tary, divided into a great number of petty governments as they still are, but who owned a fubjection to one fovereign, whom they called VangKhan, or the great Khan. Temujin, afterwards Fenghiz Khan, was one of thefe petty princes; but unjustly deprived of the greatest part of his inheritance at the age of 13, which he could not recover till he arrived at that of 40. This correfponds with the year 1201, when he totally reduced the rebels; and as a fpecimen of his lenity, caufed 70 of their chiefs to be thrown into as many cauldrons of boiling water. In 1202 he defeated and killed Vang-khan himself; (known to the Europeans by the name of Prefer John of Afia ;) and poffeffing himself of his vaft dominions, became from thenceforward altogether irresistible. In 1206, having ftill continued to enlarge his dominions, he was declared khan of the Moguls and Tartars; and took upon him the title of Jenghiz Khan, or The most great Khan of khans. This was followed by the reduction of the kingdoms of Hya in China, Tangut, Kitay, Turke@an, Karazm, or the kingdom of GAZNA, Great Bukharia, Perfia, and part of In. dia; and all thefe vaft regions were reduced in 26 years. The devaftations and flaughters with which they were accompanied are unparalleled, no fewer than 14,470,000 perfons being computed to have been maffacred by Jenghiz Khạn during the last 22 years of his reign. In the begginning of 1227, he died, thereby freeing the world from the moft bloody tyrant that ever exifted. His fucceffors completed the conqueft of China and Korea; but there foiled in their attempts on Cochin China, Tong-king, and Japan. On the western fide the Tartar dominions were not much enlarged till the time of Hulaku, who conquered Media, Babylonia, Mefopotamia, Affyria, Syria, Georgia, Armenia, and almost all Afia Minor; putting an end to the empire of the Saracens by the taking of Bagdad, in 125&.

The empire of Jenghiz Khan had the fate of all others. Being by far too extenfive to be governed by one head, it split into a multitude of fmall kingdoms, as it had been before his time. All thefe princes, however, owned allegiance to the family of Jenghiz Khan till the time of Timur Bek, or Tamerlane. The Turks, in the mean time, urged forward by the inundation of Tartars who poured in from the eaft, were forced upon the remains of the Greek empire; and at the time of Tamerlane they had almost confined this once mighty empire within the walls of Conftantinople. In 1335, the family of Jenghiz Khan becoming extinct in Perfia, a long civil war enfued; during which Timur Bek, one of the petty princes among whom the Tartar dominions were divided, found means to aggrandize himself in a manner fimilar to what Jenghiz Khan had done. Jenghiz, indeed, was the model whom he propofed to imitate; but it must be allowed that Timur was more merciful than Jenghiz, if indeed the word can be applied to fuch inhuman tyrants. The plan on which Jenghiz Khan conducted his expeditions was that of total extermination. For fome time he utterly extirpated the inhabitants of thofe places which he conquered, designing to people them anew with his Moguls; and in confequence of this refolution,

he sometimes employed his army in beheading 100,000 prifoners at once. Timur's cruelty, on the other hand, feldom went farther than the pounding of 3000 or 4000 people in large mortars, or building them among bricks and mortar into a wall. Timur was not a deift, but a Mahometan, and con quered exprefsly for the purpose of spreading the Mahometan religion; for the Moguls had now adopted all the fuperftitions and abfurdities of Mahomet. Thus was all the eastern quarter world threatened anew with the most dreadful devaftations, while the western nations were exhaufting themselves in fruitless attempts to regain the Holy Land. The Turks were the only people who at this period feem to have been gathering ftrength, and by their perpetual encroachments threatened to fwallow up the weftern nations, as the Tartars had done the eaftern.

the

In 1362, Timur invaded Bukharia, which be reduced in 5 years. He proceeded in his conquefts, though not with the fame celerity as Jenghiz Khan, till 1387, when he had fubdued all Perfia, Armenia, Georgia, Karazim, and great part of Tartary. After this he proceeded weftward, fubduing all the countries to the Euphrates; made himfeli mafter of Bagdad; and even Ruffia, where he pillaged Mofcow. From thence he turned his arms to the east, and totally subdued India. In 1393 he invaded and reduced Syria; and having turned his arms against the Turks, forced their Sultan Bajazet I. to raife the fiege of Conftantinople. This brought on an engagement, in which Bajazet was entirely defeated and taken prifoner; which broke the power of the Turks to fuch a degree, that they were not for some time able to recover themfelves. At laft this great conqueror died in 1405, while on his way to conquer China.

The death of Timur was followed almoft imme diately by the diffolution of his empire. Most of the nations he had conquered recovered their li berty. The Turks had now no farther obftacle to the conqueft of Conftantinople. The weftern nations having exhaufted themselves in the cru fades, had loft that insatiable thirst after conquest which for fo long time poffeffed the minds of men. They had already made confiderable advances in civilization, and began to study the arts of peace. Gunpowder was invented, and applied to the purpoles of war; and though no invention threatened to be more destructive, none of the warlike kind was ever more beneficial to the human race. By the ufe of fire-arms, nations are put more on a level with each other than formerly; war is reduced to a regular fyftem, which may be ftudied with as much fuccefs as any other fcience. Conquefts are not now to be made with the fame ease as formerly; and hence the laft ages of the world have been much more quiet and peaceable than the preced ng ages. In 1453, the conquest of Conftantinople by the Turks fixed that wandering people to one place; and though they now poffefs very large regions in Europe, Afia, and Africa, an ef fectual itop has long been put to their further progrefs.

About this time, learning alfo began to revive in Europe, where it had long been loft; and the invention of PRINTING, which happened at

the

the fame time, rendered it impoffible for barbarism ever to take place in fuch a degree as formerly. All nations of the world, indeed, feem now to have laid aside much of their former ferocity; and, though wars have by no means been given up, they have not been carried on with fuch circumftances of fury and favage cruelty as before. Inftead of attempting to enrich themselves by ? plunder, and the spoils of their neighbours, mankind in general have applied themselves to com-merce, the only true and durable source of riches. This foon produced improvements in navigation; and thefe improvements led to the difcovery of many regions formerly unknown. At the fame time, the European powers, being at last thoroughly fenfible that extenfive conquefts could never be permanent, applied themselves more to provide for the fecurity of those dominions which they already poffeffed, than to attempt the conqueft of one another; and this produced the policy to which fo much attention was lately paid, namely, the preferving of the balance of Europe; that is, preventing any one of the nations from acquiring fufficient ftrength to overpower another.

In the end of the 15th century, the vaft continent of America was difcovered; and about the fame time, the paffage to the Eaft Indies by the Cape of Good Hope. The discovery of these rich countries gave a new turn to the ambition of the Europeans. To enrich themselves, either by the gold and filver produced in these countries, or by traffic with the natives, now became the object. The Portuguese had the advantage of being the first discoverers of the eaftern, and the Spaniards of the western countries. The former did not neglect fo favourable an opportunity of enriching themselves by commerce. Many fettlements were formed by them in the Eaft India iflands, and on the continent; but their avarice and perfidious behaviour towards the natives proved at laft the caufe of their total expulfion. The Spaniards en riched themselves by the vast quantities of the precious metals imported from America; which were not obtained but by the most horrid maffacres committed on the natives. See HISPANIOLA, 4; MEXICO, and PERU. Thefe poffeffions of the Spaniards and Portuguese foon excited other European nations to make attempts to fhare, with them in their treafures, by planting colonies in different parts of America, and making fettle ments in the Eaft Indies. Thus has the rage of war in fome measure been transferred from Europe to thefe diftant regions; and after various contefts, the British at laft obtained a great fuperiority both in America and the East Indies.

In Europe, the only confiderable revolutions which happened in the 15th and 16th centuries were, the expulfion of the Moors and Saracens from Spain, by the taking of Grenada in 1491; the union of the kingdoms of Arragon and Caf tile, by the marriage of Ferdinand and Ifabella; and the revolt of the ftates of Holland from the Spaniards. After much contention and bloodfhed, thefe laft obtained their liberty, and were declared a free people in 1609; fince which time they have continued an independent and very confiderable nation of Europe.

During the 17th century, two very important revolutions took place in Great Britain, which, though they may feem to be of a local nature, merit particular notice in a general history of the world, on account of their important confe. quences to the other nations of the globe. The bloody perfecutions which had been carried on, both in Scotland and England, on account of religion, about the commencement of the reformàtion, in the 16th century, had awakened among mankind an attention to their civil as well as re ligious rights and privileges. The obftinate adherence to prerogative, on the part of the crown, produced a violent oppofition on that of the peo ple, which at last brought the king to the scaffold, and for a short time converted the monarchy of England into a commonwealth. See ENGLAND, 43-51.

The principles of civil liberty, however, not be ing generally understood, the English republic was foon overturned, and a number of concurring circumftances enabled CROMWELL to ufurp the fupreme power, under the title of Lord Protector of the liberties of Scotland, England, and Ireland. But foon after Oliver's death, the people, tired of being fubjected to a kingly power without the ti tle, were easily influenced to recal the house of Stuart, and monarchy was once more restored. This being done, without conditions or limitations on the part of the crown, the royal brothers abused their power; perfecutions on account of religious and political opinions were renewed; and vaft numbers of British subjects, flying from civil and ecclefiaftical defpotifm, took refuge in the American colonies. At laft the arbitrary measures of James II. paved the way for the glorious revolution of 1688, by which those rights and privileges were established, which have ever been fince the boaft of Britons.

In the mean time most of those perfons who had emigrated from Great Britain to America, on account of civil or religious perfecution, being people of republican principles, and jealous of the fmallest encroachments upon their rights, naturally inftilled the fame principles into the minds of their children; and thus laid the foundation for that jealousy of power, and spirit of refiftance to the leaft appearance of oppreffion, which afterwards excited difcontents among their pofterity, the AngloAmericans, long before 1775, when the flame of political difcord broke out into actual rebellion, and gave rife to the war between Great Britain and her American colonies.

SECT. XII. From the COMMENCEMENT of the AMERICAN WAR, to the CONCLUSION of the FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY WAR, by the PEACE in 1801.

The origin of the AMERICAN WAR, the causes which gave rife to it, and its final iffue in the establifhment of the republic of the UNITED STATES, are already related under the article AMERICA, § 12-14, 27-33. The confequences of that conteft, by the general diffufion of thofe principles, upon which the refiftance of the Americans to the mother country was founded, throughout the different States of Europe, particularly in France, Germany, Holland, and Italy, are too well known,

and

and have been too feverely felt, during the late war, wherein all the powers of Europe have been at one period or another more or lefs engaged, to require particular illuftration here.

In Afia nothing of importance has happened fince the taking of Conftantinople by the Turks. That continent is now divided among the follow ing nations. The moft northerly part, called Siberia, extending to the very extremity of the continent, is under the power of Ruffia. To the fouthward, from Afia Minor to China and Korea, are the Tartars, formidable indeed from their numbers, but, by reafon of their barbarity and want of union, incapable of attempting any thing. The Turks poffefs the western part of the continent called Afia Minor, to the river Euphrates. The Arabs are again confined within their own peninfula; which they poffefs, as they have ever done, without owning fubjection to any foreign power. To the east of Turkey in Afia lies Perfia, now more confined to its limits than before; and to the eastward of Perfia lies India, or the kingdom late of the Mogul, comprehending all the country from the Indus to the Ganges, and be yond that river. Still farther to the eaft lie the kingdoms, of Siam, Pegu, Thibet, and CochinChina, little known to the Europeans. The vaft empire of China occupies the moft eafterly part of the continent; while that of Japan compre hends the islands which go by that name, and which are supposed to lie at no great distance from the western coafts of America.

In Africa the Turks, in confequence of British prowefs and perfeverance, ftill poffefs Egypt, which they conquered in 1517, but would never have been able to recover from the French, without the affiftance of Britain. They have alfo a nominal jurifdiction over the states of Barbary, The interior parts, are filled with barbarous and unknown nations, as they have always been. On the western coasts are many settlements of the European nations, particularly the British and Portuguefe; and the S. extremity is by the peace to be restored to the Dutch. The eastern coafts are almost totally unknown. The Afiatic and African, illands are either poffeffed by the Europeans, or inhabited by favage nations.

The European nations at the beginning of the 18th century were, Sweden, Mufcovy, Denmark, Poland, Britain, Germany, Holland, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, and Turkey in Europe. Of thefe the Ruffians, though the most barbarous, were by far the most confiderable, both in regard to numbers and the extent of their empire; but their fituation made them little feared by the others, who lay at a diflance from them, till the time of Peter the Great. The kingdom of POLAND, which was first fet up in the year 1000, proved a barrier betwixt Ruffia and Germany; and at the fame time the policy above mentioned, of keeping up the balance of power in Europe, rendered it probable that no one European nation, whatever wars it might be engaged in, would have been totally deftroyed, or ceafed to exift as a diftinct kingdom. The late difmemberment of Poland, however, and its partition between Ruffia, Hungary, and Pruffia, was a ftep very inconfiftent

with the above political fyftem; and it is furprifing with what tameness it has been acquiefced, in by the other powers. Subfequent circumstances, particularly the paffivenefs with which the ambitious defigns of Ruffia against the Porte have been fo long beheld, feem to indicate a total dereliction of that fcheme of equilibrium, formerly so wifely," though perhaps fometimes too anxiously, attended to. Several ftill more decifive evidences of this, indeed, have occurred in the course of the late and prefent war; evidences, which at one time feemed to indicate important changes of dominion, of which humanity might augur permanent and ultimately happy confequences. The whole now (1801) indicates nothing but one univerfal and unrelenting defpotifm, which involves the whole continent of Europe.

The revolt of the British colonies in America, it was hoped by the enemies of Britain, would have given a fatal fhock to her strength and wonted fuperiority. The confequences, however, have been very different. Although these colonies have been disjoined from the mother country, and have attained an independent rank among the nations, Britain has had no caufe to repine at the feparation. Divefted only of a fplendid encumbrance,an expensive and invidious appanage, she has been left to enjoy the undivided benefits of her native vigour, and to display new energies, which neither the late devaftating and expenfive war, nor the prefent, have in any ferious degree affected.

On the other hand, the flame which was to have blazed only to her prejudice, entailed ruin on her chief foe, the late monarchy of France. For the details of thefe great events, we muft refer to FRANCE, 57-59, and REVOLUTION and WAR.

On the whole, we feem evidently to be advancing to a great era in the hiftory of human affairs; but the refult, in the present state of things, it is utterly impoffible to anticipate. A total change of the ancient dominion has taken place, and the Papal power, fo long the fcourge of nations, is at an end: but a new and apparently worse defpotifm has fucceeded, of which, however, the ultimate effect may be beneficial.

PART II.

Of ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY.

THE hiftory of religion, among all the different nations that have existed in the world, is a fubject no lefs important and interefting than that of civil hiftory. It is, however, lefs fertile of great events, affords an account of fewer revolutions, and is much more uniform, than civil hiftory. The reason of this is plain. Religion is converfant about things which cannot be feen; and which of confequence cannot fuddenly and strongly affect the fenfes of mankind, as natural things are apt to do. The expectation of worldly riches can cafily induce one nation to attack another; but it is not eafy to find any thing that will induce a nation to change its religion. The invifible nature of spiritual things, the prejudices of habit and of early education, all ftand in the way of changes of this kind. Hence the revolutions in religion

have been but few, and the duration of almost any religion of longer standing than the most ceJebrated empires; the changes which have happened, in general, have required a long time to bring them about; and history scarce affords an inftance of the religion of any nation being effentially and fuddenly changed for another.

SECT. I. Of the ORIGIN of IDOLATRY and PA

GANISM,

FOR the origin of religion, we must have recourfe to the Scriptures; and are as neceffarily constrained to adopt the account there given, as we are to adopt that of the creation given in the fame book; namely, because no other hath made its appearance, which feems in any degree rational, or confiftent with itself. In what manner the true religion given to Adam was falfified or corrupted by his defcendants before the flood, doth not clearly appear from Scripture. Idolatry is not mentioned: nevertheless we are affured that the inhabitants of the world were then exceed ingly wicked; and as their wickedness did not confift in worthipping falfe gods, it may be concluded that they worshipped none at all: i. e. that the crime of the antediluvians was a fpecies of atheism.

After the flood, idolatry quickly made its appearance; but what gave rife to it is not certainly known. This fuperftition indeed feems to be natural to man, efpecially when placed in fuch a fitual tion that he hath little opportunity of inftruction, or of improving his rational faculties. This feems alfo probable from a caution given to the Jews, left, when they looked up to the fun, moon, and fars, and the rest of the host of heaven, they fhould be driven to worship them. The origin of idolatry among the Syrians and Arabians, and alfo in Greece, is therefore accounted for, with great probability, in the following manner, by the author of the Ruins of Balbeck." In thofe uncomfortable deferts, where the day prefents nothing to the view but the uniform, tedious, and melancholy profpect of barren fands, the night difclofes a moft delightful and magnificent fpectacle, and appears arrayed with charms of the most attractive kind. For the most part unciouded and ferene, it exhibits to the wondering eye the hoft of heaven in all their variety and glory. In the view of this ftupendous fcene, the tranfition from admiration to idolatry was too easy to uninftructed minds; and a people, whose climate offered no beauties to contemplate but thofe of the firmament, would naturally look thither for the objects of their worship. The form of idolatry in Greece was different from that of the Syrians; which perhaps may be attributed to that filing and variegated fcene of mountains, valleys, rivers, woods, groves, and fountains, which the tranf ported imagination, in the midft of its pleafing aftonishment, fuppofed to be the feats of invisible deities."

A difficulty, however, arifes on this fuppofition; for, if idolatry is naturally produced in the mind of uninftructed and favage man from a view of the creation, why hath not idolatry of fome kind or other taken place among all the different

nations of the world? This certainly hath not been the cafe; of which the most striking examples are the Perfians of old, and the Moguls in more modern times. Both these nations were ftrict deifts: fo that we must allow fome other caufes to concur in producing idolatry; and of thefe an imperfect and obfcure notion of the true religion seems to be the most probable.

Though idolatry, therefore, was formerly very prevalent, it neither extended over the whole earth, nor were the fuperftitions of the idolaters all of one kind. Every nation had its refpective gods, over which one more excellent than the reft was faid to prefide; yet in fuch a manner, that this fupreme deity himself was controlled by the rigid empire of the Fates, or by what philofophers called eternal neceffity. The gods of the eaft were different from thofe of the Gauls, the Germans, and the other northern nations. The Grecian divinities differed widely from these of the Egyptians, who deified plants, animals, and a great variety of the productions both of nature and art. Each people also had their own particular manner of worshipping and appeafing their refpective deities, entirely different from the facred rites of other countries.

All this variety of religions, however, produced neither wars nor diffenfions among the different nations; each nation fuffered its neighbours to follow their own method of worship, without dif covering any difpleasure on that account. There is nothing furprifing in this mutual toleration, when we confider, that they all looked upon the world as one great empire, divided into various provinces, over each of which a certain order of divinites prefided; for which reafon they imagined that none could behold with contempt the gods of other nations, or force ftrangers to pay homage to theirs. The Romans exercifed this toleration in the most ample manner; for though they would not allow any change to be made in the religions that were publicly profeffed in the empire, nor any new form of worship to be openly introduced, yet they granted to their citizens a full libery of obferving in private the facred rites of other nations, and of honouring foreign deities as they thought proper.

The heathen deities were honoured with rites and facrifices of various kinds, according to their refpective natures and offices. Their rites were abfurd and ridiculous; while the priests appointed to prefide over this ftrange worship, abufed their authority, by deceiving and impofing upon the people in the groffeft manner.

SECT. II. Of the JEWISH RELIGION. FROM the time of the flood to the coming of Chrift, idolatry prevailed among almoft all the nations of the world, the Jews alone excepted and even they were on all occafions extremely ready to run into it, as is evident from their hiftory in the Old Teftament. At the time of Chrift's appearance, the religion of the Romans, as well as their empire, extended over a great part of the world. Some people there were among the heathens who perceived the abfurdities of that fyl tem; but being deftitute of means, as well as of

abilities