“ We understand by history a record of events that are past, and that it embraces chronology, biography, manners and customs, statistics, governments, and the rise and fall of kingdoms, nations and empires. ”

“ But there is a chasm in the history of this empire from the death of Ninias, the son of Ninus, of about 800 years. The history of this empire during this period can only be supplied by conjecture. The governments of these nations were monarchies, but that of the Hebrews in the earliest periods of their history, was patriarchal.
The idea of conquest appears to have grown out of the conflicting interests of the shepherd kings: and from what we learn of them, we ought not to associate in our minds with any of them an extent of territory beyond that of a large plantation or a few thousand acres. ”