The account of the creation, according to the old traditions preserved by the Chinese, does not indeed descend to the minute particularities of the preceding one; but is nevertheless little inferior to it in point of accuracy. It is said, that they call the first of men Puoncu; and that they believe him to have been born out of chaos, the allegorical mundane egg of oriental mythology. From the shell of this egg, in the deep gloom of night, were formed the heavens; from the white of it, the atmosphere; and from its yolk, the earth. The order of creation was however as follows; the heavens were first made; the foundations of the earth were next laid; the atmosphere was then diffused round the habitable globe; and last of all man was created.'

VII. It has been already observed, that the Persians believed the world to have been created at six different times: the same remark may also be made upon the cosmogony of the ancient Etru

rians.

We are informed by Suidas, that a sage of that nation wrote a history, in which it is said, that God created the universe in six thousand years, and that he appointed the same period of time to be the extent of its duration. In the first millenary, he made the heaven and the earth; in the second, the visible firmament; in the third, the sea, and all the waters that are in the earth; in the fourth, the sun, the moon, and the stars; in

Martin. Hist. Sin. p. 13. Coupl. Præf. ad Sin. Chron. p. 4.

the fifth, every living soul of birds, reptiles, and quadrupeds, which have their abode either in the air, on the land, or in the waters; and lastly, in the sixth, man alone.

It appears therefore, that, according to the system of the Etrurians, five millenaries preceded the formation of man, to which the whole of the sixth was devoted; and that the remaining period comprehends the entire duration of the human race. So that the age of the world, from its commencement to its termination, will amount precisely to twelve thousand years.'

VIII. In the traditions also of our Gothic ancestors, blended as they are with the most extravagant fictions, some remains of the truth are still discoverable.

At the beginning of time, they are the words of the Voluspa, when nothing was yet formed, neither shore, nor sea, nor foundations beneath; when the earth was no where to be found below, nor the heaven above: all was one vast abyss without plant or verdure-That part of it which lies towards the north, was filled with a mass of gelid vapours and ice; while its interior was replete with whirlwinds and tempests. Directly opposite to it, rose the southern side of the abyss, formed of the lightnings and sparks which flow from the world of fire—As to that part which lay between these two extremes, it was light and serene, like the air in a calm. A breath of heat

then spreading itself over the gelid vapours, they melted into drops; and of these drops was formed a man, by the power of him who governed. This man was named Ymer-from him are descended all the families of the giants.

An account is next given of a patriarch, to whom were born three sons. Between this race and that of the giants an incessant warfare was carried on, which at length terminated in the death of Ymer. That event produced a deluge, in which all the giants perished, excepting one, who saved himself in his bark. The whole of his household escaped at the same time, and by him was preserved the race of the giants. At this period, according to the Gothic mythology, a second creation took place; an event allusive to the renovation of the world after the waters of the deluge: the three victorious sons of the Patriarch were elevated to the rank of deities: and the earth was repeopled with a new race of inhabitants, differing, in point of origin, from their predecessors. The bright luminaries of heaven now began to shine, and every star had its assigned residence. Hence the days were distinguished, and the years reduced to calculation. For this reason it is said, in the poem of Voluspa, Formerly the sun knew not its place, the moon was ignorant of its powers, and the stars knew not the stations they were to occupy."

I

IX. We may equally trace the relics of pri

Edda. Fab. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

meval tradition in the theories of the Greek philosophers.

1. The ancient Orphic writer taught, that in the beginning were Chaos and a thick darkness inveloping all things; that the earth lay for a season invisible beneath the darkness; that light then burst forth, and illuminated the hitherto obscure globe of the earth; that this light was the greatest of all beings; that the sun, the moon, the earth, and the stars, were all produced out of Chaos; and that man was formed out of the dust, and was endued with a rational soul, by a supreme creative divinity.'

2. Linus is said to have asserted, that there was once a time, when all things were by nature confusedly blended together."

3. Zeno maintained, that the Chaos of Hesiod was a turbid water, out of which was formed the Universe; and that the solid earth was gradually concreted from the subsiding mud.3

4. Anaxagoras taught, that all things were once mixed together, and that Intelligence reduced them to order.4

5. Thales asserted, that water was the origin of the Universe, and that God was that supreme Intelligence who formed all things out of water."

Cedren. Hist. Compend. p. 57. Johan. Malal. Chronog. p. 89, 90.

2 Aristot. Metaph. lib. xiv. c. 6.

3 Schol. in Apoll. Argon. lib. iv. ver. 676.

4 Diog. Laert. in vit. Anaxag.

5 Cicer. de nat. deor. lib. i. c. 10. Diog. Laert. in vit. Thal.

6. And Aristophanes has handed down to us an ancient cosmogonical theory, which taught, that Chaos, and Night, and black Erebus, and wide Tartarus, first existed that, at that time, there was neither earth, nor air, nor heaven: but that, in the bosom of Erebus, black-winged Night produced an aërial egg; from which, in due season, was born Love decked with golden wings: and that this primeval personage, celebrated as the great universal father, begot our race out of dark Chaos in the midst of wide-spreading Tartarus, and called us forth into light."

X. Even in America we shall meet with some obscure traces of primitive tradition.

1. According to Gomara, the Peruvians believed, that, at the beginning of the world, there came from the north a being named Con, who levelled mountains and raised hills solely by the word of his mouth that he filled the earth with men and women whom he had created, giving them fruits and bread and all things necessary for their subsistence but that, being offended with their transgressions, he deprived them of the blessings which they had originally enjoyed, and afflicted their lands with a curse of sterility.*

2. The legend of the Virginians equally deserves our attention. It is said by Hariot, that they suppose the world to have been made by one Supreme Being, but that the immediate act of creation was

2 Gomar. Hist. Gen. c. 122. apud Purch. Pilgr. b. ix.

c. 10.

VOL. I.

C