=2. But as to all these opinions= it must be remembered, First, that the era from the creation of Adam to the Flood, 1,656 years, is to be divided by the number ten, the number of the Patriarchs, which would require an individual length of life much longer than that enjoyed at the present day; and, Secondly, no scientific reasons can be offered why human life should be limited in duration to its present length. It varies now according to the contingencies of accident and disease, and old age itself may be only a modified form of disease and not essential to a human organism. A clock made to run twenty-four hours is expected to run down in about that time, but the clock-maker may, by adding one wheel, or to the length of the weight-cord, or by some other very simple rearrangement, make the very same clock run a week or a month. It is only a question of life, about which, as to its nature, we know little or nothing. Thirdly, as to the historic probability, it is a fact that traditions other than those of the Hebrew nation represent that in the earliest ages there was an enjoyment of exceedingly long lives. The chronology of Berosus, a Chaldæan priest and historian, B. C. 279 to 255, gives to the ten Babylonian kings who in the earliest traditions of that people reigned before the Babylonian deluge 2,221 years, or only 21 years less than the period given in the Septuagint as having elapsed between the Creation and the Deluge.[20] The earliest Aryan tradition states that the first man lived 1,000 years in Paradise. Other nations have kept the same tradition of long lives in the earliest times, which nations could not have received the tradition from the Scriptures. =3.= But there is a probability arising from =the fitness of long lives=, and that is seen in the necessity of a history which could thus be obtained by tradition when no written language existed. It will be seen that from Adam to the Flood tradition was delivered through only one person, so that Lamech could repeat to Noah what Adam had narrated to him of all the dealings of God in Eden and after the expulsion. Although Lamech lived during the lifetimes of all the Patriarchs down to the Flood, which took place 1,656 years after the creation of Adam, he himself was only 777 years old at death. Thus we see that tradition was more trustworthy then than at any time since. =4.= Moreover, Shem lived nearly a century before the death of Lamech, who could have narrated the story of Eden and the trials and experiences of his after-life, as well as the history of the Patriarchal times, to Shem, who was alive in the times of Abraham and his son Isaac. By that time writing was invented, and doubtless much of the history of the times before and after the Flood had been committed to writing, which was invented several centuries before the death of Shem, as we learn from the ancient Chaldæan records.