Greeks appear to have first risen in science and the arts, and to have established themselves over their still barbaric brethren (in Magna Græcia, the southern portion of Italy), whom they regarded, in their ignorance of their common origin, as an inferior race. How often may the same result have occurred in the history of mankind! When the Saracen and the Goth, coming from opposite quarters of the earth, encountered in Spain 1200 years ago, they bore with them not only ineradicable traces of the same form and feature, but some fragments of the original tongue. They were brothers, who parted at the foot of Caucasus, to meet again after uncounted centuries; each having described, in his march, a wide curve over the earth's surface, on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean.' The kingdom of Sicyon ended 1088 B. C. called, because the people of Greece were so long subject to the RomanByzantine empire, and were therefore termed Romaioi. The Call of Abraham, 1921. The family of Shem, from which that of the Messiah sprung, settled at Ur, in Chaldea; but had become, in common with other tribes after the dispersion, idolatrous. Abraham, however, the son of Terah, was remarkable for understanding and piety; and at seventy-five years of age, was called by the Almighty to make known his will to the erring offspring of Noah. Accordingly he went with his father, and Sarah his wife, and his nephew Lot, into Haran: whence, after the death of Terah, he removed into the land of Canaan. Here Abraham and Lot lived with their respective families in amity; and at length their herds and flocks so greatly increased, that debates arose among their servants about convenient pasturage, and Abraham proposed a separation. Lot assented and chose the plain of Jordan, which was every where well watered, and pitched his tent near Sodom; but he had not been settled there many years, when Chedorlaomer, king of Elam in Persia, brought an army against the king of Sodom, who had rebelled against him; and having overrun several kingdoms about the land of Canaan, carried The Greek Dialects, 2089. As the Greek nation arose state by state, various dialects or modes of speaking the language were generated. The difference of these did not merely consist in occasional forms and sounds of words, but penetrated to the very heart of the language; so that even the structure and connexion of sentences, and the whole character of expression, became various, though the same fundamental rules of speech prevailed in all. The Epic dialect, in which Homer wrote, was first ma-away much spoil, and many captives, tured: allied to this, the Ionic was afterwards formed; the two being frequently contrasted as old and new Ionic. To this branch belongs also the Attic, in its several ages. Next to the Ionians, the Eolians formed their dialect in Asia, that in which Sappho and Alcæus wrote, and in Beotia wherein Pindar composed: the Dorians also acquired a written dialect, that of the Pythagoreans and Theocritus. The selection of that which is common to the Attic and the others, constitutes the common dialect. Next in order stands the ecclesiastical dialect, from which the Romaic, or modern Greek is derived-which is so among whom were Lot and his family. Abraham was immediately informed of what was done, and having armed his trained servants, pursued the enemy, attacked them by surprise in the night, rescued all the captives, and brought back Lot and his goods to his former habitation. The inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah were, however, so lost to all sense of religion, and given up to impure lusts, that God resolved to destroy them; but sent two angels for the preservation of Lot. They accordingly took Lot and his wife and his two daughters; and, having led them out of the city, charged them to flee without the least Argos, 1856. In This Grecian state was founded by Inachus, and afterwards united to Mycena. Its most famous king was Agamemnon, and the people were called Argivi and Argolici. Letters invented, 1822, by Memnon king of Egypt; but whether the three varieties used by the Egyptians is uncertain. delay. But, as they went toward | having been a practice, long before Zoar, the wife of Lot, though directed the institution of tithes amongst the not to do so, looked back, and her Jews, to devote a tenth of what was body being covered with the shower taken in war to sacred purposes. of nitro-sulphureous matter then fall- the primitive ages the offices of king ing, was converted into a pillar of and priest were usually combined. salt, as hard and durable as stone, Mahomet saw the advantage of such which Josephus says existed in his an union, and the Pope appears to time. The plain wherein these cities think in this respect with the founder stood was probably first ignited by of Islamism. lightning, which seized the bitumen so abundant there; and being afterwards overflowed by the waters of the Jordan, the Dead Sea was formed, which exists to this day, and is noted for the unwholesome air of its neighbourhood, its bituminous exhalations, and its production of inflammable stones. Meanwhile Abraham, safe in the plain of Mamre, where he kept his large herds and flocks, was in Joseph, 1728, was sold by his jeamany ways helped by divine com-lous brethren, and carried a slave into munications. A son was granted to Egypt. Under the especial guidance him and his wife Sarah in their old of God, he rose to be the king's prime age; and this son, Isaac, dear as he minister, and saw, during the famine, necessarily was to them, was ordered his brothers prostrate themselves beto be offered up in sacrifice, as a trial fore him, according to his dreams. of their faith. Abraham complied; He sent for his father, Jacob or Israel, and while prepared to slay his child to settle with his sons in Goshen, a on the mountain of Moriah, an angel part of Egypt, where, in process of stayed his hand. For this great act of time, they increased so as to become faith and trust in the Supreme Being, the great nation known as the chilhe was honoured by God himself with dren of Israel or Jews. The twelve the glorious name of Father of the tribes into which they were divided, Faithful, and the promise was re- arose from the twelve sons of Jacob: newed to him that all nations of the Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Isearth should through him be blessed. sachar, and Zebulon, by Leah, Joseph Meanwhile Ishmael, the son of Abra- and Benjamin by Rachel, Gad and ham by Hagar his bond-woman, was Asher by Zilpah, and Dan and Naphsent forth into the wilderness to seek tali by Bilhah. his livelihood, and became the father Sesostris, 1722. This was probably of the Ishmaelites or Arabs of the the Pharaoh, or Amenophis, or king, desert, as Isaac was the parent of the who was Joseph's master. He was Jewish nation. Melchisedek, king of son of Rameses V., whose body, in Salem, that is of Jerusalem, is men- the mummy state, is said to be at pretioned in the book of Genesis as sent in England, according to the having brought forth bread and wine alleged interpretation of the hieroto refresh Abraham, after his rescue glyphical inscription on its leather of Lot his relative from king Che- bandage. He conquered Libya, Ethidorlaomer close by Damascus, 1913. opia, and Arabia, and placed columns Melchisedek is termed both king and in all the vanquished provinces with priest of the most high God; and the inscription" Sesostris, king of Abraham gave him tithe of all the kings, hath conquered this territory spoil he had taken in the combat, it by his arms." He erected many temples and pyramids, and helped navigation by cutting numerous canals. The largest of the three great pyramids, on the rocky and barren hills of Geezeh, used to cover an area of 570,000 square feet; but as the casing of it has been removed, it now occupies a much less space. Its height is 474 feet. They stand exactly due north and south; and probably served an astronomical purpose, beyond that of being places of sepulture. While the direction of the faces to the east and west might show the return of a certain period of the year, the shadow cast by the sun, or the time of its coincidency with their slope, might be observed for a similar object. At the bottom of their inclined passages, the stars can, at any time of day, be seen by the naked eye. in the discussion of affairs of state, in listening to orators, in witnessing trials of skill, and as St. Luke in the Acts observes, "spending their time in nothing else but either to tell, or to hear, some new thing." The Barathrum was a public pit in the city, into which condemned criminals were thrown and left to perish. The Lyceum was the public school wherein the orators declaimed, whether as pleaders like our barristers, or as political advisers and censors. Pericles erected the musical theatre called the Odeon: it was ornamented with sculpture by Phidias, and was frequented with great ardour by the people, who were passionately devoted to music, and made it an essential portion of their children's education. The lowest class of Athenians were called Theti. kings. Athens, 1556, the most interesting Troy, 1546, the capital of Troas, of the Grecian states, was founded by was founded by Scamander of Crete. Cecrops, and an Egyptian colony. It was built on an eminence near He reigned fifty years, and was the Mount Ida, in Mysia, Asia Minor, first who gave laws to the states before four miles from the sea. The country founded, established religion, and in-has had various names, as Dardania, stituted marriage. In a few years, Troja, Ilion, &c., from its respective Athens became a solecism in politics, its people ruling, in a democratic form, not only in their own state, but supreme over other people in subordinate republics, all acknowledging subjection to them, yet claiming freedom for themselves. Under this extraordinary constitution, philosophy and the arts, which, migrating from Egypt and the East, had long been fostered on the western coast of Asia, made Athens, on a sudden, their principal resort. Under a modern king, Athens will probably, at no distant date, rival in grandeur its ancient prototype; and it is gratifying to know that the utmost pains are taking by the young monarch Otho to preserve the relics of past ages from destruction. The Athenians, like the Romans, lived in public. The men quitted their houses in the morning for the forum, which was ornamented with magnificent porticoes, baths, and theatres. Here they passed the day, Job. The prophet Ezekiel and the apostle James both allude to Job as having really lived, a fact which many have disputed from the simple circumstance of the book called by his name being a dramatic composition. For a like cause has the existence of Troy been called in question, aud of many other important places as well as persons; objections which must necessarily fall before the consideration that the early history of every nation of which we read, has been recorded in poetry of some kind or another. Job, then, the contemporary of Eliphaz the Temanite, who lived 1520 B. C., dwelt in the eastern land of Uz, and seems to have been a person of exalted rank his substance and possessions were very great: he had also seven sons and three daughters; but he was more distinguished and honoured for his piety and benevolence. Satan is represented as sus how unable men are to explain_the ways and designs of Heaven, and to declare in favour of Job, against the opinion of his friends: "Ye have not spoken of Me the thing that is right, as my servant Job hath." He then put an end to his sufferings, blessed him with a numerous offspring, and gave him twice as much wealth as he had before; so that the latter end of his life was more prosperous than the beginning of it. The example of Job teaches us to resign ourselves patiently to afflictions, and to bend our wills to the divine will: still to rely upon God with full trust and confidence, and not only to justify, but to glorify him, in all that is brought upon us. pecting the sincerity of this good man, and alleging, that if he were deprived of his fortune and health, his temper and conduct would change with his circumstances. Permission, therefore, was granted by the Almighty for the trial of his integrity, and accordingly afflictions were heaped upon his head: he became as remarkable for calamity as he had been for prosperity; his oxen and camels were taken away by robbers; his sheep were consumed by lightning; and his children overwhelmed by a house blown down by a whirlwind. He was afterwards seized with a violent distemper, which overspread his body with sore boils, from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head; and his wife, who ought Deucalion, 1503, his father Prometo have taken a share in his distress, theus, and his son Amphictyon, are all and lessened the weight of it by all famous in classic history.-Prometheus the kind offices in her power, rashly is fabled to have offended Jupiter, by advised him to murmur against the befriending man, for whom he stole fire divine justice, and to provoke God to from the sun. He also made a man destroy him. His friends concluded, and woman of clay, and animated them from his uncommon calamities, that by fire, for which he was tied to a he was a great sinner and hypocrite; rock on Mount Caucasus, where for and argued with him that God is thirty thousand years a vulture was to strictly just, rewarding virtue and feed upon his liver, though in thirty punishing vice; and that therefore he Hercules released him. Pandora, the must either confess his own guilt, or first mortal woman, was offered as a charge God with unrighteousness. wife to Prometheus by Jupiter, as a Job, in his answer, acknowledges in- punishment for his crimes. Vulcan deed that he was not infallible, and made her of clay, and gave her life; free from common failings, and that and all the gods vied in making her consequently he ought to be humble presents. Venus gave her beauty; and submissive under the hand of Apollo taught her music; Mercury God; but insists that he was honest eloquence; Minerva gave her wisand sincere in the discharge of his duty, and appeals, in vindication of it, from the false judgment of men to the unerring judgment of God. He asserts that there is little or no difference between the good and the wicked in the external administration of providence, that both are liable to the same misfortunes, and often involved in one common ruin; which fully proves that there must be a future state, in which the righteous who suffer here will be signally rewarded. At length, in order to determine the debate, the unerring Judge himself is represented as interposing, to show dom, and the Graces completed her education. With a box in her hand, the present of Jupiter, she was introduced to Prometheus, who, aware of the design, would not speak to her; but his brother Epimetheus married her, and upon opening the casket which she bestowed upon him, there issued forth a multitude of evils and distempers, which dispersed themselves throughout the world, and from that fatal moment have never failed to afflict the human race. Hope alone remained at the bottom; and she only has the power of soothing the sorrows of man, and of pointing to brighter Thebes, 1493. Cadmus, son of Agenor, king of Phoenicia, was sent by his father in quest of his sister Europa, whom Jupiter had carried away. Unsuccessful in his search, he settled in Boeotia, and founded the city of Thebes (so called afterwards from Thebe, whose relative, Amphion, when he completed the city, named it in her honour), and introduced the prospects. Deucalion was king of inviolable by every Grecian state. In Thessaly, 1503, when a flood destroyed after times, the number of Amphichis whole country, drowning the inha- tyons was increased to thirty. The bitants. These he restored by throw-decrees of this council were received ing his mother's bones (the stones of so recently as A.D. 138. the earth) over his head, according to the direction of the oracle.-Amphictyon, third king of Athens, founded the celebrated council of the Amphictyons, which conducted the affairs of United Greece for more than 1600 years. It consisted at first of twelve deputies, sent from the twelve most powerful states. It met at Delphi, in spring and autumn, to decide all public differences, the celebrated oracle assist-Phoenician alphabet into his new coing it. On extraordinary occasions it was in deliberation the whole year round; and when Delphi was visited with war, it sat at Thermopylæ. Before each assembly, an ox was sacrificed, and cut into small pieces, as a symbol of the union of its members; and its decrees were held sacred and lony. Thebes became another Grecian state, although out of the Peloponnesus--and its people were noted for their sluggishness and want of talent. It retained its independence 1158 years, until its subjugation by Alexander. PERIOD THE SECOND. From Moses to the Fall of Troy, in the Judgeship of Tola. SECTION I. THE LEGATION OF MOSES. 1491 To 1451-40 YEARS. Moses, the great lawgiver of the Jews, and the meekest of mankind, was born of the tribe of Levi, in Goshen; and when Pharaoh ordered the destruction of all the Israelitish male children, he was saved by his mother, who committed him to the Nile in an ark of bulrushes. The king's daughter saw the child floating, and pleased with its beauty, secretly brought it up. The Israelites had now increased to 600,000, besides children; and the Egyptians had long made them their builders and servants. Pharaoh's oppression of the chosen people became at length so serious, that God called Moses, at the burning bush, to deliver his countrymen. To effect this, the most wondrous miracles were worked by his hand, none of which had any effect upon the king, until the destruction of the first-born of man and beast; when, in the height of rage, he dismissed the injured people from his land, 1491. They miraculously passed safely through the Red Sea, pursued by the furious monarch and his host, who were ingulfed in its waves; and after forty years, consumed in traversing to and fro (for their sins' sake) the desert |