PROGRESS, BIOLOGICAL AND OTHER 53 



tempt at a solution of the problem : the modern rise 

 of arbitration as a method of settling disputes be- 

 tween whole units and large groups within units is 

 another important step in the same direction. 

 Nevertheless, it is here that the most drastic change 

 of method will have to be brought into being if man's 

 development is to continue progressive. 



There is, however, a weighty criticism of the valid- 

 ity of human progress. Granted that human sci- 

 ence and invention have made enormous strides, that 

 knowledge has increased and convenience multiplied 

 — is man, the living, feeling, personal human being, 

 any the better in essentials for all of this — has it not 

 merely made life more complex at the expense of its 

 depth, more rapid at the expense of its tranquillity 

 and suavity? This is especially obvious in the field 

 of art. It is impossible to maintain that any one of 

 a certain number — a hundred, or perhaps a thousand 

 — of great poets, painters, sculptors, or musicians is 

 greater or has achieved finer things than any other 

 of the number. What is more, in most arts — no- 

 tably sculpture, painting, and poetry, the possibilities 

 of expression and achievement do not increase, and 

 once a certain pitch of skill is reached, tend to ex- 

 tinguish themselves in technique and virtuosity. 

 When this happens, new ideas generally come upon 

 the scene and work up again from a relatively primi- 

 tive to a complicated technique along a more or less 

 different path — and so on and so forth ad infinitum. 



This is not so true of architecture, and still less so 



