THE MASTERY OF LIFE
BY G. T. WRENCH, M.D. Lond.
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This book is a review of the history of civilisation with the object of discovering where and under what conditions man has shown the most positive attitude towards life. The review has been based not so much upon scholarship as upon the direct evidence of the products and monuments of the different peoples of history, and the author has consequently travelled widely in order to collect his material. The author shows how the patriarchal system and values have always been the foundation of peoples, who have been distinguished for their joy in and power over life, and have expressed their mastery in works of art, which have been their peculiar glory and the object of admiration and wonder of other peoples. In contrast to them has been the briefer history of civilisation in Europe, in which the paternal and filial values of interdependence have always been rivalled by the ideal of independence from one’s fellow-man. The consequences of this ideal of personal liberty in the destruction of the art of life are forcibly delineated in the last chapters.
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