Outlines of Universal History, Designed as a Text-book and for Private Reading
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Title: Outlines of Universal History, Designed as a Text-book and for Private Reading
Author: George Park Fisher
Release date: September 1, 2005 [eBook #8896]
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Language: English
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OUTLINES OF UNIVERSAL HISTORY, DESIGNED AS A TEXT-BOOK AND FOR PRIVATE READING ***
Produced by Charles Aldarondo, Tiffany Vergon,
Jim OConnor and Distributed Proofreaders
Transcriber's Comment
In the original text, the author sought, "by the use of different sorts
of type, ... to introduced a considerable amount of detail without
breaking the main current of the narrative, or making it too long". In
the text below, paragraphs in the smallest type have been indented.
OUTLINES OF UNIVERSAL HISTORY
Designed as a Text-book and for Private Reading
By
George Park Fisher, D.D., LL.D.
Professor in Yale University
Inscribed by the author as a token of love and thankfulness to his
daughter
C. R. F.
PREFACE.
In writing this work I have endeavored to provide a text-book suited to
more advanced pupils. My idea of such a work was, that it should
present the essential facts of history in due order, and in conformity
to the best and latest researches; that it should point out clearly the
connection of events and of successive eras with one another; that
through the interest awakened by the natural, unforced view gained of
this unity of history, and by such illustrative incidents as the
brevity of the narrative would allow to be wrought into it, the dryness
of a mere summary should be, as far as possible, relieved; and that,
finally, being a book intended for pupils and readers of all classes,
it should be free from sectarian partiality, and should limit itself to
well-established judgments and conclusions on all matters subject to
party contention. Respecting one of the points just referred to, I can
say that, in composing this work, I have myself been more than ever
impressed with _the unity of history_, and affected by this great
and deeply moving drama that is still advancing into a future that is
hidden from view. I can not but hope that this feeling, spontaneous and
vivid in my own mind, may communicate itself to the reader in his
progress through these pages.
The most interesting object in the study of history is, to quote Dr.
Arnold's words, "that which most nearly touches the inner life of
civilized man, namely, the vicissitudes of institutions, social,
political, and religious." But, as the same scholar adds, "a knowledge
of the external is needed before we arrive at that which is within. We
want to get a sort of frame for our picture....And thus we want to know
clearly the geographical boundaries of different countries, and their
external revolutions. This leads us in the first instance to geography
and military history, even if our ultimate object lies beyond."
Something more is aimed at in the present work than the construction of
this "frame," without which, to be sure, a student wanders about
"vaguely, like an ignorant man in an ill-arranged museum." By the use
of different sorts of type, it has been practicable to introduce a
considerable amount of detail without breaking the main current of the
narrative, or making it too long. By means of these additional
passages, and by appending lists of books at the close of the several
periods, the attempt has been made to aid younger students in carrying
forward the study of history beyond the usual requirements of the
class-room. I make no apology for the sketches presented of the history
of science, literature, art, and of moral and material decline or
improvement. Professor Seeley, in his interesting book on _The
Expansion of England_, is disposed to confine history to the civil
community, and to the part of human well-being which depends on
that. "That a man in England," he tells us, "makes a scientific
discovery or paints a picture, is not in itself an event in the history
of England." But, of course, as this able writer himself remarks,
"history may assume a larger or a narrower function;" and I am
persuaded that to shut up history within so narrow bounds, is not
expedient in a work designed in part to stimulate readers to wide and
continued studies.
One who has long been engaged in historical study and teaching, if he
undertakes to prepare such a work as the present, has occasion to
traverse certain periods where previous investigations have made him
feel more or less at home. Elsewhere at least his course must be to
collate authorities, follow such as he deems best entitled to credit,
and, on points of uncertainty, satisfy himself by recurrence to the
original sources of evidence. Among the numerous works from which I
have derived assistance, the largest debt is due, especially in the
ancient and mediæval periods, to Weber's _Lehrbuch der
Weltgeschichte_, which (in its nineteenth edition, 1883) contains
2328 large octavo pages of well-digested matter. Duruy's _Histoire
du Moyen Age_ (eleventh edition, 1882), and also his _Histoire
des Temps Modernes_ (ninth edition), have yielded to me important
aid. From the writings of Mr. E. A. Freeman I have constantly derived
instruction. In particular, I have made use of his _General Sketch
of European History_ (which is published in this country, under the
title, _Outlines of History_), and of his lucid, compact, and
thorough _History of European Geography_. The other writings,
however, of this able and learned historian, have been very
helpful. Mr. Tillinghast's edition of Ploetz's _Epitome_ I have
found to be a highly valuable storehouse of historical facts, and have
frequently consulted it with advantage. The superior accuracy of
George's _Genealogical Tables_ is the reason why I have freely
availed myself of the aid afforded by them. Professor (now President)
C. K. Adams's excellent _Manual of Historical Literature_, to
which reference is repeatedly made in the following pages, has been of
service in preparing the lists of works to be read or consulted. Those
lists, it hardly need be said, aim at nothing like a complete
bibliography. No doubt to each of them other valuable works might
easily be added. As a rule, no mention is made of more technical or
abstruse writings, collections of documents, and so forth. The titles
of but few historical novels are given. Useful as the best of these
are, works of this class are often inaccurate and misleading; so that
a living master in historical authorship has said even of Walter
Scott, who is so strong when he stands on Scottish soil, that in his
Ivanhoe "there is a mistake in every line." With regard, however, to
historical fiction, including poems, as well as novels and tales, the
student will find in Mr. Justin Winsor's very learned and elaborate
monograph (forming a distinct section of the catalogue of the Boston
Public Library), the most full information up to the date of its
publication. Most of the historical maps, to illustrate the text of
the present work, have been engraved from drawings after Spruner,
Putzger, Freeman, etc. Of the ancient maps, several have been adopted
(in a revised form) from a General Atlas. That the maps contain more
places than are referred to in the text, is not a disadvantage.
I wish to express my obligation to a number of friends who have kindly
lent me aid in the revisal of particular portions of the proof-sheets
of this volume. My special thanks are due, on account of this service,
to Professor Francis Brown of the Union Theological School; to
Professors W. D. Whitney, Tracy Peck, T. D. Seymour, W. H. Brewer, and
T. R. Lounsbury, of Yale College; to Mr. A. Van Name, librarian of
Yale College; and to Mr. W. L. Kingsley, to whose historical knowledge
and unfailing kindness I have, on previous occasions, been indebted
for like assistance. To other friends besides those just named, I am
indebted for information on points made familiar to them by their
special studies.
G. P. F.
PREFACE TO REVISED EDITION.
The characteristics of this work are stated in the Preface to the
First Edition, which may be read on page v and the next following
pages of the present volume.
The work has been subjected to a careful revision. The aim has been to
make whatever amendments are called for by historical investigations
in the interval since it was published. Besides corrections, brief
statements have been woven here and there into the text. The revision
has embraced the bibliography connected with the successive periods or
chapters. Titles of books which are no longer of service have been
erased. Titles of select recent publications, as well as of
meritorious writings of a remoter past, have been inserted.
In preparing this edition for the press I have not been without the
advantage of aid from friends versed in historical studies. Professor
Henry E. Bourne, of Western Reserve University, besides particular
annotations, has prolonged the history so far as to include in its
compass, in Chapter VII, the last decade of the nineteenth century and
events as recent as the close of the South African War and the
accession of President Roosevelt. Professor Charles C. Torrey, Ph.D.,
of Yale University, has placed in my hands notes of his own on
Oriental History, a portion of history with which, as well as with the
Semitic languages, he is conversant. It will not be for lack of
painstaking if any part of the new edition fails, within the limits of
its plan, to correspond to the present state of historical knowledge.
G. P. F.
Yale University, January, 1904.
CONTENTS.
INTRODUCTION
PART I. ANCIENT HISTORY.
_From the Beginning of Authentic History to the Migrations of the
Teutonic Tribes (A.D. 375)_
DIVISION I. ORIENTAL HISTORY.
INTRODUCTION
SECTION I. CHINA AND INDIA.
CHAPTER I.--CHINA
CHAPTER II.--INDIA
SECTION II. THE EARLIEST GROUP OF NATIONS.
CHAPTER I.--EGYPT
CHAPTER II.--ASSYRIA AND BABYLON
CHAPTER III.--THE PHOENICIANS AND CARTHAGINIANS
CHAPTER IV.--THE HEBREWS
CHAPTER V.--THE PERSIANS
DIVISION II. EUROPE.
INTRODUCTION
SECTION I. GRECIAN HISTORY.
INTRODUCTION
PERIOD I. GREECE PRIOR TO THE PERSIAN WARS.
CHAPTER I.--THE PREHISTORIC AGE
CHAPTER II.--THE FORMATION OF THE PRINCIPAL STATES
PERIOD II. THE FLOURISHING ERA OF GREECE.
CHAPTER I.--THE PERSIAN WARS
CHAPTER II.--THE ASCENDENCY OF ATHENS
CHAPTER III.--THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR
CHAPTER IV.--RELATIONS WITH PERSIA: THE SPARTAN AND THEBAN HEGEMONY
PERIOD III. THE MACEDONIAN ERA.
CHAPTER I.--PHILIP AND ALEXANDER
CHAPTER II.--THE SUCCESSORS OF ALEXANDER
SECTION II. ROMAN HISTORY.
INTRODUCTION
PERIOD I. ROME UNDER THE KINGS AND THE PATRICIANS (753-304 B.C.).
CHAPTER I.--ROME UNDER THE KINGS (753-509 B.C.)
CHAPTER II.--ROME UNDER THE PATRICIANS (509-304 B.C.)
PERIOD II. TO THE UNION OF ITALY (304-264 B.C.).
CHAPTER I.--CONQUEST OF THE LATINS AND ITALIANS (304-282 B.C.)
CHAPTER II.--WAR WITH PYRRHUS AND UNION WITH ITALY (282-264 B.C.)
PERIOD III. THE PUNIC WARS.
To the Conquest of Carthage and of the Greek States (264-146 B.C.)
CHAPTER I.--THE FIRST AND SECOND PUNIC WARS (264-202 B.C.)
CHAPTER II.--CONQUEST OF MACEDONIA: THE THIRD PUNIC WAR: THE DESTRUCTION
OF CORINTH (202-146 B.C.)
PERIOD IV. THE ERA OF REVOLUTION AND OF THE CIVIL WARS (146-3l B.C.).
CHAPTER I.--THE GRACCHI: THE FIRST MITHRIDATIC WAR: MARIUS AND SULLA
(146-78 B.C.)
CHAPTER II.--POMPEIUS AND THE EAST: TO THE DEATH OF CRASSUS (78-53 B.C.)
CHAPTER III.--POMPEIUS AND CAESAR: THE SECOND TRIUMVIRATE.
PERIOD V. THE IMPERIAL MONARCHY.
To the Migrations of the Teutonic Tribes (375 A.D.)
CHAPTER I.--THE REIGN OF AUGUSTUS
CHAPTER II.--THE EMPERORS OF THE AUGUSTAN HOUSE
CHAPTER III.--THE FLAVIANS AND THE ANTONINES
CHAPTER IV.--THE EMPERORS MADE BY THE SOLDIERS: THE ABSOLUTE MONARCHY:
THE TRIUMPH OF CHRISTIANITY
PART II. MEDIAEVAL HISTORY.
_From the Migrations of the Teutonic Tribes to the Fall of
Constantinople (A.D. 375-1453)._
INTRODUCTION
PERIOD I. TO THE CARLOVINGIAN LINE OF FRANK RULERS (A.D. 375-751).
CHAPTER I.--CAUSES OF THE FALL OF THE WESTERN EMPIRE: THE TEUTONIC
CONFEDERACIES
CHAPTER II.--THE TEUTONIC MIGRATIONS AND KINGDOMS
CHAPTER III.--THE EASTERN EMPIRE
CHAPTER IV.--MOHAMMEDANISM AND THE ARABIC CONQUESTS
PERIOD II. FROM THE CARLOVINGIAN LINE OF FRANK KINGS TO THE
ROMANO-GERMANIC EMPIRE (A.D. 751-962).
CHAPTER I.--THE CARLOVINGIAN EMPIRE TO THE DEATH OF CHARLEMAGNE
(A.D. 814)
CHAPTER II.--DISSOLUTION OF CHARLEMAGNE'S EMPIRE: RISE OF THE KINGDOMS
OF FRANCE, GERMANY, AND ITALY
CHAPTER III.--INVASIONS OF THE NORTHMEN AND OTHERS: THE FEUDAL SYSTEM
PERIOD III. FROM THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE ROMANO-GERMANIC EMPIRE TO THE
END OF THE CRUSADES (A.D. 962-1270).
CHAPTER I.--THE CHURCH AND THE EMPIRE: PREDOMINANCE OF THE EMPIRE: TO
THE CRUSADES (A.D. 1096)
CHAPTER II.--THE CHURCH AND THE EMPIRE: PREDOMINANCE OF THE CHURCH: TO
THE END OF THE CRUSADES (A.D. 1270)
CHAPTER III.--ENGLAND AND FRANCE: THE FIRST PERIOD OF THEIR RIVALSHIP
(A.D. 1066-1217)
CHAPTER IV.--RISE OF THE BURGHER CLASS: SOCIETY IN THE ERA OF THE
CRUSADES
PERIOD IV. FROM THE END OF THE CRUSADES TO THE FALL OF CONSTANTINOPLE
(A.D. 1270-1453): THE DECLINE OF ECCLESIASTICAL AUTHORITY:
THE GROWTH OF THE NATIONAL SPIRIT AND OF MONARCHY.
INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER I.--ENGLAND AND FRANCE: SECOND PERIOD OF RIVALSHIP: THE HUNDRED
YEARS' WAR (A.D. 1339-1453)
CHAPTER II.--GERMANY: ITALY: SPAIN: THE SCANDINAVIAN COUNTRIES: POLAND
AND RUSSIA: HUNGARY: OTTOMAN TURKS: THE GREEK EMPIRE
CHAPTER III.--THE COUNTRIES OF EASTERN ASIA
PART III. MODERN HISTORY.
_From the Fall of Constantinople_ (1453) _to the Present Time_
INTRODUCTION
PERIOD I. FROM THE FALL OF CONSTANTINOPLE TO THE REFORMATION
(1453-1517).
INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER I.--FRANCE: ENGLAND: SPAIN: GERMANY: ITALY: THE OTTOMAN TURKS:
RUSSIA: THE INVASIONS OF ITALY
CHAPTER II.--INVENTION AND DISCOVERY: THE RENAISSANCE
PERIOD II. THE ERA OF THE REFORMATION (1517-1648).
INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER I.--THE REFORMATION IN GERMANY: TO THE TREATY OF NUREMBERG
(1517-1532)
CHAPTER II.--THE REFORMATION IN TEUTONIC COUNTRIES: SWITZERLAND,
DENMARK, SWEDEN, ENGLAND
CHAPTER III.--THE REFORMATION IN GERMANY, FROM THE PEACE OF NUREMBERG TO
THE PEACE OF AUGSBURG (1532-1555)
CHAPTER IV.--CALVINISM IN GENEVA: BEGINNING OF THE CATHOLIC
COUNTER-REFORMATION
CHAPTER V.--PHILIP II., AND THE REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS
CHAPTER VI.--THE CIVIL WARS IN FRANCE, TO THE DEATH OF HENRY IV. (1610)
CHAPTER VII.--THE THIRTY-YEARS' WAR, TO THE PEACE OF WESTPHALIA
(1618-1648)
CHAPTER VIII.--SECOND STAGE OF THE REFORMATION IN ENGLAND: TO THE DEATH
OF ELIZABETH (1547-1603)
CHAPTER IX.--THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION AND THE COMMONWEALTH (1603-1658)
CHAPTER X.--COLONIZATION IN AMERICA: ASIATIC NATIONS: CULTURE AND
LITERATURE (1517-1648)
PERIOD III. FROM THE PEACE OF WESTPHALIA TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION
(1648-1789).
INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER I.--THE PREPONDERANCE OF FRANCE: FIRST PART OF THE REIGN OF
LOUIS XIV. (TO THE PEACE OF RYSWICK, 1697): THE
RESTORATION OF THE STUARTS: THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION OF 1688
CHAPTER II.--WAR OF THE SPANISH SUCCESSION (TO THE PEACE OF UTRECHT,
1713): DECLINE OF THE POWER OF FRANCE: POWER AND MARITIME SUPREMACY OF
ENGLAND
CHAPTER III.--THE GREAT NORTHERN WAR: THE FALL OF SWEDEN: GROWTH OF THE
POWER OF RUSSIA
CHAPTER IV.--WAR OF THE AUSTRIAN SUCCESSION: GROWTH OF THE POWER OF
PRUSSIA: THE DESTRUCTION OF POLAND
CHAPTER V.--CONTEST OF ENGLAND AND FRANCE IN AMERICA: WAR OF AMERICAN
INDEPENDENCE: THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES
CHAPTER VI.--LITERATURE, SCIENCE, AND RELIGION
PERIOD IV. THE ERA OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION (1789-1815).
INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER I.--FROM THE ASSEMBLING OF THE STATES-GENERAL TO THE EXECUTION
OF LOUIS XVI. (1789-1793)
CHAPTER II.--FROM THE EXECUTION OF LOUIS XVI. TO THE FALL OF ROBESPIERRE
(JAN. 21, 1793-JULY 27, 1794)
CHAPTER III.--FROM THE FALL OF ROBESPIERRE TO THE EMPIRE OF NAPOLEON
(1794-1804)
CHAPTER IV.--FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE EMPIRE TO THE RUSSIAN CAMPAIGN
(1804-1812)
CHAPTER V.--FROM THE RUSSIAN CAMPAIGN (1812) TO THE CONGRESS OF VIENNA
(1814-15)
CHAPTER VI.--AMERICAN HISTORY IN THIS PERIOD (1789-1815)
CHAPTER VII.--LITERATURE, ART, AND SCIENCE (1789-1815)
PERIOD V. FROM THE CONGRESS OF VIENNA (1815) TO THE PRESENT TIME.
INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER I.--EUROPE, FROM THE CONGRESS OF VIENNA (1815) TO THE FRENCH
REVOLUTION OF 1830
CHAPTER II.--EUROPE, FROM THE REVOLUTION OF 1830 TO THE REVOLUTIONARY
EPOCH OF 1848
CHAPTER III.--EUROPE, FROM THE REVOLUTIONS OF 1848 TO THE
AUSTRO-PRUSSIAN WAR (1866)
CHAPTER IV.--EUROPE, FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE AUSTRO-PRUSSIAN WAR TO
THE END OF THE FRANCO-GERMAN WAR (1866-1871)
CHAPTER V.--EUROPE, FROM THE THIRD FRENCH REPUBLIC, AND
THE UNION OF ITALY (1871)
CHAPTER VI.--THE UNITED STATES SINCE 1815: THE SOUTH AMERICAN STATES:
EASTERN ASIA
CHAPTER VII.--THE LAST DECADE OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY
CHAPTER VIII.--DISCOVERY AND INVENTION: SCIENCE AND LITERATURE: PROGRESS
OF HUMANE SENTIMENT: PROGRESS TOWARDS THE UNITY OF MANKIND
LIST OF MAPS.
THE WORLD AS KNOWN TO THE ANCIENTS
PHYSICAL FEATURES OF ASIA
ANCIENT EGYPT
ANCIENT PALESTINE
PHYSICAL FEATURES OF EUROPE
ANCIENT GREECE AND THE AEGEAN ISLANDS
GREEK AND PHOENICIAN COLONIES
EMPIRE OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT
KINGDOMS OF THE SUCCESSORS OF ALEXANDER
ANCIENT ITALY (NORTHERN PART)
ANCIENT ITALY (SOUTHERN PART)
ANCIENT ROMAN EMPIRE
THE NEW NATIONS AFTER THE GREAT MIGRATIONS (ABOUT A.D. 500)
EMPIRE OF THE SARACENS (ABOUT A.D. 750)
EMPIRE OF CHARLEMAGNE
EMPIRE OF CHARLEMAGNE A.D. 843
EMPIRE OF CHARLEMAGNE A.D. 887
CENTRAL EUROPE ABOUT A.D. 980
MEDITERRANEAN LANDS AT THE TIME OF THE CRUSADES
FRANCE AND ENGLAND, A.D. 1154-1189
CENTRAL EUROPE, A.D. 1360
CENTRAL EUROPE, A.D. 1660
ITALY ABOUT THE MIDDLE OF IHE SIXTEENTH CENTURY
EUROPE AT THE TIME OF NAPOLEON'S GREATEST POWER (ABOUT A.D. 1810)
CENTRAL EUROPE IN 1815
EUROPE AFTER 1878
AUSTRO-HUNGARY SINCE 1878
FRANCE SINCE 1871
GERMAN EMPIRE SINCE 1871
TURKISH EMPIRE, GREECE, ETC., SINCE 1878
TERRITORIAL GROWTH OF THE UNITED STATES
ASIA AT THE PRESENT TIME
UNIVERSAL HISTORY.
INTRODUCTION.
DEFINITION OF HISTORY.--The subject of history is man. History has for
its object to record his doings and experiences. It may then be
concisely defined as a narrative of past events in which men have been
concerned. To describe the earth, the abode of man, to delineate the
different kingdoms of nature, and to inquire into the origin of them,
or to explain the physical or mental constitution of human beings, is
no part of the office of history. All this belongs to the departments
of natural and intellectual science.
But history, as we now understand the term, is more than a bare record
of what men have done and suffered. It aims to point out the
connection of events with one another. It seeks to explain the causes
and the consequences of things that occur. It would trace the steps
that mark the progress of the race, and of the different portions of
it, through extended periods. It brings to light the thread which
unites each particular stage in the career of a people, or of mankind
as a whole, with what went before, and with what came after.
NATIONS.--History has been called "the biography of a society."
Biography has to do with the career of an individual. History is
concerned with the successive actions and fortunes of a community; in
its broadest extent, with the experiences of the human family. It is
only when men are connected by the social bond, and remain so united
for a greater or less period, that there is room for history. It is,
therefore, with nations, in their internal progress and in their
mutual relations, that history especially deals. Of mere clans, or
loosely organized tribes, it can have little to say. History can go no
farther than to explore their genealogy, and state what were their
journeyings and habits. The nation is a form of society that rests on
the same basis--a basis at once natural and part of a divine
system--as the family. By a nation is meant a people dwelling in a
definite territory, living under the same government, and bound
together by such ties as a common language, a common religion, the
same institutions and customs. The elements that enter into that
national spirit which is the bond of unity, are multiple. They vary to
a degree in different peoples. As individuals are not alike, and as
the history of any particular community is modified and molded by
these individual differences, so the course of the history of mankind
is shaped by the peculiar characteristics of the various nations, and
by their interaction upon one another. In like manner, groups of
nations, each characterized by distinctive traits derived from
affinities of race or of religion, or from other sources, act on each
other, and thus help to determine the course of the historic stream.
SCOPE OF HISTORY.--The rise and progress of _culture_ and
_civilization_ in their various constituents is the theme of
history. It does not limit its attention to a particular fraction of a
people, to the exclusion of the rest. Governments and rulers, and the
public doings of states,--such as foreign wars, and the struggles of
rival dynasties,--naturally form a prominent topic in historical
writings. But this is only one department in the records of the
past. More and more history interests itself in the character of
society at large, and in the phases through which it has passed. How
men lived from day to day, what their occupations were, their comforts
and discomforts, their ideas, sentiments, and modes of intercourse,
their state as regards art, letters, invention, religious
enlightenment,--these are points on which history, as at present
studied and written, undertakes to shed light.
POINTS OF VIEW.--An eminent German philosopher of our day, _Hermann
Lotze_, intimates that there are five phases of human development,
and hence five points of view from which the course of history is to
be surveyed. These are the _intellectual_ (embracing the progress
of truth and knowledge), the _industrial_, the _aesthetic_
(including art in all its higher ramifications), the _religious_,
and the political. An able English scholar, _Goldwin Smith_,
resolves the elements of human progress, and thus the most general
topics of history, into three, "the moral, the intellectual, and the
productive; or, _virtue_, _knowledge_, and _industry_."
"But these three elements," he adds, "though distinct, are not
separate, but closely connected with each other."
THE PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY.--That there is, in some sense, a "reign of
law" in the succession of human events, is a conviction warranted by
observed facts, as well as inspired by religion. Events do not spring
into being, disjoined from antecedents leading to them. Even
turning-points in history, which seem, at the first glance, abrupt,
are found to be dependent on previous conditions. They are perceived
to be the natural issue of the times that have gone before. Preceding
events have foreshadowed them. There are laws of historical progress
which have their root in the characteristics of human nature. Ends are
wrought out, which bear on them evident marks of design. History, as a
whole, is the carrying out of a plan:
"... through the ages one increasing purpose runs."
_Augustine_ long ago argued, that he who has not left "even the
entrails of the smallest and most insignificant animal, or the
feather of a bird, or the little flower of a plant, or the leaf of a
tree, without a harmony, and, as it were, a mutual peace among all
its parts,--that God can never be believed to have left the kingdoms
of men, their dominations and servitudes, outside of the laws of his
providence."
To discern the plan of history, and the causes or laws through which
it is accomplished, as far as our limited capacity will allow, is the
object of what is called the philosophy of history.
FREEDOM AND LAW.--It must not be forgotten, however, that man is a
free agent. History, although it is not an aimless process, is,
nevertheless, not subject to the forces and laws which govern in the
realm of matter. Physical analogies are not a literal image of what
takes place in the sphere of intelligence and freedom. Moral evil,
wherever it is a factor in history, has its origin in the will of
man. In respect to it, the agency of God is permissive and
overruling. Through his providence, order is made to emerge, a worthy
goal is at last reached, despite the elements of disorder introduced
by human perversity.
Nor is progress continuous and unbroken. It is often, as one has said,
a spiral rather than a straight line. It is not an unceasing advance:
there are backward movements, or what appear to be such. Of particular
nations it is frequently evident, that, intellectually and morally, as
well as in power and thrift, they have sunk below a level once
attained.
Of the inscrutable blending of human freedom with a pre-ordained
design, GUIZOT says: "Man advances in the execution of a plan which
he has not conceived, and of which he is not even aware. He is the
free and intelligent artificer of a work which is not his own."
"Conceive a great machine, the design of which is centered in a
single mind, though its various parts are intrusted to different
workmen, separated from, and strangers to, each other. No one of
them understands the work as a whole, nor the general result which
he concurs in producing; but every one executes with intelligence
and freedom, by rational and voluntary acts, the particular task
assigned to him." (_Lectures on the History of Civilization_,
Lect. xi.)
PERSONAL POWER.--The progress of society has been inseparably
connected with the agency of eminent persons. Signal changes, whether
wholesome or mischievous, are linked to the names of individuals who
have specially contributed to bring them to pass. The achievements of
heroes stand out in as bold relief in authentic history as in the
obscure era of myth and fable. Fruitful inventions, after the earlier
steps in civilization are taken, are traceable to particular authors,
exalted by their genius above the common level. So it is with the
literary works which have exerted the deepest and most lasting
influence. Nations have their pilots in war and in peace. Epochs in
the progress of the fine arts are ushered in by individuals of
surpassing mental power. Reforms and revolutions, which alter the
direction of the historic stream, emanate from individuals in whose
minds they are conceived, and by whose energy they are effected. The
force thus exerted by the leaders in history is not accounted for by
reference to general laws. Great men are not puppets moved by the
spirit of the time. To be sure, there must be a preparation for them,
and a groundwork of sympathy among their contemporaries: otherwise
their activity would call forth no response. Independently of the age
that gives them birth, their power would lose its distinctive form and
hue: they would be incapable of influence.
_Cromwell_ would not have been Cromwell had he been born in any
other period of English history. Nor could he have played his part,
being what he was, had not the religious and political struggles of
England for generations framed a theater adapted to his talents and
character. _Michael Angelo_ could not have arisen in a
half-civilized tribe. His creative power would have found no field in
a society rude, and blind to the attractions of art. Nevertheless, his
power _was_ creative. Cromwell and Michael Angelo, and such as
they, are not the passive organs, the mere outcome, of the communities
in which they appear. Without the original thought and personal energy
of leaders, momentous changes in the life of nations could never have
taken place. A great man may be obliged to wait long for the answering
sympathy which is required to give effect to his thoughts and
purposes. Such a mind is said to be in advance of the age. Another
generation may have to appear before the harvest springs from the seed
that he has sown. Moreover, it is not true that great men, efficient
leaders, come forward whenever there is an exigency calling for them,
or an urgent need. Rather is it true that terrible disasters sometimes
occur, at critical points in history, just for the lack of leaders fit
for the emergency.
THE MEANING OF HISTORY.--A thoughtful student can hardly fail to
propose to himself the question, "What is the meaning of history?
Why is this long drama with all that is noble and joyous in it, and
with its abysses of sin and misery, enacted at all?" It is only a
partial answer that one can hope to give to this grave inquiry, for
the designs of Providence can not be fully fathomed. But, among the
ends in view, the moral training of mankind stands forth with a
marked prominence. The deliverance of the race from moral evil and
error, and the building-up of a purified society, enriched with all
the good that belongs to the ideal of humanity, and exalted by
fellowship with God, is not only an end worthy in itself, but it is
the end towards which the onward movement of history is seen to be
directed. Hence, a central place in the course of history belongs to
the life and work of Jesus Christ.
No more satisfactory solution of this problem of the significance of
history has ever been offered than that brought forward by the
Apostle Paul in Acts xvii. 27, where he says that the nations of men
were assigned to their places on the earth, and their duration as
well as boundaries determined, "that they should seek the Lord, if
haply they might feel after him, and find him."
WORKS ON THE PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY.-(Professor C. K. ADAMS'S
_Manual of Historical Literature_ (1882) is an excellent guide
in historical reading. Briefer lists of works in _Methods of
Teaching and Studying History_, edited by G. Stanley Hall.)
_Books on the Philosophy of History_: R. FLINT, _The
Philosophy of History_, vol. i.,--Writers on the subject in
France and Germany. Vol. ii. will treat of England and Italy. The
work is a critical review of the literature on the
subject. Schlegel, _The Philosophy of History_; Shedd's
_Lectures on the Philosophy of History_; Bunsen's _God in
History_ (3 vols., 1870); LOTZE, _Mikrokosmus_, vol. iii,
book vii.; Montesquieu's _Spirit of the Laws_; Buckle,
_History of Civilization in England_ (2 vols.). This work is
based on the denial of free-will, and the doctrine that physical
influences,--climate, soil, food, etc.,--are the main causes of
intellectual progress. Draper's _History of the Intellectual
Development of Europe_(2 vols., 2d edition, 1876) is in the same
vein. Opposed to this philosophy are GOLDWIN SMITH'S _Lectures on
the Study of History_; C. Kingsley, in his _Miscellanies, The
Limits of Exact Science as applied to History_; Froude, in
_Short Studies_, vol. i., _The Science of History_; Lotze,
as above; also, Flint, and Droysen, _Grundriss der
Historik_. Hegel's _Philosophy of History_ has profound
observations, but connected with an _a priori_ theory.
HISTORICAL WRITING.--The beginning of historical writing was in the
form of lists of kings, or bare records of battles, or the simple
registration of other occurrences of remarkable interest. The
Egyptians, Babylonians, Assyrians, Chinese, and other nations,
furnish examples of this rudimental type of historical writing. More
continuous annals followed; but these are meager in contents, and
make no attempt to find links of connection between events. The
ancient Hebrew historians are on a much higher plane, and, apart
from their religious value, far surpass all other Asiatic
histories. It was in _Greece_, the fountain-head of science,
that history, as an art, first appeared. _Herodotus_, born
early in the fifth century B.C., first undertook to satisfy
curiosity respecting the past by a more elaborate and entertaining
narrative. He begins his work thus: "These are the researches of
Herodotus of Halicarnassus, which he publishes, in the hope of
thereby preserving from decay the remembrance of what men have done,
and of preventing the great and marvelous actions of the Greeks and
the barbarians from losing their due meed of glory, and withal to
put on record what were the grounds of their hostility." In
Herodotus, history, owing to the inquiry made into the causes of
events, begins to rise above the level of a mere chronicle, its
primitive type. _Thucydides_, who died about 400 B.C.,
followed. He is far more accurate in his investigations, having a
deep insight into the origin of the events which he relates, and is
a model of candor. He, too, writes to minister to the inquisitive
spirit of his countrymen, and of the generations that were to
follow. He began to write his history of the war between the
Athenians and the Peloponnesians while it was still going on, in the
belief, he says, "that it would turn out great, and worthier of
being recorded than any that had preceded it." The attention of
historical writers was still confined to a particular country, or to
insulated groups of events. Before there could spring up the idea of
universal history, it was necessary that there should be a broader
view of mankind as a whole. The ancient _Stoics_ had a glimpse
of the race as a family, and of the nations as forming one complex
unity. The conquests and extended dominion of Rome first suggested
the idea of universal history. _Polybius_, a Greek in the
second century B.C., had watched the progress of Rome, in its career
of conquest, until "the affairs of Italy and Africa," as he says,
"joined with those of Asia and Greece, and all moved together
towards one fixed and single point." He tells us that particular
histories can not give us a knowledge of the whole, more than the
survey of the divided members of a body once endowed with life and
beauty can yield a just conception of all the comeliness and vigor
which it has received from Nature. To Polybius belongs the
distinction of being the first to undertake a universal
history. Christianity, with its doctrine of the unity of mankind,
and with all the moral and religious teaching characteristic of the
gospel, contributed effectively to the widening of the view of the
office and scope of history. It is only in quite recent times that
history has directed its attention predominantly to _social
progress_, and to its causes and conditions.
History, in its etymological sense (from the Greek, historia), meant
the ascertaining of facts by inquiry; then, the results of this
inquiry, the knowledge thus obtained. The work of Herodotus was
"history" in the strictest sense: he acquired his information by
travel and personal interrogation.
The German philosopher, _Hegel_, has divided histories into
three classes: 1. _Original histories_; i.e., works written by
contemporaries of the events described, who share in the spirit of
the times, and may have personally taken part in the
transactions. Such are the works of Herodotus, Thucydides,
Xenophon's Anabasis, Clarendon's History of the Great Rebellion in
England, Caesar's Commentaries. 2. _Reflective histories_,
where the author writes at a later point of time, on the basis of
materials which he gathers up, but is not himself a partaker in the
spirit of the age of which he treats. 3. _Philosophical
histories_, which set forth the rational development of history
in its inmost idea.
Another classification is the following: 1. _Genealogies_, like
the records of Manetho, the Egyptian priest. 2. _The
chronicle_, following the chronological order, and telling the
story in a simple, popular way. 3. _The "pragmatic"_ form of
writing, which aims to explain by reference to the past some
particular characteristic or phase of the present, and uses history
to point a special moral lesson. 4. The form of history which traces
the rise and progress of "_ideas_," tendencies, or ruling
forces,--such as the idea of civil equality in early Rome or in
modern France, the religious ideas of Mohammedanism, the idea of
representative government, the idea of German unity, etc.
A broad line of distinction has been drawn between "the old or
_artistic_ type of history," and the new or _sociological_
type which belongs to the present century. The ancient historians
represented the former type. They prized literary form. They aimed
to interweave moral and political reflections. Polybius often
interrupts his narrative to introduce remarks of this sort. But they
were not, as a rule, diligent and accurate in their researches. And,
above all, they had no just conception of society as a whole, and of
the complex forces out of which the visible scene springs. The
Greeks were the masters in this first or artistic form of
history. The French Revolution was one stimulus to a profounder and
more comprehensive method of studying history. The methods and
investigations of natural science have had a decided influence in
the same direction.
THE SOURCES OF HISTORY.--History must depend for credence on credible
evidence. In order to justify belief, one must either himself have
seen or heard the facts related, or have the testimony, direct or
indirect, of witnesses or of well-informed contemporaries. The sources
of historic knowledge are mainly comprised in _oral tradition_,
or in some form of _written records_.
_Tradition_ is exposed to the infirmities of memory, and to the
unconscious invention and distortion which grow out of imagination and
feeling. Ordinarily, bare tradition, not verified by corroborative
proofs, can not be trusted later than the second generation from the
circumstances narrated. It ceases to be reliable when it has been
transmitted through more than two hands. In the case of a great and
startling event, like a destructive convulsion of nature or a
protracted war, the authentic story, though unwritten, of the central
facts, at least, is of much longer duration. There may be visible
monuments that serve to perpetuate the recollection of the occurrences
which they commemorate. _Institutions_ may exist--popular
festivals and the like--which keep alive the memory of past events,
and, in certain circumstances, are sufficient to verify them to
generations far removed in time. Events of a stirring character, when
they are embodied in _songs_ of an early date, may be transmitted
orally, though in a poetic dress. Songs and legends, it may be added,
even when they do not suffice to verify the incidents to which they
refer, are valuable as disclosing the sentiments and habits of the
times when they originated, or were cherished. The central fact, the
nucleus of the tradition, may be historical when all the details
belonging with it have been effaced, or have been superseded by other
details, the product of imagination. The historical student is to
distinguish between traditionary tales which are _untrustworthy
throughout_, and traditions which have _their roots in
fact_. Apart from oral tradition, the sources of historical
knowledge are the following:--
1. Contemporary registers, chronicles, and other documents, either
now, or known to have been originally, in a manuscript form.
2. Inscriptions on monuments and coins. Such, for example, are the
inscriptions on the monuments of Egypt and on the buried ruins of
Nineveh and Babylon. Such are the ancient epitaphs, heathen and
Christian, in the Roman catacombs. The study of ancient inscriptions
of various sorts has thrown much light of late upon Grecian and Roman
antiquity.
3. The entire literature of a people, in which its intellectual,
moral, and social condition, at any particular era, is mirrored.
4. Material structures of every kind, as altars, tombs, private
dwellings,--as those uncovered at Pompeii,--public edifices, civil and
religious, paintings, weapons, household utensils. These all tell a
story relative to the knowledge and taste, the occupations and
domestic habits, and the religion, of a past generation or of an
extinct people.
5 Language is a memorial of the past, of the more value since it is
not the product of deliberate contrivance. _Comparative
philology_, following languages back to their earlier stages and to
the parent stocks, unveils the condition of society at remote
epochs. It not only describes the origin of nations, but teaches
something respecting their primitive state.
6. Histories written at former periods, but subsequently to the events
described in them, are a secondary but valuable source of historical
knowledge. This is especially true when their authors had access to
traditions that were nearer their fountain, or to literary monuments
which have perished.
HISTORICAL CRITICISM.--Historical scholars are much more exacting as
regards evidence than was formerly the case. The criticism of what
purports to be proof is more searching. At the same time, what is
called "historical divination" can not be altogether
excluded. Learned and sagacious scholars have conjectured the
existence of facts, where a gap in recorded history--"the logic of
events"--seemed to presuppose them; and later discoveries have
verified the guess. This is analogous to the success of Leverrier
and Adams in inferring the existence of an unknown planet, which the
telescope afterwards discovered. An example of historical divination
on a large scale is furnished by the theories of the great German
historian, _Niebuhr_, in respect to early Roman history. He
propounded opinions, however, which in many particulars fail to
obtain general assent at present.
CREDIBILITY OF HISTORY.--At the opposite pole from credulity is an
unwarrantable historical skepticism. The story is told of Sir Walter
Raleigh, that when he was a prisoner in the Tower, and was engaged
in writing his _History of the World_, he heard the sounds of a
fracas in the prison-yard. On inquiry of those who were concerned in
it, and were on the spot, he found so many contradictions in their
statements that he could not get at the truth. Whereupon, it
occurred to him as a vain thing to undertake to describe what had
occurred on the vast theater of the world, when he could not
ascertain the truth about an event occurring within a bow-shot. The
anecdote simply illustrates, however, the difficulty of getting at
the exact truth respecting details,--a difficulty constantly
exemplified in courts of justice. The fact of the conflict in the
court of the Tower, the general cause, the parties engaged, the
consequences,--as, for example, what punishment was inflicted,--were
undisputed. The great facts which influence the course of history,
it is not difficult to ascertain. Moreover, as against an
extravagant skepticism, it may be said that history provides us with
a vast amount of authentic information which contemporaries, and
even individual actors, were not possessed of. This is through the
bringing to light of documents from a great variety of sources, many
of which were secret, or not open to the view of all the leaders in
the transactions to which they refer. The private correspondence of
the Protestant leaders,--Luther, Melanchthon, Cranmer, etc.,--the
letters of Erasmus, the official reports of the Venetian
ambassadors, the letters of William the Silent and of Philip II.,
put us in possession of much information, which at the time was a
secret to most of the prominent participants in the events of the
sixteenth century. The correspondence of Washington, Hamilton,
Jefferson, John Adams, Wolcott, Pickering, etc., introduces us into
the secret counsels of the American political leaders of that
day. Numerous facts conveyed from one to another under the seal of
privacy, and not known to the others, are thus revealed to us.
On the nature and value of tradition, a very valuable discussion is
that of EWALD, _History of Israel_, vol. i. pp. 13-38; Sir
G. C. LEWIS, _ Essays on the Credibility of Early Roman
History_, in which Niebuhr's conclusions are criticised;
A. Bisset, _Essays on Historical Truth_. On the sources of
history, Art. by GAIRDNER in _The Contemporary Review_,
vol. xxxviii.
HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY.--Political Geography, which describes the earth
as inhabited, and as parceled out among nations, has a close relation
to history. Without a distinct idea of the position of places and the
boundaries of countries, historical narrations are enveloped in a sort
of haze. _France_, for example, is a name with very different
meanings at different dates in the past. Unless the varying uses of
the word _Burgundy_ are understood, important parts of European
history are left in confusion.
PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY.--Even more helpful is _Physical Geography_,
which surveys the earth in its three great divisions,--land, sea, and
air,--without reference to lines of political demarkation. The
configuration of the different portions of the globe, with the
varieties of climate, the relations of mountain and plain, of land and
water, have strongly affected the character of nations and the
currents of history. In regions extremely hot or extremely cold man
can not thrive, or build up a rich and enduring civilization. The
occupations of a people are largely dependent on its
situation,--whether it be maritime or away from the sea,--and on
peculiarities of soil and temperature. The character of the Nile
valley, and its periodical inundation, is a striking illustration of
the possible extent of geographical influences. The peninsular and
mountainous character of Greece went far to shape the form of Greek
political society. The high plateau which forms the greater portion of
Spain, with the fertile belts of valley on the Atlantic and
Mediterranean border, have helped to determine the employments and the
character of the Spanish people. Had the physical characteristics of
the Spanish peninsula been essentially different, the success of
Wellington in expelling the French, with the forces at his disposal,
would not have been possible. Were there a chain of mountains along
our Atlantic coast as near as are the Andes to the Pacific, what
different results would have arisen from the English settlements in
North America! The Alpine barrier in the north of Italy was
indispensable to the building-up and maintenance of the dominion of
ancient Rome. Of the great basin or plain between the Alps and the
Apennines, open to the sea only on the east, through which flows one
great river, fed by streams from the mountains on either side,
Dr. Arnold says: "Who can wonder that this large and richly watered
plain should be filled with flourishing cities, or that it should have
been contended for so often by successful invaders?" While the agency
of climate, soil, and other physical circumstances may easily be
exaggerated, that agency must be duly considered in accounting for
historical phenomena.
The best historical Atlas is the copious German work of VON
SPRUNER. FREEMAN'S _Historical Geography of Europe_ is a work
of great value. DROVSEN'S _Allg. Hist. Atlas._ Smaller atlases
are those of PUTZGER, Rhode, Appleton's _Hist. Atlas_, the
_International_, and the _Collegiate_. Smaller still,
Keith Johnston's Crown Atlases and Half-Crown Atlases. On Mediæval
History, Labberton's Atlas; also, Koeppen: in Ancient Geography,
SMITH'S work, KIEPERT'S, Long's. On Physical Geography, GUYOT'S
text-books; Vaughan's _Connection between History and Physical
Geography_, in _Contemp. Review_, vol. v.; Hall's _Methods
of Studying History_, etc., p. 201 _seq._,
_Encycl. Brit._, Art. _Geography_.
CHRONOLOGY.--An exact method of establishing dates was slowly reached.
The invention of eras was indispensable to this end. The earliest
definite time for the dating of events was established at
Babylon,--the era of Nabonassar, 747 B.C. The Greeks, from about 300
B.C., dated events from the first recorded victory at the Olympic
games, 776 B.C. These games occurred every fourth year. Each Olympiad
was thus a period of four years. The Romans, though not until some
centuries after the founding of Rome, dated from that event; i.e.,
from 753 B.C. The Mohammedan era begins at the Hegira, or flight of
Mohammed from Mecca, 622 A.D. The method of dating from the birth of
Jesus was introduced by Dionysius Exiguus, a Roman abbot, about the
middle of the sixth century. This epoch was placed by him about four
years too late. This requires us to fix the date of the birth of
Christ at 4 B.C.
The day was the simplest and earliest division of time. The week has
been in use for this purpose in the East from time immemorial. It
was not introduced among the Romans until after the spread of
Christianity in the Empire. The month was the earlier unit for
periods of greater length. To make the lunar and the solar years
correspond, and to determine the exact length of the solar year, was
a work of difficulty, and was only gradually effected. _Julius_
_Cæsar_ reformed the calendar in 46 B.C., the date of the
Julian era. This made the year eleven minutes too long. _Pope
Gregory XIII_. corrected the reckoning, in 1582, by ordering
Oct. 5th to be called the 15th, and instituted the "Gregorian
calendar." The change, or the "New Style," was subsequently adopted
by Great Britain (in 1752), and by the other Protestant nations. The
difference for the present century between the Old and the New Style
is twelve days: during the last century it was eleven. The Julian
civil year began with Jan. 1. It was not until the eighteenth
century that this became the uniform date for the commencement of
the legal year among the Latin Christian nations.
On the general subjects of chronology: _Encycl. Britt_.,
Arts. _Chronology_ and _Calendar_. Manuals of Reference:
ROSSE'S _Index of Dates_ (1858); Haydn's _Dictionary of
Dates_ (Vincent's edition, 1866); BLAIR'S _Chronological
Tables_; Woodward and Cates, _Encycl. of Chronology_ (1872).
ETHNOLOGY.
Ethnology is a new science. Its function is to ascertain the origin
and filiation, the customs and institutions, of the various nations
and tribes which make up, or have made up in the past, the human
race. In tracing their relationship to one another, or their
genealogy, the sources of information are mainly three,--_physical
characteristics, language_, and _written memorials_ of every
sort.
Ethnology is a branch of Anthropology, as this is a subdivision of
Zoölogy, and this, again, of Biology. Ethnography differs from
Ethnology in dealing more with details of description, and less with
rational exposition.
RACES OF MANKIND.--Authorities differ widely from one another in their
classification of races. _Prichard_ made seven, which were
reduced by _Cuvier_ to three; viz., _Caucasian, Mongolian,
Ethiopic. Blumenbach_ made five, and _Pickering_ eleven. It
is the Caucasian variety which has been chiefly distinguished in
history, and active in the building-up of civilization. None of the
numerous schemes of division, from a zoölogical point of view,
however, are satisfactory.
_Huxley_ has proposed a fourfold classification: 1. The
Australoid, represented by the Australians and the indigenous tribes
of Southern India. 2. The Negroid. 3. The Mongoloid. 4. The
Xanthochroi, or fair whites, among whom are comprised most of the
inhabitants of Northern Europe. To these are added a fifth variety,
the Melanochroi, to which belong a part of the Celts, the Spaniards,
Greeks, Arabs, etc.
Of the various methods of race-division, _A. van Humboldt_
says: "We fail to recognize any typical sharpness of definition, or
any general or well-established principle, in the division of these
groups. The extremes of form and color are certainly separated, but
without regard to the races which can not be included in any of
these classes." (_Cosmos_, i. 365.) For example, black skin,
woolly hair, and a negro-like cast of countenance, are not
necessarily connected together.
MONOGENISM.--Zoölogists, from the point of view of their own science,
now more generally favor the _monogenist_ doctrine, which traces
mankind to a single pair, than the polygenist, which assumed different
centers of origin. The present tendencies of natural science,
especially since Darwin, are favorable to the monogenist view.
"The opinion of modern Zoölogists, whose study of the species and
breeds of animals makes them the best judges, is against this view
of the several origins of man, for two principal reasons. First,
That all tribes of men, from the blackest to the whitest, the most
savage to the most cultured, have such general likeness in the
structure of their bodies and the working of their minds, as is
easiest and best accounted for by their being descended from a
common ancestry, however distant. Second, That all the human races,
notwithstanding their form and color, appear capable of freely
intermarrying, and forming crossed races of every combination, such
as the millions of mulattoes and mestizoes sprung in the New World
from the mixture of Europeans, Africans, and native Americans; this
again points to a common ancestry of all the races of man. We may
accept the theory of the unity of mankind as best agreeing with
ordinary experience and scientific research." (Tylor's
_Anthropology_, etc., pp. 5, 6.)
EVIDENCE OF LANGUAGE.--Languages, through marked affinities, are
grouped together into several great families, i. The _Aryan_, or
Indo-European, of which the oldest known branch is the Sanskrit, the
language in which the ancient books of the Hindus, the Vedas, were
written. With the Sanskrit belong the Iranian or Persian, the Greek,
the Latin or Italic, the Celtic, the Germanic or Teutonic (under which
are included the Scandinavian tongues), the Slavonian or
Slavo-Lettic. 2. The _Semitic_, embracing the communities
described in Genesis as the descendants of Shem. Under this head are
embraced, first, the Assyrian and Babylonian; secondly, the Hebrew and
Phoenician, with the Syrian or Aramaic; and thirdly, the Arabic. The
Phoenician was spread among numerous colonies, of which Carthage was
the chief. The Arabic followed the course of Mohammedan conquest. It
is the language of the northern border of Africa, and has strongly
affected various other languages,--the Persian, Turkish, etc. 3. The
_Turanian or Scythian_. This is an extensive family of
languages. The Finno-Hungarian, which includes two cultivated peoples,
the Fins and Hungarians; the Samoyed, stretching from the North Sea
far eastward to the boundary between Russia and China; and the Turkish
or Tartar, spreading from European Turkey over a great part of Central
Asia, are connected together by family ties. They spring from one
parent stock. Whether the Mongolian and the Tungusic--the last is the
language of the Manchus--are also thus affiliated, is a point not
absolutely settled.
Besides these three great divisions, there are other languages, as the
_Chinese_, and the monosyllabic tongues of south-eastern Asia,
which possibly are connected lineally with it; the _Japanese_;
the _Malay-Polynesian_, a well-developed family; the
_Hamitic_ (of which the Egyptian or Coptic is the principal
member); the _Dravidian_ or _South Indian_; the _South
African_; the _Central African_; the _American Indian_
languages, etc.
On language and the divisions of language, W. D. WHITNEY,
_Language, and the Study of Language_ (1867), _Oriental and
Linguistic Studies_ (two series, 1872-74), _Life and Growth of
Language_ (1875); Art. _Philology_, in _Encycl. Brit_.,
vol. xviii.; Max Müller's _Lectures on the Science of Language_
(two series), and other writings by the same author.
ETHNOLOGY AND HISTORY.--History is generally written from the
political point of view. It is the history of nations considered
separately and in relation to one another. There are, also, histories
of culture. History, from a cultural point of view, without paying
regard to national boundaries, seeks to unfold the rise and progress
of arts and industry, of inventions, of customs, manners, and
institutions. It is the history of culture and civilization. History,
from the ethnological point of view, would describe the migrations and
experiences of the different races of men, and the formation of the
various nationalities by these races, through conquest and
intermixture. Following the divisions of linguistic science, we should
have, first, the _Egyptian_ race and their history. Then we
should have the _Semitic_ race, in the three eras of their
pre-eminence, and in their various branches. Then would come the
_Aryan_, or Indo-European family, whose power, except when
interrupted and partially broken by the Mohammedan conquests, has
continued to dominate in history since the rise of the ancient Persian
Empire.
There have been three periods of Semitic ascendency,--the era of the
Assyrian and Babylonian empires; that of the Phoenician cities and
of Carthage (a Tyrian settlement), with their colonies; and that of
the Arabic-Mohammedan Conquests. This last epoch falls within the
Christian era. In this course of Semitic history would be embraced
the narrative of the Israelites, and of their dispersion in ancient
and in modern times. The Indo-European, or Aryan family, follows
next in order. In recording its history, we should consider, first,
its oldest representative of which we have knowledge,--the Indian
race, with its literature, its social organization, and its
religions, Brahmanism and Buddhism. Then come the Persians, with
their religion founded by _Zoroaster_, and the Armenians. With
the fall of the Ancient Persian Empire, the center of power was
transferred from Asia to Europe, where it has since continued,
though still in the hands of the same Aryan race. The history of the
Greeks and of the Romans succeeds; then the history of the three
races,--the Celtic, Teutonic, and Slavonian,--as they present
themselves at the threshold of authentic history. The forming of the
several nationalities of Europe would have to be traced: the
Slavonian, including Russia and Poland; the Teutonic, comprising
England, Holland, Germany, and the Scandinavian peoples (viz.,
Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Iceland); the Romanic or Italic nations
(viz., Portugal, Spain, Provence, Italy, Wallachia, the Grisons of
Switzerland), which are the nations the basis of whose languages is
the rustic or people's Latin of the middle ages. Such, in brief
outline, is the method which history, from the point of view of race
affinities, as these are indicated by language, would adopt.
UNITY OF DESCENT.--Whether mankind are all descended from one
pair--the _Monogenist_ view, or spring from more than one center
of origin--the _Polygenist_ view, is a question which
philological science can not answer. The facts of language are
reconcilable with either doctrine. While cautious philologists are
slow in admitting distinct affinities between the generic families of
speech,--as the Semitic and Indo-European,--which would be indicative
of a common origin, they agree in the judgment, that, on account of
the mutability of language, especially when unwritten, and while in
its earlier stages, no conclusion adverse to the monogenist doctrine
can be drawn from the diversities of speech now existing, or that are
known to have existed at any past time. As far as science is
concerned, the decision of the question must be left to zoölogy. The
tendencies of natural science at present, as we have said above, are
strongly toward the monogenist view. The variety of physical
characteristics not only affords no warrant for assuming diversity of
species among men; they do not even imply diversity of parentage at
the beginning.
"Nothing," says Max Müller, "necessitates the admission of different
independent beginnings for the _material_ elements" [the
vocabulary] "of the Turanian, Semitic, and Aryan branches of
speech." The same thing Müller affirms of "the formal elements"
[the grammatical structure] "of these groups of languages." "We can
perfectly understand how, either through individual influences or by
the wear and tear of speech in its continuous working, the different
systems of grammar of Asia and Europe may have been produced."
(_Lectures on Language_, 1st series, p. 340.) The same
conclusions are reached by Professor W. D. Whitney, who, while
disclaiming for linguistic science the power to prove that the human
race in the beginning formed one society, says, that it is "even far
more demonstrable" that it can "never prove the variety of human
races and origins." (_Life and Growth of Language_, p. 269.)
We know that nations can learn and unlearn a language. The Irish,
adopting the language of their English conquerors, is one of many
examples of the same sort in history. What effects upon language
took place, prior to recorded history, from the mingling of tribes
and peoples, it is impossible to ascertain. The consequences to
language, of mixture among different forms of speech, were like
those which must have been produced upon the physical man from the
mingling of diverse physical types in remote ages. Science, if it
has no decided verdict to render, does not stand in conflict with
the monogenist doctrine, which has generally been understood to be
the teaching of the Scriptures.
MYTHOLOGY.
The polytheistic religions are in themselves a highly interesting part
of the history of mankind. In the multiform character that belongs to
them we find reflected the peculiar traits of the several peoples
among whom they have arisen. The history of religion stands in a close
connection with the development of the fine arts,--architecture and
sculpture, painting, music, and also poetry. The earliest rhythmical
utterance was in hymns to the gods. To worship, all the arts are
largely indebted for their birth and growth. This, however, is only
one of the ways in which religion is interwoven with the rise and
progress of civilization.
By _mythology_; we mean the collective beliefs of any tribe or
nation respecting deities or semi-divine personages. Recent studies
in language, or the science of _comparative philology_, have
thrown light on the origin of mythology, and upon the affinities of
different polytheistic religions with one another. Among various
nations belonging to the same family (as, for example, the peoples
of the _Aryan_ race), names of gods, and, to some extent,
qualities and deeds attributed to them, have been identified. Myths
are found to have traveled in different guises from land to land. At
the same time, these discoveries have given rise to much unverified
theory and conjecture. Too much stress has been laid, by certain
writers, on _mistakes in language_ as a source of mythology. In
the primitive stage of language, all nouns had a _gender_,
either male or female; and verbs, even auxiliary verbs, it is
alleged, expressed _activity_ of some sort. On the basis of
these facts it has been inferred, that, at a later day, figurative
expressions, descriptive of natural changes, were taken as literal;
as if one should interpret the saying, "the sun follows the dawn,"
as meaning that one person pursues another. By this kind of
misunderstanding, it has been thought, a throng of mythological
tales arose. By some it is held that the names of animals, which had
been given to ancestors, were interpreted literally by their savage
descendants, or that traditions of having come from a certain
_mountain_ or _river_ caused these natural objects to be
mistakenly regarded as actual progenitors. These suggestions are of
very limited value in solving the problem of the origin of the
ethnic religions. Much, however, has been learned from observing the
rites and beliefs of existing savage nations. Not a few religious
notions and ceremonies, once in vogue among cultivated heathen
peoples, may be plausibly considered a survival from a more remote
and barbarous condition of society.
That mythology is the product of a mere exaggeration of actual
events, or is an allegorical picture, either of the operations of
nature or of human traits, is an untenable and obsolete view.
We shall not err in defining the main sources of the religions to
be, _first_, the sense of dependence, and the yearning for the
fellowship and favor of powers "not ourselves," by which the lot of
men is felt to be determined; _secondly_, the effort to explain
the world of nature above and beneath, and the occurrences of life;
and _thirdly_, the personifying instinct which belongs to the
childhood of nations as of individuals. This tendency leads to the
attributing of conscious life to things inanimate. A like tendency
may impel the savage and the child to ascribe mind to the lower
animals. The fact that language, in its earlier stage, was charged
with personal life and activity, is itself the work of the
personifying instinct. When nature is thus personified, where there
is no sense of its unity and no capacity to rise in faith to a
living God above nature, the result is a multitude of divinities of
higher and lower rank. _Myths_ respecting them are the
spontaneous invention of unreflecting and uncritical, but
imaginative, peoples. Thus they serve to indicate the range of
ideas, and the moral spirit of those who originate and give credence
to them.
This is not the place to consider the question, What was the
primitive religion of man? The earliest deities that history brings
to our notice were not fetiches, but heavenly beings of lofty
attributes. Whether the religions of savage tribes, in common with
their low grade of intelligence, are, or are not, the result of
_degeneracy_, is a question which secular history affords no
means of deciding with confidence,
It may be added, that, in historic eras, the mythopoeic fancy is not
inactive. Stories of marvelous adventure clustered about the old
Celtic King Arthur of England and the "knights of the Round-Table,"
and fill up the chronicles relating to Charlemagne. Wherever there
is a person who kindles popular enthusiasm, myths accumulate. This
is eminently true in an atmosphere like that which prevailed in the
mediaeval period, when imagination and emotion were dominant.
PREHISTORIC TIMES.
PREHISTORIC RELICS.--Within the last half century, in various
countries of Europe, and in other countries, also, which have been,
earlier or later, seats of civilization, there have been found
numerous relics of uncivilized races, which, at periods far remote,
must have inhabited the same ground. Many of these antiquities are met
with in connection with remains of fossil elephants, hyenas, bears,
etc.,--with animals which no longer live in the regions referred to,
and some of which have become wholly extinct. Dwelling-places of these
far-distant peoples--such as caves and rock-shelters, and the remains
of the lake-habitations that were built on piles, in Switzerland and
elsewhere--sepulchers, camps, and forts, and an immense number of
implements and ornaments of stone and metal, have been examined. The
most ancient of these monuments carry us as far back as the era called
by geologists the _Quaternary_ or _Drift_ period.
THE THREE STAGES.--But there are marked distinctions in the relative
age of the various relics referred to. They indicate different degrees
of knowledge and skill; and this proof of a succession of peoples, or
of stages of development, is confirmed by geological evidence. The
prehistoric time is divided into _the Stone Age_, _the Age of
Bronze_, and _the Age of Iron_, according as the implements in
use were of one or another of these materials. But the Stone Age
includes an _earlier_ and a _later_ sub-division. In the
first and most ancient section, the weapons and utensils, mostly of
flint, were very rude in their manufacture. This was the
_Paleolithic Age_, where there are no signs of habitations
constructed by the hand, or of domesticated plants and animals. Men
lived in caves, and their vestments were the skins of beasts. Yet,
among their implements are found fragments of bone, horn, ivory, and
stone, on which are carved in outline, often with much skill,
representations of the reindeer, the bear, the ox, and of other
animals. In the _Neolithic_ period, there was a decided
advance. Implements are better made and polished. There were domestic
animals and cultivated plants. The lake-dwellings in Switzerland were
well contrived for shelter and defense. Every hut had its hearth. It
is probable that most of them were furnished with a loom for
weaving. Fragments of pottery are found, and flax was grown and made
into cord, nettings, etc. Stalls were constructed near the huts for
the ox, the goat, the horse, sheep, and pigs. The lake-dwellers
cultivated wheat and barley. The _Bronze Age_, when implements
were made of copper or of a mixture of copper and tin, exhibits proof
of decided improvement in various directions; and the _Age of
Iron_, a still more marked advance. In the Swiss remains referred
to are distinct traces of a transition from the Stone Age to the Age
of Bronze, and then to the Age of Iron. The kitchen-middens, or
shell-mounds, of Denmark belong exclusively to the Neolithic
period. Where the transition was made from the Stone Age to the Age of
Bronze, it apparently occurred in some cases by degrees, and
peacefully; but sometimes by the incoming of an invading people more
advanced. It should be observed that the lines of division between
these periods are not sharply drawn: implements of stone continued to
be used after the Bronze and even the Iron periods had been
introduced. Nor were these several ages in one region contemporaneous
with like conditions in every other. Moreover, it is not possible to
find in all countries once civilized proofs of a passage through these
successive eras. In Egypt, the evidences of a Stone Age are
scanty. The most ancient human remains show that man in his physical
characteristics was on a level with man at present.
_Dr. Daniel Wilson_, speaking of the age of the Flint-folk,
says: "It is of no slight importance to perceive that the interval
which has wrought such revolutions in the earth" [involving great
geological changes and mutations of climate] "as are recorded in the
mammaliferous drift, shows man the same reasoning, tentative, and
inventive mechanician, as clearly distinguished then from the
highest orders of contemporary life of the Elephantine or Cave
periods, as he is now from the most intelligent of the brute
creation.... The oldest art-traces of the paleotechnic men of
central France not only surpass those of many savage races, but they
indicate an intellectual aptitude in no degree inferior to the
average Frenchman of the nineteenth century." (_Prehistoric
Man_, pp. 33, 34.)
Literature.--Wilson, _Prehistoric Man_, etc. (2 vols., 1876);
Joly, _Man before the Metals_ (1883); Keary, _The Dawn of
History_. The writings of E. B. Tylor, _Primitive Culture_
(2 vols.), _Anthropology, Early History of Mankind_; his
Art. _Anthropology, Encycl. Britt_.; Lubbock's _Prehistoric
Times_, and his _Origin of Civilization_; Argyll, _The
Unity of Nature _(1884); J. Geikie, _Prehistoric Europe_
(1881); Lyell, _The Antiquity of Man_; W. E. Hearn, _The
Aryan Household_; L. H. Morgan, _Ancient Society_.
THE ANTIQUITY OF MAN.--Science does not furnish us with the means of
fixing the date of the first human inhabitants of the earth. But its
various departments of investigation concur in pronouncing the
interval between the creation of man and the present to be far longer
than the traditional opinion has assumed. For the growth of language
and its manifold ramifications; for the development of the different
races of mankind, physically considered; for the geological changes
since the beginning of the Stone Age in the regions where its relics
are uncovered; for the rise of the most ancient civilization in Egypt
as well as in Babylon and China,--it is thought that periods of very
long duration are indispensable.
As to the date of the Neolithic man, or of the last section of the
Stone Age, Professor J. Geikie writes: "Any term of years I might
suggest would be a mere guess; but I have written to little purpose,
however, if the phenomena described in the preceding chapters have
failed to leave the impression upon the reader, that the advent of
Neolithic man in Europe must date back far beyond fifty or seventy
centuries." (_Prehistoric Europe_, p. 558.)
The chronology gathered from Genesis has been supposed to place the
date of man's creation at a point far less remote. Usher's
calculation, attached to the authorized English Version of the
Bible, sets this date at 4004 B.C. The discussion of these questions
of Scriptural chronology belongs to theology and biblical
criticism. It may be observed here, however, that of the three forms
in which Genesis is handed down to us,--the Hebrew text, the
Samaritan Pentateuch, and the Septuagint, or ancient Greek
translation,--no two agree in the numbers on which the estimate is
founded. Hence Hales and Jackson, following the larger numbers in
the genealogies of the Septuagint, place the date of the creation at
a point about fourteen hundred years prior to that fixed upon by
Usher.
ANCIENT AND MODERN HISTORY.
The periods of history are not divided from one another by merely
chronological limits, according to intervals of time of a definite
duration. Such a classification may be of use to the memory, but it is
arbitrary in its character. The landmarks of history are properly
placed at the turning-points where new eras take their start, whether
the intervals between them are longer or shorter.
Of these natural divisions, the most general and the most marked is
that between ancient and modern history. Ancient history not only
precedes modern in time: it is distinguished from the latter as
relating to a by-gone state of things. Modern history, on the
contrary, deals with an order of things now existing. Between the two
there is this line of demarkation.
History (with the exception of China and India, which require distinct
consideration, as standing apart) begins with Egypt, and flows down in
a continuous stream, until, in the fourth century A.D., the Roman
Empire, into which the ancient civilized peoples were incorporated,
was broken up. Then the new nations, especially the tribes of the
Germanic race, took power into their hands; Christianity was
established among them; out of the chaos of elements there emerged the
European nations, with their offshoots,--the peoples at present on the
stage of action. Ancient history had its center in the
Mediterranean. It embraced the peoples who dwelt on the shores of that
sea, in the three continents, and the nations that were brought into
relations with them. The Roman Empire, the final outcome of ancient
history, was "the monarchy of the Mediterranean." With the breaking-up
of the Empire, new races, new centers of power, a universal religion
in the room of national religions, and a new type of culture and
civilization, were introduced. Invaluable legacies were handed over
from the past, surviving the wreck of ancient civilization. There is,
however, a unity in history: the transition from the ancient to the
modern era was gradual.
MEDIAEVAL AND LATER MODERN HISTORY.
Since the fall of the Roman Empire, there has occurred no revolution
to be compared with the circumstances and results of that event. An
old world passed away, and a new world began to be. Yet the student,
as he travels hitherward, arrives at another epoch of extraordinary
change,--a period of ferment, when modern society in Europe takes on a
form widely different from the character that had belonged to it
previously. The long interval between _ancient_ history and
_modern_ (in this more restricted sense of thes term) is styled
the Middle Ages. Its termination may be found in the fifteenth
century, and a convenient date to mark the boundary-line is the
capture of Constantinople by the Turks (1453).
History thus divides itself into three parts:--
Part I. Ancient History, to the migrations of the Germanic Tribes (375
A.D).
Part II. Mediæval History, from A.D. 375 to the Fall of Constantinople
(1453).
PART III. Modern History, from 1453 until the present.
Works on General History.--Ranke, _Universal History_; Ploetz,
_Epitome of Ancient, Mediæval, and Modern History_ (Boston,
1884); Weber, _Weitgeschichte_ (2 vols.); Assmann, _Handbuch
d. allgemeinen Geschichte_ (5 vols., 1853-1862); by the same,
_Abriss d. allgem. Gesch._ (in 3 parts); Oncken, _Allgem.
Geschichte in Einzeidarstellungen_ (a series of full monographs
of high merit). Copious works on Universal History, in German, by
Weber, Schlosser, Becker, Leo. Laurent, _Études sur l'Histoire de
l'Humanitè_ (this is an extended series of historical
dissertations),--_The Orient and Greece_ (2 vols.); _Rome_
(1 vol.); _Christianity_ (1 vol.), etc. Prévost-Paradol,
_Essai sur l'Histoire Universelle_ (2 vols.: a suggestive
critical survey of the course of history, with the omission of
details). S. Willard, _Synopsis of History_.
PART I. ANCIENT HISTORY.
FROM THE BEGINNING OF AUTHENTIC HISTORY TO THE MIGRATIONS OF THE
TEUTONIC TRIBES (A.D. 375).
DIVISIONS OF ANCIENT HISTORY.--Ancient history separates itself into
two main divisions. In the first the Oriental nations form the
subject; in the second, which follows in the order of time, the
European peoples, especially Greece and Rome, have the central
place. The first division terminates, and the second begins, with the
rise of Grecian power and the great conflict of Greece with the
Persian Empire, 492 B.C.
SECTIONS OF ORIENTAL HISTORY.--But Oriental history divides itself
into two distinct sections. The first embraces China and India,
nations apart, and disconnected from the Mediterranean and adjacent
peoples. China and India have a certain bond of connection with one
another through the spread in China of the Buddhistic religion. The
second section includes the great empires which preceded, and paved
the way for, European history; viz., Egypt, Babylonia and Assyria, and
Persia. In this section, along the course of the historic stream,
other nations which exercised a powerful influence, attract special
attention, especially the Phoenicians and the Hebrews. All these
Oriental peoples are so connected together that they stand in history
as the _Earliest Group of Nations_. The historic narrative must
be so shaped as to describe them in part singly, but, at the same
time, in their mutual relations.
Ancient history, from an _ethnographical_ point of view, would
embrace two general divisions,--Eastern peoples and Western
peoples. The first would comprise Egyptians (Hamitic); Jews,
Babylonians, Assyrians, Phoenicians, Lydians (Semitic); Hindus,
Bactrians, Medes, Persians (Aryan); Parthians, Chinese, Japanese. The
second would include Celts, Britons, _Greeks_, _Romans_,
Teutons (Aryan). (Ploetz, _Universal History_, p. 1.)
From a _geographical_ point of view, ancient history would fall
into three general divisions: I. Asia, including (1) India, (2) China
(with Japan), (3) Babylonia and Assyria, (4) Phoenicia, (5) Palestine,
(6) Media and Persia. II. Africa, including (1) Egypt, (2) Carthage.
III. Europe including (1) Greece, with its states and colonies; (2)
Italy.
DIVISION I.
ORIENTAL HISTORY.
PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY.--Europe and Asia together form one vast continent,
yet have a partial boundary between them in the Ural Mountains and
River, and in the deep bed of the Caspian and Black seas. Asia, which
extends from the Ural Mountains to the Pacific, and from the Arctic
Sea to the Indian Ocean, embraces an immense plateau, stretching from
the Black Sea to Corea. This plateau spreads like a fan as it advances
eastward. It is traversed by chains of mountains, and bordered also by
lofty mountains, of which the Himalayas is the principal range. From
this girdle of mountains descend slopes which lead down into the
lowlands. The great plateau is broken into two by the Hindu-Kush
range. The eastern division, the extensive plateau of Central Asia, is
bordered on the north by the barren plains of Siberia. In the lowlands
on the east and south are included the fertile plains of Central China
and of Hindustan. The plateau of eastern Asia has been the natural
abode of nomad tribes, Tartars and Mongols, whose invading hosts have
poured through the passes of the mountains into the inviting
territories below. The plateau of western Asia, stretching westward
from the Indus, is not so high as that of the east. It begins with the
lofty tablelands of Iran, and extends, ordinarily at a less elevation,
to the extremity of the continent. On the south lie the plains of
Mesopotamia. Arabia is a low plateau of vast extent, connected by the
plateau and mountains of Syria with the mountain region of Asia
Minor. As might be expected, civilization sprang up in the alluvial
valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates, the Indus and the Ganges, and on
the soil watered by the great rivers of China, the Hoang-Ho and the
Yang-tse-Kiang. Egypt was looked on by the Ancients as a part of
Asia. Its language was distinct from the languages of the African
nations. The seat of its power and thrift was the valley of the
Nile. The conflicts of the nations settled in the lowlands with the
mountainous peoples, eager for spoil and conquest, are a
characteristic feature of Oriental History.
CHARACTER OF THE ASIATIC NATIONS.--Generalizations covering so wide a
field are, of necessity, inexact. As a rule, in the oriental mind, the
intuitive powers eclipse the severely rational and logical.
Civilization--as, for example, in Egypt and China--attains to a
certain grade, and is there petrified. Immobility belongs to the
Eastern nations. Revolutions bring a change of masters, but leave
character and customs unchanged. The sense of individuality has been
less vivid, and freedom less understood or valued. Governments have
taken the despotic form. Law has had its seat in the ruler's sovereign
will. The ruler has been regarded as clothed with divine
authority. Before him the subject prostrates himself with groveling
servility.
RELIGION IN ASIA.--Asia is the cradle of the principal religions of
the world. Here _monotheism_ appears, as in the faith of the
Hebrews, and in the Mohammedan revival of it in a less pure form. Here
have flourished _polytheistic_ systems, each with its throng of
divinities. In the east, _pantheism_, dropping out of the
conception of the Deity the element of personality, has found a
cherished home.
PRIESTHOODS.--Connected with the controlling influence of religion
have arisen the priesthoods,--sometimes ruling as an aristocratic
caste or class, sometimes dividing power with the reigning despot, to
whom sacred attributes are ascribed.
LITERATURE AND ART.--The Oriental nature has been mirrored in the
literature and art of the East. Its products lack the measure, the
grace and symmetry, and the human interest, which characterize the
creations of the European mind. In the mechanical arts, invention and
discovery push on progress to a certain point, then languish and die
out.
SECTION I. CHINA AND INDIA.
CHAPTER I. CHINA.
China proper comprises less than half of the present Chinese
Empire. It was called the land of Sinae or Seres by the ancients, and
in the middle ages bore the name of Cathay. In the north of China are
the broad alluvial plains, and in the north-eastern portion of the
empire, an immense delta. The rest of the country is hilly and
mountainous.
The nucleus of the Chinese nation is thought to have been a band of
immigrants, who are supposed by some to have started from the region
south-east of the Caspian Sea, and to have crossed the head waters of
the Oxus. They followed the course of the Hoang-Ho, or Yellow River,
having entered the country of their adoption from the north-west; and
they planted themselves in the present province of Shan-se. Although
nomads, they had some knowledge of astronomy, brought from their
earlier homes; and they quickly made for themselves settled
abodes. The native tribes by degrees were extirpated or driven
out. The new-comers cultivated grain. They raised flax, out of which
they wove garments.
LEGENDARY ERA, TO THE CHOW DYNASTY (1123 B.C.).--The early annals of
the Chinese, like those of other nations, are made up of myth and
fable. The annalists placed the date of the creation at a point more
than two millions of years prior to Confucius. The intervening period
they sought to fill up with lines of dynasties. Preceding the Chow
dynasty, the chroniclers give ten epochs. Prior to the eighth of
these, there are no traces of authentic history. To _Yew-Chaou
She_ (the Nest-having) is given the credit of teaching the people
to make huts of the boughs of trees. Fire was discovered by
_Suy-jin-She_ (the Fire-producer), his successor. Another ruler
(_Fuh-he_), whose date is fixed at 2852 B.C., discovered iron. He
also divided the people into classes. His successor invented the
plow. These tales, perhaps, retain vague reminiscences of the methods
in which useful inventions originated, or of the order in which they
appeared.
With _Yaou_ (2356 B.C.) we reach the period where the narratives
which were compiled many centuries later by Confucius, begin their
story. In the mass of fable, there is a larger infusion of historical
fact, which, however, it is well-nigh hopeless to separate from the
fiction that is mingled with it. In that golden age, few laws were
required. We are told that the house-door could safely be left
open. Yaou extended the empire: he established fairs and marts over
the land. During the reign of _Shun_, who followed him, a
tremendous inundation is said to have occurred; and _Yu_, called
"the Great," was energetic in draining off the waters. He ascended the
throne in 2205 B.C. His degenerate successors provoked a revolt and
the introduction of a new dynasty, called the _Shang_ dynasty,
whose first Emperor, _Tang_ (1760 B.C.), had a wise and
beneficent reign. Tyranny and disaster followed under the later kings
of this house; until finally _Woo-Wang_, the first sovereign of
the Chow dynasty, acceded to the throne (1123 B.C.).
THE CHOW DYNASTY (1123-255 B.C.).--The traditions now become decidedly
more trustworthy, although still largely mixed with
fable. _Woo-Wang_ was brave and upright. Under him a momentous
change in government took place. By him the kingdom was divided into
seventy-two feudal states. Internal divisions and struggles resulted
from this new political system. The Tartars availed themselves of the
weakened condition of the nation, to make predatory incursions. In
this period of disorder and danger, _Confucius_, the great
teacher of China, was born (551 B.C.). His father was a district
magistrate, and died when the son was only three years old. He was
trained and taught by his mother. When she died, he gave up all
employments to mourn for her, during three years. His only occupation
during this period was study. A grave and learned youth, he at length
resolved to become an instructor of his countrymen in the ancient
writings, to which he was devoted. He was regular in all his ways, and
never ate or drank to excess. He gathered about him scholars; his fame
increased; and, in 500 B.C., he was made magistrate of _Chung-tu_
by the sovereign, Duke _Ting_, an office which he justly and
discreetly administered for three years. Sometimes persecuted, he
compared himself to a dog driven from his home. "I have the fidelity
of that animal, and I am treated like it. But what matters the
ingratitude of men? They can not hinder me from doing all the good
that has been appointed me. If my precepts are disregarded, I have the
consolation of knowing in my own breast that I have faithfully
performed my duty." Both by his literary works and by the lessons
taught to his disciples, he laid the foundation of a most powerful and
lasting influence over his countrymen. He died in 478 B.C., at the age
of seventy-three. _Laou-tsze_, another famous thinker, was a few
years older than Confucius. "Three precious things," he said, "I
prize, and hold fast,--humility, compassion, and economy."
_Mencius_, a celebrated teacher and reformer, who followed in the
path of Confucius, after a long life died in 289 B.C. One of his
doctrines was, that the nature of man is good, and that evil is owing
to education and circumstances. One of his maxims was, that the people
can be led aright, but can not be taught the reasons for the guidance
to which they are subjected.
DYNASTY OF TSIN (255-206 B.C.).--Reverting to the course of Chinese
history, the next grand epoch is the enthronement of the Tsin dynasty,
in the person of the ruler of one of the provinces, which, in the
intestine strife among the feudal princes, gained the victory. This
was in 255 B.C. In this line belongs the famous Emperor _Che
Hwang-te_, who, in 246 B.C., at the age of thirteen years,
succeeded to the crown. His palace in his capital, the modern Se-gan
Foo, the edifices which he built elsewhere, the roads and canals
constructed by him, excited wonder. He routed and drove out the Tartar
invaders, and put down the rebellion of the feudal princes. He
enlarged the kingdom nearly to the limits of modern China proper. For
the protection of the northern frontier he began the "Great Wall,"
which he did not live to finish. It was finished 204 B.C., ten years
after it was begun. When finished, it was not less than fifteen
hundred miles in length. It would reach "from Philadelphia to Topeka,
or from Portugal to Naples." The innovations and maxims of government
of Che Hwang-te were offensive to the scholars and the conservative
class, who pointed the people to the heroes of the feudal days and to
the glories of the past. For this reason, the monarch commanded that
all books having reference to the history of the empire should be
destroyed. He would efface the recollection of the old times. He
would not allow his system to be undermined by tradition. The decree
was obeyed, although hidden copies of many of the ancient writings
were undoubtedly preserved. Numerous scholars were buried alive. His
death, in 210 B.C., was followed by disturbances, growing out of the
disaffection of the higher classes. In the civil war that ensued, his
dynasty was subverted. The throne was next held by
THE HAN RULERS (206 B.C.-22l A.D.).--Their sway, which lasted for four
hundred years, covers a brilliant period in the Chinese annals. During
the reign of _Ming-te_, 65 A.D., a deputation was sent to India,
to obtain the sacred writings and authorized teachers of the
Buddhistic religion, which had begun to spread among the Chinese. The
power of the feudal lords was reduced. Northern Corea was conquered,
and the bounds of the empire extended on the west as far as Russian
Turkestan, In this period, there was a marked revival of learning and
authorship. Then lived a famous public officer, _Yang Chên_, who,
when asked to take a bribe, and assured that no one would know it,
answered, "How so? Heaven would know, Earth would know, you would
know, and I should know." Under this dynasty, a custom of burying
slaves with the dead was abolished.
BEGINNING IN 221 A.D., there followed the "era of the three kingdoms."
It was an age of martial prowess, civil war, and bloodshed. This long
period of division was interrupted in 265 A.D. by a re-union of the
greater part of the empire for a brief period. But discord soon sprang
up; and it was not until 590 A.D. that unity and order were restored
by _Yang-Kian_, who founded the dynasty, named from his local
dominion, _Suy_.
RELIGION IN CHINA.--The ancient religion of China was
polytheistic. The supreme divinity was called _Tien_ or
_Shang-ti_. Tien signifies Heaven. Was Heaven, or Shang-ti--or
the Lord--the visible heaven, the expanse above, clothed with the
attribute of personality? This has been, and still is, the prevailing
opinion of missionaries and scholars. Dr. _Legge_, however, holds
that Tien is the lord of the heavens, a power above the visible
firmament; and thus finds monotheism as the basis of the Chinese
religious creed.
The prevailing religions of China are three,--_Buddhism_ (which
in its original form was brought in from India in the first century of
the Christian era), _Confucianism_, and _Taouism_. It may be
observed, that, in all these systems, there is but a vague sense of
personality as inhering in the heavenly powers, in comparison with the
creeds in vogue among heathen nations generally. Another fact to be
noted is, that, in Chinese worship, the veneration for ancestors, a
feeling inbred in the Chinese mind, is a very prominent and pervading
element.
Confucius did not profess to reveal things supernatural. His teaching
is made up of moral and political maxims. He builds on the past, and
always inculcates reverence for the fathers and for what has
been. There is much wise counsel to parents and to rulers. His
morality reaches its acme in the Golden Rule, which he gives, however,
only in its negative relation: "Do not unto others what you would not
that others should do unto you." Laou-tsze is a more speculative and
mystical thinker. In his moral aphorisms, he approaches the theory of
the ancient Stoics. TEH--i.e., virtue--is lauded. Teh proceeds from
TAO. To explain what the Chinese sage means by Tao,--a word that
signifies the "way,"--is a puzzle for commentators and inquirers. From
Tao all things originate: they conform to Tao, and to Tao they
return. There are noble maxims in Laou-tsze,--precepts enjoining
compassion, and condemning the requital of evil with evil. Taouism is
a type of religion which traces itself to the teaching of
Laou-tsze. That teaching became mixed with wild speculations. Then
certain Buddhistic rites and tenets were added to it. The result,
finally, was a compound of knavery and superstition. Taouism is at
once mystical and rationalistic in its tone.
LITERATURE IN CHINA.--The Chinese language was crystallized, in the
written form, in the monosyllabic stage of its development. Beginning
in hieroglyphs, literal pictures of objects, and having no alphabet,
it has so multiplied its characters and combinations of characters as
to put great hindrances in the way of the acquisition of it. The utter
absence of inflection may have crippled the development of poetry and
of the drama, for which the Chinese have a natural taste. In these
departments, Chinese productions do not rise above mediocrity. For
this, however, the lack of imagination and of creative power is
largely accountable. It is in the province of pure prose--as in
historical narrations, topographical writings, such as geographies,
and in the making of encyclopedias--that the Chinese have
excelled. But the yoke of tradition has everywhere weighed heavily. In
one sense, the Chinese have been a literary people. The system of
competitive examinations for public offices has diffused through the
nation a certain degree of book-learning; yet the masses have been
kept in a state of ignorance. At the foundation of all learning are
the "nine classics," which consist of five works, edited or written by
Confucius, of which the "Shoo King," or Book of History, stands at the
head, together with the four books written by his disciples and the
disciples of Mencius. Great as have been the services of Confucius,
his own slavish reverence for the past, so stamped upon his writings,
has had the effect to cramp the development of the Chinese mind, and
to fasten upon it the fetters of tradition.
GOVERNMENT AND CIVILIZATION.--The government of China is "a
patriarchal despotism." As father of his people, the king has absolute
authority. The power of life and death is in his hand. Yet the right
of revolution was taught by Confucius and Mencius, and the Chinese
have not been slow to exercise it. The powers of the emperor are
limited by ceremonial regulations, and by a body of precedents which
are held sacred. He administers rule with the help of a privy
council. Officers of every rank in the employ of the government
constitute the aristocratic class of Mandarins, who are divided into
different ranks.
INVENTION.--Printing by wooden blocks was known in China as early as
the sixth century A.D. Printing did not come into general use until
the thirteenth century. The use of movable types, although devised, it
is said, many centuries earlier, did not come into vogue until the
seventeenth century. Gunpowder was used as early as 250 A.D., in the
making of fire-crackers; but it was certainly as late as the middle of
the twelfth century that it was first employed in war. The Chinese
were early acquainted with the polarity of the loadstone, and used the
compass in journeys by land long before that instrument was known in
Europe. In various branches of manufactures,--as silk, porcelain,
carved work in ivory, wood, and horn,--the Chinese, at least until a
recent period, have been pre-eminent. In the mechanical arts their
progress has been slow. Their crude implements of husbandry are in
contrast with their exhibitions of skill in other directions. Although
imitation long ago supplanted the activity of inventive talent, to
China belongs the distinction of being a civilized land before the
Christian nations of Europe had emerged into being.
LITERATURE.--_The Middle Kingdom_, by S. WELLS WILLIAMS (2
vols.);_ Encycl. Brit.,_ Art. _China_ by Professor
Douglas; Arts. _Confucius and Mencius_ by Dr. Legge; Legge,_
The Religions of China_; Richthofen, _China_(3 vols.);
Giles, _Historic China, and Other Sketches_ (1882); Legge,
_The Chinese Classics_; BOULGER, _History of China_
(1881-84); Thornton, _History of China_.
JAPAN.--The authentic history of Japan belongs mainly in the modern
period, since the tenth century A.D. The most ancient religion of
Japan, designated by a term which means "the way of the gods,"
included a variety of objects of worship,--gods, deified men, the
mikados, or chief rulers, regarded as "the sons of heaven," animals,
plants, etc. Unquestioning obedience to the mikado was the primary
religious duty. It was a state-religion. Buddhism, brought into the
country in 552 A.D., spread, and became prevalent.
The Japanese are a mixed race. Kiôto and the adjacent provinces are
said to have been occupied by the conquerors. Prior to 660 B.C. we
have no trustworthy history of the island. This is the date assigned
by the Japanese to their hero, _Jimmu Tenno_, the first mikado,
the founder of an unbroken line. For several centuries, however, the
history is open to question. The tenth mikado, Sujin, is noted as a
reformer, and promoter of civilization. An uncrowned princess,
_Jingu-Kogo_ (201-269 A.D.), is famous for her military
prowess. She suppressed a rebellion, and subdued Corea. _Ojin_, a
celebrated warrior, is still worshiped as a god of war. The
introduction of Chinese literature and civilization at this period,
makes a turning-point in Japanese history.
LITERATURE.--J. J. REIN, _Japan: Travels and Researches_,
vol. I. (1881); E. J. Reed, _Japan_ (2 vols., 1880); Siebold,
_Nippon_ (5 vols. 410, and plates); Kampfer, _History of
Japan_ (2 vols. fol., 1728); _Encycl. Brit._,
Art. _Japan_.
CHAPTER II. INDIA.
India is the central one of the three great peninsulas of Southern
Asia. On the north is the mountainous region of the Himalayas, below
which are the vast and fertile river plains, watered by the
_Indus_, the _Ganges_, and other streams. On the south,
separated from the Ganges by the Vindhyá range, is the hilly and
mountainous tract called the Deccan.
THE ARYAN INVADERS.--The history of India opens with glimpses of a
struggle on the borders of the great rivers,--first of the Indus and
then of the Ganges,--between an invading race, the Sanskrit-speaking
Aryans from the north-west, and the dusky aborigines. These rude
native tribes have left few relics but their tombs. Before they
tenanted the soil, there dwelt upon it still earlier inhabitants,
whose implements were of stone or bronze. The incoming people referred
to above were of that Indo-European stock to which we belong. From
their home, perhaps in central Asia, they moved in various
directions. A part built up the Persian kingdom; another portion
migrated farther, and were the progenitors of the Greek nation; and a
third founded Rome. The Indian Aryans migrated southward from the
headwaters of the Oxus at some time prior, doubtless, to 2000 B.C. Our
knowledge of them is derived from their ancient sacred books, the
_Vedas_; of these the oldest, the _Rig-Veda_, contains ten
hundred and seventeen lyrics, chiefly addressed to the gods. Its
contents were composed while the Aryans dwelt upon the Indus, and
while they were on their way to the neighborhood of the Ganges. The
Rig-Veda, therefore, exhibits this people in their earliest stage of
religious and social development. They were herdsmen, but with a
martial spirit, which enabled them by degrees to drive out the native
tribes, and compel them to take refuge in the mountains on the north,
or on the great southern plateau. Among them women were held in
respect, and marriage was sacred. There are beautiful hymns written by
ladies and queens. No such cruel custom as the burning of widows
existed: it was of far later origin. They were acquainted with the
metals. Among them were blacksmiths, coppersmiths, goldsmiths,
carpenters, and other artisans. They fought from chariots, but had not
come to employ elephants in war. They were settled in villages and in
towns. Mention is made of ships, or river-boats, as in use among
them. They ate beef, and drank a sort of fermented beer made from the
_soma_ plant.
THE VEDIC RELIGION.--The early religion of the Indian Aryans was quite
different from the system that grew up later among them. We do not
find in it the dreamy pantheism that appears afterwards. It is
cheerful in its tone, quite in contrast with the gloomy asceticism
which is stamped on it in after times. The head of each family is
priest in his own household. It is only the great tribal sacrifice
which is offered by priests set apart for the service. The worship is
polytheistic, but not without tendencies to monotheism. The principal
divinities are the powers of nature. The deities (_deva_) were
the heavenly or the shining ones. "It was the beautiful phenomenon of
light which first and most powerfully swayed the Aryan mind." The
chief gods were the Father-heaven; Indra, the god of thunder and of
rain, from whom the refreshing showers descended; Varuna, the
encompassing sky; and Agni, the god of fire. Among these _Indra_,
from his beneficence, more and more attracted worship. _Soma_,
too, was worshiped; soma being originally the intoxicating juice of a
plant. _Brihaspati_, the lord of prayer, personifying the
omnipresent power of prayer, was adored. Thirty-three gods in all were
invoked. The bodies of the dead were consumed on the funeral-pile. The
soul survived the body, but the later doctrine of transmigration was
unknown. All the attributes of sovereign power and majesty were
collected in _Varuna_. No one can fathom him, but he sees and
knows all. He is the upholder of order; just, yet the dispenser of
grace, and merciful to the penitent. Worship is made up of oblations
and prayers. It must be sincere. The gods will not tolerate
deceit. They require faith. Of the last things and the last times the
Rig-Veda hardly speaks. The Vedic hymns have much to say of the origin
of things, but little, except in the last book, of the final issues.
There are four Vedas,--the _Rig-Veda_, which has the body of
hymns; the _Yajur-Veda_, in which the prescribed formulas to be
used in acts of sacrifice are collected; the _Sama-Veda_,
containing the chants; and the _Atharva-Veda_, a collection of
hymns, in part of a later date. Besides, each Veda contains, as a
second part, one or more Brâhmanas, or prose treatises on the
ceremonial system. In addition, there are theological works
supplementary, and of later origin,--the intermediate
_Aranyakas_, and the _Upanishads_, which are of a
speculative cast.
Not only is nature--mountains, rivers, trees, etc.--personified in the
Vedas: the animals--as the cow, the horse, the dog, even the apparatus
of worship, the war-chariot, the plow, and the furrow--are addressed
in prayer. The sacrificial fire is deified in _Agni_, the
sacrificial drink in _Soma_. Indra has for his body-guards the
_Maruts_, gods of the storm and lightning. He is a warlike god,
standing in his chariot, but also a beneficent giver of all good
gifts. _Varuna_ is the god of the vast luminous heavens, in their
serene majesty. _Indra_, on the other hand, represents the
atmosphere in its active and militant energy. The number of the gods
is variously given. In passages, they are said to be many thousands.
RITES.--There is no hierarchy among the gods. But there is a tendency
to confuse the attributes of the different divinities. Occasionally,
for the time being, one eclipses all the rest, and is addressed as if
all others were forgotten. There is sometimes a tendency to regard
them as all one, under different names. But this tendency develops
itself later. Offerings consisted of rice, cakes, soma, etc. Victims
also were sacrificed, the horse especially; also the goat, the
buffalo, and other animals. Sacrifice purchases the gifts and favor of
the gods. It is an expression of gratitude and dependence. It has,
moreover, a deep, mysterious energy of an almost magical character.
THE ARYANS ON THE GANGES.--Later, but earlier than 1000 B.C., we find
that the Aryan invaders have moved onward in their career of conquest,
and have planted themselves on the plains of the Ganges. A marvelous
transformation has taken place in their social constitution, their
religion, and in their general spirit. The caste system has sprung up,
of which there are few traces in the Rig-Veda. In the first or lowest
of these distinct classes are the _Sudras_, or despised serfs,
who are the subjugated aborigines; the second, or next higher, class
is composed of the tillers of the soil, who are of a lower rank than
the third, the warrior caste. These, in turn, fall below the
_Brahmans_, or priests, who, as rites of worship grew more
complicated, and superstition increased, gained, though not without a
struggle, a complete ascendency. This marks the beginning of the
sacerdotal era. The tendency of the farmer caste was to decrease,
until, in modern times, in various provinces they are hardly
found. The supremacy of the Brahmans was largely owing to their
eminence as the great literary caste. They arose out of the families
by whom the hymns had been composed, and who managed the tribal
sacrifices. They alone understood the language of the hymns and the
ritual. _Brahman_, in the earliest Veda, signifies a worshiper.
BRAHMINICAL PANTHEISM.--The polytheism of the earlier type of religion
was converted into pantheism. _Brahma_, the supreme being, is
impersonal, the eternal source of all things, from which all finite
beings--gods, nature, and men--emanate. It is by _emanation_,--an
outflow analogous to that of a stream from its fountain, in
distinction from _creation_, implying will and
self-consciousness,--that all derived existences emerge into
being. With this doctrine was connected the belief in the
transmigration of souls. All animated beings, including plants as well
as animals, partake of the universal life which has its origin and
seat in Brahma. Alienation from Brahma, finite, individual being, is
evil. To work the way back to Brahma is the great aim and
hope. Absorption in Brahma, return to the primeval essence, is the
supreme good. The sufferings of the present are the penalty of sins
committed in a pre-existent state. If they are not purged away, the
soul is condemned to be embodied again and again,--it may be, in some
repulsive animal. This process of metempsychosis might be repeated far
into the indefinite future. With the doctrine of Brahma and of
transmigration was connected the feeling that all life is sacred. The
Brahman spared even trees and plants from destruction. Pollution or
defilement might be contracted in a great variety of ways. There grew
out of these ideas of sin, rigorous penances, most painful forms of
self-torment. It was only by practices of this sort that there was
hope of avoiding the retribution so much dreaded.
THE BRAHMINICAL CODES.--The principal of these codes is the _Laws of
Manu_. Manu was imagined to be the first human being, conceived of
as a sage. This code is a digest compiled by the priests at a date
unknown, but comprising in it materials of a very high
antiquity. Hence, while exhibiting Brahmanism in its maturer form, it
affords glimpses of society at a much earlier date. A second code was
compiled not earlier than the second century A.D. These codes present
Hindu law under three heads: (1) domestic and civil rights and duties,
(2) the administration of justice, (3) purification and penance. In
truth, the codes prescribe regulations for every department of
life. The obligations of kings, of Brahmans, and of every other class,
are defined in detail. One motive that is kept in view is to set forth
and fortify the special privileges of the Brahminical order.
THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE BRAHMINS.--In process of time, commentaries on
the Vedas were multiplied. Discord arose in the interpretation of the
sacred books. Out of this debate and confusion there emerged, in the
seventh and sixth centuries B.C., several philosophical systems. These
aimed to give peace to the soul by emancipating it from the bondage of
matter, and by imparting a sense of independence of the body and of
the external world.
These old philosophies are preserved in the _Upanishads_, or
Instructions. The main idea in these diverse systems--the
_Sankhya_, the _Vedanta_, etc.--is, that the soul's notion
of itself as separate from the supreme, impersonal being, is the
fallen state. This duality must be overcome. Conscious of its
identity with the Supreme, the soul enters into _yoga_, or the
state of unison with the Infinite. He who is thus taken away from
the illusions of sense, or the _yogin_, is free from the power
of things perishable. Death brings a complete absorption into the
source of all being. It is the bliss of personal extinction. This
sort of philosophy attached great value to contemplation and
self-renunciation. It led to a light esteem of ritual practices and
ceremonies.
BUDDHISM.
The Brahminical system has not ceased to maintain its supremacy in
India since the time when it was presented to view in the
law-codes. But it has not escaped alteration and attack. New
movements, religious and political, have appeared to modify its
character. Of these, Buddhism is by far the most memorable.
THE LIFE OF BUDDHA.--Of the life of Buddha we have only legendary
information, where it is impossible to separate fact from romance. The
date of his death was between 482 and 472 B.C. He was then old. He
belonged to the family of Gautamas, who were said to be of the royal
line of the Çâkyas, a clan having its seat about a hundred and
thirty-seven miles north of Benares. The story is, that, brought up in
luxury, and destined to reign, he was so struck with the miseries of
mankind, that, at the age of twenty-nine, he left his parents, his
young wife, and an only son, and retired to a solitary life to
meditate upon the cause of human suffering. From Brahminical teachers
he could obtain no solution of the problem. But after seven years of
meditation and struggle, during which sore temptations to return to a
life of sense and of ease were successfully resisted, he attained to
truth and to peace. For forty-four years after this he is said to have
promulgated his doctrine, gathering about him disciples, whom he
charged with the duty of spreading it abroad.
THE BUDDHISTIC DOCTRINE.--Buddhism was not a distinct revolt against
the reigning system of religion. Buddha left theology to the
Brahmans. Indra, Agni, and the other divinities, and the services
rendered to them, he left untouched. Being an anchorite, he was not
required to concern himself with the rites and observances in which
others took part. His aim was practical. His doctrine, though resting
on a theoretical basis, was propounded simply as a way of salvation
from the burdens that oppressed the souls of men. Nor did he undertake
a warfare against caste. The blessing of deliverance from the woes of
life he opened to all without distinction. This was the limit of his
opposition to caste.
THE ROAD TO NIRVANA.--Buddha taught, (1) that existence is always
attended with misery; (2) that all modes of misery result from
passion, or desire unsatisfied; (3) that desire must be quenched; (4)
that there are four steps in doing this, and thus of arriving at
NIRVANA, which is the state in which self is lost and absorbed, and
vanishes from being. These four ways are (1) the awakening to a
perception of the nature and cause of evil, as thus defined; (2) the
consequent quenching of impure and revengeful feelings; (3) the
stifling of all other evil desires, also riddance from ignorance,
doubt, heresy, unkindliness, and vexation; (4) the entrance into
Nirvana, sooner or later, after death. The great boon which Buddha
held out was escape from the horrors of transmigration. He attributed
to the soul no substantial existence. It is the _Karma_, or
another being, the successor of one who dies, the result and effect of
all that he was, who re-appears in case of transmigration. Buddhism
involved atheism, and the denial of personal immortality, or, where
this last tenet was not explicitly denied, uncertainty and
indifference respecting it. On the foundation of Buddha's teaching,
there grew up a vast system of monasticism, with ascetic usages not
less burdensome than the yoke of caste. The attractive feature of
Buddhism was its moral precepts. These were chiefly an inculcation of
chastity, patience, and compassion; the unresisting endurance of all
ills; sympathy and efficient help for all men.
DEIFICATION OF BUDDHA.--By the pupils of Buddha he was glorified. He
was placed among the Brahminical gods, by whom he was served. A
multitude of cloisters were erected in his honor, in which his relics
were believed to be preserved. On the basis of the simpler doctrine
and precepts of the founder, there accumulated a mass of superstitious
beliefs and observances.
THE SPREAD OF BUDDHISM.--After the death of Buddha, it is said that
his disciples, to the number of five hundred, assembled, and divided
his teaching into three branches,--his own words, his rules of
discipline, and his system of doctrine. During the next two centuries
Buddhism spread over northern India. One of the most conspicuous
agents in its diffusion was _Asoka_, the king of Behar, who was
converted to the Buddhistic faith, and published its tenets throughout
India. His edicts, in which they were set forth, were engraved on
rocks and pillars and in caves. He organized missionary efforts among
the aborigines, using only peaceful means, and combining the healing
of disease, and other forms of philanthropy, with preaching. He
carried the Buddhistic faith as far as _Ceylon_. It spread over
_Burmah_ (450 A.D.). _Siam_ was converted (638 A.D.), and
_Java_ between the fifth and seventh centuries of our
era. Through Central Asia the Buddhistic missionaries passed into
_China_ in the second century B.C., and Buddhism became an
established system there as early as 65 A.D. At present, this religion
numbers among its professed adherents more than a third of the human
race.
THE BRAHMINICAL RE-ACTION.--In India Buddhism did not supplant the old
religion. The Brahmans modified their system. They made their theology
more plain to the popular apprehension. They took up Buddhistic
speculations into their system. But they rendered their ceremonial
practices more complex and more burdensome. Their ascetic rule grew to
be more exacting and oppressive. In diffusing and making popular their
system, customs, like the burning of widows, were introduced, which
were not known in previous times. The divinities, _Brahma_, the
author of all things, _Vishnu_ the preserver, and _Siva_ the
destroyer, were brought into a relation to one another, as a sort of
triad. Successive incarnations of Vishnu became an article of the
creed, _Krishna_ being one of his incarnate names. For centuries
Brahmanism and Buddhism existed together. Gradually Buddhism decayed,
and melted into the older system; helping to modify its character, and
thus to give rise to modern Hinduism. For ten centuries Buddhism, with
multitudinous adherents abroad, has had no existence in the land of
its birth.
THE GREEK-ROMAN PERIOD.--In 327 B.C., _Alexander the Great_
advanced in his victorious career as far as India, entered the Punjab,
which was then divided among petty kingdoms, and defeated one of the
kings, _Porus_, who disputed the passage of the river Jhelum. The
heat of the climate and the reluctance of his troops caused the
Macedonian invader to turn back from his original design of
penetrating to the Ganges. Near the confluence of the five rivers he
built a town, Alexandria. He founded, also, other towns, established
alliances, and left garrisons. On the death of Alexander (323 B.C.)
and the division of his empire, Bactria and India fell to the lot of
Seleucus Nicator, the founder of the Syrian monarchy. About this time
a new kingdom grew up in the valley of the Ganges, under the auspices
of _Chandra Gupti_, a native. After various conflicts, Seleucus
ceded the Greek settlements in the Punjab to this prince, to whom he
gave his daughter in marriage. The successors of Seleucus sent
Græco-Bactrian expeditions into India. Thus Greek science and Greek
art exerted a perceptible influence in Hindustan. During the first six
centuries of the Christian era, Scythian hordes poured down into
northern India. They were stoutly resisted, but effected settlements,
and made conquests. The events as well as the dates of the long
struggle are obscure. The non-Aryan races of India, both on the north
and on the south of the Ganges, many of whom received the Buddhistic
faith, were not without a marked influence--the precise lines of which
it is difficult to trace--upon the history and life of India during
the period of Greek and Scythic occupation and warfare. The
_Dravidian_ people in southern India, made up of non-Aryans,
number at present forty-six millions.
LITERATURE.--Mill's _History of India_ (Wilson's edition, 9
vols.); MONIER WILLIAMS, _Indian Wisdom_; Max Müller's
_History of Sanskrit Literature_; EARTH'S _The Religions of
India_, 1882; _Encycl. Brit._, Arts. _India, Brahmanism,
Buddhism_.
SECTION II. THE EARLIEST GROUP OF NATIONS.
CHAPTER I. EGYPT.
THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE.--When the curtain that hides the far distant
past is lifted, we find in the valley of the Nile a people of a dark
color, tinged with red, and a peculiar physiognomy, who had long
existed there. Of their beginnings, there is no record. It is not
likely that they came down the river from the south, as some have
thought; more probably they were of Asiatic origin. Their language,
though it certainly shows affinities with the Semitic tongues in its
grammar, is utterly dissimilar in its vocabulary: its modern
descendant is the Coptic, no longer a spoken dialect. The Egyptians
were of the Caucasian variety, but not white like the Lybians on the
west. On the east were tribes of a yellowish complexion and various
lineage, belonging to the numerous people whom the Egyptians
designated as _Amu_. On the south, in what was called
_Ethiopia_, was a negro people; and, also beyond them and
eastward, a dusky race, of totally different origin, a branch of the
widely diffused _Cushites_.
THE NILE: DIVISIONS OF THE COUNTRY.--Egypt (styled by its ancient
inhabitants, from the color of the soil deposited by the Nile,
_Kem_ or the Black Land, and by the Hebrews called
_Mizraim_) is the creation of the great river. "Egypt," says
Herodotus, "is the gift of the Nile;" and this is not only true, as
the historian meant it, physically, because it is the Nile that
rescued the land from the arid waste by which it is bordered; but the
course of Egyptian history--the occupations, habits, and religion of
the people--was largely determined by the characteristics of the
river. The sources of the Nile have had in all ages the fascination of
mystery, and have been a fruitful theme for conjecture. It was
reserved for modern explorers to ascertain that it takes its rise in
equatorial Africa, in the two great lakes, the _Albert_ and
_Victoria Nyanzas_. From that region, fed by few tributaries, it
flows to the Mediterranean, a distance of two thousand miles, but
breaks, as it nears the sea, into two main and several minor
arms. These spread fruitfulness over the broad plain called, from its
shape, the _Delta._ Above the Delta the fringe of productive land
has a width of only a few miles on either side of the stream. Its
fertility is due to the yearly inundation which, as the effect of the
rainfall of Abyssinia, begins early in July, and terminates in
November, when the river, having slowly risen in the interval to an
average height of twenty-three or twenty-four feet, reaches in its
gradual descent the ordinary level. This narrow belt of territory,
annually enriched with a layer of fertile mud, is in striking contrast
with the barren regions, parched by the sun, on either side, with the
long chain of Arabian mountains that adjoin it on the east, and with
the low hills of the Lybian desert on the west. By dikes, canals, and
reservoirs, the beneficent river from the most ancient times has been
made to irrigate the land above, where are the towns and dwellings of
the people, and thus to extend and keep up its unrivaled
fertility. The country of old was divided into two parts,--_Upper
Egypt,_ as it is now called, with _Thebes_ for its principal
city, extending from the first cataract, near _Syene,_ to the
Memphian district; and _Lower Egypt,_ embracing the rest of the
country on the north, including the Delta. The two divisions were
marked by differences of dialect and of customs. The country was
further divided into _nomes,_ or districts, about forty in all,
but varying in number at different times. They were parted from one
another by boundary stones. Each had its own civil organization, a
capital, and a center of worship.
EARLY CULTURE.--At a far remote day, there existed in Lower Egypt an
advanced type of culture. Sepulchers, with their inscriptions and
sculptures, were made of so solid material that they have remained to
testify to this fact. When the pyramids were built, mechanical skill
was highly developed, Egyptian art had reached a point beyond which it
scarcely advanced, and the administration of government had attained
substantially to the form in which it continued to exist. The use of
writing, the division of the year, the beginnings of the sciences and
of literature, are found in this earliest period. Egyptian culture, as
far as we can determine, was not borrowed. It was a native
product. The earliest period was the period of most growth. The
prevailing tendency was to crystallize all arts and customs into
definite, established forms, and to subject every thing to fixed
rules. The desire to preserve what had been gained overmastered the
impulses to progress: individuality and enterprise were blighted by an
excessive spirit of conservatism. Moreover, the culture of the
Egyptians never disengaged itself from its connection with every-day
practical needs, or the material spirit that lay at its root. They did
not, like the Greeks, soar into the atmosphere of theoretical science
and speculation. They did not break loose from the fetters of
tradition.
THE HIEROGLYPHICS.--We owe our knowledge of ancient Egypt chiefly to
hieroglyphical writing. The hieroglyphs, except those denoting
numbers, were pictures of objects. The writing is of three kinds. The
_first_, the hieroglyphical, is composed of literal pictures, as
a circle, O, for the sun, a curved line for the moon, a pointed oval
for the mouth. The _second_ sort of characters, the hieratic, and
the _third_, the demotic, are curtailed pictures, which can thus
be written more rapidly. They are seldom seen on the monuments, but
are the writing generally found on the papyrus rolls or
manuscripts. They are written from right to left. The hieroglyphs
proper may be written either way, or in a perpendicular line. In the
demotic, or people's writing, the characters are somewhat more
curtailed, or abridged, than in the hieratic, or priestly,
style. There were four methods of using the hieroglyphics in
historical times. _First_, there were the primary,
representational characters, the literal pictures. _Secondly_,
the characters were used figuratively, as symbols. Thus a circle, O,
meant not only the sun, but also "day"; the crescent denoted not only
the moon, but also "a month;" a pen and inkstand signified "writing,"
etc. So one object was substituted for another analogous to it,--as
the picture of a boot in a trap, which stood for "deceit." A
conventional emblem, too, might represent the object. Thus, the hawk
denoted the sun, two water-plants meant Upper and Lower Egypt.
_Thirdly_, hieroglyphics were used as determinatives. That is, an
object would be denoted by letters (in a way that we shall soon
explain), and a picture be added _to determine_, or make clear,
what was meant. After proper names, they designated the sex; after the
names of other classes, as animals, they specified the particular
genus. _Fourthly_, the bulk of the hieroglyphs are phonetic. They
stand for sounds. The picture stood for the initial sound of the name
of the object depicted. Thus the picture of an eagle, _akhôm_,
represented "A." Unfortunately, numerous objects were employed for a
like purpose, to indicate the same sound. Hence the number of
characters was multiplied. The whole number of signs used in writing
is not less than nine hundred or a thousand. The discovery of the
Rosetta Stone--a large black slab of stone--with an identical
inscription in hieroglyphics, in demotic and in Greek, furnished to
_Champollion_ (1810) and to _Young_ the clew to the
deciphering of the Egyptian writing, and thus the key to the sense of
the monumental inscriptions. The Egyptian manuscripts were made of the
pith of the byblus plant, cut into strips. These were laid side by
side horizontally, with another layer of strips across them; the two
layers being united by paste, and subjected to a heavy pressure. The
Egyptians wrote with a reed, using black and red ink.
SOURCES OF KNOWLEDGE OF EGYPTIAN HISTORY.--These are (1) the
inscriptions on the monuments. These, it must be remembered, are
commonly in praise of the departed, and of their achievements. (2)
The list of kings in the Turin papyrus, a very important Egyptian
manuscript, discovered by Champollion. (3) _Manetho_. An
Egyptian priest, he wrote, about 250 B.C., a history. Only his lists
of dynasties are preserved as given in an Armenian version of
_Eusebius_, a writer of the fourth century, and in _George
Syncellus_, a writer of the eighth century, who professed to
embody the statements of Eusebius and of another author, _Julius
Africanus_, probably of the second century, who had also quoted
the lists of Manetho. Manetho is of great importance; but we do not
know accurately what his original text was, it being so differently
reported. His details frequently clash with the monuments. Moreover,
the method adopted by him in making his lists is, in essential
points, subject to doubt. (4) The Greek historians. _Herodotus_
had visited Egypt (between 460 and 450 B.C.), and conferred with
Egyptian priests. _Diodorus_, also, in the time of Julius
Caesar, had visited Egypt. He is largely a copyist of Herodotus. (5)
The Old Testament. Here we have many instructive references to
Egypt. But, until Rehoboam, the kings of Egypt have in the
Scriptures the general name of _Pharaoh_. Hence it is not
always easy to identify them with corresponding kings on the
Egyptian lists.
CHRONOLOGY.--The date of the beginning of the first dynasty of
Egyptian rulers is a controverted point; there are advocates of a
longer and of a shorter chronology. The data are not sufficient to
settle accurately the questions in dispute. Some judicious scholars
put the beginning of _the first dynasty_ as early as 5000 B.C.;
others have wished to bring it down even lower than 3000 B.C. Egyptian
history, prior to the Persian conquest (525 B.C.), divides itself into
three sections,--the _Old Empire_, having its seat at Memphis;
the _Middle Empire_, following upon a period of strife and
division, and embracing the rule of foreign invaders, _the
Hyksos;_ and the _New Empire_, the era of conquest, by foreign
power, and of downfall.
The expedition of Shishak, king of Egypt, against Rehoboam, is
ascertained, from both Egyptian and Hebrew sources, to have been not
earlier than 971 B.C., and within twenty-five years of that
date. The nineteenth Egyptian dynasty began about the year 1350
B.C. The Middle Empire is thought by some to have commenced as early
as 2200 B.C.; by others as late as 1720 B.C. When we go backward
into the Old Empire, the sources of uncertainty are multiplied. The
main difficulty is to determine whether the lists of dynasties are
_consecutive_ throughout, or in part _contemporary_. One
class of scholars place the date of the first historic king,
_Menes_, two or three thousand years earlier than the point
assigned by the other class! The date of Menes given by _Böckh_
is 5702 B.C.; by _Lenormant_, 5004 B.C.; by _Brugsch_,
4455 B.C.; by _Lepsius_, 3852 B.C.; by _Bunsen_, 3623 or
3059 B.C.; _E. Meyer_ makes 3180 B.C. the lowest possible date
for Menes; 3233 B.C. is the date assigned by _Duncker_. On the
contrary, _R. S. Poole_ gives 2717 B.C.; _Wilkinson_, 2691
B.C.; and _G. Rawlinson_, between 2450 and 2250 B.C. There are
no means of fully determining the controversy, as Rawlinson has
shown (_History of Ancient Egypt_, vol. ii., p. 19). It appears
to be well ascertained that Egyptian civilization was in being at
least as far back as about 4000 B.C.
THE POLITICAL SYSTEM.--The bulk of the people were farmers and
shepherds, indisposed to war. The land was owned in large estates by
the nobles, who were possessed of multitudes of serfs and of
cattle. They had in their service, also, artisans, oarsmen, and
traffickers. The centers of industry were the numerous cities. Here
the nobles had their mansions, and the gods their temples with
retinues of priests. But the Nomes had each its particular
jurisdiction. The traces of two original communities are preserved in
the mythological legends and in the titles of the kings. The oldest
inscriptions discover to us a systematic organization of the
state. The king is supreme: under him are the rulers of the two halves
of the kingdom. He creates the army, and appoints its generals. The
whole strength of the kingdom is given to him for the erection of the
temples which he raises to the gods, or of the stupendous pyramid
which is to form his sepulcher. The nobility make up his court; from
them he selects his chief officers of state,--his secretary, his
treasurer, his inspector of quarries, etc. The princes and princesses
are educated in connection with the children of the highest nobles. A
body-guard protects the monarch: he shows himself to the people only
in stately processions. All who approach him prostrate themselves at
his feet. He is the descendant of the gods. The Pharaohs are even
looked upon as gods incarnate. They are clothed with all power on
earth. When they die, they go to the gods; and rites of worship are
instituted for them. That there was a well-ordered and efficient civil
administration admits of no doubt. Whether there existed a thrifty
middle class or not we can not decide. The tendency was for the child
to follow the vocation of the parent, but there were no rigid barriers
of caste. Not until the New Empire, was there an attempt to build up
such a wall even about the priesthood.
THE RELIGION.--With the Egyptians, religion was a matter of supreme
and absorbing interest. There was a popular religion; and there arose
early, in connection with it, an esoteric or secret doctrine relative
to the gods and to the legends respecting them,--a lore that pertained
especially to the priesthood. Moreover, while the religious system,
from the earliest date, is polytheistic, we have proof that the
educated class, sooner or later, put a monotheistic interpretation
upon it, and believed in one supreme deity, of whom all the particular
gods were so many forms and manifestations, or that one being under
different names. Whether this more elevated faith preceded the
reigning system, or was a later offspring of it, is a matter of
dispute. For a long period the two co-existed, and without collision.
The great divinities of Egypt are pre-eminently gods of light. They
are associated with the SUN. With the agency of that luminary, with
his rising and setting, they stand in a close relation. All Egypt
worships the sun under the names of _Ra_ and _Horus_. Horus
is the adversary of _Seth_ (called _Typhon_ by the Greeks),
the god of darkness, and is born anew every morning to attack and
conquer him. In honor of Ra, the lofty obelisks, or symbols of the
sun's rays, are erected, each of which has its own name and
priests. With the sun-gods are joined the goddesses of the
heavens,--_Nut_, _Hather_, _Isis_, and others. But
_Osiris_ became the most famous sun-god. His worship was
originally at Abydos and Busiris. At length his cult spread over the
whole land. In the legend, he is murdered by Seth; but Horus is his
avenger. Horus conquers the power of darkness. Henceforward Osiris
reigns in the kingdom of the West, the home of the dead. He is the sun
in the realm of the shades. He receives the dead, is their protector,
and the judge whose final award is blessedness or perpetual
misery. The departed, if their lives have not been wicked, become one
with him. They are each of them called by his name. To Osiris, all
sepulchral inscriptions are addressed. His career, with the victory of
the power of darkness over him, and his glorious revival in the
regions of the West, typifies human life and destiny. The principal
god at Memphis is _Ptah_, the primal divinity, the former of
heaven and earth; yet, perhaps, a god of light, since he is styled by
the Greeks, _Hephaestus_. At Thebes, _Ammon_ was revered as
the king of the gods: he shared in the properties of the
sun. _Thoth_ is the chief moon-god, who presides over the
reckoning of time. He is the god of letters and of the arts, the
author of sacred books. The Nile is worshiped under the name of
_Hapi_, being figured as a man with pendent breasts, an emblem of
the fertility of the river. The gods were often connected in triads,
there being in each a father, a mother, and a son. To bring to them
the right offerings, and to repeat the right formulas, was a matter of
momentous concern. Homage was directed to the material objects with
which the activity of the god was thought to be connected, and in
which he was believed to be present. All nature was full of
deities. There were sacred trees, stones, utensils. Above all,
animals, in their mysterious life, were identified with the
divinities. Worship was offered to the crocodile, the cat, the bull,
etc. In the temples these creatures were carefully tended and
obsequiously served.
EMBALMING.--Believing that the soul survives death, the Egyptians
linked its weal with the preservation of the body, from which they
could not conceive its destiny to be wholly dissevered. Thus arose the
universal practice of embalming, and of presenting, at intervals,
offerings of food and drink to the departed. The tomb contains a room
for sacred services to the dead. The most ancient structures are
sepulchers. They were the germ of the pyramid, in which rested the
sarcophagus of the king.
RELIGION AND MORALITY.--The leading gods were held to be the makers of
the world and of men, the givers of good, the rulers and disposers of
all things. Morality was not separated from religion. The gods
punished unrighteousness and inhumanity. In the age of the
pyramid-builders, family life was not wanting in purity; the wife and
mother was held in respect: monogamy prevailed. _Ma-t_ was the
goddess of truth: in the myth of Osiris, it is in her hall that the
dead are judged.
THE PRIESTS.--The priests are the guardians of religious rites. They
are acquainted with the origin and import of them. Their knowledge is
communicated only to select believers. It was a body of traditions,
guarded as a mysterious treasure. But the priests, certainly until a
late period, do not control the king. The civil authority is
uppermost.
LITERATURE AND SCIENCE.--The most important Egyptian book that has
come down to us is the _Book of the Dead._ It relates, in a
mystical strain, the adventures of the soul after death, and explains
how, by reciting the names and titles of numberless gods, and by means
of other theological knowledge, the soul can make its way to the hall
of Osiris. It is a monument of the pedantic and punctilious formalism
of the Egyptian ritual. Most of the papyri that have been preserved
are of a religious character. There are songs not void of beauty. The
moral writings are of a decidedly higher grade. Works of fiction are
constructed with considerable skill, and are sometimes not wanting in
humor. Some of the hymns are not destitute of merit. It can not be
doubted that there were important mathematical writings. Astronomical
observations were very early made. In medicine, we have writings which
prove that considerable proficiency was attained in this
department. But here, as in other branches, the spirit was empirical
rather than scientific in the higher sense; and the result was to
petrify knowledge in an unalterable form. At length rules of medical
treatment, with specific remedies, were definitely settled, from which
it was a crime against the state to deviate.
THE OLD EMPIRE (to about 2100 B.C.).--_Senoferu,_ who belongs to
the third dynasty, is the first king who has left behind him a
monumental inscription. A rock-tablet in the peninsula of Sinai gives
him the title of conqueror. By some, the pyramid of Meydoun, built in
three distinct stages to a height of 125 feet, is ascribed to him, and
is believed to be his sepulcher. At Saccarah is a pyramid of like
form, 200 feet in height. _Khufu,_ the Cheops of Herodotus, was
the builder of the "Great Pyramid" of Ghizeh, the largest and loftiest
building on earth. Its original perpendicular height was not less than
480 feet, the length of its side 764 feet, and the area covered by it
more than thirteen acres. Near it are the small pyramids, which were
the sepulchers of his wives and other relatives. The statues of
_Khafra_ remain, and the wooden mummy-case of _Menkaura,_
with the myth of Osiris recorded on it. These were the builders of the
two other most celebrated pyramids, the second and the third. With the
long reign of _Unas_ closes the first era in Egyptian
history. His unfinished pyramid, built of huge blocks of limestone,
indicates that he died too soon to complete it. From this date, back
to the epoch of _Senoferu_, are included nearly three
centuries. In this period of prevalent peace, art had the opportunity
to develop. The spirit of progress in this department had not yet been
cramped by the "hieratic canon," the fixed rules set for artistic
labor. There is evidence of considerable knowledge in anatomy and
medicine. The myth of Osiris expanded, and his worship spread.
With the sixth dynasty a new epoch begins. The most powerful monarch
in this series is _Pepi_. He levied armies, conquered the negroes
of Nubia, and waged war against the nomads of the eastern desert. The
interval from the sixth to the tenth dynasty was marked by usurpations
and insurrections. The district governors sought to make themselves
independent. Monarchs rose and fell. Syrian invaders appear to have
seized the occasion to attack the country. _Heliopolis_, with
_Tum_ for its sun-god, is the center of the new symbolical lore
of the priesthood. Power is transferred to _Thebes_, and
_Ammon_ becomes the embodiment of the monotheistic conception,
the supreme deity.
The Theban ruling-house gradually extended its supremacy over the
land. The kings of the twelfth dynasty have left their inscriptions
everywhere, and of several of them gigantic portrait-statues
remain. _Amenemhat I._ and his successors are prosperous
sovereigns. They carry on a lively intercourse of trade with the small
states of Syria, reaching possibly to Babylon. Under the twelfth
dynasty, the valley of the upper Nile was conquered. _Usurtasen
III._, in after times, was revered as the subduer of the Nubian
land. By monarchs of this epoch, vast structures, like the temple of
Ammon at Thebes and the temple of the Sun at Heliopolis, were
erected. _Amenemhat III._ built the immense artificial reservoir,
Lake Moeris, to receive and dispense the waters of the Nile. Under the
twelfth dynasty is the blossoming period of literature. The carving of
hieroglyphics and the execution of the details of art reach their
perfection. It is the culminating point of Egyptian culture.
THE MIDDLE EMPIRE (FROM ABOUT 2100 TO 1600 B.C.).--The season of
prosperity under the twelfth dynasty was followed by anarchy and the
downfall of the Theban rule. According to _Manetho_, it was under
a king named _Timaos_ that a horde of invaders--the
_Hyksos_, or _"shepherds"_--came in from the north,
devastated the country, and made themselves its rulers. They were
probably of Semitic descent, but nothing more is known as to their
origin. In connection with them, Semitic, and in particular Canaanite,
elements penetrated into Egypt, and left their traces in its
language. The residence of their kings was _Tanis_, on the
eastern Delta, a splendid city, which they still more adorned. They
conquered Memphis, but their power was not permanently established in
Lower Egypt. The duration of their control was a number of
centuries,--how many can only be conjectured. It is believed by some
scholars that either _Apepi,_ or _Nub_, kings of the Hyksos
line, was the sovereign who made _Joseph_ his prime minister, and
invited his family to settle in the land of Goshen. The elevation of a
foreigner and a Semite to an exalted office is thought to be less
improbable in connection with a Semitic dynasty.
The New Empire (from 1600 to 525 B.C.).--The expulsion of the Hyksos
was effected by _Aahmes I_., first king of the eighteenth
dynasty. It was accomplished, however, not all at once, but
gradually. From this event Egypt enters on a new stage in its
career. It becomes a military, an aggressive, and a conquering
state. Notwithstanding the enormous sacrifice of life that must have
been involved in the erection of pyramids and in other public works,
the Egyptians had not been a cruel people: compared with most Semitic
peoples, they had been disposed to peace. But now a martial spirit is
evoked. A military class arises. Wars for plunder and conquest
ensue. The use of horses in battle is a new and significant fact. The
character of the people changes for the worse. The priestly class
become more compact and domineering. Temples are the principal
edifices, in the room of massive sepulchers.
Under _Thothmes I_. and his successors, especially _Thothmes
III_., wars were successfully waged against the Syrians, and
against the Ethiopians on the south. The palaces and temples of
Thebes, including the gigantic structures at _Karnak_ and
_Luxor_, are witnesses to the grandeur of these monarchs. The
Egyptian arms were carried through Syria, and as far even as
Nineveh. During the reigns of _Amenophis III_. and _Amenophis
IV_., that is, in the latter half of the fifteenth century B.C.,
the _Amarna Letters_ (see p. 44) were written. Under the
_Ramessides_, the conquests of Egypt reached their farthest
limit.
RAMSES II.--Ramses II., or Ramses the Great (1340-1273 B.C.),--who was
called by the Greeks Sesostris, a name with which they linked many
fabulous narratives,--is the most brilliant personage in Egyptian
history. He is the first of the renowned conquerors, the forerunner of
the Alexanders and Napoleons. His monuments are scattered over all
Egypt. In his childhood he was associated on the throne with his
father, himself a magnificent monarch, _Seti I_. In the seventh
year of the sole reign of the son he had to encounter a formidable
confederacy under the lead of the Syrian _Hittites_--the
"Khita"--in the north-east, a powerful nation. How he saved himself by
his personal valor, on the field of _Kadesh_, is celebrated in
the Egyptian Iliad, the heroic poem of _Pentaur_. A subsequent
treaty with this people is one of the most precious memorials of his
reign.
THE HITTITES.--Recent explorations have shown that the _Hittites_
of Scripture were families, or smaller communities, in Palestine, of a
people whose proper seat was in northern Syria, especially the country
lying along the Orontes; their territory being bounded on the east by
the Euphrates, and extending westward into the Taurus Mountains. In
one place they are spoken of as distant (Judg. i. 26). The "Khita" of
the Egyptians, called "Khatti" by the Assyrians, were a civilized and
powerful nation, whose sway was so extended that their outposts were
at times on the western coast of Asia Minor. They were a non-Semitic
people. The great victory of Ramses (1320 B.C.) was with difficulty
won. The Hittites were also rivals of the Assyrians from an early
period. At length Sargon captured their capital, _Carchemish_
(717 B.C.), and broke down their power. Numerous Hittite inscriptions
have been discovered, written in a hieroglyphic script which has not
yet (1903) been deciphered.
Subsequently we find _Ramses_ in _Galilee_, as it was called
later: we find him storming the city of _Askalon_ in Philistia,
and in various military expeditions, in which he brought home with him
multitudes of captives. The mighty temples which he built at Abydos,
Thebes, and Memphis, and the gorgeous palace, "the House of Ramses,"
south of Karnak, were in keeping with other displays of his energy and
magnificence.
THE BONDAGE OF THE ISRAELITES.--Ramses II. has been generally believed
to be "the Pharaoh of the oppression," under whom the Hebrews
suffered; and his son _Menephthah_, to be the Pharaoh under whom
the exodus took place. Recent discoveries have rendered these
conclusions very doubtful, however. It is also quite uncertain how
long the Egyptian bondage lasted. According to the Hebrew Old
Testament, its duration was 430 years; according to the
_Septuagint_, or Greek version, half that period (as implied in
Gal. iii. 17).
To THE PERSIAN CONQUEST.--From about 1500 to 1300 B.C., Egypt was the
foremost nation in culture, arts, and military prowess. Under the
later kings bearing the name of Ramses, the empire began to decay. The
Ethiopians in the south revolted, and set up an independent kingdom,
_Meroe_, of which _Napata_ was the capital. _Shishak_
(961-940 B.C.) aspired to restore the Egyptian rule in the East. He
marched into Judæa, and captured and plundered Jerusalem. He made
_Rehoboam_, king of Judah, a tributary, and strengthened
Jeroboam, the ally of Egypt. He even led his forces across the valley
of the Jordan. At length (730 B.C.) the Ethiopians gained the upper
hand in Egypt. Their three kings form the twenty-fifth dynasty. As the
power of Egypt was on the wane, the power of Assyria was more and more
in the ascendant. _Shabak_ joined hands with _Hoshea_, king
of Israel, but was defeated by the Assyrians, under _Sargon II_.,
in a pitched battle at _Raphia_, in which the superiority of the
Asiatic kingdom was evinced. Later (701 B.C.) _Sennacherib_
defeated an Egyptian army, sent for the relief of Ekron, and made
_Hezekiah_ a tributary. _Tirhakah,_ the ally of Hezekiah,
continued the struggle. His army was saved from overthrow by the
disaster which happened to Sennacherib's host in the neighboring camp
on the eve of battle. Twenty years later, he was vanquished by an
invading army under the son and successor of Sennacherib,
_Esarhaddon._ The rule of the Ethiopian dynasty was
subverted. The Assyrians intrusted the government to twenty governors,
of whom the most were natives. Of these governors, one, then king of
Sais, _Psammeticus I._ (663-616 B.C.), in alliance with Gyges,
king of Lydia, and with the aid of Carians, Phoenicians, and Lycians,
cast off the Assyrian yoke, and became sole ruler of Egypt. This epoch
is marked by the introduction of numerous foreigners into the country,
and by the exertion of a powerful and lasting Greek influence. _Neku
II._--the _Necho_ of Scripture--(610-594 B.C.), the son of
Psammeticus I., defeated _Josiah,_ king of Judah, at
_Megiddo_ (608 B.C.); and Josiah fell in the battle. But,
advancing to _Carchemish_ by the Euphrates, Neku, in turn, was
vanquished by _Nebuchadnezzar,_ king of Babylon, which had now
become the formidable power. The defeat of Neku ended Egyptian rule in
the East. _Apries_ (588 B.C.), the _Hophra_ of Scripture,
was dethroned by a revolt of his own soldiers, in a war with the
Greeks of Cyrene, and was succeeded by _Aahmes,_ or _Amasis_
(570-526), under whose auspices foreigners, and especially Greeks,
acquired an augmented influence. Egypt had escaped from permanent
subjection to Assyria or Babylon; but a new empire, the Persian Empire
of Cyrus, was advancing on the path to universal
dominion. _Cyrus_ was too busy with other undertakings to attack
Egypt; but _Cambyses,_ his successor, led an army into that
country; and, having defeated _Psammeticus III.,_ at the battle
of _Pelusium,_ he made it a Persian province (525 B.C.).
LITERATURE.--See the list on p. 16. 1. Works on Oriental History as
a whole: DUNCKER'S _History of Antiquity._ It includes, also,
Greece. Lenormant and Chevalier, _Manual of the Ancient History of
the East_ (2 vols.); G. Rawlinson, _The Five Great
Monarchies_ (3 vols.), _The Sixth Great Monarchy_ (Parthia),
_The Seventh Great Monarchy_ (the Sassanidæ), _The Origin of
Nations_ (1 vol.), _Manual of Ancient History_ (1 vol.),
_Egypt and Babylon_ (1 vol.). LENORMANT, _The Beginnings of
History_ (1 vol.); P. Smith, _The Ancient History of the
East_ (1 vol.), _History of the World_ (_Ancient
History_, 3 vols.); Maspero, _History of the Ancient Orient_
(3 vols.); Doublier, _Gesch. des Alterthums_ (from the cultural
point of view, 1 vol.); E. Meyer, _Gesch. des Alterthums._
2. Works on the History of Egypt. BRUGSCH-BEY, _History of Egypt
under the Pharaohs_ (2 vols.); G. Rawlinson, _History of
Ancient Egypt_ (2 vols.);, _Aperçu de l'Histoire d'Egypte_
(1864), and numerous other writings; WILKINSON, _Manners and
Customs of Egypt_ (3 vols.); ERMAN, _Egypt_; Petrie,
_History of Egypt_; Erman, _Egyptian Life_ (1894); Birch,
_Records of the Past_ (translations of Egyptian and Assyrian
Monuments, 11 vols.), _Egypt from the Earliest Times_; Perrot
and Chipiez, _History of Art in Ancient Egypt_ (1883);
FERGUSSON'S _History of Architecture_; the great illustrative
works of the French _savans_ under Napoleon I.; the great
illustrated works of Rossellini, and the works of Lepsius; the
novels of Ebers, _The Sisters; Uarda; The Egyptian Princess_.
CHAPTER II.
ASSYRIA AND BABYLON.
THE GEOGRAPHY.--Assyria and Babylonia were geographically
connected. They were inhabited by the same race, and, for the greater
part of their history, were under one government. Babylonia comprised
the lower basin of the _Euphrates_ and _Tigris,_ while
Assyria included the hilly region along the upper and middle Tigris;
the boundary being where the two rivers, in their long progress from
their sources in the mountains of Armenia, at length approach one
another at a place about three hundred and fifty miles from their
outlet in the Persian Gulf. Both streams, in particular the Euphrates,
annually flooded the adjacent territory, and by canals and dams were
made to add to its productiveness. The shores of the Euphrates, after
its descent from the plateau to the plains, were fertile beyond
measure. Here the date-palm, whose juice as well as fruit were so
highly prized, flourished. Even now wheat grows wild near the river's
mouth.
THE EARLY INHABITANTS.--The oldest inhabitants of this region of whom
we have any knowledge were the _Sumerians,_ whose territory
included both _Sumer_ ("Shinar"), or southern Babylonia, and
_Akkad,_ or northern Babylonia. On the east were the
_Elamites,_ with _Susa_ for their capital; to the north of
these were the warlike _Kassites._ The Sumerians, who preceded
the Semites in the occupancy of Babylonia, were of an unknown
stock. They were the founders of Babylonian culture. Even by them the
soil was skillfully cultivated with the help of dikes and canals. They
were the inventors of the cuneiform writing. The cuneiform characters
were originally pictures; but these were resolved into wedge-shaped
characters of uniform appearance, the significance of which was
determined by their position and local relation to one another. It is
not known how long the Sumerian period lasted, nor even when it
closed; the chronology of the earliest Semitic period is also very
uncertain. The south-Babylonian kings _Urukagina,_ of
_Shirpurla_ (Lagash), and _Enshagkushana,_ of a district
which included _Nippur,_ are dated by most Assyriologists as
early as 4000 B.C., or even earlier. Whether they were Sumerians, or
Semites, is not certain; their inscriptions do not settle the
question. It was probably not far from this time, however, that the
one race supplanted the other. A Semitic people--coming either
directly from the ancestral home, Arabia, or from a previous
settlement in Mesopotamia, north-west of Babylonia--invaded the land
and conquered the Sumerians. They planted themselves first in northern
Babylonia, and then gradually extended their power over the districts
on the south. The conquerors adopted the civilization of the
conquered. The earliest Semitic kings all used the Sumerian dialect in
their inscriptions. It was only by slow degrees that the native
language was superseded by that of the new rulers. Later,--before the
time of _Hammurabi_; see below,--these Semites carried their
settlements northward, and became the founders of Assyria.
SOURCES OF KNOWLEDGE.--_Berosus_, a Babylonian priest, wrote a
history of his country as early as 250 B.C. He was a trustworthy
writer, as far as his means of knowledge went; but it is only
fragments of his work that we possess, and these in inaccurate
quotations, partly at second hand. Greek writers, as _Ctesias_,
drew from Persian sources; and their narratives up to the later
times of the Persian rule can not be relied on. The great source of
knowledge is the rapidly increasing store of records in the
cuneiform character. A vast number of inscriptions on stone and
clay, representing nearly every department of literature, have been
unearthed, and the material which they afford has already given us
an extensive knowledge of Babylonian and Assyrian history. The site
of _Nineveh_ has been extensively excavated, and we have,
therefore, especially full information as to the history and
literature of Assyria. Babylonian monuments in considerable number
have more recently come to light. Aside from Nineveh and Babylon,
especially important excavations have been undertaken at _Nifpur,
Lagash_ (Telloh)--thus far the chief source of Sumerian
material--and _Susa_.
I. THE OLD KINGDOM OF BABYLON.
EARLY HISTORY.--The history of ancient Babylonia is still very
obscure, and the chronology only tentative. We see at first a number
of independent cities, each ruled by a petty king, who was also a
priest. Then appear groups of cities, one of which exercised sway over
a more or less extended district. The center of power was now in
Erech, now in Ur, or Babylon, or some other city, whose king ruled
supreme over numerous vassal kings. Among the first important names
known to us are those of _Sargon I._ (3800 B.C.), king of Agade,
a great conqueror and builder, and his son, _Naram-sin_. Another
great builder was _Gudea_, king of Shirpurla. Most conspicuous of
all is _Hammurabi_ (2250 B.C.), king of Babylon, who is probably
the "Amraphel" of Gen. xiv. His kingdom included not only the whole of
Babylonia proper, but also Assyria, and probably even the "West Land"
as far as the Mediterranean. The records show him to have been a truly
great ruler, both in war and in peace. He is known to us chiefly from
a collection of his _Letters_ to certain officials of his
kingdom, and from his elaborate _Code_ of civil laws, found at
Susa in 1899, and first published in 1902; perhaps the most important
single monument of early civilization which has thus far come to
light. The laws, written in the Babylonian (Semitic) language, and
engraved on a stele of hard black stone, were about two hundred and
eighty in number, and bear an interesting general resemblance to the
old Hebrew laws, especially those preserved in Exodus xxi. and xxii.
In the time of the kings _Kadashman-bel_ and _Burnaburiash
II_. (about 1400 B.C.) falls the _Amarna Correspondence_ (see
p. 40). At _Tell el-Amarna_, in upper Egypt, were unearthed, in
1887, more than three hundred clay tablets containing diplomatic
dispatches, written in the cuneiform character, and nearly all in the
Babylonian language. They were addressed to the Egyptian king, or to
his ministers, and had been sent from various officials and royal
personages in Babylonia, Assyria, Palestine (including a number of
letters from _Abdi-khiba_ of _Jerusalem_), and other
districts. They furnish a large amount of important information as to
conditions in western Asia at that early period.
An important _Kassite_ dynasty occupied the throne of Babylon
from the eighteenth century to the twelfth century B.C. Under these
Kassite rulers, the kingdom at length declined, while the neighboring
Assyrian state had increased in power. Later still, apparently not
earlier than the ninth century B.C., the _Chaldoeans_ (of Semitic
stock?) pushed north-westward into Babylonia from their district about
the mouth of the Euphrates, and eventually made themselves masters of
the land.
RELIGION AND SCIENCE.--If the events connected with old Babylon are
less known, more is ascertained respecting its civilization. The
groundwork, as was stated, was laid by the earlier conquered
people. The religion of the Babylonians rested on the basis of the old
Sumerian worship. There was homage to demons, powerful for good or for
evil, who were brought together into groups, and were figured now as
human beings, now as lions or other wild animals, or as dragons and
that sort of monsters. Of the great gods, _Anu_, the god of the
sky, was the father and king of all. _Sin_, the moon-god, a
Sumerian divinity, at the outset had the highest rank. _Bel_, or
_Baal_, however, a Semitic divinity, was the god of the earth,
and particularly of mankind. _Ea_ was the god of the deep, and
of the underworld. The early development of astrology and its great
influence in old Babylon were closely connected with the supposed
association of the luminaries above with the gods. The stars were
thought to indicate at the birth of a child what his fortunes would
be, and to afford the means of foretelling other remarkable
events. _Ishtar_, a goddess of war and of love, was worshiped
also under the name _Beltis_, the Greek _Mylitta_. This
deity embodied the _generative principle_, the spring of
fertility, whose beneficent agency was seen in the abundant
harvest. She was clothed with sensual attributes, and propitiated with
unchaste rites. It was in the worship of this divinity that the coarse
and licentious side of the Semitic nature expressed itself. At the
same time, there was an opposite ascetic side in the service of this
deity. Her priests were eunuchs: they ministered at her altar in
woman's attire. On the relation of the human soul to the gods, and its
condition after death, there was little speculation. In general, the
Babylonians were more interested in religion and worship, than the
Assyrians. The former erected temples; the latter, palaces.
The attainments of the early Babylonians in mathematics and astronomy
were far beyond those of the Egyptians. They divided the year into
twelve months, and arrived at the signs of the ecliptic or zodiac. The
week they fixed at seven days by the course of the moon. They divided
the day into twelve hours, and the hour into sixty minutes. They
invented weights and measures, the knowledge of which went from them
to the other Asiatic nations. Architecture, as regards taste, was in a
rude state. In pottery, they showed much skill and ingenuity, and
invented the potter's wheel. In the engraving of gems, and in the
manufacture of delicate fabrics,--linen, muslin, and silk,--they were
expert. Trade and commerce, favored by the position of Babylon, began
to flourish. As regards literature, the libraries of Nineveh and
Babylon, at a later day, contained many books translated from the
early Sumerian language. Among them are the "Gilgamesh legends," in
which is contained a story of the flood that resembles in essential
features the account in Genesis.
II. THE ASSYRIAN EMPIRE.
GROWTH OF ITS POWER.--Assyria was even greater, as a conquering power,
than Babylon. In the legends current among the Greeks, the building-up
of the monarchy, and of Nineveh its capital, as well as of Babylon, is
referred to the legendary heroes, _Ninus_ and his queen
_Semiramis_. The name of Ninus is not recorded on the monuments,
and is, perhaps, a kind of mythical personification of Assyrian
conquests and grandeur; and the name of Semiramis does not appear
until the ninth century B.C. She may have been a princess or even
queen. Assyrian independence began before 2300 B.C. Between 1500 and
1400 B.C., Assyria was a weak state. It gained a brief mastery over
Babylon through a conquest by _Tukulti-Ninib_ (1300
B.C.). _Tiglath-Pileser I_. (1100 B.C.) spread his conquests to
the Mediterranean and the Caspian on the west, and south to the
Persian Gulf. But these early acquisitions of Assyria were
transient. There ensued a long interval, until the middle of the tenth
century, when the monarchy was mostly confined within its own proper
borders. A new series of strong and aggressive princes arose. The
conflicts of Damascus and of the nations of Palestine with one another
left room for the growth of the Assyrian might and for the spread of
Assyrian dominion. _Asshur-nasir-pal_ (formerly called
_Sardanapalus I._) levied tribute upon Tyre, and the other rich
cities of the Syrian coast, and founded the Assyrian rule in
_Cilicia_. About the middle of the eighth century, the kingdom of
Israel, having renounced its vassalage to Assyria, in league with
_Rezin_ of Damascus, the ruler of Syria, made war upon the
kingdom of Judah. _Ahaz_, the Judaean king, against the protest
of the prophet _Isaiah_, invoked the aid of the Assyrian monarch,
_Tiglath-Pileser II_. The call was answered. The league was
overthrown by him in a great battle fought near the Euphrates, and
numerous captives, according to the Assyrian practice, were carried
away from Samaria and Damascus. We are told that _Ahaz_, seeing
the offerings made by Tiglath-Pileser at Damascus, commanded his
priests at Jerusalem, despite the remonstrance of Isaiah, to make
offerings to the Assyrian gods. Judah, as the result of these events,
became tributary to Assyria. All Syria, together with Babylonia, which
was then made up of several states, western Iran, and Armenia, were
subdued by this Assyrian conqueror. He formally assumed the title of
"King of Babylon." _Shalmaneser IV._ (727-722 B.C.), bent on
completing the subjugation of Syria, subdued anew the revolted cities,
and conquered, as it would seem, the island of _Cyprus_. Tyre
alone, that is, the insular city of that name, withstood a siege of
five years. _Hoshea_, the king of Israel (733-722 B.C.), in order
to throw off the Assyrian yoke, sent an embassy to _Shabak_, the
king of Egypt, to procure his assistance. Hearing of this,
_Shalmaneser_ attacked Israel. After a siege of three years,
Samaria, the capital, fell into the hands of _Sargon_, who had
succeeded him, the kingdom of Israel was subverted, and a great part
of the people dragged off into captivity. In 720 B.C., _Sargon_
encountered _Shabak_, in the great battle of _Raphia_, in
southern Palestine, whom he defeated, and put to flight. He received
tribute from Egypt, conquered a part of Arabia, and received the
homage of the king of _Meroe_, who made a journey from Ethiopia
to bow before him. The reign of _Sennacherib_ (705-681 B.C.) was
an eventful one, both for Assyria and for the neighboring
countries. _Hezekiah_, king of Judah, hoped with the aid of Egypt
to achieve his independence. Sennacherib was obliged to raise the
siege of Jerusalem, after Hezekiah had vainly sought to propitiate him
with large offerings of silver and gold; but the Assyrian was
prevented from engaging in battle with _Tirhaka_ of Egypt by a
great calamity that befell his army. Against Babylon, which frequently
revolted, he was more successful. "Berodach-baladan," as he is called
in Scripture (2 Kings, chap. 20), who at an earlier day had sent an
embassy from Babylon to Hezekiah, was overcome, and a new ruler
enthroned in his place. _Esarhaddon_ (681-668 B.C.) not only
restored the Assyrian sway over Syria, Phoenicia, Cyprus, Judah, and a
part of Arabia, countries that lost no opportunity to shake off the
cruel and hateful rule of Nineveh, but also conquered Egypt, and
parceled it out among twenty governors. By Esarhaddon, or by his
successor, _Manasseh_, king of Judah, was conquered, and carried
off as a captive, but afterwards restored to his throne. Assyria was
now at the summit of its power. _Asshur-bani-pal V._ (668-626
B.C.), called Sardanapalus, although he lost Egypt, confirmed the
Assyrian power in the other subject states, and received tribute from
_Lydia_, on the western border of Asia Minor. Under him, Assyrian
art made its farthest advance. He was the builder of magnificent
palaces. It is his library, dug up from the grave in which it had been
buried for two and a half decades of centuries, that has yielded a
vast amount of welcome information concerning Assyrian and Babylonian
history far back into the Sumerian period.
RELIGION AND ART.--It has been stated that the Assyrian culture was
transplanted from Babylon. The religion was substantially the same,
except that _Asshur_, the tutelary deity of the country, was made
supreme. The Assyrians from the start were devoted to war, pillage,
and conquest. Their unsparing cruelty and brutal treatment of their
enemies are abundantly witnessed by their own monuments. They lacked
the productive power in literature and art which belonged to the
Babylonians. Although they might have built their edifices of stone,
they generally made use of brick. Their sculptures in relief were much
better than the full figures. They laid color upon their works in
sculpture. But their art was merely a pictorial record of events. The
sense of beauty and creative power were wanting. The more religious
character of the Babylonians created a difference in the architecture
of the two peoples. In gem-cutting both were singularly expert. The
Assyrians gave less attention to the burial of the dead. They showed
an aptitude for trade; and Nineveh, in the eighth and seventh
centuries, was a busy mart.
THE FALL OF ASSYRIA.--The first important blow at the Assyrian
imperial rule was struck by the _Medes_. After nearly a century
of resistance, they had been subdued (710 B.C.), and were subject to
Assyria for a century after. In 640 B.C., they rose in revolt, under
_Phraortes_, one of their native chiefs, who fell in battle. The
struggle was continued by his son, _Cyaxares_. His plans were
interrupted, however, by
THE IRRUPTION OF THE SCYTHIANS (623 B.C.).--More than a century
before, these wandering Asiatic tribes had begun to make predatory
incursions into Asia Minor. When _Cyaxares_ was before Nineveh,
they came down in greater force, and a horde of them, moving southward
from the river Halys, invaded Syria. Jerusalem and the stronger cities
held out against them, but the open country was devastated. They were
met by _Psammeticus I._, king of Egypt, and bribed to turn
back. They entered Babylonia; but _Nabopolassar_, the viceroy of
Asshur-bani-pal (Sardanapalus), successfully defended the city of
Babylon against their attacks. By _Cyaxares_, either these or
another horde were defeated; but it was not until 605 B.C. that the
region south of the Black Sea was cleared of them. The kingdom of
_Lydia_ had now come to play an important part in the affairs of
western Asia.
Our first knowledge of the peoples of Asia Minor is from the Homeric
poems (about 900 B.C.). The _Chalybeans_ were in Pontus; west
of them, the _Amazonians_ and _Paphlagonians_; west of
these, the _Mysians_; on the Hellespont, small tribes related
to the _Trojans_; on the Ægean, the _Dardanians_ and the
_Trojans_ (on the north), the _Carians_ and the
_Lycians_ (on the south); on the north-east of these last, the
_Phrygians_.
A large portion of the early inhabitants of Asia Minor were
_Semitic_, and closely related to the Syrians. Semitic
divinities were worshiped; a goddess, _Mylitta_, under other
names, was adored in Pontus, at Ephesus, in Phrygia, and in Lydia.
The Lydians were of the Semitic race. _Cybele_, the female
divinity whom they served, was the same deity whose altars were at
Babylon, Nineveh, and Tyre. The rulers of the dynasty of the
_Mermnadæ, Gyges_ and his successors, spread the Lydian dominion
until it extended to the Hellespont, and included Mysia and
Phrygia. _Alyattes_ was able to extirpate the Cimmerian hordes
from the Sea of Azoff, who had overrun the western part of Asia Minor,
and to make the Halys his eastern boundary. Gyges had been slain in
the contest with those fierce barbarians, called in the Old Testament
_Gomer_. At first he had sought help from the Assyrians, but he
broke away from this dependence.
Liberated from the troubles of the Scythian irruption, _Cyaxares_
formed an alliance with _Nabopolassar_, the viceroy in Babylon,
who had revolted, and gained his independence. The Median ruler had
subdued Armenia, and established his control as far as the Halys,
making a treaty with Lydia. Now ensued the desperate conflict on which
hung the fate of the Assyrian Empire. Nineveh was taken (606 B.C.) by
the Medes under _Cyaxares_, and the Babylonians under
_Nebuchadnezzar_, the son of Nabopolassar. The Grecian story of
Sardanapalus burning himself on a lofty bier, is a myth. Assyria was
divided by the _Tigris_ between the _Medes_ and
_Babylonians._
THE THREE POWERS: EGYPT.--On the fall of Nineveh, there were three
principal powers left on the stage of action, which were bound
together by treaty, _Lydia, Media,_ and _Babylon._ Egypt
proved itself unable to cope with Babylonian power. _Necho,_
during the siege of Nineveh, had attacked Syria, and defeated the Jews
on the plain of Esdraelon, where king _Josiah_ was slain. He
dethroned _Jehoahaz,_ Josiah's son, and enthroned
_Jehoiakim_ in his stead. But when, in 605 B.C., he confronted
Nebuchadnezzar at _Carchemish,_ and was defeated, he was
compelled to give up Syria, and to retire within the boundaries of
Egypt.
III. THE NEW BABYLONIAN EMPIRE.
TRIUMPS OF NEBUCHADNEZZAR.--Syria was now at the mercy of
Nebuchadnezzar. He captured Jerusalem (597 B.C.), despoiled the temple
and palace, and led away Jehoiakim as a captive. He placed on the
throne of Judah Jehoiakim's uncle, _Zedekiah._ But this king,
having arranged an alliance between Egypt and the Phoenician cities,
revolted (590 B.C.), refusing to pay his tribute. Again Nebuchadnezzar
laid siege to Jerusalem, but raised the siege, in order to drive home
_Apries II._ (Hophra), the Egyptian ally of Zedekiah. The city
was taken, the king's sons were killed in his presence, his own eyes
were put out; and, after the temple and palace had been burned and the
city sacked, he, with all the families of the upper class who had not
escaped to the desert, was carried away to Babylon (586 B.C.). Tyre
(the old city) in like manner was taken by assault (585 B.C.).
By Nebuchadnezzar, Babylon was enlarged, and adorned on a scale of
unequaled splendor. The new palace, with its "hanging gardens," the
bridge over the Euphrates, the Median wall connecting the Euphrates
and the Tigris on his northern boundary, and magnificent waterworks,
are famous structures which belong to this reign. Wealth and luxury
abounded. But vigor of administration fell away under his successors;
and Babylon, after a dominion short when compared with the long sway
of Nineveh, was conquered by _Cyrus,_ the Medo-Persian king, in
538 B.C. The last king was _Nabonetus._
THE CITY OF BABYLON.--Babylon was a city of the highest antiquity. The
name (_Bab-ili,_ "Gate of God") is Semitic. The city is mentioned
in the earliest cuneiform records, and from the time of Hammurabi was
the chief city of the land. Destroyed by Sennacherib (690 B.C.), it
was rebuilt by Esarhaddon, but not fully restored and adorned until
the reigns of Nabopolassar and Nebuchadnezzar.
Babylon surpassed all ancient cities in size and magnificence. Its
walls were forty miles in circumference. This extent of wall probably
included Borsippa, or "Babylon the Second," on the right bank of the
river. Babylon proper was mainly on the left. Within the walls were
inclosed gardens, orchards, and fields: the space was only filled in
part by buildings; but the whole area was laid out with straight
streets intersecting one another at right angles, like the streets of
Philadelphia. The wall was pierced by a hundred gates, probably
twenty-five in each face. The Euphrates, lined with quays on both
sides, and spanned with drawbridges, ran through the town, dividing it
into two nearly equal parts. The city was protected without by a deep
and wide moat. The wall was at least seventy or eighty feet in height,
and of vast and unusual thickness. On the summit were two hundred and
fifty towers, placed along the outer and inner edges, opposite to one
another, but so far apart, according to Herodotus, that there was room
for a four-horse chariot to pass between. The temple of _Bel_ was
in a square inclosure, about a quarter of a mile both in length and
breadth. The tower of the temple was ascended on the outside by an
inclined plane carried around the four sides. An exaggerated statement
of _Strabo_ makes its height six hundred and six feet. Possibly,
this represents the length of the inclined plane. In the shrine on the
top were a golden table and a couch; according to _Diodorus_,
before the Persian conquest there were colossal golden images of three
divinities, with two golden lions, and two enormous serpents of
silver. It is thought that Herodotus may have described the splendid
temple of _Nebo_ (now _Birs Nimrûd_), and have mistaken it,
by reason of its enormous ruins, for the temple of _Bel_, which
it rivaled in magnificence. The great palace is represented to have
been larger than the temple of Bel, the outermost of its three
inclosing walls being three miles in circumference. Its exterior was
of baked brick. The "Hanging Gardens" was a structure built on a
square, consisting of stages or stories, one above another, each
supported by arches, and covered on the top, at the height of at least
seventy-five feet, with a great mass of earth in which grew flowers
and shrubs, and even large trees. The ascent to the top was by
steps. On the way up were stately and elegant apartments. The smaller
palace was on the other side of the river.
LITERATURE.--Works on Oriental History mentioned on p. 42. Tiele,
_Babylonisch-assyrische Geschichte_ (1888); Kaulen, _Assyrien
und Babylonien_ (5th ed., 1899); Rogers, _History of Babylonia
and Assyria_ (1901); Goodspeed, _History of the Babylonians and
Assyrians_ (1902); King, Articles _Assyria_ and
_Babylonia_ in the _Encyclopedia Biblica_; Sayce,
_Babylonians and Assyrians: Life and Customs_ (1899); Schrader,
_The Cuneiform Inscriptions and the Old Testament_; Jastrow,
_Religion of Babylonia and Assyria_ (1898); Perrot & Chipiez,
_Histoire de l'art dans l'antiquité_, vol. ii., _Chaldèe et
Assyrie_.
CHAPTER III. THE PHOENICIANS AND CARTHAGINIANS.
PHOENICIA.--A narrow strip of territory separates the mountains of
Syria and Palestine from the Mediterranean. Of this belt the northern
part, west of Lebanon, about one hundred and fifty miles long, varies
in width from five to fourteen miles. In some places the cliffs
approach close to the sea. This belt of land was occupied by the first
of the great maritime and commercial peoples of antiquity, the
Phoenicians. Their language was Semitic, closely akin to Hebrew.
COMMERCE AND PROSPERITY OF THE PHOENICIANS.--The most important of the
Phoenician cities were Sidon--which was the first of them to rise to
distinction and power--and Tyre, which became more famous as a mart,
and comprised, besides the town on the coast, New Tyre, the city built
on the neighboring rocky island. In New Tyre was the sanctuary of the
tutelary god, _Melkart_. The spirit of trade stimulated
ingenuity. The Phoenicians were noted for their glass, their purple
dyes, their improved alphabet, and knowledge of the art of writing. In
mining and in casting metals, in the manufacture of cloth, in
architecture, and in other arts, they were not less proficient. From
their situation they naturally became a seafaring race. Not only did
they transport their cargoes of merchandise to the islands and shores
of the Mediterranean, conveying thither not merely the fruits of their
own industry and skill, but also the productions of the East: they
ventured to steer their vessels beyond the Strait of Gibraltar; and,
if they did not procure amber directly from the North Sea, they
brought tin either directly from Cornwall or from the Scilly
Islands. Through the hands of Phoenician merchants "passed the gold
and pearls of the East, the purple of Tyre, slaves, ivory, lions' and
panthers' skins from the interior of Africa, frankincense from Arabia,
the linen of Egypt, the pottery and fine wares of Greece, the copper
of Cyprus, the silver of Spain, tin from England, and iron from Elba."
These products were carried wherever a market could be found for
them. At the instigation of Necho, king of Egypt (610-594 B.C.), they
are said to have made a three years' voyage round the southern cape of
Africa.
COLONIES: OPULENCE.-The Phoenicians were the first great colonizing
nation of antiquity. It was the fashion of Assyrians and other
conquerors to transport to their own lands multitudes of people, whom
they carried away as captives from their homes. The Phoenicians--in
this particular the forerunners of the Greeks and of the Dutch and the
English--planted trading settlements in Cyprus and Crete, on the
islands of the Ægean Sea, in southern Spain, and in North
Africa. _Cadiz_, one of the oldest towns in Europe, was founded
by these enterprising traders (about 1100 B.C.). _Tarshish_ was
another of their Spanish settlements. "Ships of Tarshish," like the
modern "East Indiamen," came to signify vessels capable of making long
voyages. The coast of modern Andalusia and Granada belonged to the
Phoenicians. Through caravans their intercourse was not less lively
with the states on the Euphrates, with Nineveh and Babylon, as well as
with Egypt. Tyre was a link between the East and the West.
HIRAM: SETTLEMENT OF CARTHAGE.--The Tyrian power attained to its
height under King _Hiram I._, the contemporary and ally of
_Solomon_. Two Greek historians make his reign to extend from 969
to 936 B.C. The alliance with Solomon extended the traffic of Tyre,
and increased its wealth. Hiram connected old and New Tyre by a
bridge. The Tyrians adorned their city with stately palaces and
temples, and built strong fortifications. Engrossed in manufactures
and commerce, and delighting in the affluence thus engendered, the
Phoenicians were not ambitious of conquest. Although conquerors upon
the sea, they were not a martial people: like commercial states
generally, they preferred peace. Of the people of Laish (Dan), it is
said in the Book of Judges (xviii. 7), "They dwelt careless, after the
manner of the Zidonians, quiet and secure." This pacific temper was
coupled with a fervent attachment to their own land and to their
countrymen wherever they went. But they lacked the political
instinct. They did not appreciate liberty, and their love of traffic
and of gain often made them prefer to pay tribute rather than to
fight. Their colonies were factories, but were not centers of further
conquest, or germs of political communities. When, the family of
_Hiram_ was exterminated (about 850 B.C.) by the high-priest of
the goddess Astarte, who seized on power, civil strife and disorder
ensued. _Pygmalion_, the great-grandson of the high-priest, as it
is related by a Grecian authority, slew his uncle, who was to marry
Pygmalion's sister, _Elissa_. On account of this internal
conflict, and from dread of the Assyrian power, a large number of the
old families emigrated to North Africa, and founded Carthage (about
814 B.C.).
The Phoenician cities were confederated together under hereditary
kings, whose power was limited by the lay and priestly
aristocracy. The common people, many of whom were skilled artisans,
made themselves felt in some degree in public affairs. The mercantile
class were influential. Thus there was developed a germinant municipal
feeling and organization. The "strong city," Tyre, is mentioned in
_Joshua_ xix. 29. In _Isaiah_ xxiii., Tyre is described as
"the crowning city, whose merchants are princes, whose traffickers are
the honourable of the earth." "He stretched out his hand over the sea,
he shook the kingdoms." The fate of Babylon is pointed at by the
Prophet, to show what Tyre had to expect from Assyria. Later, before
the conquest by Nebuchadnezzar, _Ezekiel_ thus speaks of Tyre
(chap, xxvii.): "They have taken cedars from Lebanon to make masts for
thee." "Of the oaks of Bashan have they made thine oars." "Tarshish
was thy merchant."
RELIGION AND LETTERS.--A very prominent feature of the religion of the
Phaenicians is the local character of their divinities. The word
_baal_("lord" or "god") was not used in Phaenicia as the proper
name of any one god. But such names as _Baal-sidon_, "Lord of
Sidon," _Baal-libanon_, "God of Lebanon," etc., are
common. _Astarte_ was the most common name for the local female
divinities. The gods were often thought of as dwelling in stones,
trees, and other objects; the worship of stone-pillars and sacred
poles (_ashera_; translated "grove" in the English Bible) was
especially common in Phaenicia. On the other hand, a "god of heaven"
and a "goddess of heaven" were worshiped. In the religion of the
Phaenicians, the more elevated ingredients of the Semitic heathenism
are in the background. The sensual features of it are more prominent,
and savage elements are introduced. It was more adapted to foster than
to check lust and cruelty. To Astarte, maidens sacrifice their
chastity. There was the same double ritual, made up of gross
sensuality on the one hand, and of ascetic practices by the priesthood
on the other, that belonged to the service of Mylitta at
Babylon. Human sacrifice by fire was another horrible
feature. Children, especially, were offered to _El _("god";
possibly also called _Melek_ (Moloch), "the king," as among the
Hebrews). To appease him at Tyre and Carthage, girls and boys,
sometimes in large numbers, and of the highest families, were cast
into the flames; while the wailing of their relatives, if it was not
stifled by themselves at the supposed demand of piety, was drowned by
the sound of musical instruments. As late as 310 B.C., when Agathocles
was besieging Carthage, and had reduced the city to the direst
straits, we are told that the people laid two hundred boys of their
noblest families upon the arms of the brazen image of the god, whence
they were allowed to fall into the fire beneath. On similar occasions,
even the head of the state sometimes offered himself as a
sacrifice. _Hamilcar_, the Carthaginian, son of Hanno, in Sicily,
when the tide of battle was turning against him, threw himself into
the fire (480 B.C.). Juba, king of Numidia, prepared to do the same
after the battle of Thapsus. Large and costly temples were built,
generally in the Egyptian style. Such were the temples of
_Melkart_ at Tyre and Cadiz, of _Eshmun_ at Sidon, and of
"the Lady of Byblos" at that city. Nature--as dying in the autumn, and
again reviving in the spring--is figured as the god _Adonisz_,
who is honored first by a protracted season of mourning, and then by a
joyous festival.
The Phoenicians were not a literary people. Their alphabet (invented
by them?) was the old Semitic alphabet. Every character represented a
sound. From the Phaenicians it spread, and became the mother of most
of the graphic systems now existing. Cadmus, however, by whom it was
said to be carried to the Greeks, is a fabulous person. The alleged
history of _Sanchuniathon_, which was published in Greek by
_Philo_ of Byblus, in the second century A.D., is now generally
believed to be the work of Philo himself.
HISTORICAL EVENTS.--In the struggles against the Mesopotamian empires,
the Phaenicians defended themselves with valor and perseverance. When
_Sargon_ (722-705 B.C.) had subjugated their cities on the
mainland, insular Tyre for five years repelled his assaults, although
the conduits bringing fresh water from the shore were cut off, and the
besieged were obliged to content themselves with the scanty supply to
be gained from wells dug with great labor. Soon the Tyrian fleets
regained their mastery on the sea. When Nebuchadnezzar captured old
Tyre, and a multitude of its inhabitants shared the lot of the Jews,
and were dragged off by the conqueror to the Euphrates, the island
city withstood his attack for thirteen years, and did not yield until
it extorted from him a treaty. But the power of resistance was
weakened by the repeated invasions and domination of Nineveh and
Babylon. Tyre submitted to Persia after the downfall of the Babylonian
monarchy, and added her fleet to the Persian forces; although to the
Phoenician towns was left a degree of freedom and their local
government. Sidon, Tyre, and Arados had a council of their own, which
met with their respective kings and senators at Tripolis, for the
regulation of matters of common interest. Manufactures and commerce
continued to flourish. Under the Persian supremacy, Sidon once more
became the chief city. In the middle of the fourth century B.C., it
revolted against the tyranny of the foreign governors. The Persian
king, _Ochus_, ordered that the noblest citizens should be put to
death; whereupon the inhabitants set the city on fire, and destroyed
themselves and their treasures in the flames. Tyre remained, but
ventured to resist _Alexander the Great_, after his conquest of
the Persians, and by him was captured and partly demolished (332
B.C.). After the death of Alexander, the Phoenicians fell under the
sway of the _Seleucidæ_ at Antioch, and, for a time, of the
Egyptian _Ptolemies_. Both Tyre and Sidon were rebuilt, and
flourished anew. It is probably to the third century B.C. that we
should assign the native Sidonian dynasty which included the Kings
_Eshmunazar I., Sedek-yaton, Tabnit, Bodashtart_, and
_Eshmunazar II._, whose names are known to us from inscriptions.
In the time of the last-named king, the cities Dor and Joppa, with the
plain of Sharon, belonged to Sidon.
CARTHAGINIAN HISTORY.--The most prominent of all the Phoenician
settlements was Carthage. It had remarkable advantages of
situation. Its harbor was sufficient for the anchorage of the largest
vessels, and it had a fertile territory around it. These
circumstances, in conjunction with the energy of its inhabitants,
placed it at the head of the Phoenician colonies. In Carthage, there
was no middle class. There were the rich landholders and merchants,
and the common people. The government was practically an
oligarchy. There were two kings or judges (_Shofetes_), with
little power, and a _council_ or _senate_; possibly a second
council also. But the senate and magistrates were subordinate to an
aristocratic body, the _hundred judges_. The bulk of the citizens
had little more than a nominal influence in public affairs.
ASCENDENCY OF CARTHAGE.-When the Greeks (about 600 B.C.) spread their
colonies, the rivals of the Phoenician settlements, in the west of the
Mediterranean, Carthage was moved to deviate from the policy of the
parent cities, and to make herself the champion, protector, and
mistress of the Phoenician dependencies in all that region. Thus she
became the head of a North-African empire, which asserted its
supremacy against its Greek adversaries in Sicily and Spain, as well
as in Lybia. When Tyre was subjugated by Persia, Carthage was
strengthened by the immigration of many of the best Tyrian
families. As the Tyrian strength waned, the Carthaginian power
increased. _Syracuse_, in Sicily, became the first Greek naval
power, and the foremost antagonist of the Carthaginian dominion. In
480 B.C., Carthage made war upon the Greek cities in Sicily. The
contest was renewed from time to time. In the conflicts between
439-409 B.C., she confirmed her sway over the western half of the
island. In later conflicts (317-275 B.C.), in which _Agathocles_,
tyrant of Syracuse, was a noted leader of the Greeks, and, after his
death, _Pyrrhus_, king of Epirus, was their ally, Carthage
alternately lost and regained her Sicilian cities. But the result of
the war was to establish her maritime ascendency.
LITERATURE.--Works mentioned on pp. 16, 42: Pietschmann,
_Geschichte der Phönizier_ (1889); Rawlinson, _History of
Phoenicia_ (1889); E. Meycr, Art. _Phoenicia_ in the
_Encycl. Bibl._; Perrot & Chipiez, _History of Art in
Phoenicia and Cyprus_, 2 vols.; Renan, _Mission de Phenicie_
(1874); Meltzer, _Geschichte der Karthager_; F. W. Newman's
_Defense of Carthage_.
CHAPTER IV. THE HEBREWS.
PECULIARITY OF THE HEBREWS.--While the rest of the nations worshiped
"gods many and lords many," whom they confounded with the motions of
the heavenly bodies, or with other aspects of nature, there was one
people which attained to a faith in one God, the Creator and Preserver
of the universe, who is exalted above nature, and whom it was deemed
impious to represent by any material image. More than is true of any
other people, religion was consciously the one end and aim of their
being. To bring the true religion to its perfection, and to give it a
world-wide diffusion and sway, was felt by them to be their
heaven-appointed mission. The peculiarity of their faith made them
stand alone, and rendered them exclusive, and intolerant of the
surrounding idolatries. The mountainous character of their land,
separated by Lebanon from Phoenicia, and by the desert from the
nations on the East and South, was well adapted to the work which they
had to fulfill in the course of history.
THE PATRIARCHAL AGE.--The Israelites traced their descent from
_Abraham_, who, to escape the infection of idolatry, left his
home, which was in _Ur_ on the lower Euphrates, and came into the
land of Canaan, where he led a wandering life, but became the father
of a group of nations. According to the popular narrative,
_Isaac_, his son by _Sarah_, was recognized as the next
chief of the family; while _Ishmael_, Abraham's son by
_Hagar_, became the progenitor of the _Arabians_. Of the two
sons of Isaac, _Esau_, who was a huntsman, married a daughter of
the native people: from him sprung the _Edomites_. _Jacob_
kept up the occupation of a herdsman. Of his twelve sons,
_Joseph_ was an object of jealousy to the other eleven, by whom
he was sold to a caravan of merchants on their way to Egypt. There,
through his skill in interpreting dreams, he rose to high dignities
and honors in the court of Pharaoh; and, by his agency, the entire
family were allowed to settle oh the pasture-lands of _Goshen_ in
northern Egypt (p. 40). Here in the neighborhood of _Heliopolis_,
for several centuries, they fed their flocks. From Israel, the name
given to Jacob, they were commonly called _Israelites_. The name
_Hebrews_ was apparently derived from a word signifying "across
the river" (Euphrates); but the original application is quite
uncertain.
THE EXODUS (see p. 41).--The time came when the Israelites were no
longer well treated. A new Egyptian dynasty was on the throne. Their
numbers were an occasion of apprehension. An Egyptian princess saved
_Moses_ from being a victim of a barbarous edict issued against
them. He grew to manhood in Pharaoh's court, but became the champion
of his people. Compelled to flee, he received in the lonely region of
_Mount Sinai_ that sublime disclosure of the only living God
which qualified him to be the leader and deliverer of his brethren. A
"strong east wind," parting the Red Sea, opened a passage for the
Israelites, whom a succession of calamities, inflicted upon their
oppressors by the Almighty, had driven Pharaoh (Menephthah?) to permit
to depart in a body; but the returning waves ingulfed the pursuing
Egyptian army. "The sea covered them: they sank as lead in the mighty
waters." For a long period _Moses_ led the people about in the
wilderness. They were trained by this experience to habits of order
and military discipline. At _Horeb_, the Decalogue, the kernel,
so to speak, of the Hebrew codes, the foundation of the religious and
social life of the people, was given them under circumstances fitted
to awaken the deepest awe. They placed themselves under Jehovah as the
Ruler and Protector of the nation in a special sense. The worship of
other divinities, every form of idolatry, was to be a treasonable
offense. The laws of Jehovah were to be kept in the Ark of the
Covenant, in the "Tabernacle," which was the sanctuary, and was
transported from place to place. The priesthood was devolved on
_Aaron_ and his successors, at the side of whom were their
assistants, the _Levites_. The civil authority in each tribe was
placed in the hands of the patriarchal chief and the "elders," the
right of approval or of veto being left to the whole tribe gathered in
an assembly. The heads of the tribes, with seventy representative
elders, together with Aaron and Moses, formed a supreme council or
standing committee. On particular occasions a congregation of all the
tribes might be summoned. The ritual was made up of sacrifices and
solemn festivals. The _Sabbath_ was the great weekly
commemoration, a day of rest for the slave as well as for the master,
for the toiling beast as well as for man. Every seventh year and every
fiftieth year were sabbaths, when great inequalities of condition,
which might spring up in the intervals, respecting the possession of
land, servitude consequent on debts, etc., were removed.
Hebrew Laws.--The Israelites, in virtue of their covenant with
Jehovah, were to be a holy people, a nation of priests. They were
thus to maintain fraternal equality. There was to be no enslaving of
one another, save that which was voluntary and for a limited
time. Only prisoners not of their race, or purchased foreigners,
could be held as slaves. Every fiftieth year, land was to revert to
its original possessor. In the sabbatical years the land was not to
be tilled. What then grew wild might be gathered by all. There were
careful provisions for the benefit of the poor.
HEADS OF TRIBES.--The progenitors of the tribes, the sons of Jacob, as
given in _Exodus_, were Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar,
Zebulon, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Joseph, and Benjamin.
THE HEBREW RELIGION--Such, in brief, were the beginnings of a religion
as unique as it was elevated in its character,--a religion which stood
from the outset in mortal antagonism to the Egyptian worship of
sun-gods, and to the star-worship, the service of Baal, and of sensual
or savage divinities joined with him,--to that service which was
diffused through the Semitic nations of western Asia. A people was
constituted to be the guardian of this light, kindled in the midst of
the surrounding darkness, to carry it down to later ages, and to make
it finally, in its perfected form, the heritage of mankind.
THE PROPHETS.--_Moses_ was not only a military leader and a
legislator: he stands at the head of the _prophets_, the class of
men who at different times, especially in seasons of national peril and
temptation, along the whole course of Israelitish history, were raised
up to declare the will of Jehovah, to utter the lessons proper to the
hour, to warn evil-doers, and to comfort the desponding.
CONQUEST OF CANAAN: THE ERA OF THE JUDGES.--Moses himself did not
enter "the promised land," where the patriarchs were buried, and which
the Israelites were to conquer. According to Deut. vii. 2, a war of
extermination was commanded. The reason given for the command was that
the people must avoid the contagion of idolatry, that it was the fit
reward of the nation which they were bidden to dispossess.
The word _"Canaanite"_ was used especially to designate the
inhabitants of the coast region of Palestine. It was applied,
however, to all the tribes, who were under thirty-one ki
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