COSMIC PHILOSOPHY 



tinues, and the constitution of things remains 

 the same, those modifications must end in com- 

 pleteness/*^ As surely as the astronomer can 

 predict the future state of the heavens, the so- 

 ciologist can foresee that the process of adap- 

 tation must go on until in a remote future it 

 comes to an end in proximate equilibrium. The 

 increasing interdependence of human interests 

 must eventually go far to realize the dream of 

 the philosophic poet — of a Parliament of Man . 

 a Federation of the World, 



'* When the kindly earth shall slumber, lapt in universal law/* 



and when the desires of each individual shall be 

 in proximate equilibrium with the means of sat- 

 isfying them and with the simultaneous desires 

 of all surrounding individuals. Such a state im- 

 plies at once the highest possible individuation 

 and the highest possible integration among the 

 units of the community ; and it is the ideal goal 

 of intellectual and moral progress. 



Thus the fundamental law of progress, as for- 

 mulated at the close of the last chapter, contains 

 all the provisions requisite in such a formula. 

 It describes, in a single grand generalization, all 

 the phenomena of social evolution, both in so 

 far as they result from the general laws of life, 

 and in so far as they result from the operation 

 of circumstances peculiar to the aggregation of 

 ^ Spencer, Social Statics^ p. 65. 



334 



