and islands of the globe, that the prophecy alluded to at the
head of this chapter was uttered, to be afterward recorded by
Moses, and preserved by the Hebrews and the Christians till the
end of time.

Never before has it been so near its accomplishment as we see it
now; and the great Joseph de Maistre was the first to point this
out distinctly. Yet he did not intend to say that it is only in
our times that Europe has been placed by Providence at the head
of human affairs; he only meant that what the prophet saw and
announced six thousand years ago seems now to be on the point
of complete realization.

It will be interesting to examine, first, in a general way, how
the race of Japhet, to whom Europe was given as a dwelling place,
gradually crept more and more into prominence after having at the
outset been cast into the shade by the posterity of the two other
sons of Noah.

The Asiatic and African races, the posterity of Sem and Cham,
appear in our days destitute of all energy, and incapable not
only of ruling over foreign races, but even of standing alone and
escaping a foreign yoke. It has not been so from the beginning.
There was a period of wonderful activity for them. Asia and Africa
for many ages were in turn the respective centres of civilization
and of human history; and the material relics of their former
energy still astonish all European travellers who visit the Pyramids
of Egypt, the obelisks and temples of Nubia and Ethiopia, the
immense stone structures of Arabia, Petraea and Persia, as well
as the stupendous pagodas of Hindostan. How, under a burning sun,