DEL 
Say, flatterer, fay, all fair deluder fpeak ; 
Anl'wer me this, ere yet my heart does break. Granville, 
To DELVE, v.a. [belpan, Sax. delven, Dutch; per¬ 
haps from afAtpaf, a hog. Junius .] To dig; to open the 
ground with a fpade : 
Delve of convenient depth your thrafhing floor ; 
With temper’d clay then fill and face it o’er. Dryden. 
To fathom; tofift; to found one’s opinion. Figuratively: 
What’s his name and birth ? 
•—I cannot delve him to the root: his father 
Was call’d Sicilius. Shakefpeare. 
DELVE, f. A ditch ; a pit; apitfal; a den ; a cave: 
He by and by 
His feeble feet diredted to the cry; 
Which to that ftiady delve him brought at laft, 
Where Mammon erft did fun his treafury. Spenfer. 
DELVE of Coals. A certain quantity of coals dug 
in the mine or pit. 
DEL'VER, f. A digger; one that opens the ground 
with a fpade. 
DE'LUGE, f. \_deluge, Fr. from diluvium , Lat.] A ge¬ 
neral inundation; laying entirely under water.—The 
apoftle doth plainly intimate, that the old world was fub- 
jedt to perifli by a deluge , as this is fubjedt to perifh by 
conflagration. Burnet .—An overflowing of the natural 
bounds of a river.—Any hidden and refiftlefs calamity : 
But if with bays and dams they ftrive to force 
His channel to a new or narrow courfe, 
No longer then within his banks he dwells, 
Firffc to a torrent, then a deluge , fwells. Denham. 
There are feverak deluge's recorded in hiflory; as that of 
Ogyges, which overflowed almoft all Attica; and that 
of Deucalion, which drowned all Theflaly in Greece : 
but the mod memorable was that called the univerfal de¬ 
luge, or Noah's flood, which overflowed the whole earth ; 
and from which only Noah, and thofe with him in the 
ark, efcaped. This flood makes one of the meft confi- 
derable epochas in chronology. Its hiftory is given by 
Mofes, Gen. ch. vi. and vii. Its time is fixed, by the-beft 
chronologers, to the year from the creation 1656, an- 
fwering to the year before Chrift 2349. From this flood, 
the ftate of the world is divided into diluvian and antedi¬ 
luvian. See Antediluvians, vol. i. p. 748. 
Among the many teftimonies of the truth of this part 
of the Mofaic hiftory, we may account the general voice 
of mankind at all times, and in all parts of the world. 
The objections of the free-thinkers have indeed princi¬ 
pally turned upon three points, viz. 1. The want of 
any direct hiftory of that event by the profane writers of 
antiquity ; 2. The apparent impoflibility of accounting 
for the quantity-of water neceflary to overflow the whole 
earth to fuch a depth as it is faid to have been : and 3. 
There appearing no neceflity for an univerfal deluge, as 
the fame end might have been accompliilied by a partial 
one. The former of thefe objections has given rife to 
feveral very elaborate treatifes, though all that has yet 
been done in this way has fcarcely been able to filence 
the objeCtors. Dr. Bryant, in his fyftem of Mythology, 
has with great learning and confiderable fuccefs endea- 
voused to (hew, that the deluge was one of the principal, 
if not the only foundation, of the Gentile worfliip ; that 
the firft of their deities was Noah ; that all nations of 
the world look up to him as their founder ; and that he, 
his fons, and the firft patriarchs, are alluded to in molt, 
if not all, of the religious ceremonies of the antient and 
modern heathens. In fhort, according to this author, 
the deluge, fo far from being obfcurely mentioned by the 
heathen world, is in reality confpicuous throughout 
every one of their aCts of religious worfliip. 
The Egyptian O/iris, according to him, was the fame 
with Ham the fon of Noah, though the name was fome- 
jimes beftowed on Noah himfelf. That this is the cafe, 
U G E. G87 
is evident, he thinks, from its being faid that he was ex- 
pofed in an ark, and afterwards reftored to day ; that he 
planted the vine, taught mankind agriculture, and incul¬ 
cated upon them the maxims of religion and juftice. 
According to Diodorus Siculus, the Egyptian Oliris was 
the fame with the Dionufus of the Greeks. He is faid 
to have been twice born, and to have had two fathers 
and two mothers ; to have been wonderfully prelerved 
in an ark; to have travelled all over the earth ; taught 
the life of the vine, to build, plant, &c. The Indians 
claim him as a native of their country, though fome al¬ 
low that he came from the weft. Of Cronus and Aftarte, 
it is faid that they went over the whole earth, difpofing 
of the countries as they pleafed, and doing good wher¬ 
ever they came. The fame is related of Ouranus, The¬ 
mis, Apollo, &c. though all their exploits are faid to 
have been the effects of conqueft, and their benevolence 
enforced by the (word. In a fimilar manner he explains 
the hiftories of other heroes of antiquity ; and having 
thus, in the characters and hiftory of the moft celebrated 
perfonages, found traces of the hiftory of Noah and his 
family, Dr. Bryant then proceeds to inquire into the me¬ 
morials of the deluge itfelf, to be met with in the hiftory. 
or religious rites of the different nations of antiquity. 
“ We may reafonably fuppofe (fays he,) that the parti¬ 
culars of this extraordinary event would be gratefully 
commemorated by the patriarch himfelf, and tranfmitted 
to every branch of his family ; that they were made the 
fubjedt of domeftic converfe, where the hiftory was often 
renewed, and ever attended with a reverential awe and 
horror, efpecially in thofe who had been witneffes to the 
calamity, and had experienced the hand of Providence 
in their favour. In procefs of time, when there was a 
falling off from the truth, we might farther expeCt, that 
a perion of fo high a character as Noah, fo particularly 
diftinguifhed by the Deity, could not fail of being re¬ 
verenced by his pofterity ; and, when idolatry prevailed, 
that he would be one of the firft among the fons of men 
to whom divine honours would be paid. Laftly, we 
might conclude, that thefe memorials would be inter¬ 
woven in the mythology of the Gentile world ; and that 
there would be continual allufions to thefe antient occur¬ 
rences in the rites and myfteries, as they were praCtifed 
by the nations of the earth. In conformity to thefe lup- 
pofitions, I (hall endeavour to (hew that thefe things did 
happen ; that the hiftory of the deluge was religioufly 
prelerved in the firft ages ; that every circumftance of it 
is to be met with among the hiftorians and mythologifts 
of different countries: and traces of it are to be found 
particularly in the facred rites of Egypt and of Greece. 
“ It will appear from many eircumftances in the more 
antient writers, that the great patriarch was highly re¬ 
verenced by his pofterity. They looked up to him as a 
perfon highly favoured by heaven ; and honoured him 
with many titles, each of which had a reference to fome 
particular part of his hiftory. They ftyled him Prome¬ 
theus, Deucalion, Atlfls, Theuth, Zuth, Xuthits, Inachus, Oflris. 
When there began to be a tendency towards idolatry, 
and the adoration of the fun was introduced by the pof¬ 
terity of Hajn, the title of Hdius, among others, was 
conferred upon him. They called him alio Mr,v and May, 
which is tire moon. When colonies went abroad, many 
took to themfelves the title of Minyada and Minya from 
him ; juft as others were denominated Ackannenid.a, Aurita, 
Heliada, from the' fun. People of the former name are 
to be found in Arabia and in other parts of the world. 
The natives at Orchomenos were ftyled Mir.ya, as were 
fome of the inhabitants of Theflaly. Noah was the ori¬ 
ginal Zeus and Dios. He was the planter of the vine, 
and inventor of fermented liquors : whence he was de¬ 
nominated Zeuth, which fignifies ferment, rendered Zeus 
by the Greeks. He was alfo called Dionujbs, interpreted 
by the Latins Bacchus, but very improperly. Bacchus 
was Clms the grandfon of Noah; as Ammon may in ge¬ 
neral be efteemed Ham, fo much reverenced by the 
Egyptians. Among the people of the eaft, the true 
name 
