Eighteen Hundred and Twenty; A Poem. Part First (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1821 edition. Excerpt: ...are so far from having been equalled or surpassed at any subsequent period, that we can even now hardly form an idea of the possibility of their construction. These magnificent ruins are, however, by no means the only records of the glory of Egypt. The text of Scripture, the works of the Greek and Roman writers, are filled with descriptions of her wonders, admiration of her wisdom, wealth and luxury, and terrors of her power. The height of prosperity which she had attained as a nation, is the best proof that we could have of the excellence of her political constitution; while it appears, from the paintings and utensils found among the ruins of her cities, that the practical arts of life were carried by her to nearly the same degree of perfection, as with us. By the side of Egypt, and on the foreground of the same i historical picture, Babylon figures with hardly less magnificence. The Greek writers, particularly Herodotus, have exhausted their eloquence in describing her splendid architectural monuments; and the details he gives us are of so extraordinary a character, that they have been regarded by some writers as fabulous; although from the well-attested veracity of the Father of History, as to every point that came within his own knowledge, there is little doubt of their correctness. Egypt and the kindred nations around her, were, in short, the civilized world of that primeval day. There it was, that the generous and stirring spirits of the time, Pythagoras, Homer, Solon, Herodotus, Plato and the rest, made their noble journeys of intellectual and moral discovery, as ours now make them in England, France, Germany and Italy. The great law-giver of the Jews was prepared for his divine mission by a course of instruction in all the wisdom of the...