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Ch. II.] 



ORIENTAL COSMOGONY. 



9 



men are expressly set apart from the rest, like the ancient 

 priesthoods of India and Egypt, for study and contemplation. 



seems 



that the mind should conclude in favour, not only of mighty 

 changes in past ages, but of alternate periods of repose and 

 disorder ;— of repose, when the animals now fossil lived, grew 



tiplied— of disorder, when the strata in which they 

 were buried became transferred from the sea to the interior 

 of continents, and were uplifted so as to form part of high 



mu 



mountain 



modern 



to disparage the former intellectual advancement and civili- 

 sation of Eastern nations, may concede some foundation of 

 observed facts for the curious theories now under considera- 

 tion, without indulging in exaggerated opinions of the pro- 

 gress of science ; especially as universal catastrophes of the 

 world, and exterminations of organic beings, in the sense in 

 which they were understood by the Brahmins, are untenable 



doctrines. 



We know that the Egyptian priests were aware, not only 



that the soil beneath the plains of the Nile, but that also 

 the hills bounding the great valley, contained marine shells ; 

 and Herodotus inferred from these facts, that all lower 



Egypt, and 



Memph 



been covered by the sea.* As similar fossil remains occur in 

 all parts of Asia hitherto explored, far in the interior of the 

 continent as well as near the sea, they could hardly have 

 escaped detection by some Eastern sages not less capable 

 than the Greek historian of reasoning philosophically on 



natural phenomena. 



We also know that the rulers of Asia were engaged in very 

 remote eras in executing great national works, such as tanks 

 and canals requiring extensive excavations. In the fourteenth 

 century of our era (in the year 1360), the removal of soil 

 necessary for such undertakings brought to light geological 

 facts, which attracted the attention of a people less civilised 

 than were many of the older nations of the East. The his- 

 torian Ferishta relates that 50,000 labourers were employed 



a mound, so as to form a junction 



m 



cutting 



through 



* Herodot. Euterpe, 12. 



