The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-07-19
FIRST CIVILIZATIONS.
Or. Chamberlain Discusses the Ideals Of
Babylon and India.

Dr. Chamberlain Discusses the Ideals o.
Babylon and India.
DR.. Chamberlain continued his talk
on First civilizations and theiI
IDEALS" taking up Babylon and India
He said in part: We begin today with
the civilization of the Babylonian re-
gion, which lasted not half as long as
that of Egypt. There was more of this
worldliness in the civilization ,oi
I Babylon than in Egypt.
A vast amount of evidence has been
unearthed that the civilization of Bah
ylon began before Egyptian civiliza-
ton At least 1000 years before our era
this region was a centre of civilization
of the highest type. This lasted until
about 1850 B. C. The most interesting
thing about the Babylonian civilization
was creation of toilers. There was a
more democratic life than in Egypt.
This civilization, as old as Egypt's, de-
| Veloped on entirely different lines. Pub
lie libraries were established, public
monuments were built At the very
beginning of human civilization there
were the two types of government that
we know now. The one in which the
people were not cared for and the other
in which things were done for the peo-
pie.
The character of the country of these
| two civilizations was much the same.
| In Babylon there was the same fiat
country, and they followed the Egyp-
tian idea Of building huge structures to
| initiate mountains. In Egypt the
| buildings were tombs, but in Babylon
| they were built for a utilitarian pur-
pose. We are to believe that 1000 B. C.
a civilization had risen on the banks of
the Euphrates, and even at this time it
had lasted long enough to develop
aesthetic tastes and to furnish a sufi-
GENTLY idle class to establish at least
one art school,
India's influence has been all out of
keeping with her territory. The inf1u-
ence extended to Greece, to Egypt; the
Persians were rechristened by them
Buddhism Is the religion of parts of ST.
IBERIA; 1t spread into Japan and the
| Philippine islands. 1t had touched the
people of the islands of the sea before
Egypt began to be felt
The Tagals of the Philippines, with
whom We are now struggling, had an
alphabet based on the script of India
centuries before the first white man
ever trod this part of Massachusetts.
| Now you can see all the steps of hui
man evolution there. You can see the
age of stone on one hand, and on the
other you can see the highest of Ameri-
can and English invention, and between
you can see all the steps from primitive
life to the highest civilization known.
The genius of India is personal. In
dia touched nothing that it did not
adorn. 1t never took anything they
initiated; they must stamp it with their
influence. All the attempts of mis-
s1onaries to Christianize India will fail
until the missionaries allow India to
make the faith to suit themselves The
English government have wisely rec
ognized this, and is allowing India to
make India. India represents the
personality of genius that placed its
stamp on everything that came with
in its reach.
The present people of this region are
as faithful representatives of the race
which knew that civilization as the ca
mel driver along the Nile today is a
dlrect counterpart of the Egyptian of
Pharaoh's time. Prof Cote saws that
in the stone representations of Baby
lon are the Oldest and most perfect re D.
resentatives of the race We know
that 1000 years B. C. they had a fully
organized city, municipal governments
they had their temples and palaces,
carved statues, vessels of one metal or
another; they had more than that, a
written language and a literature that
has made an impress on the civilization
today. They had organized armies; the
bow and spear and shield were far de-
veloped beyond sayagery. They knew
the difference between country and
city life.
After this we know that there came
in 1850 B. c., the Assyrians, a govern
ment founded on military despotism.
1t fed on and killed the civilization Of
Babylon. And it fell before Persia, and
with it fell Egypt.
The next civilization to inearnate it.
self was that of India. From the very
first the mind of India differed very
much from that of Egypt and Assyrla
| 1t was philosophical civilization
They made more faith than they built
| temples. They cut themselves off from
the great struggle that was going or
in the Aryan race.
! The story of the Aryan race in India
is the story of it's philosophical devei-
opment under the skies of India. The
Hindus who went to India were but a
small number compared with the peo-
| pie they found there.
The Indian word for caste means, II
is said, color. The people the Hindu
found there were not Aryan and the
mingling has had the effect of creating
an hierarchy of philosophy
Removed from the great country
where men warred on each other anG
/ on animals, the Hindu became largely
| if not entirely, a vegetarian. Once
having subdued those wild tribes the
Hindu never dreamed of a world OF
conquest, but devoted himself to the
conquest of the universe by the mine
of man.
We are to India gift, the value Of
which we can never estimate. Woman
was shut out from the religion Of the
temple as a priest; woman then TOOK
to the home, and in this part of The
world has the influence of the home
been greater. Woman gave rise t. the
nursery tale, to the folk lore, and it IL
to India that we are to trace that great
wave to story telling which covered
Europe That is the one great gift In.
dia has given the world, Perhaps .he
age of civilization in India has beer
exaggerated. Their civilization began
perhaps much later than those of which
we have spoken. In art one must say
the Aryans Of India were not equal tt
the Aryans of Greece. India gave tc
the world what only Greece and per-
haps the Semitic could give, two relig-
ions, Brhamanism and Buddhism
Brhamanism is about as far as possible
from Buddhism as it can get.
MIND ANO FAITH CURES.
| Their Truths and FaIsIties Broupht N