Juniata sentinel. [volume] (Mifflintown, Pa.) 1846-1873, 1870-09-28
WHOLE NUMBER 1925
EXTINCTION OF RACES.
By n. DANNING.

tory bears testimony. The mightiest
races Of antiquity arose to the highest
attainment in civilization. and to the vast
acquisitions of territory but their annals
record no exception to this decree of lin
itation. In the animal kingdom We zee
this law in full exercise. In the geologic
periods the simplest forms of the animal
and vegetable world were gradually re-
placed by other and higher organizations
until the lofty types which exist in the
present age were formed. In mauy parts
of the world are found evidences of civ
ilization which has run its course to ex-
tinction, and in whose remains the prac-
ticed eye of the antiquary fails to detect
the date of its origin or decay. Prehis-
toric research gives evidence of all ex-
tinct civilization in countries occupied
now by nations iu the savage and semi
barbarous states. Thus. on the American
continent, the Mississippi valley bears
evidence of civilization long since dead,
and in the british Isles we see Druidical
remains, reared by that semi
barbarbous nation, the Celts; and in
many parts of Europe exist the works Of
their neighbors. the Teutons. That the
nations of antiquity had attained high
degree of civilization thousands of years
before the Christian era, their monuments
yet standing attest. The massive archi-
lecture of Egyptian temples was followed
by the graceful structures of the refined
and philosophic Greeks and each pos
sessed an artistic merit that attracts the
art students Of the present day. The
influence of the works Of the ancients
enters largely into the formation of mod
ern creations of art and literature, while
science continues more ipdependly pro-
gressive, owing to its dependence upon
the constant obervation Of man in its
slow accretions of truth. Thus the man
Of literature or art of our day, not only
endeavors to excel men of his own age
in the production of his works, but takes
for his model some genius OF antiquity
whose thoughts and words have come
down through all the ages.
The Celtic race compose modern peo
pie which the present age brings under
Classic writers of two thous-
sand years ago inform US that they were
masters of all Europe at that time. They
were warlike, nomadic race, and were
bold and daring !. for Aristotle
describes them "as dreading neither
earthquakes nor inundations; as rushing
armed into the waves as plunging their
newborn infants into cold water or cloth
ing in scanty garments. But they were
compelled to bend 20 the tide
Of civilization; the Roman power, though
long finding them formidable adversaries,
became at length their conqnerors, and
with their snbjugation their individuality
as a nation was forever lost. The Celtic
race never having possessed the enter
prise of the Anglo-Saxon, mnst be sue
ceeded by the latter, whose progress in
the arts of civilization has gained for it
the ascendency over every other race up,
on the globe. The Hibeunian having
lost his nationality, like othe,peoples be.
fore. is destined to become mixed with
his successors and eventually extinct.
The Indo.American race is perhaps
most familiar to us, as inhabiting our
own continent. Brave, vigilRnt and daa-
ing. fond of war and hunting, averse 70
agricultural pursuits and all the vile
of civilized life,-tbey are.
thought crue! and revengeful towards
their enemies, capable of noble and gen.
erous feelings. The Indian raas repre-
sents the Stole school of modssB times,
being capable of wonderful eadsrance
and suffering.
Says a writer "The Me1ieans and
Peruvians at the time of the Spanish
conquest had attained a high state of
and the arts and agriculture
aourished, and astronomy was so sue
cessfully studied that their mode of de-
termining the length of the year was
then more accurate than thai of the
European nations. But they are fast
disappearing before the superior race.
and of the thirty millions population
when Columbus first set foot upon the
New World, only one million now ex-
lists. At this rate Of decrease there viii
not a century hence be single Indian
upon the Continent"
And so the Creator deals with mar,
whom he has made "a little lower than
the angels and crowned with glory and
HONOR and demonstrates the fact that
nations, no less than individuals, are
subject to the vicissitudes Of life and
deatli.-Ediucati0sal Gazette.