The Miller press. [volume] (Miller, S.D.) 190?-current, 1910-05-19

~ 10 what IL Is In England or the united
States.
So much for the geographical side of
the expansion of modern civilization. But
only a few Of the many and intense &C
tivities of modern civilization have found
their expression on this side. The move
ment has been just as striking in its con-
quest over natural forces, In its searching
inquiry into and about the soul of things.
Conquest Over Nature.
Tho conquest over nature has included
an extraordinary increase in every form
of knowledge of the world we live in, and
also an extraordinary increase In the pow
er Of utilizing forces of nature. In both
directions the advance has been very
great during the past four or five CEN
turtles, and In both directions IL has gone
on with ever increasing rapidity during
the last century. After the great age of
Rome had passed, the boundaries of
knowledge shrank, and in many cases IL
was not until well-nigh our own times
that her domain was once again pushed
beyond the ancient landmarks. About the
year $50 A, d. Ptolemy, the geographer,
published his map of central Africa and
the sources of the Nile, and this map was
more accurate than any which we had as
late as 1850 A. d.. More was known OF
physical science. and more OF the truth
about the physical world was guessed at,
In the days of Pliny, than was known or
guessed until the modern movement be-
gan. The case was the same as regards
military science. At the close of the Mid
die Age the weapons were what they
had always been-sword, shield, bow,
spear; and any Improvement in them was
more than offset by the loss in knowledge
of military organization, In the science of
war, and In military leadership since the
days of Hannibal and Caesar.
A hundred years ago, when this uni
versity was founded, the methods of
transportation did not differ in the es-
s~entials from what they had been among
the highly civilized nations of antiquity.
Travellers and merchandise went by land
in wheeled vehicles or on beasts of bur-
den, and by sea in boats propelled by
sails or by oars; and news was conveyed
as IL always had been conveyed. A grad
uate of your university today can go to
mid-Asia or mid-Africa with far less con-
| seriousness OF performing a feat of note
than would have been the case a hundred
years ago with a student who visited
Sicily and Andalusia.
Moreover. the invention and use of ma
chinery run by steam or electricity have
worked a revolution in industry as great
as the revolution in transportation; so
that here again the difference between
ancient and modern civilization Is one not
merely of degree but of kind. In many
vital respects the huge modern city differs
more from all preceding cities than any
OF these differed one from the other; and
the giant factory town is of and by itself
one of the most formidable problems of
modern life.
Steam and electricity have given the
race dominion over land and water such
as II never had before; and now the con-
quest of the air is directly impending. AS
books preserve thought through time, so
the telegraph and the telephone transmit
a. -, ~ 49, n-t --I
therefore minds are waved one ~ an
other without regard to the Limitations of
space and time which formerly forced
each community to work in comparative
isolation. 1t is the same with the b,dy as
with the brain. The machinery OF TIE fac
tory and the farm enormously muliplies
bodily skill and vigor. Countless tanned
intelligences are at work to teach Vi how
to avoid or counteract the effecs of
waste.
The advances in the realm of purelntel-
lect have been OF equal note. and they
have been both intensive and excessive.
Great virgin fields of learning and wis
dom have been discovered by the few,
and at the same time knowledge has
spread among the many to a degree ever
dreamed of before. Old men amorg us
have seen in their own generation the
rise of the first rational science of the
evolution of life. The astronomer ano the
chemist, the psychologist and the his
torian, and all their brethren In manydif-
ferent fields OF wide endeavor, work With
a training and knowledge and mehod
which are in effect instruments of pre-
cision differentiating their labors rom
the labors of their predecessors as the
rifle is differentiated from the bow.
The play of new forces is as eviden in
the moral and spiritual world as In the
world of the mind and the body.
One Danger Of Civilization.
One of the prime dangers of civilization
has always been its tendency to case
the loss of the virile fighting virtues OF
the fighting edge. When men get too ON
Portable and lead too luxurious lives tire
Is always danger lest the ~softness eat ike
an acid into their manliness of fiber. The
barbarian, because Of the very conditsns
of his life, is forced to keep and dev,op
certain hardy qualities which the mar of
civilization tends to lose. whether he be
clerk, factory hand. merchant. or eve a
certain type of farmer. Now I will. lot
assert that in modern civilized socity
these tendencies have been wholly ovr-
come: but there has been a much mre
successful effort to overcome them tim
was the case in the early civilizations.
This is curiously shown by the militsy
history of the Graeco-Roman period as
compared with the history OF the last fur
or five centuries here in Europe ad
among nations of European descent. In
the Grecian and Roman military histcy
the change was steadily from a citizn
army to IN army of mercenaries. In De
days of the early greatness of Athes,
Thebes. and Sparta, In the days when ae
Roman republic conquered what worldit
knew. the armies were filled with citian
soldiers. But gradually the citizens l.
fused to serve in the armies, or becaie
unable to render good service. The Grek
states described by Polybius. with but fw
exceptions, hired others to do their figH-
ing for them. The Romans of the days II
Augustus had utterly ceased to fyrnih
any cavalry, and were rapidly ceashg 20
furnish any infantry. TO the legion. aid
cohorts. When the civilization cane to
an end. there were no longer citizens n
the ranks of the soldiers. The clan,e
=e+aa-*A~--cftizen army 10 the army ,f
mercenaries bad been completed.
Modern Citizens Armies.
Now. the exact reverse has beef the
case with us in modern times. A few
centuries ago the mercenary soldiei was
the principal figure In most armies. Id in
f~Ereat numbers Of Gases ire mercnary
! soldier WAS an alien In ihs-xacs-I-ee-
1fgion In France. In the Thirty lars
wal in Germany. In the wars that hme-
diately marked the beginning of the
breakup of the great Polish kingdou the
regiments. and brigades of foreigu sol
-