23 INTRODUCTION. 



PART II. 



OF THE ORIGIN OF NATIONS, LAWS, GOVERNMENT, 

 AND COMMERCE. 



Having, in the following work, mentioned the ancient names of 

 countries, and even sometimes in speaking of those countries car- 

 ried our researches beyond modern times, it was thought necessa- 

 ry, in order to prepare the reader for entering upon the particular 

 history of each country we describe, to present him with a general 

 view of the history of mankind, from the first ages of the world to 

 the reformation in religion during the 16th century. An account 

 of the most interesting and important events which have happened 

 among mankind, with the causes that have produced, and the ef- 

 fects which have followed from them, is certainly of great impor- 

 tance in itself, and indispensably requisite to the understanding of 

 the present state of commerce, government, arts, and manners, in 

 any particular country : it may be called commercial and political 

 geography, and, undoubtedly, constitutes the most useful branch of 

 that science. 



The great event of the creation of the world, before which there 

 Was neither matter nor form of any thing, is placed, according to 

 the best chronologers, in the year before Christ 4004, and in the 

 710th year of what is called the Julian period, which has been 

 adopted by some chronologers and historians, but is of little real 

 sei*vice. The sacred records have fully determined the question, 

 that the world was not eternal, and also ascertained the time of its 

 creation with great precision.* 



It appears in general, from the first chapters in Genesis, that 

 the world, before the flood, was extremely populous ; that mankind 

 had made considerable improvement in the arts, and were become 

 extremely vicious, both in their sentiments and manners. Their 

 wickedness gave occasion to a memorable catastrophe, by which 

 ■op the whole human race, except Noah and his family, were 

 9 _ ' swept from the face of the earth. The deluge took place in. 

 the 1656th year of the world, and produced a very consider- 

 able change in the soil and atmosphere of this globe, rendering 

 them less friendly to the frame and texture of the human body. 

 Hence the abridgement of the life of man, and that formidable 

 train of diseases which has ever since made such havcck in the 

 world. The memory of the three sons of Noah, the first founders 

 of nations, was long preserved among their several descendants, 

 Japhet continued famous among the western nations, under the ce- 

 lebrated name of Iapetus ; the Hebrews paid an equal veneration 

 to Shem, who was the founder of their race ; and, among the 

 Egyptians, Ham was long revered as a divinity, under the name 



* The Samaritan copy of the Pentateuch (or five books) of Moses, makes 

 the antediluvian period only 1307 years, 349 short of the Hebrew Bible com- 

 putation ; and the Septuagint copy stretches it to 2262 years, which is 606 

 years exceeding it ; but the Hebrew chronology is generally acknowledged to 

 be of superior authority. 



