252 HASISADRA'S ADVENTURE viz 



Thus, once more, we reach the conclusion that, 

 as a question of physical probability, there is no 

 ground for objecting to the reality of Hasisadra's 

 adventure. It would be unreasonable to doubt 

 that such a flood might have happened, and that 

 such a person might have escaped in the way 

 described, any time during the last 5000 years. 

 And if the postulate of loose thinkers in search of 

 scientific " confirmations " of questionable narra- 

 tives proof that an event may have happened is 

 evidence that it did happen is to be accepted, 

 surely Hasisadra's story is " confirmed by modern 

 scientific investigation " beyond all cavil. How- 

 ever, it may be well to pause before adopting this 

 conclusion, because the original story, of which I 

 have set forth only the broad outlines, contains a 

 great many statements which rest upon just the 

 same foundation as those cited, and yet are hardly 

 likely to meet with general acceptance. The 

 account of the circumstances which led up to the 

 flood, of those under which Hasisadra's adventure 

 was made known to his descendant, of certain 

 remarkable incidents before and after the flood, 

 are inseparably bound up with the details already 

 given. And I am unable to discover any justifi- 

 cation for arbitrarily picking out some of these 

 and dubbing them historical verities, while reject- 

 ing the rest as legendary fictions. They stand or 

 fall together. 



Before proceeding to the consideration of theso 



