SHEMITIC CIVILIZATION. 



117 



the Arabs, and that species of eloquence 

 which distinguishes the Jewish prophets 

 and the Koran. The same must be said 

 of their institutions. The Indo-European 

 nations had, from their beginning, an old 

 code, of which the remains are found in 

 the Brahmanas of India, in the forms of 

 the Komans, and in the laws of the Celts, 

 the Germans, and the Slaves ; the patri- 

 archal life of the Hebrews and Arabs was 

 governed, beyond contradiction, by laws 

 totally different. Finally, the comparison 

 of religions has thrown decisive light on 

 this question. By the side of comparative 

 philology in Germany there has of late 

 years arisen the science of comparative 

 mythology, which has shown that all the 

 Indo-European nations had, in their be- 

 ginning, with the same language also the 

 same religion, of which each carried away 

 scattered fragments on leaving their common . 

 cradle ; this religion, the worship of the 

 powers and phenomena of Nature leading 

 by philosophical development to a sort of 



