THEORY OF THE EARTH. 139 



mil the few historical details which refer to more 

 remote periods, it can scarcely be extended to 

 forty *. 



Herodotus, the first profane historian whose 

 works have been transmitted to us, has not a 

 greater antiquity than 2300 years f . The histo- 

 rians, prior to him, whom he may have consulted, 

 do not date a century before him \. We may 

 even judge of what they were by the extravagan- 

 ces handed down to us, extracted from the works 

 of Aristceus of Proconnesus, and some others. 

 Before them we have only poets ; and Homer, 

 the most ancient that we possess, Homer the 

 immortal master and model of all the West, 

 flourished only twenty-seven or twenty-eight cen- 

 turies before the present time. 



When these first historians speak of ancient 

 events, whether occurring in their own nation, or 

 in neighbouring countries, they only cite oral 

 traditions, and not public works. It was not un- 



* The period of Ninus, about 2348 years before Christ, 

 according to Ctesias, and those who have followed him; 

 but only 1250, according to Volney, after Herodotus. 



t Herodotus lived 440 years before Christ. 



J Cadmus, Pherecydes, Aristaeus of Proconnesus, Acu- 

 silaus, Hecataeus of Miletum, Charon of Lampsacus, &c. 

 See Vossius, Histor. Graec. lib. i., and especially his fourth 

 book. 



