Here it will probably be asked how Josephus could say that his nation affected _never to write anything_, when they had twenty-two canonical books, without reckoning the _"Targum"_ by _Onkelos_. But it must be considered that twenty-two small volumes were very little when compared with the multitude of books preserved in the library of Alexandria, half of which were burned in Cæsar's war. It is certain that the Jews had written and read very little; that they were profoundly ignorant of astronomy, geometry, geography, and physics; that they knew nothing of the history of other nations; and that in Alexandria they first began to learn. Their language was a barbarous mixture of ancient Phœnician and corrupted Chaldee; it was so poor that several moods were wanting in the conjugation of their verbs. Moreover, as they communicated neither their books nor the titles of them to any foreigner, no one on earth except themselves had ever heard of _Adam_, or _Eve_, or _Abel_, or _Cain_, or _Noah_. _Abraham_ alone was, in course of time, known to the Oriental nations; but no ancient people admitted that Abraham was the root of the Jewish nation. Such are the secrets of Providence, that the father and mother of the human race have ever been totally unknown to their descendants; so that the names of Adam and Eve are to be found in no ancient author, either of Greece, of Rome, of Persia, or of Syria, nor even among the Arabs, until near the time of Mahomet. It was God's pleasure that the origin of the great family of the world should be concealed from all but the smallest and most unfortunate part of that family. How is it that Adam and Eve have been unknown to all their children? How could it be that neither in Egypt nor in Babylon was any trace--any tradition--of our first parents to be found? Why were they not mentioned by Orpheus, by Linus, or by Thamyris? For if they had said but one word of them, it would undoubtedly have been caught by Hesiod, and especially by Homer, who speak of everything except the authors of the human race. Clement of Alexandria, who collected so many ancient testimonies, would not have failed to quote any passage in which mention had been made of Adam and Eve. Eusebius, in his "Universal History," has examined even the most doubtful testimonies, and would assuredly have made the most of the smallest allusion, or appearance of an allusion, to our first parents. It is, then, sufficiently clear that they were always utterly unknown to the nations.