II. 



LINNAEUS TO LAMARCK. 



For a hundred years the word ''progress'' has 

 been a word to conjure with. No proposal is 

 too reactionary to be put forward in its name 

 and the self-admitted conservative explains 

 that he only wishes to "conserve'' the good 

 things which progress has bestowed upon us. 

 It has been invoked on all sides of all 

 questions, and no superstition was so ancient 

 or absurd, no theory so exploded, but it could 

 be revived under a new name and presented to 

 the world as an infallible sign of the progress 

 of the age. 



But during the last century men have arisen, 

 who were dissatisfied with a term that covered 

 everything and meant nothing, and who were 

 determined to find out what constituted pro- 

 gress and whether it had any existence in the 

 world of reality. More has been accomplished 

 in this respect during that century than in all 

 the combined previous existence of the human 

 race. The conception or idea of progress is the 

 mental reflection of the process of evolution, 

 which operates everywhere to the remotest 



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