524 



LAWS OF MULTIPLICATION. 



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 swiftness or agility ? Probably not. In savages 

 these are important elements of the ability to maintain 

 life; but in civilized men they aid self-preservation in quite 

 minor degrees, and there seems no circumstance likely to 

 necessitate an increase of them. By games and gymnastic 

 competitions, such attributes may indeed be artificially in- 

 creased; 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 which subserve life more effectu- 

 ally, 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 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 conforming to them under all variations 

 of seasons and circumstances; we have abundant scope for 

 intellectual progress. 



W r ill it be in morality, that is, in greater power of self- 



