the great issue which is involved lies outside its modest scope.
Occasional criticisms on particular forms which the creed of
Progress assumed, or on arguments which were used to support it, are
not intended as a judgment on its general validity. I may, however,
make two observations here. The doubts which Mr. Balfour expressed
nearly thirty years ago, in an Address delivered at Glasgow, have
not, so far as I know, been answered. And it is probable that many
people, to whom six years ago the notion of a sudden decline or
break-up of our western civilisation, as a result not of cosmic
forces but of its own development, would have appeared almost
fantastic, will feel much less confident to-day, notwithstanding the
fact that the leading nations of the world have instituted a league
of peoples for the prevention of war, the measure to which so many
high priests of Progress have looked forward as meaning a long
stride forward on the road to Utopia.

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

J. B. BURY. January, 1920.




CONTENTS