1 lation of 341 generations, or 11,340 years. The Athenians gave out that they were produce'd at the fame time with the fun and as fume'd to themfelves the honorable name of Αὐτόχθονες, which word fignifys perfons produce'd out of the fame foil that they inhabit: for it was an old opinion, and allmost every where receive'd among the vulgar, that, in the begining of the world, men, like plants, were by fome strange prolifick virtue produce'd out of the fertile womb of our common mother, Earth; and therefor, the ancients generally call'd themselves Tnyaves, fons of the earth, as Hefychius informs us alludeing to the fame original, the Athenians fometimes ftile'd themselves Télyes, *Ibi. Plato, in Critias, p. 1100, reckons the amount to be 9000 years, from what time a war was reported to have exifted between all thofe who inhabited beyond and about the columns of Hercules. + Of a republick, B. 7, C. 10. grafshopers; and fome of them wore grafshopers of gold, binding them in their hair, Las badgeës of honour, and marks to distinguifh them from others of lateër duration, and less noble extraction, because those infects were believe'd to be generateëd out of the ground.* Of the origin of men, fays Diodorus the Sicilian, who professes to give an accurate account (as far as the antiquity of the matters wil admit) of the generation and original of mankind, there are two opinions amongst the most famous and authentick naturalifts and historians. Some of these are of opinion that the world had neither begining nor ever fhal have end; and likewife fay, that mankind was from eternity, and that there never was a time when he first began to be. Others, on the contrary, conceive both the world to be made, and to be corruptible, and that there was a certain time when men had firft a being. For whereas all things at the first were jumble'd together, heaven and earth were in one mafs, and had one and the fame form: *Potters Antiquities of Greece, i, 2. cites Menander Plato and Hefychius (as above), In voce Inyεveis. Plato, in Critias, fays that Atlantes, the first born son of Neptune by Clitonis or Clito, was king of the whole Atlanticks, and the second fon was Autochthones. but afterward (they fay) when corporeal beings appear'd one after another, the world at length prefented itsfelf in the order we now fee; and that the air was in continual agitation, whofe firey part afcended together to the highest place, its nature (by reason of its levity) tending allways upward; for which reason, both the fun and that vaft number of ftars, are contain'd within that orb. That the grofs and earthy matter (cloted together by moisture) by reason of its weight funk down into one place, is continually whirling about; the fea was made of the humid parts; and the mudy earth of the more folid, as yet very moorifh and foft, which by degrees at first was made crufty by the heat of the fun, and then after the face of the earth was parch'd, and as it were fermented, the moisture afterward in many placeës bubble'd up, and appear'd as fo many pustles wrap'd up in thin and flender coats and skins; which may be even seen in flanding ponds and marshy placeës, when, after the earth has been pierce'd with cold, the air grows hot on a fudden, without a gradual alteration: and whereas moisture generates creatures from heat, as from a feminal principle, things fo generateëd, by being inwrap'd in the dewy mists of the night, grew and increase'd and in the day fo lidateëd, and were made hard by the heat of the fun; and when the births includeëd in these ventricles had receive'd their due proportion, then these flender fkins being burst asunder by the heat, the forms of all forts of liveing creatures were brought forth into the light; of which thofe that had most of heat mounted aloft, and were fowl, and birds of the air; but thofe that were drofsy, and had more of earth, were number'd in the order of creeping things, and other creatures alltogether ufe'd to the earth. Then those beasts that were naturally watery and moist (call'd fishes) presently hafteëd to the place connatural to them; and when the earth afterward became more dry and folid by the heat of the fun, and the drying winds, it had not power at length to produce any more of the greater liveing creatures; but each that had an animal life, began to increase their kind by copulation: and Euripides, he ads, the scholar of Anaxagoras, feems to be of the fame opinion, concerning the firft creation of all things; for, in his Menalippe, hes has these verfeës: "A mafs confufe'd heaven and earth once were Of one form; but, after separation, Then men, trees, beafts of th' earth, with fowls of th' air, But, continues he, if this power of the earth to produce liveing creatures, at the first origin of all things, feem credible to any; the Aegyptians do bring teftimonys of this energy of the earth, by the fame things done there at this day. For they say, that about Thebes in Aegypt, after the overflowing of the river Nile, the earth being thereby cover'd with mud and flime, many placeës putrefy through the heat of the fun, and thence are bred multitudes of mice.* It is certain, therefor, that out of the earth when it is harden'd, and the air change'd from its due and natural temperament, animals are generateëd: by which means it came to pass, that, in the first begining of all things, various liveing creatures proceeded from the earth: and these, says he, are the opinions touching the original of things. But (he proceeds) men, they fay, at first led a rude and bruteifh fort of life, and wander'd up and down in the fields, and fed upon herbs, and the natural fruit of the trees. Their words were confufe'd, without any certain fignification; but by degrees they spoke articulately, and made figns, and giveing proper terms to every thing * The mud of the Nile, it is believe'd, has, for fome time paft, loft its generative or vivifying qualitys. |