Goldsboro weekly argus. [volume] (Goldsboro, N.C.) 1885-1909, 1900-11-29
The March OF Empire.
BY Prof. Garrett p. serviss.

BY Prof. Garrett p. Serviss. e
+ The war in China and the awaken
Eng OF the Orient which has preceded
and will follow 1t irresistibly carry
mems minds back to thai mysterious
principle Of human action which
Bishop Berkeley expressed in his fam
Dus line:
WESTWARD the course Of empire takes
its way"
OF this poetical statement. Put In an
other way, it may be said that the
course of empire follows the sun. AS
day breaks in the east and closes In
the west, SO the march of civilization is
always from the east toward the west.
ut began in China ~uncounted centuries
6 and, like a tidal wave that has
encircled the globe, we behold 1t break
ing again on the shores of China In it's
constant westward progress. Neither
chains Of mountains nor deserts nor
oceans can arrest 1t.
The curious fact has been pointed
out that the westward impetus Is SO
great that only when the circumstance
es are specially favorable does the cur
rent spread far sideways. Thus
Africa, south of Egypt, has remained
to this day virtually untouched by the
encircIing flood of civilization. The
waters Of empire have reared past.
covering Europe, which lay directly In
their path, but finding it easier to
spread across the broad Atlantic than
TO turn aside into the Dark Continent.
And on this side of the ocean we ace a
similar phenomenon. The current has
swept over the middle of North Amer
fca, where it is still swelling without
having yet attaine / its food tide, and
has already 1eaped the barrier Of the
Pacific, passing over to Japan and
China, which are now catching the
first ripples of it's approaching surge,
without having spread southwark be-
yond the border of the United States.
Another notable popularity Of this
strange tendency Of human progress to
run round the earth in pursuit of the
sun is that 1t moves with accelerated
velocity. It was slow in passing from
Asia to Europe. It fingered for many
centuries in Greece and Italy, although
fits speed increased when its full effect
was once felt in Western Europe, while
b crossing Of the Atlantic was like
an inspiration Of fresh power, driving
it onward with wonderful velocity, so
tina in America it has travelled from
ocean to ocean in a small fraction of
the time that was required to traverse
the continent of Europe.
MIR. Brooks Adams assures as that
b spirit Of empire already Possesses
greater vitality in the United States
than in Europe. However that nay
be-, fl is certain tina from the United
States it is still streaming westward.
and. gliding the Pacific isles as 1t pass
es it begins plainly to glow once more
on the oriental coasts Of Asia.
Whether old China will awake from
her age-long sleep at this magic touch
and become in the course OF time again
the centre of civilization is q most in
tefesting question, with the solution Of
which we are not at present concerned.
But what is the cause of this west-
ward tendency Of the spirit Of rule and
progress? Why should 1t follew the
of the sun from east to west?
Perhaps this is not SO great O. nays
terry as it appears on the surface TO be.
1t is not necessary to imagine that the
sunbeams possess an occult power, a
hidden magnetism, forever Drawing
mankind toward them az s~upfowsTs
are bent and turned on their stalks. No
physical attraction, but simply a ten
dency Of the mind, is needed to account
for the phenomenon. 1t is an express
sion Of the universal desire to preaons
daylight.
Imagine the earth to be inhabited by
but a single man, and he endowed with
q thousand years Of life. Would he
not go round the planet from EAST &c
west, following the sum, rather than In
the opposite direction? The morning.
sun is a rising phenomenon (which
seems to approach and which
grows brighter. One only needs to
wait for it to come and stand over
head in noontide splendor. But the
afternoon sun is a declining and with
drawing phenomenon, and The natural
tendency of those who enjoy It's rays
is to follow it, in order to prolong its
period Of radiance and postpone its
setting. Upon so simple a principle as
this may be based an explanation OF
the apparently mysterious march OF
empire.
If the explanation is correst the
cause of that march would be reversed
in case the earth turned in the appo-
site direction, so that the sun rose IN
the west and set in the east But IL
any event, man proves by the ceaseless
treading of his tribes and his empires
I'm its track that he is a true child Cd
the sun