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Show THE NEW BARBARIANS H , . . Fourteen to, eighteen hundred years H ago the whole civilization of the world, M except for the remotest part of Asia, was H gathered within the Roman Empire, ', which reached from Britain to Mesopo- m ' tamia. Armies of barbarians, swept down m upon the world's civilization and extjn- H guished it and Europe lay foi centuries M in darkness. When EdwarcT Gibbon', the 1 historian of this, event, finished record- Jng it, he indulged himself 'in some spec-1 spec-1 . illations aboufcwhetWer the present civil-m. civil-m. .,! izatibn could ever be overthrown by a similar attack,-and he concluded that the M chances were against it. Gibbon was too prudent to be a prophet H" and that was as far as he went. But now 1 that the new attack has actually been M 'made, it is interesting to see t he grounds M on which he thought it improbable that it M ever would be. After describing the . great number of barbarians, he came to M the conclusion: m: "Such formidable emigrations can no '' longer issue from the North The M " reign of independent barbarism is now Mf contracted to a narrow span; and the K " remnant of Calmticks or Usbeckswhose Hf" forces may be almost numbered, cannot H. ' seriously excite the apprehension of the H? great republic of Europe. At this point caution intervened and H?v saved Gibbon from the) dangers" of prq- H phecy: H "Yet this apparents security should Hn ' iiot tempt us to forget, that, new enemies H x ' - Wd unknown dangers may possibly arise K.' rom ..some" obscure people, scarcely vis- Hk'.'- ible in the map of the world! The Arabs or H .Saracms,4Who spread their conquests Mfl iw ijfrpift Iridia; to Spain, had languished in Wrf'"' poverty and contempt, till "Mahomet 'breathed into those savage, bodies the m&h; -- soul of enthusiasm." " BpJ Even if new barbarians should arise, K , ;however, Gibbon comforted himself with R-t he reflection that their rude arms would If. stand no chance against cannon and mo? m 'dern fortifications. If even this calcula- H- tion should prove wrong, .still civilization , ' could not be brught to the feet of the bar-1 bar-1 Parian: JL "If a savage conquerer should issue KfiT ifrom the deserts of Tartary, he must re- Hf peatedly vanquish the robust peasants of v Tlussia,, the., numerous armies of Ger-' mf' many, the gallant nobles of France, and V ' ' the intrepid freedom of Britain, who, H-; perhaps, might confederate for their s- 'common defense, Should, the' victorious H.; barbarians carry slavery and desolation , Hr !s far as the Atlantic Ocean, ten thous- k 1 ' Jam! vessels wouM.transporJ; beyond their Hlf (pursuit the remains of civilized society, y -' Hand Europe, would revive and flourissh p,f " in the Ajnerican world, -which is already mW filled with her colonies and institutions." t Gibbon's only mistake was that the ' possibility never occurred to him of the C mew barbarians arising within, not with- Mk out, the present boundaries of civiliza- Sg. tion. He was so accustomed to associate K: civilization with book learning and Indus- p trial advancement that he never thought 1?' of a people, which might be civilized in k appearance and yet still be barbaric in : thought It never occured to him that fcf' material science was not the whole of civ- H, aization, or that a race of barbarians p armed with a complete knowledge of that m 'material science and bent on destroying j tor enslaving everything outside their Hpvf ,"" boundaries would surely be a far greater ? , menace th'an tK Ignorant barbarian who HS ? overthrew, thjr world's civilization four- sBM- '' ee" hundred years ago. M.'i. " - Recent Jiews supplies a simple in-HHftlt'" in-HHftlt'" ' stance. Attilla was called, and called him- p?''. self "the Scourge of God," and historians S" v ' Jflwell on the extnet of the devastation he 9f? -created. Suppose Attilla had been armed MSr"' .-."with a qomplete knowledge of modern B, ' science, but at heart had remained as H&:' Q much a barbarian as ever. What kind of H,.-' "devastation would he have caused then? E& For the answer, read what the Germans HEp1- did in ovaucauting tm city of Ham. Be- H; ifore leaving" they wired the city, connect- fT .v fid the wires with incendiary bombs, and iB.,,. ..." "' ..-... 'on leaving it' released the central electrical electri-cal control, set fire to. the city in many places simultaneously, by means of the pombs, and destroyed it. The modern barbarians who girdle fruit trees J30 thatthey may not bear, who make "a desert of the "earth wherev- v they passt hav,e combined the policy of Attila with a scientific knowledge that Attila did not have. Their success would mean the triumph of their soulless system sys-tem over the rest of cne world., The new barbarian invasion menaces all nations likewise; and as for Gibbon's dream that the old nations might take refuge in America, Am-erica, nearly the whole North .American continent and a considerable part of the Southern are as busy defending themselves them-selves against the oncoming barbarians as is any nation in Europe' 'or Asia. New York Times. i to Ik |