ANCIENT HISTORY,

SACRED AND SECULAR.

FROM THE CREATION TO THE FALL OF THE

WESTERN ROMAN EMPIRE.

B.C. 4004-A.D. 476.

N.B.-In the period previous to the settlement of Chronology, we give the dates of Archbishop Ussher, as convenient, not adopting them as true. The chief systems of Scriptural Chronology are explained in a note appended to the Introduction.

B

VOL. I.

INTRODUCTION.

"Yet I doubt not through the ages one increasing purpose runs,
And the thoughts of men are widen'd with the process of the suns."
TENNYSON.

THE SUBJECT PROPOSED-ITS UNITY-PROVINCE OF HISTORY-DISTINGUISHED FROM PHILOSOPHY AND SCIENCE, IN ITS NATURE AND ITS EVIDENCE-ILLUSTRATION FROM THE ORIGIN OF THE WORLD, AS REGARDED IN THE LIGHTS OF HISTORY AND SCIENCE RESPECTIVELY-RELATIONS OF PRIMEVAL HISTORY TO ASTRONOMY, GEOLOGY, PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY, CHRONOLOGY, AND THEOLOGY—METHODS OF HISTORICAL INQUIRY-EPOCHS AND PERIODS OF HISTORY-MOMENTS OF ORIGINATION AND OF DEVELOPMENT-EPOCHS OF REVOLUTION AND PERIODS OF REPOSE-EXAMPLE OF A SUCCESSFUL METHOD IN GIBBON'S GREAT WORK-NOTE ON SCRIPTURE CHRONOLOGY.

WE propose to relate the History of the World, from its earliest records to our own times. So arduous an enterprise needs the friendly consideration of the reader, and still more the aid of HIM whose providence is the living spirit of our theme. The work is undertaken under the conviction that the whole world has a history, as much as each separate nation. Amidst all the severing forces of climate, colour, language, interest, and animosity, our race forms a complete whole. One in its origin, one even in its true interests, it is destined to be one in its final consummation. And it is this that gives a unity to its history. In so wide a subject, the province of the historian should be carefully distinguished from those of the man of science and the philosopher; for all knowledge of facts does not belong to history. Philosophy aspires to know the absolute truth of all things, both visible and invisible, that can be known by man. Science confines itself to those objective facts which are the results of the fixed natural laws which it seeks to discover. history, while also dealing only with objective facts, views them in ever-changing action and in a connected series; not as a completed whole, the product of fixed laws. The subject-matter of science was determined when the Creator made the world; but history is ever in the making. In the former, if we know a law, we can with certainty trace its operation in a particular case; but

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