Civilisation : Its Cause and Cure 



rage of any decent North American Indians if 

 they had been told they required policemen to 

 keep them in order !] 



If we take this historical definition of Civilisation, 

 we shall see that our English Civilisation began 

 hardly more than a thousand years ago, and even 

 so the remains of the more primitive society lasted 

 long after that. In the case of Rome if we 

 reckon from the later times of the early kings 

 down to the fall of Rome we have again about a 

 thousand years. The Jewish civilisation from David 

 and Solomon downwards lasted with breaks 

 somewhat over a thousand years ; the Greek 

 civilisation less ; the series of Egyptian civilisa- 

 tions which we can now distinguish lasted alto- 

 gether very much longer ; but the important points 

 to see are, first, that the process has been quite 

 similar in character in these various (and numerous 

 other) cases, 1 quite as similar in fact as the course 

 of the same disease in various persons ; and 

 secondly that in no case, as said before, has any f > 

 nation come through and passed beyond this stage ; 

 but that in most cases it has succumbed soon after 

 the main symptoms had been developed. 



But it will be said, It may be true that Civilisa- 

 tion regarded as a stage of human history presents 

 some features of disease ; but is there any reason 

 for supposing that disease in some form or other 

 was any less present in the previous stage that of 

 Barbarism ? To which I reply, I think there is 



1 For proof I must refer the reader to Engels, or to his own 

 studies of history. 



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