fication, however he might know it by inspiration; and without assuming too much, the whole congregation of the Israelites, for whose guidance and instruction the history of the Creation was written, knew nothing as Hebrews. It would seem, therefore, that Moses recorded in Hebrew a tradition that appears to have existed amongst the Indians as well as the Hebrews with the precise meaning of which, as a Hebrew, he was not acquainted, but which he was inspired and directed to embody in his writings as a revelation from the Almighty to Adam or the Patriarchs, and thus preserve it for all time to come; and the Indians also preserved the record of a fact in a word of whose applicability to and connection with the Earth at its creation they had lost all traces, and these two corroborating testimonies to a tradition of the creation beyond all memory, like flies in amber, whose value alone consists in their connection, indicate that the Indians had an intimate acquaintance with the fact that the Earth when upheaved from the Waters was called by the Almighty Himself, Earth, or Dry Land, and they kept up the remembrance of it by a term confined to the signification of Dryness, which in Hebrew signifies Earth, the root of the Hebrew word Earth denoting, not Dryness, (the name which Moses states the Almighty to have called it) but merely a consequence of the existence of the Dry Land, víz.: a tendency to restrain the Waters and keep them in their appointed place. The Hebrew term, A RTs, (a) is said to owe its origin to the cognate commuted word S DR, (6) which in Syriac, Chaldee and Hebrew signifies to Order, to Arrange, &c. ; the root of which is s D, (c) signifying in Hebrew, Stocks, Fetters, Bonds, &c.; in Chaldee, a Wine Press, and in Arabic, to Restrain, Shut up, Secure and make strong the barriers, to Raise an Impediment; there is also a word in Sanskrit which is a commuted form of the Hebrew term ARTS, (a) Earth, in which, as is usual in Hebrew, the Ts is exchanged for D, and the ARTS (a) of the Hebrew becomes in Sanskrit AR DH, (d) and these words by another slight commutation of the Ts in Hebrew, or D of the Sanskrit are identical with the English word Earth, trifling modifications of which term, Earth, exist in almost all the Northern European lana See note a, page 28. 67 (SDR) Order, Arrange Disposc. с TD (SD) Stocks, Fetters, Bands; Chaldee, Wine Press. An (SD) Obstruct, Bridle, Shut up, Make strong the Barriers, d (ARDH) Sansk., Raise, Lift up, &c. F guages as designations of the Earth. The Sanskrit word ARDH (a) signifies to Raise, to Lift up, and in this case the memorial of the raising the Earth from above the Waters has been preserved by the Indians by the same word which is used in Hebrew to record the consequences of the upheaving of the Land, viz: the placing a barrier against the Sea. Waters.") GENESIS, CHAPTER I, VERSE 10. THERE is a word in Sanskrit which would seem to be the root of Y M, (b) and has already been adverted to in v. 3. M A, Light. This term not only signifies Light, but Element and Mother, and supplies some evidence more or less corroborative of what has been said with respect to Light (page 7.) It describes Water as an Element, and as a Mother, which may possibly by an extended meaning convey the idea of its being the element out of which all things were chiefly formed. Be this as it may, the Waters existed before either the Hebrew or the Indian languages, according to Moses' account, and he attributes the name by which the Waters were called Seas, (v. 10) to the Creator himself. In Gen. ch. i, v. 1-2, Moses states distinctly that Water was the principal material of this globe before the process of creation, as he decribes it, commenced. "The Earth was without form and void, and "darkness was upon the face of the deep." (Gen. ch. i, v. 2.) And this statement almost inculcates the idea that Water was the element out of which all other matter was principally formed by the action of Light, (page 7.) Its decomposition might furnish in part or wholly the gases out of which the second day's creation, viz.: the Firmament or Air was formed; and that it enters largely into the composition of all matter is notorious. That it existed before every thing else, is the record of nearly every language with which we are acquainted. In several, it is designated by the single letter A, as indicating, with reference to all other matter, its position at their head as taking precedence of every thing as the letter A stands at the head of the alphabet of those people who thus call Water by the name of A.; sometimes the A is coupled with the letter B, or one of its commutations, F. V. P., or M. a See note d, page 29. (YM) Sea, Lake. (Sing.) (Y MIM) Plural, Waters, Springs. The word Waters is in the Dual form, MA I M, (a) although it is considered to be a Plural, and is possibly in this case designed to usher in the notice which occurs in v. 6, "Let it divide the "waters above from the waters below the firmament," or in other words, into two parts or portions. If it is urged that Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egygtians, (Acts, ch. vii, v. 27) the wisdom of the Egyptians has not so descended to our times as to teach us distinctly that Water was the element, and as it were the mother of all other matters and substances of which this world is composed, combined with Light and other agencies, &c.; nor does St. Stephen make the slightest allusion (Acts, ch. vii, v. 22) that Moses was skilled in all the learning of the Hindoos and of the nations beyond the Ganges. It has been shewn that the letters м and в are in the East interchangeable, and also that the disposition of the same letters in a word, however various the arrangement of them may be, that is, whether they change places with each other, and the first becomes the second or third, and the second and third letters in like manner are transposed (provided they are derived from the same roots) causes scarcely any difference as to the meaning of the words in few cases more than a different phase of the same idea applied metaphorically or otherwise. The Eastern terms for Waters and Seas, (a) are all, as the note exhibits, reducible to M or B, coupled with a vowel; thus, M A, Sanskrit, signifies Light, and Arabic, to Shine, and Water. In page 10, article Light, an opinion was hazarded that the Light mentioned (Gen. chap i, v. 3) as being one of the names by which our Saviour designates himself, and by whom all things were created, refers to Him, the Son of God, as being the light by which the creation of (Gen. 1) was created. It may be alleged that the reflection of light from the surface of water causes it to assume from tance an appearance of shining; but there seems to be a decided D'' (YMYM) Heb. Seas. dis The Hebrew word AB signifies FaPers. Water.ther, and by transposition, Enters, which is the same idea under another form, viz., that it (water) enters into the composition of all matter and thus figuratively becomes the Father of everything. Sansk. Water. connection between almost all the names which our Saviour appropriates to himself, with reference to Light, as the origin of them all. It has been reported of Sir Isaac Newton, that whilst picking up a pebble here and there, as he modestly expressed it, upon the shore of the occan of God's truth, he was induced to suggest, by analogical reasoning, that Water was probably the produce of combustion, as it is now known to be; that Ocean however flowed by Eden and far beyond it, and had its earliest fountain fast by the throne of God in heaven, and from Eden, we learn by the roots and commutations of the word Light, that Heat, Water and Light are synonymous, and it may possibly be given hereafter to man to discover the fact by experiment that Light is the origin of both Water and Heat. The whole tendency of physiological science at the present day leads to this conclusion and the testimony of the Holy Scriptures appears to be still more conclusive; Light, according to Gen. chap. i, v. 3., preceded all the other processes of creation. Our Saviour spake to the Jews again, saying, "I am the light of the world," (John, chap. viii, v. 12.) morally, without doubt, as to his doctrine, but precisely to the very letter as to his being the actual Creator of all things, (John, chap. i, v. 3-4.) and the close connection that exists throughout the whole of the Scriptures between Light and Fire, or, according to human phraseology, between fire and light, may be seen in almost every page; St. Paul says, (Heb. xii, v. 29.) "Our God is a consuming fire." The promise also respecting this is very remarkable, (Isaiah, chap. lx, v. 19.) "The Sun shall no "more be thy light by day, neither for brightness shall the Moon "give light unto them; but the Lord shall be unto thee an ever"lasting light, and thy God, thy glory, thy Sun shall no more go down, neither shall thy Moon withdraw itself, for the Lord "shall be thine everlasting light." RAH, (a) to Sce, is evidently as well as necessarily connected with A V R, (0) Light, but the connection does not end at this point, but exists throughout the whole of the Eastern languages between Light, Fire, Heat and Water, and is preserved in many languages derived from them. YA R, (c) a River, and NH R, (c) Sea, River, Stream, Flow, Bright, Shine, (RA H) Heb. To See. a bi (AVR) Heb. Light. C (YAR) Heb. River. (N HR) Heb. Sea, River, Stream, Raitran Rinas Flow, Shine, Bright, Clear. Sansk. Stream. (RN) Heb. Shout for joy. 66 Clear, &c. (Rinas) Sansk., a Stream. This identity of signification is kept up in the Greek term for Streams, (a) which appears to be a derivative from A V R, (6) but still further, this word signifies both to flow and to speak, and the corresponding term (c) Light and Man, have one common root, to Shine, to Speak. It can hardly be imagined that this consonance of meanings in Greek, is not derived from the Hebrew or other Eastern languages, and if this supposition is correct, then (Gen. ch. i, v. 3.) "Let there be light, and there was light," taken in conjunction with our Saviour's declaration, I am the light of the world," (John, ch. viii, v. 12.) "and that without him was not "any thing made that was made ;" and (St. James, ch. i, v. 17.) speaks of God as "the Father of Lights," would nearly amount to a declaration by the Holy Scriptures themselves that our Saviour, the word of God, and the light of the world was thereby called by the name of Light, to make in Scripture language the world in the beginning; and that Light and the Word God, the GodMan, and our Saviour, are one and the same under different appellations, and from this light, as the first cause, all other effects must flow. The Arabic term A B, (d) includes these meanings, and expresses them distinctly with particular reference to what has been before said as to light being the origin of all things, as comprising the signification of Light, Sea, River, Glory, and the origin of things; the same idea is preserved in Sanskrit (d) BHAS, to Speak, to Shine; and the Chinese are said to this day to consider the existence of Light as Eternal and Omnipresent, and they evince so much veneration for it, that they commonly rise from their seats in token of reverence whenever a lighted candle is brought into their presence. This concurrent testimony would seem to be more than accidental; how far it may be attributable to the conjunction of the terms Said and Light, (Gen. ch. i, v. 3.) "And God said let there be Light, and there was Light," in the traditionary account of the Creation, must be left to the reader to determine; but that the two names, Word and Light, pre d a 'Dreavôio poάwv (Il. 3. 5.) Streams of the Ocean. séw To Flow, To Speak. b See note b, page 32. c pas Light, and pŵs a Man, páw To Shine, To Speak. (AB) Light, Sea, River, Glory, The origin of matter (Pri mordia rerum.) BHAS (Sansk.) To Speak, To Shine, probably the root of the same |