consistent loitk the Mosaic History. 2i 



us precisely what Moses had taught more than three thousand years 



ago. 



* * * * * * 



The first chapter of Genesis is writen in a pure Hebrew. This 

 was the language spoken, and afterwards extensively written, by 

 the people whom Moses conducted to Palestine from the land of 

 Goshen. That it differed greatly from the language of the Egyp- 

 tians, we have full proof in the Coptic remains of the latter, in the 

 Egyptian proper names preserved in the Hebrew writings, and also 

 in the circumstance that Joseph, when pretending to be an Egyptian, 

 conversed with his brethren by means of an interpreter. Yet, in the 

 chapter in question, we fine no foreign terms, no appearance of its 

 being translated from any other tongue ; but, on the contrary, it 

 bears every internal mark of being purely original, for the style is 

 condensed and idiomatical in the very highest degree. Had Moses 

 derived his science from Egypt, either by oral communication, or the 

 study of Egyptian writings, it is inconceivable that some of his terms, 

 or the style of his composition, should not, in some point or other, 

 betray the plagiary or copyist. 



But the conjecture that Moses borrowed his cosmogony from the 

 Egyptians, must rest, moreover, on a supposition that the order which 

 he assigns for the different epochs of creation had been determined 

 by a course of observation and induction, and the correct application 

 of many other highly perfected sciences to the illustration of the 

 subject, equal at least in their accuracy and philosophical precision 

 to those by vvhich our present geological knowledge has been obtain- 

 ed. Nothing less than this can account for Moses' teaching us pre- 

 cisely what the modern geology teaches, if we allow his knowledge 

 to be merely human. How comes it to pass, then, that while he has 

 given us the perfect and satisfactory results, he has been enabled so 

 totally to exclude from his record every trace of the steps by which 

 they were obtained ? The supposition of such perfection of geologic- 

 al knowledge in ancient Egypt, implies a long series of observation 

 by many individuals, having the same object in view. It implies of 

 necessity, also, the invention and use of many defined terms of 

 science, without which there could have been no mutual understand- 

 ing among the different observers, and of course no progress in their 

 pursuit. These terms have all totally disappeared in the hands of 

 Moses. He translated, with precision, the whole science of geology 

 into the language of shepherds and husbandmen, leaving no trace 



