Civilisation : Its Cause and Cure 



and elemental things, admitting no gulf between 

 themselves and them, but only perfecting their 

 expressiveness and beauty. And some day we 

 shall again understand this which, in the very 

 sunrise of true Art, the Greeks so well understood. 

 Possibly some day we shall again build our houses 

 or dwelling places so simple and elemental in 

 character that they will fit in the nooks of the 

 hills or along the banks of the streams or by the 

 edges of the woods without disturbing the harmony 

 of the landscape or the songs of the birds. Then 

 the great temples, beautiful on every height, or 

 by the shores of the rivers and the lakes, will be 

 the storehouses of all precious and lovely things. 

 There men, women and children will come to share 

 in the great and wonderful common life, the gardens 

 around will be sacred to the unharmed and welcome 

 animals ; there all store and all facilities of books 

 and music and art for every one, there a meeting 

 place for social life and intercourse, there dances 

 and games and feasts. Every village, every little 

 settlement, will have such hall or halls. No need 

 for private accumulations. Gladly will each man, 

 and more gladly still each woman, take his or her 

 treasures, except what are immediately or necessarily 

 in use, to the common centre, where their value 

 will be increased a hundred and a thousand fold 

 by the greater number of those who can enjoy 

 them, and where far more perfectly and with 

 far less toil they can be tended than if scattered 

 abroad in private hands. At one stroke half the 

 labour and all the anxiety of domestic caretaking 



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