Page:An Essay on the Age and Antiquity of the Book of Nabathaean Agriculture.djvu/64

48 his ideas of disputed precedence, then proceeds to say:

“There are persons who believe that the Chaldæans began the attack on the Assyrians; but it is not so. The Assyrians, in fact, are not of the race of Adam, while the Chaldæans are his descendants. Thus, the language of the Assyrians, and the names by which they call different objects, cannot be older than Adam, who first gave to everything its name, and was the first who established and organized language itself. Therefore it is not the Chaldæans whom the Assyrians oppose, but Adam; for Adam named this plant akermaï. Now, it is universally acknowledged that what Adam ordained is true and wise; and what others have ordained is without foundation. Then, too, the Assyrians are the children of Shabrikan the First, who is neither comparable nor equal to Adam, and who cannot even come near to him.”

Now, is it possible not to see the allusion made here to what is related in Genesis,