610 THE UNIVERSE. 



were false. Bentley even asserted that they were com- 

 posed only 700 years ago. 



The Egyptians, though less pretentious, nevertheless 

 carried back the origin of their nation to a period much 

 more remote than is consistent with fact. When Herod- 

 otus visited their country, the priests told him that they 

 possessed a history which dated back 11,340 years; and 

 in order to give a semblance of veracity to their recitals, 

 they added that during this space of time the sun had 

 twice risen near the horizon where it sets. 



The Cyclopean monuments, the vastness of which aston- 

 ishes us, seem to be the result of labours which belong to 

 the infancy of society. The almost shapeless stones of 

 which they are composed, and the enormoi;s proportions 

 of their architecture, which in no way approaches that of 

 the Greeks, have led authors to ascribe the execution of 

 these monuments to the first men who inhabited the earth, 

 and some of the learned, exaggerating their antiquity, 

 have regarded them as anterior to the deluge. But these 

 vast constructions, more extraordinary for their mass than 

 for the taste displayed in their construction, seem to have 

 been reared by a seafaring people to resist the encroach- 

 ments of the sea. Although there is some difference of 

 opinion among the learned as to the epoch to which they 

 belong, everything seems to pi'ove that they were erected 

 by the Phoenicians. 



Astronomical monuments support the antiquity of the 

 human race still less. The famous zodiac of Denderah, to 

 Avhich Dupuis accords an antiquity of 15,000 years, is con- 

 sidered by the astronomer Delambre as later than the epoch 

 of Alexander, and, according to Biot, represents a state 

 of the heavens which appeared 700 years before Christ. 

 Besides, the Egyptian temple in which this singular 



