Civilisation: Its Cause and Cure, and Other Essays

A review of Carpenter's essays on modern science reads: Edward Carpenter is a seer. So say those who know him best; and the reader of this little volume of essays will be inclined to agree with that judgment. He holds that the rather indefinite thing which we mean by civilization has, if used in the definite thing which we mean by civilization has, if used in the definite sense adopted by writers on primitive society, obscured the real life of man and brought about an unhealthy change in the structure of human society. In its historic evolution he finds that these bad changes have coincident with the growth of property and the ideas flowing from it. And he goes on to argue that the social life of the wilder races is more harmonious and compact than that of civilized nations. It may sound startling and paradoxical to say this, but the reader who dismisses such theories as absurd will regret that he has not followed the argument through.