"I think," said Mrs. Beaufoy, "there can be no doubt that some of them did witness it, and that it was intended to be a lesson of instruction to those who remained, as well as a reward to the righteous Enoch. The melancholy fate of Abel was an argument addressed to the reason of mankind; (they might infer from it, that the Almighty governor and judge would not permit his faithful servants to suffer from the tyranny of the wicked, if this life were to be the whole of their being;) while the translation of Enoch may be regarded as an appeal to their senses, proving that there actually is another state of existence. So remarkable an event, one should think, would induce them to look beyond the present life, and to regard this world as the scene of preparation for a better. At any rate, it must have excited great interest among Enoch's friends and relatives, affording them strong ground of hope, that man would Dd

not be left under the power of death, but at some time or other be permitted to enjoy the state of happiness into which this favoured servant of God was already entered*.

The youngest of the patriarchs, whose names are recorded as being contemporary with Adam, was Lamech, the father of Noah. He was a prophet, and we may therefore conclude, not an inattentive observer of the dispensations of Providence. He died only a few months before the Flood, and doubtless felt great interest in the construction of that Ark, which was to be the means of preserving Noah and his family. To them, who were destined to become the founders of another race, Lamech would naturally be anxious to impart that knowledge of the first ages of the world, which he had probably received from the lips of Adam.

When we go home, you may refer to

* Law, p. 67, 68.

the chart of the Antediluvian Patriarchs in your Atlas Classica, and your will perceive that Noah need not to have depended on the unsupported testimony of his father, because he was contemporary with five other patriarchs*, who had also been the companions of Adam, and were therefore qualified either to confirm or to confute the narrative of Lamech. Thus, you perceive that the Almighty made ample provision for the instruction and improvement of the world during the first sixteen hundred years. This was evinced in several ways: by sensible manifestations of the Divine power or presence, by the ministry of angels, by the spirit of prophecy, and by an uninterrupted series of traditions +. These constituted the evidences of religion before the Scriptures were written."

* Enos, Cainan, Mahalaleel, Jared, and Methuselah.

+ Law, p. 70.

"On how few persons," said Harry, "those evidences appear to have made any impression, since it was the great wickedness of men which induced the Almighty to destroy them by the deluge. But after that event, mamma, the evidence of tradition must have been much weaker, because Noah's was an unsupported testimony."

While Harry was speaking, they arrived at the gate of their own garden, and the conversation was interrupted. Mrs. Beaufoy went up stairs to take off her pelisse, and Harry, recollecting what had been said about the Atlas Classica, was closely examining the Chart of the Patriarchs when she entered the parlour. "I was quite wrong, mamma," said he: "Noah's need not have been an unsupported testimony, for all his sons must have been ac

quainted with Lamech and Methuselah. See, they appear to have been what we should call very old men, when they entered the ark."

"That is true, my dear Harry; and therefore they became the means of imparting the indisputable evidence of concurring testimony to a new race of human beings. Before we take leave of Noah himself, I would call your attention to him, as affording an eminent example of that faith which I told you was exercised by the patriarchs. When the Almighty declared he would destroy all living creatures by a flood, Noah neither doubted the possibility of the event, though nothing like it had ever been witnessed, nor questioned the justice or mercy of God in pronouncing such a sentence, nor declined the great labour and expence he must sustain in preparing the Ark, nor feared the reproach and ridicule to which the construction of a vessel so unwieldy and