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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    THE CLIMAX OF CIVILISATION CHAPTER I. THE NATURE OF CIVILISATION POLITENESS, urbanity, civility, are terms taken from life in cities. They refer to the effect of such life upon manners, in their refinement. But the original thing is crowded existence on a fixed spot. To live in that condition is to live in a civil state. Civilisation means making civil, or it refers to the con- dition of being civil, in both the senses of living in a crowded state and of living in a refined state. It has been well defined as “the art of living together in close relations.’1 Among the animate creation certain insects (bees and ants) satisfy the first requirement of living close together, but not the sec- ond, as they act by instinct. Some birds, fishes, and herbivor- ous quadrupeds nearly reach, but fall short of, the first require- ment, because, though living in flocks, shoals, and herds, they must wander in quest of food. Man asa brute is a predatory species, and can obtain sustenance only with much room around him. Such is savagery, sparsely occupying large territory. Civilisation is its opposite; barbarism, a mean term. For mankind to be able to live crowded close, is needed a varied exercise of intelligence, directed toward combination. They must work in unison, they must aid and protect one another, they must enter into mutual agreements, they must assume duties of command and obedience, they must respect one an- other’s rights.” 1 Henry George, Social Problems, Works, vol. ii. p. 1913; cf. vi. 25. 2 Thus J. S. Mill in his essay on Civilisation (in Dissertations and Dis- cussions, i. 187-8, Boston ed.), treating civilisation as the contrary of bar- barism, and finding barbarism to consist in scanty population, poor for want of agriculture, industry, and commerce, with little sociableness and co-operation, with little law and security provided by the state, concluded that civilisation consists in dense population, rich in the fruits of agricul-
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