Pre-Historic Nations: Or, Inquiries Concerning Some of the Great Peoples and Civilizations of Antiquity, and Their Probable Relation to a Still Older Civilization of the Ethiopians or Cushites of Arabia
By , A. M. New York: Harper and Brothers.
THREE or four years ago, when Stuart Mill and a few other authors happened to be caught simultaneously in the English Parliament, some ardent patriot attempted a census of literati in our own national councils. The result was a little discouraging. The list, as well as we remember, contained only the name of the Hon. John D. Baldwin of Worcester, Mass., who was reported as having “given to the world ” in early youth a small volume of poems.
The literary guild may well rejoice that the same delegate who thus stood for it during two Congressional terms now renews his allegiance. He signalizes his temporary withdrawal from public duties by printing another small volume, not of verse, but of prose ; and into this, with the remembrance of the “hour-rule” still upon him, he has packed the substance of many octavos. Would that every American author would subject himself to four years’ service in Congress, if, by so doing, he could learn to be brief!
Of literature in the English Parliament, as represented by Stuart Mill, “ we only know it came and went.” Nor is it easy to name in our House of Representatives a single man who has upon his conscience a literary effort more extended than a Reconstruction Bill. It is something even to trace the departing footsteps of a literary Congressman. At a time when most men on leaving the capital, still linger round the doorways of the departments in pursuit of some vice-consulship at Flores or Samana, it is something to find a man who will put up with nothing less than ancient Arabia and the pre-historic nations. It is a most dignified retirement. Instead of the Chiltern Hundreds, he accepts the Cushite Aeons.
Mr. Baldwin’s book is really one of uncommon research, though its; compact form and the absence of foot-notes may hide the fact from many a reader who would stand amazed before Nott and Gliddon, It has its defects ; but it is always straightforward, honorable, laborious, and thoroughly in earnest. The author has faithfully used his opportunities as chairman of the Congressional Library Committee on the part of the house. If he has actually caused to be imported for that great library one half of the rare books he mentions, he will deserve grateful remembrance in that remote, but possible epoch, when scholars shall choose Washington as a residence.
The author’s main zeal is for the Cushite race, for which he is as zealous as is Max Müller for the younger Aryan dynasty. He holds that the earliest civilization of which we have any trace, dating back to 7000 B. c. at the latest, was that commonly called the Ethiopic, but which really had its seat on the Arabian side of the Red Sea, and had no connection with over the way. Of this civilization, Egypt and Chaldea were but the children; it colonized the valleys of the Nile and Euphrates ; it occupied India, Western Asia, and extensive regions of Africa. Commerce, manufactures, and astronomy all reached a high development during that great epoch of colonization. It was a branch of this race which established what is now called the Age of Bronze in Western Europe, and which built the temples of Abury and Stonehenge. The Cushites taught the Northern nations the worship of Baal, whose midnight tires on midsummer eve are hardly yet extinguished in England, and have testified to that remote idolatry as surely as the lingering fifth of November fires on our Essex hills still keep alive the memory of Guy Fawkes.
Compared with this Cushite or Ethiopic civilization, that of “ our own proud Aryan race ” was but modern, proclaims Mr, Baldwin. The two currents were at last brought in contact in India, and the Brahmanical mythology betrays the admixture. The gods of Greece, he thinks, were mainly Cushite deities; but his heart evidently goes out more toward the elder branch of the family, who made their mark at Stonehenge ; and his indignation is high against those who find in Roman civilization the source of that of Modern Europe. He has his grievances too in Eastern Africa, where modern society has destroyed, even within a few centuries, more than it has created. When Vasco de Gama arrived at Mozambique in 1498, lie found there cities not inferior to those of Portugal, and “ many ships ” equal to his own, and provided with astrolabe and compass. All this civilization has now disappeared, almost as thoroughly as that of Carthage, which was itself a Cushite city of nearly a million inhabitants.
Mr. Baldwin’s main conclusions will probably be received with respect by scholars, allowing for some dissent as to his geographical theory. It is hard to surrender “ the holy Meroe ” without a struggle, or “ him who sleeps in Philae.” It is, moreover, so much more compact and comfortable to find the whole early history of the world on one river, that the æsthetic traveller will not wish to read this book as he ascends the Nile It has also the disadvantage of extreme condensation, not relieved by that peculiar freshness of style with which Max Muller takes us through everything. With this brevity comes also dogmatism, as many things have to be introduced with mere assertion, where there is not space for proof. Then the opinions of others have to be treated with equal brevity, which sometimes means bluntness; and a good many people are called “ absurd ” and “ preposterous ” without full statement of the evidence on which they are convicted. Yet when it conics to theorizing on scanty grounds, Mr. Baldwin is also open to temptation, and the style of argument by which he proves that the Phœnicians invented the mariners’ compass is such as he would handle pretty severely, if it came from the counsel for the other side.
For these and other reasons it is to be wished that the author would treat himself more liberally to ink and paper in his next edition, and give himself time to say all that he wishes. It is a rare compliment to a book which comprises the whole history of the world, when we say that it should be twice as long.