72 BABYLONIAN LITERATURE. 



extraordinary accident, the only three Ba- 

 bylonian writers, whose works have come 

 down to us, should, at such immense inter- 

 vals, have been attached to the same insti- 

 tution ? 



The fourth Nabathsean work, entitled c_>\i 

 j*&\j U ^J^\J\ J J\ which sets forth the opinions 

 of the pretended Babylonian sages, Adami, 

 Ankebutha, and Askolabita, on the artificial 

 production of living beings, appears anterior, 

 at least in point of ideas, to " The Book of 

 Nabathsean Agriculture," since Kuthami 

 constantly appeals to the principles which 

 are there developed. 1 Now it is very diffi- 

 cult to allow that this novel composition 

 belongs to high antiquity. The science 

 which it contains, is that which we find in 

 Berosus and Sanchoniathon ; a sort of athe- 

 ism, professing to explain the formation of 

 beings after a materialist fashion, and with- 

 out the intervention of the Godhead. This 

 idea appears to have been one of the funda- 

 mental principles of Babylonian science. 



1 P. 165 ff. 



