The celebrated encomium paffed on this paffage by the firft of critics, Longinus Tepes, is fo well known that it is almost unneceffary to fay any thing more: but perhaps it may be faid that Longinus spoke by report, and never faw the works of Mofes. In answer to which I affert, notwithstanding the opinion of Bayle, that as Longinus lived in the court of Zenobia, queen of Palmyra, who became a profelyte to the jewith religion, and as he taught her the greek language, it is moft natural and probable to believe that Zenobią made him acquainted with the works of Mofes, which he fo much admired. Befides he was poffeffed with too much good fenfe to venture his reputation in giving his opinion of any author before he had read his works, upon the mere strength of report." And God faw the light that it was good, and God divided the light from the darknefs."

In a fragment of Berofus, mentioned by Syncellus, the phenician cofmogony is recorded in a very ridiculous fable; yet dark and obfcure as it may appear, we may trace ancient tradition correfponding with the account of Mofes; I fhall not therefore trouble the reader with the whole account, but that

only

only which feems to correfpond with our prefent enquiry respecting the feparation of light from darkness. Belus is represented as having cloven Omoroca afunder; of one part he made the earth, and of the other heaven; that he then separated the darkness, and afterwards formed the stars and planets.

5. "And God called the light day, and the darkness he called night, and the evening and the morning were the first day." Plato, after expatiating on the motions of the heavenly bodies, and their use in measuring time, thus speaks of the beautiful alternate change of day and night, νυξ μεν ουν ημερα τε γεγονεν ούτω, και δια ταυτα ή της μιας και φρονιμωτάτης κυκλήσεως περίοδος. 66 Night therefore, and day, after this manner, and for these causes were generated, and make one most rationally pleafing circuit of the globe,"

6. " And God faid, let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters."

In the fixth eclogue of Virgil, Silenus is represented as finging,

Namque

Namque canebat uti magnum per inane coa&ta,
Semina, terrarumque animæque, marifque fuiffent,
Et liquidi fimul ignis: ut his exordia primis
Omnia, et tener mundi concreverit orbis.
Tum durare folum, et difcludere Nerea ponto,
Cæperit, et rerum paulatim fumere formas.
Jamque novum ut terræ ftupeant lucefcere folem,
Altius atque cadant fubmotis nubibus imbres.

"He fung, at univerfal Nature's birth,
How feeds of water, fire, and air, and earth
Fell thro the void, whence order rofe, and all
The beauties of this congregated ball.
How the moist foil grew, ftiffen'd by degrees,
And drove to destin❜d bounds the narrow'd feas;
How earth was feized with wonder and affright,
Struck with the new-born fun's refulgent light;
How clouds condens'd, in liquid fhowers diftill'd,
Dropt fatnefs and refreshment on the field."

7." And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament, from the waters which above the firmament, and it was fo."

8. "And God called the firmament Heaven, and the evening and the morning were the fecond day."

Pliny, in his fecond book of natural hiftory, defcribes the firmament agreeable to the natural conceptions of mankind in gene ral.

"Hactenus

"Hactenus de mundo ipfo, fideribufque, nunc reliqua coeli memorabilia, namque et hoc cœlum appellavere majores, quod alio nomine aëra omne quod inani fimile, vitalem hunc fpiritum fundit, infra lunam hæc fedes, multoque inferior." " I have hitherto difcourfed of the world itself, and of the stars; it now remains to treat of other particulars worthy to be related of heaven, for our ancestors called that heaven, which diffusing a vital fpirit round, is commonly known by the name of air,"

9. And God faid, let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear, and it was fo.

τον αέρα.

Anaxagoras has given us a defcription of the primary arrangement and adjustment of matter in thefe words, Νεν μεν αρχήν κινήσεως των δε σωμαίων τα μεν βαρέα, τον κατα τόπον, ως την γην, τα δε κεφα τον ανω επισχειν ως το πυρ, υδωρ δε και "An intelligent mind, the origin of motion, caused heavy bodies to defcend to a lower ftation; and fuch as were light, as fire, water, and air, to rife to fuperior ftations."

10, "And God called the dry land, earth;

and

and the gathering together of the waters called he feas, and God faw that it was good.".

II.

תדשא

“And God faid, let the earth bring forth the tender grafs, Nw win the herb yielding feed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whofe feed is in itself upon the earth, and it was fo."

Strabo fays, that Nature and Providence co-operating in creation, arranged Matter in its prefent order. That having formed the earth in the midst of the water, from the latter was formed all forts of fifh; and that as man was to be made of a nature capable of enjoying both land and water, Providence hollowed great portions of the earth into which he poured the waters, so as to make the land appear, which was afterwards furnished with fuitable living creatures.

That beautiful paffage of Arrianus in Epictetus, fhould not here be omitted.

Τεταγμένως, καθαπερ εκ προςάγματος Θε8, όταν εκείνος είπη, TOL φυτοις ανθειν ανθεί. οταν ειπη βλασανειν, βλαςάνει, όταν εκφερεια τον κάρπον, εκφερει οταν πεπαίνειν, πεπαινεί. "In regular order, as by divine command, when he fays to the plants, flourish, they flourish; when he fays germinate, they germinate; when bear fruit, they bear it; when come to maturity, they ripen."

The