Blair Collection > Celtic researches, on the origin, traditions & language, of the ancient Britons

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h probable that, not only the procuring of bread, but tlic
planting of vineyards, and the preparation of {"erinentcd liquor
were known long before the flood. At least, we hnd them
praéliscd soon afterwards, while Noah and his three sons as yet
constituted but one family and dwelt in the same tent : and
the planting of a vineyard by the great patriarch is simply
recorded, as a thing which belonged of course to the occu-
pation of a hutibandman.
5. The astronomical knowledge of the primitive ageá and
rheir computation of time have aiforded matter for much
debate. Some learned men are of opinion, that the annual
period of the earth's revolution and the succession of the
seasons experienced a great change at the time of the deluge.
There are those who produce authorities to prove that the
ancients calculated only by lunar months, while others con-
tend that their years consisted of 360 days and no more.
May Γ offer a few slight and general hints upon these sub-
jecls ? They are not the striclures of a man of science ; but
such as they are, with undissenibled diffidence they are
addressed to the candid critic.
The occupations of the antediluvians, their diligence ia
the parsuit of knowledge and their peculiar opportunities for
repeated observation, forbid me to suppose that they could
have been ignorant of the stated return of the seasons, and
of the true annual pei'iod, whatever it was in their time.
It seems to me that an addition of 5 day» and (3 hours, to
the former period of the earth's annual revolution, would have
introduced great confusion into the whole solar svstem ; I
therefore conclude that this period has remained the same
from the creation. The promise made to Noah ^' Í wiU not
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