1 62 THEORY OF THE EARTH, 



It is only from the time of Sethos that Hero- 

 dotus commences the part of his history which is 

 somewhat rational ; and it is worthy of remark, 

 that this part begins with an event which agrees 

 with the Hebrew annals, the destruction of the 

 army of the King of Assyria, Sennacherib * ; and 

 this agreement continues under Necho -f-, and un- 

 der Hophra or Apries. 



Two centuries after Herodotus (about 260 

 years before Christ) Ptolemy Philadelphus, a 

 prince of a foreign race, wished to become ac- 

 quainted with the history of the country which 

 events had called him to govern. A priest, called 

 Manetho, was employed to write it for him. It 

 was not from registers or archives that he pre- 

 tended to compile this work, but from the sa- 

 cred books of Agathodaemon, the son of the se- 

 cond Hermes, and the father of Tat, who had 

 copied it upon pillars erected before the flood by 

 Tot or the first Hermes, in the Seriadic land {. 

 And this second Hermes, this Agathodsemon, 

 this Tat, are personages of whom nothing had 

 ever been said before, any more than of the Seri- 



* Euterpe; cxli. 



t Ibid, clix., and in the fourth Book of the Kings, chap. 

 19, or in the second of the Paral. chap. 32. 



t Syncell. p. 40. 



