Page:An Essay on the Age and Antiquity of the Book of Nabathaean Agriculture.djvu/139

Rh brigandage; the French monarchy, under Louis XIV., almost emulated the excesses of the Sassanidan or Mongol dynasties; the French Revolution, while calling into being with incomparable vigour the principle of unity in the State, frequently compromised liberty in no trifling degree. But prompt reactions have always saved these nations from the consequences of their errors.

Not so in the East. The East, especially the Shemitic East, has never known any medium between the complete anarchy of the wandering Arabs and sanguinary and unmitigated despotism. The idea of public weal, of public good, is completely wanting among these nations. True and complete liberty, such as the Anglo-Saxon race has realized, and grand State organizations, such as the Roman Empire and France have engendered, have been equally unknown to them. The ancient Hebrews and the Arabs have been, and are at short intervals, the most free of men; but conditionally subject to the chance of having on