CHAPTER LVI. SCIENCE AND LITERATURE AMONG THE NEPHITES--THEIR ASTRONOMY AND GEOGRAPHY--THE LEARNING OF EGYPT. The Nephites were unusually happy in having, as the founders of their nation, men who were not only wise in the ways of the Lord, but also learned in the knowledge of the world. Most races that have made a mark in history have had to grope their way for centuries from darkness to light, from ignorance to knowledge. Little by little such races have advanced in the path of civilization, falling into manifold errors, and committing grievous blunders. With Lehi and his posterity it was not so. They were taken from the midst of a people who were surrounded by the most powerful and refined nations of antiquity, with whose wisdom and learning Lehi was undoubtedly well acquainted. We can readily conceive that the Lord, in planting this mighty and vigorous offshoot of the house of Joseph, on the richest and most favored land of all the earth, would not only choose one of his most faithful, but also one of his most intelligent servants, to commence the work. Indeed, on the very first page of the Book of Mormon, Nephi incidentally refers to the learning of his father; which learning, we infer from many passages in the sacred record, was obtained by Lehi in Egypt, as well as in Palestine; the association between the inhabitants of these two countries being, in his day, very close, and the inter-communication frequent. As the foundation of their literature, Lehi and his colony carried with them a copy of the sacred scriptures, which contained not only an account of God's dealings with mankind, from the creation to the age of Jeremiah, but also the only complete history in existence of the people who lived before the deluge. The Egyptians, Chaldeans and other nations had mangled, mythic and jumbled-up accounts of man's history from the creation to the flood; but the Nephites possessed the details of this epoch in much greater completeness than even Christendom does today. These scriptures--historical and doctrinal--being numerously reproduced and scattered among the people, formed the basis of Nephite literature, giving them the immense advantage over all other people of possessing the unpolluted word of God in every age then past, supplemented by a correct and undisputed history of the results, to the world, of man's obedience or disobedience to these heavenly messages. How much more complete these scriptures were than the Bible of Christendom is shown by the numerous references to the lives, and quotations from the teachings, of ancient worthies, Melchisedek, Jacob, Joseph and others; to the acts and infamies of Cain, etc., not found in the Bible, as well as by lengthy quotations from ancient prophets, whose names--Zenos, Zenoch, Neum, Ezias--are not even mentioned in its pages. How much modern Christianity has lost by these omissions may be partially