744 WIDELY SPREAD TRADITIONS OF ASIA. 



of De Guignes, Bergeron, and Paravey, that an 

 ancient Chinese History, called the Chan King, 

 treats of the terrestrial Paradise, the fall of angels 

 and of man, the sabbath, confusion of tongues, 

 manna in the wilderness, the Trinity, and of the 

 Holy One in the west, who was incomprehen- 

 sible, and one with Tien, for whom the nations of 

 the earth are waiting like plants for a refreshing 

 shower, as taught by Confucius nearly 2400 years 

 ago. (Op. Cit. vol. ii. pp. 28, 33.) 



Thus it would appear from the language, tra- 

 ditions, and monuments of America, that it was 

 originally peopled from the Asiatic continent. In 

 opposition to this view, we are told by Voltaire, 

 that the same creative Power which caused grass 

 and trees to grow on the American soil, could 

 place man there. Dr. Prichard and Mr. Law- 

 rence also admit with Buffon, that, excepting the 

 regions north of the Baltic in the old world, and 

 those north of Canada in the new, no quadrupeds 

 were originally common to both. But the ab- 

 sence of the horse, ox, sheep, dog, and other 

 domestic animals of the old world, in the greater 

 part of the American continent when first dis- 

 covered by Columbus, tends rather to prove that 

 the new world was elevated from beneath the 

 ocean at a more recent geological epoch, than 

 Asia, Africa, or Europe, an hypothesis which 

 is corroborated by the great number of volcanos 

 and earthquakes now in operation in various parts 



