GEOLOGY 575 



some pottery and certain Indian burying-places, that the 

 delta of' this great river has been inhabited by man for 

 more than 50,000 years ! 



On the other hand, G Cuvier makes creation much more 

 recent, and does not date the appearance of man further 

 back than tradition. According to this illustrious zoologist, 

 the history of the human race attests that man has not 

 ruled over the surface of the globe for more than a very 

 limited number of years. 



The Hebrew nation is the only one which possesses an- 

 nals written before the reign of Cyrus. Homer, the first 

 of poets, and Hesiod his contemporary, lived about 2800 

 years ago. Herodotus, who was the first profane historian, 

 wrote about 2300 years before our time. 



From national pride, the inhabitants of India and of 

 Egypt boasted that their origin was lost in the darkness 

 of ages ; and in order to gain credit for their recitals, they 

 often interwove fables invented by the Magi or Brahmins, 

 whom many reasons led to falsify history ! 



Among the former, the Vedas, or sn creel books, which 

 they assert were revealed by Brahma in the very begin- 

 ning of the world, scarcely go back farther than 3200 years. 

 The works on astronomy of this nation, and the tables of the 

 state of the heavens, which were thought to be of such vast 

 antiquity, have, on the contrary, been shown to be quite 

 modern. It has been discovered that they were antedated. 

 The Brahmins boldly announced that the most ancient of 

 these astronomical tables had been compiled more than 

 20,000,000 years ago. For a brief space of time men were 

 deceived by their assurance and the authority of Bailly; but 



