History of manner of living, and the lineaments of their bodies. At the same time he observes, that the resemblance in all those particulars was most remarkable among the inhabitants of Mesopotamia." This observation, with respect to language, will, we doubt not, be vouched by every one of our readers who has acquired even a superficial knowledge of the languages current in those quarters at a very early period.

It appears, then, that the languages of the Armenians, Syrians, Assyrians, Arabians, and probably of the Chanaanim, did not suffer materially by the confusion of tongues. This observation may, we imagine, be extended to many of the dialects (F) spoken by the people who settled in those countries not far distant from the region where the sacred historian has fixed the original seat of mankind after the deluge. The inference then is, that if Noah and his family spoke the original language of Adam, as they most probably did, the judge. ment which effected the confusion of tongues did not produce any considerable alteration in the language of such of the descendants of Noah as settled near the region where that patriarch had fixed his residence after he quitted the ark.

But supposing the changes of language produced by Only a part the catastrophe at the building of the tower as considerengaged in able as has ever been imagined, it does not, after all, apbuilding the pear certain, that all mankind, without exception, were

of mankind

tower,

*Gen. ix. 25.

engaged in this impions project. If this assertion should be well founded, the consequence will be, that there was a chosen race who did not engage in that enterprise. If there was such a family, society, or body of men, it will follow, that this family, society, &c. retained the language of its great ancestor without change or variation. That such a family did actually exist, is highly probable, for the following reasons.

1. We think there is reason to believe that Ham, upon the heavy curse denounced upon him by his father *, retired from his brethren, and fixed his residence elsewhere. Accordingly we find his descendants scattered far and wide, at a very great distance from the Gordyæan mountains, where the ark is generally supposed to have rested immediately after the flood. Some of them we find in Chaldæa, others in Arabia Felix, others in Ethiopia (G), others in Canaan, and others in Egypt; and, finally, multitudes scattered over all the coast of Africa. Between these countries were planted many colonies of Shemites, in Elam, Assyria, Syria, Arabia, &c. We find, at the same time, the descendants of Shem and Japhet settled, in a great degree, contiguous to each other. This dispersion of the Hamites, irregular as it is, can scarce, we think, have been acci

dental; it must have been owing to some uncommon Language. cause, and none seems more probable than that assigned above. If, then, the descendants of Ham separated early, and took different routes, as from their posterior situations it appears they did, they could not all be present at the building of the tower.

10

not the de

2. It is not probable that the descendants of Shem and those were engaged in this undertaking, since we find that scendants they were not scattered abroad upon the face of all the of Shem. earth. The children of Shem were + Elam, Ashur, + Chap. x. Arphaxad, Lud, and Aram. Elam settled near the verse 22. mouth of the river Tigris, in the country which, by the Gentile writers, was called Elymais. Above him, on the same river, lay the demesne of Ashur, on the western side. In like manner, upon the same river, above him, was situated Aram, who possessed the country of Aramea; and opposite to him was Arphaxad, or Arbaces, or Arbaches, and his country was denominated Arphachites. Lud, as some think, settled in Lydia, among the sons of Japhet; but this opinion seems to be without foundation (H). Here, then, there is a dispersion, but such as must have originated from the nature of the thing. The four, or rather the five brothers, all settled contiguous, without being scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. Besides, there was ne confusion of language among these tribes: they continued to use one and the same lip through many succeeding generations.

II

Adam pre

From these circumstances it appears, that the pos- The lanterity of Shem were not involved in the guilt of the guage of builders of the tower, and of consequence did not un- served in dergo their punishment. If then the language of the the family Shemites was not confounded upon the erection of the of Shem. tower, the presumption is, that they retained the language of Noah, which, in all probability, was that of Adam. Some dialectical differences would in process of time creep in, but the radical fabric of the language would remain unaltered.

3. The posterity of Shem appear in general to have cultivated the pastoral life. They imitated the style of living adopted by the antediluvian posterity of Seth. No sooner had Noah descended from the ark, than he became Ish ha Adamah, a man of the earth; that is, a husbandman, and planted a vineyard. We find that some ages after, Laban the Syrian had flocks and herds; and that the chief wealth of the patriarch Abraham and his children consisted in their flocks and herds. Even his Gentile descendants, the Ishmaelites and Midianites, seem to have followed the same occupation. But people of this profession are seldom given to changes: their wants are few, and of consequence they are under few

or

2

History of or no temptations to deviate from the beaten track. This circumstance renders it probable that the language of Noah, the same with that of Adam, was preserved with little variation among the descendants of Arphaxád down to Abraham.

12 down to Abraham.

Callimach. Hym.

lib. xv.

We have observed above, that Ham, upon the curse denounced against him by his father, very probably left the society of his other brothers, and emigrated else where, as Cain had done in the antediluvian world. There is a tradition still current in the East, and which was adopted by many of the Christian fathers (1), that Noah, in the 930th year of his life, by divine appointment, did, in the most formal manner, divide the whole terraqueous globe among his three sons, obliging them that they would take an oath to stand by the decision. Upon this happened a migration at the birth of Peleg, that is, about three centuries after the flood. It is affirmed that Nimrod the arch-rebel disregarded this partition, and encroached upon the territory of Ashur, which occasioned the first war after the flood.

The Greeks had acquired some idea of this partition. which they supposed to have been between Jupitert, Neptune, and Pluto. Plato seems to have heard of Hom. Iliad. it (K): "For (says he) the gods of old obtained the dominion of the whole earth, according to their different allotments. This was effected without any contention, for they took possession of their several provinces in a fair and amicable way, by lot." Josephus §, in his account of the dispersion of mankind, plainly insinuates a divine destination; and Philo-Judæus (L) was of the same opinion before him.

& Ant. Jud lib. I. c. 5.

In consequence of this arrangement, the sons of Shem possessed themselves of the countries mentioned in the preceding pages: the posterity of Japhet had spread themselves towards the north and west; but the Hamites, who had separated from their brethren in consequence of the curse, not choosing to retire to their quarters, which were indeed very distant from the place where the ark rested, seized upon the land of Canaan (M). Perhaps, too, it might be suggested by some malicious spirits, that the aged patriarch was dealing partially when he assigned Ham and his posterity a quarter of the world to inhabit not only remote from the centre of population, but likewise sequestered from the rest of mankind (N). Be that as it may, the children of Ham removed eastward, and at length descending from the Carduchean

or Gordyæan mountains, directed their course westward, Language. and arrived at the plains of Shinar, which had been possessed by the Ashurim ever since the era of the first migration at the birth of Peleg. The sacred historian informs us, that the whole earth" was of one language and of one speech;" that in journeying from the east, they lighted upon the plain of Shinar, and dwelt there. In this passage we find no particular people specified; but as we find Nimrod, one of the descendants of Ham, settled in that country, we are sure that they were the offspring of that patriarch. It would not, we think, be easy to assign a reason how one branch of the family of Ham came to plant itself in the midst of the sons of Shem by any other means but by violence.

13

dren of

It is indeed generally supposed, that Nimrod, at the The tower head of a body of the children of Ham, made war upon of Babel Ashur, and drove him out of the country of Shinar; built by and there laid the foundation of that kingdom, the be- the chilginning of which was Babel: that this chief, supported Ho by all the Cushites, and a great number of apostates from the families of Shem and Japhet who had joined him, refused to submit to the divine ordinance by the mouth of Noah, with respect to the partition of the earth; and that he and his adherents were the people who erected the celebrated tower, in consequence of a resolution which they had formed to keep together, without repairing to the quarters assigned them by the determination of heaven. This was the crime which brought down the judgment of the Almighty upon them, by which they were scattered abroad upon the face of all the earth. The main body of the children of Shem and Japhet were not engaged in this impious undertaking; their language, therefore, was not confounded, nor were they themselves scattered abroad. Their habitations were contiguous; those of the Shemites towards the centre of Asia; the dwellings of Japhet were extended towards the north and north-west; and the languages of both these families continued for many ages without the least variation, except what time, climate, laws, religion, new inventions, arts, sciences, and commerce, &c. will produce in every tongue in a succession of years.

The general opinion then was, that none but the progeny of Ham and their associates were present at the building of the tower, and that they only suffered by the judgment (o) consequent upon that attempt. There

are

7.).

not confounded upon that occasion; and that the disper- Language. sion reached only to a combination of Hamites, and of the most profligate part of the two other families, who had joined their wicked confederacy.

History of are even among the Pagans some allusions to the division of the world among the three sons of Noah. Many of the learned have imagined that this patriarch was Saturn; and that his three sons were Jupiter, Neptune, and Pluto, as has been observed above.

* Fuseb. Chron.

+ Euseb. Prep. Ev.

lib. 9.

Epiph Hares. lib. 1.

Berosus, in his history of the Babylonians, informs us, that Noah, at the foot of Mount Baris or Luban, where the ark rested, gave his children their last instructions, and then vanished out of sight. It is now generally believed that the Xisuthrus of Berosus was Noah. Eupolemust, another heathen writer, tells us, "that the city Babel was first founded, and afterwards the celebrated tower; both which were built by some of those people who escaped the deluge. They were the same They were the same with those who in after times were exhibited under the name of giants. The tower was at length ruined by the hand of the Almighty, and those giants were scattered over the whole earth." This quotation plainly intimates, that according to the opinion of the author, only the rascally mob of the Hamites, and their apostate associates, were engaged in this daring enterprise.

Indeed it can never be supposed that Shem, if he was alive at that period, as he certainly was, would co-operate in such an absurd and impious undertaking. That devout patriarch, we think, would rather employ his influence and authority to divert his descendants from an attempt which he knew was undertaken in contradiction to an express ordinance of Heaven: and it is surely very little probable that Elam, Ashur, Arphaxad, and Aram, would join that impious confederacy, in opposition to the remonstrances of their father.

The building of the tower, according to the most probable chronology, was undertaken at a period so late, that all mankind could not possibly have concurred in the enterprise.

Many of the fathers were of opinion, that Noah settled in Armenia, the country where the ark rested; and that his descendants did not leave that region for five generations, during the space of 659 years. By this period the human race must have been so amazingly multiplied, that the plains of Shinar could not have contained them. According to the Samaritan Pentateuch, and the Septuagint version, Peleg was born in the 134th year of his father Eber. Even admitting the vulgar opinion, that the tower was begun to be built, and the dispersion consequent upon that event to have taken place at this era, the human race would have been by much too numerous to bave universally concurred in one design.

From these circumstances, we hope it appears that the whole mass of mankind was not engaged in building the tower; that the language of all the buman race was

I 1

in the other

We have pursued this argument to considerable length, Therefore because some have inferred, from the difference in lan- the original guages existing at this day, that mankind cannot have language sprung from two individuals; because from the connec-preserved tion still existing among languages, some have been bold two famienough to question the fact, though plainly recorded in lies. sacred history; and lastly, because we imagine that some of our readers, who do not pretend to peruse the writings of the learned, may be gratified by seeing the various opinions respecting the confusion of tongues, and the dispersion of mankind, collected into one mass, equally brief, we hope, and intelligible; and this view of these opinions, with the foundations on which they respectively rest, we think may suffice to prove, that the language of Noah was for some ages preserved unmixed among the descendants of both Shem and Japhet.

To gratify still farther such of our curious readers as may not have access to more ample information, we shall in this place exhibit a brief detail of the circumstances which attended this fatal attempt. The people engaged in it have been held up as a profligate race. The Almighty himself denominates them "the children of men," which is the very appellation by which the antediluvian sinners were characterised; the sons of God saw the daughters of men, &c. Their design in raising this edifice was "to make them a name, and to prevent their being scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth*."

* Gen.

Whatever resolution the rest mankind might take, chap. they had determined to maintain themselves on that spot. The tower was intended as a centre of union, and perhaps as a fortress of defence. Such a stupendous fabric,. they imagined, would immortalize their memory, and transmit the name of their confederacy with eclat (P) to future ages. This design plainly intimates, that there was only a party concerned in the undertaking, since, had all mankind been engaged in it, the purpose would have been foolish and futile. Again, they intended, by making themselves a name, to prevent their being scattered abroad upon the face of the earth. This was an act of rebellion in direct contradiction to the divine appointment, which constituted their crime, and brought down the judgment of Heaven upon their guilty heads. The consequence of the confusion of languages was, that the projectors left off to build (Q), and were actually scattered abroad, contrary to their intention.

15

Abydenus, in his Assyrian Annals, records, that the Pagan tra (R) "tower was carried up to heaven; but that the dition con

gods

cerning the tower of Babel.

History of gods ruined it by storms and whirlwinds, and overthrew it upon the heads of those who were employed in the work, and that the ruins of it were called Babylon. Before this there was but one language subsisting among men but now there arose woλvogn@wm, a manifold speech; and he adds, that a war soon after broke out between (s) Titan and Cronus." (T) The Sybilline oracles give much the same account of this early and important transaction.

Philip. lib. 1S. cap. 3.

“Justin * informs us, that the Phoenicians who built Tyre were driven from Assyria by an earthquake. These Phoenicians were the descendants of Mizraim the youngest son of Ham; and were, we think, confederates in building the tower, and were driven away by the catastrophe that ensued. Many other allusions to the dispersion of this branch of the family occur in Pagan authors, which the limits to be observed in an inquiry of this nature oblige us to omit. Upon the whole, we think it probable that the country of Shinar lay desolate for some time after this revolution; for the dread of the judgment inflicted upon the original inhabitants would deter men from settling in that inauspicious region. At last, however, a new colony arrived, and Babel, or Babylon, became the capital of a flourishing kingdom.

Our readers, we believe, will expect that we should say something of Nimrod the mighty hunter, who is generally thought to have been deeply concerned in the transactions of this period. According to most authors, both ancient and modern, this patriarch was the leader of the confederates who erected the tower, and the chief instigator to that enterprise. But if the tower was built at the birth of Pheleg, according to the Hebrew com+ Bochar. putation, that chief was + either a child, or rather not Phaleg. born at that period (u). The Seventy have pronounced lib. 1. him a giant, as well as a huntsman. They have transcap. 10. Jated the Hebrew word gebur, which generally signifies strong, mighty, by the word yuyas, giant ; an idea which we imagine those translators borrowed from the Greeks. The antediluvian giants are called Nephelim and Rephaim, but never Geburim. The Rabbinical writers, who justly hated the Babylonians, readily adopted this idea (x); and the fathers of the church, and the Byzantine historians, have universally followed them. He has been called Nimrod, Nebrod, Nymbroth, Nebroth, and Nebris. Not a few have made him the first Bacchus, and compounded his name of Bar, a son, and Cush, that is, the son of Cush. Some have imagined that he was Odys 1. 1. the Orion of the Pagans, whose shade is so nobly deverse 571. scribed by Homer ‡. But the etymology of this last

name implies something (r) honourable, and very un Language. suitable to the idea of the tyrant Nimrod. It must be observed, however, that we find nothing in. Scripture to warrant the supposition of his having been a tyrant ; so far from it, that (z) some have deemed him a benefactor to mankind. See Nimrod.

The beginning of this prince's kingdom was Babel. Eusebius gives us first* a catalogue of six kings of the * Chron. Chaldæans, and then another of five kings of Arabian libi. extraction, who reigned in Chaldæa after them. This page 14. might naturally enough happen, since it appears that the inhabitants of those parts of Arabia which are adjacent to Chaldea were actually Cushites, of the same † Gen. x. family with the Babylonians.

Ant. lib. i

cap. 6.

The Cusbites, however, were at last subdued, perhaps partly expelled Chaldea by the Chasidim, who probably claimed that territory as the patrimony of their progenitors. That the Chasidim were neither Cushites, nor indeed Hamites, is obvious from the name, The Hebrews, and indeed all the Orientals ‡, denominated both the Joseph. people who inhabited the eastern coast of Arabia Cushim, and also the Ethiopians who sprung from the last-mentioned people. Had the later inhabitants of Chaldea been the descendants of Cush, the Jewish writers would have called them Cushim. We find they called the Phoenicians Chanaanim, the Syrians Aramim, the Egyptians Mizraim, the Greeks Jonim, &c. The Chasidim, therefore, or modern inhabitants of Chaldea, were positively descended of one Chesed or Chased; but who this family-chief was, it is not easy to determine. The only person of that name whom we meet with in early times is the fourth son of Nahor §, the brother of Abra-Gen chap xxii. ham; and some have been of opinion that the Chaldeans verse 22. were the progeny of this same Chesed. This appears to us highly probable, because both Abram and Nahor were || natives of Ur of the Chasidim. The former, we know, in consequence of the divine command, removed to Haran, afterwards Charræ ; but the latter remained in Ur, where his family multiplied, and, in process of time, became masters of the country which they called the land of the Chasidim, from Chesed or Chased, the name of their ancestor. This account is the more probable, as we find the other branches of Nahor's family settled in the same neighbourhood (A).

Gen.

chap. xi. verse 28.

16

the name

Chaldæi.

How the Greeks came to denominate these people Origin of Xardan, Chaldæi, is a question rather difficult to be resolved ; but we know that they always affected to distinguish people and places by names derived from their own language. They knew a rugged, erratic nation (B)

on