549 
TAXES ON CIVILIZATION. 
BY GEORGE YEATES HUNTER. 
HILST we do not fora moment agree with those who 
croak about the good old times, and are not dis- 
posed to allow that each to-day is better than its yester- 
day, and that the world grows wiser as it grows older— 
and whilst we fully recognise the hopeful spirit breathing 
through the following lines extracted from the Laureate’s 
exquisite poem, “Locksley Hall,’ and subscribe to its 
truth,— 
Yet, I doubt not, through the ages one increasing purpose 
runs, er ete 
And the thoughts of men are widened with the process of the 
suns. , 
Wee at.a time like. the-present,, when the. pace_of 
life is so killing, and there appears no sign of re- 
laxation in its speed, it may not be out of place to consider 
briefly some of the taxes we pay for our highly-wrought 
civilization, and the inquiry, imperfect as it must be, in 
consequence of the vastness of the subject which it 
embraces, will not be found devoid of interest, and will 
certainly prove of service if our readers act upon sug- 
gestions it may contain applicable to their own cases, and 
which their reason assures them are based upon common 
sense. 
It is scarcely necessary to remark that nothing in this 
transition stage of existence can be wholly good. There 
is much to admire, much to stir emotions of deep grati- 
tude to the great Author of all; nevertheless, beautiful and 
marvellous as the works of God in Nature are, and suc- 
cessful as the endeavours of man to raise himself intellec- 
tually, in the scale of creation, until he treads hard upon 
the heels of angels, may sometimes be, still “the trail of the 
serpent is over all,” and life at its best is a marred and im- 
perfect thing. It must be admitted by all thoughtful 
minds that human advancement bears along with it a large 
admixture of evil—that there is a guzd pro quo noticeable 
in all matters of daily life, and for every worldly benefit 
man gains he has to pay in some form or other, so that 
while civilization brings in its train much that is desirable, 
it becomes a serious question whether the elevation of the 
mental, and the deterioration of the physical, so far as they 
¥ Yue 
