The Carlisle independent., 1910-06-09


 from another and the "old' nations one from another. There are in each case very real differences between the new and the old nation-differences 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 it's at tehdant benefits and shortcomings; and, after the pioneer stages are passed the problems to be solved, in spite of superfi- clal differences, are in their essence the same; they are those that confront all clVlllzed peoples, not those that confront peoples struggling from barbarism into civilization.
 So, when we speak of the death" of a 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 Iasman1ans, 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 are merely being transformed into something absolutely different from what they were.
 A like wide diversity in fact may be covered in the statement that civiliza- 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 ized, civilized, or semi-civilized societies there is need of great caution in drawing analogtes with what has occurred in the development of the animal world Yet even in these cases 1t Is curious to see now 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 bond of blood, show periods of extraordinary growth, and again of sudden or lingering decay? In some cases we can answer readily enough; in other cases we can not as yet even guess what the proper answer should be. If 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 become a dominant force is patent to
 
 which finds its healthy development in local elf-government, and in the antidote to the dangers of an extreme centraliza- tion, develops into mere particularism into inability to combine effectively for achievement of a common end, then it is hopeless to expect great results, Poland and certain republics of the western hemisphere are the standard examples of failure of this kind; and the United States would have ranked With them, and its name would have become byword of derision, if 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, it needs but little of the vision of a seer to foretell what must happen in any community If the average woman ceases to become the mother of a family of healthy children, if the average man loses the will and the power to work up to old age and to fight whenever the need arises. If the homely, commonplace virtues die out, if strength of character vanishes in graceful seif-indulgence if 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 It is easy to see why Rome trended downward when great slave-tilled farms spread over what had once been countryside of peasant proprietors, when greed and lux ury and sensuality ate like aci6.s 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 as different matters were concerned; at one time as regards utera- ture at another time as regards architec- ture, at another time as regards city building. We cannot even guess why the springs of one kind of energy dried up while there was yet no cessation of an- other kind.
 Holland as an Example.
 Take another and smaller instanca. that of Holland. For a 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 na- tions so vastly her superior in territory and population as to make it inevitable that sooner or later she must fall from the glorious and perilous emnence to which she had been raised by her own indomita- be soul. Her fall came; 1t could not have been indefinitely postponed: but if came far quicker than 1t needed to come because of shortcomings on 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 partcularist, 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-loving societies. where men hate to think of war as possi- ble, and try to justify their own reluctance to face 1t either by high-sounding moral platitudes or else by 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 well, 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
 It is therefore easy to see why Holland lost when she did her position among the powers, but it Is far more difficult to ex- plain why at the same time there should have come at least partial loss of posi- tion In the world of art and letters Some spark of divine ire burned itself out in the national soul As the line of great tAo x<E