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Show CIVILIZATION AT THE PRESENT TIME its Tendency Toward Material Prosperity and Intellectual Development rounded on Selfishness. Civilization, as it is generally understood, is the Chiding lino U'tween cultured or educated, people, : 1 1 to savage state. In its application it has a liuvi -fold significance. (1) Material civilization, vliioli applies 1t prosperity in trade, connnerce and v,i'!u-tr,v ; wealth, power, and all that contributes to j-iiild the material edifice and secure the good things i f this world. (2) Intellectual civilization, which Likes in a knowledge of the sciences, fine arts, in-M in-M iitivc genius and refinements of character. (3) floral civilization, whith includes the supernatural, I . v-.iuts out man's destiny, and offers the means to n ure his end. If the term civilization is restricted in the first, i. r., material progress as it is in the modern sen.-e applied to it then would our most prosperous nations in material and natural civili-; civili-; ration our own country ranking first fall behind iinoient Greece and Rome, Tyre, Egypt and Assyria, jis well as many other'pagan nations of old. The niperiority claimed for modern civilization must 3ie in soniouhing outside of material prosperity, and 3 hat sometJiing is the supernatural influence, or the i I Moral civilization of Christianity. Eliminate all juoral restraint, and the divine influence of the mpematural. and you will find among the prosperous prosper-ous who rule in the latest-style automobile, and who :ire deemed highly cultured, the grossest immorality immoral-ity and injustice. Without knowing or realizing it. their civilization, like that of Pagan Greece t ud Home (who, at the zenith of their power and lory were approaching their downfall), is but the vonccr.of barbarism. Oscillating between the sublime sub-lime and the ridiculous, we had, only last year, a new order of civilization whose members deemed wraith a oymbol of vulgarity. This, in a sense, is line, for civilization founded on material prosperity prosper-ity is simply a claim for barbarous self-indulgem-e, i ;1e and comfort. This has meant, since Christian civilization supplanted that of ancient Greece and Dionie. to be uncivilized. 2. But those -who would term wealth vulgarity Mid their civilization a relic of barbarism propose I., give the real ideal civilization, which they call intellectual, supremacy. They also discard' the Hn-ernatural, and all ethical codes. But their intellectual in-tellectual civilization (if we except that acquired from past experience or modern inventions), is not Fuprrior to the knowledge of pagan sages. Wo have not surpassed in intellectual attainments Demosthenes. De-mosthenes. Cicero, Virgil, Socrates, Aristotle, and v ihejr contemporaries. It is true that knowledge is f ,luv more diffused and that wc have at our disposal renter facilities than there existed in the days of The Itoman empire. Wc have the daily press and yublie libraries; weekly, monthly and quarterly magazine and reviews; illustrated publications and dime novels; but do all these mean more advanced mid higher intellectual civilization? Conceding thai the opportunities for acquiring knowledge are t real or, we deny that people are more intellectual ilian they were in the past, or that modern civiliza- timi. intellectually considered, surpasses that of i; ii. if ut Greece and Rome. Gibbon iu his history, The Decline and Tall of the Roman Empire, Maintained that our civilization did not compare villi that of the most renowned pagan nations of. v.- past, and he did not conceal the fact that civil-j civil-j .uii.ii viewed from a material and intellectual randpoint had deteriorated. In wealth and luxury, H'.-')dor and refinement, these heathen nations ex-c ex-c ilii our modern civilization. But if wc pene-: pene-: av the thin gauze, that appears so brilliant and ( iziing to the untrained eye, we will find nothing ! ,i Ifi-hness, cruelty, licentiousness and barbar-i barbar-i instincts, all of which lay and still lie, in the i .-,. r of material and intellectual civilization. Ihe 3 -tuiv of all heathen nations verify this. The j .. .ye pnli ed and refined t hey were, t he more cruel i .1 inhuman were they. Devoid of love, sympathy Mid tenderness for the new-born babe, it was aban- i d. The Roman empire, at the zenith of its I : i v and in its most virtuous epoch, gave the head f ' the family the power of life and death oyer Ins t-'.ms. children, and even his wife. The infant. J wlv horn, lav at his feet awaiting his decision of 4 -live or die." How near our modern civilization, J'.iunlod on material prosperity and intellectual Mvain,s approaches that of the past, remaius to 1 ' n in its development. I hit it inav be asked: what effect will the supcr-J supcr-J atuial element or what is meant by morality lave as a factor in real civilization; A historical : review of the workings of Christianity for twenty X .. nturics supplies the answer. Under Us benign :i llunce we have all that is grand and sublime. Vnd. r the inspiration of Christian faith and teach-Sng teach-Sng real libertv, founded on truth: equality and tho s-iahts of man,' were established. Here is how Lord Ma.-aulv trulv expresses it: "The history of the atholic church joins the two great ages of human civilization. No other institution is left standing x hieh carries the mind back to the time when the tmnko of sacrifice rose from the Pantheon, and Him camelopards and tigers bounded in the Ila-vian Ila-vian amphitheatre. The proudest royal houses are f'tit of yesterday when compared with the line of . Hie Supreme Pontiffs." . The nature and extent of Christian civilization, , Tounded on charity and benevolence, shall be the! tubjV't of further investigation. ! T- |