recourse to coverings and concealments; and these, though formed at first of fig-leaves, have since comprised whatever mankind could discover or invent of personal ornament. This we now call natural to mankind; just as natural as the dominion of the inferior propensities of our earthly nature over the superior faculties and principles of the mind! natural now, but not natural originally.

VERSE 18.

Thorns also and thistles, shall the earth bring forth to thee; 771 pp kutj ve dardar, LXX, axavbas nas TpCodes, thorns and tribules: St. Paul uses the same words, Heb. vi. 8. where the last is rendered "briers;" they are also found, Hosea x. 8. The word pp KUTJ, is put for thorns in other places, as Exod. xxii. 6; Judg. viii. 7; Ezek. ii. 6; xxviii. 24. but we are uncertain whether it means a specific kind of thorn, or may be a generic name for all plants of a thorny kind. In the present instance it seems to be general, for all those obnoxious plants, shrubs, &c. by which the labours of the husbandman are impeded, and which are only fit for burning. The radical import of the word is to fret, or to wound, or tear.

Tribules, briers, which answers to the Hebrew, 7777 DARDAR, is the name of certain prickly plants. Dioscorides, lib. iv. cap. 15. distinguishes two kinds; one terrestrial, whose leaves are like those of the purslain, but smaller, which extends its lesser branches on the earth, and which has along its leaves stiff and hard thorns; the other kind is the aquatic, the tribuloides: which, says Tournefort, is common enough in the waters. But I never read this passage without thinking of Mr. Bruce's kantuffa, or briers of Abyssinia. Vide Bruce's Travels, vol. v. p. 49.

It is certain that our word thistle does not denote the plant, or plants, meant by this Hebrew word; and besides, it loses the reference to this passage, which probably was meant in the places quoted above. We are not to suppose that thorns and briers were now for the first time created; but, 1st, they now became vexatious, as they grew more abundantly and vigorously, perhaps from favourable seasons; 2dly, as man was expelled from his garden to till the land where they were natives, and consequently most prolific and troublesome.

Thou shalt eat herbs OF THE FIELD; of the common field; coarser food, not the exquisite fruits of Paradise: the very, ns, herb of the laboured, cultivated field and in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat; which sweat is the consequence of thy labour. Bread is put for FOOD in general, On LecHeм. The word in Hebrew imports so much, as it does also in Arabic.

VERSE 21.

Coats of a skin. Skins have been worn as clothing by many nations, the Tartars, the Hungarians, the

Laplanders, the Finlanders, the Russians, still wear skins, or furs; the ancient heroes of Greece, and of Asia, covered themselves with the spoils of lions, of tigers, and wild animals, while the ancient Germans wore short coats of sheep skins called rhenones. In fact, a skin in its natural state is an effectual defence against both heat and cold, and for duration nothing surpasses it; even our own woollen manufactures form what may be called coats of skins; since the fleece is the clothing of the animal, and the production, at least of his skin, though not the skin itself.

From this simple clothing, designed to hide those effects of the imagination on certain members of the body, which occur in spite of cooler reason; from this one skin divided between Adam and his consort, has arisen the whole art of dress and personal decoration; impelled by which mankind collects the down from plants, the wool from sheep, silk from the worm, and thread even from the spider. Hence the variety in dresses of different nations, of the same nation, of the same person: what part of the creation has not furnished its quota to decorate a British belle?

It is supposed that Adam procured this skin from an animal slain for sacrifice; which implies his being taught to slay it, and to skin it; also, probably, its consumption by celestial fire, for from whence should Adam be able to extract fire for this purpose, or what should induce him to think of that manner of consuming the victim? The further notion of sacrifice belongs to the history of the Bible, as does the distinction between the sacrifices of Cain and Abel: we only remark further, that the very idea of a skin implies a slain animal; and for what more proper, or more probable purpose, can we suppose an animal could be slain than for sacrifice? not for human food, surely!

CHAPTER VI. VERSE 2.

The sons of God saw the daughters of men. The reader has seen already that I proposed to render the word aleim by dignitaries, in the temptation of Eve, "ye shall be as dignitaries," supreme, sovereign, above the law; the same notion I would connect with this passage," the sons of dignity," of power above the law: in fact, the emperors, imperators; and self ruling powers, autocrators; or, "the sons of the dignitaries saw the daughters of the inferior classes of men; and they formed their seraglios, by collecting them into their harams, from among all whom they chose." Now, it is very natural that this should be resisted; and thus wars and commotions, violences of every kind took their rise from the uncontrolled indulgence of a sensual appetite. When Adam and Eve beheld that they were naked, that certain impulses no longer obeyed the dictates of intelligence, but those of passion, they were ashamed; whereas these, their descendants, indulged what their first parents had studied to conceal, and by concealment endeavoured to subdue.

This view of the passage is not new: Onkelos and the Targums read, the sons of the great; the Samaritan, the sons of the sultans; Arab. sons of the nobles; but it takes off entirely the notion of angelic commerce with women; or of the descendants of Seth, as sons of God, i.e. good men, mingling with the beauties of the house of Cain.

VERSE 14.

Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms [margin, nests] shalt thou make in the ark.

I shall not detail the various opinions which have been adopted by translators, ancient or modern, beyond a general idea which may shew their opposition to each other. Some would render gopher "cypress wood," because it is incorruptible, as Martial says, lib. vi. ep. 49.

Quæ nec secula centies peracta,

Nec longe cariem timet senecta.

"It fears neither the revolution of an hundred years, nor the rottenness which attends prolonged old age." Now, of this perpetuity, the Hebrew of Genesis makes no mention. On the other hand, Dr. Geddes says, the ark was made of wicker work! and Abraham Dawson renders, "Make thee an ark of bulrushes; of reeds shalt thou make the ark!!" Opposite sentiments surely! five hundred feet of wicker work! of rushes and reeds! But to understand our author, let us endeavour to conceive what he proposes to describe, q.d. "You, Noah, have been used to dwell on this hill, &c. and to reside in houses built upon it; these you have seen constructed occasionally in a square form, five or six times as long as broad, and always fixed to the earth by means of the uprights inserted into the ground, you have seen placed many uprights, and these have been faced outside and inside with laths and plaster, rather than built more solidly with brick or stone: construct now such a house, only instead of fixing it into the earth, let it stand free from it, nor let the uprights go into the ground, but into timbers laid along the surface; by this means this house will become a square box of certain dimensions, [an ark,] capable of being lifted up from the earth when occasion requires. To build this ark take two kinds of woods [y Orzi, plural] gopher, i.e. the inflammable, resinous kind, the pine, for the uprights, the main beams, the ribs, and other places requiring strength; which kind of tree abounds on the mountains, as its natural place of growth, and [ KANAN, for so I read with the margin,] long canes which grow in every marsh around you; nail these along the upright ribs, both on the outside and on the inside; then plaster over them a good coat of bitumen to close every chink between these canes, to render them perfectly water tight; just as you have seen laths coated with plaster to keep out wind from your houses."

I can think of no easier conversion of ideas than these, from the building of a standing house, to the building of a swimming house. Let us now justify our version.

Tebet, a box, i.e. a box shaped edifice: the size does not alter its figure.

Gopher; this word occurs here only; but its relative gophrit signifies sulphur in the Chaldee and Arabic; and we read, Gen. xix. 24. that God rained on Sodom, &c. gophrit, "brimstone," i.e. inflammable, inflamed, sulphur; the same frequently elsewhere. Now, what wood is more, or equally, likely to be named gopher from its inflammability, than the pine? which furnishes pitch, tar, and turpentine, all among the prime of inflammables; and that in its natural state this wood is capable of taking fire, needs no other proof than the frequent use of its splinters instead of candles in the north. I shall quote one instance from Carver's Travels, p. 123. "The tent was perfectly illuminated by a great number of torches made of splinters cut from the pine [or birch] tree, which the Indians held in their hands."

The opinions of the ancient interpreters may be found not irreconcilable with our notions: LXX reads in our common copies "squared beams," or woods [ribs, quarterings] {uλwv Teтpaywvwv, in other copies, with Chrysostom, incorruptible, i.e. sound and firm as ribs and uprights should be; Vulgate, lignis lævigatis, smoothened beams; or as Jerom says, Heb. Quæst. quadratis lignis. Persian, the pine. The Samaritan has a word also thought to mean the pine. So that some express the nature of the wood, or its species; others express its state.

Ka

Canes; the word in our text is 'P KENIM, understood to mean cells or chambers; but a reading is preserved by the keri, the margin of our copies, καNaN, which undoubtedly means canes: now as both words stand equally fair for acceptance, we may adopt either. In the Chaldee and Arabic this word signifies canes, reeds, &c. which are capable of being split lengthways, [oxia, ligna fissa, scissura ;] and this I suppose those around the ark might be. The measuring cane of Ezekiel, chap. xl. was in length six cubits; verse 5. he says also, the measure was in breadth one cane [" threshold of the gate one reed broad."] We know that in East India some kinds of canes grow to a great length, for there are many different kinds, and upon the whole no fitter material could be adopted to lath these ribs of the ark with: witness the accounts of our late voyagers to the South Seas, &c.

Now, if to this great box we add divisions into three stories; we have in fact a house, like many houses in hot climates, three stories high, unattached to the earth, therefore capable of being buoyed up from it. This might answer the purposes of a lodge to part of Noah's family long before it became the mean of their safety, and might pass for

"the royal whim on the mountain," the reasons for whose capricious construction were utterly inconceivable or incredible, among the antediluvian dignitaries, and the heroes their sons.

CHAPTER VII. VERSE 1.

The deluge took place, according to the computation of the Hebrew copies, A.M. 1656. No doubt but these years are solar years, each containing twelve months of thirty days each, as appears from calculating the number of days, Gen. viii. 3, 4. the waters retired after 150 days; the 17th day of the seventh month the ark grounded on mount Ararat, and this calculation of 360 days to the year, was probably the true period of the year before the flood; it was retained among mankind long afterward, and even is the prophetical year so late as the Revela

tions.

VERSE 11.

The sacred text proposes two causes of the deluge: 1. a discharge of water from the entrails of the earth; 2. a continuation of rain from the atmosphere. We shall consider these separately, because this part of the Mosaic history has been attacked with great violence. Nevertheless, we must acknowledge, at the same time, that we would not wish to affirm, whether or not they were absolutely distinct and different in their causes.

We are under the necessity of inferring that like as we find waters, streams, and rivers, beneath the surface of the earth, however deep we have been able to excavate, and as we know of seas that have no bottom, whatever length of line we employ in sounding them, so, I say, we are under the necessity of inferring, that somewhat of the same kind is the construction of the earth, if not to its very centre, yet to a considerable depth of its mass. Nor let this be thought an unreasonable inference: what we know may guide us as to what is beyond our knowledge, whenever we have no better mean of determination; and at any rate we have this advantage over those who deny our premises, that they are at least equally uninformed of the actual state of this fact, and have nothing to shew in proof of their negation.

On the same principle I assume, that volcanic fires exist deep in the earth; in like manner as we know they do at the bottom of many seas. I say we know they do; because, we perceive their effects in throw ing up islands in the midst of the ocean; volcanic islands, and other phenomena, which can be accounted for on this supposition only.

To these principles I must add a third; that of the compressibility of water; and this I must prove, because perhaps it may not be so readily allowed me as the other, which are admitted by every naturalist, and are established on actual observations.

We know that air is compressible, and that the higher we ascend it is lighter; the lower we descend it is heavier: the same is the nature of water, which, at the surface of the sea is of a certain specific gravity, but, as we descend, that gravity increases, insomuch, that by using a very considerable length of line, we reach a station where metal itself almost floats. I understand that it is a practice among seamen trading to the East Indies, and elsewhere, occasionally to hoist out a boat, and try which way the current sets; they load a metal kettle with shot, &c. then fixing a rope round it, and over it, so as to keep the mouth uppermost, they lower it into the sea to the depth of 80, 90, 100 fathoms, or more, till the kettle rests so firmly as to steady the boat to which the other end of the line is affixed; and by this means they ride as easy in the midst of the sea, as if they were at anchor in port. Now this kettle, though made of cast iron, would not be able to sink so far by a great deal if it were empty, as it does when loaded, ie. it would not be able to overcome the resistance it meets from the water. If such be the fact, on that very small depth of water, which our utmost efforts can penetrate, we have only to pursue this idea, by supposing that the density of water increases proportionately as it approaches the centre of the globe, as we know that of air does, and we shall perceive that at an hundred miles depth under water, at five hundred miles depth under water, this element may be so compressed, that a square foot of it would occupy more than one hundred, or than five hundred times the space which it now occupies, were it relieved from the pressure of superincumbent weight, and brought up to open day. I say, the lower waters are more dense than the upper, as the lower strata of the atmosphere are more dense than the upper. So far we have fact to justify us; and on the same reasons as we admit volcanic fires beneath our superficial sea, we may admit the existence of such fires beneath any depth of water: why not at an hundred miles as well as at one mile? at five hundred miles as well as at five miles? Such we presume is the internal organization of the earth.

This leads us then to the fountains of the great deep; these, says the sacred historian, were broken up; by this I understand the unusually extended and directed action of those natural causes which we have already mentioned; i.e. the admission of a certain quantity of deep water to the fire beneath it; the conversion of this water into steam; the consequent expansion to an unlimited extent of this condensed water, now rarefied, how many thousand times! beyond its former state, and now exploding in all directions, seeking issue, seeking vent, wherever it may be found.

But, though this rarefied water would seek issue in all directions, yet it would penetrate where it met the least resistance; and this would naturally be where the fluid above it offered a ready mobility, or found a

sider the effect of the upward movement of the waters to impede, generally, their velocity; that every hill and mountain would locally impede their velocity also; so that by the time they arrived at the top of the high mountains, they would probably be little more boisterous than what occur on our own coasts: which moderation would favour very greatly the safety of the ark, in riding out this great war of elements.

No doubt but at his return to life, as it were all the earth, the plains, especially, exhibited a very different aspect from what they did when Noah last saw them; what had been verdure, and fertility, the hope and joy of the husbandman, and cultivator, was now ruin; either marsh land, only half recovered from the water, or barren sand; an expanse of unproductive desert. If it be asked, what traces of the deluge still remain? I answer, by referring to that great proportion of the globe, which is yet covered by water; a partial effect probably of the general deluge; and by pointing to those deserts where shifting sands prohibit vegetation and life. These I have These I have thought are lasting memorials of that great catastrophe, free to our inspection, on the surface of the globe: while the numerous fossil bodies, which we procure by digging into the solids of the earth itself, unite their testimony also in attestation that some great convulsion had displaced them from their native stations, and had imbedded them where we now find them far, far from home.

I know that to reason on the works of Omnipotence, by comparing them with the feeble efforts of man, is almost ludicrous; for, what can worms of the earth accomplish? yet those who are not satisfied with this power attributed to the force of expanding steam, I would remind of the expansive effects of gunpowder; how that rends the very rocks! but the force of steam, when urged by heat, is fifteen hundred times greater than that of gunpowder; and could we conceive to what prodigious rarefaction water might be raised, by the activity and influence of central fires, we must allow, that there is no deficiency of power in the agents we have named; nor is this all, for we have accounts of volcanoes pouring out floods of water, as well as masses of melted minerals, so that there seems to be a closer connection between these two elements, than is usually suspected.

I would remind the incredulous also, of the surprising powers of some of our steam engines; from what depths they drain the mines, and in what considerable quantities, by means of a little rarefied water. The same principles, on a scale of proportionate magnitude, are competent to burst the solid bands of earth itself, or any other explosion, be its subject what it may they are competent, but they must wait their commission: we are mentioning the means used, not canvassing that supreme power which directs them.

Undoubtedly this theory, which finds the princi

ples of this great convulsion of the globe, within the globe itself, excludes those sublime descriptions of wasted continents falling into the abyss, with which some have amused themselves; and those portentous comets which others have regulated by mathematical calculation; the possibility of whose impulse indeed no one can deny, yet of which we have no hint in any record, sacred or profane.* But the reader will judge whether it be not more advisable to reason from what we see and know, and from powers within our comprehension, rather than from what we must ever be ignorant of, and what when we most want its application eludes our research.

CHAPTER VIII. VERSE 7.

THE RAVEN SENT OUT.

After the decrease of the waters Noah sent forth

from the ark a raven, whereby to discover what was the actual state of the earth. It is likely, that at first this bird flew around the ark to a little distance, then returned and settled on it; at length he flew away, and did not return again. This reconciles the Hebrew, which mentions "going and returning,' with those versions which say he did not return, i.e. for a permanent residence, or to his station within the ark.

The Jews have many fables on the subject of this raven; not omitting a sharp conversation between the unwilling bird and the commanding patriarch. It is probable that the adoption of the raven, as a bird of augury, arose from this employment of him by Noah: he was consecrated to Apollo, i.e. the sun; and was a principal bird among. those who sought omens. The raven is a bird so well known, that it is superfluous to describe him.

THE DOVE SENT. VERSE 8.

The raven, as we have seen, was sent out on discovery, but discharged his commission badly. He is a bird of unclean manners; carnivorous; of prey; neither fit for food nor for sacrifice. The dove is a bird of very different character, pure, mild, good for food, and living on grain; and has this particular to him, that from an incredible distance he knows the way back to his nest, and to that nest he returns. This dove, incapable of feeding on carrion, or the carcasses of the dead, whether men or animals, returned to the ark: the vast marsh which laid before him, yielded him neither food nor pleasure; the ark therefore was his refuge.

The dove is too well known to need description.

THE OLIVE LEAF. VERSE 11.

Seven days after the first dove was sent out and returned, Noah sent out a second, who returned to the great father of the new world, in the evening, bringing an olive leaf, which he had plucked off, but not from mount Olivet, as some have fan