Savannah courier. (Savannah, Tenn.) 1885-1979, 1896-01-16
CIVILIZATION A FAILURE.
DIR. Pctrics Sensation Before tho British
Scientists.

Dr. fctrleB sensation Before the British
Scientists.
The most important address made al
the recent session of the British Asso.
citation of Scientists was that of Prof.
w. NJ. Flinders Petrie, d. C. L., LII. d.,
Edwards professor of Egyptology at
University college, London. DR.. Petrie
is one of the most celebrated of British
anthropologists. His address was on
"Racc and Civilization" and in the
course of il he said:
"The foremost principle which should
be always in view is that the civiliza-
ton of any race is not a system which
can be changed at will. Every civiliza-
ton is the growing product of very
complex set of conditions, depending Oh
race and character, on climate, on trade
and every minutia of the circumstances.
To attempt to ter such system apart
from its conditions is impossible. No
charge is legitimate or beneficial to the
real character of people except what
flows from conviction and the lsSHral
growth of the mind. And if the imposi.
ton of Il foreign SYSTEMS injurious how
miserable is the forcing of system
ouch us ours, which is the most complex,
unnatural and artificial that has been
known, q system developed in cold
country amid one of the hardest, least
sympathetic and most self-denying and
calculating of all people of the world.
The result is death; we make dead
house and call it civilization. Scarcely
n single race can bear the contact and
the burden. And then we talk com.
placently about the mysterious decay Of
savages before white men.
"Let us now turn to our attempts on n
higher race, the degenerated and Arab.
nnized descendants of great people,
the Egyptians. Here there is much
ability to work on and also good
standard of comfort and morality, con-
formable to our notions. Yet the plant
ing of another civilization is scarcely to
be borne by them. The Europeanizcd
Egyptian is IN most cases the mere blot
ting-paper of civilization, absorbing
what is most superficial and undesir.
able. Yet some will say: Why not
plant all we can? What can be the
harm of raising the intellect in some
cases, If we cannot do 1t in all? The
harm is that you manufacture idiots.
Some of the peasantry are taught to
read and write, and the result of this
burden which their fathers bore not is
that they become fools. cannot say
this too plainly; an Egyptian who has
had reading and writing thrust on him
is, in every case that have met, half-
witted, silly or incapable of taking care
of himself His intellect and his health
have been undermined and crippled by
the forcing of education.
"Our bigotcd belief in reading and
writing is not in the least justified when
we look at the mass of mankind. The
exquisite art and noble architecture" OF
Mykenae, the undying song of Homer
the extensive trade of the bronze age,
nll belonged to people who never road
|
Or wrote. The great essentials OF a
valuable character-moderation, just
ice, sympathy, politeness and consid
GRAFTON, quick observation, shrcwdn.ss
ability to plan and prearrange, keen
scnse Of the uses and properties OF
things-all these are the qualities oil
which value my Egyptian friends, and
ouch qualities are what should be
evolved by any education worth the
name. The greatest educational inhu
ence, however, Is example. This Ii
obvious when we see how rapidly the
curses Of our civilization spread among
those unhappily subjected to it.
"The contactof Europeans with lower
races is almost always detriment, and
1t is the severest reflection on ourselves
that such should be the case."-N. Y
World.