It seems tolerably certain that the EgypiiseiW no records of the Delnge, at least if we an to cn£ Manetho. Nor has any such record been detected c the monuments, or preserved in the mytbologT^ Egypt, They knew, however, of the flood of Den- lion, but seem to have been in donbt whether H n to be regarded as partial or nniverBal, and they a^ posed it to have been preceded by several otheB.
On all these and many similar traditions in dnEe{ and savage natbns, see the works of Bryaat (i«i^ Mythology, Lend. 1774-e, 3 vols. Uo, voLin)aBdE8^ court (Doctrine qfthe Debtye, Load. 1888, 2 vek Sr\ in which, after rejecting what is frunctftd, eas^gb » mains to attest the wide-spread existence and bob agreement of these traditionary reooQeetioof of i ^ coextensive with the human race.
III. Exteni of the JTood.— On this question tm (?» ions have been entertained : one, that it was gagat over the whole globe ; the otho*, that it wst psrtii affecting only those regions over which the braffi raoe had extended. In all inquiries into tfai^ «^ it is well to bear in mind the design to be folflk^ ^ the **flood of waters." That design was pUidjoet to destroy and remodel the surfiuse of the earth. ^ though the inferior animals wore involved ia s ib fate with the human race, it was not for thdr datra- tion that the great cata^rophe came. Tbs vic^ ness of man had evoked the divine anger; to »ve^ him and his crimes, therefore, fh>m the het d ^ earth, the fountains of the great de^ were brobs 9 and the windows of heaven were opened; beaa ^ may reasonably infer that no greater devaststioo **>^ be permitted than was unavoidable to eecare tk^ ^ stroction of the human fiunily. Against tbe bA opinion there is, accordingly, this preUnuBuy #^ tion, that either it takes for granted thst tht «^ world was peopled in the days of Noah, or it repw^ as involved in ruin large tracts of land!, Ikir sadtetid though nninhabited by man. For tbe first altov^ there is no evidence in Scripture. Indeed, tbe ^ narrative of the preparation of the ark, and Notb*i in- tercourse with his fellow-men, leads ns to bAr ^ the popnlatbn of the globe at the time was DOtto*^' tensive but that the warnings of the patrisn^ caU be everywhere heard and known. It wooUhsv* bMS
DELUGE
737
DELUGE
in taslc if his Bingle yoice bad been reqnbred to i in. all lands. The second alternative is equally rse to the opinion of the nni venality of the deluge, ; necessitates our belief in the destruction of large ons of the earth's surface where man had never , and -which could not, therefore, have become ed and defiled by sin — a view that is opposed to mown. modes of God's dealings with his creatures. against the idea of a general flood over the whole e simultaneously, many arguments of much great- rce may be brought forward. These are derived i a consideration of the laws by which the present onxy of nature is regulated. If it be objected to e arguments that the deluge was a miracle, and t, accordingly, be judged apart from the operation Lw, it is sufficient to reply that, whether a miracle .ot, it -was bronghl about by the ordinary agencies ature ;, ** the fountains of the deep were broken up" lat la, the land was depressed and the sea rolled over ** the windows of heaven were opened" — in other -ds, a constant and heavy rain was sent upon the ;b ; and again, when the waters were to be dried off land, a wind was made to blow upon them. In rt, from the beginning to the end of the narrative jcnesis, we meet with no setting aside of the laws nature. Everything is done in strict accordance h those laws, as if to teach a truth which b very to be forgotten in the present day, that what we I the laws of nature is only the constant mode in ich the Creator acts, and that by the operation of lee laws, directed as he sees fit, he works out his rpofies in creation.
1. The astronomical difficulties in the way of the the- r of the absolute universality of the flood over the rth's anriace are insuperable. Granting, for an in- mt, that from some unknown source a vast body of Iter was introduced on the surface of our planet, we e led to ask what would be the result? It can be own that there was no general collapse of the earth's U8t, and the water must therefore have risen five lies above the sea-level, so as to cover the top of the ^hest mountain. The effect of this would be to in- ease the equatorial diameter of the earth by some n or twelve miles. The orbit round the sun would )nsequent1y be altered. The influence of its attrac- on on the planets would be increased, and thus the ement of disorder would reach to the remotest re- ions of space. But let us suppose that a change of lis kind was permitted to extend through the uni- erse, what is the next step in this series of impossible appositions ? After a period of less than a year the raters aasoage, and the earth is once more as it used ) be. Here, again, another change must have ex- anded through the firmament. The old relations of be heavenly bodies are re-established, and the orbits ontinue as they were before the flood. Thus we must uppose a serious alteration to have disturbed every «lestial body throughout the whole universe, to have asted while our earth performed some three hundred 'evolutions on its axis, and then to have ceased by the "etuni of everything to the original condition. And his stupendous system of aberration had for its object the destruction of a race of creatures inhabiting a mere »peck among the planetary systems I No one will pre- tend that this hypothesis has any shadow of probabil- ity.