XOTES AND QUEKIES. 



307 



such animals to his wants. My own conviction is, that this wide-spread belief 

 of the recent existence of man is to be ascribed, so far at least as this country 

 is concerned, to the impression made by the lesson taught in early youth, the 

 soundness of which is not questioned in after life, by that marginal note in our 

 Bibles over against the first verse of the first chapter of the Book of Genesis, 

 that ' In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth' [four thousand 

 and four years before the birth of Christ]. It is more than probable that of 

 the many millions of persons who read the English Bible, a very large propor- 

 tion look with the same reverence upon that marginal note as they do upon the 

 verse with which it is connected. 



"It will be useful to look into the history of this date of four thousand and 

 four years, given with so much precision for the creation, not of this our earth 

 only, but of the universe, and to inquire into the authority by which an addi- 

 tion of so much import is made to the sacred text. 



" The author of the chronology given in the margin of our Bibles was Usher, 

 Archbishop of Armagh. I make no allusion to any part of the learned prelate's 

 system, except the date he assigns for the creation of the world : that date 

 comes properly within the province of the geologist ; for, as the almost reli- 

 gious belief in its accuracy is an obstacle to the acceptance of the conclusions 

 to which he is led by a careful study of the facts which the structure of the 

 earth exhibits, he is fairly entitled to deal with it. 



"In the eighth volume of the Archbishop's works, there is a treatise with 

 the following title : — ' Annales Veteris Testamenti, a prima mundi origine 

 deducti,' and in p. 13 of that treatise we find the following sentence : — 'In 

 principio creavit Deus ccelum et terrain, quod temporis priucipium, juxta nos- 

 tram chronologiam, incidit in noctis illius initium, quae vigesimum tertium diem 

 Octobris praecessit, in anno periodi Julianae 710.' Then follows : — ' Primo 

 igitur saeculi die, Octobris "vigesima tertia, feria prima, cum supremo coelo 

 creavit Deus angelos : deinde summo operis fastigio primum perfecto, ad ima 

 mundanae hujus fabricae fundamenta progressus mirandus artifex, infimum hunc 

 globum ex abysso et terra conflatum constituit.' 



" In the eleventh volume of the same edition of the prelate's works there is 

 a treatise with the title ' Chronologia Sacra,' in the second chapter of which 

 the Archbishop thus settles the number of years, before the birth of Christ, 

 for the creation of the world : — " Ita a vespera primum mundi diem aperiente, 

 usque ad inediam noctem initium praebenteni, 25, quidem diei Decembris, quo 

 Christum natum supponimus annos Julianos 3999 menses rpiaicovOrifiepovQ 2. dies 

 4. et horas 6. Kalendis vero Januariis anni periodi Julianas 4714. (a quibus vul- 



faris aerae christianae exordium deducimus) annos 4003. menses 2. dies 11. et 

 oras 6. decurrisse colligimus.' This, therefore, is the authority upon which 

 the confident belief is founded, that man could not possibly have existed upon 

 the earth for a longer period than considerably less than four thousand 

 years b. c. 



" But this determination of the Archbishop is only one of many dates which 

 chronologists, in their vain calculations, have presumed to assign to this the 

 most stupendous of all events, to attempt to form a faint idea of which, in 

 anything relating to it, will ever lie gross presumption and folly. In the well- 

 known work, ' L'art de verifier les Dates, 5 the following passage occurs : — 

 f Les chronologistes sont loin d'etre d' accord sur le nombre des annees du 

 monde. Desvignoles (Chronologie de l'Histoire Sainte, preface) assure qu'il a 

 recueille plus de 200 calculs differents, dont le plus court ne compte que 3483 

 ans depuis la creation jusqu'a l'ere vulgaire, et le plus long en suppose 6984.' 

 There then follows a 'Table des annees ecoulees depuis Adam jusqu'a la 

 naissance de Jesus Christ, selon le calcul des principaux chronologistes,' num- 

 bering 108, beginning with 



