Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 8.djvu/762

 742 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

to increase for countless ages. Should it at last reach its maximum, the duration of that golden age would be at least a million years, and it would probably be several million years before any decline would be perceptible. There is no reason to think that the period during which the conditions of vital exist- ence will continue as favorable as they now are and have been since the beginning of Tertiary time will be less than that during which such conditions have now prevailed. That period, accord- ing to the estimates of the best-qualified authorities, is not less than three million years. All speculations, therefore, as to the ultimate decline of the planet, however scientifically sound, are purely theoretical and have no practical value whatever. So far as any practical interests are concerned, the world will always be what it is today.

A final objection remains to be met. We are told that all things have their rise, maturity, and decay, and that man can- not form an exception to this universal law. The bugbear of decadence now stares us in the face, and Nietzsches and Nordaus are sounding the warning note. First we are told that man in his egocentric myopia is exhausting the natural resources of the earth, destroying the forests, drying up the springs and rivers, and converting the green and smiling landscape into a desert of dry sand. The decline and fall of all the great empires of the past is another favorite theme, and the prediction is confidently made that the present leading nations are following the same path and must ultimately come to naught.

It is not easy to answer all this in a few words. So far, how- ever, as concerns the exhaustion of natural resources, while the fact cannot be denied, still it requires but a glance at the history of the nineteenth century to perceive that man with the help of science has really increased the resources of nature a hundred fold and immeasurably enhanced the conditions of existence and enjoyment.

That nations rise, flourish, and decline is also true, but thus far at least no nation has gone down without another and greater rising at some other spot and carrying civilization forward beyond the point reached by the decadent race. The fall of empires is