British writers on classic lands: A literary sketch by the Hon. Albert S. G. Canning

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1907. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER I British Writers on Classic Lands CHAPTER I URING the last century the most celebrated countries of the ancient world in Western Asia, Northern Africa and South-Eastern Europe have evidently been more explored, examined, and written about than at any previous period; yet their elucidation owed comparatively little to the natives of these interesting lands. Neither the Arabs in Asia or Africa, nor the Turks or Persians, or even the modern Greeks, have given much assistance in the investigation of their ancestral countries. This grand enterprise was chiefly, if not mainly, due to the learning, energy, and resources of the western European nations. It was from Britain, France, Germany, and Italy that industrious explorers, animated by literary instruction and strengthened by the warlike powers of their rulers over sea and land, have chiefly brought to light the many partly concealed wonders of the ancient world, while to Spaniards and Portuguese the discovery and conquest of the larger part of America were mostly due. These last two nations, however, as if exhausted or engrossed by their enterprises in the New World, have left both the peaceful investigation, as well as the military conquest of the Old, almost entirely to northern and western Europeans. The ancient lands of Assyria, Egypt, and Palestine have found, among many others during the nineteenth century, the British writers, George Rawlinson and Austen Layard, enthusiastic scholars, combining the knowledge of classical writers with the energy of enterprising travellers. These men, living fortunately in a time of prevailing Christian power or influence, were thereby protected, strengthened, and encouraged by their European rulers and fellow-countrymen. Thus aided by such national advantages ...