Page:An Essay on the Age and Antiquity of the Book of Nabathaean Agriculture.djvu/148

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SHEMITIC CIVILIZATION.

has rendered to the world, to its especial work, and, if one may be allowed the expression, its Providential mission. We do not owe to the Shemitic race our political existence, our Art, our Poetry, our Philosophy, nor our Science. For what, then, are we indebted to it? We owe to them Religion. The whole world, with the exception of India, China, Japan, and nations yet altogether savage, has adopted Shemitic religions. The civilized world numbers only Jews, Christians, and Mussulmans. The Indo-European race, in particular, except the Brahmanic family and the feeble remnants of the Parsees, has passed entirely over to Shemitic creeds. What has been the cause of this remarkable phenomenon? How is it that nations, which hold the guidance of the world, have abdicated their own creed to adopt that of those whom they have overcome?

The primitive worship of the Indo-European race, gentlemen, was as beautiful and full of depth as the imagination of the