STRATIFICATION OF KNOWLEDGE 49 



We are warranted in inferring that the human race in 

 its ante-diluvian proportions was continued in the extent 

 of its spread to more or less limited areas of the most 

 fertile regions of the basins of the Tigris and Euphrates, 

 and that ' ' the flood " embraced those areas and devastated 

 their whole extent, collateral evidence of which has been 

 recently shed on the subject by archaeological research into 

 the literary remains of local nationalities of a kindred 

 origin to the authors of "Holy Writ." 



This being so, we are further warranted in inferring 

 that the human race, if it had extended outside of these 

 areas, may not have likewise perished, inasmuch as local 

 tradition and archaeological remains do not refer to any 

 such general or local occurrence as that described by the 

 author or authors of Genesis. 



Be that as it may, however, the occurrence of the flood 

 marked a new departure in the history of the human race, 

 in which appeared the evidence that family cleavage initi- 

 ated the process of tribal formations and national accretions 

 of population, which became the foundations of modern 

 society and nationalities. 



While the post-diluvian human family broke up into 

 family groups, tribes, and nationalities, with ethnic 

 affinities more or less strongly marked, and operating as 

 a bond of union between them, it is evident that the 

 centrifugal and disintegrative forces grew as the centri- 

 petal ceased from distance and geographical remoteness 

 to exercise their wonted cohesive power and influence. 

 Thus there developed different types of human character 

 as time and environment shaped the course of evolution 

 of the various branches into which the race was being 

 divided and subdivided. 



These types were dependent for their production on 

 the nature of the occupation engaged in, together with 

 the geographical character of the country inhabited, thus 

 the tilling of the soil or agriculture evolved a certain 

 type ; while hunting and the chase evolved another, and 

 when both conditions were operative as factors in national 

 character formation, an element of stability and strength 

 was afforded which told favourably on the nationality 

 concerned, and gave it the opportunity of being prolonged 



m 



