Contrast of the North and South. 355 



As far as the memorials of history ascend, it shews us, on the 

 table-land of Iran, and in the neighbouring plains of Bactriana, one 

 of the earliest civilized nations, the ancient people of Zend. The 

 Zendavesta, the sacred book of their legislator, displays everywhere 

 deep traces of the conflict of Iran, of the southern region, of the light 

 of civiUzation — the good — with the Turan, the countries of the North, 

 the darkness, the barbarous peoples — the evil. Who can say that 

 even the idea of this dualism — of good and evil — which is the very 

 foundation of the religious philosophy of Zoroaster, is not, to a cer- 

 tain extent, the result of the hostile relations between two countries 

 so completely different ? Six centuries before Christ, the barbarous 

 Scythians come down from the North, pass like a whirlwind through 

 the same gate of the Khorasan upon the plateau of Iran, overrun the 

 flourishing kingdom of ]Media, and spread themselves as far as Egypt. 

 A whole generation was necessary to restore to Cyaxares his crown, 

 and to efface the traces of this rude attack. In the eleventh century 

 of our era, the Seldjouks — Turks, — descend from the heights of 

 Bolor and Turkestan, invade first Eastern Persia, overturn the power 

 of the Gaznevide Sultans, put an end to that of the Caliphs, and lord 

 it over Western Asia. But nothing equals the tremendous shock 

 caused through the whole of Asia by the invasion of the Mongolians. 

 Issuing from their steppes and their deserts, under the conduct of 

 the daring Gengis-Khan, the hero of his nation, their ferocious hordes 

 spread like a devastating torrent from one end of Asia to another. 

 Nothing withstands their onset ; even Europe itself is threatened 

 by these barbarians ; all Russia is subjected, and scarcely can the 

 assembled warriors of Germany drive them back from their frontiers, 

 and save the nascent civihzation of the West. China herself beholds 

 a succession of conquerors establish in the North a brilliant empire, 

 and for the first time the two Asias are subject to one and the same 

 dominant people. India alone had been spared; she yields before a 

 fresh invasion, and Sultan Babur — who already is no more a barba- 

 rian — founds, at the beginning of the sixteenth century, the mighty 

 Mongolian empire, which, in spite of its vicissitudes, has existed 

 down to our days, and has yielded only to the power of the nations 

 of civilized Europe. The history of China, lastly, is crowded with 

 the struggles of the civilized people of the plain with the roving 

 tribes of the neighbouring table-lands, and the last of these invasions, 

 so frequent, — that of the Manchou Tartars, — has given to China its 

 present rulers. 



In Europe, the war of the North against the South, though seem- 

 ingly not so long continued, is not less serious. Six* centuries before 

 our era, bands of Celts, enticed by the attractions of the fertile coun- 

 tries of the South, set forth from Gaul, under the lead of Bellovese 

 and Sigovesu, cross the Alps, and proceed to establish themselves in 

 the smiling Plains of the Po. Other bands follow them thither, and 

 found a new Gaul beyond the Alps. These impetuous children of 

 the North soon press upon Etruria, and Rome, which has drawn upon 



