I. 



PROGRESS : ITS LAW AND CAUSE. 



^"1HE 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 appHances by which they are produced. When, 

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

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

 when the 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 

 reahty of Progress as its accompaniments — not so much 

 Ihe substance as the shadow. That progress in intelligence 

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

 savage into the philosopher, is commonly regarded as con- 

 Bisthig in the greater number of facts known and laws 

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