THEORY OF THE EARTH. 143 



It is undoubtedly far from being the case, that 

 we have had since that time a connected history, 

 since we still find, for a long period after these 

 founders of colonies, a multitude of mythological 

 events, and adventures, in which gods and heroes 

 are concerned ; and these chiefs are connected 

 with authentic history only by means of genealo- 

 gies evidently fictitious *. And, it is still more 

 certain, that whatever preceded their arrival, 

 could only have been preserved in very imperfect 

 traditions, and supplied by mere fictions, similar 

 to those of our monks of the middle age regarding 

 the origin of the European nations. 



Thus, not only should we not be surprised to 

 find, even in ancient times, many doubts and 

 contradictions respecting the epochs of Cecrops, 

 Deucalion, Cadmus and Danaus ; and not only 

 would it be childish to attach the smallest import- 



* The genealogies of Apollodorus are generally known, 

 and that portion of them upon which Clavier endeavoured 

 to establish a sort of primitive history of Greece; but, when 

 we become acquainted with the genealogies of the Arabs, 

 those of the Tartars, and all those which our old chroni- 

 cling monks invented for the different sovereigns of Eu- 

 rope, and even for individuals, we readily comprehend that 

 Greek writers must have done for the early periods of their 

 nation what has been done for. all the other nations, at pe- 

 riods when criticism had not been used to throw light upon 

 history. 



