432 On the Cosmogony of Moses. 
viz. that it takes for granted the chief thing intended’ to’ be 
proved. 
I here beg to disclaim the merit kindly ascribed to me by 
F.E s, of having formed an ‘‘ ingenious imagination’ re-~ 
specting sors of inspiration, and to enter a protest at the same 
time against the pretensions of those who, like that writer, talk 
largely of ‘ circuitous inspirations’ and ‘‘ immediate inspira- 
tions.” Such knowing persons indeed would be very great 
prizes in these iron times, if we could be sure that their in- 
formation is genuine; but until they point out the sources whence 
it was derived, we must be excused from paying deference to 
their superior attainments. I am such a tyro in these matters, 
that I cannot even see any force or shadow of meaning in the 
‘objection advanced by F. E s against my former positions, 
and founded by him on the supposed sort of inspiration which 
is to be ascribed to Moses. Far be it from me to pronounce 
the particular time, place, and manner in which the most an- 
cient revelations were made, or ‘* to ascertain the person fa- 
voured wilh them;” nothing less than which, it seems, will sa- 
tisfy my unrelenting inguisitor. I have no one opinion er ‘hy- 
pothesis on the subject, but leave all such sublime matters to 
F.E s and the winged folk of Aristophanes : 
oe > 4 
Shideinte bor acs Bsa.» TONG, COWUEDIOIC, 
Tos aynpwc, Tos APIiTa pydouzvoioiy, 
while I take up my humble place among the aarijves e¢nugeros, 
the unfledged mortals who are dcomed to grope upon the sur- 
face of the earth, and see but a short space before them. My 
season for believing that Moses was not the original author of 
the Cosmogony, is not any speculative opinion concerning sub- 
jects beyond my comprehension, but the fact that the same re- 
cord is found among distant nations, whose history has been to- 
tally unconnected, from a period long antecedent to the age of 
Moses; and I presume that one fair inference from historical 
facts will weigh down a hundred hypotheses concerning sorts 
of inspiration. 
But although I do not pretend to be so sagacious as F, E— 
in occult matters, I am far from intending to depreciate the cha- 
racter of Moses. His writings display a mind so free from those 
prejudices which enslaved the greatest philosophers in the most 
enlightened ages of antiquity, that the extent of his wisdom ap- 
pears quite out of the course of nature. His freedom»from 
superstition is the more astonishing, if it be true, as the Egyptian 
historians assert, that Moses was originally a priest of Heliopolis. 
I have not, as Mr. F. Fi s would insinuate, rested my in- 
terpretation of the word day on the authority of Josephus and 
Philo. 
| 
ae a ee ee eT 
ay. 
