NATURAL HISTORY OP MAN. 475 



the record of six migrations and settlements, each containing 

 some germ of future history.* Yet even this period, in 

 which were sown the seeds that ripened into Grecian genius 

 and civilisation, how vaguely and scantily is it known to us ! 

 How much more obscurely still those vast Celtic, Teutonic, 

 and Sclavonic migrations which have given cast and colour 

 to all the succeeding destinies of Europe ! Here we have 

 hardly the ground of tradition to stand upon : all measure 

 of time is lost ; and we are obliged to come at once to the 

 relations of language, as the only index we possess to these 

 mysteries of the ancient world. 



Of the grandeur of Egypt at a remote period we have 

 numerous proofs ; and the genius and industry of the present 

 age have derived from its sublime monuments, its hierogly- 

 phics and paintings, the evidences of vast extent of power, 

 of various refinements of policy and civilisation. But in this 

 very point is seen the deficiency of history. Whence, and 

 how, this growth of grandeur, unrevealed in its origin, and 

 so faintly traced in its earlier progress? Long series of 

 sovereigns have been determined through hieroglyphic in- 

 scriptions, compared with the fragments of history ; the 

 founders and dates of many of the great monuments similarly 

 fixed ; certain astronomical periods ascertained ; and a 

 chronology of some exactness carried back to a remote 

 antiquity. But antiquity is only a relative term ; and the 

 researches of Bunsen and Lepsius, the latest labourers in 

 this field, though stretching backwards nearly 5,000 years, 

 are arrested at a period far short of the origin of the 

 remarkable nation on whose history they have bestowed so 

 much learning and toil. 



The history of the Assyrian Empire, contemporary with 



* Cuvier has particularly marked this period, extending from about 1550 A.c. 

 to 1450 A.C., and including, besides the departure of the Israelites from Egypt, 

 some of the most noted epochs of settlement in Greece. 



