The extent of the _Second_, or Postdiluvian Age, is ascertained from the text of Genesis x. 21–25; xi. 10–32, and xii. 4; by summing up the _Antepaidogonian_ ages of the _Postdiluvian_ Patriarchs, including the date of the Call of Abraham from that of Terah. This amount is, according to the Hebrew text, and the Latin Vulgate, 367 years; according to Usher’s view of that text, 427 years; according to the Septuagint, 1147 years; and, according to the Samaritan, 1017 years. This enormous discrepancy is another Gordian knot of equal difficulty with the former, and requiring for its resolution, a similar process of investigation and argument. Before resuming the discussion, however, it is proper to notice a very able and logical article in the “Cours Complet de Theologie” of M. L’Abbé Migne, entitled “Chronographiæ LXX Interpretum Defensio.” The author of this dissertation enters fully into the critical history of the Septuagint version, and investigates the causes of the existing discrepancies between it and the Hebrew text. He powerfully vindicates the authenticity and authority of the Septuagint; he clearly refutes the absurd suppositions which have been advanced from time to time by critics in order to account for the numerical errors which the advocates of the _Hebrew verity_ suppose it contains; and, he completely demolishes the unfounded hypothesis of Usher as to the fancied existence of two Greek versions, both of which were ascribed to the Seventy interpreters![8] He next discusses the authority of the Samaritan Pentateuch, and proves that it, as well as the Hebrew, originally contained the same numerical statements as the Septuagint; and shews that it is entitled to be heard as an additional witness in regard to the Postdiluvian age, notwithstanding its error in the matter of the Junior Cainan. He treats, in a very full and impartial manner, of the authority of Josephus as an historian and chronographer, and institutes a careful and searching inquiry into his numerical statements, which are universally admitted to be so puzzling and contradictory. He clearly elicits, however, the undeniable fact that the numbers of Josephus originally agreed with those of the Septuagint, both before and after the flood; but he avows that they have been so vitiated by careless or designing copyists, that it is impossible to establish a perfect coincidence.