Extent of the flood. hended all the earth that was then inhabited, we do not know. It is by no means improbable that the race had spread beyond its limits. And the fact that the Egyptians have no tradition of the deluge, suggests the pos sibility that Egypt did not share the disaster that came upon Western Asia. And the same may certainly be said of remoter portions of the world. This would make the rapid peopling of the world subsequently, more easily accounted for, and is, all things considered, the most reasonable solution of that problem. rational. In the facts of human history, then, we find the origin of the story of the flood. In reThe story cording an affair of such tremendous moment, it could hardly be otherwise than that the account should come to be invested somewhat with the character of romance. For in this as in many other sacred stories, the facts recorded are of less importance than the lesson taught; a deeper meaning is implied than the words immediately express. That men should have grown wicked when left without wisdom, example, or restraint is in no sense strange; and that they should have brought destruction on themselves, in consequence of vice and crime, is something we are not troubled now to understand. Only justice and truth, equity and honor can guarantee the existence of society. Abolish these and society disintegrates; no man trusts his neighbor, and the whole social fabric goes to rapid ruin. The tragedy oft repeated. But the tragedy of the flood, in different forms, has been re-enacted many times, and is passing on the stage again to-day. A nation perishes; but here and there a devoted teacher, a heroic leader, with some virtue to commend him to posterity, stands out above his nation and his age. While the nation dies he lives; and though the nation may be buried in the flood of subsequent events, he is accorded a place in the living heart of a grateful world. And here we find the moral of the lesson of the flood. If the time shall ever come when this nation perishes, when the very memory thereof shall have almost passed away, there are a few names, perhaps not half so many as in Noah's family, shall live; for their virtues, their courage, their fortitude and faithfulness forbid that they be forgot. We stand upon the ruins of the Athenian Acropolis to-day. The history of the glorious times that were, seem now but the Reflections. dissolving fabric of a dream. But the ghosts of such as Socrates and Plato seem still to haunt those ancient streets, and are more real to us than anything beside in the whole history of Greece. The nation was buried long ago, swept away as by a flood, but the best things in it were preserved. And finally, if we go to Palestine and climb the dreary hills about Jerusalem, traverse the desolate Judean plains, and think of the wonders of that ancient world-of the wilderness and Sinai, of the temple and the throne - there is one figure that towers over all the rest; one life that rises above, and makes even poor and wretched Bethlehem and dilapidated Nazareth most holy ground; for there went out thence a more potent force, to shape the lives and quicken the hearts of men, than the world has ever known beside. "And the whole earth was of one language and of one speech." "The formation of language supposes two conditions: 1. A consciousness in man of his power to produce articulate sounds 2. A perception of the possibility of those sounds becoming the signs of his ideas."-LOCKE'S Essay. “Th' invention all admired, and each how he To be th' inventor missed; so easy 't seemed Once found, which yet unfound, most would have thought -Paradise Lost. |