Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1869 edition. Excerpt: ... BOOK II. THE ISRAELITES. CHAPTER I. THE PATRIARCHS--THE ISRAELITES IN EGYPTMOSES. Chief Authorities: --The Bible, Books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.--Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews. Books I., II.--The dissertations attached to the Pentateuch in Dr. Calm's and M. Cahen's Bible.--Munk, La Palestine, Paris, 1845.--Ewald, Geschichte des Volkes Israel, Gbttingen, 1851-64.--Wallon, La Sainte Bible, Paris, 1854.--J. Salvador, Histoire des institutions de Mdise, Third Edition, Paris, 1862. Section I.--Abraham. 1. By degrees the various nations of the human race forgot the great traditions of their primitive history, or rather, they preserved the recollection only of some detached facts which, as time went on, became mixed up with purely imaginative stories. The idea of the existence of God was gradually obscured in their minds, and idolatry established itself all over the world. "Man drowned in lust and passion," says Bossuet, "had nevertheless preserved a vague idea of the Divine power, which maintained itself by its own inherent force, but which, eclipsed by objects apparent to the senses, led him to worship all objects displaying activity and power. Thus the sun and the stars, that made their influence felt from such a distance, fire, and the elements whose effects were so universal, were the earliest objects of public worship." To arrest the progress of so great an evil and to prevent its final triumph, which would have eliminated from the world the true conception of the Divinity, God in His great power and infinite mercy chose one family out of that race of Shem on whom the second father of the human race, Noah, had invoked special blessings; and, calling it to a sublime vocation, imposed on it the duty of...
