One of the most marked tendencies in the historical spirit of the present day is the desire to rehabilitate persons, and this tendency has lately reached in a distinct manner to nations, It is not too much to say that for many genera. tions readers of the Old Testament attached very vague notions to the national personality of the Hittites. Phey wore regarded as a comparatively insignificant tribe, but the researches of Egyptologists have lately thrown ay extraordinary flood of light upon this venerable nation, and proved beyond the possibility of doubt that they occupied @ commanding position in ancient days. The inscriptions on Egyptian monuments and the papyri rolls are fall of references to a powerfal nation called the Kheta. Against these people wars are ever going on. Li is not to be expected that the general reader will have either leisure or inclination for researches proving the identity of the Kheta and the Hittit We must therefore be content with referring him to the work of Bragsch Bey, which supplies the proofs necesenry. After mastering these arguments, a new and most important factor will appear taking a part in the history of the ancient world. In brief, the Kheta, who were such formidable opponents of Ranmses LI, and were defeated by him at the memorable battle of Knades! wore a potent and war-like people. To quote the heroic poem of Pentanr, epenking of the enemy of the Egyptian wal -king: "He had assembled with him all the peoples from the uttermost ends of the sea to the people of the Kheta." Almost the strongest foes of the Pharaohs were the Kheta.
There is abundant evidence to prove that the Kheta or Hittites were a great nation, strong enough and powerfal enough to endanger the Egyptian supremacy in Western Asin, We can see from the paintings and monuments what their warriors were like. " Beardless, armed in a different manner, fighting three men on ench chariot of war arranged in their order of battle according to a well-considered plan previously Inid down, the Kheta or Hittites present a striking contrast to their Canaanite allies." Their sovereigns are always spoken of with respect, and the Pharaohs are represented us meet ing in these princes foeman worthy of their steel. The Egyptian monuments contain long lists of their towns or of the towns of their allies; indeed, to quote Brugsch's History of Egypt, "though we are not yet in a position to solve the obscure problem, future discoveries will doubtless afford con-vineing proofs that the rale of the Kheta in the highest antiquity was of an importance which we can now only guess at. Simultaneously with the di coveries of the illustrious Egyptologists Brugsch Boy, Mariette Bey and others, with regard to the Hittites, explorations Lave been going on by a discoverer of very different type, the irrepressible Captain Burton in the Land of Midian. The desert eastern const of the Gulf of Akabah was found only three years ago to be fall of extensive guarries of quartz and chlorite, Tin and antimony were found, and gold was washed down from the streams. The hopes that may have been kindled in the sanguine breast of the Into Khedive by the dreams of a new El Dorado have been dispersed, and the ex-Khedive has probably ceased to care about these auriferous promises, but something was done by the explorers of many lands and the Srst chairman of the Anthropological Society to throw light on an ancient historical problem, if the Egy tian Treasury was not enriched by his explorations.
To west persons who read the Penta-touch the proper names which occur in the narrative suggest little or nothing. The Hittites and the Midianites are Oriental names that fall on the drowsy ear with the soothing and perhaps somniferous effect that. tho'"beaatifal word Mesopotamia" had on the eats of the old Scotchwoman, bat this need not be so any longer. If persons would keep themselves intelligently abreast with the march of knowledge, the history would soon be aglow with fresh life. The Hittites were not a mythical people; they consisted of soldiers, statesmen and serfs, whose pictures may be actually soon traced with distinctness on the walls of Egyptian temples and whose wars and treaties are written in many an old papyrus. The Midianites were no less real. Though the wealth of their land may now be to n certain extent exhausted, they were once the denizens ofa wealthy territory.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.