Modern Florence
lifts her beautiful form above the tomb of Etruscan Florentia, which in
her turn rose upon the hidden vestiges of anterior towns. And so also
Arezzo, Perugia, Lucca, and many other European sites now occupied by
modern towns and cities, are based upon the relics of archaic
civilizations whose period covers ages incomputable, and whose names
Echo has forgotten to even whisper through "the corridors of Time."
When the Western historian has finally and Unanswerably proven who were
the Pelasgi, at least, and who the Etruscans, and the as mysterious
Iapygians, who seem also to have had an earlier acquaintance with
writing--as proved by their inscriptions--than the Phoenicians, then
only may he menace the Asiatic into acceptance of his own arbitrary data
and dogmas. Then also may he tauntingly ask "how it is that no
appreciable trace is left of such high civilizations as are described in
the Past?"
"Is it supposed that the present European civilization with its
offshoots .... can be destroyed by any inundation or conflagration?"
More easily than was many another civilization.
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