Civilisation : Its Cause and Cure 



and civilised nations, with their endless fetishes 

 and taboos and superstitions and ceremonies, and 

 caste-marks and phylacteries, and petty regulations 

 and proprieties, including bitter scorn and per- 

 secution of those who do not fulfil them, are 

 but illustrations of this process. 



All the prophets and saviours of the world have 

 been for the Spirit as against the letter and the 

 teachings of all religions have in their turn become 

 literalised and fossilised ! Perhaps there has been 

 no greater anti-literal than Jesus of Nazareth, 

 and yet perhaps no religion has become more a 

 thing of forms and dogmas than that which passes 

 under his name. Even his counsels of Gentle- 

 ness and Love which one would indeed have 

 thought might escape this process have been 

 corrupted into mere prescriptions of morality, 

 such as those of Non-resistance, and of philan- 

 thropic Altruism. 



It seems strange indeed that so great a man 

 as Tolstoy should have lent himself to this process 

 to the pinning down of the excellent spirit of 

 Christ (who by the way was man enough to 

 drive the money-changers out of the Temple) 

 to a mere formula, as one might pin a dragon-fly 

 to a labelled card Thou shah not use Violence : 

 thou shah not Resist ! And all the while to cleave 

 to a formula only means to admit the evil in some 

 other shape which the formula does not meet 

 - to forswear the stick only means to resort to 

 rebuke and sarcasm in self-defence, which may 

 inflict more pain and a deeper scar, and in some 



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