Page:An Essay on the Age and Antiquity of the Book of Nabathaean Agriculture.djvu/136

120 Let us try to trace in this complex whole the part played by each of the two great races, which, by their combined action, and more often by their antagonism, have conducted the course of the world to the point on which we stand.

Let me explain. When I speak of the blending of the two races, it is simply in respect to the blending of ideas, and, if I may venture to express myself, to fellow labour historically considered, that I would use the term. The Indo-European and the Shemitic nations are in our day still perfectly distinct. I say nothing of the Jews, whose singular and wonderful historical destiny, has given them an exceptional position among mankind, and who, except in France, which has set the world an example in upholding the principle of a purely ideal civilization, disregarding all difference of races, form everywhere a distinct and separate society. The Arab, and, in a more general sense, the Mussulman, are separated from us in the present day more than