VOL. XXIV.] PHILOSOPHICAL mANSACTIONS. 241 



have been seen to this day; and these letters, he says, were fomerly rightly 

 called by the name of golden apples, kept by Atlas till he communicated them 

 to Hercules. He concludes that the Greeks and Phoenicians received their let- 

 ters from them : ancient writers testifying that Ops, informer ages, carried the 

 Runic letters, cut in brass, to the Greeks; which the author, in his first volume,) 

 has shown was before the time of Moses. He afterwards makes Cadmus a 

 Scythian, who carried letters to the Phoenicians. In the second chapter an ac- 

 count is given of the golden number, and of its force in predicting various 

 things, and of its invention, which he ascribes to his Hyperboreans. Chapter 

 three treats of the celestial signs, most or all of which, he says, owe their inven- 

 tion and rise to Sweden; and every one of which he explains, by circumstances 

 peculiar to that country. In chapters four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, the 

 author treats of the six ages of the world, viz. the golden, the silver, the rocky 

 or stony, the brazen or ashen age, the age of the heroes, and the iron age, 

 which, he says, ended with the Trojan war. 



The tenth chapter treats of the first form of government among the northern 

 nations. Here the author gives an account of the most ancient of their an- 

 cestors that settled themselves in Sweden ; and this chiefly from the scripture, 

 and shows they were the sons of Japheth, among whom the chief was Gog, 

 which name, he says, among them was a title of honour given to kings, heroes, 

 and giants, and therefore the first of their ancestors, being a giant, was honoured 

 with that title; and from the posterity of this Gog, many places of Sweden have 

 drawn their names ; of which he gives many instances : so the name of Magog 

 or mangog, in the Swedish tongue, signifies a valiant and stout man; from 

 whence many other places in Sweden have their names. So he says, Meschec, 

 another of the sons of Japheth, was the progenitor of the Finlanders, who are 

 most northerly, whence they are still called Mesar. As for the name of Fin- 

 landers, they have it from the Swedes, and he mentions several places in Fin- 

 land that have their names from Meshec; and so from other sons of Japheth 

 other places in Sweden have their names. He tells us from Scroder, that 

 Magog was the inventor of the runes; and says, there is no room for doubt- 

 ing but Atin, Atlas, and Magog, were one and the same person. Chapter ele- 

 ven treats of the form of government of the Atlantics, under Saturn, and his 

 expedition. Here the author, after a long search into the origin of the word 

 Chetim, finds that as some called the Goths, Gothi, Gythae, Getae, so they called 

 their land Gutheim, Gythiam, Chetim, whence he thinks he has made it plain 

 that Chitim, the son of Javan, grandson of Japheth, and great grandson of 

 Noah, chose that country for his seat, and gave it his name; he had a son 

 whose name was Ccelius, or Uranus, who had Saturn or Boreas, under whom 



VOL. V. I I 



