Ancient Rome and Modern America: A Comparative Study of Morals and Manners |
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Popular passages
Page 170 - ... the Terrestrial Paradise, the Promised Land, the Garden of the Hesperides, the Age of Gold, Arabia Felix; one single thing, under various names, the empire of nature and abundance?
Page 82 - In order to feed, amuse, and clothe crowded citypopulations; to carry through the construction of the magnificent monuments whose ruins we still admire; to provide work for the industries and arts of the cities, — agriculture was, little by little, ground down by everincreasing burdens. The position of the peasant, in the solitude of the depopulated countryside, became ever more sad and gloomy, just as the cities became fairer, bigger, fuller of amusement and festivals. The impulse towards the...
Page 86 - It is easy to guess what must be the natural result of this lopsided arrangement. The cities grow bigger, industries increase in number and in size; the luxury and the needs of the masses, crowded together in the cities, augment. On the other hand, there is no proportionate increase in the productiveness of the land. And so the increase...
Page 78 - One of the most striking illustrations that could be given is a quotation from Ferrero in his volume entitled " Ancient Rome and Modern America," in which he says: " The disease which killed the Roman empire was in fact excessive urbanization. Neither the attacks of barbarism from outside, nor those of Christianity from within, would have prevailed against its might and its massive weight, if the strength of the Colossus had not been already undermined by this internal cancer.
Page 242 - ... are still strong among its people. Europe, then, has the advantage over America in the higher activities of the mind, but she cannot help being more timid, more sluggish, and more limited in her economic enterprises. America and Europe may each be judged superior or inferior to the other according as the critic takes for his standard the criteria of Quality or of Quantity. If a...
Page 236 - Yes, yes,' he answered with a touch of satire, 'my fellow countrymen would willingly spend a hundred millions of dollars to build a church as beautiful as St. Mark's in Venice, but they would command me, as a condition of the work, to finish it within eighteen months.' That is a significant phrase. How is it possible to beautify a world which is incessantly in transformation, wherein nothing is stable, and which wishes to multiply everything it possesses — buildings, as it would furniture? To create...
Page 82 - ... down by everincreasing burdens. The position of the peasant, in the solitude of the depopulated countryside, became ever more sad and gloomy, just as the cities became fairer, bigger, fuller of amusement and festivals. The impulse towards the cities increased, and one day the Empire awoke to find that its cities were swarming with beggars, idlers, vagabonds, masons, plasterers, sculptors, painters, dancers, actors, singers — in short, the whole tribe of the artisans of pleasure and of luxury....
Page 248 - Let them remember that this ideal, limited as it may seem, serves as a dike to prevent our civilisation from being engulfed in an overwhelming flood of riches and from sinking in an orgy of brutality. This task is so great and so noble that those who strive for it ought surely to feel that they do not live in vain.
Page 241 - America, • the masses of people long for a more comfortable existence ; public and private expenses pile up with bewildering speed. Thus in the Old World also the production of wealth must be increased, but this enterprise is far more difficult in Europe than in America. /The population of Europe is much more dense than that of the New World ; a portion of its lands is exhausted ; the great number of political subdivisions and the multiplicity of tongues increase enormously the difficulties of...