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    could I be called merciful and long-suffering , if I were to punish the viper with death or the loss of any of his . privileges ? Yet just so are we to suppose the Almighty has acted by the once intelligent and honoured ourang-outang ; or by the equally shrewd and sagacious serpent .

    It is said that Dr . Clarke has already abandoned his new hypothesis ; it is devoutly to be wished he may embrace another that does not involve him in absurdities , and expose the religion of which he is a zealous champion to banter and ridicule .

    We have reason to believe that Moses was the first amongst the Israelites who made Ui > e of written characters , which he had learned in the schools of Egypt under the

    patronage of the daughter of Pharaoh . The ten commandments , engraven on tables of stone , were the first written documents of the

    descendants of Jacob ; and shortly after them appeared the laws of the theocracy , written by Moses or by some one under his direction . All the ancient lawgivers thought it necessary to give the history of the ancestors of their people ; and , in order to render their work more

    complete , they usually went back to the origin of the worl <) 9 and narrated the first formation of man . This was done in Ciialdea , in Greece , in Persia , and in Hiudostan . And this plan was of peculiar importance in promoting the great

    workjn which Moses was engaged , as it . furnished him with the opportunity of tracing the source of all things to that Almighty Invisible Cause , which it was the express object of the Jewish law to constitute the King and God of his cQuntrymeni

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    As the attention of Moses was limited to one grand design , via . * the establishment of the worship of the one living God , it : « s nut un » reasonable to suppose that every part of his work would be made to incline towards that one . Observe , then , that the very beginning of it was calculated to promote this design , by giving a du vine authority to his sabbath-day . The H athens had not observed a

    sabbath-day . The Jews were the first nation who kept one ; and , to sanction its appointment , and give it a dignity which it would not otherwise rmve received , he informs

    them , that " In six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth , and rested on the seventh day ;"

    and that they were also to rest on the seventh , to-admire the beauties and the benefits of the creation , and adore its great Author . Although we are not bound to

    believe that the exact space of six revolutions of our globe were employed in what the scriptures call the creation , we cannot condemn a pious and enthusiastic lawgiver because , without declaring that what he wrote of the first forma .

    tion of all things was dictated by the inspiration of God , he thus gave a unity to bis piece , and made every part of it combine to assist his infinitely important end . We are soon led by our historian to the fall of man . In the account

    of it may be perceived a number of circumstances that coincide in a very remarkable manner with others in the history of the people for whose benefit it was written . Dr . Geddes has these observations on the rivers of Eden * " The situation t > f these two , tie Tigris , 1 _ ———

    ? Sec ExocUxxxL 12 —!?•

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    392 On the Fall of Man .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1814, page 392, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2442/page/8/