"But, as the case now stands, we do not hesitate to declare that, far
from being a myth, the Biblical Deluge is a real and historical fact,
having, to say the least, left its impress on the ancestors of three
races--Aryan, or Indo-European, Semitic, or Syro-Arabian, Chamitic, or
Cushite--that is to say, on the three great civilized races of the
ancient world, those which constitute the higher humanity--before the
ancestors of those races had as yet separated, and in the part of Asia
they together inhabited."

Such profound scholars and sincere Christians as M. Schwoebel (Paris,
1858), and M. Omalius d'Halloy (Bruxelles, 1866), deny the universality
of the Deluge, and claim that "it extended only to the principal centre
of humanity, to those who remained near its primitive cradle, without
reaching the scattered tribes who had already spread themselves far away
in almost desert regions. It is certain that the Bible narrative
commences by relating facts common to the whole human species, confining
itself subsequently to the annals of the race peculiarly chosen by the
designs of Providence." (Lenormant and Chevallier, "Anc. Hist. of the
East," p. 44.) This theory is supported by that eminent authority on
anthropology, M. de Quatrefages, as well as by Cuvier; the Rev. R. p.
Bellynck, S.J., admits that it has nothing expressly opposed to
orthodoxy.

Plato identifies "the great deluge of all" with the destruction of
Atlantis. The priest of Sais told Solon that before "the great deluge of
all" Athens possessed a noble race, who performed many noble deeds, the
last and greatest of which was resisting the attempts of Atlantis to
subjugate them; and after this came the destruction of Atlantis, and the
same great convulsion which overwhelmed that island destroyed a number