Civilisation : Its Cause and Cure 



Caesar says of the Suevi that they tilled the ground 

 in common and had no private lands, and there is 

 abundant evidence that all early human communi- 

 ties, before they entered on the stage of modern 

 civilisation, were communistic in character. Some 

 of the Pacific Islanders to-day are in the same 

 condition. In those times private property was 

 theft. Obviously the man who attempted to 

 retain for himself land or goods, or who fenced 

 off a portion of the common ground and like 

 the modern landlord would allow no one to till 

 it who did not pay him a tax was a criminal of 

 the deepest dye. Nevertheless the criminals 

 pushed their way to the front, and have become 

 the respectables of modern Society. And it is 

 quite probable that in like manner the criminals 

 of to-day will push to the front and become the 

 respectables of a later age. 



The ascetic and monastic ideal of early Christian 

 and mediaeval ages is now regarded as foolish, 

 if not wicked ; and poverty, which in many times 

 and places has been held in honour as the only 

 garb of honesty, is condemned as criminal and 

 indecent. Nomadism if accompanied by poverty 

 is criminal in modern Society. To-day the 

 gipsy and the tramp are hunted down. To have 

 no settled habitation, or worse still, no place to 

 lay your head, are suspicious matters. We close 

 even our outhouses and barns against the son of 

 man, and so to us the son of man comes not. 

 And yet at one time and in one stage of human 

 progress the nomadic state is the rule ; and the 



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