138 THEORY OF THE EARTH. 



preserved of positive documents regarding the 

 first establishment of nations, confirm what has 

 been announced by the natural monuments al- 

 ready mentioned. 



The chronology of none of the western nations 

 can be traced in a continuous line farther back 

 than 3000 years. None of them afford us, pre- 

 vious to that period, nor even two or three cen- 

 turies after, a series of facts connected with any 

 degree of probability. The north of Europe pos- 

 sesses no authentic records which bear a remoter 

 date than that of its conversion to Christianity. 

 The history of Spain, of Gaul, and of England, 

 commences only at the period when these coun- 

 tries were conquered by the Romans ; that of 

 northern Italy is, at the present day, almost un- 

 known. The Greeks acknowledge that they did 

 not possess the art of writing, until it was taught 

 them by the Phenicians, fifteen or sixteen centu- 

 ries before the Christian era; even for a long 

 time after, their history is full of fables ; and 

 they do not assign a more remote date than 300 

 years farther back, to their uniting into distinct 

 tribes. Of the history of Western Asia, we have 

 only a few contradictory extracts, which do not, 

 with any connection, give a greater antiquity 

 than twenty-five centuries * ; and even if we ad- 



* The period of Cyrus, about 650 years before the 

 Christian era. 



