UISCOVEHY 



377 



Reviews of Books 



The Idea of Progress. By J. B. Buky. (Macniillan, 

 1920, 14s. net.) 



It is a sign of the times that we discuss fundamentals ; 

 and of these fundamentals, the idea of progress has 

 perhaps come in for the most searching criticism of all. 

 We have had Bertrand Russell with his despairing yet 

 glorious belief in the Promethean destiny of man. Wc have 

 had Mr. Marvin and his band of optimistic essayists. 

 Wc have had the Dean of St. Paul's, who, in his Romanes 

 Lecture of this year, turned the doctrine of man as the 

 cosmic rebel, so startlinglj- enunciated in the same 

 building a quarter of a century ago by Huxley, into a 

 Strange blend of Christian hope and evolutionary 

 pessimism. Now wc have the most solid of recent 

 contributions, in the shape of this volume of Professor 

 Bury's. 



The work is of tlie greatest value ; for it is the first 

 attempt, since the Darwinian epoch and the subsequent 

 reaction, to give a connected and critical account of the 

 history of the idea of progress. 



So long as men were content to translate their own 

 desires into a creed, so long as they cherished apocalyptic 

 hopes, so long were they inevitably unable to frame an 

 idea of progress which should not be too remote from 

 reality. Only by a historical survey can they see what 

 has failed, can they see whj- it has failed. 



The most important and at the same time the most 

 startling point here brought out is that the idea of 

 progress as we know it, and indeed in anj- significant sense, 

 was never grasped in antiquity, nor in the Middle Ages, 

 and in fact did not germinate until the seventeenth 

 century. The idea of progress excludes the doctrine of a 

 Golden Age ; it excludes the notion of inevitably-recurring 

 cycles; itexcludes the veneration of antiquity ; it excludes 

 belief in an immediate coming of the Kingdom of God, 

 or, indeed, of any " illusion of finality " ; it excludes real 

 [ pessimism and genuine individualism ; it excludes 

 excessive " next-worldliness," as of the early Fathers- 

 , One or other of these ideas was dominant in civilised 

 I thought until the Renaissance ; and it was not until the 

 Renaissance had accomplished its work of destruction, had 

 proceeded to construction, and had overcome its early 

 lemotions of self-complacency, that the idea of progress 

 could be born, or at least before it could exercise any 

 general effect upon iiuman thought. 



I Dean Inge laid stress upon the progress caused by 

 Christianity's introduction of the idea of Hope as a living 

 Iforce. Bury emphasises the close connection between 

 the rise of the scientific habit of mind and of the true idea 

 jf progress. He traces it up from its genesis as a historical 

 Jrinciple in the writings of Bodin ; shows how Bacon 

 irst coupled it with the double team of Utility and Know- 

 edge ; how the eighteenth century's optimism expanded 

 t from a limited and verifiable principle into a universal 

 ind unverifiable dogma ; how the scientific spirit began to 

 riticise this dogma, and to search for a law of progress 



[Continued on p. 378 



T.Fislierllnwiii'sBQoks 



A NATURALIST ON LAKE VIC- 



TORIA. With an Account of Sleeping Sickness 

 and the I'se-tsc I'ly. By ('.. D. Hale Carpenter, 

 D.M., 13. Ch. (0.\on). Fully Illustrated. Cloth, 

 28s. net. 



"Forty months' close iitudy on the sh.«es and Ulamls of 

 L-ike Victori.T have enabled Dr. Hale Carpenter to give not 

 o..Iy ,1 valuable account of the history .ind symiMoms of 

 sleeping sickness, but also to describe the scenery, climate, 

 anim;il and insect life of the Lake." — /"^i^ Tuius. 



ENGLISH WAYFARING LIFE IN 



THE MIDDLE AGES ( i4'.li Century). By J. J. 

 JussEK.-\ND. New Edition, revised and reset, and 

 with new Illustrations. Cloth, 25^. net. 

 " Pray do not order this volume at the library. Buy it if 

 you are wise, and keep it as a joy for ever." — The late Ur. 

 AUGUSlus [lissof in tl>e /Viiie.'e.-nth Century. 



SPIRITUALISM. A Popular History 

 from 1S47. By Joseph McC.\iiE. ijr. net. 

 This book presents one of the most complete stu lies of a 

 subject tliat is now engrossing so many minds in all parti 

 of the world. 



FRENCH CIVILISATION from its 



Ori;.;ins to the Close of the Middle Ages. By 

 Professor A. L. Guer.ard. Cloth, 2\s. net. 

 A very valuable and admirable piece of literary and histori- 

 cal research. 



THE ART OF LETTERS. By Rouekt 



Lyn-d, Author of " Old and New Masters." Cloth, 

 15X. net. 



Mr. Lynd writes of the labour of authorship, of the theory 

 of poetry, of tlie critic as destroyer, of the personality of 

 William Morris, of Oscar Wilde, of George Meredith, of 

 Tennyson, of the politics of Swift and Shakespeare, of I'epys, 

 ISunyan, and many others. 



SUPERS AND SUPERMEN. Studies 



in Politics, History and Letters. By Philu' 

 GuEiMLL.A. Cloth, 15^. net. 



"Mr. Philip Gued.alla has pro<luced the mo-t entertaining 



volume of historical and biographical sludies that has 

 appeared since 'Eminent Victori.ins.' "— 7X« Tim/i. 



THE JOHNSON CLUB PAPERS. 



1920. By Various Hands. Edited l)y George 

 \Vn.\LE and Jons S.\kgeauxt. Cloth, io.f. dd. net. 

 This volume includes contributions from, among others, 

 Edward Clodd, Sir George Radford, A. B. Walkley, and 

 II. n. Wheatley. 



CHATS ON OLD SHEFFIELD 



PLATE. By Arihur Havijev, Author of 



" Chits on Old Silver," etc. Profusely illustrated. 



Cloth, 2is. net. 



The author shows reasons why old Sheffield plate should 



be collected, and the volume is illustrated with many 



examples giving various styles and the develop.iient of the 



art, to.;ether with mikeis' marks. 



M.A.B. iMilaty About Books). An llluslralei mifir'nt 



containing excerpts from new books. Annual subscription, 



Is. post free. ^ 



T. FISHER UHWIM, Ld., 7 Adaiphi Terraca, London, W.C. 



