Reviews for The Ruins: Or, Meditation On the Revolutions of Empires ; And, the Law of Nature

The average rating for The Ruins: Or, Meditation On the Revolutions of Empires ; And, the Law of Nature based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2015-05-14 00:00:00 Steffen Leithold I've read the book some years ago: an amazing reflection on ancient civilizations (and questioning of several religions*) in the area of today's Middle East. At times, beyond that geographical area**. Travelling in a vast area (Ottoman Empire and Egypt and Syria) in the year 1784 and visiting the ruins of the ancient city of Palmyra, Volney, unknowingly, summons the Ghost of the ruins with his many questions and melancholic state: -what about those times of abundance and life? ...where are the palaces?...what caused the destruction?... why the population not perpetuated?... The answers obtained from this "supernatural voice" agitate the heart of Volney, the Count. (Chapter XIII goes this way: Will the human species ever improve?...; Chapter XV The New Century...) ... ... So was I, in a certain way agitated, when I saw this: Ancient Palmyra ‘under threat’, ISIS militants approach UNESCO site*** * “A Jew would rather die than working on Sabbath; a Persian would die had he to blow the fire with his own breath; for one Hindu man, it’s of the utmost perfection the act of covering with cow excrement and mysteriously saying Aum; a Muslim, thinks he gets all blames absolved, by washing his head and arms, and argues, holding the sword, whether it is better to start by the “tip of fingers or the elbow”. A Christian would think of being condemned to eternal damnations if eating meat on Friday, instead of milk and butter. Oh sublime and truly celestial doctrines!” ** “The whole Asia finds itself submerged in the deepest darkness. The Chinese, governed by rod-despotism and disoriented by superstition, embarrassed by a deficient language, and moreover, by an ill-constructed system of writing, they present themselves as a people of automatons of an aborted civilization”. “The Jesuits tried to paint, with the most beautiful colors, the Chinese government. We know today that that’s no other cause but pure oriental despotism (limited by the use of ‘another’ language, and above all, by an ill-constructed writing). The Chinese people are the proof that in ancient times, until the invention of the alphabetic writing, the human spirit had difficulties developing itself, just like before the Arabic numbers, for the purpose of counting. It all depends on the methods: China won’t change itself unless it changes its language”. *** --- Update Syria and the Middle East are back as major concern: more Ruins?

Review # 2 was written on 2015-05-14 00:00:00 Sacha Cohen I've read the book some years ago. An amazing reflection on ancient civilizations in the area of today Middle East. Travelling in a vast area (Ottoman Empire and Egypt and Syria) in the year 1784 and visiting the ruins of the ancient city of Palmyra, Volney, unknowingly, summons the Ghost of the ruins with his many questions and melancholic state:what about those times of abundance and life? ...where are the palaces?...what caused the destruction?... why the population not perpetuated?... The answers obtained from this "supernatural voice" agitate the heart of Volney, the Count. (Chapter XIII goes this way: will the human species ever improve?) ... ... So was I,in a certain way agitated, when I saw this: Ancient Palmyra ‘under threat’, ISIS militants approach UNESCO site* *