Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1895-09-04
IS IT DECADENCE?
A SHARP CRITICISM OF THE DO MOTH
ING TIME IN WHICH WE LIVE.

| ING TIME IN WHICH WE LIVE.
An Age of Mediocrity In Which About
the Only Activity Is In the Direction OF
Fadism-There Are No Great Questions
and No Pre-eminent Men.
1t is a serious question whether we are
In period of dccadence. The whole world
appears to be In a condition OF intellectual
inactivity, or at least without those great
mental struggles which characterized the
recent past. We are numerously following
fads, exercising the mind on TITLES, read
ing and writing trash, and interested IN
few general problems. The long peace OF
the world has enervated men, especially as
there have been no great problems OF peace
even. The preceding century closed IN
storm, the American and French revolu-
tons having excited the energies OF the
world. The present century promises to
close in calm that breeds malaria. Inc
last generation, active over the antislavery
conflict and civil war prolonged Its ex-
element through the German wars against
Austria and France. The present genera
ton Is relatively without interest; people
have nothing specially great to think
| about When 1t was question of saving
| tho country or settling great moral prob
| lens, mems thoughts were great and their
activities on a corresponding scale. The
world was undertaking gigantic tasks, and
brains were in demand. The orator. the
poet, the statesman were busy in their
| greatest creations The intellect Of the
people was feverish. With universal dis
cussion and discussion of weighty prob
lens the times produced men like Beecher,
| Lincoln and Bismarck. Whittier wrote
his ain War Time" the sanitary commits
sion was created, the development Of phi
losophy launched and Italy united The
| world was doing something, and mankind
was conspicuous for working as a whole
| or In great groups.
OF late, however, there is a widespread
feeling that we have nothing to do, and
the people, like idlers, are devising spe-
cious tasks fof themselves, mostly means
of recreation. We are in period of diet
tantism. 1t Is the age of bric-a- brao In
| art, of ceremonies and entertainments In
religion and OF dress in society. Scholars
gossip in clubs, instead Of debate In lyoe-
ums, and college students are known chief
ly as football players. No new philoso-
pliers have been conceived In this age, no
great poems have appeared or remarkable
adventures. 1t Is an age of mediocrity, In
| which many come forward In every de-
partment, but none Is conspicuous. Tho
whole world has been recently convulsed
over wedding. A superficial book on bo-
hemianism has made the greatest success
In literature. The principal interest in
politics Is an easy way to pay debts. So
cialism is as deep as the public can see in.
to government Claptrap interests men,
and public officials are capitalists instead
of statesmen.
Is all this an evidence of decadence or
Is it inseparaole from a long career of
peace? When the great questions are set
tied must the reople turn to the smallg If
anything important interested us we
might go to war whereas now peace Is
maintained by having nothing to fight for
Such langu.d feeling as the present
could hardly be reused to war. We are not
interested enough to dispute seriously,
much less fight. We are making some
progress, indeed, in the refinements of
life, and perhaps advancing in slow way
by catching up with great projects con-
coived when men were more vigorous
But when All age is refining 1t is usually
doing little else. The people are polishing
what they forged in the last generation
This Is perict? of rhetoric when men try
to say nicely instead of think greatly 1t
gives fewer thoughts to the world than 1t
rcstates. BY correcting and identifying
the moro vigorous productions of other Pc
RODS it does It's characteristic work.
Life is not ~ serious as it was 80 years
ago when mcn lived for something. The
question then was how to do, whereas it
is now how to live. Instead Of acting men
| are behaving, and the amenities of life are
our chief interest.
Trying chiefly to get rid of the attr.-
lions of society, we are learning to use
what we havo rather than getting any
thing for humanity We are in period of
adjustment and exercised over what to do
with ourselves. The present problem Is
mainly to keep men good, or rather to
keep them proper. Social life is about the
highest problem we are considering. Men
need to be recalled to the vigorous. The
struggles of life must be entered to pro
duce strong people There is need of
some Of the old Puritan earnestness Life
should DO more serious and lived on n
larger scale. The pleasures take too promi-
nent place, as in the beginning of the
eighteenth century. The ablest minds arc
largely engaged in amusing the people
The drama Is the chief department that
prospers, and the greatest thing now seen
is an opera or pageant. We are celebrating
great deeds instead of doing them If we
are to be much In the near future we must
look around for greater undertakings.
There is enough to be done to make heroes.
Though no new worlds can be discovered
or races freed, there are lines Of enterprise
waiting to DO pursued. Africa is yet to be
settled and reduced to civilization; "a new
baSis is to be found for social life; religion
Is to be conformed to science, and perhaps
new lnstauratio, greater than Bacon's.
Is TO DO applied to interpret the world.
The nineteenth century need not go out
IN dwindling anticlimax.-