BABYLONIAN LITERATURE. 27 



CHAPTEE II. 



To begin, one circumstance, foreign to, and 

 no way conducive to the examination of the 

 book itself, is of a nature to inspire doubts 

 as to the legitimacy of the deductions of 

 M. Quatremere and Dr. Chwolson. Ibn 

 Wahshiya translated " The Book of Naba- 

 thasan Agriculture " into Arabic in the year 

 904 of our era. The original text is uni- 

 versally admitted to have been in Aramaic. 

 Two thousand two hundred years, therefore, 

 according to Prof. Chwolson' s theory, — ■ 

 seventeen hundred years according to that 

 of M. Quatremere, — must have elapsed be- 

 tween the composition of the work and its 

 translation. Such an instance is without 

 parallel at any period before philology 

 is organised into a regular science. Only 



