ART. 62. Olav Gerhardi Tychfen Elementale Syriacum, fiftens Grammaticam, Chreftomathiam et Gloffarium, fubjunctis novem Tabulis are expreffis. Roftock, 1793. 170 pp. in large 8vo. What may be here properly termed the grammatical part confifts of 31 pages only, though it appears to contain every thing which is neceffary for beginners, expreffed in language fufficiently perfpicuous, as it is alfo recommended by fome new obfervations of which, in general, we cannot but approve. Thus, for example, in p. 14, we are told that the radical words of four letters are to be regarded only as fpecial forms of the triliteral etyma, which is a much better account of them than that which reprefents them to be combinations of two different roots. So likewise, in p. 22. verbs are mentioned with the middle radical Jud, which had escaped the notice of former grammarians. In the 24 and following pages, the author enters more fully into the particularities of this dialect, than might have been expected in a mere compendium of grammar, though he has omitted fome to which, in our judgment, he ought equally to have attended. Such is the remark, that o in foreign words only, is fometimes quiefcent in Sekopho, Rebhozo, and Ptocho; that in the Syriac tongue, the accent is often on the penultimate; that the word, (valde), employed as a fuperlative, anfwers to très, prefixed to adjectives in the French language, from a comparifon with which the lineola occultans under the Rifch, in the word (Heb. np) may likewife be accounted for; it being ufual in French to omit many letters in the pronunciation which are retained in the orthography, for the fake of pointing out the Latin or Greek etymon, to which the words are to be referred; which applies equally to the War and Jud, placed at the end of words without a vowel, to be illuftrated from the ent terminating the third perfons plural of verbs, likewife fuppreffed in the pronunciation. Some hint might have been given too refpecting the formation of the Syriac conjugation, from a combination of the adjective and the pronoun, which is particularly evident in verbs media Jud. The Chreftomathia, in which the felections are equally remarkable for their variety and importance, confift from p. 32-89. of punctuated, and from p. 112 of unpunctuated paffages. The whole concludes with a very useful gloffary from p. 113 to p. 169, and with 9 copper-plates, by which the reading of Syriac MSS. will, of course be greatly facilitated. Ibid. * Not having Syriac types ready, we have fubftituted Hebrew. Being a phyfical Commentary on the Eleven firft. Chapters of GENESIS. SIR, 29. THUS again, are all thofe pfychological fables fet afide, in which, by a vain analyfis of the human understanding, at a period when it was already inftructed, fome philofophers have pretended to derive from the powers of reafon alone, all the religious notions fcattered among the nations of the world: for we now fee, that the origin of idolatry is to be referred to the debasement of a pure theifm, the foundation of which was laid in the immediate inftruction from GoD to the first race of men, and repeated in HIS revelations to NOAH. But the worship of GoD inflituted by NOAH at his defcent from the ark, was fucceffively corrupted into the worship of NOAH himself, into that of his fons and their first defcendants, and even into the wor fhip of the mere emblems by which the feveral circumstances of the deluge were reprefented; and when once men were left to their own imaginations, with refpect to thofe objects, the true meaning of which they could not understand, without a reference to their real origin then obliterated among them, no bounds could be put to the excess of deviations in the few, and of credulity in the many: a degradation, of which Mr. BRYANT has traced the progrefs and the causes, in the propagation of the Afiatic and Egyptian mythologies among the Greeks. and Romans. Nevertheless, beneath the veil of all these deviations, the primitive notion of a SUPREME BEING, to whom these Gods of their own invention were fubordinate, prevailed at all times among the Pagans: a ftrong inftance of which, as far as relates to the Indians, we have in Mr. MAURICES' Hiftory of Hindoftan, p. 359. What becomes then of all the fpeculations on a pretended derivation of theism from the human understanding, fince it is thus afcertained, that a true theifm, proceeding from revelation, did exift among the first progenitors of the prefent race of mankind? 30. Befides thefe circumftances fo clearly proved, which directly give the fanction of truth to the recital of Moses, there are others which will ferve to demonstrate more and more, that the facred hiftorian, in imprefling on the Ifraelites, as a rule for their conduct, the fublimé fublime ideas of the benefits, particular commands, and judgments, de rived from GOD, did not dwell upon circumftances which they already knew by tradition from their ancestors. If his history had been a fable, Moses might well have been expected to show as much imagination, as those painters who, from false ideas of the deluge, have drawn pictures in which men are reprefented crowding to the tops of eminences, and flying from rock to rock to evade the waters. MOSES then, reprefenting to himfelf Mount Ararat, as covered with the dead bodies of the inhabitants of the country who had fought refuge there, would have fet it forth in the colours of poetry, and an elegy would have fupplied the expreffion of diftrefs introduced in the pictorial reprefentations. But no image of death, no hint of any mournful fcene, is found in his defcription; becaufe he wrote the true hiftory of NOAH and his family, who, landing on an iland of the ancient fea during its retreat, could not find there any trace of the doom inflicted on their fellow inhabitants of the perishing lands. 31. This, however, under a more general form, was the ground of one of the arguments of unbelievers, who, fetting out from the falfe ideas which prevailed on the nature of the deluge, objected to the hiftory of Moses, that, if it had really taken place, we ought to find in our ftrata, human reliquiæ, as well as the remains of terrestrial animals; which, however, is not the cafe. But Moses fays exprefsly, that the lands occupied by mankind were deftroyed; and Geology confirms this fundamental circumftance. Thus, far from this want of human remains, on Ararat, in the defcription of Moses, and among the organized bodies found in our ftrata, being an objection to the truth of the facred hiftory, it is a very remarkable confirmation of it. With refpect to the carcafes of terreftrial animals found in thefe ftrata, they were, as it has before been explained, buried there by the waters of the fea, while it ftill covered our continents, and confequently before the deluge. 32. Of all the mistakes produced by abandoning the literal fenfe of GENESIS with regard to this great event, that which has produced the greatest number of unbelievers, is the extent which has confequently been given to the command from GOD to NOAH, with refpect to the prefervation of animals. If the waters, as was imagined, had in effect covered the highest mountains all over the globe, it must neceffarily have followed, that every animal now exifting, muft have proceeded from their respective couples preferved in the ark; and fo it has been conceived. I fhall not stop to notice the difficulties and improbabilities that arofe from fuch an interpretation, they are well known from the commentaries of unbelievers; but let us pursue the history of MOSES, to fee if their arguments against his commentators, prove any thing against himself. 33. The paffages they interpret in this manner, begin at p. 19 of the 6th chapter of GENESIS, where God fays to NOAH, "And of every living thing of all flefh, two of every fort fhalt thou bring into the Ark, to keep them alive with thee; they fhall be male and female." Here doubtlefs is a generality in the expreffion, which we alfo find in the fubfequent paffages relating to the fame fubject: but here is one of a different kind expreffed in page 21: “ And take thou unto thee of ail all food that is eaten, and thou fhall gather it to thee; and it shall be for food for thee and for them." Laftly, let us come to the defcent from the Ark. GOD firft fays to NOAH and his family (Chap. ix. P. 3) 66 Every moving thing that liveth fhall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things." Now whoever would not feek after difficulties where there are none, can only find in these general expreffions, compared with each other, a form of speech very common, not only among the oriental writers, but in every language, when a certain totality is to be expreffed, which the circumftances ferve to explain without ambiguity. NOAH was not mistaken with refpect to the orders he thus received from GOD; they were fo expreffed as to enable him to comprehend, what animals he ought to take into the ark, to keep alive with him, and alfo what provifions were necessary for their food during the deluge. It is not in the fhort account of Moses that we can expect to find thefe details; it is evident through the whole of his narration, that with respect to such circumftances as were known by tradition to the Ifraclites, he fimply alluded to them in few words: and we have here a direct proof of it; for if he had related to the Ifraelites circumftances of which they had no previous knowledge, he ought at the beginning of the account of the deluge, where he mentions its prediction to NOAH, to have indicated its duration; which furely was revealed to him, fince it was neceffary he should be informed of it, in order to proportion the quantity of provifions to be taken into the ark. We fee then, from the filence of MOSES on this important point, that he did not think it neceffary to enter into fuch details with the Ifraelites, because he had no objections to apprehend front them. 34. Laftly, all doubts on this head vanish when we come to the following paffage, containing one of the declarations of the AbMIGHTY to NOAH, after his quitting the ark (Chap. ix. vv. 8, 9, and 10.) "And God fpake unto NOAH, and to his fons with him, faying, and I, behold, I establish my covenant with you, and with your feed after you; you, of the fowl, of the cattle, and of every beaft of the earth with and with every living creature that is with you; from all that go out of the ark, to every beaft of the earth." This repetition of the words, with you," joined to the expreffion of "all that go out of the ark," correfponding with the order given to NOAH, "two of ery fort fhalt thou bring into the ark, to keep them alive with thee;" do they not establish an evident diftinction, between the fpecies of animals that NOAH had taken into the ark, and which had come out of it with him, and "all the beafts of the earth?" Here, Geology teaches us, why the Ifraelites fought no fuch fenfe in thefe expreflions, as the commentators did who began their interpretations by lofing fight of the nature of the deluge: they knew that after the retreat of the waters of the flood, a number of animals defcended from the mountains, and difperfed themselves over the furrounding countries, in proportion as they found food; as we have it figured in the ancient Mythologies, by the water of life, which began to flow from the fides of a mountain. 35. Thus, fetting afide the animals immediately needful to man, and thofe that, for particular reafons, NOAH was commanded to take into into the ark (the raven for inftance) the new continents were peopled with animals, as well as vegetables, from their mountains. It is thus that we find an explanation of the phænomenon of the carcaffes, found in our fuperficial Arata in the northern parts of the globe, of animals that only now exift between the tropics. At the time of the deluge, thefe animals exifted in our climates; we know this, among other proofs, from the quantities of elephants teeth that have been found in certain parts of the North, fo well preferved as to have been used for vory, and by the carcafe of a rhinoceros found in Siberia, which, by the account of M. PALLAS, had ftill a part of the skin with the hair attached. Such of these animals as, at the birth of our continents happened to be on the tops of the new mountains, fpread themselves, as all the other species of animals did, over the adjoining countries. But the animals underwent the fame fate as the plants; they propagated only in places where the new ftate of things afforded what fuited them; and hence it is that each diftinct region is found now to have its peculiar plants and animals; a circumftance of confiderable moment in Geology, which I fhall explain more fully in some other work, in treating of the origin of organized beings. 36. Every part of this fublime narration of Moses, is impreffed with characters that mark it as proceeding from the great author of nature himself. I fhall continue to notice the circumstances of that folemn crvenant which God vouchfafed to make with the inhabitants of the new lands, by confidering the fign annexed to it (Gen. chap. ix. vv. 12 and 13.) "And God faid: this is the token of the covenant between me and you, and every living creature that is with you,' for perpetual generations; I do fet my bow in the cloud, and it fhall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth." I shall first fhow what this object prefents to our notice. confidered as it ftands connected with natural history and Geology, after which I shall speak of the proofs we have of the reality of this event. 37. I have already had occafion to remark, that rain does not proceed from the condenfation of the waters raised by evaporation, but that it is produced by a chemical procefs, in which a portion of the atmosphere itself being decompofed, returns to the ftate of aqueous vapour, which, by its abundance, first for.ns clouds, and at length, the fall of water, which we call rain. In the present state of our globe, we observe two very different forts of rain: the one which prevails over a large extent of country, eitheir in a calm, or during regular winds; this rain is commonly foretold by the fall of the mercury in the barometer; it is always of fome continuance, and is not accompanied with any other particular phenomenon: this I fhall call fimple rain. other is more local, and the barometer seldom announces it: its effects are fudden, and return by fit; it is always accompanied with gufts of wind, which alfo are local; often it ends only in showers, but fometimes it is attended with bail, thunder, lightning, and even with hurricanes. I fhall call this tempestuous. Now it is to this latter kind of rain, the rainbow (or Iris) belongs; for it requires, that, at the fame time when the air is clear in the part of the horizon where the fun happens to be, there fhall be in the oppofite part a cloud very low and very thick, and that another cloud fhall be fo fituated as to produce rain The between |