74 BABYLONIAN LITERATURE. 



cover of the formularies of a worn out 

 science, inundate the world with idle fancies, 

 and contribute, in a deplorable manner, to 

 the abasement and perversion of the human 

 intellect. 1 



One deduction appears to me to arise 

 from the analysis to which we have sub- 

 jected " The Book of Nabathsean Agricul- 

 ture," and the other Nabathsean writings, 

 and that is that the School to which they 

 belong, taken altogether, cannot be anterior 

 to the third or fourth century of our era; 

 and that the literary movement which they 

 suggest as earlier, does not allow us to 

 place it before Alexander. I am far from 

 insisting that the work of Xuthami could 

 not have preserved to us many most ancient 

 fragments, remodelled in the course of time 

 in all sorts of way. It may be that the art 

 which it teaches in its procedure can be 

 traced back to the most ancient epochs of 



1 In the Sanscrit Pantchatantra is allusion to similar pseudo- 

 science. See Bcnfey's Pautschatantra, fuenf Bueclier Indisclier 

 Fabelu, vol. II. p. 332 ff. Translator's Note. 



