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but that, as Mr. Eells concludes, it was communicated to man. The one 
fact of the traditions as to a “flood” is, in itself alone, a wonderful example 
of how ancient history and beliefs live in their salient features even when 
literature and art have long been silent ; for it is preposterous to suppose 
that every single tribe, ancient as well as modern, that retains that tradition 
retains merely a recollection of a local flood ; there must, in that case, have 
been as many local floods, each producing the same results, as there have 
been and are tribes holding this particular tradition. And the grand 
tradition, traceable through Accadian, Assyrian, Persian, Egyptian, Hindu, 
Greek, Roman antiquities, and now through the traditions of the unlettered 
Indian tribes of America, that there is a “Supreme Being, immortal, in- 
visible, omniscient, omnipresent, good, seeing our thoughts, and punishing 
evil,” can only have grown from a knowledge among the early families of 
mankind, unquestionably by communication, of such a Being, and of the 
worship due to Him.—There is not a shred of historical evidence of Mz. 
Spencer’s chronological sequences in man’s reason ; nor is there in man an 
instinct towards such results. 
THE AUTHOR’S REPLY. 
I cannot but feel grateful for the very kind reception which my 
paper has received from the members of this Institute. I know that 
Christians are sometimes accused of being prejudiced as they look at such 
subjects ; still, where there is such a wide amount of evidence, it seems 
to me (though I may be mistaken) that we should not be treating 
Christianity aright were we to abandon all the arguments that such 
evidence affords us, simply because such accusations are sometimes made. 
In regard to the remarks made on the sentence, “when and how they 
came hither, and whence they came, are questions not satisfactorily 
answered,” I would say that the idea which I intended to convey, though I 
may have failed to do so, is that these questions have not been answered to 
the satisfaction of everybody. For myself I am satisfied thus far—that 
the ancestors of these natives came at different times and in different ways. 
I was first taught that they came from Asia, by way of Behring’s Straits, and 
I think it likely that some did, as it is a very easy and natural route. Some 
probably drifted across in junks or boats of some kind. Since the Pacific 
