HISTORY OF ANCIENT NATIONS. 



barbarism ; while the Mongolian has, until quite 

 recently, afforded the spectacle of a single per- 

 manent and pedantic civilisation retaining millions 

 -within its grasp for ages in the extreme east of 

 Asia; the so-called Caucasian, as if the seeds of 

 the world's progress had been implanted in it, has 

 worked out for itself a splendid career on an ever- 

 shifting theatre. Originating, according to the 

 current view, in Asia, the Caucasian civilisation 

 has shot itself westward, if we may so speak, in 

 several successive throes, adding one country of 

 Europe after another to the stage of history ; and, 

 iastly, in modern times, crossing the Atlantic, and 

 aneeting in America with a diffused and degenerate 

 Mongolism. 



Ancient India. 



For the relation of the inhabitants of India 

 <o the so-called Caucasian family, we must 

 refer to ANTHROPOLOGY. At what time the 

 vast peninsula of Hindustan could first boast of 

 a civilised population, it is impossible to say ; all 

 testimony, however, agrees in assigning to Indian 

 civilisation a most remote antiquity. Another 

 fact seems also to be tolerably well authenticated 

 regarding ancient India namely, that the northern 

 portions of it, and especially the north-western 

 portions, which would be nearest the original 

 "Caucasian seat, were the first civilised ; and that 

 the civilising influence spread thence southward 

 Tto Cape Comorin. 



Notwithstanding this general conviction that 

 India was one of the first portions of the earth's 

 surface that contained a civilised population, few 

 facts in the ancient history of India are certainly 

 known. The Hindus themselves, although they 

 have abundance of early literature, have no his- 

 tory. What appears to be history, is a mass of 

 fable, without the means of fixing a date, or extri- 

 cating the possible facts from the fictions. Such 

 -accounts as we have from external sources, merely 

 resolve themselves into the general information, 

 4hat India, many centuries before Christ, was an 

 important member in the family of Asiatic nations ; 

 -supplying articles to their commerce, and involved 

 in their agitations. Accordingly, if we wish to 

 ibrm an idea of the condition of India prior to 

 that great epoch in its history its invasion by 

 Alexander the Great, 326 B.C. we can only do so 

 by reasoning back from what we know of its pres- 

 -ent condition, allowing for the modifying effects 

 of the two thousand years which have intervened, 

 -and especially for the effects produced by the 

 Mohammedan invasion, 1000 A.D. This, how- 

 ever, is the less difficult in the case of such a 

 country as India, where the permanence of native 

 institutions is so remarkable ; and though we 

 <annot hope to acquire a distinct notion of the 

 territorial divisions, &c. of India in very ancient 

 times, yet, by a study of the Hindus as they are 

 -at present, we may furnish ourselves with a toler- 

 ably accurate idea of the nature of that ancient 

 <ivilisation which overspread Hindustan many 

 centuries before the birth of Christ and this all 

 Che more probably that the notices which remain 

 of the state of India at the time of the invasion of 

 Alexander, correspond in many points with what 

 is to be seen in India at the present day. 



The most remarkable feature in Hindu society 

 is its division into castes, a system so intimately 

 dbound up with their religion, that we say no more 



on this head, referring to the article on HINDUISM 

 &c. for further information. 



A hundred millions of people professing this 

 system, divided into castes as now, and carrying 

 the Brahminical ritual into all the occupations of 

 lazy life under the hot sun, and amid the exu- 

 berant vegetation of Hindustan such was the 

 people into which Alexander the Great carried his 

 conquering arms; such, doubtless, they had been 

 for ages before that period; and such did they 

 remain, shut out from the view of the rest of the 

 civilised world, and only communicating with it 

 by means of spices, ivory, &c. which found their 

 way through Arabia or the Red Sea to the Medi- 

 terranean, till Vasco da Gama rounded the Cape 

 of Good Hope, and brought Europe and India 

 into closer connection. Meanwhile, a Moham- 

 medan invasion had taken place (1000 A.D.); 

 Mohammedans from Persia had mingled them- 

 selves with the Hindus; and it was with this 

 mixed population that British enterprise eventually 

 came into collision. 



History of the Eastern Nations till their Incorporation in the 

 Persian Empire. 



Leaving India, and proceeding westward, we 

 find two large masses of the human species filling 

 in the earliest times the countries lying between 

 the Indus and the Mediterranean namely, an 

 Indo-Persian mass, filling the whole tract of 

 country between the Indus and the Tigris ; and a 

 Semitic mass, filling the greater part of lesser 

 Asia and the whole peninsula of Arabia, and 

 extending itself into the parts of Africa adjoining 

 the Red Sea. That, in the most remote ages, 

 these lands were the theatres of a civilised 

 activity, is certain, although no records have been 

 transmitted from them to us, except a few frag- 

 ments relative to the Semitic nations. The 

 general facts, however, with regard to these ante- 

 historic times, seem to be: ist, That the former 

 of the two masses mentioned namely, the popula- 

 tion between the Indus and the Caspian was 

 essentially a prolongation of the great Indian 

 nucleus, possessing a culture similar to the Indian 

 in its main aspects, although varied, as was in- 

 evitable, by the operation of those physical causes 

 which distinguish the climate of Persia and 

 Cabool from that of Hindustan; 2d, That the 

 Semitic mass divided itself at a very early period 

 into a number of separate peoples or nations 

 the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Phoenicians, 

 the Jews, the Arabians, &c and that each of 

 these acquired a separate development, and 

 worked out for itself a separate career ; $d, That 

 upwards of a thousand years before Christ, the 

 spirit of conquest appeared among the Semitic 

 nations, dashing them violently against each 

 other ; and that at length one Semitic fragment 

 that is, the Assyrians attained the supremacy 

 over the rest, and founded a great dominion, 

 called the Assyrian empire, which stretched from 

 Egypt to the borders of India (800 B.C.) ; and 4///, 

 That the pressure of this Semitic power against 

 the Indo-Persic mass was followed by a reaction 

 one great section of the Indo-Persians rising into 

 strength, supplanting the Assyrian empire, and 

 founding one of their own, called the Persian 

 empire (536 B.C.), which was destined in its turn 

 to be supplanted by the confederacy of Grecian 

 states in 326 B.C. 



