THIRTY-NINTH CENTURY. 875, Death of Abel-Posterity of Adam-Seth, born 3874. ABEL.-After his fall, Adam had two sons, Cain and Anel; the one a husbandman, the other a shepherd, and each as different from tne other in temper as in occupation. Filled with rage and jealousy at the acceptance of his brother's sacrifice, Cain put forth his hand and murdered him, 3875. Thus our first parent beheld the fruits of his disobedience, not only in the presence of death, till then unknown, but in his first-born becoming the minister of vengeance. The descendants of his third son, Seth, were as distinguished for piety, as those of Cain for irreligion; the former were in consequence denominated the sons of God, the latter the sons of men. In the new world population rapidly increased; fields were cultivated, cattle bred, and their skins used for clothing; Jabal made the first tents; musical instruments were the invention of Jubal; and Tubal-Cain (supposed by some to be the Vulcan of Pagan mythology) discovered the art of working in metals. Already the strong began to assume authority over the weak. The offering of expiatory sacrifices and the sanctification of the sabbath originated in this early period. TWENTY-FOURTH CENTURY. 2348, Universal Deluge. DELUGE. The death of Adam (3074,) the translation of Enoch (3017,) the feebleness of the other patriarchs, and the luxuriant abundance of the earth, filled man's heart with presumption and guilt. Impiety made rapid progress, and like a contagious pestilence infected all the mass of society. In the midst of the general depravity one individual alone found grace in the eyes of the Lord. In the year of the world 1656, the whole of the human race was destroyed by a deluge, the only survivors being Noah and his family, in all eight persons, who were preserved in an ark built in obedience to the divine command, 2348 B. c. On the subsiding of the waters, this vessel rested on Mount Ararat, in Armenia,* whence all the earth was again progressively peopled. The rainbow was then appointed as a covenant between God and man, that there should not be any more flood to destroy the earth. One of the most remarkable effects of the Deluge was the rapid decrease of the duration of human life. The ten antediluvian patriarchs lived on an average 850 years each, while their immediate successors did not exceed 320. But under a favourable climate and with an increasing population, the arts soon reached a high state of perfection. The longevity of the postdiluvian patriarchs had the effect of maintaining the natural authority of the parent, while it also tended to repress the fickle passions of youth. When God's more immediate protection was removed, the span of life was contracted; and *This celebrated mountain is situated in 39° 42′ N. 44° 18′ E. nearly in the centre between the southern extremities of the Euxine and the Caspian seas, and is visible at the distance of 180 or 200 miles. Spreading its broad base along the plain of the Araxes, it rises in majestic grandeur 17,260 feet above the level of the sea, the whole of its upper region being covered with perpetual snow. It is regarded with the greatest veneration by the natives, who have many religious establishments in its vicinity. now its very brevity gives vigour to all the efforts of society, and the rapid change of actors inspires each with a hope of excelling in his own brief stage.* TWENTY-THIRD CENTURY. SACRED HISTORY.-Dispersion of Mankind-Formation of Nations-2247, Sacred History. THE DISPERSION.-The distribution of the world among the children of Noah was not made at random; for as early as the third generation after the Flood, it was arranged by the patriarch under the immediate direction of God. By this division Europe and Northern Asia fell to Japhet; Central Asia to Shem; and to Ham were assigned the distant regions of Africa. But violence was early used to derange this partition; Nimrod, the Belus of profane writers, expelled Ashur from the land of Shinar, and Canaan, the son of Ham, seized upon Palestine, which belonged to Shem. In the subsequent expulsion of the Canaanites by the Hebrews, we behold the certain though tardy retribution of the Almighty. BABEL, 2247.-The descendants of Cush, who had refused to follow the rest of the children of Ham into Africa, seized upon the fertile plains of Shinar, where under Nimrod they began to build the tower of Babel, and lay the foundation of a permanent monarchy. But, lest the progress of the infant society of the world should be crushed by an oppressive despotism, God confounded their language and scattered them over the face of the earth. Around that remarkable edifice† the magnificent city of Babylon was afterwards raised (32° 25′ N. 44° E.) ASSYRIA AND BABYLON.Rejecting the narratives of the Greeks, which appear to have no better basis than a vague and popular tradition, we learn from the Scripture history that Ashur, being supplanted by Nimrod, retired towards the mountains, and built a city of defence on the left bank of the Tigris, which afterwards, under the appellation of Nineveh, became the seat of empire about the year 2234. Incessant *There is much difference of opinion as to the precise epoch of the Deluge. It is fixed by the learned authors of l'Art de vérifier les Dates at 3308 B. C., by the Septuagint text at 3246, both of which nearly concur with the beginning of the Hindoo Kali Yug 3101 B. C. The period assigned to the creation is equally unsettled; and more than 200 dates have been collected by Desvignoles, ranging from 6984 to 3483, в. C. †The remains of the Tower of Babel are supposed still to exist in the Birs Nemroud on the western bank of the Euphrates, about six miles to the south-west of Hillah. Mr. Rich describes this venerable ruin as a prodigious mound, nearly half a mile in circum. ference and 198 feet in height; on its summit is a solid pile of brick, 37 feet high by 28 in breadth, shattered at the top, and rent by a large fissure. Around it lie immense fragments of brick-work, of no determinate figure, and converted into solid vitrified masses, as if they had undergone the action of the fiercest fire. Nebuchadnezzar, about 600 B. C formed it into that celebrated tower, which was reckoned among the wonders of the world. When Alexander the Great undertook to restore it to its former splendour, 10.000 men were occupied two months in clearing away the ruins caused by the devastations of Xerxes. The building was probably intended for a fire-tower, on which to offer sacri fices to the Sun (Bel or Baal). hostility prevailed for centuries between the Babylonians and Assyrians, who had not all left the plains of Shinar (Mesopotamia.) The name of Babylon does not again occur in authentic history until the 8th century B. c., shortly before the time of Nebuchadnezzar, under whom it became the capital of an extensive monarchy. The Chasdim (descendants of Cush) who still remained, were known as the Chaldeans, probably a caste of priests, renowned for their scientific attainments. CHINA. FOнI.—Though it is difficult to assign a fixed epoch for the commencement of Chinese history, we must reject the exaggerated statements which give a duration to the empire of nearly 280,000 years. It is probable that the Eastern parts of Asia were visited early, and that the immediate posterity of Noah descended from the central mountains to those fertile plains which are traversed from west to east by the Hoang-Ho and the Kiang, and laid the foundations of a regular society under the celebrated Fohi, 2207. By him the people were divided into a hundred families, each having, as at present, a particular name; the sacred rites of marriage were enforced; the land was cultivated, cattle bred, and metals forged. He died in the 115th year of his reign. The existence of Fohi, and the chronological list of his successors given by Chinese writers down to the third century B. c., are questioned by the critics of modern days, who treat as fables every thing that is transmitted in the national annals before that period. Fohi is supposed by some to be only another name for Noah. Formation of Nations. All the various races that people the earth's surface spring from the three sons of Noah, and are divided into three corresponding branches. I. JAPHET may be regarded as the parent of the White or Caucasian branch, which spread over most part of Europe, S. Asia, and N. Africa. It admits of three subdivisions: a.—The Arameans, a race dwelling between the Euphrates and the Mediterranean, including the Arabs, Egyptians, and Abyssinians; b.-Indians, Pelasgians, and Germans, from whom are descended the inhabitants of India, and of great part of Europe; c.-Scythians and Tartars, or the people bordering on the Caspian Sea, among whom are the Turks, Hungarians, and Finns. II. SHEM is the parent stock of the tawny, olive, or Mongol race, which admits of six divisions: a. The Mantchoos in Central Asia; b.-The Chinese in China and Japan; -The Hyperboreans, who peopled the extreme north of Europe, Asia, and America, such as the Laplanders, Samoeids and Esquimaux. d.-The Malays in Malacca, and those islands comprehended in the term Malasia, the chief of which are Sumatra, Borneo, and Celebes. e.-The Oceanians, differing little from the preceding, inhabit the numerous small islands lying in a S. E. direction between Japan and the equator, with New Zealand, the Sandwich, and the Society Islands. f.-Americans, or copper coloured Indians, who composed the primitive population of the New World. III. HAM was the father of the black race, which may be subdivided into,-The Ethiopians in Central Africa; a. b.--The Caffres on the south-eastern coast, The Hottentots of the South of Africa. Both tradition and history point to the remote East as the storehouse of the human race. From the table-land in the vicinity of Balkh, in more recent times, issued the Huns, Avars, Magyars, Mongols, and Turks; and modern researches derive the Hindoos from the same locality. Traces of three primeval languages may also be found: -1. The Arabic or Chaldee, from which spring the dialects used by the Assyrians, Arabs, and Jews.-2. From the Sanscrit, radically different from the Arabic, spring the Greek, Latin, and Celtic dialects, the Persian, Armenian, and old Egyptian : -3. From the Slavonic or Tartarian, essentially different from the two preceding, are formed the various dialects of northern Asia and north-eastern Europe. The Hindoos preserve a tradition that there were originally eighteen languages. Modern naturalists, confining their view to the animal nature of man and taking no account of language or of the minor and superficial varieties in the exterior, admit at present of five races:-Caucasian, Negro, Tartar, American, Malay. Consult: Buffon's Natural History, vol. i. TWENTY-SECOND CENTURY. Egypt.—2188, Menes-Beginning of Genuine History. Preliminary Observations. GREAT obscurity covers the early part of Egyptian history; the account given by Moses has reference merely to his own age; and the information derived from Herodotus, Manetho, and others, tends rather to confuse than enlighten us. The sacred island of Meroë, formed by the confluence of the Astaboras and the Astapus (the Tacazze and the Blue River) with the Nile, appears to have been the centre of commercial and religious resort. Thence the primitive civilizers of mankind, bearing with them the worship of Ammon and Osiris, the arts of life, the habits of trade, and, above all, the science and implements of agriculture, gradually spread their industrious colonies down the Nile. In some parts they found a rude race already settled (probably some pastoral Arab tribes who had come round by the way of the isthmus), and over whom they assumed the ascendant of superior civilisation, and formed a higher caste. At an early period the mountains which skirt the fertile plains of Thebes, were excavated into dwellings for themselves and their gods; whence, gradually spreading over the intervening plain, they laid the foundations of the hundred-gated city." Sacerdotal colonies, forming separate nomes, gradually fixed themselves in all places suited for agriculture or traffic; the temple, college, and mart, became a new city, and perhaps a kingdom. Almost every ancient city bore the name of its god, as Diospolis (Thebes), Heliopolis (On), Hephaistopolis (Memphis), and many others. This MENES.-Egyptian history, properly so called, begins with this sovereign, when the sacerdotal form of government was changed into the monarchical, or the reign of the gods gave way to that of men. first mortal king has been identified by many chronologers, on insufficient grounds, with the Mizraim of the Scriptures. Others have supposed him to be the same as Osiris, Osymandyas, Uchoreus, and Moris Of Menes or of his age we have only a few vague traditions. Herodotus ascribes to him the construction of a vast dam or mound, by which the course of the Nile was altered and confined and Memphis secured against inundation. Diodorus says that he taught the people to worship the gods and offer sacrifice, and that he introduced luxury and a sumptuous style of living. From Menes, to Maris in the eighteenth dynasty, there is a wide chasm, feebly supplied by the scattered notices in the Pentateuch. The priests read to Herodotus a fabulous roll of 330 inglorious monarchs, eighteen of whom were Ethiopians, with one queen, named Nitocris. RELIGION. The main doctrine of the Egyptian religion was the transmigrations of souls to an inferior or superior state of being, according as a man pursued vice or virtue during his life. The principal divinities of Egypt were Kneph, the creator of the universe, represented under the figure of a serpent; Phtha, the vivifying power of nature, whom, owing to his symbol, fire, the Greeks confounded with Vulcan; Osiris, or the Sun; and Isis, or the Moon. The heavenly bodies were regarded as the great causes of nutrition and generation. Terrestrial and mortal divinities were also worshipped, many of whom had been kings, and were thus honoured as gods, for the benefits they conferred on their subjects during life. Baby or Typhon was detested as the murderer of Osiris and the scourge of his family and nation. Horus, Thoth, Serapis, and Anubis were other of their deities. The religious extravagance of the Egyptians accorded divine honours to many animals and vegetables. Cats were held especially sacred, and their death was mourned by shaving the eyebrows. The preservation of this animal during a conflagration was of more importance than that of a house; and for having killed one undesignedly, a soldier in the army of Antony was torn in pieces by the enraged multitude. The bull Apis was worshipped in a magnificent temple, and by the noblest priests. His death was considered a national calamity, and the installation of his successor at Memphis was a universal holiday. By their long residence in Egypt the Israelites had gradually acquired many of the religious notions peculiar to the country; hence the molten calf set up in the desert, and the golden calves worshipped at Bethel and Dan, under Jeroboam, were representations of the Egyptian Apis. GOVERNMENT.-The 30,000 years of the reign of the Sun, the 3984 of the twelve gods, and 217 of the demigods, are either an allegory or an astronomical problem converted into history. The earliest form of government of which we can speak with any certainty was sacerdotal, which was followed by the regal. The population was divided into castes, as in Hindostan at the present day; the priesthood were in the first rank, the soldiers in the second, then followed the husbandmen, traders, and artificers; sailors and shepherds formed the lowest. The country was originally divided into nomes or districts, each so distinguished from the others by various local usages and objects of worship, as to lead to the conjecture that they once formed permanent and independent states. The four principal dynasties were those of Tanis, Memphis, Thebes, and This. ARTS AND SCIENCES.-The Egyptians, at an early period, had made astonishing progress in certain sciences. The contention of the necromancers with Moses shows the great advances they had made in natural magic,-namely, physics and chemistry. Geometry was rendered necessary by the destruction of the landmarks in the annual inundation of the Nile. Architecture was carried to great perfection; the construction of the arch was not unknown, and Mr. (now Sir J. G.) Wilkinson places its introduction so far back as 1540 B. C., coeval with the eighteenth dynasty; and the stupendous pyramids, while they astonish the traveller by their magnitude, attest the astronomical skill of their builders. Each side of the base of the great pyramid, multiplied by 500, produces a geographical degree. Some writers are of opinion that these monuments were built before the Flood. It is not improbable that they were erected to gratify the pride, or satisfy the superstition of the Egyptian monarchs. The temples and palaces of Thebes are colossal, but ill proportioned; the ground is in many places strewed with massy obelisks formed of a single stone; and avenues of sphinxes still direct to the centre of religious worship. The walls and ceilings of public and private buildings are covered with paintings, as fresh as when first executed; but the four simple and unmixed colours which are used declare the infancy of the art. HIEROGLYPHICS.-The sanguine anticipations of the learned appear to be disappointed by the meagre resuits obtained from deciphering the Egyptian writings, whether on stone or papyrus. The hieroglyphs (sacred engraved characters) |