respect to the era of the creation, by writers, whose orthodoxy has yet never been impeached, are, in fact, distant from each other by a wider interval than even M. Clavier supposes. Still, because on these principles, the commentators on the sacred chronology have been permitted to differ, it does not follow that they may differ on any principles or according to any caprice; nor, because a Benedictine has, without offence, added two thousand years to the received date of the world, does it follow that a Benedictine, or any other person, ecclesiastic, civil, or judicial, may repeat the same operation toties quoties; nor, because biblical authority will not positively bear us out in fixing the epoch of the deluge within a few centuries, is this any argument that we may send off that epoch into indefinite antiquity, and believe with Plato, that Egypt had reached a high state of civilization four thousand years before the Mosaic accounts, even according to the freest mode of calculating from them, suppose the world to have existed. For ourselves, we feel perfectly satisfied with the Jewish chronology. Nothing, that has yet come under our eye, with regard to the vaunted monuments of late discovered in the Thebaid, has shaken that satisfaction, even for a moment; and, indeed, considering the far more plausible opposition, which the Mosaic records have victoriously sustained, we shall be truly astonished if we find that they have any thing to dread from all the relics ambushed in the catacombs of Thebes, or the temple of Tentyra. For, it must be recollected, that Egypt, with its monstrous troop of deities, and the dog Anubis,' was long ago beaten from the field; and, with it, the whole army of Chaldean astrologers and Mithratic mystagogues. The enemy, finding no hold in the dynasties of Berosus and Manetho, or in Phenician fragments of history, dragged from their musty obscurity fourteen centuries after they were professedly penned, took refuge beyond the Ganges, and, in this post, for a while he maintained himself. Our readers will recollect with what confidence the archives of Chinese and still more of Braminical learning were paraded as furnishing the surest proofs of an immemorial and unfathomable antiquity; but we need not say that every year which has been added to the existence of those proofs, has, so to speak, cut off centuries from the existence of the subject of them. In fine, the whole system of Bailly is now formally abandoned by his great countryman La Place, who professes every where to discover unequivocal indications of an universal deluge; and thus, the beautiful vision of the modern Atlantis has, like its fabled predecessor in Plato, sunk under the waters. In this crisis, it is rather curious to find the unfortunate mummies of the Pharaohs once more roused from their noisome caverns, and summoned to a renewal of the contest. We know not, in fact, that they are pro vided with any stronger weapons than those of which they before On their imbattled ranks the waves return, To say the truth, we should have inclined to expect, that, in the present day, the objections urged against the Mosaic records, would have been built rather on the apparent novelty, than on the presumed antiquity, of the globe. In fact, La Place, we perceive, in a late work, after conjecturing that the earth has been deluged in consequence of a collision with a comet, supports his hypothesis by this among other positions, that it explains the short period of the existence of the moral world, whose earliest monuments do not go much farther back than three thousand years. That La Place intended this remark as an oblique reflection on the Mosaic history, we are far from feeling the most distant wish to insinuate ; particularly as we have not his work before us, but quote at secondhand.* It cannot, however, be denied, that his language bears a not very auspicious aspect with regard to the credibility of the history in question, according to which the deluge certainly took place not only farther back than three but than four thousand years ago, and which, besides, refers to occurrences long anterior to that period, as undoubted matters of fact. Accordingly, it was on this ground that we had anticipated the next attack on the authority of Moses. Nor would the occurrence have been unprecedented; for nothing is new under the sun,-not even the grand innovations and prodigious inventions of the new philosophy. 'At first,' says our valuable antiquarian, Shuckford, the heathen writers endeavoured to pretend to antiquities beyond what the sacred writers could be thought to aim at; but when the falsity of this pretence was abundantly detected, then Porphyry thought he "could compass the end aimed at by another way; he endeavoured to shew that the heathen history did not reach so far back as has been imagined, but that the times which Moses treated of were really so much prior to the first rise of the most ancient kingdoms, that all possible accounts of them can at best be but fiction and fancy.'+ Perhaps the circumstance that the esprits forts thus *We quote from the review of La Place's System of the World in a contemporary journal. + Connection of Sacred and Prophane History, Book VI, B 3 Aluctuate fluctuate between contrary extremes of chronological conjecture, may itself stand for an auxiliary confirmation of the correctness of the scriptural account; as the oscillations of a pendulum prove its natural tendency to rest in the middle point. The second passage of M. Clavier, on which we would here: offer a comment, is that with which he commences his history. "Il nous importe assez peu de savoir si les peuples qui habitoient pri mitivement le Péloponnèse étoient Autochthones, c'est-à-dire, originaires du pays, ou s'ils y étoient venus d'ailleurs; on ne peut guères douter cependant, que cette contrée ne fût déjà peuplée lorsque les premières colonies orientales y vinrent; car ces colonies étoient peu nombreuses, et néanmoins, elles en envoyèrent elles-mêmes, six ou sept générations après, dans l'Asie mineure, dans la Thessalie, dans la Bootie et dans P'Attique. Il est donc probable que les premiers chefs qui arrivèrent dans ce pays-là, y trouvèrent une population déjà formée, et qu'ils ne firent que la rassembler. On croit assez généralement que le premier qui' y vint fut Inachus ou Phoronée; cependant il me semble qu'on aperçoit dans le Péloponnèse quelques traces d'une civilisation antérieure.'-Tom. I. p. 1. It does not seem very necessary to agitate here the question, how far the popular claim of the Athenians to the title of grasshoppers was just; or, whether the Thebans really sprung from a dragon's teeth; or, whether the Arcadians actually existed, according to their own boast, before the moon was formed. These, or similar positions must, we presume, be adopted, unless it be admitted that the population of Greece was altogether derived from the east; for any other derivation of it from a foreign source, certainly stands on still feebler grounds, or rather, is wholly unsupported. The concurring opinions, however, of almost all the best writers, classical, christian, or unchristian, have outvoted the pretensions of the Greeks to the indigenous character; and we are not much disposed to revive the discussion of the subject. Our purpose in adverting to the observations just cited from our author, is not what we should consider as slaying the slain, but simply to remark that there is nothing in the Mosaic account, to negative the fact of the Helladian territory having been inhabited previously to the earliest westward migrations recorded in profane history. The fact itself, or rather, the statement of it, we assuredly cannot help regarding with infinite scepticism; and, indeed, must acknowledge that we are by no means very firm believers even in the stories, commonly given, of the Inachian or Phoronean migrations; but these are questions on which we do not conceive the credit of the sacred historian to be committed. For, considering that the first postdiluvians betheir career in a state of civilization, and that the average length: of human life was at that time at least five times as great gan as as at present, it becomes plain that population must then have increased with a rapidity totally beyond modern experience; and if to these considerations we add the opportunity which the greater length of life must have afforded for the accomplishment of enterprizes which, in our present span of existence, would be discouraging to all but the highest and most ardent spirit of adventure, we shall not think it improbable that, within four or five centuries from the deluge, the descendants of Noah may have extended themselves to the borders of the Adriatic sea. The importance of some of the subjects which the chronological department of the present article has suggested to our consideration, may, we hope apologize for our having been so long detained in that obscure sojourn.' We now hasten to more popular ground; but it is necessary to observe that even the most strictly historical parts of the work before us are intermixed with disquisitions more learned than agreeable; for the cloven foot of the chronologer peeps out from time to time throughout. Nor is the author very studious of the decorations of style, or of descriptive excellence; and the truth is, that figures are always bad company for words. But, with all this, M. Clavier has much merit as a historian, the merit of being sensible, candid, and very accurate. The ancient writers he has perused for himself, and with great care; but, in estimating their authority, he seems to be occasionally misled by his chronological prejudices, and to value too lightly the general historic credit of such among them, as may not have made the chronology of the early times their particular study. Especially, we were surprised and displeased by the reflections which M. Clavier casts on the veracity of Herodotus. Whatever may be thought of the judgment of that historian, we had conceived that the suffrages of the learned world were now nearly unanimous in favour of his honesty; but, to speak our own sentiments, we are inclined to question whether any man has ever existed, who, either in making researches, or in reporting the result of them, was influenced by a more truly philosophical spirit. Living during the infancy of physical science, and, we may add, during the maturity of metaphysical ignorance, Herodotus very properly avoided every approach to a spirit of dogmatism and incredulity: but an attentive examination of his writings will shew that he was, generally speaking, a not more curious, than cautious and candid, enquirer. In spite, indeed, of his caution, the wonders which he relates are, as in such an age might have been expected, not a few; but he records them, usually with a direct advertence to the authorities for his statements, frequently with a distinct notice to the reader of scepticism on his own part, Where his means of in formation were good, his credit is of a very high order; and it has been justly and judiciously remarked, that the simplicity of his manner detects itself, and with the assistance of circumstances collateral to the story, sufficiently indicates where he deserves credit, and where neglect.' We But, in dilating on the merits of Herodotus, we are forgetting an author who has more immediate claims on our courtesy. shall now, therefore, proceed to submit to the reader a specimen of the performance of M. Clavier. It is extracted from his preliminary discourse, and affords a comprehensive philosophical sketch of the first ages of the Grecian history. 'La nation Grecque n'eut pas des commencemens très-brillans. Devant son origine à un établissement commercial, ce que nous nommons un comptoir, formé par des Phéniciens, elle se borna pendant longtemps à propager son commerce et celui de sa métropole par des établissemens pareils sur les côtes du Péloponnèse, de l'Attique, de la Bootie, de la Thessalie, sur celles de l'Asie mineure et dans quelques îles. Comme elle étoit très-peu puissante, et que les Phéniciens euxmêmes n'avoient pas une population proportionnée à l'étendue de leurs entreprises, les moyens pacifiques durent être pendant long-temps les seuls dont on fît usage, et les Grecs en conservèrent toujours l'habitude; car ils eurent rarement recours aux armes pour s'établir dans les pays où ils allèrent. On sent, d'après cela, qu'il ne devoit rien y avoir d'aussi monotone que l'histoire des cinq premiers siècles de la Grèce, puisqu'elle n'offroit presque aucun de ces grands évènemens politiques ou militaires qui excitent si vivement la curiosité par l'intérêt qu'ils inspirent; elle dut donc être négligée par les poëtes, qui n'y trouvoient presque aucun de ces exploits qui se prêtoient si volontiers aux ornemens que leur fournissoit leur brillante imagination, et ils ne s'en occupèrent que pour retracer les généalogies des héros qu'ils chantoient; c'est ainsi qu'Homère, à propos d'Enée, remonte jusqu'à Dardanus; et jusqu'à Sisyphe, à propos de Glaucus, et s'il a négligé les généalogies de la plupart des héros dont il parle dans le catalogue des vaisseaux, c'est parce qu'elles étoient le sujet principal d'un poëme d'Hésiode son contemporain, et qu'il avoit dû connoître dans ses voyages. 'Cet état de paix si stérile pour l'histoire est le plus favorable à la prospérité de l'espèce humaine et à l'accroissement de la population; aussi voyons-nous que dans le sixième siècle, ou environ soixante ans avant la guerre de Troie, la Grèce Européenne se trouva si peuplée qu'elle fut obligée de chercher des moyens pour remédier à l'excès de la population, et ce fut sans doute pour cela que les Argonautes entreprirent leur expédition, dont le but étoit de s'emparer du commerce du Pont-Euxin, et de fonder des colonies sur ses côtes, but qui fut manqué par la division qui se mit entre les chefs. Cette expédition fut le commencement d'une époque extrêmement brillante, mais très-malheureuse par ses suites, puisque la Grèce, affoiblie par les guerres continuelles auxquelles elle avoit été en proie, tomba dans un état de dépérissement dont elle ne put se relever qu'au bout de plusieurs siècles. C'est effec tivement |