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Show 410 THE UONOGENISTS AND We can now a.ppr ciatc tho philosophic tone in which tho Ilumhotdts usc such t rms as myths, fiction, and pretended tradition, in roC r nee to cvct·y a.ccount purporting to giv us tho origin of manl- ind- mitic narration inclusive. On th real authority of the lattce, th y doubt! ss held the same views as their great countryman, Iom,um: "Tradition s scmiticro, quro in libris Vetoris Testamonti depositre aunt ot ·onscrvatro, haud quaquam sufriciunt, quippc qnia recontioris aunt orio-inis, omni fa.bula.rurn gcnero refcrtro ot nimis arcto terrarum tra ·tu circumscl'iptro, prrotcrcaquc tam indoles II brroornm nationi prop1·ia qnan:t divct·sorum, qui singulos libros composuerunt, auctorum manifestum consilium doctl'inam theocratire a sacordotum corpore quasi reprros nta.tro cond ncli cftcccrunt, ut voroo historiro principia multis in lo is a porte ncgligcrcntur." 17 In common with th ie qually-rcnowned German contemporary, J ... EPsms, each, iu his inqnidos into tho oriO'in of humanity, "leaves aside lho theological point of view, which has nothittg to do with science." 18 "'l'hc parauisia.cal myth," observes Prof. 'l'ucu, 19 "has hccn gcncra.lly mol'c profoundly understood by philosophers than by theologians. Kant2(' and Schillcr 21 have employed tho Scripture document in cluciua.t.ing physioloO'ical inquiries on tlle proO'rcssive dcv lopmcnt of manhnd: both of these philosophers correctly remark, that tho myth docs not represent a debasement or sinking down from original perfection to imperfection-not a victory of Romnmlity over r ason; but, on the contrary, it manifests tho ad-lluNai'N: nor could one hrwc credited 1' priori tbat his learned contributor i~ the same person who wrote that excellent work, "~'be Ln.nguagcs of the Scat of Wur" (I,oudon, 2t! od., 1855.) I 1Lin nol ~inguhw either in this opinion. A philologist of far severer u.nd profoundor tt·u.iniug thn.n tho abovo-nnmcd scholars, M. E1tNJo:ST RNNAN, of tho niblioth~quo Imp61'inle, hns n!J·cndy remnrkcd: "As for tho idona recently put forth by M. MI1x-Mi.illor (d11ns Jes Outli11cs do M. llunsen, t. I, p. 203 ct suiv. 4.73 ot suiv.) upon the division of tonguoa into three fnmilics, Semitic, Arian, Toumninn-this last containing everything which is neither Arian nor Semitic !-o,nd 11bout tho origin1.1l unity of these three f11milics, il is diflicult to Moo in thorn o,nything else thnn an net of compluisance towards views thr~t fire nol his own. nud. one likes to bcliovo thut tho learned editor of the Rig-Veda wonld l'ogret thnt 11 work MO hWo worthy of him should be too seriously discussed" (Histoirc et Syal~me compard des i"Jangues Sbnitiques, "Ouvrr~go couronn6 prll' I'Institut," l•o partie, rnris, 1855, p. 4.06). 11 IlinmAl'lON, aive lludimmta llieroglypllicw Veterum .JEgyptiorum Litcraturre. Para prior, Lipsioo, 4.to, 184.1; p. 3 of Jntroduclion. 16 1ype8 of Mankitld, p. 233. 1° Kommmtar ii.ber die Gmc8i8, p. 61: cited in "Introduction to tho Jlook of Genesis, &c." from tho Ocrmr~n of Dn. P~TEU VON l3onLl:N; cdiLcd by JA!IHlB Jh:nvooD, M.P. F.R.s .. r.ondon, 1855; II, p. 78. I I 20 "ilfuthtna8alicher Anfang de8 llfmschcnge8chlect8 (Pt·obablc Beginning of tho rr ltr~co): Dcrlincr Monatschrift, 1786, s•. 1."-lbid. umnn 21 " l•itw~& ii.bcr die erste llfen&chengeull8chof1 (On the Firat IlUJ.Oilll Society): Siimmtliohe Wcrko, 18~5, Bttud 16-IIcywood'• Von J)oh/w." THE POLYGF.NISTS. 4ll vanccmcnt of man f1·om a state of comparative rudeness to fr celom and. civilization. rl'hc hi.~torical individuality of Auam is no lonO'er Jllaintain d; he bccom s th gcn 1·al r pres ntativ of humanity." "It is strange," continues DorrM, "that such pains hav been tal~cn to trace t th Jews not only the origin of all the id as of science and reli('fion which al'e found. among eastcm nations, but oven the c mmCJJCCrnont of cv 1·y possible variety of usag , custom, and ·cremony. 'l'hc small and circumscribed people of tho Hebrews, who w ro g nerally despised, and who never maintained. any inLcr• ourso with oth r nations, by trade or by conquest, by rcligi us missionaries or by philosophical travellot·s, arc supposed, a coruing to the chcams of certain learned men, to have supplied all A. ia, and from thence the wltolc world, with religion, philosophy, and laws, and oven with manners and moru.JH"-not to mention Etltnograplty! But, in Lntltoran Germany, where thorough liebraical scholarship has libcratccl the public mind from the thraldom of ignorant pricAteraft, these r aAoniugs arc familiar to every reader of a "Kosmos for the P oplc :" 22 "Nothing remains but to embrace the opinion, that the distinct characteristics of the human race wore imprinted. at all times; or that, in g ncral, manHud docs not descend !i· m one man and one woman, fe m Adam and Eve, but f'eom several human pairs; and to answer this qn stion was already our purpose in the present chapt t•. But many of my readers will uow say, that God, in the Bible, has eecatcd only ono human pair. I'crfccLly COl't'C ·t. I reply to this ouly, that God did not write th' Bible, but that M scs may have wt·itLcn lhc Pentateuch; and that whether he actually diu wriLc (Lh so 1ivc books), scholars do not know themselves. But we know, quito certainly, tl1at plants and animals were ·r atcd at the same 1.imc, and aot in several days of creation. We know, very posHiv ly, Lhat, without the su11, no clay or night interchanges; and that the sun was not rcatc<l on tho fourth, but on tho :first day. As certainly do wo know, that neither plants nor animals could have lived previously to that creation of tho sun; that the b asts, the worms, a.nd tlto reptiles, wore not created later than the birds; and that Adam and Evo were not alone the first hnman bein,O's upon earth." "Tho S mitic race," holds the latest and ablest historian of their bnguag , HJiJNAN/1 "is recognized almost uniquely tbrough its negative charaetcl'istius: it has n ithcr mythology [of its own] nor epop c, neither science nor philosophy, neither fiction nor plastic arts, nor ~~ Clu:uF.L, Geschicltte des lVcltal/8 der Hrde tmd illrer Bewolmer; Ei11 Koamos fur8 Volk~; J. c•ipr.ig, 1851. :13 llistoire des /,angurs Sdmitiques (Supra, no to l 0), p. Hi, 25-6. |