EDITOR'S TABLE. 



553 



EDITOR'S TABLE. 



THE FORCES OF HUMAN PROGRESS. 



THE interesting volume of Mr. Henry 

 George, on " Progress and Pover- 

 ty," was discussed in the "Monthly" 

 upon its first appearance, though rather 

 for the purpose of making it known 

 than of criticising it. But, as it has now 

 become a success, and passed to a fourth 

 and cheaper edition, it becomes desir- 

 able to look more closely into some of 

 its positions. It is not, however, the 

 author's doctrine of the great and grow- 

 ing evils of land monopoly, nor the rem- 

 edy which he proposes for these evils, 

 nor the economic views he has put forth, 

 that now concern us. The first nine 

 books of his treatise are devoted to these 

 topics, but in the tenth and concluding 

 book he takes up another and a larger 

 subject. He here discusses " the law of 

 human progress," and opens the weighty 

 question of the philosophy of all social 

 and political reform ; and with the views 

 here advocated we can not at all agree. 

 The argument of Book X, though not 

 strictly a part of the main thesis of the 

 volume, grows naturally out of it. Hav- 

 ing traced certain great social evils to 

 their root, and shown, as he believes, 

 how they may be escaped, he was of 

 course urgent that his measure should 

 be forthwith adopted, and the good it 

 promises secured. Impelled to write his 

 book by realizing the squalid misery of 

 a great city, which appalled and tor- 

 mented him, he was driven by the whole 

 force of his sympathies to find some 

 plan of removing it, and when found he 

 was naturally eager that it should be 

 applied. But he was here confronted 

 by the school of thinkers which now 

 teaches that genuine and permanent 

 social ameliorations must be far more 

 gradual in their operation than has for- 

 merly been supposed ; that the progress 



of human society is but part of a larger 

 and very deliberate progress in the 

 course of nature, and which takes place 

 through the agency of natural laws to 

 a great extent independent of the voli- 

 tions or intentions of men. They teach 

 that man himself is a product of prog- 

 ress, and has been so developed and 

 transformed by nature that he at last 

 begins to be capable of understanding 

 nature's method, and of consciously 

 taking part in the progressive work. 



Mr. George takes issue with this 

 whole theory, and coolly rules nature 

 out of the entire business. He denies 

 " that human progress is by a slow race 

 development." He says, " We have 

 seen that human progress is not by 

 altering the nature of men," and again, 

 " Human progress is not the improve- 

 ment of human nature." 



He further denies " that progress is 

 by hereditary transmission," and affirms 

 " that human will is the great factor." 

 The view to which he holds is thus 

 briefly intimated: "Mental power is, 

 therefore, the motor of progress, and 

 men tend to advance in proportion to 

 the mental power expended in progres- 

 sion the mental power which is de- 

 voted to the extension of knowledge, 

 the improvement of methods, and the 

 betterment of social conditions. Now, 

 mental power is a fixed quantity that 

 is to say, there is a limit to the work a 

 man can do with his mind, as there is 

 to the work he can do with his body ; 

 therefore, the mental power which can 

 be devoted to progress is only what is 

 left after what is required for non-pro- 

 gressive purposes. . . . 



" These non-progressive purposes in 

 which mental power is consumed may 

 be classified as maintenance and con- 

 flict. By maintenance, I mean not only 



