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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    Accordingly, the means and the consequences of crowded existence in a definite area are usually added to the notion of civilisation. Politeness is both an effect of such living to- gether and a prerequisite of its continuance. Civilisation in- cludes even more than mere refinement, extending to the sys- tem of managing society or the friendly intercourse of human beings, first brought under conscious regulation by citizens (cives) in a city-state (civitas), along with the security of person and property and the general welfare which ensue. The purpose of civilisation is right living and happy living; and these ends are so much more important, that their mani- festations monopolise our attention and have received a promi- nent place in the definition, where, in strictness, they do not belong. To most of us the meaning conveyed by the word is that of a high, in distinction from a low, state of order and prosperity; while the more scientifically-minded have turned to the other side and spoken of civilisation as ‘‘ our command over the powers of nature,” or “ our knowledge of the arts,” though the former of these is a consequence of the latter, and this, of our possession of the sciences.2 An advantage of connoting these characteristics in the idea of civilisation is, that its gradation is measurable more readily by the amount of prosperity, which is its phenomenal effect, and by the extent of command over nature, which is its obvious cause, than by any degrees of being civil or united in a social state. Some have also treated civilisation as an approach toward justice, which, indeed, perfects the art of living close together. But this is not complete; for we can think of a barbarous tribe becoming truly just without any great improvement in its material con- dition, and we should not consider it highly civilised. Civili- sation involves material prosperity as well as moral advance, being imperfect without either. | In this subject, for the student of the means of making ad- vancement, the precedents or causes of civilisation are far the ture, industry, and commerce, sociable and co-operative, governed by law and protected by the state. 3 The former of these two “ scientific ” definitions is given, for instance, by Molinari in the Dictionaire de l’Economie politique, and by the Duke of Argyll, who gives also the latter, in his Primeval Man, pp. 30, 31. Jevons, following Liebig, defined civilisation as “the economy of power,” The Coal Question, 122. Ritchie characterises it as mechanics, science, art, politics, Natural Rights, 54-6.
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