114 ^^^^ Arabian Horse. 



taking place from such a lofty position is at once appa- 

 rent when we consider for one moment in Avhat a state 

 the lowlands must have been after having been deluged 

 for so long a time. What situation could be more admi- 

 rably chosen, both with regard to its central position for 

 the replenishing of the earth, and also on account of the 

 health of the long-imprisoned inhabitants, than a moun- 

 tain land and its surrounding slopes ! Even if we knew 

 the exact spot where the Ark was constructed, it would 

 not necessarily indicate the original locality of the horse ; 

 nor is it necessary to believe that Noah, in compliance 

 with the Divine command, took unto him any animals 

 that might be immediately around him, or that the 

 selection was left to him. Taking into consideration the 

 antagonistic character and habits of many of the creatures, 

 both small and great, it is very easy to believe that those 

 intended for preservation, ' to keep seed alive upon the 

 face of all the earth,' would be drawn together by the 

 Divine Power and Infinite Wisdom — many specimens 

 perhaps from great distances ; and if that part of the 

 world now known as Arabia were then, as Gibbon says 

 it is now, the most propitious to the horse, that from 

 thence came the horses to the Ark. That they were 

 divinely directed, and not selected by Noah, is borne out 

 by Holy Scripture. In Genesis, ch. vi. verse 20, Noah is 

 told ' two of every sort shall come unto thee to keep 

 them alive.' In ch. vii. verse i, he is directed to enter 

 the Ark with his house. At verse 7 it is stated, * Noah 

 went in, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons' wives 

 with him into the Ark '; verses 8 and 9 narrate how that 



