History is naturally divided into two partsecclesiastical and civil. The first relates to the præternatural conduct of the Supreme Being towards his creatures, and to the relation they sustain towards him: the second treats of the various transactions of mankind among themselves, whether private or public, domestic or national. The last forms the principal object of the following work; the former will be only mentioned incidentally; or, rather, on those occasions alone where the concerns of religion are necessarily interwoven with civil affairs, and have been productive of civil events. Civil history is, moreover, subdivided into ancient and modern. These are also subdivisible into universal or partial, geheral or particular. The design of the following compilation is to present an epitome of Universal History, both ancient and modern. It will, therefore, comprehend a succinct account of all the nations and states which have ever existed, and will contain all the leading historic facts, without descending to minuteness of detail. But as it is of great importance, at the commencement of any study or science, to obtain a distinct view of the objects about which our attention is to be employed, and of the end we ought to propose to ourselves, we think it of moment to sketch a preliminary outline of our plan; by which we shall be enabled to mark the great æras into which history naturally divides itself; to mention the important revolutions which have taken place in the world, with their general causes and consequences, and thereby to exhibit a sort of historic map of the countries we are hereafter to traverse. B 2 I The The great epochs above alluded to, into which civil history may be resolved, are the following: 1. The creation of man.. 2. The flood. 23 The beginning of profane history. 4. The conquest of Babylon by Cyrus, and the destruction of the Babylonian empire." 5. The reign of Alexander the Great, and the overthrow of the Persian empire. 6. The destruction of Carthage by the Romans." 7. The reign of the emperor Trajan, when t Roman empire reached its utmost extent. 8. The division of the empire under Constantines 9. The destruction of the Western Empire by ti Heruli, and the settlement of the different Europe nations. 10 The rise of Mahomet, and the conquests the Saracens and Turks. 11. The Crusades. £12. The American and French Revolution. FIRST PERIOD, From the Creation of Man to the Flood. 550 21 WITHO FITHOUT entering into any discussion respecting the most accurate chronology of this period, we shall adopt the Hebrew, which is commonly allowed to possess the highest autho rity. According to the Hebrew chronology, then, the creation of the world is placed in the year 4004 before the Christian Era. The Chinese, Hindoos, and Egyptians, have made pretensions to a much earlier origin; but these pretensions are Supported by no decisive historic documents, and must therefore be attributed to national vanity, which prompts every people to trace back their origin into the remotest antiquity, in order to give additional eclat, to their own nation. The sacred writings furnish us with the only credible, or even plausible, account of this early period. From them we learn, that all the various species of human beings sprang from the same stock-Adam and Eve. From this fact we should be led to imagine, that the world would be but very thinly peopled after the lapse of many more centuries than this period comprehends; but we are, moreover, informed, that the lives of the antediluvians were protracted to eight or nine times the length of those of the present inhabitants of the earth, and that they retained their powers of procreation proportionally long. We are also told, that the antediluvian world was blessed with a milder temperature, and a clearer sky, than the most favoured clime of modern days-circumstances which must undoubtedly have formed a principal cause of the superior longevity and of the rapid population of its inhabitants. The direful diseases, and plagues, and pestilences, which infest the present degenerate race of men, were to them unknown; and we shall therefore cease to wonder at the populousness of the world before the deluge. Our materials are far too scanty for us to judge correctly of the condition of the antediluvians. It appears, from a few facts incidentally mentioned, that they had made considerable advances in civilization. They had invented many of the arts, among which music, and the art of working in metals, are particularly mentioned, As the bountiful fertility of the earth provided them with a super-abundance of the means of subsistence, B 3 they they gradually became luxurious, effeminate, and corrupt, even to a degree which almost surpassed all after-generations. Not long after the fall the malignant passions began to appear; and Cain, possessed by the dæmon Envy, slew his brother Abel. In this universal depravation of manners, the simple and sublime religion of our progenitors alike suffered pollution. Their religion, though the purest Theism, whose truth had been confirmed to our first parents with the most unequivocal demonstrations of divine power, was yet unable to withstand the violence of those evil propensities inherent in human nature, and which urged them blindly onward to their own destruction. They continued daily to grow more and more corrupt; to heap crime upon crime, and pollution on pollution, till the Deity, provoked at their matchless iniquity, and perceiving them past all recovery, resolved to destroy them from the face of the earth. He therefore caused a great and mighty flood to overwhelm the world, and every living thing, both man and beast, perished beneath the waters. But that the human race, and the 2348. other species of animals, might not be totally extinct, he previously communicated his resolution to Noah, whom he commanded to build an ark sufficiently capacious to contain himself and family, together with two of every species of existing animals: by these the new world was afterwards re-tenanted. The occurrence of this awful catastrophe is also alluded to by profane writers, and still more strongly verified by the present appearances of the globe, B. C. SECOND SECOND PERIOD, From the Flood to the Beginning of profane History. AFTER the waters of the deluge had subsided, so that the loftiest mountains began to lift their heads above the waves, the ark, after being long tossed to and fro upon the vast deep, is supposed to have finally rested on Mount Ararat, in Armenia, The human race was now to be regenerated from those eight persons only who had been preserved from the general overthrow; and the earth to be re-stocked with animals from those which, by divine command, had followed Noah into the ark. The scripture, our only guide, now deserts us, and we have no means of ascertaining how long Noah and his posterity remained in the vicinity of that mountain. At length, however, we find the whole human race assembled in Babylonia. Here their vain imaginations prompted them to undertake to build a tower, whose top might reach unto heaven. This being deemed by the Deity an act of presumption, as a punishment for their crime he confounded their language, and dispersed them over different parts of the earth. The three sons of Noah are supposed to have set out in as many different directions; or rather Noah, at his death, is supposed to have bequeathed the whole world to Shem, Ham, and Japhet: but this account rests on no better foundation than that of conjecture; for on this point scripture is silent, Asia is supposed to have been allotted to Shem, Africa to Ham, and Europe to Japhet. Gomer, |