MORAL AND MENTAL DEGRADATION. 157 



to note the indisputable fact that men are lia- 

 ble to degradation and decline, — and this even 

 as regards the knowledge and the practice of 

 those industrial arts on which the very exis- 

 tence of large populations may depend. As 

 regards moral character the possibility and the 

 fact of degradation is not less certain. It is a 

 result only too common and familiar, both as 

 regards individuals and societies of men. In 

 truth this kind of decline almost always pre- 

 cedes the other. The higher elements of civili- 

 zation depend on qualities of the mind. It is 

 by moral and intellectual force that all the 

 triumphs of civilization are achieved. When 

 that force declines, the agencies of degradation 

 establish their ascendency, and the complete- 

 ness with which they have done their work is 



