Chap. XXIV. CONFIRMATION OF BIBLE HISTORY. 509 



The argument for an original revelation to man, though 

 quite independent of the Bible history, tends to confirm that, 

 history. It is of the same nature with this, that man could 

 not have made himself, and therefore must have had a 

 Divine Creator. Mankind could not, in the first instance, 

 have civilized themselves, and therefore must have had a 

 superhuman Instructor. 



In connexion with this subject, it is remarkable that 

 throughout successive generations no change has taken 

 place in the form of the various inventions. Hammers, 

 tongs, hoes, axes, adzes, handles to them ; needles, bows 

 and arrows, with the mode of feathering the latter; spears, 

 for killing game, with spear-heads having what is termed 

 " dish " on both sides to give them, when thrown, the 

 rotatory motion of rifle-balls ; the arts of spinning and 

 weaving, with that of pounding and steeping the inner 

 bark of a tree till it serves as clothing; millstones for 

 grinding corn into meal; the manufacture of the same 

 land of pots or chatties as in India; the art of cooking, 

 of brewing beer and straining it as was done in ancient 

 Egypt; fish-hooks, fishing and hunting nets, fish-baskets, 

 and weirs, the same as in the Highlands of Scotland ; 

 traps for catching animals, &c. &c, — have all been so very 

 permanent from age to age, and some of them of identical 

 patterns are so widely spread over the globe, as' to render 

 it probable that they were all, at least in some degree, 

 derived from one Source. The African traditions, which seem 

 possessed of the same unchangeability as the arts to which 

 they relate, like those of all other nations refer their origin 

 to a superior Being. And it is much more reasonable to 

 receive the hints given in Genesis, concerning direct in- 

 struction from God to our first parents or their children in 

 religious or moral duty, and probably in the knowledge 



