The Open Court (Volume 11) (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text, images, or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1897. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... Taaroa, like the sea-sand, Taaroa, widest spreading, Taaroa, light forth-breaking, Taaroa rules within us, Taaroa all around us, Taaroa down beneath us, Taaroa, lord of wisdom." NOTES AND BOOK REVIEWS. The Law Of Civilisation And Decay. An Essay on History. By Brooks Admits, New York: The Macmillan Co. 1896. Price, $2.00. In this attractive essay Mr. Adams has attempted to give a running sketch of the causes which have concurred in the building up of the chief ancient and modern civilisations, and assisted in their eventual decay. He makes the rather broad claim that the theories of his book are the effect and not the cause of the way in which the facts have unfolded themselves. He has been the mere rational mirror, so to speak, in which the facts have been gathered to a logical focus. Opponents of the conclusion which he has reached will possibly be of the opposite opinion It cannot be gainsaid but his book is a very interesting one, nor disputed that he has clearly traced the red thread of development which it has been his desire to emphasise. The politics, commerce, religion, and partly also the literature of the various ages of the world are made to pass before our minds in succinct, rapid succession with their chief characteristics distinctly marked, and all these features are skilfully made to illuminate the central theme which the author seeks to establish. He upholds such themes as that commerce is antagonistic to the imagination, as witnessed by the universal decay of architecture in Europe after the great commercial expansion of the thirteenth century; that the centralisation of power generally, expressing itself in accumulated wealth, and the subsequent contraction of money, is conducive to moral and political decline, and that it is pre-emin...