Families of Nations. 485- 



dulity, that cities have been overwhelmed by eruptions from burning moun- 

 tains, territories laid wafte by hurricanes, and whole iflands depopulated by 

 earthquakes : if then we look at the firmament fprinkled with innumerable 

 ftars; if we conclude by a fair analogy, that every ftar is a fun, attracting, 

 like ours, a fyftem of inhabited planets j and if our ardent fancy, foaring 

 hand in hand with found reafon, waft us beyond the vifible fphere into re- 

 gions of immenfity, difclofing other celeftial expanfes and other fyftems of 

 funs and worlds on all fides without number or end, we cannot but confider 

 the fubmerfion of our little fphero'id as an infinitely lefs event in refpect of 

 the immeafurable univerfe, than the dcftru&ion of a city or an iile in refpecl: 

 of this habitable globe. Let a general flood, however, be fuppofed impro- 

 bable in proportion to the magnitude of fo ruinous an event, yet the concur- 

 rent evidences of it are completely adequate to the fuppofed improbability j 

 but, as we cannot here expatiate on thofe proofs, we proceed to the fourth 

 important fact recorded in the Mofaick hiftory ; I mean the nrft propagation 

 and early difperfion of mankind in feparate families to feparate places of refi- 

 dence. 



Three fons of the juft and virtuous man, whofe lineage was preferved 

 from the general inundation, travelled, we are told, as they began to multi- 

 ply, in three large divifions varioufly fubdivided : the children of Ya'fet 

 feem, from the traces of Sklavonian names, and the mention of their being 

 enlarged, to have fpread themfelves far and wide, and to have produced the 

 race, which, for want of a correct appellation, we call Tartarian ; the colo- 

 nies, formed by the fons of Ham and Shem, appear to have been nearly fimul- 

 taneous } and, among thofe of the latter branch, we find fo many names in- 

 conteftably preferved at this hour in Arabia, that we cannot hefitate in pro- 

 nouncing them the fame people, whom hitherto we have denominated Arabs-, 



