Page 257.—“_The comet that once desolated this world._”—In alluding to Whiston’s idea of a comet having caused the deluge, _M. Girard_, having remarked that the word Typhon means a deluge, adds, “On ne peut entendre par le tems du règne de Typhon que celui pendant lequel le déluge inonda la terre, tems pendant lequel on dût observer la comète qui l’occasionna, et dont l’apparition fut, non seulement pour les peuples de l’Egypte, et de l’Ethiopie, mais encore pour tous les peuples le présage funeste de leur destruction presque totale.” _Description de la Vallée de l’E’garement._ Page 259.—“_In which the spirit of my dream_,” _&c._—“Many people,” said _Origen_, “have been brought over to Christianity by the Spirit of God giving a sudden turn to their minds, and offering visions to them either by day or night.” On this _Jortin_ remarks:—“Why should it be thought improbable that Pagans of good dispositions, but not free from prejudices, should have been called by divine admonitions, by dreams or visions, which might be a support to Christianity in those days of distress.” Page 263.—“_One of those earthen cups._”—_Palladius_, who lived some time in Egypt, describes the monk Ptolemæus, who inhabited the desert of Scete, as collecting in earthen cups the abundant dew from the rocks.—_Bibliothec. Pat._ tom. 13. Page 264.—“_It was to preserve, he said_,” _&c._—The brief sketch here given of the Jewish dispensation agrees very much with the view taken of it by Dr. Sumner, the present Bishop of Llandaff, in the first chapters of his eloquent and luminous work, the “Records of the Creation.” Page 266.—“_In vain did I seek the promise of immortality._”—“It is impossible to deny,” says the Bishop of Llandaff, “that the sanctions of the Mosaic Law are altogether temporal.... It is, indeed, one of the facts that can only be explained by acknowledging that he really acted under a divine commission, promulgating a temporary law for a peculiar purpose,”—a much more candid and sensible way of treating this very difficult point, than by either endeavouring, like Warburton, to escape from it into a paradox, or still worse, contriving, like Dr. Graves, to increase its difficulty by explanation. v. “_On the Pentateuch_.” See also _Horne’s Introduction_, _&c._ vol. I. p. 226. Page 268.—“_All are of the dust_,” _&c._—While Voltaire, Volney, &c. refer to the Ecclesiastes, as abounding with tenets of materialism and Epicurism, Mr. Des Voeux and others find in it strong proofs of belief in a future state. The chief difficulty lies in the chapter from which this text is quoted; and the mode of construction by which some writers attempt to get rid of it,—namely, by putting these texts into the mouth of a foolish reasoner,—appears forced and gratuitous. v. _Dr. Hales’s Analysis_.