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Show 412 TflE MONOGENISTS AND civil life." ''Tho omitic tongues app ar to us, from antc-bi toriC'al times, cantonned in the sam regions where we sc them spoken even at this day, and whence they haven vcr isf.lu c.1, cxc pt through Phooniciu.n colonies anu tho Mus1:llllman invasion : I moan in that peninsular space shut in at tl1 not·th by the mountrLins of Armcuia, and at tho cast by tho monntains which bounu tho basin of tlJO Tigris. No f~tmily of Longu s has teavollcd Jess, nor radiatc<l less xt riorly: one would search in vain, beyond the southw st of Asia, for a well-marked trace of an ante-historical SQjonm of tho bcmitcs. 'l'h antiquo memorials or geography and of history, contained in tho first pages of Genesis-pages that we have a right to regard as tho common archives of tho h mit.ic race-can only furuish us with some conj cturcs about the mi()'ratious t]mt preceded the ntry of tho h mites into tho region in which one would feel tempted, at first glance, to bali vo them to he autochthon s. "'l'hc Shcmitcs, in fact, m·c, wilhont ontradiction, the rae which has preserved the most distinct recollection of its or.igins. Nobility among them consisting uniqn ly in descent by st.mi()'ht line from the patriarch ot· chief of tho tribe, nowhere arc g 'ncttlogics so much prbr.cd,-nowhcrc arc possessed o(' th so any so long and BO authentic. Oonct~logy is the essential form of all ]Wimitive histories among tho Rhcnut s (miSm)· Tho 'l'oledotlt of Lhc rr brcwA, notwithstanding their gaps, th ir contradictions, nnd the diJl' r nt rc-ham1lings which th y ltavc suficrcd, arc certainly thos historical do •ttmcnts t.hn.t cause us to approach ncar st to the origin of humanity. Whence the r markabl fact, that oth r rae s, luwing lost Lh ir own pr·imitivc rcmcmbeanccs (aouvenira), have discovered nothing b tt t' t (1 tban to hitch themselves on to ScrniLic recollections: so thai the orJo·tns r count ~ in Genesis have become, in general opinion, the ori~·ins of manktnd [at large!]. "These particular recollections of tho Semitic rncc, which about tho first lev n chapters of Genesis in ·Jose, divide themselves into two vcr'Y distinct parts. During the antcdiluviau phase, it is a fabnl~us geography, ~o :Vhich it is very diiHcult to attn •h a positive ~~cmun?: they arc ficttvc gcn alogi s, of which th d grccs arc 1 r ~l.d: ~1ther by the names of ancient heroes, and pcr·baps by some dtvunltcs that arc to be found among tho other 8 mitic populations. or by words expressive of ideas, and of which tho signification wa~ ITO lon.ger perceived. ~'hey arc fl'agments of confused recollections, wh r m dt· ams are m1xcd up with realities, very nearly as in the rcmcml)~·anccs of early infancy. [It is impossible to display more pen tratwn than M. Ewald has towards int rprcting these antique pages. (Geacltichte des Vollceslsrael; I, p. 309 et auiv.) I must say, TJIE PQI,YGENJS'I'S. 41~ however, that, in my opinion, M. Ewalcl yicl<Js a great deal too much to thu L mptation of com_tJaring tho llebnco-Sernitic origines with Indo-Ari.an cosmogonies. J" C rtainly the mo~t philol:l phic of Semitic historians, the sage EoN KuALDbN,21 hast' marked, on national chamctcristics: "It is a curious circnmsLancc, that the majority of the loarneJ. among theM uslims belonged to a fore~c;n 1·ace :-vcr·y few persons of Arabi au dcsccn t havittg obtained <listinctiou in t},c sciences conn ctcd with tho r.. aw, or in those based upon llllman r aeon; and yet the promulgator of tlrc Law was an Arab, and tho Ktu·'an, that source of so many sci aces, an Arabic book." But perhaps Lho b st-qualificclliving ltistoriograpltct· of Palestine:, no less thrm the on most versed in the litcratur of his co-r lio·ionists, M. Munlc, <.1 clttrcs, in rc poet to the fir·st chapter of Genesis: "This cosmogony is of an infantile simplicity. One must not sec in it anytltinn· but a po m,-containing, inc.1cc<.l, some g rms of sci nco, but wherein ima(l'ination outbttl:tncos rc!lc ·Lion; and which it would be IT ncous to judge from a scientific point of vicw." 25 ]j i ually, the most rig rous amongst U.L'cllroologists whom this generation ]tm; admir d, viz., LETRONNB, r gi~tcrctl l1is sentiments on popular mis ·one ptions of Hebrew l.itcraturc, in the au bjoinctl lan<~nn.!!:C: "'l'h r was n. tim , and this ti mo is not yet very fat· from ou rsolves, in wlti ·hall th' sci Hccs wore comp lied to lintl their origin in the Biulc. It was tlto unique basis up n which they wot·c pcrrnittod to rise; and narrow JirniL!:I had b on 11xcd to their cxpanl:lion. The astronomer, indeed, was allowed to observe the stars and to make almanacs; but nnclct· tl1c condition that tho earth shoultl remain at the centre of the univ rsc, antl that the sky should coulinu to be a solid vault, inter, p rscd with luminous points: tho cosmographer might dmw up chm'Ls; but he was ouligctl to lay down the principlo that th m'Lh w~ts a plane surfa c, miraculously suspended in space, and ]l()IUl tp by th will of God. If some th ologcrs, l ss ignorant (thltll th majority), p rmitt d the earth t assume a round form, it was un<lcr express stipulation that th rc should be no antipotlcs. Tho llatuml hiBtory of animals was bound to sp al' of tho reproduction of those which l1ad been saved in the Ark: history and etltno,qrapliy 21 I'rolrgomma; cited by MAo0uOKIN DY. S~ANB in tho lntrod. of his tl'n.n~ln.tion of Enll KnAI.LI KilN'S J[itrlb Wajreile el-Aflyciln (Uiog1·n.phicr11 Dictionn.ry)-Oriouto.l Trnnslntion Fund, London, 1848; ll, p. i. 26 f'ulestitu, Univ. Pittor., Pnria, 1846; p. 426:-compn.l'O 'l'!Jpcs of !tfankind, pp. 661-6; n.nd 1tlso POT'I' (ltfoaes ull(/ David keine Oeologcn, Dodin, 171l0, pp. 85-47), who proved, 1st, tlmt Ocno8is I contains no rcvolntion; 2d, still loss o. l'OVOI14tion of goologionl J'uots; 3d, in no mnnndl' o. rovol11tiou mo.do to Adam or to Moses. |