From “On Liberty & Utilitarianism.”
A civilization that can thus succumb to its vanquished enemy, must first have become so degenerate, that neither its appointed priests and teachers, nor anybody else, has the capacity, or will take the trouble, to stand up for it. If this be so, the sooner such a civilization receives notice to quit, the better. It can only go from bad to worse, until destroyed and regenerated (like the Western Empire) by energetic barbarians.
