Because
the Noachian Universal Deluge is now proved a fiction based upon
geological and geographical ignorance, it does not, therefore, appear
that there were not many local deluges in prehistoric ages. The
ancients connected every terrestrial event with the celestial bodies.
They traced the history of their great deified heroes and memorialized
it in stellar configurations as often as they personified pure myths,
anthropomorphizing objects in Nature. One has to learn the difference
between the two modes before attempting to classify them under one
nomenclature. An earthquake has just engulfed over 80,000 people
(87,903) in Sunda Straits. These were mostly Malays, savages with whom
but few had relations, and the dire event will be soon forgotten. Had a
portion of Great Britain been thus swept away instead, the whole world
would have been in commotion, and yet, a few thousand years hence, even
such an event would have passed out of man's memory; and a future Gerald
Massey might be found speculating upon the astronomical character and
signification of the Isles of Wight, Jersey, or Man, arguing, perhaps,
that this latter island had not contained a real living race of men but
"belonged to astronomical mythology," was a "Man submerged in celestial
waters.
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