The Idea Of Progress | Page 2

no appeal to it.
For the hope of an ultimate happy state on this planet to be enjoyed by
future generations--or of some state, at least, that may relatively be
considered happy--has replaced, as a social power, the hope of felicity
in another world. Belief in personal immortality is still very widely
entertained, but may we not fairly say that it has ceased to be a central
and guiding idea of collective life, a criterion by which social values
are measured? Many people do not believe in it; many more regard it as
so uncertain that they could not reasonably permit it to affect their lives

or opinions. Those who believe in it are doubtless the majority, but
belief has many degrees; and one can hardly be wrong in saying that, as
a general rule, this belief does not possess the imaginations of those
who hold it, that their emotions react to it feebly, that it is felt to be
remote and unreal, and has comparatively seldom a more direct
influence on conduct than the abstract arguments to be found in
treatises on morals.
Under the control of the idea of Progress the ethical code recognised in
the Western world has been reformed in modern times by a new
principle of far-reaching importance which has emanated from that idea.
When Isocrates formulated the rule of life, "Do unto others," he
probably did not mean to include among "others" slaves or savages.
The Stoics and the Christians extended its application to the whole of
living humanity. But in late years the rule has received a vastly greater
extension by the inclusion of the unborn generations of the future. This
principle of duty to posterity is a direct corollary of the idea of Progress.
In the recent war that idea, involving the moral obligation of making
sacrifices for the sake of future ages, was constantly appealed to; just as
in the Crusades, the most characteristic wars of our medieval ancestors,
the idea of human destinies then in the ascendant lured thousands to
hardship and death.
The present attempt to trace the genesis and growth of the idea in broad
outline is a purely historical inquiry, and any discussion of the great
issue which is involved lies outside its modest scope. Occasional
criticisms on particular forms which the creed of Progress assumed, or
on arguments which were used to support it, are not intended as a
judgment on its general validity. I may, however, make two
observations here. The doubts which Mr. Balfour expressed nearly
thirty years ago, in an Address delivered at Glasgow, have not, so far as
I know, been answered. And it is probable that many people, to whom
six years ago the notion of a sudden decline or break-up of our western
civilisation, as a result not of cosmic forces but of its own development,
would have appeared almost fantastic, will feel much less confident
to-day, notwithstanding the fact that the leading nations of the world
have instituted a league of peoples for the prevention of war, the
measure to which so many high priests of Progress have looked
forward as meaning a long stride forward on the road to Utopia.

The preponderance of France's part in developing the idea is an
outstanding feature of its history. France, who, like ancient Greece, has
always been a nursing-mother of ideas, bears the principal
responsibility for its growth; and if it is French thought that will
persistently claim our attention, this is not due to an arbitrary
preference on my part or to neglect of speculation in other countries.
J. B. BURY. January, 1920.

CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER I
SOME INTERPRETATIONS OF UNIVERSAL HISTORY: BODIN
AND LE ROY

CHAPTER II
UTILITY THE END OF KNOWLEDGE: BACON

CHAPTER III
CARTESIANISM

CHAPTER IV
THE DOCTRINE OF DEGENERATION: THE ANCIENTS AND
MODERNS

CHAPTER V
THE PROGRESS OF KNOWLEDGE: FONTENELLE

CHAPTER VI
THE GENERAL PROGRESS OF MAN: ABBE DE SAINT-PIERRE

CHAPTER VII
NEW CONCEPTIONS OF HISTORY: MONTESQUIEU, VOLTAIRE,
TURGOT

CHAPTER VIII
THE ENCYCLOPAEDISTS AND ECONOMISTS

CHAPTER IX
WAS CIVILISATION A MISTAKE? ROUSSEAU, CHASTELLUX

CHAPTER X
THE YEAR 2440

CHAPTER XI
THE FRENCH REVOLUTION: CONDORCET

CHAPTER XII
THE THEORY OF PROGRESS IN ENGLAND

CHAPTER XIII
GERMAN SPECULATIONS ON PROGRESS

CHAPTER XIV
CURRENTS OF THOUGHT IN FRANCE AFTER THE
REVOLUTION

CHAPTER XV

THE SEARCH FOR A LAW OF PROGRESS: I. SAINT-SIMON

CHAPTER XVI
SEARCH FOR A LAW OF PROGRESS: II. COMTE

CHAPTER XVII
"PROGRESS" IN THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENT
(1830-1851)

CHAPTER XVIII
MATERIAL PROGRESS: THE EXHIBITION OF 1851

CHAPTER XIX
PROGRESS IN THE LIGHT OF EVOLUTION
EPILOGUE
APPENDIX: NOTES TO THE TEXT [Proofreaders note: these notes
have been interspersed in the main text as Footnotes]

INTRODUCTION
When we say that ideas rule