gone a little farther, and have shewn that the Mythos was a correct imitation of that of Troy and of Egypt.
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ROME. Romulus, Founder Numa, Legislator Hostilius, Warrior Martius Tarquin Servius Tullius Tarquin the Superb, banished for the rape, by Sextus.
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EGYPT. Vulcan Apollo Good Fortune Serapis Pan Osiris, Isis Typhon the Superb, destroyed by the Gods.
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TROY. Dardanus Erichton Tros Ilus Ganymede Laomedon, Hesione Priam lost the kingdom for the rape of Paris.
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And even the same system may be found in Kemfer’s Japan. The whole may be seen drawn out at length by Gebelin.[1] The seven kings reigned 245 years,[2] thirty-five for each on an average, which is incredible. This shews it to be a Mythos.
When the first 600 years from the supposed foundation of the city arrived, and also when the 1200 arrived, the Roman devotees were much alarmed for fear of some great unknown calamity. This all referred to the lost period either of 600 or 608 years. In the later years of the Republic, or in the early years of the Emperors, the sæculum having become quite uncertain both as to its termination and its meaning, a shorter period was fixed on to gratify the people’s love of shows, and the vanity of the ruler of the day in the exhibition of them. It is pretty certain that there were several systems in different nations, all arising from the supposed lengths of the Neros, the real length of which being only found out by degrees, they were obliged to make out their system by expedients as well as they were able.
If we take the period of the Trojan war as settled by Usher at 1194 years before Christ, making it very nearly two Neroses, the period with which these cycles in all different countries end, we shall see that the Mythos of Troy was the same as that of Rome. It is perfectly clear that the Romans knew there ought to be a sacred sæculum or age, that the eighth sæculum from the beginning of the world, was running, but the exact length of it, or when it began or ended, they did not know. The Sibylline verses, foretelling a new Troy and a new Argonautic expedition, cannot be construed to allude to a short period of 110 or 120 years: nor can the expression, a series of ages which recurs again and again in the course of one mundane revolution, be construed to refer to it. It may be said that Virgil’s prophecy by the Sibyl of the age being about to expire will apply to the eighth century from the supposed building of Rome, as well as to the Neros. But this is not the case, because it will not apply to the renewal of Trojan wars, Argonautic Expeditions, &c.
Among all the ancient nations of the world, the opinion was universal, that the planetary bodies were the disposers of the affairs of men. Christians who believe in Transubstantiation, and that their priests have an unlimited power to forgive sins, may affect to despise those who have held that opinion, down to Tycho Brahe, or even to our own times; but their contempt is not becoming, it is absurd. From this error, however, arose the opinion, that the knowledge of future events might be obtained from a correct understanding of the nature of the planetary motions. This was, perhaps, an improvement on the other. It was thought that the future fortunes of every man might be known, from a proper consideration of the state of the planets at
