Page:A History of Art in Chaldæa & Assyria Vol 2.djvu/420

A History of Art in Ciialo.ka and Assyria. between the various foreign countries to which it was conveyed. We have, on the one hand, those countries that were in direct contact with Egypt and ChakLnea, such as Syria, for instance, which dealt immediately with the manufacturers of the Delta and the Euphrates valley. On the other there were distant clients who scarcely knew the name of the country from which their merchandize was brought. They made their purchases at second or even third hand. The influence of the two great primitive civilizations was naturally felt with less force at a distance than when close at hand. In the case of next-door neighbours, it no doubt favoured the progress of industry and the creation of wealth, but at the same time it must have weighed like an incubus on the national genius and imagination ; by furnishing it with a complete repertory of forms and types it must have discouraged it and prevented it from becoming truly creative. On the other hand, with those who only came under that influence when attenuated, and, as it were, refracted by interposed media, the effect was quite different. It gave useful hints and suggestions, stimulating the spirit at the same time as it dispensed with the necessity of long periods of experiment and uncertainty. In the latter case originality was not crushed in the bud ; it was enabled to develop itself with complete freedom. These differences will be pointed out hereafter as they occur, but it was necessary to insist before going any further on the common features presented and the similar parts played by Egypt and Chaldaea in all the earlier ages of antiquity. These two peoples, who were so long practically forgotten, were the real founders of western civilization. To be ignorant of this capital fact or to shut one's eyes to it for a moment is to lose one's grasp of the true rise and subsequent development of the system which is in course of completion under our eyes and with our help. Five or six centuries seem to have been sufficient for Greece and Italy to raise themselves to the pitch of refinement and culture suggested to us by the names of Pericles, of Alexander and Augustus. At first one is not amazed by this singular phenomenon. One thinks a satisfactory reason has been given for it by a few general statements as to the genius of those gifted races. But criticism has now grown to be more exacting. It has more precise observations and more numerous points of