290 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



which meet in Bethlehem, and that he was called by a name com- 

 posed of the four principal planets: thus he was formed as a 

 microcosm, the miniature counterpart and organic epitome of the 

 universe, the synopsis and symbol of all created things. 



There is a tendency in every savage tribe and isolated people 

 to regard the portion of the earth which it happens to inhabit, 

 and especially the spot which is the cradle of the race or around 

 which its sacred traditions cluster, as not only the political and 

 religious but also as the physical center of the world. Such were 

 Jerusalem to the Jews and imperial and papal Rome, urbs et orbis, 

 to the ancient Romans and mediseval Romanists ; such has Ben- 

 ares been from time immemorial to multitudes of Hindus, and 

 such is Mecca to-day to millions of Moslems. Before the discov- 

 eries of the Western hemisphere, made by Columbus and his com- 

 peers, not even the most enlightened peoples had any proper sense 

 of their relations to the rest of mankind, either morally or geo- 

 graphically. International ethics and comities began with the 

 growth of clearer and more correct ethnical notions, and have 

 always kept pace with it. The knowledge of the rotundity of the 

 earth gave a strong and permanent impulse in this direction, and 

 has contributed not a little to the recognition of the equal rights 

 of all races of mankind. 



The language of every civilized nation contains curious sur- 

 vivals of the primitive conceptions which sprung out of what 

 might be called the self -conceited and self -centered spirit of the 

 savage. It is interesting to note how a single people, emerging 

 from barbarism and taking the lead in civilization at an early 

 period, imposes its forms of speech, and especially its geographical 

 terms, upon after ages and upon remote races of men for whom 

 they have really no meaning. We still speak of certain countries 

 as the Levant and the Orient, the 'AvaroXiy of the Greeks, but these 

 designations have no significance except for the dwellers on the 

 shores of the Mediterranean, with whom they originated. So, too, 

 Asia means etymologically the land of the rising sun and Europe 

 the land of the setting sun, and these names expressed the actual 

 position of the two continents in their relation to the Greeks. 

 But to an American, and especially to a Calif ornian, Europe is an 

 Eastern and Asia a Western continent, and these strictly ethno- 

 centric appellations would be wholly unsuitable and extremely 

 confusing were it not for the fact that their etymology has become 

 obscured and their primitive signification been forgotten, or is at 

 least lost sight of and ignored, so that they are now mere arbitrary 

 terms or distinguishing signs, with no suggestion of the geograph- 

 ical direction or situation of the regions to which they are applied, 

 just as we speak of Chester, Edinburgh, Oxford, Berlin, or Munich 

 without thinking of a Roman camp, King Edwin's castle, a ford 



