Philosophical Miscellanies; Translated from the French of Cousin, Jouffroy, and B. Constant. with Introductory and Critical Notices. by George Ripley Volume 2 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1838 edition. Excerpt: ...and soon attacked by another, it had no time to pass from the effeminacy which softens the soul, to the civilization which exalts it. It was the destiny of the plains of Asia to awaken the instinct of civilization in the heart of man; but the developement of this instinct required a degree of security which they did not present. The first schools of infant humanity were in countries less exposed than this great highway of barbarians. And yet, neither the desert of sand, which separates Egypt from Syria, nor the high battlements of stately Tyre, nor the rampart of the Taurus, which surrounds Asia Minor like a wall, was a sufficient safeguard against the savage agitations of the centre of Asia. Sooner or later, these three barriers could not but fall before the power of one of those empires, which were alternately established and overthrown by the hands of the barbarians on the banks of the Euphrates. The seeds of civilization required a still more secure asylum. They needed the more remote shelter of the rocks of Greece, and the protection of the ever-rolling seas, in which it was embosomed. Separated from Asia by the Hellespont and the long defiles of Thrace, shielded on the North by the lofty chain of mountains which divides it, with Italy, -from the open plains of Northern Europe, surrounded on every other side by water, Greece combines with all these external fortifications, the advantage of an internal construction, resembling a castle of the Middle Ages. Wall is added to wall, portal to portal, forming an inextricable labyrinth, which always affords a retreat and an asylum for its defenders after every defeat and presents snares and perils to its enemies after every victory. Upon this soil, shone upon by a glorious sun, bathed by romantic..