The Skin of Our Teeth

For the end of the world was long ago,
And all we dwell to-day
As children of some second birth,
Like a strange people left on earth
After a judgment day.

For the end of the world was long ago,
When the ends of the world waxed free,
When Rome was sunk in a waste of slaves,
And the sun drowned in the sea.

When Caesar’s sun fell out of the sky
And whoso hearkened right
Could only hear the plunging
Of the nations in the night.

Ballad of the  White Horse, GK Chesterton

Hattip to Tito.

The late Kenneth Clark’s  Civilization is available to watch on You Tube for free, and it is well worth the investment of time.  I think there were two periods when European civilization almost vanished, after the fall of the Western Empire, and after the ninth century decline of Charlemagne’s Empire when Europe was beset by a new round of barbarian invasions, and ever increasing pressure from Islam.  Arguably there have been more such periods when we got through by the skin of our teeth.  The last century with the immense world wars and the rise of totalitarian states at war with the European past, strikes me as one obvious example.  What has gotten the West through such bad patches are three factors.  Christianity, because without hope and belief societies dissolve, military prowess to defeat alien civilizations and the Western desire to improve on the present, with technological advances being only one such impulse for improvement.  Small wonder that the enemies of the West attack ceaselessly those aspects of our culture.  Too many fools listen to such enemies in our time, and such fools often inhabit seats of power in our society.  May God grant us His mercy again.