THE NEAR FUTURE. 591 



profoundly. The growth and spread of exact knowledge, 

 changing as it is now doing men s ideas of the Universe and 

 of the Power manifested through it, must increasingly modi 

 fy the regulative action of ecclesiastical institutions. A 

 necessary concomitant is the waning authority of the associ 

 ated system of morals, now having an alleged supernatural 

 sanction; and before there is accepted in its place a scienti 

 fically-based ethics, there may result a disastrous relaxation 

 of restraints. Simultaneously with progression towards 

 more enlightened conceptions, we see going on retrogression 

 towards old religious beliefs, and a strengthening of the 

 sacerdotal influences associated with them. The immediate 

 issues of these conflicting processes appear incalculable. 

 Meanwhile men s natures are subjected to various disci 

 plines, and are undergoing various kinds of alterations. The 

 baser instincts, which dominated during the long ages of 

 savage warfare, are being invigorated by revived militancy ; 

 while the many beneficent activities distinguishing our age, 

 imply a fostering of the higher sentiments. There is a 

 moral struggle of which the average effect cannot -be esti 

 mated. 



After all that has been said, it will be manifest that the 

 future of industrial institutions is bound up with the future 

 of social institutions at large ; and that we can rightly infer 

 the first only by infering the last. Here, then, we must con 

 template fundamental social relations and the fundamental 

 implications of them. 



847. When living apart, the individual man pursues his 

 aims with no restraints save those imposed by surrounding 

 ]STature. When living with others, he becomes subject to 

 certain further restraints imposed by their presence. In the 

 one case he is wholly his own master; in the other case he 

 ceases to be his own master in so far as these additional 

 restraints check fulfilment of his desires. The curbing of 

 his individuality, at first negative only (forbidding certain 



