has advanced far enough these people are unable to hold their own. In
the severe competitition of nations the strain is too great and they
perish. There is a point of refinement beyond which people can not go
and survive.

From luxury nations are plunged into hardship. Then their renewed
contact with the soil gradually causes their regeneration, if they have
enough vitality left to rise again. Such is the history of the Italians.
Many others, like the once great Egyptians, whose civilization was very
far advanced and who became so dissolute that a virtuous woman was a
curiosity, have been unable to recover, even after a lapse of many
centuries. The degenerated nations are like diseased individuals: Some
have gone so far on the road to ruin that they are doomed to die. Others
can slowly regain their health by mending their ways.

Nations, like individuals, generally do better in moderate circumstances
than in opulence. Nearly all can stand poverty, but only the exceptional
individual or nation can bear up under riches. Nature demands of us that
we exercise both body and mind.

Civilization is not inimical to health and long life. In fact, the
contrary is true, for as the people advance they learn to master the
forces of nature and with these forces under control they are able to
lead better, healthier lives, but if they become too soft and luxurious
there is decay of moral and physical fibre, and in the end the nation
must fall, for its individual units are unworthy of survival in a world
which requires an admixture of brain and brawn.

Civilization is favorable to long life so long as the people are
moderate and live simply, but when it degenerates to sensuous softness,