the Egyptian and Chaldean Civilisations were, as appears now to be certain, White Races, who were, in Egypt and Chaldea, not Aborigines, but Colonists and Conquerors—White Races who had come from Southern Arabia as their Secondary Centre of Dispersion, and, in all probability, from Central Asia as their Primary Centre of Dispersion, would not the Priests and Magi of this aristocratic White Race be careful to record its traditions of primæval Homes; of the heroic leaders of the Foretime who introduced the elements at least of Culture among the (
Greek characters) living (Greek characters)—"lawlessly and after the manner of beasts", as a Chaldean Magus and Historian actually records. Would they not record its traditions of whatever great events, such as a Deluge, may have occurred in that Foretime; and not only its traditions of Culture-heroes, but also of Conquest-heroes—subduers of Beasts and Men; and likewise its traditions of Kinship with other branches of the White Family of Mankind? It thus appears probable that there was at least some core of truth in Paradise-, in Foretime-, and in Kinship-myths.[1] And it appears certain that the method of ascertaining whether there was such truth or not was just the reverse of that unfortunately adopted by the great and still lamented scholar, François Lenormant. We must start, as it appeared to me, from the investigation of the earliest forms of these myths in the Egyptian and Chaldean Mythologies, and with these compare the unquestionably far later variants in the Semitic and Aryan Mythologies, and not make any one of these later variants, such as the Biblical, the standard of comparison. How far I have been successful in showing that primæval historical traditions are to be found in these myths, it is for others to judge. Here I have only to point out that, if Civilisation originated in such a Conflict of Higher and Lower Races as appears certain, then the probability, at least, is that as one class of Myths, the Cosmogonic, or Philosophical, had their origin in scientific, and not merely savage, observations and conceptions; so, a second class, the Historical, had their origin in reminiscences of actual events in the history of the early pre-Semitic, and pre-Aryan, or Archaian White Race.
But a Class of Myths, with still other Origins, has to be noted—
- ↑ Traditions of the Archaian White Races, as above cited.
