d knowledge have emanated. In the
image of the Creator, man issued from thence, endowed with the gift of
the creative power. Wave after wave of fresh and apparently differing
nationalities followed each other; partially submerging those that had
gone before, and spreading till it had reached the furthest shores of
the Northern seas and the Atlantic, and encircled the Mediterranean.
They all followed the same course from east to west. The Greek
civilization was indeed so dazzling and strong, that it lighted the
world all around; and India, Persia, and Assyria felt its influence
reflected back on its old Asian cradle.

But from the same high watershed[59] flowed other tribal types towards
China, Java, and Japan, that had no affinity with any western
civilization; and while the Assyrian, Persian, Indian, and Mongolian
styles mixed and overlapped so near their sources, that it is
sometimes hardly possible to reason out and classify their
resemblances and their differences, the tribes flowing Eastward turned
aside and went their own way, and have remained till now perfectly
distinct.[60]

In spite of their matchless dexterity in the manipulation of their
materials, the infinite variety of their stitches, and exquisite
finish in execution, carrying out to the utmost point the intended
effect, yet Chinese and Japanese textile art differs in its inner
principles from all our accepted canons of taste; so that their want
of harmony, and sometimes their absurdity, is a puzzle of which we
cannot find the key. This I have already alluded to (p. 3).

I purposely avoid the questions suggested by Chinese art. The immense
antiquity it claims cannot be allowed without hesitation. M. Terrien
de la Couperie, however, believes that he has found the actual point
of departure of Chinese civilization, and he considers it to be an
early offshoot from Babylon.[61] He supports his theory on linguistic
grounds, and we must anxiously wait to see if it is corroborated by
further researches into the earliest records of the archaic Chinese
literature. But immobility in art is a Chinese characteristic, and no
national cataclysms seem to have disturbed it. The oldest specimens
known are very like the most modern. Yet an adept, learned in Chinese
art, can detect the signs which mark its different epochs.

In this they differ from the Japanese, who, added to their inherited
exquisite appreciation of natural beauty, have a power of assimilation
that m