their value and importance have been enhanced and brought more distinctly into notice by recent discoveries made in the north. The researches of modern travellers and men of science in the south have all tended to connect the traces of remote civilization with Asia, from whence, there is little doubt, the whole continent of America received both its inhabitants, its arts, and its religion, though of the date of that first peopling, or of its continuance, no satisfactory opinion can be formed. It is, however, extraordinary that, so far as the north is concerned, there should exist no link of connexion, even in tradition, between the present natives and their civilized predecessors in the same continent. Whether we suppose the present races to be descended from those ancient inhabitants, or the ancient inhabitants to have become utterly extinct, and, after some lapse of ages, another race of inhabitants to have immigrated, the solution is equally embarrassing. If any connexion between the present and the remote inhabitants is supposed, then we cannot solve the fact of the memory of their civilized ancestors having entirely disappeared; and if there is no connexion of descent between them, then it is equally astonishing how those original inhabitants should, under their circumstances of civilization, have become altogether as extinct as if they had been swept away by a deluge or engulfed in an abyss. Yet the remains of their civilization show that such could not have been the cause of their extinction. The case is widely different between the present natives of Southern America and their remote ancestors. Links of connexion are there obvious and abundant, though the decline in civilization is great. The derivation of it from Asia may also be more satisfactorily traced than in the north. There is no point in which the agreement of the Southern Americans with the Asiatics is more remarkable than in the zodiac and the calendar. The coincidence in such fanciful matters as the signs of the zodiac is indeed too distinct to be attributed to chance. The system adopted from the remotest antiquity by the Chinese, Japanese, Kalmucks, Mongols, Mantchous, as well as among the Tolteks, Azteks, and other American nations, is said to be the same, with trivial variations; while that in use by the Japanese and Americans is said to be precisely identical. The points of agreement and difference between the Mexicans and the Egyptians in their regulation of the calendar have been ably treated by M. Jonard, in a letter to Baron Humboldt.

'I have recognized in your memoir on the division of time among the Mexican nations compared with those of Asia, some very striking analogies between the Toltec characters and institutions observed on the banks of the Nile. Among these analogies there is one which is

worthy of attention. It is the use of the vague year of three hundred and sixty-five days, composed of equal months, and of five complementary days, equally employed at Thebes and Mexico, a distance of three thousand leagues. It is true that the Egyptians had no intercalation, while the Mexicans intercalated thirteen days every fifty-two years. Still further, intercalation was proscribed in Egypt, to such a point, that their kings swore, on their accession, never to permit it to be employed during their reign. Notwithstanding this difference, we find a striking agreement in the length of the duration of the solar year. In reality, the intercalation of the Mexicans, being thirteen days on each cycle of fifty-two years, comes to the same thing as that of the Julian Calendar, which is one day in every four years, and consequently supposes the duration of the solar year to be three hundred and sixty-five days and six hours. Now such was the length of the year amongst the Egyptians, since the Sothic period was at once one thousand four hundred and sixty solar years, and one thousand four hundred and sixty-one vague years; which was in some sort an intercalation of a whole year of three hundred and sixty-five days every one thousand four hundred and sixty years. The property of the Sothic period-that of bringing back the seasons and festivals to the same point of the year, after having made them pass successively through every point is undoubtedly one of the reasons which caused the intercalation to be proscribed, no less than the repugnance of the Egyptians for foreign institutions. Now it is remarkable that the same solar year of three hundred and sixty-five days six hours, adopted by nations so different, and perhaps still more remote in their state of civilization than in their geographical distance, relates to a real astronomical period, and belongs peculiarly to the Egyptians. This is a point which M. Fourier has ascertained in his researches on the Zodiac of Egypt. No one is more capable of deciding this question in an astronomical point of view. He alone can elucidate the valuable discoveries which he has made. I shall here observe, that the Persians who intercalated thirty days every hundred and twenty years; the Chaldeans, who employed the era of Nabonassar; the Romans, who added a day every four years; the Assyrians, and almost all the nations who regulate their calendar by the course of the sun, appear to me to have taken from Egypt the notion of a solar year of three hundred days. As to the Mexicans, it would be superfluous to examine how they attained this knowledge. Such a problem would not be soon solved; but the fact of the intercalation of thirteen days every cycle, that is, the use of a year of three hundred and sixty-five days and a quarter, is a proof that it was either borrowed from the Egyptians, or that they had a common origin. It is also to be observed, that the year of the Peruvians is not solar, but regulated according to the course of the moon, as among the Jews, the Greeks, the Macedonians, and the Turks. However the circumstance of eighteen months of twenty days instead of twelve months of thirty days, makes a great difference. The Mexicans are the only people who have divided the year in this manner.

The second analogy which I have remarked between Mexico and

Egypt is, that the number of weeks, or half lunations of thirteen days, comprehended in the Mexican cycle, is the same as that of the years of the Sothic period, that is, one thousand four hundred and sixty-one. You consider such a relation as accidental and fortuitous; but perhaps it might have the same origin as the notion of the length of the year. If in reality the year was not of the length of three hundred and sixty-five days six hours, that is days, the cycle of fifty years would not contain52×1461 or thirteen times 1461 days, which , 4

1461

4

makes thirteen periods of 1461 days.'-Ib. pp. 288-291.

These are grand and important facts in support of the doctrine of the original migration from Asia, and of the early civilization of mankind in that birth-place of nations from which there can now be no doubt all have proceeded.

In chapter xv. we meet with some valuable observations upon the testimony to the early civilization of mankind, derivable from the Book of Job. The author attaches much importance, and no doubt justly, to the fact that the Book of Job is a testimony altogether independent of the Hebrew history and system of religious worship. Under this view it testifies to a state of civilization and of religion nowhere else described, and pertaining to a period earlier than that of the Mosaic legislation. The Book of Genesis, in carrying down the general history of mankind to the deluge, and in showing the connexion between the antediluvians and postdiluvians, through the medium of the Noachic family, which must have brought with it out of the ark a large measure of civilization and refinement, prepares us to expect that all the nations arising from that stock should commence their career under circumstances altogether different from barbarians, that their progress should be rapid, and their rise to a high degree of civilization comparatively rapid and simultaneous. This enables us to account satisfactorily for the existence of so many nations in a high state of attainment within a few hundred years from the dispersion. Dr. Taylor has well observed that a test of the accuracy of this estimate is in some degree provided, when we find that such an amount was actually possessed by the ' earliest race of which we have a distinct and detailed account.' He then enters into an examination of the various facts and references in Job which throw light upon the state of religion and civilization in Idumea, carefully marking some points of distinction between the state of that country and others in the east. This is a part of the present work which will prove highly interesting to most of our readers. One passage is all that our limits will allow us to cite.

The religious knowledge possessed in the age of Job was founded on the unity of Deity, both in the creation and government of the universe; but that this was not a natural theology,-a doctrine discovered by unassisted reason,-is proved by the reference of Job himself to a revelation, when he declares (chap. vi. 10), 'I have not neglected the words of the Holy One;' and again (chap. xxiii. 12), 'I do not neglect the principles of his lips: I have treasured up his words in my bosom.' This religion was embodied in formal acts of worship Job offered expiatory sacrifices for himself and his family, not in the character of a priest, but as patriarch and head of a tribe. We find from the Book of Genesis, that sacrifices began to be offered immediately after the expulsion of our first parents from Paradise: and as there cannot be found any reasonable ground for the suggestion of sacrifice to an uninstructed mind, the character of Job's religion, both in doctrine and form, is that of a theology derived from a primitive revelation, and not evolved from barbarism or paganism by any mental process.

That the knowledge of the Divine unity was derived by Job from a revelation to himself, or from a former revelation transmitted to him by writing or tradition, appears further proved by his reference to the corruptions of religion which were gradually increasing in his time. He describes Sabaism, or the worship of the celestial luminaries, as an error to which he might, like others, have been led by his natural propensities, and from which he was protected only by the firmness of his belief in what had been revealed. This is a remarkable confirmation of his having obtained his own knowledge of religion from some external source, for he mentions the superstitious practices connected with Sabaism as customs with which he had been tempted to comply.

"If I have looked with a superstitious eye

At the sun when he shone in his strength,
Or the moon when she walked in her brightness,

And my heart hath been secretly enticed,

And I have worshipped by carrying my hand to my mouth,
I should have been chargeable with a great transgression,
For I should have denied the supreme God.'

-Wemyss's Translation.

The religion of Job, the first great element in the patriarchal system of civilization, is thus clearly shown to possess a derivative character, and the only form of religion which we find to have been self-evolved was a corruption. It is not to be expected that the ideas of morality formed by the patriarch could be so clearly traced to their source, but there are still proofs of their derivative character in their disproportion to the state of physical knowledge represented in the book. It was not until a very late period in the history of the Grecian philosophy, that moralists discovered the necessity of imposing a restraint on the inward sentiment. Now, we find that Job had anticipated this great principle, for he disdains not the overt act, but the impure desire which might have prompted to its commission (chap. xxxi. 1).'-Ib. pp. 333, 334.

In the second volume the learned and accomplished author successively treats of the state of civilization in Egypt, Babylonia, Assyria, Persia, Phoenicia, Africa, Greece, and Rome. Here, as the proofs of high cultivation become more abundant, the work rises in interest, till we come to the decline of polytheism, the introduction of Christianity, and its influence upon the civilization of the world. From the important chapter on Egyptian civilization we could extract much which would be instructive and gratifying to the public, but must content ourselves with a few of the introductory paragraphs.

The holy Scriptures not only contain the best and most consistent account of the origin of civilization, but they furnish the most authentic description of the country in which civilization first made a remarkable advancement. The Books of Genesis and Exodus contain incidental notices of the condition of Egypt, by which we are enabled to estimate pretty accurately the progress of humanity at a remote age in the valley of the Nile; and these notices have recently derived unexpected confirmation from modern discoveries-for the monuments brought to light in Egypt confirm the accuracy of Scripture in every particular, and satisfactorily refute any counter statements which had previously been allowed to rank as contradictory authorities. One remarkable instance of this new evidence for the accuracy of the Pentateuch will serve fitly to introduce our examination of the scriptural statements respecting the civilization of Egypt.

In the last century, the books of Moses were often attacked and their authenticity impugned, because they mentioned the existence of vineyards, grapes, and consequently of wine, in Egypt; for Herodotus expressly declares that there were no vineyards in Egypt, and Plutarch avers that the natives of that country abhorred wine, as being the blood of those who rebelled against the gods. This authority appeared conclusive not merely to the sceptics who impugned the veracity of the Pentateuch, but even to the learned Michaelis, who concluded that the use of wine was enjoined in the sacrifices for the purpose of making a broad distinction between the religious usages of the Israelites and of the Egyptians. The monuments opened by modern research have decided the controversy in favor of the Jewish legislator. In the subterranean vaults at Eclithyia every part of the processes connected with the dressing and tending of the vine are faithfully delineated: the trellises on which the vines were trained, the care with which they were watered, the collection of the fruit, the treading of the wine-press, and the stowing of the wine amphora, or vases, are there painted to the life; and additional processes of extracting the juice from the grape are represented, which seem to have been peculiar to the Egyptian people. M. Jomard adds, that the remains of amphora, or wine vessels, have been found in the ruins of old Egyptian cities, which are still encrusted with the tartar deposited by the wine.

It is not necessary to account for the error into which Herodotus has fallen; he wrote long after Egypt had been distracted by civil wars, and then subdued by the Persians; calamities quite sufficient to ac