Know Thyself 29 



ern and Christian civilization is a fact of great signifi- 

 cance. Especially important is it to understand that 

 in western Asiatic civilization, the civilization from 

 which Christianity came, there has never been any such 

 sharp differentiation of the currents as the western 

 world is accustomed to. On this point the testimony 

 of Abrahm Mitrie Rihbany, a Syrian by nativity and 

 early education, is invaluable. Here we only call atten- 

 tion to the entire absence in the philosophy of his 

 countrymen, of a dividing line between the sacred and 

 the profane, the natural and the miraculous. And it is 

 significant that among the Syrians the absence of such 

 demarcation has been attended with that "undisguised 

 realism," using Mr. Rihbany's phrase, touching human 

 propagation, which reformers in our own society are 

 bent upon accomplishing. 



Our study of man's effort to know himself must now 

 fling itself across two thousand years to the period of 

 Shakespeare and Harvey. Particularly must we in- 

 quire what Harvey did to further the enterprise of 

 gaining self-knowledge. 



But we must not enter upon this new phase of our 

 study without recalling another ancient doctrine which 

 has been and seems destined always to be of the utmost 

 importance in its influence as a mediator between the 

 two antagonistic interpretations of man. I refer to 

 the doctrine of human brotherhood which first came to 

 clear and measurably adequate expression in the teach- 

 ings of Jesus of Nazareth. Despite the libraries that 



