6 
present co-existence of civilization and barbarism furnishes us 
with no positive evidence touching which of the two was 
primeval, so the past co-existence of these in any age., how- 
ever remote, can just as little settle the question ? 
That civilized races lived upon the earth long before the 
dawn of authentic secular history, no one can doubt. Lepsius 
found hieroglyphic signs of the stylus and inkstand on 
Egyptian monuments of the 4th dynasty of Manetho,* which, 
though it can scarcely be reckoned as coming within the range 
of authentic history, represents a period in Egypt coeval with 
the time of Abraham. It may be quite true that this old 
Egyptian empire, the mere existence of which (apart from 
Scripture) we only know through monuments, and lists of 
royal names preserved in fragments of lost literature, together 
with traditions handed down to us from the Greeks, was 
preceded by a lower state of civilization. We are quite 
willing to believe, on the authority of Herodotus, that Menes, 
who stands first in Manetho* s list of dynasties, founded the 
empire by a consolidation of inferior sovereignties, when the 
Delta and Thebaid were independent provinces, and the state 
of society was much more imperfect than it became afterwards. 
This, however, is no proof that the previous inhabitants of 
Egypt were uncivilized. If we are to judge of that by the 
late discoveries of enterprising travellers in Chaldaea, Bashan, 
and Nineveh, we have no reason for believing that the nearer 
we draw to a remote antiquity, the further we are removed from 
civilization. On the contrary, the recent excavations at Mug- 
heir, conducted by Mr. Loftus and Mr. Taylor, have brought 
to light the name of Urukh, king of Ur, of the Chaldees, 
whose temples were gigantic in size, with their angles facing 
the cardinal points, indicating science as well as civilization ; 
and whose reign is placed by Bawlinson before the time of 
Abraham. How singular that modern research should thus 
be in harmony with ancient Greek tradition ; which, so far from 
placing inferior races of men at the beginning of the world* s 
history, traces back chronology from an iron age to a brazen 
one, from brazen to silver, and from silver to golden ! 
[Hesiod.) Granting that this is both poetry and mythology; 
yet how strongly does it confirm our own conclusions ! If 
the original races of mankind had raised themselves up 
from a state of barbarism and misery to one of luxury and 
civilization, is it not likely that a tradition of this kind would 
have been preserved ? Human nature is much more prone to 
self-exaltation than self-depression. The fact, therefore, that 
* Bunsen’s Egypt's Place in Universal History , vol. i. p. 8. 
