“The
Barbarian hopes — and that is the mark of him, that he can have his cake and
eat it too. He will consume what civilization has slowly produced after
generations of selection and effort, but he will not be at pains to replace
such goods, nor indeed has he a comprehension of the virtue that has brought
them into being. Discipline seems to him irrational, on which account he is
ever marvelling that civilization, should have offended him with priests and
soldiers.... In a word, the Barbarian is discoverable everywhere in this, that
he cannot make: that he can befog and destroy but that he cannot sustain; and
of every Barbarian in the decline or peril of every civilization exactly that
has been true.
We sit by and watch the barbarian. We tolerate him in the long stretches of peace, we are not afraid. We are tickled by his irreverence; his comic inversion of our old certitudes and our fixed creed refreshes us; we laugh. But as we laugh we are watched by large and awful faces from beyond, and on these faces there are no smiles.”
We sit by and watch the barbarian. We tolerate him in the long stretches of peace, we are not afraid. We are tickled by his irreverence; his comic inversion of our old certitudes and our fixed creed refreshes us; we laugh. But as we laugh we are watched by large and awful faces from beyond, and on these faces there are no smiles.”
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