The flood was already upon the earth forty days, and the waters continued to increase, when they bare up the ark, and it was lift up above the earth, by which its living freight was saved, although it had called forth the anger of God in so marked a manner, as to stimulate his destruction of the remainder of their various species. The character of the few to whom mercy had been extended was not remodelled or improved, but, at the expiration of the term of their voyage, they were to be permitted to return to the earth, embodied in all their pristine infirmities, possessed of undiminished capability for propagation, and competent to renew the selfsame species which had called forth the anger of their Creator.

The story reads strangely inconsistent, and its incongruity is increased, when we reflect on the favouritism displayed for the race of fishes. The exterminating decree extended to "all in whose nostrils was the breath of life," and in Gen. vi. 13, "the end of all flesh is come before me," which, unless we make the distinction that fish is not flesh, ought to have included the natives of the waters. But they must be supposed to rejoice in a state of immunity, and to be exempt from the destruction caused by the flood. They propagated their respective species, and they supported their existence by preying upon each other; nevertheless, they are in safety from the consequences of the anger of God, nor does Noah appear to have made any preparation for their reception within the body of the ark.

This discrepancy exposes the blindness of the legend, and the falseness of the motive ascribed by it to the Creator. Moreover, there are various species of ani

F

mals which are amphibious, whose nature is common to both water and land. If, therefore, fish, as a race, were made an exception to the exterminating decree, in which category did Noah consider himself authorized to place the amphibious creatures? Were they fish or flesh?

The finny tribe, being exempted from destruction, would, from the increase of the waters, have added largely to its numbers. What sad punishment awaited these unfortunates on the assuaging of the waters within their legitimate volume! Their case would be parallel with that of the animals packed in the lower storey of the ark.

If the mountains had sunk, their summits would naturally have disappeared beneath the surface of the ocean; but this is not the process by which the author of this legend chooses to produce the flood. He opened the windows of heaven, and broke up the fountains of the great deep, by which he would tell us that rainwater proceeded from a reservoir in the upper firmament, and that the ocean was the produce of certain springs in the lower one, and thus, setting science at defiance, he covered with water the highest mountains for fifteen cubits upwards. The highest mountain tops have an elevation of five miles, and the greatest depths of the ocean are likewise about five miles. In order to cover the highest mountains, a quantity of water would be needed of eight times the bulk of that which now covers the earth.

We do not inquire whence this vast quantity of water could have been derived, because we know that the "Great First Cause" has no limit to the immensity of his power; and when that power is exercised,

whether in the construction of a solar system of prodigious extension, or in the minute formation of a particle of matter, every object is characteristic of order and of wisdom. But the demonstration of that wisdom is exhibited by fixed rules, to which mankind give the name of law. It follows, therefore, that since the date of the animal creation, the occurrence of such an event as a flood, which covered the tops of the highest mountains, is an hallucination of man, not a vindictive act of the Creator.

The rocky records of created matter which contain the relics of the vegetable and animal kingdoms, whose existence was witnessed by innumerable ages anterior to man, these records are a living and lasting testimony in disproof of the Noachian flood. The first specimens of vegetable and animal life assumed the simplest and least complicated forms. Gradually higher forms of organic life appeared, suited to a higher preparation for them on the earth's surface. These left their remains in layers of mud, sand, or clay, each layer fulfilling the cycle of time needful for the conversion of mud, sand, or clay into hardened rock.

We do not in this place undertake to put forward an hypothesis as to the manner of creation. Our remarks apply to an epoch, probably of countless ages after the date at which the created elements were reduced to order, when the surface of the earth was covered with vegetation and peopled with animal life. In this con dition the earth became constituted by its Maker into a vast museum of natural history, which not only preserved the forms of distinct races of agents in vegetable and animal life, gradually rising from inferior to superior, until they reached man, but also demonstrating

the formation of the mineral world, with its vast coal deposits, its useful metals, and its ornamental gems and precious stones. Some of the mineral specimens are formed by means of deposition and pressure, and others by the action of heat. The whole arrangement is divested of caprice or anger, but exhibits the systematic workings of wisdom and order.

In proportion as one family of agents became too low for an improved condition in the earth's surface, they were supplanted by a higher family; and, in this manner, successions of races in the vegetable and animal kingdoms have had continuous growth, each occupying the cycle of time needful for its perfect. development. Thus families of improved races may succeed each other on the surface of our planet to all eternity!

THE SCRIPTURAL LEGEND OF THE CESSATION OF

The Scriptural Legend of

the Cessation of the Flood.

THE FLOOD.

Gen. viii. 1-22.

"And God remembered Noah, and every living thing, and all the cattle that was with him in the ark; and God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters assuaged. The fountains also of the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped, and the rain from heaven was restrained; and the waters returned from off the earth continually and after the end of the hundred and fifty days, the waters were abated. And the ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, upon the mountains of Ararat. And the waters decreased continually until the tenth month: in

the tenth month, on the first day of the month, were the tops of the mountains seen. And it came to pass at the end of forty days, that Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made. And he sent forth a raven, which went forth to and fro, until the waters were dried up from off the earth. Also he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters were abated from off the face of the ground; but the dove found no rest for the sole of her foot, and she returned unto him into the ark, for the waters were on the face of the whole earth: then he put forth his hand, and took her, and pulled her in unto him into the ark. And he stayed yet other seven days; and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark; and the dove came into him in the evening; and, lo, in her mouth was an olive leaf plucked off: so Noah knew that the waters were abated from off the earth. And he stayed yet other seven days, and sent forth the dove, which returned not again unto him any more. And it came to pass in the six hundred and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried up from off the earth and Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked, and, behold, the face of the ground was dry. And in the second month, on the seven and twentieth day of the month, was the earth dried. And God spake unto Noah, saying, Go forth of the ark, thou, and thy wife, and thy sons, and thy sons' wives with thee. Bring forth with thee every living thing that is with thee, of all flesh, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth; that they may breed abundantly in the earth, and be fruitful, and multiply upon the earth. And Noah went forth, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons' wives with him.