THEORY OF THE EAHTH. 163 



adic land, or of its pillars. The deluge itself was 

 an event entirely unknown to the Egyptians of 

 preceding times, and concerning which Manetho 

 says nothing in what remains of his dynasties. 

 The product resembles its source ; not only is the 

 whole full of absurdities, but they are absurdities 

 peculiar to the work, and utterly irreconcilable 

 with those which the priests of older times had re- 

 lated to Solon and Herodotus. 



It is Vulcan who commences the series of di- 

 vine kings. He reigns 9000 years ; the gods and 

 demi-gods reign 1985 years. The names, and 

 successions, and dates of Manetho are utterly un- 

 like any thing that was published before or after 

 him ; and from the discrepancy of the extracts gi- 

 ven by Josephus, Julius Africanus, and Eusebius, 

 we may infer that his narratives were as obscure 

 and confused in themselves, as they were discor- 

 dant with those of other authors. Even the du- 

 ration of the respective reigns of his human kings 

 is not settled. According to Julius Africanus, 

 it extended to 5101 ; according to Eusebius, 

 to 4723 ; and according to Syncellus, .to 3555 

 years. It might be thought that the differences 

 in the names and cyphers arose from the inaccu- 

 racy of copyists ; but Josephus quotes a passage at 

 length, the details of which are manifestly in con- 

 tradiction with the extracts of his successors. 



