24 



of tlie waters they make no mention, and thu3 mutilfttH 

 the INfosaic tradition. The first eflect, therefore, of the 

 divine benevolence, according to them, was the impregna- 

 tion of tlie chaotic mass with the seeds of the heavenly 

 "bodies, and of all animals and vegetables ; for after this 

 impregnation, the sun, moon, and stars sprung forth in their 

 luminous state. Before this impregnation, the whole was 

 immersed in profound darkness, as Moses also relates. These 

 luminaries, therefore, though the objects of their adoration, 

 they must have considered as subordinate to the Suprefwe 

 Being, to whose benevolence they owed their existence ; and 

 to justify their worship, they probably, at first, supposed 

 them to be habitations of the Supreme Being, and afterwards 

 to be inhabited by separate intelligences. 



In this mot, Sanchoniatho says, there were animals endued 

 with no sensibility, but which (afterwards) generated animals 

 endued therewith. However absurd this part of the Phe- 

 nician tradition may be, 1 suspect it to be a false extension 

 of the Mosaic, in which it is said, Genes, i. 24, Lei the earth 

 produce living creatures : these the Phenicians called beholders 

 of the heavens, as inanimate beings are incapable of beholding 

 them ; but they feigned that for some time these remained 

 in a lethargic state, and were roused from it by the roaring 

 of thunder and storms. The probable foundation of this 

 fiction was what Moses mentions. Genes, ii. 7, that God first 

 formed Adam iu an inanimate state, and then breathed into 

 his nostrils the breath of life, and man beeame a living soul. 



This 



