Civilisation: Its Cause and Cure and Other Essays

Nonfiction, Religion & Spirituality, New Age, History, Fiction & Literature
Cover of the book Civilisation: Its Cause and Cure and Other Essays by Edward Carpenter, Library of Alexandria
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Edward Carpenter ISBN: 9781465593054
Publisher: Library of Alexandria Publication: March 8, 2015
Imprint: Language: English
Author: Edward Carpenter
ISBN: 9781465593054
Publisher: Library of Alexandria
Publication: March 8, 2015
Imprint:
Language: English

We find ourselves to-day in the midst of a somewhat peculiar state of society, which we call Civilisation, but which even to the most optimistic among us does not seem altogether desirable. Some of us, indeed, are inclined to think that it is a kind of disease which the various races of man have to pass through—as children pass through measles or whooping cough; but if it is a disease, there is this serious consideration to be made, that while History tells us of many nations that have been attacked by it, of many that have succumbed to it, and of some that are still in the throes of it, we know of no single case in which a nation has fairly recovered from and passed through it to a more normal and healthy condition. In other words the development of human society has never yet (that we know of) passed beyond a certain definite and apparently final stage in the process we call Civilisation; at that stage it has always succumbed or been arrested. Of course it may at first sound extravagant to use the word disease in connection with Civilisation at all, but a little thought should show that the association is not ill-grounded. To take the matter on its physical side first, I find that in Mullhall's Dictionary of Statistics (1884) the number of accredited doctors and surgeons in the United Kingdom is put at over 23,000. If the extent of the national sickness is such that we require 23,000 medical men to attend to us, it must surely be rather serious! And they do not cure us. Wherever we look to-day, in mansion or in slum, we see the features and hear the complaints of ill-health; the difficulty is really to find a healthy person. The state of the modern civilised man in this respect—our coughs, colds, mufflers, dread of a waft of chill air, &c.—is anything but creditable, and it seems to be the fact that, notwithstanding all our libraries of medical science, our knowledges, arts, and appliances of life, we are actually less capable of taking care of ourselves than the animals are. Indeed, talking of animals, we are—as Shelley I think points out—fast depraving the domestic breeds. The cow, the horse, the sheep, and even the confiding pussy-cat, are becoming ever more and more subject to disease, and are liable to ills which in their wilder state they knew not of. And finally the savage races of the earth do not escape the baneful influence. Wherever Civilisation touches them, they die like flies from the small-pox, drink, and worse evils it brings along with it, and often its mere contact is sufficient to destroy whole races.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

We find ourselves to-day in the midst of a somewhat peculiar state of society, which we call Civilisation, but which even to the most optimistic among us does not seem altogether desirable. Some of us, indeed, are inclined to think that it is a kind of disease which the various races of man have to pass through—as children pass through measles or whooping cough; but if it is a disease, there is this serious consideration to be made, that while History tells us of many nations that have been attacked by it, of many that have succumbed to it, and of some that are still in the throes of it, we know of no single case in which a nation has fairly recovered from and passed through it to a more normal and healthy condition. In other words the development of human society has never yet (that we know of) passed beyond a certain definite and apparently final stage in the process we call Civilisation; at that stage it has always succumbed or been arrested. Of course it may at first sound extravagant to use the word disease in connection with Civilisation at all, but a little thought should show that the association is not ill-grounded. To take the matter on its physical side first, I find that in Mullhall's Dictionary of Statistics (1884) the number of accredited doctors and surgeons in the United Kingdom is put at over 23,000. If the extent of the national sickness is such that we require 23,000 medical men to attend to us, it must surely be rather serious! And they do not cure us. Wherever we look to-day, in mansion or in slum, we see the features and hear the complaints of ill-health; the difficulty is really to find a healthy person. The state of the modern civilised man in this respect—our coughs, colds, mufflers, dread of a waft of chill air, &c.—is anything but creditable, and it seems to be the fact that, notwithstanding all our libraries of medical science, our knowledges, arts, and appliances of life, we are actually less capable of taking care of ourselves than the animals are. Indeed, talking of animals, we are—as Shelley I think points out—fast depraving the domestic breeds. The cow, the horse, the sheep, and even the confiding pussy-cat, are becoming ever more and more subject to disease, and are liable to ills which in their wilder state they knew not of. And finally the savage races of the earth do not escape the baneful influence. Wherever Civilisation touches them, they die like flies from the small-pox, drink, and worse evils it brings along with it, and often its mere contact is sufficient to destroy whole races.

More books from Library of Alexandria

Cover of the book Mates at Billabong by Edward Carpenter
Cover of the book The Highest Treason by Edward Carpenter
Cover of the book Pepita Jiménez by Edward Carpenter
Cover of the book The Necklace of Princess Fiorimonde and Other Stories by Edward Carpenter
Cover of the book La Boucle De Cheveux Enlevée: Poème Héroïcomique De Monsieur Pope by Edward Carpenter
Cover of the book Sherlock Holmes: The Three Students by Edward Carpenter
Cover of the book Old People and the Things That Pass by Edward Carpenter
Cover of the book Tales from the Gesta Romanorum by Edward Carpenter
Cover of the book The Black Riders and Other Lines by Edward Carpenter
Cover of the book Around the World with Josiah Allen's Wife by Edward Carpenter
Cover of the book Oriental Mysticism by Edward Carpenter
Cover of the book Historic Shrines of America: Being The Story of One Hundred and Twenty Historic Buildings and The Pioneers Who Made Them Notable by Edward Carpenter
Cover of the book The Solution of the Pyramid Problem, Or, Pyramide Discoveries With a New Theory as to Their Ancient Use by Edward Carpenter
Cover of the book The Complete Earl of Chesterfield Works by Edward Carpenter
Cover of the book The Panjab: North-West Frontier Province and Kashmir by Edward Carpenter
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy