the Euphrates, forty miles distant from the site of the city subsequently built by Seleucus, on the west of the Tigris, called Seleucia Babylonica, afterwards Babylonia, and at length Babylon, as it is to infer, that Berosus was not treating of the antediluvian world, because he described the city which the Chaldeans supposed the capital of the antediluvian world, by the name which it bore in after times, and by which alone it could have been recognized when he wrote. The names of the antediluvian patriarchs were equally circumstantial with that of Babel, and equally, " imposed in after times for particular reasons." Would Mr. Bryant infer that the ten patriarchs did not exist before the flood, because the names assigned to them in the Hebrew Scripture were circumstantial, and drawn from that language? He does not openly avow such belief. Yet we learn his sentiment by implication; which is perfectly in unison with the assertion, that Babylon did not exist before the deluge, because the name assigned to it in after times by the Hebrews was derived from Babel, which denotes confusion. That name most certainly was not given to the capital of the Parthian kingdom, to denote the confusion of tongues at the commencement of the new world If " our Scripture version idly follows that of the Greeks and Romans, in rendering that which should be

Chasdim or Chusdim one of the sons of Noah, Chaldeus," the Greeks and Romans, as idly followed the Chaldeans, and Hindus, who name the country after Chusha of the sixth generation in the Solar line; after whom the whole of that side of the country was called Cushadweep, at the same time that the rest of the world was called Bharatta, from the great chief of that name of the same generation in the race of Cain, or the Moon, and who became the sovereign of the whole world. And it is at least as probable that Chaldea was derived from Chusha, the son of Dasaratha, the Mahalaleel of the Hebrews, as that it was derived from Cush the son of Ham. More especially, as about 250 years after the deluge, we find the latter, who had previously settled in the south-east, near the land of Canaan, bringing a colony with him. from his own country, and settling south of Babylon, in a country called Chaduca, but formerly Chusca. Now it is well established that the provinces seized on by Cush, were those originally destined to Shem. We cannot, therefore, suppose that the name formerly given to that country, before it was conquered by Cush, was called after him. It is clear then, that the race of Shem designated the province by the name by which it

* Vide Letter II.

was known in the old world. If, says Mr. Bryant,

Babylon survived, one would imagine that other cities would have been in like manner preserved,

and that the temples, if any had been in the world before, would have remained, as well as that at Sipora; whence it would naturally appear unnecessary for these few people to have been in such a hurry to build." On what authority is it asserted that other cities and temples did not remain, that the family of Noah at that time consisted of a few persons only, or that they were in a hurry to build?

First, every eastern nation believes that the more noble buildings of the antediluvian world were not destroyed, and many choultries and temples still extant, being excavations of the solid rock could neither be injured by time nor climate, and are just as likely to have been the works of artists of the old world, as of those of the early ages of the new world. Of these Mavaliporam may be considered one. The Mosaic account does not, in express words, inform us that these buildings remained; but it is surely implied. The dove returned no more, when she found food and shelter without the ark: can we believe that the Almighty, who, during twelve months, preserved the grass of the field, and the trees of the forest, for the food and shelter of the animal creation, В в

VOL. I.

was unmindful of man alone; commanding him from the ark to a world, where no habitation remained; where he was exposed to the searching rays of a burning Sun, and the inclemency of tropical rains? Was the olive-branch miraculous, or did the olive-tree remain? If the slender olive braved the storm, the gigantic buildings cemented with bitumen could not have been in much danger.

Secondly, if, according to Mr. Bryant, Babylon was the first built city in the world, as one hundred years had elapsed from the deluge to the period when Ham and Japheth left Noah, and journeyed to the plain of Shinar, they could not have been in a very great hurry to build; and the few people exposed without shelter for more than an hundred years must have amounted, on a very moderate computation, when this author supposes Babylon to have been first built, to near 7000 persons*. Of these two-thirds, or about 4600 migrated to Babylon. Now, according to the dimensions of the tower of Babel, it would have taken about 3000 workmen, including women and under labourers, to complete it in 40 years. So that, unless we wish, with our author, to set the whole Mosaic account at defiance, we must dis

* Bedford's calculation.

believe every thing he has written on the subject. If the tower of Babylon was the first effort towards masonry in the postdiluvian world, it must have been brought to great perfection in the old; which militates entirely against the hypothesis of the temples notwithstanding a rain of forty days. Here our author is not satisfied with allotting 100 years as probationary time for he insists that it is certain that Nimrod built Babel, which is Babylon, after the flood" (the reign of Nimrod commenced 303 years after the flood;) forgetting that a few pages before, when the existence of Babylon militated against the first Titanian war being antediluvian, he had quoted a passage from Diodorus Siculus to prove that "when Ninus, or the Ninevite, invaded Assyria, it was not against the city of Babylon; for that was not then in being;" adding from himself, "It is very truly said, for the city Babel had been began, but was at that time deserted, and left unfinished; they left off to build the city. It seems to have been under a curse, and we hear nothing more of it for ages. Not a word occurs about Babylon, or Babylonia, till the time of Berodach, Baladan, and of Nebuchadnezzar, who came after him; when this city was rebuilt." From the above we may estimate the degree of credit due to this author. First he tells us, that Babylon was the first built city in the world;