Images de page
PDF
ePub

ceived from his mouth the hiftory of the creation and fall, and who lived 600 years with Noah, to communicate to him all the knowledge he got from Adam; had this Antediluvian wife man been railed from the dead to converse with the fofdiluvian fathers, or even with Noah, the year he died, that is, 350 years after the flood; is it not credible, from what I have faid, that he different would have heard a language very from that tongue he ufed in his converfations with Adam, even in the 930th year of the first man (4) ? I imagine Methuselah

(4) The extraordinary longevity of the Antediluvians Longevity is accounted utterly incredible by many moderns; but it of the Andid not appear fo unnatural to the early ages of Pa. tediluvians ganifm.-Let no one (fays Jofephus) upon comparing the lives of the antients with our lives, and with the few years which we now live, think that what we have faid of them is falfe. I have for witnefs to what I have faid, all thofe who have written antiquities, both among the Greeks and Barbarians. For even Manetho, who wrote the Egyptian History; and Berofus, who collected the Chaldean Monuments; and Mochus and Hofticus; and befides thefe, Hieronymus the Egyptian, and those who compofed the Phoenician Hiftory, agree to what I here fay. Hefied alfo, and Hcutaus, and Hallanicus, and Acufilaus; and befides thefe, Ephorus and Nicolaus of Damafcus, relate that the antients lived 1000 years.

The antient Latin authors likewife confirm the facred history in this branch: and Varro, in particular, made an enquiry, What the reafon was that the antients lived a 1000 years.

See a continuation of this 4th note in the appendix.

would

would not have been able to have talked with Noah, at the time I have mentioned, of the circumstances that then made the cafe of mankind, and of the things of common experience and ufage. He must have been unable to converfe at his first appearance.

What you fay, Madam, (I replied) is not only very probable, but affords a fatiffaction unexpected in a subject on which we are obliged, for want of data, to use conjectures. I offer up to your fuperior sense the notion, that the Scriptures were wrote in the language of Paradise. Moft certain it is, that even in refpect of our own language, for example, the fubjects of Henry the ift would find it as much out of their power to understand the English of George the ft's reign, were they brought up again, as the ordinary people of our time are at a loss to make any thing of the English written in the ift Henry's reign. But when I have granted this, you will be pleased to inform me, how Abraham and his fons converfed and commerced with the nations, if the Hebrew was not the universal language in their time? If the miracle at Babel was a confufion of tongues, as is generally fuppofed, how did the holy family talk and act with fuch diftant Kings and people? Illuminate me, thou glorious girl, in this dark article, and be my teacher in Hebrew learning, as I flatter

myself

myself you will be the guide and dirigent of all my notions and my days. Yes, charming Harriot, my fate is in your hands. Dif pose of it as you will, and make me what you please.

You force me to fmile, (the illustrious Mifs Noel replied) and oblige me to call you an odd compound of a man. Pray, Sir, let me have no more of thofe romantic flights, and I will answer your question as well as I can; but it must be at fome other time. There is more to be faid on the miracle at Babel, and its effects, than I could dispatch between this and our hour of dining, and therefore, the remainder of our leisure till dinner, we will pafs in a vifit to my grotto, and in walking round the garden to the parlour we came from. To the grotto then we went, and, to the best of my power, I will give my reader a description of this fplendid room.

tion of Mifs Noel's

In one of the fine rotundas I have men- A Defcriptioned, at one end of the green amphitheatre very lately defcribed, the thining apartment grotto. was formed. Mifs Noel's hand had covered the floor with the most beautiful Mosaic my eyes have ever beheld, and filled the arched roof with the richest foffil gems. The Mofaic painting on the ground was wrought with fmall coloured ftones or pebbles, and harp-pointed bits of glafs, mea

fured

The Temple of

Tranquillity and a

remarkable In

fured and proportioned together, fo as to imitate in their affemblage the ftrokes and colour of the objects, which they were intended to represent, and they represented by this lady's art, the Temple of Tranquillity, described by Volufenus in his dream.

At some distance the fine temple looks like a beautiful painted picture, as do the birds, the beafts, the trees, in the fields about it, and the river which murmurs at the botfeription. tom of the rifing ground; Amnis lucidus & vadofus in quo cernere erat varii generis pifces colludere. So wonderfully did this genius perform the piece, that fithes of many kinds feem to take their paftime in the bright fream. But above all, is the image of the philofopher, at the entrance of the temple, vaftly fine. With pebbles and scraps of glafs, all the beauties and graces are expreffed, which the pencil of an able artist could beftow on the picture of Democritus. You fee him as Diogenes Laertius has drawn him, with a philofophical joy in his countenance, that fhews him fuperior to all events. Summum bonorum finem ftatuit effe lætitiam, non eam quæ fit eadem voluptati, fed eam per quam animus degit perturbationis expers; and with a finger he points to the following golden infcription on the portico of the temple:

Fla

Flagrans fit ftudium bene merendi de feipfo,
Et feipfum perficiendi.

That is, By a rectitude of mind and life, secure true happiness and the applause of your own heart, and let it be the labour of your every day, to come as near perfection as it is poffible for human nature to get. This Mofaic piece of painting is indeed an admirable thing. It has a fine effect in this grotto, and is a noble monument of the masterly hand of Mifs Noel.

Nor was her fine genius lefs visible in the ftriking appearance of the extremely beautiful fhells and valuable curiofities, all round the apartment. Her father fpared no coft to procure her the fineft things of the ocean. and rivers from all parts of the world, and pebbles, ftones, and ores of the greatest curiofity and worth. These were all difpofed in fuch a manner, as not only fhed a glorious luftre in the room, but fhewed the understanding of this young lady in natural knowledge.

In one part of the grot were collected and arranged the ftony coverings of all the fhell-fish in the fea, from the firiated patella and its feveral fpecies, to the pholades in all their fpecies: and of thofe that live in the fresh ftreams, from the fuboval limpet or umbonated patella, and its fpecies, to the trian

gular,

« PrécédentContinuer »