Chronology

“ It has pressed into its service the imponderable agents, and demonstrated their interconvertibility; has bestowed priceless blessings upon the living; has soothed the pillow of languishing humanity, and extended its welcome offices even to the grave. It has given us an idea of the duration of our globe, and established a system of chronology the immensity of which we endeavor in vain to comprehend, where centuries are as nothing, and cycles but fleeting periods of time. ”

“ One historian, indeed, assures us that they threw their years into cycles of ten, a hundred, and a thousand years, and that by these cycles they regulated their chronology.15 But this assertion—not improbable in itself—rests on a writer but little gifted with the spirit of criticism, and is counter-balanced by the silence of every higher and earlier authority, as well as by the absence of any monument, like those found among other American nations, to attest the existence of such a calendar. ”

“ But we have another system of chronology derived from a wholly different system of ideas; it too relates to periods of vast duration, and, like our great tidal periods, extends to times anterior to human history, or even to the duration of human life on this globe. The facts of geology open up to us a majestic chronology, the epochs of which are familiar to us by the succession of strata forming the crust of the earth, and by the succession of living beings whose remains these strata have preserved. ”

“ Even the surface-reader of Scripture will observe how little is made in its pages of the time-element. There is a purposed vagueness in its chronology, which scarcely accords with our Western ideas of accuracy and precision. We observe times and seasons. We strike off the years with the clang of bells or the hush of solemn services. Each day with us is lifted up into prominence, having a personality and history all its own, and as we write its history, we keep it clear of all its to-morrows and its yesterdays. ”

“ And as you do not show any reason for the failure, permit us to give ours before we take your ground and deny that prophecy can be understood. Every man of common intellect and information knows that we are dependent in some things on what we call human chronology for the conclusion of our premises as it respects time. Again, they well know that our most learned and studious writers and historians disagree in the chronology of the events from which we date, some four or five years. ”

“ When I speak of chronology as a science he should be perfect in, I do not mean the little controversies that are in it. These are endless, and most of them of so little importance to a gentleman, as not to deserve to be enquir'd into, were they capable of an easy decision. ”

“ The table of comparative chronology is designed to enable the reader to see at a glance the dates of the occurrences described in the book, side by side with those of important events in the world at large. It is always an advantage, when studying a particular piece of history, to have in mind other happenings of real consequence pertaining to the period under review. ”

“ From whatever point we attempt to view the facts thus presented to our consideration, it becomes equally obvious that we are dealing with the traces of a period irreconcilable with any received system of historic chronology; but within which, nevertheless, we are compelled to recognise many indications of the presence of man. ”

“ CHRONOLOGY is the science of the measurement of time, of ascertaining and fixing dates, which constitute the landmarks by which the mind is guided in its backward course through the long vista of years, and enabled to locate and fix the events of history, the knowledge of which would otherwise be a confused and wellnigh useless attainment. ”

“ In the study of events, the two circumstances of time and place constantly demand our attention. Accordingly, Chronology and Geography have been called the two eyes of History. It is only by the use of both that we can gain a complete and life-like impression of events. ”

“ A sense of the importance of a fixed standard of chronology was only acquired gradually in the history of the world. Nations in a primitive state of civilization were not, and are not, conscious of the need. ”

“ A theory of chronology cannot, in the present condition of our knowledge, be constructed. The works passed in review evidently belong to epochs far apart from each other, and probably to different branches of the people inhabiting Peru. ”

“ Not chronology but relationship is ultimately what the historian deals in. The element of time, so vital at first glance, assumes a constantly more subordinate character. That the past is past becomes ever less [Pg 119] important. Except for perspective it might as well be the present or the future or, if one can conceive it, a parallel time. ”

“ We shall therefore endeavour not to confine ourselves to the narrative of a dry and monotonous chronology, but to select from the number of ascents that have taken place within the last eighty years, only those whose special character renders them worthy of more detailed and severe investigation. ”

“ When Christian historians can, upon undeniable historical authority, justify biblical and ecclesiastical chronology, then, perchance, they may be better equipped than at present for the congenial work of rending heathen chronologies into shreds. ”

“ The Particular considers time in particular, demonstrating the certainty of Epocha's, and enumerating the Calendars of the several Nations.
The latter Author, considering with himself; that of the writers of Chronology, some have contented themselves to teach only the Precepts thereof; others, to reform the dates of it, and to marke the Characters of Times, without rehearing the considerable passages of them; others on the contrary confounding Chronology with History, have recited the remarkable Events, without much troubling themselves about the time, wherein they hapned ”

“ In fact, the one just ground on which we might distrust his chronology is its systematic character. He has a thorough scheme of his own, which he carries out to a nicety. Now such a chronology is not necessarily untrustworthy. ”

“ The connection, moreover, which the covenant people had with the surrounding nations, especially the great monarchies which successively held sway over the civilized world—Egypt, Assyria, Chaldea, Greece, Rome—requires an extended knowledge of ancient history, and, as inseparably connected with this, of ancient chronology. Biblical chronology constitutes, indeed, a science of itself, embracing some very perplexed and difficult questions, the solution of which has an important bearing upon the passages of Scripture to which they have reference. ”

“ I fear you are by this time tired of Chronology; but my sole intention, in what I have said, is to convince you that it is a science not [185] out of your reach, in the moderate degree that is requisite for you; the last volume of the Ancient Universal History is the best English Chronological Work I know ”

“ A person pretending to chronology, without being able to distinguish the historical points—so clearly as they stand out—in which Sir H. N. speaks with authority, from the arithmetical points of pure reckoning on which he does not pretend to do more than directly repeat others, must be as fit to talk about the construction of Easter Tables as the Spanish are to talk French. ”

“ No exclusive reliance in determining the precise chronology can be placed on the merely mechanical tests afforded by tables of metrical statistics. The chronological order can only be deduced with any confidence from a consideration of all the internal characteristics as well as the known external history of each play. The premisses are often vague and conflicting, and no chronology hitherto suggested receives at all points universal assent. ”

“ Obviously the sphere of operation is enlarged in proportion to the time employed. Everything is possible with time. Confining ourselves to recognized chronology, existing varieties cannot be reconciled with that unity found in a common origin. ”

“ Christian chronographers had already introduced this ontological meaning into chronology, making the millenniums of the world's history correspond with the days of the creation or the ages of man's life. Finally, Ferrari in Italy and Lorenz in Germany (the latter ignorant of his Italian predecessor) conceived a theory of historical periods according to generations, calculated in periods of thirty-one years and a fraction, or of thirty-three years and a fraction, and grouped as tetrads or triads, in periods of a hundred and twenty-five years or a century. ”

“ We have no dates on which we can depend as to the period or history of our globe from the creation down to the present time. Chronologists differ in regard to the history and age of the world, Some make the age of the world, from the creation to the coming of Christ, to be four thousand years Archbishop Usher has introduced this chronology into King James' Bible ”

“ A general index covering every reference in the series to dates, events, persons, and places of historic importance. These are made easily accessible by a careful and elaborate system of cross-references.
6. A separate and complete chronology of each nation of ancient, mediæval, and modern times, with references to the volume and page where each item is treated, either as an entire article or as part of one; so that the history of any one nation may be read in its logical order and in the language of its best historians. ”

“ In some cases, as the notes will show, the data for determining the chronology of a letter are very slight, often amounting to little more than a general impression impossible to put into words, and which possibly would appeal differently to different minds. ”

“ Comprehending the Chronology and History of the World, from the Earliest Times to the Russian Treaty of Peace, April 1856. By J. Willoughby Rosse. Double vol. 10s.
—— Index of Dates. Comprehending the principal Facts in the Chronology and History of the World, alphabetically arranged; being a complete Index to Blair’s Chronological Tables. By J. W. Rosse. 2 vols. 5s. each. ”

“ From data now well established we may push 3back their life far beyond recorded chronology, and, if we anticipate even by a little the nucleus of the Homeric poems, we possess a practically unbroken continuity of their history and language for three thousand years down to the present day. ”

“ III. That the object of the Institute shall be to promote Chronological Science, by literary contributions, by collecting and diffusing information, by interchange of correspondence, by lectures on Chronology and its various branches and applications, and by the publication or encouragement of Chronological works. ”

“ The Saros of the Chaldaeans, the Olympiad of the Greeks, and the Roman Indiction are instances of this mode of reckoning time. Several cycles were formerly known in Europe; but most of them were invented for the purpose of adjusting the solar and lunar divisions of time, and were rather employed in the regulation of the calendar than as chronological eras. They are frequently, however, of very great use in fixing dates that have been otherwise imperfectly expressed, and consequently form important elements of chronology. (W. L. R. C.)
Modern Results of Archaeological Research. ”

“ In no case do they agree in fixing a date which can be proved to be wrong, or which there are sound reasons for distrusting. On these grounds I have classed the Historia and Index as primary sources, and maintain that the dates as to which the two documents agree must be accepted as certain. This principle at once brings the doubtful points in the chronology within very moderate limits. The general chronological table, in which the dates fixed by the agreement of these sources are printed in black type, will make this plain enough. ”

“ If the interpretation of the text be correct, calculation would fix the date between the year 3,007 and 3,010 of the ancient era, or a thousand years after the epoch attributed to the reign of Menkera in Mariette's chronological table. In any case, it is to be hoped that future discoveries will enable us with certainty to trace back the course of ages, and to determine positive dates for the origins of history, with which may be connected the fluctuating chronology of the most remote events of which the human race has preserved the memory. ”

“ They are alike largely insofar as they have retained certain old common traits. They are different to the degree that they have severally added traits of later and localized development.
165. The Question of Dating
A natural question is how long these periods lasted. As regards accurate dating, there is only one possible answer: we do not know nearly enough. Moreover modern historians, who possess infinitely fuller records on chronology than anthropologists can ever hope to have on primitive peoples, tend more and more to lay little weight on specific dates. ”

“ And the practical difficulties attending the use of such a system for chronological purposes are obvious; isolated dates recorded in such a fashion cannot be allocated without some explicit clue to the centuries to which they belong. ”

“ When dates have been taken from computations of time other than the Christian era, it should be understood that the corresponding day has been made to conform to our own era, and consequently perfect accuracy can not be claimed for them. ”

“ When these experts had applied themselves to the matter with much time, diligence and study into the night, and had searched out cycles, both ancient and modern, from all sources, and discussed them and most carefully evaluated them, they chose, by their own judgment and that of learned men who wrote about the matter, in preference to other things, this cycle of epacts, to which they have also added some things which are seen after careful circumspection to be needed for perfecting the calendar. ”

“ The second habitual error is, that in this comparison of ages we divide time merely into past and present, and place these in the balance to be weighed against each other; not considering that the present is in our estimation not more than a period of thirty years, or half a century at most, and that the past is a mighty accumulation of many such periods, perhaps the whole of recorded time, or at least the whole of that portion of it in which our own country has been distinguished. ”