THE EVOLUTION OF SOCIETY 



have not as yet entirely freed themselves. The 

 followers of Turgot and Condorcet were prone 

 to regard progress as something necessary and 

 universal. They attempted to account for it, 

 much as Lamarck tried to explain organic de- 

 velopment, as the continuous and ubiquitous 

 manifestation of an occult, inherent tendency to- 

 wards perfection. Subsequent literature exhib- 

 its many traces of this metaphysical conception. 

 Thus Dr. Whately, in his edition of Archbishop 

 King's discourses, asserts that " civilization is 

 the natural state of man, since he has evidently 

 a natural tendency towards it." Upon which 

 it has been aptly remarked that, " by a parity 

 of reasoning, old age is the natural state of 

 man since he has evidently a natural tendency 

 towards it." Indeed, as this comparison is 

 intended to show, it is difficult to use such ex- 

 pressions as " natural state " and " natural ten- 

 dency" without becoming involved in a con- 

 fusion of ideas. And to ascribe progress to an 

 inherent tendency, without taking into account 

 the complex set of conditions amid which alone 

 that tendency can be realized, is to give us an 

 empty formula instead of a scientific explana- 

 tion. Whether the individual will die young or 

 reach old age, and whether the community will 

 remain barbarous or become civilized, depends, 

 to a great extent, upon environing circum- 

 stances ; and no theory of progress can have 



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