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Marvin. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ + +<!-- + + body {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} + .frontend { text-align: center; font-size: 80%} + + p {margin-top: .75em; text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em;} + .epigraph {margin-left: 40%; font-size: 80%;} + .indent {margin-left: 20%; font-variant: small-caps;} + .indent2 {margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%;} + .super {vertical-align: super; font-size: .8em; text-decoration: none;} + + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 {text-align: center; clear: both;} + + hr {width: 33%; margin-top: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1.5em; + margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; clear: both;} + + table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;} + td {vertical-align: top;} + td.inset {text-indent: 1em; text-align: left;} + + .pagenum {position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: 70%; + text-align: right;} + + .blockquot {margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 10%; text-align: justify;} + + .center {text-align: center;} + .right {text-align: right;} + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + + .footnotes {border: dashed 1px;} + .footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} + .footnote .label {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;} + .fnanchor {vertical-align: super; font-size: .8em; text-decoration: none;} + + .transnote {margin: 2em 5% 1em 5%; font-size: 90%; padding: 0.5em 1em 0.5em 1em; + border: solid 1px silver; margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%;} + + .correction {text-decoration: none; border-bottom: thin dotted silver;} + a.correction:hover {text-decoration: none;} + + .poem {margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%; text-align: left;} + .poem br {display: none;} + .poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + .poem span.i0 {display: block; margin-left: 0em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i1 {display: block; margin-left: 1em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i4 {display: block; margin-left: 4em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i6 {display: block; margin-left: 6em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + + // --> + + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> + </head> + +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Progress and History, by Various + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Progress and History + +Author: Various + +Editor: F. S. Marvin + +Release Date: January 31, 2009 [EBook #27948] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PROGRESS AND HISTORY *** + + + + +Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + + +<div class='transnote'> +<h3>Transcriber's Note</h3> + +<p>Obvious typographical errors have been corrected in +this text. For a complete list, please see <a href="#transnotes">the bottom of +this document</a>.</p> +</div> + + + + + +<h1>PROGRESS AND<br /> +HISTORY</h1> + + +<h3><i>ESSAYS ARRANGED AND EDITED</i></h3> + +<h4>BY</h4> + +<h2>F. S. MARVIN</h2> + +<h5><span class='smcap'>late senior scholar of st. john's college, oxford</span><br /> +<span class='smcap'>author of 'the living past'</span><br /> +<span class='smcap'>editor of 'the unity of western civilization'</span></h5> + +<p class='epigraph'>'Tanta patet rerum series et omne futurum<br /> +Nititur in lucem.'<br /> +<span class="indent">Lucan.</span></p> + +<h4><i>THIRD IMPRESSION</i></h4> + +<h4>HUMPHREY MILFORD<br /> +OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS</h4> + +<h5>LONDON EDINBURGH GLASGOW NEW YORK<br /> +TORONTO MELBOURNE CAPE TOWN BOMBAY</h5> + +<h5>1919</h5> + + +<p class='frontend'>PRINTED IN ENGLAND<br /> +AT THE OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[3]</a></span></p> +<h2>PREFACE</h2> + + +<p>This volume is a sequel to <i>The Unity of Western +Civilization</i> published last year and arose in the +same way, from a course of lectures given at the +Woodbrooke Settlement, Birmingham.</p> + +<p>The former book attempted to describe some of +the permanent unifying factors which hold our +Western civilization together in spite of such +catastrophic divisions as the present war. This +book attempts to show these forces in growth. The +former aimed rather at a statical, the present at +a dynamical view of the same problem. Both are +historical in spirit.</p> + +<p>It is hoped that these courses may serve as an +introduction to a series of cognate studies, of +which clearly both the supply and the scope +are infinite, for under the general conception of +'Progress in Unity' all great human topics +might be embraced. One subject has been +suggested for early treatment which would have +especial interest at the present time, viz. 'Recent<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[4]</a></span> +Progress in European Thought'. We are by the +war brought more closely than before into contact +with other nations of Europe who are pursuing +with inevitable differences the same main lines +of evolution. To indicate these in general, with +stress on the factor of betterment, is the aim of +the present volume.</p> + +<p class='right'>F.S.M.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[5]</a></span></p> +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="TOC"> +<tr><td align='right'></td><td align='left'></td><td align='right'><span class='smcap'>page</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>I.</td><td align='left'>THE IDEA OF PROGRESS</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_7">7</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'></td><td class='inset'>By <span class="smcap">F. S. Marvin</span>.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>II.</td><td align='left'>PROGRESS IN PREHISTORIC TIMES</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_27">27</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'></td><td class='inset'>By <span class="smcap">R. R. Marett</span>, Reader in Social Anthropology, Oxford.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>III.</td><td align='left'>PROGRESS AND HELLENISM</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_48">48</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'></td><td class='inset'>By <span class="smcap">F. Melian Stawell</span>, late Lecturer at Newnham College, Cambridge.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>IV.</td><td align='left'>PROGRESS IN THE MIDDLE AGES</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_72">72</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'></td><td class='inset'>By the Rev. <span class="smcap">A. J. Carlyle</span>, Tutor and Lecturer at University College, Oxford.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>V.</td><td align='left'>PROGRESS IN RELIGION</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_96">96</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'></td><td class='inset'>By <span class="smcap">Baron Friedrich von Hügel</span>.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>VI.</td><td align='left'>MORAL PROGRESS</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_134">134</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'></td><td class='inset'>By <span class="smcap">L. P. Jacks</span>, Principal of Manchester New College, Oxford.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'> VII.</td><td align='left'>GOVERNMENT</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_151">151</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'></td><td class='inset'>By <span class="smcap">A. E. Zimmern</span>, late Fellow of New College, Oxford.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>VIII.</td><td align='left'>INDUSTRY</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_189">189</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'></td><td class='inset'>By <span class="smcap">A. E. Zimmern</span>.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>IX.</td><td align='left'>ART</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_224">224</a><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[6]</a></span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'></td><td class='inset'>By <span class="smcap">A. Clutton Brock</span>.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>X.</td><td align='left'>SCIENCE</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_248">248</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'></td><td class='inset'>By <span class="smcap">F. S. Marvin</span>.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>XI.</td><td align='left'>PHILOSOPHY</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_273">273</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'></td><td class='inset'>By <span class="smcap">J. A. Smith</span>, Waynflete Professor of Mental and Moral Philosophy, Oxford.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'> XII.</td><td align='left'>PROGRESS AS AN IDEAL OF ACTION</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_295">295</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'></td><td class='inset'>By <span class="smcap">J. A. Smith</span>.</td></tr> +</table></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[7]</a></span></p> +<h2>I</h2> + +<h2>THE IDEA OF PROGRESS</h2> + +<h3><span class="smcap">F. S. Marvin</span></h3> + + +<p>The editor of these essays was busy in the autumn of +last year collating the opinions attached by different +people to the word 'progress'. One Sunday afternoon +he happened to be walking with two friends in Oxford, +one a professor of philosophy, the other a lady. The +professor of philosophy declared that to him human +progress must always mean primarily the increase of +knowledge; the editor urged the increase of power as its +most characteristic feature, but the lady added at once +that to her progress had always meant, and could only +mean, increase in our appreciation of the humanity of +others.</p> + +<p>The first two thoughts, harmonized and directed by the +third, may be taken to cover the whole field, and this +volume to be merely a commentary upon them. What +we have to consider is, when and how this idea of progress, +as a general thing affecting mankind as a whole, first +appeared in the world, how far it has been realized in +history, and how far it gives us any guidance and hope +for the future. In the midst of a catastrophe which +appears at first sight to be a deadly blow to the ideal, +such an inquiry has a special interest and may have some +permanent value.</p> + +<p>Words are the thought of ages crystallized, or rather +embodied with a constantly growing soul. The word +'Progress', like the word 'Humanity', is one of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[8]</a></span> +most significant. It is a Latin word, not used in its +current abstract sense until after the Roman incorporation +of the Mediterranean world. It contains Greek +thought summed up and applied by Roman minds. Many +of the earlier Greek thinkers, Xenophanes and Empedocles +as well as Plato and Aristotle, had thought and +spoken of a steady process in things, including man +himself, from lower to higher forms; but the first writer +who expounds the notion with sufficient breadth of view +and sufficiently accurate and concrete observation to +provide a preliminary sketch, was the great Roman poet +who attributed all the best that was in him to the Greeks +and yet has given us a highly original picture of the +upward tendency of the world and of human society +upon it. He, too, so far as one can discover, was the first +to use the word 'progress' in the sense of our inquiry. +The passage in Lucretius at the end of his fifth book on the +Nature of Things is so true and brilliant and anticipates +so many points in later thought that it is worth quoting +at some length, and the poet's close relation with Cicero, +the typical Greco-Roman thinker, gives his ideas the more +weight as an historical document.</p> + +<p>He begins by describing a struggle for existence in +which the less well-adapted creatures died off, those who +wanted either the power to protect themselves or the +means of adapting themselves to the purposes of man. +In this stage, however, man was a hardier creature than he +afterwards became. He lived like the beasts of the field +and was ignorant of tillage or fire or clothes or houses. +He had no laws or government or marriage, and though he +did not fear the dark, he feared the real danger of fiercer +beasts. Men often died a miserable death, but not in +multitudes on a single day as they do now by battle or +shipwreck.</p> + +<p>The next stage sees huts and skins and fire which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span> +softened their bodies, and marriage and the ties of family +which softened their tempers. And tribes began to make +treaties of alliance with other tribes.</p> + +<p>Speech arose from the need which all creatures feel to +exercise their natural powers, just as the calf will butt +before his horns protrude. Men began to apply different +sounds to denote different things, just as brute beasts will +do to express different passions, as any one must have +noticed in the cases of dogs and horses and birds. No +one man set out to invent speech.</p> + +<p>Fire was first learnt from lightning and the friction +of trees, and cooking from the softening and ripening of +things by the sun.</p> + +<p>Then men of genius invented improved methods of life, +the building of cities and private property in lands and +cattle. But gold gave power to the wealthy and destroyed +the sense of contentment in simple happiness. It must +always be so whenever men allow themselves to become +the slaves of things which should be their dependants +and instruments.</p> + +<p>They began to believe in and worship gods, because +they saw in dreams shapes of preterhuman strength and +beauty and deemed them immortal; and as they noted +the changes of the seasons and all the wonders of the +heavens, they placed their gods there and feared them +when they spoke in the thunder.</p> + +<p>Metals were discovered through the burning of the +woods, which caused the ores to run. Copper and brass +came first and were rated above gold and silver. And +then the metals took the place of hands, nails, teeth, and +clubs, which had been men's earliest arms and tools. +Weaving followed the discovery of the use of iron.</p> + +<p>Sowing, planting, and grafting were learnt from nature +herself, and gradually the cultivation of the soil was +carried farther and farther up the hills.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a></span></p> + +<p>Men learnt to sing from the birds, and to blow on pipes +from the whistling of the zephyr through the reeds: and +those simple tunes gave as much rustic jollity as our more +elaborate tunes do now.</p> + +<p>Then, in a summary passage at the end, Lucretius +enumerates all the chief discoveries which men have made +in the age-long process—ships, agriculture, walled cities, +laws, roads, clothes, songs, pictures, statues, and all the +pleasures of life—and adds, 'these things practice and +the experience of the unresting mind have taught mankind +gradually as they have progressed from point to +point'.<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p> + +<p>It is the first definition and use of the word in literature. +If we accept it as a typical presentation of the Greco-Roman +view, seen by a man of exceptional genius and +insight at the climax of the period, there are two or three +points which must arrest our attention. Lucretius is +thinking mainly of progress in the arts, and especially +of the arts as they affect man's happiness. There is no +mention of increase in knowledge or in love. As in the +famous parallel passage in Sophocles' <i>Antigone</i>, it is man's +strength and skill which most impressed the poet, and his +skill especially as exhibited in the arts. Compared with +what we shall see as typical utterances of later times, it +is an external view of the subject. The absence of love +as an element of progress carries with it the absence of +the idea of humanity. There is no conception here, nor +anywhere in classical thought before the Stoics, of a world-wide +Being which has contributed to the advance and +should share fully in its fruits. Still less do we find any +hint of the possibilities of an infinite progress. The moral, +on the contrary, is that we should limit our desires, banish +disturbing thoughts, and settle down to a quiet and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span> +sensible enjoyment of the good things that advancing +skill has provided for us. It is, of course, true that thoughts +can be found in individual writers, especially in Plato and +Aristotle, which would largely modify this view. Yet it +can hardly be questioned that Lucretius here represents +the prevalent tone of thoughtful men of his day. They +had begun to realize the fact of human progress, but +envisaged it, as was natural in a first view, mainly on +the external side, and, above all, had no conception of +its infinite possibilities.</p> + +<p>When we turn to typical utterances of the next great +age in history the contrast is striking. Catholic doctrine +had absorbed much that was congenial to it from the +Stoics, from Plato and Aristotle, but it added a thing that +was new in the world, a passionate love and an overpowering +desire for personal moral improvement. This +is so clear in the greatest figures of the Middle Ages, men +such as St. Bernard and St. Francis, and it is so unlike +anything that we know in the world before, that we are +justified in treating it as characteristic of the age. To +some of us, indeed, it will appear as the most important +element in the general notion of progress which we are +tracing. It so appeared to Comte.<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> Of numberless +passages that might be quoted from fathers and doctors +of the Church, a few words from Nicholas of Cusa must +suffice. He was a divine of the early fifteenth century, +true to the faith, but anxious to improve the discipline +of the Church. To him progress took an entirely spiritual +form. 'To be able to understand more and more without +end is the type of eternal wisdom.... Let a man desire +to understand better what he does understand and to +love more what he does love and the whole world will +not satisfy him.'</p> + +<p>Here is a point of view so different from the last that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span> +we find some difficulty in fitting it into the same scheme +of things. Yet both are essential elements in Western +civilization; both have been developed by the operations +of similar forces in the world civilized and incorporated +by Greece and Rome.</p> + +<p>The Catholic divine looks entirely inward for his idea of +progress, and his conception contains elements of real and +permanent validity, of which our present notions are full. +His eyes are turned towards the future and there is no +limit to his vision. And though the progress contemplated +is within the soul of the individual believer, it +rests on the two fundamental principles of knowledge +and love which are both essentially social. The believer +may isolate himself from the world to develop his higher +nature, but the knowledge and the love which he carries +with him into his solitude are themselves fruits of that +intercourse with his fellows from which an exclusive +religious ideal temporarily cuts him off.</p> + +<p>Nor must we forget that Catholic doctrine and discipline, +though aiming at this perfection of the individual rather +than of the race, was embodied in an organization which +carried farther than the Roman Empire the idea of a +united civilization and furnished to many thinkers, +Bossuet as well as Dante, a first sketch of the progress of +mankind.</p> + +<p>But it is clear that this construction was provisional +only, either on the side of personal belief and practice, +or of ecclesiastical organization; provisional, that is, if +we are looking for real unity in the mind of mankind. +For we need a doctrine, a scheme of knowledge, into +which all that we discover about the world and our own +nature may find its place; we need principles of action +which will guide us in attaining a state of society more +congruent with our knowledge of the possibilities of the +world and human nature, more thoroughly inspired by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span> +human love, love of man for man as a being living his +span of life here and now, under conditions which call for +a concentration of skill and effort to realize the best. +The breaking of the old Catholic synthesis, narrow but +admirable within its limits, took place at what we call the +Renascence and Reformation; the linking up of a new one +is the task of our own and many later generations. Let it +not be thought that such a change involves the destruction +of any vital element in the idea of progress already +achieved; if true and vital, every element must survive. +But it does involve an acceptance of the fact that progress, +or humanity, or the evolution of the divine within +us—however we prefer to phrase it—is a larger thing +than any one organization or any one set of carefully +harmonized doctrines. The truth, and the organ in +which we enshrine it, must grow with the human minds +who are collectively producing it. The new unity is +itself progress.</p> + +<p>It must give us confidence in facing such a prospect to +observe that at each remove from the first appearance +of the idea of progress in the world man's use of the word +has carried more meaning and, though sometimes quieter +in tone, as in recent times, is better grounded in the +facts of life and history. Such an advance in our conceptions +took place after the Renascence. At the beginning +of the seventeenth century, when the art and science +of the ancient world had been recovered, the word and +the idea of progress started on a fresh course of unexampled +vigour. The lines were closer to those of the pre-Christian +than of the Catholic world, but it would be by no means +true to call them pagan. When Bacon and Descartes begin +to sound the modern note of progress, they think primarily +of an advance in the arts and sciences, but there is a +spiritual and human side to their ideal which could not +be really paralleled in classical thought. The Spirit of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span> +Man is now invoked, and this, not in the sense of an élite, +the builders of the Greek State or the rulers of the Roman +Empire, but of mankind as a whole. This is Christian, or +perhaps we should say, Stoical-Christian. Thus Descartes +tells us that he looks to science to furnish us ultimately +with an art which will make us 'masters and possessors of +nature ... and this not solely for the pleasure of enjoying +with ease the good things of the world, but principally +for the preservation and improvement of human health +which is both the foundation of all other goods and the +means of strengthening the spirit itself' ('Discours de la +Méthode'). It is significant that the two words Progress +and Humanity come into use in their modern sense side by +side. The latter is the basis and the ideal of the former.</p> + +<p>But the new thing which had come into the world at +this point, and gives a fresh impulse and content to the +idea of progress, is the development of science. The +Greeks had founded it and, as we shall see in a later +chapter, it was the recovery of the Greek thread which +gave the moderns their clue. But no one before the +sixteenth century, before the marvels revealed by Galileo's +telescope and knit up by Newton's synthetic genius, +could have conceived the visions of human regeneration +by science which light up the pioneers of the seventeenth +century and are the gospel of the eighteenth.</p> + +<p>We turn to the eighteenth century, and primarily to +the school of thinkers called 'philosophes' in France, for +the fullest and most enthusiastic statement of progress +as a gospel. It is, of course, European, as all the greatest +advances of thought have been; and German thinkers, as +well as English, stand with the French in the vanguard. +Kant and Herder, from different points of view, thought it +out perhaps more thoroughly than any one else at that time; +but the French believed in it as a nation and were willing +to stake their lives and souls on the belief. Thus Turgot,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span> +before the Revolution, declared that 'the total mass of +the human race marches continually though sometimes +slowly towards an ever-increasing perfection'. And +Condorcet, in the midst of the Revolution, while himself +under its ban, painted a picture 'of the human race, +freed from its chains, and marching with a firm tread +on the road of truth and virtue and happiness'.</p> + +<p>Here is the gospel in its purest and simplest form, and +when we are inclined to think that the crimes and the +partial failure of the Revolution discredit its principles, +it is well to remember that the man who believed in them +most systematically, expounded his belief with perfect +calmness and confidence as he lay under sentence of death +from a revolutionary tribunal.</p> + +<p>If this enthusiasm is madness, we might all well wish to +be possessed. The true line of criticism is different. At +the Revolution, as before at the Renascence, the leaders +of the new movement could not see all their debt to the +past. Like the Renascence, they idealized certain features +in classical antiquity, but they had not yet gained the +notion of historical continuity; above all, they did not +realize the value of the religious development of the +Middle Ages. It was left for the nineteenth century and +for us, its successors, to attempt the supreme task of +seeing things steadily and seeing them whole.</p> + +<p>For in spite of the capital contributions of the Renascence +to progress and the idea of progress, especially by +its scientific constructions, it is undeniable that a bias +was then given to the course of Western civilization from +which it has suffered ever since, and which it is now our +urgent duty to correct. Two aspects of this may be +specified. The old international unity which Rome had +achieved, at least superficially, in the Mediterranean +world, and which the Catholic Church had extended and +deepened, was broken up in favour of a system of sovereign<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span> +and independent states controlling religion and influencing +education on lines calculated to strengthen the national +forces and the national forces alone. They even believed +that, at any rate in trade and commerce, the interests of +these independent states were rather rival than co-operative. +The Revolution struck the note of human +association clearly enough, but we have not yet learnt to +set all our other tunes in accord with it. Another, and +perhaps even more fundamental, weakness of the Renascence +tradition was the stress it laid on the material, +mechanical, external side of progress. On the one hand, +the spiritual side of life tended to be identified with that +system of thought and discipline which had been so +rudely disrupted. On the other hand, the new advance +in science brought quickly after it a corresponding growth +of wealth and mechanical inventions and material comforts. +The spirit of man was for the time impeded and +half suffocated by its own productions.</p> + +<p>The present war seems to many of us the supreme +struggle of our better nature to gain the mastery over +these obstructions, and freedom for its proper growth.</p> + +<p>Now if this analysis be anywhere near the truth, it is +clear that our task for the future is one of synthesis on the +lines of social progress. Knowledge, power, wealth, +increase of skill, increase of health, we have them all in +growing measure, and Mr. Clutton Brock will tell us in +his chapter in this volume that we may be able by an +exercise of will to achieve even a new renascence in art. +But we certainly do not yet possess these things fairly +distributed or in harmony of mind.</p> + +<p>The connexion therefore between progress as we now +envisage it, and unity, both in ourselves and in society +at large, becomes apparent. At each of the previous +great moments in the history of the West development +has been secured by emphasis on one side of our nature<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span> +at the expense of the rest. Visions of mankind in common +progress have flashed on individual thinkers, a Roman +Emperor, a Catholic Schoolman, a Revolutionary prophet. +But the thing achieved has been one-sided, and the needed +correction has been given by another movement more +one-sided still. The greatest hope of the present day +lies in the fact that in all branches of life, in government +as well as in philosophy, in science as in social reform, in +religion and in international politics, men are now striving +with determination to bind the threads together.</p> + +<p>There is no necessary opposition between the rival +forces which have so often led to conflict. In all our +controversies harmony can be reached and has often been +reached by the application of patience, knowledge, and +goodwill. And goodwill implies here the readiness to +submit the particular issue to the arbitration of the +general good. The international question has been so +fully canvassed in these days that it would be superfluous +to discuss it here. The moral is obvious, and abundant +cases throughout the world illustrate the truth that well-organized +nationalities contain in themselves nothing +contrary to the ideal of international peace.<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> Nor is the +still more persistent and universal opposition of capital +and labour really less amenable to reconciliation, because +in this case also the two factors in the problem are equally +necessary to social progress, and we shall not enter on the +various practical solutions—co-operation, co-partnership, +partial state-socialism, &c.—which have been proposed +for a problem which no one believes to be insoluble. The +conflict in our own souls between the things of matter +and sense and the life of the spirit, is more closely germane +to the present argument, because ultimately this has to +be resolved, if not in every mind yet in the dominant<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span> +mind of Europe, before the more practical questions can +be generally settled. Harmony here is at the root of +a sound idea of progress.</p> + +<p>When the concluding chapters of this volume are +reached it will be seen how fully the recent developments +both in science and philosophy corroborate the line which +is here suggested for the reconciliation of conflicts and +the establishment of a stronger and more coherent notion +of what we may rightly pursue as progress. For both in +science and still more in philosophy attention is being +more and more closely concentrated on the meaning of +life itself, which science approaches by way of its physical +concomitants, and philosophy from the point of view of +consciousness. And while science has been analysing +the characteristics of a living organism, philosophy finds +in our consciousness just that element of community +with others which an organic conception of progress +demands. The only progress of which we can be certain, +the philosopher tells us, is progress in our own consciousness, +which becomes constantly fuller, more knowing, and +more social, as time unfolds. This, he tells us, must +endure, though the storms of passion and nature may +fall upon us.</p> + +<p>On such a firm basis we would all gladly build our +faith. No unity can be perfect except that which we +achieve in our own souls, and no progress can be relied +on except that which we can know within, and can +develop from, our own consciousness and our own +powers. But we cannot rest in this. We are bound to +look outside our own consciousness for some objective +correspondence to that progress which our own nature +craves; and history supplies this evidence. It is from +history that we derive the first idea and the accumulating +proofs of the reality of progress. Lucretius's first +sketch is really his summary of social history up to that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span> +point. The Catholic thinker had a wider scope. He was +able to see that the whole course of Greco-Roman civilization +was, from his point of view, a preparation for the +Church which had the care of the spiritual life of man +while on earth. And in the next stage, that in which we +now live, we see all the interests of life taken back again +into the completeness of human progress, and can trace +that complete being, labouring slowly but unmistakably +to a higher state, outside us in the world, as well as within +our own consciousness, which is ready to expand if we will +give it range.</p> + +<p>On such lines we may sketch the historical aspect of +progress on which the personal is based; and it is of the +utmost importance to keep the two aspects before us +concurrently, because reliance on the growing fullness of +the individual life to the neglect of the social evolution +is likely to empty that life itself of its true content, to +leave the self-centred visionary absorbed in the contemplation +of some ideal perfection within himself, while the +world outside him from which he ultimately derives his +notions, is toiling and suffering from the want of those +very elements which he is best able to supply.</p> + +<p>The succeeding chapters of this book will, it is hoped, +supply some evidence of the concrete reality of progress, +as well as of the tendency to greater coherence and purity +in the ideal itself. It would have been easy to accumulate +evidence; some sides of life are hardly touched on at all. +The collective and the intellectual sides are fully dealt +with both in this and in the volume on <i>The Unity of +Western Civilization</i>. But if we make our survey over +a sufficient space, coming down especially to our own +days, our conclusion as to the advance made in the +physical and moral well-being of mankind, will be hardly +less emphatic. Our average lives are longer and continue +to lengthen, and they are unquestionably spent with far<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span> +less physical suffering than was generally the case at +any previous period. We are bound to give full weight +to this, however much we rightly deplore the deadening +effect of monotonous and mechanical toil on so large +a part of the population. And even for these the opportunities +for a free and improving life are amazingly +enlarged. We groan and chafe at what remains to be +done because of the unexampled size of the modern +industrial populations with which we have to deal. But +we know in some points very definitely what we want, +and we are now all persuaded with John Stuart Mill +that the remedy is in our own hands, 'that all the great +sources of human suffering are in a great degree, many of +them entirely, conquerable by human care and effort.' +This conviction is perhaps the greatest step of all that we +have gained. In morality some pertinent and necessary +questions are raised in Chap. VI, but the general progress +would be doubted by very few who have had the opportunity +of comparing the evidence as to any previous +state of morals, say in the Middle Ages or in the Elizabethan +age—the crown of the Renascence in England—with +that of the present day. The capital advance in +morality, which by itself would be sufficient to justify +our thesis, is the increase in the consciousness and the +obligation of the 'common weal', that conception of +which Government, increasingly better organized, is the +most striking practical realization. It has its drawback +in the spread of what we feel as a debasing 'vulgarity', +but the general balance is overwhelmingly on the side of +good. And in all such discussions we are apt to allow +far too little weight to the change which the New World, +and especially the United States, has brought about. +In matters of personal prosperity and a high general +standard of intellectual and moral competence, what has +been achieved there would outweigh a good deal of our<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span> +Old World defects when we come to drawing up a world's +balance-sheet.</p> + +<p>It will be seen therefore that we dismiss altogether any +doctrine of an 'illusion of progress' as a necessary decoy +to progressive action. Progress is a fact as well as an +ideal, and the ideal, though it springs from an objective +reality, will always be in advance of it. So it is with all +man's activities when he comes to man's estate. In +science he has always an ideal of a more perfect knowledge +before him though he becomes scientific by experience. +In art he is always striving to idealize fresh things, +though he first becomes an artist from the pure spontaneous +pleasure of expressing what is in him. The +deliberate projection of the ideal into the future, seeing +how far it will take us and whether we are journeying in +the right direction, is a late stage. As to progress, the +largest general ideal which can affect man's action, it is +only recently that mankind as a whole has been brought +to grips with the conception, also enlarged to the full. He +was standing, somewhat bewildered, somewhat dazzled, +before it, when the war, like an eclipse of the sun, came +suddenly and darkened the view. But an eclipse has been +found an invaluable time for studying some of the +problems of the sun's nature and of light itself.</p> + +<p>One of the most acute critics of the mid-Victorian +prophets of progress, Dr. John Grote, did very well in +disentangling the ideal element which is inherent in every +sound doctrine of progress as a guide to conduct. He took +the theory of a continuous inevitable progress in human +affairs, and showed how this by itself might lead to +a weakening of the will, on which alone in his view +progress in the proper sense depends. He took the +mechanical theory of utilitarianism and subjected it +to a similar analysis. We cannot evaluate progress +as an increase in a sum-total of happiness. This is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span> +incapable of calculation, and if we aim directly at it, +we are likely to lose the higher things on which it depends, +and which are capable of being made the objects +of that direct striving which is essential to progress. +Dr. Grote's analysis has long since passed into current +philosophical teaching, but he will always be well worth +reading for his fresh and vigorous reasoning and for +the way in which he builds up his own position without +denying the solid contributions of those whom he criticizes. +Complete truth in the matter seems to us to involve +a larger share for the historical element than Dr. Grote +explicitly allows. We grant fully the paramount necessity +for an ideal of progress and for constantly revising, +purifying, and strengthening it. But in its formation +we should trace more than he does to the collective forces +of mankind as expressed in history. These have given +us the ideal and will carry us on towards it by a force +which is greater than, and in one sense independent of, any +individual will. This is the cardinal truth of sociology, +and is obvious if we consider how in matters of everyday +experience we are all compelled by some social force not +ourselves, as for instance in actions tending to maintain +the family or in a national crisis such, as the war. This +general will is not, of course, independent of all the wills +concerned, but it acts more or less as an outside compelling +force in the case of every one. Moreover our selves +are composite as well as wholes, and parts of us are +active in forming the general will, parts acquiesce and +parts are overborne. Thus it is clear that a general +tendency to progress in the human race may be well +established—as we hold it to be—and yet go on in +ways capable of infinite variation and at very various +speed. We are all, let us suppose, being carried onward +by one mighty and irresistible stream. We may combine +our strength and skill and make the best use of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span> +the surrounding forces. This is working and steering +to the chosen goal. Or we may rest on our oars and +let the stream take us where it will. This is drifting, +and we shall certainly be carried on somewhere; +but we may be badly bruised or even shipwrecked in +the process, and in any case we shall have contributed +nothing to the advance. Some few may even waste their +strength in trying to work backwards against the stream. +We seem to have reached the point in history when for +the first time we are really conscious of our position, and +the problem is now a possible and an urgent one to mark +the goal clearly and unitedly and bend our common efforts +to attaining it.</p> + +<p>If this be so, the work of synthesis may be thought to +have a higher practical value for the moment than the +analysis which has prevailed in European thought for +the last forty or fifty years. In the earlier part of the nineteenth +century the great formative ideas which had been +gathering volume and enthusiasm during the revolutionary +period, took shape in complete systems of religious and +philosophic truth—Kant, Hegel, Spencer, Comte. They +have been followed by a period of criticism which has left +none of them whole, but on the other hand has produced +a mass of contradictions and specialisms highly confusing +and even hopeless to the public mind and veiling the more +important and profound agreements which have been +growing all the time beneath. There are now abundant +signs of a reaction towards unity and construction of +a broad and solid kind. In no respect is such a knitting +up more desirable than in this idea of progress itself. +Are we to say that there is no such thing as all-round +continuous progress, but only progress in definite branches +of thought and activity, progress in science or in particular +arts, social progress, physical progress, progress in popular +education and the like, but that any two or more branches<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span> +only coincide occasionally and by accident, and that +when working at one we can and should have no thought +of working at them all? This is no doubt a prevalent +view and we may hope that some things said in this book +may modify it. Another school of critical thinkers, +approaching the question from the point of view of the +ultimate object of action, asks what is the one thing for +which all others are to be pursued as means? Is increase +of knowledge the absolute good or increase of happiness? +Or if it is increase of love, is it quite indifferent what we +love? A few words on this may fitly conclude this +chapter.</p> + +<p>The task of mankind, and of every one of us so far as +he is able to enter into it, is to bring together these +various aspects of human excellence, to see them as parts +of one ideal and labour to approach it. This approach is +progress, and if you say 'progress of what, and to what +end', the answer can only be, the progress of humanity, +and the end further progress. Some of the writers +in this book will indicate the point at which in their +view this progress is in contact with the infinite, with +something not given in history; but, whatever our +view of the transcendental problem may be, it is of +the utmost importance for all of us to realize that +we have given to us in the actual process of time, in +concrete history, a development of humanity, a growth +from a lower to a higher state of being, which may be +most perfectly realized in the individual consciousness, +fully awake and fully socialized, but is also clearly +traceable in the doings of the human race as a whole. +Such is in fact the uniting thread of these essays, and when +we proceed to the converse of this truth and apply this +ideal which we have shown to be the course of realization, +as a governing motive in our lives, it is even more +imperative to strive constantly to keep the whole to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span>gether, +and not to regard either knowledge or power or +beauty or even love as an ultimate and supreme thing to +which all other ends are merely means. The end is a +more perfect man, developed by the perfecting of all +mankind.</p> + +<p>Such a conception embraces all the separate aspects +of our nature each in its place, and each from its own angle +supreme. Love and knowledge inseparable and fundamental, +freedom and happiness essential conditions of +healthy growth, personality developed with the development +of the greater personality in which we all live and +grow. This greater personality is at its highest immeasurably +above us, and has no assignable limits in time or in +capacity to know, to love, or to enjoy. We cannot fix +its origin at any known point in the birth of planets, +nor does the cooling of our sun nor of all the suns seem +to put any limit in our imagination to the continuous +unfolding of life like our own. While thus practically +infinite, the ideal of human nature is revealed to us +concretely in countless types of goodness and truth and +beauty which we may know and love and imitate. To all +it is open to study the lineaments of this ideal in the +records and figures of the past; to most it is revealed in +some fellow beings known in life. From these, the human +spirits which embody the strivings, the hopes, the conquered +failings of the past, we may form our better selves +and build the humanity of the future.</p> + +<p>There is a famous and magnificent passage in Dante's +<i>Purgatorio</i> which Catholic commentators interpret in +sacramental terms but we may well apply in a wider +sense to the progress of the human spirit towards the ideal. +It occurs at that crucial point where the ascending poet +leaves the circles of sad repentance to reach the higher +regions of growing light.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'And when we came there, to the first step, it was of +white marble, so polished that I could see myself just +as I am.</p> + +<p>'And the second was coloured dark, a rugged stone, +cracked lengthwise and across. And the third piled above +it was flaming porphyry, red like the blood from a vein.</p> + +<p>'Above this one was the angel of God, sitting on the +threshold, bright as a diamond.</p> + +<p>'Up the three steps my master led me with goodwill +and then he said, "Beg humbly that he unlock the door."'<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a></p></div> + +<p>Like this, the path man has to tread is not an easy +progress. But he is rising all the time and he rises on +steps of his own past. He sees reflected in them the image +of himself, and he sees too the deep faults in his nature, +and the rough surface of his path through time. The last +step, tinged by his own blood, gives access to a higher +dwelling, firm and bright and leading higher still. But +it is open only after a long ascent, and to the human +spirit that has worked faithfully, with love for his comrades +and leaders, and reverence for the laws which bind +both the world and him.</p> + + +<h3><span class="smcap">Books for Reference</span></h3> + +<div class='indent2'> +<p>John Grote, <i>Examination of Utilitarian Philosophy</i>.</p> + +<p>Kant, <i>Principles of Politics</i> (translated by Hastie and published +by Clark) contains his smaller works on Universal History, Perpetual +Peace, and the Principle of Progress. See also the <i>Essay on +Herder</i>.</p> + +<p>Comte's <i>Positive Polity</i>, vols. i. and ii, passim.</p> +</div> + + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a></p> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'usus et impigrae simul experientia mentis<br /></span> +<span class="i0">paulatim docuit pedetemtim progredientes.'<br /></span> +</div></div> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> Comte, <i>Positive Polity</i>, ii 116.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> See Delisle Burns, <i>Morality of Nations</i>, and <i>The Unity of +Western Civilization</i>, passim.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> <i>Purgatorio</i>, ix. 94-108.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span></p> +<h2>II</h2> + +<h2>PROGRESS IN PREHISTORIC TIMES</h2> + +<h3><span class="smcap">R. R. Marett</span></h3> + + +<p>If I am unable to deliver this lecture in person, it will +be because I have to attend in Jersey to the excavation +of a cave once occupied by men of the Glacial Epoch. +Now these men knew how to keep a good fire burning +within their primitive shelter; their skill in the chase +provided them with a well-assorted larder; their fine +strong teeth were such as to make short work of their +meals; lastly, they were clever artisans and one may even +say artists in flint and greenstone, not only having the +intelligence to make an economic use of the material at +their disposal, but likewise having enough sense of form +to endow their implements with more than a touch of +symmetry and beauty. All this we know from what they +have left behind them; and the rest is silence.</p> + +<p>And now let us imagine ourselves possessed of one of +those time-machines of which Mr. H. G. Wells is the +inventor. Transported by such means to the Europe of +that distant past, could we undertake to beat the record +of those cave-men?</p> + +<p>Clearly, all will depend on how many of us, and how +much of the apparatus of civilization, our time-machine +is able to accommodate. If it were simply to drop a pair +of us, naked and presumably ashamed, into the midst of +the rigours of the great Ice Age, the chances surely are +that the unfortunate immigrants must perish within a +week. Adam could hardly manage to kindle a fire without<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span> +the help of matches. Eve would be no less sorely troubled +to make clothes without the help of a needle. On the +other hand, if the time-machine were as capacious as +Noah's Ark, the venture would undoubtedly succeed, +presenting no greater difficulty than, let us say, the +planting of a settlement in Labrador or on the Yukon. +Given numbers, specialized labour, tools, weapons, books, +domesticated animals and plants, and so forth, the civilized +community would do more than hold its own with +the prehistoric cave-man, devoid of all such aids to life. +Indeed, it is tolerably certain that, willingly or unwillingly, +our colonists would soon drive the ancient type of man +clean out of existence.</p> + +<p>On the face of it, then, it would seem that we, as +compared with men of Glacial times, have decidedly +'progressed'. But it is not so easy to say off-hand in +what precisely such progress consists.</p> + +<p>Are we happier? As well ask whether the wild wolf +or the tame dog is the happier animal. The truth would +seem to be that wolf and dog alike can be thoroughly +happy each in its own way; whereas each would be as +thoroughly miserable, if forced to live the life of the +other. In one of his most brilliant passages Andrew +Lang, after contrasting the mental condition of one of +our most distant ancestors with yours or mine, by no +means to our disadvantage, concludes with these words: +'And after all he was probably as happy as we are; it +is not saying much.'<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a></p> + +<p>But, if not happier, are we nobler? If I may venture +to speak as a philosopher, I should reply, confidently, +'Yes.' It comes to this, that we have and enjoy more +soul. On the intellectual side, we see farther afield. On +the moral side, our sympathies are correspondingly wider.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span> +Imaginatively, and even to no small extent practically, +we are in touch with myriads of men, present and past. +We participate in a world-soul; and by so doing are +advanced in the scale of spiritual worth and dignity as +members of the human race. Yet this common soul of +mankind we know largely and even chiefly as something +divided against itself. Not only do human ideals contradict +each other; but the ideal in any and all of its forms +is contradicted by the actual. So it is the discontent +of the human world-soul that is mainly borne in upon him +who shares in it most fully. A possibility of completed +good may glimmer at the far end of the quest; but the +quest itself is experienced as a bitter striving. Bitter +though it may be, however, it is likewise ennobling. Here, +then, I find the philosophic, that is, the ultimate and truest, +touchstone of human progress, namely, in the capacity +for that ennobling form of experience whereby we become +conscious co-workers and co-helpers in an age-long, +world-wide striving after the good.</p> + +<p>But to-day I come before you, not primarily as a philosopher, +but rather as an anthropologist, a student of +prehistoric man. I must therefore define progress, not +in the philosophic or ultimate way, but simply as may +serve the strictly limited aims of my special science. As +an anthropologist, I want a workable definition—one +that will set me working and keep me working on promising +lines. I do not ask ultimate truth of my anthropological +definition. For my science deals with but a single aspect +of reality; and the other aspects of the real must likewise +be considered on their merits before a final account +can be rendered of it.</p> + +<p>Now anthropology is just the scientific history of man; +and I suppose that there could be a history of man that +did without the idea of human progress altogether. +Progress means, in some sense, change for the better.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span> +But, strictly, history as such deals with fact; and is not +concerned with questions of better or worse—in a word, +with value. Hence, it must always be somewhat arbitrary +on the part of an historian to identify change in a given +direction with a gain or increase in value. Nevertheless, +the anthropologist may do so, if he be prepared to take +the risk. He sees that human life has on the whole +grown more complex. He cannot be sure that it will +continue to grow more complex. Much less has he a right +to lay it down for certain that it ought to grow more +complex. But so long as he realizes that he is thereby +committing himself by implication to a prophetic and +purposive interpretation of the facts, he need not hesitate +to style this growth of complexity progress so far as man +is concerned. For if he is an anthropologist, he is also +a man, and cannot afford to take a wholly external and +impartial view of the process whereby the very growth of +his science is itself explained. Anthropologists though we +be, we run with the other runners in the race of life, and +cannot be indifferent to the prize to be won.</p> + +<p>Progress, then, according to the anthropologist, is +defined as increase in complexity, with the tacit assumption +that this somehow implies betterment, though it is +left with the philosopher to justify such an assumption +finally and fully. Whereas in most cases man would seem +to have succeeded in the struggle for existence by growing +more complex, though in some cases survival has been +secured by way of simplification, anthropology concentrates +its attention on the former set of cases as the more +interesting and instructive even from a theoretical point +of view. Let biology by all means dispense with the +notion of progress, and consider man along with the other +forms of life as subject to mere process. But anthropology, +though in a way it is a branch of biology, has a right to +a special point of view. For it employs special methods<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span> +involving the use of a self-knowledge that in respect to +the other forms of life is inevitably wanting. Anthropology, +in short, like charity, begins at home. Because +we know in ourselves the will to progress, we go on to +seek for evidences of progress in the history of mankind. +Nor need we cease to think of progress as something to +be willed, something that concerns the inner man, even +though for scientific purposes we undertake to recognize +it by some external sign, as, for instance, by the sign of +an increasing complexity, that is, such differentiation as +likewise involves greater cohesion. All history, and more +especially the history of early man, must deal primarily +with externals. Thence it infers the inner life; and +thereby it controls the tendency known as 'the psychologist's +fallacy', namely, that of reading one's own mind +into that of another man without making due allowance +for differences of innate capacity and of acquired outlook. +In what follows, then, let us, as anthropologists, be content +to judge human progress in prehistoric times primarily +by its external and objective manifestations; yet let us +at no point in our inquiries forget that these ancient men, +some of whom are our actual ancestors, were not only +flesh of our flesh, but likewise spirit of our spirit.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>A rapid sketch such as this must take for granted on +the part of the audience some general acquaintance with +that succession of prehistoric epochs which modern +research has definitely established. Pre-history, as distinguished +from proto-history, may, in reference to Europe +as a whole, be made coextensive with the Stone Age. +This divides into the Old Stone Age and the New. The +Old Stone Age, or Palaeolithic Period, yields three well-marked +subdivisions, termed Early, Middle, and Late. +The New Stone Age, or Neolithic Period, includes two +sub-periods, the Earlier or Transitional, and the Later or<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span> +Typical. Thus our historical survey will fall naturally +into five chapters.</p> + +<p>There are reasons, however, why it will be more convenient +to move over the whole ground twice. The material +on which our judgements must be founded is not all of +one kind. Anthropology is the joint work of two departments, +which are known as Physical Anthropology and +Cultural Anthropology respectively. The former, we may +say, deals with man as an organism, the latter with him +as an organizer. Here, then, are very different standpoints. +For, in a broad way of speaking, nature controls man +through his physical organization, whereas through his +cultural organization man controls nature. From each +of these standpoints in turn, then, let us inquire how far +prehistoric man can be shown to have progressed. First, +did the breed improve during the long course of the +Stone Age in Europe? Secondly, did the arts of life +advance, so that by their aid man might establish himself +more firmly in his kingdom?</p> + +<p>Did the breed improve during prehistoric times? I +have said that, broadly speaking, nature controls man as +regards his physical endowment. Now in theory one must +admit that it might be otherwise. If Eugenics were to +mature on its purely scientific side, there is no reason why +the legislator of the future should not try to make a practical +application of its principles; and the chances are +that, of many experiments, some would prove successful. +But that conscious breeding was practised in prehistoric +times is out of the question. The men of those days +were one and all what we are ourselves—nature's mongrels, +now broken up into varieties by casual isolation, and now +by no less casual intermixture recompounded in a host +of relatively unstable forms. Whatever progress, therefore, +may have occurred in this respect has been unconscious. +Man cannot take the credit for it, except in so<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span> +far as it is indirectly due to that increase and spread +of the race which have been promoted by his achievements +in the way of culture.</p> + +<p>The barest outline of the facts must suffice. For the +Early Pleistocene, apart from the Java fossil, <i>Pithecanthropus +erectus</i>, a veritable 'missing link', whom we may +here disregard as falling altogether outside our world of +Europe, there are only two individuals that can with +certainty be referred to this distant period. These are +the Piltdown and the Heidelberg specimens. The former +consists of a fragmentary brain-case, thick-boned and +narrow-fronted, but typically human in its general +characters, and of the greater part of a lower jaw, which, +as regards both its own elongated and curiously flanged +structure, and that of the teeth it contained, including +an enormous pointed canine, is conversely more appropriate +to an ape-like being than to a man. The latter +consists only of a lower jaw, of which the teeth, even the +canines, are altogether human, whereas the jaw itself is +hardly less simian than that of the Sussex skull. If we +add the Java example to the list of very primitive forms, +it is remarkable to note how, though differing widely +from each other, all alike converge on the ape. Nevertheless, +even in Pithecanthropus, the brute is passing into the +man. We note the erect attitude, to be inferred from his +thigh-bone, and the considerably enlarged, though even +so hardly human, brain. The Piltdown individual, on the +other hand, has crossed the Rubicon. He has a brain-capacity +entitling him to rank as a man and an Englishman. +Such a brain, too, implies a cunning hand, which +doubtless helped him greatly to procure his food, even if +his massive jaw enabled him to dispose of the food in +question without recourse to the adventitious aids of +knife and fork. For the matter of that, if our knowledge +made it possible to correlate these rare finds of bones more<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span> +exactly with the innumerable flint implements ascribable +to this period (and, indeed, not without analogies among +the spoil from the Piltdown gravels), it might turn out +that even the equivalent of knife and fork was not +wanting to the Early Pleistocene supper-party, or, at any +rate, that the human hand was already advanced from the +status of labourer to the more dignified position of superintendent +of the tool.</p> + +<p>The Middle Pleistocene Epoch belongs to the men of +the Neanderthal type. Some thirty specimens, a few +of them more or less complete, have come down to us, +and we can form a pretty clear notion of the physical +appearance of the race. Speaking generally, we may say +that it marks a stage of progress as compared with the +Piltdown type; though, if the jaw, heavy and relatively +chinless as it is, has become less simian, the protruding +brow-ridge lends a monstrous look to the face, while the +forehead is markedly receding—a feature which turns +out, however, to be not incompatible with a weight of +brain closely approaching our own average. Whether +this type has disappeared altogether from the earth, or +survives in certain much modified descendants, is an +open question. The fact remains that during the last +throes of the Glacial Epoch this rough-hewn kind of man +apparently had Northern Europe as his exclusive province; +and it is by no means evident what <i>Homo Sapiens</i>, the +supposed highly superior counterpart and rival of <i>Homo +Neanderthalensis</i>, was doing with himself in the meantime. +Moreover, not only in respect of space does the population +of that frozen world show remarkable homogeneity; but +also in respect of time must we allow it an undisputed +sway extending over thousands of years, during which +the race bred true. The rate of progress, whether reckoned +in physical terms or otherwise, is so slow as to be almost +imperceptible. A type suffices for an age. Whereas in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span> +the life-history of an individual there is rapid development +during youth, and after maturity a steadying +down, it is the other way about in the life-history of the +race. Man, so to speak, was born old and accommodated +to a jog-trot. We moderns are the juveniles, and it is +left for us to go the pace.</p> + +<p>Yet Late Pleistocene Period introduces us to more +diversity in the way of human types. Only one race, +however, that named after the rock-shelter of Crô-Magnon +in the Dordogne, is represented by a fair number of +specimens, namely, about a dozen. At this point we come +suddenly and without previous warning on as pretty +a kind of man as ever walked this earth. In his leading +characters he is remarkably uniform. Six feet high and +long-legged, he likewise possessed a head well stocked +with brains and a face that, if rather broad and short, was +furnished by way of compensation with a long and narrow +nose. If the present world can show nothing quite like +him, it at least cannot produce anything more shapely +in the way of the 'human form divine'. Apart from the +Crô-Magnons, the remains of an old woman and a youth +found at the lowest level of the Grotte des Enfants at +Mentone are usually held to belong to a distinct stock +known as the Grimaldi. The physical characters of the +pair are regarded as negroid, verging on the Pygmy; +but if we could study an adult male of the same stock, +it might possibly turn out not to be so very divergent +from the Crô-Magnon. Again, a single specimen does +duty for the so-called Chancelade race. The skeleton is +of comparatively low stature, and is deemed to show +close affinities to the type of the modern Eskimo. Without +being unduly sceptical, one may once more wonder if +the Crô-Magnon stock may not have produced this somewhat +aberrant form. Even on such a theory, however—and +it is hardly orthodox—diversity of physical structure<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span> +would seem to be on the increase. On the other hand, +there are reasons of considerable cogency for referring +to the end of this period skeletons of what Huxley termed +the 'River-bed type', the peculiarity of which consists +in the fact that they are more or less indistinguishable +from the later Neolithic men and indeed from any of +those slight-built, shortish, long-headed folk who form +the majority in the crowded cities of to-day. Some +authorities would ascribe a far greater antiquity to this +type, but, I venture to think, on the strength of doubtful +evidence. The notorious Galley Hill skeleton, for instance, +found more or less intact in an Early Pleistocene bed in +which the truly contemporary animals are represented by +the merest battered remnants, to my mind reeks of +modernity. Be these things as they may, however, +when we come to Neolithic times a race of similar physical +characters has Europe to itself, though it would seem to +display minor variations in a way that suggests that the +reign of the mongrel has at length begun. And here we +may close our enumeration of the earliest known branches +of our family tree, since the coming of the broad-heads +pertains to the history of the Bronze Age, and hence +falls outside the scope of the present survey.</p> + +<p>Now what is the bearing of these somewhat scanty +data on the question of progress? It is not easy to extract +from them more than the general impression that, as +time went on, the breed made persistent headway as +regards both the complexity of its organization and the +profusion of its forms. After all, we must not expect +too much from this department of the subject. For one +thing, beyond the limits of North-western Europe the +record is almost blank; and yet we can scarcely hope +to discover the central breeding-place of man in what is, +geographically, little more than a blind alley. In the next +place, Physical Anthropology, not only in respect to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span> +human palaeontology, but in general, is as barren of +explanations as it is fertile in detailed observations. The +systematic study of heredity as it bears on the history +of the human organism has hardly begun. Hence, it +would not befit one who is no expert in relation to such +matters to anticipate the verdict of a science that needs +only public encouragement in order to come into its own. +Suffice it to suggest here that nature as she presides over +organic evolution, that is, the unfolding of the germinal +powers, may be conceived as a kindly but slow-going and +cautious liberator. One by one new powers, hitherto +latent, are set free as an appropriate field of exercise is +afforded them by the environment. At first divergency +is rarely tolerated. A given type is extremely uniform. +On the other hand, when divergency is permitted, it +counts for a great deal. The wider variations occur nearest +the beginning, each for a long time breeding true to itself. +Later on, such uncompromising plurality gives way to +a more diffused multiplicity begotten of intermixture. +Mongrelization has set in. Not but what there may +spring up many true-breeding varieties among the +mongrels; and these, given suitable conditions, will +be allowed to constitute lesser types possessed of fairly +uniform characters. Such at least is in barest outline +the picture presented by the known facts concerning the +physical evolution of man, if one observe it from outside +without attempting to explore the hidden causes of the +process. Some day, when these causes are better understood, +man may take a hand in the game, and become, +in regard to the infinite possibilities still sleeping in the +transmitted germ, a self-liberator. Nature is but a +figurative expression for the chances of life, and the wise +man faces no more chances than he needs must. Scientific +breeding is no mere application of the multiplication table +to a system of items. We must make resolutely for the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span> +types that seem healthy and capable, suppressing the +defectives in a no less thorough, if decidedly more considerate, +way than nature has been left to do in the past. +Here, then, along physical lines is one possible path of +human progress, none the less real because hitherto +pursued, not by the aid of eyes that can look and choose, +but merely in response to painful proddings at the +tail-end.</p> + +<p>Our remaining task is to take stock of that improvement +in the arts of life whereby man has come gradually to +master an environment that formerly mastered him. For +the Early Palaeolithic Period our evidence in respect +of its variety, if not of its gross quantity, is wofully +disappointing. Not to speak of man's first and rudest +experiments in the utilization of stone, which are doubtless +scattered about the world in goodly numbers if only we +could recognize them clearly for what they are, the +Chellean industry by its wide distribution leads one to +suppose that mankind in those far-off days was only +capable of one idea at a time—a time, too, that lasted +a whole age. Yet the succeeding Acheulean style of workmanship +in flint testifies to the occurrence of progress +in one of its typical forms, namely, in the form of what +may be termed 'intensive' progress. The other typical +form I might call 'intrusive' progress, as happens when +a stimulating influence is introduced from without. Now +it may be that the Acheulean culture came into being +as a result of contact between an immigrant stock and +a previous population practising the Chellean method +of stone-work. We are at present far too ill-informed to +rule out such a guess. But, on the face of it, the greater +refinement of the Acheulean handiwork looks as if it +had been literally hammered out by steadfastly following +up the Chellean pattern into its further possibilities. +Explain it as we will, this evolution of the so-called<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span> +<i>coup-de-poing</i> affords almost the sole proof that the +human world of that remote epoch was moving at all. +If we could see their work in wood, we might discern +a more diversified skill or we might not. As it is, we can +but conclude in the light of our very imperfect knowledge +that in mind no less than in body mankind of Early +Palaeolithic times displayed a fixity of type almost +amounting to that of one of the other animal species.</p> + +<p>During Middle Palaeolithic times the Mousterian +culture rules without a rival. The cave-period has begun; +and, thanks to the preservation of sundry dwelling-places +together with a goodly assortment of their less +perishable contents, we can frame a fairly adequate +notion of the home-life of Neanderthal man. I have +already alluded to my excavations in Jersey, and need +not enter into fuller details here. But I should like to +put on record the opinion borne in upon me by such +first-hand experience as I have had that cultural advance +in Mousterian days was almost as portentously slow as +ever it had been before. The human deposits in the +Jersey cave are in some places about ten feet thick, and +the fact that they fall into two strata separated by a sterile +layer that appears to consist of the dust of centuries +points to a very long process of accumulation. Yet +though there is one kind of elephant occurring amid the +bone refuse at the bottom of the bed, and another and, +it would seem, later kind at the top, one and the same +type of flint instrument is found at every level alike; +and the only development one can detect is a certain gain +in elegance as regards the Mousterian 'point', the reigning +substitute for the former <i>coup-de-poing</i>. Once more there +is intensive progress only, so far at least as most of the +Jersey evidence goes. One <i>coup-de-poing</i>, however, and +that hardly Acheulean in conception but exactly what +a hand accustomed to the fashioning of the Mousterian<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span> +'point' would be likely to make by way of an imitation +of the once fashionable pattern, lay at lowest floor-level; +as if to remind one that during periods of transition the +old is likely to survive by the side of the new, and may +even survive in it as a modifying element. As a matter +of fact, the <i>coup-de-poing</i> is frequent in the earliest +Mousterian sites; so that we cannot but ask ourselves +how it came to be in the end superseded. Whether the +Mousterians were of a different race from the Acheuleans +is not known. Certain it is, on the other hand, that the +industry that makes its first appearance in their train +represents a labour-saving device. The Mousterian had +learned how to break up his flint-nodule into flakes, +which simply needed to be trimmed on one face to yield +a cutting edge. The Acheulean had been content to +attain this result more laboriously by pecking a +pebble on both faces until what remained was sharp +enough for his purpose. Here, then, we are confronted +with that supreme condition of progress, the inventor's +happy thought. One of those big-brained Neanderthal +men, we may suppose, had genius; nature, the liberator, +having released some latent power in the racial constitution. +Given such a culture-hero, the common herd was +capable of carrying on more or less mechanically for an +aeon or so. And so it must ever be. The world had better +make the most of its geniuses; for they amount to no +more than perhaps a single one in a million. Anyway, +Neanderthal man never produced a second genius, so far +as we can tell; and that is why, perhaps, his peculiar +type of brow-ridge no longer adorns the children of +men.</p> + +<p>Before we leave the Mousterians, another side of their +culture deserves brief mention. Not only did they provide +their dead with rude graves, but they likewise furnished +them with implements and food for use in a future life.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span> +Herein surely we may perceive the dawn of what I do not +hesitate to term religion. A distinguished scholar and +poet did indeed once ask me whether the Mousterians, +when they performed these rites, did not merely show +themselves unable to grasp the fact that the dead are +dead. But I presume that my friend was jesting. A +sympathy stronger than death, overriding its grisly terror, +and converting it into the vehicle of a larger hope—that +is the work of soul; and to develop soul is progress. +A religious animal is no brute, but a real man with the +seed of genuine progress in him. If Neanderthal man +belonged to another species, as the experts mostly declare +and I very humbly beg leave to doubt, we must even so +allow that God made him also after his own image, +brow-ridges and all.</p> + +<p>The presence of soul in man is even more manifest +when we pass on to the Late Palaeolithic peoples. They +are cave-dwellers; they live by the chase; in a word, +they are savages still. But they exhibit a taste and a +talent for the fine arts of drawing and carving that, as +it were, enlarge human existence by a new dimension. +Again a fresh power has been released, and one in which +many would seem to have participated; for good artists +are as plentiful during this epoch as ever they were in +ancient Athens or mediaeval Florence. They must have +married-in somewhat closely, one would think, for this +special aptitude to have blossomed forth so luxuriantly. +I cannot here dwell at length on the triumphs of Aurignacian +and Magdalenian artistry. Indeed, what I have seen +with my own eyes on the walls of certain French caves +is almost too wonderful to be described. The simplicity +of the style does not in the least detract from the fullness +of the charm. On the contrary, one is tempted to doubt +whether the criterion of complexity applies here—whether, +in fact, progress has any meaning in relation to fine <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span>art—since, +whether attained by simple or by complex means, +beauty is always beauty, and cannot further be perfected. +Shall we say, then, with Plato that beauty was revealed +to man from the first in its absolute nature, so that the +human soul might be encouraged to seek for the real in +its complementary forms of truth and goodness, such as +are less immediately manifest? For the rest, the soul +of these transcendently endowed savages was in other +respects more imperfectly illuminated; as may be +gathered from the fact that they carved and drew partly +from the love of their art, but partly also, and, perhaps, +even primarily, for luck. It seems that these delineations +of the animals on which they lived were intended to help +them towards good hunting. Such is certainly the object +of a like custom on the part of the Australian aborigines; +there being this difference, however, that the art of the +latter considered as art is wholly inferior. Now we know +enough about the soul of the Australian native, thanks +largely to the penetrating interpretations of Sir Baldwin +Spencer, to greet and honour in him the potential lord +of the universe, the harbinger of the scientific control +of nature. It is more than half the battle to have willed +the victory; and the picture-charm as a piece of moral +apparatus is therefore worthy of our deepest respect. +The chariot of progress, of which the will of man is the +driver, is drawn by two steeds, namely, Imagination and +Reason harnessed together. Of the pair, Reason is the +more sluggish, though serviceable enough for the heavy +work. Imagination, full of fire as it is, must always set +the pace. So the soul of the Late Palaeolithic hunter, +having already in imagination controlled the useful +portion of the animal world, was more than half-way +on the road to its domestication. But in so far as he mistook +the will for the accomplished deed, he was not getting +the value out of his second horse; or, to drop metaphor,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span> +the scientific reason as yet lay dormant in his soul. But +his dream was to come true presently.</p> + +<p>The Neolithic Period marks the first appearance of the +'cibi-cultural' peoples. The food-seekers have become +food-raisers. But the change did not come all at once. +The earlier Neolithic culture is at best transitional. There +may even have been one of those set-backs in culture +which we are apt to ignore when we are narrating the +proud tale of human advance. Europe had now finally +escaped from the last ravages of an Arctic climate; +but there was cruel demolition to make good, and in +the meantime there would seem, as regards man, to have +been little doing. Life among the kitchen-middens of +Denmark was sordid; and the Azilians who pushed up +from Spain as far as Scotland did not exactly step into +a paradise ready-made. Somewhere, however, in the +far south-east a higher culture was brewing. By steps +that have not yet been accurately traced legions of +herdsmen and farmer-folk overspread our world, either +absorbing or driving before them the roving hunters +of the older dispensation. We term this, the earliest of +true civilizations, 'neolithic', as if it mattered in the +least whether your stone implement be chipped or polished +to an edge. The real source of increased power and +prosperity lay in the domestication of food-animals and +food-plants. The man certainly had genius and pluck +into the bargain who first trusted himself to the back of +an unbroken horse. It needed hardly less genius to +discover that it is no use singing charms over the seed-bearing +grass in order to make it grow, unless some of +the seed is saved to be sowed in due season. Society +possibly brained the inventor—such is the way of the +crowd; but, as it duly pocketed the invention, we have +perhaps no special cause to complain.</p> + +<p>By way of appreciating the conditions prevailing in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span> +the Later Neolithic Age, let us consider in turn the Lake-dwellers +of Switzerland and the Dolmen-builders of our +Western coast-lands. I was privileged to assist, on the +shore of the Lake of Neuchâtel, in the excavation of a site +where one Neolithic village of pile-dwellings had evidently +been destroyed by fire, and at some later date, just falling +within the Stone Age, had been replaced by another. +Here we had lighted on a crucial instance of the march +of cultural progress. The very piles testified to it, those +of the older settlement being ill-assorted and slight, +whereas the later structure was regularly built and +heavily timbered. It was clear, too, that the first set +of inhabitants had lived narrow lives. All their worldly +goods were derived from strictly local sources. On the +other hand, their successors wore shells from the Mediterranean +and amber beads from the Baltic among their +numerous decorations; while for their flint they actually +went as far afield as Grand Pressigny in West-Central +France, the mines of which provided the butter-like +nodules that represented the <i>ne plus ultra</i> of Neolithic +luxury. Commerce must have been decidedly flourishing +in those days. No longer was it a case of the so-called +'silent trade', which the furtive savage prosecutes with +fear and trembling, placing, let us say, a lump of venison +on a rock in the stream dividing his haunts from those +of his dangerous neighbours, and stealing back later on +to see if the red ochre for which he pines has been deposited +in return on the primitive counter. The Neolithic trader, +on the other side, must have pushed the science of barter +to the uttermost limits short of the invention of a circulating +medium, if indeed some crude form of currency was +not already in vogue.</p> + +<p>When we turn to the Dolmen-builders, and contemplate +their hoary sanctuaries, we are back among the problems +raised by the philosophic conception of progress as an<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span> +advance in soul-power. Is any religion better than none? +Does it make for soul-power to be preoccupied with the +cult of the dead? Does the imagination, which in alliance +with the scientific reason achieves such conquests over +nature, give way at times to morbid aberration, causing +the chill and foggy loom of an after-life to obscure the +honest face of the day? I can only say for myself that +the deepening of the human consciousnesses due to the +effort to close with the mystery of evil and death, and to +extort therefrom a message of hope and comfort, seems +to me to have been worth the achievement at almost any +cost of crimes and follies perpetrated by the way. I do +not think that progress in religion is progress towards its +ultimate abolition. Rather, religion, if regarded in the +light of its earlier history, must be treated as the parent +source of all the more spiritual activities of man; and +on these his material activities must depend. Else the +machine will surely grind the man to death; and his +body will finally stop the wheels that his soul originally +set in motion.</p> + +<p>The panorama is over. It has not been easy, at the +rate of about a millennium to a minute, to present +a coherent account of the prehistoric record, which at +best is like a jig-saw puzzle that has lost most of the +pieces needed to reconstitute the design. But, even +on this hasty showing, it looks as if the progressive nature +of man were beyond question. There is manifest gain in +complexity of organization, both physical and cultural; +and only less manifest, in the sense that the inwardness of +the process cannot make appeal to the eye, is the corresponding +gain in realized power of soul. In short, the men +of the Stone Age assuredly bore their full share in the +work of race-improvement; and the only point on which +there may seem to be doubt is whether we of the age of +metal are as ready and able to bear our share. But let<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span> +us be optimistic about ourselves. As long as we do not +allow our material achievements to blind us to the need +of an education that keeps the spiritual well to the fore, +then progress is assured so far as it depends on culture.</p> + +<p>Yet if we could likewise breed for spirituality, humanity's +chances, I believe, would be bettered by as much +again or more. But how is this to be done? Science +must somehow find out. To leave it to nature is treason +to the mind. Man may be an ass on the whole, but nature +is even more of an ass, especially when it stands for human +nature minus its saving grace of imaginative, will-directed +intelligence. So let us hope that one day people will +marry intelligently, and that the best marriages will be +the richest in offspring. I believe that the spiritual is +not born of the sickly; and at any rate should be prepared +to make trial of such a working principle in my New +Republic.</p> + +<p>So much for the practical corollaries suggested by our +flying visit to Prehistoric Europe. But, even if any +detailed lessons to be drawn from such fragmentary +facts have to be received with caution, you need not +hesitate to pursue this branch of study for its own sake +as part of the general training of the mind. Accustom +yourselves to a long perspective. Cultivate the eagle's +faculty of spacious vision. It is only thus that one can +get the values right—see right and wrong, truth and error, +beauty and ugliness in their broad and cumulative effects. +Analytic studies, as they are termed, involving the exploration +of the meaning of received ideas, must come first +in any scheme of genuine education. We must learn +to affirm before we can go on to learn how to criticize. +But historical studies are a necessary sequel. Other +people's received ideas turn out in the light of history +to have sometimes worked well, and sometimes not so +well; and we are thereupon led to revise our own opinions<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span> +accordingly. Now the history of man has hitherto stood +almost exclusively for the history of European civilization. +Being so limited, it loses most of its value as an instrument +of criticism. For how can a single phase of culture +criticize itself? How can it step out of the scales and +assess its own weight? Anthropology, however, will +never acquiesce in this parochial view of the province +of history. History worthy of the name must deal with +man universal. So I would have you all become anthropologists. +Let your survey of human progress be age-long +and world-wide. You come of a large family and an +ancient one. Learn to be proud of it, and then you will +seek likewise to be worthy of it.</p> + + +<h3><span class="smcap">Books for Reference</span></h3> + +<div class='indent2'> +<p>W. J. Sollas, <i>Ancient Hunters and their Modern Representatives</i>, +2nd edition, 1915.</p> + +<p>E. A. Parkyn, <i>Introduction to the study of Prehistoric Art</i>.</p> + +<p>R. R. Marett, <i>Anthropology</i> (Home University Library).</p> + +<p>J. L. Myres, <i>Dawn of History</i> (Home University).</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> Presidential Address to the International Folk-Lore Congress, +1891, p. 9.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span></p> +<h2>III</h2> + +<h2>PROGRESS AND HELLENISM</h2> + +<h3><span class="smcap">F. Melian Stawell</span></h3> + + +<p>To speak the truth about national characteristics it is +often necessary to speak in paradoxes, for of all unities +on earth nothing contains so many contradictions as +a nation. So it is here: it may be said quite truly that +the Greeks had at once the most profound conceptions +about Progress and no faith in it: that they were at once +the most hopeful and the most despairing of peoples. +Let me try to explain. When we speak of a faith in +Progress, whatever else we mean, we must mean, I take +it, that there is a real advance in human welfare throughout +time from the Past to the Future, that 'the best is +yet to be', and that the good wine is kept to the last. +But if we are to have a philosophy underlying that faith +we must be able to say something more. What, in the +first place, do we mean by 'a real advance'? Or by +'human welfare'? Progress, yes, but progress towards +what? What is the standard? And if we cannot +indicate a standard, what right have we to say that one +life is any better than another? The life of the scientific +man any better than the life of the South Sea Islander—content +if only he has enough bananas to eat? Or than +the life of a triumphant conqueror, a Zenghis Khan or +a Tamberlaine—exultant if he has enough human heads +before him? Or, indeed, any of these rather than the +blank of Nirvana or the life of a vegetable?</p> + +<p>Our first need, then, is the need of a standard for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span> +good over and above the conflicting opinions of men, +and some idea as to what that standard implies.</p> + +<p>And the next question is, why we should hold that any +of this good is going to be realized in human life at all? +If it is, there must be some connexion of cause and effect +between goodness and human existence. What is the +nature of that connexion? Finally, why should we hope +that this goodness is realized more and more fully as time +goes on?</p> + +<p>The Greeks faced these questions, as they faced so +many, with extraordinary daring and penetration and +with an intimate mixture of sadness and hope.</p> + +<p>They themselves, of all nations known to us in history, +had made the greatest progress in the shortest space of +time. A long course of preparation, it is true, underlay +that marvellous growth. The classical Greeks,—and when +I speak of Hellenism I mean the flower of classical Greek +culture,—the classical Greeks entered into the labours +of the island peoples, who, whether kindred to them or +not, had built up from neolithic times a great civilization, +the major part of which they could, and did, assimilate. +They found the soil already worked. None the +less it is to their own original genius that we owe +those great discoveries of the spirit which, to quote +a recent writer, 'created a new world of science and art, +established an ideal of the sane mind in the sane body +and the perfect man in the perfect society, cut out a new +line of progress between anarchy and despotism, and +made moral ends supreme over national in the State.'<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a></p> + +<p>But these practical achievements of theirs have been +already summed up by Professor J. A. Smith in his lecture<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a> +at this school last year, and it is to that lecture that +I would refer you. I will take it as a basis and proceed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span> +for my own purposes to discuss the Greek conceptions +about progress. Those conceptions were complex, and, +speaking roughly, we may say this: if belief in real +progress implies belief in three things, namely, (1) an +absolute standard apprehended, however dimly, by +man, (2) a causal connexion between existence and +perfection, and (3) a persistent advance through time, +then the Greeks held to the first two and doubted, +or even denied, the third. Their two great thinkers, +Plato and Aristotle, worked out systems based on the +conviction that there really was an absolute standard of +perfection, that man could really apprehend something +of this perfection, and that the effort towards it was +essential to the very existence of the world, part of the +stuff, as it were, that made the universe. These systems +have had an effect not to be exaggerated on the whole +movement of thought since their day. Moreover, many +of their fundamental conceptions are being revived in +modern science and metaphysics. And the convictions +that underlie them are calculated, one would say, to lead +at once to a buoyant faith in progress. But with Plato, +and Aristotle, and the Greeks generally, they did not so +lead. The Greeks could not feel sure that this effort +towards perfection, though it is part of existence, is strong +enough to deliver man in this world from the web of evil +in which also he is involved, nor even that he makes any +approach on the whole towards the loosening of the toils. +The spectre of world-destruction, as Whitman says of +Carlyle, was always before them. And I wish to ask +later on if we may not surmise definite reasons in their +own history for this recurring note of discouragement. +But let us first look at the positive side, and first in +Plato. Plato came to his system by several lines of +thought, and to understand it we ought to take account +of all.</p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span></p> +<p>1. In the first place no thinker, I suppose, ever felt +more keenly than he felt the desire for an absolute +standard of truth, especially in matters of right and wrong, +if only to decide between the disputes of men. And, in +Greece men disputed so boldly and so incessantly that +there was no possibility of forgetting the clash of opinion +in any 'dogmatic slumber'. Thus Plato is always +asking, like Robert Browning in 'Rabbi Ben Ezra',—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">Now, who shall arbitrate?<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Ten men love what I hate,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shun what I follow, slight what I receive;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Ten who in ears and eyes<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Match me: we all surmise,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They this thing, and I that; whom shall my soul believe?<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>In one of his very earliest dialogues, the 'Euthyphro', +Plato puts the question almost in so many words. What is +it, he asks (7 <span class="smcap">a-e</span>), that men quarrel over most passionately +when they dispute? Is it not over the great questions +of justice and injustice, of beauty, goodness, and the +like? They do not quarrel thus over a question of +physical size, simply because they can settle such a dispute +by reference to an unquestioned standard, a standard +measure, let us say.</p> + +<p>If there is no corresponding standard for right and +wrong, if each man is really the judge and the measure +for himself, then there is no sense, Plato feels, in claiming +that one man is wiser than another in conduct, or indeed +any man wiser than a dog-faced baboon (<i>Theaet.</i> 161 <span class="smcap">c-e</span>).</p> + +<p>2. Again, Plato feels most poignantly the inadequacy +of all the goodness and beauty we have ever actually seen +in this world of space and time, compared with the ideal +we have of them in their perfection. How can we have +this sense of deficiency, he asks, unless somehow we +apprehend something supreme, over and above all the +approaches to it that have as yet appeared? (<i>Phaedo</i>, +74 <span class="smcap">e</span>).<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span></p> + +<p>This vision of an absolute perfection, as yet unrealized +on earth, so dominates all his thinking, and has such +peculiar features of its own, that even familiar quotations +must be quoted here. You will find an exquisite +translation of a typical passage in our Poet Laureate's +Anthology, <i>The Spirit of Man</i> (No. 37). Specially to be +noted here is the stress on the unchanging character of +this eternal perfection and the suggestion that it cannot +be fully realized in the world. At the same time, Plato +is equally sure that it is only through the study of this +world that our apprehension of that perfection is +awakened at all:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'He who has thus been instructed in the science of Love, +and has been led to see beautiful things in their due order +and rank, when he comes toward the end of his discipline, +will suddenly catch sight of a wondrous thing, beautiful +with the absolute Beauty ... he will see a Beauty eternal, +not growing or decaying, not waxing or waning, nor will +it be fair here and foul there ... as if fair to some and foul +to others ... but Beauty absolute, separate, simple, and +everlasting; which lending of its virtue to all beautiful +things that we see born to decay, itself suffers neither +increase nor diminution, nor any other change' (<i>Symp.</i> 211).</p></div> + +<p>All beautiful things remind man, Plato tells us in his +mythological fashion, of this perfect Beauty, because we +had seen it once before in another life, before our souls +were born into this world, 'that blissful sight and spectacle' +(<i>Phaedrus</i>, 250 <span class="smcap">b</span>) when we followed Zeus in his +winged car and all the company of the gods, and went out +into the realm beyond the sky, a realm 'of which no +mortal poet has ever sung or ever will sing worthily'.</p> + +<p>3. But, beside this passion for the ideal, Plato was +intensely interested in our knowledge of the actual world +of appearances around us. And one of the prime questions +with which he was then concerned was the question, +what we mean when we talk about the nature or character<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span> +of the things we see, a plant, say, or an animal, or a man. +We must mean something definite, otherwise we could +not recognize, for example, that a plant <i>is</i> a plant through +all its varieties and all the different stages of its growth. +Plato's answer was, that in all natural things there is +a definite principle that copies, as it were, a definite Type +or Form, and this Type he calls an Idea. Thus in some +sense it is this Type, this Idea, this Form, that brings the +particular thing into being.</p> + +<p>4. But it was not enough for Plato to say that every +natural thing had in some sense a certain type for its basis, +unless he could believe that this type was good, and that +all the types were harmonious with each other. He could +only be satisfied with the world, in short, if he could feel +that it came about through a movement towards perfection. +He makes his Socrates say that in asking about +'the causes of things, what it is that makes each thing +come into being', it was not enough for him if he could +only see that the thing was there because something had +put it there: he also wanted to see that it was good for it +to be there. Socrates tells us that what he needed he +thought he had found in a book by Anaxagoras, which +announced 'that Mind was the disposer and cause of all' +because, 'I said to myself, If this be so—if Mind is the +orderer, it will have all in order, and put every single thing +in the place that is best for it'.<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a></p> + +<p>It is the same feeling as that which underlies the words +of Genesis about the Creation, 'And God saw that it was +good'. And there is no doubt that such a view of the +world would be supremely satisfying if we could count +it true. There may be considerable intellectual satisfaction, +no doubt, in merely solving a puzzle as to how +things come about, but it is as nothing compared to the +joy there would be in contemplating their goodness.</p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span></p> +<p>5. But is it true? Can we possibly say so in view of the +hideous imperfection round us? The writers of Genesis +spoke of a Fall. Plato, in his own way, speaks of a +Fall himself. He never gives up the belief in an +Absolute Perfection, a system of Perfect Types somehow—he +does not say exactly how—influencing the +structure of things in this world. But he holds that on +earth this perfection is always thwarted by a medium +which prevents its full manifestation. This medium is +the medium of Space and Time, and therefore the medium +of history—and therefore history is always and inevitably +a record of failure. 'While we are in the body,' Plato +writes, 'and while the soul is contaminated with its +evils, our desire will never be thoroughly satisfied.'<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> 'The +body is a tomb,' he writes elsewhere, quoting a current +phrase.</p> + +<p>This is sad enough: yet if we put against it Plato's +vision of what Man might be, we get as inspiring words +as ever were written:</p> + +<p>'We have spoken of Man', he says at the end of the +<i>Republic</i>, 'as he appears to us now, but now he looks as +Glaucus looked after he had been cast into the sea, and +his original nature was scarcely to be discerned, for his +limbs were broken and crushed and defaced by the waters, +and strange things had grown round him, shells and +seaweed and stones, so that he was more like a beast than +a man. That is how the soul looks to us now encompassed +by all her evils. It is elsewhere, my friend, that we ought +to look.' Where? asks Plato's friend, and Plato answers, +'We should look to her love of wisdom and realize what +she clings to, what company she desires, for she is akin +to the Divine and Immortal and Eternal, and we should +understand what she would become if she followed after +it, with all her strength, and were lifted by that effort<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span> +out of the sea where she now lies.... Then we should +understand her real nature.' (<i>Republic</i>, 611.)</p> + +<p>Somewhere, Plato believes, this true nature of man +may be realized. The Principle of Good is something +active, not a dead helpless thing, with no effect on the +rest of the universe (<i>Sophist</i>, 248, 249); it is a living power, +which desires that everything everywhere should be as +glorious as possible (<i>Tim.</i> 29 <span class="smcap">d</span>). There is no envy, Plato +says, in the Divine, that grudging spirit has no part in +the heavenly company. Only it is not on earth that the +glory can be realized. It is towards the life after death +that Plato's real hopes are directed.</p> + +<p>None the less, and this is important, this world does +not cease to be significant for him. He does not turn +aside,—as some souls, intoxicated with the Divine, have +done,—from this world altogether.</p> + +<p>Because he holds that man can only advance by +struggling to make this world better. Man's ordinary +life may be like the life in a cave, as he says in his famous +myth, but the true philosopher who has once risen out of +the cave must go back into it again and teach the prisoners +there what the universe really is (<i>Republic</i>, Book vi, +<i>fin.</i>; vii, <i>init.</i>). The very passage that I quoted about +man's real nature comes at the end of the <i>Republic</i>. Now +the <i>Republic</i> is a Utopia, and no one writes a Utopia +unless he believes that the effort to reach it is of prime +importance to man and helps him to advance.</p> + +<p>Only, for Plato, the advance is not marked in the successive +stages of history, as the modern faith in progress +asserts. The life on earth, for Plato, is like a school +through which men pass and in which they may learn and +grow, but the school itself does not go on growing. It is +not that he does not envisage change in history, but what +he seems to hope for at the best is nothing more hopeful +than recurring cycles of better and worse. He tells a fable,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span> +in his dialogue 'The Statesman', of how at one time the +world is set spinning in the right direction by God and +then all goes well, and again how God ceases to control +it, and then it gradually forgets the divine teaching and +slips from good to bad and from bad to worse, until at +last God takes pity on it once more to save it from utter +destruction (<i>Polit.</i> 269 ff.). No doubt in this idea of +cycles Plato is influenced by the popular thought of his +time: this feeling that there had been a lost Golden Age +in the past was deeply rooted in Greek mythology. We +get it long before Plato, in Hesiod, and there are similar +touches in Homer, and once men believe that they have +sunk from glory, there is always the dread that if ever +they recover it they will lose it again. And with Plato +this dread is reinforced by his sense of something incurable +in the world, the thwarting influence of spatial and +temporal matter (<i>Theaet.</i> 176 <span class="smcap">a</span>).</p> + +<p>It is strange that, though he is always thinking of the +individual soul as learning through experience in its +passage from one life to another, Plato does not seem to +have the idea of mankind learning by the lessons of +history, of knowledge being handed down from one age +to another, and growing in the process. That is one of +the most inspiring ideas in modern thought: a German +writer has spoken of history as the long Odyssey of the +human spirit, the common mind of Man coming at last +through its wanderings to find out what it really wants, +and where its true home lies.</p> + +<p>And here, significantly enough, we find we are brought +back in our modern way to something very like Plato's +own conception of an eternal unchanging Reality. There +are endless problems in the whole conception of the +Eternal that I am quite unable even to attempt; but +this much at least seems clear to me, that the whole idea +of mankind learning by the experience of History, implies<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span> +something of permanent value running through that +experience. The very thought of continued progress +implies that man can look back at the successive stages +of the Past and say of each: In that lay values which +I, to-day and always, can recognize as good, although +I believe we have more good now. Seeley speaks in a noble +passage of how religion might conceive a progressive +revelation which was, in a sense, the same through all its +stages, and yet was a growing thing:—'each new revelation +asserts its own superiority to those which went before,' +but the superiority is 'not of one thing to another thing—but +of the developed thing to the undeveloped'. 'It is +thus', he writes, 'that the ages should behave to one +another.' This is the true 'understanding and concert +with time'.<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a> And though Plato does not live in the +thought of historic progress, yet such a conception of +progress which recognizes at different stages different +expressions, more or less adequate, of one eternal value, +such a way of thinking is entirely Platonic. When we +look back at history in this mood we think not only of +grasping the right principles for the Future, but of rejoicing +in the definite achievements of the Past, and we feel this +most poignantly, I think, of the achievements won by the +spirit of Beauty. Great works of Art we are accustomed +actually to call immortal, and we mean by this not +merely that we think they will always be famous, but that +there is something in them that makes it impossible for +them ever to be superseded. In themselves they are inexhaustible: +if they cease to interest us, it is our fault and +not theirs. We may want more, we do want more, where +they came from, but we never want to lose them, any more +than we could bear to lose our old friends, though we may +desire to make new ones. Of all the divine Ideas, said +Plato, Beauty is the one that shows itself most plainly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</a></span> +in the world of sense and speaks to us most plainly of the +eternal realities.</p> + +<p>This, however, is perhaps trenching on the subject of +Progress in Art, and I should like to return to the general +Greek conception of the tendency in all nature towards +the Good, the perfect realization of perfect types.</p> + +<p>Plato does not expressly insist that this tendency is of +the nature of effort, though I think that is involved in his +view. But Aristotle does. Following Plato in essentials, +he makes bold to say outright that every natural thing +in its own way longs for the divine and desires to share +in the divine life, so far as it can.<a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a> Every such thing in +this world of space and time has to cope with difficulties +and is imperfect, but everything struggles towards the +good. That good is in the life of God, a thinking life, an +activity of thought, existing in some sense beyond this +imperfect world; and this life is so supremely desirable +that it makes everything else struggle to reach it. It +moves the whole world, Aristotle says, in a famous +passage, because it is loved. It is the world's desire.<a name="FNanchor_12_12" id="FNanchor_12_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a></p> + +<p>Now this idea of effort—or of something analogous to +effort—constituting the inner nature of every natural +thing reappears, with pregnant consequences, in modern +thought, though seldom with these vast theological +consequences. The idea of an upward effort through +nature lies at the base of our most hopeful theories of +evolution, and forms the true support of our modern +faith in progress. Broadly speaking, our evolutionists +are now divided into two schools: the adherents of the +one believe that variations are purely accidental, and +may occur in any direction whatsoever, the useful ones +being preserved only because they happen to be useful for +the life of the species, while the adherents of the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span>other—the +school that I would call the school of hope—believe +that accident, even with natural selection to aid it, is +utterly inadequate to account for the ordered beauty and +harmony that we do see in natural things. They admit, +as Plato and Aristotle admit, imperfection and difficulty +in the world, but they insist on a movement towards +value: in short, they conceive an order emerging that is +brought about, to quote a modern writer, both in nature +and in society, by 'a principle of movement and progress +conflicting with a principle of inertia.'<a name="FNanchor_13_13" id="FNanchor_13_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a></p> + +<p>Aristotle, in words that are strikingly modern, raises +the very question at issue here.<a name="FNanchor_14_14" id="FNanchor_14_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_14_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a> He asks whether we can +suppose that nature does not aim at the good at all, but +that variations arise by chance and are preserved just +because they are useful, and he scouts the idea that +chance could do more, as Zeller says, than 'bring about +isolated and abnormal results'. He chooses instead the +conception of purpose and effort, and this in spite of the +difficulties in conceiving a purpose and an effort that are +not definitely conscious. The sort of thing that is in +Aristotle's mind when he speaks of nature aiming at the +good, comes out in a passage by Edward Carpenter in +his little book <i>The Art of Creation</i>. Carpenter plunges +boldly and compares the principle that makes a tree grow +and propagate its kind with the impulse that makes +a man express himself. Man, he says,</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>has a Will and Purpose, a Character, which, do what you +will, tends to push outwards towards expression. You +put George Fox in prison, you flog and persecute him, but +the moment he has a chance he goes and preaches just +the same as before.... But take a Tree and you notice +exactly the same thing. A dominant Idea informs the +life of the Tree; persisting, it forms the tree. You may +snip the leaves as much as you like to a certain pattern, +but they will only grow in their own shape. Finally, you<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</a></span> +may cut the tree down root and branch and burn it, +but, if there is left a single seed, within that seed ... lurks +the formative ideal, which under proper conditions will +again spring into life and expression.<a name="FNanchor_15_15" id="FNanchor_15_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_15_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a></p></div> + +<p>Aristotle would have endorsed almost every word of +this. In his pithy way, speaking of the distinction between +natural and artificial objects, he says himself that if you +planted a wooden bed and the wood could still grow, it +would grow up, not a bed, but a tree.<a name="FNanchor_16_16" id="FNanchor_16_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_16_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a></p> + +<p>He would not have gone so far as to talk about the +<i>Will</i> of a tree, but he would have admitted that what made +the tree grow was the same sort of thing as Will. And in +one respect he goes farther than Edward Carpenter does. +For he considers that not only growth but even the movement +of natural things through space is somehow an +expression of a tendency towards the good and the divine, +a tendency which, when consciousness supervenes, we can +call effort, an activity, even though, at its best, only +an imperfect activity. He looks up at the splendour of +the circling stars and asks if it is possible that so glorious +an order can be anything but a manifestation of something +akin to the divine. Here indeed he is speaking +of movements made by existences he reckoned among the +highest in the world, for he thought the stars were living +beings higher than man. But he recognized a rudimentary +form of such activity even in what we now call inanimate +matter. Here we come to a leading conception of Aristotle's, +and one most important for our purpose: the +conception of a hierarchy of natural existences, all of them +with some value, less or more. When Aristotle is truest +to himself, he will tell us not to be afraid of studying the +meanest forms of natural existence, because in everything +there is something marvellous and divine. He quotes +with much satisfaction the story of Heracleitus, who<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</a></span> +welcomed his friends into the bakehouse with the saying +that 'there were gods in the bakehouse too'.<a name="FNanchor_17_17" id="FNanchor_17_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_17_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a></p> + +<p>Thus, at the lowest end of the scale, we have what we +call inanimate matter, which Aristotle thinks of much as +we do, namely, as something occupying space, the different +parts of it being endowed with different powers of movement, +and with different properties, such as warmth or +coldness, wetness or dryness. A natural thing, he says, +is a thing that has a principle of activity in itself, something +that makes it act in a definite way, whenever it +is not interfered with by anything else.<a name="FNanchor_18_18" id="FNanchor_18_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_18_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a> Aristotle speaks, +for example, of fire having a natural tendency to mount +up, much as we might speak of solids having a natural +tendency to gravitate towards one another. Go back as +far as we like, and, Aristotle thinks, we still find certain +primitive differences which constitute what we call the +primitive elements. This, I imagine, is much the point +of view of modern science.</p> + +<p>And these primitive elements in Aristotle's view +influence each other, unite with each other, or change +into each other. As a rule, however, they exhibit no +new powers. But given a happy concurrence of qualities, +say a certain union of heat and cold, and a new power +does become manifest: the power of life. Thus, in +a sense, Aristotle does envisage the spontaneous generation +of life; and he knows, roughly, what he means by +life. The living thing can go through far more changes +than the non-living, while yet remaining recognizably the +same thing. For example, it shows in itself a greater +advance to richness and also a decline, it uses other +things to foster this advance, and it sends out fresh +things, like itself, but independent of itself: in short, it +grows, decays, feeds itself, and propagates its kind.<a name="FNanchor_19_19" id="FNanchor_19_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_19_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span></p><p>As I understand Aristotle, for him there is not an entire +and absolute difference between ordinary matter and living +things, and yet there is a real difference, and one not to +be explained away, for there is a new manifestation of +active energy. And if we consider life of more value +than mere motion, then we are right in saying there is a +higher energy. The quality of growth is a quality which +could not be deduced from the quality of warmth or +from the quality of mere movement in space, and +yet all three qualities are alike in this, that they +are all manifestations of an energy which is somehow +inherent in things, and not merely imposed on them +from without. The manifestations of life are started, +in a sense, by the different movements, 'mechanical', +if you like to call them so, in the rudimentary forms of +matter, the elements meeting each other in space. The +process of life could not have begun without such movements. +But neither could it have begun if the elements, +just as they appear, had been all there was. There had +to be latent, that is, the possibility of a different and +higher mode of action. This higher mode of action +Aristotle calls a higher Form, a higher Idea. And +I think it is true to him to say that he believes the lower +Forms, the lower Ideas, do their most perfect work +when they bring about the conditions under which the +higher ones can operate. For when he speaks of that +concurrence of elements that conditions life he speaks +of the 'warmth and cold' as 'having mastered the +matter'.<a name="FNanchor_20_20" id="FNanchor_20_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_20_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a></p> + +<p>In any case he conceives a whole series of higher and +lower Forms, the higher coming nearer and nearer to that +full and glorious activity which he conceives to be the +life of God. Above the power of the thing to grow as +a plant grows appears the power of sensation as it is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span> +present in animals, and above that again the power, +first seen in man, of living the life of thought, perceiving +what is beautiful and true in the 'forms', the characters, +of all the things around him, and with this that further +power of setting consciously before himself what he really +wants to be and to do, the power of moral action strictly +so-called.</p> + +<p>Throughout this series, in every higher stage the lower +is present as a kind of basis. In the man who thinks +there is active not only the power of thought, but also +the power of sensation, the faculty of growth, and the +physical properties of the body. It would seem that +Aristotle has only to take one step, and he would be a +thoroughgoing evolutionist. He has only to say that the +different stages are successive in time, the lower regularly +preceding the higher. But this step he hesitates to take.</p> + +<p>He often comes very near it. He speaks of nature passing +gradually from inanimate things through living things +to living animals. He speaks of what is first in itself, first +inherently, 'prior' in the logical sense because it is the goal +and the completion of the thing, as appearing later in time. +For instance, he believes that man can only find his real +happiness and develop his real nature in the State, but +the State appears later in time than the primitive associations +of the household and the family.<a name="FNanchor_21_21" id="FNanchor_21_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_21_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a> What came earlier +in history were barbarous communities such as those of the +Cyclopes, where 'each man laid down the law for his wife +and children and obeyed no other law'.</p> + +<p>But Aristotle does not go on from this belief to the +belief in a universal upward process throughout all +history. The developed State, it is true, may always have +been preceded by a lower form, but that lower form may +itself have been preceded by a higher.</p> + +<p>Aristotle, in short, is haunted, like Plato, by the idea<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</a></span> +of cycles, alternations, decline and progress, progress and +decline. He feels this both in the life of States and in the +whole life of the world. He speaks of the same discoveries +being made over and over again, an infinite number of +times, in the history of civilization. And his words +recall the sad passage in Plato's <i>Laws</i> (676) referring to +the numberless nations and states, ten thousand times +ten thousand, that had risen and fallen all over the world, +passing from worse to better and from better to worse. +Similarly Aristotle will speak of degraded animal forms, +and sometimes write as though the animal world could +sink back into the vegetable altogether.</p> + +<p>Admitting, however, something like progress within the +different cycles, we must ask a little more about the kind of +progress which Aristotle would have desired. (I take +Aristotle again as a typical Greek.) Man at his best, he +clearly holds, in trying to realize his true nature should aim +at a happiness which involves a harmony of all his faculties, +a harmony inspired and led by the highest faculty of all, +the Reason which rejoices in the contemplation of what +is at once true and good and beautiful.</p> + +<p>Now in this aim, we must ask, does a man need other +men and other creatures, and in what sense does he need +them? Here, I think, we come on two inconsistent +tendencies in Aristotle's thought, connected with two +different ways of regarding the hierarchy of existences. +We say that one existence is higher than another. Does +this mean that what we call the lower are only so many +blundering attempts to reach the higher? That every +creature, for example, which is not a thinking man is, on +the whole, a mistake? Aristotle often does speak like that. +Woman, he says in one passage, is only a mutilated male.<a name="FNanchor_22_22" id="FNanchor_22_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_22_22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a> +The principle which ought to develop into the active +power of thought could not, he explains, in women<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span> +master the recalcitrant element which is always thwarting +perfection, and thus woman is man <i>manqué</i>. On these +lines of thought it is easy to slip into looking on all other +forms of existence as merely valuable in so far as they +serve the direct purposes of men, and indeed only of a few +men, those namely who are able to think as philosophers. +This is the kind of view according to which, as the satirist +suggests, cork-trees only grow in order to make corks +for champagne-bottles, and the inferior races of mankind +only exist to furnish slaves for the higher. And Aristotle +does, on occasion, lend himself to such a view: he +justifies a slavery in which, as he says, some men are to +be treated merely as living tools. And yet on his own +principles every man ought to aim at realizing his own +end, and not merely the ends of others.</p> + +<p>But there is a widely different view, also present in +Aristotle, and truer to the essence of his thought. It is a +view instinct with that reverence for all existence of which +I spoke at first, and it holds that all the different natural +types, high or low, could all be united in one harmony, +like an ordered army, as Aristotle himself would say, +in which the divine spirit was present even as the spirit +of a general is present in his men. The greatest thing in +man, Aristotle thinks, is the godlike power of apprehending +the different characters of all the things around +him, and this of itself suggests the belief that all these +characters have a value of their own, unique and indispensable, +each aiming at a distinct aspect of the Divine, +each, if it fulfilled its inner nature, finding, as Plato might +have said, the place where it was best for it to be. Again, +it is clear from Aristotle's whole treatment of the State, +that when he wrote his famous phrase, 'Man is by nature +a political animal', he meant that man, as we should say, +is essentially social. It is part of man's goal to live with +others; it is not merely a means to the goal. His highest<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span> +happiness lies in the contemplation of the good, and the +good, Aristotle says, can be contemplated far better in +others than in ourselves. This is a profound saying, and +from this thought springs the deep significance of friendship +in Aristotle's system. The crown of the civic life +he takes to be the community of friends who recognize +the good in each other, and enjoy each other through +this. The wider this community, then, we must surely +say, the better.</p> + +<p>For Aristotle then, man's perfection ought to mean the +perfection of every individual, and progress, so far as +he conceives it, involve progress towards this end. This +should lead on to belief in the supreme importance of +the individual soul, and to Kant's great principle that we +should always treat each man as an end in himself.</p> + +<p>Thus, if we concentrate on the hopeful elements in +Plato and Aristotle, we may fairly say, I think, that we +can see outlined in their philosophies something like the +following belief: every natural thing in this world, and +every natural creature, so far as it is good,—and all are +more or less good,—tends to express some distinct aspect +of a perfect harmony: we human beings are the first +on earth to be definitely conscious of such a tendency, +the first to be able definitely to direct it to its true goal, +and our business in life is therefore threefold: to make +actual our own function in this harmony, to help other +creatures to actualize theirs, and to contemplate every +such manifestation, in men or in things, with reverence +and rejoicing.</p> + +<p>The harmony, if complete, would be a manifestation +of a divine reality, and thus the love of God, the love of +our neighbour, the love of nature, self-development, +political life, scientific study, poetic contemplation, and +philosophic speculation, would all unite in one comprehensive +and glorious task.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span></p> + +<p>This, surely, is hopeful enough. But the Greek hope +faltered and sank. Could this harmony ever be realized? +Would not the thwarting element in the world always +drag it down again and again, and drag some men down +always, so that after all progress was impossible, and for +some men should not even be attempted? As a matter +of fact, Plato and Aristotle do limit their exhortations +to a narrow circle of cultured Greeks, and even with them +they doubt of success.</p> + +<p>Now this despondency came partly, I think, through +the very sensitiveness of the Hellenic nature. The spectacle +of the ever-baffled struggle in Nature and Man they +felt at times almost intolerable. Aristotle saw that this +perpetual failure in the heart of glorious good made the +very essence of tragedy. The tragic hero is the man of +innate nobleness who yet has some one defect that lays +him open to ruin. Man is set in a world full of difficulties, +a world much of which is dark and strange to him: his +action and those of others have results which he did not, +and in his ignorance could not, foresee; he is not strong +enough for his great task.</p> + +<p>All the Greek poets have this deep sadness. Homer +has it, in and through his intense feeling for the beauty +and energy of life. There has never been such war-poetry +as Homer's, and yet there has never been any +which felt more poignantly the senselessness in war. +'And I must come here', Achilles says to his noble enemy +at the close, 'to torture you and your children.'</p> + +<p>In the next place, the sadness of the world could not be +lightened for the Greeks by the vision that the modern +theory of evolution has opened up to us of the long advance +in the history of life on the planet. Even their knowledge +of history in the strict sense was scanty, and it is only +a long view of history that is likely to be comforting. +What history they did know could bring them little<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span> +comfort. In the first place it showed them a series of +great civilizations, rising and falling, and those that had +fallen seemed at least as good as those that followed +them. A Greek like Plato knew of the Homeric civilization, +simpler indeed, but fresher and purer than his own. +And he believed, what we now know to be the fact, that +even before the Homeric there had been a wonderful +island-culture, what we call the Minoan, flourishing +before the Homeric. 'There had been kings before +Agamemnon.'</p> + +<p>And behind Minos and Agamemnon lay the great, and +by that time the ossifying, kingdom of Egypt, compared +to which the Greeks were, and felt themselves to be, but +children. Plato had seen, finally, the degeneration of +the Persian Empire—once so magnificent and mighty.</p> + +<p>This fact of recurrent decay is one of the heaviest that +the human spirit can shoulder. Any theory of progress +must come to terms with it, for Progress through history is +certainly not an uninterrupted ascent; a spiral is the better +image. And the weight must lie most heavily on a generation +which feels its own self to be in peril of decay. Now +Plato and Aristotle lived at such a period. Greece had +gone through the bitter experiences of the Peloponnesian +War, and the shadow of it lay on them, as on its +historian Thucydides. In that fratricidal conflict Greece +tore herself to pieces. It was a struggle between the +two leaders of the then civilized world, and it has +a terrible likeness to the struggle that is going on now. +From its devastating influence Greece never recovered. +Historians still dispute, and always will, as to the +exact proportion of praise and blame between the two. +But Thucydides himself, a true-hearted Athenian, brings +out the tyrannical side in the Athenian temper. Not indeed +towards her own people, but towards all who were not of +her own immediate stock. Because Athens thought herself<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span> +the fairest city in the world, as indeed she was, because +she thought herself menaced by Sparta, and menaced +she was, she allowed herself to tyrannize and lightly +took up the burden of war between brethren. There are +few passages in history more stately than the Funeral +Oration of Pericles in which he calls Athens the School +of Hellas, but even in it there is a certain deadly coldness +of heart. And few things are more terrible than the +coarsening of temper which Thucydides depicts as the +war goes on and Pericles is succeeded by his caricature +Cleon, the man who means to prosecute the war vigorously, +and by vigour means ruthlessness. Nor was there ever +a sterner indictment of aggression than that given in the +dialogue between the spokesmen of Melos, the little island +that desired to stand out of the conflict, and the Athenian +representatives who were determined to force her into +their policy. And after that dialogue comes, in Thucydides' +great drama, the fall of Athens.</p> + +<p>The city recovered in some measure from her fall, but +only to face another disaster. If she sinned in the +Peloponnesian War through the spirit of aggression, she +sinned in the struggle with Macedon through slackness +and cowardice. In the one struggle she lost comradeship; +in the other she lost liberty. And with the loss of the two +she lost buoyancy. In a deeper sense than Pericles used +the phrase, 'the springtime went out of her year'. Ultimately, +perhaps, we cannot explain why this should be so. +Other nations have had as disheartening experiences and yet +risen above them. Some of the most inspired prophecies +in the Hebrew writings came after the tiny state of Judaea +had been torn in pieces by the insensate conflict between +North and South, and after the whole people had been +swept into captivity. But whatever the ultimate reason, +Athens did not recover. We must not end, however, +on a note of despair. Far from it. The work of Aristotle<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span> +and Plato and of the Greeks generally, was cramped for +lack of sympathy and lack of hope, and, strangely enough, +it was after they had passed and their glory with them +that sympathy grew in the world, and after sympathy +grew, hope returned.</p> + +<p>For it is exactly in those failing years, when the Hellenic +gave way to the Hellenistic, that men first grasped, and +grasped so firmly that it could hardly be lost again, one of +the fundamental principles on which the whole fabric of +our later civilization has rested, or ought to rest, the great +principle of personal equality, the claim of every individual +to transcendent value, irrespective of race and creed and +endowment. The conquering rule of Alexander, whatever +else it did, broke down the barriers of the little city-states +and made men of different races feel themselves +members of mankind. There rose among the Stoics the +conviction that all men do belong together and are all +made for each other. And with the advent of Christianity +came the belief that every man, however mean and unworthy, +can receive a power that will make him all he +ought to be. The highest is within his reach. There is +no reason now why the glorious life that Hellenism +conceived for a few should not lie open to all men.</p> + +<p>Finally, we might say, and truly, that the vast political +organization built up by Rome gave us Europeans, once +and for all, the vision of a united Europe.</p> + +<p>That dream has never left it. Even to-day, here and +now, in spite of our disasters, our blunders, and our crimes, +let us not forget it, that dream which is 'not all a dream', +the dream of once again constructing a system in which +we might, all of us, all nations and all men and women, +make progress together in the common task.</p> + + +<h3><span class="smcap">Books for Reference</span></h3><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span></p> + + +<div class='indent2'> +<p>G. L. Dickinson, <i>The Greek View of Life</i>.</p> + +<p>Zeller, <i>Aristotle and the Earlier Peripatetics</i>.</p> + +<p>Edited by Evelyn Abbott, <i>Hellenica</i>.</p> + +<p>Bury, <i>History of Greece</i>.</p> + +<p>Davies and Vaughan, <i>Plato's Republic</i>.</p> + +<p>Welldon, <i>Aristotle's Politics</i>.</p> + +<p>Peters, <i>Aristotle's Ethics</i>.</p> + +<p>Bridges, <i>The Spirit of Man</i>.</p> +</div> + + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> G. H. Perris, <i>History of War and Peace</i>, p. 54.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> 'The Unity of Western Civilization,' c. <span class="smcap">iii.</span></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> <i>The Spirit of Man</i>, 40; <i>Phaedo</i>, 96.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> <i>The Spirit of Man</i>, 16; <i>Phaedo</i>, 66.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> <i>Natural Religion</i>, part ii, c. 5.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> <i>De An.</i> ii. 4, 415, p. 35.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_12_12" id="Footnote_12_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> <i>The Spirit of Man</i>, 39; Aristotle, <i>Met.</i> 10.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_13_13" id="Footnote_13_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> T. W. Rolleston, <i>Parallel Paths</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_14_14" id="Footnote_14_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> <i>Phys.</i> ii. 8, 198 16-34.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_15_15" id="Footnote_15_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15_15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> Pp. 28-9.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_16_16" id="Footnote_16_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_16_16"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> <i>Phys.</i> ii, c. <span class="smcap">i</span>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_17_17" id="Footnote_17_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_17_17"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> <i>De Part. An.</i>, Bk. i, c. 5.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_18_18" id="Footnote_18_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_18_18"><span class="label">[18]</span></a> <i>Phys.</i> ii. <span class="smcap">i</span>, <i>init.</i></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_19_19" id="Footnote_19_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_19_19"><span class="label">[19]</span></a> <i>De Anima</i>, <i>init.</i></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_20_20" id="Footnote_20_20"></a><a href="#FNanchor_20_20"><span class="label">[20]</span></a> <i>Meteor</i>, iv. 1. 378. See Zeller's <i>Aristotle</i>, vol. i, <i>fin.</i></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_21_21" id="Footnote_21_21"></a><a href="#FNanchor_21_21"><span class="label">[21]</span></a> <i>Polit.</i> 1253 a; <i>Eth.</i> 1162 a.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_22_22" id="Footnote_22_22"></a><a href="#FNanchor_22_22"><span class="label">[22]</span></a> <i>Gen. An.</i> ii. 3. 737.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span></p> +<h2>IV</h2> + +<h2>PROGRESS IN THE MIDDLE AGES</h2> + +<h3><span class="smcap">A. J. Carlyle</span></h3> + + +<p>There still survives, not indeed among students of +history, but among some literary persons, the notion +that the civilization of the Middle Ages was fixed and +unprogressive; that the conditions of these centuries +were wholly different from those of the ancient world and +of modern time; that there was little continuity with the +ancient world, and little connexion with the characteristic +aspects of progress in the modern world.</p> + +<p>The truth is very different. It may be doubted whether +at any other time, except perhaps in those two marvellous +centuries of the flower of Greek civilization, there has +been a more rapid development of the most important +elements of civilization than in the period from the end of +the tenth to the end of the thirteenth centuries. While +it is true that much was lost in the ruin of the ancient +world, much also survived, and there was a real continuity +of civilization; indeed some of the greatest conceptions +of the later centuries of the ancient world are exactly +those upon which mediaeval civilization was built. And +again, it was in the Middle Ages that the foundations +were laid upon which the most characteristic institutions +of the modern world have grown.</p> + +<p>Indeed this notion that the civilization of the Middle +Ages was fixed and unprogressive is a mere literary +superstition, and its origin is to be found in the ignorance +and perversity of the men of the Renaissance; and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span> +hardly less, it must be added, in the foolishness of many +of the conceptions of the Romantic revival.</p> + +<p>There are, indeed, excuses for these mistakes and confusions. +The Renaissance represents, among other things, +a great and necessary movement of revolt against a religious +and intellectual civilization which had once been living +and moving, but had tended from the latter years of the +thirteenth century to grow stiff and rigid. It was probably +a real misfortune that the great thinkers and scholars +of the thirteenth century, like Alexander of Hales and +Thomas Aquinas, had embarked upon what was a premature +attempt at the systematization of all knowledge; +they made the same mistake as the Encyclopaedists of +the eighteenth century or Herbert Spencer in the nineteenth, +but with more disastrous results. For this work +unhappily encouraged the mediaeval Church in its most +fatal mistake, its tendency to suspect and oppose the +apprehensions of new aspects of truth.</p> + +<p>The men of the Renaissance had to break the forms +under which the schoolmen had thought to express all +truth, they had to carry forward the great enterprise +and adventure of the discovery of truth, and they had +to do this in the teeth of a violent resistance on the part +of those who thought themselves the representatives of +the mediaeval civilization. There are, therefore, excuses +for them in their contempt for the intellectual life of the +past; but there is no real excuse for them in their contempt +for mediaeval art and literature. When they +turned their back upon the immediate past, and endeavoured +pedantically to reproduce the ancient world, +they were guilty of an outrageous ignorance and stupidity, +a stupidity which is expressed in that unhappy phrase of +Pope, the 'Gothic night'. Happily neither the great +artists of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries nor the +great poets of England and Spain were much affected<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</a></span> +by the classical pedantry of which unhappily Petrarch +was the begetter.</p> + +<p>It is this foolishness of the Renaissance which is the +best excuse for the foolishness of the Romantic revival; +the new classical movement had in such a degree +interrupted the continuity of European art that it was +very difficult for men in the eighteenth century to +recover the past, and we must make allowance for the +often ludicrous terms and forms of the new mediaevalism. +Indeed it is a strange and often absurd art—the half-serious, +half-parodying imitations of Thomson and Walpole +and Wieland, this ludicrous caricature Gothic of Strawberry +Hill and All Souls, the notion of Gothic architecture +as a mass of crockets, battlements, crypts, and dungeons—and +all in ruins. Indeed, the Romantic conception of the +Middle Ages was often as absurd as that of the Renaissance, +and if we are to get at the truth, if we are to make any +serious attempt to understand the Middle Ages, we must +clear our minds of two superstitions; the one, which we +derive from the Renaissance, that mediaeval civilization +was sterile, ignorant, and content to be ignorant; the +other, which survives from the Romantic movement, that +it was essentially religious, chivalrous and adventurous, +that men spent their time in saying their prayers, making +reverent love to their ladies, or carving the heads of the +infidel.</p> + +<p>What I should desire to do is to persuade you that +the more you study the Middle Ages the more you will see +that these men and women were really very much like +ourselves, ignorant, no doubt, of much which is to us +really or superficially important, gifted on the other hand +with some qualities which for the time we seem to have in +a large measure lost, but substantially very like ourselves, +neither very much better nor very much worse. Let me +illustrate this by considering for a moment the figure<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</a></span> +which to us is typical of the Middle Ages. What was the +mediaeval knight? We think of him as a courteous, +chivalrous person of a romantic and adventurous temper, +whose business it was to fight for his lady or in the service +of religion against the infidel. In reality he was usually +a small landowner, who held his land on condition of +military service to some lord; the title 'knight' means in +its Latin form (<i>miles</i>), simply a soldier, in its Germanic +form a servant, and distinguishes him from the older type +of landowner who held his land in absolute ownership +and free of all service except of a national kind. In +virtue of his holding a certain amount of land he had to +present himself for military service on those occasions +and for those periods for which he could be legally summoned. +But even this description implies a wholly +wrong emphasis, for he was not primarily a soldier, but +a small landowner and cultivator, very much what we +should call a squireen. He was normally much more +concerned about his crops, his cattle and pigs, than about +his lord's affairs and his lord's quarrels. He was ignorant, +often rather brutal, and turbulent, very ready for a quarrel +with his neighbour, but with no taste for national wars, +and the prolonged absence from his home which they +might involve, unless indeed there was a reasonable +prospect of plunder. Indeed, he was a very matter-of-fact +person, with very little sense of romance, and little +taste for adventure unless there was something to be got +out of it. We must dismiss from our minds the pretty +superstitions of romance from Chaucer and Spenser to +the time of the Romantic revival, and we must understand +that the people of the Middle Ages were very much like +ourselves; the times were rougher, more disorderly, there +was much less security, but on the whole the character +of human life was not very different.</p> + +<p>What was it, then, that happened with the end of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</a></span> +ancient world? Well, the civilization of the Roman Empire +was overthrown by our barbarous ancestors, the old +order, and tranquillity, and comfort disappeared, and the +world fell back into discomfort and turbulence, and disorder; +the roads fell into disrepair and were not mended, +the drains were neglected, and the towns dwindled and +shrank. We must remember, however, that this great civilization +was dying out, was failing by some internal weakness, +and that the barbarians only hastened the process.</p> + +<p>Much of the achievement of Greece and Rome was +lost, much both material and intellectual, but not all, +and the new civilization which began rapidly to grow +up on the ruins of the old was in many respects +continuous with it. In order, however, that we may +understand this we must remember that the form of +civilization with which the Middle Ages were continuous +was the Graeco-Roman civilization of the later Empire, +and not the great Hellenic civilization itself. What +the Middle Ages knew was primarily that which the +Christian Fathers like St. Augustine and St. Gregory +the Great, St. Basil and St. Gregory of Nazianzus learned +at their schools and universities. Some of these Fathers +were educated at the great universities, like Athens, +others at comparatively humble provincial institutions; +some of them were men of powerful intellect, while others +were more commonplace. What they learned was the +general intellectual system of the late Empire, and what +they learned they handed on to the Middle Ages; but +it was not the great intellectual culture of Greece. We +have still too strong an inclination to think of the ancient +world as one and homogeneous; we have not yet sufficiently +apprehended the great changes both in the form +and in the temper of that world. And yet the varieties, the +changes, are very diverse, the outlook, the artistic methods +of the Homeric poetry are very different from the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span> +emotional and intellectual modernity of Euripides. The +philosophy of Plato and Aristotle is very different from +that of the Stoics and Neoplatonists. In that picturesque +but perhaps not very felicitous phrase which Mr. Murray +has borrowed from Mr. Cornford, there was a 'failure of +nerve' which separates the earlier from the later stages +of the moral and intellectual culture of the ancient world. +However this may be, and we shall have more to say +about this presently, the civilization of the Middle Ages +was made up on the one hand of elements drawn from +the later Empire, and on the other of characteristics and +principles which seem to have belonged to the Barbarian +races themselves.</p> + +<p>With the end of the sixth century the ancient world +had passed away and the mediaeval world had begun, +and we have to consider the nature and movement of +the new order, or rather we have to consider some of its +elements, and their development, especially during the +period from the end of the tenth century to the end of +the thirteenth, during which it reached its highest level. +We have to pass over the great attempt of the ninth +century, for we can only deal with a small part of a large +subject, and we shall only deal with a few aspects of it, +and chiefly with the development of the spiritual conception +of life which we call religion, with the reconstruction +of the political order of society, with the beginning +of a new intellectual life and the pursuit of truth, and with +the development under new forms of the passion for beauty.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>I have been compelled to warn you against the romantic +superstition that the Middle Ages were specifically +religious, and yet it is quite true that the first aspect of +mediaeval life which compels our attention is exactly +the development of the sense of the significance of the +spiritual quality of life. This was the first great task of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span> +the men of the Middle Ages, and this was in a real sense +their achievement; but not as contradicting the characteristic +developments of the Hellenic civilization, but rather +as completing and fulfilling it. It is indeed a singular +superstition that the Hellenic world was lacking in +spiritual insight, but I need only refer you to Miss Stawell's +lecture, as serving to show you how great and how real +this was. It really was not a mistake when an honest but +rather stupid man like Justin Martyr, and the more +acute and penetrating minds of the Alexandrian Fathers +like Clement and Origen, thought that they heard the +authentic accents of the 'Word' of God in the great +philosophers of Greece, and especially in Plato.</p> + +<p>The apprehension of the spiritual element in human +experience was not wanting in Hellenic civilization, but +it needed a further development and especially in relation +to those new apprehensions of personality and individuality, +whose appearance we can trace both in the post-Aristotelian +philosophy, and in the later Hebrew prophets and poets, +which Christianity found in the world, and to which +in its conception of the human in the Divine, and the +Divine in the human, it gave a new force and breath. It +is easy for us to smile at what may well be the over-rhetorical +phrases of Seneca when he speaks of the +self-sufficingness (<span class='correction' title='autarkeia'>αυταρκεια</span>) of the wise man, or when he +says that the wise man is, but for his mortality, like +God himself; and yet these rhetorical phrases are, after +all, the forms of an apprehension which has changed and +is changing the world. And, it must be remembered that +to understand the full significance of these phrases, we +must bear in mind that the men of the Graeco-Roman +civilization had put aside once and for all the 'natural' +distinction between the 'Greek' and the 'Barbarian', +had recognized that men were equal and alike, not +different and unequal, that all men were possessed of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</a></span> +reason, and all were capable of virtue,<a name="FNanchor_23_23" id="FNanchor_23_23"></a><a href="#Footnote_23_23" class="fnanchor">[23]</a> or, in the Christian +terms, all men are the children of God and capable of +communion with Him.</p> + +<p>It is this new apprehension of life for which the Middle +Ages found a new form in the great organization of the +Church, and it is this which justifies our sense of the +great and permanent significance of the tremendous +conflict of the Papacy and the Empire. It is true that at +times some of the representatives of the Church seem to +have fallen into the mistake of aiming at a tyranny of the +Church over the State, which would have been in the end +as disastrous to the Church itself as to the State. But the +normal principle of the Church was that which was first +fully stated by Pope Gelasius I in the fifth century, +that the two great authorities, the spiritual and the +temporal, are each divine, each draws its authority +ultimately from God himself, each is supreme and +independent in its own sphere, while each recognizes +the authority of the other within its proper sphere.</p> + +<p>It is, indeed, the freedom of the spiritual life which the +mediaeval Church was endeavouring to defend; it was +the apprehension that there was some ultimate quality in +human nature which stands and must stand outside of the +direct or coercive control of society, which lies behind all +the confused clamour of the conflicts of Church and State.</p> + +<p>It is true that in this great and generous effort to secure +the freedom of the human soul men in some measure +lost their way. They demanded and in a measure they +succeeded in asserting the freedom of the religious +organization, as against the temporal organization, but +in doing this they went perilously near to denying the +freedom of the individual spiritual experience. They +went perilously near to denying it, but they never wholly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></span> +forgot it. The Church claimed and exercised an immense +authority in religion, so immense an authority that it +might easily seem as though there were no place left for +the freedom of the individual judgement and conscience. +And yet that was not the case. The theory of excommunication +that is set out in the canonical literature of the +Middle Ages has generally been carelessly studied and +imperfectly understood. It was the greatest and most +masterful of the Popes, Innocent III, who laid down in +memorable phrases which are embodied in the great collection +of the Decretals, that if a Christian man or woman +is convinced in his own mind and conscience that it +would be a mortal sin to do or to leave undone some +action, he must follow his own conscience even against +the command of the authorities of the Church, and +must submit patiently to Church censures and even +excommunication; for it may well happen that the +Church may condemn him whom God approves, or +approve him whom God condemns.<a name="FNanchor_24_24" id="FNanchor_24_24"></a><a href="#Footnote_24_24" class="fnanchor">[24]</a> This is no isolated +or exceptional opinion, but is the doctrine which is +constantly laid down in the canonical literature.<a name="FNanchor_25_25" id="FNanchor_25_25"></a><a href="#Footnote_25_25" class="fnanchor">[25]</a> It is, +I think, profoundly true to say that when men at last +revolted against what seemed to them the exaggerated +claims of the Church, when they slowly fought their way +towards toleration and religious freedom, they were only +asserting and carrying out its one most vital principle, +the principle of the independence or autonomy of the +spiritual life; the modern world is only fulfilling the +Middle Ages.</p> + +<p>I do not continue to develop this aspect of the progress +of western civilization, not because it is unimportant, +for indeed it is perhaps the greatest and most significant +aspect of mediaeval life, but because it is well known<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</a></span> +to you, and indeed, it has generally been insisted on to +such a degree as to obscure the other aspects of progress +in the Middle Ages, with which we must deal.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>And first I would ask you to observe that it was in +these centuries that there were laid over again the foundations +of the social and political order of civilization, and +that there were devised those forms of the political order +upon which the structure of modern society is founded.</p> + +<p>We are familiar with the conception of the divine +nature of political authority, the normal and fundamental +mediaeval view of the State. If we translate this into +more general terms we shall find that its meaning is that +the State has an ethical or moral purpose or function; the +State exists to secure and to maintain justice. You +must not, indeed, confuse this great conception with that +foolish perversion of it which was suggested, I think, by +some characteristically reckless phrases of St. Augustine, +stated in set terms by St. Gregory the Great, almost +forgotten in the Middle Ages, and unhappily revived by +the perversity of some Anglicans and Gallicans in the +seventeenth century. This foolish perversion, which we +know as the theory of the 'Divine Right of Kings', is +indeed the opposite of the great Pauline and mediaeval +conception of the divine nature of political authority, for +to St. Paul, to the more normal Fathers like St. Ambrose, +and to the political theory of the Middle Ages authority +is divine just because, and only in so far as, its aim and +purpose is the attainment and maintenance of justice. +Indeed, it is not only the notion of the 'Divine Right' +which was inconsistent with the mediaeval conception +of the State, but the notion of an absolute sovereignty +inherent in the State, that notion with which some +eccentric or ignorant modern political theorists, ignorant +of Rousseau as well as of Aristotle, have played, to the great<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</a></span> +danger of society; we have, indeed, got beyond the theory +of the sovereignty of the king, but we are in some danger +of being hag-ridden by the imposture of the sovereignty of +the majority. Whatever mistakes the people of the Middle +Ages may have made, they were, with rare exceptions, +clear that there was no legitimate authority which was +not just, and which did not make for justice.</p> + +<p>It is here that we find the real meaning of the second +great political principle of the Middle Ages, that is the +supremacy of law; that it is the law which is the supreme +authority in the State, the law which is over every +person in the State. When John of Salisbury, the secretary +of Thomas à Becket, wishes to distinguish between the +prince and the tyrant, he insists that the prince is one +who rules according to law, while the tyrant is one who +ignores and violates the law.<a name="FNanchor_26_26" id="FNanchor_26_26"></a><a href="#Footnote_26_26" class="fnanchor">[26]</a> And in a memorable +phrase, Bracton, the great English jurist of the latter +part of the thirteenth century, lays it down dogmatically +that the king has two superiors, God and the law.<a name="FNanchor_27_27" id="FNanchor_27_27"></a><a href="#Footnote_27_27" class="fnanchor">[27]</a> There +is an absurd notion still current among more ignorant +persons—I have even heard some theologians fall into +the mistake—that men in the Middle Ages thought +of authority as something arbitrary and unintelligible, +while the truth is that such a conception was wholly +foreign to the temper of that time. It is quite true that +the political life of the Middle Ages seems constantly to +oscillate between anarchy and despotism, but this is not +because the men of those days did not understand the +meaning of law and of freedom, but because they were only +slowly working out the organization through which these +can be secured. The supreme authority in the mediaeval +state was the law, and it was supreme because it was +taken by them to be the embodiment of justice.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</a></span></p><p>It is again out of this principle that there arose another +great conception which is still often thought to be modern, +but which is really mediaeval, the conception that the +authority of the ruler rests upon and is conditioned by an +agreement or contract between him and the people. For +this agreement was not an abstract conception, but was +based upon the mutual oaths of the mediaeval coronation +ceremony, the oath of the king to maintain the law, and +to administer justice, and the oath of the people to serve +and obey the king whom they had recognized or elected. +The people do, indeed, owe the king honour and loyal +service, but only on the condition that he holds inviolable +his oath. The ruler who breaks this is a tyrant, and for +him there was no place in mediaeval political theory. +This conception was expressed in very plain and even +crude terms by Manegold in the eleventh century when he +said that the king was in the same relation to the community +as the man who is hired to keep the pigs to his +master. If the swineherd fails to do his work the master +turns him off and finds another. And if the king or prince +refuses to fulfil the conditions on which he holds his +power he must be deposed.<a name="FNanchor_28_28" id="FNanchor_28_28"></a><a href="#Footnote_28_28" class="fnanchor">[28]</a> John of Salisbury in the +twelfth century expressed this in even stronger terms when +he said that if the prince became a tyrant and violated the +laws, he had no rights, and should be removed, and if +there were no other way to do it, it was lawful for any +citizen to slay him.<a name="FNanchor_29_29" id="FNanchor_29_29"></a><a href="#Footnote_29_29" class="fnanchor">[29]</a></p> + +<p>These are, no doubt, extreme forms of the mediaeval +conception, but the principle that the authority of the +ruler was conditioned by his faithful discharge of his +obligations is the normal doctrine of the Middle Ages, is +maintained by the compilers of the feudal law-books of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</a></span> +the Kingdom of Jerusalem, by the great English jurist +Bracton, by St. Thomas Aquinas, and even by some of +the most representative of the Roman jurists of Bologna, +like Azo.</p> + +<p>These were the fundamental principles of the conception +of the nature of political authority whose development +we can trace in the Middle Ages, and it is out of these +conceptions that there grew the system of the control +of the common affairs of the community by means of +the representation of the community. For it should be +more clearly understood than it is, that the representative +system was the creation of the mediaeval political genius, it +was these men—to whom even yet the more ignorant would +deny the true political instinct—it was these men who +devised that method upon which the structure of modern +civilized government has been built up.</p> + +<p>There is, however, yet another aspect of the development +of political civilization which deserves our attention +if we are to understand the nature of political progress +in the Middle Ages. It was in these centuries that there +were created the elementary forms of the administrative +system of government. And indeed, there is perhaps +no clearer distinction between a barbarian and a civilized +government than this, that while the barbarian government +hangs precariously on the life of the capable king, +the civilized government is carried on continuously by an +organized civil service. It would be impossible here to +discuss the earlier forms of this in the organization of +government by Charles the Great, or the very interesting +developments of the royal or imperial chapel as the nucleus +of a civil service in Germany, it is enough here to remind +ourselves that it is the creation of this organized administration +by Henry I and Henry II of England which laid +the foundations of our national order. Enough has, +I think, been said to illustrate the reality and significance<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</a></span> +of the progressive reconstruction of the political order of +Western society in the Middle Ages.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>It may, however, be said that this may all be true, but +that in all this we have after all only an example of the +preoccupation of the Middle Ages with conduct and religion. +I must, therefore, ask you to consider the character and +development of the intellectual movement of the Middle +Ages. And here, fortunately, we can find the best of +guidance in Dr. Rashdall's great work on <i>The Universities +of Europe in the Middle Ages</i>, and in Dr. R. L. Poole's +<i>Illustrations of Mediaeval Thought</i>. Indeed I could wish that +a little more attention was given to the history and character +of the intellectual movement which the Universities +represent, and perhaps a little less to reading and discussing +the great scholastic works of the thirteenth century, +which are almost impossible to understand except in relation +to the intellectual movements of the twelfth century.</p> + +<p>The new intellectual movement came very suddenly +in the last years of the eleventh century; why it should +have come then is hard to determine, but it seems reasonable +to say that it represents the reawakening of the +desire for knowledge which had been in abeyance during +the stormy centuries after the fall of the Roman Empire +in the West, when men had little leisure for anything but +the constant labour to secure a little decent order and +peace. For a few years, indeed, in the ninth century +the genius of Charlemagne had almost restored the order +of civilization, and even in those few years the human +mind reasserted itself, and for a moment the learning and +culture which had been preserved mainly by the Irish +and their pupils in Britain, and in Central Europe, flowered +and bore fruit; but with his death Western Europe +plunged again into anarchy and misery, and it was only +slowly that the genius of the great German emperors<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</a></span> +in Central Europe, and of the Norman settlers in France +and England, rebuilt the commonwealth of European +civilization. By the end of the eleventh century the +work was not indeed done, but was being done, and men +had again a little leisure, and the desire for knowledge +reawakened, but indeed it was no mere gentle desire, but +a veritable passion which possessed the men of the twelfth +century, and it was this spontaneous passion which +produced the universities.</p> + +<p>The first thing, indeed, which we must observe about +the oldest universities of Europe, especially Bologna, Paris, +and Oxford, is just this, that they were not made by any +external authority, that they did not derive their being +from Church or State, from pope or king, but that they +were formed by the enthusiasm and passion which drew +men from every quarter of Europe to sit at the feet of +some man or another who could give them the knowledge +which they desired, and, in their turn, to become teachers. +It is quite true that as time went on, and they found +that popes and kings were friendly and interested, these +groups of students procured for themselves bulls and +charters of recognition and protection, but while later +universities may trace their foundation to these respectable +patrons, the older universities recognize them indeed as +benefactors and friends, but not as founders, but rather +claim that they grew out of men's desire for knowledge, +and that they were recognized by the general consent of +the civilized world.</p> + +<p>In the second place it is important, and especially I think +in these days, to understand that the men who thus +created the universities in their eagerness to learn, were +of every class and condition, rich and poor, noble and +simple, and they lived as they could, in comfortable +quarters if they were wealthy men, or in the garrets and +cellars of the citizens if they were poor, and for the most<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</a></span> +part they were poor; but neither poverty nor riches +could destroy their noble thirst for knowledge. The life of +the universities was indeed turbulent and disorderly, the +students were always at war with the citizens, and, when +they were not breaking the heads of the citizens or having +their heads broken by them, they were at war with each +other, the men of the north with the southerners, the +western with the eastern; for the universities were not +local or national institutions, but were made up of a cosmopolitan +crowd of men of every nation in Europe, intelligible +to each other, as unhappily we are not, by the +universal knowledge and use of that mediaeval Latin, +which might distress the Ciceronian ears of a pedant of +the Renaissance, but was a good, useful, and adaptable +language. It was a turbulent, disorderly, brutal, profligate, +and drunken world, for the students were as hard +drinkers as the citizens, but it was animated, it was made +alive by a true passion for knowledge, by an unwearied +and never satisfied intellectual curiosity.</p> + +<p>But it will be asked, what did they learn? Well, the +only answer that one can give is that they learned whatever +there was to learn. Our literary friends have often +still the impression that in the Middle Ages men spent +their whole time in learning theology, and were afraid of +other forms of knowledge, but this is a singular delusion. +As the universities developed a system, their studies were +arranged in the main under four heads, the general studies +of what came to be called the Faculty of Arts, and the +professional studies of the three superior Faculties of Law, +Medicine, and Theology, but the student was not normally +allowed to study in the three superior Faculties until he +had spent some years in the studies of the Faculty of Arts. +It is therefore with this latter that we are primarily +occupied. The studies in the Faculty of Arts consisted, +to use our modern terminology, of literature, philosophy,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</a></span> +and science, and the accomplished mediaeval student was +expected to know whatever there was to know.</p> + +<p>And this means—what is strangely often forgotten—that +the studies of the mediaeval universities were +primarily based upon the literature which had survived +from the ancient world. The Latin poets and orators +were their models of literary art, the surviving treatises +of the ancients their text-books in medicine, and the Greek +philosophers in Latin translations, or in Latin works +founded on them, their masters in thought. To understand +the extent of the influence and the knowledge of +antiquity of a twelfth-century scholar we need only turn +again to John of Salisbury, and we shall find him as +familiar as any Renaissance scholar with Latin literature, +and possessing a very considerable acquaintance with +Greek literature so far as it could be obtained through the +Latin.<a name="FNanchor_30_30" id="FNanchor_30_30"></a><a href="#Footnote_30_30" class="fnanchor">[30]</a> Indeed, so much is he possessed by the literature +of antiquity that in works like the <i>Policraticus</i> he can +hardly write two lines together without a quotation from +some classical author. This type of literary scholarship +has been too much overlooked, and, as I said before, too +exclusive an attention has been given to the thirteenth-century +schoolmen, who are neither from a literary nor +from a philosophical point of view as representative of +mediaeval scholars, and philosophically they are often +really unmediaeval, for the general quality of mediaeval +thought is its Platonism: the Aristotelian logic was indeed +known to the Middle Ages through Bœthius, but the +other Aristotelian works were not known till towards the +middle of the thirteenth century.</p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</a></span></p> +<p>It would be impossible here, even if I were competent, +which I am not, to discuss the character of mediaeval +thought, but one thing we can observe, one aspect of the +intellectual method which may serve to clear away some +confusion. The great intellectual master of the Middle +Ages was Abelard, and the method which he elaborated +in his <i>Sic et Non</i> is the method which imposed itself upon +all aspects of mediaeval thought.</p> + +<p>It has often been supposed that mediaeval thinkers +were in such a sense the creatures of authority that it was +impossible for them to exercise any independent judgement; +how far this may have been true of the decadent +scholasticism of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries +I do not pretend to say, but such a judgement is a ludicrous +caricature of the living and active thought of the twelfth +and thirteenth centuries, and a little consideration of the +critical method which Abelard developed is sufficient to +correct this. This is as follows: first some general +principle is enunciated for consideration, then all the +authorities which may seem to support it are cited, then +all the authorities against, and finally the writer delivers +his own judgement, criticizing and explaining the opinions +which may seem contrary to it. The method has its +defects and its limitations, but its characteristic is rather +that of scepticism than of credulity. And it is on this +method that the most important systems of knowledge of +the Middle Ages are constructed. It was applied by +Gratian in his <i>Decretum</i>, the first great reasoned treatise +on Church law, and leads there often to somewhat unexpected +conclusions, such as that even the legislative +authority of the Pope is limited by the consenting custom +of the Christian people;<a name="FNanchor_31_31" id="FNanchor_31_31"></a><a href="#Footnote_31_31" class="fnanchor">[31]</a> and it is this method upon +which the great systematic treatises, like the <i>Suma</i><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</a></span> +<i>Theologica</i> of St. Thomas Aquinas, were constructed in +the thirteenth century. Whatever its defects may be the +method cannot fairly be accused of ignoring difficulties +and of a submission to authority which leaves no place +for the critical reason.</p> + +<p>I have, I hope, said enough to make it clear that there +was a real and living intellectual movement in the Middle +Ages, and that even in those days men had resumed the +great adventure of the pursuit of truth.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>We can only for a moment consider the significance +and the character of mediaeval civilization as it expresses +itself in Art, and we must begin by noticing a distinction +between mediaeval art and mediaeval learning, which is +of the first importance.</p> + +<p>The intellectual movement of the Middle Ages was +related to the ancient world, both in virtue of that +continuity which was mediated by the Christian Fathers, +whose education was that of the later Empire, and also in +virtue of the intense and eager care with which mediaeval +scholars studied all that they possessed of ancient literature. +The relation of the art of the Middle Ages to the +ancient world was quite different. There was no continuity +between the vernacular poetry of the Middle Ages +and that of the ancient world, and while there was +a certain continuity in architecture and in mosaic painting, +this amounted to little more than that the mediaeval +artists took the formal structure or method as the starting-point +of their own independent and original work. For +the western art of the third and fourth centuries was +conventional and decadent, and had apparently lost its +power of recovery, while the art of the centuries which +followed was at first rude and imperfect, but was full of +new life, determined in its reality and dominated by some +intimate sense of beauty; it was in no sense imitative of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</a></span> +ancient art, but grew and changed under the terms of its +own inherent life and power.</p> + +<p>Mediaeval art, whatever else is to be said about it, was +new and independent, and it had all the variety, the +audacious experiments, characteristic of a living art. +Nothing is so foolish as to imagine that it was uniform +and unchanging. Indeed, from the historical point of +view, the interest of the study of it is curiously contrasted +with that of the art of the ancient world. There we have +only an imperfect and fragmentary knowledge of the +earlier and ruder form; its history, as we know it, might +almost be said to begin with the perfection of the sixth +and fifth centuries, and what we know after that is the +history of a long decadence, not indeed without new +developments of importance, as for instance in the +architectural structure of Roman building, and perhaps +in the sculpture of the Early Empire on one side, and +in certain aspects of Latin literature on another. The +history of mediaeval art is the history of the long development +from what are generally rude forms to the highly +developed art of the thirteenth century, a development +full of incidents and experiments and variety. I have +called the early form rude, but the phrase is not very +happy, as those who know either the early mosaic or the +early epic will understand.</p> + +<p>There are still some people, I suppose, who think that +mediaeval poetry was all of one kind, cast in one mould, +but the truth is that it is of every form and character. +It ranges from the bold imaginative realism of the Epic +of England, Iceland, Germany, and France, to the exquisite +and gracious but somewhat artificial allegory of the +<i>Romance of the Rose</i>. It includes the first great emotional +poetry of the modern world—the sense of the greatness +and tragedy of human passion has perhaps never been +expressed in more moving terms than in the <i>Tristan and</i><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</a></span> +<i>Iseult</i> of Thomas or Beroul—but it also includes the +mordant satire of the Renard poetry and of Jean de +Meun, and the gross realistic humour of the Fabliaux. +The mediaeval drama, in whose complex development +we have to trace many strands, probably represents in +its oldest forms the coarse farcical buffoonery which may +be related to the last fashions of the ancient world; it +received a new impulse from the dramatization of scripture +history in the twelfth century; but in the thirteenth +and fourteenth centuries, at least in France, it had already +become substantially a drama of romantic or contemporary +life, as we can see in Jean Bodel's <i>Jeu de St. Nicholas</i>, +in Adam de la Halle's <i>Jeu de la Feuillée</i> and <i>Robin et Marion</i>, +and in dramas like the <i>Empress of Rome</i> or the <i>Otho</i>. +Whatever criticism we might want to make on mediaeval +literature, at least we cannot say that it was of one type +and of one mood.</p> + +<p>It is hardly necessary to point out the movement and +changes in the other forms of art in the Middle Ages; it +is only necessary to remind ourselves that, while we can +see that the artists were often hampered by inadequate +technical knowledge, they were not conventional or +merely imitative.</p> + +<p>It would be impossible here to consider the history of +mosaic painting, and its development from the decadent +Graeco-Roman work of Santa Pudenziana in Rome, to +the magnificent and living decorations of St. Mark's in +Venice, or of the cathedral of Monreale. It is enough to +remind ourselves of the immense interval which lies +between the rude but living sculpture of the ninth century, +and the exquisite grace of Chester or Wells, and of that +development of architecture which culminates in the +majesty of Durham, and in the beauty of Chartres and +Westminster Abbey.</p> + +<p>It is doubtful if we have yet at all fully or correctly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[93]</a></span> +appreciated the nature of mediaeval art; there has been +a good deal of foolish talk about 'primitives', which +usually goes with a singular ignorance of mediaeval +civilization; the one thing which is already clear, and +which grows clearer, is that the men of those ages had an +instinct and a passion for beauty which expressed itself +in almost every thing that they touched; and, whatever +we have gained, we have in a large measure lost this.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The mediaeval world was then a living growing world, +neither cut off from the past, nor unrelated to the future. +It was a rough and turbulent world, our ancestors were +dogged, quarrelsome, and self-assertive, and the first +task of civilization was to produce some sort of decent +order. The world was a long way off from the firm +urbanity of the English policeman. And yet the men of +the Middle Ages never fell into that delusion which, as it +would seem, has ruined other civilizations; the great effort +for order was not in their mind to be fulfilled by any mere +mechanical discipline, by any system imposed from +outside, the only system of order which they were prepared +to accept was one which should express the character, +the tradition, and finally the will of the whole community. +The great phrase of Edward I's summons to +Parliament, 'Quod omnes tangit, ab omnibus approbetur' +(That which concerns all, must be approved by all), was +not a mere tag, as some foolish people have thought, but +expressed the character and the genius of a living political +civilization.</p> + +<p>And this rough turbulent world was inspired by a great +breath of spiritual and intellectual and artistic life and +freedom.</p> + +<p>It might well seem as though the Church and religion +were merely a new bondage, and in part that is true, but +it is not the whole truth. With all its mistakes the religion<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[94]</a></span> +of the Middle Ages meant the growing apprehension of the +reality of that 'love which moves the sun and other stars', +it meant the growth of reverence for that which is beyond +and above humanity and which is also within it. For it +is the last truth of the Christian faith that we know God +only under the terms of human life and nature. And with +all the cruelty and brutality of the Middle Ages they +taught men love as well as obedience.</p> + +<p>Again, it was in these ages, as soon as the confusion +of the outer world was a little reduced, that the passion +for knowledge awoke again in men's hearts. It is true +that some were afraid lest the eager inquiry of men's +minds should destroy the foundations of that order which +men were slowly achieving, but still the passionate +pursuit of knowledge has rarely been more determined. +And once again the world was rough, but these men had +an instinct, a passion for beauty which expressed itself +in almost everything which they touched. They had +not, indeed, the almost miraculous sense and mastery of +the great artists of Greece, that did not come again till +the time of the great Italian artists of the fifteenth +century. But they were free from pedantry, from +formalism, they left the dying art of the ancient world +and made their own way. Their sense of colour was +almost infallible, as those who have seen the mosaics of +the older Roman basilicas and of St. Mark's in Venice +will know; but, indeed, we have only to look at the +illuminated manuscripts which are to be found in all our +libraries. And in that great art in which, above all +perhaps, they expressed themselves, in their great architecture, +we see the growth of a constructive genius which +is only overshadowed by the superb beauty of its form.</p> + +<p>A rough, disorderly, turbulent, greedy, cruel world, but +it knew the human soul, and it knew the human heart. +The ancient world had ended in a great destruction, but<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</a></span> +the sadness and emptiness of its last days compel us to +feel that it was well that it should end. And the new +world was a world of life, of crude force and restless +energy, and from it we have received the principles and +the forms of a great civilization, and the temper which +is never satisfied, for there is no end to life.</p> + + +<h3><span class="smcap">Books for Reference</span></h3> + +<div class='indent2'> +<p>H. W. C. Davis, <i>Mediaeval Europe</i> (Home University Library).</p> + +<p>Lord Bryce, <i>History of Roman Empire</i>.</p> + +<p>Rashdall, <i>Universities of Empire in the Middle Ages</i>.</p> + +<p>R. L. Poole, <i>Illustrations of Mediaeval Thought</i>.</p> + +<p>Gierke, <i>Political Theories of the Middle Ages</i>.</p> + +<p>W. P. Ker, <i>Epic and Romance</i>.</p> +</div> + + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_23_23" id="Footnote_23_23"></a><a href="#FNanchor_23_23"><span class="label">[23]</span></a> Cf. Cicero, <i>De Legibus</i>, i. 10-12; and Seneca, <i>De Beneficiis</i>, +iii. 18.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_24_24" id="Footnote_24_24"></a><a href="#FNanchor_24_24"><span class="label">[24]</span></a> Cf. Decretals, v. 39. 44, 28.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_25_25" id="Footnote_25_25"></a><a href="#FNanchor_25_25"><span class="label">[25]</span></a> Cf. Carlyle, <i>Mediaeval Political Theory</i>, vol. ii. pp. 244-9.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_26_26" id="Footnote_26_26"></a><a href="#FNanchor_26_26"><span class="label">[26]</span></a> Cf. John of Salisbury, <i>Policraticus</i>, iv. 1.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_27_27" id="Footnote_27_27"></a><a href="#FNanchor_27_27"><span class="label">[27]</span></a> Cf. Bracton, <i>De Legibus et Consuetudinibus</i>, i. 8, 5.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_28_28" id="Footnote_28_28"></a><a href="#FNanchor_28_28"><span class="label">[28]</span></a> Cf. Manegold, <i>Ad Gebehardum</i>, c. <span class="smcap">xxx</span>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_29_29" id="Footnote_29_29"></a><a href="#FNanchor_29_29"><span class="label">[29]</span></a> Cf. John of Salisbury, <i>Policraticus</i>, iii. 15, viii. 17, 18, 20.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_30_30" id="Footnote_30_30"></a><a href="#FNanchor_30_30"><span class="label">[30]</span></a> Cf. C. C. J. Webb's edition of John of Salisbury's <i>Policraticus</i>, +introduction.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_31_31" id="Footnote_31_31"></a><a href="#FNanchor_31_31"><span class="label">[31]</span></a> Cf. Gratian, <i>Decretum</i>, D. iv. c. 3.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[96]</a></span></p> +<h2>V</h2> + +<h2>PROGRESS IN RELIGION</h2> + +<h3><span class="smcap">Baron Friedrich von Hügel</span></h3> + + +<p>The difficulties are deep and delicate which confront +any man at all well acquainted with the fuller significance +of Religion and of Progress, who attempts clearly and +shortly to describe or define the ultimate relations between +these two sets of fact and conviction. It is plain that +Religion is the deeper and richer of the two terms; and +that we have here, above all, to attempt to fathom the +chief elements and forces of Religion as such, and then to +see whether Progress is really traceable in Religion at all. +And again it is clear that strongly religious souls will, as +such, hold that Religion answers to, and is occasioned +by, the action, within our human life and needs, of great, +abiding, living non-human Realities; and yet, if such +souls are at all experienced and sincere, they will also +admit—as possibly the most baffling of facts—that the +human individuals, families, races, are relatively rare in +whom this sense and need of Religion is strongly, sensitively +active. Thus the religion of most men will +either all but completely wither or vanish before the +invasion of other great facts and interests of human life—Economics +or Politics or Ethics, or again, Science, Art, +Philosophy; or it will, more frequently, become largely +assimilated, in its conception, valuation, and practice, to +the quite distinct, and often subtly different, conceptions, +valuations, and practices pertaining to such of these other +ranges and levels of human life as happen here to be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</a></span> +vigorously active. And such assimilations are, of course, +effected with a particular Philosophy or Ethic, mostly +some passing fashion of the day, which does not reach the +deepest laws and standards even of its own domain, and +which, if taken as Religion, will gravely numb and mar +the power and character of such religious perception as +may still remain in this particular soul.</p> + +<p>I will, then, first attempt some discriminations in +certain fundamental questions concerning the functioning +of our minds, feelings, wills. I will next attempt short, +vivid descriptions of the chief stages in the Jewish and +Christian Religions, with a view to tracing here what may +concern their progress; and will very shortly illustrate the +main results attained by the corresponding main peculiarities +of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Mohammedanism. +And I will finally strive to elucidate and to +estimate, as clearly as possible, the main facts in past and +present Religion which concern the question of religious +'Progressiveness'.</p> + + +<h3>I</h3> + +<p>I begin with insisting upon some seven discriminations +which, even only forty years ago, would have appeared +largely preposterous to the then fashionable philosophy.</p> + +<p>First, then, our Knowledge is always wider and deeper +than is our Science. I know my mother, I know my dog, +I know my favourite rose-tree; and this, although I am +quite ignorant of the anatomical differences between +woman and man; of the psychological limits between +dog and human being; or of the natural or artificial +botanical order to which my rose-plant belongs. Any +kind or degree of consciousness on my part as to these +three realities is a knowledge of their content. 'Knowledge +is not simply the reduction of phenomena to law +and their resolution into abstract elements; since thus<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[98]</a></span> +the unknowable would be found well within the facts of +experience itself, in so far as these possess a concrete +character which refuses translation into abstract relations.' +So Professor Aliotta urges with unanswerable truth.<a name="FNanchor_32_32" id="FNanchor_32_32"></a><a href="#Footnote_32_32" class="fnanchor">[32]</a></p> + +<p>And next, this spontaneous awareness of other realities +by myself, the reality Man, contains always, from the +first, both matter and form, and sense, reason, feeling, +volition, all more or less in action. Sir Henry Jones +insists finely: 'The difference between the primary and +elementary data of thought on the one hand, and the +highest forms of systematized knowledge on the other, is +no difference in kind, analogous to a mere particular and +a mere universal; but it is a difference of articulation.'<a name="FNanchor_33_33" id="FNanchor_33_33"></a><a href="#Footnote_33_33" class="fnanchor">[33]</a></p> + +<p>Thirdly, direct, unchallengeable Experience is always +only experience of a particular moment; only by means +of Thought, and trust in Thought, can such Experience +be extended, communicated, utilized. The sceptic, to be +at all effective, practises this trust as really as does his +opponent. Thought, taken apart from Experience, is +indeed artificial and arid; but Experience without +Thought, is largely an orderless flux. Philosophers as +different as the Neo-Positivist Mach and the Intuitionist +Bergson, do indeed attempt to construct systems composed +solely of direct Experience and pure Intuition; and, +at the same time, almost ceaselessly insist upon the sheer +novelty, the utter unexpectedness of all direct Experience, +and the entire artificiality of the constructions of Thought—constructions +which alone adulterate our perceptions +of reality with the non-realities repetition, uniformity, +foreseeableness. Yet the amazing success of the application +of such constructions to actual Nature stares us all +in the face. 'It is, indeed, strange,' if that contention +be right, 'that facts behave as if they too had a turn for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[99]</a></span> +mathematics.' Assuredly 'if thought, with its durable +and coherent structure, were not the reflection of some +order of stable relations in the nature of things, it would +be worthless as an organ of life'.<a name="FNanchor_34_34" id="FNanchor_34_34"></a><a href="#Footnote_34_34" class="fnanchor">[34]</a></p> + +<p>Fourthly, both Space and Time are indeed essential +constituents of all our perceptions, thoughts, actions, at +least in this life. Yet Time is perhaps the more real, and +assuredly the richer, constituent of the two. But this +rich reality applies only to Concrete or Filled Time, +Duration, in which our experiences, although always +more or less successive, interpenetrate each other in +various degrees and ways, and are thus more or less +simultaneous. An absolutely even flow of equal, mutually +exclusive moments, on the contrary, exists only for our +theoretical thinking, in Abstract, Empty, or Clock time. +Already, in 1886, Professor James Ward wrote: 'In +time, conceived as physical, there is no trace of intensity; +in time, as psychically experienced, duration is primarily +an intensive magnitude.'<a name="FNanchor_35_35" id="FNanchor_35_35"></a><a href="#Footnote_35_35" class="fnanchor">[35]</a> And in 1889 Professor Bergson, +in his <i>Essai sur les Données Immédiates de la Conscience</i>, +gave us exquisite descriptions of time as we really +experience it, of 'duration strictly speaking', which +'does not possess moments that are identical or exterior +to each other'.<a name="FNanchor_36_36" id="FNanchor_36_36"></a><a href="#Footnote_36_36" class="fnanchor">[36]</a> Thus all our real soul life, in proportion +to its depth, moves in Partial Simultaneity; and it +apprehends, requires and rests, at its deepest, in an +overflowingly rich Pure Simultaneity.</p> + +<p>Fifthly, Man is Body as well as Soul, and the two are +closely interrelated. The sensible perception of objects, +however humble, is always necessary for the beginning, +and (in the long run) for the persistence and growth, of the +more spiritual apprehensions of man. Hence Historical<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[100]</a></span> +Persons and Happenings, Institutions, affording Sensible +Acts and Contacts, and Social Corporations, each +different according to the different ranges and levels of +life, can hardly fail to be of importance for man's full +awakening—even ethical and spiritual. Professor Ernst +Troeltsch, so free from natural prejudice in favour of such +a Sense-and-Spirit position, has become perhaps the most +adequate exponent of this great fact of life, which is ever +in such danger of evaporation amidst the intellectual and +leading minority of men.</p> + +<p>Sixthly, the cultivated modern man is still largely +arrested and stunted by the spell of Descartes, with his +insistence upon immediate unity of outlook and perfect +clearness of idea as the sole, universal tests, indeed constituents, +of truth. 'I judged that I could take for my +general rule that the things which we conceive very +clearly and very distinctly are all true'—these and these +alone.<a name="FNanchor_37_37" id="FNanchor_37_37"></a><a href="#Footnote_37_37" class="fnanchor">[37]</a> Thus thenceforth Mathematics and Mechanics +have generally been held to be the only full and typical +sciences, and human knowledge to be co-extensive with +such sciences alone. Yet Biology and Psychology now +rightly claim to be sciences, each with its own special +methods and tests distinct from those of Mathematics +and Mechanics. Indeed, the wisest and most fruitful +philosophy is now coming to see that 'Reality generally +eludes our thought, when thought is reduced to mathematical +formulas'.<a name="FNanchor_38_38" id="FNanchor_38_38"></a><a href="#Footnote_38_38" class="fnanchor">[38]</a> Concrete thought, contrariwise, finds +full room also for History, Philosophy, Religion, for each +as furnishing rich subject-matters for Knowledge or +Science, of a special but true kind.</p> + +<p>Seventhly. Already Mathematics and Mechanics absolutely +depend, for the success of their applications to +actual Nature, upon a spontaneous correspondence<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[101]</a></span> +between the human reason and the Rationality of Nature. +The immensity of this success is an unanswerable proof +that this rationality is not imposed, but found there, by +man. But Thought without a Thinker is an absurd +proposition. Thus faith in Science is faith in God. +Perhaps the most impressive declaration of this necessary +connexion between Knowledge and Theism stands at the +end of that great work, Christoph Sigwart's <i>Logik</i>. 'As +soon as we raise the question as to the real <i>right</i>', the +adequate reason, 'of our demands for a correspondence, +within our several sciences, between the principles and +the objects of the researches special to each, there emerges +the need for the Last and Unconditional Reason. And +the actual situation is not that this Reason appears only +on the horizon of our finite knowledge,' as Kant would +have it. 'Not in thus merely extending our knowledge lies +the significance of the situation, but in the fact that this +Unconditional Reason constitutes the presupposition +without which no desire for Knowledge (in the proper and +strict sense of the word) is truly thinkable.'<a name="FNanchor_39_39" id="FNanchor_39_39"></a><a href="#Footnote_39_39" class="fnanchor">[39]</a></p> + +<p>And lastly, all this and more points to philosophical +Agnosticism as an artificial system, and one hopelessly +inadequate to the depths of human experience. Assuredly +Bossuet is right: 'man knows not the whole of anything'; +and mystery, in this sense, is also of the essence of all +higher religion. But what man knows of anything is +that thing manifested, not essentially travestied, in that +same thing's appearances. We men are most assuredly +realities forming part of a real world-whole of various +realities; those other realities continuously affect our +own reality; we cannot help thinking certain things about +these other realities; and these things, when accepted +and pressed home by us in action or in science, turn out, +by our success in this their utilization, to be rightly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[102]</a></span> +apprehended by us, as parts of interconnected, objective +Nature. Thus our knowledge of Reality is real as far as +it goes, and philosophical Agnosticism is a <i>doctrinaire</i> +position. We can say with Herbert Spencer, in spite of +his predominant Agnosticism, that 'the error' committed +by philosophers intent upon demonstrating the limits and +conditions of consciousness 'consists in assuming that +consciousness contains <i>nothing but</i> limits and conditions, +to the entire neglect of that which is limited and conditioned'. +In reality 'there is some thing which alike +forms the raw material of definite thought and remains +after the definiteness, which thinking gave to it, has been +destroyed'.<a name="FNanchor_40_40" id="FNanchor_40_40"></a><a href="#Footnote_40_40" class="fnanchor">[40]</a></p> + + +<h3>II</h3> + +<p>Let us next consider five of the most ancient and +extensively developed amongst the still living Religions: +the Israelitish-Jewish and the Christian religions shall, as +by far the best known to us and as the most fully articulated, +form the great bulk of this short account; the +Confucian, Buddhist, and Mohammedan religions will +be taken quite briefly, only as contrasts to, or elucidations +of, the characteristics found in the Jewish and Christian +faiths. All this in view of the question concerning the +relations between Religion and Progress.</p> + +<p>1. We can roughly divide the Israelitish-Jewish religion +into three long periods; in each the points that specially +concern us will greatly vary in clearness, importance, and +richness of content.</p> + +<p>The first period, from the time of the founder Moses +and the Jewish exodus out of Egypt to the appearance +of the first great prophet Elijah (say 1300 <span class="smcap">b.c.</span> to about +860 <span class="smcap">b.c.</span>) is indeed but little known to us; yet it gives +us the great historical figure of the initial lawgiver, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[103]</a></span> +recipient and transmitter of deep ethical and religious +experiences and convictions. True, the code of King +Hammurabi of Babylon (in 1958 to 1916 <span class="smcap">b.c.</span>; or, according +to others, in about 1650) anticipates many of the laws +of the <i>Book of the Covenant</i> (Exod. xx, 22-xxiii. 33), the +oldest amongst the at all lengthy bodies of laws in the +Pentateuch; and, again, this covenant appears to presuppose +the Jewish settlement in Canaan (say in 1250 <span class="smcap">b.c.</span>) +as an accomplished fact. And, indeed, the Law and +the books of Moses generally have undoubtedly passed +through a long, deep, wide, and elaborate development, +of which three chief stages, all considerably subsequent +to the Covenant-Book, have, by now, been established +with substantial certainty and precision. The record of +directly Mosaic sayings and writings is thus certainly +very small. Yet it is assuredly a gross excess to deny the +historical reality of Moses, as even distinguished scholars +such as Edward Meyer and Bernhard Stade have done. +Far wiser here is Wellhausen, who finds, in the very +greatness and fixity of orientation of the development +in the Law and in the figure of the Lawgiver, a conclusive +proof of the rich reality and greatness of the +Man of God, Moses. Yet it is Hermann Gunkel, I think, +who has reached the best balanced judgement in this +matter. With Gunkel we can securely hold that Moses +called God Yahweh, and proclaimed Him as the national +God of Israel; that Moses invoked Him as 'Yahweh is +my banner'—the divine leader of the Israelites in battle +(Exod. xvii. 15); and that Yahweh is for Moses a God of +righteousness—of the right and the law which he, Moses, +brought down from Mount Sinai and published at its +foot. Fierce as may now appear to us the figure of +Yahweh, thus proclaimed, yet the soul's attitude towards +Him is already here, from the first, a religion of the will: +an absolute trust in God ('Yahweh shall fight for you,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[104]</a></span> +and ye shall hold your peace,' Exod. xiv. 14), and a terrible +relentlessness in the execution of His commands—as when +Moses orders the sons of Levi to go to and fro in the camp, +slaying all who, as worshippers of the Golden Calf, had +not been 'on Yahweh's side' (Exod. xxxii. 25-29); and +when the chiefs, who had joined in the worship of Baal-Peor, +are 'hung up unto Yahweh before the sun' (Num. +xxv. 1-5). Long after Moses the Jews still believed in +the real existence of the gods of the heathen; and the +religion of Moses was presumably, in the first instance, +'Monolatry' (the adoration of One God among many); +but already accompanied by the conviction that Yahweh +was mightier than any other god—certainly Micah, +'Who is like Yahweh?,' is a very ancient Israelitish +name. And if Yahweh is worshipped by Moses on a +mountain (Sinai) and His law is proclaimed at a spring, +if Moses perhaps himself really fashioned the brazen +serpent as a sensible symbol of Yahweh, Yahweh nevertheless +remains without visible representation in or on +the Ark; He is never conceived as the sheer equivalent +of natural forces; and all mythology is absent here—the +vehement rejection of the calf-worship shows this +strikingly. Michael Angelo, himself a soul of fire, understood +Moses well, Gunkel thinks.<a name="FNanchor_41_41" id="FNanchor_41_41"></a><a href="#Footnote_41_41" class="fnanchor">[41]</a></p> + +<p>The second period, from Elijah's first public appearance +(about 860 <span class="smcap">b.c.</span>) to the Dedication of the Second Temple +(516 <span class="smcap">b.c.</span>), and on to the public subscription to the Law +of Moses, under Ezra (in 444 <span class="smcap">b.c.</span>), is surpassed, in spiritual +richness and importance, only by the classical times of +Christianity itself. Its beginning, its middle, and its end +each possess distinctive characters.</p> + +<p>The whole opens with Elijah, 'the grandest heroic +figure in all the Bible,' as it still breathes and burns in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[105]</a></span> +the First Book of Kings. 'For Elijah there existed not, +in different regions, forces possessed of equal rights and +equal claims to adoration, but everywhere only one +Holy Power that revealed Itself, not like Baal, in the life +of Nature, but like Yahweh, in the moral demands of the +Spirit' (Wellhausen).</p> + +<p>And then (in about 750 <span class="smcap">b.c.</span>) appears Amos, the first +of the noble 'storm-birds' who herald the coming national +destructions and divine survivals. 'Yahweh was for +these prophets above all the god of justice, and God of +Israel only in so far as Israel satisfied His demands of +justice. And yet the special relation of Yahweh to Israel +is still recognized as real; the ethical truth, which now +stood high above Israel, had, after all, arisen within +Israel and could still only be found within it.' The two +oldest lengthy narrative documents of the Pentateuch—the +Yahwist (J) and the Ephraemite (E)—appear to have +been composed, the first in Judah in the time of Elijah, +the second in Israel in the time of Amos. J gives us the +immortal stories of Paradise and the Fall, Cain and Abel, +Noah and the Flood; E, Abraham's sacrifice of Isaac; +and the documents conjointly furnish the more naïve and +picturesque parts of the grand accounts of the Patriarchs +generally—the first great narrative stage of the Pentateuch. +God here gives us some of His most exquisite +self-revelations through the Israelitish peasant-soul. And +Isaiah of Jerusalem, successful statesman as well as deep +seer, still vividly lives for us in some thirty-six chapters of +that great collection the 'Book of Isaiah' (i-xii, xv-xx, xxii-xxxix). +There is his majestic vocation in about 740 <span class="smcap">b.c.</span>, +described by himself, without ambiguity, as a precise, +objective revelation (chap. vi); and there is the divinely +impressive close of his long and great activity, when he +nerves King Hezekiah to refuse the surrender of the Holy +City to the all-powerful Sennacherib, King of Assyria:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[106]</a></span> +that Yahweh would not allow a single arrow to be shot +against it, and would turn back the Assyrian by the way +by which he came—all which actually happens as thus +predicted (chap. xxxvii).</p> + +<p>The middle of this rich second period is filled by +a great prophet-priest's figure, and a great prophetical +priestly reform. Jeremiah is called in 628 <span class="smcap">b.c.</span>, and dies +obscurely in Egypt in about 585 <span class="smcap">b.c.</span>; and the Deuteronomic +Law and Book is found in the Temple, and is solemnly +proclaimed to, and accepted by, the people, under the +leadership of the High Priest Hilkiah and King Josiah, +'the Constantine of the Jewish Church,' in 628 <span class="smcap">b.c.</span> +Jeremiah and Deuteronomy (D) are strikingly cognate +in style, temper, and injunctions; and especially D contrasts +remarkably in all this with the documents J and E. +We thus have here the second great development of the +Mosaic Law. Both Jeremiah and Deuteronomy possess +a deeply interior, tenderly spiritual, kernel and a fiercely +polemical husk—they both are full of the contrast +between the one All-Holy God to be worshipped in the +one Holy Place, Jerusalem, and the many impure +heathen gods worshipped in so many places by the Jewish +crowd. Thus in Jeremiah Yahweh declares: 'This shall +be my covenant that I will make with the house of Israel: +I will write my law in their hearts: and they shall all +know me, from the least to the greatest: for I will remember +their sin no more' (xxxi. 33, 34). And Yahweh +exclaims: 'My people have committed two evils: they +have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and have +hewn out cisterns that can hold no water.' 'Lift up thine +eyes unto the high places ... thou hast polluted the land +with thy wickedness.' 'Wilt thou not from this time +cry unto me: My Father, thou art the guide of my youth?' +(ii. 13, iii. 2, 4). And Deuteronomy teaches magnificently: +'This commandment which I command you this day, is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[107]</a></span> +not too hard for thee, neither is it far off. It is not in +heaven, neither is it beyond the sea, that thou shouldest +say: Who shall go up for us to heaven or over the sea, +and bring it unto us? But the word is very nigh unto +thee, in thy mouth and in thy heart, that thou mayest +do it' (xxx. 11-14). And there are here exquisite injunctions—to +bring back stray cattle to their owners; to +spare the sitting bird, where eggs or fledglings are found; +to leave over, at the harvest, some of the grain, olives, +grapes, for the stranger, the orphan, the widow; and not +to muzzle the ox when treading out the corn (xxii. 1, 6, 7; +xxiv. 19; xxv. 4). Yet the same Deuteronomy ordains: +'If thine own brother, son, daughter, wife, or bosom +friend entice thee secretly, saying, let us go and serve +other gods, thine hand shall be first upon him to put him +to death.' Also 'There shall not be found with thee any +consulter with a familiar spirit ... or a necromancer. +Yahweh thy God doth drive them out before thee.' And, +finally, amongst the laws of war, 'of the cities of these +people (Hittite, Amorite, Canaanite, Perizzite, Hivite, +Jebusite) thou shalt save alive nothing that breatheth, +as Yahweh thy God hath commanded thee' (xii. 2-5; +xiii. 6, 9; xviii. 10-13; xx. 16, 17). Here we must +remember that the immorality of these Canaanitish tribes +and cults was of the grossest, indeed largely unnatural, +kind; that it had copiously proved its terrible fascination +for their kinsmen, the Jews; that these ancient Easterns, +e.g. the Assyrians, were ruthlessly cruel at the storming +of enemy cities; and especially that the morality and +spirituality, thus saved for humanity from out of a putrid +flood, was (in very deed) immensely precious. One point +here is particularly far-sighted—the severe watchfulness +against all animism, spiritualism, worship of the dead, +things in which the environing world of the Jews' fellow +Semites was steeped. The Israelitish-Jewish prophetic<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[108]</a></span> +movement did not first attain belief in a Future Life, and +then, through this, belief in God; but the belief in God, +strongly hostile to all those spiritualisms, only very +slowly, and not until the danger of any infusion of those +naturalisms had become remote, led on the Jews to +a realization of the soul's survival with a consciousness +at least equal to its earthly aliveness. The Second Book +of Kings (chaps. xxii, xxiii) gives a graphic account of +King Josiah's rigorous execution of the Deuteronomic law.</p> + +<p>The end of this most full second period is marked by +the now rapid predominance of a largely technical priestly +legislation and a corresponding conception of past history; +by the inception of the Synagogue and the religion of the +Book; but also by writings the most profound of any +in the Old Testament, all presumably occasioned by the +probing experiences of the Exile. In 597 and 586 <span class="smcap">b.c.</span> +Jerusalem is destroyed and the majority of the Jews are +taken captives to Babylon; and in between (in 593) occurs +the vocation of the prophet-priest Ezekiel, and his book +is practically complete by 573 <span class="smcap">b.c.</span> Here the prophecies +as to the restoration are strangely detailed and schematic—already +somewhat like the apocalyptic writers. Yet +Ezekiel reveals to us deathless truths—the responsibility +of the individual soul for its good and its evil, and God +Himself as the Good Shepherd of the lost and the sick +(xviii. 20-32; xxxiv. 1-6); he gives us the grand pictures +of the resurrection unto life of the dead bones of Israel +(chap. xxxvii), and of the waters of healing and of life +which flow forth, ever deeper and wider, from beneath +the Temple, and by their sweetness transform all sour +waters and arid lands that they touch (xlvii. 1-12). +A spirit and doctrine closely akin to those of Ezekiel +produced the third, last, and most extensive development +of the Pentateuchal legislation and doctrinal history—in +about 560 <span class="smcap">b.c.</span>, the Law of Holiness (Lev., chaps. xvii<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[109]</a></span>-xxvi); +and in about 500 <span class="smcap">b.c.</span>, the Priestly Code. As with +Ezekiel's look forward, so here with these Priests' look +backward, we have to recognize much schematic precision +of dates, genealogies, and explanations instinct with +technical interests. The unity of sanctuary and the +removal from the feasts and the worship of all traces of +naturalism, which in Jeremiah, Deuteronomy, and the +Second Book of Kings appear still as the subject-matters +of intensest effort and conflict, are here assumed as +operative even back to patriarchal times. Yet it can +reasonably be pleaded that the life-work of Moses truly +involved all this development; and even that Monotheism +(at least, for the times and peoples here concerned) +required some such rules as are assumed by P throughout.</p> + +<p>And P gives us the great six days' Creation Story with +its splendid sense of rational order pervasive of the +Universe, the work of the all-reasonable God—its single +parts good, its totality very good; and man and woman +springing together from the Creator's will. But the +writer nowhere indicates that he means long periods by +the 'days'; each creation appears as effected in an +instant, and these instants as separated from each other +by but twenty-four hours.</p> + +<p>In between Deuteronomy and the Priestly Code, or +a little later still, lies probably the composition of three +religious works full, respectively, of exultant thanksgiving, +of the noblest insight into the fruitfulness of suffering, +and of the deepest questionings issuing in childlike trust +in God. For an anonymous writer composes (say, in +550 <span class="smcap">b.c.</span>) the great bulk of the magnificent chapters +forty to fifty-five of our Book of Isaiah—a paean of +spiritual exultation over the Jews' proximate deliverance +from exile by the Persian King Cyrus. In 538 <span class="smcap">b.c.</span> +Cyrus issues the edict for the restoration to Judaea, and +in 516 the Second Temple is dedicated. Within this<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[110]</a></span> +great Consolation stand (xlii. 1-4; xlix. 1-6; l. 4-9; +lii. 13-liii. 12) the four poems on the Suffering Servant +of Yahweh—the tenderest revelation of the Old Testament—apparently +written previously in the Exile, say +in 570-560 <span class="smcap">b.c.</span> The Old Law here reaches to the very +feet of the New Law—to the Lamb of God who taketh +away the sins of the world. And the Book of Job, in +its chief constituents (chaps. i-xxxi, xxxviii-xlii), was +probably composed when Greek influences began—say in +about 480 <span class="smcap">b.c.</span>, the year of the battle of Thermopylae. +The canonization of this daringly speculative book +indicates finely how sensitive even the deepest faith and +holiness can remain to the apparently unjust distribution +of man's earthly lot.</p> + +<p>Our second period ends in 444 <span class="smcap">b.c.</span>, when the priest +and scribe Ezra solemnly proclaims, and receives the +public subscription to, the Book of the Law of Moses—the +Priestly Code, brought by him from Babylon.</p> + +<p>The Jewish last period, from Ezra's Proclamation +444 <span class="smcap">b.c.</span> to the completion of the Fourth Book of Ezra, +about <span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 95, is (upon the whole) derivative. Amos, +Isaiah, Jeremiah were absorbed in the realities of their +own epoch-making times, and of God's universal governance +of the world past and future; Daniel now, with +practically all the other Apocalyptic writers in his train, +is absorbed in those earlier prophecies, and in ingenious +speculations and precise computations as to the how and +the when of the world's ending. The Exile had given +rise to the Synagogue, and had favoured the final development +and codifying of the Mosaic law; the seventy years +intermission of the Temple sacrifices and symbolic acts +had turned the worship, which had been so largely +visible, dramatic, social, into the praying, singing, reading, +preaching of extant texts, taken as direct and final rules +for all thought and action, and as incapable of additions<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[111]</a></span> +or interpretations equal in value to themselves. Yet thus +priceless treasures of spiritual truth and light were handed +down to times again aglow with great—the greatest +religious gifts and growths; and indeed this literature +itself introduced various conceptions or images destined +to form a largely fitting, and in the circumstances attractive, +garment for the profound further realities brought +by Christianity.</p> + +<p>In the Book of Daniel (written somewhere between +163 and 165 <span class="smcap">b.c.</span>) all earthly events appear as already +inscribed in the heavenly books (vii. 10), and the events +which have still really to come consist in the complete +and speedy triumph of the Church-State Israel against +King Antiochus Epiphanes. But here we get the earliest +clear proclamation of a heightened life beyond death—though +not yet for all (xii. 2). The noble vision of the +four great beasts that came up from the sea, and of one +like unto a Son of Man that came with the clouds of +heaven (chap. vii), doubtless here figures the earthly +kingdoms, Babel, Media, Persia, Greece (Alexander), and +God's kingdom Israel. The Psalter appears to have been +closed as late as 140 <span class="smcap">b.c.</span>; some Psalms doubtless date +back to 701—a few perhaps to David himself, about +1000 <span class="smcap">b.c.</span> The comminatory Psalms, even if spoken as +by representatives of God's Church and people, we cannot +now echo within our own spiritual life; any heightened +consciousness after death is frequently denied (e.g. vi. 5: +'in the grave who shall give thee thanks?' and cxv. 17: +'the dead praise not the Lord')—we have seen the impressive +reason of this; and perhaps a quarter of the +Psalms are doubles, or pale imitations of others. But, +for the rest, the Psalter remains as magnificently fresh +and powerful as ever: culminating in the glorious self-commitment +(Ps. lxxiii), 'I was as a beast before Thee. +Nevertheless I am continually with Thee. Whom have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[112]</a></span> +I in heaven but Thee, and there is none upon earth +that I desire beside Thee.' The keen sense, present +throughout this amazingly rich collection, of the reality, +prevenience, presence, protection—of the central importance +for man, of God, the All-Abiding, finds thus its full, +deathless articulation.</p> + +<p>Religiously slighter, yet interesting as a preparation +for Christian theology, are the writings of Philo, a devout, +Greek-trained Jew of Alexandria, who in <span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 40 appeared +before the Emperor Caligula in Rome. Philo does not +feel his daringly allegorical sublimations as any departures +from the devoutest Biblical faith. Thus 'God +never ceases from action; as to burn is special to fire, so +is action to God'—this in spite of God's rest on the seventh +day (Gen. ii. 2). 'There exist two kinds of men: the +heavenly man and the earthly man.'<a name="FNanchor_42_42" id="FNanchor_42_42"></a><a href="#Footnote_42_42" class="fnanchor">[42]</a> The long Life +of Moses<a name="FNanchor_43_43" id="FNanchor_43_43"></a><a href="#Footnote_43_43" class="fnanchor">[43]</a> represents him as the King, Lawgiver, High +Priest, Prophet, Mediator. The Word, the Logos (which +here everywhere hovers near, but never reaches, personality) +is 'the firstborn son of God', 'the image of +God'<a name="FNanchor_44_44" id="FNanchor_44_44"></a><a href="#Footnote_44_44" class="fnanchor">[44]</a>; its types are 'the Rock', the Manna, the High +Priest's Coat; it is 'the Wine Pourer and Master of the +Drinking Feast of God'.<a name="FNanchor_45_45" id="FNanchor_45_45"></a><a href="#Footnote_45_45" class="fnanchor">[45]</a> The majority of the Jews, +who did not accept Jesus as the Christ, soon felt they +had no need for so much allegory, and dropped it, with +advantage upon the whole, to the Jewish faith. But +already St. Paul and the Fourth Gospel find here noble +mental raiment for the great new facts revealed by Jesus +Christ.</p> + +<p>2. The Christian Religion we will take, as to our points, +at four stages of its development—Synoptic, Johannine, +Augustinian, Thomistic.</p> + +<p>The Synoptic material here specially concerned we<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[113]</a></span> +shall find especially in Mark i. 1 to xv. 47; but also in +Matt. iii. 1 to xxvii. 56, and in Luke iii. 1 to xxiii. 56. +Within the material thus marked off, there is no greater +or lesser authenticity conferred by treble, or double, or +only single attestation; for this material springs from +two original sources—a collection primarily of doings +and sufferings, which our Mark incorporates with some +expansions; and a collection primarily of discourses, +utilized especially by Matthew and Luke in addition to +the original Mark. Both these sources contain the records +of eyewitnesses, probably Saints Peter and Matthew.</p> + +<p>The chronological order and the special occasions of +the growths in our Lord's self-manifestation, or in the +self-consciousness of His human soul, are most carefully +given by Mark and next by Luke. Matthew largely +ignores the stages and occasions of both these growths, +and assumes, as fully explicit from the beginning of the +Ministry, what was manifested only later on or at the last; +and he already introduces ecclesiastical and Christological +terms and discriminations which, however really implicit +as to their substance in Jesus's teaching, or inevitable +(as to their particular form) for the maintenance and +propagation of Christianity in the near future, are nevertheless +still absent from the accounts of Mark and Luke.</p> + +<p>The chief rules for the understanding of the specific +character of our Lord's revelation appear to be the +following. The life and teaching must be taken entire; +and, within this entirety, each stage must be apprehended +in its own special peculiarities. The thirty years in the +home, the school, the synagogue, the workshop at +Nazareth, form a profoundly important constituent of +His life and teaching—impressively contrasted, as they +are, with the probably not full year of the Public +Ministry, even though we are almost completely bereft +of all details for those years of silent preparation.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[114]</a></span></p> + +<p>The Public Ministry, again, consists of two strongly +contrasted stages, divided by the great scene of Jesus +with the Apostles alone at Caesarea Philippi (Mark viii. +27-33; Luke ix. 18-22; Matt. xvi. 13-23). The stage +before is predominantly expansive, hopeful, peacefully +growing; the stage after, is concentrated, sad, in conflict, +and in storm. To the first stage belong the plant parables, +full of exquisite sympathy with the unfolding of natural +beauty and of slow fruitfulness; to the second stage +belong the parables of keen watchfulness and of the +proximate, sudden second coming. Both movements are +essential to the physiognomy of our Lord. And they +are not simply differences in self-manifestation; they +represent a growth, a relatively new element, in His +human soul's experience and outlook.</p> + +<p>The central doctrine in the teaching is throughout +the Kingdom of God. But in the first stage this central +doctrine appears as especially upheld by Jesus's fundamental +experience—the Fatherhood of God. In the +second stage the central doctrine appears as especially +coloured by Jesus's other great experience—of Himself +as the Son of Man. In the earlier stage the Kingdom +is presented more in the spirit of the ancient prophets, +as predominantly ethical, as already come in its beginnings, +and as subject to laws analogous to those obtaining +in the natural world. In the second stage the coming +of the Kingdom is presented more with the form of the +apocalyptic writers, in a purely religious, intensely +transcendent, and dualistic outlook—especially this also +in the Parables of Immediate Expectation—as not present +but future (Matt. xix. 28); not distant but imminent +(Matt. xvi. 28; xxiv. 33; xxvi. 64); not gradual but +sudden (Matt. xxiv. 27, 39, 43); not at all achieved by +man but purely given by God (so still in Rev. xxi. 10).</p> + +<p>To the earlier stage belongs the great Rejoicing of Jesus<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[115]</a></span> +(Matt. xi. 25-30; Luke x. 21, 22). The splendid opening, +'I thank Thee, Father—for so it hath seemed good in +Thy sight', and the exquisite close, special to Matthew, +'Come unto Me—and my burthen is light', raise no grave +difficulty. But the intermediate majestic declaration, +'All things are delivered unto Me by the Father—neither +knoweth any man the Father save the Son and he to +whomsoever the Son will reveal him', causes critical +perplexities.</p> + +<p>I take this declaration to be modelled upon actual +words of Jesus, which genuinely implied rather than +clearly proclaimed a unique relation between the Father +and Himself. Numerous other words and acts involve +such a relation and Jesus's full consciousness of it. His +first public act, His baptism, is clearly described by Mark +as a personal experience, 'He saw the heavens opened' +and heard a heavenly voice 'Thou art my beloved Son, +in whom I am well pleased' (i. 10, 11). Already in the +first stage Jesus declares the Baptist to be 'more than +a prophet' (Matt. xi. 9), yet claims superiority over him +and over Solomon (xi. 11; xii. 42). His doctrine is new +wine requiring new bottles (Mark ii. 22); indeed His +whole attitude towards the law is that of a superior, who +most really exhorts all, 'Learn of Me'. And soon after +Caesarea Philippi He insists to the people: 'Whosoever +shall be ashamed of Me in this generation, of him also shall +the Son of Man be ashamed, when He cometh in the +glory of the Father' (Mark viii. 38). The most numerous +cures, physical, psychical, moral, certainly performed by +Him, appear as the spontaneous effect of a unique degree +and kind of spiritual authority; and the sinlessness +attributed to Him throughout by the apostolic community +(2 Cor. v. 21; Heb. iv. 15; John viii. 46; 1 John ii. 29) +entirely corresponds to the absence, in the records of +Him, of all traits indicating troubles of conscience and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[116]</a></span> +the corresponding fear of God. And this His unique +Sonship is conjoined, in the earliest picture of Him, with +an endless variety and combination of all the joys, +admirations, affections, disappointments, desolations, +temptations possible to such a stainless human soul +and will. We thus find here a comprehensiveness unlike +the attitude of the Baptist or St. Paul, and like, although +far exceeding, the joy in nature and the peace in suffering +of St. Francis of Assisi.</p> + +<p>The Second Stage opens with the great scene at Caesarea +Philippi and its sequel (given with specially marked +successiveness in Mark viii. 27-x. 45), when, for the first +time in a manner beyond all dispute, Mark represents +Jesus as adopting the designation 'the Son of Man' in +a Messianic and eschatological sense. For our Lord +here promptly corrects Peter's conception of 'Messiah' +by repeated insistence upon 'the Son of Man'—His +glory yet also His sufferings. Thus Jesus adopts the +term of Daniel vii. 13 (which already the Apocalypse +of Enoch had understood of a personal Messiah) as +a succinct description of His specific vocation—its +heavenly origin and difference from all earthly Messianism; +its combination of the depths of human weakness, +dereliction, sufferings with the highest elevation in joy, +power and glory; and its connexion of that pain with +this triumph as strictly interrelated—only with and +through the Cross, was there here the offer and acceptance +of the Crown.</p> + +<p>As to the Passion and Death, and the Risen Life, four +points appear to be central and secured. Neither the +Old Testament nor Jewish Theology really knew of a +Suffering Messiah. Jesus Himself clearly perceived, +accepted, and carried out this profound new revelation. +This suffering and death were conceived by Him as the +final act and crown of His service—so in Mark x. 44, 45<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[117]</a></span> +and Luke xxii. 24-7. (All this remains previous to, and +independent of, St. Paul's elaborated doctrine as to the +strictly vicarious and juridical character of the whole.) +And the Risen Life is an objectively real, profoundly +operative life—the visions of the Risen One were effects +of the truly living Jesus, the Christ.</p> + +<p>The Second Christian Stage, the Johannine writings, +are fully understandable only as posterior to St. Paul—the +most enthusiastic and influential, indeed, of all our +Lord's early disciples, but a convert, from the activity +of a strict persecuting Pharisee, not to the earthly Jesus, +of soul and body, whom he never knew, but to the +heavenly Spirit-Christ, whom he had so suddenly experienced. +Saul, the man of violent passions and acute +interior conflicts, thus abruptly changed in a substantially +<i>pneumatic</i> manner, is henceforth absorbed, not in the +past Jewish Messiah, but in the present universal Christ; +not in the Kingdom of God, but in Pneuma, the Spirit. +Christ, the second Adam, is here a life-giving Spirit, +an element that surrounds and penetrates the human +spirit; we are baptized, dipped, into Christ, Spirit; we +can drink Christ, the Spirit. And this Christ-Spirit +effects and maintains the universal brotherhood of mankind, +and articulates in particular posts and functions +the several human spirits, as variously necessary members +of the one Christian society and Church.</p> + +<p>Now the Johannine Gospel indeed utilizes considerable +Synoptic materials, and does not, as St. Paul, restrict +itself to the Passion and Resurrection. Yet it gives us, +substantially, the Spirit-Christ, the Heavenly Man; and +the growth, prayer, temptation, appeal for sympathy, +dereliction, agony, which, in the Synoptists, are still so +real for the human soul of Jesus Himself, appear here as +sheer condescensions, in time and space, of Him who, +as all things good, descends from the Eternal Above, so<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[118]</a></span> +that we men here below may ascend thither with Him. +On the other hand, the Church and the Sacraments, +still predominantly implicit in the Synoptists, and the +subjects of costly conflict and organization in the Pauline +writings, here underlie, as already fully operative facts, +practically the entire profound work. The great dialogue +with Nicodemus concerns Baptism; the great discourse +in the synagogue at Capernaum, the Holy Eucharist—in +both cases, the strict need of these Sacraments. And +from the side of the dead Jesus flow blood and water, +as those two great Sacraments flow from the everliving +Christ; whilst at the Cross's foot He leaves His seamless +coat, symbol of the Church's indivisible unity. The +Universalism of this Gospel is not merely apparent: +'God so loved the world' (iii. 16), 'the Saviour of the +world' (iv. 42)—this glorious teaching is traceable in +many a passage. Yet Christ here condemns the Jews—in +the Synoptists only the Pharisees; He is from above, +they are from below; all those that came before Him +were thieves and robbers; He will not pray for the world—'ye +shall die in your sins' (xvii. 9; viii. 24); and the +commandment, designated here by Jesus as His own and +as new, to 'love one another', is for and within the +community to which He gives His 'example' (xv. 12; +xiii. 34)—in contrast with the great double commandment +of love proclaimed by Him, in the Synoptists, as already +formulated in the Mosaic Law (Mark xii. 28-34), and +as directly applicable to every fellow-man—indeed, a +schismatic Samaritan is given as the pattern of such +perfect love (Luke x. 25-37).</p> + +<p>Deuteronomy gained its full articulation in conflict +with Canaanite impurity; the Johannine writings take +shape during the earlier battles of the long war with +Gnosticism—the most terrible foe ever, so far, encountered +by the Catholic Church, and conquered by her in open<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[119]</a></span> +and fair fight. Also these writings lay much stress upon +Knowing and the Truth: 'this is life eternal, to know +Thee, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom Thou +hast sent' (xvii. 3); symbolism and mysticism prevail +very largely; and, in so far as they are not absorbed in +an Eternal Present, the reception of truth and experience +is not limited to Christ's earthly sojourn—'the Father +will give you another Helper, the spirit of truth who will +abide with you forever' (xiv. 16). Yet here the knowing +and the truth are also deeply ethical and social: 'he who +doeth the truth cometh to the light' (iii. 21); and Christ +has a fold, and other sheep not of this fold—them also +He must bring, there will be one fold, one Shepherd; +indeed, ministerial gradations exist in this one Church +(so in xiii. 5-10; xx. 3-8; xxi. 7-19). And the Mysticism +here is but an emotional intuitive apprehension of the +great historical figure of Jesus, and of the most specifically +religious of all facts—of the already overflowing operative +existence, previous to all our action, of God, the Prevenient +Love. 'Not we loved God (first), but He (first) +loved us,' 'let us love Him, because He first loved us,' +'no man can come to Me, unless the Father draw him'—a +drawing which awakens a hunger and thirst for Christ +and God (1 John iv. 10, 19; John vi. 44; iv. 14; vi. 35).</p> + +<p>The Third Stage we can find in St. Augustine, who, +born a North African Roman (<span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 354) and a convert +from an impure life and Manichaeism, with its spatially +extended God (<span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 386), wrote his <i>Confessions</i> in 397, +lived to experience the capture and sack of Rome by Alaric +the Goth, 410, composed his great work, <i>The City of God</i>, +amidst the clear dissolution of a mighty past and the dim +presage of a problematical future, and died at Hippo, his +episcopal city, in 430, whilst the Vandals were besieging +it. St. Augustine is more largely a convert and a rigorist +even than St. Paul when St. Paul is most incisive. But<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[120]</a></span> +here he shall testify only to the natures of Eternity and +of real time, a matter in which he remains unequalled +in the delicate vividness and balance of his psychological +analysis and religious perception. 'Thou, O God, precedest +all past times by the height of Thine ever-present +Eternity; and Thou exceedest all future times, +since they <i>are</i> future, and, once they have come, will +be past times. All thy years abide together, because +they abide; but these our years will all be, only when +they all will have ceased to be. Thy years are but One +Day—not every day, but To-Day. This Thy To-Day +is Eternity'.<a name="FNanchor_46_46" id="FNanchor_46_46"></a><a href="#Footnote_46_46" class="fnanchor">[46]</a> The human soul, even in this life, has +moments of a vivid apprehension of Eternity, as in the +great scene of Augustine and Monica at the window in +Ostia.<a name="FNanchor_47_47" id="FNanchor_47_47"></a><a href="#Footnote_47_47" class="fnanchor">[47]</a> And this our sense of Eternity, Beatitude, God, +proceeds at bottom from Himself, immediately present +in our lives; the succession, duration of man is sustained +by the Simultaneity, the Eternity of God: 'this day of +ours <i>does</i> pass within Thee, since all these things' of our +deeper experience 'have no means of passing unless, +somehow, Thou dost contain them all'. 'Behold, Thou +wast within, and I was without ... Thou wast with me, +but I was not with Thee.' 'Is not the blessed life precisely +<i>that</i> life which all men desire? Even those who only +hope to be blessed would not, unless they in some manner +already possessed the blessed life, desire to be blessed, as, +in reality, it is most certain that they desire to be.'<a name="FNanchor_48_48" id="FNanchor_48_48"></a><a href="#Footnote_48_48" class="fnanchor">[48]</a> +Especially satisfactory is the insistence upon the futility +of the question as to what God was doing in Time before +He created. Time is only a quality inherent in all creatures; +it never existed of itself.<a name="FNanchor_49_49" id="FNanchor_49_49"></a><a href="#Footnote_49_49" class="fnanchor">[49]</a></p> + +<p>And our fourth, last Christian Stage shall be represented +by St. Thomas Aquinas (<span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1225-74), in the one<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[121]</a></span> +great question where this Norman-Italian Friar Noble, +a soul apparently so largely derivative and abstractive, +is more complete and balanced, and penetrates to the +specific genius of Christianity more deeply, than Saints +Paul and Augustine with all their greater directness and +intensity. We saw how the deepest originality of our +Lord's teaching and temper consisted in His non-rigoristic +earnestness, in His non-Gnostic detachment from things +temporal and spatial. The absorbing expectation of the +Second Coming, indeed the old, largely effete Graeco-Roman +world, had first to go, the great Germanic migrations +had to be fully completed, the first Crusades had +to pass, before—some twelve centuries after Nazareth +and Calvary—Christianity attained in Aquinas a systematic +and promptly authoritative expression of this its +root-peculiarity and power. No one has put the point +better than Professor E. Troeltsch: 'The decisive point +here is the conception, peculiar to the Middle Ages, of +what is Christian as Supernatural, or rather the full +elaboration of the consequences involved in the conception +of the Supernatural. The Supernatural is now recognized +not only in the great complicated miracle of man's +redemption from out of the world corrupted by original +sin. But the Supernatural now unfolds itself as an +autonomous principle of a logical, religious and ethical +kind. The creature, even the perfect creature, is only +Natural—is possessed of only natural laws and ends; +God alone is Supernatural. Hence the essence of Christian +Supernaturalism consists in the elevation of the creature, +above this creature's co-natural limitations, to God's +own Supernature'. The distinction is no longer, as in +the Ancient Church, between two kinds (respectively +perfect and relative) of the one sole Natural Law; the +distinction here is between Natural Law in general and +Supernature generally. 'The Decalogue, in strictness,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[122]</a></span> +is not yet the Christian Ethic. "Biblical" now means +revealed, but not necessarily Christian; for the Bible +represents, according to Aquinas, a process of development +which moves through universal history and possesses +various stages. The Decalogue is indeed present in the +legislation of Christ, but as a stage preliminary to the +specifically Christian Ethic. The formula, on the contrary, +for the specifically Christian Moral Law is here the +Augustinian definition of the love of God as the highest +and absolute, the entirely simple, Moral end—an end +which contains the demand of the love of God in the +stricter sense (self-sanctification, self-denial, contemplation) +and the demand of the love of our neighbour (the +active relating of all to God, the active interrelating of +all in God, and the most penetrating, mutual self-sacrifice +for God). This Ethic, a mystical interpretation of the +Evangelical Preaching, forms indeed a strong contrast +to the This-World Ethic of the Natural Law, Aristotle, +the Decalogue and Natural Prosperity; but then this +cannot fail to be the case, given the entire fundamental +character of the Christian Ethic'.<a name="FNanchor_50_50" id="FNanchor_50_50"></a><a href="#Footnote_50_50" class="fnanchor">[50]</a></p> + +<p>Thus the widest and most primitive contrasts here are, +not Sin and Redemption (though these, of course, remain) +but Nature (however good in its kind) and Supernature. +The State becomes the complex of that essentially good +thing, Nature; the Church the complex of that different, +higher good, Supernature; roughly speaking, where the +State leaves off, the Church begins.</p> + +<p>It lasted not long, before the Canonists and certain +ruling Churchmen helped to break up, in the consciousness +of men at large, this noble perception of the two-step +ladder from God to man and from man to God. And the +Protestant Reformers, as a whole, went even beyond<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[123]</a></span> +Saints Paul and Augustine in exclusive preoccupation +with Sin and Redemption. Henceforth the single-step +character of man's call now more than ever predominates. +The Protestant Reformation, like the French Revolution, +marks the existence of grave abuses, the need of large +reforms, and, especially on this point, the all but inevitable +excessiveness of man once he is aroused to such 'reforming' +action. Certainly, to this hour, Protestantism +as such has produced, within and for religion specifically, +nothing that can seriously compare, in massive, balanced +completeness, with the work of the short-lived golden +Middle Ages of Aquinas and Dante. Hence, for our +precise present purpose, we can conclude our Jewish +and Christian survey here.</p> + +<p>3. Only a few words about Confucianism, Buddhism, +Mohammedanism, as these, in some of their main outlines, +illustrate the points especially brought out by the Jewish +Christian development.</p> + +<p>Confucianism admittedly consists, at least as we have +it, in a greatly complicated system of the direct worship +of Nature (Sun, Moon, Stars especially) and of Ancestors, +and of a finely simple system of ethical rules for +man's ordinary social intercourse. That Nature-worship +closely resembles what the Deuteronomic reform fought +so fiercely in Israel; and the immemorial antiquity and +still vigorous life of such a worship in China indicates +impressively how little such Nature-worship tends, of +itself, to its own supersession by a definite Theism. And +the Ethical Rules, and their very large observance, +illustrate well how real can be the existence, and the +goodness in its own kind, of Natural, This-World morality, +even where it stands all but entirely unpenetrated or +supplemented by any clear and strong supernatural +attraction or conviction.</p> + +<p>Buddhism, in its original form, consisted neither in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[124]</a></span> +the Wheel of Reincarnation alone, nor in <i>Nirvana</i> alone, +but precisely in the combination of the two; for that +ceaseless flux of reincarnation was there felt with such +horror, that the <i>Nirvana</i>—the condition in which that +flux is abolished—was hailed as a blessed release. The +judgement as to the facts—that all human experience +is of sheer, boundless change—was doubtless excessive; +but the value-judgement—that if life be such pure +shiftingness, then the cessation of life is the one end for +man to work and pray for—was assuredly the authentic +cry of the human soul when fully normal and awake. +This position thus strikingly confirms the whole Jewish +and Christian persistent search for permanence in change—for +a Simultaneity, the support of our succession.</p> + +<p>And Mohammedanism, both in its striking achievements +and in its marked limitations, indeed also in the presentations +of it by its own spokesmen, appears as a religion +primarily not of a special pervasive spirit and of large, +variously applicable maxims, but as one of precise, +entirely immutable rules. Thus we find here something +not all unlike, but mostly still more rigid than, the post-Exilic +Jewish religion—something doubtless useful for +certain times and races, but which could not expand and +adapt itself to indefinite varieties of growths and peoples +without losing that interior unity and self-identity so +essential to all living and powerful religion.</p> + + +<h3>III</h3> + +<p>Let us now attempt, in a somewhat loose and elastic +order, a short allocation and estimate of the facts in past +and present religion which mainly concern the question +of Religion and Progress.</p> + +<p>We West Europeans have apparently again reached +the fruitful stage when man is not simply alive to this<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[125]</a></span> +or that physical or psychic need, nor even to the practical +interest and advantage of this or that Art, Science, +Sociology, Politics, Ethics; but when he awakens further +to the question as to why and how these several activities, +all so costly where at all effectual, can deserve all this +sacrifice—can be based in anything sufficiently abiding +and objective. The history of all the past efforts, and +indeed all really adequate richness of immediate outlook, +combine, I think, to answer that only the experience +and the conviction of an Objective Reality distinct from, +and more than, man, or indeed than the whole of the +world apprehended by man as less than, or as equal to, +man himself, can furnish sufficiently deep and tenacious +roots for our sense and need of an objective supreme +Beauty, Truth, and Goodness—of a living Reality already +overflowing that which, in lesser degrees and ways, we +small realities cannot altogether cease from desiring to +become. It is Religion which, from first to last, but with +increasing purity and power, brings with it this evidence +and conviction. Its sense of the Objective, Full Reality +of God, and its need of Adoration are quite essential to +Religion, although considerable systems, which are largely +satisfactory in the more immediate questions raised by +Aesthetics and even by Ethics, and which are sincerely +anxious to do justice also to the religious sense, are fully +at work to explain away these essential characteristics of +all wideawake Religion. Paul Natorp, the distinguished +Plato-scholar in Germany, the short-lived pathetically +eloquent M. Guyau in France, and, above all, Benedetto +Croce, the large encyclopaedic mind in Italy, have influenced +or led much of this movement, which, in questions +of Religion, has assuredly not reached the deepest and +most tenacious teachings of life.</p> + +<p>The intimations as to this deepest Reality certainly +arise within my own mind, emotion, will; and these my<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[126]</a></span> +faculties cannot, upon the whole, be constrained by my +fellow mortals; indeed, as men grow more manysidedly +awake, all attempts at any such constraint only arrest +or deflect the growth of these intimations. Yet the +dispositions necessary for the sufficient apprehension of +these religious intimations—sincerity, conscientiousness, +docility—are not, even collectively, already Religion, any +more than they are Science or Philosophy. With these +dispositions on our part, objective facts and living +Reality can reach us—and, even so, these facts reach us +practically always, at first, through human teachers +already experienced in these things. The need of such +facts and such persons to teach them are, in the first +years of every man, and for long ages in the history +of mankind, far more pressing than any question of +toleration. Even vigorous persecution or keen exclusiveness +of feeling have—<i>pace</i> Lord Acton—saved for mankind, +at certain crises of its difficult development, convictions +of priceless worth—as in the Deuteronomic Reform +and the Johannine Writings. In proportion as men +become more manysidedly awake, they acquire at least +the capacity for greater sensitiveness concerning the +laws and forces intrinsic to the various ranges and +levels of life; and, where such sensitiveness is really +at work, it can advantageously replace, by means of +the spontaneous acceptance of such objective realities, +the constraints of past ages—constraints which now, +in any case, have become directly mischievous for such +minds. None the less will men, after this change as before, +require the corporate experience and manifestation of +religion as, in varying degrees and ways, a permanent +necessity for the vigorous life of religion. Indeed, such +corporate tradition operates strongly even where men's +spiritual sense seems most individual, or where, with the +retention of some ethical nobility of outlook, they most<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[127]</a></span> +keenly combat all and every religious institution. So with +George Fox's doctrine of the Divine Enlightenment of +every soul separately and without mediation of any kind, +a doctrine derived by him from that highly ecclesiastical +document, the Gospel of St. John; and with many +a Jacobin's fierce proclamation of the rights of Man, +never far away from reminiscences of St. Paul.</p> + +<p>This permanent necessity of Religious Institutions is +primarily a need for men to teach and exemplify, not +simply Natural, This-World Morality, but a Supernatural, +Other-World Ethic; and not simply that abstraction, +Religion in General or a Religious Hypothesis, but that +rich concretion, this or that Historical Religion. In +proportion as such an Historical Religion is deep and +delicate, it will doubtless contain affinities with all that +is wholesome and real within the other extant historical +religions. Nevertheless, all religions are effectual through +their special developments, where these developments +remain true at all. As well deprive a flower of its 'mere +details' of pistil, stamen, pollen, or an insect of its +'superfluous' antennae, as simplify any Historical Religion +down to the sorry stump labelled 'the religion of every +honest man'. We shall escape all bigotry, without +lapsing into such most unjust indifferentism, if we +vigorously hold and unceasingly apply the doctrine of +such a Church theologian as Juan de Lugo. De Lugo +(<span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1583-1660), Spaniard, post-Reformation Roman +Catholic, Jesuit, Theological Professor, and a Cardinal +writing in Rome under the eyes of Pope Urban VIII, +teaches that the members of the various Christian sects, +of the Jewish and Mohammedan communions, and of the +heathen religions and philosophical schools, who achieve +their salvation, do so, ordinarily, simply through the aid +afforded by God's grace to their good faith in its instinctive +concentration upon, and in its practice of, those<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[128]</a></span> +elements in their respective community's worship and +teaching, which are true and good and originally revealed +by God.<a name="FNanchor_51_51" id="FNanchor_51_51"></a><a href="#Footnote_51_51" class="fnanchor">[51]</a> Thus we escape all undue individualism and +all unjust equalization of the (very variously valuable) +religious and philosophical bodies; and yet we clearly +hold the profound importance of the single soul's good +faith and religious instinct, and of the worship or school, +be they ever so elementary and imperfect, which environ +such a soul.</p> + +<p>A man's religion, in proportion to its depth, will move +in a Concrete Time which becomes more and more +a Partial Simultaneity. And these his depths then more +and more testify to, and contrast with, the Fully Simultaneous, +God. Because man thus lives, not in an ever-equal +chain of mutually exclusive moments, in Clock +Time, but in Duration, with its variously close interpenetrations +of the successive parts; and because these +interpenetrations are close in proportion to the richness +and fruitfulness of the durations he lives through; he +can, indeed he must, conceive absolutely perfect life as +absolutely simultaneous. God is thus not Unending, but +Eternal; the very fullness of His life leaves no room or +reason for succession and our poor need of it. Dr. F. C. S. +Schiller has admirably drawn out this grand doctrine, +with the aid of Aristotle's Unmoving Action, in <i>Humanism</i>, +1903, pp. 204-27. We need only persistently apprehend +this Simultaneity as essential to God, and Succession as +varyingly essential to all creatures, and there remains +no difficulty—at least as regards the Time-element—in +the doctrine of Creation. For only with the existence of +creatures does Time thus arise at all—it exists only in +and through them. And assuredly all finite things, that +we know at all, bear traces of a history involving a beginning +and an end. Professor Bernardino Varisco, in his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[129]</a></span> +great <i>Know Thyself</i>, has noble pages on this large +theme.<a name="FNanchor_52_52" id="FNanchor_52_52"></a><a href="#Footnote_52_52" class="fnanchor">[52]</a> In any case we must beware of all more or less +Pantheistic conceptions of the simultaneous life of God +and the successive life of creatures as but essential and +necessary elements of one single Divine-Creaturely existence, +in the manner, e.g., of Professor Josiah Royce, +in his powerful work <i>The World and the Individual</i>, +2nd series, 1901. All such schemes break down under an +adequate realization of those dread facts error and evil. +A certain real independence must have been left by God +to reasonable creatures. And let it be noted carefully: +the great difficulty against all Theism lies in the terrible +reality of Evil; and the deepest adequacy of this same +Theism, especially of Christianity, consists in its practical +attitude towards, and success against, this most real +Evil. But Pantheism increases, whilst seeming to surmount, +the theoretical difficulty, since the world as it +stands, and not an Ultimate Reality behind it, is held +to be perfect; and it entirely fails really to transmute +Evil in practice. Theism, no more than any other outlook, +really explains Evil; but it alone, in its fullest, Jewish-Christian +forms, has done more, and better, than explain +Evil: it has fully faced, it has indeed greatly intensified, +the problem, by its noble insistence upon the reality and +heinousness of Sin; and it has then overcome all this +Evil, not indeed in theory, but in practice, by actually +producing in the midst of deep suffering, through a still +deeper faith and love, souls the living expression of the +deepest beatitude and peace.</p> + +<p>The fully Simultaneous Reality awakens and satisfies +man's deepest, most nearly simultaneous life, by a certain +adaptation of its own intrinsic life to these human +spirits. In such varyingly 'incarnational' acts or action +the non-successive God Himself condescends to a certain<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[130]</a></span> +successiveness; but this, in order to help His creatures +to achieve as much simultaneity as is compatible with +their several ranks and calls. We must not wonder if, +in the religious literature, these condescensions of God +largely appear as though they themselves were more or +less non-successive; nor, again, if the deepest religious +consciousness tends usually to conceive God's outward +action, if future, then as proximate, and, if present, then +as strictly instantaneous. For God in Himself is indeed +Simultaneous; and if we try to picture Simultaneity +by means of temporal images at all, then the instant, +and not any period long or short, is certainly nearest +to the truth—as regards the form and vehicle of the +experience.</p> + +<p>The greater acts of Divine Condescension and Self-Revelation, +our Religious <i>Accessions</i>, have mostly occurred +at considerable intervals, each from the other, in our +human history. After they have actually occurred, these +several acts can be compared and arranged, according to +their chief characteristics, and even in a series of (upon +the whole) growing content and worth—hence the +Science of Religion. Yet such Science gives us no power +to produce, or even to foresee, any further acts. These +great Accessions of Spiritual Knowledge and Experience +are not the simple result of the conditions obtaining previously +in the other levels of life, or even in that of religion +itself; they often much anticipate, they sometimes +greatly lag behind, the rise or decline of the other kinds +of life. And where (as with the great Jewish Prophets, +and, in some degree, with John the Baptist and Our Lord) +these Accessions do occur at times of national stress, these +several crises are, at most, the occasion for the demand, not +the cause of the supply.</p> + +<p>The mostly long gaps between these Accessions have +been more or less filled up, amongst the peoples concerned,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[131]</a></span> +by varyingly vigorous and valuable attempts to articulate +and systematize, to apply in practice, and rightly to +place (within the other ranges of man's total life) these +great, closely-packed masses of spiritual fact; or to +elude, to deflect, or directly to combat them, or some +of their interpretations or applications. Now fairly +steady improvement is possible, desirable, and largely +actual, in the critical sifting and appraisement, as to the +dates and the actual reality, of the historical documents +and details of these Accessions; in the philosophical +articulation of their doctrinal and evidential content; +in the finer understanding and wider application of +their ethical demands; and in the greater adequacy +(both as to firmness and comprehensiveness) of the +institutional organs and incorporations special to these +same Accessions. All this can and does progress, but +mostly slowly, intermittently, with short violent paroxysms +of excess and long sleepy reactions of defect, with one-sidedness, +travesties, and—worst of all—with worldly +indifference and self-seeking. The grace and aid of the +Simultaneous Richness are here also always necessary; +nor can these things ever really progress except through +a deep religious sense—all mere scepticism and all levelling +down are simply so much waste. Still, we can +speak of progress in the Science of Religion more appropriately +than we can of progress in the Knowledge of +Religion.</p> + +<p>The Crusades, the Renaissance, the Revolution, no +doubt exercised, in the long run, so potent a secularizing +influence, because men's minds had become too largely +other-worldly—had lost a sufficient interest in this +wonderful world; and hence all those new, apparently +boundless outlooks and problems were taken up largely +as a revolt and escape from what looked like a prison-house—religion. +Yet through all these violent oscillations<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[132]</a></span> +there persisted, in human life, the supernatural need and +call. In this God is the great central interest, love and +care of the soul. We must look to it that both these +interests and Ethics are kept awake, strong and distinct +within a costingly rich totality of life: the Ethic of the +honourable citizen, merchant, lawyer—of Confucius and +Socrates; and the Ethic of the Jewish Prophets at their +deepest, of the Suffering Servant, of our Lord's Beatitudes, +of St. Paul's great eulogy of love, of Augustine and Monica +at the window in Ostia, of Father Damian's voluntarily +dying a leper amidst the lepers. The Church is the born +incorporation of this pole, as the State is of the other. +The Church indeed should, at its lower limit, also encourage +the This-world Stage; the State, at its higher limit, +can, more or less consciously, prepare us for the Other-World +Stage. Both spring from the same God, at two +levels of His action; both concern the same men, at +two stages of their response and need. Yet the primary +duty of the State is turned to this life; the primary +care of the Church, to that life—to life in its deepest +depths.</p> + +<p>Will men, after this great war, more largely again +apprehend, love, and practise this double polarity of their +lives? Only thus will the truest progress be possible in +the understanding, the application, and the fruitfulness of +Religion, with its great central origin and object, God, the +beginning and end of all our true progress, precisely +because He Himself already possesses immeasurably +more than all He helps us to become,—He Who, even +now already, is our Peace in Action, our Joy even in +the Cross.</p> + + +<h3><span class="smcap">Books for Reference</span></h3><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[133]</a></span></p> + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="Books1"> +<tr><td align='left'>I.</td><td align='left'>1. Oswold Külpe, <i>The Philosophy of the Present in Germany</i>, English translation. London: George Allen, 1913, 3<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> net.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'></td><td align='left'>2. J. McKeller Stewart, <i>A Critical Exposition of Bergon's Philosophy</i>. London: Macmillan, 1913, 6<i>s.</i> net.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>II.</td><td align='left'>1. R. H. Charles, <i>A Critical History of the Doctrine of a Future Life</i>. London: A. & C. Black, 1899, 10<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> net.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'></td><td align='left'>2. Ernest T. Scott, <i>The Fourth Gospel</i>. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1906, 6<i>s.</i> net.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>III.</td><td align='left'>1. Aliotta, <i>The Idealistic Reaction against Science</i>. English translation. Macmillan, 1914, 12<i>s.</i> net.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'></td><td align='left'>2. F. C. Schiller, <i>Humanism</i>, Macmillan, 1903, 7<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> net.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'></td><td align='left'>3. C. C. J. Webb, <i>Group Theories of Religion and the Individual</i>, Allen and Unwin, 1916, 5<i>s.</i> net.</td></tr> +</table></div> + + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_32_32" id="Footnote_32_32"></a><a href="#FNanchor_32_32"><span class="label">[32]</span></a> <i>The Idealistic Reaction against Science</i>, Engl. tr. 1914, pp. 6, 7.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_33_33" id="Footnote_33_33"></a><a href="#FNanchor_33_33"><span class="label">[33]</span></a> <i>A Critical Account of the Philosophy of Lotze</i>, 1895, p. 104.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_34_34" id="Footnote_34_34"></a><a href="#FNanchor_34_34"><span class="label">[34]</span></a> Aliotta, op. cit., pp. 89, 187.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_35_35" id="Footnote_35_35"></a><a href="#FNanchor_35_35"><span class="label">[35]</span></a> <i>Encyl. Brit.</i>, 'Psychology,' 11th ed., p. 577.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_36_36" id="Footnote_36_36"></a><a href="#FNanchor_36_36"><span class="label">[36]</span></a> Ed. 1898, p. 90.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_37_37" id="Footnote_37_37"></a><a href="#FNanchor_37_37"><span class="label">[37]</span></a> <i>Discours sur la Méthode</i>, 1637, IV<span class='super'>e</span> Partie.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_38_38" id="Footnote_38_38"></a><a href="#FNanchor_38_38"><span class="label">[38]</span></a> Aliotta, op. cit., p. 408.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_39_39" id="Footnote_39_39"></a><a href="#FNanchor_39_39"><span class="label">[39]</span></a> Ed. 1893, vol. ii, p. 759.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_40_40" id="Footnote_40_40"></a><a href="#FNanchor_40_40"><span class="label">[40]</span></a> <i>First Principles</i>, 6th ed., 1900, vol. i, p. 67.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_41_41" id="Footnote_41_41"></a><a href="#FNanchor_41_41"><span class="label">[41]</span></a> Article, 'Moses,' in <i>Die Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart</i>, +1913.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_42_42" id="Footnote_42_42"></a><a href="#FNanchor_42_42"><span class="label">[42]</span></a> Ed. Mangey, vol. i, pp. 44, 49.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_43_43" id="Footnote_43_43"></a><a href="#FNanchor_43_43"><span class="label">[43]</span></a> Ibid., pp. 80-179.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_44_44" id="Footnote_44_44"></a><a href="#FNanchor_44_44"><span class="label">[44]</span></a> Ibid., pp. 308, 427.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_45_45" id="Footnote_45_45"></a><a href="#FNanchor_45_45"><span class="label">[45]</span></a> Ibid., pp. 213, 121, 562, 691.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_46_46" id="Footnote_46_46"></a><a href="#FNanchor_46_46"><span class="label">[46]</span></a> <i>Conf.</i> x, 13, 2.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_47_47" id="Footnote_47_47"></a><a href="#FNanchor_47_47"><span class="label">[47]</span></a> Autumn, 387.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_48_48" id="Footnote_48_48"></a><a href="#FNanchor_48_48"><span class="label">[48]</span></a> <i>Conf.</i> 1, 6, 3; x, 27; x, 20.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_49_49" id="Footnote_49_49"></a><a href="#FNanchor_49_49"><span class="label">[49]</span></a> <i>Conf.</i> xi, 13.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_50_50" id="Footnote_50_50"></a><a href="#FNanchor_50_50"><span class="label">[50]</span></a> <i>Die Soziallehren der christlichen Kirchen und Gruppen</i>, 1912, +pp. 263-5.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_51_51" id="Footnote_51_51"></a><a href="#FNanchor_51_51"><span class="label">[51]</span></a> <i>De Fide</i>, Disp. xix, 7, 10; xx, 107, 194.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_52_52" id="Footnote_52_52"></a><a href="#FNanchor_52_52"><span class="label">[52]</span></a> <i>Cognosci Te Stesso</i>, 1912, pp. 144-7.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[134]</a></span></p> +<h2>VI</h2> + +<h2>MORAL PROGRESS</h2> + +<h3><span class="smcap">L. P. Jacks</span></h3> + + +<p>From the syllabus of all the lectures in this course +I gather that every lecturer on the programme is dealing +with the question of moral progress. This is inevitable. +Each lecturer must show that the particular sort of +progress he is dealing with is real or genuine progress, and +this it cannot be unless it is moral. That is itself a significant +fact and throws a valuable light on our subject. It +shows that progress, as it is studied throughout the course, +is not progress in the abstract, whatever that may mean, +but progress <i>for us</i> constituted as we are; and since our +constitution is essentially moral all progress that we can +recognize as such must be moral also. Science, Industry, +Government, might all claim progress on their own +ground and in their own nature, but this would not prove +progress as we understand the word, unless it could be +shown further that these things contribute to human +betterment in the highest sense of the word. <i>Their</i> +progress might conceivably involve <i>our</i> regress.</p> + +<p>To believe in moral progress as an historical fact, as +a process that has begun, and is going on, and will be +continued—that is one thing, and it is my own position. +To believe that this progress is far advanced is another +thing, and is not my position. While believing in Moral +Progress as a fact, I also believe that we are much nearer +to the beginnings of it than the end. We should do well to +accustom ourselves to this thought. Many of our despairs,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[135]</a></span> +lamentations, and pessimisms are disappointments which +arise from our extravagant notions of the degree of +progress already attained. There has been a great deal +of what I have called philosophic pharisaism. Perhaps +it would be better called aeonic pharisaism. I mean the +spirit in the present age which seems to say 'I thank thee, +O God, that I am not as former ages: ignorant, barbaric, +cruel, unsocial; I read books, ride in aeroplanes, eat my +dinner with a knife and fork, and cheerfully pay my taxes +to the State; I study human science, talk freely about +humanity, and spend much of my time in making speeches +on social questions'. Now there is truth in all this, but +not the kind of truth which should lead us to self-flattery. +A good rule for optimists would be this: 'Believe in +moral progress, but do not believe in too much of it.' +I think there would be more optimists in the world, more +cheerfulness, more belief in moral progress, if we candidly +faced the fact that morally considered we are still in a neolithic +age, not brutes indeed any longer, and yet not so far +outgrown the brutish stage as to justify these trumpetings. +One of the beneficent lessons of the present war has been +to moderate our claims in this respect. It has revealed +us to ourselves as nothing else in history has ever done, +and it has revealed, among other things, that moral progress +is not nearly so advanced as we thought it was. It +has been a terrible blow to the pharisaism of which I have +just spoken. It has not discredited science, nor philosophy, +nor government, nor anything else that we value, but it +has shown that these things have not brought us as far +as we thought. That very knowledge, when you come to +think of it, is itself a very distinct step in moral progress. +Before the war we were growing morally conceited; we +thought ourselves much better, more advanced in morality, +than we really were, and this conceit was acting as a real +barrier to our farther advance. A sharp lesson was needed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[136]</a></span> +to take this conceit out of us—to remind us that as yet +we are only at the bare beginnings of moral advance—and +not, as some of us fondly imagined, next door to the goal. +This sudden awakening to the truth is full of promise for +the future.</p> + +<p>And now what is the cause of these exaggerated notions +which so many of us have entertained? I think they +arise from our habit of letting ourselves be guided by +words rather than by realities, by what men are <i>saying</i> +rather than by what they are <i>doing</i>, by what teachers +are teaching than by what learners are learning. If you +take your stand in the realm of words, of doctrines, of +theories, of philosophies, of books, preachings, and +uttered ideals, you might make out a strong case for +a high degree of moral progress actually attained. But +if you ask how much of this has been learnt by mankind +at large, and learnt in such a way as to issue in practice, +you get a different story. We have attached too much +importance to the first story and too little to the second. +There has been a great deal of false emphasis in consequence. +This false emphasis is especially prominent in +the education controversy which is now going on—and +the question of moral progress, by the way, is the question +of education in the widest and highest sense of the term. +People seem quite content so long as they can get the +right thing taught. They don't always see that unless +the right thing is taught by the right people and in the +right way it will not be <i>learnt</i>. Now education is ultimately +a question of what is being <i>learnt</i>, not of what is +being <i>taught</i>. The process of learning is a very curious +and complicated one, and it often happens that what goes +in at the teacher's end comes out at the pupil's end in +a wholly different form and with a wholly different value; +and we have the highest authority for believing that what +really counts is not so much that which goeth into a man<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[137]</a></span> +but that which cometh out of him. That applies to all +education—especially moral education. So that if you +argue from what has gone into the human race in the +way of moral teaching you may be greatly surprised and +perhaps disappointed when you compare it with what +has come out of the human race in the meantime. What +has been taught is not what has been learnt. It has +suffered a sea change in the process. Nor is the question +wholly one of learning. There is the further question of +remembering. I believe that a candid examination of the +facts would convince us that the human race has proved +itself a forgetful pupil. It has not always retained what +it has learnt. Emerson has said that no account of the +Holy Ghost has been lost. But how did Emerson find +that out? The only accents Emerson knew of were those +which the world happened to have remembered. If any +had been lost in the meantime Emerson naturally would +not know of their existence. I have heard of a functionary, +whose precise office I am not able to define, called 'the +Lord's Remembrancer'. It would be a great help to +Moral Progress if we had in modern life a People's Remembrancer. +His place is occupied to some extent by the study +of history, and for that reason one could wish for the sake +of Moral Progress that the study of history were universal. +For my own part I seldom open a book of history without +recovering what for me is a lost account of the Holy Ghost. +Next to conceit I reckon forgetfulness as the greatest +enemy of Moral Progress. I suppose Rudyard Kipling +had something of this in mind when he wrote his poem—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Lord God of Hosts be with us yet,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lest we forget, lest we forget.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Another cause of our over-estimate of Moral Progress +is that we have thought too much of the abstract State +and too little of the actual States now in being. Our<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[138]</a></span> +devotion to 'the' State as an ideal has led us to overlook +the fact that many actual States represent a form of +morality so low that it is doubtful if it can be called +morality at all. In their relations <i>with one another</i> they +display qualities which would disgrace the brutes. And +the worst of it is that at times these States drag down to +their own low level the morality of the individuals belonging +to them. Thus at the present moment we see quite +decent Englishmen and quite decent Germans tearing +one another to pieces like mad dogs, a thing they would +never dream of doing as between man and man, and +which they do only because they are in the grip of forces +alien to their own nature. We have overestimated +Progress by thinking only of what is happening inside +each of the States. We have forgotten to consider the +bearing of the States to one another, which remains on +a level lower than that of individuals.</p> + +<p>The impression has gone abroad that the nations of the +world need to take <i>only one step</i> from the position where +they now stand to accomplish the final unity of all mankind. +Taking any one of these nations—our own for +example—we can trace the steps by which the warring +elements within it have become reconciled, until finally +there has emerged that vast unitary corporation—the +British Empire. So with all the others. What more is +required therefore than one step further in the same +direction, to join up all the States into a single world State. +But I am bound to think we are too hasty in treating the +unity of mankind as needing only one step more. It is +not so easy as all that. When you study the process by +which unity has been brought about in the various +European communities you find that motives of conquest +and corresponding motives of defence have had a great +deal to do with it. Germany, for example, was built up +and now holds together as a fighting unit. Whether<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[139]</a></span> +Germany and the other States would still maintain their +cohesion when they were no longer fighting units, and +when the motives of conquest and defence were no longer +in operation, is a question on which I should not like to +dogmatize either way. Certainly we have no right to +assume offhand that the unifying process which has given +the nations the mass cohesion and efficiency they require +for holding their own against enemy States would still +remain in full power when there were no longer any enemy +States to be considered.</p> + +<p>But what do we mean by Progress?</p> + +<p>Progress may be defined as that process by which +a thing advances from a less to a more complete state of +itself. Now whether this process is a desirable one or not +obviously depends on the nature of the thing which is +progressing. Take the largest and most inclusive of all +things—the whole world. And now suppose philosophy +to have proved that the world, the whole world, is +advancing from a less to a more complete state of itself—which +as a matter of fact is what the doctrine of evolution +claims to have proved. Ought I to rejoice in this discovery? +Will it give me satisfaction? That clearly +depends on the nature of the world. If I am antecedently +assured that the world is good, I shall naturally rejoice +on hearing that it is advancing from a less to a more +complete state of itself. But if the nature of the world is +evil, what reason can I possibly have for rejoicing in its +evolution? Assuming the world to be evil in its essential +nature, I for my part, if I were consulted in the matter, +would certainly give my vote against its being allowed +to advance from a less to a more complete state of itself. +The less such a world progresses the easier it will be for +moral beings to live in it. Our interest lies in its remaining +as undeveloped as possible.</p> + +<p>Obvious as this seems there are some evolutionists who<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[140]</a></span> +take a rather different view. They seem to think that any +sort of world, no matter what its nature might be, would +ultimately become a good world if it were allowed to +develop its nature far enough. It is just the fact of its +continually becoming more of itself that makes it good. +But this would compel us to abandon our definition that +progress is the advance of a thing from a less to a more +complete state of <i>itself</i>. For if itself were a bad self to +begin with all such advance of <i>itself</i> would only make it +worse. It is possible that an essentially bad man like +Iago might be converted into a good one, but not by +advancing from a less to a more complete state of <i>himself</i> +as he originally was—unless indeed we change the hypothesis +and suppose that he was not essentially bad to +begin with. So with the world at large. Our nature +being what it is, namely moral, we must first be convinced +that the world is in principle good before we can derive +the least satisfaction from knowing that it is advancing +from a less to a more complete state of <i>itself</i>. The alternative +doctrine makes a breach in the doctrine of progress +which is inconsistent with its original form. A thing +develops by retaining its essential nature—that is the +original form. But a bad world which develops into +a good one doesn't retain its essential nature. There +comes a point somewhere when the next step of progress +can be achieved only by the thing dropping its original +nature—a point at which the thing is no longer becoming +more of its former self, which was bad, but is ceasing to +be its former self altogether and becoming something +else, which is good.</p> + +<p>Let us apply this to progress in three specific directions—Science, +the Mechanical Arts, and Government.</p> + +<p>We find that the progress of science has enormously +increased man's power over the forces of nature. Is it +a good thing that man's power over the forces of nature<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[141]</a></span> +should be increased? That surely depends on the +manner in which this power is used, and this depends +again on the moral nature of man. When we observe, +as we may truly observe, especially at the present time, +that of all the single applications which man has made +of science, the most extensive and perhaps the most +efficient is that of devising implements for destroying +his brother man, it is at least permissible to raise the +question whether the progress of science has contributed +on the whole to the progress of humanity. Had it not +been for the progress of science, which has enormously +increased the wealth of the world, it is doubtful if this +war, which is mainly a war about wealth, would have +taken place at all. Or if a war had broken out, it would +not have involved the appalling destruction of human life +and property we are now witnessing—such that, within +a space of two years, about six million human beings have +been killed, thirty-five millions wounded, and wealth +destroyed to the extent of about fifteen thousand millions +sterling—though some say it is very much more. Science +taught us to make this wealth: science has also taught +us how to destroy it. When one thinks of how much of +this is attributable to the progress of science, I say it is +<i>permissible to raise the question</i> whether man is a being +who can safely be entrusted with that control over the +forces of nature which science gives him. What if he uses +this power, as he plainly can do, for his own undoing? To +ask this, as we can hardly help asking, is to transfer the +question of scientific progress into the sphere of morality. +It is conceivable that the progress of science might +involve for us no progress at all. It might be, and some +have feared that it may become, a step towards the self-destruction +of the human race.</p> + +<p>Take the mechanical arts. The chief effects of progress +in the mechanical arts have been an enormous increase<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[142]</a></span> +in the material wealth of mankind, and, partly consequent +upon this, a parallel growth of population in the industrial +countries of the world. It is by no means clear that +either of these things constitutes a definite step in +human progress. Consider the growth of population—the +immense increase in the total bulk and volume of the +human race. Whether this constitutes a clear gain to +humanity obviously cannot be answered without reference +to moral considerations. To increase the arithmetical +quantity of life in the world can be counted a gain only +if the general tendencies of life are in the right direction. +If they are in the wrong direction, then the more lives there +are to yield to these tendencies the less reason has the +moralist to be satisfied with what is happening. No one, +so far as I know, has ever seriously maintained that the +end and aim of progress is to increase the number of +human beings up to the limit which the planet is able +to support; though some doctrines if pressed to their +conclusion would lead to that, notably the doctrine that +all morality rests ultimately on the instinct for the +preservation and the reproduction of life. We have first +to be convinced that the human race is not on the wrong +road before we can look with complacency on the increase +of its numbers. We may note in this connexion that +mankind possesses no sort of collective control over its +own mass or volume. The mass or total number of lives +involved is determined by forces which are not subject +to the unitary direction of any existing human will either +individual or collective. This applies not only to the +human race as a whole, but to particular communities. +Their growth is unregulated. They just come to be what +they are in point of size. This fact seems to me a very +important one to bear in mind when we talk of the +progress of science giving us control over the forces of +nature. So far no state, no government, no community<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[143]</a></span> +has won any effective control over that group of the +forces of nature which determine the total size of the +community in question. It is an aspect of human destiny +which appears to be left to chance; and yet when we +consider what it means, is there any aspect of human +destiny on which such tremendous consequences depend? +And ought we not to consider this before claiming, as we +so often claim, that the progress of science has given us +control of the forces of nature? It is strange that this +point has not been more considered, especially by thinkers +who are fond of the word 'humanity'—'the good of +humanity'—or the 'greatest happiness of the greatest +number'. Humanity has an arithmetical or quantitative +side, and the good of humanity surely depends, to some +extent, on how much humanity there is. I can imagine +many things which might be good for a Greek city state +of 10,000 souls which would not be good, or not good in +the same sense, for a community of 100,000,000 souls. +Surely it needs no reasoning to prove that our power to +do our duty to others is affected by the number of others +to whom duty has to be done—it makes a difference where +there are 10,000 of men or 100,000,000. Similarly with +the greatest happiness of the greatest number. What is +the <i>greatest</i> number? A great deal that has been said +about this would not have been said if we had considered +that the <i>greatest number</i> itself is left at the disposal of +forces outside the present scope of our own will. Even +the proposal to sell our goods and give the proceeds to +the poor would surely be affected, from the moral point +of view, by the number of the poor who were to receive +the distribution. Were this so small that the poor would +get five pounds apiece it would be one question; were it +so large that they would receive a halfpenny apiece it +would be another question. Thus we may conclude that +the progress of the mechanical arts with the consequent<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[144]</a></span> +increase in the bulk of the human race has not solved the +problem of moral progress, but only placed that problem +in a new and more perplexing context. A similar conclusion +would meet us if we were to consider the parallel +increase of the wealth of the world. The moral question +is not about the amount of wealth the world possesses, +but about the way men spend it and the use they make +of it. Industrially speaking, the human race has made +its fortune during the last hundred years. But has it +made up its mind what to do with the fortune? And has +its mind been made up in the right way? To raise these +questions is to see that progress from the economic point +of view may be the reverse of progress from the moral. +But I shall not further enlarge upon this—the theme +being too familiar.</p> + +<p>The third question which relates itself to moral progress +is that of Government. Now Government, I need hardly +say, is not an end in itself. It is a device which man has +set up to help him in attaining the true end of his life. +To make up our minds how we ought to be governed is +therefore impossible unless we have previously made up +our minds how we ought to live. What might be a good +government for a people whose end is industrial success +might be a very bad one for a people who had some other +end in view. Well, then, are we well governed at the +present time? Are we better governed than we were? +Has progress taken place in this department? Plainly +we cannot answer these questions unless we have chosen +our end in life and are morally satisfied with it. In the +history of modern states we discover a tendency, more +strongly marked in some quarters than in others, towards +that form of democracy which is called responsible self-government. +Government of the people, for the people, +by the people. The people are going to govern themselves. +But they may do so in a thousand different <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[145]</a></span>ways—each +of which has a different moral value. A people may +go wrong just as fatally in governing itself as in being +governed by some external authority. I confess that +nothing I can learn from the history of government +entirely reassures me on this point. I see everywhere +progress towards organization, but then one is bound to +ask on what ulterior end is this organization directed? +I see everywhere a growing subordination of the individual +to the State. This may or may not be a very good thing. +What <i>kind of State</i> is it to which the individual is becoming +subordinated? There are great differences among them—some +seem to me, one in particular at the present time, +thoroughly bad, and I cannot see that the individual +gains morally by being subordinated to such a State—at +least if he gains in one direction he loses more in +another.</p> + +<p>Even the social unity which Governments are capable +of achieving must not be too hastily translated into moral +progress. We are entitled to ask several questions before +the one can be equated with the other. To begin with, +do men know what they want to achieve by their unified +life? And if they do know what they want, have we not +still the right to criticize its moral value and say 'this is +right' or this is wrong? Should the time ever come when +the common will of mankind should get itself expressed +by the decrees of a universal democracy, would moral +criticism be at an end so far as the said decrees were +concerned? For my part I cannot see that it would. +Perhaps it were truer to say that only then would moral +criticism effectively begin. As things now are, we are +prevented from criticizing the common will because none +of us knows what exactly the common will demands. But +if it could get itself expressed and defined by the decrees +of a perfect democracy we should know. Those decrees +would reveal the human community to itself, and it is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[146]</a></span> +possible that the revelation would not be altogether +agreeable to our moral sense. We might then discover +that the common will is capable of being grossly immoral. +So far it has been impossible for us to make this discovery +because no organ exists for expressing the common will +on the human scale, and even those which express it on +the national scale are not perfect. I am far from saying +the discovery would be made; but I know of no line of +argument which rules it out as impossible. Meanwhile +we are scarcely justified in regarding the common will as +necessarily moral until we know more than we do of what +precisely it is that the common will aims at and intends +to achieve. To back the common will through thick and +thin, as some of our philosophers seem disposed to do, is +a dangerous speculation—it might perhaps be described +as putting your money on a dark horse.</p> + +<p>This leads me to say a word concerning a phrase which +has been much in use of late—the Collective Wisdom of +Mankind, or the Collective Wisdom of the State. Progress +is sometimes defined as a gradual approach to a state of +things where this collective wisdom rules the course of +events. And collective wisdom is sometimes represented +as vastly wiser than that possessed by any individual, +even the wisest.</p> + +<p>Now if this really is so it seems pretty obvious that, +when the collective wisdom speaks, no individual can have +the right of appeal. What are you, what am I, that either +of us should set up our private intelligence against the +intelligence of forty million of our fellow citizens? That +surely would be a preposterous claim. The collective +wisdom must know best: at least it knows much better +than you or I.</p> + +<p>But is the collective wisdom of the State so immensely +superior to that of the individual, and of necessity so? +Have we any means of bringing the matter to the test?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[147]</a></span> +It is extremely difficult to do so. Not until we make the +experiment do we find how rare are the occasions of which +we can say that then and there the collective wisdom of +the community fairly and fully expressed itself. Acts of +Parliament are not good examples. They usually represent +not the collective wisdom of the whole community, +but the wisdom of the majority after it has been checked, +modified, and perhaps nullified by the opposing wisdom +of an almost equal minority. Take as an example the +history of the Irish Question. How difficult it is to put +one's finger on any moment in that tangled story and +say that then and there the collective wisdom of the community +knew what it wanted to do and did it! So with +almost everything else.</p> + +<p>Now if there be such a thing as the collective wisdom +of the State I suppose that the moment when we are most +likely to find it in action is the moment when one State +has dealings with another State. That surely is a fair test. +If States possess collective wisdom they ought to show +its existence and measure when they confront one +another <i>as States</i>—when State calls to State across the +great deeps of international policy. What should we say +of any State which claimed collective wisdom only when +dealing with its own individual members—with you and +me—but dropped the claim when the question was one +of reasonable intercourse with another State similarly +endowed? This we should say is a very dubious claim.</p> + +<p>Well, how stands the matter when this test is applied? +The present war provides the answer. The war arose out +of a type of quarrel which, had it occurred between half +a dozen individuals of average intelligence, would have +been amicably settled, by reasonable human intercourse, +in twenty minutes. Does not this afford a rough measure +of the collective wisdom of such States as at present exist +in this world? Does it not suggest that they have little<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[148]</a></span> +faculty of reasonable intercourse with one another? +And when you say <i>that</i> of any being, or any collection of +beings, do you not put it pretty low down in the scale of +intelligence? It is literally true that these States do not +understand one another. Thus we are driven back upon +a plain alternative; either the States do not represent +collective wisdom, or else this collective wisdom is one +of the lowest forms of wisdom now extant on this planet. +In either case we must be very cautious in our use of the +phrase. We must not infer moral progress from the reign +of collective wisdom until we are assured that collective +wisdom is really as wise as some of its devotees assume it +to be.</p> + +<p>About the idea of moral progress, which is only another +name for the idea of progress in its widest form, I need +say little, the question having been adequately treated +by other lecturers. But I will add this. Belief in moral +progress is a belief which no man can live without, and, +at the same time, a belief which cannot be proved by any +appeal to human experience. We cannot live without +it, because life is just the process of reaching forward to +a better form of itself. Were a man to say that since +the world began no moral progress has taken place he +would thereby show his latent belief in moral progress. +For no man would take the trouble to deny moral progress +unless he believed that the world would in some +way be made better by his denial. He would not even +trouble to come to a private conclusion in the matter +unless he believed that his private conclusion was something +to the good. In that sense perhaps we may say +that moral progress is proved, for the best proof of any +belief is that it remains indispensable to the life we have +to live. But the appeal to experience would not prove +it—and for this reason. A progressive world is a world +which not only makes gains, but <i>keeps</i> its gains when they<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[149]</a></span> +are made. If the Kingdom of Heaven were to become +a fact to-morrow, that of itself would not prove progress, +if you admit the possibility that the world might hereafter +retreat from the position it had won. That possibility +you could never rule out—except by an appeal to faith. +A world which attained the goal and then lost it would +be a greater failure, from the point of view of moral +progress, than one which never attained the goal at all. +The doctrine that the gains of morality can never be lost +is widely held; but it does not rest on a philosophic or +a scientific basis. As Hume taught long ago, you cannot +infer an infinite conclusion from finite data—and in this +case the conclusion is infinite and the data are finite. +They are not only finite but various: some pointing one +way, some another.</p> + +<p>Finally we cannot prove moral progress by appeal to +any objective standard, such as the amount of happiness +existing in the world at successive dates. Suppose you +were able to show that, up to date, the amount of happiness +in the world has shown a steady increase until it has +reached the grand sum total now existing. Now suppose +that you were transferred to another planet where the +conditions were the exact opposite: where the inhabitants +ages ago started with the happiness we now possess, +and gradually declined until, at the present moment, they +are no happier than the human race was at the first stage +of its career. Now add together the totals of happiness +for both your worlds, the ascending world which starts +with the minimum and ends with the maximum, the +declining world which starts with the maximum and ends +with the minimum. The grand totals in both cases are +exactly the same. So far as the total result is concerned, +the declining world has just as much to show for itself +as the ascending. Valued in terms of happiness, the one +world would be worth as much as the other.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[150]</a></span></p> + +<p>And yet we know that the value of these two worlds is +not the same. The ascending is worth a lot more than +the descending. Why? I leave you with that conundrum. +Answer it, and you have the key to the meaning of Moral +Progress.</p> + + +<h3><span class="smcap">Books for Reference</span></h3> + +<div class='indent2'> +<p>T. H. Green, <i>Prolegomena to Ethics</i>, Book III, ch. 3.</p> + +<p>Lecky, <i>History of European Morals</i>, ch. 1.</p> + +<p>Spencer, <i>Data of Ethics</i>, ch. 13 to 14.</p> +</div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[151]</a></span></p> +<h2>VII</h2> + +<h2>PROGRESS IN GOVERNMENT</h2> + +<h3><span class="smcap">A. E. Zimmern</span></h3> + + +<p>When I was asked to speak to you on the subject of +Progress in Government I gladly accepted, for it is a subject +on which I have reflected a good deal. But when I +came to think over what I should say, I saw that you had +asked me for the impossible. For what is Government? +I do not know whether there are any here for whom +Government means no more than a policeman, or a ballot-box, +or a list of office-holders. The days of such shallow +views are surely over. Government is the work of ordering +the external affairs and relationships of men. It covers +all the activities of men as members of a community—social, +industrial, and religious as well as political in the +narrower sense. It is concerned, as the ancients had it, +with 'that which is public or common', what the Greeks +called <span class='correction' title='to koinon'>τὸ κοινόν</span> and the Romans <i>res publica</i>. The +Old English translation of these classical terms is 'The +Commonwealth' or Common Weal; and I do not see +that we can do better than adopt that word, with its +richness of traditional meaning and its happy association +of the two conceptions, too often separated in modern +minds, of Wealth and Welfare.</p> + +<p>Our subject then is the Progress of the Commonwealth +or, in other words, the record of the course of the common +life of mankind in the world. It is a theme which really +underlies all the other subjects of discussion at this week's +meetings: for it is only the existence of the Commonwealth<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[152]</a></span> +and its organized efforts to preserve and sustain the life +of the individuals composing it, which have made possible +the achievements of mankind in the various separate +fields of effort which are claiming your attention. Lord +Acton spent a lifetime collecting material for a History +of Liberty. He never wrote it: but, if he had, it would +have been a History of Mankind. A History of Government +or of the Commonwealth would be nothing less. +Such is the nature of the invitation so kindly given to me +and so cheerfully accepted. If you could wait a lifetime +for the proper treatment of the subject I would gladly give +the time; for, in truth, it is worth it.</p> + +<p>What is the nature of this common life of mankind and +with what is it concerned? The subjects of its concern +are as wide as human nature itself. We cannot define them +in a formula: for human nature overleaps all formulas. +Whenever men have tried to rule regions of human activity +and aspiration out of the common life of mankind, and to +hedge them round as private or separate or sacred or by +any other kind of taboo, human nature has always ended +by breaking through the hedges and invading the retreat. +Man is a social animal. If he retires to a monastery he +finds he has carried problems of organization with him, +as the promoters of this gathering would confess you have +brought with you here. If he shuts himself up in his +home as a castle, or in a workshop or factory as the domain +of his own private power, social problems go with him +thither, and the long arm of the law will follow after. +If he crosses the seas like the Pilgrim Fathers, to worship +God unmolested in a new country, or, like the merchant-venturers, +to fetch home treasure from the Indies, he will +find himself unwittingly the pioneer of civilization and +the founder of an Empire or a Republic. In the life of +our fellows, in the Common Weal, we live and move and +have our being. Let us recall some wise words on this<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[153]</a></span> +subject from the Master of Balliol's book on the Middle +Ages. 'The words "Church" and "State"', he writes,</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>represent what ought to be an alliance, but is, in modern +times, at best a dualism and often an open warfare.... +The opposition of Church and State expresses an opposition +between two sides of human nature which we must +not too easily label as good and evil, the heavenly and +the earthly, the sacred and the profane. For the State, +too, is divine as well as the Church, and may have its own +ideals and sacramental duties and its own prophets, even +its own martyrs. The opposition of Church and State is +to be regarded rather as the pursuit of one great aim, +pursued by contrasted means. The ultimate aim of all +true human activity must be in the noble words of +Francis Bacon 'the glory of God and the relief of man's +estate'.<a name="FNanchor_53_53" id="FNanchor_53_53"></a><a href="#Footnote_53_53" class="fnanchor">[53]</a></p></div> + +<p>Bacon's words form a fitting starting-point for our +reflections: for they bring vividly before us both the +idealism which should inspire all who labour at the task +of government and the vastness and variety of the field +with which they are concerned. Looked at in this broad +light, the history of man's common life in the world +will, I think, show two great streams of progress—the +progress of man over Nature, or, as we say to-day, in the +control of his environment, and the progress of man in what +is essentially a moral task—the art of living together with +his fellows. These two aspects of human activity and effort +are in constant contact and interaction. Studied together, +they reveal an advance which, in spite of man's ever-present +moral weakness, may be described as an advance +from Chaos to Cosmos in the organization of the world's +common life; yet they are so distinct in method and spirit +that they can best be described separately.</p> + +<p>Let us first, then, consider the history of Government, +as a record of the progress of man's power over Nature.</p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[154]</a></span></p> +<p>Human history, in this sphere, is the story of man making +himself at home in the world. When human history +begins we find men helpless, superstitious, ignorant, the +plaything of blind powers in the natural and animal +world. Superstitious because he was helpless, helpless +because he was ignorant, he eked out a bare existence +rather by avoiding than controlling the forces in the +little world by which he found himself surrounded. +Human life in its earliest stages is, as Hobbes described +it, nasty, brutish, and short. Man was the slave of his +environment. He has risen to become its master. The +world, as the prophetic eye of Francis Bacon foretold, +has become 'The Kingdom of Man'.</p> + +<p>How complete this conquest is, can best be realized +perhaps by considering man's relation to the lower animals. +When history opens, the animals are in their element; +it is man who is the interloper. Two thousand years ago +it was not the Society of Friends but wolves and wild +boars who felt themselves at home on the site of Bournville +Garden Village. To-day we are surprised when we read +that in remote East Africa lions and giraffes venture +occasionally to interfere in the murderous warfare between +man and man. Man has imposed himself on the animals, +by dint of his gradual accumulation of knowledge and his +consequent power of organization and government. He +has destroyed the conditions under which the animals +prospered. He has, as we might say, destroyed their +home life, exposing them to dangers of his own making +against which they are now as powerless as he was once +against them. 'It is a remarkable thing,' writes Sir E. +Ray Lankester,</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>which possibly may be less generally true than our +present knowledge seems to suggest—that the adjustment +of organisms to their surroundings is so severely complete +in Nature apart from Man, that diseases are unknown as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[155]</a></span> +constant and normal phenomena under those conditions. +It is no doubt difficult to investigate this matter, since +the presence of Man as an observer itself implies human +intervention. But it seems to be a legitimate view that +every disease to which animals (and probably plants +also) are liable, excepting as a transient and very exceptional +occurrence, is due to Man's interference. The +diseases of cattle, sheep, pigs, and horses are not known +except in domesticated herds and those wild creatures +to which Man's domesticated productions have communicated +them. The trypanosome lives in the blood of wild +game and of rats without producing mischief. The hosts +have become tolerant of the parasite. It is only when +man brings his unselected, humanly-nurtured races of +cattle and horses into contact with the parasite, that it +is found to have deadly properties. The various cattle-diseases +which in Africa have done so much harm to +native cattle, and have in some regions exterminated +big game, have <i>per contra</i> been introduced by man +through his importation of diseased animals of his own +breeding from Europe. Most, if not all, animals in extra-human +conditions, including the minuter things such as +insects, shellfish, and invisible aquatic organisms, have +been brought into a condition of 'adjustment' to their +parasites as well as to the other conditions in which they +live: it is this most difficult and efficient balance of +Nature which Man everywhere upsets.<a name="FNanchor_54_54" id="FNanchor_54_54"></a><a href="#Footnote_54_54" class="fnanchor">[54]</a></p></div> + +<p>And Sir E. Ray Lankester goes on to point out the +moral to be drawn from this development. He points +out that</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>civilized man has proceeded so far in his interference +with extra-human nature, has produced for himself and +the living organisms associated with him such a special +state of things by his rebellion against natural selection +and his defiance of Nature's pre-human dispositions, that +he must either go on and acquire firmer control of the +conditions, or perish miserably by the vengeance certain +to fall on the half-hearted meddler in great affairs. We +may indeed compare civilized man to a successful rebel<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[156]</a></span> +against Nature, who, by every step forward, renders +himself liable to greater and greater penalties, and so +cannot afford to pause or fail in one single step. Or again +we may think of him as the heir to a vast and magnificent +kingdom, who has been finally educated so as to take +possession of his property, and is at length left alone to +do his best; he has wilfully abrogated, in many important +respects, the laws of his mother Nature by which the +kingdom was hitherto governed; he has gained some +power and advantage by so doing, but is threatened on +every hand by dangers and disasters hitherto restrained: +no retreat is possible—his only hope is to control, as he +knows that he can, the sources of these dangers and +disasters.</p></div> + +<p>The time will come, not too long hence, as I believe, +when men have realized, with the scientists, that the +world is one kingdom not many, and these problems of +man's relation to his non-human environment will be +the first concern of statesmen and governors. In some of +our tropical colonies they have, perforce, become so +already. If you live on the Gold Coast, the war against +malaria cannot help seeming more important to you than +the war against German trade: and in parts of Central +Africa the whole possibility of continued existence centres +round the presence or absence of the tsetse fly which is the +carrier of sleeping sickness. Some day, when means have +been adopted for abating our fiercer international controversies, +we shall discover that in these and kindred +matters lies the real province of world-politics. When +that day comes the chosen representatives of the human +race will see their constituents, as only philosophers see +them now, as the inheritors of a great tradition of service +and achievement, and as trustees for their successors of +the manifold sources of human happiness which the +advance of knowledge has laid open to us.</p> + +<p>If the first and most important of these sources is the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[157]</a></span> +discovery of the conditions of physical well-being, the +second is the discovery of means of communication between +the widely separate portions of man's kingdom. The +record of the process of bringing the world under the +control of the organized government of man is largely +the record of the improvement of communications. Side +by side with the unending struggle of human reason +against cold and hunger and disease we can watch the +contest against distance, against ocean and mountain and +desert, against storms and seasons. There can be few +subjects more fascinating for a historian to study than the +record of the migrations of the tribes of men. He might +begin, if he wished, with the migrations of animals and +describe the westward progress of the many species whose +course can be traced by experts along the natural highways +of Western Europe. Some of them, so the books tell us, +reached the end of their journey while Britain was still +joined to the continent. Others arrived too late and +were cut off by the straits of Dover. I like to form an +imaginary picture, which the austerity of the scientific +conscience will, I know, repudiate with horror, of the +unhappy congregation, mournfully assembled bag and +baggage on the edge of the straits and gazing wistfully +across at the white cliffs of England, which they were not +privileged to reach—<i>tendentesque manus ripae ulterioris +amore</i>, 'stretching out their paws in longing for the +further bank.'</p> + +<p>Our historian would then go on to describe the early +'wanderings of peoples' (<i>Völkerwanderungen</i>) how whole +tribes would move off in the spring-time in the search for +fresh hunting-grounds or pasture. He would trace the +course of that westward push which, starting from +somewhere in Asia, brought its impact to bear on the +northern provinces of the Roman Empire and eventually +loosened its whole fabric. He would show how Europe,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[158]</a></span> +as we know it, was welded into unity by the attacks of +migratory warriors on three flanks—the Huns and the +Tartars, a host of horsemen riding light over the steppes +of Russia and Hungary: the Arabs, bearing Islam with +them on their camels as they moved westward along +North Africa and then pushing across into Spain: and +the Northmen of Scandinavia, those carvers of kingdoms +and earliest conquerors of the open sea, who left their +mark on England and northern France, on Sicily and +southern Italy, on the Balkan Peninsula, on Russia, +on Greenland, and as far as North America. Then, +passing to Africa and Asia, he would describe the life of +the pack-saddle and the caravan, the long and mysterious +inland routes from the Mediterranean to Nubia and +Nigeria, or from Damascus with the pilgrims to Medina, +and the still longer and more mysterious passage through +the ancient oases of Turkestan, now buried in sand, along +which, as recent discoveries have shown us, Greece and +China, Christianity and Buddhism, exchanged their arts +and ideas and products. Then he would tell of the great +age of maritime discovery, of the merchant-adventurers +and buccaneers, of their gradual transformation into +trading companies, in the East and in the West, from +companies to settlements, from settlements to colonies. +Then perhaps he would close by casting a glimpse at the +latest human migration of all, that which takes place or +took place up to 1914, at the rate of a million a year from +the Old World into the United States. He would take +the reader to Ellis Island in New York harbour, where the +immigrants emerge from the steerage to face the ordeal of +the Immigration Officer. He would show how the same +causes, hunger, fear, persecution, restlessness, ambition, +love of liberty, which set the great westward procession +in motion in the early days of tribal migration, are still +alive and at work to-day among the populations of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[159]</a></span> +Eastern Europe. He would look into their minds and read +the story of the generations of their nameless fore-runners; +and he would ask himself whether rulers and statesmen +have done all that they might to make the world a home +for all its children, for the poor as for the rich, for the Jew +as for the Gentile, for the yellow and dark-skinned as +for the white.</p> + +<p>Let us dwell for a moment more closely on one phase +of this record of the conquest of distance. The crucial +feature in that struggle was the conquest of the sea. The +sea-surface of the world is far greater than its land-surface, +and the sea, once subdued, is a far easier and more natural +means of transport and communication. For the sea, the +uncultivable sea, as Homer calls it, is itself a road, +whereas on earth, whether it be mountain or desert +or field, roads have first painfully to be made. Man's +definitive conquest of the sea dates from the middle of +the fifteenth century when, by improvements in the art +of sailing and by the extended use of the mariner's +compass, it first became possible to undertake long voyages +with assurance. These discoveries are associated with +the name of Prince Henry of Portugal, whose life-long +ambition it was, to quote the words engraved on his +monument at the southern extremity of Portugal, +'to lay open the regions of West Africa across the sea, +hitherto not traversed by man, that thence a passage +might be made round Africa to the most distant parts +of the East.'</p> + +<p>The opening of the high seas which resulted from +Prince Henry's activities is one of the most momentous +events in human history. Its effect was, sooner or later, +to unite the scattered families of mankind, to make the +problems of all the concern of all: to make the world one +place. Prince Henry and his sailors were, in fact, the +pioneers of internationalism, with all the many and varied<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[160]</a></span> +problems that internationalism brings with it. 'In 1486,' +says the most recent history of this development,</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Bartholomew Dias was carried by storm beyond the sight +of land, round the southern point of Africa, and reached +the Great Fish River, north of Algoa Bay. On his return +journey he saw the promontory which divides the oceans, +as the narrow waters of the Bosphorus divide the continents, +of the East and West. As in the crowded streets +of Constantinople, so here, if anywhere, at this awful +and solitary headland the elements of two hemispheres +meet and contend. As Dias saw it, so he named it, 'The +Cape of Storms'. But his master, John II, seeing in the +discovery a promise that India, the goal of the national +ambition, would be reached, named it with happier +augury 'The Cape of Good Hope'. No fitter name could +have been given to that turning-point in the history of +mankind. Europe, in truth, was on the brink of achievements +destined to breach barriers, which had enclosed +and diversified the nations since the making of the World, +and commit them to an intercourse never to be broken +again so long as the World endures. That good rather +than evil may spring therefrom is the greatest of all +human responsibilities.<a name="FNanchor_55_55" id="FNanchor_55_55"></a><a href="#Footnote_55_55" class="fnanchor">[55]</a></p></div> + +<p>The contrast between Constantinople and the Cape, +so finely drawn in these lines, marks the end of the age +when land-communications and land-power were predominant +over sea-power. The Roman Empire was, and +could only be, a land-power. It is no accident that the +British Commonwealth is, as the American Commonwealth +is fast becoming, predominantly a sea-power.</p> + +<p>How was 'the greatest of all human responsibilities', +arising from this new intercourse of races, met? Knowledge, +alas, is as much the devil's heritage as the angels': it +may be used for ill, as easily as for good. The first +explorers, and the traders who followed them, were not +idealists but rough adventurers. Breaking in, with the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[161]</a></span> +full tide of western knowledge and adaptability, to the +quiet backwaters of primitive conservatism, they brought +with them the worse rather than the better elements +of the civilization, the control of environment, of which +they were pioneers. To them Africa and the East represented +storehouses of treasure, not societies of men; +and they treated the helpless natives accordingly.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>England and Holland as well as the Latin monarchies +treated the natives of Africa as chattels without rights +and as instruments for their own ends, and revived +slavery in a form and upon a scale more cruel than any +practised by the ancients. The employment of slaves on +her own soil has worked the permanent ruin of Portugal. +The slave trade with America was an important source +of English wealth, and the philosopher John Locke did +not scruple to invest in it. There is no European race +which can afford to remember its first contact with the +subject peoples otherwise than with shame, and attempts +to assess their relative degrees of guilt are as fruitless as +they are invidious. The question of real importance is +how far these various states were able to purge themselves +of the poison, and rise to a higher realization of their duty +towards their races whom they were called by the claims +of their own superior civilization to protect. The fate of +that civilization itself hung upon the issue.<a name="FNanchor_56_56" id="FNanchor_56_56"></a><a href="#Footnote_56_56" class="fnanchor">[56]</a></p></div> + +<p>The process by which the Western peoples have risen +to a sense of their duty towards their weaker and more +ignorant fellow citizens is indeed one of the chief stages +in that progress of the common life of mankind with which +we are concerned.</p> + +<p>How is that duty to be exercised? The best way in +which the strong can help the weak is by making them +strong enough to help themselves. The white races are not +strong because they are white, or virtuous because they +are strong. They are strong because they have acquired, +through a long course of thought and work, a mastery<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[162]</a></span> +over Nature and hence over their weaker fellow men. It +is not virtue but knowledge to which they owe their +strength. No doubt much virtue has gone to the making +of that knowledge—virtues of patience, concentration, +perseverance, unselfishness, without which the great +body of knowledge of which we are the inheritors could +never have been built up. But we late-born heirs of the +ages have it in our power to take the knowledge of our +fathers and cast away any goodness that went to its +making. We have come into our fortune: it is ours to +use it as we think best. We cannot pass it on wholesale, +and at one step, to the more ignorant races, for they +have not the institutions, the traditions, the habits of +mind and character, to enable them to use it. Those +too we must transmit or develop together with the treasure +of our knowledge. For the moment we stand in the +relation of trustees, teachers, guides, governors, but always +in their own interest and not ours, or rather, in the +interest of the commonwealth of which we and they, +since the opening of the high seas, form an inseparable +part.</p> + +<p>It has often been thought that the relation of the advanced +and backward races should be one purely of +philanthropy and missionary enterprise rather than of +law and government. It is easy to criticize this by +pointing to the facts of the world as we know it—to the +existing colonial empires of the Great Powers and to +the vast extension of the powers of civilized governments +which they represent. But it may still be argued that +the question is not Have the civilized powers annexed +large empires? but Ought they to have done so? Was +such an extension of governmental authority justifiable +or inevitable? Englishmen in the nineteenth century, +like Americans in the twentieth, were slow to admit +that it was; just as the exponents of <i>laissez-faire</i> were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[163]</a></span> +slow to admit the necessity for State interference with +private industry at home. But in both cases they have +been driven to accept it by the inexorable logic of facts. +What other solution of the problem, indeed, is possible? +'Every alternative solution', as a recent writer remarks,<a name="FNanchor_57_57" id="FNanchor_57_57"></a><a href="#Footnote_57_57" class="fnanchor">[57]</a></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>breaks down in practice. To stand aside and do nothing +under the plea that every people must be left free to +manage its own affairs, and that intervention is wicked, +is to repeat the tragic mistake of the Manchester School +in the economic world which protested against any +interference by the State to protect +workmen ... from the oppression and rapacity of employers, on +the ground that it was an unwarranted interference +with the liberty of the subject and the freedom of trade +and competition. To prevent adventurers from entering +the territory is impossible, unless there is some civilized +authority within it to stop them through its police. To +shut off a backward people from all contact with the +outside world by a kind of blockade is not only unpracticable, +but is artificially to deny them the chances of education +and progress. The establishment of a genuine +government by a people strong enough and liberal enough +to ensure freedom under the law and justice for all is the +only solution.... They must undertake this duty, not from +any pride of dominion, or because they wish to exploit +their resources, but in order to protect them alike from +oppression and corruption, by strict laws and strict +administration, which shall bind the foreigner as well as +the native, and then they must gradually develop, by +education and example, the capacity in the natives to +manage their own affairs.</p></div> + +<p>Thus we see that the progress in knowledge and in +the control of their environment made by the civilized +peoples has, in fact and inevitably, led to their leadership +in government also, and given them the predominant +voice in laying down the lines along which the common<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[164]</a></span> +life of mankind is to develop. If we are to look for the +mainspring of the world's activities, for the place where +its new ideas are thought out, its policies framed, its +aspirations cast into practical shape, we must not seek +it in the forests of Africa or in the interior of China, +but in those busy regions of the earth's surface where the +knowledge, the industries, and all the various organizations +of government and control find their home. Because +organization is embodied knowledge, and because knowledge +is power, it is the Great Powers, as we truly name +them,<a name="FNanchor_58_58" id="FNanchor_58_58"></a><a href="#Footnote_58_58" class="fnanchor">[58]</a> who are predominantly responsible for the government +of the world and for the future of the common life +of mankind.</p> + +<p>In the exercise of this control the world has already, +in many respects, become a single organism. The conquest +of distance in the fifteenth century was the beginning +of a process which led, slowly but inevitably, to the +widening of the boundaries of government. Two discoveries +made about the same time accentuated the same +tendency. By the invention of gunpowder the people of +Europe were given an overwhelming military superiority +over the dwellers in other continents. By the invention +of printing, knowledge was internationalized for all who +had the training to use it. Books are the tools of the brain-worker +all the world over; but, unlike the file and the +chisel, the needle and the hammer, books not only create, +but suggest. A new idea is like an electric current set +running throughout the world, and no man can say into +what channels of activity it may not be directed.</p> + +<p>But neither travel nor conquest nor books and the +spread of ideas caused so immense a transformation in the +common life of mankind as the process beginning at the end +of the eighteenth century which is known to historians as +the Industrial Revolution. As we have spoken of the con<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[165]</a></span>quest +of distance perhaps a better name for the Industrial +Revolution would be the Conquest of Organization. For it +was not the discovery of the steam-engine or the spinning-jenny +which constituted the revolution: it was the fact +that men were now in a position to apply these discoveries +to the organization of industry. The ancient Greeks played +with the idea of the steam-engine: it was reserved for +eighteenth-century England to produce a generation of +pioneers endowed with the knowledge, the power, the +foresight, and the imagination to make use of the world-transforming +potentialities of the idea. The Industrial +Revolution, with its railways and steamships, telegraphs +and telephones, and now its airships and submarines +and wireless communication, completed the conquest +of distance. Production became increasingly organized +on international lines. Men became familiar with the +idea of an international market. Prices and prospects, +booms and depressions, banking and borrowing, became +international phenomena. The organization of production +led to an immensely rapid increase of wealth in +Western Europe. The application of that wealth to the +development of the world's resources in and outside +Europe led to a correspondingly huge advance in trade +and intercourse. The breakfast-table in an ordinary +English home to-day is a monument to the achievements +of the Industrial Revolution and to the solid reality of +the economic internationalism which resulted from it. +There is still poverty in Western Europe, but it is +preventable poverty. Before the Industrial Revolution, +judged by a modern standard, there was nothing but +poverty. The satisfying physical and economic condition +which we describe by the name of comfort did not +exist. The Italian historian Ferrero, in one of his essays, +recommends those who have romantic yearnings after the +good old times to spend one night on what our forefathers<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[166]</a></span> +called a bed. Mr. Coulton, in his books on the Middle +Ages, has used some very plain language on the same text. +And Professor Smart, in his recently published posthumous +work, pointing a gentle finger of rebuke at certain +common Socialist fantasies, remarks:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>There never was a golden age of equality of wealth: +there was rather a leaden one of inequality of poverty.... +We should speak more guardedly of the riches of the +old world. A careful examination of any old book would +show that the most splendid processions of pomp and +luxury in the Middle Ages were poor things compared +to the parade of a modern circus on its opening day.<a name="FNanchor_59_59" id="FNanchor_59_59"></a><a href="#Footnote_59_59" class="fnanchor">[59]</a></p></div> + +<p>Such prosperity as we enjoy to-day, such a scene as +we can observe on these smiling outskirts of Birmingham, +is due to man's Conquest of Organization and to +the consequent development and linking-up, by mutual +intercourse and exchange, of the economic side of the +world's life.</p> + +<p>So far we have been watching the progress of man in +his efforts to 'make himself at home' in the world. We +have seen him becoming more skilful and more masterful +century by century, till in these latter days the whole +world is, as it were, at his service. He has planted his +flag at the two poles: he has cut a pathway for his ships +between Asia and Africa, and between the twin continents +of America: he has harnessed torrents and cataracts +to his service: he has conquered the air and the depths +of the sea: he has tamed the animals: he has rooted +out pestilence and laid bare its hidden causes: and he is +penetrating farther and ever farther in the discovery of +the causes of physical and mental disease. He has set +his foot on the neck of Nature. But the last and greatest +conquest is yet before him. He has yet to conquer +himself. Victorious against Nature, men are still at war,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[167]</a></span> +nay, more than ever at war, amongst themselves. How is +it that the last century and a half, which have witnessed +so unparalleled an advance in the organization of the +common life of man on the material side, should have been +an age of wars and rumours of wars, culminating in the +vastest and most destructive conflict that this globe of +ours has ever witnessed? What explanation could we +give of this to a visitor from the moon or to those creatures +of inferior species whom, as Sir E. Ray Lankester has told +us, it is our function, thanks to our natural superiority, +to command and control?</p> + +<p>This brings us to the second great branch of our subject—the +progress of mankind in the art of living together +in the world.</p> + +<p>Government, as we have seen, covers the whole social +life of man: for the principles that regulate human +association are inherent in the nature of man. But in +what follows we shall perforce confine ourselves mainly +to the sphere of what is ordinarily called politics, that is +to the recognized and authoritative form of human +association called the State, as opposed to the innumerable +subordinate or voluntary bodies and relationships, which +pervade every department of man's common life.</p> + +<p>The progress of Government in this second sphere may +be defined as the deepening and extension of man's duty +towards his neighbour. It is to be reckoned, not in terms +of knowledge and organization, but of character. The +ultimate goal of human government, in the narrower +sense, as of all social activity—let us never forget it—is +liberty, to set free the life of the spirit. 'Liberty,' said +Lord Acton, who could survey the ages with a wealth +of knowledge to which no other man, perhaps, ever +attained, 'Liberty is not a means to a higher political +end. It is itself the highest political end. It is not for +the sake of a good public administration that it is required<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[168]</a></span> +but for security in the pursuit of the highest objects of +civil society and of private life.'<a name="FNanchor_60_60" id="FNanchor_60_60"></a><a href="#Footnote_60_60" class="fnanchor">[60]</a> Government is needed +in order to enable human life to become, not efficient or +well-informed or well-ordered, but simply good; and Lord +Acton believed, as the Greeks and generations of Englishmen +believed before him, that it is only in the soil of +liberty that the human spirit can grow to its full stature, +and that a political system based upon any other principle +than that of responsible self-government acts as a bar at +the outset to the pursuit of what he called 'the highest +objects of civil society or of private life'. For though +a slave, or a man living under a servile political system, +may develop many fine qualities of character: yet such +virtues will, in Milton's words, be but 'fugitive and +cloistered', 'unexercised and unbreathed'. For liberty, +and the responsibilities that it involves, are the school +of character and the appointed means by which men can +best serve their neighbours. A man deprived of such +opportunities, cut off from the quickening influence of +responsibility, has, as Homer said long ago 'lost half +his manhood'. He may be a loyal subject, a brave +soldier, a diligent and obedient workman: but he will +not be a full-grown man. Government will have starved +and stunted him in that which it is the supreme object +of government to develop and set free.</p> + +<p>It is idle, then, to talk in general terms about the extension +of government as a good thing, whether in relation +to the individual citizen or to the organization of the +world into an international State. We have always first +to ask: What kind of Government? On what principles +will it be based? What ideal will it set forth? What +kind of common life will it provide or allow to its citizens? +If the whole world were organized into one single State, +and that State, supreme in its control over Nature, were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[169]</a></span> +armed with all the knowledge and organization that the +ablest and most farseeing brains in the world could +supply, yet mankind might be worse off under its sway, +in the real essentials of human life, than if they were +painted savages. 'Though I have the gift of prophecy +and understand all mysteries and all knowledge: and +though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, +and have not charity, I am nothing.' Government may +be the organization of goodness, or the organization of +evil. It may provide the conditions by which the common +life of society can develop along the lines of man's spiritual +nature: or it may take away the very possibility of such +a development. Till we know what a Government stands +for, do not let us judge it by its imposing externals of +organization. The Persian Empire was more imposing +than the Republics of Greece: Assyria and Babylon than +the little tribal divisions of Palestine: the Spanish Empire +than the cities of the Netherlands. There is some danger +that, in our new-found sense of the value of knowledge in +promoting happiness, we should forget what a tyrant +knowledge, like wealth, can become. No doubt, just as +we saw that moral qualities, patience and the like, are +needed for the advancement of knowledge, so knowledge +is needed, and greatly needed, in the task of extending +and deepening the moral and spiritual life of mankind. +But we cannot measure that progress in terms of knowledge +or organization or efficiency or culture. We need +some other standard by which to judge between Greece +and Persia, between Israel and Babylon, between Spain +and the Netherlands, between Napoleon and his adversaries, +and between contending powers in the modern +world. What shall that standard be?</p> + +<p>It must be a similar standard—let us boldly say it—to +that by which we judge between individuals. It must be +a standard based on our sense of right and wrong. But<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[170]</a></span> +right and wrong in themselves will not carry us very far, +any more than they will carry the magistrate on the +bench or the merchant in his counting-house. Politics, +like business, is not the whole of life—though some +party politicians and some business men think otherwise—but +a department of life: both are means, not ends; +and as such they have developed special rules and codes +of their own, based on experience in their own special +department. In so far as they are framed in accordance +with man's spiritual nature and ideals these rules may be +considered to hold good and to mark the stage of progress +at which Politics and Business have respectively arrived +in promoting the common weal in their own special +sphere. With the rules of business, or what is called +Political Economy, we have at the moment no concern. +It is the rules of politics, or the working experience +of rulers, crystallized in what is called Political Science +or Political Philosophy, to which we must devote a few +moments' attention.</p> + +<p>We are all of us, of course, political philosophers. +Whether we have votes or not, whether we are aware of +it or not, we all have views on political philosophy and +we are all constantly making free use of its own peculiar +principles and conceptions. Law, the State, Liberty, +Justice, Democracy are words that are constantly on +our lips. Let us try to form a clear idea of the place +which these great historic ideals occupy in the progress +of mankind.</p> + +<p>The great political thinkers of the world have always +been clear in their own minds as to the ultimate goal of +their own particular study. Political thought may be +said to have originated with the Jewish prophets, who were +the first to rebuke kings to their faces and to set forth +the spiritual aims of politics—to preach Righteousness +and Mercy as against Power and Ambition and Self-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[171]</a></span>interest. +Their soaring imagination, less systematic than +the Greek intellect, was wider in its sweep and more farseeing +in its predictions. 'As the earth bringeth forth +her bud and as the garden causeth the things sown in it +to spring forth', says Isaiah, in magnificent anticipation +of the doctrine of Natural Law, 'so the Lord God will +cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all +the nations.' 'Peace, peace, to him that is far off, and to +him that is near, saith the Lord, and I will heal him: but +the wicked are like the troubled sea when it cannot rest, +whose waters cast up mire and dirt. There is no peace, +saith my God, for the wicked.' 'Out of Zion shall go +forth the Law and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. +And he shall judge between the nations and shall reprove +many peoples; and they shall beat their swords into +plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks: nation +shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they +learn war any more.'<a name="FNanchor_61_61" id="FNanchor_61_61"></a><a href="#Footnote_61_61" class="fnanchor">[61]</a></p> + +<p>It was, however, Plato and Aristotle who first made +politics a branch of separate study: and, unlike many of +their modern successors, they pursued it throughout in +close connexion with the kindred studies of ethics and +psychology. Their scope was, of course, confined to the +field of their own experience, the small self-contained +City-States of Greece, and it did not fall within their +province to foreshadow, like the Jewish Prophets, the end +of warfare, or to speculate on the ultimate unity of +mankind. Their task was to interpret the work of their +own fellow-countrymen on the narrow stage of Greek life. +Their lasting achievement is to have laid down for mankind +what a State is, as compared with other forms of +human association, and to have proclaimed, once and for +all, in set terms, that its object is to promote the 'good +life' of its members. 'Every State', says Aristotle in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[172]</a></span> +the opening words of his <i>Politics</i>, 'is a community of +some kind.' That is to say, States belong to the same +<i>genus</i>, as it were, as political parties, trade unions, cricket +clubs, business houses, or such gatherings as ours. What, +then, is the difference between a State and a political +party? 'If all communities', he goes on, 'aim at some +good, the State or political community, which is the highest +of all and which embraces all the rest, aims, and in a +greater degree than any other, at the highest good.'</p> + +<p>Why is the State the highest of all forms of association? +Why should our citizenship, for instance, take precedence +of our trade unionism or our business obligations? +Aristotle replies, and in spite of recent critics I think the +reply still holds good: because, but for the existence of +the State and the reign of law maintained by it, none +of these associations could have been formed or be +maintained. 'He who first founded the State was the +greatest of benefactors. For man, when protected, is +the best of animals, but when separated from law and +righteousness, he is the worst of all.' Or, to put it in the +resounding Elizabethan English of Hooker: 'The public +power of all societies is above every soul contained in +the same societies. And the principal use of that power +is to give laws to all that are under it; which laws, in +such case, we must obey, unless there be reason showed +which may necessarily enforce that the law of Reason or +of God doth enjoin the contrary. Because except our +own private and probable resolutions be by the law of +public determinations overruled, we take away all +possibility of social life in the world.'<a name="FNanchor_62_62" id="FNanchor_62_62"></a><a href="#Footnote_62_62" class="fnanchor">[62]</a> The Greeks did +not deny, as the example of Socrates shows, the right of +private judgement on the question of obedience to law, +or the duty of respect for what Hooker calls the Law of +Reason or of God. Against the authentic voice of con<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[173]</a></span>science +no human authority can or should prevail. But +Aristotle held, with Hooker, that obedience to law and +faithful citizenship are themselves matters normally +ordained by the law of Reason or of God and that, as +against those of any other association (<span class='correction' title='koinônia'>κοινωνία</span>), the claims +of the State are paramount. In other words, he would +deny what is sometimes loosely called the <i>right</i> of rebellion, +whilst not closing the door to that <i>duty</i> of rebellion which +has so often advanced the cause of liberty. When Aristotle +speaks of the State, moreover, he does not mean a sovereign +authority exercising arbitrary power, as in Persia or +Babylon: he means an authority administering Law and +Justice according to recognized standards: and he is +thinking of Law and Justice, not simply as part of the +apparatus of government but as based upon moral +principles. 'Righteousness', he says, 'is the bond of +men in States and the administration of Justice, which +is the determination of what is righteous, is the principle +of order in political society.' 'Of Law', says Hooker,<a name="FNanchor_63_63" id="FNanchor_63_63"></a><a href="#Footnote_63_63" class="fnanchor">[63]</a> +here as elsewhere echoing the ancients, 'there can be no +less acknowledged than that her seat is the bosom of God, +her voice the harmony of the world.' The State takes +precedence of the party or the trade union because, +however idealistic in their policy these latter may be, the +State covers all, not merely a section of the community, +and is able not merely to proclaim but to enforce the rule +of law and justice. Put in modern language, one might +define the Greek idea of the State as the Organization of +Mutual Aid.</p> + +<p>The Greek States did not remain true to this high ideal. +Faced with the temptations of power they descended +almost to the level of the oriental monarchies with which +they were contrasted. But even had they remained +faithful to their philosophers' ideal of public service they<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[174]</a></span> +would not have survived. Unable to transcend the limits +of their own narrow State-boundaries and to merge their +ideals with those of their neighbours, they were helpless +in the face of the invader. First Macedonia and then +Rome swept over them, and political idealism slumbered +for many centuries. Rome gave the world, what it +greatly needed, centuries of peace and order and material +prosperity: it built up an enduring fabric of law on +principles of Reason and Humanity: it did much to give +men, what is next to the political sense, the social sense. +It made men members of one another from Scotland to +Syria and from Portugal to Baghdad. But it did not give +them 'the good life' in its fullness: for it did not, perhaps +it could not, give them liberty. Faced with the choice +between efficiency and the diffusion of responsibility, the +rulers of the Roman Empire unhesitatingly chose efficiency. +But the atrophy of responsibility proved the canker at +the heart of the Empire. Deprived of the stimulus that +freedom and the habit of responsibility alone can give, +the Roman world sank gradually into the morass of +Routine. Life lost its savour and grew stale, flat and +unprofitable, as in an old-style Government office. 'The +intolerable sadness inseparable from such a life', says +Renan, 'seemed worse than death.' And when the +barbarians came and overturned the whole fabric of +bureaucracy, though it seemed to educated men at the +time the end of civilization, it was in reality the beginning +of a new life.</p> + +<p>Amid the wreckage of the Roman Empire, one governing +institution alone remained upright—the Christian Church +with its organization for ministering to the spiritual +needs of its members. With the conversion of the barbarians +to Christianity the governing functions and influence +of the Church became more and more important; +and it was upon the basis of Church government that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[175]</a></span> +political idealism, so long in abeyance, was reawakened. +The thinkers who took up the work of Plato and Aristotle +on the larger stage of the Holy Roman Empire boldly +looked forward to the time when mankind should be +united under one government and that government +should embody the highest ideals of mankind. Such an +ideal seemed indeed to many one of the legacies of the +Founder of Christianity. The familiar petition in the +Lord's Prayer: <i>thy kingdom come, thy will be done on +earth as it is in heaven</i> sounded, in the ears of Dante +and Thomas Aquinas and innumerable theologians and +canonists, as a prayer and a pledge for the ultimate +political unity of mankind on the basis of Christian Law. +Such a belief was indeed the bedrock of mediaeval +political thought. To devout Christians, brought up in +the oecumenical traditions of the Roman Empire,</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'every ordering of a human community must appear as +a component part of that ordering of the world which +exists because God exists, and every earthly group must +appear as an organic member of that <i>Civitas Dei</i>, that +God-State, which comprehends the heavens and the +earth.[1] ... Thus the Theory of Human Society must +accept the divinely created organization of the Universe +as a prototype of the first principles which govern the +construction of human communities.... Therefore, in +all centuries of the Middle Age, Christendom, which in +destiny is identical with Mankind, is set before us as +a single, universal Community, founded and governed +by God Himself. Mankind is one "mystical body"; it +is one single and internally connected "people" or "folk"; +it is an all-embracing corporation, which constitutes that +Universal Realm, spiritual and temporal, which may be +called the Universal Church, or, with equal propriety, +the Commonwealth of the Human Race. Therefore, that +it may attain its one purpose, it needs One Law and One +Government.'<a name="FNanchor_64_64" id="FNanchor_64_64"></a><a href="#Footnote_64_64" class="fnanchor">[64]</a></p></div> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[176]</a></span></p> +<p>But the mediaeval ideal, like the Greek, broke down +in practice. 'Where the Middle Ages failed', says the +Master of Balliol, continuing a passage already quoted, +'was in attempting ... to make politics the handmaid +of religion, to give the Church the organization and form +of a political State, that is, to turn religion from an indwelling +spirit into an ecclesiastical machinery.' In other +words, the mediaeval attempt broke down through +neglecting the special conditions and problems of the +political department of life, through declining, as it were, +to specialize. While men were discussing the Theory of +the Two Swords, whether the Emperor derived his power +directly from God or indirectly through the Pope, or +whether the sword should be used at all, the actual +work of government in laying the foundations of the good +life was neglected. Not only Liberty but Justice and +Order were largely in abeyance and the range of State +action which we to-day describe as 'social legislation' +was not even dreamed of. Absorbed in theory or wrapped +in ignorance, men forget the practical meaning of Statehood +and its responsibilities. Central Europe languished +for centuries, under a sham Empire, in the unprogressive +anarchy of feudalism. 'The feudal system', it has been +said,<a name="FNanchor_65_65" id="FNanchor_65_65"></a><a href="#Footnote_65_65" class="fnanchor">[65]</a> 'was nothing more nor less than the attempt of +a society which had failed to organize itself as a State, +to make contract do the work of patriotism.' It is the +bitter experience which Germany went through under the +anarchy of feudalism and petty governments, lasting to well +within living memory, which by a natural reaction has led +the German people, under Prussian tutelage, to cling to +the conception of the State as Power and nothing more.</p> + +<p>The study of politics had to become secular before it +could once more become practical, and, by being practical, +ministering to practical ideals and enlisting practical<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[177]</a></span> +devotion, become, as it were, sacred once more. Where +the well-being of our fellow men is concerned it is not +enough to be well-meaning. Government is an art, not +an aspiration: and those who are concerned with it, +whether as rulers or voters, should have studied its +problems, reflected on its possibilities and limitations, +and fitted themselves to profit by its accumulated +experience.</p> + +<p>Since the close of the Middle Ages, when politics became +secular, the art of government has advanced by giant +strides. Invention has followed invention, and experiment +experiment, till to-day skilled specialists in the Old +World and the New are at hand to watch and to record +the latest devices for dealing with a hundred difficult +special problems—whether it be the administration of +justice or patronage, the organization of political parties, +the fixing of Cabinet responsibility, the possibilities and +limits of federalism, the prevention of war. There has, +indeed, been as great an advance in the political art in +the last four centuries and particularly in the last century, +as in the very kindred art of medicine. The wonderful +concentration of energy which the various belligerent +powers have been able to throw into the present war is +at once the best and the most tragic illustration of this +truth. Man's common life in the State is more real, more +charged with meaning and responsibility, more potent +for good or for ill than it has ever been before—than +our predecessors even in the time of Napoleon could have +dreamed of.</p> + +<p>The greatest inventors and most skilful practitioners +of the political art in the modern world have been the +English, for it is the English who, of all nations, have held +closest to the ideal of freedom in its many and various +manifestations. Superficially regarded, the English are +a stupid people, and so their continental neighbours<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[178]</a></span> +have often regarded them. But their racial heritage and +their island situation seem to have given them just that +combination of experience and natural endowment +necessary to success in the task of government. Taken +as a whole, the English are not brilliant, but they are +clear-headed: they are not far-sighted, but they can see +the fact before their eyes: they are ill equipped with +theoretical knowledge, but they understand the working +of institutions and have a good eye for judging character: +they have little constructive imagination of the more +grandiose sort, but they have an instinct for the 'next +step' which has often set them on paths which have led +them far further than they dreamed; above all, they have +a relatively high standard of individual character and +public duty, without which no organization involving the +free co-operation of man and man can hope to be effective. +It is this unique endowment of moral qualities and practical +gifts, coupled with unrivalled opportunities, which has +made the English the pioneers in modern times in the art +of human association. Englishmen, accustomed to what +eighteenth-century writers used to call 'the peculiar +felicity of British freedom', do not always remember how +far their own experience has carried them on the road +of political progress. They do not realize how many +problems they have solved and abolished, as the art of +medicine has abolished diseases. When they hear speak +of the eternal conflict between Nationality and Nationality, +they often forget that a war between England and Scotland +has long since become unthinkable and that the platitudes +of St. Andrew's Day are still paradoxes in Central and +Eastern Europe. When they are told of States where the +spontaneous manifestations of group-life, non-conforming +sects, workmen's associations, and ordinary social clubs, +are driven underground and classed as dangerous secret +societies, they should realize how precious a thing is that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[179]</a></span> +freedom of association which is one of the dearest attributes +of English liberty. So too when they read of +monarchical and military supremacy in a country like +Germany, which is still politically speaking in the stage +of England under the Tudors, or of Russian autocracy, or +of the struggle over the King's prerogative which has been +taking place in Greece. If we believe, as we must, in the +cause of liberty, let us not be too modest to say that +nations which have not yet achieved responsible self-government, +whether within or without the British +Commonwealth, are politically backward, and let us recall +the long stages of political invention by which our own +self-government has been achieved. Representation, +trial by jury, an independent judiciary, equality before +the law, habeas corpus, a limited monarchy, the practice +of ministerial responsibility, religious toleration, the +freedom of printing and association, colonial autonomy—all +these are distinctly English inventions, but time has +shown that most of them are definite additions to the universal +art of government. We can survey the Balkans, for +instance, and say with confidence that one thing, amongst +others, that those nations are in need of is toleration, both +in the sphere of nationality and of religion: or declare +of the United States that their industrial future will be +menaced till they have freed Trade Unionism from the +threat of the so-called law of Conspiracy: or ask of our +own so-called self-governing Dominions whether they are +content with a system that concedes them no responsible +control over the issues of peace and war. This is not to +say that our own governmental machinery is perfect. +Far from it. It was never in greater need of overhauling. +It is only to reaffirm the belief, which no temporary +disillusionment can shake, that it is founded on enduring +principles which are not political but moral. To compare +a system which aims at freedom and seeks to attain<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[180]</a></span> +that aim through the working of responsible self-government +with systems, however logically perfect or temporarily +effective, which set no value on either, is, as it were, +to compare black with white. It is to go back on the +lessons of centuries of experience and to deny the cause, +not of liberty alone, but of that progress of the spirit of +man which it is the highest object of liberty to promote.</p> + +<p>We have no time here to discuss in detail the various +English inventions in the art of politics, but we must +pause to consider two of the most important, because +they are typical of British methods. The first is the +invention called the Principle of Representation. Representation +is a device by which, and by which alone, the +area of effective government can be extended without the +sacrifice of liberty. It is a device by which the scattered +many can make their will prevail over the few at the centre. +Under any non-representative system, whether in a State +or a Church or a Trade Union or any other association, +men always find themselves set before the inexorable +dilemma between freedom and weakness on the one hand +and strength and tyranny on the other. Either the State +or the association has to be kept small, so that the members +themselves can meet and keep in touch with all that +goes on. Or it is allowed to expand and grow strong, in +which case power becomes concentrated at the centre +and the great body of members loses all effective control. +The ancient world saw no way out of this dilemma. The +great Oriental monarchies never contemplated even the +pretence of popular control. The city-states of Greece, +where democracy originated, set such store in consequence +by the personal liberty of the individual citizen, that +they preferred to remain small, and suffered the inevitable +penalty of their weakness. Rome, growing till she overshadowed +the world, sacrificed liberty in the process. +Nor was the Christian Church, when it became a large-scale<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[181]</a></span> +organization, able to overcome the dilemma. It was not +till thirteenth-century England that a way out was +found. Edward I in summoning two burgesses from each +borough and two knights from each shire to his model +Parliament in 1295, hit on a method of doing business +which was destined to revolutionize the art of government. +He stipulated that the men chosen by their fellows to +confer with him must come, to quote the exact words +of the summons, armed with 'full and sufficient power +for themselves and for the community of the aforesaid +county, and the said citizens and burgesses for themselves +and the communities of the aforesaid cities and boroughs +separately, there and then, for doing what shall then be +ordained according to the Common Council in the premises, +so that the aforesaid business shall not remain unfinished +in any way for defect of this power'. In other words, +the members were to come to confer with the king not as +individuals speaking for themselves alone, but as representatives. +Their words and acts were to bind those on +whose behalf they came, and those who chose them were +to do so in the full knowledge that they would be so +bound. In choosing them the electors deliberately +surrendered their own share of initiative and sovereignty +and combined to bestow it on a fellow citizen whom they +trusted. In this way, and in this way alone, the people +of Cornwall and of Northumberland could bring their +wishes to bear and play their part, together with the people +at the centre, in the government of a country many +times the size of a city-state of ancient Greece. There had +been assemblies before in all ages of history: but this was +something different. It was a Parliament.</p> + +<p>Representation seems to us such an obvious device that +we often forget how comparatively modern it is and what +a degree of responsibility and self-control it demands +both in the representative and in those whom he represents.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[182]</a></span> +It is very unpleasant to hear of things done or acquiesced +in by our representatives of which we disapprove, and to +have to remember that it is our own fault for not sending +a wiser or braver man to Westminster in his place. It is +still more unpleasant for a representative to feel, as he +often must, that his own honest opinion and conscience +draw him one way on a matter of business and the opinions +of most of his constituents another. But these are difficulties +inherent in the system, and for which there is no +remedy but sincerity and patience. It is part of the +bargain that a constituency should not be able to disavow +a representative: and that a representative should feel +bound to use his own best judgement on the issues put +before him. To turn the representative, as there is +a tendency to do in some quarters, into a mere mouthpiece +with a mandate, is to ignore the very problem which made +representation necessary, and to presume that a local +mass-meeting can be as well informed or take as wide +a view as those who have all the facts before them at the +centre. The ancient Greeks, who had a strong sense of +individuality, were loth to believe that any one human +being could make a decision on behalf of another. In +the deepest sense of course they were right. But government, +as has been said, is at best a rough business. +Representation is no more than a practical compromise: +but it is a compromise which has been found to work. It +has made possible the extension of free government to +areas undreamed of. It has enabled the general sense of +the inhabitants of the United States, an area nearly as +large as Europe, to be concentrated at Washington, and +it may yet make it possible to collect the sense of self-governing +Dominions in four continents in a Parliament +at London. All this lay implicit in the practical instructions +sent by the English king to his sheriffs; but its +development would only have been possible in a community<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[183]</a></span> +where the general level of character was a high one and +where men were, therefore, in the habit of placing implicit +trust in one another. The relationship of confidence +between a member of Parliament and his constituents, +or a Trade Union leader and his rank and file, is a thing +of which public men are rightly proud: for it reflects +honour on both parties and testifies to an underlying +community of purpose which no passing disagreement on +details can break down.</p> + +<p>Representation paved the way for the modern development +of responsible self-government. But it is important +to recognize that the two are not the same thing. Responsible +self-government, in its modern form, is a separate +and more complex English invention in the art of government. +A community may be decked out with a complete +apparatus of representative institutions and yet remain +little better than an autocracy. Modern Germany is a +case in point. The parliamentary suffrage for the +German Reichstag is more representative than that for +the British House of Commons. The German workman +is better represented in his Parliament than the British +workman is in ours. But the German workman has far +less power to make his will effective in matters of policy +than the British, because the German constitution does +not embody the principle of responsible self-government. +Sovereignty still rests with the Kaiser as it rested in the +thirteenth century with Edward I. The Imperial Chancellor +is not responsible to the Reichstag but to the Kaiser, +by whom he is appointed and whose personal servant he +remains. The Reichstag can discuss the actions of the +Chancellor: it can advise him, or protest to him, or even +pass votes of censure against him; but it cannot make its +will effective. We can observe the working of similar +representative institutions in different parts of the British +Commonwealth. The provinces of India and many British<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[184]</a></span> +Colonies have variously composed representative assemblies, +but in all cases without the power to control their +executives. The self-governing Dominions, on the other +hand, do enjoy responsible self-government, but in an +incomplete form, because the most vital of all issues of +policy are outside their control. On questions of foreign +policy, and the issues of war and peace, the Parliaments +of the Dominions, and the citizens they represent, +are, constitutionally speaking, as helpless as the +most ignorant native in the humblest dependency. Representative +institutions in themselves thus no more +ensure real self-government than the setting up of a +works committee of employees in a factory would +ensure that the workmen ran the factory. The distinction +between representation and effective responsibility is so +simple that it seems a platitude to mention it. Yet it +is constantly ignored, both in this country by those +who speak of Colonial self-government as though the +Dominions really enjoyed the same self-government +as the people of these islands, and by the parties in +Germany whose programme it is, not to make Germany +a truly constitutional country, but to assimilate the retrograde +Prussian franchise to the broader representation of +the Reichstag.</p> + +<p>Wherein does the transition from representation to +full responsibility consist? It came about in England +when Parliament, instead of merely being consulted by +the sovereign, felt itself strong enough to give orders to +the sovereign. The sovereign naturally resisted, as the +Kaiser and the Tsar will resist in their turn; but in this +country the battle was fought and won in the seventeenth +century. Since that time, with a few vacillations, Parliament +has been the sovereign power. But once this transfer +of sovereignty has taken place, a new problem arises. +A Parliament of several hundred members, even though<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[185]</a></span> +it meets regularly, is not competent to transact the +multitudinous and complex and highly specialized +business of a modern State. The original function of +Parliament was to advise, to discuss, and to criticize. It +is not an instrument fit for the work of execution and +administration. Having become sovereign, its first business +must be to create out of its own members an instrument +which should carry out its own policy and be responsible +to itself for its actions. Hence arose the Cabinet. The +Cabinet is, as it were, a distillation of Parliament, just +as Parliament itself is a distillation of the country. It +consists of members of Parliament and it is in constant +touch with Parliament; but its methods are not the +methods of Parliament but of the older, more direct, +organs of government which Parliament superseded. It +meets in secret: it holds all the strings of policy: it has +almost complete control of political and legislative +initiative: it decides what is to be done and when and +how: it has its own staff of agents and confidential +advisers in the Departments and elsewhere whose acts +are largely withdrawn from the knowledge and criticism +of Parliament. A modern Cabinet in fact is open to the +charge of being autocracy in a new guise. Such a charge +would, of course, be a gross overstatement. But there is +no doubt that the increasing complexity in the tasks of +government has led to a corresponding growth of power +and organization at the centre which has strengthened +the Cabinet immeasurably of recent years at the expense +of the direct representatives of the people. There are, however, +powerful influences at work in the opposite direction, +towards decentralization and new forms of representation, +which there is no space to touch on here. Suffice it to say +that here, as elsewhere, the price of liberty is eternal +vigilance.</p> + +<p>England, then, and all who enjoy the full privileges<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[186]</a></span> +of British citizenship have been placed by the progress +of events in a position of peculiar responsibility. The +twentieth century finds us the centre of the widest +experiment of self-government which the world has ever +seen; for the principles of liberty, first tested in this +island, have approved themselves on the soil of North +America, Australasia, and South Africa. It finds us also +responsible for the government and for the training in +responsibility of some 350,000,000 members of the more +politically inexperienced and backward races of mankind, +or about one-fifth of the human race. The growth +of the British Commonwealth, about which so astonishingly +little is known either by ourselves or by other +peoples, is not a mere happy or unhappy accident. It +is one of the inevitable and decisive developments in +the history of mankind. It is the direct result of that +widening of intercourse, that internationalizing of the +world, to which reference has already been made. It represents +the control of law and organized government over the +blind and selfish forces of exploitation. In the exercise of +this control we have often ourselves been blind and sometimes +selfish. But 'the situation of man', as Burke +finely said of our Indian Empire, 'is the preceptor of his +duty'. The perseverance of the British character, its habit +of concentration on the work that lies to hand, and the +influence of our traditional social and political ideals, have +slowly brought us to a deeper insight, till to-day the Commonwealth +is becoming alive to the real nature of its task—the +extension and consolidation of liberty. If it has thus +taken up, in part, the work of the mediaeval Empire and +has had a measure of success where the other failed, it is +because of the character of its individual citizens, because +despite constant and heart-breaking failures in knowledge +and imagination, we are a people who, in the words of a +stern, if friendly, critic, 'with great self-assertion and a bull-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[187]</a></span>dog +kind of courage, have yet a singular amount of gentleness +and tenderness'.<a name="FNanchor_66_66" id="FNanchor_66_66"></a><a href="#Footnote_66_66" class="fnanchor">[66]</a></p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>We have come to the end of our long survey. Some of +you may feel that I have fetched too wide a compass +and given too wide an extension to the meaning of +government. But if I have sinned I have sinned of set +purpose. I refuse to confine government within the limits +of what is ordinarily called politics, or to discuss the +association called the State in isolation from other sides +of man's community life. To do so, I feel, is to lay oneself +open to one of two opposite errors: the error of those +for whom the State is the Almighty, and who invest +it with a superhuman morality and authority of its own; +and the error of those who draw in their skirts in horror +from the touch of what Nietzsche called this 'cold monster' +and take refuge in monastic detachment from the political +responsibilities of their time. We must be able to see +politics as a part of life before we can see it steadily and +see it whole. We must be able to see it in relation to the +general ordering of the world and to connect it once more, +as in the Middle Ages, with religion and morality. No +thinking man can live through such a time as this and +preserve his faith unless he is sustained by the belief +that the clash of States which is darkening our generation +is not a mere blind collision of forces, but has spiritual +bearings which affect each individual living soul born or +to be born in the world. It is not for us to anticipate +the verdict of history. But what we can do is to bear +ourselves worthily, in thought and speech, like our +soldiers in action, of the times in which we live—to +testify, as it were, in our own lives, to that for which +so many of our friends have laid down theirs. We +are met at a culminating moment of human <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[188]</a></span>fate—when, +so far as human judgement can discern, the +political destinies of this planet are being settled for +many generations to come—perhaps for good. If the +task of leadership in the arts of government remains with +us, let us face the responsibility conscious of the vast +spiritual issues which it involves, and let us so plan and +act that history, looking back on these years of blood, +may date from them a new birth of freedom and progress, +not for ourselves in this country alone but throughout +that kingdom of Man which must one day, as we believe, +become in very truth the kingdom of God.</p> + + +<h3><span class="smcap">Books for Reference</span></h3> + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="Books2"> +<tr><td align='left'>1.</td><td align='left'><i>Man's Control over Nature</i>:</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'></td><td class='inset'>Ray Lankester, <i>The Kingdom of Man</i>, and other essays. 1912.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'></td><td class='inset'>Demolins, <i>Comment la route crée le type social</i>.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'></td><td class='inset'>Curtis (ed. by), <i>The Commonwealth of Nations</i>. Vol. i, 1916.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'></td><td class='inset'>Murphy, <i>The Basis of Ascendancy</i>. 1909.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'></td><td class='inset'><i>Introduction to the Study of International Relations</i> (Greenwood and others). 1916.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>2.</td><td align='left'><i>Political Ideals</i>:</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'></td><td align='left'><i>The Jews</i>: Todd, <i>Politics and Religion in Ancient Israel</i>. 1904.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'></td><td align='left'><i>Greece</i>: <i>Aristotle's Politics</i>, translated by B. Jowett. 1908.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'></td><td class='inset'>Dickinson, <i>The Greek View of Life</i>. 1909.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'></td><td class='inset'>Barker, <i>The Political thought of Plato and Aristotle</i>. 1908.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'></td><td align='left'><i>Rome</i>: H. Stuart Jones, <i>The Roman Empire</i>. (Story of the Nations.) 1908. Warde Fowler, <i>Rome</i> (Home University Series).</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'></td><td align='left'><i>The Middle Ages</i>: A. L. Smith, <i>Church and State in the Middle Ages</i>. 1911.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'></td><td class='inset'>Gierke, <i>Political Theories of the Middle Ages</i> (introduction by Maitland). 1900.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'></td><td align='left'><i>Miscellaneous</i>: Wallas, <i>Human Nature in Politics</i>. 1908.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'></td><td class='inset'>Acton, <i>The History of Freedom</i>, and other essays. 1909.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'></td><td class='inset'>Lowell, <i>The Government of England</i>.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'></td><td class='inset'>Bülow, <i>Imperial Germany</i>. 1916.</td></tr> +</table></div> + + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_53_53" id="Footnote_53_53"></a><a href="#FNanchor_53_53"><span class="label">[53]</span></a> A. L. Smith, <i>Church and State in the Middle Ages</i>, pp. 207-8.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_54_54" id="Footnote_54_54"></a><a href="#FNanchor_54_54"><span class="label">[54]</span></a> Lankester, <i>Nature and Man</i>, Romanes Lecture, 1905, pp. 27-9.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_55_55" id="Footnote_55_55"></a><a href="#FNanchor_55_55"><span class="label">[55]</span></a> <i>The Commonwealth of Nations</i>, edited by L. Curtis, Part I, +p. 130.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_56_56" id="Footnote_56_56"></a><a href="#FNanchor_56_56"><span class="label">[56]</span></a> Ibid., p. 166.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_57_57" id="Footnote_57_57"></a><a href="#FNanchor_57_57"><span class="label">[57]</span></a> P. H. Kerr in <i>An Introduction to the Study of International +Relations</i>, 1915, p. 149.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_58_58" id="Footnote_58_58"></a><a href="#FNanchor_58_58"><span class="label">[58]</span></a> A still better name would be the Great Responsibilities.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_59_59" id="Footnote_59_59"></a><a href="#FNanchor_59_59"><span class="label">[59]</span></a> <i>Second Thoughts of an Economist</i>, 1916, pp. 17-18, 22.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_60_60" id="Footnote_60_60"></a><a href="#FNanchor_60_60"><span class="label">[60]</span></a> <i>Freedom and other Essays</i>, p. 22.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_61_61" id="Footnote_61_61"></a><a href="#FNanchor_61_61"><span class="label">[61]</span></a> Isaiah lxvi. 2; lvii. 19, 21; ii. 3, 4.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_62_62" id="Footnote_62_62"></a><a href="#FNanchor_62_62"><span class="label">[62]</span></a> <i>Ecclesiastical Polity</i>, Book I, ch. xvi. 5.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_63_63" id="Footnote_63_63"></a><a href="#FNanchor_63_63"><span class="label">[63]</span></a> End of Book I of the <i>Ecclesiastical Polity</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_64_64" id="Footnote_64_64"></a><a href="#FNanchor_64_64"><span class="label">[64]</span></a> Gierke, <i>Political Theories of the Middle Age</i>, pp. 8 and 10.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_65_65" id="Footnote_65_65"></a><a href="#FNanchor_65_65"><span class="label">[65]</span></a> <i>The Commonwealth of Nations</i>, Part I, p. 73.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_66_66" id="Footnote_66_66"></a><a href="#FNanchor_66_66"><span class="label">[66]</span></a> <i>Memoirs and letters of Sir Robert Morier</i>, ii. 276.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[189]</a></span></p> +<h2>VIII</h2> + +<h2>PROGRESS IN INDUSTRY</h2> + +<h3><span class="smcap">A. E. Zimmern</span></h3> + + +<p>In our study of Government we traced the upward +course of the common life of mankind in the world. We +saw it in the increasing control of Man over his physical +environment, and we saw it also in his clearer realization +of the ultimate ideal of government—the ordering of the +world's affairs on the basis of liberty. We have now to +turn aside from this main stream of social development +to watch one particular branch of it—to survey man's +record in the special department of economics. We shall +no longer be studying human history, or the history of +human society, as a whole, but what is known as economic +or industrial history.</p> + +<p>It is important to be clear at the outset that economic +or industrial history <i>is</i> a tributary stream and not the +main stream: for there are a number of people who are +of the contrary opinion. There has been an increasing +tendency of recent years to write human history in terms +of economic or industrial progress. 'Tell me what men +ate or wore or manufactured,' say historians of this +school, 'and we will tell you what stage of civilization +he had reached. We will place him in his proper pigeonhole +in our arrangement of the record of human progress.' +Did he use flint implements or fight with nothing but +a bow and arrow? Did he use a canoe with a primitive +pole which he had not even the sense to flatten so as to +make it into a serviceable paddle? Then our sociologist<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[190]</a></span> +will put him very low down on his list of the stages of +human progress. For the modern sociologist is a confirmed +plutocrat. He measures the character of men and races +by their wealth. Just as old-fashioned people still think +of the society of our own country as a hierarchy, in which +the various classes are graded according to their social +prestige and the extent of their possessions: so students +of primitive civilization classify races according to their +material equipment, and can hardly help yielding to the +temptation of reckoning their stage of progress as a whole +by the only available test. Thus it is common, especially +in Germany and the United States, to find histories of +what purports to be the progress of mankind which show +man first as a hunter and a fisherman, then as a shepherd, +then as a tiller of the soil, and then work upwards to the +complicated industrial system of to-day. We are asked +to accept the life of Abraham or David among the sheepfolds +as the bottom of the ladder, and the life of a modern +wage-earner under the smoky sky of a manufacturing +area as the top; and when we complain and say, as men +like William Morris and Stephen Graham are always +saying, that we would far prefer to live in David's world, +in spite of all its discomforts, we are told that we have +no right to quarrel with the sacred principle of Evolution.</p> + +<p>To interpret human history in this way is, of course, to +deny its spiritual meaning, to deny that it is a record of +the progress of the human <i>spirit</i> at all. It is to read it +as a tale of the improvement, or rather the increasing +complication, of <i>things</i>, rather than of the advance of +man. It is to view the world as a Domain of Matter, not +as the Kingdom of Man—still less, as the Kingdom of +God. It is to tie us helplessly to the chariot wheels of an +industrial Juggernaut which knows nothing of moral +values. Let the progress of industry make life noisy and +ugly and anxious and unhappy: let it engross the great<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[191]</a></span> +mass of mankind in tedious and uncongenial tasks and +the remainder in the foolish and unsatisfying activities +of luxurious living; let it defile the green earth with pits +and factories and slag-heaps and the mean streets of those +who toil at them, and dim the daylight with exhalations +of monstrous vapour. It is not for us to complain or to +resist: for we are in the grip of a Power which is greater +than ourselves, a Power to which mankind in all five +continents has learnt to yield—that Economic Process +which is, in truth, the God, or the Devil, of the modern +world.</p> + +<p>No thinking man dare acquiesce in such a conclusion +or consent to bow the head before such fancied necessities. +The function of industry, he will reply, is to serve human +life not to master it: to beautify human life not to +degrade it: to set life free not to enslave it. Economics +is not the whole of life: and when it transgresses its +bounds and exceeds its functions it must be controlled +and thrust back into its place by the combined activities +of men. The soul is higher than the body, and life is +more than housekeeping. Liberty is higher than Riches, +and the welfare of the community more important than +its economic and material progress. These great processes, +which the increase of man's knowledge has set +in motion, are not impersonal inhuman forces: Men +originated them: men administer them: and men must +control them. Against economic necessity let us set +political necessity: and let the watchword of that +political necessity, here as always, be the freedom and +the well-being of mankind.</p> + +<p>With this caution in mind, then, let us approach our +subject.</p> + +<p>What is Economics? Economics is simply the Greek +for 'house-keeping'. If writers and thinkers on the +subject had only kept this simple fact in mind, or used<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[192]</a></span> +the English word instead of the Greek, the world would +have been saved much misery and confusion. Political +economy is not, what Mill and other writers define it to +be, 'the Science of Wealth'. It is the art of community-housekeeping, +and community-housekeeping, as every +woman knows, is a very important if subsidiary branch +of the art of community-management or government.</p> + +<p>Housekeeping, of course, is not a selfish but a social +function. Housewives do not lay in bread and cheese +simply to gratify their own desire to be possessors of +a large store, but for the sake of their household. The +true housekeeper or economic man is the man who is +consciously ministering to the real needs of the community. +Like the ruler or minister in the political sphere, he is +a man who is performing a public service.</p> + +<p>This is equally true whether the housekeeper has +a monopoly of the purchase of bread and cheese for the +household, or whether he or she has to compete with +others as to which is to be allowed to serve the public +in that particular transaction. Just as, under the party +system, which seems to be inseparable from the working +of democratic institutions, men stand for Parliament and +compete for the honour of representing their neighbours, +so in most systems of industry men compete for the +honour of supplying the public. Competition in industry +is practically as old as industry. In the earliest picture +that has come down to us of Greek village life we read +of the competition between potter and potter and between +minstrel and minstrel—a competition as keen and as fierce, +we may be sure, as that between rival shopkeepers to-day. +For the opposite of competition, as has been truly said, +is not co-operation but monopoly or bureaucracy: and +there is no short and easy means of deciding between the +rival systems. Sometimes the community is better +served by entrusting one department wholly to one<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[193]</a></span> +purveyor or one system of management—as in the Postal +Service, or the Army and Navy. Sometimes it is clearly +better to leave the matter open to competition. Nobody, +for instance, would propose to do with only one minstrel, +and seal the lips of all poets but the Poet Laureate. +Sometimes, as in the case of the organized professions +and the liquor trade, a strictly regulated system of +competition has been considered best. No doubt the +tendency at the present time is setting strongly against +competition and towards more unified and more closely +organized systems of doing business. But it is important +to make quite clear that there is nothing immoral or +anti-social about the fact of competition itself, and +nothing inconsistent with the idea of service and co-operation +which should underlie all social and economic +activity. It is not competition itself, as people often +wrongly think, which is the evil, but the shallow and +selfish motives and the ruthless trampling down of the +weak that are too often associated with it. When we +condemn the maxim 'the Devil take the hindmost', it +is not because we think we ought to treat the hindmost +as though he were the foremost—to buy cracked jars +or patronize incapable minstrels. It is because we feel +that there is a wrong standard of reward among those +who have pushed to the front, and that the community +as a whole cannot ignore its responsibility towards its +less fortunate and capable members.</p> + +<p>It is, indeed, quite impossible to abolish competition +for the patronage of the household without subjecting +its members to tyranny or tying them down to an intolerable +uniformity—forcing them to suppress their own +temporary likes or dislikes and to go on taking in the +same stuff in the same quantities world without end. +For the most serious and permanent competition is not +that between rival purveyors of the same goods, between<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[194]</a></span> +potter and potter and minstrel and minstrel, but between +one set of goods and another: between the potter and +the blacksmith, the minstrel and the painter. If we +abolished competition permanently between the British +railways we could not make sure that the public would +always use them as it does now. People would still be at +liberty to walk or to drive or to bicycle or to fly, or, at +the very worst, to stay at home. Competition, as every +business man knows, sometimes arises from the most +unexpected quarters. The picture-house and the bicycle +have damaged the brewer and the publican. Similarly the +motor-car and the golf links have spoilt the trade in the +fine china ornaments such as used to be common in +expensively furnished drawing-rooms. People sit less in +their rooms, so spend less on decorating them. The +members of the household always retain ultimate control +over their economic life, if they care to exercise it. 'Whoso +has sixpence,' as Carlyle said, 'is sovereign (to the length +of sixpence), over all men; commands Cooks to feed +him, Philosophers to teach him, Kings to mount guard +over him,'—to the length of sixpence. Passive resistance +and the boycott are always open to the public in the last +resort against any of their servants who has abused the +powers of his position. A good instance of this occurred +in the events which led to the so-called Tobacco riots in +Milan in 1848. The Austrians thought they could force +the Italians in their Lombard provinces to pay for +a government they hated by putting a heavy tax on +tobacco. But the Italians, with more self-control than +we have shown in the present war, with one accord gave +up smoking. Here was a plain competition between +a monopoly and the consumer, between tobacco and +patriotism: between a united household and an unpopular +servant: and the household won, as it always can unless +its members are incapable of combined action or have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[195]</a></span> +been deprived by governmental tyranny of all power to +associate and to organize.</p> + +<p>We are faced then with a community or household +which has certain wants that need to be supplied. The +individual members of the community are justified, +within the limits of general well-being,<a name="FNanchor_67_67" id="FNanchor_67_67"></a><a href="#Footnote_67_67" class="fnanchor">[67]</a> in deciding what +are their own wants and how to satisfy them. They +claim the right to <i>demand</i>, as the economists put it, the +goods and services they require, bread and cheese, poetry, +tobacco, motor-bicycles, china ornaments. In order to +meet those demands, which are stable in essentials but +subject to constant modification in detail, there is ceaseless +activity, rivalry, competition, on the part of the +purveyors—on the side of what economists call <i>supply</i>. +The business of housekeeping, or what is called the economic +process, is that of bringing this demand and this +supply into relation with one another. If the members of +the household said they wanted to eat the moon instead of +sugar, their demand would not be an economic demand: +for no housekeeper could satisfy it. Similarly on the +supply side: if the baker insisted on bringing round bad +epics instead of bread and the grocer bad sonatas instead +of sugar, the supply, however good it might seem to the +baker and the grocer, and however much satisfaction +they might personally have derived from their work, +would not be an economic supply: for the housekeeper, +acting on behalf of the household, would not take it in. +But if the demand was for something not yet available, +but less impossibly remote than the moon, the housekeeper +might persuade the purveyors to cudgel their +brains till they had met the need. For, as we know, +Necessity, which is another word for Demand, is the +mother of invention. Similarly, if a purveyor supplied<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[196]</a></span> +something undreamed of by the household, but otherwise +good of its kind, he might succeed in persuading the +household to like it—in other words, in creating a demand. +The late Sir Alfred Jones, by putting bananas cheap on +the market, persuaded us that we liked them. Similarly +Mr. Marvin, who deals in something better than bananas, +has persuaded us all to come here, though most of us +would never have thought of it unless he had created the +demand in us.</p> + +<p>Economic Progress, then, is progress both on the side +of demand and on the side of supply. It is a progress in +wants as well as in their means of satisfaction: a progress +in the aspirations of the household as well as in the +contrivances of its purveyors: a progress in the sense +of what life might be, as well as in the skill and genius and +organizing powers of those to whom the community +looks for help in the realization of its hopes. It is important +that this double aspect of our subject should be +realized, for in what follows we shall have no opportunity +to dwell further upon it. Space compels us to leave the +household and its wants and aspirations out of account +and to direct our attention solely to the side of supply; +although it must always be remembered that no real and +permanent progress in the organization of production is +possible without improvements in the quality and reduction +in the number of the requirements of what is called +civilization.<a name="FNanchor_68_68" id="FNanchor_68_68"></a><a href="#Footnote_68_68" class="fnanchor">[68]</a> What we have to watch, in our study of +progress in industry, is the history of man as a purveyor +of the household: in other words, as a producer of goods +and services: from the days of the primitive savage with +his bark canoe to the gigantic industrial enterprises of +our own time.</p> + +<p>We can best do so by dividing our subject into two on<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[197]</a></span> +somewhat similar lines to the division in our study of +government. Let us consider industry, first as an activity +involving a relationship between man and Nature; +secondly, as involving what may be called a problem of +industrial government, a problem arising out of the +co-operation between man and man in industrial work. +In the first of these aspects we shall see man as a maker, +an inventor, an artist; in the second as a subject +or a citizen, a slave or a free man, in the Industrial +Commonwealth.</p> + +<p>Man as a maker or producer carries us back to the dawn +of history. Man is a tool-using animal and the early stages +of human history are a record of the elaboration of tools. +The flint axes in our museums are the earliest monuments +of the activity of the human spirit. We do not know +what the cave men of the Old Stone Age said or thought, +or indeed whether they did anything that we should call +speaking or thinking at all; but we know what they +made. Centuries and millenniums elapsed between them +and the first peoples of whom we have any more intimate +record—centuries during which the foundations of our +existing industrial knowledge and practice were being +steadily laid. 'One may say in general,' says Mr. Marvin,<a name="FNanchor_69_69" id="FNanchor_69_69"></a><a href="#Footnote_69_69" class="fnanchor">[69]</a></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>that most of the fruitful practical devices of mankind had +their origin in prehistoric times, many of them existing +then with little essential difference. Any one of them +affords a lesson in the gradual elaboration of the simple. +A step minute in itself leads on and on, and so all the +practical arts are built up, a readier and more observant +mind imitating and adapting the work of predecessors, +as we imagined the first man making his first flint axe. +The history of the plough goes back to the elongation of +a bent stick. The wheel would arise from cutting out +the middle of a trunk used as a roller. House architecture +is the imitation with logs and mud of the natural shelters<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[198]</a></span> +of the rocks, and begins its great development when men +have learnt to make square corners instead of a rough +circle. And so on with all the arts of life or pleasure, +including clothing, cooking, tilling, sailing, and fighting.</p></div> + +<p>How did this gradual progress come about? Mr. Marvin +himself supplies the answer. Through the action of the +'readier and more observant minds'—in other words, +through specialization and the division of labour. As far +back as we can go in history we find a recognition that +men are not all alike, that some have one gift and some +another, and that it is to the advantage of society to let +each use his own gift in the public service. Among +primitive peoples there has indeed often been a belief +that men are compensated for physical weakness and disability +by peculiar excellence in some sphere of their +own. Hephaestos among the Greek gods was lame: so he +becomes a blacksmith and uses his arms. Homer is blind: +so instead of fighting he sings of war. They would not +go so far as to maintain that all lame men must be good +blacksmiths or all blind men good poets: but at least +they recognized that there was room in the community +for special types and that the blacksmith and the poet +were as useful as the ordinary run of cultivators and +fighting men. The Greek word for craftsman—<span class='correction' title='dêmiourgos'>δημιουργός</span>—'worker +for the people,' shows how the Greeks felt on +this point. To them poetry and craftsmanship were as +much honourable occupations or, as we should say, +professional activities as fighting and tilling. Whether +Homer took to poetry because he could not fight or +because he had an overwhelming poetic gift, he had +justified his place in the community.</p> + +<p>Specialization is the foundation of all craftsmanship +and therefore the source of all industrial progress. We +recognize this, of course, in common speech. 'Practice +makes perfect,' 'Genius is an infinite capacity for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[199]</a></span> +taking pains,' are only different ways of saying that it is +not enough to be 'ready' and 'observant', but that +continued activity and concentration are necessary. +A perfect industrial community would not be a community +where everybody was doing the same thing: nor would +it be a community where every one was doing just what +he liked at the moment: it would be a community where +every one was putting all his strength into the work +which he was by nature best qualified to do—where, in +the words of Kipling:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">No one shall work for money, and no one shall work for fame,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But each for the joy of the working, and each, in his separate star,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shall draw the thing as he sees it for the God of Things as They Are.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Progress in industry, then, on this side, consists in increasing +specialization and in the perfection of the relationship +between the workman and his work. Man in this +world is destined to labour, and labour is often described +as the curse of Adam. But in reality, as every one knows +who has tried it, or observed the habits of those who +have, idleness is far more of a curse than labour. Few +men—at any rate in the temperate zone—can be consistently +idle and remain happy. The born idler is almost +as rare as the born poet. Most men, and, it must be added, +most women, are happier working. If holidays were the +rule and work the exception the world would be a much +less cheerful place than it is even to-day. Purposeful +activity is as natural to man as playing is to a kitten. +From a purely natural point of view, no one has ever +given a better definition of happiness than Aristotle when +he defined it as <i>an activity of the soul in the direction of +excellence in an unhampered life</i>. By excellence, of course, +in this famous definition, Aristotle does not mean simply<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[200]</a></span> +virtue: he means excellence in work. It is impossible, +as we all know, to be good in the abstract. We must be +good in some particular directions, <i>at</i> some particular +thing. And the particular thing that we are good at is <i>our</i> +work, our craft, our art—or, to use our less aesthetic +English word, for which there is no equivalent in Greek, +our duty. If happiness is to be found in doing one's duty, +it does not result from doing that duty badly, but from +doing it well—turning out, as we say, a thoroughly good +piece of work, whether a day's work or a life work. There +is a lingering idea, still held in some quarters, that the +more unpleasant an activity is the more virtuous it is. +This is a mere barbarous survival from the days of what +Nietzsche called slave-morality. We are each of us born +with special individual gifts and capacities. There is, if +we only knew it, some particular kind or piece of work +which we are pre-eminently fitted to do—some particular +activity or profession, be it held in high or in low repute +in the world of to-day, in which we can win the steady +happiness of purposeful labour. Shall we then say that +it ministers to human progress and to the glory of God +deliberately to bury our talent out of sight and to seek +rather work which, because it is irksome and unpleasant +to us, we can never succeed in doing either easily or +really well? No one who knows anything of education +or of the training of the young, no one, indeed, who has +any love for children, would dare to say that we should. +Our State educational system, miserably defective though +it is in this regard, is based upon the idea of ministering +to the special gifts of its pupils—of trying by scholarships, +by Care Committees, by the institution of schools with +a special 'bias', to meet the needs of different kinds of +young people and to set them in the path on which they +are best fitted to travel.</p> + +<p>In doing this the modern State is only trying to carry<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[201]</a></span> +out the principle laid down in the greatest book ever +written on education—Plato's <i>Republic</i>. Plato's object +was to train every citizen to fill the one position where he +could lead the best life for the good of the State. His aim +was not to make his citizens happy but to promote +goodness; but he had enough faith in human nature—and +who can be an educational thinker without having +faith in human nature?—to be convinced that to enable +men to 'do their bit', as we say to-day, was to assure +them of the truest happiness. We of this generation +know how abundantly that faith has been confirmed. And +indeed we can appeal in this matter not only to the +common sense of Education Authorities or to the philosophy +of the ancients, but to the principles of the Christian +religion. The late Professor Smart, who was not only +a good economist but a good man; has some very pertinent +words on this subject. 'If for some reason that we know +not of,' he remarks,<a name="FNanchor_70_70" id="FNanchor_70_70"></a><a href="#Footnote_70_70" class="fnanchor">[70]</a></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>this present is merely the first stage in being; if we +are all at school, and not merely pitched into the world +by chance to pick up our living as best we can ... it +seems to me that we have reason enough to complain +of the existing economic system.... I imagine that +many of our churchgoing people, if they ever get to +the heaven they sing about, will find themselves most +uncomfortable, if it be a place for which they have made +no preparation but in the 'business' in which they have +earned their living.... A man's daily work is a far greater +thing towards the development of the God that is in him +than his wealth. And, however revolutionary the idea is, +I must say that all our accumulations of wealth are little +to the purpose of life if they do not tend towards the +giving to all men the opportunity of such work as will +have its reward <i>in the doing</i>.</p></div> + +<p>And of his own particular life-work, teaching, he +remarks, in words that testify to his own inner peace<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[202]</a></span> +and happiness, that 'some of us have got into occupations +which almost seem to guarantee immortality'.</p> + +<p>Let us, then, boldly lay it down that the best test of +progress in industry and the best measure of success in +any industrial system is the degree to which it enables +men to 'do their bit' and so to find happiness in their +daily work, or if you prefer more distinctively religious +language, the degree to which it enables men to develop the +God that is in them. Let us have the courage to say that +in the great battle which Ruskin and William Morris +fought almost single-handed against all the Philistines of +the nineteenth century, Ruskin and Morris, however +wrong they may have been on points of practical detail, +were right in principle. Let us make up our minds that +a world in which men have surrendered the best hours +of the day to unsatisfying drudgery, and banished happiness +to their brief periods of tired leisure, is so far from +civilized that it has not even made clear to itself wherein +civilization consists. And when we read such a passage +as the following from a leading modern economist, let us +not yield to the promptings of our lower nature and +acquiesce in its apparent common sense, but remember +that economists, like all workmen, are bounded by the +limits of their own particular craft or study. 'The +greater part of the world's work,' says Professor Taussig,<a name="FNanchor_71_71" id="FNanchor_71_71"></a><a href="#Footnote_71_71" class="fnanchor">[71]</a> +the leading exponent of Economics at Harvard,</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>is not in itself felt to be pleasurable. Some reformers have +hoped to reach a social system under which all work would +be in itself a source of satisfaction. It is probable that such<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[203]</a></span> +persons are made optimistic by the nature of their own +doings. They are writers, schemers, reformers; they are +usually of strongly altruistic character, and the performance +of any duty or set task brings to them the approval +of an exacting conscience; and they believe that all mankind +can be brought to labour in their own spirit. The +world would be a much happier place if their state of +mind could be made universal. But the great mass of +men are of a humdrum sort, not born with any marked +bent or any loftiness of character. Moreover, most of +the world's work for the satisfaction of our primary +wants must be of a humdrum sort, and often of a rough +and coarse sort. There must be ditching and delving, +sowing and reaping, hammering and sawing, and all the +severe physical exertion which, however lightened by +tools and machinery, yet can never be other than labour +in the ordinary sense of the word.</p></div> + +<p>When Professor Taussig assures us that 'the great +mass of men are of a humdrum sort, not born with any +marked bent or loftiness of character' he is simply denying +the Christian religion. To argue the point with him +would carry us too far. We will do no more here than +remind him that the people to whom the Founder of +Christianity preached, and even those who were chosen +to be its first disciples, were, like this audience, distinctly +humdrum, and that assuredly the American Professor +would not have discerned in them promising material +for a world-transforming religious movement. What +people see in others is often a mirror of themselves. +Perhaps Professor Taussig, in spite of his excellent book, +is rather a humdrum person himself.</p> + +<p>When, however, Professor Taussig declares that 'the +greater part of the world's work is not in itself felt to be +pleasurable' he is saying what, under existing conditions, +we must all recognize to be true. A year or two ago +Mr. Graham Wallas made an investigation into this very +question, the results of which confirmed the general<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[204]</a></span> +impression that modern workmen find little happiness +in their work.<a name="FNanchor_72_72" id="FNanchor_72_72"></a><a href="#Footnote_72_72" class="fnanchor">[72]</a> But two of the conclusions which he +reached conflict in a rather curious way with the statement +of Professor Taussig. Mr. Wallas's evidence, which was +largely drawn from students of Ruskin College, led him +to the conclusion 'that there is less pleasantness or happiness +in work the nearer it approaches the fully organized +Great Industry'. The only workman who spoke enthusiastically +of his work was an agricultural labourer who +'was very emphatic with regard to the pleasure to be +obtained from agricultural work'. Professor Taussig, +on the other hand, selects four agricultural occupations, +ditching, delving, sowing, and reaping, as characteristically +unpleasant and looks to machinery and the apparatus +of the Industrial Revolution to counteract this unpleasantness. +But the most interesting evidence gathered by +Mr. Wallas was that relating to women workers. He had +an opportunity of collecting the views of girls employed +in the laundries and poorer kind of factories in Boston. +'The answers', he says,<a name="FNanchor_73_73" id="FNanchor_73_73"></a><a href="#Footnote_73_73" class="fnanchor">[73]</a> 'surprised me greatly. I expected +to hear those complaints about bad wages, hard +conditions and arbitrary discipline which a body of men +working at the same grade of labour would certainly have +put forward. But it was obvious that the question +"Are you happy?" meant to the girls "Are you happier +than you would have been if you had stayed at home +instead of going to work?" And almost every one of +them answered "Yes".' Why were they unhappy at +home? Let Professor Taussig reflect on the answer. Not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[205]</a></span> +because they had 'rough' or 'coarse' or 'humdrum' +work to do, as in a factory or laundry, but because they had +nothing to do, and they had found idleness unbearable. +'One said that work "took up her mind", she had been +awfully discontented'. Another that 'you were of some +use'. Another thought 'it was because the hours went so +much faster. At home one could read, but only for +a short time, there was the awful lonesome afternoon +ahead of you.' 'Asked a little girl with dyed hair but +a good little heart. She enjoyed her work. It made her +feel she was worth something.' And Mr. Wallas concludes +that it is just because 'everything that is interesting, +even though it is laborious, in the women's arts of the +old village is gone': because 'clothes are bought ready-made, +food is bought either ready-cooked, like bread +and jam and fish, or only requiring the simplest kind of +cooking': in fact just because physical exertion has been +lightened by books and machinery, that 'there results +a mass of inarticulate unhappiness whose existence has +hardly been indicated by our present method of sociological +enquiry'.</p> + +<p>It would seem then that the task of associating modern +industrial work with happiness is not impossible, if we +would only set ourselves to the task. And the task is +a two-fold one. It is, first, to make it possible for people +to follow the employment for which they are by nature +best fitted; and secondly, to study much more closely +than heretofore, from the point of view of happiness, +the conditions under which work is done. The first task +involves a very considerable reversal of current educational +and social values. It does not simply mean paving the +way for the son of an engine-driver to become a doctor +or a lawyer or a cavalryman. It means paving the way +for the son of a duke to become, without any sense of +social failure, an engine-driver or a merchant seaman or<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[206]</a></span> +a worker on the land—and to do so not, as to-day, in +the decent seclusion of British Columbia or Australia, +but in our own country and without losing touch, if he +desires it, with his own natural circle of friends. The +ladder is an old and outworn metaphor in this connexion. +Yet it is still worth remembering that the Angels whom +Jacob observed upon it were both ascending and descending. +It is one of the fallacies of our social system +to believe that a ladder should only be used in one direction—and +that the direction which tends to remove men +from contact and sympathy with their fellows. But in +truth we need to discard the metaphor of the ladder +altogether, with its implied suggestion that some tasks +of community-service are more honourable and involve +more of what the world calls 'success' than others. We +do not desire a system of education which picks out for +promotion minds gifted with certain kinds of capacity +and stimulates them with the offer of material rewards, +while the so-called humdrum remainder are left, with +their latent talents undiscovered and undeveloped.</p> + +<p>Recent educational experiments,<a name="FNanchor_74_74" id="FNanchor_74_74"></a><a href="#Footnote_74_74" class="fnanchor">[74]</a> and not least that +most testing of all school examinations, the war, have +shown us that we must revise all our old notions as to +cleverness and stupidity. We know now that, short of +real mental deficiency, there is or ought to be no such +personage as the dunce. Just as the criminal is generally +a man of unusual energy and mental power directed into +wrong channels, so the dunce is a pupil whose special +powers and aptitudes have not revealed themselves in the +routine of school life. And just as the criminal points +to serious defects in our social system, so the dunce points +to serious defects in our educational system. The striking +record of our industrial schools and reformatories in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[207]</a></span> +war shows what young criminals and dunces can do when +they are given a fair field for their special gifts. One of +the chief lessons to be drawn from the war is the need for +a new spirit and outlook in our national education from +the elementary school to the University. We need a +system which treats every child, rich or poor, as a living +and developing personality, which enables every English +boy and girl to stay at school at least up to the time when +his or her natural bent begins to disclose itself, which +provides for all classes of the community skilled guidance +in the choice of employment based upon psychological +study of individual gifts and aptitude,<a name="FNanchor_75_75" id="FNanchor_75_75"></a><a href="#Footnote_75_75" class="fnanchor">[75]</a> which sets up +methods of training and apprenticeship in the different +trades—or, as I would prefer to call them the different +professions—such as to counteract the deadening influence +of premature specialization, and which ensures good +conditions and a sense of self-respect and community-service +to all in their self-chosen line of life, whether their +bent be manual or mechanical or commercial or administrative, +or for working on the land or for going to sea, or +towards the more special vocations of teaching or scholarship +or the law or medicine or the cure of souls. No one +can estimate how large a share of the unhappiness +associated with our existing social system is due to the +fact that, owing to defects in our education and our +arrangements for the choice of employment, there are +myriads of square pegs in round holes. This applies with +especial force to women, to whom many of the square +holes are still inaccessible, not simply owing to the lack +of opportunities for individuals, but owing to the inhibitions +of custom and, in some cases, to narrow and retrograde +professional enactments. The war has brought +women their chance, not only in the office and the work<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[208]</a></span>shop, +but in higher administrative and organizing +positions, and not the least of its results is the revelation +of undreamt-of capacities in these directions.</p> + +<p>In the second task, that of perfecting the adaptation +between men and their tools, we have much to learn from +the industrial history of the past. It is natural for men +to enjoy 'talking shop', and this esoteric bond of union +has existed between workmen in all ages. We may be +sure that there were discussions amongst connoisseurs +in the Stone Age as to the respective merits of their +flint axes, just as there are to-day between golfers about +niblicks and putters, and between surgeons as to the +technique of the extraction of an appendix. A good workman +loves his tools. He is indeed inseparable from them, +as our law acknowledges by forbidding a bankrupt's +tools to be sold up. Give a good workman, in town or +country, a sympathetic listener and he is only too ready +to expatiate on his daily work. This sense of kinship +between men and their tools and material is so little +understood by some of our modern expert organizers of industry +that it is worth while illustrating it at some length. +I make no apology, therefore, for quoting a striking +passage from an essay by Mr. George Bourne, who is +not a trade unionist or a student of Labour politics but +an observer of English village life, who has taken the +trouble to penetrate the mind of what is commonly +regarded as the stupidest and most backward—as it is +certainly the least articulate—class of workmen in this +country, the agricultural labourer in the southern counties. +'The men', he writes,</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>are commonly too modest about their work, and too +unconscious that it can interest an outsider, to dream of +discussing it. What they have to say would not therefore +by itself go far in demonstration of their acquirements +in technique. Fortunately, for proof of that we are not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[209]</a></span> +dependent on talk. Besides talk there exists another +kind of evidence open to every one's examination, and +the technical skill exercised in country labours may be +purely deduced from the aptness and singular beauty +of sundry country tools.</p> + +<p>The beauty of tools is not accidental, but inherent and +essential. The contours of a ship's sail bellying in the +wind are not more inevitable, nor more graceful, than the +curves of an adze-head or of a plough-share. Cast in +iron or steel, the gracefulness of a plough-share is more +indestructible than the metal, yet pliant (in the limits +of its type) as a line of English blank verse. It changes +for different soils: it is widened out or narrowed; it +is deep-grooved or shallow; not because of caprice at the +foundry or to satisfy an artistic fad, but to meet the +technical demands of the expert ploughman. The most +familiar example of beauty indicating subtle technique +is supplied by the admired shape of boats, which, however, +is so variable (the statement is made on the authority +of an old coast-guardsman) that the boat best adapted +for one stretch of shore may be dangerous, if not entirely +useless, at another stretch ten miles away. And as technique +determines the design of a boat, or of a waggon, +or of a plough-share, so it controls absolutely the fashioning +of tools, and is responsible for any beauty of form they +may possess. Of all tools none, of course, is more exquisite +than a fiddle-bow. But the fiddle-bow never could have +been perfected, because there would have been no call +for its tapering delicacy, its calculated balance of lightness +and strength, had not the violinist's technique reached +such marvellous fineness of power. For it is the accomplished +artist who is fastidious as to his tools; the bungling +beginner can bungle with anything. The fiddle-bow, +however, affords only one example of a rule which is +equally well exemplified by many humbler tools. Quarryman's +peck, coachman's whip, cricket-bat, fishing-rod, +trowel, all have their intimate relation to the skill of those +who use them; and like animals and plants, adapting +themselves each to its own place in the universal order, +they attain to beauty by force of being fit. That law of +adaptation which shapes the wings of a swallow and +prescribes the poise and elegance of the branches of trees<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[210]</a></span> +is the same that demands symmetry in the corn-rick and +convexity in the beer-barrel; the same that, exerting +itself with matchless precision through the trained senses +of haymakers and woodmen, gives the final curve to the +handles of their scythes and the shafts of their axes. +Hence the beauty of a tool is an unfailing sign that in +the proper handling of it technique is present ...</p></div> + +<p>'It is not the well-informed and those eager to teach', +he says in another passage,</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>who know the primitive necessary lore of civilization; +it is the illiterate. In California, Louis Stevenson found +men studying the quality of vines grown on different +pockets of earth, just as the peasants of Burgundy and +the Rhine have done for ages. And even so the English +generations have watched the produce of their varying +soils. When or how was it learnt—was it at Oxford or +at Cambridge?—that the apples of Devonshire are so +specially fit for cider? Or how is it that hops are growing—some +of them planted before living memory—all along +the strip of green sand which encircles the Weald—that +curious strip to which text-books at last point +triumphantly as being singularly adapted for hops? +Until it got into the books, this piece of knowledge was +not thought of as learning; it had merely been acted +upon during some centuries. But such knowledge exists, +boundless, in whatever direction one follows it: the +knowledge of fitting means to ends: excellent rule-of-thumb +knowledge, as good as the chemist uses for analyzing +water. When the peculiar values of a plot of land have +been established—as, for instance, that it is a clay 'too +strong' for bricks—then further forms of localized knowledge +are brought to supplement this, until at last the +bricks are made. Next, they must be removed from the +field; and immediately new problems arise. The old +farm-cart, designed for roots or manure, has not the most +suitable shape for brick-carting. Probably, too, its wide +wheels, which were intended for the softness of ploughed +land, are needlessly clumsy for the hard road. Soon, +therefore, the local wheelwright begins to lighten his +spokes and felloes, and to make the wheels a trifle less<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[211]</a></span> +'dished'; while his blacksmith binds them in a narrower +but thicker tyre, to which he gives a shade more tightness. +For the wheelwright learns from the carter—that ignorant +fellow—the answer to the new problems set by a load of +bricks. A good carter, for his part, is able to adjust +his labour to his locality. A part of his duty consists in +knowing what constitutes a fair load for his horse in the +district where he is working. So many hundred stock +bricks, so many more fewer of the red or wire-cut, such +and such a quantity of sand, or timber, or straw, or coal, +or drain-pipes, or slates, according to their kinds and +sizes, will make as much as an average horse can draw in +this neighbourhood; but in London the loads are bigger +and the vehicles heavier; while in more hilly parts (as +you may see any day in the West Country) two horses +are put before a cart and load which the London carter +would deem hardly too much for a costermonger's +donkey.</p> + +<p>So it goes throughout civilization: there is not an +industry but produces its own special knowledge relating +to unclassified details of adjustment.<a name="FNanchor_76_76" id="FNanchor_76_76"></a><a href="#Footnote_76_76" class="fnanchor">[76]</a></p></div> + +<p>It is this craft-knowledge and common professional +feeling which is at the basis of all associations of workpeople, +from the semi-religious societies of ancient times, +which met in secret to worship their patron-god—Hephaestos, +the god of the metal-workers, or Asclepios, the +god of the doctors—through the great guilds of the Middle +Ages to the trade unions and professional organizations +of to-day. Trade unions do not exist simply to raise +wages or to fight the capitalist, any more than the British +Medical Association exists simply to raise fees and to +bargain with the Government. They exist to serve +a professional need: to unite men who are doing the same +work and to promote the welfare and dignity of that +work. It is this which renders so difficult the problems +of adjustment which arise owing to the introduction of +new and unfamiliar processes. Professional associations<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[212]</a></span> +are, and are bound to be, conservative: their conservatism +is honourable and to their credit: for they are the +transmitters of a great tradition. The problem in every +case is to ensure the progress necessary to the community +without injury to that sense of 'fellowship in the mystery' +on which the social spirit of the particular class of workmen +depends. It is from this point of view that recent +American proposals in the direction of 'scientific management' +are most open to criticism: for they involve the +break-up of the craft-spirit without setting anything +comparable in its place. In fact, Mr. F. W. Taylor, +one of the inventors of what is called the 'system' of +scientific management, frankly ignores or despises the +craft-spirit and proposes to treat the workman as a being +incapable of understanding the principles underlying the +practice of his art. He goes so far as to lay it down as +a general principle that 'in almost all the mechanic arts +the science which underlies each act of each workman is +so great and amounts to so much that the workman who +is best suited to actually doing the work is incapable of +fully understanding this science, without the guidance +and help of those who are working with him or over him, +either through lack of education or through insufficient +mental capacity'.<a name="FNanchor_77_77" id="FNanchor_77_77"></a><a href="#Footnote_77_77" class="fnanchor">[77]</a> Along the lines of this philosophy +no permanent industrial advance is possible. It may +improve the product for a time, but only at the cost of +degrading the producer. If we are to make happiness +our test, and to stand by our definition of happiness +as involving free activity, such a system, destructive as it +is of any real or intense relationship between the workman +and his work, stands self-condemned. If we are looking +for <i>real</i> industrial progress it is elsewhere that we must +turn.</p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[213]</a></span></p> +<p>This leads us naturally on to the second great division +of our subject: progress in the methods of co-operation +between man and man in doing industrial work. For if +man is a social animal his power to do his bit and his +consequent happiness must be derived, in part at least, +from his social environment. The lonely craftsman +perfecting his art in the solitude of a one-man workshop +does not correspond with our industrial ideal any more +than the hermit or the monk corresponds with our general +religious ideal. It was the great apostle of craftsmanship, +William Morris, who best set forth the social ideal of +industry in his immortal sentence: 'Fellowship is Life and +lack of Fellowship is Death.' Our study of the workman, +then, is not complete when we have seen him with his tools: +we must see him also among his workmates. We must see +industry not simply as a process of production but as +a form of association; and we must realize that the +association of human beings for the purpose of industrial +work involves what is just as much a problem of government +as their association in the great political community +which we call the State.</p> + +<p>It is difficult to see the record of the progress of industrial +government in clear perspective for the simple reason +that the world is still so backward as regards the organization +of this side of its common life. The theory and practice +of industrial government is generations, even centuries, +behind the theory and practice of politics. We are still +accustomed in industry to attitudes of mind and methods +of management which the political thought of the Western +World has long since discarded as incompatible with its +ideals. Two instances must suffice to illustrate this. +It is constantly being said, both by employers and by +politicians, and even by writers in sympathy with working-class +aspirations, that all that the workman needs in his +life is security. Give him work under decent conditions,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[214]</a></span> +runs the argument, with reasonable security of tenure +and adequate guarantees against sickness, disablement +and unemployment, and all will be well. This theory +of what constitutes industrial welfare is, of course, when +one thinks it out, some six centuries out of date. It +embodies the ideal of the old feudal system, but without +the personal tie between master and man which humanized +the feudal relationship. Feudalism, as we saw in our +study of political government, was a system of contract +between the lord and the labourer by which the lord and +master ran the risks, set on foot the enterprises (chiefly +military), and enjoyed the spoils, incidental to mediaeval +life, while the labourer stuck to his work and received +security and protection in exchange. Feudalism broke +down because it involved too irksome a dependence, +because it was found to be incompatible with the personal +independence which is the birthright of a modern man. +So it is idle to expect that the ideal of security will +carry us very far by itself towards the perfect industrial +commonwealth.</p> + +<p>Take a second example of the wide gulf that still +subsists between men's ideas of politics and men's ideas of +industry. It is quite common, even in these latter days, +and among those who have freely sacrificed their nearest +and dearest to the claims of the State, to hear manufacturers +and merchants say that they have a 'right to +a good profit'. The President of the Board of Trade +remarked openly in the House of Commons after many +months of war that it was more than one could expect +of human nature for coal-owners not to get the highest +price they could. Such a standpoint is not merely +indecent: it is hopelessly out-of-date. Looked at from +the political point of view it is a pure anachronism. +There used to be times when men made large fortunes +out of the service of government, as men still make them<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[215]</a></span> +out of the service of the community in trade and industry +to-day. In the days of St. Matthew, when tax-gathering +was let out by contract, the apostle's partners would +probably have declared, as Mr. Runciman does to-day, +that it was more than one could expect of human nature +that a publican who had a government contract for the +collection of the taxes should not get all he could out of +the tax-payer. It is, indeed, little more than a century +ago since it was a matter of course in this country to +look upon oversea colonies merely as plantations—that +is, as business investments rather than as communities +of human beings. The existence of Chartered Company +government marks a survival of this habit of mind. +The old colonial system, which embodied this point of +view, proved demoralizing not only to the home government +but to the colonists, as a similar view is to the working +class, and it led to the loss of the American colonies +as surely as a similar attitude on the part of employers +leads to unrest and rebellion among workpeople to-day.</p> + +<p>We have thus a long way to travel before the ideals +of politics have been assimilated into the industrial life +of the community and have found fitting embodiment +in its kindred and more complex problems. But at +least we have reached a point where we can see what the +problem of industrial government is. We can say with +assurance that a system which treats human beings +purely as instruments or as passive servants, and atrophies +their self-determination and their sense of individual and +corporate responsibility, is as far from perfection in +industry as the Roman Empire was in politics. Renan's +words about 'the intolerable sadness' incidental to such +a method of organization apply with redoubled force +to occupations which take up the best part of the day +of the mass of the working population. The bleak and +loveless buildings, with their belching chimneys, which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[216]</a></span> +arrest the eye of the thoughtful traveller in the industrial +districts of England are not prisons or workhouses. But +they often look as if they were, and they resemble them in +this—that they too often stand for similarly authoritarian +ideas of government and direction. Industry is still an +autocracy, as politics was in the days before the supremacy +of Parliament. Power still descends from above instead +of springing from below. It is a power limited no doubt +by trade union action and parliamentary and administrative +control: but it is in essence as autocratic as the +government of England used to be before the transference +of sovereignty from the monarch to the representatives +of his subjects. It was recently announced in the press +that Lord Rhondda had bought a group of Welsh collieries +for 2 millions, and that as a result 'Lord Rhondda now +controls over 3-1/2 millions of capital, pays 2-1/2 millions in wages +every year, and is virtually the dictator of the economic +destiny of a quarter of a million miners. Rumours are +also current', the extract continues, 'that Lord Rhondda +is extending his control over the press of Wales'.<a name="FNanchor_78_78" id="FNanchor_78_78"></a><a href="#Footnote_78_78" class="fnanchor">[78]</a> The +existence of such power in this twentieth century in the +hands of single individuals, not selected from the mass +for their special wisdom or humanity, is a stupendous +fact which must give pause to any one who is inclined to +feel complacent about modern industrial progress. In +days gone by political power was as irresponsible as the +economic power wielded to-day by Lord Rhondda; and +it descended from father to son by hereditary right in +the same way as the control over the lives of countless +American workers descends to-day as a matter of course +from John D. Rockefeller senior to John D. Rockefeller +junior. If there is any reality at all in our political +faith we must believe that a similar development towards +self-government can and must take place in industry.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[217]</a></span> +It may be that generations will elapse before the problems +of industrial government find a final and satisfactory +constitutional solution. But at least we can say that +there is only one basis for that solution which is compatible +with a sound ideal of government, or indeed with any +reasoned view of morality or religion—the basis of individual +and corporate freedom with its corresponding +obligations of responsibility and self-respect. No nation, +as Abraham Lincoln said, can remain half-slave and +half-free: and it was a greater than Lincoln who warned +us that we cannot serve both God and Mammon. It is +this underlying conflict of ideals in the organization of +our existing economic system which is the real cause of +the 'Labour unrest' of which we have heard so much +in recent years.</p> + +<p>With this warning in our minds as to the imperfections +of our modern industrial organization, let us briefly +survey the record of the forms of economic association +which preceded it.</p> + +<p>The earliest form of industrial grouping is, of course, +the family; and the family, as we all know, still retains +its primitive character in some occupations as a convenient +form of productive association. This is particularly the +case in agriculture in communities where peasant holdings +prevail. But the family is so much more than an industrial +group that it hardly falls to us to consider it further here.</p> + +<p>Outside the family proper, industrial work among +primitive peoples is often carried on by slaves. It was +a step forward in human progress when primitive man +found that it was more advantageous to capture his +enemies than to kill or eat them; and it was a still greater +step forward when he found that there was more to be +got out of slaves by kind treatment than by compulsion. +This is not the place in which to go into the vexed questions +connected with various forms of slavery. Suffice<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[218]</a></span> +it to say that it is a profound mistake to dismiss the whole +system in one undiscriminating condemnation. Slavery +involves the denial of freedom, and as such it can never +be good. But other systems besides slavery implicitly +involve the denial of freedom. Some of the finest artistic +work in the world has been done by slaves—and by +slaves not working under compulsion but in the company +of free men and on terms of industrial equality with them. +This should serve to remind us that, in judging of systems +of industry, we must look behind the letter of the law to +the spirit of the times and of social institutions. Slavery +at its best merges insensibly into wage-labour at its +lower end. Many of the skilled slaves of ancient Greece +and Rome are hardly distinguishable in status from a +modern workman bound by an unusually long and strict +indenture and paid for his work not only in money but +partly in truck. In order to stimulate their productive +capacity it was found necessary in Greece and Rome to +allow skilled slaves to earn and retain money—although +in the eye of the law they were not entitled to do so; and +they were thus frequently in a position to purchase their +own freedom and become independent craftsmen. Slavery +in the household and in small workshops is open to many +and serious dangers, which need not be particularized here; +but the worst abuses of slavery have always taken place +where slaves have been easily recruited, as in the early +days of European contact with Africa, and when there +were large openings for their employment in gangs on +work of a rough and unskilled character. The problem +of slavery in its worse forms is thus at bottom a cheap-labour +problem analogous to that which confronts North +America and South Africa to-day; and there is an +essential difference which is often ignored between the +educated slave in a Roman Government office who did +the work of a First Division Civil Servant for his imperial<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[219]</a></span> +master and his compeer working in the fields of South +Italy: and between the household servants of a Virginian +family and the plantation-slaves of the farther South. Let +us remember, in passing judgement on what is admittedly +an indefensible system, that during the war which +resulted in the freeing of the American slaves the slaveholders +of the South trusted their household slaves to +protect the women and children during their absence from +home and that that trust was nowhere betrayed. There +is another side to <i>Uncle Tom's Cabin</i> as surely as there is +another side to Mr. Carnegie's paean of modern industrialism +in his <i>Triumphant Democracy</i>.</p> + +<p>Systems of serfdom or caste which bind the workman +to his work without permitting him to be sold like a slave +may be regarded as one step higher than slavery proper. +Such systems are common in stable and custom-bound +countries, and persisted throughout the European Middle +Ages. We need not describe how the rising tide of change +gradually broke up the system in this country and left the +old-time villein a free but often a landless and property less +man. The transition from serfdom to the system of +wage-labour which succeeded it was a transition from +legal dependence to legal freedom, and as such it marked +an advance. But it was also a transition from a fixed +and, as it were, a professional position of service to the +community to a blind and precarious individualism. It +was a transition, as Sir Henry Maine put it, from status to +contract. This famous nineteenth-century aphorism is +eloquent of the limitations of that too purely commercial +age. Every thinking man would admit to-day that +status at its best is a better thing than contract at its +best—that the soldier is a nobler figure than the army +contractor, and that corporate feeling and professional +honour are a better stimulus to right action than business +competition and a laudable keenness to give satisfaction<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[220]</a></span> +to a valuable customer. We have always suffered from +the temptation in this country of adapting business +methods and ideals to politics rather than political +ideals and methods to business. Our eighteenth-century +thinkers explained citizenship itself, not as a duty to our +neighbours but as the fulfilment of an unwritten contract. +Our nineteenth-century legal writers elevated the idea +of free contract almost to an industrial ideal; while, in +somewhat the same spirit, the gutter journalists of to-day, +when they are at a loss for a popular watchword, call for +a business government. Such theories and battle-cries +may serve for a 'nation of shopkeepers'; but that +opprobrious phrase has never been true of the great +mass of the English people, and it was never less true +than to-day.</p> + +<p>The idea of industrial work as the fulfilment of a contract, +whether freely or forcibly made, is thus essentially +at variance with the ideal of community service. It is +difficult for a man who makes his livelihood by hiring +himself out as an individual for what he can get out of +one piece of work after another to feel the same sense +of community service or professional pride as the man +who is serving a vocation and has dedicated his talents +to some continuous and recognized form of work. It +is this which makes the system of wage-labour so unsatisfactory +in principle compared with the guilds of the +town workmen in the Middle Ages and with the organized +professions of to-day; and it is this which explains why +trade unions of recent years have come to concern +themselves more and more with questions of status rather +than of wages and to regard the occupation which they +represent more and more as a profession rather than a +trade. No one has laid bare the deficiencies of the wage-system +more clearly than Adam Smith in the famous +chapter in which he foreshadows the principle of collective<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[221]</a></span> +bargaining. 'What are the common wages of labour', +he there remarks,<a name="FNanchor_79_79" id="FNanchor_79_79"></a><a href="#Footnote_79_79" class="fnanchor">[79]</a></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'depends everywhere upon the contract usually made +between those two parties, whose interests are by no +means the same. The workmen desire to get as much, +the masters to give as little, as possible. The former +are disposed to combine in order to raise, the latter +in order to lower, the wages of labour.... We rarely +hear, it has been said, of the combinations of masters, +though frequently of those of workmen. But whoever +imagines, upon this account, that masters rarely combine +is as ignorant of the world as of the subject. Masters are +always and everywhere in a sort of tacit but constant and +uniform combination not to raise the wages of labour +above their actual rate. To violate this combination is +everywhere a most unpopular action and a sort of reproach +to a master among his neighbours and equals. We seldom, +indeed, hear of this combination, because it is the usual, +and one may say, the natural state of things which +nobody ever hears of. Masters, too, sometimes enter into +particular combinations to sink the wages of labour +even below this rate. These are always conducted with +the utmost secrecy till the moment of execution; and, +when the workmen yield, as they sometimes do without +resistance, though severely felt by them, they are never +heard of by other people. Such combinations, however, +are frequently resisted by a contrary defensive combination +of the workmen, who sometimes, too, without any +provocation of this kind, combine of their own accord to +raise the price of labour. Their usual pretences are, +sometimes the high price of provisions, sometimes the +great profit which their masters make by their work.'</p></div> + +<p>These words were written 140 years ago, but, as we all +know, they are still true of the working of the system +to-day. Indeed the war has served to emphasize their +truth by showing us how deeply entrenched are the habits +of bargaining and of latent antagonism which the working<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[222]</a></span> +of the wage-system has engendered. It is the defect of +the wage-system, as Adam Smith makes clear to us, that +it lays stress on just those points in the industrial process +where the interests of employers and workpeople +run contrary to one another, whilst obscuring those far +more important aspects in which they are partners and +fellow-workers in the service of the community. This +defect cannot be overcome by strengthening one party +to the contract at the expense of the other, by crushing +trade unions or dissolving employers' combinations, or +even by establishing the principle of collective bargaining. +It can only be overcome by the recognition on both sides +that industry is in essence not a matter of contract and +bargaining at all, but of mutual interdependence and +community service: and by the growth of a new ideal +of status, a new sense of professional pride and corporate +duty and self-respect among all who are engaged in the +same function. No one can say how long it may take +to bring about such a fundamental change of attitude, +especially among those who have most to lose, in the +material sense, by an alteration in the existing distribution +of economic power. But the war has cleared away so +much of prejudice and set so much of our life in a new +light that the dim ideals of to-day may well be the +realities of to-morrow. This at least we can say: that no +country in the world is in a better position than we are +to redeem modern industry from the reproach of materialism +and to set it firmly upon a spiritual basis, and that +the country which shall first have had the wisdom and +the courage to do so will be the pioneer in a vast extension +of human liberty and happiness and will have shown +that along this road and no other lies the industrial +progress of mankind.</p> + + +<h3><span class="smcap">Books for Reference</span></h3><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[223]</a></span></p> + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="Books3"> +<tr><td align='left'>1.</td><td align='left'><i>Economics</i>:</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'></td><td align='left'>H. Clay, <i>Economics for the General Reader</i>. 1916.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'></td><td align='left'>Ruskin, <i>Unto this last</i>.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'></td><td align='left'>Smart, <i>Second Thoughts of an Economist</i>. 1916.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>2.</td><td align='left'><i>Man and his Tools</i>:</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'></td><td align='left'>Marvin, <i>The Living Past</i>. 1913.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'></td><td align='left'>F. W. Taylor, <i>The Principles of Scientific Management</i>. 1911.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'></td><td align='left'>Hoxie, <i>Scientific Management and Labour</i>. 1916.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>3.</td><td align='left'><i>Industrial Government</i>:</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'></td><td align='left'>Aristotle, <i>Politics</i> (Book I, chapters on Slavery).</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'></td><td align='left'>Zimmern, <i>The Greek Commonwealth</i> (chapters on Slavery). 1911.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'></td><td align='left'>Ashley, <i>The Economic Organization of England</i>. 1914.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'></td><td align='left'>Unwin, <i>Industrial Organization in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries</i>.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'></td><td align='left'>S. and B. Webb, <i>The History of Trade Unionism</i>.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'></td><td align='left'>Macgregor, <i>The Evolution of Industry</i> (Home University Library).</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'></td><td align='left'>Wallas, <i>The Great Society</i>. 1914.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'></td><td align='left'>G. D. H. Cole, <i>The World of Labour</i>. 1915.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'></td><td align='left'><i>Round Table, June 1916 (Article on the Labour Movement and the Future of British Industry).</i></td></tr> +</table></div> + + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_67_67" id="Footnote_67_67"></a><a href="#FNanchor_67_67"><span class="label">[67]</span></a> Including the well-being of the producers—a point which is +too often overlooked.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_68_68" id="Footnote_68_68"></a><a href="#FNanchor_68_68"><span class="label">[68]</span></a> On this point see <i>Poverty and Waste</i>, by Hartley Withers, 1914, +written before the war, which has driven its lessons home.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_69_69" id="Footnote_69_69"></a><a href="#FNanchor_69_69"><span class="label">[69]</span></a> <i>The Living Past</i>, pp. 20, 21.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_70_70" id="Footnote_70_70"></a><a href="#FNanchor_70_70"><span class="label">[70]</span></a> <i>Second Thoughts of an Economist</i>, p. 89.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_71_71" id="Footnote_71_71"></a><a href="#FNanchor_71_71"><span class="label">[71]</span></a> <i>Principles of Economics</i>, vol. i, p. 11. It is interesting to note +that in his latest book, <i>Inventors and Money-making, lectures on +some relations between Economics and Psychology</i> (1915), Professor +Taussig to some extent goes back upon the point of view of the +extract given above.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_72_72" id="Footnote_72_72"></a><a href="#FNanchor_72_72"><span class="label">[72]</span></a> A similar inquiry on a much larger scale was made by Adolf +Levinstein in his book <i>Die Arbeiterfrage</i> (Munich, 1910). He +examined 4,000 workpeople, consisting of coalminers, cotton +operatives, and engineers. With the exception of a few turners +and fitters almost all replied that they found little or no pleasure +in their work.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_73_73" id="Footnote_73_73"></a><a href="#FNanchor_73_73"><span class="label">[73]</span></a> <i>The Great Society</i>, p. 363.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_74_74" id="Footnote_74_74"></a><a href="#FNanchor_74_74"><span class="label">[74]</span></a> Especially the wonderful results obtained from the young +criminals at the Little Commonwealth in Dorsetshire.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_75_75" id="Footnote_75_75"></a><a href="#FNanchor_75_75"><span class="label">[75]</span></a> See <i>Readings in Vocational Guidance</i> by Meyer Bloomfield +(Boston, 1915).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_76_76" id="Footnote_76_76"></a><a href="#FNanchor_76_76"><span class="label">[76]</span></a> <i>Lucy Bettesworth</i>, pp. 178-80, and 214-16.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_77_77" id="Footnote_77_77"></a><a href="#FNanchor_77_77"><span class="label">[77]</span></a> This sentence is practically an unconscious paraphrase of +a passage from Aristotle's defence of slavery.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_78_78" id="Footnote_78_78"></a><a href="#FNanchor_78_78"><span class="label">[78]</span></a> <i>The Welsh Outlook</i>, August 1916, p. 272.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_79_79" id="Footnote_79_79"></a><a href="#FNanchor_79_79"><span class="label">[79]</span></a> <i>Wealth of Nations</i>, Book I, ch. viii.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[224]</a></span></p> +<h2>IX</h2> + +<h2>PROGRESS IN ART</h2> + +<h3><span class="smcap">A. Clutton Brock</span></h3> + + +<p>It is often said that there can be no such thing as +progress in art. At one time the arts flourish, at another +they decay: but, as Whistler put it, art happens as +men of genius happen; and men cannot make it happen. +They cannot discover what circumstances favour art, +and therefore they cannot attempt to produce those +circumstances. There are periods of course in which the +arts, or some one particular art, progress. One generation +may excel the last; through several generations an art +may seem to be rushing to its consummation. This +happened with Greek sculpture and the Greek drama +in the sixth and fifth centuries; with architecture and +all kindred arts in western Europe in the twelfth and +thirteenth centuries, and at the same time with many arts +in China. It happened with painting and sculpture in +Italy in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, with +literature in England in the sixteenth century, with +music in Germany in the eighteenth century and the +beginning of the nineteenth. But in all these cases there +followed a decline, often quite unconscious at the time +and one of which we cannot discover the causes. Attempts +are made by historians of the arts to state the causes; +but they satisfy only those who make them, for they are, +in fact, only statements of the symptoms of decline. +They tell us what happened, not why it happened. And +they all seem to point to two conclusions about the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[225]</a></span> +course of the arts, both of which would make us despair +of any settled progress in them. The first is that the +practice of any art by any particular people always +follows a certain natural course of growth, culmination, +and decay. At least it always follows this course where +an art is practised naturally and therefore with success. +Art in fact, in its actual manifestations, is like the life +of an individual human being and subject to inexorable +natural laws. It is born, as men are born, without the +exercise of will; and in the same way it passes through +youth, maturity, and old age. The second conclusion +follows from this, and it is that one nation or age cannot +take up an art where another has left it. That is where +art seems to differ from science. The mass of knowledge +acquired in one country can, if that country loses energy +to apply or increase it, be utilized by another. But we +cannot so make use of the art of the Greeks or of the +Italian Renaissance or of our own Middle Ages. In the +Gothic revival we tried to make use of the art of the +Middle Ages and we failed disastrously. We imitated +without understanding, and we could not understand +because we were not ourselves living in the Middle Ages. +Art, in fact, is always a growth of its own time which +cannot be transplanted, and no one can tell why it +grows in one time and among one people and not in +another.</p> + +<p>That is what we are always told, and yet we never +quite believe all of it. For, as art is a product of the human +mind, it must also be a product of the human will, unless +it is altogether unconscious like a dream. But that it is +not; for men produce it in their waking hours and with +the conscious exercise of their faculties. If a man paints +a picture he does so because he wants to paint one. He +exercises will and choice in all his actions, and the man +who buys a picture does the same. We talk of inspiration<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[226]</a></span> +in the arts as something that cannot be commanded, but +there is also inspiration in the sciences. No man can +make a scientific discovery by the pure exercise of his will. +It jumps into one mind and not into another just like an +artistic inspiration. And further we are taught and trained +in the arts as in the sciences; and success in both depends +a great deal upon the nature of the training. In both +good training will not give genius or inspiration to those +who are without it; but it will enable those who possess +it to make the most of it; and, what is more, it will +enable even the mediocre to produce work of some value. +What strikes us most about the Florentine school of +painting of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries is the +fact that its second-rate painters are so good, that +we can enjoy their works even when they are merely +imitative. But the Florentine school excelled all others +of the time in its teaching; most painters of other +schools in Italy learnt from Florence; and the inspiration +came to them from Florence, they were quickened from +Florence, however much their art kept its own natural +character. But this school which had the best teaching +also produced the most painters of genius. Its level was +higher and its heights were higher; and for this reason, +that the whole Florentine intellect went both into the +teaching and into the practice of painting and sculpture. +The Florentine was able to put all his mind, the scientific +faculties as well as the aesthetic, into his art. He never +relied merely on his temperament or his mood. He was +eager for knowledge. It was not enough for him to paint +things as he saw them; he tried to discover how they +were made, what were the laws of their growth and +construction; and his knowledge of these things changed +the character of his vision, made him see the human body, +for instance, as no mediaeval artist had ever seen it; +made him see it as an engineer sees a machine. Just<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[227]</a></span> +as an engineer sees more in a machine than a man who +does not understand its working, so the Florentine saw +more in the human body than a mediaeval artist. He saw +it with a scientific as well as an aesthetic passion, and all +this science of his enriched his art so that there has never +since been drawing like the Florentine, drawing at once +so logical and so expressive.</p> + +<p>The Florentines in fact did exercise their will upon their +art more than any other modern artists, more, perhaps, +than any other artists known to us, and their painting +and sculpture were the greatest of the modern world. +Yet the fact remains that Florentine art declined suddenly +and irresistibly, and that all the Florentine intellect, which +still remained remarkable and produced men of science +like Galileo, could not arrest that decline. Indeed the +Florentines themselves seem not to have been conscious +of it. They thought that the dull imitators of Michelangelo +were greater than his great predecessors. As we +say, their taste became bad, their values were perverted; +and with that perversion all their natural genius for the +arts was wasted. To this day Carlo Dolci is the favourite +painter of the ordinary Florentine. He was a man of +some ability, and he painted pictures at once feeble and +revolting because he himself and his public liked such +pictures.</p> + +<p>There is no accounting for tastes, we say, and in saying +that we despair of progress in the arts. For it is ultimately +this unaccountable thing called taste, and not the absence +or presence of genius, which determines whether the arts +shall thrive or decay in any particular age or country. +People often say that they know nothing about art, but +that they do know what they like; and what they imply +is that there is nothing to be known about art except +your own likes and dislikes, and further that no man can +control those. The Florentines of the seventeenth century<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[228]</a></span> +happened to like Carlo Dolci, where the Florentines of the +fifteenth had liked Botticelli. That is the only explanation +we can give of the decline of Florentine painting.</p> + +<p>It is of course no explanation; and because no explanation +beyond it has been given, we are told that there can +be no such thing as progress in the arts. That is the +lesson of history. We are far beyond the Egyptians in +science, but certainly not beyond them in art. Indeed +one might say that there has been a continual slow +decline in all the arts of Europe, except music, since the +year 1500, and that music itself has been slowly declining +since the death of Beethoven. But with this slow inexorable +decline of the arts there has been a great advance +in nearly everything else, in knowledge, in power, even +in morality. Upon everything man has been able to +exercise his will except upon the arts. Where he has +really wished for progress there he has got it, except in +this one case. Therefore it seems that upon the arts he +cannot exercise his will, and that they alone of all his +activities are not capable of progress. What do we mean +by progress except the successful exercise of the human will +in a right direction? That is what distinguishes progress +from natural growth; that alone can preserve it from +natural processes of decay. There are people who say +that it does not exist, that everything which happens +to man is a natural process of growth or decay. Whether +that is so or not, we do mean by progress something +different from these natural processes. When we speak +of it we do imply the exercise of the human will, man's +command over circumstances; and those who deny +progress altogether deny that man has any will or any +command over circumstances. For them things happen +to man and that is all, it is not man's will that makes +things happen. But if we use the word progress at all, +we imply that it is man's will that makes things happen.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[229]</a></span> +And since man is evidently liable to decline as well as +progress, it follows that if we believe man to be capable +of exercising his will in a right direction we must also +believe that he can and does exercise it in a wrong direction. +I assume that man has this power both for good and for +evil. If I did not, I should not be addressing you upon the +question whether man is capable of progress in the arts, +but upon the question whether he is capable of progress +at all. And I should be trying to prove that he is not.</p> + +<p>As it is, the question I have to discuss is whether he +has the power of exercising for good or evil his will upon +the arts as upon other things; and hitherto I have been +giving you certain facts in the history of the arts which +seem to prove that he is not. They all amount to +this—that man has not hitherto succeeded in exercising +his will upon the arts; that he has not produced +good art because he wished to produce it. We, for +instance, wish to excel in the arts; we have far more +power than the ancient Greeks or Egyptians; but we +have not been able to apply that power to the +arts. In them we are conscious of a strange impotence. +We cannot build like our forefathers of the +Middle Ages, we cannot make furniture like our great-grandfathers +of the eighteenth century. Go into an old +churchyard and look at the tombstones of the past and +present. You will see that the lettering is always fine +up to the first generation of the nineteenth century. +In that generation there is a rapid decline; and since +about 1830 there has been no decent lettering upon +tombstones except what has been produced in the last +ten years or so by the conscious effort of a few individual +artists of great natural talent and high training. If I want +good lettering on a tombstone I have to employ one of +these artists and to pay him a high price for his talent +and his training. But that is only one example of a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[230]</a></span> +universal decline in all the arts of use, a decline which +happened roughly between the years 1800 and 1830. +And the significant fact about it is that when it happened +no one was aware of it. So far as I know, this artistic +catastrophe, far the swiftest and most universal known +to us in the whole course of history, was never even +mentioned in contemporary literature. The poets, the +lovers of beauty, did not speak of it. They talked +about nature, not about art. There is not a hint of it in +the letters of Shelley or Keats. There is just a hint of +it in some sayings of Blake; but that is all. One would +suppose that such a catastrophe would have filled the +minds of all men who were not entirely occupied with +the struggle for life, that all would have seen that a glory +was passing away from the earth, and would have made +some desperate struggle to preserve it. But, as I say, +they saw nothing of it. They were not aware that a universal +ugliness was taking the place of beauty in all things +made by man; and therefore the new ugliness must +have pleased them as much as the old beauty. So it +appears once again that there is no accounting for tastes, +and no test that we can apply to them. When science +declines, men at least know that they have less power. +They are more subject to pestilence when they forget +medicine and sanitation; their machines become useless +to them when they no longer know how to work them; +there is anarchy when they lose their political goodwill. +But when their taste decays they do not know that it +has decayed. And with it decays their artistic capacity, so +that, quite complacently, they lose the power of doing +decently a thousand things that their fathers did excellently.</p> + +<p>But here suddenly I am brought to a stop by a new +fact in human history. The arts have declined, but our +complacency over their decline has ceased. The first<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[231]</a></span> +man who disturbed it was Ruskin. It was he who saw +the catastrophe that had happened. Suddenly he was +aware of it; suddenly he escaped from the universal +tyranny of the bad taste of his time. He was the first +to deny that there was no accounting for tastes; the first +to deny, indeed, that the ordinary man did know what he +liked. And he was followed with more knowledge and +practical power, in fact with more science, by William +Morris. What both of these great men really said was +that taste is not unaccountable; that the mass of men +do not know what they like, that they do not apply +their intellect and will to what they suppose to be +their likes and dislikes, and that they could apply their +intellect and will to these things if they chose.</p> + +<p>When we say that there is no accounting for tastes +we imply that tastes are always real, that, whether good +or bad, they happen to men without any exercise of their +will. But Ruskin and Morris implied that we must +exercise our will and our intelligence to discover what our +tastes really are; that this discovery is not at all easy, +but that, if we do not make it, we are at the mercy, not +of our own real tastes, but of an unreal thing which is +called the public taste, or of equally unreal reactions +against it. We think that we like what we suppose other +people to like, and these other people too think that they +like what no one really likes. Or in mere blind reaction +we think that we dislike what the mob likes. But in +either case our likes and dislikes are not ours at all and, +what is more, they are no one's. Taste in fact is bad +because it is not any one's taste, because no one's will +is exercised in it or upon it. When it is good, it is always +real taste, that is to say some real person's taste. In +the work of art the artist does what he really likes to do +and expresses some real passion of his own, not some +passion which he believes that he, as an artist, ought to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[232]</a></span> +express. Art, said Morris, is the expression of the workman's +pleasure in his work. It cannot be real art unless +it is a real pleasure. And so the public will not demand real +art unless they too take a real pleasure in it. If they do +not know what they really like, they will not demand +of the artist what they really like or what he really +likes. They will demand something tiresome and insincere, +and by the tyranny of their demand will set him to +produce it.</p> + +<p>That was what happened at the beginning of the nineteenth +century in nearly all the arts and especially in +the arts of use. It had happened before in different ages +and countries, especially in painting, sculpture, architecture, +and the arts of use as they were patronized by the +vulgar rich, such as the court of Louis XV. But now it +happened suddenly and universally to all arts. There +were no longer vulgar rich only but also vulgar poor and +vulgar middle-classes. Everywhere there spread a kind +of aesthetic snobbery which obscured real tastes. Of +this I will give one simple and homely example. The +beautiful flowers of the cottage garden were no longer +grown in the gardens of the well-to-do, because they were +the flowers of the poor. Instead were grown lobelias, +geraniums, and calceolarias, combined in a hideous +mixture, not because any one thought them more beautiful, +but because, since they were grown in green-houses, +they implied the possession of green-houses and so of +wealth. They did not, of course, even do that, since they +could be bought very cheaply from nurserymen. They +implied only the bad taste of snobbery which is the absence +of all real taste. For it is physically impossible for any +one to like such a combination of plants better than +larkspurs and lilies and roses. What they did enjoy +was not the flowers themselves but their association with +gentility. But so strong was the contagion of this associa<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[233]</a></span>tion +that cottagers themselves began to throw away +their beautiful cottage-garden flowers and to grow these +plants, so detestable in combination. And to this day +one can see often in cottage gardens pathetic imitations +of a taste that never was real and which now is discredited +among the rich, so that a border of lobelias, calceolarias, +and geraniums has become a mark of social inferiority as +it was once one of social superiority. But what it never +was and never could be was an expression of a genuine +liking.</p> + +<p>Now I owe the very fact that I am able to give this +account of a simple perversion of taste to Ruskin and +Morris. It was they who first made the world aware +that its taste was perverted and that most of its art was +therefore bad. It was they who filled us with the conviction +of artistic sin, and who also in a manner entirely +scientific tried to discover what was the nature of this +sin and how it had come about. First Ruskin tentatively, +and afterwards Morris systematically and out of his own +vast artistic experience, connected this decay of the arts +with certain social conditions. It was not merely that +taste had decayed or that the arts had developed to +a point beyond which there was nothing for them but +decline. Morris insisted that there were causes for the +decay of taste and the decline of the arts, causes as much +subject to the will of man as the causes of any kind of +social decay or iniquity. He insisted that a work of art +is not an irrational mystery, not something that happens +and may happen well or ill; but that all art is intimately +connected with the whole of our social well-being. It is +in fact an expression of what we value, and if we value +noble things it will be noble, if we pretend to value base +things it will be base.</p> + +<p>Whistler said that this was not so. He insisted that +genius is born, not made, and that some peoples have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[234]</a></span> +artistic capacity, some have not. Now it is true that +nations vary very much in their artistic capacity and in +the strength of their desire to produce art. But even the +nations which have little artistic capacity and little desire +to produce art have in their more primitive state produced +charming works of real art. Whistler gave the case of +the Swiss as an excellent people with little capacity for +art. But the old Swiss chalets are full of character and +beauty, and there are churches in Switzerland which have +all the beauty of the Middle Ages. The cuckoo clocks +and other Swiss articles of commerce which Whistler +despised are contemptible, not because they are Swiss, +but because they are tourist trash produced by workmen +who express no pleasure of their own in them for visitors +who buy them only because they think they are characteristic +of Switzerland. They are, in fact, not the expression +of any genuine taste or liking whatever, like the tourist +trash that is sold in the Rue de Rivoli. Probably the +Swiss would never be capable of producing works of art like +Chartres Cathedral or Don Giovanni, but they have in the +past possessed a genuine and delightful art of their own +like nearly every European nation in the Middle Ages.</p> + +<p>So, though genius is born, it is also made, and though +nations differ in artistic capacity, they all have some +artistic capacity so long as they know what they like and +express only their own liking in their art, so long as they +are not infected with artistic snobbism or commercialism. +This we know now, and we have developed a new and +remarkable power of seeing and enjoying all the genuine +art of the past. This power is part of the historical sense +which is itself modern. In the past, until the nineteenth +century, very few people could see any beauty or meaning +in any art of the past that did not resemble the art of +their own time and country. The whole art of the +Middle Ages, for instance, was thought to be merely<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[235]</a></span> +barbarous until the Gothic revival, and so was the art of +all the past so far as it was known, except the later art +of Greece and Rome. For our ancestors' taste did indeed +happen as art happened, and they could not escape +from the taste which circumstances imposed on them; any +art that was not according to that taste was for them as +it were in an unknown tongue. But we have made this +great progress in taste, at least, if not in the production +of art, that we can understand nearly all artistic languages, +and that what used to be called classical art has lost its +old superstitious prestige for us. Not only can we enjoy +the art of our own Middle Ages; but many of us can enjoy +and understand just as well the great art of Egypt and +China, and can see as clearly when that art is good or +bad as if it were of our own time. We have, in fact, +in the matter of artistic appreciation gained the freedom +of all the ages, and this is a thing that has never, so far +as we know, happened before in the history of the human +mind.</p> + +<p>But still this freedom of all the ages has not enabled +us to produce a great art of our own. There are some, +indeed, who think that it has hindered us from doing so, +that we are becoming merely universal connoisseurs +who can criticize anything and produce nothing. We +have the most wonderful museums that ever were, and +the most wonderful power of enjoying all that is in them, +but, with all our riches from the past, our present is barren; +and it is barren because our rich men would rather pay +great prices for past treasures than encourage artists +to produce masterpieces now. If that is so, if that is all +that is coming to us from our freedom of all the ages, +there is certainly not progress in it. Better that we should +produce and enjoy the humblest genuine art of our own +than that we should continue in this learned impotence.</p> + +<p>But this power of enjoying the art of all ages, though it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[236]</a></span> +certainly has had some unfortunate results, must be good +in itself. It is sympathy, and that is always better than +indifference or antipathy. It is knowledge, and that is +always better than ignorance. And we have to remember +that it has existed only for a short time and is, therefore, +not yet to be judged by its fruits. We are still gasping +at all the artistic treasures of the past that have been +revealed to us like a new world; and still they are being +revealed to our new perceptions. Only in the last ten +years, for instance, have we discovered that Chinese +painting is the rival of Italian, or that the golden age of +Chinese pottery was centuries before the time of that +Chinese porcelain which we have hitherto admired so +much. The knowledge, the delight, is still being gathered +in with both hands. It is too soon to look for its effects +upon the mind of Europe.</p> + +<p>But it is not the result of mere barren connoisseurship +or scholasticism. Rather it is a new renaissance, a new +effort of the human spirit, and an effort after what? An +effort to exert the human will in the matter of art far more +consciously than it has exerted ever before. It is to +be noted that Morris himself, the man who first told us +that we must exert our wills in art, was also himself +eager in the discovery and enjoyment of all kinds of art +in the past. He had his prejudices, the prejudices of +a very wilful man and a working artist. 'What can I +see in Rome,' he said, 'that I cannot see in Whitechapel?' +But he enjoyed the art of most ages and countries more +than he enjoyed his prejudices. He had the historical +sense in art to a very high degree. He knew what the artist +long dead meant by his work as if it were a poem in his +own language, and from the art of the past which he loved +he saw what was wrong with the art of our time. So did +Ruskin and so do many now. Further we are not in the +least content to admire the art of the past without<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[237]</a></span> +producing any of our own. There is incessant restless +experiment, incessant speculation about aesthetics, incessant +effort to apply them to the actual production of +art, in fact to exert the conscious human will upon art +as it has never been exerted before.</p> + +<p>So, if one wished in a sentence to state the peculiarity +of the last century in the history of art, one would say +that it is the first age in which men have rebelled against +the process of decadence in art, in which they have been +completely conscious of that process and have tried to +arrest it by a common effort of will. We cannot yet say +that that effort has succeeded, but we cannot say either +that it has failed. We may be discontented with the art +of our own time, but at least we must allow that it is, with +all its faults, extravagances, morbidities and blind experiments, +utterly unlike the art of any former age of decadence +known to us. There may be confusion and anarchy, +but there is not mere pedantry and stagnation. Artists +perhaps are over-conscious, always following some new +prophet, but at least there is the conviction of sin in them, +which is exactly what all the decadent artists of the past +have lacked.</p> + +<p>The artistic decadence of the past which is most +familiar to us is that of the later Graeco-Roman art. +It was a long process which began at least as early as the +age of Alexander and continued until the fall of the +Western Roman Empire and afterwards, until, indeed, +the decadent classical art was utterly supplanted by the +art which we call Romanesque and Byzantine, and which +seems to us now at its best to be as great as any art that +has ever been.</p> + +<p>But a hundred years ago this Romanesque and Byzantine +art was thought to be only a barbarous corruption +of the classical art. For then the classical art even in +its last feebleness still kept its immense and unique<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[238]</a></span> +prestige. Shelley said that the effect of Christianity +seemed to have been to destroy the last remains of pure +taste, and he said this when he had been looking at the +great masterpieces of Byzantine mosaic at Ravenna. +Now we know with an utter certainty that he was wrong. +He was himself a great artist, but to him there was only +one rational and beautiful and civilized art, and that was +the decadent Graeco-Roman art. To him works like the +Apollo Belvedere were the masterpieces of the world, and +all other art was good as it resembled them. He and in +fact most people of his time were still overawed by the +immense complacency of that art. They had not the +historical sense at all. They had no notion of certain +psychological facts about art which are now familiar to +every educated man. They did not know that art cannot +be good unless it expresses the character of the people +who produce it; that characterless art, however accomplished, +is uninteresting; that there may be more life and +so more beauty in the idol of an African savage than in +the Laocoon.</p> + +<p>This later Greek and Graeco-Roman art was doomed +to inevitable decay because of its immense complacency. +The artists had discovered, as they thought, the right +way to produce works of art, and they went on producing +them in that way without asking themselves whether +they meant anything by them or whether they enjoyed +them. They knew, in fact, what was the proper thing +to do just as conventional people now know what is the +proper thing to talk about at a tea party; and their art +was as uninteresting as the conversation of such people. +In both the talk and the art there is no expression of real +values and so no expression of real will. The past lies +heavy upon both. So people have talked, so artists have +worked, and so evidently people must talk and artists +must work for evermore.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[239]</a></span></p> + +<p>Now we have been threatened with just the same kind +of artistic decadence, and we are still threatened with it; +so that it would be very easy to argue that, when men +reach a certain stage in that organization of their lives +which we call civilization, they must inevitably fall into +artistic decadence. The Roman Empire did attain to +a high stage of such organization, and all the life went +out of its art. We have reached perhaps a still higher or +at least more elaborate stage of it, and the life has gone +or is going out of our art. It has become even more +mechanical than the Graeco-Roman. We, too, have lost +the power of expressing ourselves, our real values, our +real will, in it; and we had better submit to that impotence +and not make a fuss about it. Indeed art really is +an activity proper to a more childish stage of the human +mind, and we shall do well not to waste our time and +energy upon it. That is the only way in which we can be +superior to the Graeco-Roman world in the matter of art. +We can give it up altogether or rather put it all into +museums as a curiosity of the past to be studied for +historical and scientific purposes.</p> + +<p>But I have only to say that to prove that we will not +be contented with such a counsel of despair. The Romans +went on producing art, even if it was bad art, and we +shall certainly go on producing art whether it is good or +bad. We have produced an immense mass of bad art, +worse perhaps than any that the Roman world produced. +But there is this difference between us and the Romans, +that we are not content with it. We have the conviction +of artistic sin and they had not. Therefore we do not +think that their example need make us despair. They +were not exercising their will on their art. It was to +them what a purely conventional morality is to a morally +decadent people. It went from bad to worse, just as +conventional morals do, when no man arises and says:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[240]</a></span> +'This is wrong, although you think it right. I know what +is right from my own sense of values, and I will do it in +spite of you.' So far as we know, there were no rebels +of that kind in the art of the Graeco-Roman world. But +our world of art is full of such rebels and has been ever +since the artistic debacle at the beginning of the nineteenth +century. In fact the chief and the unique characteristic +of the art of the last hundred years has been the +constant succession of artistic rebels. All our greatest +artists have been men who were determined to exercise +their own wills in their art, whatever the mass of men +might think of it. And what has always happened is that +they have been first bitterly abused and then passionately +praised. This, so far as I know, has never happened +before. There have been rebel artists like Rembrandt, +but only a few of them. Most great artists before the +nineteenth century have been admired in their own time. +But in the nineteenth century, and more and more +towards the end of it, the great artists have had to +conquer the world with their rebellion, they have had to +exercise their own individual wills against the common +convention. And it seems to us now the mark of the +great artist so to exercise his individual will, so to rebel +and conquer the world with his rebellion, even if he kills +himself in the process. Think of Constable and even +Turner, of our pre-Raphaelites, and above all of nearly +all the great French artists, of Millet, of Manet, of +Cezanne, Gauguin, of Rodin himself, who has conquered +the world now, but only in his old age. Think of Beethoven, +of Schubert, of Wagner, and of all the rebel +musicians of to-day. But in the past the great artists, +Michelangelo, Titian, even the great innovator Giorgione; +Mozart, Bach, Handel; none of these were thought of as +rebels. They had not to conquer the world against its +will. They came into the world, and the world knew<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[241]</a></span> +them. So, we may be sure, the decadent artists of the +Graeco-Roman world were not rebels. There they were +like Michelangelo and Raphael, if they were like them in +nothing else. If they had been rebels we might not yawn +at their works now.</p> + +<p>Now, clearly, this rebellion is not so good a thing as the +harmony between the artist and his public which has +prevailed in all great ages of art. But it is better than +the harmony of dull and complacent convention which +prevailed in the Graeco-Roman decadence. For it means +that our artists are not content with such complacence, +that they will not accept decadence as an inevitable +process. And the fact that we do passionately admire +them for their rebellion as soon as we understand what +it means, that this rebellion seems to us a glorious and +heroic thing, is a proof that we, the public, also are not +content to sink into the Graeco-Roman complacency. +We may stone our prophets at first, but like the Hebrews, +we produce prophets as well as priests, that is to say +academicians. And we treasure their works as the +Hebrews treasured the books of the prophets.</p> + +<p>Art, in fact, is a human activity in which we try to +exercise our wills. We are aware that it is threatened +with decadence by the mere process of our civilization, +that it is much more difficult for us to produce living art +than it was for our forefathers of the Middle Ages. But +still we are not content to produce dead art. Half +unconsciously we are making the effort to exercise our +wills upon our art, as upon our science, our morals, our +politics, to avoid decadence in art as we try to avoid it +in other human activities; and this effort is the great +experiment, the peculiar feature, of the art of the last +century.</p> + +<p>It is an effort not merely aesthetic but also intellectual. +There is a great interest in aesthetics and a constant and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[242]</a></span> +growing effort to charge them with actual experience +and to put them to some practical end. In the past they +have been the most backward, the most futile and barren, +kind of philosophy because men wrote about them who +had never really experienced works of art and who saw +no connexion between their philosophy and the production +of works of art. They talked about the nature of the +beautiful, as schoolmen talked about the nature of God. +And they knew no more about the nature of the beautiful +from their own experience of it than schoolmen knew +about the nature of God. But now men are interested +in the beautiful because they miss it so much in the +present works of men and because they so passionately +desire it; and their speculation has the aim of recovering +it. So aesthetics, whatever some artists in their peculiar +and pontifical narrowness may say, is of great importance +now; they are part of the effort which the modern +world is making to exercise its will in the production of +works of art, and they are bound, if that effort is +successful, to have more and more effect upon that +production.</p> + +<p>But is that effort going to be successful? That is +a question which no one can answer yet. But my object +is to insist that in our age, because of its effort, an effort +which has never been made so consciously and resolutely +before, there is a possibility of a progress in art of the +same nature as progress in other human activities. If +we can escape from what has seemed to some men this +inexorable process of decadence in art, we shall have +accomplished one of the greatest achievements of the +human will. We shall have redeemed art from the +tyranny of mere fate.</p> + +<p>What we have to do now is to understand what it is that +causes decadence in art, we have to apply a conscious +science to the production of it. We have to see what are<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[243]</a></span> +the social causes that produce excellence and decay in it. +And we have made a great beginning in this. For we are +all aware that art is not an isolated thing, that it does not +merely happen, as Whistler said. We know that it is +a symptom of something right or wrong with the whole +mind of man and with the circumstances that affect that +mind. We know at last that there is a connexion between +the art of man and his intellect and his conscience. It +was because William Morris saw that connexion that he, +from being a pure artist, became a socialist and spoke +at street corners. Such a change, such a waste and +perversion as it seemed to many, would have been +impossible in any former age. It was possible and inevitable, +it was a natural process for Morris in the nineteenth +century, because he was determined to exercise his will +upon art, just as men in the past had exercised their will +upon religion or politics; because he no longer believed +that art happened as the weather happens and that the +artist is a charming but irresponsible child swayed +merely by the caprices of his own private subconsciousness. +Was he right or wrong? I myself firmly believe +that he was right. That if man has a will at all, if he is +not a mere piece of matter moulded by circumstances, +he has a will in art as in all other things. And, further, +if he has a common will which can express itself in his +other activities, in religion or politics, that common will +must also be able to express itself in art. It has not +hitherto done so consciously, because man in all periods +of artistic success has been content to succeed without +asking why he succeeded, and in all periods of artistic +failure he has been content to fail without asking why +he has failed. We have been for long living in a period +of artistic failure, but we have asked, we are asking +always more insistently, why we fail. And that is where +our time differs from any former period of artistic deca<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[244]</a></span>dence, +why, I believe, it is not a period of decadence but +one of experiment, and of experiment which will not be +wasted, however much it may seem at the moment to +fail. But if out of all this conscious effort and experiment +we do arrest the process of decadence, if we do pass from +failure to success, then we shall have accomplished a progress +in art such as has never been accomplished before +even in the greatest ages. For whereas men have never +been able to learn from the experience of those ages, +whereas the Greeks and the men of the thirteenth century +have not taught men how to avoid decadence in art, we +and our children will teach them how to avoid it. We +shall then have given a security to art such as it has +never enjoyed before; and we shall do that by applying +science to it, by using the conscious intelligence +upon it.</p> + +<p>We may fail, of course, but even so our effort will not +have been in vain. And some future age in happier +circumstances may profit by it, and achieve that progress, +that application of science to art, which we are now +attempting.</p> + +<p>Many people, especially artists, tell us that the attempt +is a mere absurdity. But ignorance even about art need +not be eternal. Ignorance is eternal only when it is +despairing or contented. Twenty years ago many people +said that men never would be able to fly, yet they are +flying now because they were resolved to fly. So we are +more and more resolved to have great art. Every year +we feel the lack of it more and more. Every year more +people exercise their wills more and more consciously in +the effort to achieve it. This, I repeat, has never happened +before in the history of the world. And the consequence +is that our art, what real art we have, is unlike any that +there has been in the world before. It is so strange and +so rebellious that we ourselves are shocked and amazed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[245]</a></span> +by it. Much of it, no doubt, is merely strange and +rebellious, as much of early Christianity was merely +strange and rebellious and so provoked the resentment +and persecution of self-respecting pagans. Every great +effort of the human mind attracts those who merely +desire their own salvation, and so it is with the artistic +effort now. There are cubists and futurists and post-impressionists +who are as silly as human beings can be, +because they hope to attain to artistic salvation by +rushing to extremes. They are religious egotists, in fact, +and nothing can be more disagreeable than a religious +egotist. But there were no doubt many of them among +the early Christians. Yet Christianity was a great creative +religious effort which came because life and truth had +died out of the religions of the past, and men could not +endure to live without life and truth in their religion. +So now they cannot endure to live without life and truth +in their art. They are determined to have an art which +shall express all that they have themselves experienced +of the beauty of the universe, which shall not merely +utter platitudes of the past about that beauty.</p> + +<p>So far perhaps there is little but the effort at expression, +an effort strange, contorted, self-conscious. You can +say your worst about it and laugh at all its failures. Yet +they are failures different in kind from the artistic failures +of the past, for they are failures of the conscious will, not +of mere complacency. And it is such failures in all human +activities that prepare the way for successes.</p> + +<p>Let us remember then, always, that art is a human +activity, not a fairy chance that happens to the mind of +man now and again. And let us remember, too, that it +does not consist merely of pictures or statues or of music +performed in concert-rooms. It is, indeed, rather a quality +of all things made by man, a quality that may be good +or bad but which is always in them. That is one of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[246]</a></span> +facts about art that was discovered in the nineteenth +century, when men began to miss the excellence of art in +all their works and to wish passionately that its excellence +might return to them. And this discovery which was +then made about art was of the greatest practical importance. +For then men became aware that they could not +have good pictures or architecture or sculpture unless +the quality of art became good again in all their works. +So much they learnt about the science of art. They +began, or some of them did, to think about their furniture +and cottages and pots and pans and spoons and forks, +and even about their tombstones, as well as about what +had been called their works of art. And in all these +humbler things an advance, a conscious resolute wilful +advance, has been made. We begin to see when and also +why spoons and forks and pots and pans are good or bad. +We are less at the mercy of chance or blind fashion in +such things than our fathers were. We know our vulgarity +and the naughtiness of our own hearts. The advance, +the self-knowledge, is not general yet, but it grows more +general every year and the conviction of sin spreads. +No doubt, like all conviction of sin, it often produces +unpleasant results. The consciously artistic person often +has a more irritating house than his innocently philistine +grandfather had. So, no doubt, many simple pagan +people were much nicer than those early Christians who +were out for their own salvation. But there was progress +in Christianity and there was none in paganism.</p> + +<p>The title of this book is <i>Progress and History</i>, and it +may justly be complained that the progress of which +I have been talking is not historic, but a progress that +has not yet happened and may never happen at all. But +that I think is a defect of my particular branch of the +subject. Progress in art, if progress is anything more +than a natural process of growth to be followed inevitably<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[247]</a></span> +by a natural process of decay, has never yet happened in +art; but there is now an effort to make it happen, an +effort to exercise the human will in art more completely +and consciously than it has ever been exercised before. +Therefore I could do nothing but attempt to describe +that effort and to speculate upon its success.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[248]</a></span></p> +<h2>X</h2> + +<h2>PROGRESS IN SCIENCE</h2> + +<h3><span class="smcap">F.S. Marvin</span></h3> + +<p class='center'>'L'Esprit travaillant sur les données de l'expérience.'</p> + + +<p>The French phrase, neater as usual than our own, may +be taken as the starting-point in our discussion. We shall +put aside such questions as what an experience is, or how +much the mind itself supplies in each experience, or what, +if anything, is the not-mind upon which the mind works. +We must leave something for the chapter on philosophy; +and the present chapter is primarily historical. Having +defined what we mean by science, we are to consider +at what stage in history the working of the mind on +experience can be called scientific, in what great strides +science has leapt forward since its definite formation, and +in what ways this growth of science has affected general +progress, both by its action on the individual and on the +welfare and unity of mankind.</p> + +<p>Our French motto must be qualified in order to give +us precision in our definition and a starting-point in +history for science in the strict sense. In a general sense +the action of the mind upon the given in experience has +been going on from the beginning of animal life. But +science, strictly so-called, does not appear till men have +been civilized and settled in large communities for +a considerable time. We cannot ascribe 'science' to the +isolated savage gnawing bones in his cave, though the +germs are there, in every observation that he makes of +the world around him and every word that he utters to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[249]</a></span> +his mates. But we may begin to speak of science when we +reach those large and ordered societies which are found +in the great river-basins and sedentary civilizations of +East and West, especially in Egypt and Chaldea.</p> + +<p>When we turn to the quality of the thing itself, we note +in the first place that while science may be said to begin +with mere description, it implies from the first a certain +degree of order and accuracy, and this order and accuracy +increase steadily as science advances. It is thus a type of +progress, for it is a constant growth in the fullness, accuracy +and simplification of our experience. From the dawn +of science, therefore, man must have acquired standards +and instruments of measurement and means of handing +on his observations to others. Thus writing must have +been invented. But in the second place, there is always +involved in this orderly description, so far as it is scientific, +the element of prediction. The particular description is +not scientific. 'I saw a bird fly' is not a scientific description, +however accurate; but 'The bird flies by stretching +out its wings' is. It contains that causal connexion or +element of generality which enables us to predict.</p> + +<p>Before entering on a historical sketch of the most perfect +example of human progress, it is of the first importance +to realize its social foundation. This is the key-note, and +it connects science throughout with the other aspects +of our subject. Knowledge depends upon the free intercourse +of mind with mind, and man advances with the +increase and better direction of his knowledge. But when +we consider the implications of any generalization which we +can call 'a law of nature' the social co-operation involved +becomes still more apparent. Geometry and astronomy—the +measurement of the earth and the measurement of +the heavens—dispute the honour of the first place in the +historical order. Both, of course, involved the still more +fundamental conception of number and the acceptance<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[250]</a></span> +of some unit for measurement. Now in each case and +at every step a long previous elaboration is implied of +intellectual conventions and agreements—conscious and +unconscious—between many minds stretching back to +the beginnings of conscious life: the simplest element of +thought involves the co-operation of individual minds +in a common product. Language is such a common +product of social life and it prepares the ground for +science. But science, as the exact formulation of +general truths, attains a higher degree of social value, +because it rises above the idioms of person or race +and is universally acceptable in form and essence. +Such is the intrinsic nature of the process, and the +historical circumstances of its beginnings make it clear. +It was the quick mind of the Greek which acted as the +spark to fire the trains of thought and observation which +had been accumulating for ages through the agency of +the priests in Egypt and Babylonia. The Greeks lived +and travelled between the two centres, and their earliest +sages and philosophers were men of the most varied intercourse +and occupation. Their genius was fed by a wide +sympathy and an all-embracing curiosity. No other +people could have demonstrated so well the social nature +of science from its inception, and they were planting in +a soil well prepared. In Egypt conspicuously and in +Chaldea also to a less extent there had been a social order +which before the convulsions of the last millennium <span class="smcap">b.c.</span> +had lasted substantially unchanged for scores of centuries. +This order was based upon a religious discipline which +connected the sovereigns on earth with the divine power +ruling men from the sky. Hence the supreme importance +of the priesthood and their study of the movements of +the heavenly bodies. The calendar, which they were the +first to frame, was thus not only or even primarily a work +of practical utility but of religious meaning and obligation.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[251]</a></span> +The priests had to fix in advance the feast days of gods and +kings by astronomical prediction. Their standards and +their means of measurement were rough approximations. +Thus the 360 degrees into which the Babylonians taught +us to divide the circle are thought to have been the nearest +round number to the days of the year. The same men +were also capable of the more accurate discovery that +the side of a hexagon inscribed in a circle was equal +to the radius and gave us our division of sixty minutes +and sixty seconds with all its advantages for calculation. +In Egypt, if the surveyors were unaware of the +true relation between a triangle and the rectangle on +the same base, they had yet established the carpenter's +rule of 3, 4 and 5 for the sides of a right-angled +triangle.</p> + +<p>How much the Greeks drew from the ancient priesthoods +we shall never know, nor how far the priests had +advanced in those theories of general relations which we +call scientific. But one or two general conclusions as +to this initial stage of scientific preparation may well be +drawn.</p> + +<p>One is that a certain degree of settlement and civilization +was necessary for the birth of science. This we find +in these great theocracies, where sufficient wealth enabled +a class of leisured and honoured men to devote themselves +to joint labour in observing nature and recording their +observations. Another point is clear, namely, that the +results of these early observations, crude as they were, +contributed powerfully to give stability to the societies +in which they arose. The younger Pliny points out later +the calming effect of Greek astronomy on the minds of +the Eastern peoples, and we are bound to carry back the +same idea into the ancient settled communities where +astronomy began and where so remarkable an order +prevailed for so long during its preparation.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[252]</a></span></p> + +<p>But however great the value we allow to the observations +of the priests, it is to the Ionian Greeks that we +owe the definite foundation of science in the proper sense; +it was they who gave the raw material the needed accuracy +and generality of application, A comparison of the +societies in the nearer East to which we have referred, with +the history of China affords the strongest presumption of +this. In the later millenniums <span class="smcap">b.c.</span> the Chinese were in +many points ahead of the Babylonians and Egyptians. +They had made earlier predictions of eclipses and more +accurate observations of the distance of the sun from the +zenith at various places. They had, too, seen the advantages +of a decimal system both in weights and measures +and in the calculations of time. But no Greek genius came +to build the house with the bricks that they had fashioned, +and in spite of the achievements of the Chinese they remained +until our own day the type in the world of a settled +and contented, although unprogressive, conservatism.</p> + +<p>Science then among its other qualities contains a force +of social movement, and our age of rapid transformation +has begun to do fuller justice to the work of the Greeks, +the greatest source of intellectual life and change in the +world. We are now fully conscious of the defects in their +methods, the guesses which pass for observations, the +metaphysical notions which often take the place of +experimental results.<a name="FNanchor_80_80" id="FNanchor_80_80"></a><a href="#Footnote_80_80" class="fnanchor">[80]</a> But having witnessed the latest +strides in the unification of science on mathematical +lines, we are more and more inclined to prize the geometry +and astronomy of the Greeks, who gave us the first +constructions on which the modern mechanical theories +of the universe are based. We shall quote from them +here only sufficient illustrations to explain and justify +this statement.</p> + +<p>The first shall be what is called Euclidean geometry, but<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[253]</a></span> +which is in the main the work of the Pythagorean school +of thinkers and social reformers who flourished from the +seventh to the fifth centuries <span class="smcap">b.c.</span> This formed the greater +part of the geometrical truth known to mankind until +Descartes and the mathematicians recommenced the work +in the seventeenth century. The second greatest contribution +of the Greeks was the statics and the conics of which +Archimedes was the chief creator in the third century +<span class="smcap">b.c.</span> In his work he gave the first sketch of an infinitesimal +calculus and in his own way performed an integration. +The third invaluable construction was the trigonometry +by which Hipparchus for the first time made a scientific +astronomy possible. The fourth, the optics of Ptolemy +based on much true observation and containing an +approximation to the general law.</p> + +<p>These are a few outstanding landmarks, peaks in the +highlands of Greek science, and nothing has been said +of their zoology or medicine. In all these cases it will +be seen that the advance consisted in bringing varying +instances under the same rule, in seeing unity in difference, +in discovering the true link which held together the various +elements in the complex of phenomena. That the Greek +mind was apt in doing this is cognate to their idealizing +turn in art. In their statues they show us the universal +elements in human beauty; in their science, the +true relations that are common to all triangles and all +cones.</p> + +<p>Ptolemy's work in optics is a good example of the +scientific mind at work.<a name="FNanchor_81_81" id="FNanchor_81_81"></a><a href="#Footnote_81_81" class="fnanchor">[81]</a> The problem is the general +relation which holds between the angles of incidence and +of refraction when a ray passes from air into water or +from air into glass. He groups a series of the angles with +a close approximation to the truth, but just misses the +perception which would have turned his excellent raw<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[254]</a></span> +material into the finished product of science. His brick +does not quite fit its place in the building. His formula +<i>i</i> (the angle of incidence) = <i>nr</i> (the angle of refraction) only +fits the case of very small angles for which the sine is +negligible, though it had the deceptive advantage of +including reflexion as one case of refraction. He did not +pursue the argument and make his form completely +general. Sin <i>i</i> = <i>n</i> sin <i>r</i> escaped him, though he had +all the trigonometry of Hipparchus behind him, and it +was left for Snell and Descartes to take the simple +but crucial step at the beginning of the seventeenth +century.</p> + +<p>The case is interesting for more than one reason. It +shows us what is a general form, or law of nature in +mathematical shape, and it also illustrates the progress of +science as it advances from the most abstract conceptions +of number and geometry, to more concrete phenomena +such as physics. The formula for refraction which +Ptolemy helped to shape, is geometrical in form. With +him, as with the discoverer of the right angle in a semicircle, +the mind was working to find a general ideal +statement under which all similar occurrences might be +grouped. Observation, the collection of similar instances, +measurement, are all involved, and the general statement, +law or form, when arrived at, is found to link up +other general truths and is then used as a starting-point +in dealing with similar cases in future. Progress in +science consists in extending this mental process to an +ever-increasing area of human experience. We shall see, +as we go on, how in the concrete sciences the growing +complexity and change of detail make such generalizations +more and more difficult. The laws of pure geometry +seem to have more inherent necessity and the +observations on which they were originally founded have +passed into the very texture of our minds. But the work<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[255]</a></span> +of building up, or, perhaps better, of organizing our +experience remains fundamentally the same. Man is +throughout both perceiving and making that structure of +truth which is the framework of progress.</p> + +<p>Ptolemy's work brings us to the edge of the great +break which occurred in the growth of science between +the Greek and the modern world. In the interval, the +period known as the Middle Ages, the leading minds in +the leading section of the human race were engaged in +another part of the great task of human improvement. +For them the most incumbent task was that of developing +the spiritual consciousness of men for which the Catholic +Church provided an incomparable organization. But the +interval was not entirely blank on the scientific side. +Our system of arithmetical notation, including that +invaluable item the cipher, took shape during the Middle +Ages at the hands of the Arabs, who appear to have derived +it in the main from India. Its value to science is an +excellent object-lesson on the importance of the details of +form. Had the Greeks possessed it, who can say how +far they might have gone in their applications of +mathematics?</p> + +<p>Yet in spite of this drawback the most permanent contribution +of the Greeks to science was in the very sphere +of exact measurement where they would have received the +most assistance from a better system of calculation had +they possessed it. They founded and largely constructed +both plane and spherical geometry on the lines which best +suit our practical intelligence. They gave mankind the +framework of astronomy by determining the relative +positions of the heavenly bodies, and they perceived and +correctly stated the elementary principles of equilibrium. +At all these points the immortal group of men who +adopted the Copernican theory at the Renascence, began +again where the Greeks had left off. But modern science<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[256]</a></span> +starts with two capital improvements on the work of +the Greeks. Measurement there had been from the first, +and the effort to find the constant thing in the variable +flux; and from the earliest days of the Ionian sages +the scientific mind had been endeavouring to frame the +simplest general hypothesis or form which would contain +all the facts. But the moderns advanced decisively, in +method, by experimenting and verifying their hypotheses, +and in subject-matter, by applying their method to phenomena +of movement, which may theoretically include all +facts biological as well as physical. Galileo, the greatest +founder of modern science, perfectly exemplifies both +these new departures.</p> + +<p>It is, perhaps, the most instructive and encouraging +thing in the whole annals of progress to note how the men +of the Renascence were able to pick up the threads of +the Greeks and continue their work. The texture held +good. Leonardo da Vinci, whose birth coincides with +the invention of the printing-press, is the most perfect +reproduction in modern times of the early Greek sophos, +the man of universal interests and capacity. He gave +careful and admiring study to Archimedes, the greatest +pure man of science among the Greeks, the one man +among them whose works, including even his letters, +have come down to us practically complete. A little later, +at the beginning of the sixteenth century, Copernicus +gained from the Pythagoreans the crude notion of the +earth's movement round a great central fire, and from +it he elaborated the theory which was to revolutionize +thought. Another half-century later the works of +Archimedes were translated into Latin and for the first +time printed. They thus became well known before the +time of Galileo, who also carefully studied them. At the +beginning of the seventeenth century Galileo made the +capital discoveries which established both the Copernican<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[257]</a></span> +theory and the science of dynamics. Galileo's death in +1642 coincides with the birth of Sir Isaac Newton.</p> + +<p>Such is the sequence of the most influential names at +the turning-point of modern thought.</p> + +<p>Galileo's work, his experiments with falling bodies and +the revelations of his telescope, carried the strategic +lines of Greek science across the frontiers of a New World, +and Newton laid down the lines of permanent occupation +and organized the conquest. Organization, the formation +of a network of lines connected as a whole, and giving +access to different parts of the world of experience, is +perhaps the best image of the growth of science in the +mind of mankind. It will be seen that it does not +imply any exhaustion of the field, nor any identification +of all knowledge with exact or systematic knowledge. The +process is rather one of gradual penetration, the linking +up and extension of the area of knowledge by well-defined +and connected methods of thought. No all-embracing +plan thought out beforehand by the first founders of +science, or any of their successors, can be applied systematically +to the whole range of our experience. It has not +been so in the past; still less does it seem possible in the +future. For the most part the discoverer works on steadily +in his own plot, occupying the nearest places first, and +observing here and there that one of his lines runs into +some one else's. Every now and then a greater and more +comprehensive mind appears, able to treat several systems +as one whole, to survey a larger area and extend that +empire of the mind which, as Bacon tells us, is nobler +than any other.</p> + +<p>Of such conquerors Newton was the greatest we have +yet known, because he brought together into one system +more and further-reaching lines of communication than +any one else. He unified the forms of measurement +which had previously been treated as the separate subjects<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[258]</a></span> +of geometry, astronomy, and the newly-born science of +dynamics. Celestial mechanics embraces all three, and is +a fresh and decisive proof of the commanding influence +of the heavenly bodies on human life and thought. Not +by a horoscope, but by continued and systematic thought, +humanity was unravelling its nature and destiny in the +stars as well as in itself. These are the two approaches to +perfect knowledge which are converging more and more +closely in our own time. Newton's work was the longest +step yet taken on the mechanical side, and we must +complete our notice of it by the briefest possible reference +to the later workers on the same line, before turning to +the sciences of life which began their more systematic +evolution with the discovery of Harvey, a contemporary +of Newton.</p> + +<p>The seventeenth century, with Descartes' application +of algebra to geometry, and Newton's and Leibnitz's +invention of the differential and integral calculus, improved +our methods of calculation to such a point that +summary methods of vastly greater comprehensiveness +and elasticity can be applied to any problem of which +the elements can be measured. The mere improvement +in the method of describing the same things (cf. e.g. +a geometrical problem as written down by Archimedes +with any modern treatise) was in itself a revolution. +But the new calculus went much farther. It enabled us +to represent, in symbols which may be dealt with arithmetically, +any form of regular movement.</p> + +<p>As movement is universal, and the most obvious +external manifestation of life itself, the hopes of a mathematical +treatment of all phenomena are indefinitely +enlarged, for all fresh laws or forms might conceivably +be expressed as differential equations. So to the vision +of a Poincaré the human power of prediction appears +to have no assignable theoretical limit.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[259]</a></span></p> + +<p>The seventeenth century which witnessed this momentous +extension of mathematical methods, also contains +the cognate foundation of scientific physics. Accurate +measurement began to be applied to the phenomena +of light and heat, the expansion of gases, the various +changes in the forms of matter apart from life. The +eighteenth century which continued this work, is also and +most notably marked by the establishment of a scientific +chemistry. In this again we see a further extension of +accurate measurement: another order of things different +in quality began to be treated by a quantitative analysis. +Lavoisier's is the greatest name. He gave a clear and +logical classification of the chemical elements then known, +which served as useful a purpose in that science, as +classificatory systems in botany and zoology have done +in those cases. But the crucial step which established +chemistry, a step also due to Lavoisier, was making the +test of weight decisive. 'The balance was the <i>ultima ratio</i> +of his laboratory.' His first principle was that the total +weight of all the products of a chemical process must be +exactly equal to the total weight of the substances used. +From this, and rightly disregarding the supposed weight +of heat, he could proceed to the discovery of the accurate +proportions of the elements in all the compounds he was +able to analyse.</p> + +<p>Since then the process of mathematical synthesis in +science has been carried many stages further. The exponents +of this aspect of scientific progress, of whom we may +take the late M. Henri Poincaré as the leading representative +in our generation, are perfectly justified in treating +this gradual mathematical unification of knowledge with +pride and confidence. They have solid achievement on +their side. It is through science of this kind that the +idea of universal order has gained its sway in man's +mind. The occasional attacks on scientific method, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[260]</a></span> +talk one sometimes hears of 'breaking the fetters of +Cartesian mechanics', seem to suggest that the great +structure which Galileo, Newton, and Descartes founded +is comparable to the false Aristotelianism which they +destroyed. The suggestion is absurd: its chief excuse is +the desire to defend the autonomy of the sciences of +life, about which we have a word to say later on. But +we must first complete our brief mention of the greatest +stages on the mechanical side, of which a full and vivid +account may be found in such a book as M. Poincaré's +<i>Science et Hypothèse</i>.</p> + +<p>Early in the nineteenth century a trio of discoverers, +a Frenchman, a German, and an Englishman, established +the theory of the conservation of energy. To the labours +of Sadi Carnot, Mayer, and Joule is due our knowledge of +the fact that heat which, as a supposed entity, had disturbed +the physics and chemistry of the earlier centuries, +was itself another form of mechanical energy and could +be measured like the rest. Later in the century another +capital step in synthesis was taken by the foundation +of astrophysics, which rests on the identity of the physics +and chemistry of the heavenly bodies with those of the +earth.</p> + +<p>The known universe thus becomes still more one. Later +researches again, especially those of Maxwell, tend to +the identification of light and heat with electricity, and +in the last stage matter as a whole seems to be swallowed +up in motion. It is found that similar equations will +express all kinds of motion; that all are really various +forms of the motion of something which the mind +postulates as the thing in motion; we have in each +case to deal with wave-movements of different length. +The broad change, therefore, which has taken place since +the mechanics of Newton is the advance from the consideration +of masses to that of molecules of smaller and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[261]</a></span> +smaller size, and the truth of the former is not thereby +invalidated. Newton, Descartes, Fresnel, Carnot, Joule, +Mayer, Faraday, Helmholtz, Maxwell appear as one great +succession of unifiers. All have been engaged in the same +work of consolidating thought at the same time that they +extended it. Their conceptions of force, mass, matter, +ether, atom, molecule have provisional validity as the +imagined objective substratum of our experience, and +the fact that we analyse these conceptions still further +and sometimes discard them, does not in any way invalidate +the law or general form in which they have enabled +us to sum up our experience and predict the future.</p> + +<p>But now we turn to the other side. In spite of the +continued progress noted on the mechanical side, it is +true that the predominant scientific interest changed in +the nineteenth century from mechanics to biology, from +matter to life, from Newton to Darwin. Darwin was born +in 1809, the year in which Lamarck, who invented the +term biology, published his <i>Philosophie Zoologique</i>. The +<i>Origin of Species</i> appeared in 1858 after the conservation +of energy had been established, and the range and influence +of evolutionary biology have grown ever since.</p> + +<p>Before anything can be said of the conclusions in this +branch of science one preliminary remark has to be made. +From the philosophical point of view the science of life +includes all other, for man is a living animal, and science +is the work of his co-operating mind, one of the functions +of his living activity. What this involves on the philosophical +side does not concern us here, but it is necessary +to indicate here the nature of the contact between +the two great divisions of science, the mechanical and +the biological, considered purely as sciences. For, though +we know that our consciousness as a function of life +must in some form come into the science of life, and +is, in a sense, above it all, we are yet able to draw con<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[262]</a></span>clusions, +apparently of infinite scope, about the behaviour +of all living things around us and including ourselves, +just as we do about a stone or a star. And we are interested +in this chapter in seeing how this drawing of +general conclusions keeps growing with regard to the +phenomena of life, just as it has grown with regard to all +other phenomena, and we have to consider what sort of +difference there is between the one class of generalizations +and the other.</p> + +<p>For those of us who are content to rest their conclusions +on the positively known, who, while not setting any limits +to the possible extension of knowledge, are not prepared +to dogmatize about it, it is still necessary to draw a line. +A dualism remains, name and fact alike abhorrent to +the completely logical philosophic mind. On the one +hand the ordinary laws of physical science are constantly +extending their sphere; on the other, the fact of life still +remains unexplained by them, and becomes in itself more +and more marvellous as we investigate it. The general +position remains much as Johannes Müller expressed it +about the middle of the last century, himself sometimes +described as the central figure in the history of modern +physiology. 'Though there appears to be something +in the phenomena of living beings which cannot be explained +by ordinary mechanical, physical, or chemical +laws, much may be so explained, and we may without +fear push these explanations as far as we can, so long as we +keep to the solid ground of observation and experiment.' +Since this was written the double process has gone on +apace. The chemistry and physics of living matter are +being sketched, and biologists are more and more inclined +to study the mechanical expression of the facts of life. +Mr. Bateson, for instance, tells us that the greatest advance +that we can foresee will be made 'when it is possible to +connect the geometrical phenomena of development with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[263]</a></span> +the chemical'. The process of applying physical laws to +life follows, it would seem, the reverse order of their +original development. First the chemistry of organic +matter was investigated, then the physical attraction of +their molecules, and now their geometry is in question. +So, says Professor Bateson, the 'geometrical symmetry of +living things is the key to a knowledge of their regularity +and the forces which cause it. In the symmetry of the +dividing cell the basis of that resemblance which we call +Heredity is contained'.</p> + +<p>But such work as this is still largely speculative and in +the future. It does not solve the secret of life. It does +not affect the fact of consciousness which we are free to +conceive, if we will, as the other side of what we call +matter, evolving with it from the most rudimentary +forms into the highest known form in man, or still further +into some super-personal or universal form. This, +however, is philosophy or metaphysics. We are here +concerned with the progress of science, in one of its two +great departments, i.e. knowledge about life and all +its known manifestations, which from Aristotle onwards +have been subjected to a scrutiny similar to that which +has been given to the physical facts of the universe and +with results in many points similar also. But the facts, +although superficially more familiar, are infinitely more +complicated, and the scrutiny has only commenced in +earnest some hundred years ago. Considering the short +space for this concentrated and systematic study, the +results are at least as wonderful as those achieved by the +physicists. Two or three points of suggestive analogy +between the courses of the two great branches of science +may here be mentioned.</p> + +<p>We will put first the fundamental question on which, +as we have seen, no final answer has yet been reached: +What is life, and is there any evidence of life arising from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[264]</a></span> +the non-living? Now this baffling and probably unanswerable +question—unanswerable, that is, in terms which go +beyond the physical concomitants of life—has played +the part in biology which the alchemists' quest played +in chemistry. It led by the way to a host of positive +discoveries. Aristotle, the father of biology, believed in +spontaneous generation. He was puzzled by the case of +parasites, especially in putrefying matter. Even Harvey, +who made the first great definite discovery about the +mechanism of the body, agreed with Aristotle in this +error. It was left for the minute and careful inquirers +of the nineteenth century to dispose of the myth. It was +only after centuries of inquiry that the truth was established +that life, as we know it, only arises from life. But +the whole course of the inquiry had illuminated the nature +of life and had brought together facts as to living things +of all kinds, plants and animals, great and small, which +show superficially the widest difference. Illumination by +unification is here the note, as clearly as in the mathematical-physical +sciences. All living things are found +to be built up from cells and each cell to be an organism, +a being, that is, with certain qualities belonging to it as +a whole, which cannot be predicated of any collection +of parts not an organism. The cell is such an organism, +just as the animal is an organism, and among its qualities +as an organism is the power of growth by assimilating +material different from itself. Yet, in spite of this assimilation +and constant change, it grows and decays as one +whole and reproduces its like.</p> + +<p>Another point of analogy between the animate and the +inanimate sphere is that the process of study in both has +been from the larger to the smaller elements. The microscope +has played at least as decisive a part as the telescope, +and it dates from about the same time, at the beginning +of the seventeenth century. Since then it has penetrated<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[265]</a></span> +farther and farther into the infinitesimal elements of life +and matter, and in each case there seems to be no assignable +limit to our analysis. The cell is broken up into +physiological units to which almost every investigator +gives a new name. We are now confronted by the +fascinating theory of Arrhenius of an infinite universe +filled with vital spores, wafted about by radio-activity, +and beginning their upward course of evolution wherever +they find a kindly soil on which to rest. To such a vision +the hopes and fears of mortal existence, catastrophes of +nature or of society, even the decay of man, seem transient +and trivial, and the infinities embrace.</p> + +<p>A third point, perhaps the most important in the comparison, +is the way by which the order of science has entered +into our notions of life, through a great theory, the theory +of evolution or the doctrine of descent. In this we find a +solid basis for the co-ordination of facts: it was the rise +of this theory in the hands of one thinker of unconquerable +patience and love of truth which has put the study of +biology in the pre-eminent position which it now holds. +But it is necessary to consider the evolution theory as +something both older and wider than Darwin's presentation +of it. Darwin's work was to suggest a <i>vera causa</i> for a +process which earlier philosophers had imagined almost +from the beginning of abstract thought. He observed and +collected a multitude of facts which made his explanations +of the change of species—within their limits—as convincing +as they are plausible. But the idea that species change, by +slow and regular steps, was an old one, and his particular +explanations, natural and sexual selection, are seen on +further reflection to have only a limited scope.</p> + +<p>This is no place, of course, to discuss the details of the +greatest and most vexed question in the whole science +of life. But it belongs to our argument to consider it +from one or two general points of view. Its analogies with,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[266]</a></span> +and its differences from, the great generalizations of +mathematical physics, are both highly instructive. The +first crude hypothesis of the gradual evolution of various +vegetable and animal forms from one another may be +found in the earliest Greek thinkers, just as Pythagoras +and Aristarchus anticipated the Copernican theory. +Aristotle gave the idea a philosophic statement which +only the fuller knowledge of our own time enables us to +appreciate. He traced the gradual progression in nature +from the inorganic to the organic, and among living +things from the simpler to the higher forms. But his +knowledge of the facts was insufficient: the Greeks had +no microscope, and the dissecting knife was forbidden on +the human subject. Then, as these things were gradually +added to science from the seventeenth century onwards, +and the record of the rocks gave the confirmation of +palaeontology, the whole realm of living nature was +gradually unfolded before us, every form connected both +in function and in history with every other, every organ +fulfilling a necessary part, either now or in the past, and +growing and changing to gain a more perfect accord with +its environment. Such is the supreme conception which +now dominates biological science much as the Newtonian +theory has dominated physics for two hundred years; +and it is idle to debate whether this new idea is different +in kind or only in degree from the great law of physics. +It is a general notion or law which brings together and +explains myriads of hitherto unrelated particulars; it +has been established by observation and experiment +working on a previous hypothesis; it involves measurement, +as all accurate observation must, and it gives us +an increasing power of prediction. So far, therefore, we +must class it with the great mathematical laws and +dissent from M. Bergson. But seeing that the multitudinous +facts far surpass our powers of complete colli<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[267]</a></span>gation, +that much in the vital process is still obscure, +that we are conscious in ourselves of a power of shaping +circumstances which we are inclined in various degrees +to attribute to other living things, so far we recognize +a profound difference between the laws of life and the +laws of physics, and pay our respects to M. Bergson and +his allies of the neo-vitalist school. Not for the first time +in history we have to seek the truth in the reconciliation, +or at least the cohabitation, of apparent contradictories.</p> + +<p>To us who are concerned in tracing the progress of +mankind as a whole, and constantly find the roots of +progress in the growth of the social spirit, the development, +that is, of unity of spirit and of action on a wider +and deeper scale, there is one aspect of biological truth, +as the evolutionists have lately revealed it, which is of +special interest. The living thing is an organism of which +the characteristic is the constant effort to preserve its +unity. This is in fact the definition of an organism. It +only dies or suffers diminution in order to reproduce itself, +and the new creature repeats by some sort of organic +memory the same preservative acts that its parents did. +We recognize life by these manifestations. A merely +material, non-living thing, such as a crystal, cannot thus +make good its loss, nor can it assimilate unlike substance +and make it a part of itself. But these things are of the +nature of life. Now mankind, as a whole, has, if our +argument is correct, this characteristic of an organism: it +is bound together by more than mechanical or accidental +links. It is <i>one</i> by the nature of its being, and the study +of mankind, the highest branch of the science of life, +rests, or should rest, upon the basis of those common +functions by which humanity is held together and distinguished +from the rest of the animate world.</p> + +<p>Just as in passing from the mechanical sciences to that +of life, we noticed that the general laws of the lower<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[268]</a></span> +sphere still held good, but that new factors not analysable +into those of the former had to be reckoned with, so in +passing from the animate realm, as a whole, to man its +highest member, we find that, while animal, and subject +to the general laws of animality, he adds features which +distinguish him as another order and cannot be found +elsewhere. His unity as an organism has a progressive +quality possessed by no other species. Step by step his +mind advances into the recesses of time and space, and +makes the farthest objects that his mind can reach +a part of his being. His unity of organization, of which +the humblest animalcule is a simple type, goes far beyond +the preservation or even the improvement of his species: +it touches the infinite though it cannot contain it. To +trace this widening process is the true key to progress, +the <i>idée-mère</i> of history. For while man's evolution has +its practical side, like that of other species,—the needs +of nutrition, of reproduction, of adapting himself to his +environment,—with man this is the basis and not the end. +The end is, first the organization of himself as a world-being, +conscious of his unity, and then the illimitable +conquest of truth and goodness as far as his ever-growing +powers extend.</p> + +<p>Man's reason is thus, as philosophers have always +taught, his special characteristic, and takes the place for +him, on a higher plane, of the law of organic growth +common to all living things. In this we join hands, +across two thousand years, with Aristotle: he would have +understood us and used almost identical language. But +the content of the words as we use them and their applications +are immeasurably greater.</p> + +<p>The content is the mass of knowledge which man's +reason has accumulated and partly put in order since +Aristotle taught. It is now so great that thoroughly to +master a single branch is arduous labour for a lifetime<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[269]</a></span> +of concentrated toil, and at the end of it new discoveries +will crowd upon the worker and he will die with all his +earlier notions crying for revision. No case so patent, +so conclusive, of the reality of human unity and the paramount +need of organization. The individual here can +only thrive and only be of service as a small member of +a great whole, one atom in a planet, one cell in a body. +The demand which Comte raised more than fifty years +ago for another class of specialists, the specialists in +generalities, is now being taken up by men of science +themselves. But the field has now so much extended +and is so much fuller in every part, that it would seem +that nothing less than a committee of Aristotles could +survey the whole. And even this is but one aspect of +the matter. Just as the genesis of science was in the +daily needs of men—the cultivators whose fields must +be re-measured after the flooding, the priests who had +to fix the right hour for sacrifice—so all through its +history science has grown and in the future will grow +still more by following the suggestions of practice. It +gathers strength by contact with the world and life, and +it should use its strength in making the world more fit +to live in. Thus our committee of scientific philosophers +needs to have constantly in touch with it not one but +many boards of scientific practitioners.</p> + +<p>The past which has given us this most wonderful of +all the fruits of time, does not satisfy us equally as to the +use that has been made of it. Our crowded slums do not +proclaim the glory of Watt and Stephenson as the heavens +remind us of Kepler and Newton. Selfishness has grown +fat on ill-paid labour, and jealous nations have sharpened +their weapons with every device that science can suggest. +But a sober judgement, as well as the clearest evidence of +history, dictates a more hopeful conclusion. Industry, the +twin brother of science, has vastly increased our wealth,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[270]</a></span> +our comfort, and our capacity for enjoyment. Medicine, +the most human of her children, has lengthened our lives, +fortified our bodies, and alleviated our suffering. Every +chapter in this volume gives some evidence of the beneficent +power of science. For religion, government, morality, +even art, are all profoundly influenced by the knowledge +that man has acquired of the world around him and his +practical conclusions from it. These do not, with the +possible exception of art, contradict the thesis of a general +improvement of mankind, and science must therefore +claim a share—it would seem the decisive share—in the +result. We speak, of course, of science in the sense which +has been developed in this essay, of the bright well-ordered +centre to our knowledge which is always spreading and +bringing more of the surrounding fringe, which is also +spreading, into the well-defined area. In this sense +religion, morality and government have all within +historic times come within the range of clear and well-ordered +thought: and mankind standing thus within +the light, stands more firmly and with better hope. He +sees the dark spots and the weaknesses. He knows the +remedies, though his will is often unequal to applying +them. And even with this revelation of weakness and +ignorance, he is on the whole happier and readier to +grapple with his fate.</p> + +<p>If this appears a fair diagnosis of the Western mind in +the midst of its greatest external crisis, the reason for +this amazing firmness of mind and stability of society +must be sought in the structure which science and industry +combined have built around us. The savage, untutored +in astronomy, may think that an eclipse betokens the +end of the world. Science convinces him that it will +pass. Just so the modern world trained to an order of +thought and of society which rests on world-wide activities +elaborated through centuries of common effort, awaits<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[271]</a></span> +the issue of our darkened present calmly and unmoved. +The things of the mind on which all nations have co-operated +in the past will re-assert their sway. Fundamentally +this is a triumph for the scientific spirit, the order +which man has now succeeded in establishing between +himself and his surroundings.</p> + +<p>The country is demanding—and rightly—a stronger +bias in our educational system for teaching of a scientific +kind; but teachers and professors are not unnaturally +perplexed. They see the immeasurable scope of the new +knowledge; they know the labour, often ineffective, that +has been expended in teaching the rudiments of the old +'humanities'. And now a task is propounded to them +before which the old one with all its faults seems definite, +manageable and formative of character. The classical +world which has been the staple of our education for +400 years is a finished thing and we can compass it in +thought. It lives indeed, but unconsciously, in our lives, +as we go about our business. This new world into which +our youth has now to enter, rests also on the past, but it +is still more present; it grows all round us faster than +we can keep pace with its earlier stages. How then can +such a thing be used as an instrument of education where +above all something is needed of clear and definite purpose, +stimulating in itself and tending to mental growth and +activity in after life? We could not, even if we would, +offer any satisfactory answer here to one of the most +troubled questions of the day. Decades of experiments +will be needed before even a tolerable solution can be +reached. But the argument pursued in this and other +essays may suggest a line of approach. This must lie +in a reconciliation between science and history, or rather +in the recognition that science rightly understood is the +key to history, and that the history best worth study is the +record of man's collective thought in face of the infinite<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[272]</a></span> +complexities, the barriers and byways, the lights and +shadows of life and nature. From the study of man's +approach to knowledge and unity in history each new-coming +student may shape his own. He sees a unity of +thought not wholly unattainable, a foundation laid +beneath the storms of time. To a mind thus trained +should come an eagerness to carry on the conquests of the +past and to apply the lessons gained to the amelioration +of the present.</p> + +<p>This we may hope from the well-disposed. But for +all, the contemplation of a universe where man's mind has +worked for ages in unravelling its secrets and describing +its wonders, must bring a sense of reverence as well as +trust. It is no dry category of abstract truths to which +we turn and would have others turn, but a world as +bright and splendid as the rainbow to the savage or the +forest to the poet or the heavens to the lonely watcher on +the Babylonian plain. The glories and the depths remain, +deeper and more glorious, with all the added marvels +of man's exploring thought. The seeing eye which a true +education will one day give us, may read man's history +in the world we live in, and read the world with the full +illumination of a united human vision—the eyes of us all.</p> + + +<h3><span class="smcap">Books for Reference</span></h3> + +<div class='indent2'> +<p>Alcan, <i>De la méthode dans les Sciences</i>.</p> + +<p>Mach, <i>History of Mechanics</i>, Kegan Paul.</p> + +<p>Thomson, <i>Science of Life</i>, Blackie.</p> + +<p>Thomson, <i>Science in the Nineteenth Century</i>, Chambers.</p> + +<p><i>New Calendar of Great Men</i>, Macmillan.</p> + +<p><i>The Darwin Centenary Volume.</i></p> + +<p>Bergson, <i>Creative Evolution</i>.</p> +</div> + + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_80_80" id="Footnote_80_80"></a><a href="#FNanchor_80_80"><span class="label">[80]</span></a> See Lewes, 'Aristotle, a chapter in the History of Science'.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_81_81" id="Footnote_81_81"></a><a href="#FNanchor_81_81"><span class="label">[81]</span></a> H. Bouasse, <i>La Méthode dans les Sciences</i>, Alcan.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[273]</a></span></p> +<h2>XI</h2> + +<h2>PROGRESS IN PHILOSOPHY</h2> + +<h3><span class="smcap">J.A. Smith</span></h3> + + +<p>To contend that there has been progress in Philosophy +may seem but a desperate endeavour. For the reproach +against it of unprogressiveness is of long standing: where +other forms of human knowledge have undoubtedly +advanced, Philosophy, in modern times at any rate, +has (so it is said) remained stationary, propounding its +outworn problems, its vain and empty solutions. Because +of this failure it has by common consent been deposed +from its once proud position at the head of the sciences +and obliged to confess, in the words of the Trojan queen:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i6">modo maxima rerum<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nunc trahor exul inops.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The charge of unprogressiveness is not made against it +by its foes alone; the truth of it is admitted by some of +its best friends. If Voltaire exclaims 'O métaphysique, +métaphysique, nous sommes aussi avancés qu'aux temps +des Druides', Kant sadly admits the fact, sets himself +to diagnose its cause, and if possible to discover or devise +a remedy. Yet we must remember that it was philosophers +who first descried those currents in the world of events +which the non-philosophic, borrowing the name from +them, call Progress, who first attempted to determine +their direction and the possible goal of their convergence, +and laboured to clear their own and others' minds in +regard to the meaning, to capture which the name was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[274]</a></span> +thrown out as a net into the ocean of experience. Nor +must we forget that it was in their own chosen field—the +world of human thoughts and actions—that they +from the beginning seemed to themselves to find the surest +evidence of the reality of Progress. While the world that +surrounded and hemmed them and their fellows in might +or must be regarded as unchanging and unchangeable, +doomed for ever to reproduce and monotonously reiterate +whatsoever it had once done and been, the mind or spirit +of Man in its own realm seemed capable of going beyond +all its past achievements and rising to new heights, not +merely here and there or in isolated instances but in such +numbers or masses as to raise for long periods of history +the general level of human efficiency and welfare. It is +true that many of those who noted these advances or +profited by them did not always admit that they took +place in, or were due to the agency of, Philosophy. The +advances were most often credited to other powers and +the new territory claimed by their representatives. The +contributions made by Philosophy to the general improvement +of human life were and are obscure, difficult to +trace, easily missed or forgotten. It came about that +the philosopher was misconceived as one indifferent to +ordinary human interests and disdainful of the more +obvious advantages secured by others, pressing and urging +forward and upward into a cloudland where the light +was too dim for the eyes of man and the paths too uncertain +for his feet. Unsatisfied with the region where Man +had learned by the slow and painful lessons of experience +to build himself a habitable city he dreamed of something +higher, aspiring to explore beyond and above where the +light of that experience shone and illuminated. Perhaps +the main idea that the name of Philosophy now to most +suggests is that of a Utopian ideal of knowledge so wide +and so high that it must be by sane and sober minds<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[275]</a></span> +pronounced for ever set beyond the reach of human +faculty, an ideal which perhaps we cannot help forming +and which constantly tempts us forward like a mirage, +but which like a mirage leads us into waste and barren +places, so much so that it is no small part of human +wisdom to resist its subtle seductions and to confine our +efforts to the pursuit of such ends as we may reasonably +regard as well within the compass of our powers of thought +and action. It is folly, we are told, to adventure ourselves +upon the uncharted seas into which philosophers invite +us, to waste our lives and perhaps break our hearts in the +vain search for a knowledge that is for ever denied us. +After all, there is much that we can know, and in the +knowledge of which we can better the estate of Man, +relieving him from many of his most pressing terrors +and distresses. To cherish other hopes is to deceive ourselves +to our own and our fellows' undoing, to refuse +them our help and fail to play our part in the common +business of mankind. There is surely in the world +enough suffering and sorrow and sin to engage all our +energies in dealing with them, nor are our endeavours to +do so so plainly fruitless as to discourage from perseverance +in them. Where in this task our hearts do faint and +fail, are there not other means than the discredited nostrum +of Philosophy to revive our hopes and recruit our +forces? It was only, we are sometimes reminded, in +the darkest days of human history that men turned +desperately to Philosophy for comfort and consolation—how +surely and demonstrably, we are told, in vain! +When other duties are so urgent and immediate, have we +even the right to consume our energies otherwise than in +their direct discharge? And is it not presumption to +ask for any further light than that which is vouchsafed +to us in the ordinary course of experience or, if that is +insufficient, in and by Religion?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[276]</a></span></p> + +<p>Much in this plea for a final relinquishment of aid from +Philosophy in the furtherance of human progress is +plausible and more than plausible. Yet the hope or, if +you will, the dream of attaining some form or kind or +degree of knowledge which the sciences do not and cannot +supply and perhaps deny to be possible, some steadiness +and firmness of assurance other and beyond the confidence +of religious faith, is not yet extinct, is perhaps inextinguishable, +and though it often takes extravagant and even +morbid and repulsive forms, still haunts and tantalizes +many, nor these the least wise or sane of our kind, so that +they count all the labour they spend upon its search worth +all the pains. Not for themselves alone do they seek it; +they view themselves as not alone in the quest, but +engaged in a matter of universally human moment. In +the measure in which they count themselves to have +attained any result they do not hoard it or grudge it to +others. The notion of philosophic truth as something +to be shared and enjoyed only by a few—as what is +called 'esoteric'—is no longer in vogue and is indeed felt +to involve an essential self-contradiction; rather it is +conceived as something the value of which is assured and +enhanced by being imparted. Those who believe themselves +to be by nature or (it may be) accident appointed +to the office of its quest, by no means feel that they are +thereby divided from their fellows as a peculiar people +or a privileged and exclusive priesthood, but much +rather as fellow servants enlisted and engaged in the +public service of mankind. Least of all do they believe +that their efforts are foredoomed to inevitable failure, +that progress therein is not to be looked for, or that they +and their predecessors have hitherto made no advance +towards what they and, as they also believe, all men sought +and still seek. To them the history of Philosophy for say +the last two thousand years is not the dreary and dispiriting<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[277]</a></span> +narrative of repeated error and defeat, but the record +of a slow but secure and steady advance in which, as nowhere +else, the mind of Man celebrates and enjoys triumphs +over the mightiest obstacles, kindling itself to an ever-brightening +flame. Reviewing its own past in history the +spirit of Philosophy sees its own inner light, which is +its act and its essence, constantly increasing, spreading +ever wider into the circumambient dark, and touching +far-off and hitherto undiscovered peaks with the fire +of a coming dawn. In place of the starlight of Science +or the moonlight of Religion it sees a sun arise flooding +the world with light and warmth and life. High hopes, +high claims; but can they be made good, or even rationally +entertained? Suffice it here that they be openly +avowed and proclaimed to be laid up in the heart of the +philosophic spirit, 'dreaming', and yet with waking eyes, +'of things to come'. Or rather shall we not say, seeing +that its eyes are unsealed and the vision therefore no +dream, beholding a present—an ever-present—Reality?</p> + +<p>It was Philosophy, or philosophers, as I have said, that +first discerned the fact of Progress, named it, and divined +its lineaments. To Philosophy the name and notion of +Progress belongs as of right—the right of first occupation. +Merely to have invented a name for the fact is no small +service, for thus the fact was fixed for further study and +examination. But with the name Philosophy gave us +the idea, the notion, and therewith the fact began to be +understood and to become amenable to further and further +explanation. To this further explanation Philosophy gave +notable assistance. To 'elaborate our concepts' has been +said to be the whole business of Philosophy, that is, to +arrest the vague and shifting meanings that float before +our minds loosely attached to the words of ordinary +careless speech, to fix their outlines, distinguishing, +defining, ordering and organizing until each mass of mean<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[278]</a></span>ing +is improved and refined into a thought worthy to be +called a notion, a fit member of the world of mind, +a seat and source of intellectual light. In this work +Philosophy proceeds and succeeds simply by reflecting +on whatever meaning it has in whatever manner already +acquired; it employs no strange apparatus or recondite +methods, only continues more thoughtfully and conscientiously +to use the familiar means by which the earlier +simpler meanings were appropriated and developed, +following the beaten tracks of the mind's native and +spontaneous movement. Much more rarely than the +sciences has it recourse to a technical vocabulary, being +content to express itself in ordinary words though using +them and their collocations with a careful delicacy and +painstaking adroitness. To follow it in these uses demands +an effort, for nothing is perhaps more difficult than to +force our thoughts to run counter to our customary heedless +use of words and to learn to employ them even for +a short time with a steady precision of significance. Yet +unless this effort is resolutely made we must remain the +easy prey of manifold confusions and errors which trip +us in the dark. Our words degrade into tokens which +experience will not cash—tangles of symbols which we +cannot retranslate.</p> + +<p>But Philosophy is more than the attempt to refine and +subtilize our ordinary words so as to fit them for the +higher service of interpretative thought, more even than +the endeavour to improve the stock of ideas no matter +how come by, by which we interpret to ourselves whatever +it imports us to understand. All this it is and does, +or strives to do, but only as subsidiary to its true business +and real aim. All this it might do and do successfully, +and yet make or bring about no substantial progress in +itself or elsewhere. And when progress in Philosophy is +spoken of, it is not either such improvement in language<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[279]</a></span> +nor such improvement in ideas that alone or mainly is +meant.</p> + +<p>What is claimed for (or denied to it) under the name of +Progress is an advance in knowledge, knowledge clear-sighted, +grounded, and assured, knowledge of some +authentic and indubitable reality. It is by the attainment +of such knowledge, by progress in and towards it, that +the claim of Philosophy to be progressive must stand or +fall. To the question whether it can make good its claim +to the possession and increase of this knowledge we must +give special attention, for if Philosophy fails in this it +fails in all.</p> + +<p>The oldest name for the knowledge in question was +simply Wisdom and, in some ways, in spite of its apparent +arrogance this is the best name for what is sought—or +missed. Yet from the beginning the name was felt not +sufficiently to distinguish what was meant from the high +skill of the cunning craftsman and the worldly wisdom +of the man of affairs, the statesman or soldier or trader. +In the case of all these it was difficult to disengage the +knowledge involved from natural or trained practical +dexterity. What was desired and required was knowledge +distinguished but not divorced from practice and application—'pure +knowledge' as it was sometimes called; not +divorced, I repeat, for it was not conceived as without +bearing upon the conduct of life, but still distinguished, +as furnishing light rather than profit. For good or evil +Philosophy began by considering what it sought and hoped +to reach as pre-eminently knowledge in some distinctive +sense, and having so begun it turned to reflect once more +upon what it meant by so conceiving it and to make this +meaning more precise and clear. So it came to present +to itself as its aim or goal a special kind or degree of +knowledge, to be inspired and guided by the hope of that. +Practical as in many ways was the concern of ancient<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[280]</a></span> +philosophy—its whole bent was towards the bettering +of human life—it sought to achieve this by the extension +and deepening of knowledge, and not either through the +cultivation or refinement of emotion or the organization +of practical, civil or social or philanthropic activities. +It laboured—and laboured not in vain—to further the +increase of knowledge by defining to itself in advance the +kind or degree of knowledge which would accomplish +the ultimate aim of its endeavour or subserve its accomplishment. +Hence we must learn to view with a sympathetic +eye its repeated essays to give precision and detail +to the conception or ideal of knowledge.</p> + +<p>In form the answer rendered to its request to itself for +a definition, was determined by the principle that the +knowledge which was sought and alone, if found, could +satisfy, was knowledge of the real, or as it was at first +more simply expressed, of what is, or what really and +veritably is. Refusing the name of knowledge except +to what had this as its object, men turned to consider +the nature of the object which stood or could stand in +this relation. With this they contrasted what we, after +them, call the phenomena, the appearances, the manifold +aspects, constantly shifting with the shifting points of +view of the observer or many observers of it, inconstant, +unsteady, superficial, mirrored through the senses and +imagination, multiplied and distorted in divergent and +changing opinions, or misrepresented and even caricatured +in the turbid medium of ordinary speech, like a clouded +image on the broken waters of a rushing stream. 'It'—so +at first they spoke of the object of true or 'philosophic' +knowledge—was one and single, eternal and unchangeable, +a universe or world-order of parts fixed for ever in their +external relations and inward structure. In each and all +of us there was, as it were, a tiny mirror that could be +cleared so as to reflect all this, and in so far as such<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[281]</a></span> +reflection took place an inner light was kindled in each +which was a lamp to his path. Knowing—for to know +was so to reflect the world as it really was—knowing, man +came to self-possession and self-satisfaction—to peace +and joy—and was even 'on this bank and shoal of time' +raised beyond the reach of all accidents and evils of +mortal existence—looking around and down upon all +that could harm or hurt him and seeing it to be in its +law-abiding orderliness and eternal changelessness the +embodiment of good. So viewing it, man learned to feel +the Universe his true home, and was inspired not only +with awe but with a high loyalty and public spirit. 'The +poet says "Dear City of Cecrops", and shall I not say +"Dear City of God"?'</p> + +<p>The knowledge thus reached or believed to be attainable +was more and more discriminated from what was offered +or supplied by Art or Science or Religion, though it was +still often confused with each and all of them. As opposed +to that of Art, it was not direct or immediate vision +flashed as it were upon the inner eye in moments of inspiration +or excitement; as opposed to that of Science, it was +a knowledge that pierced below the surface and the +seeming of Nature and History; as opposed to that of +Religion (which was rather faith than knowledge), it was +sober, unimaginative, cleansed of emotional accompaniment +and admixture, the 'dry light' of the wise soul. True +to the principle which I have stated, ancient Philosophy +proclaimed that the only knowledge in the end worth +having was knowledge of Fact—of what lay behind all +seeming however fair—Fact unmodified and unmodifiable +by human wish or will; it bade us know the world in +which we live and move and have our being, know it as +it is truly and in itself, and knowing it love it, loyally +acquiescing in its purposes and subserving its ends. In +all this there was progress (was there not?) to a view, to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[282]</a></span> +a truth (how else shall we speak of it?) which has always, +when apprehended, begotten a high temper in heroic +hearts. Surely in having reached in thought so high and +so far the mind of man had progressed in knowledge and +in wisdom.</p> + +<p>But now a change took place, from which we must date +the rise or birth of modern philosophy. Hitherto on the +whole the mind of man had looked outward and sought +knowledge of what lay or seemed to lie outside itself. +So looking and gazing ever deeper it had encountered +a spectacle of admirable and awe-compelling order, yet +one which for that very reason seemed appallingly +remote from, if not alien to, all human businesses and +concerns. Now it turned inward and found within itself +not only matter of more immediate or pressing interest, +but a world that compelled attention, excited curiosity, +rewarded study. Slowly and gradually the knowledge of +this, the inner world—the world of the thinker's self—became +the central object of philosophic reflection. The +knowledge that was most required—that was all-important +and indispensable (so man began explicitly to realize)—was +knowledge of the Self, not of the outer world that at +best could never be more than known, but of the self +that knew or could know it, that could both know +and be known. Henceforward what is studied is not +knowledge of reality—of any and every reality—or of +external reality, but knowledge of the Self which can +know as well as be known. And the process by which it +is sought is reflection, for the self-knowledge is not the +knowledge of other selves, but the knowledge of just +that Self which knows itself and no other. Thus the +knowledge sought is once more and now finally distinguished +from the knowledge offered or supplied by Art +or Science or Religion: not by Art, for the Self cannot +appear and has no seeming nor can it any way be pictured<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[283]</a></span> +or described or imagined; not by Science, for it lies beyond +and beneath and behind all observation, nor can it be +counted or measured or weighed; not by Religion, for +knowledge of it comes from within and the disclosure of +its nature is by the self-witness of the Self to its self, not +by revelation of any other to it. Thus there is disclosed +the slowly-won and slowly-revealed secret of modern +Philosophy, that the knowledge which is indispensable, +which is necessary as the consummation and key-stone +of all other knowledge, is knowledge of the knowing-self, +self-knowledge, or, as it is sometimes more technically +called, self-consciousness, with the corollary that this +knowledge cannot be won by any methods known to or +specially characteristic of Science or Art or Religion. To +become self-conscious, to progress in self-consciousness +is the end, and the way or means to it is by reflection—the +special method of Philosophy.</p> + +<p>This is the step in advance made by the modern spirit +beyond all discoveries of the ancients; it is the truth by +the apprehension of which the modern spirit and its world +is made what it is. Not outside us lies Truth or the Truth: +Truth dwelleth in the inner man—<i>in interiore hominis +habitat veritas</i>. Is this not progress, progress in wisdom, +and to what else can we ascribe the advance save to +Philosophy?</p> + +<p>It was one of the earliest utterances of modern Philosophy, +and one which it has never found reason to retract, +that the Self which knows can and does know itself better +than aught else whatsoever, and in that knowledge can +without end make confident and sure-footed advance. +To itself the Self is the most certain and the most knowable +of all realities—with this it is most acquainted, this it +has light in itself to explore, of this it can confidently +foresee and foretell the method of advance to further and +further knowledge. It knows not only its existence but<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[284]</a></span> +its essence, its nature, and it knows by what procedure, +by what ordered effort or exercise of will it can progress +to height beyond height of its self-knowledge. I say, it +knows it, but it also knows that that knowledge cannot be +attained all at once or taken complete and ready-made, +for it <i>is</i> itself a progress, a self-created and self-determined +progress, and on that condition progress alone is or is real. +For it to be is not to be at the beginning or at the end of +this process, but to be always coming to be, coming to be +what it is not and yet also what it has in it to be. Of +nothing else is Progress so intimately the essence and very +being; if we ask 'What progresses or evolves?', the most +certain answer is 'The spirit which is in man, and what +it progresses in, is knowledge of itself, which is wisdom'. +Speaking of and for Philosophy I venture to maintain +that nothing is more certain than that that spirit which +has created it has grown, is growing, and will ever grow in +wisdom, and that by reflection upon itself and its history—nor +can the gates of darkness and error prevail against +the irresistible march of its triumphant progress.</p> + +<p>As we look back the history of Philosophy seems +strewn with the debris of outworn or outlived errors, +but out of them all emerges this clear and assured truth, +that in self-knowledge lies the master-light of all our +seeing, inexhaustibly casting its rays into the retreating +shadow world that now surrounds us, melting all mists +and dispelling all clouds, and that the way to it is unveiled, +mapped and charted in advance so that henceforward we +can walk sure-footedly therein. Yet that does not mean +that the work of Philosophy is done, that it can fold its +hands and sit down, for only in the seeking is its prize +found and there is no goal or end other than the process +itself. For this too is its discovery, that not by, but in, +endless reflection is the Truth concerning it known, the +Truth that each generation must ever anew win and earn<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[285]</a></span> +it for itself. The result is not without the process, nor +the end without the means: the fact <i>is</i> the process and +other fact there is none. In other forms of so-called +'knowledge' we can sever the conclusion from its premisses, +and the result can be given without the process, +but with self-knowledge it is not so and no generation, +or individual, can communicate it ready-made to another, +but can only point the way and bid others help themselves. +And if this, so put, seems hard doctrine, I can only remind +you that to philosophize has always meant 'to think by +and for oneself'.</p> + +<p>It is perhaps more necessary to formulate the warning +that what is here called self-knowledge and pronounced +to constitute the very essence of the spirit that is in man, +is far removed from what sometimes bears its name, the +extended and minute acquaintance by the individual +mind with its individual peculiarities or idiosyncrasies, +its weaknesses and vanities, its whims and eccentricities; +nor is it to be confused with the still wider acquaintance +with those that make up our common human nature in +all its folly and frailty which is sometimes called 'knowledge +of human nature'; no, nor with such knowledge +as psychological science, with its methods of observation +and induction and experiment, offers or supplies. It is +knowledge of something that lies far deeper within us—'the +inward man', which is not merely alike or akin +but is the same in all of us; beneath all our differences, +strong against all our weaknesses, wise against all our +follies, what each of us rightly calls his true self and yet +what is not his alone, but all men's also. As we reflect +upon it duly, what discloses or reveals itself to us is +a self which is both our very own and yet common or +universal, the self of each and yet the self of all. The more +we get to apprehend and understand it, the more we become +and know ourselves, not so much as being but as becoming<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[286]</a></span> +one with one another; the differences that sunder us in +feeling and thought and action melting away like mist. +The removal of these differences is just the unveiling of +it, in which it at once comes to be and to be known. +In coming to know it we create it. The unity of the spirit +thus becomes and is known as indubitable fact, or rather +(I must repeat) not as fact, as if it were or were anything +before being known, but as something which is ever more +and more coming to be, in the measure in which it is coming +to be known—known to itself. For this is the hard lesson +of modern philosophy, that our inmost nature and most +genuine self is not aught ready-made or given, but something +which is created in and by the process of our +coming to know it, which progresses in existence and +substantiality and value as our knowledge of it progresses +in width and depth and self-assurance. The process is +one of creative—self-creative—evolution, in which each +advance deposits a result which prescribes the next step +and supplies all the conditions for it, and so constantly +furnishes all that is required for an endless progress in +reality and worth. This is the process in which the spirit +of man capitalizes and substantiates its activities, committing +its gains to secure custody, amassing and using +them for its self-enrichment—in which it depends on no +other than itself and is sovereign master of its future and +its fate. This is the way in which selves are made, or +rather, make themselves.</p> + +<p>This is the discovery of modern Philosophy, the now +patent secret which it offers for the interpretation of all +mysteries and the solving of all problems—and it offers +it with unquestioning assurance, for it has explored the +ground and has awakened to the true method of progress +within it. And as I have said or implied, to the reflective +mind regress is impossible, it cannot go back upon itself, +and with due tenderness and gratitude it has set behind<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[287]</a></span> +it the things of its unreflective childhood. It stands on +the stable foundation of the witness of the spirit within +us to itself, to its own nature, its own powers and its own +rights; it knows itself as the knower, the interpreter, the +teacher, and therefore the master and maker of itself. +Yet we must not identify or confuse this our deeper or +deepest self which we thus create with the separate selves +or souls which each of us is; it is not any one of them +nor all of them together, unless we give to the word +'together' a new and more pregnant sense than it has +yet come to bear. It is not the 'tribal' or 'collective' +or 'social' self, for it is not made by congregation or +collection or association, but by some far more intimate +unification than is signified by any of these terms, namely +by coming together in and by knowledge. It is the spirit +which is in us all and in which we all are, which is more yet +not other than we, without which we are nothing and do +nothing and yet which is veritably the spirit of man, the +immortal hero of all the tragedy and comedy—the whole +drama—of human history; it is of this spirit as it is by +it, that Philosophy has in repeated and resolute reflection +come to know the nature and the method of its progress. +Such knowledge has come into the world and prevails +more widely and more potently than ever before; possessed +in fullness by but a few, it is open and available +to all and radiates as from a beacon light over the whole +field of human experience; at that fire every man can +light his candle. This is the light in which alone the record +of man's thoughts and achievements can be construed +and which exhibits them as steps and stages on that +triumphant march to higher and higher levels such as +alone we can rightly name Progress. Where else than in +History, and, above all, in the History of Knowledge, is +Progress manifested, and in that where more certainly +than in the unretreating and unrevoked advance towards<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[288]</a></span> +a deeper, a truer, a wiser knowledge of itself by the spirit +that is in and is, Man?</p> + +<p>Yes, such knowledge, truth and wisdom now exists and +is securely ours, though to inherit it each generation and +each individual must win it afresh and having won it +must develop and promote it, or it ceases not only to work +but to be. For it exists only as it is made or rather only +in the act and fact of its progress, and so for it not to +progress is at once to return to impotence and nothingness. +And it is we who maintain it in being, maintaining it by +endless reiterated efforts of reflection, and so maintaining +it we maintain ourselves, resting or relying upon it and +using it as a source of strength and a fulcrum or a platform +for further effort. Upon self-knowledge in this sense all +other 'knowledge' reposes; upon it and the knowledge of +other selves and the world, which flows from it, depends +the possibility of all practical advance. In the dark all +progress is impossible.</p> + +<p>But since this discovery was made and made good, the +spirit of Philosophy has not stood still; it has gone on, +and is still going on, to extend and deepen and secure its +conquests. Once more it has turned from its fruitful +and enlightening concentration on the inner self and its +life to review what lies or seems to lie around and outside +it. It finds that those who have stayed, or fallen, behind +its audacious but justified advance in self-knowledge, still +cherish a view of what is external to this (the true or real +self so now made patent), thoughts or fancies which +misconceive and misrepresent it—thoughts persisted in +against the feebler protesting voices of Art and Religion +and so held precariously and unstably though apparently +grounded upon the authority of Science. To the unphilosophic +or not yet philosophic mind the spirit of man, already +in imagination multiplied and segregated into individual +'souls', appears to be surrounded with an environment<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[289]</a></span> +of alien character, often harsh to man's emotions, often +rebellious or untractable to his purposes, often impenetrable +to his understanding, and in a word indifferent or +hostile to his ideals and aspirations after progress and good. +Nay, the individual souls seem to act towards one another +separately and collectively as such hindrances, and again, +each individual soul seems to be encrusted with insuperable +impediments. Even the light within is enclosed in an +opaque screen which prevents or counteracts its outflow, +so that the spirit within is as it were entombed or imprisoned. +'Wall upon wall, the gross flesh hems us in,' +we cannot communicate with one another or join with +one another in thought or deed; and the hope of progress +seems defeated by the recalcitrant matter that shell upon +shell encases us. The world of our bodies, of the bodies and +spirits of others, and all the vast <i>compages</i> of things and +forces which we call 'Nature' blinds and baffles us, mocks +our hopes and breaks our hearts. How idle to dream that +amidst and against all this neutrality or hostility any +substantial or secure advance can be made!</p> + +<p>In answer to all these thoughts, these doubts and fears, +Philosophy is beginning with increasing boldness to speak +a word, not of mere comfort and consolation, but of secure +and confident wisdom. All this so-called 'external' +nature and environment is not hostile or alien to the +self or spirit which is in man, it is akin and allied to it +as we now know it to be. Whatever is real and not merely +apparent in History or Nature is rational, is of the same +stuff and character as that which is within us. It too +is spiritual, the appearance and embodiment of what is +one in nature and mode of being with what lies deepest +and is most potent in us. So far as it is not that, it is +appearance and not reality, woven like a dream by +imagination or endowed with an unstable and shifting +quasi-reality by our thoughts and suppositions and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[290]</a></span> +fancies about we know not what. Not that it is an illusion, +still less a delusion, rather what it is is the outward +and visible sign of an inward and spiritual reality, a symbol +beautiful, orderly, awe-inspiring yet mutilated, partial, +confused, of something deeper and more real, the expression, +the face and gesture, of a spirit that, as ours does, +knows itself, its own profound being and meaning, and +does what it does in the light of such knowledge, a spirit +which above all progresses endlessly towards and in a +richer and fuller knowledge of itself. What we call Fact—historical +or natural—is essentially such an expression, +on the one hand a finished expression, set in the past +and therefore for ever beyond the possibility of change +and so of progress, an exhausted or dead expression, on +the other hand a passing into the light of what was before +unknown even to the expresser's self, an act by which +was made and secured a self-discovery or self-revelation, +a creative act of self-knowledge and so significant and +interpretable. This double character of events in History +and Nature is dimly descried in what we specially call +'nature', but comes more fully into view in the sphere +of human history, where each step is at once a deed and +a discovery, a contribution to the constitution of the world +of fact and a fulguration of the light within illuminating +facts as the condition of its own inexhaustible continuance. +The world of Fact, artistic or aesthetic, scientific, moral, +political, economic, is what the spirit builds round itself, +creating it out of its own substance, while it itself in +creating it grows within, evolving out of itself into itself +and advancing in knowledge or wisdom and power. And +out of its now securely won self-knowledge it declares +that it—itself—is the source and spring of all real fact +whatsoever, which is its self-created expression, made by +it in its own interests, and for its own good, the better<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[291]</a></span> +and better to know itself. Nothing is or can be alien, +still less hostile to it, for 'in wisdom has it made them +all'. Looking back and around it re-reads in all fact the +results of its own power of self-expression. Nothing is but +what it has made.</p> + +<p>All this might perhaps have been put very simply by +saying that ever since man has set himself to know his +own mind in the right way, he has succeeded better and +better, and that in knowing his own mind he has come to +know and is still coming to know all else beside, including +all that at first sight seems other than, or even counter +to, his own mind. He has learned what manner of being +he is, how that being has been made and how it continues +to be made and developed, and again, how in the course of +its self-creation and self-advance it deposits itself in 'fact' +and reflecting on that fact rises beyond and above itself +in knowledge and power. He is mind or spirit, and what +lies behind and around him is spiritual. As he reflects +upon this the meaning of it becomes ever more clear +and distinct, ordered and organized, and at the same time +more substantial, more real, more lively and potent. In +becoming known what was before dead and dark and +threatening or obstructive or hostile is made transparent, +alive, utilisable, contributing to the constantly growing +self that knows and is known. Here is the growing point +of reality, the <i>fons emanationis</i> of truth and worth and +being, evidencing its power not as it were in increase of +bulk, but in the enhancing of value. And surely here is +Progress, which consists not in mere enlargement or +expansion but in the heightening of forces to a new power—in +a word, in their elevation to a more spiritual, a more +intelligent and therefore more potent, level.</p> + +<p>To the artistic eye the universe presents itself as a vast +and moving spectacle, to the scientific mind as the theatre +of forces which repeat their work with a mechanical<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[292]</a></span> +uniformity or perhaps fatally run down to a predestined and +predictable final arrest, to the devout or religious soul as +the constant efflux of a beneficent will, unweariedly kind, +caring for the humblest of its creatures, august, worshipful, +deserving of endless adoration and love, while to the philosophic +mind it is known and ever more to be known +as the self-expression of a mind in essence one with all +minds that know it in knowing themselves, know it as +the work or product of a mind engaged or absorbed in +knowing itself, and so creating itself and all that is +requisite that it may learn more and more what is hidden +or stored from all eternity within its plenitude. At least +we may say that the conception of a Mind which in order +to know itself creates the conditions of such knowledge, +which wills to learn whatever can be learned of itself from +whatever it does, supplies the best pattern or original +after which to model our vaguer and more blurred +conceptions of progressive existence and being elsewhere. +It furnishes to us an ideal of a progress which realizes or +maintains and advances itself, for it is independent upon +external conditions. The Progress of Philosophy or of +Wisdom is a palmary instance of progress achieved out of +the internal resources of that which progresses. And after +this pattern we least untruly and least unworthily conceive +the mode of that eternal and universal Progress which is +the life of the Whole within and as part of which we live.</p> + +<p>The aim of Philosophy is not edification but the +possession and enjoyment of Truth, and the Truth may +wear an aspect which, while it enlightens, also blinds or +even at first appals and paralyses. And certainly Reality +or Philosophy as has come to know it and proclaims it +to be, is not such as either directly to warm our hearts or +stimulate our energies. Not to do either has Philosophy +come into the world, nor so does it help to bring Progress +about; nor does it offer prizes to those who pursue either<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[293]</a></span> +moral improvement or business success, nor again does it +increase that information concerning 'nature' and men +which is the condition of the one and the other, yet to those +who love Truth and who will buy no good at the sacrifice +of it, what it offers is enough, and to progress towards and +in it is for them worth all the world beside; it is, if not +the only real progress, that in the absence of which all +other progress is without worth or substance or reality. +In the end, if any advance anywhere is claimed or asserted, +must we not ask: Is the claim founded on truth, is the +good or profit seemingly attained a (or the) true good? To +whom or to what is it good? Can we stop short of the +endeavour to assure ourselves beyond question or doubt +that we are right in what answers we render? And +where or by what means can we reach this save by turning +inward on meditation or reflection, that is by philosophizing? +<span class='correction' title='Ei philosophêteon philosophêteon, ei de mê, philosophêteon; pantôs ara philosophêteon'>Εἰ φιλοσοφητέον φιλοσοφητεον, εἰ δὲ μή, φιλοσοφητέον; +πάντως ἄρα φιλοσοφητέον</span>. Thither the mind of man +has always turned when the burden of the mystery +of its nature and fate has weighed all but intolerably +upon it, and turning has never found itself betrayed, but +from knowledge of itself has drawn fresh hope and +strength to resume the uninterrupted march of Progress +which is its life and its history, its being, its self-formation, +in courage moving forwards in and towards the light. It +is as if such light were not merely the condition of its +welfare, but the food on which it lived, the stuff which it +transmuted into substance and energy, out of it making, +maintaining and building its very self. So under whatever +name, whether we call what we are doing Philosophy or +something else, the search for more and more light upon +ourselves and our world is the most indispensable activity +to which the leagued and co-operative powers of Man can +be devoted. Fortunately it is also that in which success +or failure depends most certainly upon ourselves and in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[294]</a></span> +which Progress can with most confidence be looked for. +In it we cannot fail if we will to take sufficient trouble; +the means to it are open and available; it is our fault +if we do not employ them and profit by them. If we have +less wisdom than we might have, it is never any one's +fault but our own. The door of the treasure-house of +Wisdom stands ever open.</p> + + +<h3><span class="smcap">Books for Reference</span></h3> + +<div class='indent2'> +<p>C. C. J. Webb, <i>History of Philosophy</i> (Home University Library).</p> + +<p>Burnet, <i>History of Greek Philosophy</i>.</p> + +<p>E. J. Bevan, <i>Stoics and Sceptics</i>.</p> + +<p>Höffding, <i>History of Modern Philosophy</i> (translated).</p> + +<p>Royce, <i>The Spirit of Philosophy</i>.</p> + +<p>Merz, <i>History of European Thought in the Nineteenth Century</i>.</p> +</div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[295]</a></span></p> +<h2>XII</h2> + +<h2>PROGRESS AS AN IDEAL OF ACTION</h2> + +<h3><span class="smcap">J. A. Smith</span></h3> + + +<p>Throughout this course of lectures, now come to its +close, we have together been engaged in a theoretical +inquiry. We have been looking mainly towards the past, +to something therefore for ever and in its very nature set +beyond the possibility of alteration by us or indeed at all. +'What is done not even God can make to be undone.' +Were it otherwise it could not be fact or reality and so +not capable of being theorized or studied. In the words +of our programme we have analysed what is involved +in the conception of Progress, shown when it became +prominent in the consciousness of mankind and how far +the idea has been realized—that is has become fact—in +the different departments of life. We have taken Progress +as a fact, something accomplished, and have attempted +so taking it to explain or understand it. We have not +indeed assumed that it is confined to the past, but have +at times enlarged our consideration so as to recognize its +continuance in the present and to justify the hope of its +persistence in the future. Some of us would perhaps go +further and hold that it has, by these and similar reflections, +come to be part of our assured knowledge that it +must so continue and persist. But however we have +widened our purview, what we call Progress has remained +to us a course or movement which still presents the appearance +of a fact which is largely, if not wholly, independent +of us—a fact because independent of us—to which we can<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[296]</a></span> +occupy no other attitude than that of interested spectators, +interested and concerned, moved or conditioned by it +but not active or co-operative in it. So far as it is in +process of realization in the vast theatre of nature, inorganic +or organic, dead or living, that surrounds us, it +pursues its course in virtue of powers not ours and +unamenable to our control. And even when we view it +within the closer environment of human history its current +seems to carry us irresistibly with it. Its existence is +indeed of very practical concern to us, but apparently all +we can do is to come to know it, and knowing it to allow +for it as or among the set conditions of our self-originated +or self-governed actions if such actions there be.</p> + +<p>The clearer we have become as to the nature of Progress, +the more it would appear that it must be for us, because +it is in itself, a fact to be recognized in theory, taken into +account and reckoned with. It is or it is not, comes to be +or does not come to be, and what we have first and foremost +to seek, is light upon its existence and character as it +is or occurs. Light, we hope, has been cast upon it. We +have learned that in its inmost essence and to its utmost +bounds Reality—what lies outside and around us—is not +fixed, rigid, immobile, was not and is not and cannot be as +the ancient or mediaeval mind feigned or fabled, something +beyond the reach of time and change—static or stationary—but +is itself a process of ceaseless alteration. We have +learned also to be dissatisfied with the compromise which, +while acknowledging such alteration, all but withdraws +it in effect by asserting it to be either in gross or in detail +a process of mere repetition. The system of laws which +science had taught us to consider as the truth of nature +is itself now known to be caught in the evolutionary process, +and to be undergoing a constant modification. As +in the modern state, so in Nature, the legislative power +is not exhausted but incessantly embodies itself in novel<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[297]</a></span> +forms. Nature itself—<i>natura naturans</i>—is now conceived, +and rightly conceived, as a power not bound to laws +other than those which it makes for or imposes on itself, +and as in its operations at least analogous to a will self-determined, +self-governing, creative of the ways and means +by which its purpose or purposes are achieved. What +that purpose is we have begun to apprehend, and to see +its various processes as converging or co-operating +towards its fulfilment. In the mythological language +which even Science is still obliged to use, we now speak +of Nature as 'selecting' or 'devising', and we ascribe +to it a large freedom of choice wisely used. We can +already at least define the process as guided towards +a greater variety and fullness and harmony of life, or (with +a larger courage) as pointed towards a heightening or +potentiation of life. So defining its goal we can sympathize +with and welcome the successful efforts made toward +it, and so feel ourselves at heart one with the power that +carries on the process in its aspirations and its efforts. +But still, we cannot help feeling, it and all its ways lie +outside us, and to us it remains an alien or foreign power. +I venture to repeat my contention that this is so just +because, however much we come to learn of its ways, we +do not feel that we are coming to understand it any +better, getting inside it, as we do get inside and understand +human nature. Its progress is a change, perhaps +a betterment, in our environment—in externals—and +takes place very largely whether we will and act or no. +The larger our acquaintance with it, the more does its +action seem to encroach upon the domain within which +our volitions and acts can make any difference. Even in +social life we seem in the grip and grasp of forces which +carry us towards evil or good whether we will or no. +<i>Ducunt volentem fata, nolentem trahunt.</i> The whole known +universe outside and around us presents to us the spectacle<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[298]</a></span> +of what has been called a <i>de facto</i> teleology, and just +because it is so, and so widely and deeply so, it leaves +little or no room for us to set up our ideals within it and +to work for their realization. The fact that the laws +which prevail in it are modifiable and modified makes no +difference; they modify themselves, and in their different +forms still constrain us. And no matter how increasingly +beneficent they may in their action appear, they are still +despotic and we unfree. The rule of laws which Science +discovers encroaches upon our liberties and privacies. +What we had hitherto thought our very own, the movement +of our impulses and desires and imaginations, are +reported by science to be subject to 'laws of association', +and we are borne onwards even if also at times +upwards on an irresistible flood. We remain bound by the +iron necessity of a fate that invades our inmost being—which +will not let us anywhere securely alone. I repeat +that it matters not how certainly the trend of the tide, +which sets everywhere around and outside us, is towards +what is good or best for us, it still is the case that it presents +itself as neither asking for from us nor permitting to us +the formation of any ideals of ours nor any prospect of +securing them by our efforts. Were the fact of Progress +established and conclusively shown to be all-pervasive +and eternal, it still would bear to us the aspect of a paternal +government which did good to and for us, but all the +more left less and less to ourselves.</p> + +<p>This will doubtless be pronounced an exaggeration, and +we may weakly refuse to face the impression naturally +consequent upon the progress we have made in the ascertainment +of the facts concerning the world in which we +live. But does not the impression exist? The hateful +and desolating impression made on us earlier by the +thought of a 'block' universe, once for all and rigidly +fixed in unalterable and uniform subjection to eternal<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[299]</a></span> +and omnipresent law, has dissolved like the baseless +fabric of a vision. And why? Just because being found +intolerable it was faced and put to the question. Now +that there has been substituted for it the spectacle of +a universe necessarily or fatally evolving—or, as we have +said, progressing—does it not, while still evoking the old +awe or reverence, do anything but still daunt and dishearten +us? What is our part, we ask, our very own part within +all this? What can we within it do? And the answer, +that it is ours, if we will, to enter into and live in the +contemplation of all this no longer appeals to us. In such +a progressive universe we can no longer feel ourselves +'at home'. In it our active nature would seem to exist +only to be disappointed and rebuffed.</p> + +<p>The only progress which we can care for is the progress +which we ourselves bring about, or can believe that we +bring about, in ourselves or our fellows or in the world +immediately around us. So long as what is so named is +something devised and executed by a power not our own—not +the same as our own—it may call out from us gratitude +and reverence, but the spectacle of the reality of such +Progress cannot exercise the attractive force nor, so far +as it is realized, beget that creative joy which accompanies +even humble acts in which we set an ideal of our own +before ourselves, and see it through our efforts emerge into +actual existence. A practical ideal must be through and +through of our own making. It must be devised by us and +set to ourselves for our pursuit, and its coming to be, or be +real, must be our doing. The very idea of it must be our +own, not given or prescribed, still less imposed, and the process +towards it must be our doing too. That there should, +on their view of it, ever be protest and rebellion against its +tyrannous demands appears to me reasonable and right, +and those who make it to be guarding the immediate +jewel of man's nature. We should, we might say, if this<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[300]</a></span> +were the whole truth about the universe, acknowledge +ourselves as its sons bound to gratitude and obedience +because of the fatherly care for us, but it would be an +essential complement to our family loyalty that we should +insist upon and make good our claims to be grown-up +sons and fellow citizens, declining to pronounce it wholly +good, if those claims were denied to us. Now all these +conditions seem to make straight against the possibility +of regarding Progress, in the view of it we have hitherto +taken, as an ideal of our action.</p> + +<p>In view of this character of the known fact of Progress, +so discouraging and disabling to our active or practical +nature, certain suggestions have been made which are +thought to relieve us from these effects. It is said sometimes +that this fatal—if beneficent or beneficial, still +fatal—progress leaves as it were certain interstices in +the universe within which it loses its constraining force, +petty provinces but sufficient, where man is master and +determines all events, from which even, it is sometimes +conceded, some obscure but important influences are +permitted to flow, modifying his immediate surroundings, +little sanctuaries where the spirit that is in him and is his +devises and realizes ideals of its own. But the notion +of such sacrosanct and inviolable autonomies is being +steadily undermined, and they are felt, as science becomes +more dominant over our imaginations and emotions, to +be no more than eddies in the universal stream, only +apparently distinct and self-maintained, means made and +broken for its purpose, really products and instruments +of the world-progress. At any rate, it has been denied +that they can rightfully be thought to stand outside it +or themselves to exercise any effect upon their fortunes +and their fate, still less upon their environment. Another +suggestion fully and frankly acknowledges this, but +though denying to us any power to affect either the form<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[301]</a></span> +or the direction of the currents on which we are borne +along, declares still open to us the possibility of affecting +their speed, and bids us find satisfaction in the thought +that by taking thought or resolve we can hasten or delay +their and the universal movement. Still another view, +abandoning even that hope, proclaims one last choice +open to us, namely, that of sullen submission to, or glad +and loyal acquiescence in, its irresistible sway. But surely +all these suggestions are idle, and but for a moment conceal +or postpone the inevitable conclusion that if Progress +was, is and must or will be, that is, is necessary, what we +think or do makes no difference, and can make no difference +to or in it. Whether or no we convert the fact into +an ideal, whether or no we set it before as our aim and +exert ourselves to work for it, it goes on its way all the +same. Either then it is not a fact, never was, and never +will be a fact, or it is no possible ideal for which we can +act. To be or become a fact, it must be independent of +our action or our consent or our liking; if it is not all +these it is not an ideal of action, or at any rate not so +for us. I must repeat that what is or can be an ideal of +action for us must be wholly and solely of our making, +the very thought of it self-begotten in our mind, every +step to its actual existence the self-created deed of our +will. Not that either idea or act comes into being in +a void or without suggestion and assistance from without +us, but still so that the initiative lies in what we think +or do, and so that without us it is unreal and impossible. +It is enough, indeed, that we should be contributory, but +the ideal must be such that without our irreplaceable +co-operation it must fail. The only Progress in which +we can take an active interest or make an ideal of action, +is one which we conceive and execute, and that the fact +we call Progress is not.</p> + +<p>So far we have found much argument to show that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[302]</a></span> +what we have hitherto called Progress is not and cannot +be an ideal of action, or at least of our action. And now +we must face another argument more plain and apparently +fatal, indeed, specially or peculiarly fatal. For the +very notion of Progress is of a process which continues +without end, or we have the dilemma that it is either +endless or runs to an end in which there is no longer +Progress but something else. In either case it is not +itself an end or the end, and whatever an ideal of action +is, it must be an end—something beyond which there is +nothing, which has no Beyond at all. To set before oneself +as an ideal of action what one certainly knows to be +incapable of attainment or accomplishment, incapable of +coming to an end—that is surely futile and vain. Without +a best, better or better-and-better has no meaning, and +when the best is reached Progress is no more.</p> + +<p>The objection may be put in various ways, as thus. +What we seek or want or work for, is to be satisfied, and +satisfaction is a state, not a process or a progress. Or +again, acting is a process of seeking, seeking and striving +for something, and surely the seeking cannot itself be +the object of the search. Or once more, what we act for +is, as we must conceive it, something complete, finished, +perfect, but Progress is essentially something incomplete, +unfinished, imperfect. We all feel this, and at times at +least the thought that what we seek flies ever before, +affrights and paralyses: recoiling from such a prospect, +we set before our imaginations as the reward or result +of our labours, not movement but rest, not creation or +production but consumption and fruition. We dream +of one day coming to participate in a life or experience +so good that there is no change from less good to more +good possible within it, and which, if it can be said to +progress at all, only, in Milton's magnificent words, 'progresses +the dateless and irrevoluble circle of its own<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[303]</a></span> +perfections, joining inseparable hands with joy and bliss +in over-measure for ever'. Once this ideal has presented +itself to our hopes or desires, it degrades by comparison +with it to a second-best, the former ideal of endless +development from lower to higher. What we want and +seek is to be there, to have done with getting there. 'Here +is the house of fulfilment of craving, this is the cup with +the roses around it.' Compared with this, how disconsolate +a prospect is that 'of the sea that hath no shore +beyond it, set in all the sea'—the endless voyage or quest. +Not Progress is or can be the end, but achievement and +the enjoyment of it. The progress is towards and for the +end; the end is the supreme good and the progress is only +good because of it, because it is on the way that leads to +it, the way we are content to travel only because it leads +there. Once more, and on still surer grounds, we must +pronounce what we have come to know as Progress to +be no possible ideal of action. What draws us on is the +hope of something to be attained in and by the progress. +To take Progress, which on the one hand is a fact and on +the other is an incomplete fact, to be the end of our +striving and our doing is to acquiesce in a self-contradiction.</p> + +<p>Yet the counter-ideal of a state in which we shall +simply rest from our labours and sit down to enjoy the +fruits of them does not promise satisfaction either, and +so cannot be the end or ideal. Our desire and our endeavour +is not for a moveless, changeless, undeveloping +perfection. In fact, so often as the dream of such a state +attained has presented itself, it has to thoughtful minds +appeared anything but attractive or desirable. Our desire +is to go on, and for that we are willing to pay a price—nay, +it is for more than merely to go on, it is to advance +and increase in perfection, so much so that the ideal itself +once more slews round into its opposite and the search<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[304]</a></span> +appears worth more than the attainment. It seems that +we were not on the other view so wholly wrong, but must +try so to frame our ideal of action as to unite both +characters and satisfy both demands at once, so that it +shall be at once a state and a movement or process, an +achievement and a progress, a rest or quiet and a striving +after it, a perfection and a perfecting. The combination +at first sight appears impossible. Yet both characters it +must combine. Here again, I must confess that the idea +of mere Progress, even as achieved by our own efforts, +seems to me to omit something essential to an ideal of +action—of what is worth while our acting for. What is +to be an ideal of action must have the character of a fulfilment—something +to be consumed, not merely eternally +added to. For this character of the (or any) ideal of +action the best name is fruition or enjoyment. And the +defect in the conception of it as Progress is that it seems +to postpone this without a date.</p> + +<p>Let us put this truth which we have discovered concerning +Progress in a nutshell, hiding or disregarding the +internal contradiction. What is the nature, what is the +kind of reality, which we have learned to ascribe to +Progress (for we did pronounce it real and essentially +capable of being realized)? It is that it is fact, yet fact +not made but in the making; it is just the name for +what is real only through and in the process of becoming +real or being realized. Now I have already elsewhere +pointed out that while a realization which is also a reality, +or a reality which is also a realization, is in nature or +what is external to us a mystery and a puzzle, it is just +when we look inwards the open secret of our being; in +our life or action regarded from within, it appears as +something which is only dark because it is so close and +familiar to us that inspection of it is difficult, not because +it is in itself opaque or unintelligible. To its exemplifi<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[305]</a></span>cation +or illustration there we must turn for light upon +our problem.</p> + +<p>Let us for the time disregard the pressure exercised +upon us by the suggestions of physical science, or even, +I may add, popular and imaginative or opinionative—which +is Latin for 'dogmatic'—Religion, and examine +how Progress takes place, or is realized and real, within +our spirits, or that spirit which is within us. The inward +process is one by which that spirit is or is real only in the +act or fact of being or coming to be realized, or rather of +realizing itself, and the way in which it so becomes or +makes itself real is by acknowledging its own past, treating +it as fact, recognizing its failures or imperfections therein, +projecting on the future an idea or ideal of itself, suggested +by those apprehended wants or defects, of what +it might be, and using that to supply itself with both +energy and guidance, drawing from its own past both +strength and light. In all this it acts autonomously, out +of itself, and creates both the requisite light and the +indispensable force, making its very limitations into new +sources and reservoirs of both.</p> + +<p>We do not sufficiently note and hold and use the indubitable +truth that, in contradistinction to what we call +Nature, the forces of the spirit reinforce and re-create +themselves in their use, are in their use not consumed +but reinvigorated, not dissipated or degraded but recollected +and elevated, not expended but enhanced. +There is in the realm of spirit which is our nature and +our world no law of either the conservation or the degradation +of energy. We must not allow ourselves to be +brow-beaten by arguments drawn from the obscurer +region of physical and external nature. We know ourselves +to be energies or energizing powers which increase +and do not waste by exercise. That is what we ought +to mean by saying that we are wills and not forces,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[306]</a></span> +spiritual not physical or natural beings. If need be to +confirm ourselves in this knowledge, let us think of what +takes place, has taken place in the advance of knowledge, +and particularly of the most important kind of knowledge, +viz. self-knowledge, how we make it by our reflection +upon what we have already in respect of it achieved, +recognize how it or we have fallen short or over-shot our +mark, define what is required to make good its deficiencies, +and find ourselves thereby already in actual possession +of the preconceived supplement. The real, the fact, what +is attained or accomplished in and by us, prescribes and +facilitates, or rather supplies, its own missing complement +of perfection. The process carries itself on, the +progress realizes itself, the ideal translates itself into the +fact or actuality: it accomplishes itself and yet it is the +doing of our very self, of the spirit within us. All this is +not merely our doing, it is our being, it is the process by +which we make our minds, our souls, our very selves +or self.</p> + +<p>That man is essentially an, or rather the, ideal-forming +animal (or rather spirit) has long been noted, and also +that the formation of ideals is an indispensable factor in +his progress, which is his life and very being. But all +the same, this is sometimes put in such a way as to make +action, or at least human action, a dispensable accident +in the universe, an ineffective and unsubstantial unreality, +while at the same time those who put it thus, profess +to see through the illusion and to enjoy moments of +insight which recognize its nullity. This way of putting +it in my judgement intolerably misconceives and misrepresents +the truth.</p> + +<p>Our ideals of action must be self-made or self-begotten, +but yet they must be congruent with known fact; but +the manner of such congruence is hard to see, hard to +express. Ideals cannot be themselves facts, and therefore<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[307]</a></span> +cannot be known, but on the other hand they cannot be +mere imaginations or suppositions or beliefs, still less, of +course, illusions or delusions. They are not visionary, +and the apprehension of them is a sort or degree of perception. +They point beyond themselves to some higher +fact which is not cognizable by our senses or perhaps our +understanding, but which is yet genuinely cognizable and +so in some high sense fact. Yet they are not, as we envisage +them, the fact to which they point, but a substitute for +or representative of that—an anticipation of or prevision +of it, a symbol of a fact. Their own kind or degree of +reality is sometimes called 'validity'—a term I do not +like: it might be more simply named 'rightness' with +the connotation of a certain incumbency and imperativeness +as well as of an appeal or adjustment to our nature +as we know it; or perhaps all we can say is that their +reality—it seems a paradox that an ideal should possess +'reality'—consists in their suggestiveness of modes of +action and their applicability to it, all this being supported +by the conception of a state of affairs beyond +and around us which makes it 'right'.</p> + +<p>If all this is so, Progress as an ideal of action cannot be +precisely identical with Progress as a fact or object of +actual or possible knowledge. We can never know what +we are aiming at. But though different, the two are and +must be congruent, and this may be enough to justify us in +using the one name for the two. Unless there were Progress +as fact everywhere and always in the universe—outside +us—in Nature and History, and unless we took ourselves +genuinely to apprehend this, we could not form the practical +ideal of Progress, or at least the ideal could not be +right. But the difference remains, and we must be prepared +for and allow for it; though we can use the knowledge +we obtain of the fact of Progress to control and +guide our formulation of the practical ideal, we cannot<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[308]</a></span> +identify the one with the other. Our imagining and our +supposing of what is best for or obligatory upon us to do +or work for, must go on under conditions—the conditions +of what we know as to the nature of ourselves and our +surroundings—and yet under these conditions has a very +large liberty or autonomy.</p> + +<p>The Progress which is to serve as a practical ideal is +not and cannot be the Progress that we know, but must +be the result of imagination or supposition, and it is high +and necessary wisdom to trust our imaginations and +aspirations. The forms which it rightly takes cannot be +determined by what we have learned in or from the past; +it cometh not with observation, and the sources of experience +cannot of themselves supply us with it, and though +it comes in and with experience, it does not come from or +out of it. Yet it is due to an impression made upon us +by the Universe as we by our faculties apprehend it, and +is not merely subjective or of subjective origin. Begotten +of the imagination, it is appearance, not ultimate reality, +and it cannot be thought out or wholly evacuated of +mystery and perplexity. Is this not involved in the language +we use of it, proclaiming it practical and therefore +not theoretical?</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, while I must acknowledge this insuperable +difference between the Progress we can make our +end or ideal and the Progress we believe that in ourselves +and around us we apprehend, I still would lay renewed +stress upon the congruence and affinity of the two, and +urge that the perception of the one—the Progress without +us—and the pursuit of the other—the Progress within +us—support and fertilize each the other. The more we +know or can learn of the one the more effectively do we +pursue the other, and conversely. The light and the +fruits are bound together: the theory and the practice +of Progress cannot be dissevered without the ruin of both.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[309]</a></span></p> + +<p>The ideal of Progress which we present to ourselves is +and must be one which is partly determined or limited +by past achievement and partly enlarged by the study +of what powers higher than our own have accomplished +and are accomplishing. The formation of it must move +constantly between a respect for what has been achieved +and a worship, so to speak, for what is far better than +anything that yet has been or become fact, and therefore +incumbent or imperative upon us.</p> + +<p>The mode and manner of the Progress which is achieved +in the Universe has become in various ways clearer to us +and opens out undreamt-of possibilities, and our assurance +of its reality is ever more and more confirmed, while +on the other hand its actual or past results at the lower +level of nature have grown and are growing more familiar. +We see that Progress is the essential and therefore eternal +form of life and spiritual being, which endows it everywhere +with worth and substance. With this comes the +conviction that the source of all this lies inward, in that +inwardness where our true selves lie and springs from the +very nature of that. The spirit which is within us is not +other than the spirit which upholds and maintains the +whole Universe and works after the same fashion. And +with regard to this its manner of working, we have learned +that it proceeds by taking account of its own past achievements, +imagining or conceiving for itself tasks relevant to +these but not limited by them, and finds in that the conditions +and stimulus to their actualization. It is our business +to imitate this procedure and so to contribute to the advance +of the whole. No work so done is or can be lost. We +are justified in supposing that in so doing we are leagued +together in effective co-operation with one another and +with all other forces at work in the whole. In and through +us, though not in and through us only, Progress goes on, +drawing us along with it. Inner and outer Progress, free<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">[310]</a></span> +allegiance and loyal subjection concur and do not clash, +and the world in which we live and act appears to us as +it is—a city of God which is also a self-governed and self-administered +city of free men.</p> + +<p>But above all, what it prescribes to us is the duty—another +name for 'the ideal of action'—to seek first light +as to the true nature of our world and ourselves, dismissing +and disregarding all appearance, however charming +or seductive. Unless we learn to see Progress as universal +and omnipresent and omnipotent, we shall set before +ourselves ideals of action which are false and treacherous. +We must exert ourselves not merely to apprehend, but +to dwell in the apprehension and vision of it.</p> + +<p>And if there were no other reason, we should know it +for the right ideal—this command first to seek light—because +it is the hardest thing that can be asked of us +or that we can ask of ourselves. But what is thus asked +is not mere Faith and Hope, but a loyal adherence to the +knowledge which is within us.</p> + +<p>Is this not the hardest? To-day, when over there in +France and Flanders, and indeed almost all over Europe, +as in a sort of Devil's smithy, men are busied in the most +horrid self-destruction. The accumulated stores of age-long +and patient industry are being consumed and annihilated; +the works and monuments of civilized life are +laid low: all physical and intellectual energies are bent +to the service of destruction. The very surface of the +kindly and fertile earth is seamed and scarred and wasted. +And the human beings who live and move in this inferno, +are jerked like puppets hither and thither by the operation +of passions to which we dare not venture to give +names, lest we be found either not condemning what defiles +and imbrutes our nature or denying our meed of praise +and gratitude to what ennobles it. All this portentous +activity and business flows from no other fount and is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">[311]</a></span> +fed by no other spring than the spirit which is within us, +that spirit which has created that wealth, material, artistic, +spiritual, which it is so busily engaged in wrecking and +undoing. It is still as of old, making History, making it +in the old fashion with the old ends in view and by the +exercise of its old familiar powers. And if in this tragic +scene or episode we cannot still read the features of +Progress, our theory is a baseless dream, and we can +frame no valid or 'right' ideal of action. For except to +an environment known to be still, because always, the +work and self-expression of a spirit akin to, and indeed +identical with our own, and except as knowing ourselves +to be still, because always, in all our ways of working its +vehicles and instruments, we can neither define nor realize +any ideals of action at all. This war is not an accident, +nor an outburst of subterranean natural forces, but the +act and deed of human will, and being so it cannot be +merely evil.</p> + +<p>What, then, can we read not into, but out of, the tragic +spectacle now being enacted, not merely before but in, +through, and by us? Unless we have all along been +mistaken, the victims of mere delusion and error, here, +too, there has been and still is Progress. Primarily and +principally what is taking place, is a tremendous revelation +of the potencies which in our nature—in that which +makes us men—have escaped our notice and therefore, +because unseen or ignored, working in the dark, have not +yet been drawn upon and utilized. There has been and +still is going on, an enormous increase of self-knowledge. +At first sight this seems wholly an opening up of undreamt-of +evil. Side by side there has come to us a parallel revelation +of undreamt-of good. I must bear witness to my +conviction that we are beholding a tremendous inrush +or uprush of good into man and his world. But what I +wish to dwell upon is the growing and ever-confirmed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">[312]</a></span> +revelation of an intimate relation or connexion between +the two which is the very spring of Progress, viz. that +the supply of good is not only adequate and more than +adequate to the utmost demand made upon it, in the combating +of the evil, and that for this reason, that while on +the one hand the evil that impedes or counter-works the +good is itself of spiritual origin, its existence and power +is conditioned by the law that it must evoke and stimulate +the very power which it attempts to crush and +defeat. This is, as I have said, the now discovered and +known spring of Progress both within and without us, +that whatsoever is evil, evil just because it is enacted +and does not merely occur, passes within the reach of +knowledge and understanding, and in the measure that +it passes into the light, not merely loses its sting and its +force, but is convertible and converted into a strengthening +condition of that which in its first appearance it seemed +merely to thwart. Even regress is seen to be a necessary +incident in progress, and the seasons which we call periods +of decadence to be occasions in which the spirit progresses +in secret, recruiting itself not by idleness or rest, but +genuinely refreshing and recreating itself.</p> + +<p>The view here suggested is no sentimental optimism. +The drama of the universe is no comedy or even melodrama, +but a tragedy or epic of heroism, and more +especially is this the character of the history of the spirit +which is in Man and is Man. The evil we enact is real +evil, the only real evil, the checks which our disobedience +or disloyalty imposes upon the course of good, are genuine +retardations or frustrations; nevertheless they are not +wholly evil, for nothing is such, but are the means which +the spirit that has begotten them, utilizes in its eternal +Progress and wins out of them a richness, a complex and +varied harmony to which they are compelled to contribute. +Our ideal of action must therefore in principle<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">[313]</a></span> +acknowledge as essential, what I have called the 'tragic' +character suggested by the spectacle of the war, the fear and +agony which we imagine in Nature and comprehendingly +discern in human history. The Progress which we can +achieve or contribute to—which we can make our ideal +of action—is one which cannot rightly be conceived otherwise +than in its essence a victory over evil, and that it +may be evil, it must come and be done in the dark. For the +spirit in progressing deposits what, being abandoned by +it, corrupts into venomous evil, but except in meeting and +combating that, it cannot progress. And it can only +combat it by getting to know it, for in darkness and +ignorance it can make no secure advance.</p> + +<p>It has been profoundly said that to know all is to forgive +all. Let us rather say that in coming to know its own +past, the Spirit which is in Man can without undoing it—that +it cannot—make it contributory to its own wealth +of being, can, as I have said, utilize it for its own purposes, +which are summed up in the knowing of itself. There +is and can be nothing in its deeds which it cannot know, +and so digest and assimilate and absorb into its own +substance.</p> + +<p>In this interpretation of the meaning—the veiled but +not hidden meaning of what has taken place and is taking +place in the world—or rather in us and enacted by us, +I seem to myself not to be expressing any private imagination +or supposition which may or may not be so, but +a certainty that it must be so. Either it is so or 'the +pillared firmament is rottenness and earth's base built +on stubble'. And this means that everywhere and always, +but most specially and centrally and potently in man's +spirit, there is Progress, in spite of checks and hindrances +which come from within it, a constant if chequered +advance in true worth or value. And that knowledge I +build on grounded and reasoned hope that it will and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">[314]</a></span> +must continue—how, I do not know, but can only surmise +and conjecture and imagine.</p> + +<p>To the question, What, then, ought we to do? I can +only reply first and foremost, Labour to retain this +truth, fostering and developing it, verifying it as we +have been doing in all the varied departments of human +experience, exercising our imaginations while at the +same time sobering and controlling them by the light +that comes from it. If we are true to it and do not +through slackness forget and lose it, we shall find +arising spontaneously out of the depths of our self worthy +and feasible ideals of action, the pursuit of which will not +betray us or leave us without an ever-growing assurance +that in bending and directing all our powers to their +realization we are the agents of that Progress which is +the source of all being and all worth whatsoever. If we +will to learn from our own past, we can convert anything +that is evil in it into an occasion, an opportunity, a means +to good which without it were not possible. Thus we can +even do what seems utterly impossible, for we can without +forgetting or ignoring or denying, forgive ourselves even +the evil which we have done. Yes, even the darkest and +worst evil, the disloyalty to ourselves, to the best and +deepest within us, which all but achieved the impossibility +of finally defeating the march of Progress. For +the basis and ground of our belief in the reality, and +therefore the eternity, of Progress lies in this, that the +now known nature of the Spirit which is in Man and not +in Man alone, is that it can heal any wounds that it can +inflict upon itself, can find in its own errors and failures, +in its own mistakes and misdeeds, if it only will, the +materials of richer and fuller and worthier life.</p> + + +<div class='transnote'> +<a name="transnotes" id="transnotes"></a><h3>Transcriber's Notes</h3> + +<p>Page <a href="#Page_26">26</a>: Opening and closing quotes added to "Beg humbly that he unlock the door."</p> + +<p>Page <a href="#Page_89">89</a>: <i>Suma Theologica</i> <i>sic</i></p> + +<p>Page <a href="#Page_92">92</a>: course amended to coarse</p> + +<p>Page <a href="#Page_165">165</a>: preventible amended to preventable</p> + +<p>Page <a href="#Page_299">299</a>: missing word "is" added ("so far as it is realized")</p> + +<p>The footnote number is for footnote 81 is missing in the +original text. The location of the number that has been +added is only an assumption.</p> + +<p>Discrepancies between the Table of Contents and chapter +headings ("Government"/"Progress in Government"; +"Industry"/"Progress in Industry"; "Art"/"Progress in Art"; +"Science"/"Progress in Science" and "Philosophy"/"Progress +in Philosophy") have been retained.</p> +</div> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Progress and History, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PROGRESS AND HISTORY *** + +***** This file should be named 27948-h.htm or 27948-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/7/9/4/27948/ + +Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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