Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1856-03-20
Criminal Gssapn.
For the Yorkville Enquirer.
CIVILIZATION:
IN WHAT DOES IT CONSIST ?
BY W. F. NANCE.

Mutable and transitory is dominion. How
various have been the circumstances which
marked its progress from the great Asiatic
rivers-from the luxurious cline of Persia
and from theocratic Egypt, to fertile Greece,
to graver Rome, to lovely taly-and thence,
northward, to the wilds of Germany, whence
it spread to Spain, to France, to England,
to Russia-till at last
Many and various have been the phases of
civilization, and man has not yet approached
his primitive condition of purity and excel
lence. 1t is in the contemplation of the
many miseries to which the progressive march
of empire has subjected man, that the ques-
ton naturally arises, and is even now dispu-
ted, whether civilization is good or an evil.
And while we are, like Homer's Sthenelas,
"returning thanks to God that we are infn-
itely better than our fathers question
comes upon us and we are forcibly led to at
tempt its solution. When the impartial at
tempt is made, when disinterested search
into the existing state Of things is ended,
many nation sees its true condition indica-
ted by evidence as plain and palpable as the
fiery writing on the wall Of Belshazzar's
temple For all who shall awake and strive
to correct their political errors, there is yet
in store brighter future; but woe to those
who, seeing their degeneracy, fail to act and
console themselves with the delusive belief
that they have already reached human per-
fection. The present is a period Of chan
ges, of changes vast and great in their i'm
portance to the human race. 1t appears as
speedy fulfllment of the seemingly inspir-
ed prophecy of an eminent Southern states
man, that the governments Of the more od-
eanced and cirili=ed portions Of tie gtode
are IN state of transition. 1t then becomes
the present generation earnestly to enquire,
in what does civilization consist TO deter
mine its most suitable phase, and use all,
their highest, efforts for its advancement and
permanent establishment.
"In words contemplated singly there are
boundless stores of moral and historic truth,
and no less of passion and imagination, laid
up,-lessons of infinite worth. -" No word
is oftener used without clear and compre-
hensive idea Of its true chronological mean
ing than is civili=ation. None admits of
deeper and more refined analysis, and none
provesitself far too wider for mere scientific
definition. Indeed the days of scholastic
philosophy have so long since passed away,
that it would, doubtless, appear presumptu-
Gus to attempt its revival in the slightest de-
gree by proceeding at once to define specif-
cally a word of such great importance. 1t
is to common-sense-to heg"nius Of human-
ity-that we are to look for the deepest, truest
Specification of this complex term. And
what is the answer given q? Its fundamental
notion is one of progress-of social-advance-
ment But does it stop at this Is no more
of value attached to this important term p
Civilization implies an idea Of perfection, and
if this were the only answer given by our
oracle, then human perfection would consist
of no more exalted elements than are those
of perfect machinery. But it does not stop
at this 1T tells of higher progress, of a
nobler development-of the progress of the
mind of man development of his intellec-
tual and moral nature. Civilization is great,
aye, the greatest "fact," in which all others
merge and in which all others live. at is
the progress of the human race towards re.
aizing the idea of humanity, through the ex.
*Any reader of this paper who has previously
perused ''Schlegels Philosophy of History" may
be struck with the great resemblance Of the pres
ent passage and one which occurs therein--but if
closer examination was deemed in the slightest
degree requisite, they would be found to differ.
Trench on Words-Intr0ductio