Excerpt from Address by Hon. Zebulon B. Vance, at the Guildford Battle Ground, May 4, 1889 From time immemorial that portion of the human race which has left any record of its actions has indulged the practice of commemorating the notable events of its his tory. The method by which this was done was a good test of their civilization. In Genesis it is recorded that Jacob took the stone upon which his head had rested, whilst the wondrous Vision was displayed to him, of the angels ascending and descending, and erected it as a memorial pillar. Again, when the Lord appeared to Jacob when he came out of the Padan - aram and blessed him and renewed the promises which had been made unto Abraham. Jacob set up apillar of stone in the place as a memorial, and called it Bethel. Twelve stones were likewise set up in commemoration of the crossing of the river Jordan by the tribes dry shod. The sacred record is full of this method of perpetuating the memory of noted events by the priests, prophets and people of the Jews. The Assyrians and the Egyptians did like wise - but in a more elaborate manner. In fact, almost the only record by which we trace the history of the East is by deciphering the inscriptions upon their monuments and memorial structures. 30 enduring as monuments are the great pyramids that mankind has almost forgotten the purpose for which they were erected and by Whom. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.