Kenneth Clark
Quote
What happened? It took Gibbon six volumes to describe the decline and fall of the Roman Empire, so I shan’t embark on that. But thinking about this almost incredible episode does tell one something about the nature of civilisation. It shows that however complex and solid it seems, it is actually quite fragile. It can be destroyed. What are its enemies? Well, first of all fear — fear of war, fear of invasion, fear of plague and famine, that make it simply not worthwhile constructing things, or planting trees or even planning next year’s crops. And fear of the supernatural, which means that you daren’t question anything or change anything. The late antique world was full of meaningless rituals, mystery religions, that destroyed self-confidence. And then exhaustion, the feeling of hopelessness which can overtake people even with a high degree of material prosperity. There is a poem by the modern Greek poet, Cavafy, in which he imagines the people of an antique town like Alexandria waiting every day for the barbarians to come and sack the city. Finally the barbarians move off somewhere else and the city is saved; but the people are disappointed — it would have been better than nothing. Of course, civilisation requires a modicum of material prosperity — What civilization needs: confidence in the society in which one lives, belief in its philosophy, belief in its laws, and confidence in one’s own mental powers. The way in which the stones of the Pont du Gard are laid is not only a triumph of technical skill, but shows a vigorous belief in law and discipline. Vigour, energy, vitality: all the civilisations — or civilising epochs — have had a weight of energy behind them. People sometimes think that civilisation consists in fine sensibilities and good conversations and all that. These can be among the agreeable results of civilisation, but they are not what make a civilisation, and a society can have these amenities and yet be dead and rigid.
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Similar Crossword Answers
| Answer | Clues |
|---|---|
| ROME | 621 clues |
| GOD | 420 clues |
| GRACE | 368 clues |
| ANGER | 330 clues |
| LEADER | 233 clues |
| CAINE | 228 clues |
| FAMILY | 141 clues |
| SOCIETY | 126 clues |
| CONFIDENCE | 90 clues |
| ROMANS | 89 clues |
| NOMINATE | 51 clues |
| CHRIST | 49 clues |
| CHILDREN | 38 clues |
| ASTRID | 34 clues |
| BIRTHDAY | 30 clues |
| CALVARY | 14 clues |
| CIVILIZATION | 13 clues |
| CHILDHOOD | 13 clues |
| SOCIETIES | 4 clues |
| CHRISTIANITY | 3 clues |
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Related word tools
Poet’s word, with inverted comma, for the end of the day
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E
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E
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N
Hint 1 meaning
The old plural of Eye.
Hint 2 anagram
NEE
Hint 3 another clue
AND STILL ___
6 +2