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APPENDIX.

[Part I.

vested by the pious credulity of one party, and thevisionary system-building of another.

An obvious analogy is found in cosmogonal tradi-tions, and religious usages. The reader has alreadybeen made acquainted with the Aztec system of fourgreat cycles, at the end of each of which the worldwas destroyed, to be again regenerated . 12 The be-lief in these periodical convulsions of nature, throughthe agency of some one or other of the elements,was familiar to many countries in the eastern hem-isphere ; and, though varying in detail, the generalresemblance of outline furnishes an argument in fa-vor of a common origin . 13

No tradition has been more widely spread amongnations than that of a Deluge. Independently oftradition, indeed, it would seem to be naturally sug-gested by the interior structure of the earth, and bythe elevated places on which marine substances arefound to be deposited. It was the received notion,under some form or other, of the most civilized peo-ple in the Old World, and of the barbarians of theNew . 14 The Aztecs combined with this some par-

13 Ante, Vol. I. p. 61.

13 The fanciful division of timeinto four or five cycles or ageswas found among the Hindoos,(Asiatic Researches, vol. II. mem.7,) the Thibetians, (Humboldt ,Vues des Cordilléres, p. 210,) thePersians , (Bailly, Traité de l’As-tronomie, (Paris , 1787,-) tom. I.discours préliminaire,) the Greeks,(Hesiod , xal 'H/jt'istu, v. 108,

et seq.,) and other people, doubt-less. The five ages in the Gre-cian cosmogony had reference tomoral, rather than physical, phe-nomena, — a proof of higher civ-ilization.

14 The Chaldean and Hebrew accounts of the Deluge are nearlythe same.- The parallel is pursuedin Palfrey’s ingenious Lectures onthe Jewish Scriptures and Anti-