English
Neither would the veracity of Moses be impressed with equal force, from the seemingly artificial precision with which he has specified the scite of Eden, or from the chaste and natural colouring, with which he has depi£i:ed the simplicity of patriarchal life, as from this unadorned but circumstantial enume- ' ration of the diiSerent founders of the kingdoms of the postdiluvian world, But if the Grecian poet has also been dignified by Straboj with the appellation of the first andw greatest of geographers, because he has recounted the names of a few petty tribes, engaged in a tem- porary alliance for the execution of a military en- terprize ; which he alone has drawn forth from obscurity, and rescued from oblivion, but which are now vanished from the earth and whose *' place can no where be foiind;" with what sen- timents of admiration must that historian be re- garded, who recurs to the original founders of the most celebrated empires in the history of the world, and who at once records both the cause, and the period, of their establishment ? But this valuable remnant of ancient geography, pot only affords a presumptive argument in favor pf the veracity of the Jewish Lawgiver i w? may Ii4 not only safely allfege the Ihiprbbability that a de- tail so particular and minute should be a fanciful invention ; but we havte, at this tihle, data, by which we are etiabled to ascertain and estimate its truth. The identical names by which thie histo- rian has distinguished' the different colonies, aife, even now, preserved, 4mong those tribes, whose rernote situation has precluded the en- croachments of military conquest, or whose warlike habits have enabled them to preserve their ancient institutions, and their original independence. — ■ Many of them have been adopted, with little varia- tion, by the Greeks, and inserted in their systems of geography. The labors of the etymologist, the antiquary, and the naturalist, Wherever they have been fairly applied, have served more fully to illus-; trate the authenticity of this record. Thtough all the revolutions in empires, through all the inno- vations in religion, through all the fluftuations in language and in manners, which the woirld has experienced, during a. period of more than fonr thousand years, there are even nov*: traces suffi- ciently plain, to sheWj that this pi£ture, when originally pourtrayed, must have been drawn with the pencil pf truth. Among the variety of fafils, which have been froUefted to prove that the different nations of the ill earth were really descended from three diatJn^ families, it may be difficult to seleft th6 itmit forcible, and to arrange them in proper order.-** There can be no necessity^ for shewing, that an obscure account of this triple division was pre- served by the ancients, ampng their other fables : and that this arrangement was supposed to have been rhade, accordihg,to the express appointmeht €>f the Deity.' Such a tradition would be entitled to little credit, unless supported by mofe probable arguments. But such arguments there are, and they have been urged with a force, which scepti- cism herself cannot resist. She has attempted'in- discriminatel'y to reprobate them by the epitheiof fiihciful, but by this evasion has contributed tcJ fefetablish their solidity. To pursue the various directions, in which thi Ihree distin£l races of mankitld h^v6 diverged from a common centre, to subdue and people- the earth, would be a task inconsistent with the design, as well as the liiftits of the pfesent undertaking ; but it win be the obje£l of the present Discourse, td condense those scattered rays of light, which thfe Bfkhtninical records have reflef^ed on this inte- resting patt 6f the sacred history. Such as they ■are, they cannot but be esteemed of singular value v* Sie Homer, llia^. v. 187, Hii Flats inherit. I2 and importahce. Should the genealogical tradl' tionsofthe Hindoos, and those of the Tartarsi who are separated by an, immense distance from India, agree with each other, and both coincide with the Jewish Lawgiver; this correspondence must give a strong san£lion to the veracity of the last. This agreement will afford another decisive objeftlon against those unfounded pretensions to antiquity, which the Indians, in common with other eastern nations, have asserted with so much confidence, and which h^ve been defended with so much ingenuity. The subject then of the present enquiry, will naturally be limited in extent. It will be con- fined to the Hindoos themselves, and to those other nations, who can be proved to have im- mediately descended from them, or who preserve any, remarkable coincidence with them, in theiy jnythplogy, ' In , determining concerning the probability, that any two different nations are branches of the same parent stock, ' the most incontdistable proof is that which arises from any authentic and un- suspicious historica.1 testimony, As fafts are in history, what experiments are in philosophy, these inuBt be paramount to all, conjectures, libwevej' plausible, and to all arguments however ingenuous. But whenever historical documents either totally fail, or contradi6i each other, three cri- teria have been laid down., by which our research- es may in some measure be. guided ; a similarity in the complexion, in the Ihieaments of the counte- nance, arid in the formation of the human body; a similarity in language, that is in its general strufture/'and in the radical parts of it ;' and lastly, a similarity in religious ceremonies, or in those civil institutions, which derive their origin more immediately from religious sanffions. f - The first of these criteria is the least tote depended on, though most obvious to a; common observer, unless it could be precisely ascertained what influence a change of iclimate, and a dif- ference of aliment "may produce on the human frame, in a lOng, succession of time : the second is more satisfa£lory, but frequently, fallacious, on a:ccount of the fanciful resemblances, and arbi- trary dedu£tions, which : have been made by ad- venturers in the field of etymological speculation ; the third and last is the most positive and certain, since the religious creed and ritual of most ancient nations inculcate doftrines, and prescribe,customs, which could' not have been of native growth ; and 'these have been found to survive conyulsiona i3 in governmentSj iinprovfiments in m^nnera^ fluc- tuations in language, and- influeaee qf climate. ■ Biit in tb^ application of these criteria they mult all agree in-order- to produce entire conYiftioB, Qor must they oppose the teatimony of fcisiory. Our cdnsiderations then will be oiuefly applied to the direO: proof arising from historical evidence, joined with that which may be drav^aa from similarity in religious ceremotyies and institutions:. The other incidental proofs bein,g of less imports ance will consequently claim less of our atteation. : In entering on tiie discussioja of this subj€£t, it is natural to. iadvert to a question which has been long agitated, and dfifencfed, on either side, with equal ingenui^ and learning ;— ^whether the airk, which had been miraculously preserved fan the general destruftionof the w.oiild, _ at Iqagth rested on the Indian Cacucasus, or qn Mounit Ararat' im Mesopotamia. The solution of this question in- volves another point of still greater importance :-r^ the ascertaining of the spoti &om which the ge- neral dispeiisiotv of ^cuikind took place. If this point were to be determined on tradt- tional authority, we should instill be unable to •decidci The centre from which the^difFeFeirf; 11^ actions of the earth diverged, not I§?§ than the situation of paradise, has been varioysly representr ed. It should npt however he forgotten, that 3^5py of the ancient fathers ^assert vvith undoubted- confidence, but with what pretensions to truth cannot now be ascertained, that the remains of the sacred ark were, in their days', to be disQflfter'- ed pn %\ie movintains, of Armenia,". The fortner siippositipn which assigns the )q[iov}ntains of C^iicasus, as the spot from which the postdiliiviap fatnijif s migrated, has boasted of npRierous ^dvoc^tes ; and aniong other important ye^sgi^s ,fpr thP adoptipn of this hypothesis, the f^stoni^hi^ig, population of Jpdia, above all other CQVtntries, a^d its early njatVirity in civilizationi have bepn forcibly insisted , an. To this, the .te^tiriqony of modern and anqjent times certainly accords in the mpst decided manjier. However an injudicious partiality may have induced many pf i^$j admirers to ejcalf! Indian science, aiid the Indian chara£ter; yet those who have been-in- cHped to estimate them at' the lowest rate, have been obliged, relu£tantly to confess, that while many vestiges remain, discovering their intimate acq^aintai^pp with metaphysics, and the more j^bstruge parts of geometrical ^c|f!ia<;e : , jthqir f iSee TheoiOiil. ad Autol, 1. 3 ; and Chry.sosfoni>die nerfec Cb^rit, ^V.6,t>.748, ed.Savil. ' J4 120 treatises on legislation, which provide against every possible exigence of civil government, indicate a more artificial struflture of society, than is consistent with the idea of their late colonization. But against all these arguments, however plau- sible, maybe safely opposed the express language of our own sacred books, taken in its literal and obvious sense, from which it is never safe to depart. The civil history of mankind contained in the fragments of the earliest annalists which time has spared, are likewise in harmony with the narrative of Moses.