The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1882-01-04
rs THE WORLD GRO WING
WO RSEe


The close of year is an occasion for
retrospect. Is the world growing any
better To Judge of this we must read
history; we must cast our eye over long
periods. We are very apt to Judge every
thing by very limited experience, and
the mass of men do not realise that there
are other countries than their own, or
other ages than the one they live in.
What does the average American know
of the busy world of hopes and fears that
beats in Siam or Japan? What does he
know of the busy life that throbbed
century ago in France or England? how
much less of the activities, the doubts,
the fears, the Joys, the pangs, that ami
mated the breasts of the millions that
filed the ancient world-Roman, Greek,
Egyptian, Chaldaan?
When we compare the past twenty
years with the previous twenty, most
sober-minded men must conclude that
society has not improved in morals in
England and America in the present
generation; that there has in fact been
marked change for the worse. There is
vastly more scepticism in religious mat
ters, to begin with; there is less fidelity
to truth in the churches; there has also
been developed an intensely qoorzdhy
spirit, nourished by the sensualistic phil
osophy of the day, which has lowered
the tone of morals, so that we find more
reckless extravaganza, less integrity in
business, more drunkenness, less female
modesty, stronger appetite for frivolous
excitements, than characterised the So
ciety in which our fathers and grand
fathers moved.
But allowing all this to be true, and
it Is very sad fact-for it is with our
own day, and the period that lOe live in,
that we of this year 1882 have to do-ad-
hitting it, we observe, to be true that we
have been struck by one of those periodic
storms which sweep over human society
In the history of morals, is it true at the
same time that the world is not getting
better, comparing long cycles of time {?
May not the current flow steadily on Ito
use a common illustration, despite the
fact that tide or wind may seem to turn
Che waters back?
Female vanity and female extrava-
gance drew forth the burning denuncia-
ton of the Hebrew prophet twenty-f five
hundred years ago. Gin that day the
Lord will take away the bravery of their
tinkling ornaments about their feet, and
their cauls, and their round tires like the
moon, the chains, and the bracelets, and
the muflers, the bonnets, and the orna-
ments of the legs, and the head bands,
and the tablets, and the earrings, the
rings, and nose jewels, the changeable
suits Of apparel, and the mantles, and the
wimples, and the crisping-pins, the glass
es, and the fine linen, and the hoods, and
the walls"
1t is an old story-to come down to
later times-the rapacity, the cruelty,
the prodigality, the bestiality, which
reigned in the old Roman world Just be-
fore and for several centuries after the
Christian era. We read how Pompey
extorted $25 100000 from Armenia how
Sylla eztorted some $15,O00,O0O from an
other province; how the consul Servilius
C@Po, having despatched an enormous
sum Of gold and silver with an escort,
caused the escort to be murdered and the
money intercepted on its way" We read
Of Roman general who sent for pris-
oner Of war and struck his head off with
his own hands in order to let a lady see
what she declared she had never wit
uessed-a man beheaded. We read Of
Che suppers Of Lucullus which cost 81 600
and the story runs that one Of the wealthy
Romans fed his lampreys with human
flesh. We know from Juvenal that cary
ing was taught as an art in his day by
professors, and that 5000 and $3.50 were