Idaho semi-weekly world. [volume] (Idaho City, Idaho Territory) 1875-1908, 1889-10-08
ANCIENT CIVILIZATION.


800 DhSt rs Keen and Aeftvs
rs fhAy Are To day.
Modern man thinks himself a fine
'eiiow. and habitualiy contrasts his
s'rthfeS, wisdom. intellectually and
ihYenllyeness with the correspondina
qualities possessed by his predecessors
o. every age, much TO the disaavantaoa
o. the latter. This conceit Is amiable
enough IT has been held by every
generation OF the past 1t will gov.
ern the men OF the future, who will ra.
gard the people Of our era with nitv as
Inferior to their remarkable SELVES
MANY able writer's have bent their
energies to the puncturing OF this
balloon OF vanity. Wendell phillins,
famous lecture on 1.-THE Lost Arts.
Was given to thousands o; anai-
ences' which maryeled at the
wonderful accomplishments OF men
OF ancient times. and departed
thanking Providence that thew ware
reserved to live and act In later and
better times. Prot Max Mullers last
contribution to the Fortnightly Re.
view goes over the same ground and
VIII probably have similar VANISHING
eject upon the minds of all excent !,
lew OF its most thoughtful readers II
Is. however, worth while to study some
OF us arguments. II only crudely to re-
aiiAe that men made up of flesh and
blood are the same kind of creatures
whenever and wherever they live. that
.hey went through the same struggles
Tor existence, had the same love Of
thought and inventive capacities. and
were actuatcd by the same passions in
the days OF the Pharaohs as in these
last years of the dying nineteenth cent
ury.
Consider with Prof. Muller that the
philosophy and poetry OF Greece and
Rome still live in Milton, Racine and
Goethe" You can see that Fredario
Harrison is as truly the intellectual
child OF Aristotle as he admits himself
to be OF Anguste Compile. Remember
That the invention of the alphabet was a
greater triumph of mind than the dis
covery Of the spinning jenny, and that
1t is owed to the Egyptians, who first
produced hieroglyphics. Your L."
says Max Muller, sis the crouchino
lion, your + the cerastes, serpent
with two horns; your H the Egyptian
picture Of a sieve"
The Arabic figures from one to nine
reached Spain through India. TO in.
vent these was to discover that with
out which the mechanical and electri.
cal sciences could never have become
what they are; that without which we
should never have had steam engines
and electric telegraphs." Surely, the
ancient Hindoo was not less brilliant
than modern man. The Babylonians
were not fools when they invented
the sexagesimal or sixty system, by
which we still divide the hours
! and minutes of time The Greeks
conceived the idea OF coined money
in the seventh century. B. c. They
could not have been less practical OF
! less thoughtful than the men OF to-day
| The forms in which we express out
thoughts, the very phrases We use, ars
as old as the art of expression itself.
These things ought to be borne il
mind whenever the men OF old are I'm
der discussion. They should evok,
new interest in our predecessors ii
activity. Above all, they should teach
us that We must not underrate those
who have long since returned to dust
while we are enjoying the fruits o
their industry. Living man is BETTE
than his prototype, because he ha
learned to be a little less sensual,
little more self-controled and grea
deal less cruel; but he has the sam,
head on his shoulders, filled with abou
the same kind OF gray matter. -Bostor
Globe.