2? 



lie extracted from the books oiThaut. Absurd as it is upon 

 the whole, we may yet discover in it evident, thougli dis- 

 figured traces of the true account transmitted to us by Moses, 

 some scraps of which were long preserved in all nations ; 

 but the Phenician account, in particular, seems to have 

 been purposely distorted and perverted, for the following 

 reasons. 



In the t5th chapter of Genesis, we read that the sons of 

 Cod, that is, the descendants of Seth, took to them wives 

 from the children of men, that is, fi-oni among the descen- 

 dants of Cain. Hence it is not unlikely that Noah himself, 

 or his sons, or at least his son Cliam, had wives of that race. 

 These women corrupted their husbands before the flood, for 

 it is to such intermarriages that the general corruption of 

 mankind before that catastrophe, is attributed. Now the 

 descendants of Cain could not fail misrepresenting, disguis- 

 ing, and mutilating the ti'adition transmitted to Noah, as 

 being unfavourable to Cain, the author of their race. Cham, 

 who possibly had married one of Cain's descendants, treated 

 his father with gross disrespect To punish him, his father 

 foretold him the misfortunes that awaited the posterity of his 

 son, Canaan. This prediction, which had the appearance of 

 a curse of course,* irritated the Avhole family of Cham. Now 

 from Cham the Phenicians or Canaanites descended ; these, 

 therefore, embraced the accounts current among Cains 



descendants, 



* So it is commonly understood, but the original implies no more than a 

 prophecy. 



