Civilisation : Its Cause and Cure 



his moral nature — disclosing itself there, as it 

 has done in all nations notably at the time of their 

 full civilisation, as the sense of Sin.^ All down 

 the Christian centuries we find this strange sense 

 of inward strife and discord developed, in marked 

 contrast to the naive insouciance of the pagan 

 and primitive world ; and, what is strangest, we 

 even find people glorying in this consciousness 

 — which, while it may be the harbinger of better 

 things to come, is and can be in itself only the 

 evidence of loss of unity, and therefore of ill-health, 

 in the very centre of human life. 



Of course we are aware with regard to Civilisa- 

 tion that the word is sometimes used in a kind of 

 ideal sense, as to indicate a state of future culture 

 towards which we are tending — the implied assump- 

 tion being that a sufficiently long course of top 

 hats and telephones will in the end bring us to 

 this ideal condition ; while any little drawbacks 

 in the process, such as we have just pointed out, 

 are explained as being merely accidental and 

 temporary. Men sometimes speak of civilising 

 and ennobling influences as if the two terms were 

 interchangeable, and of course if they like to use 

 the word Civilisation in this sense they have a 

 right to ; but whether the actual tendencies of 

 modern life taken in the mass are ennobling (ex- 

 cept in a quite indirect way hereafter to be dwelt 

 upon) is, to say the least, a doubtful question. 



' It is interesting to note that the " sense of Sin " seems now 

 (1920) to have nearly passed away. And this fact probably 

 mdicates a considerable impending change in our Social Order. 



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