B C. PATRIARCHS BEFORE THE DELUGE. Years. Years. lived 930, and was the father of Seth at the age of 13) 4 Cainan 910, 777, 10 Noah, at the period of the deluge, had attained the age . 105 90 of . 600 1656 2348 XXIVth CENTURY BEFORE JESUS CHRIST, FROM 2348 TO 2300.* SECOND ÆRA. According to the opinions of the most experienced chronologists, the deluge commenced on the 25th November, in the year 1656, after the creation of the world; others ascribe it to the 19th of April of the same year: it continued for the space of twelve months. Noah, accompanied by his family, had for some days entered the ark, when a tremendous rain began to fall upon the earth, which continued incessantly during forty days and nights, and the waters remained for fifty days upon the land. The seventeenth day of the seventh month, the miraculous ark landed on Mount Ararat, and the first day of the tenth month the tops of the mountains became perceptible. After the dove had conveyed to the inhabitants of the ark an olive branch, as the token of reconciliation between heaven and earth, the holy patriarch opened the doors of the ark to all the animals which it contained. He then went forth with his own family, and descended into the plains of Armenia, where he raised an altar to the Lord to testify his gratitude, near the spot where shortly after was built the city of Naruana, in the fertile valley traversed by the waters of Arazis, now Arras. Incredulous persons never cease to remark that it was utterly impossible the ark could have enclosed a species of all animals and the provisions necessary for their maintenance during a whole year: to this objection one only remark can be made; namely, that the circumstance is recorded, and the various admeasurements designated in Holy Writ. This immense machine was upwards of one hundred * We uniformly pursue the centuries in retrograding until the birth of the Redeemer. and fifty fathoms in circumference, and, consequently, four B.C. times more capacious than our men-of-war which contain crews of from seven to eight hundred men; with as many troops and provisions for their support during a period of six months, being further burthened with rigging, and more than ninety guns, with the necessary ammunition; an immense weight which would almost appear incredible had we not ocular demonstration of the fact. Consequently, we have only to quadruple the weight in question in order to be convinced of the possibility of maintaining in such a structure, for the period of a year, eight individuals, with such animals as the Almighty may have thought it expedient to rescue from the deluge. Shem, first patriarch after the flood, had for his son 2346 Arphaxad, at the age of one hundred years. Arphaxad produced Salah, who was the third patriarch. 2311 XXIIIrd CENTURY BEFORE JESUS CHRIST, FROM 2300 TO 2200. Shortly after the deluge, the period of man's existence was curtailed; and from living on fruitsand vegetables only, he took to the use of animal food and wine, as being more conducive to invigorate the human frame. When the race of man began to multiply and render the earth populous, his progeny passed the mountains and precipices, traversed floods, and even seas, in order to find new territories to inhabit. The earth, which at the commencement presented only one immense forest, then assumed another appearance; the woods being felled made way for open lands, pasturages, hamlets, villages, and lastly, cities; man then acquired the art of catching certain animals, of taming others, and rearing them to his service. In the first instance it was found requisite to combat wild beasts; and it is in such conflicts the first heroes on record are said to have signalized themselves; from thence sprang the invention and use of arms, that were ultimately turned by mankind against his own species. By means of animals men were enabled to rear fruits and plants; they made metals subservient to their purposes, and even by degrees subjected to their use every thing in nature. The descendants of Noah's three sons, Shem, Ham, and 2247 Japhet, in the space of one century, had multiplied the earth to such a degree, that it became necessary they should disperse. Previous to this they were desirous of rearing a B.C. tower of enormous height in the plains of Sennaar, to which they gave the name of Babel; the Almighty however would not permit the completion of this presumptuous monument, the progress of which was stopped by giving men different languages, called the confusion of tongues. 2204 At this period flourished Chine Noung, Emperor of China, who was skilled in physic, mathematics, music, and poetry; added to which it is said that he discovered the art of making wine from rice. Among the progeny of Shem, was Elam, his first born, who journeyed into Asia, which for a long period bore his name, being the territory now called Persia. The descendants of Assur, second son of Shem, peopled Assyria. Those of Salah, son of Arphaxad, inhabited Chaldea. Eber, the son of Salah, was progenitor of the Hebrews. Lud, another son of Shem, established himself on that part of the globe named Asia Minor, called the kingdom of Lydia. The progeny of Aram, fifth son of Shem, proceeded to Mesopotamia and Syria. Among the descendants of Ham, Cush peopled Arabia ; his son Nimrod not having quitted the plains of Shinaar. Mizraim, another son of Ham, peopled Egypt, which was in consequence called the land of Mizraim, by which name it is uniformly designated in the Hebrew text*. Phut, third son of Ham, inhabited Lybia. Canaan, another son of Ham, gave his name to the land promised by the Lord to the posterity of Abraham. The progeny of Japheth directed their course towards the west and the north. Magog was father of the Scythians; Madai established himself in Thrace and Macedonia; and Gomer to the south-west of Europe, near the fens of Mæotis, from whom descended the Cimbrians. Nimrod, the son of Cush, called in the Bible Belus, having acquired the gratitude of his tribe by his courage and peculiar skill in destroying wild beasts, paved his way to the throne, which he established at Babylon on the river Euphrates, not far distant from the spot where the tower of Babel was founded. About this period the city of Hebron is also said to have been built. * The earliest periods of Egyptian history are equally obscure with those of the Assyrian. Menes is stated to have been the first king of Egypt; who was probably the Misraim of Holy Writ, grandson of Noah; according to others, the Oziris of Egypt, who invented arts, and civi1 a great portion of the eastern world. B.C. XXIId CENTURY BEFORE JESUS CHRIST, FROM 2200 TO 2100. Menes began to reign in Egypt, where he founded the city 2188 of Memphis, and embellished the Nile by many magnificent works. The Egyptians, who acquired all their astronomical knowledge from the Babylonians and the Chaldeans, often computed thousands of centuries without enumerating events, in order not to yield the palm of antiquity to the Babylonians; these kinds of years however should be reckoned merely as days. The Egyptians in turn transported their knowledge to all those nations with which they had any commercial intercourse; and Sesostris, at the period of his famous expedition made, them known to the Chinese. Serug, the son of Reu, was born in the 32d year of his 2185 father's age. Nahor, son of Serug, was born in the 30th year of his 2155 father's age. Some writers believe that it was at this juncture that Fohi 2148 began his sovereignty over the Chinese empire. The learned men among the Chinese even reject the fabulous dynasties of many thousand centuries, and compute only five. The natives of China may be regarded as the descendants from an Egyptian colony: their characters used in writing are only a species of monograms formed from the Egyptian or Phenician letters*. The Nile has its source in the kingdom of Goya, in Abyssinia, at twelve degrees on this side of the equator. To the right of Mirie is a mountain facing the north, at the base of which are two apertures or cisterns, named by the inhabitants falls or fountains, being about four feet in diameter, and distant twelve fathoms from each other, or seventytwo feet. It is from these openings the Nile derives its source, which first empties itself into the lake Dambea, thence running eastward describes a half circle towards the equator, and returns westward near to its source, after which it traverses the deserts of Abyssinia and Nubia; proceeding in a tranquil course of immense extent, during which it winds sometimes easterly and then in a western direction, it increases the currents of various streams, and is suddenly pent up between ridges of rugged precipices of various heights: after this it rushes forth with impetuous fury, surmounts every difficulty that presents itself to impede the flowing of its waters, and then dashes down from the summit of those craggy steeps from an eminence of two hundred feet. The noise of this terrific fall is heard to a distance of more than six miles in every direction. These are called the cataracts, of which the Nile has two principal falls; the one in Nubia, near Napata, and the other at five leagues from Assuan. It is at the latter that the kings of Thebes caused the exca B.C. 2126 2091 Terah, the son of Nahor, was born in the 29th year of his father's age. Pilpay, or Bidpay, the oriental philosopher, author of the celebrated fables, flourished. vations to be made for stone, in order to raise the stupendous monuments still existing in that extraordinary country. As from the velocity of the fall at this spot, the sheet of water is precipitated forwards full eighty feet from the perpendicular surface of the rock, one of those monarchs caused a platform to be sculptured under the curve over which the falling waters of the Nile form a complete vault. All travellers who visit Upper Egypt inspect those marvellous works, and when it happens to be at the period of the flood's increase, they enjoy the astonishing sight which the inhabitants of the surrounding country afford. Upon such occasions, some natives, placing themselves in a small boat, conduct it to the spot where the Nile precipitates itself with greatest fury, and are thus hurled down amidst the raging of the torrent. The astonished and terrified observer naturally conceives that they must be lost in the dreadful abyss; but such is their extraordinary dexterity in conducting the bark and emptying the water which enters it, that they soon re-appear in safety on the surface of the stream below. After this fall, the Nile resuming its ordinary tranquil current, traverses Upper Egypt, from south to north, then enters Lower Egypt, and when within four leagues of Cairo, divides into two branches, one proceeding north-east and the other north north-west, leaving the Delta between them. The Nile then supplies innumerable canals, which serve to water the country, and ultimately loses itself in the Mediterranean. The heavy rains which fall in Abyssinia during four months, that is to say, from the period when the sun quits the sign of Taurus until it enters Libra, cause the Nile's periodical overflow. It is pretty regularly at the summer solstice that the waters begin to increase, and this augmentation continues during the whole of August. It rises from sixteen to eighteen cubits, one cubit measuring a foot and an half; when the river overflows, from about the 20th of July, inundating all the country during the months of August and September, and frequently half of October; after which, it re-enters its bed, leaving upon the land a mud that manures and fertilizes it to such a degree that the husbandman has scarcely any thing more to do than sow and reap his harvest twice or thrice in the same year. This advantage was duly appreciated by the early inhabitants of Egypt, and the facility of procuring, almost without toil, every thing that is necessary for life, far from creating indolence, caused them to cultivate sciences and arts, particularly among the priests and the magi. The Egyptian priests yielding themselves up entirely to meditation, the study of nature, and the contemplation of the stars, they were in every respect worthy of being employed as the interpreters of the Almighty; their manners, equally pure with their morals, inspired with admiration and respect, and justly entitled them to the name of Sages. They taught the belief in one Supreme God, who conceived the idea of the universe in his unfathomable mind ere it was created by his puissant will. So persuaded were they of the existence of that Supreme Being, to such a pitch was their adoration carried, that they dared not pronounce what might be his form or his power. They did not merely prohibit their disciples from forming any image of the Divinity, but they regarded as impious and sacrilegious the desire of representing the Omni |