The record-union., 1894-03-08
Mile POSTS OF CIVILIZATION.
The Lecture Last Evening by Dr.
Power
Before the Museum Association
Business Done-The Death
Roll of Nations.

y
the March meeting of each year and re-
quires for election aquorum ofsome sixty
five members. Though there was very
good audience present, a large one for SO
inclement an evening, the necessary
sixty-fve members did not appear among
the people in the hall. and the business
was confined to the reception of reports
OF the Secretary, Treasurer and directors,
! from which it was ordered that commit
! tee prepare a condensed statement oi
facts to submit to the press for public
information as to this public institution,
its needs. the condition of the building,
etc. The election was postponed one
month.
| The lecturer of the evening was then
introduced, DIR. Henry darcy Power.
He is a scholarly gentleman, clear
! thinker, OF easy address, fluent speech
and has ready vocabulary. He interests
without effort to do so, and commands
attention by the conciseness and COM
! pactness of his method Of composition
! and easy delivery. His subject was
"Giimpses ofCivIiization." HeIllustrated
it with many drawings and diagrams of
! his own construction.
The lecturer, who spoke for an hour,
commenced by defining history as ''only
| those events OF which we have cOntempo-
rary monumental or written evidence"
After dealing with the origin of writing,
ii was pointed out that in this sense au-
thentic history commences with oargOn
of Agade in $500 b. C. The civilizations OF
Chaldea and Egypt at this period were
briefly described, and the conclusion ar
rived at that III its essentials things were
much then as now. Then dropping a
thousand years, the lecturer dealt with
the civilization of Egypt at the time of
the pyramid builders, and gave some in
teresting details in regard TO their con-
struction. After again dropping thou
sand years, the origin of the Aryan En-
pires of Persia, Greece and Rome were
touched on, together with the condition
and fall of the Assyrians. Lastly, the
lecturer, coming to the period of the Ro-
man Empire, dWelt at some length on its
similarity to recent social conditions, es-
pecially to those of the last century, and
finished by lsaying that having watched
the course of events through six thou
sand years, we are in a position to drawn
some conclusions. The first thing that
will strike the observer is that the growth
of civilization during this period has been
greater in extent than in amount. AT the
first known date we have but the two
small sparks Of Egypt and Chaldea stand
!
next millennium the flame has extended
to the Hittite nation and Elan: in the next
to Assyria.
Phpnecia, Media, Greece and India
have Joined the ranks of the civilized At
the time of the full Development of the
Roman Empire Italy, Spain and great
deal Of France were similarly advanced.
| Then came the barbarian eruption, dur
ing which civilization first receded,
stopped and then slowly gathered way,
ana with ever-increasing momentum is
rushing through the present TO the fu
ture, enveloping an overwhelming circle
III its benign embrace.
With the discovery of America a new
extension of civilization became possible,
and almost contemporary Herewith came
the European use of printing, 10 which
the modern development OF civilization is
largely due.
This was followed by the use of the ex-
perimental method in science which has
given US steam power and telegraphy, by
which space has become practically an
initiated, and the civilization Of this CEN
tury is separated by an enormous break
from that of the last or any other time.
In other respects, the gentlemen OF
hundred years ago would not have found
life very different in Rome at the time of
Christ, or in Ninevah at the time of
Sennacherib or in Thebes during the
reign of ThOmes I'LL, and even at the
earliest period, almost 5000 years ago,
the enormous engineering work of de-
fecting the river Nile from its bed shows
that the chief elements of society must
have existed in full development.
When we look at the agents who have
produced this extension, we find race
succeeding race and nation succeeding
nation in manner that no one of the
actors in this ever-changing drama could
themselves have foreseen. TO the indus
trious yelloW-skinned Tartars, who built
the first towers and temples in Chaldea,
it must have seemed quite preposterous
that the wandering desert tribes, without
a house to cover them, would ever be
their political and spiritual masters.
When these wandering tribes had set
tied, and grown into the Jewish and the
mighty Assyrian nations, they would
have secuted the notion that the barbar-
GUS Aryan savages who surrounded
them would one day be their conquerors
and attain a higher culture than their
own.
Yet so it happened and not one of. US
here tonight can venture to guess who
our national successors will be. That a
successor viii come, is as certain as our
own death, for nations have their span of
life and go. Chaldea, with all her towers,
palaces. art, religion and science, lived
of earth, covering her mighty ruins, is
all that is left.
Egypt, her rival in antiquity and mag
nificence, died with her. The Jewish
nation lasted a thousand years, and it's
people still exist by reason of their re-
ligiouS eXclusiveneSS and the rancor of
their neighbors. Both are disappearing,
and the Jews will disappear with them.
1he Romans, in spite of their genius,
power and valor, lasted but little over
thousand years; the Grecian Empire
about the same.
The death-roll of the nations is long
one, ana shows many endings; some,
like those we first spoke of, died of old
age; others, like the Gothic and Sara
cenic, were diseased at birth and fell in
their youth; whilst others, like the Moor
ish kingdom and Poland, we're murdered
by their stronger neighbors. One fate or
the other will as surely befall all who
now exist.
But let us not despond. If we have read
our history Alright. each death has given
rise to better birth, however unprom-
ising the newborn babe may have
looked; and, remember, those who were
really ricketty died young.
As pointed out in the beginning of this
lecture, man has lived at least 200,0
years on this planet; whereas, the period
we have considered is but $500 years.
Yet, in that short period, two virtues
have been born. Chastity and humility
were unknown in the earliest historical
period, and their development can be
studied like the growth of flower. Two
new faculties OF enjoyment have come
into being in quite recent times: The love
OF music and the appreciation of the sub
lime in nature. The first is the birth of
our era, the last almost of this century.
And so, the longer we look at this his
tory of the past, the greater becomes our
hope for the future. What new virtues
lie still hidden in the undeveIoped buds
of humanity; what new faculties may
bloom into flower under the sun of in
creasing enlightenment, only the future
can show. But il we exercise the COM