64 THE REV. WILLIAM WRIGHT, D.D. 
to build up. The Moslems drove out the Byzantines ; and 
barbarous hoards of Crusaders captured and sacked most 
of the towns on the Orontes plains. For several centuries 
the Turk, like the genius of destruction, has been fulfilling 
his destiny by turning the fertile plains of Syria into barren 
wastes, and her splendid cities and temples into heaps and 
mounds. ‘The spoilers have been in the land of the Hittites 
for over 2,500 years, and it need not cause wonder if most of 
the Hittite inscriptions and sculptures have disappeared. ‘The 
records of the past, however, are not all irretrievably lost. 
The scores and scores of enormous mounds that dot the 
plains of Hittite land preserve their treasures safely from 
the destroyer, and when the obstinacy of the Turk has been 
removed, and our own indifference succeeded by intelligent 
enterprise, the lost past shall live again, and the dead 
millenniums shall tell us all their story. 
The legend of Memnon, son of the morning, the leader of 
the Keteians, is now intelligible. The Assyrians of Ctesias 
and Diodorus Siculus, who took part in the closing scenes at 
Troy, seem to be none other than the Hittites; and this 
hypothesis is rendered still more probable by the presence of 
Dardanians and Mysians at the Battle of Kadesh. 
The numerous peoples who fought under Kheta-Sira, 
whether as tributaries or allies, obeyed a voice that claimed a 
right to command, and this explains the mystery of Hittite 
resistance for so many centuries. The shocks of Egyptian 
and Assyrian invasion exhausted themselves against the 
frontier capitals of Kadesh and Carchemish, but the mighty 
empire of the Hittites extended beyond, on the broad plains 
and highlands of Asia Minor; and so there were always fresh 
Hittite armies, and abundant Hittite wealth, to enable the 
empire to withstand the assaults of its enemies for a thousand 
years. 
I must not prolong this paper by subsidiary questions, such 
as the origin of the Hittites, the origin of the script now 
associated with their name, the decipherment of the inserip- 
tions, and other similar questions which would require special 
treatment and considerable space and time. My object has 
been to summarise in broad outline the more prominent and 
generally received facts regarding the great empire now 
claiming recognition. In arranging my facts I have claimed 
for the Hebrew Scriptures no higher authority than would 
naturally attach to the ancient writings of a historic people. 
But I think it must be admitted that in standing the test of 
scientific treatment these Scriptures assert their claim to be 
not only true, but divine. 
