Page:An Essay on the Age and Antiquity of the Book of Nabathaean Agriculture.djvu/134

118 Pantheism. The religious development of the Shemitic nations obeyed laws totally different. Judaism, Christianity, Islamism, possess a character of dogmatism, absolutism, and severe monotheism which distinguishes them radically from the Indo-European,—or, as we term them, the Pagan religions.

Thus we see two individualities, perfectly recognizable, which occupy between them, in some manner, nearly the whole field of history, and which are, as it were, the two poles of the axis of civilization. I say nearly the whole field of history; for besides these two great individualities, there are still two or three, which are yet sufficiently palpable for the purposes of science, and of which the action has been considerable. Putting China aside, as a world by itself, and the Tartar races, which have only acted as inherent scourges to destroy the works of others, Egypt has had a considerable part in the history of the world; yet Egypt is neither Shemitic nor Indo-European; nor is Babylon a purely Shemitic