496 LAWS OF MULTIPLICATION. 



on vigour of limb, and are likely to do so while wars con- 

 tinue ; yet that progressive adaptation to the social state which 

 must at last bring wars to an end, will leave the amount of 

 muscular power to adjust itself to the requirements of a 

 peaceful regime. Though, taking all things into account, the 

 muscular power then required may not be less than now, 

 there seems no reason why more should be required. 



Will it be in swiftness or agility ? Probably not. In tho 

 savages these are important elements of the ability to main- 

 tain life ; but in the civilized man they aid self-preservation 

 in quite a minor degree, and there seems no circumstance 

 likely to necessitate an increase of them. By games and 

 gymnastic competitions, such attributes may indeed be arti- 

 ficially increased; but no artificial increase which does not 

 bring a proportionate advantage can be permanent ; since, 

 other things equal, individuals and societies that devote the 

 same amounts of energy in ways that subserve life more 

 effectually, must by and by predominate. 



Will it be in mechanical skill, that is, in the better-co- 

 ordination of complex movements? Most likely in some 

 degree. Awkwardness is continually entailing injuries and 

 deaths. Moreover, the complicated tools which civilization 

 brings into use, are constantly requiring greater delicacy of 

 manipulation. All the arts, industrial and aesthetic, as they 

 develop, imply a corresponding development of perceptive and 

 executive faculties in men the two necessarily act and react. 



Will it be in intelligence ? Largely, no doubt. There is 

 ample room for advance in this direction, and ample demand 

 for it. Our lives are universally shortened by our ignorance. 

 In attaining complete knowledge of our own natures and of 

 the natures of surrounding things in ascertaining the con- 

 ditions of existence to which we must conform, and in dis- 

 covering means of con form ing to them under all variations 

 of seasons and circumstances we have abundant scope for 

 intellectual progress. 



Will it be in morality, that is, in greater power of self- 



