122 PERILS. — IKTEMPERAKCE. 



ments of life, to quicken our rate of living. The Chris- 

 tian religion is an excitant. In proportion as it leads 

 men to recognize and accept their responsibility for 

 others, it arouses them to action in their behalf, under 

 the stress of the most urgent motives. The press and 

 telegraph, by bringing many minds into contact, have 

 ministered marvelously to the activity of the popular 

 intellect. Isolation tends to stagnation. Intercourse 

 quickens thought, feeling, action. Steam has stimulated 

 human activity almost to fury. By prodigiously 

 lengthening the lever of human power, by bringing the 

 country to the city, the inland cities to the sea-board, the 

 seaports to each other, it has multiplied many-fold every 

 form of intercourse. By establishing industries on an 

 immense scale it has greatly complicated business ; 

 while severe and increasing competition demands closer 

 study, a greater application of energy, a larger expend 

 iture of mental power. 



Thus it would seem that these three great forces of 

 civilization move along parallel lines, and co-operate in 

 stimulating the nations to an activity ever more intense 

 and exciting ; so that the progress of civilization seems 

 to involve an increasing strain on the nervous system. 

 These influences will be better appreciated if we com- 

 pare, for a moment, ancient and modern civilization. 

 Look at life in Athens, Jerusalem or Babylon, when they 

 were centers of civilization, as compared with Paris, 

 London, or New York. The chief men of an Oriental 

 city might be found sitting in the gate gossiping, or 

 possibly philosophizing. Those of an Occidental metrop- 

 olis are deep in schemes of commerce, manufacture, 

 politics or philanthropy, weaving plans whose threads 

 reach out through all the land, and even to the ends of 

 the earth. The Eastern merchant sits in his bazaar, as 

 did his ancestor two or three thousand years ago, and 

 chaffers with his customers by the hour over a trifle. 

 The Western and modern business man is on his feet. 

 The two attitudes are representative. Ancient civiliza- 

 tion was sedentary and contemplative ; ours is active 



