banks of the Euphrates,' in a region called the "Land of Shinar," and there beginning to build a city,-together with a tower, whose top, they boasted, should reach unto heaven. But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the children of men in their pride and impiety were building; and he there confounded the language of the workmen, that they might not understand one another; and thus the building of the tower, which was called Babel, was abandoned, and the people were scattered abroad over the whole earth.

7. It is generally supposed that Noah himself, after this event, journeyed eastward, and founded the empire of China; that Shem was the father of the nations of Southern Asia; that Ham peopled Egypt; and that the descendants of Japheth migrated westward and settled in the countries of Europe, or, as they are called in Scripture, the "Isles of the Gentiles."

8. Soon after the dispersion of mankind from Babel, it is supposed that Mis' raim, one of the sons of Ham, journeyed into Egypt, where he became the founder of the most ancient and renowned nation of antiquity. The government established by him is believed to have been that of an aristocratic

III. EGYPTIAN
HISTORY.

1. The Euphrates, the most considerable river of Western Asia, has its sources in the table lands of Armenia, about ninety miles from the south-eastern borders of the Black Sea. The sources of the Tigris are in the same region, but farther south. The general direction of both rivers is south-east, to their entrance into the head of the Persian Gulf. (See Map, p. 15.) So late as the age of Alexander the Great, each of these rivers preserved a separate course to the sea, but not long after they became united about eighty miles from their mouth, from which point they have ever since continued to flow in a single stream. Both rivers are navigable a considerable distance,-both have their regular inundations; rising twice a year-first in December, in consequence of the autumnal rains; and next from March till June, owing to the melting of the mountain snows. The Scriptures place the Garden of Eden on the banks of the Euphrates, but the exact site is unknown.

We learn that soon after the deluge, the country in the vicinity of the two rivers Tigris and Euphrates, where stood the tower of Babel, was known as the Land of Shinar: afterwards the empire of Assyria or Babylon flourished here; and still later, the country between the two rivers was called by the ancient Greeks, Mesopotamia,-a compound of two Greek words, (mesos and potamos,) signifying "between the rivers." In ancient times the banks of both rivers were studded with cities of the first rank. On the eastern bank of the Tigris stood Nineveh; and on both sides of the Euphrates stood the mighty Babylon, "the glory of kingdoms," and "the beauty of the Chaldee's excellency." Lower Mesopotamia, both above and below Babylon, was anciently intersected by canals in every direction, many of which can still be traced; and some of them could easily be restored to their original condition. (See Map, p. 15.)

2. Ancient EGYPT, called by the Hebrews Mis' raim, may be divided into two principal por tions; Upper or Southern Egypt, of which Thebes was the capital, and Lower Egypt, whose capital was Memphis. That portion of Lower Egypt embraced within the mouths or outlets of the Nile, the Greeks afterwards called the Delta, from its resemblance to the form of the Greek letter of that name. (A) Ancient Egypt probably embraced all of the present Nubia, and perhaps a part of Abyssinia. Modern Egypt is bounded on the north by the Mediterra

priesthood, whose members were the patrons of the arts and sciences; and it is supposed that the nation was divided into three distinct classes, the priests, the military, and the people ;-the two former holding the latter and most numerous body in subjection. After this government had existed nearly two centuries, under rulers whose names have perished, Ménes, a military chieftain, is supposed to have subverted the ancient sacerdotal despotism, and to have established the first civil monarchy, about 2400 years before the Christian era. Ménes was the first Pharaoh, a name common to all the kings of Egypt.

9. Upon the authority of Herod' otus' and Joséphus,' to the first king, Ménes, is attributed the founding of Memphis,' probably the most ancient city in Egypt. Other writers ascribe to him the building of Thebes also; but some suppose that Thebes was built many

lean, on the east by the Isthmus of Suez and the Red Sea, on the south by Nubia, and on the west by the Great Desert and the province of Barca.

The cultivated portion of Egypt, embraced mostly within a narrow valley of from five to twenty miles in width, is indebted wholly to the annual inundations of the Nile for its fertility; and without them, would soon become a barren waste. The river begins to swell, in its higher parts, in April; but at the Delta no increase occurs until the beginning of June. Its greatest height there is in September, when the Delta is almost entirely under water. By the end of November the waters leave the land altogether, having deposited a rich alluvium. Then the Egyptian spring commences, at a season corresponding to our winter, when the whole country, covered with a vivid green, bears the aspect of a fruitful garden. (Map, p. 15.)

1. Herod' otus-the earliest of the Greek historians: born 484 B. C.

2. Josephus a celebrated Jewish historian: born at Jerusalem, A. D. 37.

3. Memphis, a famous city of Egypt, whose origin dates beyond the period of authentic his tory, is supposed to have stood on the western bank of the Nile, about fifteen miles south from the apex of the Delta-the point whence the waters of the river diverge to enter the sea by different channels. But few relics of its magnificence now occupy the ground where the city once stood, the materials having been mostly removed for the building of modern edifices. At the time of our Saviour, Memphis was the second city in Egypt, and next in importance to Alexandria, the capital; but its decay had already begun. Even in the twelfth century of the Christian era, after the lapse of four thousand years from its origin, it is described by an Oriental writer as containing "works so wonderful that they confound even a reflecting mind, and such as the most eloquent would not be able to describe." (Map, p. 15.)

4. The ruins of Thebes, "the capital of a by-gone world," are situated in the narrow valley of the Nile, in Upper Egypt, extending about seven miles along both banks of the river. Here are still to be seen magnificent ruins of temples, palaces, colossal statues, obelisks, and tombs, which attest the exceeding wealth and power of the early Egyptians. The city is supposed to have attained its greatest splendor about fifteen hundred years before the Christian era. On the east side of the river the principal ruins are those of Carnac and Luxor, about a mile and a half apart. Among the former are the remains of a temple dedicated to Ammon, the Jupiter of the Egyptians, covering more than nine acres of ground. A large portion of this stupendous structure is still standing. The principal front to this building is 368 feet in length, and 148 feet in height, with a door-way in the middle 64 feet high. One of the halls in this vast building covers an area of more than an acre and a quarter; and its roof, consisting of enormous slabs of stone, has been supported by 134 huge columns. The roof of what is supposed to have been the sanctuary, or place from which the oracles were delivered, is composed of three blocks of granite, painted with clusters of gilt stars on a blue ground. The entrance to this room was marked by four noble obelisks, each 70 feet high, three of which are now standing. At Luxor

centuries later. Ménes appears to have been occupied, during most of his reign, in wars with foreign nations to us unknown. According to numerous traditions, recorded in later ages, he also cultivated the arts of peace; he protected religion and the priesthood, and erected temples; he built walls of defence on the frontier of his kingdomand he dug numerous canals, and constructed dikes, both to draw off UROPE

are to be seen the remains of a magnificent palace, about 800 feet in length by 200 in width." On each side of the doorway is a colossal statue, measuring 44 feet from the ground. Fronting these statues were two obelisks, each formed of a single block of red granite, 80 feet in height, and beautifully sculptured. A few years ago one of these obelisks was taken down, and conveyed, at great expense, to the city of Paris, where it has been erected in the Place de la Concorde. Among the ruins on the west side of the river, at Medinet Abou, are two sitting colossal figures, each about 50 feet in height, supported by pedestals of corresponding dimensions. On the same side of the river, in the mountain-range that skirts the valley, and westward of the ruins, are the famous catacombs, or burial-places of the ancient inhabitar ts, excavated in the olid rock. (Map, p. 15)

the waters of the Nile' for enriching the cultivated lands, and tc prevent inundations. His name is common in ancient records, while many subsequent monarchs of Egypt have been forgotten. Monuments still exist which attest the veneration in which he was held by his posterity.

10. From the time of Ménes until about the 21st century before Christ, the period when Abraham is supposed to have visited Egypt," little is known of Egyptian history. It appears, however, from hieroglyphic inscriptions, first interpreted in the present century, and corroborated by traditions and some vague historic records, that the greatest Egyptian pyramids were erected three or four hundred years before the time of Abraham, and eight or nine hundred years before the era of Moses,-showing a truly astonishing degree of power and grandeur attained by the Egyptian monarchy more than four thousand years ago. When Abraham visited Egypt he was re

1. The Nile, a large river of eastern Africa, is formed by the junction of the White River and the Blue River in the country of Sennaar, whence the united stream flows northward, in a very winding course, through Nubia and Egypt, and enters the Mediterranean through two mouths, those of Rosetta and Damietta, the former or most westerly of which has a width of about 1800 feet; and the latter of about 900. The Rosetta channel has a depth of about five feet in the dry season, and the Damietta channel of seven or eight feet when the river is lowest. Formerly the Nile entered the sea by seven different channels, several of which still occasionally serve for canals, and purposes of irrigation. During the last thirteen hundred miles of its course, the Nile receives no tributary on either side. The White river, generally regarded as the true Nile, about whose source no satisfactory knowledge has yet been obtained, is supposed to have its rise in the highlands of Central Africa, north of the Equator. (Map, p. 15.)

2. The pyramids of Egypt are vast artificial structures, most of them of stone, scattered a' irregular intervals along the western valley of the Nile from Meroe, (Mer-o-we) in modern Nubia, to the site of ancient Memphis near Cairo. (Ki-ro.) The largest, best known, and most celebrated, are the three pyramids of Ghizeh, situated on a platform of rock about 150 feet above the level of the surrounding desert, near the ruins of Memphis, seven or eight miles south-west from Cairo. The largest of these, the famous pyramid of Cheops, is a gigantic structure, the base of which covers a surface of about eleven acres. The sides of the base correspond in direction with the four cardinal points, and each measures, at the foundation, 746 feet. The perpendicular height is about 480 feet, which is 43 feet 9 inches higher than St. Peters at Rome, the loftiest edifice of modern times. This huge fabric consists of two hundred and six layers of vast blocks of stone, rising above each other in the form of steps, the thickness of which diminishes as the height of the pyramid increases, the lower layers being nearly five feet in thickness, and the upper ones about eighteen inches. The summit of the pyramid appears to have been, originally, a level platform, sixteen or eighteen feet square. Within this pyramid several chambers have been discovered, lined with immense slabs of granite, which must have been conveyed thither from a great distance up the Nile. The second pyramid at Ghizen is coated over with polished stone 140 feet downwards from the summit, thereby removing the inequalities occasioned by the steps, and rendering the surface smooth and uniform. Herod'otus states, from information derived from the Egyptian priests, that one hundred thousand men were employed twenty years in constructing the great pyramid of Ghizeh, and that ten years had been spent, previously, in quarrying the stones and conveying them to the place. The remaining pyramids of Egypt correspond, in their general character, with the one described, with the exception that several of them are constructed of sun-burnt brick. No reasonable douo now exists that the pyramids were designed as the burial places of kings.

a. 2077 b. C.

ceived with the hospitality and kindness becoming a civilized nation; and when he left Egypt, to return to his own country, the ruling monarch dismissed him and all his people, "rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold."

11. Nearly a hundred years before the time of Abraham's visit to Egypt, Lower Egypt had been invaded and subdued by the Hyc' sos, or Shepherd Kings, a roving people from the eastern shores of the Mediterranean, probably the same that were known, at a later period, in sacred history, as the Philistines, and still later as the Phoenicians. Kings of this race continued to rule over Lower Egypt during a period of 260 years, but they were finally expelled," and driven back to their original seats in Asia. During their dominion, Upper Egypt, with Thebes its capital, appears to have remained under the government of the native Egyptians. A few years after the expulsion of the Shepherd Kings, Joseph was appointed governor or regent of Egypt, under one of the Pharaohs; and the family of Jacob was settled in the land of Goshen.' It was during the resi dence of the Israelites in Egypt that we date the commencement of Grecian history, with the supposed founding of Argos by In' achus, 1856 years before the Christian era.

IV. ASIATIO

12. During the early period of Egyptian history which we have described, kingdoms arose and mighty cities were founded in those regions of Asia first peopled by the imme- HISTORY. diate descendants of Noah. After the dispersion of mankind from Babel, Ashur, one of the sons of Shem, remained in the vicinity of that place; and by many he is regarded as the founder of the Assyrian empire,' and the builder of Nineveh.

But

1. "The land of Goshen lay along the most easterly branch of the Nile, and on the east side of it; for it is evident that at the time of the Exode the Israelites did not cross the Nile. (Hale's Analysis of Chronology, i. 374.) "The land of Goshen' was between Egypt and Canaan, not far from the Isthmus of Suez, on the eastern side of the Nile." (See Map, p. 15.) (Cockayne's Hist. of the Jews, p. 7.)

2. The early province or kingdom of ASSYRIA is usually considered as having been on the eastern bank of the river Tigris, having Nineveh for its capital. But it is probable that both Nineveh and Babylon belonged to the early Assyrian empire, and that these two cities were at times the capitals of separate monarchies, and at times united under one government, whose territories were ever changing by conquest, and by alliances with surrounding tribes or nations. 3. The city of Nineveh is supposed to have stood on the east bank of the Tigris, opposite the modern city of Mosul. (See Map, p. 15.) Its site was probably identical with that of the present small village of Nunia, and what is called the "tomb of Jonah ;" which are surrounded by vast heaps of ruins, and vestiges of mounds, from which bricks and pieces of gypsum are dug cut, with inscriptions closely resembling those found among the ruins of Babylon. Of the early history of Nineveh little is known. Some early writers describe it as larger than Babylon; but little dependence can be placed on their statements. It is believed, however,

a 2159 B. C.

b. 1900 B C.

c. 1872 B. C.

d. 1863 B. O.