The Letters Of Mark Twain, Complete


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Twentieth Century. Among the savages--all the savages--the average brain  
is as competent as the average brain here or elsewhere. I will prove it  
to you, some time, if you like. And there are great brains among them,  
too. I will prove that also, if you like.  
Well, the 19th century made progress--the first progress after "ages  
and ages"--colossal progress. In what? Materialities. Prodigious  
acquisitions were made in things which add to the comfort of many and  
make life harder for as many more. But the addition to righteousness? Is  
that discoverable? I think not. The materialities were not invented in  
the interest of righteousness; that there is more righteousness in the  
world because of them than there, was before, is hardly demonstrable,  
I think. In Europe and America, there is a vast change (due to them)  
in ideals--do you admire it? All Europe and all America, are feverishly  
scrambling for money. Money is the supreme ideal--all others take tenth  
place with the great bulk of the nations named. Money-lust has always  
existed, but not in the history of the world was it ever a craze, a  
madness, until your time and mine. This lust has rotted these nations;  
it has made them hard, sordid, ungentle, dishonest, oppressive.  
Did England rise against the infamy of the Boer war? No--rose in favor  
of it. Did America rise against the infamy of the Phillipine war?  
No--rose in favor of it. Did Russia rise against the infamy of the  
present war? No--sat still and said nothing. Has the Kingdom of God  
advanced in Russia since the beginning of time?  
1138  


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