Progress And Poverty (Notable American Authors)

Book may have numerous typos, missing text, images, or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1900. Excerpt: ... BOOK X. THE LAW OF HUMAN PROGRESS. CHAPTER I,--THE CURRENT THEORY OF HUMAN PROGRESS--ITS INSUFFICIENCY. CHAPTER II.--DIFFERENCES IN CIVILIZATION--TO WHAT DUE. CHAPTER III.--THE LAW OF HUMAN PROGRESS. CHAPTER IV.--HOW MODERN CIVILIZATION MAY DECLINE. CHAPTER V.--THE CENTRAL TRUTH.' What in me is dark Illumine, what is low raise and support; That to the height of this great argument I may assert eternal Providence And justify the ways of God to men. -^Milton. CHAPTER I. THE CURRENT THEORY OF HUMAN PROGRESS--IT8 INSUFFICIENCY. If the conclusions at which we have arrived are correct, they will fall under a larger generalization. Let_us, therefore, recommence our inquiry from a higher standpoint, whence we may survey a wider field. What is the law of human progress f This is a question which, were it not for what has gone before, I should hesitate to review in the brief space I can now devote to it, as it involves, directly or indirectly, some of the very highest problems with which the human mind can engage. But it is a question which naturally comes up. Are or are not the conclusions to which we have come consistent with the great law under which human development goes on? What is that law? We must find the answer to our question; for the current philosophy, though it clearly recognizes the existence of such a law, gives no more satisfactory account of it than the current political economy does of the persistence of want amid advancing wealth. Let us, as far as possible, keep to the firm ground of facts. Whether man was or was not gradually developed from an animal, it is not necessary to inquire. However intimate may be the connection between questions which relate to man as we know him and questions which relate to his genesis, it is only from the former upon the latter that light ca...