Lord^^ just as though the 
 story of Cain, as recorded in Genesis, taught, or at least 
 implied, that the Lord is in some places and not in 
 others. (See this objection urged in "Two Lectures, 
 &c.,"by Dr. J. C.Nott, p. 61.) 
 
 The rejection of his offering seems to have kindled in 
 the bosom of Cain, fierce and deadly resentment, no less 
 than sullen discontent. This wicked temper God conde- 
 scended to notice, and he was pleased to remonstrate 
 with Cain on account of it. '' If thou doest well shalt thou 
 not he accepted? And if thou doest not luell, sin lieth at 
 the doorT 
 
 This latter expression is generally understood to imply 
 that even the consciousness of unworthiness need not 
 plunge him into despair, since, for the expiation of guilt, 
 a sin-offering was provided, sin {i. e, a sin-offering) lieth at 
 the door : for the word here standing in the Hebrew text 
 is used to denote both these ideas, viz., the sin itself; and 
 also, sometimes, the victim offered in expiation of sin. 
 
 The ^Qxj terms, therefore, in which this divine admo- 
 nition is expressed, corroborate the idea that even Cain 
 presented his offering hefore the Lord, i. e. in a consecrated 
 place ; e. g. at an altar, sheltered, most probably, by a 
 rude tent, or hut, at the door or entrance of which, the 
 
 12* 
 
274 POPULOUSNESS IN THE DAYS OF CAIN, AND 
 
 beasts intended for victims were usually laid, before tbe 
 ceremony of the offering commenced; just as afterwards, 
 among the Jews, the victim about to be sacrificed, was laid 
 down before the door of the tabernacle, (Levit. i. 3.) All 
 this tender remonstrance from the Most High, failed to 
 soften the heart of Cain; and soon afterwards, we find, he 
 killed his brother Abel, when they were in the open field. 
 The deed of blood was probably committed in secret, un- 
 known for a time, even to their parents. But to God all 
 things are open. He called the murderer to account, 
 charged home upon him the foul crime, pronounced him 
 accursed upon the earth, and the earth accursed to him, 
 so that its tillage should not yield to his hands a full re- 
 turn. "^ fugitive and a vagabond shall thou he in the 
 earthy 
 
 At length the conscience of the wretched firatricide 
 seemed to awake ; he declared that his punishment was 
 too heavy for him to bear, and he expressed an appre- 
 hension that every one who met him, would aim to take 
 his life. This fear, at least, God was pleased to quell. 
 " Therefore whosoever shall slay Cain^ vengeance shall he 
 taken on him sevenfold. And the Lord set a mark upon Cain^ 
 lest any finding him^ should kill him.'^ 
 
 As to what may have been this mark, various and 
 most fanciful have been the conjectures hazarded, espe- 
 cially by the Jewish rabbins. Some supposed that Cain 
 was turned black, as a negro ; others that a letter was made 
 to appear on his forehead as if stamped or branded there ; 
 and others, again, have imagined, that this mark was a 
 bloody wound, ghastly and horrible, impressed upon his 
 face. Idle suppositions all ! especially since the words em- 
 ployed in the sacred record, rather convey the idea of a 
 
LONGEVITY OF THE ANCIENT PATRIARCHS. 275 
 
 pledge or token given of God to Cain, in order to assure 
 him that his life should be secure from violence. The 
 word here translated a mar\ is the same that is else- 
 where rendered a sign^ (Gen. i. 14.) M. Cahen translates 
 it, — " He gave to Cain a sign that none should hill him J'' 
 adding in a note, " A sign. A man known, designated 
 and marked as a great criminal (un grand coupable,) 
 undergoes a punishment the most enduring, the least 
 tolerable, — the contempt of all society 1" — (Traduc. Nou- 
 velle La Bible, Cahen.) 
 
 Of the nature of this token we are in total ignorance. 
 N'o law, so far, at least, as the sacred record shows, had 
 as yet been given to man, awarding death to the murder- 
 er. This was done afterwards, on the subsiding of the 
 Flood, (Gen. ix. 6 ;) and this statute was re-enacted in the 
 code of laws given to the Jews, (Exod. xx. 13 ; Numb. 
 XXXV. 16-18.) 
 
 As yet, God did not see fit to proclaim this penalty, 
 nor to order its infliction. Cain, the first murderer, was 
 suffered to live, a prey to remorse, and shunned by his 
 fellow-men ! He became a fugitive from his home and 
 his kindred, and settled in the land of ISTod, to the east 
 of Eden, which many have fancied must have been 
 Shushan, Susiana, or Chussistan, in Persia. The French 
 translator, M. Cahen, suggests from the Septuagint form 
 of this name, Naib^ (Naid,) that it may possibly be the 
 same as Ned i da, in Arabia, which is to the east of Nu- 
 bia. From this it would seem that M. Cahen supposes 
 the garden of Eden to have been Nubia ! 
 
 In this land of Nod, wherever it may have been, Cain 
 had a numerous posterity, and there he built a city, 
 called after the name of his son, Enoch. The posterity 
 
276 POPULOUSNESS IN THE DAYS OF CAIlsr, AND 
 
 of Cain — as though the soil had been cursed to them no 
 less than to their father, became skilled in the various 
 mechanic arts, rather than in agriculture : and the fact 
 that Cain inclosed himself within the ramparts of a city, 
 well comports with the character of one living in the 
 constant fear of violence. 
 
 The Jews have a tradition that Cain became a turbu- 
 lent and mischievous person ; that he organized and 
 headed a band of robbers, and harassed his more orderly 
 neighbors, until he filled the land with violence. 
 
 Another tradition represents him as at length wander- 
 ing, a wretched outcast, in the forests, disfigured by the 
 murderer's mark, and grown shaggy as a wild beast ; and 
 that thus, being encountered in the forest by Lamech, 
 whose sight was defective, he was by him taken for a 
 wild beast, and so was unwittingly slain ; and hence the 
 speech of Lamech to his wives. (Gen. iv. 23, 24.) All 
 this is mere fable. 
 
 But now, this narrative of Moses does itself present a 
 serious difficulty. 
 
 The murder of Abel, and the sentence pronounced upon 
 Cain took place before the birth of Seth, the third son of 
 Adam, mentioned in the Bible. (Gen. iv. 25.) At the 
 birth of Seth, Adam had lived one hundred and twenty- 
 nine years only. Where, then, it is asked, were the peo- 
 ple from whom Cain could fear violence? Abel and 
 Cain are the only two children of Adam mentioned in 
 the Bible, as yet. Abel was now dead : so that, besides 
 Cain himself, the only human beings then on earth were 
 Adam and Eve ! From whom could Cain possibly fear 
 violence ? 
 
 Besides all this : " When Cain had settled in the land 
 
LONGEVITY OF THE ANCIENT PATRIARCHS. 277 
 
 of Kod, mention is made of his wife. Where did he ob- 
 tain this wife ? No daughters of Adam are mentioned 
 until after the birth of Seth ! The whole story found 
 in the 4th chapter of Genesis, does, then, plainly imply 
 that there were other men on earth, at that time, besides 
 Adam and Eve, and their descendants. Otherwise, Cain 
 could not have been troubled by the fear that some one 
 would kill him ; and otherwise, he could not have ob- 
 tained a wife ; unless we suppose^ for which we have no 
 warrant, that Adam had many other children, not men- 
 tioned in the Bible. And even then^ we must admit the 
 monstrous idea of incest in the family of Adam himself 
 — brothers marrying their own sisters !" 
 
 Weighty though this difficulty may, for a moment, ap- 
 pear, it has in reality but very little force. It is disin- 
 genuously put. It assumes, against all probability, that 
 the first human pair, they on whom God himself had 
 laid the special benediction of fertility, " ^e ye fruitful 
 and muUiply^^ — a pair the most perfect and the most vig- 
 orous the world ever saw, — should have lived together 
 for the space of one hundred and thirty years of vigor 
 unabated, and yet the whole fruit of their union should 
 have been three sons only, with no daughter ; and of 
 these sons, the third was not born until the last of these 
 one hundred and thirty years ! This surpasses all belief. 
 
 Moreover, the assumption here made accords not to 
 the text of Moses : that text not only allows the suppo- 
 sition, but it distinctly asserts that Adam had other chil- 
 dren, sons and daughters both. (Gen. v. 4.) The record 
 of this fact does, indeed, follow the record of the birth of 
 Seth ; but this begetting of sons and daughters is not 
 necessarily limited, and it cannot truly be limited, to the 
 
278 
 
 eight hundred years after the birth of Seth. It is most 
 naturally understood as applying to the one hundred 
 and thirty years before, as well as the eight hundred 
 years after that event. It is a general declaration, teach- 
 ing us that Adam and Eve had many other children be- 
 sides the three sons, the names of whom alone are re- 
 corded. The narrative in Genesis does, therefore, freely 
 allow, nay it imperatively requires us to hold, that in 
 the earlier part of his life Adam had many children, 
 daughters no less than sons. The first human pair were 
 created perfect and mature in all their powers. 
 
 The circumstances mentioned in this chapter, and on 
 which rests the very difficulty now under examination, 
 plainly show that during the first one hundred and thirty 
 years of Adam's life, his family must have increased 
 rapidly, and his descendants must have multiplied to a 
 great and extraordinary extent : because, the whole spirit 
 of the Mosaic narrative is inconsistent with the supposi- 
 tion of any other human beings, except Adam and Eve 
 and their descendants. Population had evidently reached 
 a considerable number, by the time of AbeFs death. But 
 this population had, as evidently, sprung solely from 
 Adam and his wife. 
 
 An old eastern tradition has it, that Cain and Abel, at 
 least, were born, each with a twin sister. And certainly, 
 since God had expressly blessed Adam and Eve that they 
 should he fruitful^ and multiply^ and replenish the earth and 
 subdue it, it is irrational to suppose that due provision 
 would not be made for the supply of wives to the sons 
 of Adam, as they severally reached manhood. 
 
 Nor is it philosophical, or rational either, to undertake 
 to determine the rate of the increase of the human family 
 
LONGEVITY OF THE ANCIENT PATRIARCHS. 279 
 
 in the very first ages of the world, according to those laws 
 which now, under circumstances so entirely different, 
 regulate and restrict the increase of population. Take 
 the Mosaic narrative as it is, as one whole; make but 
 the most natural supposition in each case, to account for 
 the several events recorded, and it will be found that no 
 extravagant calculations, no monstrous deviations from 
 the well-known course of nature, will be needed, to show 
 the entire consistency of all the parts, and the strong 
 probability of the whole. Figure to yourself one human 
 pair placed on the earth, in perfect health and vigor, 
 with climate and all other circumstances favorable, to 
 serve as the propagators of the human race; allow to 
 them and their offspring but the ordinary degree of 
 fecundity, and all becomes plain, and consistent. 
 
 As to the charge of incestuous marriages in the first 
 human family, the necessity of the case required such 
 marriages at first. Indeed, even on the supposition of the 
 creation of many distinct original pairs, as progenitors of 
 the several races of men, the same would be indispensa- 
 ble, in each original family ; since the countries of their 
 origin must have been too widely remote from each other, 
 to have allowed the intermingling of these several races, 
 until at each central point of origin, many generations had 
 arisen. 
 
 But the second generation at least, in each of these 
 central points, could have sprung only from what the ob- 
 jection specifies as the incestuous union of brothers and 
 sisters, the offspring severally, of each of these original 
 pairs. Besides, the great object proposed by the supposed 
 creation of several original human pairs, at distinct and 
 widely separated points, would be defeated, if, to avoid 
 
280 POPULOUSNESS IN THE DAYS OF CAIN, AND 
 
 incestuous marriages, the first offspring of these different 
 pairs, had intermarried. The immediate intermingling 
 of these several roots provided for the production of dis- 
 tinct races of men, would have rendered the formation 
 of distinct races impossible. To avoid at once, incest in 
 the first marriages, and the intermingling of races meant 
 to be kept entirely distinct, no way is left but the sup- 
 position advanced by Professor Agassiz, viz., that man 
 was produced, not by the creation of one original pair, 
 or of several original pairs, but that whole communities 
 of men, just as bees in swarms, were created in several 
 different zoological provinces. Unless this supposition, 
 which is void of all probability, and which is at least, 
 directly in the teeth of the Mosaic narrative, be adopted, 
 you cannot explain the propagation of mankind, without 
 admitting the union of brothers and sisters in the mar- 
 riages of the immediate descendants of the first human 
 pair, or pairs. Nor would the same objections then lie 
 against such unions as now: as a little reflection will 
 serve to show. In the second generation they would be 
 no longer necessary : and even with us, the intermarriage 
 of first cousins, however undesirable it may be esteemed, 
 as a general thing, is neither unknown, nor regarded as 
 sinful. 
 
 Afler the second generation among Adam's descend- 
 ants had arisen, the marriage of brother to sister may 
 have been divinely prohibited, although of this we find 
 no record. Certain it is, that in ancient times the con- 
 nection in marriage of very near relatives, even half- 
 brothers and sisters, was viewed with little of the abhor- 
 rence we feel ; nay, it was positively tolerated. Thus 
 Sarai, wife of the patriarch Abraham, was his half-sister. 
 
LONGEVITY OP THE ANCIENT PATRIARCHS. 281 
 
 (Gen. XX. 12.) And even in the time of King David, 
 the intermarriage of those who stood in a relation so near 
 as that of children of the same father but by different 
 mothers, was neither unknown, nor deemed altogether 
 unlawful ; as is plain from the remonstrance urged by 
 the distressed Tamaar, on her brutal brother. (2 Sam. 
 xiii. 13.) 
 
 But certainly the objection against the descent of all 
 mankind from one pair, on this ground, comes with but 
 an ill grace from those who so highly extol the ancient 
 Egyptians, since it is well known, that among the Pha- 
 raohs of old, as well as among the Ptolemies in later 
 times, the marriage of brother and sister was allowed, and 
 was even customary. A similar custom seems to have 
 prevailed at the court of ancient Persia. 
 
 This objection being disposed of, it is not dif&cult to 
 show, that without resort to the supposition of any mi- 
 raculous fecundity, the descendants of the one first human 
 pair, might, by the close of one hundred and thirty years 
 from Adam's creation, have been sufficiently numerous 
 to form several distinct settlements, and several towns, 
 which might have been spread over an extensive district 
 of country ; so as to warrant the fear expressed by Cain, 
 and to account for his applying himself to the building 
 of a city or little town, which he named Enoch, after his 
 son. A very simple calculation will settle this point, and 
 show that from this one pair, allowing the birth of a 
 male only every second year, nearly three thousand per- 
 sons might have sprung, and been then alive and vigor- 
 ous ; and these, including a large body of descendants 
 from Abel, who may well be imagined disposed to re- 
 sent and to avenge the murder of their progenitor; might 
 
282 POPULOUSNESS IN THE DAYS OF CAIN, AND 
 
 have been already scattered over a large extent of coun- 
 try at the time of Abel's death, enough to account for 
 the fears of Cain I . 
 
 Why, at this very moment, when the descendants of 
 President Edwards, the author of the immortal treatise 
 on the " Freedom of the Will,''' are contemplating a general 
 family meeting, it is calculated that the descendants of 
 the illustrious metaphysician number about two thousand, 
 although he has been dead hardly a century, January, 
 1852. 
 
 If, however, the chronological dates of the Septuagint 
 be adopted, (and every year serves only to increase the 
 probability that this is the true chronology,) then, Seth 
 not having been born until the year 230, a very easy 
 calculation will show, there must have been more than 
 a hundred thousand persons then alive, who may have 
 been spread over a country as extensive as Alabama and 
 Louisiana united. (See Bedford's Scrip. Chron. Tables, 
 22, 23, 24, and 25, and pages 205-211. Lond. 1730.)* 
 
 It is easy to ridicule such calculations, and to call 
 them extravagant and absurd. But ridicule is no test 
 of truth. 
 
 That no more than three sons of Adam are mentioned 
 by name, in Genesis, furnishes no proof that these were 
 all the offspring of his union with Eve. The probabili- 
 ties are strongly against such comparative sterility ; and 
 
 * A calculation by no means exaggerated or very improbable, would 
 yield some eight or ten thousand at the close of one hundred and thirty 
 years ; and by the termination of the two hundred and thirty years as- 
 signed in the Septuagint as the date of Seth's birth, there might have 
 been upwards of two hundred thousand living persons. The calculation 
 given above, which is the lowest, will meet the objection. 
 
LONGEVITY OF THE ANCIENT PATRIAEOHS. 283 
 
 the testimony of Genesis is explicit that Adam had 
 other children, and of both sexes. 
 
 These three sons are alone mentioned, because of the 
 extraordinary incidents in the history of Abel and of 
 Cain; and because, in the line of Seth, the true religion 
 was preserved, and from him Noah, the father of the 
 postdiluvian world, was descended. The objection against 
 the authority of Genesis, and with it the objection against 
 the unity of the human race as sprung from one pair, 
 that is based on the fears, the marriage, and the wan- 
 derings of Cain are untenable and groundless. For, let it 
 be remembered, that when an objection against a state- 
 ment either found in the Bible or made by any competent 
 witness, is based upon the impossibility of the fact alleged, 
 the moment it is shown that' upon any reasonable sup- 
 position it might be true, the objection is answered, it 
 becomes powerless, even though the particular supposi- 
 tion made should happen not to be the right one. The 
 reason is obvious. In showing that, on any reasonable 
 supposition, the fact in question might he true, might 
 have occurred, you show that it is not impossible : and of 
 course the objection based upon the ground that it is 
 impossible^ and that therefore it cannot be true, dies at 
 once ! 
 
 Another objection may here be briefly noticed, viz.^ that 
 urged against the long lives ascribed in Genesis to the earlier 
 patriarchs. Thus we read that Adam lived nine hundred 
 and thirty years ; Methuselah nine hundred and sixty- 
 nine. Noah seems to have been about five hundred 
 years old at the birth of his sons, Shem, Ham, and 
 Japheth, Gen. v. 82 ; and Noah was six hundred years 
 old at the time of the flood. Gen. vii. 11. His entire 
 
284 POPULOUSNESS IN THE DAYS OF CAIN, AND 
 
 age, at the period of his death, was nine hundred and 
 fifty years, Gen. ix. 29. It follows, therefore, that be- 
 fore the flood, men must have lived about ten times as 
 long as now. To remove this difficulty, various supposi- 
 tions have been resorted to. Some have supposed that 
 the years mentioned in the ages of the antediluvian 
 patriarchs, were lunar, not solar years; i. e. that they 
 were months. But this explanation is inadmissible, it 
 would reduce the period between the creation of Adam, 
 and the deluge, from 1656 years, the lowest computation 
 usually maintained, to about 138 ; a period utterly insuf- 
 ficient to account for all the events recorded, and for the 
 large population spoken of, as in existence on the earth 
 before the deluge. Other interpreters have supposed 
 that the numbers have been inadvertently increased ten- 
 fold, and that Adam was ninety-three instead of nine 
 hundred and thirty years old ; Methuselah ninety-six ; 
 and Noah ninety-five years old, at the time of their death, 
 respectively. 
 
 But if this be the true explanation, the interval be- 
 tween the creation and the flood was only 165 years, 
 which is incredible ; then, also, the deluge itself could 
 have lasted but a few days, which is directly contradic- 
 tory of the Mosaic narrative ; and then, also, many of 
 the patriarchs must have had children at ten, and some 
 of them at five or six years of age. All this is utterly 
 inadmissible. 
 
 The truth seems to be, that, for reasons doubtless good 
 and wise, God suffered men in the earlier ages of the 
 world, to live and to retain their vigor, to a very advanced 
 age, for the more rapid peopling of the earth, and for 
 
LONGEVITY OF THE ANCIENT PATRIAKCHS. 285 
 
 the readier transmission, by tradition, before a written 
 revelation was given, of the vital truths of religion. 
 
 Before the flood, so far as the Mosaic record enables us 
 to judge, the life of man was in length, double what it 
 was in the first centuries after the flood. In the period 
 succeeding the time of Koah, man's life was reduced to 
 four hundred and six years, and then it seems to have 
 been rapidly shortened. Abraham died at the age of one 
 hundred and seventy-five years. Gen. xxv. 7. Joseph 
 died at one hundred and ten, Gen. 1. 22. Moses lived to 
 the age of one hundred and twenty, Deut. xxxiv. 7 ; and 
 thus gradually was human life shortened, until, in the 
 time of the Psalmist, (Ps. xc. 10,) it was reduced to its 
 present standard, about threescore years and ten. 
 
 But, we are told, the extreme longevity ascribed in 
 Genesis to the patriarchs is utterly incredible, because it 
 is unnatural ; and moreover the recorded ages of persons 
 contemporary with some of these patriarchs, as found on 
 the monuments of Egypt, show clearly that the account 
 given in Genesis is exaggerated. 
 
 I answer. The assertion that such longevity in an- 
 cient times was unnatural^ is gratuitous. Even apart 
 from the direct appointment of God, to which we unhesi- 
 tatingly refer this great longevity, it is far from being 
 impossible ; it is not even improbable, that, before the 
 deluge, and perhaps also for some ages thereafter, the 
 original vigor of man's frame, fresh from the hands of 
 his Maker, together with the influence of a congenial 
 climate, possibly of a purer atmosphere, a more equable 
 temperature, a more wholesome diet, simpler habits of 
 life, and other causes to us unknown, may have combined 
 and contributed greatly to prolong the life of man. 
 
286 POPULOUSNESS IN THE DAYS OF CAIN, AND 
 
 The Mosaic account of this longevity is certainly cor- 
 roborated by the traditional history of all ancient nations 
 that has reached our times. For, Manetho who wrote the 
 story of the Egyptians, Berosus who wrote the Chaldoean 
 history, and those authors who give us accounts of Phoe- 
 nician antiquities; and among the Greeks, Hesiod, He- 
 cataeus, Hellenicus, Ephorus, &c., do unanimously testify 
 that, in the first ages of the world, men lived to be near- 
 ly one thousand years old. (See Burnet's Theory, b. ii. 
 ch. iv. : see also Stackhouse on Gen. v. 13.) 
 
 Besides, admitting that in Egypt men did not in patri- 
 archal times reach the advanced ages recorded in Gene- 
 sis, that could not disprove the fact, that such longevity 
 was reached in other regions, (say in Asia, as recorded 
 by Moses.) 
 
 Is it any proof that temples built of sand-stone, and 
 obelisks of granite, and of sand-stone both, cannot have 
 stood in Egypt uninjured for two or three thousand 
 years, because it is found that, in these United States and 
 in Europe, marble, and granite itself, gradually crumble, 
 eroded by time after a much shorter period ? Facts show 
 the reverse ; for, it is but a few years since the obelisk 
 now standing in La Place de la Concorde, in Paris, was 
 brought from Egypt, and erected there, and already it 
 shows the destructive power of the climate, the sharp 
 edges of its beautifully sculptured figures are fast wear- 
 ing away, while its twin-fellow at Luxor still stands, after 
 the lapse of about 4000 years, uninjured, and fresh as at 
 first I (See Ampere, in Revue des Deux Mondes, Dec. 
 1847, p. 1010.) 
 
 Moreover, it is a mere assumption that the names on 
 these monuments are those of persons contemporaneous 
 
LONGEVITY OF THE ANCIENT PATRIARCHS. 287 
 
 witli the long-lived patriarchs mentioned in Genesis. 
 The men of extreme longevity were antediluvians. 
 
 The monuments of Egypt, though certainly very an- 
 cient, were as certainly built long after the flood ! 
 
 It is not true, then, that the annals of Egypt and of the 
 East show that, in the patriarchal times, men's lives were 
 not longer than now. In all those oriental annals, some 
 of the earliest of the men therein commemorated, are 
 represented as having attained a very great age. 
 
 I recollect meeting with the names of several mon- 
 archs, mentioned in the hieroglyphics, whose age must 
 have been considerably greater than that of Moses, one 
 hundred and twenty years. 
 
 For instance, the reign of Menes, the first king, and 
 first of the Theban dynasty in Egypt, (mentioned by 
 Eratosthenes,) was sixty-two years. That of Apoppous, 
 (the Pheops of Manetho,) was one hundred years, wanting 
 but one hour : he was the twentieth king. The reign of 
 Moncheiri, the sixth king, was seventy-nine years. (See 
 Brummond's Origines, vol. ii. pp. 895, 441.) This Pheops 
 is now placed as the fourth king of the sixth, or Mem- 
 phite dynasty: he began to reign at six years of age. 
 (See Henrick's Egypt, vol. ii. p. 145.) 
 
 So also the Chinese annals represent the emperor Fo-hi 
 to have reigned^ (not lived merely, but reigned on the 
 throne as monarch,) during the long period of one hun- 
 dred and fifteen years; Xinnum, one hundred and forty; 
 Ho-an-ti, one hundred ; and Hao-hao, eighty-four years. 
 Yao reigned one hundred years : and these monarchs 
 are, by the Chinese registers, assigned to a period not far 
 from Noah. 
 
 The lives of these monarchs must therefore, have been 
 
288 POPULOUSNESS IN THE DAYS OF CAIN, AND 
 
 from one hundred and ten or fifteen, to one hundred 
 and seventy or even one hundred and eighty years. 
 (See Historia Sinica Martinii, and Bedford's Scripture 
 Chronology, p. 7 ; Du Halde's China, vol. i. pp. 270, 282 ; 
 Chine, par M. Pauthier, pp. 24-30.) 
 
 Now it is somewhat remarkable, that while in our day 
 it is objected against the Mosaic account of patriarchal 
 longevity, that no instance of life much longer than the 
 present average is found recorded on the monuments or 
 among the hieroglyphics of Egypt, it is but a few years 
 since one argument advanced by the friends of the Bible 
 as corroborative of this very account of the long lives 
 of the patriarchs, was derived from the fact, that some 
 of the earliest of the Egyptian kings are represented as 
 living, and even reigning, several centuries each. (See 
 Faber's Pagan Idolatry, vol. ii. pp. 49-53.) 
 
 Thus, in the table of Egyptian kings given by Eratos- 
 thenes, Menes, the first Egyptian king, who was long 
 supposed to be the same as Mizraim, lived two hundred 
 and fifty years ; his successor, Thoth, or Athmothes, lived 
 two hundred and seventy-six years. These are repre- 
 sented as nearly contemporary with Arphaxad, the son 
 of Shem, and with Salah, Eber, and Peleg. (Bedford's 
 Scrip. Chron. p. 62.) This Mizraim, or Menes, is repre- 
 sented by some to have been the son of Ham, and his 
 death at two hundred and fifty-two years of age was 
 lamented by the Egyptians as premature. "This," (ob- 
 serves the quaint old chronicler, Bedford, p. 61,) "is a 
 fair time (two hundred and fifty-two years old) for a man 
 whom the Egyptians lament as cut off in the flower of 
 his age ; and this, and the death of Athmothes at two 
 hundred and seventy-six years, the grandson of Ham, is 
 
LONGEVITY OF THE ANCIENT PATRIARCHS. 289 
 
 a good approach to the longevity of those patriarchal 
 times, since Athmothes came to the throne when he was 
 two hundred and seventeen years old, and he died when 
 he was two hundred and seventy-six, though not so old 
 as Salah, four hundred and thirty- three; which many ac- 
 cidents might hinder." "And thus," observes the same 
 old writer, (Bedford, Chron. p. 68,) " by comparing the 
 longevity of the kings of Upper Egypt with their con- 
 temporaries in Scripture, we find the history of both con- 
 firmed !" There are, however, other difiiculties attending 
 the received -understanding of the Mosaic record respect- 
 ing the patriarchs. According to the chronology com- 
 monly given in our Bibles, Lamech, the father of Noah, 
 was contemporary with all his ancestors. He was already 
 fifty-six years old when Adam died. Noah was eighty- 
 four years old at the death of Enos; and at Noah's death, 
 Abraham was fifty-eight years old. Shem, the son of 
 Noah, and one of those saved with Noah in the ark, not 
 only lived all the days of Abraham, but he survived him 
 thirty-three years. Shem must, then, have been living 
 one hundred and nine years after the institution of cir- 
 cumcision, as the seal of God's covenant with Abraham, 
 the father of the faithful. Arphaxad lived eighty-two 
 years, Salah one hundred and seven, and Heber one hun- 
 dred and seventy-two years after the establishment of that 
 rite, if Usher's Chronology be admitted, and yet no mention 
 whatever is made of these the pious ancestors and kin- 
 dred of Abraham, all yet living when that covenant was 
 made. Were these venerable patriarchs actually living 
 at the time when this solemn religious ordinance was es- 
 tablished, the utter silence of the sacred historian respect- 
 ing them is unaccountable. 
 
 13 
 
290 POPULOUSNESS IN THE DAYS OF CAIN, AND 
 
 Again : when God intimated to Sarah that she should 
 bear a son, she deemed it incredible, that she, at the age 
 of ninety, should conceive, her husband also being about 
 one hundred : /i€, as good as dead, says Paul. 
 
 But, if the common chronology be retained, we must 
 suppose that fertility even in persons much older, could 
 have been nothing strange to this venerable couple ; for 
 Shem, their own ancestor, was yet living, whose first 
 child was born after the flood, when Shem was upwards 
 of one hundred years old : and Abraham at least, and 
 most probably Sarah also, must have seen, and might 
 often have conversed with Noah himself, who lived till 
 Abraham was fifty-eight, and Sarah about forty-eight. 
 But Noah was about five hundred years old, when his chil- 
 dren were born. Another computation places the birth 
 of Abraham a few years after the death of Noah : but the 
 argument is scarcely affected at all, by this difference of 
 computation. The incredulity of Abraham and Sarah is 
 utterly inexplicable, if they had been so long contempo- 
 rary, or so nearly contemporary, with Noah and Shem, 
 as the chronology of Usher implies. 
 
 This is, most assuredly, a difficulty of some magnitude ; 
 and against the received computation of dates, it bears 
 with overwhelming force. That computation allows an 
 interval of three hundred and fifty -two years only, be- 
 tween the deluge and Abraham. 
 
 Against the shortness of this interval, many, and con- 
 stantly increasing difficulties present. But in the Samari- 
 tan Pentateuch, the dates assigned for this period, and 
 those also in the Septuagint, or Greek translation, which 
 here agrees with the Samaritan, relieve us entirely of this 
 difficulty. According to the LXX. there had elapsed, 
 
LONGEVITY OF THE ANCIENT PATRIARCHS. 291 
 
 instead of three hundred and fifty-two years, no less than 
 one thousand and two years, (and even the Samaritan copy 
 gives us nine hundred and forty-two years,) between the 
 flood and the birth of Abraham, (see Hale's Chronology, 
 vol. ii. p. 33,) an interval which affords ample time for 
 all the events recorded in Genesis, and for those also, that 
 are registered in the archives of ancient oriental nations, 
 saving, perhaps, those of Egypt alone. Ample time is 
 also, by adopting the Septuagint chronology, afforded for 
 the gradual decrease in the length of human life, and the 
 consequent limitation of the period of fruitfulness in 
 marriage ; until, by the time of Abraham, the promised 
 birth of a son, at the age then attained by the father of 
 the faithful, and his wife, was very naturally heard with 
 surprise and incredulity. 
 
 True, we are told, that the researches of the latest ex- 
 plorers among the monuments on the banks of the Nile, 
 have brought to light records, which extend from A.D. 
 250, the most modern, back to 2,500 years hefore Abra- 
 ham. This' would imply that these monuments are 
 1,498 years older than the flood, even according to the 
 Septuagint chronology. According to the chronology of 
 Usher, as commonly printed in our Bibles, these dis- 
 coveries would show the oldest of the Egyptian monu- 
 mental records now known to be 2.148 years before the 
 flood, and no less than. 492 years, before Adam was 
 created. (See Ampere in Eev. des Deux Mondes, Dec. 
 1847, pp. 1019, 1035.) But these dates are certainly 
 exaggerated, as I hope hereafter to show. (See Eevue 
 &c., Nov. 1846, p. 688.) 
 
 But suppose it should be shown bevond dispute,^ that 
 
 * For instances of varying interpretations of the monumental hiero- 
 
292 POPULOUSNESS IN THE DAYS OF CAIN", AND 
 
 these dates do actually stand recorded on the monuments ; 
 that would not, of itself, authenticate them as correct. 
 
 The vanity of nearly all oriental nations has led to pal- 
 pable exaggerations of antiquity in their earlier annals ; 
 and none more so, than the Egyptians. 
 
 A nation that gravely records the reigns of their earlier 
 kings as lasting hundreds, and in some instances, thou- 
 sands of years, as the Egyptians do, may well be sup- 
 posed to have made fabulous records among their hiero- 
 glyphics. In some instances it has been proved, that the 
 hieroglyphics have been altered. (See Eev. des Deux 
 Mondes, April, 1848, p. 77, also p. 66.) New names and 
 dates have been written over older ones, that were erased 
 to make room for them. This I can show. Such altera- 
 tions have been observed, and pointed out by Amp6re. 
 He has shown also that at Beit-Oalli, Champollion has 
 made out one Kamses, more than the monuments record. 
 (See Rev. des Deux Mondes, Jan. 1849, p. 87, and p. 93.) 
 This substitution of Cartouches has been observed also 
 at Medinet Habou. (Rev. &c., Dec. 1847, p.*1028.) At 
 Thebes and at Amada also, (see id. Jan. 1849, p. 93.) 
 
 But, should we even allow all that can be claimed for 
 the antiquity of these monuments ; after all, these monu- 
 ments present only the unsupported assertions of one peo- 
 ple, against the authority of the Bible, supported as the 
 Bible is, by an array of evidence, great, various, and aug- 
 menting and strengthening every year. Nay, suppose 
 the worst; suppose that we should be compelled to 
 
 glyphics, among even the ablest Egyptologists, Champollion, Rosellini, 
 &c., (see Revue des Deux Mondes, Jan. 1849, p. 87, note. See also, id. 
 Nov. 1848, pp. 687, 688. Wilkinson and Osburn both notice similar varia- 
 tions in interpreting the hieroglyphics. 
 
LONGEVITY OF THE ANCIENT PATRIARCHS. 293 
 
 abandon the Septuagint chronology, as well as that of 
 Usher, even this (of which there is no probability at all,) 
 would be merely equivalent to admitting that the mode 
 of numerical notation used in the earliest copies of the 
 Pentateuch, and of its ancient versions has not been made 
 out with entire certainty, and that, therefore, mere chrono- 
 logical dates were not designed to be included^ as an 
 essential part, in revelation. 
 
 Even this concession would leave every doctrine, every 
 precept, every promise of the Bible, distinct, full, and 
 glorious as before. But this concession we do not make : 
 on the contrary we contend that the very oldest of the 
 Egyptian monuments, when rightly interpreted, falls en- 
 tirely within the Mosaic chronology, according to the an- 
 cient Greek version. By the help of the recent researches 
 of Mr. E. S. Poole, we can now place this position in a 
 light of strong probability, if not certainty. 
 
 This point will be briefly set forth at the close of the 
 Second Lecture on the Deluge. 
 
 ^> OF THR ^^ 
 
 [TJH 17 BR SIT 71 
 
*i; 
 
 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 ANTEDILUVIAN GIANTS. 
 Gen. vi. 4.—" There were giants in the earth, in those days." 
 
 On the first four verses of this chapter, a living writer 
 has hazarded the remark : " Is it possible that any one 
 can regard this as a part of genuine revelation ? Does it 
 not, on the contrary, (as many modem commentators 
 think,) bear on its face strong evidence of having been 
 borrowed from the ancient mythologies of India and 
 Egypt, which it so closely resembles? Are not ^Uhe 
 sons of Ood" a mythical creation of the human brain? 
 The whole conception is utterly opposed to the monothe- 
 ism of the other Hebrew books : and the New Testament 
 tells us, in plain terms, that Christ was the mily son of 
 Godr (See Two Lectures by Dr. J. C. Nott, New York, 
 1849, p. 61.) 
 
 This criticism betrays but little acquaintance with the 
 peculiar phraseology of the sacred books, and with the 
 writings of the most learned and judicious expositors of 
 those books. As to borrowing from oriental mythology, 
 it may be remarked that the ancient Indian mythology 
 cannot be traced with certainty beyond an era very long 
 posterior to that of Moses. If there be borrowing in the 
 
ANTEDILUVIAN GIANTS. 295 
 
 case, the Gentoos must have borrowed from the Hebrews. 
 As it respects Egyptian mythology, it was, toto coelo, dif- 
 ferent from the teachings of the Mosaic legends, as I have 
 elsewhere shown. (See my Lecture on the Character of 
 Moses as a Statesman, in this work. See also Pritchaj-d's 
 Egyp. Mythol. pp. 406, 408.) 
 
 The New Testament does, indeed, tell us that Christ 
 is, in 2i peculiar sense, the Son of God; that Christ is the 
 only begotten Son of God! (John i. 14, 18; iii. 16, 18.) 
 But it tells us also that all believers in Christ, all truly 
 devoted persons, are also children of God^ sons and daugh- 
 ters of God. (John i. 12. Kom. viii. 14. Philip, ii. 15. 
 Hos. i. 10 : comp. Job i. 6. Luke iii. 88.) What is 
 there, then, to forbid the idea, that the term sons of God^ 
 was, from the remotest ages of even the antediluvian 
 world, applied to the pious, and to those who avowed 
 themselves worshippers of the one only living God ? 
 
 Thus understood., (and this is a natural, and, as I be- 
 lieve, the generally received interpretation of these pas- 
 sages,) the story related in Gen. vi. 1-4, is perfectly con- 
 sistent with the monotheism pervading Genesis entirely, 
 no less than the other books of the Hebrew Scriptures. 
 
 True, during the first three or four centuries of our 
 era, there was extensively prevalent among Christian 
 writers, an idea that, by sons of God^ mentioned in Gen. 
 vi. 2, 4, '"'who saw the daughters of men that they were fair ^^ 
 &c., spirits were meant, i. e. angels clothed in bodies 
 assumed for the purpose ; that these incarnate spirits 
 wooed and won the fairest among the women of that 
 time; and that, from this strange union, sprang a race 
 of men, gigantic in stature, and lawless in their lives. 
 And St. Austin was very confident in this matter, dis- 
 
296 ANTEDILUVIAN GIANTS. 
 
 tinctly asserting that instances were well known, and 
 even not unfrequent, of demons (i. e. spirits in human 
 shape, and called incubi,) having carnal connection with 
 women ; so that, he says, it were foolish to doubt the fact. 
 
 But these monstrous stories undoubtedly originated in 
 a false interpretation on this passage, by some Jewish 
 writers, and not improbably they may have originated in 
 the form of the phrase used for " sons of Ood^^^ as found 
 in some ancient copies of the Septuagint translation of 
 Genesis! Philo did certainly translate '''•sons of God" 
 angels of Ood. 
 
 Josephus also asserts (Antiq. b. i. ch. iv.) that the angels 
 of Ood, mixing with women^ begat an insolent race^ (not 
 much unlike that of the heaven-storming giants, cele- 
 brated in Greek mythological fables,) overbearing right with 
 power/ 
 
 We cannot wonder, then, that nearly all the early 
 Christian writers, called the Fathers, very few of whom 
 knew anything of Hebrew, and who almost invariably 
 used, and drew all their ideas of Bible truth from, the 
 Greek translation of the Old Testament, called the Sep- 
 tuagint, should (as Dr. Whitby has clearly shown in his 
 " Writings of the Fathers," that most of them did, as e. g. 
 Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Athenagorus, Clemens Alexan- 
 drinus, Tertullian, Cyprian, Lactantius, and even Euse- 
 bius, &c.) have held this strange opinion, of the meaning 
 of Gen. vi. 2, 4. It is, perhaps, hardly necessary to re- 
 mark, that our copies of the Septuagint read this passage 
 (fiiot t5 ^55) as our English version does, "sons of God!" 
 In the closing words of ver. 26 of Gen. iv., we read that 
 in the days of Enos, the son of Seth, " then began men to 
 call upon the name of the Lord!" 
 
ANTEDILUVIAN GIANTS. 297 
 
 Bj that expression is undoubtedly meant, some marked 
 change in the religious sentiments, or the religious rites 
 of men, perhaps both; and not improbably this change 
 prevailed chiefly in the family of Seth. Kosenmiiller 
 thinks it denotes the reordering of the rites of God's wor- 
 ship. 
 
 Monsieur Cahen, a learned French Jew, of Paris, in his 
 recent French translation of the Bible, commenced in 
 1831, says, in a note on Gen. iv. 26 : " This might well 
 be the origin of prayer addressed to the Eternal, as de- 
 signated by his quadriliteral name mjVt^ Jehovah, here 
 translated Lord. This may be so. But, as the word 
 translated called upon, may mean ^^ called upon themselves ^^'' 
 i e. called themselves by the name of the Lord, it is the 
 generally received opinion, that, in the time of Enos, the 
 descendants of Seth, seeing the great and increasing wick- 
 edness prevailing among those of the race of Cain, did, in 
 order to separate themselves more fully from the impious, 
 assume a designation expressive of their reverence for the 
 true God, and so called themselves, after his name, the 
 people of Jehovah / 
 
 These are they who, in Gen. vi. 2, 4, are spoken of as 
 sons of God / 
 
 It is, however true, that the word translated began, in 
 Gen. iv. 26, does, in some of its forms, mean to pollute or 
 profane. Hence many of the old Jewish rabbins be- 
 lieved and taught, that here, in the family of Seth, and 
 so early as in the time of Enos, was the origin of idolatry, 
 especially the worship of the sun, and other heavenly 
 bodies. 
 
 This hypothesis is rendered quite plausible, from this 
 consideration, that, although in the line of Seth, piety, 
 
 ]3* 
 
298 ANTEDILUVIAN GIANTS. 
 
 and the knowledge and the worship of the true God were 
 preserved, yet, the great body, even of the descendants 
 of Seth, although possibly designated sons of God, just 
 as the whole of Europe, (Turkey excepted,) is now 
 called Christian, did in fact become very corrupt, and 
 grossly wicked. As such, Seth's descendants, (Noah and 
 his family alone excepted,) perished in one indiscriminate 
 ruin with the descendants of Cain, in the flood. 
 
 That Cain and his descendants became wicked, im- 
 pious idolaters, and deniers of the one living God, is an 
 inference from the marked distinction made in Genesis, 
 between ^^ s(ms of God^' and daughters of men. This idea 
 is further confirmed by the passage in the letter of the 
 Apostle Jude, (v. 4-11,) where, speaking of some who 
 ^^ denied the Lord that bought them,^^ he adds, " Woe unto 
 them, for they are gone after the way of Cain,^' i, e. they had 
 thrown off all respect for God. 
 
 There is a very curious passage in the work of the Jew- 
 ish writer Maimonides on idolatry, in which he explains 
 this passage in Gen. iv. 26, as recording the origin of 
 idolatry. Dr. A. Clarke, in his commentary on Gen. iv. 
 26, thus quotes the passage from Maimonides at length : 
 " In the days of Enos, the sons of Adam erred with a 
 very great error, and the counsels of the wise men of 
 that age, became brutish ; and Enos himself was one of 
 those that erred : and their error was this. They said, for- 
 asmuch as God has 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 men should laud and glorify 
 them, and give them honor. For this is the will of God, 
 that we magnify and honor whatsoever He magnifieth 
 
ANTEDILUVIAN GIANTS. 299 
 
 and honoretli ; even as a king would have those honored 
 who stand before him ; and this is the honor of the king 
 himself. 
 
 " When this thing was come up into their hearts, they 
 began to build temples unto the stars, and to offer sacri- 
 fice unto them, to laud and glorify these with words, and 
 to worship before them, that they might, in their evil 
 opinion, obtain favor of the Creator. And this was the 
 root 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 prophets showed them the image 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 moun- 
 tains and hills, and assembled themselves together, and 
 worshipped them, &c. And this thing was spread over 
 all the earth, to serve images with services different one 
 from another, &c. &c. 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 ; and 
 as for the Eock everlasting, there was no man that ac- 
 knowledged Him, or knew Him, save a few persons 
 in the world, such as Enoch, Methuselah, Noah, &c." 
 (See Maimonides in the Mishna ; and also Ainsworth 
 on the passage. See, also. Dr. A. Clarke on Gen. iv. 26.) 
 
 This curious and very ancient history of the rise and 
 
300 ANTEDILUVIAN GIANTS. 
 
 gradual spread of idolatry,* is quite probable. Certain 
 it is that the sixth chapter of Genesis presents us with a 
 brief sketch of the spread, if not also of the origin of 
 that wickedness which eventually caused the destruction 
 of the ancient world by a vast deluge ; and as chief and 
 prime amoog the agencies working to that issue, we find 
 mentioned the intermingling of the worshippers of the 
 true God, with the impious descendants of Cain. " The 
 sons of Ood saw iJie daughters of men that they were fair ; 
 and they took them wives of aU that they chose^ This in- 
 congruous alliance seems to have been fraught with evils 
 on all sides. (See Havernick's Introd. to Pentateuch, 
 pp. 110-112.) 
 
 We know, indeed, that even now, under the gospel, 
 the connection in marriage of the devout Christian with 
 the decidedly worldly, is discountenanced at least, if not 
 forbidden. ^' Be ye not unequally yoked luith unbelievers ;'* 
 and those who would marry, are assured that it is right 
 so to do " only in the Lord^ (1 Cor. vii. 89.) Nor can 
 it be doubted that such marriages of the believer with 
 the unbeliever, are often the occasion of much anxiety 
 and sorrow, especially in regard to the training of chil- 
 dren. But in those antediluvian marriages of the pious 
 with the impious, of the sons of God with the daughters 
 of men, there must have been a something more than to 
 us is now apparent — a something peculiarly offensive to 
 Heaven, and peculiarly fertile of evil. For the intima- 
 tion immediately follows of a certain brief interval du- 
 ring which God would yet bear with the increasing wick- 
 
 * See, also, Faber's Origin of Idolatry, vol. ii. pp. 34-36, and Sir Wra. 
 Dramraond's Origines, vol. iii. pp. 424, 425. Jackson's Chronology, 
 pp. 60-63. 
 
ANTEDILUVIAN GIANTS. 301 
 
 edness of men, ere lie would sweep them all from tlie 
 face of the earth. (Gen. vi. 8.) Then follow the remark- 
 able words, There were giants in the earth in those days. 
 
 By many, perhaps by a majority of the readers of our 
 good old English version, it has been supposed that 
 these giants were persons of very large stature and huge 
 dimensions ; an entire race of such monsters ; and that 
 they were the fruit of the marriage of the pious race 
 with the wicked — of the sons of God with the daughters 
 men. But this can hardly be ; for these giants (what- 
 ever that term may import) are here stated to have been 
 existing before the fruit of these unlawful marriages was 
 borne. Thus we read, '' There were giants in the earth in 
 those days. And AFTER THAT, when the sons of Ood went 
 in unto the daughters ofmen^ and they hare children unto them^ 
 the same became mighty men^ which were of old, men of re- 
 nown J' 
 
 This whole passage seems to me to convey the idea 
 simply that now, the attention of men was directed ex- 
 clusively to the affairs of this life, and that physical beauty 
 and physical perfection became the great objects of de- 
 sire. The result was, a race excelling in physical pro- 
 portions, and physical power ; an athletic, healthy, ac- 
 tive race, full of energy, full of enterprise, and signally 
 successful in their worldly pursuits. The whole end and 
 aim of this pre-eminently vigorous race, seem to have 
 been pleasure and distinction. This they secured ; for, 
 as, in the very nature of things, it could have been only 
 a few, comparatively, of the one race that would inter- 
 marry with the other, and produce the more vigorous 
 race, the physical perfection, the boldness of the achieve- 
 ments of this mixed race, these mighty ones, might and 
 
302 ANTEDILUVIAN GIANTS. 
 
 would attract attention, awaken admiration, and render 
 them men of renown^ which were of. old I 
 
 The natural tendency of all this would be, to increase 
 the prevailing forgetfulness of God, to encourage luxury 
 and idolatry, and to foster the general wickedness, which 
 began loudly to call upon heaven for some purifying 
 power, to rid the earth of the monstrous wickedness 
 under which it was groaning. 
 
 Thus it appears that in these lustful marriages was 
 laid the foundation of that abounding evil which eventu- 
 ally brought the deluge upon the earth. 
 
 It may be, however, that by the phrase " sons of God^^' 
 like other somewhat similar expressions, such as " cedars 
 of God,''^ " mountains of the Lord,^^ denoting very high 
 trees or lofty mountains, &c. (See 1 Sam. xxvi. 12 ; Ps. 
 Ixviii. 16 ; xxxvi. 7 ; Ixxx. 10, 11 ; civ. 16 ; Cant. viii. 6 : 
 and compare Nordheimer's Hebrew Grammar, vol. i. pp. 
 60, 61.) Moses intends to convey the idea of persons 
 tall, large, and majestic in appearance. If this interpre- 
 tation be admitted, we shall have here no account of the 
 origin of these tall individuals ; it would only seem, by 
 inference, that such appeared among the descendants of 
 Seth, the pious race. 
 
 Captivated by the beauty of the daughters of men, 
 i. e. the thoroughly worldly, the descendants of Cain, 
 they contracted marriages with them ; the result of which 
 was, a race, vigorous, daring, and distinguished alike for 
 their achievements and their increasing wickedness. 
 
 Certain it is that this passage of holy writ has, in all 
 ages, been understood to convey the idea, that there 
 existed in antediluvian times, a considerable number of 
 persons, if not an entire race or tribe of men, gigantic in 
 
ANTEDILUVIAN GIANTS. 308 
 
 size, and distinguished for their prowess. But it by no 
 means authorizes the notion, that the antediluvians were 
 generally persons of gigantic stature. Nor is there any 
 reason to believe that, even from the earliest ages, the 
 general average of man's size has undergone any con- 
 siderable alteration. It is indeed true that many ancient 
 authors speak of such giants in primitive times, e. g. Hue- 
 tius, Inquiries, b. ii. ; Augustine de Civ. Dei. vi. 15 ; Jo- 
 sephus Antiq. b. i. c. v. ; Pliny, vi. 1. (See Heidegger, 
 Hist. Patriarchs, Essay ii. ; Whiston's Orig. Eecords and 
 Suppl. ; and also Harkwell's Apology, vi. 3, &c. See 
 Faber's Origin of Pagan Idolatry, vol. i. p. 217. See 
 Jackson's Chronology, pp. 59, 60.) 
 
 It is also true that, at various epochs, bones of im- 
 mense size have been dug up, which, at the time, and 
 for many ages thereafter, were supposed to be human 
 bones, of vast size, the remains of ancient, and possibly of 
 antediluvian giants. Thus it is stated by Tazelius, and 
 the statement is repeated by Claverinus, that near Panor- 
 mum, in Sicily, the body of a giant eighteen cubits, or 
 twenty-seven feet, in height, was dug up A.D. 1547. 
 
 Another near Mazerene, in the same island, was found 
 A.D. 1516, twenty cubits, or thirty feet tall. Again, in 
 1548, near Syracuse, was disinterred a skeleton of simi- 
 lar size. Near Entella, in Sicily, was dug up a body 
 twenty-two cubits, or thirty-three feet high, the skull of 
 which was about ten feet in circumference. Another 
 body of enormous magnitude, is spoken of, as having 
 been found standing in a large cave near Drepanum, in 
 Sicily, so early as A.D. 1342. The staff of this monster 
 was, they tell us, like the mast of a ship, and the anterior 
 part of his skull would contain several Sicilian bushels, 
 
804 ANTEDILUVIAN GIANTS. 
 
 each of whicli is about one third of the English bushel. 
 (See Whiston's Authentic Records and Supplement.) 
 
 Plato and Pliny both, mention enormous bones found 
 in a mountain of Crete, which, if human, must have ap- 
 pertained to a man standing forty-six cubits, or nearly 
 sixty-nine feet tall. Another found in Mauritania, and 
 mentioned by Strabo and Plutarch, was supposed to be 
 the skeleton of Antaeus. If really his, then Antaeus 
 must have stood sixty cubits, that is nearly ninety feet 
 high. A man of imposing presence certainly, must this 
 Antaeus have been ; and when he stooped to kiss his 
 mother earth, it must have been an act of signal conde- 
 scension.* 
 
 Some old authors tell us of another skeleton, found 
 A.D. 1171, in England, that appertained to a person fifty 
 feet long. 
 
 It is hardly necessary to add that all such supposed 
 gigantic human bones, when subjected to the test of 
 scientific scrutiny, prove to be not human bones at all, 
 but the bones, sometimes of whales, sometimes of the ele- 
 phant, and sometimes of extinct monsters, such as the 
 mastodon, or the isaurion. Sir Hans Sloane examined 
 an immense vertebra, or joint of a backbone, dug up in 
 Oxfordshire, England, which was fully believed by the 
 vulgar to be the bone of a huge antediluvian giant. He 
 found it to be, in truth, one of the vertebra? of a large 
 whale I St. Austin, in adducing proof of the existence 
 
 * Quaere ! May it not be that the discovery, in very early times, of 
 such vast bones, in Sicily, and some other places near the shores of the 
 Mediterranean, and known to the ancients, had something to do in origi- 
 nating the traditionary fables of the giants of classical antiquity, especially 
 the Cyclops and the Titans 1 
 
ANTEDILUVIAN GIANTS. 805 
 
 of " giants in those days^ on the earthy before theflood^^'' men- 
 tions an immense tooth that he himself had seen near 
 Utica. It was doubtless the tooth of some elephant. In 
 1650 a large tooth, disinterred near Tunis, in Africa, 
 was sent for examination to the learned Pierese. He 
 identified it as in all respects similar to another tooth 
 found in the same region ; and both were unquestionably 
 the grinders of an elephant, or of elephants. (See 
 Eichardson's Geology. Cosmos, vol. i. p. 275.) 
 
 Some strange mistakes have, it is said, been made in 
 the reputed relics of saints, exhibited in some popish 
 churches. A few years ago, a large scapula, part of an 
 elephant in reality, was exhibited in a church at Venice, 
 as the shoulder-blade of St. Christopher ! 
 
 At Antwerp, also, a large tooth was shown as a saintly 
 relic, which had, at one time undoubtedly, aided in duly 
 masticating the food of a good-sized elephant. (See 
 Eees' Cycloped. art. Giant. See also Dr. Beard's Bib. 
 Diet, for People, art. Anak.) 
 
 It can hardly be denied, however, that human skele- 
 tons and human bones, and fragments of such bones, of 
 uncommon magnitude, have occasionally been found. A 
 paper mentioning several such instances was read, some 
 years since, by Mon. Le Cat, before the '' Academie des 
 /Sciencesj^^ at Eouen. (Idem.) It is also unquestionable 
 that occasionally there have been seen, in various coun- 
 tries and in all ages, living individuals of unusual, and 
 sometimes even of enormous stature. 
 
 In our own day such monsters have been seen ; and 
 exceptions, equally striking, occasionally present, of per- 
 sons of very diminutive size ; as, e. g. the dwarf known 
 as Tom Thumb, who is yet living, and has been exhibited 
 
306 ANTEDILUVIAN GIANTS. 
 
 in nearly every state in the Union, and in several coun- 
 tries of Europe, also. 
 
 The skeleton of O'Brien, is still in the British Museum, 
 measuring seven feet eleven inches in height. The man, 
 while living, must, therefore, have been about eight feet 
 and one inch, in height. Parsons, originally a black- 
 smith, and afterwards employed as a porter at the Court 
 establishment of the English monarch, about the begin- 
 ning of the eighteenth century, was seven feet and two 
 inches high, and proportionably built, in all respects. 
 
 Instances of similar excess beyond the average propor- 
 tions of man, are not unknown. Perhaps there are few 
 who have not occasionally met with such. 
 
 A few years since, when travelling on the Mississippi, 
 I saw a young man who came on board at Grand Gulf, 
 apparently not above eighteen years of age. Judging by 
 the degree in which he was compelled to stoop, as he 
 moved about in the cabin of the steamer, he must have 
 been considerably above seven feet in height. At that 
 time he was a well-proportioned, though rather slender, 
 youth. If still living, and in health, he is no doubt 
 greatly increased in bulk, and might be appropriately 
 designated a giant. 
 
 Some few years since, a person of yet larger propor- 
 tions was exhibited at Philadelphia. 
 
 The Koman emperor Maximilian is said to have been 
 no less than nine feet high. 
 
 Goliath, the Philistine, slain by David, is recorded to 
 have been six cubits and a span : that is, if we rightly 
 estimate the ancient Hebrew cubit, about nine and a half 
 feet. 
 
 Mention is undoubtedly made, in the Bible, of quite a 
 
ANTEDILUVIAN GIANTS. 307 
 
 number of men, of gigantic size : but they are evidently- 
 spoken of as lusus naturoe^ as singular phenomena, as rare 
 exceptions to the general rule, and, because exceptions^ 
 therefore remarkable, and mentioned as such. 
 
 Now all history certifies the fact, that such rare exam- 
 ples of gigantic size, have occurred in all ages : and un- 
 doubted testimony, nay indeed our own observation as- 
 sures us, persons of such gigantic size, do still, occasion- 
 ally, appear in society. 
 
 There is, therefore, no improbability in the account 
 given in the Bible, of persons, and occasionally, of fami- 
 lies, and perhaps of whole tribes of unusual, of even 
 gigantic dimensions. 
 
 In Gen. xiv. 5, mention is made of a race, termed Ke- 
 phaim, who were settled beyond Jordan, in Ashteroth 
 Kernaim : they were defeated by Chedorlaomer. Of this 
 race, in the time of Moses there remained alone, Og, 
 King of Bashan. (Deut. iii. 10.) The coffin of iron 
 here spoken of, (although this passage is, by some, sup- 
 posed to be an interpolation, by a later hand,) was yet 
 existing in the writer's time, and was preserved in Kab- 
 bath, a city of the Ammonites. This coffin was nine 
 cubits long, and four broad. The person for whose 
 corpse such a coffin was necessary, must have been of 
 gigantic stature, upwards of thirteen feet high, and large 
 in proportion. 
 
 Now we know that in the last century, Turner the 
 naturalist reported that he saw, near the Eio de la Plata, 
 in South America, a race of giants, from the interior, 
 totally naked ; and one of whom, the tallest among them, 
 was twelve feet high. (Rees, Cycl. art. Giant.) 
 
 The Patagonians, on the coast of South America to the 
 
308 ANTEDILUVIAN GIANTS. 
 
 north and north-west of Cape Horn, are universally ad- 
 mitted to be above the ordinary height, varying from 
 six to seven feet, or a little more. 
 
 Humboldt tells us that the Guayaquilists measure six 
 and a half feet, and that the Paraguas are equally tall : 
 while the Caribbees of Cumana, are distinguished by 
 their almost gigantic size, from all the other nations he 
 had met with in the New World. (See Pritchard's Re- 
 searches, vol. V. p. 489.) 
 
 By the earlier Spanish navigators, the Patagoniaus 
 were stated to measure seven feet four inches. This ac- 
 count seems to be somewhat exaggerated. More recent 
 travellers, such as Bougainville, Wallis, Carteret, and 
 Falkner, tell us that the Patagonians usually measure 
 from six to seven feet. (See Humboldt's Cosmos. See 
 also Kitto, Cyclop, of Bib. Lit. art. Giant.) 
 
 The Rephaim above spoken of, are mentioned in Job 
 xxvi. 5, although the word rephaim is there rendered 
 dead things: comp. Josh. xii. 4, and xiii. 12. 
 
 In Numbers xiii. 28, the Anakim are spoken of as 
 a race of giants. The spies sent forth to explore and to 
 ascertain the condition of the Canaanites and of their land 
 reported, " We saw there the giants^ the sons of Anak^ which 
 came of the giants ; and we were in our own sight as grass- 
 hoppers ; and so we were in their sight" vers. 32, 33 : and 
 compare Deut. ix. 2, and ii. 10 ; see also Josh. xi. 22. 
 
 In Asa, in Gath, and in Ashdod, persons of this gigan- 
 tic race long continued. (Judges i. 20. Josh. xiv. 12.) Of 
 this race Goliath was. (1 Sam. xvii. 4.) 
 
 The Zammoumim also, (Deut. xxi. 20,) who dwelt in 
 the land of Ammon, are spoken of, as a race of giants. 
 
 There can, then, be no doubt the Jewish Scriptures 
 
ANTEDILUVIAN GIANTS. 809 
 
 do teach, that in ancient times, at least from Moses to the 
 time of David, men of gigantic stature, formidable excep- 
 tions to the general standard of human bulk and stature, 
 were found occasionally in the land of Canaan ; and they 
 were, generally, as wicked as they were gigantic. 
 
 That such gigantic stature is described among the an- 
 tediluvians, is not quite so clear. The Hebrew word, 
 translated in the text giants^ is nei^hilim^ literally fallen 
 ones, or persons falling on others. 
 
 Mon. Cahen introduces this chapter (Gen. vi.) with the 
 heading, ^^ The Fourth Document: relative to the mixture 
 (or confusion, melange,) of the races.^^ 
 
 In V. 2 he adopts the rendering of Onkelos, viz., for 
 ^^sons of Godj^^ sons of the great or the noble, (des 
 grands ;) " daughters of men,^^ he translates ^^ files du peu- 
 pk,'" young women of the common people: and he re- 
 marks, "The supposition of tvjo classes is probable. The 
 heroes of Greece were, for the most part, sons of her 
 gods ; and she attributes the same origin to the giants, 
 the Cyclops — and surely different countries might have 
 the same traditions." 
 
 M. Cahen, though a Jew, a learned Hebraist, and, I 
 believe, a rabbin, is a French philosopher; and he is, 
 undoubtedly, a very liberal expositor of the Hebrew Scrip- 
 tures. 
 
 On Gen. vi. 4 : Giants were then on the earth, even 
 after the sons of the great had intercourse with daugh- 
 ters of the people, (^. e. peasant-girls, &c.,) he remarks, in 
 a note: — ^^ Giants, nephilim: In those ages over which 
 the flame of history could casts only a feeble (pale) light, 
 everything magnifies itself; the duration of human life, 
 human dimensions, the bodily strength of men, like ob- 
 
810 ANTEDILUVIAN GIANTS. 
 
 jects seen across an intervening obscurity. But, with 
 the progress of reason, everything resumes its proper 
 proportions. 
 
 "This tradition is of very high antiquity. Moreover, 
 the Hebrew word seems to denote men fallen, {des hommes 
 dechitsy) 
 
 Assuredly M. Cahen is a liberal and a rationalistic 
 interpreter of the old Hebrew Scripture. The Jewish 
 writer Aquila translates the term, nejyhilim^ ^^men who 
 attackj^^ i. e. who fall with impetuosity on their enemies ! 
 Symmachus translates it, violent men, cruel, men whose 
 only rule of action is violence. 
 
 Another term, translated by the Septuagint, giant, is 
 gtbbor, meaning strictly a strong man, a brave warrior. 
 Such was Nimrod. (Gen. x. 8 : see also Ps. xix. 5. Isa. 
 iii. 2 ; xiii. 3 ; xlix. 24, 25. Ezek. xxxix. 18, 20.) 
 
 There is, therefore, nothing in this passage in Genesis 
 (chap, vi.) which imperatively requires us to understand 
 the term giants, in its ordinary sense, as denoting persons 
 of unusual stature and bulk. They may have been such. 
 Persons of gigantic dimensions are spoken of in other 
 parts of the Jewish Scriptures ; ancient fables and tradi- 
 tions among nearly all nations mention such, as e. g. the 
 Cyclops and the Titans of the ancient Greeks and Eo- 
 mans. History records instances of such uncommon 
 stature in many countries, and in almost every age ; and 
 we know that even yet instances of the kind do occa- 
 sionally present themselves. They are now extraordi- 
 nary cases, and they excite wonder as such ; and as such, 
 they are mentioned in the Mosaic narrative. 
 
 There is, therefore, certainly nothing improbable or 
 extravagant in the whole story ; and, consequently, the 
 
ANTEDILUVIAN GIANTS. 811 
 
 objections urged against this portion of Genesis on the al- 
 leged ground of its fictitious character, are void of force. 
 Moreover, the whole narrative furnishes an impressive 
 illustration of the danger consequent on undervaluing a 
 knowledge of the true God, and of the guilt of slighting 
 the privileges attendant on access to the worship of the 
 living God, with its several ordinances and sacred rites. 
 Such neglect leads to carelessness of the highest duties, 
 a thorough worldliness of spirit, open apostasy from God, 
 and to every species of gross wickedness. It provokes, 
 also, the displeasure of God ; it wearies out his long-suf- 
 fering ; and eventually it calls down his heavy judgments, 
 as in the deluge, which destroyed the whole ungodly 
 antediluvian world. 
 
r ; 
 
 LECTURE IX. 
 
 THE DELUGE UNIVERSAL. 
 
 PART I. 
 
 Gen. vii. 23. — " And every living substance was destroyed which was 
 upon the face of the ground, both man and cattle, and the creeping 
 things, and the fowl of the heavens ; and they were destroyed from 
 the earth ; and Noah only remained alive, and they that were with 
 him in the ark." 
 
 The Bible was not given, most assuredly, to serve as 
 a text-book of science, nor as mere food for curiosity, nor 
 yet as a repository of materials for the gratification of 
 a refined literary taste ; and yet, in the events it records 
 or alludes to, in the descriptions it furnishes, brief though 
 they are, there is much to stimulate curiosity, much to 
 gratify the most refined taste, and much which the deep- 
 est researches of science may be well employed to illus- 
 trate and to explain. And certainly no other of the 
 teachings of the Bible is more remarkable than is that 
 of a mighty deluge in the time of Noah. 
 
 Many centuries had elapsed since the creation of man 
 upon the earth, and since his fall, by the transgression of 
 the first human pair, in Eden. 
 
 Population had greatly increased ; and it seems to 
 have spread extensively over the earth, for we read of 
 cities, and the arts of life, and of civilization already 
 
THE DELUGE UNIVERSAL. 313 
 
 cultivated. (Gen. iv. 17, 20, 21, 22.) But wickedness 
 was everywhere prevalent, and impiety reigned. Gen. 
 vii. 1, " The earth was corrupt before God, and the earth 
 was filled with violence. " Whereupon, the Most High de- 
 termined to destroy the whole race of man, and with 
 him, all living creatures on the face of the earth, saving 
 only Noah, with his family, and a sufficient number of 
 pairs of all living creatures, inhabitants of the dry land, 
 that were to be preserved with Noah, in an ark, or large 
 ship, constructed by Noah according to directions re- 
 ceived from God. The materials and the dimensions of 
 this ark are minutely described in the sacred narrative. 
 
 Nearly a century and a quarter, as it would seem, was 
 Noah busied in preparing this huge vessel, to serve as a 
 safe refuge for himself and his family during the fierce 
 conflict of the elements attendant on the coming inun- 
 dation ; and to preserve alive seed of all living crea- 
 tures, so that when the flood should subside, the earth 
 might be again replenished with living occupants, as be- 
 fore. (Gen. vi. 17-22.) 
 
 All this was done. The ark was constructed ; due 
 provision of appropriate food was made for all ; man 
 and beast, reptile and fowl, were all shut up in the ark ; 
 when, in the six hundredth year of Noah, and on the 
 seventeenth day of the second month, the fountains of 
 the great deep were broken up, and the windows of 
 heaven were opened. Copious torrents of rain descended 
 day and night, for many weeks continuously, so that the 
 waters increased and spread over the whole earth, cov- 
 ering the plains, the hills, and at length the loftiest 
 mountain summits, under the whole heaven, several cu- 
 bits deep. (Gen. vii. 10.) 
 
 14 
 
$14 THE DELUGE UNIVERSAL. 
 
 For one hundred and fifty days, or about five months, 
 the waters prevailed over the whole earth. After this 
 they gradually subsided, and at length disappeared, 
 leaving the earth bare, as before, but utterly desolate 
 and uninhabited ; for " every living substance was destroyed 
 which was upon the face of the ground^ both man and cattle, 
 and the creeping things, and the fowl of the heavens ; and they 
 were destroyed from iJie earth : and Noah only remained alive, 
 and they that were with him in Uie ark^ 
 
 From the whole narrative given in Genesis, it is, I 
 think, plain that the writer designed his readers to un- 
 derstand, that the deluge he describes was not a mere 
 local inundation, desolating only one large province of 
 Asia, but that it was universal — strictly and literally uni- 
 versal — covering the entire surface of the habitable 
 globe, and submerging all lands— just so far, at least, 
 as animal life had then extended over the earth. More- 
 over, that this narrative is to be received as a true his- 
 torical record, and not an allegory, is plain from the 
 manner in which the flood of Noah is mentioned and 
 referred to in the New Testament. Thus our Lord says: 
 " In the days of Noah, they did eat, they drank, they married 
 wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah 
 entered into the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them 
 all /" (Luke xvii. 27 : compare Matt. xxiv. 37-39.) 
 
 The Apostle Peter mentions the deluge in each of 
 his epistles : thus, 2 Pet. ii. 6, " God spared not the old 
 world ; but saved Noah, the eighth person, a preacher of 
 righteousness ; bringing in the flood on the world of the un- 
 godly.'^ And again, 1 Pet. iii. 20 : " The long-suffering of 
 God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a-prepar- 
 ing, wherein few, that is eight souls, were savedJ^ And the 
 
THE DELUGE UNIVERSAL. 315 
 
 writer to tlie Hebrews tells us, (xi. 17,) ^^ By faith, Noah, 
 being warned of God, prepared an ark, to the saving of his 
 house. ^^ 
 
 Bj all, therefore, who believe in the inspiration of the 
 Bible, the fact is held as certain, that a great deluge of 
 waters took place in the days of Noah, by which all 
 mankind, and all living creatures inhabiting the land, 
 and incapable of continued existence in water, perished 
 from the face of the earth ; while eight persons only, 
 viz., Noah and his family, together with the animals 
 sheltered with him in the ark, alone survived ; and from 
 the descendants of those so saved, the present living ten- 
 ants of the globe, human and irrational, have sprung. 
 Against this account of a deluge, (interpret the record, and 
 explain the facts as you may,) several imposing objections 
 present themselves. 
 
 That the Noachian deluge was universal, covering the 
 entire surface of the globe, has been the generally re- 
 ceived interpretation. 
 
 But to avoid the obvious difficulties attending this lite- 
 ral interpretation, some men, and those of no mean note, 
 in both the scientific and the theological world, have re- 
 sorted to the hypothesis of a partial deluge, extending 
 only over the comparatively small portion of the earth's 
 surface, which, as they suppose, could then have been 
 occupied by man. 
 
 To support this hypothesis, they understand the strong 
 language and the universal terms employed in the narra- 
 tive, as applying merely to a portion of the earth. This 
 portion they suppose to have been completely submerged, 
 and its highest hills covered. The entire race of man- 
 kind, saving only the eight persons in the ark, and all 
 
316 THE DELUGE UNIVEKSAL. 
 
 the animals inhabiting that extensive region, they admit, 
 were destroyed : while they suppose there may have been 
 entire continents not affected by this local inundation, 
 and left still swarming with their appropriate animal oc- 
 cupants. 
 
 This interpretation they strengthen by adducing other 
 passages of Scripture, in which like universal terms are used 
 in a limited sense, as e. g. when (Gen. xli. 56) the /amine 
 in the days of Joseph, is said to have prevailed in all Hie 
 earthy while, (as they tell us,) a portion only of Asia Mi- 
 nor can be intended.* As also in Acts ii. 6, where it is 
 
 * If the Chinese annals are to be credited, a seven years' famine pre- 
 vailed also over the entire country of China, also, at a period which seems 
 to synchronize with that of the patriarch Joseph : and in that case, the 
 terms used in Gen. xli. 66, could hardly be understood in a very restricted 
 sense. (See Martin's China, vol. i. p. 196. M. Pauthier's Chine, I'Univers 
 Pitt. pp. 65, 66. Du Halde's China, vol. i. p. 299. Lond. edit. 1736: and 
 GutzlafF's China Opened, vol. i. p. 807.) 
 
 On the credit to be attached to the Chinese histories, Mr. Gutzlaflf offers 
 the following sensible remarks : — " The history of all nations, except that 
 of the people of God, commences with fables and mythological traditions, 
 and it only assumes a more authentic shape when the nation has arrived 
 at a certain stage of civilization. Before Confucius, China had no au- 
 thors, much less au historian, so that his own annals were transmitted by 
 tradition, through a course of 2000 years ! Under such circumstances, 
 what correctness can we expect even after the most laborious researches 1 
 On these annals, however, the antiquity of the Chinese empire is founded 
 with as much claim to our belief, as might be accorded to an English 
 writer of the present day, who should sit down to compose the history 
 of the ancient Britons before the invasion of the Romans, and not only 
 give the names of their kings, but also repeat the speeches they uttered 
 in council, or the debates of their Druidical assemblies. We, therefore, 
 consider the history previous to Yaou (2337 b.c.) as fabulous, from thence 
 to Confucius (550 b.c.) as uncertain, from Confucius to the Sung dynasty 
 (a.d. 960) it may be deemed as correct as that of Greece ; and since that 
 period it is fully authentical. 
 
 " We are aware that the calculation of eclipses has been brought for- 
 
THE DELUGE UNIVERSAL. 817 
 
 said there were at Jerusalem, on the day of pentecost, 
 devout men dwelling in every nation under heaven^ and 
 again in Deut. ii. 25, where it is declared that God will 
 begin to put the dread of the Jews upon the nations 
 under the whole heaven: which we know, with absolute 
 certainty, never was fulfilled, if the promise be under- 
 stood literally. 
 
 Were the mere universality of some of the terms em- 
 ployed in the Mosaic narrative, the sole ground of objec- 
 tion to the hypothesis of a local inundation only, in the 
 days of Noah, that hypothesis might, perhaps, be deemed 
 admissible. But there are other and more serious diffi- 
 culties attending it, to be hereafter examined. 
 
 Moreover, the language employed in Gen. vii. derives 
 its force as expressive of complete universality, not merely 
 nor mainly from the meaning of the several individual 
 terms, but from the structure of the whole. The com- 
 plete covering of the entire earth's surface is asserted, 
 and the sabmergence of the loftiest mountain summits, 
 not merely on the earth, or the land, but under the whole 
 heaven^ is affirmed. Further still, the destruction of ani-' 
 mal life, human and brute, is declared to have been com- 
 plete : and then, as if to make assurance doubly sure, the 
 saved are enumerated, Noah and those with him in the 
 ark, and these are declared to have been the only living 
 creatures preserved from destruction : " and Noah only 
 remained alive^ and they that wer^ with him in the arhj^ 
 
 ward, to prove the high antiquity of the Chinese empire. If Europeans 
 had not given themselves trouble to verify them, no Chinaman would ever 
 have dreamed of bringing them forth as a proof; for it required much 
 ingenuity even to find the eclipses in their classical works." (China 
 Opened, Gutzlaff, vol. 1, p. 297. See also on this point the Edinburgh 
 Cabinet Library, China, vol. 1. pp. 40, 41.) 
 
818 THE DELUGE UNIVERSAL. 
 
 This closing declaration applies to the human race and 
 to all creatures in which was the breath of life, not merely 
 in any one land, or province, but under tlie whole heaven I 
 
 Whether his assertion be true or not, it would seem 
 difficult to understand the language of Moses in this nar- 
 rative, as conveying the idea of anything less than a del- 
 uge literally universal over the entire globe, just as it has 
 been commonly understood. 
 
 If the language of Moses does not convey the idea of a 
 universal deluge, it would be impossible to construct a 
 paragraph that should unequivocally convey that idea. 
 But, however the account given by Moses of the deluge 
 be understood, as to the extent of surface covered by it, 
 it will hardly be questioned that as to mankind^ his doc- 
 trine is, the Noachian deluge was universal. Eight human 
 beings only, survived that calamity: and from those 
 eight all the several families and nations of men now ex- 
 isting, are descended. 
 
 Such an event as the deluge must have made a deep im- 
 pression upon the minds of the survivors ; and the memxyry 
 ofiliat event may well be expected to show itself promi- 
 nently and strongly, in the traditions handed down to their 
 posterity ; and consequently the tradition of it may be 
 looked for in the oldest legends of the several leading 
 races or divisions of the human family, wherever found. 
 
 And such is the fact, and most strikingly so ; and that, 
 too, in nearly every country under heaven, even those 
 most remote from the supposed site of the earliest settle- 
 ments after the flood, and those most remote from each 
 other. 
 
 The ceremonies of most of the nations of antiquity 
 were full of idolatrous references to the preservation of 
 
THE DELUGE UNIVERSAL. 319 
 
 man from the deluge. "If we take the circuit of the 
 globe, (says a quaint old writer, Stackhouse,) and inquire 
 of the inhabitants of every climate, we shall find that 
 ^ ike fame of the deluge is gone through the earth,^ and that 
 m every part of the known world, there are certain 
 records, or traditions of it." 
 
 In almost all nations, from the remotest periods, there 
 have prevailed certain mythological narratives, and 
 legendary tales of the deluge, or of similar catastrophes. 
 Such narratives formed a part of the first rude belief of 
 the Egyptians, Chaldeans, Greeks, Scythians, and of the 
 Celtic tribes. They have also been discovered among 
 the Peruvians and Mexicans, and the South Sea Island- 
 ers. (See Kitto, vol. i. p. 642. Dr. J. Pye Smith, p. 74. 
 Consult, also, Sir W. Drummond's Origines, vol. i. chap, 
 vii. p. 57, &c. Faber's Pagan Idolatry, vol. ii. chap. iv. 
 pp. 106-124.) 
 
 '■' Of this universal deluge, (says Dr. Stillingfleet, in 
 his erudite work, Origines Sacrse, vol. i. p. 146,) we have 
 most clear and concurring testimonies of most ancient 
 nations of the world. For which purpose, Grotius and 
 others have produced the testimony of Berosus the Chal- 
 dsean, and of Josephus, concerning the flood, and the ark 
 in which Noah was preserved : that of Abydenus, out 
 of Cyril and Eusebius, concerning Xisanthrus' or Noah's 
 sending out of the birds to see if the flood was assuaged : 
 and of Alexander Polyhistor, concerning the preservation 
 of animals in the ark ; of Plutarch, concerning the sending 
 out of the dove : of Lucian, de Dea Syria, concerning the 
 whole story : and so of Molon and Nicolaus Damascenus. 
 Besides, it is manifest by others, how among the Chal- 
 daeans, the memory of Noah was preserved, under the 
 
320 THE DELUGE UNIVERSAL. 
 
 fable of Oannes, which had part of a fish and part of a 
 man : as is evident from the fragments of ApoUodorus 
 Abydenos, and Alexander Polyhistor, preserved in 
 Eusebius' Greek Chronica. Among the Chinese^ under the 
 name of Pu-oncuus, who, by them is said to have escaped 
 alone, with his family, out of the universal deluge ; saith 
 Isaac Vossius, who supposeth Pu, or Pi, to be only a 
 prefix to the name, so that Pu-oncuus, is the same with 
 Nibxog^ I. e. Noah. 
 
 "Martinius tells us, *de diluviomulta est apud Sinicos 
 scriptores mentio,' that the ancient writers of Chinese 
 history speak much of the flood, (of a flood.) Johannes 
 de Laet tells us out of Lescharbotus, how constant the 
 tradition of the flood is among the Indians, both in New 
 France, Peru, and other parts." (Orig. Sacrae, vol. i. 
 pp. 146, 147. Faber, vol. i. pp. 243-245.) 
 
 The early traditions of the Gentoos describe a deluge, 
 and the escape of one family ; and they detail many par- 
 ticulars strongly resembling the history of Noah as given 
 in Genesis. The sending forth of a dove out of the great 
 ship, by Xisanthrus, and its subsequent return, bearing 
 a green leaf, are distinctly stated in these Gentoo tradi- 
 tions. Baron Humboldt (the most extensively travelled, 
 the most acutely observant, and the most profoundly 
 learned of all travellers,) tells us, that of the different 
 nations who inhabit Mexico, paintings representing the 
 deluge of Coxcoe, are found among the Aztecs, the Miz- 
 tecs, the Zapotecs, the Tlastaltecks, and the Mechoacans. 
 The Noah, Xisuthrus or Menou of these nations, is called 
 Coxcox, Teocipactli, or Tezpi. He saved himself and 
 his wife Xochiquetzel in a bark, or according to other 
 traditions, on a raft of Ala-huete, (the Cupressus disticha,) 
 
THE DELUGE UNIVERSAL. 821 
 
 but according to the Mecliouacans, lie embarked in a 
 spacious Acalli, with his wife, his children, several ani- 
 mals, and grain, the preservation of which was impor- 
 tant to mankind. When the Great Spirit, Tezcallipoca, 
 ordered the waters to withdraw, Tezpi sent out from the 
 ship a vulture, the Zopilote. This bird, which feeds on 
 dead flesh, did not return, on account of the great num- 
 ber of carcasses left on the ground by the retiring 
 waters. Tezpi then sent oat other birds, one of which, 
 the humming-bird, alone returned, holding in its beak a 
 branch covered with leaves. Tezpi seeing thus that fresh 
 verdure began to clothe the soil, left his bark, near the 
 mountain of Colluacan." (Humboldt's Researches, p. 65.) 
 
 In this Mexican tradition, the Mosaic narrative is given 
 almost entire, only the vulture here figures in place of 
 the raven ; and instead of the dove, the humming-bird, 
 better known to the Mexicans, is introduced. In another 
 part of the same country, a similar story is handed down 
 by tradition ; but it goes further, and makes mention of 
 giants, and of the building of an artificial hill, in shape 
 like a mound, a memorial of the mountain on which the 
 ship rested. This hill was designed to rise above the 
 clouds, but the gods, in anger at the impious attempt, 
 hurled fire on the pyramid, killed many of the workmen, 
 and scattered the rest. 
 
 This curious tradition, not only strangely corroborates 
 the narrative of Moses, but it may serve to throw light 
 on the origin and design of the mounds, so numerous in 
 the West, and possibly, also, on the origin and primary 
 design of the numerous Pyramids of Egypt. Resting- 
 places for the dead, — in their form commemorating the 
 first resting-place after the furious storms of the deluge, 
 
 3 4* 
 
THE DELUGE UNIVERSAL. 
 
 to the one sole family of man that survived the catas- 
 trophe. 
 
 " The Crees, " also, a tribe of Arctic Indians, " all spoke 
 of a universal deluge, from which one family alone escap- 
 ed, with all kinds of birds and beasts, on a huge raft." 
 So says Dr. Kichardson, the companion of Franklin in 
 his polar expedition. 
 
 Humboldt mentions, also, similar traditions among the 
 various tribes of South American Indians, inhabiting the 
 high inland regions on the banks of the Orinoko. 
 
 Even Indians of the Choctaw tribe, some miserable 
 remnants of which still lurk around the suburbs of our 
 city, (Mobile,) 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 rafl. 
 In these North American Indian traditions, a musk-rat 
 figures as the substitute of Noah's dove. 
 
 Now all these traditions, (and similar ones have been 
 found lingering in the heart of Africa,) so widely spread, 
 80 ancient, so carefully preserved, so varying in non-es- 
 sentials, so identical in all the main circumstances, and 
 all pointing to the one same great event, must have had 
 a common origin, and an origin in truth. They could 
 not be the result of chance, they could not have origina- 
 ted in fancy or in falsehood ; and in this case, collusion 
 is altogether out of the question. 
 
 These traditions do, then, confirm the narrative in Gen- 
 esis, and go far to prove it true. They do not, indeed, 
 prove that the deluge was geographically universal; but 
 they do prove that it was universal ethnographically. 
 (See Harcourt's Doctrine of the Deluge, vol. i. pp. 29-35.) 
 
THE DELUGE UNIVERSAL. 323 
 
 These several traditions,* so harmonious, furnish at 
 least strong ground to believe, either that there have been, 
 at a very remote period, as many great deluges as there 
 
 * The sketch of antediluvian history given by Moses, in which we find 
 many dark passages, is followed by the narrative of a deluge which de- 
 stroyed the whole race of men, except four pairs ; an historical fact ad- 
 mitted as true by every nation, to whose literature we have access, and 
 particularly by the ancient Hindus, who have allotted an entire Purana to 
 the detail of that event, which they relate, as usual, in symbols or allego- 
 ries. (Sir Wm. Jones' Asiatic Researches, vol. iii. p. 425.) 
 
 Mr. Mitford in his learned work, •' The History of Greece," thus ex- 
 presses himself, " The tradition of all nations, and appearances in every 
 country, bear witness scarcely less explicit than the writings of Moses, to 
 that general flood which nearly destroyed the whole human race ; and 
 those ablest Greek authors who have attempted to trace the history of 
 mankind to its source, all refer to such an event for the beginning of the 
 present system of things on earth." (Mitford's Greece, vol. i. ^ i. p. 3 : 
 Plato's 3d Dialogue on Legislation.) 
 
 The Iroquois, a tribe of American Indians, are said to have preserved 
 a curious tradition of the primeval history. " They believe that the first 
 woman was seduced from her obedience to God ; and that in consequence 
 of it, she was banished from heaven. She afterwards bore two sons. One 
 of these, having armed himself with an offensive weapon, attacked and 
 slew the other, who was unable to, resist his superior force. More chil- 
 dren afterwards sprang from the same woman, who were the ancestors 
 of all mankind." (Mceurs des Sauvages, tom. i. p. 43, as quoted by 
 Faber, Orig. Pag. Idol. vol. ii. p. 38.) 
 
 In the learned work of Mr. Bryant on Mythology, he thus reasons, 
 " If the deluge really happened at the time recorded by Moses, those na- 
 tions whose monuments are preserved, or w?iose writings are accessible, 
 must have retained memorials of an event so stupendous and compar- 
 atively so recent; but, in fact, they have retained such memorials." 
 This reasoning, (remarks Sir Wm. Jones,) seems just, and the fact is true 
 beyond controversy. (See Asiat. Resear. vol. iii. p. 429.) 
 
 For further accounts of traditions respecting the deluge, consult Har- 
 court's Doctrine of the Deluge, vol. i. p. 29, &c. Faber's Origin of Pagan 
 Idolatry, vol. i, pp. 206, 218; vol. ii. chap. iv. pp. 106-129. Faber's 
 Hor83 Mosaicae, chap. iv. Sumner on the Records of Creation, 6th Lond. 
 ed. 1850. Tomkins' Hulsean Prize Essay, 1849. 
 
824 THE DELUGE UNIVERSAL. 
 
 have been primitive abodes of man, in all tbese several 
 countries ; that these deluges destroyed the entire popu- 
 lation of all these several countries, with all the animals 
 then existing therein, excepting only and always, in each 
 one of these several cases, one family of each of these 
 primitive tribes, saved by the same means, — a vessel, an 
 ark, a raft, or a big canoe ; and saved with the accom- 
 paniment of animals, and of food, appropriate to them, — 
 all which is exceedingly improbable, we might almost 
 say impossible ; or else these numerous accordant tradi- 
 tions prove one such great deluge, from which one family 
 alone was preserved ; and, that of that one family, the de- 
 scendants have been scattered abroad into all these seve- 
 ral countries, each colony bearing with it a distinct tra- 
 dition of that memorable event, a tradition that has been 
 everywhere preserved with wonderful truthfulness and 
 accuracy, and hence the strong resemblance, and almost 
 identity of all these several traditions. 
 
 Sir C. Lyell, the great English geologist, distinguished 
 not less for his erudition, his classic style and his candor, 
 than fpr his science, suggests that, since floods and vol- 
 canic eruptions are the chief instruments of devastation 
 on our globe, and are, indeed, so peculiarly calculated to 
 inspire a lasting terror, and are so often fatal in their 
 consequences to great multitudes of people, it scarcely 
 requires the passion for the marvellous, so characteristic 
 of rude and half-civilized nations, still less the exuberant 
 imagination of Eastern writers, to augment them into 
 general cataclysms and conflagrations. 
 
 He then instances the great flood of the Chinese, under 
 the emperor Ya-ou (see the book called Chou-King, chap. 
 Yao-Tien: and see Pauthier's China, p. 12,) B.C. 2800^ 
 
THE DELUGE UNIVERSAL. 325 
 
 whicli some have supposed to be identical with Noah's 
 deluge. 
 
 This Chinese cataclysm is described as having covered 
 the low hills, and bathed the foot of the highest mountains^ 
 tlireatening to drown the heavens, &c. Lyell adopts the idea 
 of Mr. Davis, (who visited China with several Brit- 
 ish embassies,) viz., that this was an ancient but local 
 derangement of the waters of the Yellow Eiver, one of the 
 largest in the world, and which might, by a great over- 
 flowing, easily inundate the finest portion of China. 
 Lyell adds, " The tradition of a deluge among the Arau- 
 canian Indians, in South America, may be explained by 
 reference to great earthquake waves, which have re- 
 peatedly rolled over part of Chili : since the first recorded 
 flood of 1590. The legend, also, of the ancient Peru- 
 vians, of an inundation, long before the reign of the In- 
 cas, in which six persons only were saved on a float, re- 
 lates to a region which has been, more than once, over- 
 whelmed by inroads of the ocean, even since the days of 
 Pizarro. 
 
 '' The submergence, so lately as 1819, of a wide area of 
 country in Cutch, in British India, is well known, when 
 a single tower only, of the fort of Sindree, was left visi- 
 ble above the waste of waters. All this may serve to 
 prove (adds this distinguished geologist,) how easily the 
 catastrophes of modern times might give rise to tradi- 
 tionary narratives, among a rude people, of floods of bound- 
 less extent.'' 
 
 Nations without written records, and who are indebted 
 for all their knowledge of past events exclusively to oral 
 tradition, are in the habit of confounding in one legend, 
 a series of occurrences and incidents, which have hap- 
 
326 THE DELUGE UNIVERSAL. 
 
 pened at various epochs. They mingle these legends in 
 their superstitions, and consecrate the idea in their re- 
 ligious rites : as e. g. Humboldt tells us, that after a terri- 
 ble earthquake in Cumana, in 1766, which destroyed a 
 large part of its inhabitants, the ensuing season, rendered 
 (as is common in such cases,) unusually fertile by the 
 abundant rains which accompanied the subterranean con- 
 vulsions, was celebrated by the Indians with feasts, and 
 dances, after the ideas of an antique superstition, as cele- 
 brating the destruction of the world and the approaching 
 epoch of its regeneration. (Humboldt and Voy. Kelat. 
 Hist. vol. i. p. 30.) 
 
 These rites are singularly in accordance with the an- 
 cient traditions of the Brahmins, and of the ancient 
 Egyptians. 
 
 *' Nor," says Lyell, "must we forget that the supersti- 
 tions of a savage tribe are transmitted through all the 
 progressive stages of society, till they exert a powerful in- 
 fluence on the mind even of the philosopher." (Princ. 
 Geol. 1850, pp. 8-10.) 
 
 This theory of the great geologist is ingenious in itself, 
 and is strongly presented : and were such ancient legends 
 found only in two or three countries, this theory might 
 be admitted as satisfactory. 
 
 But the tradition of an ancient, a vast, and a totally 
 destructive deluge, destructive to all the race of man, save 
 one family only, and that family saved, as the tradition 
 uniformly represents, in one and the same way, by means 
 of an ark, or floating vessel, is too remarkable, too mi- 
 nutely particular in all the points of its identity, and too 
 strongly resembling the Mosaic narrative, to be account- 
 ed for by a vast series of local inundations, in vastly nu- 
 
THE DELUGE UNIVERSAL. 327 
 
 merous countries, far separated by space, and by time too, 
 yet all wrought up in one, almost identical legendary tale. 
 These numerous traditions, found everywhere in coun- 
 tries so wide apart, and all agreeing so wonderfully in 
 the circumstances of one calamity, could have originated 
 only in the same catastrophe, experienced by the remote 
 ancestors of all these now widely separated nations; a 
 catastrophe, the memory of which was preserved and 
 handed down by tradition, and kept alive by religious 
 commemorative rites ; and which, on the occasional oc- 
 currence of local inundations, in the different countries 
 where the colonies of descendants had settled, would be 
 recalled with fresh interest, and be celebrated with re- 
 newed vivacity, — each such recurring calamity adding 
 some new feature to the legend, or to the rite, or to 
 both. 
 
 The universal tradition of a deluge, shows that the an- 
 cestors of all nations once experienced the irruption of a 
 mighty deluge of waters over the country of their abode, 
 from which one family alone of those ancestors escaped, 
 together with such animals as they had secured with 
 them in the vessel which, bore them in safety until the 
 waters subsided. But this tradition is a faithful echo of 
 the history Moses has given us of Noah's flood, in Gen. 
 
 * Dr. Redford thus expresses himself on these traditions : — 
 " Traditions of a general deluge have been found among all nations of 
 the ancient world, and disseminated among modern nations in the most 
 distant and opposite parts of the earth, and in all their different degrees 
 of civilization. Wherever there is any attempt to account for the ex- 
 istence of the present population, it begins with the preservation of one 
 pair of human beings, or a single family, by some floating vessel. This 
 is usually connected with a previously existing race,— with the anger of 
 
328 THE DELUGE UNIVERSAL. 
 
 But, in addition to the corroboration of the Mosaic 
 history, found in these wide-spread traditions of a mighty 
 deluge, preserved among nearly all nations, it was long 
 thought that the appearances left on the surface of the earth 
 itself yielded evidence char and concliisive^ of the truth oftlie 
 Mosaic account of the flood. 
 
 Even among the ancients, several of the philosophers, 
 particularly Strabo, had noticed ancient shells, and other 
 fossils, in elevated positions ; and had suggested the idea 
 of successive upheavals and depressions of the earth's 
 surface, by earthquakes, &c. In after ages these topics 
 seem to have been overlooked and forgotten. 
 
 About the period of the Eeformation, and for some 
 time thereafter, other branches of knowledge absorbed 
 the attention of scholars. Leibnitz, a man of universal 
 
 the Supreme Being against their sins,— and with the desolation of the 
 earth and the race of men by a general inundation. 
 
 " There are no conflicting traditions. The harmony among all nations 
 is such as could have arisen only from the fact itself. We find Chal- 
 dasans, Phoenicians, Assyrians, Persians, Chinese, Hindoos, Mexicans, Pe- 
 ruvians, North Americans, islanders of Oceanica, all preserving in their 
 mythologies or their histories, the principal facts recorded by Moses. 
 They all embody but one story." (Holy Scrip, Verified, pp. 112, 113.) 
 
 Baron Cuvier thus reasons : — " Is it possible that mere accident should 
 afford so striking a result, as to unite the traditional origia of the As- 
 syrian, Indian, and Chinese monarchies to the same epocha of about 
 4,000 years from the present timel Could the ideas of nations, who 
 possessed almost no natural affinities, whose language, religion, and laws 
 had nothing in common — could they conspire to one point, did not truth 
 bring them together ?" (Id. 113.) 
 
 And yet Bolingbroke has had the hardihood to assert that the tradi- 
 tion of Noah's Deluge is vouchsafed by no other authority than that of 
 Moses, and that the memory of that catastrophe was known only to one 
 people, and preserved in one corner of the earth. (See his Philosophical 
 Works, vol. iii. p. 224. See also Sumner's Records of Creation, p. ^1.) 
 
THE DELUGE UNIVERSAL. 329 
 
 genius, a contemporary and a rival of the immortal New- 
 ton, seemed intuitively to catch a glimpse at the truth 
 on this subject ; and he actually indicated the line of 
 research, which has since led to the wonderful results 
 embraced in modern geological science. 
 
 The most cursory examination of the earth's surface, 
 shows boneS; shells, and other remains of animals and 
 plants both, presenting themselves in every possible va- 
 riety of location— in the deep valley, and on the high 
 hill. For a long time these were all ascribed directly to 
 the deluge of Noah ; and the earth itself was thus sup- 
 posed to present, everywhere, upon its very surface, evi- 
 dence of that great scriptural cataclysm, corroborative of 
 the text of Genesis. 
 
 A little attentive examination, however, soon showed 
 that these remains were deposited in regular successive 
 beds, or strata, one above the other. About a century 
 and a half ago, Dr. J. Woodward, of the Cambridge 
 University, England, suggested the theory, (already no- 
 ticed in the preceding Lecture on Creation in Six Days,) 
 viz., that all the rocks and contained minerals, were de- 
 posited by the waters of Noah's deluge, as a common 
 solvent, and in the order of their specific gravity.* (Es- 
 say towards a Nat. Hist, of the Earth, 1695.) 
 
 But long-continued research, conducted in widely sep- 
 arated localities, showed, at length, that such a cause was 
 inadequate to explain all the conditions under which 
 these remains and rocks occur. For instance : though 
 the deluge might have strewn them over the surface, it 
 
 * This is, substantially, the theory advocated in the recent work of 
 Dr. Lord, entitled, " Epoch of Creation" chap, ix. p. 228, &c. 
 
830 THE DELUGE UNIVERSAL. 
 
 could not have buried them in the strata of mountains, 
 or entombed them deep in the earth itself. 
 
 Again, it was observed that marine shells were asso- 
 ciated in one spot, while the fresh-water kinds were col- 
 lected in another ; and that similar genera and species 
 were in like manner separated and arranged — although 
 it is obvious that the flood here contemplated must have 
 heaped all kinds promiscuously together. 
 
 And when, at length, more extensive observation 
 showed that the same locality exhibited alternations of marine 
 and fresh-water deposits — in other terms, that the same 
 locality had evidently been the site of sea and land, alter- 
 nately, over and over again, it was felt and admitted, 
 that no one single event was adequate to produce such 
 varied effects; and hence arose those more extended 
 views of the operations of nature which constitute the 
 principles of geology, at the present day. (See Kichard- 
 son's Geology, pp. 80, 81.) 
 
 The several fossiliferous rocks, no less than the deeper 
 primitive, are, therefore, now, most generally assigned to 
 ages long anterior to Noah's deluge ; and anterior even, 
 to the renovation of the earth from chaos, for its recep- 
 tion of man. Still, all this notwithstanding, the idea pre- 
 vailed in the minds of many, that the rising, the preva- 
 lence, and especially the subsidence of so great an inun- 
 dation of waters as the deluge of Noah, could not be (as 
 Sir C. Lyell contends that it was, comparatively,) a tran- 
 quil event; even though it might not tear up all the soil, 
 nor utterly destroy all vegetation ; as may be inferred 
 from the return of the dove to Noah, with an olive-leaf, 
 so soon after the deluge had subsided. The olive-tree 
 whence that leaf was plucked, must certainly, it would 
 
THE DELUGE UNIVERSAL. 331 
 
 thus seem, have remained rooted, and living, during the 
 entire period of the inundation. But, though here and 
 there a detached spot might have been but little altered 
 by the flood, it was still believed, that, during both the 
 increase and the subsidence of the deluge, a considerable 
 action, from the rushing of the water among various 
 obstacles, would be inevitable. Ancient lakes and beds 
 of rivers would be filled up, and new ones scooped out. 
 Deep gorges would be worn among mountain ranges ; 
 extensive deposits of sand and gravel, and fragments of 
 rock, would be left in various positions ; and in some 
 places, where large bodies of water had rolled off in long 
 and powerful currents, detached fragments of mountain 
 cliffs, or rocky boulders might be looked for, left in 
 masses, or left separately, at intervals, along the course 
 taken by those mighty streams. 
 
 All this seems rational enough. When, then, careful 
 examination over extensive districts in Europe, in some 
 parts of Asia, and even in North America, discovered 
 such masses — of sand in some places, of gravel in others, 
 and of both combined in other places : when, further, 
 large blocks of rock, or boulders, were found lying in 
 such circumstances, as clearly implied their having been 
 brought together from a great distance, by some vast in- 
 undation, or current of water ; it was supposed, that thus, 
 over a very extensive portion of the earth's surface, this 
 drifts as it was called, or diluvium, furnished demonstrable 
 proof of the action of Noah's deluge, vastly extensive, 
 and at a comparatively recent date ; much later, at least, 
 than the latest of all the strata of fossil-bearing rock, 
 cropping out from beneath the earth's surface. 
 
 It was under the influence of these facts, then but 
 
332 THE DELUGE UNIVERSAL. 
 
 newly discovered, that the great Cuvier wrote that pas- 
 sage, so often quoted, in which he speaks of the traces 
 left by the action of Noah's deluge, as visible now on the 
 earth's surface; " If there he a fact well ascertained in geol- 
 ogy , it is this, that the surface of our globe has suffered a 
 great and sudden revolution^ the period of which cannot he 
 dated further hack than 5 or 6,000 years^ And he adds, 
 "It is from the epoch of that revolution, that the small 
 number of individuals which it spared, have spread them- 
 selves and multiplied over the newly dried ground ; and 
 consequently, it is from that epoch alone, that human 
 societies have resumed their progressive improvements." 
 (Discours sur les Revolutions de la surface du Globe, &c. 
 3d edit. Paris, 1836, p. 133.) 
 
 Later still, speaking of the mud, gravel, and bones of 
 the Kirkdale caves, Cuvier says: "Most carefully de- 
 scribed by Professor Buckland, under the name of dilu- 
 vium^ and exceedingly different from those other beds of 
 similarly rolled materials, which are now constantly de- 
 posited by torrents and rivers, and containing only bones 
 of animals existing in the country, and to which Mr. B. 
 gives the name alluvion^ they now form, in the eyes of 
 all geologists, the fullest proof to the senses, of that im- 
 mense inundation, (viz. Noah's deluge,) which came last 
 in the catastrophes of our globe. (Discours, &;c. p. 141.) 
 
 In his work entitled Reliquiae Diluvianae, published in 
 1823, and which contains his observations on the drift^ 
 Dr. Buckland thus expressed himself: — ^^ 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 
 hare by the sweepi7ig away of the solid materials that had be- 
 fore filled themy are called valleys of denudation^ and the ef- 
 
THE DELUGE UNIVERSAL. 833 
 
 feds we see 'produced hy water ^ in the minor cases I have just 
 mentioned^ hy presenting us an example^ within tangible lim- 
 its^ prepare us to comprehend the mighty and stupendous 
 magnitude of those forces^ hy which whole strata were swept 
 away^ and valleys laid open, and gorges excavated in the more 
 solid portion of the substance of the earthy bearing the same 
 proportion to the overwhelming ocean by which they were pro- 
 duced^ that modern ravines on the sides of mountains bear 
 to the torrents which^ since the retreat of the deluge^ have cre- 
 ated^ and continue to enlarge themP (Keliq. Diluv. p. 237, 
 1828.) 
 
 The facts presented in these passages are striking, and 
 the reasoning upon those facts is forcible. And yet, since 
 the publication of the work containing these passages, a 
 still more extended examination of these drifts, in differ- 
 ent countries, has brought to light new and important 
 facts which have altered entirely the opinions of geolo- 
 gists, and of Dr. Buckland himself, as to the age and the 
 origin of these drift deposits. 
 
 The views expressed in the preceding quotations, were, 
 until recently, my own. But the force of the evidence 
 adduced, compels me to abandon this theory so plausible 
 and so pleasing ; and in thus yielding to the power of 
 clear evidence, as Buckland, Sedgwick, Conybeare, Chal- 
 mers, and Pye Smith, have done before me, I see no cause 
 to blush. Sufficient evidence once seen must bring con- 
 viction : and to avow conviction, candor is always ready. 
 
 The general term diluvium^ now abandoned, was 
 used by Buckland to describe superficial accumulations, 
 whether of soil, sand, gravel, or loose aggregations of 
 larger blocks, which are found to prevail over large 
 tracts of the earth's surface, and are manifestly superin- 
 
334 THE DELUGE UNIVERSAL. 
 
 duced over the deposits of different ages, with whicli 
 they have no connection. 
 
 An examination of the contents of this drift soon 
 showed the diversified nature of the fragments of which 
 it is composed, in different localities. Investigations 
 were made by comparing the transported fragments with 
 the nearest rocks from which they could have been de- 
 rived. Hence was inferred the direction of the current 
 which transported them, and the degree of force neces- 
 sary for such transport, according to their size and na- 
 ture, and the character of the intervening ground. 
 
 Hence the conclusion became inevitable, that many 
 such currents, in different directions, and acting with dif- 
 ferent degrees of force, must have occurred to produce 
 the observed results. 
 
 It was very soon found also from indications not to be 
 mistaken, that these instances of diluvial action, were of 
 very different ages ; and none of more than local extent ; 
 although some must have acted over considerable tracts 
 of country. In some instances, the most palpable evi- 
 dence of this has been furnished, in one stratum crossing, 
 and overlying another. Thus, Professor Hitchcock, speak- 
 ing of the abundant drift of Massachusetts, declares, " A 
 transient deluge, like that described in Scripture, could 
 not have accumulated it. It has obviously been the re- 
 sult of different agencies, and of different epochs : the re- 
 sult of causes, sometimes operating feebly and slowly, 
 and at other times, violently and powerfully. But the 
 conclusion to which I have been irresistibly forced, by 
 an examination of this stratum in Massachusetts, is, that 
 all the diluvium which had been previously accumulated 
 by various agencies, has been modified by a powerful 
 
THE DELUGE UNIVERSAL. 835 
 
 deluge, sweeping from the north, and north-west, over 
 every part of the state, not excepting its highest moun- 
 tains : and since that deluge, none but alluvial agencies 
 have been operating to change the surface." (Hitch- 
 cock's Geology of Massachusetts, 1835, p. 148.) 
 
 One might almost imagine that in the diluvium left by 
 this powerful north-west deluge sweeping over Massachu- 
 setts, we have at length found evidence of the action of 
 Noah's flood. 
 
 But, no ! The one unanswerable argument against 
 this conclusion is, that neither in this north-westerly 
 diluvium of Massachusetts, nor in any other diluvium 
 hitherto examined, have any traces been found of man^ or 
 of his works. 
 
 In other instances, (perhaps in the greater number,) 
 there is equal evidence of the operation having gone on 
 at the bottom of deep water, as it does at present, by 
 currents, eddies, tides, &c. 
 
 Again, in some instances, masses of what had once 
 formed a diluvium, have themselves been cleared off by 
 some new current, and heaped up, leaving the substratum 
 bare. In a word, with reference to cases of this kind, the 
 most recent researches simply point to a continuation of 
 the same great series of long-sustained natural action, in 
 the deposition of detritus, and the gradual elevation of 
 coasts, covered with the ordinary accumulations of mud, 
 sand, and shingle, which have been referred to as the 
 analogous causes of the earlier formations. (See Kitto's 
 Bib. Cycl., and Dr. J. P. Smith, pp. 89-91.) 
 
 Moreover, (remarks Dr. Pye Smith,) in many coun- 
 tries drifts have been formed, showing where large bodies 
 of water have moved with great force, in contrary direc- 
 
336 THE DELUGE UNIVERSAL. 
 
 tions. In other places, vast rocks, or boulders, have, as 
 it is supposed, been drifted in icebergs, and dropped 
 where they now lie. Others are attributed to the action 
 of glaciers. In some instances, since the time when 
 boulders were transported from the parent mountain, up- 
 heavals or subsidences have taken place. For instance : 
 on the sides of the Jura Mountains, lying on the borders 
 of France and Switzerland, boulders are now lying which 
 must have been brought thither from the Alps. But, 
 directly in the track which alone they could have taken, 
 now lies Lake Geneva. Had that lake existed when those 
 boulders were moving, they must have sunk and remain- 
 ed in the bed of the lake. Lake Geneva must then, itself, 
 have been formed since the time when those boulders 
 were transported. 
 
 But the vast Alps themselves are, comparatively, a 
 modern formation. Lofty and grand though now they 
 tower amid eternal snows, many of the deposits and 
 the chalk-cliffs of Britain had long been upheaved at a 
 time when, where the Alps with their glittering snow- 
 capped summits now stand, was spread only a champaign 
 country, or one vast morass. (See Dr. J. P. Smith, 
 p. 94.) 
 
 Little, then, as we might have expected such a result, 
 it now appears that the so-called diluvium drift, cannot 
 be attributed to Noah's deluge. 
 
 Innumerable traces may be found of changes effected, 
 and of deposits made, on the earth's surface ; of succes- 
 sive upheavals and depressions in the same locality; 
 sometimes sinking beneath the waters of the sea, then 
 again emerging; then serving as the bed of a fresh- water 
 lake, &c. &;c. ; and all, as it would seem, before the time 
 
THE DELUGE UNIVERSAL. 837 
 
 of Noah's deluge. Changes have also been effected, and 
 deposits have been made, since that period ; and such 
 deposits are now being made, as in river deltas, &c. The 
 temple of Jupiter Serapis, at Puzzuoli, near Naples, di- 
 rectly on the shores of that beautiful bay, has twice sunk 
 and twice risen, nearly twenty feet each time, since the 
 Christian era, and it is again slowly sinking, as I myself 
 can testify, (and as I did testify to Sir C. Lyell, in Nov., 
 1846 : see his Princ. Geol., London, 1850, p. 497,) while 
 the whole coast of Sweden is at this moment, and has 
 long been gradually rising. (See Lyell, Id. pp. 497, 502. 
 See also Richardson, pp. 422, 423.) 
 
 Still, amid all these evidences of change — past, and now 
 in progress, no marks of change, no deposit of drift, or of 
 fossils, can be pointed out, of which we can say with ab- 
 solute certainty, ^'' these are the effects of Nbah^s deluge, these 
 are the proofs of its occurrence P 
 
 How is this ? The answer I shall attempt, in my next 
 Lecture. 
 
 To adopt, then, the language of Dr. Buckland, when 
 frankl}'^ avowing his abandonment of the diluvian theory : 
 " Though we have not yet found the certain traces of any 
 great diluvian catastrophe, which we can affirm to be 
 within the human period, we have at least shown, that 
 paroxysms of internal energy, accompanied by the eleva- 
 tion of mountain chains, and followed by mighty waters 
 desolating whole regions of the earth, were a part of the 
 mechanism of nature. Now what has happened again 
 and again, from the most ancient, up to the most modern 
 periods in the natural history of the earth, may have 
 happened once, during the few thousand years that man 
 has been living on its surface. We have, therefore, taken 
 
 15 
 
338 THE DELUGE UNIVERSAL. 
 
 away all anterior improbability, from the fact of a deluge, 
 such, e. g. as that of Noah." (See Proceedings of the 
 Brit. Geol. Soc. for 1831, pp. 312-314.) 
 
 Without endorsing unconditionally every sentiment 
 contained therein, I will conclude this Lecture, with the 
 words of an eminent and orthodox Scotch divine, (Rev. 
 Dr. Fleming.) "There is reason to believe, from the 
 writings of Moses, that the ark had not drifted far from 
 the spot where it was lifted up, and that it grounded at 
 no great distance from the same spot. I have formed 
 my notions of the Noachian deluge, not from Ovid, but 
 from the Bible. There, the simple narrative of Moses 
 permits me to believe, that the waters rose upon the 
 earth, by degrees : that means were adopted by the author 
 of the calamity, to preserve pairs of the land animals: 
 that the flood exhibited no violent impetuosity, displacing 
 neither the soil, nor the vegetable tribes which it support- 
 ed, nor rendering the ground unfit for the cultivation of 
 the vine. With this description in my mind, I am not 
 prepared to witness in nature^ B,ny remaining marks of 
 the catastrophe : and I find my respect for the authority 
 of revelation heightened, when I see, on the present sur- 
 face, no memorials of the event." (Jameson's Philos. Jour- 
 nal. See also Dr. J. P. Smith, p. 81. 
 
LECTUEE X. 
 
 THE DELUGE UNIVERSAL. 
 
 PART II. 
 
 Gen. vii. 23. — " And every living substance was destroyed which was 
 upon the face of the ground, both man and cattle, and the creeping 
 things, and the fowl of the heavens ; and they were destroyed from 
 the earth ; and Noah only remained alive, and they that were with 
 him in the ark." 
 
 The very terms of tliis record of the deluge in the 
 days of Noah, seem then, to convey the idea of univer- 
 sality over the entire surface of the whole globe. The 
 deluge covered the highest mountains under the whole 
 heavens, and every living creature, man and beast, that 
 were exposed to it, perished. The only survivors were 
 Noah, and those sheltered with him in the ark. As 
 might be expected, traditions of a universal deluge, from 
 which one family only escaped, with certain animals 
 sheltered with them in a floating vessel, are found among 
 all nations, on every continent and in almost every island 
 on the globe, nations of all languages and of every grade 
 of civilization : traditions wonderfully agreeing as to all 
 the main facts in the case, and strongly corroborating the 
 Mosaic narrative of a universal deluge, in which every 
 human being on the face of the earth perished, excepting 
 
340 THE DELUGE UNIVERSAL. 
 
 only one family, whose posterity have since spread over 
 the whole globe. 
 
 But, though evidence abundant is presented on the 
 earth's surface now, of vast bodies of water having swept 
 over the surface of the earth, at different times and in 
 different directions, nowhere can we discover deposits 
 or drifts, or marks which we can with certainty assign to 
 the action of Noah's deluge. Nor in the accumulations 
 of these ancient drifls, nor in any deposits older than 
 those beds of alluvion which are even now forming, 
 have any remains of man, or of his works been found, 
 such as must have been covered up in deposits lefl by 
 Noah's flood, in all countries then inhabited by man. 
 
 This absence of human remains in all the deposits 
 laid open to our research, I propose to account for in 
 this Lecture. 
 
 The result of these geological researches renders one 
 thing very plain, viz., that if we can find no undeniable 
 marks of the action of the deluge of Noah upon the 
 earth, yet all improbability that may have been supposed 
 to attach to the idea of such a deluge, at that epoch, is effec- 
 tually removed, so that we are prepared to receive the 
 evidence of its occurrence, whenever that evidence shall 
 be presented to us, let it spring from what source it may. 
 
 The narrative found in Genesis teaches, as believers in 
 revelation have generally thought, and as I cannot but 
 think, that the deluge in the time of Noah was literally 
 universal, covering the whole earth, and destroying all 
 living creatures, man and beast, excepting only those 
 sheltered in the ark. 
 
 Against the universality of the deluge, several grave 
 objections are urged. 
 
THE DELUGE UNIVERSAL. 8*1 
 
 As, 1st. On scientific grounds^ objections are brought. 
 The quantity of water required to effect such a universal 
 deluge would have been such, as that there is no account- 
 ing for the production of so large a body of water, or for 
 the disposal of it afterwards, without a series of miracles 
 utterly incredible, and not even hinted at in the Bible. 
 Gen. vii. 19, 20, " The waters prevailed exceedingly on the 
 earthj and all the high hills that luere under the ivhole heaven 
 were covered ; fifteen cubits upwards did the waters 'prevail^ 
 and the mountains were covered.^' 
 
 Now, as there are mountains rising to the height of 
 five miles above the sea-level, in order to produce a 
 deluge such as the literal understanding of this passage 
 implies, the body of water on the surface of the globe 
 must have been so increased, as to produce a universal 
 ocean over the whole globe, to the depth of five miles at 
 least, above and over the present ocean. Two means of 
 bringing the waters over the land are mentioned by 
 Moses, viz., a heavy rain for forty days and forty nights, 
 and the ''''breaking up of the fountains of the great deepP 
 
 The rain that ordinarily falls, is, we know, first drawn 
 by evaporation, from the sea, and other bodies of water 
 on the surface of the earth ; it is held in suspense by the 
 atmosphere, again falling to the earth when condensed.* 
 
 Now the height of the atmosphere so far as it has 
 density sufficient to sustain vapor, is not very great : its 
 capacity to contain, or suspend vapor, is limited ; and 
 although heavy rains of even a few hours' continuance 
 may speedily inundate a whole province, or a country, 
 
 * " The windows of heaven were opejied," Gen, vii. 11, seems to be but 
 another mode of expressing the idea of heavy rains falling in unusual 
 quantities, and for a period of unprecedented duration. 
 
842 THE DELUGE UNIVERSAL. 
 
 especially a country abounding in valleys and plains 
 lying amongst, or surrounded by, or bordering upon 
 hills, and mountain ranges; yet still, were the entire 
 atmosphere surcharged with vapor to its utmost capa- 
 city, and then caused to discharge it at once on the earth, 
 it could not possibly cover the surface of the entire globe, 
 more than to the depth of a few inches, which, towards 
 the production of a deluge five miles deep, is as nothing. 
 
 Besides, inasmuch as all rain is drawn from the water 
 of the sea, &c., a rain that should fall for days, or for 
 months continuously, would only amount to a return to 
 the earth, in the form of rain, of the very water as con- 
 stantly rising from it by evaporation. Such continuous 
 rains might inundate and desolate whole provinces, and 
 even empires, but they would not increase by one drop, 
 the sum total of water actually existing in the ocean, 
 lakes, &c., on the earth at the moment when these rains 
 commenced. 
 
 Nor could the breaking up of the fountains of the great 
 deep, do very much towards increasing the quantity of 
 water on the surface of the globe : unless we admit the 
 idea once entertained, that large bodies of water are 
 lodged in cavities in the earth, and that the breaking up 
 of ike fountains of Oie great deep^ implies that vent was given 
 to these subterranean waters, so that they rushed forth, 
 and overspread the land. This may be so, nor does this 
 idea, to me, at least, seem either absurd, or improbable. 
 But still, we know enough of the structure of this earth 
 to satisfy us, that no subterranean oceans of water now 
 exist in the interior of the earth, equal to an emergency 
 such as that of inundating the entire surface of the globe 
 to a depth of five miles above the present level of the sea. 
 
THE DELUGE UNIVERSAL. MB 
 
 The only hypothesis left us is, that the vast amount of 
 water necessary to flood the globe, and cover its highest 
 mountains to a depth of fifteen cubits, was miraculously 
 created by God, for the occasion, and then, when the 
 grand purpose of its introduction upon the earth was ac- 
 complished, it was as miraculously annihilated, or re- 
 moved ! 
 
 But, we are told, that by this hypothesis, we are call- 
 ing in the aid of miracle after miracle, when the Bible 
 attributes the whole to ordinary, natural causes : for the 
 expression, " the loindows of heaven were opened" merely 
 denotes the long-continued fall of heavy rain, (Gen. vii. 
 11 :) and the declaration, " all the fountains of the great deep 
 were hroken up^"* simply teaches, that an irruption of the 
 luaters of the sea upon the dry land then took place. But 
 we know with certainty, that neither of these events, nor 
 yet both combined, could do more than produce a local 
 flood — a partial inundation : because they could not possi- 
 bly increase to any great extent, the sum total of water 
 on the globe. But without an increase of water to the 
 amount of seven or eight times the quantity of all the 
 water contained in all the seas and oceans now on the 
 globe, the earth could not have been covered with water 
 that should rise several feet higher than the highest 
 mountains, as Moses positively avers that the waters of 
 Noah's deluge did ! 
 
 Other difficulties still attend this idea of a universal deluge : 
 for it is argued that such an accumulation of water on the 
 earth's surface, covering it to the depth of five miles above 
 the present sea-level, would very considerably increase 
 the diameter of the earth, vastly augment its bulk, its 
 weight, and must, therefore, inevitably alter the path of 
 
344 THE DELUGE UNIVERSAL. 
 
 its orbit, and produce a disturbing effect throughout the 
 whole solar system: naj, its disturbing influence would 
 be certainly felt through the whole extent of the material 
 universe, and, very possibly, to the detriment, if not the 
 destruction, of many myriads of sentient beings, in other 
 and far distant worlds. 
 
 A deluge of this character, it has been said, *' would 
 require a series of stupendous and immensely multiplied 
 miracles, in comparison with which, the great decisive 
 miracle of Christianity, the resurrection of Jesus Christ, 
 sinks as insignificant." (Dr. J. Pye Smith, Scripture 
 and Geology, pp. 113, 116.) 
 
 True, these are formidable objections! But if the 
 Mosaic narrative required us to admit such vast increase 
 of waters, in order to account for the universality of the 
 deluge, I would still bow to the authority, and implicitly 
 believe in the truth of this divinely inspired document, 
 notwithstanding all these difficulties ; and that too, in 
 view of other, and scarcely less formidable difficulties yet 
 to be noticed. For, if I read, in a document clearly 
 proved to be inspired of God, as the books of Moses are, 
 that the deluge was universal^ I know assuredly that God's 
 power was equal to the emergency. He who made all 
 things, and impressed upon them the laws of their exist- 
 ence, and of their mutual influence one upon another, 
 can suspend, or alter, or modify these laws, at his pleas- 
 ure, just as He sees the emergency of the case may re- 
 quire! How, indeed, can we tell, but that occasional 
 apparent exceptions^ or seeming deviations^ may be involved 
 in the very nature of those laws ? If the deluge which, 
 for the wickedness of mankind, God had sworn to bring 
 on this earth, required the creation of oceans of water, 
 
THE DELUGE UNIVERSAL. 345 
 
 He could create it, and cause it to spread just where He 
 chose;* His hand could guide the earth reeling under 
 the superadded weight, and so guide it as to neutralize 
 its otherwise disturbing power on the other orbs and 
 other systems in the universe, over which man's apostasy 
 was not permitted to diffuse evil. 
 
 I know full well that this idea of miracle upon mir- 
 acle will be sneered at by the so-called philosopher, and 
 deprecated by some good men, and perhaps even by able 
 theologians too. But, if the alternative be, admit the 
 supposition of a series of even unprecedented miracles, 
 or suffer the Mosaic record to be brought into discredit, 
 I, for one, am for adhering to the record. A preternat- 
 ural catastrophe the deluge was — so Moses represents it 
 — and therefore we cannot judge of it by the ordinary 
 laws of nature merely. I would as soon undertake to 
 account for the resurrection of the body by the laws of 
 nature only, as to account fully for the flood in Noah's 
 day, by those laws exclusively. 
 
 If revelation records the stupendous event, that record 
 is not to be brought into discredit by our inability to ex- 
 plain the mode in which the event was accomplished, or 
 to account for all its possible effects. 
 
 But such miraculous increase of water is not necessary^ to 
 
 * God always acts according to law. There is a law of miracles, as 
 well as common events : even when God introduces a miracle, perhaps by 
 a counteraction of ordinary laws, he may still act by some rule : so that, 
 were precisely the same circumstances to occur again, the same miracle 
 would be repeated. The laws regulating miracles and special provi- 
 dences, are as fixed and certain as those of ordinary events: and those 
 laws must have formed a part of the plan of creation originally existing 
 in the divine mind. (See Hitchcock's Religion of Geology, pp. 358, 359. 
 See also Babbage, 9th Bridgewater Treatise.) 
 
 15* 
 
846 THE DELUGE UNIVERSAL. 
 
 account for a universal deluge. When " all the fountains 
 of the great deep were broken up,^^ (Gen. vii. 11,) a great 
 change on the earth's surface seems to be intimated. 
 The hidden waters accumulated in subterranean caverns 
 might then have gushed forth, and whole continents 
 might then have sunk, and remained permanently sub- 
 merged ; just as now it occasionally happens that a tract 
 of land sinks down, and a lake appears where before 
 smiling meadows had spread. But, without the suppo- 
 sition of such ancient subterranean oceans as intended by 
 the ^^ fountains of the great deepj"^ (see Dr. J. P. Smith, pp. 
 Ill, 112,) €ie simultaneous sinking of all Hie antediluvian 
 continents beneath the surface of the sea^ and the upheaval of 
 the bed of the ancient ocean, and the continuance of that up- 
 heaved ocean-bed, as the present dry land of the postdiluvian 
 earth, is a supposition not improbable in itself, and it will 
 account for all the facts which Moses details as attendant 
 on Noah's flood, covering the highest mountains. It will 
 also fully account for the fact, that no human relics, no 
 work of art from the antediluvian races of man, have, as 
 yet, been brought to light. These antediluvian relics all 
 lie, fathoms deep, beneath the beds of the present oceans 
 and seas. 
 
 We know that even at this day, some countries are 
 slowly rising above the sea ; others are as gradually sink- 
 ing beneath it. (Richardson, p. 422. Lyell, p. 502.) 
 Lyell does, indeed, maintain that the laws of nature are 
 uniform ; that changes have, for innumerable ages, been 
 going on slowly, as now they do, and that we must not 
 imagine the occurrence of any great and sudden con- 
 vulsions to effect the changes of which we find evidence. 
 (Lyell, Princ. Geol. pp. 63, 64, 175.) 
 
THE DELUGE UNIVERSAL. 347 
 
 But, now, this theory of uniformity in the modes and 
 rates of changes, the great English geologist pushes too 
 far. There is ample evidence to show, that it is a part 
 of the uniformity of nature's laws, that a rigid uniformity 
 shall occasionally be interrupted by sudden convulsions ! The 
 series of geologic strata furnish proof to show that the 
 present land has, at several different periods in the ages 
 past, been covered with water, as the bed of an ocean ; 
 then, upheaved, it has been dry land : then, perhaps, 
 covered with fresh water, as the bed of a lake : then left 
 dry again, &c., — many times in succession. Sometimes, 
 also, through these several deposits overlying one an- 
 other, there have been forced up, by some deep subter- 
 ranean power, (perhaps volcanic action,) masses of crys- 
 talline rock, formed, ages ago, deep in the bowels of the 
 earth : and sometimes, the rocks now seen breaking 
 through these overlying strata, were evidently forced 
 upwards while in a fluid state, from the effect of intense 
 heat, deep in the bowels of the earth. 
 
 Every earthquake, every mountain wave that has 
 been rolled up from the vast depths of ocean, devastating 
 whole provinces in a few hours, (Lyell, pp. 9, 342,) every 
 volcanic eruption and sudden upheaval of hills, as, e. g. 
 of Monte Nuovo, thrown up to the height of five hun- 
 dred feet in one night, (Sept. 29, 1538,) a few miles from 
 Naples, show, that an unbroken uniformity is not the law 
 of nature^ s action; but that elevations and subsidences of 
 land, sometimes extensive and sudden, are even now 
 taking place. 
 
 It is, therefore, very far from incredible, that, at the 
 time of Noah's flood, such subsidence of all the dry land, 
 and simultaneous elevation of ocean's bed, might have 
 
M9 THE DELUGE UNIVERSAL. 
 
 been effected. Such extensive alterations in the level 
 of continents and ocean beds, must necessarily have pro- 
 duced a deluge over all earth's surface, that might have 
 lasted several months ; and it could not fail to alter com- 
 pletely the aspect of the whole world. 
 
 The chief, if not the only serious objection to this sup- 
 position, arises from the fact that it involves the pei'ma- 
 nent submergence of the garden of Eden, and implies 
 that that once favored spot now forms a part of ocean's 
 bed; whereas, Moses so describes the region where it 
 stood, as that one can hardly avoid the conclusion, that 
 Moses meant his readers to understand that the locality 
 of Eden might, in his day at least, (which was many ages 
 posterior to the flood,) have been ascertained without 
 much difficulty. He even mentions by name the Eu- 
 phrates, as one of the streams that watered Eden. 
 
 Moreover, if all the antediluvian land was sunk, and 
 remains sunk, forming the bed of the present sea, and if 
 the land on which Noah planted his foot when leaving 
 the ark was the old ocean's bed then recently laid bare 
 and dry, where was found the olive-tree from which the 
 dove brought a green leaf to the ark, (Gen. viii. 11,) and 
 whence did Noah derive the vines that he planted to 
 form a vineyard? ' (Gen. ix. 20.) 
 
 These are difficulties, I admit ; but they are not so for- 
 midable, as are those which encumber even the most 
 plausible of all other theories yet advanced, to account 
 for the deluge. 
 
 As to the locality of the garden of Eden, the descrip- 
 tion of it, as given by Moses, is so general, and so vague, 
 that all attempts to identify the spot have proved abor- 
 tive. The only fixed point in relation to it, is the name 
 
THE DELUGE UNIVERSAL. 349 
 
 of a river, Euphrates. The other names Moses gives, and 
 the description ir which those names occur, are to this 
 day, inexplicable, even by the most learned. May we 
 not be permitted to conjecture, that ^^the garden planted 
 by Jehovah eastward, in Eden,^'' in which he placed the 
 first human pair, and from which, after the first sin, man 
 was effectually excluded, was a district larger than has 
 generally been supposed, comprising," perhaps, Persia, 
 and a large part of Western Asia, to the shores of the 
 Mediterranean? May we not further suppose that this 
 entire region uninhabited by man sank last of all beneath 
 the invading waters, and that this, the sole region of all 
 antediluvian countries that was re-elevated, was first left 
 dry before the beds of antediluvian oceans were lifted up ? 
 All other lands that man had trodden, sank, and remain 
 to this day sunk, beneath the deep sea. This compara- 
 tively small region, submerged for but a few weeks, 
 might have again emerged, with but little alteration of 
 its natural scenery. It might still show its ancient 
 mountain peaks, its original river channels and valleys, 
 and its antediluvian volcanic craters, and even cones. 
 This hypothesis, viz., the subsidence of all lands then in- 
 habited, and the elevation of ocean-beds, fully accounts 
 for the absence from the present surface of the earth, of 
 all traces left by the deluge, and of all the remains of an- 
 tediluvian man, and his works. 
 
 This I believe to be the true explanation of the facts recorded 
 in GenesiSj as to the deluge. The ancient lands gradually, 
 but rapidly sank, burying the whole human race, with all 
 the monuments of their industry and skill, deep under 
 the waves of ocean ; while the bed of the antediluvian 
 ocean emerged, and became the present dry land : possi- 
 
360 THE DELUGE UNIVERSAL. 
 
 blj also, the uninhabited district designated, as " a gar- 
 den planted in UdeUj " may have again emerged also. Such 
 elevation on subsidence of large tracts of land we know to 
 be usually attended by great agitation of the elements, 
 and by copious rains. (See Lyell, Princ. Geol. pp. 9, 342.) 
 This theory well agrees with all the particulars given in 
 the Mosaic record. *' The windows of heaven were opened, 
 and the fountains of the great deep were broken up. The 
 waters prevailed exceedingly on ike earth, and the mountains 
 were covered P' (Gen. vii. 19.) Nor can I see, in this rec- 
 ord, anything to forbid the idea, that the mountains now 
 on the continents then upheaved are greatly higher than 
 any that *' were under the whole heavens,^' before the flood. 
 
 In regard to the rapid appearance of vegetation on the 
 newly dried surface of earth, so long, and so recently the 
 bed of ocean, as indicated by the olive Zeq/" brought by the 
 dove to Noah while he was yet shut up in the ark ; and 
 again, in respect of the subsequent planting of a vineyard 
 by Noah, a moment's reflection will furnish a very natural 
 solution of the difficulties. 
 
 "We might, indeed, satisfactorily account for this rapid 
 vegetation, by a reference to that law ordained by God, 
 on the third day of the creation in six days, Gen. i. 11. 
 " God said. Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding 
 seed after his land, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed is 
 in itself f^ a law which we know does to this day operate 
 everywhere over the surface of our globe; a law which 
 operates on all newly formed lands; gradually, and some- 
 times rapidly covering with appropriate vegetation such 
 districts as by emergence from the sea, or by the action 
 of volcanic forces are heaved to light and exposed to the 
 rays of the sun and to the action of the elements : a law, 
 
THE DELUGE UNIVERSAL. 351 
 
 the operation of which with unusual celeritj, would be 
 necessary after the deluge, as truly as after the third 
 day's creative work, in order to furnish appropriate food 
 to man, and to the animals that must issue from the ark, 
 soon after the waters of the deluge should have subsided. 
 But, not to insist too strenuously on this point, it is yet 
 quite natural to suppose that, as the ancient lands sank 
 beneath the waters, immense quantities 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 deposi- 
 ted, 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 appear. The presentation, by the dove, of a green 
 olive leaf to Noah who was still in the ark, and the 
 planting of a vineyard by Noah, when he had again a 
 settled habitation on the earth, are easily accounted for. 
 Moses does not affirm that the dove bore to Noah an 
 olive branch, nor yet the twig of an olive-tree, but sim- 
 ply a green olive haf. The leaf of a seedling olive plant, 
 some few days old, would have answered every purpose, 
 
352 THE DELUGE UNIVERSAL. 
 
 to indicate the ground left dry by the retiring waters, 
 and the commencing of vegetation. Nor does Moses tell 
 us how soon it was after Noah had left the ark, that he 
 planted a vineyard. It might have been several years 
 afterwards ; affording ample time for the seedling vines, 
 growing rapidly in the virgin soil, to attract the attention 
 of Noah, by the excellence and abundance of their fruits. 
 Possibly, the vine may have been unknown, in the 
 regions wherein Noali and his family had resided before 
 the flood. These circumstances do, then, present no seri- 
 ous objection against the theory I have proposed. 
 
 But against the universality of Hie deluge in itself con- 
 sidered^ and independently of the mode in which it may 
 have been effected, other^ and very weighty objections lie. 
 
 The ark, it is said, had not sufficient capacity to accom- 
 modate the immense number of living animals that 
 must have perished if left to battle with the waters of 
 the flood. 
 
 The dimensions of the ark are given by Moses, with 
 great minuteness of particularity. Biblical interpreters, 
 about a century ago, made sundry calculations to show 
 that the ark was sufficiently capacious to contain pairs of 
 all terrestrial animals, and septuples of those counted 
 clean, and also of birds, and reptiles, with sufficient space 
 for their accommodation, for air, and for the storage of 
 provisions and water. These calculations are undoubt- 
 edly based on far too low an estimate of the number of 
 living animals. 
 
 By one writer it was computed that the entire number 
 of animals requiring shelter would not exceed the equiv- 
 alent of five hundred horses; a number which he has 
 shown by careful calculation, could be readily accommo- 
 
THE DELUGE UNIVERSAL. 353 
 
 dated, fed and attended, in a vessel of dimensions sucli 
 as Moses ascribes to the ark. 
 
 A late writer reminds us that in 1778, Linnaeus esti- 
 mated the entire number of known animals at 6000 spe- 
 cies, (Dr. Beard's Bible Dictionary.) 
 
 Since his time, the number has been greatly increased. 
 Even in 1842, ten years ago, the number of mammalia 
 known, {i. e. of animals that suckle their young,) was 
 1000 ; of birds 6000 ; of reptiles, and amphibious animals, 
 1500. The bounds of zoological knowledge, are still 
 constantly extending. 
 
 But, it must not be forgotten, that of all these, the 
 vastly greater proportion are small ; and numbers of 
 them could be placed together in the same compartment 
 of the ark. Many animals, also, are torpid during the 
 winter, and would probably lie dormant during the long 
 wintry storm of the deluge; while, for all of them, much 
 less than the usual amount of food would suffice, in con- 
 sequence of their inactivity during the whole period of 
 their confinement in a floating vessel. 
 
 Notwithstanding all the ridicule that has been em- 
 ployed to bring into contempt the idea of preserving 
 alive in the ark specimens of all animals, sufficient to 
 perpetuate all the several species on the subsiding of the 
 deluge ; I have, as yet, seen nothing to shake my confi- 
 dence in the credibility of the Mosaic story of the ark. The 
 same God who promised to Noah that pairs of all living 
 creatures should come to Mm^ to be kept alive in the ark, 
 (Gen. vi. 20,) could and would so arrange all circumstances 
 and all events, as that the preservation of all these animals 
 should be secured. The Mosaic narrative does, as it 
 seems to me, represent this whole affair as out of the ordi- 
 
354 THE DELUGE UNIVERSAL. 
 
 nary course of nature. God himself did directly inter- 
 fere. 
 
 But it is confidently alleged that so many animals^ from 
 climates the most varied and opposite^ even if brought 
 together, could not possibly exist for so long a period as the 
 deluge lasted. Of this objection every travelling mena- 
 gerie, furnishes the refutation. 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 ourang-outang 
 from Borneo, and even the kangaroo from New Holland, 
 with the armadillo of Central America, and the bear of 
 the Kocky Mountains, have been known to exist for 
 many months, and even years, side by side, in the same 
 menagerie. 
 
 During the continuance of the deluge the temperature 
 of the atmosphere would probably be a medium between 
 the intense cold of the Arctic, and the fiery heats of the 
 tropics, — a temperature in which all animals could exist 
 for a considerable length of time. 
 
 It has, moreover, been asserted, that if the ark was 
 raised by the flood above the highest mountains, the 
 height is so great, and the atmosphere is so rare and so 
 cold at that height, (as the experience of all explorers 
 among the summit crags of lofty mountains shows,) that, 
 if the very surface of the water was not all frozen, yet the 
 tropical animals must have inevitably perished, and all, 
 save the arctic animals, must have suffered severely. 
 
 But, on the hypothesis I have advanced, viz., that the 
 ancient continents all sank, and the primeval ocean-bed 
 was upheaved, this extreme elevation would not have 
 been reached by the ark. And even if it were, just so 
 
THE DELUGE UNIVERSAL. 355 
 
 far as the water rose, the air would rise with it and above 
 it, air being a lighter fluid than water ; so that the at- 
 mosphere on the surface of the water, where the ark 
 always remained, would retain its ordinary density, and 
 very nearly also, its usual temperature. 
 
 Another difficulty meets usj when we seek to account for 
 the spread of the animals saved in the ark, each to its ap- 
 propriate climate and locality. 
 
 On the surface of our globe are found many regions, 
 or districts, each having its own animal as well as vege- 
 table occupants — a region wherein the animals peculiar 
 to it live and flourish, and nowhere else so well. True ! 
 We do find such zoological provinces, to which their 
 animal occupants seem fitted by the Creator. They 
 flourish best there, as, e. g. the elephant in India, the 
 kangaroo in New Holland, the chamois among the 
 highest Alps, the crocodile in the Nile of Nubia. But, 
 under extraordinary circumstances, they can, we know, 
 exist for a considerable length of time, in other localities, 
 and they can subsist too on other than their ordinary 
 food. The deluge did present extraordinary circum- 
 stances ; and He who formed all animals, and endowed 
 them with their several peculiar instincts, could guide 
 them, step by step, by their instincts, through all inter- 
 vening regions, until they reached, each one, his proper 
 locality. 
 
 To restrict the extension of animal life from one com- 
 mon centre, over all the three continents of the old world, 
 no formidable impediments occur. 
 
 This continent was probably tenanted at a later period, 
 by way of the points nearest to the Asiatic coasts. 
 While even New Holland may have been formerly con- 
 
856 THE DELUGE UNIVERSAL. 
 
 nected, with but slight intervening gaps, with the 
 southern peninsula of Asia. In the isles of the great 
 Pacific but very few animals were found, by the first 
 European discoverers. These island-animals were small, 
 and such as might very easily have been transported in 
 the canoes, and other frail vessels in which the first hu- 
 man tenants were driven by storms, or borne by ocean- 
 currents to those isles : but little difficulty can be felt in 
 accounting for their animal tenantry. 
 
 But, were the difficulty attending this subject tenfold 
 greater, and seemingly beyond all satisfactory explana- 
 tion, (as may possibly be esteemed the zoology of New 
 Holland,) if I find it recorded in the book of revelation, 
 that in the deluge " every living tiling in which is the breatii 
 of life perished^ and Noah only remained alive, and tiiey tiiat 
 were witii him in the ark," I could still believe it implicitly, 
 satisfied that the difficulty of explanation springs solely 
 from the imperfection of human knowledge, and not 
 from any limitation in the power or the wisdom of God, 
 nor yet from any lack of trustworthiness in the document 
 given to us as a revelation from God — a document given 
 to man by the hands of Moses, the learned, accomplished, 
 and eminently devout Jewish legislator 1 
 
 Again, it is objected that, even of aquatic animals, many 
 live only in fresh water, and would perish in the salt 
 waters of the ocean ; others exist only in salt water, and 
 could not possibly live several weeks in fresh ; and 
 others, again, are so organized that they can inhabit only 
 brackish waters, such as that found in the estuaries of 
 rivers, like Mobile Bay, or like the waters of the Hudson 
 river opposite to Jersey City and Hoboken, and like the 
 waters of the Mississippi below New Orleans, and near 
 
THE DELUGE UNIVERSAL. 357 
 
 * 
 
 the Balize. A universal deluge must, therefore, have 
 annihilated the whole race of fresh- water animals and 
 moluscs over the entire surface of the globe. 
 
 True, such distinction of fresh and of salt water moluscs 
 and fishes, does exist. But who has tested with suffi- 
 cient accuracy the capability of these fresh-water ani- 
 mals for the endurance of a Salter element, to decide 
 positively that they could not have lived through the pe- 
 riod of the universal overflow ? 
 
 Suppose, however, that all the living tenants of fresh 
 water actually perished, may not the spawn of these 
 several varieties have been floating uninjured in the wa- 
 ters, or have lain protected beneath and around stones 
 and rocks in secluded places, on the newly upheaved 
 lands, which finally settled, where but little current could 
 disturb the precious deposit, that was spread abundantly 
 where the rivers of the new continents would begin gen- 
 tly to flow, and the lakes to embosom themselves ? In 
 this way ample means may have been provided for con- 
 tinuing the races of fresh-water fishes and moluscs, which 
 multiply, as we know, with astonishing rapidity, in ordi- 
 nary circumstances. 
 
 May it not even be true, 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 pres- 
 sure of ocean's waters, from all action of the atmosphere, 
 and from all escape of vital moisture and gas, that vital- 
 ity still exists there — so that when, ages hence, the pres- 
 ent ocean-bed shall be upheaved, it shall bring with it 
 to the sun and air, the seeds of appropriate animal no 
 less than vegetable life, in countless myriads ? And why 
 
358 THE DELUGE UNIVERSAL. 
 
 may it not have been thus with lands upheaved at the 
 deluge ? We know that seeds which had been lying for 
 many centuries entombed with Egyptian mummies, have, 
 with proper care, been found capable of germinating. 
 And it is said that insects, which had for years been in- 
 closed in liquors kept in closely sealed bottles, have, on 
 exposure to air and light, revived to perfect vigor and 
 activity. (Dr. J. P. Smith, p. 116 ; Humboldt's Cosmos, 
 vol. i. p. 345, note.) To one instance of the kind, at 
 least, I can myself testify. The preservation of fresh- 
 water animals does, then, present no serious objection 
 against the universality of the deluge. 
 
 Again. Trees sometimes attain to great longevity; and, 
 by observing the rings, successively formed, each year, 
 beneath the bark, in the growth of the tree, a reasonable 
 certainty as to its age may be attained. Now, in some 
 parts of Africa, and even in Mexico, trees are now stand- 
 ing, which, judged by this test, must, it is asserted, be 
 pronounced three, four, and some even five thousand 
 years old or more. But if this be true, then some of these 
 trees must have been growing one thousand years before 
 the date of Noah's deluge, as ordinarily computed. (Dr. 
 J. P. Smith, p. 117, and Supplement Notel. See also Ly- 
 ell, Princ. p. 405. Humboldt's Aspects of Nature, p. 287.) 
 Such trees could not possibly live, submerged for seve- 
 ral months, under water. Hence, it is confidently main- 
 tained, we have proof that the countries where these trees 
 are growing, could not have been covered by the waters 
 of Noah's deluge. (Aspects of Nature, Humboldt, p. 287.) 
 
 In answer to this objection, I would observe, it is obvious 
 that very great uncertainty must always attend even the 
 
THE DELUGE UNIVERSAL. 859 
 
 most careful attempts to compute the age of extremely 
 old trees, by counting the rings in the wood. 
 
 It is generally admitted that, every time a new set of 
 leaves is produced by a tree, a new ring is formed in the 
 trunk. We know that sometimes, in tropical countries 
 at least, from the effects of drought, or of the ravages of in- 
 sects, trees shed and renew their leaves twice, or even 
 three times, in the course of a single year. In each of 
 such years, two or three rings would be formed in the 
 trunk. 
 
 Besides: for the purpose of ascertaining the age of 
 these majestic trees, the tree is not cut down, it is merely 
 bored, and a plug is extracted. 
 
 The causes of error are, therefore, too numerous, and 
 too palpable, to allow us to rely with confidence on the 
 results of such calculations. 
 
 Four thousand years, at the very least, have elapsed 
 since the flood ; a period long enough, one would sup- 
 pose, to account for the growth of any tree, now on 
 earth, however gigantic ! 
 
 But another^ and afar more serious objection to the univer- 
 sality of the deluge^ is found in the appearance of various vol- 
 canic regions, in different countries : as, e. g. Mount ^tna 
 in Sicily ; also the province of Auvergne in the south 
 of France, and a region in Asia Minor. In the south of 
 France, in a district about forty miles long by twenty 
 broad, are found many cones, craters, and other marks 
 of ancient volcanic action; showing that once there must 
 have stood there, a great number of contiguous burning 
 mountains, some of them nearly equal in size to Vesu- 
 vius. Similar cones and craters are found in Asia Mi- 
 nor. The period when these craters were in action, must 
 
360 THE DELUGE UNIVERSAL. 
 
 far antedate the earliest historic records of those coun- 
 tries : since no notice of volcanoes in action there, nor 
 allusions to them, nor traces of tradition respecting these 
 volcanoes in action^appear in any ancient writings known 
 to us. 
 
 In the country around some of these craters and cones, 
 (which are themselves but vast heaps of cinders and sco- 
 riae, thrown out by the volcano whose mouth they sur- 
 round, just as we now see the cone continually enlarging 
 around the volcanic mouth of Vesuvius,) are still to be 
 seen vast beds of lava, once fluid, but now rock of the 
 hardest kind, that flowed over a surface many miles in 
 extent. In some places, rivers have worn their way 
 through these masses of rock lava, in a channel a hun- 
 dred and more feet deep.* In other places in the same 
 region are to be seen beds of lava alternating with 
 vegetable mould, or with mineral deposits, and with 
 strata containing fossil remains, many of them of extinct 
 species. All which circumstances serve to attest the vast 
 antiquity of this region, and of the volcanoes, once ac- 
 tive, that ejected these beds of lava and scoriae. 
 
 Further ; on the sides of Mount ^tna similar extinct 
 craters, and cinder cones are found, some of them so long 
 extinct, that they have become covered with a thick 
 growth of forest. 
 
 A careful examination of these volcanic districts, these 
 extinct craters, and these cones, by competent observers, 
 shows, it is said, no mark or trace of the action of water. 
 Had the waters of Noah's deluge overflowed the regions 
 
 * For a very interesting account of this volcanic region of Auvergne, 
 see Richardson's Geology for Beginners, pp. 433-438 : and see also The 
 Course of Creation, by Dr. Anderson of Scotland, pp. 280-283. 
 
THE DELUGE UNIVERSAL. 361 
 
 where these cones stand, the cinders of which they are 
 composed being light, like pumice-stone, they must have 
 been washed away, almost entirely. 
 
 Plain it is, then, we are told, these countries were not 
 submerged beneath the waters of the deluge*. That 
 deluge could not, therefore, have been universal : it 
 must have been a mere- local inundation ; confined to 
 those regions in the interior of Asia, over which, alone, 
 the antediluvian race of man had spread. 
 
 The difficulty just stated is, it must be frankly ad- 
 mitted, a grave one. Of all the objections urged against 
 the universality of the Noachian deluge, this drawn from 
 appearances presented in certain volcanic regions, strikes 
 me as by far the most serious. It is very plausible, and 
 on a first view, it seems almost insuperable; because, 
 although for the mere production, and the subsequent 
 disposal of the water; for the safe keeping and suste- 
 nance of all in the ark ; for the subsequent dispersion of 
 man and of the animals, to their appropriate localities 
 over the face of the entire earth, the direct intervention 
 of the Creator may be reasonably appealed to, yet we 
 cannot bring ourselves to suppose that that intervention 
 would have been employed, for preventing the usual 
 effects produced by such a body of water as that of the 
 deluge, being left visible in every region where it had 
 spread ; nor yet for obliterating the marks of its action 
 that would be left after the waters had subsided. 
 
 If these volcanic craters and cones be as old as geolo- 
 gists conjecture, then they must have withstood the 
 washing and surging of the overflowing waters of the 
 deluge, on the popular view of that event ; or else they 
 must have emerged from the sea, as they now are, on the 
 
 16 
 
862 THE DELUGE UNIVERSAL. 
 
 upheaval of the region where they stand, according to 
 the hypothesis I have advanced. The total absence of 
 all traces left by the action of water upon these cinder 
 cones, seems peremptorily to forbid either of these alter- 
 natives. Hence the inference presented in the objection : 
 these volcanic regions could not have been overflowed 
 by the waters of the deluge ; that deluge must, therefore, 
 have been a local inundation only. 
 
 But the plain language of Moses, and all the circum- 
 stances he details, and the uniform representations of 
 that event, and the allusions to it, found in various pas- 
 sages of Scripture, compel us to believe that the deluge 
 was literally universal^ covering the entire surface of our 
 globe, so that these volcanic regions could not have 
 escaped. Whatever be the difficulties attending this 
 view of that event, it is the only view the language of 
 the Bible will authorize. If we cannot trust our inter- 
 pretation of the Mosaic account of the deluge, all certainty 
 of interpretation seems hopeless. 
 
 The deluge was universal. That is certain, if unequiv- 
 ocal language, used by a man inspired of God, can make 
 any position certain. In conformity with that one fioced 
 fact^ all the appearances presented on our planet must, 
 by a Christian philosopher, be interpreted. And happily 
 in this case, formidable though the objections drawn from 
 these volcanic regions appear at first, a little patient at- 
 tention will show, they are not fatal to the truth of the 
 Mosaic doctrine, nor inconsistent with it. 
 
 We may cheerfully concede that the wearing away of 
 hard rock, such as lava, by the action of water alone, is 
 a very slow process ; and that for a river to wear, in such 
 
THE DELUGE UNIVERSAL. 
 
 hard lava rock, a channel " a hundred or more feet de&p^'^ 
 would require a long succession of ages. 
 
 Thus we know that the basaltic rocks, volcanic in their 
 origin, which constitute and surround the Giant's Cause- 
 way, in the north of Ireland, and Fingal's Cave in the 
 isle of Staffa,* near the western coast of Scotland, exhibit 
 but little evidence of wear, after many centuries of expo- 
 sure to the action of the heavy tides, and the furious 
 storms of the Atlantic Ocean. So that, if these deep 
 channels in the lava beds of Auvergne have been worn 
 solely by the ordinary action of water steadily flowing, it 
 may have required, perhaps, many thousands of years 
 longer than can be supposed to have intervened between 
 the days of Noah, and our time. 
 
 But who will undertake to prove that these channels 
 have been worn by the ordinary action of water alone ? 
 Who shall say that the rock itself is not composed of such 
 materials that, though to the observer seemingly homo- 
 geneous, even when tried by all known chemical tests, it 
 is in some places, more yielding to the action of water than 
 in others ? Or who will prove that the mountain tor- 
 rents do not, at times, come charged with such ingredi- 
 ents held in solution, as that, when commingled in one 
 stream, in the river, their chemical action is such as to 
 effect, in the lava rock over which they roll, a solutionf 
 
 * Richardson, p. 238. Course of Creation, p. 166. 
 
 f It was with no ordinary interest that, since the above remarks were 
 written, and were published in the Southern Presbyterian, I found, in 
 Lyell's Principles of Geology, pp. 250 and 251, the following statements 
 in relation to these volcanic rocks in Auvergne, which verify as fact the 
 supposition above given as a theory, for the solution of the difficulty. 
 " Carbonated springs, Auvergne. Carbonic acid gas is very plentifully dis- 
 engaged from springs in almost all countries, but particularly near active or 
 
364 THE DELUGE UNIVERSAL. 
 
 of feet and yards, in one single season, where, under other 
 circumstances, the wear would be hardly perceptible, in 
 half a century ? Are all the agencies of nature known 
 to us? 
 
 A thousand years are a very long period, and in one 
 thousand years, many times may recur those extraordi- 
 
 extirict volcanoes. This elastic fluid has the property of decomposing 
 many of the hardest rocks with which it comes in contact, particularly 
 that numerous class, in whose composition felspar is an ingredient. It 
 renders the oxide of iron soluble in water, and contributes, as was before 
 stated, to the solution of calcareous matter. In volcanic districts, these 
 gaseous emanations arc not confined to springs, but rise up in the state 
 of pure gas, from the soil in various places. Prodigious quantities of 
 this gas are now annually disengaged from every part of the Limagne 
 d'Auvergne, where it appears to have been developed in equal quantity, 
 from time immemorial. 
 
 '• In the environs of Pont Gibaud, not far from Clermont, a rock be- 
 longing to the gneiss formation, in which lead mines are worked, has 
 been found to be quite saturated with carbonic acid gas which is con- 
 stantly disengaged. The carbonates of lime, of iron, and manganese are 
 so dissolved, that the rock is rendered soft, and the quartz alone remains 
 unattacked. Not far off is the small volcanic cone of Chaluzet, which 
 once broke up through the gneiss, and sent forth a lava stream." (Lyell. 
 Princ. Geol. p. 260.) 
 
 The same indefatigable investigator of nature has a paragraph on the 
 very next page, in relation to the granite rock underlying these lava beds 
 in Auvergne. (See Richardson, p. 436.) " Disintegratimi of Granite in 
 Auvergnc : Disintegrating effects of carbonic add. The disintegration 
 of granite is a striking feature of large districts in Auvergne, especially in 
 the neighborhood of Clermont. (N.B. The district which is the site of the 
 volcanic cones, and of the beds of lava, and of granite here spoken of, is 
 called La Limagne t^'At/v^rg-Tic, remarkable for its fertility, as is the case 
 with all soils formed of volcanic detritus. See Richardson's Geology, p. 
 436. Lyell, p. 250.) This decay was called by Dolomieu ' la maladie 
 du granite ;' and the rock may with propriety be said to have the rot, 
 for it crumbles to pieces in the hatid. The phenomenon may, without 
 doubt, be ascribed to the continual disengagement of carbonic acid gas 
 from numerous fissures." (Lyell, Princ. Geol. p. 261.) 
 
THE DELUGE UNIVERSAL. 885 
 
 nary events, such as storms, tornadoes, water- spouts, and 
 other phenomena, the effects of which on the hardest 
 mountain cHffs are great, wide-spread, and absolutely 
 inconceivable to one who has not witnessed them. The 
 writer of this noticed among the highlands of Scotland, 
 the effects of one winter's storms, such as ages of ordi- 
 nary wear could not have produced. Deep gorges were 
 worn in the sides of solid mountains. Again, in passing, 
 in Switzerland, from Lucerne to the Brunig Pass, the 
 effects of a recent tornado and water-spout were seen.* 
 Vast rocks had been hurled from the loftiest mountain 
 
 * The power of mountain torrents in wearing away solid crags and 
 hard rocks, is vividly illustrated among the Andes in South America. 
 See, also, the description given by Darwin, of what he calls " streams of 
 stones," (Voj^age of a Naturalist, vol. i. pp. 253, 255,) the effect of some 
 great convulsion. " I have seen, in the Cordilleras of the Andes, (says 
 Mr. Darwin,) the evident marks where stupendous mountains have been 
 broken into pieces, like so much thin crust, and the strata thrown on 
 their vertical edges, but never did any scene, like these 'streams of stones,^ 
 80 forcibly convey to my mind the idea of a convulsion, of which, in his- 
 torical records, we might in vain seek for any counterpart"' (vol. i. p. 255.) 
 
 "The power of running water to erode the solid rocks, (says Richardson, 
 p. 442, speaking of this very district of Auvergne,) and to produce valleys 
 by their currents, is strikingly exemplified throughout the whole of this 
 remarkable district. It is to be observed that the erosive power of water 
 has been aided by the proneness of the volcanic rocks to decompose ! In some 
 instances beds of lava have been corroded by waters which have worn 
 through a mass of rock one hundred and fifty feet in height, and have 
 formed a channel, even in the granite beneath, since the lava first flowed 
 into the valley. 
 
 " In another spot, a bed of basalt one hundred and sixty feet high has 
 been cut through by a mountain stream," (p. 442.) 
 
 The same writer remarks that "on the Rhine, every castellated sum- 
 mit throughout the entire region, from Bonn to Mayence, are so many 
 piles of volcanic rock, tJie decomposition of which constitutes a rich and 
 luxuriant soil, forming a very hot-bed for the cultivation of the grape." 
 (Id. p. 443.) 
 
366 THE DELUGE UNIVERSAL. 
 
 peaks, and bad been poured in one continuous stream of 
 gigantic fragments, all down the mountain's side, and 
 far over a lovely valley. Centuries of ordinary wear 
 could not have so changed the face of the country. 
 
 But we need not recur to this hypothesis, so probable 
 in itself, and so accordant to the settled irregularity of 
 the course of nature, of occasional convulsions, and ex- 
 traordinary phenomena, that must have occurred in the 
 vast period of four thousand years, that have elapsed 
 since the upheaval of these volcanic regions, to wear, in 
 the lava rock of Auvergne, the deep channels in which 
 the streams of that volcanic region now flow. We can 
 satisfactorily account for all the phenomena now found 
 there, without this supposition. 
 
 We may readilj^ admit the vast antiquity of this whole 
 region, and of the volcanic craters there found. When 
 upheaved from the depths of ocean, in the days of Noah, 
 these lava beds may have been already formed, and the 
 water channels now seen therein, may have been already 
 deeply worn. For, the presence of alternate beds of lava, 
 and of vegetable soil, and the existence there of strata 
 presenting fossil remains of extinct animals, show clearly, 
 this region has, like many others on our globe, been 
 several times upheaved, and again submerged ; and again 
 upheaved. Those now extinct volcanoes, may have been 
 in action in a former period of upheaval, and active, even 
 when submerged, as we know does sometimes happen. 
 We know too that whole regions are upheaved, and sink 
 again, so steadily, that every hill and rock, nay even 
 buildings erected by men, retain their position, both posi- 
 tively and relatively. Thus the temple of Jupiter Serapis 
 on the shores of the bay of Naples, has been twice eleva- 
 
THE DELUGE UNIVERSAL. 367 
 
 ted, and has twice sunk, to the extent of at least twenty 
 feet each time, since the Christian sera, and yet many of 
 the marble columns of the temple which show unmis- 
 takable proofs of this alteration of level, are still standing 
 perfectly upright to the present day, as I can personally 
 testify. (See Eichardson, p. 422.) So also these vol- 
 canic regions, after having bared their lava rocks to the 
 action of the elements and the streams for ages before 
 Adam was, may have sunk beneath the waters, and 
 emerging again steadily in the days of Noah, the same 
 water- worn lava rocks may have presented their well- 
 worn channels, for the passage of the stream again flow- 
 ing in the ancient beds, as their most natural course. 
 
 If on this last emergence of this ancient volcanic region, 
 the old craters again burst forth into action, the long in- 
 terval between the deluge, and the historic age in these 
 regions in the south of Europe, will yield ample time for 
 the formation of the cones of cinders and scoriae now ob- 
 served. Volcanic action having now ceased for many 
 centuries, and no fresh accumulation of cinders and of 
 scoriae taking place, these apparently unsuitable materials 
 are converted into, or they become covered with, a pro- 
 ductive soil in a much shorter time than many geologists 
 seem to suppose, as has been shown more than once, in 
 answer to the objections against the Mosaic aera of the 
 deluge, drawn from the alternate strata of lava and vege- 
 table mould passed through, in the digging of a well in 
 Sicily, as mentioned by the traveller Brydoue. When 
 his observations were first published, it was confidently 
 maintained that two thousand years were requisite to 
 convert hard lava into vegetable mould ; and that as 
 seven of these alternating strata were passed through, the 
 
S68 THE DELUGE UNIVERSAL. 
 
 lowest bed of lava must have there overflowed, at least 
 fourteen thousand years since ; consequently the Mosaic 
 story of a universal deluge four or five thousand years 
 ago, could not be true. But, more extended and careful 
 research has furnished evidence to show, that a few cen- 
 turies will sometimes suflBce to accomplish this change. 
 Even the materials overlying Herculaneum, and the sides 
 of Vesuvius, where lava has so frequently overflowed, 
 and where the freshly reduced volcanic soil is so speedily 
 covered again with vineyards, and houses, aiFord ample 
 evidence of this. The mere fact, on which so much stress 
 has been laid, that many of these old volcanic cones, 
 especially on the sides of Mount -^tna, are now covered 
 with large forest trees, shows indeed that these cones sur- 
 round crater-mouths which have been inactive for a long 
 time, for many centuries probably. But, with all defer- 
 ence to the accomplished Lyell be it said, this fact fur- 
 nishes no shadow of a proof, that these cones have been 
 standing as they now are, since the time of Noah, and 
 before it. 
 
 The four thousand (perhaps we may say, five thou- 
 sand) years or more, that have elapsed since the deluge, 
 comprise a great many centuries, and afford ample time 
 for the accomplishment of changes far more extraordinary, 
 than the extinguishing of all these once active craters, the 
 conversion of the materials of numbers of them into pro- 
 ductive soil, and the clothing of these volcanic cones 
 with a dense forest of huge trees. 
 
 Many a man in these Western States can point to 
 rugged spots, once bare of all vegetation, save only a 
 scanty herbage, but now, shaded by large trees several feet 
 in girth, and all within the memory of the settlers. 
 
THE DELUGE UNIVERSAL. 869 
 
 The hardest rock, when exposed to the elements, speedily 
 shows a coating of vegetation : and when masses of rock 
 are fissured and fractured, vegetation once begun, pro- 
 gresses rapidly. Lichens, mosses, grasses, weeds, and a 
 stunted shrubbery, gradually succeed each other ; and this 
 stage once reached, soil rapidly accumulateif by the depo- 
 sition of vegetable mattpr, and by the disintegration of 
 the rock itself, so that the shrubbery thickens, sapling 
 trees appear here and there, and before many centuries 
 are gone, the once naked fragments of rock wave with a 
 rank vegetation, beneath the shelter of towering forest 
 trees, in countless numbers. 
 
 If hard rock shows this change in a few centuries, how 
 much more readily must it take place upon heaps of cin- 
 ders, porous, friable, easily reduced to powder, and often 
 consisting of vegetable and animal substance but half 
 calcihed. (See Humboldt, Aspects of Nature, pp. 230, 231. 
 Darwin's Voy. of a Nat. vol. ii. pp. 85, 86, 296, 297.) 
 . Monte Nuovo near Naples, was heaved up by volcanic 
 power five hundred feet high in one night, September 
 29th, 1538, only a few centuries ago. It is already 
 clothed, partially at least, with vegetation ; and if nature 
 be there left to take its course, but a few more generations 
 will pass, ere Monte Nuovo, a mere volcanic protrusion, 
 shall be clothed with large trees also. Geologists are too 
 ready to deal in large numbers, and to ascribe an anti- 
 quity of thousands of yeats, where a few centuries would 
 be nearer the truth. Were the date of the upheaval of 
 this new mountain in the bay of Naples, September 29fh, 
 1538,^ not perfectly well known, geologists would not 
 have been wanting, who, before this time, would have 
 » Lyell, p. 348. 
 IC* 
 
370 THE DELUGE UNIVERSAL. 
 
 pronounced Monte Nuovo of vast antiquity, far anteda- 
 ting the a;ra of the flood ! When soberly considered, 
 therefore, the cones on the sides of Mount ^tna, and the 
 lava-beds and the extinct craters and volcanic cones of 
 the south of France, and of Western Asia, present no in- 
 surmountabte objection to the absolute literal universality 
 of Noah's flood. They may all be accounted for in a 
 manner perfectly consistent with that universality. 
 
 Another ohjeclion against the Mosaic narrative of the 
 deluge, has been thus presented : 
 
 The ark, as Moses tells us, (Gen. viii. 4,) grounded on 
 Mount Ararat ; and from that mountain, Noah and the 
 animals emerging from the ark, descended to the plains 
 below. Now, it is said, the summit of Ararat is a lofty 
 granite peak, or a series of peaks, covered with glaciers, 
 and nearly inaccessible to man. If denuded of their icy 
 covering, (as they must have been by the washing t)f the 
 waters for many weeks in continuance,) those granite 
 peaks would present a series of exceedingly high, and 
 nearly perpendicular masses of rock, down which, al- 
 though not without great difficulty and even danger, 
 mem mirjlit have descended, but down which such animals 
 as the ox, the horse, and the elephant could not possibly 
 have moved in safety. 
 
 Hence it is inferred, the story in Genesis cannot be 
 true, if understood literally. 
 
 To this objection the answer is easy. 
 
 If the Mount Ararat mentioned in Genesis, be the same 
 mountain that now bears that name, it does not follow 
 that the very highest summit is intended. Drawn by 
 eddies into a basin of waters, sheltered by a range of the 
 loftier peaks after they were already bared above the 
 
THE DELUGE UNIVERSAL. 371 
 
 waste of waters, the ark might have remained nearly 
 stationary for some time, and finally have grounded on 
 a much less elevated point, whence the descent would be 
 easy. Transfer the case, in idea, to the region of the 
 Alleghanies, or of the White Mountains, and we can 
 easily discern how a vessel might ground upon one of the 
 ridges of such mountains, from which the descent would 
 be unattended with any difficulty. Or suppose such 
 complete inundation in Switzerland that should cover the 
 "very loftiest Alps. A vessel that had been floating on 
 the waters of such inundation, might ground on the sum- 
 mit of the Wengern Alp, where now stands a chalat for 
 the entertainment of travellers. Lying there, it could 
 with perfect truth be said to rest on (he Alps, or on the 
 summit of the Alps, as much as if it had been arrested on 
 the highest pinnacles of the Yung-frau. From this latter, 
 a safe descent would be impossible : from the former it 
 would be entirely practicable. 
 
 One m,ore objection^ and one only, will here be noticed,' 
 archoeohgical in its character, and exciting, at the present 
 moment, general attention in the literary world. 
 
 It is confidently asserted, the deluge could not have been 
 universal, covering the whole earth, because the records and 
 the monuments of several oriental nations show clearly a se- 
 ries of proof s running back, up to, and even far beyond the mra 
 of NoaKs deluge, demonstrating that civilization of a high 
 grade, and also a very dense population existed in Egypt cer- 
 tainly, and probably in China also, at the very time when a 
 deluge in the days of Noah, had it been universal, must have 
 placed Egypt, miles deep, under water ! 
 
 Thus Monsieur Ampere, the accomplished French trav- 
 eller in Egypt, so late as 1848-9, reiterates the assertion, 
 
372 THE DELUGE UNIVEKSAL. 
 
 based on the published discoveries of the Baron Lepsius, 
 that monuments do still exist in Egypt, the dates of 
 which have been identified step by step, through their 
 hieroglyphic inscriptions, back to a period so early as 
 2500 years before Abraham : i, e. upwards of 4300 years 
 before Christ, and therefore several hundreds of years an- 
 tecedent to the date of the creation of Adam, as computed 
 by Usher, B.C. 4004. (See Revue des Deux Mondes, Dec. 
 1847, p. 1035.) Iden. No. III. Les Pyramides p. 637. 
 
 In the early Chinese history, also, dates are found of 
 extreme antiquity, as far back, even among the less ex- 
 travfigant of their annals, as B.C. 2300, and B.C. 2637, and 
 to B.C. 3400. (See in this work the Lecture on Creation 
 in Six Days.) 
 
 Without here entering minutely into the great ques- 
 tion of scriptural chronology, which is reserved for future 
 discussion, it may be remarked that no judicious writer 
 now ventures to regard as authoritative, any of the an- 
 nals of the East, whether Chinese, Hindoo, or Chaldiean, 
 that extend beyond about the twelfth or thirteenth cen- 
 tury before Christ. The Chinese historians give an ac- 
 count of reigns, of dynasties, and of. remarkable events, 
 up to a fj^bulous antiquity, and that also with great mi- 
 nuteness. But we know that Confucius, about B.C. 500, 
 gave these works to his countrymen : professing, indeed, 
 to have compiled them from authentic ancient archives: 
 but of the genuineness, nay even of the existence of these 
 ancient documents, no evidence is before the public. Nor 
 is there, in India or in China either, moniimoital evidence 
 existing, to sustain this claim to high antiquity ! (See 
 Bunsen, Egypt's Place, &c., vol. i. pp. 241, 242. See Lep- 
 sius, Chronologie der Egypter, vol. i. pp. 3-8. See Cos- 
 
THE DELUGE UNIVERSAL. 373 
 
 mos, vol. i. pp. 114, 115, and note. Ideler, Handbuch 
 der Chronologie, vol. i. pp. 93-231.) 
 
 In Egypt the case is different. Monuments do there 
 exist in great numbers, and of extreme antiquity, un- 
 doubtedly. The vast Pyramids, it is asserted with great 
 confidence, by those deemed competent to judge in the 
 case, were erected before the time of Abraham. If this 
 could be proved, then certainly the interval between 
 Abraham and Noah must have been much longer than 
 we have been accustomed to suppose : for, on the com' 
 mon computation, there was not sufficient time for the 
 multiplication of mankind, the growth of distinct nations, 
 and the advance of the Egyptians in numbers, wealth, 
 civilization, and skill in the fine arts, to a degree such as 
 must have been indispensable in a people who could build 
 the pyramids of Gizeh ! 
 
 To settle the chronology of the flood, is the only diffi- 
 culty in the case : for, certain it is, that the pyramids 
 could not have withstood the surging waters of the del- 
 uge. Much less could the temples and the vast halls of 
 the royal palaces, or the chambers of their excavated 
 tombs, covered with hieroglyphic inscriptions, and with 
 paintings, presenting the most delicate lines and the 
 richest tints of coloring have remained as they still are, 
 in all their freshness, brilliant as if executed but yesterday, 
 had the waters of Noah's deluge rolled over the valley 
 of the Nile since these wonderful works were executed. 
 
 So near as Egypt is to what we must suppose to have 
 been the the primitive seat of man's abode, even a par- 
 tial deluge arising from the subsidence of that primitive 
 land, must have sent a vast wave of waters sweeping 
 temporarily over Egypt, that would have been fatal to 
 
374 THE DELUGE UNIVERSAL. 
 
 the whole series of monumental paintings and inscriptions. 
 (Lyell, Princ. 342 ; Darwin's Voy. ii. p. 133.) The prob- 
 ability is great, that somewhere, as yet not fully de- 
 tected, lies an error, either in the mode of interpreting 
 the hieroglyphic records in Egypt, or in the method of 
 computing the several reigns and dynasties of its mon- 
 archs. 
 
 Already several errors are detected in the interpreta- 
 tion given to some of the hieroglyphics, by men of high 
 renown. Moreover, it is well known that on very many 
 of the monuments themselves, the names now standing 
 have been executed over previous inscriptions, effaced 
 for the purpose of making room for them. Who shall 
 say how far these alterations have been made, where now 
 detection is difficult ? And who can fail to perceive how 
 the fact of these substitutions tends to throw discredit on 
 the whole series of monumental inscriptions, and to involve 
 their historical value in uncertainty? Once ascertained, 
 as it now is beyond dispute, that the Pharaohs allowed 
 themselves thus, from a petty vanity, to tamper with and 
 to alter the noblest monuments* of their predecessors, 
 the very records of the nation, what guarantee can we 
 find for the genuineness of even those tables of royal 
 names, those lists of dynasties, or those chronological 
 marks upon which our mq^ern Egyptologists found their 
 most plausible arguments for the vast antiquity of the 
 Pharaonic empire ? 
 
 Besides, there is, in the very nature of things, an in- 
 herent improbability in this claim to antiquity for Egypt. 
 
 * This has been done at Medinet Habou, (see Revne des Deux Mondes, 
 Dec. 1847, p. 1028,) at Luxor, (id. p. 1010,) and in many other places. 
 (Id. Jan. 1849, p. 93.) 
 
THE DELUGE UNIVERSAL. 375 
 
 It would present an anomaly among nations. One 
 solitary nation, existing for thousands of years, with the 
 most stupendous works of art ever wrought by the skill 
 and industry of man, (works which to this day have never 
 been surpassed,) scattered profusely over their whole 
 territory, white all the rest of the world, without excep- 
 tion, was occupied by scattered tribes of barbarians, to- 
 tally uncivilized ! It is utterly incredible. 
 
 A radical error in 4he Egyptian chronology, as pre- 
 sented to the public in all the splendid works on Egypt 
 that are now bursting on the astonished world, has 
 from the first been suspected. Somewhere this error 
 must be, and I hope yet to see the day when the source 
 of that error shall be detected, exposed, and acknowl- 
 edged. 
 
 Happy am I to be able to add, that the means of doing 
 this seem to be now brought within our reach, chiefly 
 through the skilful and laborious researches of Mr. R. 
 S. Poole, a gentleman of talents and learning, who was 
 brought up on the banks of the Nile, who has spent many 
 years in the study of the monuments, and who has ad- 
 duced proofs from the monuments themselves that sev- 
 eral of the dynasties were really contemporaneous, just 
 as the learned have for ages past supposed would prove 
 to be the case. Mr. Poole has discovered on the monu- 
 ments a variety of astronomical signs and records, the in- 
 terpretation of which he has ascertained, — and his calcu- 
 lations based on those astronomical records confirm the 
 conclusions he deduces from other sources, — all going to 
 show, that the whole of Egyptian chronology, when un- 
 derstood and reduced to order, is entirely consistent with 
 the chronology of the Bible. 
 
376 THE DELUGE UNIVERSAL. ' 
 
 As an instance. On several monuments Mr. Poole 
 found, under the well-known names of some of the old 
 Pharaohs, records of this kind : " On such a day, of such 
 
 a month, in such a year of the reign of King , son 
 
 of the Sun, beloved of Amoun, lord of the two worlds, 
 &c., such a star being in such a position in the heavens, 
 (here all the points are distinctly laid down,) happened 
 such an event, a great assembly, &c. &c."* 
 
 Now the time when the star thus named occupied the 
 position thus designated, is easily calculated : and the 
 result of all these several dates, when fixed by calcula- 
 tion, falls in with, and is corroborated by, the evidence 
 adduced, in various ways, from a great number of the 
 monuments. But, in order to remove all grounds of 
 doubt, Mr. Poole submitted the data collected from the 
 monuments, and on which he had founded his calcula- 
 tions, to Mr. Airy, the Astronomer Eoyal at Greenwich, 
 England. By him the calculations were made anew, 
 and subsequently revised again and again, with great 
 care, and they were found to agree, within a few minutes, 
 with the result of Mr. Poole's original calculations.! 
 
 But so complete and satisfactory is the train of evidence 
 adduced byMr.Poole,thatSirJ. G.Wilkinson, one of the 
 most learned of living men in all that relates to Egyp- 
 tian archa)ology, has openly published his entire con- 
 currence in the views of Mr. Poole on Egyptian chronol- 
 
 * See Poole's Horae Egyptj^cao, p. 73 ; al|>o hia Preface, p. 8 ; his In- 
 troduction, p. 22 ; and ChampoUion's Monuraens, plate 116. 
 
 t See Poole's HorsD, Preface, p. 8 ; Introduction, p. 22 ; Egyptiacae, 
 p. 73 ; and ChampoUion's Monumens, plate 11. The accuracy of these 
 results will probably be called in question by Mr. Gliddon, and those 
 who arc already strongly committed in the support of the high antiquity 
 advocated by Lepsius and Bunsen, 
 
THE DELUGE UNIVERSAL. 377 
 
 ogy, and his conviction of the satisfactory character of 
 the evidence that gentleman has drawn from the monu- 
 ments. (See his Architecture of Egypt.) 
 
 That question may now be regarded as virtually set- 
 tled. Egypt^ with all her splendid monuments^ is found a 
 witness to the truth of the Bible, and to the correctness of the 
 Mosaic chronology. 
 
 After a thorough and patient examination of the whole 
 subject, in all its most important bearings, we find no 
 reason from anything advanced, either on the ground 
 of alleged absurdities in the narrative itself, nor yet in 
 difficulties raised on scientific grounds, nor yet from the 
 claims advanced by certain oriental nations to an an- 
 tiquity inconsistent with the universality, if not also with 
 the very fact, of a deluge in the days of ISToah, to doubt 
 the perfect truth of the Mosaic record on that point, and 
 its accuracy in every particular.^ This venerable record 
 teaches us that the deluge was literally universal, cover- 
 ing the entire surface of the globe, so far, at least, as ani- 
 mal life had then spread. 
 
 This fearful catastrophe was produced, as I cannot but 
 suppose, by an elevation of the bed of the antediluvian 
 oceans, which elevated beds constitute what is now land 
 on our globe, and by the simultaneous sinkingf of the 
 primeval continents, which then became, and still con- 
 
 * The learned Adrien Balbo says : " No monument, either historical 
 or astronomical, has yet been able to prove the books of Moses false ; 
 but with them, on the contrary, agree, in the most remarkable manner, 
 the results obtained by the most learned philologues, and the profound- 
 est geometricians." (Atlas Ethnographique du Globe. Mappemonde, 
 Eth. 1.) 
 
 t On the subsidence of continents, see Darwin's Voyage of a Natural- 
 ist, vol. ii. pp. 262, 263. . . 
 
 'TiiriTBiisiTr 
 
878 THE DELUGE UNIVERSAL. 
 
 tinue to be, the bed of the sea. Hence it is that no re- 
 mains of antediluvian man, or of his works, have yet 
 been discovered among geological strata. 
 
 The argument adduced to show, that man was not a 
 denizen of the earth in the period when the older strata 
 were deposited, because no remains of man or of his 
 works are found among the fossils of those strata, is 
 equally in point to show that the present continents could 
 not have been the seat of man's abode, when, in Noah's 
 day, the deluge covered the whole earth. 
 
 " Our bones," says an eloquent writer, (Richardson, 
 pp. 90, 91,) " composed of the same materials as those 
 of the animal tribes, are equally capable of being kept 
 from destruction. The same battle-field has preserved 
 the remains of the horse and his rider." 
 
 But had the present lands been the seat of man's abode 
 when the deluge swept over the globe, "his skeleton, 
 or the mere fragments of his osseous structure, would 
 have constituted the least of those relics which he would 
 have bequeathed to the soil of which he was an inhabi- 
 tant. We should have discovered his mighty and majes- 
 tic 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 the del- 
 uge ; his majestic pyramids sunk in the bed of ancient 
 rivers ; his mountain temples hewn in the solid rock ;" 
 his bridges of stone, or the tombs he had erected over 
 his loved ones. We should have found (for even a cen- 
 tury ago Bishop Berkeley expressed a similar thought) 
 " his weapons of war, his implements of agriculture, his 
 coins, his medals, his cameos, intaglios, and vases." 
 
 The fact, therefore, that nothing of all this has been 
 
THE DELUGE UNIVERSAL. 879 
 
 found in the vast multitude of aqueous deposits brought 
 to light, seems to show conclusively, we tread not the 
 soil trodden by antediluvian man ; that soil lies now, in 
 all probability, deeply submerged beneath the rolling bil- 
 lows of the ocean ! 
 
 It may^ however, yet happen, and that, too, possibly 
 at no very distant day, that a renewed alteration in the 
 relative position of land and sea, even to a limited extent, 
 shall heave up the site of antediluvian cities ; or, volcanic 
 throes may yet protrude some battlefield of Nimrod; 
 force up to the light some vast idol-temple of tjie wicked 
 ^'' sons ofmen^'' some cemetery of the ^''giants that were on 
 t/ie earth in those days^^^ and present to the amazed geolo- 
 gist of the future, the warrior clad in mail, the priest in 
 his sacerdotal garb, censer in hand, the huge skeleton of 
 some antediluvian chieftain-giant, in his rocky sarcopha- 
 gus, covered with mysterious inscriptions, with the jew- 
 elled tiara yet encircling his skull, and the gem-studded 
 breast-plate still overlying the arched ribs, proclaiming 
 the mighty man, one of those " which were ofold^ men of 
 renown, (Gen. vi. 4.) Or these future upheavals may yet 
 lay bare to the gaze of the indefatigable votaries of sci- 
 ence amon^ the sons of our sons' sons, the virgin in her 
 bridal attire, the shepherd surrounded by his flocks, the 
 mother still clasping her fossil babe, thg husbandman, 
 plough in hand behind his oxen, just as they were im- 
 bedded in the mass of mountain fragments, swept over 
 their sinking lands by the advancing ocean-floods, when 
 the ^''fountains of the great deep were broken up;" a whole gal- 
 lery of antediluvian human fossils, deriionstrating to the 
 most skeptical among the scientific of future ages, the 
 truth of the wonderful old record : " Every living sub- 
 
380 THE DELUGE UNIVERSAL. 
 
 stance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground^ 
 both man and cattle^ and the creeping Oiings^ and the fowls of 
 the heavens; and they were destroyed from the earOi ; and 
 Noah only was left alive^ and they that were with him in (he 
 arhr Amen. 
 
 By the same mail which brought for correction the proof-sheets of the 
 Lectures on the Deluge, came also the April number of the Theological 
 and Literary Journal, containing a very able and ingenious paper by the 
 editor of the Journal, David N. Lord, on the Age of the Earth. That 
 article the a^ithor of these pages has twice read with great care and with 
 deep interestT The editor takes bold ground, and he sustains it with 
 great ingenuity. He recognizes unhesitatingly the great facts presented 
 in geological science, but shows clearly that the doctrines thereon found- 
 ed by geologists are not denianstraicd Irutks, but merely and simply infer- 
 ences, based in reality on an unwarranted assumption, employed in their 
 mode of reasoning. "Whatever the probability of the deductions drawn 
 from geological facts, they cannot, the editor contends, be counted as 
 ascertained truths, before which the teachings of Moses must give way. 
 This point the editor presents in a strong light. 
 
 To all his positions the writer of these pages cannot subscribe : in the 
 interpretation of the several stages in the six days' creation, as laid down 
 by the editor, he cannot fully agree. These, however, are minor points. 
 The article in question fairly shows that however a knowledge of the 
 fads of geology may modify our views of the import of the Mosaic record 
 in some particulars, the teachers of geologic science have t^ demonstrated 
 system of cosmogony which can, by the remotest possibility, compete in 
 value with the teachings of Moses. 
 
 There is a noble passage in that article (see pages 543, 644) illustrative 
 of the position laid down, p. 544, " The whole Bible, as a revelation, stands 
 or Jails vrith the first chapter of Genesis" That passage will be found in 
 the appendix to this work. 
 
LECTUKE XI. 
 
 DEATH AMONG THE WORKS OF GOD— ITS ORIGIN AND 
 ITS EXTENT. 
 
 Gen. iii. 19, — " Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return." 
 
 The deed was done, tlie sin was wrought, the fall of 
 man, in the first human pair, was accomplished. Adam, 
 our common progenitor, had trampled under foot his 
 Maker's command ; he had plucked and eaten of the for- 
 bidden fruit, and by that one act, he involved his entire 
 posterity in moral degradation and ruin, and placed them 
 in imminent peril : for, this fatal act it was, that " brought 
 death into the world and all our woP^ 
 
 The favor of heaven was now lost, and ere long, the 
 voice of God himself pronounced the doom : " Dust thou 
 art^ and unto dust shalt thou return^ 
 
 The origin and extent of death among the works of God on 
 eojrth^ may, then, well claim our attention. 
 
 The origin of death ^ is, in the Bible, distinctly and re- 
 peatedly ascribed to the sin of man. " By one man, sin en- 
 tered into the ivorld^ and death by sin^^^ (Rom. v. 12 ;) " The 
 wages of sin is death,^^ (Rom. vi. 23.) 
 
 Whatever might have been included in the original 
 commination uttered to deter Adam from transgression, 
 ^^ In the day tliou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die,^^ certain 
 
382 DEATH AMONG THE WORKS OF GOD. 
 
 it is that, the act of transgression being accomplished, 
 there was pronounced on sinning man, the doom which 
 constitutes the theme of this discourse : " Dust thou art^ 
 and unto dust shalt thou return /" 
 
 It is, then, clearly the doctrine of the Bible, that to 
 maji, death is tlie fruit of sin I 
 
 Had man remained sinless, he would not only have 
 continued to maintain uninterrupted communion with 
 the pure Spirit, his glorious Creator, but his very body 
 would have been exempt from decay and death. 
 
 What special arrangement would have been needed to 
 secure this end, we cannot pretend to decide : but that 
 so it would have been, is beyond question. 
 
 All things necessary to secure such results, could and 
 would have been provided by the Almighty Creator: and 
 probably, after a suitable period passed by each individ- 
 ual of the race, in probation on earth, each one, without 
 death, (and, in a mode somewhat analogous to that su- 
 pernatural transformation which, as the apostle tells us, 
 will hereafter, at the sound of the last trumpet, be effected 
 in the twinkling of an eye, on the bodies of Christ's be- 
 lieving people who may be living when He comes to 
 judgment, (see 1 Cor. xv. 52,) would have been prepared 
 for removal to a higher state of existence, and to larger 
 enjoyments, in another and a brighter world. We must 
 suppose such probationary term, and subsequent removal 
 to another world, or another scene of action, because, else, 
 the natural increase of th^ human family would, in time, 
 have filled the earth to overflowing; sustenance must 
 then have failed ; and hence there would seem to have 
 arisen a necessity for death, where, by the very terms of 
 the supposition, death were impossible. 
 
DEATH AMONG THE WORKS OF GOD. 883 
 
 But, all speculation as to what might have been the 
 condition of man, had he not sinned, is now fruitless. 
 Sin he did, and on him fell the curse, one of whose re- 
 sults is, the cessation of his animal life, and the return of 
 his body to its original constituent elements. Dust thou 
 art^ and unto dust shalt thou return. 
 
 This sentence of mortality to man, we see continually 
 carried into execution. Every day we live, the spectacle 
 is presented, of death entering the abodes of men, and 
 selecting his victims from among the rich and the poor, 
 the young and the old, the bond and the free. 
 
 The active and the vigorous, sometimes suddenly fall 
 before the destroyer: and sometimes, insidious disease 
 slowly, unsuspected, yet certainly, saps the strength, 
 wastes the energies, and ends the life that ha'd given 
 promise of long and happy duration. One day, the old 
 man, full of years, calmly sinks to his long rest : another, 
 the little infant, after a few days of precarious life, or 
 after a few months of bright promise, sickens, droops, 
 and dies ! Another day, the meridian of life is suddenly 
 overcast, and the sun of existence sets at noonday. Nor 
 varied possessions, nor weighty business, nor the pressing 
 claims of a rising family, can delay the hour, nor avert 
 the blow. It hus been seen, too, that the young bride in 
 her loveliness, grows suddenly pale, amid her bright 
 smiles, and sinks, in the very arms of her enamored hus- 
 band, who finds, to his dismay, that what he had loved 
 so fondly, was but a lump of breathing clay. At another 
 time we see the mother, gazing with speechless agony on 
 the surrounding group of her little ones, for she knows 
 that she must leave them to the care of others ; she feels 
 that she is dying ; and her fast dimming eyes, strain in 
 
^ 
 
 ■*.' 
 
 884 DEATH AMONG THE WORKS OF GOD. 
 
 their lingering. gaze, at the loved ones, dearer to her than 
 life ! Oh I how deep, how far-reaching, and how varied 
 are the influences flowing from that one dread sentence, 
 " Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return /" 
 
 The young man, who has nobly struggled with a thou- 
 sand difficulties, to fit himself for action in life, to store 
 his mind with knowledge, and to discipline and train his 
 powers for the hard contest with competitors for honor, 
 and usefulness, and distinction, and who was just begin- 
 ning to feel his task almost done, and to gain confidence 
 in his resources, and in his ability to use them with ef- 
 fect, finds, alas ! that the task of preparation for life^ has 
 exhausted the very energies of his life, and has planted 
 deep within his breast, the seeds of early death : and 
 now, the burning thirst, and the hacking cough, and the 
 hectic glow, and the wasting flesh, and the exhausting 
 night-sweats, forbid the hope of honor, of distinction, of 
 wealth, and of his promised bride, and of the calm joys of 
 domestic life, and bid him prepare to lie down in the grave^ 
 and make his bed with worms; for all, remind him, 
 " Dust thou artj and unto dust shalt thou return /" 
 
 It is an affecting thought for each of us to contemplate, 
 — go where we may, do what we may, and struggle and toil 
 and labor as we may, we are moving ever onwards to the 
 grave. To us the hour may be near, or it may be distant, 
 but its approach is constant, its coming certain and inev- 
 itable I Like the crew of a foundering ship in mid-ocean, 
 swept from her decks by the surging bijlows : some strug- 
 gle a longer, some a shorter time upon the surface, but 
 all, eventually, sink in the deep. 
 
 •But, if this arrangement of God's providence has its 
 dark side, in the disappointment of hopes, the blasting 
 
DEATH AMONG THE WORKS OF GOD. 385 
 
 of bright prospects, in the pains and sorrows of a sick- 
 bed, and in the deep anxieties attending the prospect of 
 leaving, and leaving, perhaps, unprovided for, those who 
 are unutterably dear to us, it has also its redeeming in- 
 fluences. 
 
 If the hour of death is uncertain, and if its blow falls 
 often suddenly as well as unexpectedly, this fact is known, 
 and it peals its impressive warning to all and to each, 
 Be ready to meet the summojis. 
 
 God might have planted an instinct in man's bosom 
 like that in many species of animals, which enables them 
 to discern the tokens of coming death, and leads them to 
 retire, and hide away in some obscure retreat, there to 
 die unseen and unnoticed."^ Instead of that, God has 
 made death, and its preliminaries in man, the means of 
 calling into action some of the deepest and tenderest 
 sympathies of our nature. The tokens of declining 
 health awaken these sympathies in the breasts of friends, 
 and kindred, and the result is, that the kind services and 
 loving attentions of those around the sufferer, often 
 soothe the agonies of dissolution, cheer the approach to 
 the grave, and almost strip death itself of its terrors: 
 while, to those sympathizing friends themselves, the emo- 
 tions thus awakened, and the reflections thereby aroused, 
 are always salutary, and sometimes they prove big with 
 blessings which eternity alone can estimate. By such 
 means, many a one has been led to profound reflection 
 and to true piety. Moreover, on the aspect of society^ this 
 arrangement produces a decided effect. By the opera- 
 
 * See ]\Ir. Darwin's account of the curious habits of the guanaco or 
 wild llama of Patagonia. (Voyage of a Naturalist, vol. i. pp. 212, 213.) 
 
 17 
 

 386 DEATH AMONG THE WORKS OF GOD. 
 
 tion of this law of mortality, society is constantly chang- 
 ing, and constantly becoming renewed. 
 
 Instead of one unvarying mass of individuals, to whom 
 every object has been long familiar, and with whom 
 every enjoyment has long since waned, and almost ex- 
 pired, society is now receiving constant accessions of 
 young life, and of vigorous capacity for happiness, such 
 as the world has to furnish. Human society is thus, ever 
 youthful, ever joyous. 
 
 Nor can it be doubted that, so far as mere animal en- 
 joyment is concerned, the operation of this law of death, 
 making room for constant accessions of young life, occa- 
 sions a far greater amount of enjoyment in the world, 
 than there could be, were death not busy. 
 
 And yet all this death is the fruit of sin. It was sin 
 that called forth the declaration, ^^ Dust tJwu art, and unto 
 ditst shalt ihxm return^ 
 
 Another illustration this, of the grand truth, that the 
 all-embracing benevolence of God hrings good out of evil. 
 But there is another point that here demands attention, 
 viz., the extent to ivhich this doom applies. 
 
 All men, the entire human family without exception, 
 are subjected to this doom, of death, and a return of dust 
 to dust, as the fruit of sin : those without revelation, as 
 well as those having it. Infants no less than adults, die. 
 They are, from the first breath of life drawn, members 
 of the family of man, and as such, they die. This is the 
 fruit of the first sin of Adam, irrespective of personal 
 guilt. Facts prove this; for little infants, that never 
 sinned, do yet die. Death does still reign ove)' them that 
 have not sinned, after the similitude of Adam's transgression. 
 
 But further still, death reigns over the brutes, and over the 
 
DEATH AMONG THE WORKS OF GOD. 387 
 
 whole of the irrational animal creation : and the inquiry 
 forces itself upon us, Is this death^ in the irrational animal 
 kingdom^ the result also of AdarrHs sin? 
 
 Not many years since, and few divines could have 
 been found, who would not have answered, unhesita- 
 tingly, in the affirmative ! And, in proof of their opinion, 
 they would have quoted such passages of Scripture, as 
 these, ''^ By man came death J"* ''''By one man sin entered 
 into the world^ and death by sin ;" and again, '' The creature 
 was made subject to vanity, not willingly, (i. e. not of them- 
 selves,) but by reason of him that hath subjected the sameJ'^ 
 (Rom. viii.) Now is this really so ? Does death prevail 
 among irrational animals, as well as among men, only 
 because Adam sinned ? Let us examine this point. 
 
 If such is indeed the case, then, before Adam fell, death 
 must have been unknown, and if so, then lions, tigers, 
 and all other carnivorous animals must have lived on 
 other food, not on flesh. 
 
 But no other materials does our globe furnish, that 
 could serve as food to the brute creation, without de- 
 struction to animal life. The grass that springs thickly 
 on the soil,, the foliage that adorns the trees of the forest 
 — aye, every drop of water with which the panting hart 
 quenches her thirst — teems with living occupants ; so that 
 neither can vegetable food be taken, nor the pure water 
 be quaffed from the broad river, or at the mountain 
 streamlet, without the death of myriads of living crea- 
 tures at every meal, and at every draught. The ox 
 grazing in the meadows, the timid sheep nibbling the 
 short, sweet herbage clothing the hill-side, the wild cha- 
 mois cropping the stunted shrubs that cling to the loftiest 
 summits of the mountain crags, the bright songsters of 
 
888 DEATH AMONG THE WORKS OF GOD. 
 
 the grove slaking their thirst from the morning dew, yea 
 the very humming-bird, sipping the nectar treasured in 
 the fragrant flower-cup — all, in their simplest meal, and 
 in their purest draught, inflict a thousand death-pangs, 
 where the tiger, for his bloodiest meal, destroys one 
 life! 
 
 Constituted as things now are, millions of deaths must 
 occur upon this globe, every day and every hour, even 
 were every animal now carnivorous, confined to vegetable 
 food exclusively. 
 
 But further still : the anatomical structure of each animal 
 detei'mines the nature of its food^ and the habits of its life. 
 In vegetable-eating animals the stomach must be adapted 
 to receive and to digest vegetable substances. The length 
 of the neck, the size and position of the muscles of the 
 neck, the chest, and the legs, must be adapted to grazing 
 on the ground, browsing among the bushes, or reaching 
 up among the tender twigs of the loftiest shrubbery and 
 trees. The form of the mouth, the lips, the tongue, 
 must be adapted to lay hold of and to crop ; and the 
 structure of the teeth must be such as to furnish the 
 means of duly masticating this herbage or mass of twigs, 
 to prepare it for reception in the stomach and digestion 
 there. Such structure will answer for a vegetable-eating 
 animal, and for none other. 
 
 A carnivorous animal must have a stomach adapted to 
 digest fresh flesh. It must have claws to seize, a sight 
 quick to detect, instincts inciting it to pursue, or to sur- 
 prise by stealth, its living prey. Moreover, the muscles 
 of the jaw, the head, the neck, the chest, must be such 
 as to give strength and agility for the pursuit, the cap- 
 ture, the slaying, and rending of the victim-prey : whilst 
 
DEATH AMONG THE WORKS OF GOD. 389 
 
 the teeth must be adapted to tear and to masticate the 
 flesh, and often the bones, too, of its victim, for subse- 
 quent digestion in the stomach. 
 
 A carnivorous animal could not live on herbage, nor 
 an herbivorous animal on flesh. Some few animals (e. g, 
 man) are omnivorous, and can live on vegetable or on 
 an animal diet, although designed (as the structure of 
 the teeth proves) to subsist on food consisting of a mix- 
 ture of both. Occasionally, it is true, some carnivorous 
 animals have, by artificial means, been brought to sub- 
 sist, for a time, on vegetable food only. But these ex- 
 ceptions, few in number and unnatural in their nature, 
 invalidate not the rule. Beasts and birds of prey could 
 not subsist, even for a few days, without feeding on the 
 bodies of fresh-slain animals. 
 
 Are we, then, to suppose, that before Adam sinned, 
 lions, tigers, eagles, and vultures fed, like oxen, sheep, 
 and sparrows, on herbage, fruits, and seeds? It is ut- 
 terly incredible — it was not possible ! Was, then, their 
 anatomical structure different before man fell ? Where is 
 the evidence of it ? Of any such alteration in the struc- 
 ture and in the animal functions of the brute creation, 
 consequent on the fall, as this supposition implies, there 
 is not a particle of evidence, nor, indeed, the slightest 
 probability. 
 
 Were such change of structure in the brute creation 
 admitted, transforming into carnivorous the birds, and 
 beasts, and reptiles, and fishes that are now such, although 
 their previous and original organization was that of her- 
 bivorous animals, it would be equivalent to maintaining 
 that creation was not completed, when God pronounced 
 it all very good. For, in that case, the sin of Adam was 
 
BOO DEATH AMONG THE WORKS OF GOD. 
 
 needed to render the animal creation complete, on a plan 
 that should endure : and till that sin was committed, a 
 great number of creatures, of peculiar organization, 
 which now constitute a large proportion of the animal 
 creation, were not produced, and they could not be pro- 
 duced with their proper organization perfected, until man 
 had sinned. The very idea is absurd ! 
 
 Moreover, the end aimed at, in such a supposition, viz., 
 the deferring of death among God's creatures, until it 
 should be brought in as the consequence of Adam's sin, 
 could not by it be gained ; because every meal made, by 
 the ox in the meadow, and by the birds among the fruits, 
 must necessarily entail death on myriads of insects and 
 animalcula) ; unless you suppose Adam to have sinned, 
 and the penalty of death to have been pronounced and 
 inflicted as its consequence, instantaneously after man was 
 created ; and before either man, or any other living crea- 
 ture, had had time to take, or had felt the need of taking, 
 any nourishment by food. But this supposition is hardly 
 less absurd than the former. It implies, moreover, this 
 further absurdity, that whole classes of animals, made to 
 live on animal food, and on none other, must wait for 
 their first meal, till man had sinned. And yet, man was 
 forbidden to sin, under the heaviest conceivable penalty. 
 If man did not sin, the brute creation could not eat : but 
 without food they could not live ; neither could they die, 
 for no death could enter this world, until Adam had dis- 
 obeyed his Maker's command, and sinned. To such ab- 
 surdities are we driven by interpreting literally, and as 
 of universal application, the doctrine that death could 
 not enter this world, but as a part of the penalty of 
 Adam's sin, and that no death took place, even in the 
 
DEATH AMONG THE WOKKS OF GOD. 391 
 
 inferior animal creation, until after the fall of Adam by 
 sin * 
 
 But, we have not only cogent reasoning^ we have also the 
 incontrovertible evidence of facts to show that death did take 
 'place on this earth not only before Adam sinned^ but countless 
 ages, also, before man was created, and before this globe 
 was fitted to receive man as its occupant. 
 
 It is well known to all, that, among all competent 
 judges, the doctrine is now universally admitted as true, 
 that the material substance of our globe was brought 
 into existence in the beginning^ which beginning may have 
 been countless ages before the earth exhibited that ap- 
 pearance of a chaotic mass, over which the Spirit of God 
 brooded, reducing it to order and beauty for the recep- 
 tion of man, then about to be created : that during this 
 immense interval the surface of our earth was subjected 
 to many and great changes : that it was successively oc- 
 cupied by many different systems of animal and vegeta- 
 ble races, that were made to live on its surface, and were 
 successively destroyed by great convulsions of the crust 
 of the earth ; such as, the submersion of lands, the up- 
 heaval of beds of seas, again and again : by which means, 
 the remains of those former animal tribes, and vegetable 
 races, were imbedded in the soil, and became frequently 
 indurated in the solid rock, lying now in successive strata, 
 or layers, one above another. In many countries, other 
 and later convulsions of nature have upheaved these 
 
 * Dr. Hitchcock has well observed, " It would require an entirely 
 different system in nature from the present, in order to exclude death 
 from the world. To the existing system death is as essential as gravita- 
 tion, and apparently just as much a law of nature." (Relig. of Geol. pp. 
 77, 78.) 
 
392 DEATH AMONG THE WORKS OF GOD. 
 
 several layers of rock, that inclose in their very siib- 
 stance the distinct forms, the actual remains of these 
 several successive races of animals and plants ; quadru- 
 peds, reptiles, fishes, birds, insects, flowers, ferns and 
 trees, seeds and fruits. Such, moreover, are the circum- 
 stances of the case, that we can, by evidence perfectly 
 conclusive, not only ascertain that these several races 
 rvere successive, one race existing after the other had 
 ceased to exist ; but we can also determine, with abso- 
 lute precision, the very order of succession, and conse- 
 quently, the relative age of these several successive races 
 of now extinct animals and plants. 
 
 In some of these rocky strata, which present the remains 
 of animals that lived and perished, unquestionably, many 
 ages before man was created on earth, have been found 
 the skeletons of gigantic animals, formed somewhat like 
 lizards ; and under the ribs of these monstrous reptiles, 
 their stomachs are still found, and found yet containing 
 the more solid relics of the food on which they had 
 lived : and among these relics of food, are the bones and 
 the scales of fishes ; and these relics show, in some in- 
 stances, marks left by the action of the teeth of the reptile 
 that had devoured them. Here, then, the existence of 
 these skeletons^ and of other animal remains innumerable, 
 is itself proof, that death was busy at his appropriate 
 work, on the occupants of this earth, long before man 
 sinned, or had a being. These relics also, and the cir- 
 cumstances in which they are found, show further, that 
 long, long ere the fall of Adam, animals roaming o'er this 
 earth, obtained their food by preying upon and devour- 
 ing one another ! Untold thousands of years before the 
 adjustment of this earth for the human race, may that 
 
DEATH AMONG THE WORKS OF GOD. 393 
 
 gigantic Saurian have fnade his meal, bj devouring the 
 fish, whose relics we can, even now, see in his stomach, 
 disinterred from the rocky stratum, wherein, at his death, 
 he was deposited. 
 
 Further still ; such animal remains are not only found 
 imbedded in hard rocks, but they often constitute the 
 chief substance of those rocks. You may oft see vast 
 masses of such fossil-bearing rock, in the very places 
 where the convulsion of nature which destroyed the en- 
 tire animal system, of which the creatures they now in- 
 close constituted a part, originally left them. And you 
 may see specimens of such rock, filled with the remains 
 of extinct animals, in every cabinet collected by the curi- 
 ous. The limestone of Alabama, and its prairies, abounds 
 with such fossil remains. 
 
 If my recollection of observations made there during 
 a hasty visit in May, 1832, be correct, at Trenton Falls, 
 on Canada Creek, near Utica, N. Y., the rock over which 
 the water dashes, is little else than a beautiful conglom- 
 erate of animal remains. 
 
 At Louisville, Kentucky, on the Ohio ; and in the rock 
 of the hills stretching like an amphitheatre around the 
 beautiful town of Huntsville, in North Alabama, abun- 
 dant fossil remains may be observed, entering largely 
 into the composition of the rock. 
 
 In fact, every fossiliferous stratum yet brought to light 
 by geologists, has its own characteristic animal remains, 
 existing in that peculiar stratum, and no others. While, 
 again, other fossil remains occur in more than one of 
 these strata. 
 
 Moreover, each such stratum, wherever found, holds 
 always the same relative position to the other strata, 
 
 17* 
 
394 DEATH AMONG THE WORKS OF GOD. 
 
 more ancient or more recent. But, as a late writer has 
 well observed, (see Dr. J. P. Smith's Scripture and Ge- 
 ology, Supplement, Note A, pp. 255, 256^ geology fur- 
 nishes cases of animal life extinguished upon a scale 
 immensely large, by other processes than that of being 
 devoted to furnish nutriment to other living bodies. 
 
 The polishing stone called tripoli^ is now ascertained to 
 be, not composed, as once was thought, merely of sand 
 and clay combined, (siliceo-argillaceous,) but a congeries, 
 a vast mass of microscopic, many -chambered shells : and 
 there are immense rocks of nummulite limestone, and 
 vast heaps of the shell (milliola) compressed into solid 
 masses. 
 
 It has also been discovered (by Mr. Lonsdale) that 
 common chalk contains, nay, it may be said to consist 
 of, innumerable minute shells. In all these cases, the 
 densely associated, and countless millions of once living 
 beings, which inhabited these shells, must have died, by 
 the upheaving out of the sea, of the compact masses con- 
 sisting of them, and being thus left dry. A death, more 
 protracted, and therefore more painful, than if they had 
 been devoured by larger cephalopods. 
 
 Some approach to an idea of the countless myriads of 
 animals thus rendered the prey of death may be made, 
 if we remember that a cube of this tripoli rock, or pol- 
 ishing stone, of but one tenth of an inch, is found to con- 
 tain five hundred millions of these minute shells, or 
 shields^ as they have been called. Each one of these lit- 
 tle shells constitutes an exquisitely formed dwelling, com- 
 prising several cells, most beautiful in material, and, in 
 general structure, resembling the beautiful shell called 
 nauiilus. A cubic inch of this polishing stone weighs 
 
DEATH AMONG THE WORKS OF GOD. 395 
 
 But about two hundred and twenty grains, i. e. less than 
 half an ounce, and yet it contains 41,000 millions of these 
 shells. 
 
 In Bohemia there is said to be a large deposit of this 
 stone, occupying a surface of great extent, which was, 
 probably, the bed of an ancient lake. This stone is 
 there found, forming slaty layers, of fourteen inches in 
 thickness. (See Cosmos, vol. i. p. 46, note.) 
 
 Again, there is a kind of mountain limestone found in 
 the hills of Yorkshire and Derbyshire, in England, and 
 in innumerable other places, many miles in extent, and 
 hundreds of feet in thickness. Even without a micro- 
 scope, this limestone may be seen to consist of scarcely 
 anything else than the skeletons of the many-fingered 
 crinoideal families, and the occasional beds of bivalve 
 and some univalve shells, lying together, in all ages and 
 degrees of growth. 
 
 Similar beds of a not very dissimilar limestone are 
 found occupying large districts in this state, (Alabama;) 
 and there is an immense bed of limestone underlying, 
 apparently, the whole region of country from Reading, 
 in Pennsylvania, embracing Hummelstown, Harrisburg, 
 Carlisle, Chambersburg, and Gettysburg, Pa., and the 
 whole extent of the valley of Virginia, as far as Staun- 
 ton, at the eastern base of the Alleghany Mountains. 
 
 On a similar mass of limestone rock, stands Cincinnati, 
 in Ohio, and St. Louis, in Missouri. 
 
 The number, and the rapid multiplication of the minute 
 animalcul83 that enter into the substance of many rocks, 
 and the fossil remains of which constitute immense moun- 
 tain masses, are almost inconceivable. 
 
 Those little animals called infusoriae, for instance, are 
 
396 DEATH AMONG THE WORKS OF GOD. 
 
 of diversified form, many of them are of brilliant hues ; 
 some green, others yellow, blue, crimson, and often 
 perfectly transparent, so that not only the mouth, cil- 
 iary fringes, and numerous organs of prehension and 
 of progress are seen, but also the stomach, and ap- 
 pendages, and canals, with their inosculations. The 
 celebrated Ehrenberg has discovered in them muscles, 
 intestines, teeth, different kinds of glands, eyes, nerves, 
 and organs of reproduction. He has discovered that 
 some are born alive, others produced by eggs, and some 
 multiplied by spontaneous division of their bodies into 
 two or several distinct individuals. So prolific are they, 
 that a single individual can, in a few hours, procreate 
 many millions of beings like itself. 
 
 In their collective volume, it is supposed they exceed 
 all other animated beings. (Dr. J. Pye Smith, p. 331.) 
 
 By means of their silicious coverings, or shells, these 
 animalculoG form earthy masses, stones, and rocks, in im- 
 mense quantities. They are found in nearly all sub- 
 stances, and in every fluid. They exist, also, in the 
 bodies of men, and other animals. Conglomerations of 
 them, accumulated during the progress of long rolling 
 ages, are ascertained to compose immense banks on the 
 shores, and at the bottoms of seas : and these, when up- 
 heaved by geological causes, have been solidified into 
 mountains. (See Dr. J. P. Smith, Script, and Geol. p. 332.) 
 
 Some of these masses of rocks are hundreds, and even 
 thousands of feet thick. Of the Egyptian pyramids, some 
 are built of the nummulite limestone, which is itself en- 
 tirely composed of chambered shells, of very small size, 
 and of exquisitely beautiful construction. (Id. p. 70.) 
 
 Indeed there is ample ground for the opinion, that all 
 
DEATH AMONG THE WORKS OF GOD. 397 
 
 chalk, and indeed all other calcareous masses, are nothing 
 but the corpses and the habitations of these infinitesi- 
 naally minute creatures. 
 
 Moreover, the mud of which the deltas of rivers — such 
 as the Mississippi and the Nile — are composed, and which 
 constitutes the alluvial lands, the richest soil in the 
 world, is found to be composed, in great part, of the re- 
 mains of such minute animalculae, and of their shelly 
 habitations : those native to fresh-water, being unable to 
 live in salt-water ; while those native to the sea, cannot 
 inhabit fresh- water. The mixing of fresh water and of 
 salt at the mouths of rivers, kills these little creatures 
 by myriads of myriads, every hour, and occasions a 
 constantly increasing mass of deposits in all such sestu- 
 aries at the mouths of large rivers, in addition to the 
 mud brought down from the lands on the head-waters, 
 which is held in solution, and finally deposited in these 
 deltas, and at the bottom of the sea. 
 
 This circumstance, we m.ay remark, discovers to us 
 one of the latent, and often unsuspected sources of error 
 in computing the age of river deltas ; for no care can 
 detect, and no skill can compute with any approximation 
 to accuracy, the countless myriads of these minute ani- 
 mals which are thus killed in the brackish water of 
 these sestuaries — are daily and hourly mingling with the 
 subsiding sediment, to form the deltas of rivers, and the 
 alluvial lands ever rising near the mouths of rivers. 
 
 Several curious f^xcts have been observed in different 
 countries, which show the almost incredible numbers of 
 these infusoria) and minute animalcule, in the waters 
 of lakes, and rivers, and in the seas. At Punta Gordo, 
 in the Banda Oriental, South America, Mr. Darwin found, 
 
398 DEATH AMONG THE WORKS OF GOD. 
 
 in the soil of the pampas, and even constituting that 
 soil, an estuary deposit, with limestone containing extinct 
 shells. Low down in this deposit, close to the skeletons 
 of the mastodon, he found some of the red earth which 
 is the rich soil of the pampas. This red earth, examined 
 by Ehrenberg under a powerful microscope, was found 
 to contain many infusorise, partly salt-water and partly 
 fresh- water, with the latter preponderating. 
 
 These immense pampas of South America must, there- 
 fore, once have been the beds of estuaries, or perhaps of 
 fresh- water lakes, gradually encroached on by the sea, 
 and made brackish, and then elevated and left dry. (See 
 Darwin's Voyage of a Naturalist, vol. i. p. 165. Also 
 Darwin's Geological Observations on South America, pp. 
 87, 88.) 
 
 Again, in Patagonia, the same distinguished naturalist 
 found — superimposed upon a great deposit, extending five 
 hundred miles along the coast, and including many ter- 
 tiary shells, chiefly a sort of gigantic oyster, nearly all of 
 them extinct — a peculiar soft white stone, including much 
 gypsum, and resembling chalk, but really of a pumiceous 
 nature. Strange to say, this stone is composed, to at 
 least one tenth of its bulk, of infusoria3. Professor Ehren- 
 berg has discovered in it, thirty oceanic forms. At Port 
 St. Julian, this bed of infusorial pumice is five hundred 
 feet thick. (Id. vol. i. p. 209.) 
 
 In like manner the black, white, and red mud, with 
 which the savages of Terra del Fuego bedaub their naked 
 bodies, proved, when examined by Ehrenberg, to consist 
 mainly of minute shells, pronounced by him, from in- 
 spection merely, to be inhabitants of fresh water. And 
 such proves to be the fact : for Jemmy Button, a native 
 
DEATH AMONG THE WORKS OF GOD. 899 
 
 of the country, who had been for some years in England, 
 and was then returning with the crew of the Beagle, 
 assured Darwin that this mud paint is always collected 
 in the beds of brooks flowing from the mountains. (Id. 
 pp. 284, 285, note.) 
 
 It has been found also, that clouds of dust, exceed- 
 ingly fine, blown far out to sea, and falling on the rigging 
 and decks of ships, in some instances many hundreds 
 of miles distant from land, was nothing else than im- 
 mense quantities of extremely minute shells, the habita- 
 tions of millions of animalcules, some living, and some 
 dead, and thus transported to vast distances. 
 
 The very country where these minute shells originated, 
 has been determined by the skill of science. It is said 
 that, at times, this dust falls in such quantities as to 
 darken the atmosphere ; and that ships have, occasion- 
 ally, been lost in consequence of the obscurity. (Lyell's 
 Princ. Geol. p. 446. Darwin's Voyage of a Katuralist, 
 vol. i. pp. 6, 7.) 
 
 The phosphorescence of the ocean, also, is attributed 
 to the presence of innumerable myriads of minute ani- 
 malculae — animated gelatine. (Id. vol. i. p. 209.) 
 
 On one occasion, Darwin tells us, the ship, which drew 
 thirteen feet of water, passed over many circular and 
 oval patches of brightly phosphorescent water, near the 
 mouth of the Plata, without disturbing the patches ; so 
 that some of these minute animals were congregated to- 
 gether at a greater depth than the bottom of the vessel, 
 (p. 214.) 
 
 Nay, what is more extraordinary still, in masses which 
 have been ejected by volcanoes^ in the form, probably, of 
 mud, or in showers of what, at the time, might have 
 
400 • DEATH AMONG THE WORKS OF GOD. 
 
 seemed to be ashes, shells and aniraalculae have been 
 detected. 
 
 Thus in the Isle of Ascension, in the Atlantic, there is 
 a singular hill, formed of the older series of volcanic 
 rocks, and which has been erroneously considered as the 
 crater of a volcano. This hill is remarkable for a broad, 
 slightly hollowed, and circular summit, which has been 
 filled up with many successive layers of ashes, and fine 
 scoriae. These saucer-shaped layers crop out on the 
 margin, forming perfect rings, of many different colors, 
 which give to the summit a most fantastic appearance. 
 One of these rings is white, and broad, and resembles a 
 course, around which horses have been exercised ; hence 
 the hill has been called, " The DeviVs Riding SchooV 
 
 Of one of these tufaceous layers, of a pinkish color, Mr. 
 Darwin brought away several specimens; and singular 
 as it may seem, Ehrenberg found, on microscopic exami- 
 nation, that these specimens were composed of matter 
 which has been organized. In it, he detected some 
 silicious shielded, fresh-water infusoria ; and no less than 
 twenty-five different kinds of the silicious tissue of plants ; 
 chiefly of grasses. From the total absence of all carbon- 
 aceous matter, this distinguished student of nature, 
 Ehrenberg, believes that these organic bodies have 
 passed through the volcanic fires, and were erupted, in 
 the state in which we now see them. (Darwin, Voy. vol. 
 ii. p. 296, also Darwin, So. Amer. pp. 108, 110, 118, 119.) 
 Singularly corroborative of this opinion avowed by 
 Prof. Ehrenberg, are the facts presented in the following 
 passage from the last (the 10th) edition of Sir C. Lyell's 
 Principles of Geology, (London, 1850,) under the head- 
 ing, " Infusorial beds covering Fomjieii." 
 
DEATH AMONG THE WORKS OF GOD. 401 
 
 *' A most singular and unexpected discovery has been 
 recently made, (1844-5) by Professor Ehrenberg, respect- 
 ing the layers of ashes and pumice enveloping Pompeii. 
 They are, he says, of organic and fresh-water origin, con- 
 sisting of the silicious cases of fresh- water infusoria.* 
 
 But, what is still more extraordinary, this fact proves 
 to be by no means an isolated, or solitary example of 
 intimate relations subsisting between organic life, and 
 the results of volcanic activity. 
 
 On the Ehine, several beds of tuff, and pumiceous con- 
 glomerate, resembling the mass incumbent upon Pompeii, 
 and closely connected with extinct volcanoes, are now 
 ascertained to be made up, to a great extent, of the silicious 
 cases of infusoria, invisible to the naked eye, and often 
 half fused. No less than ninety -four distinct species have 
 been already detected, in one mass of this kind, more 
 than one hundred and fifty feet thick, at Hochsimmer, on 
 the left bank of the Ehine near the Laucher-see. 
 
 Some of these Ehenish infusoria appear to have fallen 
 in showers, others to have been poured out of lake-cra- 
 ters, in the form of mud, as in the Brohl-valley. In 
 Mexico, Peru, the Isle of France, and several other vol- 
 canic regions, analogous phenomena have been observed : 
 and everywhere, the species of infusoria belong to fresh- 
 water and terrestrial genera ; except in the case of Pata- 
 gonian pumiceous tuffs ; specimens of which, brought away 
 by Mr. Darwin, are found to contain marine animalcules. 
 
 * Of this substance, the fragments of pumice and scoriae, under showers 
 of which from Vesuvius, Pompeii was buried a.d. 79, I brought away- 
 several specimens from Pompeii, in October 1846, and they are still in my 
 possession. Little did I think when gathering them that they had already 
 been demonstrated to be composed of fresh-water shells ! 
 
402 DEATH AMONG THE WORKS OP GOD. 
 
 In various kinds of pumice ejected by volcanoes, the 
 microscope has revealed the silicious cases of infusoria, 
 often half obliterated by the action of heat. 
 
 And the fine dust thrown out into the air by volcanic 
 eruptions, is sometimes referable to these minute organic 
 substances, brought up from considerable depths, and 
 sometimes mingled with small particles of vegetable 
 matter. (Princ. Geol. pp. 372, 373.) 
 
 What a field is here opened for reflection ! From time 
 immemorial, perhaps myriads of ages before man was, 
 this earth was peopled by innumerable races of animated 
 beings, race succeeding race, but all the pi;ey of death, 
 long before Adam sinned, or Adam lived I 
 
 And consequently all those passages in the Bible which 
 speak of death as ihe fruit ofmarHs sin must be understood 
 as restricted, in their application, to man exclusively. 
 The entire animal creation was from the first subjected to 
 deatn. The spectacles of animals dying might have been 
 early familiar to man. The threat, " in the day tliou eatest 
 thereof thou shall surely die^'^ might, therefore, in part, 
 have been quite intelligible to him. This threat itself 
 involved a pledge from God, that if he sinned not, he 
 should not die ! So long as man retained his integrity 
 man might thus, in his exemption from death, no less 
 than in intellect and in his moral powers, have been strik- 
 ingly superior to the brutes ! 
 
 Sin would, therefore, entail a curse, which he would 
 the more keenly feel, in that it would strip him of this 
 striking superiority over the brute creation, and degrade 
 him to a level with the beasts, in rendering his body mor- 
 tal, and subject to decay like theirs. 
 
/ 
 
 DEATH AMONG THE WORKS OF GOD. 408 
 
 If obedient, the threat itself did virtually assure him, 
 he would be kept, by the special power of God, from 
 death and from decay, until, his term of probation com- 
 pleted, he would probably have been transferred to a 
 higher degree of happiness and purity, and in another 
 world. 
 
 It must, however, have been by the special power of God, 
 exerted for this very purpose, that man, had he not sinned, 
 would have been preserved from death. Because, (as has 
 been well remarked by another, see Dr. J. P. Smith, p. 
 68,) "all organized matter, everything that has life, 
 vegetable or animal, (as now existing, at least,) is formed 
 upon a plan which renders death necessary, or something 
 equivalent to death." 
 
 " The law of organization, from the embryo formation 
 to the maturity of the animal, is carried on, in the way 
 of a continual separation of particles, and their replace- 
 ment by new ones, which the nutritive process incessantly 
 furnishes, (p. 206.) 
 
 Vegetables derive a part of their nutriment from in- 
 organic masses, (the earths, gases, &c., that never had 
 life.) But in animals it is not so. Animals cannot be 
 supported by any substances, except such as have had life, 
 vegetable or animal. In the present constitution of this 
 world, " the mysterious principle of animal life, is universally 
 maintained by the agency of death. Death is, then, the 
 universal, the indispensable feeder of life. From dead 
 organic matter the living structure derives its necessary 
 support. But these supplies do not bring a perpetuity 
 of existence. Their very nature and operation imply 
 the contrary. The processes of nutrition, assimilation, 
 growth, exhaustion, and reparation, hold on their UiC- 
 
404 DEATH AMONG THE WORKS OF GOD. 
 
 sistible course to decay and dissolution, i. e. to death." 
 (Id. p. 69.) 
 
 To this process of progression, decay, and reparation, 
 (observes the same judicious writer, pp. 206, 207,) im- 
 passahle limits are set^ by the most certain laws of the 
 Creator's ordinance, viz., those of gravity and of chemical 
 action. 
 
 " To suppose that these laws should be annulled, or 
 perpetually suspended, involves a contradiction : it would 
 be appointing laws which were only to be suspended. 
 When a certain point is reached in any organized 
 body, these fixed laws of God's appointment, insure the 
 separation, changed combination, and dissolution of the 
 molecules. But this is the very rudiment of death — its 
 sure forerunner." 
 
 It seems, therefore, certain, that, inasmuch as to man 
 the mortality of his body is one of the results of sm, the 
 exemption which appertained to man's bodily constitu- 
 tion in the state of his pristine purity, from the operation 
 of this law of progress towards dissolution, that applied 
 to all the inferior animals, must have resulted from causes 
 to us now unknown. The human frame must have been 
 maintained in this distinguished peculiarity so long as 
 man was sinless, by some special means employed by 
 God for this specific purpose. 
 
 It seems, therefore, highly probable, as some able 
 writers have maintained, that the tree (/Zz/e planted in the 
 midst of Eden, was not only a symbol of undying life^ but 
 the means to insure it: that it was the antidote to decay, 
 the elixir of animal life in man ; a natural means ap- 
 pointed by the God of nature himself, to counteract all 
 tendencies to decay in the human body, and maintain it 
 
DEATH AMONG THE WORKS OF GOD. 406 
 
 in youthful vigor and health unfailing, until, in the nat- 
 ural course of things, the whole man, physical, mental, 
 and moral, would be fitted for removal to another and a 
 brighter abode, where even the last remaining liability 
 to imperfection would disappear. 
 
 This remedial efficacy against death and decay, as in- 
 herent in the tree of life, seems more than intimated in 
 the sacred record itself : for, after the transgression of 
 the first pair in Eden, we read : " The Lord God said, And 
 noiv, lest man put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of 
 life, and eat, and live forever : therefore the Lord God sent 
 him forth from the garden of Eden." (Gen. iii. 22, 23.) 
 This passage seems certainly to imply the existence of 
 such efficacy in the tree of life, that if, even after the fall, 
 man had eaten thereof, his body would have been ex- 
 empt from death.* 
 
 Had man retained his integrity, he would probably, at 
 the close of a limited period of personal probation, have 
 passed through a transforming process, without dying, 
 and have^then been transferred to some other scene of 
 action, and a higher state of existence. But, transgress 
 he did ! On him the curse actually fell. Those special 
 conservative influences against death were withdrawn ; 
 the tree of life, the sovereign and only antidote against 
 decay, was effectually barred against his approach. The 
 human body became, thenceforth, subject to the same 
 law that applies to all other organized bodies, that of 
 progression and decay ; and the utterance of the awful 
 words, by the voice of God, Dust thou art, and to dust 
 shalt thou return, made known the fact of man's degra- 
 dation to mortality, just as are the beasts of the field ! 
 * See also Hitchcock's " Religion of Geology," p. 94. 
 
40# DEATH AMONG THE WORKS OF GOD. 
 
 What an affecting view does the subject just discusi 
 present, of the nature of the world we live in, and 
 the condition of man ! 
 
 This beautiful world is, after all, one vast cemeterj 
 We ourselves dwell among the dead ; we feed upon i 
 dead ; the very air we breathe, is but the oft-used bre; 
 of the dead ; and the gay clothing we wear has be 
 rifled from the dead ; yea, even the material particles 
 which our bodies are composed, are the pillaged spoils 
 the dead, who have preceded us ! 
 
 The marble that adorns your halls of state, is but 1 
 mausolea of myriads of the dead, entombed there 
 The ground we tread on, the rocks employed in < 
 buildings, are but compact masses of the corpses or i 
 ashes of the dead. The water we drink, teems with ' 
 living and the dead innumerable. The food spread uf 
 our tables, the luscious fruits that tempt our taste, : 
 rich odors of the flowers that adorn our apartments, 
 derive their flavor from the remains of the dead ther 
 contained, and variously combined. 
 
 ♦ " Limestone has been chiefly elaborated by the organs of anin 
 many of them of microscopic littleness. Yet lofty ranges of mount 
 and immense deposits in the intervening valleys, have been the res 
 Nearly one-seventh part of the crast of the globe, it has been sai( 
 thus constituted of the works or remains of animals." (IIitchc< 
 Relig, of Qeol. p. 212.) 
 
 Dr. Pritchard has remarked : " It is hardly conceivable that, wil 
 the narrow space of a grain of mustard-seed, 8,000,000 of living, ac 
 creatures can exist, all richly endowed with the organs and facultiej 
 animal life. Such, however, is the fact." (History of Infusorise, j 
 Relig. of Geol. p. 455.) 
 
 Indeed some philosophers have asserted, that it is probable every 
 tide of matter forming the crust of our globe, has, at some period, 
 tered into the composition of organized living beings ! 
 
DEATH AMONG THE WORKS OF GOD. 407 
 
 The very blood that circulates in our veins has reached 
 us from sources exuding from the dead. The rich glow 
 of the youthful cheek, wells up from the graves of the 
 dead ; and the lips, on the pressure of which afiection 
 lingers so fondly, are formed of materials that have passed, 
 times innumerable, through the process of corruption, 
 decay, and death. What a lesson is this for human 
 pride, " Dust thou artP^ 
 
 What a lesson for the noon-tide of manly vigor, for 
 the blushing morn of woman's beauty. Dust thou art! 
 And oh I how it should endear to ns the hope of obtain- 
 ing admission to that nobler land, where there is no 
 more sickness, nor sorrow, neither do they die any more ; 
 and especially and pre-eminently how it should endear to 
 us that Divine Saviour^ who yielded his own sacred per- 
 son to death^ that he might give us life ! 
 
 Jesus' blood here spilt, has consecrated this earth 
 anew a second Eden I His cross is to us the " Tree of 
 Life^^ He that participates of the fruit borne by that 
 ixQQ shall live forever ! Amen. 
 
LECTUKE XII. 
 
 MAN ONE FAMILY. 
 
 Qen. xi. 1. — " And the whole earth was of one language, and of 
 one speech." 
 
 This assertion of the sacred record, in relation to mci 
 at a period not much later than the deluge, and befor 
 the commencement of the abortive effort which has ren 
 dered Babel so memorable, reveals a fact precisely sue! 
 as we might look for if the deluge was literally universa' 
 and if " NoaJi only remained alive^ and they that were ivit 
 him in the ark" Gen. vii. 23. For plainly in that cas 
 all the growing population subsequent to that catastroph 
 must have sprung from Noah and his three sons ; the; 
 must have been of one and the same stock ; and the; 
 must, therefore, all have been originally of one languor 
 and of one speech. 
 
 This passage in Genesis must refer to the entire popu 
 lation of the globe at that time. It cannot be restricted 
 to any one particular land or country, and to some on 
 tribe or nation occupying that one specified districi 
 All the circumstances of the case forbid such restrictior 
 This declaration stands as introductory to the record, o; 
 the building of the tower of Babel, the confounding o: 
 the language of those so employed, and their consequen 
 
MAN ONE FAMILY. 40^ 
 
 separation into several branches or communities, each 
 speaking its own peculiar language unintelligible to the 
 others, and of the after settlements of these several bands 
 of colonists in different countries ; by all which the ulti- 
 mate peopling of the whole earth was secured. This 
 separation of the earth's population, or this dividing of 
 the earth as the sacred penman calls it, took place in the 
 days of Peleg^ whose birth is recorded Gen. x. 25. It has, 
 therefore, been concluded, that the confounding of man's 
 language at Babel, which led to the dispersion, took place 
 not very long after the deluge, and at a time when the 
 post-diluvian population might readily have numbered 
 several thousands. 
 
 This oneness of the primitive language spoken by the 
 entire post-diluvian population of the earth, up to the 
 days of Peleg, is one of the proofs going to show, that 
 to this day it is true, Man is one Family. 
 
 Notwithstanding all the diversities marking what are 
 called the several races of mankind, the entire popula- 
 tion of our globe even now, is sprung from the same 
 stock. All men of all nations and countries, whatever 
 be the shade of their complexion, the difference in their 
 features, their anatomical structure, their habits of life, 
 and their intellectual capacity — the Caucasian, the Negro, 
 the Mongol, the Malay, the Papuan — are each and all 
 the descendants of the one original human pair, Adam 
 and Eve, in the line of Noah and his three sons, who, 
 with their wives, were the sole survivors of the deluge. 
 They all constitute One Family ; they are all sprung from 
 Eve^ i, e. Life ; so named on that very account, that she 
 was to be the mother of all living^ (Gen. iil. 20,) just as it is 
 declared in the book of Acts, (xvii. 26,) " God hath made 
 
 18 
 
410 MAN ONE FAMILY. 
 
 of one hhod all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of 
 the earths 
 
 Such is the view the Bible presents : such is the view 
 we hold and shall maintain. All the various races of 
 men now inhabiting our globe, are derived from one 
 common stock — they are all descended from one original 
 pair — thej still constitute hut one family. 
 
 Against this doctrine, numerous grave objections are 
 urged ; and these objections are backed by names of ce- 
 lebrity and weight. The conclusion to be drawn from 
 facts exhibited in natural history, do, in the opinion of 
 some, present invincible difficulties in the way of receiv- 
 ing as true the doctrine that all the now differing races 
 of men are sprung from one original pair. 
 
 The negro at least (we are told) is a distinct race^ and 
 must have had a separate origin. Negroes cannot Jiave 
 sprung from the same stock as the white man /* 
 
 The celebrated Professor Agassiz says, that " as a ques- 
 tion of natural history, the investigation of the human 
 race leads to the idea of diversity in their origin, rather 
 than to the supposition that they have originated from a 
 common stock. (See Christian Examiner, July, 1850, pp. 
 138, 139.) 
 
 Again, Professor A. remarks : " Men were primitively 
 located in the various parts of the world they inhabit, 
 and they arose everywhere in those harmonic propor- 
 tions with other living beings, which would at once se- 
 cure their preservation, and contribute to their welfare. 
 To suppose that all men originated from Adam and Eve, 
 is to assume that the order of creation has been changed 
 
 * Two Lectures on the Connection between the Biblical and Physical 
 History of Man, by Dr. J. C. Nott, 1849, p. 33. p. 67. 
 
■ MAN ONE FAMILY. 41i\ 
 
 in the course of historical time, and to give to the Mosaic 
 record a meaning that it never was intended to have^ Prof. 
 A. ^^ insists that Genesis must be considered as relating 
 chiefly to the history of the white race, with special refer- 
 ence to the history of the Jews." (Id. pp. 137, 138.) 
 
 On a question of mere science, in relation to any mere 
 animal, it were presumption in almost any man, and es- 
 pecially in an obscure theologian, to dispute a position 
 assumed by one so eminent in his department of natural 
 history as the justly celebrated Prof. Agassiz. But 
 when Agassiz peremptorily declares that such and such 
 is the teaching of Grenesis, in direct contradiction of the 
 opinion held by the great body of learned expositors of 
 holy writ, he leaves his own province, and exposes him- 
 self to rebuke — as incompetent. 
 
 And when Prof. A. treats man as a mere brute animal, 
 in the mode of his pursuing his investigations — the dig- 
 nity of his own nature as man, a reasoning, improvable, 
 and responsible being, possessed of powers that render 
 man what no other animal is, or can be made to be, a 
 cosmopolite,"^' capable of existing and of flourishing in all cli- 
 mates, and in all countries — most assuredly rebukes him ! 
 
 Again, writes Prof. A. : "We challenge those who main- 
 tain that mankind originated from a single pair, to pro- 
 duce a single passage from the whole Scripture, pointing 
 at those physical differences which we notice between the 
 white race and the Chinese, the New Hollanders, the 
 Malays, the American Indians, and the negroes, as hav- 
 ing been introduced in the course of time, among the 
 children of Adam and Eve." (Id. pp. 134, 135.) Again 
 
 * See Principles of Zoology, by Agassiz and Gould, chap. xiii. sec. 1, 
 p. 154. 
 
412 MAN ONE FAMILY. 
 
 he says, ^* This assertion of the common descent of all 
 races of men from a common stock, is a mere human 
 construction, entitled to no more credit, and no more con- 
 fidence, and no more respect, than any other conclusion 
 arising from philosophical investigations of this subject, 
 from a scientific point of view," (p. 135.) 
 
 These are startling assertions, and they are very confi- 
 dently made. If true, then the ablest, the most learned, 
 and the most industrious expositors of holy writ, in all 
 ages of the world, have misunderstood the teachings of 
 the Bible on this point. For it is unquestionable, that 
 the general opinion of biblical scholars has been, and is, 
 that the Bible distinctly teaches this very doctrine, ofOie 
 common descent of all mankind, of all the varying races, 
 from one original stock, from Adam andJSue^ and again from 
 the tJiree sons of Noah. 
 
 Whether this doctrine be true or false, is another and 
 a different question : but, that the Bible does teach this 
 doctrine, has been the general belief of both Jews and 
 Christians, and that in all ages. 
 
 The truth of this doctrine is now boldly denied, and a 
 separate origin is claimed for each of the several races of 
 man. The argument for this diversity of origin for the 
 human races, and more especially for the negro* as a dis- 
 tinct race, may be thus presented. 
 
 Throughout all the works of God we mark progressive 
 advance, from the simpler to the more complex forms, in 
 both vegetable and animal life ; from the lichen or the 
 moss, to the rose, the lilac, the beauteous flowering peach, 
 
 * On the anatomical peculiarities of the negro, see Dr. J. C. Nott's 
 Two Lectures, published in Mobile, 1844, pp. 23-26. On the negro's 
 cuticular structure, see id. p. 27. 
 
MAN ONE FAMILY. 413 
 
 the splendid magnolia, or orange, or to the magnificent 
 oak ; from the animalcule floating invisible, up through 
 almost countless series of animated forms, moluscs, fishes, 
 reptiles, birds and beasts, to man. Moreover, each genus 
 has its distinct species, and its subordinate varieties. 
 Why should man be the only exception ? 
 
 But among men also, we do find diversities of color, 
 form, general appearance and habit ; diversities as great 
 and as striking as among the several varieties of any class 
 of animals : as great as those which mark the several 
 divisions of the feline species ; as those which separate 
 the lion, the panther, the tiger and the cat from one 
 another. 
 
 The white, or Caucasian race, is the perfect form of 
 man. The negro is, perhaps, the lowest : and the negro 
 is distinguished by his anatomical structure, the peculi- 
 arities of his skull, and his nervous system ;* the relative 
 size of his limbs^ and of several important muscles, as 
 well as by the blackness of his skin. This black color, 
 it is said, results from a peculiar secretion in the reticular 
 membrane, lying beneath the outer cuticle : this secretion 
 is found in the negro only. He is also distinguished by 
 an inferior intellect. 
 
 So great, striking and permanent are these peculiarities, 
 as to stamp the negro a distinct race from the white man. 
 Neither climate, difference pf food, nor peculiarity of 
 social condition, nor all these combined, can ever change 
 a white man into a negro, or a negro into a white man. 
 Such changes have never been known to take place : for, 
 up to the remotest antiquity of which we have any 
 
 * See a curious and interesting account of the distinctive peculiarities 
 of the negro, in De Bow's Commercial Review, July, 1851, p. 68. 
 
414 MAN ONE FAMILY. 
 
 knowledge, negroes existed, and the difference between 
 the negro and the white man was just the same in the 
 days of the earlier Pharaohs* that it is now. This is 
 manifest from the paintings and hieroglyphic delineations 
 found on the older Egyptian monuments. It is shown 
 also by the skulls of individuals of the different races, 
 taken from the oldest catacombs of Egypt. Indeed, in 
 his concluding remarks on Egyptian Ethnography, Dr. 
 Morton observes, "The physical or organic characters 
 which distinguish the several races of men, are as old as 
 the oldest records of our species." (See Crania Egyptiaca, 
 p. 66, Obs. 15.) 
 
 To those who thus reason, to establish a diversity of 
 origin for the several races of man, it is in vain that you 
 point to the sacred record, " Ood hath made of one blood all 
 nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earths 
 (Acts xvii. 26.) 
 
 Professor Agassiz tells us, (see Christian Examiner for 
 July, 1850, p. 135,) "What is essential for men in a 
 moral point of view in their intercourse one with another, 
 that is taught in the Bible, and nothing more. This 
 most important information is the fact, that all men are 
 men equally endowed with the same superior nature, and 
 made of one blood, inasmuch as, this figurative expression 
 applies to the higher unity of mankind, and not to their 
 supposed genital connection by natural descent. This higher 
 
 * The Plates in Champollion's Monumens de I'Egypte, &c., show tie- 
 groes, perfect as now, in the reign of Thotmes IV. about b.c. 1700. and in 
 the times of Ramses II., Ramses III., at Thebes, at Ipsamboul, &c. (See 
 Tom. i. Plate ex. Plate 71, 72, &c., also Rosellini, Mon. M. R. Tav. 75, 
 B.C. 1570.) But Lepsius claims to have found negroes mentioned at 
 Sakkara in the name Kush, on monuments of the sixth dynasty, b.c. 3000. 
 (Sec Mr. Qliddon, in Lend. Ethnol. Journal, no. vii. p. 310.) 
 
MAN ONE FAMILY. ^ 415 
 
 nature, — the closest, the most intimate unity, which exists 
 without a common descent, without that relationship, de- 
 noted by the expression * ties of Uood^ (see id. p. 118,) 
 Professor Agassiz declares to be " such community of 
 physical constitution, such a unity of type, such an essen- 
 tial difference from the character of even the highest ani- 
 mals, together with those most prominent, more elevating, 
 more dignifying distinctions, which belong to man as an 
 intellectual and moral being, and which are so emi- 
 nently developed in civilized society, but which equally 
 exist in the natural dispositions of all human races^ consti- 
 tuting the higher union among men, making them all 
 equal before God," &c. &c. " Such (adds the eloquent pro- 
 fessor) is the foundation of a unity between men, truly 
 worthy of their nature : such is the foundation of those 
 sympathies which will enable them to bestow upon each 
 other, in all parts of the world, the name of brethren, as 
 they are brethren in God, brethren in humanity, though 
 their origin, to say the least, is lost in the darkness of the 
 beginning of the world." (Christ. Exam. July, 1850, 
 p. 120.) 
 
 Few persons entertain a higher respect for the talents 
 and the attainments of Professor Agassiz, than does the 
 writer of these pages. In any department of mere science, 
 the opinions of Agassiz are entitled to profound defer- 
 ence. But, as an expounder of the sacred records of our 
 faith, Agassiz stands before us shorn of his strength. 
 
 To sustain a theory, he would arbitrarily impose a 
 novel and an unnatural interpretation on several passa- 
 ges of the Bible, which present a very natural and a to- 
 tally different meaning. '■''Made of one blood,'^ has, ac- 
 
416 MAN ONE FAMILY. 
 
 cording to him, no relation at all, to affinity by blood, 
 or to natural descent ! 
 
 It will be long before this interpretation shall be re- 
 ceived by sober-minded expositors of the Bible, as just 
 and sound. 
 
 Moreover, Professor A. assures us the Bible teaches 
 only what is important for men, as men ; what is essential^ 
 in a moral point ofview^ in their intercourse one with an- 
 other. But he has failed to show that it may not be im- 
 portant, for the proper intercourse of man with man, that 
 men should know, there is a still closer bond of unity 
 among all men, than this ^^ higher tinity" of which he 
 speaks ; even a unity in the ties of blood: a unity consist- 
 ing in a common origin, a common descent from the 
 same primitive human pair, the progenitors of all man- 
 kind! 
 
 The knowledge of this one fact may possibly have 
 some connection with the highest truths of religion, with 
 some of the gravest duties required of man, in the accept- 
 ance and in the propagation of religion. All these points 
 Professor Agassiz has, in his zeal for a novel theory, 
 wholly overlooked. Yet these points are worthy of note; 
 and they will, as we think, be found important in their 
 bearings. Certain it is, that Genesis records the giving 
 of a name Eve^ or Life^ to the first woman, because she 
 was to become '■'"the mother of all living^^^ which must cer- 
 tainly mean the mother of the entire population of the 
 globe. 
 
 But here again. Professor Agassiz steps in with his pe- 
 culiar theory, and assures us, " Genesis relates chiefly to 
 the history of the white race," (p. 138.) Again, on p. Ill, 
 " We have no statements (in the records of Genesis) re- 
 
MAN ONE FAMILY. 417 
 
 lating to the origin of the inhabitants now found in those 
 parts of the world which were unknown to the ancients." 
 In a note on the same page, he remarks, "In the history 
 in Genesis, the branches of the white race only are al- 
 luded to, and nowhere the colored races as suchJ^ 
 
 This assertion is gratuitous, and wholly unsupported : 
 moreover, to us it seems contradictory of the whole spirit 
 of the sacred record, and inconsistent with the scriptural 
 doctrines respecting salvation through a Kedeemer, the 
 Saviour of the whole world, as will presently be shown. 
 
 It is in vain that the friends of the ^^ unity of the human 
 races''^ appeal to the results of a careful comparison of lan- 
 guages, by which it is shown that " all languages through- 
 out the whole world, present so close an analogy the one 
 to the other, and exhibit so many points of resemblance, 
 notwithstanding the vast diversity among them, that the 
 ablest investigators of the subject have concluded all 
 languages must have been originally united in one, 
 whence they draw the common elements essential to 
 them all : and the separation between them could not 
 have been caused by any gradual departure, or individ- 
 ual development ; but it must have been brought about 
 by some violent, unusual, active force, sufficient alone to 
 reconcile these conflicting appearances, and to account, 
 at once, for the resemblances, and the differences." 
 Such an event, in short, as the confusion of tongues at 
 Babel implies: that event recorded in Gen. xi. immedi- 
 ately after the declaration, " The whole earth ivas of one lan- 
 guage and of one speech^ 
 
 To this argument, the advocates for a diversity of races 
 stoutly object. Thus Prof. Agassiz says, " We doubt the 
 possibility of deriving from such sources (ethnology and 
 
 18* 
 
418 MAN ONE FAMILY. 
 
 philology) evidence capable of deciding the question 
 either one way or the other," (p. 139.) 
 
 Again. " Why should not the different races of men 
 have originally spoken distinct languages, as they do at 
 present, differing in the same proportion, as their organs 
 of speech are variously modified ? And why should not 
 these modifications, in their turn, be indicative of primi- 
 tive differences among them?" (p. 140.) 
 
 The advocates for a diversity of the races do, most usu- 
 ally, esteem but lightly the arguments derived from phi- 
 lology. Thus Dr. Nott (Two Lectures, Mobile, 1844, p. 
 39) observes : " Volumes have been written on the affin- 
 ity of languages and religion, to prove the common origin 
 of races ; but to my mind, nothing can be more fallacious. 
 The faintest resemblances in grammatical construction, 
 or in particular words, have been seized with avidity, 
 and confidently put forth as evidence of a common ori- 
 gin. Is it not more reasonable to believe that, in ancient 
 times, as in the present, the nations who were most civ- 
 ilized, stamped their characters, both in religion and in 
 languages, upon the inferior tribes with which they held 
 communication ?" 
 
 Again, Dr. N. remarks : " If a great physical or moral 
 revolution should again occur in the world, like many 
 which have occurred, it might (many ages hence) be as- 
 sumed that the negro colonists in Liberia are descended 
 from the English, because their language and religion 
 are the same." 
 
 In these remarks, both these writers fail to do justice 
 to the subject. Such men as Sir Wm. Jones, W. Von 
 Humboldt, Schlegel, Klaproth, Adelung, Johns, Prit- 
 
MAN ONE FAMILY. 419 
 
 chard, and other distinguished philologists, are not likely 
 to be so easily misled. 
 
 The evidence of a colonial, or a foreign origin, in some 
 particular district, is often readily detected, from the 
 language of that district presenting points of resemblance 
 to, or of difference from, the prevailing language of the 
 surrounding region. Thus, even without the corrobora- 
 tive facts exhibited in the craniology of those races^ cer- 
 tain tribes in California, and on other parts of the north- 
 west coast of America, are shown even by their language 
 to be of foreign origin, (Agassiz says Mongolians, see 
 Christ. Exam. July, 1850, p. 126, note. Pickering calls 
 them Malays, "On the Kaces," pp. 100, 103.) Probably 
 they were adventurers out to sea, stranded on that coast, 
 ages ago. 
 
 As to the argument of Agassiz on the subject of lan- 
 guage, certainly we may admit, that if the several races 
 of men be of different origins, indigenous in their several 
 localities, we might reasonably expect that " they would^ 
 originally^ have spoken distinct languages as they do at prts- 
 entr The fact, then, that, notwithstanding the prevail- 
 ing diversity of languages, there are so many points of 
 resemblance among all known languages, resemblances 
 which present themselves, the more numerous and the 
 more striking, the further philologists extend their re- 
 searches, does, to one who duly reflects on the nature of 
 language, and appreciates the philosophical character of 
 the structure of language, present a strong case, in evi- 
 dence of a common origin* for them all ; and with it, a 
 
 * On this subject see Pritchard's Researches, vol. iv. pp. 12-47. See 
 Wiseman's Lectures. Smith's Patriarchal Age, p. 339, «fcc. Faber's Pagan 
 idolatry, passim. Sir W. Drummond's Origines. Pritchard's Egyptian 
 
420 MAN ONE FAMILY. 
 
 powerful argument for the common origin of all the now 
 widely differing races of men. 
 
 The advocates for the unity of the races of men are 
 accustomed to point also to the changes effected by cli- 
 mate, diet, and other influences, operating through a long 
 course of time, on colonies planted in tropical countries, 
 as, for instance, in the black Jews of India.* 
 
 Analogous changes in domestic animals, effected by 
 climate, mode of treatment, &c., as seen in the several 
 varieties of the dog, the sheep, horned cattle, horses, the 
 domestic fowls, &;c. &c. are also appealed to. 
 
 Granted, is the reply ; great changes are certainly ef- 
 fected in many of the inferior animals, and, what may be 
 termed new varieties, are produced. But these facts do 
 not prove, and cannot prove, that man is so changed by 
 these causes, t 
 
 . The difference of anatomical structure in the different 
 races, and especially in whites and negroes, is too great 
 to be so accounted for. Moreover, no instance can be 
 found on record, of a white man changed into a negro, 
 or the reverse. 
 
 If, then, we refer to the grand characteristics of man 
 impressed on each and on all of the several races alike, on 
 the negro no less than on the white man — his general con- 
 Mythology. Early Oriental History, Introduction, and also p. 308. 
 Smythe on the Unity of Races, chap. xiv. and xv. and Redford's Holy 
 Scripture Verified, pp. 156-174. 
 
 * These black Jews of India are not a pure race : they are proselytes 
 from the native Hindoos. See Buchanan's Researches in India ; also Dr. 
 J. C. Nott's "Physical History of the Jewish Race," in the Southern 
 Quarterly Review — an able and interesting article. 
 
 t On analogous changes in the lower animals, see Pritchard, vol. i. 
 book ii. chap, i.-viii. 
 
MAN ONE FAMILY. 421 
 
 figuration, his upright position, the faculty of reason, the 
 power of speech, the capacity for improvement, and 
 above all, his moral susceptibilities, and his sense of ac- 
 countabilit37- : " True, (is the reply,) they are all men. 
 The negro is one of the varieties of the human family^ he is one 
 species of the genus homo. But this does not necessarily 
 involve the consequence that the negro has sprung from 
 the same parent stock as the white man. These charac- 
 teristics are the mark of that " higher unity which may 
 exist ijuithout a common origin. A common character hy no 
 means proves common descent or pareritage^ in the least de- 
 gree^ as appears hy comparing the different species of that so 
 large genus the cats, in which the wild-catj the panther, the 
 leopard, tiger, lion, and all the numeroics species of this group, 
 having sux^h similar habits, such similar natural dispositions, 
 with the same structure, were yet constituted as so wxiny dis- 
 tinct species, unconnected in their genealogy.'''' (See Christ 
 Exam. p. 118.) 
 
 Now in this reasoning, the learned professor certainly 
 loses sight of man's higher nature as a rational and moral 
 being, else he would hardly represent the several races 
 of men as being united in nearly the same sense in which 
 the several species of the large genus, the cats, are one. 
 Human nature is not a unit in the same sense merely in 
 which the feline tribes constitute one genus, in natural 
 history. There are the further characteristics of reason, 
 of speech, of moral susceptibilities, and of an improvable 
 nature, making a wide gap between man and any order 
 of the lower tribes. And who shall say that this further 
 evidence of a higher unity has nothing to do with gene- 
 alogy? 
 
 Moreover, these several soecies of the feline genus do 
 
422 MAN ONE FAMILY. 
 
 not intermingle : no mixed breeds occur among them. 
 But among the several races of the human family such 
 intermixtures do frequently and freely occur, insomuch 
 that, says one writer, " There is probably no 'perfectly pure 
 race of men now on earth.'''' (Two Lect. 1849, p. 35.) So 
 also says the author of " Outlines of Ethnology," in the 
 London Eth. Journal No. III. p. 129 : " The primitive 
 races no longer exist, rigorously speaking. All, or nearly 
 all the inhabitants of the earth are of mixed blood^ 
 
 Professor Agassiz does himself, in another place, (p. 
 119,) very forcibly present the points of difference be- 
 tween man and the monkey family. From all the infe- 
 rior animals man is widely distinguished. It cannot, 
 therefore, be safe or philosophical, to reason in regard 
 to the origin of man, as we may in reference to the origin 
 of brute animals. 
 
 It is not unreasonable to suppose that man's rational 
 powers and his moral nature may occasion, or may indi- 
 cate a wide difference between him and the brutes, as to 
 the mode of his origination. 
 
 That such difference has really been made by the 
 Creator, the Bible seems to us, at least, very clearly to 
 teach — as that, whether or not the several races of ani- 
 mals may have all originated in a common central point, 
 man, assuredly, and all the varieties of man, have sprung 
 from one parent stock, and have all radiated from one 
 central point. Still the advocates of distinct races ad- 
 here to their argument from natural history. 
 
 " As a question of natural history, (says Agassiz, p. 
 138,) the investigation of the human race leads to the 
 idea of a diversity of their origin, rather than to the sup- 
 position that they have originated from a common stock." 
 
MAN ONE FAMILY. 428 
 
 In respect to the negro, especially, the advocates of 
 diversity of origin for the human races, maintain, that 
 " as subjects of the naturalist's investigation, the negro 
 must be pronounced a race separate and distinct from 
 the white man, just as truly as the ass or the zebra is 
 distinct from the horse ; or as the leopard is distinct from 
 the lion, or the cat from the tiger. 
 
 " The distinctive characteristics of their race have been 
 propagated by hereditary descent, through all past gene- 
 rations, from time immemorial. We find them a distinct 
 race now. The records of the past, far back as we can 
 go, show that negroes were then distinct as now, and 
 that they were the same, in all their distinctive pecu- 
 liarities, then as they now are. They are distinct. No 
 known causes are adequate to effect the change from the 
 white man to the negro. No -one solitary instance of 
 such change from the white man to the negro, or from 
 the negro to the white man, has ever been produced, or 
 known. No such case is on record. They must^ then, have 
 been created a distinct race, designed to occupy a region of 
 the earth adapted to them, and not to the white man. 
 
 " Eeason, analogy, and history, all combine to show, 
 tbat the distinction is an essential and a permanent one : it 
 is, indeed, specific. It demands a distinct and separate 
 origin to be assigned to the negro and to the white man, 
 just as to the horse and the ass, to the lion and to the 
 leopard. The advocates of identity of origin for all the 
 several races of men, as sprung from one only primitive 
 pair, have no argument to urge in support of that posi- 
 tion, but simply a vulgar prejudice, based on some few ob- 
 scure passages of the Bible, which may, after all, be capable 
 of a different interpretation." 
 
424 MAN ONE FAMILY. 
 
 Such is the line of argument pursued by the advocates 
 of diversity of races ; and certainly they make out a 
 strong case. 
 
 Besides all this, it is urged that the white race alone 
 have recognized marriage, in the union for life of one 
 man and one woman. Among the dark races, polygamy 
 has everywhere and always prevailed. This furnishes 
 another and a decisive difference between the dark races 
 and the white, bespeaking a difference in the physical 
 organization, and indicating clearly diversity of origin ! 
 (See Democratic Review, July, 1860.) 
 
 But this fails to furnish a distinct mark of diversity. 
 Had polygamy prevailed uniformly among the dark races, 
 everywhere, and never among Uie white, the argument would 
 have been valid. But among the white race, as truly as 
 among the dark, polygamy has been practised. The He- 
 brews and the Arabs are confessedly of the white race ; 
 yet polygamy long prevailed among them. 
 
 Revelation discountenances polygamy. Among the 
 several branches of the white race, polygamy has been 
 checked by the teachings of revelation : and among the 
 dark races too, just so far as revelation has been intro- 
 duced, polygamy disappears, and the law of marriage 
 prevails. No specific distinction can, therefore, be estab- 
 lished on this ground, between the dark races and the 
 white. 
 
 Another argument for a diversity of races among men, 
 and for a diversity of origin to those races, is thus pre- 
 sented by Professor Agassiz : " The question, with 
 reference to the races of men is this. Have the differ- 
 ences which we notice among the different races, as they 
 now exist, been produced in the course of the multipli- 
 
MAN ONE FAMILY. 425 
 
 cation and diffusion of men upon the earth, or are these 
 differences primitive, independent of physical causes? 
 Have they been introduced into the human race by the 
 Creator himself, or has nature influenced men so much, 
 as to produce this diversity, under the influence of those 
 causes which act in the physical world ?" (p. 134.) Again : 
 " We maintain that, in the Mosaic record, there is not a 
 single passage asserting that these differences, we mean 
 the physical differences existing among men, have been 
 derived from changes introduced in a primitively more 
 uniform stock of men." 
 
 " The circumstance, (continues Agassfz,) that wherever 
 we find a human race naturally circumscribed, it is con- 
 nected in its limitation with what we call, in natural his- 
 tory, a zoological and botanical province, that is to say, 
 with the natural limitation of a particular association of 
 animals and plants^ shows most unequivocally, the inti- 
 mate relation subsistmg between mankind and the ani- 
 mal kiilgdom, in their adaptation to the physical world. 
 The arctic race of men, covering the treeless region near the 
 arctics, in Europe, Asia, and America, is circumscribed, 
 in the three continents, within limits very similar to those 
 occupied by that particular combination of animals which 
 are peculiar to the same tract of land and sea. The re- 
 gion inhabited by the Mongolian race is also a natural 
 zoological province, covered by a combination of animals 
 naturally circumscribed within the same regions. The 
 Malay race covers also a natural zoological province. 
 
 " New Holland, again, constitutes a very peculiar zoo- 
 logical province, in which we have another particular 
 race of men. And it is further remarkable, in this con- 
 nection, that the plants and animals now living on the con- 
 
426 MAN ONE FAMILY. 
 
 tin en t of Africa, south of the Atlas, within the same range 
 within whi<5h the negroes are naturally circumscribed, 
 have a character differing widely from that of the plants 
 and animals of the northern shores of Africa, and the 
 valley of Egypt : while the Cape of Good Hope, within 
 the limits inhabited by Hottentots, is characterized by a 
 vegetation and a fauna equally peculiar, and differing in 
 its features from that over which the African race is spread, 
 
 " Such identical circumscription between the limits of 
 two series of organized beings^ so widely differing as man 
 and animals and plants, and so entirely unconnected in 
 point of descent, would^ to the mind of a iiaturalist^ amount 
 to a demonstration^ tJiat they originated together^ within the 
 districts which they now inhabit. We say such an ac- 
 cumulation of evidence would amount to a demonstration: 
 for how could it, on the contrary, be supposed that man 
 alone would assume new peculiarities, and features so 
 different from his primitive characteristics, whilst the ani- 
 mals and plants, circumscribed within the same limits, 
 would continue to preserve their natural relations to the 
 iauna and flora of other parts of the world ? 
 
 " If the creator of one set of these living beings had not 
 been also the creator of the other, and if we did not trace 
 the same general laws throughout nature, there might be 
 room left for the supposition, that, while men, inhabiting 
 different parts of the world, originated from a common 
 centre, the plants and animals now associated with them 
 in the same countries, originated on the spot. But such 
 inconsistencies do not occur in the laws of nature. 
 
 " The coincidence oftlie geographical distribution of the hu- 
 man races with that of animals^ — the disconnection of the 
 climatic conditions when we have similar races, — and the 
 
MAN ONE FAMILY. 427 
 
 connection of climatic conditions when we have different 
 human races, show further, that the adaptation of different 
 races of men to different parts of the world micst be intentional, 
 as well as that of other beings : that men were primitively 
 heated in the various parts of the world they inhabit, and that 
 they arose everywhere in those harmonious numeric pro- 
 portions with other living beings, which would at once 
 secure their preservation, and contribute to their welfare.* 
 
 "To suppose that all men originated from xidam and 
 Eve, is to assume that the order of creation has been changed^ 
 in the course of historical times, and to give to the Mosaic 
 record, a meaning that it never was intended to have." 
 (Christ. Exam. July, 1850, pp. 185-148.) 
 
 In another part of the same Essay, Agassiz says, *'"We 
 maintain that, like all other organized beings, mankind 
 cannot have originated in single individuals, but must 
 have been created in that numeric harmony which is char- 
 acteristic of each species : men must have originated in na- 
 tions, as the bees have originated in swarms^ (Id. p. 128.) 
 
 This is certainly explicit enough. 
 
 But, against this theory of the origin of the different 
 races of men, as thus put forth by Agassiz, and against 
 the arguments he here adduces to sustain it, several 
 weighty objections present themselves. 
 
 In the first place, this theory rests wholly on assumption ! 
 
 Professor Agassiz first states the facts. These are ad- 
 mitted by all. Different varietiesf of men exist; and 
 
 * That is in those regions where wild animals sprang forth abundantly 
 for game, men appeared as spontaneous products of the soil, in propor- 
 tionate numbers, to pursue and prey on them. 
 
 t It may be proper here to remind the reader that different writers 
 advocate different systems, as to the number of races into which men 
 
428 MAN ONE FAMILY. 
 
 these different varieties are found existing (most gener- 
 ally, but not always, as will be shown directly) each in 
 its own zoological province, (p. 13G.) Thus the Arctic 
 races of man inhabit the treeless region near the Arctics, 
 in all the three great northern continents, a region hav- 
 ing animals and plants peculiar to itself, and found no- 
 where else. The negro, in Central Africa, occupies an- 
 other zoological province : its fauna and its flora are pe- 
 culiar, and are not found elsewhere. The Hottentots in 
 South Africa are another distinct race, surrounded by a 
 fauna and a flora found in that region alone. So also in 
 
 should be devided. The great Linnsens divided men into five varieties — 
 the American, European, Asiatic, African, and those of prseternatural 
 conformation, Albinoes for instance. BufTon contended for six varieties; 
 these lie afterwards reduced to five. The scientific Blumenbach held to 
 five varieties — a classification now, perhaps, most generally adopted. 
 Cnvier reduced the races to three, leaving, however, several varieties uo- 
 classifled. Malte Brun, the geographer, proposes sixteen varieties. The 
 scientific and industrious Dr. Morton of Philadelphia, whose recent death 
 is lamented by all the lovers of independent research, embraced sub- 
 stantially the classification of Blumenbach, reckoning five races. (1,) The 
 Mongolian, in Asia and the extreme northern America ; (2,) the Caucar 
 sian, covering Europe, North Africa, together with Arabia, Persia, Asia 
 Minor, and Ilindostan in Asia ; (3,) the Malay, in Malacca, Sumatra, 
 Borneo, and a few other islands in the Southern Ocean ; (4,) the Amer- 
 ican race, covering this whole continent south of about 66° of north 
 latitude ; (5,) the Etliiopian race, covering all Africa, south of about 20° 
 north latitude, together with New Holland, New Guinea, and some few 
 of the isles of the great Southern Ocean. (Morton's Cran. Amer. pp. 3- 
 7, and map.) This five-fold division Professor Agassiz seems mainly to 
 recognize, although he makes the Cape of Good Hope and New Holland 
 each the seat of a separate race. Dr. Pickering, of the United States' 
 Exploring Expedition, says, on the contrary, " I have seen, in all, eleven 
 varieties of men ; though I am hardly prepared to fix a positive limit 
 to their number." (Pickering on Races, p. 303.) " There is, 1 conceive, 
 no middle ground between the admission of eleven distinct species in the 
 human family, and the reduction to one." (p. 306.) 
 
MAN ONE FAMILY. 429 
 
 New Holland is found a distinct race, and the animals 
 and tlie plants around that race, are peculiar to the region 
 they occupy ! 
 
 Now, says Professor Agassiz, " As these plants and ani- 
 mals originated luhere they are found^ and did not reach 
 these several regions by radiating from some other centre 
 till they came there, why should not these several races 
 of men have originated in the regions they severally oc- 
 cupy, and to which, and to the fauna and the flora thereof, 
 they are severally adapted ? If man alone originated in 
 one common centre, and thence radiated over the earth, 
 while other animals originated where they now exist, 
 this would be an inconsistency in the laivs ofnatiireP (Christ. 
 Exam. p. 137.) 
 
 Here it is first assumed that the fauna (^. e. the animals, 
 the living creatures,) of the several zoological provinces, 
 originated there, as truly as did the flora, i. e. the plants. 
 
 But now, of this origination of all the animals on the 
 ground they now occupy, this creation of animals in the 
 several different localities where they now exist, the pro- 
 fessor gives no proof — he can give none. However 
 probable such creation of all animals in their several 
 native localities may appear in the eyes of a naturalist, 
 it is probability at the most. Certain, it is not — proved^ 
 it cannot he. 
 
 But this creation, which at the best is but a probable 
 sujjposition^ the professor here assumes as a certain truth, 
 a kind of axiom. 
 
 And yet the Bible seems, at least, to teach otherwise, so 
 far as tlie fauna of all eartKs regions is concerned : else why 
 were pairs and septuples of all living creatures sheltered 
 with Noah in the ark, for the declared purpose " to keep 
 
430 MAN ONE FAMILY. 
 
 seed alive upon the face of all the earth,^' (Gen. vii. 3,) till 
 after the subsidence of that mighty flood, in which, God 
 himself declared, "every living substance that I have 
 made, will I destroy from off the face of the earth." (Gen. 
 vii. 4.) Professor Agassiz avows a profound respect for 
 the Mosaic record. (See pp. Ill, 138.) If the 6th and 
 7th chapters of Genesis be not mere myth, it is difficult 
 to conceive how the Mosaic record can be reconciled with 
 the position,* that all the several fauna, in the several 
 zoological provinces now found on our globe, originated 
 in those localities, and did not radiate from another and 
 a distant centre, till they reached their present localities. 
 Be that as it may, the original production of animals in 
 the several zoological provinces they now occupy, is as- 
 sumed by Agassiz, without proof; and therefore the ar- 
 gument for the origin of the several races of men in 
 their several localities, being thus based on a mere as- 
 sumption, unproved, and incapable of proof, is utterly 
 yoid of force. 
 
 Similar baseless assumption vitiates many of the argu- 
 ments employed by the advocates of diversity of origin 
 for the several races of men. 
 
 Again, 2d. In his mode of treating this subject, Professor 
 Agassiz is inconsistent with his avowed principles. 
 
 He begins by declaring that the question of the unity 
 or diversity of race among men, is one of science merely, 
 
 * The author cannot but express his regret to notice that Dr. Smythe 
 seems to countenance the idea of some animals not destroyed in the 
 deluge. (See his Preface, p. xxiii. 8, a.) Dr. Bachioan, also, seems to aban- 
 don the universality of the deluge. (See his chap, xvii.) Stillingfleet 
 (Origines Sacrae, b. iii. chap. iv. vol. ii. pp. 104, 105) and Dr. J. Pye Smith, 
 admit only a local inundation. The reasoning of these authors to main- 
 tain this position, is far from being conclusive. 
 
MAN ONE FAMILY. 431 
 
 and is to be discussed on grounds purely and exclusively 
 scientific, (p. 110.) And yet he soon begins to reason 
 from the Bible, and attempts to show that his views are 
 not in contradiction of the Bible ; and he hesitates not to 
 offer a novel* interpretation, as the true and the only 
 true meaning of the Bible record on this subject, (pp. 134, 
 135, 138.) This is inconsistent ; but it is an inconsisten- 
 cy not unusual with the opponents of the unity of the 
 races. (See Two Lectures, &c. 1844, Introduction, p. 3. 
 lb. 1849, p. 7.) 
 
 Once more, (3.) The theory of Agassiz is imperfect ; it is 
 indeed inconsistent with itself On this theory Genesis 
 furnishes an account of the origin and early history of the 
 white race of man. That account distinctly ascribes the 
 race it treats of to an origin from one single human pair, 
 Adam and Eve. 
 
 Yet Agassiz contends mankind could not have origi- 
 nated in single individuals ; they must have originated in 
 nations^ as bees in swarms. This declaration is without 
 restriction, it covers the whole of mankind, one race just 
 as truly as another. If this declaration of Agassiz be 
 true, then no one of all the several races of men could 
 have originated in single individuals, or otherwise than in 
 nations; yet he admits the authority of Genesis, and 
 Genesis, on his theory, declares that the white race, at 
 least, originated in single individuals, the one sole primi- 
 tive pair, Adam and Eve. Here is an obvious and a 
 
 * It is a novel and a bold position that Prof. A. takes, in asserting that 
 " made of one bbod,'' Acts xvii. 26, applied to men of all nations, relates 
 not at all to a genital connection, to affinity by ties of blood and descent, 
 but to the higher union found in similarity of the moral and the intel- 
 lectual nature. 
 
432 MAN ONE FAMILY. 
 
 glaring inconsistency ; a contrariety between the autllo^ 
 ity acknowledged by Agassiz, and his own scheme. 
 
 Now which of the two is to be believed, Professor 
 Agassiz, or Moses ? 
 
 Again, 4th. His theory is inconsistent vnth itself in an- 
 other and a most important respect. Thus, p. 136, he says, 
 " Wherever we find a human race naturally circum- 
 scribed, it is connected in its location with what we call, 
 in natural history, a zoological and botanical province ; 
 that is to say, with the natural limitation of a particular 
 association of animals and plants ; and this," (he adds,) 
 ** shows most unequivocally the intimate relation exist- 
 ing between mankind and the animal kingdom, in their 
 adaptation to the physical world ;" and he instances the 
 Arctic race of men, the Mongolian, the Negro, the Hot- 
 tentot, and the New Hollander, each race occupying its 
 own peculiar zoological province. To show more clearly 
 that each race is thus closely connected with the fauna 
 and flora of the region it occupies, and that this distinc- 
 tion of race is not produced, nor affected by climate. Pro- 
 fessor A. refers us to China, and to corresponding lati- 
 tudes in Africa and in America, and also to New Holland 
 and the extreme south of Africa and of America, where, 
 in the regions so compared, the climate is very similar, 
 but where the races of men differ most from each other, 
 and where a corresponding difference is found in the 
 fauna and the flora of these countries. 
 
 All this is certainly true, so far as it goes ; and if the 
 reasoning of Prof. A. from these facts be correct, then we 
 shall find that each race of men inhabits its oivn peculiar 
 and appropriate zoological province ; the argument being, 
 that each race is constitutionally adapted to the region it 
 
MAN ONE FAMILY. 433 
 
 occupies, and to the animal and vegetable productions of 
 that particular region. They all originated together in the 
 same locality. They were created with a mutual adaptation 
 the one to the other. Thus the negro is not adapted to the 
 fauna and the flora of South Africa, nor the Hottentot to 
 those of central Africa. But if this be so, how comes it, 
 that on this great western continent, throughout its 
 whole vast length and breadth, stretching almost from 
 pole to pole, is found everywhere spread, native to the 
 soil, the one race^ the aboriginal American? the red man 
 of the forest ? the common American Indian ? 
 
 Professor Agassiz does himself testify, " It has been 
 satisfactoril}^ established, that over the whole continent* 
 of America, south of the Arctic zone, (which is inhabited 
 by Esquimaux.) all the numerous tribes of Indians have 
 the same physical character; that they belong to the 
 same race from north to south, and that the primitive in- 
 habitants of central tropical America, do not physically 
 differ from the primitive inhabitants of the more northern 
 or southern regions." " In this case we have the great- 
 est uniformity in the character of the tribes of an entire 
 continent,f under the most different climatic influences. 
 But, in their physical peculiarities these tribes differ as 
 well from the Africans, as from the Asiatic tribes, and 
 the inhabitants of New Holland." (p. 126.) 
 
 In this instance we find one race covering a vastly ex- 
 tended region of country, which must comprise several 
 
 * In this general remark, (says Agassiz,) the isolated case of Mongo- 
 lians stranded on the western shores of America, as far as they are well 
 authenticated, are, of course, excepted. 
 
 t See also, Pickering on the Races, p. 16. Bachman's Doctrine of the 
 Unity of the Human Races, pp. 269, 272. 
 
 19 
 
434 MAN ONE FAMILY. 
 
 various zoological and botanical provinces. For, surely, 
 no one will contend that Patagonia and Mexico, Brazil 
 and New England, Oregon and the cotton-growing states 
 of the South present all and severally, one and the same 
 fauna and flora. 
 
 Here, then, is an exception, fatal, as it would seem, to 
 the theory of Professor Agassiz. For, if one and the 
 same race of men are found flourishing and indigenous 
 in different regions, characterized by different groups of 
 animal and vegetable organizations, as well as by widely 
 variant climates, then clearly there is no such adaptation 
 in the constitution of any human race, to the animal and 
 vegetable groups by which it may be found surrounded, 
 as to warrant the argument from the fact, (even were it 
 a demonstrated fact, which it is not,) that those animal 
 groups originated in that locality, to the origination of 
 that human group also, in the same locality. 
 
 There is plainly no essential connection between the 
 different races of men, and the zoological provinces they 
 may be found occupying, any more than there is between 
 those races and the climatic influences that may surround 
 them. This," the extension of the one aboriginal race 
 over the entire American continent, north and south, 
 plainly shows. The theory of Professor Agassiz is in- 
 consistent with itself; it is based on only a partial view, 
 and an incorrect classification of the facts in the case ; it 
 cannot stand. 
 
 From these facts, therefore, it follows also, that, even 
 if men originated from a common centre, and spread over 
 the earth, radiating from that common centre, (pp. 126, 
 127,) their present differences cannot be accounted for 
 by, or be owing solely to, influences that arise out of pe- 
 
MAN ONE FAMILY. 435 
 
 culiarities of climate and mode of life. Because, in re- 
 gions where these peculiarities are alike, races the most 
 dissimilar are found : and over regions where these pecu- 
 liarities are widely dissimilar, the same race is found to 
 prevail, as in America. We may, therefore, adopt the 
 opinions of Agassiz on this point, and say, (p. 127,) We 
 can see hut one conclusion to he drawn from these facts^ viz. 
 that these races cannot have assumed their peculiar fea- 
 tures after* they had migrated into these countries from 
 ,a supposed common centre. " We must^ therefore^ seek an- 
 other explanation^ 
 
 We may also adopt another conclusion of Agassiz, viz. 
 " The adaptation of different races of men to different parts 
 of the world must he intentional^ as well as that of other 
 beings," (p. 137.) 
 
 For, that there is an adaptation of man to the circum- 
 stances in which he is placed, and an adaptation of those 
 circumstances to man, who is surrounded and affected by 
 them, admits of no question ; although we may fail to 
 detect wherein, precisely, that adaptation lies. It is not 
 in climate, nor in climatic influence, nor in association 
 with any one particular group of surrounding animals, 
 or any particular class of vegetable productions; as we 
 have just seen. Yet, somewhere, there must doubtless 
 lie reasons, why one race of men exists and flourishes 
 best in one region, and another race in another locality. 
 
 Still, then, the inquiry recurs. Why is it that different 
 
 * This language is perhaps stronger than the facts will warrant. The 
 facts do not prove that the changes did not take place after migration 
 thither : but the facts do prove that the changes were not the consequence 
 of such migration ; i. e. were not occasioned by the influences into which 
 such migration brought them : i. e. the change is not the effect of climate. 
 
486 MAN ONE FAMILY. 
 
 races of men are found in different regions of the earth ? 
 Were they created where they are now found ? Or have 
 they originated at some other point, and gradually spread 
 abroad over the earth ? If this latter be the true solu- 
 tion, then how did these diversities arise ? Are they the 
 result of natural causes, slowly operating? Or were they 
 impressed on the human family by a direct intervention 
 of the Creator? If, so, when and where did this inter- 
 vention take place ? 
 
 As to the origin of man, or of the inferior creation, 
 reason can furnish no decision. 
 
 This is a point beyond the legitimate range of scien- 
 tific investigation. 
 
 The existence, the distinctive characteristics, the quali- 
 ties, the habits, the locality, and the mutual relations one 
 to another, of the several races of man, and of the fauna 
 and the flora of the several regions, or zoological prov- 
 inces where these different races of man are found, are 
 all subjects for scientific research, and scientific reasoning. 
 But the origin of things — of the lowest brute and of the 
 meanest herb, just as truly as of man himself, lies back 
 of human observation and human consciousness. No 
 mortal was present at the creation, to witness the mode 
 or the place in which any creature originated. No mor- 
 tal has ever seen a new order of plants or of animals 
 brought into existence. 
 
 Animals, and plants, and diflfering varieties of men 
 are found existing, in certain localities, possessed of cer- 
 tain distinctive qualities, and exhibiting certain numeri- 
 cal proportions, and bearing certain obvious relations to 
 each other, and to the locality wherein they are found. 
 These are facls^ which may be observed, and classified, 
 
MAN ONE FAMILY. 437 
 
 and used as the basis of reasoning, respecting the nature, 
 the uses, and the relative importance of these several ob- 
 jects ; but, as to the origin of any of these plants,- ani- 
 mals, or races of men, the facts observed yield no infor- 
 mation. On the origin of the smallest animalculse, 
 science, with all her boasted attainments, is incapable of 
 throwing any light. We may conjecture, we may even 
 make it appear probable, that men originated in nations 
 as bees in swarms ; or that men originated in the locali- 
 ties they now occupy ; or that all these several races 
 originated at some one central point, and thence radiated 
 gradually over the earth, till they reached the localities 
 where they are now found ; but, beyond a probable con- 
 jecture, science herself cannot go."^ 
 
 When, therefore, a naturalist so justly distinguished as 
 is Professor Agassiz, talks of evidence on this subject 
 amounting, in the mind of a naturalist, to demonstration^ 
 that man originated thus and so, it is plain that, for once, 
 this eminent philosopher ha^ forgotten the cool caution of 
 sound science. 
 
 Eeasoning on man, merely as a subject of natural his- 
 
 * On this subject the learned Johannes Miiller, pronounced by Hum- 
 boldt (Cosmos, vol. i. p. 353) to be one of the greatest anatomists of 
 the day, thus writes : " Whether the human races have descended from 
 several primitive races of men, or from one alone, is a question that can- 
 not be determined from experience." (Physiologic des Menschen.) 
 
 Miiller is unquestionably right. Neither experience nor science can 
 determine this point. 
 
 William Von Humbold also says : " The first origin of mankind is a 
 phenomenon wholly beyond the sphere of experience." Again : " A so- 
 lution of these difficult questions cannot be determined by inductive 
 reasoning, or experience." (Cosmos, i. p. 355.) 
 
 These learned men are right. Revelation alone can determine the so- 
 lution of these recondite points. 
 
438 MAN ONE FAMILY. 
 
 tory, this distinguished naturalist concludes, that the dif- 
 ferent races could not have originated from one pair, nor 
 from a common centre, but rather, that mankind origi- 
 nated in groups, or nations, as bees in swarms ; and that 
 each race originated in the locality where now it exists, 
 as did the fauna around it. 
 
 In reaching this conclusion, we think he reasons from 
 insufficient, and indeed from false premises. 
 
 We believe that the brute creation did not originate 
 in the several countries where now they flourish. But, 
 even were that point conceded, his reasoning is not con- 
 clusive. He regards man as a mere animal, and bases 
 his reasoning upon the merely animal nature of man. 
 He says, it would be an inconsistency unprecedented in 
 nature's laws, if, all other animals around him originating 
 where they are, man alone should have sprung from a 
 common centre elsewhere, and thence radiated to the 
 points he now holds. 
 
 Were man possessed of an animal nature merely, this 
 reasoning might hold good. But, in many and most 
 important respects, man is different from, and superior 
 to, all other animals. He alone is a cosmopolite,* capa- 
 ble of living and flourishing in all climates, and in all 
 countries. He alone is possessed of reason, and of a 
 moral nature, qualifying him to find motives for settling 
 in some places, and avoiding others ; and enabling him 
 also to adapt himself to the circumstances around him, 
 and to render circumstances seemingly unfavorable, trib- 
 utary to his safety and his comfort. 
 
 If, now, it is no inconsistency in nature's laws, (as it 
 certainly is not, since the difference does exist,) that man 
 ♦ " Principles of Zoology," by Agassiz and Oould, chap. xiii. $ 1, p. 164. 
 
MAN ONE FAMILY. 489 
 
 should differ thus widely from all other animals, it can- 
 not be an inconsistency in these laws, that man should 
 differ also in his origin; that he (however mere animals 
 may have originated) should have sprung from one pair, 
 and have radiated from one common centre. Differing 
 in so many other and important respects from all animals, 
 reason might seem rather to infer that man should have 
 differed from them also in the mode of his origin ; and that 
 the very fact of man's having so many distinctive pecu- 
 liarities appertaining to him as man, and constituting a 
 wide difference between man and all mere brute animals, 
 springs from and proves a mode of origin in man dif- 
 ferent from that of brutes. The Mosaic record accounts 
 well for this superiority in man. Man was formed more 
 immediately by the hand of his Maker, and his life was 
 breathed into his nostrils by the very breath of God. 
 The brute animals all issued from the teeming bosom 
 of the earth, at the fiat of the Creator. 
 
 Most of the errors of naturalists in relation to man, 
 spring from this one mistake. Because man is possessed 
 of an animal nature, therefore they regard him, and rea- 
 son about him, just as if he were an animal merely. 
 They lose sight entirely of his higher nature, as rational 
 and moral, although this his higher nature may be rea- 
 sonably expected to affect his condition, his destiny, and 
 everything relating to him, not excepting his origin. But, 
 after all, reason cannot decide this question : and if we 
 can find no better guidance than mere science can ex- 
 tend to us, the question as to the origin of man, whether 
 in one place or in many, whether in groups and nations 
 or from one sole original pair, must ever remain an in- 
 
440 MAN ONE FAMILY. 
 
 scrutable mystery, " lost in the darkness oftJie heginning of 
 the world J^ 
 
 This obscure point none but the Creator himself can 
 elucidate. This elucidation is, as we believe, furnished 
 in the Bible, which is shown, by a long array of varied 
 and accumulative evidence, to be an inspired book, the 
 very Word of God. 
 
 The Bible teaching on this subject is briefly given, but 
 it is very plain, as thus : 
 
 After recording the reduction of our globe from a state 
 of wild chaos, and its being covered with vegetation, illu- 
 mined by the heavenly orbs, and peopled with its various 
 animal tribes, in a series of creative acts, which were ex- 
 tended through a period of six consecutive days, Moses 
 tells us that on the sixth of those days God created man, 
 (Adam, I'homme, I'espece humaine, singulier collectif, 
 says Cahen,*) forming out of the dust of the ground one 
 rnan, Adam, and then forming also one woman whom he 
 gave to the man as his wife ; and on these, the first and 
 only pair created by his own hand, God pronounced the 
 blessing of fertility, " Be ye fruitful^ and multiply, and re- 
 plenish the earth, and subdue it ;" and he gave them also 
 dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowls of 
 the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon 
 the earth," Gen. i. 28. Thus, we are told, God created 
 man, {Adam, the term is generic, designating the human 
 race, ^'' singulier collectif,''' says Cahen,) male and female 
 created he them. Gen. i. 27. 
 
 The whole passage conveys the idea that this is the 
 account of the origin of the human race. No hint is given 
 by Moses, nor is any intimation found in any other part 
 * La Bible, Traduction Nouvelle, par M. Cahen, Paris, 1832. 
 
MAN ONE FAMILY. 441 
 
 of the Bible, that other men, or other human beings were 
 produced on earth, saving only this one primitive pair, 
 and their descendants. 
 
 Ere long we read of the temptation of this first human 
 pair, and of their fall by sin. The result of this event 
 was that their offspring were, like themselves, depraved. 
 After his sin Adam begat a son in his own likeness, 
 (Gen. V. 3,) i. e. inclined to evil, not holy, not in the 
 image of God. That image Adam had lost by sin. 
 
 Now it is abundantly plain that this depravity of 
 nature, this proneness to evil rather than to good, apper- 
 tains, to this *very day, and it has always, and every- 
 where, apperilined to man, and to all men of all coun- 
 tries, and of all the now differing races of men. No per- 
 fect character has ever appeared among men, saving only 
 Jesus of Nazareth. This universal depravity of men is 
 fully accounted for on the supposition that all men of all 
 races are descended from one and the same primitive 
 pair. But, reject that doctrine, and you have the fact of 
 man's depravity still existing, but existing as a fact un- 
 accountable, and inexplicably mysterious. 
 
 The Bible teaches, also, that after the lapse of some 
 centuries from the creation of man, such was the great 
 wickedness of mankind, that God found it necessary to 
 sweep away the impious race by a general deluge, from 
 which one family alone, consisting of eight persons, was 
 saved. Noah, with his three sons and their wives, were 
 the sole survivors of that universal calamity ; and from 
 them and their descendants was the earth again replen- 
 ished with inhabitants. Consequently, all men, now on 
 earth must be the descendants of Noah. 
 
 But mankind are now found exhibiting great diversity 
 
 19* 
 
442 MAN ONE FAMILY. 
 
 of complexion, form, structure, and habits, which con- 
 stitute distinctive marks of different varieties or races. 
 
 These races are found occupying each its own peculiar 
 portion of the earth's surface ; each race is invariably 
 propagated by hereditary descent ; and among these 
 races a great variety of different languages are spoken. 
 
 For this diversity of language and of race also, the Mosaic 
 narrative furnishes a solution. 
 
 When the descendants of Noah were on the plains of 
 Shinar, they united together to erect a tower at Babel, on 
 purpose to keep together, and to avoid ^^ being scattered 
 abroad over thefaceofHie lohole earth^^^ Gen. xi. 4. 
 
 To defeat this purpose, and to ensure the dispersion of 
 man over the surface of the whole earth, (see Gen. xi. 
 5-9,) the Creator did himself interfere, by a direct and 
 preternatural exertion of his own power, so as to pro- 
 duce diversity of language, and to effect the dispersion 
 of man into all the different countries and different cli- 
 mates over the face of all the earth. 
 
 If, then, as naturalists tell us, the peculiarities in the 
 complexion, the osteological structure, the muscular de- 
 velopment, the nervous system, the veins, the arterial ar- 
 rangement, and the respiratory organs, as well as in the 
 cuticular secretions, existing in the different races as now 
 found, be necessarily* connected with the zoological 
 provinces in which these several races of men are now 
 seen naturally existirfg and best flourishing, and with 
 the influences which there surround them ; if, also, the 
 languages spoken by the several races of men, differ in 
 the same proportion as their organs of speech are variously 
 modified; and if, as we freely admit with Professor 
 * See Agassiz in Christ. Examiner, July, 1850, pp. 136, 137. 
 
MAN ONE FAMILY. 443 
 
 Agassiz,* " the adaptation of different races of men to different 
 jparts of the world he intentional^^'* on the part of the Cre- 
 ator, then inasmuch as, instead of the creation of these 
 several races of men, with all their distinctive peculiar- 
 ities upon them as now, each in the locality where now it 
 is found, as Agassiz supposes, Moses informs us that, at 
 Babel, God himself did directly interfere, in order to pro- 
 duce, in the one uniform stock of Noah's descendants, 
 the sole survivors of the deluge, a variety of languages, 
 and the dispersion and settlement of different branches 
 of this one primitive stock, in all regions and all climates 
 over the face of all the earth : and if, as none will deny, what- 
 ever God does. He does effectually, so as to secure the at- 
 tainment of the object aimed at; it follows clearly, that 
 the difference of complexion, of anatomical structure, and 
 of constitutional peculiarities in different branches of 
 mankind, as now found, being necessary to produce di- 
 versity of language, and to effect dispersion into all cli- 
 mates, (or at least being a necessary incident to such dis- 
 persion,) the intervention of God at Babel did certainly 
 secure them all. 
 
 This occurrence at Babel was, therefore, the time, and 
 this the occasion, in which the Creator himself did mi- 
 raculously interfere, to produce, in a primitively more 
 uniform race, all the changes necessary to constitute the 
 various races now found. 
 
 The passage of Scripture demanded by Professor 
 Agassiz in his challenge (p. 134,) is here presented, in 
 Gen. xi. 5-9. The introduction of a constitutional law 
 in man's very nature, to secure, sooner or later, all the 
 varieties now found among men, and necessary to adapt 
 
 * See Christ. Exam. July, 1850, p. 137. 
 
444 MAN ONE FAMILY. 
 
 these several races to their several localities in the zoo- 
 logical provinces they have permanently occupied, did 
 take place at Babel, if Moses wrote the truth, and if the 
 principles laid down by Agassiz himself, and by other 
 naturalists be correct. All that was necessary to secure 
 the end he aimed at, was certainly known to God ; and 
 everything so necessary, he was able to do. 
 
 Moses says that God did, at Babel, directly and miracu- 
 lously interfere, to produce diversity of languages, and to 
 effect the dispersion of mankind ^^ abroad upon the face of 
 all the earthJ'' Mankind are now found actually speaking 
 different languages ; and found, too, spread " abroad upon 
 the face of all Hie earths 
 
 But mankind are found also, presenting great diversity 
 of appearance, and of structure, in these different coun- 
 tries; so that they are divided into different varieties or 
 races, each race being adapted to the region it occupies, 
 and to the fauna and the flora found in that region. 
 
 If so, then this adaptation is inseparably connected 
 with this dispersion. The purpose to disperse man, 
 whether to disperse him from and in his first creation, or 
 subsequently to the creation, must, therefore, have inclu- 
 ded the purpose to produce in man the peculiarities of his 
 physical constitution, necessary to his being so dispersed. 
 Moreover the execution of this purpose to disperse men 
 abroad over all the earth, must have included^ tJie produc- 
 tion in man of this adaptedness of his physical organiza- 
 tion to live and flourish in the several regions over which 
 he was to be dispersed. 
 
 Agassiz supposes that this execution of the purpose to 
 disperse man over all the earth, took place in the original 
 production of the several races, distinct as now, in nations, 
 
MAN ONE FAMILY. 445 
 
 as bees in swarms, in the localities where they are now 
 found. 
 
 But Moses tells us that at Babel, this purpose to dis- 
 perse man over all the earth was ejffected, and that by a 
 great change wrought upon the mass of mankind^ who 
 were all the descendants of the one family of Noah. 
 
 If Moses is to be believed, this constitutional difference 
 in man, which produced diversity in the organs of speech, 
 which resulted in the dispersion of mankind into all 
 countries on the surface of the earth, as they are now 
 found, and which must have included all that constitutes 
 the diversity of the races, without which men could not 
 live dispersed abroad ^^ over the face of all the earth J ^ was 
 miraculously effected by the Creator himself at Babel. 
 (See Gen. xi. 5-9.) 
 
 Keasoning from the principles laid down by naturalists 
 themselves, therefore, it is plain, the challenge of the 
 scientific Agassiz to the contrary notwithstanding, that 
 there is a passage in the Scriptures, pointing, by necessary 
 and inevitable inference, at "those physical differences 
 which we notice between the white race and the Chinese, 
 the New Hollanders, the* Malays, the American Indians 
 and the Negroes, as having been introduced, in the course 
 of time, among the children of Adam and Eve,"* even 
 though the distinction between the dark races and the 
 white, is not there either formally made, or alluded to in 
 express terms. 
 
 If the Caucasian, or white race alone be noticed in the 
 earlier history of Genesis, what sense can be attached to 
 the narrative given in the 11th chapter of Genesis, re- 
 specting the confounding of the language of all the earth, 
 * Christian Examiner for July, 1850, pp. 134, 135. 
 
446 MAN ONE FAMILY. 
 
 at Babel ? Do the branches of the white race alone speak 
 varying tongues ? Is the white race alone scattered abroad 
 upon the face of all the earth f 
 
 Inextricable confusion and absurdity result from the 
 attempt to restrict the history given in Genesis, to the 
 Caucasian race exclusively. No man, who has not some 
 favorite theory to uphold, would think of so restricting 
 it. The circumstances mentioned in the narrative itself, 
 and the tenor and spirit of the whole Bible go to show, 
 that that history details the origin of the wlwle family of 
 mauj from Adam in Eden, and from Noah after the 
 deluge ; and that at Babel we have an account of the 
 origin of all the diversity of languages now prevailing, 
 and with it, of the origin of all the various races of man- 
 kind. 
 
 Herein are detailed the circumstances under which, the 
 power of the Creator was directly introduced, for the pur- 
 pose of so modifying the constitution and the physical 
 frame of the different branches of Noah's family assem- 
 bled at Babel on the plains of Shinar, as that, though still 
 human, and each exhibiting all the attributes of a common 
 humanity, yet each separate branch of this human family 
 should become distinctly marked, and adapted to the re- 
 gion it should afterwards occupy ; the negro branch 
 especially, as fitted for burning, tropical regions. 
 
 The constitutional law of change might be then at once, 
 and finally impressed upon the different branches of man, 
 simultaneously with the ^^confounding of the language of all 
 the earthy (Gen. xi. 9.) 
 
 The operation of that new law might have been sudden 
 and instantaneous : although it is not improbable that 
 the operation would be gradual, developing itself through 
 
MAN ONE FAMILY. 447 
 
 several successive generations, and developing itself the 
 more fully the nearer each of these several divisions of 
 the human family drew to the region of the earth, towards 
 which an appropriate instinct tended, and for a residence 
 in which, the advancing change was adapting the con- 
 stitution.* 
 
 But, the change once wrought, remained permanent. 
 The new varieties reverted not back to their original type, 
 whatever that type may have been. Such, we know, is 
 still the law impressed upon animal nature, in the inferior 
 creation. New varieties may be formed, and have not un- 
 frequently been formed, especially in the dog, the horse, 
 sheep, hog, &c. (See Pritchard's Kesearches, vol. i. pp. 
 849-353,) but, when once formed, the variety remains, 
 and does not revert back to the original form. (See 
 Dr. Bachman, Unity of the Human Kace, pp. 179, 191. 
 Pickering on the Paces, p. 305.) 
 
 If to effect a separation of the one race of mankind into 
 distinct bands or tribes, and their gradual dispersion over 
 the earth, were the object aimed at in '•''confounding the 
 language of all the earthj'' as Moses distinctly asserts it was, 
 that object, it is plain, on the principles conceded by 
 naturalists themselves, could not, with absolute certainty, 
 be accomplished, without the superaddition of a constitu- 
 tional law, or peculiarity, the operation of which should, 
 sooner or later, produce such diversity in complexion, 
 features, osteal configuration, and cuticular secretions, as 
 
 * Many historical facts, showing the early population of most of the 
 inhabited countries of the world, favor the supposition of the immediate 
 migration to their " appropriate zoological provinces,''^ of the new races 
 resulting from divine interposition at Babel. (See, in this Lecture, the 
 article ''Early Civilization.^^ 
 
448 MAN ONE FAMILY. 
 
 are found now prevailing, and are indispensable to the 
 permanent residence and well-being of men in the cli- 
 mates and the regions occupied by the several races. 
 This view is based upon the plain teachings of Moses in 
 Genesis. It is more rational, and more philosophical, 
 than the theory of the distinct origin of many groups of 
 men of different races in several localities : even if such 
 multiplied creations of men do not amount to the separate 
 creation of several distinct stocks of the same species of 
 beings, at different and distinct centres : in contradiction 
 of the law laid down by naturalists. Thus Dr. Bachman 
 says, (see chapter xiii. and pp. 248, 256,) " The creator 
 never called into existence the same species in two or more h- 
 calitiesy (See Pickering on the Races, pp. 302, 303.) 
 
 To avoid this inconsistency, it is maintained, that the 
 different races of men are distinct species, not mere 
 varieties of the same species. This point will be con- 
 sidered hereafter. 
 
 Nor is this view of the origin of the races liable to the 
 objection urged by Agassiz when he says, p. 138, " To 
 suppose that all men originated from Adam and Eve is 
 to assume that the order of creation has been changed in 
 the course of historical times F^ For this change was effect- 
 ed in the order of nature long anteiior to historical times^ 
 as truly as the deluge, the occurrence of which no one 
 denies, was anterior to historical times. It was therefore 
 anterior, also, to the very oldest Egyptian monuments 
 and records, and to the most ancient of the Chinese 
 annals, and of the Indian histories, that are entitled to 
 any, the least degree of credit. 
 
 This preternatural occurrence, (the account of which 
 is given by Moses, the earliest of all credible and authen- 
 
MAN ONE FAMILY. 449 
 
 ticated historians, and a prophet inspired of God,) took 
 place at a period early enough to account for the ap- 
 pearance of the different races — Negro, Mongol, and 
 Caucasian — as distinct as now, on the earliest of the 
 Egyptian monuments. 
 
 On the view of this subject here presented, everything 
 is complete and consistent. Mankind are all one family, 
 all descended from the one family saved with Noah in 
 the ark ; and the appearance of the present diversity 
 of race and of language, is explained by the miraculous 
 intervention of God at Babel, which is distinctly revealed. 
 All existing difficulties attending this subject are here 
 obviated, without resort to any one miracle more than 
 is asserted in Holy Writ. It is only admitting that when 
 the Bible says God interfered miraculously in the affairs 
 of men, in order to effect a certain object, he did all that 
 was necessary to secure that object. If the diversity of 
 races, as well as difference of language, was necessary to 
 secure that object, then the diversity of race as well as 
 of language, was provided for and secured, in that very 
 coming down of God at Babel mentioned in Genesis xi. 
 We are not obliged, in receiving this view of the origin of 
 races and of languages among men, to decide how many 
 races precisely^ were then originated. Whatever was neces- 
 sary to the dispersion of man abroad over the whole earth, 
 was then effected. To this day, on the number of the 
 human races the most eminent naturalists are not agreed. 
 
 Make out, then, if you choose, three with Cuvier ; or 
 
 with Blumenbach and with Morton, five ; or eleven with 
 
 Pickering ; or sixteen with Malte Brun ; or any larger 
 
 number, say one hundred"^ different races in as many 
 
 * See Two Lectures, p. 33. 
 
460 MAN ONE FAMILY. 
 
 zoological provinces. We can receive them all, and 
 turn to this passage in Genesis, as accounting fully for 
 their occurrence among the numerous branches of the 
 human family descended from the same pair created in 
 Eden, and again descended all from Noah.* In entire 
 
 ♦ This solution of the phenomenon of so many varieties among the 
 descendants of the one Noachian family, founded on the 11th chapter 
 of Genesis, the author first stated in a lecture on this subject delivered 
 in Mobile, in January, 1844. 
 
 In his Two Lectures, published in Mobile that same year. Dr. Nott 
 thus notices the suggestion, p. 28, note : •' It has been sujrposed that the 
 varieties of the human race were produced at the tower of Babel when 
 the confusion of tongues occurred : but so remarkable an occurrence 
 would have been mentioned. We might just as well suppose that some 
 were changed into monkeys, while others were changed into negroes. In 
 urging a question of this kind, we want/ac/5." This is hardly courteous. 
 Injustice to Dr. N., however, it may be remarked, he had probably only 
 heard from others that such ground had been taken by his friendly op- 
 ponent The argument by which the author's view of the passage in 
 (Genesis is supported, was not published until July, 1860, when It was 
 g:iven in No«. 6 and 6 of a series of Essays entitled, •' Tkmights on Man 
 and the Bible" published in the Southern Presbyterian. To the sugges- 
 tion i\iaX facts are wanted in relation to such a subject, loc reply, On this 
 subject /ac/5 cannot be Kad. Facts in this case are anterior to all observa- 
 tion. The doctrine of diversity of origin for the races of man is a mere 
 theory — a mere supposition based on assumption, as has been already 
 shown. The doctrine that such diversity was occasioned by the direct 
 intervention of Ood at Babel, rests on a distipct statement in revelation, 
 from which this doctrine seems necessarily to flow. 
 
 The doctrine here advanced, is also nearly resembling the position as- 
 sumed by Dr. Bach man of Charleston, 8. C. ; only Dr. B. supposes that 
 from the beginning the Creator implanted in the organization of men an 
 adaptation to produce such modifications as are essential to the health, com- 
 fort, aiul fxdure increase of man's posterity, in the regions he is to inhabit. 
 (See p. 179.) Hence the production of new varieties in man. 
 
 From the strictures of Dr. Bachman (see his chap. xvi. p. 241, &c.,) 
 on the work of Mr. W. F. Van Amringe, (New York, 1848,) on the 
 
MAN ONE FAMILY. 
 
 ttl 
 
 consistency with this view of the essential unity of man- 
 kind, is the whole current of revelation. 
 
 Having accounted, as above shown, for the diversity 
 of languages and of races among men, Moses briefly 
 states the several subdivisions of the human family as 
 migrating in different directions, to people the whole 
 earth. Very speedily thereafter the sacred history con- 
 fines itself to the chosen race, who were to be the deposi- 
 tary of true religion, the recipients and the guardians of 
 the sacred oracles, and from among whom the Messias, 
 the Redeemer of mankind, was to spring. Prophet after 
 prophet appeared among the chosen race, proclaiming the 
 future advent of this illustrious personage, and announ- 
 cing that, eventually, all tribes and all nations of men, 
 should submit to his sway. Throughout the prophetic 
 books, though rarely is mention expressly made of dis- 
 similar races, (unless it be in the use of the terms Ethio- 
 pian, i. e. persons of changeless dark hue, and " the isles 
 of the sea," "the Gentiles," and "the heathen,") yet all 
 are spoken of as men, as responsible to God, and as 
 awaiting the advent of a Saviour. 
 
 In the N'ew Testament a like recognition of the com- 
 mon humanity, and the essential identity of all tribes of 
 men, is found. Jesus is designated " the Saviour of the 
 
 " Natural History of Man," it would seem that that writer has pro- 
 mulgated a view somewhat similar to that here presented. The 
 change of race, Mr. Van A, maintains, was effected miraculously among 
 the sons of Noah. The error of Mr. Van A. would seem to lie in at- 
 tempting to fix the precise number of varieties so produced. He spe- 
 cifies four such varieties. Hence the objections urged against his views 
 by Dr. Bachman. 
 
 These objections do not apply to the view presented in this work. 
 
 The book of Mr. Van Amringe, the author has not yet seen. 
 
452 MAN ONE FAMILY. 
 
 world." He is called " the second Adam." " As in Adam 
 all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive." (1 Cor. xv. 
 21, 22.) " In Christ Jesus there is neither Jew nor Greek. 
 barbarian, Scythian, bond norfree.^* (Col. iii. 11.) All are 
 one in Christ. (See Rom. 6th chapter, 1 Cor. xv.) 
 ** There is none other name under heaven give among meii 
 whereby we must be saved, but the name of Jesus." (Acts 
 iv. 12.) 
 
 All this is perfectly plain, and in entire unison with 
 the common origin of all the races of men ; utterly in- 
 consistent with the doctrine of diversity of origin. All 
 men are depraved : because, descending from Adam a 
 fallen being, they inherit his corrupt nature ; and thus, 
 being guilty, and therefore condemned, all men need a 
 Saviour. 
 
 " Bi/ one man's disobedience, the many were made sinners^ 
 (Rom. V. 19.) ^^ By one man sin entered into Uie world and 
 death by sin, and so deatJi passed upon all men, for that all 
 have sinnedy (Rom. v. 12.) Clearly, then, Adam acted 
 as a public person, the head and representative of all his 
 posterity, and of none others. If the whole population 
 of the globe sprang from Adam, then all are affected by 
 hb fall. 
 
 But Jesus is the second Adam : for those endangered 
 by the results of the first Adam's fall, Christ undertook, 
 and for none else. This, the whole plan of salvation pre- 
 sented in the gospel, and this the whole reasoning of the 
 Apostle Paul, imply and prove. If all men, without ex- 
 ception, sprang from Adam, then for all, without excep- 
 tion, salvation is provided in Christ: and such is the 
 view, presented in the gospel, and authorized by Christ 
 himself, when he commanded, " Go ye into all the 
 
MAN ONE FAMILY. 453 
 
 world, and preach the gospel to every creature," Mark 
 xvi. 15. 
 
 But if the Bible history has respect to one race only, 
 then Christ lived, and suffered, and died for that one race 
 only. But what race was that ? Who can be certain, 
 of which race Adam was the head? Moreover, if, as 
 we are told, "it may be doubted, whether there bei 
 now a pure race on the earth," (see Dr. Nott, 1844, p. 28,) 
 then no man living can tell that he himself is en- 
 titled to look for the benefits of salvation* through 
 
 * It is strange that the learned and pious Dr. J. Pye Smith, lately 
 deceased, should have overlooked the bearings of this theory of diversity 
 of races. He had already abandoned the doctrine, that the Noachian 
 deluge was universal, and he seems to have held the unity of the races, 
 by a very feeble tenure. He says in his Supplementary Notes, p. 289 : 
 " If the two first inhabitants of Eden were the progenitors, not of all 
 human beings, but only of the race whence sprung the Hebrew family, 
 still it would remain the fact, that all were formed, by the immediate 
 power of God, and all their circumstances would remain the same as to 
 moral and practical purposes. Adam would be a figure of Him that was 
 to come, the Saviour of mankind, just as Melchizedek, or Moses, or 
 Aaron, or David ; the spiritual lesson would be the same ; the same ne- 
 cessity would exist for a saviour, a redemption, and a renovation of the 
 internal character by efficacious grace. 
 
 " That the Saviour was, in his human nature, a descendant of Adam, 
 would not militate against his being a proper redeemer for all the races 
 of mankind, any more than his being a descendant of Abraham, Israel, 
 and David, at all diminishes his perfection to save us, sinners of the gen- 
 tiles." (Scripture and Geology, Sup. Notes, p. 289.) 
 
 How Dr. Smith would have been able to reconcile this with the teach- 
 ings of Paul, especially Acts xvii. 26, and Romans chap, v., 1 Tim. ii. 
 11-15, and with sundry other places of holy writ, it is not easy to imagine. 
 For the time Dr. S. lost sight of the federal headship of both Christ and 
 Adam. It is dangerous to yield a single item of the plain teachings of 
 the Bible. Dr. Smith had abandoned the universality of the deluge. 
 Dr. Nott charges Dr. Bachman with virtually doing the same, in his ad- 
 mission of different centres of creation in his seventeenth chapter. Dr. N. 
 
4M MAN ONE FAMILY. 
 
 Christ Jesus; and certain it is, that in that case, the 
 whole negro race at least, are cut off from all the hopes 
 of the gospel ; and the Mongolian, and the Malay races 
 equally so. 
 
 In that case, the entire missionary enterprise is a wild 
 scheme, a lawless undertaking, utterly hopeless of success. 
 (See Dr. Nott's Two Lectures, 1849, p. 17.) 
 
 So wide-sweeping are the consequences, which flow 
 from the novel theory of a diversity of origin for the 
 several races of man. It is a mere theory, resting on a 
 bold assumption ; it contradicts the explicit averments 
 of holy writ ; it runs counter to the whole Bible doctrine ; 
 and it completely nullifies the whole gospel of salvation 
 by the Redeemer. Notwithstanding all the vehement 
 ^protestations of deference for the Bible, made by the ad- 
 Tocates of this diversity of races, the scheme is directly 
 contradictory of the Bible. 
 
 Let any candid, unbiassed reader decide whether such 
 language as the Bible employs, in speaking of the crea- 
 tion of one pair, to people the earth, " Ood blessed them. 
 
 says, " Dr. Bachman dodges the plain teachings of the Bible in chronol- 
 ogy, but denies boldly that the deluge was universal, that there was but 
 one centre of creation, and that all the animals, &/C. came from the ark, 
 and asserts that his opinions have been prevalent among learned divines 
 for the last half-century. On the other side we have just been severely 
 handled by Dr. Hamilton of Mobile, for holding opposite opinions. Dr. 
 H. too, is right ; for the plain teaching of Genesis is opposed to Dr. Bach- 
 man, and we deny its historical accuracy. If the flood was not universal, 
 and if the animals did not come from the ark, then plain language has 
 no meaning." (Dr. J. C. Nott, on Diversity of the Human Race, in Re- 
 view of Dr. Bachman on the Unity, p 19, note.) 
 
 We may also affirm, that, "2/ the doctrine that all the hwrnan races are 
 sprung from the o?ie human pair created in Eden, be not taught in the Bi- 
 ble" then plain language has no meaning. 
 
MAN ONE FAMILY. 455 
 
 and said, Be ye fruitful and multiply and replenish the earthj''^ 
 (Gen. i. 28 ;) again, representing one family alone saved 
 from the deluge, on purpose to people the whole earth ; 
 the descendants of this family visited miraculously to pro- 
 duce different languages, and to ensure the dispersion of 
 men abroad over the face of all the earth ; and then, 
 afterwards. Prophets and Apostles speaking of all nations 
 as men, as brethren, as subject to one law, as lying under 
 a common condemnation, and as having one common 
 Saviour provided for all, does not necessarily involve the 
 idea, that all the varieties of men, however differing now, 
 whether Negroes, Monguls, Indians or white men, are 
 descended from one pair, Adam and Eve ; even though 
 the peculiar distinctions by which these races are severally 
 characterized, are not expressly noticed, and though no 
 designation of the several races, equivalent to the modern 
 names, Indian, Malay, &c., is employed. 
 
 The evidences of a common humanity in all the several 
 races of man, notwithstanding their peculiarities, are so 
 numerous and so unequivocal, that probably the idea of 
 a separate origin never occurred to any of the sacred 
 writers. To those who receive as true the books of 
 Moses, (^. e. the Mosaic account of the creation, the deluge, 
 the confusion of tongues at Babel, and the subsequent dis- 
 persion of the descendants of Noah over the face of all 
 the earth,) such assertions, that the dark races and the fair, 
 are all descended from the same stock, was needless. The 
 whole narrative implies it, and is utterly inconsistent 
 with any other theory as to the origin of mankind. 
 
 The sacred writers were intent upon conveying truths 
 of deep import to the higher nature of man, as a moral 
 agent, as fallen and degraded, but yet capable of recovery. 
 
456 MAN ONE FAMILY. 
 
 Tn these interests man, as man^ is concerned. Before 
 these high interests, the differences of complexion, of 
 features, of figure, and of conformation, of language and 
 of habits, sink into insignificance. As such the sacred 
 writers seem to have uniformly regarded the case, dwel- 
 ling on these high interests, and noting not at all, or in- 
 cidentally only, this difference of race. In one place 
 alone, and that the very one where we might, not un- 
 naturally, look for it, is there a statement made, which 
 seems, the more closely it is contemplated, the more 
 plainly to cover this whole ground, and to attribute this 
 diversity now found among men in different climates, to 
 a direct intervention of the Almighty, subsequent to the 
 flood, and not many ages after that event ; when, at Ba- 
 bel, God is declared to have effected some great change 
 in rnari^ of such nature, as to produce a diversity of lan- 
 guages and to ensure the dispersion of men over the 
 whole earth, and their permanent settlement in different 
 lands, and in different climates ; or, as the naturalists ex- 
 press it, in different "zoological provinces." 
 
 This result we know has been effected : and such, the 
 Bible tells us, was the manner and such the occasion, 
 when it was effected. We can thus account for all the 
 phenomena presented in the varying races of mankind, 
 without supposing any one miracle beyond what the Bible 
 unequivocally affirms, and without doing violence to a single 
 passage^ or to so much as one solitary word of Holy Writ. 
 
 An additional and a very strong proof is thus elicited, 
 of the divine origin of the books of Moses ; inasmuch 
 as, the more light the researches of science pour upon us, 
 the plainer and the more consistent are the teachings of 
 these books seen to become. 
 
MAN ONE FAMILY. 457 
 
 If we find ourselves compelled to abandon some posi- 
 tion, which we had held as a Bible-taught truth, we find 
 that the error lay, not in the Bible, but in our mode of 
 interpreting it. We look at the Bible again, and we find 
 its teachings, now made all the plainer to us, and perfectly 
 consistent with the results of scientific discovery, or of the 
 researches of learning. The first impression derived from 
 reading the first chapter of Genesis, would probably be, 
 that in the six days of creation there spoken of, this earth 
 and the entire material universe were brought into exist- 
 ence, and reduced to their present order. Yet Moses 
 does not say so. When, then, the wonders of geological 
 discovery were first given to the world, it is not surpris- 
 ing, that the first impression made thereby on the minds 
 of theologians was, that the doctrine of the earth's exist- 
 ence and of its having been subjected to repeated con- 
 vulsions prior to man's creation, is contradictory of the 
 Bible. A closer, calmer examination of the first of 
 Genesis shows, that the teachings of Moses are not only 
 not inconsistent with, but that they are most wonderfully 
 accordant to, these the discoveries of modern science. 
 
 So also, when the diversity of races among men began 
 to attract attention, and to provoke discussion as to the 
 origin of these races, it was but natural that they who 
 hold the Bible to be an inspired book, and who find 
 therein the doctrine broadly stated, that God created one 
 human pair and one only, to be the progenitors of all 
 men inhabiting the earth, should seek to account for the 
 present diversity among men by the influence of climate, 
 food, and other causes operating through a long course 
 of time upon different branches of the human family, to 
 produce this diversity ; and numerous instances of anal- 
 
 20 
 
458 MAN ONE FAMILY. 
 
 ogous* changes among inferior animals, certainly lend 
 strong confirmation to the hypothesis, and show that if 
 time enough can be found prior to the historic age, it 
 might possibly have been effected. 
 
 But now that the result of antiquarian research among 
 oriental monuments seems to render it probable, nay, 
 almost certain, that this diversity existed, as distinctly 
 marked as now, in the very earliest ages of which we 
 have any record, so that we cannot he certain, we cannot 
 establish it by proof, that sufficient time intervened be- 
 tween the deluge and the construction of those oldest 
 monuments! on which we find the delineations of men 
 
 * See Bachman, Unity, &c., part i. chap. iii. and iv. See Lawrence, 
 Lectures on Physiology, p. 303, &c. Pritchard, vol. iii, chap. vii. 
 
 •f On this subject consult Dr. Morton (Cran. Egyptiacae, pp. 60, 61.) He 
 says : " Negroes are abundantly represented in the pictorial delineations 
 of the Egyptian monuments of every epoch ; some of them are nearly 
 8,600 years old, and, as if to enforce the distinction of race, are placed 
 side by side with people of the purest Caucasian features. The delin- 
 eations of negro feature supposed to be the most ancient, have not yet 
 been identified with the epoch to which they belong ;" e. g. in a tomb at 
 Thebes, the age of Amontuonefi, an ijnplaced king, supposed to be before 
 the 16th dynasty, and consequently more than b.c. 2000. (Rosellini, 
 Appendix No. 13. Wilkinson's Ancient Egypt, vol. iii.) 
 
 So also in the procession, of the age of Thothmes IV. at Thebes, ne- 
 groes bear tribute, about b.c. 1700. 
 
 At Thebes, (in a catacomb,) Amunoph IIL receives homage from 
 " black chiefs of Cush, in Ethiopia." (Topography of Thebes p. 136.) 
 
 Negroes are found on the monuments of Horus, Ramses II., of the 19th 
 dynasty, and Ramses III., in Egypt and Nubia, abundantly. (See Cham- 
 poUion, Monumens de I'Egypte, plate 110, See also the monuments 
 found at Beit Oalli, in Nubia, where Ramses II. makes war on negroes. 
 See Champ. Mon. tom. i. pi. 71, 72: Rosellini, Men. M. R. Tar. 75. 
 See also Morton's Crania Egyptiaca, p. 62 ) 
 
 In his Crania Americana, p. 88, Dr. Morton thus reasons on the an- 
 tiquity of the negro race : " The great antiquity of the negro race, ad- 
 
MAN ONE FAMILY. 459 
 
 exhibiting this diversity of feature and of complexion, it 
 is but what we might expect to find in a divinely inspired 
 document, when we discover that in the brief record 
 given in Genesis respecting the earliest times, this very 
 difficulty is met, as has been proved above; showing 
 that the difficulty was anticipated and provided for by 
 the unerring Mind which guided the pen of Moses, as 
 
 mits of no question, and has even led some philosophers to surmise that 
 it was the primitive stock of mankind." Dr. Caldwell says, (Thoughts 
 on Unity of the Human Species, Philadelphia, 1830, p. 72,) " Accord- 
 ing to accredited dates, it is about 4,179 years (in 1852, 4 201 years) 
 since Noah left the ark. He and his family are believed to have been 
 of the Caucasian race. We shall assume this as a truth. But 3,445 years 
 ago (now 3,467) a nation of Ethiopians is known to have existed. They 
 were dark-skinned, very different from the Caucasian, and they settled 
 near Egypt. Supposing that people to have been of the stock of Noah, 
 the change must have been completed and a new race formed, in 733 
 years, and probably in a much shorter period. 
 
 " The recent discoveries in Egypt give additional force to the preceding 
 statement, showing that the Caucasian and negro races were as perfectly 
 distinct in Egypt upwards of 4,000 years ago as they are now. If, then, 
 the Caucasian race was derived from the negro, or the negro from the 
 Caucasian, by the action of external and natural causes, the change 
 must have been effected in, at most, a thousand years : a theory which 
 the subsequent experience of thirty centuries proves to be a physical im- 
 possibility : and we have already ventured to insist, that such a commu- 
 tation could be effected by nothing short of a miracle," (p. 88.) 
 
 In this conclusion of Dr. Morton, we fully concur. The change into 
 different races from one, could be effected by nothing short of a miracle : 
 and by a miracle it was done, as we have shown. 
 
 These considerations are strengthened by the facts stated in the Eth- 
 nological Journal, that in the tombs at Sakkara, so early as the 6th dy- 
 nasty, more than b.c. 3,000 years, the hieroglyphic name K u S H, the 
 name for the negro, is found by Lepsius. (See Ethnological Journal, No. 
 viii. p. 310.) 
 
 The author of this work has looked over the plates of the tombs in 
 Lepsius' Denkmiihler, but has not yet detected this name. 
 
460 MAN ONE FAMILY. 
 
 the amanuensis of Heaven, in recording the events at- 
 tending the production of the universe, the origin of man, 
 and the infancy of society, by pointing out the very oc- 
 casion and time of introducing a diversity of language 
 among men, and of impressing on the human constitu- 
 tion that law, the operation of which was indispensable 
 to effect that diversity in the appearance and physical 
 structure of different branches of the one human family, 
 without which the dispersion of mankind, as they are 
 now found, over the face of the whole earth, would have 
 been impracticable. 
 
 This view discovers to us a perfect consistency between 
 the Bible statements and all the known facts of science ; 
 and it is in harmony with the entire system of truths 
 and of doctrines pervading the whole Bible. 
 
 Man, wherever found, is one family ; all men are 
 sprung from one common original stock, notwithstanding 
 the great variety of races now found among them. Such 
 is the doctrine of the Bible. Are we here told that the 
 several races of men are so widely separated by distinc- 
 tive marks, which are invariably propagated by heredi- 
 tary descent, and have been so propagated from the ear- 
 liest times, as the monuments of Egypt, and the writings 
 of the ancient classics show ; that these races must he regard- 
 ed as distinct species, and not mere varieties — just as the lion, 
 the panther, and the tiger, are so many distinct species 
 of the great cat family ; each species perfectly distinct, 
 and invariably propagating its like ; and that it is an ax- 
 iom in natural history, that each species was in its o7'igin 
 distinct and separate, as now we see it ? That conse- 
 quently it would be contrary to the established laws of 
 nature, had the several human species which are now 
 
MAN ONE FAMILY. 461 
 
 perfectly distinct, all sprung from one common stock, and 
 not had each its separate and distinct origin ? 
 
 We answer, the objection thus urged, is plausible, but 
 not sound. Man is an anomaly in the' animal kingdom. 
 His counterpart cannot be found in the whole range of 
 scientific investigation ; and an anomalous case cannot he 
 properly subjected to the tests and the reasonings of other and 
 ordinary cases.^ 
 
 If the several races of men are distinguished by pecu- 
 liarities in each, as numerous, as great, and as strictly 
 hereditary, as those which separate the several distinct 
 species in the animal kingdom, these races have also 
 other, higher, more important, and more numerous points 
 of resemblance^ than are found among the several species 
 of any kind of animals ; resemblances, that constitute a 
 bond of union, a proof of identity of nature^ such as no 
 class of animals can show ; resemblances, or rather an 
 identity of nature, for which nothing can satisfactorily 
 account, but, " their genital connection by natural descent^ ^ 
 from a common origin. (Agassiz, p. 135.) 
 
 * That man is an anomaly among the animated tribes of earth, 
 naturalists themselves do feel ; and this the deniers of the original unity 
 of the human races do feel and virtually admit, when in reply to the argu- 
 ment for such unity derived from the production, now and then, of new 
 varieties among the several species of inferior animals, they deny the 
 analogy, and contend that the production of new varieties among the 
 lower animals, does not prove that similar permanent and hereditary 
 varieties have been produced by climate, diet, the lapse of time, &c. 
 among men. And in this they are right. The analogy is not complete ; 
 man is rot a mere animals : man is an anomaly in the animal kingdom. 
 
 " Now all these changes, (says Dr. Nott,) we freely admit, but does 
 this prove that physical causes have the same power to change man 1" 
 (Two Lectures, 1844, p. 2L) 
 
 This question implies the admission, " Man is an anomaly." 
 
462 MAN ONE FAMILY. 
 
 The powers of thought, of reasoning, of forecast, the 
 faculty of speech, the whole class of moral emotions, 
 together with the capacity for progressive improvement, 
 distinguish human nature everywhere, " eminently de- 
 veloped in civilized society, but which equally eodst in the 
 natural disposition of all human races. These capacities 
 constitute a higher union among vneftx^^ (Agassiz, p. 120,) 
 and they defy all attempt to classify men, as the mere 
 brute animals may be classed. 
 
 Besides, it has hitherto been generally admitted, that 
 one mark of distinct species, is found in a strong repug- 
 nance to sexual connection between distinct species^ and in the 
 utter sterility of hybrids. Rarely, indeed, are hybrids found 
 among animals, roaming at large. Among domesticated 
 animals, hybrids are sometimes produced by artificial 
 means ; e. g. muleSj the offspring of the horse and the ass. 
 Now it is found, as a general rule, that such hybrids are 
 sterile; they do not, and they cannot propagate the hy- 
 brid race, generally speaking. 
 
 Now it is undeniable, that in this respect, there is, 
 at least, a wide difference between the several human 
 races, and the species of irrational animals. In every 
 part of the world, throughout the whole southern coun- 
 try of these United States, in every European colony and 
 settlement among the dark races over the face of the 
 earth, mixed breeds, persons, and families of mingled 
 blood are found, and they are not observed to be per- 
 ceptibly less fertile in their union with persons of 
 mingled blood, or with persons of either of the original 
 races, than are others. Nay, some writers declare that 
 such mixed breeds are peculiarly fertile in their union. 
 Assuredly infertility of hybrids, which is undeniably 
 
MAN ONE FAMILY. 463 
 
 found applying to the species among brute animals, can- 
 not be predicated of the offspring of parents of different 
 races in the human family, whatever may be found to 
 be the case in particular instances in Mobile, or in New- 
 Orleans ; and whatever confidence may be attached to 
 the contrary opinion held by very respectable medical 
 men, based on the fact, that occasionally, Creole families 
 in New Orleans die out, and leave no heir to their prop- 
 erty. (See Dr. Nott's Two Lectures, pp. 45-47.) 
 
 No sober-minded, unbiassed inquirer, who has no the- 
 ory to maintain, can avoid discerning the failure, in this 
 instance at least, of all attempts to prove, that the races 
 of men are distinct species.* If this were true in the 
 proper sense of the word species, as used in natural his- 
 tory, there would be no ground for the remark made by 
 Dr. Nott, and often repeated by others, that, ^''prohahly a 
 pure race ofr)%en cannot now he found on earths (See Two 
 Lectures, 1844, p. 28; also Keview of Dr. Bachman, 
 pp. 10-15.) 
 
 The fertility or infertility of hybrids, may not consti- 
 tute an infallible test of species; but it is, generally 
 speaking, a characteristic mark ; and no one can fail 
 to notice a great difference in this respect, between the 
 several races of man, and the several species of any one 
 class of animals. Nowhere are found the lion, the tiger, 
 the panther, &c. mixing freely, and their hybrid off- 
 spring amalgamating the several species by impercep- 
 
 * On this point the accomplished anatomist, Johannes Muller, thus 
 expresses himself: " The different races of mankind are forms of one sole 
 species, by the union of two of whose members descendants are propa- 
 gated. They are not different species of a genus, since in that case their 
 hybrid descendants would remain unfruitful." (Cosmos, vol. L p. 354.) 
 
464 MAN ONE FAMILY. 
 
 tible degrees. But such constant mingling of the human 
 races is everywhere palpable; the races melt the one 
 into the other, and have done so in every age. 
 
 Here then, in one important point, is a .difference be- 
 tween man and other animals, amply sufficient, it may be 
 contended, when viewed in connection with the higher 
 nature common to all the varieties of men, to show that 
 these varieties are not^ properly speaking, specific^ and that 
 all this diversity of type, propagated though it is by 
 hereditary descent, is but like the characteristics of new 
 varieties arising now and then among the inferior ani- 
 mals, and is not at all inconsistent with identity of origin 
 and community of descent from one primitive pair.* 
 
 The general repugnance to sexual union manifested in 
 the different species of brutes, shows the design of the 
 Creator, that tlie species be preserved distinct and pure : in 
 the brute races this end is attained. If the several races 
 of men be species, this design at least has signally failed, 
 for we are told that " probably now not a pure ra>ce exists 
 on earthy 
 
 ♦ On thia subject the learned Baron Humboldt thus writes : " So long 
 as attention was directed solely to the extremes in varieties of color and 
 of form and to the vividness of the first impression of the senses, the ob- 
 server was naturally disposed to regard races rather as originally different 
 species, than as varieties. In my opinion, however, more powerful reasoiu 
 can be advanced in favor of the unity of the human races." (Cosmos, 
 vol. i. p. 352.) 
 
 The work entitled the '* Unity of the Human Races," by Rev. Thomas 
 Smythe, D.D. of Charleston, S. C. may be also consulted with great advan- 
 tage. It is a work of great research, and replete with valuable informa- 
 tion on the various points therein discussed ; although in all the con- 
 clusions therein drawn, the author of these pages cannot concur. (See 
 also Dr. Bachraan, on " the Unity," chap. ii. iii. iv. and v. See also Dr. 
 Nott's Review of Dr. Bachman, and consult Dr. Morton's paper, on '• Hy- 
 bridity as a Test of Species." See Pritchard, vol. i. book ii.) 
 
MAN ONE FAMILY. 465 
 
 This expression is perhaps too strong : but undeniably, 
 the several races of men have extensively intermingled.* 
 
 On the views presented in this work, it is plain that no 
 great weight can be attributed to the occasional appear- 
 ance of new varieties among the several races of animals ; 
 nor yet upon the changes which have been observed to 
 result, in some instances, in men as well as in lower ani- 
 mals, from climate, food, and peculiar treatment. 
 
 With those who attribute the diversity of races among 
 men, to these causes, operating through a long course of 
 time, such cases are all important : but not on the theory 
 advocated in this work. 
 
 Many interesting facts illustrative of these points, are 
 presented in the learned work of Dr. Pritchard, vol. i. 
 book ii. pp. 105-376 ; by Dr. Bachman on the Unity, &c., 
 chap. ii. iii. iv. ; Dr. Lawrence, sec. ii. chapters i. and ii.) 
 But all that these facts can serve to show is, that the 
 constitutional change effected by the intervention of God 
 simultaneously with the confounding of language at Ba- 
 bel, and which issued in the speedy appearance of vari- 
 ous races among men, is not an event altogether anom- 
 alous. 
 
 On the alleged intellectual inferiority of the dark 
 races, and especially of the negro, too much stress has 
 been laid, as an argument for diversity of origin. An 
 idiot is not the less a child of the same parents, on account 
 of his inferiority to his more highly gifted brothers. 
 
 * Says Dr. Nott of Mobile, " Is there any example on the earth at the 
 present day of two races living together, without mingling V (Physical 
 History of Man, 1849, p. 28.) 
 
 The Editor of the London Ethnological Journal remarks, (see No. iii. 
 p. 129,) " The primitive races no longer exist, rigorously speaking. All, 
 or nearly all the inhabitants of the earth, are of mixed blood." 
 
 20* 
 
466 MAN ONE FAMILY. 
 
 Nor do the facts that have been collected with great in- 
 dustry, and presented with much ingenuity, by several 
 writers, in illustration of the ancient civilization of the 
 dark races, carry that weight in this argument, which 
 those who adduce the facts, seem inclined to attribute to 
 them.* 
 
 ♦ See the carious and very interesting array of historical facts on this 
 subject, presented by Dr. T. Smythe, in " The Unity of the Human Races," 
 chapters iii. iv. and v., pp. 46-84. See also Pritchard's Researches, vol. ii. 
 p. 846, &c. Pickering on the Races, p. 349. 
 
 Some very curious and beautifully sculptured negro figures from Egypt, 
 forcibly strike one in ranging through the Egyptian Halls of the Museum 
 in the Louvre at Pi^ris. 
 
 But the author has searched in vain throughout the plates and illustrar 
 tions of the magnificent works of the Champollions, Rosellini, Birch, 
 Wilkinson, Sharpe, Vysc and Pcrring, Caillaud, Nestor de I'Hote, Prisse 
 and Lepsius, including the " Tombs, &c.," (which arc all in his own library,) 
 to find the evidence of negro superiority, indicated in the remark of Dr. 
 Smythe in his Unity, &c., " The truth seems to be that the most ancient 
 Egyptians really did have more or less of the peculiar characteristics of 
 the negro race," (p. 64.) 
 
 Of this negro character of tho old Egyptians, the published copies of 
 the Egyptian pictorial delineations show no trace ; none, at least, that is 
 obvious to ordinary inspection. Negroes are often and very distinctly 
 depicted at Ipsamboul, at Beit-Oalli, at Thebes, &c., but generally as cap- 
 tives. There is also, in the portraits of tho Pharaohs, occasionally, a very 
 palpable diflerence in the style of features, and sometimes in the com- 
 plexion, though this last is not a token that can bo relied on. These an- 
 cient paintings show different families reigning at diff*erent periods,. some- 
 times Nubians in feature, sometimes strictly Egyptians, almost Grecian 
 in feature, but never anything clearly approaching to the negro. (See 
 Champollion, Monumens de I'Egypte et de Nubie, Plates vol. i. Plate 
 iii. which exhibits the portrait of Sesostris, or Ramses III., that of his 
 queen Nofre-Afri, and that of a princess his daughter. 
 
 Compare this plate with plate xi. representing the same Sesostris, hold- 
 ing a group of captives, among whom are negroes and Asiatics, and one 
 with the features of a Mongul, a Chinaman seemingly. These are de- 
 lineated at Ipsamboul in Nubia. Negroes are delineated side by side 
 
MAN ONE FAMILY. 467 
 
 Whether negroes ever acted a distinguished part, oi 
 not, in India and in Egypt, as some conclude was the case, 
 from the negro-featured sphynxes, &c., in Egypt, or in 
 
 with Egyptians, see Plates xv. xvi. xvii. Compare also the magnificent 
 Plates xxxiv, and xxxv. with Plate xxxvii., where an entirely different 
 race is depicted ; but they are not negroes, although their lips have a 
 more than Jewish fulness. 
 
 In Plate xlix. are three portraits : that of Thouthmosis IV. of the 
 eighteenth dynasty, supposed by Wilkinson and by Dr. Eadie, (see Early 
 Oriental History, p. 85,) to be the Pharaoh of the Exodus of Israel : that 
 of Thouthmosis III. (the king Moeris of the eighteenth dynasty :) and also 
 that of Amenotph, or Amenophis II., also of the eighteenth dynasty. 
 These are represented in a temple of Phre, or of the Sun, at Amada in 
 Nubia. The style of feature is different from that of Sesostris, but is still 
 pure Caucasian. The monarch represented by the first of these last 
 mentioned portraits, Thouthmosis IV. of the eighteenth dynasty, (not of 
 the eighth, as it is erroneously printed in my copy of Dr. Smy the's book,) 
 is he whose queen, as Dr. Pickering assures us, (see his work on the Races 
 of Man, p. 185,) " we have evidence to believe was a negress." 
 
 She was probably a Nubian, or an Ethiopian, of a dark complexion. No 
 instance of a negress, with the indications of royalty, appears on the 
 monuments. (See Champollion, Monumens, &c., Plate Ixxiii. vol. i. at 
 Beit-Oalli: and Plate Iviii., bis., representing a series of portraits at 
 Kalabsche. See also the portraits of queens, in Plates ccxxix. ccxxx. 
 and ccxxxi. vol. iii. from the tombs of the queens at Thebes.) 
 
 There is, indeed, the head of Amenouphis III. of the eighteenth dynasty, 
 taken from the paintings adorning the tomb of that monarch, at Thebes, 
 which is given in Plate ccxxxii. tom. iii. of Champollion's Monumens, 
 &c. Of this head Champollion says, (see his Explication des Planches, 
 vol iii. Plate ccxxxii.) " Le type negre domine en cette figure : la mere 
 du prince etait une Ethiopienne." The negro type predominates in this 
 figure ; the mother of the prince was an Ethiopian. The original painting 
 has been transferred to the " Bibliotheque Royale" at Paris. 
 
 It must require a lively fancy to make out negro features in this head. 
 Plate cclxvii. of Champollion presents two figures of Africans, quite black, 
 and in a becoming dress. They seem to have been attendants on the 
 court. 
 
 In Plates x. and xi. of the '* Monuments Egyptiens," of Mon, E. Prisse, are 
 
468 MAN ONE FAMILY. 
 
 Nubia, and from the reputed negro origin of the queen 
 of one of the Pharaohs (Thouthmosis IV. of the eighteenth 
 dynasty, see Pickering, p. 186,) cannot materially affect 
 the argument. 
 
 All the attributes of humanity appertain to the dark 
 races, as truly as to the white — to the negro, as to the 
 Caucasian. 
 
 " His follies and his vices stamp him man."— Montqomeby. 
 
 A great difference of intellect is sometimes noticed 
 among members of the same family. Since the several 
 races differ in features and in complexion, why may they 
 not differ also in intellectual power and capacity, without 
 
 two curious delineations. Of these, the one, that of Amounoph III., of 
 the eighteenth djTiasty, delineated in a temple at Karnak, at Thebes, 
 has more than the Hebrew fulness of lips given in Amenophis III. of 
 Champollion. (Plate ccxxxii.) It has the thick lips, and projecting under 
 jaw of the negro. Yet it is far from a negro head. (See Pritchard, vol. 
 ii. pp. 235, 236.) The oldest representation of negro features yet found by 
 the writer, is in one of the plates of Lepsius's " Denkmalcr aus Egypten 
 dc-c." attributed by Lepsius to the twelfth dynasty. 
 
 The bride of Solomon, whose dark complexion may possibly be intima- 
 ted in the " Song of Solomon," chap. i. vers. 5, 6, was probably an Egyp- 
 tian princess, of a dark brunette complexion,,and Arab features. Yet 
 women are usually painted on Eg>T)tian monuments of a much lighter 
 hue than the men. (But see Champollion's Monumens, vol. i. Plate iii., 
 also Plates xi. and xx., in the " Auswahl, &c." of Lepsius: Leipzic,1842.) 
 
 Many of the Arab, the Egyptian and the Nubian women, to this day, 
 when quite young, are dark, (almost black, indeed) but comely. (Lane's 
 Manners and Customs of Modern Eg3T)tians, vol. 1. p. 50.) 
 
 Dr. Pickering states that Egyptians, and others of the white race, are 
 represented laboring in the fields, and never are negroes so represented. 
 This is true : but it is also tfue that negroes are represented as captives, 
 often as menials, and subordinates in public processions, but never as per- 
 sons of rank and dignity : unless it be, possibly, in Champollion's Plate 
 cclxvii., at Thebes, Biban-El-Molouk. 
 
MAN ONE FAMILY. 469 
 
 detriment of their claim to a common origin? From 
 time immemorial the negro has been an oppressed race, 
 secluded from all elevating influences. Eemove the 
 pressure, and who shall say of what, even the negro in- 
 tellect shall not prove capable? Who shall say that 
 there is not, even now, in the unexplored heart of Africa, 
 a civilization, and a refinement of its secluded negro 
 population, entitled to rival that of the Mongolian race, 
 the Malay, or even the Caucasian ?* (See Pritchard's 
 Kescarches, vol. ii. p. 346.) 
 
 Indication of strong sense, sound judgment, and an 
 exquisitely vivid imagination, is not unfrequently ob- 
 served among negroes of pure blood. 
 
 The writer of these pages, in intercourse with the ne- 
 groes around him, of whom a goodly number are in- 
 
 * It has been triumphantly asked, where are the arts, the civilization, 
 the literature of the negroes 1 What negro has ever written a page worth 
 preserving 1 It is enough to say, in reply, the circumstances around him, 
 invariably affect the character of man, whatever be his race. 
 
 The white race have ever occupied regions of the earth, where the 
 soil, the climate, and all the influences around them, impelled to labor, 
 to thought, to contrivance, for the promotion of comfort, yea even for the 
 preservation of life. Hence the attention paid to agriculture, to the 
 mechanic arts, to architecture, and to letters. If active and reflecting, 
 he must improve, and civilization follows. If supine in the regions he 
 inhabits, the white man would speedily perish. 
 
 But the negro, what call is there for him to exert himself? Inhabiting 
 chiefly tropical regions, clothing he needs not ; a hut, which in a few hours 
 he may construct, is all the habitation he requires, while the soil he 
 treads, yields him spontaneously, a superabundant supply of food, pala- 
 table and wholesome. Everything conspires to make the negro, in his 
 native wilds, indolent, rude, and ignorant, and to keep him so. And yet, 
 from the reports brought by Clapperton and other travellers, it is not im- 
 probable, that even among the negroes in the interior of Africa, a civiliza- 
 tion indigenous and unique, but considerably advanced, has existed for ages. 
 
470 MAN ONE FAMILY 
 
 eluded in his pastoral charge, has often been forcibly 
 struck with the clear perceptions, the active fancy, the 
 eloquent thoughts, and the beautiful figures that mark 
 the prayers, and the exhortations delivered occasionally 
 to their fellow-servants, by negroes of the fullest African 
 type ; sometimes by native-born Africans. But little 
 more than an hour previous to the present moment, (Tues- 
 day, March 23d, 1852,) in conducting his weekly service 
 among the blacks of his charge, the prayer uttered by a 
 negro he called on to lead in devotion, a thoroughly un- 
 educated negro, who cannot even read, chained his at- 
 tention, and interested him exceedingly by its clearness 
 of thought, boldness of original imagery, simple-hearted 
 devotion, and perfect good taste throughout. The germs 
 of a masterly eloquence are in that negro, and in more 
 than one that the writer could designate here in Mobile. 
 
 Often, in listening to the original and felicitous figures, 
 that leap, as it were, from the negro's heart in prayer, 
 has the writer been reminded of that touching designation, 
 which, as he has somewhere read, the Bushmen of South 
 Africa apply to the Deity, " The Beautiful P^ 
 
 Medical men do not come into immediate contact with 
 the negro mind, in its free and unembarrassed action, as 
 does the minister of God's word.* (See Two Lectures, 
 &c. 1849, pp. 31-33.) 
 
 ♦ In October, 1823, the author was examined by the Philadelphia 
 Presbytery, and licensed, in company with three other candidates for the 
 ministry, one of whom was Jeremiah Gloucester, a full-blooded negro, the 
 son of a negro, who was the pastor of a colored church in Philadelphia. 
 Young Gloucester evinced good talents. He died early. 
 
 A few years afterwards a full-blooded negro preached more than once, 
 in the author's pulpit, at Newark, N. J. On one of those occasions, a 
 
MAN ONE FAMILY. 471 
 
 That there is, in comparison with the white man, any 
 essential inferiority of intellect native to the negro, the 
 observation and experience of nearly thirty years of 
 familiar intercourse with whites and with blacks, as a 
 minister of religion, (of which time nearly twenty years 
 
 man of great intelligence, and who has since risen to some distinction, as 
 a political editor, was awakened imderthis negro preacher. 
 
 There are those now living at Harrisburg, Penn. who must recollect 
 Peter Miller, as he was called, a black negro, a preacher, who visited 
 that place about 1819. Miller proved himself a great rascal j but he 
 was shrewd, sensible, and certainly, at times, eloquent. 
 
 Somewhere about the year 1828, while residing at Newark, N. J. when 
 attending the funeral of a young negro man, the son-in-law of Peter 
 Pettit, (an old negro servant of the family of Mr. Hugh K. Toler, and who 
 was long known as the driver and owner of a line of hacks then running 
 between Newark and New York, long before a rail-road was thought of,) 
 the writer of these pages found present a young negro man, of good ap- 
 pearance and good address, a Mr. Wright, a licensed preacher, and in- 
 vited him to address the company assembled, who were almost exclusively 
 negroes. After some hesitation, modest, but perfectly unaffected, the in- 
 vitation was accepted ; and a more appropriate and a more touching ad- 
 dress the author has seldom heard from any minister, white or black. 
 Wright was a very dark negro, but an educated man, trained in Princeton 
 Seminary, where he was greatly respected, for his good talents, good 
 sense, and modesty. If yet living, he ought by this time to be a preacher 
 of great merit. 
 
 One other instance only will be here mentioned. Somewhere about 
 May, 1840, on a steamer on the Delaware River, the author fell in with a 
 black negro, unknown to him, and never met with since. Abolitionism 
 was the topic of discussion. That negro maintained a long argument 
 with several gentlemen around him ; he vindicated the claim of the 
 negro to full equality with the white man, intellectually and morally, 
 both ; and he boldly took the ground, that the negro is the original type 
 of the human race, and that the white man and the red, are but degener- 
 ated varieties of the negro. 
 
 The argument he conducted with great tact and ability, evincing a ready 
 wit, clear perceptions, and considerable information. Few men could 
 acquit themselves better in oral discussion than did that genuine negro. 
 
472 MAN ONE FAMILY. 
 
 have been spent amid the negro population of the South,) 
 would never lead the writer to believe. A difference 
 there certainly is, in the intellectual character, as well as 
 in the physical organization of the two races ; but a de- 
 cided, and essential inferiority of the one to the other, 
 in point of intellect, he cannot discern. A negro man, 
 quite black, John Moore, late a communicant in the 
 author's church, and but lately deceased, evinced as 
 much pathos and originality of thought in prayer, and 
 as much ingenuity and shrewd sense in reasoning from 
 the Scriptures, as do nine tenths of the members of our 
 white churches. In vividness of imagination, at least, 
 the negro would seem rather to excel the white man. 
 
 It is, then, obvious to remark, that corroboration is lent 
 to Oie doctrine of the common origin of all men^ by the fact 
 that all men, of all races, are capable of religion, — that Hie 
 religion of the Bible is adapted to all men, — and that its ef- 
 fects on men of all the several races, when by them it is 
 cordially embraced, are IDENTICAL. 
 
 The illustration of this point might fill volumes. 
 
 Find man where you will, and, be he black or white, 
 tawny, olive-complexioned, or red, he has his religious 
 system, the alleged cases in exception notwithstanding. 
 
 Moreover, to all the gospel is adapted. It appeals 
 to principles that are common to all, and inherent in 
 each — principles which appertain to man alone, and which 
 distinguish him immeasurably above the highest of the 
 lower animals. 
 
 Moreover, wherever the religion of the Bible is embraced, 
 its practical operation is the same. In persons totally un- 
 apprized of the nature of its influence upon others, it pro- 
 duces the same effects as in all others. It arrests atten- 
 
MAN ONE FAMILY. 473 
 
 tion ; it produces deep solicitude, under a sense of per- 
 sonal demerit ; a simple-hearted trust in the promises of 
 mercy through a Redeemer ; a grateful, and sometimes 
 a most triumphant joy, in the full belief of pardon ob- 
 tained, and reconciliation with heaven effected ; a warm 
 affection for all who can be deemed good people ; and an 
 intense desire to see others embracing the same happy 
 religion. This identity of effect on persons of the most 
 widely differing character, tastes, and races, even, is 
 manifested in every time of increased religious interest 
 at the South. It is amply testified in the records of al- 
 most every missionary station in the whole heathen world. 
 
 Often has the writer been struck with the identity of 
 religious influence in persons the most unlike. The ac- 
 complished lawyer, the skilful physician, the refined lady, 
 of finished education, and the negro servants that wait 
 behind their chairs at table, are sometimes seen together 
 earnestly pondering their prospects for eternity: and 
 though, in some cases, previously ignorant, all and equally, 
 of the process through which the minds of others have 
 been led in the same pursuit, each one of them is af- 
 fected, substantially, as each other one is ; alarmed, sor- 
 rowing under conscious unworthiness, absorbed in prayer, 
 faintly trusting, joyfully confident, very solicitous to be 
 made pure, and greatly desirous to induce others to se- 
 cure the same heavenly peace. 
 
 All these facts, occurring every year and almost every 
 day, and occurring at every point on earth where the 
 genuine teachings of the Bible are promulgated, argue 
 identity of nature in all men ; and they well comport with, 
 and strongly corroborate, the doctrine, that all men, no 
 matter what their complexion or their race, sprang ori- 
 
474 MAN ONE FAMILY. 
 
 ginally from one and the same stock. These facts seem 
 utterly inconsistent with the idea of diversity of origin. 
 
 The records of Christian missions within the last half- 
 century furnish a full refutation of the objection which 
 has been urged against the unity of the human races, on 
 the ground of incapacity in the dark races to appreciate 
 the elevating influences of Christianity. Thus, says Dr. 
 Nott, (Two Lectures, &c., 1849, p. 17,) " Our religion, 
 once so widely spread in Northern Africa, disappeared 
 with the Roman sword which protected it ; and it needs 
 not the inspiration of a prophet to foretell that the reli- 
 gion of Christ can never be comprehended and adopted by 
 African* races, so long as their physical type remains 
 unchanged. What has been the result of missions to 
 Africa, to China, to India, to the American Indians, kc. ? 
 Much as we may lament such a result, it would seem as 
 if these philanthropic efforts, so far from producing good 
 fruits to the dark races, in the main, do more harm than 
 good I The dark races borrow the vices, but never the 
 virtues, of the white man," &c. &c. 
 
 In this passage, the direct bearing of Christianityf on 
 the individual recipient, and its incidental results in re- 
 fining and elevating society, are confounded. Of the for- 
 mer, the writer appears to be entirely unconscious : hence 
 
 * Dr. N. must here have forgotten that, in other places, he himself 
 contends stoutly (and with justice and truth) for the Caucasian origin 
 of the tribes of Northern Africa. (See Two Lectures, 1844, pp. 12-16, 
 and 35, 36. See also Professor Agassiz, in the Christian Examiner for 
 July, 1860, p. 134. See Morton's Crania Americana, pp. 22-31. See 
 Pickering on the Races, the map.) 
 
 f On the capacity of the negro, and other dark races, to derive benefit 
 from Christianity, see some excellent remarks in Pritchard's Researches, 
 vol. i. book ii. chap. i. p. 212. 
 
MAN" ONE FAMILY. 475 
 
 the latter only does he notice. But even of the latter in- 
 fluence flowing from Christianity on the dark races, the 
 history of Christian missions in the isles of the great Pa- 
 cific, at some stations in India, and among several abori- 
 ginal tribes of our own western forests, not to mention 
 the negroes of the South, yields ample illustration. 
 
 If the dark races borrow the vices of the irreligious 
 white colonists and traders, that results, not from the at- 
 tempt to Christianize them, but from the total absence 
 of discreet efforts to that end. Where the white race has 
 approached the dark in the true spirit, and bearing the 
 teachings of Christianity, the dark races do learn the 
 virtues of the Christian white man, assert the contrary who 
 may/ The statistics of Christian missions at several 
 stations, show a greater annual increase to the churches 
 there organized, than is gained by a large proportion of 
 the churches in this Christian land. (See Missionary 
 Herald for several years past.) 
 
 The incapacity of the dark races to appreciate the ele- 
 vating influences of Christianity, is a position not borne 
 out by the facts in the case ! 
 
 Dispassionately examined with all the facts in the case, 
 the alleged inferiority of the dark races as to intellect, or 
 as to capacity for religious influence and moral improve- 
 ment, presents nothing inconsistent with the doctrine of 
 a common origin for all the races of mankind. 
 
 Further, this doctrine of a common origin is borne out, 
 and strongly corroborated by the traditions everywhere 
 prevailing among men. 
 
 On this point all the traditions and the systems of 
 cosmogony found among the ancient Egyptians, the 
 Chaldseans, the Hindoos, the Chinese, and even among 
 
4T6i MAN ONE FAMILY. 
 
 the barbarous tribes of America, both north and south, 
 (see on this point Lecture VI. of this work, on Creation, 
 and the authorities there adduced,) have a direct bearing, 
 as corroborative evidence. 
 
 But especially the ampler traditions of a mighty del- 
 uge, and of the preservation of only one family from that 
 catastrophe, and the descent of all these widely dispersed 
 tribes, which preserve these similar traditions, from that 
 one family so preserved, (see in this work Lectures IX. 
 and X., on the Deluge,) are directly and strongly corrobo- 
 rative of the common origin of all the races of men from 
 one primitive pair. If the doctrine of a diversity of 
 origin for the several races of men be admitted, then the 
 existence of all these harmonizing traditions among tribes 
 of men so widely dispersed, and totally unconnected in 
 manners, religion, language, and modes of thought, as 
 well as by their widely separated countries, is totally in- 
 explicable. These numerous and wonderfully accordant 
 traditions* may, of themselves, almost compel a belief 
 in a common origin for all men. 
 
 ♦ For a copious selection from these ancient traditions, embodying tlie 
 chief facts of the early Mosaic history, see Harcourt's Doctrine of the 
 Deluge, vol. i, p. 29, &c. ; Faber's Origin of Pagan Idolatry, vol. i. pp. 
 200, 206, 208, also vol. ii. chap. iv. pp. 106-124 ; Faber's Horae Mosaicaj, 
 chap. iv. ; Sumner's Records of Creation ; Tompkins' Hulsean Prize 
 Essay, 1849, p. 91. 
 
 William Von Humboldt says : " The separate mythical traditions found 
 to exist independently of one another, in different parts of the earth, 
 appear to refute the hypothesis of an original gregarious condition of 
 mankind, (the very hypothesis of Agassiz,) and they concur in ascribing 
 the generations of the whole human race to the union of one pair. 
 
 " The general prevalence of this myth, has caused it to be regarded as 
 a traditionary record transmitted from the primitive man to his descend- 
 ants." (Cosmos, vol. i. p. 366.) 
 
MAN ONE FAMILY. 477 
 
 See for instance, the tradition found among the Iro- 
 quois Indians of this country : they believe that the first 
 woman was seduced from her obedience to God, and that, 
 in consequence of it, she was banished from heaven. 
 She afterwards bore two sons : one of them, attacked and 
 slew the other. More children afterwards sprang from 
 the same woman, who were the ancestors of mankind. 
 (Moeurs des Sauvages, quoted by Faber, in his Origin of 
 Pagan Idolatry, vol. ii. p. 88.) 
 
 Sir William Jones asserts, " We might produce from 
 the Puranas themselves, and even from the Veda, which 
 appears to stand next in antiquity to the five books of 
 Moses, the same account of the creation and fall, ex- 
 pressed by symbols very nearly similar." (Asiat. Ke- 
 searches, vol. iii. p. 425.) 
 
 The tower of Babel is mentioned by several ancient 
 Greek writers, Herodotus, Strabo, Diodorus. The con- 
 fusion of tongues, the ancient Greeks attributed to the 
 anger of Saturn. (Plato in Politico. Philo de Confus. 
 Ling. Jacob Bryant, Mythol. vol. iv. p. 100. Clarkson's 
 Eesearches. See also Dr. Bedford, Scrip. Verified, p. 157.) 
 
 Mr. Burke of the London Ethnological Journal says, 
 " The fundamental fables of all the mythologies, reach 
 back to an extremely remote period." Again, " Not only 
 is there a close connection between the mythologies and 
 religious views of all the ancient centres of civilization, 
 but this connection also extends to their arts, sciences, 
 social institutions, and languages," (p. 151.) Again, (p. 
 152,) this author remarks, *' We are led to the conclusion, 
 that all ancient civilization must have sprung from some 
 common centred 
 
 Hamilton Smith says, (Natural History of the Human 
 
478 MAN ONE FAMILY. 
 
 Species, p. 176,) '* In high Asia we find the legends of 
 Europe, extant in their sources." Again, (p. 170,) he re- 
 marks, " The Hindoo diluvian Titan is clearly the snowy 
 group at the sources of the Ganges. In this high region 
 are the localities commemorative of traditions more than 
 once repeated, at successive more distant stages, in pro- 
 portion as the earliest nations moved further from their 
 original common centre, or mythical tales spread onwards 
 with time. There is Natabundana, perhaps Dhawalag- 
 hiri, where the patriarch god himself, in the form of 
 Kapila, conducted the ark, and secured it to the rock, ac- 
 cording to Hindoo lore; and, on the north, where the 
 Tahtar legend places Nataghi, the boatman god of the 
 mountain, with his family, in one of the peaks of Altai ; 
 for it is not a fact which always marks a pagan source, as 
 has been remarked, when man's existence is made to 
 commence after the diluvian cataclysis. There is con- 
 stantly a record of antecedent existence, though not a his- 
 tori/, among early nations. It is variously told, but not 
 the less the same in substance, in both hemispheres, and 
 in the South Sea islands," (p. 171.) 
 
 Again, remarks the same writer, " There cannot be a 
 doubt, that with scarce an opposable circumstance, all 
 man's historical dogmatic knowledge, and traditionary 
 records, all his acquirements, inventions, and domestic 
 possessions point to Central Asia, as the locality connect- 
 ed with a great cataclysis, and as the scene where human 
 development took its first, most evident distribution," 
 (p. 171.) 
 
 Humboldt mentions a similar tradition of a great del- 
 uge, as prevailing among the rude tribes on the Orinoco 
 in South America. 
 
MAN ONE FAMILY. 479 
 
 The tradition among the Tamanacs further relates that 
 " a man and a woman, with a canoe, saved themselves 
 upon a high mountain called Tamanacu, and that throw- 
 ing behind them, over their heads, the fruit of the Mau- 
 ritia palm, they saw, arising from the nuts of these palms, 
 men and women, who repeopled the earth." Here among 
 the savages of South America is a fable similar to that 
 of Pyrrha and Deucalion, commemorating the grand 
 catastrophe, of a general inundation. 
 
 " These ancient traditions of the human race," (says 
 Humboldt,) " which we find dispersed over the surface of 
 the globe, like the fragments of a vast shipwreck, are of the 
 greatest interest in the philosophical study of our species. 
 Like certain families of plants, which, notwithstanding 
 the diversity of climates and the influence of heights, re- 
 tain the impress of a common type, so the traditions 
 respecting the primitive state of the globe, present among 
 all nations, a resemblance that fills us with astonishment : 
 so many different languages, belonging to branches which 
 appear to have no connection with each other, transmit 
 the same facts to us. The substance of the traditions 
 respecting the destroyed races and the renovation of na- 
 ture, is everywhere almost the same, although each nation 
 gives it a local -coloring. In the great continents, as in 
 the smallest islands of the Pacific Ocean, it is always on 
 the highest and nearest mountains, that the remains of 
 the human race were saved : and this event appears so 
 much the more recent, the more uncultivated the nations 
 are." (Humboldt's Travels and Researches, pp. 190-192.) 
 
 This last named circumstance necessarily results from 
 the distinctness with which the facts are carefully handed 
 down by tradition, while the rude tribes have no clear 
 
480 MAN ONE FAMILY. 
 
 ideas of number or duration. Humboldt found also 
 strange symbolical figures and hieroglyphic inscriptions, 
 high on the ro^cks near the Orinoco, commemorative of 
 this event, (p. 191.) 
 
 Dr. Bedford (Scrip. Verif. p. 113,) remarks, "The 
 evidence on this subject is both universal and complete ; 
 the harmony in the traditions of all nations, in all parts 
 of the earth, is such as could have arisen only from the 
 fact itself. There are no conflicting traditions among 
 either the ancients or the moderns. They all embody 
 but one story." (p. 113.) 
 
 Baron Cuvier thus argues from these traditions: 
 " Could the traditionary ideas of nations, who possessed 
 almost no natural affinities, whose language, religion, and 
 laws had nothing in common, could they all conspire to 
 one point, did not truth bring them together?" 
 
 It is plain that Moses could not have known that these 
 traditions did exist and would continue to exist and be 
 handed down among men everywhere, and so adapt his 
 history to the traditions. That is utterly impossible. 
 It is equally plain that all the nations and tribes on earth, 
 have not gathered the materials for these traditions from 
 the books of Moses ; for, to nearly all these nations, these 
 books are still unknown. There is no possibility of ac- 
 counting for the stubborn facts in this case, but by ad- 
 mitting the truth of the deluge as literally universal, and 
 the rescue from that deluge of one family alone, as Moses 
 relates, and as these traditions all unanimously declare ; 
 but if so, then all the different races now on earth have 
 one common origin ; they are, without one solitary excep- 
 tion, descended from the one family which alone sur- 
 vived the deluge in the days of Noah. 
 
MAN ONE FAMILY. 481 
 
 Sir W. Jones, in a discourse on the " Origin and Fami- 
 lies of Nations," thus argues:* "That Nature, of which 
 simplicity appears a distinguishing attribute, does nothing 
 in vain, is an axiom in philosophy. But it is vain and 
 superfluous to do hy many means, what maybe done hy fewer, 
 "We must not, therefore, as says the great Newton, admit 
 
 * Asiatic Researches, vol. iii. p. 420. 
 
 Mr. Cony, in the Introductory Dissertation, prefixed to his learned 
 " Ancient Fragments," remarks " Mr. Faber, in his admirable work on the 
 Pagan Idolatry, has collected and separately examined all the different 
 systems of the Heathen Mythologies ; and has shown, that there is such 
 a singular, minute, and regular accordance among all these systems, not 
 only in what is obvious and natural, but also in what is arbitrary and cir- 
 cumstantial, both in fanciful speculations and in artificial observances,''^ as 
 to render untenable every other hypothesis than this, " that they must 
 all have originated from some common source," (p. vi.) 
 
 In the same manner, (says Mr. Cony, p. vii.) we may ascertain the re- 
 gion from which mankind originally dispersed ; and from the testimonies of 
 Egypt, India and Phoenicia, no less than from Greece, respecting the grand 
 events of primeval history, the birth and achievements of their gods and he- 
 roes, the deluge, the origin of arts, and the civilization of mankind, taking 
 only such as are substantiated by the concurrent testimony of the rest, 
 it may be shown independently of Scripture, that the primitive settle- 
 ments of mankind were in such places, and attended with such circum- 
 stances, as the Scripture instructs us was the case. (p. vii.) 
 
 In the remains of Phoenician history by Sanconiatho, who wrote in the 
 old Phoenician, and who is supposed to be the oldest writer of the hea- 
 then world, we have much that is valuable. 
 
 In the Generations, the first contains an allusion to the fall ; and the 
 second to Cain, In the Chaldaean fragments of Berosus, the Babylonian, 
 is much that is curious. 
 
 Berosus has given a full and accurate description of the deluge, which 
 is wonderfully consonant with the Mosaic accounts, (p. xiii.) 
 
 The Fragment of Nicolaus Damascenus, relates also to the deluge, the 
 ark, and its resting upon Mount Ararat. (Cony's Ancient Fragments, 
 Introd. Diss. p. xiii.) 
 
 A full account of the tower at Babel is also given in Berosus from 
 Abydenus, (pp. 34, 35.) 
 
 21 
 
482 MAN ONE FAMILY. 
 
 more causes of natural things^ than those which are true, and 
 sufficiently ajccountfor natural phenomena. But it is true 
 that one pair, at least, of every living species, must have 
 been at first created ; and that one human pair was suffi- 
 cient for the population of our globe in a period of no 
 considerable length, (on the very moderate supposition 
 of lawyers and political arithmeticians, that every pair 
 of ancestors left, on an average, two children, and each 
 of them two more,) is evident from the rapid increase of 
 numbers in geometrical progression, so well known to 
 those who have ever taken the trouble to form a series of 
 so many terms as they suppose generations of men in 
 two or three thousand years. It follows, therefore, that 
 the author of nature created but one pair of our species ; 
 yet had it not been for the desolations occasioned by 
 water and fire, earthquakes, war, famine and pestilence, 
 the earth would not now have had room for its multi- 
 plied inhabitants. (Asiatic Kesearches, vol. iii. p. 420.) 
 
 Reason^ tradition^ and the Mosaic record dOj then^ all com- 
 bine to assure us, all men, of all the different races now ex- 
 isting, have originated from one primitive pair. 
 
 Another argument for the oneness of man's origin is 
 derived from the very early spread of civilization. 
 
 Many writers seem to suppose that man originated in 
 barbarism, and by a long and tedious process gradually 
 improved himself, until he became civilized ; and that, 
 therefore, the antediluvians, and the early nations after 
 the flood, must have been little better than savages. If 
 mankind originated in separate and far distant localities, 
 the several races would have long continued separate 
 and without intercourse one with another, and barbarism 
 might have long prevailed. But if mankind were all of 
 
MAN ONE FAMILY. 483 
 
 one stock, the antediluvians would have had constant in- 
 tercourse one with another ; and the original perfection 
 of the nature which the Mosaic narrative leads us to be- 
 lieve was conferred on man, would produce the arts and 
 refinements of civilized life at a very early period. And 
 this the Mosaic history of antediluvian times seems ne- 
 cessarily to imply. (See Gen. chap, iv.) The construction 
 of the ark by ISToah, implies a very advanced state of 
 knowledge and of the arts of life. This knowledge and 
 skill in the mechanic arts, we cannot suppose would be 
 lost among the descendants of Noah. The probability 
 is, that great and rapid improvements would everywhere 
 be made. The attempt to erect a lofty tower at Babel 
 corroborates this supposition. The same attention to 
 the arts, to building, carpentry, the working in metals, 
 (which implies a knowledge of mining, of chemistry, of 
 mathematics,) would be carried with them by the sepa- 
 rate branches of the Koachian family, in their migrations 
 to the several regions where they finally settled. Hence 
 we can account for the abundant evidence of early civil- 
 ization, even from the remotest times, in nearly all coun- 
 tries on the face of the globe. 
 
 Thus, in the Ethnological Journal, we read, (p. 152,) 
 " The earliest historical traditions date their origin, not 
 from periods of barbarism, but from periods of high 
 civilization. Menes, the first mortal king of Egypt, was 
 a great conqueror. Some of his immediate successors 
 are stated to have built pyramids, and such like mighty 
 works." 
 
 Again, (p. 154,) " That a high degree of civilization 
 existed in times long anterior to the commencement of 
 regular history, is a position which cannot be much longer 
 
484 MAN ONE FAMILY. 
 
 denied. It was not by barbarians that the pyramids, 
 temples, and other vast works of Africa were erected. 
 The cave temples* of India are the remnants of a civil- 
 ization whose memory has wholly perished ; while nei- 
 ther the traditions nor history of Italyf and Greece en- 
 able us even to conjecture who were the nations that 
 erected their Cyclopean buildings. (See Lepsius, Chro- 
 
 * For an account of the cave temples of India, see Pickering on the 
 Races, p. 349, &c. ; also Elliot's India, passim ; Recollections of North- 
 ern India, by Buyers, chapters vii., viii., and xvii. ; Forbes' Eleven Years 
 in Ceylon, vol. i. chap. vii. vili. ix, x., and vol. ii. Appendix. See also 
 in rUnivers Pittoresque, " Inde, par MM. Dubois de Jancigny ct X. 
 Raymond," plates 19-34 inclusive, and the description in the body of the 
 work, 
 
 f For the remains of ancient art in Italy, consult Pritchard's Re- 
 searches, vol. iii, chap, iv; Mrs. II. Gray's Etruria; and Lepsius, " Chro- 
 nologie der Egypter," p. 2. 
 
 Lepsius says : •' The only way in which we can hope to arrive at cor- 
 rect views of the history of Greece and Italy, from a period which has 
 been generally abandoned to mythology beyond the limits of history, is 
 by combined efforts in archasological research among the monumental 
 remains of those remote times. The fantastic-rich world of art of the 
 Pelasgic pre-Etruscan age, the primitive medal system (Miintz system) 
 of the primitive Italian populations, and the fragments of sculpture, the 
 vases, and varied remains of art from the ruins and the environs of 
 Mycene, Troy, and other cities, once flourishing in heroic times, and 
 disappearing with them, the tombs, aqueducts, (or fountains.) with stone 
 vaults, (arches,) from a time anterior to the invention of the concentric 
 arch — which are found all over Italy, Greece, and Asia Minor— loom up 
 like monuments of stone and metal, above the misty sea of ever-varying 
 fable, and may now be esteemed as historical monuments, because they 
 represent historic circumstances. 
 
 *• But, (adds our learned author,) even the utmost limits of Greek 
 antiquity, can hardly be extended beyond the Homeric times ; and in 
 the antiquity of Rome, not higher than that of the latest kings." (Chro- 
 nologic der Egypter, p. 2. See also Richardson's Geology, p. 90 ; Lyell's 
 Principles of Geology, p. 708.) 
 
MAN ONE FAMILY. 486 
 
 nologie der Egypter, p. 2 .) Even in the New World, 
 the kingdoms destroyed by the Spaniards were founded 
 on the ruins of far mightier empires, whose shattered 
 works speak of a condition and a power, rivalling in great- 
 ness and in antiquity that of Egypt itself " 
 
 Again, this writer says: "The further back we re- 
 mount into ancient times, the more do we find the ves- 
 tiges of their power, the more pure and elevated the tra- 
 ditions of their philosophy." 
 
 Again, he remarks, p. 157 : " The mythologies and 
 primeval traditions of all enlightened, and even of the 
 most barbarous tribes, are fundamentally the same. 
 Everywhere we find certain singular coincidences in cus- 
 toms, opinions, language, &c., which^ the more fully they are 
 developed^ the more clearly are they found to point to a com- 
 mon source.^'' 
 
 The learned Dr. Tholuck says : " That a higher con- 
 dition of the human race has preceded the lower, is a 
 truth which, at all times, by the profoundest men, has 
 been acknowledged." (See Neander's Denkwiirdig Kei- 
 ten, vol. i. p. 234 ; Obs. note 1.) 
 
 All this accords precisely to the universal tradition, 
 that a golden, a silver, a brass, and an iron age, have 
 succeeded each other in the history of mankind. (See 
 Heeren's Asia, vol. i. chap. ii. pp. 311, 333, 363, 366.) 
 
 Tompkins, in his Hulsean Prize Essay, 1840, affirms : 
 " The theory that the human race has emerged from a 
 state of proper barbarism, may be safely considered as 
 exploded, and that on purely scientific grounds. 
 
 " Researches into the physical history of man have gone 
 hand in hand with investigations of his language, at 
 once extensive and minute ; and both have tended to 
 
486 MAN ONE FAMILY. 
 
 prove, beyond all reasonable doubt, in the first place, 
 that at least all those nations with whose literature and 
 religion we are best acquainted, must have had a common 
 origin / But the same investigations show that, so far 
 from having ascended, in the course of ages, from an 
 almost brutal type to his present condition, the general 
 course of things has been the reverse. Even of the Af- 
 rican tribes^ it has been shown Oief/ have sunk to tlieir pres- 
 ent low grade within historic times J** (p. 24.) 
 
 Again, this writer remarks, " Wherever ancient monu- 
 ments remain to show the earlier type of nations now 
 both physically and morally debased, they invariably 
 prove that that type approached a standard of a higher 
 order, ** (p. 26.) We must therefore either assume an eter- 
 nal existence of a human society, or a point of time in 
 which God himself brought into existence the human 
 being already trained in his present relations of life. 
 
 * Pickering, in hiB ralnable work on the races, suggests the idea that 
 AfHca WM the original centre of the earth's iM>pulation, and that from 
 that region the several settlements of mankind were sent forth. Dr. 
 Pickering produces some striking considerations in support of his theory. 
 (Bee his work, p. 806.) 
 
 It is a curious and interesting fkct, though not much noticed by wri- 
 ters on these subjects, that Bratosthenes, himself an African,. a native 
 of the Qreek colony of Cyrene, and who was, probably without exception, 
 the most learned man of all the ancients, possessed of more extensive 
 information than Aristotle himself, and who was also the preceptor of 
 the celebrated Ocographer Strabo, when tracing the connection between 
 Southern Africa and its native tribes, with Asia towards India, and with 
 the Egyptians, asserts, (as Strabo himself informs us.) " The four prin- 
 cipal races of South Africa have not only a well-regulated monarchical 
 institution, but also stately temples and royal palaces ; the beams in 
 their houses are arranged like those of the Egyptians." (Strabo, xvi. c. 
 iv. See also Bunsen, Egypt's Place, &c., vol. i. pp. 119, 120.) 
 
MAN ONE FAMILY. 487 
 
 Now the Bible tells us that man has fallen from his 
 original dignity : yet he brought with him, into his fallen 
 state, many high qualifications and powers from that 
 more happy time. If it were not so, the most important 
 appearances of the most ancient history , would be inexplica- 
 ble. The facts meeting our view in evidence of a high 
 civilization in almost every country, long anterior to his- 
 toric times, and anterior even to tradition, go directly to 
 illustrate the truth of the Mosaic doctrines as to the early 
 condition of society, and also as to the descent of all 
 varieties of men from one common stock, originally very 
 elevated, intellectually and morally both, though subse- 
 quently, degraded morally, without having lost entirely 
 the high faculties originally conferred on the primitive 
 stock. There are too many points of resemblance among 
 all the great subdivisions of the human family, (a resem- 
 blance approximating to identity of character and of 
 powers,) to leave room for the supposition that the several 
 races of men could, by any possibility, have had each an 
 independent origin, at so many separate and far distant 
 points. 
 
 Finally, the languages of manJcind afford evidence SLmownt- 
 ing to demonstration, that all the now differing races of men 
 must have had a common origin ! 
 
 This point has been so ably argued by Dr. Wiseman, a 
 learned dignitary of the Romish hierarchy, in his twelve 
 Lectures on the connection between Science and Revela- 
 tion, (see Lectures i. and ii. vol. i.) that but little is left 
 for fresh explorers in the same field. 
 
 Whoever considers the nature of language, the philo- 
 sophical character of its structure, even in languages of 
 the rudest tribes, must be satisfied, that language, like 
 
488 MAN ONE FAMILY. 
 
 reason, is a divine gift, a sort of inferior inspiration from 
 the Almighty. 
 
 That men should have invented the languages they 
 speak is simply a sheer impossihilUy ; as a little reflection 
 will show. Like thought it is natural to man ; like his 
 physical frame, it is of complicated structure, yet diver- 
 sified as are the complexions of men who speak it. It is 
 found, also, to accord in many of its characteristics, to the 
 peculiar disposition and temperament of those who speak it. 
 
 If in anything relating to man, the controlling influ- 
 ence of the One Supreme Mind is manifested, it is in the 
 nature, the characteristics, the logical structure of lan- 
 guage as such, and in the wonderful variety of forms, 
 varying with the varying characteristics of those who 
 speak it; and yet evincing the power of fundamental 
 principles, common to all languages. The striking iden- 
 tity, in unison with an endless variety, is in perfect ac- 
 cordance, with the identity of human nature itself, in all 
 the numerous varieties of man 1 
 
 If originally one family, as Moses relates, man must 
 have spoken, at first, but one primitive tongue. If so, 
 then whatever changes may have been subsequently 
 wrought on languages, still amid all the diversified classes 
 of spoken languages and dialects, some fundamental prin- 
 ciples of structure, some organic materials, the evidence 
 of a common origin, may be expected to present them- 
 selves in all languages: and such precisely is the fact. 
 The question, " Were all human languages originally one!'' 
 is replete with interest, and has occasioned most laborious 
 research by men of the very highest talent. On this 
 question Dr. Bedford, thus forcibly writes: (See his 
 Scrip. Verified, p. 159.) 
 
MAN ONE FAMILY. 489 
 
 " This is a question which has been long and labori- 
 ously treated, and until late years, with an aspect far 
 from favorable towards the Mosaic record. The course 
 of inquiry seemed to prove, that the immense differences 
 existing among the languages of the world, could never 
 have arisen out of a common or parent stock ; but as 
 these inquiries have advanced, and become matured, un- 
 suspected affinities have been discovered, and fragments 
 of some original tongue have appeared everywhere trace- 
 able, as supplying common elements to them all. 
 
 " Moreover, it has been determined by these researches, 
 that as each class of languages is marked by affinities 
 with other classes, and these affinities bear no trace of 
 being descended lineally from each other, but to be inde- 
 pendent branches from a common stock, or root ; the con- 
 clusion is naturally and necessarily drawn, that, at one 
 period^ there existed only that one form of language^ which 
 has communicated these common elements to all, and 
 which so identify and concentrate them, as to make it 
 next to impossible that they should have had independent 
 and original formations of their own. The differences 
 are not great enough to necessitate independent origina- 
 tions, and the resemblances are too striking to comport 
 with any theory but that of a common source. So that 
 the strictly philological controversy may now be said, to 
 have deprived the unbeliever of all right to question this 
 one part of the Mosaic statement." 
 
 Even those who like Klaproth, entertain no reverence 
 for the sacred history, still accede to the theory of a sin- 
 gle primitive tongue. Referring to his own researches, the 
 celebrated Klaproth says, "The universal affinity of 
 language is placed in so strong a light, that it must he 
 
 21* 
 
490 MAN ONE FAMILY. 
 
 considered hy all as completely demonstrated. This (the 
 affinity,) appears inexplicable on any other hypothesis 
 than that of admitting fragments of a primary language^ 
 to exist through all the languages of the old and new- 
 world." (" Asia Polyglotta." Vorrede, s. ix.) 
 
 Frederic Schlegel, Paravey, Marian, Humboldt, Her- 
 der, and all the most eminent linguists and philosophers 
 have come to the same conclusion. 
 
 The celebrated philologist, Count de Gebelin, expressed 
 his decided opinion, thirty or forty years ago, in the 
 " History of Languages," published originally in his great 
 work, " Le Monde primitif analis^," 9 vol. 4to. that " all 
 existing languages are derived from one^ 
 
 Herder, though no believer in the inspiration of 
 Moses, is yet as clear and strong upon this point as we 
 could wish. He says, "As the human race is a pro- 
 gressive whole, the parts of which are intimately con- 
 nected, so must language form also a united whole, de- 
 pendent upon a common origin. There is a great probability 
 that the human race^ and lajiguage tlwrewith^ go back to a 
 common stock, to a first man, and not to several^ dispersed m 
 different parts of Oiie worW^ He even infers, that mankind 
 must, in the first instance, have been " widely and sud- 
 denly divided r (pp. 160, 161.) 
 
 Abel Remusat, the learned author of "Researches 
 into the Tartar Languages," admits that "beyond the 
 epoch when profane history ceases, there was a confusion 
 (of tongues) which gave rise to them all, and which such 
 vain attempts have been made to explain," (p. 16L) 
 
 The editor of the London Ethnological Journal, (p. 155,) 
 remarks, " It is not only in civilized, and partially civil- 
 ized countries that we find traces of the old religions and 
 
MAN ONE FAMILY. 491 
 
 mythologies. We are perpetually startled by their oc- 
 currence when investigating the superstitions of the most 
 remote and barbarous tribes. In Europe and Asia, we 
 meet them among the northern Fins and Laplanders, 
 and Samoides, and Ostiacks, and Tongonsi ; we meet 
 them in New Zealand, and in numerous other islands of 
 the Pacific, and we meet them in the wilds of North 
 America. And wherever we meet them, we also meet 
 numerous words derived from the very languages to which 
 the antique civilizations can be traced." 
 
 Again, on pp. 151 and 152 of the same journal, occurs 
 this passage : " When we select from a multitude of dia- 
 lects the words which have immediate relation with re- 
 ligion, art, learning, and civilization in general, we are 
 struck with surprise at the unexpected affinities which 
 present themselves between languages, in many respects, 
 the most different. When we next reduce to their ele- 
 ments, these similar words, by dividing those that are 
 obviously compound, and stripping verbs and nouns of 
 their prefixes and terminations, we bring the greater part 
 of them into three or four classes, each immediately re- 
 lated to one or other of the primeval languages of the 
 ancient world, while these languages are all found to be 
 connected together by numerous affinities." 
 
 The early opinion of the distinguished scholar and his- 
 torian Niehbuhr, was opposed to the doctrine of a vio- 
 lent and miraculous confusion of tongues ; but his later 
 and more matured judgment is given in favor of the Mo- 
 saic account. He sa3's, " This fallacy escaped detection 
 among the ancients, probably because they admitted sev- 
 eral distinct races of mankind. They who deny these, 
 (distinct races,) and go back to a single pair, mv^t^ to ac- 
 
492 MAN ONE FAMILY. 
 
 count for the existence of idioms different in structure, 
 SUPPOSE A MIRACLE ; and, for those languages which 
 differ in roots and essential qualities, adhere to that of 
 ^the confusion of tongn^es^ The admission of such a mira- 
 cle offends not reason, since, as the remains of the an- 
 cient world clearly show, that, before the present, an- 
 other order of life existed, so it is certainly credible that 
 this lasted entire after the commencement, and under- 
 went, at some period, an essential change." (See his 
 History of Rome. See also Bedford, pp. 162, 163.) 
 
 These testimonies are of the more importance, since 
 they come from philosophers, nearly all of whom are un- 
 friendly to revelation. They clearly establish the fact 
 of an original unity of speech. 
 
 But the demonstrated unity of speech, is of itself a 
 strong proof of the original unity of all the human races 
 — their descent from one common primitive stock. The 
 original unity of all languages being thus established, 
 the truth of the Mosaic account of the confusion of 
 tongues at Babel, may be thus argued. If there was at 
 first one only language spoken on earth, while yet in 
 the remotest periods of which historic records or tradi- 
 tions have reached us, many various languages were al- 
 ready spoken, then it is plain, from the slowness with 
 which languages now change, notwithstanding all the 
 numerous sources of corruption and admixture, the oc- 
 currence of some sudden and anomalous event that 
 speedily broke men off into distinct bands, and effec- 
 tually changed their language, becomes highly probable. 
 
 Since we now find that, notwithstanding all the changes 
 effected by national convulsions, and the mingling of 
 foreign words and strange dialects, the Saxon tongue has 
 
MAN ONE FAMILY. 493 
 
 remained essentially unchanged for 2,000 years — the 
 Arabic is unchanged by the lapse of time — and even the 
 modern Italian is, as to its main and essential points, the 
 very Latin of the Roman dominion — and since, moreover, 
 we know that radically different languages were spoken 
 among different branches of the human family within a 
 few centuries after the flood, there was not time for the 
 one primitive language to branch off into several lan- 
 guages naturally^ and under the ordinary influences now 
 operating, because no foreign languages originally existed 
 to furnish the means of intermixture with it, and corruption 
 of it. The change must then have been sudden ; and if sud- 
 den^ it must have been miraculous, which is precisely what 
 Moses teaches. 
 
 From sources the most unexpected and the most di- 
 verse, we thus find evidence springing up of the truth 
 of the several teachings of the books of Moses. 
 
 The doctrine of the unity of the human species, of 
 the common descent of all the several races of mankind, 
 however widely differing among themselves, from one 
 primitive pair, the origin of the whole population of the 
 globe, is not, it must be confessed, unattended with dif- 
 ficulties, physiologically considered ; and some natural- 
 ists of eminence demur to this doctrine : but these diffi- 
 culties, when calmly considered, sink into insignificance, 
 before the varied and overwhelming proofs which go to 
 establish the original unity of the races. 
 
 The doctrine of diversity of human races contemplates 
 man as only an animal. That doctrine rests much on a 
 mere assumption of a point questionable at the best. It 
 overlooks the fact, that in one important characteristic 
 of species the varieties of men are not specific, in the 
 
494 MAN ONE FAMILY. 
 
 full sense in whicli species are distinguished in the lower 
 animals : the varieties of men intermingle freely, and 
 their offspring are not sterile, as is the case normally, 
 among lower animals. That theory overlooks the many 
 weighty points in which as intellectual, speech-using, and 
 conscience-possessing beings, capable of indefinite pro- 
 gress and improvement, all the human races present 
 points of resemblance and almost of identity, which 
 throw at an unapproachable distance from them all, even 
 the highest orders of the inferior creation, rendering a 
 classification of man, on principles adapted only to the 
 brutes, inapplicable, inappropriate, and therefore unphil- 
 osophical. That theory involves also the disregard of 
 an admitted axiom in philosophy, which forbids the in- 
 troduction of more causes than are needed to account for 
 the effect, since the known laws of increase will readily 
 admit the population of the globe as now from one 
 original human pair. From all these circumstances, nat- 
 uralists of eminence have rejected, on purely scientifie 
 grounds, the doctrine of diversity of races, and have 
 maintained the original identity of all the races of men. 
 Besides all this, the ablest advocates of diversity of 
 races, have utterly failed in all their attempts to reconcile 
 their theory with the teachings of revelation. They are 
 compelled to use the word species with at least a modified 
 meaning, in their philosophical reasonings ; and they are 
 compelled also to put, upon several passages of holy writ, 
 an interpretation novel, unnatural, and absolutely unten- 
 able. Their theory is also utterly in defiance of the facta 
 of ancient history ; it bids defiance to the earliest tradi- 
 tions everywhere current among the most widely separa- 
 ted nations ; and it is absolutely disproved and refuted, 
 
MAN ONE FAMILY. 495 
 
 by the results of the most extensive and thorough re- 
 searches of philologists, who, almost to a man, even though 
 contrary to their previous bias, and their hostility to reve- 
 lation, are compelled to admit, all languages show proof 
 of derivation from one primitive tongue, and all mankind 
 must have sprung from one original stock. 
 
 Against all these facts, the doctrine of diverse races is 
 in direct opposition. It is also in contradiction of revela- 
 tion : it is at variance with the facts of the Mosaic history, 
 with the general spirit and teachings of the prophets, and 
 it is utterly inconsistent with the whole plan of salvation 
 through a Eedeemer, connected by birth with the human 
 race, who was the second Adam, sent to recover and to 
 save the degraded and imperilled progeny of the Adam 
 who sinned in Eden, and none others. The doctrine of 
 the one origin of all the "races of man, as descendants of 
 Adam, and as such contemplated in the salvation of the 
 gospel, is alone consistent with the whole Bible, with all 
 the plain facts of science fairly examined side by side, 
 with the evidences of a nature common to all the races of 
 men, and infinitely above that of the lower animals. 
 This doctrine alone comports with the facts of ancient his- 
 tory, the traditions preserved among all nations pointing 
 to a common origin, with the early civilization, vestiges 
 of which are found in all the countries of the earth ; and 
 this doctrine of unity is sustained by evidence that 
 amounts to demonstration, by the clearest deductions of 
 the ablest philologists of all countries and of all creeds. 
 
 In view of this array of corroborative evidence for the 
 original unity of the races of men, the difficulties and 
 objections that rest on physiological grounds, may well 
 be set aside as of little weight : and these, in all proba- 
 
496 MAN ONE FAMILY. 
 
 bility, derivre their force from the limitations of our knowl- 
 edge, and will gradually disappear, as human knowledge 
 extends. If any position may be deemed certain, and 
 demonstrated, it would seem that the Original Unity of 
 all the varieties of the human family may be so deemed : 
 and thus, in this, another, and an important point, like 
 as in relation to the Creation and the Deluge, the accu- 
 racy of Moses as a historian,* and his authority as an in- 
 spired penman, are signally illustrated from history, and 
 corroborated by science itself. Well then, might the 
 learned Adrian Balbi affirm, " No monument, either his- 
 torical or astronomical, has yet been able to prove the 
 books of Moses false : but with them on the contrary, 
 agree, in the most remarkable manner, the results ob- 
 tained by the most learned philologues, and the profound- 
 est geometricians." 
 
 William Von Humboldt tells us, "The comparative 
 study of languages shows us that races now separated by 
 vast tracts of land are allied together, and have migrated 
 from one common pnmUive seaL" He tells us that even 
 now, one long chain of kindred tongues, the Indo-Ger- 
 manic languages, extends from the Ganges, to the Iberian 
 extremity of Europe, and from Sicily to the North Cape ; 
 yea that a period there was when the lohole family of man- 
 kind wasj in the strictest sense of the word^ to be regarded as 
 one living whole. (Cosmos, vol. ii. p. 111.) 
 
 In exact agreement with these deductions of the pro- 
 foundest philological research, is the teaching of Moses, 
 
 ♦ The Chevalier Bnnsen says, with great point and beauty, " History 
 was bom in that night, when Moses, with the law of God, moral and spir- 
 itual, in his heart, led the people of Israel out of Egypt." (Egypt's Place, 
 Ac., vol. L p. 28.) 
 
MAN ONE FAMILY. 497 
 
 who says, that while the descendants of Noah dwelt on 
 the plains of Shinar, planning the tower of Babel, " the 
 whole earth was of one language, and of one speech.", 
 The whole population of the globe then constituted but 
 one family, all men are therefore still of one hhod. 
 
 POSTSCRIPT. 
 
 In the note pp. 458, 459, the author stated his inability to find in Lep- 
 sius's Plates illustrative of the sixth Dynasty, the name Kush, the desig- 
 nation for negro, stated by Mr. Gliddon in the London Ethnological Jour- 
 nal, to have been found at Sukkara by the Baron Lepsius. It is but right 
 to add here, that in an interview with Mr, Gliddon to-day, April 19th, 
 1852, he was asked to point to the inscription in Lepsius's " Denkmahler," 
 above referred to. Mr. G. replied, the statement was made on the au- 
 thority of a verbal communication from Lepsius, whom he met at Berlin, 
 but that the inscription is 7wt as yet published in Lepsius's great work. 
 
CONCLUDING KEMAKKS. 
 
 The plan proposed for this volume is now completed. 
 After a brief outline of the course of reasoning employed, 
 to show the necessity for a revelation from God, the 
 reader will find here presented in one connected series, 
 the chief arguments in favor of the divine authority of 
 the Bible, as also the most plausible of the objections 
 against it. 
 
 The character of Moses as a philosopher, and a states- 
 man is briefly delineated ; the evidence for the authen- 
 ticity of the Pentateuch, and also for that of the book of 
 Genesis more particularly, as the production of Moses, 
 and as divinely inspired, is here detailed, in opposition 
 to the views of German ueologists. 
 
 The Mosaic account of creation in six days is ex- 
 amined, and the most important objections raised against 
 that account are discussed. Then follows a review of 
 the popular objections urged against the Mosaic story of 
 Cain, as though it involved the idea of a populousness 
 of our globe at that early period, such as could not have 
 been existing, had not other races of men, besides that 
 of Adam, been then already created. 
 
 The mention made in Genesis, of giants, and the lon- 
 gevity ascribed in that book to the antediluvian patri- 
 archs, next receive a passing attention. 
 
CONCLUDING REMARKS. 499 
 
 The subject of the great deluge in the days of Noah is 
 discussed more at large. That the deluge was strictly 
 universal^ is shown to be plainly taught in the Mosaic 
 narrative ; and the truth of that narrative is vindicated 
 in a careful, and as the writer believes, in a candid ex- 
 amination of all the chief difficulties that have been sug- 
 gested on various grounds, against that universality. Its 
 truth is further illustrated by the several traditions found 
 among all nations, in countries the most widely separated, 
 of a great flood in the times of their earliest ancestors; 
 traditions very distinct, universally prevailing, and all 
 harmonizing to a degree quite irreconcilable with any 
 other view, than that of the actual occurrence of a mighty 
 inundation, that covered the entire earth, just as Moses 
 relates. 
 
 The subject of Death among the creatures of God is 
 also considered ; and the question whether death in the 
 irrational part of the animal creation be, or be not, the 
 result of the sin of Adam, is freely examined.* 
 
 The last Lecture is devoted to a subject of intense and 
 daily increasing interest, the Unity of the Human Spe- 
 cies, and the origin of the varieties of race, and of the 
 diversified languages now spoken by the population of 
 our globe. 
 
 It is not without great diffidence that the author, ut- 
 terly obscure as he knows himself to be, has ventured to 
 
 * The author is gratified to notice that in the work of Dr. Hitchcock, 
 " The Religion of Geology," published since these lectures were delivered 
 from the pulpit, and also in a discourse of Dr. Buckland on this subject, 
 which has very recently come into his hands, the same views, substan- 
 tially, in regard to* death, as those herein unfolded, are maintained by 
 those justly distinguished writers. 
 
500 CONCLUDING REMARKS. 
 
 deal so freely witli the language and the arguments of 
 one whose name is familiar to the scientific and the 
 learned in every civilized country under heaven. 
 
 But even Agassiz may err ; even he may sometimes 
 reason inconclusively. That he has done so in the the- 
 ory presented in the Christian Examiner for July, 1850, 
 to account for the origin of man, and the diversity of - 
 human races, the writer of these pages does, after a very 
 careful examination of the subject, and of the piece of 
 Professor Agassiz, firmly believe ; and he believes also 
 that in his Lecture on that subject, he has shown it. 
 
 The view taken in that Lecture, of the influences con- 
 sequent on God's coming down among men at Babel, to 
 confound men's language, and to effect the dispersion of 
 mankind over the whole earth, as laying the foundation 
 by a constitutional law of change then and there im- 
 pressed on man's physical nature, for the speedy ap- 
 pearance, in the several branches of the one Noachian 
 family, of all the diversity of complexion and of struc- 
 ture, that would be adapted to the regions of their future 
 abode respectively ; a diversity such as we now find to 
 be existing, and such as abundant evidence shows has 
 existed from a 'period not greatly posterior to the era of 
 the deluge, is believed to be simple, natural, and indeed 
 necessarily involved in the narrative itself as given in 
 Genesis, when all the circumstances of the case are con- 
 sidered. 
 
 It is entirely consistent with all known fects, and with 
 the whole tenor of scriptural history, and of scriptural 
 doctrines, as well as accordant to widely spread tradition ; 
 while it has this further recommendation, that it does 
 violence to no one sentence, and to no one word of holy 
 
CONCLUDING REMARKS. 601 
 
 writ, and it enables us to obviate every chronological, 
 and every arcbieological objection against this important 
 doctrine, that Mankind are One Family, all made of one 
 blood ; all brethren by descent from one primitive pair, 
 and all contemplated in the salvation provided in the 
 second Adam, as being all involved in the evil entailed 
 by the sin of the first Adam in Eden. 
 
 In regard to the Bible alone of all books, it can be said 
 that the more thoroughly its statements are sifted, the 
 more consistent, rational, and trustworthy are they found. 
 Every assault made upon it, however its friends may 
 thereby falter for a brief season, issues eventually in 
 brightening the evidence of its truth, and strengthening 
 the demonstration that it is from God. 
 
 Had Moses written his own conjectures merely, or the 
 result of his own wide-spread research, long ere this his 
 statements would have been convicted of error. But, in 
 fact, the extension of human knowledge, though it gives 
 birth every now and then to fresh difficulties, and to new 
 objections against the Mosaic narrative, very soon fur- 
 nishes also the means to remove those difficulties ; and 
 thus, from every department of human inquiry, from 
 every branch of knowledge, evidence springs up, and 
 light is derived, converging all to one point, the illustra- 
 tion of the truth and accuracy of this wonderful docu- 
 ment, the Mosaic record ; producing all together, a com- 
 plete demonstration of its divine origin. For, assuredly, 
 no human mind, however gigantic. its powers, could pos- 
 sibly have accumulated the knowledge, varied, accurate, 
 and embracing subjects the most recondite, which the 
 books of Moses embody. None but the unerring Mind 
 could have guided Moses, in that early age especially, in 
 
502 CONCLUDING REMARKS. 
 
 the composition of this wonderful book, and more par- 
 ticularly the book of Genesis. 
 
 The author frankly admits that, at times, especially 
 during the earlier course of his inquiries, the plausible 
 character of some of the difficulties he had to consider, 
 and the confidence with which some of these objections 
 are presented, staggered him. Again and again he 
 paused, in almost breathless solicitude. But, a recollec- 
 tion of the overwhelming proofs for the divine origin 
 of these books reassured him, and cheered him on in 
 his work. Diligent research, accompanied by patient 
 thought, cleared away each rising difficulty, presented be- 
 fore his mind fresh evidence of the perfect truth, the 
 wonderful accuracy, and the entire trustworthiness of 
 these venerable documents, in each particular, even those 
 that had been most confidently assailed. 
 
 Each step he advanced tended to increase his confi- 
 dence in the books of Moses, and his reverence for their 
 teachings ; and the feeling has been growing upon him, 
 and deepening every day. The Bible is an awful hook I 
 It is immeasurably removed above the noblest of all 
 merely human productions. It is the embodiment of 
 heavenly wisdom. It is the recorded words of the Infi- 
 nite Mind I 
 
 The author thinks he has reason to bless God thai 
 he has been driven by circumstances to that course of 
 reading and reflection, the results of which are here laid 
 before the reader. 
 
 The Supplementary Lecture given in the Appendix, 
 on the Literary Excellence of the Bible, seems connected, 
 almost as a corollary, with the argument presented in the 
 body of the work. It was originally delivered January, 
 
CONCLUDING KEMARKS. 503 
 
 1844, before the citizens of Mobile, as one of a series of 
 Lectures from different citizens. The next were the Two 
 Lectures of Dr. J. C. Nott, referred to in this volume. 
 
 In the course of this work, frequent allusion is made to 
 the astounding claims now confidently advanced, for an 
 antiquity to the monuments of Egypt, and to the earlier 
 dynasties of her Pharaohs, which, if established, would 
 effectually overthrow the received chronology of the 
 Bible, and would show to a demonstration, that (as Bun- 
 sen has expressed it) the Hebrew records furnish no cer- 
 tain chronology older than the age of Solomon.* 
 
 A few remarks on that subject may not inappropriately 
 close this volume. 
 
 Let me here premise, that should it even be admitted 
 that the original Hebrew numbers are lost from the text 
 of all copies of the Jewish Scriptures, and that the Sep- 
 tuagint chronology itself is erroneous, as some seem now 
 ready to admit, so that it should at length be received 
 as an axiom, that chronology forms no part of revela- 
 tion, (a position we are by no means prepared to accede 
 to,) still, even then, the evidence for the divine origin 
 of the Bible would remain untouched ; its doctrines, its 
 precepts, and its promises would retain their beauty and 
 their appropriateness. 
 
 But this claim for high Egyptian antiquity, carries im- 
 probability on the face of it, as many considerations unite 
 to show. Bunsen assures us that monuments now exist 
 in Egypt of an antiquity higher than 5,000 years ;:[: and 
 
 * See his Egypt's Place, &c., vol. i. Preface, p. vii. ; and also vol. i. pp. 
 161, 163. 
 :|: Egypt's Place, Introd. p. xxviii. 
 
504 CONCLUDING REMARKS. 
 
 that the lists of Manetho make the duration of the whole 
 Egyptian empire, from Menes to Alexander, to have 
 lasted somewhere between 4,900 and 5,400 years."*^ 
 
 Mons. Ampere tells usf that Lepsius declares monu- 
 ments are now existing in Egypt, the date of whose 
 erection is 2,500 years before Abraham ; and Mr. Glid- 
 don stated, in 1848, that the discoveries of Lepsius up 
 to that time, left the date of Menes, the first mortal king 
 of Egypt, still oscillating between the 36th and 58th cen- 
 tury B.c4 This would show that Egypt must have been 
 populous and highly civilized long before the flood, and 
 even some centuries before Usher's date of the creation 
 of Adam. 
 
 Lepsius§ himself, towards the close of his great work, 
 *'Die Chronologic der Egypter," part ii. p. 499, gives 
 B.C. 8893 as the date of the accession of Menes, and the 
 commencement of the Egyptian empire, which ended 
 with Nectanebo, B.C. 340. But the geological formation 
 of Egypt discountenances, if it does not effectually refute 
 this lofty claim, and shows that the very soil of Egypt, 
 the ground on which those monuments stand, and where 
 the Pharaohs reigned, has not existed so long. 
 
 The lands of Egypt are a deposit of the Nile ; and 
 the Delta certainly has not presented even the first muddy 
 formation of a morass much more than about 5,000 years 
 since. II 
 
 * Egypt's Place, &c,, vol. i, p. 83. 
 
 t See Revue des Deux Mondes (Paris) for Dec. 1847, p. 1035 ; and see 
 Lecture III. of this work, p. 131. 
 
 X See Gliddon's Otia Egyptiaca, pp. 25, 39. 
 
 ^ Die Chronologie der Egypter, von Dr. R. Lepsius, pp. 498, 499. Ber- 
 lin, 1849. 
 
 II See I'Egypte Pharaonique, par Mons. D. M. J. Henri, torn. i. p. 88. 
 Paris, 1846. 
 
CONCLUDING REMARKS. 505 
 
 A part of the lid of the cofl&n of Mycerinus, the fourth 
 king of the fourth dynasty, the eighteenth of the Egyptian 
 kings, and the builder of the third pyramid,* (this wood 
 is now in the British Museum in London,) who is repre- 
 sented as reigning somewhere about B.C. 3500, was found 
 in the third of the pyramids of Gizeh. Ampere dates 
 this coffin at B.C. 4000. (Eevue des Deux Mondes, p. 
 677, Kov. 1846.) Now it is utterly incredible that wood, 
 and that the several papyrus rolls, should have existed 
 so many thousands of years. The world can show no 
 approximation to a parallel of such durability in mate- 
 rials so frail and perishable. 
 
 A similar antiquity has been claimed for the records 
 of China, of India, and of Chaldaea. All these claims 
 have been demonstrated to be groundless. No authentic 
 records, in any of those countries, can be assigned to a 
 date much beyond B.C. ISOO.f 
 
 Further, this high Egyptian antiquity is made out by 
 assuming that the lists of Manetho, Herodotus, Eratos- 
 thenes, &c., are substantially correct, and that the names 
 found in the tombs and palaces of Egypt, surrounded by 
 the cartouche, or royal ring, when similar to names given 
 in the lists, are the very same, and designate the same 
 persons. It also further assumes, that these kings and 
 these dynasties were successive, and not reigning, many 
 of them, contemporaneously. 
 
 * See Vyse's Pyramids, vol, ii. pp. 94, 95, and plate ; also Lepsius, 
 Auswahl, taf. vii. 
 
 t See Lepsius, Chronologie, &c., pp. 4, 9, 13, 24 ; also Bunsen, Egypt's 
 Place, &c., vol. i. pp. 241, 242 ; Cosmos, vol. 1. pp. 114, 115, note. 
 
 Ampere gives b.c. 4000 as the age of the coffin of Mycerinus. (See 
 Revue des Deux Mondes, Nov. 1846, p. 677.) 
 
 22 
 
606 CONCLUDING REMARKS. 
 
 But, in the first place, the idea which is necessarily in- 
 volved in the mode of computation employed to reach 
 this high antiquity, viz., that from the very earliest of 
 these monarchs, the whole of Egypt had been reduced 
 under the sway of one sovereign, is exceedingly improb- 
 able. It is unparalleled in history. All countries of 
 which we have any accounts, were first occupied by a 
 variety of distinct tribes or petty principalities, often 
 waging relentless war on one another, like the Indian 
 tribes of our own country ; like the several parts of Brit- 
 ain in time of the Saxon heptarchy. It was long before 
 one tribe mastered the others around it, and before one 
 man ruled over a large kingdom formed by the union 
 of all these petty tribes scattered in distinct bands over 
 an extensive region. Such was, in all probability, the 
 case in Egypt, in the times of her earlier Pharaohs, and 
 even until within a short period of the temporary so- 
 journ of Abraham in that land I 
 
 We know, also, that extensive mutilations on the monu- 
 ments were made even by the Pharaohs themselves. Such 
 mutilations are seen at Medinet Habou, (see Revue des 
 Deux Mondes, p. 1028, Dec. 1847 ;) at Luxor, (id. p. 1010, 
 Dec. 1849 ;) and at other places, (id. p. 93, Jan. 1349.) If, 
 from a petty vanity, the Pharaohs thus mutilated the 
 monuments of their predecessors — the sacred records of 
 the empire, what confidence can we place in the truth 
 of the records yet left ? Why may not the priests, and 
 other persons in power, have altered names in these 
 monuments also, inserting the names of ancient and pos- 
 sibly of fabulous monarchs, to feed their national vanity, 
 and gratify their morbid desire of a reputation for match- 
 less antiquity to their country ? 
 
CONCLUDING EEMARKS. 507 
 
 It is well known, also, that great diversity prevails 
 among even the ablest Egyptologists, as to the true read- 
 ing of many even of the names of ancient Egyptian 
 kings. Instances of this are to be found in every part 
 of their writings. (See Ampere, in Kevue des Deux 
 Mondes, Nov. 1846, pp. 687, 688.) 
 
 Besides all this, the sources whence the lists of Egyp- 
 tian kings and dynasties have been drawn, are liable to 
 suspicion. 
 
 Of Egyptian history we know absolutely nothing be- 
 yond what can be gathered from the Greek writers, 
 Herodotus and Diodorus, and the lists of Manetho, as 
 compared with existing monuments and with some few 
 papyrus rolls. 
 
 But, Herodotus furnishes no regular series of dates. 
 Diodorus reckons according to generations; but in his 
 series many chasms occur, to measure which no clue is 
 left us. In the numbers given by Manetho, numerous 
 errors have found place. 
 
 On the monuments again, no regular series of dates 
 appears. Certain tables, or series of royal names have 
 been found, as at Karnak, at Abydos, the royal papyrus 
 of Turin, &c. : but all attempts at a complete arrangement 
 of these royal names, and their identification with the 
 names on the lists given by Greek writers, are attended 
 with perplexing difficulties. The learned differ widely 
 on these points. Thus, Bunsen would assign to the series 
 of provincial kings before Menes, several names that Lep- 
 sius places in the tenth dynasty, (Eg. Place, p. 51,) a dif- 
 ference of considerably more than one thousand years. 
 
 Speaking of the papyrus lists, Bunsen remarks, " Here 
 we find no chronology, any more than upon the Steloe," 
 
508 CONCLUDING REMARKS. 
 
 (p. 84.) Again, " Here we have still no history, in the 
 proper sense," (id.) In another place Bunsen remarks, (p. 
 24,) "As the Egyptians possessed no work on history 
 among their sacred books, so neither had they any con- 
 nected chronology." Again, "The sacred books contained 
 no history^ but much that was historical: they gave no 
 chronology, but constituted its basis and touchstone. If 
 they are ancient, (adds Bunsen,) and extend beyond the 
 period of the Hyksos to the empire of Menes, the founda- 
 tion of Egyptian Chronology, and History, is not entirely 
 lost for the modern investigator," (p. 26.) 
 
 True, if they are so ancient : but who shall prove this? 
 Who can render it even probable ? 
 
 Bunsen tells us, (p. 131,) that according to Manetho, 
 Egyptian history is divided into three great periods : the 
 Old Empire, the Middle Empire, and the New Empire. 
 The Old Empire commenced with Menes, and ended with 
 the third king of the thirteenth dynasty. From that 
 time commences the Middle Empire, the period of the 
 rule of Foreigners, called Hyksos, or Shepherd Kings. 
 Their occupancy of the throne was the commencement of 
 the Middle Empire. Their expulsion was the commence- 
 ment of the New Empire, which opens with the eighteenth 
 dynasty, and extends to the thirtieth dynasty, about 
 thirteen hundred years. 
 
 The Middle Empire, or dominion of the Shepherd 
 Kings, occupied, according to Bunsen, about nine hun- 
 dred years. (See Eg. Place, vol. i. pp. 131, 138.) 
 
 Now the chief monuments yet standing in Egypt are 
 the works of the eighteenth and following dynasties. 
 
 The Shepherd Kings are said to have extirpated the 
 monuments of the Old Empire ; and the native sovereigns, 
 
CONCLUDING REMARKS. 609 
 
 who regained the dominion in the eighteenth dynasty, 
 destroyed the monuments of the Hyksos period. 
 
 What means, then, could the Egyptians of the New- 
 Empire possess, and especially those in the yet later times 
 of the Ptolemies, for making out a history of the Old Em- 
 pire, and for furnishing lists of the kings of that Old Em- 
 pire, after an interval of a thousand years had elapsed, 
 (and in the times of the Ptolemies, an interval of more 
 than 2,300 years,) during which one thousand years a 
 race had ruled in Egypt hostile to the old *Pharaohs, and 
 determined on eradicating every monument commemora- 
 tive of the acts and the very existence of those old 
 Pharaohs ? 
 
 Now the sacred books of the Egyptians contain no his- 
 tory, properly speaking, and certainly no chronology. 
 
 The monuments show no connected chronology : they 
 furnish, here and there, annals of some particular reigns, 
 and some few lists of royal names ; but very little that is 
 properly connected. For the making out of a regular 
 series of chronological dates, reliance is placed on a com- 
 parison of the contents of these several lists on the 
 monuments, and in certain papyri, with the lists given 
 by Greek writers, chiefly Herodotus and Manetho. 
 
 But it is certain that neither Herodotus, nor Diodorus, 
 nor any Greek historian, nor Manetho, himself an Egyp- 
 tian priest, in the comparatively modern time of the 
 Ptolemies, after the last of the Egyptian monarchs of the 
 New Empire had passed away, could have had access to 
 any sources of information other than what the Egyptian 
 hierogrammatists themselves possessed. Of Egypt's old 
 Pharaonic dynasties, these Greek writers could learn no 
 more than what the Egyptians, their contemporaries, after 
 
510 CONCLUDING REMARKS. 
 
 even the New Empire was no more, could tell them. But 
 of those old Pharaohs, the Egyptians themselves of that 
 age, had but little more than the vestiges of tradition. 
 
 Where, then, is the possibility of finding authentic 
 records of the old Pharaohs, the very last of whom was 
 separated, according to the showing of these Greek writers 
 themselves, by an interval of upwards of two thousand 
 years from their time, and of even this interval, the first 
 nine hundred years had left no monuments ? The facts 
 speak for themselves. 
 
 Accordingly we find Bunsen himself admitting that a 
 comparison of the lists of Eratosthenes and Manetho 
 "can leave no reasonable doubt that both are derived 
 from the same/oimtotVi head of tradition* (Vol. i. p. 126 : 
 see also p. 14.) 
 
 But a tradition respecting historical names and dates, 
 running back from two to three thousand years, is a very 
 slender foundation on which to rest a chronology, that is 
 to overturn the chronology given in the books of Moses ! 
 
 In another passage Bunsen very distinctly and very 
 truly remarks, "The question of any value attaching to 
 either the Egyptian or the Greek traditions, relative to 
 the earlier periods of the Egyptian history, turns upon 
 the point," what dependence can be placed on the knowl- 
 edge which the Egyptians of the New Empire did them- 
 selves possess, of their most ancient chronology ? (p. 6.) 
 That is to say, in other words, whether the Egyptians of 
 
 * The genuine Egyptian traditions concerning the mythological period, 
 embraced 'hnyn'ads of years" (p. 14,) 
 
 Bunsen admits also " The Egyptians, like all other nations possessing 
 very ancient records, t^ Jeics only excepted, have from very early times, 
 exaggerated the dates of their history," (vol. i. p. 6.) 
 
CONCLUDING REMARKS. 511 
 
 the New Empire, which commenced a little before the 
 time of Moses, had received any genuine historical knowl- 
 edge of their primitive ages, from the desolation conse- 
 quent on the Hyksos rule ? (p. 4.) 
 
 Bunsen and Lepsius maintain that such knowledge had 
 been preserved ; that " the ancient king mentioned in the 
 Book of the Dead," belonged to the fourth dynasty, and 
 that, though the section in that book, which mentions him, 
 may be of a much later date than his own life-time, yet 
 we possess " authentic contemporary monuments^ not only 
 of him, but of the Pharaohs, his ancestors, in nearly un- 
 interrupted succession, during the previous two centuries 
 and a half, back, almost to the beginning of the third 
 dynasty, and all written in the same character as that 
 papyrus exhibits," (p. 81.) 
 
 This is certainly an important point if it can be clearly 
 established. The inscriptions, &c. on these so called 
 contemporary monuments are presented in the several puV 
 lications of Lepsius, especially in his great work, the 
 "Denkmaler aus Egypten, &c." now in progress. 
 
 But to me, I confess, the evidence for the continuous 
 connection, and the remote antiquity of these several 
 monuments, running back to the commencement of the 
 third dynasty, is not made clearly apparent. 
 
 In relation to the Greek authors* furnishing lists of 
 
 * Herodotus is supposed to have visited Egypt about b.c. 450 years, 
 t. e. just about 100 years before the close of the new empire, full 2200 
 years after the end of the old empire : (see Bunsen, p. 109. Lepsius, p. 
 498.) Bunsen says the system of Herodotus, and the Egyptian compu- 
 tations differ by about 10,000 years, (p. 109.) 
 
 *• Manetho, the author of the famous lists of dynasties, so much relied 
 on, was a priest of Sabennytus, residing at the court of the first Ptolemy, 
 and also under Ptolemy, Philadelphus II. He was long after the very 
 last of the Pharaohs even of the new empire." (Bunsen, p. 58.) 
 
512 CONCLUDING REMARKS. 
 
 the dynasties, on which reliance is placed for the means 
 of identifying the kings whose names are found on the 
 monuments, and so assigning to them their several chron- 
 ological positions, especially those of the first seventeen 
 dynasties, or the Old Empire, the learned and judicious 
 Heeren thus expresses himself: — 
 
 '" Neither Herodotus nor Diodorus distinguishes these 
 dynasties. One merely observes, that according to the 
 lists given him by the priests, (probably those of Mem- 
 phis,) the first king, Menes, had 330 successors, of which 
 they knew only the names, as no monuments were left. 
 It is only in setting out from Moeris and Sesostris, that 
 he gives the names of some few kings, but certainly not 
 a consecutive list, although the priests might have given 
 it to him as such. Diodorus mentions some other kings, 
 but he does not determine the number. It is, therefore, 
 impossible, to found upon the dynasties of these two 
 authors, any exact chronology. 
 
 " But Manetho, in the work of which we have only a 
 few incomplete extracts, classes in chronological order, 
 the thirty-one dynasties preceding the conquest of Alex- 
 ander. Are these dynasties, then, all successive, or 
 partly contemporaneous ? Is it possible that Egypt was, 
 at oncej formed into a large empire ? 
 
 " Rosellini contends for successive reigns, chiefly on 
 the authority of Manetho. 
 
 ^' But suppose Manetho really thought so, how did he 
 reach this conclusion? The Egyptian priests, anxious 
 to give to their state a high antiquity, had already cited 
 to Herodotus and Diodorus catalogues of kings certainly 
 not following each other in chronological order. Might 
 not the same thing have been done in the lists given to 
 
CONCLUDING KEMARKS. 618 
 
 Manetho?" (Historical Eesearches, Egypt, vol. i. pp. 
 98-110.) 
 
 " Among the Hindoos," says the same writer, (see his 
 India, p. 164,) " kings are mentioned on their lists, as great 
 sovereigns, of the very period during which the epics 
 prove there were several small states." So it might have 
 been among the Egyptians, and so in all probability it 
 was. Bunsen himself, while he denies that contemporary 
 sovereigns are found on the lists of the ISTew Empire, i. e. 
 from the opening of the eighteenth dynasty, does also 
 stoutly maintain that in the Old Empire contemporary 
 kings are given, especially in the twelfth dynasty, and in. 
 the fourth. " We may venture to assume, from the in- 
 vestigations of the monuments of the Old Empire, that 
 in it joint reigns occur^ and especially in the twelfth dy- 
 nasty, one of those preserved in the papyrus, i. e. the 
 royal papyrus of Turin." Again, *' In this oldest record 
 of Egyptian chronology, we have a method directly op- 
 posed to the system of a chronological canon. We may 
 call it the dynastic, its aim being to register every sove- 
 reign^ whether contemporaneous or successive." 
 
 " The sum total of the reigns recorded in such or such 
 a dynasty, will be considerably greater than the duration 
 of the dynasty," (vol. i. pp. 65, 56. 
 
 Again, p. 126, *' We find Manetho conforming to the 
 same Egyptian method for the old empire, and that, 
 namely, of inserting in the list of reigns the name of 
 every king of the same sovereign line, co-regents inclusive^ 
 in the form of one continuous order of succession.''^ 
 
 On page 132 Bunsen remarks, " In the Middle Em- 
 pire, the Theban and Xoite kings were contemporaneous with 
 
 22* 
 
514 CONCLUDING REMARKS. 
 
 the Shepherds, and ivith each other J^ This period com- 
 prises 900 years. 
 
 These concessions of the Chevalier Bunsen prepare us 
 to receive with greater confidence the statements of Mr. 
 R. S. Poole, in his Hora3 Egyptiacae, claiming to adduce 
 proof from the monuments themselves, that several of 
 the dynasties which have been generally represented as 
 successive, were actually contemporaneous, as e. g. the 
 twelfth and the fifth; and that thus, the monumental 
 history of Egypt covers not a period of duration be- 
 yond what may be readily reconciled with the Mosaic 
 chronology as given in the Septuagint. A conclusion, 
 to the accuracy of which. Sir J. G. Wilkinson has af- 
 fixed the sanction of his great name in these matters. 
 
 Bunsen places the accession of Menes the first mortal 
 king of Egypt, at about B.C. 3648. Dr. Pritchard places 
 it at B.C. 2214. Wilkinson at B.C. 2320. Lepsius places 
 Menes at a period still more remote than does Bunsen, 
 viz. B.C. 3893, as the year of the accession of Menes; and 
 the empire of the Pharaohs ended, according to Lepsius, 
 with Nectanebo, B.C. 340.* 
 
 Manetho, as corrected by a comparison with Syncellus, 
 would make Menes, B.C. 2720, i. e. about 440 years after 
 the deluge, reckoned according to the Septuagint chro- 
 nology, which gives 6586 as the interval between the 
 creation and the birth of Christ, and places the flood at 
 B.C. 3154. Looking, then, at the many sources of error 
 in these ancient authors, at the uncertainty of the 
 sources whence they had to draw their information, 
 and at the difficulties attending the subject itself, it seems 
 
 * Die Chronologie der Egypter, &c. von Dr. R. Lepsius, pp. 498, 499. 
 Berlin, 1849. 
 
CONCLUDING KEMARKS. 615 
 
 abundantly plain, that (as Dr. Eadie has expressed it in 
 his admirable compend of Egyptian history, given in the 
 *' Early Oriental History," published in the Encyclopaedia 
 Metropolitana, pp. 76, 77,) an approximation to the truth^'^ 
 on all such abstruse points, is all that can be obtained. 
 
 The strenuous defenders of Usher's dates are plainly 
 at fault, in view of the facts furnished by the monu- 
 ments : while the advocates of the extreme antiquity con- 
 tended for by Bunsen and Lepsius, are equally opposed 
 by the facts and reasonings published by Mr. Poole, and 
 by the conceded contemporaneousness of many of the 
 kings of the early dynasties, if not also of whole dynas- 
 ties, given in the Egyptian authorities. 
 
 Between extremes, the middle ground is alone safe. 
 Discoveries in Egyptian archaeology are not yet ended, 
 and discovery has been so rapid of late years, that we 
 may hope to be, ere long, in possession of data, on which 
 to form a final and satisfactory decision on the whole 
 question of Egyptian, and perhaps also, of Scriptural 
 chronology.* Comparing together the statements and 
 the conclusions of the different explorers in this field, it 
 seems plain, that thus far at least, no dates are positively 
 established for the antiquity of Egypt, which forbid us to 
 believe that, though one of the oldest, if not the very 
 oldest nation on earth, there was, nevertheless, ample 
 time, in the interval between the flood and the first king 
 
 * The author has made but passing allusions in this work to the dis- 
 coveries of Layard and his co-laborers among the ruins of Nineveh, &c. , 
 to the investigations of Major Rawlinson in the cuneiform writing ; or to 
 Mr. Foster's work on the Rock inscriptions around Mount Sinai in 
 Arabia, because these subjects are not directly connected with the points 
 here examined. They relate to times less remote, and are reserved, with 
 other points of importance and of interest, for a future volume. 
 
516 CONCLUDING REMARKS. 
 
 of Egypt, to allow the increase of population sufficient 
 for the establishment of such a nation as the empire of 
 the pyramid-building Pharaohs must have been. 
 
 For all that Egypt yet has shown, and for all that the 
 antiquity-loving Egyptologists have yet proved, we can 
 hold to the Mosaic record, its chronology (as found in 
 the Septuagint,) included. 
 
 "This ancient record," says a sensible and candid 
 writer, (Dr. Eadie, see his Introductory to the Early 
 Oriental History, p. i. Lond. 1852,) " carries us back to 
 a dim and remote era. It has not the aspect of a legend 
 which has risen, no one can tell how, and received am- 
 plification and adornment in the course of ages. 
 
 " It is neither a confused nor an unintelligible state- 
 ment. Its sobriety vouches for its accuracy. 
 
 '• As its genealogy is free from extravagance, and as it 
 presents facts without the music and fiction of poetry, it 
 must not be confounded with Grecian and Oriental myth, 
 which is so shadowy, contradictory, and baseless, a re- 
 gion of grotesque and cloudy phantoms." 
 - In this venerable record, there is nothing that lifts 
 itself above vulgar humanity, nothing that might not, 
 nothing that did not happen in those distant and primi- 
 tive epochs. 
 
 No other account is more likely, or presents fewer 
 difficulties. 
 
NOTE. 
 
 The following noble testimony to the sacred character of the Mosaic 
 history of the Creation, as contained in the first chapter of Genesis, is 
 extracted from an article in the Theological and Literary Journal for 
 April, 1852, from the pen of the editor, David N. Lord, pp. 543, 544, and 
 may appropriately be introduced here : — 
 
 After showing that the creation in six days is re-asserted in Exod, xx. 
 11 — where it is given as a reason for the observance of the weekly sab- 
 bath—and that it was reiterated by God himself, on giving to Moses the 
 law written on tables of stone, Exod, xxxi. 16, 17, the writer thus pro- 
 ceeds : — " If that announcement from Sinai, and ratification of the history 
 of the creation given in Genesis, is held to be a fiction, it must of neces- 
 sity lead to the rejection of the whole Pentateuch as a fabrication. If, 
 without any conceivable motive, and against every consideration that 
 would govern a wise and holy being, a misrepresentation so stupendous, 
 and so sure to be defeated and exposed, is incorporated in the Decalogue 
 itself, both as it is represented to have been pronounced by the Almighty 
 Lawgiver, and written by him on the tables of stone, what certainty can 
 be felt that any of the other recitals or declarations are not equally false 1 
 If no trust is to be placed in the awful attestations which God is repre- 
 sented to have given to that part of the law, no other attestations which 
 he is said to have given the other enactments and institutions can be en- 
 titled to reliance. Neither visible theophanies, audible voices, miracles, 
 nor prophecies, which are declared to have attended the communication of 
 commands, and to have shown that they were from him, can yield them 
 any corroboration. Indeed, it would be absolutely incredible that the 
 whole was not, in an equal measure, a fabrication. 
 
 " But the rejection of the Pentateuch as false in its claims to a divine 
 origin and authority, would necessarily draw after it the rejection of all 
 the other books of the Old Testament ; for they all recognize the truth 
 
518 NOTE. 
 
 of the Pentateuch, and proceed on its histories, enactments and institu- 
 tions as verities. They exhibit the Israelitish nation as sustaining the 
 relation to God which the Pentateuch represents ; and the priesthood, the 
 sacrifices, the covenants, the promises and the whole system of laws, as 
 instituted by God, as that record relates. If they are not his work, it is 
 impossible that the other should be. But their rejection draws after it 
 also, as necessarily, the rejection of the New Testament ; for the latter 
 ratifies, in the fullest manner, all the great historical statements, the en- 
 actments and the religious institutions of the former, and it is on them 
 that the work of redemption which it reveals is founded. If the Mosaic 
 history of the creation and fall, the destruction of the ancient world, the 
 adoption of the Israelites as a peculiar people, their deliverance from 
 Egypt, the proclamation of the Law at Sinai, the institution of the priest- 
 hood, sacrifices and rites of worship, and the interpositions, commands 
 and revelations that are recorded by the prophets that followed, are not 
 from God, it is impossible that the New Testament can be, which every- 
 where recognizes them as realities, and is dependent on them for its truth 
 and propriety. The whole Bible, as a revelation, thus stands or falls with 
 the first chapter of Genesis. This intimate connection with other parts 
 of the Word of God, is in a great degree peculiar to that record of the 
 creation. The histories, narratives, and even the enactments of many 
 other chapters might be supposed to bo supposititious, without necessarily 
 destroying the credibility of the inspiration of the remainder. But the 
 subversion of this, from its incorporation in the Law of Sinai, necessarily 
 carries with it the subversion of all that follows." 
 
 To the truth of all this, the writer of these pages yields his hearty 
 assent ; and he deems these views entirely consistent with the position 
 taken in this work ; while they present in a strong light the reasons which 
 have weighed with him in the production of this volume. 
 
 MoBiLK, April 16) 1858. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 THE INDEBTEDNESS OF MODERN LITERATURE 
 TO THE BIBLE.* 
 
 Wherever man is, there is character, intellectual and moral 
 both ; and the doings of the man develop that character. In the 
 actions of his life, in the tenor of his confidential discourse, and in 
 his epistolary correspondence, the individual traces an impress of 
 himself. 
 
 But communities^ as well as individuals, may be said to have 
 and to exhibit a character of their own. The acts of the govern- 
 ment, the enactments of the legislature, the proceedings of public 
 bodies, the prevailing customs, and the tolerated vices, all furnish 
 indication of public character : while in the current literature^ the 
 manifestation of that character is more decisive still. National 
 character is often as distinctly marked in national literature, as the 
 character of the individual is marked in letters to his intimate 
 friends. In German literature, in French, in English, in Italian, 
 and in Spanish, there is a distinct character, intellectual and moral, 
 appertaining to each one, and peculiar to itself. La Henriade 
 never could have been written by an Englishman, nor Othello by 
 a Frenchman, nor Goethe's Faust, nor the Orlando Furioso of 
 Ariosto, by either of them. 
 
 * Delivered before the citizens of Mobile, in the Lecture-room of the 
 Government-street Church, Mobile, Tuesday, December 26, 1843. 
 
520 INDEBTEDNESS OF MODERN LITERATURE 
 
 In like manner, each great age of the world, and almost each 
 successive generation of men, has exhibited its own peculiar lite- 
 rary character. The writings of King David or of Isaiah, the pro- 
 ductions of Homer or of Herodotus, could not possibly be con- 
 founded with the literature of the Augustan age, nor could the 
 productions of Chrysostom or of Augustine be mistaken for writ- 
 ings of the age of Leo X., any more than writings such as those 
 of Luther, of Molancthon, or of Erasmus, could be palmed on lite- 
 rary men as the product of the nineteenth centurj'. Constitutional 
 temperament, education, the company he keeps, the sentiments he 
 hears, the books he reads, the scenes he witnesses, and the objects 
 he pursues, all combine to influence the opinions, and modify the 
 character of the individual. In like manner, the constitution of 
 society, the prevailing forms of government, political changes, and 
 antecedent revolutions, all combine to modify national character, 
 and to determine the character of the age itself, and consequently 
 to aflect the character of its literature also. 
 
 Among the causes thus operating on the human mind, the views 
 entertained of religion cannot be the least influential ; and, conse- 
 quently, the extensive dissemination of writings, such as those of 
 which the Bible is made up, must have told, and told powerfully, 
 upon the sentiments and the writings, at least, if not also upon the 
 conduct of men. To some few among ancient writers, such as 
 Plato and Seneca, the Scriptures were probably not wholly un- 
 known. But it is in modern times only, that these sacred writings 
 have been made extensively known : it Is, therefore, in modern 
 literature, chiefly, th.it we can look for the influence of revealed 
 truth ; and hence, I have proposed to treat of The Indebtedness of 
 Modern Literature to the Bible. 
 
 First, then. Wherever present, the Bible has fostered the spirit 
 of sound learning. From times of the remotest antiquity, it would 
 appear that learning and religion have been closely c<innected to- 
 gether. Not to enlarge on the fact that even among the ancient 
 heathen, the priesthood were usually their learned men, (just as 
 
TO THE BIBLE. 521 
 
 though religion, even in its basest counterfeits, professing, as it 
 does, to deal with the interests of the inner spirit of man, must 
 necessarily cultivate the intellect, as a part of her own peculiar 
 province,) it is obvious that the chief agents employed of heaven to 
 receive and to promulgate revealed truth, were the friends and cul- 
 tivators of learning. Moses, the Jewish lawgiver, " was learned in 
 all the wisdom of the Egyptians^'' and was, unquestionably, the 
 most distinguished man of his age. The author of the book of Job 
 was evidently a man of highly cultivated mind. The royal Solo- 
 mon, and among the prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Daniel, were 
 all accomphshed scholare : while, even so early as the time of Sam- 
 uel, seminaries of learning, called " schools of the prophets,^'' were 
 maintained, from among the students in which were selected those 
 on whom God sent the spirit of prophecy. 
 
 The first teachers of the Christian faith were trained for yeara 
 near the person, and under the instructions of their divine Master, 
 so as to be thoroughly versed in ethics and theology ; and then 
 they were supernaturally endowed, at once, with a knowledge of 
 the languages necessary for the successful prosecution of their mis- 
 sion — a knowledge which, otherwise, the tedious labor of years 
 could alone have secured to them. Paul, from whose pen we 
 have more than from that of any other of the New Testament 
 writers, was a man, not only of unusual mental vigor, but also of 
 varied reading, and of extensive, if not profound erudition. But, 
 besides this learning found in some of the sacred writers, the very 
 nature of the Bible is such as to call for attention to learning, at 
 least in those who study in order to expound it. A divine revela- 
 tion must be communicated in some particular language, or lan- 
 guages, which, to men of other nations, must be foreign and unin- 
 telligible without study. The original tongues of the Old and the 
 New Testament have now, for many ages, been dead languages. 
 A knowledge of these languages can, therefore, be acquired only 
 by careful study. 
 
 In addition to all this, the Bible is, in some parts, of antiquity 
 
522 INDEBTEDNESS OF MODERN LITERATURE 
 
 80 remote, it embodies allusions to times, and places, and persons, 
 so very ancient, and so entirely removed out of tlie range of ordi- 
 nary research, that, in order to understand it fully, not only must 
 various languages be studied, but a wide range of investigation 
 must be made in history, chronology, geography, and sundry other 
 branches of knowledge. Accordingly it has been found, in every 
 age, that where the Bible was, there learning flourished. Among 
 the most assiduous cultivators of learning, in their day, were the 
 advocates of revealed truth in the first four centuries of the Chris- 
 tian era. During the long night of intellectual darkness, in what 
 are called the middle ages, learning was confined, almost exclu- 
 sively, to the cells of the monasteries. But in those cells the Bible 
 was, and was studied, while on the great mass of men, from whom 
 the Bible was withheld, the deep darkness of utter ignorance rested. 
 So long as the church taught the traditions of men, keeping the 
 Bible hid from public view, learning languished, and was found 
 only among the clergy: but when the Reformation insisted on the 
 exclusive authority of revelation in mattere of faith and practice, 
 and proclaimed the Bible as the book for the people, learning re- 
 vived, the study of ancient languages was entered upon with ar- 
 dor, other branches of learning received increased attention, nu- 
 merous versions of the Bible in modem tongues were made, and 
 published for the use of the people. Commentaries and exposi- 
 tory works of various kinds were produced and published, and the 
 art of criticism was once more called into operation, and greatly 
 improved. So true it is, as the learned Blackstone remarks, when 
 advocating the necessity for a liberal education at the university, 
 as a preparation for the study of law, " The sciences are of a social 
 disposition, and flourish best in the neighborhood of each other; 
 nor is there any branch of learning but may be helped and im- 
 proved, by assistance drawn from other arts." Blackstone's Com- 
 mentaries, book i, § 1, vol. i. p. 19. And we may add, there is 
 no one branch of learning which can be thoroughly mastered, 
 without attention to many other departments of knowledge : yea, 
 
TO THE BIBLE. 523 
 
 a love for one learned pursuit will inevitably impel to the study of 
 kindred and illustrative branches of knowledge. Thus it was ac- 
 tually found that, wherever the Bible was, there learning took up 
 her abode, and multiplied her votaries, and achieved her triumphs. 
 But learning is the foundation of literature. In fostering learning, 
 then, the Bible has rendered essential service to the cause of liter- 
 ature. It has called it into existence, and mainly determined its 
 character. 
 
 For, secondly, Some of the profoundest works of modem litera- 
 ture have been called forth hy the Bible. Wherever the Bible is 
 known, and duly prized, it awakens a spirit of learned research : 
 ancient languages, the classics of Greece and Rome, as well as of 
 Judea, become objects of diligent study ; and learned lexicons, and 
 laboriously compiled grammars, and critical editions of the ancient 
 classics, (those of Greece, especially,) are put forth, as a means of 
 elucidating the sacred text, or of fitting the student of revealed 
 truth, rightly to investigate, properly to appreciate, and correctly 
 to expound it. For the same purpose, also, the vast stores of 
 ancient history must be unlocked, to furnish the world with such 
 works as Prideaux's Connection of Sacred and Profane History, 
 the Annals of Archbishop Usher, and the works of Lightfoote, of 
 Home, of Lardner, and Calmet's Dictionary of the Bible. An im- 
 mense amount of learning has been employed in framing commen- 
 taries on the Bible, and expositions of its several books. Pole's 
 Synopsis of Critical Expositions, Blayney's Jeremiah, Lowth's 
 Isaiah, Newton on the Prophecies, Ainsworth on the Pentateuch, 
 Michaelis on the Old and on the New Testament, Campbell's 
 Notes on the Gospels, Rosenmiiller's Scholia, and the Commenta- 
 ries of Kuinoel, are all works of great learning, and they discover 
 vast research. 
 
 Besides this, in reply to the objection of infidels, many able 
 works have been written in defence of the Bible, from Watson's 
 Apology, Leland's View of Deistical Writei*s, and Paley's Evi- 
 dences, down to the Evidences as presented by Bishop M'llvaine 
 
524 INDEBTEDNESS OF MODERN LITERATURE 
 
 of this country, and by Bishop Wilson of Calcutta. For vigorous 
 thought, sound reasoning, lucid arrangement, and beautiful simpli- 
 city of style, many of the productions of this class stand unrivalled 
 in our language. The works of Paley, especially, are models of 
 composition, and of felicitous reasoning. 
 
 In other departments, the Bible has called forth the works of 
 Bochart, of Reland, and Lowth on Hebrew Poetry, all distin- 
 guished for profound erudition ; while, in our own language, (to 
 say nothing of Milton, of Young, and of Pollok,) such writers as 
 Jeremy Taylor, Home, Hooker, Barrow, Sherlock, Bishop Butler, 
 and a host of others (constituting the very flower of our English 
 literature) were induced to write solely from reverence for the 
 Bible. In English literature, the Bible has proved the most liberal 
 of all patrons. 
 
 But, thirdly, The science of Jurisprudence is also largely in- 
 debted to tlie Bible. This every sound lawyer will readily allow. 
 In the books of Moses, written in the very remotest age of the 
 world, and when mankind were everywhere little better than bar- 
 barians, we have presented in brief a body of laws which, to this 
 day, is admitted by those most competent to judge, to be the very 
 best code ever given to mankind ; the model on which all subse- 
 quent legislators have proceeded in framing their statutes. 
 
 " As God, (says Blackstone,) when he created matter, and en- 
 dued it with a principle of mobility, estabUshed certain rules for 
 the direction of that motion, so, when he created man, and endued 
 him with free will, to conduct himself in all parts of life, he laid 
 down certain immutable laws of nature, whereby that free will is, 
 in some degree, regulated and restrained, and gave him also the 
 feculty of reason, to discover the purport of those laws. These are 
 the eternal and immutable laws of good and evil, to which God 
 himself always conforms, and which, as applicable to man, reason 
 can discover ; and which are so admirably ordered of God, as al- 
 ways to promote the substantial and permanent happiness of men ; 
 such, e. g. as that we should Uve honorably, hurt nobody, and ren- 
 
• 
 
 TO THE BIBLE. 625 
 
 der to eveiy one his due. Indeed, to these three precepts Justin- 
 ian has reduced the whole doctrine of law. This is the Law of 
 Nature. But further, in compassion to the frailty, the imperfec- 
 tion, and the blindness of human reason, God hath been pleased, 
 at sundry times and in divers manners, to discover and enforce his 
 laws by an immediate and direct revelation. The doctrines thus 
 delivered we call the revealed or divine Law, and they are to be 
 found only in the holy Scriptures. These precepts, when revealed, 
 are found, upon comparison, to be really a part of the original law 
 of nature, as they tend, in all their consequences, to man's felicity : 
 but, though agreeable to right reason, reason, unaided and alone, 
 could not make them known. Upon these two foundations, the* 
 law of nature, and the law of revelation, depend all human laws : 
 that is to say, no human laws should contradict these."* 
 
 * I think myself happy in being able to introduce the following noble 
 testimony to the value of the Bible, in legal science and civil government, 
 from the pen of that able jurist and distinguished man, Chief Justice 
 Hornblower of New Jersey, found in his Charge to the Grand Jury of 
 Essex County, N. J,, Jan. 7, 1843. " We have in the Bible a wiser and a 
 holier rule of action than the wisdom of man ever conceived, and in fewer 
 words than all the learning of the schools ever compressed the wisest of 
 their maxims : ' Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye 
 even so to them !' This is emphatically the golden rule. It is universal 
 in its application, and eternal in its principles. It lies at the foundation 
 of our jurisprudence, legal and equitable, civil and criminal ; and if acted 
 on, this would do more to purify society, and elevate man to his true dig- 
 nity as a rational and immortal being, than all the learning of the schools, 
 and the vain philosophy of the world. 
 
 " It is a short and simple lesson that all may learn, from the lisping 
 child of civilization to the gray-headed and untutored savage of the wil- 
 derness — a lesson which, if all would inculcate and practise, would smooth 
 down the asperities of life, mitigate the sorrows incident to humanity, 
 sweeten the springs of domestic enjoyment, strengthen and beautify the 
 bonds of the social compact, dispense with the officers of justice, demolish 
 our prisons, and pull down the last scaffold that should ever be erected 
 for the execution of the convict. 
 
 "But instead of this, we are constantly told of the dignity and perfecti- 
 
626 INDEBTEDNESS OF MODERN LITERATURE 
 
 Thus full and explicit is the great Commentator on Law, in re- 
 gard to the supreme authority of the Bible in legal science : and in 
 the writings of the ablest jurists everywhere are found, expressed 
 or implied, similar concessions to the fundamental importance of 
 the Bible in the science of jurisprudence. So close, indeed, is the 
 connection between biblical and legal knowledge, that " during 
 the middle ages, (as Selden remarks,) the clergy, as they then en- 
 grossed every other branch of learning, so they were particularly 
 remarkable for their proficiency in the study of the law : it was 
 then taught by them in the monasteries, in the universities, and in 
 the families of the principal nobility." " Nullus clericus, nisi cau- 
 
 bility of human nature, the noble qualities of the mind, and the elevating 
 influence of education in the illimitable fields of art and science upon the 
 happiness of man ; and each lecturer, in his turn, has just discovered some 
 new principle in nature, or above nature, which is to rectify all the ills of 
 life, &c. 
 
 " When these giants in human intellect can tell me whence Moses de- 
 rived his science in legislation, without admitting the supernatural and 
 divine authority of the Ten Commandments, I shall begin to listen with 
 more reverence to the teachers of human perfectibility. In that short and 
 comprehensive code, we find given to us a perfect rule of action, covering 
 the whole ground of man's existence : a rule, not only prescribing our 
 duty to God and man, in our external behavior, but reaching to the se- 
 cret thoughts and feelings of our hearts in every possible condition of 
 life, and in all our relations to our Maker and our fellow-beings. The 
 wisdom of ages, the learning and philosophy of the schools, have never 
 discovered a single defect in that code. Not a virtue which is not there 
 inculcated. Not a vice, in its most doubtful and shadowy form, which is 
 not there prohibited. Whence, then, I ask, did the great Jewish law- 
 giver derive his spirit of legislation"? If that code was written by the fin- 
 ger of the Almighty, let us bow to it with holy reverence, and seek no bet- 
 ter rule of life, nor any wiser principles of action. But if they emanated 
 only from the capacious mind, and were dictated by the wisdom of Moses 
 — then Moses was a wiser, a more learned man, than any of our new 
 teachers ; and I had rather be under his jurisdiction and keep his com- 
 mandments, than learn new rules of civil polity and social intercourse 
 from the most learaed and wise of the present day " 
 
TO THE BIBLE. 627 
 
 sidicus," (every priest is a lawyer,) is the character given of them 
 soon after the conquest. The judges, therefore, were usually cre- 
 ated out of the sacred order ; as was the case also among the Nor- 
 mans : and all the inferior officers in courts of law were supplied 
 by the lower clergy, which has caused their successors to be de- 
 nominated CLERKS (clerici) to this day. 
 
 But again, fourthly. The Bible has greatly contributed to pro- 
 mote the general diffusion of intelligence among the mass of the 
 people. Various considerations combine to assure us that such is 
 the fact. The testimony of all competent and impartial observers 
 declares, that among the mass of the people in those countries yet 
 destitute of a knowledge of revelation, gross ignorance prevails.. 
 The little learning they do possess is confined to a very small class, 
 the privileged few : the body of the population are, in point of 
 intellect, but little elevated above the brutes around them. Yea, 
 even in nations nominally Christian, the difference in the amount 
 of intelligence among the common people, where the Bible is open 
 to all, and among those where it is not in their hands, is almost 
 incredibly great. Go among the poorer population of Cathohc 
 Ireland, of Italy, of Spain, or even of France, and you will find the 
 grossest ignorance almost universally prevalent. They are taught 
 to delegate the care of their future interests to their priests, and 
 with the delegation, they seem to abandon almost the power of 
 thought. In such communities you will find many minds naturally 
 shrewd, vigorous, and active, but shrunk and paralyzed, for want 
 of having their powers called into proper action. Relying on 
 mere outward rites, truth, in all her majesty, her beauty, and her 
 far-reaching influences, seems hid fi'om their view, and lost even to 
 
 their wishes Now, with such a people, compare the same 
 
 class of population as found in Scotland, or in New England, 
 where the Bible is, emphatically, " the people's book ;" where it is 
 found in every house, in the rich man's library, and on the cot- 
 tager's table, where it is read in every school-house, and where its 
 sacred precepts are reverently listened to around the cheerful hearth 
 
628 INDEBTEDNESS OF MODERN LITERATURE 
 
 of the day-laborer, and you will find a great difference in the 
 amount of popular intelligence. This the Scottish poet, Burns, 
 well understood ; and. accordingly he describes his cottage laborer 
 closing the pleasant family intercoui-se on Saturday night : 
 
 " The cheerful supper done, wi' serious face, 
 They round the ingle form a circle wide; 
 The sire turns o'er, wi' patriarchal grace, 
 The big ha' Bible, ance his father's pride: 
 His bonnet reverently is laid aside. 
 His lyart haffets wearing thin and bare : 
 Those strains that once did sweet in Zion glide, 
 He wales a portion with judicious care ; 
 And, ' L^t us worship God,^ he says, with solemn air. 
 
 " The priest-like father reads the sacred page, 
 How Abram was the friend of God on high. 
 Or Moses bade eternal warfare wage 
 With Amalek's ungracious progeny : 
 Or how the royal bard did groaning lie 
 Beneath the stroke of Heaven's avenging ire : 
 Or, Job's pathetic plaint, and wailing cry, 
 Or rapt Isaiah's wild seraphic fire. 
 Or other holy seers, that tun'd the sacred lyre. 
 
 " Perhaps the Christian volume is the theme — 
 How guiltless blood for guilty man was shed : 
 How He who bore in heaven the second name. 
 Had not on earth whereon to lay his head : 
 How his first followers and servants sped — 
 The precepts sage they wrote to many a land : 
 How he, who lone in Palmos banished, 
 Saw in the sun a mighty angel stand. 
 And heard great Babylon's doom pronounced by Heaven's command. 
 
 " Then kneeling down, to Heaven's eternal King 
 The saint, the father, and the husband prays. 
 * * * * » 
 
 From scenes like these, old Scotia's grandeur springs, 
 That makes her loved at home, revered abroad." 
 
TO THE BIBLE. 529 
 
 Yes, — in such a country it is that you find a thinking, reasoning 
 community, given to reflection, and comparatively free from super- 
 stition. Nor is the cause of this difference unintelligible or obscure. 
 By the amazing truths which it presents, the Bible is directly cal- 
 culated to awaken thought, intense thought ; and it furnishes abun- 
 dant materials to feed and to maintain thought. Destitute of reve- 
 lation, man's thoughts are confined to this world, its pleasures, its 
 cares, and its interests : and what can the mere notion of a local 
 deity, like the heathen idols, or of a patron saint to look to for 
 protection, do to elevate the thoughts and stimulate the intellect ? 
 
 How meagre and uninfluential were the notions of superior be- 
 mgs, entertained by the most polished of ancient pagan philoso- 
 phers. But, open the page of inspiration before man's eye, and 
 what a host of glorious truths and ennobling ideas is at once pre- 
 sented to his mind ! The nature and attributes of the Eternal 
 Spirit, his boundless power, his spotless holiness, his inflexible jus- 
 tice, man's responsibility, and, above all, the stupendous discove- 
 ries of divine mercy in the plan of redemption, are truths blazing 
 on every page of the Bible, — truths admirably adapted to arrest 
 attention, to awaken thought, profound, intense, long-continued 
 thought, and by their influence, to touch the springs of human 
 feeling, expand the very dimensions of the mind itself, and new 
 model the entire character. These and similar truths (presented 
 only in the Bible) cannot be uninfluential on the mind that per- 
 ceives and contemplates them. Just so far as the Bible is known 
 and studied in a community, are these truths known ; and so far 
 must their influence be felt. But if an ennobling influence be thus 
 diff"used over the public mind, the effects of that influence cannot 
 fail to show itself on the literature, which is at once the offspring 
 and the gauge of popular intellect. 
 
 But, fifthly. The Bible has elevated the tone of morals in hu- 
 man society, and has awakened a gentler spirit in man's bosom. 
 That the standard of morals is greatly elevated by the Bible, no 
 well-informed person can doubt. A comparison of heathen tribes, 
 
680 INDEBTEDNESS OF MODERN LITERATURE 
 
 ancient or modern, with a Christian communit}'^ in this respect, pre- 
 sents ample confirmation of this position. The picture of heathen 
 morals drawn by the Apostle Paul in the fii-st chapter of Romans, 
 and in sundry other passages in his epistles, is found reflected in 
 the pages of the most polished writers of classical antiquity, Greek 
 and Roman both ; and the testimony of missionaries long resi- 
 dent among the heathen of our own day, and that of observant 
 and impartial travellers, assures us that it is a faithful likeness to 
 the present hour. The pages of ancient learning and elegance 
 are often defaced by unutterable abominations, which appear to 
 have been placed there with hardly a consciousness of impropriety 
 on the part of the accomplished writers. There may^ indeed, be 
 similar abominations perpetrated in the bosom of society now, 
 and possibly the amount of actual wickedness is not very greatly 
 diminished in our day, for the human heart is always the same. 
 But, if so, the evil is perpetrated secretly, and cautiously, not chal- 
 lenging notice in open day. It is, even by the perpetrator, felt 
 to be an evil, a thing to be ashamed of, not protruded before othera 
 and openly gloried in. Works, which, in the polished age of Au- 
 gustus, were evei^whero well received, would not now be tole- 
 rated : no man would dare to publish them in any country in 
 Christendom. Even in the corrupt capitals of Europe, however 
 reckless the dissipation of actual life, literature must present at 
 least the external aspect of decency. The unprincipled and the 
 abandoned may now be as desperately wicked as were the most 
 dissolute among the heathen of old, but there is now, through the 
 influence of the Bible, an incomparably larger proportion of human 
 society, than heathenism ever knew, that love and practise purity 
 of life ; and the influence of these serves to restrain the open ex- 
 hibition of licentiousness, in every part of the community, and in 
 every grade of society. 
 
 Moreover, the jjeaceful spirit of revelation has spread its influ- 
 ence far and wide, through every part of human society. Men 
 iio longer deem all foreign nations barbarians, lying almost beyond 
 
TO TSE BIBLE. 531 
 
 the pale of humanity. No longer is warfare conducted in the spirit 
 of sanguinary ferocity that prevailed among ancient pagans, and 
 still prevails among heathen tribes. Formerly captives taken in 
 war were put to death in cold blood, without any sense of injustice, 
 any feeling of shame. The mildest doom impending over the 
 captive, was to pass his life in hopeless slavery under his con- 
 queror, or those to whom that conqueror might sell him. " Even 
 so late as the sixteenth century, (says Chancellor Kent,) in many 
 instances, shipwrecked strangers were made prisoners, and sold as 
 slaves, without exciting any complaint, or offending any public 
 sense of shame. Numerous cases occurred of acts of the grossest 
 perfidy and cruelty towards mere strangers, as well as towards en- 
 emies. Prisoners were put to death for their galkntry and brave 
 defence in war. There was no reliance to be placed upon the 
 word and honor of men in power." Kent's Com. vol. i. p. 9. But 
 a decided reformation of manners and improvement of feeling has 
 been effected in modern times ; " and," says Chancellor Kent, again, 
 (vol. i. p. 10,) "the influence of Christianity (i. e. the Bible) has 
 been very efficient towards the introduction of a better and more 
 enlightened sense of right and justice among the several govern- 
 ments of Europe. It taught the duty of benevolence to strangers, 
 of humanity to the vanquished, of the obligation of good faith, — 
 of the sin of murder, revenge, and rapacity. The history of Eu^ 
 rope, during the earlier periods of modern history, abounds with 
 interesting and strong cases, to show the authority of revelation 
 over turbulent princes and fierce warriors, and the effect of that 
 authority in meliorating manners, checking violence, and introdu- 
 cing a system of morals which inculcated peace, moderation, and 
 justice." Just so far as the doctrines of the Bible are received 
 which teach that men are all of one race* members of one family, 
 
 * It is gratifying to be able now (April, 1852) to adduce the testimony 
 of a scholar, like Bunsen, expressed in a work published long after this 
 lecture was delivered, — as to the decided teaching of the Bible, that men 
 are all of one race : under the head of " Greek and Roman Research" ih 
 
532 INDEBTEDNESS OF MODERN LITERATURE 
 
 children of the same Heavenly Father, may the spirit of humanity 
 be expected to prevail ; and when, moreover, the soul's immortality 
 is fully admitted, it throws a sacredness over the estimate of hu- 
 man life, and presents war and bloodshed and violence in a most 
 repulsive light. Accordingly, a more humane and liberal spirit 
 characterizes the intercourse of nations one with another : a resort 
 to war (except in cases of absolute necessity) is everywhere con- 
 demned by public opinion, and modern literature shows the influ- 
 ence o/ this change ; it is more liberal, it breathes less of a san- 
 guinary spirit, and exhibits far more refinement, gentleness, and 
 delicacy of feeling. More especially is this change apparent in the 
 different manner in which woman is everywhere treated in Chris- 
 tian society, and the different light in which she is depicted and 
 spoken of in literary works. On this point much might be said, 
 but this brief allusion must here suflBce. As woman sways a gen- 
 tle but all-commanding influence at the domestic hearth, and in 
 the community around her ; as her spirit is pre-eminently the pre- 
 siding genius of home, with all its calm joys ; so, in the literature 
 of modern times, the altered position of woman seems to show it- 
 self, in a pure and hallowed influence shed over the whole range 
 
 ancient history, Bunsen thus expresses himself: " Soon after the time of 
 Diodorus, and in the days of Pliny himself, when the spirit of Greek his- 
 torical research, whether as regards Egypt or the ancient world at large, 
 had become extinct, new life was imparted to it by the inspiring sentiment 
 of tke unity of human nature^ shed abroad by the Christian religion." (Egypt'8 
 Place in the World's History, vol. i. p. 158. Eng. Trans. Lond, 1848.) 
 Here the learned Bunsen asserts that historical research derived new life 
 from the doctrine of the unity'of human races taught in the Bible ! 
 
 Again : '■ In the contemplation of human history, Faith begins, as the 
 Sacred Books do, with the divine origin of things, and, starting from the 
 great facts of creation, and the unity op the human race." (Idem, p. 164.) 
 
 This testimony is full and explicit : it needs no comment. A mere vul- 
 gar prejudice, as the advocates of diversity of races call the doctrine of 
 the unity of races, could hardly have exerted this enlivening influence on 
 the spirit of historical research. Error is not usually ennobling in its in- 
 fluences. 
 
TO THE BIBLE. 533 
 
 of literary production. Her gentle spirit is there, as in the home 
 of the mind. But it is the Bible that has elevated woman, culti- 
 vated her mind, polished her manners, and chastened her spirit ; 
 and through her it has sent this gentle influence on human inter- 
 course and on modern literature. 
 
 But again, sixthly. The Bible has furnished to modern litera- 
 ture topics of peculiar grandeur^ and thouyhts of rare beauty^ ut- 
 terly unknoion where revelation is not. How poor and unsatisfac- 
 tory were the conceptions of the most distinguished writers of clas- 
 sical antiquity concerning the nature and the destiny of man, and 
 especially concerning a superior power. How human in their 
 passions, and degraded in character, are all of the numerous gods 
 and demi-gods with which Homer peoples his Olympus ! How 
 even the wisest of the ancient philosophers encumber their descrip- 
 tion of a supreme deity by the notion of the stern decrees of irre- 
 sistible fate, to which the highest of their deities is subject ! Among 
 many things that are beautiful, and some that are truly sublime, 
 this poverty of thought respecting the Great First Cause exerts a 
 belittling influence that is continually felt. In the writings of the 
 wisest of the ancients, man is often represented as equal in dignity 
 of character to their gods, if not positively superior. 
 
 But now, what a commanding influence over the whole range 
 of human thought and conception, flows from the sublime idea pre- 
 sented in revelation, of One God, the cause of all things, himself 
 uncaused, eternal, unchangeable, supremely independent, perfect in 
 his nature, and infinite in all his attributes ! The presentation of 
 that one glorious conception to the mind, is like the rising of the 
 sun to the bodily vision ; the darkness and uncertainty previously 
 resting on every object are dissipated, and a ivorld bursts forth to 
 view, in all its beauty of forms, its symmetry of proportions, and its 
 multipHcity of mutual relations, each object appearing in its true 
 nature, its proper position, its due connections ! Who can estimate 
 the far-reaching influence on human thought of this one discovery 
 of a spiritual Being, the Creator of all, who said, " Let there he 
 
534 INDEBTEDNESS OF MODERN LITERATURE 
 
 light /" and there was light ; who " spake^ and it was done ; who 
 commanded, and it stood fast T What a subject for reflection — 
 an Almighty God, omnipresent and omniscient ! How can it do 
 other than influence and new model the whole current of human 
 thought, and the very modes of expressing thought ? Now, this 
 grand idea is derived from the Bible, and no one yet has estimated 
 the amount of sublime thought and ennobling sentiment it has 
 shed over our modern literature, even those portions of it that have 
 proceeded from men who scofi* at that very Bible to which they 
 are indebted for nearly every thought that gives force and beauty 
 to their productions : as, e. g. that conception of Byron's, present- 
 ing, in the presence of Manfred, the Spirit of Evil to the gaze of 
 the startled Abbot, who exclaims, with pious horror, 
 
 " Ah ! he unveils his aspect : on his brow 
 The thunder scars are graven : from his eye 
 Glares forth the immortality of hell !" 
 
 The doom of Cain was obviously in the writer's mind. And what 
 but a reflected image of grand ideas presented in the Bible, is that 
 beautiful passage near the close of Childe Harold, the address to 
 the ocean ! 
 
 " Roll on, thou deep and dark blue ocean, roll ! 
 Ten thousand fleets sweep over thee, in vain : 
 Man marks the earth with ruin, his control 
 Stops with the shore : upon the watery plain 
 The wrecks are all thy deed, nor doth remain 
 A shadow of man's ravage, save his own, 
 When, for a moment, like a drop of rain. 
 He sinks into thy depths with bubbling groan. 
 Without a grave, unknell'd, uncoffin'd. and unknown. 
 
 " Time writes no wrinkles on thine azure brow ; 
 Such as creation's dawn beheld, thou rollest now, 
 Thou glorious mirror, where the Almighty's form 
 Glasses itself in tempests : in all time 
 Cahn or convulsed, in breeze or gale or storm, 
 
TO THE BIBLE. 5S5 
 
 Icing the pole, or in the torrid clime 
 
 Dark heaving : boundless, endless, and sublime. 
 
 The image of eternity — the throne 
 
 Of the invisible ; — even from out thy slime 
 
 The monsters of the deep are made ; each zone 
 
 Obeys thee; — thou goest forth dread, fathomless, alone." 
 
 Compared vfith. such images, the finest figures of ancient classic 
 eloquence are tame and common-place. But every one of these 
 splendid images is furnished in the Bible ! Thus, the creation of 
 the monsters of the deep out of the slime of ocean, is an idea sug- 
 gested by that passage in Genesis ii. 20, 21. And God created 
 great whales (sea-monsters) and every living creature that moveth^ 
 which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind. The 
 impotence of man on the ocean, is suggested by contrast from the 
 scriptural declaration of God's exclusive power to say to the 
 boisterous element, " hitherto shalt thou come, and no further, and 
 here shall thy proud waves be stayed." Job xxxviii. 11. While 
 the idea of the ocean's being God's throne, and the Almightyh 
 form glassing itself in tempests upon ocean, as in a mirror, is 
 only a beautiful presentation of the thought so often found in Holy 
 Writ, that God, as king, sitteth upon the floods ; he maketh dark- 
 ness his pavilion round about him ; thick clouds and tempests are 
 under his feet ; — yea, he rideth upon the wings of the wind ! — 
 That fine passage in Manfred, in which the sage defies the fiend, 
 and declares himself the architect of his own destiny : 
 
 " Back to thy hell. / 
 
 Thou hast no power upon me, that I feel ; 
 Thou never shalt possess me, that I know. 
 What I have done, is done. I have within • 
 A torture which could nothing gain from thine 
 The mind which is immortal, makes itself 
 Requital for its good or evil thoughts, 
 Is its own origin of ill, and end. 
 And its own place and time ; its innate sense, 
 When stripped of this mortality, derives 
 No color from the fleeting things without ; 
 
536 INDEBTEDNESS OF MODERN LITERATURE 
 
 But i3 absorbed in sufferance or in joy, 
 Born from the knowledge of its own desert. 
 Thou didst not tempt me. and thou couldst not tempt me; 
 I have not been thy dupe, nor am thy prey, 
 » But was my own destroyer, and will be 
 
 My own hereafter. — Back, ye baffled fiends ! 
 The hand of death is on me, — but not yours." 
 
 This very spirited passage is but a poetic amplification of the Bible 
 doctrine, " Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." 
 
 The several passages in different writers in which remorse is so 
 vividly described, — such as that of Pollok, book iii. p. 83 : 
 
 " There is a fire, that on the verge of God's commandments 
 Bums, and on the vitals feeds of all who pass — 
 Who pass — there meet remorse !" 
 
 and that splendid passage in Byron's Giaour ; 
 
 " The wind that broods o'er guilty woes, 
 
 Is like the scorpion, girt by fire. 
 In circle narrowing as it glows ; 
 The flames around their captive close, 
 Till, inly searched by thousand throes, 
 
 And maddening in her ire, 
 One sad and sole relief she knows. 
 The sting she nourished for her foes, 
 
 Whose venom never yet was vain, 
 
 Gives but one pang, and cures all pain, 
 
 And darts into her desperate brain. 
 So do the dark in soul expire. 
 Or live, like scorpion girt by fire : 
 So writhes the mind remorse hath riven, — 
 Unfit for earth, undoom'd for heaven ; 
 Darkness above, despair beneath, 
 Around it fiame, within it death !" 
 
 are plainly based upon the Bible representations of the restlessness 
 of the wicked, to whom there is no peace ; and especially upon that 
 
TO THE BIBLE. 537 
 
 terrific image of unending remorse hereafter, where their worm dieth 
 notj and the Jire is not quenched. So that graphic couplet from 
 Shakspeare's Henry VI. : 
 
 " Suspicion always haunts the guilty mind ; 
 The thief doth fear each bush an officer." 
 
 and again — 
 
 " What stronger breast-plate than a heart untainted. 
 Thrice is he armed that hath his quarrel just ; 
 And he, but naked, — though locked up in steel, 
 Whose conscience with injustice is corrupted." 
 
 (Henry VI. Part II.) 
 
 exhibit, only more amplified, the thought of Solomon, " The wicked 
 flee when no man pursueth ; — but the righteous are bold as a lion !" 
 Prov. xxviii. 1. — The same thought, doubtless, gave birth to those 
 striking lines in Scott's Marmion : 
 
 " Thus oft it haps, that when within 
 They shrink at sense of secret sin, 
 
 A feather daunts the brave : 
 A fool's wild speech confounds the wise, 
 And proudest princes veil their eyes 
 Before their meanest slave." 
 
 There is a curious and very beautiful idea presented in Camp- 
 bell's Gertrude of Wyoming, viz., that the very dagger which slays 
 the cruel foe, is sharpened by contact with the heart it smites : 
 
 " Old Outalissi woke his battle song — 
 
 * * * * * if. 
 
 To whet a dagger on their stony hearts, 
 
 And smile avenged, ere yet his eagle spirit parts." 
 
 A similar thought is involved in the bitter taunt that Gratiano 
 throws out against Shylock, as he is whetting his knife on the sole 
 
 23*^ 
 
688 INDEBTEDNESS OF MODERN LITERATURE 
 
 of his shoe, in the trial of Antonio, on his bond, before the Duke, 
 in the Merchant of Venice : 
 
 '• Not on thy sole, but on thy soul, harsh Jew, 
 Thou mak'st thy knife keen !" 
 
 Now, in both these passages, the thought is but a reflected image 
 of the figure so often employed in the Bible, of "a heart of stone^'' 
 to denote extreme obduracy in evil. 
 
 It is from the Bible alone that we derive any certain knowledge 
 of a future state ; the idea of a heaven of purity and joy for the 
 righteous, of a hell of sorrow for the wicked. How puerile were 
 the conceptions of the ancient philosophers as to the condition of 
 the good in Elysium, (a land of discontented shadows, pining ever 
 after earth and its pleasures,) and of the fantastic griefs of the bad 
 in Tartarus, — when compared with the recorded decision of the 
 Bible, " whatsoever a man soweth, that shall lie also reap,''^ in 
 heaven, or in hell forever ! How many pleasing associations, also, 
 are connected with our knowledge of angelic beings, spirits yet no- 
 bler than men ! But the existence of angels is made known to us 
 only in the Bible ! 
 
 Withdraw the Bible, then, from among men, destroy the knowl- 
 edge of all that is taught in the Bible, and what words can express 
 the change which would at once take place in our literature ? The 
 origin of man, the fall, the deluge, the early history of our race, 
 the primal settlement of nations, — the history of the patriarchs, 
 the origin and early history of that singular race, the Jews, are 
 all, all, effectually swept out of memory : with them, the splendid 
 creations of Milton's genius sink into annihilation ; Bunyan's Pil- 
 grim and his Holy War are lost to us ; the manly reasoning cf 
 Paley, the profound argument of Butler, the eloquence of Barrow 
 and Sherlock, of Tillotson and Taylor, of Howe and Flavel, of 
 Robert Hall, of Dwight and Chalmers, are all lost to us. The 
 learned labors of Prideaux and Leland, and Stillingfleet and Wat- 
 son, of Leslie and West, of Michaelis, of Bengel and Kennicott, 
 
TO THE BIBLE. 539 
 
 of Beza, of Calvin, of Luther, and of a host innumerable, are all 
 buried in eternal oblivion ; while the sweetest strains of Klopstock, 
 of Tasso, of Dante, of our own Thomson and Pope, of Cowper 
 and Montgomery, of Campbell and of Scott, die away in eternal 
 silence. The reasonings of Locke, of Stewart, of Reid, and even 
 of Brown, must be entirely new-modelled ; and scarcely will the 
 department of natural science remain unscathed, so wide-spread, so 
 almost universal would be the sweep of destruction among the no- 
 blest works of our literature, that must follow in the train of the 
 Bible's extinction. 
 
 Moreover, from the mere remnant of literature that would escape 
 utter oblivion, the richest ornaments, the most striking thoughts, the 
 most impressive figures would be erased : — for the choicest of all 
 these are borrowed from the Bible. When you meet with a pecu- 
 liarly grand thought, or forcible figure, in the works of such writers 
 as Dryden, Pope, Byron — aye, Shakspeare himself, the master 
 deeply learned in the human heart — you will find, almost cer- 
 tainly, that it is drawn from the Bible ; it is the echo of some 
 thought there found. Thus that beautiful closing line in the fune- 
 ral song, on the burial of Sir John Moore, " We left him alone loith 
 his glory .'" is obviously but a reflex image of the sublime picture 
 furnished by Isaiah, when describing Sheol, the place where the 
 dead are congregated : " All the kings of the earth, even all of 
 them, lie in glory, every one in his own house !" Isa. xiv. 18. 
 
 In like manner, Byron's Giaour has a fine passage, in which, 
 after Hassan has been slain by a sudden onslaught of his foe, the 
 Giaour, the mother of Hassan is represented as awaiting his return, 
 and wondering at his delay ; thus — 
 
 " The browsing camel bells are tinkling, 
 
 His mother looked from her lattice high, 
 She saw the dews of eve besprinkling 
 
 The pasture green beneath her eye, 
 She saw the planets faintly twinkling : 
 
 'Tis twilight, — sure his train is nigh. 
 
640 INDEBTEDNESS OF MODERN LITERATURE 
 
 /» She could not rest in his garden bower, 
 
 But gazed through the grate of his steepest tower : 
 
 Why comes he not 7 his steeds are fleet, 
 
 Nor shrink tliey from the summer heat ; 
 Why sends not the bridegroom his promised gift Y* 
 
 This spirited description is but a modern application of a yet finer 
 passage in the triumphant song of Deborah, the Jewish prophetess 
 and judge (Judges v. 28-30) : " The mother of Sisera looked out 
 at a window, and cried through the lattice, * Why is his chariot so 
 long in coming ? Why tarry the wheels of his chariots V Her 
 wise ladies answered her, yea, she returned answer to herself, Have 
 they not sped ? Have they not divided the prey ? to every man a 
 damsel or two : to Sisera a prey of divers colors, of divers colors 
 of needlework, of divers colors of needlework on both sides, meet 
 for the necks of them that t-ike the spoils ?" 
 
 That touching passage in Childe Harold, in which the untimely 
 death of the Princess Charlotte of England, and of her new-born 
 son, is lamented, is but a sweet echo of one of the most beautiful 
 passages found in the Hebrew prophets : 
 
 " Hark ! forth from the abyss a voice proceeds, 
 
 A long low distant murmur of dread sound, 
 Such as arises when a nation bleeds 
 
 With some deep and immedicable wound; 
 Through storm and darkness yawns the pending ground, 
 
 The gulf is thick with phantoms ;— but the chief 
 Seems royal still, though with her head discrowned 
 
 And pale— but lovely, ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ 
 
 Scion of chiefs and monarchs ! where art thou 1 
 
 Fond hope of many nations — art thou dead 1 
 Could not the grave forget thee, and lay low 
 
 Some less majestic, less beloved head 1" 
 
 This is truly beautiful, but its whole beauty is borrowed; — 'tis 
 only a skilful application of that passage in Isaiah which represents 
 the shades of the monarchs of earth gathered in Acheron, and 
 awaiting the coming of the shade of the mighty king of Babylon : 
 
TO THE BIBLE. 641 
 
 " The abyss from beneath is moved for thee, to meet thee at thy 
 coming : it stirreth up the dead for thee, even all the chief ones of 
 the earth : it hath raised up from their thrones all the kings of the 
 nations. All they shall speak, and shall say unto thee. Art thou 
 also become weak as we ? Thy pomp is brought down to the 
 grave, and the noise of thy viols : the worm is spread under thee, 
 and the worms cover thee. How art thou fallen from heaven, O 
 Lucifer, son of the morning ! how art thou cut down to the ground, 
 which didst weaken the nations!" (Isaiah xiv. 9-12.) 
 
 So also that affecting picture which the noble poet presents to 
 the widowed husband of the lamented princess : 
 
 " Of sackcloth was thy wedding garments made, 
 Thy bridal fruit is ashes : in the dust 
 The fair-haired daughter of the isles is laid ; — 
 The love of millions, * * * * 
 
 (Childe Harold, Canto IV. clxx.) 
 
 is but a judicious appHcation of the figures which are furnished in 
 the Hebrew prophet's delineation of the afflicted daughter of Judah, 
 Lam. ii. 10 : " The elders of the daughter of Judah sit upon the 
 ground, and keep silence : they have cast up dust upon their 
 heads, they have girded themselves with sackcloth : the virgins of 
 Jerusalem hang down their heads to the ground." And also Jere- 
 miah vi. 26 : " Oh, daughter of Judah, gird thee with sackcloth, 
 and wallow thyself in ashes : make thee mourning as for an only 
 son, most bitter lamentation." 
 
 Nor is it a far-fetched, nor an improbable idea, that would at- 
 tribute the poetic beauty which invests the introduction, by Shak- 
 speare, of the ghost of Banquo, and of that of Hamlet's father, to 
 the ideas awakened in the poet's mind by the Old Testament record 
 of the raising up of the spirit of the prophet Samuel, by the witch 
 of Endor ; and also the whole of the great dramatic bard's super- 
 natural machinery of the witches in Macbeth, the fairies in the 
 Midsummer Night's Dream, and the obedient spirits of Prosper© 
 
642 INDEBTEDNESS OP MODERN LITERATURE 
 
 in the Tempest, to the obscure intimations given in the sacred 
 record, of men's having attempted, in times of old, to have dealings 
 with familiar spirits. I here hazard no conjecture as to the true 
 interpretation of such passages in holy writ. I am alluding merely 
 to the influence which the ix)pular understanding of them has had 
 on prevalent superstitions, and on our literature, into which these 
 superstitions have been wrought with so much skill, and so fine an 
 effect. Nor can we doubt that the idea of Mephistopheles in his 
 Faust, and of his dance and song of the witches, was so suggested 
 to Goethe ; — and of his Manfred to Byron. In his last-mentioned 
 poem, also, the appearance of the shadowy outline of the fiend 
 before Manfred, slowly only, and with horror, discerned by the pious 
 Abbot, thus — 
 
 " Manf. Look there ! — what dost thou see 1 
 Ab. Nothing I 
 Manf. Look there, I say, 
 
 And steadfastly : — now tell me what thou seest ! 
 Ab. That which should shake me,— but I fear it not. 
 I see a dark and awful figure rise, 
 Like an infernal god, from out the earth ; 
 His face wrapt in a mantle, and his form 
 Robed as with angry clouds," 
 
 strongly brings to mind that sublime passage in the book of Job 
 (Job iv. 14-16): "In thoughts from visions of the night, when 
 deep sleep falleth on men, fear came upon me and trembling, 
 which made all my bones to shake. Then a spirit passed before 
 my face ; the hair of my flesh stood up. It stood still, — but I 
 could not discern the form thereof: an image was before mine 
 eyes ; — there was silence, and I heard a voice." The dream of 
 Clarence, in Shakspeare's Richard III., is cast in the same mould. 
 These are but specimens, hastily selected, in illustration of my po- 
 sition, that many of the finest sentiments, and the most beautiful 
 images that adorn our modern literature, are only the echoes of 
 thoughts expressed in the Bible. 
 
TO THE BIBLE. 543 
 
 And nowhere is this rich echo of Bible thoughts more distinctly 
 perceptible than in that inimitable address of Portia, when person- 
 ating the learned Dr. Balthazar, to the relentless Shylock, in order 
 to move him to abate the rigor of his demand against Antonio, in 
 the Merchant of Venice : 
 
 " The quality of mercy is not strained ; 
 It droppeth, as the gentle rain from heaven 
 Upon the earth beneath. It is twice blessed : 
 It blesseth him that gives, and him that takes : 
 'Tis mightiest in the mightiest : it becomes 
 The throned monarch better than his crown. 
 His sceptre shows the force of temporal power, 
 The attribute of awe and majesty, 
 Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings. 
 But mercy is above this sceptred sway ; 
 It is enthroned in the hearts of kings, 
 It is an attribute of God himself ; 
 And earthly power doth then show likest God's 
 When mercy seasons justice. Therefore, Jew ! 
 Though justice be thy plea, consider this, 
 That in the course of justice, none of us 
 Should see salvation : we do pray for mercy ; 
 And that same prayer doth teach us all to render 
 The deeds of mercy." 
 
 So clearly does this fine passage re-echo Bible thoughts through- 
 out, that it is difficult, as we hear it, not to feel as though listening 
 to sentences selected directly from the Bible itself. And truly the 
 language used in the Bible comes very near it : e. g. " Mercy re- 
 joiceth against judgment," Jas. ii. 13. "The discretion of a man 
 deferreth his anger, and it is his glory to pass by a transgression," 
 Prov. xix. 11. " Mercy and truth preserve a king ; and his throne 
 is upholden by mercy," Prov. xx. 28. " Forgive us our trespasses, 
 as we forgive them that trespass against us." " Verily I say unto 
 you, if ye forgive not every man his brother their trespasses, neither 
 will your heavenly Father forgive you." "*^ 
 
544 INDEBTEDNESS OF MODERN LITERATURE 
 
 Again, — that much admired passage in the Tempest : 
 
 '* The cloud-capt towers, the gorgeous palaces, 
 The solemn temples, the great globe itself, 
 Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve, 
 And, like this unsubstantial pageant faded, 
 Leave not a rack behind : We are such stuflT 
 As dreams are made of, and our little life ^ 
 
 Is rounded with a sleep." 
 
 is nothing more than a fine amplification of two short passages from 
 the Bible : " The fashion of this world passeth away." And again, 
 " What is your lifef It is even a vapor, that appeareth for a little 
 time, and then vanisheth away I" From the same source, doubtless, 
 sprung that fine passage in Prior's Solomon : 
 
 " A flower that does with opening dawn arise, 
 And, flourishing the day, at evening dies ; 
 A winged eastern blast, just skimming o'er 
 The ocean's brow, and sinking on the shore ; 
 A fire, whose flames through crackling stubble fly ; 
 A meteor, shooting from the summer sky ; 
 A bowl, adown the bending mountain rolled ; 
 A bubble breaking,— and a fable told : 
 A noontide shadow, and a midnight dream ; 
 Are emblems, which, with semblance apt, proclaim 
 Our earthly course." 
 
 So also that of Fawkes : 
 
 '* If life a thousand years, or e'er so few, 
 *Tis repetition all, and nothing new: 
 A fair, where thousands meet, but none can stay ; 
 An inn, where travellers meet, and post away." 
 
 And how majestically does Shakspeare make the fallen Wolsey 
 echo the sentiment of the Hebrew prophet, " All flesh is grass, and 
 the glory thereof as the flower of grass," &c. 
 
TO THE BIBLE. 546 
 
 " Farewell, a long farewell to all my greatness ! 
 This is the state of man : To-day he puts forth 
 The tender leaves of hope : to-morrow, blossoms, 
 And bears his blushing honors thick upon him : 
 The third day comes a frost,— a killing frost; 
 And, when he thinks, (good easy man,) full surely 
 His greatness is a ripening, — nips his root, 
 And then he falls as I do." 
 
 Just so says the prophet, " The wind passeth over it, and it is 
 gone." 
 
 The Bible is replete with passages of the highest sublimity — 
 passages, many of which breathe, also, a most touching eloquence. 
 Such are, the song of Deborah and Barak, in Judges : the reception 
 given by the shades of Hades to the spirit of Babylon's king, as 
 presented in Isa. chap, xiv., already referred to. Such, also, is the 
 triumphant song of the Israelites, on viewing the destruction of 
 Egypt's martial hosts in the Red Sea, (Exodus, chap, xv.) Such is 
 the prayer of Jonah, (Jonah, chap. ii. ;) and where shall we find, in 
 any writings, a passage fuller of grand imagery than the prayer of 
 the prophet Habakkuk, chap. iii. 3-1 6 ? Where are subhmity and 
 beauty more richly combined than in the 104th Psalm ? " Lord 
 my God, thou art very great," &c. <fec. Where can you find a 
 more touching description of goodness worthy of the Deity, than 
 in Psalm ciii.? " Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord 
 pitieth them that fear him," &c. &c. How beautiful and how ap- 
 propriate, too, is the picture drawn by Moses (Deut. xxxii. 9, 14) 
 of the care of Jehovah for his own covenant people ! " The Lord's 
 portion is his people ; Jacob is the lot of his inheritance. He 
 found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness ; 
 he led him about, he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of 
 his eye. As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her 
 young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh thera, beareth them on 
 her wings ; so the Lord alone did lead him, and there was no 
 strange god with him. He made him ride on the high places of 
 the earth, that he might eat the increase of the fields ; and he 
 
546 INDEBTEDNESS OF MODERN LITERATURE 
 
 made him to suck honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty 
 rock." But I forbear ; the Bible is full of such imagery, grand, 
 striking, and afiecting. Do you look for pathos ? What more 
 pathetic than David's lament over Jonathan and Saul, slain in bat- 
 tle (2 Sam. i. 17-27 ?) What more aftecting than the royal fa- 
 ther's heart-piercing lamentation over his fair-haired but rebellious 
 son ? " O my son, Absalom ! my son, my son Absalom ! Would 
 God I had died for thee, O Absalom, my son, my son I" 
 
 Would you ponder deeply the treasured results of wisdom, the 
 dear bought fruits of experience ? You have, in the book of Prov- 
 erbs, an exhaustless storehouse of wisdom, for the guidance of your 
 conduct in all the diversified circumstances of human life. The 
 one short book of Proverbs contains more sound practical wisdom, 
 than can be gathered from all the boasted teachings of all the re- 
 nowned philosophers of antiquity and of modern times combined. 
 
 Now the Bible, thus teeming with wisdom, and blazing with 
 beauty of thought and splendor of imagery, has, for ages, been in 
 the hands of men ; and these thrilling passages have been before 
 their eyes and present to their minds ; and they have mingled in 
 the thoughts and assisted to mould the conceptions and to deter- 
 mine the phraseology of our most masterly writers. 
 
 Let the Bible and its influences, direct and indirect, be blotted 
 out of existence, and you at once extinguish the sun that illumines 
 our literary heavens, and you impair the strength and mar the 
 beauty of our whole literature. 
 
 That book which, whenever possessed, has fostered the spirit of 
 learning in all its varied departments ; which has given birth to 
 some of the profoundest works in existence, written solely for its 
 illustration ; which has laid a broad foundation for the science of 
 jurisprudence; has promoted (far as it has been known) general 
 intelligence among the mass of the people ; which has decidedly 
 elevated the tone of morals, has imbued mankind with a gentler 
 spirit, and has mitigated the horrors of war ; that book which (be- 
 sides doing all this) has furnished to our most admired writers 
 
TO THE BIBLE. 647 
 
 topics of unrivalled grandeur, and images of peculiar beauty, so 
 that its annihilation would deface the largest and the fairest por- 
 tion of our hterature ; that book may well awaken our admiration, 
 ensure our respect, and commend itself to our closest attention, as 
 the sun of true knowledge, the light and glory of our literature, a 
 prize invaluable to human society, a boon of priceless worth to 
 every young man. 
 
 And that book is the Bible, Heaven's best gift to man. It is 
 the repository of noble thoughts, the originator of splendid imagery, 
 the oracle of soundest wisdom. It is a counsellor to the young, — 
 a solace to the aged. It is the grand text hook to the true student ! 
 It sparkles with brilliance, it blazes with beauty, and it breathes the 
 spirit of liberty. It is emphatically and pre-eminently, the book 
 
 FOR THE PEOPLE ! 
 
 " Most wondrous book ! bright candle of the Lord ! 
 Star of eternity ! the only star 
 By which the bark of man could navigate 
 The sea of life, and gain the coast of bliss 
 Securely ; — only star which rose on Time, 
 And, on its dark and troubled billows, still. 
 As generation drifting swiftly by, / 
 
 Succeeded generation, — threw a ray 
 Of heaven's own light,— and to the hills of God, 
 The everlasting hills, — pointed the sinner's eye. 
 This book, — this glorious book, on every line 
 Marked with the seal of high divinity ; 
 On every leaf bedewed with drops of love 
 Divine, — and with the eternal heraldry 
 And signature of God Almighty stampt 
 From first to last, — this ray of sacred light, 
 This lamp, from off the everlasting throne, 
 Mercy took down, and, in the night of time 
 Stood, casting on the dark her gracious bow ; 
 And evermore beseeching men with tears 
 And earnest sighs, to read, believe, and live !" 
 
 POLLOK, B. I. 
 
LIST OF AUTHORITIES 
 
 QUOTED OR REFERRED TO IN THIS WORK. 
 
 The Editions found in the Author's Library, being used in the 
 work, are here given for readier reference. 
 
 ^Ancient Fragments, J. P. Cory, 1 vol. 8vo. Lond. 1882. 
 
 Alphabet OrUnkUis chcr Sprachen, 1 vol. 8vo. Leipzig, 1860. 
 
 Indian Antiquities, T, Maurice, 7 vols. 8vo. Lond. 1810. 
 
 Gallery of ArUiquUies in the British Museum. Part I. 4to. Birch, Lond. 
 
 Ansted's Ancient World, 1 vol. 8vo. Lond. 1847. 
 
 Voyage de VArabie Pelree, Laborde, folio, 1 vol. Paris, 1830. 
 
 Asiatic Researches, 13 vols. 8vo. Calcutta, 1789. 
 
 Aspects of Nature, Uumboldt, 1 vol. 12mo. Pliiladelphia, 1849. 
 
 Report of the British Association, dwj., 8vo. 1847. 
 
 Aicswahl Wichtigsten Urknnden des ^gyplischen AUelchums, Dr. R. Lep- 
 sius. Leipzig, 1842. Folio, 1 vol. Plates. 
 
 La Bible, Traduction NouveUe, S. Cahen, 20 vols. 8vo. Paris, 1832. 
 . f'cople's Bible Dictionary, Dr. Beard, 2 vols. Lond. 1830. 
 \/CoUman's Historical Geography of the Bible, 1 vol. 12mo. Phila. 1850. 
 
 Stackhouse's History of the Bible, 1 very large volume, with copious notes. 
 London, 1846. 
 
 China Opened, Ch. Outzlaff, 2 vols. Lond. 1838. 
 
 MedhursCs China, 1 vol. 8vo. Lond. 1842. 
 
 China, &c. &c., Montgom. Martin, 2 vols. 8vo. Lond. 1847. 
 
 Chinese and Egyptian Writing, Mon. Pauthier. Paris. 1840. 
 '^Life of Christ, Dr. Strauss, 3 vols. Lond, 1846. 
 
 Blunt' s Undesigned Coincidences, 1 vol. 8vo. New York, 1861. 
 
 Analysis of Chronology, Hale, 4 vols. Lond. 1830. 
 "^ Co}i7iections of Sacred and Profane History, Russell, 3 vols. 8vo. Lond. 
 
 1830. 
 X^ouTiections of Sacred and Profane History, Shurkfond, 2 vols. 8vo, Phil- 
 adelphia, 1824. 
 
LIST OF AUTHORITIES. 649 
 
 » Connections of Sacred and Profane History, Dr. Prideaux, 4 vols. 8vo. 
 Charlestown, Mass. 1815. 
 Cosmos, Humboldt, 3 vola New York, 1850-1851. 
 Crania Americana, Dr. Morton, 1 vol. 4to. Philadelphia, 1839. 
 Crania Americana, Dr. Morton, 1 vol. 4to. London, 1844. 
 
 V Course of Creation, Dr. Anderson, 1 vol. Lond. 1850. 
 \' Epoch of Creation, E. Lord. New York, 1851. 
 
 Cyclopadia of Bib. Literature, Kitto, 2 vols. 8vo. New York. 
 China in Edinburgh Cabinet Library, 3 vols. Edinburgh, 1836. 
 Doctrine of the Deluge, Harcourt, 2 vols, 8vo. Lond. 1838. 
 
 V Divine LegoMon of Moses, Dr. Warburton, 2 vols. 8vo. Lond. 1837. 
 *^ Antiquities of Egypt, W, Osburne, 1 vol. 8vo. Lond. 1847. 
 i^Earth and Man, Guyot, 1 vol. Boston, 1849. 
 
 Eleven Years in Ceylon, Maj. Forbes, 2 vols. 8vo. Lond. 1841. 
 *" Egypt, Dr. Russel's, in Edinburgh Cabinet Library, 1 vol. Edinb. 1836. 
 n Egypt, her Testimony to the Truth, Osburne, 1 vol. 8vo, Lond. 1846. 
 f^ Egypt and its Monuments, Dr. Hawks, 1 vol. 8vo. New York, 1850. 
 k^ Egypt and the Books of Moses, Hengstenberg, 1 vol. 12mo. Andover, 1843. 
 
 Ancient Egypt, Kenrick, 2 vols. 8vo. Lond. 1850. 
 
 Egypte sous les Pharaons, ChampoUion, 2 vols. 8vo. Paris, 1814. 
 
 Lettres sur V Egypte, Nestor de I'Hote, 1 vol, Paris, 1840. 
 
 Egypte Pharaoniqiie, D. M. J. Henri, 2 vols. 8vo. Paris, 1846. 
 
 Egypte Andenne, ChampoUion Figeac, (I'Univers Pittoresque,) 1 vol. 8vo. 
 Paris, 1847. 
 
 Recherches sur V Astronomic de VEgypte, E. Biot, 1 vol. Paris, 1823. 
 
 Recherches en Egypte et en NvMe, J. Ampere, Revue des Deux Moudes. 
 1846-1849. Paris. 
 
 uFjgypten''s Stelle in der Weltgeschichte, Bunsen, 3 vols. 8vo. Hamburg, 1845. 
 
 TVanslation (Eng.) of 1st vol. of Bunsen's Egypt's Place, &c., by Cottrell. 
 Lond. 1848. 
 
 Otia Egyptiaca, by Gliddon, 1 vol. 8vo. Lond. 1849. 
 
 Egyptian Chronology, Dr. Nolan, 1 vol. 8vo. Lond. 1848. 
 V' Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians, Sir J, G, Wilkinson, 6 vols. 
 8vo, viz, 1st series, 3 vols, with plates: 2d series, 3 vols., i. e. two vol- 
 umes of text and one volume of plates. Lond. 1842. 
 
 Egyptian Hieroglyphics and Antiquities, the Marquis Spineto, 1 vol, 8vo. 
 Lond. 1845. 
 
 Monumenti delV Egytto et della Nubia, &c., Rosellini, 9 vols. 8vo. Italian, 
 and 15 parts. Plates, large folio. Pisa, 1832-1844. 
 
 Encyclopcedia of Antiquities, Fosbrook, 2 vols. 8vo. Lond. 1843. 
 

 556 LIST OF AUTHORITIES. 
 
 Eluies sur le Timee de PUUon, T. Marten. Paris, 1841. 
 
 EthnohgicaZ Journal, London. Nos. I. to IX. 
 
 Expedition to the Dead Sea, Lieut. Lynch, U.S.N. 1 vol. Philadelphia, 1849. 
 
 Christian Examiner. Boston, July, 1850. 
 
 Expedition to the Niger, Q. A. Allen and Dr. Thomson, 2 vols. 8vo. Lond. 
 
 1848. 
 Footprints of the Creator, Hugh Miller, 1 vol. 12mo. Lond. 1849. 
 Geology, Richardson, 1 vol. 12mo. Lond. 1843. 
 Religion of Geology, Prof. E. Hitchcock, 1 vol. Boston, 1851. 
 Geology of Alabama, Report of Prof. Tuomey. Tuscaloosa, 1851. 
 
 eology, the Principles of, Sir C. Lyell, 1 vol. 8vo. Lond. 1850. 
 Gospel^ Genuineness of Prof. Norton. Lond. 1848. 
 Bopp's Comparative Grammar, 2 vols. Lond. 1846. 
 History of Greece, W. Mitford, 8 vols. 8vo. Lond. 1838. 
 Handbuch der Chronologic, L. Ideler, 2 vols. 8vo. Berlin, 1845. 
 Havemich's Introduction to the Pentateuch, 1 vol. 8vo. Edinburgh, 1860. 
 History of the Hebrew Monarchy, Newman, 1 vol. 8vo. New York, 1849. 
 Hieroglyphics, Dr. Young. Lond. 1823, 1 vol. 
 Systeme Hieroglyphique, Champollion le Jeune, 2 vols. Paris, 1828. 
 Histoire de VAstronomie Ancienne, Delambre, 2 vols. 4to. Paris, 1817. 
 English Universal History, Ancient, 5 vols, folio. Lond. 1736. 
 Benlley's Letlers on Hindoo Astronomy, 1 vol. 8vo. Lond. 1825. 
 Hora Egyptiaca:, R. S. Poole, 1 vol. 8vo. Lond. 1851. 
 Hora: Mosaics, G. 8. Faber. Lond. 1818. 
 Philological Proofs of the Original Unity and Recent Origin of the Human 
 
 Race, A. J. Johnes, 1 vol. 8vo. Lond. 1846. 
 Natural History of the Human Species, Ham. Smith, 1 vol. 8vo. Edinburgh, 
 
 1848. 
 Hydraulic and other Machines, Th. Ewbank, 1 vol. 8vo. New York, 1849. 
 Historical Researches, A. H. J. Heeren, (Bohn's,) 8vo. Lond. 1846. 
 Origin of Pagan Idolatry, Faber, 3 vols. 4to. Lond. 1816. 
 Elliott's India, 2 vols, large 8vo. Lond. 1833. 
 Recollections of Northern Inda, Buyers, 1 vol. Lond. 1848. 
 Parson's Remains of Japhet, 1 vol. 4to. Lond. 1767. 
 Languages de V Europe et de I'Inde, Eichoff. Paris, 1836. 
 Wiseman's Lectures on the Connection between Science and Revelation,! 
 
 vols. 12mo. Lond. 1849. 
 Letters on Egypt, Edom and Holy Land, Lord Lindsay, 2 vols. 12mo. 
 
 Lond. 1838. 
 LigUfooVs Works, 13 vols. 8vo. Lond. 1826. 
 
LIST OF AUTHORITIES. 651 
 
 ^Doddridge's Lectures^ 2 vols. 8vo. Lond. 1822. V 
 
 Limes Sacrees de V Orient, 1 vol. Svo, Pauthier. Paris, 1847. 
 vLardner^s Credibility of Gospel History, 10 vols. 8vo. Lond. 1831. 
 Wilson's Lands of the Bible, 2 vols. Svo. Edinburgh, 1847. 
 Man Primeval, Harris, 1 vol. 8vo. Boston, 1849. 
 yTiesearchcs into the Physical History of Mankind, Dr. Pritchard, 5 vols. 8vo. 
 
 Lond. 1841. 
 Medals of Creation, by Mantell, 2 vols. 8vo. Lond. 1844. 
 Origin and History of Missions, by T. Smith, 2 vols. 4to. N. York, 1846. 
 Manners, t^c. of Modern Egyptians, Lane, 2 vols. 12mo. Lond. 1836. 
 Monuments of Nineveh, Layard, 1 vol. folio, plates. Lond. 1849. 
 Monuments de VEgypte ct de la Nubie, par M, Champollion le Jeune, 4 
 
 large folio volumes of plates. Paris, 1835. 
 Monuments Egyptiens, par M. E. Prisse, 1 vol. folio, plates. Paris, 1847. 
 Nineveh and Persepolis, Vaux, 1 vol. 8vo. Lond. 1851. 
 Nicaragua, E. G. Squier, 2 vols. 8vo. New York, 1852. 
 Nineveh and its Remains, Layard, 2 vols, 8vo. New York, 1849. 
 De Wette on the Old Testament, 2 vols. 8vo. Boston, 1843. 
 Early Oriental History, Dr. Eadie, 1 vol. 8vo. Lond. 1852. 
 Origin of Writing, Encyclopcedia Metropolitana, Thomas Astlan. 
 Origines, Sir W. Drumraond, 3 vols. London, 1829. 
 Origines Sacra, Stillingfleet, 2 vols. Svo, Oxford, 1817. 
 Biblical Researches in Palestine, d^c, Robinson. 3 vols. 
 Palestine, par Mon. M. Munk, (I'Univers Pittoresque,) Svo. Paris, 1845. 
 Palestine, Historical Sketch of, Schwartz, 1 vol. 8vo. Philadelphia, 1850. 
 Patriarchal Age, Smith, 1 vol. Svo. New York, 1848. 
 Graves' Lectures on the Pentateuch, 1 vol. Svo. London, 1846. 
 Phcenician History of Sanconiatho, Cumberland, 1 vol. Svo. Lond. 1720. 
 Lectures on Physiology, Lawrence, 1 vol. London, 1848. 
 One Primeval Language, Foster ; and Voice of Israel from Rocks of Sinai, 
 
 1 vol. Svo. London, 1851. 
 Pyramids of Gizeh, by Col. Howard Vyse, and Appendix by Perring, 3 
 
 large Svo. volumes of text and folio vol. of plates. Lond. 1840, 1842. 
 Early Travels in Palestine, 1 vol. London, 1848. 
 Knox on t/ie Races of Men, 1 vol. Philadelphia, 1850. 
 Two Lectures on Nat. Hist, of Caucasian and Negro Races, J. C. Nott. 
 
 Mobile, 1844. 
 Tico Lectures on Connection between Biblical and Physical History of Man, 
 
 Dr. J, C. Nott. New York, 1849. 
 Pickering ( U. S. Exploring Expedition) on the Races, 1 vol. 4to. 
 
552 LIST OF AUTHORITIES. 
 
 Dr. Tkomas Smythe, on tke Unity of the Human JRaces, 1 vol. 12mo. New 
 
 York, 1850. 
 History of Rationalism in Germany ^ Saintes, 1 vol. London, 1849. 
 Truth of Revelation, ff-c, Murray, 1 vol. 8vo. London, 1840. 
 Dr. Bachman on the Unity of Human Races, 8vo. Charleston, S. C. 1860. 
 Old Red Sandstone, II. Miller, 1 vol. 12mo. 6th edit. London, 1860. 
 Bedford^s Scriptural Chronology, 1 vol. folio. London, 1730. 
 Scholia in Veins. Tcstamentum, Rosenmuller. 
 
 V , Eru. Fred. Car. Rosenmuller, Leipzic, 1828. 
 
 y Lectures on the Jewish Scriptures, Redford, 1 vol. 8vo. London, 1837. 
 
 Scripture and Geology, Dr. J. Pye Smith, 1 vol. 8vo. London, 1848. 
 V South America, Darwin, 1 vol. 8vo. New York, 1846. 
 
 Tour from Thebes to Peninsula of Sinai, R. Lepsius, 1 vol. Lond. 1846, 
 Transactions of the American Ethnological Society. New York, 1848. 
 Ninth Bridgewater Treatise, Babbage, 1 vol. 8vo. Philadelphia, 1841. 
 L'Univers Pittoresque, Inde, par M. Dubois, &c. Paris, 1848. 
 Synopsis Crilicorun, ^c. Sac. Script., M. Polo, 6 vols. 4to. Frankfort on 
 
 Mayne, 1794. 
 View of the Brahminical Religion, Carwithen, 1 vol. 8vo. London, 1810. 
 ^ Voyage of a Naturalist Round the World, Darwin, 2 vols. 12mo. New 
 
 York, 1846. 
 LyeWs Second Visit to the United Stales, 2 vols. 12mo. New York, 1849. 
 Voyage a Meroe, cf-c, par M. F. Caillaud, 4 vols. 8vo. Paris, 1826. 
 Principles of Zoology, Agaasiz and Gould, 1 vol. Boston, 1848. 
 Christian Researches in Asia, Dr. C. Buchanan, 1 vol. London, 1840. 
 Calmet's Didionary of the Bible, Robinson's edition, 1 thick vol. Boetcm, 
 
 1832. 
 Lettres Ecrites d'Egypte el de NuMe, 1828, 1829. par Champollion le Jenne, 
 
 1 vol. 8vo. Paris, 1833. 
 Jahn's History of the Hebrew Commonwealth, 1 vol. London. 
 Calmel's Dictionary of Bible, 6 vols. 4to. vol. 1, 2, 3. London, 1798. 
 
 , vol. 4. Charlestown, 1814, vol. 6, do. 1816. 
 
 Topography of Thebes and General View of Egypt, Wilkinson, 1 vol. 8vo. 
 
 London, 1836. 
 
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