SOCIETAL EVOLUTION 127 



one into which Adams fell, that it means progress. It means 

 adjustment only. Such adjustment seems to be progressive if 

 it leads in a direction which we choose to call forward; but it 

 may appear also to be retrogressive if its runs counter to that 

 direction. To us the change from the flint-lock to the per- 

 cussion-cap musket seems a progressive adjustment, and the 

 return from the latter to the former, in hot and damp regions, 

 where the cap deteriorated while the imperishable flint did 

 not, appears to be retrogression. Both were expedient ad- 

 justments to life-conditions. 



We ought not to be dismayed at the sight of forces operat- 

 ing in what seem to us opposite ways, at one and the same time. 

 We should not bemoan the failure of evolution because motion 

 is not always visibly in the direction we like or expect, any 

 more than we should despair of gravitation because it causes 

 both the stone to fall and the balloon to rise. The fact is that 

 the terms progress and retrogression, as their etymology indi- 

 cates, imply that the user of them has selected some center of 

 operations from which he can infallibly adjudge what is "pro" 

 and what is "retro." He is at liberty, in free countries, to do 

 this for himself and to try to persuade others that he is right; 

 and sometimes whole groups can agree on what is progress 

 and what is not; but it is generally impossible to get extended 

 unanimity as to the identity of "forward" and "backward." 

 Especially is this the case when it comes to the appraisal of 

 social relations, institutions, and policies. 



But this whole difficulty is escaped, in the case of evolution, 

 if we consent to view that process as it is, and do not, in our 

 straining after the assessment of things as progressive or 

 retrogressive, hug to ourselves the misconception that evolu- 

 tion and progress are synonymous. If we simply ask, concern- 

 ing any organic or social form, whether it is an adjustment, 

 past, present, or pending, we shall all find ourselves in a sub- 

 stantial agreement that will permit of our going along farther 



