land animals; as well as entire fish, sea shells, petrified fruits, ears of corn, and various vegetable remains of a former world. Sir William Jones, as I read the other day in his Indian Researches, has also added other monuments from the mythological traditions of those ancient nations, evidently deduced from Moses', or other ancient records of the same catastrophe long since lost.

Olympas. Philosophers, geologists, historians, religionists of every name, are constrained to admit one deluge at least. Some, indeed, arbitrarily deny universality; but all admit its generality. How do you prove, Thomas Dilworth, its universality?

Thomas. Moses says, "The waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth, and all the high hills that were under the whole heaven were covered. Fifteen cubits and upwards did the waters prevail, and the mountains were covered."

Olympas. That is enough for those who take the word of the Lord for proof. Was the destruction of life also universal? I mean, of course,

terrestrial life.

Thomas. The same author says, "And all flesh died that moved upon the earth, both of fowl and of cattle, and of beasts, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth, and every

Olympas. Definite enough. But, Susan, did the whole human race perish?

Susan. All but Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, with their wives. In all eight persons.

Olympas. How, James, were these eight persons saved?

James. In an ark which Noah built.

Olympas. What were its dimensions, William ? William. Three hundred cubits by fifty; or, as you once computed it for us, five hundred feet long, seventy-five wide, and forty-five high.

Olympas. How many tons would it carry?

William. Forty-two thousand and five hundred tons-equal to eighty-five ships of five hundred tons burthen.

Olympas. Yes, and our most accomplished mathematical calculators say, that no vessel could have been more rationally and scientifically arranged and constructed, than was this immense ship, for the purpose of carrying a large freight without sailing far from the place of its construction. How long was it in being reared?

William. One hundred and twenty years. Olympas. Of what sort of timber constructed, James?

James. Of gopher wood, covered over with pitch. Olympas. But did I not teach you that gopher probably meant square timber, and that there was much reason to believe that the ark was built of cedar or of cypress, because these growths abound in Asia, and might have been called gopher, because they put out quadrangular branches in the same horizontal line. Thomas, how many quadrupeds do you suppose were taken into the ark? Thomas. There were pairs of all sorts; but of the clean there were seven pairs.

Olympas. The difference between clean and unclean is, then, older than the flood. But are we, Thomas, to understand clean and unclean as referring to food or to sacrifice?

Thomas. To sacrifice, as it is evident that sacrifice was practised before the flood; but the eating of flesh began afterwards.

Olympas. How many sorts of clean animals, William ?

William. Five-the calf, the sheep, the goat, the turtle dove, and the pigeon. You said that Abraham offered all these on one altar, and that God ever after selected them for sacrifices.

Olympas. In the ark, then, there were how many quadrupeds?

Thomas. According to Buffon there are only some two hundred and fifty species, which would make only some five hundred and fifty in all, clean and unclean.

Olympas. But did I not show on a former occasion that this number was by far too small-that from more recent and accurate details we might set down more than one thousand species of mammallia, (animals that nourish their young by breasts;) of birds, five thousand species; and of reptiles, insects, &c. one hundred thousand. Now, putting down the quadrupeds at one hundred Ibs. each, large and small, this gives only one hundred tons weight; the birds, five lbs. each, would give seventy-five tons; and all other terrestrial creatures would not yield over fifty tons more. In all animated nature, as known to man, taking of each one pair, the weight would not exceed two hundred and twenty-five tons. But to be safe; double the amount, and say we have four hundred and fifty tons; can any one then doubt the capacity of a vessel of forty-two thousand five hundred tons, to stow away the live stock of the

earth, and provisions for one year!!

The ark,

then, was large enough and strong enough to contain comfortably all that Moses embarked upon it. In what form was it put together?

Thomas. In the form of a chest, square at each end; something like an Egyptian or New Orleans flat-boat.

Olympas. How many doors and windows, Susan ?

Susan. Only one door and one window.

Olympas. Was the roof flat, James?

James. I do not read any thing about its roof. Olympas. Read the sixteenth verse of the sixth chapter.

James. "A window shalt thou make to the ark, and in a cubit shalt thou finish it above; and the door of the ark shalt thou set in the side thereof, with lower, second, and third stories shalt thou make it."

Olympas. "And in a cubit shalt thou finish it above." The it refers to the ark, and not to the door. The roof was raised one cubit in the centre that the rain might run off with more facility. Think you, William, this vessel was designed for sailing?

William. Not for sailing, sir; but for floating. Olympas. Did it find a shore, or landing, far from the port whence it was launched?

William. It rested on Mount Ararat, in Armenia, which, for so long a time, was a very short distance; Ararat lying in latitude 39, 30, N., and in 40, 39, E. longitude, nearly in the middle of the immense stony ridge called Taurus, which, according to the ancients, girdled the whole earth.

Olympas. How high was this summit, called Mount Ararat?

William. It is said to be as high as Mount Blanc, in Europe, which is about three miles above the level of the sea.

Olympas. Is not this mountain covered with snow, Reuben ?

Reuben. It is at this time generally enveloped in snow to the extent of five thousand feet. But it is not presumable that it was on the very peak of this mountain that the ark rested.

Olympas. Do you recollect the Persian name of this mountain?

Reuben. They call it Asis, which means "The Happy Mountain," because Noah landed there. Olympas. And what do the Armenians say, who inhabit that region?

Reuben. That Noah after landing his family and stock, settled at Erivan, thirty-six miles from Ararat, and in its vicinity planted a vineyard, where to this day grapes are cultivated, and excellent wine manufactured.

Olympas. James, tell me-How did Noah decide when he should leave the ark?

James. He sent forth a raven, and then a dove. Olympas. Why did he send the raven first, William ?

William. You said the raven being a bird of prey, and feasting on dead animals, would most readily discover whether the earth was dry, by two senses-smelling and seeing; and would indicate this by not returning, as was the fact. But next he sent a dove, fond of the ground, of picking up seeds, and of returning to its rest; but finding