3. Its _extent_ was undoubtedly not the entire globe, but so much of it as was occupied by the human race (Gen. 7. 23), probably the Eu-phra'tes valley. Many Christian scholars, however, hold to the view that the book of Genesis relates the history of but one family of races, and not all the race; consequently that the flood may have been partial, as far as mankind is concerned. 4. Its _purpose_ was: 1.) To destroy the evil in the world. 2.) To open a new epoch under better conditions for social, national, and individual life. II. =The Dispersion of the Races.= 1. Very soon after the deluge a new _instinct_, that of _migration_, took possession of the human family. Hitherto all mankind had lived together; from this time they began to scatter. As a result came tribes, nations, languages, and varieties of civilization. "The confusion of tongues" was not the cause, but the result, of this spirit, and may have been not sudden, but gradual (Gen. 11. 2, 7). 2. _Evidences of this migration_ are given: 1.) In the Bible (Gen. 9. 19; 11. 8). 2.) The records and traditions of nearly all nations point to it. 3.) Language gives a certain proof; for example, showing that the ancestors of the Eng'lish, Greeks, Ro'mans, Medes, and Hin'dus--races now widely dispersed--once slept under the same roof. At an early period streams of migration poured forth from the highlands of A'sia in every direction and to great distances. III. =The Rise of the Empires.= In the Bible world four centers of national life arose, not far apart in time, each of which became a powerful kingdom, and in turn ruled all the Oriental lands. The strifes of these nations, the rise and fall, constitute the matter of ancient Oriental history, which is closely connected with that of the Bible. These four centers were: 1. _E'gypt_, in the Nile valley, founded not far from B. C. 5000, and in the early Bible history having its capital at Mem'phis. 2. _Bab-y-lo'ni-a_, called also Shi'nar and Chal-de'a, on the plain between the Ti'gris and Eu-phra'tes Rivers, near the Per'sian Gulf, where a kingdom arose about B. C. 4500; of which Ba'bel or Bab'y-lon was the greatest, though not the earliest, capital. 3. _As-syr'i-a_, of which the capital was Nin'e-veh (Gen. 10. 11). 4. _Phoe-ni'cia_, on the Med-i-ter-ra'ne-an seacoast, north of Pal'es-tine, having Si'don for its earlier and Tyre for its later capital, and holding its empire not on the land, but on the sea, as its people were sailors and merchants.