consistent with the Mosaic History. 27 
us precisely what Moses had taught more than three thousand years 
ago. 
= = % * & % * 
The first chapter of Genesis is writen in a pure Hebrew. This 
was the language spoken, and afterwards extensively written, by 
the people whom Moses conducted to Palestine from the land of 
Goshen. That it differed greatly from the language of the Egyp- 
tians, we have full proof in the Coptic remains of the latter, in the 
Egyptian proper names preserved in the Hebrew writings, and also 
in the circumstance that Joseph, when pretending to be an Egyptian, 
conversed with his brethren by means of an interpreter. Yet, in the 
chapter in question, we fine no foreign terms, no appearance of its 
being translated from any other tongue; but, on the contrary, it 
bears every internal mark of being purely original, for the style is 
condensed and idiomatical in the very highest degree. Had Moses 
derived his science from Egypt, either by oral communication, or the 
study of Egyptian writings, it is inconceivable that some of his terms, 
or the style of his composition, should not, in some point or agi 
betray the plagiary or copyist. 
But the conjecture that Moses borrowed his cosmogony from the 
Egyptians, must rest, moreover, on a supposition that the order which 
he assigns for the different epochs of creation had been determined 
by a course of observation and induction, and the correct application 
of many other highly perfected sciences to the illustration of the 
subject, equal at least in their accuracy and philosophical : precision 
to those by which our present geological knowledge has been obtain- 
ed. Nothing less than this can account for Moses’ teaching us pre- 
cisely what the modern geology teaches, if we allow his knowledge 
to be merely human. How comes it to pass, then, that while he has 
given us the perfect and satisfactory results, he has been enabled so 
totally to exclude from his record every trace of the steps by which 
they were obtained? The supposition of such perfection of geologic- 
al knowledge in ancient Egypt, implies a long series of observation 
by many individuals, having the same object in view. It implies of 
necessity, also, the invention and use of many defined terms of 
science, without which there could have been no mutual understand- 
ing among the different observers, and of course no. progress in their 
pursuit. These terms have all totally disappeared in the hands of 
Moses. He translated, with precision, the whole science of geology 
into the language of shepherds and husbandmen, leaving no trace 
