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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/3121.txt b/3121.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c907ee8 --- /dev/null +++ b/3121.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1073 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Thoughts Suggested By Mr. Froude's +"Progress", by Charles Dudley Warner + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Thoughts Suggested By Mr. Froude's "Progress" + +Author: Charles Dudley Warner + +Release Date: December 6, 2004 [EBook #3121] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MR. FROUDE'S PROGRESS *** + + + + +Produced by David Widger + + + + + +THOUGHTS SUGGESTED BY MR. FROUDE'S "PROGRESS" + +By Charles Dudley Warner + +To revisit this earth, some ages after their departure from it, is a +common wish among men. We frequently hear men say that they would give so +many months or years of their lives in exchange for a less number on the +globe one or two or three centuries from now. Merely to see the world +from some remote sphere, like the distant spectator of a play which +passes in dumb show, would not suffice. They would like to be of the +world again, and enter into its feelings, passions, hopes; to feel the +sweep of its current, and so to comprehend what it has become. + +I suppose that we all who are thoroughly interested in this world have +this desire. There are some select souls who sit apart in calm endurance, +waiting to be translated out of a world they are almost tired of +patronizing, to whom the whole thing seems, doubtless, like a cheap +performance. They sit on the fence of criticism, and cannot for the life +of them see what the vulgar crowd make such a toil and sweat about. The +prizes are the same dreary, old, fading bay wreaths. As for the soldiers +marching past, their uniforms are torn, their hats are shocking, their +shoes are dusty, they do not appear (to a man sitting on the fence) to +march with any kind of spirit, their flags are old and tattered, the +drums they beat are barbarous; and, besides, it is not probable that they +are going anywhere; they will merely come round again, the same people, +like the marching chorus in the "Beggar's Opera." Such critics, of +course, would not care to see the vulgar show over again; it is enough +for them to put on record their protest against it in the weekly +"Judgment Days" which they edit, and by-and-by withdraw out of their +private boxes, with pity for a world in the creation of which they were +not consulted. + +The desire to revisit this earth is, I think, based upon a belief, +well-nigh universal, that the world is to make some progress, and that it +will be more interesting in the future than it is now. I believe that the +human mind, whenever it is developed enough to comprehend its own action, +rests, and has always rested, in this expectation. I do not know any +period of time in which the civilized mind has not had expectation of +something better for the race in the future. This expectation is +sometimes stronger than it is at others; and, again, there are always +those who say that the Golden Age is behind them. It is always behind or +before us; the poor present alone has no friends; the present, in the +minds of many, is only the car that is carrying us away from an age of +virtue and of happiness, or that is perhaps bearing us on to a time of +ease and comfort and security. + +Perhaps it is worth while, in view of certain recent discussions, and +especially of some free criticisms of this country, to consider whether +there is any intention of progress in this world, and whether that +intention is discoverable in the age in which we live. + +If it is an old question, it is not a settled one; the practical +disbelief in any such progress is widely entertained. Not long ago Mr. +James Anthony Froude published an essay on Progress, in which he examined +some of the evidences upon which we rely to prove that we live in an "era +of progress." It is a melancholy essay, for its tone is that of profound +skepticism as to certain influences and means of progress upon which we +in this country most rely. With the illustrative arguments of Mr. +Froude's essay I do not purpose specially to meddle; I recall it to the +attention of the reader as a representative type of skepticism regarding +progress which is somewhat common among intellectual men, and is not +confined to England. It is not exactly an acceptance of Rousseau's notion +that civilization is a mistake, and that it would be better for us all to +return to a state of nature--though in John Ruskin's case it nearly +amounts to this; but it is a hostility in its last analysis to what we +understand by the education of the people, and to the government of the +people by themselves. If Mr. Froude's essay is anything but an exhibition +of the scholarly weapons of criticism, it is the expression of a profound +disbelief in the intellectual education of the masses of the people. Mr. +Ruskin goes further. He makes his open proclamation against any +emancipation from hand-toil. Steam is the devil himself let loose from +the pit, and all labor-saving machinery is his own invention. Mr. Ruskin +is the bull that stands upon the track and threatens with annihilation +the on-coming locomotive; and I think that any spectator who sees his +menacing attitude and hears his roaring cannot but have fears for the +locomotive. + +There are two sorts of infidelity concerning humanity, and I do not know +which is the more withering in its effects. One is that which regards +this world as only a waste and a desert, across the sands of which we are +merely fugitives, fleeing from the wrath to come. The other is that doubt +of any divine intention in development, in history, which we call +progress from age to age. + +In the eyes of this latter infidelity history is not a procession or a +progression, but only a series of disconnected pictures, each little era +rounded with its own growth, fruitage, and decay, a series of incidents +or experiments, without even the string of a far-reaching purpose to +connect them. There is no intention of progress in it all. The race is +barbarous, and then it changes to civilized; in the one case the strong +rob the weak by brute force; in the other the crafty rob the unwary by +finesse. The latter is a more agreeable state of things; but it comes to +about the same. The robber used to knock us down and take away our +sheepskins; he now administers chloroform and relieves us of our watches. +It is a gentlemanly proceeding, and scientific, and we call it +civilization. Meantime human nature remains the same, and the whole thing +is a weary round that has no advance in it. + +If this is true the succession of men and of races is no better than a +vegetable succession; and Mr. Froude is quite right in doubting if +education of the brain will do the English agricultural laborer any good; +and Mr. Ruskin ought to be aided in his crusade against machinery, which +turns the world upside down. The best that can be done with a man is the +best that can be done with a plant-set him out in some favorable +locality, or leave him where he happened to strike root, and there let +him grow and mature in measure and quiet--especially quiet--as he may in +God's sun and rain. If he happens to be a cabbage, in Heaven's name don't +try to make a rose of him, and do not disturb the vegetable maturing of +his head by grafting ideas upon his stock. + +The most serious difficulty in the way of those who maintain that there +is an intention of progress in this world from century to century, from +age to age--a discernible growth, a universal development--is the fact +that all nations do not make progress at the same time or in the same +ratio; that nations reach a certain development, and then fall away and +even retrograde; that while one may be advancing into high civilization, +another is lapsing into deeper barbarism, and that nations appear to have +a limit of growth. If there were a law of progress, an intention of it in +all the world, ought not all peoples and tribes to advance pari passu, or +at least ought there not to be discernible a general movement, historical +and contemporary? There is no such general movement which can be +computed, the law of which can be discovered--therefore it does not +exist. In a kind of despair, we are apt to run over in our minds empires +and pre-eminent civilizations that have existed, and then to doubt +whether life in this world is intended to be anything more than a series +of experiments. There is the German nation of our day, the most +aggressive in various fields of intellectual activity, a Hercules of +scholarship, the most thoroughly trained and powerful--though its +civilization marches to the noise of the hateful and barbarous drum. In +what points is it better than the Greek nation of the age of its +superlative artists, philosophers, poets--the age of the most joyous, +elastic human souls in the most perfect human bodies? + +Again, it is perhaps a fanciful notion that the Atlantis of Plato was the +northern part of the South American continent, projecting out towards +Africa, and that the Antilles are the peaks and headlands of its sunken +bulk. But there are evidences enough that the shores of the Gulf of +Mexico and the Caribbean Sea were within historic periods the seat of a +very considerable civilization--the seat of cities, of commerce, of +trade, of palaces and pleasure--gardens--faint images, perhaps, of the +luxurious civilization of Baia! and Pozzuoli and Capri in the most +profligate period of the Roman empire. It is not more difficult to +believe that there was a great material development here than to believe +it of the African shore of the Mediterranean. Not to multiply instances +that will occur to all, we see as many retrograde as advance movements, +and we see, also, that while one spot of the earth at one time seems to +be the chosen theatre of progress, other portions of the globe are +absolutely dead and without the least leaven of advancing life, and we +cannot understand how this can be if there is any such thing as an +all-pervading and animating intention or law of progress. And then we are +reminded that the individual human mind long ago attained its height of +power and capacity. It is enough to recall the names of Moses, Buddha, +Confucius, Socrates, Paul, Homer, David. + +No doubt it has seemed to other periods and other nations, as it now does +to the present civilized races, that they were the chosen times and +peoples of an extraordinary and limitless development. It must have +seemed so to the Jews who overran Palestine and set their shining cities +on all the hills of heathendom. It must have seemed so to the Babylonish +conquerors who swept over Palestine in turn, on their way to greater +conquests in Egypt. It must have seemed so to Greece when the Acropolis +was to the outlying world what the imperial calla is to the marsh in +which it lifts its superb flower. It must have seemed so to Rome when its +solid roads of stone ran to all parts of a tributary world--the highways +of the legions, her ministers, and of the wealth that poured into her +treasury. It must have seemed so to followers of Mahomet, when the +crescent knew no pause in its march up the Arabian peninsula to the +Bosporus, to India, along the Mediterranean shores to Spain, where in the +eighth century it flowered into a culture, a learning, a refinement in +art and manners, to which the Christian world of that day was a stranger. +It must have seemed so in the awakening of the sixteenth century, when +Europe, Spain leading, began that great movement of discovery and +aggrandizement which has, in the end, been profitable only to a portion +of the adventurers. And what shall we say of a nation as old, if not +older than any of these we have mentioned, slowly building up meantime a +civilization and perfecting a system of government and a social economy +which should outlast them all, and remain to our day almost the sole +monument of permanence and stability in a shifting world? + +How many times has the face of Europe been changed--and parts of Africa, +and Asia Minor too, for that matter--by conquests and crusades, and the +rise and fall of civilizations as well as dynasties? while China has +endured, almost undisturbed, under a system of law, administration, +morality, as old as the Pyramids probably--existed a coherent nation, +highly developed in certain essentials, meeting and mastering, so far as +we can see, the great problem of an over-populated territory, living in a +good degree of peace and social order, of respect for age and law, and +making a continuous history, the mere record of which is printed in a +thousand bulky volumes. Yet we speak of the Chinese empire as an instance +of arrested growth, for which there is no salvation, except it shall +catch the spirit of progress abroad in the world. What is this progress, +and where does it come from? + +Think for a moment of this significant situation. For thousands of years, +empires, systems of society, systems of civilization--Egyptian, Jewish, +Greek, Roman, Moslem, Feudal--have flourished and fallen, grown to a +certain height and passed away; great organized fabrics have gone down, +and, if there has been any progress, it has been as often defeated as +renewed. And here is an empire, apart from this scene of alternate +success and disaster, which has existed in a certain continuity and +stability, and yet, now that it is uncovered and stands face to face with +the rest of the world, it finds that it has little to teach us, and +almost everything to learn from us. The old empire sends its students to +learn of us, the newest child of civilization; and through us they learn +all the great past, its literature, law, science, out of which we sprang. +It appears, then, that progress has, after all, been with the shifting +world, that has been all this time going to pieces, rather than with the +world that has been permanent and unshaken. + +When we speak of progress we may mean two things. We may mean a lifting +of the races as a whole by reason of more power over the material world, +by reason of what we call the conquest of nature and a practical use of +its forces; or we may mean a higher development of the individual man, so +that he shall be better and happier. If from age to age it is +discoverable that the earth is better adapted to man as a dwelling-place, +and he is on the whole fitted to get more out of it for his own growth, +is not that progress, and is it not evidence of an intention of progress? + +Now, it is sometimes said that Providence, in the economy of this world, +cares nothing for the individual, but works out its ideas and purposes +through the races, and in certain periods, slowly bringing in, by great +agencies and by processes destructive to individuals and to millions of +helpless human beings, truths and principles; so laying stepping-stones +onward to a great consummation. I do not care to dwell upon this thought, +but let us see if we can find any evidence in history of the presence in +this world of an intention of progress. + +It is common to say that, if the world makes progress at all, it is by +its great men, and when anything important for the race is to be done, a +great man is raised up to do it. Yet another way to look at it is, that +the doing of something at the appointed time makes the man who does it +great, or at least celebrated. The man often appears to be only a favored +instrument of communication. As we glance back we recognize the truth +that, at this and that period, the time had come for certain discoveries. +Intelligence seemed pressing in from the invisible. Many minds were on +the alert to apprehend it. We believe, for instance, that if Gutenberg +had not invented movable types, somebody else would have given them to +the world about that time. Ideas, at certain times, throng for admission +into the world; and we are all familiar with the fact that the same +important idea (never before revealed in all the ages) occurs to separate +and widely distinct minds at about the same time. The invention of the +electric telegraph seemed to burst upon the world simultaneously from +many quarters--not perfect, perhaps, but the time for the idea had +come--and happy was it for the man who entertained it. We have agreed to +call Columbus the discoverer of America, but I suppose there is no doubt +that America had been visited by European, and probably Asiatic, people +ages before Columbus; that four or five centuries before him people from +northern Europe had settlements here; he was fortunate, however, in +"discovering" it in the fullness of time, when the world, in its +progress, was ready for it. If the Greeks had had gunpowder, +electro-magnetism, the printing press, history would need to be +rewritten. Why the inquisitive Greek mind did not find out these things +is a mystery upon any other theory than the one we are considering. + +And it is as mysterious that China, having gunpowder and the art of +printing, is not today like Germany. + +There seems to me to be a progress, or an intention of progress, in the +world, independent of individual men. Things get on by all sorts of +instruments, and sometimes by very poor ones. There are times when new +thoughts or applications of known principles seem to throng from the +invisible for expression through human media, and there is hardly ever an +important invention set free in the world that men do not appear to be +ready cordially to receive it. Often we should be justified in saying +that there was a widespread expectation of it. Almost all the great +inventions and the ingenious application of principles have many +claimants for the honor of priority. + +On any other theory than this, that there is present in the world an +intention of progress which outlasts individuals, and even races, I +cannot account for the fact that, while civilizations decay and pass +away, and human systems go to pieces, ideas remain and accumulate. We, +the latest age, are the inheritors of all the foregoing ages. I do not +believe that anything of importance has been lost to the world. The +Jewish civilization was torn up root and branch, but whatever was +valuable in the Jewish polity is ours now. We may say the same of the +civilizations of Athens and of Rome; though the entire organization of +the ancient world, to use Mr. Froude's figure, collapsed into a heap of +incoherent sand, the ideas remained, and Greek art and Roman law are part +of the world's solid possessions. + +Even those who question the value to the individual of what we call +progress, admit, I suppose, the increase of knowledge in the world from +age to age, and not only its increase, but its diffusion. The intelligent +schoolboy today knows more than the ancient sages knew--more about the +visible heavens, more of the secrets of the earth, more of the human +body. The rudiments of his education, the common experiences of his +everyday life, were, at the best, the guesses and speculations of a +remote age. There is certainly an accumulation of facts, ideas, +knowledge. Whether this makes men better, wiser, happier, is indeed +disputed. + +In order to maintain the notion of a general and intended progress, it is +not necessary to show that no preceding age has excelled ours in some +special, development. Phidias has had no rival in sculpture, we may +admit. It is possible that glass was once made as flexible as leather, +and that copper could be hardened like steel. But I do not take much +stock in the "lost arts," the wondering theme of the lyceums. The +knowledge of the natural world, and of materials, was never, I believe, +so extensive and exact as it is today. It is possible that there are +tricks of chemistry, ingenious processes, secrets of color, of which we +are ignorant; but I do not believe there was ever an ancient alchemist +who could not be taught something in a modern laboratory. The vast +engineering works of the ancient Egyptians, the remains of their temples +and pyramids, excite our wonder; but I have no doubt that President +Grant, if he becomes the tyrant they say he is becoming, and commands the +labor of forty millions of slaves--a large proportion of them office +--holders--could build a Karnak, or erect a string of pyramids across New +Jersey. + +Mr. Froude runs lightly over a list of subjects upon which the believer +in progress relies for his belief, and then says of them that the world +calls this progress--he calls it only change. I suppose he means by this +two things: that these great movements of our modern life are not any +evidence of a permanent advance, and that our whole structure may tumble +into a heap of incoherent sand, as systems of society have done before; +and, again, that it is questionable if, in what we call a stride in +civilization, the individual citizen is becoming any purer or more just, +or if his intelligence is directed towards learning and doing what is +right, or only to the means of more extended pleasures. + +It is, perhaps, idle to speculate upon the first of these points--the +permanence of our advance, if it is an advance. But we may be encouraged +by one thing that distinguishes this period--say from the middle of the +eighteenth century--from any that has preceded it. I mean the +introduction of machinery, applied to the multiplication of man's power +in a hundred directions--to manufacturing, to locomotion, to the +diffusion of thought and of knowledge. I need not dwell upon this +familiar topic. Since this period began there has been, so far as I know, +no retrograde movement anywhere, but, besides the material, an +intellectual and spiritual kindling the world over, for which history has +no sort of parallel. Truth is always the same, and will make its way, but +this subject might be illustrated by a study of the relation of +Christianity and of the brotherhood of men to machinery. The theme would +demand an essay by itself. I leave it with the one remark, that this +great change now being wrought in the world by the multiplicity of +machinery is not more a material than it is an intellectual one, and that +we have no instance in history of a catastrophe widespread enough and +adequate to sweep away its results. That is to say, none of the +catastrophes, not even the corruptions, which brought to ruin the ancient +civilizations, would work anything like the same disaster in an age which +has the use of machinery that this age has. + +For instance: Gibbon selects the period between the accession of Trajan +and the death of Marcus Aurelius as the time in which the human race +enjoyed more general happiness than they had ever known before, or had +since known. Yet, says Mr. Froude, in the midst of this prosperity the +heart of the empire was dying out of it; luxury and selfishness were +eating away the principle that held society together, and the ancient +world was on the point of collapsing into a heap of incoherent sand. Now, +it is impossible to conceive that the catastrophe which did happen to +that civilization could have happened if the world had then possessed the +steam-engine, the printing-press, and the electric telegraph. The Roman +power might have gone down, and the face of the world been recast; but +such universal chaos and such a relapse for the individual people would +seem impossible. + +If we turn from these general considerations to the evidences that this +is an "era of progress" in the condition of individual men, we are met by +more specific denials. Granted, it is said, all your facilities for +travel and communication, for cheap and easy manufacture, for the +distribution of cheap literature and news, your cheap education, better +homes, and all the comforts and luxuries of your machine civilization, is +the average man, the agriculturist, the machinist, the laborer any better +for it all? Are there more purity, more honest, fair dealing, genuine +work, fear and honor of God? Are the proceeds of labor more evenly +distributed? These, it is said, are the criteria of progress; all else is +misleading. + +Now, it is true that the ultimate end of any system of government or +civilization should be the improvement of the individual man. And yet +this truth, as Mr. Froude puts it, is only a half-truth, so that this +single test of any system may not do for a given time and a limited area. +Other and wider considerations come in. Disturbances, which for a while +unsettle society and do not bring good results to individuals, may, +nevertheless, be necessary, and may be a sign of progress. Take the +favorite illustration of Mr. Froude and Mr. Ruskin--the condition of the +agricultural laborer of England. If I understand them, the civilization +of the last century has not helped his position as a man. If I understand +them, he was a better man, in a better condition of earthly happiness, +and with a better chance of heaven, fifty years ago than now, before the +"era of progress" found him out. (It ought to be noticed here, that the +report of the Parliamentary Commission on the condition of the English +agricultural laborer does not sustain Mr. Froude's assumptions. On the +contrary, the report shows that his condition is in almost all respects +vastly better than it was fifty years ago.) Mr. Ruskin would remove the +steam-engine and all its devilish works from his vicinity; he would +abolish factories, speedy travel by rail, new-fangled instruments of +agriculture, our patent education, and remit him to his ancient +condition--tied for life to a bit of ground, which should supply all his +simple wants; his wife should weave the clothes for the family; his +children should learn nothing but the catechism and to speak the truth; +he should take his religion without question from the hearty, fox-hunting +parson, and live and die undisturbed by ideas. Now, it seems to me that +if Mr. Ruskin could realize in some isolated nation this idea of a +pastoral, simple existence, under a paternal government, he would have in +time an ignorant, stupid, brutal community in a great deal worse case +than the agricultural laborers of England are at present. Three-fourths +of the crime in the kingdom of Bavaria is committed in the Ultramontane +region of the Tyrol, where the conditions of popular education are about +those that Mr. Ruskin seems to regret as swept away by the present +movement in England--a stagnant state of things, in which any wind of +heaven would be a blessing, even if it were a tornado. Education of the +modern sort unsettles the peasant, renders him unfit for labor, and gives +us a half-educated idler in place of a conscientious workman. The disuse +of the apprentice system is not made good by the present system of +education, because no one learns a trade well, and the consequence is +poor work, and a sham civilization generally. There is some truth in +these complaints. But the way out is not backward, but forward. The fault +is not with education, though it may be with the kind of education. The +education must go forward; the man must not be half but wholly educated. +It is only half-knowledge like half-training in a trade that is +dangerous. + +But what I wish to say is, that notwithstanding certain unfavorable +things in the condition of the English laborer and mechanic, his chance +is better in the main than it was fifty years ago. The world is a better +world for him. He has the opportunity to be more of a man. His world is +wider, and it is all open to him to go where he will. Mr. Ruskin may not +so easily find his ideal, contented peasant, but the man himself begins +to apprehend that this is a world of ideas as well as of food and +clothes, and I think, if he were consulted, he would have no desire to +return to the condition of his ancestors. In fact, the most hopeful +symptom in the condition of the English peasant is his discontent. For, +as skepticism is in one sense the handmaid of truth, discontent is the +mother of progress. The man is comparatively of little use in the world +who is contented. + +There is another thought pertinent here. It is this: that no man, however +humble, can live a full life if he lives to himself alone. He is more of +a man, he lives in a higher plane of thought and of enjoyment, the more +his communications are extended with his fellows and the wider his +sympathies are. I count it a great thing for the English peasant, a solid +addition to his life, that he is every day being put into more intimate +relations with every other man on the globe. + +I know it is said that these are only vague and sentimental notions of +progress--notions of a "salvation by machinery." Let us pass to something +that may be less vague, even if it be more sentimental. For a hundred +years we have reckoned it progress, that the people were taking part in +government. We have had a good deal of faith in the proposition put forth +at Philadelphia a century ago, that men are, in effect, equal in +political rights. Out of this simple proposition springs logically the +extension of suffrage, and a universal education, in order that this +important function of a government by the people may be exercised +intelligently. + +Now we are told by the most accomplished English essayists that this is a +mistake, that it is change, but no progress. Indeed, there are +philosophers in America who think so. At least I infer so from the fact +that Mr. Froude fathers one of his definitions of our condition upon an +American. When a block of printer's type is by accident broken up and +disintegrated, it falls into what is called "pi." The "pi," a mere chaos, +is afterwards sorted and distributed, preparatory to being built up into +fresh combinations. "A distinguished American friend," says Mr. Froude, +"describes Democracy as making pi." It is so witty a sarcasm that I +almost think Mr. Froude manufactured it himself. Well, we have been +making this "pi" for a hundred years; it seems to be a national dish in +considerable favor with the rest of the world--even such ancient nations +as China and Japan want a piece of it. + +Now, of course, no form of human government is perfect, or anything like +it, but I should be willing to submit the question to an English traveler +even, whether, on the whole, the people of the United States do not have +as fair a chance in life and feel as little the oppression of government +as any other in the world; whether anywhere the burdens are more lifted +off men's shoulders. + +This infidelity to popular government and unbelief in any good results to +come from it are not, unfortunately, confined to the English essayists. I +am not sure but the notion is growing in what is called the intellectual +class, that it is a mistake to intrust the government to the ignorant +many, and that it can only be lodged safely in the hands of the wise few. +We hear the corruptions of the times attributed to universal suffrage. +Yet these corruptions certainly are not peculiar to the United States: It +is also said here, as it is in England, that our diffused and somewhat +superficial education is merely unfitting the mass of men, who must be +laborers, for any useful occupation. + +This argument, reduced to plain terms, is simply this: that the mass of +mankind are unfit to decide properly their own political and social +condition; and that for the mass of mankind any but a very limited mental +development is to be deprecated. It would be enough to say of this, that +class government and popular ignorance have been tried for so many ages, +and always with disaster and failure in the end, that I should think +philanthropical historians would be tired of recommending them. But there +is more to be said. + +I feel that as a resident on earth, part owner of it for a time, +unavoidably a member of society, I have a right to a voice in determining +what my condition and what my chance in life shall be. I may be ignorant, +I should be a very poor ruler of other people, but I am better capable of +deciding some things that touch me nearly than another is. By what logic +can I say that I should have a part in the conduct of this world and that +my neighbor should not? Who is to decide what degree of intelligence +shall fit a man for a share in the government? How are we to select the +few capable men that are to rule all the rest? As a matter of fact, men +have been rulers who had neither the average intelligence nor virtue of +the people they governed. And, as a matter of historical experience, a +class in power has always sought its own benefit rather than that of the +whole people. Lunacy, extraordinary stupidity, and crime aside, a man is +the best guardian of his own liberty and rights. + +The English critics, who say we have taken the government from the +capable few and given it to the people, speak of universal suffrage as a +quack panacea of this "era of progress." But it is not the manufactured +panacea of any theorist or philosopher whatever. It is the natural result +of a diffused knowledge of human rights and of increasing intelligence. +It is nothing against it that Napoleon III. used a mockery of it to +govern France. It is not a device of the closet, but a method of +government, which has naturally suggested itself to men as they have +grown into a feeling of self-reliance and a consciousness that they have +some right in the decision of their own destiny in the world. It is true +that suffrage peculiarly fits a people virtuous and intelligent. But +there has not yet been invented any government in which a people would +thrive who were ignorant and vicious. + +Our foreign critics seem to regard our "American system," by the way, as +a sort of invention or patent right, upon which we are experimenting; +forgetting that it is as legitimate a growth out of our circumstances as +the English system is out of its antecedents. Our system is not the +product of theorists or closet philosophers; but it was ordained in +substance and inevitable from the day the first "town meeting" assembled +in New England, and it was not in the power of Hamilton or any one else +to make it otherwise. + +So you must have education, now you have the ballot, say the critics of +this era of progress; and this is another of your cheap inventions. Not +that we undervalue book knowledge. Oh, no! but it really seems to us that +a good trade, with the Lord's Prayer and the Ten Commandments back of it, +would be the best thing for most of you. You must work for a living +anyway; and why, now, should you unsettle your minds? + +This is such an astounding view of human life and destiny that I do not +know what to say to it. Did it occur to Mr. Froude to ask the man whether +he would be contented with a good trade and the Ten Commandments? Perhaps +the man would like eleven commandments? And, if he gets hold of the +eleventh, he may want to know something more about his fellow-men, a +little geography maybe, and some of Mr. Froude's history, and thus he may +be led off into literature, and the Lord knows where. + +The inference is that education--book fashion--will unfit the man for +useful work. Mr. Froude here again stops at a half-truth. As a general +thing, intelligence is useful in any position a man occupies. But it is +true that there is a superficial and misdirected sort of education, so +called, which makes the man who receives it despise labor; and it is also +true that in the present educational revival there has been a neglect of +training in the direction of skilled labor, and we all suffer more or +less from cheap and dishonest work. But the way out of this, again, is +forward, and not backward. It is a good sign, and not a stigma upon this +era of progress, that people desire education. But this education must be +of the whole man; he must be taught to work as well as to read, and he +is, indeed, poorly educated if he is not fitted to do his work in the +world. We certainly shall not have better workmen by having ignorant +workmen. I need not say that the real education is that which will best +fit a man for performing well his duties in life. If Mr. Froude, instead +of his plaint over the scarcity of good mechanics, and of the Ten +Commandments in England, had recommended the establishment of industrial +schools, he would have spoken more to the purpose. + +I should say that the fashionable skepticism of today, here and in +England, is in regard to universal suffrage and the capacity of the +people to govern themselves. The whole system is the sharp invention of +Thomas Jefferson and others, by which crafty demagogues can rule. Instead +of being, as we have patriotically supposed, a real progress in human +development, it is only a fetich, which is becoming rapidly a failure. +Now, there is a great deal of truth in the assertion that, whatever the +form of government, the ablest men, or the strongest, or the most cunning +in the nation, will rule. And yet it is true that in a popular +government, like this, the humblest citizen, if he is wronged or +oppressed, has in his hands a readier instrument of redress than he has +ever had in any form of government. And it must not be forgotten that the +ballot in the hands of all is perhaps the only safeguard against the +tyranny of wealth in the hands of the few. It is true that bad men can +band together and be destructive; but so they can in any government. +Revolution by ballot is much safer than revolution by violence; and, +granting that human nature is selfish, when the whole people are the +government selfishness is on the side of the government. Can you mention +any class in this country whose interest it is to overturn the +government? And, then, as to the wisdom of the popular decisions by the +ballot in this country. Look carefully at all the Presidential elections +from Washington's down, and say, in the light of history, if the popular +decision has not, every time, been the best for the country. It may not +have seemed so to some of us at the time, but I think it is true, and a +very significant fact. + +Of course, in this affirmation of belief that one hundred years of +popular government in this country is a real progress for humanity, and +not merely a change from the rule of the fit to the rule of the cunning, +we cannot forget that men are pretty much everywhere the same, and that +we have abundant reason for national humility. We are pretty well aware +that ours is not an ideal state of society, and should be so, even if the +English who pass by did not revile us, wagging their heads. We might +differ with them about the causes of our disorders. Doubtless, extended +suffrage has produced certain results. It seems, strangely enough, to +have escaped the observation of our English friends that to suffrage was +due the late horse disease. No one can discover any other cause for it. +But there is a cause for the various phenomena of this period of shoddy, +of inflated speculation, of disturbance of all values, social, moral, +political, and material, quite sufficient in the light of history to +account for them. It is not suffrage; it is an irredeemable paper +currency. It has borne its usual fruit with us, and neither foreign nor +home critics can shift the responsibility of it upon our system of +government. Yes, it is true, we have contrived to fill the world with our +scandals of late. I might refer to a loose commercial and political +morality; to betrayals of popular trust in politics; to corruptions in +legislatures and in corporations; to an abuse of power in the public +press, which has hardly yet got itself adjusted to its sudden accession +of enormous influence. We complain of its injustice to individuals +sometimes. We might imagine that something like this would occur. + +A newspaper one day says: "We are exceedingly pained to hear that the +Hon. Mr. Blank, who is running for Congress in the First District, has +permitted his aged grandmother to go to the town poorhouse. What renders +this conduct inexplicable is the fact that Mr. Blank is a man of large +fortune." + +The next day the newspaper says: "The Hon. Mr. Blank has not seen fit to +deny the damaging accusation in regard to the treatment of his +grandmother." + +The next day the newspaper says: "Mr. Blank is still silent. He is +probably aware that he cannot afford to rest under this grave charge." + +The next day the newspaper asks: "Where's Blank? Has he fled?" + +At last, goaded by these remarks, and most unfortunately for himself, Mr. +Blank writes to the newspaper and most indignantly denies the charge; he +never sent his grandmother to the poorhouse. + +Thereupon the newspaper says: "Of course a rich man who would put his own +grandmother in the poorhouse would deny it. Our informant was a gentleman +of character. Mr. Blank rests the matter on his unsupported word. It is a +question of veracity." + +Or, perhaps, Mr. Blank, more unfortunately for himself, begins by making +an affidavit, wherein he swears that he never sent his grandmother to the +poorhouse, and that, in point of fact, he has not any grandmother +whatever. + +The newspaper then, in language that is now classical, "goes for" Mr. +Blank. It says: "Mr. Blank resorts to the common device of the rogue +--the affidavit. If he had been conscious of rectitude, would he not have +relied upon his simple denial?" + +Now, if an extreme case like this could occur, it would be bad enough. +But, in our free society, the remedy would be at hand. The constituents +of Mr. Blank would elect him in triumph. The newspaper would lose public +confidence and support and learn to use its position more justly. What I +mean to indicate by such an extreme instance as this is, that in our very +license of individual freedom there is finally a correcting power. + +We might pursue this general subject of progress by a comparison of the +society of this country now with that of fifty years ago. I have no doubt +that in every essential this is better than that, in manners, in +morality, in charity and toleration, in education and religion. I know +the standard of morality is higher. I know the churches are purer. Not +fifty years ago, in a New England town, a distinguished doctor of +divinity, the pastor of a leading church, was part owner in a distillery. +He was a great light in his denomination, but he was an extravagant +liver, and, being unable to pay his debts, he was arrested and put into +jail, with the liberty of the "limits." In order not to interrupt his +ministerial work, the jail limits were made to include his house and his +church, so that he could still go in and out before his people. I do not +think that could occur anywhere in the United States today. + +I will close these fragmentary suggestions by saying that I, for one, +should like to see this country a century from now. Those who live then +will doubtless say of this period that it was crude, and rather +disorderly, and fermenting with a great many new projects; but I have +great faith that they will also say that the present extending notion, +that the best government is for the people, by the people, was in the +line of sound progress. I should expect to find faith in humanity greater +and not less than it is now, and I should not expect to find that Mr. +Froude's mournful expectation had been realized, and that the belief in a +life beyond the grave had been withdrawn. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Thoughts Suggested By Mr. Froude's +"Progress", by Charles Dudley Warner + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MR. 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We frequently hear men say that they would give +so many months or years of their lives in exchange for a less number on +the globe one or two or three centuries from now. Merely to see the +world from some remote sphere, like the distant spectator of a play which +passes in dumb show, would not suffice. They would like to be of the +world again, and enter into its feelings, passions, hopes; to feel the +sweep of its current, and so to comprehend what it has become. + +I suppose that we all who are thoroughly interested in this world have +this desire. There are some select souls who sit apart in calm +endurance, waiting to be translated out of a world they are almost tired +of patronizing, to whom the whole thing seems, doubtless, like a cheap +performance. They sit on the fence of criticism, and cannot for the life +of them see what the vulgar crowd make such a toil and sweat about. The +prizes are the same dreary, old, fading bay wreaths. As for the soldiers +marching past, their uniforms are torn, their hats are shocking, their +shoes are dusty, they do not appear (to a man sitting on the fence) to +march with any kind of spirit, their flags are old and tattered, the +drums they beat are barbarous; and, besides, it is not probable that they +are going anywhere; they will merely come round again, the same people, +like the marching chorus in the "Beggar's Opera." Such critics, of +course, would not care to see the vulgar show over again; it is enough +for them to put on record their protest against it in the weekly +"Judgment Days" which they edit, and by-and-by withdraw out of their +private boxes, with pity for a world in the creation of which they were +not consulted. + +The desire to revisit this earth is, I think, based upon a belief, well- +nigh universal, that the world is to make some progress, and that it will +be more interesting in the future than it is now. I believe that the +human mind, whenever it is developed enough to comprehend its own action, +rests, and has always rested, in this expectation. I do not know any +period of time in which the civilized mind has not had expectation of +something better for the race in the future. This expectation is +sometimes stronger than it is at others; and, again, there are always +those who say that the Golden Age is behind them. It is always behind or +before us; the poor present alone has no friends; the present, in the +minds of many, is only the car that is carrying us away from an age of +virtue and of happiness, or that is perhaps bearing us on to a time of +ease and comfort and security. + +Perhaps it is worth while, in view of certain recent discussions, and +especially of some free criticisms of this country, to consider whether +there is any intention of progress in this world, and whether that +intention is discoverable in the age in which we live. + +If it is an old question, it is not a settled one; the practical +disbelief in any such progress is widely entertained. Not long ago Mr. +James Anthony Froude published an essay on Progress, in which he examined +some of the evidences upon which we rely to prove that we live in an "era +of progress." It is a melancholy essay, for its tone is that of profound +skepticism as to certain influences and means of progress upon which we +in this country most rely. With the illustrative arguments of Mr. +Froude's essay I do not purpose specially to meddle; I recall it to the +attention of the reader as a representative type of skepticism regarding +progress which is somewhat common among intellectual men, and is not +confined to England. It is not exactly an acceptance of Rousseau's +notion that civilization is a mistake, and that it would be better for us +all to return to a state of nature--though in John Ruskin's case it +nearly amounts to this; but it is a hostility in its last analysis to +what we understand by the education of the people, and to the government +of the people by themselves. If Mr. Froude's essay is anything but an +exhibition of the scholarly weapons of criticism, it is the expression of +a profound disbelief in the intellectual education of the masses of the +people. Mr. Ruskin goes further. He makes his open proclamation against +any emancipation from hand-toil. Steam is the devil himself let loose +from the pit, and all labor-saving machinery is his own invention. +Mr. Ruskin is the bull that stands upon the track and threatens with +annihilation the on-coming locomotive; and I think that any spectator who +sees his menacing attitude and hears his roaring cannot but have fears +for the locomotive. + +There are two sorts of infidelity concerning humanity, and I do not know +which is the more withering in its effects. One is that which regards +this world as only a waste and a desert, across the sands of which we are +merely fugitives, fleeing from the wrath to come. The other is that +doubt of any divine intention in development, in history, which we call +progress from age to age. + +In the eyes of this latter infidelity history is not a procession or a +progression, but only a series of disconnected pictures, each little era +rounded with its own growth, fruitage, and decay, a series of incidents +or experiments, without even the string of a far-reaching purpose to +connect them. There is no intention of progress in it all. The race is +barbarous, and then it changes to civilized; in the one case the strong +rob the weak by brute force; in the other the crafty rob the unwary by +finesse. The latter is a more agreeable state of things; but it comes to +about the same. The robber used to knock us down and take away our +sheepskins; he now administers chloroform and relieves us of our watches. +It is a gentlemanly proceeding, and scientific, and we call it +civilization. Meantime human nature remains the same, and the whole +thing is a weary round that has no advance in it. + +If this is true the succession of men and of races is no better than a +vegetable succession; and Mr. Froude is quite right in doubting if +education of the brain will do the English agricultural laborer any good; +and Mr. Ruskin ought to be aided in his crusade against machinery, which +turns the world upside down. The best that can be done with a man is the +best that can be done with a plant-set him out in some favorable +locality, or leave him where he happened to strike root, and there let +him grow and mature in measure and quiet--especially quiet--as he may in +God's sun and rain. If he happens to be a cabbage, in Heaven's name +don't try to make a rose of him, and do not disturb the vegetable +maturing of his head by grafting ideas upon his stock. + +The most serious difficulty in the way of those who maintain that there +is an intention of progress in this world from century to century, from +age to age--a discernible growth, a universal development--is the fact +that all nations do not make progress at the same time or in the same +ratio; that nations reach a certain development, and then fall away and +even retrograde; that while one may be advancing into high civilization, +another is lapsing into deeper barbarism, and that nations appear to have +a limit of growth. If there were a law of progress, an intention of it +in all the world, ought not all peoples and tribes to advance pari passu, +or at least ought there not to be discernible a general movement, +historical and contemporary? There is no such general movement which can +be computed, the law of which can be discovered--therefore it does not +exist. In a kind of despair, we are apt to run over in our minds empires +and pre-eminent civilizations that have existed, and then to doubt +whether life in this world is intended to be anything more than a series +of experiments. There is the German nation of our day, the most +aggressive in various fields of intellectual activity, a Hercules of +scholarship, the most thoroughly trained and powerful--though its +civilization marches to the noise of the hateful and barbarous drum. +In what points is it better than the Greek nation of the age of its +superlative artists, philosophers, poets--the age of the most joyous, +elastic human souls in the most perfect human bodies? + +Again, it is perhaps a fanciful notion that the Atlantis of Plato was the +northern part of the South American continent, projecting out towards +Africa, and that the Antilles are the peaks and headlands of its sunken +bulk. But there are evidences enough that the shores of the Gulf of +Mexico and the Caribbean Sea were within historic periods the seat of a +very considerable civilization--the seat of cities, of commerce, of +trade, of palaces and pleasure--gardens--faint images, perhaps, of the +luxurious civilization of Baia! and Pozzuoli and Capri in the most +profligate period of the Roman empire. It is not more difficult to +believe that there was a great material development here than to believe +it of the African shore of the Mediterranean. Not to multiply instances +that will occur to all, we see as many retrograde as advance movements, +and we see, also, that while one spot of the earth at one time seems to +be the chosen theatre of progress, other portions of the globe are +absolutely dead and without the least leaven of advancing life, and we +cannot understand how this can be if there is any such thing as an all- +pervading and animating intention or law of progress. And then we are +reminded that the individual human mind long ago attained its height of +power and capacity. It is enough to recall the names of Moses, Buddha, +Confucius, Socrates, Paul, Homer, David. + +No doubt it has seemed to other periods and other nations, as it now does +to the present civilized races, that they were the chosen times and +peoples of an extraordinary and limitless development. It must have +seemed so to the Jews who overran Palestine and set their shining cities +on all the hills of heathendom. It must have seemed so to the Babylonish +conquerors who swept over Palestine in turn, on their way to greater +conquests in Egypt. It must have seemed so to Greece when the Acropolis +was to the outlying world what the imperial calla is to the marsh in +which it lifts its superb flower. It must have seemed so to Rome when +its solid roads of stone ran to all parts of a tributary world--the +highways of the legions, her ministers, and of the wealth that poured +into her treasury. It must have seemed so to followers of Mahomet, when +the crescent knew no pause in its march up the Arabian peninsula to the +Bosporus, to India, along the Mediterranean shores to Spain, where in the +eighth century it flowered into a culture, a learning, a refinement in +art and manners, to which the Christian world of that day was a stranger. +It must have seemed so in the awakening of the sixteenth century, when +Europe, Spain leading, began that great movement of discovery and +aggrandizement which has, in the end, been profitable only to a portion +of the adventurers. And what shall we say of a nation as old, if not +older than any of these we have mentioned, slowly building up meantime a +civilization and perfecting a system of government and a social economy +which should outlast them all, and remain to our day almost the sole +monument of permanence and stability in a shifting world? + +How many times has the face of Europe been changed--and parts of Africa, +and Asia Minor too, for that matter--by conquests and crusades, and the +rise and fall of civilizations as well as dynasties? while China has +endured, almost undisturbed, under a system of law, administration, +morality, as old as the Pyramids probably--existed a coherent nation, +highly developed in certain essentials, meeting and mastering, so far as +we can see, the great problem of an over-populated territory, living in a +good degree of peace and social order, of respect for age and law, and +making a continuous history, the mere record of which is printed in a +thousand bulky volumes. Yet we speak of the Chinese empire as an +instance of arrested growth, for which there is no salvation, except it +shall catch the spirit of progress abroad in the world. What is this +progress, and where does it come from? + +Think for a moment of this significant situation. For thousands of +years, empires, systems of society, systems of civilization--Egyptian, +Jewish, Greek, Roman, Moslem, Feudal--have flourished and fallen, grown +to a certain height and passed away; great organized fabrics have gone +down, and, if there has been any progress, it has been as often defeated +as renewed. And here is an empire, apart from this scene of alternate +success and disaster, which has existed in a certain continuity and +stability, and yet, now that it is uncovered and stands face to face with +the rest of the world, it finds that it has little to teach us, and +almost everything to learn from us. The old empire sends its students to +learn of us, the newest child of civilization; and through us they learn +all the great past, its literature, law, science, out of which we sprang. +It appears, then, that progress has, after all, been with the shifting +world, that has been all this time going to pieces, rather than with the +world that has been permanent and unshaken. + +When we speak of progress we may mean two things. We may mean a lifting +of the races as a whole by reason of more power over the material world, +by reason of what we call the conquest of nature and a practical use of +its forces; or we may mean a higher development of the individual man, +so that he shall be better and happier. If from age to age it is +discoverable that the earth is better adapted to man as a dwelling-place, +and he is on the whole fitted to get more out of it for his own growth, +is not that progress, and is it not evidence of an intention of progress? + +Now, it is sometimes said that Providence, in the economy of this world, +cares nothing for the individual, but works out its ideas and purposes +through the races, and in certain periods, slowly bringing in, by great +agencies and by processes destructive to individuals and to millions of +helpless human beings, truths and principles; so laying stepping-stones +onward to a great consummation. I do not care to dwell upon this +thought, but let us see if we can find any evidence in history of the +presence in this world of an intention of progress. + +It is common to say that, if the world makes progress at all, it is by +its great men, and when anything important for the race is to be done, +a great man is raised up to do it. Yet another way to look at it is, +that the doing of something at the appointed time makes the man who does +it great, or at least celebrated. The man often appears to be only a +favored instrument of communication. As we glance back we recognize the +truth that, at this and that period, the time had come for certain +discoveries. Intelligence seemed pressing in from the invisible. Many +minds were on the alert to apprehend it. We believe, for instance, that +if Gutenberg had not invented movable types, somebody else would have +given them to the world about that time. Ideas, at certain times, throng +for admission into the world; and we are all familiar with the fact that +the same important idea (never before revealed in all the ages) occurs to +separate and widely distinct minds at about the same time. The invention +of the electric telegraph seemed to burst upon the world simultaneously +from many quarters--not perfect, perhaps, but the time for the idea had +come--and happy was it for the man who entertained it. We have agreed to +call Columbus the discoverer of America, but I suppose there is no doubt +that America had been visited by European, and probably Asiatic, people +ages before Columbus; that four or five centuries before him people from +northern Europe had settlements here; he was fortunate, however, in +"discovering" it in the fullness of time, when the world, in its +progress, was ready for it. If the Greeks had had gunpowder, electro- +magnetism, the printing press, history would need to be rewritten. +Why the inquisitive Greek mind did not find out these things is a mystery +upon any other theory than the one we are considering. + +And it is as mysterious that China, having gunpowder and the art of +printing, is not today like Germany. + +There seems to me to be a progress, or an intention of progress, in the +world, independent of individual men. Things get on by all sorts of +instruments, and sometimes by very poor ones. There are times when new +thoughts or applications of known principles seem to throng from the +invisible for expression through human media, and there is hardly ever an +important invention set free in the world that men do not appear to be +ready cordially to receive it. Often we should be justified in saying +that there was a widespread expectation of it. Almost all the great +inventions and the ingenious application of principles have many +claimants for the honor of priority. + +On any other theory than this, that there is present in the world an +intention of progress which outlasts individuals, and even races, +I cannot account for the fact that, while civilizations decay and pass +away, and human systems go to pieces, ideas remain and accumulate. +We, the latest age, are the inheritors of all the foregoing ages. +I do not believe that anything of importance has been lost to the world. +The Jewish civilization was torn up root and branch, but whatever was +valuable in the Jewish polity is ours now. We may say the same of the +civilizations of Athens and of Rome; though the entire organization of +the ancient world, to use Mr. Froude's figure, collapsed into a heap of +incoherent sand, the ideas remained, and Greek art and Roman law are part +of the world's solid possessions. + +Even those who question the value to the individual of what we call +progress, admit, I suppose, the increase of knowledge in the world from +age to age, and not only its increase, but its diffusion. The +intelligent schoolboy today knows more than the ancient sages knew--more +about the visible heavens, more of the secrets of the earth, more of the +human body. The rudiments of his education, the common experiences of +his everyday life, were, at the best, the guesses and speculations of a +remote age. There is certainly an accumulation of facts, ideas, +knowledge. Whether this makes men better, wiser, happier, is indeed +disputed. + +In order to maintain the notion of a general and intended progress, it is +not necessary to show that no preceding age has excelled ours in some +special, development. Phidias has had no rival in sculpture, we may +admit. It is possible that glass was once made as flexible as leather, +and that copper could be hardened like steel. But I do not take much +stock in the "lost arts," the wondering theme of the lyceums. The +knowledge of the natural world, and of materials, was never, I believe, +so extensive and exact as it is today. It is possible that there are +tricks of chemistry, ingenious processes, secrets of color, of which we +are ignorant; but I do not believe there was ever an ancient alchemist +who could not be taught something in a modern laboratory. The vast +engineering works of the ancient Egyptians, the remains of their temples +and pyramids, excite our wonder; but I have no doubt that President +Grant, if he becomes the tyrant they say he is becoming, and commands the +labor of forty millions of slaves--a large proportion of them office-- +holders--could build a Karnak, or erect a string of pyramids across New +Jersey. + +Mr. Froude runs lightly over a list of subjects upon which the believer +in progress relies for his belief, and then says of them that the world +calls this progress--he calls it only change. I suppose he means by this +two things: that these great movements of our modern life are not any +evidence of a permanent advance, and that our whole structure may tumble +into a heap of incoherent sand, as systems of society have done before; +and, again, that it is questionable if, in what we call a stride in +civilization, the individual citizen is becoming any purer or more just, +or if his intelligence is directed towards learning and doing what is +right, or only to the means of more extended pleasures. + +It is, perhaps, idle to speculate upon the first of these points--the +permanence of our advance, if it is an advance. But we may be encouraged +by one thing that distinguishes this period--say from the middle of the +eighteenth century--from any that has preceded it. I mean the +introduction of machinery, applied to the multiplication of man's power +in a hundred directions--to manufacturing, to locomotion, to the +diffusion of thought and of knowledge. I need not dwell upon this +familiar topic. Since this period began there has been, so far as I +know, no retrograde movement anywhere, but, besides the material, an +intellectual and spiritual kindling the world over, for which history has +no sort of parallel. Truth is always the same, and will make its way, +but this subject might be illustrated by a study of the relation of +Christianity and of the brotherhood of men to machinery. The theme would +demand an essay by itself. I leave it with the one remark, that this +great change now being wrought in the world by the multiplicity of +machinery is not more a material than it is an intellectual one, and that +we have no instance in history of a catastrophe widespread enough and +adequate to sweep away its results. That is to say, none of the +catastrophes, not even the corruptions, which brought to ruin the ancient +civilizations, would work anything like the same disaster in an age which +has the use of machinery that this age has. + +For instance: Gibbon selects the period between the accession of Trajan +and the death of Marcus Aurelius as the time in which the human race +enjoyed more general happiness than they had ever known before, or had +since known. Yet, says Mr. Froude, in the midst of this prosperity the +heart of the empire was dying out of it; luxury and selfishness were +eating away the principle that held society together, and the ancient +world was on the point of collapsing into a heap of incoherent sand. +Now, it is impossible to conceive that the catastrophe which did happen +to that civilization could have happened if the world had then possessed +the steam-engine, the printing-press, and the electric telegraph. The +Roman power might have gone down, and the face of the world been recast; +but such universal chaos and such a relapse for the individual people +would seem impossible. + +If we turn from these general considerations to the evidences that this +is an "era of progress" in the condition of individual men, we are met by +more specific denials. Granted, it is said, all your facilities for +travel and communication, for cheap and easy manufacture, for the +distribution of cheap literature and news, your cheap education, better +homes, and all the comforts and luxuries of your machine civilization, is +the average man, the agriculturist, the machinist, the laborer any better +for it all? Are there more purity, more honest, fair dealing, genuine +work, fear and honor of God? Are the proceeds of labor more evenly +distributed? These, it is said, are the criteria of progress; all else +is misleading. + +Now, it is true that the ultimate end of any system of government or +civilization should be the improvement of the individual man. And yet +this truth, as Mr. Froude puts it, is only a half-truth, so that this +single test of any system may not do for a given time and a limited area. +Other and wider considerations come in. Disturbances, which for a while +unsettle society and do not bring good results to individuals, may, +nevertheless, be necessary, and may be a sign of progress. Take the +favorite illustration of Mr. Froude and Mr. Ruskin--the condition of the +agricultural laborer of England. If I understand them, the civilization +of the last century has not helped his position as a man. If I +understand them, he was a better man, in a better condition of earthly +happiness, and with a better chance of heaven, fifty years ago than now, +before the "era of progress" found him out. (It ought to be noticed +here, that the report of the Parliamentary Commission on the condition of +the English agricultural laborer does not sustain Mr. Froude's +assumptions. On the contrary, the report shows that his condition is in +almost all respects vastly better than it was fifty years ago.) +Mr. Ruskin would remove the steam-engine and all its devilish works from +his vicinity; he would abolish factories, speedy travel by rail, new- +fangled instruments of agriculture, our patent education, and remit him +to his ancient condition--tied for life to a bit of ground, which should +supply all his simple wants; his wife should weave the clothes for the +family; his children should learn nothing but the catechism and to speak +the truth; he should take his religion without question from the hearty, +fox-hunting parson, and live and die undisturbed by ideas. Now, it seems +to me that if Mr. Ruskin could realize in some isolated nation this idea +of a pastoral, simple existence, under a paternal government, he would +have in time an ignorant, stupid, brutal community in a great deal worse +case than the agricultural laborers of England are at present. Three- +fourths of the crime in the kingdom of Bavaria is committed in the +Ultramontane region of the Tyrol, where the conditions of popular +education are about those that Mr. Ruskin seems to regret as swept away +by the present movement in England--a stagnant state of things, in which +any wind of heaven would be a blessing, even if it were a tornado. +Education of the modern sort unsettles the peasant, renders him unfit for +labor, and gives us a half-educated idler in place of a conscientious +workman. The disuse of the apprentice system is not made good by the +present system of education, because no one learns a trade well, and the +consequence is poor work, and a sham civilization generally. There is +some truth in these complaints. But the way out is not backward, but +forward. The fault is not with education, though it may be with the kind +of education. The education must go forward; the man must not be half +but wholly educated. It is only half-knowledge like half-training in a +trade that is dangerous. + +But what I wish to say is, that notwithstanding certain unfavorable +things in the condition of the English laborer and mechanic, his chance +is better in the main than it was fifty years ago. The world is a better +world for him. He has the opportunity to be more of a man. His world is +wider, and it is all open to him to go where he will. Mr. Ruskin may not +so easily find his ideal, contented peasant, but the man himself begins +to apprehend that this is a world of ideas as well as of food and +clothes, and I think, if he were consulted, he would have no desire to +return to the condition of his ancestors. In fact, the most hopeful +symptom in the condition of the English peasant is his discontent. +For, as skepticism is in one sense the handmaid of truth, discontent is +the mother of progress. The man is comparatively of little use in the +world who is contented. + +There is another thought pertinent here. It is this: that no man, +however humble, can live a full life if he lives to himself alone. He is +more of a man, he lives in a higher plane of thought and of enjoyment, +the more his communications are extended with his fellows and the wider +his sympathies are. I count it a great thing for the English peasant, +a solid addition to his life, that he is every day being put into more +intimate relations with every other man on the globe. + +I know it is said that these are only vague and sentimental notions of +progress--notions of a "salvation by machinery." Let us pass to +something that may be less vague, even if it be more sentimental. For a +hundred years we have reckoned it progress, that the people were taking +part in government. We have had a good deal of faith in the proposition +put forth at Philadelphia a century ago, that men are, in effect, equal +in political rights. Out of this simple proposition springs logically +the extension of suffrage, and a universal education, in order that this +important function of a government by the people may be exercised +intelligently. + +Now we are told by the most accomplished English essayists that this is a +mistake, that it is change, but no progress. Indeed, there are +philosophers in America who think so. At least I infer so from the fact +that Mr. Froude fathers one of his definitions of our condition upon an +American. When a block of printer's type is by accident broken up and +disintegrated, it falls into what is called "pi." The "pi," a mere +chaos, is afterwards sorted and distributed, preparatory to being built +up into fresh combinations. "A distinguished American friend," says Mr. +Froude, "describes Democracy as making pi." It is so witty a sarcasm +that I almost think Mr. Froude manufactured it himself. Well, we have +been making this "pi" for a hundred years; it seems to be a national dish +in considerable favor with the rest of the world--even such ancient +nations as China and Japan want a piece of it. + +Now, of course, no form of human government is perfect, or anything like +it, but I should be willing to submit the question to an English traveler +even, whether, on the whole, the people of the United States do not have +as fair a chance in life and feel as little the oppression of government +as any other in the world; whether anywhere the burdens are more lifted +off men's shoulders. + +This infidelity to popular government and unbelief in any good results to +come from it are not, unfortunately, confined to the English essayists. +I am not sure but the notion is growing in what is called the +intellectual class, that it is a mistake to intrust the government to the +ignorant many, and that it can only be lodged safely in the hands of the +wise few. We hear the corruptions of the times attributed to universal +suffrage. Yet these corruptions certainly are not peculiar to the United +States: It is also said here, as it is in England, that our diffused and +somewhat superficial education is merely unfitting the mass of men, who +must be laborers, for any useful occupation. + +This argument, reduced to plain terms, is simply this: that the mass of +mankind are unfit to decide properly their own political and social +condition; and that for the mass of mankind any but a very limited mental +development is to be deprecated. It would be enough to say of this, that +class government and popular ignorance have been tried for so many ages, +and always with disaster and failure in the end, that I should think +philanthropical historians would be tired of recommending them. But +there is more to be said. + +I feel that as a resident on earth, part owner of it for a time, +unavoidably a member of society, I have a right to a voice in determining +what my condition and what my chance in life shall be. I may be +ignorant, I should be a very poor ruler of other people, but I am better +capable of deciding some things that touch me nearly than another is. +By what logic can I say that I should have a part in the conduct of this +world and that my neighbor should not? Who is to decide what degree of +intelligence shall fit a man for a share in the government? How are we +to select the few capable men that are to rule all the rest? As a matter +of fact, men have been rulers who had neither the average intelligence +nor virtue of the people they governed. And, as a matter of historical +experience, a class in power has always sought its own benefit rather +than that of the whole people. Lunacy, extraordinary stupidity, and +crime aside, a man is the best guardian of his own liberty and rights. + +The English critics, who say we have taken the government from the +capable few and given it to the people, speak of universal suffrage as a +quack panacea of this "era of progress." But it is not the manufactured +panacea of any theorist or philosopher whatever. It is the natural +result of a diffused knowledge of human rights and of increasing +intelligence. It is nothing against it that Napoleon III. used a mockery +of it to govern France. It is not a device of the closet, but a method +of government, which has naturally suggested itself to men as they have +grown into a feeling of self-reliance and a consciousness that they have +some right in the decision of their own destiny in the world. It is true +that suffrage peculiarly fits a people virtuous and intelligent. But +there has not yet been invented any government in which a people would +thrive who were ignorant and vicious. + +Our foreign critics seem to regard our "American system," by the way, as +a sort of invention or patent right, upon which we are experimenting; +forgetting that it is as legitimate a growth out of our circumstances as +the English system is out of its antecedents. Our system is not the +product of theorists or closet philosophers; but it was ordained in +substance and inevitable from the day the first "town meeting" assembled +in New England, and it was not in the power of Hamilton or any one else +to make it otherwise. + +So you must have education, now you have the ballot, say the critics of +this era of progress; and this is another of your cheap inventions. +Not that we undervalue book knowledge. Oh, no! but it really seems to +us that a good trade, with the Lord's Prayer and the Ten Commandments +back of it, would be the best thing for most of you. You must work for a +living anyway; and why, now, should you unsettle your minds? + +This is such an astounding view of human life and destiny that I do not +know what to say to it. Did it occur to Mr. Froude to ask the man +whether he would be contented with a good trade and the Ten Commandments? +Perhaps the man would like eleven commandments? And, if he gets hold of +the eleventh, he may want to know something more about his fellow-men, +a little geography maybe, and some of Mr. Froude's history, and thus he +may be led off into literature, and the Lord knows where. + +The inference is that education--book fashion--will unfit the man for +useful work. Mr. Froude here again stops at a half-truth. As a general +thing, intelligence is useful in any position a man occupies. But it is +true that there is a superficial and misdirected sort of education, +so called, which makes the man who receives it despise labor; and it is +also true that in the present educational revival there has been a +neglect of training in the direction of skilled labor, and we all suffer +more or less from cheap and dishonest work. But the way out of this, +again, is forward, and not backward. It is a good sign, and not a stigma +upon this era of progress, that people desire education. But this +education must be of the whole man; he must be taught to work as well as +to read, and he is, indeed, poorly educated if he is not fitted to do his +work in the world. We certainly shall not have better workmen by having +ignorant workmen. I need not say that the real education is that which +will best fit a man for performing well his duties in life. If Mr. +Froude, instead of his plaint over the scarcity of good mechanics, and of +the Ten Commandments in England, had recommended the establishment of +industrial schools, he would have spoken more to the purpose. + +I should say that the fashionable skepticism of today, here and in +England, is in regard to universal suffrage and the capacity of the +people to govern themselves. The whole system is the sharp invention of +Thomas Jefferson and others, by which crafty demagogues can rule. +Instead of being, as we have patriotically supposed, a real progress in +human development, it is only a fetich, which is becoming rapidly a +failure. Now, there is a great deal of truth in the assertion that, +whatever the form of government, the ablest men, or the strongest, or the +most cunning in the nation, will rule. And yet it is true that in a +popular government, like this, the humblest citizen, if he is wronged or +oppressed, has in his hands a readier instrument of redress than he has +ever had in any form of government. And it must not be forgotten that +the ballot in the hands of all is perhaps the only safeguard against the +tyranny of wealth in the hands of the few. It is true that bad men can +band together and be destructive; but so they can in any government. +Revolution by ballot is much safer than revolution by violence; and, +granting that human nature is selfish, when the whole people are the +government selfishness is on the side of the government. Can you mention +any class in this country whose interest it is to overturn the +government? And, then, as to the wisdom of the popular decisions by the +ballot in this country. Look carefully at all the Presidential elections +from Washington's down, and say, in the light of history, if the popular +decision has not, every time, been the best for the country. It may not +have seemed so to some of us at the time, but I think it is true, and a +very significant fact. + +Of course, in this affirmation of belief that one hundred years of +popular government in this country is a real progress for humanity, and +not merely a change from the rule of the fit to the rule of the cunning, +we cannot forget that men are pretty much everywhere the same, and that +we have abundant reason for national humility. We are pretty well aware +that ours is not an ideal state of society, and should be so, even if the +English who pass by did not revile us, wagging their heads. We might +differ with them about the causes of our disorders. Doubtless, extended +suffrage has produced certain results. It seems, strangely enough, to +have escaped the observation of our English friends that to suffrage was +due the late horse disease. No one can discover any other cause for it. +But there is a cause for the various phenomena of this period of shoddy, +of inflated speculation, of disturbance of all values, social, moral, +political, and material, quite sufficient in the light of history to +account for them. It is not suffrage; it is an irredeemable paper +currency. It has borne its usual fruit with us, and neither foreign nor +home critics can shift the responsibility of it upon our system of +government. Yes, it is true, we have contrived to fill the world with +our scandals of late. I might refer to a loose commercial and political +morality; to betrayals of popular trust in politics; to corruptions in +legislatures and in corporations; to an abuse of power in the public +press, which has hardly yet got itself adjusted to its sudden accession +of enormous influence. We complain of its injustice to individuals +sometimes. We might imagine that something like this would occur. + +A newspaper one day says: "We are exceedingly pained to hear that the +Hon. Mr. Blank, who is running for Congress in the First District, has +permitted his aged grandmother to go to the town poorhouse. What renders +this conduct inexplicable is the fact that Mr. Blank is a man of large +fortune." + +The next day the newspaper says: "The Hon. Mr. Blank has not seen fit to +deny the damaging accusation in regard to the treatment of his +grandmother." + +The next day the newspaper says: "Mr. Blank is still silent. He is +probably aware that he cannot afford to rest under this grave charge." + +The next day the newspaper asks: "Where's Blank? Has he fled?" + +At last, goaded by these remarks, and most unfortunately for himself, +Mr. Blank writes to the newspaper and most indignantly denies the charge; +he never sent his grandmother to the poorhouse. + +Thereupon the newspaper says: "Of course a rich man who would put his own +grandmother in the poorhouse would deny it. Our informant was a +gentleman of character. Mr. Blank rests the matter on his unsupported +word. It is a question of veracity." + +Or, perhaps, Mr. Blank, more unfortunately for himself, begins by making +an affidavit, wherein he swears that he never sent his grandmother to the +poorhouse, and that, in point of fact, he has not any grandmother +whatever. + +The newspaper then, in language that is now classical, "goes for" Mr. +Blank. It says: "Mr. Blank resorts to the common device of the rogue-- +the affidavit. If he had been conscious of rectitude, would he not have +relied upon his simple denial?" + +Now, if an extreme case like this could occur, it would be bad enough. +But, in our free society, the remedy would be at hand. The constituents +of Mr. Blank would elect him in triumph. The newspaper would lose public +confidence and support and learn to use its position more justly. What I +mean to indicate by such an extreme instance as this is, that in our very +license of individual freedom there is finally a correcting power. + +We might pursue this general subject of progress by a comparison of the +society of this country now with that of fifty years ago. I have no +doubt that in every essential this is better than that, in manners, in +morality, in charity and toleration, in education and religion. I know +the standard of morality is higher. I know the churches are purer. +Not fifty years ago, in a New England town, a distinguished doctor of +divinity, the pastor of a leading church, was part owner in a distillery. +He was a great light in his denomination, but he was an extravagant +liver, and, being unable to pay his debts, he was arrested and put into +jail, with the liberty of the "limits." In order not to interrupt his +ministerial work, the jail limits were made to include his house and his +church, so that he could still go in and out before his people. I do not +think that could occur anywhere in the United States today. + +I will close these fragmentary suggestions by saying that I, for one, +should like to see this country a century from now. Those who live then +will doubtless say of this period that it was crude, and rather +disorderly, and fermenting with a great many new projects; but I have +great faith that they will also say that the present extending notion, +that the best government is for the people, by the people, was in the +line of sound progress. I should expect to find faith in humanity +greater and not less than it is now, and I should not expect to find that +Mr. Froude's mournful expectation had been realized, and that the belief +in a life beyond the grave had been withdrawn. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg Etext of Mr. Froude's Progress by C. D. Warner + diff --git a/old/cwfpg10.zip b/old/cwfpg10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..26ec3eb --- /dev/null +++ b/old/cwfpg10.zip diff --git a/old/cwfpg11.txt b/old/cwfpg11.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..aa557c4 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/cwfpg11.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1063 @@ +The Project Gutenberg Etext of Mr. Froude's Progress by Warner +#25 in our series by Charles Dudley Warner + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check +the laws for your country before redistributing these files!!!!! + +Please take a look at the important information in this header. +We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an +electronic path open for the next readers. + +Please do not remove this. + +This should be the first thing seen when anyone opens the book. +Do not change or edit it without written permission. 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They would like to be of the +world again, and enter into its feelings, passions, hopes; to feel the +sweep of its current, and so to comprehend what it has become. + +I suppose that we all who are thoroughly interested in this world have +this desire. There are some select souls who sit apart in calm +endurance, waiting to be translated out of a world they are almost tired +of patronizing, to whom the whole thing seems, doubtless, like a cheap +performance. They sit on the fence of criticism, and cannot for the life +of them see what the vulgar crowd make such a toil and sweat about. The +prizes are the same dreary, old, fading bay wreaths. As for the soldiers +marching past, their uniforms are torn, their hats are shocking, their +shoes are dusty, they do not appear (to a man sitting on the fence) to +march with any kind of spirit, their flags are old and tattered, the +drums they beat are barbarous; and, besides, it is not probable that they +are going anywhere; they will merely come round again, the same people, +like the marching chorus in the "Beggar's Opera." Such critics, of +course, would not care to see the vulgar show over again; it is enough +for them to put on record their protest against it in the weekly +"Judgment Days" which they edit, and by-and-by withdraw out of their +private boxes, with pity for a world in the creation of which they were +not consulted. + +The desire to revisit this earth is, I think, based upon a belief, well- +nigh universal, that the world is to make some progress, and that it will +be more interesting in the future than it is now. I believe that the +human mind, whenever it is developed enough to comprehend its own action, +rests, and has always rested, in this expectation. I do not know any +period of time in which the civilized mind has not had expectation of +something better for the race in the future. This expectation is +sometimes stronger than it is at others; and, again, there are always +those who say that the Golden Age is behind them. It is always behind or +before us; the poor present alone has no friends; the present, in the +minds of many, is only the car that is carrying us away from an age of +virtue and of happiness, or that is perhaps bearing us on to a time of +ease and comfort and security. + +Perhaps it is worth while, in view of certain recent discussions, and +especially of some free criticisms of this country, to consider whether +there is any intention of progress in this world, and whether that +intention is discoverable in the age in which we live. + +If it is an old question, it is not a settled one; the practical +disbelief in any such progress is widely entertained. Not long ago Mr. +James Anthony Froude published an essay on Progress, in which he examined +some of the evidences upon which we rely to prove that we live in an "era +of progress." It is a melancholy essay, for its tone is that of profound +skepticism as to certain influences and means of progress upon which we +in this country most rely. With the illustrative arguments of Mr. +Froude's essay I do not purpose specially to meddle; I recall it to the +attention of the reader as a representative type of skepticism regarding +progress which is somewhat common among intellectual men, and is not +confined to England. It is not exactly an acceptance of Rousseau's +notion that civilization is a mistake, and that it would be better for us +all to return to a state of nature--though in John Ruskin's case it +nearly amounts to this; but it is a hostility in its last analysis to +what we understand by the education of the people, and to the government +of the people by themselves. If Mr. Froude's essay is anything but an +exhibition of the scholarly weapons of criticism, it is the expression of +a profound disbelief in the intellectual education of the masses of the +people. Mr. Ruskin goes further. He makes his open proclamation against +any emancipation from hand-toil. Steam is the devil himself let loose +from the pit, and all labor-saving machinery is his own invention. +Mr. Ruskin is the bull that stands upon the track and threatens with +annihilation the on-coming locomotive; and I think that any spectator who +sees his menacing attitude and hears his roaring cannot but have fears +for the locomotive. + +There are two sorts of infidelity concerning humanity, and I do not know +which is the more withering in its effects. One is that which regards +this world as only a waste and a desert, across the sands of which we are +merely fugitives, fleeing from the wrath to come. The other is that +doubt of any divine intention in development, in history, which we call +progress from age to age. + +In the eyes of this latter infidelity history is not a procession or a +progression, but only a series of disconnected pictures, each little era +rounded with its own growth, fruitage, and decay, a series of incidents +or experiments, without even the string of a far-reaching purpose to +connect them. There is no intention of progress in it all. The race is +barbarous, and then it changes to civilized; in the one case the strong +rob the weak by brute force; in the other the crafty rob the unwary by +finesse. The latter is a more agreeable state of things; but it comes to +about the same. The robber used to knock us down and take away our +sheepskins; he now administers chloroform and relieves us of our watches. +It is a gentlemanly proceeding, and scientific, and we call it +civilization. Meantime human nature remains the same, and the whole +thing is a weary round that has no advance in it. + +If this is true the succession of men and of races is no better than a +vegetable succession; and Mr. Froude is quite right in doubting if +education of the brain will do the English agricultural laborer any good; +and Mr. Ruskin ought to be aided in his crusade against machinery, which +turns the world upside down. The best that can be done with a man is the +best that can be done with a plant-set him out in some favorable +locality, or leave him where he happened to strike root, and there let +him grow and mature in measure and quiet--especially quiet--as he may in +God's sun and rain. If he happens to be a cabbage, in Heaven's name +don't try to make a rose of him, and do not disturb the vegetable +maturing of his head by grafting ideas upon his stock. + +The most serious difficulty in the way of those who maintain that there +is an intention of progress in this world from century to century, from +age to age--a discernible growth, a universal development--is the fact +that all nations do not make progress at the same time or in the same +ratio; that nations reach a certain development, and then fall away and +even retrograde; that while one may be advancing into high civilization, +another is lapsing into deeper barbarism, and that nations appear to have +a limit of growth. If there were a law of progress, an intention of it +in all the world, ought not all peoples and tribes to advance pari passu, +or at least ought there not to be discernible a general movement, +historical and contemporary? There is no such general movement which can +be computed, the law of which can be discovered--therefore it does not +exist. In a kind of despair, we are apt to run over in our minds empires +and pre-eminent civilizations that have existed, and then to doubt +whether life in this world is intended to be anything more than a series +of experiments. There is the German nation of our day, the most +aggressive in various fields of intellectual activity, a Hercules of +scholarship, the most thoroughly trained and powerful--though its +civilization marches to the noise of the hateful and barbarous drum. +In what points is it better than the Greek nation of the age of its +superlative artists, philosophers, poets--the age of the most joyous, +elastic human souls in the most perfect human bodies? + +Again, it is perhaps a fanciful notion that the Atlantis of Plato was the +northern part of the South American continent, projecting out towards +Africa, and that the Antilles are the peaks and headlands of its sunken +bulk. But there are evidences enough that the shores of the Gulf of +Mexico and the Caribbean Sea were within historic periods the seat of a +very considerable civilization--the seat of cities, of commerce, of +trade, of palaces and pleasure--gardens--faint images, perhaps, of the +luxurious civilization of Baia! and Pozzuoli and Capri in the most +profligate period of the Roman empire. It is not more difficult to +believe that there was a great material development here than to believe +it of the African shore of the Mediterranean. Not to multiply instances +that will occur to all, we see as many retrograde as advance movements, +and we see, also, that while one spot of the earth at one time seems to +be the chosen theatre of progress, other portions of the globe are +absolutely dead and without the least leaven of advancing life, and we +cannot understand how this can be if there is any such thing as an all- +pervading and animating intention or law of progress. And then we are +reminded that the individual human mind long ago attained its height of +power and capacity. It is enough to recall the names of Moses, Buddha, +Confucius, Socrates, Paul, Homer, David. + +No doubt it has seemed to other periods and other nations, as it now does +to the present civilized races, that they were the chosen times and +peoples of an extraordinary and limitless development. It must have +seemed so to the Jews who overran Palestine and set their shining cities +on all the hills of heathendom. It must have seemed so to the Babylonish +conquerors who swept over Palestine in turn, on their way to greater +conquests in Egypt. It must have seemed so to Greece when the Acropolis +was to the outlying world what the imperial calla is to the marsh in +which it lifts its superb flower. It must have seemed so to Rome when +its solid roads of stone ran to all parts of a tributary world--the +highways of the legions, her ministers, and of the wealth that poured +into her treasury. It must have seemed so to followers of Mahomet, when +the crescent knew no pause in its march up the Arabian peninsula to the +Bosporus, to India, along the Mediterranean shores to Spain, where in the +eighth century it flowered into a culture, a learning, a refinement in +art and manners, to which the Christian world of that day was a stranger. +It must have seemed so in the awakening of the sixteenth century, when +Europe, Spain leading, began that great movement of discovery and +aggrandizement which has, in the end, been profitable only to a portion +of the adventurers. And what shall we say of a nation as old, if not +older than any of these we have mentioned, slowly building up meantime a +civilization and perfecting a system of government and a social economy +which should outlast them all, and remain to our day almost the sole +monument of permanence and stability in a shifting world? + +How many times has the face of Europe been changed--and parts of Africa, +and Asia Minor too, for that matter--by conquests and crusades, and the +rise and fall of civilizations as well as dynasties? while China has +endured, almost undisturbed, under a system of law, administration, +morality, as old as the Pyramids probably--existed a coherent nation, +highly developed in certain essentials, meeting and mastering, so far as +we can see, the great problem of an over-populated territory, living in a +good degree of peace and social order, of respect for age and law, and +making a continuous history, the mere record of which is printed in a +thousand bulky volumes. Yet we speak of the Chinese empire as an +instance of arrested growth, for which there is no salvation, except it +shall catch the spirit of progress abroad in the world. What is this +progress, and where does it come from? + +Think for a moment of this significant situation. For thousands of +years, empires, systems of society, systems of civilization--Egyptian, +Jewish, Greek, Roman, Moslem, Feudal--have flourished and fallen, grown +to a certain height and passed away; great organized fabrics have gone +down, and, if there has been any progress, it has been as often defeated +as renewed. And here is an empire, apart from this scene of alternate +success and disaster, which has existed in a certain continuity and +stability, and yet, now that it is uncovered and stands face to face with +the rest of the world, it finds that it has little to teach us, and +almost everything to learn from us. The old empire sends its students to +learn of us, the newest child of civilization; and through us they learn +all the great past, its literature, law, science, out of which we sprang. +It appears, then, that progress has, after all, been with the shifting +world, that has been all this time going to pieces, rather than with the +world that has been permanent and unshaken. + +When we speak of progress we may mean two things. We may mean a lifting +of the races as a whole by reason of more power over the material world, +by reason of what we call the conquest of nature and a practical use of +its forces; or we may mean a higher development of the individual man, +so that he shall be better and happier. If from age to age it is +discoverable that the earth is better adapted to man as a dwelling-place, +and he is on the whole fitted to get more out of it for his own growth, +is not that progress, and is it not evidence of an intention of progress? + +Now, it is sometimes said that Providence, in the economy of this world, +cares nothing for the individual, but works out its ideas and purposes +through the races, and in certain periods, slowly bringing in, by great +agencies and by processes destructive to individuals and to millions of +helpless human beings, truths and principles; so laying stepping-stones +onward to a great consummation. I do not care to dwell upon this +thought, but let us see if we can find any evidence in history of the +presence in this world of an intention of progress. + +It is common to say that, if the world makes progress at all, it is by +its great men, and when anything important for the race is to be done, +a great man is raised up to do it. Yet another way to look at it is, +that the doing of something at the appointed time makes the man who does +it great, or at least celebrated. The man often appears to be only a +favored instrument of communication. As we glance back we recognize the +truth that, at this and that period, the time had come for certain +discoveries. Intelligence seemed pressing in from the invisible. Many +minds were on the alert to apprehend it. We believe, for instance, that +if Gutenberg had not invented movable types, somebody else would have +given them to the world about that time. Ideas, at certain times, throng +for admission into the world; and we are all familiar with the fact that +the same important idea (never before revealed in all the ages) occurs to +separate and widely distinct minds at about the same time. The invention +of the electric telegraph seemed to burst upon the world simultaneously +from many quarters--not perfect, perhaps, but the time for the idea had +come--and happy was it for the man who entertained it. We have agreed to +call Columbus the discoverer of America, but I suppose there is no doubt +that America had been visited by European, and probably Asiatic, people +ages before Columbus; that four or five centuries before him people from +northern Europe had settlements here; he was fortunate, however, in +"discovering" it in the fullness of time, when the world, in its +progress, was ready for it. If the Greeks had had gunpowder, electro- +magnetism, the printing press, history would need to be rewritten. +Why the inquisitive Greek mind did not find out these things is a mystery +upon any other theory than the one we are considering. + +And it is as mysterious that China, having gunpowder and the art of +printing, is not today like Germany. + +There seems to me to be a progress, or an intention of progress, in the +world, independent of individual men. Things get on by all sorts of +instruments, and sometimes by very poor ones. There are times when new +thoughts or applications of known principles seem to throng from the +invisible for expression through human media, and there is hardly ever an +important invention set free in the world that men do not appear to be +ready cordially to receive it. Often we should be justified in saying +that there was a widespread expectation of it. Almost all the great +inventions and the ingenious application of principles have many +claimants for the honor of priority. + +On any other theory than this, that there is present in the world an +intention of progress which outlasts individuals, and even races, +I cannot account for the fact that, while civilizations decay and pass +away, and human systems go to pieces, ideas remain and accumulate. +We, the latest age, are the inheritors of all the foregoing ages. +I do not believe that anything of importance has been lost to the world. +The Jewish civilization was torn up root and branch, but whatever was +valuable in the Jewish polity is ours now. We may say the same of the +civilizations of Athens and of Rome; though the entire organization of +the ancient world, to use Mr. Froude's figure, collapsed into a heap of +incoherent sand, the ideas remained, and Greek art and Roman law are part +of the world's solid possessions. + +Even those who question the value to the individual of what we call +progress, admit, I suppose, the increase of knowledge in the world from +age to age, and not only its increase, but its diffusion. The +intelligent schoolboy today knows more than the ancient sages knew--more +about the visible heavens, more of the secrets of the earth, more of the +human body. The rudiments of his education, the common experiences of +his everyday life, were, at the best, the guesses and speculations of a +remote age. There is certainly an accumulation of facts, ideas, +knowledge. Whether this makes men better, wiser, happier, is indeed +disputed. + +In order to maintain the notion of a general and intended progress, it is +not necessary to show that no preceding age has excelled ours in some +special, development. Phidias has had no rival in sculpture, we may +admit. It is possible that glass was once made as flexible as leather, +and that copper could be hardened like steel. But I do not take much +stock in the "lost arts," the wondering theme of the lyceums. The +knowledge of the natural world, and of materials, was never, I believe, +so extensive and exact as it is today. It is possible that there are +tricks of chemistry, ingenious processes, secrets of color, of which we +are ignorant; but I do not believe there was ever an ancient alchemist +who could not be taught something in a modern laboratory. The vast +engineering works of the ancient Egyptians, the remains of their temples +and pyramids, excite our wonder; but I have no doubt that President +Grant, if he becomes the tyrant they say he is becoming, and commands the +labor of forty millions of slaves--a large proportion of them office-- +holders--could build a Karnak, or erect a string of pyramids across New +Jersey. + +Mr. Froude runs lightly over a list of subjects upon which the believer +in progress relies for his belief, and then says of them that the world +calls this progress--he calls it only change. I suppose he means by this +two things: that these great movements of our modern life are not any +evidence of a permanent advance, and that our whole structure may tumble +into a heap of incoherent sand, as systems of society have done before; +and, again, that it is questionable if, in what we call a stride in +civilization, the individual citizen is becoming any purer or more just, +or if his intelligence is directed towards learning and doing what is +right, or only to the means of more extended pleasures. + +It is, perhaps, idle to speculate upon the first of these points--the +permanence of our advance, if it is an advance. But we may be encouraged +by one thing that distinguishes this period--say from the middle of the +eighteenth century--from any that has preceded it. I mean the +introduction of machinery, applied to the multiplication of man's power +in a hundred directions--to manufacturing, to locomotion, to the +diffusion of thought and of knowledge. I need not dwell upon this +familiar topic. Since this period began there has been, so far as I +know, no retrograde movement anywhere, but, besides the material, an +intellectual and spiritual kindling the world over, for which history has +no sort of parallel. Truth is always the same, and will make its way, +but this subject might be illustrated by a study of the relation of +Christianity and of the brotherhood of men to machinery. The theme would +demand an essay by itself. I leave it with the one remark, that this +great change now being wrought in the world by the multiplicity of +machinery is not more a material than it is an intellectual one, and that +we have no instance in history of a catastrophe widespread enough and +adequate to sweep away its results. That is to say, none of the +catastrophes, not even the corruptions, which brought to ruin the ancient +civilizations, would work anything like the same disaster in an age which +has the use of machinery that this age has. + +For instance: Gibbon selects the period between the accession of Trajan +and the death of Marcus Aurelius as the time in which the human race +enjoyed more general happiness than they had ever known before, or had +since known. Yet, says Mr. Froude, in the midst of this prosperity the +heart of the empire was dying out of it; luxury and selfishness were +eating away the principle that held society together, and the ancient +world was on the point of collapsing into a heap of incoherent sand. +Now, it is impossible to conceive that the catastrophe which did happen +to that civilization could have happened if the world had then possessed +the steam-engine, the printing-press, and the electric telegraph. The +Roman power might have gone down, and the face of the world been recast; +but such universal chaos and such a relapse for the individual people +would seem impossible. + +If we turn from these general considerations to the evidences that this +is an "era of progress" in the condition of individual men, we are met by +more specific denials. Granted, it is said, all your facilities for +travel and communication, for cheap and easy manufacture, for the +distribution of cheap literature and news, your cheap education, better +homes, and all the comforts and luxuries of your machine civilization, is +the average man, the agriculturist, the machinist, the laborer any better +for it all? Are there more purity, more honest, fair dealing, genuine +work, fear and honor of God? Are the proceeds of labor more evenly +distributed? These, it is said, are the criteria of progress; all else +is misleading. + +Now, it is true that the ultimate end of any system of government or +civilization should be the improvement of the individual man. And yet +this truth, as Mr. Froude puts it, is only a half-truth, so that this +single test of any system may not do for a given time and a limited area. +Other and wider considerations come in. Disturbances, which for a while +unsettle society and do not bring good results to individuals, may, +nevertheless, be necessary, and may be a sign of progress. Take the +favorite illustration of Mr. Froude and Mr. Ruskin--the condition of the +agricultural laborer of England. If I understand them, the civilization +of the last century has not helped his position as a man. If I +understand them, he was a better man, in a better condition of earthly +happiness, and with a better chance of heaven, fifty years ago than now, +before the "era of progress" found him out. (It ought to be noticed +here, that the report of the Parliamentary Commission on the condition of +the English agricultural laborer does not sustain Mr. Froude's +assumptions. On the contrary, the report shows that his condition is in +almost all respects vastly better than it was fifty years ago.) +Mr. Ruskin would remove the steam-engine and all its devilish works from +his vicinity; he would abolish factories, speedy travel by rail, new- +fangled instruments of agriculture, our patent education, and remit him +to his ancient condition--tied for life to a bit of ground, which should +supply all his simple wants; his wife should weave the clothes for the +family; his children should learn nothing but the catechism and to speak +the truth; he should take his religion without question from the hearty, +fox-hunting parson, and live and die undisturbed by ideas. Now, it seems +to me that if Mr. Ruskin could realize in some isolated nation this idea +of a pastoral, simple existence, under a paternal government, he would +have in time an ignorant, stupid, brutal community in a great deal worse +case than the agricultural laborers of England are at present. Three- +fourths of the crime in the kingdom of Bavaria is committed in the +Ultramontane region of the Tyrol, where the conditions of popular +education are about those that Mr. Ruskin seems to regret as swept away +by the present movement in England--a stagnant state of things, in which +any wind of heaven would be a blessing, even if it were a tornado. +Education of the modern sort unsettles the peasant, renders him unfit for +labor, and gives us a half-educated idler in place of a conscientious +workman. The disuse of the apprentice system is not made good by the +present system of education, because no one learns a trade well, and the +consequence is poor work, and a sham civilization generally. There is +some truth in these complaints. But the way out is not backward, but +forward. The fault is not with education, though it may be with the kind +of education. The education must go forward; the man must not be half +but wholly educated. It is only half-knowledge like half-training in a +trade that is dangerous. + +But what I wish to say is, that notwithstanding certain unfavorable +things in the condition of the English laborer and mechanic, his chance +is better in the main than it was fifty years ago. The world is a better +world for him. He has the opportunity to be more of a man. His world is +wider, and it is all open to him to go where he will. Mr. Ruskin may not +so easily find his ideal, contented peasant, but the man himself begins +to apprehend that this is a world of ideas as well as of food and +clothes, and I think, if he were consulted, he would have no desire to +return to the condition of his ancestors. In fact, the most hopeful +symptom in the condition of the English peasant is his discontent. +For, as skepticism is in one sense the handmaid of truth, discontent is +the mother of progress. The man is comparatively of little use in the +world who is contented. + +There is another thought pertinent here. It is this: that no man, +however humble, can live a full life if he lives to himself alone. He is +more of a man, he lives in a higher plane of thought and of enjoyment, +the more his communications are extended with his fellows and the wider +his sympathies are. I count it a great thing for the English peasant, +a solid addition to his life, that he is every day being put into more +intimate relations with every other man on the globe. + +I know it is said that these are only vague and sentimental notions of +progress--notions of a "salvation by machinery." Let us pass to +something that may be less vague, even if it be more sentimental. For a +hundred years we have reckoned it progress, that the people were taking +part in government. We have had a good deal of faith in the proposition +put forth at Philadelphia a century ago, that men are, in effect, equal +in political rights. Out of this simple proposition springs logically +the extension of suffrage, and a universal education, in order that this +important function of a government by the people may be exercised +intelligently. + +Now we are told by the most accomplished English essayists that this is a +mistake, that it is change, but no progress. Indeed, there are +philosophers in America who think so. At least I infer so from the fact +that Mr. Froude fathers one of his definitions of our condition upon an +American. When a block of printer's type is by accident broken up and +disintegrated, it falls into what is called "pi." The "pi," a mere +chaos, is afterwards sorted and distributed, preparatory to being built +up into fresh combinations. "A distinguished American friend," says Mr. +Froude, "describes Democracy as making pi." It is so witty a sarcasm +that I almost think Mr. Froude manufactured it himself. Well, we have +been making this "pi" for a hundred years; it seems to be a national dish +in considerable favor with the rest of the world--even such ancient +nations as China and Japan want a piece of it. + +Now, of course, no form of human government is perfect, or anything like +it, but I should be willing to submit the question to an English traveler +even, whether, on the whole, the people of the United States do not have +as fair a chance in life and feel as little the oppression of government +as any other in the world; whether anywhere the burdens are more lifted +off men's shoulders. + +This infidelity to popular government and unbelief in any good results to +come from it are not, unfortunately, confined to the English essayists. +I am not sure but the notion is growing in what is called the +intellectual class, that it is a mistake to intrust the government to the +ignorant many, and that it can only be lodged safely in the hands of the +wise few. We hear the corruptions of the times attributed to universal +suffrage. Yet these corruptions certainly are not peculiar to the United +States: It is also said here, as it is in England, that our diffused and +somewhat superficial education is merely unfitting the mass of men, who +must be laborers, for any useful occupation. + +This argument, reduced to plain terms, is simply this: that the mass of +mankind are unfit to decide properly their own political and social +condition; and that for the mass of mankind any but a very limited mental +development is to be deprecated. It would be enough to say of this, that +class government and popular ignorance have been tried for so many ages, +and always with disaster and failure in the end, that I should think +philanthropical historians would be tired of recommending them. But +there is more to be said. + +I feel that as a resident on earth, part owner of it for a time, +unavoidably a member of society, I have a right to a voice in determining +what my condition and what my chance in life shall be. I may be +ignorant, I should be a very poor ruler of other people, but I am better +capable of deciding some things that touch me nearly than another is. +By what logic can I say that I should have a part in the conduct of this +world and that my neighbor should not? Who is to decide what degree of +intelligence shall fit a man for a share in the government? How are we +to select the few capable men that are to rule all the rest? As a matter +of fact, men have been rulers who had neither the average intelligence +nor virtue of the people they governed. And, as a matter of historical +experience, a class in power has always sought its own benefit rather +than that of the whole people. Lunacy, extraordinary stupidity, and +crime aside, a man is the best guardian of his own liberty and rights. + +The English critics, who say we have taken the government from the +capable few and given it to the people, speak of universal suffrage as a +quack panacea of this "era of progress." But it is not the manufactured +panacea of any theorist or philosopher whatever. It is the natural +result of a diffused knowledge of human rights and of increasing +intelligence. It is nothing against it that Napoleon III. used a mockery +of it to govern France. It is not a device of the closet, but a method +of government, which has naturally suggested itself to men as they have +grown into a feeling of self-reliance and a consciousness that they have +some right in the decision of their own destiny in the world. It is true +that suffrage peculiarly fits a people virtuous and intelligent. But +there has not yet been invented any government in which a people would +thrive who were ignorant and vicious. + +Our foreign critics seem to regard our "American system," by the way, as +a sort of invention or patent right, upon which we are experimenting; +forgetting that it is as legitimate a growth out of our circumstances as +the English system is out of its antecedents. Our system is not the +product of theorists or closet philosophers; but it was ordained in +substance and inevitable from the day the first "town meeting" assembled +in New England, and it was not in the power of Hamilton or any one else +to make it otherwise. + +So you must have education, now you have the ballot, say the critics of +this era of progress; and this is another of your cheap inventions. +Not that we undervalue book knowledge. Oh, no! but it really seems to +us that a good trade, with the Lord's Prayer and the Ten Commandments +back of it, would be the best thing for most of you. You must work for a +living anyway; and why, now, should you unsettle your minds? + +This is such an astounding view of human life and destiny that I do not +know what to say to it. Did it occur to Mr. Froude to ask the man +whether he would be contented with a good trade and the Ten Commandments? +Perhaps the man would like eleven commandments? And, if he gets hold of +the eleventh, he may want to know something more about his fellow-men, +a little geography maybe, and some of Mr. Froude's history, and thus he +may be led off into literature, and the Lord knows where. + +The inference is that education--book fashion--will unfit the man for +useful work. Mr. Froude here again stops at a half-truth. As a general +thing, intelligence is useful in any position a man occupies. But it is +true that there is a superficial and misdirected sort of education, +so called, which makes the man who receives it despise labor; and it is +also true that in the present educational revival there has been a +neglect of training in the direction of skilled labor, and we all suffer +more or less from cheap and dishonest work. But the way out of this, +again, is forward, and not backward. It is a good sign, and not a stigma +upon this era of progress, that people desire education. But this +education must be of the whole man; he must be taught to work as well as +to read, and he is, indeed, poorly educated if he is not fitted to do his +work in the world. We certainly shall not have better workmen by having +ignorant workmen. I need not say that the real education is that which +will best fit a man for performing well his duties in life. If Mr. +Froude, instead of his plaint over the scarcity of good mechanics, and of +the Ten Commandments in England, had recommended the establishment of +industrial schools, he would have spoken more to the purpose. + +I should say that the fashionable skepticism of today, here and in +England, is in regard to universal suffrage and the capacity of the +people to govern themselves. The whole system is the sharp invention of +Thomas Jefferson and others, by which crafty demagogues can rule. +Instead of being, as we have patriotically supposed, a real progress in +human development, it is only a fetich, which is becoming rapidly a +failure. Now, there is a great deal of truth in the assertion that, +whatever the form of government, the ablest men, or the strongest, or the +most cunning in the nation, will rule. And yet it is true that in a +popular government, like this, the humblest citizen, if he is wronged or +oppressed, has in his hands a readier instrument of redress than he has +ever had in any form of government. And it must not be forgotten that +the ballot in the hands of all is perhaps the only safeguard against the +tyranny of wealth in the hands of the few. It is true that bad men can +band together and be destructive; but so they can in any government. +Revolution by ballot is much safer than revolution by violence; and, +granting that human nature is selfish, when the whole people are the +government selfishness is on the side of the government. Can you mention +any class in this country whose interest it is to overturn the +government? And, then, as to the wisdom of the popular decisions by the +ballot in this country. Look carefully at all the Presidential elections +from Washington's down, and say, in the light of history, if the popular +decision has not, every time, been the best for the country. It may not +have seemed so to some of us at the time, but I think it is true, and a +very significant fact. + +Of course, in this affirmation of belief that one hundred years of +popular government in this country is a real progress for humanity, and +not merely a change from the rule of the fit to the rule of the cunning, +we cannot forget that men are pretty much everywhere the same, and that +we have abundant reason for national humility. We are pretty well aware +that ours is not an ideal state of society, and should be so, even if the +English who pass by did not revile us, wagging their heads. We might +differ with them about the causes of our disorders. Doubtless, extended +suffrage has produced certain results. It seems, strangely enough, to +have escaped the observation of our English friends that to suffrage was +due the late horse disease. No one can discover any other cause for it. +But there is a cause for the various phenomena of this period of shoddy, +of inflated speculation, of disturbance of all values, social, moral, +political, and material, quite sufficient in the light of history to +account for them. It is not suffrage; it is an irredeemable paper +currency. It has borne its usual fruit with us, and neither foreign nor +home critics can shift the responsibility of it upon our system of +government. Yes, it is true, we have contrived to fill the world with +our scandals of late. I might refer to a loose commercial and political +morality; to betrayals of popular trust in politics; to corruptions in +legislatures and in corporations; to an abuse of power in the public +press, which has hardly yet got itself adjusted to its sudden accession +of enormous influence. We complain of its injustice to individuals +sometimes. We might imagine that something like this would occur. + +A newspaper one day says: "We are exceedingly pained to hear that the +Hon. Mr. Blank, who is running for Congress in the First District, has +permitted his aged grandmother to go to the town poorhouse. What renders +this conduct inexplicable is the fact that Mr. Blank is a man of large +fortune." + +The next day the newspaper says: "The Hon. Mr. Blank has not seen fit to +deny the damaging accusation in regard to the treatment of his +grandmother." + +The next day the newspaper says: "Mr. Blank is still silent. He is +probably aware that he cannot afford to rest under this grave charge." + +The next day the newspaper asks: "Where's Blank? Has he fled?" + +At last, goaded by these remarks, and most unfortunately for himself, +Mr. Blank writes to the newspaper and most indignantly denies the charge; +he never sent his grandmother to the poorhouse. + +Thereupon the newspaper says: "Of course a rich man who would put his own +grandmother in the poorhouse would deny it. Our informant was a +gentleman of character. Mr. Blank rests the matter on his unsupported +word. It is a question of veracity." + +Or, perhaps, Mr. Blank, more unfortunately for himself, begins by making +an affidavit, wherein he swears that he never sent his grandmother to the +poorhouse, and that, in point of fact, he has not any grandmother +whatever. + +The newspaper then, in language that is now classical, "goes for" Mr. +Blank. It says: "Mr. Blank resorts to the common device of the rogue-- +the affidavit. If he had been conscious of rectitude, would he not have +relied upon his simple denial?" + +Now, if an extreme case like this could occur, it would be bad enough. +But, in our free society, the remedy would be at hand. The constituents +of Mr. Blank would elect him in triumph. The newspaper would lose public +confidence and support and learn to use its position more justly. What I +mean to indicate by such an extreme instance as this is, that in our very +license of individual freedom there is finally a correcting power. + +We might pursue this general subject of progress by a comparison of the +society of this country now with that of fifty years ago. I have no +doubt that in every essential this is better than that, in manners, in +morality, in charity and toleration, in education and religion. I know +the standard of morality is higher. I know the churches are purer. +Not fifty years ago, in a New England town, a distinguished doctor of +divinity, the pastor of a leading church, was part owner in a distillery. +He was a great light in his denomination, but he was an extravagant +liver, and, being unable to pay his debts, he was arrested and put into +jail, with the liberty of the "limits." In order not to interrupt his +ministerial work, the jail limits were made to include his house and his +church, so that he could still go in and out before his people. I do not +think that could occur anywhere in the United States today. + +I will close these fragmentary suggestions by saying that I, for one, +should like to see this country a century from now. Those who live then +will doubtless say of this period that it was crude, and rather +disorderly, and fermenting with a great many new projects; but I have +great faith that they will also say that the present extending notion, +that the best government is for the people, by the people, was in the +line of sound progress. I should expect to find faith in humanity +greater and not less than it is now, and I should not expect to find that +Mr. Froude's mournful expectation had been realized, and that the belief +in a life beyond the grave had been withdrawn. + + + + +End of this Project Gutenberg Etext of Thoughts on Mr. Froude's Progress +by Charles Dudley Warner + diff --git a/old/cwfpg11.zip b/old/cwfpg11.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..590072a --- /dev/null +++ b/old/cwfpg11.zip |