[177] The principles of government applied to practice at the formation of our Constitution, Mr. Gobineau considers as identical with those laid down at the beginning of every society founded by the Germanic race. In his succeeding volumes he mentions several analogues.--H. [178] M. J. Mohl, _Rapport Annuel à la Société Asiatique_, 1851, p. 92: "The Indian book trade of indigenous productions is extremely lively, and consists of a number of works which are never heard of in Europe, nor ever enter a European's library even in India. Mr. Springer asserts in a letter, that in the single town of Luknau there are thirteen lithographical establishments exclusively occupied with multiplying books for the schools, and he gives a list of considerable length of books, none of which have probably ever reached Europe. The same is the case in Delhi, Agra, Cawnpour, Allahabad, and other cities." [179] The Siamese are probably the most debased in morals of any people on earth. They belong to the remotest outskirts of the Indo-Chinese civilization; yet among them every one knows how to read and write. (Ritter, _Erdkunde, Asien_, vol. iii. p. 1152.) [180] No individual can encompass the whole circle of human knowledge: no civilization comprise at once all the improvements possible to humanity.--H. CHAPTER XIV. MUTUAL RELATIONS OF DIFFERENT MODES OF INTELLECTUAL CULTURE. Necessary consequences of a supposed equality of all races--Uniform testimony of history to the contrary--Traces of extinct civilizations among barbarous tribes--Laws which govern the adoption of a state of civilization by conquered populations--Antagonism of different modes of culture; the Hellenic and Persian, European and Arab, etc. Had it been the will of the Creator to endow all the branches of the human family with equal intellectual capacities, what a glorious tableau would history not unfold before us. All being equally intelligent, equally aware of their true interests, equally capable of triumphing over obstacles, a number of simultaneous and flourishing civilizations would have gladdened every portion of the inhabited globe. While the most ancient Sanscrit nations covered Northern India with harvests, cities, palaces, and temples; and the plains of the Tigris and Euphrates shook under the trampling of Nimrod's cavalry and chariots, the prognathous tribes of Africa would have formed and developed a social system, sagaciously constructed, and productive of brilliant results.