The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1913-12-15
FERRERo'S FALLACY

Ferrcro, the italian historian who has
written Of Rome. Greece and Egypt, is
publishing a book entitled ''Betwoen
Two Worlds,' in which he follows his
customary process of framing philo'
sophie reneralizations This time he CON
trasts the conservatism of the old world
with the restless spirit of change and
progress which is tho main characters
tic of the present day, especially in the
United States.
Not content with the scientific re-
serve OF our most recent historians, who
confine themselves to the somewhat cold
and comfortless task OF collecting the
facts of the ages and leaving the phil
osophy TO the reader, Fererro, in bril-
liant but sometimes futile fashion, tries
to explain the phenomena Of history
In his new book, for example, he states
that Rome, either ancient or medieval,
did not aspire after what he calls
''progress This element in civiliza-
ton. nc declares, is a modern invention,
Speaking OF ancient and modern
ideals of life, ne declares that the an
clients produced few things and pro-
duced them slowly; that they consid'
cred the increase of riches nothing more
than painful necessity; that they al
ways sought to attain in everything
and attain through difficulties a GER
tain type of perfection, artistic, liter
ary, moral, or religious. He adds justly
that our civilization has been compelled
to abandon the ideal of perfection and
that the difference between America
and old Europe is that in America the
principle Of quantity is much more en-
ergetic than in Europe. where the an
cient spirit of quality still asserts it.
self in spite Of every obstacle.
Even those of moderate acauaint-
ance with ancient and medieval his
tory will believe that they have a right
to differ with Signor Ferrero, especial
ly in his striking statement that the
ancients and the men of the middle
ages did not struggle after progress.
All progress is based on that which
has gone before. One man makes a
discovery today, another man a dis
covery tomorrow, and the third man
combines the two discoveries TO at
80, do
zled by our advance along certain lines
of investigation that we are prone to
ignore the ancient discoveries that
made our present advancement posi-
bic.
II would seem to require con-
siderable daring on the part of
the Italian historian to say
that the Greeks did not seek to
progress along certain welldefned lines.
The Athenian philosophers paved the
way for all our modern thought, and in
some departments of thought we have
advanced little beyond their frontier
The Romans developed a great system
of law. and the Greeks and Romans es.
tablished governments that have served
rs models for all succeeding nations in
the framing of their institutions. The
fine arts made great progress in Greece
and in Rome, and in the middle ages
painting, sculpture and architecture
were carried 10 such a high plane tINt
| today our greatest geniuses have no,
been able to excel the older standards
a.. In other lines ancient and medieval
progress was marked, but because We
have achieved great heights in the last
| few hundred years we assume superior
airs, and, like Ferrero, forget the rung.
OF the ladder by which we have mount
cd. In medicine, for example, we have
accomplished wonderful results during 2
| single century, and vet a comparison OF
| these results with those attained by The
medical scientists of the thirteenth cen
! tury will not appear so remarkable, il
we take into consideration the data
available 10 the men OF that earlier age
1t is Of no Importance that the an
clients failed to employ the word "prog
ress. If by the word perfection - OF
by any assemblage OF words they meant
| the same thing. There has been an ebl
and flow in progress since the dawn OF
| history. but on the whole the progres.
has been steady. II would be straug,
I