ent kingdom of Ethiopia, and the ruins of Thebes,
her opulent metropolis, that "There a people, now forgotten, discovered,
while others were yet barbarians, the elements of the arts and sciences.
A race of men, now rejected from society for their sable skin and
frizzled hair, founded on the study of the laws of nature, those civil
and religious systems which still govern the universe."

A voluminous note, in which standard authorities are cited, seems to
prove that this statement is substantially correct, and that we are in
reality indebted to the ancient Ethiopians, to the fervid imagination of
the persecuted and despised negro, for the various religious systems
now so highly revered by the different branches of both the Semitic
and Aryan races. This fact, which is so frequently referred to in Mr.
Volney's writings, may perhaps solve the question as to the origin of
all religions, and may even suggest a solution to the secret so long
concealed beneath the flat nose, thick lips, and negro features of the
Egyptian Sphinx. It may also confirm the statement of Dioderus, that
"the Ethiopians conceive themselves as the inventors of divine worship,
of festivals, of solemn assemblies, of sacrifices, and of every other
religious practice."

That an imaginative and superstitious race of black men should have
invented and founded, in the dim obscurity of past ages, a system
of religious belief that still enthralls the minds and clouds the
intellects of the leading representatives of modern theology,--that
still clings to the thoughts, and tinges with its potential influence
the literature and faith of the civilized and cultured nations of Europe
and America, is indeed a strange illustration of the mad caprice of
destiny, of the insignificant and apparently trivial causes that oft
produce the most grave and momentous results.

The translation here given closely follows that published in Paris by
Levrault, Quai Malaquais, in 1802, which was under the direction and
careful supervision of the talented author; and whatever notes Count
Volney then thought necessary to insert in his work, are here carefully
reproduced without abridgment or modification.

The portrait, maps and illustrations are from a French edition of
Volney's complete works, published by Bossange Freres at No. 12 Rue de
Seine, Paris, in 1821,--one year after the death of Mr. Volney. It is a
presentation copy "on the part of Madame, the Countess de Volney, and