THE DELUGE OF NOAH 127 



Testament history represents as the earliest seat of 

 antediluvian man. As Lenormant has well shown, 

 the tradition exists in the ancient literature of India, 

 Persia, Phoenicia, Phrygia, and Greece, and can be 

 recognised in the traditions of Northern and Western 

 Europe and of America, while the Egyptians had a 

 similar account of the destruction of men, but ap- 

 parently not by water, though their idea of a sub- 

 merged continent of Atlantis probably had reference 

 to the antediluvian world. Thus we find this story 

 widely spread over the earth, and possessed by mem- 

 bers of all the leading divisions of mankind. This does 

 not necessarily prove the universality of the Deluge, 

 though every distinct people naturally refers it to its 

 own country. It shows, however, the existence of 

 some very early common source of the tradition, and 

 the variations are not more than were to have been 

 expected in the different channels of transmission. 



2. Parallel with this historical evidence lies the 

 result of geological and archaeological research, 

 which has revealed to us the remains and works 

 of prehistoric men, racially distinct from those of 

 modern times, and who inhabited the earth at a 

 period when its animal population was to a great 

 extent distinct from that at present existing, and 

 when its physical condition was also in many 

 respects different. Thus in Europe and Asia, and 

 to some extent also in America, we have evidence 

 that the present races of men were preceded by 

 others which have passed away, and this at the same 



