Chap. IV. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 121 



by which the EuxHie Sea was joined to the Hellefpont, and a great 

 part of the maritime country of Afia overflowed. Now, that period 

 was utterly unknown to the Greeks, and therefore was called by 

 them the a<^«^o?, or oh/cure period ; for they divided the age of the 

 world, as Varro informs us *, into three periods. The firfl began, 

 as they fuppofed, with the human race, and came down to the firft 

 deluge. Of this period they knew nothing at all ; neither how 

 long it laded, nor what happened in it. The fecond began with the 

 firft Deluge, and came down to the firft Olympiad, and was called 

 x.\iQ fabulous age, becaufe of it, as Varro fays, many fabulous things 

 were reported. What the length of this period was, he fays, was 

 not certainly known; but it was believed to extend to 1600 years. 

 The third period was from the firft Olympiad to the time when 

 Varro wrote, and was called the hijlorical period^ becaufe the tranf- 

 afbions in it were recorded in true hiftory : And, as to the duration 

 of it, he tells us there was only a difference among authors of fix or 

 feven years. Now, the firft period, utterly unknown to the Greeks, 

 is filled up by the hiftory of Mofes, which is as exad: an account of 

 the genealogies and of the duration of the lives of the progenitors 

 of the Jewifh nation, as ever was given, or can be given, of Men 

 living in any period of hiftory. 



The Greeks, before the beginning of the Olympiads, computed 

 by generations, as Mofes does ; but then, what was the length of a 

 generation, was mere guefs-work. They commonly allowed thirty- 

 years to a generation; but fome thinking that too little, (as, indeed, 

 I believe it was much too little in thofe antient times), gave a hun- 

 dred years to three generations f . Inftead of thofe conjedures, Mofes 

 Vol. III. Q^ tells 



* Cenforlnus, de die natali^ cap. 21. 



t I was informed by Monfieur Roubaud, a French mifTionary among the Alblno- 

 quois, (a nation of North America), whom I have mentioned in the Firft Volun\e 



of 



