rd part of men" show that they will
overthrow some of the established institutions of society. We are to
look, therefore, for some politico-religious power that should invade
and overthrow the empire. We are, of course, directed to the Eastern
empire; for the Western division was subverted under the symbols of the
first four trumpets. With these specifications before us, we shall have
no difficulty in identifying the power intended--_the Turkish, or
Ottoman, empire_. Its agreement with the symbolic representations of the
vision will be manifest from a statement of the facts of history.

"The Turks were of Tartar or Scythian origin, from the northern regions
of Asia, whence also the Huns hived upon Europe during the fourth and
fifth centuries. The latter passed to the north of the Black sea from
Russia, and swept the regions of the Danube and the Rhine. The Turks,
passing to the east of the same, fell upon the empire from that quarter.
They took possession of Armenia Major in the ninth century, where they
increased, and in the space of two hundred years became a formidable
power, being at the end of this period combined into four Sultanies, the
heads of which were at Bagdad, Damascus, Aleppo, and Iconium. The first
of these was erected A.D. 1055; the two next A.D. 1079, and the last
A.D. 1080--all of them within twenty-five years, and the three last
within two."

These four Sultanies are doubtless signified by "the four angels" that
were bound in the river Euphrates. The Euphrates here is employed as a
symbol, not of the Turks themselves--for the horsemen are their symbol,
as we shall see--but of the binding of the angels. The use of this word
as a symbol is derived from a fact of history, being the object,
according to Herodotus, that kept Cyrus back from entering the city of
Babylon. While the Persian monarch surrounded the walls of that ancient
metropolis of the Babylonian empire, with his army, he was held in
restraint by the river Euphrates; and it was not until he had diverted
its waters into an artificial channel that he gained an entrance. So,
also, these Sultanies, or leaders of the Turks, were held under
restraint as if bound by the river Euphrates, until the time appointed
for them to go forth on their mission of conquest. Different causes held
them back. For a long time they were involved in fierce and almost
continuous wars with the neighboring Tartar tribes on the east and the
north, and at the same time t