well-known autochthones of the ancients-these true sons of nature-have risen up or crawled out of the fruitful slime of the earth."

A deeper physiological science would, independently of every other consideration, and looking merely to the natural organization of man, scout this wild chaotic hypothesis respecting his origin from slime: for this organic frame of the human body, which has become a body of death, is still endowed with many and wonderful powers, and still encloses the hidden light of its celestial origin. Without, however, entering further into this inquiry, which falls not within the limits here prescribed, let us rather tacitly believe that although, as the ancient history saith, man was formed out of the slime of the earth, yet it was by the same Hand which invisibly conducts each individual through life, and has more than once rescued all mankind from the brink of the abyss, that his marvellous body was framed, into which the Maker himself breathed the immortal spirit of life. This divine indwelling spark in man, the heathens themselves, notwithstanding the opinion about the autochthones, recognised in the beautiful tradition or fiction of Prometheus; and many of their first spirits, philosophers, orators, and poets, and grave and moral teachers, have, in one form or another, and under a variety of figurative expressions, borne frequent, and loud, and repeated testimony to the truth of a higher spirit, a divine flame, animating the breast of man. This universal faith in the heavenly Promethean light, or, as we should rather say, this spark of our bosoms, is the only thing we must here presuppose, and from which all our historical deductions must be taken. With the opposite doctrine-with the absolute unbelief in all which constitutes man really man-no history, and no science of history, is possible; and this is the only remark we shall here oppose to an infidelity that denies the existence of everything high and godly. For the question respecting the creation of man, or as atheism terms it, the first springing up of the human race, is beyond the limits of history, and must be left to the decision of revelation and faith; for the question can be reached by no history-no science of history-no historical research. History begins, as this will be presently shewn, with man's second step, which immediately follows his concealed origin antecedent to all history.

HISTORICAL LAND-CHART.

The philosophic historian can reckon over the whole surface of the globe but fifteen historical and important civilized countries of greater or less extent, which can form the subject, and furnish the geographical outline of his remarks. This historical chain of lands, or this stream of historical nations from the south-east of Asia to the northern and western extremities of Europe, forms a tract, through both continents, which, though of considerable breadth, is not, in proportion to the extent of these continents, of very great magnitude, and which may be divided into three classes, coinciding chronologically in their several periods of historical glory and development with the great eras or sections of universal history from the primitive ages down to the present times. In the first class of these mighty and celebrated civilized countries, I would place the three great magnificent regions in Eastern and Southern Asia, China, India-between which the ancient Bactriana forms a point of transition and connecting linkand lastly, Persia. In a more westerly and somewhat more northerly direction than the three countries just named, the second or middle class is composed of four or five regions remarkable for extent and beauty, and above all for their historical importance and celebrity. First of all, there is that middle country of Western Asia above-mentioned, which is situate near two great streams, the Tigris and the Euphrates, and bounded by four inland seas, the Persian and Arabian Gulfs, and the Caspian and Mediterranean Seas. Upon this midland country of ancient history, in every respect so worthy of notice, I have but one observation to add,—that in this great series of civilized countries it occupies nearly the middle place; for the southern extremity of India is about as far removed from it, as in the opposite direction, the north of Scotland. And the eastern part of China is not much more distant from this region, than in the opposite quarter the western coast of the Hesperian Peninsula. Next must be included in this class the circumjacent countries, Arabia, Egypt, and Asia Minor, together with the Caucasian regions.

As in the flourishing period of her ancient history, Greece was in every way far more closely connected with Asia Minor, Phoenicia, and Egypt, than with the countries of Europe, she also must be comprised in this division of Central Asia. On

the other hand, there is no country in Europe which, considered in itself, bears so strongly the distinctive geographical configuration peculiar to the European continent. This peculiar configuration of Europe, so well adapted to the purposes of settlement, and to the progress of civilisation, consists in this-that in no other continent does the same given space of territory present to the sea so extensive and diversified a line of coast, and furnish it with so many streams, great and small, as Europe, shut in as it is between two inland seas and the great ocean, and which runs out into so many great and commodiously situated peninsulas, and possesses large, magnificent, and, in part, very anciently and highly civilized islands, like Sicily and the British Isles. What Europe is in a large way, Greece is in a small—a region of coasts, islands, and peninsulas. Belonging more to the one continent in its natural conformation, and to the other by its historical connexion, Greece forms the point of transition and the intermediate link between Asia and Europe.

The other six or seven principal countries in Europe, taken according to a strict geographical classification, and without paying attention to the political variations of territory, whether in antiquity, the middle ages, or modern times, form the members of the third class. These are, first, the two beautiful peninsulas, Italy and Spain; next, France on the north and south, washed by two different seas, and towards the north jutting out into a by no means inconsiderable peninsula; further on, the British Isles, the ancient Germany, with its northern coast stretching along two seas, to which must be annexed, from the ancient consanguinity of their inhabitants, the Cimbric and Scandinavian islands and peninsulas; lastly, the vast Sarmatia, towards the north and east extending far into Asia, in the wide tract from the Euxine to the Frozen Sea. From Sarmatia, however, must be separated, on account of their natural situation, the great Danubian countries, extending from the south of the Carpathian Mountains, down to the other mountainous chain northward of Greece-such as the ancient Illyricum, Pannonia, and Dacia-regions which, in a strict geographical point of view, must be regarded as forming a distinct class. In an historical point of view, the whole northern coast of Africa, stretching along the Mediterranean, should be included in this division of European countries, not only from that early commercial and colonial connexion, established in the time of the Carthaginian re

public, and in the first period of the Roman wars and conquests; but from the prevalence in that country, down to the fourth and fifth centuries, of European manners, language, and refinement. Even during the existence of the Saracenic empire, a very close intercourse subsisted for many centuries between this coast and Spain.

Such, according to a general geographical survey of the globe, would be, if I may so express myself, the historical land-chart of civilisation.-FREDERIC VON SCHLEGEL.1

SYNOPSIS OF GENERAL HISTORY.

I. ANCIENT HISTORY.

In the following summary of General History the Christian era is regarded as the pivot of division; the chronology, accordingly, is reckoned decreasingly down to that point in the pre-Christian period, and increasingly up from that point in the ages of Christianity. We adopt the accepted chronological system which dates the creation 4004 B.C.

Apart from Revelation we find in history no commencement: we perceive nations in formed societies, with arts, government, and even literature, in periods long anterior to those which may, with propriety, be denominated authentic history. The Scripture affords very scanty information respecting the growth and the principles of the progress of society, and still scantier hints respecting the origin of the arts of life before the flood, with the exception of connecting them with the names of particular patriarchs. After the great deluge (2347 B.C.) the hints are still meagre, till the grand dispersion of men from Babel. This epoch is the point from which radiates the history of the "races” of mankind. From this period the "general history" of the sacred writings is silent, except in the indication of the Cushite monarchy of Nimrod in the Euphrates valley, till, at the con

1 Frederic von Schlegel was the son of a Lutheran clergyman, and born at Hanover in 1769. He and his elder brother, Augustus William von Schlegel, are celebrated for their elegant writings in various departments of criticism and the Belles Lettres. The elder brother rose to distinction in the civil service of Prussia; the younger in that of Austria. He died in 1829.

clusion of the Semitic genealogy, we obtain, in the history of Abraham, a number of tangential views of the state of the communities of western Asia, about three or four centuries after the deluge. Traditions of heathen nations, it may be here remarked, in so far as any sparks of credibility may be extracted from their mystic history, seldom carry their origin farther back than this period, or about 2000 B.C. Abraham stands exactly mid-way between the assigned date of the creation and the birth of our Saviour.

At this era we find indications of the existence of a great monarchy in the south-west of Asia, or, at least, of a cluster of chiefs (Emirs or Sheiks) acknowledging various degrees of subjection to a power, commonly supposed to be what historians term the "first Assyrian empire," covering a large extent of the territory long afterwards occupied by the empire of Persia. The country with which Abraham is more immediately connected is distributed into a network of sovereignties or clanships, having their nuclei in cities, and existing in a semi-pastoral, semi-agricultural condition. Egypt is distinguished as a regularly constituted monarchy. No indications are found of the existence of writing, but Egypt and, as the present Assyrian excavations would lead us to imply, Babylon probably possessed the art. Everything indicated of government and customs is mentioned as long established and familiar. The foundation of the "heroic" monarchies of Greece is assigned by chronology to this period. From the age of Abraham Scripture presents us with a connected history of his race down to the time of its restoration from the Babylonish captivity, (536-450 B.C.;) and along this line of history occur references to the states with which Palestine became, from various causes, connected, which enable us, by comparison with the meagre and corrupted remnants saved from the wreck of early profane history, to indicate the state of western Asia through successive centuries, till we step from the Asiatic to the European platform of Greece. We waive all allusion to chronological and other difficulties, such as the identification of princes in Babylonian, Persian, and other lines of monarchy, with princes in the lines of these sovereignties, preserved to us from other sources: we will attempt simply to delineate, with succinctness and comprehensiveness, the general features of ancient history, so as to connect them into an easily remembered picture.