considerable light from a careful comparison of the original records and fragments still extant; and the old Egyptian Chronicle, the mutilated dynasties of Manetho, recorded by Josephus, Julius Africanus, and Eusebius; the imperfect list of Theban, or Egyptian kings, furnished by Eratosthenes, and the complete list of Egyptian kings formed by Syncellus, from documents subsisting in his age, by their combined evidence, have enabled him, he trusts, to fill up, with a considerable degree of probability, the correct, but scanty outline of the Egyptian Chronology of Herodotus, in perfect conformity with SCRIPTURE; and to detect the falsity of the system ostentatiously obtruded on the world as the genuine system of Herodotus, in the voluminous French translation and notes of Larcher, whose Canon of Egyptian Chronology, he conceives, is equally repugnant to Herodotus, to Egyptian History, and to HOLY WRIT; furnishing but one correct date from beginning to end; namely, the accession of Sethon, Priest of Vulcan, B.C. 713. Such is a brief sketch of a work, the composition of which has engrossed the author's attention for many years; and he now submits it to the Public, with an humble hope, that it will prove not unacceptable to the learned, nor unprofitable to younger students, not only in Sacred, but also in Profane Literature. PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. THE public approbation of this work, evinced by the sale of the first edition, and the encreasing demand for it, have encouraged the Author to prepare a new and more perfect edition; in the first Volume of which, the following alterations, corrections, and improvements have been made. 1. A new arrangement of the branches of Chronology: the Technical now preceding the Historical, in its proper order. 2. In the review of the leading systems of Historical Chronology, the Irish system of Gildas Coemhain, in the year A.D. 1072, nearly agreeing with Scaliger's, is introduced; forming an honourable proof of the ancient and scientific literature of Ireland, before its connexion with England. 3. The era of the Hegira, or flight of Mahomet from Mecca, A.D. 622, so useful and necessary in reading the Oriental Historians, is now inserted from Playfair's Chronology, with some material corrections, and in an improved form. 4. An amended description of Paradise, or the Gar den of Eden, in which its most probable site is shewn, not to have been in Babylonia, as before supposed, but in Armenia; somewhere in the vicinity of the present heads or springs of the Euphrates and Tigris. 5. Noah's Prophecy of the fortunes of the three primitive families of his sons, Gen. ix. 20—27, more correctly explained than before, according to the learned Mr. Faber, who has ably exposed the insufficiency of the received interpretation. 6. A more critical explanation of that venerable geographical chart of Moses, Gen. x. chiefly from Faber. 7. The route pursued by the three primitive families, in their migration from the original settlement in Armenia, along the course of the Euphrates, to Shinar, according to Mr. Penn's ingenious explanation; and the universal confusion of tongues at Babel. 8. A correction and enlargement of the former account of the Pyramids of Egypt, collected from the recent discoveries of Davison, Belzoni, Caviglia, &c., recorded in the Quarterly Review, in which they are proved to have been designed for sepulchral monuments, not water temples consecrated to the Nile, as supposed before. 9. To the received accounts of Jerusalem, and its environs, from Sandys, Maundrell, &c. are now added some interesting observations of that universal and intelligent traveller, Dr. Clarke, from actual observation, and upon strong historical ground; questioning the validity of the supposed sites of the Holy Sepulchre, and of the Mount of Corruption; and conjecturing that the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea is rather to be sought in the sepulchral caves at the base of the latter; which he con ceives to be the true Mount Sion, from the Greek inscription, THC AгIAC CIWN, "Of the Holy Sion," found thereon. And that Mount Olivet is the true Mount of Corruption, whereon Solomon built temples to Baal Peor, Moloch, and Ashtoreth, from the curious discovery of a conical cavern on the middle top of the Mount, unnoticed by former travellers. 10. A critical explanation of St. Paul's voyage from Cæsarea to Puteoli, and proof that the island of Melite, on which he was shipwrecked, was not the island of Malta, as generally supposed, but Meleda, in the Adriatic Gulph, from the learned and ingenious Dissertation of Dr. Falconer, the physician, of Bath. Notwithstanding all the Author's anxiety and assiduity to correct mistakes, and to procure fuller and correcter information; yet, in a work of such variety and compass, he cannot pretend to perfection, nor to guard against those errors and failures, incident to human nature, and to advanced age; in which the wisest are apt to "slumber and sleep," even in the most important and earnest pursuits, if long protracted. Quæ parum cavit natura humana, Aliquando dormitans opere in longo. VOL. I. a |