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who, like Makommed, set his face against idolatry, they have been raised to 
a far superior condition, and, like the Mahommedans in the vale of Cashmere, 
have very much advanced, both physically and morally ; which I attri- 
bute to the influence of a purer worship. When we thoroughly consider 
what is the very essence of civilization, I think we shall find it flows from the 
exercise of the rational powers in that highest of all modes in which they can 
be employed, namely, in the worship of the Deity ; which is the result of 
the being able to find out something higher and above all that is visible in 
nature, instead of bowing down ignorantly to stocks and stones, than which 
I can conceive nothing more degrading in its tendency upon the whole life. 
I do not agree with Mr. Row in his estimate of Herodotus and Hue. I think 
old Herodotus [is a much safer guide than the modern. In fact, I do not 
believe Hue’s book at all. He seems to me to be not only credulous, but he 
fills up his book with silly and nonsensical gossip, whereas Herodotus not 
only narrated what he saw most truly and carefully, but he was most cautious 
in distinguishing what he reported from others, and he frequently says he 
does not believe what had been so reported to him. I think it was Dr. 
Thornton who pointed out to us one night that the only instance of a 
thoroughly savage people mentioned by Herodotus was what he repeats 
about the Troglodytse, and it may be a question whether they were not 
monkeys, and not men at all. As to the Scythians, they were not degraded 
into utter barbarism. I unquestionably believe that the human race sprang 
from but one man and woman, created in the image of God, and that the 
savage races have degenerated from them. When part of a tribe got once 
away from the rest, they would go down rapidly in the scale of civilization, 
as even we see our own degraded classes do in our own midst. I believe 
that when Herodotus and Homer and Hesiod lived and wrote, there were 
no such degraded beings in existence as there are now, but that they have 
been gradually going down and getting more and more degraded. I believe 
that is the only result which can be maintained from all the evidence of 
history, whether afforded by monuments or by myths. But all history should 
be used reasonably and critically. You are no more entitled to believe a 
statement contained in a book written by Hue or by Herodotus simply 
because it is there, and without careful and critical judgment, than you are 
entitled to believe a myth. But sometimes a myth itself is a great testimony 
to something beyond, even though you cannot take it literally and in the way 
in which it is put forward. 
Mr. Reginald Stuart Poole. — I should not have ventured to address 
you this evening had it not been that I think I can afford you some informa- 
tion with regard to the tri-lingual stone which has been referred to. That 
tri-lingual tablet, or, as it has sometimes been called bi-lingual, (because the 
third inscription runs round the edge and was not at first seen,) was discovered 
at Taunis by M. Lepsius. Two other gentlemen, MM. Reinisch and Rossla, 
have also deciphered the inscription, and all three of the translations agree. 
The inscription is a complete one, and any one who will be at the trouble to 
take the three existing dictionaries of hieroglyphs by Chabas, by Young, 
and by Dr. Birch, will be able to translate the hieroglyphic inscription him- 
