Italian, arises from the Pelafgian, and not from the Hebrew; and this will appear more clearly, by viewing the table of the alphabets, in the fequel of this chapter, where their affinity will be beft difcerned.

I WOULD now ask a few questions, concerning Noah and his family: we are told by Mofes, that Noah was 600 years old when he entered into the ark, and that his fons were near one hundred each. He was the person whom GOD had appointed to take the charge of building the ark, which was a task of fuch importance, and of such a nature, that we cannot imagine one of mean capacity was equal to it: and it is not to be doubted, but that his family was very confiderable and refpectable in the antediluvian world, not only as to his figure and character in life, but also as he was a worshiper of the TRUE GOD; and it is more likely that he was a ruler over a people, than one of a common character; because, as he was to be the father of those who were to repeople the earth, it would rather feem probable, that the ALMIGHTY, in his wifdom, would felect one who understood how to govern, than a perfon who was not versed in matters of this kind: for he was to have the first command over his defcendants, from whom all the earth was to be peopled; and his age was protracted to 350 years more, that he might fee many parts of the globe inhabited from his own loins. Is it, therefore, reasonable to fuppofe, that Noah and his family were illiterate, or that there were no letters used in the old world? Can we fuppofe, that arts, manufactures and commerce were not known among men? Surely no: there is much greater reason to think they had them, than

the

the contrary: Mofes, indeed, has not told us that Noah had the use of letters; but if he had, it would have been. a needlefs digreffion from his purpose, and as ill a compliment to the reft of the antediluvian world, as it would be if a modern hiftorian, in giving the character of a great man, should tell the world, his hero could read and write; and as to arts and commerce, there can be no doubt of their having flourished, fince we are told, in the fourth chapter of Genefis, that Jubal, one of Cain's great grandfons, was the father of all fuch as handle the harp and organ; and that another, Tubal Cain, was the inftructer of every artificer in brafs and iron. These hints are fufficient to fhew an impartial reader, that the inhabitants of the old. world were as well skilled in arts, manufactures and commerce, as those of the new, fince the arts above-mentioned were exercised, even as early as Cain's great grandchildren, and, according to the course of fucceffive times, must have. been improved and diverfified to a number of articles and branches, as neceffity, and the inventive genius of mankind, suggested, from time to time.

It is not unreasonable to fuppofe, that when Adam was created, he was made a perfect man, not only in his form, but also in the accomplishments of his mind; for, to imagine that he should come from the Divine Hand in a state of stupidity and ignorance, would be doubting the goodnefs of the CREATOR, and the truth of Holy Writ. He had the dominion over every thing upon the earth, and it was referred to himself to give them names; and if we call to mind, that GOD faid, let us make man in our own image, we cannot but allow, that he was wife, and en

dowed

dowed with all the knowledge that his finite ftate was capable of receiving; because, making him in his own image could not regard his corporeal, but his mental ftate alone.

PERHAPS fuch rational reflexions as thefe led many learned authors, of different nations, to affert, that our firft parent was inftructed in all arts and Sciences, letters and prophefies, to which Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Chaldean, Arabic, Samaritan, and Egyptian authors consent.

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Suidas afferts, that Adam was the author of arts and letters; of sciences, rational and non-rational; of prophefies, and the operations of facred matters; of laws, written and not written; &c. his words are: « τέτε τέχναι η γράμσε ματα, τέτε ἐπισῆμαι λογικαὶ καὶ ἄλογοι, τέτε προφητεῖαι, ἱερεργίαι « & καθαρμοί, νόμοι γραπ]οί τε ὲ ἄγραφοι, τέτε πάντα ευρήματα.” And the Hebrew commentators, upon the place of the neration of Adam, say: our rabbins affert, that Adam our father, of bleffed memory, compofed a book of precepts, which were delivered by GoD in the garden of "Eden;" to this may be added what Rabbi Tanakus Bar Haja, in Rabboth, declares, viz. "the king MESSIAS will "not come, till all the fouls fhall be created which arofe "in the cogitation of GOD, and these are the fouls hinted "in the books of Adam, in thefe words: and this is the "book of the generations of Adam.” To enumerate every author of this opinion would be endless, tending to prove that arts, letters, and all Sciences, were handed down to pofterity from Adam, through his fons; and that the line of Seth made a proper use of them; but the iffue of Cain perverted those parts that were hiftorical of the theogony and worship of the TRUE. GOD; that Japhet and Shem

also made a proper ufe of those writings, which were mutilated and abused by Ham, and his descendants, in applying them to idolatrous myfteries and forcery. Hence it is easy to fee, that what Mofes has written he had from the books, or traditions, preferved in the line of Shem; and that what is handed down, concerning these matters, from Japhet, by the Pelafgian bards, were from the fame fource. The reader will find several of thefe authors collected by Athanafius Kircher, in his Arca Noe, chap. v. and vi. tending to prove the antiquity of letters from the beginning of the world.

But this, I think, is further made evident, by the opinions of several men of weight and great credit: as Josephus, who tells us, "that Seth and his fons were the first "that made their obfervations upon the motions of the "heavens, the courfes and influences of the ftars;. and

having been foretold by Adam of an univerfal deluge, they erected two pillars, one of brick, and the other of "stone, which they were fure would be proof against fire

or water. Upon these pillars they engraved the memo"rials of their difcoveries and inventions for the benefit of pofterity, least their fcience fhould be loft: in this their "labour was not in vain; for the ftone pillar, fays Jofephus, is yet to be feen in Syria, to this very day."

ST. Jude alfo teftifies, that "Enoch, the seventh from "Adam, prophefied of (wicked men) faying: behold, the "Lord cometh, with ten thousand of his faints, to execute "judgment upon all, &c." And it is reported by Origen, that certain books of Enoch, of the courfe, names and mctions of the ftars, were found in Arabia Felix, in the do

minion of the queen of Saba, which Tertullian affirms he faw, and read feveral pages of them: befides, St. Augustine, Bede and Procopius mention these books; the firft of whom fays: "Scripfiffe quidem nonnulla divina Enoch "illum feptimum ab Adamo negare non poffumus." Some persons are apt to treat these teftimonies too lightly; but, for my own part, I cannot help being of opinion, that Noah was in poffeffion of such records, as contained the tranfactions of the old world, of which he was 600 years an inhabitant, efpecially of the race of the righteous, whose offspring he was; and furely we may imagine, he was as willing to preserve them, as any thing elfe which he did fecure, from that deftruction.

ONE would be furprized to find any doubt made, that the knowledge and sciences of the antediluvian world should be in Noub's family, when we confider, that the longevity of Adam and his fons and grandsons brought them down to be cotemporaries in fucceffion with fome of their own offspring, even to very near the time of the flood; and it will appear, that the whole race of this upright family had a continual intercourfe with one another, down to that catastrophe, by the following table of their lives, from Adam to Noah, which I have tranflated from Chitraus. See page 113, of his excellent book, Chronologia Hiftoriæ Herodoti & Thucydidis, which he calls a series of the ages of the world, from the creation to the beginning of the Hiftory of Herodotus. This table will probably be very fatisfactory in removing any doubt of the knowledge of arts and learning in the old world, and of their being handed down to the new.

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