59. And thou shalt be near me, thou, and thy children, and thy children's children, and thy flocks, and thy herds, and all that thou halt, and there will I nourish thee, left thou and thy houshold and all that thou hast come to pov-erty."

60. Jofeph, was perfuaded that a life of paftoral fimplic ity would be much more agreeable to his father and brethren, who had always followed the occupation of fhepherds; 'than the artificial elegancies and ceremonies of the court; he therefore fixed their refidence in one of the moft fertile and pleafant provinces of Egypt, the land of Gofhen.

61. When Jacob received the welcome news that his fon Jofeph was till living, and the kind meffage which he had commiffioned his brethren to deliver, his heart fainted for joy; and on his revival he exclaimed, "It is enough! my fon Jofeph is yet alive! I will go and fee him before I die."

62. He immediately executed his purpose, and met with the most affectionate reception from his fon. "Jofeph made ready his chariot, and went up to meet his father, and prefented himself unto him, and he fell upon his neck, and wept on his neck a good while."

63. The first tender interview being over, Jofeph, neither afhamed of his relations, nor afraid that their occupation, which was esteemed difhonorable by the Egyptians, fhould expofe them to difficulties, or fubject himself to obloquy, introduced his father and his brethren into the presence of the king. As if proud of his connection with the venerable old man," he brought in Jacob his father, and fet him before Pharaoh.”

64. Let those who are so much the flaves of vanity, as to be capable of despifing their poor relations and aged parents, read this part of the hiftory of Jofeph, and blufh.

65. There is fo much contemptible folly in being ashamed to own a father or brother, becaufe fortune has not raifed him to the fame point of distinction, or decked him with the fame ornaments, with ourselves; that, without any other evidence, we may certainly pronouuce the understanding of the man who is capable of fuch conduct weak and defective.

66. And this behavior withal implies fo much ingratitude and infenfibility, that we need not hesitate to deter

mine, that fuch a man is, in a great measure at leaf, a ftranger to the nobler and more generous virtues, and un der the dominion of base and fordid paffions.

67. If there be a person in the world entitled to our ref pectful attention, our affectionate esteem, and our active fer. vices, it must furely be the tender and faithful parent, who has been the protector of our infant years, and the guide of our youth.

68. Can any accidental distinctions we may have acquir. ed, cancel our debt of gratitude, for the affiduous atten tions and unceafing attentions of a fond mother, or for the early and unwearied endeavors of a kind father to render us wife, virtuous and happy?

69. Rather, ought not every increase of our fortune and confequence to furnish us with an additional motive, as it affords us new opportunities, to contribute to the ease and happiness of our parents in their advancing years? Can any thing be more perfuafive than the reafoning of the Son of Sirach on this head ?

70. "Honor thy father with thy whole heart, and forget not the forrows of thy mother; for how canst thou recompenfe them the things that they have done for thee?"

AN HISTORICAL SKETCH, FROM THE TIME OF ABRAHAM, TO THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

er.

1. MANKIND had not long been united into focieties before they set themselves to opprefs and destroy one anoth Chaderlaomer, king of the Elamites, or Perfians, was already become a robber and a conqueror. His force, however, mufl not have been very confiderable, fince, in one of thefe expeditions, Abraham, affifted only by his houfhold, fet on him in his retreat, and, after a fierce engagement, recovered all the fpoil that had been taken.

2. Abraham was foon after obliged by a famine to leave Canaan, the country where God had commanded him to fettle, and to go into Egypt. This journey gives occafion

to Mofes to mention fome particulars with regard to the Egyptians, and every stroke discovers the characters of an improved and powerful nation.

3. The court of the Egyptian monarch is described in the most brilliant colors. He is furrounded with a crowd of courtiers, folely occupied in gratifying his paffions. The particular governments into which this country was divided, are now united under one powerful prince; and Ham, who led the colony into Egypt, is become the founder of a mighty empire.

4. We are not, however, to imagine, that all the laws which took place in Egypt, and which have been fo juftly admired for their wisdom, were the work of this early age. Diodorus Siculus, a Greek writer, mentions many fucceffive princes, who labored for their establishment and perfection. But in the time of Jacob, two centuries after, the first principles of civil order and regular government feem to have been tolerably understood among the Egyptians.

5. The country was divided into feveral districts or feparate departments; councils, composed of experienced and felect perfons, were established for the management of public affairs; granaries for preserving corn were erected; and, in fine, the Egyptians in this age, enjoyed a commerce far from inconfiderable. These facts, though of an ancient date, deserve our particular attention.

6. It is from the Egyptians, that many of the arts, both of elegance and utility, have been handed down in an uninterrupted chain to the modern nations of Europe. The Egyptians communicated their arts to the Greeks; the Greeks taught the Romans many improvements both in the arts of peace and war; and to the Romans, the present inhabitants of Europe, are indebted for their civility and refinement.

7. The kingdoms of Babylon and Nineveh remained feparate for feveral centuries: but we know not even the names of the kings who governed them, unless it be Ninus, the fucceffor of Affur, who, fired by the spirit of conqueft, extends the bounds of his kingdom, adds Babylon to his dominions, and lays the foundation of that monarchy, affifted by his enterprifing fucceffor Semiramis, which, under the name of the Affyrian empire, kept Afia under the yoke for many ages.

8. Javan, fon of Japhet, and grand-fon cf Noah, is the flock from whom all the people known by the name of Greeks are defcended. Javan eftablifhed himself in the illands in the western coast of Afia Minor, from whence it was impoffible that some wanderers should not pafs over into Europe.

9. The kingdom of Sicyon near Corinth, founded by the Pelafgi, is generally fuppofed to have commenced in the year before Chrift two thousand and ninety. To thefe first inhabitants fucceed a colony from Egypt, who, about two thousand years before the chriftian æra, penetrated into Greece, and, under the name of Titans, endeavored to ef tablish monarchy in this country, and to introduce into it the laws and civil policy of the Egyptians.

10. But the empire of the Titans foon fell afunder; and the ancient Greeks, who seem at this time to be as rude and barbarous as any people in the world, again fell back into their lawless and favage manner of life, Several colonies, however, foon after paffed over from Afia into Greece, and by remaining in that country, produced a more confiderable alteration in the manner of its inhabitants.

11. The most ancient of these were the colonies of Inachus and Ogyges; of whom the former fettled in Argos, and the latter in Attica. We know very little of Ogyges or his fucceffors. Thofe of Inachus endeavored to unite the dispersed and wandering Greeks; and their endeavors for this purpose were not altogether unfuccefsful.

12. But the hiftory of God's chofen people, the Ifrael ites, is the only one with which we are much acquainted during thofe ages. The train of curious events, which oc cafioned the fettling of Jacob and his family in that part of Egypt of which Tanis was the capital, are univerfally known. That patriarch died, according to the Septuagint verfion, one thoufand feven hundred and ninety-four years before Chrift, but according to the Hebrew chronology, only one thousand fix hundred and eighty-nine years, and in the year of the world two thousand three hundred and fifteen.

13. This is a remarkable æra with respect to the nations of heathen antiquity, and concludes that period of time which the Greeks confidered as altogether unknown, and which they have greatly disfigured by their fabulous narra

tions. Let us regard this period then in another point of view, and confi ler what we can learn from the facred writings, with refpect to the arts, manners, and laws of ancient

`nations.

14. It is a common error among writers on this fubject, to confider all the nations of antiquity as being on the fame footing with regard to thofe matters. They find fome nations extremely rude and barbarous, and hence they conclude, that all were in that fituation. They difcover others acquainted with many arts, and hence they infer the wifdom of the first ages.

15. There appears, however, to have been as much dif ference between the inhabitants of the ancient world, in points of art and refinement, as between the civilized kingdoms of modern Europe and the indians in America, or the negroes on the coaft of Africa.

16.

Noah was undoubtedly acquainted with all the arts of the antediluvian world: thefe he would communicate to his children, and they again would hand them down to their pofterity.

17. Thofe nations therefore who settled nearest the orig inal feat of mankind, and who had the best opportunities to avail themselves of the knowledge of which their great anceftor was poffeted, early formed themselves into regular focieties, and made confiderable improvements in the arts which are moft fubfervient to human life.

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18. Agriculture appears to have been known in the first of the world. Noah cultivated the vine; in the time ages of Jacob, the fig-tree and the almond were well known in the land of Canaan; and the inftruments of husbandry, long before the difcovery of them in Greece, are often mentioned in the facred writings.

19. It is hardly to be fuppofed, that the ancient cities, both in Afia and Egypt, whole foundation, as we have already mentioned, afcends to the remoteft antiquity, could have been built, unless the culture of the ground had been practifed at that time. Nations who live by hunting or pafturage only, lead a wandering life, and seldom fix their refidence in cities.

20. Commerce naturally follows agriculture: and though we cannot trace the steps by which it was introduced among