THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 229 



day ? Befides, fince all feas are, in fact, but one, what is it 

 that hinders the Indian Ocean to flow to its level ? What is 

 it that keeps the Indian Ocean up ? 



Till this laft branch of the queftion is refolved, I fhall 

 take it for granted that no fuch difference of level exifts, 

 whatever Ptolemy's engineers might have pretended to him; 

 becaufe, to fuppofe it fact, is to fuppofe the violation of one 

 very material law of nature. 



The next thing I have to take notice of, for the Satisfac- 

 tion of my reader, is, the way by which the children of If- 

 rad paffed the Red Sea at the time of their deliverance from, 

 the land of Egypt. 



As fcripture teaches us, that this paffage, wherever it might 

 be, was under the influence of a miraculous power, no parti- 

 cular circumftance of breadth, or depth, makes one place 

 likelier than another. It is a matter of mere curiofity, and 

 can only promote an illuftration of the fcripture, for which 

 reafon, I do not decline the consideration of it, 



I shall fuppofe, that my reader has been Sufficiently con- 

 vinced, by other authors, that the land of Gofhen, where 

 the Israelites dwelt in Egypt, was that country lying eaftof 

 the Nile, and not overflowed by it, bounded by the moun- 

 tains of the Thebaid on the fouth, by the Nile and Medi- 

 terranean on the weft and north, and the Red Sea and de- 

 fert of Arabia on the eaft. It was the Heliopolitan nome, 

 its capital was On ; from predilection of the letter O, com- 

 mon to the Hebrews, they called it Gofhen ; but its proper 

 name was Cejben^ the country of Grafs, or Pafturage ; or of 



the.- 



