264. JOSHUA RUTLAND, ESQ., ON 
made the Phoenicians leave the land-locked waters of the 
Mediterranean to go forth upon the wild waves of the 
Atlantic, and centuries later led Columbus across the same 
ocean to the discovery of the New World. 
To the ancient civilizations of Egypt and Chaldea we can 
readily trace back our modern European civilization, but the 
origin of some of our most important arts must be looked 
for elsewhere, recent investigation having proved that the 
Nile Valley, long considered the bir -thplace of civilization, 
must have been colonized by a people well advanced in 
those arts. 
Though certain Chaldean remains, when compared with 
the rudest Egyptian monuments, seem to indicate a more 
primitive state of society, the physical conditions of 
Mesopotamia preclude the possibility of its being the birth- 
place of agriculture or metallurgy, arts without which the 
country could not have supported ‘its ancient population, nor 
the vast works now amongst the wonders of the world have 
been executed. 
As far as we are able to discover the civilization of China 
is purely indigenous; for thousands of years the inhabitants 
of the Celestial Empire have been agriculturists, potters, 
weavers, and workers in metal, besides having a written 
language i in which their history has been recorded. Though 
aware that these arts must have had their rude beginnings 
and must have appeared in order, not simultaneously, in 
vain we look for their commencements. Nor is it possible 
amongst the surrounding peoples to point to any from whom 
they may have been feel. 
Though the Chinese have long pursued a_ policy of 
isolation, at some former period they must have headed the 
march of civilization. In Central Asia as far west as the 
Caspian and throughout Southern Asia to the western 
boundary of Hindustan we find traces of their discoveries 
and inventions, but evidently their influence did not extend 
to the Egypto-Chaldean peoples; for rice was unknown to 
the agricultunsts of Asia Minor until after Alexander's 
conquests, though it had been cultivated in China for more 
than twenty-five centuries previously, and the raising and 
manufacture of silk, though important industries amongst 
the Chinese since 2600 B.C., were not introduced into Europe 
until the twelfth century of our era. 
From a very remote period an intermingling of eastern 
and western civilizations, the result of conquest and 
