307 



my own mind. It is this. We are informed in 

 the book of Genesis that the age of the antedilu- 

 vians extended to not less than ten times the age 

 of the present generations of men. We also find, 

 that, from the period of the flood, this extreme 

 longevity began gradually to be diminished, till it 

 reached the present standard, probably about, or 

 soon after the time of the settlement of the fa- 

 mily of Jacob in the land of Egypt. It seems a 

 sound inference from this fact, that, from what- 

 ever cause, at the time of this great crisis, some 

 new and deleterious property had been commu- 

 nicated to certain substances on which living 

 beings depend for the prolongation of their exist- 

 ence, that is, to the Atmosphere which they in- 

 spire, or to the food which they eat. The pheno- 

 menon recorded, agrees, at all events, with this 

 hypothesis, as the strength of the human consti- 

 tution seems to have been gradually undermined, 

 till it reached its minimum. Along with this 

 scriptural fact, I should be inclined to place that 

 of the existence of giants in the very early ages 

 after the flood, were I not doubtful, on the critical 

 grounds stated in another part of this work, whe- 

 ther or riot the various words translated "giants" 

 were really meant to indicate men of extraor- 

 dinary stature. 



What then are the geological facts that seem 

 to bear out the statements to which we have al- 

 luded ? It must appear obvious, that the only 

 evidence of this kind which we can expect, must 

 be indications of the existence of a state of things 



