“It must have cost you decenniums to gather all the material which you lay before the reader in such a systematic form. All the nations of the world, civilized and uncivilized, ancient and modern, seem to have contributed their share to your stately structure, which has my full admiration. Viewed in this light alone, your book will always prove a regular storehouse of knowledge for students of primitive rites and religions, and of various other kindred subjects.
“It is, of course, impossible for any specialist in one certain line to fully estimate the hundreds of new features presented in your recent work. It would be bold on my part, at least, to express an opinion on questions with which I am not entirely familiar. As, however, you treat facts which bear closely upon my special line of investigation,–the oldest history, languages, and civilization of the Euphrates valley, and of their rites in general,–I can heartily assure you that, according to my examination, you have proved your main points beyond question.
“It is first of all sure that you are the first who fully recognized, and in fact rediscovered, the world-wide importance and fundamental significance of the threshold in all ancient religions. You have re-established an ancient rite which was practically entirely forgotten by modern scholars. By restoring the threshold to its proper place in primitive religions, you have rendered a great service to comparative religion, archeology, and even philology. Many a statement by ancient writers was obscure to us, many a word puzzling as to its original etymology and significance, and not a few facts brought to light by recent excavations remained incoherent and mysterious, because we had lost sight of the significance of the threshold, which, very appropriately, you style the first altar of the human race.
“In reading your book I could not help wondering that all these combinations which appear quite clear and plausible now were not made a long while ago by other investigators. The earliest inscribed monuments of ancient Babylonia, dating from the fifth millennium before Christ, are door-sockets which bear ample witness to the correctness of your theory. Professor Hommel’s recent ingenious analysis of the Assyrian word for “to pray,” which was a result of his study of your ‘Threshold Covenant,’ is one of the strongest evidences in favor of your arguments. Our own recent excavations of the lowest strata of the temple of Bêl in Nippur, which takes us back to 7000 B.C., testify in the same direction.