What is Civilization? Let’s consider this a meditation on an idea.

Henry James, in an early novel called “The Europeans,” records a brother and sister, both Europeans, visiting America for the first time in the early to mid-19th century. The brother lights out in search of distant American relations, and upon his return his highly civilized sister enquires into what he discovered: “Are there symptoms of wealth?” she asks. To which her highly civilized brother acerbically replies, “I should say there was wealth without symptoms.” …

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