- GEOLOGY. 609 



asserts, from observations on vegetable physiology and the 

 examination of some pottery and cei-tain Indian burying- 

 places, that the delta of this great river has been inhabited 

 by man for more than 50,000 years ! 



On the other hand, G. Cuvier makes creation much more 

 recent, and does not date the appearance of man further 

 back than tradition. According to this illustrious zoologist, 

 the history of the human race attests that man has not 

 ruled over the surface of the globe for more than a very 

 limited number of years. 



The Hebrew nation is the only one which j)ossesses 

 annals written before the reign of Cyrus. Homer, the 

 first of poets, and Hesiod his contemporary, lived about 

 2800 years ago. Herodotus, who was the first profane 

 historian, wrote about 2300 years before our time. 



From national pride the Indians and Egyptians boasted 

 that their origin was lost in the darkness of ages; and in 

 order to gain credit for their recitals, they often interwove 

 fables invented by the Magi or Brahmins, Avhom many 

 reasons led to falsify history ! 



Among the Indians, the Vedas, or sacred books, which 

 they assert were revealed by Brahma in the very beginning 

 of the world, scarcely go back farther than 3200 years. 

 The works on astronomy of this nation, and the tables 

 of the state of the heavens which were thought to be of 

 such vast antiquity, have on the contrary been shown to 

 be quite modern. It has been discovered that they were 

 antedated. The Brahmins boldly announced that the most 

 ancient of these astronomical tables had been compiled 

 more than 20,000,000 years ago. For a brief space of 

 time men were deceived by their assurance and the author- 

 ity of Bailly. But Laplace proved that their calculations 

 had been made after the events, and, moreover, that they 



