The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1915-04-22

man breed and of what does it con-
sist? Briefly, selection thro elimin-
alton and discipline. with an increas-
ed governability and loss in intel
lectual independence and originality.
There is no good evidence, says
Wallace, of any considerable i'm
provement in mans average intel
lectual and moral status during the
whole course of human history.
That higher heroism, the intenser
energy. that high, naughty intellect
ual and moral gigantism with it's
dash and courage is being replaced
with second rate mediocrity and
pliancy. Two forces have been at
work, one deleterious and the other
selective.
AS we look over the whole course
of human history from the vantage
point Of perspective, there are points
which excite feelings other than
those of pride. 1t presents very
much the appearance of troubled
waters.
When first tribal civilization emerg-
ed from the Nile and the Euphrates
they were at each others throat; from
there the miasma of infection
spreads to Greece, thence to the on
rushing Persian hordes which
threatened for time the lamp of
culture; later on the troubled waters,
the legions of Rome and Carthage
are seen to meet; from other direc-
tions the waves of the Tarter, the
Hun, the Goth, the Visigoths and
the Vandal sweep down each vying
with the other in works of distruc-
ton and slaughter. The Saracens
with fanatical zeal threatened for
time to deluge civilization but was
stayed at Tours. Then followed
period of comparative calm, when
again the storm cloud bursts and
continued snterruptedly up to the
Renaissance. Education was forgot
ten in the business of war, the finer
instincts of man were at low ebb;
painting, sculpture, architecture and
science had been forgotten; moral
law was unknown, vice nourished by
licentious atmosphere of the camp
reigned supreme.
During the fifteenth and sixteenth
centuries the charged waters cleared,
and for time international comfy
prevailed, when the aesthetic latent
in the human soul crystalized into
masterpieces of expression the beau
ty of which have never been sur
passed. But again the orgy was re-
sumed when the intellectual and
moral aesthitic withdrew to the Sc
clusion of the monasteries; the hot
rash blood were disseminated thro in.
ternicine strife, and the wonder is
that in the centuries of deleterious
intellectual and moral ldegression man
has attained the intellectual and
moral equality of his semi -barbaric
ancestors.
During all the centuries inter-
mittent with rapine, violence and
blood-shed, when the fiercer side Of
mans nature found expression in
the activity of war powerful agen-
cy had been at work replacing those
stanch old virtues, that high haugh-
ty Intellectual independence, that
reckless dash that scorned re-
striction, the warrior blood with
suppleness, pliancy and second rate
mediocrity. When we first saw tri-
bal civilization emerge from the Nile
and Euphrates the sorting and sift-
ing process had long been at work.
They had long since learned that in
union lay strength and self-preser-
walton, but even in tribal unions
certain degree of discipline Is essen
tial, lessening of personal license for
public good. The free and reckless
souls who chafed under this author
ity or who refused the bonds of fam
iiv life had broken aWav from tribal