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BEACON LIGHTS OF HISTORY.
BY JOHN LORD, LL.D.,
VOLUME I.
THE OLD PAGAN CIVILIZATIONS.
To the Memory of
PUBLISHERS' NOTE.
In preparing a new edition of Dr. Lord's great work, the "Beacon Lightsof History," it has been necessary to make some rearrangement oflectures and volumes. Dr. Lord began with his volume on classic"Antiquity," and not until he had completed five volumes did he returnto the remoter times of "Old Pagan Civilizations" (reaching back toAssyria and Egypt) and the "Jewish Heroes and Prophets." These issued,he took up again the line of great men and movements, and brought itdown to modern days.
The "Old Pagan Civilizations," of course, stretch thousands of yearsbefore the Hebrews, and the volume so entitled would naturally be thefirst. Then follows the volume on "Jewish Heroes and Prophets," endingwith St. Paul and the Christian Era. After this volume, which in anyposition, dealing with the unique race of the Jews, must stand byitself, we return to the brilliant picture of the Pagan centuries, in"Ancient Achievements" and "Imperial Antiquity," the latter coming downto the Fall of Rome in the fourth century A.D., which ends the era of"Antiquity" and begins the "Middle Ages."
NEW YORK, September 15, 1902.
AUTHOR'S PREFACE.
It has been my object in these Lectures to give the substance ofaccepted knowledge pertaining to the leading events and characters ofhistory; and in treating such a variety of subjects, extending over aperiod of more than six thousand years, each of which might fill avolume, I have sought to present what is true rather than what is new.
Although most of these Lectures have been delivered, in some form,during the last forty years, in most of the cities and in many of theliterary institutions of this country, I have carefully revised themwithin the last few years, in order to avail myself of the latest lightshed on the topics and times of which they treat.
The revived and wide-spread attention given to the study of the Bible,under the stimulus of recent Oriental travels and investigations, notonly as a volume of religious guidance, but as an authentic record ofmost interesting and important events, has encouraged me to include aseries of Lectures on some of the remarkable men identified withJewish history.
Of course I have not aimed at an exhaustive criticism in these Biblicalstudies, since the topics cannot be exhausted even by the most learnedscholars; but I have sought to interest intelligent Christians by acontinuous narrative, interweaving with it the l