A History of Architecture in all Countries, Volume 1, 3rd ed.: From the Earliest Times to the Present DayFergusson, James
History
A History of Architecture in all Countries, Volume 1, 3rd ed.: From the Earliest Times to the Present Day
Fergusson, James
Architecture -- History
Their institutions for self-government, enumerated above, have probably
done more to elevate the Aryan race than can well be appreciated. When
every man takes, or may take, his share in governing the
commonwealth—when every man must govern himself, and respect the
independence of his neighbour—men cease to be tools, and become
independent reasoning beings. They are taught self-respect, and with
this comes love of truth—of those qualities which command the respect of
their fellow-men; and they are likewise taught that control of their
passions which renders them averse to war; while the more sober
occupations of life prevent the necessity of their seeking, in the
wildness of excitement, that relief from monotony which so frequently
drives other races into those excesses the world has had so often to
deplore. The existence of caste, even in its most modified form,
prevents individual ambition from having that unlimited career which
among other races has so often sacrificed the public weal to the
ambition of an individual.
LITERATURE.
The Aryan races employed an alphabet at so early a period of their
history that we cannot now tell when or how it was introduced among
them; and it was, even when we first become acquainted with it, a far
more perfect alphabet than that of the Semitic races, though apparently
formed on its basis. Nothing in it was dependent on memory. It possessed
vowels, and all that was necessary to enunciate sounds with perfect and
absolute precision. In consequence of this, and of the perfect structure
of their language, they were enabled to indulge in philosophical
speculation, to write treatises on grammar and logic, and generally to
assume a literary position which other races never attained to.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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