Sprung from one
stock, they pass the infancy of their nation in a state of servitude
in a foreign country, where, nevertheless, they increase so rapidly,
as to appear on a sudden the fierce and irresistible conquerors of
their native valleys in Palestine. There they settle down under a form
of government and code of laws totally unlike those of any other rude
or civilized community. They sustain a long and doubtful conflict,
sometimes enslaved, sometimes victorious, with the neighbouring
tribes. At length, united under one monarchy, they gradually rise to
the rank of a powerful, opulent, and commercial people. Subsequently
weakened by internal discord, they are overwhelmed by the vast
monarchies which arose on the banks of the Euphrates, and transplanted
into a foreign region. They are partially restored, by the generosity
or policy of the Eastern sovereigns, to their native land. They are
engaged in wars of the most romantic gallantry, in assertion of their
independence, against the Syro-Grecian successors of Alexander. Under
Herod, they rise to a second era of splendour, as a dependent kingdom
of Rome: finally, they make the last desperate resistance to the
universal dominion of the Caesars.
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