The Fundamental Principles Of Old And New World Civilizations (part 5)

The present investigation brings into prominence the fact that, just as the older Andean art closely resembles that of the early Mediterranean, an observation first made by Prof. F. W. Putnam, [pg 546] so the fundamental principles, numerical scheme and plan of the state founded by the foreign Incas in Peru, resembled those formulated by Plato in his description of an ideal state.

It is a remarkable fact, on which the writer lays utmost stress, that, whereas there is a marked difference between the Chinese and the Mexican and Peruvian divisions of the elements and numerical cycles, the American systems exactly agree with those propounded by Greek philosophers and said to have reached them from more ancient centres of culture, presumably through the Phœnicians. On the other hand, there undoubtedly exist remarkable analogies between the Chinese and Hindu and Mexican sociological, chronological, cyclical systems, their principles being precisely the same. These close analogies as well as the marked divergences which have been noted can only be satisfactorily accounted for by the assumption that each of these countries derived their civilization from the same source. Over and over again different writers have pointed out undeniable analogies and resemblances between the highest forms of American civilization and that of China, India, Asia Minor, the Mediterranean and Western European countries. At the same time modern research has shown that the seafarers, whom we shall conveniently designate as the Phœnicians, acted as the intermediaries of ancient Old World civilization and formulated a culture which incorporated and formed a curious compound of elements drawn from different countries and people.

While investigation, moreover, reveals that the conquest of Phœnicia and intermittent periods of warfare and persecution directed against the religion and democratic principles of its people, must have furnished the most powerful incentive for them to extend their voyages of discovery and seek distant lands where colonies might be established. It is obvious that, if safe places of refuge were found, their existence would remain a secret and that, in course of time, a complete isolation of distant colonies would result.

Considering that it would be premature to formulate a final conclusion on a subject which demands so much more investigation, I merely observe here that, as far as I can see, the conditions which existed and survive amongst the aborigines of America would be fully accounted for by the assumption that they received certain elements of culture and civilization from Mediterranean seafarers who, at widely separated, critical periods of Old World [pg 547] history, may have transported refugees and would-be colonists or founders of ideal republics and “divine polities” to different parts of the hidden or divine land of “the West,” the existence of which was known by tradition to the Egyptian priesthood.

Under such circumstances it is apparent how the American Continent could have become an isolated area of preservation where archaic and primitive forms of civilization, religious cult, symbolism and industries, drawn at different epochs, from various, more or less important centres or from the outposts of Old World culture, would be handed down, transformed through the active and increasing influence of the native elements. The latter must always have been markedly predominant since it must be assumed, if at all, that the number of individuals who reached America, and the subsequent duration of their lives, must have been extremely limited. What is more, as Montezuma related that the colonists, from whom he descended, married native women, it is obvious that, from the outset, foreign and native influences were combined.

There was one main element, however, underlying both foreign and native civilizations, which formed the basis of both, united and made them as one, namely, the recognition of fixed immutable laws governing the universe, attained, by both races, by long-continued observation of Polaris and the “Northern” constellations.

To me the most precious result of the preceding investigation is the gradual recognition that the entire intellectual, moral and religious evolution of mankind has been the result of the fixed laws which govern the universe. From the time when our world began to revolve in space, at intervals, a luminous point of fixity in space has existed and an unknown force, irresistible as that which controls the magnetic needle and gyrostat, appears to have raised [pg 548] the mind of man from ignorance and darkness and guided his footsteps towards a higher scale of existence and a more elevated conception of a supreme central power.

From this, amongst favored races, the higher conception of an invisible supreme deity seems to have been gradually developed by the human mind, as it rose in the scale of spiritual evolution. To many, the idea that it was the observation of the stars and the recognition of the fixity of Polaris which first led man to realize the existence of immutable laws, and of a supreme celestial power ruling the universe and to form the sacred sign of the cross, will appear as the fulfilment of the text in Genesis, which expressly mentions as the first, and therefore chief, purpose for which the lights in the firmament were created, that “they should be for signs and portents, for seasons, for days and years ... and for lights.”

When we realize that all revolving spheres in space, and the beings that may live upon them, have been, are, or shall be subject to the same conditions as govern our tiny world, forcing their intellectual evolution to proceed in parallel lines to ours, we are compelled to recognize the existence of One Great Plan, and to render reverent homage to the Master-Architect of the Universe.

[pg 549]