The new era., 1910-06-16
ROMANES LECTURE GIVEN
BY THEODORE ROOSEVELT
Event Postponed by Kings Death Attracts a
Large Audience at Oxford---Lord Curzon
-, Introduces the Distinguished American.

y
| and England. The differences between
| these new" American and these "old"
| European nations are not as great as those
| which separate the new" nations one
from another and the "old" nations one
| from another. There are In each case
| very real differences between the new and
the old nation-dfferences both for good
and for evil; but In each case there is
the same ancestral history to reckon with.
| the same type of civilization, with its at
| tendant benefits and shortcomings; and.
| after the pioneer stages passed. the
problems to be solved. In spite of superb
| cial differences, are in their essence the
| same; they are those that confront all
| civilized peoples. not those that confront
peoples struggling from barbarian into
| civilization.
| So. when we speak of the death" Of
tribe, nation or a civilization. the term
| may be used for either one or two totally
| different processes; the analogy with
| what occurs in biological history being
| complete. Certain tribes of savages, the
| Tasmanians. for instance, and various lit
| tie clans of American Indians. have within
| the last century or two completely died
| out; all of the individuals have perished.
leaving no descendants. and the blood has
| disappeared. Certain other tribes of
Indians have as tribes disappeared or
are now disappearing; but their blood
remains being absorbed into the veins of
the white intruders, or of the black men
introduced by these white intruders: so
that in reality they merely being
transformed into something absolutely
different from what they were.
like wide diversity in fact may be
| covered in the statement that a cviliza-
ton has died out"
Phenomena That Puzzle.
In dealing. not with groups of human
beings in simple and primitive relations,
but with highly complex. highly special
lied. civilized. or semi-civilized societies,
there is need of great caution in drawing
analogies with what has occurred In the
development of the animal world. Yet
even in these cases 1t is curious to Sc.
how some of the phenomena in the
growth and disappearance of these COM
plex. artificial groups of human beings
resemble what has happened in myriads
of instances in the history of life on this
planet.
Why do great artificial empires whose
citizens are knit by bond of speech and
culture much more than by a bond of
blood. show periods of extraordinary
growth. and again OF sudden lingering
decay? In some cases we can answer
readily enough; in other We can
not as yet even guess what the proper
answer should be. II in any such case
the centrifugal forces overcome the CEN
tripetal, the nation Will OF course fly to
pieces. and the reason for its failure to
| every one. The minute that the spirit
| which finds Its healthy development in
| local self government. and in the antidote
| to the dangers of an extreme ccntraliza-
| ton. develops into mere particularism.
| into inability to combine effectively for
| achievement of common end. then 1t Is
| hopeless to expect great results. Poland
| and certain republics of the western
| hemisphere the standard examples of
| failure of this kind: and the United States
wOtll1 have nd
name would have become a byword of
| derison. II the forces of union had not
triumphed in the civil war. So the
| growth of soft luxury after it has reached
| certain point becomes a national danger
| patent to ALL Again. 1t needs but little of
| the vision of a seer to foretell what must
| happen in any community II the average
| woman ceases to become the mother of
| family of healthy children If the average
| man loses the will and the power to work
up to old age and to fight whenever tho
need arises. II the homely. commonplace
| virtues die out. II strength of character
vanishes in graceful self-indulgence, II the
| virile qualities atrophy. then the nation
| has lost what no material prosperity can
| offset
| But there are plenty of other phenom-
| ena wholly or partially inexplicable. 1t is
| easy to see why Rome trended downward
| when great slave-tilled farms spread over
what had once been countryside of
|
ury and sensuality ate like acids into the
fiber of the upper classes. while the mass
| of the citizens grew to depend. not upon
| their own exertions but upon the state
| for their pleasures and their very liveli-
| hood But this does not explain why the
] forward movement stopped at different
| times. so far different matters were
concerned; at one time as regards litera-
| ture, at another time as regards architec-
! ture, at another time as regards city
| h1iiI a ,x.t,,, tl,a
springs OF one kind of energy dried up
| while there yet no cessation of an
| other kind.
Holland as an Example.
Take another and smaller instance. that
of Holland. For n period covering a
little more than the seventeenth century
Holland. like some of the Italian city
states at an earlier period, stood on the
dangerous heights of greatness beside ma
tions vastly her superior in territory
and population as to make 1t inevitable
that sooner or later she must fall from the
glorious and perilous eminence to which
she had been raised by her own indomita-
BILE soul Her fall came: it could not
have been indefinitely postponed: but 1t
came far quicker than 1t needed to come,
because of shortcomings her part to
which both Great Britain and the United
States would be wise to pay heed. Her
government was sIngularly ineffective the
decentralization being such as often to
permit the separatist, the particuarist,
spirit OF the provinces to rob the central
authority of all efficiency. This was bad
enough But the fatal weakness was that
SO common in rich. peace-ioving societies.
where men hate to think of war as poss-
Bile. and try to Justify their own reluctance
to face 1t either by high-sounding moral
platitudes or else by a philosophy of
short-sighted materialism. The Dutch
were very wealthy. They grew to be-
lieve that they could hire others to do
their fighting for them on land; and on
sea- where they did their own fighting.
and fought very we'll, they refused In
time of peace to make ready fleets so ef-
ficient as either to insure the Dutch
against the peace being broken or else
to give them the victory when war
came. To be opulent and unarmed Is to
secure ease in the present at the almost
certain cost of disaster In the future.