First steps in general history. A suggestive outline

Front matter

Qass ^j^i

PRESENTED Wf

FIRST STEPS

Preface

HE object of this Suggestive Outline of General History is to stimulate the student to make thorough investigations, and at the same time to furnish a guide which shall indicate the general path to be pursued.

Each country is taken up separately, and its history sketched before attention is turned from it, thus fixing the mind upon but one subject at a time.

Views of contemporary events are given in tables that establish the historical connection of the na tions ; and maps, that are purposely free from details, exhibit the geographic relations of the countries. The Index will be found of service in tiacing the progress of great movements that have affected more countries than one.

The dates between commas, following proper names, indicate the years of birth and death of the person mentioned.

iv Preface.

It is hoped that those using this book will find it practicable to associate with it the study of biography, geography, and literature, by causing the lives of the chief actors upon the stage at given times, and the epochs themselves, to be made the subjects of themes by the pupil.

By thus making the Gracchi, Peter the Hermit, the Children's Crusade, the Wars of the Roses, Dundee of Claverhouse, the Campbells of Argyle, Oliver Cromwell, Prince Eugene, George Washington, the subjects of essays, the pupil may be taught to look more minutely into topics that can be merely hinted at in an outline. The study of history may thus be made one of the most interesting and entertaining in the whole curriculum.

In carrying out such a plan the books mentioned in the Bibliography^ at the end of this volume, will prove important aids.

The history of the United States will be found to be more detailed than in text-books prepared by foreigners.

The author has aimed at an impartial presentation of every subject treated.

Cambridge, Massachusetts, February, 1874.

Table Of Contents

PAGB

Preface iii

Chap. I. Definition of Terms i Aryan and Semitic Races 3

Six Great Ancient Monarchies 4

II. A Branch of the Semitic Race 7

The Hebrew Kings 9

Revolt of the Ten Tribes 10

Judea conquered 14

III. Greece 16

The Trojan War 18

Principal Cities 19

Persian Wars 23

Age of Pericles 27

Peloponnesian War 28

Conquest by Macedonia 30

Greek Civilization 32

IV. Rome 33

Punic Wars * 38

Macedonian Wars 42

Universal Empire 43

The Triumvirates 48

Decline of Rome 53

Fall of Rome 57

V. The Middle Age 58

Rise of Feudalism 5^

The Feudal System described 61 vi Contents.

VI. The Middle Age , 63

Character of Chivalry 63

The Crusades 65

Council of Clermont 71

Influence of the Crusades 79

VII. Italy 81

Early History 82

Rise of Cities. 86

Guelfs and Ghibellines 86

Revival of Letters » 91

Napoleon's Campaigns 93

Spirit of Revolution 94

VIII. Germany, before 1254 98

Migration of Nations loi

Carlovingian Dynasty 105

Saxon Dynasty 1 10

Franconian Dynasty ill

Hohenstaufen Dynasty 115

IX. Germany, from the end of the Hohenstaufen Dynasty 121

Switzerland 122

Hussite Wars 124

House of Austria 125

The Reformation 127

League of Smalcald 13 1

Thirty Years' War 133

Austria 134

Napoleon's Wars 137

Slesvig-Holstein 139

Prussia 139

%.. France as a Feudal Monarchy 147

Early History 148

Carlovingian Dynasty 150

The Normans .... 151

House of Capet 154

House of Valois 162

Contents. vii

The Hundred Years' War 163

The Maid of Orleans 167

XI France, FROM 15 15 TO 1874 170

House of Valois, continued 170

The Vaudois I73

House of Bourbon I77

Louis XIV 181

War of the Fronde 182

War of the Spanish Succession 185

National Assembly 19°

The Directory 193

The Empire revived by Napoleon 1 196

The Bourbons restored 19^

The House of Orleans 200

The Empire revived by Napoleon III 203

XII. Spain 207

Nationality begun 210

War in the Netl^rlands 215

Belgium 217

War of the Spanish Succession 219

War with Napoleon 1 22c

Amadeus 225

XIII. Scandinavia, Holland, Russia, and Switzerland. 226

Denmark and Sweden 227

Gustavus Adolphus ^ 228

Charles X 231

Oscar II 234

Denmark 234

Holland 236

Poland dismembered 240

Wars of Napoleon 241 viii Contents.

Crimean War , 243

Switzerland 243

XIV. Great Britain, previous to 1485 246

The Roman Age 251

The Saxon Period 253

England Proper 255

The Danes 256

The Saxons restored 258

The Normans 259

The Plantagenets 263

Magna Charta 264

The House of Lancaster 269

The Maid of Orleans 270

The House of York 272

X\ Great Britain, from 1485 to 1874 752

The House of Tudor 275

The Reign of Elizabeth 284

The House of Stuart 287

America settled 288

The Commonwealth 290

The House of Stuart restored 291

The Revolution of 1688 293

The House of Brunswick 297

Wars with the United States 299

The Peninsular War 300

The Reign of Victoria 302

The Crimean War 304

The Conference at Geneva 307

XVI. The United States of America 308

Discovery and Colonization 310

The Aborigines 314

Early Settlements 314-326

XVII. The United States of America 327

Indian Wars 327

King William's War, 1689-1697 328

Contefits. ix

King George's War, 1 744-1 748 332

tiench and Indian War, 1 754-1 763 333

The Revolutionary War, 1 775-1 783 335

Tea taxed 338

Correspondence between the Colonies 339

The Old Continental Congress 339

Lexington and Concord 341

XVIII. The United States of America...' 342

Washington Commander-in-Chief 342

Richard Henry Lee's Resolutions 343

Declaration of Independence 344

Independence acknowledged by France .... 345

The War in the South 346

Independence acknowledged by Great Britain 348

The Constitution framed 348

Washington's Administration 350

List of Presidents and States 351

The War of 1812 353

The Monroe Doctrine 355

Strife between the North and South 356

Nullification 356

The Mexican War 358

The Discovery of Gold in California 359

The Missouri Compromise repealed 360

Secession of Eleven States 361

Civil War 363

Peace and New National Life 365

INDKH: 377

MAPS AND CHRONOLOGICAL TABLES.

Table of Ancient Chronology .

Map of Ancient Greece ....

Map of the Roman Empire .

Table of Modern Chronology Map of Europe (The positions of the Barbarians being indicated in red) Map of Britain .to face p. 246 to face p.

to face p.

to face p.

to face p.

FIRST STEPS IN GENERAL HISTORY.

CHAPTER I. DEFINITIONS OF TERMS j AND PRELIMINARY RE- MARKS

HE word History is of Greek origin, signifying in that language a learning or knowing by inquiry, and in English a record of past events. Since the world was created by God, and has always been governed by Him, it follows that the record of History must exhibit the devel^ opment of His plans. In order to do this it must not only present facts, but must show their relations to each other, and their mutual influence.

The records of History may take the form of Biography^ which is the history of the life of a person j of Annals, in which events are arranged in chronological order under consecutive years ; of Chronicles, in which events are narrated simply in the order of their occurrence ; or of Memoirs^ which are composed from personal experience.

Man can hardly live in a civilized state without

2 Definitions of Terms,

H fstory, for it is involved in all studies, and is one of the first-fruits of his spiritual nature. As simple narrative it is entertaining to the feeblest intellect, and, as it investigates and weighs motives as well as deeds, it requires a calm and impartial spirit, and giv^es opportunity for the exercise of the strongest mind and the most trained imagination. It is adapted to please, instruct, and make better the one that pursues it, for while many of its passages are more exciting and wonderful than the strangest fiction, moral and elevating lessons may be drawn from every page.

There must be a motive behind all human action, and it is a token of the nobility of mankind that thoughts of profit and loss are not and never have been the most potent influences in the historic movements of the world ; but that the grand exciting agents, leading to deep, thorough, all-pervading efforts, have always been invisible and infinite. We find that religion was the incentive of the Crusades, of the Reformation, of the English Revolution ; and that thoughts of right, freedom, and country inspired the patriots who threw themselves into the Revolutions of France and America.

We intend to get in this volume only our first and most general ideas of the history of the world, and we shall be obliged to restrict our attention mainly to those portions that are of the greatest interest to ourselves. As individuals of the English-speaking people, we a^e naturally attracted towards

The Aryan and Semitic Races. 3

the history of those nations that have places in the lineage of the English race.

The Aryan and Semitic Races. — At a remote period in the past, two great races appeared on " the vast table-lands of Central Asia, the two great races to whose existence is due all, or nearly all which makes man most distinctively man." They were " the stately, thoughtful Semitic race, to which belong within but a few days' journey such volcanic centres of religious enthusiasm, as Mecca, Sinai, Jerusalem, and to which it was given to express forever the most unfathomable depths of religious emotion and the loftiest heights of holy aspiration ; and the noble, ever-progressing Aryan race, the progenitor of Persian and Pelasgian, and Celt and Teuton the discoverer of well-nigh every thing which is great and beneficent in the arts of w^ar and peace ; the race from whose bosom came Charlemagne and Alfred, Dante and Shakespeare, Michael Angelo and Raphael, Newton and Descartes; the parent in the modern world of the metaphysical subtlety of Germany, and the vivid intelligence of France, and the Imperial energy of England, the parent in the ancient world of the lofty spiritualism of India, ' of the glory that was Greece, and the grandeur that was Rome.' " ^

In these eloquent words we have brought before us two of the great races of the world, with theii distinctive traits. The Semitic is named for Shem

1 Farrar's Families of Speech^ pp. 4, 5.

4 Definitions of Terms.

the son of Noah, and embraces about forty millions of men at the present time. It is represented in history by the inhabitants of Syria and Mesopotamia, of Phenicia and Canaan ; and of Arabia and a portion of Africa.

The Aryan race receives its name from a Sanskrit word meaning " noble," by which the Hindoos indicate themselves in their most ancient writings, the Vedas, and which is preserved in the modern native name of Persia, Airan or Iran. This race is represented by the inhabitants of India, Persia, Greece, Great Britain, Italy, Spain, France, Portugal, Russia, Germany, Holland, Denmark, Sweden, Iceland, Norway, and by most of the people of America, there being some four hundred millions of them now on the globe.

These two great races have always been antagonistic to each other, and in the contests the Aryans have almost invariably triumphed.

Of the Semitic race but one member has left to us a literature. The Hebrew nation was intrusted with the preservation of the inspired books of the Bible, which give to man his knowledge of the one true God, the faith of Judaism, Islamism, and Christianity, and of these three religions only. For this r<]ason, though the history of the Aryan race is our own, that of the Semitic possesses an unique interest and a value that we cannot overestimate.

The Six Great Ancient Monarchies. — Before considering more particularly the history of the

The Six Great Monarchies. 5

Semitic races, a few words are necessary with reference to the " Six Great Monarchies of the Ancient World," which are mentioned by historical writers. These were Babylonia, Assyria, Chaldea, Media, Persia, and Parthia.

Babylonia appears in the Bible as the " Plains of Shinar," and its chief city is said to have been founded by the mighty hunter Nimrod about 2247 B. C. A century or more later, the city of Nineveh, the capital of Assyria, was founded by Ninus, who conquered the Babylonians. The Assyrian empire ended with the fall of Sardanapalus, who was overcome by the Medes about 840 b. c.

Chaldea was the name of the south-west portion of ancient Babylonia, bordering on Arabia, a district comprising the most fertile plains of that country. It was the ancestral home of the patriarch Abraham, who went forth to the westward from " Ur of the Chaldees.'*' This people became masters of Babylon about 747 b. c. They were remarkable for their astronomical wisdom, and for the observations made for many centuries at the temple of Belus. Their fall occurred when Babylon, " the golden city," was destroyed by the Medes under Cyrus, 538

B. C.

Media was a province of Assyria which revolted and became independent about 875 b. c, though the exact date is probably not known. Its separate existence terminated 558 b. C, when it was united to Persia by Cyrus.

6 Definitions of Terms.

Persia^ the Elam of the Bible, was settled by people who came in the great Aryan emigration from beyond the Indus, and were subdued by the Assyrians in the ninth century before Christ. Cyrus became their ruler about 558 b. c. as stated above. Alexander the Great overcame the Persians in several battles, and made it a Grecian monarchy b. c. 331. Native tradition makes Zoroaster, the author of the Zend-Avesta, the founder of the religion of Iran, and the first king about 2200 B. c, though there is much dispute about the dates that have been asaociated with the sage's name.

Parthia was a country near the Caspian Sea in Western Asia. Its people claimed to be of Scythian origin, their name meaning "exiles," though modern writers think them directly connected with the Iranian tribes. They became subjected to the Persians. In the year 53 B. c. a Roman army under Crassus invaded Parthia, and was defeated. The Parthians disappeared from history as a warlike people A. D. 226.

ANCIENT CHRONOLOGY,

Hburew Nation.

jao. Ten Tribes disappear.

Isaiah the Prophet.

Joel the Prophet.

Habakkuk. 598. Jerusalem taken by

Nebuchadnezzar. ?86. Babylonish Captivity.

Daniel the Prophet.

Nehemiah the Prophet.

Malachi died during the 4th century. ^3«. Alexander the Great was in Jerusalem.

170, Jerusalem taken by Antiochus.

166. Mattathia and Judas Maccabeus gained Jewish freedom.

63. Judea becomes a Roman province.

Roman Colony.

The Advent. 70. Destruction of Jerusalem by Titus.

I -50. Jerusalem rebuilt by Hadrian, and called .^lia (. jpitolina.

Greece.

776. Olympian games. 743. ist Messenian War. 685. 2d Messenian War. 621. The code of Draco.

594. Solon archon at Athens. 510. Pisistratus banished-

490. Battle of Marathon. 480. Thermopylas. 479. Battle of Plat.^a. 464. 3d Messenian War. 431. Peloponnesian War. 429. Death of Pericles.

399. Elean War.

395. Corinthian War

380. Olynthian War.

37S. Theban War.

362. Battle of Mantineia.

335. Alexander subdued Athens, and destroyed Thebes.

251. Achaean League was revived.

146. Corinth destroyed.

Greece a Roman Province.

c. 21. Augustus visited Greece.

52. St. Paul in Corinth. [22. Hadrian visited

Greece.

Greece invaded Alaric.

by

ROMB-

578. Servius Tullius. 534. Tarquin the Proud. 509, Tarquins expelled.

496. Battle of Lake Rigil lus.

Cincinnatus dictator The Twelve Tables established.

Military tribunes aoated.

391. Gauls invaded Rome. 387. Gauls burned Rome. 343. Samniau War began.

.265. I St Punic War. 222. Battle of Telanion. 218. 2d Punic War. 214. ist Macedonian War 202. Battle of Zama. 200. 2d Macedonian War 172. 3d Macedonian War. 168. Battle of Pydna. 149. 3d Punic War. 146. Carthage destroyed. 134. ist Servile War. 102. 2d Servile War.

90. Social War.

88. ist Pontian War.

86. 2d Pontian War.

74. 3d Pontian War.

73. 3d Servile War.

60. First Triumvirate-

48. Battle of Phars^lus.

A. D. 14. Augustus died.

37. Tiberius died.

79. Vespasian died

138. Hadrian died-

180. Marcus Aurelius died.

364. Empire divided.

402. Alaric invaded Italy,

410. Sacked Rome.

421 Genseric in Africa.

451. Attila defeated at Chalons.

455. Vandals at Rome.

476. Odoacer overthrew the Empire of Ron].e.

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CHAPTER IT.

A BRANCH OF THE SEMITIC RACE.

HE most complete history of a people of the Semitic race is that of the Hebrews, contained in the Bible, generally called sacred his!\)ry. It is a remarkable record — in fact the most wc ^^derful the world has ever known. It is an inspirev' picture of religious patriotism, showing the passiv nate enthusiasm of a comparatively insignificant commonwealth for independence and the preservation of its national existence, an enthusiasm based upon its God-given law, and its thrilling history.

Such a people would be interesting in the highest degree without the extraordinary circumstances that render the history of the Hebrews unique and precious. To them belongs the distinction of having given the world its Saviour, whose Advent marks the Era in history from which all events now date.

The Bible, constituting, as we have seen, the only specimen of Semitic literature, is the source of our earliest information of this people. It takes us back to " the beginning," tracing the simple pas-

8 A Branch of the Semitic Race.

toral lives of the father of our race and his de scendants of many generations, but omitting all details that are not necessary to its religious purpose. On its pages we read of the pure pleasures of Adam and Eve when

" High in Paradise O'er the four rivers the first roses blew,"

and we see them drop their first tears as their sin banishes them from what might have been their perpetual home.

Following the simple history, we find Abram, the son of Terah, about 2000 years before the Advent, coming with Sarai, his wife, from the plains of Mesopotamia, on the eastern side of the Euphrates, to the land of Canaan or Palestine. His descendants herded their fruitful flocks on the rich pastures of the land of promise through their long lives, until, by invitation of Pharaoh, they pitched their tents in the valley of the Nile.

The story of their wonderful increase in Egypt, of the death of Joseph, the suffering and slavery that followed, the deliverance of the entire nation by Moses, the most remarkable leader of the world, and of their forty years' wandering through the wilderness before they were again settled in their old home, is too well known by the youngest to be enlarged upon here.

It was about 1430 b. c. that the delivered nation of some ♦,o()o.ooo souls was settled in Palestine,

having received from God at the hand of Moses a law. which in its moral and religious parts is as well adapted to the wants of men now as it was then. Serving one God and governed by His law and will as interpreted by His priests of the orders instituted bv Moses, the Hebrews lived until the days of Samuel, the first of the prophets, when they demanded a king, in order that they might be hke the nations about them. After the death of Moses, Joshua led the people, and the two or three centuries after his death are marked by heroic struggles with Moabites, Ammonites, Amalekites, and Philistines, during which the people were governed by judges, of whom were Deborah, Gideon Jephthah, and Samson. '

The Hebrew Kings. - The first king, Saul, was anomted by the prophet Samuel, and, after a stormy reign of forty years, was succeeded by his son-in-law, David, who was a mighty warrior. He was the greatest king who ever ruled the nation, and reigned from 1058 b. c. to 1018 b. c, when he was succeeded by his youngest son, Solomon. Solomon was a man of great wisdom and wealth, of noble and far-reaching intellect, large and ready sympathies, joined to a fascinating, graceful, and noble presence that impressed all who came near him. rnheriting a well organized kingdom and a firmly established throne, and being endowed with powers adapted to improve all opportunities of achieving commercial greatness, he brought his people to the lO A Branch of the Semitic Race,

highest position they ever reached among the na« tions. He built the great Temple, erected costly palaces for his accommodation, and made silver ir Jerusalem as stones. When he went from his hall of judgment to the Temple he marched between two lines of soldiers, each with a burnished shield of gold. If he went on a royal progress it was in snow-white raiment, riding in a stately chariot of cedar decked with silver and gold and purple and carpeted with the costliest tapestry worked by the daughters of Jerusalem. A body-guard attended him composed of "three-score valiant men," the tallest and handsomest of the sons of Israel in the freshness of their youth, arrayed in Tyrian purple, their long black hair sprinkled every day with gold dust. Forty thousand stalls of horses for his chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen, added to his magnificence.^

The reigns of David and Solomon, ending 978 B. c, constitute the Golden Age of Hebrew history, one showing the greatest progress in the arts of war, the other in the arts of peace. These kings are both authors of books of the Bible — the Psalms of David and the Proverbs of Solomon being each unique in its character among the other parts of Scripture.

The Revolt of the Ten Tribes. — The mag- Tiificence and extravagance of the reign of Solomon were followed by disaster. The ten tribes of Israel 1 Prof. Plumtre in Smith's Bible Dictionary,

Revolt of the Ten Tribes. II

revolted from under the government of his son and successor, Rehoboam, and established the kingdom of Israel under Jeroboam. Nineteen kings ruled the tribes of Israel from that time until 720 b. c, when the country was conquered by Salmanasar, king of Assyria, and the mass of the people was carried captive into the mountainous regions 0/ Media, completely disappearing from history.

After the death of Solomon twenty kings ruled the kingdom of Judah, lintil the year 586 b. c, when Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon stormed Jerusalem, burned the Temple, and took the wealthiest and most important of the inhabitants captives to his own dominion. The Babylonish captivity was seventy years in duration. Most of the Jews settled down and acquired property, many were called to court, and some were raised to high positions in the state. Still there were those who *'hanged their harps upon the willows," ^ wept when they remembered Zion, and poured forth their lamentations in the words of Jeremiah, —

" Remember^ O Lord, what is come upon us ; consider, and behold our reproach, our inheritance is turned to strangers, our houses to aliens. We are orphans and fatherless, our mothers are as tvidows."

" We have given the hand to the Egyptians, and to the Assyrians, to be satisfied with bread. ^^

" The joy of our heart is ceased ; our dance is turned into mournifig."

1 PFalm cxxxvii.

12 A Branch of the Semitic Race.

" Turn thou unto us, O Lord, and 7ve shall be turned ; reneiiu our days as of old "

The prophet who gave these words to the people's sorrowing feelings did not go to Babylon, but retired to Egypt. Ezekiel, however, raised his mysterious prophetic voice among the mourning captives, confirming the declarations of Jeremiah, comforting the exiles with assurances of a future restoration, and of great prosperity, especially during the reign of the prophesied Messiah. Daniel, too, was raised up in Babylon, as an extraordinary example of piety, wisdom, and royal favor.

This captivity tried the people " as gold is tried," in the words of Zechariah, and resulted after the restoration in vast good to the nation. Dean Milman says that " Jewish opinions acquired a new and peculiar coloring " from the intercourse with the Babylonians, and the national character, as well as the vernacular dialect, was modified. There was a conversion from the old sin of idolatry, a new reverence for Moses and the Law, and a development of commercial enterprise after this captivity. The commercial spirit was fostered by the " Dispersion " that ensued upon the return of the nation to Canaan. This term is applied to those Jews who went to foreign countries and remained settled there. Centuries later they were influential in the rapid promulgation of Christianity, and they are the class to ivhich St. James addressed his Epistle.

The Babylonish captivity was brought to an end dfter the Captivity. \ 3

by the exertions of the prophet Daniel, who had risen to the position of supreme head of the Pashas under Cyrus the Persian. This king conquered Babylon in 538 b. c, and afterwards allowed the Jews to return to Canaan, as Ezra and Nehemiah have relctted in the books bearing their nameji Forty-two thousand are said to have thus returned. Under the direction of Nehemiah they rebuilt the Temple, re-established its magnificent ritual worship, and arranged the sacred books into a canon.

For a century the people enjoyed quiet. They subsequently came under the government of Alexander the Great, and for a period of one hundred years were ruled by the Ptolemies of Egypt. During the period from the return to the year 166 b. c, the nation suffered many vicissitudes. The last of the prophets, Malachi, died in the fourth century before the Advent, and the difference of views on the subject of the interpretation of the oral law led to the rise of the sects of the Saducees and Pharisees. The Greek language became common in Judea, and the Septuagint version of the Pentateuch was prepared in that tongue, under the direction of Ptolemy Philadelphus, in that respect the King James of Egypt.

At this time, too, the antagonism between the Samaritans and the Jews became permanent, and the former established their temple on Mount Ger- Izim. Simaria originally included all the tribes over which Jeroboam made himself king, but after they

14 A Branch of the Semitic Race.

were carried to Babylon other nations were placed in their cities. These were probably Assyrians, and idolaters, but they made overtures at the time of Ezra to be allowed to take a part in the rebuilding of the Temple. This was refused, and a feud arose between them and the Jews, which grew every year more inveterate.

In the year i66 b. c, all foreign allegiance was successfully renounced, the people having, under the leadership of Matathia and Judas Maccabaeus, his son, asserted anew, and with patriotic spirit, their right to a separate national existence.

JuDEA CONQUERED. — In the year d-i, b. c, Jerusalem was captured by the Roman general Pompey, and Judea became a part of the Roman province of Syria. The Temple was plundered by Crassus 54 B. C, but he was vanquished the next year, and the Roman rule was intermitted until 37 b. c, when Herod the Great, a noble Idumean, with the aid of the Romans, entered Jerusalem in triumph. His administration was vigorous and splendid, being for thirty years undisturbed by war, though it was marked by atrocious cruelties, among which was the slaughter of the innocents in the village of Bethlehem, recorded by St. Matthew. Herod's death occurred the year of our Saviour^s birth, when he was succeeded by Archelaus, his son.

In the year 38 a. d., during the reign of Herod Agrippa, the Roman Emperor Caligula issued an edict ordering divine honors to be paid him. This

Judea conquered. 1 5

was followed by terrible civil commotions, massacres, intestine wars, and finally, in the year 70 a. d., by the siege and destruction of Jerusalem by Titus. The details of this siege are too heartrending to be dwelt upon, resulting as it did in the loss of over a million and a quarter of lives after a heroic but insane effort to resist the Romans.

The city was razed to the ground, many of its inhabitants perished in gladiatorial fights before the Romans and Greeks, and the nation became dispersed, as it now is, throughout every country of the world — wonderful alike in its superb prosperity, and in its overwhelming destruction !

" O'er yudah's land thy thunders broke, O Lord I The chariots rattled o'er her sunken gate^ And heaps her ivory palaces became ; Her princes wore the captive's garb of shame^ Her temples sank amid the smoldering flame **

Chapter III. Greece

jjHE territory of Greece was only 250 mileg ^^ in extent from north to south, and 180 ^ml miles from east to west at the point of its greatest width. It is a country of mountains and hills, of fertile plains watered by numerous streams and lakes, possessing a coast line remarkable for its deep bays and the facilities it gives its inhabitants for commerce and maritime affairs.

Its earliest history is involved in mystery of which the myth-makers have taken the fullest advantage, giving the world a system of mythology that has always been a subject of study, as well as a source whence the poets of subsequent ages have drawn many of their choicest embellishments.

Inheriting from their ancestors, the Pelasgi, a love for art, that was not diminished by the beauties of the varied natural scenery amid which they dwelt ; their taste in architecture, painting, and sculpture was so cultivated that its products have been the admiration of a world never able to rival them.

Endowed with a language remarkable even among the Aryan tongues for its plastic and eupho-

Begimiing of Grecian History, 17

nious qualities ; rich in roots ; picturesque in its modes of expression ; simple, sublime, playful, majestic, subtle and clear, noble and pathetic, it was naturally made the medium for the expression of a wonderful literature. Being no less fitly adapted for the purposes of oratory, it was used with great force and fluency by Demosthenes, Pericles, Aristides, and other statesmen, whose speeches are still accepted as models of that style of composition.