114 On the Cosmogony of Moses. 
have given the name of Crita to an age containing 4000 years 
of the gods; the twilight preceding it consists » of as many 
hundreds, and the éw ilight following | it of the same number,” 
&c,—* And by reckoning a thousand such divine ages, a day of 
Brahma may be known: his night has also an equal duration.” 
— At the close of his night, having long reposed, he awakes, 
and awaking exerts intellect.’’—* Intellect, called into action by 
his will to ereate worlds, performs again the work of creation.” 
(Institut. Menu, by Sir W. Jones, chap. 1.) 
The relation of this account to the Mosaic cosmogony, and 
to the particular object for which 1 have been induced to cite it, 
appears to me so obvious, that I cannot help thinking it will be 
considered by every unprejudiced person as affording a strong 
confirmation to the interpretation I have endeavoured to main- 
tain, especially if it be allowed that Moses founded his narrative 
on an antediluvian record, and that another similar relic fur- 
nished the basis of the Hindoo legend; for it cannot be imagined 
that the story, as it now stands, was the work of Menu or Noah. 
The application of the words twilight and night is to be parti- 
cularly remarked. 
T shall not attempt to trace the record of the cosmogony 
among the different nations who preserved vestiges of it, but 
shall content myself with adducing one more example: it is found 
in the scanty relics of the literature of the Etruscans, a peo- 
ple whose early history is lost in the dark night of antiquity. 
Suidas* informs us that there was a very ancient Etruscan his- 
torian of great authority, in whose works was found an account 
of the creation of the world, which he said was divided by the 
Creator into six departments, each occupying the space of a 
thousand years. In the course of the first chiliad or millennium 
he created the heaven and earth; in the second, the visible 
firmament; in the third, the waters of the ocean and those con- 
tained in the earth ; in the fourth, the great luminaries of heaven ; 
in the fifth, vegetables, and all kinds of animals; and in the 
sixth and last, man. The same remark which I made above 
on the Hindoo legend may be applied still more forcibly to this 
account preserved by the Etruscans. 
From these considerations I think we may conclude it to be 
highly probable, that the words of the first chapter of Genesis 
are to be interpreted in a tropical sense. But, even if it should 
be made to appear that the words and phrases will not bear this 
construction, according to the natural forms of language, still I 
should by no means ‘concede that we are to understand the 
cosmogony according to the vulgar acceptation; and I should 
support this opinion on the following grounds, 
* Suidas in voce Tuggnua 
There 
