an,
or by his failure to eat of the tree of life; in South Africa by the
accident that the messenger who was to announce immortality was outrun
by one who announced mortality.[1429]

+835+. The belief that the earliest men were longer-lived and of larger
stature than their successors is found among certain peoples.[1430] Of
the origin of this belief in ancient times we have no accounts. It may
have been suggested by various objects supposed to be remains of men, or
it may have been due simply to a tendency to conceive of the beginners
of human society as superior beings (dedivinized gods). The Hebrew
tradition ascribed great age to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, and
Moses, on a generally descending scale; the longevity of the
antediluvians is perhaps a speculative continuation of the series back
of Abraham on an ascending scale, though special mythical traits here
come in.

Connected with the general belief in the superiority of early conditions
of life is the belief in a primitive earthly paradise; the history of
this conception is not clear, but in some cases the paradise appears to
have been the delightful abode of a deity, into which human beings were
for various reasons admitted, or the primeval fair and happy
earth.[1431]

+836+. The belief that the world or the existing order is to be
destroyed appears to be connected with the conception of history as
involving a cycle of ages, and the theory of ages may have arisen from
the tradition or the knowledge of social and political revolutions, the
rise of each new phase of civilization involving the destruction of its
predecessor. Traditions of past cataclysms may have helped toward the
formulation of an expectation of coming destruction. This expectation,
generalized under the influence of belief in a final judgment of men by
God, would lead to the announcement of a final destruction of the
present world. This destruction, which ushers in a new age, is
accomplished in various ways, sometimes by water, wind, or fire,[1432]
sometimes by supernatural enemies.[1433] The Hindu and the Persian
schemes of successive ages are relatively late theological
constructions, but they are based on the older idea that present things
must have an end.[1434] The Navaho series of five worlds represents,
apparently, nothing but traditions of social changes, interspersed with
minor aetiologic myths.[1435]

+837+. Many other cosmogonic details, common to various peoples, might
be adde