The Yale expositor. (Yale, St. Clair County, Mich.) 1894-current, 1910-06-10

| 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 acknowledgements 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 are 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 barbarism into
| civilization.
So, when we speak OF the death" OF
tribe, a nation or n 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
| Tasmanans. 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
/
transformed into something absolutely
different from what they were.
a like wide diversity in fact may be
| covered In the statement that a civillza-
| 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 i'm drawing
analogies with what has occurred In the
| development of the animal world. Yet
even in these cases IT is curious to see
| how some of the phenomena In the
| growth and disappearance OF these COM
pick, 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 a bond of speech and
| culture much more than by a 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. 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
| become dominant force is patent 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 centraliza-
| ton, develops into mere particuarsm.
! into Inability to combine effectively for
| achievement of a common end then IL 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
| have nj xvii
name would have become a byword Of
| derision, IL 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, II 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 a
| family of healthy children IL the average
man loses the will and the power to work
up TO old age and to fight whenever the
| need arises. III the homely commonplace
virtues die out, II strength of character
vanishes in graceful self-indulgence, IL 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. II is
easy to see why Rome trended downward
| when great slave-tilled farms spread over
| peasant proprietors, when greed and lux
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 lltera-
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 instance. that
of Holland. For 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
lions 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 eminence TO which
she had been raised by her own indomita-
BILE SOUL Her fall came; II could not
have been indefinitely postponed: but II
came far quicker than II needed to come
because OF shortcomings on her part ia
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 10
permit the separntist the particularist
spirit OF the provinces to rob the central
authority OF all efficiency. This was bad
enough. But the fatal weakness was tina,
so common in rich, peace-loving societies
where men hate to think of war as posi-
bic. and try to Justify their own reluctance
to face II either by high-sourdng moral
platitudes OF else by n philosophy OF
short-slghted materialism. The Dutch
were very wealthy They grew to be-
lieve that they could hire others TO dc
their fighting for them on land; and or
sea. where they did their own fighting
and fought very well. they refused In
time OF peace to make ready fleets so ef-
hcient as either to insure the Dutch
against the peace being broken OF else
TO give them the victory when war
came. To be opulent and unarmed IL "a
secure ease in the present at the almost
certain cost of disaster In the future.
II is therefore easy to see why Holland
lost when she did her position among the
powers; but II Is FAR more difficult to ex-
plain why at the same time there should
have come at least a partial loss OF posi-.
tion I'm the world OF art and letters. Some
spark OF divine FIRE burned itself out In