TWO MEANINGS OP CIVILISATION

îs Civilization-— counts. Hîstory proceeds; it moves not in circles, but in a spiral.

It is necessary to observe that the word " Civilization " is used in two sensés. One is abstract, the other concrète. In the one sensé, a more idealistic sensé, it refers in a gênerai inclusive way to the gains of ail the âges — ^gains in art and science, in knowledge and understanding, in range of outlook and culture. Nobody is so f oolish as to say that thèse gains are other than real and substantial. They form a permanent and accumulating tradition, stored not simply in stones and libraries, but in the very structure of the social body and mind. The Ninth Symphony is not only better as to musical form, but more significant, more spiritual, than the monotony of the savage tom-tom ; and could not hâve been achieved in a primitive society, even if its existence had been prolonged tmdisturbed to the end of time.

Civilization in this sensé is above criticism.

But in the other sensé of the word — the concrète— it can be used in the plural number. We can speak of the rise and fall of civiUzations ; of Babylonian, Egyptian, Greek, Roman, Western civilizations. It is possible that still earlier civi- Uzations existed ; but within historical time this earth has seen successive civiUzations run their course and come to an end. It is not to be questioned that they hâve given permanent gif ts to the race-lif e, added each an imperishable quota

280 SUCCESSIVE CIVILIZATIONS

to its advancement, but as structures they lie to-day beneath the oblivious sands. The tide rises, but each proud wave in succession breaks. Life enters a f orm, develops under that form, but anon passes beyond it, and the f ormjperishes. No âge complètes itself.

As Mr. Kipling in one of his finest poems has reminded us, each âge has its vision of Truth and reality, tries to realize it in organized structure ; but at the moment when success appears possible, and achievement is about to be proclaimed, the strange word goes forth from the Unseen, ** The end is forbidden " ; thereupon the fabric crumbles, the structure totters, and there is scarce time to carve upon the apparently futile stones —

Af ter me cometh a Builder ; teU him I toc hâve known

bef ore that which soared a palace f ails a heap.

Inquiry shows that, maldng due allowance foi^ circumstances, thèse civilizations ran a remarkably similar course ; and perished finally not of old âge so much as of disease. Strangely enough, a modem theory has been put forward to account for the décline of the old Roman civilisation as being due to the acclimatizing at the heart of the empire of some bacillus, brought by retuming troops from a f oreign land 1 The theory has not received much support, and it may be said at once that Carpenter's bacillus is of another order altogether, and créâtes " the kind of disease "

WHAT IS DISEASET 281

which b civilization, rather than the decay and devitalization which brings civilization to an end. Its name is Private Property.

Asin thebody diseasearisesfrom theiossof thephystcal unity which constitates Health, and so takes the form of warfare or discord between the various parts, or of abnormal development of individual organs, or the consumption of the System by predatory germs and growtfas ; so in our modem life we find the unity gone which con stitutes tnie sodety, and in its place warfare of classes and individuals, abnormal development of some to the détriment of others, and consomption of the organism by masses of social parasites.^

The prevalence of physical disease — to such an extent that in our own country we maintain an army of tens of thousands of doctors to défend us f rom its ravages, and in vain ! — habituai intellectual unrest, social discontent, the sensé of sin, — thèse things, which are among the conspicuous marks of modem civilization, contrast vividly with the naturally healthy, care-free, joyous, naïve life-habit of pagan and barbarous peoples» Something has decomposed the social unity* What is it ?

AU students of this subject agrée that the growth of property and the ideas and institutions flowing from it did at a certain point bring about such a change in the structure of human society that the new stage might fsàxly be distinguished from the earlier stages of Savagery and Barbaiism by a separate term. The growth of wealth» it is shown, and with it the conception of private pro*

^ Çivilizaiion : itf Cause çmd Cure, p. 3,