Notices respecting New Books. 135 
it: any where more eastward along the same ridge may, because 
the Scripture allows it. To say that the ark rested in Armenia 
is therefore dissonant to the prescript of Moses, unless Armenia 
in immemorial ages extended to Hyrcania, which is not alto- 
gether improbable ;—but it is much more likely that Ararat was 
of this, and even much greater extent, before it became con- 
founded with Armenia; and the identity of these two places, 
which ought to be distinct, has been very perplexing, deceptive, 
and injurious. —Tenacious, therefore, of a perfect faith in Moses 
and his interpreters, we must reject altogether the pretension of 
the ark having rested northward of Shinar, and adopt the more. 
congruous proposition of the extension of Ararat beyond Aria, 
because there are many reasons to authorize it, and no substan- 
tial objection seemingly to the proposal*. 
** Lastly—-The tradition mentioned by Wilson, in his * Asia- 
tic Researches,’ of the ark having lodged upon Aryavart may be 
added, because it is perfectly consonant to Seripture, and be- 
cause it is of as much consequence as a tradition can possibly be, 
on account of its derivation from an indigenous source; whereas 
every tradition relative to Armenia is from the report of aliens, 
who were unacquainted with the teriitory for full 1700 years 
after the event they presume to recount had taken place. 
‘* Having now summed up the main arguments which have been 
brought forward in this intricate inquiry; and which, whether 
scriptural, theological, physical, geographical, etymological, testi- 
monial, or traditional, have all one uniform tendency—and are 
deemed, altogether, sufficiently cogent to authorize the conclu- 
sion, that the country of ancient Aria, in the east of Persia, com- 
prehends that part of the mountains of Ararat where the ark 
vested after the great deluge, when Noah and his three sons, with 
their wives, were all the remnant that survived to repropagate 
mankind, we shall therefore hereafter consider ourselves warranted 
in alluding to this as the focal point whence the whole earth has 
been overspread with all the varieties that have existed, since 
the deluge, of the human race.” 
In the third chapter the author treats “ of the dispersion 
and several settlements of the descendants of Noah, whom we 
find enumerated in the book of Genesis.” The fourth, which 
concludes the work, is entitled ‘ Considerations on the time of 
* “ May not Ararat and Aria, also Arachosia, Arasacia, &c. have been 
named to memoralize settlements of the descendants of Jerah, the son of 
Joktan (called by the Arabs Arah or Yarah), as Moses informs us that the 
Joktanites were stationed from Mesha (signifying a desert) to Sephar, a 
mount of the East, which Wells places in Persia: and Eustathius, Hierony- 
mus, &c. derive the Bactrians, Hyrcanians, Caramanians, Scythians, &c. 
from the sons of Joktan. 
14 the 
