some agent to its heavenly destination, this maxim, 'Help yourself,' is
very significant. Thou, man, art no coffer, well corded with legal
prescriptions, and sealed by the spiritual officers of customs as
having paid the duty and passed inspection, but thou art a living
passenger on this earth, and must look out for thyself. Help yourself!
Nobody forwards thee to thy destination; and we Germans have a proverb
that comes near it in meaning: 'Each one must carry his own hide to
market.'"

"May I ask a question?" said Roland, entering into the conversation.

All were surprised, especially Eric and Sonnenkamp.

"Ask it if you wish," Eric said encouragingly.

"When I heard the Herr Count speaking of the heritage of civilization,
I felt as if I must ask: how do we know that we are civilized?"

The youth spoke with timidity, and Eric encouraged him.

"Explain more fully what you mean by that."

"Perhaps the Turks or the Chinese consider _us_ barbarous."

"You would have, then," Eric said, to help him on, "some unmistakable
token whereby a people, an age, a religion, a man, can perceive whether
they are in the great current of universal, historical civilization?"

"Yes, that is what I mean."

"Well, then, consider wherein does a cultivated man differ from an
uncultivated?"

"He differs from him in having good thoughts and clear views."

"Where does he get these?"

"Out of himself."

"And how does he learn to sharpen them, and to round them off?"

"By comparing them."

"With what?"

"With the thoughts of great men."

"And does he perceive truth in agreement with others, or in opposition
to them?"

"In agreement with them."

"And where do those live with whom he is in agreement?"

"All around him."

"Have not others lived before him?"

"Certainly."

"And can we compare our thoughts and views with those men who have
lived before us, or learn directly from the past?"

"Certainly; that is what writings are for."

"Good! And if now a man, or a people, has a system or a culture which
has no connection with the past, with no man and no people who have
gone before, what is he?"

"No inheritor."

"I did not expect that answer, but I accept it; good! Then is a people,
that invents no culture, in connection with humanity, or in a condition
of isolation?"

"Of isolation."

"This is the way it stands, then. We know that we are in the centre, or
rather in the advancing front, of a progressive civiliza