would be Florus's Res unius ætatis, Populus Virorum; they would have dropped off by Degrees, and left no Breed behind them. So that you must have Recourfe to fome Female Navigators to make good your Opinion, which, being a Thing fo very unufual, makes it altogether incredible. And then again in the fecond Place, I cannot imagine, how America fhould be ftocked with Beasts and other Animals, having no Communication with the rest of the World. I fuppofe, you will not make Foxes, and Lions, and Dogs, and Hares, and the reft of the Quadrupeds, turn Navigators too, and fend out their Colonies from thefe Parts of the World. Or if you say the first Planters of America brought them over with them, this might pafs well enough with us, as to the useful Animals, and thofe proper for Food; but Lions and Bears, methinks, fhculd be the laft Thing Men fhould carry on Shipboard with them; for truly they do not feem to be fuch good-natured Creatures, that Men fhould be fo in Love with them, as to endeavour to increase their Breed. How should Men ever come to carry over fuch noxious Creatures, as Lions and Tigres, and yet omit fuch useful ones as Horfes and Sheep? Nay, how should several whole Species of Animals, all run into America; for there are feveral Sorts of Creatures there, which are to be found in no Part of the World befides. Pray get over this, Credentius, and then we may poffibly allow America to be peopled from this Part of the World.

Cred. When there are demonftrative Arguments for any Thing, it is not every Difficulty fhould make us disbelieve it; for we fee every Day Things come to pafs, which we cannot affign a Reafon for. Though we fhould not be able to give an Account, how Women and Quadrupeds were tranfplanted there; yet the Certainty we have of their Defcent from thefe Parts of the World, by the Arts and Cuftoms they enjoy in common with us, are fufficient Motives to incline us to believe that its firft Inhabitants came from these Parts, But, however, thefe Difficulties which you have ftarted, are not fo unanfwerable as you would pretend. For

as

as for the Strangenefs of carrying Women on Ship-board, I think that may be eafily accounted for, if we allow that the Ancients made any Voyages to America, as fome pretend; for then the Phoenicians, or others, might carry over Women thither, as well as we do now-a-days to our Plantations there. Or if we affert that Chance brought the first Inhabitants thither, as it did Alphonfo Sanctio, who firft informed Columbus of America; there might be probably Women on Board fuch a Veffel; for in thofe early Ages of the World, the Women were more masculine and robuft, and lefs bred up to Delicatenefs; they frequently attended their Husbands in warlike Expeditions, and in other Actions of Difficulty and Danger. Nay, 'tis ufual still among the * Americans, to have their Wives follow them into the Camp, and to carry their Provifions for them. So that it is nothing improbable, to think, that the firft Veffel which came to America, had in it Perfons of both Sexes. But the greateft Difficulty is about the Tranfportation of the Animals; especially thofe of the wild Kind, and fuch as are not to be found in thefe Parts. As for Lions and Bears, I do not think they were brought over in Ships; they probably got thither by the way of Greenland, where the Paffage is but narrow; and 'tis incredible to think, how far fuch Creatures will fwim; for Travellers tell us, they have seen Bears, &c. fwim nine or ten Leagues together. As for the Fowls, Obfervations of Navigators tell, what vaft Tracts of Sea they can fly over, by their difcovering them over their Heads, in the midst of the Ocean; which is done without any Difficulty, and with prodigious Swiftnefs, by thofe Birds, that fly fo high, as to get out of the vehement Attraction of the Earth, and can push on without the Renitency of the groffer Atmofphere. Others of their Animals are amphibious, fuch as the Morfb, a great Sort of deformed Sea-calf, and the Tatu or + Armadillo, a fcaly Animal about the Bignefs of a Pig; as also many others of the ferpentine Kind,

Ant, Knivet, Relat. † Vid. Laet. Hift. Amer. Lib. 15. Cap. 6.

the

.R. P.32.

the Boytiopua, Giboja, Ibiboboca, &c. And thefe, without Doubt, might eafily enough have been preserved in the Waters of the Flood. The greatest Difficulty is about fuch terreftrial Animals, as are to be found in no other Part of the World befides; how they thould efcape being destroyed in the Deluge; or if they were deftroyed, how the Breed came to be reftored, when this Part of the World had no Animals like them. To obviate this Objection, fome have afferted Noah's Deluge to be only topical, and as far as the World was inhabited; but thofe Beds of Shells, petrefied Bones of Fish, &c. found in America, are undeniable Arguments of the Univerfality of it. Therefore, one of thefe two Things must be afferted, either that God Almighty, after the Noaichal Defuge, created a-new the Creatures in America; or elfe that he preferved them in an extraordinary Manner, as he did thofe in this Part of the World in Noah's Ark. And if I were left to my felf, I fhould think this latter was the Way which God took; and this fairly anfwers all the Difficulties which arife upon any other Suppofition, and feems agreeable to the divine Practice in other Matters.

But, however, if we cannot be fo fanciful as to beHeve this; yet it is not incredible to think, how variously Creatures may be altered be altered by being transplanted to different Climates, and by Commixtures of the fame or ana logous Species: Of which the innumerous Kinds of Dogs are a remarkable Inftance. And how great a Difference the Alteration of the Climate will create, may be judged, from the Opinion of those who affert, that the fame Crocodile of Egypt is the Lizzard in Italy, and the Eff in our Country.

Phil. There is, I confefs, Credentius, fomething of Probability in this; but can you fay as much for the Formation of Eve out of her Husband's Side? I have nothing to fay to the Creation of Animals; for I do not obferve any Abfurdity in Mofes's Account of them. But methinks, this making of Womankind out of a Rib, outdoes by many Degrees the poetical Fables of Pyrrha, and

Cadmus.

Cadmus. I proteft, this is the oddeft Piece of Matter to make a Woman of, which could be thought on. But to let this pafs: Had Adam more Ribs than other People or no? If you fay no, then to be fure he wanted a a Rib of one Side or other; then we had a maimed Progenitor, a very fad Sample for the archetypal Man. If you fay, he had a Rib to fpare, this would have made a Monster of the glorious Adam; for it would have been as prodigious, as three Hands, or four Eyes. But though I could fwallow all this, yet I can never beat it into my Head, how a Woman's Body could be made of a little Rib, which does not equal the hundredth, or perhaps the thousandth Part of it. To fay that Bulk was fupplied by borrowed Matter, will not much avail; for then Eve had more truly been faid to have been made out of that larger Portion of borrowed Matter, whatever it was, than out of the Rib. Come, Credentius, fet your Shoulders to this Difficulty.

Cred. Indeed, Sir, I think, I need hardly fet my Fin- No Abfurger to it. For we need not fo much as grant you, that dity that Eve should the original Word, which we tranflate Rib, does fignify be made of fo there; for it generally fignifies a Side, and the Septua a Rib. gint tranflate it in this place by the Greek Word Re which fignifies fo, and fo in most other Places; but never render it by any Word which denotes a Rib. So that, if this Oddnefs of the Rib fticks fo much with you, you may render it Side; fo that God formed the Woman out of one of the Sides of Adam, or of both the Sides, which the Original may imply. That is, God took fome Part of the Substance of Adam's Body about his Side, he clofed up the Orifice again, and out of this Substance he formed Eve. Or if the meaning be, that he took the Rib with the Flefh, I do not fee how that mars the Matter: For if it was the Will of God, to form the Woman out of Man; for my Part I do not fee, how in all the whole Body he could take it from a more proper place. If God defigned any myftical Meaning by it, it is the propereft. To have formed her, like Minerva of the Poets, out of the Head, would have en

tituled

tituled her to a Superiority, which God did not intend ; to have made her from any inferiour, or more difhonourable Part, would not have agreed with their Equality, and Partnership which she was allotted for. I doubt not, but if Mankind should propagate, as the Religio Medici would have them, like Trees, and if Mofes had related the Production of the first Woman in the ordinary way of Generation now; you Theiftical Wits would have expofed it, as being altogether as ridiculous as the Rib: For that Oddnefs, which you laugh at, is only the Unusualness of it, which if it were more common, would look natural enough. So again, for my Part, I do not fee, how that if Adam had wanted a Rib after this Formation, he would have been fuch a maimed Creature as you would make him, for why might not God have fupplied him with another, having taken this from him? Neither can I apprehend him to have been fuch a three-handed Monfter, although he fhould have had this Rib fuperfluous in him. For, to ufe Thomas Aquinas's Comparison, this Rib was like the Seed of Animals and Vegetables, fuperfluous for the Perfection of the Individuum, but neceffary for the Generation of the Off-fpring. The Rib was fuperflubus to Adam, as a private Perfon; but neceffary, as the Origin from which the Woman, and all Mankind, was to be produced. As for the Abfurdity you would infer, from the Smallness of the Quantity of Matter in a Rib, to make a Woman of; if you will be pleased to think but of an Acorn, or a Muftard-feed, you will never ufe that Argument more.

Phil. But fuppofing, Credentius, we grant you all you require, as to the fupernatural Formation of this Couple; yet methinks it does not appear from your Mofaical Hiftory, that these two were the primogenial Parents of the whole World. I am rather apt to think they were but only the first of the Holy Race forfooth, the original Pa→ rents of the Jews, who could not deign to proceed from that Stock which the common Herd of Mankind came from; and therefore they must have an Origin more immediately from the Deity, to imprint a more peculiar. Character