356 
savans should be disputing over the epoch of the Roman 
Emperor Augustus; some asserting that he mounted the throne 
many years before our era; others, on the contrary, 1876 years 
after the birth of Christ. 
These different estimates show that the documents on which 
they are founded are in a deplorable state of confusion.* We 
have some tolerably clear notion — though still not quite defined — 
of the time of the Exodus, or of the arrival of Abraham in Egypt ; 
but, in proportion as we recede into the mists of the past, we 
experience how difficult is the attainmeut of certainty. 
It is reserved for the credulity of scepticism to override] all 
these difficulties, and to “ see no difficulty in believing ” the 
most extraordinary statements, such as M. Cliabas quotes from 
an author who immortalizes himself by giving us the informa- 
tion, amongst other precious “ materiaux pour servir it Vliistoire 
positive de Phomme,” that the horse was tamed by our Aryan 
ancestors “at an epoch anterior to the year 19,337 before 
Jesus Christ ” ! But if so, how came it that the horse was not 
introduced into Egypt till the times of the Shepherds ! 
The Old Egyptian chronicle, quoted by Syncellus and Euse- 
bius, f gives us the history of thirty dynasties in 113 descents, 
during the long period of 36,525 years ; but the enumeration 
proceeds thus : — “ To Hephaestus is assigned no time, as he is 
apparent both by night and day.” 
Now this deity ("H (paiarog) among the Greeks was the god 
of fire, and the skilful smith, who had in Olympus his own 
palace imperishable and shining like the stars. His skill is 
mentioned both in the Iliad and the Odyssey. It is almost 
certain to me that by this Grecian name the authors quoted 
meant to indicate the Egyptian Ptah, previously noted, the chief 
and original God the Creator. The sum of years given above 
is surely a year of eternity (365'25 days J) taken in great part 
out of the life (ever-enduring?) of Ptah, and filled up next by 
Ilelius, the sun, reigning three myriads of years. Then Cronus 
and the other twelve divinities reigned 3,984 years. Next in 
order are the demigods ; and here, perhaps, we descend from 
* “ Malgre toutes ces decouvertes, les chiffres sont dans un 6 tat deplorable.” 
— Brugsch Bey, Hist., p. 25. 
t Cory, Ancient Frag., p. 47. 
j “ The Sothic year of 3(551 days (3G5 , 25) was called the square year, the 
annus quadratus of Pliny. — Without the accuracy of the Sothic year they 
could not, as Herodotus supposes, have fixed the exact return of the seasons.” 
(Rawlinson’s Herodotus, ii. 230, 240.) Macrobius affirms that the Egyptians 
always possessed the true calculation of the length of the year. 
