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thousand other miracles . Least of all could it fail shortly to occur , that this host of Christian heroes should take entire possession of the heaven of the church ; and , as their mortal remains were transmitted with veneration from age to age , so their souls should expel all the other benefactors of the human race from their ancient seats : and hence arose the novelty of a Christian mythology */ In the rapid historical survey which terminates the last volume of Herder ' s work , two circumstances just deserve notice , as indicating the peculiar spirit of his philosophy : the great advantage which he conceives has accrued to all the Mahometan nations from the Koran being composed in the purest dialect of Arabia ; and his unfavourable opinion of the general influence of the crusades on JEuropean civilization . Of the first of these circumstances he remarks : ' If the Germanic conquerors o ^ E pe had possessed a classical work in their language , similar to what the Arabs possessed in their Koran , the Latin would never have held their dialects in subjection , and many of their tribes would not have been so wholly lost in ignorance . But neither Ulphilas ., nor Csedmon , nor Ottfried could be to the Germans what Mahomet ' s Koran still is to all his adherents ^ a security for the
preservation or their ancient and genuine language , by which they are able to remount to the most authentic monuments of their tribe , and remain one people , wherever they are scattered over the globe * f . ' With regard to the crusades , they involved a violent dislocation of the established interests of society , and interrupted that course of mild and gradual progress on which Herder ' genius loved to expatiate . He observes pithily concerning them : ' Any event can only so far be productive of real and lasting good , as it is founded in reason £ . ' In the very same spirit are couched the concluding sentences of his work . ' From the action and re-action between the feudal aristocracy and the church , there was gradually produced a third estate , which neither party expected , and which in time put an end to them both — an order of men devoted to the pursuits of knowledge and useful industry , and engaged in the competitions of trade . ' What must be the character of this new European culture , is evident from the principles that have been developed in the foregoing part of the work . It could only be an improvement of men , in their actual circumstances , and in proportion to their disposition to improve ; an improvement effected by industry , science , and art . Whosoever required not this improvement , whosoever despised or abused it , remained as he was . It was as yet premature to think of an universal culture of all ranks and
* Book XVII ., ch . iv ., p . 103 . f Book XIX ., ch . v ., p . 235 . % Book XX ., ch . iii ., p . 285 .
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228 The Philosophy of the History of Mankind .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1832, page 228, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1810/page/12/
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