So this modern god of England,
when England had become materialised, was just that ancient fire-worship
and comfort-worship in its nineteenth-century phase. In the first demand
of life there is no thought of God or of idealism of any kind. These, if
they appear at all, have to be made out of what is left. "Of the residue
he maketh a god."
It is by insidious degrees that materialism invades a nation's life. At
first it attacks the externals, appearing mainly in the region of work,
wealth, and comfort. But, unless some check is put upon its progress, it
steadily works its way to the central depths, attacking love and sorrow,
and changing them to sensuality and cynicism. Then the nation's day is
over, and its men and women are lost souls. Many instances might be
quoted in which this progress has actually been made in the literature
of England. At present we are only pointing to the undoubted fact that
the forces of materialism have been at work among us. If proof of this
were needed, nothing could afford it more clearly than our loss of peace
and dignity in modern society. Many costly luxuries have become
necessities, and they have increased the pace of life to a rush and fury
which makes business a turmoil and social life a fever.
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