the names nf Leviathan and Behemoth. 275 



meant, the Hebraism to express it would have been the plural 

 noun with the singular adnoun, as in the passage of Ezekiel al- 

 ready quoted, chap. xxix. 3, where the species of the Nile is 

 expressed, hathanim (plural) and liagadol (singular). 



We need scarcely remark how admirably this account in Ge- 

 nesis of the period of the creation of the great reptiles is con- 

 firmed by the recent discoveries in geology respecting thenu 

 Cuvier, in his " Ossemens Fossiles," states as a certain truth, 

 that, at the period of the formation of the strata of Jura, the 

 sea or the land was inhabited by a variety of large reptiles; and 

 Mantel, from his own discoveries, says there was a period when 

 reptiles of appalling magnitude were the lords of the creation. 

 In his " Theory of the Earth," Cuvier says, on the other hand, 

 in respect of the mammalia of the land, that their remains are 

 not found but in strata above the coarse limestone, which is 

 above the chalk ; and of man, that his remains have not been 

 found fossil. We are not permitted, then, to suppose, in oppo- 

 sition to both the history to which Job alludes, and these clear 

 discoveries, that the Iguanodon was made with man, and that it 

 was the Behemoth, since no saurian was made with man ; nor 

 have the remains of man been found with those of the extinct 

 saurians. 



We have shewn, on the contrary, that Behemoth belonged to 

 the mammalia which were made with man ; but if we inquire what 

 species of the herbivorous mammalia was meant by the term, we 

 shall arrive, as has been already observed, at no such certain 

 conclusion as those we have reached on other points of our in- 

 quiry. To me it appears highly probable, that an animal is 

 meant, different from any that commentators, as far as I know, 

 have yet named ; and I will now proceed to state my opinion 

 on the subject, and assign the reasons for it. Let it not be said, 

 that it is presuming too much for any individual to present an 

 opinion different from all those of the learned men who have in- 

 vestigated the subject ; for their utter disagreement on the ques- 

 tion, even down to the present time, may afford a presumption 

 that DO one has as yet furnished the true solution. 



It is necessary for forming a right opinion on the subject, that 

 we get at the literal sense of the passage respecting the Behemoth. 

 I conceive that, in some clauses, this is not given accurately in 



