PEEFECTIBILITY OF MAN. 179 



into these things, without recognising the changes that 

 have progressively come over the human mind 

 changes not limited to the physical sciences, but ex- 

 tending to all other branches of human knowledge. 

 Germs of thought and speculation which failed to 

 ripen in the philosophy of older times have now 

 matured into established truths. What were conjec- 

 tures have become laws, and it is in the discovery of 

 these laws that we obtain evidence of the highest 

 capacities of man. Some sciences, indeed, such as 

 political economy and social statistics, are almost alto- 

 gether of recent creation ; and seeing their importance 

 to the welfare of mankind, they interpret well that 

 conjoint progress of thought and action which has 

 done so much to extend and define the civilisation of 

 our own age. 



Admitting, however, this progress and higher 

 grade of culture in certain communities of men, we 

 have yet to see what proportion these bear to the 

 totality of mankind. Neither geography nor arithmetic 

 can be brought to solve a problem thus complex. 

 The areas of higher and lower civilisation are every- 

 where so crossed and intermingled that, even in the 

 countries most familiar to us, lines and numbers fail of 

 affording any certain demarcation. Looking largely 

 over the globe, and especially what is called the Old 

 World, we find some of the most populous nations 

 seemingly arrested at a certain point of progress, and 

 going through ages in succession without notable 

 advancement, often with obvious decline. . Ancient 

 philosophy or poetry fondled the notion of a priuii- 



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