THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 229 



day ? Befides, fince all feas are, in fact, but one, what is it 

 that hinders the Indian Ocean to flow to its level ? What is 

 it that keeps the Indian Ocean up ? 



Till this lafl branch of the queflion is refolved, I mall 

 take it for granted that no fuch difference of level exifls, 

 whatever Ptolemy's engineers might have pretended to him; 

 becaufe, to fuppofe it fact, is to fuppofe the violation of one 

 very material law of nature. 



The next thing I have to take notice of, for the fatisf ac- 

 tion of my reader, is, the way by which the children of If- 

 rael pafled the Red Sea at the time of their deliverance from 

 the land of Egypt, 



As fcripture teaches us, that this pafTage, wherever it might 

 be, was under the influence of a miraculous power, no parti- 

 cular circumflance of breadth, or depth, makes one place 

 likelier than another. It is a matter of mere curiofity, and 

 can only promote an illuflration of the fcripture, for which 

 reafon, I do not decline the confideration of it, 



I shall fuppofe, that my reader has been fumciently con- 

 vinced, by other authors, that the land of ColTien, where 

 the Ifraelites dwelt in Egypt, was that country lying eafl of 

 the Nile, and not overflowed by it, bounded by the moun- 

 tains of the Thebaid on the fouth, by the Nile and Medi- 

 terranean on the well and north, and the Red Sea and de- 

 fert of Arabia on the eafl. It was the Heliopolitan nome, 

 its capital was On; from predilection of the letter O, com- 

 mon to the Hebrews, they called it Gofhen ; but its proper 

 name was Gefhen, the country of Grafs, or Paflurage ; or of 



the 



