Civilisation: Its Cause and Cure is classic political science essay by Edward Carpenter. We find ourselves today in the midst of a somewhat peculiar state of society, which we call Civilisation, but which even to the most optimistic among us does not seem altogether desirable. Some of us, indeed, are inclined to think that it is a kind of disease which the various races of man have to pass through--as children pass through measles or whooping cough