Current Topics AT HOME AND ABROAD.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XIII, Issue 22, 25 September 1885, Page 1

Current Topics AT HOME AND ABROAD.

Thk provisions of the Irish Land Act lately passed

the and by which the Government agree to facilitate Approaching the purchase by tenants of their holdings seem a vengeanck. step forward in the right direction of a very impor-

tant nature. How many years is it since the man who should think of such a measure would have been regarded as the wildest visionary ? And we had heard, since the present agitation arose, all mention of such a thing condemned as extravagant in the extreme. But now the boon so long beyond the reach of all expectation has been granted there is some doubt as to whether the people in whose interests it has ostensibly been passed will be willing to accept it, at least with all the effusion with which some years ago it would have been received or without pausing toconsider how they may gain the greatest advantage by it. The Act has been passed, we need hardly say, ostensibly for the benefit of the tenantry ; but there are strong reasons to believe that those who would be the most benefited by its esgeracceptance on the partof the tenantry would be the landlords. Even, apart, in fact, from the determination of the people to be no loager used as they have been in the past, and the effects of the legislation already accomplished, and which in itself has secured the deserved gratitude of the nation for the Parliamentary party, it is evident that the condition of things has co changed as to lower the value to the large land-holder of property in Ireland. The hope of the landlord was the expulsion of the human population of the country so that room might be made for the enlargement of his herds and flocks. Tillage-farming on a large scale in Ireland, has not paid within the memory of the present generation. It was customary, in fact, some twenty years ago, and it may be so still for aught we know to the contrary , that the farmers should refer with regret to the good old times of the French wars when wheat was worth growing, and could be seld for something like a proper price. We have known of instances in which the new proprietors under the Encumbered Estates system commenced their life as landed-pro-prietors by adopting the tillage-farm on a vast scale. But a few years invariably showed them that they had made a mistake, and sheep and cattle were introduced instead of the corn and green crops. Now, however, the supplying of the Inglish market with meat bids fair to be cut off from Ireland. A formidable era of competition has set in and there is every prospect that it may prove to the advantage of the new competitor, and ruin the Irish trade altogether. A correspondent of the London Times, for example, writing ou July 18, gives us the following. " The Monarch line steamer Croma, due at Deptford Saturday, the 25tb, has on board a hundred fat bullocks, the first consignment of Western American cattle that have has yet taken advantage of the cheap transportation afforded by the Great Lakes. The majority of them were bred by myself and brother in Wyoming in 1881, but some few which can be distinguished by their brand (a lateral H.) are from far distant Oregon, and, having walked through from thereto Wyoming in 1882, were purchased by me at the end of their long march. It is not the least remarkable instance, perhapp. of the industrial development of the 19th century that beasts calved more than 6,000 miles away on the shores of the Pacific Ocean, matured in Wyomiug and fattened oa Lake Superior, should have been destined after crossing the Atlantic on the hoof, to ' terminate their engagements ' in the Thames. The cattle are consigned to Messrs. Roberts and Pritchard, Metropolitan Meat Market." Ami as to the capabilities of this source of supply the correspondent adds :—ln: — In every locality within the maize belt of the union vast feeding stations are springing up, and the half fat prairie cattle are being finished formarkot on ascsle of unprecedented magnitude. One of my neighbours, Mr. Sturgis, stall-fed last Winter more than 4,000 ranche cattle at one time under one roof. He has now erected a stable within five miles of the town of Omaha in Nebraska at an expense of £20,000— the plant including a grain elevator and the newest machinery for grinding and cooking the food. In this stable 7,060 head of cattle will next Winter be fattened, and, as thiß station is — as are hundreds of others — tributary to the Great Lake route.it would. I believe, be of much interest to your home agriculture to seenre a practical repoit ot the develop-

ment of this fresh source of American competition. No one can doubt that the immense accumulations of cattle West of the Missouri River are destined each year more and more to bring about an important reduction in the cost of beef. The small territory of Wyoming alone markets annually more than 150,000 head of three-year-old bullocks, so that, with a moie systematic distribution of the product which will from now on be possible, she could about supply the yearly requirements of the London Metropolitan Meat Market.' 1 It is evident that in view of all this the prospects of the grazier, and the only hopa of the Irish landlord lay in the prospects of the grazier » must become infinitely diminished, and the value of his property will be altered in proportion. The tenant, therefore, can bide his tinte. It is not neceßßary that he should rush into the land-market eagerly to secure the fee-simple of his holding. His doing so would most probably result in his saddling himßelf with a debt many times greater than that which with a little patience he may incur, and he may confidently wait until his old oppressor approaches him cap-in-hand and begs of him to relieve him of acres become superfluous and worthless, almost at whatever price ,he may choose to place upon them. Time, indeed, brings his revenges, and never did he promise to do so more fully or more justly than now to the Irish tenant.

Onk of the most persistent accusations brought by another old the great Protestant Tradition against the Jesuits

calumny is with regard to the conduct of their missionaries refuted, in China, where they are said to have accom-

modated their teaching to the heathenism of the country and to have adopted certain of the pagan rites. What the Jesuits, however, are said to have countenanced in China, Evangeli. cals among the Chinese in America have at least not been able to prevent, and we read in the Republican of St. Louis a very amusing account of a funeral lately conducted in a joint manner by certain members of the Christian Young Men's Association of his city, and a batch of converted Chinamen who had followed to the grave the remains of one of their number. " The ceremonies at the grave," says our contemporary, " were peculiar in the extreme, and the Christian and Pagan services were grotesquely mingled." " Mr. Charles E. Ford, manager of the Y. M. C. A. Sunday school for the Chinese," he adds, " endeavoured vainly to dissuade his pupils from their own services, and at the conclusion of the Methodist Episcopal services the friends of Johnson took charge of the funeral. Dr. Coxhead and Capt. Burgoyne read the burial services, and the usual formula : 'Ashes to ashes, dust to dust,' was pronounced. The obsequies were then finished according to the customs of the Flowery kingdom. The grave was filled to a level with the surface of the ground, and two or three bandies of joss sticks and some candles were placed upon it. and on these in turn a mound of earth was heaped. A hole was then dug at the foot of the grave, and in it were placed a roast chicken, with it.3 head still on ; two cups filled with rice, and a number of empty drinking vessels. The contents of a couple of flasks of wine were sprinkled over the grave . The celebrants then took all the white and black muslin crape which was tied around the heads and on the arms of the pall-beaiers and mourners, and the crape which garlanded the hearse and carriages, and spread them at the foot of the grave. One of the Chinamen then delivered a eulogy of two minutes' duration in his native tongue, on the character of the deceased. He then bowed his head and body, with his hands clasped together ia front, over the grave, and all the other Chinamen went through similar motions. It was a peculiar sight, this combination of Eastern and Western civilizations. The fifty celestials performing simultaneously what appeared to be almost an orthodox genuflection, the mm ? ster clasping in his hand the book of Holy Writ, the grave-diggers leaning on their spades in wondering contemplation, and back of all these a small knot of curious spectators." — Meantime, it is interestiug to find that one of the accusations brought against the Jesuits in China has received a contradiction from a correspondent of the London Times. The accusation, a principal one, ia that relating to the veneration paid|by the Chinese to the memory of their ancestors, and which the enemies of the missionaries — including the Saturday Jlevicm of a recent date, have denounced as idolatrous Of this very cufetotr, nevertheless, the correspondent alluded to writing from Tientsin on May 20, and referring to uiihsiunaiy woik generally, says : ' The narrowness of many of the misbionaries has evolved a further epscific obstacle to their succesß,

in that it has led them to denounce what they designate as the worship of ancestors as idolatry, thus doing despite to a pious and ennobling sentiment. Surely nothing could be more ill-judged or less Christianlike than to affront the conscience of a whole people in this manner. Similar measures meted out to the English people would let loose the iconoclast in St. Paul's and Westminster Abbey, and ban the Boyal visits to Frogmore." And this is the explanation long given by the apologists of the Jesuits, who had discerned the nature of thisenstom and perceivingits complete separation from everything of an idolatrous tendeacy had permitted it among their converts, A similar explanation, we may add, may be found for every other con" cession made by them. The correspondent, moreover, in one or two places refers to the Jesuits by name and speaks favourably of them. He says, for example :— " The Roman Catholic missionaries, especially those belonging to the Lazarist and Jesuit orders, being men of culture and of large views, have usually known bow to live on terms of friendship with the provincial officials." And again, " Imitating the Jesuits, whom in other respects they now follow, the gentlemen of the Inland Mission should divide among them the work of geographical explorers and of naturalists, and, while themselves eschewing politics as an unclean thing, which a minister of religion should •hun like poison, they might promote the highest objects of political science by furnishing the Chinese, on the one hand, with reasons for appreciating foreigners, and inspiring their own countrymen on the other, with intelligent sympathy with the Chinese." So much, then, for these particular charges that the great Protestant Tradition has so fondly cherished .

The narrative of Father Bonomi, who has escaped father from his captivity in the Soudan, completely justibonomi's fies us in having with-held, as we did all along, KABHATIVE. every vestige of sympathy from the Mahdi and the

movement led by him. The account given by this good Father, an 1 all but martyr, is of the most harrowing description, and possesses, for Catholics especially, features that are unspeakably deplorable. Tbe treatment accorded to the missionary party— the priests and nuns, and their lay assistants— was barbarous in the extreme, and even yet we have reason to fear that some of them may survive to suffer further among the vile tyrants in whose possession they remain.. Without further confirmation of the report, however. we are unwilling to believe that those poor nuns of whom Father Bonomi speaks, did, indeed, put on the appearance of a conformity to Islamism. They had braved death too resolutely, refused too valiantly, and suffered too terribly, to make it easy for us to credit that, under any circumstances, they at length yielded. But, if it were so, the act must only have been performed when reason had been destroyed, and they were no longer accountable beings. Such may well have occurred, when, after usage that will not bear repeating they were marched a long distance across the desert almost naked' and exposed to tbe fierce sun. Father Bonomi was not himself a' witness of what took place, and the authority on which he learned the details may have been untrustworthy. We have, nevertheless much reason to regret the failure of the British expedition, and the premature surrender to the enemy. It seems, moreover, that there was every prospect of victory attendant on the advance of the British troops. Father Bonomi represents the Arabs as terrified at their threatened approach, and dispirited by the defeats suffered at Metemneh and Abu Klea, believing the British to be invincible. An advance would, therefore, have been made under favourable circumstances—which is further manifest from the joy shown at the news Of the intention of the expedition to retreat. The true condition of the Soudan, again, must have been found to add to the advantages possessed by the British. Father Bonomi represents the people generally as adverse to| the rule of the Mahdi, and only driven by fear of his savage dervishes to submit to what was required of them. He utterly ridicules— or, rather, is indignant at— tbe notion that the insurrection was that of a people nobly struggling to be free— as the saying was — and declares that their only desire was to be left to pursue their ordinary avocations in quietness and peace. All doubts, then, aa to the legitimacy of the British expedition may be set at rest. It was well undertaken, and would have been carried out only in the interests of humanity and civilisation, as we saw all along. Its failure has been a national humiliation, to which every further detail that is published bids fair to add.

It appears that an admirable method of improving "hail, fellow, a country's Christianity may be found in teaching WELL met ! " heresy in an improved and able manner. We

learn, at least, from the Anglican Bishop of Carlisle that, after much rumination aa to the manner in which England should fulfil her duty of providing for the religious future of Egypti a plan has been hit upon by which the education of the Coptic priesthood may be undertaken, and the national Church in question raised from the position in which it has been placed by " external isolation, internal dissension, and Mahommedan oppression " — but not at all by the heretical doctines that it professes, and which, as it would appear, are of no consequence whatever in the eyes of the

Anglican episcopate. And does not the Archbishop of Canterbury welcome to London a branch of the Armenian Church, which also professes tbe heresy of Sutyches — but doctrine, as we know, is nothing now-a-days, that nationality is everything. There is only one doctrine that the Church of England cannot accept, and adherence to which justifies its utmost opposition. Every Church, in fact, that holds that doctrine, no matter if hat may be its hold upon the people among whom it exists, or what its history, its dignity, or its antecedents, may lawfully be opposed and every rebel against its authority supported — now it is Dollinger and his Old Catholic clique, now it is Loyson and his extraordinary conventicle in Paris, and now the Savarese-Campello combination in Borne. Wherever there is a denial of the authority of the Pope, there the sympathies of the Church of England are warmly bestowed, and there is no question made as to what doctrines may otherwise be taught. To every heretic the right hand of fellowship is held out as cordially as we now see it extended to the monopbysites of Egypt and Armenia, and the Church of Rome is alone denied, even in Italy, the privileges of rationality. We doubt, however, as to whether tbe " Christian people of England " as a whole will acknowledge the duty that the Bishop of Carlisle says rests upon theaj, in anything like the way, at least, pointed out by the Bishop. All the other Christian sects to do them justice, have something of a definite creed, and are sincere in requiring adherence to that creed as a bond of union, if not always as a necessity to salvation. The Anglican sect alone finds its nationality, or submission to Cas-ar, sufficient, and is ready to admit to its communion men of all forms of balief, and to hail as brethren the members of any other episcopal Chnrcb, even although they profess heresies condemned by the early Councils that it acknowledges as authoritative. Meantime, as to the nationality which the Church of England so proudly claims, it possibly stands in jeopardy. Depending altogether, as it does, upon union with tbe State, its rather fragile pretensions are doomed to fall with disestablishment, and that is a contingency that may not now be far removed. It may be as well, then, for the Christian people of England, or the Anglican sect among them, to defer their liberal undertaking in Egypt until their own danger has passed by, for, in the event of the much-feared disestablishment's taking place, all their efforts will be required for the support of their Church at home, and the aid they can afford to bestow upon Churches— heretical and natioral, old and worn-out or brand new and abortive — abroad will be but trifling, — and any attempt made by them may end in a fiasco completing tbe folly and absurdity of the whole undertaking.

The beginning of the end is now plainly in view the prospect Following on Mr. Herbert Gladstone's exhortation brightens, to give the Irish people "in Gods' name " a parlia-

ment in College green comes his father's manifesto, made in the name of Liberal party, and declaring that be is ready to give to Ireland everything in connection with Home Rule that may be found consistent with the integrity of the Empire and the authority of Parliament. The advance is a striking one and promises well for what is yet to come. But where is now that threat of a combination of all parties to hold the Irish Nationalists in check i or where is the contempt with which the Nationalists were regarded ? Tbe whole force, indeed, of the Imperial Parliament, so far as possible, has been used against them and used in vain. Expulsion, the cloture, everything that could be devised to overcome their determined effoits has been tried and failure has been the result. And if these things have been done in the green wood what shall be done in the dry ? If with but a small number of followers at his back, Mr. Parnell has accomplished so much, what may be not be expected to do when he returns to Parliament at tbe head of a large and faithful body of men especially elected to follow his lead 1 The signs of what is expected are already apparent, and the voice of the anti-Irish braggart may now be silent. The Champaign that has terminated has indeed been well fought, and the bravery and perseverance of the phalanx arrayed in tbe cause of Ireland must have gained even from their opponents a meed of admiration. It is impossible that such a battle as they have fought in full view of tbe English people and in such a manner as to prevent their unscrupulous enemies from wholly misrepresenting them could have been without its effects. If it had been so tbe English people would be undeserving of much of the high reputation that we still believe to be deservedly theirs. The Irish party have displayed in no light degree all the qualities which the Englishman declares himself, and is understood, to hold in esteem. Their pluck has been undeniable ; they have borne them* selves boldly in the very stronghold of the enemy, and never drew back from one attempt that they were called upon to make from fear of the consequences to themselves. Their determination has been equal to their pluck, and their devotion and disinterestedness have equalled both. It ib hardly to be wondered at, therefore, if they have secured a large share of sympathy among the English masses, and if the fact that it is so is known to those who are now looking forward with eagerness and anxiety to the coining elections. But to Mr. Parnell the chief praise is due. He, indeed, belongs to that class of men who

in the days of the ancients were, of necessity, heroes, men who were born to lead, and who never swerved in the pursuance of their object, who saw from afar with an eagle eye the end it was theirs to aim at, and went straight forward to that end heedless of all obstacles. Mr. Farnell years ago fixed his eyes upon the restored and ameliorated I Parliament of Ireland, and although as yet but a young and inexperience! man. saw by intuition the manner in which his goal might be gained. His course has been from th j first that of a mac following a plan well and plainly laid down, and the success of each stage, and the proofs given that it was but a further stage of a settled journey safely accomplished, have afforded the best possible earnest of the result of the whole. To the people also who have supported Mr. Parnell in his leadership much credit is due. A great deal was done to injure him in their eyes, and to rob him of their trust and confidence, the necessary conditions|of his final victory, but, although [ in some respects the position was new to them, their discernment showed them the true nature and wisdom of the man, and nothing|could withdraw them from his following. And now, as we have said, the beginning of the end^appears in view. Home Rule, of which no man of responsibility a little time ago, would have thought it worth his while so much as to deny the possibility, is now spoken of ad a matter of practical politics, as a thing to be given in " God's name," and is promised by the leader of ooe the great parties in the kingdom so far as it shall be found consistent with the integrity of the Empire. Bnt with that it is wholly consistent, and will even add to its strength. It is in the denial of Home Rule that the danger lies

Once more the East of Europe attracts the attenWHA.T does it tion of the world, and sets men speculating as to MEAN T what may possibly arise again from a quarter where

so many disturbances have hitherto arisen. The revolution, indeed, by which Eastern Roumelia has suddenly united itself, to Bulgaria has been peaceful in its accomplishment, but grave doubts may well be entertained as to what may still come of it.— There had long been a party whose object it was to see this union accomplished, embracing also that of Macedonia, in a common State, but their hopes were based upon Russia to whom they looked for protection against the irritation that they believed would be caused to Servia, Greece, and Austria by the carrying out of their plan, even if it were possible to act upon it without provoking hostile opposition. Made as the union has been, leaving out Macedonia, without the aid of Russia, and in favour of a prince who, as having frustrated Russian designs, and insisted upon the withdrawal of domineering Russian officials, is doubtless regarded with at least concealed unnnfriendliness at St. Petersburg, the situation appears in some degree doubtful, and it is not easy to foresee what may come of it. If the larger Bulgaria were likely to prove, as it was intended by the Czar that the State originally committed to the rule of Prince Alexander of Battenberg should prove, a mere dependency of Russia.Ho be governed by Russian officials, controlling and even brow-beating the Prince with hardly disguised contempt, and to support an army Russian in everything but name ; there would be loom to suspect that the revolution had been brought about by Russian intrigue, and that an encroachment of the Cear, in carrying out his never-dying designs on Constantinople, had been made. The Prince of Bulgaria however, has shown that he is hardly the man to perform the part of a tool, and that he is a ruler both of ability, and independent spirit. It required, in fact, the parts of no ordinary man to escape from the toils in which he had actually been surrounded, and to vindicate the independence of his country against the power of the Czar. It may, nevertheless, enter into the plans of the authorities at St. Petersburg to place the Prince in such a position as may oblige him to relinquish the independent course on which he has set out, and assume the attitude which they desire to see him maintain. The formation of a strong independent state, such a 9 the combined Bulgaria and Roumelia under an able and vigorous ruler must form, would by no means be welcome to the principal Continental powers. It would thwart'the objects of Germany and Austria no lees than those of

Russia, and it can hardly be possible that it will be allowed to become

an accomplished fact without opposition. Russia, then, may have * foreseen in this revolution the opportunity for regaining the pre- \ dominance that Prince Alexander had obliged her to relinquish, by *■ supporting the newly formed State unable to exist without her countenance, and she may possibly have intrigued to bring the revolution about. But if this be the case the possibility arises of her having to settle the matter with Austria and Germany,— and even England cannot see wholly without concern an advance made by her in the direction of the Bosphorus.

The Dublin Review for July, in a notice of " the GEOLOGISTS AT Challenger Expedition," lately published by Gov-

PAULT.

ernment, but at a price that places it beyond the

reach of the ordinary reader, gives us a fact or two that Bhould prove of interest to those good folk so plenty now-a-days, who place all their reliance on the theories of physical icience:— '-One

result of the expedition is of such importance that even if nothing else bad been discovered, this fact alone would have been quite worth the heavy expenditure entailed by the cruise. Up to quite a recent date the school of Sir C. Lyell to which most of the English geologists belonged, believed that there has been a constant see-saw between sea and land. The land and rocks upon which we stand, they held, had once been deep sea, and that in time to come the Atlantic would probably fill up and become the future home of men and nations. Among the very first results of the Challenger reSearches, was the discovery of enormous beds of globigerina ooze upon the Atlantic floor. This upon examination proved to be identical in substance with the material of which our great chalk cliffs are built up. The conclusion was at once jumped at that the Atlantic was slowly filling up, and laying the foundation of a chalk range that would, in distant ages, be the continuation of that great chain of rocks that stretches from Egypt to Great Britain. This brilliant hypothesis has now been shattered. If theie is one thing upon which Sir C. Wy ville Thompson and bis colleagues are agreed, it is this : that there is such a fixed character about the great ocean basis as to preclude altogether the idea that they were at any time dry land, or that they are ever likely to become dry land. The great abysses were all fringed with a shallow ledge of land, never more than a hundred miles broad. And beyond these we descend at once, by almost (perpendicular descent^ into the great abysmal depths of from one to two thousand fathoms. Our rocks phow nothing like the red clay and deposits that now strew the great ocean floors. If there has been any change of land and sea, these movements have been entirely confined to the shallow seas, or the narrow shallow borders that fringe the ocean depths. This fact is of passing importance to geology. It renders the mode of formation of this world of ours more mysterious than ever. It was so simple and easy to understand bow in the dim past the fiery globe that was hurled from the sun gradually cooled in its mad course through the cold regions of space, how the cracks and fissures resulting from this cooling formed themselves into hollows ; how the heavy vapours and steam were condensed and filled up these wrinkles. And all these pretty theories must be modified. The advocates of special creation have now quite the best of the argument, and the evidence, whatever there in, goes in their favour."— We may also recall to our readers ; in connection with the theory of the earth's having been cast out as a fiery ball by the sun, the declaration of Faye that the earth had been the fisrt of the two created. So much, then, for those who found their dogmas on the scientific basis.

Another nut that the Dublin Review gives our THB scientific friends to crack is taken from the Civilta SCIKNHFIO Cattolica for April 4th. It is the following :— THEORY " History presents na with three peoples, the Kgyp reversed. tisns, Chaldeans, and Chinese — who, in the remotest

ages, possessed no ordinary degree of cultuie aud who were specially versed in this science (aatronomyj. Now two facts respecting i heir knowledge are worthy of notice. First, that each of these three nations was acquainted with certain high astronomical truths, and at the same time ignorant of others much more obvious ; and what is stranger still lacked apparently those necessary notions which would seem essential to the attainment of the scientific knowledge which they did possess. For instance, the Egyptians had formed a very nearly correct estimate of the comparative masses of moon and of the earth. How did they arrive at such an accurate calculation, ignorant as they were of the law of gravitation, and moreover entertaining the erroneous idea that the distance of the moon was only 328 kilometres (246 miles) from the earth ? Thft reviewer gives several other marvellous instances of high astroDoinical knowledge amoDg the ancient Egyptians, noting at the same time discrepancies scarcely conceivable if this knowledge had been the rmple result of their own observations. The ancient Chaldeans, as ia generally known, were also remarkable, and even famous for their astronomical knowledge. They believed, on the faith of ancient tradition, that the moon shone by light borrow d from the sun, and were able to calculate eclipses. They seem to have possessed notions not far removed from the truth, as to the distance between the earth and the sun, moon, and planets[respectively. They considered the moon to he the smallest of the planets, and were even acquainted within a fraction with its synodic.il revolution, as well as with the length of the solar year. We know that the ancient Chinese were acquainted with the difference between the lunar and solar years, and could foretell eclipses. . . . The other not less noticeable fact is that ancient records concur in representing astronomy, n »t as in the way of progress from .the imperfect to the perfect but rather as more perfect in its original masters, while with their successors the science became barren and disconnected, and Boon degenerated into the dreams of a superstitious and fraudulent astrology. Thus the history of three peoples noted for their science and cultivation in primitive times furnishes us with their united testimony to the existence of a primitive science, of which but a few fragments were retained in later times, mixed with vulgar errors— Wh«n, indeed, all

scientific observation of the heavenly bodies ceased, to give place to the foolish computations of astrology based on certain stellar combinations, This indisputable fact may be commended to the consideration of those scientists who assert aa an unquestionable truth the primitive barbarism of mankind and the necessary advance of seieuce. But more than this. After setting aside baseless and fabulous statements of extravagant periods of time, and grounding deductions on reliable monuments, the high astronomical memorials of these three races must be referred to about the same date, ranging between 2227 and 3400 BG. The sigas, revered as masters by all these peoples, Jived, therefore, about tha aamo time. Some may say that ancient chronology deserves no credit, but a curious proof can

be alleged in confirmation of the accuracy of this supposition . Ancient

representations of the Zodiac hare been preserved, and in all these the of the astronomical year, that is, the vernal equinox is referred to the constellation Taurus. This was, no doubt, derived from direct observation at the time mentioned, when it was true, and it waß preserved by later generations, ignoraut of astronomy, when it was no longer true, since the procession of the equinoxes had displaced the sun from its original position. . . . Hence, no reasonable doubt can arise as to the early date of the above-mentioned

astronomical observations, which can thus be readily fixed. Now,

this date coincides with that of the Biblical Deluge. The writer points out the obvious conclusion that Noe transmitted his knowledge

to his posterity, having himself derived it from antediluvian times. This explains the marvel of finding the people of Egypt and Cbaldea, in the early infancy of their existence as nations, in possession, not only of recondite astronomical truths, but of the perfection of mechanical and architectural skill, as well as of chemical knowledge displayed in the various compounds used by them in different arts.