"We do not know," says Wilhelm von Humboldt, in an unpublished
work 'On the Varieties of Languages and Nations', "either from history or
from authentic tradition, any period of time in which the human race has not
been divided into social groups. Whether the gregarious condition was
original, or of subsequent occurrence, we have no historic evidence to show.
The separate mythical relations found to exist independently of one another
in different parts of the earth, appear to refute the first hypothesis, and
concur in ascribing the generation of the whole human race to the union of
one pair. The general prevalence of this myth has cause it to be regarded
as a traditionary record transmitted from the primitive man to his
descendants. But this very circumstance seems rather to prove that it has
no historical foundation, but has simply arisen from an identity in the mode
of intellectual conception, which has every where led man to adopt the same
conclusion regarding identical phenomena; in the same manner as many myths
have doubtlessly arisen, not from any historical connection existing between
them, but rather from an identity in human thought and imagination. Another
evidence in favor of the purely mythical nature of this belief is afforded
by the fact that the first origin of mankind -- a phenomenon which is wholly
beyond the sphere of experience -- is explained in perfect conformity with
existing views, being considered on the principle of the colonization of
some desert island or remote mountainous valley at a period when mankind had
already existed for thousands of years.
Pages:
717
718
719
720
721
722
723
724
725
726
727
728
729
730
731
732
733
734
735
736
737
738
739
740
741