€42 OX TKE CHRONOLOGY 



When the Puranics fpeak of the kings of ancient 

 times, they are equally extravagant. According to 

 them, king Yudhisht'hir reigned ("even and twenty 

 thoufand years ; kingN.vxnA, of whom I fhall fpeak 

 more fully hereafter, is laid to have poifeiied in his 

 treafury above 1. 5 84, 000,000 pounds fterling, in gold 

 coin alone : the value of the hlver and copper coin, 

 and jewels, exceeded all calculation ; and his army 

 conhfted of 100,000,000 men. Thele accounts geo- 

 graphical, chronological, and hiitorical, as abfurd and 

 inconfiftent with reafon, mull be rejected. This mon- 

 flrous lyftem feems to derive its origin from the anci- 

 ent period of 12,000 natural years, which was admit- 

 ted by the Perfians, the Efru/bans, and, I believe, 

 alfo bv the Celtic tribes ; for we read of a learned 

 Ration in Spain, which boafted of having written hiito- 

 lics of above fix thoufand years. 



¥ 



THe Hindus frill make ufe of a period of 12,000 



ne years, after which a periodical renovation of 



the world takes place. It is difficult to fix the time 



when the Hindus, forfaking the paths of hihorical 



. a, launched into the mazes of extravagance and 

 fable. Megasthenes, who had repeatedly vifite 1 

 the court of Chandra Gupta, , and of courle had an 

 opportunity of converting with the bell informed per- 

 fohs in India, is filent as to this monitrous fyflem of 

 the Hindus : on the contrary, it appears, from what 

 he fays, that in his time they did not carry back 

 their antiquities much beyond fix thoufand, or even 

 five thoufand years, as we read in fome MSS. He 

 adds alfo, according to Clemens of Alexandria, that 

 the Hi id the Jews were the only people, who 



. I a true idea of the creation of the world, and the 

 beginning o'i things. There was then an obvious af- 

 finity between the chronological fyi terns of the Jews 

 us. We are well acquainted with the 

 pretentions of the Egyptians and Chaldeans to anti- 

 quity. This they never attempted to conceal. It 



is 



