The people of this first kingdom will therefore be called Chaldaeans, although there is no evidence that they applied the name to themselves, or that it was even known to them in primitive times.
The general character of this remarkable people will best appear from the account, presently to be given, of their manners, their mode of life, their arts, their science, their religion, and their history.

It is not convenient to forestall in this place the results of almost all our coming inquiries.

Suffice it to observe that, though possessed of not many natural advantages, the Chaldaean people exhibited a fertility of invention, a genius, and an energy which place them high in the scale of nations, and more especially in the list of those descended from a Hamitic stock.

For the last 3000 years the world has been mainly indebted for its advancement to the Semitic and Indo-European races; but it was otherwise in the first ages.

Egypt and Babylon--Mizraim and Nimrod--both descendants of Ham--led the way, and acted as the pioneers of mankind in the various untrodden fields of art, literature, and science.