THE

CHURCH OF ENGLAND

Quarterly Review.

JANUARY, MDCCCXXXIX.

ART. I.—The Doctrine of the Deluge, vindicating the Scriptural Account from the Doubts which have recently been cast upon it by Geological Speculations. By the Rev. L. VERNON HARCOURT. In two vols. London: Longman and Co. 1838.

EVERY day convinces us of the increasing necessity of vindicating the Scriptures from the presumptuous pretensions of that rank infidelity, which, under the specious name of Geology, has not blushed to question the veracity of that primitive history of the earth, which we and all preceding ages have acknowledged as the inspired Word of God. We, therefore, gladly undertook an examination of Mr. Harcourt's volumes; and wishing the antidote to be as extensive as the poison, we hoped, in vain, that they would have thoroughly refuted the blasphemous dicta of Geologians.

In the introductory chapter, we observe a long excursus on Etymology, especially on the modified forms of identical words; we cannot deny, that Professor Jäkel, who in one part is Mr. Harcourt's leading authority, has displayed ingenuity, and often discrimination; nevertheless, no inconsiderable number of the instances is incorrect from the mere want of retracing the terms to a higher source. The various modes in which Europeans have expressed Asiatic names, are cited, as examples of variation, yet incorrectly: for the characters intended to be thus expressed remain the same in the original tongues, and no fact can be adduced from the arbitrary folly of those who have clothed them at random in a foreign dress. Great errors, in the exhibi

tion of Sanscrit and Persian terms, are of continual occurrence, and the primitive senses are very incorrectly given.

In the mythological researches, an indefatigable industry is exemplified; but the writer is biassed in favour of the systems of Bryant and Faber, and sees Noah and the Ark in almost every tradition. The matter is yet very valuable, inasmuch as it is convertible to other purposes, which will bear a sterner criticism; but the arguments are vitiated by the Etymologies. Almost every page convinces us that Mr. Harcourt is not acquainted with the Eastern tongues, which have lent their aid to his investigations. If he had only sufficiently acquainted himself with the characters and the leading rules of the respective grammars to have consulted the lexica, his opinions would have been altered on many points.

We must, however, commence a partial analysis. The chapter on the permanence of antient superstitions and usages is curious. The great pilgrimage, which Herodotus records to have taken place to the temple of Serapis, at Canopus, now Aboukir, continues, though directed to a different object, to the present time; and although instead of pagans going to their temple, the Turks visit the tombs of their santons, and the Copts the churches of their saints; the licentious songs and dances, which appear to have originated with the Egyptians, and were festive accompaniments to these occasions, are not abolished. The superstition also of children wearing small stones about their necks, mentioned by Pausanias 1,700 years ago, was observed by Dr. Clarke at Orchomenus. A tradition of the brazen serpent, which Moses erected in the Wilderness, equally singular, is commemorated. The charm, too, by which the Athenian maidens, of the present day, endeavour at a certain spot on the east bank of the Ilissus to ascertain their future husbands on the first evening of the new moon, is the remnant of a superstition in honour of Venus, whose statue formerly stood on that very spot. At Anna, now Castrogiovanni, in Sicily, the spot where the Temple of Proserpine was built, the scene of her rape having been the borders of a lake five miles off, where Ceres annually came from her temple, on the opposite side of the city to visit her daughter, the custom has not perished; for the Madonna is annually removed from the Chiesa della Madre to that of the Padri Reformati, staying there fifteen days, so that "the Virgin Mary has in this case succeeded not only to the honours, but even to the name of Ceres, for the Greeks call her Demeter."

It is well observed, that in Greece the remnants of the old idolatry are like a Codex Palimpsestus, "on which, though the

writing is erased, yet the marks of it are sufficiently visible to the observant eye." Thus the priests of Scamnya, a village, on the 20th day of every June, perform mass on the highest point of Olympus; and on Mount Hymettus, where once were a temple of Venus and a fountain, supposed to facilitate parturition, there is now a monastery, to which at particular seasons the Greek women repair; "and the priest told Chandler, that a dove, which it will be recollected was the bird sacred to Venus, is seen to fly down from heaven to drink of the water annually at the feast of Pentecost." The dove having been sacred to Venus, the accommodation is evident.

At Rome the names of the idols have been retained, as if the Romanists were desirous of stamping idolatry most legibly upon their religion. Middleton affirms, that he saw an altar erected to St. Baccho and other pagan saints, whom he enumerates, as Quirinus, Romula, Concordia, Nympha, and Mercurius. The burning of candles is referred, by Mr. Harcourt, to the festival at Sais. It is also maintained, that up to the time of the Refor mation the antient rites of Diana were substantially, though not avowedly, performed in London, when on a certain day the head of a wild beast fixed on the point of a long spear, accompanied by the noise of hunters' horns, was brought into St. Paul's great church. To this be it added, that St. Paul's was originally built by Ethelbert, King of Kent, on the site of a Temple of Diana the huntress. In the practice of perambulating the boundaries of parishes in rogation week, Mr. Harcourt adverts to the procession in honour of the god Terminus; and in the pancake of Shrove-Tuesday to the feast in the Fornicalia, "appointed to commemorate the manner in which bread was baked before the invention of the oven by the deified Fornax." In the festivities of May-day he perceives the Floralia; in the Christmas-holidays the Saturnalia. In the decorations of churches and houses with evergreens, Chandler detects Druidism, and states the original object to have been, that the Sylvan spirits might repair to the domestic hearths and remain unnipped by frost and cold winds, until the return of a milder season should restore them to their favourite haunts. The misletoe is likewise retraced to paganism. The custom, which prevailed in the time of Louis XIV., of a man personating a prince, called Roifollet, going into the woods at Christmas, and bawling ou gui ménez, analogous to that of the Guiscarts of Edinburgh, who were disguised persons, that shouted hay menay, has been retraced to corruptions of the lunar worship and ayia μývŋ or sacred moon. We however have not sufficient fancy to enable us to recognize in Maid Marian and the Morris-dance Miriam the prophetess and her dancing

women. Candlemas is referred to the pagan custom of parading Rome"with torches and candles brenning in worship of Februa, for hope to have the more help and succour of her son Mars;" this custom is expressly and authoritatively asserted to have been accommodated to Christianity by Pope Sergius. The pontifical practice of hallowing convenient things is well known.

The grey peas of Midlent-Sunday or Carlin-Sunday are retraced as to their origin to the Charwoche (here improperly called Karrwochen) or Passion-week, the week commemorative of the divine satisfaction made for punishment due; but we do not perceive with the author, that it is on this account a remnant of an old heathen superstition. The distribution of pulse on the 12th of March, in the old Roman Calendar, is compared to the pagan distribution of beans at funerals; which the Flamen Dialis was not even allowed to touch, on whose flowers letters of woe, like Ovid's ai, ai, were inscribed, sympathizing with the dead. The Good Friday-bun is averred to be the Grecian Boûr, explained by Julius Pollux and Hesychius to be a cake with horns; and Easter as deduced from Eostre, commemorates the name of one of the idols of our ancestors. Ochus Bochus, the magician, and Necus the demon, claim the origin of Hocus Pocus and Old Nick: though we have always understood the former to have been a corruption of Hoc est corpus in the Roman Catholic service. The Scotch custom of lifting the bride over the threshold has been retraced by Sir Walter Scott to the ceremony observed at Rome, in commemoration of the rape of the Sabines; and the sweet cake baked on this occasion is also referred to the classic rite. As the antients held, that only bad women were married in the month of May, so the Scottish, even of better rank, avoid that month. Mr. Harcourt has cited many other remarkable instances, in which the visible proof of paganism stands forth; but thinking that he has not thoroughly penetrated the superstition respecting towers, we refer him to Faber's Archaeologie der Hebräer. The triple bathings, the triple circumambulations of cairns, attended with circumvolutions performed with the course of the sun, the belief of medicinal virtues attached to particular waters, and the like were decidedly pagan, and are vigorously existent in some of the eastern parts of the world. We dismiss the extraordinary detections of the flood, which the writer discerns in there things, as really unworthy of serious criticism; and we wish that we could, in compliment to his industry, withhold our remarks. We shall indeed elsewhere pretermit many parts, of which we do not approve: but shall not omit to bring the valuable to open light: yet

though abhorring the mere snarlings of cynical criticism, we must not entirely be deterred from the expression of our opinions.

The identity of certain Hindu and Celtic superstitions is properly noticed. The idea of regeneration, obtained by passing through natural fissures in Hindustan and Ireland, discloses an uniformity of origin: and both we conceive to have branched out of the Lingapuja and Yonipuja, which were prevalent at one time both in the east and west. We are far from being satisfied that in the pagan mysteries the Hierophants connected the notion with the Deluge; although, when the term became applied to a sublimer doctrine, the Scriptures typically connected the doctrine with it. We give Bryant all credit for his extensive learning; but we cannot see any where in the pagan idea of regeneration any certain reference to the Ark. We exceedingly regret, that this fancy should have clouded the intellect of scholars. We grant, that memorials of the Ark were scattered all over the world; but we cannot admit, that almost every tradition in the world had a reference to the Ark; and as philologers, we sternly protest against the very ungrammatical process by which the notion has been supported. We must be excused for frequently recurring to this one point; for it is very galling to us to perceive attempts to deduce facts from the evidence of languages, which the works prove to be unknown to the writers.

The custom at Llandegla, in Derbyshire, of patients in epilepsy after sunset washing in the well of St. Thecla, after an offering of a few pence, thrice walking round it, thrice repeating the Lord's prayer, entering the Church, getting under the Communion-table, putting a Bible under their heads, covered with a carpet or cloth, resting there till day-break, and then, having made an offering of sixpence, and leaving a fowl in the Church, which had been previously carried round the well, departing, -has not been inaptly compared to the antient sacrifice of a cock to Esculapius, to the three-fold revolution round the mystic waters, to the heathen sanctuary and sacred cave, for which the Communion-table is here substituted.

"The threefold circumgyration round cairns and chapels, with a view to the recovery of health, is said to be still practised in Scotland; at least it was not long ago; and Martin of the Isles mentions the same ceremony having been performed round himself by a baggar, in token of respect and gratitude."

This custom, which still exists in India, and is enjoined in the Hindu sacred books, is of the remotest antiquity: Pindar, in his first Olympic, alludes to it, where he is speaking of the tomb of Pelops; and the terms of the Hebrew Bible lead us to suppose, that the altar of Jehovah was circumambulated. That water