often filled, as they naturally would be, with the superincum-body of the work, by the ignorance of a subsequent tranbent gravel under which it is found. But the animal remains scriber, as has also occurred in some other parts of the Sacred are of the very same description in the gypsum at both places, Writings.

and the bones are in the same state of decay or preservation. In support of this opinion, he shows, on the authority of We, therefore, have a right to conclude, that as the Paris the most learned critics, both ancient and modern, that copies gypsum was a diluvial formation, the bones, contained in it, of the Hebrew Scriptures formerly existed, which exhibited could be no other than those of antediluvian animals. We variations, arising from marginal glosses and insertions, must judge of the Köstritz gypsum by the very same law; originally designed as illustrations of the text, but which there can, therefore, be no hesitation in considering the hu-illustrative glosses had become, in some instances, incorman bones of those quarries, as well as those of the domestic porated into the text in subsequent copies. cock, and the rhinoceros which accompany them, as indisputa- One remarkable example, given by this able writer, of an ble remains of the ancient world. The nature of all lime-stone incorporated gloss in the New Testament, and which is not so cavities appears to be nearly the same in all countries. We generally known as it deserves to be, is well adapted to hear of the bones of elephants in New Holland,* as well as in show the nature of similar incorporations, and of the serious America, and in Europe, contained in similar caverns; and as mischief to which they invariably lead; for truth is, in all we know of no other calamity so destructive as the Mosaic instances, so consistent and simple, that any deviation from deluge, either from history, tradition, or animal remains, we the plain tenor of its course, must, generally, excite observamust conclude that every LAND production, (together with such tion, as the following remarkable instance has frequently marine shells as often accompany them,) when found in our done. This example is found in the remnant of a very rocks and soils, is attributable to the action of the Mosaic de-fancient Greek MS. of the New Testament, in the Royal luge, and to that period alone.

CHAPTER XIV.

On the Situation of Paradise; together with both Critical and
Geological Evidences of the spurious Character of that de-
scriptive account of it, found in all Modern Copies and
Translations of the Book of Genesis.

Library at Paris, entitled the Codex Ephremi, which has been pronounced, by Wetstein, to be of the same date as the celebrated Alexandrian MS. In this work, the first five verses of the 5th chapter of St. John's Gospel are thus read:

For an angel After this, there was a feast of the
went down at a cer- Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusa-
tain season into the lem. Now there is at Jerusalem,
bath, and troubled by the sheep-market, a bath, which

the waters: whoso is called in the Hebrew tongue Be
ever, then, after the thesda, having five porches; in these)
troubling of the wa- lay a great number of impotent folk,
ters, first stepped in, of blind, halt, withered; and a cer-
was made whole of tain man was there, which had an Waiting for the
whatsoever disease infirmity thirty and eight years. troubling of the
he had.
When Jesus saw him, &c.

waters.

As the chief object of this treatise has been to show, from the evidence of history, corroborated by physical facts, "In the MS. in question," says Mr. Penn, "the text, and that the greater part of the present dry lands of the earth the marginal sentences, though both are in the same uncial formed the bed of the antediluvian sea, and that the former character, are written by different hands; and it is evident, lands were utterly destroyed at the period of the deluge, from the language, and from an itacism, perceptible in the "the earth, that now is," being thus distinct from "the earth, latter, that they are of a date posterior to the former. It is that then was," a question respecting the situation of the equally manifest, that they were marginal notes, annexed Paradise in which our first parents were placed by their with the design of illustrating the popular superstition, Creator, has probably arisen in the mind of every one; and under which the infirm man was waiting at the bath: but, at but for the interruption to the general course of the subject the same time, they adopt the superstition, and aver it to be which this question must have given rise to, it should un-true. The original text was free from that blemish; and the doubtedly have been considered at an earlier period of this simplicity and close sequence of the recital, bear internal work; as there is, perhaps, no part of the Old Testament, as evidence that these marginal passages are alien to it. The found in our translations, which has been so fruitful a source superstitious clause, therefore, does not pertain to the evanof error and misconception, as the descriptive account of the gelical historian, but has become incorporated into his history rivers of Paradise. These rivers are described as being four in the progress of transcription."*

in number, of which the only one at present known is the Although the passage we are now to consider in the second Euphrates. The names of the other rivers, and the extra-chapter of Genesis, in which the descriptive account of the situation of Paradise is found, has not the advantage of so ordinary and inconsistent geographical account of their supposed courses, have long been a source of anxious critical clear and distinct an evidence of its spurious character, as inquiry, as well as of local research: for almost all travellers that of St. John above mentioned, yet there does appear, in who have visited the East, and had an opportunity of becom-the narration itself, the strongest internal evidace of the ing acquainted with the course of the Euphrates, have 11th, 12th, 13th, and 14th verses of that chapter, having anxiously sought for the situation of Paradise; and have, been, subsequently, inserted into the original text, in a maninvariably, been obliged to relinquish the subject, from the ner precisely similar, from a marginal note, intended, by utter impossibility of applying the description, in the slight-When we add to this internal critical evidence, the remarksome ignorant transcriber, as an illustration of the subject. est degree, to any part of the course of that noble river.

Mr. Granville Penn, in his "Comparative Estimate of the able geological proofs of the correctness of this view of the Mineral and Mosaical Geologies," has entered, at consider- subject, the mind becomes fully confirmed in this opinion; able length, and with his usual ability, into a critical and this, the only part of the Inspired Writings which stood examination of this subject; and has most clearly shown in contradiction to the geology exhibited in the rest, becomes the high probability, amounting almost to certainty, of the at once both consistent and clear.

descriptive part of the Garden of Eden, as found in all modern It appears, therefore, nearly certain, that the text and gloss translations of the original text, having been originally originally stood thus, as Mr. Penn has most ably shown:annexed, as an explanatory note, to the margin of an early MS. and having been, subsequently, incorporated into the

Now the Lord God had planted a garden in Eden from the first; and there He put the man whom He had formed; and out of the ground the Specimens of fossil bones and wood were sent home by Mr. Lord God had made to grow every Crawford from the district of Ava, in latitude 21 degrees north. *The name of the tree that is pleasant to the sight and Amongst these bones were found those of two new species of the first is Pison: that good for food: the tree of life, also, is Gishon: the same mastodon, together with the bones of the hippopotamus, rhinoceros, seth the whole land tree of knowledge of good and evil. seth the whole land is it which compas- in the midst of the garden, and the is it that encompasantelope, deer, the ox, the hog, the tortoise, and the alligator. of Havilah, where And a river went out of Eden, for of Ethiopia: and the From the instances, few as they are, with which we are already ac- there is gold; and (or after) watering the garden, but name of the third is quainted, of such fossil deposits, in tropical, as well as in temperate the gold of that land thence (above) it was parted, and Hiddekel: that is and polar regions, we can have no doubt of the general and indis-is good; and there divided into four heads (or sources). it which goeth in is bdellium, and the And the Lord God took the man, and front of Assyria; criminate dispersion of animal bodies over every region of the earth; onyx stone: and the put him into the garden of Eden, to and the fourth riv. and that if the wants of man, in Asia, aud in Africa, required such name of the second dress it, and to keep it, &c. &c. ler is Euphrates. extensive operations under the surface of the ground, as have brought to light so many fossil treasures in Europe, and in America, we should often there discover the remains of animals as unnatural to hot climates, as the elephant and alligator are to cold ones. +2d Epistle of Peter, iii. 6.

*

"That the illustration, intended by the gloss, is unskilful,

* Comp. Estim. vol. ii. p. 233.

and does not answer to the text, is manifest; for the text world. It still preserves its ancient name, with little corrupmentions only one river, whereas, the gloss undertakes to tion, being called by them Shat-el-Fraat, or the River of describe four rivers. Fraat. It is known, also, as one of the four rivers of Paradise;

"Michaelis shows, that the original word, translated and the only one, seemingly, which has preserved its name. The heads, denotes sources, in the Syriac and Arabic languages; river Gihon, which is mentioned, also, in the Koran, was and he expressly states, that it never signifies the branches of thought, by an Indian pilgrim of our party, to be the Gunga a river in the Oriental tongues. Thus, the final confluence of the Hindoos; and the rest assented to its being in the innerof four contributary streams, from the four sources or heads, most India. It is true, that it is said to compass the whole to which the historian traces them in Eden, produced one land of Ethiopia; but Herodotus speaks of Indian Ethiopians river, discharging itself out of Eden, of which he speaks; in his time; and, among early writers, the word Ethiopia was which four heads, therefore, can have no relation to the four applied to the country of the black people generally." rivers recited by the scholiast in the gloss; because, no river We have here another instance of the error and inconsistseparates itself into different rivers downwards; on the con-ency which is evident in the descriptive clause respecting trary, it is the nature of all rivers to grow by confluence." the rivers of Paradise. The whole geography of the EuMr. Granville Penn proceeds thus:-Most certainly," phrates is now well known, and that it runs into the Persian observes Kennicott, "the closest attention should be paid, in Gulf, after being, like all other rivers, enlarged by many biblical investigations, to all such mistakes as introduce con- additions, of which the Tigris is the most considerable. It fusion and contradiction. Neither of these could have obtain- is, therefore, both unnatural that it should divide into large ed originally; and both of them have frequently been objected rivers, of various diverging courses; and, contrary to fact, that by the advocates of infidelity." any part of it compasseth the whole land of either Indian or African Ethiopia.

66

But this idea of Mr. Buckingham, respecting INDIAN Ethiopia, appears entirely without foundation, in as far at least as Scripture is concerned.

But," adds Mr. Penn, "the case before us exhibits a signal example of that contradiction; and, therefore, of the abvious necessity of demanding, and therefore warranting, the critical interposition which has here been undertaken. For the destruction of the primitive earth is a fact rooted in the Mention is very frequently made of Ethiopia, and of the very substance of the Sacred Scriptures, and spreading its Ethiopians, in various parts of the Old Testament, both in roots from the text of Moses to that of St. Peter; whereas, the historical and in the poetic books; but in no one instance the contradiction of that fact, contained in the above geogra- does the term imply any allusion to India, or to the East. On phical gloss, lies loosely and unrooted on the surface, and the contrary, Egypt, and Ethiopia, are almost always menonly on this particular point of it. Since, then, a manifest con- tioned together, as forming parts of the same great African tradiction of the former is produced by the presence of the continent.* latter; and since the one must, of necessity, give place to the other, it is unquestionably the office and the duty of sound and scrupulous criticism, to demonstrate the invalidity of the latter, in order that the important testimony of the former may stand unimpaired."*

Salust, in his Jugurthine war, gives us a very luminous view of the geography of Africa, and of its various nations, as far as both were known in his day; and he places Ethiopia next to "loca exusta solis ardoribus," or the countries burnt up by the heat of the torrid zone. This same valuable histoHaving now viewed this part of our subject critically, we rian, in a fragment which has been preserved, tells us, "that may proceed to the geological proofs above alluded to, which the Moors, a vain and faithless people, as all Africans are, proofs, being altogether unknown to Mr. Penn, at the time would make us believe, that, beyond Ethiopia, there is an his valuable work was written, the judgment he has above antipodes, a just and amiable people, the manners and cusgiven becomes of the greater value. Since the period of his toms of which resemble those of the Persians.” publication, we have had the advantage of perusing the descriptive sketches of an intelligent traveller in the East, whose remarks, as far as they relate to our present subject, are of the greater consequence, from the circumstance of their having been written without any theory in view, without any geological knowledge, or the smallest desire of supporting or opposing any particular question.

We shall have occasion, in the next chapter, to notice some customs amongst the Africans of the interior, which are evidently derived from their Asiatic progenitors.

"The banks of the river, at Beer, are steep on both sides, and of a CHALKY SOIL. "There are many perpendicular cliffs within and around it, indifferent directions; in these are many large caves, and smaller grottoes. They are of a hard CHALKY The traveller I allude to is Mr. Buckingham, who, in the substance, and the cavities have furnished the materials for the year 1816, accompanied one of the caravans which cross the building of the town. The whole presents a mass of glaring Syrian desert from Aleppo to Mousul, on the Tigris, from white, which is painful to look upon in the sun." whence he proceeded to Bagdad, on his way to India. He After leaving Beer, and on his way to Orfah, over a very thus had an opportunity of passing through the region of Mes-flat and desert country. Mr. Buckingham proceeds; “we opotamia, which is bounded by the two great rivers, the Eu-were now come into a more uneven country than before; the phrates, and the Tigris; and by a route across the deserts of height of many of the eminences gave them the character of that country, which had not been passed by any European hills; and they were, throughout, formed of lime-stone rock, writer during nearly a century. of a rounded surface, and, generally, barren. In the valleys

I shall now proceed to give a few extracts from Mr. Buckingham's work, which must throw the most important light upon the subject of our present inquiry; and as the nature of the soil over which he passed, is mentioned merely in a casual manner, and is altogether unconnected with the chief objects he had in view, there can be no just cause for hesitation or doubt as to the correctness of the statement.

He first came upon the river Euphrates, at Beer, where he crossed it, and where he considered its breadth to be about that of the Thames, in London.

"Its greatest depth did not seem to be more than ten or twelve feet. Its waters were of a dull yellowish colour, and were quite as turbid as those of the Nile; though, as I thought, much inferior to them in sweetness of taste. The earth with which it is discoloured, is much heavier, as it quickly subsided, and left a sediment in the bottom of the cup, even while drinking; whereas, the waters of the Nile, from the lightness of the mould, may be drank without perceiving such deposit, if done immediately on being taken from the river."

"The town of Beer, which is the Birtha of antiquity, is seated on the east bank of the Euphrates. The river is here about the general breadth of the Nile, below the first cataract to the sea, and is at least equal to the Thames at Blackfriars bridge. The people of Beer are, in general, aware of the celebrity of their stream; and think it is the largest in the * Comp. Estim. vol. ii. p. 242.

I

A few instances from the Old Testament, in order to show this close connection, may here be of use.

which reigned from India, even unto Ethiopia, over 127 provinces ;") "Now it came to pass, in the days of Ahasuerus (this is Ahasuerus &c.-Esther i. 1. also viii. 9. that is, from east to west, or from the most distant parts of Asia, even unto the interior of Africa.

"For I am the Lord thy God. the Holy one of Israel, thy Saviour; gave Egypt for thy ransom, Ethiopia and Seba for thee.”—Isaiah xliii. 3. "Thus saith the Lord, the labour of Egypt, and the merchandise of Ethiopia, &c. shall come unto thee."-Isaiah xlv. 14. "Philistia, and Tyre, with Ethiopia."-Psalm. lxxxii. 4. "Moreover, the Lord stirred up against Jehoran, the spirit of the Philistines, and of the Arabians, that were near the Ethiopians."Chron. xxi, 16; that is, the Red Sea only dividing them.

66

Ethiopia and Egypt were her strength, and it was infinite.”— Nahum iii. 8 and 9.

Moses, also, when residing in Egypt had married an Ethiopian

woman.

"He shall have power over the treasures of gold and of silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt; and the Libyans and the Ethiopians shall be at his steps."-Daniel xi. 42; see also the whole of the 20th chapter of Isaiah. Besides these, many distinct instances might be quoted, to show that Ethiopia is never alluded to in Scripthat there could be no possible connection between any branch of the ture, but with reference to a province of Africa; and, consequently, Euphrates, and that distant country.

It is highly probable, from the nature of the secondary rock above described, that these "large caves and smaller grottoes" were such natural cavities as are peculiar to some calcareous formations.

were some few patches of cultivated ground, but the rest] No one can, therefore, persist in his search for Paradise, in was covered with a long wild grass." We have here, again, a country avowedly secondary in its rocks, and diluvial in its on these extensive plains, all the outward form and charac- sandy deserts, or richer soils, without advocating a theory in ter of that chalky formation, exposed to view in the channel geology still more inconsistent and wild, than has yet been of the Euphrates, at Beer. advanced; for as we can trace, over all these regions through

On arriving at Orfah, we find a repetition of the above which the Tigris and the Euphrates flow, the same monusecondary indications, in the following extract. In the course ments of the flood, which are so remarkable in every other of a walk round the outside wall of the city, Mr. Bucking-quarter of the world, in the form of boundless deserts of ham remarked, in the construction of the wall, three distinct sand mixed with salt and shells, we might as well look for the periods of very ancient building. The foundation was evi- rich and beautiful regions of our first parents in the plains of dently of an extremely remote period. "The surface of the America or of Africa, as expect to discover any trace of them blocks of stone," says he, "was, in general, much corroded on the banks of the river Euphrates.

by the action of the air; and, on a close examination, I was We thus come to the same point, geologically, which various surprised to find them mostly blocks of coral and sea shells, writers have before reached critically; and we have, in this such as are seen in the cliffs along the shores of the Red Sea, united evidence, a striking example of what must ever hapin a state of decay. In some of these, the substance seemed pen, where human reason interferes with the sublime and to be a mass of lime, in a state of decomposition, which consistent simplicity of Divine Revelation.

erumbled at the touch, into a white salt-like powder. In others, the large oyster, with the small queen, or fan shell, was repeatedly and distinctly seen, with still more numerous examples of those smaller ones, like ram's horns, so frequent among the sands of every sea-beach. Other parts, the surfaces of which had become hardened by the action of the air, looked like coarse lime-stone, crossed by harder and finer

CHAPTER XV.

What was the Primitive Language?-High Probability in favour of the Hebrew.-On the Diversity of Colour among Mankind.-Testimony of the Jews on this Subject.-Origin of the American Indians.-Their traditions and Customs.Their Religious Belief.-Religious Rites in the Interior of Africa.-On Sacrifice.-Traditions and Belief in the Friendly Islands.-Historical Evidence of a common descent from Noah. -On the Identity of Words among the most distant Nations.On the universal use of a Decimal gradation.-Natural Inference from all these Considerations.

veins of pure marble. These stones were all in the original On the Creation of Mankind.--The Origin of Language.structure of the wall, though, of what age, it would be difficult to determine. But the nature of the stone is well worthy of remark, in a situation so remote from any sea, and so elevated above the level of the ocean, beneath which, alone, it could have been formed. I had seen no such rocks in the way to Orfah; though no doubt the quarries from which the stones were taken, are not far remote; but, in the neighbourhood of Aleppo, there are several masses of hardened shells and coral, appearing above the surface of the ground." We find a similar instance of secondary formation mentioned by Xenophon, in his Anabasis, 3, p. 212, who describes, in the following terms, a very large city, which the Ten It may, by some, be looked upon as an inconsistent and Thousand passed in their famous retreat: "marching, the uncalled-for departure from the geological inquiries which rest of the day, without disturbance, they came to the river form the main object of this treatise, to take, in this place, a Tigris, where stood a large uninhabited city, called Larissa," rapid view of a subject so apparently unconnected with the (probably, the Resen, mentioned as a great city, Gen. x. 12.) structure and phenomena of the earth, as the languages, the "anciently inhabited by the Medes, the walls of which were complexions, the traditions, and the customs of many of the 25 feet broad, and 100 in height, all built of brick, except the most distant nations. But when we consider, that the design plinth, which was built of stones, and 20 feet high. The of thus tracing the history of the earth, as recorded by inspiplinth of the wall was built of polished stone, FULL OF SHELLS,* ration, is to oppose those theories of philosophy which would expand the well-defined periods of the Mosaic history into These very casual observations, on the Geology of Meso- indefinite periods, during the long lapse of which, both the potamia, serve to indicate, in a remarkable manner, the gen-mineral world, its inhabitants, and its languages, gradually eral secondary and diluvial nature of the whole surface of became what we now find them, by the progress of society, in the that eastern region, which is composed either of secondary one case, and by the mere laws of nature in the other, without rocks, or diluvial sands and soils; for the calcareous or chalky any aid from a superior power; it may be readily admitted character of the rocks, appears evident from the distinct to be a point of no small importance, in corroboration of the mention of the fossil sea shells contained in some of the few correctness of the views we have taken of the earth, if we specimens to which the traveller's attention had been attracted. can discover, from an equally general view of the human The object, in quoting these extracts, is not with the view of race, and of their various languages and customs, decisive any general information, as to the secondary nature of a great proof of the recent creation of man, of the still more recent part of Syria, and the regions east of it; as our former gen-action of the deluge, and, consequently, of the entire confieral view of those regions tended distinctly to prove that the dence with which we may refer to the Mosaic record, for a whole of that part of the continent of Asia, with but few ex-true account of the early events upon the earth. ceptions, was of that secondary character. But as the chalk The evidence which may be adduced of the general origin formation is here described as forming a considerable part of of all the languages of the globe, when added to the remarkthe course of the Euphrates, upon which the primitive Para-able traditions of the deluge, which have already been nodise is said to have existed, the subject is thus brought, geologi- ticed, may serve to confirm, in sceptical minds, the unerring cally, to a positive issue. truth of the sacred volume, when it announces to us, first,

&c."

For if it has been satisfactorily proved, in the course of that all mankind have sprung from one pair, created on the this treatise, that the chalk formation formed a part of the sixth and last day of the creation; secondly, that, after upbed of the antediluvian ocean, and that the chalk basins of wards of sixteen hundred years of increase over a portion of geologists must have become charged with their present dilu- the then dry land, the whole of that race perished by an awful vial contents at the period of the deluge, it is an inconsistency, judgment of the Almighty, excepting one single family; thirdof the most glaring kind, to look for the site of the primitively, that whatever the languages of the antediluvian world might Paradise upon the surface of a secondary country, then form- have been, that single family had but one individual laning the bottom of the sea, as is satisfactorily proved by the guage, which was handed down by them to their descendnature of its rocks, and by the marine fossils contained in ants; and, fourthly, that from the deluge to that period in them; which, like all secondary formations, in other parts of which the descendants of Noah had so far increased in numthe earth, could only have become habitable dry land, by the ber, and in wickedness, as to endeavor to elude any similar interchange of level between the old lands and the ocean, at effect of the divine wrath, by building the tower of Babel, in the period of the deluge. the plains of Shinar, "the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech," which language was there "confounded," The great pyramid of Cheops, in Egypt, stands, like the other or scattered, by the will of the Almighty; so that the people pyramids of that country, in a plain, composed of calcareous rock. were interrupted in their impious intention, and "scattered It is formed of lime-stone, of a grayish white colour, and which ex- abroad," in various tribes or clans, "over the face of the hales a fetid odour when broken by a smart blow. Thus we find whole earth." another instance, of one of the earliest edifices, of post-diluvian man, formed of a secondary rock, and standing on a secondary formation.

With respect to the original language which Moses describes our first parents as making use of, from their very

first creation, we are no where informed in what manner they the high probability of the original language of the Sacred first acquired it, nor how it was communicated to them. It Scriptures being the pure and original tongue first communiis, indeed, probable that the inspired historian addressed him-cated to man by his Maker? In considering, then, the language self to those who were much less sceptical on such subjects of the Hebrews as the most probable source from whence all than ourselves; and that this remarkable endowment, pecu- other tongues have been derived; and when we trace in all liar to the human race, and by which they so far excel all these other tongues, the gradual varieties that have arisen, and other created beings, was never, in early times, doubted as are still now proceeding in the dialects of the earth, by the having been directly communicated from the same wise and secondary causes, and, seemingly, trivial accidents, by which provident source from whence the human race itself had the different shades of language are brought about, are we not arisen; and the researches of the wisest and most learned strongly reminded of the same character which we have traced men of all ages have invariably led them to the same natural in the primitive and secondary formations of the mineral conclusion. world? Are we not justified in drawing a comparison beWe have no direct means of positive knowledge as to what tween the miraculously preserved primitive language, and the relation the primitive language of the earth may have had no less miraculously preserved chosen people, who are the with existing tongues; but, in the absence of such evidence, constant living miracle, bearing unwilling witness to the truth we may form some conjectures on the subject, which are cer- of Inspiration, to all the generations of mankind? We are tainly marked with the highest probability. In the first place, reminded, that it was repeatedly foretold in prophecy, that we must consider that the numbers of the antediluvian human the Hebrew nation should be dispersed into all countries; race, and their consequent divisions into nations, could not yet that they should not be swallowed up and lost amongst have been nearly so great as in the present day, from the their conquerors, but should subsist, to the latest times, a comparatively short period they had existed, and from the distinct people; that, "though God would make an end of the comparatively unrefined condition natural to a primitive race nations, their oppressors, He would not make an end of of beings, on whom the gift of reason was obviously be-them."

stowed by the Creator, for the purposes of exertion, and of In the common course of human events, who has heard of, gradual cultivation and improvement. We must not here or seen, so unusual a thing? The mighty monarchies of Assuppose, however, with too many advocates of an erring phi-syria, of Persia, of Greece, and of Rome, have vanished, like losophy, that man was, at first, naturally savage, or in the the shadows of the evening, or passed rapidly away, like the state we now find the wild and uncultivated natives of savage shining meteors of the night. Their places know them no countries; or that religion and knowledge were, in the first more; nothing remains but the great moral of their tale. But days, in the debased condition we now too often find them, this chosen people of God, contemned by all nations, without in the remote corners of the earth. The savage state is not a friend or protector, yet secure amidst the wreck of empires, natural to man; but, on the contrary, is brought on by erring oppressed, persecuted, harassed by edicts, by executions, by from the true path of knowledge, in which both Adam and murders, and by massacres, has outlived the very ruins of Noah must have brought up their first descendants; and them all. Well may we exclaim, "Truly this is the Lord's which, in both instances, was communicated in a direct man- doing, and, therefore, so marvellous in our eyes." ner, from the unerring source of every good which mankind Before, however, proceeding further with the consideration now enjoys. In considering the progressive stages of society, of the languages of the earth, it may not be uninteresting, or we are too apt to content ourselves with merely looking back, uninstructive, to make a few observations on a different subfrom our own times, into the darker ages of barbarism, and ject, which, like language, has given rise to much theory thus to form our ideas on the false supposition, that the and hypothesis amongst men; and on which subject, the primitive nature of man is one of perfect ignorance, and such same remarkable people may assist in enlightening us. I as we now find amongst the savages of Africa or America: mean, the varied colour of the human race. whereas, if we trace the progress of society, in its proper and Notwithstanding all the arguments which have been made natural course, by descending from the creation, and from the use of, and the modified exceptions which may be produced, deluge, instead of ascending from our own times, we shall find there is no general conclusion more certain, than that the comthat the primitive state of mankind, even immediately after plexions of men are influenced by the temperature of the clithe creation, was one of intelligence and understanding, if not mates they have long inhabited; and that, in common circumin arts and sciences, at least on the leading point of religion, stances, the equatorial regions, nearest the level of the sea, which is, of all others, that in which the savage falls most are inhabited by the darkest of the human race; while the short of the civilized man. It pleased his Creator to bestow cooler temperatures of the earth, either from atmospheric, or upon primitive man a full and perfect conception of the rela-polar elevation, produce a race of men, of various degrees of tion in which he stood towards the Supreme Being; and it whiteness. We must not, however, estimate the degree of was in order to preserve a knowledge of the true religion heat in any climate, merely by its distance from the equator; among men, that a certain family and race were afterwards for the climates of the earth are most materially affected by a expressly chosen; we find, accordingly, that to whatever variety of circumstances; such as their elevation above the state of idolatrous ignorance, or savage barbarity, the various level of the sea; the height of the neighbouring mountains; ancient nations of the earth were, from time to time, reduced, the comparative extent of land and water, and the like. Thus, there was always some portion of the world, and especially there are no native negroes in America, although the torrid of the Jewish race, which adhered to the true faith, and zone extends across that continent. But the extent of its which was, consequently, preserved from that state of un- neighbouring oceans, its lofty mountains, in many instances natural debasement from which man has a constant tendency covered with perpetual snow, cool the scorching breezes of and desire to emancipate himself. It is, therefore, highly the torrid zone, and convert it into a comparatively temperate probable, that as we hear of no diversity of language on the climate. The inhabitants of this New World are, therefore, earth, until after the deluge, the whole primitive race was found to be only of a tawny, or copper-coloured complexion. "of one language, and of one speech," and that that language But the most remarkable instance of the effects of climate, must, consequently, have been the same spoken by those few in changing the colours of men, after a certain period, may be individuals who were preserved from the flood. found in the history of the Jews; that race, which we know

Now, when we consider the great scheme of the Al-were once all of one colour, but which are now found dismighty, foretold from time to time, from the days of Adam to persed among the nations, and assuming, in every clime, the those of Abraham, and continued from thence, in a well de- varied tint of the individual people amongst whom they dwell, fined course of history, to our own times; when we consider without, however, having one drop of blood in their veins but the wonderful and miraculous events that were foretold, and what has flowed in a direct line from their patriarch Abraham. were afterwards so literally fulfilled, in the line of the chosen In Britain, and in more northern countries, they are fair; in people of God; that, through them, and through their lan- Spain, and Portugal, they are brown; in Arabia, and Egypt, guage, the Inspired Writings of the early times, were to be they are copper-coloured; while in Abyssinia, and in India, for ever handed down to the generations of men; that of all they are almost wholly black.

the languages of the earth, the Hebrew tongue, like the He- Dr. Buchanan, is his Christian Researches, in treating of brew people, has hitherto withstood every change and every the Jews of Cochin, in India, says, "It is only necessary to calamity; and been, like them, miraculously preserved by the look at the countenances of the black Jews, to be satisfied that Almighty will, for a great and beneficent end; and when we their ancestors must have arrived in India many ages before further consider the strong analogy and filiation, so easily those of the white Jews. Their Hindoo complexions, and traced, in all the languages of the earth, to the Hebrew, as their imperfect resemblance to the European Jews, indicate the most probable post-diluvian original tongue; when all these that they have become detached from the parent stock, many considerations are combined, is it unreasonable to conclude to ages before those of the north and west."

Bishop Heber, in his Journal in India, makes the following supernatural means, to the present extent of the earth. just and interesting observations on this subject. "The In- Their traditions respecting the general deluge have been aldians consider fairness as a part of beauty, and a proof of ready noticed. They are a highly moral people, and acnoble blood. They do not like to be called black, and they knowledge one supreme, all-powerful, and intelligent Being, taunt the Abyssinians, who are sometimes met with in the called the Great Spirit, who created and governs all things. country, on the charcoal complexion of the Hubshee. Much" They believe, in general, that after the hunting grounds had of this taste has, probably, arisen from their country having been formed and supplied with game, He created the first red always been a favourite theatre for adventures from Persia, man and woman, who were very large in their stature, and Greece, Tartary, Turkey, and Arabia: all white men, and all, lived to an exceedingly old age; that He often held councils, in their turn, possessing themselves of wealth and power. and smoked with them, and gave them laws to be observed; but It is remarkable, however, to observe, how surely all these that, in consequence of their disobedience, He withdrew from, classes of men, in a few generations, and without any inter- and abandoned them to the vexations of the Bad Spirit, who has marriage with the Hindoos, assume the deep olive tint, little since been instrumental to all their degeneracy and sufferless dark than a Negro, which seems natural to the climate. ings."-Hunter's North America, p. 214. The Portuguese natives form unions among themselves alone, By the term Spirit, the Indians have an idea of a being or, if they can, with other Europeans; yet they have, during that can, at pleasure, be present, and yet invisible.” a three hundred years residence in India, become as black as Caffres."-Heber's Journal, vol. i. p. 54.

66

"They have no particular day set apart for devotion, though they have particular times, such as a declaration of It is evident, therefore, that in the many various shades war, restoration of peace, the season of the harvest, and the which mankind are found to assume in different parts of the new moons. In general, however, a day seldom passes with earth, according to the different temperatures of climate, there the elderly Indians, or others, who are esteemed wise and can be no sound argument raised against a common origin good, in which a blessing is not asked, or thanks returned to from a parent stock. The varied colour of mankind appears the Giver of life; sometimes audibly, but most generally to be the effect of a mere law of nature, instituted, no doubt, in the devotional language of the heart." "All their sefor a beneficial purpose by the Creator, which purpose may, rious devotions are performed in a standing position." probably, be one day explained, like so many other obscuri- some occasions of joyous festivals, lamps, constructed of ties in the wonders of creation. shells, and supplied with bear's grease, and rush wicks, are

❝ On

It has been found by Dr. Franklin, that black transmits kept burning all the preceding and following night." "In heat more readily than any other colour; and the subject has all the tribes I have visited, the belief of a future state of since been investigated, and confirmed, in various conclusive existence, and of future rewards and punishments, is prevaexperiments, by Mr. Leslie, and Count Rumford. We may, lent."

therefore, reasonably conclude, that the dark colour of the "I have seen an instance, wherein a prophet, or priest, burnt human race, which is found to increase in proportion to the tobacco, and the offals of the buffalo, and deer, on a kind of scorching influence of the sun, is a wise provision of the Al-altar, formed of stones, on a mound.” ‡

mighty, for cooling the fever of the blood, under the intem- In Lander's Journal, to explore the course of the Niger, in perate rays of a tropical climate. Africa, we find the following account of a sacrifice offered But to return from this digression, to the subject of lan-annually at Kiama. "This is the eve of the Behum Salah, guage, which we were before considering. or Great Prayer Day, on which day, every one here, who posAs recorded history cannot be looked for in wild and savage sesses the means, is obliged to slaughter either a bullock or nations, we can only hope to find some traces of the origin of a sheep; and those who may not have money sufficient to such nations in their traditions, or in their language. In the procure a whole one, are compelled to purchase a portion of the former of these, however, we can, in general, only look for latter, at least. The Mallams make a practice of slaughterapproximations to truth; as, however sound their foundation ing the sheep which may have been their companion in their may originally have been, they generally become, in a long peregrinations for the past year; and as soon as the feast is lapse of time, so clouded with error, and obscured by the su- over, they procure another to supply its place, and to undergo perstition which usually accompanies the ignorance of uncivi- the same fate on the following year." After describing the lized states, that even the early histories of the most polished religious ceremonies of the day, Mr. Lander proceeds: nations are unsatisfactory and obscure. Much less then can" When the priest had finished, he descended from the hillock, we expect any defined account of the rise or progress of the and, with his assistants, slaughtered a sheep, which had been nations of the New World, or in the still more distant parts bound and brought to him for sacrifice. The blood of the aniof the earth. All travellers in America, however, who have mal was caught in a calabash; and the king, and the most taken any notice of this subject, record the tradition, common devoted (devout) of his subjects, washed their hands in it, amongst many of the tribes of that continent, with regard to and sprinkled some on the ground."

their originally having come from a great distance, and hav- The very remarkable analogy between this African cereing been urged forward by the advance of other tribes, in much mony and the Jewish passover, and other sacred ordinances, the same manner as the European states were overrun by is too striking to require comment. Amongst many other the northern hordes towards the decline and fall of the Roman savage nations, the custom of an offering is so common, that empire. But whether these American tribes were urged on, a glass of water is never drank, or a morsel of food made use by sea or by a land communication with the Old World, of, without a little of it being first thrown upon the ground, towards the north, must probably now remain for ever a sub-as an offering to their deity or fetish. ject for speculation and conjecture.

This, and many other instances of sacrifice, to be found It may be interesting in this place, however, to make a few in the best accounts of the American and the African savages, remarks upon some of the customs and traditions of the In-would be, of themselves, sufficient to prove, most distinctly, dian tribes in America, which, in many instances, tend to con- their descent, in both cases, from Adam. For it has always firm, in the most remarkable manner, the fact of their descent been admitted, that the ordinance of sacrifice could have, in from the common parent stock in the Old World, although no way, occurred to the human mind but by a direct command the manner of their entering the American continent has not from the Creator, such as must have been given to our first yet been in any degree, ascertained. A tradition is mention

Non alios prima crescentis origine mundi
Illuxisse dies, aliumve habuisse tenorem
Crediderim; ver illud erat, ver magnus agebat
Orbis, et hibernis parcebant flatibus Euri,
Cum primum lucem pecudes hausere, virumque
Ferrea progenies duris caput extulit arvis,

ed by Hunter, as common to many of the Indian tribes, that the second Georgic, where the Poet describes the effect of Spring and proceeds thus: their ancestors were forced to migrate from a north or northeast direction, towards the south. It has already been remarked, that these Indian tribes all count their time, or days, from sunset to sunset, in the same manner as the Hebrews, though contrary to our established customs in Europe. Their year, also, begins with the spring, and is divided into 13 moons. They relate, that the Great Spirit created, at first, one of each sex, and placed them on an island in the midst of the great waters, which, as the human race increased, was enlarged, by

*This most natural idea of beginning the circle of the year with the Spring, is highly interesting, when found to exist in a savage country like America.

The ancients were of the same opinion, as we find from many passages in their writings; and especially in those beautiful lines in VOL. II.-P

Immissæque feræ silvis, et sidera clœo.-Geor. 2d, 336.

*It is a circumstance not unworthy of remark in this place, that the name of our first parent Adam was bestowed upon him from the red earth, from which he sprung; Adam having this signification in the Hebrew tongue.

"Blow up the trumpet in the new moon, in the time appointed, on our solemn feast day.

"For this is a statute for Israel, and a law of the God of Jacob.”— Psalm lxxxi. 5, 4.

Hunter's North America.