Civilisation : Its Cause and Cure 



In order then, at this point in his Evolution, 

 to advance any farther, Man must first fall ; in 

 order to know, he must lose. In order to realise 

 what Health is, how splendid and glorious a 

 possession, he must go through all the long negative 

 experience of Disease ; in order to know the perfect 

 social life, to understand what power and happiness 

 to mankind are involved in their true relation to 

 each other, he must learn the misery and suffering 

 which come from mere individualism and greed ; 

 and in order to find his true Manhood, to discover 

 what a wonderful power it is, he must first lose it — he 

 must become a prey and a slave to his own passions 

 and desires — whirled away like Phaethon by the 

 horses which he cannot control. 



This moment of divorce, then, this parenthesis 

 in human progress, covers the ground of all History ; 

 and the whole of Civilisation, and all crime and 

 disease, are only the materials of its immense purpose 

 — themselves destined to pass away as they arose, 

 but to leave their fruits eternal. 



Accordingly we find that it has been the work 

 of Civilisation — founded as we have seen on 

 Property — in every way to disintegrate and corrupt 

 man — literally to corrupt — to break up the unity 

 of his nature. It begins with the abandonment 

 of the primitive life and the growth of the sense 

 of shame (as in the myth of Adam and Eve). 

 From this follows the disownment of the sacredness 

 of sex. Sexual acts cease to be a part of religious 

 worship ; love and desire — the inner and the 

 outer love — hitherto undifferentiated, now become 



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