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.

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    duplication of population, and all the other limited resources of nature—coal, iron, the other minerals, and forests — would be dug up or cut down and consumed in greater quanti- ties, and their supplies be exhausted the sooner. Preferable is a more modest husbandry ; and to keep the soil supplied with its several ingredients in their proper proportion by renova- tion is rather the task of careful agriculture and municipal economy. The moral causes of decay are, to repeat for the last time, the most serious; and most important is the problem of prevent- ing them, if possible, or at least of retarding them. If the brakes be put on before the down-grade becomes steep, their action will be the more effective. Or if we know of no posi- tive checks, we may take time by the forelock and slacken speed of ourselves. Without metaphor, our principal concern should be to avoid doing the things that lead on to degenera- tion. First of all, we must not delude ourselves with the notion of the new era of peace. We should remember that it was the false prophets who cried ‘‘ Peace, peace,” where there was no peace. This is an often repeated cry raised by sloth and luxuriousness. To-day it is a popular craze, fomented by women and plutocrats. Humanitarian solicitude for life and financial solicitude for property have, till the late madness of two exalted Kaisers and their servile subjects, preserved most of the great nations from great wars with one another, while the latter, despite the former, has led them into little wars with the little nations. But their forbearance could not last much longer, and indeed it has already broken down. Feeble hopes were then indulged in, that when the nations did set to again, the wars of the future would by humanitarian restrictions be rendered almost bloodless, like the combats of the degenerate Italians at the time of the Renaissance, or perhaps even that, like the warriors of Torelore we should fight “with baked apples, and with eggs, and with fresh cheeses,” casting them into the water in a contest to see who could splash the most. It was forgotten that Italy was soon overrun by the French and the Spaniards; and little heed was given lest, as in the old tale whence the latter allusion is taken,4 some Saracens 1 Aucassin and Nicolete, Lang’s translation.