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5. The earth was probably more fertile, and the climate more healthful, and more auspicious to longevity, and consequently to every species of mental and corporeal exertion and enterprise, than at present. We refer to the cosmogonists and archaeologists generally, for an account of the physical changes which the earth is supposed to have undergone in consequence of the deluge; as regards its internal structure-the order, arrangement and mixture of its several strata—the formation of mountains, valleys, oceans, islands, lakes, deserts, marshes-its fertility and salubritythe position of its axis, whether at first inclined to the plane of the ecliptic as at present; or whether the plane of the equator was coincident with the plane of the ecliptic, so that the sun in its diurnal motion would seem to move always in the equator, but henceforth became oblique to the same; whence an increase of the year from 360 days to its present length; whence also the difference of seasons, and the ef fects of such a change, etc.

But, to proceed with the argument. Moses is our only authority for every thing appertaining to the antediluvian world. He has rapidly sketched the mere outlines of its history. A few most important facts he has clearly stated. These facts accord with the dictates of enlightened reason and sound philosophy. He has solved the problem of this world's origin; and supplied the elements from which the true character and condition of our wayward race may be ascertained from the beginning. He gives "a local habitation" to the golden age of fiction; and shows us how "death and all our wo" were the consequence and the penalty of man's disobedience to his Maker's righteous mandate.

In dignity, in intellect, in virtue, in happiness, in glory, he

in itself, and while uninfluenced by other or foreign dialects, is the most immutable and permanent thing in the world.

Again: should it be assumed that the art of writing, in some form, is indispensable to civilization, and that neither the Antediluvians nor early Postdiluvians possessed the art, and therefore that they must have been barbarians or savages, I answer: It cannot be proved that writing was unknown at any period anterior to the age of Moses; in whose time, even alphabetical writing, as we now practise it, was as perfect as it has ever been since.

was, at the first, but a little lower than the angels. What he would have been, had he remained innocent and dutiful, is not for us to conjecture,-except so far as we know what angels and the spirits of the just made perfect are and ever will be. But though great was his fall from this exalted height, yet he did not sink so low in the moral or intellectual scale, as at once to lose his knowledge or his faculties. Though guilty, condemned, degraded, he was still sustained and cherished and guided by the kindly arm of infinite mercy and wisdom. Though the earth was cursed for his sake, yet he still retained his dominion over it. And although in the course of a few generations, we behold the countless millions of our race rioting in all manner of wickedness, with the exception of a single individual and his family, still we discover no traces or vestiges of savage life upon the earth. Men may lose all knowledge of the true God, all reverence for his character and laws, all relish for his service and worship, while yet they may be highly distinguished in science and the arts. Ancient Egypt, and Greece, and Rome will testify, that the grossest moral darkness and depravity do not always imply, or are not necessarily connected with, a corresponding degradation of the intellectual character, or that they are at all inconsistent with the highest state of civilization and refinement.

During the first historical period then of 1656 years [Hebrew chronology]-that is, from the creation to the delugeall mankind, or at least the generations from which Noah descended, were civilized.

Of the state of the arts in Noah's time, we may form some conjecture from the ark which he constructed [by the divine command indeed, but without any extraordinary aid or di rection, so far as we know] for the purpose of preserving himself and family, with as many of the different species of beasts, birds and reptiles, as were necessary to replenish the new world with inhabitants, after the destruction of the old. This was probably the most astonishing structure, on several accounts, that ever rested upon the earth, or floated upon the surface of the mighty deep. A ship of at least one hundred thousand tons burthen! What a specimen of architectural skill, was not this last memento of antediluvian art? Noah was its builder-its architect;-he directed and superintended the work. Thousands of artisans, mechanics and

laborers were, no doubt, employed on it, who perished beneath the waves which bore it from their reach and from their view for ever.

When Noah entered the ark, he was 600 years old. Japheth, 100-Shem, 98-and Ham, probably 96. They therefore had time and opportunity sufficient to become intimately acquainted with all the arts and learning which the antediluvians possessed. And we may reasonably conclude that they diligently and successfully improved the time and the means which they enjoyed. They knew that they were to be the depositaries of all the knowledge and attainments of past ages; and to become the instructers of future generations. They were familiar with the cities, edifices, and other productions of the art, genius, and industry of the old world. The ark itself was many years in building before their eyes. They lived together a year within its capacious bosom-where they had the finest opportunity possible for the study of zoology; and, next to Adam, they were probably better versed in that department of natural science than any other mortals have ever been.

How much of the abstract sciences, and how much of literature they may have derived from their ancestors and brethren, it is impossible for us to determine. If we say they had nothing, be it so. It is, however, after all, a mere gratis dictum. The fact can never be proved. Astronomy is conceded by many, from a variety of circumstances, to have been considerably known before the deluge. But it is the fashion to deny every thing to antiquity, in favor of which we have no direct positive evidence. Conjecture or analogy is not allowed to supply the absence or defect of explicit testimony or substantial proof in any case.

It would be too mortifying to the pride of modern science to suppose it, for a single moment, to have been within the range of possibility, that the ancients should have made the sublime discoveries and demonstrations of a Newton or La Place. Granted that they did not. We shall probably, however, in the course of our investigations, find some things to balance the account. Facts are stubborn things. Fortunately for the fair fame of ancient genius, there are living witnesses yet speaking, and speaking loudly, in the midst of surrounding desolation and barbarism, the praises of an age to which even Grecian history does not reach.

But let us return to the mountains of Armenia, and see the little remnant of the human family issuing from the ark, and commencing a new career in a world in which probably not a vestige remained to awaken melancholy recollections or tender associations-not a relic of that grandeur and magnificence on which they had formerly gazed with admiration, or contemplated with sentiments of unutterable compassion in the view of that awful catastrophe which they foresaw would speedily overwhelm their vain and guilty possessors.

How long the ark itself continued as a monument of art, or a memorial of divine vengeance and of divine mercy-or as a model of great design and exquisite skill in architecture, whether for ship-building and naval enterprise, or for temples, towers, public or private edifices-Moses has not told us, and tradition is not worth regarding.

Noah, we are informed, became a husbandman. He began the world (to use a common phrase) as Adam and his sons had done before him, by cultivating the earth. Here then is no approach to savage life.

Noah and his family, for some time probably, cultivated the valleys in the neighborhood of Ararat, one of the mountains of Armenia, on which the ark settled after the subsidence of the waters. As they increased in numbers, they appear to have passed along the banks of the Euphrates, which rises in the mountains of Armenia, (Vid. Herodotus,) till at length they came to the plains of Shinar or Babylonia, -allowed to be the most fertile country in the East. Here they built a city and commenced a tower, whose top might "reach unto heaven," i. e. to the visible heavenly luminaries or to the clouds. For this purpose they burnt brick, which they used instead of stone;" and slime," or bitumen [Lat. Vulg.] or doqaλròs, [Græc. Sept.] "had they for mortar." (Gen. 11: 3, 4) Three years, it is said, they prepared their materials, and 22 years carried on their building. Their arrogant and rebellious attempt displeased the Lord, who miraculously confounded their language, which put an effectual stop to the work, procured for it the name of Babel or "confusion," and obliged the people to disperse themselves, and replenish the world.

It is thought by some that the family of Shem did not concur in this presumptuous enterprise,-that Nimrod, the son of Cush and grandson of Ham, was the principal leader :

but of this we have no certain evidence. What became of this mighty tower (commenced about 100 years after the deluge) we cannot determine. Nearly 1800 years after its erection, Herodotus saw a structure at Babylon (the temple of Jupiter Belus) consisting of eight towers, raised one above another, built of bricks and bitumen, of immense size. This lofty edifice is believed by many to have been the identical tower described by Moses. Bel or Belus was a title given to Nimrod, according to Bryant. Its ruins, or the supposed ruins of this ancient tower or temple, have been frequently noticed by antiquaries and modern travellers.*

It is not material to our present purpose to inquire into the object or end for which this remarkable tower was built. Some suppose it was designed to be a " temple to the host of heaven," or for idolatrous worship of some kind ;-others, that it was intended to afford an asylum to the builders and their families in case of another deluge; like the Pyramids of Egypt, perhaps ;-others again, that it was designed to be the central ornament or principal fortress of a grand me. tropolitan city, the seat of government, in order to prevent a general dispersion of the people. "Let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth." Gen. 11: 4.

The sons of Noah had witnessed the massive and colossal structures of the old world-they had seen the great ship which had preserved them from a watery grave-ambition or vanity, or a distrust of the divine providence and promise, might have prompted them, at least some of them, [say the family of Ham, known to have been profane and disobedient,] to imitate the proud monuments of art which had adorned the antediluvian world, that future generations might possess a specimen and a model of the same stupen

* Vide Herodotus, St. Jerome, Calmet, Bochart, Rollin, Bryant, Rich, Niebuhr, Rennell, Della Valle, Ker Porter, Grotefend, etc.

It is very questionable, however, whether even the site of old Babylon can be ascertained at the present day. Lucian intimates that not a vestige of Nineveh remained in his time; and he predicts that such also would soon be the fate of Babylon. In this particular, at least, he accords with the Hebrew prophets.

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