identified Moira with Pronoia, in accordance with their theory that
the universe is permeated by thought.] it would perhaps be Moira,
for which we have no equivalent. The common rendering "fate" is
misleading. Moira meant a fixed order in the universe; but as a fact
to which men must bow, it had enough in common with fatality to
demand a philosophy of resignation and to hinder the creation of an
optimistic atmosphere of hope. It was this order which kept things
in their places, assigned to each its proper sphere and function,
and drew a definite line, for instance, between men and gods. Human
progress towards perfection--towards an ideal of omniscience, or an
ideal of happiness, would have been a breaking down of the bars
which divide the human from the divine. Human nature does not alter;
it is fixed by Moira.

5.

We can see now how it was that speculative Greek minds never hit on
the idea of Progress. In the first place, their limited historical
experience did not easily suggest such a synthesis; and in the
second place, the axioms of their thought, their suspiciousness of
change, their theories of Moira, of degeneration and cycles,
suggested a view of the world which was the very antithesis of
progressive development. Epicurean, philosophers made indeed what
might have been an important step in the direction of the doctrine
of Progress, by discarding the theory of degeneration, and
recognising that civilisation had been created by a series of
successive improvements achieved by the effort of man alone. But
here they stopped short. For they had their eyes fixed on the lot of
the individual here and now, and their study of the history of
humanity was strictly subordinate to this personal interest. The