Eclectic Magazine of Foreign Literature, Science, and Art, June 1885Various
History
Eclectic Magazine of Foreign Literature, Science, and Art, June 1885
Various
American literature -- Periodicals; Literature -- Periodicals
[3] I may mention as an example, the township of Freudenstadt, at
the foot of the Kniebis, in Baden. Not a single farthing of taxation
has been paid since its foundation in 1557. The commune possesses
about 5000 acres of pine forest and meadow land, worth about £10,000
sterling. The 1,420 inhabitants have each as much wood for their
building purposes and firing as they wish for, and each one can send
out to pasture, during the summer, his cattle, which he feeds during
the winter months. The schools, church, thoroughfares, and fountains
are all well cared for, and every year considerable improvements are
made. 100,000 marks were employed in 1883 for the establishment in the
village, of a distribution of water, with iron pipes. A hospital has
been built, and a pavilion in the market-place, where a band plays on
fête-days. Each year a distribution of the surplus revenue is made
amongst the families, and they each obtain from 50 to 60 marks, or
shillings, and more still when an extraordinary quantity of timber has
been sold. In 1882, 80,000 marks were distributed amongst the 1,420
villagers. What a favored country, is it not?
A similar remark may also be applied to politics. What matters it,
says Mr. Herbert Spencer, that I myself contribute to make laws if
these laws deprive me of my liberty? He mentions ancient Greece as an
example to startle us at the notion of our coming state of slavery. He
writes: “In ancient Greece the accepted principle was, that the citizen
belonged neither to himself nor to his family, but to his city—the city
being, with the Greek, equivalent to the community. And this doctrine,
proper to a state of constant warfare, is one which socialism unawares
re-introduces into a state intended to be purely industrial.” It is
perfectly certain that the _régime_ of ancient Greek cities, which was
founded on slavery, cannot be suitable to modern society, which is
based on a system of labor. But we must not allow ourselves to forget
what Greece was, nor all we owe to that Greek civilization, which, Mr.
Herbert Spencer says, the “coming slavery” threatens to re-introduce
amongst us. Not only philosophy, literature, and arts flourished as
they have never done in any other age, but the political system so
stamped characters with individuality that the illustrious men of
Greece are types of human greatness, whose deeds and sayings will
be engraven on the memory of men so long as the world lasts. If the
“coming slavery” gives us such men as Pisistratus, Plato, Aristotle,
Xenophon, Lycurgus, Sophocles, Thucydides, Epaminondas, Aristides, or
Pericles, we shall, I think, have no cause to complain! But how is
it that Greece produced such a bevy of great men? By her democratic
institutions, combined with a marvellous system of education, which
developed simultaneously the faculties of the mind and the body.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account