"Civilisation Will Not Die"
No war is going to "destroy civilisation," as is often so lightly said. I remember hearing Asquith say when someone spoke of the destruction of the British Empire: " There is a great deal of destruction in the British Empire." So we may say confidently: "There is a great deal of destruction in civilisation." Neither Hitler nor any principality or Power can destroy civilisation, for that is built in the soul of man, which is indestructible. Nor is man the unworthy and effete animal he appears to be in so much of the fashionable literature of these times. The history of these times may quite as well be written to show his heroic qualities as his relapses into animal lust and hatred. Whatever comes, civilisation will not die. Free men may for a time have to sacrifice their liberty, but they will recover it and build again. The world is yet very young as science measures time, and we must keep our faith alive in its future, whatever the afflictions of the hour. I believe that both religion and science give us abundant ground for this faith.
J. A.
SPENDER
in the " Yorkshire Observer." =
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19391110.2.36
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 1, Issue 20, 10 November 1939, Page 33
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197"Civilisation Will Not Die" New Zealand Listener, Volume 1, Issue 20, 10 November 1939, Page 33
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