Epidemics . 219 



Abraham v ... 175 100 



Isaac 180 60 



Jacob 147 85 



Levi 137 



Kohath o 



Amram o 



Moses 120 



During the first epidemium there do not appear to have 

 been any very extensive changes in the political or civil con- 

 ditions of man. Egypt at this time was the centre of art 

 and science, and probably the most intelligent and powerful 

 nation upon earth. Ancient Thebes and the Great Pyramid 

 bespeak a people far advanced in science, and of very 

 singular tastes ; their power of mummifying their dead is 

 not the least of those achievements which indicate a people 

 far advanced in civilization. 



The succeeding age presents no very marked change in 

 the condition of mankind, innumerable petty warfares, and 

 free intercourse of nation with nation, without any special 

 accumulation of power and military skill in any one nation, 

 saving the Jews ; who, in the reign of David, rose to great 

 military pre-eminence, and in Solomon's reign to great com- 

 mercial and social importance. No kingdom was equal to 

 it for wealth, social rights, and security to person and pro- 

 perty ; but this is the one great empire that rose and decayed 

 during the epidemium from 1490 to 750 B.C. So far as 

 history is concerned, any dates prior to the Babylonish king- 

 dom or Nineveh appear to be next to valueless, saving those 

 arrived at through the record of the sacred text ; but as in 

 our day, as in all other days, when that Word was read and 

 known among the people, much contrast of opinion was held, 

 and still is, partly because of the necessary sequences that 

 must be drawn from a full acceptance of its contents, which 

 are of a kind not acceptable to the great mass of those who 



