CHAPTER VII.

THE PREMATURE ANNOUNCEMENTS OF SCIENCE WITH REGARD TO THE ANTIQUITY OF MAN.

M. Bailly, Prof. Playfair, and the Edinburgh Review on the Astronomy of the Hindoos.— The Excitement created by the Discovery of the Zodiacs of Dendera and Esne.-The Edinburgh Review on these.-The Theory exploded by Champollion's Arrival in Paris.The Fossil Man of Guadaloupe.-Nott and Gliddon thereon.-Dr. Lund's Discoveries in Brazil.-The Tombs at Marino under the Peperino.-The Fossil Man of Denise.-The Pigmy Graves of Tennessee.-The Perforated Shark's Teeth of the English Crag.-The Fossil Man of the Coral Reefs of Florida.-Ancient Stone Lance-Head of Prof. Nilsson.The Burghs, Bee-hive Houses, Pillar Stones, etc., of Scotland and Ireland.-Dr. Mill and Dr. Moore on the Newton Stone Inscription.-Inscription on Stonehenge, thought to be Libyan.

WE have already, in a previous chapter, pointed out the unreliability of scientific theories,-how rapidly one theory succeeds another, and how different are the teachings of one of the editions of Sir Charles Lyell's “Principles" from those which precede it and those which follow it; and how cautious we have, therefore, to be before accepting any startling scientific announcement.

an

In reference especially to the evidence for the antiquity of man, experience teaches that we must be more than ordinarily Past attempts to mistrustful of any alleged discoveries of this character. prove the We have been prematurely informed so often of the dis- tiquity of man. covery of "fossil men," that we are compelled to pause before we yield our assent to the antiquity now claimed for the Neanderthal skull or the skeleton of Mentone. It may prepare the reader for the following discussion to enumerate some of the misses already made by science on this subject.

I. At the close of the last century it was heralded, with all the assurance which Science assumes, that an examination of the astronomical tables of the Hindoos proved conclusively that the Hindoo The Hindoo astronomers had made observations of the heavenly bodies Astronomy. three thousand one hundred and two years before the Christian era. M. Bailly first announced this discovery in France, and Pro- M. Bailly. fessor Playfair, of Edinburgh, one of the most distinguished Prof. Playfair. mathematicians of Europe, read a paper on the subject, in 1788, before

evidences for the facts of the New Testament, it not only convulsed all Germany, but all Europe. The German mind is like that of a man of fine powers who just feels his wine; he is conscious that he has not the full use of his judgment, but has brilliant imaginings. They live in a sort of state of ecstasy, and dream while they are awake.

We have had all forms of doubt in Germany. Every book of the Doubt in Old and New Testaments has been tested in the furnace Germany. "heated seven times." Every chapter, every verse, every word, has been under the microscope of modern criticism. Every historical statement has been delicately weighed. Every geographical allusion has been scrutinized by modern learning. Every reference to Egyptian, Babylonian, Ethiopian, Assyrian, Phoenician, Moabite, Philistine, Greek, Persian, Roman concerns, has been brought up for comparison with our present knowledge of the antiquities, manners, customs, laws, literature, and monumental remains of these countries. We have had also in this day men like Carlyle, Theodore Parker, Recent cav- R. W. Emerson, R. W. Mackay, James Martineau, Dickens, Morell, Cousin, Comte, Feuerbach, Moleschott, Bruno and

illers.

Christian Bauer.

Failure of all these attacks.

All these attacks on Christianity have failed. Failed from Celsus to R. W. Mackay and Christian Bauer. The men who conducted the attacks are in large measure forgotten,-even those among the living. Not one of their works can be regarded as seriously imperilling now the authority of the Bible. Which weapon among them has left an appreciable scar behind it? But a new Knight has entered the lists, and there must be a trial of strength between the Bible and SCIENCE.

A new
Knight.

CHAPTER VII.

THE PREMATURE ANNOUNCEMENTS OF SCIENCE WITH REGARD TO THE ANTIQUITY OF MAN.

M. Bailly, Prof. Playfair, and the Edinburgh Review on the Astronomy of the Hindoos.The Excitement created by the Discovery of the Zodiacs of Dendera and Esne.-The Edinburgh Review on these.-The Theory exploded by Champollion's Arrival in Paris.— The Fossil Man of Guadaloupe.-Nott and Gliddon thereon.-Dr. Lund's Discoveries in Brazil.-The Tombs at Marino under the Peperino.-The Fossil Man of Denise.-The Pigmy Graves of Tennessee.-The Perforated Shark's Teeth of the English Crag.-The Fossil Man of the Coral Reefs of Florida.-Ancient Stone Lance-Head of Prof. Nilsson.The Burghs, Bee-hive Houses, Pillar Stones, etc., of Scotland and Ireland.-Dr. Mill and Dr. Moore on the Newton Stone Inscription.-Inscription on Stonehenge, thought to be Libyan.

We have already, in a previous chapter, pointed out the unreliability of scientific theories,-how rapidly one theory succeeds another,—and how different are the teachings of one of the editions of Sir Charles Lyell's "Principles" from those which precede it and those which follow it; and how cautious we have, therefore, to be before accepting any startling scientific announcement.

an

In reference especially to the evidence for the antiquity of man, experience teaches that we must be more than ordinarily Past attempts to mistrustful of any alleged discoveries of this character. prove the We have been prematurely informed so often of the dis- tiquity of man. covery of "fossil men," that we are compelled to pause before we yield our assent to the antiquity now claimed for the Neanderthal skull or the skeleton of Mentone. It may prepare the reader for the following discussion to enumerate some of the misses already made by science on this subject.

I. At the close of the last century it was heralded, with all the assurance which Science assumes, that an examination of the astronomical tables of the Hindoos proved conclusively that the Hindoo The Hindoo astronomers had made observations of the heavenly bodies Astronomy. three thousand one hundred and two years before the Christian era. M. Bailly first announced this discovery in France, and Pro- M. Bailly. fessor Playfair, of Edinburgh, one of the most distinguished Prof. Playfair. mathematicians of Europe, read a paper on the subject, in 1788, before

74

the Royal Society of Edinburgh, in which he not only explained that the places of the sun and moon, in the beginning of the Calyougham, or age of misfortune, were determined by actual observation 3102 years B.C., but he added that "the equation of the sun's centre, and the obliquity of the ecliptic, when compared with those of the present time, seem to point to a period of this astronomy one thousand or twelve hundred years earlier (that is, four thousand three hundred years before the Christian era), and the time necessary to have brought the arts of calculation, and observing, to such perfection as they must have been, at the period spoken of, comes in support of the same conclusion.'

This distinguished scientist also published a paper on the Indian Astronomy in the Philosophical Transactions for 1790, in which he makes the following fling at the Biblical chronology: "It is through the medium of astronomy alone that a few rays from those distant objects (the primitive inhabitants of the earth) can be conveyed in safety to the eye of the modern observer, so as to afford him a light which, though scanty, is pure and unbroken, and free from the false coloring of vanity and superstition."

This was the first announcement of the "Antiquity of Man,"-and it came from Astronomy, not Geology.

Review.

The whole subject was re-discussed in the Edinburgh Review for The Edinburgh 1807, and the conclusion was reached that M. Bailly was right, and that the arguments advanced by him "give a great probability to the opinion that the art of astronomical observation is of the highest antiquity in India, and goes back not less than three thousand years before the Christian era.

These views made a profound impression at that time. M. Bailly was the rival of Lagrange and Laplace, the author of the valuable. memoir on The Light of the Satellites (1771), which was marked with a degree of precision and accuracy till that time unknown in the observations of their eclipses. He was also the author of the History of Astronomy, published at Paris in 1775, and of (which was considered his greatest work) the History of Indian and Oriental Astronomy, besides He was a member at various other elaborate and learned treatises. once of the Academy of Sciences, the French Academy, and the Academy of Inscriptions and Belles-Lettres,-the only instance of the same person having been so honored since the days of Fontenelle.

Professor Playfair occupied a position in the scientific world as distinguished as M. Bailly. He succeeded Dugald Stewart in the chair of Mathematics in the University of Edinburgh, and afterwards succeeded Professor Robison in the chair of Natural Philosophy in the same institution; and he was the author of a number of scientific works: the

Origin and Investigation of Porisms, the Elements of Geometry, Theorems on the Figure of the Earth, the Theory of the Earth, Illustrations of the Huttonian Theory, Lithological Survey of Schehallien, Outlines of Natural Philosophy, the Dissertation on the Progress of Mathematical and Physical Science in the Encyclopædia Britannica, Observations on the Trigonometrical Tables of the Brahmins, etc.

The tables of Tirvalore were determined to be three thousand one hundred and two years older than the Christian era not only from the calculations with regard to the obliquity of the ecliptic and the equation of the sun's centre, but from the longitudes of the sun and moon at the commencement of the Calyougham, from the length of the tropical year as given by the tables (which varies in consequence of its being affected by the precession of the equinoxes), and also from a conjunction of the sun, moon, and planets, alleged to have occurred at that epoch.

The accurate calculations of modern astronomy have, however, shown that the conjunction in question could not have occurred at the date assigned, nor at any epoch near it ; while in order to find the equation of the earth's centre given in the tables, it is necessary to go back six thousand years before our era. From which it appears that the tables of Tirvalore, which furnished such a handle to M. Bailly and Professor Playfair against the Christian chronology, were not the result of actual observation, but had been calculated backwards upon imperfect data.

The celebrated Delambre, in his great History of Astronomy, says that "Mr. Playfair has not calculated this table anew," and that "he has not had the discernment to perceive the error of the division, 225 being substituted, probably by an error of the copyist, for the true divisor 235.5."

"When," he also remarks, "we inquire why the Indians chose the remote and fictitious epoch of the Calyougham, or misfortune, we perceive, in the first place, that it was from national vanity, and in the next, that they might make all the planets start from one point, a conjunction which their method of calculation required. If we further ask why they adopted a complicated method which employs divisions and multiplications of enormous numbers, with so many additions, subtractions, reductions, and different precepts, the answer is that they did not wish for written tables; they wanted numbers which could be put in technical verses, even into songs, so that the calculations might be performed without writing a book. These facts, now well known, through the labors of the Asiatic Society, are alone sufficient to subvert the whole system of Bailly.'

Mr. Bentley, of Calcutta, a member of the Asiatic Society, was the first to expose this theory, and to prove that the vast yugas of the Hin