china's place in ancient HISTOEY : A FRAGMENT. 109 



manufacture of glass, and were famous for the art of dyeing 

 purple.* 



During the Shang dynasty of China, Athens is said to have 

 been founded by Cecropsf (B.C. 1571); the court of Areopagus 

 estabhshed; Thebes erected B.C. 1453, by the Phoenician 

 Cadmus,:]: by whom also the fifteen letters of the Greek 

 ah^Dhabet which go imder his name were introduced ; the 

 oracle of Delphi became a central point of union of different 

 tribes. 



In Judea the Council of twenty-three Judges to govern 

 the people was established after the death of Joshua 

 (B.C. 1443). Each city had its special magistrates and 

 ministers of justice ; their place of audience the gates of 

 the city. To this period belongs the narratives of Sisera 

 (B.C. 1285), of Ruth§ (B.C. 1312), the story of Jephtha's vow 

 (B.C. 1188), that of Jason and the Argonauts (B.C. 1263), and 

 Trojan war (ended 1184). 



To the same period is referred the Vedic portion of India's 

 history, when Vishnu was a name for the sun, the luminary at 

 his rismg, in the zenith, and setting representing the three 

 steps of Vishnu while striding across limitless space. To the 

 latter part of the same period are referred the events real or 

 mythical, or partly both, which form the subject of the Kama- 

 yana commemorative of Rama, Seeta, and Ravanu, Kmg of 

 Lunka, or Ceylon.|| 



The advent of the third dynasty, or that of Chow,1[ was the 

 commencement of a period the duration of which was destined 

 to extend to 873 years,** and to become the most remark- 

 able era of China's history. At the date when it was first 

 established the maxims of politics and government laid down 

 by the sages of antiquity had been to a great extent forgotten, 

 They were in part revived, in part modified so as to be 

 applicable to the "advanced" condition of affairs brought 

 about during the continuance of this dynasty. It is asserted 

 that the state to which the arts, science and policy of China 



* The Purpura patula is believed to have yielded the Syrian purple. 

 t According to tradition Cecrops was no Egyptian, but an autocthoii 

 of Attica. Schmitz, p. 144. 



I Did such a person ever live ? Id. 



§ Ruth, by whose marriage with Boaz was born Obed, from whom 

 descended Jesse, father of David, the royal progenitor of the Messiah. 

 White, p. 21. 



II Ramayana. The poem so named narrates the advance southward of 

 the Aryan invaders of India. *\ B.C. 1122 



** i.e., till B.C. 249 ; it comprised 35 monarchs. 



