.

[17:1] Sir William Jones, the first president of the Royal Asiatic
Society, saw this when he said: "Either the first eleven chapters of
Genesis, all due allowance being made for a figurative Eastern style,
are _true_, or the whole fabric of our religion is false." (In Asiatic
Researches, vol. i. p. 225.) And so also did the learned Thomas Maurice,
for he says: "If the Mosaic History be indeed a fable, the whole fabric
of the national religion is false, since the main pillar of Christianity
rests upon that important original promise, that the seed of the woman
should bruise the head of the serpent." (Hist. Hindostan, vol. i. p.
20.)

[18:1] The above extracts are quoted by Bishop Colenso, in The
Pentateuch Examined, vol. ii. pp. 10-12, from which we take them.

[18:2] "_Cosmogony_" is the title of a volume lately written by Prof.
Thomas Mitchell, and published by the American News Co., in which the
author attacks all the modern scientists in regard to the geological
antiquity of the world, evolution, atheism, pantheism, &c. He
believes--and rightly too--that, "_if the account of Creation in Genesis
falls, Christ and the apostles follow: if the book of Genesis is
erroneous, so also are the Gospels_."

CHAPTER II.

THE DELUGE.[19:1]

After "man's shameful fall," the earth began to be populated at a very
rapid rate. "The sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were
fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose. . . . . There
were _giants_ in the earth in those days,[19:2] and also . . . mighty
men . . . men of renown."

But these "giants" and "mighty men" were very wicked, "and God saw the
wickedness of man . . . _and it repented the Lord that he had made man
upon the earth_,[19:3] and it grieved him at his heart. And the Lord
said; I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth,
both man and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air,
for it repenteth me that I have made them. But Noah found grace in the
eyes of the Lord (for) Noah was a just man . . . and walked with God.
. . . And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me,
for the earth is filled with violence through them, and, behold, I will
destroy them with the earth. Make thee an ark of gopher wood, rooms
shalt thou make in the ark, (and) a window shalt thou make to the ark;
. . . . And behold I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth,
to destroy all flesh, wherein is the