The climax of civilisation / by Correa Moylan Walsh.

  • Correa Moylan Walsh
Date:
1917
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The climax of civilisation / by Correa Moylan Walsh. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    151/170 (page 137)
    CHAPTER VIIL. THE PROBLEM OF RETARDATION THE duty of resisting the tendencies that lead to weakness is manifest. As the prospect of the future is not so rosy as the actuality of the present (at least with us), we ought to avoid being enervated by our good fortune or letting our descend- ants become so, and we ought to steel ourselves and them against the impending change. To say the future does not concern us, is foolish. The race has continuity as well as the individual. Very few of the public measures for which per- sons devote their energies and even give up their lives, are calculated to have any direct effect upon those persons them- selves. All public service is for others, and it would be absurd to confine the others to our contemporaries. We are really more interested in posterity,— even those of us who are child- less. Besides, no man knoweth when the evil times may over- take us. We should always be prepared. The ultimate giving out of nature’s stores may be inevitable, but it can be retarded. The ultimate degeneration of civilised peoples may likewise be inevitable, though here is no such certainty. There seems no necessity, if people would only behave themselves properly. But this is the difficulty, whether they can know what is the proper course, or if some of them know it, others will consent to pursue it. Strife and competi- tion appear to be the course nature prescribes. But men who have been much exposed thereto at last grow weary and wish to rest in peace. Those who have are glad to enjoy without interference, and those of the have-nots whom they influence learn to be content with the little that is given them, especially if it comes without much work. At most they yearn after sharing alike, and seek not to strive overmuch with nature, but dream of good times to come. It is such lethargy that needs to be provided against, and all that leads thereto should be shaken off in advance. Such errors are apt to develop in the