CHAPTER I 



HOW THE HISTORY OF THE PAST IS READ 



Very little of really ancient history is to 

 be learned from books, very little of it is even 

 recorded in written language. The stories of 

 Assyria and Babylonia, it is true, are partly 

 deciphered from strange characters impressed 

 on tablets of clay and partly from inscriptions 

 carved on monuments and statues. But Assyria 

 and Babylonia were highly civilized nations; 

 and while they may be ancient as we compute 

 time, they are modern if judged by nature's 

 standards, and there are many far older races 

 that had no written language and left no in- 

 scribed tablets nor sculptured stones to tell of 

 their life and achievements. For any knowl- 

 edge of the history of these very ancient peo- 

 ples we are wholly dependent upon such articles 

 of every-day use as were made of materials 

 sufficiently enduring to last through long cen- 



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