Page:An Essay on the Age and Antiquity of the Book of Nabathaean Agriculture.djvu/137

Rh they have ever been. The Mussulman (the Shemitic mind is everywhere represented in our times by Islamism) and the European, in the presence of one another, are like beings of a different species, having no one habit of thought and feeling in common. But the progress of mankind is accomplished by the contest of contrary tendencies; by a sort of polarisation, in consequence of which each idea has its exclusive representatives in this world. It is as a whole, then, that these contradictions harmonise, and that profound peace results from the shock of apparently inimical elements.

This admitted, if we seek out what the Shemitic nations have contributed to that organic and living whole, which we call civilization, we shall find, first, that in Political Economy we owe them nothing. Political life is, perhaps, that which is most innate and peculiar to Indo-European nations; for these nations alone have known liberty, and comprehended, in fact, the constitution of the State and the liberty of the