Book excerpt: Whether the West had any right to impose upon Universal History the untrustworthy chronology of a small and unknown Jewish tribe and reject, at the same time, every data as every other tradition furnished by the classical writers of non-Jewish and non-Christian nations is questionable. Had it not been for the efforts of a few Alexandrian and other mystics, Platonists and heathen philosophers, Europe would have never laid her hands even on those few Greek and Roman classics she now possesses. And, having no Past of record themselves, the European critics, historians, and archæologists have not scrupled to deny one to others — whenever the concession excited a sacrifice of biblical prestige. If these incompetent builders of Universal History can persuade their public to accept as authoritative their chronological and ethnological reveries, why should the Eastern student, who has access to quite different and more trustworthy materials, be expected to join in the blind belief of those who defend Western historical infallibility? When the fury of critical bigotry has quite subsided, and Western men are prepared to write History in the interest of truth alone, will the proofs be found of the cyclic law of civilization. Europe has neither the Titanic and Cyclopean masonry of the Ancients, nor even its parchments to preserve the records of its “existing arts and languages.”