argue, that when his ark had begun to float on a hill eight hundred feet
in height, all hills upon the surface of the globe of a corresponding
altitude must have been also covered; or that, from what was in reality
but a local depression, a universal deluge might be legitimately
inferred. His error would be of the same nature (though of course
immensely greater) as that of the native of Chili who held, that
because the ocean had retreated from the coasts of his own country, it
had of necessity also retreated from the delta of the Indus; or as that
of the inhabitant of Cutch who held, that as the sea had risen high over
his native districts, it had also of necessity overflowed the coasts of
Chili and Aracan.

Dr. Kitto brings forward but one other objection to a Flood only
partial, and that the one virtually disposed of by Bishop Stillingfleet
in the terminal half of a short sentence. The Bishop "despaired," as he
well might, "of ever seeing it proved that the whole earth had been
peopled before the Deluge." "It has been much urged of late," says Dr.
Kitto, "that the Deluge was not universal, but was confined to a
particular region, which man inhabited. It may be freely admitted that,
seeing the object of the Flood was to drown mankind, there was no need
that it should extend beyond the region of man's habitation. But this
theory necessarily assigns to the world before the Flood a lower
population, and a more limited extension of it, than we are prepared to
concede." He then goes on to argue, that, as the species increased very
rapidly immediately after the Deluge, it must have increased in a ratio
at least equally rapid before that catastrophe took place. But how
gratuitous the assumption! It would be quite as safe to infer, that as
the human race multiplied greatly in Ireland during the first half of
the present century, it must have also multiplied greatly in Italy, a
much finer country, during the first half of the fifth century, or in
the wealthier portions of Kurdistan during the first half of the
thirteenth. Ere applying, however, the Irish ratio of increase to either
the Italy of thirteen hundred years ago, or to the Kurdistan of five
hundred years ago, it would surely be necessary to take into account the
important fact, that these were the ages of Zingis Khan and of Attila;
of Zingis Khan, who, on possessing himself of the three capitals of the
one country, coolly butchered four millions three hundred and
fort