Civilization

RENEWAL OF CIVILIZATION

The renewal of civilization has nothing to do with movements which bear the character of experiences of the crowd; these are never anything but reactions to external happenings.  But civilization can only revive when there shall come into being a number of individuals in a new tone of mind independent of the one prevalent among the crowd and in opposition to it, a tone of mind which will gradually win influence over the collective one, and in the end determine its character.  It is only an ethical movement which can rescue us from the slough of barbarism, and the ethical comes into existence only in individuals.  The final decision as to what the future of a society shall be depends not on how near its organization is to perfection, but on the degrees of worthiness in its individual members.  The most important, and yet the least easily determinable, element in history is the series of unobtrusive general changes which take place in the individual dispositions of the many.