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"cient, and apparently* fulfilled, muft induce "us to think the Hebrew narrative more than "human in its origin, and confequently true "in every fubftantial part of it, though poffi"bly expreffed in figurative language, as many "learned and pious men have believed, and

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as the most pious may believe without in"jury, and perhaps with advantage to the "caufe of Revealed Religion."

The third volume of the Afiatic Researches, published in 1792, contains a very learned and elaborate treatife of Lieutenant Wilford, on Egypt and the Nile, from the ancient books of the Hindus. It refers to a paffage in a Sảnscrit book, so clearly descriptive of Noah, under the name of Satyvrata, or Satyavarman, that it is impoffible to doubt their identity. Of the

* I could wish that Sir William Jones had retained the expression, which he before used, when discussing the same topic, as the word apparently may seem to imply a less degree of conviction than he actually possessed, as the tenor and terms of the passages which I have quoted indisputably prove. The sense in which it is to be understood, is that of manifestly; his reasoning plainly requires it.

paffage thus referred to, Sir William Jones, in a note annexed to the differtation, has given a tranflation" minutely exact." Neither the passage, nor the note, has appeared in the works of Sir William Jones; and as the former is curious, and as the note has an immediate connection with the subject under confideration, I infert both:

Tranflation from the PUDMA PURAN. 1. To Satyavarman, the fovereign of the whole earth, were born three fons; the eldest Sherma, then Charma, and thirdly, Jyapet by

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name.

2. They were all men of good morals, excellent in virtue and virtuous deeds, skilled in the ufe of weapons to ftrike with or to be thrown, brave men, eager for victory in battle.

But Satyavarman, being continually delighted with devout meditation, and seeing his fons fit for dominion, laid upon them the burden of government. 4. Whilft he remained honouring and fatisfying the gods, and priefts, and kine, one day,

by the act of deftiny, the king having drunk !mead,

5. Became fenfelefs, and lay afleep naked: then

was he seen by Charma, and by him were his two brothers called.

6. To whom he said, What now has befallen? In what state is this our fire? By these two was he hidden with clothes, and called to his fenfes again and again.

7. Having recovered his intellect, and perfectly

knowing what had paffed, he curfed Char

ma, faying, Thou shalt be the fervant of fervants.

8. And fince thou waft a laughter in their prefence, from laughter fhalt thou acquire a name. Then he gave to Sherma the wide domain on the fouth of the fnowy moun

tain.

9. And to Jyapeti he gave all on the north of the fnowy mountain; but he by the power of religious contemplation, attained fupreme bliss.

"Now you will probably think (Sir William Jones fays, addreffinghimself to the

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fociety) that even the conciseness and fimpli

city of this narrative are excelled by the Mofaic relation of the fame adventure; but whatever

may be our opinion of the old Indian style, "this extract moft clearly proves, that the Saty"avrata or Satyavarman of the Purans was the "fame perfonage, (as it has been afferted in a "former publication) with the Noah of fcrip"ture; and we confequently fix the utmost "limit of Hindu chronology; nor can it be " with reason inferred from the identity of the "ftories that the divine legiflator borrowed

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any part of his work from the Egyptians; "he was deeply verfed, no doubt, in all their

learning, fuch as it was; but he wrote what "he knew to be truth itself, independently of "their tales, in which truth was blended with "fable, and their age was not fo remote from "the days of the patriarch, but that every oc"currence in his life might naturally have

been preferved by tradition from father to "fon."

In his tenth difcourfe, in 1793, he mentions, with a fatisfaction which every pious

mind must enjoy, the refult of the enquiries of the fociety over which he prefided.

"In the first place, we cannot furely deem "it an inconfiderable advantage, that all our "hiftorical researches have confirmed the "Mofaic accounts of the primitive world, and "our teftimony on that fubject ought to have "the greater weight, because, if the result of "our obfervations had been totally different,

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we should nevertheless have published them, "not indeed with equal pleasure, but with "equal confidence; for truth is mighty, and "whatever be its confequences, must always

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prevail: but independently, of our interest in

corroborating the multiplied evidences of "Revealed Religion, we could fcarcely gratify 66 our minds with a more useful and rational "entertainment, than the contemplation of "those wonderful revolutions, in kingdoms ❝ and states, which have happened within lit"tle more than four thousand years; revolu❝tions almost as fully demonftrative of an all

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ruling Providence, as the ftructure of the "univerfe, and the final caufes, which

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