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Untitled Article
cradle of the human race—all these vague and wonderful con- * side rat ions , one after another , suggest themselves to the mind in thinking of the East , and give to its history a strange and indefinable interest , that attaches to no other portion of the globe . The ancients hallowed the fountain-head of streams , as the dwelling-place of the guardian Naiad ; and in turning with Herder to those ancient sources , from which the most venerable and sacred traditions have sprung , we are almost tempted to kneel down beside the living waters and worship the unseen genius of hurna ~ nity whose spirit sanctifies them . Two theories have been proposed concerning the early peopling
and civilization of the earth , which are briefly noticed in passing by Herder , but only to be rejected : one , that the progenitors of the present inhabitants of the globe , with the most ancient arts and traditions , which they have transmitted to their descendants , were a remnant rescued from the general wreck of a former state
of existence , to connect , as by an isthmus , the moral culture of two worlds *; the other , that the great mountain-chains , with the lands that have been gradually deposited on their sides , were the seats of a distinct population , ' which has spread itself over the earth from those several centres—the Mountains of the Moon ,
for example , being the birth-place of the negroes j the Andes , of the Americans ; the Alps , of the Europeans ; and the Ural Chain , of the Asiatics . This last hypothesis has been warmly espoused by many acute and learned inquirers : Herder assigns the Teasons why it does not appear to him to be founded in truth . As we ascend in the scale of creation , the numbers and diffusion of the successive species diminish ; compare , in this view , the nobler animals , such as the lion and the elephant , with worms
and infusoria : analogy , therefore , is in favour of the supposition , that man , as the crown of the visible creation , might originate in a single spot , prepared for his reception , and furnished with all the aids of climate , soil , and natural productions , for nourishing and developing his fine and delicate organization . A situation thus adapted to the birth and infancy of the human race , we find in Central Asia . The spot which Linnaeus has imagined to himself as the scene of creation actually exists in nature + ; and Pallas has remarked , that , with very few exceptions , all those animals
whichhave been domesticated in northern and southern latitudes , such as the ox , the sheep , the goat , the swine , the camel , the cat , and the dog , are found wild in the temperate regions of Central Asia . To this quarter the most ancient traditions constantly point , as the original seat of population ; and from this centre
* For a fuller exposition of this fanciful hypothesis , which has nevertheless found its supporters , Herder refer * in . particular to an acute ' Inquiry concerning the Origin of the Knowledge of Truth and of the Sciences , ' published at Berlin in 1781 . ' f Qratio de Terra habitabiH . Anqtoenit . Acadein . Vol . IL , p . 439 , quoted by Herder , Book X ., cb , ii ., t > . 2 & 1 , r
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1832, page 166, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1808/page/22/
