This digression on the legend of Deucalion has led me away from what is properly the subject-matter of this inquiry; and I therefore propose now to summarise the results of the last two chapters. To pursue the tradition of Noah in all its ramifications would extend the inquiry beyond the scope which is necessary for the purposes of my argument. It will have been seen, I think, that my object has not been merely antiquarian research. I have sought to bring into prominence the reminiscences of Noah, which recall him at any rate as the depository of the traditions, if not the expositor of the science of mankind, as the channel, if not the fountain-head, of law, which thus became the law of nations--as the intermediary through whom the communications of the Most High passed to mankind, and under whose authority mankind held together during some three hundred years.[197] [197] Gen. vi. 18; viii. 15; vi. 13; ix. 8; viii. 20; ix. 20; and Ecclesiasticus xliv. 1, 3, 4, 19, "The covenants of the world were made with Him." Let me collect more directly and more fully the epithets in this sense which are dispersed in the above traditions. We have seen that Calmet properly identifies Saturn with Noah; that according to Virgil and Plutarch "under Saturn was the golden age;" Saturn of whom Hesiod says:--"Him of mazy counsel, Saturn;" that in the tradition, as we see it in Virgil, he is described as bringing his scattered people into social life, and the noticeable phrase is used _legesque dedit_;[198] that in Bacchus, directly connected with Saturn through the _Saturnalia_, we also see much in his characteristics in common with Saturn, all which equally identifies him with Noah; and Bacchus, as we are told by Cicero, was the author of the "laws called Subazian."[199] In Janus, too, we find great resemblances to Saturn, and in the very respects which would identify him with Noah. Under Janus as under Saturn was the golden age, and it is added that in the time of Janus, "all families were full of religion and holiness," and although his rule is described as singularly peaceful, he is called Quirinus and Martialis, as presiding over war. The closing and opening of his temple, too, had a conspicuous and direct connection with peace and war. [198] I feel justified in bringing in attestation also the following verses of the "Oracula Sybillina," for, as I have already said, even if they be forgeries of the second century A.D., they at any rate represent the tradition at that date (i. v. 270):--