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in a different state from the earth before the deluge, and saw a vast variety of things without precedent in the old world, the alterations in nature and diet, must introduce a multitude of new terms in things of common experience and usage; as, after that amazing revolution in the natural world, not only the clouds and meteors were different, and the souls that were saved had a new and astonishing view of the ruin and repair of the system; but Noah did then begin to be an husbandman; he planted a vineyard; he invented wine; and to him the first grant was given of eating flesh. All these things required as it were a new language, and the terms with mankind encreased. The Noahical language must be quite another thing after the great events of the flood. Had Methuselah, who conversed many years with Adam; who received from his mouth the history of the creation and fall, and who lived six hundred years with Noah, to communicate to him all the knowledge he got from Adam; had this antediluvian wise man been raised from the dead to converse with the post-diluvian fathers, or even with Noah, the year he died, that is three hundred and fifty years after the flood; is it not credible from what I have said, that he would have heard a language very different from that tongue he used in his conversations with Adam, even in the nine hundred

*

and thirtieth year of the first man? I imagine, Methuselah would not have been able to have talked

* The extraordinary longevity of the ante-diluvians is accounted utterly incredible by many moderns; but it did not appear so unnatural to the early ages of Paganism. Let no one, says Josephus, upon comparing the lives of the antients with our lives, and with the few years which we now live, think that what we have said of them is false. I have for witness to what I have said, all those who have written antiquities, both among the Greeks and Barbarians. For even Manetho, who wrote the Egyptian History; and Berosus, who collected the Chaldean Monuments; and Mochus and Hostiæus ; and besides these, Hieronymus the Egyptian, and those who composed the Phænician history, agree to what I here say. Hesiod also, and Hecutæus, and Hallanicus, and Acusilaus ; and besides these, Ephorus and Nicolaus of Damascus, relate that the ancients lived a thousand years.

The antient Latin authors likewise confirm the sacred history in this branch: and Varro, in particular, made an enquiry, What the reason was that the antients lived a thousand years?

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[The author had here promised a continuation of this note in the Appendix," but it may be proper to notice, that the first volume of this work was printed in 1756, and the second, to which the Appendix was to have been added, did not make its appearance till 1766, and then without the promised addition. What the Ap

with Noah, at the time I have mentioned, of the circumstances that then made the case of mankind, and of the things of common experience and usage. He must have been unable to converse at his first appearance?"

"What you say, Madam," I replied, " is not only very probable, but affords a satisfaction unexpected in a subject on which we are obliged, for want of data, to use conjectures. I yield to your superior sense the notion, that the Scriptures were written in the language of Paradise. Most certain it is, that even in respect of our own language, for example, the subjects of Henry I., would find it as much out of their power to understand the English of George the First's reign, were they brought up again, as the ordinary people of our time are at a loss to make any thing of the English, written in the first Henry's reign. But when I have granted this, you will be pleased to inform me, how Abraham and his sons conversed and commerced with the nations, if the Hebrew was not the universal lan

pendix was intended to comprise will be found more fully noticed in the introductory portion to this volume. The materiel connected with the dispersion at Babel, was derived by the author, from Blomberg's Life of Edmund Dickinson, M.D. 1739. 8vo. of which subsequent notice will be made. ED.]

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guage in their time? If the miracle at Babel was a confusion of tongues, as is generally supposed, how did the holy family talk and act with such distant king's and people? Illuminate me, thou glorious girl, in this dark article, and be my teacher in Hebrew learning, as I flatter myself you will be the guide and dirigent of all my notions and my days. Yes, charming HARRIOT, my fate is in your hands. Dispose of it as you will, and make me what you please."

"You force me to smile," the illustrious Miss NOEL replied, "and oblige me to call you an odd compound of a man. Pray, Sir, let me have no more of those romantic flights, and I will answer your question as well as I can; but it must be at some other time. There is more to be said on the miracle at Babel, and its effects, than I could dispatch between this and our hour of dining, and therefore, the remainder of our leisure till dinner, we will pass in a visit to my grotto, and in walking round the garden to the parlour we came from." To the grotto then we went, and to the best of my power I will give my reader a description of this splendid room.

In one of the fine rotundas I have mentioned, at one end of the green amphitheatre very lately described, the shining apartment was formed. Miss

NOEL'S hand had covered the floor with the most beautiful mosaic my eyes have ever beheld, and filled the arched roof with the richest fossil gems. The mosaic painting on the ground was wrought with small coloured stones or pebbles, and sharp pointed bits of glass, measured and proportioned together, so as to imitate in their assemblage the strokes and colour of the objects, which they were intended to represent, and they represented by this lady's art, the Temple of Tranquillity, described by Volusenus in his dream.

At some distance the fine temple looks like a beautiful painted picture, as do the birds, the beasts, the trees in the fields about it, and the river which murmurs at the bottom of the rising ground; 'Amnis lucidus et vadosus in quo cernere erat verii generis pisces colludere.' So wonderfully did this genius perform the piece, that fishes of many kinds seem to take their pastime in the bright stream. But above all, is the image of the philosopher, at the entrance of the temple, vastly fine. With pebbles and scraps of glass, all the beauties and graces are expressed, which the pencil of an able artist could bestow on the picture of Democritus. You see him as Diogenes Laertius has drawn him, with a philosophical joy in his countenance, that shews him superior to all events. Summum bonorum finem

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