384 PSYCHOLOGICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART II. 



but psychical advantages have the tendency to become common 

 right. 



The progress of civilization in every stage of development 

 of human society, is mainly effected by labour and the renun- 

 ciation of immediate enjoyment, for the latter merely consumes 

 and produces nothing. It is on this account that civiliza- 

 tion does not increase enjoyment. The prevalence of labour 

 is above all characteristic of civilization ; the object of labour 

 is first to make man the master of nature, to overcome it, and 

 to make it subservient to his wants, in order to gain leisure 

 and force for his psychical life, and to secure his existence 

 from the dangers of natural forces. The performances of phy- 

 sical efforts are determined by mental labour, and they become 

 more perfect in proportion as the knowledge of nature extends. 

 But whilst man gradually renders himself more independent 

 of the influences of natural forces, his mental independence 

 grows simultaneously, he becomes master of himself, and learns 

 to shape his individual and social life. The variety and ex- 

 tent of his performances thus grow in every direction. 

 His mental efforts gradually predominate over the physical ; 

 but they are not made as having an object in themselves, 

 or as referring only to individual interest, but in order 

 that they may benefit the world, that is to say, all the members 

 of human society, partly by lessening the pressure of external 

 circumstances on the present generation, and partly for the 

 benefit of generations to come. Thus civilization is an 

 incessant labour of all for every individual, not alone for his 

 enjoyment, but for fitting him for an intellectual life, a 

 labour which can only have its full effect by the coalition 

 of all the external and inner forces of individuals, but which, 

 on this account, at first includes only small and gradually larger 

 circles of society, until at length it connects all humanity by 

 closer moral bonds. 



It is in this sense that we look upon civilization as the uni- 

 versal destination of mankind. This is the development which 

 nature designs for man, in which all human beings participate, 

 though the parts which they take in it may greatly differ. We 

 need not investigate here how far the present European civi- 



