Page:Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile - In the Years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772, and 1773 volume 1.djvu/337

Rh day? Besides, since all seas are, in fact, but one, what is it that hinders the Indian Ocean to flow to its level? What is it that keeps the Indian Ocean up?

this last branch of the question is resolved, I shall take it for granted that no such difference of level exists, whatever Ptolemy's engineers might have pretended to him; because, to suppose it fact, is to suppose the violation of one very material law of nature.

next thing I have to take notice of, for the satisfaction of my reader, is, the way by which the children of Israel passed the Red Sea at the time of their deliverance from the land of Egypt.

scripture teaches us, that this passage, wherever it might be, was under the influence of a miraculous power, no particular circumstance of breadth, or depth, makes one place likelier than another. It is a matter of mere curiosity, and can only promote an illustration of the scripture, for which reason, I do not decline the consideration of it,

suppose, that my reader has been sufficiently convinced, by other authors, that the land of Goshen, where the Israelites dwelt in Egypt, was that country lying east of the Nile, and not overflowed by it, bounded by the mountains of the Thebaid on the south, by the Nile and Mediterranean on the west and north, and the Red Sea and desert of Arabia on the east. It was the Heliopolitan nome, its capital was On; from predilection of the letter O, common to the Hebrews, they called it Goshen; but its proper name was Geshen, the country of Grass, or Pasturage; or of the