31 
tastases, but to four (seeming) changes in the 
places of the setting and rising of the Sun* * * § ^ 
caused by the precession of the equinoxes 
We may be surprised at finding five ages or 
sum 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 ^ ; but we think, that the 
* Herod, lib. ii, c. 142 (Larcher, 1802, t. 2, p. 482)r 
+ Dupuis, Memoire explicatif du Zodiaque, p. 37 et 39. 
X Hesiod, Opera Sf DieSj v. 174 {Op. omn., ed. Cleric. f 1701, 
p. 224). 
§ Hesiod, v. 143 & 155. 
II Fabricii Bibl. Gragca, Hamb., 1790, vol. 1, p. 246. 
^ Virg. Biicol. IV, V. 4, (ed. Heyne, Lond. 1793, v. 1, 
p. 74 & 81). 
