26 Sketches of the 



to the remoter eras of African and Asiatic national infancy, 

 or even to the meridian splendor of many of their empires. 

 The eftbrts of gigantic learning have been foiled in attempts 

 to tear away the veil of concealment from the picture of 

 the early times of even these comparatively modern states; 

 and in lieu of a well defined though distant view of what 

 they were, and how they had risen gradually from barbar- 

 ism to perfection, it is altogether confused or lost ; and our 

 earliest historical records place them before us in a situation 

 elevated far above prima3val habits : — barbarous and rude, 

 it is true, in their customs, but builders of ships and of 

 palaces ; skilful fabricators of steel and of clothing, and 

 organized, at the time of our first acquaintance with them, 

 into monarchies and political combinations much advanced 

 beyond what Ave can imagine to have been then, as is now, 

 the condition of primitive natural man. 



What an interesting relique would it not have been to 

 after ages, had some traveller — some eastern Strabo or 

 Herodotus visited Greece or Italy ere they had emerged 

 from a state of savage life ; observed closely their customs ; 

 gathered their religious or historical legends, and disclosed 

 them to the world in the Hebrew language. What light 

 would not such a single work have thrown upon the naked 

 outline of their splendid mythology ; and what volumes 

 of condensed laborious research and conjecture have been 

 spared by the bare recital of perhaps a dozen facts, upon 

 which were subsequently heaped the gorgeous apparel and 

 imagery of immortal poetry — delighting and dazzling the 

 mind, it is true, with fine imaginings, but at the same 

 time hindering, or distracting it from the less pleasing 

 contemplation of plain unornamentcd historic reality. 



But, it may be enquired, would the advantage derivable 



