Mr. Cook on improved Chronoiogff. 



on the MonJay following, passed Ihc 

 Red Sen, atnl entered tlic Dcscit, — 

 about a yetir aftcrwanls tlic law is 

 given, ill tlih year Sparta is l)uilt by 

 LaccdwrnTm, Ihc son of Jupiter by Say- 

 gela, — anil wlio, niairying Si)aita Uie 

 daughter of Eurolas, was tlic first king 

 of twelTB sovereigns of the Laced3emo- 

 nian line, — JiTc years afterwards Dana us 

 brings into Greece, from Egypt, the 

 fn-st vessel,— it was at this ])CTiod that 

 the first vessel appeared on t!ic ica, and 

 ihc iirrention belongs fu the Egyptians. 

 — Ten years from lliis time Troy was 

 bniltby Dardanu.s— about 1453 B.C. the 

 fust Olympic g.itnes arc celebrated at 

 Elis in Greece, by five biolhcrs, the 

 Idaci Dactyii, whici* lasted five days, in 

 bononroVJtipiter, the beginning of every 

 fifth year, and eslabiishcd by Iphitns. 



Now, in this period of about thirty 

 years, licro arc several great events, 

 which the scholar might easily fix on 

 bis niiird.making the Exodetiie centre on 

 wliich betakes his standing, and, looking 

 round Iiim on the events that arc pass- 

 ing in the world, fiom the place on 

 which he stands, through the whole of 

 a circle of twenty-five or thirty years 

 around him, or twenty-five years before 

 and twenty-five years after that event. 



Let us now run backward for twenty- 

 five or thirty years from the Exodc ; — 

 Two years prior to this event, Cadmus 

 iiilroduces letters into Greece, and built 

 the citadel of Thebes.— Six years before 

 the Exode, is established the great 

 council of the Amphiclyons — Twelve 

 years bcfovc the Exode, happened the 

 dclnge of Deucalion, in Tliessaly, — an<l, 

 if wc were to go back foity years, \vc 

 Fmd Seamandcr comes from Crete, in 

 I'hrygia, and founds the kin.;dom of 

 Troy, — and that, sixty ycais before the 

 l''xode, Cccrops founded tJic kingdom 

 of Athens. 



'I'lic conijiiler miglit make a few re- 

 marks respecting Iho events of every 

 century, on the arts, their progress, and 

 the gradual development of the human 

 mind. Sucli as, — The Egyptians ap- 

 pear to have been the first nation that 

 made any great progress in t!ic arts ; 

 they had cities, and horses, and cha- 

 riots ; and were governed by wise and 

 regular laws, ami elaimed tJic immortal 

 glory of having invented letters, by 

 Mcmnon ; 300 years before this event 

 of the Exode, wc ilo not find that the 

 Israelites had any idea of architecture, 

 as they livcil in tents, and wrmdeied 

 Ironi place to place, tending their catlle, 

 wlrilc the arts in other co-uitrics were 



[Aprfl I, 



practised, and the vast powers of the 

 human mind wore developing them- 

 selves In building the cities of Athens, 

 Sparta, and Troy, 



As another example, let us take 

 a wider ci;elc, that of a century, 

 making the vl c. era the centre, and 

 cncjuire what was passing among men 

 at that time. Rome, fifty years 

 B.C. contains only 320,000 citizens, 

 when Cicsar is proclaimed Dictator. — 

 Forty-eight years B.C. the battle of 

 i'harsalia is fought, and Pompey the 

 Great is defeated, and, fiying to Egypt, 

 is slain. — In this year the first coins 

 bearing the head of a living personage 

 arc struck at Rome. — Forty-six years 

 B.C. Cato kills himself at Utica; and, 

 two years aflerwards, C«esar is assassi- 

 nated by Brutus and others in the se- 

 nate-house. Dicnlorus Siculus, the 

 historian, bom forty-two years B.C. — the 

 battles of Phiiippi, in which Cassius 

 and Brutus are defeated. — Forty years 

 B.C. Ilerod receives the kingdom of 

 Judea from the Romans. — Thirty-one 

 years B.C. the battle of Actium was 

 fought on the 2d of September, when 

 Antony and Cleopatra are defeated, 

 and Octavius becomes the sovereign of 

 the world. — Nineteen years B.C. Rome 

 at the meridian of its glory. — Eight 

 years B.C. a census at Rome, when it 

 contained 4,233,000 citizens. — Our Sa- 

 viour born. 



But I need not go on for fifty years 

 after this great event, nor enquire what 

 other events were passing in the world, 

 besides those of the Roman [jcople; diil 

 they occupy the whole theatre of the 

 earth during this century ? While Tibe- 

 rius is practising in the island of Caprea 

 the worst of vices, — our Saviour is cru- 

 cified, St. Paul converted. While Ger- 

 manicus closes all his conquests and 

 glory by death, — our Saviour is dispu- 

 ting with doctors. While the Messiah 

 is preaching peace to the people of Ju- 

 dea, — this mighty people, inhabiting the 

 eternal city, have attained to the highest 

 point of human knowledge and excel- 

 lency in poetry, in history, in architec- 

 ture, in the arts, and the science of 

 government and war; crowned with 

 glory and conquest, and, raising their 

 victorious sword over the subject worM, 

 dictate to it law; while they, sunk in 

 ignorance, as rcs|)ccts a future state, 

 and the God of heaven, are worshipi>ing 

 a nuiltitudo of gods they had made. 



Yon will perceive, from the above 

 imperfect sketch, that my idea is to 

 combine together, iu as concise a way 



as 



