192 MYTH AND SCIENCE. 



been much indebted to them for this rational idea of 

 God if they had more clearly understood its scientific 

 bearing and the nature of man ; many of them are 

 indeed justly entitled to fame in every department 

 of science. But taken by themselves and as a people, 

 they had little effect on civilization, since they lacked 

 the energy of purpose, courage, mental superiority, 

 and imagination, which create a durable and powerful 

 civilization. 



" The Arabs, aroused for a time by Mahometan 

 fanaticism, overran great part of Europe, Asia, and 

 Africa, but without influencing civilization. While 

 in possession of a great and productive idea, they 

 remained a sterile and nomad people, or founded un- 

 productive dynasties. For the Semitic race, the in- 

 terval between God and man, and consequently between 

 God and civilization, was and is infinite, impassable. 

 The Arabs possessed nothing but the devastating 

 force of proselytism to fertilize their minds and social 

 relations ; and, with the exception of architecture, 

 geography, and cognate sciences, they were for the 

 most part only the transmitters of the science of 

 others. We, on the contrary, filled up the gulf by 

 placing the Man-God between God and man, and 

 civilization has a power and vigour which has never 

 flagged, and which, now that dogma is transformed 

 into reason, will not flag while the world lasts." * 



* Some Jewish Christians of the Semitic race took refuge in a 

 district of Syria, and retained their primitive faith without further 



