CHAPTER IV. _THE CONFUSION OF TONGUES._ GEN. X.–XI. B.C. 2347–2233. THE first act of Noah on leaving the Ark was to build an altar, and offer burnt-offerings unto the Lord _of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl_. His sacrifice was accepted, and now for the first time a solemn Covenant was ratified between the Almighty and the Patriarch, to which definite promises were annexed, and “an outward and visible sign.” From its baptism of water the Earth had risen once more to be the habitation of man, and Noah and his sons were solemnly assured that all flesh should never again be cut off by the waters of a Flood, but that _while the earth remained, seed-time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter and day and night should not cease_. Again too the blessing of Paradise was bestowed, sovereignty and dominion over the animal creation were assured, and once more men were bidden to _be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth_. At the same time animal food was expressly allowed, while the sanctity of human life was as solemnly enforced, _whoso shed man’s blood, by man should his blood be shed_. Of this covenant the Rainbow was the visible pledge, assuring man that he might enter afresh on his course of probation, nor dread its interruption by any catastrophe like that with which the earth had been so lately visited (Gen. ix. 8–17). The elevation of the Armenian plateau, in the neighbourhood of which the Ark had rested, being equidistant between the Black and Caspian Seas on the north, the Persian Gulf and Mediterranean Sea on the south, being also the region in which all the great rivers of Western Asia, the Tigris, the Euphrates, the Araxes, and the Halys take their rise, formed a natural and convenient centre whence the descendants of Noah might overspread the whole earth. But on this migration they did not set out, before an unseemly incident revealed the natural character of his sons, prophetic of their future destinies. Noah began to practise agriculture, and planted a vineyard, and through ignorance, as it has been supposed, of its properties, drank of the wine in excess, and lay exposed in his tent. Ham, his youngest son, mocked him while he lay in this condition, but Shem and Japheth, with more filial feeling, averting their eyes covered their father with a garment. Awaking from his slumbers Noah became conscious of what his youngest son had done, and justly angry at the irreverence he had displayed, brake forth into prophetic utterances of blessing and cursing, foreshadowing the diverse destinies of the descendants of his family. Upon CANAAN, the fourth son of Ham, and probably a partaker in his father’s transgression, he pronounced the doom of perpetual servitude to his brethren[10]. Shem he declared to be _the chosen one of Jehovah_, from whom the promised Salvation should proceed, while Japheth, _multiplied_ and _enlarged_