DELUGE.

A deluge is an inundation or overflowing of the earth, either wholly or in part, by water.

We have several deluges recorded in history; as that of Ogyges, which overflowed almost all Attica, and that of Deucalion, which drowned Thessaly, in Greece: but the most memorable was that called the Universal Deluge, or Noah’s Flood, which overflowed and destroyed the whole earth, and from which only Noah, and those with him in the ark, escaped. This flood forms one of the most considerable epochs in chronology. Its history is given by Moses, in the book of Genesis; and its date is fixed, by the best chronologers, at the year from the creation 1656, which answers to the year before Christ 2293. From this flood, the state of the world is divided into diluvian and antediluvian.

Amongst the many testimonies to the truth of this part of the Mosaic history, may be mentioned the general voice of mankind at all times, and in all parts of the world. The objections of the free-thinkers have indeed principally turned upon three points: the want of any direct history of that event by the profane writers of antiquity; the apparent impossibility of accounting for the quantity of water[7:7:691] necessary to overflow the whole earth; and the absence of any apparent necessity for an universal deluge, as the same result might have been accomplished by a partial one.

The first of these objections has given rise to several very elaborate treatises; though all that has yet been done in this way has scarcely been able to silence the objectors. Mr Bryant, in his system of mythology, has with great learning and considerable success endeavoured to show, that the deluge was the principal, if not the only, foundation of the Gentile worship; that the first of their deities was Noah; that all nations of the world looked up to him as their founder; and that he, his sons, and the first patriarchs, are alluded to in most, if not in all of the religious ceremonies, not only of the ancient, but of the modern heathens. In short, according to this author, the deluge, so far from being forgotten or obscurely mentioned by the heathen world, is in reality conspicuous throughout every act of religious worship performed by them.

The Egyptian Osiris, according to him, was the same with Ham the son of Noah, though the name was sometimes bestowed on Noah himself. That this is the case is evident, he thinks, from its being said that he was exposed in the ark, and afterwards restored to day; that he planted the vine, taught mankind agriculture, and inculcated upon them the maxims of religion and of justice. Something of the same kind is related of Perseus. He is represented by some ancient historians as a great astronomer, and as well versed in other sciences. After being conceived in a shower of gold, he was exposed in an ark upon the waters, and is said to have had his life renewed. Further, the history of Myrina the Amazon affords a kind of abridgment and mixture of the histories of Osiris and Perseus; and similar to these is the history of Hercules himself. But our author observes, that under the titles of Osiris, Perseus, Myrina, and the like, the ancients spoke of the exploits of a whole nation, who were no other than the Cuthites or Cushites, the descendants of Cush the son of Ham and father of Nimrod. These people spread themselves into the most remote corners of the globe; and hence the heroes whom they represented are always described as conquering the whole world. According to Diodorus Siculus, the Egyptian Osiris was the same with the Dionusus of the Greeks. He is said to have been twice born, and to have had two fathers and two mothers; to have been wonderfully preserved in an ark; and to have travelled all over the earth, and taught men the use of the vine, building, planting, and the like. The Indians also claim him as a native of their country, though some allow that he came from the west. Of Kronus and Astarte, it is said that they travelled over the whole earth, disposing of the countries as they pleased, and doing good wherever they went. The same thing is related of Ouranus, Themis, Apollo, and others; though all their exploits are said to have been the effects of conquest, and their benevolence was enforced by the sword. In a similar manner does he explain the stories of other heroes of antiquity; and having thus, in the characters and histories of the most celebrated personages, found traces of the history of Noah and his family, he proceeds to inquire into the memorials of the deluge itself which are to be met with in the history or religious rites of the different nations of antiquity.

“We may reasonably suppose,” says he, “that the particulars of this extraordinary event would be gratefully commemorated by the patriarch himself, and transmitted to every branch of his family; that they were made the subject of domestic converse, where the history was often renewed, and ever attended with a reverential awe and horror, especially in those who had been witnesses to the calamity, and had experienced the hand of Providence in their fa vour. In process of time, when there was a falling off from the truth, we might farther expect, that a person of so high a character as Noah, so particularly distinguished by the Deity, could not fail of being reverenced by his posterity, and, when idolatry prevailed, that he would be one of the first among the sons of men to whom divine honours would be paid. Lastly, we might conclude, that these memorials would be interwoven in the mythology of the Gentile world; and that there would be continual allusions to these ancient occurrences in the rites and mysteries as they were practised by the nations of the earth. In conformity to these suppositions, I shall endeavour to show that these things did happen; that the history of the deluge was religiously preserved in the first ages; that every circumstance of it is to be met with among the historians and mythologists of different countries; and traces of it are to be found, particularly in the sacred rites of Egypt and of Greece.

“It will appear from many circumstances in the more ancient writers, that the great patriarch was highly reverenced by his posterity. They looked up to him as a person highly favoured by heaven, and honoured him with many titles, each of which had a reference to some particular part of his history. They styled him Prometheus, Deucalion, Atlas, Theuth, Zuth, Xuthus, Inachus, Osiris. When there began to be a tendency towards idolatry, and the adoration of the sun was introduced by the posterity of Ham, the title of Helius, among others, was conferred upon him. They called him also M?p and Mαv, which is the moon. When colonies went abroad, many took to themselves the title of Minyadae and Minyae from him; just as others were denominated Achaemenidae, Auritae, Heliadae, from the sun. People of the former name are to be found in Arabia and in other parts of the world. The natives at Orchomenos were styled Minyae, as were some of the inhabitants of Thessaly. Noah was the original Zeus and Dios. He was the planter of the vine, and inventor of fermented liquors; whence he was denominated Zeuth, which signifies ferment, rendered Zeus by the Greeks. He was also called Dionusus, interpreted by the Latins Bacchus, but very improperly. Bacchus was Chus, the grandson of Noah; as Ammon may in general be esteemed Ham, so much reverenced by the Egyptians.

“Among the people of the East the true name of the patriarch was preserved; they called him Noas, Naus, and sometimes contracted Nous; and many places of sanctity, as well as rivers, were denominated from him. Anaxagoras of Clazomene had obtained some knowledge of him in Egypt. By him the patriarch was denominated Noas or Nous; and both he and his disciples were sensible that this was a foreign appellation; notwithstanding which, he has acted as if it had been a term of the Greek language. Eusebius informs us that the disciples of Anaxagoras say ‘ that Nous is, by interpretation, the deity, Dis oç Dios; and they likewise esteem Nous the same as Prometheus, because he was the renewer of mankind, and was said to have fashioned them again,’ after they had been in a manner extinct. After this, however, he gives a solution of the story, upon the supposition that Nous is the same with the Greek word νους, the mind ; that ‘ the mind was Prometheia ; and Prometheus was said to renew mankind, from new forming their minds, and leading them, by cultivation, from ignorance.’

“Suidas has preserved, from some ancient author, a curious memorial of this wonderful personage, whom he affects to distinguish from Deucalion, and styles Nannacus. According to him, this Nannacus was a person of great antiquity, and prior to the time of Deucalion. He is said to have been a king, who, foreseeing the approaching deluge, collected every body together, and led them to a [7:7:692]temple, where he offered up his prayers for them, accompanied with many tears. There is likewise a proverbial expression about Nannaeus applied to people of great antiquity.

“Stephanus gives great light to this history, and supplies many deficiencies, ζ The tradition is,’ says he, ‘ that there was one formerly named Annaeus, the extent of whose life was above three hundred years. The people who were of his neighbourhood and acquaintance had inquired of an oraele how long he was to live; and there was an answer given, that when Annaeus died, all mankind would be destroyed. The Phrygians, upon this account, made great lamentations, from whence arose the proverb to ιm Avvaxov xλαυ<κ ∣ v, the lamentation of Annaeus, made use of for people in circumstances highly calamitous. When the flood of Deucalion came, all mankind were destroyed, according as the oraele had foretold. Afterwards, when the surface of the earth began to be again dry, Zeus ordered Prometheus and Minerva to make images of clay in the form of men; and, when they were finished, he called the winds, and made them breathe into each, and render them vital·’”

From these histories Mr Bryant concludes, that however the story may have been varied, the principal outlines plainly point out the person who is alluded to in these histories. It is manifest, he thinks, that Annaeus, and Nannaeus, and even Inachus, relate to Noachus or Noah. And not only these, but the histories of Deucalion and Prometheus, have a like reference to the patriarch; in the six hundredth year, and not the three hundredth, of whose life the waters prevailed upon the earth. He was the father of mankind, who were renewed in him. Hence he is represented by another author, under the character of Prometheus, as a great artist, by whom men were formed anew, and were instructed in all that was good.

“Noah was the original Kronus and Zeus, though the latter is a title conferred sometimes upon his son Ham. There is a very particular expression recorded by Clemens of Alexandria, and attributed to Pythagoras, who is said to have called the sea the Tear of Kronus ; and there was a further tradition concerning this person, that he drank or swallowed up all his children. The tears of Isis are represented as very mysterious. They are said to have flowed whenever the Nile began to rise, and to flood the country. The overflowing of that river was the great source of affluence to the people, and they looked upon it as their chief blessing; yet it was ever attended with mystical tears and lamentations. This was particularly observed at Coptos, where the principal deity was Isis. An ancient writer imagines that the tears and lamentations of the people were to implore an inundation, and the tears of Isis were supposed to make the river swell. But all this was certainly said and done in memorial of a former flood, of which they made the overflowing of the Nile a type.

“As the patriarch was by some represented as.a king called Naachus or Nauchus ; so by others he was styled Inaxhus, and supposed to have reigned at Argos. Hence Inachus was made a king of Greece, and Phoroneus and Apis brought in succession after him. But Inachus was not a name of Grecian original; it is mentioned by Eusebius, in his account of the first ages, that there reigned in Egypt Telegonus, a prince of foreign extraction, who was the son of Ones the shepherd, and the seventh in descent from Inachus. And in the same author we read that a colony went forth from that country into Syria, where they founded the ancient city of Antioch; and that they were conducted by Casus and Belus, who were sons of Inachus. By Inachus is certainly meant Noah; and the history relates to some of the more early descendants of the patriarch. His name has been rendered very unlike itself, by having been lengthened with terminations, and likewise fashioned according to the idiom of different languages; but the circumstances of the history are so precise and particular that we cannot miss of the truth.

“He seems in the East to have been called Noas, Noasis, Nusus, and Nus ; and by the Greeks his name was compounded Dionusus. The Ammonians, wherever they came, founded cities to his honour; hence places called Nusa will often occur, and indeed a great many of them arc mentioned by ancient authors. These, though widely distant, being situated in countries far removed, yet retained the same original histories, and were generally famous for the plantation of the vine. Misled by this similarity of traditions, people in after times imagined that Dionusus must necessarily have been where his history occurred; and as it was the turn of the Greeks to place every thing to the account of conquest, they made him a great conqueror, who -went over the face of the whole earth, and taught mankind the plantation of the vine. We are informed that Dionusus went with an army over the face of the whole earth, and taught mankind, as he passed along, the method of planting the vine, and how to press out the juice and receive it in proper vessels. Though the patriarch is represented under various titles, and even these not always uniformly appropriated, yet there will continually occur such peculiar circumstances of his history, as will plainly point out the person referred to. The person preserved is always mentioned as preserved in an ark. He is described as being in a state of darkness, which is represented allegorically as a state of death. He then obtained a new life, which is called a second birth; and is said to have his youth renewed. He is, on this account, looked upon as the first-born of mankind; and both his antediluvian and postdiluvian states are commemorated; and sometimes the intermediate state is also spoken of. Diodorus calls him Deucalion, but describes the deluge as in a manner universal. ‘In the deluge which happened in the time of Deucalion, almost all flesh died.’ Apollodorus having mentioned Deucalion ev λαgvax∕, consigned to the arh, takes notice, upon his quitting it, of his offering up an immediate sacrifice to the God who delivered him. As he was the father of all mankind, the ancients have made him a person of very extensive rule, and supposed him to have been a king. Sometimes he is described as a monarch of the whole earth, at other times he is reduced to a petty king of Thessaly. He is mentioned by Helladias in this latter capacity, who speaks of the deluge in his time, and of his building altars to the gods. Apollonius Rhodius supposes him to have been a native of Greece, according to the common notions; but notwithstanding his prejudices, he gives so particular a character of him, that the true history cannot be mistaken. He makes him indeed the son of Prometheus, the son of Japetus; but in these ancient mythological accounts all genealogy must be entirely disregarded. Though this character be not precisely true, yet we may learn that the person represented was the first of men, through whom religious rites were renewed, cities built, and civil polity established in the world; none of which circumstances are applicable to any king of Greece. We are assured by Philo that Deucalion was Noah; and the Chaldeans likewise mentioned him by the name of Xisu-thrus, as we are informed by Cedrenus.

“That Deucalion was unduly adjudged by the people of Thessaly to their country solely, may be proved from his name occurring in different parts of the world, and always accompanied with some history of the deluge. The natives of Syria laid the same claim to him. He was supposed to have founded the temple at Hierapolis, where was a chasm through which the waters after the deluge [7:7:693] were said to have retreated. He was likewise reported to have built the temple of Jupiter at Athens, where there was a cavity of the same nature, and a like tradition, that the waters of the flood passed off through this aperture. However groundless the notions may be of the waters having retreated through these passages, yet they show what impressions of this event were retained by the Am- .monians, who introduced some history of it wherever they came. As different nations succeeded one another in these parts, and time produced a mixture of generations, they varied the history, and modelled it according to their notions and traditions; yet the groundwork was always true, and the event for a long time universally commemorated. Josephus, who seems to have been a person of extensive knowledge, and versed in the histories of nations, says that this great occurrence was to be met with in the writings of all persons who treated of the first ages. He mentions Berosus of Chaldea, Hieronymus of Egypt, who wrote concerning the antiquities of Phoenicia; also Alna-seas, Abydenus, Melon, and Nicholaus Damascenus, as writers by whom it was recorded; and adds, that it was taken notice of by many others.

“Among the eastern nations, the traces of this event are more vivid and determinate than those of Greece, and more conformable to the accounts of Moses. Eusebius has preserved a most valuable extract to this purpose from Abydenus, which was taken from the archives of the Medes and Babylonians. This writer speaks of Noah, whom he names Seisithrus, as a king, and says that the flood began upon the 15th day of the month Desius; that during the prevalence of the waters, Seisithrus sent out birds, that he might judge if the flood had remained; but that the birds, not finding any resting-place, returned to him again. This was repeated three times; when the birds were found to return with their feet stained with soil, by which he knew the flood was abated. Upon this he quitted the ark, and was never more seen of men, being taken away by the gods from the earth. Abydenus concludes with a particular, in which the eastern writers are unanimous, that the place of descent from the ark was in Armenia, and speaks of its remains being preserved for a longtime. Plutarch mentions the Noachic dove, and its being sent out of the ark. But the most particular history of the deluge, and the nearest of any to the account given by Moses, is to be found in Lucian. He was a native of Samosata, a city of Comagene, upon the Euphrates, a part of the world where memorials of the deluge were particularly preserved, and where a reference to that history was continually kept up in the rites and worship of the country. His knowledge, therefore, was obtained from the Asiatic nations among whom he was born, and not from his kinsmen the Helladians, who were far inferior in the knowledge of ancient times. He describes Noah under the name of Deucalion, and says, ‘ that the present race of mankind are different from those who first existed; for those of the antediluvian world were all destroyed. The present world is peopled from the sons of Deucalion, having increased to so great a number from one person. In respect to the former brood, they were men of violence, and lawless in their dealings. They regarded not oaths, nor observed the rights of hospitality, nor showed mercy to those who sued for it. On this account they were doomed to destruction; and for this purpose there was a mighty eruption of waters from the earth, attended with heavy showers from above, so that the rivers swelled and the sea overflowed, till the whole earth was covered with a flood, and all flesh drowned. Deucalion alone was preserved to re-people the world. This mercy was shown to him on account of his piety and justice. His preservation was effected in this manner. He put all his family, both his sons and their wives, into a vast ark which he had provided, and he went into it himself. At the same time animals of every species, boars, horses, lions, serpents, whatever lived upon the face of the earth, followed him by pairs; all which he received into the ark, and experienced no evil from them; for there prevailed a wonderful harmony throughout, by the immediate influence of the Deity. Thus were they wafted with him as long as the flood endured.’ After this he proceeds to mention, that upon the disappearing of the waters, Deucalion went forth from the ark and raised an altar to God; but he transposes the scene to Hierapolis in Syria, where the natives pretended, as has been already mentioned, to have very particular memorials of the deluge.

“Most of the authors who have transmitted to us these accounts at the same time inform us that the remains of the ark were to be seen in their days on one of the mountains of Armenia. Abydenus particularly says, in confirmation of this opinion, that the people of the country used to get small pieces of the wood, which they carried about by way of amulet. And Berosus mentions that they scraped off the asphaltus with which it was covered, and used it as a charm. Some of the fathers seem to insist on the certainty of the ark being still remaining in their time. Theophilus says expressly that the remains were to be seen upon the mountains of Aram or Armenia. And Chrysostom appeals to it as to a thing well known. ‘ Do not,’ says he, ‘ those mountains of Armenia bear witness to the truth? those mountains where the ark first rested? And are not the remains of it preserved there even unto this day?’

“There was a custom among the priests of Ammon of carrying a boat in procession at particular seasons, in which was an oracular shrine held in great veneration. They were said to have been eighty in number, and to have carried the sacred vessel about just as they were directed by the impulse of the deity. This custom was likewise in use among the Egyptians; and Bishop Pocock has preserved three specimens of ancient sculpture, wherein this ceremony is displayed. They are of wonderful antiquity, and were found by him in Upper Egypt.

“Part of the ceremony in most of the ancient mysteries consisted in carrying about a ship or boat; which custom, upon due examination, will be found to relate to nothing else but Noah and the deluge. The ship of Isis is well known, and the festivity among the Egyptians whenever it was carried in public. The name of this, and of all the navicular shrines, was Baris, which is remarkable; for it was the very name of the mountain, according to Nicoaus Damascenus, on which the ark of Noah rested, the same as Ararat in Armenia. He mentions that there is a large mountain in Armenia, which stands above the country of the Minyae, called Baris; to this it was said that many people betook themselves in the time of the deluge, and were saved; and there is a tradition of one person in particular floating in an ark, and arriving at the summit of the mountain. We may be assured, then, that the ship of Isis was a sacred emblem, in honour of which there was among the Egyptians an annual festival. It was in after times admitted among the Romans, and set down in their calendar for the month of March. The former, in their .description of the primary deities, have continually some reference to a ship or float. Hence we frequently read of ôtot vαυr∕λλovrEj, sailing gods. They oftentimes, says Porphyry, describe the sun in the character of a man sailing upon a float. And Plutarch observes to the same purpose, that they did not represent the sun and moon in chariots, but wafted about upon floating machines. In doing which, they did not refer to the luminaries, but to a person represented under those titles. The sun, or Orus, is likewise [7:7:694] described by Jamblichus as sitting upon the lotus, and sailing in a vessel.

“It is said of Sesostris that he constructed a ship which was two hundred and eighty cubits in length. It was of cedar, plated without with gold, and inlaid with silver; and it was, when finished, dedicated to Osiris at Thebes. It is not credible that there should have been a ship of this size, especially in an inland district, the most remote of any in Egypt. It was certainly a temple and a shrine. The former was framed upon this large scale; and it was the latter on which the gold and silver were so lavishly expended. There is a remarkable circumstance relating to the Argonautic expedition, that the dragon slain by Jason was of the size of a trireme; by which must be meant that it was of the shape of a ship in general, for there were no triremes at the time alluded to. And I have moreover shown, that all these dragons, as they have been represented by the poets, were in reality temples, Ωracon-tia, where, among other rites, the worship of the serpent was instituted. There is another reason to think that this temple, as well as that of Sesostris, was fashioned, in respect to its superficial contents, after the model of a ship; and as to the latter, it was probably intended in its outlines to be the exact representation of the ark, in commemoration of which it was certainly built. It was a temple sacred to Osiris at Theba, or, to say the truth, it was itself called Theba; and both the city, said to be one of the most ancient in Egypt, as well as the province, were undoubtedly denominated from it. Now Theba was the name of the ark. It is the very word made use of by the sacred writer; so that we may, I think, be assured of the prototype after which this temple was fashioned. It is said indeed to have been only two hundred and eighty cubits in length, whereas the ark of Noah was three hundred; but this is a variation of only one fifteenth in the whole; and as the ancient cubit was not in all countries the same, we may suppose that this disparity arose rather from the manner of measuring, than from any real difference in the extent of the building. It was an idolatrous temple, said to have been built by Sesostris in honour of Osiris. I have been repeatedly obliged to take notice of the ignorance of the Greeks in respect to ancient titles, and have shown their misapplication of terms in many instances, especially in their supposing temples to have been erected by persons to whom they were in reality sacred. Sesostris was Osiris; the same as Dionusus, Menes, and Noah. He is called Seisithrus by Abydenus, Xixouthros by Borosus and Apollodorus, and is represented by them as a prince in whose time the deluge happened. He was called Zuth, Xuth, and Zeus, and had certainly divine honours paid to him.

“Pausanias gives a remarkable account of a temple of Hercules, at Eruthra in Ionia, which he mentions as of the highest antiquity, and very like those of Egypt. The deity was represented upon a float, and was supposed to have come thither in this manner from Phoenicia. Aristides mentions that at Smyrna, upon the feast called Dionysia, a ship used to be carried in procession. The same custom prevailed among the Athenians at the Panathenaea, when what was termed the sacred ship was borne with great reverence through the city to the temple of Dame-ter at Eleusis. At Phalerus, near Athens, there were honours paid to an unknown hero, who was represented in the stern of a ship. At Olympia, the most sacred place in Greece, was a representation of the like nature. It was a building like the forepart of a ship, which stood facing the end of the hippodromus; and towards the middle of it was an altar, upon which, at the renewal of each Olympiad, certain rites were performed.

“I think it is pretty plain that all these emblematical representations, of which I have given so many instances, related to the history of the deluge, and the conservation of one family in the ark. This history was pretty recent when these works were executed in Egypt, and when the rites were first established; and there is reason to think, that in early times most shrines of the Mizraim were formed under the resemblance of a ship, in memory of this great event. Nay, further, both ships and temples received their names from thence, being styled by the Greeks, who borrowed largely from Egypt, Nαυς, and Naoj, and mariners Nαυrα, Naurae, in reference to the patriarch, who was variously styled Noas, Nous, and Noah.

“However the Greeks may in their mysteries have sometimes introduced a ship as a symbol, yet in their reference to the deluge itself, and to the persons preserved, they always speak of an ark. And though they were apt to mention the same person under various titles, and by these means different people seem to be made principals in the same history; yet they were so far uniform in their account of this particular event, that they made each of them to be exposed in an ark. Thus it is said of Deucalion, Perseus, and Dionusus, that they were exposed upon the waters in a machine of this fabric. Adonis was hid in an ark by Venus, and was supposed to have been in a state of death for a year. Theocritus introduces a pastoral personage named Comates, who was exposed in an ark for the same term, and wonderfully preserved. Of Osiris being exposed in an ark we have a very remarkable account in Plutarch, who mentions that it was on account of Typhon, and that it happened on the 17th of the month Athyr, when the sun was in Scorpio. This, in my judgment, was the precise time when Noah entered the ark, and when the flood came, which, in the Egyptian mythology, was called Typhon.

“Typhon is one of those whose character has been greatly confounded. This has arisen from two different personages being included under one name, who undoubtedly were distinguished in the language of Egypt. Typhon was a compound of Tuph or Tupha-0n, and signified a high altar of the deity. There were several such in Egypt, upon which they offered human sacrifices; and the cities which had these altars were styled Typhonian. But there was another Typhon, who was very different from the former, however by mistake blended with that character. By this was signified a mighty whirlwind and inundation, and it oftentimes denoted the ocean, and particularly the ocean in a ferment; for, as Plutarch observes, by Typhon was understood any thing violent and unruly. It was a derivative from Tuph, like the former name; which Tuph seems here to have been the same as the Suph of the Hebrews. By this they denoted a whirlwind; but among the Egyptians it was taken in a greater latitude, and signified any thing boisterous, particularly the sea. Plutarch sneaks of it as denoting the sea, and says likewise that the salt of the sea was called the foam of 1yphon. It signified also a whirlwind, as we learn from Euripides, who expresses it Tuphos; and the like is to be found in Hesychius, who calls it a violent wind.

“The history of Typhon was taken from hieroglyphical descriptions. In these the dove, oinas, was represented as hovering over the mundane egg, which was exposed to the fury of Typhon; for an egg, containing in it the elements of life, was thought no improper emblem of the ark, in which were preserved the rudiments of the future world. Hence, in the Dionusiaca, and in other mysteries, one part of the nocturnal ceremony consisted in the consecration of an egg. By this, we are informed by Porphyry, was signified the world. This world was Noah and his family, even all mankind, inclosed and preserved in the ark.

“In respect to Typhon, it must be confessed that the [7:7:695]history given of him is attended with some obscurity. The Grecians have comprehended several characters under one term, which the Egyptians undoubtedly distinguished. The term was used for a title as well as a name, and several of those personages which had a relation to the deluge were styled Typhonian or Diluvian. All these the Grecians have included under one and the same name, Typhon. The real deity by whom the deluge was brought upon the earth had the appellation of Typhonian, by which was meant Diluvii Deus. It is well known that the ark was constructed by a divine commission, in which, when it was completed, God inclosed the patriarch and his family. Hence it is said that Typhon made an ark of curious workmanship, that he might dispose of the body of Osiris. Into this Osiris entered, and was shut up by Typhon. All this relates to the Typhonian deity who inclosed Noah, together with his family, within the limits of an ark. The patriarch also, who was thus interested in the event, had the title of Typhonian. I have shown that the ark by the mythologists was spoken of as the mother of mankind. The stay in the ark was looked upon as a state of death and of regeneration. The passage to life was through the door of the ark, which was formed in its side. Through this the patriarch made his descent, and at this point was the commencement of time. This history is obscurely alluded to in the account of Typhon, of whom it is said, that without any regard to time or place, he forced a passage and burst into light obliquely through the side of his mother. This return to light was described as a revival from the grave; and Plutarch accordingly mentions the return of Osiris from Hades, after he had been for a long season inclosed in an ark and in a state of death. This renewal of life was by the Egyptians esteemed a second state of childhood. They accordingly, in their hieroglyphics, described him as a boy, whom they placed upon the lotus or water-lily, and called him Orus. He was the supposed son of Isis; but it has been shown that Isis, Rhea, Atar-gatis, were all emblems of the ark, that receptacle which was styled the mother of mankind. Orus is represented as undergoing from the Titans all that Osiris suffered from Typhon, and the history at bottom is the same. Hence it is said of Isis, that she had the power of making people immortal, and that when she found her son Orus, in the midst of the waters, dead through the malice of the Titans, she not only gave him a renewal of life, but also conferred upon him immortality.”

In this manner does Bryant interpret almost all the ancient fables, of which no satisfactory solution was ever before given. He shows that the primitive gods of Egypt, who were eight in number, were no other than the eight persons saved in the ark; and that almost all the heathen deities had one way or other a reference to Noah. He proves that Noah was characterized under the titles of Janus, Nereus, Proteus, Oannes, Dagon; and, in short, that the deluge, so far from being unknown to the heathens, or forgotten by them, was in a manner the basis of their whole worship. He traces the history of the raven and dove sent forth by Noah in the customs of various nations, not only in the East, but the West also. And, not content with these testimonies, he shows that the same mythology as that of the Egyptians, and the same hieroglyphics, were carried as far as China and Japan. The Indians have a person whom they call Buto or Budo, or Buddha. This is the same as Boutas of Egypt, Battus of Cyrene, and Boeotus of Greece: and the account given of him is similar to that of Typhon; for it is said that he did not come to life in the usual way, but made himself a passage through the side of his mother, who is represented as a virgin. This history, though now current among the Indians, is of great antiquity, as we learn from the account given by Clemens Alexandrinus. “There is a caste of Indians,” says he, “who are disciples of Boutas. This person, on account of his extraordinary sanctity, they look up to as a god.” The name of Boutas, Battus, and Boeotus, though apparently conferred upon the patriarch, yet related originally to the machine in which he was preserved. Of this some traces may be found among the Greeks. One of the Ammonian names for the ark was Aren or Arene, and Boeotus is said by Diodorus Siculus to have been the son of Neptune and Arne, which is a contraction of arene, the ark. The chief city, Boutus, in Egypt, where was the floating temple, signified properly the city of the float or ark. The Boeotians, who in the Dionusiaca so particularly commemorated the ark, were supposed to be descended from an imaginary personage, Boeotus; and from him likewise their country was thought to have received its name. But Boeotus was merely a variation from Boutus, and Butus, the ark; which in ancient times was indifferently styled Theba, Argus, Aren, Butus, and Boeotus. The term Cibotus is a compound of the same import, and signifies both the temple of the ark and also a place for shipping.

“All the mysteries of the Gentile world seem to have been memorials of the deluge, and of the event which immediately succeeded. They consisted for the most part of a melancholy process, and were celebrated by night, in commemoration of the state of darkness in which the patriarch and his family had been involved. The first thing at those awful meetings was to offer an oath of secrecy to all who were to be initiated, after which they proceeded to the ceremonies: these began with a description of chaos, by which was signified some memorial of the deluge. Chaos was certainly the same as βυόος, the great abyss. Who, says Epiphanius, is so ignorant as not to know that Chaos, and Buthos, the abyss, are of the same purport?

“The names of the deities in Japan and China, and the form of them, as well as the mythology with which they are attended, point out the country from whence they originally came. In China the deity upon the lotus in the midst of waters has been long a favourite emblem, and was imported from the West; the insigne of the dragon was from the same quarter. The Cuthites worshipped Cham, the sun, whose name they variously compounded. In China most things which have any reference to splendour and magnificence seem to be denominated from the same object. Cham is said, in the language of that country, to signify any thing supreme. Cum is a fine building or palace, similar to Coma of the Ammonians. Cura is a lord or master, Cham a sceptre. Lastly, by Cham is signified a priest, analogous to the Chamanim and Chamenim of Cutha and Babylonia. The country itself is by the Tartars called Ham. The cities Cham-ju, Campion, Compi-tion, Cumdan, Chamul, and many others of the same form, are manifestly compounded of the sacred term Cham. Cambalu, the name of the ancient metropolis, is the city of Cham-bal; and Milton styles it very properly ‘ Cambalu, seat of Cathaian Chan.’ By this is meant the chief city of the Cuthean monarch; for Chan is a derivative of Cahen, a prince. It seems sometimes in China and Japan to have been expressed Quan and Quano.

“Two temples are taken notice of by Hamilton, near Syrian, in Pegu, which he represents as so like in structure that they seemed to be built on the same model. One of these was Kiahiach, or the God of Gods temple. The other is called the temple of Dagun ; and the doors and windows of it are perpetually shut, so that none can enter but the priests. They will not tell of what shape the idol is, but only say that it is not of human form. The former deity, Kiakiack, is represented as asleep, of a human shape, and sixty feet long, and when he awakes the [7:7:696]world is to be destroyed. As soon as Kiakiack has dissolved the frame and being of this world, Dagun will gather up the fragments and make a new one. I make no doubt but the true name of the temple was lach lach, and dedicated to the same god as the Jachusi in Japan. Mr Wise takes notice of the Grecian exclamation to Dionusus, when the terms Iacche, 0 Iacche, were repeated; and he supposes, with great probability, that the Peguan name had a reference to the same deity. It is certain that the worship of Dionusus prevailed very early among the nations in the East. The Indians used to maintain that his rites first began among them. Professor Bayer has shown that traces of his worship are still to be observed among the Tamuli of Tranquebar. ‘ They have a tradition,’ says he, i that there was once a gigantic person named Maid-shurcn, who was born of Nisadabura, near the mountain Meru. He had the horns of a bull, and drank wine, and made war upon the gods. He was attended by eight Pudam, who were gigantic and mischievous daemons, of the family of those Indian shepherds called Kobaler.' In this account we have a manifest reference to the history of Dionusus, as well as that of the Dionusians, by whom his rites were introduced. And we may perceive that it bears a great resemblance to the accounts transmitted by the Grecians. What are these Kobaler, who were descended from the shepherds, but the same as the Cobali of Greece, the uniform attendants upon Dionusus? a set of priests whose cruelty and chicanery rendered them infamous. ‘ The Cobali,’ says an ancient author, ‘ were a set of cruel daemons, who followed in the retinue of Dionusus. It is a term made use of for knaves and cheats.’

“As the deity, in the second temple of Syrian, to which strangers were not admitted, was not of a human form, and was called Dagun, we may easily conceive the hidden character under which he was described. We may conclude that it was no other than that mixed figure of a man and a fish, under which he was of old worshipped both in Palestine and Syria. He is expressed under this symbolical representation in many parts of India, and by the Brahmins is called Wistnu or Vishnu. Dagon and Vishnu have a like reference; they equally represent the man of the sea, called by Berosus Cannes, whose history has been reversed by the Indians. They suppose that he will restore the world when it shall be destroyed by the chief God. But by Dagon is signified the very person through whom the earth has been already restored when it was in a state of ruin, and by whom mankind was renewed. Dagon and Noah I have shown to be the same. Vishnu is represented, like Dagon, under the mixed figure of a man and a fish, or rather of a man, a princely figure, proceeding from a fish. The name of this district, near which the temples above stand, we find to be called Syrian, just as was named the region where stood the temples of Atar-gatis and Dagon. Syrus, Syria, and Syrian are all of the same purport, and signify Coelestis and Solaris, from Sehor, the sun.”

He next proceeds to describe some of the Indian temples or pagodas, particularly those of Salsette, Elephanta, and another called Elora, near Aurungabad, in the province of Balagate.

“Many of these ancient structures,” continues Mr Bryant, “have been attributed to Ramscander, or Alexander the Great; but there is nothing among these stately edifices that in the least savours of Grecian workmanship, nor had that monarch, nor any of the princes after him, opportunity to perform works of this nature. We have not the least reason to think that they ever possessed the country, for they were called off from their attention this way by feuds and engagements nearer home. There is no tradition of this country having been ever conquered except by the fabulous armies of Hercules and Dionusus. What has led people to think that those works were the operation of Alexander, is the similitude of the name Ramt∙ xander. To this person they have sometimes been attributed; but Ramtxander was a deity, the supposed son of Bal, and he is introduced among the personages who were concerned in the incarnations of Vishnu.

“The temple of Elora, and all the pagodas of which I have made mention, must be of great antiquity, as the natives cannot reach their era. They were undoubtedly the work of the Indo-Cuthites, who came so early into these parts. And that these structures were formed by them, will appear from many circumstances; but especially from works of the same magnificence which were performed by them in other places. For scarce any people could have effected such great works, but a branch of that family which erected the tower in Babylonia, the walls of Baalbec, and the pyramids of Egypt.”

Having then described a number of Indian idols of surprising magnitude, “the Babylonians and Egyptians,” says he, “and all of the same great family, used to take a pleasure in forming gigantic figures, and exhibiting other representations equally stupendous. Such were the colossal statues at Thebes, and the sphinx in the plains of Coume. The statue erected by Nebuchadnezzar in the plains of Dura was in height threescore Babylonish cubits. It was probably raised in honour of Cham, the sun; and perhaps it was also dedicated to the head of the Chaldaic family, who was deified and reverenced under that title. Marcellinus takes notice of a statue of Apollo named Comeus, which, in the time of the Emperor Verus, was brought from Seleucia to Rome. This related to the same deity as the preceding. We may also infer that the temple at Kamju was erected to Cham, the sun, whom the people worshipped under the title of SamonifιT'

It is remarkable that in Japan the priests and nobility have the title of Cami. The Emperor Quebacondono, in a letter to the Portuguese viceroy in 1585, tells him that Japan is the kingdom of Chamis; whom, says he, we hold to be the same as Sein, the origin of all things. By Sein is probably meant San, the sun, who was the same as Cham, rendered here Chamis. The laws of the country are spoken of as the laws of Chamis; and we are told by Kaempfer that all the gods were styled either Sin or Cami. The founder of the empire is said to have been Tensio Dai Sin, or Tensio the god of light. Near his temple was a cavern religiously visited, upon account of his having been once hid, when no sun nor stars appeared. He was esteemed the fountain of day, and his temple was called the Temple of Naiku. Near this cavern was another temple, in which the canusi or priests showed an image of the deity sitting upon a cow. It was called Dainits No Ray, the great representation of the sun. One of their principal gods is Jakusi, similar to the Iacchus of the West. Kaempfer says that he is the Apollo of the Japanese, and they describe him as the Egyptians did Horus. His temple stands in a town called Minnoki; and Jakusi is here represented upon a gilt tarate flower, which is said to be the nymphoea palustris maxima, or faba Egyptiaca of Prosper Alpinus. One half of a large scallop shell is like a canopy placed over him; and his head is surrounded with a crown of rays. They have also an idol named Menippe, much reverenced in different parts. Both these, continues Bryant, relate to the same person, namely, Noah. Kaempfer, an author of great credit, saw the temple of Dabys, which he truly renders Daibod, at Jedo, in Japan. By Daibod was meant the god Buddha, whose religion was styled the Budso, and prevailed greatly upon the Indus and Ganges. Kaempfer, from whom Mr Bryant takes this account, says that the people of Sjam represent him [7:7:697]under the form of a Moor, in a sitting posture, and of a prodigious size. His skin is black, his hair curled, and the images about him are of the same complexion. “This god,” says Mr Bryant, “was supposed to have neither father nor mother. By Budha we are certainly to understand the idolatrous symbol called by some nations Buddo; the same as Argus and Theba, names for the ark. In the mythology concerning it we may see a reference both to the machine itself and to the persons preserved in it; in consequence of which we find this person also styled Bod, Budha, and Buddo; and in the west Butus, Battus, and Boeotus. He was said by the Indians not to have been born in the ordinary way, but to have come to light indirectly through the side of his mother. By Clemens of Alexandria he is called Eouta ; and in the history of this person, however varied, we may perceive a relation to the arkite deity of the sea, called Poseidon or Neptune; also to Arculus and Dionusus, styled Boeotus and Thebanus. Kaempfer has a curious history of a deity of this sort called Abutto, whose temple stood in the province of Bungo, upon the sea-shore, near the village of Toma. About a quarter of a German mile before you come to this village, stands a famous temple of the god Abutto, which is said* to be very eminent for miraculously curing many inveterate distempers, as also for procuring a favourable wind and a good passage. For this reason sailors and passengers always tie some farthings to a piece of wood, and throw it into the sea, as an offering to Abutto, to obtain a propitious wind. The same deity, but under a different name, was worshipped in China. The Apis, Mnevis, and Anubis of Egypt, have often been mentioned and explained, as well as the Minotaur of Crete. The same hieroglyphics occur in Japan; and we are informed by Marco Polo that the inhabitants worship idols of different shapes. Some have the head of an ox, some of a swine, and others the head of a dog. The most common representation in this country is that of Godso Ten Oo, or ‘ the ox-headed prince of heaven.’

“It has already been noticed, that the ark was represented under the symbol of an egg, called the mundane egg, which was exposed to the rage of Typhon. It was also described under the figure of a lunette, and called Selene, or the moon. The person by whom it was framed, and who through its means was providentially preserved, occurs under the character of a steer, and the machine itself under the semblance of a cow or heifer. We have moreover been told that it was called Cibotus, which Clemens of Alexandria calls Thebotha. Epiphanius mentions it by the name of Idaal JBaoth ; and says that, according to an eastern tradition, a person named Nun was preserved in it The horse of Neptune was another emblem, as was also the hippopotamus or river-horse. The people of Elis made use of the tortoise for the same purpose, and represented Venus as resting upon its back. Some traces of these hieroglyphics are to be found in Japan, which were certainly carried thither by the Indic Ethiopians.

“From an account of a temple of Daiboth, probably the same with Daibod, at Meaco, in Japan, we may perceive that the people there speak of the renewal of the world at the deluge as the real creation, which I have shown to be a common mistake in the histories of the event. And though the story is told with some variation, yet in all the circumstances of consequence it accords very happily with the mythology of Egypt, Syria, and Greece. It matters not how the emblems have by length of time been misinterpreted. We have the mundane egg upon the waters, and the concomitant symbol of the moon; and the egg at last opened by the assistance of the sacred steer, upon which the world issues forth to this day.” The author proceeds afterwards to mention the great veneration paid in these parts to the ox and cow, and says that nobody dares injure them. One deity of the Japanese was Canon, the reputed lord of the ocean. He was represented in an erect posture, crowned with a flower, and coming out of the mouth of a fish. He is represented in the same manner by the natives of India, and named Vishnu and Ma-cauter ; and he is to be found in other parts of the East. Father Boushet mentions a tradition among the Indians concerning a flood in the days of Vishnu, which covered the whole earth. It is moreover reported of him, that seeing the prevalence of the waters, he made a float, and being turned into a fish, he steered it with his tail. This person, in the account of the Banians by Lord, is called Menow; which certainly should be expressed Men-Now. It is said, that in the Shaster of this people, a like history is given of the earth being overwhelmed by a deluge, in which mankind perished; but the world was afterwards renewed by two persons called Menou and Ceteroupa. Vishnu is described under many characters, which he is said at times to have assumed. One of these, according to the Brahmins of Tanjour, was that of Rama Sami. This undoubtedly is the same as Sama Rama of Babylonia, only reversed; and it relates to that great phenomenon the Iris, which was generally accompanied with the dove, and held in veneration by the Semarim.

“As the history of China is supposed to extend upwards to an amazing height, it may be worth while to consider the first eras in the Chinese annals, as they are represented in the writings of Japan (for the Japanese have preserved histories of China); and by such a collation, I believe no small light may be obtained towards the discovery of some important truths. Hitherto it has not been observed that such a collation could be made.

“In the histories of this country, the first monarch of China; is named Foki, the same whom the Chinese call Fohi, and place at the head of their list. This prince had, according to some the body, according to others the head, of a serpent. If we may believe the Japanese historians, he began his reign above 21,000 years before Christ. The second Chinese emperor was Sin-Noo, by the people of China called Sin-Num; and many begin the chronology of the country with him. He is supposed to have lived about 3000 years before Christ, consequently there is an interval of near 18,000 years between the first emperor and the second, a circumstance not to be credited. The third, who immediately succeeded Sin-Noo, was Hoam-Ti. In this account we may, I think, perceive, that the Chinese have acted like the people of Greece and other regions. The histories which were imported they have prefixed to the annals of the nation; and adopted the first personages of antiquity, and made them monarchs in their own country. Whom can we suppose Fohi, with the head of a serpent, to have been, but the great founder of all kingdoms, the father of mankind? They have placed him at an immense distance, not knowing his true era. And I think we may be assured, that under the character of Sin-Num and Sin-Noo we have the history of Noah; and Hoam-Ti was no other than Ham. According to Kaempfer, Sin-Noo was exactly the same character as Serapis of Egypt. ‘ He was a husbandman, and taught mankind agriculture, and those arts which relate to the immediate support of life. He also discovered the virtues of many plants; and he was represented with the head of an ox, and sometimes only with two horns. Plis picture is held in high estimation by the Chinese.’ Well indeed might Kaempfer think that in Sin-Noo he saw the character of Serapis, for this personage was no other than Sar-Apis, the great father of mankind, the same as Men-Neuas of Egypt, the same also as Dionusus and Osiris. By Du Halde he is called Chin-Nong, and made the first mo [7:7:698] narch after Fohi. The Chinese accounts afford the same history as has been given above.

“As the family of Noah consisted of eight persons inclusive, there have been writers who have placed some of them in succession, and supposed that there were three or four persons who reigned between Sin-Noo and Hoam. But Du Halde says, that in the true histories of the country, the three first monarchs were Fohi, Chin-Nong, and Hoam, whom he styles Hoang-Ti. To these, he says, the arts and sciences owe their invention and progress. Thus we find that those who were heads of families have been raised to be princes, and their names have been prefixed to the list of kings, and their history superadded to the annals of the country. It is further observable, in the accounts given of those supposed kings, that their term of life, for the first five or six generations, corresponds with that of the patriarchs after the flood, and decreases much in the same proportion.

“The history of Japan is divided into three eras, which consist of gods, demigods, and mortals. The person whom the natives look upon to be the real founder of their monarchy is named Synmu, in whose reign the Sintoo religion, the most ancient of the country, was introduced. It was called Sin-sju and Chami-mitsa, from Sin and Chami, the deities which were the objects of worship. At this time it is said that 600 foreign idols were brought into Japan. To the Sintoo religion was afterwards added the Budso, together with the worship of Amida. This deity they commonly represented with the head of a dog, and esteemed him the guardian of mankind. This religion was more complicated than the former, and abounded with hieroglyphical representations and mysterious rites. It is the same which I have termed the Arhite Idolatry, wherein the sacred steer and cow were venerated. The deity was represented upon the lotus and upon a tortoise, and oftentimes as proceeding from a fish. In this also, under the character of Buddha, we may trace innumerable memorials of the ark, and of the person preserved in it. The author above, having mentioned the eleventh emperor inclusive from Syn-Mu, tells us that in his time these rites began, ζ In his reign Budo, otherwise called Kobotus, came over from the Indies to Japan, and brought with him, upon a white horse, his religion and doctrines.’ We find here, that the object of worship is made the person who introduced it (a mistake almost universally prevalent), otherwise in this short account what a curious history is unfolded.

“The only people to whom we can have recourse for any written memorials concerning these things are the inhabitants of India Proper. They were, we find, the persons who introduced these hieroglyphics both in China and Japan. It will therefore be worth while to consider what they have transmitted concerning their religious opinions, as we may from hence obtain still greater light towards explaining this symbolical worship. Every manifestation of God’s goodness to the world was in the first ages expressed by an hieroglyphic; and the Deity was accordingly described under various forms, and in different attitudes. These at length were mistaken for real transfigurations; and Vishnu was supposed to have appeared in different shapes, which were styled Incarnations. In one of these he is represented under the figure before mentioned, of a princely person coming out of a fish. In another he appears with the head of a boar, treading upon an evil daemon, which seems to be the same as the Typhon of the Egyptians. On his head he supports a lunette, in which are seen cities, towers, in short, all that the world contains. In Baldaeus we have a delineation and history of this incarnation. Kircher varies a little in his representation, yet gives him a similar figure of the Deity, and styles him J¾⅛b Barachater. By this I should think was signified Vishnu, “the offspring of the fish.” The Brahmins say that there was a time when the serpent with a thousand heads withdrew itselfļ and would not support the world, it was so overburdened with sin. Upon this the earth sunk in the great abyss of waters, and mankind and all that breathed perished. But Vishnu took upon himself the form above described, and diving to the bottom of the sea, lifted up the earth out of the waters, and placed it, together with the serpent of a thousand heads, upon the back of a tortoise.

“In the third volume of M. Perron’s Zendavesta, there is an account given of the cosmogony of the Parsees; also of the subsequent great events that ensued. The supreme Deity, called by him Ormisda, is said to have accomplished the creation at six different intervals. He first formed the heavens, at the second the waters, at the third the earth. Next in order were produced the trees and vegetables; in the fifth place were formed birds and fishes, and the wild inhabitants of the woods; and in the sixth and last place he created man. The man thus produced is said to be an ox-like person, and is described as consisting of a purely divine and a mortal part. For some time after his creation he lived in great happiness; but at last the world was corrupted by a daemon named Ahriman. This daemon had the boldness to visit heaven, whence he came down to the earth in the form of a serpent, and introduced a set of wicked beings called karsesters. By him the first ox-like personage, called Aboudad, was so infected that he died; after which Kaimorts, probably the divine part, of which the ox was the representative, died also. Out of the left arm of the deceased proceeded a being called Goschòraun, who is said to have raised a cry louder than the shout of 1000 men. After some conversation between the supreme Deity and Goschoraun, it was determined to put Ahriman-to flight, and to destroy all those wicked persons he had introduced; for there now seemed to be an universal opposition to the supreme Deity Ormisda. At this season a second ox-like personage is introduced by the name of Taschter. He is spoken of both as a star and a sun. At the same time he is mentioned as a person upon earth under three forms. By Taschter is certainly signified De Ashter, the same person whom the Greeks and Syrians represented as a female, and called Astarte. She was described horned, and sometimes with the head of a bull; supposed to proceed from an egg; and they esteemed her the same as Juno and the moon. At last it was thought proper to bring an universal inundation over the face of the earth, that all impurity might be washed away; which being accomplished by Taschter, every living creature perished, and the earth was for some time entirely covered. At last, the waters retreating within their proper bounds, the mountains of Albordi in Ferakh-kand first appeared; which the author compares to a tree, and supposes that all other mountains proceeded from it. After this there was a renewal of the world, and the earth was restored to its pristine state. The particular place where Ormisda planted the germina from whence all things were to spring was Ferakh-kand, which seems to be the land of Arach, the country upon the Araxes, in Armenia.”

Thus we have given ample specimens of this author’s method of reasoning, and of discovering traces of the sacred history even in things which have been thought to have the least possible relation to it. That the Greeks and western nations had some knowledge of the flood, has never been disputed; and from what has been already related, it appears that the same has pervaded the remotest regions of the east. The knowledge which these people have of the fall of man, and the bitter consequences which ensued, can·
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not, according to Bryant, have arisen from their intercourse with Christians; for their traditions afford no traces of any kind, either of Christianity or its founder. Whatever truths may be found in their writings, therefore, must be derived from a more ancient source. “There are,” says he, “in every climate some shattered fragments of original history, some traces of a primitive and universal language; and these may be observed in the names of deities, terms of worship, and titles of honour, which prevail among nations widely separated, who for ages had no connection. The like may be found in the names of pagodas and temples, and of sundry other objects which will present themselves to the traveller.”

The accounts hitherto met with in the American continent are far from being equally authentic and satisfactory with those already treated of. In Acosta’s history of the Indies, however, we are informed that the Mexicans make particular mention of a deluge in their country, by which all men were drowned. According to them, one Viracocha came out of the great lake Titicaca in their country. This person dwelt in Tiaguanaco, where at this day are to be seen the ruins of some ancient and very strange buildings; and thence he proceeded to Cusco, where mankind began to multiply. They show also a small lake, where they say the sun hid himself; for which reason they sacrifice largely to him, both men and other animals. Hennepin informs us that some of the savages are of opinion that a certain spirit, called Otkon by the Iroquois, and Atahauta by those at the mouth of the river St Lawrence, is the creator of the world; and that Messou repaired it after the deluge. They say that this Messou or Otkon, being a-hunting one day, his dogs lost themselves in a great lake, which thereupon overflowing, covered the whole earth in a short time, and swallowed up the world. According to Herrera, the people of Cuba knew that the heavens and the earth had been created, and said they had much information concerning the flood, and that the world had been destroyed by water by three personages who came three several ways. Gabriel de Cabrera was told by a man of more than seventy years of age that an old man, knowing the deluge was to come, built a great ship, and went into it with his family and abundance of animals; that he sent out a crow, which did not at first return, staying to feed on the carcases of dead animals, but that she afterwards came back with a green branch. He is said to have added other particulars nearly consonant to the Mosaic account. The same author likewise informs us that it was reported by the inhabitants of Castilla del Oro, in Terra Firma, that when the universal deluge happened, one man with his wife and children escaped in a canoe, and that from them the world had been peopled. The Peruvians likewise affirmed that they had received by tradition from their ancestors, that, many years before there were any incas or kings, when the country was very populous, there happened a great flood; the sea breaking out beyond its bounds, so that the land was covered with water, and all the people perished. To this it is added by the Guancas, inhabiting the vale of Nausea, and the natives of Chiquito in the province of Callao, that some persons found shelter in the hollows and caves of the highest mountains, who again peopled the land. Others again affirm that all perished in a deluge, only six persons being saved in a float, from whom are descended all the inhabitants of that country. In Nieuhoff’s voyages to Brazil we are informed that the most barbarous of the Brazilians, inhabiting the inland countries, scarcely knew anything of religion or of an Almighty Being. But they had some knowledge remaining of a general deluge, it being their opinion that the whole race of mankind were extirpated by a general deluge, except one man and his sister, who being with child before, they by degrees repeopled the world. Μ. Thevet gives us the creed of the Brazilians in this matter more particularly. In the opinion of these savages the deluge was universal. They say that Summay, a Caribbee of great dignity, had two children named Tamendonare and Aricote. Being of contrary dispositions, one delighting in peace and the other in war and rapine, they mortally hated each other. One day Aricote, the warrior, brought an arm of an enemy whom he had encountered to his brother, reproaching him at the same time with cowardice. But the other retorted by telling, that if he had been possessed of the valour which he boasted, he would have brought his enemy entire. On this Aricote threw the arm against the door of his brother’s house. At that instant the whole village was carried up into the sky; and Tamendonare striking the ground with violence, a vast stream of water issued out from it, and continued to flow in such quantity, that in a short time it seemed to rise above the clouds, and the earth was entirely covered. The two brothers seeing this, ascended the highest mountains of the country, and with their wives ascended the trees which grew upon them. By this deluge all mankind, as well as all other animals, were drowned, excepting the two brothers above mentioned and their wives, who having descended when the flood abated, became the heads of two different nations.

To these American testimonies we may add another from the remote and uncivilized island of Otaheite. Dr Watson, in his discourse to the clergy, informs us, that one of the navigators to the southern hemisphere having asked some of the inhabitants of that island concerning their origin, was answered, that their supreme God, a long time ago. being angry, dragged the earth through the sea, and their island, being broken oft', was preserved. In the East Indies, we are informed by Dr Watson that Sir William Jones, by whom a society .for the advancement of Asiatic literature was instituted at Calcutta, discovered in the oldest mythological books of that country such an account of the deluge as corresponds sufficiently with that of Moses.

The fact being thus established by the universal consent of mankind, that there was a general deluge which overflowed the whole world, it remains next to inquire by what means it may reasonably be supposed to have been accomplished. There have been many speculations on the instruments employed in bringing about this grand cataclysm; and a great division of opinion has existed as to the effects which it might be expected to have produced on the surface of the earth.

It has been asserted that a quantity of water was created on purpose, and at a proper time annihilated, by divine power. This, however, besides its being absolutely without evidence, is directly contrary to the words of the sacred writer whom the supporters of this hypothesis mean to defend. Iĭe expressly derives the waters of the flood from two sources; first, the fountains of the great deep, which he tells us were all broken open; and secondly, the windows of heaven, which he says were opened: and speaking of the decrease of the waters, be says, the fountains of the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped, and the waters returned continually from off the face of the earth. Here it is obvious that Moses was so far from having any difficulty about the quantity of water, that he thought the sources whence it came were not exhausted; since both of them required to be stopped by the same almighty hand which had opened them, lest the flood should increase more than it actually did.

Dr Burnet, in his Telluris Theoria Sacra, endeavours to show that all the waters in the ocean were not sufficient to cover the earth to the depth assigned by Moses. Supposing the sea drained quite dry, and all the clouds of the [7:7:700]atmosphere dissolved into rain, we should still, according to him, want much the greater part of the water of a deluge. To get rid of this difficulty, Dr Burnet and others have adopted Descartes’ theory. That philosopher supposes the antediluvian world to have been perfectly round and equal, without mountains or valleys. He accounts for its formation on mechanical principles, by supposing it at first in the condition of a thick turbid fluid, replete with divers heterogeneous matters, which, subsiding by slow degrees, formed themselves into different concentric strata or beds, in obedience to s the law of gravity. Dr Burnet improves on this theory by supposing the primitive earth to have been no more than a shell or crust investing the surface of the water contained in the ocean, and in the central abyss which he and others suppose to exist in the bowels of the earth. At the time of the flood, this outward crust, according to him, broke in a thousand pieces; and consequently sunk down among the water, which thus spouted up in vast cataracts, and overflowed the whole surface. He supposes also, that before the flood there was a perfect coincidence of the equator with the ecliptic, and consequently that the antediluvian world enjoyed a perpetual spring; but that the violence of the shock by which the outer crust was broken shifted also the position of the earth, and produced the present obliquity of the ecliptic. This theory, it will be observed, is equally arbitrary with the former. But it is, besides, directly contrary to the words of Moses, who assures us, that all the high hills were covered; whilst, in opposition to this, Dr Burnet affirms that there were then no hills in existence.

Other authors, supposing a sufficient fund of water in the abyss or sea, are only concerned for an expedient to bring it forth. Accordingly some have recourse to a shifting of the earth’s centre of gravity, by which, the water being drawn out of its channel, the several parts of the earth were successively overwhelmed.

Mr Whiston, in his New Theory of the Earth, shows, from several remarkable coincidences, that a comet descending in the plane of the ecliptic, towards its perihelion, must have passed just before the earth on the first day of the deluge; the consequences of which would be, first, that this comet, when it came below the moon, would raise a vast and strong tide, both in the small seas, which according to his hypothesis existed in the antediluvian earth (for he allows no great ocean there, as in ours), and also in the abyss which was under the upper crust of the earth; and this tide would rise and increase during all the time of the approach of the comet towards the earth, and would be at its greatest height when the comet was at its least distance from the earth. By the force of this tide, and also by the attraction of the comet, he judges that the abyss must have assumed an elliptical figure, the surface of which being considerably larger than the former spherical one, the outward crust of the earth, incumbent on the abyss, must accommodate itself to that figure, which it could not do whilst it remained solid and conjoined. He concludes, therefore, that it must of necessity have been extended, and at last broken, by the violence of the tides and attraction; and that the included water issuing thence was a great means of the deluge, according to what Moses says of the “fountains of the great deep being broken open.” Again, the same comet, he maintains, in its descent towards the sun, passed so close by the body of the earth, as to involve the latter in its atmosphere and tail for a considerable time, and of consequence left a vast quantity of its vapours, both expanded and condensed, on its surface, a great part of which being rarefied by the solar heat, would be drawn up into the atmosphere, and afterwards return in violent rains. And this he takes to be what Moses intimates by

“the windows of heaven being opened,” and particularly by the “forty days rain.” Lastly, to remove this vast orb of waters again, he supposes a mighty wind to have arisen, which dried up some, and forced the rest into the abyss through the clefts by which it came up; only a great quantity remained in the alveus of the ocean, now first formed, and in lesser seas, lakes, and the like. This theory was at first only proposed as an hypothesis; but, on further consideration, Mr Whiston thought he could actually prove that a comet did at that time {lass very near the earth, and that it was the same which afterwards appeared in 1688. But the uncertainty of the comet’s return in 1758, and the absolute failure of that which ought to have appeared in 1788 or 1789, must certainly render Mr Whiston’s calculations for such a length of time extremely dubious.

Mr Hutchinson and his followers present us with a theory of the deluge, which they pretend to derive from the word of God itself. This theory has been particularly enlarged upon and illustrated by Mr Catcot, who in 1768 published a volume on the subject. This gentleman asserts, that when the world was first created, at the time when it is said to have been “without form and void,” the terrestrial matter was then entirely dissolved in the aqueous; so that the whole formed, as it were, a thick muddy water. The figure of this mass was spherical; and on the outside of this sphere lay the gross dark air. Within the sphere of earth and water was an immense cavity, called by Moses the deep ; and this internal cavity was filled with air of a kind similar to that on the outside. On the creation of light, the internal air received elasticity sufficient to burst out through the external covering of earth and water. Upon this the water descended, filled up the void, and left the earth in a form similar to that which it has at present. Thus, according to him, the antediluvian world, as well as the present, consisted of a vast collection or nucleus of water, called the great deep, or the abyss. The breaking up of these fountains was occasioned by a miraculous pressure of the atmosphere, from the immediate action of the Deity himself; and so violent was this pressure, that the air descended to where it had originally been, occupied the space of the abyss, and drove out the waters over the whole surface of the dry land. But this account, so far from being infallibly certain, seems inconsistent with the most common observation. No pressure, however violent, will cause water to rise above its level, unless the pressure is unequal. If therefore the atmosphere entered into the supposed abyss by a vehement pressure on the surface of the ocean, that pressure must only have been on one place, or on a few places; and even though we suppose the atmosphere to have been the agent made use of, it is impossible that it could have remained for any time in the abyss, as the pressure of the water would immediately have forced it up again through those holes which had afforded it a passage downwards.

Μ. de Beaumont has indulged in the speculation that the sudden appearance of the Cordillera of the Andes may have caused the historical deluge; that the unfathomable ocean was suddenly upheaved, and converted into dry land, thereby displacing a great body of water, and producing a diluvial wave or regurgitation, which inundated the previously existing portion of the earth. An event of this kind, it cannot be disputed, would very probably have produced such an effect as he anticipates; but the sudden elevation of such a mountain-ridge as the Andes to the height of ten, fifteen, or twenty thousand feet, would displace a great volume of atmospheric air, not of water, and, if the velocity of the movement were sufficiently great, might occasion a tremendous hurricane.

It is not to be supposed that we can pretend to ascertain[7:7:701] any thing more on the subject than others have done. The following conjectures, however, may be offered as to the manner in which the deluge might have happened, without any violence to the established laws of nature.

If we consider the quantity of water requisite for the purpose of the deluge, it will not appear so very extraordinary as has been commonly represented. The height of the highest hills is thought not to exceed four or five miles. It will therefore be deemed a sufficient allowance, when we suppose the waters of the deluge to have been four miles deep on the surface of the ground. Now it is certain that water, or any other matter, when spread out at large upon the ground, seems to occupy an immense space in comparison of that which it does when contained in a cubical vessel, or when packed together in a cubical form. A cube of ten miles of water would very nearly overflow two hundred and fifty-six square miles of plain ground to the height of four miles. But if we take into account the vast number of eminences with which the surface of the earth abounds, the above-mentioned quantity of water would cover a great deal more. If, therefore, we attempt to calculate the quantity of water sufficient to deluge the earth, we must make a very considerable allowance for the bulk of all the hills upon its surface. But, to consider this matter in its utmost latitude, the surface of the earth is supposed by the latest computations to contain about 199,512,595 square miles. In order to overflow this surface to the height of four miles, there is required a parallelopiped of water sixteen miles deep, and containing 49,878,148 square miles of surface. Now, considering the immense thickness of the globe of the earth, it is by no means improbable that this quantity of water might be contained in its bowels, without the necessity of any remarkable abyss or huge collection of water, such as most of our theorists suppose to exist in the centre. It is certain that, as far as the earth has been mined, it has been found, not dry, but moist; nor have we any reason to imagine that it is not at least equally moist to the centre. How moist it really is cannot be known, nor can the quantity of water requisite to impart to it the degree of moisture it has be ascertained; but we are certain that it must be immense. It was not, however, from the bowels of the earth alone that the waters were discharged, but also from the air; for we are assured by Moses that it rained forty days and forty nights. But this source of the diluvian waters has been considered as of small consequence by almost every one who has written on the subject.

With reference to this subject we must observe, however, that there is a very general mistake with regard to the air, similar to that above mentioned regarding the earth. Because the earth below our feet appears to our senses firm and compact, therefore the vast quantity of water contained even in the most solid parts of it, and which will readily appear on proper experiment, is overlooked. In like manner, because the air does not always deluge with excessive rains, it is also imagined that it contains but little water. Because the pressure of the air is able to raise only thirty-two feet of water on the surface of the earth, it is therefore supposed that we may ascertain to what depth the atmosphere could deluge the earth if it was to discharge the whole water contained in it. But we know that the pressure of the atmosphere has not the least connection with the quantity of water which it contains. Nay, if there is any connection, the air, as exhibited by the barometer, seems to be lightest when it contains most water. For these reasons we think that the quantity of water contained in the whole atmosphere ought to be considered as indefinite, especially as we know that by whatever agent it is suspended, that agent must counteract the force of gravity, otherwise the water would immediately descend.

The above considerations render it at least probable that there is in nature a quantity of water sufficient to deluge the world, provided it were applied to the purpose. We must next consider, therefore, whether there be any natural agent powerful enough to effect this purpose; and we shall take the phrases used by Moses in their most obvious sense. The breaking up of the fountains of the deep we may reasonably suppose to have been the opening of all passages, whether great or small, through which the subterraneous waters could possibly discharge themselves on the surface of the earth. The opening of the windows of heaven we may also suppose to be the pouring out of the water contained in the atmosphere, through those invisible passages by which it enters in such a manner as totally to elude our senses, as when water is absorbed by the air in evaporation. As both these are said to have been opened at the same time, it seems therefore probable that one natural agent was employed to do both. Now it is certain that the industry of modern inquiry has discovered an agent unknown to former ages, the influence of which is so great, that with regard to this world, it may be said to possess a kind of omnipotence. The agent which we mean is electricity. It is certain, that by means of it immense quantities of water can be raised to a great height in the air. This is clearly proved by the phenomena of waterspouts. Mr Forster relates, that he happened to see one break very near him, and observed a flash of lightning to proceed from it at the moment of its breaking. The conclusion from all this is obvious. When the electric matter was discharged from the water, it could no longer be supported by the atmosphere, but immediately descended. Though water-spouts do not often appear in this country, yet every one must have made an observation somewhat similar to Mr Forster’s. In a violent storm of thunder and rain, after every flash of lightning or discharge of electricity from the clouds, the rain pours down with increased violence; thus showing that the cloud having parted with so much of its electricity, cannot longer be supported in the form of vapour, but must descend in rain. It is not indeed yet discovered that electricity is the cause of the suspension of water in the atmosphere, but it is certain that evaporation is promoted by electrifying the fluid to be evaporated. It may therefore be admitted as a possibility, that the electric fluid contained in the air may be the agent by which it is enabled to suspend the water which rises in vapour. If therefore the air be deprived of the due proportion of this fluid, it is evident that rain must fall in prodigious quantities.

Again, we are assured, from the most undeniable observations, that electricity is able to swell up water on the surface of the earth. This we can make it do even in our trifling experiments; and much more must the whole force of the fluid be supposed capable of doing it, if applied to the waters of the ocean, or to any others. The agitation of the sea in earthquakes is a sufficient proof of this. It is certain that at these times there is a discharge of a vast quantity of electric matter from the earth into the air; and that, as soon as this happens, all becomes quiet on the surface of the earth.

From a multitude of observations, it also appears that there is at all times a passage of electric matter from the atmosphere into the earth, and, vice versa, from the earth into the atmosphere. There is therefore no absurdity in supposing the Deity to have influenced the action of the natural powers in such a manner, that for forty days and forty nights the electric matter contained in the atmosphere should descend into the bowels of the earth: if indeed there be occasion for supposing any such immediate influence at all; since it is not impossible that there might have been, from some natural cause, a descent of this matter [7:7:702]from the atmosphere at that time. But by whatever cause the descent was occasioned, the consequence would be, the breaking open of the fountains of the deep, and the opening of the windows of heaven. The water contained in the atmosphere being left without support, would descend in impetuous rains; whilst the waters of the ocean, those from which fountains originate, and those contained in the solid earth itself, would rise from the very centre, and meet the waters which descended from above. Thus the breaking up of the fountains of the deep, and the opening of the windows of heaven, would accompany each other, as Moses tells us they actually did; for, according to him, both happened at the same time.

In this manner the flood would come on gradually, without that violence to the globe which Burnet, Whiston, and other theorists, are obliged to suppose. The abatement of the waters would ensue on the ascent of the electric fluid; the atmosphere would then absorb the water as formerly; that which had ascended through the earth would again subside; and thus every thing would return to its former state.

Having thus shown in what manner an universal deluge might have been produced by means of those natural agents with which we are at present acquainted, we shall next consider some of those remarkable geological facts which place it beyond a doubt, not only that that event did happen, but that the deluge was universal. It has long been a question, even before the commencement of geological researches, whether the deluge mentioned in Scripture was universal in reference to the whole surface of the globe, or only so with respect to that portion of it which was then inhabited by man. Vossius was of opinion, that in the days of Noah, mankind had not extended themselves beyond the borders of Syria and Mesopotamia; and no reason, says he, “obliges us to extend the inundation of the deluge beyond those bounds which were inhabited; yea, it is altogether absurd to aver that the effect of a punishment inflicted upon mankind only, should extend to those places where no man lived. Although we should therefore believe that part of the earth only to have been overflowed by the waters which we have mentioned, and which is not the hundredth part of the terrestrial globe, the deluge will nevertheless be universal oecumenical, since the destruction was universal, and overwhelmed the whole habitable world.”

If such an interpretation were admissible, there are two classes of phenomena in the configuration of the earth’s surface, which, according to Professor Lyell, might enable us to account for such an event; first, extensive lakes elevated above the level of the ocean; and, secondly, large tracts of dry land depressed below that level. “When there is an immense lake, having its surface, like Lake Superior, raised six hundred feet above the level of the sea, the waters may be suddenly let loose by the rending or sinking down of the barrier during earthquakes; and hereby a region as extensive as the valley of the Mississippi, inhabited by a population of several millions, might be deluged. On the other hand, there may be a country placed beneath the mean level of the ocean, as is the case with certain parts of Asia; and such a region must be entirely laid under water, should the tract which separates it from the ocean be fissured or depressed to a certain depth. The great cavity of Western Asia is 18,000 square leagues in area, and is occupied by a considerable population. The lowest parts, surrounding the Caspian Sea, are three hundred feet below the level of the Euxine; here, therefore, the diluvial waters might overflow the summits of hills rising three hundred feet above the level of the plain; and if depressions still more profound existed at any former time in Asia, the tops of still loftier mountains may have been covered by a flood.”

Pallas, and some of the geologists of his day, denied that the summits of the hills had been covered by the deluge; for, according to his hypothesis, the mass of water required to surmount, or even to cover them all round the globe could not be disposed of within the earth, even were its interior wholly made up of caverns. Had the deluge been of this partial and transient description, we should have been led to look for its effects only in certain situations; in those countries, in particular, which we know were inhabited by antediluvian mortals. Such, however, is not the fact; the distinct traces of its action being visible under innumerable circumstances, and in almost every country on the face of the globe. To what, we would ask, do those immense tracts of gravel and loam, so frequent in Prussia, Denmark, and other parts of the European continent, and in situations to which no torrents nor rivers now in action could ever have drifted them, owe their existence? Whence came those vast collections of fossil bones and other animal remains so common in Siberia, in Behring’s Strait, in the valley of the Arno in Tuscany, and in many districts of Germany and England? How were the beds of shells and other marine productions brought together in such profusion, and raised to elevations which the seabreeze never reached? By what means were those large erratic boulders so common among the sand in the north of Germany, and in numerous other places, removed from their original position, and conveyed sometimes hundreds of miles from any rock of a similar description?

Dr Buckland, in his Reliquiae Diluvianae, enumerates a great many English localities where remains of the elephant, rhinoceros, hyena, and the other larger animalshave been met with. In Scotland and Ireland they have also been occasionally found. At the village of Theide, near Brunswick, a congeries of tusks, teeth, and bones, were discovered in 1816, some of the former upwards of fourteen feet in length. Within the last ten years, parts of the skeletons of at least a hundred hippopotami have been discovered in the valley of the Arno, and placed in the museum of Florence, along with numerous remains of the rhinoceros and elephant, horse, ox, several species of deer, hyena, bear, wolf, dog, tiger, tapir, hog, beaver, mastodon, and fox. Over the frozen regions of Russia and Siberia their dispersion is also nearly universal. There is not, says Pallas, in all Asiatic Russia, from the Don to the extremity of the promontory of Tchutchis, a stream or river in the banks of which are not to be found the remains of elephants and other animals, now strangers to that climate. These are washed out by the violent floods arising from the thaw of the snows, and have attracted universally the attention of the natives, who collect annually the elephants’ tusks, in order to sell them as ivory. Humboldt has also noticed them in the plains of Mexicoand in the province of Quito. How is it possible, says Buckland, to explain the general dispersion of all these remains, but by admitting that the elephants, as well as all the other creatures whose bones are buried with them, were the antediluvian inhabitants of the extensive tracts of country over which we have been tracing them, and that they were all destroyed together by the waters of the same inundation which produced the deposits of loam and gravel in which they are imbedded.

• The diluvium of geologists is the name applied to those deposits of loam and gravel which were formed by the flood, in order to distinguish them from those which are in daily and gradual progress, and commonly called alluvium. The origin of the alluvial formations may be referred to the action of torrents, rivers, and lakes, whilst to the production of the diluvial deposits no cause at present in [7:7:703]action is adequate; and they can therefore only be referred to the waters of a sudden and transient deluge.

Immense deposits of diluvium have taken place in Holland, Denmark, Holstein, Pomerania, and along the southern shores of the Baltic. The whole coast, from the Thames to the Tweed, consists of such deposits, being composed principally of a tough bluish clay, through which are dispersed irregularly pebbles of different sizes, and containing almost every description of rock. Much gravel is accumulated in the midland counties of England, composed of the wreck of rocks of the most distant ages, and which exist in their native state only in remote quarters of the island.

The immense boulders, or erratic blocks as they are termed by geologists, which are met with in many parts of Europe, frequently at the distance of several hundred miles from any similar rocks existing insitu, afford evidences of a stream having overflowed it, capable of overwhelming and disregarding objects, and by which the Nile or the Ganges would have been turned out of their course. In Great Britain we have instances of this in almost every county. Professor Sedgwick, for instance, has remarked, that the blocks of shap granite, which cannot be confounded with other rocks in the north of England, are not only drifted over the hills near Appleby, but have been rolled over the great central chain of England into the plains of Yorkshire—imbedded into the transported detritus of the Tees, and even carried to the eastern coast. Blocks of granite and syenite of a very peculiar character have been drifted from the Criffle Hill, in Galloway, across the Solway Frith, to the base of the mountains in Cumberland. Large blocks of another kind of granite have been transported in still greater numbers from Ravenglass, on the coast of Cumberland, over the plains of Lancashire, Cheshire, and Staffordshire, and may be observed in masses of some tons weight to the west of the towns of Macclesfield and Stafford, and between Dudley and Bridgenorth. Numerous examples of a similar description might be cited; but the most remarkable circumstance attending these erratic blocks is, that they do not occur promiscuously throughout the country, but invariably to the southward of the rock whence they have been derived. From this it would appear, and indeed it is now pretty generally admitted by geologists, that the direction of the great flood was, in this part of the world at least, from north to south. The boulders on the east coast of England have, according to Mr Philips, been derived both from Norway and from Scotland; and Dr Hibbert mentions boulders three or four feet in height on the northern coasts of Shetland, which do not correspond with any known rock of the country, and were probably derived from the northward. If the supposition that a mass of waters passed over Britain be founded on probability, the evidences of such a passage should be found in the neighbouring continent of Europe, and the general direction of the transported substances should be the same. Now this is precisely what is found to be the case. In Sweden and Russia large blocks of rock occur in great numbers, and no doubt can be entertained that they have been transported from the north. In Sweden the transported materials were observed by Brogniart to run in lines, sometimes inosculating, but having a general direction from north to south. Between Petersburg and Moscow the erratic blocks arc very numerous, and consist of Scandinavian rocks. In some places, especially in Esthonia, these blocks appear at greater or less intervals, apparently owing to the form of the land at the time of their transport: for they occur where escarpments presented themselves; whilst, in places where the land sloped away, or became more or less horizontal, they disappear, thus seeming to show that the steep escarpments caught them in their passage.^[1. De la Beche’s Geological Manual. ] In Eastern Prussia, and in that part of Poland situated between the Vistula and the Niemen, the granite blocks are abundant, and consist of the same varieties as those found in Finland; and thence westward over the whole of the north of Germany, we find boulders whose origin is unequivocally Scandinavian. Thus the hornblende blocks are from Southern and Western Finland; the quartzose blocks are exactly the same as the rocks named fjall Sandstein between Sweden and Norway; the porphyritic blocks are of the same mineralogical character as the porphyries of Elfdal in Sweden; and some of the granites contain even particles of orthite, a mineral which has never been noticed anywhere except near Stockholm and in the eastern district of the northern peninsula.

The same thing has been frequently observed in America; and there also these erratic blocks must have been rolled from the northward. Between Lake Erie and Lake Huron the woods are strewed with masses of gneiss, porphyry, conglomerate, and greenstone; and the summits of some of the highest hills in Nova Scotia, which are composed of slate, are also strewed with large boulders of granite.

The hypothesis derived from the foregoing facts is further strengthened by the furrows and other marks on the surface of many rocks, which have apparently been produced by the attrition of heavy bodies, set in motion by a great force of water in rapid movement. This phenomenon was first noticed by Sir James Hall, whose elaborate paper on “The Revolutions of the Earth’s Surface,” published in the Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, has thrown more light upon this most difficult subject than all the theories that were ever produced. It is well known that the masses of rock carried down by a torrent exhibit traces of that passage by scratches and abrasions of various sorts upon such smooth surfaces as they may have encountered by the way, and on which they could not fail to act as grinders. Such appearances are exhibited on a large scale in many parts of the world; the surfaces of the rocks, to use the words of Sir James Hall, “frequently resembling that of a wet road, along which a number of heavy and irregular bodies have been recently dragged; indicating that every block that passed, and every one of its corners, had left its trace behind it.” In many cases these furrows or scratches have been so deep, and are scooped out on the surface of such hard rocks, as to have resisted all the effects of the weather, and are seen in situations that have been always exposed, sometimes many yards in length. The most remarkable fact, however, is, that these furrows are, with few exceptions, parallel; that they run in one direction across a country; and that, in conformity with what we might be led to expect from the foregoing remarks, the direction is generally from north to south. “Occasionally,” observes Sir James Hall, “single scratches, and parallel sets of them, deviate by five or six degrees from the general direction; but the important circumstance is, that such deviation is rare, the very great majority of both sets agreeing in parallelism with each other, and with the general direction, not only of the scoops and grooves of the rock upon which they occur, but also of the ridges and large features of the district.”

Sir James Hall’s observations, as illustrated in the paper already mentioned, were made in the vicinity of Edinburgh; and from the direction of the scratches on the surface of Corstorphine Hill, united with other remarkable [7:7:704]appearances in the form of the surrounding country, particularly in and around Edinburgh, the lengthened ridges on the eastern side of the Castle Hill, Arthur Seat, and Craigléith, he was induced to suppose (what indeed there is no reason to disbelieve) that the general direction of the great torrent was in these districts from west to east. This, however, arose probably from local circumstances; because, except in this part of the world, we are not aware of any similar indications opposed to the facts already stated. Generally speaking, indeed, they are strongly conclusive; for even in the adjoining counties of Stirling and Berwickshire, the current appears to have flowed from the north-west. In Norway and Sweden, again, these grooves on the bare surface of the gneiss are frequently half an inch deep, maybe traced for many hundred yards, and, with the exception of some slight variations arising from the slope of the mountains, always appear in a direction from north to south.

Another striking proof which these countries afford, is the long ridges or mounds of sand which extend throughout them for many miles from north to south. These vary much in breadth and in height, sometimes rising from forty to sixty feet above the level of the surrounding plain, at others disappearing for a time entirely; frequently covering many acres, sometimes united with the adjoining fields; here dividing a small lake, like an artificial mound, there forming a promontory jutting out from the side of a large one. These ridges are particularly marked in the southern portion of Sweden, where they intersect the provinces of] Wasteraes, Wermeland, Orebro, and Upland, in almost uninterrupted lines from their northern to their southern extremities.

In fact, to use the characteristic language of Mr Weaver, “it seems impossible to consider the form of any large portion of the surface of the earth, or to reflect even upon the nature and disposition of its alluvial tracts, without recognising the powerful agency of an agitated fluid in a state of retrocession. The abrupt and curved outlines, the fractured sinuosities of glens, defiles, and valleys, the salient and re-entering angles, the plains—all betray its course and moulding force. To ascribe such appearances to a gradual degradation produced by the influence of the atmosphere, and the current of streams, seems to be assuming causes wholly inadequate to produce such effects.” But in whatever way the crust of our globe had been formed, or how numerous may have been the agents made use of in producing it-—whether its existence be due to Neptunian or Plutonian action, or to agencies yet undiscovered and unknown—is for the Almighty Being who formed it to decide. All that we know is, that every diluvial fact concurs in denoting one inundation, which overwhelmed the solid mass of the globe; and unless we admit that that inundation was not only universal, but that it was the last catastrophe to which the earth has been exposed, it is impossible to explain those phenomena which have been already ascertained.