Daily globe., 1883-07-11
THE EXdGGERATION OF THE RE-
MOTE,


OF all the ways in which the imagina-
tion has distorted the truth there Is
none that has worked so much harm as
an exaggerated respect for past ages.
This reverence for antiquity is repug-
nant to every maxim of reason, and is
merely the indulgence Of a poetic senti-
ment in favor of the remote and un-
known.
The marvellous feats of antiquity with
which the Sanscrit books abound are so
long and so complicated that it would
occupy too much space to give even an
outline of them; but there is one class
of these singular fctions which is we'll
worth attention, and admits of being
briefly stated. I allude to the extraor-
dinary age which man was supposed to
have attained in former times. A belief
IN the longevity of the human race at an
early period of the world was the natu-
raj product of those feelings which
ascribed to the ancients an universal su-
periority over the moderns and this we
see exempliied in some of the Christian
and in many of the Hebrew writings.
But the statements in these works are
tame and insignificant when compared
with what is preserved In the literature
of India. On this, as on every subject,
the imagination OF the Hindoos distanced
all competition. Thus, among an i'm
mense number of similar facts, we find
it recorded that in ancient times the du-
ration OF the life of common men was
$4,000 years, and holy men lived to be
upward of 100000. Some died a little
sooner, others a little later; but in the
most fourishing period Of antiquity, ii
we take ali classes together, 100000
years was the average. OF one King,
whose name was Yudhishthir, it is casu-
ally mentioned that he reigned 27,000
years; while another, named Alarka,
reigned G6, 600. They were cut off IN
their prime, since there are several III
stances CT the early poets living to be
about half a million. But the most re-
markable case is that Of a very shining
character in Indian history, who united
in his single person the functions OF a
King and saint. This eminent man
lived in pure and virtuous age, and his
days were, indeed, long in the land !;
since when he was made King he was
1900, 900 years old he then reigned
$500, 1000 years having done which he
resigned his empire and fingered on for
100000 years more.
The same boundless reverence for an
tiquity made the Hindoos refer every
thing important to the distant periods
and they frequently assign date which
is absolutely bewildering. Their great
collection of laws, called the "Insti-
tutes Of Menu" is certainly less than
5000 years old but the Indian chronol-
ogists, so far from being satisfied with
this, ascribed to them an age that the
sober European mind finds a difficulty
even in conceiving. According to the
best native authorities, these institutes
were revealed to man about two thou
sand million years before the present
era.
All this Is but a part Of that love for
the remote, that s5raining after the IL
finite, and that indifference 10 the Pres
ent, which characterize every branch OF
the Indian intellect. Not only in liter
ature, but also in religion and in at,
this tendency is supreme. To subju-
gate the understanding, and exalt the
imagination, is the universal principle.
In the dogmas of their theology, in the
character of their gods, and even in the
forms of their temples, we see how the
sublime and threatening aspects of the
eternal world have filled the mind of the
people with these images of the grand
and terrible, which they strive to re-
produce in visible form, and to which
they owe the leading peculiarities of
their national culture. His
tory Of Civilization.