XXV. gamy, or the belief that the gods lived in animal LETTER bodies, which Egypt was so attached to. Nor did they admit, but, on the contrary, resisted and abolished the dreadful practice of human sacrifice and child burning of the Phenicians. The Babylonian law of depraving their females at the outset of life, was also avoided and condemned as a shameful institution. These improvements, and the substitution of their superior Jupiter to the gloomy and bloodstained Saturn or Kronos, we know that they effected; and these are enough to prove what a great stretch of progression in human nature was attained, by causing the Greek mind to be educated by their, at first, more civilized teachers, and afterwards to rise so high above them, in the improvements to which they subsequently advanced." It is interesting to contemplate the gradual training and formation of the Grecian people to this elevating destiny, but this is too large a subject to be part of a letter like the present. It is manifest that the colonies of Cecrops at Athens, Danaus at Argos, and Cadmus at Thebes, already noticed, were the nurses and instructors of their intellectual childhood, for the simple facts recorded on the Parian marbles as to Athens, show us in what a rude state these foreign teachers found their uncultivated pupils, even in this celebrated place-the great refiner and metropolis of the ancient human intellect. I will shortly notice these, as they indicate from what a humble condition it was the will of Providence, that That Babylon contributed to form the Grecian mind as well as the other nations we may infer from one fact noticed by Herodotus: 'The Grecians learnt the Pole and the Gnomon, and the twelve parts of the day from the Babylonians.' Her. 1. i. c. 109. LETTER she should ascend to her appointed glory; by what XXV. little steps her first improvements were made, and how completely the process appears to have been under His guidance. For may we not justly say that by Him alone, a soil more fit for olive than corn, and a general country nearly as mountainous, as those regions, where barbaric life has been most continuous, were yet made the homes of the most illustrious and meritorious people, who had appeared on our earthly surface, before our Divine Legislator began the new era of wisdom, virtue, hope and happiness to His human race, which is becoming brighter over all the globe, and which may be expected to be in due time every where, to use our Addison's words, Profuse of bliss, and pregnant with delight. Such rational anticipations of this result, appear to me to be visible all around, that I rejoice that I have lived long enough to discern them, and only regret that, at my advanced period of life, I cannot expect to witness the meridian splendor which, as time rolls on, its circuits will spread over our terrestrial 69 1318 years before the inscription was made, or 1582 before the Christian era, Cecrops was at Athens, and 1257, Hellen, the son of Deucalion, reigned in Phthiots, from whom the Grecians were called Hellenes; and Amphictyon, at Athens. 1255. Cadmus came to Thebes. 1252. Lacedemon and Eurotas governed in Laconia. 1247. Danaus came to Greece in his ship of 50 oars. 1242. Phryx first invented musical pipes, and first sang called Phrygian. the melody 1168. Minos reigned in Crete, and the Idoi Dactyle found out iron in Mount Ida. 1145. Ceres came to Athens and sowed corn, and sent it to other regions by Triptolemus. 1142. Triptolemus first sowed corn at Eleusinia. 1135. Orpheus sang, and went after Proserpine and in search of Ceres. 1031. The XXV. hemisphere. Summer clouds and summer storms LETTER may attend the glowing rays; but these will be transient, and only augment the effulgence and diversify its fertilizing efficacy-Εσσεται Ἡμαρ.10 70 1031. The Athenians had a dearth of corn, and were compelled to submit to the laws which Minos imposed. 995. Theseus formed the 12 towns into one city, Athens; and established its republic. 954. The Trojan war.-Parian Chron. 1. 8. Thus corn was not sowed at Athens till 173 years after Cecrops, nor iron found out in Greece but a few years earlier; nor was it till Theseus united the 12 little towns into one city, like the seven hills into one Rome, that Athens attained a decided superiority. At this period, we find from Thucydides, that piracy was the general habit of the nation, as among our Anglo-Saxon ancestors. Yet from such beginnings the intellectual Athens emerged into the finest state of the ancient mind and to undying fame. 70 All that Greece possessed and had so richly multiplied, refined and expanded, became the property of the Roman mind in the future stage of human progression, with those additional improvements, which this all-conquering people largely added to it, before their period of decline began. The progression of mind and manners from their fall to our own happy day, is too obvious to every one for me here to delineate. LETTER LETTER XXVI. CURSORY REVIEW OF THE ABRAHAMIC NATIONS OF THE WORLD MY DEAR SON, THE populations which originated from Abraham, XXVI. have been so important to the world, that they deserve a distinct notice from the historical student. Abraham, like Solomon, has been always a personage of much celebrity among the oriental nations, and especially with those who are connected with Mesopotamia, and with the Arabian stock.' It was declared that he should be the ancestor of several nations; and that his name might correspond with this prophetic assurance, it was changed from Abram to Abraham; the latter name literally implying the father of great multitudes. These descendants were 2 1 Berosus notices him. In the tenth generation after the flood, there was among the Chaldeans a man, righteous and great and skilful in the celestial science.' Hecatæus wrote a book concerning him. Nicolaus Domascenus, in the fourth book of his History, describes him as coming out of Chaldea, reigning at Damascus, and going from thence into the land afterwards called Judea. He adds, "The name of Abram is even still famous in the country of Damascus. There is showed a village, named from him "The habitation of Abram." Joseph. Antiq. l. i. c. 7. The Koran has preserved the Arabian traditions concerning him. The Caaba of Mecca and its venerated black stone, to which the Mussulmen from all regions make their pilgrimage, are ascribed to him and his son by Hagar. Behold my covenant is with thee. Thou shalt be a father of many nations.' Genesis, xvii. 4. 3 Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham, for a father of many nations have I made thee.' Ib. 5. XXVI. to be of that worldly consequence, that royal govern- LETTER ments and dignities were to mark their political greatness.* Four great streams of nations, accordantly with this prediction and promise, have issued from Abraham. The EDOMITES, or Idumeans; the Red Men of the East, who fixed their name on the Red Sea, descending from his grandson, Esau; the JEWS, from his grandson, Jacob; the ARABS, from his son, Ishmael, by the Egyptian Hagar; and those tribes and nations which arose in the regions east of Syria from his last children by Keturah. Two of these, the Jews and the Arabians, we know to have multiplied into great importance and celebrity, and to have continued in ever-renewed and preserved generations, amid all the waste and vicissitudes of destroying time, from the days of Abraham to our own times. Still his Hebrew and Arabian posterity exist in several millions, tho nearly 4,000 years have elapsed since Isaac and Ishmael were born to him. To no other ancestor, can such a number of living descendants, be now in any country traced. His other branch, from his grandson Esau, were also a copious and an active people, in the periods which preceded our era, and have traditions and possibilities attached to them which you ought to be informed of. With these, the EDOMITES, or Idumeans, we will begin our present inquiry. Esau, surnamed Edom, or the Red Man, was at And I will make thee exceeding fruitful; and I will make nations of thee; and kings shall come out of thee.' Gen. xvii. 6. This was also applied to his wife's maternal posterity: I will bless her; she shall become nations: kings of people shall be of her.' Ib. 16. This was verified in the line of Esau, as well as in that of Jacob. |