THEORY OF THE EARTH. 157 



cumstance equally worthy of remark, that, in the 

 lists of their kings, imperfect and unauthentic as 

 they are, they date the commencement of their 

 first human sovereigns (those of the race of the 

 sun and moon), at an epoch which is nearly the 

 same as that from which Ctesias, in his singu- 

 larly constructed list, commences the reign of his 

 Assyrian kings *. 



This deplorable state of historical knowledge 

 was necessarily the result of the system of a 

 people, among whom the exclusive privilege of 

 writing, of preserving, and of explaining the 

 books, was given to the hereditary priests of a 

 religion monstrous in its ritual, and cruel in its 

 maxims. Some legend made up for the purpose 

 of establishing a place of pilgrimage, inventions 

 adapted to impress more deeply a respect for their 



Greece along with the other legends of that part of the Gre- 

 cian worship which had come from the north, and which 

 had preceded the Egyptian and Phenician colonies. But if 

 it be true that the constellations of the Indian sphere have 

 also names of persons celebrated in Greece, that Andromeda 

 and Cepheus are represented under the names of Antarma- 

 dia and Capita, &c. we should perhaps be induced to draw, 

 with Mr Wilfort, a conclusion quite the reverse. Unfortu- 

 nately the authenticity of the documents referred to by this 

 writer has been doubted among the learned. 



* About 4000 years before the present time. See Bent- 

 ley, Calcutta Memoirs, vol. viii. p. 226. of the 8vo edition. 

 Note. 



