Page:An Essay on the Age and Antiquity of the Book of Nabathaean Agriculture.djvu/135

Rh creation. There was there, it seems to me, a first type of civilization analogous to that of Egypt. It may be said even, generally, that before the entrance of the Indo-European and Shemitic nations on the field of history, the world had already very ancient civilizations, to which we are indebted, if not for moral, at any rate for the elements of industry, and a long experience of material life. But all this is yet but dimly shadowed by history; all this fades before such facts as the mission of Moses, the invention of alphabetical writing, and the conquests of Cyrus and Alexander; the rule of the world by the genius of the Greeks, Christianity, and the Roman Empire; Islamism, the Germanic conquest, Charlemagne, and the Revival of letters; the Reformation, Philosophy, the French Revolution, and the conquest of the world by modern Europe. Here, then, is the great current of history; this great current is formed by the mingling of two streams, in comparison with which all its other confluents are but rivulets.