OUTLINES OF HISTORY.

INTRo Duction.
I. HISTORY may be defined, in a general way, as the rec
ord of the life of mankind. In a more special History de
view, it is the narrative of the rise and progress *
of those famous peoples whose doings constitute the history
of civilization.
2. In this its proper and highest sense history presup
poses the races advanced beyond the natural its relation to
or primitive state, and gathered in political *
communities, or nations; and it confines itself to those
nations whose achievements have influenced the general
current of the world's affairs, and made the condition of
the world what we now see it.
3. Respecting mankind outside of nations, there is much
interesting and valuable knowledge, supplied Aids to
by various sciences. Among these are, — history.

ETHNOLOGY, or the science of the several races, or types

of mankind.
ARCHAEOL'OGY, or the science of the ancient works of
Inan.

PHILOL'OGY, or the science of language.

By the aid of these sciences much is now known regard
ing humanity in its lower stages of progress. In our own
times a vast amount of inquiry has been made into the con
dition of the primeval races; interesting studies have been
made also on the customs, manners, arts, languages, and
religions of savage tribes.
I
 2 OUTLAVES OF GEMERAL - HISTORY.

‘. .4: These researches belong to ANTHROPOL'ody, which

Birenes be deals with man in natural history, rather than
::::::::::: *:: to HKTory proper, which deals with nations,
istºry: " ' ' that is to say, with man in civilization.
5. Viewing history as confined to the series of leading
The real his civilized nations, we observe that it has to do
toric race. with but one grand division of the human fam
ily, namely, with the Caucasian, or white race. To this
division belonged the people of all the elder nations, –
the Egyptians, Assyrians and Babylonians, the Hebrews
and the Phoeni'cians, the Hin'doos, the Persians, the Greeks,
and the Romans. Of course, the modern European na
tions, as also the states founded by European colonists, all
belong to this ethnological division. Thus we see that his
tory proper concerns itself with but one highly developed
type of mankind; for though the great bulk of the popu
lation of the globe has, during the whole recorded period,
belonged, and does still belong, to other types of mankind,
yet the Caucasians form the only truly historical race.
Hence we may say that civilization is the product of the
brain of this race.

Of the peoples outside of the Caucasian race that have made some
figure in civilization, the Chinese, Mexicans, and Peruvians stand alone.
But though those races rose considerably above the savage state, their
civilization was stationary, and they had no marked influence on the
general current of the world's progress.

6. Modern scholars divide this historical stock — the

Its three di- Caucasian race — into three main branches:
visions. I. The A/ryan, or Indo-European branch;
II. The Semitic branch; III. The Hamitic branch. This
classification is a linguistic one, – that is to say, it is a
division based on the nature of the languages spoken by
the three families of nations, – but at the same time it
represents three distinct civilizations.
 AV7'ROZ)&VCTIOAV. 3

7. The Aryan branch is that division to which we our

selves belong: it includes nearly all the pres The Aryans.
ent and past nations of Europe, – the Greeks,
Latins, Germans or Teutons, Celts, and Slavo'nians, –to
gether with two ancient Asiatic peoples, namely, the Hin
doos and the Persians.
8. The evidence of language shows that the Celtic, Ger
man, Slavonian, Greek, and Latin tongues all Their unity,
bear a remarkable family likeness, and that how proved.
they share this likeness with the Sanscrit, which was the
ancient language of India, and with the Zend, the ancient
language of Persia. It is quite certain that the forefathers
of the Persians and of the Hindoos and the forefathers of
all the European nations were once one people, and lived
together somewhere in Western Asia. This was at a time
long before the beginning of recorded history (for we know
nothing of the Greeks, Latins, Germans, Celts, etc., as such,
until we find them in Europe); but still it is proved by the
evidence of language that their original home and native
seat was Asia.
9. The Semitic branch includes the ancient inhabitants
of Syria, Arabia, and the Tigris and Euphrates Semites.
countries. The leading historical representa
tives of the Semitic branch are the Hebrews, Phoenicians,
Assyrians, and Arabs.
Io. The Hamitic branch has but one prominent repre
sentative, – the Egyptians. It is probable, Hamites.
however, that the ancient Chaldaeans also be
longed to this race.
II. The history of the civilized world is the history of
the Aryan, Semitic, and Hamitic races. It is comparison of
of interest to know that the race to which we the “”
belong, the Aryan, has always played the leading part in
the great drama of the world's progress. The Hamitic
nations, the Egyptians and Chaldaeans, though they devel.
4. O&77/L/AVES OF GEAZA'A/, ///S 7'OA’ I’.

oped a peculiar type of civilization, yet grew up and re

mained in a great degree apart from the rest of the wo...,
having no considerable influence on the main current of
history. As to the Semites, there is one respect in which
they have the greatest place in the story of mankind,
namely, in religious development; for the three religions
that have taught men that there is but one God — namely,
the Jewish, the Christian, and the Mahom'etan — have all
come from among them. But, aside from this, the Semites
do not make nearly so important or so conspicuous a figure
in history as do the Aryans, or Indo-Europeans. They
have never been greatly progressive. They have generally
shown a conservative disposition that has, in the main,
kept them fixed to their native seat, in the small tract of
country between the Tigris, the Mediterranean, and the
Red Sea. Thus they have not, like the Aryans, been the
planters of new nations; and they have never attained a
high intellectual development, or that progress in political
freedom, in science, art, and literature, which is the glory
of the Aryan nations.
12. If we trace back the present civilization of the ad
The Aryans in vanced nations of the world,— our own civil
history. ization, and that of England, Germany, France,
Italy, etc., - we shall find that much of it is connected by
direct and unbroken line with the Roman. The Romans,
in turn, were heirs of the Greeks. Now, all this is Aryan;
and when we go back to the primitive age of the undivided
Aryans in Asia, we see that this race must even then have
been placed far above the condition of mere savages, and
that they had made good beginnings in government, and
social life, and religion, and the simple mechanical arts.
Thus we are fully authorized to say that the Aryans are t
peculiarly the race of progress; and a very large part of
the history of the world must be taken up with an account
of the contributions which the Aryan nations have made to
the common stock of civilization.
 AV7'RODUCTION. 5

13. In these Outlines of the world's history we shall

take up: — - Divisions of

I. The groups of ancient Oriental nations, ***.

including, 1. The Egyptians; 2. The Assyro-Babylonians;
3. The Hebrews; 4. The Phoenicians; 5. The Hindoos ; 6.
The Persians.
II. The history of Greece.
III. The history of the Roman Dominion.
IV. The history of the Middle Ages.
V. The history of the modern European states and na
tions. -

I4. The entire historical period, commencing with the

early Empires of the East, and coming down chronologic
to our own times, is usually divided into dis-Pº".
tinct portions, sometimes two and sometimes three; that
is to say, some historians make a double division, into
Ancient history and Modern history; and others a triple
division, into Ancient, Mediaval, and Modern history. In
either case Ancient history ends with the breaking up of
the Dominion of Rome, in the fifth century A. D. (fall of
the Western Roman Empire, 476 A. D.). Then, if we make
the double division, MoDERN history will begin with the
downfall of Rome; but if the triple division, the interval
from the fifth to the fifteenth century will be regarded as
a period by itself, called MEDLEvAL history, or the history
of the Middle Ages; while MoDERN history, according to
this method, will be confined to the centuries between the
fifteenth and the present time.
15. Such divisions of the historic period into portions
are merely arbitrary, seeing that history forms Nature of the
in reality an unbroken whole. We shall adopt divisions. .
the triple division for practical convenience, though per
haps the double division is the more philosophical ; for
while we think of the ages as forming a continuous stream,
the Roman Dominión may still be regarded as a reservoir
6 OUTLAMES OF GEAWERAZ Ay/S7 OA: Y.

into which all the currents of history from the anterior ages
were gathered, and from which, in turn, the ampler currents
of Modern history have flowed. It was out of the breaking
up of the great Dominion of Rome in the fifth century A. D.
(when the Western Roman Empire fell, under the attacks
of the Gothic invaders, and of other new races loosely called
“Northern barbarians”) that the modern states of Europe
—that is, Italy, Spain, France, England, Germany, etc.—
gradually took their rise.
I6. In the largest sense, however, history is a unit: its
epochs form but acts in one grand Provi
History a unit.
dential drama; one thread of progress binds
nation to nation; and, looking at humanity as a whole, we
see that
THROUGH THE AGES ONE INCREASING PURPOSE RUNS,
AND THE THOUGHTS OF MEN ARE WIDENED WITH THE PROCESS OF
THE SUNS.
Tennyson.

ANALYTIC SYNOPSIS FOR REVIEW,

I. Definition of History. (T 1.)

ANTHROPOLOGY ,
History PROPER, | how distinguis
distinguished.
(T 4.)

II. Aids to History.

Ethnology,
ARCHAEOLOGY,
PHILOLOGY,
|- defined. (T 3.)

III. Divisions of the Caucasian Race.

HINDoos,
PERSIANS,
GREEKS,
ARYAN (INDO-EUROPEAN -
( ) LATINs,
BRANCH. (‘ſ 7.) - GERMANs,
CELTS,
SLAVONIANS.
 AVTRO DUCTIOAV. 7

HEBREws,
PHOENICIANs,
SEMITIC BRANCH. (T 9.) ASSYRIANs,
ARABS.

EGYPTIANs,
HAMITIC BRANCH. ("I lo) \ .
CHALDAEANs.

IV. Divisions of History. (I 13)

I. ORIENTAL NATIONS.
2. GREECE.
3. ROME.
4. The MIDDLE AGES.
5. MoDERN HISTORY.
W. Chronologic Periods. (T 14.)
ANCIENT History, from the earliest period to the fall of the
Western Roman Empire, 476 A. D.
MEDIAEVAL HISTORY, from the fall of the Western Roman
Empire to the close of the 15th century.
MoDERN History, from the close of the 15th century to the
present time.