instead of attempting the rounded period of the Latins and Greeks.

The common traits of character among Semitic nations have been summed up
by one writer under five heads:--1. Pliability combined with iron
fixity of purpose; 2. Depth and force; 3. A yearning for dreamy ease;
4. Capacity for the hardest work; and 5. Love of abstract thought.[33]
Another has thought to find them in the following list:--1. An intuitive
monotheism; 2. Intolerance; 3. Prophetism; 4. Want of the philisophic
and scientific faculties; 5. Want of curiosity; 6. Want of appreciation
of mimetic art; 7. Want of capacity for true political life.[34]
According to the latter writer, "the Semitic race is to be recognized
almost entirely by negative characteristics; it has no mythology, no
epic poetry, no science, no philosophy, no fiction, no plastic arts,
no civil life; everywhere it shows absence of complexity; absence of
combination; an exclusive sentiment of unity."[35] It is not very easy
to reconcile these two views, and not very satisfactory to regard a race
as "characterised by negatives." Agreement should consist in positive
features, and these may perhaps be found, first, in strength and depth
of the religious feeling, combined with firm belief in the personality
of the Deity; secondly, in dogged determination and "iron fixity of
purpose;" thirdly, in inventiveness and skill in the mechanical arts and
other industries; fourthly, in "capacity for hard work;" and, fifthly,
in a certain adaptability and pliability, suiting the race for expansion
and for commerce. All these qualities are perhaps not conspicuous in
all the branches of the Semites, but the majority of them will be found
united in all, and in some the combination would seem to be complete.

It is primarily on account of their language that the Phoenicians are
regarded as Semites. When there are no historical grounds for believing
that a nation has laid aside its own original form of speech, and