subsequent revolutions of nature may have separated countries formerly united, these countries being peopled at the time. Secondly; that the inexperienced and unskilful navigators of ancient days, would be particularly liable to be driven from their course and conveyed to distant and unknown countries, whence they would find it impossible to return to their native land. Uncivilized: tribes of both early and later times, which dwell near the coasts of the sea, and subsist chiefly by fishing, would not unfrequently lose some of their number, by the accidents which occur in such situations and pursuits. Among such as might, from time to time, be driven from the coast by sudden storms, a few would be so fortunate as to escape the dangers of the sea, and be drifted to other shores. In this way, the islands scattered over the Pacific, and others similarly situated, may have been peopled.

Again: it has been objected that many species of beasts, birds, and reptiles, have been discovered on the continents of America, which are totally unknown to the ancient world; and, therefore, that the story of the ark, as the means of preserving some of each species of animals, must be a fable. With respect to such as are not now found in the neighbourhood, wherein the ark is supposed to have rested, after the flood; it may be observed, first; that these species of animals may have formerly existed in the countries of the old world, but have, from various causes, become extinct therein. Secondly; that the varieties remarked in several orders of animal life, so as to cause cer

tain of them to be classified as distinct species, may have been produced by an exposure to circumstances widely differing in their effects upon the nature of animals, and not by any distinctive properties originally bestowed. Many examples of the changes operated in animals, by exposing them to the influence of circumstances, differing from those in which they had been originally placed, might be adduced, in illustration of these remarks. For instance, crocodiles are found in one of the rivers on the sea-coast of what was the ancient Phoenicia. It is supposed that they were originally conveyed thither by a colony of Egyptians, who, as it is well known, worshiped that animal. They have so degenerated, in many striking particulars, as to appear almost a distinct species from that which infests the Nile. The beasts of prey, and other wild animals, which are common to the continents of Asia, Africa, and America, are very inferior in size and strength in the latter portion of the globe, to what they are in the two former. This difference has, no doubt, been produced by some of the causes already enumerated. But even if it could be proved, that the continents of America contain races of animals totally different from any of those in the ancient world, and, moreover, that they had never existed in the ancient world since the flood, still, this would not warrant the sweeping objections of infidelity. The continent of South America, in particular, possesses peculiarities in its geological structure, which favour the idea of the existence therein of animals of different species from those of the

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other parts of the world. Nor do these circumstances at all affect the credit either of Noah or of Moses. Noah transmitted to posterity the relation of such facts as he witnessed. These facts, coming down in the traditionary form, were collected and preserved by Moses, in the history of which he was the author. I shall not endeavour to obviate the difficulties which present themselves, by pleading that these traditions may have undergone some alteration in their descent, although the acknowledged liability of traditional accounts to change in their passage from one generation to another, might authorize me to have recourse to it; but I prefer meeting the objection in another manner. If we refers to the history, we find it said, that, The waters prevailed fifteen cubits upwards, and the mountains were covered. All the researches of geologists tend to confirm this statement. Mount Ararat, on which the ark is said to have rested after the subsidence of the waters, is the highest land in that part of Asia. All the mountains," which could have come under the observation of Noah must have been covered; as well, in fact, as all the land in the world, up to, and even above, the height now usually inhabited. But the Andes of South America are much more elevated than the measure assigned by Noah for the rising of the waters. The height of Ararat is less than ten thousand feet above the natural level of the sea; and, provided that mountain were covered with water to the depth described by Noah, the summits of the Andes, would tower above the flood, upwards of nine thousand feet. The same may

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be said of some high land in Africain Hindoostan -and of the highest of the Alps. Every living thing, therefore, in the neighbourhood of these elevated situations, that possessed the means of escape, would flee thither for safety: and though, in the present state of the world, such situations are utterly unprovided with the means of preserving life, yet it is probable that the case was very different before the catastrophe of the flood, which, doubtless, produced a great change in the climate, and in the capabilities of production, of all parts of the earth, and caused these elevated regions to become the barren and desolate places they are in the present day. It is not unreasonable to suppose, therefore, that many human beings, besides those saved in the ark, escaped the destruction brought by the flood; and, as it respects South America, that many species of animals, unknown to the other parts of the world, should have been preserved. Still the destruction was complete, as far as it fell under the observation of Noah, and tradition, descending to the time of Moses, would authorize him to say, that every living thing died.

This is, as it seems to me, a fair statement and explanation of a difficulty, of which, the unbe liever has made much more than the circumstances of the case would warrant.

Again; the Mosaical account of the deluge of its lamentable effects in the destruction of hu man life, and of the time of its occurrence, is rendered credible, if not fully confirmed, by several remarkable circumstances. Dr. Hartley has enumerated the following. First, we find

from pagan authors, that the tradition of a flood was general,boroeven universal. Secondly, the paucity of mankind, and the vast tracts of uninhabited land, which are mentioned in the accounts of the first ages, show that mankind are lately sprung from a small stock, and sevens suit the time assigned by Moses for the flood. Thirdly, the great number of small kingdoms, and petty states in the first ages, and the late rise of the great empires of Egypt, Assyria, and Babylon, concur to the same purpose. Fourthly, the invention and progress of arts and sciences concur likewise. And this last favours the Mosaical his tory of the antediluvians For, as he mentions little of their arts, so it appears from the late invention of them after the flood, that those who were preserved from it were possessed of few.

But it has been objected to the Mosaical account of the flood and its attendant circumstances, that there is no evidence of the existence of man upon the earth at the time of its occurence, inasmuch as no remains of an antediluvian. race of men have been discovered, Hence it has been further contended that the deluge is of a much earlier date, perhaps, ages before the human race existed; and that, therefore, the relation of the destruction of human life, together with the history of events, said to have happened previous to this catastrophe, is a fable and a delusion.

I have not paid such attention to the opinions of geologists, as to be enabled to state, with certainty,i what they allege concerning the great convulsions of nature which destroyed a former world; and,