Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 36.djvu/223

Rh as to comprehend in it the new, which is also right, and whatever there is of the old that can not be managed otherwise must be explained away.

There is an apparent exception in favor of the old thoughts and teachings where there has been a general degradation in culture; then a return to the results of the former and forgotten culture is most desirable. This is illustrated in the revival of the old learning after the dark ages in Europe, when the classic writings as discovered brought fresh illumination to the world. But this was simply a resumption of advance after a check; and the wisdom of the ancients, which has appeared marvelous, owes much of its splendor to the intervening darkness. The process of development, not chronology, makes a proper criterion. Though antiqaitas sæculi juventus mundi, the archaic is that which relates to the earliest steps of human advance. We have the history of the Israelites for forty centuries; we have that of the Indians for little more than three centuries; and, though the Israelites in recorded times advanced beyond the plane of the Indians, who shall say which of the two peoples is in years the older?

The points before mentioned—that neither the Israelites nor the Indians had any formulated and established faith, and in particular did not believe in a single god, and that they did not have any system of rewards and punishments after death—had important consequences. They were never persecutors for religious opinion. With regard to the Indians that assertion will at once be admitted; with regard to the Israelites it will be disputed by those who take the statements of the compilers of the Old Testament as literally historical.

I have before mentioned one reason, that of the amalgamation of the Israelites with the inhabitants of Canaan, why there could not have been any such fanatic massacre as is narrated. There are other potent reasons. This plane of culture of the Israelites being established, it is proper theoretically to make the deductions belonging to that plane. The Indians carefully concealed their special mystery-daimons. As a matter of fact, the Israelites were generally in accord with their neighbors in religious opinions and practices, so there could have been no antagonism from religious motives. If while worshiping Jahveh they made war for any reason, Jahveh was their reliance, and he conquered or was defeated with them; but they did not make war to force the worship of Jahveh upon others. They would have regarded that as the worst possible policy, as it would have allowed their enemies to pirate upon their divine monopoly which was the essential part of their military equipment.

When men live in the midst of many religions, which imply many revelations, they are charitable to all of them. It is only