By the Christmas Fire | Page 6

log,
they could be carried from place to place on the water. What the
landing place should be was, however, a matter beyond their control.
They had to trust to the current, which was occasionally favorable to
them. In the first exhilaration over their discovery they were doubtless
thankful enough to go down stream, even when their business called
them up stream. At least they had the pleasant sensation of getting on.
They were obeying the law of progress. The uneasy radical who wanted
to progress in a predetermined direction must have seemed like a
visionary. But the desire to go up stream and across stream and beyond
sea persisted, and the log became a boat, and paddles and oars and
rudder and sail and screw propeller were invented in answer to the ever
increasing demand.
But the problem of the dirigibility of a boat, or of a balloon, is
simplicity itself compared with the amazing complexity of the

problems involved in producing a dirigible civilization. It falls under
Bacon's category of "things which never yet have been performed."
Heretofore civilizations have floated on the cosmic atmosphere. They
have been carried about by mysterious currents till they could float no
longer. Then their wreckage has furnished materials for history.
But all the time human ingenuity has been at work attacking the great
problem. Thousands of little inventions have been made, by which we
gain temporary control of some of the processes. We are coming to
have a consciousness of human society as a whole, and of the
possibility of directing its progress. It is not enough to satisfy the
modern intellect to devise plans by which we may become more rich or
more powerful. We must also tax our ingenuity to find ways for the
equitable division of the wealth and the just use of power. We are no
longer satisfied with increase in the vast unwieldy bulk of our
possessions, we eagerly seek to direct them to definite ends. Even here
in America we are beginning to feel that "progress" is not an end in
itself. Whether it is desirable or not, depends on the direction of it. Our
glee over the census reports is chastened. We are not so certain that it is
a clear gain to have a million people live where a few thousand lived
before. We insist on asking, How do they live? Are they happier,
healthier, wiser? As a city becomes bigger, does it become a better
place in which to rear children? If it does not, must not civic ambition
seek to remedy the defect?
The author of Ecclesiastes made the gloomy comment upon the
civilization of his own day: "I returned, and saw under the sun, that the
race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to
the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men
of skill." In so far as that is true to-day, things are working badly. It
must be within our power to remedy such an absurd situation. We have
to devise more efficient means for securing fair play, and for enforcing
the rules of the game. We want to develop a better breed of men. In
order to do so, we must make this the first consideration. In proportion
as the end is clearly conceived and ardently desired, will the effective
means be discovered and employed.

Why has the reign of peace and good-will upon the earth been so long
delayed? We grow impatient to hear the bells
Ring out old shapes of foul disease; Ring out the narrowing lust of gold;
Ring out the thousand wars of old, Ring in the thousand years of peace.
Ring in the valiant man and free, The larger heart, the kindlier hand.
The answer must be that "the valiant man and free" must, like every
one else, learn his business before he can expect to have any measure
of success. The kindlier hand must be skilled by long practice before it
can direct the vast social mechanism.
The Fury in Shelley's "Prometheus Unbound" described the
predicament in which the world has long found itself:--
The good want power but to weep barren tears. The powerful goodness
want; worse need for them.
The wise want love, and those who love want wisdom; And all best
things are thus confused to ill.
This is discouraging to the unimaginative mind, but the very confusion
is a challenge to human intelligence. Here are all the materials for a
more beautiful world. All that is needed is to find the proper
combination. Goodness alone will not do the work. Goodness grown
strong and wise by much experience is, as the man on the street would
say, "quite a different proposition." Why not try it?
We