Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: THE PRIMITIVE ARYAS. THAT elevated region in Central Asia extending from the Hindu Kuh to the Armenian The Aryan mountains, which is now known as the pla- Hmtead- teau of Iran, is entitled to be called in an important sense the homestead of the human family. It was at least the ancestral abode of those races which have hitherto led the movement of civilization. Its position and structure are wonderfully appropriate to such a function; for this main focus of ethnic radiation is also the geographical centre of the Eastern hemisphere. There, at the intersection of the continental axes, stands the real apex of the earth.1 And its borders rise on every side into commanding mountain knots and ranges, that look eastward over the steppes of Thibet and the plains of India, westward down the Assyrian lowlands towards the Mediterranean, northward over the wide sands of Central Asia, and southward across Arabia and the Tropic Seas. Where else, demands Herder, with natural enthusiasm, if not with scientific knowledge, should man, the summit of creation, come into being? Whatever answer be given to this still open question, the symbolism of the majestic plateau points, we may suggest, to higher human meaning than that of the mere historical beginning of the race. ' Redus, Tla Earth. The languages and mythologies of nearly all the great historic races, in their widest dispersion, point back to these mountain outlooks of Iran. Hindu, Persian, Hebrew, Mongol, kneel towards these venerable heights, as their common fatherland; a primeval Eden, peopled by their earliest legends with gods and genii, and long-lived, happy men. The homes of ancient civilization rose around their bases, as under the shadow of a patriarchal tent; and there they were gathered to the dust. The drift of fo...