Chapter CXXVII: Section CCLXIV: The Decline of Nations

That, after a whole nation has reached the zenith of its prosperity, it is subject to old age and to decline, and cannot avoid them, is in general, a proposition susceptible neither of proof nor refutation.[264-1] This uncertainty is practically very useful, for were it otherwise, mediocre statesmen might become either discouraged or indifferent. However, we should not assume, as so many do,[264-2] without proof, the earthly immortality of nations, provided only they observe a proper diet; nor call the science of the physiology or medicine of nations a chimera, simply because it confesses that it knows of no preventive against such old age. It has doubtless been the fate of many nations to die, that is, not precisely to be destroyed--just as in the physical world, not a particle of matter is lost--but to see their former national personality disappear, and themselves continue to exist only as component parts of some other nation.[264-3] This phenomenon, indeed, finds its analogon in every thing that is human, but seems to contradict a law of nature which very widely prevails, viz.: that it is easier to advance in a certain direction in proportion to the distance gone over in it already.[264-4]

The problem of decline, however, is solved by the enervating influence of possession and power, an influence which only a select few among men can escape. And yet to every external advance there must be a corresponding advance of the interior man, else there is a fall great in proportion to the height before attained. The greater number take their ease once they have attained the object of their ambition. I need only cite the example of the posterity of those men who have grown rich by unusual exertion. Success itself generates vanity and a feeling of false security, the latter especially, inasmuch as that is expected from the whole community, from the state for instance, from others generally, which should be the fruits of one's own vigilance and one's own endeavors. It should not be forgotten that the nation is made up of individuals.[264-5]

In addition to this there is the striving after the new for the sake of novelty; a striving promotive of progress in itself, and without which the full development of the forces of civilization would probably not be possible. But if the genius of no nation is possessed of infinite capacities, it must happen, at last, that, in case the best has been attained, and the demand for novelty continues, men will go over to that which is worse. Even very great competition has here a dangerous influence, since it raises the great mass of the incompetent to the dignity of judges, and endeavors to seduce them by illicit means; in the arts, for instance, sensuousness is made to take the place of the feeling of the beautiful.[264-6]

There is, further the process of undeceiving, inseparable from the prosecution of any ideal purpose. Such ideals have always very much of human weakness in them. The great crowd of ordinary men follow, as a rule, their material interests. Only occasionally do they rise to the height of ideal things; and here we discover the brightest points in history. Later there comes uniformly a period of disenchantment and of exhaustion after the debauch is over. When all the ideals accessible to the nation have been destroyed or outlived, nothing can be done to awaken the masses from their slumber, or induce them to shake off their inactivity.

As a rule, the influences which have accelerated a nation's progress and brought it to the apogee of its social existence end in precipitating its ruin by their further action. Every direction which humanity takes has almost always something of evil in it, is limited in its very nature, and cannot stand its extremest consequences.[264-7] All earthly existence bears in itself, from the first, the germs of its decay.

However, to calm the feeling of human liberty, we may boldly assert that there never was a nation remarkable for its religiousness and morality which declined so long as it preserved these highest of all goods; but then no nation outlived their possession.

[Footnote 264-1: Even in the case of individuals, that death
is necessary is not susceptible of absolute demonstration;
but no one doubts it, because of the experience so
frequently repeated; an experience, however, which cannot be
had in the same degree in the case of whole nations.]

[Footnote 264-2: Remarkable controversy between _Hume_ and
_Tucker_. The former had charged the latter with holding the
opinion that industry and wealth must necessarily continue
to advance indefinitely; and yet all things had in them the
germs of decay. _Tucker_, on the other hand, remarked that
all he wished to say was that no one could point out where
progress must necessarily cease. All political bodies like
all natural bodies might decay; but it is not necessary that
they should. With good laws and morality they would become
more vigorous with increasing age. A great deal depended
here on the more general distribution of property, on the
assurance that industry would meet with its reward, and on
the removal of the principal defects in the English
electoral system. (Four Tracts, 477 seq. Two Sermons, 30.)
Most political economists are of the same opinion; thus
_McCulloch_, Principles, II, 3. See, however, the last two
sections in _Ferguson_, History of civil Society.]

[Footnote 264-3: We assume that a new nation has arisen,
when, after the disappearance of an earlier and high
civilization, combined with the taking up of new
ethnographic elements, we perceive anew the easily
recognizable symptoms of youthful immaturity.]

[Footnote 264-4: Expressed in the domain of religion in the
words of the Savior: _Matth._, 25, 29. But at the same time
the equally well-known expression in _Luke_, 12, 48, must be
fulfilled. Compare _H. Brocher_, L'Economie monétaire, 1871,
25 ff.]

[Footnote 264-5: Schools of art are generally ruined by
mannerism. Of the two great means of education in art, the
study of nature and the study of classic models, the latter
is the easier, and the former is readily neglected for it.
Then there is the endeavor to flatter the master, which is
most effectually done by imitating his faults; and the fact
that pretending connoisseurs are most cheaply satisfied by
mannerism.]

[Footnote 264-6: There is a peculiar charm, very productive
in itself, attaching to the cultivation of a field which has
been but little cultivated, and which, therefore, has the
advantage of promising something new. On the other hand, the
decline of almost all literatures begins with this, that
writers and readers no longer think out completely the forms
of speech, modes of expression, etc. to which they have
become used, as their original creators did; a great
temptation to have recourse to a more and more spicy
literary style. _J. S. Mill_ considers the stationary state
(Principles, IV, ch. 6) a very pleasant one to contemplate,
but he overlooks the very important fact, that as men are
constituted it uniformly introduces national decline.]

[Footnote 264-7: Great rulers, of whom it is said that they
conquered the world by following out their own ideas to
their ultimate consequences, would most certainly have lost
the world by reason of the same logic if they had continued
it only fifty years longer. What would have become of
Alexander the Great and Charlemagne if they had lived one
generation more?]