484 MOSES AND MOSCHUS. 



In support of Cicero's opinion, it may be worthy 

 of notice, that in the books ascribed to Moses, 

 though not intended to teach the principles of 

 natural science, two fundamental doctrines of 

 physiology are incidentally pointed out. I allude 

 to the life- sustaining office of the lungs, and the 

 vitality of the blood. For when it is said, as in 

 the first chapter of Genesis, that " God breathed 

 into the nostrils of man the breath of life, and he 

 became a living soul," we can understand only, 

 that he was created with breathing organs, for the 

 purpose of obtaining life from the atmosphere ; 

 which in the book of Job, is termed " the breath 

 of the Almighty." And it is said in the Levitical 

 code, that "the life of all flesh is the blood 

 thereof." The truth of these doctrines is cor- 

 roborated by the universal language of all en- 

 lightened nations, with whom, to live, and breathe, 

 are synonymous phrases ; and who have always 

 represented the destruction of life by the shedding 

 of blood.* 



Again, the true doctrine of the solar system, 

 which seems to have been partially anticipated 

 by Pythagoras, was rejected by all his succes- 

 sors, down to the time of Copernicus ; while the 

 atomic theory of Moschus, Thales, Pythagoras, 



* It may here be worthy of notice, that throughout the Old 

 Testament, as in all the writings of the Greeks and Romans, the 

 word soul is used for life. " I shall require back your souls from 

 the hands of both man and beast." (Leviticus.) In the following 



