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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    terms of science — “the size for states which is most success- ful is a function of internal communication.” ® One reason why such quantitative enlargement is necessary for qualitative improvement in civilisation (which is the main thing), is that collaboration on a large scale gives greater com- mand over nature, as it may appropriate or bring under com- ' mon management more sources and bring together more ma- terials and accumulate more forces and apply them better. Another reason is owing to the existence of neighbouring states ; for the largest state, if also the strongest, may get for its own use some of the produce of the others, or may control and direct the labour of their peoples for its own benefit, and may also save itself from being so exploited by others. The power of one man or state over another or others is an increase of the power over nature of that man or state. For advance in civilisation has rested on something else than collaboration, at least than friendly collaboration. Friendly collaboration is the beginning of civilisation, and during all the advance of civilisation it remains one of its fac- tors. But there is another factor, which is the exact opposite as regards the accompanying feelings. This is strife, con- tention, competition. In the beginning, collaboration was al- most only between individuals in a society, and the societies were in almost constant warfare. Later, the societies came to see their interest in uniting, and even when not coalescing have helped one another and worked together. But strife and contention have raged also within societies, and when friend- liness became common between societies, it is more within than between them that dissension has been constant. One fighter, whether an individual or a state, may subdue another, subjugate, enslave that other, compel that other to join forces with those already employed. Thus strife may cause involun- tary collaboration, as in slave gangs, and in this way contribute to the advancement of material civilisation. But its greatest 5 W. M. F. Petrie, Janus in Modern Life, p. 66. This law was not known to Odysse-Barot, who in his Lettres sur la Philosophie de lHistoire ad- vised the division of Europe into small states, nor to his critic, R. Flint, who in his Philosophy of History in France, p. 450, rejected Odysse-Barot’s statement that in the course of ages “the world oscillates between a sys- tem of small States and a system of great empires.” The world does so oscillate, but only when the proper conditions for the two extremes arise.
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