1. Geographically.Central Asia forms a natural centre for the diffusion of population over the Globe, as will appear from the following passages from an authority by whom Adelung's views have been adopted:6“Asia, exhibiting such characteristics in its outline, is no less remarkable for the form of its surface, on which the climate, and consequently the vegetation and animal kingdom, of its different parts must chiefly depend. In examining the other divisions of the globe, we find that Australia exhibits level and comparatively low countries without many high mountain-ranges, as far as we yet know. Africa is divided into two nearly equal parts, the southern of which forms an almost uniform table-land, whilst the northern, with the exception of the Atlas region, may be considered as a lowland. Europe contains plains of small extent lying between dispersed mountain-groups and ridges; but these plains are not confined to any particular parts. In America the highest land lies on one side, occupying its western coast from the extreme north to the south; it forms the most extensive system of mountain-chains on the globe, which inclose within their arms elevated plateaus, but of comparatively small extent.Asia exhibits different features. The whole mass of the interior continent rises to a considerable[pg xix]elevation above the sea, and this elevated mass, of which the high table-lands occupy by far the greatest extent, is not placed at one of the extremities of the whole mass, but occupies its centre.“From these table-lands, which occupy the centre of Asia, the surface descends in gradual and diversified terraces and slopes to the lowlands which surround them.”After stating that these table-lands consist of two terraces, (viz. an Eastern system, composed of Tibet and the Great Desert, called Gobi, and a Western terrace, including Iran or Persia,) which unite where the ranges of the Himalaya, Hindu-Kuh, Thsungling, and Belur Tagh meet, the same writer thus alludes to the regions which form the point of junction:“Such a juxta-position of all the great features which nature exhibits on the surface of the globe, on such a colossal scale, and in so limited a space, makes this one of the most remarkable spots on the face of our planet. This maximum of the contrasts of natural features, placed in the centre of the continent, is the principal characteristic which distinguishes Asia. By drawing a circle with a radius of a few hundred miles round this common centre, we comprehend in it the countries of Cashmere, Sogdiana, and Cabulistan, the ancient empires of Bactria, Delhi, and Samarcand, the cold table-lands of Tibet, of Khotan, and of Kashgar, up to the ancient Seres and Paropamisadæ.”Further, the same writer, after describing the immense variety of climate that occurs within this limited space, adds:“From the extremity of these table-lands, especially on thesouth-east and north-east, south-west and north-west, there issue several separate mountain-chains, not connected with one another, but which form more or less a part of the table-lands themselves.[pg xx]“The valleys, which are produced by this indentation on the borders of the table-lands, offer peculiar advantages for the progress of civilization.For, as we have already observed, the highland of Asia does not sink onone side only, but onall sidesand towards every point of the compass; it also sinks towardsdifferentoceans, which are separated from the highland by extensive plains, varying greatly in magnitude and form. This circumstance, added to the valleys formed by the indentations in the exterior margins of the highlands, has given rise to numerous and most extensiveriver systems, which, descending through the intervening terraces, direct their winding coursetowards the north, south, west, and east, and thus give tothe distant internal countries of this continent the advantage of an easy communication with the ocean.”2. The Climate and Natural productions of Cashmire and Tibet.Influenced solely by its high elevation, De Pauw, Zimmerman, and Pallas concluded that Central Asia must have been the birthplace of the human race. To this conclusion the rigorous climate of those parts of it which were best known to them appeared to present an insuperable objection. But as Adelung observes, those regions of Central Asia which border upon the Indus have been shown by the accounts of travellers to fulfil all the requisite conditions in this respect. Had these celebrated writers been possessed of the information these accounts contain, they might have discovered in Cashmire a suitable locality for the first abode of man, in Tibet a fitting school of discipline to prepare him for the various climes and countries he was destined to inhabit!Cashmire.Adelung's description of this enchanting country calls to mind in many of its features the“Happy Valley”in Rasselas![pg xxi]The faculties with which man has been endowed enable him to contend with the most unfavorable climes: but not until these faculties have been ripened by Time and experience! At his first creation he required an abode where nature's free bounty would supply all his wants; in fine he needed, with reference even to his mere physical necessities, a Paradise! To this appellation no country in Asia can assert a better claim than the lovely land of Cashmire, which is, in fact, a mere Valley, separated by inaccessible mountains from India, Persia, and Tibet! Owing to its high elevation, the heat of the South is tempered into a perpetual Spring, and nature here puts forth all her powers to bring all her works, Plants, Animals, and Man, to the highest state of perfection! Cashmire is a region of fruitful hills, countless fountains and streams, which unite in the River Behut, that, like the Pison of Paradise,“compasseth the whole land!”Bernier found here all Asiatic and European fruits in perfection. The Pisang, undoubtedly the same tree as the fig tree of the Book of Genesis,7grows no where so large or so beautiful as in Cashmire!Even the men of this country are distinguished among Asiatics by superior natural endowments, mental and physical. They have none of the Tartar physiognomy, but exhibit the finest features of the European race; while in genius and intelligence they surpass most other Oriental nations! Cashmire was at one time governed by kings of its own; it was afterwards subject to the Moguls of India, who ruled it with gentleness on account of its beauty! On their downfall it fell under the sway of the rude Affghans.Tibet.This contiguous country unites within itself the temperatures and products of the most opposite of those[pg xxii]climes in which man was intended to dwell, combining mountains crowned with perpetual snow and icebergs, with valleys in which never-ending Summer blooms. Tibet also presents, in a native or indigenous state, the various Plants and Animals which have been domesticated by Man! Here are found in a wild state the Vine, the Rice-plant, the Pea, the Ox, the Horse, the Ass, the Sheep, the Goat, the Camel, the Pig, the Cat, and even the Reindeer,“his only friend and companion in the polar wastes.”83. The Scriptural and Indian Accounts.It is extremely remarkable that the Indian accounts, of which the antiquity is believed to be equal to that of the Scriptural narrative, (see p.132,) actually fix the first abode of Man on Mount Meru, on the borders of Tibet and Cashmire! Blended though they are with fable, it is impossible to see how we can refuse to attach some weight to these venerable remains, harmonising, so completely as they do, with the conclusions formed on other grounds by some of the greatest men of modern times, as regards the date and the locality of the first introduction of our species; for if, on the one hand, the received date of the origin of the human race be authentic according to the views of Cuvier, and if, on the other, the date of the Indian Vedas be such as accords with the opinions of Sir William Jones and other eminent authorities, the intervening period must have been too brief to efface a traditionary reminiscence of the early history of our species, (see p.132.) The correspondence of the Indian with the Scriptural narrative is in many features very extraordinary. We have a similar account of the creation of the world, of the early history of man, of a primitive state of virtue and[pg xxiii]happiness, of the fall of man, of a tree of life and death.9We have also a Serpent that poisons the water, which is the source of life!Adelung notices a feature in which the locality fixed upon as the birthplace of man by the Indian traditions corresponds with the Paradise of Scripture. From Mount Meru spring four Rivers, the Ganges, the Buramputur, the Indus, and another stream that flows into Tibet.“Now Michaelis,”he observes,“translates Genesis, ii. 10,‘Four rivers flowed out of Eden, and theyseparated continually more and more widely from each other!’”Cashmire is considered by the Hindoos in the light of a Holy Land, the cradle of their race, their civilization, and their religion!The Scriptural narrative, in describing the Creation of our species, does not define the first abode of man any further than by fixing it in“the East,”(Genesis, ii. 8,) an expression corroborative, as Adelung observes, of the Indian traditions, for in the time of Moses this expression was applicable to the regions of the Indus. On the other hand, the common interpretation of Genesis, viii. 4, which assumes that Ararat in Armenia was the centre of diffusion of population after the Flood, is irreconcilable with those accounts, this locality being not to the East but to the North of all the Syro-Phœnician or Scriptural regions. But according to Bohlen,10the impression that Ararat in this verse means the mountain of that name in Armenia, which is inaccessible, crowned with perpetual snow,11andanciently had a different name, is erroneous. Ararat, he observes, does not mean a mountain but a country in this verse and elsewhere in Scripture. Thus the sons of[pg xxiv]Sennacherib escaped into the land of Ararat, (II. Kings, xix. 37,) and the Prophet Jeremiah calls upon the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashchenaz to rise up together with the Medes against Babylon, (Jerem. li, 27-8) Ararat in these passages, it may be suggested, may naturally be interpreted to apply generally to the kingdoms and regions of the unexplored12table-land of Central Asia, which commences on the Persian borders, immediately to the East of Assyria. Moreover the supposition that the Ararat of Scripture was in Armenia may be regarded as irreconcilable with another important passage, Gen., xi. 2, which distinctly implies that the emigrants who reached the plain of Shinar, and who, it may be inferred, were the first colonists of South Western Asia, had journeyed thither from some region far to the“East”of all the Semetic countries, of which Shinar or Mesopotamia forms the Eastern border!It is remarkable that the expressions of this passage—“And it came to pass, as they journeyed fromthe East, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there”—harmonise in the most perfect manner not only with the Indian remains, but also with the passages first referred to from the Scriptural narrative itself with respect to the first abode of the human race, for it will be seen by the map that 1, Cashmire lies ina direct lineto“the East”of Shinar or Mesopotamia! 2, The whole intervening territory is occupied by the Central-Asiatic table-land of Persia or Iran, which, as previously noticed, forms onecontinual descentfrom its highest elevation on the borders of Cashmire to its termination near the plain of Shinar! Ar-ar-at may reasonably be inferred to be nothing else than a term commonly applied in the East to“a country of lofty mountains,”(see p.83,) an expression highly appropriate to the Persian table-land[pg xxv]both at its centre, and at its junction with the Semetic regions, near the banks of the Tigris and the Euphrates! (See Ritter.)4. Physiognomy.As before observed, in these regions are found in juxtaposition nations which exhibit the very opposite Physiological characteristics of the Mongol and Western Asiatic races. The people of Tibet display the former, those of Cashmire the latter.5. Philology.Here the Monosyllabic and Polysyllabic languages branch off from a common centre. The former begin in Tibet, the latter in Cashmire.The Monosyllabic languages which prevail in Tibet, China, Ava, Pegu, Siam, Tonquin, and Cochin China, countries which contain a population of 180 millions, betray all the rudeness of human speech in its infancy. They have no compound words and no grammar.“The same sound,”says Adelung,“which meansJoy, means alsoJoyfulandTo rejoicethrough all persons, numbers, and tenses!”“They form their plural like a child, either by repetition, as‘Tree-tree’(i.e.‘Trees’), or by means of an additional word, as‘Tree-many! Tree-other!’When the great grown-up child is heard stammering‘Be Heaven, I Other,13Father which,’who but another child like him can guess that this means‘Our Father which art in Heaven!’”The imperfection of the Monosyllabic languages does not arise solely from their consisting of Monosyllables, but from the want of the more refined grammatical forms which are found in all other Tongues, even those of the wildest American Tribes. No nation, however uncivilized, that had once acquired[pg xxvi]a knowledge of these would ever fall back“to the speech of childhood!”Hence Adelung infers that the Chinese, &c. must have been completely separated at an early period from the other races of men. But it will be asked, Why is it that the Chinese have remained stationary in this respect, while nations far inferior to them in every other point of view have surpassed them in this one instance? There is, I conceive, no other mode of solving this problem than by regarding these opposite results in the light of vestiges, belonging to an early stage of society, of the same variableness and inequality in the efforts of the human mind, which are observable in the inventions of modern times! That this question admits of no other solution will be manifest from Chapter VI, in which it is shown that the Chinese is not fundamentally different from the tongues of Europe and Western Asia, but thesame language in a different stage of its growth!6. The Astronomical Theory of Bailly.Bailly's theory is that the various nations of the ancient world were descendants of emigrants from a primæval community superior to them in knowledge and civilization, of which he places the locality in Central Asia. His views are founded on the fact that there existed a knowledge of the results of some of the most recondite Scientific principles among the Persians, Chaldeans, &c., (nations who were certainly unacquainted with the principles themselves,) as, for example, of the moon's course, of the Solar year, of the Zodiac, of the Planets, of the retrogression of the fixed Stars &c. Some of Bailly's opinions have been impugned in Cuvier's Theory of the Earth.
1. Geographically.Central Asia forms a natural centre for the diffusion of population over the Globe, as will appear from the following passages from an authority by whom Adelung's views have been adopted:6“Asia, exhibiting such characteristics in its outline, is no less remarkable for the form of its surface, on which the climate, and consequently the vegetation and animal kingdom, of its different parts must chiefly depend. In examining the other divisions of the globe, we find that Australia exhibits level and comparatively low countries without many high mountain-ranges, as far as we yet know. Africa is divided into two nearly equal parts, the southern of which forms an almost uniform table-land, whilst the northern, with the exception of the Atlas region, may be considered as a lowland. Europe contains plains of small extent lying between dispersed mountain-groups and ridges; but these plains are not confined to any particular parts. In America the highest land lies on one side, occupying its western coast from the extreme north to the south; it forms the most extensive system of mountain-chains on the globe, which inclose within their arms elevated plateaus, but of comparatively small extent.Asia exhibits different features. The whole mass of the interior continent rises to a considerable[pg xix]elevation above the sea, and this elevated mass, of which the high table-lands occupy by far the greatest extent, is not placed at one of the extremities of the whole mass, but occupies its centre.“From these table-lands, which occupy the centre of Asia, the surface descends in gradual and diversified terraces and slopes to the lowlands which surround them.”After stating that these table-lands consist of two terraces, (viz. an Eastern system, composed of Tibet and the Great Desert, called Gobi, and a Western terrace, including Iran or Persia,) which unite where the ranges of the Himalaya, Hindu-Kuh, Thsungling, and Belur Tagh meet, the same writer thus alludes to the regions which form the point of junction:“Such a juxta-position of all the great features which nature exhibits on the surface of the globe, on such a colossal scale, and in so limited a space, makes this one of the most remarkable spots on the face of our planet. This maximum of the contrasts of natural features, placed in the centre of the continent, is the principal characteristic which distinguishes Asia. By drawing a circle with a radius of a few hundred miles round this common centre, we comprehend in it the countries of Cashmere, Sogdiana, and Cabulistan, the ancient empires of Bactria, Delhi, and Samarcand, the cold table-lands of Tibet, of Khotan, and of Kashgar, up to the ancient Seres and Paropamisadæ.”Further, the same writer, after describing the immense variety of climate that occurs within this limited space, adds:“From the extremity of these table-lands, especially on thesouth-east and north-east, south-west and north-west, there issue several separate mountain-chains, not connected with one another, but which form more or less a part of the table-lands themselves.[pg xx]“The valleys, which are produced by this indentation on the borders of the table-lands, offer peculiar advantages for the progress of civilization.For, as we have already observed, the highland of Asia does not sink onone side only, but onall sidesand towards every point of the compass; it also sinks towardsdifferentoceans, which are separated from the highland by extensive plains, varying greatly in magnitude and form. This circumstance, added to the valleys formed by the indentations in the exterior margins of the highlands, has given rise to numerous and most extensiveriver systems, which, descending through the intervening terraces, direct their winding coursetowards the north, south, west, and east, and thus give tothe distant internal countries of this continent the advantage of an easy communication with the ocean.”2. The Climate and Natural productions of Cashmire and Tibet.Influenced solely by its high elevation, De Pauw, Zimmerman, and Pallas concluded that Central Asia must have been the birthplace of the human race. To this conclusion the rigorous climate of those parts of it which were best known to them appeared to present an insuperable objection. But as Adelung observes, those regions of Central Asia which border upon the Indus have been shown by the accounts of travellers to fulfil all the requisite conditions in this respect. Had these celebrated writers been possessed of the information these accounts contain, they might have discovered in Cashmire a suitable locality for the first abode of man, in Tibet a fitting school of discipline to prepare him for the various climes and countries he was destined to inhabit!Cashmire.Adelung's description of this enchanting country calls to mind in many of its features the“Happy Valley”in Rasselas![pg xxi]The faculties with which man has been endowed enable him to contend with the most unfavorable climes: but not until these faculties have been ripened by Time and experience! At his first creation he required an abode where nature's free bounty would supply all his wants; in fine he needed, with reference even to his mere physical necessities, a Paradise! To this appellation no country in Asia can assert a better claim than the lovely land of Cashmire, which is, in fact, a mere Valley, separated by inaccessible mountains from India, Persia, and Tibet! Owing to its high elevation, the heat of the South is tempered into a perpetual Spring, and nature here puts forth all her powers to bring all her works, Plants, Animals, and Man, to the highest state of perfection! Cashmire is a region of fruitful hills, countless fountains and streams, which unite in the River Behut, that, like the Pison of Paradise,“compasseth the whole land!”Bernier found here all Asiatic and European fruits in perfection. The Pisang, undoubtedly the same tree as the fig tree of the Book of Genesis,7grows no where so large or so beautiful as in Cashmire!Even the men of this country are distinguished among Asiatics by superior natural endowments, mental and physical. They have none of the Tartar physiognomy, but exhibit the finest features of the European race; while in genius and intelligence they surpass most other Oriental nations! Cashmire was at one time governed by kings of its own; it was afterwards subject to the Moguls of India, who ruled it with gentleness on account of its beauty! On their downfall it fell under the sway of the rude Affghans.Tibet.This contiguous country unites within itself the temperatures and products of the most opposite of those[pg xxii]climes in which man was intended to dwell, combining mountains crowned with perpetual snow and icebergs, with valleys in which never-ending Summer blooms. Tibet also presents, in a native or indigenous state, the various Plants and Animals which have been domesticated by Man! Here are found in a wild state the Vine, the Rice-plant, the Pea, the Ox, the Horse, the Ass, the Sheep, the Goat, the Camel, the Pig, the Cat, and even the Reindeer,“his only friend and companion in the polar wastes.”83. The Scriptural and Indian Accounts.It is extremely remarkable that the Indian accounts, of which the antiquity is believed to be equal to that of the Scriptural narrative, (see p.132,) actually fix the first abode of Man on Mount Meru, on the borders of Tibet and Cashmire! Blended though they are with fable, it is impossible to see how we can refuse to attach some weight to these venerable remains, harmonising, so completely as they do, with the conclusions formed on other grounds by some of the greatest men of modern times, as regards the date and the locality of the first introduction of our species; for if, on the one hand, the received date of the origin of the human race be authentic according to the views of Cuvier, and if, on the other, the date of the Indian Vedas be such as accords with the opinions of Sir William Jones and other eminent authorities, the intervening period must have been too brief to efface a traditionary reminiscence of the early history of our species, (see p.132.) The correspondence of the Indian with the Scriptural narrative is in many features very extraordinary. We have a similar account of the creation of the world, of the early history of man, of a primitive state of virtue and[pg xxiii]happiness, of the fall of man, of a tree of life and death.9We have also a Serpent that poisons the water, which is the source of life!Adelung notices a feature in which the locality fixed upon as the birthplace of man by the Indian traditions corresponds with the Paradise of Scripture. From Mount Meru spring four Rivers, the Ganges, the Buramputur, the Indus, and another stream that flows into Tibet.“Now Michaelis,”he observes,“translates Genesis, ii. 10,‘Four rivers flowed out of Eden, and theyseparated continually more and more widely from each other!’”Cashmire is considered by the Hindoos in the light of a Holy Land, the cradle of their race, their civilization, and their religion!The Scriptural narrative, in describing the Creation of our species, does not define the first abode of man any further than by fixing it in“the East,”(Genesis, ii. 8,) an expression corroborative, as Adelung observes, of the Indian traditions, for in the time of Moses this expression was applicable to the regions of the Indus. On the other hand, the common interpretation of Genesis, viii. 4, which assumes that Ararat in Armenia was the centre of diffusion of population after the Flood, is irreconcilable with those accounts, this locality being not to the East but to the North of all the Syro-Phœnician or Scriptural regions. But according to Bohlen,10the impression that Ararat in this verse means the mountain of that name in Armenia, which is inaccessible, crowned with perpetual snow,11andanciently had a different name, is erroneous. Ararat, he observes, does not mean a mountain but a country in this verse and elsewhere in Scripture. Thus the sons of[pg xxiv]Sennacherib escaped into the land of Ararat, (II. Kings, xix. 37,) and the Prophet Jeremiah calls upon the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashchenaz to rise up together with the Medes against Babylon, (Jerem. li, 27-8) Ararat in these passages, it may be suggested, may naturally be interpreted to apply generally to the kingdoms and regions of the unexplored12table-land of Central Asia, which commences on the Persian borders, immediately to the East of Assyria. Moreover the supposition that the Ararat of Scripture was in Armenia may be regarded as irreconcilable with another important passage, Gen., xi. 2, which distinctly implies that the emigrants who reached the plain of Shinar, and who, it may be inferred, were the first colonists of South Western Asia, had journeyed thither from some region far to the“East”of all the Semetic countries, of which Shinar or Mesopotamia forms the Eastern border!It is remarkable that the expressions of this passage—“And it came to pass, as they journeyed fromthe East, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there”—harmonise in the most perfect manner not only with the Indian remains, but also with the passages first referred to from the Scriptural narrative itself with respect to the first abode of the human race, for it will be seen by the map that 1, Cashmire lies ina direct lineto“the East”of Shinar or Mesopotamia! 2, The whole intervening territory is occupied by the Central-Asiatic table-land of Persia or Iran, which, as previously noticed, forms onecontinual descentfrom its highest elevation on the borders of Cashmire to its termination near the plain of Shinar! Ar-ar-at may reasonably be inferred to be nothing else than a term commonly applied in the East to“a country of lofty mountains,”(see p.83,) an expression highly appropriate to the Persian table-land[pg xxv]both at its centre, and at its junction with the Semetic regions, near the banks of the Tigris and the Euphrates! (See Ritter.)4. Physiognomy.As before observed, in these regions are found in juxtaposition nations which exhibit the very opposite Physiological characteristics of the Mongol and Western Asiatic races. The people of Tibet display the former, those of Cashmire the latter.5. Philology.Here the Monosyllabic and Polysyllabic languages branch off from a common centre. The former begin in Tibet, the latter in Cashmire.The Monosyllabic languages which prevail in Tibet, China, Ava, Pegu, Siam, Tonquin, and Cochin China, countries which contain a population of 180 millions, betray all the rudeness of human speech in its infancy. They have no compound words and no grammar.“The same sound,”says Adelung,“which meansJoy, means alsoJoyfulandTo rejoicethrough all persons, numbers, and tenses!”“They form their plural like a child, either by repetition, as‘Tree-tree’(i.e.‘Trees’), or by means of an additional word, as‘Tree-many! Tree-other!’When the great grown-up child is heard stammering‘Be Heaven, I Other,13Father which,’who but another child like him can guess that this means‘Our Father which art in Heaven!’”The imperfection of the Monosyllabic languages does not arise solely from their consisting of Monosyllables, but from the want of the more refined grammatical forms which are found in all other Tongues, even those of the wildest American Tribes. No nation, however uncivilized, that had once acquired[pg xxvi]a knowledge of these would ever fall back“to the speech of childhood!”Hence Adelung infers that the Chinese, &c. must have been completely separated at an early period from the other races of men. But it will be asked, Why is it that the Chinese have remained stationary in this respect, while nations far inferior to them in every other point of view have surpassed them in this one instance? There is, I conceive, no other mode of solving this problem than by regarding these opposite results in the light of vestiges, belonging to an early stage of society, of the same variableness and inequality in the efforts of the human mind, which are observable in the inventions of modern times! That this question admits of no other solution will be manifest from Chapter VI, in which it is shown that the Chinese is not fundamentally different from the tongues of Europe and Western Asia, but thesame language in a different stage of its growth!6. The Astronomical Theory of Bailly.Bailly's theory is that the various nations of the ancient world were descendants of emigrants from a primæval community superior to them in knowledge and civilization, of which he places the locality in Central Asia. His views are founded on the fact that there existed a knowledge of the results of some of the most recondite Scientific principles among the Persians, Chaldeans, &c., (nations who were certainly unacquainted with the principles themselves,) as, for example, of the moon's course, of the Solar year, of the Zodiac, of the Planets, of the retrogression of the fixed Stars &c. Some of Bailly's opinions have been impugned in Cuvier's Theory of the Earth.
1. Geographically.Central Asia forms a natural centre for the diffusion of population over the Globe, as will appear from the following passages from an authority by whom Adelung's views have been adopted:6“Asia, exhibiting such characteristics in its outline, is no less remarkable for the form of its surface, on which the climate, and consequently the vegetation and animal kingdom, of its different parts must chiefly depend. In examining the other divisions of the globe, we find that Australia exhibits level and comparatively low countries without many high mountain-ranges, as far as we yet know. Africa is divided into two nearly equal parts, the southern of which forms an almost uniform table-land, whilst the northern, with the exception of the Atlas region, may be considered as a lowland. Europe contains plains of small extent lying between dispersed mountain-groups and ridges; but these plains are not confined to any particular parts. In America the highest land lies on one side, occupying its western coast from the extreme north to the south; it forms the most extensive system of mountain-chains on the globe, which inclose within their arms elevated plateaus, but of comparatively small extent.Asia exhibits different features. The whole mass of the interior continent rises to a considerable[pg xix]elevation above the sea, and this elevated mass, of which the high table-lands occupy by far the greatest extent, is not placed at one of the extremities of the whole mass, but occupies its centre.“From these table-lands, which occupy the centre of Asia, the surface descends in gradual and diversified terraces and slopes to the lowlands which surround them.”After stating that these table-lands consist of two terraces, (viz. an Eastern system, composed of Tibet and the Great Desert, called Gobi, and a Western terrace, including Iran or Persia,) which unite where the ranges of the Himalaya, Hindu-Kuh, Thsungling, and Belur Tagh meet, the same writer thus alludes to the regions which form the point of junction:“Such a juxta-position of all the great features which nature exhibits on the surface of the globe, on such a colossal scale, and in so limited a space, makes this one of the most remarkable spots on the face of our planet. This maximum of the contrasts of natural features, placed in the centre of the continent, is the principal characteristic which distinguishes Asia. By drawing a circle with a radius of a few hundred miles round this common centre, we comprehend in it the countries of Cashmere, Sogdiana, and Cabulistan, the ancient empires of Bactria, Delhi, and Samarcand, the cold table-lands of Tibet, of Khotan, and of Kashgar, up to the ancient Seres and Paropamisadæ.”Further, the same writer, after describing the immense variety of climate that occurs within this limited space, adds:“From the extremity of these table-lands, especially on thesouth-east and north-east, south-west and north-west, there issue several separate mountain-chains, not connected with one another, but which form more or less a part of the table-lands themselves.[pg xx]“The valleys, which are produced by this indentation on the borders of the table-lands, offer peculiar advantages for the progress of civilization.For, as we have already observed, the highland of Asia does not sink onone side only, but onall sidesand towards every point of the compass; it also sinks towardsdifferentoceans, which are separated from the highland by extensive plains, varying greatly in magnitude and form. This circumstance, added to the valleys formed by the indentations in the exterior margins of the highlands, has given rise to numerous and most extensiveriver systems, which, descending through the intervening terraces, direct their winding coursetowards the north, south, west, and east, and thus give tothe distant internal countries of this continent the advantage of an easy communication with the ocean.”2. The Climate and Natural productions of Cashmire and Tibet.Influenced solely by its high elevation, De Pauw, Zimmerman, and Pallas concluded that Central Asia must have been the birthplace of the human race. To this conclusion the rigorous climate of those parts of it which were best known to them appeared to present an insuperable objection. But as Adelung observes, those regions of Central Asia which border upon the Indus have been shown by the accounts of travellers to fulfil all the requisite conditions in this respect. Had these celebrated writers been possessed of the information these accounts contain, they might have discovered in Cashmire a suitable locality for the first abode of man, in Tibet a fitting school of discipline to prepare him for the various climes and countries he was destined to inhabit!Cashmire.Adelung's description of this enchanting country calls to mind in many of its features the“Happy Valley”in Rasselas![pg xxi]The faculties with which man has been endowed enable him to contend with the most unfavorable climes: but not until these faculties have been ripened by Time and experience! At his first creation he required an abode where nature's free bounty would supply all his wants; in fine he needed, with reference even to his mere physical necessities, a Paradise! To this appellation no country in Asia can assert a better claim than the lovely land of Cashmire, which is, in fact, a mere Valley, separated by inaccessible mountains from India, Persia, and Tibet! Owing to its high elevation, the heat of the South is tempered into a perpetual Spring, and nature here puts forth all her powers to bring all her works, Plants, Animals, and Man, to the highest state of perfection! Cashmire is a region of fruitful hills, countless fountains and streams, which unite in the River Behut, that, like the Pison of Paradise,“compasseth the whole land!”Bernier found here all Asiatic and European fruits in perfection. The Pisang, undoubtedly the same tree as the fig tree of the Book of Genesis,7grows no where so large or so beautiful as in Cashmire!Even the men of this country are distinguished among Asiatics by superior natural endowments, mental and physical. They have none of the Tartar physiognomy, but exhibit the finest features of the European race; while in genius and intelligence they surpass most other Oriental nations! Cashmire was at one time governed by kings of its own; it was afterwards subject to the Moguls of India, who ruled it with gentleness on account of its beauty! On their downfall it fell under the sway of the rude Affghans.Tibet.This contiguous country unites within itself the temperatures and products of the most opposite of those[pg xxii]climes in which man was intended to dwell, combining mountains crowned with perpetual snow and icebergs, with valleys in which never-ending Summer blooms. Tibet also presents, in a native or indigenous state, the various Plants and Animals which have been domesticated by Man! Here are found in a wild state the Vine, the Rice-plant, the Pea, the Ox, the Horse, the Ass, the Sheep, the Goat, the Camel, the Pig, the Cat, and even the Reindeer,“his only friend and companion in the polar wastes.”83. The Scriptural and Indian Accounts.It is extremely remarkable that the Indian accounts, of which the antiquity is believed to be equal to that of the Scriptural narrative, (see p.132,) actually fix the first abode of Man on Mount Meru, on the borders of Tibet and Cashmire! Blended though they are with fable, it is impossible to see how we can refuse to attach some weight to these venerable remains, harmonising, so completely as they do, with the conclusions formed on other grounds by some of the greatest men of modern times, as regards the date and the locality of the first introduction of our species; for if, on the one hand, the received date of the origin of the human race be authentic according to the views of Cuvier, and if, on the other, the date of the Indian Vedas be such as accords with the opinions of Sir William Jones and other eminent authorities, the intervening period must have been too brief to efface a traditionary reminiscence of the early history of our species, (see p.132.) The correspondence of the Indian with the Scriptural narrative is in many features very extraordinary. We have a similar account of the creation of the world, of the early history of man, of a primitive state of virtue and[pg xxiii]happiness, of the fall of man, of a tree of life and death.9We have also a Serpent that poisons the water, which is the source of life!Adelung notices a feature in which the locality fixed upon as the birthplace of man by the Indian traditions corresponds with the Paradise of Scripture. From Mount Meru spring four Rivers, the Ganges, the Buramputur, the Indus, and another stream that flows into Tibet.“Now Michaelis,”he observes,“translates Genesis, ii. 10,‘Four rivers flowed out of Eden, and theyseparated continually more and more widely from each other!’”Cashmire is considered by the Hindoos in the light of a Holy Land, the cradle of their race, their civilization, and their religion!The Scriptural narrative, in describing the Creation of our species, does not define the first abode of man any further than by fixing it in“the East,”(Genesis, ii. 8,) an expression corroborative, as Adelung observes, of the Indian traditions, for in the time of Moses this expression was applicable to the regions of the Indus. On the other hand, the common interpretation of Genesis, viii. 4, which assumes that Ararat in Armenia was the centre of diffusion of population after the Flood, is irreconcilable with those accounts, this locality being not to the East but to the North of all the Syro-Phœnician or Scriptural regions. But according to Bohlen,10the impression that Ararat in this verse means the mountain of that name in Armenia, which is inaccessible, crowned with perpetual snow,11andanciently had a different name, is erroneous. Ararat, he observes, does not mean a mountain but a country in this verse and elsewhere in Scripture. Thus the sons of[pg xxiv]Sennacherib escaped into the land of Ararat, (II. Kings, xix. 37,) and the Prophet Jeremiah calls upon the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashchenaz to rise up together with the Medes against Babylon, (Jerem. li, 27-8) Ararat in these passages, it may be suggested, may naturally be interpreted to apply generally to the kingdoms and regions of the unexplored12table-land of Central Asia, which commences on the Persian borders, immediately to the East of Assyria. Moreover the supposition that the Ararat of Scripture was in Armenia may be regarded as irreconcilable with another important passage, Gen., xi. 2, which distinctly implies that the emigrants who reached the plain of Shinar, and who, it may be inferred, were the first colonists of South Western Asia, had journeyed thither from some region far to the“East”of all the Semetic countries, of which Shinar or Mesopotamia forms the Eastern border!It is remarkable that the expressions of this passage—“And it came to pass, as they journeyed fromthe East, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there”—harmonise in the most perfect manner not only with the Indian remains, but also with the passages first referred to from the Scriptural narrative itself with respect to the first abode of the human race, for it will be seen by the map that 1, Cashmire lies ina direct lineto“the East”of Shinar or Mesopotamia! 2, The whole intervening territory is occupied by the Central-Asiatic table-land of Persia or Iran, which, as previously noticed, forms onecontinual descentfrom its highest elevation on the borders of Cashmire to its termination near the plain of Shinar! Ar-ar-at may reasonably be inferred to be nothing else than a term commonly applied in the East to“a country of lofty mountains,”(see p.83,) an expression highly appropriate to the Persian table-land[pg xxv]both at its centre, and at its junction with the Semetic regions, near the banks of the Tigris and the Euphrates! (See Ritter.)4. Physiognomy.As before observed, in these regions are found in juxtaposition nations which exhibit the very opposite Physiological characteristics of the Mongol and Western Asiatic races. The people of Tibet display the former, those of Cashmire the latter.5. Philology.Here the Monosyllabic and Polysyllabic languages branch off from a common centre. The former begin in Tibet, the latter in Cashmire.The Monosyllabic languages which prevail in Tibet, China, Ava, Pegu, Siam, Tonquin, and Cochin China, countries which contain a population of 180 millions, betray all the rudeness of human speech in its infancy. They have no compound words and no grammar.“The same sound,”says Adelung,“which meansJoy, means alsoJoyfulandTo rejoicethrough all persons, numbers, and tenses!”“They form their plural like a child, either by repetition, as‘Tree-tree’(i.e.‘Trees’), or by means of an additional word, as‘Tree-many! Tree-other!’When the great grown-up child is heard stammering‘Be Heaven, I Other,13Father which,’who but another child like him can guess that this means‘Our Father which art in Heaven!’”The imperfection of the Monosyllabic languages does not arise solely from their consisting of Monosyllables, but from the want of the more refined grammatical forms which are found in all other Tongues, even those of the wildest American Tribes. No nation, however uncivilized, that had once acquired[pg xxvi]a knowledge of these would ever fall back“to the speech of childhood!”Hence Adelung infers that the Chinese, &c. must have been completely separated at an early period from the other races of men. But it will be asked, Why is it that the Chinese have remained stationary in this respect, while nations far inferior to them in every other point of view have surpassed them in this one instance? There is, I conceive, no other mode of solving this problem than by regarding these opposite results in the light of vestiges, belonging to an early stage of society, of the same variableness and inequality in the efforts of the human mind, which are observable in the inventions of modern times! That this question admits of no other solution will be manifest from Chapter VI, in which it is shown that the Chinese is not fundamentally different from the tongues of Europe and Western Asia, but thesame language in a different stage of its growth!6. The Astronomical Theory of Bailly.Bailly's theory is that the various nations of the ancient world were descendants of emigrants from a primæval community superior to them in knowledge and civilization, of which he places the locality in Central Asia. His views are founded on the fact that there existed a knowledge of the results of some of the most recondite Scientific principles among the Persians, Chaldeans, &c., (nations who were certainly unacquainted with the principles themselves,) as, for example, of the moon's course, of the Solar year, of the Zodiac, of the Planets, of the retrogression of the fixed Stars &c. Some of Bailly's opinions have been impugned in Cuvier's Theory of the Earth.
1. Geographically.Central Asia forms a natural centre for the diffusion of population over the Globe, as will appear from the following passages from an authority by whom Adelung's views have been adopted:6“Asia, exhibiting such characteristics in its outline, is no less remarkable for the form of its surface, on which the climate, and consequently the vegetation and animal kingdom, of its different parts must chiefly depend. In examining the other divisions of the globe, we find that Australia exhibits level and comparatively low countries without many high mountain-ranges, as far as we yet know. Africa is divided into two nearly equal parts, the southern of which forms an almost uniform table-land, whilst the northern, with the exception of the Atlas region, may be considered as a lowland. Europe contains plains of small extent lying between dispersed mountain-groups and ridges; but these plains are not confined to any particular parts. In America the highest land lies on one side, occupying its western coast from the extreme north to the south; it forms the most extensive system of mountain-chains on the globe, which inclose within their arms elevated plateaus, but of comparatively small extent.Asia exhibits different features. The whole mass of the interior continent rises to a considerable[pg xix]elevation above the sea, and this elevated mass, of which the high table-lands occupy by far the greatest extent, is not placed at one of the extremities of the whole mass, but occupies its centre.“From these table-lands, which occupy the centre of Asia, the surface descends in gradual and diversified terraces and slopes to the lowlands which surround them.”After stating that these table-lands consist of two terraces, (viz. an Eastern system, composed of Tibet and the Great Desert, called Gobi, and a Western terrace, including Iran or Persia,) which unite where the ranges of the Himalaya, Hindu-Kuh, Thsungling, and Belur Tagh meet, the same writer thus alludes to the regions which form the point of junction:“Such a juxta-position of all the great features which nature exhibits on the surface of the globe, on such a colossal scale, and in so limited a space, makes this one of the most remarkable spots on the face of our planet. This maximum of the contrasts of natural features, placed in the centre of the continent, is the principal characteristic which distinguishes Asia. By drawing a circle with a radius of a few hundred miles round this common centre, we comprehend in it the countries of Cashmere, Sogdiana, and Cabulistan, the ancient empires of Bactria, Delhi, and Samarcand, the cold table-lands of Tibet, of Khotan, and of Kashgar, up to the ancient Seres and Paropamisadæ.”Further, the same writer, after describing the immense variety of climate that occurs within this limited space, adds:“From the extremity of these table-lands, especially on thesouth-east and north-east, south-west and north-west, there issue several separate mountain-chains, not connected with one another, but which form more or less a part of the table-lands themselves.[pg xx]“The valleys, which are produced by this indentation on the borders of the table-lands, offer peculiar advantages for the progress of civilization.For, as we have already observed, the highland of Asia does not sink onone side only, but onall sidesand towards every point of the compass; it also sinks towardsdifferentoceans, which are separated from the highland by extensive plains, varying greatly in magnitude and form. This circumstance, added to the valleys formed by the indentations in the exterior margins of the highlands, has given rise to numerous and most extensiveriver systems, which, descending through the intervening terraces, direct their winding coursetowards the north, south, west, and east, and thus give tothe distant internal countries of this continent the advantage of an easy communication with the ocean.”2. The Climate and Natural productions of Cashmire and Tibet.Influenced solely by its high elevation, De Pauw, Zimmerman, and Pallas concluded that Central Asia must have been the birthplace of the human race. To this conclusion the rigorous climate of those parts of it which were best known to them appeared to present an insuperable objection. But as Adelung observes, those regions of Central Asia which border upon the Indus have been shown by the accounts of travellers to fulfil all the requisite conditions in this respect. Had these celebrated writers been possessed of the information these accounts contain, they might have discovered in Cashmire a suitable locality for the first abode of man, in Tibet a fitting school of discipline to prepare him for the various climes and countries he was destined to inhabit!Cashmire.Adelung's description of this enchanting country calls to mind in many of its features the“Happy Valley”in Rasselas![pg xxi]The faculties with which man has been endowed enable him to contend with the most unfavorable climes: but not until these faculties have been ripened by Time and experience! At his first creation he required an abode where nature's free bounty would supply all his wants; in fine he needed, with reference even to his mere physical necessities, a Paradise! To this appellation no country in Asia can assert a better claim than the lovely land of Cashmire, which is, in fact, a mere Valley, separated by inaccessible mountains from India, Persia, and Tibet! Owing to its high elevation, the heat of the South is tempered into a perpetual Spring, and nature here puts forth all her powers to bring all her works, Plants, Animals, and Man, to the highest state of perfection! Cashmire is a region of fruitful hills, countless fountains and streams, which unite in the River Behut, that, like the Pison of Paradise,“compasseth the whole land!”Bernier found here all Asiatic and European fruits in perfection. The Pisang, undoubtedly the same tree as the fig tree of the Book of Genesis,7grows no where so large or so beautiful as in Cashmire!Even the men of this country are distinguished among Asiatics by superior natural endowments, mental and physical. They have none of the Tartar physiognomy, but exhibit the finest features of the European race; while in genius and intelligence they surpass most other Oriental nations! Cashmire was at one time governed by kings of its own; it was afterwards subject to the Moguls of India, who ruled it with gentleness on account of its beauty! On their downfall it fell under the sway of the rude Affghans.Tibet.This contiguous country unites within itself the temperatures and products of the most opposite of those[pg xxii]climes in which man was intended to dwell, combining mountains crowned with perpetual snow and icebergs, with valleys in which never-ending Summer blooms. Tibet also presents, in a native or indigenous state, the various Plants and Animals which have been domesticated by Man! Here are found in a wild state the Vine, the Rice-plant, the Pea, the Ox, the Horse, the Ass, the Sheep, the Goat, the Camel, the Pig, the Cat, and even the Reindeer,“his only friend and companion in the polar wastes.”83. The Scriptural and Indian Accounts.It is extremely remarkable that the Indian accounts, of which the antiquity is believed to be equal to that of the Scriptural narrative, (see p.132,) actually fix the first abode of Man on Mount Meru, on the borders of Tibet and Cashmire! Blended though they are with fable, it is impossible to see how we can refuse to attach some weight to these venerable remains, harmonising, so completely as they do, with the conclusions formed on other grounds by some of the greatest men of modern times, as regards the date and the locality of the first introduction of our species; for if, on the one hand, the received date of the origin of the human race be authentic according to the views of Cuvier, and if, on the other, the date of the Indian Vedas be such as accords with the opinions of Sir William Jones and other eminent authorities, the intervening period must have been too brief to efface a traditionary reminiscence of the early history of our species, (see p.132.) The correspondence of the Indian with the Scriptural narrative is in many features very extraordinary. We have a similar account of the creation of the world, of the early history of man, of a primitive state of virtue and[pg xxiii]happiness, of the fall of man, of a tree of life and death.9We have also a Serpent that poisons the water, which is the source of life!Adelung notices a feature in which the locality fixed upon as the birthplace of man by the Indian traditions corresponds with the Paradise of Scripture. From Mount Meru spring four Rivers, the Ganges, the Buramputur, the Indus, and another stream that flows into Tibet.“Now Michaelis,”he observes,“translates Genesis, ii. 10,‘Four rivers flowed out of Eden, and theyseparated continually more and more widely from each other!’”Cashmire is considered by the Hindoos in the light of a Holy Land, the cradle of their race, their civilization, and their religion!The Scriptural narrative, in describing the Creation of our species, does not define the first abode of man any further than by fixing it in“the East,”(Genesis, ii. 8,) an expression corroborative, as Adelung observes, of the Indian traditions, for in the time of Moses this expression was applicable to the regions of the Indus. On the other hand, the common interpretation of Genesis, viii. 4, which assumes that Ararat in Armenia was the centre of diffusion of population after the Flood, is irreconcilable with those accounts, this locality being not to the East but to the North of all the Syro-Phœnician or Scriptural regions. But according to Bohlen,10the impression that Ararat in this verse means the mountain of that name in Armenia, which is inaccessible, crowned with perpetual snow,11andanciently had a different name, is erroneous. Ararat, he observes, does not mean a mountain but a country in this verse and elsewhere in Scripture. Thus the sons of[pg xxiv]Sennacherib escaped into the land of Ararat, (II. Kings, xix. 37,) and the Prophet Jeremiah calls upon the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashchenaz to rise up together with the Medes against Babylon, (Jerem. li, 27-8) Ararat in these passages, it may be suggested, may naturally be interpreted to apply generally to the kingdoms and regions of the unexplored12table-land of Central Asia, which commences on the Persian borders, immediately to the East of Assyria. Moreover the supposition that the Ararat of Scripture was in Armenia may be regarded as irreconcilable with another important passage, Gen., xi. 2, which distinctly implies that the emigrants who reached the plain of Shinar, and who, it may be inferred, were the first colonists of South Western Asia, had journeyed thither from some region far to the“East”of all the Semetic countries, of which Shinar or Mesopotamia forms the Eastern border!It is remarkable that the expressions of this passage—“And it came to pass, as they journeyed fromthe East, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there”—harmonise in the most perfect manner not only with the Indian remains, but also with the passages first referred to from the Scriptural narrative itself with respect to the first abode of the human race, for it will be seen by the map that 1, Cashmire lies ina direct lineto“the East”of Shinar or Mesopotamia! 2, The whole intervening territory is occupied by the Central-Asiatic table-land of Persia or Iran, which, as previously noticed, forms onecontinual descentfrom its highest elevation on the borders of Cashmire to its termination near the plain of Shinar! Ar-ar-at may reasonably be inferred to be nothing else than a term commonly applied in the East to“a country of lofty mountains,”(see p.83,) an expression highly appropriate to the Persian table-land[pg xxv]both at its centre, and at its junction with the Semetic regions, near the banks of the Tigris and the Euphrates! (See Ritter.)4. Physiognomy.As before observed, in these regions are found in juxtaposition nations which exhibit the very opposite Physiological characteristics of the Mongol and Western Asiatic races. The people of Tibet display the former, those of Cashmire the latter.5. Philology.Here the Monosyllabic and Polysyllabic languages branch off from a common centre. The former begin in Tibet, the latter in Cashmire.The Monosyllabic languages which prevail in Tibet, China, Ava, Pegu, Siam, Tonquin, and Cochin China, countries which contain a population of 180 millions, betray all the rudeness of human speech in its infancy. They have no compound words and no grammar.“The same sound,”says Adelung,“which meansJoy, means alsoJoyfulandTo rejoicethrough all persons, numbers, and tenses!”“They form their plural like a child, either by repetition, as‘Tree-tree’(i.e.‘Trees’), or by means of an additional word, as‘Tree-many! Tree-other!’When the great grown-up child is heard stammering‘Be Heaven, I Other,13Father which,’who but another child like him can guess that this means‘Our Father which art in Heaven!’”The imperfection of the Monosyllabic languages does not arise solely from their consisting of Monosyllables, but from the want of the more refined grammatical forms which are found in all other Tongues, even those of the wildest American Tribes. No nation, however uncivilized, that had once acquired[pg xxvi]a knowledge of these would ever fall back“to the speech of childhood!”Hence Adelung infers that the Chinese, &c. must have been completely separated at an early period from the other races of men. But it will be asked, Why is it that the Chinese have remained stationary in this respect, while nations far inferior to them in every other point of view have surpassed them in this one instance? There is, I conceive, no other mode of solving this problem than by regarding these opposite results in the light of vestiges, belonging to an early stage of society, of the same variableness and inequality in the efforts of the human mind, which are observable in the inventions of modern times! That this question admits of no other solution will be manifest from Chapter VI, in which it is shown that the Chinese is not fundamentally different from the tongues of Europe and Western Asia, but thesame language in a different stage of its growth!6. The Astronomical Theory of Bailly.Bailly's theory is that the various nations of the ancient world were descendants of emigrants from a primæval community superior to them in knowledge and civilization, of which he places the locality in Central Asia. His views are founded on the fact that there existed a knowledge of the results of some of the most recondite Scientific principles among the Persians, Chaldeans, &c., (nations who were certainly unacquainted with the principles themselves,) as, for example, of the moon's course, of the Solar year, of the Zodiac, of the Planets, of the retrogression of the fixed Stars &c. Some of Bailly's opinions have been impugned in Cuvier's Theory of the Earth.
Central Asia forms a natural centre for the diffusion of population over the Globe, as will appear from the following passages from an authority by whom Adelung's views have been adopted:6
“Asia, exhibiting such characteristics in its outline, is no less remarkable for the form of its surface, on which the climate, and consequently the vegetation and animal kingdom, of its different parts must chiefly depend. In examining the other divisions of the globe, we find that Australia exhibits level and comparatively low countries without many high mountain-ranges, as far as we yet know. Africa is divided into two nearly equal parts, the southern of which forms an almost uniform table-land, whilst the northern, with the exception of the Atlas region, may be considered as a lowland. Europe contains plains of small extent lying between dispersed mountain-groups and ridges; but these plains are not confined to any particular parts. In America the highest land lies on one side, occupying its western coast from the extreme north to the south; it forms the most extensive system of mountain-chains on the globe, which inclose within their arms elevated plateaus, but of comparatively small extent.Asia exhibits different features. The whole mass of the interior continent rises to a considerable[pg xix]elevation above the sea, and this elevated mass, of which the high table-lands occupy by far the greatest extent, is not placed at one of the extremities of the whole mass, but occupies its centre.
“From these table-lands, which occupy the centre of Asia, the surface descends in gradual and diversified terraces and slopes to the lowlands which surround them.”
After stating that these table-lands consist of two terraces, (viz. an Eastern system, composed of Tibet and the Great Desert, called Gobi, and a Western terrace, including Iran or Persia,) which unite where the ranges of the Himalaya, Hindu-Kuh, Thsungling, and Belur Tagh meet, the same writer thus alludes to the regions which form the point of junction:
“Such a juxta-position of all the great features which nature exhibits on the surface of the globe, on such a colossal scale, and in so limited a space, makes this one of the most remarkable spots on the face of our planet. This maximum of the contrasts of natural features, placed in the centre of the continent, is the principal characteristic which distinguishes Asia. By drawing a circle with a radius of a few hundred miles round this common centre, we comprehend in it the countries of Cashmere, Sogdiana, and Cabulistan, the ancient empires of Bactria, Delhi, and Samarcand, the cold table-lands of Tibet, of Khotan, and of Kashgar, up to the ancient Seres and Paropamisadæ.”
Further, the same writer, after describing the immense variety of climate that occurs within this limited space, adds:
“From the extremity of these table-lands, especially on thesouth-east and north-east, south-west and north-west, there issue several separate mountain-chains, not connected with one another, but which form more or less a part of the table-lands themselves.
“The valleys, which are produced by this indentation on the borders of the table-lands, offer peculiar advantages for the progress of civilization.For, as we have already observed, the highland of Asia does not sink onone side only, but onall sidesand towards every point of the compass; it also sinks towardsdifferentoceans, which are separated from the highland by extensive plains, varying greatly in magnitude and form. This circumstance, added to the valleys formed by the indentations in the exterior margins of the highlands, has given rise to numerous and most extensiveriver systems, which, descending through the intervening terraces, direct their winding coursetowards the north, south, west, and east, and thus give tothe distant internal countries of this continent the advantage of an easy communication with the ocean.”
2. The Climate and Natural productions of Cashmire and Tibet.Influenced solely by its high elevation, De Pauw, Zimmerman, and Pallas concluded that Central Asia must have been the birthplace of the human race. To this conclusion the rigorous climate of those parts of it which were best known to them appeared to present an insuperable objection. But as Adelung observes, those regions of Central Asia which border upon the Indus have been shown by the accounts of travellers to fulfil all the requisite conditions in this respect. Had these celebrated writers been possessed of the information these accounts contain, they might have discovered in Cashmire a suitable locality for the first abode of man, in Tibet a fitting school of discipline to prepare him for the various climes and countries he was destined to inhabit!Cashmire.Adelung's description of this enchanting country calls to mind in many of its features the“Happy Valley”in Rasselas![pg xxi]The faculties with which man has been endowed enable him to contend with the most unfavorable climes: but not until these faculties have been ripened by Time and experience! At his first creation he required an abode where nature's free bounty would supply all his wants; in fine he needed, with reference even to his mere physical necessities, a Paradise! To this appellation no country in Asia can assert a better claim than the lovely land of Cashmire, which is, in fact, a mere Valley, separated by inaccessible mountains from India, Persia, and Tibet! Owing to its high elevation, the heat of the South is tempered into a perpetual Spring, and nature here puts forth all her powers to bring all her works, Plants, Animals, and Man, to the highest state of perfection! Cashmire is a region of fruitful hills, countless fountains and streams, which unite in the River Behut, that, like the Pison of Paradise,“compasseth the whole land!”Bernier found here all Asiatic and European fruits in perfection. The Pisang, undoubtedly the same tree as the fig tree of the Book of Genesis,7grows no where so large or so beautiful as in Cashmire!Even the men of this country are distinguished among Asiatics by superior natural endowments, mental and physical. They have none of the Tartar physiognomy, but exhibit the finest features of the European race; while in genius and intelligence they surpass most other Oriental nations! Cashmire was at one time governed by kings of its own; it was afterwards subject to the Moguls of India, who ruled it with gentleness on account of its beauty! On their downfall it fell under the sway of the rude Affghans.Tibet.This contiguous country unites within itself the temperatures and products of the most opposite of those[pg xxii]climes in which man was intended to dwell, combining mountains crowned with perpetual snow and icebergs, with valleys in which never-ending Summer blooms. Tibet also presents, in a native or indigenous state, the various Plants and Animals which have been domesticated by Man! Here are found in a wild state the Vine, the Rice-plant, the Pea, the Ox, the Horse, the Ass, the Sheep, the Goat, the Camel, the Pig, the Cat, and even the Reindeer,“his only friend and companion in the polar wastes.”8
Influenced solely by its high elevation, De Pauw, Zimmerman, and Pallas concluded that Central Asia must have been the birthplace of the human race. To this conclusion the rigorous climate of those parts of it which were best known to them appeared to present an insuperable objection. But as Adelung observes, those regions of Central Asia which border upon the Indus have been shown by the accounts of travellers to fulfil all the requisite conditions in this respect. Had these celebrated writers been possessed of the information these accounts contain, they might have discovered in Cashmire a suitable locality for the first abode of man, in Tibet a fitting school of discipline to prepare him for the various climes and countries he was destined to inhabit!
Cashmire.Adelung's description of this enchanting country calls to mind in many of its features the“Happy Valley”in Rasselas!
The faculties with which man has been endowed enable him to contend with the most unfavorable climes: but not until these faculties have been ripened by Time and experience! At his first creation he required an abode where nature's free bounty would supply all his wants; in fine he needed, with reference even to his mere physical necessities, a Paradise! To this appellation no country in Asia can assert a better claim than the lovely land of Cashmire, which is, in fact, a mere Valley, separated by inaccessible mountains from India, Persia, and Tibet! Owing to its high elevation, the heat of the South is tempered into a perpetual Spring, and nature here puts forth all her powers to bring all her works, Plants, Animals, and Man, to the highest state of perfection! Cashmire is a region of fruitful hills, countless fountains and streams, which unite in the River Behut, that, like the Pison of Paradise,“compasseth the whole land!”
Bernier found here all Asiatic and European fruits in perfection. The Pisang, undoubtedly the same tree as the fig tree of the Book of Genesis,7grows no where so large or so beautiful as in Cashmire!
Even the men of this country are distinguished among Asiatics by superior natural endowments, mental and physical. They have none of the Tartar physiognomy, but exhibit the finest features of the European race; while in genius and intelligence they surpass most other Oriental nations! Cashmire was at one time governed by kings of its own; it was afterwards subject to the Moguls of India, who ruled it with gentleness on account of its beauty! On their downfall it fell under the sway of the rude Affghans.
Tibet.This contiguous country unites within itself the temperatures and products of the most opposite of those[pg xxii]climes in which man was intended to dwell, combining mountains crowned with perpetual snow and icebergs, with valleys in which never-ending Summer blooms. Tibet also presents, in a native or indigenous state, the various Plants and Animals which have been domesticated by Man! Here are found in a wild state the Vine, the Rice-plant, the Pea, the Ox, the Horse, the Ass, the Sheep, the Goat, the Camel, the Pig, the Cat, and even the Reindeer,“his only friend and companion in the polar wastes.”8
3. The Scriptural and Indian Accounts.It is extremely remarkable that the Indian accounts, of which the antiquity is believed to be equal to that of the Scriptural narrative, (see p.132,) actually fix the first abode of Man on Mount Meru, on the borders of Tibet and Cashmire! Blended though they are with fable, it is impossible to see how we can refuse to attach some weight to these venerable remains, harmonising, so completely as they do, with the conclusions formed on other grounds by some of the greatest men of modern times, as regards the date and the locality of the first introduction of our species; for if, on the one hand, the received date of the origin of the human race be authentic according to the views of Cuvier, and if, on the other, the date of the Indian Vedas be such as accords with the opinions of Sir William Jones and other eminent authorities, the intervening period must have been too brief to efface a traditionary reminiscence of the early history of our species, (see p.132.) The correspondence of the Indian with the Scriptural narrative is in many features very extraordinary. We have a similar account of the creation of the world, of the early history of man, of a primitive state of virtue and[pg xxiii]happiness, of the fall of man, of a tree of life and death.9We have also a Serpent that poisons the water, which is the source of life!Adelung notices a feature in which the locality fixed upon as the birthplace of man by the Indian traditions corresponds with the Paradise of Scripture. From Mount Meru spring four Rivers, the Ganges, the Buramputur, the Indus, and another stream that flows into Tibet.“Now Michaelis,”he observes,“translates Genesis, ii. 10,‘Four rivers flowed out of Eden, and theyseparated continually more and more widely from each other!’”Cashmire is considered by the Hindoos in the light of a Holy Land, the cradle of their race, their civilization, and their religion!The Scriptural narrative, in describing the Creation of our species, does not define the first abode of man any further than by fixing it in“the East,”(Genesis, ii. 8,) an expression corroborative, as Adelung observes, of the Indian traditions, for in the time of Moses this expression was applicable to the regions of the Indus. On the other hand, the common interpretation of Genesis, viii. 4, which assumes that Ararat in Armenia was the centre of diffusion of population after the Flood, is irreconcilable with those accounts, this locality being not to the East but to the North of all the Syro-Phœnician or Scriptural regions. But according to Bohlen,10the impression that Ararat in this verse means the mountain of that name in Armenia, which is inaccessible, crowned with perpetual snow,11andanciently had a different name, is erroneous. Ararat, he observes, does not mean a mountain but a country in this verse and elsewhere in Scripture. Thus the sons of[pg xxiv]Sennacherib escaped into the land of Ararat, (II. Kings, xix. 37,) and the Prophet Jeremiah calls upon the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashchenaz to rise up together with the Medes against Babylon, (Jerem. li, 27-8) Ararat in these passages, it may be suggested, may naturally be interpreted to apply generally to the kingdoms and regions of the unexplored12table-land of Central Asia, which commences on the Persian borders, immediately to the East of Assyria. Moreover the supposition that the Ararat of Scripture was in Armenia may be regarded as irreconcilable with another important passage, Gen., xi. 2, which distinctly implies that the emigrants who reached the plain of Shinar, and who, it may be inferred, were the first colonists of South Western Asia, had journeyed thither from some region far to the“East”of all the Semetic countries, of which Shinar or Mesopotamia forms the Eastern border!It is remarkable that the expressions of this passage—“And it came to pass, as they journeyed fromthe East, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there”—harmonise in the most perfect manner not only with the Indian remains, but also with the passages first referred to from the Scriptural narrative itself with respect to the first abode of the human race, for it will be seen by the map that 1, Cashmire lies ina direct lineto“the East”of Shinar or Mesopotamia! 2, The whole intervening territory is occupied by the Central-Asiatic table-land of Persia or Iran, which, as previously noticed, forms onecontinual descentfrom its highest elevation on the borders of Cashmire to its termination near the plain of Shinar! Ar-ar-at may reasonably be inferred to be nothing else than a term commonly applied in the East to“a country of lofty mountains,”(see p.83,) an expression highly appropriate to the Persian table-land[pg xxv]both at its centre, and at its junction with the Semetic regions, near the banks of the Tigris and the Euphrates! (See Ritter.)
It is extremely remarkable that the Indian accounts, of which the antiquity is believed to be equal to that of the Scriptural narrative, (see p.132,) actually fix the first abode of Man on Mount Meru, on the borders of Tibet and Cashmire! Blended though they are with fable, it is impossible to see how we can refuse to attach some weight to these venerable remains, harmonising, so completely as they do, with the conclusions formed on other grounds by some of the greatest men of modern times, as regards the date and the locality of the first introduction of our species; for if, on the one hand, the received date of the origin of the human race be authentic according to the views of Cuvier, and if, on the other, the date of the Indian Vedas be such as accords with the opinions of Sir William Jones and other eminent authorities, the intervening period must have been too brief to efface a traditionary reminiscence of the early history of our species, (see p.132.) The correspondence of the Indian with the Scriptural narrative is in many features very extraordinary. We have a similar account of the creation of the world, of the early history of man, of a primitive state of virtue and[pg xxiii]happiness, of the fall of man, of a tree of life and death.9We have also a Serpent that poisons the water, which is the source of life!
Adelung notices a feature in which the locality fixed upon as the birthplace of man by the Indian traditions corresponds with the Paradise of Scripture. From Mount Meru spring four Rivers, the Ganges, the Buramputur, the Indus, and another stream that flows into Tibet.“Now Michaelis,”he observes,“translates Genesis, ii. 10,‘Four rivers flowed out of Eden, and theyseparated continually more and more widely from each other!’”
Cashmire is considered by the Hindoos in the light of a Holy Land, the cradle of their race, their civilization, and their religion!
The Scriptural narrative, in describing the Creation of our species, does not define the first abode of man any further than by fixing it in“the East,”(Genesis, ii. 8,) an expression corroborative, as Adelung observes, of the Indian traditions, for in the time of Moses this expression was applicable to the regions of the Indus. On the other hand, the common interpretation of Genesis, viii. 4, which assumes that Ararat in Armenia was the centre of diffusion of population after the Flood, is irreconcilable with those accounts, this locality being not to the East but to the North of all the Syro-Phœnician or Scriptural regions. But according to Bohlen,10the impression that Ararat in this verse means the mountain of that name in Armenia, which is inaccessible, crowned with perpetual snow,11andanciently had a different name, is erroneous. Ararat, he observes, does not mean a mountain but a country in this verse and elsewhere in Scripture. Thus the sons of[pg xxiv]Sennacherib escaped into the land of Ararat, (II. Kings, xix. 37,) and the Prophet Jeremiah calls upon the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashchenaz to rise up together with the Medes against Babylon, (Jerem. li, 27-8) Ararat in these passages, it may be suggested, may naturally be interpreted to apply generally to the kingdoms and regions of the unexplored12table-land of Central Asia, which commences on the Persian borders, immediately to the East of Assyria. Moreover the supposition that the Ararat of Scripture was in Armenia may be regarded as irreconcilable with another important passage, Gen., xi. 2, which distinctly implies that the emigrants who reached the plain of Shinar, and who, it may be inferred, were the first colonists of South Western Asia, had journeyed thither from some region far to the“East”of all the Semetic countries, of which Shinar or Mesopotamia forms the Eastern border!
It is remarkable that the expressions of this passage—“And it came to pass, as they journeyed fromthe East, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there”—harmonise in the most perfect manner not only with the Indian remains, but also with the passages first referred to from the Scriptural narrative itself with respect to the first abode of the human race, for it will be seen by the map that 1, Cashmire lies ina direct lineto“the East”of Shinar or Mesopotamia! 2, The whole intervening territory is occupied by the Central-Asiatic table-land of Persia or Iran, which, as previously noticed, forms onecontinual descentfrom its highest elevation on the borders of Cashmire to its termination near the plain of Shinar! Ar-ar-at may reasonably be inferred to be nothing else than a term commonly applied in the East to“a country of lofty mountains,”(see p.83,) an expression highly appropriate to the Persian table-land[pg xxv]both at its centre, and at its junction with the Semetic regions, near the banks of the Tigris and the Euphrates! (See Ritter.)
4. Physiognomy.As before observed, in these regions are found in juxtaposition nations which exhibit the very opposite Physiological characteristics of the Mongol and Western Asiatic races. The people of Tibet display the former, those of Cashmire the latter.
As before observed, in these regions are found in juxtaposition nations which exhibit the very opposite Physiological characteristics of the Mongol and Western Asiatic races. The people of Tibet display the former, those of Cashmire the latter.
5. Philology.Here the Monosyllabic and Polysyllabic languages branch off from a common centre. The former begin in Tibet, the latter in Cashmire.The Monosyllabic languages which prevail in Tibet, China, Ava, Pegu, Siam, Tonquin, and Cochin China, countries which contain a population of 180 millions, betray all the rudeness of human speech in its infancy. They have no compound words and no grammar.“The same sound,”says Adelung,“which meansJoy, means alsoJoyfulandTo rejoicethrough all persons, numbers, and tenses!”“They form their plural like a child, either by repetition, as‘Tree-tree’(i.e.‘Trees’), or by means of an additional word, as‘Tree-many! Tree-other!’When the great grown-up child is heard stammering‘Be Heaven, I Other,13Father which,’who but another child like him can guess that this means‘Our Father which art in Heaven!’”The imperfection of the Monosyllabic languages does not arise solely from their consisting of Monosyllables, but from the want of the more refined grammatical forms which are found in all other Tongues, even those of the wildest American Tribes. No nation, however uncivilized, that had once acquired[pg xxvi]a knowledge of these would ever fall back“to the speech of childhood!”Hence Adelung infers that the Chinese, &c. must have been completely separated at an early period from the other races of men. But it will be asked, Why is it that the Chinese have remained stationary in this respect, while nations far inferior to them in every other point of view have surpassed them in this one instance? There is, I conceive, no other mode of solving this problem than by regarding these opposite results in the light of vestiges, belonging to an early stage of society, of the same variableness and inequality in the efforts of the human mind, which are observable in the inventions of modern times! That this question admits of no other solution will be manifest from Chapter VI, in which it is shown that the Chinese is not fundamentally different from the tongues of Europe and Western Asia, but thesame language in a different stage of its growth!
Here the Monosyllabic and Polysyllabic languages branch off from a common centre. The former begin in Tibet, the latter in Cashmire.
The Monosyllabic languages which prevail in Tibet, China, Ava, Pegu, Siam, Tonquin, and Cochin China, countries which contain a population of 180 millions, betray all the rudeness of human speech in its infancy. They have no compound words and no grammar.“The same sound,”says Adelung,“which meansJoy, means alsoJoyfulandTo rejoicethrough all persons, numbers, and tenses!”
“They form their plural like a child, either by repetition, as‘Tree-tree’(i.e.‘Trees’), or by means of an additional word, as‘Tree-many! Tree-other!’When the great grown-up child is heard stammering‘Be Heaven, I Other,13Father which,’who but another child like him can guess that this means‘Our Father which art in Heaven!’”
The imperfection of the Monosyllabic languages does not arise solely from their consisting of Monosyllables, but from the want of the more refined grammatical forms which are found in all other Tongues, even those of the wildest American Tribes. No nation, however uncivilized, that had once acquired[pg xxvi]a knowledge of these would ever fall back“to the speech of childhood!”Hence Adelung infers that the Chinese, &c. must have been completely separated at an early period from the other races of men. But it will be asked, Why is it that the Chinese have remained stationary in this respect, while nations far inferior to them in every other point of view have surpassed them in this one instance? There is, I conceive, no other mode of solving this problem than by regarding these opposite results in the light of vestiges, belonging to an early stage of society, of the same variableness and inequality in the efforts of the human mind, which are observable in the inventions of modern times! That this question admits of no other solution will be manifest from Chapter VI, in which it is shown that the Chinese is not fundamentally different from the tongues of Europe and Western Asia, but thesame language in a different stage of its growth!
6. The Astronomical Theory of Bailly.Bailly's theory is that the various nations of the ancient world were descendants of emigrants from a primæval community superior to them in knowledge and civilization, of which he places the locality in Central Asia. His views are founded on the fact that there existed a knowledge of the results of some of the most recondite Scientific principles among the Persians, Chaldeans, &c., (nations who were certainly unacquainted with the principles themselves,) as, for example, of the moon's course, of the Solar year, of the Zodiac, of the Planets, of the retrogression of the fixed Stars &c. Some of Bailly's opinions have been impugned in Cuvier's Theory of the Earth.
Bailly's theory is that the various nations of the ancient world were descendants of emigrants from a primæval community superior to them in knowledge and civilization, of which he places the locality in Central Asia. His views are founded on the fact that there existed a knowledge of the results of some of the most recondite Scientific principles among the Persians, Chaldeans, &c., (nations who were certainly unacquainted with the principles themselves,) as, for example, of the moon's course, of the Solar year, of the Zodiac, of the Planets, of the retrogression of the fixed Stars &c. Some of Bailly's opinions have been impugned in Cuvier's Theory of the Earth.