e the ancestors of the three great branches of
the Hellenic race. This again corresponds to the prophetic table of
nations which were to descend from Shem, Ham, and Japheth, the three
sons of Noah.

The Civilization of the Ancient World. Just when and where
civilization began we have no means of telling. The Bible speaks of a
very high state of civilization at a very early time (Gen. 4:20-22).
In ages long before Abraham and Moses the world had made great
advancement in culture, commerce, law and religion. From the monuments
and engraven vases that have been found in such unearthed cities as
Nippur, we now know that Abraham and Moses did not live in a crude and
undeveloped age, but, as the Bible would imply, in an age of great
progress. We even learn that long before their time there was a most
complete and complex civilization.

Two Great Empires of Antiquity. It is impossible to tell which of two
great nations, the Chaldeans and the Egyptians, first attained to a
high state of civilization. They appear to have started very early in
the race, the Chaldeans in the plains on the banks of the Euphrates
and the Egyptians in the plains on the banks of the Nile. They seem to
have made about equal progress in all the arts of civilization.

Nimrod, a descendent of Ham, is declared to be the founder of the
Chaldean Empire. His exploits as a hunter seem to have aided him to
the throne. He began to reign at Babel and had a number of cities in
the plain of Shinar. Later he went out in the district of Assyria and
built Ninevah and a number of other cities. From the Assyrian and
Chaldean ascriptions, we have learned much of the Accadians, whose
influence carried forward that early civilization. We thereby confirm
the Biblical claim that it was under Nimrod the Cushite, and not
through the Semitic race, that the Chaldean kingdom began.

Of the beginning of the Egyptian empire, the other great center of
civilization, we have no certain knowledge. So far as the records of
the scriptures or of the earliest records to which the monuments bear
witness, Egypt comes before us full grown. The further back we go the
more perfect and developed do we find the organization of the country.
The activity and industry of the Egyptians, their power of erecting
great buildings and of executing other laborious tasks at this early
period is a marvel to all ages. It has been shown by Prof. Petrie that
some of the blocks in at least one of the great p