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“ Though the compass, and other improvements in the art ofsailing, have enabled the moderns to go from any one point toanother on the surface of the ocean, with as much certainty asthey travel from city to city on the surface of the earth; yet wemust not suppose that the ancients were so wholly unskilled inthat art, as never to have ventured by design out of the sight ofland. The trade of the Phenicians, Syrians, and Carthaginians, isa proof to the contrary. Tempests and trade-winds might havecarried merchant vessels beyond their designed limits ; and thusit appears not unreasonable to suppose, that it was accidental ordesigned sailing which peopled England from Gaul, Ireland fromthe northern continent, Japan from Eastern Tartary or China ;similar causes might have peopled the islands from the nearestcontinents.

“ Voltaire , I think, in some part of his writings, says—that God planted men in different regions of the earth as he planted trees;insinuating that the doctrine of a common origin of mankind isan incredible story. A similar extravagance of assertion is notuncommon in the mouths of other unbelievers. I call it extra-vagance of assertion, because (putting all professional bias out ofthe question) I am firmly convinced, that the account given byMoses of the manner in which the earth became inhabited afterthe Deluge, is confirmed by the profane history of the remotestperiods, and by the present circumstances of mankind on the sur-face of the earth.

“ Another manner in which islands may have become peopled,respects the manner in which they may have been formed; theymay, in remote ages, have been connected with continents, andseparated therefrom by inundations of the ocean; and having