After Babel [pp. 401-407]

THE LIADIES' REPOSITOR Y.
discovered that the Aryan ancestors of
the Hindoos entered India through the
narrow passes of the Hindoo-Koosh, about
2000 B. C., about the time of Abraham.
They found it inhabited by a very inferior
race of natives, whom they redtuced to
subtljection; but to this day they are found
mixed tip with the Hindoos, though distingtuishablle lby their aspect and language.
As the Hamites also had found their way
to this country, it is probable that as the
Aryans advanced they encountered and
expelled them. "Here, as elsewhere,
they retired before the nobler race until they disappeared altogether firom the
map of the civilized world."
Every thing proves the eastern Aryans
to have been a superior race; but after a
few generations the enervating effect of
the climate "relaxed their activity and
converted their philosophy into dreamy
speculations."
The European has been the conqueror
of nature, and his progress is thile theme
of the world's history. We can trace
back his pedigree to ancestors who,
joturneying from the East, made of a
wilderness inhabited by savages a fiuitful land. They entered the forests of
Central Europe and were hidden for two
thousand years, but continuing ill the
career prophesied for them; as they have
emerged from spiritual darkness into the
light of Gospel truth, they have taken tip
the long-neglected thread of scientific inquiry dropped firom Grecian hands when
the limits assigned to the pagan mind had
been reached, and in studying nature's
laws and obtaining a conquest over her
forces have contributed wonderfully to
man's happiness and comfort. As to
those sons of Japhet who entered and occupied Greece, and whose descendants
are found to the sotithl and west of the
Danuble and Rhine, history has thrown
some light on their career. They made
astonishing progress in the arts, science,
and literature, and we may regard Greece
as the nursery of the Jap-etic race, where
the first rudiments of knowledge were
acqtiirecl and realized, while Central
Europe was the school in which they
were disciplined and prepared for the
active business of manhood.
The germ of the Grecian accomplishments was derived from the Phoenicians,
but their greater refinemenit purified, and
their intuitive perception of the beautiful
elevated and expanded, every thing they
touched, and adapted their knowvledge to
higher purposes than was possible to the
sensual Hamites.
That the Greeks were indebted to the
Egyptians as the source of their scientific
knowledge has been denied, after investigation, by competent authorities. They
were indebted to them and to the Phlenicians "for miany of the practical arts and
accomplishments of civilization, but the
scientftc faculty that adds link to link in
the great chain of causation was the peculiar heritage of the Aryan or Japhetic
race." The existence and exercise of
this faculty is, to some extent, due to the
genius of their languages. Language and
thought react on each other, and it is
more than probable that without the
Japl.etic language, the Japhletic turn of
thought would not exist. With them,
as with the Semites, they were prepared
for the work appointed them in theconfusion of tongues at Shlinar.
Thus have the three sons of Noah fulfilled the destiny predicted of them; a
blight, like a curse, has fallen on the descendants of Ham; as Christians we worship the God of Shlem; and we, descendants of Japhet, see every where how
marvelously hle has been enlarged. Conquer-ors wher-ever their feet have beeni
set, to them does the world owe its material prosperity.
I close this slight sketch of a most interesting book with a quotation concerning the sons of Noah:
But what, it may be asked, was the
purpose of God in this visitation on the
early ancestors of the Caucasian race?
It was not required, as generally supposed, for the dispersion throughout the
earth of the descendants of Noah, for
such a dispersion would have been the
necessary and natural result of increasing population, spreading itself abroad as
406
[Nov.,