New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1910-05-13

trace Our descent. In the south and east
! It was DESTROYED later. bu: far more thor
/ oughly, by invaders Of an utterly different
| type Both conquests were of great i'm
portance. but il was the northern conquest
which in its ultimate effects was of by far
/ the greatest Importance.
! Humanity in the Dark Ages.
With the advent OF the Dark Ages the
movement. OF course. ceased, and it did
not being anew for many centuries, while
thousand years passed before II was
once more in full swing. SO far as Euro
! pean civilization. so far as tire world civil
ization of to-day. is concerned. During al!
those centuries the civilized world in our
acceptation OF the term. was occupied. as
its chief task in slowly climbing back 10
the position from which it had fallen after
the age of the Antonines. Of course. d
general statement like this must be accept
/ ed with qualifications. There is no hard
! and fast line between one age or period
and another and in no age IS either prog
ress or retrogression universal in all things.
There were many points in which the Mid
Ole Ages. because of the simple fact that
they were Christian. surpassed the brill
liant pagan civilization OF the past, and
there are some points in which the civili-
cation that succeeded them has sunk be
low the level of the ages which saw such
mighty masterpieces of poetry, of erchi-
tecture-especially cathedral. architecture
and of serene spiritual and forceful lay
leadership But they were centuries Of
violence. rapine and cruel injustice. and
truth was so little needed 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.
Islan1's Power in Europe
During this period there were several
very important extra European movements.
ore or two of which deeply affected
Europe Islam arose and conquered far
and wide uniting fundamentally different
races into q brotherhood OF feeling which
Christianity has never been able to rival
ard at the time of the Crusades profound
" influencing European culture. 1t pro-
duced a civilization of it's own. brilliant
and here and there useful, but hopeiessly
limited when compared with the civiliza-
alton of which we ourselves are the heirs
The great cultured peoples OF South
eastern and Eastern Asia continued their
checkered development totally unaffected
by and without knowledge Of any Euro
pean influence.
: Throughout the whole period there came
against Europe. out of the Unknown wastes
of Central Asia. an endless succession OF
strange and terrible conqueror races whose
mission was mere Decentralization and
Avar, Mongol, Tartar and Turk These
fierce and squalid tribes of warrior horse
men failed mankind with red scourges-
wasted and destroyed. and then vanished
from the ground they had overrun. But in
no way worth noting did they count in the
advance of mankind
The Revival of Learning.
At last, a little over four hundred years
ago. the movement toward q world civili-
cation took up its interrupted march. The
beginning of the modern movement may
roughly be taken as synchronizing with the
discovery of printing and with that series
of bold sea ventures which eliminated II
the discovery of America: and after these
two epochal feats had begun TO produce
their full effects in material and intellectual
life it became inevitable that civilization
should therea fter differ not only in degree
but even in kind from all that had gone be-
fore Immediately after the voyages Of Co
ilITnbus and Vasco da Cana there began a
tremendous religious ferment; the awaken
ing of intellect went hand in hand with the
moral uprising: the great names of Copper
nicus. Bruno Kepler and Calico show that
the mind OF man was breaking the letters
that had cramped it and for the first time
experimentation was used a check u9or
observation and theorization. Since then,
century by century, the changes have in
creased in rapidity and complexity, AMI
have attained their maximum in both re-
spects during the century just past. In
stead of being directed by one or two DOM
inant peoples. as was the case with all
similar movements OF the past, the new
movement was shared b. many different
nations. From every standpoint it has beer
of infinitely greater moment than anything
hitherto seen. Not in one but in many DIFF
ferent peoples there has been extraordinary
growth in wealth, in population. in power
of organization and in mastery over me
chanical activity and natural resources All
Of this has been accompanied and signalized
by an immense outbursI Of energy and rest
less initiative The result is varied as
1t Is striking.
Effect Of Military Triurphs.
In the first place, representatives of THIS
civilization by their conquest of space, were
enabled to spread into all the practically
vacant continents. while at the same time,
by their triumphs i organization and me-
chanicaI invention, they acquired an I'M
heard Of military superiority as compared
with their former rivals. To these two
facts is primarily due the further fact that
for the first time there is really sonnet hing
that approaches world civilization, world
movement. The spread of the European
peoples since the days of Ferdinand the
Catholic and Ivan the Terrible has been
nd eve rineNt
In places the conQuests have been ethnici
that is. there has been a new wandering Of
the peoples. and new commemorative have
sprung up in which the people are entirely
or mainly OF European blood This is what
happened in the temperate and sub-tropical
regions of the Western Hemisphere, in Aus
traIia, in portions OF Northern Asia and
Southern Africa. In ether places the cor
Guest has been purely political the Euro
peans representing for the most part merely
small caste of soldiers and administrators,
As in most of tropical Asia and in much of
tropjcaI Africa. Finally, here and there
instances occur where there has been no
conquest at all. but where an alien people
is profoundly and radically changed by the
mere impact of Western civilization. The
x1ost extraordinary instance of this OF
course is Japan; for Japans growth and
change during the last half century have
been in many ways the most striking phe-
nonenon of all history. Intensely proud Of