connected with, if not absolutely essential to, the rightly comprehending the mysterious doctrines contained in the sacred volume.

It is, however, not impossible, but that some original revelation on this subject may have been handed down to man from the immediate posterity of Adam, who, we may reasonably suppose, had been instructed by God himself in the knowledge of the heavenly bodies; and that he had been so instructed, is pretty plainly elicited by the recital of Josephus, who tells us, that "Seth being nourished and trained by his father to the years of discretion, studied virtue, and left his descendants heirs and followers of his sanctity; who being all of them well born, remained in the world free from all contention, and lived happily; so that it never happened that any of them in any sort did injury to any man. To these we owe the science of astronomy, and all that concerneth the beauty and order of the heavens.' And that the study of the heavenly bodies was handed down to Noah, if Josephus is correct, appears from his relation:

Noah," he further states, "lived after the deluge three hundred and fifty years; and having spent all the rest of his life in happiness, he died after he had lived in the world nine hundred and fifty years. Neither is there cause why any man (comparing this our present age, and the shortness thereof, with the long life of the ancients,) should think that false which I have said. Neither followeth it, that because our present life extendeth not to such a term and continuance of years,

therefore they of the former world attained not the age and long life which we publish of them. For they being beloved of God, and newly created by him, using also a kind of nutriment agreeing with their natures, and proper to prolong their lives, it is no absurd thing to suppose that their lives were of that continuance, considering that God gave them long life, to the end that they should teach virtue, and should conscientiously practice those things which they had invented-the sciences of astronomy and geometry; the demonstrations whereof they never had attained, except they had lived at the least six hundred years."

To the oral testimony of these antediluvian patriarchs, whose extreme longevity enabled them to hand down to their posterity original revelations for nearly two thousand years, through the succeeding testimony of not more than one or two generations, we are doubtless indebted for many traditionary legends; and it plainly appears, according to Josephus, that the study of astronomy engrossed the earliest attention of man; and consequently renders it highly probable, that the opinions of Pythagoras on this important subject, as well as many others, may have been formed on some original revelation, handed down to man. That Pythagoras, as well as Plato and Plutarch, had gleaned up much information during their sojourn in Egypt, where the thirst after knowledge had alike carried all these great men, that they might converse with the priesthood of

VOL. III.

૨

that country, is an ascertained fact.* And that that priesthood, from the long residence of the Israelites in Egypt, and their personal intercourse with Joseph and Moses, must have been possessed of many original communications which have not reached us, is more than probable; among which may have been included, not only an insight into the motions of the heavenly bodies, but also the opinions broached by Pythagoras, respecting the transmigration of the souls of animals: as Adam, for reasons already stated must, we conceive, have been well acquainted with God's intention as to the disposal of them, and would most likely impart the same unto his immediate descendants.

Noah also, who had been shut up so long a time in the ark with animals of every description, must consequently have been peculiarly well acquainted with their different propensities and natures, and was probably informed as to their appointed destination. For it is observable, that God alike entered into covenant with them, when they went forth from out the ark, as he did with man. "God spake unto Noah, and to his sons with him, saying, And I, behold, I establish my covenant with you, and with your seed after you; and with every living creature that is with you, of the fowl, of the cattle, and of every beast of the earth. And I will establish my covenant with you; neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by a flood to destroy the earth. And God said, this is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you, and every living creature that is

* Plutarch's Lives.

with you, for perpetual generations: I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth. And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud : and I will remember my covenant which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh. And God said unto Noah, This is the token of the covenant which I have established between me and all flesh that is upon the earth." (Gen. ix. 8-17.)

The consequence thus given to the animal creation by their almighty Former, in the eyes of his servant Noah; their being placed almost on a footing in the foregoing covenant with their master, man; powerfully strengthens the premised supposition, namely, that Noah would be fully informed as to their destiny, should a future one await them; and which there appears some ground for suspecting there does, beyond their present short and suffering sojourn in our little world-a suspicion which the scriptural quotations just inserted, tend somewhat to confirm. For if no further designs of mercy were intended for them, if annihilation of their spirits was to be effected at the same juncture which effected the annihilation of their corporeal nature, a covenant with them could be of little import.

If the waters of a flood were frequently commissioned to sweep them away by millions from off their present residence, it would be in many cases a most happy release from a sad state of

sufferance. But if this sad state of sufferance is a state of preparation for a nobler one, for a state in which instinct will be advanced to reason-a covenant which secures their continuance in their present state may be nearly as important to them as it is to man; and if a full explanation respecting their future destiny had been revealed to Noah, it supplies another source from whence may have been derived traditionary legend.

We shall only subjoin one more instance from out the sacred volume, of a human being, who was probably enlightened on this mysterious subject, and from whom the Egyptians and other ancient nations may have become possessed of that information from which Pythagoras gleaned up his opinions respecting the brute creation. The personage to whom we allude is the great Jewish monarch Solomon, who wrote his Ecclesiastes nine hundred and eighty-one years before Christ; and as Pythagoras only died four hundred and ninety-seven years before Christ, the lapse of many ages had not ensued between the two philosophers Solomon and Pythagoras.

Solomon, it appears extremely probable, not only from holy writ, but the recital of Josephus, had made the study of animals a favourite occupation; for the first informs us, that he spake a thousand proverbs, and his songs were a thousand and five. That he spake of trees, from the cedar tree that is in Lebanon, even unto the hyssop that springeth out of the wall. And that he spake also of beasts, and of fowl, and of every creeping thing, and of fishes. (1 Kings iv. 32, 33.)