HISTORY OF ASIA GENERAL SURVEY 87 



India cannot boast of a single monument which for age is to be com- 

 pared with those of Nineveh and of Egypt, and before the eighth cen- 

 tury B.C., no solid basis to the history of China is to be found. The 

 perishable quality of the materials used in rearing the edifices of this 

 last country cannot allow us to hope that the zeal of modern archaeo- 

 logists will unearth the secret of monuments vanished long ago. 



In the actual state of science, theories only can be imagined to 

 account for the genesis of Asiatic nations, and a common origin 

 exists but in the fancy of a few learned men. It was very natural 

 to look for the first migrations and the first civilizations about 

 Elam and Chaldea, and from this authentic and venerable source 

 let flow the great streams to the various extremities of Asia; it has 

 been possible from isolated facts to build ingenious theories like 

 that of Terrien de Lacouperie, but at the present time nothing 

 definite gives us a right to broach an opinion with regard to the 

 primitive inhabitants of Oriental Asia and their cradle. 



When I was honored with an invitation to come and speak here, 

 I believed it to be expected that I should not delay too much in 

 treating of the ancient times of the history of Asia, and in dealing 

 with facts which are important in themselves, but are nevertheless 

 secondary in their results. What I am expected to give is a general 

 view, an ensemble. I shall try to show the chief influences which gave 

 life to the immense Asiatic Continent and to mark out the place it 

 occupies in the general history of the world, making large allowance 

 for Central Asia and the Far East, which have been the object of 

 my special study. 



During a long time Europe remained in complete ignorance of 

 the steady though irregular movements of the populations of Asia, 

 which was really a volcano in eruption, the terrible effects of which 

 were felt afar. When the Roman Empire crumbling to pieces was 

 threatened westwards by the barbarians of Germanic race, Teu- 

 tonic, Gothic, or Scandinavian, these, pressed in their turn by the 

 wild hordes from Asia, like a rolling wave invaded the Empire, and 

 crushed in by the new-comers founded as far as Spain more or less 

 flourishing kingdoms at the expense of the domain of the Caesars. 

 The march of the Huns from the heart of Asia is in great part the 

 cause of these migrations of people; menacing the Chinese territory, 

 driving away the Yue-chi, a branch of the Eastern Tartars, who, after 

 several halts of which we shall speak further on, carved for them- 

 selves an empire on the banks of the Indus at the cost of the oc- 

 cupiers of the valley of this river. The invading Huns, like a huge 

 wave, gained gradually on from horde to horde, from tribe to tribe, 

 from people to people, till they reached Europe which, when struck by 

 the Scourge of God, could not discern whence the blow was first dealt. 



