known in its purest form, and truth has built her throne among the tenants of the forest. The gospel is spreading wider and wider along these woods, these rivers, and lakes: the red men of the wilderness, in "uncouth rhymes," are warbling the praises of redeeming love; along the vast prairies, population and piety often go hand in hand; and the axe that cuts down the lofty pine, shapes it into a beam or a wall-plate for some woodland chapel. Many of these are built of logs, and yet God is worshipped in the "beauty of holiness," and mau communes with his Maker, amid the solitudes of nature; while, far as his eye can reach, standing upon some lofty cleared spot, nothing but dark forests can be seen, spotted with here and there a lake, sleeping beneath the soft blue of a warm sky. Sometimes, while riding through the wilderness, he is serenaded with the roar of rapids; a dark-brown river is forcing itself through a narrow rocky passage, and foaming along through the silence of the forest. Yet the salvation of the gospel is proclaimed in these wild woods; and where, formerly, nothing was heard but the sound of the war-whoop of the Indian, the deep chorus of the camp-meeting hymn fills all the green wood with the melody of praise, as if the vast forest were one great temple. How wide has the gospel spread upon these Atlantic shores ! Settlement after settlement has stretched far into the western wilderness; and wilds, formerly untrod by the foot of man, have been settled with Christian men, and spotted with places of worship. Population steals silently along the woods, and truth follows in its train; churches have risen up along the banks of mighty rivers, and on the margin of vast lakes; and thousands of the inhabitants of the forest worship the Lamb in the "beauty of holiness." Here, men from all nations settle, to cultivate the bread of life; and here, "the Spirit is poured from on high, making the wilderness and the solitary places glad." Happy forests! if ye have not much to interest the lovers of antiquity, "the kingdom of God is come nigh unto you;" in you "the rose of Sharon" blooms, and the "tree of life" grows; if you lack the beauty of villa-decorated landscapes and gardens, your inmates hear the "joyful sound," and possess the "joys of salvation;" your lofty trees wave over logcottages, where the morning and the evening sacrifices of prayer and praise are offered up to the ever-blessed God. "The world forgetting, by the world forgot," here the Christian Missionary may enjoy that intense solitude, which abstracts the mind from all the glaring follies of the world, and elevates the heart to God. Here, amid the unbroken stillness of the woods, the missionary may commune with his own thoughts; may peruse the pages of his Bible, and pour out his soul to God in prayer. Is the congregation assembling in the wood-built chapel? he may, for want of a vestry, retire amid the deep recesses of sylvan shades, and prepare and ruminate upon his simple outlines of address. No lion lurks in the thicket; no tiger springs from the jungle; the distant stroke of the wood-axe, or the tinkle of the cow-bell, is all that breaks upon his ear; while the lofty pines, the walnut, and the sugar-maple, shut out the sun, and form a lattice-work through which only a sober and chastened light can enter. In the burning glare of summer this is peculiarly refreshing; and in the depth of winter it breaks the force of the cold north-wester. In the former of these seasons, I have preached to hundreds beneath the leafy canopy; and, from a table at the foot of one of the trees, have dispensed the symbols of atoning love. A wilderness congregation is an interesting sight; scores leave their farms and their plantations, and travel many miles to hear the word of God. The surrounding settlements are all tributary to the solemn assem→ bly. The woodman lays down his axe; the farmer unyokes his oxen; the female leaves her dairy; and the store-keeper locks up his store. Groups are seen issuing from every forest-path, to the place appointed for religious worship; some singing hymns, others engaged in social converse: thus, American scenery becomes pleasant; and friends and neighbours are brought together, not for the purpose of gossip and scandal, but to hear the word of God amid the silence of the shady grove. Need we wonder that God has so often poured out his Spirit upon this country, and that truth is spreading far and wide? There are few settlements, however remote, where the gospel is not preached; even the backwoodsmen hear the "joyful sound." The dwellers on the lakes, and in the woods, and on the banks of rivers-the inhabitants of old plantations, and the new settlements in the wilderness-are alike eager to listen to the word of God, and entertain His faithful, though homely messenger; the sight of whom often diffuses joy through a whole settlement. Often has the writer of these lines, when travelling through the wilderness, put up at a solitary house; and no sooner did they know that he was a preacher of the gospel, and had given his consent to give them a sermon, than a lad A critical Inquiry into the meaning of this Scriptural expression, in Gen. vii. 11, &c. IN the various hypotheses formerly advanced respecting the universal deluge, as recorded by Moses, and the speculations which have been formed as to the secondary means by which it was brought about, some mighty convulsion of the frame of the globe itself appears in all cases to have been considered as essentially necessary. The more sensible opinion of the present day seems however to be, that whatever may have been the manner in which the deluge was produced, and whatever may have been its results, there is no absolute necessity for contending that any such great convulsion actually took place; but that, on the contrary, the narration of Moses is rather to be taken, as shewing that the deluge was unattended by any extraordinary agitation of the body of the globe: and this opinion is rendered most probable, if it be not indeed actually confirmed, by modern geological observations and researches. Still, from the words of scripture, which state that "all the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened," (Gen. vii. 11,) two principal causes are generally considered as having been in operation; namely, the rising of the waters from below, (that is, either from out of the sea, or from beneath the earth,) and the descent of the rain from above. The object of the present paper is to shew, that though in the account given in the scriptures, the deluge is apparently stated to have been produced by such two distinct causes, yet that the words of the text may, with greater propriety, be referred to the fact of one single means only having been made use of by the Almighty, to bring about the destruction of the human race. The literal translation of the text, wyn maḥyenoth tehom rabbah, Gen. vii. 11, is, the fountains or sources of the great waters, i. e. of the sea, the word on tehom, a flood, being a poetical expression for maim, waters. (See Genesius's Hebrew Lexicon, tit. n.) These 2D. SERIES, NO. 31.-VOL. III, an fountains or sources of the sea, so far from being within the sea itself, or in imaginary great abyss beneath the surface of the earth, are, there is good reason to think, the clouds, (also figuratively called "the windows, or floodgates, of heaven,") from whence the waters of the sea are supplied, and which are themselves in turn renewed by the exhalations from the ocean, as is beautifully expressed by the "Preacher," in his description of the perpetual renovation of all nature: "All the rivers run into the sea, yet the sea is not full; (for) unto the place from whence the rivers come, (i. e. the clouds,) thither they return again." Eccles. i. 7. Thus the two parts of the sentence, "the fountains of the great deep were broken up— and the windows of heaven were opened," may, in fact, be considered as nothing more than two different modes of expressing the same idea; and this construction will be in strict accordance with the genius of the Hebrew language, which abounds with the like duplication of phraseology, where the idea and sentiment are single. The following parallel passages, while they are striking instances of the same verbal reduplication, are entirely confirmatory of the literal construction thus put upon the words of the text: "When he established the clouds above; when he strengthened the fountains of the deep." (on my, henoth tehom.) Prov. viii. 28. floods or waters,, tehomoth) are "By his knowledge the depths (i. e. the broken up, and the clouds drop down the dew." Prov. iii. 20. This interpretation of the words of the text will be found to be most in accordance with the narrative of the inspired historian, both as regards the secondary cause by which the deluge was produced, and the manner in which it took place, as also with respect to the consequences of it, so far as we may have the means of judging. In the command given to Noah to enter that he "will cause it to rain upon the the ark, the Almighty tells him, (Gen. vii. 4.) earth forty days and forty nights; and when the deluge commenced, (ver. 11, 12,) the plain and literal construction of the text would appear to be, that "the rain was upon the earth" in consequence of all the fountains of the great deep being broken up, and the windows of heaven being opened; which construction is further aided by the account of the cessation of the flood, where it is said, that "the fountains of the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped, and the rain from heaver 175.-VOL. X 2 R The covenant with Noah after the flood is even more strongly confirmatory. "And God said-I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth; and it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, (or, in other words, "when I cause it to rain,") that the bow shall be seen in the cloud; and I will remember my covenant-and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh," (that is, the rain shall not again increase to that extent.) Gen. ix. 13—15. From this account of the deluge, it may, not unreasonably, be inferred, that "the rain from heaven" was the only agent employed by the Almighty as the instrument of his vengeance on mankind; and this quite independently of the construction now put on the words of the text. It will probably be objected, that an universal flood of rain (that is, one over the whole face of the earth, at the same time) was physically impossible. This objection, however, (if valid,) will only go to prove that the deluge, although general as regards the human race, was not universal as respects the earth; the result of which will be, to shew that the human race, before the flood, was not dispersed over the whole globe, but was confined to one particular portion of it: and this result will be in no wise opposed to reason, or inconsistent with the statements of scripture. On the contrary, there is good reason for believing that, before the flood, mankind was not dispersed over the whole earth; and, assuming this to have been the case, it is perfectly consistent with the Divine wisdom that no greater means should have been employed for the destruction of mankind than was actually sufficient for that purpose, and, therefore, that the deluge should have been confined to the inhabited portion of the globe. It may be a matter of much difficulty to come to any precise conclusion, as to how this immense flood of rain was produced, even assuming it to have been only local. That the flood was miraculous, will be denied by no one; but, since even in the miraculous interventions of the Deity, the secondary means made use of by him are at all times analogous to, if not strictly in accordance with, the ordinary course of nature, I make no doubt of there being some rational and philosophical mode of accounting for the vast congregation of clouds necessary to produce sufficient rain for the purpose required. The narration of Moses, as to the manner in which the deluge took place, clearly shews that it was gradual, and unaccompanied by any violent and abrupt convulsion of the globe. "And the flood (or rain, Gen, vii. 12.) was forty days upon the earth, and the waters increased, and bare up the ark, and it was lift up above the earth. And the waters prevailed, and were increased greatly upon the earth, and the ark went (floated) upon the face of the waters. And the waters prevailed exceed. ingly upon the earth.” Ġen. vii. 17—19. The account given of the recession of the waters, (Gen. viii. 1-14.) shews it to have taken place equally gradually with their increase. In fact, no words could be better suited than those of scripture, to describe the action and the consequences of a violent and long-continued flood of rain: Of the effects of the flood in the country where it occurred, it is hardly possible to form even a faint idea. We are told that the rain lasted forty days and forty nights, without intermission. In this country, where the action of the rain is generally insignificant as compared with tropical climates, we may attempt to imagine, and that is all, what would even here be the effect of incessant rain during so long a period; but this will scarcely aid us in attaining to the conception of what must have been the effects of a rain of the same duration in a country approaching to the equator. But we may, at least, form some conception of the magnitude of the deluge, by considering, not the time which the waters took in rising to their greatest height, but the period during which they were again subsiding. We are informed, that it was precisely five months between the commencement of the flood and the time when the ark rested on the mountains of Ararat. Of this period, the rain lasted only forty days; yet the effects of it were such, that it was 110 days after it had ceased, before the ark again touched the ground. It is further stated, that it was two months and fourteen days more, before the tops of the mountains were seen, and three months longer before the face of the ground was dry; and it was yet a month and twenty-six days more before the earth itself was dried, and considered by the Almighty to be in a fit state to receive the inhabitants of the ark: thus giving, in the whole, a period of eleven months for the subsiding of the rain which fell in the previous forty days. The changes which this tremendous rain must have produced in that portion of the earth which was subjected to its action, can in like manner hardly, by any possibility, be conceived. The mere submer. sion of the earth during so long a period as is mentioned, would alone have produced very sensible results-but what may not have been the effects of the pressure of so enormous a mass of water during the same time? But even vaster changes were most probably effected by the violent action of the rain, which fell in incessant torrents on the higher parts of the earth, and by the tremendous currents of water from the same parts, both of which would have continued so long as the higher lands remained uncovered, which must have been during a great portion of the forty days. Again, when the waters subsided, the consequences of the currents caused by the drawing off of the waters must be quite incalculable. It will be entirely beyond our power to picture to ourselves the state of that portion of the globe which had been so awfully visited, after the waters had fully retired; but, reasoning from the effects of an ordinary flood, we may not be wrong in considering that, from the violent action of the rain during the early period of the deluge, aided subsequently by the subsiding and the drawing off of the waters, the whole of the mountains and upper lands were laid bare, not merely of vegetation, but also of all vegetable soil, and of those strata on which the action of the waters could exercise any influence. These would have been, by the torrents, swept down the sides of the mountains, and deposited in, and spread over, the valleys and low lands, by which would, in like manner, have been caused the destruction of vegetation on the lands so covered. Still, we may with no great difficulty imagine some portions of the sides of the mountains to have been sufficiently elevated from the valleys to prevent their being covered by the débris of the higher lands, yet, at the same time, so low down as to have been not too long exposed to the action of the rain; and, also, so placed as not to have been in the courses of any of the torrents down the sides of the mountains. In these favoured spots vegetation might still remain uninjured, and in such a spot might the olive tree have existed, from which the branch was carried by the dove to Noah, by which he "knew that the waters were abated from off the earth;" and that the earth was, by the mercy of Providence, once more returning to its pristine state. С. Т. ВЕЕК. North Buildings, Finsbury Circus, June 15, 1833. ANECDOTES OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. In the postcript to a letter received from a northern correspondent some years ago, is this anecdote of the juvenile history of the illustrious ornament of Scottish literature. "The following lines were written by Walter Scott, when he was between nine and ten years of age, and while he was attending the High School at Edinburgh. His master there had spoken of him as a remarkably stupid boy, and his mother with grief acknowledged that he had spoken truly. She saw him one morning, in the midst of a tremendous thunder.storm, standing still in the street, and looking at the sky. She called to him repeatedly, but he remained looking upwards, without taking the least notice of her. When he returned into the house, she was very much displeased with him. "Mother," he said, "I could tell you the reason why I stood still, and why I looked at the sky, if you would only give me a pencil." She gave him one, and in less than five minutes he laid a bit of paper on her lap, with these words written on it : "Loud o'er my head what awful thunders roll, The old lady repeated them to me herself, and the tears were in her eyes; for I really believe, simple as they are, that she values these lines, being the first effusion of her son's genius, more than any later beauties which have so charmed all the world besides. Mr. Mayne, in a letter written at Trowbridge, August 12, 1812, says :—“ -"Having during the last autumn made the tour of Scotland, and noticed its most remarkable curiosities, I had the happiness of an introduction to Ranald Macdonald, Esq., of Ulva House, which I gladly availed myself of, when on a visit to that stupendous work of nature, Fingal's Cave, and those venerable ruins of antiquities of Icolmkill, so celebrated by calling forth the powers of Dr. Johnson's imagination. The elegant hospitality and polite reception I here experienced from Mr. Macdonald, would be more than a sufficient inducement to me to diffuse the following tribute to his praise, written by Walter Scott, while on a short visit to this romantic spot, to this gentleman, some time previous to my arrival :"Staffa! sprung from high Mac-Donald, Worthy branch of old Clan-Ranald: Staffa, king of all kind fellows, Well befall thy hills and valleys, Lakes and inlets, deeps and shallows,. With the lamented Mungo Park, the poet of Scotland formed a close friendship after the return of the traveller from his first expedition; and the intimacy continued till Mr. Park left his native country for ever. Calling one day upon him, and not finding him at home, Mr. Scott walked in search of him along the banks of the Yarrow, which is there a romantic stream, running among rocks, and forming deep eddies and pools. In a short time he found the traveller employed in plunging large stones into the river, and watching with anxious attention the bubbles as they rose to the surface. On being asked by his friend the reason why he persevered so long in this singular amusement, "This was the manner," answered Park, "in which I used to ascertain the depth of a river in Africa, before I ventured to cross it; judging whether the attempt would be, safe, by the time which the bubbles of air took to ascend." It was not then known that Park had any thoughts of undertaking a second mission: but this circumstance left no doubt in Mr. Scott's mind, that he had formed such an intention. Mr. Scott used to describe, in strong and feeling terms, the manner of his last parting with his friend. About the time of his quitting Fowlshiels for the last time, Park paid Mr. Scott a farewell visit, and slept at Ashesteil. The next morning Mr. Scott accompanied him part of the way on his return to Fowlshiels, and they rode together over the wild chain of pastoral hills which divide the Tweed from the Yarrow: Park talked much of his new African expedition, and mentioned his determination of going straight from Edinburgh, without returning to take leave of his family. They were then on the top of William-hope ridge, a lofty hill which overlooks the course of the Yarrow; and the autumnal mist, which floated heavily and slowly down the valley beneath them, presented to Mr. Scott's imagination a striking emblem of the troubled and uncertain prospect which Park's undertaking afforded. Mr. Scott pressed upon his friend the danger likely to result from his being accompanied with a military force, which he then thought the most unsafe mode of travelling in Africa; the number of troops proposed to be employed, appearing to be inadequate for conquest, or even for serious defence, yet large enough to excite suspicion. Park answered these objections, by describing the manner in which Africa was sub-divided among petty sovereigns, who were not likely to form any regular combination for cutting him off, and whose boundaries were soon traversed. He spoke also of the long journeys common in those countries, and of the habit of seeing cofles, or caravans, of all nations, pass through their territories, on paying a small duty; from which he inferred, that the march of a small party, such as that which was to be placed under his command, would excite no serious apprehension. This interesting conversation occupied the two friends till they had passed the hills, and came to a road where it had been agreed upon they should separate. A small ditch divided the moor from the road, and, in going over it, Park's horse stumbled, and nearly fell. "I am afraid, Mungo," said Mr. Scott, "that is a bad omen;" to which he answered, smiling, "Freits (i. e. omens,) follow those who look to them." With this proverbial expression, and afraid of a formal adieu, he rode away, and was speedily out of sight. In 1815, Mr. Hoyland, of York, circulated a set of queries, chiefly in the north of England and on the borders of Scotland, for information respecting the Gypsies. The following is the answer returned by Mr. Walter Scott, as sheriff of Selkirkshire: "A set of people possessing the same erratic habits, and practising the trade of tinkers, are well known in the borders, and are often falling under the cognizance of the law. They are often called gypsies, and pass through the country annually in small bands, with their carts and asses. The men are tinkers, poachers, and thieves, upon a small scale. They also sell crock |