The Springfield herald., 1910-06-10

tho Morse sea-thisves conquer and trans
form Normandy. Sicily. and the British
| islands: we use It in an entirely different
sense from that In which we use 1t when
speaking Of the new states that grew up
around Warsaw. Kief. Novgorod. and
Moscow. as the wild savages of tho
steppes and the marshy forests struggled
haitingly and stumblingly upward to
become builders of cities and to form
, stable governments. The Kingdoms of
Charlemagne and Alfred were new"
compared with the empire on the Bos-
phorus: they were also In every way dif
ferent: their lines of ancestral descent had
nothing In common with those of the
| Caesars of Byzantium: their social prob
lens and aftertime history were totally.
different. This ls not true of those new"
nations which spring direct from old
ions. Brazil tho Argentine. the United
States. are all new nations. compared
with the nations of Europe: but with
whatever changes In detail. their civiliza-
tion Is nevertheless of the general Euro
and England. The differences between
these new American and these ''old'
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 nation-differences both for good
and for evil: but in each case there Is
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 nre those that confront all
| civilized peoples. not those that confront
peoples struggling from harbarism into
civilization.
| So. when speak of the death" of
| tribe, a nation or n civilization, the term
nm " tor fytn
| different processes; the analogy with
| what occurs in biological history being
| complete. Certain tribes of savages. the
| Tasmanians. 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: 30
| that in reality they merely being
| transformed into something absolutely
| different from what they were.
| A like wide diversity in fact may be
| covered in the statement that a civiiiza-
| tion 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 In drawing
| analoEies with what has occurred in the
| development of the animal world. Yet
| even in these cases II Is curious to sec
| how 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 a 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- 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 parucularism.
into inability to combine effectively for
achievement of n 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. II the forces of union had not
| triumphed in the civil war. So the
| growth of soft luxury after It has reached
a certain point becomes n national danger
| patent to all. Again. It 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 II the average
man loses the will and the power to work
up to old age and to fight whenever the
aAI nrtG fha how aIxf ,V.1a
virtues die out. II strength of character
| vanishes in graceful self-indulgence. II 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. 1t Is
easy to see why Rome trended downward
when great slave-tilled farms sprea" over
what had once been a countryside of
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 as different matters were
concerned; at one time as regards litera-
ture. at another time as regards architec-
ture. at another time regards city
building. We cannot even guess why the
springs Of one kind of energy dried up
| Wnlle tnere was yet no cessation or an
other kind.
Holland as an Example.
Take another and smaller instance. that
of Holland. For period covering q
little more than the seventeenth century
Holland, like some of the Italian city
states at earlier period, stood on the
dangerous heights of greatness beside ma
tions so vastly her superior in territory
and population to make 1t inevitable
that sooner or later she must fall from the
glorious and perilous eminence to which
| she had been raised by her own indomta-
BILE soul Her fall came: 1t could not
have been indefinitely postponed: but II
came far quicker than 1t needed to come
because of shortcomings her part tc
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 &c
permit the separatist the particularist
spirit of the provinces to rob the centra
authority of all efficiency. This was bac
enough. But the fatal weakness was that
so common in rich. peace-loving societies
where men hate to think OF war as posi-.
Bile. and try to Justify their own reluctance
to face It either by high-sounding mora
| platitudes or else by a philosophy OF
sbort-sighted materialism The Dutct