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Untitled Article
wide dispersion of the Jewish people , superstitiously look forward to a revolution , which , through them , shall one day be accomplished for all the inhabitants of the earth . Whatever revolution was destined to be wrought by them is , in all probability , already accomplished ; and for the expectation of any other , there does not appear , either in the circumstances of the people itself or in
the general analogy of history , the slightest foundation . The preservation of the Jews as a separate race is not more difficult (to explain than the preservation of the Bratnins , the Parsees , or the Gypsies * . ' When Herder further adds , that the Jews , under all their oppressions , never turn with a sentiment of longing to their native land , and to the recovery of their ancient honours and habitation , ' is he borne out by the matter of fact ? We believe not .
With a rapid sketch of the state of ancient Egypt , and of the Phoenician settlements , Herder completes his view of the eastern world . In Egypt , it is well known that the most important discoveries have been made since his time , the results of which he has almost anticipated in the following observation ;—• ' It is vain to search for a hidden wisdom in the inscriptions of obelisks ; the
very use of hieroglyphics—the first rude symbols by which men endeavour to express their thoughts—forbids the supposition that any such wisdom exists ; and should a means ever be devised of deciphering them , what could we expect to find , but some chro * nicle of past events , or an idolizing eulogy on the founder of the edifice * f *? ' With respect to Tyre and Carthage , Herder well
remarks , that their position on the Mediterranean Sea , which ties together , as it were , the three great quarters of the ancient world , was the source of all their wealth , and one main cause of the subsequent civilization of Europe , The scantiness of our information concerning the internal constitution , the domestic manners , the laws and policy of these commercial states , is perhaps the greatest of all the deficiencies that we experience in our
knowledge of antiquity , since these particulars must necessarily have afforded so many interesting and instructive points of comparison with the most striking features of modern society . In looking back on the general character of the East , we cannot avoid noticing its devoted adherence to hereditary doctrines and traditional usages , and , what at once results from this tendency , the fixed and immoveable attitude of its manners and institutions .
We have already pointed out the agency of tradition in assisting the progressive work of civilization ; and its operations on a large scale may be traced in the history of Asia . On this subject , Herder justly remarks : —' Tradition is an ordinance of nature , admirable in itself , and indispensable to the progress of our race ; J ) ut as soon as ever it fetters the free exercise of thought , either * Book XII ., cji . lii ., v . 89 . Book XJI ., ch . v ., p . IOC .
Untitled Article
The Phitdsophp of the History of Mankind , II 3
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1832, page 173, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1808/page/29/
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