Strabo, 3, 204, says of the Turditani in Spain (Iberia), "They are well acquainted with grammar, and have many written records of high antiquity. They have also large collections of poetry (comp. ch. vii.), and _even their laws_ are described in verse, which they say is of six thousand years standing." _Deucalion_, according to Lucian, was saved from the Deluge on account of his wisdom and piety--"[Greek: eubouliês te kai euebiês heineka]." [[Greek: euboulia]--literally, "good counsel."] _Mercury_ gave Egypt its laws--"Atque Egyptiis leges et literas tradidisse."--Cicero, "De Natura Deorum," iii. 22. _Apollo._--Cicero says the fourth Apollo gave laws to the _Arcadians_ (comp. _infra_, p. 331): "Quem Arcades [Greek: Nomion] appellant, quod ab eo se leges ferunt accepisse," id. iii. 23; _vide_ also Plato, "Leges," i. 1. CHAPTER XI. _DILUVIAN TRADITIONS IN AFRICA AND AMERICA._ Boulanger (1722-59), a freethinker, and the friend and correspondent of Voltaire, was so dominated by his belief in the universal Deluge as a fact, that he made its consequences the foundation of all his theories. Writing in the midst of a scepticism very much resembling that of the present day, he says, "What! you believe in the Deluge?" Such will be the exclamation of a certain school of opinion, and this school a very large one. Nevertheless, this profound writer, by the exigencies of his theory, was irresistibly brought to the recognition of the fact. "We must take," he continues, "a fact in the traditions of mankind, the truth of which shall be universally recognised. What is it? I do not see any, of which the evidence is more generally attested, than those which have transmitted to us that famous physical revolution which, they tell us, has altered the face of our globe, and which has occasioned a total renovation of human society: in a word, the Deluge appears to me the true starting-point (_la veritable epoque_) in the history of nations. Not only is the tradition which has transmitted this fact the most ancient of all, but it is moreover clear and intelligible; it presents a fact which can be justified and confirmed." He proceeds, and the drift and animus of the writer will be sufficiently apparent in the passage--"It is then by the Deluge that the history of the existing nations and societies has commenced. If there have been false and pernicious religions in the world it is to the Deluge that I trace them back as to their source; if doctrines inimical to society have been broached, I see their principles in the consequences of the Deluge; if there have existed vicious legislations and innumerable bad governments, it will be upon the Deluge that I lay the charge." It is, then, only in attestation of the fact that I adduce this author; and in his proof he has accumulated a large mass of indirect evidence, which a certain school of opinion find it