great cities Erech, Acad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar, on the river Euphrates, as Moses says they did. Gen. x, 10.
From whom did Abraham, who was born only two hundred and ninety-two years after the flood, derive a knowledge of arithmetic and astronomy, if not from the house of Noah? That Abraham had this knowledge is stated by Josephus, in his book of Jewish Antiquities. If Abraham had this knowledge, then it is clear that the Syrians, of which people Abraham was a member, also possessed it, who, with all the first nations immediately after the flood, derived it, as well as all other knowledge, from the house and members of the family of Noah, who brought it with them from beyond the flood in written characters.
That Abraham was an educated man, is evident from the character he sustained among his countrymen, the Chaldeans, or the ancient Syrians, and as the head and patriarch of the Hebrew or Jewish people, as well as from the business which he transacted with the Egyptians, Canaanites, and other countries of that age. If Abraham, then, was an educated man, and was versed in all the learning of that age, which was cultivated by the Chaldeans, who, doubtless, at that era, and upward, toward the age of the ending of the flood, was composed of both white and red men, till such times as they were separated to their respective regions; then were also the patriarchs, who were before Abraham's time, such as Arphaxad, Salah, Eber, Peleg, Reu, Serng, Nahor, and Terah, the father of Abraham, as well as Shem, who was Mel-
