6$ UNIVERSAL ERUDITION. 



They count 132 contrary opinions of diffe- 

 rent authors concerning the year in which 

 the Median appeared on the earth. M. Val- 

 lemont names 64 of them, and all celebrated 

 writers. Among all thefe authors, however, 

 there is none that reckon more than 7000, nor 

 lefs than 3700 years. But even this difference is 

 enormous. The moft moderate fix the birth of 

 Chrift in the 4OOOth year of the world. The rea- 

 Ibns, however, on which they found their opi- 

 nion, appear to be fufficiently arbitrary. 



XLI. Be thefe matters, however, as they may, 

 the wifdom of Providence has fo diipofed alt 

 things, that there remain fufficient lights to en- 

 able us nearly to conned the ieries of events : 

 for in the firft 3000 years of the world, where 

 profane hiftory is defective, we have the chrono- 

 logy of the Bible to direct us , and after that pe- 

 riod, where we find more obfcurity in the chro- 

 nology of the holy fcnptures, we have, on the 

 other hand, greater lights from profane authors. 

 It is at this period that begins the time which 

 Varro calls hi ft or k : as, fince the time of the 

 Olympiads, the truth of fuch events as have hap- 

 pened mines clear in hiftory. Chronology, there- 

 fore, draws its principal lights from hiilory, and, 

 in return, ferves it as a guide : as we mall fee in 

 the following chapters. 



CHAP. 



