I. 

 PROGRESS : ITS LAW AND CAUSE. 



TTIIE current conception of Progress is somewhat shift 

 ing and indefinite. Sometimes it comprehends little 

 more than simple growth as of a nation in the number of 

 its members and the extent of territory over which it has 

 spread. Sometimes it has reference to quantity of material 

 products as when the advance of agriculture and manu 

 factures is the topic. Sometimes the superior quality of 

 these products is contemplated : and sometimes the new or 

 improved appliances by which they are produced. &quot;When, 

 again, we speak of moral or intellectual progress, \ve refer 

 to the state of the individual or people exhibiting it ; while, 

 when tho progress of Knowledge, of Science, of Art, ii 

 commented upon, we have in view certain abstract results 

 of human thought and action. Not only, however, is the 

 current conception of Progress more or less vague, but it 

 is in great measure erroneous. It takes in not so much the 

 reality of Progress as its accompaniments not so much 

 the substance as the shadow. That pi-ogress in intelligence 

 een during the growth of the child into the man, or the 

 savage into the philosopher, is commonly regarded as con 

 sisting iu the greater number of facts known and laws 



