written down and are much mixed with fable. The Greeks told how their
heroes of the oldest times had exterminated monsters, fought with
giants, and battled against the gods. The Romans had Romulus nourished
by a wolf and raised to heaven. Almost all peoples relate such stories
of their infancy. But no confidence is to be placed in these legends.

=History.=--History has its true beginning only with authentic
accounts, that is to say, accounts written by men who were well
informed. This moment is not the same with all peoples. The history of
Egypt commences more than 3,000 years before Christ; that of the
Greeks ascends scarcely to 800 years before Christ; Germany has had a
history only since the first century of our era; Russia dates back
only to the ninth century; certain savage tribes even yet have no
history.

=Great Divisions of History.=--The history of civilization begins with
the oldest civilized people and continues to the present time.
Antiquity is the most remote period, Modern Times the era in which we
live.

=Ancient History.=--Ancient History begins with the oldest known
nations, the Egyptians and Chaldeans (about 3,000 years before our
era), and surveys the peoples of the Orient, the Hindoos, Persians,
Phœnicians, Jews, Greeks, and last of all the Romans. It terminates
about the fifth century A.D., when the Roman empire of the west is
extinguished.

=Modern History.=--Modern History starts with the end of the fifteenth
century, with the invention of printing, the discovery of America and
of the Indies, the Renaissance of the sciences and arts. It concerns