35 



The history of liumanity is divisible into as many distinct 

 eras, as there have been different spirits, successively exercis- 

 ing a controling influence in human affairs. By the term 

 spirit^ I mean the prevailing principle discernible in the 

 whole course of the events of any given period, and to which, 

 as an efficient cause, those events are referable. Each era 

 has not only had its own spirit, but also its own distinct thea- 

 tre, or portion of this world's surface to which its operations 

 have been chiefly confined. 



The great drama of history opens in Asia. There we see 

 exhibited the infancy of man, and there that infancy still con- 

 tinues. All the elements that constitute human nature are 

 there enveloped in each other, or so intimately blended to- 

 gether as to preclude the action of each without rendering 

 necessary that of all. By the term elements^ I here mean 

 those primary principles of our nature that severally manifest 

 themselves in industry, in government, in arts, in religion^ 

 and in philosophy. Of these elements, that of industry is 

 founded on the idea of the useful, government on that of the 

 just, the arts on that of the beautiful, religion on that of the 

 holy or divine, and philosophy on that of the true in itself. 

 It is only in the separate, distinct, and uncombined action of 

 each element, that we can expect to witness the gradual de- 

 velopement of its intrinsic perfection. To accomplish this 

 separation and developement of human elements requires the 

 exercise of every active principle of our nature. 



The envelopement, or intimate blending of these elements, 

 is attested by all the important phenomena that have been 

 observed in Asia. In speaking of Asia generally, I must be 

 understood as not intending to include those regions immedi- 

 ately bordering upon the Caspian, Black, and Mediterranean 

 seas, which in their physical character are more strictly Eu- 

 ropean than Asiatic. The specimens of the arts exhibited in 

 Asia are so indefinite in outline, so general in character, so 

 deficient in just proportion, as to indicate a still indissoluble 

 union between the arts and their associate elements. The 

 dictates of the religion, the precepts of the morality, the de- 



