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But it is clear from the preceding facts, and from whatever else is known of all these early civilized nations, that none of these were fit to be the permanent empires or standards of mankind, either mentally or morally. Each had defects that would have vitiated more than it would have improved, in proportion as it predominated; and therefore another race of people was gradually raised up under their tuition, to whom the great cause of human civilization and progression was next intrusted; and who, acquiring all that their predecessors could teach, dropped what was most objectionable and pernicious in their institutions, opinions, and habits; and purifying it from these, added great intellectual beauties and riches of their own production. By these means they advanced human nature to a higher degree of excellence than it had previously reached, and than it could have attained from either an Ethiopian, Egyptian, Phenician, Babylonian, or Indian sovereignty,I mean the Grecian populations.

These interesting people did not imbibe or perpetuate the animal worship, the animal transmigration of the soul, the incestuous marriages, the polygamy, or the belief that the gods lived in animal bodies, which Egypt was so attached to. Nor did they admit, but on the contrary, resisted and abolished, the dreadful practice of human sacrifice and child-burning of the Phenicians. The Babylonian law of depraving their females at the outset of life, was also avoided, and condemned as a shameful institution. These improvements, and the substitution of their superior Jupiter, to the gloomy and blood-stained Saturn or Kronos, we know that they effected; and these are enough to prove what a great stretch of progression in human nature was attained, by causing the Greek mind to be educated by their, at first, more civilized teachers, and afterward to rise so high above them, in the improvements to which they subsequently advanced.*

Sind signifies, properly, the Indus, and is extended to designate all the country on this side of the river westward, and beyond it on the east. The oriental geographers say, that eastward of the country of Sind lies that of Hind. They apply the name of Hind to all the regions of India up to and beyond the Ganges, from its source to its mouth. They call Turk Hind what our geography names Indo-Scythia, comprising Cabul and Turkisthan."-D'Herb. Bibl. p. 804.

* That Babylon contributed to form the Grecian mind as well as the

It is interesting to contemplate the gradual training and formation of the Grecian people to this elevating destiny, but this is too large a subject to be part of a letter like the present. It is manifest that the colonies of Cecrops at Athens, Danaus at Argos, and Cadmus at Thebes, already noticed, were the nurses and instructers of their intellectual childhood, for the simple facts recorded on the Parian Marbles as to Athens, show us in what a rude state these foreign teachers found their uncultivated pupils, even in this celebrated place the great refiner and metropolis of the ancient human intellect. I will shortly notice these, as they indicate from what an humble condition it was the will of Providence that she should ascend to her appointed glory; by what little steps her first improvements were made, and how completely the process appears to have been under his guidance. For may we not justly say, that by him alone a soil more fit for olive than for corn, and a general country

other nations we may infer from one fact noticed by Herodotus: "The Grecians learned the Pole and the Gnomon, and the twelve parts of the day, from the Babylonians."-Her. 1. i. c. 109.

*1318 years before the inscription was made, or 1582 before the Christian era, Cecrops was at Athens, and 1257, Hellen, the son of Deucalion, reigned in Phthiots, from whom the Grecians were called Hellenes; and Amphictyon, at Athens.

1255. Cadmus came to Thebes.

1252. Lacedemon and Eurotas governed in Laconia.

1247. Danaus came to Greece in his ship of 50 oars.

1242. Phryx first invented musical pipes, and first sang the melody called Phrygian.

1168. Minos reigned in Crete, and the Idoi Dactyle found out iron in Mount Ida.

1145. Ceres came to Athens and sowed corn, and sent it to other regions by Triptolemus.

1142. Triptolemus first sowed corn at Eleusinia.

1135. Orpheus sang, and went after Proserpine and in search of Ceres. 1031. The Athenians had a dearth of corn, and were compelled to submit to the laws which Minos imposed.

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

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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 twelve 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.

nearly as mountainous as those regions where barbaric life has been most continuous, were yet made the homes of the most illustrious and meritorious people who had appeared on our earthly surface, before our Divine Legislator began the new era of wisdom, virtue, hope, and happiness to his human race, which is becoming brighter over all the globe, and which may be expected to be in due time everywhere, to use our Addison's words,

"Profuse of bliss, and pregnant with delight."

Such rational anticipations of this result appear to me to be visible all around, that I rejoice that I have lived long. enough to discern them, and only regret that, at my advanced period of life, I cannot expect to witness the meridian splendour which, as time rolls on, its circuits will spread over our terrestrial hemisphere. Summer clouds and summer storms may attend the glowing rays; but these will be transient, and only augment the effulgence and diversify its fertilizing efficacy-Εσσεται Ἡμαρ.*

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 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

* 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 allconquering 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.

† Berosus notices him. "In the tenth generation after the flood, there

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 to be of that worldly consequence, that royal governments and dignities were to mark their political greatness.‡

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, though nearly 4000 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 in

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 afterward 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. "Behold my covenant is with thee. Thou shalt be a father of many nations."-Genesis, xvii. 4.

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

"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.

formed of.

With these, the Edomites, or Idumeans, we

will begin our present inquiry.

Esau, surnamed Edom, or the Red Man, was at his birth of this colour,* 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 property-a 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 the herds and flocks of both; 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 Phe

nician 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 mountainous district of Seir for this purpose; T but here the Horims had stationed themselves, and resisted all intrusion. ** A continued warfare ensued between them

*Gen. xxv. 25.

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

"Esau is Edom."-Gen. xxxvi. 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.

"And 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 substances 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.

"Esau settled in the land of Seir, the country of Edom."-Genesis, 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.

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