The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1910-05-12

while all his fellows d1ed- IN the Sp4I =
final domain he contributed religion
which has been the most potent of all
factors in its effect on the subsequent
history of mankind: but none OF his
other contributions com pare with the
Iegacies left US by the Greek and the
Roman.
THE Graeco-Roman world saw a CIV
fIfzatfon far more brilliant far more
varied and intense, than any that had
gone before it, and one that affected a
far larger share Of the worlds sur
face For the first time there began to
be something which at least foreshad-
owed a world movement in the sense
that il affected q considerable portion
of the worlds surface and that it rep
resented what was incomparably the
most important of 3u that was hap
peuing in world history at the time. In
breadth and depth the field of intel
Ieciuai interest had greatly broadened
Al the same time that the physical
area affected by the civilization had
similarly extended. Instead of a civill-
cation affecting only one river valley
or one nook of the Mediterranean,
there was a civilization which directly
or indirectly influenced mankind from
the Desert of Sahara to the Baltic,
from the Atlantic ocean to tina west
ernmost mountain chains that spring
from the Himalayas- Throughout most
of this region there began to work
certain Influences which, though with
widely varying intensity, did neverthe-
i=~e tend to affect a large portion of
mankind In many of the forms of
science. in almost all the forms of art,
there was great activit,' In addition
to great soldiers there Were great ad
ministrators and statesmen whose
concern was with the fundamental
questions of social and civil life Moth
ing like the width and variety of in
tellectual achievement and under
vto ha hot
and for the first time we come across
great intellectual leaders, great philos-
opherS and writer's whose works are a
part of all that is highest in modern
thought, whose writings are as alive
today as when thew We're first issued:
daring and original temper, a phflos-
opher like DemOcritus, q poet like Lu
cretius, whose minds lcaped ahead
through the centuries and saw what
nome Of then q ntem poraries saw. but
WING. VIE Eampered by their sur
r0undings that it was physically i'm
possible for them to leave to the later
world much concrete addition to
knowledge. The civilization was one
of comparatively rapid change, viewed
by the standard of Babylon and Mem
phis- There was incesSant movement;
and, moreover, the whole system went
dCWn with a crash to seeming destruc-
ton after q period short compared
with that covered by the reigns of a
score of Egyptian dynasties. or with
the tine that rIapsed between a Baby
iOniaE defeat b' Elam and a war six
teen centuries later which fully
avenged it.
When Civilization Fell.
This civilization fourished with bril-
liant spIendor. Then it fell In its
northern seats it was overwhelmed by
a wave of barbarism from among those
6a 1f-CaUao0 nonV1aS
and I, my hearers, trace our decent. In
the south and east it was destroyed
ter. but far more thoroughly by in
vaders of an utterly different type.
Both conquests were of great impor-
lance; but it was the northern con-
quest which in its ultimate effects was
of by far the greatest Importance.
With the advent of the Dark Ages
the movement of course ceased. and it
did not begin anew for many centuries:
while a thousand years passed before If
was once more in full swing, so far as
European civilization, so far as the
world civilization of t5day. is concern
ed During all those centuries the
civilized world. in our acceptation of
the. term, was occupied, as its chief
task, in slowly climbing back to the
position from which it had fallen after
the age of the Antonines. OF course a
general statement like this must be ac-
cepted with qualifications. There is 10
hard and fast line between one age or
period and another, and in no age is
either progress or retrOgreSsion uni
versal in all things. There were many
point in which the Middle Ages, be-
cause of the simple fact that they were
Christian. surpassed the brilliant pagan
civilization of the past; and there are
some points in which the civilization
that succeeded them has sunk below
thu level of the ages which saw such
mighty masterpieces of poetry. uH
architecture-espe cialIy cathedral arch
itecture-and of serene spiritual and
forceful lay leadership. But they were
centuries of violence, rapine. and cruel
injustice; and truth was so little heed
ed that the noble and daring spirits
who sought it, especially in its scientific
form. did so in deadly peril of the fagot
and the halter.
During this period there were several
very important eXtra-EurOpean move
nents, one or two of which deeply af-
fected Europe. Islam arose, and con-
quered far and wide, uniting funda-
mentally different races into a brother
hood of feeling which Christianity has
never been able to rival and at the
time Of the Crusades profoundly III
fiuencing European culture. 1t pro-
duced civilization of its own, brilliant
G1d here and there useful, but hope
lessly limited when compared with the
civilization Of which we ourselves are
the heirs. The great cultured peoples
of southeastern and eastern Asia con-
tinued their checkered development to-
tally unaffected by. and without
knowledge of, any European influence.
Throughout the whole period there
came against Europe, out of the ur-
known wastes of central Asia. an end
less succession of strange and terrible
conqueror races whose mission was
mere Decentralization and AYar Mon
gol. Tartar. and Turk These fierce and
squalid tribes of warrior horsemen
failed mankind with red scourges,
wasted and destroyed, and then vanish
ed from the ground they had overrun.
But in no way worth noting did they
count in the advance of mankind.
The Modern Movement.
At last. a little over 400 years ago.
the movement towards a world civiIiza-
ton took up its interrupted march. The