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Show 124 TilE ART OF TilE SilEMITES. Cecil, and promulgated in 1563. All tho painters nod engravers wore prohibited by it to continuo making portraits of the Queen, until some good !lrtist should hn.vo mn.do a truthful likeness, to servo as model for nil the copies to be made in future, after the model hns, upon cxnminnLion, been found to be as good nnd exo.ot n.s it could be. His further snic.l that tho natural desire of nil the subjects of tho Queen, of every rnnk and condition, to possess the portrait of IT. M., having induced ronny po.intora, ongro.vors, and other nrtists, to multiply copi es, it h11s been found thllt not one of them hns succoeded in rendering llll tl1e beauty and charms of II. M. with exactness, much to the daily regret o.nd complaints of her wcll-boloved subjects. Order WllS, th erefore, given for the llppointment of commissioners (tho French text sllys 'exports') to inquit·c into tho fidelity of tho copies, n.nd not to to! t·o.to any ono, markou by deformity or defects, from which, by tho grnco of God, IIer Moje~ty was free." In conclusion, let us rejoice with our collaborator, M. Maury, that "tho school of Champollioo, therefore, feels every day tbo g round more steady beneath its tread; every day it bebo]Js those doubts dissipating which at first offered themselves to its disciples in tl1e f~tco of denials made by jealous or stubborn minds. * * * * *It is to this 'monumental geology' (after all) that wo arc indebted for the demonstration of the two great historical laws that dominate over all the annals of Egypt; viz: the pe1·rnanence of races, and tho constant mobility of tongues, beliefs, and arts,-two truths which a1:e precisely the inverse of that which had been for a long time admitted."~ III.-THE ART OF THE SliEMITES. Tn:E term "Shemitic" (or Semitic), as it is popularly applied to certam races, languages, and types of physiognomy, has no reference ~the _ge_nealogy or· rather geography of the Xth chapter of Genesis, smco 1t mclucles the Phamicians, who, according to this old document, are descendants of IIam; whilst Elam, Assur and Lud, sons of Shem, must bo classed among races different in character and language from what most scholars, since Eichhorn, have been accustomed to call Shemitic. This word is now constantly used to d signate tho 8yro-~1·ab ~ation~; that is to say, the Syrian, Phmnician, and Hebrew tnbes (mcludmg Edom, Moab, Ammon, Midian, and tho N a~Jat_roa~s of IIarran), and tho Arabs both Yoktanido (IIimyaritc and ..tEUuop1an) and Ishmaelite or Maadic. All those tribes and ~ations form a most striking contrast to the Arian or J apetido races, m language as well as in their national character. It is difficult to over-state the influence of the Shomites on human 10;'8~es travaux modernc1 sur l'Egypte Ancienne, Revue des Deux Mondos, Sept. 1855, p. TilE ART 01•' TilE SliEMITES. 12!) civilization. lienee it has boon said without exagg raLion, that all tbe moral and religious progress of mankind may bo summed up in the combined action of tho Arian and Shcmitic races: the :C rmer being the continuous warp, the laLter tho intersecting woof.05 Whilst the civilization of l~gypt, too proud to seck proselytes, remained isolated and spell-bound wi.tl1in the limits of its Nile-valley, the culture of the Shemites was eminently prolific and propagancli~;t. TLough they neve'· exceeded thirty milJions in number,f>O sLill their pceuliar re tlessncss and com mercia] tendency, theil' migrations, d portaLions, colonizations, and wars of conquest, which dispersed them all over tho ancient world, multiplied, as it were, th ie number by locomotion, and brought them into a kind of ubiquitous contact with most oftho progressive races ofmankind. 'l'hc Japeticles (Indo-Europeans, Ariana, Iranians,) surpass tlJC Shemi.tes at least ten times in extent; yet, nevertheless, their civilization is deeply and lastingly n:flcctcd by, and indebted to, the Shemitcs, without having been able to absol'b and to transrorm them by amalgamation. Down to our days the Shemito race maintain their peculiar type so coustantly, that their pedigree is still nnmistnkably stamped upon their features; aud it is a ·urions fact that among the lower clas. es in central and northeastern Europe, the consciousness of a difrercnce of race remaiue<l so strong both with Shemites and Japetides, as ofL n to prevent amalgamation, even where the difl:cronce of religion had c ased. There arc peincipally three nations among tho Sbemites wl1ich have become of the highest importance for the history of mankind. 'l'o the Plu:enicians,-thoso first explorers of tho Mediterranean and oastorn Atlantic,- merchant-princes, manufacturers, aud colonizers of antiquity-we owe the phonetic Alphabet, and probably the coinage of money. East and outh to Phmnicia dwelt the Hebrews, who, though numerically few, have by their monotheism be ome the basis of modern civilization; whose financial genius moreover continues to be felt in all the great money-marts, upon which their invention of bills of exchange has concentrated the mobili:wd property of the world. Further to the South we meet with tho Arabs, destroyers of idolatry, conquerors of northern Africa, civilizers of et~ lluNs•:N, ./Egyptens Stelle, preface, xii. eo According lo RENAN's rough estimate, their actual number is tho following:In Ara.bia prop or, about...................................................... (),000,000 Tho Syrinns :.md Arabs of Aaintio Turkey............................... 6,000,000 Tho Aro.bs of Africa: Egypt, llarbary, llforocco, Snhnm, Sndi\o .. 10,000,000 Shemitic Abyssiniaos. ...... ......... ......... ......... ......... ......... ...... 8,000,000 Jews o.ll over tho world.......................................... .... ......... 4,000,000 -(Ilistoire et Systame compart du langues slmitigu~,, p. 41.) |
