A CENTENNIAL CURIOSITY.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 5058, 9 June 1877, Page 3

A CENTENNIAL CURIOSITY.

A.MOST WONDERFUL CHART—THE HISTORY OP MAN. One of the most carious as well ns_ interesting exhibits in the agricultural building, at X, D 21, is a chart about 22 feet long, and 2} feet wide, presenting in unbroken lines the complete liistory of man, including the record of every nation from tiro garden of Eden to the present. Upon the scale adopted, the nations, empires, kingdoms, republics, and states ; _ the manners, customs, and dress; the progress, civilisation, discoveries ; the invention of steam, electricity, mechanics ; the introduction of letters; the progress of language, the spread of literature ; Hie names, nationalities, and distinguishing characteristics of eminent men ; tire names and dates of all_ important battles, discoveries, and inventions: the rise and fall of ancient empires, dynasties, and peoples; the names of all tire sovereigns, emperors, kings, rulers of the earth, and the duration of their authority ; the area, population, and number to the square mile to each country, with an epitome of ancient and modern history, together with a fac simile of ancient coins, medals, stones, pyramids of Egypt, Syria. Nineveh, and Babylon; of'implements of warfare and husbandry, alphabetical letters and hieroglyphics; of my thology—the gods, temples, and priests: of geology—the stone age, the iron ago, the brass or bronze; of navigation—the compass, the galley, and the clipper ship ;of astronomy—the size, the distance, aud number of heavenly bodies, are all given in their proper systematic relation to the world’s history. As the atlas shows the place where, so the chart shows the time when, and the relative position of one event to another. In this work the author evidently does not assume to be responsible for the facts of history, but gives them simply as they are found on record in the several histories of the various nations of the earth. Every student of history has experienced the difficulty attending the effort to eliminate the salient facts of general liistory from the voluminous network of subordinate facts and details with which they seem inevitably entangled. Without something of this kind to assist in separating the important facts of history from the confused ideas and jumble of unconnected facts can wo hope to make accurate progress in understanding the full record of our race? This chart shows what is going on at the same time, the world over. In all nations. One of the chief features of this work is what is termed synchronism, for here we And, without the loss of several hours at a general library, that the founding of Troy and Athens were contemporaneous with the Egyptian bondage and the founding of Thebes by Cadmus, These also occurred at the time of the first introduction of letters, with the Israelites in the wilderness, the building of the largest pyramid by Cheops, and the reign of Saul, the first king of the Jews, Zoroaster, the Persian philosopher, and Hesiod, the Greek poet. We learn at a glance that when Solomon was writing his proverbs, that Homer was writing his Iliad of ancient Troy, that Lycnrgus, the Spartan lawgiver, who made iron a legal tender, and had public tables to which all were invited, and abolished all theatres and luxuries, lived at the same time as Queen Dido, the founder of Carthage, and the prophet Elijah; that when Isaiah was prophesying, Romulus was founding Rome ; that Pythagoras, who invented the forty-seventh problem and multiplication table, lived contemporaneous with Solon, who revised the bloody laws of Draco, and rEsop. who wrote those wise aud witty fables, and Nebuchadnezzar, who took the Jews captive and the prophets Ezekiel and Daniel of sacred history ; that Cincinnatus, the Roman patriot: that Pericles, thegreat Athenian statesman; Herodotus, the father of history; Xerxes, Socrates and Ezra, Plato, Xenophon and Malachi lived at the came period of time. This chart is simply a most unexpected illustration of the benefits of object-teaching, and it had teen in place less than half an hour when it was surrounded with visitors. It is the first thing of the kind ever attempted in this country or in Europe, and it is a rather curious fact that a resident of the distant State of Oregon should be the exhibitor. The work is a complete library in itself, and is always ready for immediate use. No schoolroom is completely furnished without it, as it is indispensible for the understanding and remembering of history. Every family which values knowledge, or lias the least interest in its acquisition, should possess the work. It is sold in the shape of a chart which rolls and unrolls at each end. or in the form of a portfolio. — hirneij'.s Press, Philadelphia. We, the following named members of the union school hoard of Sturgis, take pleasure in recommending “Adam’s map of universal history" to every school and family in this county. We have shown our appreciation of it by ordering the same for the union school of this place. E. S. Amipon, moderator. L, E. White, director. C. 11. Peck, assessor and treasurer. G. D. G. Thotiston, supt. of schools. D. E. Thomas. N. I. PAOKAnn.