%S Oriental Literature. 



portant arguments in favour of the truth of Re- 

 velation. Early in the century which is the sub- 

 ject of this retrospect, it was supposed, and some 

 zealous adversaries of revealed religion diligently 

 propagated the idea, that inquiries into the chro- 

 nology and other sciences of several eastern na- 

 tions, strongly opposed, and were in a fair way 

 wholly to destroy the credibility of the Mosaic 

 history. Assertions of this kind were, in particu- 

 lar, made with great confidence, by certain scep- 

 tical philosophers of France, who were always 

 ready to believe any thing which might release 

 them from the obligation to believe in Christianity. 

 Later and more accurate investigations, however, 

 have shown that this opinion is totally erroneous, 

 and that the more deeply we penetrate into the li- 

 terature and science of the east, the more striking 

 evidence we find in favour of the scripture account 

 of the creation and age of the world, and also in 

 support of several important doctrines of the 

 Gospel. 



The light which modern oriental inquiries have 

 thrown on the Mosaic system of chronology was 

 before mentioned. Those who undertook to assail 

 the sacred history by means of arguments drawn 

 from the high assumptions of the Brahmans, and 

 of the literati of other eastern nations, have been 

 completely refuted; indeed the annals of science 

 scarcely furnish an instance of hostile invaders 

 being more entirely defeated, and their arms 

 turned more directly against themselves. It has 

 been proved by indisputable authorities, " that 

 the personages who are said to have flourished so 

 many thousand years in the earliest ages, were of 

 celestial, not terrestrial origin; that their empire 

 was the empire of imagination in the skies, not of 

 real power on this globe of earth; that the day and 

 year of Brahmah, and the day and year of mortals, 



