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XXV.

hemisphere. Summer clouds and summer storms LETTER may attend the glowing rays; but these will be transient, and only augment the effulgence and diversify its fertilizing efficacy-Εσσεται Ἡμαρ. 0

70

1031. The Athenians had a dearth of corn, and were compelled to submit to the laws which Minos imposed.

995. Theseus formed the 12 towns into one city, Athens; and established its republic.

954. The Trojan war.-Parian Chron. 1. 8.

Thus corn was not sowed at Athens till 173 years after Cecrops, nor iron found out in Greece but a few years earlier; nor was it till Theseus united the 12 little towns into one city, like the seven hills into one Rome, that Athens attained a decided superiority. At this period, we find from Thucydides, that piracy was the general habit of the nation, as among our Anglo-Saxon ancestors. Yet from such beginnings the intellectual Athens emerged into the finest state of the ancient mind and to undying fame.

70 All that Greece possessed and had so richly multiplied, refined and expanded, became the property of the Roman mind in the future stage of human progression, with those additional improvements, which this all-conquering people largely added to it, before their period of decline began. The progression of mind and manners from their fall to our own happy day, is too obvious to every one for me here to delineate.

LETTER

LETTER XXVI.

CURSORY REVIEW OF THE ABRAHAMIC NATIONS OF THE WORLD
-THE EDOMITES-ARABIANS-MIDIANITES-AND OTHERS.

MY DEAR SON,

THE populations which originated from Abraham, XXVI. have been so important to the world, that they deserve a distinct notice from the historical student.

Abraham, like Solomon, has been always a personage of much celebrity among the oriental nations, and especially with those who are connected with Mesopotamia, and with the Arabian stock.' It was declared that he should be the ancestor of several nations; and that his name might correspond with this prophetic assurance, it was changed from Abram to Abraham; the latter name literally implying the father of great multitudes. These descendants were

3

Berosus notices him. In the tenth generation after the flood, there was among the Chaldeans a man, righteous and great and skilful in the celestial science.' Hecatæus wrote a book concerning him. Nicolaus Domascenus, in the fourth book of his History, describes him as coming out of Chaldea, reigning at Damascus, and going from thence into the land afterwards called Judea. He adds, "The name of Abram is even still famous in the country of Damascus. There is showed a village, named from him "The habitation of Abram." Joseph. Antiq. 1. i. c. 7. The Koran has preserved the Arabian traditions concerning him. The Caaba of Mecca and its venerated black stone, to which the Mussulmen from all regions make their pilgrimage, are ascribed to him and his son by Hagar.

2 Behold my covenant is with thee. Thou shalt be a father of many nations.' Genesis, xvii. 4.

3Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham, for a father of many nations have I made thee.' Ib. 5.

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to be of that worldly consequence, that royal govern- LETTER ments and dignities were to mark their political greatness.1

Four great streams of nations, accordantly with this prediction and promise, have issued from Abraham. The EDOMITES, or Idumeans; the Red Men of the East, who fixed their name on the Red Sea, descending from his grandson, Esau; the JEWS, from his grandson, Jacob; the ARABS, from his son, Ishmael, by the Egyptian Hagar; and those tribes and nations which arose in the regions east of Syria from his last children by Keturah. Two of these, the Jews and the Arabians, we know to have multiplied into great importance and celebrity, and to have continued in ever-renewed and preserved generations, amid all the waste and vicissitudes of destroying time, from the days of Abraham to our own times. Still his Hebrew and Arabian posterity exist in several millions, tho nearly 4,000 years have elapsed since Isaac and Ishmael were born to him. To no other ancestor, can such a number of living descendants, be now in any country traced. His other branch, from his grandson Esau, were also a copious and an active people, in the periods which preceded our era, and have traditions and possibilities attached to them which you ought to be informed of. With these, the EDOMITES, or Idumeans, we will begin our present inquiry.

Esau, surnamed Edom, or the Red Man, was at

And I will make thee exceeding fruitful; and I will make nations of thee; and kings shall come out of thee.' Gen. xvii. 6. This was also applied to his wife's maternal posterity: 'I will bless her; she shall become nations: kings of people shall be of her.' Ib. 16. This was verified in the line of Esau, as well as in that of Jacob.

XXVI.

LETTER his birth of this color," and acquired so completely the appellation in his family," that his descendants were named from it the EDOMITES, and are always spoken of under this denomination."

Both Esau and Jacob continued, like their parent, in the pastoral state; and, as the natives of Caffraria have been found to do, subsisted chiefly by their cattle. These were reared in great numbers, and constituted, with their sheep, their main propertya state of society suited to their habitual migrations.

But Esau found, that the multiplication of these made it inconvenient for him and his brother to continue together, and that the pastures around them would not support both their herds and flocks; therefore, leaving Jacob in the plains of Canaan, he moved southward towards Mount Seir. By the patriarchal movements, and easy settlements where they chose, it appears that all these regions of Palestine were as yet, in many parts, unpeopled. Where the Phenician and the other families of Canaan had not spread, the country was unoccupied. But Esau resolved on attaching himself to a fixed residence, and to found a lasting people. He chose the mountain

5 Gen. xxv. 25.

It is first mentioned in his conversation with Jacob, on his return from hunting, wearied and desiring some favorite food; therefore was his name called Edom.' Ib. 30.

7 Esau is Edom.' Gen. xxxvi. 8.

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8 For their riches were more than that they might dwell together; and the land wherein they were strangers could not bear them because of their cattle.' Ib. 7.

9And Esau took his wives, and his sons, and his daughters, and all the persons of his house, and his cattle, and all his beasts, and all his substance which he had got in the land of Canaan; and went into the country from the face of his brother Jacob.' Ib. 6. Thus Esau

dwelt in Mount Seir.' Ib. 8.

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ous district of Seir for this purpose;" but here the LETTER Horims had stationed themselves, and resisted all intrusion." A continued warfare ensued between them and the Edomite descendants of Esau, until at length the latter prevailed as their population increased, and destroyed or expelled their predecessors: and then all the country about Mount Seir came into their possession, and was copiously peopled and permanently held by them." The Edomites, to the last period of their history that is noticed in the Jewish scriptures, were resident in this locality, and beyond it, for they at times enlarged their boundary, and at others had it curtailed, and forced to move their settlements.13

10 Esau settled in the land of Seir, the country of Edom.' Gen. xxxii. 3.

"The Horims were descended from their ancestor, Hori. Gen. xxxvi. 30. Seir was one of these, and gave his name to the mountain district. His children and their offspring are enumerated in Gen. xxxvi. 20-30. They spread to El-paran by the wilderness. Gen. xiv. 6. 12 Deut. ii. 12.

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13 Mount Seir, and the Edom territory, lay between Arabia Petræa and the Jewish Canaan, south of the Dead Sea. At first, the Edomites did not extend to the Arabian Gulf, but afterwards reached it, and Elath and Eziongeber there are reckoned as places in their dominions. Josephus describes Idumea as bordering on Egypt and Arabia, and as in part occupied by the Simeon tribe of the Jews. Ant. 1. v. c. 1. He calls one part Great Idumea.' Bibl. 1. v. c. 7. He speaks of Upper Idumea,' c. viii. It was extended into Arabia Petræa; and Petra became one of its chief cities, which, in Jerom's time, was called Gebalene; at Phenon, between Petra and Zoora, it had copper mines. Jerom and Eusebius. Teman was a principal city in it, 15 miles from Petra, and had a Roman garrison. Jerom in locis. Jerom mentions that the southern district of the Idumeans spread from Eleutheropolis to Petra, and Aila had inhabited caves. Josephus mentions the numerous caverns in the valley of Pharan. Bell. J. l. v. c. 7. Bosra, Boser, Dedon and Dumah, are also mentioned in Scripture among its

towns.

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