31 



iastases, but to four (seeming) changes in the 

 places of the setting and rising of the Sun*, 

 caused by the precession of the equinoxes -J~. 



We may be surprised at finding five ages or 

 suns among the Mexican nations, while the 

 Hindoos and Greeks admit only four ; it may 

 not be amiss, therefore, to observe, that the cos- 

 mogony of the Mexicans accords with that of 

 the people of Thibet, which considers also the 

 present as the fifth age. If we attentively ex- 

 amine the fine passage of Hesiod J, in which he 

 explains the oriental system of the renovation of 

 nature, we see, that this poet counts in reality 

 five generations in four ages. He divides the 

 age of brass into two parts, which comprehend 

 the third and fourth generations^ ; and we may 

 be astonished, that so clear a passage should 

 have sometimes been misinterpreted ||. We are 

 ignorant of the number of ages recorded in the 

 books of the Sybil ^f ; but we think, that the 



* Herod, lib. ii, c. 142 (Larcher, 1802, t. 2, p. 482). 



+ Dupuis, Memoire explicatif du Zodiaque, p. 37 et 39. 



X Hesiod, Opera Sf Dies, v. 174 (Op. omn., ed. Cleric, 1701, 

 p. 224). 



§ Hesiod, v. 143 & 155. 



|| Fabricii Bibl. Grjeca, Hamb., 1790, vol. 1, p. 246. 



f Virg. Bucol. IV, v. 4, (ed. Heyne, Lond. 1793, v. 1, 

 p. 74 & 81). 



