

THEORY OF THE EARTH. 



probably invented at a subsequent period. A con- 

 junction also is stated as having happened four 

 thousand two hundred and fifty-nine years ago, 

 which would therefore be the most ancient known 

 astronomical observation, but its authenticity is 

 contested. The earliest observation that ap- 

 pears to rest upon good grounds, is one made by 

 means of a gnomon, two thousand nine hundred 

 years ago. 



It is not to be conceived that mere chance 

 should have thus given rise to so striking a coin- 

 cidence between the traditions of the Assyrians, 

 the Hindoos, and the Chinese, in attributing the 

 origins of their respective monarchies so nearly 

 to the same epoch, of about four thousand years 

 before the present day. The ideas of these three 

 nations, which have so few features of resemblance, 

 or rather which are so entirely dissimilar in lan- 

 guage, religion, and laws, could not have so ex- 

 actly agreed on this point, unless it had been 

 founded upon truth. 



We do not require any specific dates from the 

 natives of America, who were not possessed of any 

 real writing, and whose most ancient traditions 

 only go back a few centuries before the arrival of 

 the Spaniards. Yet even among them some traces 

 of a deluge are conceived to have been found in 

 'their barbarous hieroglyphics.* 



* See the excellent and magnificent work of Humboldt, upon the 

 monuments of the Mexican?. 



