If, Therefore, The Israelites Crossed So High Up
As Suez, The Egyptians, Unless Infatuated By Divine Interference,
Might Easily Have Recovered Their Stolen Goods From The Encumbered
Fugitives By Making A Slight Detour.
The opinion which fixes the
point of passage at eighteen miles' distance, and from thence right
across the ocean depths to the eastern side of the sea, is
supported by the unanimous tradition of the people, whether
Christians or Mussulmans, and is consistent with Holy Writ:
"The
waters were a wall unto them on their right hand, AND ON THEIR
LEFT." The Cambridge mathematicians seem to think that the
Israelites were enabled to pass over dry land by adopting a route
not usually subjected to the influx of the sea. This notion is
plausible in a merely hydrostatical point of view, and is supposed
to have been adopted by most of the Fellows of Trinity, but
certainly not by Thorp, who is one of the most amiable of their
number. It is difficult to reconcile this theory with the account
given in Exodus, unless we can suppose that the words "sea" and
"waters" are there used in a sense implying dry land.
Napoleon when at Suez made an attempt to follow the supposed steps
of Moses by passing the creek at this point, but it seems,
according to the testimony of the people at Suez, that he and his
horsemen managed the matter in a way more resembling the failure of
the Egyptians than the success of the Israelites.
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