BABYLONIAN LITERATURE. 



65 



CHAPTEE III. 



THE author of " The Book of Nabathsean 

 Agriculture" was acquainted with Greek 

 science; an echo of the Bible, or at the 

 very least, of Jewish belief, is found in his 

 writings; he allows full authority to the 

 apocryphal writings ascribed to Hebrew 

 patriarchs ; he believes in those half-trickish 

 writings which pretended to represent the 

 science of the Indians, Egyptians, and Per- 

 sians, in the first centuries of our era ; and 

 he admits Hermes and Agathedeemon 

 amongst Babylonian sages. The date of 

 the " Nabathsean Agriculture," at least a 

 parte ante is from these facts sufficiently 

 determined. It remains now to be seen 

 whether we do not possess other works, the 

 bringing of which into juxtaposition may 



