Historical Sketches, Volume I (of 3): The Turks in Their Relation to Europe; Marcus Tullius Cicero; Apollonius of Tyana; Primitive ChristianityNewman, John Henry
HistoryHistory
Historical Sketches, Volume I (of 3): The Turks in Their Relation to Europe; Marcus Tullius Cicero; Apollonius of Tyana; Primitive Christianity
Newman, John Henry
Apollonius, of Tyana; Church history -- Primitive and early church, ca. 30-600; Cicero, Marcus Tullius; Turkey -- History
As instinct is perfect after its kind at first, and never advances,
whereas the range of the intellect is ever growing, so barbarous states
are pretty much the same from first to last, and this is their
characteristic; and civilized states, on the other hand, though they
have had a barbarian era, are ever advancing further and further from
it, and thus their distinguishing badge is progress. So far my line of
thought leads me to concur in the elaborate remarks on the subject put
forth by the celebrated M. Guizot, in his "Lectures on European
Civilization." Civilized states are ever developing into a more perfect
organization, and a more exact and more various operation; they are ever
increasing their stock of thoughts and of knowledge: ever creating,
comparing, disposing, and improving. Hence, while bodily strength is the
token of barbarian power, mental ability is the honourable badge of
civilized states. The one is like Ajax, the other like Ulysses;
civilized nations are constructive, barbarous are destructive.
Civilization spreads by the ways of peace, by moral suasion, by means of
literature, the arts, commerce, diplomacy, institutions; and, though
material power never can be superseded, it is subordinate to the
influence of mind. Barbarians can provide themselves with swift and
hardy horses, can sweep over a country, rush on with a shout, use the
steel and firebrand, and frighten and overwhelm the weak or cowardly;
but in the wars of civilized countries, even the implements of carnage
are scientifically constructed, and are calculated to lessen or
supersede it; and a campaign becomes co-ordinately a tour of _savants_,
or a colonizing expedition, or a political demonstration. When Sesostris
marched through Asia to the Euxine, he left upon his road monuments of
himself, which have not utterly disappeared even at this day; and the
memorials of the rule of the Pharaohs are still engraved on the rocks of
Libya and Arabia. Alexander, again, in a later age, crossed from
Macedonia to Asia with the disciples of Aristotle in his train. His
march was the diffusion of the arts and commerce, and the acquisition of
scientific knowledge; the countries he passed through were accurately
described, as he proceeded, and the intervals between halt and halt
regularly measured.[72] His naval armaments explored nearly the whole
distance from Attock on the Upper Indus to the Isthmus of Suez: his
philosophers noted down the various productions and beasts of the
unknown East; and his courtiers were the first to report to the western
world the singular institutions of Hindostan.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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