THE SURFACE OF THE GLOBE. OV 



a succession of events united by a semblance of truth. The north of 

 Europe has no history previous to its conversion to Christianity ; the 

 history of Spain, of Gaul, of England, has no earlier date than the 

 conquest by the Romans ; that of northern Italy, previously to the 

 foundation of Rome, is now almost unknovv'n. The Greeks confess 

 that they did not know the art of writing until they were taught by 

 the Phoenicians, about thirty-three or thirty-four centuries ago. For 

 a long period subsequently, their history is full of fables ; and they 

 are unable to go farther back than three centuries earlier, for the first 

 traces of their union as a body. We have, in the history of Western 

 Asia, but a few contradictory extracts, which only reach, with very 

 slight connexion, to twenty-five centuries back * ; and admitting the 

 few historical details which refer to periods more remote, we can 

 scarcely exceed the date of forty centuries f. 



Herodotus, the earliest profane writer whose works are left to us, 

 lived two thousand three hundred years ago |. The earliest histo- 

 rians before him, whom he consulted, were only a hundred years 

 old§. 



We may judge how far they are to be depended on, by their extra- 

 vagant tales, which are handed down to us in the extracts from Aris- 

 taeus of Proconnesus, and others. 



Before them there were only poets ; and the most ancient of those 

 whose works have been preserved. Homer, the master and perpetual 

 model of all the rest, has only preceded our own times by two thou- 

 sand seven hundred, or tM''o thousand eight hundred years. 



When these early historians mention ancient events, either of their 

 own nation or of those near them, they only cite oral traditions, and 

 not public records. 



It was long after this, that pretended extracts from Egyptian, Phoe- 

 nician, and Babylonian annals were given. Berosus only, wrote during 

 the reign of Seleucus Nicator, Hieronymus during that of Antiochus 

 Soter, and Manetho under the government of Ptolemy Philadelphus. 

 These three were only three centuries earlier than the coming of Jesus 

 Christ. 



Sanchoniatho may be a real or fictitious author ; but nothing was 

 known of him until Philo of Byblos published a translation of his work 



* To Cyrus, about 650 years before Christ. 



t To Minus, about 2348 years before Christ, according to Ctesias and those who 

 have followed him ; but only to 1250, according to Volney, who follows Herodotus. 



* Herodotus lived B. C. 440. 



§ Cadmus, Pherecydes, Aristseus of Proconnesus, Acutilaus, Hecateus of Miletus, 

 Charon of Lampsacus, &c, — Vide Vossius de Hist. Greec. lib, i, and particularly his 

 fourth book. 



