TO KNOWLEDGE.

EDITED BY MR. W. PINNOCK,

AUTHOR OF PINNOCK'S CATECHISMS," " GRAMMAR OF GEOGRAPHY AND HISTORY, ETC., ETC.

SATURDAY, JULY 14, 1832.

GEOGRAPHY AND HISTORY OF THE WORLD-FROM THE DELUGE TO THE ISRAELITES GOING OUT OF EGYPT, 1491 B. C.

FASTERN HEMISPHERE.

(For a Key to the Modern Parts, see page 1.)

which has reached our time, and displays great erudition and in- than conjectural conclusions. Moses, in the Pentateuch, gives us dustry of research.

PTOLEMY, an Eygptian, who lived in the second century of the CHRISTIAN ERA, produced a work on this subject, much more scientific than any that had preceded it.. He constructed MAPS on geometrical principles, and distributed the places according to their latitudes and longitudes.

Numerous works on this science followed, the most interesting and valuable of which have been collected and published by Hudson, under the title of "The Lesser Writers of ancient GREECE on GEOGRAPHY."

extent.

a "History of the Creation," which he must have derived from all probability this History was compiled in Egypt, and the materials traditionary information, through the descendants of Noah. In gathered partly from those venerable Fathers of Learning, the Magicians, and partly from the family of Caphtorim, the great grandson of Noah, who migrated into that country about the time that Moses was born; which event happened Anno Mundi, 2373, and before Christ, 1575 years.

During the MIDDLE AGES, when the Roman Empire was on the decline, GEOGRAPHY seems rather to have gone backward than advanced, and the most absurd theories were broached on the subject. But the ARABIANS pushed their discoveries to a considerable To our immortal King ALFRED, we are said to be indebted for the earliest accounts that can be relied on, of Denmark, Sweden, and Norway. In his time, likewise, Greenland was discovered; and in the year 1390, two brothers of VENICE, named ZENI, fell in with an island, supposed to have been what is now called NEW-precision from the account which he has given. Hunting and

FOUNDLAND.

In the sixteenth century, MARCO PAULO, a noble Venetian, contributed greatly to extend the narrow limits of geographical knowledge by his extensive travels, and the PORTUGUESE, assisted by the recent discovery of the Mariner's Compass visited many points of the GLOBE, till then, either wholly unknown, or imperfectly explored.

In the fifteenth century, COLUMBUS added the knowledge of a "NEW WORLD" to the stock of geographical information, an occurrence of vast importance, and a powerful stimulus to future exertion. From this time voyages of discovery too numerous to be particularized were made, and by the persevering exertions of MAGELLAN, DRAKE, DAMPIER, ANSON, WALLIS, BOURGAINVILLE, COOK, LA PEYROUSE, VANCOUVRE, and many other circumnavigators, our knowledge of the EARTH has been wonderfully increased, and adventurous travellers are daily adding to it. But, so extensive is the science, that GEOGRAPHY may be said to be yet in its infancy.

OF THE ANTEDILUVIAN WORLD.

(See Map, No. I, page 1.)

In our former number we intimated our intention to endeavour to lead those Students, who shall be led by our "GUIDE TO KNOWLEDGE," "to begin with the beginning" upon their doing which, we consider that both the amount and the value of their attainments will materially depend. In regard to the Study of History, this is especially the case.

When we look upon the present condition of man, when we view the wonders of the Earth, the Waters, and the Air, when we reflect upon their infinite variety of uses, and their no less wonderful variety of inhabitants, with what mingled awe, and admiration must we not turn our imagination to that point of eternity when "the Earth was without form, and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep."

From Chaldean origin Magic and Astrology took their rise, and it seems natural to suppose, that some of those mystic arts and Occult sciences, practised before the Flood, had been preserved in the Ark, by the sons of Noah, and who had learned them of the wicked divines, and enchanters of the former time. At all events, origin; and if not thus derived, they must have been obtained by some passages of the Sacred History seem to have a Chaldean the Chaldees of the New World, who themselves must have been descendants of Noah. Moses, however, had not so much in view the Geography and Ilistory of Nations, as the records by which he should be enabled to trace the Divine Government of the world from its Creation, and on that to establish the Laws by which the people of the chosen race were to be guided. For this reason, we are unable to define the limits, or local situation of places with any degree of destroying wild beasts was an important practice of the early ages, and hence it occurred, that bodily strength and agility were more esteemed than wisdom and knowledge; and this engendered a ferocity in man that rendered him barbarous and tyrannical. Those who excelled in this respect were either dreaded or admired; they were such as are described by the name of Giants; that is Mighty Men, according to the scriptural phrase, in the 6th chapter of Genesis. It appears, also, that they were dissolute in their habits, totally ignorant of the existence of a God, and given up to licentiousness; but still some arts had been invented and practised. Tubal Cain was an instructor of artificers in brass and iron. They had, therefore, a knowledge of the production and use of those metals long before the Flood; and even Cain built a city, and called it Enoch, after the name of his first born son.

The building and form of the Ark also show that Architecture was not unknown to the Antediluvians. Their ignorance was, perhaps, a total want of information respecting the Creator, a relian ce alone on human strength, and an entire neglect of the Divine authority; in fact, symptoms of this ignorance remained long after, until Abram was called of God, and removed into another country. Then it was that light began to shine into the human mind, and gross darkness to vanish; and moral rectitude found birth and existence in the inspiration of spiritual Knowledge; violence gave place to Right and Justice, and Abram and Lot adjusted their differences by civil contract and agreement, without sanguinary strife, and without malice; in that notable era a nucleus of a brilliant luminary was formed, whose light was to extend to all the regions of the Earth.

INTRODUCTION TO A BRIEF HISTORICAL VIEW OF

THE PROGRESS OF THE HUMAN MIND. MAN is a BEING SO essentially different from all the other animated creatures with which this world is peopled, his faculties are capable of such indefinite improvement, and they develope themselves by laws which are so unvarying, and yet so difficult to be traced, that it may be no useless, or uninteresting, attempt, to give a sketch of this developement in its results, and follow it from generation to generation, so as to exhibit a faint picture of the proTo do this, we must minutely and carefully attend to the changes which have taken place in SOCIETY, remark the influence which every past period has on that which follows it; and from the observation of what man has been, and what he at present is, form reasonable plans for accelerating his further progress in the road to KNOWLEDGE and HAPPINESS.

The shapeless Earth, a huge and dark void, destitute alike of animate inhabitants and inanimate productions; what a picture of melancholy, and unbroken gloom, and immobility, do not the words call up before the reflecting mind and then, that sublime command of the most high God," Let there be Light," and the sublimely instantaneous consummation, "and there was Light!"gress of human intellect. The sudden bursting of the Light, starting into every corner of the Globe, at the bidding of the God of Light and Life, is almost felt as we read the words. But it is for enlightened Man to think, as well as to feel; and to be able to give a reason, not only for the faith, but also for the admiration that is in him.

In regard to the Geography and History of the Antediluvian World, but little is known; the Flood having undoubtedly destroyed most, if not all the monuments and records by which any of its circumstances might have been discovered; and which, by analogy of reasoning, would have fortified us with something more

By thus observing the vast advances which MAN has already made in the developement of his faculties, we shall be led to conclude that there are no fixed bounds to their improvement, that his approach to perfection is absolutely indefinite, that circumstances

may render this advance more or less rapid, but that nothing but such a general revolution in the physical and moral world as would prevent the exercise of those faculties, and deprive men of their present resources of KNOWLEDGE, can render this progress retrogade, or even completely stationary.

uttered by the human voice could be formed; hence, they invented signs for those few sounds: thus Alphabetical Writing had its origin. This wonderful, but simple, Invention, has secured for ever the progress of the improvement of the HUMAN RACE.

Previously to the discovery last mentioned, the advances of manThe first state of civilization is that of a few persons forming a kind from a state scarcely superior to that of savage beasts to that of SOCIETY, and subsisting by hunting and fishing. For, though the a partial CIVILIZATION, can only be guessed at, and traced by pro SCRIPTURES inform us, that our first PARENTS, and their imme-babilities. Ignorance, and the want of means to preserve a permadiate offspring, practised tillage, we have reason to suppose, that it nent record of the progress of improvement, have totally deprived was in the most simple way possible, and that their descendants, us of any certainty in this respect. But from the period of the when scattered over the face of the EARTH, preferred the precarious discovery of Alphabetical Writing, HISTORY has transmitted to us supplies supplied by hunting, to the toilsome duty of cultivating facts, by which we may come to more certain conclusions; although the ground. In this state MAN may be supposed to possess a lan- it was not till this method of WRITING was known in GREECE, guage, sufficiently copious to communicate his wants, a few moral that these facts were handed down to us, in uninterrupted sucideas from whence he might regulate, in some degree, his conduct; cession. From this time PHILOSOPHY has no longer any thing and even a kind of Patriarchal Government. to guess, has no more suppositious combinations to form; all it has to do, is to collect and arrange occurrences; and to exhibit the useful truths which arise from them as a whole, and from the different bearings of their several parts.

But, the small numbers of which these rude Societies consisted, the monotony of their occupations, and the impossibility, from the nature of them, to make active industry subservient to the future good of themselves, or of their posterity, rendered them careless of every thing but the means of supplying the wants of the present moment. Their time, therefore, was spent in alternate fatigue and complete indolence; and, in consequence of this mode of life, they had few opportunities, and little inducement, to enrich their minds with new combinations of ideas. Their progress, therefore, in intellectual improvement must, in this stage, have been extremely slow. As population increased, however, hunting and fishing must have provided a very scanty and precarious supply, and the idea of taming and multiplying certain animals for food and clothing must have occurred. MAN must likewise have found it necessary to collect and preserve a stuck of those fruits and roots which the earth spontaneously offered to his acceptance, and to attempt to propagate them near his habitation;—thus arose an imperfect AGRICUL

TURE.

The next natural progress in the path of civilization must have been the acquisition of landed property. MAN naturally claimed a right to that unappropriated land, which he had taken the pains to clear, to plant and sow, and to those animals which he had reared. In process of time all the lands within a convenient distance of the habitations of a tribe, or NATION, would become the property of individuals, and there would be no more for others, hitherto unprovided for, to appropriate. These then must invent for themselves some other means of procuring subsistence; they must either become servants to those who have more land and more animals than they can personally cultivate and manage, and for their services receive a share of the produce, or they must minister to the new wants, which increase of property has a sure tendency to create, by inventing and fabricating articles of convenience and comparative luxury, for which they may receive the necessaries of life in exchange. Such was the origin of TRADE.

MEN possessed of permanent property, managed by slaves or hired servants, become possessed likewise of leisure for meditation; they ponder on the means of removing inconveniences that still exist; the result of their meditation gives rise to new ARTS, AGRICULTURE is improved, population increases, and, consequently, there are a greater number of persons, who must exert their ingenuity for subsistence; an interchange of ideas elicits new discoveries, and the dawn of the sciences begins to appear.

From the regions of certainty we shall next roam into those of conjecture, and delineate the probable progress of future generations towards that perfection which the constancy of the Laws of Nature so clearly promises. We shall attempt to shew, by what step this progress is gradually to be rendered possible, and even easy; how truth, in spite of the transient prevalence of prejudices, and the support they receive from the corruption of Governments, or of the people, must, in the end, obtain a durable triumph; and by what ties NATURE has, indissolubly, united the advancement of KNOWLEDGE, with the progress of LIBERTY, VIRTUE, and respect for the Natural Rights of MAN.

We shall next endeavour to expose the origin, and trace the history of general errors, which have more or less contributed to retard or suspend the advance of REASON, and, sometimes even as much as political events, have been the cause of Man's taking a retrograde course towards IGNORANCE.

Errors and prejudices are the result of the activity of the human mind, and of the disproportion that always exists between what it actually knows, what it has the desire to know, and what it conceives there is a necessity of knowing. It is even apparent that, from the general laws of the developement of our faculties, certain prejudices must necessarily spring up in each stage of our progress, and extend their influence beyond that stage, because men retain the errors of their infancy, their country, and the age in which they live, long after the truths necessary to the removal of those errors are acknowledged by the judicious.

If, then, the prejudices of philosophers be impediments to new acquisitions of truth, those of the less enlightened classes retard the propagation of truths already known, and those of esteemed and established professions oppose like obstacles. The history of the contests which reason has with these three kinds of enemies, together with that of the rise, triumph, and fall of prejudice, will form the subject of several of these Essays.

If it be possible to foretel with any degree of certainty the future improvement of the human race, the history of the progress it has already made must form the data on which to found our prognostications. Experience, though not an infallible, is a tolerably sure guide as to what we may expect for the future; and if it be advantageous to observe the Societies that exist at one and the same period, and to trace their connection and resemblance, it must assuredly be so, likewise, to observe them in a succession of periods. Our prejudices, and the evils that result from them, had their source in the prejudices of our ancestors; and to develope their origin and effects will be the surest way of undeceiving us respecting the one, and of annihilating the other. We are arrived at the point when there is no longer any thing to fear, either from new errors, or the return of old ones; it will therefore be of advantage to know how NATIONS have been deceived, corrupted, and plunged in misery. A great amelioration of the condition of the UMAN RACE appears to be rapidly approaching, and it will contribute not a little to its peaceable and happy consummation, if, by contemplating past revoAt length, some person or persons, whose names are lost in ob-futions, we learn to render the happiness it promises less dearly livion, though they were undoubtedly amongst the greatest bene-bought, and to surmount the obstacles which remain to be feared factors of the human race, discovered, that, by the combination in with greater ease, and without those commotions which have in (different ways, of a few articulate sounds, every word that can be general accompanied any material change.

In this state of things MAN felt the necessity of some better method of recording events, and of preserving his ideas and their results, than that of committing them to memory, and handing them down by tradition. The first that occurred to him was the ART of "PICTURE WRITING," by which it was attempted to preserve the memory of important transactions. The limited nature of this method induced an improvement; by which such tracts only were preserved as were characteristic of the objects meant to be represented. Afterwards, by a kind of metaphor, the image of a physical object became expressive of moral ideas. Thus, for every word there was a sign, which rendered the art of writing unattainable by the generality of mankind.

WEDNESDAY (Woden's-daeg), was consecrated to WODEN, or ODIN, who was considered by the northern nations the father of all the DEITIES, and the "God of War," uniting the characters of JUPITER and MARS of the ancients.

posture. The figure was clad in bright armour; in his right hand was a broad and crooked sword, and in his left, a shield.

THURSDAY (Thor's-daeg), was consecrated to Thor, who was the eldest son of WODEN. He was considered the supremne go

WODEN was represented by the figure of a warrior in a martial vernor of the AIR, LIGHTNING, and THUNDER, in which latter par