River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1889-09-12
ANCIENT CIVILIZATION.
Men Then Were just as Keen aud Acti'
as They Are To-day.

Men Then Were Just as Keen aud Active
as They Are To-day.
Modern man thinks himself fine
fellow, and habitually contrasts his
virtues, wisdom, intellectually and
inveutiveness with the corresponding
qualities possessed by his predecessors
of every age, much TO the disadvantage
of the latter. This cOnceit is amiable
enough. 1t has been held by every
generation Of the past. 1t will gov
ern the men of the future, who will re-
gard the people of our era with pity as
inferior to their remarkable selves.
Many able writer's have bent their
energies to the puncturing of this
balloon of vanity. Wendell Phillip,
famous lecture on THE Lost Arts
was given to thousands of audi
ences, which marveled at the
wonderful accomplishments of men
of ancient times, and departed
thanking Providence that they were
reserved to live and act in later and
better times. Prof. Max Muller's last
contribution TO the FOrtnightly Re-
view goes over the same ground and
will probably have similar vanishing
effect upon the minds of all except a
few of its most thoughtful readers. It
is, however, worth while to study some
of its arguments, if only crudely TO re-
alize that men made up of flesh and
blood are the same kind of creatures
whenever and wherever they live, that
they went through the same struggles
for existence, had the same love of
thought and inventive capacities, and
were actuated by the same passions in
the days of the Pharaohs as in these
last years of the dying nineteenth cent
ury.
Consider with Prof. Muller that the
philosophy and poetry of Greece and
Rome still live in Milton, Racine aud
Goethe" You can see that Frederic
Harrison is as truly the intellectual
child OF Aristotle as be admits himself
to be of Augusta Compile. Remember
that the invention of the alphabet was a
greater triumph of mind than the dis
covery of the spinning-jenny, and that
!: is owed to the Egyptians, who first
produced hieroglyphics. Your L."
says Max Muller, lis the crouching
lion, your T the cerastes, a serpent
with two horns; your II the Egyptian
picture of a sieve.
The Arabic figures from one to nine
reached Spain through India. To in
vent these was to discover that with
out which the mechanical and electri-
cal sciences could never have become
what they are; that without Wi .ch we
should never have hud steam engines
IND electric telegraphs." Surely, the
ancient Hindoo was not less brilliant
than modern man. The Babylonians
were not fools when they invented
the sexagesimal or sixty system, by
which we still divide the hours
and minutes of time. The Greeks
conceived the idea of coined money
in the seventh century, b. c. They
could not have been less practical or
less thoughtful than the men of to-day.
The forms in which we express our
thoughts, the very phrases We use, are
as old as the art of expression itself
These things ought to be borne in
mind whenever the men of old are I'M
der discussion. They should evoke
new interest in our predecessors in
activity. Above all, they should teach
us that we must not underrate those
who have long since returned to dust.
while we are enjoying the fruits Of
their industry. Living man is better
than his prototype. because he has
learned to be little less sensual, a
little more self-controled and a great
deal less cruel; but he has the same
head on his shoulders. filled with about
the same kind of gray matter. Boston
Globe