DISTRIBUTION OF ANIMALS. 75 



cubits upwards did the waters prevail, and the 

 mountains were covered." It is also stated that 

 every living substance, both man and cattle, &c., 

 was destroyed from the earth, and that Noah only 

 remained alive, and they that were with him in the 

 ark. Can language be more definite and ex- 

 press? 



What can be more absurd than that an ark 

 should be necessary for the saving of Noah and 

 his family, and a world of animals, to be stored 

 with a vast supply of provision, when they might 

 have escaped according to this hypothesis by 

 taking refuge on the summit of some lofty moun- 

 tain to which Divine Wisdom might have directed 

 them ? 



There is no occasion whatever for such an 

 Hypothesis to account for the dispersion of man- 

 kind and their breaking into nations. Two chap- 

 ters in the book of Genesis 1 set the whole matter 

 in a clear light, both as to the first cause of their 

 separation, and the various tribes into which they 

 separated, in which we can trace the names of 

 many nations still in existence. From Babel 

 each in due time took the course, in that direc- 

 tion, however led by circumstances, that Provi- 

 dence had decreed. Europe became at last the 

 head quarters of the descendants of Japhet, 

 Asia of those of Shem, and Africa of those of 



1 Chap. x. xi. 



