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PROGRESS OF SOCIETY AND OF THE ARTS.

CHAPTER CCLXXVI.

GENERAL VIEW OF ASIA. - Origin of Language
Government, Arts, Science, Religion -
Past Condition of Asia - Its Future Pros-
pects.

Ir appears from the most authentic information, that arts and civilization had their origin in Asia. The Chinese, the Hindoos, the Assyrians, Babylonians, and Egyptians derived from the neighborhood of the mountains of Central Asia certain permanent principles, which served as the foundation of their political and religious systems. But the process by which mankind advanced in the acquisition of knowledge, is not recorded. Some traditions begin with a golden age of innocence and happiness; others, with a state of original barbarism and wild disorder. The belief in the former seems to have been the popular sentiment of mankind. Plato says that the Greeks derived all their knowledge of divine things from the ancients, who, he

adds,

"were wiser and lived nearer to the gods than we." The Hindoos and Egyptians begin their history with dynasties of gods and heroes, who assumed the human form, and became the progenitors of mankind.

established among them, rather as customs than laws. The union of these families did not form a state, but only a civil society. These small societies must soon have perceived that their customs and observances required to be fixed, and to be invested with the character of laws. Men of superior natural capacity became the lawgivers of these hamlets or villages. As soon as the various relations in which men stood to each other were settled by laws, political society commenced.

But this was a society without established government, and soon became a prey to the evils of anarchy. The experience of these evils taught men that physical force is indispensably requisite to support the laws, which of themselves have a force purely moral. A government ernment is thus established under some form or other, either monarchical, aristocratical, or republican. At first it rests upon force, compelling obe. dience by penalties - as fines, imprisonment, chastisement, or death. As society advances, habit and reflection add their force, and constitute the strongest support of the laws, and that power by which they are administered.

Certain feelings or principles of religion seem to have been impressed by the Creator upon the heart

Yet many of the ancient philosophers and poets of man, so as to form, every where, a part of his morai

have represented the first inhabitants of the earth as
utterly rude and barbarous.

"Wild as the beasts, their wandering lives they led;
No swain robust had turned, with guiding hand,
The crooked plough; no iron delved the land;
What earth spontaneous gave, the sun and shower
Matured, sufficed them for the passing hour.
'Midst oaks whose nestling moss bestrowed the ground,
Nourished they lay, their feasts with acorns crowned.
Nor fire to them its uses had revealed,

Nor did the skins of beasts a vesture yield:
With uncouth limbs they crouched in mountain cave,
Or groves and woodland glens a shelter gave."

It is probable, indeed, even if we suppose a primeval state of knowledge and refinement, that mankind afterward descended to barbarism, from which they gradually arose, through the impulse of their wants, to a full development of their faculties. The present knowledge of the world is doubtless the result of experience, observation, and study, excepting, perhaps, some fragments, which have floated down from the earliest ages. Whether language was an immediate gift of the Deity, or a gradual invention of man, is a question that has exercised the ingenuity of many acute philologists. The Scripture account seems to represent it as an endowment conferred by the Creator upon our first parents; but this original language was doubtless meagre in its vocabulary, and afterward became enlarged through the faculty of speech, which is the peculiar gift of man.

As society began in Asia, we must look to that quarter of the world for the origin of government. The process of its formation appears very simple. A man is born under the roof of his parents, and there he naturally remains. The ties which unite husband and wife, parents and children, formed the family or domestic society. The relation of master and servant had its origin when society was in this state.

The weak, not being able to assert their rights, or procure the means of subsistence, must have soon resolved to claim the protection of the strong. Those families that happened to live in the same neighborhood, would, after quarrelling for a time, at last agree to live in harmony together. Certain rules would be

constitution. These universal sentiments or ideas,
according as they have been developed and repre-
sented in various manners and with different degrees
of purity, in different countries and ages, have been
the foundation of all religious doctrines and systems
of belief, excepting only those which had their origin
in early revelation or in after ages, have been derived
from the Sacred Scriptures. But many circumstances
contributed to give early traditions a fabulous turn.
Those which were created in passing down through
successive centuries, were multiplied, and received |
various changes in their shape, aim, and application.
India appears to have been the source of the leading
mythologies of the world. Not only Brahminism and
Buddhism commenced here, but it would seem that the
Egyptian religion was also derived from India; and
passing to the Greeks, and afterward to the Romans,
became the mythology of the ancient civilized world.
Many of the leading divinities of the Greeks were also |
among the prominent gods of the Egyptians, Ethio-
pians, and Hindoos.

The manner in which the ancient mythologies were propagated, is explained by considering that they rested upon the belief of many gods; so that the adoption of new divinities was not merely compatible with the creeds of men, but seemed in some measure commended by them. Thus the Greeks had no difficulty in adopting any new god they became acquainted with; and, doubtless, it was the same with the Egyp tians, for it is to be observed, that in such a system the worship of Jupiter does not exclude that of Ammon. Christianity is exclusive: it admits no other gods but one. It is the same with Mahometanism. The ancient mythology was more like modern liberalism, which receives all religions as of equal authority.

The arts and sciences must also have had their origin in Asia. The mechanic arts appeared first; their object being to satisfy the wants of life and the conveniences of the social state. Tools of stone seem to have preceded those of metal. Axes, ploughshares, hammers, mallets, wedges, were first made of flint: copper was next employed; and it appears, at the time

FUTURE PROSPECTS OF ASIA.

of the Trojan war, to have been employed for the same purposes for which iron is used now. The latter metal, upon which so many arts depend for their progress and perfection, was not in general use till a subsequent period. The arts of imitation, as sculpture, painting, music, arise only when society had passed from a rude to a refined state. Letters are a still later invention. Commerce began at an early period: for about seventeen hundred years B. C. we hear of the descendants of Ishmael "coming from Gilead, bearing spices, balm, and myrrh, going to carry it down into Egypt." The land trade of Asia has been extensive from a very remote period, and appears to have been always carried on in much the same way as at present. The internal commerce of Ethiopia and Egypt was also very great, and connected with that of Asia by caravans, as it is now. The Arabians appear to have been the first people who made long voyages by water - a circumstance explained by their country being washed on three sides by the sea. The Phoenicians followed the Arabians, and the Greeks and Egyptians succeeded the Phœnicians.

It is thus that the other quarters of the world are indebted to Asia, not only for their population, but the germs of all those ideas and principles which lie at the foundation of society. Yet it is to be remarked that Asia, thus the parent of mankind, has been greatly surpassed in civilization by its offspring. While other portions of the world have been rapidly advancing in art, knowledge, and science, Asia remains almost stationary. We have already alluded to that sameness of character which belongs alike to the physical and moral aspects of society in this quarter of the globe. Its history, also, seems to present, from age to age, a succession of the same or similar events. All this is doubtless the result of physical circumstances. Siberia is an immense plain, chilled by a freezing atmosphere, dooming it to perpetual sterility. The great central plateau of Asia, having, at once, a fertile soil and a bracing atmosphere, affording no facilities for commerce, but inviting the people to agriculture and pasturage, becomes the prolific nursery of fierce, restless, and energetic nomads. These, as, from time to time, the population has become excessive, have broken from their original seats, overwhelming, with their irresistible masses, the rich, warm countries of the south, or, passing on from point to point, have peopled other portions of Asia, with America on the east and Europe on the west. Hindostan, China, and Arabia, are countries whose soil, climate, and position in relation to other lands, are marked and peculiar, calculated to insure a constant repetition of the same ideas, the same pursuits, the same habits of thought and action. This unchangeableness of physical condition, which no industry can essentially change or modify, is supposed to render the vagrant Samoide invariably disposed to be a fisherman, the Tartar a pastoral nomad, the Chinese an indefatigable cultivator of the soil, and the Arab of the desert a roving robber. This uniformity of national character has been perpetuated by systems of religion and laws, jealously designed to prevent change, and therefore to exclude the progress of society.

But if such has been the history of Asia for the past, there is reason to believe that a change is not remote. Indeed, within the present century, great and significant changes have actually taken place in Asia. If we direct our attention to the west, we shall see that the Turkish power, which has been the impassable

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wall between Europe and Asia, seems gradually wasting away. Not long since, its territories were estimated at nearly one million of square miles; now they can hardly be rated above half a million. It has lost its possessions in Africa; Greece has been separated from its provinces in Europe; and Russia has taken portions of its Asiatic provinces. Of those which remain, some are independent in all but name, while the rest are divided by race and history, leaving only religion as the principle of cohesion and of fidelity to the government. The territory of Turkey has, therefore, been reduced one half within the last fifty years, while its moral and political power, in view of the relative strength and intelligence of European nations, is reduced in an equal degree. It is clear that if it were to become the policy of any leading nation of Europe to crush the Ottoman empire, its fate would be inevitably sealed; and even if no such catastrophe should happen, the influence of intercourse with Christendom, which is already visible in Turkey, must, ere long, as effectually subdue the barbarism of the people, as if they were to pass under the yoke of foreign conquest.

On the north, the entire continent is in possession of Russia; the great peninsula of the south is subject to Britain; and these two powers, advancing in their ambitious designs, have almost met, face to face, within the limits of the ancient empire of Persia. Neither of these energetic nations is likely to recede; on the contrary, their conquests will probably be indefinitely extended. On the east of Asia, a momentous change has recently taken place; the brazen gates of Chinese exclusion have been rudely broken open by the Samson of the sea, and "the beginning of the end" seems already shadowed forth to the view.

Thus, on all sides, the moral and religious barriers opposed to Asiatic civilization are giving way. Already one third of its territory is in possession of the two leading European nations; and from the extension of our own frontiers to the Pacific - thus bringing us within five thousand miles of Asia- a new element is added upon which to found calculations of improvement. It has often been remarked, that the course of intellectual illumination among nations has been like that of the sun, carrying its light over the world from east to west. The poet, following this idea, and alluding to America, has said,

"Westward the star of empire takes its way," &c.

In view of recent events, we may go beyond this prophetic suggestion, and while we see our country reflecting back upon Europe the civilization it borrowed there, we may soon behold it following the course of nature and of history, and completing the cycle by carrying civilization to Asia - destined to result in its regeneration. However we may distrust the philanthropy of the British and the Russians in their Asiatic conquests, we cannot but hope that good institutions will be planted by their means; but we believe a still more potent and beneficent influence will be felt in that quarter of the globe through America. Many persons living will doubtless see the population of our country tripled; then there will be weekly lines of our steamers across the Pacific, carrying our manufactures, and our institutions, civil, political, and religious, into the Chinese empire, Japan, and Farther India. These events, which seem inevitable, are but the threshold of that mighty future which seems to be dawning upon us!

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CHAPTER CCLXXVII.

Introduction - Geographical Sketch - Climate Vegetation - Mountains -- Rivers - Political Divisions.

AFRICA, in its geography and history, is marked with striking contrasts. Some portions of it were among the first to be explored and occupied by man, while others long remained untraversed, and some continue to the present day to be designated on the map as unknown regions. In the early ages, it was the seat and centre of learning and science, while the mass of its inhabitants have ever been shrouded in intellectual and moral darkness. Africa presents the most remarkable contrasts of fertility and desolation-the valley of the Nile, and the mighty wastes of Sahara. In its zoology, it not only affords the ostrich, the lion, the tiger, the elephant, and the rhinoceros, - animals common to the adjacent regions of Asia, - but the giraffe and the hippopotamus, which are peculiar to this quarter of the globe. In surveying its civil and social condition, we see the negroes, a weak and harmless race, made the prey of the Arab, the most despotic and remorseless of the human family. The lion, the leopard, and the panther, feasting upon the vast herds of antelopes that graze over the central wastes of Africa, afford a striking analogy to the state of human society the weak, the timid, and the defenceless being made, without mercy or scruple, the prey of the daring and the strong. Africa is a vast peninsula, attached to the eastern continent by the narrow isthmus of Suez. It is situated between 34° south and 37° 30′ north latitude. Its length is four thousand three hundred and twenty miles, and its utmost width four thousand one hundred and forty. Its shape is triangular, and bears a resemblance to an irregular pyramid, of which the Barbary States form the base, and the Cape of Good Hope the apex. Its extent is about eleven million square miles, and its population about sixty millions.

The prevailing aspect of Africa is rude, gloomy,

and sterile. It may be considered as, in all respects, the least favored quarter of the globe. The character of desert, which is elsewhere only partial and occasional, belongs to a large portion of its widely extended surface. Boundless plains, exposed to the vertical rays of a tropical sun, are deprived of all the moisture necessary to cover them with vegetation. Moving sands, tossed by the winds, and whirling in eddies, surround and threaten to bury the traveller, in his lengthened route over these trackless deserts. The best known and the most fertile portion is that which borders the Mediterranean on the north.

Our ignorance of this vast division of the globe renders it impossible to describe its mountains with accuracy. But Africa seems to have neither the lofty mountain chains nor the magnificent rivers of Asia and America. In general, the African mountains appear to be more remarkable for breadth than height. In the north is the Atlas range, rising in some places to the height of above twelve thousand feet. The Kong Mountains extend along the western limits of Senegambia and the northern border of Guinea, and in general have no great elevation, although some of their summits appear to reach the height of twelve or thirteen thousand feet. The Abyssinian Mountains, at some points, are of about the same elevation, but their continuation across the continent under the name of Mountains of the Moon is merely conjectural. Along the eastern coast, a continued chain extends from the Abyssinian range to the Table Mountain, but of no great height. It seems not improbable that the central part of the continent forms one great plateau, of which these littoral chains are merely the steep sides, descending seaward. The following table shows the height of the principal mountains of Africa :

Names.

Atlas, Morocco,.

--, Algiers,. Abyssinian,

I. of Bourbon,..

Cape of Good Hope,.............
Teneriffe,

Height in Feet.
• 12,800

8,900

14,700

12,500

-10,200

11,900

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7,908

11,500

3,764

The

We are not acquainted with the whole course of the largest rivers of Africa. The sources of the principal branch of the Nile are yet uncer tain. The Quorra, or Niger, is known to us only in the upper and lower parts of its course. Congo, or Zaire, is evidently a large river, of which but a small part has been visited, and the Zambeze, or Couama, on the eastern coast, probably traverses extensive regions of the unknown interior. The Orange and Senegal are, after these, the principal streams. The following shows the length of the largest rivers of Africa :

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The Chimpansé.

The African Lion.

The Panther.

With the exception of comparatively narrow tracts on the northern and southern coast, the whole of this continent lies within the torrid zone, and presents the largest mass of land within the tropics, on the earth's surface. Africa is there. fore the hottest region on the face of the globe. The effect of its tropical position is still further heightened by the nature of the soil and surface: the vast desert tracts of bare sand and shingle serve as a great reservoir of parched and heated air, the influence of which is often felt even in the more temperate regions of Barbary and the Cape Colony. The khamseen in Barbary and Egypt, and the harmattan in Guinea, are dry, burning winds from the deserts. The low country on the sea-coast and in the river-valleys throughout the tropical regions, is destructive to Europeans; the great heat, and the exhalations of the swampy soil, covered by an exuberant | vegetation, generating fatal diseases.

Little is known of the mineral productions of Africa. Salt is abundant, except in Nigritia, and gold dust is found in many of the rivers, especially on the western coast.

The northern regions of Africa produce much the same vegetation as the southern parts of Europe, and the cereal grains and fruits of warm : climates abound. The borders of the desert and the oases yield the date palm, affording the chief sustenance of the inhabitants. The sandy deserts of the north and the dry plains of the south produce only prickly grasses, and saline and succulent plants, which feed rather upon dews than upon the moisture of the soil. The tropical regions abound with forests of the finest timber trees, many of which are of gigantic dimensions.

The cotton tree, the baobab- the fruit of which yields a grateful drink - the chandelier tree, and the oil, sago, and other palms, are the characteristic productions of this tropical section. The cassava, yam, and ground-nut are the farinaceous plants, which here supply the place of the cereal grasses of temperate climates; the dourrha, from which the Africans make an intoxicating drink called booza, is the grain most extensively cultivated; the papaw, the tamarind, the cream-tree,

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