92 UNIVERSAL ERUDITION. 



jure us much as Chriftians, becaufe if this fact 

 could be eftablilhed, it would render the Mofaic 

 hiftory very doubtful ; but it would be of very 

 little ufe to us as hiftorians. For what could hif- 

 tory have to do with thefe preadamite people, of 

 whom we know nothing, either by writing or 

 tradition ? Befide, all the ancient chronplogy of 

 the Egyptians and Chinefe is the moft wretched 

 that can be conceived, built on the weakeft foun- 

 dations, and fo confufed, that it is impofilble to. 

 deduce any one fact from it that bears the leaft 

 character of authenticity. Reafon and religion 

 therefore equally require that we begin our an- 

 cient hiftory with the creation of the world, ac- 

 cording to the account of Mofes, and confe- 

 quently that we regard Adam as the firft of 

 mankind. 



III. The fecond confequence we draw from 

 our firft principle is, that the greateft part of 

 thofe ancient people, who inhabited the different 

 countries of the earth, being ignorant of letters, 

 could not tranfmit the hiftory of their own na- 

 tion, even to their defcendents, and ftill much 

 lefs to others. There may have been thoufands 

 of nations, whofe very names are not come down 

 to us. Some of thefe names indeed were by chance 

 tranfmitted by oral tradition to thofe people 

 who firft knew the ufe of letters* and particular- 

 ly to the Greeks: but thefe Greeks were at once 

 credulous and fallacious. Herodotus, the firft 

 of their hiftorians, readily believed all the fables 



and 



