Apart from the testimonies of geologj', there are other sciences which must be interrogated on such a subject. These are, chiefly, terrestrial physics, to as- sign the possibility of a supply of water to stand all over the globe five miles in depth above the level of the ordinary sea ; natural history, to count the mj-ri- ads of species of living creatures to be preserved and continued in the ark ; mechanics, to construct such a vessel; with some others not less necessary to the case. But we have no space to enter more minutely on such points : the reader will find them most clear- ly and candidly stated in Dr. Pye Smith's Geology and Scriptwe, etc., p. 130, 2d edit. See Ark.
Lot us now glance at tlie nature and possible solu- tions of the difficulty thus presented. We believe onlj' two main solutions have been attempted. One is that proposed by Dr. Pye Smith {ib. p. 294), who expressly contends that there is no real contradiction between these facts and the description in the IMosaic record, uhen the latter is correctly interpreted. This more cor- rect interpretation then refers, in the first instance, to the proper import of the Scripture terms commonly talien to imply the tmiversaUty of the deluge. These the author shows, by a large comparison of similar passages, are onh' to be understood as expressing a great extent ; often, indeed, the very same phrase is ap- plied to a very limited region or country, as in Gen. xli, 56 ; Deut. ii, 25 ; Acts ii, 5, etc. Thus, so far as these expressions are concerned, tlie description maj' apjdv to a local deluge. Next, tlie destruction of the whole existing human race does not by any means im- ply this universality, since, by ingenious considera- tions as to the multiplication of mankind at the al- leged era of the deluge, the author has shown that they
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prolialilj' had not extended bej'ond a comparatively limited district of the East. A local destruction of an- imal life would also allow of such a reduction of the numbers to be included in the ark as might obviate objections on that score ; and here again the Oriental idiom may save the necessity of the literal supposition of every actual species being included. This is a con- sideration of very great importance when we take into account the countless varieties of animated beings for which the ark itself made no provision, such as rep- tiles, insects, and even fishes, which could not exist in the brackish w^aters, even if they survived the collis- ions of tlie flood. The other ditHculties above alluded to, arising from kindred sciences, such as the lack of water, the effect of so large an accession of water upon the temperature and upon the rotation of the earth, the unfitness of such a place as the ark for the long confinement of so many animals, the actual existence of trees in different parts of the world older than the deluge, and the impossibilitj- of preserving even veg- etable life for so long a time under water, are all like- wise obviated by the supposition of a local deluge. Again, the difficulties in the way of the descent of so many animals from so loftj', bleak, and craggj- a mountain as Ararat, and their dissemination thence over all the world, are obviated in this waj', by sup- posing that it was on one of its lower eminences that the ark grounded, as it floated by the force of the southerly irruption towards the great mountain bar- riers of Armenia. Lastly, this author suggests con- siderations tending to fix the region which vnay have been the scene of the actual inundation described by Moses in about that part of Western Asia where there is a large district now considerably depressed below the level of the sea (see the Bibliotheca Sacra, July, 1867, p. 4G5) : this might have been submerged by the joint action of rain, and an elevation of the bed of the Persian and Indian Seas. Finally, he quotes the opin- ions of several approved divines in confirmation of such a view, especially as bearing upon all the essen- tial religious instruction which the narrative is calcu- lated to convey.
The only other mode of viewing the subject is that which, accepting the letter of the scriptural narrative, makes the deluge strictly universal ; and allowing (as they 7niist be allowed) all the difficulties, not to say contradictions, in a natural sense, involved in it, ac- counts for them all by suiiernaiural agency. In fact, the terms of the narrative, strictly taken, niaj^ perhaps be understood throughout as representing the whole event, from beginning to end, as entirelj' of a miracu- lous nature. If so, it may be said, there is an end to all difiiculties or question, since there are no limits to omnipotence, and one miracle is not gi-eater than an- other. In a word, if we suppose the flood to have been miraculously produced, and all the difficulties thus overcome, we must also suppose that it was not only miraculously terminated also, but every ti'ace and mark of it supernaturally effaced and destroyed. Now, con- sidering the immense amount of supernatural agency thus rendered necessary, this hypothesis has appeared to some quite untenable. Dr. Pye Smith, in particu- lar (whom no one will suspect of any leaning to scepti- cism), enlarges on the difficulty (p. 157, and note), and offers some excellent remarks on the general question of miracles (p. 84-80) ; and there can be no doubt that, however plausible may be the assertion that all mir- acles are alike, j^et the idea of supernatural agency to so enormous an amount as in the present instance is, to many minds at least, verj' staggering, if not wholl}' inadmissible. In fact, in stretching the argument to such an extent, it must be borne in mind that we may be trenching upon difficulties in another quarter, and not sufficiently regarding the force of the evidence on which any miracles are supported. See Miracle.