The evolution of mind / by Joseph McCabe.

  • Joseph McCabe
Date:
1910
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The evolution of mind / by Joseph McCabe. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    streams, into which the early rills on the Syrian hills have broadened, are poured out over the soil of Europe. It is enriched with a culture drawn from Egypt, Babylonia, Persia, Phoenicia, and Greece, to which has been added the riper experience of Rome, In face of these facts it is futile to seek mysterious reasons for the advance of mind in Europe, and its stagnation in Asia. Europe became the centre of the world by the inherited wealth of eastern Asia, and geography explains why the tide rolled west- ward instead of eastward. For a time, it is true, Europe failed to develop the immense resources entrusted to it. Barbaric floods broke the Danube- Rhine frontier of the empire, and swept over its civilisation. Barbarians, however, are more wont to take over than to destroy. It was the disdain of culture with which they were inoculated that ex- plains the stagnancy of the Middle Ages; and it was a fresh contact with culture that put an end to the stagnation. Partly from contact with Arabian-Greek culture in Spain, partly from the ejection into Europe of the Greeks by the Turks, Europe was stimulated once more, and science, art, and social life developed afresh. Spain and Russia linger still, to prove how little internal principle of pro- gress there is in a race, and how much depends on geographical situation and lack of spiritual frontiers. In our day the advance of mind is more rapid than it has ever been in the history of the world. A ner- vous system is being spread over the planet, and the stimuli that are felt at the centres to-day are felt
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