ASIATIC NATIONS. 205 examples, we may learn that nothing can be more true than the converse of the proposition so fre- quently maintained, that civilization emanated from the East. Excluding the nations of the Chinese stamp of civilization, who have little in common with the rest of mankind, civilization and genius decrease as we go eastward. Whatever is enno- bling, or bears the marks of genius and enterprise in the civilization of the Asiatic nations, may fairly be traced to the European race.* The trade of Arabia with the East has generally been conducted from the ports on the lied Sea, and those on the ocean near it. Mocha, Jeddah, and Aden. During the reign of the Arsacida) in Persia, it would appear that the Persians for a moment took some share in the commerce of the east from the Persian Gulf. The Arabians, im-
- " In what way, therefore/' says Smith, " has the policy
of Europe contributed either to the first establishment or to the present grandeur of the colonies of America ? In one way, and in one way only, it has contributed a good deal. Magna vinan Mater! It bred and formed the men who were capable of achieving such great actions, and of laying the foundation of so great an empire; and there is no other quarter of the world of which the policy is capable of form- ing, or has ever actually and in fact formed, such men. The colonies owe to the policy of Europe the education and great views of their active and enterprising founders ; and some of the greatest and most important of them, so far as concerns their internal government, owe to it scarce any thing esQ."— Wealth of Nations, Vol. II p. 136.
