All that was peculiar in the circumstances of the antediluvian period was eminently favourable to civilization. The respected contributor [J. P. S.], to whose article [ADAM] we have already referred, remarks, in a further communication, that ' The longevity of the earlier seventeen or twenty centuries of human existence is a theme containing many problems. It may be here referred to for the purpose of indicating the advantages which must necessarilythave therefrom accrued to the mechanical arts. In pottery, mining, metallurgy, cloth-making, the applications of heat and mixtures, etc., it is universally known that there is a tact of manipula tion which no instruction can teach, which the possessor cannot even describe, yet which renders him powerful and unfailing within his narrow range, to a degree almost incredible ; and when he has reached his limit of life he is confident that, had he another sixty or seventy years to draw upon, he could carry his art to a perfection hitherto unknown. Something like this must have been acquired by the antediluvians ; and the paucity of objects within their grasp would increase the precision and success within the range.' By reason of their length of life, the antediluvians had also more encouragement in protracted under takings, and stronger inducements to the erection of superior, more costly, more durable, and more capacious edifices and monuments, public and private, than exist at present. They might reason ably calculate on reaping the benefit of their labour and expenditure. The earth itself was probably more equally fertile, and its climate more uniformly healthful, and more auspicious to longevity, and consequently to every kind of mental and corporeal exertion and enterprise, than has been the case since the great convulsion which took place at the Deluge.
But probably the greatest advantage enjoyed by the antediluvians, and which must have been in the highest degree favourable to their advancement in the arts of life, was the uniformity of language. Nothing could have tended more powerfully to maintain, equalize, and promote whatever ad vantages were enjoyed, and to prevent any portion of the human race from degenerating into savage life.
Of the actual state of society and of the arts before the Deluge some notice has occurred in a previous article [ADAM], and other particulars will be found in the articles relating to these subjects.
The opinion that the old world was acquainted with astronomy, is chiefly founded on the ages of Seth and his descendants being particularly set down (Gen. v. 6, sqq.), and the precise year, month, and day being stated in which Noah and his family, etc., entered the ark, and made their egress from it (Gen. vii. i r ; viii. 13). The dis tinctions of day and night, and tl e lunar month, were of course observed ; and the thirteenth ro tation of the moon, compared with the sun's return to his primary position in the heavens, and the effects produced on the earth by his return, would point out the year. The variation between the rotations of the moon and sun easily became dis coverable from the difference which in a very few years would be exhibited in the seasons ; and hence it may be supposed that, although the calculations of time might be by lunar months or revolutions, yet the return of vegetation would dictate the solar year. The longevity of the antediluvian patriarchs,
and the simplicity of their employments, favour this conjecture, which receives additional strength from the fact that the Hebrew for yetir, ;Tr), implies an iteration, a return to the same point, a repetition ; and it is also remarkable that the Indians, Chinese, Babylonians, Egyptians, Greeks, and other nations, all deduce their origin from personages said to be versed in astronomy.
The knowledge of zoology, which Adam possessed, was doubtless imparted to his children ; and we find that Noah was so minutely informed on the subject as to distinguish between clean and unclean beasts, and that his instructions extended to birds of every kind (Gen. vii. 2-4). A knowledge of some essential principles in botany is shewn by the fact that Adam knew how to distinguish seed bearing herb,' tree in which is a seed-bearing fruit,' and every green herb' (Gen. i. 29, 3o). The trees of life and of knowledge are the only ones mentioned before the Fall ; but in the history of Noah the vine, the olive, and the wood of which the ark was made (Gen. vi. t4 ; viii. t t ; ix. 2o), are spoken of in such a manner as clearly to intimate a knowledge of their qualities. With mineralogy the antediluvians were at least so far acquainted as to distinguish metals ; and in the description of the garden of Eden gold and precious stones are noticed (Gen. ii. 12).
That the antediluvians were acquainted with music is certain ; for it is expressly said that Jubal (while Adam was still alive) became the father of those who handle the `l1J'S kimutr and the M1)) '7,egab.' The kinnur was evidently a stringed instrument resembling a lyre ; and the 'ugab was without doubt the pandzean pipe, composed of reeds of different lengths joined together. This clearly intimates considerable progress in the science ; for it is not probable that the art of play ing on wind and on stringed instruments was discovered at the same time ; we may rather suppose that the principles of harmony, having been dis covered in the one, were by analogy transferred to the other ; and that Jubal, by repeated efforts, became the first performer on the harp and the pipe. [Music.] Our materials are too scanty to allow us to affirm that the antediluvians possessed the means of com municating their ideas by writing or by hierogly phics, although tradition, and a hint or two in the Scriptures, might support the assertion. With respect to poetry, the story of Lamech and his wives (Gen. iv. 19-24) is evidently in verse, and is most probably the oldest specimen of Hebrew poetry extant ; but whether it was written before or after the Flood is uncertain, although the pro bability is that it is one of those previously exist ing documents which Moses transcribed into his writings.