The kings, priests, and peoples who dwelt by the Nile or Euphrates are
found thinking much the same thoughts, doing much the same deeds,
leaving at least very similar records, while time passes in tens of
centuries. Of course there was change; of course there were action and
reaction in influence between them and their neighbors; and the
movement of change, of development, material, mental, spiritual, was
much faster than anything that had occurred during the aeons of mere
savagery. But in contradistinction to modern times the movement was
very slow indeed, and, moreover, in each case it was strongly
localized; while the field of endeavor was narrow. There were certain
conquests by man over nature; there were certain conquests in the
domain of pure intellect; there were certain extensions which spread
the area of civilized mankind. But it would be hard to speak of it as
a "world movement" at all; for by far the greater part of the
habitable globe was not only unknown, but its existence unguessed at,
so far as peoples with any civilization whatsoever were concerned.
With the downfall of these ancient civilizations there sprang into
prominence those peoples with whom our own cultural history may be
said to begin. Those ideas and influences in our lives which we can
consciously trace back at all are in the great majority of instances
to be traced to the Jew, the Greek, or the Roman; and the ordinary
man, when he speaks of the nations of antiquity, has in mind
specifically these three peoples--although, judged even by the history
of which we have record, theirs is a very modern antiquity indeed.
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