158 THEORY OF THE EARTH. 



caste, must have interested these priests more 

 than any historical truths. Of the sciences, they 

 might have cultivated astronomy, which would 

 give them credit as astrologers ; mechanics, which 

 would assist them in raising their monuments, 

 those signs of their power, and objects of the 

 superstitious veneration of the people ; geometry, 

 the hasis of astronomy, as well as of mechanics, 

 and an important auxiliary to agriculture in those 

 vast plains of alluvial formation, which could 

 only be rendered healthy and fertile by the aid 

 of numerous canals. They might have encou- 

 raged the mechanical or chemical arts, which 

 supported their commerce, and contributed to 

 their luxury, and the magnificence of their tem- 

 ples. But history, which informs men of their 

 mutual relations, would be regarded by them with 

 dread. 



What we see in India, we might therefore ex- 

 pect to find in general, wherever sacerdotal races, 

 constituted like those of the Brahmins, and esta- 

 blished in similar countries, assumed the same 

 empire over the mass of the people. The same 

 causes produce the same effects ; and, in fact, we 

 have only to glance over the fragments of Egyp- 

 tian and Chaldean traditions which have been 

 preserved, to be convinced that there is no more 

 historical authenticity in them than in those of 

 the Indians. 



