SECT.

I.

2.

Bochart produces no less than fourteen different points of resemblance between Noah and Saturn, from which he strongly argues their identity: and Orpheus, in his hymn to that deity, gives him a variety of titles, which do not appear to be applicable to any perfon, except the fecond progenitor of mankind. He is there styled, the destroyer and the renewer of all things; the father of the (prefent) age, who inhabits (in the persons of his descendants) every part of the world; and the original parent of all generations. From these testimonies it appears more than probable, that the Pagan Saturn was a deification of the Scriptural Noah; and that in the three fons of the one may be found the triple offspring of the other.

2. The notion, of fome one of the most Targitaus. ancient of the Gods having three fons, was not confined to the polished nations of Greece and Rome. The Scythians, ac

Geog. Sacra, p. 1.

5 Ος δαπανας μεν ἅπαντα, και αυξεις εμπαλιν αυτός

Αιώνος Κρονε παγγενέτως

ὡς ναίεις κατα παντα μερη κοσμοιο, γεναρχα.

ORPH. Hymn, ad Saturn. p. 204. edit. Gefner.

cording

V.

cording to Herodotus, afcribed this num- CHAP. ber to their tutelary deity and fuppofed ancestor Targitaus. The names of his offfpring were Lipoxais, Arpoxais, and Colaxais. In their days, a plough, a yoke, an ax, and a goblet, all formed of gold, fell from heaven. The two first of the brethren, attempting to take them up, were fcorched by a flame of fire, which fuddenly burst forth. The youngest made the last effay, and having received no injury, was acknowledged, by the two elder, as their fuperior1.

In this tradition, the inftruments of hufbandry, and the golden cup, may poffibly allude to the well known character of Noah, a man of the earth, and a planter of vineyards while, in the fuperiority of the younger brother over the two elder, we are led to recognize the ufurpation and tyranny of the line of Ham, in the person of Nimrod, the founder of the first great monarchy.

It may here be obferved, that it is rather a fingular circumstance, that our expounders of the prophecies fhould fo

t Herod. Hift. lib. iv. c. 5.
03

per

tinaciously

SECT. tinaciously defcribe the four great empires, 1. as being uniformly in the line either of Shem, or of Japhet, and never in that of Ham". This fuppofition is manifeftly adopted, with a view to fhew the accomplishment of the prophetic curfe of Noah: but, in reality, that curfe fimply dooms the defcendants of Canaan to flavery; and it was accurately fulfilled in the fubjugation of their country by the Ifraelites, when fuch of them as were spared were made hewers of wood and drawers of water. With regard to the other defcendants of Ham, they appear to have been wifer in their generation, than the children either of Shem, or of Japhet; and to them we undoubtedly owe the rudiments of all the fine arts. As for the four great empires, the first or Babylonian was clearly founded by Nimrod, after he had expelled or reduced to flavery the fons of Shem, who were originally fettled in that country. The fecond may poffibly have been vested in the line of Shem, though even that point is far from being fatisfactorily established:

" See Mede's Works, p. 213. and Newton's Differtations, vol. i. p. 23.

Bryant's Anal. vol, iii. paffim.

but

credit CHAP.

but the third or the Grecian, if any
be due to history, was erected not by the
defcendants of Japhet, but by those of
Ham. Greece might probably have been
firft peopled by Japhet; but those abori-
gines were foon conquered, and either ex-
tirpated, or incorporated with a totally dif-
ferent race. It is impoffible to derive the
later Greeks, fo celebrated to this day for
their proficiency in the arts and sciences,
from the line of Japhet, unlefs we contra-
dict the whole tenor of history. Diodorus
Siculus afferts, that fome of the original
leaders of the Athenians were Egyptians';
and that the Athenians themfelves were a
colony from Sais in Egypt. Herodotus
fpeaks in a fimilar manner of the Dorians";
and Paufanias gives the fame account of
the Megareans. Lelex alfo, the father or
leader of the Leleges, came from Egypt.
The Peloponnefus was for the most part
peopled by Dorians; and the Leleges efta-
blished themselves in Megara. In short,
the most celebrated leaders of the Grecian

y Diod. Sic. lib. i. p. 25.

z Ibid. p. 24.

a Herod. lib. vi. c. 54.
b Paufan. lib. i. p. 95.

c Ibid. p. 106.

V.

SECT. colonies, fuch as Danaus, Erectheus, CeI. crops, Cadmus, and Phenix, all came from Egypt. Hence it is manifeft, that the Greeks were, strictly speaking, an Egyptian nation, and confequently not the descendants of Japhet, but of Ham .

3.

Mannus.

1

3. To return from this digreffion, the Germans, in a manner fimilar to the ancient Scythians, venerated Tuisto, who, according to their traditions, was sprung from the earth, and along with him his fon Mannus. These they supposed to have been the ancestors of their nation. To Mannus, the fecond of their deities, they attributed three fons f.

In the perfon of Tuifto we clearly recognize the primitive father of mankind, formed by the hand of God from the dust of the earth; and Mannus is no less evi

d Herod. lib. ii. c. 91.-Diod. Sic. lib. i. p. 25.-Joh. Tzetzes Chil. V. Hift. xviii. p. 91.—Suidas.—Diod. Sic. lib. v. p. 329.-Syncell. p. 158.

* I am indebted for the above mafs of citations to Bryant on the Plagues of Egypt, p. 2. See alfo Differtation Litéraire &c. par Schmidt, Archæologia, vol. i. p. 238. and Allwood's Liter. Antiq. of Greece.

f Tacit. de Mor. Germ. c. ii.

dently