Front matter
e* f aV '^
A'
A^' N i8
Chap. VI. Rome Till The Punic Wars
Rome under Kings, 59. Tuscans — War with Porsenna, 63. Dictator
— Secession — Tribunes, 64. Spurius Cassius, and the Agrarian Law, 66. The Decemvirs and the Twelve Tables, 67. Spurius Maelius, 68. Wars anterior to the Gallic Invasion, 69. Gauls — Capture of Rome, 70. Rebuilding of the City — Manlius, 71. Licinian Rogations, 72. Samnite War — Latin War, 74. War with Pyrrhus, 75.
Chap. VII. Rome Till The Time Of The Gracchi
First Punic War, 76. Illyrian War — Gallic War, 77. Second Punic War, 78. Macedonian and Syrian Wars, 79. Conquest of Macedon
— Third Punic War, 80. Achajan War, 81 . Spanish Wars, 82.
CONTENTS.
CHAP. VIIL
ROME TILL THE END OF THE REPUBLIC.
% fie Gracchi, 83. Jugurthine War — Clmbrie War, 85. State of Rome —Social or Marsian War, 86. Mithridatic and Civil Wars, 87. From the Death of Sulla to that of Mithridates, 90. Catiline's Conspiracy — The Gallic War of Caesar, 92. Civil War of Ceesar and Pompeius, 95. Events till the Death of Caesar, 97. Civil War with Brutus and Cassius, 98. War between Octavianus and Antonius, 99.
Chap. II. The Times Of Mohammed And The First Khalifs
Mohammed, 140. First Khalifs, 144. Conquest of Syria, 145. Conquest of Persia — Conquest of Egypt, 147. Invasion of Africa, 148. Ommiyades — Conquest of Africa — Conquest of Spain, 149. Invasion of France by the Arabs, 150. France — Lombards, 151. Constantinople, 152. Germany — England, 153.
Chap. III. The Times Of Charlemagne And Haroon-ek.-rasheed
Italy, 153. Empire of Charlemagne, 155. Feudal System, 156. England — Constantinople, 158. Abbasside Khalifs, 159.
Chap. IV. Dissolution Of The Great Empires Of The East And West
Empire of Charlemagne, 162. Hungarians, 163. Northmen, 164. France — Germany — House of Saxony, 166. Italy, 168. England, 169.
CONTENTS. XI
Russia, 170. Constantinople, 171. Decline of the Arabian Empire — Africa, 172. Decline of the Arabian Empire — Asia, 173. Causes of the Decline of the Power of the Khalifs, 175. Gasnevides, 176. Spain, 177.
Chap. V. Increase Of The Papal Power
Italy — Normans, 178. Italy — Popes, 181. Italy — Lombard Citier, 184. Germany — House of Franconia — France, 185. England, 186. Spain — Constantinople — Seljookians, 188. First Crusade, 191.
THE PAPAL POWER AT ITS GREATEST HEIGHT.
Italy — Popes, 193. Italy — Lombard Cities, 196. Italy — Naples and Sicily — Germany — Swabian Line, 197. France, 200. England — Plantagenets, 201. Ireland — Spain, 204. Portugal — Almohades, 205. Persia — Saladin, 206 Mamelukes — Constantinople, 207 Crusades, 208. Mongols — Chingis Khan, 211. End of the Khalifat at Bagdad, 212.
Chap. VII. Decline Of The Papal Power, And Formation Of Great Monarchies
Italy — Popes, 213. Italy — Republics, 217. Italy — Naples and Sicily, 220. Germany, 222. Switzerland — France, 224. England— Plantagenets, 230. Wars between France and England, 235. Scotland, 239. Scandinavia, 242. Poland, 243. Hungary — Ottomans, 244. Tatars — Timoor, 247. Spain, 249. Portugal, 250. Discovery of America, 251.
Chap. I. View Of The State Of Europe
England, 255. France — Germany — Russia, Poland, Scandinavia — Switzerland and Savoy, 256. Italy, 257. League of Cambray — Spain and Portugal, 258. Turkey, 259. Persia, 260.
Chap. II. Times Of Charles V
Accession of Charles V, 261. Reformation, 262. Wars of Charles V. and Francis I., 263. Affairs of Germany, 266. Renewed War with France, 267. Affairs of Germany, 268. England, 270. Spain and Portugal — Italy, 271. Denmark and Sweden — Turkey, 273.
Chap. III. Times Of Philip II
State of Europe at Philip's Accession, 274. France, 275. Netherlands, 280. England, 284. Portugal, 286. Germany — Poland, 287. Italy, 288. Turkey, 289 '
Xll CONTENTS.
Chap. IV. Times Of The Thirty Years' War
Germany, 290. France, 295. Spain, 297. Portugal — Italy — England —The Civil War, 298. Holland, 300. Russia — Turkey and Persia, 301.
Chap. V. Times Of Louis XIV
France to the Peace of the Pyrenees, 302. England to the Restoration — Wars till the Peace of Nimeguen, 303. England to the Revolution, 307. Wars to the Peace of Ryswick, 308. England — Spanish Succession, 310. North of Europe — Peter the Great — Charles XII., 315. England, 316.
Chap. VI. Period Of Comparative Repose
England — Quadruple Alliance, 317. Russia — Turkish Wars, 319. Persia— Nadir Shah, 320.
Chap. VII. Times Of Frederic II
Silesian Wars, 321. England, 325. Russia — Seven Years' War, 326. Suppression of the Jesuits, 329. First Partition of Poland, 330. Turkish War — American Revolutionary War, 331. India — Persia, 338.
Chap. VIII. Times Of The French Revolution And Empire
State of Europe, 338. French Revolution, 341. Europe to the Peace of Campo Formio, 343. Affairs to the Assumption of the chief Power by Bonaparte, 345. Affairs till the Peace of Amiens, 346. Affairs of Europe to the Treaty of Tilsit, 347. Affairs to the Treaty of Vienna, 348. Progress of the Peninsular War, 350. Invasion of Russia, and Fall of Napoleon, 351.
Tabular View of Royal Dynasties, 359. >
Eminent Persons, 366.
Chronological View of Important Events, 369. Index, 373
Joseph brings his father to Egypt, page 24.
12iB^iPC!f*
8BliiflPISilifi^
SI^IS
Hlll^^ft«llllK
-Army o/$e Jf»«g- of Egypt destroyed in the Red Sea, page 25.
OUTLINES OF HISTORY.
Chap. I. Introduction
Of Man.
There are different races of our species occupying the various portions of the earth, and distinguished from each other incorporeal structure and in mental development. These numerous varieties are, by the ablest investigators, reduced to three principal stems, viz. the Caucasian or Europeo- Arabic* the Mongol, and the Negro or Ethiopic. The first contains the people of Asia, north and south of the great mountain range of Caucasus and its continuation to the Ganges, of Europe, and of Northern Africa ; the second, the people of Eastern Asia and of America ; the third, the tribes with woolly hair and sable skin that people the African continent. Yet many tribes can with difficulty be brought under any one of these divisions : the endless variety of Nature is as apparent in the human race as in the animal and vegetable kingdoms.
Original Seat of Man.
It is, perhaps, a useless inquiry to search after the region in which man was first placed, the paradise of his first days of innocence and happiness. The only historic clew we possess are the names of the four rivers, said in the Hebrew records to have watered the land in which the progenitors of the human race dwelt. But as no four rivers can be found on the present surface of the earth agreeing in all points with those mentioned by Moses, our safest course is to confine ourselves to the inquiry after the region where those who escaped the great inundation which overwhelmed the earth, resumed their destined course of life and occupation.
The general opinion, founded on the literal interpretation of Scripture, has long been, that at the time of the flood all
B mankind perished, save Noah and his family. Some, however, contend, that the words of the inspired writer are not to be taken so strictly, and that as his information was destined for a particular portion of mankind, it may have been only intended to instruct them in the history of the race to which they belonged, while that of other races may have been passed over in silence. Hence they would infer that we are not precluded by the Mosaic writings from supposing, that at the time of the great inundation other portions of mankind may have saved themselves in different manners and places. They therefore look to the higher regions of the earth, and find three elevated ranges in the neighborhood of the three distinct stems into which we find mankind divided. The lofty range extending from the Black Sea to the east of India has been at all times regarded as being, either itself or the lands south of it, the original seat of the Caucasian race. Still more east, beyond Tibet and the desert of Cobi, rises another range, regarded as the original seat of the Mongol race which dwells around it : and the Mountains of the Moon and their branches are thought to point out the primitive abodes of the Negro race. America, it is probable, was not, till long after, adapted for the abode of man.
These, however, are all questions of curiosity rather than of historical importance. At the dawn of all history we find the various races of mankind distinct, and no history informs us of the origin of the differences. We have therefore only to consider them in their separate states, or as intermingled with and affecting each other.
Original State of Man.
Another point which has given occasion to a good deal of ingenious conjecture, is the original state of mankind. Philosophers, on surveying the human race in its different situations, have traced out four distinct states, — those of the mere fruit and plant-eater, the hunter, the herdsman, and the cultivator, — and have generally inferred that man has progressively passed through all these states, commencing at the lowest. Yet this is still but mere conjecture, unsupported by any historic evidence. No tribe has ever yet been found to civilize itself; instruction and improvement always come to it from abroad ; and experience would rather lead to the inference, that the savage is a degeneration from the civilized life. In the very earliest history, that of the Bible, we find the pastoral and agricultural life coexisting almost from the commencement of the world; at all periods we find man possessed of the useful and necessary arts, the master of
CHAP. I. INTRODUCTION. 15
flocks and herds, the employer of the spade, the plow, and the sickle. It is in vain we seek for commencement, — all is progress. In imagination, we may conceive a time, when the human race was in the lowest degree of culture ; but, on inquiry, we everywhere meet the arts, meet men collected into societies, meet property, legislation, and government.
It may perhaps be collected from the testimony of the sacred Scriptures, and from the deductions of philosophy, that man has always existed in society, and that the first societies were families, the first form of government patriarchal : and the following may be stated as the most probable hypothesis ; namely, that man commenced his existence in the social state under the mild and gentle form of government denominated patriarchal ; that his first nourishment was the fruits of trees and plants, which ripened in abundance for the supply of his wants in some temperate and fertile region of the earth, possibly that at the south of Caucasus, or where now extends the paradisal vale of Cashmeer ; that gradually he became a keeper of flocks and herds, and a cultivator of corn ; that families spread and combined ; and that from their union arose monarchies, the most ancient form of extended civil government.
It is in this last state that we propose to consider mankind, and to trace the great and important events that have taken place among the various stems and branches of the human race ; to show how, beneath the guiding energy of the Creator and Ruler, the great machine of human society has proceeded on its way, at times advancing, at times apparently retrograding, in the path of perfection and happiness. And the final result of our view of the deeds and destinies of man will, we trust, be a firm conviction in the mind of every reader that private and public felicity is the result alone of good education, wise laws, and just government, and that all power which is not based on equity is unstable and transient.
It is to the Caucasian race that the history of the world must mainly confine itself, for with that race has originated almost all that ennobles and dignifies mankind: it is the chief depository of literature, and the great instructor of philosophical, political, and religious systems. We shall restrict ourselves, therefore, chiefly to the history of that race, briefly premising views of the state and character of the ^Ethiopians, the Mongols, and the Indians.
JEthiopians.
We have already observed, that under this name are included all the inhabitants of Africa whose bodily conformation does not prove them to be of the Caucasian race. The indefiniteness of the term JEthiopian employed by the Greeks, and applied by them to all people of a dark complexion, and the similar indefiniteness of the Hebrew Cush, prevent our being- able positively to say whether the obscure traditions of the ./Ethiopian power extending along the Mediterranean to the straits of Gades, and of that people having, under their king Tearcho, made themselves so formidable to the inhabitants of the coasts of the iEgean, are to be understood of a purely Negro empire, or of, what is much more probable, a state like that of Egypt, where the lower orders of society were of Negro, the higher and dominant classes of Caucasian race. Within the historic period of both ancient and modern times, the ^Ethiopian race only appears as furnishing slaves for the service of the Caucasian, to whom it has been always as inferior in mental power as in bodily configuration. Though modern travel has discovered within the torrid wastes of Africa large communities ruled over by Negro princes, and a knowledge of many of the useful arts, yet civilization and policy have never reared their heads in the ungenial clime. As literature has never been theirs, whatever revolutions may have taken place among them are buried in oblivion, and they claim no station of eminence in the history of the world.
f The Chinese.
The Mongols stand far higher in the scale of intellect and in importance than the ^Ethiopians. As we proceed, we shall find them striking terror into Europe by their arms and their numbers. One nation of this race, the Chinese, has long been an object of curiosity to the western world, from its extent of empire and the singularity of its social institutions.
The Chinese empire occupies an extent of surface equal to that of all Europe, containing within it every variety of soil and climate, and natural production ; thus rendering it in itself perfectly independent of all foreign aid. In its social institutions it has presented through all periods a model of the primitive form of government, the patriarchal, and an exemplification of the evil of continuing it beyond its just and necessary period. In China all is at a stand-still ; succeeding ages add not to the knowledge of those that have gone before ; no one must presume to be wiser than his fathers : around the Son of Heaven, as they designate their emperor, assemble the learned of the land as his council; so in the provinces the learned in their several degrees around the governor; and laws and rules are passed from the highest down to the lowest, to be by them given to the people. Every,
CHAP. I. INTRODUCTION. 17
even the most minute, circumstance of common life is regulated by law. It matters not, for example, what may be the wealth of an individual, he must wear the dress and build his house after the mode prescribed by ancient regulations. In China every thing bears the stamp of antiquity: immovableness seems to be characteristic of the nation ; every implement retains its primitive rude form ; every invention has stopped at the first step. The gradual progress towards perfection of the Caucasian race is unknown in China ; the plow is still drawn by men ; the written characters of their monosyllabic language stand for ideas, not for simple sounds ; and the laborious task of learning to read occupies the time that might be employed in the acquisition of valuable knowledge. Literature has been at all periods cultivated by a nation where learning (such as it is) is the only road to honor and dignity, and books beginning with the five Kings of Con-futsee, which equal the four Vedas of India in the honor in which they are held, have at all times been common in this empire. A marked feature in the Chinese character is the absence of imagination : all is the product of cold reason. The Kings speak not of a God, and present no system of religion : every thing of that nature in China came from India. The uncertain history of China ascends to about 2500 years before the Christian era; the certain history commences about eight centuries before Christ. According to Chinese tradition, the founders of the state, a hundred families in number, descended from the mountains of Kulcum, on the lake of Khukhunor, north-west of China; and hence the middle provinces of Chensee, Leong, Honan, &c. were the first seats of their cultivation. These provinces are in the same climate as Greece and Italy. Twenty-two dynasties of princes are enumerated as having governed China to the present day, the actual emperor being the fifth monarch of the twenty-second or Tai Tsin dynasty. Of these dynasties, one of the most remarkable is the Song, which ruled over the southern empire at the time China was divided into two, and fell beneath the arms of the Yver or mingled nomadic tribes, led to conquest by the descendants of Chingis Khan. This line, which reigned from A. D. 960 to 1280, distinguished itself by the encouragement of the arts and sciences ; it cultivated relations with Japan, fostered trade and commerce, and in all things went contrary to the established maxims of Chinese policy, and while it lasted the empire bloomed beneath its sway ; but the hordes of the desert levelled its glories, and its fate has been ever since held up as an awful warning to those who venture to depart even a hair's breadth
B2 from the ancient manners. At an earlier period, under the dynasty of Tsin (248—206 B. C), China first received religion from India ; but the missionaries were not artful or prudent enough to adapt it to Chinese maxims of state, and they were unsuccessful in the contest between them and the learned. At a later period, when the Buddhism of India had become the Lamaism of Tibet, it entered China as the religion of Foe, and by the worldly prudence of its bonzes or priests, succeeded in gaining a favorable reception and becoming the religion of the state. Every thing that hopes for success in this country must fall in with the national character. China has often been overcome, and its reigning dynasty changed ; but the manners and institutions of China remain unaltered, as different from those of the Caucasian race as the features of the Chinese face are from those of the European.
India.
From the Chinese, a nation of cold reason, almost no religion, monosyllabic, unharmonious language, and literature full of events and valuable matter, we pass to their neighbors of India, whom every thing but color indicates to belong to the same family with the Europeans. Here we find glowing fancy, and in Brahmanism a luxuriant system of religion, a majestic and richly inflected language, and a literature full to exuberance of the highest poetry. But India has no history or chronology of its own, and it is in the time of the Persian kings that it first appears in the history of the world. Yet the testimony of antiquity, its proximity to the original land of the Caucasian race, and the primitive character of its social institutions, prove it to be one of the most ancient nations of the earth.
In India, religion and priestly influence have effected what law and tradition have produced in China — the absolute prostration of the intellect of the nation. The system of castes sets a bar to all ambition and to all energy. No development of mind can take place where every man's station in life is immutably marked out for him. The nation presents at the present day the same spectacle which excited the wonder of the Greeks who accompanied Alexander ; an immense, gentle, and peaceful population ; abundance of wealth ; all the useful, necessary, and ornamental arts of life ; a manifold, intricate system of religion, abounding in rites and ceremonies, many of them of the most lascivious character.
Like China, India is an instance of the fatal effect of checking the free development of mind : here, too, every thing is
CHAP. I. CENTRAL AND WESTERN ASTA. 19
stationary. The love of country is a feeling- unknown to the breast of the inhabitants, and India has been at all periods the easy prey of every invader whom its wealth attracted. Omitting- the fabulous expeditions of Sesostris and Semiramis, the earliest account we have of a conquest of any part of this country is of that by Cyrus and Darius I., kings of Persia; next Alexander the Great with ease overthrew a]l that opposed him, and, but for the refusal of his troops, would have planted his standards on the banks of the Ganges. Seleucus Nicator ruled over the provinces conquered by Alexander, reached in conquest the banks of the Jumnah, and subdued a large portion of Bengal. When the feeble successors of Seleucus had lost their power over other subject nations, their vicegerents were still obeyed during a period of 60 years by a great part of India. A hundred and twenty years after the death of Alexander, Antiochus the Great invaded and conquered a considerable portion of India ; and when he was overcome by the Romans, all his possessions west of the Indus fell to Euthydemus, the Grecian sovereign of Bactria, and India cheerfully obeyed him. He was unable to effect the succession of his son Demetrius in Bactria ; but over the Indian provinces that prince reigned without opposition. Eucratides, the fifth of the Grseco-Bactrian kings, reunited to Bactria the Indian possessions, and every succeeding- reigningline in Persia had dominions in India, till it was eventually overrun and occupied by Mohammedan conquerors. For the last thousand years it has been the prey of every foreign spoiler. . Thus India seems destined never to enjoy national independence : her countless millions doomed for ever to bow beneath a foreign sceptre, she stands an instructive monument of the evils resulting from fettered intellect and priestly dominion.
Chap. II. The Ancient States Of Central And Western Asia
Bactria.
According to the traditions of hoary antiquity preserved in the sacred books of the Parsees, and in the Shah Nameh, the immortal poem of Ferdoosee, there existed in the most remote ages, with sacerdotal institutions akin to those of India, & mighty and extensive empire in Bactria or Eastern Persia. Grecian writers confirm this account, and it is farther proved by the route of the Caucasian race, who, in their progress along the mountains, must have been attracted by these fertile regions, abounding in every production, protected by lofty impassable mountains to the north, and bordering on the realms of India and Babylonia. The branch of the Caucasian stem, called the Indo-Persian race, spread over Iran, the country between Babj^lonia and India. Its chief seat was Bactria. Here, according to Persian tradition, ruled Cayumarath, the first of men, or of kings, and his descendants, till Jemsheed was overthrown by the Aramaean Zohak. The system of religion named from Zoroaster prevailed in Bactria, and the sacerdotal caste stood in rights and privileges nearly on a par with the Bramins of India, who, probably, possessed originally a similar institution. The idolatrous Aramaean priesthood united itself with that of Bactria ; but when the Aramaean or Babylonian dominion sank, and the Iranian revived in the person of Feridoon, the old religion recovered its dominion. Changes of dynasty affected it not; it passed to the Medes and Persians, and still was flourishing when the disciples of Mohammed extinguished it in blood ; and it yet lingers among the Parsees of India, the descendants of those who sought refuge in that country from persecution. But the simple religion of Zoroaster, which worshipped under the emblem of light and fire the Author of life and happiness, had not the debasing effects of the intricate idolatry and metaphysics of India ; and if Iran fell beneath foreign conquerors, the fault was not in her system of religion.
Babylon arid Assyria.
We now begin to tread on more solid ground, for in the earliest portion of the far most credible ancient history, that of the Hebrews, we observe a recognition of the empires of Babylon and Assyria. From them, too, we may infer, that Babylon was the more ancient, for the city of that name is mentioned at a time while the Hebrews were still in the nomadic state. We hear not till long after of Nineveh, the Assyrian capital on the Tigris.
The Babylonians dwelt on the Tigris and the Lower Euphrates, and their industry had made their land the garden of Asia. They were a peaceful people, as is shown by their manufactures, and their provisions for watering their lands. Herodotus describes them as a luxurious trafficking people, fond of splendid dress and ornaments. Various dynasties of kings of the surrounding nations are related to have ruled in Babylon. This wealthy state must have been at all times ex
CHAP. II. CENTRAL AND WESTERN ASIA. 21
posed to the incursions of the nomadic tribes that surrounded it, and sometimes conquered by them. The city is stated to have been built in the most remote ages by the god Bel, and to have been enlarged and adorned by Semiramis, probably also a mythic personage. In the historic period, we find it farther improved and adorned by Nebuchadnezzar and the queen Nitocris. The reign of Nebuchadnezzar was the most brilliant period of Babylon. He ruled from the foot of Caucasus to the deserts of Libya. Judsea, Phoenicia, Egypt, all the tribes of the desert, did homage to his power. But the glory was transient: in the reign of his son the Babylonian dominion sank, never to rise, beneath the arms of the Medes and Persians.
The Assyrian empire on the Tigris and the Upper Euphrates, rose much later than the Babylonian, which it subdued, but which under the father of Nebuchadnezzar cast off the yoke, and attained the power we have just described. Of the Assyrian history little is known.
A caste of priests named Chaldeans, distinguished for their knowledge of the order and courses of the heavenly bodies, the objects of Babylonian worship, was to be found here ; but the early establishment of despotism permitted not a division of the people into any other castes. These Chaldeans were divided into several orders under a head appointed by the king. Birth was not a necessary qualification for admittance into their body. We find (as in the case of Daniel) Jews placed in the highest rank among them. They derived their support from lands assigned to them. The nature of the occupations of the Babylonians made a race of men of importance, who pretended to a knowledge of the ways of the gods, who measured the land, marked the seasons, and announced the hours of good and evil fortune : yet almost all their boasted wisdom was mere jugglery and deceit,
Egypt*
The valley watered by the Nile, and inclosed between the desert on the west, and barren mountains on the east, was the seat of one of the earliest and most renowned empires of which we have any record remaining. A branch of the Caucasian race, it would appear, crossed the strait of Bab-el-Mandeb. It mastered the ^Ethiopians whom it met, and founded an empire on the system of castes in Nubia ; then advanced with the stream, and established that of Upper Egypt ; and,
* Egypt, though properly in Africa, has been included in this chapter, to avoid needless subdivision.
lastly, spread over Lower Egypt and the Delta now formed by the Nile. But this was long- anterior to the commencement of history. So early as the days of Abraham, Lower Egypt was the seat of a rich, flourishing, and civilized state.
The turn of mind of this branch of the Caucasian stem was similar to that of the branch which established itself in India. Hence some have needlessly supposed that one country was colonized by the other. Here, as in India, the priestly caste enjoyed high power and privileges. .They were the depositories of all arts and sciences ; they not only were the directors of the employments of life, but possessed the awful office of judges of the dead, who were brought before their tribunal ere consigned to the tomb ; and by numerous practices and ceremonies, they for ever kept the idea and the fear of death before the eyes of the people. Their own religious system, known to the initiated alone, was perfectly simple : what they taught the people in symbol and figure was complex, obscene, and degrading. Independence was secured to the sacerdotal order by the immunity of their lands from imposts.
Yet priestly sway never attained the same height here as in India. Egypt was a conquered country, and numerous tribes of nomades and other classes, who never completely amalgamated with the conquerors, roamed the land, sometimes independent, sometimes obedient. Hence the king- was in a great measure independent of the priests. The history of Joseph informs us, that the king had a fifth of the produce of the land, and, as in the case of this minister, could appoint a stranger and an uninitiated person to the highest office of the state, and give him in marriage the daughter of the high priest. We therefore read of internal tumults and foreign wars, the fabulous expeditions of Sesostris, the real campaigns against Judsea and more distant powers. Arabian and Nubian monarchs have ruled over Egypt ; it fell before the Babylonian, Persian, Grecian, and Roman power, yet the castes, as in India, subsisted through every shock.
Where the system of castes prevails, the inferior castes are always of a peaceful, industrious character. Each person's walk of life being marked out for him, he pursues it with the regularity and mechanism of mere matter. All we learn of ancient Egypt corresponds with this principle : the narrowness and fertility of the land caused an excessive population ; agriculture could employ but a small portion of the people; the sedentary arts were therefore cultivated to a great extent, and the division of labor was carried almost beyond any thing similar in modern times. The accounts we
The opening of the book is shown; the full text loads in the reader.
Loading the full text…
The end
You’ve reached the end of Lardner's outlines of universal history: embracing a concise history of the world, from the earliest period to the present time ... With questions for examination of students ... Illustrated by with forty-nine engravings on wood, by Atherton, Parmelee, and others.
