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Title: Outline of Universal History

Author: George Park Fisher

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Transcriber's Comment

In the original text, the author sought, "by the use of different sorts
of type, ... to introduced a considerable amount of detail without
breaking the main current of the narrative, or making it too long". In
the text below, paragraphs in the smallest type have been indented.



OUTLINES OF UNIVERSAL HISTORY

Designed as a Text-book and for Private Reading

By

George Park Fisher, D.D., LL.D.
Professor in Yale University

Inscribed by the author as a token of love and thankfulness to his
daughter

C. R. F.




PREFACE.


In writing this work I have endeavored to provide a text-book suited to
more advanced pupils. My idea of such a work was, that it should
present the essential facts of history in due order, and in conformity
to the best and latest researches; that it should point out clearly the
connection of events and of successive eras with one another; that
through the interest awakened by the natural, unforced view gained of
this unity of history, and by such illustrative incidents as the
brevity of the narrative would allow to be wrought into it, the dryness
of a mere summary should be, as far as possible, relieved; and that,
finally, being a book intended for pupils and readers of all classes,
it should be free from sectarian partiality, and should limit itself to
well-established judgments and conclusions on all matters subject to
party contention. Respecting one of the points just referred to, I can
say that, in composing this work, I have myself been more than ever
impressed with _the unity of history_, and affected by this great
and deeply moving drama that is still advancing into a future that is
hidden from view. I can not but hope that this feeling, spontaneous and
vivid in my own mind, may communicate itself to the reader in his
progress through these pages.

The most interesting object in the study of history is, to quote Dr.
Arnold's words, "that which most nearly touches the inner life of
civilized man, namely, the vicissitudes of institutions, social,
political, and religious." But, as the same scholar adds, "a knowledge
of the external is needed before we arrive at that which is within. We
want to get a sort of frame for our picture....And thus we want to know
clearly the geographical boundaries of different countries, and their
external revolutions. This leads us in the first instance to geography
and military history, even if our ultimate object lies beyond."
Something more is aimed at in the present work than the construction of
this "frame," without which, to be sure, a student wanders about
"vaguely, like an ignorant man in an ill-arranged museum."  By the use
of different sorts of type, it has been practicable to introduce a
considerable amount of detail without breaking the main current of the
narrative, or making it too long. By means of these additional
passages, and by appending lists of books at the close of the several
periods, the attempt has been made to aid younger students in carrying
forward the study of history beyond the usual requirements of the
class-room. I make no apology for the sketches presented of the history
of science, literature, art, and of moral and material decline or
improvement. Professor Seeley, in his interesting book on _The
Expansion of England_, is disposed to confine history to the civil
community, and to the part of human well-being which depends on
that. "That a man in England," he tells us, "makes a scientific
discovery or paints a picture, is not in itself an event in the history
of England." But, of course, as this able writer himself remarks,
"history may assume a larger or a narrower function;" and I am
persuaded that to shut up history within so narrow bounds, is not
expedient in a work designed in part to stimulate readers to wide and
continued studies.

One who has long been engaged in historical study and teaching, if he
undertakes to prepare such a work as the present, has occasion to
traverse certain periods where previous investigations have made him
feel more or less at home. Elsewhere at least his course must be to
collate authorities, follow such as he deems best entitled to credit,
and, on points of uncertainty, satisfy himself by recurrence to the
original sources of evidence. Among the numerous works from which I
have derived assistance, the largest debt is due, especially in the
ancient and mediaeval periods, to Weber's _Lehrbuch der
Weltgeschichte_, which (in its nineteenth edition, 1883) contains
2328 large octavo pages of well-digested matter. Duruy's _Histoire
du Moyen Age_ (eleventh edition, 1882), and also his _Histoire
des Temps Modernes_ (ninth edition), have yielded to me important
aid. From the writings of Mr. E. A. Freeman I have constantly derived
instruction. In particular, I have made use of his _General Sketch
of European History_ (which is published in this country, under the
title, _Outlines of History_), and of his lucid, compact, and
thorough _History of European Geography_. The other writings,
however, of this able and learned historian, have been very
helpful. Mr. Tillinghast's edition of Ploetz's _Epitome_ I have
found to be a highly valuable storehouse of historical facts, and have
frequently consulted it with advantage. The superior accuracy of
George's _Genealogical Tables_ is the reason why I have freely
availed myself of the aid afforded by them. Professor (now President)
C. K. Adams's excellent _Manual of Historical Literature_, to
which reference is repeatedly made in the following pages, has been of
service in preparing the lists of works to be read or consulted. Those
lists, it hardly need be said, aim at nothing like a complete
bibliography. No doubt to each of them other valuable works might
easily be added. As a rule, no mention is made of more technical or
abstruse writings, collections of documents, and so forth. The titles
of but few historical novels are given. Useful as the best of these
are, works of this class are often inaccurate and misleading; so that
a living master in historical authorship has said even of Walter
Scott, who is so strong when he stands on Scottish soil, that in his
Ivanhoe "there is a mistake in every line." With regard, however, to
historical fiction, including poems, as well as novels and tales, the
student will find in Mr. Justin Winsor's very learned and elaborate
monograph (forming a distinct section of the catalogue of the Boston
Public Library), the most full information up to the date of its
publication. Most of the historical maps, to illustrate the text of
the present work, have been engraved from drawings after Spruner,
Putzger, Freeman, etc. Of the ancient maps, several have been adopted
(in a revised form) from a General Atlas. That the maps contain more
places than are referred to in the text, is not a disadvantage.

I wish to express my obligation to a number of friends who have kindly
lent me aid in the revisal of particular portions of the proof-sheets
of this volume. My special thanks are due, on account of this service,
to Professor Francis Brown of the Union Theological School; to
Professors W. D. Whitney, Tracy Peck, T. D. Seymour, W. H. Brewer, and
T. R. Lounsbury, of Yale College; to Mr. A. Van Name, librarian of
Yale College; and to Mr. W. L. Kingsley, to whose historical knowledge
and unfailing kindness I have, on previous occasions, been indebted
for like assistance. To other friends besides those just named, I am
indebted for information on points made familiar to them by their
special studies.

G. P. F.



PREFACE TO REVISED EDITION.

The characteristics of this work are stated in the Preface to the
First Edition, which may be read on page v and the next following
pages of the present volume.

The work has been subjected to a careful revision. The aim has been to
make whatever amendments are called for by historical investigations
in the interval since it was published. Besides corrections, brief
statements have been woven here and there into the text. The revision
has embraced the bibliography connected with the successive periods or
chapters. Titles of books which are no longer of service have been
erased. Titles of select recent publications, as well as of
meritorious writings of a remoter past, have been inserted.

In preparing this edition for the press I have not been without the
advantage of aid from friends versed in historical studies. Professor
Henry E. Bourne, of Western Reserve University, besides particular
annotations, has prolonged the history so far as to include in its
compass, in Chapter VII, the last decade of the nineteenth century and
events as recent as the close of the South African War and the
accession of President Roosevelt. Professor Charles C. Torrey, Ph.D.,
of Yale University, has placed in my hands notes of his own on
Oriental History, a portion of history with which, as well as with the
Semitic languages, he is conversant. It will not be for lack of
painstaking if any part of the new edition fails, within the limits of
its plan, to correspond to the present state of historical knowledge.

G. P. F.
Yale University, January, 1904.



CONTENTS.


INTRODUCTION


PART I.  ANCIENT HISTORY.

_From the Beginning of Authentic History to the Migrations of the
Teutonic Tribes (A.D. 375)_

DIVISION I.  ORIENTAL HISTORY.

INTRODUCTION

SECTION  I.  CHINA AND INDIA.

CHAPTER  I.--CHINA

CHAPTER II.--INDIA


SECTION II.  THE EARLIEST GROUP OF NATIONS.

CHAPTER   I.--EGYPT

CHAPTER  II.--ASSYRIA AND BABYLON

CHAPTER III.--THE PHOENICIANS AND CARTHAGINIANS

CHAPTER  IV.--THE HEBREWS

CHAPTER   V.--THE PERSIANS


DIVISION II.  EUROPE.

INTRODUCTION


SECTION I.  GRECIAN HISTORY.

INTRODUCTION


PERIOD I.  GREECE PRIOR TO THE PERSIAN WARS.

CHAPTER  I.--THE PREHISTORIC AGE

CHAPTER II.--THE FORMATION OF THE PRINCIPAL STATES


PERIOD II.  THE FLOURISHING ERA OF GREECE.

CHAPTER   I.--THE PERSIAN WARS

CHAPTER  II.--THE ASCENDENCY OF ATHENS

CHAPTER III.--THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR

CHAPTER  IV.--RELATIONS WITH PERSIA: THE SPARTAN AND THEBAN HEGEMONY


PERIOD III.  THE MACEDONIAN ERA.

CHAPTER  I.--PHILIP AND ALEXANDER

CHAPTER II.--THE SUCCESSORS OF ALEXANDER


SECTION II.  ROMAN HISTORY.

INTRODUCTION


PERIOD I.  ROME UNDER THE KINGS AND THE PATRICIANS (753-304 B.C.).

CHAPTER  I.--ROME UNDER THE KINGS (753-509 B.C.)

CHAPTER II.--ROME UNDER THE PATRICIANS (509-304 B.C.)


PERIOD II.  TO THE UNION OF ITALY (304-264 B.C.).

CHAPTER  I.--CONQUEST OF THE LATINS AND ITALIANS (304-282 B.C.)

CHAPTER II.--WAR WITH PYRRHUS AND UNION WITH ITALY (282-264 B.C.)


PERIOD III.  THE PUNIC WARS.

To the Conquest of Carthage and of the Greek States (264-146 B.C.)

CHAPTER  I.--THE FIRST AND SECOND PUNIC WARS (264-202 B.C.)

CHAPTER II.--CONQUEST OF MACEDONIA: THE THIRD PUNIC WAR: THE DESTRUCTION
OF CORINTH (202-146 B.C.)


PERIOD IV.  THE ERA OF REVOLUTION AND OF THE CIVIL WARS (146-3l B.C.).

CHAPTER   I.--THE GRACCHI: THE FIRST MITHRIDATIC WAR: MARIUS AND SULLA
(146-78 B.C.)

CHAPTER  II.--POMPEIUS AND THE EAST: TO THE DEATH OF CRASSUS (78-53 B.C.)

CHAPTER III.--POMPEIUS AND CAESAR: THE SECOND TRIUMVIRATE.


PERIOD V.  THE IMPERIAL MONARCHY.

To the Migrations of the Teutonic Tribes (375 A.D.)

CHAPTER   I.--THE REIGN OF AUGUSTUS

CHAPTER  II.--THE EMPERORS OF THE AUGUSTAN HOUSE

CHAPTER III.--THE FLAVIANS AND THE ANTONINES

CHAPTER  IV.--THE EMPERORS MADE BY THE SOLDIERS: THE ABSOLUTE MONARCHY:
THE TRIUMPH OF CHRISTIANITY



PART II. MEDIAEVAL HISTORY.

_From the Migrations of the Teutonic Tribes to the Fall of
Constantinople (A.D. 375-1453)._

INTRODUCTION


PERIOD I.  TO THE CARLOVINGIAN LINE OF FRANK RULERS (A.D. 375-751).

CHAPTER   I.--CAUSES OF THE FALL OF THE WESTERN EMPIRE: THE TEUTONIC
CONFEDERACIES

CHAPTER  II.--THE TEUTONIC MIGRATIONS AND KINGDOMS

CHAPTER III.--THE EASTERN EMPIRE

CHAPTER  IV.--MOHAMMEDANISM AND THE ARABIC CONQUESTS


PERIOD II.  FROM THE CARLOVINGIAN LINE OF FRANK KINGS TO THE
ROMANO-GERMANIC EMPIRE (A.D. 751-962).

CHAPTER   I.--THE CARLOVINGIAN EMPIRE TO THE DEATH OF CHARLEMAGNE
(A.D. 814)

CHAPTER  II.--DISSOLUTION OF CHARLEMAGNE'S EMPIRE: RISE OF THE KINGDOMS
OF FRANCE, GERMANY, AND ITALY

CHAPTER III.--INVASIONS OF THE NORTHMEN AND OTHERS: THE FEUDAL SYSTEM


PERIOD III.  FROM THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE ROMANO-GERMANIC EMPIRE TO THE
END OF THE CRUSADES (A.D. 962-1270).

CHAPTER   I.--THE CHURCH AND THE EMPIRE: PREDOMINANCE OF THE EMPIRE: TO
THE CRUSADES (A.D. 1096)

CHAPTER  II.--THE CHURCH AND THE EMPIRE: PREDOMINANCE OF THE CHURCH: TO
THE END OF THE CRUSADES (A.D. 1270)

CHAPTER III.--ENGLAND AND FRANCE: THE FIRST PERIOD OF THEIR RIVALSHIP
(A.D. 1066-1217)

CHAPTER  IV.--RISE OF THE BURGHER CLASS: SOCIETY IN THE ERA OF THE
CRUSADES


PERIOD IV.  FROM THE END OF THE CRUSADES TO THE FALL OF CONSTANTINOPLE
(A.D. 1270-1453): THE DECLINE OF ECCLESIASTICAL AUTHORITY:
THE GROWTH OF THE NATIONAL SPIRIT AND OF MONARCHY.

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER   I.--ENGLAND AND FRANCE: SECOND PERIOD OF RIVALSHIP: THE HUNDRED
YEARS' WAR (A.D. 1339-1453)

CHAPTER  II.--GERMANY: ITALY: SPAIN: THE SCANDINAVIAN COUNTRIES: POLAND
AND RUSSIA: HUNGARY: OTTOMAN TURKS: THE GREEK EMPIRE

CHAPTER III.--THE COUNTRIES OF EASTERN ASIA



PART III.  MODERN HISTORY.

_From the Fall of Constantinople_ (1453) _to the Present Time_

INTRODUCTION


PERIOD I.  FROM THE FALL OF CONSTANTINOPLE TO THE REFORMATION
           (1453-1517).

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER  I.--FRANCE: ENGLAND: SPAIN: GERMANY: ITALY: THE OTTOMAN TURKS:
RUSSIA: THE INVASIONS OF ITALY

CHAPTER II.--INVENTION AND DISCOVERY: THE RENAISSANCE


PERIOD II.  THE ERA OF THE REFORMATION (1517-1648).

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER   I.--THE REFORMATION IN GERMANY: TO THE TREATY OF NUREMBERG
(1517-1532)

CHAPTER  II.--THE REFORMATION IN TEUTONIC COUNTRIES: SWITZERLAND,
DENMARK, SWEDEN, ENGLAND

CHAPTER III.--THE REFORMATION IN GERMANY, FROM THE PEACE OF NUREMBERG TO
THE PEACE OF AUGSBURG (1532-1555)

CHAPTER  IV.--CALVINISM IN GENEVA: BEGINNING OF THE CATHOLIC
COUNTER-REFORMATION

CHAPTER   V.--PHILIP II., AND THE REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS

CHAPTER  VI.--THE CIVIL WARS IN FRANCE, TO THE DEATH OF HENRY IV. (1610)

CHAPTER VII.--THE THIRTY-YEARS' WAR, TO THE PEACE OF WESTPHALIA
(1618-1648)

CHAPTER VIII.--SECOND STAGE OF THE REFORMATION IN ENGLAND: TO THE DEATH
OF ELIZABETH (1547-1603)

CHAPTER  IX.--THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION AND THE COMMONWEALTH (1603-1658)

CHAPTER   X.--COLONIZATION IN AMERICA: ASIATIC NATIONS: CULTURE AND
LITERATURE (1517-1648)


PERIOD III.  FROM THE PEACE OF WESTPHALIA TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION
(1648-1789).

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER   I.--THE PREPONDERANCE OF FRANCE: FIRST PART OF THE REIGN OF
LOUIS XIV. (TO THE PEACE OF RYSWICK, 1697): THE
RESTORATION OF THE STUARTS: THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION OF 1688

CHAPTER  II.--WAR OF THE SPANISH SUCCESSION (TO THE PEACE OF UTRECHT,
1713): DECLINE OF THE POWER OF FRANCE: POWER AND MARITIME SUPREMACY OF
ENGLAND

CHAPTER III.--THE GREAT NORTHERN WAR: THE FALL OF SWEDEN: GROWTH OF THE
POWER OF RUSSIA

CHAPTER IV.--WAR OF THE AUSTRIAN SUCCESSION: GROWTH OF THE POWER OF
PRUSSIA: THE DESTRUCTION OF POLAND

CHAPTER V.--CONTEST OF ENGLAND AND FRANCE IN AMERICA: WAR OF AMERICAN
INDEPENDENCE: THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES

CHAPTER VI.--LITERATURE, SCIENCE, AND RELIGION


PERIOD IV.  THE ERA OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION (1789-1815).

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER   I.--FROM THE ASSEMBLING OF THE STATES-GENERAL TO THE EXECUTION
OF LOUIS XVI. (1789-1793)

CHAPTER  II.--FROM THE EXECUTION OF LOUIS XVI. TO THE FALL OF ROBESPIERRE
(JAN. 21, 1793-JULY 27, 1794)

CHAPTER III.--FROM THE FALL OF ROBESPIERRE TO THE EMPIRE OF NAPOLEON
(1794-1804)

CHAPTER  IV.--FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE EMPIRE TO THE RUSSIAN CAMPAIGN
(1804-1812)

CHAPTER   V.--FROM THE RUSSIAN CAMPAIGN (1812) TO THE CONGRESS OF VIENNA
(1814-15)

CHAPTER  VI.--AMERICAN HISTORY IN THIS PERIOD (1789-1815)

CHAPTER VII.--LITERATURE, ART, AND SCIENCE (1789-1815)


PERIOD V.  FROM THE CONGRESS OF VIENNA (1815) TO THE PRESENT TIME.

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER   I.--EUROPE, FROM THE CONGRESS OF VIENNA (1815) TO THE FRENCH
REVOLUTION OF 1830

CHAPTER  II.--EUROPE, FROM THE REVOLUTION OF 1830 TO THE REVOLUTIONARY
EPOCH OF 1848

CHAPTER III.--EUROPE, FROM THE REVOLUTIONS OF 1848 TO THE
AUSTRO-PRUSSIAN WAR (1866)

CHAPTER  IV.--EUROPE, FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE AUSTRO-PRUSSIAN WAR TO
THE END OF THE FRANCO-GERMAN WAR (1866-1871)

CHAPTER V.--EUROPE, FROM THE THIRD FRENCH REPUBLIC, AND
THE UNION OF ITALY (1871)

CHAPTER VI.--THE UNITED STATES SINCE 1815: THE SOUTH AMERICAN STATES:
EASTERN ASIA

CHAPTER VII.--THE LAST DECADE OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY

CHAPTER VIII.--DISCOVERY AND INVENTION: SCIENCE AND LITERATURE: PROGRESS
OF HUMANE SENTIMENT: PROGRESS TOWARDS THE UNITY OF MANKIND



LIST OF MAPS.

  THE WORLD AS KNOWN TO THE ANCIENTS

  PHYSICAL FEATURES OF ASIA

  ANCIENT EGYPT

  ANCIENT PALESTINE

  PHYSICAL FEATURES OF EUROPE

  ANCIENT GREECE AND THE AEGEAN ISLANDS

  GREEK AND PHOENICIAN COLONIES

  EMPIRE OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT

  KINGDOMS OF THE SUCCESSORS OF ALEXANDER

  ANCIENT ITALY (NORTHERN PART)

  ANCIENT ITALY (SOUTHERN PART)

  ANCIENT ROMAN EMPIRE

  THE NEW NATIONS AFTER THE GREAT MIGRATIONS (ABOUT A.D. 500)

  EMPIRE OF THE SARACENS (ABOUT A.D. 750)

  EMPIRE OF CHARLEMAGNE

  EMPIRE OF CHARLEMAGNE A.D. 843

  EMPIRE OF CHARLEMAGNE A.D. 887

  CENTRAL EUROPE ABOUT A.D. 980

  MEDITERRANEAN LANDS AT THE TIME OF THE CRUSADES

  FRANCE AND ENGLAND, A.D. 1154-1189

  CENTRAL EUROPE, A.D. 1360

  CENTRAL EUROPE, A.D. 1660

  ITALY ABOUT THE MIDDLE OF IHE SIXTEENTH CENTURY

  EUROPE AT THE TIME OF NAPOLEON'S GREATEST POWER (ABOUT A.D. 1810)

  CENTRAL EUROPE IN 1815

  EUROPE AFTER 1878

  AUSTRO-HUNGARY SINCE 1878

  FRANCE SINCE 1871

  GERMAN EMPIRE SINCE 1871

  TURKISH EMPIRE, GREECE, ETC., SINCE 1878

  TERRITORIAL GROWTH OF THE UNITED STATES

  ASIA AT THE PRESENT TIME




UNIVERSAL HISTORY.


INTRODUCTION.

DEFINITION OF HISTORY.--The subject of history is man. History has for
its object to record his doings and experiences. It may then be
concisely defined as a narrative of past events in which men have been
concerned. To describe the earth, the abode of man, to delineate the
different kingdoms of nature, and to inquire into the origin of them,
or to explain the physical or mental constitution of human beings, is
no part of the office of history. All this belongs to the departments
of natural and intellectual science.

But history, as we now understand the term, is more than a bare record
of what men have done and suffered. It aims to point out the
connection of events with one another. It seeks to explain the causes
and the consequences of things that occur. It would trace the steps
that mark the progress of the race, and of the different portions of
it, through extended periods. It brings to light the thread which
unites each particular stage in the career of a people, or of mankind
as a whole, with what went before, and with what came after.

NATIONS.--History has been called "the biography of a society."
Biography has to do with the career of an individual. History is
concerned with the successive actions and fortunes of a community; in
its broadest extent, with the experiences of the human family. It is
only when men are connected by the social bond, and remain so united
for a greater or less period, that there is room for history. It is,
therefore, with nations, in their internal progress and in their
mutual relations, that history especially deals. Of mere clans, or
loosely organized tribes, it can have little to say. History can go no
farther than to explore their genealogy, and state what were their
journeyings and habits. The nation is a form of society that rests on
the same basis--a basis at once natural and part of a divine
system--as the family. By a nation is meant a people dwelling in a
definite territory, living under the same government, and bound
together by such ties as a common language, a common religion, the
same institutions and customs.  The elements that enter into that
national spirit which is the bond of unity, are multiple. They vary to
a degree in different peoples. As individuals are not alike, and as
the history of any particular community is modified and molded by
these individual differences, so the course of the history of mankind
is shaped by the peculiar characteristics of the various nations, and
by their interaction upon one another. In like manner, groups of
nations, each characterized by distinctive traits derived from
affinities of race or of religion, or from other sources, act on each
other, and thus help to determine the course of the historic stream.

SCOPE OF HISTORY.--The rise and progress of _culture_ and
_civilization_ in their various constituents is the theme of
history. It does not limit its attention to a particular fraction of a
people, to the exclusion of the rest. Governments and rulers, and the
public doings of states,--such as foreign wars, and the struggles of
rival dynasties,--naturally form a prominent topic in historical
writings. But this is only one department in the records of the
past. More and more history interests itself in the character of
society at large, and in the phases through which it has passed. How
men lived from day to day, what their occupations were, their comforts
and discomforts, their ideas, sentiments, and modes of intercourse,
their state as regards art, letters, invention, religious
enlightenment,--these are points on which history, as at present
studied and written, undertakes to shed light.

POINTS OF VIEW.--An eminent German philosopher of our day, _Hermann
Lotze_, intimates that there are five phases of human development,
and hence five points of view from which the course of history is to
be surveyed. These are the _intellectual_ (embracing the progress
of truth and knowledge), the _industrial_, the _aesthetic_
(including art in all its higher ramifications), the _religious_,
and the political. An able English scholar, _Goldwin Smith_,
resolves the elements of human progress, and thus the most general
topics of history, into three, "the moral, the intellectual, and the
productive; or, _virtue_, _knowledge_, and _industry_."
"But these three elements," he adds, "though distinct, are not
separate, but closely connected with each other."

THE PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY.--That there is, in some sense, a "reign of
law" in the succession of human events, is a conviction warranted by
observed facts, as well as inspired by religion. Events do not spring
into being, disjoined from antecedents leading to them. Even
turning-points in history, which seem, at the first glance, abrupt,
are found to be dependent on previous conditions. They are perceived
to be the natural issue of the times that have gone before. Preceding
events have foreshadowed them. There are laws of historical progress
which have their root in the characteristics of human nature. Ends are
wrought out, which bear on them evident marks of design. History, as a
whole, is the carrying out of a plan:

  "... through the ages one increasing purpose runs."

  _Augustine_ long ago argued, that he who has not left "even the
  entrails of the smallest and most insignificant animal, or the
  feather of a bird, or the little flower of a plant, or the leaf of a
  tree, without a harmony, and, as it were, a mutual peace among all
  its parts,--that God can never be believed to have left the kingdoms
  of men, their dominations and servitudes, outside of the laws of his
  providence."

To discern the plan of history, and the causes or laws through which
it is accomplished, as far as our limited capacity will allow, is the
object of what is called the philosophy of history.

FREEDOM AND LAW.--It must not be forgotten, however, that man is a
free agent. History, although it is not an aimless process, is,
nevertheless, not subject to the forces and laws which govern in the
realm of matter. Physical analogies are not a literal image of what
takes place in the sphere of intelligence and freedom. Moral evil,
wherever it is a factor in history, has its origin in the will of
man. In respect to it, the agency of God is permissive and
overruling. Through his providence, order is made to emerge, a worthy
goal is at last reached, despite the elements of disorder introduced
by human perversity.

Nor is progress continuous and unbroken. It is often, as one has said,
a spiral rather than a straight line. It is not an unceasing advance:
there are backward movements, or what appear to be such. Of particular
nations it is frequently evident, that, intellectually and morally, as
well as in power and thrift, they have sunk below a level once
attained.

  Of the inscrutable blending of human freedom with a pre-ordained
  design, GUIZOT says: "Man advances in the execution of a plan which
  he has not conceived, and of which he is not even aware. He is the
  free and intelligent artificer of a work which is not his own."
  "Conceive a great machine, the design of which is centered in a
  single mind, though its various parts are intrusted to different
  workmen, separated from, and strangers to, each other. No one of
  them understands the work as a whole, nor the general result which
  he concurs in producing; but every one executes with intelligence
  and freedom, by rational and voluntary acts, the particular task
  assigned to him." (_Lectures on the History of Civilization_,
  Lect. xi.)

PERSONAL POWER.--The progress of society has been inseparably
connected with the agency of eminent persons. Signal changes, whether
wholesome or mischievous, are linked to the names of individuals who
have specially contributed to bring them to pass. The achievements of
heroes stand out in as bold relief in authentic history as in the
obscure era of myth and fable. Fruitful inventions, after the earlier
steps in civilization are taken, are traceable to particular authors,
exalted by their genius above the common level. So it is with the
literary works which have exerted the deepest and most lasting
influence. Nations have their pilots in war and in peace. Epochs in
the progress of the fine arts are ushered in by individuals of
surpassing mental power. Reforms and revolutions, which alter the
direction of the historic stream, emanate from individuals in whose
minds they are conceived, and by whose energy they are effected. The
force thus exerted by the leaders in history is not accounted for by
reference to general laws. Great men are not puppets moved by the
spirit of the time. To be sure, there must be a preparation for them,
and a groundwork of sympathy among their contemporaries: otherwise
their activity would call forth no response. Independently of the age
that gives them birth, their power would lose its distinctive form and
hue: they would be incapable of influence.

_Cromwell_ would not have been Cromwell had he been born in any
other period of English history. Nor could he have played his part,
being what he was, had not the religious and political struggles of
England for generations framed a theater adapted to his talents and
character. _Michael Angelo_ could not have arisen in a
half-civilized tribe. His creative power would have found no field in
a society rude, and blind to the attractions of art. Nevertheless, his
power _was_ creative. Cromwell and Michael Angelo, and such as
they, are not the passive organs, the mere outcome, of the communities
in which they appear. Without the original thought and personal energy
of leaders, momentous changes in the life of nations could never have
taken place. A great man may be obliged to wait long for the answering
sympathy which is required to give effect to his thoughts and
purposes. Such a mind is said to be in advance of the age. Another
generation may have to appear before the harvest springs from the seed
that he has sown. Moreover, it is not true that great men, efficient
leaders, come forward whenever there is an exigency calling for them,
or an urgent need. Rather is it true that terrible disasters sometimes
occur, at critical points in history, just for the lack of leaders fit
for the emergency.

  THE MEANING OF HISTORY.--A thoughtful student can hardly fail to
  propose to himself the question, "What is the meaning of history?
  Why is this long drama with all that is noble and joyous in it, and
  with its abysses of sin and misery, enacted at all?" It is only a
  partial answer that one can hope to give to this grave inquiry, for
  the designs of Providence can not be fully fathomed. But, among the
  ends in view, the moral training of mankind stands forth with a
  marked prominence. The deliverance of the race from moral evil and
  error, and the building-up of a purified society, enriched with all
  the good that belongs to the ideal of humanity, and exalted by
  fellowship with God, is not only an end worthy in itself, but it is
  the end towards which the onward movement of history is seen to be
  directed. Hence, a central place in the course of history belongs to
  the life and work of Jesus Christ.

  No more satisfactory solution of this problem of the significance of
  history has ever been offered than that brought forward by the
  Apostle Paul in Acts xvii. 27, where he says that the nations of men
  were assigned to their places on the earth, and their duration as
  well as boundaries determined, "that they should seek the Lord, if
  haply they might feel after him, and find him."

  WORKS ON THE PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY.-(Professor C. K. ADAMS'S
  _Manual of Historical Literature_ (1882) is an excellent guide
  in historical reading. Briefer lists of works in _Methods of
  Teaching and Studying History_, edited by G. Stanley Hall.)
  _Books on the Philosophy of History_: R. FLINT, _The
  Philosophy of History_, vol. i.,--Writers on the subject in
  France and Germany. Vol. ii. will treat of England and Italy. The
  work is a critical review of the literature on the
  subject. Schlegel, _The Philosophy of History_; Shedd's
  _Lectures on the Philosophy of History_; Bunsen's _God in
  History_ (3 vols., 1870); LOTZE, _Mikrokosmus_, vol. iii,
  book vii.; Montesquieu's _Spirit of the Laws_; Buckle,
  _History of Civilization in England_ (2 vols.). This work is
  based on the denial of free-will, and the doctrine that physical
  influences,--climate, soil, food, etc.,--are the main causes of
  intellectual progress. Draper's _History of the Intellectual
  Development of Europe_(2 vols., 2d edition, 1876) is in the same
  vein. Opposed to this philosophy are GOLDWIN SMITH'S _Lectures on
  the Study of History_; C. Kingsley, in his _Miscellanies, The
  Limits of Exact Science as applied to History_; Froude, in
  _Short Studies_, vol. i., _The Science of History_; Lotze,
  as above; also, Flint, and Droysen, _Grundriss der
  Historik_. Hegel's _Philosophy of History_ has profound
  observations, but connected with an _a priori_ theory.

  HISTORICAL WRITING.--The beginning of historical writing was in the
  form of lists of kings, or bare records of battles, or the simple
  registration of other occurrences of remarkable interest. The
  Egyptians, Babylonians, Assyrians, Chinese, and other nations,
  furnish examples of this rudimental type of historical writing. More
  continuous annals followed; but these are meager in contents, and
  make no attempt to find links of connection between events. The
  ancient Hebrew historians are on a much higher plane, and, apart
  from their religious value, far surpass all other Asiatic
  histories. It was in _Greece_, the fountain-head of science,
  that history, as an art, first appeared. _Herodotus_, born
  early in the fifth century B.C., first undertook to satisfy
  curiosity respecting the past by a more elaborate and entertaining
  narrative. He begins his work thus: "These are the researches of
  Herodotus of Halicarnassus, which he publishes, in the hope of
  thereby preserving from decay the remembrance of what men have done,
  and of preventing the great and marvelous actions of the Greeks and
  the barbarians from losing their due meed of glory, and withal to
  put on record what were the grounds of their hostility." In
  Herodotus, history, owing to the inquiry made into the causes of
  events, begins to rise above the level of a mere chronicle, its
  primitive type. _Thucydides_, who died about 400 B.C.,
  followed. He is far more accurate in his investigations, having a
  deep insight into the origin of the events which he relates, and is
  a model of candor. He, too, writes to minister to the inquisitive
  spirit of his countrymen, and of the generations that were to
  follow. He began to write his history of the war between the
  Athenians and the Peloponnesians while it was still going on, in the
  belief, he says, "that it would turn out great, and worthier of
  being recorded than any that had preceded it." The attention of
  historical writers was still confined to a particular country, or to
  insulated groups of events. Before there could spring up the idea of
  universal history, it was necessary that there should be a broader
  view of mankind as a whole. The ancient _Stoics_ had a glimpse
  of the race as a family, and of the nations as forming one complex
  unity. The conquests and extended dominion of Rome first suggested
  the idea of universal history. _Polybius_, a Greek in the
  second century B.C., had watched the progress of Rome, in its career
  of conquest, until "the affairs of Italy and Africa," as he says,
  "joined with those of Asia and Greece, and all moved together
  towards one fixed and single point." He tells us that particular
  histories can not give us a knowledge of the whole, more than the
  survey of the divided members of a body once endowed with life and
  beauty can yield a just conception of all the comeliness and vigor
  which it has received from Nature. To Polybius belongs the
  distinction of being the first to undertake a universal
  history. Christianity, with its doctrine of the unity of mankind,
  and with all the moral and religious teaching characteristic of the
  gospel, contributed effectively to the widening of the view of the
  office and scope of history. It is only in quite recent times that
  history has directed its attention predominantly to _social
  progress_, and to its causes and conditions.

  History, in its etymological sense (from the Greek, historia), meant
  the ascertaining of facts by inquiry; then, the results of this
  inquiry, the knowledge thus obtained. The work of Herodotus was
  "history" in the strictest sense: he acquired his information by
  travel and personal interrogation.

  The German philosopher, _Hegel_, has divided histories into
  three classes: 1. _Original histories_; i.e., works written by
  contemporaries of the events described, who share in the spirit of
  the times, and may have personally taken part in the
  transactions. Such are the works of Herodotus, Thucydides,
  Xenophon's Anabasis, Clarendon's History of the Great Rebellion in
  England, Caesar's Commentaries. 2. _Reflective histories_,
  where the author writes at a later point of time, on the basis of
  materials which he gathers up, but is not himself a partaker in the
  spirit of the age of which he treats. 3. _Philosophical
  histories_, which set forth the rational development of history
  in its inmost idea.

  Another classification is the following: 1. _Genealogies_, like
  the records of Manetho, the Egyptian priest. 2. _The
  chronicle_, following the chronological order, and telling the
  story in a simple, popular way. 3. _The "pragmatic"_ form of
  writing, which aims to explain by reference to the past some
  particular characteristic or phase of the present, and uses history
  to point a special moral lesson. 4. The form of history which traces
  the rise and progress of "_ideas_," tendencies, or ruling
  forces,--such as the idea of civil equality in early Rome or in
  modern France, the religious ideas of Mohammedanism, the idea of
  representative government, the idea of German unity, etc.

  A broad line of distinction has been drawn between "the old or
  _artistic_ type of history," and the new or _sociological_
  type which belongs to the present century. The ancient historians
  represented the former type. They prized literary form. They aimed
  to interweave moral and political reflections. Polybius often
  interrupts his narrative to introduce remarks of this sort. But they
  were not, as a rule, diligent and accurate in their researches. And,
  above all, they had no just conception of society as a whole, and of
  the complex forces out of which the visible scene springs. The
  Greeks were the masters in this first or artistic form of
  history. The French Revolution was one stimulus to a profounder and
  more comprehensive method of studying history. The methods and
  investigations of natural science have had a decided influence in
  the same direction.

THE SOURCES OF HISTORY.--History must depend for credence on credible
evidence. In order to justify belief, one must either himself have
seen or heard the facts related, or have the testimony, direct or
indirect, of witnesses or of well-informed contemporaries. The sources
of historic knowledge are mainly comprised in _oral tradition_,
or in some form of _written records_.

_Tradition_ is exposed to the infirmities of memory, and to the
unconscious invention and distortion which grow out of imagination and
feeling. Ordinarily, bare tradition, not verified by corroborative
proofs, can not be trusted later than the second generation from the
circumstances narrated. It ceases to be reliable when it has been
transmitted through more than two hands. In the case of a great and
startling event, like a destructive convulsion of nature or a
protracted war, the authentic story, though unwritten, of the central
facts, at least, is of much longer duration. There may be visible
monuments that serve to perpetuate the recollection of the occurrences
which they commemorate. _Institutions_ may exist--popular
festivals and the like--which keep alive the memory of past events,
and, in certain circumstances, are sufficient to verify them to
generations far removed in time. Events of a stirring character, when
they are embodied in _songs_ of an early date, may be transmitted
orally, though in a poetic dress. Songs and legends, it may be added,
even when they do not suffice to verify the incidents to which they
refer, are valuable as disclosing the sentiments and habits of the
times when they originated, or were cherished. The central fact, the
nucleus of the tradition, may be historical when all the details
belonging with it have been effaced, or have been superseded by other
details, the product of imagination. The historical student is to
distinguish between traditionary tales which are _untrustworthy
throughout_, and traditions which have _their roots in
fact_. Apart from oral tradition, the sources of historical
knowledge are the following:--

1. Contemporary registers, chronicles, and other documents, either
now, or known to have been originally, in a manuscript form.

2. Inscriptions on monuments and coins. Such, for example, are the
inscriptions on the monuments of Egypt and on the buried ruins of
Nineveh and Babylon. Such are the ancient epitaphs, heathen and
Christian, in the Roman catacombs. The study of ancient inscriptions
of various sorts has thrown much light of late upon Grecian and Roman
antiquity.

3. The entire literature of a people, in which its intellectual,
moral, and social condition, at any particular era, is mirrored.

4. Material structures of every kind, as altars, tombs, private
dwellings,--as those uncovered at Pompeii,--public edifices, civil and
religious, paintings, weapons, household utensils. These all tell a
story relative to the knowledge and taste, the occupations and
domestic habits, and the religion, of a past generation or of an
extinct people.

5 Language is a memorial of the past, of the more value since it is
not the product of deliberate contrivance. _Comparative
philology_, following languages back to their earlier stages and to
the parent stocks, unveils the condition of society at remote
epochs. It not only describes the origin of nations, but teaches
something respecting their primitive state.

6. Histories written at former periods, but subsequently to the events
described in them, are a secondary but valuable source of historical
knowledge. This is especially true when their authors had access to
traditions that were nearer their fountain, or to literary monuments
which have perished.

  HISTORICAL CRITICISM.--Historical scholars are much more exacting as
  regards evidence than was formerly the case. The criticism of what
  purports to be proof is more searching. At the same time, what is
  called "historical divination" can not be altogether
  excluded. Learned and sagacious scholars have conjectured the
  existence of facts, where a gap in recorded history--"the logic of
  events"--seemed to presuppose them; and later discoveries have
  verified the guess. This is analogous to the success of Leverrier
  and Adams in inferring the existence of an unknown planet, which the
  telescope afterwards discovered. An example of historical divination
  on a large scale is furnished by the theories of the great German
  historian, _Niebuhr_, in respect to early Roman history. He
  propounded opinions, however, which in many particulars fail to
  obtain general assent at present.

  CREDIBILITY OF HISTORY.--At the opposite pole from credulity is an
  unwarrantable historical skepticism. The story is told of Sir Walter
  Raleigh, that when he was a prisoner in the Tower, and was engaged
  in writing his _History of the World_, he heard the sounds of a
  fracas in the prison-yard. On inquiry of those who were concerned in
  it, and were on the spot, he found so many contradictions in their
  statements that he could not get at the truth. Whereupon, it
  occurred to him as a vain thing to undertake to describe what had
  occurred on the vast theater of the world, when he could not
  ascertain the truth about an event occurring within a bow-shot. The
  anecdote simply illustrates, however, the difficulty of getting at
  the exact truth respecting details,--a difficulty constantly
  exemplified in courts of justice. The fact of the conflict in the
  court of the Tower, the general cause, the parties engaged, the
  consequences,--as, for example, what punishment was inflicted,--were
  undisputed. The great facts which influence the course of history,
  it is not difficult to ascertain. Moreover, as against an
  extravagant skepticism, it may be said that history provides us with
  a vast amount of authentic information which contemporaries, and
  even individual actors, were not possessed of. This is through the
  bringing to light of documents from a great variety of sources, many
  of which were secret, or not open to the view of all the leaders in
  the transactions to which they refer. The private correspondence of
  the Protestant leaders,--Luther, Melanchthon, Cranmer, etc.,--the
  letters of Erasmus, the official reports of the Venetian
  ambassadors, the letters of William the Silent and of Philip II.,
  put us in possession of much information, which at the time was a
  secret to most of the prominent participants in the events of the
  sixteenth century. The correspondence of Washington, Hamilton,
  Jefferson, John Adams, Wolcott, Pickering, etc., introduces us into
  the secret counsels of the American political leaders of that
  day. Numerous facts conveyed from one to another under the seal of
  privacy, and not known to the others, are thus revealed to us.

  On the nature and value of tradition, a very valuable discussion is
  that of EWALD, _History of Israel_, vol. i. pp. 13-38; Sir
  G. C. LEWIS, _ Essays on the Credibility of Early Roman
  History_, in which Niebuhr's conclusions are criticised;
  A. Bisset, _Essays on Historical Truth_. On the sources of
  history, Art. by GAIRDNER in _The Contemporary Review_,
  vol. xxxviii.

HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY.--Political Geography, which describes the earth
as inhabited, and as parceled out among nations, has a close relation
to history. Without a distinct idea of the position of places and the
boundaries of countries, historical narrations are enveloped in a sort
of haze. _France_, for example, is a name with very different
meanings at different dates in the past. Unless the varying uses of
the word _Burgundy_ are understood, important parts of European
history are left in confusion.

PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY.--Even more helpful is _Physical Geography_,
which surveys the earth in its three great divisions,--land, sea, and
air,--without reference to lines of political demarkation. The
configuration of the different portions of the globe, with the
varieties of climate, the relations of mountain and plain, of land and
water, have strongly affected the character of nations and the
currents of history. In regions extremely hot or extremely cold man
can not thrive, or build up a rich and enduring civilization. The
occupations of a people are largely dependent on its
situation,--whether it be maritime or away from the sea,--and on
peculiarities of soil and temperature. The character of the Nile
valley, and its periodical inundation, is a striking illustration of
the possible extent of geographical influences. The peninsular and
mountainous character of Greece went far to shape the form of Greek
political society. The high plateau which forms the greater portion of
Spain, with the fertile belts of valley on the Atlantic and
Mediterranean border, have helped to determine the employments and the
character of the Spanish people. Had the physical characteristics of
the Spanish peninsula been essentially different, the success of
Wellington in expelling the French, with the forces at his disposal,
would not have been possible. Were there a chain of mountains along
our Atlantic coast as near as are the Andes to the Pacific, what
different results would have arisen from the English settlements in
North America! The Alpine barrier in the north of Italy was
indispensable to the building-up and maintenance of the dominion of
ancient Rome. Of the great basin or plain between the Alps and the
Apennines, open to the sea only on the east, through which flows one
great river, fed by streams from the mountains on either side,
Dr. Arnold says: "Who can wonder that this large and richly watered
plain should be filled with flourishing cities, or that it should have
been contended for so often by successful invaders?" While the agency
of climate, soil, and other physical circumstances may easily be
exaggerated, that agency must be duly considered in accounting for
historical phenomena.

  The best historical Atlas is the copious German work of VON
  SPRUNER. FREEMAN'S _Historical Geography of Europe_ is a work
  of great value. DROVSEN'S _Allg. Hist. Atlas._ Smaller atlases
  are those of PUTZGER, Rhode, Appleton's _Hist. Atlas_, the
  _International_, and the _Collegiate_. Smaller still,
  Keith Johnston's Crown Atlases and Half-Crown Atlases. On Mediaeval
  History, Labberton's Atlas; also, Koeppen: in Ancient Geography,
  SMITH'S work, KIEPERT'S, Long's. On Physical Geography, GUYOT'S
  text-books; Vaughan's _Connection between History and Physical
  Geography_, in _Contemp. Review_, vol. v.; Hall's _Methods
  of Studying History_, etc., p. 201 _seq._,
  _Encycl. Brit._, Art. _Geography_.

CHRONOLOGY.--An exact method of establishing dates was slowly reached.
The invention of eras was indispensable to this end. The earliest
definite time for the dating of events was established at
Babylon,--the era of Nabonassar, 747 B.C. The Greeks, from about 300
B.C., dated events from the first recorded victory at the Olympic
games, 776 B.C. These games occurred every fourth year. Each Olympiad
was thus a period of four years. The Romans, though not until some
centuries after the founding of Rome, dated from that event; i.e.,
from 753 B.C. The Mohammedan era begins at the Hegira, or flight of
Mohammed from Mecca, 622 A.D. The method of dating from the birth of
Jesus was introduced by Dionysius Exiguus, a Roman abbot, about the
middle of the sixth century. This epoch was placed by him about four
years too late. This requires us to fix the date of the birth of
Christ at 4 B.C.

  The day was the simplest and earliest division of time. The week has
  been in use for this purpose in the East from time immemorial. It
  was not introduced among the Romans until after the spread of
  Christianity in the Empire. The month was the earlier unit for
  periods of greater length. To make the lunar and the solar years
  correspond, and to determine the exact length of the solar year, was
  a work of difficulty, and was only gradually effected. _Julius_
  _Caesar_ reformed the calendar in 46 B.C., the date of the
  Julian era. This made the year eleven minutes too long. _Pope
  Gregory XIII_. corrected the reckoning, in 1582, by ordering
  Oct. 5th to be called the 15th, and instituted the "Gregorian
  calendar." The change, or the "New Style," was subsequently adopted
  by Great Britain (in 1752), and by the other Protestant nations. The
  difference for the present century between the Old and the New Style
  is twelve days: during the last century it was eleven. The Julian
  civil year began with Jan. 1. It was not until the eighteenth
  century that this became the uniform date for the commencement of
  the legal year among the Latin Christian nations.

  On the general subjects of chronology: _Encycl. Britt_.,
  Arts. _Chronology_ and _Calendar_. Manuals of Reference:
  ROSSE'S _Index of Dates_ (1858); Haydn's _Dictionary of
  Dates_ (Vincent's edition, 1866); BLAIR'S _Chronological
  Tables_; Woodward and Cates, _Encycl. of Chronology_ (1872).


ETHNOLOGY.

Ethnology is a new science. Its function is to ascertain the origin
and filiation, the customs and institutions, of the various nations
and tribes which make up, or have made up in the past, the human
race. In tracing their relationship to one another, or their
genealogy, the sources of information are mainly three,--_physical
characteristics, language_, and _written memorials_ of every
sort.

Ethnology is a branch of Anthropology, as this is a subdivision of
Zooelogy, and this, again, of Biology. Ethnography differs from
Ethnology in dealing more with details of description, and less with
rational exposition.

RACES OF MANKIND.--Authorities differ widely from one another in their
classification of races. _Prichard_ made seven, which were
reduced by _Cuvier_ to three; viz., _Caucasian, Mongolian,
Ethiopic.  Blumenbach_ made five, and _Pickering_ eleven. It
is the Caucasian variety which has been chiefly distinguished in
history, and active in the building-up of civilization. None of the
numerous schemes of division, from a zooelogical point of view,
however, are satisfactory.

  _Huxley_ has proposed a fourfold classification: 1. The
  Australoid, represented by the Australians and the indigenous tribes
  of Southern India. 2. The Negroid. 3. The Mongoloid. 4. The
  Xanthochroi, or fair whites, among whom are comprised most of the
  inhabitants of Northern Europe. To these are added a fifth variety,
  the Melanochroi, to which belong a part of the Celts, the Spaniards,
  Greeks, Arabs, etc.

  Of the various methods of race-division, _A. van Humboldt_
  says: "We fail to recognize any typical sharpness of definition, or
  any general or well-established principle, in the division of these
  groups. The extremes of form and color are certainly separated, but
  without regard to the races which can not be included in any of
  these classes." (_Cosmos_, i. 365.) For example, black skin,
  woolly hair, and a negro-like cast of countenance, are not
  necessarily connected together.

MONOGENISM.--Zooelogists, from the point of view of their own science,
now more generally favor the _monogenist_ doctrine, which traces
mankind to a single pair, than the polygenist, which assumed different
centers of origin. The present tendencies of natural science,
especially since Darwin, are favorable to the monogenist view.

  "The opinion of modern Zooelogists, whose study of the species and
  breeds of animals makes them the best judges, is against this view
  of the several origins of man, for two principal reasons. First,
  That all tribes of men, from the blackest to the whitest, the most
  savage to the most cultured, have such general likeness in the
  structure of their bodies and the working of their minds, as is
  easiest and best accounted for by their being descended from a
  common ancestry, however distant. Second, That all the human races,
  notwithstanding their form and color, appear capable of freely
  intermarrying, and forming crossed races of every combination, such
  as the millions of mulattoes and mestizoes sprung in the New World
  from the mixture of Europeans, Africans, and native Americans; this
  again points to a common ancestry of all the races of man. We may
  accept the theory of the unity of mankind as best agreeing with
  ordinary experience and scientific research." (Tylor's
  _Anthropology_, etc., pp. 5, 6.)

EVIDENCE OF LANGUAGE.--Languages, through marked affinities, are
grouped together into several great families, i. The _Aryan_, or
Indo-European, of which the oldest known branch is the Sanskrit, the
language in which the ancient books of the Hindus, the Vedas, were
written. With the Sanskrit belong the Iranian or Persian, the Greek,
the Latin or Italic, the Celtic, the Germanic or Teutonic (under which
are included the Scandinavian tongues), the Slavonian or
Slavo-Lettic. 2. The _Semitic_, embracing the communities
described in Genesis as the descendants of Shem. Under this head are
embraced, first, the Assyrian and Babylonian; secondly, the Hebrew and
Phoenician, with the Syrian or Aramaic; and thirdly, the Arabic. The
Phoenician was spread among numerous colonies, of which Carthage was
the chief. The Arabic followed the course of Mohammedan conquest. It
is the language of the northern border of Africa, and has strongly
affected various other languages,--the Persian, Turkish, etc. 3. The
_Turanian or Scythian_. This is an extensive family of
languages. The Finno-Hungarian, which includes two cultivated peoples,
the Fins and Hungarians; the Samoyed, stretching from the North Sea
far eastward to the boundary between Russia and China; and the Turkish
or Tartar, spreading from European Turkey over a great part of Central
Asia, are connected together by family ties. They spring from one
parent stock. Whether the Mongolian and the Tungusic--the last is the
language of the Manchus--are also thus affiliated, is a point not
absolutely settled.

Besides these three great divisions, there are other languages, as the
_Chinese_, and the monosyllabic tongues of south-eastern Asia,
which possibly are connected lineally with it; the _Japanese_;
the _Malay-Polynesian_, a well-developed family; the
_Hamitic_ (of which the Egyptian or Coptic is the principal
member); the _Dravidian_ or _South Indian_; the _South
African_; the _Central African_; the _American Indian_
languages, etc.

  On language and the divisions of language, W. D. WHITNEY,
  _Language, and the Study of Language_ (1867), _Oriental and
  Linguistic Studies_ (two series, 1872-74), _Life and Growth of
  Language_ (1875); Art. _Philology_, in _Encycl. Brit_.,
  vol. xviii.; Max Mueller's _Lectures on the Science of Language_
  (two series), and other writings by the same author.

ETHNOLOGY AND HISTORY.--History is generally written from the
political point of view. It is the history of nations considered
separately and in relation to one another. There are, also, histories
of culture. History, from a cultural point of view, without paying
regard to national boundaries, seeks to unfold the rise and progress
of arts and industry, of inventions, of customs, manners, and
institutions. It is the history of culture and civilization. History,
from the ethnological point of view, would describe the migrations and
experiences of the different races of men, and the formation of the
various nationalities by these races, through conquest and
intermixture. Following the divisions of linguistic science, we should
have, first, the _Egyptian_ race and their history. Then we
should have the _Semitic_ race, in the three eras of their
pre-eminence, and in their various branches. Then would come the
_Aryan_, or Indo-European family, whose power, except when
interrupted and partially broken by the Mohammedan conquests, has
continued to dominate in history since the rise of the ancient Persian
Empire.

  There have been three periods of Semitic ascendency,--the era of the
  Assyrian and Babylonian empires; that of the Phoenician cities and
  of Carthage (a Tyrian settlement), with their colonies; and that of
  the Arabic-Mohammedan Conquests. This last epoch falls within the
  Christian era. In this course of Semitic history would be embraced
  the narrative of the Israelites, and of their dispersion in ancient
  and in modern times. The Indo-European, or Aryan family, follows
  next in order. In recording its history, we should consider, first,
  its oldest representative of which we have knowledge,--the Indian
  race, with its literature, its social organization, and its
  religions, Brahmanism and Buddhism. Then come the Persians, with
  their religion founded by _Zoroaster_, and the Armenians. With
  the fall of the Ancient Persian Empire, the center of power was
  transferred from Asia to Europe, where it has since continued,
  though still in the hands of the same Aryan race. The history of the
  Greeks and of the Romans succeeds; then the history of the three
  races,--the Celtic, Teutonic, and Slavonian,--as they present
  themselves at the threshold of authentic history. The forming of the
  several nationalities of Europe would have to be traced: the
  Slavonian, including Russia and Poland; the Teutonic, comprising
  England, Holland, Germany, and the Scandinavian peoples (viz.,
  Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Iceland); the Romanic or Italic nations
  (viz., Portugal, Spain, Provence, Italy, Wallachia, the Grisons of
  Switzerland), which are the nations the basis of whose languages is
  the rustic or people's Latin of the middle ages. Such, in brief
  outline, is the method which history, from the point of view of race
  affinities, as these are indicated by language, would adopt.

UNITY OF DESCENT.--Whether mankind are all descended from one
pair--the _Monogenist_ view, or spring from more than one center
of origin--the _Polygenist_ view, is a question which
philological science can not answer. The facts of language are
reconcilable with either doctrine. While cautious philologists are
slow in admitting distinct affinities between the generic families of
speech,--as the Semitic and Indo-European,--which would be indicative
of a common origin, they agree in the judgment, that, on account of
the mutability of language, especially when unwritten, and while in
its earlier stages, no conclusion adverse to the monogenist doctrine
can be drawn from the diversities of speech now existing, or that are
known to have existed at any past time. As far as science is
concerned, the decision of the question must be left to zooelogy. The
tendencies of natural science at present, as we have said above, are
strongly toward the monogenist view. The variety of physical
characteristics not only affords no warrant for assuming diversity of
species among men; they do not even imply diversity of parentage at
the beginning.

  "Nothing," says Max Mueller, "necessitates the admission of different
  independent beginnings for the _material_ elements" [the
  vocabulary] "of the Turanian, Semitic, and Aryan branches of
  speech."  The same thing Mueller affirms of "the formal elements"
  [the grammatical structure] "of these groups of languages." "We can
  perfectly understand how, either through individual influences or by
  the wear and tear of speech in its continuous working, the different
  systems of grammar of Asia and Europe may have been produced."
  (_Lectures on Language_, 1st series, p. 340.) The same
  conclusions are reached by Professor W. D. Whitney, who, while
  disclaiming for linguistic science the power to prove that the human
  race in the beginning formed one society, says, that it is "even far
  more demonstrable" that it can "never prove the variety of human
  races and origins." (_Life and Growth of Language_, p. 269.)

  We know that nations can learn and unlearn a language. The Irish,
  adopting the language of their English conquerors, is one of many
  examples of the same sort in history. What effects upon language
  took place, prior to recorded history, from the mingling of tribes
  and peoples, it is impossible to ascertain. The consequences to
  language, of mixture among different forms of speech, were like
  those which must have been produced upon the physical man from the
  mingling of diverse physical types in remote ages. Science, if it
  has no decided verdict to render, does not stand in conflict with
  the monogenist doctrine, which has generally been understood to be
  the teaching of the Scriptures.


MYTHOLOGY.

The polytheistic religions are in themselves a highly interesting part
of the history of mankind. In the multiform character that belongs to
them we find reflected the peculiar traits of the several peoples
among whom they have arisen. The history of religion stands in a close
connection with the development of the fine arts,--architecture and
sculpture, painting, music, and also poetry. The earliest rhythmical
utterance was in hymns to the gods. To worship, all the arts are
largely indebted for their birth and growth. This, however, is only
one of the ways in which religion is interwoven with the rise and
progress of civilization.

  By _mythology_; we mean the collective beliefs of any tribe or
  nation respecting deities or semi-divine personages. Recent studies
  in language, or the science of _comparative philology_, have
  thrown light on the origin of mythology, and upon the affinities of
  different polytheistic religions with one another. Among various
  nations belonging to the same family (as, for example, the peoples
  of the _Aryan_ race), names of gods, and, to some extent,
  qualities and deeds attributed to them, have been identified. Myths
  are found to have traveled in different guises from land to land. At
  the same time, these discoveries have given rise to much unverified
  theory and conjecture. Too much stress has been laid, by certain
  writers, on _mistakes in language_ as a source of mythology. In
  the primitive stage of language, all nouns had a _gender_,
  either male or female; and verbs, even auxiliary verbs, it is
  alleged, expressed _activity_ of some sort. On the basis of
  these facts it has been inferred, that, at a later day, figurative
  expressions, descriptive of natural changes, were taken as literal;
  as if one should interpret the saying, "the sun follows the dawn,"
  as meaning that one person pursues another. By this kind of
  misunderstanding, it has been thought, a throng of mythological
  tales arose. By some it is held that the names of animals, which had
  been given to ancestors, were interpreted literally by their savage
  descendants, or that traditions of having come from a certain
  _mountain_ or _river_ caused these natural objects to be
  mistakenly regarded as actual progenitors. These suggestions are of
  very limited value in solving the problem of the origin of the
  ethnic religions. Much, however, has been learned from observing the
  rites and beliefs of existing savage nations. Not a few religious
  notions and ceremonies, once in vogue among cultivated heathen
  peoples, may be plausibly considered a survival from a more remote
  and barbarous condition of society.

  That mythology is the product of a mere exaggeration of actual
  events, or is an allegorical picture, either of the operations of
  nature or of human traits, is an untenable and obsolete view.

  We shall not err in defining the main sources of the religions to
  be, _first_, the sense of dependence, and the yearning for the
  fellowship and favor of powers "not ourselves," by which the lot of
  men is felt to be determined; _secondly_, the effort to explain
  the world of nature above and beneath, and the occurrences of life;
  and _thirdly_, the personifying instinct which belongs to the
  childhood of nations as of individuals. This tendency leads to the
  attributing of conscious life to things inanimate. A like tendency
  may impel the savage and the child to ascribe mind to the lower
  animals. The fact that language, in its earlier stage, was charged
  with personal life and activity, is itself the work of the
  personifying instinct. When nature is thus personified, where there
  is no sense of its unity and no capacity to rise in faith to a
  living God above nature, the result is a multitude of divinities of
  higher and lower rank. _Myths_ respecting them are the
  spontaneous invention of unreflecting and uncritical, but
  imaginative, peoples. Thus they serve to indicate the range of
  ideas, and the moral spirit of those who originate and give credence
  to them.

  This is not the place to consider the question, What was the
  primitive religion of man? The earliest deities that history brings
  to our notice were not fetiches, but heavenly beings of lofty
  attributes. Whether the religions of savage tribes, in common with
  their low grade of intelligence, are, or are not, the result of
  _degeneracy_, is a question which secular history affords no
  means of deciding with confidence,

  It may be added, that, in historic eras, the mythopoeic fancy is not
  inactive. Stories of marvelous adventure clustered about the old
  Celtic King Arthur of England and the "knights of the Round-Table,"
  and fill up the chronicles relating to Charlemagne. Wherever there
  is a person who kindles popular enthusiasm, myths accumulate. This
  is eminently true in an atmosphere like that which prevailed in the
  mediaeval period, when imagination and emotion were dominant.


PREHISTORIC TIMES.

PREHISTORIC RELICS.--Within the last half century, in various
countries of Europe, and in other countries, also, which have been,
earlier or later, seats of civilization, there have been found
numerous relics of uncivilized races, which, at periods far remote,
must have inhabited the same ground. Many of these antiquities are met
with in connection with remains of fossil elephants, hyenas, bears,
etc.,--with animals which no longer live in the regions referred to,
and some of which have become wholly extinct. Dwelling-places of these
far-distant peoples--such as caves and rock-shelters, and the remains
of the lake-habitations that were built on piles, in Switzerland and
elsewhere--sepulchers, camps, and forts, and an immense number of
implements and ornaments of stone and metal, have been examined. The
most ancient of these monuments carry us as far back as the era called
by geologists the _Quaternary_ or _Drift_ period.

THE THREE STAGES.--But there are marked distinctions in the relative
age of the various relics referred to. They indicate different degrees
of knowledge and skill; and this proof of a succession of peoples, or
of stages of development, is confirmed by geological evidence. The
prehistoric time is divided into _the Stone Age_, _the Age of
Bronze_, and _the Age of Iron_, according as the implements in
use were of one or another of these materials. But the Stone Age
includes an _earlier_ and a _later_ sub-division. In the
first and most ancient section, the weapons and utensils, mostly of
flint, were very rude in their manufacture. This was the
_Paleolithic Age_, where there are no signs of habitations
constructed by the hand, or of domesticated plants and animals. Men
lived in caves, and their vestments were the skins of beasts. Yet,
among their implements are found fragments of bone, horn, ivory, and
stone, on which are carved in outline, often with much skill,
representations of the reindeer, the bear, the ox, and of other
animals. In the _Neolithic_ period, there was a decided
advance. Implements are better made and polished. There were domestic
animals and cultivated plants. The lake-dwellings in Switzerland were
well contrived for shelter and defense. Every hut had its hearth. It
is probable that most of them were furnished with a loom for
weaving. Fragments of pottery are found, and flax was grown and made
into cord, nettings, etc. Stalls were constructed near the huts for
the ox, the goat, the horse, sheep, and pigs. The lake-dwellers
cultivated wheat and barley. The _Bronze Age_, when implements
were made of copper or of a mixture of copper and tin, exhibits proof
of decided improvement in various directions; and the _Age of
Iron_, a still more marked advance. In the Swiss remains referred
to are distinct traces of a transition from the Stone Age to the Age
of Bronze, and then to the Age of Iron. The kitchen-middens, or
shell-mounds, of Denmark belong exclusively to the Neolithic
period. Where the transition was made from the Stone Age to the Age of
Bronze, it apparently occurred in some cases by degrees, and
peacefully; but sometimes by the incoming of an invading people more
advanced. It should be observed that the lines of division between
these periods are not sharply drawn: implements of stone continued to
be used after the Bronze and even the Iron periods had been
introduced. Nor were these several ages in one region contemporaneous
with like conditions in every other. Moreover, it is not possible to
find in all countries once civilized proofs of a passage through these
successive eras. In Egypt, the evidences of a Stone Age are
scanty. The most ancient human remains show that man in his physical
characteristics was on a level with man at present.

  _Dr. Daniel Wilson_, speaking of the age of the Flint-folk,
  says: "It is of no slight importance to perceive that the interval
  which has wrought such revolutions in the earth" [involving great
  geological changes and mutations of climate] "as are recorded in the
  mammaliferous drift, shows man the same reasoning, tentative, and
  inventive mechanician, as clearly distinguished then from the
  highest orders of contemporary life of the Elephantine or Cave
  periods, as he is now from the most intelligent of the brute
  creation.... The oldest art-traces of the paleotechnic men of
  central France not only surpass those of many savage races, but they
  indicate an intellectual aptitude in no degree inferior to the
  average Frenchman of the nineteenth century."  (_Prehistoric
  Man_, pp. 33, 34.)

  Literature.--Wilson, _Prehistoric Man_, etc. (2 vols., 1876);
  Joly, _Man before the Metals_ (1883); Keary, _The Dawn of
  History_. The writings of E. B. Tylor, _Primitive Culture_
  (2 vols.), _Anthropology, Early History of Mankind_; his
  Art. _Anthropology, Encycl. Britt_.; Lubbock's _Prehistoric
  Times_, and his _Origin of Civilization_; Argyll, _The
  Unity of Nature _(1884); J. Geikie, _Prehistoric Europe_
  (1881); Lyell, _The Antiquity of Man_; W. E. Hearn, _The
  Aryan Household_; L. H. Morgan, _Ancient Society_.


THE ANTIQUITY OF MAN.--Science does not furnish us with the means of
fixing the date of the first human inhabitants of the earth. But its
various departments of investigation concur in pronouncing the
interval between the creation of man and the present to be far longer
than the traditional opinion has assumed. For the growth of language
and its manifold ramifications; for the development of the different
races of mankind, physically considered; for the geological changes
since the beginning of the Stone Age in the regions where its relics
are uncovered; for the rise of the most ancient civilization in Egypt
as well as in Babylon and China,--it is thought that periods of very
long duration are indispensable.

As to the date of the Neolithic man, or of the last section of the
Stone Age, Professor J. Geikie writes: "Any term of years I might
suggest would be a mere guess; but I have written to little purpose,
however, if the phenomena described in the preceding chapters have
failed to leave the impression upon the reader, that the advent of
Neolithic man in Europe must date back far beyond fifty or seventy
centuries."  (_Prehistoric Europe_, p. 558.)

  The chronology gathered from Genesis has been supposed to place the
  date of man's creation at a point far less remote. Usher's
  calculation, attached to the authorized English Version of the
  Bible, sets this date at 4004 B.C. The discussion of these questions
  of Scriptural chronology belongs to theology and biblical
  criticism. It may be observed here, however, that of the three forms
  in which Genesis is handed down to us,--the Hebrew text, the
  Samaritan Pentateuch, and the Septuagint, or ancient Greek
  translation,--no two agree in the numbers on which the estimate is
  founded. Hence Hales and Jackson, following the larger numbers in
  the genealogies of the Septuagint, place the date of the creation at
  a point about fourteen hundred years prior to that fixed upon by
  Usher.


ANCIENT AND MODERN HISTORY.

The periods of history are not divided from one another by merely
chronological limits, according to intervals of time of a definite
duration. Such a classification may be of use to the memory, but it is
arbitrary in its character. The landmarks of history are properly
placed at the turning-points where new eras take their start, whether
the intervals between them are longer or shorter.

Of these natural divisions, the most general and the most marked is
that between ancient and modern history. Ancient history not only
precedes modern in time: it is distinguished from the latter as
relating to a by-gone state of things. Modern history, on the
contrary, deals with an order of things now existing. Between the two
there is this line of demarkation.

History (with the exception of China and India, which require distinct
consideration, as standing apart) begins with Egypt, and flows down in
a continuous stream, until, in the fourth century A.D., the Roman
Empire, into which the ancient civilized peoples were incorporated,
was broken up. Then the new nations, especially the tribes of the
Germanic race, took power into their hands; Christianity was
established among them; out of the chaos of elements there emerged the
European nations, with their offshoots,--the peoples at present on the
stage of action. Ancient history had its center in the
Mediterranean. It embraced the peoples who dwelt on the shores of that
sea, in the three continents, and the nations that were brought into
relations with them. The Roman Empire, the final outcome of ancient
history, was "the monarchy of the Mediterranean." With the breaking-up
of the Empire, new races, new centers of power, a universal religion
in the room of national religions, and a new type of culture and
civilization, were introduced. Invaluable legacies were handed over
from the past, surviving the wreck of ancient civilization. There is,
however, a unity in history: the transition from the ancient to the
modern era was gradual.


MEDIAEVAL AND LATER MODERN HISTORY.

Since the fall of the Roman Empire, there has occurred no revolution
to be compared with the circumstances and results of that event. An
old world passed away, and a new world began to be. Yet the student,
as he travels hitherward, arrives at another epoch of extraordinary
change,--a period of ferment, when modern society in Europe takes on a
form widely different from the character that had belonged to it
previously. The long interval between _ancient_ history and
_modern_ (in this more restricted sense of thes term) is styled
the Middle Ages. Its termination may be found in the fifteenth
century, and a convenient date to mark the boundary-line is the
capture of Constantinople by the Turks (1453).

History thus divides itself into three parts:--

Part I. Ancient History, to the migrations of the Germanic Tribes (375
A.D).

Part II. Mediaeval History, from A.D. 375 to the Fall of Constantinople
(1453).

PART III. Modern History, from 1453 until the present.

  Works on General History.--Ranke, _Universal History_; Ploetz,
  _Epitome of Ancient, Mediaeval, and Modern History_ (Boston,
  1884); Weber, _Weitgeschichte_ (2 vols.); Assmann, _Handbuch
  d. allgemeinen Geschichte_ (5 vols., 1853-1862); by the same,
  _Abriss d. allgem. Gesch._ (in 3 parts); Oncken, _Allgem.
  Geschichte in Einzeidarstellungen_ (a series of full monographs
  of high merit). Copious works on Universal History, in German, by
  Weber, Schlosser, Becker, Leo. Laurent, _Etudes sur l'Histoire de
  l'Humanite_ (this is an extended series of historical
  dissertations),--_The Orient and Greece_ (2 vols.); _Rome_
  (1 vol.); _Christianity_ (1 vol.), etc. Prevost-Paradol,
  _Essai sur l'Histoire Universelle_ (2 vols.: a suggestive
  critical survey of the course of history, with the omission of
  details). S. Willard, _Synopsis of History_.




PART I.  ANCIENT HISTORY.


FROM THE BEGINNING OF AUTHENTIC HISTORY TO THE MIGRATIONS OF THE
TEUTONIC TRIBES (A.D. 375).

DIVISIONS OF ANCIENT HISTORY.--Ancient history separates itself into
two main divisions. In the first the Oriental nations form the
subject; in the second, which follows in the order of time, the
European peoples, especially Greece and Rome, have the central
place. The first division terminates, and the second begins, with the
rise of Grecian power and the great conflict of Greece with the
Persian Empire, 492 B.C.

SECTIONS OF ORIENTAL HISTORY.--But Oriental history divides itself
into two distinct sections. The first embraces China and India,
nations apart, and disconnected from the Mediterranean and adjacent
peoples. China and India have a certain bond of connection with one
another through the spread in China of the Buddhistic religion. The
second section includes the great empires which preceded, and paved
the way for, European history; viz., Egypt, Babylonia and Assyria, and
Persia. In this section, along the course of the historic stream,
other nations which exercised a powerful influence, attract special
attention, especially the Phoenicians and the Hebrews. All these
Oriental peoples are so connected together that they stand in history
as the _Earliest Group of Nations_. The historic narrative must
be so shaped as to describe them in part singly, but, at the same
time, in their mutual relations.

Ancient history, from an _ethnographical_ point of view, would
embrace two general divisions,--Eastern peoples and Western
peoples. The first would comprise Egyptians (Hamitic); Jews,
Babylonians, Assyrians, Phoenicians, Lydians (Semitic); Hindus,
Bactrians, Medes, Persians (Aryan); Parthians, Chinese, Japanese. The
second would include Celts, Britons, _Greeks_, _Romans_,
Teutons (Aryan). (Ploetz, _Universal History_, p. 1.)

From a _geographical_ point of view, ancient history would fall
into three general divisions: I. Asia, including (1) India, (2) China
(with Japan), (3) Babylonia and Assyria, (4) Phoenicia, (5) Palestine,
(6) Media and Persia. II. Africa, including (1) Egypt, (2) Carthage.
III. Europe including (1) Greece, with its states and colonies; (2)
Italy.




DIVISION I.


ORIENTAL HISTORY.

PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY.--Europe and Asia together form one vast continent,
yet have a partial boundary between them in the Ural Mountains and
River, and in the deep bed of the Caspian and Black seas. Asia, which
extends from the Ural Mountains to the Pacific, and from the Arctic
Sea to the Indian Ocean, embraces an immense plateau, stretching from
the Black Sea to Corea. This plateau spreads like a fan as it advances
eastward. It is traversed by chains of mountains, and bordered also by
lofty mountains, of which the Himalayas is the principal range. From
this girdle of mountains descend slopes which lead down into the
lowlands. The great plateau is broken into two by the Hindu-Kush
range. The eastern division, the extensive plateau of Central Asia, is
bordered on the north by the barren plains of Siberia. In the lowlands
on the east and south are included the fertile plains of Central China
and of Hindustan. The plateau of eastern Asia has been the natural
abode of nomad tribes, Tartars and Mongols, whose invading hosts have
poured through the passes of the mountains into the inviting
territories below.  The plateau of western Asia, stretching westward
from the Indus, is not so high as that of the east. It begins with the
lofty tablelands of Iran, and extends, ordinarily at a less elevation,
to the extremity of the continent. On the south lie the plains of
Mesopotamia. Arabia is a low plateau of vast extent, connected by the
plateau and mountains of Syria with the mountain region of Asia
Minor. As might be expected, civilization sprang up in the alluvial
valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates, the Indus and the Ganges, and on
the soil watered by the great rivers of China, the Hoang-Ho and the
Yang-tse-Kiang. Egypt was looked on by the Ancients as a part of
Asia. Its language was distinct from the languages of the African
nations. The seat of its power and thrift was the valley of the
Nile. The conflicts of the nations settled in the lowlands with the
mountainous peoples, eager for spoil and conquest, are a
characteristic feature of Oriental History.

CHARACTER OF THE ASIATIC NATIONS.--Generalizations covering so wide a
field are, of necessity, inexact. As a rule, in the oriental mind, the
intuitive powers eclipse the severely rational and logical.
Civilization--as, for example, in Egypt and China--attains to a
certain grade, and is there petrified. Immobility belongs to the
Eastern nations. Revolutions bring a change of masters, but leave
character and customs unchanged. The sense of individuality has been
less vivid, and freedom less understood or valued. Governments have
taken the despotic form. Law has had its seat in the ruler's sovereign
will. The ruler has been regarded as clothed with divine
authority. Before him the subject prostrates himself with groveling
servility.

RELIGION IN ASIA.--Asia is the cradle of the principal religions of
the world. Here _monotheism_ appears, as in the faith of the
Hebrews, and in the Mohammedan revival of it in a less pure form. Here
have flourished _polytheistic_ systems, each with its throng of
divinities. In the east, _pantheism_, dropping out of the
conception of the Deity the element of personality, has found a
cherished home.

PRIESTHOODS.--Connected with the controlling influence of religion
have arisen the priesthoods,--sometimes ruling as an aristocratic
caste or class, sometimes dividing power with the reigning despot, to
whom sacred attributes are ascribed.

LITERATURE AND ART.--The Oriental nature has been mirrored in the
literature and art of the East. Its products lack the measure, the
grace and symmetry, and the human interest, which characterize the
creations of the European mind. In the mechanical arts, invention and
discovery push on progress to a certain point, then languish and die
out.




SECTION I.  CHINA AND INDIA.




CHAPTER I.  CHINA.


China proper comprises less than half of the present Chinese
Empire. It was called the land of Sinae or Seres by the ancients, and
in the middle ages bore the name of Cathay. In the north of China are
the broad alluvial plains, and in the north-eastern portion of the
empire, an immense delta. The rest of the country is hilly and
mountainous.

The nucleus of the Chinese nation is thought to have been a band of
immigrants, who are supposed by some to have started from the region
south-east of the Caspian Sea, and to have crossed the head waters of
the Oxus. They followed the course of the Hoang-Ho, or Yellow River,
having entered the country of their adoption from the north-west; and
they planted themselves in the present province of Shan-se. Although
nomads, they had some knowledge of astronomy, brought from their
earlier homes; and they quickly made for themselves settled
abodes. The native tribes by degrees were extirpated or driven
out. The new-comers cultivated grain. They raised flax, out of which
they wove garments.

LEGENDARY ERA, TO THE CHOW DYNASTY (1123 B.C.).--The early annals of
the Chinese, like those of other nations, are made up of myth and
fable. The annalists placed the date of the creation at a point more
than two millions of years prior to Confucius. The intervening period
they sought to fill up with lines of dynasties. Preceding the Chow
dynasty, the chroniclers give ten epochs. Prior to the eighth of
these, there are no traces of authentic history. To _Yew-Chaou
She_ (the Nest-having) is given the credit of teaching the people
to make huts of the boughs of trees. Fire was discovered by
_Suy-jin-She_ (the Fire-producer), his successor. Another ruler
(_Fuh-he_), whose date is fixed at 2852 B.C., discovered iron. He
also divided the people into classes. His successor invented the
plow. These tales, perhaps, retain vague reminiscences of the methods
in which useful inventions originated, or of the order in which they
appeared.

With _Yaou_ (2356 B.C.) we reach the period where the narratives
which were compiled many centuries later by Confucius, begin their
story. In the mass of fable, there is a larger infusion of historical
fact, which, however, it is well-nigh hopeless to separate from the
fiction that is mingled with it. In that golden age, few laws were
required. We are told that the house-door could safely be left
open. Yaou extended the empire: he established fairs and marts over
the land. During the reign of _Shun_, who followed him, a
tremendous inundation is said to have occurred; and _Yu_, called
"the Great," was energetic in draining off the waters. He ascended the
throne in 2205 B.C. His degenerate successors provoked a revolt and
the introduction of a new dynasty, called the _Shang_ dynasty,
whose first Emperor, _Tang_ (1760 B.C.), had a wise and
beneficent reign. Tyranny and disaster followed under the later kings
of this house; until finally _Woo-Wang_, the first sovereign of
the Chow dynasty, acceded to the throne (1123 B.C.).

THE CHOW DYNASTY (1123-255 B.C.).--The traditions now become decidedly
more trustworthy, although still largely mixed with
fable. _Woo-Wang_ was brave and upright. Under him a momentous
change in government took place. By him the kingdom was divided into
seventy-two feudal states. Internal divisions and struggles resulted
from this new political system. The Tartars availed themselves of the
weakened condition of the nation, to make predatory incursions. In
this period of disorder and danger, _Confucius_, the great
teacher of China, was born (551 B.C.). His father was a district
magistrate, and died when the son was only three years old. He was
trained and taught by his mother. When she died, he gave up all
employments to mourn for her, during three years. His only occupation
during this period was study. A grave and learned youth, he at length
resolved to become an instructor of his countrymen in the ancient
writings, to which he was devoted. He was regular in all his ways, and
never ate or drank to excess. He gathered about him scholars; his fame
increased; and, in 500 B.C., he was made magistrate of _Chung-tu_
by the sovereign, Duke _Ting_, an office which he justly and
discreetly administered for three years. Sometimes persecuted, he
compared himself to a dog driven from his home. "I have the fidelity
of that animal, and I am treated like it. But what matters the
ingratitude of men? They can not hinder me from doing all the good
that has been appointed me. If my precepts are disregarded, I have the
consolation of knowing in my own breast that I have faithfully
performed my duty." Both by his literary works and by the lessons
taught to his disciples, he laid the foundation of a most powerful and
lasting influence over his countrymen. He died in 478 B.C., at the age
of seventy-three. _Laou-tsze_, another famous thinker, was a few
years older than Confucius. "Three precious things," he said, "I
prize, and hold fast,--humility, compassion, and economy."
_Mencius_, a celebrated teacher and reformer, who followed in the
path of Confucius, after a long life died in 289 B.C. One of his
doctrines was, that the nature of man is good, and that evil is owing
to education and circumstances. One of his maxims was, that the people
can be led aright, but can not be taught the reasons for the guidance
to which they are subjected.

DYNASTY OF TSIN (255-206 B.C.).--Reverting to the course of Chinese
history, the next grand epoch is the enthronement of the Tsin dynasty,
in the person of the ruler of one of the provinces, which, in the
intestine strife among the feudal princes, gained the victory. This
was in 255 B.C. In this line belongs the famous Emperor _Che
Hwang-te_, who, in 246 B.C., at the age of thirteen years,
succeeded to the crown. His palace in his capital, the modern Se-gan
Foo, the edifices which he built elsewhere, the roads and canals
constructed by him, excited wonder. He routed and drove out the Tartar
invaders, and put down the rebellion of the feudal princes. He
enlarged the kingdom nearly to the limits of modern China proper. For
the protection of the northern frontier he began the "Great Wall,"
which he did not live to finish. It was finished 204 B.C., ten years
after it was begun. When finished, it was not less than fifteen
hundred miles in length. It would reach "from Philadelphia to Topeka,
or from Portugal to Naples." The innovations and maxims of government
of Che Hwang-te were offensive to the scholars and the conservative
class, who pointed the people to the heroes of the feudal days and to
the glories of the past. For this reason, the monarch commanded that
all books having reference to the history of the empire should be
destroyed. He would efface the recollection of the old times.  He
would not allow his system to be undermined by tradition. The decree
was obeyed, although hidden copies of many of the ancient writings
were undoubtedly preserved. Numerous scholars were buried alive. His
death, in 210 B.C., was followed by disturbances, growing out of the
disaffection of the higher classes. In the civil war that ensued, his
dynasty was subverted. The throne was next held by

THE HAN RULERS (206 B.C.-22l A.D.).--Their sway, which lasted for four
hundred years, covers a brilliant period in the Chinese annals. During
the reign of _Ming-te_, 65 A.D., a deputation was sent to India,
to obtain the sacred writings and authorized teachers of the
Buddhistic religion, which had begun to spread among the Chinese. The
power of the feudal lords was reduced. Northern Corea was conquered,
and the bounds of the empire extended on the west as far as Russian
Turkestan, In this period, there was a marked revival of learning and
authorship. Then lived a famous public officer, _Yang Chen_, who,
when asked to take a bribe, and assured that no one would know it,
answered, "How so?  Heaven would know, Earth would know, you would
know, and I should know."  Under this dynasty, a custom of burying
slaves with the dead was abolished.

BEGINNING IN 221 A.D., there followed the "era of the three kingdoms."
It was an age of martial prowess, civil war, and bloodshed. This long
period of division was interrupted in 265 A.D. by a re-union of the
greater part of the empire for a brief period. But discord soon sprang
up; and it was not until 590 A.D. that unity and order were restored
by _Yang-Kian_, who founded the dynasty, named from his local
dominion, _Suy_.

RELIGION IN CHINA.--The ancient religion of China was
polytheistic. The supreme divinity was called _Tien_ or
_Shang-ti_. Tien signifies Heaven. Was Heaven, or Shang-ti--or
the Lord--the visible heaven, the expanse above, clothed with the
attribute of personality?  This has been, and still is, the prevailing
opinion of missionaries and scholars. Dr. _Legge_, however, holds
that Tien is the lord of the heavens, a power above the visible
firmament; and thus finds monotheism as the basis of the Chinese
religious creed.

The prevailing religions of China are three,--_Buddhism_ (which
in its original form was brought in from India in the first century of
the Christian era), _Confucianism_, and _Taouism_. It may be
observed, that, in all these systems, there is but a vague sense of
personality as inhering in the heavenly powers, in comparison with the
creeds in vogue among heathen nations generally. Another fact to be
noted is, that, in Chinese worship, the veneration for ancestors, a
feeling inbred in the Chinese mind, is a very prominent and pervading
element.

Confucius did not profess to reveal things supernatural. His teaching
is made up of moral and political maxims. He builds on the past, and
always inculcates reverence for the fathers and for what has
been. There is much wise counsel to parents and to rulers. His
morality reaches its acme in the Golden Rule, which he gives, however,
only in its negative relation: "Do not unto others what you would not
that others should do unto you."  Laou-tsze is a more speculative and
mystical thinker. In his moral aphorisms, he approaches the theory of
the ancient Stoics. TEH--i.e., virtue--is lauded. Teh proceeds from
TAO. To explain what the Chinese sage means by Tao,--a word that
signifies the "way,"--is a puzzle for commentators and inquirers. From
Tao all things originate: they conform to Tao, and to Tao they
return. There are noble maxims in Laou-tsze,--precepts enjoining
compassion, and condemning the requital of evil with evil. Taouism is
a type of religion which traces itself to the teaching of
Laou-tsze. That teaching became mixed with wild speculations. Then
certain Buddhistic rites and tenets were added to it. The result,
finally, was a compound of knavery and superstition. Taouism is at
once mystical and rationalistic in its tone.

LITERATURE IN CHINA.--The Chinese language was crystallized, in the
written form, in the monosyllabic stage of its development. Beginning
in hieroglyphs, literal pictures of objects, and having no alphabet,
it has so multiplied its characters and combinations of characters as
to put great hindrances in the way of the acquisition of it. The utter
absence of inflection may have crippled the development of poetry and
of the drama, for which the Chinese have a natural taste. In these
departments, Chinese productions do not rise above mediocrity. For
this, however, the lack of imagination and of creative power is
largely accountable. It is in the province of pure prose--as in
historical narrations, topographical writings, such as geographies,
and in the making of encyclopedias--that the Chinese have
excelled. But the yoke of tradition has everywhere weighed heavily. In
one sense, the Chinese have been a literary people. The system of
competitive examinations for public offices has diffused through the
nation a certain degree of book-learning; yet the masses have been
kept in a state of ignorance. At the foundation of all learning are
the "nine classics," which consist of five works, edited or written by
Confucius, of which the "Shoo King," or Book of History, stands at the
head, together with the four books written by his disciples and the
disciples of Mencius. Great as have been the services of Confucius,
his own slavish reverence for the past, so stamped upon his writings,
has had the effect to cramp the development of the Chinese mind, and
to fasten upon it the fetters of tradition.

GOVERNMENT AND CIVILIZATION.--The government of China is "a
patriarchal despotism." As father of his people, the king has absolute
authority. The power of life and death is in his hand. Yet the right
of revolution was taught by Confucius and Mencius, and the Chinese
have not been slow to exercise it. The powers of the emperor are
limited by ceremonial regulations, and by a body of precedents which
are held sacred. He administers rule with the help of a privy
council. Officers of every rank in the employ of the government
constitute the aristocratic class of Mandarins, who are divided into
different ranks.

INVENTION.--Printing by wooden blocks was known in China as early as
the sixth century A.D. Printing did not come into general use until
the thirteenth century. The use of movable types, although devised, it
is said, many centuries earlier, did not come into vogue until the
seventeenth century. Gunpowder was used as early as 250 A.D., in the
making of fire-crackers; but it was certainly as late as the middle of
the twelfth century that it was first employed in war. The Chinese
were early acquainted with the polarity of the loadstone, and used the
compass in journeys by land long before that instrument was known in
Europe. In various branches of manufactures,--as silk, porcelain,
carved work in ivory, wood, and horn,--the Chinese, at least until a
recent period, have been pre-eminent. In the mechanical arts their
progress has been slow. Their crude implements of husbandry are in
contrast with their exhibitions of skill in other directions. Although
imitation long ago supplanted the activity of inventive talent, to
China belongs the distinction of being a civilized land before the
Christian nations of Europe had emerged into being.

  LITERATURE.--_The Middle Kingdom_, by S. WELLS WILLIAMS (2
  vols.);_ Encycl. Brit.,_ Art. _China_ by Professor
  Douglas; Arts. _Confucius and Mencius_ by Dr. Legge; Legge,_
  The Religions of China_; Richthofen, _China_(3 vols.);
  Giles, _Historic China, and Other Sketches_ (1882); Legge,
  _The Chinese Classics_; BOULGER, _History of China_
  (1881-84); Thornton, _History of China_.

JAPAN.--The authentic history of Japan belongs mainly in the modern
period, since the tenth century A.D. The most ancient religion of
Japan, designated by a term which means "the way of the gods,"
included a variety of objects of worship,--gods, deified men, the
mikados, or chief rulers, regarded as "the sons of heaven," animals,
plants, etc. Unquestioning obedience to the mikado was the primary
religious duty. It was a state-religion. Buddhism, brought into the
country in 552 A.D., spread, and became prevalent.

The Japanese are a mixed race. Kioto and the adjacent provinces are
said to have been occupied by the conquerors. Prior to 660 B.C. we
have no trustworthy history of the island. This is the date assigned
by the Japanese to their hero, _Jimmu Tenno_, the first mikado,
the founder of an unbroken line. For several centuries, however, the
history is open to question. The tenth mikado, Sujin, is noted as a
reformer, and promoter of civilization. An uncrowned princess,
_Jingu-Kogo_ (201-269 A.D.), is famous for her military
prowess. She suppressed a rebellion, and subdued Corea. _Ojin_, a
celebrated warrior, is still worshiped as a god of war. The
introduction of Chinese literature and civilization at this period,
makes a turning-point in Japanese history.

  LITERATURE.--J. J. REIN, _Japan: Travels and Researches_,
  vol. I. (1881); E. J. Reed, _Japan_ (2 vols., 1880); Siebold,
  _Nippon_ (5 vols. 410, and plates); Kampfer, _History of
  Japan_ (2 vols. fol., 1728); _Encycl. Brit._,
  Art. _Japan_.




CHAPTER II.  INDIA.


India is the central one of the three great peninsulas of Southern
Asia. On the north is the mountainous region of the Himalayas, below
which are the vast and fertile river plains, watered by the
_Indus_, the _Ganges_, and other streams. On the south,
separated from the Ganges by the Vindhya range, is the hilly and
mountainous tract called the Deccan.

THE ARYAN INVADERS.--The history of India opens with glimpses of a
struggle on the borders of the great rivers,--first of the Indus and
then of the Ganges,--between an invading race, the Sanskrit-speaking
Aryans from the north-west, and the dusky aborigines. These rude
native tribes have left few relics but their tombs. Before they
tenanted the soil, there dwelt upon it still earlier inhabitants,
whose implements were of stone or bronze. The incoming people referred
to above were of that Indo-European stock to which we belong. From
their home, perhaps in central Asia, they moved in various
directions. A part built up the Persian kingdom; another portion
migrated farther, and were the progenitors of the Greek nation; and a
third founded Rome. The Indian Aryans migrated southward from the
headwaters of the Oxus at some time prior, doubtless, to 2000 B.C. Our
knowledge of them is derived from their ancient sacred books, the
_Vedas_; of these the oldest, the _Rig-Veda_, contains ten
hundred and seventeen lyrics, chiefly addressed to the gods. Its
contents were composed while the Aryans dwelt upon the Indus, and
while they were on their way to the neighborhood of the Ganges. The
Rig-Veda, therefore, exhibits this people in their earliest stage of
religious and social development. They were herdsmen, but with a
martial spirit, which enabled them by degrees to drive out the native
tribes, and compel them to take refuge in the mountains on the north,
or on the great southern plateau. Among them women were held in
respect, and marriage was sacred. There are beautiful hymns written by
ladies and queens. No such cruel custom as the burning of widows
existed: it was of far later origin. They were acquainted with the
metals. Among them were blacksmiths, coppersmiths, goldsmiths,
carpenters, and other artisans. They fought from chariots, but had not
come to employ elephants in war. They were settled in villages and in
towns. Mention is made of ships, or river-boats, as in use among
them. They ate beef, and drank a sort of fermented beer made from the
_soma_ plant.

THE VEDIC RELIGION.--The early religion of the Indian Aryans was quite
different from the system that grew up later among them. We do not
find in it the dreamy pantheism that appears afterwards. It is
cheerful in its tone, quite in contrast with the gloomy asceticism
which is stamped on it in after times. The head of each family is
priest in his own household. It is only the great tribal sacrifice
which is offered by priests set apart for the service. The worship is
polytheistic, but not without tendencies to monotheism. The principal
divinities are the powers of nature. The deities (_deva_) were
the heavenly or the shining ones. "It was the beautiful phenomenon of
light which first and most powerfully swayed the Aryan mind." The
chief gods were the Father-heaven; Indra, the god of thunder and of
rain, from whom the refreshing showers descended; Varuna, the
encompassing sky; and Agni, the god of fire. Among these _Indra_,
from his beneficence, more and more attracted worship. _Soma_,
too, was worshiped; soma being originally the intoxicating juice of a
plant. _Brihaspati_, the lord of prayer, personifying the
omnipresent power of prayer, was adored. Thirty-three gods in all were
invoked. The bodies of the dead were consumed on the funeral-pile. The
soul survived the body, but the later doctrine of transmigration was
unknown. All the attributes of sovereign power and majesty were
collected in _Varuna_. No one can fathom him, but he sees and
knows all. He is the upholder of order; just, yet the dispenser of
grace, and merciful to the penitent. Worship is made up of oblations
and prayers. It must be sincere. The gods will not tolerate
deceit. They require faith. Of the last things and the last times the
Rig-Veda hardly speaks. The Vedic hymns have much to say of the origin
of things, but little, except in the last book, of the final issues.

  There are four Vedas,--the _Rig-Veda_, which has the body of
  hymns; the _Yajur-Veda_, in which the prescribed formulas to be
  used in acts of sacrifice are collected; the _Sama-Veda_,
  containing the chants; and the _Atharva-Veda_, a collection of
  hymns, in part of a later date. Besides, each Veda contains, as a
  second part, one or more Brahmanas, or prose treatises on the
  ceremonial system. In addition, there are theological works
  supplementary, and of later origin,--the intermediate
  _Aranyakas_, and the _Upanishads_, which are of a
  speculative cast.

Not only is nature--mountains, rivers, trees, etc.--personified in the
Vedas: the animals--as the cow, the horse, the dog, even the apparatus
of worship, the war-chariot, the plow, and the furrow--are addressed
in prayer. The sacrificial fire is deified in _Agni_, the
sacrificial drink in _Soma_. Indra has for his body-guards the
_Maruts_, gods of the storm and lightning. He is a warlike god,
standing in his chariot, but also a beneficent giver of all good
gifts. _Varuna_ is the god of the vast luminous heavens, in their
serene majesty.  _Indra_, on the other hand, represents the
atmosphere in its active and militant energy. The number of the gods
is variously given. In passages, they are said to be many thousands.

RITES.--There is no hierarchy among the gods. But there is a tendency
to confuse the attributes of the different divinities. Occasionally,
for the time being, one eclipses all the rest, and is addressed as if
all others were forgotten. There is sometimes a tendency to regard
them as all one, under different names. But this tendency develops
itself later. Offerings consisted of rice, cakes, soma, etc. Victims
also were sacrificed, the horse especially; also the goat, the
buffalo, and other animals. Sacrifice purchases the gifts and favor of
the gods. It is an expression of gratitude and dependence. It has,
moreover, a deep, mysterious energy of an almost magical character.

THE ARYANS ON THE GANGES.--Later, but earlier than 1000 B.C., we find
that the Aryan invaders have moved onward in their career of conquest,
and have planted themselves on the plains of the Ganges. A marvelous
transformation has taken place in their social constitution, their
religion, and in their general spirit. The caste system has sprung up,
of which there are few traces in the Rig-Veda. In the first or lowest
of these distinct classes are the _Sudras_, or despised serfs,
who are the subjugated aborigines; the second, or next higher, class
is composed of the tillers of the soil, who are of a lower rank than
the third, the warrior caste. These, in turn, fall below the
_Brahmans_, or priests, who, as rites of worship grew more
complicated, and superstition increased, gained, though not without a
struggle, a complete ascendency. This marks the beginning of the
sacerdotal era. The tendency of the farmer caste was to decrease,
until, in modern times, in various provinces they are hardly
found. The supremacy of the Brahmans was largely owing to their
eminence as the great literary caste. They arose out of the families
by whom the hymns had been composed, and who managed the tribal
sacrifices. They alone understood the language of the hymns and the
ritual. _Brahman_, in the earliest Veda, signifies a worshiper.

BRAHMINICAL PANTHEISM.--The polytheism of the earlier type of religion
was converted into pantheism. _Brahma_, the supreme being, is
impersonal, the eternal source of all things, from which all finite
beings--gods, nature, and men--emanate. It is by _emanation_,--an
outflow analogous to that of a stream from its fountain, in
distinction from _creation_, implying will and
self-consciousness,--that all derived existences emerge into
being. With this doctrine was connected the belief in the
transmigration of souls. All animated beings, including plants as well
as animals, partake of the universal life which has its origin and
seat in Brahma. Alienation from Brahma, finite, individual being, is
evil. To work the way back to Brahma is the great aim and
hope. Absorption in Brahma, return to the primeval essence, is the
supreme good. The sufferings of the present are the penalty of sins
committed in a pre-existent state. If they are not purged away, the
soul is condemned to be embodied again and again,--it may be, in some
repulsive animal. This process of metempsychosis might be repeated far
into the indefinite future. With the doctrine of Brahma and of
transmigration was connected the feeling that all life is sacred. The
Brahman spared even trees and plants from destruction. Pollution or
defilement might be contracted in a great variety of ways. There grew
out of these ideas of sin, rigorous penances, most painful forms of
self-torment. It was only by practices of this sort that there was
hope of avoiding the retribution so much dreaded.

THE BRAHMINICAL CODES.--The principal of these codes is the _Laws of
Manu_. Manu was imagined to be the first human being, conceived of
as a sage. This code is a digest compiled by the priests at a date
unknown, but comprising in it materials of a very high
antiquity. Hence, while exhibiting Brahmanism in its maturer form, it
affords glimpses of society at a much earlier date. A second code was
compiled not earlier than the second century A.D. These codes present
Hindu law under three heads: (1) domestic and civil rights and duties,
(2) the administration of justice, (3) purification and penance. In
truth, the codes prescribe regulations for every department of
life. The obligations of kings, of Brahmans, and of every other class,
are defined in detail. One motive that is kept in view is to set forth
and fortify the special privileges of the Brahminical order.

THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE BRAHMINS.--In process of time, commentaries on
the Vedas were multiplied. Discord arose in the interpretation of the
sacred books. Out of this debate and confusion there emerged, in the
seventh and sixth centuries B.C., several philosophical systems. These
aimed to give peace to the soul by emancipating it from the bondage of
matter, and by imparting a sense of independence of the body and of
the external world.

  These old philosophies are preserved in the _Upanishads_, or
  Instructions. The main idea in these diverse systems--the
  _Sankhya_, the _Vedanta_, etc.--is, that the soul's notion
  of itself as separate from the supreme, impersonal being, is the
  fallen state. This duality must be overcome. Conscious of its
  identity with the Supreme, the soul enters into _yoga_, or the
  state of unison with the Infinite. He who is thus taken away from
  the illusions of sense, or the _yogin_, is free from the power
  of things perishable. Death brings a complete absorption into the
  source of all being. It is the bliss of personal extinction. This
  sort of philosophy attached great value to contemplation and
  self-renunciation. It led to a light esteem of ritual practices and
  ceremonies.



BUDDHISM.

The Brahminical system has not ceased to maintain its supremacy in
India since the time when it was presented to view in the
law-codes. But it has not escaped alteration and attack. New
movements, religious and political, have appeared to modify its
character. Of these, Buddhism is by far the most memorable.

THE LIFE OF BUDDHA.--Of the life of Buddha we have only legendary
information, where it is impossible to separate fact from romance. The
date of his death was between 482 and 472 B.C. He was then old. He
belonged to the family of Gautamas, who were said to be of the royal
line of the Cakyas, a clan having its seat about a hundred and
thirty-seven miles north of Benares. The story is, that, brought up in
luxury, and destined to reign, he was so struck with the miseries of
mankind, that, at the age of twenty-nine, he left his parents, his
young wife, and an only son, and retired to a solitary life to
meditate upon the cause of human suffering. From Brahminical teachers
he could obtain no solution of the problem. But after seven years of
meditation and struggle, during which sore temptations to return to a
life of sense and of ease were successfully resisted, he attained to
truth and to peace. For forty-four years after this he is said to have
promulgated his doctrine, gathering about him disciples, whom he
charged with the duty of spreading it abroad.

THE BUDDHISTIC DOCTRINE.--Buddhism was not a distinct revolt against
the reigning system of religion. Buddha left theology to the
Brahmans. Indra, Agni, and the other divinities, and the services
rendered to them, he left untouched. Being an anchorite, he was not
required to concern himself with the rites and observances in which
others took part. His aim was practical. His doctrine, though resting
on a theoretical basis, was propounded simply as a way of salvation
from the burdens that oppressed the souls of men. Nor did he undertake
a warfare against caste. The blessing of deliverance from the woes of
life he opened to all without distinction. This was the limit of his
opposition to caste.

THE ROAD TO NIRVANA.--Buddha taught, (1) that existence is always
attended with misery; (2) that all modes of misery result from
passion, or desire unsatisfied; (3) that desire must be quenched; (4)
that there are four steps in doing this, and thus of arriving at
NIRVANA, which is the state in which self is lost and absorbed, and
vanishes from being. These four ways are (1) the awakening to a
perception of the nature and cause of evil, as thus defined; (2) the
consequent quenching of impure and revengeful feelings; (3) the
stifling of all other evil desires, also riddance from ignorance,
doubt, heresy, unkindliness, and vexation; (4) the entrance into
Nirvana, sooner or later, after death.  The great boon which Buddha
held out was escape from the horrors of transmigration. He attributed
to the soul no substantial existence. It is the _Karma_, or
another being, the successor of one who dies, the result and effect of
all that he was, who re-appears in case of transmigration. Buddhism
involved atheism, and the denial of personal immortality, or, where
this last tenet was not explicitly denied, uncertainty and
indifference respecting it. On the foundation of Buddha's teaching,
there grew up a vast system of monasticism, with ascetic usages not
less burdensome than the yoke of caste. The attractive feature of
Buddhism was its moral precepts. These were chiefly an inculcation of
chastity, patience, and compassion; the unresisting endurance of all
ills; sympathy and efficient help for all men.

DEIFICATION OF BUDDHA.--By the pupils of Buddha he was glorified. He
was placed among the Brahminical gods, by whom he was served. A
multitude of cloisters were erected in his honor, in which his relics
were believed to be preserved. On the basis of the simpler doctrine
and precepts of the founder, there accumulated a mass of superstitious
beliefs and observances.

THE SPREAD OF BUDDHISM.--After the death of Buddha, it is said that
his disciples, to the number of five hundred, assembled, and divided
his teaching into three branches,--his own words, his rules of
discipline, and his system of doctrine. During the next two centuries
Buddhism spread over northern India. One of the most conspicuous
agents in its diffusion was _Asoka_, the king of Behar, who was
converted to the Buddhistic faith, and published its tenets throughout
India. His edicts, in which they were set forth, were engraved on
rocks and pillars and in caves. He organized missionary efforts among
the aborigines, using only peaceful means, and combining the healing
of disease, and other forms of philanthropy, with preaching. He
carried the Buddhistic faith as far as _Ceylon_. It spread over
_Burmah_ (450 A.D.). _Siam_ was converted (638 A.D.), and
_Java_ between the fifth and seventh centuries of our
era. Through Central Asia the Buddhistic missionaries passed into
_China_ in the second century B.C., and Buddhism became an
established system there as early as 65 A.D. At present, this religion
numbers among its professed adherents more than a third of the human
race.

THE BRAHMINICAL RE-ACTION.--In India Buddhism did not supplant the old
religion. The Brahmans modified their system. They made their theology
more plain to the popular apprehension. They took up Buddhistic
speculations into their system. But they rendered their ceremonial
practices more complex and more burdensome. Their ascetic rule grew to
be more exacting and oppressive. In diffusing and making popular their
system, customs, like the burning of widows, were introduced, which
were not known in previous times. The divinities, _Brahma_, the
author of all things, _Vishnu_ the preserver, and _Siva_ the
destroyer, were brought into a relation to one another, as a sort of
triad. Successive incarnations of Vishnu became an article of the
creed, _Krishna_ being one of his incarnate names. For centuries
Brahmanism and Buddhism existed together. Gradually Buddhism decayed,
and melted into the older system; helping to modify its character, and
thus to give rise to modern Hinduism. For ten centuries Buddhism, with
multitudinous adherents abroad, has had no existence in the land of
its birth.

THE GREEK-ROMAN PERIOD.--In 327 B.C., _Alexander the Great_
advanced in his victorious career as far as India, entered the Punjab,
which was then divided among petty kingdoms, and defeated one of the
kings, _Porus_, who disputed the passage of the river Jhelum. The
heat of the climate and the reluctance of his troops caused the
Macedonian invader to turn back from his original design of
penetrating to the Ganges. Near the confluence of the five rivers he
built a town, Alexandria. He founded, also, other towns, established
alliances, and left garrisons. On the death of Alexander (323 B.C.)
and the division of his empire, Bactria and India fell to the lot of
Seleucus Nicator, the founder of the Syrian monarchy. About this time
a new kingdom grew up in the valley of the Ganges, under the auspices
of _Chandra Gupti_, a native. After various conflicts, Seleucus
ceded the Greek settlements in the Punjab to this prince, to whom he
gave his daughter in marriage. The successors of Seleucus sent
Graeco-Bactrian expeditions into India. Thus Greek science and Greek
art exerted a perceptible influence in Hindustan. During the first six
centuries of the Christian era, Scythian hordes poured down into
northern India. They were stoutly resisted, but effected settlements,
and made conquests. The events as well as the dates of the long
struggle are obscure. The non-Aryan races of India, both on the north
and on the south of the Ganges, many of whom received the Buddhistic
faith, were not without a marked influence--the precise lines of which
it is difficult to trace--upon the history and life of India during
the period of Greek and Scythic occupation and warfare. The
_Dravidian_ people in southern India, made up of non-Aryans,
number at present forty-six millions.

  LITERATURE.--Mill's _History of India_ (Wilson's edition, 9
  vols.); MONIER WILLIAMS, _Indian Wisdom_; Max Mueller's
  _History of Sanskrit Literature_; EARTH'S _The Religions of
  India_, 1882; _Encycl. Brit._, Arts. _India, Brahmanism,
  Buddhism_.




SECTION II.  THE EARLIEST GROUP OF NATIONS.




CHAPTER I.  EGYPT.


THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE.--When the curtain that hides the far distant
past is lifted, we find in the valley of the Nile a people of a dark
color, tinged with red, and a peculiar physiognomy, who had long
existed there. Of their beginnings, there is no record. It is not
likely that they came down the river from the south, as some have
thought; more probably they were of Asiatic origin. Their language,
though it certainly shows affinities with the Semitic tongues in its
grammar, is utterly dissimilar in its vocabulary: its modern
descendant is the Coptic, no longer a spoken dialect. The Egyptians
were of the Caucasian variety, but not white like the Lybians on the
west. On the east were tribes of a yellowish complexion and various
lineage, belonging to the numerous people whom the Egyptians
designated as _Amu_. On the south, in what was called
_Ethiopia_, was a negro people; and, also beyond them and
eastward, a dusky race, of totally different origin, a branch of the
widely diffused _Cushites_.

THE NILE: DIVISIONS OF THE COUNTRY.--Egypt (styled by its ancient
inhabitants, from the color of the soil deposited by the Nile,
_Kem_ or the Black Land, and by the Hebrews called
_Mizraim_) is the creation of the great river. "Egypt," says
Herodotus, "is the gift of the Nile;" and this is not only true, as
the historian meant it, physically, because it is the Nile that
rescued the land from the arid waste by which it is bordered; but the
course of Egyptian history--the occupations, habits, and religion of
the people--was largely determined by the characteristics of the
river. The sources of the Nile have had in all ages the fascination of
mystery, and have been a fruitful theme for conjecture. It was
reserved for modern explorers to ascertain that it takes its rise in
equatorial Africa, in the two great lakes, the _Albert_ and
_Victoria Nyanzas_. From that region, fed by few tributaries, it
flows to the Mediterranean, a distance of two thousand miles, but
breaks, as it nears the sea, into two main and several minor
arms. These spread fruitfulness over the broad plain called, from its
shape, the _Delta._ Above the Delta the fringe of productive land
has a width of only a few miles on either side of the stream. Its
fertility is due to the yearly inundation which, as the effect of the
rainfall of Abyssinia, begins early in July, and terminates in
November, when the river, having slowly risen in the interval to an
average height of twenty-three or twenty-four feet, reaches in its
gradual descent the ordinary level. This narrow belt of territory,
annually enriched with a layer of fertile mud, is in striking contrast
with the barren regions, parched by the sun, on either side, with the
long chain of Arabian mountains that adjoin it on the east, and with
the low hills of the Lybian desert on the west. By dikes, canals, and
reservoirs, the beneficent river from the most ancient times has been
made to irrigate the land above, where are the towns and dwellings of
the people, and thus to extend and keep up its unrivaled
fertility. The country of old was divided into two parts,--_Upper
Egypt,_ as it is now called, with _Thebes_ for its principal
city, extending from the first cataract, near _Syene,_ to the
Memphian district; and _Lower Egypt,_ embracing the rest of the
country on the north, including the Delta. The two divisions were
marked by differences of dialect and of customs. The country was
further divided into _nomes,_ or districts, about forty in all,
but varying in number at different times. They were parted from one
another by boundary stones. Each had its own civil organization, a
capital, and a center of worship.

EARLY CULTURE.--At a far remote day, there existed in Lower Egypt an
advanced type of culture. Sepulchers, with their inscriptions and
sculptures, were made of so solid material that they have remained to
testify to this fact. When the pyramids were built, mechanical skill
was highly developed, Egyptian art had reached a point beyond which it
scarcely advanced, and the administration of government had attained
substantially to the form in which it continued to exist. The use of
writing, the division of the year, the beginnings of the sciences and
of literature, are found in this earliest period. Egyptian culture, as
far as we can determine, was not borrowed. It was a native
product. The earliest period was the period of most growth. The
prevailing tendency was to crystallize all arts and customs into
definite, established forms, and to subject every thing to fixed
rules. The desire to preserve what had been gained overmastered the
impulses to progress: individuality and enterprise were blighted by an
excessive spirit of conservatism. Moreover, the culture of the
Egyptians never disengaged itself from its connection with every-day
practical needs, or the material spirit that lay at its root. They did
not, like the Greeks, soar into the atmosphere of theoretical science
and speculation. They did not break loose from the fetters of
tradition.

THE HIEROGLYPHICS.--We owe our knowledge of ancient Egypt chiefly to
hieroglyphical writing. The hieroglyphs, except those denoting
numbers, were pictures of objects. The writing is of three kinds. The
_first_, the hieroglyphical, is composed of literal pictures, as
a circle, O, for the sun, a curved line for the moon, a pointed oval
for the mouth. The _second_ sort of characters, the hieratic, and
the _third_, the demotic, are curtailed pictures, which can thus
be written more rapidly. They are seldom seen on the monuments, but
are the writing generally found on the papyrus rolls or
manuscripts. They are written from right to left. The hieroglyphs
proper may be written either way, or in a perpendicular line. In the
demotic, or people's writing, the characters are somewhat more
curtailed, or abridged, than in the hieratic, or priestly,
style. There were four methods of using the hieroglyphics in
historical times. _First_, there were the primary,
representational characters, the literal pictures. _Secondly_,
the characters were used figuratively, as symbols. Thus a circle, O,
meant not only the sun, but also "day"; the crescent denoted not only
the moon, but also "a month;" a pen and inkstand signified "writing,"
etc. So one object was substituted for another analogous to it,--as
the picture of a boot in a trap, which stood for "deceit." A
conventional emblem, too, might represent the object. Thus, the hawk
denoted the sun, two water-plants meant Upper and Lower Egypt.
_Thirdly_, hieroglyphics were used as determinatives. That is, an
object would be denoted by letters (in a way that we shall soon
explain), and a picture be added _to determine_, or make clear,
what was meant. After proper names, they designated the sex; after the
names of other classes, as animals, they specified the particular
genus. _Fourthly_, the bulk of the hieroglyphs are phonetic. They
stand for sounds. The picture stood for the initial sound of the name
of the object depicted. Thus the picture of an eagle, _akhom_,
represented "A." Unfortunately, numerous objects were employed for a
like purpose, to indicate the same sound. Hence the number of
characters was multiplied. The whole number of signs used in writing
is not less than nine hundred or a thousand. The discovery of the
Rosetta Stone--a large black slab of stone--with an identical
inscription in hieroglyphics, in demotic and