II
SEMITIC LITERATURES
By Richard J. H. Gottheil, Professor of Rabbinical
Literature and the Semitic Languages
Long before the masterpieces of Greek Literature were conceived, the God Nebo, as the Babylonians themselves explained the beginnings of their culture, had brought the art of writing to the Delta of the Tigris and the Euphrates. In attributing a divine origin to this art, these ancient Semites emphasized the value which they placed upon it; and their descendants have not failed to follow the road traced by their ancestors. The debt which Western civilization owes to the nearer East is growing largely on our view, the more archæology and comparative research unravel the secrets of past ages. Two gifts of inestimable value we owe to the Semites. One is the expression in a tangible and intelligent form of our monotheistic Weltanschauung, out of which the three great world-religions, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, have issued. The other is the alphabet, by means of which the thoughts and aspirations which lie at the basis of our modern Western culture have been propagated. But while the great religious systems which have come from the efforts of priests and prophets in ancient Palestine have had their counterpart in other important systems that had their birth in India and in China, the alphabet which Phœnicians and Aramæans invented has had a triumphant march as a means of commercial and intellectual intercourse amongst the most varied peoples. It seems probable that writing was invented in various and different parts of the globe, in Egypt, in China,
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