The Saint Paul globe., 1897-05-30
CIVILIZATIONS BALANCE SHEET.

ton is a positive benefit to humanity
up to the point where the enervating
influence of luxury comes into play as
factor In general, too, it is assumed
that civilization is clear gain, and that,
up to the point mentioned, nothing is
lost by the process of education and re-
finement This theory is combatted in
an interesting and spirited essay in the
Atlantic Monthly by Henry Childs Mer-
vim, who holds to the idea that for ev-
cry gain of civilization there is a cor
responding loss, and that, SO far as
the attainment of perfection is. con-
cerned, Emerson summed up the truth
when he stated that change Is not
amelioration; that where society ac-
quires new arts, it loses old Instincts"
that GENERALIZATION is quite as far
from perfection as is barbarism
The case for the theory, which has
for it's central idea the assertion that
man is at the best he may possibly at
tain when the emotions Of the savage
anu lllS lOSlCdl LIOIdlIIy VI CoiluIe dIC
evenly balanced, though so briefly
stated as to be but little better than
sketched in outline, is so striking as
to command attention. Illustrated by
concrete examples from craftsmanship,
literature, art and politics, there can
be no doubt as to its cleverness, though
the author perhaps lays himself open
to the charge he makes against others,
proving by his own adroitness the
point he would make in general, that
cleverness is an evil and not a benefit
of overculture.
With the major premise assumed
there can be no quarrel. It must be
accepted as true that the masterful
men and mastery works, whether Of
history of any people before culture has
quite supplanted the emotionalism of
savage instinct. 1t must also of neces-
sity be admitted that when men cease
to be generous, noble and brave from
nature and act from motives of edu-
Gated morality, they often hesitate until
opportunity is lost; or in the next de-
gree of advancement-or retrogression
content themselves with selfish soph-
istry until the natural emotions of pity
and kindness are lost under the
veneer of culture
The remedy suggested to obviate the
-,
individuals and families, is an occa-
sional return to the SOIL To be more
specific, it is asserted that any family
that would preserve a position Of lead
ership in any nation must maintain a
country home, and at least once in
three generations return to mother ma
ture for new energy and life. But this
remedy while possible in the case of
individuals, is not practicable in the
preservation Of nations. The number of
those who get away from nature in
the sense that intellect dominates in
stinet, tends, in modern life, to rapidly
| increase. If it be true that the safety
of every nation, as the essayist con-
cludes, rests, not In it's cultured and
educated people, but in the great mass
of the people, those in whom the saw
age is only partially tanned and who
act rightly. in questions of morality,
from instinct, it is evident that it can
be but a question Of time when the
mass will cease to be a majority and.
the political structure must topple for
want of emotional foundation.
1t is this conclusion, implied rather
than expressed, which is to be accept
ed with reserve. Nations have become
enervated by vice and luxury and have
fallen, returning to the soil of neces-
sity, but 1t is not established that their
fate has been the resultant Of forces
exerted as is assumed by the essayist.
If it be accepted as true that such is