15 
built at that time, and her dimensions remain the greatest of any ship ever 
built ; that is, taking, as I doubt not correctly, the scriptural cubit at 25 
inches. It is impossible to believe that either the form, the size, or mode 
of construction of the ark could have been arrived at by any tentative pro- 
cess. It is equally difficult to conceive that without special instruments and 
special teaching, especially if they had not possessed iron, and the knowledge 
of working it, Noah could have selected, and have fashioned and put together 
effectively such masses of timber as were indispensable ; nor without special 
teaching have provided for the carrying safely its peculiar cargo. The 
author of the paper has mentioned the interesting fact in reference to 
the oldest monuments of China and India, that they are without idolatrous 
emblems ; this is also true of the oldest of the Pyramids ; the argument from 
which is, that the builders possessed the knowledge of the patriarchs, and, 
therefore, a revelation of, and true estimate of the character of the living 
God. It is an interesting fact, hardly sufficiently remarked on, that in all 
these nations, however degraded, there are sacrifices, with traditions of the 
Fall and of the Flood, and that it is only as civilization progressed, that these 
truths, partially obscured, were eliminated. A singular fact mentioned by 
Mr. Titcomb, is found in the high estimate which the Hindoos form of 
Brahm. You will find from written publications and in conversation, that 
a great proportion of men in the present day have not half so high or 
correct an idea of God as that which those Indians possess. 
Kev. C. A. Row. — Although I think the general reasoning of Mr. 
Titcomb’s paper is exceedingly plausible, and although the conclusions 
seem to be fairly drawn, I must confess I feel considerable difficulty in 
accepting them, so far as regards the use of a very complicated language by 
a very barbarous people. We know that when a civilized people become 
degraded, the language which they use suffers a degradation with the degra- 
dation of the people. Let us take Latin, for example. The Latin of the 
fourth century is very much degraded as compared with that of the Augustan 
age, the minds of the people having no doubt undergone a great deteriora- 
tion since that time. In the case of the Greek language you find the same 
thing. The modern Greeks are much degraded, as compared with their 
ancestors, and their language also has degenerated. The difficulty, then, 
which arises in my mind is this : Suppose the American Indians origi- 
nally had the language and the condition of a high state of civilization, and 
in the course of ages they got to their present state of savagedom ; it 
seems to me that their language must bear within it very strong marks of 
the gradual progress to savagedom. That seems to me to be a very strong 
point. These American languages, it seems, are highly complicated in form, 
and such as one would suppose could only have been evolved in a high state 
of civilization ; but I want to know whether they do not bear some traces in 
their structure of the gradual degradation which we find accompanies the 
gradual degradation of a people. I quite agree with Mr. Titcomb, that all 
ancient history bears testimony to the very high origin of civilization. I do 
not see a trace in ancient history of a gradual advance from barbarism, and 
