THEORY OF THE EARTH. 171 



frequented route of commerce, in vast plains, which 

 they had been obliged to intersect with nume- 

 rous canals; instructed, like them, by hereditary 

 priests, the pretended depositaries of secret books, 

 the privileged possessors of the sciences, astrolo- 

 gers, builders of pyramids, and other great monu- 

 ments * ; should they not also resemble them in 

 other essential points ? Should not their history 

 be equally a mere collection of legendary tales ? I 

 venture almost to assert, that not only is this pro- 

 bable, but that it is actually demonstrated. 



Up to this period neither Moses nor Homer 

 speak of any great empire in Upper Asia. Herodo- 

 tus f gives to the supremacy of the Assyrians a du- 

 ration of only 520 years, and does not attribute to 

 their origin a greater antiquity than about eight 

 centuries before his own time. After having 

 been at Babylon, where he consulted the priests, 

 he had not even learnt the name of Ninus as king 

 of the Assyrians, and does not mention him 

 otherwise than as the father of Agroj, the first 



relation to the plains or the course of the Ganges, where 

 their first establishments were evidently formed. 



* The descriptions of the ancient Chaldean monuments 

 have a strong resemblance to what we see of those of the 

 Indians and Egyptians; but these monuments are not 

 equally well preserved, because they were only built of 

 bricks dried in the sun. 



t Clio, cap. xcv. j Clio, cap. vii. 



