fUY&ICAL CONTEMPLATION OF THE UNIVERSE. 11,1 



the first colony migrated from the northeastern declivity oi 

 the Kuen-lun into the lower river valley of the Hoang-ho. 



al least, and probably still more, mast be conjectured for the gradual 

 growth of a civilization which had been completed, and had in pai-^ 

 begun to degenerate, at least 3430 years B.C." (Lepsius, in several 

 letters to myself, dated March, 1846, and therefore after his return from 

 his memorable expedition.) Compare, also, Bunsen's Considerations 

 on the Commencement of Universal History, which, strictly defined, is 

 only a history of recent times, in his ingenious and learned work, 

 ^gyptejis Stelle in der Weltgeschichte, 1845, erstes Buch, s. 11-13. 

 The historical existence and regular chronology of the Chinese go back 

 to 24Q0, and even to 2700 before our era, far beyond Ju to Hoang-ty. 

 Many literary monuments of the thirteenth century B.C. are extant, 

 and in the twelfth century B.C. Thscheu-li records the measurement 

 of the length of the solstitial shadow taken with such exactness by 

 Tscheu-kung, in the town of Lo-yaug, south of the Yellow River, that 

 Laplace found that it accorded perfectly with the theory of the altera- 

 tion of the obliquity of the ecliptic, which was only established at the 

 close of the last century. All suspicion of a measurement of the Earth's 

 direction derived by calculating back, falls therefore to the ground of 

 itself. See Edouard Biot, Sur la Constitution Politique de la Chine au 

 12eme Siecle avant notre ere (1845), p. 3 and 9. The building of Tyre 

 and of the original temple of Melkarth (the Tyriau Hercules) would, 

 according to the account which Herodotus received from the priests 

 (II., 44), reach back 2760 years before our era. Compare, also, Hee- 

 reu, Ideen uber Politik mid Verkekr der Volker, th. i., 2, 1824, s. 12. 

 Simplicius calculates, from a notice transmitted by Poi'phyry, that the 

 date of the earliest Babylonian astronomical observations which were 

 known to Aristotle was 1903 years before Alexander the Great; and 

 Ideler, who is so profound and cautious as a chronologist, considers this 

 estimate in no way improbable. See his Handhuch der Chronologie, 

 bd. i., s. 207 ; the Ahhandhingen der Berliner Akad. auf das Jahr 1814, s. 

 217 ; and ViOckXi, Metrol. Untersuchungen iiber dieMas^e des Alterthnms, 

 1838, s. 36. Whether safe historic ground is to be found in India earlier 

 than 1200 B.C., according to the chronicles of Kashmeer (Radjataran- 

 gini, trad, par Troyer), is a question still involved in obscurity ; while 

 Megasthenes {Indica, ed. Schwanbeck, 1846, p. 50) reckons for 153 

 kings of the dynasty of Magadha, from Manu to Kandragupta, from 

 sixty to sixty-four centuries, and the astronomer Arj^abhatta places the 

 beginning of his chronology 3102 B.C. (Lassen, Ind. Alterthumsk., bd. 

 i., 8. 473-505, 507, und 510). In order to give the numbers contained 

 in this note a higher significance in respect to the history of human 

 civilization, it will not be superfluous to recall the fact that the destruc- 

 tion of Troy is placed by the Greeks 1184, by Homer 1000 or 950, and 

 by Cadmus the Milesian, the first historical writer among the Greeks, 

 524 years before our era. This comparison of epochs proves at whaJ 

 ditferent periods the desire for an exact record of events and enter- 

 prises was awakened among the nations most highly susceptible of cul- 

 ture and we are involuntarily reminded of the exclamation which 

 Plato, in the Timceus, puts in the mouth of the priests of Sais : " O So- 

 lon, O Solon ! ye Greeks still remain ever children ; nowhere in Hellas 

 is thei-e an aged man. Your souls are ever youthful; ye have in them 

 uo knov^ledge of antiquity, no ancient belief, no wisdom srow;i veuer 

 ible by age." 



