removed, another obstacle equally formidable would delay the realization of our ideal. For were the wisdom of the ages to be doled out in penny newspapers, in the present state of culture the majority would not have interest enough to read it; what they would read being of a kind that would not raise them in the scale of culture, but would leave them where they are. And thus it is that the triumph of political liberty, the apotheosis of character, intellect, and virtue, the universal diffusion of education and culture-all of which are ideals the future has to realise-are delayed by reason of the obstacles presented by existing material and social conditions, and by the ideas and habits of thought bred of these conditions. Indeed, the longer I live the more clearly I perceive that, when there is any ideal which everybody wishes to see realised, but towards which no active step is taken, the reason is, either that under the circumstances it is impossible to get it, or that the difficulties that would have to be removed would cause more harm than the good that would accrue. Men wanted to know all about the stars long before it was possible that they could know about them; they wanted to be transported from place to place more quickly than was possible. But when the telescope and locomotive engine were invented, the impossible became possible, even actual. In the same way, there are many laws which everybody would like to see enacted, but which cannot be passed, either because in the existing material and social conditions there is no machinery to enforce them, or because the machinery, in its working, would do more harm than good. We all want peace, but cannot have it so long as boundaries are unsettled, race antipathies active, and national self-interests strong. We all want truth, but those sides and aspects of it which have to pass through the seven-fold diffracting media of self-interest, prejudice, bigotry, tradition, pride, authority, and self-love, are not likely soon to be reached. Mark, too, how men's Ideals (and, in consequence, what they will imitate and aspire to) are bred immediately of their Material and Social Conditions. In the early history of the world, when tribes and peoples had to bend all their energies to conquering other tribes or preventing themselves being conquered by them, the power of aggression and self-defence became the most important circumstance in the life of the tribe. The fighting man was, of necessity, the hero and beauideal the one that was most loved, admired, and emulated. On the other hand, the physically weak, however high in mind or character, was despised, hated, or ignored. As these tribes became by conquest gradually welded into nations-and warfare, in consequence, became more organized-tactics, cunning, and diplomatic power shared with personal prowess the esteem of men; until now, in countries like America, that have no foreign policy and little apprehension of war, the mere soldier is held in but little regard; the higher ideals of business sagacity and shrewdness, knowledge of the world and practical ability, holding the first place in the admiration of the great body of the people. And thus we see that, in each instance, the qualities that are most admired, and the deeds that are thought most honourable, follow directly out of the necessities of men's material and social conditions. An indignant friend of mine, disgusted that men's ideas which should be infinite and free are the slaves of the basest material necessities, declares that if the safety of the Empire depended on the man that could stand longest on his head, not only would that man be regarded as the greatest national benefactor-which would be just-but his particular talent would, in the vulgar mind, take precedence of all intellectal ability, however splendid and sublime. Not only is the law that things make their own morality a true law, but it is the one that is everywhere practically believed, laid to heart, and acted on. Why, but for this reason, should we judge the goodness or badness of all governments by the answers they give to such questions as these-in whom does the executive power lodge, how is it instituted, and by whom appointed; by whom and on what tenure are judges and magistrates elected; is the Church dependent on the State or independent of it; in whose hands are the appointments to the high offices of the Army and Civil Service; how are the penalties of crimes graduated; what machinery exists for the detection of crime; what Classes are to possess the franchise, and the like? Is it not the aim of wise statesmanship to have the various material and social interests and powers in the community so fairly represented, that no one shall unduly preponderate, but that there shall be a fair chance of justice being done all around; none but doctrinaires dreaming that, without these checks and balances,' the great ends of public and private justice can be secured by merely leaving them to the individual conscience, or by appeals to mere morality? It is the same, too, in our private affairs; the great questions regarding the individual, being-have you money or authority, or not? are you in a position of command or obedience, of dependence or independence? the answer determining the relation in which we shall stand to you and the attitude we shall assume. How little, indeed, men practically regard all mere exhorta tions to morality, when their material and social position is secure, is seen in the fact that while the good and patient old Church goes thrashing out her well-worn platitudes from Sunday to Sunday on the beauty of humility, and wreaks her empty denunciations on pride and other aristocratic sins, men of wealth and title-in whose eyes, be it observed, this selfsame pride is the particular jewel to which wealth and title minister, and for which, indeed, they exist-continue to repose in peace in their luxuriant pews, knowing well that their dearly-beloved pride need fear no humiliation so long as they can keep the land and title out of which it is perenially renewed; but when men of insight, leaving the Church to go her own way, strike at morality through the material and social conditions, and propose to alter the tenure of land on which this whole superstructure of pride and precedence rests, the affrighted lords perceiving that the ark has at last been touched, start in terror from their repose, as if some ominous raven had appeared in the sky, boding ill to all. We might go on multiplying indefinitely illustrations of the principle above enunciated, but enough will, I trust, have been adduced to show that in this world things make their own morality; and that, therefore, the material and social conditions of men are, if not the sole cause, at least the controlling factor in Civilization and Progress. THE XCHAPTER III. THE EQUALIZATION OF CONDITIONS. HE next question that naturally arises is, what special change takes place in the Material and Social Conditions to render a further advance in Civilization possible at any given point? Now, to answer this question aright, it is desirable, perhaps, at the outset to get a clear idea of what an advance in civilization really means. If, therefore, we consider the various stages through which the world has passed in its progress from barbarism up to the present time, we shall find that the movement of what is called civilization has been along two distinct lines the one, an upright vertical line, the other a lateral horizontal one. The upright vertical movement is seen in the gradual rise of men's ideals from that prowess and mere brute courage which was the ideal in the early life of all peoples (and still is so in the lowest savage races), up through the times when military strategy, cunning, and diplomacy shared with personal courage men's admiration, onward to the present day, when the most serious sections of the most civilized nations have as their ideal, that intellectual power, which, in its many different aspects, has produced all that is great and admirable in civil and national life. Except among the lowest savage races, and the lowest class in civilized communities, mere physical prowess as an ideal may be said to have completely passed away; the military ideal, too, with all its accompaniments, is fast dying out, in spite of its temporary recrudescence among some of the foremost nations, owing to material and political necessities; and now, mental power, in its many various applications, whether as practical wisdom, political sagacity, artistic, literary, or philosophical power, is |