2. We are thus compelled to adopt the opinion that the deluge was a local event confined to one part of the earth's surface, and that it was uni versal' only inasmuch as it effected the destruction of the whole human race, the family of Noah alone excepted. Against this opinion no objec tions of any weight can be urged. It is borne out by the evidence to be derived from a study of the phenomena of nature ; and it is not at variance with any statement in Holy Scripture. The uni versality of the language in which Moses describes the extent of the deluge—` all the high hills that were under the whole heaven were covered'—has indeed been regarded as a testimony to the univer sality of the catastrophe. But such general ex pressions are of frequent occurrence in the sacred writings to denote a tract of country which, though large relatively to its inhabitants, yet formed only a very small portion of the earth's surface. No authentic traces of the action of the flood have yet been detected in the East, where the area of sub mersion was probably situated. Nor indeed is it
likely that any such traces will ever be found. They might confirm our faith, but they are by no means necessary, for the fact of the former destruc tion of the human race is made known to us in the sacred volume, and has been handed down by tra dition in almost every nation of the earth, even the most barbarous and the farthest removed from the early cradle of the human race.
By admitting that the deluge affected only a limited portion of the earth's surface, we bring the narrative of Moses into harmony with the laws of nature as these have been made known by the on ward progress of science ; we rescue it from a hopeless series of difficulties such as only a student of nature can thoroughly realize, but at the very thought of which he stands appalled ; and we re move all ground for charging this portion of the Bible with grave contradictions, inconceivable mira cles, and even physical impossibilities.—A. G.