Persia conquered Lydia, which is credited with the important invention of coinage. The coins first issued by the Lydians were of electrum, an alloy of gold and silver. King Crœsus later issued coins of pure gold and pure silver.
Directly east of Syria was Phrygia. It was in Phrygia that the flute, the first real musical instrument, is supposed to have been invented, in about the sixteenth century B. C.
*****
The brief résumé just given of the inventions made in prehistoric times, and also in historic times in China, Egypt and western Asia, shows that before Greece had attained any civilization whatever the most important inventions for the betterment of mankind had been already made. These inventions were not only mechanical appliances and such arts as spinning, weaving, pottery making, etc., that were intended for safety and material benefit generally; for they included systems of government and codes of laws and even religions that aimed to elevate man, and that did elevate him mentally, morally and spiritually.
At the present day, when inventions follow each other with such rapidity that even students and experts cannot keep themselves informed about them, except in certain specialties, it is natural for us to feel that no inventing of any consequence was ever done before. In fact, the present age is called "The Age of Invention." Yet all the inventions of the last century added together have not had so great influence on mankind as the invention of writing, or of the bow and arrow, or the wheel—or almost any of the inventions we have noted. Not only are they not so important,—they were not so novel, they did not constitute steps so long, they did not mark such epochs, and probably resulted from less brilliant pictures on the mind. Can anyone think that the telephone was as novel or as important as the wheel? Can anyone suppose that the steam engine, or the electric telegraph, or the powder-gun took us as long a step upward to civilization as did papyrus? Will anyone declare that the railroad ushered in as great an epoch as the sailing ship? Is it probable that the first conception of the phonograph made quite so startling a picture on the accustomed brain of the habitual inventor as that of the art of making fire did on the virgin mentality of the savage?
The last contribution of western Asia to the betterment of the world was Christianity. It was not made until after Greece had reached the prime of her civilization and passed beyond it; and some may consider it a sacrilege to call it an invention. It was an inspiration from On High. But dare anyone assert that the wonderful conceptions that have come unbidden to the minds of the great inventors were not, in their degree, also inspirations from On High? Whence did they come? That they came there can be no doubt. Whence did they come? Our religion teaches us that God directs our paths, that He puts good thoughts into our minds. It also teaches us that He inspired the men who wrote the Bible. In the ordinary meaning of the word "inspired," Some One inspired every noble and novel and beneficent achievement that was ever made. Who?
*****
Without insisting tediously on the meaning of the word invention, one may point out that the word is used continually to mean a mental act by which something heretofore non-existent is created. The expertest of all word users, in any language, cried:
"Oh, for a muse that would ascend the highest heaven of invention"; expressing almost exactly what the present author is trying to express, and indicating invention as the highest effort of the mind.
In this sense, may I reverently claim the Christian Religion as an invention, one of the greatest inventions ever made?