and Friends as she could trust; and there with an Heart equally affected with Love and Fear, she takes her last leave of him in these Words, O God, thou form’dst this Child out of nothing, and didst Cherish him in the Dark recesses of my Womb, till he was compleat in all his parts; I fearing the Cruelty of a Proud and unjust King, commit him to thy Goodness, hoping that thou who art infinitely merciful, will be pleas’d by thy gracious Providence to protect him, and never leave him destitute of thy Care.

Sec.4.  Then she set him afloat, and that very Night the Tide carried him ashore on that Island we just now mention’d; it fortun’d that the Water being high, carried the Ark a great way on shore, farther than it would have done at another time, (for it rises so high but once a Year) and cast the Ark into a little shady Grove, thick set with Trees, a pleasant place, where he was secured both from Wind and Sun; when the Tide ebb’d, the Ark was left there, and the Wind rising blew an heap of Sand together between the Ark and the Sea, sufficient to secure him from any future danger of such another Flood.

Sec. 5.  The Violence of the Waves had loosned the Joints of the Ark; the Boy was Hungry and Cry’d.  It happen’d fortunately at that Juncture of time, that a Roe wandring about the Island in search of her Fawn, which straying was devoured by an Eagle, heard the Boy cry, and following the voice (imagining it to have been her Fawn) came up to the Ark, which she immediately attack’d, and what with her beating it with her hoofs without, and the Boy’s struggling within, at last between ’em both they loosned a board:  as soon as she saw him she shew’d the same natural Affection to him as if he had been her own, Suckled him and took care of him.  This is the account which they give, who are not willing to believe that a Man can be produced without Father or Mother.

Sec. 6.  On the other hand, those who affirm that Hai Ebn Yokdhan was produced in that Island without Father and Mother[18], tell us, that in that island, in a piece of Low ground, it chanc’d that a certain Mass of Earth was so fermented in some period of Years, that the four qualities, viz.  Hot, Cold, Dry, Moist, were so equally mix’d, that none of ’em prevail’d over the other; and that this Mass was of a very great Bulk, in which, some parts were better and more equally Temper’d than others,and consequently fitter for Generation; the middle part especially, which came nearest to the Temper of Man’s Body.  This Matter being in a fermentation, there arose some Bubbles by reason of its viscousness, and it chanc’d that in the midst of it there was a viscous Substance with a very little bubble in it, which was divided into two with a thin partition, full of Spirituous and Aerial Substance, and of the most exact Temperature imaginable.  That the Matter being thus dispos’d, there was, by the Command of God, a Spirit infus’d into it; which was join’d so closely to it, that