The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1910-06-07


Holland lost when she did her posi-
ton among the Powers; but it is far
more difficult to explain why at the
same time there should have come
at least a partial loss of position in
the world of art and letters. Some
spark of divine fire burned itself out
in the national soul. As the line of
great statesmen, OF great warriors
by land and sea, came to an end. so
the line of the great Dutch painters
ended. The loss of prominence in
the schols followed the loss of pre-
eminence in camp and in council
chamber.
"In the little republic of Holland,
as in the great empire of Rome, it
was not death which came, but trans
| formation Both Holland and Italy
teach us that races that fall may rise
again. In Holland, as in the Scan
| dinavian Kingdoms of Norway and
Sweden, there was, in a sense, no de-
cadence at all. There was nothing
analogous to what has befallen so
| many countries; no lowering of the
! general standard of well-being, no
general loss of vitality, no depopula-
| ton. What happened was, first, Is
Towering time, in which the country's
men of action and men of thought
gave it a commanding position among
the nations of the day. than this pc
Rod of command passed. and the
State revolved in an eddy, aside from
the sweep of the mighty current of
world life; and yet the people them
! selves in their internal relations re-
manned substantially unchanged, and
in many fields of endeavor have now
recovered themselves and play again
leading part"
The speaker went on to analyze the
national record of Italy, which took in
the story of Rome. Going over the
ages of supremacy of the white races
he proceeded to say:
There are questions which we of
the great civilized nations are ever
tempted to ask of the future. Is our
time of growth drawing to an end?
Are we as nations soon to come I'M
der the rule of that great law OF
death which is itself but part of the
great law of life? None can tell.
Forces that We can see and other
forces that are hidden or that can but
| dimly be apprehended are at work
all round us, both for good and for
| evil. The growth in luxury, in love
| of ease, in taste for vapid and fri
volous excitement, is both evident
and unhealthy. The most ominous
sign is the diminution in the birth
now to larger or lesser degree shar-
| ed by most of the civilized nations of
central and western Europe, of Anne
RIGA and Australia; a diminution so
great that if it continues for the next
century at the rate which has obtain
ed for the last twenty five years, al
the more highly civilized peoples viii
be stationary or else have begun to
go backward in population, while
many of them will have already gone
very far backward
There is much that should give
us concern for the future. But there
is much also which should give us
hope. No man is more apt to be mis-
taken than the prophet of evil. After
the French Revolution in 1880, Me
buhr hazarded the guess that all civil
lization was about to go down with a
crash, that we were all about to share
the fall of third and fourth century
Rome-a respectable but painfully
overworked comparison. The fears
once expressed by the followers of
Nautilus as to the future of the world
have proved groundless as regards
the civilized portion of the world: 1t
is strange indeed to look back at Car
lyle's prophecies of some seventy
years ago, and then think of the
teeming life of achievement, the life
of conquest of every kind, and of
noble effort crowned by success,
which has been ours for the two ge-
nerations since he complained to
high Heaven that all the tales had
been told and all the songs sung, and
that all the deeds really worth doing
mad been done. l believe with all my
heart that a great future remains for
us; but whether it does or does not,
our duty is not altered. However the
battle may go, the soldier worthy of
the name will with utmost vigor do
his allotted task, and bear himself as