Elmore bulletin. [volume] (Rocky Bar, Idaho) 1889-1906, 1889-10-26
ANcIsNT CIVILIZATION.
Men Then Were Jast as Keen and Active
rhey Are To .day.

Men Then Were Jast as Keen and Active
a. rhey Are To. day.
Modern man thinks himself hne
fellow. and habitually contrasts his
yirtures. wisdom. intellectually and
inventiveness with the corresponding
qualities possessed by his predecessors
OF every age. much TO the disadvantage
OF the latter. This conceit Is amlable
enough. IL has been held by every
generation OF the past II will gov
ern the men OF the future. who will re-
gard the people OF our era with pity as
inferior 10 their remarkable selves.
Many able writer's have bent their
energies 10 the puncturing OF this
balloon OF vanity. Wendell Phillips
famous lecture on s.rhe Lost Arts"
was given To thousands OF audi
ences. which marveled ut the
wonderful accomplishments OF men
OF ancient times. and departed
thanking Providence that they were
reserved to live and act In later ana
better times. Prof Max Mulier's last
contribution 10 the Fortnightly Re-
view goes over the same ground and
will probably have a similar vanishing
effect upon the minds Of all except
Few OF Its most thoughtful readers II
Is. however. worth while To study some
OF It's arguments. II only crudely 10 re-
alize that men made up of flesh and
blood are the same kind OF creatures
whenever and wherever they live. that
they went through the same struggles
for existence. had the same love Of
thought and inventive capacities, and
were actuated by the same passions In
the days OF the Pharaohs as In those
last years Of the dying nineteenth cent
ury.
Consider with Prof Muller that the
philosophy and poetry OF Greece aud
Rome still live In Milton, Racine aud
Goethe" You can seq that Frederic
Harrison Is as truly the intellectual
child of Aristotle as he admits himself
to be OF Augustc Compile. Remember
that the invention OF the alphabet was
greater triumph OF mind than tho dis
covery OF the opinning- jenny. and that
1t Is owed 10 the Egyptians. who first
produced hieroglyphics. Your L."
says Max Muller. lis the crouching
lion. your the cerastes. serpent
with two horns; your II 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 electro
cal sciences could never have become
what they are; that without witch wa
should never have had steam engines
, and electric telegraphs." Surely. the
nnciant Hindnn SOS. 49, =. sssa.-ss'
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. rhe Greek,
, conceived the idea OF coined none,
In the seventh century. B. C. The,
i, could not have been less practical o
4 less thoughtful than the men OF to-day
. The forms In which We express on
k thoughts, the very phrases we use, Ar
!. as old as the art Of expression itself
These tkings ought To be borne i
d mind whenever the men OF old are IN
n der discussion. They should eyok
new interest In our predecessors i
e activity. Above all. they should teac
q us that we must not uuderrate thos
II who have long since returned to dus,
e while we are enjoying the fruits q
u their industry. Living man Is bette
il than his prototype, because he ha
2 learned TO be little less sensual.
s little more seli-controled and greE
II deal less cruel; but he has the sam
/. head on his shoulders, filed with abou
!. the same kind of gray matter. -BDsto
"A | Gialn