We, at least, are inclined to be of this opinion, and do not hesitate to add, that the spirit of system can never lead to the true understanding of the primitive derivation of antique fables. To endeavour to deduce the whole of them from the same class of circumstances, is a nugatory and useless undertaking. The greater part of the extravagances of father Hardouin emanated from this principle; and if the celebrated Bianchini discovers a weak part in his Universal History, it is because he endeavoured to adhere tenaciously to a system, which could not, by itself alone, explain, all the different vicissitudes of antiquity in the historical and traditional part[1]. Each of the fables may repose partially on a fact, or on a preconceived opinion; and it is indifferent whether it originated in Palestine, Egypt, or Greece.
In the sides and small level spaces of the mountains situated at the entrance of the province of Tarija, where the Indians inhumed the dead bodies, petrifications of bones, the most prodigious that Nature can furnish, are to be found. In one of the MSS. which have been transmitted to us, an individual residing in that province communicates the following fact: "In digging." he observes, "at the base of a hill, in the descent to Tascora, I met with a hard substance, which appeared to be of stone, of a colour between grey and yellow. I
- ↑ This Jesuit refused all belief to the profane history of antiquity, which he derived entirely from the sacred writings. Bianchini, a celebrated historian, astronomer, and mathematician, proposed to fill up the void spaces which are to be found in the profane history of the ages anterior to the war of Troy, by an absolute exclusion of the helps afforded by the sacred text. Is it possible, that, in matters of fact, the truth should be found by two paths diametrically opposite to each other?
