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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



Lester F. Ward. 



sion, exploitation and superstition — the chief obstacles to progress — are 

 rooted in general ignorance and may be removed by the diffusion of 

 knowledge. Universal education is, therefore, the one means govern- 

 ment may employ to hasten the advancement of mankind. 



His "Psychic Factors of Civilization" published in 1893 laid a 

 deeper foundation for his program of willed social progress by setting 

 forth the role of mind in organic -evolution. His daring comparison of 

 " the economy of Nature and the economy of Mind " would, at any time 

 between the sixth century and the seventeenth, have been generally re- 

 garded as impious and inspired by the devil. Twenty years ago biolog- 

 ical adaptation was still regarded as something to pattern after. Ward 

 showed, however, that improvement by natural selection is frightfully 

 wasteful. Nature's way of getting results is costly and should not be 

 imitated by man. As soon as mind comes into the world a better method 

 of adaptation is discovered. It is, therefore, in order for intelligence to 

 search for shortcuts to happiness. Be} r ond democracy Ward sees a form 



