the first of the human race, was formed by the Almighty on the sixth day of the creation. His body was made of the dust of the earth; after which, God animated or gave it life, and Adam then became a rational creature. His heavenly Parent did not leave his offspring in a destitute state to shift for himself, but planted a garden, in which he caused to grow not only every tree that was proper for producing food, but likewise such as were agreeable to the eye, or merely ornamental. In this garden were assembled all the brute creation, and, by their Maker, caused to pass before Adam, who gave all of them names, which were judged proper by the Deity himself.

In this review Adam found none for a companion to himself. This solitary state was seen by the Deity to be attended with some degree of unhappiness, and therefore he threw Adam into a deep sleep, in which condition he took a rib from his side, and, healing up the wound, formed a woman of the rib he had taken out. On Adam's awaking, the woman was brought to him; and he immediately knew her to be one of his own species, calling her his bone and his flesh, and giving her the name of woman, because she was taken out of man.

The first pair being thus created, God gave them authority over the inferior creation, commanding them to subdue the earth, also to increase and multiply, and fill it. They were informed of the proper food for the beasts and for them; the grass or green herbs being appointed for beasts, and fruits or seeds for man. Their proper employment also was assigned them; namely, to dress the garden and to keep it.

Though Adam was thus highly favoured and instructed by his Maker, there was a single tree, which grew in the middle of the garden, of the fruit of which they were not allowed to eat; being told that they should surely die in the day they ate of it. This tree was named the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. This prohibition, however, they soon broke through. The woman having entered into conversation with the Serpent, was by him persuaded, that by eating of the tree she should become as wise as God himself; and accordingly, being invited by the beauty of the fruit, and its desirable property of imparting wisdom, she plucked and ate; giving her husband of it at the same time, who did likewise eat.

Before this transgression of the divine command, Adam and his wife had no occasion for clothes, neither had they any sense of shame; but immediately on eating the forbidden fruit, they were ashamed of being naked, and made aprons of fig-leaves for themselves. On hearing the voice of God in the garden, they were terrified, and hid themselves: but being questioned by the Deity, they confessed what they had done, and received sentence accordingly; the man being condemned to labour, the woman to subjection to her husband, and to pain in child-bearing. They were now driven out of the garden, and their access to it prevented by a terrible apparition.

They had clothes given them by the Deity, made of the skins of beasts. In this state Adam had several children; the names of only three of whom we are acquainted with, viz. Cain, Abel, and Seth. He died at the age of 930 years.

These are all the particulars concerning Adam that we have on divine authority; but there is a vast multitude of others, all of them conjectural, part of them downright falsehoods or absurdities. The curiosity of our readers, it is presumed, will be sufficiently gratified by the few which are here subjoined.

According to the Talmudists, when Adam was created, his body was of immense magnitude. When he sinned, his stature was reduced to a hundred ells, according to some; to nine hundred cubits, according to others; who think this was done at the request of the angels, who were afraid of so gigantic a creature.

According to the revelations of the famous Madame Bourignon, Adam before his fall possessed in himself the principles of both sexes, and the virtue or power of producing his like without the concurrent assistance of woman. The division into two sexes, she imagined,1 was the consequence of man's sin; and now, she observes, mankind are become so many monsters in nature, being much less perfect in this respect than plants or trees, which are capable of producing their like alone, and without pain or misery. She even imagined, that being in an ecstasy, she saw the figure of Adam before he fell, with the manner how, by himself, he was capable of procreating other men. "God," says she, "represented to my mind the beauty of the first world, and the manner how he had drawn it from the chaos: everything was bright, transparent, and darted forth life and ineffable glory. The body of Adam was purer and more transparent than crystal, and vastly fleet; through his body were seen vessels and rivulets of light, which penetrated from the inward to the outward parts, through all his pores. In some vessels ran fluids of all kinds and colours, vastly bright, and quite diaphanous. The most ravishing harmony arose from every motion, and nothing resisted or could annoy him. His stature was taller than the present race of men; his hair was short, curled, and of a colour inclining to black; his upper lip covered with short hair; and instead of the bestial parts which modesty will not allow us to name, he was fashioned as our bodies will be in the eternal life, which I know not whether I dare reveal. In that region his nose was formed after the manner of a face, which diffused the most delicious fragrance and perfumes; whence also men were to issue, all whose principles were inherent in him; there being in his belly a vessel where little eggs were formed, and a second vessel filled with a fluid which impregnated those eggs; and when man heated himself in the love of God, the desire he had that other creatures should exist beside himself, to praise and love God, caused the fluid above mentioned (by means of the fire of the love of God) to drop on one or more of these eggs, with inexpressible delight; which being thus impregnated, issued, some time after, out of man by this canal,1 in the shape of an egg, whence a perfect man was hatched by insensible degrees. Woman was formed by taking out of Adam's side the vessels that contained the eggs; which she still possesses, as is discovered by anatomists.2

Many others have believed that Adam at his first creation was both male and female; others, that he had two bodies joined together at the shoulders, and their faces looking opposite ways, like those of Janus. Hence, say these, when God created Eve, he had no more to do than to separate the two bodies from one another. Of all others, however, the opinion of Paracelsus seems the most ridiculous.3 Negabat primos parentes ante lapsum habuisse partes generationis hominis necessarias; credebat postea accessisse, ut strumam gutturis.

Extravagant things are asserted concerning Adam's knowledge. Some rabbis, indeed, have contented themselves with equalling it to that of Moses and Solomon; but others have maintained that he excelled the angels themselves. Several Christians seem to be little behind these Jews in the degree of knowledge they ascribe to Adam; nothing being hid from him, according to them, except contingent events relating to futurity. One writer indeed (Pinedo) excepts politics; but a Carthusian friar, having exhausted in favour of Aristotle every image and comparison he could think of, at last asserted that Aristotle's knowledge was as extensive as that of Adam.

In consequence of this surprising knowledge with which Adam was endued, he is supposed to have been a considerable author. The Jews pretend that he wrote a book on the Creation, and another on the Deity. Some rabbis ascribe the 92d psalm to him; and in some manuscripts the Chaldee title of this psalm expressly declares that this is the song of praise which the first man repeated for the Sabbath-day.

Strange stories are told concerning Adam's children. That he had none in the state of innocence, is certain from Scripture; but that his marriage with Eve was not consummated till after the fall, cannot be proved from thence. Some imagine, that, for many years after the fall, Adam denied himself the connubial joys by way of penance; others, that he cohabited with another woman, whose name was Lillith. The Mahometans tell us, that our first parents having been thrown headlong from the celestial paradise, Adam fell upon the isle of Serendib, or Ceylon, in the East Indies; and Eve on Iodda, a port of the Red Sea, not far from Mecca. After a separation of upwards of 200 years, they met in Ceylon, where they multiplied: according to some Eve had twenty, according to others only eight deliveries; bringing forth at each time twins, a male and a female, who afterwards married. The rabbis imagine that Eve brought forth Cain and Abel at a birth; that Adam wept for Abel a hundred years in the valley of tears near Hebron, during which time he did not cohabit with his wife; and that this separation would probably have continued longer, had it not been forbid by the angel Gabriel. The inhabitants of Ceylon affirm, that the salt lake on the mountain of Colombo consists wholly of the tears which Eve for one hundred years together shed because of Abel's death.

Some of the Arabians tell us, that Adam was buried near Mecca, on Mount Abukobeis; others, that Noah having laid his body in the ark, caused it to be carried after the deluge to Jerusalem, by Melchizedek, the son of Shem: of this opinion are the eastern Christians; but the Persians affirm that he was interred in the isle of Serendib, where his corpse was guarded by lions at the time the giants warred upon one another. Some are of opinion that he was buried at Jerusalem, on the place where Christ suffered, that so his bones might be sprinkled with the Saviour's blood.

Alexander, Rector of the High School, Edinburgh, and author of several valuable works connected with Roman literature, was born on the 24th of June 1741, on a small farm which his father rented, not far from Forres, in Morayshire. He does not appear to have received any powerful direction to literary pursuits, either from the attainments of his parents or the ability of the parochial schoolmaster; but is referable to a class of men, of which Scotland can produce a very honourable list, whom the secret workings of a naturally active mind have raised above the level of their associates, and urged on to distinction and usefulness under the severest pressure of difficulties. The gentle treatment of an old schoolmistress first taught him to like his book; and this propensity induced his parents to consent that he should learn Latin. To the imperfect instruction which he received at the parish school, he joined indefatigable study at home, notwithstanding the scanty means and poor accommodation of his father's house. Before he was sixteen, he had read the whole of Livy, in a copy of the small Elzevir edition, which he had borrowed from a neighbouring clergyman; omitting for the present all such passages as his own sagacity and Cole's Dictionary did not enable him to construe. It was before day-break, during the mornings of winter, and by the light of splinters of bog-wood dug out of an adjoining moss, that he prosecuted the perusal of this difficult classic; for, as the whole family were collected round the only fire in the evening, he was prevented by the noise from reading with any advantage; and the day-light was spent at school.

In the autumn of 1757, he was a competitor for one of those bursaries, or small exhibitions, which are given by the university of Aberdeen to young men who distinguish themselves for their classical attainments; but as the prize was awarded to the best written exercises, and as Adam, with all his reading, had not yet been accustomed to write Adam. he was foiled by some youth who had been more fortunate in his means of instruction. About the same time Mr Watson, a relation of his mother's, and one of the ministers of the Canongate, sent him a tardy invitation to come to Edinburgh, "provided he was prepared to endure every hardship for a season,"—a condition not likely to appal one who yet knew nothing of life but its hardships. The interest of Mr Watson procured him free admission to the lectures of the different professors; and as he had now also access to books in the College Library, his literary ardour made him submit with cheerfulness to the greatest personal privations. Eighteen months of assiduous application enabled him to repair the defects of his early tuition, and to obtain, after a comparative trial of candidates, the head mastership of the foundation known by the name of Watson's Hospital. At this period he was only nineteen, on which account the governors of the institution limited the appointment to half a year; but his steadiness and ability speedily removed their scruples. After holding the situation for three years, he was induced, by the prospect of having more leisure for the prosecution of his studies, to resign it, and become private tutor to the son of Mr Kincaid, a wealthy citizen, and afterwards Lord Provost of Edinburgh; and it was in consequence of this connection that he was afterwards raised to the office for which he was so eminently qualified. He taught in the High School, for the first time, in April 1765, as substitute for Mr Matheson the rector; in consequence of whose growing infirmities, an arrangement was made, by which he retired on a small annuity, to be paid from the profits of the class; and Mr Adam was confirmed in the rectorship on the 8th of June 1768.

From this period the history of his life is little more than the history of his professional labours and of his literary productions. No sooner was he invested with the office, than he gave himself up with entire devotion to the business of his class, and the pursuits connected with it. For forty years his day was divided with singular regularity between the public duties of teaching and that unwearyed research and industry in private which enabled him, amidst the incessant occupation of a High School master's life, to give to the world such a number of accurate and laborious compilations. So entirely did these objects of public utility engross his mind, that he mixed but little with society, and considered every moment as lost that was not dedicated in some way or other to the improvement of youth. Few men certainly could adopt, with more truth and propriety, the language of Horace, both with regard to his own feelings and the objects on which he was occupied:

...... mihi tarda fluent ingratique tempora, que spem Consiliumque morantur agendi gnaviiter id, quod Æque pauperibus prodest, locupletibus æque, Æque, neglectum, pueris semibusque-nocebit.

Epist. i. 1. 23.

The rector's class, which in the High School is the most advanced of five, consisted of no more than between thirty and forty boys when Dr Adam was appointed. His celebrity as a classical teacher, joined to the progress of the country in wealth and population, continued to increase this number up to the year of his death. His class-list for that year contained 167 names,—the largest number that had ever been collected in one class, and, what is remarkable, equal to the amount of the whole five classes during the year when he first taught in the school.

He performed an essential service to the literature of his country by introducing, in his own class, an additional hour of teaching for Greek and Geography; neither of which branches seems to have been contemplated in the original formation of the school. The introduction of Greek, which he effected a year or two after his election, was regarded by some professors of the university as a dangerous innovation, and an unwarrantable encroachment on the province of the Greek chair; and the measure was accordingly resisted (though, it is satisfactory to think, unsuccessfully) by the united efforts of the Senatus Academicus, in a petition and representation to the town-council, drawn up and proposed by the celebrated Principal of the university, Dr Robertson. This happened in 1772.

It is not possible for a man of principle and ordinary affections to be occupied in training a large portion of the youth of his country to knowledge and virtue, without feeling a deep responsibility, and a paramount interest in their progress and welldoing. That such were Dr Adam's feelings is proved, not less by the whole tenor of his life, than by his mode of conducting the business of his class; by the free scope and decided support he gave to talent, particularly when the possessor of it was poor and friendless; by the tender concern with which he followed his pupils into life; and by a test not the least unequivocal, the enthusiastic attachment and veneration which they entertain for his memory. In his class-room, his manner, while it imposed respect, was kindly and conciliating. He was fond of relieving the irksomeness of continued attention by narrating curious facts and amusing anecdotes. In the latter part of his life, he was perhaps too often the hero of his own tale; but there was something amiable even in this weakness, which arose from the vanity of having done much good, and was totally unmixed with any alloy of selfishness.

Dr Adam's first publication was his Grammar, which appeared in 1772. He had two principal objects in compiling it,—to combine the study of English and Latin grammar, so that they might mutually illustrate each other; and to supersede the preposterous method of teaching Latin by a grammar composed in that language, and of overloading the memory with rules in Latin hexameters, for almost every fact and every anomaly in its grammatical structure. The change he proposed, reasonable as it was, could not be effected without running counter to confirmed prejudices, and interfering with established books. Although, therefore, the grammar met with the approbation of some eminently good judges, particularly of Bishop Lowth, the author had no sooner adopted it in his own class, and recommended it to others, than a host of enemies rose up against him, and he was involved in much altercation and vexatious hostility with the town-council and the four under masters. Dr George Stewart, then professor of humanity, was related to Ruddiman, whose grammar Dr Adam's was intended to supersede; and to this cause may be traced the commencement of the determined opposition that was long made to any change. In these squabbles, the acrimony displayed by some of his adversaries now and then altered the natural suavity of Dr Adam's temper; and his high notions of independence, and contempt of presumptuous ignorance, led him, perhaps to neglect too much those easy arts of conciliation, which enable a man, without the slightest compromise of his integrity, "to win his way by yielding to the tide."

His work on Roman Antiquities was published in 1791, and has contributed, more than any of his other productions, to give him a name as a classical scholar. The vast variety of matter, the minuteness and accuracy of the details, the number and fidelity of the references, the constant bearing the work has upon the classics, and the light it throws on them at every step, were soon perceived and appreciated over the whole island. These solid excellencies abundantly compensate for a certain air of heaviness, and the absence of the lighter graces of interesting style and manner. His reader follows him as he would do a faithful guide, through a strange and difficult country, with a feeling of perfect assurance that he will arrive at the end of his journey, if not by the pleasantest road, at least by the most direct and secure. The Roman Antiquities is now adopted as a class-book in many of the English schools; and, even in those where the influence of custom opposes innovation, it is found in every master's library, and recommended by him to his advanced pupils for private reading and reference.

In 1794 he published his Summary of Geography and History, in one thick 8vo volume of 900 pages, which had grown in his hands to this size from a small treatise on the same subject, printed for the use of his pupils in 1784. The object of this work was to connect the study of the classics with that of general knowledge; and it accordingly contains a curious compound of interesting matter, unwieldy as a school-book, and not always arranged in the most luminous or engaging order, but valuable to the young student for its succinct account of the first principles of astronomical, mathematical, and physical science, and for the mass it contains of geographical and historical information, especially with regard to the fabulous ages of antiquity.

His Classical Biography, published in 1800, is the least in request of all his works; a circumstance owing, perhaps, to the more comprehensive and popular plan of Lempriere's Classical Dictionary. It exhibits, however, ample proofs of well-directed industry; and in the number and unflinching accuracy of the references, furnishes an excellent index to the best sources of information, even where the book itself may be thought meagre and scanty.

His last work was his Latin Dictionary, which appeared in 1805, printed, like every other production of his pen, in the most unassuming form, and with the utmost anxiety to condense the greatest quantity of useful knowledge into the smallest bulk, and afford it to the student at the cheapest rate. It was intended chiefly for the use of schools, and to be followed by a larger work, containing copious illustrations of every word in the language. The character which he had acquired by his former works for patient research and correct detail stamped a high and deserved authority on this book. The clear account of the different meanings of words, the explanation of idioms, and happy translation of difficult passages, which abound, particularly in the latter half, are admirably well adapted to remove the difficulties of the younger student, and render the work, notwithstanding the modesty of its pretensions, equally valuable to the more advanced. It is much to be regretted he did not live to complete his larger work on the extended scale on which the latter part of the small one is executed. He had proceeded as far as the word Comburgo, with a plenitude of illustration that would have made the work a treasure of Latinity, when he was seized in school with an apoplectic affection; occasioned, perhaps, by the intenseness of his application, and the small portion of sleep he allowed himself,—certainly not by his mode of living, which was simple and abstemious to an extreme degree. He lingered five days under the disease. Amidst the wanderings of mind that accompanied it, he was constantly reverting to the business of the class, and addressing his boys; and in the last hour of his life, as he fancied himself examining on the lesson of the day, he stopped short, and said, "But it grows dark, you may go;" and almost immediately expired. He died on the 18th of December 1809, at the age of 68.

The magistrates of Edinburgh, whose predecessors had not always been alive to his merits, showed their respect for his memory by a public funeral. A short time before his death, he was solicited by some of his old pupils to sit to Mr Raeburn for his portrait, which was executed in the best style of that eminent artist, and placed, as a memorial of their gratitude and respect, in the library of the High School.

He was twice married; first in 1773, to Miss Munro, eldest daughter of the minister of Kinloss, by whom he had several children, the last of whom died within a few days of his father; and in 1789, to Miss Cosser, daughter of Mr Cosser, Comptroller of Excise, who, with two daughters and a son, are still alive.

(II.)

Adam, Melchior, lived in the seventeenth century. He was born in the territory of Grotkaw in Silesia, and educated in the college of Brieg, where he became a firm Protestant, and was enabled to pursue his studies by the liberality of a person of quality, who had left several exhibitions for young students. He was appointed rector of a college at Heidelberg, where he published, in the year 1615, the first volume of his Vitae Germanorum Philosophorum, &c. This volume, which treated of philosophers, poets, writers on polite literature, and historians, &c. was followed by three others: that which treated of divines was printed in 1619; that of the lawyers came next; and, finally, that of the physicians: the last two were published in 1620. All the learned men whose lives are contained in these four volumes lived in the sixteenth or beginning of the seventeenth century, and are either Germans or Flemings; but he published in 1615 the lives of twenty divines of other countries in a separate volume, entitled Decades duae, continentes Vitas Theologorum exterorum principum. All his divines are Protestants. The Lutherans were not pleased with him, for they thought him partial, and will not allow his work to be a proper standard of the learning of Germany. He was the author of some other works of less consequence than his Lives. His industry as a biographer is commended by Bayle, who acknowledges his obligations to his labours. He died in 1622.

Adam, Robert, an eminent architect, was born at Edinburgh in the year 1728. He was the second son of William Adam, Esq. of Maryburgh, in the county of Fife, who has also left some respectable specimens of his genius and abilities as an architect in Hopetoun-house and the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, which were erected from designs executed by him. And it was perhaps owing to the fortunate circumstance of his father's example that young Adam first directed his attention to those studies, in the prosecution of which he afterwards rose to such distinguished celebrity. He received his education at the university of Edinburgh, where he had an opportunity of improving and enlarging his mind, by the conversation and acquaintance of some of the first literary characters of the age, who were then rising into reputation, or have since established their fame as historians and philosophers. Among these were Mr Hume, Dr Robertson, Dr Smith, and Dr Ferguson, who were the friends and companions of the father, and who continued through life their friendship and attachment to the son.

In the year 1754, Mr Adam travelled to the Continent, with a view to extend his knowledge and improve his taste in architecture, and resided in Italy for three years. Here he surveyed and studied those noble specimens of ancient grandeur which the magnificent public edifices of the Romans, even in ruins, still exhibit. In tracing the progress of architecture and the other fine arts among the Romans, Mr Adam observed that they had visibly declined previously to the time of Dioclesian; but he was also convinced that the liberal patronage and munificence of that emperor had revived, during his reign, a better taste for architecture, and had formed artists who were capable of imitating the more elegant style of a purer age. He had seen this remarkably exemplified in the public baths at Rome, which were erected by him, the most entire and the noblest of the ancient buildings. Admiring the extent and fertility of genius of the artists from whose designs such magnificent structures had been executed, he was anxious to see and study any remains that yet existed of those masters whose works were striking monuments of an elegant and improved taste, but whose names, amid the wrecks of time, have sunk into oblivion. It was with this view that he undertook a voyage to Spalatro, in Dalmatia, to visit and examine the private palace of Dioclesian, in which that emperor resided for nine years previous to his death, and to which he retired in the year 305, when he resigned the government of the empire. Mr Adam sailed from Venice in July 1754, accompanied by M. Clerisseau, a French artist and antiquary, and two experienced draughtsmen. On their arrival at Spalatro, they found, that though the palace had suffered much from the injuries of time, yet it had sustained no less from the dilapidations of the inhabitants to procure materials for building; and even the foundations of the ancient structure were covered with modern houses. With high expectations of success they commenced their labours, but were soon interrupted by the jealous vigilance of the government. Suspecting that their object was to view and make plans of the fortifications, an immediate and peremptory order was issued by the governor, commanding them to desist. This order, however, was soon counteracted through the mediation of General Greme, the commander-in-chief of the Venetian forces; and they were permitted to proceed in their undertaking. They resumed their labours with double ardour, and in five weeks finished plans and views of the fragments which remain, from which they were enabled to execute perfect designs of the entire building.

Mr Adam now returned to England, and soon rose to very considerable professional eminence. In 1762 he was appointed architect to the king; and the year following he presented to the public the fruit of his voyage to Spalatro, in a splendid work, containing engravings and descriptions of the ruins of the palace. "For the account of Dioclesian's palace," says Mr Gibbon, "we are indebted to an ingenious artist of our own time and country, whom a very liberal curiosity had carried into the heart of Dalmatia. But there is room to suspect that the elegance of his designs and engravings has somewhat flattered the objects which it was their purpose to represent. We are informed by a more recent and very judicious traveller, the Abbé Portis, that the awful ruins of Spalatro are not less expressive of the decline of the arts than of the greatness of the Roman empire in the time of Dioclesian." Upon this we may observe, that Mr Adam allows, that previously to this period of the Roman empire the arts had visibly declined; and only contends, that the buildings erected in the reign of Dioclesian exhibit convincing proofs of the style and manner of a purer age.

In the year 1768, Mr Adam obtained a seat in parliament. He was chosen to represent the county of Kinross; and about the same time he resigned his office of architect to the king. But he continued his professional career with increasing reputation; and about the year 1773, in conjunction with his brother James, who also rose to considerable eminence as an architect, he published another splendid work, consisting of plans and elevations of public and private buildings which were erected from their designs. Among these are, Lord Mansfield's house at Caenwood; Luton-house in Bedfordshire, belonging to Lord Bute; the new Gateway of the Admiralty Office; the Register Office at Edinburgh, &c.; which are universally admired as precious monuments of elegant design and correct taste. The Adelphi buildings at London, which are also striking examples of the inventive genius of the Messrs Adam, proved an unsuccessful speculation. The wealth and power of a nation only were equal to so extensive an undertaking; it was too great to be attempted by private citizens.

The buildings more lately erected from the designs of Mr Adam afford additional proofs of his invention and skill. We may mention in particular the Infirmary of Glasgow, as exhibiting the most perfect symmetry and useful disposition of parts, combined with great beauty and lightness.

To the last period of his life Mr Adam displayed an increasing vigour of genius and refinement of taste; for, in the space of one year preceding his death, he designed eight great public works, besides twenty-five private buildings, so various in their style and beautiful in their composition, that they have been allowed, by the best judges, sufficient of themselves to establish his fame. The improved taste which now pretty generally prevails in our public and private edifices, undoubtedly owes much to the elegant and correct style introduced by this distinguished artist.

He died on the 3d of March 1792, by the bursting of a blood-vessel, in the 64th year of his age, and was buried in Westminster Abbey. The natural suavity of his manners, joined to the excellence of his moral character, secured to him the affectionate regard of his friends, and the esteem of all who enjoyed his acquaintance. James Adam, already mentioned as associated with his brother in many of his labours, died on the 20th October 1794.

Adam's Apple, a name given to a species of Citrus.

Adam's Bridge, or Rama's Bridge, in Geography, a ridge of sands and rocks, extending across the north end of Manara gulf, from the island of that name on the northwest coast of Ceylon, to Ramencote or Ramankoil island, off Raman point.

Adam's Peak, a high mountain in the island of Ceylon, on the top of which, it has been said, the first man was created. It is in the form of a sugar loaf, and terminates in a circular plain about 200 paces in diameter. The summit is covered with trees, and has a deep lake which supplies the principal rivers of the island. The mountain is seen at the distance of twenty leagues from sea. It is situated in Long. 80. 39. E. Lat. 5. 55. N.