Civilisation : Its Cause and Cure 



and fallen partially into the clutch of obscene 

 foes, may at last with shame and torment be driven 

 forth from the temple in which it ought to have 

 been supreme. Or, having fulfilled a holy and 

 wholesome time, having radiated divine life and 

 love through all the channels of body and mind, 

 and as a perfect workman uses his tools, so having 

 with perfect mastery and nonchalance used all the 

 materials committed to it, it may quietly and 

 peacefully lay these down, and unchanged (absolutely 

 unchanged to all but material eyes) pass on to other 

 spheres appointed. 



And now a few words on the medical aspect 

 of the subject. If we accept any theory (even 

 remotely similar to that just indicated) to the effect 

 that Health is a positive thing, and not a mere 

 negation of disease, it becomes pretty clear that 

 no mere investigation of the latter will enable us 

 to find out what the former is, or bring us nearer 

 to it. You might as well try to create the ebb 

 and flow of the tides by an organised system of 

 mops. 



Turn your back upon the Sun and go forth into 

 the wildernesses of space till you come to those 

 limits where the rays of light, faint with distance, 

 fall dim upon the confines of eternal darkness 

 and phantoms and shadows in the half-light are 

 the product of the wavering conflict betwixt day 

 and night investigate these shadows, describe 

 them, classify them, record the changes which 

 take place in them, erect in vast libraries these 

 records into a monument of human industry and 



36 



