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what I have already said, to which may be added, that the sea once swept over the place where you live, and ages hence may flow over it again.

XIII. Man's Wanderings from his first
Home.

It is believed that man lived at first somewhere near the middle of Asia, and from thence those who came after him spread on all sides, some settling in the rich plains watered by the river Nile, to become the forefathers of Egyptian kings, others wandering to the bleak shores of Northern Europe to become the forefathers of the Sea-kings.

As the climate in which people live affects the colour of their skins, so the progress of any race, as well as the kind of life which they live, depend very much on the land they dwell in, and this will explain why some races have progressed so much more than others, and even become their rulers. Where there were rich, grassy plains, the people gathered flocks and herds, wandered from place to

place in search of good pasture, and made scarcely any advance. Where a fruitful soil and balmy air were to be had, there people would settle as farmers and workers in wood and metals, gathering both knowledge and wealth, while those who lived on islands and by the sea-coasts became adventurous and bold.

It is not the object of this narrative to take you beyond the time when histories usually begin, and what you have learned does not therefore relate to any single tribe or nation, but to the growth of mankind as a whole. I will, however, sketch in a few lines. the course which the leading races of mankind took after they left their supposed common home.

The tribes who wandered into the northern parts of Europe lived for ages a wild roving life; and when they had so far advanced as to find out, or, what is more likely, learn from other races, the use of metals, and then to apply their powers in building ships stout and strong enough to brave the open sea, they became the terror of quiet people, and you

will learn from old English history how they pounced one after another upon this island, plundering wherever and whatever they could.

Other tribes settled down in Persia; on the sea-board of Palestine; in Egypt; and were the roots from which grew those mighty nations whose kings had reigned for many years before the birth of Abraham. Other tribes leapt across the narrow straits between Asia and America, and wandered over that vast New World, those who travelled southwards becoming builders of cities whose ruins. tell of their past importance.

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Long before the great empires of Greece and Rome, there arose a people known to us as the Jews, whose history fills so many books of the Bible, and who were descended from a chieftain named Abraham. I shall have some interesting stories to tell you further on concerning this good and noble man.

Abraham left his native land and moved with his slaves and cattle to Palestine. His descendants afterwards settled in Egypt, which was then a great corn-yielding country, where

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they grew to large numbers, and were treated kindly during the lifetime of Joseph, whose touching story is told in the Book of Genesis. After his death they were, however, made slaves and used very harshly. A good, learned, and heroic man named Moses, who, although he had been brought up by the king's daughter as her son, burned with righteous anger for the wrongs of his oppressed countrymen, rose at the head of them and delivered them. How they journeyed to Palestine, living under chiefs or judges; killing, in the cruel manner of that age, men, women, and children; how they grew and prospered, but, falling into vice, became weak and enslaved; then rose again for a time, until when Jesus Christ lived they were subject to the Roman Empire, you will learn by and by from Scripture histories.

XIV. Man's Progress in all things.

The early history of man shows us how wonderful his progress has been when we compare the Age of Stone with our present happy lot. Not only in house building, cooking,

pottery, clothing, various uses of metals, have rude ways been improved upon, but also in his knowledge of the earth beneath and the stars around has the progress of man been vast. The lightning and the wind, the rushing stream, daily work for him, and their force is chained to do his bidding. He has already seen a good depth, and may see further yet, into the mystery of the stars, and every day he is spelling out some sentence here and there in the great book of Nature.

One would like to know and thank those men of the past who laid the foundation of all that has since been done. For he who first chipped a flint was the father of all sculptors; he who first scratched a picture of man or mammoth was the father of all painters; he who first piled stones together was the father of all builders of abbeys and cathedrals; he who first bored a hole in a reindeer's bone to make a whistle, or twanged a stretched sinew, was the father of all musicians; he who first rhymed his simple thoughts was

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