Excerpt from Dictionary of Chronology: Or the Historian's Companion, Being an Authentic Register of Events From the Earliest Period to the Present Time

Chronology may be defined, a scientific method of ascertaining or computing time, from the commencement of some given event to the completion or fulfilment of another, with the doctrine of dates, eras, epochs, &c. Coincident therewith. Like history it opens, through a great avenue, an expanded view of all human affairs, and connects and illumines the most dark and distant revolutions of the world. Yet it is to be lamented, that many and insuperable difficulties arise in asoer taining the dates and periods of antiquity, and concerning which much controversy and difference of Opinion have arisen. All nations, says Sir Isaac Newton, before they began to keep exact records of time, seem to have been led away by the false pride of heightening their antiquity, and of ascribing their origin to some divinity or renowned prince, often known only in fable, and handed down by legendary tradition. On this account Sir Isaac found himself constrained to deviate widely from the beaten paths of former writers, in fixing the dates of facts preceding the war between the Greeks and Persians yet, so affixing them, says he, as to make Chronology suit with the course of nature, with astronomy, with sacred history, and with itself.

Sir Isaac Newton has shown, that the Chronology of ancient king doms is involved in the greatest uncertainty; and that the Europeans had no Chronology before the existence of the Persian empire, or 536 years before Christ, when Cyrus conquered Darius that the antiquities of the Greeks are full of fables till this period, and that after this time several Greek historians introduced the computation by generations.

About the Publisher

Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com

This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.