The Iola register., 1891-08-07
The HUMAN RACE.
tn eories Regarding It's Primitive Home
Was It In the Arctlo Rsziona?

'HSSs
Tn eoriss Regarding II. Primitive Home
Was 1t In the Arctic Regions?
Prof. A. S. Savce, in a paper which
has occasioned much consent, saws
the Baltimore Sun. abandons the posi-
tion that the primitive home of the
human race was in Asia. Apart from
the general belief in an Asiatic origin,
due to old theologic teaching, and the
effect of the discovery of Sauskrit, 1
can find" he says. 'oply two argu-
ments which have been supposed to be
of sufficient weight to determine the
choice OF Asia rather than of Europe
as the cradle of Iudo-European speech"
The first argument is philosophical
that the parent speech was spoken first
at no great distance from where the
hymns of the Rig Veda-the supposed
primitive root of the parent Language
were composed. Prof. Sayce gives
reasons why no student of language
would any longer employ this argu-
ment. The primacy. which
was once supposed to belong to Asia,
he says. has been taken from her."
Nor is the second-the historical rea-
son-more valid. There is no sound
proof that the Indo- European language
followed the migrations from the pla-
teau of Iran. There are many facts,
on the other hand. small in themselves,
but strong in their cumulative char
acter. which lcah us 10 believe that the
primitive home of The Aryan race was
not IN Asia. but in mort ern Europe.
This hypothesis. though weak in
philolog Cal support. haI all the coun-
tenance Of history. Scandinavia was
early known aS '1he manufactory of
nations" The voyages an settle
ments of the Morse vikings offer his
tOrical illustration of what the preiiis-
toric migrations of the speakers of the
Indo-European languages must have
been. The Kelts and Teutons of
Roman antiquity were Of the tall. fair
haired, blonde type. We find it scat
tered all over Europe and Asia in early
days. and lit is reasonable to suppose
that it was from southern Scandinavia,
the home of this race, that those bands
of hardy men originally emerged who
made their way southwark and west
ward, and even eastward-the Kelts
of G lila penetrating, like the Phry-
gians before them. into the heart of
Asia Minor. The Morse migrations of
later times were even more extensive,
and what the Morse vikings were able
to achieve could have been achieved by
their ancestor centuries before"
Perhaps, having reached Scandina-
via as the first home of the human
race. etymologists will soon 90 further
north and place the biblical Garden of
Eden at or near the north pole. There
are many excellent arguments in favor
of this view set forth by Hilton Scrib-
ner of New York in a monogram dedi-
Gated to Chauncey M. Depew. The
obstacle to this view has hitherto been
the almost general consent to placing
the first home of the race on the high
lands of Asia and the biblical idea of
the claims of the stretch of land lying
between the Euphrates and the Tigris.
Prof. Sayce, who is high authority,
removes one obstacle. and, after all.
the account in the bible is vague and
as to specific locality. MIR.
ScribDer's argument, therefore, be-
comes strong. Briefly stated it is that
the earth. at first molten mass,
slowly radiated heat in cooling. until
finally it became inhabitable. What
part of the earth's surface then nat
urally became the original seat of :
life? To find this we must subtract
from the heat lost in cooling the heat
received from the sun for a given
period. and the remainder will be the
sarth's actual or net loss of heat. As
he earth in process of cooling would
receive from the sun more heat at the
equator and less and less toward the
poles. the inference is inevitable that
he polar region was the first to reach
hat degree of temperature which
would support life. If this argument
s valid the polar regions must have
passed gradually through all the cli-
natic conditions from intense heat to
intense cold, and could at one time
lave supported all the forms of life,
nimal or vegetable. which are now or
yer have been upon the globe.
From the north pole. according to
ir. Scribner's theory. life was slowly
riven southwark, following the course
the valleys and rivers toward the
luator. and many prehistoric tropical
,rms either perished from the intense
old or in migration southwark during
return of the glacial period. If. as
rof. Sayce imagines, the human race
rst became known in Scandinavia, it
exactly the first habitable southwark
cint where, under Mr.. Scribner's
ypothesis. we might expect to find it.
5 to animals and plants, the possibil-
les of their migrating southwark,
here all the pathways were naturally
lsy, are infinitely greater than that
ley had crossed oceans. mountain
lains and rivers westward or east
ard. These theories-one English
nd the other American. but both lit
ng fairly well into each other-may
ot be scientifically accepted. but how
uch grander it would be to have the
rthplace of our rae, in tn once trop-
al. but now desnlate arctic solitude
IAN among the highlands of Asia or
4 the arih plains between the
uphrates AMI the 1igriS.
Prayers for Rain.