A. A relation of whatever has occurred either in church or state from the birth of our Saviour to the present time. Q. What is to be understood by civil history? A. Civil history is the history of nations, and has relation to the establishment, civil policy, continuance, fall, &c. of empires, kingdoms, states, communities, or cities, and may be either general or particular. The latter recites a series of facts forming the history of an individual state; the former exhibits, at one view, a diştinct account of several states, empires, &c. Q. What is sacred history? A. It is that part both of ancient and modern history which lays before us the mysteries and ceremonies of religion, with the visions, prophecies, miracles, and other supernatural things recorded in the Old and New Testaments, and of which GOD alone is the author. Q. Do we not sometimes hear of ecclesiastical or church history? A. Yes; sacred history, since the destruction of Jerusalem, or about the 70th year after the birth of Christ, is very properly so termed, as it is a narration of transactions, revolutions, and events, which particularly relate to the Christian church. Q. What is profane history? A. It is properly the history of the fabulous gods, demigods, and heroes of antiquity, usually termed mythology; but all records of ancient times, the scriptures excepted, are sometimes thus denominated. Q. How may civil history, or the history of nations, be divided with regard to time? A. Into A. Into three great intervals 1. Obscure or uncertain time, extending from the creation of the world to the deluge. This period embraces 1656 years, and is called obscure, because history has left us in great ignorance with respect to it. V 2. Fabulous or heroical time, extending from the déluge to the establishment of the Olympic Games. It is called fabulous or heroical, because it is perplexed with the fables of the gods, demigods and heroes of the Greeks, who are said to have lived during this period. 3. Historical time, extending from the establishe ment of the Olympic games, when history began to be more authentic, down to the present period. Q. How may sacred history be divided? A. Into three parts, namely;1. The dispensa tion of the law of nature, extending from Adam to Moses; 2. The dispensation of the written law, ex--tending from Moses to the preaching of the Gos pel by our Lord Jesus Christ and his apostles; 3. The dispensation of grace, extending from the establishment of the gospel to the present time. Q. What is the most ancient history we have? A. That which is contained in the Old Testament, giving an account of the creation of the world, the fall of our first parents, the general corruption of mankind, and the universal deluge which came upon the earth in consequence; the preservation of Noah with his family in the ark, and the re-peopling of the world by his threesons, Shem, Ham and Japheth, with their pos terity. * Q. What else is recorded in the scriptures ? A. The history of the Jews or Hebrews, once the favorite people of heaven, in the Old Testament; and the history of our Lord Jesus Christ, the son of GOD, and his disciples, in the New. LESSON XXI. OF MONARCHIES AND EMPIRES. Q. DOES not ancient history recognize the existence of certain extensive monarchies or empires? A. Yes; four, termed universal, because they extended over the greatest part of the then known world. What was the first of these? A. The Assyrian empire, founded at Babylon on the Euphrates, by Nimrod the grand son of Ham, A. M. 1800; and continued by his son Ninus, and after Ninus, by his wife Semiramis, and terminated under Sardanapalus ; having endured 1450 years. Q. What became of the empire after Sardanapalus's death? A. It was divided into three kingdoms; namely, the kingdom of Media, the kingdom of Assyria, and the kingdom of Babylon. Arbaces, who subdued Sardanapalus, was the first king of the Median kingdom, and Ecbatana his capital. Phul was the first king of the Assyrian kingdom, and his metropolis Nineveh. Babylon was the metropolis of the Babylonian kingdom, Nebuchadnezzar the most celebrated of its kings, and Belshazzar the last. Q. What Q. What was the second universal monarchy and by whom founded? A. The Persian, founded by Cyrus, upon the ruins of the Median and Babylonian kingdoms, in the year of the world 3468, and ended with the overthrow of Darius, its last king by Alex ander the Great, A. M. 3670, and before Christ 330, having endured something more than 200 years. Q. Who was this Cyrus? A. He was a prince of extraordinary virtue, wisdom and courage; and is renowned in Holy Writ for having effected the restoration of the Israelites from the Babylonish captivity, to Ju dea, their native land, with permission also to rebuild the temple at Jerusalem. Q. What was the third universal monarchy ? and by whom founded? A. The Grecian; founded 330 years before Christ, by Alexander the Great. It lasted, how. ever, no longer than the life of its founder; for, at his death, as there was no proper successor, his generals divided the empire among them, selves, forming four distinct kingdoms; náme ly, the Macedonian, the Asiatic, the Syrian, and the Egyptian. These subsisted under their own. kings, till they were subdued by the Romans. Q. Why was Alexander called the Great? A. Not on account of his virtues, but on ac count of his natural valor, and the great success of his arms, which, in the short period of 12 years, subjugated all the nations from the Adriatic sea, (now the gulph of Venice,) to the river Ganges in India. Q. What was the character of Alexander?. A. He A. He was of an active, vigorous constitution, possessed strong intellectual powers, an aspiring, impetuous disposition, and was very tenacious of his opinion. Under the tuition of the celebrat ́ed Aristotle, who was his preceptor, he made astonishing progress in every branch of science, to which it was thought proper to direct his attention; so that he soon became both a scholar and a philosopher Alexander, in the earlier parts of life, gave pretty strong evidence of a noble, virtuous and generous disposition; but cruelty, ingratitude and dissipation, disgraced the close of his days, and tarnished all his glory. He died at Babylon, of excessive drinking, in the 32d year of his age, and the 12th of his reign. Q. What was the fourth universal monarchy? A. The Roman; founded by Romulus, B. C. 753, and with some changes continued until, under Augustus Caesar, it became mistress of the whole earth, excepting China and some other countries that were either unknown, inhabited by savage nations, or too inconsiderable to attract regard. Q. What changes did the Roman government undergo? A. The First state of Rome was regal, under seven successive kings; the second was consular, under a series of consuls, for the space of 470 years; when the triumvirate was formed, by Julius Caesar, Pompey and Crassus, who divided the empire among them. Crassus having lost his life in a foreign expedition, Caesar and Pompey became jealous of each other's power, and a war ensued, in which Caesar ultimately triumph ed. |