fully, I may nevertheless assure you, after full inquiry and consideration, that the Chinese believed the earth to have been wholly covered by water, which, in works of undisputed authenticity, they describe as flowing abundantly, then subsiding, and separating the higher from the lower age of mankind." Still more coincident with the Mosaic account, is the Grecian history of the deluge as preserved by Lucian, a native of Samosata on the Euphrates, and its authority is the more incontrovertible, on account of his being an avowed derider of all religions. He says that," in the age of the Scythian Deucalion, all men perished in a general inundation of the globe." Speaking of the temple of Hieropolis in Syria, he observes, "Many persons assert that this temple was erected by Deucalion the Scythian, that Deucalion in whose days the great inundations of waters took place. I have heard in Greece, what the Grecians say concerning this Deucalion. The story they relate is as follows: The present race of men is not the first, for they totally perished; but it is of a second generation, which being descended from Deucalion, has increased to a great multitude. Now of the former race of men they relate this story. They were insolent and addicted to unjust actions; for they neither kept their oaths, nor were hospitable to strangers, nor gave ear to suppliants, for which reason this great calamity befell them on a sudden the earth poured forth vast quantities of water; great showers fell, the rivers overflowed, and the sea rose to a prodigious height, so that all things became water, and all men were destroyed; only Deucalion was left to a second generation, on account of his great prudence and piety. He was saved in this manner; he went into a large ark or chest, which be had fabricated, together with his sons and their wives, and when he was in, there entered swine, and horses, and lions, and serpents, and all other creatures which live on the earth, by pairs. He received them all, and they did him no hurt, for the gods created a great friendship among them, so that they sailed all in one chest while the waters prevailed.

According to Josephus there were a multitude of ancient authors who concurred in asserting that the world had once been destroyed by a flood. "This deluge," says he, " and the ark are mentioned by all who have written barbaric histories, one of whom is Barosus the Chaldean." Eusebius informs us that Milo, a bitter enemy of the Jews, and whose testimony is on this account peculiarly valuable, takes notice of the person who was saved along with his sons, from the flood, having been, after his preservation, driven away from Arme

nus, after giving an account of the deluge, from which Xisuthrus, the Chaldean Noah, was saved, concludes with asserting an exact circumstance with Berosus, that the chest first rested on the mountains of Armenia, and that its remains were used by the natives as a talisman. Plutarch mentions the Noaic dove being sent out of the ark and returning to it again, as an intimation to Deucalion that the storm had not yet ceased. The priests of Ammonia had a custom, at particular seasons, of carrying in procession a boat, in which was an oracular shrine held in great veneration; and this custom of carrying the deity in an ark or boat was in use also among the Egyptians. Bishop Pocoke has preserved three specimens of ancient sculpture, in which this ceremony is displayed. They were very ancient, and found by him in Upper Egypt. The ship of Isis referred to the ark, and its Baris," was that of the mountain corresponding to Ararat in Armenia. Bryant finds reference to the ark in the temples of the serpent worship called Diocantia; and also in that of Sevortus, fashioned after the model of the ark, in commemoration of which it was built and consecrated to Osiris at Theba; and he conjectures that the city, said to be one of the most ancient in Egypt, as well as the province, was denominated from it, Theba being the appellation of the ark.

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In other countries as well as in Egypt an ark, or ship, was introduced into their mysteries, and often carried about in the seasons of their festivals. He finds also in the story of the Argonauts, several particulars that are thought to refer to the ark of Noah. As many cities, not in Egypt only and Boeotia, but in Cilicia, Ionia, Attica, Cataonia, Syria and Italy, were called Theba, so likewise the city of Apamea was denominated Cibotus from kibotos, in memory of the ark, and of the history connected with it. The ark, according to the traditions of the Gentile world, was prophetic, and was regarded as a kind of temple, and residence of the deity. It comprehended all mankind within the circle of eight persons, who were thought to be so highly favored of heaven, that they at last were reported to be deities. Hence in the ancient mythology of Egypt there were precisely eight gods; and the ark was deemed an emblem of the system of the heavens. The principal terms by which the ancients distinguished the ark were Theba, Baris, Arguz, Aren, Laris, Bootus and Cibotus, and out of these they formed different personages.

The annexed medal, which is preserved in the cabinet of the king of France, is too remarkable to be overlooked; and having been particularly scrutinized by the late Abbe Barthelemy, at the desire of the

late Dr. Comb, was, by that able antiquary, pronounced authentic. It bears on one side the head of Severus, on the other a history in two parts, representing two figures, enclosed in an ark or chest, sustained by stout posts at the corners, and well timbered throughout. On the side are letters; on the top is a dove; in front, the same two figures

which we see in the ark are here described as come out, and departing from their late residence. Hovering over them is the dove with a sprig in its bill. (Double histories are common on medals.) The situation of these figures implies the situation of the door, and clearly commemorates an escape from the dangers of water, by means of a floating vessel. Mr. Bryant informs us that the letters on the ark are NO E, as will be evident from close inspection of the medal; and the patriarch was known in Grecian antiquity by the name of Noe, as by the Hindoos he was called Nu.

These allusions to the ark, and traditions concerning the deluge, are far from being confined to the ancient nations of Asia and Europe; they equally obtained among the aboriginal inhabitants of this continent, those of the West Indies and the isles of the Pacific. One of the circumnavigators of the globe says, that some of the inhabitants of the island of Otaheitæ being asked concerning their origin, answered that their supreme God, having a long time ago been angry, dragged the earth through the sea, when their island was broken off and preserved. In the island of Cuba, the people are said to believe that the world was once destroyed by water by three persons, evidently alluding to the three sons of Noah. It is even related that they have a tradition among them that an old man, knowing that the deluge was approaching, built a large ship and went into it with a great number of animals, and that he sent out from the ship a crow, which did not immediately come back, staying to feed on the carcases of dead animals, but afterwards returned with a green branch in its