territory of which it was at first composed — cf. Hos. ix. to, as the _first ripe in the fig--tree rifit,N1Z at her _first time,' that is, when the tree first begins to bear—Ges.) in his native Shinar, not satisfied with the splendid acquisitions which he took at first, no doubt, from his own kinsmen, he invaded the north-eastern countries, where the chil dren of Shem were for the first time disturbed in their patriarchal simplicity : Out of that land [even Shinar Nimrod] went forth to* Asshur [or Assyria], and builded Nineveh and the city Reho both and Calah and Resen, between Nineveh and Calah ; the same is a great city ; e., the combi nation of the forementioned four formed, with their interjacent spaces, the great city.' This is the opinion of Knobel, answering to the theory which has connected the ruins of Khorsabad, Kopinfik, Nimrud, and Xeremlis together, as the remains of a. vast quadrilateral city, popularly called Nineveh. For a different view of the whole subject the reader is referred to Mr Rawlinson's recent volume on The Five Great Monarchies, vol. i. pp. 311-315). But the 0-enius, which moulded impenal power at first, did' not avail to retain it long ; the sceptre, before many ages, passed to the race of Shern,t except in Africa, where Mizraim's descemiants had a longer tenure of the Egyptian monarchy. It is well to bear in mind (and the more so, inasmuch as a different theory has here greatly obscured plain historic truth) that in the primeval Cushite empire of Babylon considerable progress was made in the arts of civilised society (an early allusion to which is made in Josh. vii. 2i ; and a. later in Dan. i. 4 : see Rawlinson, First ,lionaz:chy, chap. v.) In the genealogical record of the race of Ham (Gen. x.), reference is made to the 'tongues' [or dia lects]which they spoke (ver. 2o). Comparative philo logy, which is so rich in illustrations of the unity of the Indo-Gcrmanic languages, has done next to nothing to elucidate the linguistic relations of the families of Ham. Nor is this the proper place to to do more than merely point to the vast unex plored field which is now opening to inquirers. It is obvious to remark that, as the classification, which the sacred writer makes in chap. x. includes the element of various tongues' or dialectic varia tions amongst this section of the human race, the time to which we must refer it must be subsequent to the events spoken of in the beginning of the next chapter (xi.) as having happened when ` the whole earth was of one language ana' of one speech.' With regard to these Hamitic longues,' without detaining the reader with speculations which must needs be crude, we will direct him to the few works which are the most accessible and best qualified to furnish him with some hints for the formation of an opinion. Rawlinson, Five Great Monarchies, First Mon. ch. iv. ; Lenormant, Introduction a l' his toire a'e occidentalle, Jen Appendice ; Meier, lIebr. IVurzel. w. b., 3te Anhang ; Gesenius, Sketch of the Nebr. Lang: (prefixed to his Grant ar) ; ilunsen, Egypt's Place, etc., vol. i. App. ; Wiseman, lectures 071 Science and Revealea' p. 445, 2d ed. ; Max Milner, Science of Language, p. 269 [SHEMITIC LANGUAGES].
Theories more or less specious have been formed to account for these affinities to the Hebrew from so many points of the Hamite nations. None of these theories'rise above the degree of precarious hypothesis, nor could itbe expected that they should in the imperfection of our present knowledge. It is, indeed, satisfactory to observe that the tendency of linguistic inquiries is to establish the fact avouched in the Pentateuch of the original unity of human speech. The most conspicuous achieve
ment of comparative philology, hitherto, has been to prove the affinity of the members of that large class of languages which extend from the Eastern Sanscrit to our Western Welsh ; parallel to this is the comparison among themselve-s of the various members of the Shernitic class of languages, which has demonstrated their essential identity; but greater still will be the work of establishing, on certain principles, the natural relationship of tongues of different classes. Among these, divergences must needs be wider ; but when occasional affinities crap out they will be proportionately valuable as evi dences of a more ancient and profound agreement.
It seems to as that the facts, which have thus far transpired, indicative of affinity between the lan guages of the Hamite and Shemitic races, go some way to shew the probability of the historical and genealogical record of which we have been treating, that the tribes to whom the said languages were vernacular were really of near kindred and often associated in abode, either by conquest or amicable settlement, with one another.
Among other points of general interest connected with our article, the reader will not fail to observe the relations in which the different sections of the Hamite race stand to each other ; e.g.,it is impor tant to bear in mind that the Philistines were not Canaanites, as is often assumed through an over sight of the fact, that the former were descended from the second, and the latter from the fourth son of Ham. The Toldoth Beni Noah of Genesis is a precious document in many respects (as has been often acknowledged, see R. [Bamplon Lectures], p. 68) ; but in no respect does it bear a higher value than as an introduction, provided by thc sacred writer himself, to the subsequent history of the Hebrew nation in its relations to the rest of mankind. The intelligent reader of Scripture will experience much help in his study of that history, and indeed of prophecy also, by a constant recur rence to the particulars of this authoritative ethno logical record.
We conclude this article with an extract from Mr. Rawlinson's Five Great AIM:arch/es, which describes, in a favourable though hardly exagge rated light, some of the obligations under which the primitive race of Ham has laid the world : ` Not possessed of many natural advantages, the Clialdxan people yet exhibited a fertility of inven tion, a genius, and an energy, which place them high in the scale of nations, and more especially in the list of those descended from the Hamitic stock. For the last 3000 years the world has been mainly indebted for its advancement to the Semitic and Indo-European races ; but it was otherwise in the first ages. Eg-ypt and Babylon, Mizraim and Nim rod—both descendants of Ham— led the way and acted as the pioneers of mankind in the various un. trodden fields of art, literature, and science. Al phabetic writing, astronomy, history, chronology, architecture, plastic art, sculpture, navigation, agriculture, textile industry—seem, all of them, to have had their origin in one or other of these two countries. The beginnings may have been often humble enough. We may laugh at the rude picture-writing, the uncouth brick pyramid, the coarse fabric, the homely and ill-shapen instru ments, as they present themselves to our notice in the remains of these ancient nations ; but they are really worthier of our admiration thMi of our ridi cule. The first inventors of any art are among the greatest benefactors of their race . . . . and mankind at the present day lies under infinite obli gations to the genius and industry of these early ages ' (pp. 75, 76).—P. H.