historical lectures and essays(查尔斯金斯利历史讲座)






one war too many; and was cut off in the Scythian deserts; falling before 

the arrows of mere savages; and how their queen; Tomyris; poured blood 

down the throat of the dead corpse; with the words; 〃Glut thyself with the 

gore   for   which   thou   hast   thirsted。〃  But   it   may   be   truefor   Xenophon 

states it expressly; and with detailthat Cyrus; from the very time of his 

triumph; became an Eastern despot; a sultan or a shah; living apart from 

his people in mysterious splendour; in the vast fortified palace which he 

built   for   himself;   and   imitating   and   causing   his   nobles   and   satraps   to 

imitate;   in   all   but   vice   and   effeminacy;   the   very   Medes   whom   he   had 

conquered。       And of this there is no doubtthat his sons and their empire 



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ran   rapidly   through   that   same   vicious   circle   of   corruption   to   which   all 

despotisms are doomed; and became within 250 years; even as the Medes; 

the Chaldeans; the Lydians; whom they had conquered; children no longer 

of   Ahura   Mazda;   but   of   Ahriman;   of   darkness   and   not   of   light;   to   be 

conquered   by   Alexander   and   his        Greeks   even   more   rapidly   and       more 

shamefully than they had conquered the East。 

     This is the short epic of the Persian Empire; ending; alas! as all human 

epics are wont to end; sadly; if not shamefully。 

     But   let   me   ask   you;   Did   I   say   too   much;   when   I   said;   that   to   these 

Persians we owe that we are here to…night? 

     I do not say that without them we should not have been here。                     God; I 

presume; when He is minded to do anything; has more than one way of 

doing it。 

     But that we are now the last link in a chain of causes and effects which 

reaches as far back as the emigration of the Persians southward from the 

plateau of Pamir; we cannot doubt。 

     For see。     By the fall of Babylon and its empire the Jews were freed 

from   their   captivitylarge   numbers   of   them   at   leastand   sent   home   to 

their   own   Jerusalem。       What   motives   prompted   Cyrus;   and   Darius   after 

him; to do that deed? 

     Those who like to impute the lowest motives may say; if they will; that 

Daniel and the later Isaiah found it politic to worship the rising sun; and 

flatter the Persian conquerors:            and that Cyrus and Darius in turn were 

glad to see Jerusalem rebuilt; as an impregnable frontier fortress between 

them   and   Egypt。      Be   it   so;   I;   who   wish   to   talk   of   things   noble;   pure; 

lovely;   and    of  good   report;    would    rather   point   you    once   more    to  the 

magnificent       poetry   of   the  later   Isaiah   which    mences        at  the  40th 

chapter of the Book of Isaiah; and say There; upon the very face of the 

document; stands written the fact that the sympathy between the faithful 

Persian and the faithful Jew… …the two puritans of the Old World; the two 

haters of lies; idolatries; superstitions; was actually as intense as it ought to 

have been; as it must have been。 



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     Be that as it may; the return of the Jews to Jerusalem preserved for us 

the Old Testament; while it restored to them a national centre; a sacred city; 

like   that   of   Delphi   to   the   Greeks;   Rome   to   the   Romans;   Mecca   to   the 

Muslim;   loyalty   to   which   prevented   their   being   utterly   absorbed   by   the 

more civilised Eastern races among whom they had been scattered abroad 

as colonies of captives。 

     Then another; and a seemingly needful link of cause and effect ensued: 

Alexander of Macedon destroyed the Persian Empire; and the East became 

Greek; and Alexandria; rather than Jerusalem; became the head…quarters of 

Jewish   learning。       But   for   that   very   cause;   the   Scriptures   were   not   left 

inaccessible to the mass of mankind; like the old Pehlevi liturgies of the 

Zend…avesta; or the old Sanscrit Vedas; in an obsolete and hieratic tongue; 

but   were   translated   into;   and   continued   in;   the   then   all   but   world…wide 

Hellenic   speech;   which   was   to   the   ancient   world   what   French   is   to   the 

modern。 

     Then the East became Roman; without losing its Greek speech。                         And 

under     the   wide    domination       of  that   later   Roman      Empirewhich        had 

subdued       and    organised     the   whole     known      world;    save    the   Parthian 

descendants of those old Persians; and our old Teutonic forefathers in their 

German   forests   and   on their   Scandinavian   shoresthat   Divine  book   was 

carried     far  and    wide;    East   and   West;    and    South;    from    the   heart   of 

Abyssinia   to   the   mountains   of   Armenia;   and   to   the   isles   of   the   ocean; 

beyond Britain itself to Ireland and to the Hebrides。 

     And that bookso strangely coinciding with the old creed of the earlier 

Persiansthat   book;   long   misunderstood;   long   overlain   by   the   dust;   and 

overgrown by the parasitic fungi of centuries; that book it was which sent 

to   these   trans…Atlantic   shores   the   founders   of   your   great   nation。       That 

book gave them their instinct of Freedom; tempered by reverence for Law。 

That book gave them their hatred of idolatry; and made them not only say 

but act upon their own words; with these old Persians and with the Jewish 

prophets   alike;   Sacrifice   and   burnt   offering   thou   wouldst   not; Then   said 

we; Lo; we e。           In the volume of the book it is written of us; that we 



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e   to   do   thy   will;   O   God。    Yes;   long   and   fantastic   is   the   chain   of 

causes and effects; which links you here to the old heroes who came down 

from   Central Asia;   because   the   land   had   grown   so   wondrous   cold;   that 

there were ten months of winter to two of summer; and when simply after 

warmth   and   life;   and   food   for   them   and   for   their   flocks;   they   wandered 

forth to found and help to found a spiritual kingdom。 

     And   even   in   their  migration;   far  back in   these  dim  and   mystic   ages; 

have we found the earliest link of the long chain?                  Not so。      What if the 

legend of   the change   of climate   be the dim recollection of an   enormous 

physical   fact?      What   if   it;   and   the   gradual   depopulation   of   the   whole 

north of Asia; be owing; as geologists now suspect; to the slow and age… 

long uprise of the whole of Siberia; thrusting the warm Arctic sea farther 

and farther to the northward; and placing between it and the Highlands of 

Thibet   an   ever…increasing   breadth   of   icy   land;   destroying   animals;   and 

driving whole races southward; in search of the summer and the sun? 

     What if the first link in the chain; as yet conceivable by man; should 

be the cosmic changes in the distribution of land and water; which filled 

the mouths of the Siberian rivers with frozen carcases of woolly mammoth 

and     rhinoceros;     and    those   again;    doubt    it  not;   of  other    revolutions; 

reaching back and back; and on and on; into the infinite unknown?                         Why 

not?     For so are all human destinies 

       Bound with gold chains unto the throne of God。 



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      ANCIENT CIVILISATION {5} {6} 



     There is a theory abroad in the world just now about the origin of the 

human race; which has so many patent and powerful physiological facts to 

support it that we must not lightly say that it is absurd or impossible; and 

that is; that man’s mortal body and brain were derived from some animal 

and ape…like creature。       Of that I am not going to speak now。            My subject 

is:     How      this  creature    called   man;    from   whatever     source    derived; 

became civilised; rational; and moral。 And I am sorry to say that there is 

tacked on by many to the first theory; another which does not follow from 

it; and which has really nothing to do with it; and it is this:               That man; 

with all his wonderful and mysterious aspirations; always unfulfilled yet 

always     precious;    at  once   his   torment    and   his  joy;  his   very   hope   of 

everlasting   life;   that   man;   I