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the eight." It is remarkable, also, how triads abound in almost all mythologies, as among the Greeks, Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades; among the Romans, Jupiter, Neptune, and Pluto; in Egypt, Osiris, Isis, Horus, etc. Wilkinson says, "If, in every town or district of Egypt, the principal temple had been preserved, we might discover the nature of the triad worshiped there, as well as the name of the chief deity who presided in it."* Tacitus relates that the ancient Germans celebrated in songs the praises of their god Tuisco and his son Man-nus, the founders of three Germanic nations. To Man-nus (compare Egyptian, Menes, Hindu, Manu, etc.) they assign three sons, by whose names the people occupying different parts of the country were called. Among the Persians, Feridun had three sons, Selim, Tur, and Irij, to whom he gave respectively Rum, Turan, and Iran.

But we can pursue these illustrations no further. The subject is certainly a curious one, and will amply repay the investigations of every scholar of antiquity. Making, now, all due allowances for mistake in some particulars, from erroneous etymologies, or insufficient points of resemblance, we are sure that the general conclusion can not well be disputed. In some respects it seems

* Anc. Egypt, second series, vol. i. p. 230.

even more reliable than that derived from His tory, Ethnology, or Language. Mythology has

to deal with the origin of things, especially of religious things, and seems to carry us further back than either of its sister sciences. And though at first view the vast mass of fiction and fable which it presents to us seems scarcely less confused than the original chaos of the earth, yet a little patient study will enable us to find the clew which will lead us intelligently and safely through it, and show a very simple origin for the whole, in the inspired account of creation, the antediluvian world, and the flood; thus corroborating the truth of that narrative, and proving the descent of all nations from one common source.

CHAPTER XII.

THE ARGUMENT FROM GEOLOGY.

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Lyell's "Geological Evidences." - Alleged Facts proving a Remote Antiquity for the Race. -1. Fragments of Brick and Pottery from Egypt. - The Data not verified. - Changes in the Nile Valley. - Burnt Brick unknown to the Ancient Egyptians. 2. Human Fossil in Mississippi Valley. — 3. Skeleton found near New Orleans.-4. Remains in the Florida Coral Reefs. 5. Flint Implements in the Valley of the Somme. Diagram of the Valley. — Its assumed Geological History. The Association of Human and Animal Remains no Proof that they were contemporaneous. — If contemporaneous, no proof of extreme Antiquity. - Opinion of Westminster Review. — Opinion of Professor Rogers. — Alleged Geological Changes in the Somme Valley. Assumed to be wrought by existing Agencies. - Uniformitarians. Testimony of President Hitchcock. · Of Professor Duns. Of Sir R. Murchison. - Of Professor Wilson. Of Elie de Beaumont. Of Professor Rogers.-6. Human Remains in Peat-bogs, Shell-mounds, and Lakes. The Stone, the Bronze, and the Iron Age. - All pertaining to the Celtic Race. Opinion of Dr. Keller. — Of Troyon. Conclusion.

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I PROPOSE NOW to pass under review the leading facts presented us in Geology, which are relied on

by many to prove a very high antiquity. They are taken chiefly from the elaborate work of Sir Charles Lyell, entitled, "The Geological Evidences of the Antiquity of Man" (Am. edition, 1863). In that volume the distinguished author has collected all the important facts furnished by his favorite science, whether brought to light by himself or by the labors of others. The work may be regarded as exhaustive on that side of the question.

1. The first case that I will notice of alleged geological discoveries, which are supposed to prove the very remote antiquity of our race, is that of the fragments of brick and pottery dug up from the valley of the Nile. This case is the more important, as it is cited by almost every author who avowedly opposes the Bible chronology.

In the year 1851, the Royal Society of London instituted a series of borings in the sediment of the Nile valley, under the care of Mr. Leonard Horner, the expense of which was partly sustained by the viceroy. Sixty workmen, with several engineers, were employed for this purpose — men accustomed to the climate, and capable of pursuing the work during the hot months, after the annual inundation was passed. "The results,"

says Sir Charles Lyell," of chief importance were obtained from two sets of shafts and borings, sunk at intervals in lines crossing the great valley from east to west. One of these consisted of no less than fifty-one pits and artesian perforations made where the valley is sixteen miles wide from side to side, between the Arabian and Libyan deserts, in the latitude of Heliopolis, about eight miles above the apex of the delta. The other line of. borings and pits, twenty-seven in number, was in the parallel of Memphis, where the valley is only five miles broad.

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"In some instances the excavations were on a large scale for the first sixteen or twenty-four feet, in which cases jars, vases, pots, and a small human figure in burnt clay, a copper knife, and other entire articles were dug up; but when water, soaking through from the Nile, was reached, the boring instrument used was too small to allow of more than fragments of works of art being brought up. Pieces of burnt brick and pottery were extracted almost everywhere, and from all depths, even where they sank sixty feet below the surface toward the central parts of the valley. In none of these cases. did they get to the bottom of the alluvial soil." *

The mode in which these pieces of brick and pot

* Geological Evidences, etc., pp. 34, 36.

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