Although the chronology of the Septuagint receives the strongest confirmation from the writings of the ancient chronographers, it must not be concealed that some of them have committed very strange and unaccountable errors in the computation of the different ages of the world; while, the works of others have come down to us in such an imperfect and corrupted state, that implicit dependance cannot be placed in the chronographical statements which they now contain. The latter remark is peculiarly applicable to the writings of Josephus, whose authority, notwithstanding all his errors, has been followed by many modern chronologers in preference even to that of the sacred Scriptures. Surely the question of chronology lies between the Hebrew text and the Septuagint version, and not between either of these and the works of the chronographers whether ancient or modern. By a fair examination, however, of their Sacred Chronology, we shall find that the testimony of the oldest and best chronographers is almost entirely in favour of the chronology of the Septuagint, and that wherever they differ from it in their works, they commit errors which in general, can easily be detected and accounted for, unless the passages in question have been so entirely vitiated by the wilful mistakes of transcribers as to render it impossible to determine what were the real and actual statements of the author. We shall select for this purpose, the names of five authors who possess the greatest influence among the learned on the subject of chronography, and whose statements are more or less followed by all later writers on the same subject: namely, Josephus A.D. 90, Theophilus A.D. 180, Africanus A.D. 220, Eusebius A.D. 315, and the author of the Paschal Chronicle.[70] The names of these chronographers have been particularly selected indeed, and their statements tabulated by Mr. Clinton himself, as the best authorities, at least so far as regards the first two ages of the world. We do not follow him, however, in placing their statements on a level with those of the ancient texts and versions of Scripture; but we class them together as possessing the next claim to our attention. The following table, which for the sake of comparison, is marked by the same _number_ as the corresponding table in our _first Part_, contains the _Antepaidogonian ages_ of the _Antediluvian Patriarchs_, and the _Extent_ of the _First age_ of the world according to each chronographer: