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Untitled Article
the history of the world , and were thereby to deprive this history even of the credibility to which it is well entitled * . ' To the south of the great Altaian chain , which stretches from west to east across Asia , we discover the seats of the earliest civilized communities in the world : such as China , Thibet ,
Tartary , and Indostan ; and to these regions , in tracing the progress of human society , the attention of the historian would , in the first instance , be naturally directed . Without accompanying Herder through all his remarks on these nations , we cordially subscribe to his opinion of the great importance of researches into their history and antiquities . ' History , ' he observes , especially the
history of government and civilization , implies a commencement ; but in what obscurity is this commencement involved among all the nations that we have hitherto considered ! Could my voice have any influence , I would encourage every historical inquirer to investigate the origin of civilization among the most celebrated people of Asia , in a spirit of modest sagacity , unbiassed by hypo * thesis and the influence of preconceived opinion . An ample collection , both of the accounts and of the monuments , that we possess of these nations — of their written character and lan- »
guages—of their most ancient works of art and their mythologyand of the principles and methods which they still employ in the few sciences which subsist among them—all this , compared with the region which they inhabit , and with the intercourse which they may have carried on , would undoubtedly lay open to us a
chain of progressive civilization , the first , link of which would be found neither at Selinginsk nor in the Grecian Bactra fS Upon turning westward , we perceive a remarkable change in the sudden and constant revolutions to which the kingdoms in the vicinity of the Tigris and Euphrates have been exposed . Here states have followed states , and nations nations , in rapid succession ; and , while the laws , the manners , and the religions of China and India have subsisted in the same form from time
immemorial , Babylon and Nineveh , Ecbatana , Persepolis , and Tyre , are names that have long vanished from the earth . In this quarter of the world occurs a small tribe , distinguished neither for arts , for science , nor for arms , whose numbers , power , and extent
of territory , appear altogether contemptible when compared with the vast empires of Assyria and Persia ; but whose extraordinary fortunes , as well as the influence exercised by their singular literature on the development of modern civilization , entitle them , independently of any other considerations , to a marked and serious attention . We refer to the Hebrews .
It is a remarkable circumstance in the history of this people , that they possess written documents of a date prior to the introduction of the art of writing amongst most civilized nations ; and * Book & > ch . vii . j pp , 299 , 300 . f Book XL , ch . v . ; pp . 43 , 44 .
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VTQ Tht Philosophy of the History of Mankind *
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1832, page 170, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1808/page/26/
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