THE building of the ark, which was enjoined upon Noah, that he and his family might be saved, was a great undertaking: The ark was a building of vast size; the length of it being three hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits. A cubit, till of late, was by learned men reckoned to be equal to a foot and an half of our measure. But lately some learned men of our nation have travelled into Egypt, and other ancient countries, and have measured some ancient buildings there, which are of several thousand years standing, and of which ancient histories give us the dimensions in cubits; particularly the pyramids of Egypt, which are standing entire at this day. By measuring these, and by comparing the measure in feet, with the ancient accounts of their measure in cubits, a cubit is found to be almost two and twenty inches. Therefore learned men more lately reckon a cubit much longer than they did formerly. So that the ark reckoned ⟨p. 9⟩so much longer every way, will appear to be almost of double the bulk, which was formerly ascribed to it. According to this computation of the cubit, it was more than five hundred and fifty feet long, about ninety feet broad, and about fifty feet in height.
THE building of the ark, which was enjoined upon Noah, that he and his family might be saved, was a great undertaking: The ark was a building of vast size; the length of it being three hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits. A cubit, till of late, was by learned men reckoned to be equal to a foot and an half of our measure. But lately some learned men of our nation have travelled into Egypt, and other antient countries, and have measured some antient buildings there, which are of several thousand years standing, and of which antient histories give us the dimensions in cubits; particularly the pyramids of Egypt, which are standing entire at this day. By measuring these, and by comparing the measure in feet, with the antient accounts of their measure in cubits, a cubit is found to be almost two and twenty inches. Therefore learned men more lately reckon a cubit much longer than they did formerly. So that the ark reckoned ⟨p. 9⟩so much longer every way, will appear to be almost of double the bulk, which was formerly ascribed to it. According to this computation of the cubit, it was more than five hundred and fifty feet long, about ninety feet broad, and about fifty feet in height.
