on the Coming Civilization. 381 



it. It may be well to experiment in this direction ; but any 

 steps should be slowly and cautiously taken. 



We are impatient, and — in the sense of a high discon- 

 tent with poor conditions — we ought to be impatient, of 

 the existence of so many social ills and imperfections. 

 During the Middle Ages a great army of children started 

 out on an enthusiastic crusade in search of the Holy Land. 

 At first they thought it very near. And as eacli common 

 town rose in sight, their hearts beat with eager expectation, 

 and they cried out, " Is this Jerusalem ? " And then, wearied 

 and sobered, they would start on again for the city that 

 they still knew was somewhere, though farther off than 

 they had fancied it to be. 



Like these children the human race marches on. It be- 

 lieves in the unseen city ; but, in spite of many disappoint- 

 ments, it allows itself to be over and over again deluded 

 into the belief that the first town caught sight of by any 

 enthusiast is the city of its hopes. 



One fundamental fact cannot be too deeply impressed on 

 all hearts or kept too constantly in mind. This fact is that 

 a perfect building cannot be constructed of imperfect bricks. 

 A perfect society cannot be made out of imperfect individ- 

 uals. Rearrange them as you please, and so long as the 

 materials are defective the defect will appear in the result. 

 Forgetting this is the radical error in all those theories 

 that propose some short cut to the " Coming Civilization," 

 while men and women are left very much the same as they 

 are now. 



Having put up our warning signs, "No passing," at the 

 entrances of so many roads, some persons may be inclined 

 to think that I regard all of them as cut de sacs, and that 

 the only thing left is for us to plod on after the old fashion, 

 "content in that station of life in which it has pleased 

 Providence to place us," as the Prayer Book has it. But 

 no, I hold no opinion of the kind. Nor have I, on the 

 other hand, any pet " City of God " of my own that I expect 

 to see suddenly descending out of a magical sky. If there 

 is any hope at all in the future, it is the hope that shines 

 out of the past. Something, and, I believe, very much, is 

 possible, if only people wiH stop merely dreaming, and, in 

 the light of established principles, will go to work. 



In the first place, I do not at all believe in the laissez- 

 faire theory, in letting things take their own way. Under 



