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Article VOICES EEOM DEAD NATIONS. BY KENNETH R. ... ← Page 6 of 7 →
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Voices Eeom Dead Nations. By Kenneth R. ...
to think what ^ the results might be , or he w as unable from early education to take such a stride forward ; at any rate , twenty years after Scaliger s time Petavius dismissed Egyptian dynasties with a mingled sneer and sigh . Gover took up the question where the death of Scaliger had left it . " . Syiicellus " was edited and published by the latter scholar in 1652 ,
and the lists of Manetho , according to Eusebius , being also published , they could be collated with the lists now known of Eratosthenes and Apollodorus . Manetho ' s lists , we may here stay to remark , are the more valuable , as far as native authority goes , as there is a strongprobability that Eratosthenes knew not " a word of Egyptian , or at any rate could not himself read the hieroedvphics . His learning :, as
I said before , probably exceeded that of all his contemporaries , but his genius was that of a Grecian encyclopedist , rather than that of an accurate scientific archEeologist . "He wrote , " said Hipparchus , " mathematically about geography , and geographically about mathematics . " The Alexandrian age , however extraordinary for erudition , was somewhat slipshod , and how can anv one escape a slight . taint
from his age ? But there the matter rested for a while . War , famine , dissensions of every kind , set aside historical investigation , as far as outward practical controversy was concerned . " Philosophical science , indeed , " observes Bunsen , * found a refuge in Holland and England ; but the previous spirit of genial research , and ardent zeal for original investigation , had now given place to the mechanism of servile commentary , and an uncritical parade of scholastic learning .
Ihe consequence was , that the precious gems , which lay concealed in the rubbish of" Syncellus , " remained unnoticed ; while , on the other hand , the synchronistic system of that author , and of Eusebius , with their whole train of wilful or unconscious falsehood and confusion , passed for well-established canons of chronology . Even those wholly valueless impostures , the so-called Old Chronicle , with the pseudo-Manetho of the Dog-star , and the later list of kings , which first came
to light in "Syncellus , " met with consideration , at least for the time being , whenever they seemed to square with some favourite chronological theory , some theological or philological whim . Even before the year 1070 , in which the great war of Egyptian chronology broke out , the pioneers and out-skirmishers had done much to complicate the difficulties of the campaign . Unable to extract , sift , and set
apart from the promiscuous materials at their disposal , the practical and tangible elements for future inquiry and illustration , they arbitrarily mixed up the whole in one confused and undistinguishahic mass . "
Marsh am ' s " Canon Chronicus , " founding itself upon the spurious Manetho and the false Old Chronicle , was published in 1070 , and the author ingeniously tried to induce others to bow to his system , which he farther improved by taking from the fabrications of Syncellus whatever fitted with his plans , leaving Syncellus to answer for * Egypt ' s Place , vol . i . p . 233 .
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Voices Eeom Dead Nations. By Kenneth R. ...
to think what ^ the results might be , or he w as unable from early education to take such a stride forward ; at any rate , twenty years after Scaliger s time Petavius dismissed Egyptian dynasties with a mingled sneer and sigh . Gover took up the question where the death of Scaliger had left it . " . Syiicellus " was edited and published by the latter scholar in 1652 ,
and the lists of Manetho , according to Eusebius , being also published , they could be collated with the lists now known of Eratosthenes and Apollodorus . Manetho ' s lists , we may here stay to remark , are the more valuable , as far as native authority goes , as there is a strongprobability that Eratosthenes knew not " a word of Egyptian , or at any rate could not himself read the hieroedvphics . His learning :, as
I said before , probably exceeded that of all his contemporaries , but his genius was that of a Grecian encyclopedist , rather than that of an accurate scientific archEeologist . "He wrote , " said Hipparchus , " mathematically about geography , and geographically about mathematics . " The Alexandrian age , however extraordinary for erudition , was somewhat slipshod , and how can anv one escape a slight . taint
from his age ? But there the matter rested for a while . War , famine , dissensions of every kind , set aside historical investigation , as far as outward practical controversy was concerned . " Philosophical science , indeed , " observes Bunsen , * found a refuge in Holland and England ; but the previous spirit of genial research , and ardent zeal for original investigation , had now given place to the mechanism of servile commentary , and an uncritical parade of scholastic learning .
Ihe consequence was , that the precious gems , which lay concealed in the rubbish of" Syncellus , " remained unnoticed ; while , on the other hand , the synchronistic system of that author , and of Eusebius , with their whole train of wilful or unconscious falsehood and confusion , passed for well-established canons of chronology . Even those wholly valueless impostures , the so-called Old Chronicle , with the pseudo-Manetho of the Dog-star , and the later list of kings , which first came
to light in "Syncellus , " met with consideration , at least for the time being , whenever they seemed to square with some favourite chronological theory , some theological or philological whim . Even before the year 1070 , in which the great war of Egyptian chronology broke out , the pioneers and out-skirmishers had done much to complicate the difficulties of the campaign . Unable to extract , sift , and set
apart from the promiscuous materials at their disposal , the practical and tangible elements for future inquiry and illustration , they arbitrarily mixed up the whole in one confused and undistinguishahic mass . "
Marsh am ' s " Canon Chronicus , " founding itself upon the spurious Manetho and the false Old Chronicle , was published in 1070 , and the author ingeniously tried to induce others to bow to his system , which he farther improved by taking from the fabrications of Syncellus whatever fitted with his plans , leaving Syncellus to answer for * Egypt ' s Place , vol . i . p . 233 .