186 PERFECTIBILITY OF MAN. 



especially in countries where the present maximum of 

 elevation has not yet been reached, are much more 

 likely to result in ulterior progress than in decay. 

 Add to this the wonderful powers, won by man from 

 nature, for rapid diffusion over the globe of the attain- 

 ments hitherto limited to certain detached regions 

 only, and we may fairly rest in the conclusion that 

 the human race has a higher destiny before it than the 

 perpetuation of its present estate. 



I must admit, however, that the argument thus far 

 regards chiefly the intellectual advancement of man, 

 and the means serving to this great end. His moral 

 and social progress in the future is a matter of at least 

 equal concern a topic closely allied, indeed, to the 

 former, but rendered still more difficult of discussion 

 by the ambiguities of language and the more complex 

 evidence with which we have to deal in comparing the 

 moral condition of ancient periods and countries with 

 that of the world in our own time. To what common 

 formula or phraseology can we reduce elements so 

 diverse and so difficult of interpretation, even where 

 most familiar to us ? There is, indeed, a certain com- 

 munity of character in mankind, derived from a com- 

 mon nature, and from those necessities of life which 

 press alike upon all. But this is overlaid by so many 

 specialties, physical, local, and accidental, that we can 

 seldom compass any complete or certain conclusions. 

 Take even Eome as an instance. From history, poetry, 

 and satire we know its social condition under the early 

 Emperors better than that of any other ancient city. 

 Yet how vague our comparison, in a moral sense, of 



