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Show 480 TilE MONOGENJSTS AND 398). Tho celebration of tbis festival, of which tho institution mounted up to tho reign of king lliram, contemporary of. Solomon, took place at the month Peritius; of which the second day corresponded to the 25th December of the Romau calendar (Smtv. ad LEn. Vll, 720- J ADLONSKY and ZOF.GA) ; and, through a coincidence that cannot be fortuitous, this same day, viz: tho 25th Docombor, was likewise at Rome tho dies natalis Solis invicti; a qualification under which He1·cules was worshipped at Tyro and elsewhere. It was, thcl'efore, really tho deatlt and the resu1·rection of a god-Sun, that was celebrated at Tyro, at the Winte1· solstice, through this pyre of Hercules; and already we seize, in its primitive and original form, one of tho principal traits of tho legend of tho Hellenic Hercules." * * * And this lamented scholar continuos to show how Movers (Die Phamicier, I, 386) proves that, in the time of Ahab (1st Kings, XVIII, 27), a "god deceased and resuscitated" was a fundamental idea in the J cwish theocracy; as well as to point out the relations between this Semitic myth and that of the Phrenician gou Adonis; who is tho Tltam-uz bcwept by Israelitish females, at the gate of the holy Temple, in tho time of the Prophets (Ezelciel, VIII, 14). If we seek at Rabbinical sources for their various supputations concerning the advent of their Jewish" Messiah," the most learned and critical of thoh standard divines, Maimoniclcs, acquaints us that -"tho Messiah shoulu have como in the Xllith century, in the year 1316. But as that has not yet happened, others refer the end of their misfortunes to the year 1492, others to the year 1600, and others again to tho year 1940 :" * * * some even holding "tl1at the McShaiaii hath been a long time born, anu remains concealed at Rome until ELIAS come to crown him." 212 Those few citations, con:firmatory of my distrust, expressed in our last publication/13 of any chronological systems, suffice to establish accuracy of fact and deduction. The toils of Sisyphus, or the pangs of Tantalus, seem nothing compared with those experienced by hundreds of chronologists who, rivalling in pertinacity the Rosic~ ·usian's soar~h after tho" elixir of life," have exhausted every expodlCnt, our pat10ncc and their arithmetic, to discover when our world had a beginning. The superstition as to the possibility of success in a~y s~ch e~clcavors is now fast taking rank, among men of science, w1th 1ts eximct corollary- so miserably distressing to our Breotian ancestors, about tho year 1000 of our ora-viz: anxious cipherings as to tho world's tmnination. On this phase of humanity's cyclic 212 llASNAOM, op. cit., pp. 374-5. Ull 1'ypt& of flfcmki11d, pp, 657-62. TilE POLYGENISTS. 481 hallucinations,214 it has boon well observed by W. Rathbone Groo· 2-15 bl that "the error of Paul (1 Tltess. IV, 15) about tho approachin()' end of the world, was shaeod by all tho Apostles (James V 8 · 2 Pete1· III, 12; 1 John, IT, 18; Jude, v. 18)." ' ' ' ' From lie brew to Assyrian subjects tho transition is natural; if but to observe that very trifling, as regards chronological detcrmination8, has been the progress since Layard's second Expedition, publiRhed in 1853.2-IG Col. Rawlinson's various papers in the Royal AsinLic Society's Journal,217 together with his unceasing announccmoni.s of new discoveries, through the London "Athenreum" especially, have not been yet arranged in to a "corps de doctrine:" so that, except the summary tables in tho last edition ofMr. Vaux's learned work,:t•s th.cre is little settled about cuneiform annals, whether in England or on the Continent; notwithstanding the enormous increase of materials, due to the local exhumations of Ross, Loftus, Fresnel, Oppcrt, Place, Rassam, Jones, and other laborers around Mosnl aud Bagdad. ~unc~tic studo~1ts (as _was in part the case 15 years ago with l£gyptlan h1eroglyplucs, whiCh possess clews that the others have not) arc still struggling, not merely with the philology of three distiuct tongues, Semitic, Indo-Germanic, and Scythic, encountered in arrowheaded inscriptions of di:fl:'oront cpochas anu at di:fl:crcnt localiLics, but against the more arduous phonetic complications of the variouA groups or signs in which archaic dialects of these three idioms al'e expressed. In consoquonce, that which is rcau one way by Rawlinson in England, is, generally speaking, read in another by IJincki:i in Irclauu; both arc oftentfmes obnoxious to tho conflicting versions •« l!'omns W!NSLOW, "On Moral and Criminal Epidemics," - Journ. of Psyclwl. Jlfec~. and Mental Pathology, April, 185G; Art. VI, pp. 251-2. ALF!ltm MAURY, Le8 Jlfystiqut1 extatiques et les Stigmatises,-oxtmit des "Annnlo~ Medico-p ~yohologiqucs," Paris, 1855; pp. 'Hl-50. Also his roviow of LELU 'L''~ Demon de Socrate, in .Atltenwum Fl'anfais, 1 Mars, 1856. 2t6 The Creed of Christendom, London, 8vo, 1851; pp. 19-25, 181-3. 2i6 TypCB of Manki11d, p. 702. 217 Outlines of .Assyria11 Ilistory, 1852; - Notu on the early History of Babylonia, 1855. 2'8 Nine·veh and Persepolis, 4th edition, l'evisod nnd onlnrgcd- London, 12mo, 1804, pp. 506-9. While writ.ing, I see by tho London 1'imes (Aug. l 2, l 856) that, nt tho mooting of the Drit. Assoc. for tho Adv. of Scionco, just hold 11t Cltoltonham, Sir Henry lltnvlinson iR reported to hnvo "~hown thnt tho impressions on tho bl·ickM found o,t • Ur of tlto Cltnldoe~.' wero marked with tho nttmo of a king, wltich bo thinks identical with the Chodorlaomor of Genesis, nnd at least 2000 years bFforo Christ." I luwo r10 doubt that, at the mto Assyrian "confirmations" nro going on, tbo contemporary hi story of Abmhnm himself would yot bo found in cuuoiform, but for a slight oxogctical dilfculty; vi~.: the age of tho unkuown writer of tho XJVth ch(Lpter of Genesis (Types of Jl(ankirul, p. 604, no to l 11). [Tho above wns penned last Sopt. Since then I hnvo rend Col. H.11wlinson's moHt interesting "DiHcourso" (A tlte11amm, Lond. 1856, pp. 1024-5); nnd loam tlmt the Assyrinn ompiro w 11 ~ nut inHtituted boforo tho l 8th century, 11. o.,-a modern dnto to Bgyplol og i H t~. When cunolltio students in EnghLnd nrc enabled, through nrt'ow-hendcd typogmphy, to rivnl Qpp~: wr's l"l'HO urccs in " lmprin11~(l"io llllpuri•Llo" (!Jul. ArcMo/. Atltw. Jr., !llai, 18&6), pnlooogrnphy will place 1Hor<' fnith iu thcil· tmuslutious.J 31 |