Civilization North and South.
By race characteristics and geographical environment the civilization of the North and South had development on different lines.
The
North, invigorated by a constant struggle with the forces of nature, had naturally adopted the philosophy of materialism, and had come to believe that the highest duty of man was to accumulate power.; and as money in our modern civilization had come to be a source of all material power the pursuit of wealth had got to be considered the highest aim of human effort.
Embracing with enthusiasm the philosophy of
Adam Smith, that every man should be for himself and the devil could, would and should take the hindmost, supreme selfishness had become the all-pervading sentiment and directing force of that society.
The South, with a more generous climate, had developed a more sentimental society.
In a sparsely settled country the ties of blood kept their hold.
Husband and wife, parent and child, all the ramified relations of kinship, retained their binding force.
Devotion to veracity and honor in man, chastity and fidelity in women, were the ideals which formed character.
The forms and sentiments of Southern society were the primitive forms and sentiments of the older civilization.
They belonged to that state of development which the modern social philosophers call militarism.
The principles and organization of the
North belong to the later development, known as industrialism.
